New insights on the form and function of the dolphin clitoris Orlando, Fla. (April 6, 2019) - Despite decades of fascination with dolphins, scientists have long overlooked one aspect of the species' anatomy. For the first time, researchers offer an up-close look at the clitoris of female dolphins along with insights on the potential for the animals to experience sexual pleasure. The scientists discovered that female bottlenose dolphins have large and well-developed clitorises. The structure of the tissue suggests the clitoris may expand, for example, in response to stimulation. The skin under the clitoral hood contains bundles of nerves that may increase sensitivity and the potential for pleasure, as has been found in the human clitoris. Previous studies suggest sex plays an important role in social bonding among dolphins, as seen in other social species. Dolphins copulate year-round, including during periods when they cannot conceive. "In other mammalian species with year-round copulation, such as humans and bonobos, sex is known to be pleasurable for females, often through clitoral stimulation that leads to orgasm," said Dara Orbach, PhD, research associate at Mount Holyoke College, who conducted the research along with Assistant Professor of Biology Patricia Brennan, PhD. "Our anatomical observations suggest the clitoris is functional in bottlenose dolphins, but further research, including physiological and behavioral analyses, are necessary to test if sexual experiences can be pleasurable for female dolphins." Orbach will present the research at the American Association of Anatomists annual meeting during the 2019 Experimental Biology meeting, held April 6-9 in Orlando, Fla. The researchers studied 11 dolphins that had died naturally and were collected under a permit authorized by the National Marine Fisheries Service. To explore the anatomy of the dolphin clitoris, they performed dissections, created 3-D computed tomography (CT) scans, fixed the tissues in paraffin wax and stained them to examine their structure in detail. They found that dolphins have a clitoral hood where two areas of extensive erectile tissue merge into a single body, a shape and structure very similar to the human clitoris. In both humans and dolphins, the erectile tissue of the clitoris is larger than the clitoral hood, and the thin, folded nature of the skin around the clitoral hood suggests the dolphin clitoris may expand during periods of engorgement and increased sensitivity. However, the dolphin clitoris is located in a different position relative to the vaginal opening than in humans. "In dolphins, the clitoris is positioned at the entrance of the vaginal opening and in direct contact with the penis during copulation, unlike the external position of the clitoris in humans," said Orbach. "The location of the clitoris near the vaginal opening indicates it can potentially be easily stimulated during copulation." In another contrast with human anatomy, the researchers did not find in the bottlenose dolphins any evidence of a vestibular bulb, an area of erectile tissue that surrounds the vaginal opening in humans and contributes to orgasm. "Very little is known about female reproductive morphology in most wild vertebrate species," said Orbach. "This research provides a comparative framework to explore other functions of sex that may not be unique to humans. We are on the precipice of a deeper understanding of the relationship between form and function of genitalia." Dara Orbach will present this research on Saturday, April 6, from 11:15-11:30 a.m. in Room W208A, Orange County Convention Center (abstract). Contact the media team for more information or to obtain a free press pass to attend the meeting. ### Images available. About Experimental Biology 2019 Experimental Biology is an annual meeting that attracts more than 12,000 scientists and exhibitors from five host societies and more than two dozen guest societies. With a mission to share the newest scientific concepts and research findings shaping clinical advances, the meeting offers an unparalleled opportunity for exchange among scientists from across the U.S. and the world who represent dozens of scientific areas, from laboratory to translational to clinical research. http://www. experimentalbiology. org #expbio About the American Association of Anatomists (AAA) AAA is the professional home for an international community of biomedical researchers and educators focusing on the structural foundation of health and disease. Founded in 1888, the Association advances anatomical science through research, education, and professional development. http://www. anatomy. org Find more press materials at: https:/ / www. eurekalert. org/ meetings/ eb/ 2019/ newsroom/ . This story has been published on: 2019-04-06. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. In addition to the fact that limousine travel is very glamorous, it is also the most comfortable trip you can... BLACK REPUBLICAN BLOG - The Republican Party is the party of civil rights and the four Fs: faith, family, freedom and fairness. The Democratic Party is the party of the four Ss: slavery, secession, segregation and socialism (Quote By Author Michael Scheuer). May 25 is Africa Day, a holiday originally created to celebrate the foundation of the Organization of African Unity (now known as the African Union) on May 25, 1963. In honor of the commemoration, here are 25 facts you should know about the continent: 1. The continent has 54 independent states and one non-self-governing territory (Western Sahara). 2. Before colonial rule Africa comprised up to 10,000 different states and autonomous groups with distinct languages and customs. 3. The most common language spoken on the continent is Arabic (spoken by 170 million people), followed in popularity by English (130 million), Swahili (100), French (115), Berber (50), Hausa (50), Portuguese (20) and Spanish (10). 4. Over 25 percent all languages are spoken only in Africa with over 2,000 recognized languages spoken on the continent. 5. In 2034, Africa is expected to have the worlds largest working-age population of 1.1 billion. 6. Between 2000 and 2010 the continent achieved average real annual GDP growth of 5.4 percent, adding $78 billion annually to GDP (in 2015 prices). But growth slowed to 3.3 percent, or $69 billion, a year between 2010 and 2015. 7. About over three quarters of African countries are still ranked in the bottom half for the per capita GDP ranking worldwide. Over 20 African countries have a power purchasing parity GDP of less than $2,000 per capita. Another 10 have a GDP per capita PPP between $2,000 and $3,000. 8. The continents richest country is Equatorial Guinea, with over $33,000 of GDP per capita. This puts the country comparable to Spain. 9. Africa is the worlds hottest continent and the second driest after Australia. Although it is nearly four times the size of Europe, it has a shorter overall coastline because of its straighter shores. 10. Because of high-fertility rates and rising numbers of women of reproductive age, the continent is expected over the next 35 years to have nearly 2 billion babies. This will double the size of the population, and its under-18 population will increase by two thirds, to almost a billion children. 11. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than one-third of adults cannot read and write. 12. An estimated 25.5 million people living with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. The vast majority of them (an estimated 19 million) live in east and southern Africa which saw 46 percent of new HIV infections globally in 2015. 13. Almost half of the gold ever mined on Earth has come from a single place Witwatersrand, South Africa. 14. Africas urbanization rate is around 37 percent, comparable to Chinas and larger than Indias. Its expected to be the fastest urbanizing region from 2020 to 2050. 15. Since the Cold Car ended, the number of armed conflicts on the continent has fallen from more than 30 to about a dozen. 16. Between 2000 and 2015, the estimated number of malaria cases in Africa declined by 88 percent while malaria death rates declined by 90 percent. This is as a result of the scale-up of use of insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying, intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy and artemisinin-based combination therapy. Despite the improvement, malaria remains a major killer of children, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, taking the life of a child every two minutes. In 2015, there were 438,000 deaths from malaria globally, and about 306,000 of these were in children under five years of age. 17. The deadliest war since World War II occurred in Africa. The Second Congo War (1998-2003) caused 5.4 million deaths. 18. Household air pollution causes around half a million premature deaths annually in sub-Saharan Africa, where four-fifths of the population rely on the traditional use of solid biomass for cooking, and candles and kerosene lamps are extensively used for indoor lighting. 19. Africa has eight of the 11 major biomes and the largest-remaining populations of lion, elephant, rhinoceros, cheetah, hyena, leopard, and hundreds of other species. Megafauna like giraffe, zebra, gorilla, hippopotamus, chimpanzee, and wildebeest are unique to the continent. 21. Africa has over 25 percent of the worlds bird species. 22. The majority of Africans are adherents of Christianity or Islam. 23. While those who identify as practitioners of traditional African religions are often in the minority, many who identify as Muslims or Christians are involved in traditional religions to one degree or another. 24. Agriculture employs 65 percent of Africas labor force and accounts for 32 percent of gross domestic product. 25. Africa is bigger than China, India, the continental U.S., and most of Europecombined. The Sahara alone is bigger than the continental USA. As Zimbabwe struggles to breathe life into their fragile economy their politicians are living their best lives. Zimbabweans were up in arms after their president's wife jet-set her way home from a visit in Dubai. PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! A private jet flew Auxillia Mnangagwa home to Harare after a visit in Dubai, a place most of her citizens will only be able to see in their dreams. The first lady had access to a plane so luxurious it had previously been used to transport her husband, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, according to The Citizen. The First Lady had attended a meeting of the Merck Foundation to discuss infertility issues facing women and 11 other first ladies had joined her. PAY ATTENTION: Do you want to know what's trending on Briefly.co.za? Join our WhatsApp group today. READ ALSO: Panyaza Lesufi wants to take on teacher abusing toddler in viral video Presidential spokesperson George Charamba has confirmed that the state would be footing the bill, despite severe economic hardships and a recent natural disaster wrecking havoc for Zimbabweans. READ ALSO: 15 Super Expensive Celebrity Weddings That Ended In A Divorce The president, however, has disputed this, claiming that Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Sultan Al Nahyan would send a plane, free of charge, to Harare upon his request. Briefly.co.za reported earlier that Cyclone Idai had wrecked havoc in the country, resulting in the deaths of 89 people and displacing countless citizens. Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Source: Briefly.co.za News / National by Staff reporter CONSUMERS have expressed shock after major supermarkets and small scale retailers once again increased prices of some basic commodities by margins of up to 75 percent.Despite the stability in the economy after the February Monetary Policy Statement, which has been widely endorsed by business, the latest price increases have put consumers in a corner, especially considering that most companies and Government have not increased salaries for their workers.Grocery items that include flour, rice, cooking oil, sugar, salad dressing, toiletries, washing powder, cereals and meat have been on an upward trajectory in small and major retail outlets recently.A snap survey conducted by Business Chronicle in the last three days has revealed that prices have gone up by 25 to 75 percent from the average prices of similar commodities last month.A two litre bottle of cooking oil, for instance, has gone up from an average of RTGS$7, 50 to RTGS$14 whilst a two kilogramme (kg) packet of chicken portions has gone up from RTGS$11 to RTGS$16.A 10kg bag of mealie-meal has gone up from RTGS$6 to RTGS$8, 50 while 500g margarine, which has suddenly been in low supply, has risen to about RTGS$22 from an average of RTGS$8. A closer comparison shows that prices for most basics have gone up by more than 400 percent between March-August last year and this year.The wanton price increases have sparked outrage among consumers, who have expressed their disgruntlement saying the cost of living was now beyond their reach given low wages and salaries they were earning."These retailers are stealing from us by over pricing goods. Government must do something about it quickly before the situation gets out of hand. As a consumer I am slowly losing my buying power since my monthly salary does not tally with these exorbitant prices," fumed Mrs Dorothy Phiri, a shopper at OK Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.Some consumers said prices were cheaper and more stable when one buys with foreign currency. They, however, said the new pricing system was not fair for them as they were not earning forex."I have nowhere to get forex. However, when I go and buy it from the street and then do my groceries, sometimes I get better deals than when I use RTGS dollars directly at the supermarket. Something must be done about this currency issue as it is fuelling the parallel market," said Mrs Nancy Mhoni who was shopping at a Choppies supermarket.Others said they preferred street vendors who sold grocery items at a price cheaper than supermarkets, but only accepted cash payment and mobile money payments at a premium. Commodities such as petroleum jelly, washing soap, body lotion, diapers, peanut butter, cereals, washing powder, bathing soap, rice and cooking oil mostly imported from South Africa are sold from pavements around the city.Commenting on the price increases, Confederation of Zimbabwean Industries (CZI) president, Mr Sifelani Jabangwe said they were due to the movement on the parallel market since the official market is offering rates that are very low for sellers."The price increases are due to the continuous movement on the parallel market. The official market introduced in February by the Central Bank is offering rates that are very low for sellers," he said.Mr Jabangwe said the price hikes are likely to be short term if the inter-bank market works to eliminate the parallel market.Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) president, Mr Denford Mutashu, said the price hikes were induced by the prevailing shortages of foreign currency leading to supply constraints experienced by both producers and distributors in the country. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu An Apostolic leader who will be posing as a Pentecostal Prophet is going to rise and deceive Zimbabweans using magic, a Popular Bulawayo Pastor Ian Ndlovu has said.Ndlovu who has carved his name through prophecies that come to pass said the man who is going to rise in 2019 will remind people of the Pumula South based Thabiso Ngwenya who uses the spirit of a mermaid.Ndlovu further said people who will consult this man will die or be punished by God for up to seven years.He further said the person will be using magic that will cause even influential people to flock to him.Watch Ndlovu's full video below: News / National by Staff reporter Cabinet yesterday resolved to launch a formal appeal for domestic and international assistance on the Cyclone Idai disaster whose death toll now stands at 268 people.The appeal is for assistance in ongoing rescue and search efforts as well as restoration of basic infrastructure and social services in Manicaland, Masvingo and Mashonaland East provinces.Briefing journalists after yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the death toll was expected to rise as rescue and search efforts continued."Cabinet received a comprehensive update from the Minister of Local Government, Public works and National Housing on the ongoing rescue and search efforts in the aftermath of the Cyclone Idai Disaster," she said."Cabinet noted with satisfaction that access to the affected areas is steadily improving as more roads are being reopened. As a consequence of this development, the distribution of food and other forms of relief assistance is now reaching a greater spread of the affected communities. Cabinet however, is concerned over the shortage of aircraft to airlift relief assistance to collection points that are still inaccessible by road. It is noted with sadness that the figure of human fatalities has now risen to 268 and is still expected to rise as the search efforts continue."She went on: "Pertaining to the way forward, Cabinet approved the launch of a formal appeal for domestic and international disaster relief assistance in respect of the Cyclone Idai Disaster. Cabinet wishes, once again, to express its profound appreciation for the overwhelming response by both locals and the broader international community to calls by His Excellency the President for offers of assistance towards the victims of the disaster."She said Government appreciated civil servants, the Zimbabwe Defense Forces and other security agencies as well as members of the media who continue to discharge their work "with a high level of commitment despite working for long hours and under trying circumstances".Minister Mutsvangwa said Cabinet also took note of the impending visit to Chimanimani by 18 presidents of the local political parties, involved in the political parties' dialogue.They are visiting to express their solidarity with the people affected by the disaster. Expanding on the appeal, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo said the request was focusing on food and non-food items."The appeal which will be launched by Government is looking at food and non-food items that are needed to give sustenance to the people who have been affected by the Cyclone and that figure is quite big and we take into account that a lot of Zimbabweans have been assisting us," he said."While we are making the appeal we know that a lot of assistance has come from Zimbabweans, our reginal and international partners. Yes, we have been assisted but we also want to create capacity for rescue and search operations. We have to restore our infrastructure which is divided into various sub-sectors. Roads have been destroyed and we are putting attention on both main roads and feeder roads. Power was rendered non-working in the whole area of Chimanimani and parts of Chipinge and Zesa is working hard to restore supplies. Water systems have to be restores. This is both for domestic use and irrigation purposes. Boreholes have been flooded and are now inoperative, causing a lot of anxiety in terms of clean drinking water. Communication systems have to be restored also."Minister Moyo said the other resources were needed to cater for those in need of psycho-social counselling."We estimate that there are about 50 000 people who need this," he said."We have to put resources so that this takes place and this will be led by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and other agencies such churches and UNICEF." He said Government allocated $100 million towards the disaster but more resources were needed. He said all donations and assistance being given to Government were being accounted for. News / National by Staff reporter Police yesterday arrested MDC-Alliance legislator for Zengeza East, Goodrich Chimbaira (47) and the party's Chitungwiza Ward 14 councillor Chengetai Nyagonda (48) on charges of public violence that occurred at the party's Ward 17 councillor Fungai Magadzire's home in Chitungwiza on Saturday.Chimbaira is facing another charge of attempted murder after he tried to run over Chitungwiza deputy mayor Jabulani Mutunzi with his Toyota Fortuner.Five complainants have come forward raising charges of public violence against Chimbaira and his co-accused. Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi yesterday confirmed the arrest of the two."I can confirm that police have arrested Goodrich Chimbaira and Chengetai Nyagonda on charges of public violence," he said. "The two are detained at Chitungwiza Police Station."MDC-Alliance sources that spoke to The Herald last night said: "After Chimbaira and a group of MDC-Alliance youths beat Magadzire, he then drove his Toyota Fortuner and tried to run over Mutunzi (35) who is the deputy mayor and Ward 15 councillor in Chitungwiza and he was rescued by members of the public. For that charge, we are sure that Chimbaira is likely to face an attempted murder charge."Cases of violence have been rising in the MDC-Alliance in recent days as the party prepares for its congress set for May. News / National by Staff reporter GOVERNMENT will continue to work towards promoting financial inclusion to ensure every citizen has access to banking.This was said by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube yesterday in an interview with The Herald Business.Prof Ncube's sentiments come as Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in commemorating Global Money Week (GMW), which ran from March 25 to 31, an annual Child and Youth Finance awareness initiative built to inspire children and young people to learn about money matters, livelihoods and entrepreneurship.Prof Ncube said: "Frankly, as a Government we have done very well on the financial inclusion front, we continue to support that objective."Look at what has happened just in terms of financial literacy, and the promotion of mobile banking, Ecocash and others, and now we have mobile insurance, for example Ecosure."And we want more mobile money players to be involved in mobile insurance to ensure insurance access to farmers."Prof Ncube added that Government has come up with regulation around financial inclusion, as a measure of deepening access to financial products in a regulated environment for the safety of consumers."Certainly we want to make sure that financial inclusion remains a part of the objective function of Government in terms of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and also Treasury."We want to make sure that we continue to deepen the use of electronic money and banking, and so forth. In future we want to invest in products where ordinary citizens can buy shares on the stock market on their phones, we should be able to get there."So we fully support this and we will do everything to make sure that we deepen the use of financial services and the broader financial inclusion project," said Prof Ncube.GMW started in 2012 and the campaign has touched the lives of 32 million children and youth in 169 countries worldwide.The objective of the GMW is to ensure that today's children and youths should become empowered economic citizens, capable of understanding the importance of saving, and equipped with the skills to be employed and create their own livelihoods.Empowering children and youths is designed to create a positive wave that would expand from themselves, to their families and to entire communities. The slogan for GMW, which is commemorated every March, is learn, earn, save.The idea is to teach children and youths to manage money wisely, save for their future and earn for themselves and families. News / National by Staff reporter Former Energy and Power Development Minister Dzikamai Mavhaire, who had been summoned by the State to testify against former Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) chairperson in a bribery case, was yesterday issued with an arrest warrant after he refused to be part and parcel of the ongoing case.The former ZPC boss, Stanley Kazhanje, is accused of receiving a $10 000 bribe from businessman Wicknell Chivayo to influence him not to cancel a 100MW solar project tender awarded to his company.The prosecution listed Mavhaire as one of its witnesses and summons were sent to him. Mavhaire did not show up in court yesterday and prosecutor Mr Brian Vito furnished the court with an affidavit from the police officer who served him with the summons.In the affidavit, the police officer narrated how Mavhaire had told him that he was never going to attend the trial.The prosecution then applied for an arrest warrant against Mavhaire which was granted by magistrate Mr Hoseah Mujaya.The matter was rolled over to tomorrow for trial. It is the State's case that on October 23, 2015, Kazhanje signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract of a 100MW solar panel station project with Intratrek Zimbabwe. It is alleged Kazhanje failed to declare his interests.ZPC paid Intratrek advance payments of $1 236 154 for the implementation of the project. Intratrek did not fulfil its obligation and this resulted in ZPC management suggesting termination of the contract.The State alleges that on January 21, 2016, Kazhanje received $10 000 into his Barclays Bank personal account from Intratrek's CBZ Bank account.Kazhanje, in his capacity as the chairperson of ZPC board, presided over a meeting in which it was resolved that the power utility pay for services direct to Intratrek subcontractors instead of terminating the contract. It is alleged this resulted in ZPC paying $4 387 849 as advance payment to Intratrek. News / National by Staff reporter Members of the embattled MDC-Alliance who worked as the party's polling agents during last year's harmonised elections besieged the party's headquarters in Harare on Monday night demanding payment.They also demanded the dissolution of all the party's structures.One of the youths camped at the opposition party headquarters said: "We are tired of this leadership for lying to us, we only need them to pay us for hiring us."We are not asking for what is not ours, we worked as polling agents last year and up to today we have not received anything. They keep on telling us that the money is there and we are wondering why we are not being paid."We have tried engaging our leaders, but they are not willing to pay us. We appeal to the president (Chamisa) to pay us and we will leave them alone, but one thing for sure is we will never work for them again, they are unfaithful."Another MDC-Alliance supporter who refused to be identified said they want all the party's structures to be dissolved before the party congress set for May."We are approaching the party congress, all the structures are supposed to be dissolved, but we hear there are some structures which will not be dissolved," said the supporter."We also discovered that there are new individuals occupying certain positions, which will not be contested, we are against that, we want to choose our people not for them to be imposed on us."MDC spokesperson Mr Jacob Mafume professed ignorance over the protests. News / National by Staff reporter The man at the centre of corruption allegations unearthed by an audit on the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration, Mr Precious Murove, has quit the organisation in the middle of an inquiry by Parliament, ostensibly to avoid facing further questions.Mr Murove was already under oath after he appeared before the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday last week where he gave evidence responding to several key issues raised in the audit report.The hearing was postponed to yesterday, but when the committee convened, members were surprised to hear that their chief witness was no longer with the organisation, hence could not come to proffer more evidence.The audit unearthed misappropriation of funds at the road authority to the tune of US$71 million. Mr Murove, who was the director administration and human resources, features prominently in the report as the key person who signed most of the contracts that prejudiced Zinara.The report also raised questions over Mr Murove's professional qualifications who happened to be a holder of a diploma in theology by the time he assumed his executive position.Zinara management appeared before the parliamentary committee led by its acting chief executive officer Ms Methelane Mujokoro yesterday where it emerged that Mr Murove was no longer with the road authority.Ms Mujokoro was accompanied by Zinara finance director Mr Simon Taranhike, who was once suspended for sourcing foreign currency from the parallel market. He was later acquitted by the courts.Chairperson of the committee, Mr Tendai Biti, questioned the sudden termination of Mr Murove's contract, especially when he was at the centre of the allegations. He ordered the Zinara officials to bring Mr Murove and several other companies awarded the contracts at their next appearance on Friday."Precious Murove has to be part of your (Zinara) team," said Mr Biti."He may have resigned from Zinara. He may have been fired from Zinara, but has not been excused from this committee."He took an oath, so we are summoning him to appear together with you. We will also make sure that the Clerk of Parliament issues a warrant in terms of Parliamentary Privileges Act so that non-attendance of Univern and Precious Murove become contempt of Parliament."Given the importance of what we are doing and given the extent of the massive and shocking revelations in this report and in the interest of ensuring that you will be able to answer our questions fully, we are adjourning this meeting to Friday the 5th of April 2019 at 9am. To ensure that you will not have further excuse, I am formally handing over to you the copy of the audit report. We intend to sit the whole day on Friday."We are also directing that Univern also be present on Friday 5th of April 2019 at 9am. We are going to write a letter to them. We hope the press will also help us in communicating our desire to interview them."In her response, Ms Mujokoro said: "If the committee feels that we have deliberately decided to frustrate the efforts by making sure that Mr Precious Murove's contract is terminated, we are not privy to this report and to this extent, we are not aware that he is a key person into your proceedings. "It is the board that makes the decision to renew or not to renew an employee's contract of employment."Mr Biti said the committee would also in due course summon the Zinara board and the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. Meanwhile, a meeting between the portfolio committee on Lands, Agriculture, and Climate and Grain Millers Association failed to take place yesterday after it was deferred to another day.Last week, the committee chaired by Gokwe Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena had asked GMAZ chairperson, Mr Tafadzwa Musarara, to submit several documents which included a schedule of foreign currency payments they received from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. News / National by Staff reporter Cabinet yesterday resolved to launch a formal appeal for domestic and international assistance on the Cyclone Idai disaster whose death toll now stands at 268 people.The appeal is for assistance in the ongoing rescue and search efforts as well as restoration of basic infrastructure and social services in Manicaland, Masvingo and Mashonaland East.Briefing journalists after yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the death toll was expected to rise as rescue and search efforts continued."Cabinet received a comprehensive update from the Minister of Local Government, Public works and National Housing on the ongoing rescue and search efforts in the aftermath of the Cyclone Idai Disaster," she said."Cabinet noted with satisfaction that access to the affected areas is steadily improving as more roads are being reopened. As a consequence of this development, the distribution of food and other forms of relief assistance is now reaching a greater spread of the affected communities. Cabinet however, is concerned over the shortage of aircraft to airlift relief assistance to collection points that are still inaccessible by road. It is noted with sadness that the figure of human fatalities has now risen to 268 and is still expected to rise as the search efforts continue."She went on: "Pertaining to the way forward, Cabinet approved the launch of a formal appeal for domestic and international disaster relief assistance in respect of the Cyclone Idai Disaster. Cabinet wishes, once again, to express its profound appreciation for the overwhelming response by both locals and the broader international community to calls by His Excellency the President for offers of assistance towards the victims of the disaster." She said Government appreciated civil servants, the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and other security agencies as well as members of the media who continue to discharge their work "with a high level of commitment despite working for long hours and under trying circumstances".Minister Mutsvangwa said Cabinet also took note of the impending visit to Chimanimani by 18 presidents of the local political parties, involved in the political parties' dialogue. They are visiting to express their solidarity with the people affected by the disaster. Expanding on the appeal, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo said the request was focusing on food and non-food items."The appeal which will be launched by Government is looking at food and non-food items that are needed to give sustenance to the people who have been affected by the Cyclone and that figure is quite big and we take into account that a lot of Zimbabweans have been assisting us," he said."While we are making the appeal we know that a lot of assistance has come from Zimbabweans, our regional and international partners. Yes, we have been assisted but we also want to create capacity for rescue and search operations."We have to restore our infrastructure which is divided into various sub-sectors. Roads have been destroyed and we are putting attention on both main roads and feeder roads."Power was rendered non-working in the whole area of Chimanimani and parts of Chipinge and Zesa is working hard to restore supplies."Water systems have to be restored. This is both for domestic use and irrigation purposes. Boreholes have been flooded and are now inoperative, causing a lot of anxiety in terms of clean drinking water. Communication systems have to be restored also."Minister Moyo said the other resources were needed to cater for those in need of psycho-social counselling."We estimate that there are about 50 000 people who need this," he said."We have to put resources so that this takes place and this will be led by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and other agencies such churches and UNICEF."He said Government allocated $100 million towards the disaster but more resources were needed. He said all donations and assistance being given to Government were being accounted for. News / National by Staff reporter A MAJOR police operation in Bulawayo's Pumula suburb targeting shebeens and drug peddlers has resulted in the arrest of one murder suspect and 80 others for various offences.The crackdown follows the killing of two people in the suburb on Monday. Phillip Chapula (72) was killed on his way to work within a 300 metre radius where a teenager Mthokozisi Phakathi (19) had been stabbed to death hours earlier.Phakathi's friend Blessed Zulu (18) is battling for life at Mpilo Central Hospital after the pair was allegedly stabbed by Thabelo Ndlovu (19) who accused them of stealing his cellphone.Chapula was allegedly killed during a suspected robbery. The double murder and attempted murder incidents saw cops reacting swiftly to restore normalcy in the suburb. Bulawayo police spokesperson Chief Inspector Precious Simango yesterday said a suspect was arrested on Monday in connection with Chapula's murder."We have since arrested a suspect in connection with the murder of a 72 year-old man. The suspect is assisting us with our investigations. We are still following leads over the murder of the teenager and attempted murder of the 19 and 18-year-old boys respectively," said Chief Insp Simango.The police spokesperson said the Officer Commanding Bulawayo Metropolitan Province Commissioner Bernard Dumbura and his team which includes the Officer Commanding Nkulumane District Chief Superintendent Marshal Dube were worried about heinous crimes that were recorded in the city over the past few days.Four people died in Bulawayo following stabbing incidents within the last two weeks. Chief Insp Simango said as a result police have launched an operation targeting drug peddlers, those running shebeens as well as those found drinking in public and those found in possession of dangerous weapons in the suburb."The ongoing operation has resulted in the arrest of 80 suspects. We conducted stop and search operation where we arrested some people who were found in possession of dangerous weapons which we recently prohibited. We arrested drug peddlers mostly found in possession of mbanje and one of the suspects was found with 40 twists of mbanje. We also raided shebeens in the suburb and confiscated alcohol in the process," she said."We believe shebeens are perfect hiding places for some of the criminals that commit some of these crimes and can even sell alcohol to teenagers who after being intoxicated commit unthinkable crimes." Chief Insp Simango said police officers will remain on the ground weeding out criminals until there is sanity in the suburb.She said community members should never be threatened to move around in their suburbs due to criminal elements. Chief Insp Simango said police have intensified community campaigns discouraging residents from abusing drugs and alcohol. News / National by Staff reporter BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) yesterday suspended its weekly 72 hour water shedding programme that was introduced earlier this year, but may reintroduce it if the daily water consumption does not go down.Council introduced a citywide water shedding programme in February at a time when its reservoirs were critically low due to pumping problems.In a notice yesterday, the local authority said it was suspending the water shedding programme, news that comes as a relief to the city's residents."The City of Bulawayo would like to advise consumers that it has temporarily suspended the water shedding programme that was introduced in February 2019. The suspension is subject to the sustenance of a consumption level of 125 Megalitres (ML) per day. The current consumption levels are averaging 150 ML/day and need to be brought down to the desired average of 125ML/ day," reads the council's notice.The local authority said despite suspending the water shedding programme, residents should conserve water.Bulawayo's supply dams, just like many others in the country did not receive significant inflows during the 2018/19 rainy season. Recent statistics revealed that the average city dam levels were just above 57 percent."The City of Bulawayo is appealing to the support of consumers who are expected to continue conserving water and adhering to the approved daily water allocations. Excessive use of potable water may result in the re-introduction of water shedding," reads the notice.Council urged residents to abide by the council's water rationing limits.A household in western suburbs is supposed to consume a maximum of 450 litres per day, low density suburbs inclusive of cottages and workers cottages should not exceed 650 litres per day while residential flats with individual meters should not use more than 400 litres a day. News / National by Staff reporter THE Tafadzwa Musarara-chaired Grain Millers' Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) yesterday turned up in Parliament to be grilled by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands and Agriculture on issues pertaining to procurement of wheat, only to find that the MPs were not present for them.Last month, when they appeared before the committee, led by Gokwe Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena, GMAZ officials were ordered to bring documentary proof relating to the grain procurement, foreign currency allocations by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from January to March 2019, proof of wheat acquittals, names and contacts of suppliers and transporters, donations that the millers did during that period and several other issues pertaining to wheat and grain importation.Wadyajena ordered GMAZ to appear before the committee yesterday after charging that they were unprepared and had not produced the needed documents.However, he, and the rest of the committee members, yesterday failed to present themselves for the meeting.The Lands and Agriculture Committee chairperson tweeted from the United States, where he was said to be visiting, accusing GMAZ of sending fake news alerts to journalists by inviting them to attend the committee hearing."Instead of submitting documents requested by @parliamentzim Portfolio Committee, GMAZ is inviting 'media friends' to cover a non-existent Parliamentary Portfolio Committee meeting!" Wadyajena's tweet read.Musarara and his team waited for about an hour for the committee members (MPs), and after none of them turned up, their lawyer advocate Thembinkosi Magwaliba then addressed the media.Magwaliba said the Lands and Agriculture Committee should have informed GMAZ that the meeting had been postponed because it was the committee which invited them to appear before Parliament on April 2 (yesterday)."The committee should have informed us (GMAZ) that the meeting has been postponed, but we do not even have that statement or communication. A Parliament officer has confirmed now that it has been postponed, but we were not furnished with the reasons," he said."It is not us who invited ourselves to appear before Parliament. It is not our business to also chart the way forward. It is Parliament that invited us to appear before them on April 2, and they have to chart the way forward."Magwaliba said the documents that the committee had requested were actually handed to Parliament last week on March 27, contrary to Wadyajena's assertions that they had not submitted them. Welcome to followthemedia.com The article or material you have chosen... Michael Hedges April 7, 2019 Media development groups and international organizations have long known that the medium of choice in Africa is radio. Of course, there are newspapers, television and, most recently, digital platforms. The spoken word on a continent of local languages by the thousands is the preferred means of communication and connection. Diversity on the African continent - linguistic, cultural and religious - is astounding. Local Radio Interacts Quite NaturallyMichael Hedges April 7, 2019 Follow on Twitter Media development groups and international organizations have long known that the medium of choice in Africa is radio. Of course, there are newspapers, television and, most recently, digital platforms. The spoken word on a continent of local languages by the thousands is the preferred means of communication and connection. Diversity on the African continent - linguistic, cultural and religious - is astounding. ...is available for restricted access. You may access this specific article or material for 4 If you are an ftm Member, please go to the home page HERE and log in ftm Members can access all site material at no additional charge. You can JOIN ftm here The ftm newsletter available at no charge to all with registration To register click here. News / National by newzimbabwe THE opposition MDC is investigating violence, chaos, voter intimidation and allegations of vote buying that have characterised some of its elective congress at lower structures across the country.This was revealed by party organising secretary Amos Chibaya at a pre-congress press briefing in Harare."We however recorded isolated cases of violence but we are happy that no lives were lost, the relevant organs of the party are getting to the bottom of these cases and disciplinary measures will be taken in all offences."We want to make emphasis that violence is not part of our culture and as a party we are democrats and will weed out this culture not withstanding that there will be due process and the principle s of natural justice will guide this process," Chibaya told journalists.Amid reports that one of the opposition party's legislators was involved in a nasty incident in which an activist survived an attemot to run him over with a car, Chibaya said this was also under investigation."We have received reports (about Zengeza East) but we have got our internal processes, our security department is busy right now on the ground carrying out investigations so that we get to the bottom of the matter," said Chibaya.Elections in Kuwadzana, Warren Park, Chitungwiza and wards in some parts of Masvingo were hampered by violence, chaotic scenes, intimidation and allegations of manipulation leading to suspension of proceedings especially youth assembly elections."To anyone who was involved in that violence, the party will not hesitate to suspend that personwe are not going to leave any stone unturned. We are going to deal with such characters," the Mkoba MP said.Elections were temporarily-suspended in St. Mary's Ward 2 after violence broke out.Former MDC Harare province youth chairperson Jabulani Mthunzi reportedly survived an attempted hit using a car by rival activists allegedly sympathetic to Zengeza East lawmaker Goodrich Chimbaira.Mthunzi who suffered a broken neck and spinal injuries is currently at admitted at a local hospital.Chaotic scenes also rocked Magamba Hall in Warren Park constituency.Reports claim the opposition part is split in the middle with two factions, one in support of current leader Chamisa and another pushing for secretary general Douglas Mwonzora to take over at the May 24 congress.Chibaya said the venue for the MDC's first congress since the death of founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai will be announced Wednesday after a meeting of the party's national standing committee. News / National by Staff Reporter "Be open for criticism" - Jacob Ngarivhume said this while addressing the University of Zimbabwe Scripture Union Annual General Meeting held on 6 April 2019 at the UZ campus. He said leaders face criticism everyday, whether constructive or otherwise, and they should use it to build their character.Ngarivhume, who is the leader of Transform Zimbabwe, was invited to lecturer on Christian leadership. He said leadership entails four critical components which when followed will deliver positive results. He said;"Firstly, you need to establish a clear and distinct vision. Then secondly, you should be able to share your vision so that people will follow willingly. You can not cheat, intimidate or threaten people to lead them as some are doing.""Thirdly, you need to provide information and methods as to how your vision is to be fulfilled. Then lastly, leadership is all about coordinating and balancing conflicting interests of your people. Conflict resolution becomes very important to a leader."Ngarivhume added that conflicts are part of life and so a leader should have a strong character to withstand and solve them when they arise. He said in times of crisis a real leader must step up and give transformational leadership."As a leader you must also be prepared to pay the price of leadership. It is not an easy journey but great leaders never quit when faced with difficult situations. If l may quote Winston Churchill who said, "When you go through hell, keep going." That should be your attitude" added Ngarivhume.Turning to his own life, he told the gathering that as a politician, he has been arrested in every city in this country in his fight for democracy, but he remains resolute and steadfast until genuine transformational development is realised in Zimbabwe.Ngarivhume's party is the only major party to hold a peaceful congress which was held in March 2018. Recently the nation has witnessed bloody MDC district congresses with party cadres butchering each other over positions. With their May Congress around the corner, more bloodshed is expected as tensions remain high along factional lines that have emerged in the party.The lively AGM saw the old Scripture Union Committee hand over power to the newly elected committee. The event was also attended by Scripture Union associates and members of Prayer Network Zimbabwe. News / National by Staff reporter The Chairman of the University of Zimbabwe Council, Dr Anxious J Masuka wishes to inform the University community, stakeholders and the public that Professor L.M. Nyagura retired as Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe with effect from 31 March 2019.Professor Nyagura joined the University of Zimbabwe on 2 April 1979 as a lecturer in the Department of Curriculum and Arts Education, Faculty of Education. He rose through the ranks to become, among others, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Education (1982-1983), Chairman of the Department of Curriculum Studies (1986-1989), Chairman, Department of Technical Education (1989), Director, Human Resources Research Centre (1990-1995), Pro Vice Chancellor (1995-2002) and eventually Vice Chancellor, a post he held for a record 16 years. Professor Nyagura ably led and supervised some of the most challenging phases of UZ's development, especially during the period 2006 to about 2012. His visionary leadership saw very rapid expansion of the University infrastructure, student enrolment, and the University's contribution to generating solutions to challenges facing the nation, region and beyond.Elsewhere, Professor Nyagura served the University and the nation in various capacities including, Chairman, Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) from 2011 to 2018, Chairman of the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education Committee on Accreditation and Quality Assurance (2010-2018) and Vice Chairman, and later Chairman of the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC). He also guided the transition of the following higher education institutions to university status: Bindura University College of Science Education to becoming Bindura University of Science Education; Chinhoyi University College to Chinhoyi University of Technology; Masvingo University College to Great Zimbabwe University; and University of Zimbabwe Marondera College of Agricultural Science and Technology to becoming Marondera University of Agricultural Science and Technology.We wish Professor Nyagura well in his deserved retirement. Meanwhile, Professor Paul Mapfumo, who was appointed Acting Vice Chancellor on 16 August 2018, will continue in that capacity until a substantive Vice Chancellor is appointed. News / National by Staff reporter MR Tabani Mpofu - a renowned lawyer who leads the crack unit - confirmed the probe.He said: "We have received complaints of corruption allegations against PSMAS. We have referred the matter to the relevant investigating institutions. The probe is on."PSMAS has for long been under the spotlight for alleged corruption, which could have siphoned millions of dollars at the expense of service delivery.Subscribers, numbering over 700 000 who are mostly civil servants, have largely been inconvenienced as service providers have been rejecting Psmas medical-aid cards owing to rising defaults.A forensic audit conducted in 2016 also exposed how PSMAS lost millions of dollars as company bosses splurged on bonuses, which were outside the payroll.Mr Mpofu said his office was keeping a hawk's eye on the PSMAS investigation to ensure a logical conclusion."I am monitoring the probe very closely with a view of preferring corruption charges against those who are facing allegations and warrant to be brought before the courts," he said.Sacu said the PSMAS scandal generated a lot of interest due to its impact on thousands of civil servants who depend on the company for health care."We are taking this case very seriously; information keeps coming in from all corners. It's a long outstanding issue dating back to the days of the First Republic."It's a matter we want to bring before the courts without further delay."Mr Mpofu said the fight against corruption was a long and hard battle which required maximum efforts since it's deeply entrenched."The public demands quick results, but let it be known that accused per-sons pay for legal services; thereby, prolonging the process."However, eventually all these corruption cases will be finalised. The fight against the rot will be won; certainly," he said.The Sunday Mail Business gleaned the latest dossier, which outlines a litany of allegations against the PSMAS management.The document, which was compiled by disgruntled PSMAS workers and subscribers, red flags personal loans awarded to managers. It also alleges that the PSMAS procurement process is not transparent.Some executives, it claims, could be using briefcase companies to siphon money out of the medical aid society. Further, some PSMAS board members are accused of using their influence to secure jobs for their close relatives.Part of the dossier reads: "It is our hope that the Presidential Anti-Corruption Crack Unit will support our wish to eradicate this cancer and support President Mnangagwa to build an upper middle-class economy (by 2030) and be open for business without fear of corruption. "Our prayer is that this document is given serious attention and all the listed issues be investigated and let the law take its course."The workers are also recommending the suspension of top executives in order to pave way for investigations. PSMAS is battling multiple corruption scandals. It recently emerged that a jaw-dropping us$3 million was spent on designer suits for top executives, fuel and curious information communication technology (ICT) upgrades.The company is alleged to have spent more than us$75 000 on designer suits for company managers, including buying ladies' fashion coats, casual shirts and slacks for two employees.The company also shelled out more than US$100 000 on fuel for board members, management and staff.It is, however, the ICT upgrades that haemorrhaged the company the most. Documents show that on June 2 2017 then-managing director Engineer Tendai Kapumha signed for ICT upgrades worth us$2,6 million (through PSMAS purchase number 22122), of which US$ 1,1 million was to be paid in advance.Two years ago, The Sunday Mail also exposed how PSMAS top executives bought luxury vehicles at a time when workers' salaries were slashed. The fight against corruption has been one of the key issues listed by President Mnangagwa in the Second Republic as Zimbabwe marches towards an economic turnaround under Vision 2030."We are taking this case very seriously; information keeps coming in from all corners. It's a long outstanding issue dating back to the days of the First Republic. It's a matter we want to bring before the courts without further delay." News / National by ZimLive Narrow bridge The bus fell on its side at the Gwelo River bridge in Nkayi Terrifying drop The Ntubeni Bus Services bus landed on its side after dropping off a bridge Lucky escape No deaths recorded after Ntubeni Bus fell of a bridge in Nkayi Thirteen people were injured when a bus fell off a narrow bridge in the Nesigwe area of Nkayi, Matabeleland North.The accident happened early Sunday as the bus, owned by Ntubeni Bus Services, made its way from Zhamba in Gokwe to Bulawayo.Driver error is suspected after the bus overlapped the left side edge and fell into the rocky, dry Gwelo River bed, landing on its side.Deputy Transport Minister Fortune Chasi said: "Sure, we do need to work on some bridges. However, what we urgently need to address is driver behaviour."Locals complain that the bridge is too narrow and also curves at one end, posing a challenge to drivers. The bus, however, appeared to have fallen off in a straight stretch. News / National by Staff reporter THERE is gnashing of teeth among those who sought lucky charms from prominent traditional healer, Sekuru Charles Makuyana-Ndunge, who died in Chipinge on March 30, 2019 after a courageous battle with diabetes.His son, Jabulani aged 44 told the Daily News on Sunday yesterday that Sekuru Ndunge's clients were making a beeline to their Southdown home to return lucky charms and other paraphernalia given to them by the late Sangoma to enhance their businesses and cast out evil spirits.Unfortunately, Jabulani who has succeeded his father is unable to assist."While I have not been keeping count, it is quite a number," he said, after being asked if he could quantify the number of people who want to return their accessories."These are people who are just panicking because of what is circulating on social media," he added.Ndunge died at his Makuyana Village home in Southdown, Chipinge after a long battle with diabetes.He was aged 87, although other accounts put his length of life at 90.He is survived by his wife, nine children and more than 30 grandchildren.Thousands of people attended his burial on Wednesday at his Makuyana Village, some coming from as far as South Africa.Sekuru Ndunge attained legendary status in his 71 years of healing, having embarked on the trade in 1948.Because of his healing prowess, he would attract clientele from across the globe.Unlike other traditional healers who die poor, Sekuru Ndunge was counted among the nouveau riche in Chipinge.His home resembled a busy car park.Sekuru Ndunge was a proud owner of over 30 vehicles, cutting across all familiar brands.He received some of the automobiles as gifts from satisfied customers who were only too happy to refer their colleagues to the doyen of local traditional medicine.So busy was Sukuru Ndunge that for 27 years, he could hardly find time to drive into the nearby Chipinge town as he dedicated his life to helping others.Because he would spend long hours indoors, attending to clients in his own version of a "consultation room", Sekuru Ndunge had turned pale in complexion a sign of not getting enough vitamin D.In his 71 years of plying the trade, Sekuru Ndunge's fame grew in leaps and bounds.He was famed for his ability to turn around people's fortunes in relationships, workplaces and business.The traditionalist reportedly even had the magical powers to grow bank balances, curse enemies and create lightning to strike particular targets.Some of his competences gave rise to suspicions that his trade was steeped in the dark arts of witchcraft.It is this dimension that has struck fear, rightly or wrongly, into the hearts of those who got assistance from him.But Jabulani, who was still on apprenticeship when Sekuru Ndunge passed on, has no immediate answers for them."These are people who got these things because they liked them and now they want to get rid of them for fear of what is being said on social media," he wondered."We are not taking back anythingMy father never gave anyone anything that would hurt them."When God gives people such gifts, He would have searched their hearts. If you give a stick to a madman it would certainly (be used to) spell doom to society. Traditional healers are there to serve society and not to bring them harm," he added.Sekuru Ndunge, Jabulani said, did not include the use of goblins as prescriptions as is being peddled in some social circles."My father did not use goblins or gave such out. Every traditional healer has his or her own unique art and yes dark spells exist, and goblins are there and are used by some."What you should know is that as long as something has a name, it means it actually exists but my father had his own methods which did not include these things," he said.Jabulani said it would not be feasible to return anything."If someone was barren and they got assisted what is it that they would return? The children? Or if they had some medicine rubbed on cuts to their body, will we have to drain their blood because that is where the medicine would have gone?" he asked.He said he is determined to carry on with his father's trade once the traditional rites are over and done with."We have not started assisting people because it's too early after his death and that would be a taboo. There are also some rituals that need to be completed before we resume this work."But be assured that no matter what people say, this practice will never die in our family," he said. Opinion / Columnist I have often heard people saying Devine Mafa is doing his father a lot of injustice by criticizing Chamisa. Listening to his father's unfettered support of Chamisa I took it upon myself to find out if it is true. This I did through interaction with Devine himself. In this article I'm going to articulate Devine Mafa's position regarding to the above assertion.Devine Mafa is the son of Hon Mafa, the spokesperson of MDC Bulawayo Province. He is a medical doctor in America. Devine is a well known hustler who is a jack of all trades. He is also a great business man who has invested also here in Zimbabwe. Devine owns a trucking company involved in construction that is operating here in Zimbabwe. He is also in the process of rolling up a car manufacturing and assembling plant in Kwekwe Zimbabwe. His brand is called Hende Moto which according to him would be affordable to most ordinary Zimbabwean. This is a man who is passionate about his country.Devine has done a lot for his fellow Zimbabweans. However his passion for Zimbabwe's political situation is unquestionable. Devine like his father is a passionate supporter of MDC. To Devine MDC blood runs in the family. However Divine is in America and his understanding of democracy is the American unlike his father who understands the dynamics of democracy in Africa. It is because of his view on democractic traits that are American in nature that has seen him speak fearlessly when an injustice has been done. Examples of such scenarios are explained in the paragraphs below.Devine pumped a lot of money supporting his father in the last elections. He funded his father's campaign for MDC primary elections only to be disappointed when no primaries were held in Magwegwe constituency. Anele Ndebele was imposed and went on to win the seat. Old Mafa despite being rigged continued supporting Chamisa and MDC with any signs of misgivings. This became the first time that Devine had a problem with his father and Chamisa. Devine wandered why his father would be so loyal to Chamisa even though Chamisa had not stood for Mafa when he was not given a chance to fight in the MDC primaries. He had a big argument with his father. He had a big issue with Chamisa on this regard. The reason for the friction is believed to enamate from the way Devine percieves democracy as compared to African perception on democracy. Devine thinks of the American democracy yet Hon Mafa understands African democracy. In American democracy there is no factional ism. There is freedom of speech in America and any leader can be criticizesd despite one's political office and stature. Devine does not hate Chamisa. He just criticises the bad that he might have noticed. Devine is in good talking terms with Chamisa yet he does not follow him blindly. Devine and Chamisa are actually relatives. Chamisa is actually Devine's sekuru. His father is married to a Chamisa relation. Hon Mafa as an African visionaries he differs with his sun as he believes in African democracy.Those otherwise are now peddling lies that by hating Chamisa Devine is destroying his father's political career. The writer understands that Devine is a man who is forthright and calls a spade a spade whether it is Chamisa or anyone else. Chamisa and Devine communicate regularly on party issues. This is the American Democrat. He does not hate anyone but disagrees to agree with everyone, his father and Chamisa included.When it comes to democracy Zimbabweans have a lot of traits that they need to acquire and understand. The need to be tolerant for divergent views is still lacking on the outer political landscape. It is therefore necessary to learn the American democracy and incorporate some of the good traits.Despite the fact that Devine has an independent mind that is different from our way of thinking he remains committed to improving the democratic political space in the Movement for Democratic Change. It is therefore necessary for people not to victimize Hon Felix Mafa Sibanda because of his son, they are completely different . They understand democracy differently. Above everything else Hon Felix Mafa is a man who so humble and is guided by principle. Opinion / Columnist Mthwakazi and the top-down approach Mthwakazi and the bottom-up approach Implications Choice of Leadership Conclusion The current wave of Mthwakazi restoration and self-determination cannot be ignored by any right-minded individual, community, region or society in general. This is a defining moment. It either sends a chilling cold down your spine or it exhilarates and excites you! Ultimately, its fulfillment arguably relies on a rigorous roadmap. Two antagonistic development initiatives, namely the top-down and the bottom-up approaches, need to be considered in charting the aforesaid roadmap.Sadly, the current approach to Mthwakazi self-determination is largely top-down. This is manifested through the attitude of elites who are in leadership positions of political organizations that are pro-Mthwakazi, determining or claiming to chart the way. These individuals sort of "impose" the idea of Mthwakazi self-determination on disengaged recipients. Unfortunately, their initiative is not a direct call by the grassroots. For example, if the ordinary people on the ground(grassroots) had initiated it, they would vote in a trend that signals that. This top-down initiative seems to be largely owned by people who have been in leadership positions in some national political parties who might, one way or the other, have fallen off the gravy trains of their respective organizations. Probably out of anger and selfish endeavour, the notion of Mthwakazi self-determination looks "sellable" for them for political survival. Some also seem to take aim at their previous leaders for the sins not known by the grassroots level. Examples of such leaders are abound through the breadth and length of Mthwakazi.Therefore, this top-down approach does not seem to have the potential to yield any meaningful results. Hence there is greater need to deviate from such an undertaking and adopt a more popular or people-centred initiative. Popular initiatives are those alternatives offered by the ordinary grassroots people. Such initiatives would arguably, chart the way forward through the bottom-up approach.This approach places the impetus on ordinary people to initiate Mthwakazi self-determination. This would ensure that the idea is supported all-round from the grannies to the little babies playing on the sands of Nkayi or such other place in Mthwakazi. It would be the "thing" for Amahlabezulu by Amahlabezulu themselves. Amahlabezulu will then summon' individuals to lead them in the pursuit of a voice by Mthwakazi. The beauty of such an approach is that ordinary people will stand for what they sent their servants' to demand. Naturally, votes for Mthwakazi-sent leaders shall flow in floods. All potential leaders would be from Mthwakazi, so to speak.Naturally, this suggests the adoption of a rather skewed marriage between the two approaches with the bottom-up approach getting the lion's share. This can be achieved through the careful sidelining of political leaders at the earliest stages by forming a consultative committee to spearhead the process. This consultative committee would then be tasked with working with the grassroots to solicit views. These views would then be collected and collated throughout Mthwakazi and the results made public. The leadership of the consultative committee could be assigned to distinguished Mthwakazians not presently occupying political office. Examples could be Effie Dlela Ncube, Cont Mhlanga and others. They could be from a diverse pool of Mthwakazians from all walks of life including religious, social, cultural, economic and political spheres, and/or civil society.After the consultation process, then the task of choosing leadership in the direction determined by the grassroots, would ensue. If for example, a Mthwakazi Alliance is suggested then a determination committee shall be formed in which political parties also partake. The modalities are then discussed and resolutions made. Another option, for example, could be to form an all-embracing new political party as may be determined by the grassroots. The obtrusive advantage is that the grassroots would support the candidates of their own initiative or invitation.The united Mthwakazi may then opt to clinch a deal with any like-minded political party for presidential votes, if deemed necessary, with all councillor, MP, mayor and other candidates directly coming from Mthwakazi. This way, Mthwakazi would talk with One Voice resulting in real devolution of power in the region.Nhlanhla Moses writes in his personal capacity as an educationist and graduate of Community Development and can be contacted on:+27733862303nhlanhlamoses@gmail.com Teamwork and team spirit Marijuana producer and aggressive growth stock Aurora Cannabis (TSX:ACB)(NYSE:ACB) has been in the news lately over its recent connected actions towards strategic partnerships since engaging a professional investment manager, its latest lodging of a $750 million shelf prospectus, and the latest personnel hire, which indicate a serious commitment to business transformation. The company had lagged behind in forming strategic partnerships with the major players in the alcohol, tobacco, or pharmaceuticals sectors and any other related industries after the rumoured Coca Cola deal did not materialize. Canopy Growth received a $5 billion investment from Constellation Brands, Cronos Group received a $2.4 billion injection from Altria Group, while Tilray and HEXO each signed on strategic partners. Aurora is now on a serious drive to quickly address the partnership issue. The company signed on multi-billion-dollar hedge fund manager Nelson Peltz as a strategic advisor in March. The connected deal maker could be very instrumental in negotiating accretive partnerships for the company, and a new hire has been availed who will assist him. Enter the shrewd investment banker The company has just hired a former investment banker on a full-time basis. On Thursday, April 4, the company appointed a former managing director of BMO Capital Markets, Mr Carey Squires, as executive vice president, Corporate Development and Strategy in a bid to support strategic initiatives. The new position will report directly to the executive chair and will focus on global growth and partnership strategies and investor development. Interestingly, the new hire had been a trusted advisor to the company on a several other strategic deals and he comes with deep global investment banking experience. His new employer may greatly benefit from his networks of strategic contacts as it goes on another aggressive growth spate anchored on global partnerships. I am just wondering how the investment bankers working week will be like as a full-time employee of a cannabis firm, tasked with sourcing potential accretive opportunities in the global cannabis industry and negotiating favourable business transactions, but the new role may generate a significant number of new strategic alliances for the firm if successfully executed. Story continues A brilliant low-cost expansion strategy replay? Most impressive and unique is the companys propensity to hire and internalize the best people and teams for its aggressive growth endeavours. During the productive facility build-out stage when every licensed producer was making frantic efforts to increase productive capacity, the company decided to acquire a global greenhouse design firm Larssen to create its ALPS subsidiary. The transaction saved a lot of cash for engineering consultancy and project management fees and was very strategically accretive, too. As investor focus has shifted to strategic alliances and partnerships now, the company has hired and internalized the best brains for investment deal negotiation and structuring, and may save on paying hefty cash finders fees and consultancy fees. The company may pay the new executive much less cash than what outside consultants will have charged and offer him more in stock-based compensation while tapping into his rich networks in the investment industry. The result may be very similar to the Larssen acquisition. Larssen engineers were critical in Green Organic Dutchman and Denmark strategic deals, and the company is on track to becoming a producer of 570,000 kilograms of marijuana per annum. Im curious just how many partnerships the company targets to establish through Peltz and Squires for it to rule the global marijuana industry. This could mean a good number of them, and the deals may significantly transform Aurora into the great marijuana stock investors desire. More reading Fool contributor Brian Paradza has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2019 By Tom Sims and John O'Donnell FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank will ask Deutsche Bank to raise fresh funds before it gives the go-ahead for a merger with a state-backed rival, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. The official said that Deutsche would be required to have the buffer, which has yet to be calculated, to cope should it experience setbacks while integrating Commerzbank if a deal is agreed. The demand could complicate a bid to create Europe's third-largest bank from Germany's top two lenders, Deutsche and Commerzbank, who have struggled to recover since the financial crisis. Government officials, led by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, have pushed for a merger to create a national banking champion and end questions over the banks' future. While Deutsche has argued the case that little or no capital may be needed, regulators, worried about the group's U.S. investment bank and the potential fallout of it failing a stress test there in September, are putting their foot down. The ECB and Commerzbank declined to comment. Deutsche Bank declined repeated requests for comment on Thursday. On Friday, a spokesman said that there was "no basis" for the assumption that the ECB would ask it to raise fresh funds. On the stress tests, the spokesman said Deutsche had invested heavily in data and model capabilities and would continue to do so. "We believe we have made significant progress," he said. With much left to be negotiated in any deal, the size of a capital hole remains unclear but is expected to run into billions of euros. A merged entity could need up to 10 billion euros ($11.22 billion) of fresh capital because of restructuring costs and the fact that losses on investments could be triggered by a tie-up. Deutsche Bank's exploratory merger talks with Commerzbank come after prodding by Germany's finance ministry, which is worried about Deutsche's future. A deal would see Berlin become a shareholder in the combined group. Germany currently holds a 15 percent stake in Commerzbank after a bailout during the financial crisis. The banks announced on March 17 that they were in talks to merge and a preliminary decision on whether they want to go forward with a merger is expected within days. Deutsche Bank came under increased pressure on Thursday to move forward on a tie-up with Commerzbank after Italy's UniCredit was named as a potential alternative bidder for the German lender. UniCredit could explore a merger with Commerzbank if talks with Deutsche fall through, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. A potential merger between Deutsche and Commerzbank has met stiff resistance from labor unions fearing jobs cuts, and from some major investors. Lawmakers are also warning Germany's finance minister they will block any attempt to invest public money in a merged Deutsche and Commerzbank. (Reporting by John O'Donnell, Hans Seidenstuecker, Tom Sims, and Arno Schuetze; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Louise Heavens) Another Wall Street titan speaks out against socialism. One day after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon attacked socialism in his annual shareholder letter, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, Chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr and the former head of AIG, said he is very much opposed to the idealism that is increasingly embraced by some Democratic Party members and young people across the country. I'm not for socialism, in any form, the 93-year-old insurance legend told reporters on the sidelines of the C100 Annual Conference in New York on Friday. Look at Venezuela. Broke. It is the wrong strategy for the economy. With the largest oil reserves in the world, the Latin American country has seen its crude output plummet during the two-decade-long socialist "Bolivarian Revolution. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has put the military in charge of the oil industry. Greenberg added that Russias experiment with socialism didnt pan out very well, either. Hank Greenberg says some young people in the democratic party "don't understand socialism." (Getty images) He criticized young Americans for calling for democratic socialism values, but did not name prominent advocates of it including U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Many young people who're Democrats politically, don't understand what socialism really means, and what the impact would be on the country and in our lives, Greenberg said. The young people want to become a go-to government. Some things they say are bewildering. Thats not what America is about. Greenberg is most known for building AIG into a financial-services powerhouse, but he was ousted in March 2005 over civil accounting fraud charges, before AIG was rescued by the U.S. government during the financial crisis. Greenberg has embarked on a decade-long legal battle with the New York Attorney General and recently launched another fight to take down the Marin Act. While opposing socialism, Greenberg praised the way President Donald Trump manages the economy. Trump has done a great deal economically with the United States. Our growth has been very good overall. It's too early to tell yet how successful it will be, Greenberg said, adding that measures like the tax cuts are providing short-term relief. Overall I give him pretty good grades on how we manage the economy. Story continues So don't toy with socialism. The country is doing very well, Greenberg said. Stick with what's working now, not what you think would work. Krystal Hu covers technology and China for Yahoo Finance. Write to her via krystalh@yahoofinance.com Read more: China builds the worlds longest high-speed rail as a rail stalls in the U.S. Apple cuts iPhone XR price for partner sellers in China Amazon eyes closed Sears stores for Whole Foods expansion BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vela said on Friday the bloc was hoping to maintain reciprocal access to UK fishing waters after Brexit but was also preparing for the alternatives. Vela told a news conference: "In case of a no-deal Brexit, EU fishing vessels would have to leave UK waters and UK vessels would have to leave EU waters. This would have significant negative economic consequences on the part of the EU fleet, which depends on access to UK waters." "Obviously, even on the part of the UK fleet fishing in EU waters." Vela said the bloc's executive, the European Commission, would authorise state aid by EU states to their companies cut off from UK waters. He said the EU and UK could also decide to keep access open to fishing waters even after a no-deal Brexit. The impact of Brexit on the fishing industry is particularly sensitive for EU states like France, Ireland and Denmark. Fishermen from the other EU states fish more in the UK waters than the other way around, a point often raised by Brexit backers in Britain. But the EU says most of the UK's exports of processed fish products go to continental Europe. The bloc wants to allow for both these factors in any fishing deal with the UK after Brexit to increase its leverage where Britain could otherwise have a much stronger hand. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Photo credit: Clifford Atiyeh - Car and Driver From Car and Driver Had I had the opportunity, I'd have changed one thing on the Rolls-Royce Ghost that the automaker lent me several summers ago: the front left tire. First, the good. Modern tires are scientific wonders that can let average family sedans outgrip expensive German luxury cars. They're so resistant to the common blowouts of their bias-ply predecessors in the 1970s that many cars, to save cost and weight, remove spares. Rolls-Royce is not concerned with cost or weight, yet the Ghost, with its motorized stainless-steel hood ornament and lambswool rugs, doesn't pack a spare. And the best tires don't care how special you are. One moment, I'm pointing its bow through seas of traffic outside Portland, Maine, the 6.6-liter V-12 half awake as I trail my friend's Mitsubishi Evo. In the next, I'm another unlucky schmuck on the side of I-95. I hit nothing, and the sidewall exploded. Photo credit: Clifford Atiyeh - Car and Driver Tire shops in southern Maine do not stock 255/40R-21 Continentals, so don't bother asking. Mainers know better than toy with Y-rated summer rubber for all of three summer months, and precisely none are driving a brand-new Rolls in dire need of a $430 ContiSportContact 5, which to my convenience is not a run-flat. The Ghost is dead. With the grace of the Maine State Police, I abandon a $350,000 car on the shoulder and run off to call roadside assistance. That price is very much on my mind when dialing the company's 24-hour hotline; I assume a personal concierge will answer like those of the finest hotels, offering anything to whisk my car back into service. Instead, the Rolls-Royce number routes to a BMW call center that plays the same Tom Jones hold music that Mini Cooper owners get. It's late on a Thursday afternoon, and the nearest dealer is hours away outside Boston. That's out of the question tonight. Since the Ghost is really a 7-series-right down to the plastic key fob that replaces the BMW roundel with "RR"-I ask the operator to tow it to a nearby BMW dealership that might stock the tire. This is a confusing request to them. I hear "It's Not Unusual" for a few more minutes before I'm blessed with "manager approval" to bring the car to a non-RR dealer. There's no loaner, no offer to ship a replacement tire by courier, nothing. The tow truck arrives with a driver who has never towed a Rolls-Royce. I advise him there's no front tow-hook connection and explain how to put the Ghost in park. Since the Ghost weighs as much as a studio apartment, I hold the brake while he tilts the bed so the car doesn't slide bumper first to the pavement. Story continues Photo credit: Car and Driver The BMW dealer doesn't have a tire but kindly limps my Ghost into the service bay overnight. The next morning, I call roadside assistance again to ship it to the Boston dealer, the only place stocking this tire within 120 miles. The operator doesn't understand why I'd call twice. "Why did you tow the car to a BMW dealer?" I skip the part about the Ghost sharing a chassis, electronics, and various hardware with a BMW sedan that costs a third of the price and instead replay my highway havoc. "Oh, okay. Thank you for calling BMW-I mean, Rolls-Royce-roadside assistance. I hope your day gets better." I'm supposed to get a text confirming the tow, but it has been an hour and a half. I call AAA, and in 10 painless minutes, I've got a tow truck on the way to the BMW dealer. Then Rolls-Royce calls back, only to tell me they'll be there in an hour. The Boston dealer won't have time to fix it this late, so the Ghost is grounded until Monday. I call back AAA and cancel their tow within two minutes. They never ask me what color my car is or why I'm towing an outlandish luxury sedan two states away. AAA is incredible. The bill for this adventure? $953. The dealer was generous enough to mount and balance the tire. Granted, the average Rolls-Royce owner wouldn't relate. His fleet manager would immediately swap him for a Lamborghini Aventador and handle the worrying. But when you buy a sensational, hyperexpensive car like a Ghost or a Wraith-two Rolls-Royces that encourage owners to actually drive themselves-is it too much to ask for decent customer service during the simplest of breakdowns? Especially since new cars generally don't break? Because no one at Goodwood threw a full-size spare tire in the trunk, my Ghost was sidelined for four days. I haven't driven a Rolls-Royce since. The original Silver Ghost, in prewar style, mounted a spare tire right on the flanks. If only it had been 1907, I would have been on my way in minutes, without any reason to telegraph this story. ('You Might Also Like',) NDP Leader Rachel Notley is promising a better province with more signature bills if Albertans chose to re-elect her party. Her platform makes it clear that she feels the NDP has more shared values with the average Albertan than the UCP does. And United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney also has announced a plethora of policies, saying the UCP is the clear choice over the NDP if Albertans want to get their economy back on track. Here are five of the biggest promises made by the two front-runner's platforms for a glimpse of what we can likely expect from the next four years. For a more fulsome and up-to-date list of promises made by all the major Alberta parties, check out our Promise Tracker. CBC 1. Roll out $25-a-day child care: NDP Right now, it's just a pilot project that susidizes 7,300 spaces across the province. But the NDP plans to build on that and phase-in $25-a-day child care across the province, and add 13,000 new spaces over the next five years. Notley has said making child care affordable (saving families with children under five an average of $300 per month) will help the economy by both bringing up labour force participation and closing the largest workforce participation gender gap in Canada. The party estimates it will increase employment by 43,000 people and add nearly $6 billion each year to the GDP. It's a plan that's expected to cost $1.5 billion over the next five years, the most expensive commitment in the party's platform. 2. Build new schools: NDP The NDP platform says instead of cutting spending, it plans to keep it in line with population growth. And its education plan is in line with that. The party says it will reduce overcrowding, with 15,000 new students expected to start school this year, by providing $1.3 billion to build or modernize 70 schools across the province. Notley says the party will also hire nearly 1,000 more teachers and spend $5 million each year to replace 100 aging and outdated playgrounds. Story continues And it will cut tuition fees for high school upgrading and English language classes. 3. Slash emergency room waits: NDP Notley says her party will help Albertans get medical attention faster by spending an additional $90 million a year and will work to get major medical centres like the Calgary Cancer Centre and Edmonton's "superlab" built. She's forecasting 40,000 Albertans will get faster cancer, open-heart and cataract surgeries in the next three years under the NDP's plan. It will make prescription drugs cheaper for seniors. Those making less than $75,000 a year won't have to pay for prescription co-pays, something the NDP says will save seniors $200 a year at an annual cost to the government of $110 million. Other investments include $50 million to expand reproductive health and mental health clinics for both Calgary and Edmonton to provide immediate care for people in crisis. It's hoping to recoup some of those costs with a lawsuit against the manufacturers of opioid medications. Notley has also suggested that under the UCP, funds could be cut that would put 4,000 nurses' jobs at risk. 4. Get a pipeline built: NDP The NDP's platform includes no new taxes, and with spending being maintained or increasing in most areas, it will have to get that revenue from somewhere. The party's promises hinge on its plan to get oil to new markets and at higher prices. Notley says she will continue to fight hard to get the Trans Mountain pipeline built. And, she says, the NDP will "supercharge" investments in the oilsands by attracting $75 billion in new investments to fund major expansions to refining and upgrading, creating 70,000 jobs over the next 10 years. And the party says it will adopt reforms to streamline regulatory processes to get oil and gas projects up and running sooner, without sacrificing environmental and safety standards. 5. Stick to the climate plan: NDP But despite those energy industry promises, the NDP is committing to its Climate Leadership Plan, which includes reducing methane emissions by 45 per cent by 2025 and phasing out coal generation by 2030. The platform also accuses Kenney and the UCP of being climate change deniers. Since the plan was implemented, the province's greenhouse gas emissions have decreased 16 per cent, the NDP says. 1. Bye bye carbon tax: UCP Killing its bete noire is the first order of business for the UCP. Dubbed Bill 1, the party says it would eliminate the $30 per tonne tax on greenhouses gases on Day 1 of a new legislature sitting. The tax was brought in by the NDP as the central pillar of its Climate Leadership Plan and imposes a cost on everything from filling your tank to heating your home. But the plan also comes with rebates for most Albertans to offset the cost. If the Alberta tax is ditched, a federal carbon tax will be implemented, something Jason Kenney says his government would fight in court alongside Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick. 2. Farm and labour changes: UCP The UCP's Bill 2 would eliminate the NDP's controversial introduction of workplace safety rules and insurance for Alberta's farms and ranches. Kenney says his government would then consult on what should replace it, while maintaining some kind of worker insurance would remain, whether private or public. The UCP would also institute different levels for minimum wage based on age and experience. It has said it would remove the ability of the labour board to impose automatic union certification when there was interference with the union organizing process and restore the secret ballot in union certification votes. Kenney also says the party would return to former banked overtime rules that were in place before changes made by the NDP. If workers aren't able to take the time off within six months under the UCP's proposal, banked overtime would be paid out at time and a half. 3. Tax cuts and red tape reduction: UCP It's a signature policy for the UCP: slashing the corporate tax rate from 12 per cent to 8 per cent over four years. That process would start with a one per cent reduction this July. The rate was increased from 10 per cent under the NDP. Kenney has also vowed to create a minister of red tape who would oversee an overhaul of the province's regulations and reduce those regulations by a third. A UCP government would not allow any new regulations to be implemented unless another was taken off the books. 4. Oil-by-rail and the war room: UCP Rachel Notley unveiled a $3.7-billion plan to lease railcars from CN Rail and CP Rail to move more crude out of the province, something Kenney says his government would immediately cancel. He has said the savings would help shoulder the first year pains of his tax cuts. The cancellation is part of a larger energy strategy that would see his government create a so-called war room to fight opponents of oil and gas development and push hard for a new pipeline. Some measures Kenney has suggested the UCP will take include challenging the charitable status of organizations like the Suzuki Foundation, supporting an effort to sue Greenpeace for "defamation" against the oilsands and holding a referendum on equalization payments as a way of challenging Ottawa. 5. Health-care review: UCP Kenney said the UCP will commission a review of Alberta Health Services within 30 days of taking office. He says the point will be to ensure money is spent on front-line services and that he's open to more private competition for procedures like MRIs. More recently, Kenney said the UCP would kill a proposed $590-million laboratory hub planned for Edmonton. It's not all cuts though. He's promising $100 million for mental health and $20 million for palliative care. Moses Lam and Troy Paquette are capturing, compressing and commercializing something most Canadians take for granted fresh air. The pair of Alberta entrepreneurs made headlines back in 2015, largely as a curiosity. Their company, Vitality Air, was reminiscent of the fictional cans of "Perri Air" from the movie Spaceballs. But Lam says the venture is no joke, and they've been doing about $300,000 in annual sales for the past couple of years through online purchases and retail stores in South Korea. They're also eyeing a major expansion, working with European distributors and hoping to soon move into the retail markets of the world's two most populous countries. "We're not in retail stores yet in China or India," Lam said. "Once we do, we expect our sales to be in the millions." Getting to this point has been a challenge for the unusual company, he added, as many distributors and retailers still aren't quite sure what to make of Vitality Air. Marketing air Lam said they're still working on "getting people used to the concept of transporting air from one part of the world to the other." "There's lots of different air companies like, there's air-filter companies and there's companies with [breathing] masks," he said. "But ... we're different. We're taking clean and pristine air, and we're moving it from one part of the world to the other. We're not taking dirty air and filtering it." A bottle of air that comes with a mask and is enough for approximately 160 one-second breaths sells for $32 on the company's online store. Louise Moquin/Radio-Canada "Our main target market is definitely China, India, Korea, Vietnam, Dubai the places where there's a lot of air pollution," Lam said. "In China, we have big CEOs of big companies purchasing our products because they want to experience fresh air, breathe fresh air, so that they can work harder, work longer." Story continues The air comes in two varieties Banff and Lake Louise and Lam said it's popular among tourists who have visited the "iconic" Canadian locations and want something other than a keychain or T-shirt as a memento. "They haven't had a way to take that fresh air home with them as a souvenir," he said. "But now they can." How it's bottled The air comes directly from the mountains of Alberta, sucked in through large tubes and into an air compressor mounted on the back of a truck. "Most of the equipment out there is designed to be in shops and not designed to be mobile and out into the wilderness," said Paquette, who has a background in commercial diving and handles the acquisition side of the business. "I took some different compressor units in some different systems that I've learned over the years, and I modified them to be mobile." The air is tested for quality, he said, before being portioned out into smaller cans that are sold and shipped around the world. vitalityair.com The pair got started in the air business in 2014, when, half as a joke, they tried selling a Ziploc bag of air on eBay, the online auction site. Someone bought it for 99 cents but they found they lost money on the deal because they had to pay for shipping. So they tried again, at a higher price point, and were pleasantly surprised when an American bidder agreed to buy the next bag of air for $168 US. "It was really the starting point for our business," Lam said. "We knew there was a market for this product." They incorporated and sold their first bottle of air in June 2015. Flavoured oxygen, Banff water It may sound silly to Canadians who take clean air for granted, but Paquette said there is a genuine market in other countries for imported air. He compares it to bottled water, which might have seemed ridiculous a few decades ago but is now sold pretty much everywhere. "Alberta is known for amazing water yet people still buy water from Fiji, right?" They may be convinced, but not everyone is. The investors on Dragons' Den all said "I'm out" when Vitality Air came looking for an investment But Lam, Paquette and Roland Hung, who handles the legal side of the business, are sticking with it and looking to grow. Vitality Air now also sells a variety of other products, including concentrated oxygen that comes in different flavours. "So, like strawberry oxygen, grape, root beer," Lam said. "We're going to be coming out with mango oxygen for our Asian markets." They also have a new, liquid offering called "Myst" that Lam said is basically "water from Banff" that people use as a makeup remover. "We want to be a nature-based company where much of our stuff is from Alberta and from Banff," he said. But they remain, first and foremost, a bottled-air company. "We want to make Canadian fresh air available 24/7," Lam said, "no matter where you're located." CBC Saskatchewan and CBC Saskatoon have taken home a combined 10 awards from the RTDNA Prairie Region Awards. RTDNA Canada recognizes the best journalists, programs, stations and news organizations in radio, television and digital. Madeline Kotzer with CBC Saskatchewan won the digital media award for New Lens on Life. New Lens on Life looked at the Pinehouse Photography Club using photography to heal from trauma. Since the story first came out in December, the club has expanded, started up a new studio and had photographs purchased and shared by Kids Help Phone. Kotzer also won the Dave Rogers long feature TV award for her television piece on the Pinehouse Photography Club. Dre Erwin Photography/Facebook In the digital category, Rachel Zelnicker and Charles Hamilton took home best podcast for their work on the series, Boushie. Boushie told the story of Colton Boushie, a young Indigenous man who was shot and killed on a farm in rural Saskatchewan, and Gerald Stanley, who was charged in his death. Penny Smoke won the Adrienne Clarkson Award for diversity in radio for her piece, Street Warriors. It looked at the Okihtcitawak Patrol Group helping to clean up one of Saskatoon's toughest neighbourhoods. Submitted by Dre Erwin CBC Saskatoon won the Gord Sinclair award for live special events for the CBC Asks event that asked, Should Saskatoon build a downtown arena? Nichole Huck won the Dave Rogers award for her piece entitled, How to support a child through suffering. Huck's piece looked at Fran Gilboy as she supported her son as he battled testicular cancer. It was part of her Beautiful Mess parenting series that attempts to share some of the wisdom from different parents. Penny Smoke/CBC CBC Saskatchewan's noon program Blue Sky took the Sam Ross Award for opinion and commentary for the episode, Bridging the Gap. For its work covering the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, CBC Saskatchewan won the Bert Cannings TV Newscast Award and the Charlie Edwards Digital Breaking News Award. CBC Saskatchewan, CBC Manitoba, CBC North and CBC Indigenous won the excellence in innovation for Beyond 94, a digital legacy project that measures Canada's progress in addressing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action. Nichole Huck/CBC The Prairie Region winners were announced at the regional awards ceremony on April 6, 2019 in Saskatoon. Seven women who were suing Bill Cosby for defamation reached a settlement in that case Friday and the incarcerated comedian is not happy about it. An attorney representing seven women Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis, Louisa Moritz and Angela Leslie told a judge in Massachusetts federal court that they are satisfied with a settlement resolving their claim of being defamed by the actor, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The women filed suit in 2014 claiming an attorney for Cosby, whos currently serving 3 to 10 years for the sexual assault of Andrea Constand, tarnished their reputations by telling the media they "fabricated" their absurd and ridiculous claims of sexual misconduct. Bill Cosby at his September sentencing. (Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images) However, while the settlement was reached (pending the judge signing off on it), a representative for Cosby took to Facebook minutes after the news broke and denied that the Cosby Show star had anything to do with it. Mr. Cosby did not settle any cases with anyone, said the statement. He is not paying anything to anyone, and he is still pursuing his counterclaims. AIG decided to settle these cases, without the knowledge, permission and/or consent of Mr. Cosby. Mr. Cosby vehemently denies the allegations brought against him in these defamation suits and he maintains his innocence. The reason American International Group (AIG) comes into play is because Cosby had homeowners insurance through the company. Because of that, a judge ruled in 2016 that AIG had to defend him in this lawsuit and two other similar ones, including one filed by Janice Dickinson. Reuters explained at the time that while homeowner policies typically cover personal injuries, such as when a person falls down on an insureds property, Cosby had excess coverage that carries enhanced protections. While AIG sued Cosby at one point to get out of representing him, a judge ultimately ruled in Cosbys favor. So, as Cosby noted, AIG handled the settlements in the lawsuit and he wont personally be making any financial payments. AIG has not yet responded to Yahoos request for comment about the settlement or Cosbys statement. Story continues Bill Cosby, aka inmate NN7687, has been incarcerated since September. (Screenshot: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections) Joseph Cammarata, the attorney for the seven women, noted that the settlement didnt fully resolve the case. Cosbys Facebook post noted that his legal team is still pursuing his counterclaims against the women, which he filed in 2015 for defamation as well as interference in his NBC and Netflix deals. (Cosby claimed the accusers "induced both NBC and Netflix to postpone or cancel their contracts with him after his reputation and character were assassinated by the womens claims.) Cammarata said in court that he plans to bring a summary judgment motion arguing that Cosby can't demonstrate malice. Though the attorney also said he still plans to depose the comedian for the case. It was also noted during Fridays proceedings that one of the seven women suing Cosby, actress Moritz, had died in January at the age of 82. She was one of the first to accuse Cosby, claiming he sexually assaulted her in the green room at The Tonight Show in 1971. More than 50 women in total have accused Cosby of unwanted sexual misconduct. He was convicted last year in the Constand case and is serving time at Phoenix prison in Pennsylvania. His is currently appealing that conviction. Read more on Yahoo Entertainment: Want daily pop culture news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Entertainment & Lifestyles newsletter. By Tuvan Gumrukcu ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party is seeking a full recount of all votes cast in local elections in Istanbul, a senior party official said on Sunday, a week after initial results showed a narrow victory for Turkey's main opposition party. The AKP is reeling from its apparent loss of the mayoralties of Istanbul and the capital Ankara, both cities which the party and its Islamist predecessors have dominated for a quarter of a century. Erdogan himself rose to prominence as Istanbul's mayor in the 1990s before emerging as national leader. His party has already appealed the initial results in all 39 districts of the city of 15 million people, leading to partial or full recounts across Turkey's largest city. So far the initial lead held by Ekrem Imamoglu, mayoral candidate for the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP), has narrowed from 25,000 immediately after the vote to a little over 16,000 after 70 percent of the recounts were completed. With both Imamoglu and his rival, former prime minister Binali Yildirim, securing more than 4.1 million votes, the margin of victory is likely to be extremely slim, but Imamoglu has said the appeals and recounts will not change the outcome. AKP deputy party chairman Ali Ihsan Yavuz said there was "organized misconduct" in the original count, and the party will appeal to the High Election Body (YSK), the final arbiter on electoral disputes, for all Istanbul votes to be recounted. "We chose the path to eliminate numerical mistakes. But it's not over," he told reporters in televised comments on Sunday. PAINFUL LOSS The losses in Ankara and Istanbul, if confirmed, would be especially painful for Erdogan, who campaigned relentlessly for the local elections. For most of his 16 years in power he has overseen strong economic growth, largely supported by a construction boom funded with cheap debt, which has won backing for the AKP beyond its base of pious, conservative Turks. But sharp falls in the lira have tipped the economy into recession, eroding some support in the buildup to the vote. Erdogan's party, which together with its nationalist MHP ally won more than 51 percent of the countrywide vote for local offices on March 31, says its overall performance was a victory. But that is scant compensation for losing the main cities. Spokesman Omer Celik said on Saturday the party would accept the final verdict of the YSK. "Whoever is declared winner by High Election Board, we will accept that," he told reporters. Speaking shortly after Yavuz announced the AKP's latest appeal, Imamoglu said it was time for the party to accept defeat. He also promised "to reconcile this city" and to work closely with the president. "I understand the feeling of defeat of the people who demanded a recount," Imamoglu said. "You managed this city for 25 years. It is not easy, you lost. But democracy is like that - democracy is not a one-way path." (Editing by Dominic Evans and Peter Graff) The National Council of Canadian Muslims in Ottawa is updating its Muslim Community Safety Kit to include sections on lockdown drills, active shooter scenarios and bomb threats to be shared with mosques across the country. The kit was first developed in 2011 to assist the Muslim community in preventing or responding to anti-Muslim incidents, such as vandalism and hate crimes. "In the wake of the shootings in New Zealand and in Quebec City just over two years ago, NCCM is looking to revise its guide once again. This is the unfortunate reality of the world that we seem to be living in now," said Ihsaan Gardee, the organization's executive director. Last month, 50 worshippers were killed at two mosques in New Zealand after a lone gunman armed with semi-automatic weapons targeted Muslims attending prayers. In January 2017, six men were killed at a mosque in Quebec City. Gardee said the council felt it was important for mosques to have the necessary resources to ensure their institutions and congregations are safe and secure. The guide was last updated in 2015 and it included recommendations about how to build a community support network and make the mosque a more secure place. Some of the recommendations included that mosques and community centres trim shrubs and vines to have fewer concealed areas, request more police patrols and install fire and burglar alarms. Ashley Burke/CBC After the mosque shooting in New Zealand, the Ummah Masjid in Halifax decided to use the guide for its upcoming community gathering in April to discuss recommendations and to review its security plan. "It's better to be cautious," said Imam Abdallah Yousri. "We want to find all possible means to secure the mosque and feel like we did our best." He said the mosque is looking at upgrading its security measures. 'Incidents are deeply troubling' Gardee said the council doesn't want to be alarmists. "We don't want to cause unnecessary fear in our communities, but I think that these incidents are deeply troubling" he said. Story continues Gardee said there has been "tremendous support" from Canadians of all backgrounds, but he believes more needs to be done. More than prayers needed "Thoughts and prayers are welcomed and appreciated, but we need to be looking at what are some policy solutions that government and other stakeholders can undertake to curb the growth of right-wing extremism and white supremacy, as well as the growth of online hate," he said. The launch date for the updated guide hasn't been finalized, but Gardee said it would come out sometime this year. "There is definitely a sense of urgency to this and we will be making it a priority," he said. MORE TOP STORIES Miss something this week? Don't panic. CBC's Marketplace rounds up the consumer and health news you need. Want this in your inbox? Get the Marketplace newsletter every Friday. Which telco got the most complaints? Bell, the largest operator, got the most complaints. Canada's telecommunications mediator received 3,034 consumer complaints about the company, according to the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services mid-year report. Overall complaints to the CCTS were up 44 per cent from last year, to 9,831. Rogers came in second place with 915 complaints, followed by Cogeco and Telus. These are the top issues for consumers. Biocell breast implants could be pulled from market Health Canada could suspend the sale of Allergan's Biocell textured breast implants after problems with them were flagged in a CBC News investigation. The agency learned of 28 confirmed cases of breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma, and 24 were linked to the implant. Last year, we investigated how implants are marketed to women. Christian Patry/CBC What Canada could learn from Sweden about salmonella With 87,500 cases a year, salmonella outbreaks caused by contaminated food, especially chicken, are frequent here in Canada. Compare that to Sweden, where 3,000 people get sick annually from the bacteria. The country made changes to its biosecurity and farming practices, leading to a major decrease in human cases of salmonella. But it took years to get there. One industry head says Canada should adopt a system like Sweden's. Nicolas Amaya/CBC Explaining the carbon tax As of April 1, if you live in Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick or Saskatchewan, you will pay more for gasoline, natural gas, light fuel oil and propane. However, the federal government has vowed to return money from the carbon tax to those paying it. Supporters of the tax say it will encourage consumers to find alternatives to fossil fuels. Valeria Aksakova/Shutterstock Air Canada adjusts schedule after pulling Boeing Max 8 jets Story continues The airline has cancelled flights and delayed launching several planned seasonal routes because it doesn't have enough planes to service the routes after the Boeing Max 8 jets were grounded. Meanwhile, preliminary reports found that Ethiopian Airlines was following Boeing's rules when its 737 Max 8 jet crashed in March. Nathan Denette/Canadian Press Marketplace gets action Following our Marketplace investigation of high levels of arsenic in some baby food, the federal government says it's setting a new cap on the maximum level of arsenic allowed in food. Watch the full story to find out which products we tested: What else is going on Whole Foods is reducing the price of some of its items by 20 per cent. Strategists say the move by the high-end grocer, owned by Amazon, could increase competition, and reducing the cost of everyday items could entice customers to splurge on other products. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is raising money to help Canadians afford a place to live. The goal is to increase the amount available in the long-term national housing strategy, which is designed to make home ownership more affordable. An E. coli outbreak in lettuce has frustrated food safety officials. After repeated outbreaks of food poisoning tied to romaine lettuce, FDA emails show an official saying that the produce industry's water testing "failed in an epic and tragic way." Sunwing passengers were stuck for hours after an emergency landing. After a flight from Toronto to Cancun landed in New Orleans because of mechanical problems, passengers spent four hours on the tarmac and three more in a closed part of the terminal. Passengers praised the flight crew, but said the company failed to communicate or offer help. The latest in recalls Some Calvin Klein children's sleepwear does not meet flammability requirements; Some Claire's eyeshadows, compact powders and contour palettes could contain asbestos; Kool Charmz chains could contain too much lead; these T119 Elf Power Banks could be a fire hazard; this wireless phone charger could overheat; the carabiner attached to this suspension training strap could break, posing a fall hazard; these Mastercraft, Profusion Heat, Prestige, and Matrix portable garage heaters could overheat; and these paint thinner containers do not meet the child-resistant packaging requirements. That's a (plastic) wrap on Marketplace | A thank you note from all of us After our investigation into why it's so hard to shop plastic-free at the grocery store, we asked you for the most outrageous examples. According to you, these are the six worst offenders: paper towels, Kinder Bueno chocolate bars, plastic forks wrapped in plastic, legal weed, plastic-wrapped peppers, and clam-shell containers for fruit and vegetables. We reveal your No. 1 pick on our season finale. Only one of the companies told us it plans to change its ways, so we took your concerns to the federal environment minister to see what the government is doing to minimize plastic waste. In our interview, she reveals that a strategy is coming in June. Finally, a big thank you from all of us for watching this season. We'll be back in the fall. In the meantime, you can catch up on past Marketplace episodes on CBC Gem. Allow me to be vulnerable for a moment. If it werent for the love of God felt through fellowship and community, I would have ditched my faith years ago. While I realise the title of this article provokes a plethora of ideas pertaining to self-sacrifice and dispensing grace to one another (and all of those are worthy of discussion), I want to place that all aside for a moment. The Age We Live In Church is messy and faith is rarely easy. In our millennial fashion, we bounce between churches as relationships come and go, friends migrate out of boredom, and we ever yearn to see our needs fulfilled in the perfect Christian community. Were all guilty of this. Ive done this in my own life only to return back to the same church with my metaphorical tail between my legs. Yet, this persistent fluctuation of community and shifting not only impacts our social circles, it strains our faith. It is for this reason that the author of Hebrews reminds the church to remain in fellowship continually, And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Hebrews chapter10, verse 24-25) Writing to a church divided by historical prejudice, the author exhorts the audience firstly to stir one another up in love and good works, then to refrain from neglecting in joining together. The consider used here reflects not simply a momentary thought, but a deeper reflection. Note, the author speaks of how some make a habit of not being in fellowship. This is not speaking of those who skip one service of church, rather it speaks of the Christian who continuously neglects community and fellowship. This ultimately removes oneself both from receiving encouragement to persevere in the faith and from the opportunity to grow in godliness. In an age of church consumerism, I feel this not only concerns those of us who lapse from church altogether, but also the times we fluctuate between churches without consistency. Both actions are detrimental to our capacity to thrive in a community. Cautiously, I would be inclined to suggest the latter may be even more harmful, for we may deceive ourselves into thinking we are in community without partaking in a consistent community. Self-Isolation In a report published on the 1st March 2019 in the Wall Street Journal titled, Millennials Are the Therapy Generation, author Peggy Drexler brings to light the rising use of therapeutic counselling amongst the millennial generation. The driving motive behind this concerns the lack of community experienced by many young people today and the absence of meaningful relationships. In response to this report, theologian Albert Mohler comments in his daily podcast, The Briefing, It is, from a Christian perspective, also reflecting the fact that many young millennials don't have any older adult friends. They just don't [have] relationships so they have to go out and pay someone to be involved in this kind of conversation about their lives and meaning, organization and habits. I dont intend to make light of therapy or counselling. They are exceptionally needed and valued vocations in society.Yet as we delve deeper into our 6-inch screens and digitalise even our closest friendships, the sense of self-isolation ever grows creating this very issue Drexler has raised. Conversely, as Mohler highlights, we can steep too deeply into our Christian circles without allowing for the wealth of wisdom older Christians in our churches have to offer. It is far too easy and comforting to remain in our church cliques within our communities and, by mere consequence, we starve ourselves of relationship and wisdom to persevere in our faith. The Assurance of Salvation in Community Lastly, if we do not make time for relationships to grow in our lives, we too may be at risk of making a habit of neglecting the church altogether. This is not intended to make a rule out of attending church. Rather, it is not until we are immensely shaken in our faith that we realise how much we need community. Creeds and confessions have often grounded the church in truth over the centuries. My favourite portion of the Westminster Confession speaks of this very notion, that the love of Christ and the brethren keeps us from being utterly destitute. yet are they never so utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren and by the which, in the mean time, they are supported from utter despair. (Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XVIII, P. IV) The love we are shown in church is unparalleled in our lives. If that is something you have found lacking in your own journey, I encourage you to make time for God to nurture you in your own community. It is never simple and, to refrain from generalising anyones circumstance, it is a matter deserving of its own article, yet the cost of being in community far outweighs the temptation of self-isolation we all experience. Hailing from North Auckland, Blake Gardiner sounds American, looks Swedish, but grew up in Laos. As an introvert, Blake lives life on the edge by socialising. When he isnt putting his life at such risk, he enjoys reading theology and debating whether Interstellar is truly the greatest movie of all time. A couple of weeks ago there was a big concert that came to the city that I live in. It was one of the biggest concerts that hit Wellington City. I was not for this concert due to what this particular artist stands for. He is against the Lord and he denies Jesus. This artist said in one of his quotes the following: I would rather spend my life in hell then know Jesus on this earth. I don't know how that makes you feel, but as a born again Christian, it hurts me that he wouldn't want to discover the love of Jesus for himself. I know hurt can lead us away from the truth but even the thought of not trying hurts. This makes me nervous even writing a article on this sort of topic today but I sense in my heart that it needs to be addressed. When I saw images of Christians in the crowd of this concert jumping up and down and doing the devil signs etc., it grieved my heart. Now I don't say this today to judge as it isn't a judgment but we need to come to the point in our lives that we are serious to build the Kingdom of God if we are born again Christians. I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit that night to put a post up on Facebook in regards to this event. Within minutes, I had people who say they follow Jesus attack me and even accuse me of unseen circumstances that in my opinion was not part of the integrity of God in my life. The cost of following Jesus As much as I was devastated about these remarks from my brothers in Christ, the thought from Heaven came to me. What does the cost of following Jesus look like to you? People would rather jump up and down at a worldly concert then jump up and down at a church gathering on a Sunday morning or night praising the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.I believe that in our hearts we need a new revelation in what it means to lay down our lives for the sake of the Gospel and follow Jesus. It has been a battle the last few weeks but I am reminded that Jesus wants us to be people that keep our faith and keep following Jesus. What does it mean to follow Jesus? It means to lay down your life for the sake of the Gospel. IF the Holy Spirit told you to sacrifice a negative friendship circle in order to build the Kingdom of God would you? If he told you to not go to that worldly concert to spend time hearing from Heaven what God is wanting to do in and through your life would you? Living for Him With this situation, people tell me that Christians went to preach the Gospel and if you are reading this and you did well done! Please let me know if you did and what happened. I don't reject going to concerts but when it comes down to being put in environments to be like the rest of the world then it becomes a issue. We need to be people that if we live for Jesus then we need to live like we live for him. Don't compromise our conviction for an event that misleads people away from the Gospel. If we live like the rest of the world, what does that say about us having a relationship with Jesus? Yes, Jesus loves all mankind but we can't just say because of his love and grace I can enter into such concerts and to be part of the crowd. No, the challenge that I am bringing today is that we need to be people that surrender our whole lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ if we want to see him move and reign with power over our lives. By doing this, we will bring many people into the Kingdom of God and our churches will be places of spirit and truth in worshipand honour to our saviour King. Brendon Collins is a Press Service International young writer from Wellington NZ. He would love to hear from any readers if this article has encouraged you. You can find him on Facebook or Instagram or you can email him at: brendon@alc.org.nz Extremely unlike other industries, the healthcare realm caters to the entire mankind. And todays consumers, regardless of the spectrum, are increasingly becoming online-dependent to the tune of patients relying on apps and websites to make healthcare decisions. While this makes it inevitable for individual practitioners & hospitals to repose at the cutting-edge of digital marketing, it also divulges the account of even legacy hospitals with apathetic digital presence grappling with steep slopes in their revenue graphs, despite rendering quality treatment. Given the idiosyncrasy & compliance requirements of this niche segment causing heterogeneous digital marketers to time and again burn their fingers, need of the hour is a dedicated digital marketer & business developer who can equip healthcare organizations to combat the outrage of the digital revolution.No wonder Meditwitt India has emerged into the crux of the healthcare industry by digitally reinventing and often inventing close to 100+ large & SME hospitals (clients) within merely a couple of years from its inception. This full-service economic marketing & advertising organization is dedicated exclusively to helping healthcare organizations & doctors attract new patients, enhance their (brands) reputations, and maximize their business success. In the process, with tailor-made marketing solutions, this holistic & integrated branding & marketing firm has not only improved its clients brand persona & significantly increased their revenue, but also has given rise to several hospital brands right from the scratch.Nearly 16 months back, an ABPS Certified Indian plastic surgeon settled in the U.S. met with these tremendous capabilities of Meditwitt India when he had just moved back to India aspiring to start a hospital in the subcontinent, despite the lack of acquaintance with the countrys divergent healthcare landscape. He knocked Meditwitts doors, and the rest of the story is a jaw-dropping one for any doctor the world over. Starting from finding an ideal locus for constructing the hospital to performing the interiors, purchasing state-of-the-art equipment, and hiring & training the doctors & staffs in sales & marketing, and from engendering a brand out of the hospital to giving it ample international exposure (medical tourism), the company wore the capes of a savior and helped the doctor realize his dream. Today, while he is one of Meditwitts happiest clients, the newly built hospital has more visitors & revenue than all other hospitals of the same line in the city. Interestingly, few among them have been operational for the last two decades!Be it someone looking forward to starting a hospital, a doctor, hospital or pharma company aspiring to go level-next, or even a hospital thats on the verge of shutting-down, we perform the rescue operations by mixing science, logic, emotion, and creativity to create impactful, highly affordable & engaging communication campaigns that speak to the hearts and minds of patients, consumers, and healthcare professionals, proclaims I A Mokashi, Founder & CEO, Meditwitt. Of late, the companys innovative & highly informative video campaigns have gathered a lot of appreciation from the clients as well as audience a bid that traces back to its keen focus on script writing and presence of mind to think beyond mere blogs. "Meditwitt today is shifting gears, applying a huge amount of focus on digital marketing training for doctors and hospital staffs" Complimenting this innovative DNA is its prowess in attracting and channeling medical tourists to its clients, which alone increases the revenue exponentially; not to mention the investor facilitation and management services that fuel the growth plans of hospitals. In addition, Meditwitt has also certified Google Adword, which have already paid-off as its 7000 keywords organically and Paid online are featuring on first page of google search today. Putting it in a nutshell, team Meditwitt has been successful in establishing a priceless proposition: the growth hackers for healthcare organizations! Healthcare Milieu Inside While the exclusive approach takes credit of Meditwitts success, the efforts of a robust team, which boasts of its comprehensive medical background and led by the most senior healthcare marketers, doctors, healthcare digital marketers & IT engineers, have been instrumental in making it happen. Our scientists take the guesswork out of marketing by crunching data and everything thats measurable to identify where to direct marketing budgets in order to maximize impact, adds Mokashi. The team also incorporates strategists, account managers, writers, designers, media buyers, programmers, video producers, internet marketing specialists, and most predominantly, a group of four experienced research-specialists who ensure that Meditwitt travels well-ahead of the dynamic trends & compliance requirements. Period. Each and every person working in our cubicles has a healthcare background, be it a sales executive or a developer. This makes us the only company that understands the thought process of doctors, requirements of hospitals, and pulse of the patients, simultaneously. Hence, we bridge the gap between healthcare providers and patients, which intrinsically swells the growth of organizations, adjoins Mokashi. The Training Division Meditwitt today is shifting gears, applying a huge amount of focus on digital marketing training for doctors and hospital staff. It possesses a well-crafted training division that envisions projecting doctors & hospital staff towards the management level and fitting in CXO shoes. The already established training division nevertheless smoothens the in-house training, while the work culture is more than flexible and extremely women-friendly. This matchless combination has been the rationale behind its zero attrition till date. Time to Expand Founded by Mokashi and other SUNDAY, April 7, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Regular brushing and flossing can save your teeth into old age. Could it also save your brain? The bacteria involved in gum disease might play a key role in the development of Alzheimer's disease, new research suggests. DNA from the bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis is more often found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, said lead researcher Jan Potempa, a professor at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry in Kentucky. P. gingivalis is one of the causes of periodontitis, the most serious type of gum disease. "The DNA can be found in the Alzheimer's brain, but less frequently at a lower level in the brain of people who died at the same age from causes other than Alzheimer's," Potempa said. Alzheimer's-affected brains also contain higher levels of a toxin secreted by P. gingivalis called gingipain, he said. Potempa and his colleagues think the bacteria and its toxins might be connected with Alzheimer's disease, a suspicion supported by their research involving laboratory mice. Researchers infected the mouths of mice with P. gingivalis and found that the bacteria did spread into the brain. The infection appeared to increase production of amyloid beta, a protein linked to Alzheimer's, and also caused inflammation in the brain. The researchers also found that a drug targeting gingipain blocked movement of the bacteria into the brains of the mice. The experimental drug, known as COR388, reduced the amount of P. gingivalis in mouse brains, with an accompanying decrease in amyloid beta production and brain inflammation, researchers reported. A phase 1 clinical trial is underway to see if COR388 can prevent Alzheimer's, researchers said. The company Cortexyme Inc., based in San Francisco, developed the drug and is supporting the research. There are several routes by which P. gingivalis could get into the brain, Potempa said. It could be carried through the bloodstream, by cell-to-cell infection, or through the nervous system. "There a lot of nerves going into our mouth which have direct connection to the brain," he added. "If the bacteria gets into these nerves, it can translocate directly into the brain." If this theory of Alzheimer's disease proves true, then it could be that the amyloid plaques that are thought to disrupt brain function might actually be the brain defending itself against infection, Potempa said. "Beta amyloid has an antibacterial function," he said. "It's not just there to form the plaques. It can kill the bacteria. These beta amyloid plaques may be essential for defending the brain against bacteria." About 46% of adults 30 and older have gum disease, with about 9% having very severe disease, Potempa said. You can avoid gum disease by brushing your teeth twice a day, flossing regularly to remove plaque between teeth, and visiting the dentist for regular checkups and cleanings, according to the U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. This study is part of a growing field of research looking into whether viral or bacterial infections might be associated with Alzheimer's, said Keith Fargo, director of scientific programs and outreach at the Alzheimer's Association. Another well-respected research team is investigating possible links between herpes virus and Alzheimer's, he said. "It's actually receiving a lot of attention over the past couple of years. If you'd have asked me three years ago, I would have said it's a fairly fringe idea," Fargo said. But a direct cause-and-effect relationship has yet to be established between any infectious agent and Alzheimer's, Fargo said. He said it's possible that bacteria like P. gingivalis are found at higher levels in Alzheimer's brains because those brains are weakened and less able to defend against infection. "As the brain gets sick with Alzheimer's disease or with something else, it becomes less able to fight off these things," Fargo said. Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Research Center, agreed that the link between bacterial infection and Alzheimer's is still "quite speculative." "I certainly wouldn't worry a group of readers that this is the cause of Alzheimer's, or if you've got gum disease you're more likely to develop dementia later in life," he said. Petersen said the mouse evidence is interesting, but still a step removed from Alzheimer's in humans. Research on animals does not always produce the same results in humans. "That would argue this is plausible but again, it's genetically engineered mice and it's kind of far from human reality at this point," he said. Potempa presented his research Sunday at the 2019 annual meeting of the American Association of Anatomists, in Orlando, Fla. Research presented at meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. More information The U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research has more about gum disease. Not Staying Neutral: Switzerland Paves the Way for Crypto Regulation Armin Schmid Armin Schmid is CEO of Swiss Crypto Tokens, a provider of the token issuance services which is a part of the Bitcoin Suisse Group. _______________________________ Source: iStock/assalve F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that, Switzerland is a country where very few things begin, but many things end Its unfortunate that blockchain was not of his time, as he may have been convinced otherwise! Although Switzerland has always been a welcoming land for banking and finance, the manner in which the Swiss Government has encouraged the breakneck pace of innovation in Crypto Valley, the blockchain hub in the canton of Zug, is inspiring. The approach to regulating blockchain adopted by Switzerland has been hailed as exemplary by many, as it embodies great receptiveness and promotes innovation. According to the annual State of European Tech report from technology investment firm Atomico, the Crypto Valley was fastest-growing tech community in Europe in 2018 several key factors have played a part in allowing for this development, and there remains more to be done. Decentralized government At the core of Switzerlands ability to proactively develop its blockchain industry has been its decentralized political system. The Swiss political system has historically placed great value on personal liberty, resulting in a citizen-controlled political system that is neutral, secure, predictable, and protective. Switzerland is split into twenty six cantons that predominantly have control over taxation, and most decisions in the country are made on a regional level. In addition, given Switzerlands autonomy from much of European Union law, it is one of the most agile economies on the continent, well-positioned to react efficiently and rapidly to global developments. Regions are empowered to make decisions quickly and design their government to fit industry. For example, in 2016 Zug became the first city in the world to start accepting taxes in bitcoin and a year following, Crypto Valley announced the launch of a decentralized digital identity framework. The political system has also allowed the Federal Tax Administration in Switzerland to determine that bitcoin is a means of payment, exempting it from VAT charges. The ability to make decisions quickly and with vigour, backed by institutions that have decades of experience in stable enforcement, is a unique combination. For the blockchain industry, freedom to experiment is essential, and governments worldwide are struggling to make the necessary political changes to cater for this, leaving them stuck with antiquated legislation and political deadlock. When we look at what decisions have been made in Switzerland in such a short period of time, their political model stands unparalleled in its freedom and resilience. Regulatory flexibility Last December, the Swiss Minister of Finance announced that instead of creating new laws pertaining to blockchain, the Government should adapt existing laws to cater for the new technology. Following this, the Swiss Federal Council adopted a report on the legal framework for blockchain in finance, outlining the suitability of existing law, with certain revisions to be made. In March, the Swiss Federal Council started its consultation period on how this framework should look. This proactive stance on regulation is unique in a European context, offering a great degree of flexibility. The Swiss government has prioritized shaping existing legislation by consulting the private sector. The Swiss Blockchain Federation, a public-private partnership, was established with this goal in mind, and is a great example of a link between companies in the Crypto Valley and policymakers. In a similar vein, The Swiss financial market regulator, FINMA, promotes self-regulation over top-down regulation, and is transparent and easily accessible for developing the policy of the future. In Crypto Valley, this self-regulatory environment has been instrumental in allowing for rapid growth, and most importantly and has not created a slow, stifling business climate where legislation is catching up with innovation. This regulatory malleability is a key reason why Switzerland is ahead of the curve in terms of regulation of distributed ledger technology, catering for new ideas and innovation. The business environment Aside from creating a suitable political and legal framework for growth in blockchain, Switzerland is a host to a ripe business environment and ecosystem of traditional finance. Home to several leading ventures capital firms, Swiss startups received almost 1.24 billion francs (close to USD 1.25 billion) of venture capital during 2018, nearly 32% more than in 2017. Boasting outstanding business networks, low taxation, low corruption, and an excellent education system, Switzerland is the ideal location for any blockchain business entering into the new economy. From a macroeconomic perspective, the Swiss Franc has been a strong and reliable store of value, in a country with low debt levels and independent monetary policy. In recent years, the stability of the economy and currency has formed a solid bedrock of the new economy, providing reassurance to businesses and investors alike. In the crypto world, the recent growth of stablecoins is reflective of the need for this stability and I see a real market for this in Switzerland. Despite the great success that Switzerland has developed, there are undoubtedly areas for improvement. Highlighted recently by Zugs Finance Director, Heinz Taennler, companies are relocating their banking activities to other jurisdictions. The Crypto Valley region has struggled with banks refusing to open accounts for businesses and he says companies may leave if the government does not take steps to give them access. Switzerland has been a leader in cryptocurrency and blockchain regulation for some time now, and the reasons highlighted here are only a handful. If F. Scott Fitzgerald could bear witness to the growth of blockchain in the Crypto Valley, he would see only the beginning of a revolutionary technology being developed from the ground up, with encouragement from the top down! Unai Emery has suggested Arsenal duo Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang compare with the greats he has managed before.The Spaniard was in charge of Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe at PSG - Neymar was conspicuous by his absence in his comparison - and David Villa and Fernando Morientes while Valencia manager.Aubameyang was left out of the starting line-up for Arsenal's win against Newcastle on Monday. Yet he came off the bench to provide an assist for Lacazette.Both have been rotated in and out of the side depending on Emery's demands for a match - with either or both likely to start against Everton on Sunday - but the manager suggested he was not shocked they had taken it well.He said: 'I had at Valencia, Villa and Morientes, I had (Roberto) Soldado and (Aritz) Aduriz; I had in Sevilla (Kevin) Gamiero and (Carlos) Bacca, I had at Paris Saint-Germain, Cavani and Mbappe. Here I have Aubameyang and 'Laca'. It's perfect.'Sometimes you need to play both, with two strikers, and sometimes you can play with one player wide, and sometimes you can play with another on the bench.'I have the habit to have two strikers, or three strikers. Also in Spain at Sevilla I worked with Bacca, Gamiero and Iago Aspas. Three strikers. I want to play and have the best players. Here, with Aubameyang and Lacazette I am very happy with them.'Both Aubameyang - with 14 goals - and Lacazette - 12 - have been relatively prolific in the Premier League this campaign.Emery suggested goals are his only focus when it comes to working with strikers: 'In training I said to them, "When I have one ball, in training, I imagine you'll score one goal, every time. Score, score, score".'That's my mentality - I push them with this mentality. That's the best development for them and for the team.'Each striker has his qualities and characteristics, but one is similar. They are strikers and score a lot of goals. All of them. That's Villa, Negredo, Carlos Bacca, Gamiero, Cavani, Morientes, and Soldado, and now here Lacazette and Aubameyang.' A fragile calm has settled over the deadly, disputed border between Israel and Gaza, but no one here believes it will last.After a fortnight in which simmering tensions exploded into fiery clashes, the quiet is welcome, but tenuous. The ceasefire - brokered by Egypt - came after an intense exchange of rockets and air raids between the Hamas militants who control Gaza, and the Israeli Defence Forces.Communities on both sides of the border are accustomed to the violence, and weary residents live in unrelenting fear of attack.'It's scary. We've had 15 years of constant tension,' Roni Kaider tells 9News.Roni lives in the southern Israeli village of Netiv Ha'asara, right on the border. You can't get much closer to the wall separating Israel and Gaza, and you wouldn't want to.Every home has a safe room, or inbuilt shelter, and bomb shelters also line the streets. Some have been painted in brightly coloured murals by the local children, a jarring reminder of how normalised war and violence is here.Ms Kaider has raised five children and ten grandchildren here, despite two wars and the daily threat of another. The village is what's known as a moshav; an agricultural co-op where all the families help farm the land. On a calm day here - and there aren't many right now it's a deceptively tranquil setting, and the sudden air raid sirens seem especially piercing.'We have 15 seconds to run to a shelter' she said. 'Usually we do a sort of drill with the children counting to 60, and if nothing's happened we can get on with our day because it normally takes less than that for a rocket to fall.'Ms Kaider is an activist and, despite the danger and security concerns, she works to unite people divided by the wall and the conflict.'I connect sometimes between schools, they exchange videos and suddenly they see they're not demons on the other side of the wall, they're children just like themselves,' Ms Kaider said.With a population of more than 2 million people, the city of Gaza has often been described as the biggest prison on earth. Palestinians are allowed out only to work, and many aren't allowed to leave at all, because of a blockade by Israel and Egypt.Every Friday for over a year there have been violent protests at the border, where Palestinians rally against the blockade.More than 200 Palestinians have been killed in these protests in the past year, usually by Israeli army gunfire.Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unapologetic, telling reporters in the United States last week 'I have a message for Israel's enemies; we will do whatever we must do to defend our people and our state.'Mr Netanyahu was in America for talks with US President Donald Trump, when a long-range rocket fired from Gaza hit and destroyed a home near Tel Aviv, wounding seven people.The two leaders stood shoulder to shoulder as President Trump gave perhaps his strongest endorsement yet of the Israeli regime.'The United States recognises Israel's absolute right to defend itself,' President Trump declared. 'Under my administration the unbreakable alliance between the United States and Israel has never been stronger.'The diplomatic visit was cut short, and Prime Minister Netanyahu - who is also the country's self-appointed Defence Minister - returned to Israel, as his forces unleashed a furious round of rocket and mortar attacks over Gaza.The violence comes as Israeli Defence Forces begin bolstering the border with an imposing new structure. A 65-kilometre long, six-metre high galvanised steel and barbed wire 'smart fence' is being erected, designed to keep Hamas militants and citizens from the Palestinian city out of territory claimed by Israel.The fence will reinforce the current security network, which includes an Iron Dome defence system intercepting rockets overhead, and a subterranean wall preventing Hamas digging underground attack tunnels.Peace talks between Israel and Palestine collapsed in 2014, and the border region has been a hotbed of deadly flare ups ever since.Civilians on either side - like Ms Kaider can do nothing but pray for peace, and hope for a breakthrough.'Let's make amends, let's make a future for us both,' she said. 'I believe we can, I really do.' The Saudi Arabian government has insisted that the execution of Mrs Kudirat Adesola Afolabi, a widow and mother of 2, was carried out after exhausting all legal procedures. The government also said it is determined to apply the law on any person against whom evidence is established in order to combat drug trafficking and protect its citizens from drug menace. The Saudi Arabian governments position was made known after the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Nigeria, Adnan Bostaji, said in Abuja on Thursday after a closed- door meeting with the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Mustapha Suleiman, that the execution was in compliance with the laws of the country. The Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Abuja, while reacting to media reports credited to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said Afolabi was accorded every legal right before the death sentence was carried out on her. Dabiri-Erewa was reported to have said that the execution of Afolabi was pathetic and tragic, adding that the news of the tragedy was painful. The embassy however said death sentence is only carried out in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after all proofs and legal evidence have been exhausted. With reference to the statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, as published on the cover page of The Nation newspaper of 3/4/2019, titled Fed Govt kicks as Saudi Arabia executes Nigerian, written by Augustine Ehikioya, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Abuja, clarifies as follows: The Embassy affirms that all legal and judicial procedures were followed regarding the accused person, and she was accorded every legal right before the death sentence was carried out on her. All accused persons subjected to the legal process in Saudi courts of law are allowed access to lawyers to litigate on their behalf, and the kingdom avails itself the responsibility to provide lawyers for any persons that have no financial ability to do so. All convicted persons on whom the death penalty has been carried out in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have gone through trials characterised by legal guarantee of justice to their case because the Kingdoms judicial system is established on objectivity and is dependent, in terms of its rules and regulations, on the Islamic Law, which has always restored rights to their owners and done justice to the victims. This is what the Kingdom has always affirmed. The death sentence is only carried out in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after all proofs and legal evidence have been exhausted regarding the accused, and the process goes through various legal stages until the allegations against the detained persons have been proven beyond reasonable doubt, the Saudi Arabian government said. The Saudi Arabian government further said its Ministry of Foreign Affairs is always in consultation with foreign embassies and consulates in the Kingdom, of which are the Nigerian Embassy in Riyadh and Consulate-General in Jeddah. It added that the ministry provides the embassies and missions with all facilitation and information and allows their staff to visit their nationals that are detained, vis-a-vis, a variety of charges related to the different stages of their detention and prosecution, adding that it allows every form of their request through the normal channels. It is well-known for all those interested in traveling to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that the penalty for drug trafficking is the death sentence and the said sentence is applied on all persons convicted without any exceptions, as long as the evidence is established against them, and this is conveyed to every person prior to his trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not neglect the enforcement of penalties in terms of matters of drug trafficking and is determined to apply the law on any person against whom evidence is established in order to combat drug trafficking and protect its citizens from this dangerous menace, the Saudi Arabian government further said. | 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 sunnewsonline.com, Staff, April 6, 2019 FOCUS ON DEFENSE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND OCEANIA But I dont want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you cant help that," said the Cat: "were all mad here. Im mad. Youre mad." "How do you know Im mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldnt have come here. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland With freedom comes responsibility. Eleanor Roosevelt 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 CA-34 in Los Angeles is the district next door and to the east and south of mine. I'm there a lot; it's basically down the street. It includes Angelino Heights, Mount Washington, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, City Terrace, Boyle Heights, the Arts District, the Financial District and Koreatown. Long a magnetic for immigrants, it's ranked as among the 20 poorest congressional districts in America, but much of it is rapidly gentrifying and it's one of L.A.'s most energetic and entrepreneurial areas. The district is 64.8% Latino, 19.4% Asian, 10% white and 4% Black. It's basically a Republican-free zone and one of the bluest congressional districts in the country-- Trump only took 10.7% of the vote there and the PVI is R+35. The congressman is Jimmy Gomez, who was reelected in 2018 with 72.5% of the vote (against a Green; the GOP doesn't run candidates in CA-34). Discounting the freshmen, ProgressivePunch ranks Gomez's voting record as the 14th most progressive in the House-- perfectly in sync with his constituents. A member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, an original co-sponsor of Pramila Jayapal's new-and-improved Medicare-For-All bill, an original co-sponsor of AOC's Green New Deal resolution and an original co-sponsor of Bobby Scott's $15 minimum wage bill, Gomez is unquestionably progressive... but not a radical. He's a union organizer and an immigration activist, not really an outright socialist. In 2016 Hillary won L.A. County and almost every congressional district. Mine gets counted as a 49.6-49.6% tie, but in reality, Hillary managed to beat Bernie by 67 votes-- 65,975 to 65,908. There was one district that Bernie won though-- CA-34. He took 49,121 (51.3%) votes to her 45,763 (47.7%). Ironically, the only other L.A.-area congressional district Bernie won, is fully in Orange County, CA-46, where Latinos are also a majority. The local congressman, though, Lou Correa, is a co-chair of the reactionary Blue Dog coalition and has a miserable voting record-- rated a solid "F" by ProgressivePunch, beryls much unlike Gomez's solid "A." Bernie beat Hillary there 34,347 (50.4%) to 33,214 (48.8%). Gomez was first elected in a 2017 special right after Bernie took the district. Polling by Latino Decisions found that 72% of likely primary voters in the district said "a Sanders endorsement would make them more likely to consider voting for a candidate-- the highest mark of any potential endorser... It wasnt just Sanders name, but many of the themes from his political movement that voters in CA-34 also supported... 51% want a candidate who thinks the Democratic party needs fundamental reform versus 33% who like the idea of candidate who represents the California Democratic establishment. And by a 53% to 34% margin the voters in the district thought Bernie would have defeated Trump last November." The Intercept, Younger Latino voters (18-30 years old) are among the best-informed and most ideologically progressive voters in California. And they are a strong bulwark for Bernie's campaign. On Saturday Aida Chavez, in a post for Bernie Sanders Is The Most Popular 2020 Candidate Among Hispanic Voters, New Polling Finds , reported that Bernie "is leading every other presidential candidate in support from Hispanic voters, who make up a significant chunk of his base... Sustaining this support will be critical to Sanderss shot at the Democratic nomination, as Latinx voters will be the largest racial or ethnic minority group in the electorate by 2020, and wield greater influence over the outcome of the nomination than in previous elections due to changes in the primary calendar." She bases her conclusions on a new poll from Morning Consult. At this point, Bernie has 33% of the Latino vote and even more among Latinos 30 and younger. The only other candidate with strong Latino support is Biden (24%). Beto does well, with 13% of the Hispanic vote. But Julian Castro clocks in at just 4%. If you watched the clip above, you already know that most popular American support for Israel is based on neither government strategic considerations nor on Jewish loyalty but on sad, untreated evangelical mental illness based on Bronze age myths. Didn't watch it yet? Please do... because it will help you understand why Jared Kushner can't solve the Middle East problem, why Trump still has a third of Americans willing to support him regardless of anything and everything that makes him anathema to normal people, and why Israel is more of a mess than it's ever been since it was born in 1948. On Saturday, spooked by Friday polls showing him losing the election Tuesday, Netanyahu, appealed to the most right-wing Israelis by vowing to annex the West Bank if he's reelected, something not even Jared Kushner backs. I guess that's the end of the official U.S. policy of supporting a two-state solution-- at least until Trump is expelled from the White House. Netanyahu told Channel 12 News yesterday that "A Palestinian state will endanger our existence and I withstood huge pressure over the past eight years, no prime minister has withstood such pressure. We must control our destiny." And under Trump-- who Netanyahu sounds more like every single day, that would pretty much meandestiny as well. On Friday, thereported that Benjamin Netanyahu's world may be crumbling . Even if his party wins the Israeli Knesset elections on Tuesday, his legal peril isn't going away. "The smooth-talking, American-educated prime minister," wrote Noga Tarnopolsky and Laura King, "faces a vote that is widely seen as a referendum on him. If the election keeps him in power, Netanyahu, 69, will hit a political milestone later this year, becoming Israels longest-serving prime minister, a distinction held until now by founding father David Ben Gurion. But with a criminal indictment on corruption charges hanging over his head, that historic marker might carry a very large asterisk." Gantz, in turn, has hammered Netanyahu as fatally tainted by the graft scandals for which he faces imminent indictment. The whiff of scandal has for years been a constant in Netanyahus public life, but only now is he facing what appears to be genuine legal peril. Israeli politics are rarely a pretty sight, but this campaign has been distinctive for its divisive tone. In the final days before the vote, a Likud video highlighted a shaky interview performance by Gantz, sarcastically captioning wild-eyed shots of him as completely stable. That was reminiscent of an election-day video in 2015, when Netanyahu warned of Israeli Arab voters turning out in droves to support his rivals. Here's one; meet the Ron Paul of Israel: Yesterday, writing for, Abraham Riesman, asked a question that is client for anyone growing up with Israel. I, for example, was born 71 years ago, just like Israel, when it was both socialist and idealistic. Whatever Happened To The Israel Left? "On April 9... Israeli citizens will swarm the polls for a pivotal national election that will determine the makeup of their Parliament and, as a result, who will be their prime minister. Meanwhile, 5 millionodd Palestinians who are directly or indirectly governed by Israeli military law will get no opportunity to select the people who make the ultimate decisions about their lives, deaths, status, and future. More than 5 million Jews dwell between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, forming a majority alongside a Palestinian minority within Israels U.N.-recognized borders-- but who are now also forming a growing and politically ascendant minority in the Palestinian-dense West Bank, which Israel occupies and allows (in some cases encourages) Jewish settling of, in defiance of international law. Jewish settlers of the West Bank can vote in Israeli elections, but Palestinians there cannot, nor can those of the blockaded Gaza Strip, another Palestinian territory Israel first captured during a 1967 war. The roughly 1.6 million Palestinians in the territory of Israel proper can vote, but live with well-documented legal inequality. In American politics, this state of affairs is inevitably discussed when the country comes up. As the recent fracas over Congresswoman Ilhan Omars criticisms of pro-Israel lobbying demonstrated, the policy agenda of the Israeli government is a specter that howls ever louder while it haunts the Jewish states superpower patron." And yet, surreally enough, the Palestinian Question has been all but unuttured in the tiny nations election season. The race has been brutal, dirty, and largely focused on voters personal feelings about the Likud Partys Benjamin Netanyahu, the allegedly corrupt prime minister who has been in power for the last decade. But neither he nor the political novice leading the charge against him, retired general Benny Gantz, is willing to even entertain following through on Israels occasional promise to permit the West Bank and Gaza to form an independent Palestinian state. Gantz is characterizing himself and his cobbled-together party, Blue and White, as ideologically centrist and thus slightly to the left of the hard-right Netanyahu coalition, which has increasingly pushed for West Bank settlements, ethnic division, and religious orthodoxy. The two men are a nanometer away from one another in the polls, and while Netanyahu runs ads suggesting a Gantz victory would end Netanyahus ten-odd years of forcefully repressing Palestinian violence, Gantz boasts of how he bombed sections of Gaza back to the Stone Age. Leading Netanyahu allies openly speak of formally annexing parts of the West Bank, a proposal that once was beyond the pale in mainstream discourse. A viciously racist political party whose leaders have called for the expulsion of Palestinian citizens of Israel deemed disloyal has been offered provisional membership in a Netanyahu coalition. Meanwhile, leftist has become a potent slur applied even to centrists like Gantz and his party mate Yair Lapid, and the failures of past stabs at peace have led progressive candidates to shove their anti-occupation messages to the side. ...Todays Israel is one that has largely embraced Donald Trump, a man whom American Jewry voted against at a rate of roughly 80 percent and who many of them believe is himself an anti-Semite. Horror about recent state violence against Gazans has spurred the growth in stature of stridently anti-occupation Jewish groups like IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Jewish Solidarity Caucus. American universities-- which Jews are disproportionately likely to attend-- are hotbeds of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks to ensure Palestinian rights through international ostracization of Israel and its inhabitants. As this younger generation enters the spotlight, we stand at the verge of one of the greatest schisms in the millennia-long history of the Jewish people. ...What I found in the Israeli left was not a unified movement. Rather, it was a collection of individuals who are motivated less by optimism that things can change than by what you might call inertia or you might call moral compulsion. I was particularly fascinated by the Zionists among them, who see the way the global left is turning on them and bristle at being held responsible for the failings of the people in power against whom they rail. Above all else, those liberal Zionists are people who, however calm they may appear on the exterior, are panicked about what might happen were they to give up their progressivism or their patriotism. You can argue that theyre complicit, that Zionism is bankrupt, that they had their chance and blew it. But its hard to fight the feeling that far worse things lie ahead should they lose even one inch to their opponents on Israels reactionary right. ...The Israeli left is nonexistent, West Bank Palestinian author and activist Tareq Baconi tells me in a cafe during a torrential Ramallah downpour. I cannot see what kind of reality could change that, or what kind of event would change that reality. There could be something that I dont foresee, but unless something major happens, I dont see how the Israeli political Establishment in the system can viably produce a Palestinian state or has any interest in producing a Palestinian state. What I think will happen is that we will have differences of how the occupation is managed. I think the real game-changer is what happens abroad, says Amjad Iraqi, a writer, activist, and Palestinian citizen of Israel, over cups of water on a hot day in the coastal, ethnically mixed Israeli city of Haifa. At the moment, the only real resistance is coming from outside, the only resistance that the Israeli political leadership is really taking into account. To be sure, BDS promoters have seized the attention of the Israeli political Establishment and its backers in America. Indeed, the movement is perhaps their primary bete noire these days. Members of pro-BDS organizations have been barred from entering the Jewish state. The speeches at last months annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference were littered with BDS denunciations. Israel advocates regularly raise money in the name of combating BDS. An entire new wing of the Israeli government, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, has devoted itself to attacking BDS efforts around the world. Even left-wing Israeli politicians decry BDS on the grounds that it delegitimizes Israel and undermines the belief that the country has a right to exist as Jewish state. But no matter: Most of the Palestinians I spoke to didnt much care what Israeli progressives had to say, anyway. ...This is the basis of the increasingly repeated argument in American leftist discourse that Israeli progressives are too comfortable with the oppression of Palestinians and that, even worse, their progressivism is making that oppression palatable-- that Israeli lefties talk and small victories on matters of human rights allow the international community to sleep soundly without demanding the outright demolition of unjust sociopolitical structures. However, there is already a hard core of domestic Israeli radicals who dont need reminding about the injustice and actually support making their home country a pariah. For them, they live in a nation gone wrong. Jewish supremacy is the only organizer or unifier of the Jewish society in Israel today, says Orly Noy, an Iranian-Jewish writer, translator, and politician from the ostracized pro-Palestinian party Balad, over cigarettes outside a Jerusalem cafe. That is the only thing. Nothing else. We are divided in every single parameter that you can think of except for this. I mean, 99.9 percent of the Jews in Israel deeply believe in the concept of Jewish supremacy. They wont always define it in such a term. You believe inherently, without questioning it, that we should have extra national rights in this land. Of course, it is our-- that is, she and her small cadre of allies-- political obligation to continue speaking with the Jewish society in Israel. Thats the political and the moral thing to do. But I dont have any hope that the change will come through the Jewish society itself. Noy balks on the question of whether or not shed like to see a two-state solution (the creation of a separate Palestinian state in some combination of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem) or a one-state solution (a single, Palestinian-majority state comprised of all the territories that Israel now exists in or controls). However, she emphasizes that Israeli Jews are already a minority in the lands of their extended sovereignty and sees catastrophe on the horizon if that is not reckoned with. I do want to see a Jewish national existence here that will be sustainable, she tells me. And we are so blinded by the power now that Jews dont even Its such a hypothetical question that it doesnt even exist. But it will be very relevant pretty soon. We need to start thinking about these questions. [The] bifurcated-- some might say oxymoronic-- desire to both defend Israel and instill it with progressive values alienates detractors on the left and the right. Liberal Zionisms champions are people who, for the most part, are fully aware of how desperately hard it is to move the Israeli agenda in a leftward direction right now, especially on the Palestinian Question. Occupation, for Israel, is begins Ran Cohen, founder of an activist collective called the Democratic Bloc, speaking in a sparse conference room in Tel Aviv. For most Israelis, its boring. Its boring! Its old news. Theyre not aware of whats going on. They are tired of hearing about settlements. The attempt to connect the occupation with poverty, or with issues of economical issues and so on, succeeded in a very minor way, as I see it. We need to reinvent ourselves and the discourse. Nevertheless, Cohen still dreams of a future where Jewishness and democracy go hand in hand: The Jewish nation is not afraid of a long wait, he says with a smile. I dont want to give up. Of course, the leftist counterargument here is that Cohens ability to wait is a luxury while, say, the nearly 2 million blockaded Gazans just a few miles south seethe in an open-air prison that is predicted to become unlivable by the end of next year. The nonstop moral crises mean gradualism loses a significant amount of its appeal in discussions of the region. Plus, theres the question of what, exactly, liberal Zionisms beloved two-state solution could even look like. It would be tremendously difficult and politically costly to order a mass evacuation of any parts of the West Bank. Whats more, Israeli Jews understandably lose sleep over the idea of a Palestinian state that could arm itself against Israel. They see how Israel pulled its troops and settlements out of the interior of Gaza in 2005 and was eventually faced with a government there controlled by the militant Islamist party Hamas (though that story is much more complicated than it may seem), which has repeatedly fired rockets into Israel. They think such things could happen in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, too. Historically, even when Israeli governments have made overtures about allowing the creation of a Palestinian state, they usually come with enormous caveats like full demilitarization of that new state, territorial carve-ups that allow Jewish settlements to remain in seas of Palestinian territory, and a permanent Israeli military presence on the theoretical countrys border with Jordan. And yet, even that sort of state-minus, as Netanyahu has memorably called it, is too much for many of todays Israeli voters to feel safe with. On top of all that, theres the fact that the Palestinians are divided between Hamas in Gaza and the late Arafats Fatah movement in the West Bank, meaning theres no credibly unified Palestinian entity to do business with. With the expansion of the Israeli settlement project, weve entered a de facto and wholly unequal one-state reality for the time being. The status quo has made it increasingly standard among international lefties to declare the two-state solution dead. They are joined in this by right-wing expansionists. The debate among those two extremes is simply about whether the single state should be democratic or definitionally Jewish-- i.e. whether Palestinians there should be granted the vote and other political rights. A plurality of Israeli citizens still want a two-state solution, but polls show a majority of them grimly conceding that such a deal isnt viable right now. It is against this backdrop that we must ask: What on earth can Israels Zionist lefties accomplish? I posed this question to every one of them that I met and was struck by a subtle philosophical bifurcation that has bedeviled Zionism since at least the establishment of Israel: the difference between individual rights and national rights. The former are things like free movement, legal redress, and freedom from physical abuse; the latter include self-determination for identity populations and peace between said populations. Most of the left-leaning Zionist activists I spoke to were excited to talk about the ways they are pushing for individual rights, be they for people of Israel or those of the West Bank and Gaza. I spoke to human-rights lawyers and NGO workers who tout their accomplishments in saving and changing the lives of individuals and families. They think they can keep that up in the future. Trouble is, you can make the argument that the pursuit of individual rights is merely a way to make the deprivation of national rights for Palestinians in the occupied territories tolerable enough that it can persist. This is where those accusations of making the system palatable come in. Even when the Zionist lefties I spoke to were polite, it was clear that they truly hate being lectured by outsiders about whether their work perpetuates occupation and repression. I sit in the Tel Aviv offices of the U.S.-based pro-Israel, pro-peace organization J Street and watch as a gathering of Israeli lefties from various allied organizations grows increasingly incensed over the stigma attached to their work by international leftists. The last poll before voting begins April 9 will not be a good day for the Jews and Palestinians between the river and the sea who want to see human rights flourish in the land they both call home. Perhaps Netanyahu will be unseated, perhaps not. Perhaps his unseating would be a good thing for the cause, perhaps not. I keep coming back to the words of a man hardly associated with the Middle East. As I wandered the streets of Tel Aviv on my final day there, I was surprised to find myself ruminating on Langston Hughess 1935 poem about the compromised society to which Id be flying in a few hours, Let America Be America Again. Rolling Zionism around in my mind, I thought of Hughess lines about how Americas hypocritical slogans of liberty had been used in the service of destruction and oppression. And yet, he believed that those dreams, if reclaimed and actually lived up to, could still be put into the service of liberation: O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be-- the land where every man is free. And: O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be! So, too, is it with liberal Zionism in the Holy Land. For many people, Israel never was Israel. The dream has, in so many ways, been a nightmare. But as a Jew, I believe I am obligated to yearn for the messianic age, when all the world will be redeemed. That will mean the creation of a Land of Israel that uplifts rather than burdens. I look at liberal Zionism and am inspired by the rhetoric of balancing Jewish self-protection with human rights and democratic liberties. At the very least, I see how hard they are pushing to be the last line of defense against greater bigotry and deprivation of rights. I can only hope that Israels liberal Zionism will somehow be repurposed, reimagined in a way that recognizes its predecessors audacious achievements while abandoning its deficiencies. That true solidarity with Palestinian liberation can be found among Israeli patriots. That thesis and antithesis will, in defiance of doubt, become synthesis. That the Zion that never has been yet is the Zion that will be. Japan has recalled 18,168 chili sauce bottles from Vietnam for violating food safety and food labeling laws. The Osaka Information Portal reported Tuesday that the bottles were imported from Vietnam to Japan by the Osaka-based Javis Co., Ltd last December, and sold to the Kobe-based ISC Industrial Co., Ltd. Javis Co., Ltd never mentioned that the imported chili sauce contained benzoic acid, which is banned from all chili sauce in Japan, before selling it to ISC Industrial Co., Ltd, the portal said. Japanese authorities determined that the bottles contained between 0.41 to 0.45 grams of benzoic acid per kilogram of chilli sauce, after suspicions arose that ISC Industrial Co., Ltd was violating the countrys laws on food safety and food labeling. The Masan Group, which produced the chili sauce under the brand name of Chin-su, said it never exported the chili sauce to either Javis Co,. Ltd or ISC Industrial Co. Ltd. It said it only exported the product to the United States, Australia, Russia, the Czech Republic, China and Taiwan. "As we have no [chili sauce] sample in hand right now, we have no official conclusion on the origins of the bottles. However, it is likely that they are either exclusive for the Vietnamese market, or their origins are unknown," the group stated in a press release. Vietnams Ministry of Health has yet to receive any official statements from Japan about the Chin-su case, Tran Viet Nga, deputy head of the Food Safety Department, said Saturday. But it is taking steps to clarify the matter, she added. "Benzoic acid is allowed as a food preservative according to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), in which both Vietnam and Japan are members. In accordance to standards from the CAC, the levels of benzoic acid found in the chili sauce revoked by Japan were still within international standards," she said. "Maybe Japan just has tougher requirements." Japan bans benzoic acid in its chili sauce, but allows its presence in certain food products like syrup, margarine or soft drinks. Vietnam allows a maximum amount of one gram of benzoic acid per kilogram of chili sauce. The World Health Organization says a person can consume five milligrams of benzoic acid per kilogram of body weight daily without adverse health effects. Sexual abuse of children is far more prevalent than thought, and Vietnamese citizens want strong counter measures as soon as possible. The latest case of child abuse came to light earlier this week when CCTV footage in a Saigon elevator showed a man hugging a little girl Monday night. The man was quickly identified as Nguyen Huu Linh, former deputy chief prosecutor of Da Nang, who retired in 2018. Once the footage was leaked on the Internet, public outrage followed, and Linh had to face the music. People threw dirt at his house and someone painted au dam (paedophilia) in black paint on his gate. People threw dirt at his house and someone painted au dam (paedophilia) in black paint on his gate. Photo by VnExpress/N.T Angry comments filled social media, mincing no words. "A new kind of pervert has appeared in apartment building elevators, so parents should be cautious and always stay by their daughters to protect them from these perverts. Disgusting!," a VnExpress reader commented. "He knows the law and was once in a high position in the executive body of a major city, but he violated the law; there needs to be heavier punishment for him," said another reader. "It pains me a lot to watch these clips and see kids without the ability to protect themselves being molested by perverts," wrote another reader. "The law cannot be lenient and forgive perverts who hurt the body and soul of children." The strong reactions against Linh stemmed from the fact it was only the latest case of sexual abuse of a child in recent months. Last December, the principal of a high school in the northern province of Phu Tho was found to have forced numerous male students to "perform sexual services" to him for several years. In yet another case, exposed last month, a primary school teacher in Hanoi was accused of touching several 5th graders in "inappropriate places." About 2,000 cases of child abuse are discovered in Vietnam every year, according to data from the Ministry of Labor. Over 60 percent of them are sexual in nature. Over 1,500 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in the country in both 2018 and 2017, only showing slight improvements in child protection, a labor ministry report stated. Too lenient "Like everyone else, I was angry and worried on learning about [the recent] cases of child abuse," said Hoang Thu Huong, vice director of the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment (iSEE). "It hurts not just because children are being abused, but that the very foundations of our laws and moral values are being challenged." The latest exposures have trained the spotlight on the failure of Vietnams legal system to publish violators. Many people have argued that sexual crimes are on the rise partly because legal punishments are far too lenient. "Since [the criminal] was only fined VND200,000 last time, it creates a precedent for future crimes. Thats horrible. Since its a little girl this time, the punishment needs to be severe," a VnExpress reader said. The "last time" that the reader was referring to happened last month, when camera footage showed a man forcibly kissing a woman in an elevator in Hanoi. Public anger was magnified when it was revealed that the man got to walk free with a paltry fine of VND200,000 ($8.63). Many people said they no longer believed in justice when sexual perpetrators faced no consequence for their actions. The lack of legal protection and deterrent puts Vietnamese children at particular risk of being sexually abused, readers and experts have said, calling for swift changes to the law that impose stricter punishments for sexual crimes. "Crimes need to be clearly defined and punishments need to be much stricter and more thorough," said VnExpress reader San Nguyen. "Schools and teachers should educate students to recognize acts of sexual abuse and teach them how to protect themselves, or at least know how to call for help," said another reader. Government response Vietnamese officialdom has stepped in with pledges to introduce new changes to the whole system. Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam issued a wide range of instructions to various ministries on Wednesday, targeting more effective measures, preventive and punitive, to protect childrens rights in the country. The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs was asked to make changes to and implement policies to better protect childrens rights, to deal properly with violations and to set up units to monitor and deal with cases of abuse. The Ministry of Education and Training should monitor all kindergartens to spot wrongdoing and prevent violence against chidren, Dam said. He said the Ministry of Health should evaluate the degree of psychological trauma inflicted on children by sexual abuse towards formulating suitable policies to protect them, as well as creating a foundation on which criminal cases can be prosecuted. To Lam, Minister of Public Security, said at another Wednesday meeting that the ministry needs to vigorously monitor and neutralize cases of violence and abuse of children, and ensure punishments that deter such crimes. Vietnam was the first country in Asia and second in the world to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. Workers pull trash out of a dump truck at Khanh Son Landfill in Lien Chieu District of Da Nang. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong Running out of space, Da Nang City has asked for a piece of military land to expand its sole landfill. Authorities in the central city of Da Nang have asked the Military Zone 5 Command under the Ministry of Defense of Vietnam to spare 7.7 hectares (19 hectares) next to the Khanh Son Landfill in Lien Chieu District. The Military Zone 5 covers the Central Highlands and south central Vietnam. If the landfill, the only one in the central coastal city, is not enlarged, it will be overloaded nine months from now, city Chairman Huynh Duc Tho said Friday. Nguyen Thanh Nam, vice chairman of Son Tra District, said garbage has been piling up around the city, posing a pollution threat, upsetting residents and adversely affecting the image of Da Nang, the third most important city in Vietnam after Hanoi and Saigon. Da Nang residents, numbering around 1.2 million, produce 1,000 tons of garbage each day. Tho said the sooner the city gets more space to bury its trash, the better. Residents living near the Khanh Son Landfill had blocked garbage trucks from entering the landfill several times, demanding city authorities to deal with pollution caused by the dump. The city government had promised that the landfill would be moved away from the residential area before this year. Da Nang had planned to build a complex to treat solid waste in Hoa Vang District, but it has yet to come up with an investment solution and for now, expanding the existing landfill is considered the most feasible solution. Da Nang officials had said in February that the city would sign contracts with Singapores Sakae Corporate Advisory and Surbana Jurong companies to make adjustments to its master urban planning. They said the plans would have to include solutions to tackle key problems like infrastructure overload, climate change response and environmental protection. A police officer (R) examines the Gossip Karaoke in the southern Ca Mau Province on Sunday. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Giang Police raided a karaoke parlor in the southernmost province of Ca Mau Sunday and found 96 using banned drugs. They found many plastic bags containing white crystals looking like meth on the tables and floors of the Gossip Karaoke parlor. Over 100 men and women were taken in for questioning and 96 tested positive for banned drugs. The parlor owner, 39-year-old Tran Van Dai, was also in the news last February, when a bar that he owns in the same province was raided and 94 people, including 20 women, tested positive for drug use. Both the karaoke and the bar are locally known as "heavens for players (drug users)" in Ca Mau. Many reports have noted that while heroin has long been common among drug users in Vietnam, the use of synthetic drugs like meth or ecstasy has been rising of late, especially among the partying youth. Last September, seven people died of suspected overdose at a music concert in Hanoi. Last month, a drug bust found 300 kilos of meth in Ho Chi Minh City. The people involved were part of gang that was busted with almost a ton of meth in three different raids. Were dying because we breathe, and solutions are up in the air As long as the government does nothing to amend existing environmental standards, more lives will be lost just from breathing. Nguyen Dang Anh Thi The first time I went to Hanoi was 20 years ago. It was a field trip to test the air quality of the capital city for an infrastructure project subsidized by the Japanese government. We went to a corner of Tran Quang Khai Street to ready our equipment. "You dont need to do any testing. I assure you the air is still clean," said an old motorbike taxi driver nearby, as we took a tea break. "How do you know?" I asked. "I have worked here all the time, day in day out for the last decade. But here I am, as fit as can be," he said. Then he qualified his statement a bit. "Well I do get sick sometimes, but its fine. A pill or two does the trick. If Im sick for too long, whos going to feed the family?" he said, laughing. Sounds like an expert, I thought. 20 years ago, all air quality metrics in Hanoi were well within the World Health Organizations (WHO) standards. From those metrics, we evaluated how air quality would be affected once the infrastructure project got going, and from that, we devised measures to keep air quality within healthy standards. Anyway, for certain reasons, that project never took off. But the motorbike taxi drivers words have stuck with me. The one sentence he told us covered the environment, health and the economy, and showed how these were all interconnected. Maybe he was a genius. But what would he say now? I feel he would not have imagined the current situation. Hanoi and Saigon were recently named among the 15 most polluted cities in Southeast Asia. Hanoi in particular was ranked the second most polluted, according to the latest World Air Quality Report by AirVisual. Hanoi was recently ranked as the second most polluted city in Southeast Asia according to an air quality survey by AirVisual. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy It does not stop there. Over 60,000 people died in Vietnam in 2016 from strokes, heart diseases, lung cancer and a myriad of other ailments, all related to air pollution. That means each day, 165 died simply because they breathed. If that doesnt scare you, I dont know what will. They say its better to prevent a disease than to cure one. That also applies to protecting the environment, more specifically air pollution. The key to preventive measures are environmental metrics and standards; the only tools capable of directly measuring air quality and enabling technical barriers against pollution. The thing is, these standards are determined by the government, so whether they are high or low enough, whether they are effective enough, also depends on the government. Unfortunately, Vietnams environmental standards are as sub-standard as they come. First, emission standards in several of our industries are abnormally low and have not changed for the last 10 years. Case in point: the amount of emitted dust allowed for our coal thermal power plants is 20 times higher than China, seven times higher than India, 10 times higher than the European Union, 2.5 times higher than Thailand and two times higher than Indonesia. Taking into account our population density, this means our people are being exposed to levels of dusts emitted by coal thermal power plants 40 times higher than those in China. And dust is not the only problem. Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide standards for these power plants are several times lower than those of the aforementioned countries as well. The situation is the same for many of our other industries: from cement to fertilizers to steel and whatnot. While changes are in the making, they are far from enough. For example, the emission standards for our steel industries from 2009 did get amended once in 2017, and are still undergoing revisions, but dozens of our steel factories from 2015 are still emitting four times the amount of dust and six times the amount of dioxin and furan allowed per the World Banks standards. Second, environmental standards are determined through evaluating the risks posed by pollutants to peoples health. And once those standards are set, the consequence is that industries would also set their pollutant standards to match, no matter how low they might be. What is the cost benefit analysis of the current situation? Will we invest more in technologies to curb and manage the amount of pollutants released into the environment, or just leave it as it is, save some money and let peoples health pay the price? This is the question we are facing. Right now, Vietnams yearly standards on particulate matter (PM) are on average 2.5 times higher than the level allowed by the WHO. But I highly doubt Vietnamese lungs are 2.5 times stronger than the rest of humankind. "Everyone has the right to live in a clean environment" is one of the clauses stated in our Constitution. And for the last several years, our policymakers have been following that clause by increasing our taxes and environmental fees. But these have all failed. Our moneys gone, and our health gets worse as air keeps getting more polluted day after day. When will the government, more specifically the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, finally put improving our air quality first on its list of priorities, to protect our Constitutional rights? Lets hold our breath till we get the answer. *Nguyen Dang Anh Thi is a Vietnamese expert on energy and environment. The opinions expressed are his own. Traditional fishing boats work off the east coast of Natuna Besar, Indonesia, July 9, 2014. Photo by Reuters/Tim Wimborne An Indonesian fisherman held hostage for four months by Islamic militants in the Philippines has drowned, while two other captured men have been rescued. The men had been held on a remote island in a standoff for nearly six weeks after Filippino troops blockaded the island in a bid to close in on the kidnappers. The men were seized from their fishing boat in early December last year. The captors, from Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf, fled the southern island of Simusa Friday, bringing their hostages with them, said military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Gerry Besana. One Indonesian fisherman, Heri Ardiansyah, was rescued as the militants tried to flee, but another -- Hariadin -- drowned in the escape bid. Another hostage, Malaysian Jari Abdullah, was rescued by Filipino troops a day earlier and is now in a "stable" condition with gunshot wounds at a military hospital, Besana told AFP. "The island had been blockaded for the past 41 days. They (kidnappers) probably thought they could slip past us by swimming," he added. Three of at least seven kidnappers who were with the hostages were killed in the operations, he said. The military got wind of the hostages' location in late February and ordered the small civilian population on the island to leave, Besana said. Abu Sayyaf is a group of self-proclaimed Islamic militants based in the southern Philippines who have engaged in bombings as well as kidnappings of Western tourists and missionaries for ransom since the early 1990s. In recent years the group has also preyed on cargo ships, tugboats and fishing vessels in poorly policed waters of the region near the sea borders with Malaysia and Indonesia. Dutch birdwatcher Ewald Horn, abducted in 2012, a Vietnamese seaman and four Filipinos are believed to be still in Abu Sayyaf captivity, Besana said. Corporate misanthropes are nothing new, but Martin Shkreli is a special case. He became one of the most disliked men when he gained the rights to a lifesaving drug and then increased its cost to 200 percent, basically because he could. That wasnt illegal, just casually cruel. Shkreli got an undergraduate business degree and some see him as a model for millennials to learn what not to do in business. But what lessons do business students learn from such instances where corporates behave without any considerations. The answers lie in the current initiatives accepted by business schools, which are embracing Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Ethics, and Social Commitment in their courses.Driving this shift, Hyderabad-based Auroras Business School (ABS) is surging ahead to mould the young business and management minds by imbibing curriculum which offers the right balance of social commitment in addition to professional competence. No wonder, the institute not just places 90-100 percent of its students in National and International organizations (packages between Rs.5.10-7.30 lacs) well before the completion of their PGDM course, but has successfully created entrepreneurs who have brought a shift from the grass root level.This 2005-founded AICTE approved institute provides two-year full time management program (fee of Rs.570,000 without hostel). Auroras provides dual specialization in Marketing, Finance, IT, HR, Business Analytics, NISM, and Digital Marketing. Its curriculum strives to endow students with all the requisite features that are needed in a prestigious institute of national renown. Auroras curriculum is designed in a way that fits the current ever-changing needs of the industry, and its rich intellectual capital (Wi-Fi enabled campus, library with 50,000 books, 260 computers, and 26 industrial visits for the session 2017-2019). Apart from such vast pool of knowledge-resources, Auroras offers an open platform for the student to interact with the CEOs, Presidents, VPs, HR Heads and other high-profile dignitaries from various industries just to provide them the sneak peek of how holistic talent runs the business. This endowment basically consists of combining professionalism with ethics through giving a hands-on experience by allowing students to venture beyond the syllabus. This helps them build their confidence and competence to suit the ever-changing needs of the industry and market expectations while also perfecting them to start their own businesses, states Dr. K Raghu N Prabhakar, Director, Auroras Business School. "Auroras curriculum is designed in a way that fits the current ever-changing needs of the industry, and its rich intellectual capital" Additionally, Auroras also offers add-on certification courses like Business English certification in association with Cambridge University in the first year of the PGDM course, and NISM certification by Ascend Academy, Digital Marketing certification by Adonai Advertising, Mission HR certification by HUSYS Consulting Ltd. and more in the second year. These add-on courses further fine-tune students communication skills while also making them certificated recruiters and certified payroll professionals, thereby enhancing their chances of employability. The Backbone Aurora ensures a result-oriented and globally competent curriculum to its students that features live case studies from the industry, seminar presentations, group discussions, debates, role plays, and quiz programmers to instill leadership qualities among the students. It also provides a state-of-the-art infrastructure which offers ample opportunities to improve and utilize their life and communication skills. While strong curriculum and innovative approach are always the crux of any training, experienced faculty members always act as the backbone of any institution. Hence, Auroras has 36 full-time faculty and 28 visiting faculty carrying years of experience (from two years to above five years of experience) and several books, articles, and papers to their credit. As such, these attributes have catapulted Auroras to consistently feature itself as a top-rated B school in National Business Magazines, where it is listed among Indias Top 100 B-Schools in 2017 by Dalal Street Journal. The Business Standard recognized Auroras as one of the top 30 Business Schools in South India based on its all India survey of business schools 2016. Further, Business India accorded A++ rating in its best B-schools 2016 survey. It also stood in the first place among the top private B-Schools of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the prestigious survey undertaken by the Times of India, The All India B-Schools survey 2017, apart from being selected as Management College of the Year 2016 by Higher Education Review and recognized by siliconindia in 2016 as College of the Year. Key Management Dr. K Raghu N Prabhakar, Director A result oriented academic executive with specialization in marketing, Dr. Prabhakar heads the institute, in the capacity of Director. Location: Hyderabad Courses Offered: PGDM in Marketing, Finance, IT, HR, Business Analytics, NISM, and Digital Marketing apart from add-on certification courses like Business English certification in association with Cambridge University in the first year of the PGDM course, and NISM certification by Ascend Academy, Digital Marketing certification by Adonai Advertising, Mission HR certification by HUSYS Consulting Ltd. and more in the second year This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going. At the end of a two-day meeting, Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations broadly agreed on issues, but failed to bridge differences on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how to deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, France's top diplomat, Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Saturday, April 6. Hours earlier, the German Foreign Minister had twitted that Tehran's missile program and its policy concerning Syria would be on the G7 agenda, in Dinar, in northwestern France. "Iran will be on the agenda today at G7France as well," Heiko Maas twitted on Saturday, adding, "We remain convinced that we need a framework that assures that Iran will not engage in the production of uranium. We will also talk about Iran's missile program and its role in Syria." The European trio, France, Germany, and the U.K. recently sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, calling on him to present his full report on Iran's recent missile activities, including attempts to launch a satellite and displaying its ballistic missiles. Lambasting the trio for the letter, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Britain, France, and Germany of trying to appease U.S. President Donald Trump. In a tweet on April 3, Zarif wrote that a year after the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement known as JCPOA, Europe cant muster the will to defy US #EconomicTERRORISM. However, at the end of the meeting in France, the G7 Foreign Ministers issued a final joint communique, insisting on their deep concern over Irans continuing support for terrorist organizations and armed militias. "We intend to continue our work to counter Irans regional proliferation of ballistic missiles and its unlawful arms transfers," the communique said. Four of the G7 members are European; France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K, along with the United States, Canada, and Japan. The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was absent at the two-day meeting in Dinard. The leaders of the G7 are expected to hold their annual summit August 2527, 2019, in Biarritz, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. Reacting to the news that the U.S. is set to designate the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, IRGC Chief Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari announced on Sunday that in case the U.S. takes such a step, its forces in western Asia will lose peace and quiet. If the U.S. takes this step and endangers our national security we will take reciprocal measures, based on the policies of the Islamic Republic, Jafari said. Earlier on April 5, Reuters had reported, "The United States is expected to designate Irans elite Revolution Guards Corps, a foreign terrorist organization, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labeled another countrys military a terrorist group." According to Reuters, "The decision, which critics warn could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the U.S. State Department, perhaps as early as Monday (April 8), the officials said. It has been rumored for years. Responding to the news Jafari warned on Sunday, April 7, that IRGC would put in motion reciprocal actions against the U.S. military forces and intelligence personnel in the region on its agenda if Washington labels it a terrorist organization. Although Jafari has not said what sort of threat the U.S. military will face, one option for Iran is targeting American forces based in Iraq. The possibility of adding IRGC to the list of international terrorist organizations has been on the table since 2018, immediately after President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. In October 2018, Gen. Jafari responded to the possibility by warning that, as reciprocal action, IRGC would regard the American military in the same way it treats the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group. Through its force for extraterritorial military operations (Qods Force), IRGC has financed, trained, and armed Iraqi Shi'ite militia who are the primary opponents of the U.S. presence in Iraq. Echoing Jafari's latest warnings, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif twitted on Sunday, accused what he described as #NetanyahuFirsters of being behind Washingtons decision to designate IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region. In fact, they seek to drag the US into a quagmire on his behalf," Zarif twitted, adding, "DonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster." Meanwhile, in a statement published on Sunday, 255 members of Majles (Iranian parliament) threatened Washington by a double-urgency motion prepared to designate the U.S. military as a terrorist group if Washington takes a similar measure against IRGC. "We will force Washington to regret such an unwise decision," the MPs have warned. A day earlier, on Saturday, the chairman of the influential Commission of National Security and Foreign Policy, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh warned in a tweet, If the IRGC is placed on Americas list of terrorist groups, we will put that countrys military on the terror blacklist besides the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS). In October 2017, when rumors about Washington's possible decision to designate the IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization surfaced in the media, President Hassan Rouhani warned the Trump's administration that it would be a "grave mistake." "If the U.S. makes the next mistake and adopts a measure against the IRGC, it will be the worst mistake," Rouhani told his cabinet. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had also earlier lambasted the US for its hostile policies against the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and warned of Tehran's robust response if Washington labeled the IRGC as a terrorist group. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but the organization as a whole is not. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 7 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 25 times, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said April 7, Trend reports. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 7 Trend: The First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan - Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Colonel General Najmeddin Sadikov, who is on an official visit to Saudi Arabia, has met with the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of this country General Fayyad bin Hamed Al Rwaili, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said April 6, Trend reports. During the meeting, prospects for the development of relations between the armies of the two countries, issues of cooperation in the military, military-technical and military-educational spheres were discussed, as well as the Agreement on cooperation in the military field between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was signed. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 7 By Kheyraddin Nasirzade Trend: In 2019, Azerbaijan is expected to implement a project for creating a face recognition system, Zakir Karimzade, the head of Audatex Azerbaijan, told Trend. The program is being developed by the Digidentity company. Karimzade noted that this system is already used in several countries, such as Denmark, the Netherlands, and the US. Karimzade also named the UK as an example, where taxpayers use this program when submitting a tax report. As noted by Karimzade, the system recognizes the persons identity by checking the citizens identity card, and then comparing the photo in the certificate with the person himself. If it is a match, the access is granted. He also said that this program may be very useful in Azerbaijan. In particular, Karimzade highlighted the relevance of the program for banking institutions when opening bank accounts, for example. It may also prove useful for the tax system in identifying taxpayers. Karimzade deems it to be especially important for the program to be introduction into the compulsory health insurance system. In 2015, this identity management platform was introduced to government bodies of the Netherlands, and was used by the tax and customs administration and the education system for checking the identity of Dutch residents online. In 2015, the platform was used for authentication about 200 million times by 12 million citizens. The system is also tied to the national identification number of the Netherlands the so-called Citizen Service Number (BSN). Since 2006, the program has been mandatory when filing tax forms in electronic form. Baku, Azerbaijan, April 7 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: The tender for selecting a contractor for design, procurement and construction (EPC) of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), which envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, is close to the end, the ICGB, the project company, told Trend. Reportedly, the estimated value of the tender is set as a total price of 145 million euros excluding VAT "Over 10 Bulgarian and foreign companies and consortia expressed interest in the public procurement and submitted documents in the first phase of the procedure. The admitted candidates invited for phase two are as follows: DZZD "IGB-2018", Consortium MAX STREICHER - TERNA/ICGB, Consortium Spiecapag Trace IGB 2018, J&P - AVAX S.A and Joint Venture CPP-AKTOR," said the company. As the ICGB said, two of the candidates invited for the second phase of the tender submitted offers within the deadline specified by the Contracting Entity - DZZD "IGB-2018" and J&P - AVAX S.A. The next steps include review and evaluation of the technical proposals, technical assessment in accordance with the indicators of the methodology and opening of the price proposals, reads a message from the company. ICGB said it plans to complete the selection process in May, securing the start of the construction works in June. "The project company and its shareholders have mobilized all the resources to comply with the schedule for starting construction, relying on the high quality of the technical proposals of the participants and their professionalism", said the Executive Officers of the company Teodora Georgieva and Konstantinos Karayannakos. IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets. The initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, April 7 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: Iran and Iraq have agreed to develop two oil and gas fields, Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told reporters following the talks with Iraqi Oil Minister Samir Gazban. The discussions were held on the joint development of two gas fields in NaftShahr and Khurramshahr, Zanganeh added, Trend reports referring to IRNA. He added that Iran and Iraq have already reached an agreement to develop joint projects. Regarding Iraq's gas export debt to Iran, the Iranian minister said that Iraq has about $1 billion-debt to Iran. The Central Bank of Iran will monitor the issue of Iraqs paying off the debt, he said. Zanganeh added that the Iranian companies having rich experience in oil, gas and petrochemical industries can participate in the implementation of projects in Iraq. The representatives of Iraqi companies will visit Iran and discuss the format of cooperation and exchange experience, he said. Zanganeh said that Iraq is a developing country. Many oil projects are being implemented and there are many areas of cooperation, he added. President Hassan Rouhani called on Saturday for Iran and neighboring Iraq to expand their gas and electricity dealings and boost bilateral trade to $20 billion despite difficulties caused by US sanctions against Tehran, Trend reports citing IRNA. The plans to export electricity and gas and hopefully oil continue and we are ready to expand these contacts not only for the two countries, but also for other countries in the region, Rouhani said after a meeting with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, in remarks carried by state television. We hope that our plans to expand trade volume to $20 billion will be realized within the news few months or years, Rouhani said. Iranian media reports have put the current level of trade at about $12 billion. Rouhani expressed hope that work on building a railway linking the two countries would begin within the next few months. The railway project was part of deals reached during Rouhanis March visit to Baghdad, meant to underline that Tehran still plays a dominant role in Iraq despite US efforts to isolate Iran. Iraq on Saturday closed its border crossing with Iran to travelers and trade until further notice, Iraqi security sources said, as flooding continues to submerge villages in southwestern Iran. US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Irans energy exports in November, but has granted waivers to several buyers to meet consumer energy needs. Iraq relies heavily on Iranian gas to feed its power stations, importing roughly 1.5 billion standard cubic feet per day via pipelines in the south and east. Thousands of Sudanese protesters clashed with security forces outside President Omar al-Bashirs residence in central Khartoum on Saturday in what appeared to be the biggest demonstration in months of protests against his 30-year rule, witnesses said, Trend reports citing Reuters. Across the River Nile in Khartoums twin city of Omdurman, which also saw protests into the evening, one civilian died from injuries sustained during rioting and other civilians and police officers were wounded, state news agency SUNA said, citing police reports. The victim was a laboratory doctor, according to a statement from an opposition doctors committee. Medical staff have played a prominent role in the protests, in which dozens of people have been killed over the past three-and-a-half months. Security forces fired tear gas at protesters in Omdurman and at stone-throwing demonstrators near Bashirs residence, who had responded to a call by activists trying to increase pressure on Bashir to step down. They waved Sudanese flags and chanted slogans demanding freedom, peace and justice as they gathered outside the gates of the compound, guarded by soldiers, that also houses the defense ministry, army command and security headquarters. By the evening, the clashes subsided as security forces pulled back, allowing the thousands still gathered to remain outside the compound. Witnesses said young demonstrators sang nationalist songs and danced for joy. Some said they would stay until Bashir stepped down. Information Minister Hassan Ismail, who also serves as the government spokesman, praised security forces for the way they handled the protests and said the government remained committed to dialogue to resolve the crisis. The approach followed by government apparatus was met with satisfaction from citizens, Ismail said in a statement. Sudanese blood is the most precious thing we need to preserve. Bashir has refused to step down, saying his opponents need to seek power through the ballot box. Today, we won and we are confident that the regime will fall, said Mohamed Saleh, a 63-year-old university professor who estimated the crowd to be at more than 100,000 people. An independent estimate for the number of protesters was not immediately available. But witnesses said the protest appeared to be larger than previous ones. There are crowds as far as the eye can see, one witness told Reuters. French Ambassador to Lebanon Bruno Foucher said Sunday that France is holding discussions with senior officials in the Lebanese Armed Forces to secure maritime and land defense equipment for Lebanon, Trend reports citing Xinhua. "We have opened a financing account of 400 million euros (about 449.3 million U.S. dollars) for this purpose," Foucher was quoted as saying by the National News Agency. His remarks came during the yearly ceremony to honor veterans in the Lebanese and French armies. The ambassador said that France is committed to its military support for Lebanon and the Lebanese Armed Forces At least six people were wounded, including an 8-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, in a drive-by shooting Saturday evening that targeted a family gathering in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, Trend reports citing Chinago Sun-Times. Gunfire erupted at 6:21 p.m. at a barbecue in the 6300 block of South Seeley, according to preliminary information from Chicago police. The shots were fired from a red Chevrolet Equinox. Both children were taken to Comer Childrens Hospital, where their conditions were stabilized, authorities said. The boy was struck in his back and chest, and the girl was shot in the shin, police said. A 29-year-old woman was shot in her shoulder and chest, while a 42-year-old man was shot twice in his hip, police said. They were taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where the woman was in critical condition, and the mans condition was stabilized. The gunfire also hit a 23-year-old man in his foot and a 28-year-old man in the shoulder, police said. They were both taken to Holy Cross Hospital, where their conditions were stabilized. The older man was later transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital. Witnesses were not cooperating with investigators, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Detectives are reviewing footage from nearby surveillance cameras but had little physical evidence to work with at the scene. The family was celebrating the upcoming birth of a child, authorities said. The mother and grandmother of the wounded 8-year-old boy were seen waiting outside Comer, both of them visibly distressed. The mother, whose shirt was stained with blood, was crying out for her child. Hes just a baby, hes just a baby, the mother said, as tears flowed down her face. The grandmother told reporters the boy was in surgery. Meanwhile, a 13-year-old boy was seriously wounded at another shooting at 8 p.m. at 73rd and Racine. Two males walked up from a vacant lot where the boy was sitting and opened fire, police said. The car drove to 69th and Racine where paramedics were called. The boys condition was not immediately available. Tokyo's prosecutors asked a court to question a wife of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was rearrested in Japan's capital on Thursday amid investigation into his financial misconduct, Trend reported citing Sputnik. Prosecutors suspect that Ghosn conducted a part of payments via a company, where Carole Ghosn is one of the executives, to buy a yacht, according to the NHK broadcaster. The broadcaster reported that the prosecutors had already asked Ghosn's wife for voluntary questioning as an unsworn witness, but she refused that request. This time, the prosecutors sent request to a Japanese court, which has the power to call and question a witness, who refused to voluntarily testify in a prosecutor's office. Ghosn was originally arrested in Japan in late November 2018 for underreporting around $44 million worth of his income and misusing company assets. He was released on bail in early March to be rearrested a month later on new suspicions. The new arrest was motivated by prosecutors' claims that Ghosn had inflicted a $5 million loss to Nissan by transferring a part of the money, which Nissan's subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates paid to an Omani distributor, to a firm that he effectively owned. According to Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations, the fire occurred in the underground parking of a residential building on Leningradskoye Highway in northwestern Moscow, Trend reported citing Sputnik. Several subterranean garages were in flames; 19 firetrucks and 50 firefighters are battling the blaze, according to Moscow's Ministry of Emergency Situations headquarters. Firefighters have contained the blaze within an underground parking lot, the press service of the Moscow branch of Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations reported. Over 300 people have been evacuated from residential buildings due to a fire, the ministry's press service said. The size of the blaze is estimated to be around 500 sq.m. Earlier in the day, a fire broke out at an apartment building in Moscow, claiming two lives; four others were rescued from the building by firefighters. One person was killed and five others were injured in at least five separate shootings in the U.S. city of Philadelphia, local police said, Trend reported citing Xinhua. The violent day started in the morning when a 35-year-old man was shot near the Brewerytown neighborhood. In the afternoon, a 26-year-old father was killed and his 17-year-old cousin was shot in the hip in the Nicetown neighborhood. Police said at least two gunmen were involved in the incident and 37 shells were found at the scene. In a separate shooting, a 25-year-old man was shot multiple times and was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Police detained one person linked to the shooting. The fourth shooting involved a 27-year-old victim, who was rushed to hospital in critical condition with wounds to the stomach. Finally after 9 p.m. (0100 GMT on Sunday), a sixth victim was shot 10 times in the hands, arms and legs and was taken to hospital in a stable condition. More than 80 people were killed in Philadelphia this year, up 11 percent from the same period last year, local media reported. Cooch Behar: launching attack on Wet Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, she stalled the development of the state. PM Modi's public meeting in the Cooch Behar comes a day before Mamatas rally at the border district. Pm modi said, Didi betrayed 'Maati' when she tried to protect infiltrators for her political benefit. When she handed over the people of West Bengal to goons of TMC, she shattered the hopes of 'Maanush'. PM Modi said, "The more you chant 'Modi Modi', the more someone loses their sleep. You know who they are? 'Speed breaker'. The speed breaker of West Bengal - Didi. She is losing her sleep and is taking out her anger on her officers, on Election Commission." Telangana Congress lashes out on Asaduddin Owaisi and CM KCR The Prime Minister further said that the TMC chief and other Opposition leaders are trying to stall the Citizenship Amendment Bill that seeks to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants belonging to non-Muslim communities i.e. Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who migrated to India before December 31, 2014 Election Commission issued notice against NDA candidate Suresh Gopi Taking swipe at West Bengal CM, PM Modi said, Some people are hurt to see that India is strengthening. When India is becoming a great power in space, it worries Didi, when India adopts strict vigil on terror, it worries Didi. Now Did is so frustrated that she is saying only one thing day and night- remove Modi Malaika Arora has won the hearts of the fans with her dancing moves.Her iconic number Chaiyya Chaiyya still remains evergreen song. She may be over 40, still she gives fitness goals to other actress. On World Health Day, April 7, Malaika Arora took to Instagram and shared a cute video of her dancing to Chaiyya Chaiyya along with her Yoga team. Varun Dhawan shows the world of Kalank, watch it here Malika shared the video on Instagram and captioned it as, On #worldhealthday i got my entire team at @thedivayoga to #chaiyyachaiyya with me n jus have some fun... thank u my entire team. Chaiyya Chaiyya girl is quite inclined to fitness and is often spotted outside the gym with her bestie Kareena Kapoor Khan and sister Amrita Arora. Along with making style statements, Malaika is also a fitness icon and so, on the world health day, the actress decided to share this cute dancing video. MNS Party demands CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi's resignation over PM Modi's biopic Meanwhile, Malaikas relationship with Arjun Kapoor is quite the talk of the town Recently, the two headed to the Maldives on holiday and their photos have taken over the social media. From one sexy photo to another beachy picture, they gave vacancy goals to the fans. Arjun and Malaika were spotted arriving together at Mumbai airport post their holiday. New Delhi: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday rejected the claim made by Foreign Policy magazine that Indias assertion about shooting down a Pakistani F-16 jet during a dogfight on February 27 was untrue. According to report, Defence minister has rejected as baseless the US magazine report that claimed that none of Pakistans F-16s were missing and said that the article was source-based. She further said that if none of the US-manufactured fighter jets of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) were missing then how come the part of AM-RAAM missile, which is used in F-16 was found in India. Didi betrayed 'Maati' when she tried to protect infiltrators: PM Modi The statement of the Defence Minister came after the Washington-based magazine Foreign Police reported on Thursday that the US defence personnel recently conducted a physical count of Pakistans F-16s and found all intact and none missing. The article also quoted unidentified defence officials as saying that America has not found any planes, supplied to Pakistan, missing from the inventory. Telangana Congress lashes out on Asaduddin Owaisi and CM KCR However, the US defence department, reportedly said that it was not aware that an investigation was conducted to find out whether Pakistans F-16 was shot down by Indian Air Forces (IAF) fighter jet in February. Sitharaman told news agency ANI. The IAF gave proof on it with the electronic signature of F-16. Whoever has written it, it's baseless and source based. The part of AM-RAAM missile, which is used only with F-16, how was it found in India?, India maintains that Pakistans F-16 was shot down by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was flying a MiG 21 Bison of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in a dogfight on February 27. With the climate of continuous change in business & technology, and the consistent emphasis on effective utilization of all corporate resources, Facilities Management Services(FMS) over the years have emerged as an important business discipline that calls for unique professionalism. The Kolkata-based MBIZ INDIA with its team of professionals is involved in the day-to-day analysis, and completes operation & maintenance of Corporate houses, Factories, Housing Complexes, Shopping Complexes, Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Experience Centres of the Construction Sites, Institutes, all commercial areas, Multiplexes and all kinds of hotels.MBIZ INDIA is founded by Biswajit Chakraborty (CEO) who has taken every initiative to cross hurdles to take the company one-step forward every single time. His strong efforts are the only key to what he is today, and his tendency to come up with innovative ideas in order to improve this business industry every single time is commendable.Born in 2011, today MBIZ INDIA is an ISO 9001:2015 certified organization, which has created a niche in the FMS space serving PAN India, encrusting over several "MBIZ INDIA proffers an umbrella approach, including complex mechanical, electrical, and manual utilities that allow powerful & holistic FMS" domains and has served the likes of Hindalco Industries (a unit of Aditya Aluminium) Odisha, Godrej Infrastructure, Antara Hospital in Kolkata, ShyamSel ( a unit of Shyam Group) and Super Smelters (Sai Group) in Raniganj, PS Group, Mark Plaza (Ambey Group), Vinayak Group, SrijanGrop, Sky View Developers, Adhunik Infrastructure, All Cargo Logistics (Mumbai), Transindia (Mumbai), L&T, Raymonds, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, and many more. MBIZ INDIA proffers an umbrella approach, including complex mechanical, electrical, and manual utilities that allow powerful & holistic FMS. The services include Engineering Maintenance (Electrical & Mechanical), Surveillance, Housekeeping, Cleaning, Drain Cleaning & Road Sweeping (manual & mechanized), supply of Chefs & Housekeepers (predominantly to the hospitality segment), supply of road sweeping products (ride on sweeping machine & services), Landscaping, Lawn & Garden Design, Development & Maintenance, and Pest Control. It also offers HR & Manpower Supply, Event Management, Erection, Operation & Maintenance of Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP), Water Treatment Plant(WTP), Reverse Osmosis Plant, DM Plant & Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP), Fire & Safety Operation & Maintenance (own fire & safety engineering college MBIZ NAFS MANAGEMENT ISO 9001:2015 Certified Fire & Safety Engineering College), Swimming Pool and Water Body Cleaning & Maintenance Service. Ensuring Quality & Safety MBIZ INDIA offers top-notch priority to the safety of personnel and equipment(PPE). The company provides on-job safety training to new employees and classroom safety training at regular intervals. It deploys its people after checking basic credentials, and imparting seven days of mandatory internship, not to mention the on-site training. MBIZ INDIA also provides appropriate training and disseminates information to enable all employees to accept individual responsibility for Environment, Health& Safety, implement best practices, and work in partnership to create a culture of continuous improvement, thereby taking into account the occupational health & safety in planning and decision-making. Through its policies and regulations, MBIZ INDIA facilitates safe & secured operations and favourable working conditions for employees, visitors, and contractors on the premises. Moreover, sustainability is another predominant USP of the company that creates overwhelming customer-relationships that lasts for forever. From disposing of all the substances & materials that are classified as hazardous to health & environment, to reducing wastage, conserving energy & promoting recycling of materials wherever possible, MBIZ INDIA implements a slew of measures that prioritize environmental-friendliness. These benchmarked standards have ensured that the company stays a trailblazer in walkways of world class Facility Management Services across India. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Adranos Inc., a Purdue University-affiliated company developing a high-performance, solid propellant for long-range missile and space launch systems, has won the Army's inaugural xTechSearch competition, besting more than 350 companies in the months long competition. The award decision was made by senior Army leaders based on what technology they believed could have the biggest impact on the Army's modernization needs. Adranos previously was awarded $125,000 for being selected a finalist in the competition, which it used to perform a live flight demonstration of its novel rocket propellant called ALITEC. A video of the flight demonstration is available here. Adranos founders Brandon Terry, who received his doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue, and Chris Stoker, an Indiana University JD/MBA alumnus, will use the $200,000 award funding to enable company growth and continued ALITEC development. The technology is a high-performance solid rocket propellant that has more thrust and is less corrosive than traditional solid propellants. "Brandon and I have always believed in our technology, but to have senior Army leaders recognize ALITEC's potential impact is a great honor for us. We are highly motivated to take the funding from this competition and advance our rocket fuel to the next level," Stoker said. "In this year when Purdue is celebrating its 150th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of Purdue alumnus Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, we're excited to be working on another potentially giant leap when it comes to aeronautics." Adranos's flight demonstrations confirmed that ALITEC could substantially increase the range of ballistic missiles over traditional solid propellants. The technology aligned with the Army's Long Range Precision Fire modernization priority, which is focused on restoring the U.S. Army's dominance in range, munitions, and target acquisition. ALITEC is processed in the same way traditional propellants, meaning that it can be used in any of the current or future missile platforms employed by the Department of Defense. "We mix it the same way. We cast it the same way. We cure it the same way. The only difference is we're replacing one metal powder with another metal powder in the processing," Terry said. The propellant could be used by the Army, Navy, Air Force, NASA and other Department of Defense agencies, as well as U.S.-allied nations. The Expeditionary Technology Search, shortened to xTechSearch, called on companies to demonstrate technologies that can help the Army meet its modernization challenges. The goal is to seek nontraditional innovators who can work with the Army, including through cooperative research opportunities with Army scientists, as it modernizes the force. From robotics and night-vision to radar, machine guns and duct tape, innovation has driven the very nature of how the Army fights, said Jeffrey White, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology. "Innovation reforms, both large and small, have improved the lives of our soldiers," White said. "And continued innovation is absolutely critical for force modernization." Adranos, which is named after the Greek god of fire, has previously received nearly $1 million of funding for ALITEC development. Stoker said $600,000 in funding came from Archibald Cox Jr., chairman of Sextant Group Inc., a private investment firm. Cox is the former chairman of Barclays of America and former CEO of Morgan Stanley International and various other companies. He is now on the Adranos Board of Directors. The remaining funds came from other state and federal programs. The company received startup assistance from the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurial accelerator in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. "We've worked with nearly 250 startups, and Chris and Brandon are 'rocket' stars with their expertise in the technology and in the development of their entrepreneurial skills," said Greg Deason, senior vice president of entrepreneurship and place making. "Even more importantly, their innovation will serve the U.S. Army in advancing defense technologies. Very proud of these guys." Adranos' work aligns with Purdue's Giant Leaps celebration, celebrating the university's global advancements in space exploration as part of Purdue's 150th anniversary. This is one of the four themes of the yearlong celebration's Ideas Festival, designed to showcase Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues. Adranos emerged as a startup from what is now called the Purdue Energetics Research Center. Technology used by Adranos is licensed through the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization, which patented the technology. Adranos is continuing to raise funds to advance the technology. ### About Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization The Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2016 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Innovation from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at otcip@prf.org. Joe Biden. Joe Biden. You know who you are: You're part of the establishment (maybe a partner, senior corporate counsel, or of counsel), you're a born glad-hander (which is why you're so good at client relations) and you simply cannot keep your hands to yourself, especially when it comes to the ladies. You give them bone-crushing hugs, rub their shoulders or kiss them, lingeringly, on the forehead. That more or less describes what Biden did over the yearsand he's getting hammered for it. Last week, former Nevada Lt. Gov.-nominee Lucy Flores wrote in New York magazine that Biden gave her a big slow kiss on the back of her head and sniffed her hair at an event in 2014. Then, congressional aide Amy Lappos told the Hartford Courant that Biden "put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me," adding, "I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth." As of last count, six other women have joined the chorus to condemn Biden about encroaching on their personal space. And though Biden has issued a video apology, he is facing pressure to drop out of the presidential run. As Lappos told the Courant, Biden went too far, crossing a line that's "not grandfatherly." She also said, "Its not cultural. Its not affection. Its sexism or misogyny. Whoa. Let's take a breath. While I agree that Biden's actions are kind of icky and inappropriate, I certainly do think they are "grandfatherly" and "cultural," which is exactly the problem: Biden is a dinosaur, a creature of past eras. That said, I'd argue he was trying to be affectionate, albeit with actions that are arguably sexist. As for misogyny? Nah. I honestly don't think it rises to that level. Vivia Chen. Why then are we bothering to make him into some kind of icon of odious male behavior? To me, his overwrought displays of affection, or whatever you want call them, are not worthy of a grand #MeToo reckoning. To state the obvious: What Biden did was not sexual assault. Also to state the obvious: What Donald Trump bragged about ("grabbing them by the pussy") and the charges by the 23 women against him (which include allegations of groping and forced kisses on the mouth) were sexual assault. For the #MeToo movement to have credibility, I think it is critical to draw a distinction between awkward, antiquated behaviors and ones that are far more deliberate and serious. So I wonder if women are shooting themselves in the foot by demanding that Biden drop out of the race. (For the record, I'm not a Biden fan. I'm one of those angry women who feels he really screwed up his handling of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings.) By that same logic, I'm not sure that every out-of-touch partner who's made stupid sexist comments (such as complimenting a woman's appearancewhich I don't think is that awful) or hugged a female colleague too closely should be automatically put out to pasture. One caveat to this, of course, is that they amend their behavior going forward. At this point, everyone should know better. So, yes, by all means call out inappropriate behavior when you see it. And scold those old goats and send them to re-education camp, if necessary. But hang them out to dry? Not worth it. Story continues Contact Vivia Chen at vchen@alm.com. Boeing has continued to manufacture 737s since the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash killed 157 people (AFP Photo/Jason Redmond) New York (AFP) - Boeing announced Friday it would cut the production schedule of its 737 aircraft line following the two recent crashes that have seen the 737 MAX grounded worldwide. The aerospace giant plans to trim production to 42 planes per month, down from 52 per month, starting in mid-April. Boeing shares fell after the disclosure, which was released just after the closing bell. Boeing also announced it was establishing an advisory panel to review its company-wide policies for designing and developing planes. Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg described the production cut as temporary and said it would not affect current employment levels for the 737 and related programs. "We are coordinating closely with our customers as we work through plans to mitigate the impact of this adjustment," Muilenburg said in a statement. "We will also work directly with our suppliers on their production plans to minimize operational disruption and financial impact of the production rate change." Boeing has continued to manufacture 737s since the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash killed 157 people, the second deadly crash in five months. However, Boeing has been unable to make deliveries of the planes to customers, a key stoppage that will dent revenues. Boeing is scheduled to report first-quarter results on April 24. The new advisory panel will be led by retired US Navy Admiral Edmund Giambastiani, former vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. "The committee will confirm the effectiveness of our policies and processes for assuring the highest level of safety on the 737-MAX program, as well as our other airplane programs, and recommend improvements to our policies and procedures," Muilenburg said. "Safety is our responsibility and we own it." Shares of Boeing fell 1.6 percent to $385.70 in after-hours trading. FILE PHOTO: The Boeing logo is pictured at the Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition fair (LABACE) at Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil August 14, 2018. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker/File Photo By Tracy Rucinski and Eric M. Johnson CHICAGO/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co said on Friday it plans to cut its monthly 737 aircraft production by nearly 20 percent in the wake of two deadly crashes, signaling it does not expect aviation authorities to allow the plane back in the air anytime soon. Deliveries of Boeing's best-selling aircraft were frozen after a global grounding of the narrowbody model following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet on March 10, killing all 157 people onboard. Production will be cut to 42 airplanes per month from 52 starting mid-April, the company said in a statement, without giving an end-date. U.S. and airline officials said they now believe the plane could be grounded for at least two months, but an even longer grounding is a serious possibility. The crash in Ethiopia and the crash of a Lion Air plane in Indonesia last October that killed all 189 people on board have left the world's largest planemaker in crisis. Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg said on Friday said the company now knows that a chain of events caused both disasters, with erroneous activation of so-called MCAS anti-stall software "a common link" between the two. Boeing said it would not reduce jobs at the new production rate and will work to minimize the financial impact. The company's board will establish a committee to review how the company designs and develops airplanes, Muilenburg said. The group will "recommend improvements to our policies and procedures" for its 737 MAX and other airplane programs. Boeing said it continues to make progress on a 737 MAX software update to prevent further accidents. Shares in Boeing Co fell around two percent after the market closed on Friday. While the number of 737 MAX planes grounded is just over 370, nearly 5,000 more are on order. Boeing faces logistical issues in finding places to park the growing number of planes as well as being responsible for all their maintenance costs since it has been unable to deliver the jets to customers, two people briefed on the situation said. Story continues Manufacturers avoid halting and then resuming production as this disrupts supply chains and can cause industrial snags. Boeing had been planning to speed up production in June to 57 a month. Having to hold planes in storage without delivering them does, however, consume extra cash through increased inventory. Boeing supplier Spirit Aerosystems Holdings said it will continue to make 52 737 MAX shipsets - the complete set of parts for each aircraft - per month, storing extras at its facilities. Its shares fell 3.5 percent. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chairman Robert Sumwalt told reporters that U.S. investigators were given the raw data from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 as soon as it was read in France last month. He added that the Ethiopian Airlines 302 preliminary report "was very thorough and well done." Former NTSB chairman Christopher Hart was named by the Federal Aviation Administration this week to head an international team to review the safety of the 737 MAX. He told reporters on Friday he thought the review, which will start on Monday, could take about three months. It is still not clear what countries will take part. He said investigators are going to be focused far more on the interaction between software and pilots than mechanical issues in future. "This is territory we are going to see more of," Hart said. (Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in CHICAGO, Eric M. Johnson in SEATTLE, Tim Hepher in PARIS and David Shepardson in WASHINGTON; Editing by Chris Sanders, Grant McCool and Sonya Hepinstall) Despite strength in jobs from manufacturing to medicine, retail is one of just two sectors that have lost jobs over the last few years. Since January 2017, retail has lost more than 140,000 jobs; the sector added to those losses in March 2019, according to Labor Department data. "Retail is a sector where automation has been particularly present," said PGIM's Nathan Sheets. "U.S. consumers have manifest over many years that they want low prices, even if that means less help from workers on the floor." Though many American industries have ramped up hiring in recent years amid a strong economy and easier regulations under President Donald Trump, one sector in particular has lagged the rest: retail. Since January 2017, retail has lost more than 140,000 jobs; the sector added to that in March 2019 with a loss of more than 11,000, according to Labor Department data. The sector is one of just two industries that have lost jobs over the last few years, according to data tracked by CNBC. For example, an aging baby boomer population has fueled employment in the health-care industry, while the post-crisis business sector has supported the addition of tens of thousands of jobs per month. The government's Friday report on the employment situation showed the health care sector alone added 61,000 jobs in March, while the business industry tacked on another 37,000. Despite strength in jobs from manufacturing to medicine, retail is one of just two sectors that have lost jobs over the last few years. Since January 2017, retail has lost more than 140,000 jobs; the sector added to those losses in March 2019 with a loss of more than 11,000, according to Labor Department data. The lukewarm performance in the retail sector have come despite a broader economic groundswell, with Trump's corporate tax cuts giving businesses a balance sheet boost, goosing GDP growth above the rate many economists feel is sustainable. The utilities sector, the only other to have seen a net decline in jobs since 2016, employs less than 1 million people. Retail employs more than 15 million. Story continues Automation effect Theories on the employment softness range from analyst to analyst, most agree that the downtick in the number of people working at big-box retail locations has to do with the rise of e-commerce and technology. "Broadly speaking, retail is a sector where automation has been particularly present. Self-checkouts are now common. If you're not sure about a price, you scan the bar code rather than asking a worker," Nathan Sheets, chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income. As an example the thriving shift toward automation at retailers nationwide, Walmart announced earlier this year that it is expanding its "Scan & Go" technology to an additional 100 locations across the U.S. For consumer staples like groceries that customers still don't feel comfortable purchasing online, Kroger's new "Scan, Bag, Go" platform will allow shoppers to scan their items themselves and allow the chain to cut cashiers at 400 locations. Gap, Victoria's Secret, J.C. Penney, Tesla and Abercrombie & Fitch have all announced that they'll be closing locations in 2019; 4,810 store closures had been announced by retailers by March 2019, according to Coresight Research. The push toward automation checkouts comes as major retailers and supermarkets come under pressure to generate even more profit out of a razor-thin margin business while offering customers a unique shopping experience. "As a related point, the ongoing shift in retail from bricks and mortar to online very much reinforces this trend. For online sales, you largely eliminate customer-facing employment," Sheets added. "U.S. consumers have manifest over many years that they want low prices, even if that means less help from workers on the floor." Perhaps emblematic of the struggles of some retailers to keep up in the modern era, the October bankruptcy filing of Sears Holdings represented for many economists a key moment in the shift toward a leaner business model. Others, like National Retail Federation chief economist Jack Kleinhenz suggested that the government data may not suggest a decline in retail business, but rather a shift in the types of people they employ. "You could now have a major retailer that owns a warehousing and distribution center, and products never go through a store," Kleinhenz said. "There has been improvement in productivity and the use of technology. I caution us to be unnerved by these numbers at this point in time." "The retail industry is actually in sync with the economy and is growing at a pace that is appropriate, but we have to broaden our scope" of how we measure it, he added. Instead of employees lining up at brick-and-mortar store locations, the rise of e-commerce is driving demand for transportation and warehousing staff. A current driver shortage beleaguers the trucking industry thanks to a combination of low compensation, burdensome schedules and conditions of the job. But amid a new generation of consumers accustomed to smartphone shopping and two-day shipping, retail demand for storage square footage is soaring. Some savvy investors, such as Blackstone's Jonathan Gray, have actually poured money into the warehousing business in an effort to preempt the broader trend and capitalize off the scaling need for space. Gray told CNBC in July that the firm had purchased more than 550 million square feet of warehousing since 2010. "As you think about investing, you're trying to think about sort of where the puck's going to, what's happening. We can to a simple view that online sales were going to grow," Gray said from the Delivering Alpha Conference in New York in 2018. "As a result, we've seen this pickup in demand for warehouse space, which traditionally was a pretty boring business." "In an environment where it's hard to invest, finding things you have high conviction in, where you think there's going to be growth that's a pretty good strategy," he added. More From CNBC By Paul Sandle and Elizabeth Piper LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - Britain proposed new online safety laws on Monday that would slap penalties on social media companies and technology firms if they fail to protect their users from harmful content. Easy access to damaging material particularly among young people has caused growing concern worldwide and came into the spotlight in Britain after the death of 14-year-old schoolgirl Molly Russell, which her parents said came after she had viewed online material on depression and suicide. Governments across the world are wrestling over how to better control content on social media platforms, often blamed for encouraging abuse, the spread of online pornography, and for influencing or manipulating voters. Global worries were recently stoked by the live streaming of the mass shooting at a mosque in New Zealand on one of Facebook's platforms, after which Australia said it would fine social media and web hosting companies and imprison executives if violent content is not removed "expeditiously". In a policy paper widely trailed in British media, the government said it would look into possibly using fines, blocking access to websites, and imposing liability on senior tech company management for failing to limit the distribution of harmful content. It would also set up a regulator to police the rules. TechUK, an industry trade group, said the paper was a significant step forward, but one which needed to be firmed up during its 12-week consultation. It said some aspects of the government's approach were too vague. "It is vital that the new framework is effective, proportionate and predictable," techUK said in a statement, adding not all concerns could be addressed through regulation. Facebook said it was looking forward to working with the government to ensure new regulations were effective, repeating its founder Mark Zuckerberg's line that regulations were needed to have a standard approach across platforms. COMPLEX ISSUES Story continues Rebecca Stimson, Facebook's head of UK public policy, said any new rules should strike a balance between protecting society and supporting innovation and free speech. "These are complex issues to get right and we look forward to working with the government and parliament to ensure new regulations are effective," Stimson said in a statement. Prime Minister Theresa May said that while the Internet could be brilliant at connecting people, it had not done enough to protect users, especially children and young people. "That is not good enough, and it is time to do things differently," May said in a statement. "We have listened to campaigners and parents, and are putting a legal duty of care on internet companies to keep people safe." The duty of care would make companies take more responsibility for the safety of users and tackle harm caused by content or activity on their services. The regulator, funded by industry in the medium term, will set clear safety standards. A committee of lawmakers has also demanded more is done to make political advertising and campaigning on social media more transparent. "It is vital that our electoral law is brought up to date as soon as possible, so that social media users know who is contacting them with political messages and why," said Conservative Damian Collins, who chairs the parliamentary committee for digital, culture, media and sport. "Should there be an early election, then emergency legislation should be introduced to achieve this." (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Paul Sandle Editing by David Holmes) DINARD, France, April 5 (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that neither Britain nor European Union member states wanted a long delay to Brexit and that his government was leaving "no stone unturned" in its bid to find a solution to the deadlock. "I don't think the EU member states want a long extension. We certainly don't want a long extension," Hunt said, speaking at a media freedom event on the sidelines of a G7 meeting of foreign ministers. (Reporting by Richard Lough; Editing by Hugh Lawson) President Trump has repeatedly praised the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, often touting the trade deal as one of his administrations major accomplishments. But the trade deal to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement is not yet a sure thing. Lawmakers in all three countries need to ratify the deal. This week Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican cars or close the border if the country does not crack down on migrants and drugs entering the United States. The president acknowledged concerns about what the move would mean for USMCA on Friday morning. This will supersede USMCA. USMCA is a great deal and its very good for Mexico, but this will supersede USMCA, he said. Plus, some lawmakers including Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) worry Canada wont approve the deal if the U.S. does not lift tariffs on steel and aluminum. Weve gotta get rid of the tariffs or nothings going to happen, said Grassley. You gotta get something done in Canada before June, or theyre going to adjourn and youre not going to get anything until after their election -- then how do you know what youre going to get? You dont have an agreement if you dont get all three countries. The trade deal also faces an uncertain future in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about labor, environmental and enforcement provisions in the trade agreement. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Politico before the House takes action, she wants to see Mexico pass and implement labor law reforms. Ill tell you one thing. Its a great deal. If they dont pass it, its purely political, Trump said on Thursday. United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is consistently talking to lawmakers to address their concerns and answer questions about the deal. I dont know of a day that goes by that Im not working on USCMA At a US Chamber of Commerce event this week, the National Economic Council director, Larry Kudlow, urged the business community to help the administration get the deal across the finish line. Story continues I believe USMCA will contribute to growth, said Kudlow. Business groups have already been working to convince lawmakers to support the deal. The Business Roundtable has called on Congress to approve USMCA before the end of the year. The US Chamber of Commerce announced the USMCA Coalition, made up of more than 200 businesses and associations, to advocate for the trade deal. The Pass USCMA Coalition also launched earlier this year, with the sole goal of pushing for USMCA passage. We see ourselves complementing the other folks that are out there, said Rick Dearborn, the Pass USMCA executive director. Dearborn previously served as deputy chief of staff to President Trump. Former Democratic Congressman Joe Crowley, and former Commerce Secretary Gary Locke serve as co-chairs of the coalition. Pass USMCA is made up of dozens of businesses, trade associations and advocacy groups -- including Dow, the National Association of Manufacturers, Dominos and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Dearborn said the lobbying effort as constant. I dont know of a day that goes by that Im not working on USMCA, said Dearborn. Dearborn said his goal is to educate lawmakers many of whom have never voted on a major trade deal. Going up on the Hill, trying to provide really good straightforward facts and figures and data about what the agreement means and what its going to mean for the workers back in their districts and state and the economy, said Dearborn. The Pass USMCA Coalition has also launched advertising campaigns in support of the deal. Full fighting force of the North American labor movement While the business community rallies support for the deal, the USMCA faces opposition from labor groups. "The fact that the business community is investing so much money in a campaign to get the new NAFTA ratified quickly and with minimal scrutiny says at least two things. First, that this deal isnt a radical change from the current NAFTA. Second, they dont want the deals flaws, including rules that favor Big Pharma and Big Data companies over working families, to become well-known, said AFL-CIO trade specialist Celeste Drake, in a statement to Yahoo Finance. Dearborn told Yahoo Finance he thinks the new trade agreement is good for organized labor. Whether youre a union member or not, your options and your opportunity are exponentially greater underneath this deal, said Dearborn. The AFL-CIO disagrees. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has threatened the full fighting force of the North American labor movement if the Trump administration does not add stronger labor and enforcement provisions to the deal. With the changes we are calling for, this deal has the potential to be an improvement over the original NAFTA. But if members of Congress bend to the will of these pro-USMCA coalitions, they will give away a historic chance to demonstrate that they stand with working families, said Drake. (Adds creditors' vote results) By Marcelo Rochabrun SAO PAULO, April 5 (Reuters) - Creditors led by hedge fund Elliott Management approved on Friday a restructuring plan for bankrupt airline Avianca Brasil, hours after the country's antitrust regulator announced preemptively that the plan could run afoul of competition laws. The regulator, known as CADE, said on Friday morning that it could block the plan, which Avianca Brasil hopes could raise some $210 million. The carrier filed for bankruptcy protection in December. CADE's warning means the creditor approval may not bring short term relief to Avianca Brasil given that the regulator itself said its review of the deal could last some eight months. During that time, the cash-strapped carrier would have to operate with its own funds, or take on additional debt. The plan was modified on Friday evening during a creditors' meeting, although the new details were not immediately available. Under Avianca Brasils plan filed this week, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA and LATAM Airlines Group would buy Avianca Brasil's airport rights, known as slots, in three high-traffic terminals. Gol and LATAM already control over two-thirds of the slots in each of those three airports, two of which are in Sao Paulo and one in Rio de Janeiro. That plan would raise much-needed funds but is high-risk, lawyers said, because the carrier could be left hanging for a long time without access to new cash injections. If Avianca Brasil fails as a business before receiving CADE approval, then it will be too late and there will be no airport slots to sell. Avianca Brasil fell behind on its payroll obligations in March and for months has been battling aircraft lessors trying to repossess parts of its fleet. The carrier would not receive any funds until CADE greenlights the operation, antitrust lawyer Tatiana Lins Cruz said in an interview on Thursday. A person familiar with LATAM's thinking said the airlines hoped CADE would approve the deals because they only involve a modest increase in their presence at Brazil's busiest airports. Story continues AZUL SIDELINED Avianca Brasils plan was a setback for rival Azul SA , which ranks as Brazil's third largest airline and has a small presence in those three airports. In Sao Paulo's domestic Congonhas airport, Gol and LATAM already control a combined 92 percent of the slots, whereas Azul has just 3 percent. Azul had struck a preliminary deal with Avianca Brasil to take over the slots for $105 million and had already provided some $8 million so the carrier could meet its March payroll. But that deal was off once Gol and LATAM came in, in a surprise announcement on Wednesday. On Friday, CADE appeared to take a more positive view of an Azul takeover. "A scenario where Azul becomes the buyer represents a lower antitrust concern than in a scenario with LATAM or Gol," the regulator said in its report. The plan could also draw scrutiny from Brazil's civil aviation regulator, because airport slots are not meant to be bought and sold. Azul was planning to buy Avianca Brasil's assets as a single airline, but the new plan would create seven different companies, each holding little more than slots. "In our view, it is not clear whether the Brazilian Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) will approve this new structure," wrote analysts at Brazil bank Bradesco BBI in a note to clients. (Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Brad Haynes, Richard Chang and Muralikumar Anantharaman) European Union flags are seen outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/Files BUCHAREST (Reuters) - The European Union will tell a meeting of finance leaders from the world's 20 biggest economies next week that they must all tackle the root causes of global trade tensions because they are putting global growth at risk, an EU document showed. Finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies are to meet in Washington on April 11-12 to discuss the main challenges to the world economy. "Current trade tensions put the ongoing expansion at risk and are therefore a source of concern," a joint position paper agreed by EU finance ministers on Saturday said. The United States and China are engaged in intense negotiations to end a months-long trade war that has rattled global markets. Hopes of a resolution soared after both sides expressed optimism following talks in Beijing last week. The International Monetary Fund said in its April World Economic Outlook this week that an escalation of the U.S.-China trade war could reduce U.S. growth by up to 0.6 percent and Chinas by up to 1.5 percent. "The international community has to tackle the root causes of the ongoing trade tensions by ensuring a level playing field for open and free trade in goods and services, investment and intellectual property rights," the joint EU statement said. The United States is also in talks with the European Union on a trade deal after imposing tariffs on European steel and aluminium last year and threatening to impose tariffs on European cars. "We reaffirm our commitment to keep the global economy open as well as rules-based, to support an inclusive multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its centre and to keep international economic cooperation on track," the EU said. Washington has reservations about the WTO which it believes is unable to tackle modern trade challenges and issues such as intellectual property theft. The EU believes the WTO is the best way to deal with trade disputes but that it should be reformed to address U.S. and its own concerns. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Mark Potter) Harvard's Class of 2022 is made up of over 36% legacy students, according to The Harvard Crimson . The year before, the share of the freshman class was just over 29% . As of 2015, legacies were five times more likely to get into the world-famous university than applicants without relatives who went to Harvard. Stanford University gives legacies a significant advantage as well. "It used to be that every application would be read twice. Now, only one reading is guaranteed, although thanks, Mom and Dad every legacy application still gets two sets of eyes," a 2013 Stanford Magazine article about the school's admissions process reported. Across the top 30 schools in the U.S., one review from 2011 discussed in the Washington Post found that children of alumni "had a 45 percent greater chance of admission" than other applicants. Legacy admissions have a dark history The issue of legacy admissions is especially pertinent in light of recent news: Federal prosecutors have brought charges against 50 people in a sweeping college cheating scandal in which wealthy parents allegedly paid a collective $25 million to help their children get into top colleges and universities, including Yale, Stanford and USC. As prosecutors acknowledged, and as critics have pointed out, there are already several legal ways for wealthy parents to work the system. Legacy admissions, especially at elite institutions, for example, is one such way a lucky few gain a distinct advantage. The concept has been controversial since its beginning. In the early 20th century, universities introduced a preference for legacies to exclude less desirable applicants, such as immigrants, and to keep their campuses homogeneous, Think Progress reports. For instance, Princeton adopted a comprehensive admissions process in 1922 similar to the one Dartmouth created in 1919, which stated that "all properly qualified sons of Dartmouth alumni and Dartmouth college officers" would be admitted. After the new policy led to a drop in Princeton's Jewish student population, the chairman of Princeton's Board of Admissions acknowledged that he had wanted to solve the school's "Jewish problem." Story continues Today, one argument in support of legacy admissions is that alumni will be more inclined to donate if their kids attend their alma mater. But that claim has been proven false. When seven colleges stopped accounting for legacy status during the admissions process between 1998 and 2008, there was "no short-term measurable reduction in alumni giving," Chad Coffman wrote in his book, "Affirmative Action for the Rich," as the Washington Post reports . Legacy admissions put low-income students at a disadvantage Prioritizing legacies crowds out applicants from lower-income backgrounds who arguably have a greater need for what elite schools offer: a great education, connections and resources, such as tuition scholarships and grants for unpaid internships. Low-income students are already vastly underrepresented at these institutions. At Ivy League schools, an average of just 16 percent of undergraduates receive federal aid in the form of a Pell Grant, which is specifically designated for low-income families, the Boston Globe reports . However, nationally, a full 40 percent of undergraduate students receive Pell grants. Legacy students tend to be wealthy and white , two demographics that are already disproportionately represented at many colleges, especially the most selective ones. Yet those schools can afford to admit more lower-income students, a study from the Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce points out. When high achievers from the working class to go to an elite school, it gives them a better chance of graduating and joining the middle or upper class, the study says. Allowing more of them that opportunity would "go a long way toward advancing equity in this country by giving students in poor financial circumstances a far greater chance of succeeding." The legacy system is 'outdated,' experts argue Elite institutions such as Harvard and Yale have increased their share of low-income students in recent years. In 2016, 30 institutions, including all the Ivy League schools, signed the American Talent Initiative , which "aims to attract, enroll and graduate an additional 50,000 lower-income students" by 2025. That's heartening, given that America's current outdated system of giving preference to the relatives of former students is essentially cheating , says Richard V. Reeves, author of the book "Dream Hoarders" and a senior fellow in Economic Studies and director of the Future of the Middle Class Initiative at the Brookings Institute. "To operate a hereditary principle in college admissions," he tells CNBC Make It , is unfair. Especially for a country that tells itself it is a meritocracy. Reeves went to Oxford but, he says, that didn't ensure his son's admission. When his son applied, "he didn't get in, and it would have been seen as preposterously unfair" if his son had been admitted simply because his father is an alum, Reeves says. "So we might have a hereditary monarchy [in the U.K.], but, by the way, [the members of that monarchy] don't get to go to Oxford and Cambridge anymore, either, because they don't get good enough grades." That kind of preference for legacy admissions in the U.K. "disappeared in the twentieth century," he says. By contrast, "the way we organize our education system" in the U.S., he says, "excludes many of those in the bottom 80%." The system is "destroying the American Dream, rather than living it." This is an updated version of a previously published article. Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube ! Don't miss: 7 of the most shocking allegations of the $25 million college admissions scandal More From CNBC A section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Credit: Chess Ocampo/Shutterstock.com A section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Credit: Chess Ocampo/Shutterstock.com The Democratic-led House of Representatives sued the Trump administration on Friday over the presidents plan to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency earlier this year in order to secure billions of dollars in funding for the wall, a move that Democratic lawmakers, and some Republicans, immediately decried as usurping the Houses spending powers. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, says the Trump administration initially sought $5 billion from Congress to deliver on the presidents campaign promise to build a border wall. When he didnt get his way, the House argues, the administration went ahead and announced it would spend federal dollars on wall construction anyway. In doing so, the Administration flouted fundamental separation-of-powers principles and usurped for itself legislative power specifically vested by the Constitution in Congress, the complaint said. Even the monarchs of England long ago lost the power to raise and spend money without the approval of Parliament. Several agency heads and their departments are named as defendants in the suit. Defendants include Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Trumps emergency declaration is facing several other legal challenges, including one from a coalition of state attorneys general. The group of states, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, claims the administration is unlawfully diverting funds that would have been dedicated to law enforcement, drug interdiction, and military construction projects. Read the lawsuit: falcon-embed src="embed_1" Read more: Third Federal Judge Strikes Down Citizenship Question on US Census Judges Have No Inherent Power to Disclose Grand Jury Records: DC Circuit Barr Eyes Ex-White House Lawyer for Top Justice Department Post By Leigh Thomas BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Mergers in Europe's fragmented banking sector are necessary to make the sector more resilient as the euro zone seeks to protect itself from future crises, France's finance minister told Reuters in an interview. Bruno Le Maire, who joined President Emmanuel Macron's centrist government in 2017 despite coming from the ranks of France's conservative Republicans party, said banking sector consolidation was needed alongside a single regulatory supervisor and more integrated capital markets. "I consider that today European banks are still too fragmented and we need banking consolidation," Le Maire said in Bucharest, where he was attending a meeting of EU finance ministers. Speaking with Reuters over dinner at an upmarket restaurant in the Romanian capital, Le Maire declined comment on specific deals. The biggest operation underway currently is a possible tie-up between German lenders Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank. Despite persistent speculation, sometimes involving French banks, there have been few cross-border bank mergers in recent years in Europe, even though the European Central Bank has repeatedly urged consolidation, which it believes would ensure that credit flows to where it is needed most. Le Maire, who has attended some of France's most prestigious schools and held numerous senior posts in government, said the euro zone needed to finalise in coming months plans for a backstop for banks saddled with bad loans, and better integrate capital markets notably by agreeing to harmonise insolvency laws - a sensitive issue for some countries. "If euro zone member states are not capable of taking certain steps forward in the coming months, we risk weakening the euro and seeing new fractures emerge in the euro zone," Le Maire said. Policymakers like IMF chief Christine Lagarde have warned that the euro zone's financial sector remains dangerously exposed to shocks if it does not quickly complete reforms designed to keep risks contained. Story continues Le Maire also wants the euro zone to quickly thrash out plans for a shared budget aimed at encouraging convergence among the euro zone's economies. In particular, details on its governance and how it sits in relation to the broader EU budget remain to be hammered out. ECONOMIC DIVERGENCE "The euro zone will not survive growing economic divergences between member states. We have to equip ourselves with the instruments to reduce the divergences," he said. France, along with Germany, has championed the idea of a euro zone budget, but has had to scale down its ambitions in the face of resistance from the Dutch. The Netherlands has rejected the idea that the budget has a capacity to help member states facing economic shocks, fearing this would mean transfers from richer to poorer countries. With EU parliament elections due in May, the staunchly pro-Europe minister weighed into the debate about the future of the Union this week with a book warning that Europe must guarantee it does not fall behind China and the United States on technological progress, or risks being dominated by them. Le Maire, who alongside Germany's economy minister in February released an industrial policy manifesto calling for increased investment in technology research, revised antitrust and state aid rules and stronger defences against foreign takeovers, said EU state aid rules needed to be more flexible. He said approval of aid for projects had to come much more quickly, otherwise companies would look beyond Europe to meet their needs. "Speed is of the essence ... There are companies that need technology and they are going to get it where they find it." The minister has also called for an overhaul of antitrust rules after the European Commission blocked the planned merger of the rail businesses of Siemens and Alstom, seeing such tie-ups as necessary to build European champions. "What do we want tomorrow for our telecommunications, our trains, our banks or our cars? I want that in all these fields we keep our European (industrial) capacities, which has to happen through consolidation." (Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by David Holmes) * ADNOC Distribution jumps 8 pct * Union Properties rises in heavy trade * Emirates NBD extends gains on Denizbank deal DUBAI, April 7 (Reuters) - ADNOC Distribution lifted the Abu Dhabi stock market on Sunday and Dubai continued its winning streak, while Saudi Arabia lagged behind. The Abu Dhabi index was up 0.4 percent, as ADNOC Distribution rose 8 percent to a one year high of 2.7 dirhams ($0.7351). Last week, the company's shareholders approved an increase in the firm's dividend policy. The company also won shareholder approval to buy back up to 62.5 million shares, equivalent to 5 percent of its free float during a 12-month period, should it choose to do so. Separately, Reuters reported that the firm was considering a secondary listing overseas. The Dubai index increased 0.2 percent, rising for its seventh straight session. Union Properties was by far the stock with the highest trading volume, gaining 0.8 percent. Emirates NBD Bank - which Dubai-based Arqaam Capital on Sunday called its "top buy" - added 1.3 percent after saying last week that it will buy Denizbank. Heavyweight Emaar Properties was down 0.4 percent, while Shuaa Capital was up 4.3 percent. The firm is set to merge with Abu Dhabi Financial Group soon in a reverse takeover. Dana Gas and Eshraq Properties were among the stocks registering the highest trading volumes in Abu Dhabi, and they went up 0.5 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. Saudi Arabia's Tadawul index was down 0.6 percent, ending a previous 9-day gain streak pulled down by Al Rajhi Bank which was down 1.1 percent. "Being a Sunday, foreigners were absent (from the Saudi market) and we suspect local investors are booking some of the recent profits," said Vrajesh Bhandari, senior portfolio manager at Al Mal Capital in Dubai. Saudi Almarai was down 0.5 percent in thin trading volume, after what Arqaam capital called "uninspiring results" in a report on the company's first quarter. Led by Ahli United Bank, which was up 2.5 percent, Bahrain's stock market added 1.5 percent. On Wednesday, the bank said due diligence for a merger with Kuwait Finance House was in progress. Story continues Egypt's stock market was down 0.7 percent on Sunday, weighed down mainly by Orascom Investment Holding , which lost 7.1 percent after reporting last week a drop in standalone net profit. SAUDI ARABIA The index fell 0.6 pct to 9,011 points ABU DHABI The index rose 0.4 pct to 5,052 points DUBAI The index added 0.2 pct to 2,781 points QATAR The index gained was little changed at 10,192 points EGYPT The index was down 0.7 pct at 15,135 points BAHRAIN The index was up 1.5 pct at 1,440 points OMAN The index added 0.8 pct to 3,970 points. KUWAIT The index rose 1.4 pct to 6,222 points. ($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Nafisa Eltahir Editing by Keith Weir) San Francisco State University has gained a sizable XRP donation from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen. | Source: YouTube Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen announced to attendees at a San Francisco State University celebration on Thursday that the company would donate $25 million in XRP to the university. The University stated the Ripple bequest was the largest cryptocurrency donation ever made to a U.S. university. As CCN reported, Ripple (XRP) was up almost 13-percent ahead of the open of European markets on Friday. The donation to SFSU was a continuation of Ripples University Blockchain Research Initiative announced in June of 2018. The UBRI committed $50 million in resources that included funding, subject matter expertise and technical resources to 17 institutions around the world. According to Ripple, the goals of the initiative are to: Collaborate on research and technical development that will stimulate widespread understanding and innovation in the blockchain. Create a new curriculum to meet high student demand for learning about blockchain, cryptocurrency, and other FinTech topics. Stimulate ideas and dialog among students, faculty, technologists and business leaders on topics of shared interest. Crypto giving is growing fast According toFidelitys 2018 Charitable Giving Report, 2017 Fidelity crypto giving topped $69 million. The increase in giving was $62 million over 2016 crypto donations. Donations to Fidelity Charitable of non-publicly traded assets, such as restricted stock, limited partnership interests, and real estate, totaled $916 million of all 2017 donations. The Fidelity report stated these donations generated dollars for a charity that potentially would not otherwise be available to give. Crypto giving ushering in a new way to give A survey by WeTrust found that 77 percent of crypto holders have an interest in making donations to charity. The desire by crypto-holders to donate to worthy causes is evidenced by the outpouring of support for the 2018 Japanese flooding crisis. During the crisis, global cryptocurrency exchange Binance, assisted flood-stricken Japan in the form of a USD 1 million cash donation and setting up a donation address, calling on partners to donate cryptocurrency. Two weeks later the cause had received donations valued at $1.4 million. Read the full story on CCN.com. How this drama turns out may mark the most significant test yet of the Trump administration's credibility, following a highest-level chorus this week of President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton, who all declared in one way or another that Russia had to get out of the country. The first major showdown of our new era of great power competition, unfolding with accelerating speed over the past ten weeks in Venezuela, has entered a dangerous new phase. That is true, most of all, for the Venezuelan people, but also for Latin American democracies and for vital US interests in the Western Hemisphere. How this drama turns out may mark the most significant test yet of the Trump administration's credibility, following a highest-level chorus this week of President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton, who all declared in one way or another that Russia had to get out of the country. Vice President Mike Pence ratcheted up the pressure further on Friday, announcing at a speech in Houston with new sanctions on the state-owned oil company PDVSA as well as two additional companies that transport Venezuelan crude to Cuba. Pence, who will address the UN Security Council next week on Venezuela, also said the US would increase its pressure on Cuba. What raised the stakes was Russia's well-publicized and provocative move on March 23 to land two planes with some 100 soldiers in Caracas. The ostensible reason for their arrival was to service Venezuela's Russian-made S-300 air defense systems, which are said to have been damaged in recent energy blackouts. Other Russian military contractors and mercenaries are already believed to be providing security support for the Maduro regime. That was accompanied by this week's decision of Maduro's puppet National Constituent Assembly to strip interim President Juan Guaido of his immunity. Guaido assumed power under a constitutional provision which stipulates that in the absence of a legitimately elected President, the President of the National Assembly takes up presidential powers on an interim basis. That raises the possibility, perhaps as early as this weekend, that the Maduro regime could arrest and imprison Guaido with widespread, anti-Maduro and pro-democracy protests expected for Saturday. Story continues Putin's big bet What concerns US officials is that Vladimir Putin may be laying the ground for making Venezuela the defining foreign policy debacle for President Trump in the same way Syria became that for the Obama administration. Indeed, this week the Maduro and Assad regimes showcased their solidarity in Damascus, where Maduro Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza met with the Syrian leader. "The two Syrian and Venezuelan peoples' fight against U.S. conspiracies and imperialism and the two will emerge victorious," Arreaza said. Though there is a great deal that differentiates Venezuela and Syria, what connects them is considerable: a weakened dictator, who would be much more likely to fall without Moscow's support, a U.S. declared red-line that the Kremlin finds unconvincing, and a chance for Putin to shore up his global reputation at the expense of Washington this time in the Western Hemisphere. White House National Security Adviser John Bolton laid down a tough line , with echoes of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, with his warning to Moscow: "We strongly caution actors external to the Western Hemisphere against deploying military assets to Venezuela, or elsewhere in the Hemisphere, with the intent of establishing or expanding military operations. We will consider such provocative actions as a direct threat to international peace and security in the region." Exactly one month ago, I wrote in this space , "As the country with the world's largest proven oil reserves and one of its greatest humanitarian disasters, Venezuela is a place whose destiny in any case would have had outsized consequences for Latin American and global energy markets. Given the involvement of the U.S. and its democratic allies on the one side and China, Russia and Cuba on the other, the stakes are even higher geopolitically." As is so often the case in the Trump administration, there is also a personal element for a president who has refrained from the tough language toward Putin and Russia employed by the top US officials around him. Writes David Sanger in the New York Times, "Would Venezuela be the place where Mr. Trump, who has often seemed willing to tolerate Mr. Putin's most audacious provocations, finally draws his own red line? And if so, does he have a plan to enforce it?" Putin is betting big that Trump has neither the will nor the plan. NATO's challenge It was by coincidence that the situation around Venezuela was heating up even as the NATO alliance marked its 70 th anniversary in Washington, DC, this week. Amid the celebration, however, experts raised new questions over whether the alliance was sufficiently equipped for the long period of strategic geopolitical competition that likely stands before us. "NATO is the most successful Alliance in history because we have always been able to change as the world changes," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said before a Joint Session of Congress , the first time any leader of a multilateral organization has been invited to give such an address. Yet if the consensus is right that the 21 st century's great challenge would be a competition between democratic and authoritarian countries and systems, and in particular China and Russia, then Russia is making the next play in our hemisphere, and NATO is already behind the curve. "the United States should lead a more concerted effort to thicken the political bonds and operational ties between NATO and its global partners," said the Atlantic Council's Damon Wilson in testimony before a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "Specifically, the United States should consider formalizing the links among US treaty allies in Europe and those in Asia, namely Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. At the same time, we should begin fostering alliance-like links among our existing allies with strategic partners such as India and, in Latin America, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico." He sees all that as a possible precursor "to a more formal alliance among democracies who are committed to protecting their way of life and a democratic international order." There are plenty of reasons to think such ambitions are fanciful when President Trump remains ambivalent about the value of alliances, NATO's European members are so divided on how to manage relations with China and when only a minority of Europe's NATO members have risen to their promised defense spending obligations. Yet NATO has learned over the years that the alternative to changing when the world changes is irrelevance and a world whose guiding rules and principles would no longer be shaped by democracies. Venezuela may be the right place to catalyze deeper links among the United States, Canada, key European allies and leading democracies of Latin America. Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, prize-winning journalist and president & CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of the United States' most influential think tanks on global affairs. He worked at The Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as a foreign correspondent, assistant managing editor and as the longest-serving editor of the paper's European edition. His latest book "Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth" was a New York Times best-seller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his look each Saturday at the past week's top stories and trends. For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter. More From CNBC A Jet Airways plane is parked as other moves to runway at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport in Mumbai A Jet Airways plane is parked as another moves to runway at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport in Mumbai, February 14, 2018. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/Files NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Lenders to Indias troubled Jet Airways Ltd may have to wait a little longer to sell a stake in the carrier, as they need more clarity from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Business Standard newspaper reported on Sunday. Jet, India's oldest private carrier, is saddled with more than $1 billion in debt, compounding its financial woes and forcing it to ground most of its fleet. After Jet failed to convince potential investors, including its largest shareholder Etihad Airways, to bail it out, Indian banks decided to take a majority stake in the carrier. Last month, Jet's lenders, led by State Bank of India agreed to bailout the airline in a complex deal that involved the banks taking a majority stake, while seeking out an investor to help revive the company's fortunes. Jet's lenders on Thursday said they plan to seek expressions of interest in the airline from potential investors from April 6 and that all submissions from interested parties are expected to be completed by April 9. But this process may be delayed as RBI is yet to examine the issue of debt to equity conversion, the paper said, citing a source. In February, Jet said its shareholders had approved a plan to convert its existing debt to equity. (Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Kim Coghill) Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has been talking to South Korean lawmakers. | Source: Flickr/TechCrunch Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged the South Korean government to deregulate the blockchain industry. They say the current laws are overly restrictive and therefore, inhibit innovation. Buterin made the remarks while speaking at a meeting of the South Korean parliament, News1 reported. Blockchain is a technology that can be run without cryptocurrencies, but there is no crypto without blockchain. Public blockchains rely heavily on cryptography. Therefore, cryptocurrencies are absolutely necessary. Buterin: Crypto and Blockchain Are Intertwined Buterin was reacting to the Korean governments blockchain, not bitcoin stance. South Korean officials have repeatedly tried to promote blockchain while undermining cryptocurrencies and banning ICOs. But Buterin said crypto and blockchain are too intertwined and cannot be separated. Besides, he says, ICOs are starting to rehabilitate their sleazy image after a number of scams were stamped out. ICOs have certainly improved, and will continue to improve in the future. Buterin: Market Slump Was Good for Industry Moreover, Vitalik Buterin noted that the recent Crypto Winter has been good for the industry because it chased out the con artists and revealed which projects are here for the long term. Read the full story on CCN.com. The Company is preparing for possible legal action in Europe BELLEVUE, Wash., April 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Voip-Pal.com Inc. (Voip-Pal, Company) (VPLM) announced that the Company is preparing to appeal the recent decision on the Alice 101 Motion by Judge Lucy Koh to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Company is also considering other legal options in addition to the appeal. The length of time to complete the appellate process can take up to one year. Emil Malak, CEO of Voip-Pal, stated, We understand and share in the frustration of our shareholders over this recent ruling on the Alice 101 motion by Judge Lucy Koh. Lucy Koh is a highly regarded judge and we respect her decision, although we disagree with her on the technical merits of our case. We are also in consultation with our attorneys in Europe regarding the process of preparing complaints in Germany. As we have previously stated, there are about 770 million mobile subscribers in Europe, which makes our European patents a very strong addition to our portfolio. We are committed to doing everything we can for our approximately four thousand, five hundred shareholders and we will not stop until we bring this process to a successful conclusion. Patience is a virtue. About Voip-Pal.com Inc. Voip-Pal.Com, Inc. (Voip-Pal) is a publicly traded corporation (OTCQB: VPLM ) headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. The Company owns a portfolio of patents relating to Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology that it is currently looking to monetize. Any forecast of future financial performance is a "forward looking statement" under securities laws. Such statements are included to allow potential investors the opportunity to understand managements beliefs and opinions with respect to the future so that they may use such beliefs and opinions as one factor among many in evaluating an investment. The White House is re-affirming its commitment to allow the private sector to remain in control of pending fifth generation wireless networks, after the Trump campaign previously embraced a government role in managing the burgeoning technology. There will be a national security piece, without question, but it seems to me the way were doing things is the right way and well continue that, top economic advisor Larry Kudlow told attendees at an industry conference on Thursday. The private sector will figure things out far better than the government sector. Youre far ahead of us, you always are." Kudlows comments were backed up by a White House official, who said the Trump administration is supportive of a private sector, free enterprise approach. We believe the U.S. is winning the race to 5G with record deployments in cities across the United States, the official said. The U.S. and China are locked in a bitter battle to be the first to roll-out national 5G networks which promise broadband speeds without a hard-wired connection. The technology is expected to underscore the most significant new innovations in the coming decade, including remote surgery and driverless cars. The wireless industry has long chastised any significant government involvement in the development of 5G and immediately criticized a leaked 2018 memo from the White House that detailed how the government could build out the national network. Those concerns were reignited in March when the Trump 2020 campaign indicated it would support the federal government maintaining control of 5G airwaves and sharing it with wireless carriers, part of an attempt to earn support from rural votes who often suffer from the lack of investments by major carriers in less-populated regions of the U.S. A 5G wholesale market would drive down costs and provide access to millions of Americans who are currently under served, Kayleigh McEnany, national press secretary for Trumps 2020 campaign, said in a statement at the time. This is in line with President Trumps agenda to benefit all Americans, regardless of geography." Story continues A campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to FOX Business request for comment on whether the stance has changed. After the initial statement, McEnany then said there is "no daylight between the White House and the campaign" on 5G. The White House sets the policy on 5G and all issues," she told media outlets. Along with industry opposition, Federal Communications Commission official Brendan Carr blasted the China-style nationalization proposal. The U.S. won the race to 4G and secured billions of dollars in growth for the U.S. economy by relying on Americas exceptional free-market values. We must double down on that winning playbook instead of copying Chinas, and that is what we at the Federal Communications Commission have been doing for the past two years, he wrote in an op-ed. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP Earlier this week, Verizon launched its 5G service in Minneapolis and Chicago. T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint are also expected to launch 5G networks in 2019. Related Articles How much is too much to pay for a bottle of wine? A newly-released $40,000 bottle of 2008-vintage wine now ranks among the most expensive wines in the world at release. But the wine in question isnt some storied Amarone or a rare French Bordeaux. This Tokaji Essencia wine hails from the Carpathian foothills of northeastern Hungary, where one of Europes oldest and most legendary wine regions is staging an unlikely comeback after a century of tumult all but obliterated its winemaking industry. The high price of this special release bottle stems from both cost of production and scarcity. To produce a single magnum of the sweet, syrupy Essencia that Hungarian winemaker Royal Tokaji is now marketing for 35,000 a pop can require more than 400 pounds of grapes, not to mention a lengthy maturation. Each grape must be harvested by hand, placing Essencia among the most labor-intensive wines in the world. The most laborious part of the process is the harvesting, by hand, of the very best shriveled berries. As a result, only 18 bottles of this very special 2008 vintage will ever reach buyers, which could make it something of a white whale for serious wine collectors. 2008 is recognized to be an exceptional vintage, and Essencia is the kind of wine that can age for 100 years or longer, says Tom Hudson, a director of London-based Farr Vintners, Britains largest purveyor of fine wine. I think the reason theyre doing this is that theyve got something that is essentially uniqueits a very exclusive, limited edition kind of thing. Thats especially true considering the amount of Essencia available in the marketplace is limited to begin with. The sweet wines produced in Hungarys Tokaji region rely on the botrytis cinerea moldor so-called noble rotto dry out grapes on the vine, shriveling them like raisins and boosting sugar concentrations in the process (the same process that accounts for other sweet wines like French Sauternes). These so-called Aszu grapes must be harvested by hand, after which their sugary juice is added to a base wine for fermentation. From there, winemakers tinker with various styles and levels of sweetness, producing a broad spectrum of Aszu wines. Story continues The Aszu grapes are always harvested by hand. Essencia differs from other Tokaji Aszu wines in that it is made entirely from the juice of Aszu berries, with no base wine in the mix to dilute its sweetness. The high sugar levels of the liquid that comes from the Aszu grapes makes for a very long fermentation lasting up to eight years (versus just days or weeks for most wines) and reaches only 2-4% alcohol. Not every vintage produces Aszu grapes of a high enough quality to make this process worthwhile, so bottlings of Essencia only come along as often as nature allows. When they do, the liquid inside is so rich and syrupy its typically served served in small doses via crystal spoons rather than in glasses. Prior to the late 19th century, Tokajis Aszu wines enjoyed a reputation across Europe as the finest wine money could buy. Louis XIV called it the wine of kings, king of wines. Many believed it to have medicinal properties, and the Vatican allegedly kept bottles on Popes nightstands. Tokaji Aszu wines are referenced in Bram Stokers Dracula and in the Hungarian National Anthem. Tokaji found fame very early, says Charlie Mount, Royal Tokajis managing director. And then of course suffered a tragic 20th century. That tragedy began in earnest at the outbreak of World War I, which eventually resulted in the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Things worsened following World War II, when a Soviet-aligned communist regime took power and collectivized winemaking operations. Quality standards plummeted, and by the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 the king of wines and the traditions and techniques that produced it were largely a historical footnote. An aerial view of the vineyard during harvest. In the years since, vineyards have returned to the ownership of families or local, independent interests. Winemakersbacked by an influx of foreign investmenthave sought to restore Hungarys reputation not only for producing an elite class of fine wines but also for bottling quality wines across the board, including the dry reds and whites more familiar to the average wine consumer. After nearly three decades spent restoring grapevines and relearning the best methods for expressing Hungarys unique terroir, Hungarian winemakers are now bottling excellent expressions of native grapes with names like Furmint, Harslevel?, and Sargamuskotalyvarietals largely unfamiliar to most Western consumers. Putting out the most expensive new-release bottle of wine in memory is one way to put Hungary at large and Tokaji in particular back on the map, Mount says. It doesnt hurt that qualities like sweet, rare, and expensive tick a lot of boxes for a new breed of ravenous wine consumer emerging in China, a fast-developing export market for European wine producers. Royal Tokajis largest private customer for its other vintages of Essencia is based in Shanghai, and the first bottle of the $40,000 new release bottle has already shipped to Beijing. Everything weve done since [1990] has been in pursuit of returning that wine to its rightful place, Mount says, and with this release Royal Tokaji is turning a corner. At the beginning of the 21st century, Tokaji Aszu was once again the worlds most expensive wine. This really is to say to the world very confidently: Tokaji is back. A version of this article appears in the February 2019 issue of Fortune with the headline Hungary, Not Burgundy, Produces the Worlds Most Expensive Wine. How Frog Hospital got its name News and commentary by Fred Owens in LaConner, a small town in the Skagit Valley. The story behind the name: There was once a grocery store in a quonset hut, run by Mr. Grobschmidt. Clyde, an old drunk who lived out on the river, thought that Mr. Grobschmidt looked like a frog, so he took to calling the store the "Frog Hospital." Now the quonset hut, Mr. Grobschmidt, and Clyde are all gone -- only this blog survives to carry on the Frog Hospital tradition. When I was at DreamHaven this afternoon Wendy mentioned Heavy Trip as a funny movie that was available on Amazon Prime. After seeing the trailer I thought I would take a look at the movie when I got back home. I just watched it and had a fun time. It's a 2018 Finnish movie about a heavy metal band's first couple of gigs. The four have been playing for 12 years and they have never played in public or written a song together. They didn't have a name, after some consideration they settle on Impaled Rektum. They say they play symphonic post-apocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme war pagan Fennoscandian metal. They meet up with a guy who has a metal festival in Norway and give him their demo. They think they might get a chance to play at the festival but when they get turned down they decide to go anyway. Just so they can play. They have quite an adventure getting there. It's written by Juuso Lastio, Aleksi Puranen, Jari Olavi Rantala and Jukka Vidgren with Juuso and Jukka directing. They've got a great looking movie, a great cast and an entertaining story with plenty of jokes. All for 3 million Euros. The scenery in Finland and Norway is also nice to look at. Glad I saw it. 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 The roar of jet engines halted at the airport. The distant rumble of artillery fire at Fort Carson paused. A spring rain held off and Pikes Peak emerged from the gloom. Sgt. 1st Class Will Lindsay was home. Lindsay died March 22 in Afghanistan and was greeted in Colorado Springs with stoic silence. A toddler was seriously injured in a rollover crash in north Colorado Springs Saturday afternoon, according to police. Shortly before 1 p.m., the car the child was riding in was speeding south on Roller Coaster Road near Honey Run Way when it lost control and crossed into northbound lanes, Colorado Springs police said. Police said the driver jumped a curb and then over corrected, causing the car to flip back onto the street and land on its roof. Gazette news partner KKTV reports that the toddler, a girl, was flown to a Denver hospital. Police said the child did not appear to be in a car seat, and officers told KKTV that there did not appear to be a carseat in the car. The driver of the car, Claudia Castellano, was taken to an area hospital and has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and causing seriously bodily injury, police said. KKTV reports that driver is the child's mother. Roller Coaster Road was closed for several hours while police investigated the crash. Read the story at kktv.com. Neil Armstrong called it the onward code. It was a way of living that drove a person always forward toward the new challenge and the next horizon. It was a code, historian Douglas Brinkley believes, inspired by President John Kennedys New Frontier, blending adventure, curiosity, big technology, cutting-edge science, global prestige, American exceptionalism, and a constant quest to renew the Western frontier spirit. In his new book, American Moonshot, Brinkley argues that the exploration of space continued the grand tradition that began with Christopher Columbus and flowed through Americas westward expansion, through the invention of the electric light, the telephone, the airplane and automobile and atomic power, all the way to the creation of NASA in 1958 and the launch of the Mercury missions that took the first Americans into space. That same pioneer spirit drove Armstrong from naval aviator in the Korean War to research pilot in California pioneering high-speed jets, rockets, helicopters and gliders, to NASA astronaut in Florida who, 50 years ago this summer, became the first man to walk the moon. It is in the afterglow of that improbable moonshot that the Space Symposium opens this week at The Broadmoor hotel. The relentless commitment of the country to land a man on the moon teed up the very technology-based economy that draws thousands of space-addled engineers, entrepreneurs and military experts to our city this week. Hundreds of technological capabilities that will be on display at the symposium were unfurled during the Apollo space mission: next-generation computer innovations, virtual reality devices, advanced satellite television, medical imaging, weather forecasting gear, even cordless power tools. In 1969, James Reston of the New York Times put it this way: The great achievement of the men on the moon is not only that they made history, but that they expanded mans vision of what history might be. Those were the days when all of us young boys wanted to be astronauts, and America led the world in public discovery. We were a spacefaring nation suddenly, putting aside our arguments about Vietnam and the cultural upheavals of the 1960s to look up at the sky. More than any other annual national gathering, the Space Symposium keeps that onward spirit alive, keeps us looking up. The moon landing will be a major theme of the symposium, punctuated by visits from Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, and retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom Stafford, who flew two Gemini missions and commanded Apollo 10 and the first U.S.-Soviet Union space mission, reporter Wayne Heilman writes in the Business section today. Lockheed Martins full-scale lunar habitat will be one of the dont-miss attractions. A second space age driven by private sector space barons Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Paul Allen has supplanted that first space race between America and Russia. Now its the entrepreneurs and private innovators, many of whom will be in town this week, who are capturing the countrys imagination in their quests to put everyday citizens into space, and someday shuttle them all the way to Mars. Why do so many people come to the symposium 50 years after that moonshot? To network and hobnob and sign contracts and shop their wares, sure. But theres another, more romantic reason people gather in this Western outpost, and I would argue it is the same reason we once went to the moon and continue to reach for the stars. Because going to space gives us a unifying national purpose, it serves to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, one which we intend to win as Kennedy put it in his 1963 vow we would go to the moon by the end of the decade. We go to space not because it is easy, he said, but because it is hard. Ive always marveled that the average age of the engineers and technicians and test pilots who ran the Apollo mission down in Houston was 26. They were too young to realize that what they were doing was impossible. For moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, who I hope to meet here this week, the lunar challenge did nothing less amid a year of turmoil than reaffirm that the American dream was still possible. In this 50th anniversary moonshot year, lets give the American dreamers at our symposium an especially warm welcome, and bid them lead us all in the continuing quest to live out Armstrongs code: Onward. Joe Barrera, Ph.D., is the former director of the Ethnic Studies Program at UCCS, and a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. The Gazette enthusiastically endorsed Democratic State Sen. Pete Lee in October as he ran to represent Senate District 11. It was a mistake, a Colorado Springs firefighters and supporters of Issue 1 watch as the results come in on the night of the municipal elections in Colorado Springs last week. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 66F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 66F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Hi kitipriyanka,I guess my only other question is, how important is going to business school? If business school is something that will be a game changer for your life and career, then lets get it done! Right?Regarding your goals, if you can take your exam at the end of July, youll have almost 4 months of study time. So, if you can work your butt off and study smart, you probably can achieve your GMAT score goal. That said, since it has been 3 years since you last studied for the GMAT, Ill provide advice as if you are starting the GMAT from scratch. Thus, you should first take an official GMAT practice exam . Your experience taking that test will give you a good idea of what to expect on the GMAT, and the results will serve as a baseline score.After completing your initial practice test, you will need to devise a solid preparation plan that allows you to learn linearly, such that you can slowly build mastery of one GMAT topic prior to moving on to the next. Within each topic, begin with the foundations and progress toward more advanced concepts. For example, if you are learning about Number Properties, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal will be to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills.Follow a similar routine for verbal. For example, lets say you start by learning about Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to fully master the individual topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each question type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you get a weakening question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and instead focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and thereby comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Authors Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect Reading Comprehension answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. Keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be easy to read. So, to better prepare yourself to analyze such passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the Economist, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, you likely will have to work on all three of those aspects.Regarding what you know, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not just a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending under two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns clearly refer to nouns? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and those reasons are not that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answer were always the one that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey logical meanings. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to be determined to see the differences and figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. Are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could have done differently to extend your streak.As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your skills improve, you will then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple Sentence Correction topics.In order to follow the path described above, you may consider using an online self-study course, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses . You also may find it helpful to read this article aboutFeel free to reach out with any further questions._________________ "worthy of the highest tribute of public confidence and praise" Grand Old Partisan honors John Gear, born this day of 1825. He moved from New York to Illinois to Minnesota before settling in Iowa at age eighteen. Grocery wholesaler was his profession. Having been an alderman, Gear was elected mayor of Burlington in 1863. Four years later, a new railroad named him its president. Three years after that, he won election to the state house, serving as speaker for two terms. In 1877, this industrious Republican won the first of two terms as Governor. His administration turned a fiscal deficit into a surplus. He then was elected to two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Respecting his financial expertise, President Benjamin Harrison named him Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Gear returned for another congressional term. He was delegate to the 1892 and 1896 Republican National Conventions. In 1894, the legislature elected him a U.S. Senator, and he died shortly after being re-elected. Here is a Video Version of this article on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Aa05LFrs_nI Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement. Each day, Michael Zak's grandoldpartisan YouTube channel and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than sixteen decades of Republican heritage. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states so far. He also wrote the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar. Clarence Thomas cited Back to Basics for the Republican Party in a Supreme Court decision. Buy the book at Amazon "This is the most amazing book about politics that I have ever read. The Overview should be required reading for anyone with even a minor interest in government. The remainder is an enthralling history lesson that I will never forget. For years, we have all been misled about the true nature of the GOP. This is the real deal! Read it and be proud!" "Michael Zak wrote the definitive history of the GOP." "Back to Basics for the Republican Party is the most significant contribution to the Republican Party in the last twenty years apart from Ronald Reagan." "Back to Basics for the Republican Party is more important to our party now than ever before." and "one of the best books I ever read" Remarks: This is one of the best-selling Christmas songs of all time in the US. It came out in 1994 but did not hit #1 in the US till 2019, and not in the ... 2 days ago Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. 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 In his Washington Post article on the subject, Jason Rezaian, himself a former political prisoner, states that it seems as though there [has been] a new case every month since he was released from Iran along with four other hostages in January 2016. But he also describes the Zaghari-Ratcliffe case as being harder than the rest for me to stomach, owing to the fact that she was arrested along with her daughter, who was then not yet two years old, after a visit to their Iranian family. The young child, Gabriella, has since remained in the custody of her grandparents, unable to return to her father in England. Nazanin herself is currently serving a five year sentence on charges for which no meaningful evidence was publicly presented. Rezaian specifically elected not to report the charges that were levied against her, saying that to do so lends a measure of credibility however faint to Irans insistence that this is a domestic judicial matter. Indeed, the Iranian judiciary has a long history of insisting upon its sole authority over cases involving dual nationals, regardless of the circumstances of their arrest. The Islamic Republic does not recognize the principle of dual nationality and considers all native-born Iranians to be citizens only of that country, even after returning from long periods of residence abroad. As a result, dual nationals like Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe are denied consular assistance despite often being maligned as foreign assets in Iranian state media. This very action was taken in January of this year, in the form of a documentary special which included secretly recorded footage of the Iranian-British womans arrest, along with a series of unsubstantiated accusations. As it was reported at the time, the decision to air this footage may have related either to Zaghari-Ratcliffes announcement of a hunger strike, or the British governments move to offer her diplomatic protection, or both. For many of the prisoners advocates in the United Kingdom, this diplomatic protection was far too late in coming. An article in the Independent by fellow Iranian-British dual national Daren Nair describes it as a formal recognition by our government that Nazanins treatment fails to meet Irans obligations under international law and elevates this to a formal state to state issue. But Nair also underscores the fact that public pressure on the British government was necessary to generate that recognition. This is a sentiment that is repeated in the Washington Post, where Rezaian writes, We assumed that our elected officials could generally be counted on to protect us from harm at the hands of foreign powers. That assumption of safety, though, seems to diminish with every fresh case. But Rezaian goes on to credit Britains new Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, with initiating change and recognizing the full insidiousness of the problem of state-sponsored hostage-taking. At the same time, Nairs commentary suggests that the shift in UK government policy may have been the result of citizen petitions and various other activist measures calling for Zaghari-Ratcliffes release. Furthermore, that same article expresses concern over the possibility that the UK may still let up pressure on the Islamic Republic, if it once again finds reason to privilege trade deals ahead of the well-being of British citizens abroad. This danger may be diminishing, however, in the face of escalating tensions between Iran and the Western world. An assertive shift in US policy under the Trump administration has certainly played a leading role in building these tensions, but Iran has done itself no favors by rejecting almost all international standards for its behavior on the world stage. This defiance has been exhibited, for instance, in Februarys lapsed deadline for Iranian compliance with the anti-money laundering rules of the Financial Action Task Force, and in the ongoing Iranian missile tests that recently yielded a joint letter of complaint to the United Nations by the UK, France, and Germany. This European pressure over Irans provocative military buildup was both referenced and rejected by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in a series of tweets that were highlighted by Fars News Agency. This condemnation of Western pressure coincided with remarks that Zarif delivered via the website of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in which he taunted the European Union over its supposed unwillingness to push back against the US sanctions that were re-imposed last May after President Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, leaving the three above-mentioned European nations to enforce it alongside Russia and China. Zarifs remarks effectively dismissed the special purpose vehicle for Iranian transactions that was set up by the Europeans recently but has not actually become functional. The Iranian Foreign Minister stated that the EU was incapable of bypassing US sanctions and also that the Iranian regime is focusing on its eastern allies and has no hopes for meaningful economic partnerships in the West. If European policymakers take these statements seriously, they may see even less incentive for pursuing Iranian trade deals, especially when those deals represent neglect for the harm being done to Western nationals in Iran, and to other victims of Tehrans well-known violations of human rights. Such violations continue to make international headlines, as Iran remains under scrutiny from a variety of activists and professionals, including the current UN special rapporteur on human rights in the country, Javaid Rehman. His first report was presented to the international body on March 11 and affirmed a worsening pattern of politically-motivated arrests, of which Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is only one of many victims. As EA Worldview emphasized on March 25, Iran has steadfastly refused to cooperate with this and other special rapporteurs, or to grant them access to the country. Nevertheless, the regime insisted that the report in question constitutes an unjustified and illegal action, political trickery, and clear evidence of the evil and hegemonic intentions of those who sponsor this scandalous theater. While such statements may be well-received among hardline supporters of the theocratic system, they otherwise serve to remind the international community of Tehrans fundamental unwillingness to listen to good-faith criticisms of its human rights record. And this in turn underscores Jason Rezaians observation that concerned individuals shouldnt expect that regime to suddenly do the right thing on its own, but must keep up pressure for the sake of compelling it to recognize the worlds demands. Germany-based open source company SUSE has announced the release of the first enterprise Linux image for SAP Hana large instances on Microsoft Azure. The company made the announcement on Wednesday at its annual conference, SUSECON, which taking place in Nashville, Tennessee, this week. It said the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications image on Azure offered consistent build and management capabilities on Azure. SAP HANA Large Instances on Azure are purpose-built hardware configurations for SAP HANA workloads that require memory sizes larger than 0.5 terabyte. {loadpositionn sam08}SUSE said it was collaborating with Microsoft to support mission-critical workloads for SAP HANA environments up to 60TB in size with the stability and reliability of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications. This is a customer-driven solution jointly developed with Microsoft to provide the advanced high availability and storage security for SAP HANA Large Instances that customers need, said Daniel Nelson, vice-president of Products and Solutions for SUSE. Were delivering a SAP-certified platform for Azure that is pre-configured and able to make customers productive faster. SUSE enables enterprises with open source solutions like this to implement best-of-breed digital transformation and realise the hybrid and multi-cloud workload management they require to power continuous innovation, competitiveness and growth. K.Y. Srinivasan, general manager, OSS at Microsoft, said, Our joint customers are using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications as the underlying operating system to ensure a reliable platform that is validated on Azure Large Instances. It represents the innovation that marks our long relationship as we continue to work together to provide solutions that meet demanding enterprise customer requirements. SUSE also announced support for 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, formerly codenamed Cascade Lake. Earlier this year, it it became the first enterprise Linux optimised for Intel Optane DC persistent memory with SAP HANA workloads. Organisations today face increasing pressure to become more agile and economically efficient in order to grow, compete and survive, said Thomas Di Giacomo, SUSE president of Engineering, Product and Innovation. Were helping them harness todays explosive innovation as they embrace hybrid and multi-cloud as well as on-premises environments to fuel and enable their digital transformation. Intels persistent memory technology will spark new applications for data access and storage, with in-memory database solutions being just one application. "It is customer needs that drive our joint innovation with Intel, and we continue to partner to serve customers worldwide who are looking to fuel growth by transforming their IT infrastructure. Alper Ilkbahar, vice-president and general manager of Datacentre Memory and Storage Solutions at Intel, said, Intel is focused on data-centric transformation by disrupting the memory and storage hierarchy and helping our customers address the massive increase in data they face daily. "By collaborating with software leaders like SUSE, we are able to help customers more quickly and confidently deploy Intel Optane DC persistent memory, and reap the rewards of this transformational technology. - A Pinoy college graduate shared his experience having a disability - His determination inspired many netizens - He took up Bachelor of Secondary Education, Major in Mathematics, at the Western Mindanao State University PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed! Joseph Anggot has recently proven that nothing can stop someone from reaching his dreams-not even his disability. The 22-year old college graduate posted an inspiring story of his strong will and determination. His post touched the netizens hearts and it became viral. PAY ATTENTION: The Most Amazing Models From The '80s And How They Look Now He took up Bachelor of Secondary Education, Major in Mathematics, at the Western Mindanao State University External Studies in Zamboanga City, Philippines and graduated last April 2 this year. On his recent interview with NFH Fotografia, Anggot described himself as a rock. Having disability is not easy. Its unavoidable to get bullied by my peers. But I didnt mind it, rather Im continuously rising up. Just like a rock that people just step on, they dont know its worth, he further explained. The lad also shared his experience being bullied because of his disability. Yes Ive been bullied since childhood. We know kids they are advanced in thinking. They didnt know what they have done to me, as long as they were happy. 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! Despite being hurt from the bullying, Anggot did not lose hope. But now, Im strong enough to face it. I accept the fact that its me, a person having disability. But to tell you frankly Im also hurt but Im not losing my hope despite of my condition Look at me now [talking about finishing school), disability is not a hindrance to success, he said. He also shared an advice on keeping a positive mind set. My advice to the people with or without disabilities, that is, always have faith and accept [of] what you are. Ignore the negative vibes. Always think positive [smiley]. Finishing school was just one of the chapters in his life, and he knows that there are bigger things to come soon. I am fully ready to face my new chapter of my life. Hoping that [I] can pass the LET [Licensure Exam for Teachers] soon [folded hands emoticon] by Gods will, he said. The loving son dedicated his success to his mother. You shared so much sweat and even tears [just to help me finish school], he added. POPULAR: Read more viral stories here Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! What Is The TAGALOG of BAG? | HumanMeter Do you enjoy watching street interviews and listening to different opinions? Watch these hilarious challenges and street interviews in the Philippines. Source: Kami.com.ph Krishana Prasain is a business reporter for The Kathmandu Post covering markets. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2018, she spent 3 years in New Business Age magazine covering business. People are furious after Miss Nepal judge tells contestant to look pretty before feeling pretty A video that showed a beauty pageant judge berating no makeup and glasses look has enraged Nepalis on Facebook and Twitter. A longing to return home, in safety and dignity When the government of Bhutan expelled tens of thousands of its Nepali-speaking Lhotshampa population in 1991, branding them as illegal settlers, they fled to Nepal in hordes. Purna Bahadur Limbu was among those who crossed into Nepal via India with which Bhutan shared a poorly defined and largely unpatrolled border. Prarambha Dahal is a sports reporter for The Kathmandu Post. Before joining the Post, he worked in Kantipur Television's English News for three years. Welcome to my world where the hyphen between the words Italian and American is the bridge between espresso and Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, red wine and pit barbecue, the Amalfi Coast and Hilton Head Island, and with life in Georgia. There are lots of stories about my Italian n I am also an amateur tour guide. The Summer of 2015 I organized a Girls' Trip to Italy for 23 women to Rome and the Amalfi Coast. We had so much fun that we did it again in 2019 with 31 women, this time to Tuscany and northern Italy. Oh, and I wrote a book -- An Ocean, an Airplane, and Two Countries Full of Kisses. Check it out below ... onna. Bheri Babai project finishes tunnel one year ahead of schedule Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project in the western Nepal, the irrigation cum hydroelectricity scheme, has completed digging the 12-km tunnel using a tunnel boring machine, one year before the originally set deadline. Friday, April 5, 2019 From ABC Action News: Reflecting on her assault 12 years ago, 41-year-old Wanda Gomez said she did not know if she was going to make it out alive. She had been stabbed multiple times by an angry ex-boyfriend, she said. Her attacker, who was also a co-worker, had been kicked out from her home after he was accused of sexually assaulting Gomezs school-aged daughter. With her assailant at large, authorities advised Gomez, a mother of seven who made $13 an hour as a demolition worker, to leave her home and quit her job out concerns for her safety Read more here. https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/family_law/2019/04/proposed-florida-bill-would-make-domestic-violence-victims-eligible-for-unemployment-benefits-.html Sunday, April 7, 2019 The Works in Progress (WIP) committee for the 5th Biennial Emerging Immigration Scholars Conference is now accepting proposals for works-in-progress or incubator ideas. In addition to incubator workshops focused on a research idea, participants are invited to submit proposals for workshops to discuss a litigation or advocacy project that could benefit from group input. The 2019 Conference will take place June 7 and 8, 2019, at Brigham Young University in beautiful Provo, Utah. If you wish to be considered for a works-in-progress or incubator session, please submit your proposal to EmergingImmWIP2019@gmail.com. Further, this year we are again seeking discussants who will read and comment on the works-in-progress or incubator ideas. If you want to propose a work-in-progress by email : Please put ImmProf WIP [Lastname] as the subject line Please submit an abstract of no more than one page, with a title. If you want to propose an incubator (for a scholarly or litigation/advocacy project) by email : Please put Incubator [Lastname] as the subject line Please submit a description of no more than one paragraph, with a title. If you would be willing to be a discussant : Please email us if you wish/are willing to serve as a discussant with a list of your areas of expertise. The deadline for submissions is Monday, April 8 at 12 noon (PT). We anticipate notifying accepted WIP or incubator proposals by April 14. Final papers will be due on May 17, 2019. We look forward to receiving your submissions! Please feel free to contact any member of the WIP committee, or conference planning committee, with questions or concerns. More information will be coming soon about the conference and how to register. Sincerely, The WIP Committee: Lauren Aronson (laronson@lsu.edu), Louisiana State University Law Center Kate Evans (katee@uidaho.edu), University of Idaho School of Law Other Members of the Planning Committee: Sabrina Balgamwalla, Wayne State University Law School Pooja Dadhania, California Western School of Law Kit Johnson, University of Oklahoma College of Law Carolina Nunez, Brigham Young University Law School Shalini Ray, University of Alabama School of Law -KitJ https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2019/04/last-call-submit-your-wip-or-incubator-idea-for-the-emerging-immprof-conf-at-byu-june-7-8.html In popular culture, learning is not the only thing that takes place at colleges and universities in the United States. From watching movies and television shows, one might think that college students do more partying than actual studying. But while these stories are aimed at entertaining people, they also reveal a darker side of U.S. higher education. Large numbers of college students drink alcohol or use other drugs. Some even combine the two. In fact, new research suggests that many students turn to drugs and alcoholic drinks as a way of reducing mental stress and dealing with other issues. And experts worry that this could lead to problems for them later in life. Most U.S. colleges and universities offer students some form of mental health services, either at the school or off-campus. In 2017, the American Psychological Association found that the number of students seeking help at campus counseling centers rose by 30 percent between 2009 and 2015. Yet overall college and university attendance rose only by 5 percent during that period. Many of the students questioned listed stress, anxiety and depression as their reasons for seeking help. In order to better understand the issue, the American Addiction Centers asked 980 current and former college students how they dealt with stress. The organization released its findings earlier this year. It found that nearly 60 percent of the students had turned to alcohol as a way of coping with stress at some point. Around 26 percent had used medications like Adderall, which is meant to increase energy levels and focus, without permission from a doctor. And nearly half of the students had combined such drugs with alcohol. Lawrence Weinstein is chief medical officer at the American Addiction Centers. He says there are many reasons why college students feel stressed, anxious and depressed. They are trying to complete difficult study programs, develop relationships, join social groups and work at part- or even full-time jobs. But those are also all issues that every generation of students has faced, Weinstein added. The difference for the current generation is that there is a whole new set of problems for them to deal with on top of the old ones. This includes the fact that the cost of higher education has risen sharply in recent years, leading to record levels of U.S. student loan debt in 2018. In addition, the admissions process at many colleges and universities has grown increasingly competitive. Since there are so many factors that conflict with one another, it could be more stressful for students to learn to balance thechallenges and excitements in their lives, Weinstein told VOA. Yet Simone Lambert argues that the pressures that lead to drug and alcohol abuse may start well before a young person goes to college. Lambert is president of the American Counseling Association. She suggests that in general, one in five people experience some sort of mental health issue during their life. In some cases, she noted, students just entering college are already dealing with things like stress, anxiety or depression. Lambert said that most people going to college in the U.S. for the first time are 18 or 19 years old. This is an age at which many people are open to experimentation, including trying substances like drugs and alcohol. Theyre trying to figure out their identity, their career goals. And just being out on their own without having the supports that they had in their high schools, in their home life, theres a lot of changes that go on, she noted. And unfortunately, substance use is something that is accessible to them at that age that hasnt been accessible before. Lawrence Weinstein points out that the main problem with experimenting with drugs at this age is the long term effect. In the short term, alcohol slows the nervous system and can make a person feel calm. And drugs like Adderall may help a student focus their attention on school work. But the human brain is not fully developed until a person is well into their twenties. Substance use and abuse during developmental periods can eventually lead to problems with memory and the ability to experience pleasure, Weinstein added. And it can also lead to continuing dangerous behaviors later in life. Most campus counseling centers offer programs especially designed to educate students about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. They also try to inform students about healthy ways of dealing with stress, such as getting healthy amounts of exercise and sleep. But Weinstein and Lambert agree the best way for students to avoid problems is through parental involvement and school administrators shaping campus culture. Schools must do their best to provide plenty of activities for students outside of classes that do not involve drugs, alcohol or partying, they say. And parents must have open discussions with their children that do not make them afraid to be honest about these issues. Im Pete Musto. And Im Dorothy Gundy. Pete Musto reported this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. How common is drug and alcohol use at colleges and universities in your country? How common is it for college students to use drugs and alcohol to cope with mental health issues? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Quiz - College Students Who Turn to Drugs, Alcohol Can Have Problems Later Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story stress n. a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life and work campus n. the area and buildings around a university, college or school counseling n. advice and support that is given to people to help them deal with problems and make important decisions anxiety n. fear or nervousness about what might happen focus n. a main purpose or interest factor(s) n. something that helps produce or influence a result challenge(s) n. something that is hard to do excitement(s) n. a thing or activity that gives a person a feeling of eager enthusiasm and interest accessible adj. able to be used or obtained CAAN invites fresh bids for Tribhuvan International Airport expansion works The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has invited fresh bids for the expansion works at Tribhuvan International Airport, three months after deciding to finance the project on its own. Citys broomer machines cleaning VVIP areas only Around two weeks ago when the Kathmandu Metropolitan City brought its five new Italian broomer machines Dulevo-6000 into operation, it announced five different routes where the machines would be deployed to clean the city roads. But the machines have reached only a few VVIP road sections so far, neglecting other areas of the Valley. Conflict victims seek role in transitional justice bodies appointments Conflict victims, who have for long complained that they have been neglected, have warned that they will not accept the transitional justice process if the new leaderships in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Commission of the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons are selected without proper consultation. Government doctors steadfast on their strike against Civil Servants Adjustment Bill With the government doctors steadfast on their strike to press the government for amendment to the Civil Servants Adjustment Bill, thousands of patients across the country are likely to be deprived of medical services for a third consecutive day on Sunday. Severe hypoglycemia can increase the risk of more hypoglycemic episodes in the following days and leads to a decreased awareness of the symptoms that typically allow a person to sense falling blood sugar levels. Credit: Stephen Grote People with diabetes who use insulin to control their blood sugar can experience a dangerous condition called hypoglycemia when blood sugar levels fall too low. New insights into a recently discovered protein called neuronostatin could lead to new ways to treat and prevent hypoglycemia, which is sometimes deadly for people with diabetes. Stephen Grote, a doctoral student working with Gina Yosten, Ph.D., at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, will present the research at the American Physiological Society's annual meeting during the 2019 Experimental Biology meeting to be held April 6-9 in Orlando, Fla. For people with diabetes, taking too much insulin can lead to low blood sugar, causing dizziness and sleepiness. Symptoms may progress to confusion, seizures and loss of consciousness if blood sugar levels continue to fall. Severe hypoglycemia can also increase the risk of more hypoglycemic episodes in the following days and leads to a decreased awareness of the symptoms that typically allow a person to sense falling blood sugar levels. "There are very few options for preventing hypoglycemia or treating hypoglycemia unawareness other than avoiding low blood sugar as much as possible," Grote said. "Understanding what neuronostatin does and how it works will provide valuable information for preventing hypoglycemia and provide more complete knowledge into how the pancreas manages blood sugar normally." In previous work, Yosten's research group discovered neuronostatin. Their work has shown that the protein protects against hypoglycemia by causing the pancreas to release less insulin and make more glucagon, a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels. In a new rat study, the researchers observed that neuronostatin injections caused an increase in blood sugar. They also examined human pancreas tissue and found that it released more neuronostatin when blood sugar levels were low and that neuronostatin increased even more with glucagon treatment. The new research points to neuronostatin as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment and prevention of hypoglycemia in people with diabetes. "Neuronostatin is a truly novel factor, and everything we find about it pushes our knowledge of its therapeutic potential just a bit further," said Grote. "We believe that studying neuronostatin could ultimately reveal a way to use it to help prevent and reverse vicious cycles of hypoglycemia by helping the body respond appropriately to the low blood sugar with more glucagon." The researchers are now working to better understand how neuronostatin affects glucagon and insulin release from human islets and how the body regulates neuronostatin secretion. They are also using experimental approaches that disrupt the body's response to low blood sugar to investigate how this affects neuronostatin levels and to determine if neuronostatin can be used to better manage low blood sugar. Explore further Older adults with type 1 diabetes often not aware of hypoglycemia More information: Stephen Grote will present this research during the Experimental Biology Welcome Reception on Saturday, April 6 at 7 p.m. in the Valencia Ballroom ABCD, Orange County Convention Center and on Monday, April 8, from 10:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. in Exhibit Hall-West Hall B (poster E621 756.1) ( Stephen Grote will present this research during the Experimental Biology Welcome Reception on Saturday, April 6 at 7 p.m. in the Valencia Ballroom ABCD, Orange County Convention Center and on Monday, April 8, from 10:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. in Exhibit Hall-West Hall B (poster E621 756.1) ( abstract ). Provided by Experimental Biology ICYMI: Here are our top stories from Sunday, April 7 Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (April 7, 2019). An electron micrograph of the measles virus. Credit: CDC/ Courtesy of Cynthia S. Goldsmith Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, the health commissioner of an outlying New York suburban county, is feeling "overwhelmed." Since October she has been waging an uphill fight to quell one of the worst US measles outbreaks in 20 years. Among her daily battles: having to constantly repeat that the vaccine does not cause other diseases, that it does not lead to autism, and that the practice of using fetal tissue to produce the vaccine ended decades ago. Pushing back against such "junk science" absorbs a good deal of her energy as she works to educate and persuade the 300,000 residents of Rockland County to cooperate with health authorities and alert them to any new cases of disease. In 27 years of practicing medicine, Ruppert said, this is "one of the most challenging health crises I have had to deal with." As of Friday, measlesofficially eliminated from the United States in 2000had struck 167 people in this county along the Hudson River, including nine new cases this week. Among the six regional outbreaks of measles reported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the leading public health institute in the US, Rockland County's is the most concentrated. And yet the county has not skimped in throwing resources at the problem. Unprecedented measures Since October, each case has been systematically investigated to determine how many people have been exposed to the ultra-contagious virus. Those exposed are then contacted to ensure they have been immunized, and if they haven't been, they are then vaccinated. Dozens of free vaccination clinics have been organized around the countyincluding one Friday in the town of Haverstrawwith 17,654 doses of vaccine administered to date. The objective is to raise the vaccination rate from the current 72 percent, Ruppert said. A 95 percent vaccination rate is considered necessary to prevent epidemics. On Monday, county executives will meet with legal and health professionals to identify more possible new strategies to tackle the outbreak. It comes after the county took the unprecedented measure on March 26 of banning unvaccinated minors from schools and public places for 30 days. Several public health specialists saluted the county's decision. But a dozen parents of public-school students sued the county, arguing that the measure was disproportionate to the danger, particularly as there have been no deaths to date. On Friday they obtained a partial victory: a judge issued an injunction requiring county officials to drop the ban against any child with a "religious exemption," at least until April 19. "Religious exemption": for many county residents, the words have become central to the debate over the resurgence of measles and the rise of the anti-vaccine movement. Religious exemptions Like most American statesall but three, including CaliforniaNew York requires a series of vaccinations for school-age children but grants exemptions on both medical and religious grounds. In Rockland County, the local Jewish community represents about one-third of county inhabitants, including a large number of Orthodox Jews. That fact places this community at the heart of the vaccination debate, raising the risk of fueling anti-Semitism, said Gary Siepser, president of the Jewish Foundation of Rockland County. He emphasizes that there are anti-vaccine proponents both in the Jewish community and elsewhere who invoke religion to justify themselvesbut are motivated simply by their anti-vaccine convictions. "You will not find rabbis citing Jewish law to say people should not be vaccinated," he said, stressing that his federation, like other Jewish organizations, encourages vaccination. "It's shocking that these things that I didn't worry about with my kids because they could be vaccinatedall of a sudden parents have to worry about their children getting life-threatening diseases," Siepser said. "It's like the clock has been turned backit's crazy!" 'It's really scary out there' Several Orthodox mothers questioned this week by AFP lashed out at the anti-vaccine parents. One of them was Cindy Scher, mother of four children aged seven to 17, all of whom have been vaccinated. "It's really scary out there," she said. "We all share the same roads, we share the same stores, we all have to interact with each other. We can't just be concerned about my religious beliefs, your religious beliefs," she said, as she walked out of a kosher supermarket in Monsey, the epicenter of the county's Orthodox community. Against this background, some New York state lawmakers this week proposed a law to end vaccination exemptions. "I think it's a great idea," said Ruppert, the health commissioner. But the judge's decision on Friday in favor of the anti-vaccine forces complicates an already difficult debate. "This is a country that has an interesting relationship with religion, the country was founded by people seeking some kind of religious liberties," Siepser said. "The question becomes at what point one person's freedom ends and another person's rights begin." Explore further US county declares state of emergency amid measles outbreak (Update) 2019 AFP Libraries set up in district prisons of Karnali Province Libraries have been set up in all the district prisons of the Karnali Province to offer services to the inmates. All 10 district prison libraries were inaugurated on Saturday morning " " Do fashion mannequins convey false ideals of body size and shape? A new study investigated. Blendimages-Picturenet/Getty Images Have you ever, like just for funsies, walked up to a table and compared the circumference of its leg to that of your own human leg? If not, that's fine. Honestly, we're not in the habit of critically comparing our bodies to most types of furniture, with one notable exception: department store mannequins. Mannequins are made to look like humans, but they're really just furniture for stores to display clothes on. However, because they are human-shaped, there's a little part of each of us that looks at a mannequin and says, "Oh, that's what I'm supposed to look like in those jeans!" The problem is, reports a new study published in the Journal of Eating Disorders, that the average female mannequin represents a body type that's not just underweight, but severely, dangerously thin. On the other hand, only about 8 percent of male mannequins represent an underweight body size. Advertisement The researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Liverpool assessed the sizes of 32 female mannequins and 26 male mannequins from 17 fashion retailers in Liverpool and Coventry, U.K., and found that 100 percent of female mannequins were underweight, while only 8 percent of male mannequins represented an underweight person. "The problem with mannequins is that they inherently represent how we should look, when to look like that would mean becoming unhealthy," says co-author Dr. Paul Aveyard, Professor of behavioral medicine at Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. Fantastically unrealistic standards of thinness are everywhere in mass media, and its ubiquity has been linked to women feeling dissatisfied with their body size, and the desire for an ultrathin physique has been shown to lead to eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. According to co-author Dr. Eric Robinson, of the University of Liverpool, women are far more likely than men to develop eating disorders, which makes sense because they are also far more heavily targeted with the message that extreme thinness is the ideal. " " Numerous studies have examined the impact unrealistic mannequins have on the human psyche. Richard I'Anson/Getty Images "Not everyone will develop an eating disorder from having the ultrathin ideal pushed upon them, and it is difficult to say why some people develop them and others don't," says Robinson in an article explaining his research published on The Conversation. "However, the academic community is pretty convinced that promotion of ultrathinness is a major player in eating problems, and that it is responsible for the propagation of body image problems in young women." And yes, it's a shame that even the furniture in most retail clothing stores reinforces this, but it turns out that "No Fat Chicks" isn't exactly a new message at least not when it comes to mannequins. In 1992, Finnish researchers examined six female mannequins made in Italy, Japan and Malaysia between the 1920s and 1960s, and found that if real women had the body dimensions of these dummies, they would be unable to menstruate. Eighty years later, here we are. " " In a new study, researchers found that female mannequins were significantly more likely to represent underweight bodies than were male mannequins. Amos Chapple/Getty Images But the silver lining to all of this is that, here in the 21st century, people are taking notice and some things are changing. Just this month, a French law banning the use of ultrathin fashion models (and requiring labelling on photos where the model's body has been digitally retouched) has come into effect. And according to Aveyard, over the past few years, some shops in the U.K., like Debenhams, have rolled out U.K. size 16 (U.S. size 12) mannequins. "Of course, these body shapes are also unrealistic they have flat stomachs," says Aveyard. "Most women do not have flat stomachs, even slim women. So this is good, but we should all put pressure on shops not to present unrealistic shapes to us." The process of representing women's bodies in realistic ways everywhere, from magazines to department store dressing rooms, is proving to be a slow one, but Robinson and Aveyard would argue it's worthwhile: "The point about any one aspect of society is that it contributes a little by itself to the overall effect that we call 'culture,'" says Aveyard. "Removing ultrathin mannequins would not by itself make much of a difference, but we should try to remove unrealistic ideals from our society with the hope that it would make us all happier and healthier." Now That's Interesting In the U.S., women's clothing sizes weren't standardized until the 1940s. Before that, sizes for teenagers and kids were based on their age a size 8 would fit an 8-year-old girl, for instance and women's sizes were based on bust size. Nayak Paudel is a crime reporter for The Kathmandu Post. Since joining the Post in 2018, he has also written on health issues. We are ready for December, everything ... Two years ago, Liz Smith, director of nursing at Franciscan Children's hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts, was headed toward the elevator at work when she saw her: a tiny girl with bright blue eyes and a single soft brown curl swept across her forehead. "Who's this beautiful angel?" Smith asked the nurse who was wheeling the infant down the hall. "Her name is Gisele," the nurse told her. The infant, a ward of the state, had been at the hospital for five months, but Smith had never seen her before. Smith learned that Gisele, then 8 months old, had been born premature at another hospital in July 2016, weighing just under 2 pounds. She had neonatal abstinence syndrome - a result of her birth mother using heroin, cocaine and methadone during pregnancy. The state of Massachusetts took custody of Gisele when she was 3 months old and transferred her to Franciscan Children's because her lungs needed specialized care, and she had a feeding tube. The baby did not have a single visitor in her five months at the hospital. Social service workers were trying to place her in foster care. "Gisele," Smith told herself all the way home that evening. "Gisele." It was at that moment, said Smith, that she knew: "I'm going to foster this baby. I'm going to be her mother." Life often interferes with well-planned intentions, and for Smith, who grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, it was no different. When she lost her mother at age 19 to liver cancer, Smith decided the best way to honor her was to live a good life and follow her selfless example. "My mom was a pediatric nurse who always put others first," recalled Smith, a middle child with two brothers and two sisters. "So I grew up wanting to be a nurse, too." She also wanted to nurture in a more personal way. For decades, Smith, now 45, always thought she would marry and raise a family as her mother had. After her parents divorced when she was 9, her mom put a lot of effort into keeping the house full of laughter and joy, Smith recalled. When several of her siblings married and started to have children of their own, Smith said she naturally thought that she would one day do the same. But it didn't happen. "I never imagined becoming a mom would be a challenge," she said. "It's a desire you can try to push away and fill with other distractions, but it never goes away." As Smith threw herself into being "the world's greatest aunt" for her 13 nieces and nephews, her siblings picked up on her pain. "I always pictured Liz as a mom, since she's a nurturer by nature," said one of her sisters, Elly Smith, 40, a homeland security analyst with three boys. Liz Smith, who had hoped to conceive through in vitro fertilization, found out her health insurance wouldn't cover the treatment, and she couldn't afford it on her own. Her sister suggested adoption or fostering, but Smith didn't want to consider it. Then she saw Gisele. "Since the moment I met her, there was something behind her striking blue eyes capturing my attention," she said. "I felt that I needed to love this child and keep her safe." After putting in a request to foster Gisele, Smith went to the baby's hospital room every day after work to sit next to her crib and talk in a soft voice. "She was behind developmentally, and I wanted to get her out of the hospital and get her thriving," Smith recalled. Three weeks later, in April 2017, when Gisele was 9 months old, she received permission to take Gisele home with the stipulation that every effort would be made by the state to reunite the infant with her birth parents. Her friends at work threw her a baby shower and helped to set up a crib in her bedroom. "Leaving the parking lot of the hospital with Gisele and a car full of baby stuff, I was in shock that it was happening," said Smith. She took two weeks off to settle into her new role. "I was excited but nervous, realizing that I was committing everything I had to this child who might not be in my life forever," she said. Although Gisele's birth parents were initially granted supervised weekly visits, ultimately the state determined that they were incapable of caring for the infant, and their parental rights were terminated. No other family members were found who were able to take the baby. Smith was thrilled that she could apply to adopt Gisele, but she understood the sorrow of the situation for the birth mother and father. "The day I got the call that their parental rights were terminated was very sad," she said. "My gain was another's loss. It's a feeling difficult to describe when you are experiencing this life-changing moment that someone else is as well, in the opposite way. The bottom line is: It's devastating for another family." With plenty of nurturing from Smith, her brother, Phil Smith, who lived with her at the time, and other trusted caregivers, the infant was soon meeting milestone after milestone. By Halloween of 2017, when Gisele was 15 months old, she was walking, and she knew several words. "Her first word was 'badoon,' for balloon," said Liz Smith. "Today, we still call it that." Then last year on Oct. 18, in a courtroom in Brockton, Massachusetts, that was filled with family members, co-workers and friends, Liz Smith's dream became official: A judge signed off on Gisele's adoption and presented Liz Smith with legal documents certifying that she was now the girl's mother. "This is the mother-daughter relationship my sister has waited a long time for," said Phil Smith, 44. "It's plain to see that they have brought a completeness to each other." Although Gisele, who is now 2, still needs to use a supplemental feeding tube, said Liz Smith, her daughter now weighs 23 pounds and has an appreciation for cheese, avocados and pizza. She is also energetic, loving and often bursts spontaneously into song. "Her new favorite song is 'You Are My Sunshine,' " Smith said. "And every time she sings it, I think to myself, 'You have no idea.' " Gilbert Ruben Reyes, Sr. passed away on Sat March 23rd, in Fairfield, CA. Gil is survived by 7 of his 10 siblings; Alex, Louie, Anita, Bertha, Stella, Danny, and Cecelia, many nieces and nephews, as well as his 3 children, Gil Reyes Jr., Cynthia Torrez, and Patricia Reyes. He and his former wife, Regina (Lomeli) Reyes shared 8 grandchildren who are the pride and joy of his life; Gabriel, Sylvia, Domenic, Alena, Roman, Benjamin, Ayanna, and Ruby. Gil was raised in St. Helena and went to St. Helena High School. Upon graduation he completed his apprenticeship becoming a skilled Machinist. He went on working many years at Mare Island Naval Shipyard as a Journeyman Machinist. During his service he had the opportunity to be the Machine Shop Steward, President of the Machinist Union Local 252, and an active member of the United Way, among many other leadership roles. He later finished up his civil service as a Machinists in Ogden,UT. After retirement he continued serving his community through the Fraternal Order of Eagles helping with community events and charity fundraisers. Gil will be remembered for his generous spirit, quick wit, civil & community service, and philanthropy. Most of all we will remember his deep love for his children and grandchildren, his passion for cooking and sharing his recipes with friends. A celebration of life service will be held on Sat April 13th at 11:30 am at The Rock Church Napa, 1758 Industrial Way #117. Memories and notes of sympathy may be shared at claffeyandrota.com. 19302019 Ray was born in London, England on August 30, 1930 and died in Santa Barbara, CA on March 23, 2019. He came to the United States in 1946 with his mother and stepfather. Ray graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in journalism. He worked in the world of advertising, ending his career as the Director of Sales and Marketing for Sunkist. Ray met Mary Jane Larsen while living in Seattle and they married in 1954. They settled in Southern California where they raised their family, moving to Carpinteria, CA in retirement. Ray and Mary had many dear friends, traveled worldwide and were up for any adventure, including square dancing! One of Rays greatest joys was the success of Coles Chop House and Celadon, founded by his son Chef Greg Cole. Ray and Mary worked tirelessly during the early years of both restaurants doing whatever needed to be done. He shamelessly promoted the restaurants wherever he went. A talented artist, Ray was known for his detailed watercolors of life in Carpinteria. His book, The Delights of Carpinteria, included many of these paintings. He was commissioned by many in Carpinteria to paint scenes personal to them. He was a lover of words and completed crossword puzzles (the hard ones!) until his death. He enjoyed jigsaw puzzles, bird watching from his living room windows and playing cards. Always active in the community where he and his family lived, over the years Ray served on the Wiseburn and Conejo Valley Unified School Boards, and as the President of the Silver Sands Village Mobile Home Park Board of Directors. Ray was predeceased by his wife Mary and is survived by his son Greg Cole and daughter-in-law Beth Fairbairn of Napa, daughter Tracy Serrato and son-in-law Noe of Maricopa, AZ, his grandchildren Sophia Cole, Larsen Cole and Brandi Cole, his brother Cliff Cole of England, and the rest of his beloved family by marriage. Ray leaves behind friends from all stages of his life; he had the gift of striking up a conversation with anyone he met. Rays family is forever grateful to the dedicated caregivers and friends whose assistance and love allowed Ray to live independently in his home by the sea until his final illness. If you would like to honor Ray with a donation, please consider The Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center or Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Foundation. A celebration of Rays life will be held at a later date. Highway 29 through American Canyon is being targeted for congestion-easing changes in coming years, though the supposed big fix of creating a wider, six-lane version remains a distant, and perhaps fading, dream. The American Canyon City Council on Tuesday heard a transportation update. The focus was on such things as coordinated Highway 29 traffic signals that could come this year and a key Devlin Road reliever route segment now set for construction in 2020. Highway 29 through American Canyon is one of Napa Countys major traffic chokepoints. About 40,000 vehicles use the four-lane road on an average day and rush-hour motorists crawl along, with some seeking relief by taking to city residential side streets as alternate routes. The big project in our world is State Route 29, Napa Valley Transportation Authority Executive Director Kate Miller told the City Council. Local officials are hoping a small Highway 29 project will make a difference. By years end, Caltrans intends to have what it calls an adaptive signal control project up and running. Five Highway 29 traffic signals in American Canyon will be tied into the Caltrans District 4 Traffic Management Center in Oakland, Caltrans officials said. Changes to signal timing will be made according to real-time traffic conditions using algorithms. The more green you have on your route, the more youre moving, American Canyon Mayor Leon Garcia said. Other efforts are underway. Miller told the council about an upcoming State Route 29 Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan. That plan is needed for American Canyon highway projects to tap into funding from the state Senate Bill 1 fuel and vehicle tax hikes. The Multimodal Corridor Plan could include better crosswalks, more convenient bus stops, improvements along parallel corridors and bike-and-walking paths. The idea from the 2014 State Route 29 Gateway Corridor Improvement Plan of expanding Highway 29 from four lanes to six lanes in American Canyon three lanes running in each direction isnt in the mix. There are some significant changes, City Councilmember David Oro said, because the city here, our citizens, believe three lanes are coming on each side, that we will expand that highway. Miller didnt say the dream of a six-lane Highway 29 is dead. But she described several significant barriers. For example, many potential highway improvement funding sources dont pay for expanding capacity. Caltrans has trouble maintaining its existing infrastructure. Widening a bridge over Paoli Loop Road and the railroad tracks would be expensive. I appreciate the argument, City Councilmember Mark Joseph said. Theres part of me that says you have a lot more convincing to do. He wasnt alone. Frankly, myself, Im not at the point where Im going to give up a third lane, Garcia said. Neither was City Councilmember Kenneth Leary. I want to ask that you look at the six-lane solution, Leary told Miller. Miller said a highway project miles away in Solano County might make a difference for American Canyon traffic. That is improving the connector ramp from eastbound Highway 12 through Jameson Canyon to eastbound Interstate 80 near Fairfield. Turning this one-lane connector ramp into a two-lane ramp would help remove a rural Jameson Canyon afternoon rush-hour bottleneck. That, in turn, might encourage more I-80-bound drivers to take Highway 12 through Jameson Canyon instead of Highway 29 through American Canyon. Construction of the improved Highway 12-and-I-80 ramp is to begin in summer of 2020, according to the Solano Transportation Authority. Another effort to make at least a small dent in Highway 29 traffic is finishing off Devlin Road. The city and Napa County are taking the final steps to complete this 3.5-mile parallel route from American Canyon to Highway 29 near the Grapecrusher statue. American Canyon had sought to begin construction this summer on the half-mile segment between Middleton Way and Green Island Road. Work would finish in 2020. That hinged on the California Transportation Commission (CTC) advancing $4.1 million in state funds scheduled to be released for the project in 2021-22. After talking with CTC staff, American Canyon has decided to seek a shorter advance that will allow construction to begin in 2020, but in such a way that takes advantage of the entire summer construction season. This could still allow the project to finish by the end of 2020. It will be cause for celebration, Garcia said. Joseph said a completed Devlin Road parallel route also raises a question. The American Canyon general plan shows a link ultimately being made from Devlin Road to residential areas a short distance away, creating American Canyons long-planned west side connector. But a west side connector is controversial. Some residents fear it will increase the number of motorists fed up with Highway 29 congestion who seek traffic relief by driving through their neighborhoods. Christopher James and Tammy Wong have done speed studies on their residential street, Wetlands Edge Road. Using an automated speed camera, they created a rogues gallery with photos of autos going between 35 mph and 53 mph. The speed limit is 25 mph. James told the City Council that the city in 1999 went against its general plan and allowed homes along Wetlands Edge Road. As a result, it promised never to make Wetlands Edge Road an alternative to Highway 29, something a west side connector would accomplish. Joseph said he wants the city to convene a group to talk about the west side connector alternatives. Wong urged to the city to send out mailers to get residents involved. 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. Sachitra Gurung is an arts and culture reporter for The Kathmandu Post, focusing on pop culture, human interest and social issues. Before joining the Post, Gurung worked for ECS media and WOW magazine. Police: Thieves tried to steal Patron and a vacuum cleaner from Napa Target Nothing says party like bottles of tequila and spring cleaning. Two people were arrested Saturday after stealing Patron from the Target in south Napa, and trying to steal more Patron and a vacuum from the Target in Bel Aire Plaza, police say. Officers received a report of a theft at the Bel Aire Plaza Target shortly after 11:00 a.m. Saturday, according to Napa Police Department Sgt. Mike Walund. Chrishonna Monique Gates, 31, filled a cart with bottles of Patron and a vacuum cleaner, then left without paying, he said. She was arguing with a loss prevention employee, who grabbed the cart, when Dwight Imargo Windham, 29, pulled the employee to the ground, Walund said. The employee suffered minor injuries, but was not treated for his injuries. Gates and Windham drove off and were spotted by officers while driving down Highway 29, Walund said. They were stopped on Airport Road and a search of the trunk revealed another four or five bottles of Patron, he said. The Target in the South Napa Marketplace reviewed its security footage and determined the pair had stolen the items, but the theft went undetected, Walund said. Officers determined that Gates was driving on a suspended license and had a domestic violence restraining order against Windham, who was on parole and said he got out of jail a day ago, Walund said. Windham was arrested on suspicion of felony charges related to robbery and conspiracy, and a misdemeanor charge for violating a domestic violence restraining order, jail records show. Gates was arrested on suspicion of two felony charges related to robbery and conspiracy, plus a misdemeanor charge of driving on a suspended license, jail records show. 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. In the feverish heyday of the "birther movement," conspiracy-hungry readers swarmed to a website called WorldNetDaily for the latest on the specious yet viral theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. The site's founder, Joseph Farah - a former newspaperman with a dense, jet-black mustache and a cloak-and-dagger mystique - boasted in 2010 that he was well on the way to generating $10 million a year in revenue. His Northern Virginia-headquartered news site, known by the acronym WND, was having its moment by stoking rumors about Obama. But Farah - a conservative internet pioneer who'd once been labeled by the Clinton White House as part of a right-wing media conspiracy and was known to sport a pistol on his hip in the office - saw bigger things. Years earlier he'd launched one of the first large-scale digital newsgathering operations; now he wanted to be a player in Christian-themed movies and book publishing, churning out titles by big-name conservatives, such as anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly and the future House Intelligence Committee chairman, Devin Nunes, R-Calif. He was building an empire. A decade later that realm is being sucked into a tornado of unpaid bills, pink-slipped employees, chaotic accounting, declining revenue and diminishing readership, according to interviews with more than 25 former employees, shareholders, company insiders and authors associated with the firm's flailing publishing units, as well as a review of hundreds of internal documents, including emails and financial statements obtained by The Washington Post. Even though Farah claimed in WND columns and emails to supporters last year to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations - including tax-deductible contributions - some former employees and contractors have been laid off or had their deals canceled without being paid money they say they were owed. Many authors who signed on with the site's publishing arm, including former Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, are fuming about allegedly not receiving royalties owed to them. Coburn recalled in an interview that he had a "very frank and disturbing" conversation last year with Farah about unpaid royalties for his 2017 book, "Smashing the D.C. Monopoly." "I accused him of not being honest," Coburn said. "He doesn't keep his commitments. He doesn't keep his word." Other authors, initially attracted to WND by the image Farah crafted for himself as a devout evangelical Christian, have groused that they paid WND's pay-to-publish division thousands of dollars to have their books printed but haven't received the royalties they were promised or other items, such as audio versions of their works. Their complaints, requests for basic accounting statements and pleas for help were largely ignored, according to emails and interviews with more than a dozen authors. Reached by phone last week, Farah's wife, Elizabeth - the site's co-founder with her husband - declined to discuss the accusations in detail, but added that "the angst of a former employee does not impress me as to the legitimacy of complaints." "It's a he-said, she-said," Elizabeth Farah said. Less than two hours after she was contacted by The Washington Post, WND posted a story saying Joseph Farah had recently suffered a serious, previously undisclosed stroke. Once a niche juggernaut with a devoted following and dozens of employees, WND has undergone a dramatic transformation. The site has left behind its upscale offices in Chantilly, Virginia, and now operates remotely via a small group of staffers scattered around the country. Farah wrote in a WND column in January that most of his staff is gone. "We are struggling to survive," he wrote. For months, Farah has blamed his site's troubles on a supposed cabal of powerful technology companies that he believes are suppressing traffic to WND and other conservative sites. He recently wrote that his company has lost 80 percent of its revenue since 2017 and has stopped publishing new books and making movies. "There has never been a force like the combined power of Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Amazon and Apple in the world before - at least not since the Tower of Babel," Farah wrote in a column earlier this year. "I'm talking about real 'collusion' - and having nothing to do with Russia." But interviews and documents show an organization that existed in almost constant crisis mode, chronically late in paying its employees and vendors, and wrestling with internal allegations about questionable spending by its founders and claims they were withholding information from the company's board and using company funds to support a comfortable lifestyle in the Washington suburbs. "Where did the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by WND in 2018 from readers and other donors go?" said Felicia Dionisio, a longtime WND news writer and editor who ran the books division before being laid off last year. "It didn't go toward author royalties, it didn't go toward rehiring any of the many loyal employees who were laid off, it didn't go toward providing accurate and timely paychecks, and it didn't go toward making those who suffered due to cutbacks at WND whole." --- In the pre-internet era, Joseph Farah was a mainstream newsman, serving as executive news editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, a major daily that competed with the much larger Los Angeles Times before shuttering in 1989. Later, as editor of the conservative Sacramento Union, he irked some staffers by taking a pointedly antiabortion stance. He made headlines by defending a decision by the paper's publisher to ban advertisements for movies rated NC-17. "NC-17 films are nothing more than X-rated films with a polite new name," Farah told United Press International in 1990. Farah's tenure at the Union was less than two years. Unmoored from the executive suite, he had a fallback. He wrote punchy columns - a chain-smoking dynamo whose colleagues marveled at how fast he could spin out prose. Farah, now in his mid-60s, was known for his promotion of the theory that deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster might have been the victim of foul play rather than committing suicide. He founded a nonprofit called the Western Journalism Center, then a for-profit venture, WorldNetDaily. Farah's new outfit seemed to some investors like a potential moneymaking internet play. At a time when traditional news operations were struggling to grasp the power of the internet, Farah was ahead of almost everyone, carving a path occupied by few others beyond Matt Drudge. Farah and his wife took an unusual route to cyber-success. They leased a 250-acre ranch in a stretch of rural southern Oregon known as "the imaginary state of Jefferson," according to Farah's book "Stop the Presses!" They invited staffers to move there with them, and called their ranch, with its cabins converted into offices, "the compound." The Farahs lived across the road in a log cabin. Farah was the face of the site. In 2000, he beat the world to the story of Jane Fonda becoming a born-again Christian. He's since described Fonda as a "whacked-out traitor" for her anti-Vietnam War activism. He wrote in his book that he'd served as a bodyguard for Fonda during a peace campaign tour in 1972; in those days he, too, was a Vietnam War protester. A few years after the Oregon move, the Farahs decided to relocate to the Washington, D.C., area. It was a place he called "the belly of the beast." Farah's scoops and his site's Clinton bashing attracted investors who shared his philosophy. But his spending habits, and those of his wife, were setting off alarm bells among some insiders who considered the couple reckless and undisciplined, according to interviews and internal documents obtained by The Post. As the firm's 10th anniversary approached, the Farahs planned a splashy celebration. They signed a contract with the Washington Hilton in 2006 but were saddled with huge cancellation and other costs when they were unable to generate enough interest to pull it offf, according to an internal memo. Executives turned to a wealthy donor to cover the costs. "We needed 200,000+ to bail out the Hilton 10th Anniversary snafu," the memo said. In 2008, Farah bought a book publishing firm, World Ahead Press, which took the name WND Books. In the years to come, he would also launch a filmmaking operation, complete with high-tech studios in Chantilly, and host a film festival. "They ran off in more than one direction," said a shareholder and former board member on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal company matters. "The spending control was less than ideal." A change in corporate structure had stripped minority shareholders of much power, which was further concentrated in the hands of the Farahs, according to one internal document. Some complained that Farah needed to be more transparent about how much he and the rest of his family were being paid, according to emails and interviews. The shareholders said they wanted Farah to focus on his core business: the website, which was drawing up to 4 million unique visitors a month. Obama's election had given Farah the perfect foil: In 2009, the site dug in on the birther theory, publishing hundreds of articles pushing the notion that Obama's birth certificate was questionable. PolitiFact dubbed WND "the conductor of the Birther train." Then and now, Farah has attracted well-known figures to write for the site, including Jerome Corsi, who wrote a book questioning Obama's eligibility to be president and is a key witness in the special counsel probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election; and evangelical Christian leader James Dobson. His daughter, Alyssa Farah - now Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary - wrote for WND briefly in 2013 and 2014. Farah cultivated a secretive persona. He refused to meet at his office for a 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times, only agreeing to sit down at a Starbucks in Virginia if the name of the town wasn't given. Inside the operation, troubles were percolating. A high-ranking executive had been raising concerns about Elizabeth Farah's spending on a company credit card, citing charges made to a wine shop, a clothing store, a cosmetics seller and a company that supplies materials for home-schooling, according to an internal memo obtained by The Post that lists each charge. "How are these specifically work related?" an internal April 2012 memo states. "Optically, these types of expenses look bad, especially when the company is upside down in terms of cash flow and accounts payable." "Huge red flag," the memo says. In spring 2015, Floyd Brown, an internet entrepreneur who served on WND's board, traveled to Missouri to tour the warehouse that shipped books and other materials sold in WND's online store, which still sells numerous items, including survivalist gear, such as water filtration straws and "Russian gas masks." He found pallets of unsold materials. "Inventory is a stone around your neck," Brown wrote in an email to a top WND executive. "You need to increase your writedowns so the board actually knows how that division is doing." When Joseph Farah found out about the trip, he sent an email to the company executive who arranged it, accusing himof an "inexcusable breach of confidence." "There is nothing materially new in the condition of the company's finances that would require alerting the board," Farah wrote. "We have been consistently behind on payables and obligations for years." Brown confirmed the substance of the exchange with Farah, but added, "I have the greatest respect and admiration for Joseph Farah and what he has done at WND.com." --- In early 2017, an email landed in the inbox of the husband of a stay-at-home mother of three in Wisconsin. It was just what Diane Anthony thought she needed. She'd been working on a novel titled "Supernova" about a worldwide calamity that killed hordes of people but gave super powers to the survivors. The email offered a deal: World Ahead Press, a publishing arm of WND, would publish her book for a fee, promote it for her and give her a share of sales proceeds. Anthony sifted through the different publishing options, each with a different price tag attached. "We thought that if we're helping our fellow Christians, that seems like a good road to go down," she said in a recent interview. "We went for the most expensive package." It cost $9,999. At points scattered across the country, others reached the same conclusion: They could trust WND because of its Christian values. In Florida, Patricia Feijo dug into her dwindling savings for $9,999 to tell her version of her husband's imprisonment for promoting unapproved cancer treatments through their ministry, Daniel Chapter One, in a book titled "Called to Stand: How a Small Christian Ministry Courageously Stood Up to Government Tyranny." In Virginia, Rita Dunaway - an attorney who contributed columns to WND - struck a more traditional publishing deal, in which she would receive royalties but not have to pay for publication. Each of the women would have their expectations shattered. Calls and emails went unreturned. Anthony and Feijo said they hadn't gotten audiobooks they'd been promised. Dunaway felt she was getting excuses about the months-long delay in publishing her book. By January 2018 they got a clearer picture of what was happening. Joseph Farah wrote a column outlining WND's financial woes and saying his company faced an "existential threat." "It pains me to tell you that many loyal WND staffers are working without salary to pull us through a crisis," he wrote. "I'm asking for the help of those who recognize the unique role WND plays in reaching the God-fearing audience that, like us, supports limited government, national sovereignty and the traditional Judeo-Christian values that made America truly great." Within a few days of his January call for help, he announced that he'd raised $100,000. By March he'd announced that $200,000 had been raised in a column headlined "Mission accomplished! Operation 'Save WND' successful." But before the month was out, payroll was late again, according to an email Joseph Farah sent to staff. His wife notified the staff that dental and vision insurance had been cut off. As the crisis worsened, Dunaway found another publisher for her book "Restoring America's Soul: Advancing Timeless Conservative Principles in a Wayward Culture." But not before telling Farah by email that "I really am at a loss to understand this kind of treatment at the hands of someone I considered to be a brother in Christ." WND had a variety of publishing arrangements. Some of the better-known figures such as Coburn did not pay to have their books printed. Instead, they were promised royalties and in some cases received advances, according to internal documents and interviews. Coburn, who says his contract called for royalties but no advance, worked out a deal in which WND sent him copies of his book in lieu of royalties that he said he was owed. "It's been a downhill ride ever since it was published," Coburn said. "Everybody seems to have problem with them." --- While his company was reeling, Farah kept coming up with new plans to salvage it. In late 2018, he became entranced with bitcoin, the digital currency. In a staff meeting, according to Dionisio and another person who participated, Farah outlined his plans to offer bitcoin to the public in return for donations, and he suggested that employees get in on the deal. "We couldn't believe that here we were waiting for our paychecks and here he is asking us to buy bitcoin," Dionisio said. "We were like, 'Oh my gosh, we're in crazytown now.'" Bitcoin couldn't save WND, either. This month, Farah was once again asking for money and railing against the tech companies he blames for his site's troubles. "There is no end in sight," the founder wrote. "There are only three forces on Earth powerful enough to take on this hateful, un-American, left-wing, anti-God monopoly - this new Tower of Babel. Those three forces are God, the U.S. government and you, the American people." The Washington Post's Alice Crites contributed to this report. Lawn darts. Killer baby cribs. Pool drains that disemboweled children. Cars that exploded in low-speed fender benders. Miss those? Even though consumer advocates got rid of those deathtraps years ago, U.S. industry is back with jet planes that fall from the sky, strollers that will smash your kids face in andcoming soon to a store near youpork that may or may not have fecal contamination. Because we dont need regulation, right? I think were going backwards, said Bette Bommer, 68, a retired phys-ed teacher from Staten Island who was standing before a tribute to one of the biggest consumer safety scandals of 20th-century Americathe Ford Pinto. It just feels like theyre moving everything, all these products, out so fast, without caring about safety and people. Its just about business now, Bommer said. We were by one of the less popular exhibits at the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, the ode to Consumer Advocacy. I know, not nearly as lit as the Batmobile or Archie Bunkers chair. But the very fact that the displaywhich contains those awful lawn darts that maimed children of the 60s and 70s plus the model of the explosive Ford Pinto that was used in court to prove the deadly placement of the gas tanksexists tells us something about the idea that the reckless disregard for customer safety for businesses was mostly a thing of the past. Nope. It was the Ford Pinto in 1977 that fueled a more robust consumer advocacy culture, one that made us feel safe and secure in our products. Mother Jones journalist Mark Dowie got hold of a Ford Motor Co. document that calculated it was cheaper to pay off the families of folks who died in fiery crashes than to pay the $11 a car it would take to fix the problem of the poorly positioned gas tank. Of course, it wasnt all the Pintos that did that, and I was never afraid to get into one, said Pamela Litke, 67, a tourist from Oakland, California, who used to work for a car-rental company in the Pinto era and said they were a beloved and well-running car. She was chuffed to see the little model of a Pinto at the Smithsonian. But even if the car exploded in a perfect-storm scenario, why would you take that chance? she said. Some regulation is a good thing. Better safe than sorry. And sure, there are absurd cases of safety regulation. Just think of all the crazy stickers plastered on your new car, a baby seat or every darn plastic bag. The museum display of documents and photos of Ralph Nader tracking the Pinto case and the rise of consumer advocacy in America is, ridiculously, one of the most Washington things in there. Not as sexy as the Star-Spangled Banner or President Abraham Lincolns top hat. But what does wonky Washington do better than regulate, calculate and analyze? And that makes it easytoo easyto belittle this part of Washington, to turn a middle-class workforce of regulators, scientists and engineers into big government enemies that need to be reined in. And then you have planes falling out of the air, as that attitude toward the Federal Aviation Administration gave Boeing more power to regulate itself. Its a trend that may have unintended consequences for safety, wrote The Washington Posts Michael Laris, after another Boeing jet crashed last month. The deaths of 346 people in the crashes of 737 Max 8 jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia have created a crisis for Boeing and the FAA, even as investigators continue delving into the disasters causes, Laris wrote. And then this week, The Washington Posts Todd Frankel reported on the case of a Britax jogging stroller that had been involved in hundreds of bloody accidents after the front wheel fell off. But a recall? Not anymore. As President Trumps administration took over the case, the Consumer Product Safety Commission was neutered and its recommendation to recall the faulty stroller was ignored. Baby Pinto? If the throwback to the freewheeling of 1970s vehicles isnt retro enough for you, looks like our pork industry may be taking a trip back to the good old days of American meatpacking circa 1900. Our Upton Sinclair of today, Kimberly Kindy, reported in The Post this week that the Trump administration plans to shift much of the power and responsibility for food safety inspections in hog plants to the pork industry as early as May, cutting the number of federal inspectors by about 40 percent and replacing them with plant employees. Ready to say adios to your el pastor yet? Under the proposed new inspection system, the responsibility for identifying diseased and contaminated pork would be shared with plant employees, whose training would be at the discretion of plant owners, Kindy wrote. Fox, welcome to the hen house. Petula Dvorak is a columnist for The Washington Posts local team. Before coming to The Post, she covered social issues, crime and courts. A recent Pew Research poll found that 69 percent of white evangelicals approve of how Donald Trump is handling his job as president of the United States. This number is slightly lower than previous polls, some of which had white evangelical support for Trump as high as 78 percent. We can speculate as to why there has been a slight dip in white evangelical support for the president, and it bears watching to see if this decline is the beginning of a trend. But one thing is certain for now: Trump's evangelical support remains sky-high overall. That support requires some explanation, because Trump is a far cry from the sort of leader white evangelicals say they admire. His personal life is well out of step with Christian teachings on fidelity, honesty, humility and charity. This rough fit indicates that the major driver for this support stems not from the teachings of the church so much as a political movement that has weaponized them over the last 40 years, promising a path to return to a Christian golden age that never actually existed. The Pew survey revealed that Trump is more popular among white evangelicals who regularly attend church and less popular among those who do not. Why the divergence? Because many white evangelicals who attend church regularly came of age politically and spiritually in the 1980s, precisely when the Christian right was born. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, evangelicals became anxious about perceived threats to white Christian culture in America. In 1962 and 1963, the Supreme Court removed prayer and mandatory Bible reading from public schools. The Hart-Cellar Act of 1965 increased diversity in the country by opening it to large numbers of non-western immigrants, who brought their diverse religious beliefs with them. In 1971, the Supreme Court, in Green v. Connolly, stripped the tax-exempt status from institutions that discriminated in their admissions policies based on race. This affected a host of Southern Christian schools and academies, many of which saw the decision in terms of "big government" threatening their religious liberty - the liberty to discriminate based upon their reading of the Bible. And, of course, in 1973 the Court supported a women's right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade. It appeared that the world white evangelicals once knew was disappearing. Some of the leaders of the movement, buoyed by a renewed interest in American identity during the nation's bicentennial celebration in 1976, came to believe that the best way of fighting these social, cultural and demographic changes was to organize politically. Jerry Falwell, a Baptist minister from Lynchburg, Virginia, formed the Moral Majority to "train, mobilize, and electrify the Religious Right" in preparation to fight a "holy war" for the moral soul of America. Falwell's organization played a major role in electing Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 and shaped a vision for white conservative evangelical political activity that remains strong today. Falwell and Pat Robertson, a televangelist and 1988 candidate for president, taught white evangelicals that the only way to "win back America" and stem the rising tide of secularization and diversity was by electing Republicans. From the perspective of these conservative white evangelicals, the Democratic Party was moving away from the traditional or family values that they understood to have defined the United States as a Christian nation. By contrast, Republicans had seized on the opportunity to welcome these fearful evangelicals into the fold by adopting their preferred positions on the crucial cultural issues causing so much angst in the evangelical community. Soon, these white evangelicals would control the party. While it has failed to "win back" the culture, the political strength of the resultant movement cannot be underestimated. It has shaped much of white evangelical political activity in the 21st century. The result has been that, even as the GOP has achieved remarkably little for the Christian right over the past four decades, the ironclad relationship between white evangelical churchgoers and Republicans has, if anything, grown stronger. The Christian right's ability to convince white evangelicals that only political power can bring about meaningful change makes it one of the most important political movements in post-World War II America. It has convinced millions of Christians to reject the teachings of Jesus about the dangers of worldly power and put their trust in political saviors to advance God's work in the nation and around the globe. Today, the Christian right remains focused on the Supreme Court, which many evangelicals see as the chief impediment to their agenda on issues ranging from school prayer to LGBTQ rights to abortion. Their political playbook requires evangelicals to elect an attentive president who, in turn, will appoint socially conservative federal judges. Once these judges are in place, evangelicals believe they will be better positioned to win the battles over these key issues; saving the nation would avoid divine punishment for its sins. That idea has remained so potent over the decades because it is embedded in evangelical churches. Pastors use their pulpits to speak about these cultural issues. Adult education classes in churches often focus on such topics. Members of small-group Bible studies discuss them. Some church leaders consistently stoke fear in their congregations by pointing to threats to religious liberty, both real and imagined. Many white evangelical churchgoers now see the fight to overturn Roe v. Wade as equivalent to their call to share the Gospel with unbelievers. They subscribe to the message that the only way to live out evangelical faith in public is to vote for the candidates who will most effectively execute the 40-year-old Christian right playbook. The movement's message is so strong that even when pastors oppose the politicization of their religion, the message is not likely to persuade congregants. Indeed, many white evangelical pastors do not preach politics from their pulpit. Some speak boldly against the idolatrous propensity of their congregations to seek political saviors. But these pastors cannot control the messaging their flocks imbibe after they leave church on Sunday. And a massive Christian right messaging machine targets these Americans with precision. Ministries and nonprofit organizations, driven by conservative political agendas, bombard the mailboxes, inboxes and social media feeds of ordinary evangelicals. Many of these organizations appeal to long-standing evangelical fears about cultural decline or provide selective historical evidence that the United States was founded as, and continues to be, a "Christian nation," even though this never was true. Evangelicals filter what they hear during weekly sermons through Fox News and conservative talk radio, producing an approach to political engagement that looks more like the Republican Party than the Kingdom of God. None of this is new. People in the pews (or in the case of evangelical megachurches, the chairs), have always been selective in how they apply their pastor's sermons in everyday life. Evangelical Christians, from the Puritans to the present, have always mixed traditional Christian teachings with more non-Christian sources as they cultivate their religious lives. Today, however, cable television and social media expose white evangelicals to ideas that come from outside the church but that claim to be driven by Christianity at an unprecedented rate. This strange but long-standing mix of biblical Christianity and conservative talking points empowers an incompetent and immoral president. It will likely have disastrous consequences for the future mission of born-again Christianity in the United States, as the redemptive message of the Gospel becomes little more than a political agenda that turns off those who otherwise might be longing for the spiritual solace it provides. As long as the Christian right continues to hold sway in white evangelical churches, and as long as parachurch organizations encourage its agenda, the support for Trump among these Christians who attend church regularly will remain steady. John Fea teaches history at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa. and is the author of "Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump." He wrote this for The Washington Post. Bangladesh has set up a National Committee for Intelligence Coordination to both review intelligence gathering processes and identify weaknesses as well as to provide a forum for evaluating critical intelligence inputs. A top intelligence official included in this committee said it was formed by a notification on March 27 last. In its fight against Islamist radicalism and attempts by countries like Pakistan to foment these forces, Bangladesh has long felt the need to improve the quality and speed of its intelligence gathering and internal reviews have found agencies not up to the mark. The failure to anticipate a hijack attempt of a Bangladesh airliner in late February this year set the ball rolling for a review of the entire intelligence gathering and analysis process in the country. The review was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself. She has survived dozens of assassination attempts since she came to power in January 2009 and many before that as well. Our Prime Minister continues to face severe threat to her personal safety, as political rivals and Islamist radicals continue to conspire to attack her with backing from some foreign elements who want to disrupt normalcy in Bangladesh, said a top Bangladesh security official. The government notification of March 27 sets up the National Committee for Intelligence Coordination with a total of 15 members, 11 in the core committee and four in the committee to support it. The Prime Minister is the chairperson of the committee and her defence advisor Major General (Retd) Tarek Siddiqui is its chief coordinator. Major General Siddiqui, who has done his time in military intelligence agency DGFI during his tenure as a service officer, is also distantly related to the Prime Minister, being the brother-in-law of her sister Sheikh Rehana. The Home Minister and the Cabinet Secretary as well as the chiefs of domestic intelligence agency, NSI, and the military intelligence agency, DGFI, are in the committee. It is also tasked to review the functioning of the intelligence agencies like NSI , DGFI and police special branch, identify areas of improvement for intelligence gathering and processing and also suggest better operational coordination . The committee will have a full-fledged secretariat. Bangladesh has developed strong intelligence cooperation with India for boosting its counter-terrorism capabilities. Since the July 2016 terror strike at Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka left 22 civilians including 18 foreign nationals dead, Bangladesh has come a long way in fighting terror. Scores of top Islamist militants and those leading them have been neutralised, killed in action or arrested and most of the terrorist groups have been rendered headless. But, there is no way we can discount the terror threat in view of global and regional realities and we need a first rate intelligence system to fight terror, said a top intelligence official, but on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorised to brief media. Two women from Assam who were victims of trafficking had been rescued from Nagaland on Sunday. According to reports, one lady is a resident of Guwahati and the other one hails from Tezpur. Both of the ladies had been missing from home since the day of Mahashivaratri. They had been taken to Nagaland with the promise of jobs but later had been sold into human trafficking rings. Sakhi One Stop Centre has rescued the women with the help of Nagaland Police. Sakhi centres are set up through the Nirbhaya Fund under the National Mission for Empowerment of women by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. These centres provide support and assistance to women affected by violence. In the month of February, Nepalese human trafficking victims numbering 179, including 147 girls, who were rescued from across Manipur including Imphal, were shifted to their home country. The victims were lured on false promises of providing employment in various countries. They were to be taken to Myanmar and then to Middle East countries. Some Rohingya girls have also been rescued in the recent past. Some girls from Manipur had been trafficked to other states and countries on the pretext of education, training and employment. Also read: Manipur: Nepalese human trafficking victims sent back home According to reports, the Indo-Bangla border had become a safe haven for trafficking of women and children. According to the records available with the Home Ministry, 159 women were apprehended by the Border Security Force (BSF) along the eastern frontier till February 2018. Altogether 13 women were apprehended from Tripura sector and one was apprehended from Meghalaya sector while 145 women were apprehended from West Bengal sector. Similarly, 58 children were apprehended by the security forces during the same period. Nine children were apprehended from Tripura and 49 were apprehended in West Bengal sector. The records, however, said that 574 women were apprehended in 2017 whereas 1062 women were apprehended in 2016. According to the records 123 children were apprehended in 2017 and 225 children were apprehended in 2016. Pope Francis receives Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PHOTO) Armenia Parliament Deputy Speaker receives Matthias Luttenberg Newspaper: 3 sections of highway to Armenia's Voskepar will be on Azerbaijani border, alternative roads to be built Yerevan court examining National Security Service's motion to arrest opposition 'Armenia' Alliance member (LIVE) Real Madrid plan to sign deal with Mbappe on March 9 Karabakh State Minister: Lachin corridor can't be under any kind of control of Azerbaijan Armenia President sends congratulatory message to Iran's Ebrahim Raisi on occasion of his birthday Pashinyan-Michel-Aliyev meeting kicks off in Brussels Armenia Ombudsman: We visited Armenian soldiers arrested after returning from Azerbaijani captivity Israel, Azerbaijan hold security forces drill Armenia justice minister discusses subjecting judges to disciplinary liability with Venice Commission President Armenia's Pashinyan: Azerbaijan is trying to bring opening of regional communications to a standstill Aliyev declares that checkpoint regimes of Zangezur and Lachin corridors need to match Armenia's Pashinyan, Charles Michel express hope for effective meeting with Aliyev (PHOTOS) Earthquake hits 2 km northeast from Armenia's Shorzha, felt in Gegharkunik, Kotayk and Tavush Provinces Atletico Madrid want to purchase Manchester United's forward Stoltenberg declares NATO neutrality towards Armenia and Azerbaijan Aliyev and European Council head speak on normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia Putin, Macron discuss Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, results of trilateral meeting in Sochi Armenia justice minister attending conference with counterparts of CoE member states in Venice Armenia's Pashinyan meets with European Council President in Brussels NEWS.am daily digest: 14.12.21 Armenia Central Bank head on coronavirus vaccinations Georgia to build road leading to border with Azerbaijan Armenia Central Bank chief presents forecasts for economic growth in 2021 and 2022 Armenia Parliament Speaker receives Kazakhstan Ambassador Azerbaijan opens new military unit on border with Armenia TNI: Can Armenia and Azerbaijan settle differences at Eastern Partnership Summit? Armenia Central Bank: National currency increasing in value Armenia ex-FM on Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting in Brussels Central Bank chief: 12-month normal inflation in Armenia has increased to 8.4% Meeting of Charles Michel and Ilham Aliyev is taking place in Brussels Dollar drops considerably in Armenia Ruling force MP: Establishing diplomatic relations with Turkey is in Armenia's state interests Armenia ex-foreign minister: Current objective of Co-Chairs of Minsk Group is to prove their viability Armenia PM arrives in Brussels, to hold meetings with Charles Michel, Ilham Aliyev and European counterparts Lawyer: Opposition Armenia Bloc member detained Armenia ruling party MP fails to answer question about price to pay for normalization of ties with Turkey People forget I am Armenian too: Kim Kardashian responded to blackfishing accusations Bloomberg: Turkey attempting to normalize Armenia relations to please Biden Henrikh Mkhitaryan thanks fans (PHOTO) Armenia Prosecutor General's Office files cassation appeal under case of Robert Kocharyan and other ex-officials Turkey companies begin taking over Azerbaijan-occupied territories of Artsakh Kim Kardashian's documents on divorce leaked Armenia ruling power MP questions role of former commander of Russia peacekeepers in Artsakh in releasing of captives Opposition MP: Armenia still on Turkey-Azerbaijan agenda Armenian advocate: Decision is rendered to detain NGO head and member of 'Armenia' Alliance Home Alone star accused of violence Armenia President, EU ambassador confer on regional security Fellow soldier arrested for killing Armenia serviceman, wounding 2 others Armenia high tech minister, Estonia envoy discuss several opportunities for cooperation Man, 42, kills his mother, 77, in Armenias Kapan 1 more person dies of coronavirus in Karabakh Armenia Central Bank raises refinancing rate by 0.5 percentage point Armenia parliament majority to reserve right to elect deputy chair of one of committees Armenia ex-President Kocharyan, former deputy PM now MP Gevorgyan case court hearing rescheduled again Peloton reshoots finale of Sex and the City sequel first episode Armenia NGO head detained Junior Eurovision 2021: Malena, representing Armenia, will perform for the ninth time Kim Kardashian passes baby bar exam 161 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Pilgrims, Artsakh residents visit Amaras Monastery, with Russia peacekeepers assistance MFA spokesman: Armenia also will appoint special representative for dialogue with Turkey Fan tries to propose to Kylie Jenner but is arrested Armenia PM heads for Brussels on working visit Newspaper: Armenia authorities develop mechanisms to suppress, recruit Newspaper: Armenia PM Pashinyan wants to become President with absolute power Which foods are good for thyroid gland? Armenia famous singer turns herself in to police Ex-deputy PM Avinyan: Armenian National Airlines CJSC is registered La Liga: Cadiz play draw without Haroyan Serie A: Roma, Mkhitaryan win Australia and South Korea sign $680,000,000-dollar defense deal US, North Korea, South Korea and China agree to end Korean War Turkish FM: Armenia and Turkey will designate special envoys to discuss normalization of relations Why did the police summon Armenia ex-MP Ruben Hakobyan? Yerevan Municipality spokesperson: Director of city's bus operating company resigns Lukashenko thanks Erdogan for Turkey's principled stance on Belarus Russian and Iranian FMs discuss JCPOA situation NATO Secretary General to meet with Aliyev Turkish man arrested for throwing Erdogan's portrait on the ground Tractor that remained in Karabakh's Amaras after Azerbaijani shootings removed through Russian mediation Georgia MFA is discontent with showing of Georgian national flag at '3+3' regional format meeting in Moscow Armenia PM's Chief of Staff, France Ambassador discuss strengthening of trade-economic relations Emma Raducanu tests positive for COVID-19, isolated in Abu Dhabi Iran, Turkmenistan stress measures to strengthen transit ties Iran's and Saudi Arabia's representatives hold security meeting in Amman Bayern Munich's Jamal Musiala receives wrist fracture NEWS.am daily digest: 13.12.21 Armenia Constitutional Court president receives France Ambassador 55-year-old Yerevan pedestrian run over by 21-year-old with moped, hospitalized Armenia education, science, culture and sport minister has new deputy Armenia Prosecutor General attending Conference of States Parties to UN Convention against Corruption Armenia President receives head of Higher Presidential Committee of Churches Affairs in Palestine Joining up for Green Future: British Embassy and HSBC Bank Armenia promoting sustainability in Armenia (PHOTOS) Armenia ruling force MP: Opposition demand for parliament speakers resignation is attempt to collect dividends Men vaccinated more against coronavirus than women in Armenia Armenian Zartonk political party issues statement on apprehension of 3 members Dollar falls after long rise in Armenia Travis Scott to miss Coachella 2022 Overcast skies and rains make Tarai windstorm survivors wary With pre-monsoon getting active and chances of rainfall accompanied by thunderstorm and gusty wind on the forecast, survivors of last weeks windstorm in Bara and Parsa are bracing for more difficult times as they struggle to pick up the pieces. Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, IRNA reported. The US officials--contrary to their verbal remarks--assume the democracy and the current assembly of political activists in Iraq as detrimental to themselves. Therefore the Iraqi government should take actions so that US troops will leave Iraq as soon as possible, pointed out Ayatollah Khamenei in a meeting with Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the Iraqi Prime Minister. Emphasizing the fact that human assets and rich mineral resources in Iraq will make this country the most influential country of the Arab world, his Eminence stated: The US officials and their cohorts in the region are against the current democratic establishment in Iraq as well as the officials and the chief leaders and regard them as offensive to their own interests. Stressing that if the Iraqi government and officials followed the US, the US would have no problems with Iraq, he added: The current government and parliament in Iraq and the political figures are not what the US desires; as a result, they plot removing them from the political scene of Iraq. The Supreme Leader mentioned that what the US and Saudi officials say in words about Iraq contradict their real intentions and held: At a time when the ISIS occupied Mosul, they provided the terrorists with money, arms and equipment; and now that Iraq has defeated ISIS, they pretend they seek friendship with Iraq. The Leader of the Revolution regarded the US military presence in the countries of the region as detrimental to the countries and the nations and addressed the Iraqi Prime Minister by stressing that: You should take necessary measures so that the US will withdraw its troops from Iraq as soon as possible; because in any country where US maintained an enduring military presence, the process of expelling them became more complicated and problematic.' YEREVAN.- Establishment of comprehensive peace and stability in the region is our main task. But for the solution of this problem it is necessary to lay the foundation for the correct formulas, said Armenian Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, speaking at the special congress of the Yerkrapah Union of Volunteer Land Defenders (UVLD), held in the sessions hall of the Government on 7 April. Establishment of comprehensive peace and stability cannot be the responsibility of one or two parties of the Karabakh conflict, this responsibility is equally shared by all three parties of the conflict. This is a shared responsibility, teamwork. And I discussed these questions, this idea during the meeting with Ilham Aliyev in Vienna on March 29. And I announced our version of achieving peace on March 12 during a joint meeting of the Security Councils of Armenia and Artsakh. During the negotiations in Vienna, that was the main topic of discussion. In this regard, there is a certain misunderstanding that I would like to clarify. It is said that the Armenian government demands a change in the format of the negotiations, and our neighbors represent with a victory the fact that the format change did not happen. I want to clearly state that Armenia has never raised the issue of changing the format of the negotiations on the Karabakh settlement. The government of Armenia raised the issue of restoring the format. Namely, the negotiations on the Karabakh settlement should be held in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group. From the first minute of its appearance, the OSCE MG format implied the involvement and participation of an elected representative of Nagorno-Karabakh in the negotiation process. Karabakh participated in the negotiation process not only until 1998, but also after that. After 1998, Armenia was represented at the talks by Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsyan, who essentially represented Karabakh, as they were elected representatives of Karabakh. And in this sense, they had a full mandate. Therefore, today the negotiation process should continue according to the same logic. If we hold talks without a representative of Karabakh, it means that we are talking about anything, except settlement of the conflict as in such a format it is not serious to talk about resolving the conflict, he said. Speaking about the Madrid principles, Pashinyan noted that for him, as a person who was recently involved in the negotiation process, it is necessary to get a clear explanation of what these principles are in practice. What are the consequences of the negotiations based on these negotiations. In Vienna, I did not get a clear answer to this question. Only after I get a clear answer we will clearly say how acceptable these principles are for us. It is said that the biggest advantage of the Madrid principles is that each of the parties can comment on them as they want. This is not serious, said Pashinyan. Two missing Missouri children who were abducted by their father, triggering an Amber Alert, have been found safe, authorities said. The St. Charles Police Department issued the alert on April 5 for Fernando Marez, 3, and Alexia Marez, 1. Police said they were abducted by Fernando Marez-Carreas, 24. Marez-Carreas assaulted the mother of the children and threatened to kill one of them before leaving the city with another Hispanic man and woman. Later on Friday, the children were found safe in Fairmont City, Illinois, after being dropped off at the citys police station by an unknown woman. UPDATE: Fernando Marez and Alexia Marez have been located in Fairmount City, IL. We are in the process of reuniting the Posted by St. Charles Police Department on Friday, April 5, 2019 We dont know at this point what her relationship is to him, the father or the mother, St. Charles Police Lt. Tom Wilkison told Fox 2. The children were being reunited with their mother. Officers were still searching for Marez-Carreas, who was described as standing 57, wearing a blue T-shirt, black vest, dark blue jeans, and Champion shoes. He has tattoos of the childrens names on his arms and was driving a tan, 4-door SUV with a Missouri or Illinois license plate that includes the sequence E15. This investigation is very much ongoing, we certainly want to talk about the incident that transpired today and find out everything that happened, Lt. Wilkison told Fox 2. Right now everyone has an overwhelming sense of relief that the kids were found so quickly and they are unharmed thats the main thing they are okay. Parental Kidnapping According to the Polly Klaas Foundation, approximately 200,000 children are kidnapped each year by a family member. Child custody experts say that people kidnap their own children to force a reconciliation or continued interaction with the other, left-behind parent; to spite or punish the other parent; or from fear of losing custody or visitation rights. In rare cases, the kidnapping may occur to protect a child from a parent who is believed to be abusing the child. Common warnings signs include the other parent threatening abduction, suspected abuse, or paranoid delusion. Kidnapping The number of reported missing children significantly decreased in recent years, according to a report by the Department of Justice (pdf) in 2017. Reported missing children dropped from 6.5 per 1,000 children in 1999 to 3.1 per 1,000 in 2013. Missing children typically fall into five categories: kidnapped by a family member, abducted by a nonfamily perpetrator, runaways, those who got lost, stranded, or injured, or those who went missing due to benign reasons, such as misunderstandings, according to the report. Department of Justice researchers said in a separate report (pdf) published in 2016 that there were an estimated 105 children nationwide that were victims of stereotypical kidnappings, a number that was virtually the same as 1997. Most kidnappings involved the use of force or threats, and about three in five victims were sexually assaulted, abused, or exploited, the researchers said. Stereotypical kidnappings are defined as abductions in which a slight acquaintance or stranger moves a child at least 20 feet or holds the child at least 1 hour. Most victims were girls aged 12 to 17 and most perpetrators were men aged 18 to 35. (Updates with increased death toll, other detail) BEIRUT, April 7 (Reuters) - At least 15 people were reported killed on Sunday in shelling by government and insurgent forces in northwestern Syria, further straining a Russian-Turkish ceasefire deal for the region. The northwest is the last major foothold of insurgents opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, many of whom were forced to retreat there after military defeats at the hands of Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia. Last year, Damascus was poised to mount an offensive into the northwest, raising fears of a humanitarian catastrophe. The assault was postponed after Moscow struck a deal with Ankara that included the creation of a "demilitarized zone." But the agreement has come under strain in recent weeks: the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 45 people had been killed in the last five days alone, most of them by government shelling of rebel-held areas. On Sunday, government shelling killed seven people in rebel-held Nerab, the Observatory and the pro-opposition TV station Orient reported. Three more people were killed in rebel-held Saraqeb, civil defense rescue workers said on a Twitter feed. Syrian state media said five people had been killed in rebel rocket fire that hit government-held Masyaf. The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Britain, Canada, the United States, Italy, and Japan on Saturday noted "with mounting concern the escalation in Syrian military activity in the de-escalation zone in Idlib over recent weeks," according to a communique issued on Saturday after a Group of Seven meeting. The Syrian government has vowed to take back the northwestern region, comprising Idlib and adjacent areas of Hama and Aleppo provinces. Last week, Damascus said its ally Russia had started to feel that its patience was running out over the northwest. However Moscow had told Damascus that Turkey was still determined to implement the agreement reached in September. Story continues Turkey has deployed forces into Idlib under an agreement with Russia and Iran. Jihadist insurgents of the Tahrir al-Sham group hold sway on the ground. The United Nations says Idlib and the adjacent areas are sheltering some 3 million people, half of whom have been uprooted from other parts of Syria by the war. Turkish forces control a separate chunk of territory north of Aleppo where Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army rebels are based. (Writing by Tom Perry Editing by Mark Heinrich) (Adds Nielsen tweet saying we'll stay until April 10) By Patricia Zengerle and Diane Bartz WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversaw President Donald Trump's bitterly contested immigration policies during her tumultuous 16-month tenure, resigned on Sunday amid a surge in the number of migrants at the border with Mexico. A senior administration official said Trump asked for Nielsen's resignation and she gave it. Trump, who has recently expressed growing anger about the situation at the border, said on Twitter: "Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service." In another tweet, Trump said Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, would become acting DHS secretary. In a tweet late Sunday, Nielsen said that she would stay on until Wednesday. "I have agreed to stay on as Secretary through Wednesday, April 10th to assist with an orderly transition and ensure that key DHS missions are not impacted," she said. Nielsen's departure was first reported by CBS News. Nielsen, 46, had been DHS secretary since December 2017. Her departure had been repeatedly rumored over the past year, particularly after a wave of anger over the administration's 2018 family separation policy at the border with Mexico and most recently as U.S. border officials estimated that 100,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border in March, the highest level in a decade. Another senior administration official said Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, after a blowup with Nielsen late last year, also recommended to Trump that she should go. Trump has made a clampdown on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his two-year-old presidency, leading chants of "Build that wall" at his rallies as he has sought to cut back on the number of newcomers entering the United States without proper documentation. Story continues Many of the migrants picked up last month were Central Americans seeking U.S. asylum. Trump was so frustrated about the increase that he announced he would cut off U.S. aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. He also threatened to close the border with Mexico, although he later backed off that proposal with a threat to impose tariffs on auto imports. In her resignation letter, Nielsen asked for more from Congress and the courts, which have opposed such Trump administration initiatives as his effort to limit immigration from Muslim nations and the border wall. "I hope that the next Secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America's borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation's discourse," she wrote to Trump. Trump also took aim at Congress in another tweet later on Sunday, saying: "Country is FULL," and saying Democrats in Congress must "fix loopholes" and repeating his threats to close the border or impose tariffs if Mexico does not do more. Nielsen's resignation was the latest high-profile departure from the Trump administration, and leaves just four women in his Cabinet. Among others, Trump currently lacks a permanent secretary of defense or chief of staff. LIGHTNING ROD Nielsen's departure was announced two days after the Republican president abruptly said on Friday he was dumping his nominee to be the top official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Ronald Vitiello, saying he wanted someone "tougher." ICE is under the jurisdiction of DHS, which was formed following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Repeatedly subjected to tough questioning by Democrats at congressional hearings, Nielsen became a lightning rod for criticism of Trump's policies. She was confronted by protesters last year at a Mexican restaurant in Washington. Last year, Nielsen came under increasing pressure by critics to step aside after the Trump administration adopted the policy of separating migrant children from their parents as part of its "zero tolerance" approach intended to deter families from leaving home in the hope of entering the United States. After criticism as pictures of children in cages were spread across the world, Trump signed an executive order in June ending family separations and requiring that families be held together in federal custody while the adults awaited prosecution for illegally crossing the border. But the government reported that at least 245 children were taken from their families between that time and the first months of 2019. Trump insists that the arrival of immigrants across the southern U.S. border constitutes a national emergency so important that he sidestepped Congress' refusal to provide him with billions of dollars he requested to build the border wall. Representative Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said Nielsen's tenure at DHS "was a disaster from the start." He said in a statement, however, that she should not serve as a scapegoat, blasting Trump for "terrible and cruel policies." Noting that the department now has neither a permanent secretary nor deputy secretary, Thompson called on the administration to work with Congress "in good faith." Before she was nominated as secretary, Nielsen worked as a deputy to former Marine General John Kelly, who headed DHS before becoming White House chief of staff. Kelly resigned as chief of staff on Jan. 2 amid reports of a strained relationship with Trump. (Reporting by Diane Bartz and Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Sarah N. Lynch and Rich McKay; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Peter Cooney) 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. Kabul (AFP) - Afghanistan's chief executive Abdullah Abdullah welcomed Kabul's decision Sunday to send a delegation to meet with the Taliban, saying he hoped they would present a "unified position" for the Afghan people. In an ongoing push to find a way out of the country's 17-year-old war, Kabul had earlier announced it would send representatives to "exchange views" with Taliban officials at fresh talks, due to take place in the Qatari capital Doha later this month. US and Taliban officials have held several rounds of talks but the militant group has so far refused to talk directly to the Afghan government, which they consider an illegitimate regime. "We need to have governmental and nongovernmental politicians in one platform, and talk future peace and reconciliation," Abdullah told AFP on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan. "The aim of (the delegation) is to present a unified position of (the) people of Afghanistan", he added. Mohammad Omar Daudzai, President Ashraf Ghani's envoy for peace, said the delegation would serve only to swap views with the Taliban, and its members would not necessarily be the same as a formal negotiating team. Officials will meet Wednesday in Kabul to finalise delegates, and to decide who might comprise an official negotiating team. In a statement, the Taliban said the upcoming Doha talks would clarify participants' "views and policies and sharing their stance". "The said conference is not a negotiations summit or meeting," the Islamist extremist group said. The Taliban and Afghan opposition groups held a similar meeting in Moscow in February. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad spent last week in Afghanistan as part of an ongoing push for a peace deal. His visit came against the backdrop of strains between Washington and Ghani's administration, which has complained bitterly of being sidelined in peace talks. Story continues Khalilzad has repeatedly called on Ghani to form a strong negotiating team to reach a deal before the country's delayed presidential elections, now slated for September. On Friday, during a side trip Khalilzad made to Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan said he had some "brotherly advice" for Afghanistan, suggesting an interim government in Kabul to help smooth the talks process. It was not the first time Khan had made such a suggestion. Kabul was again furious, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned a Pakistani diplomat to explain the remarks. The notion of an interim government to tide things over between the end of Ghani's term in May and an election has sparked controversy in Afghanistan, and there is as yet no clarity as to what will happen. An "interim government for the sake just of interim government, I am not for it, (it) will not solve anything," Abdullah said. "An interim arrangement as a result of the package for peace that is agreed upon between both sides -- why not?" Khalilzad left Afghanistan on Sunday following what the US embassy called "productive" talks. "Khalilzad was pleased to see the Afghans with whom he met, inside and outside government, coming together to put peace first," the embassy said in statement. KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan government summoned a Pakistan diplomat to explain Prime Minister Imran Khan's latest remarks on ongoing Afghan peace talks, as tensions flared between the neighboring countries once again. Afghanistan's ministry of foreign affairs summoned the diplomat to object about remarks that it deemed "explicit interference" in Afghan affairs, the ministry's spokesman, Sibghatullah Ahmadi, said on Twitter. It marks the fourth time in about a month and a half that Kabul has demanded an explanation from Islamabad for comments related to peace talks aimed at ending 17 years of war in Afghanistan. In late March, Afghanistan recalled its ambassador from Islamabad for Khan's suggestion that forming an interim Afghan government might smooth peace talks between U.S. and Taliban officials. The ambassador returned shortly after Pakistan clarified Khan's remarks as being reported out of context. But on Friday, Khan addressed the matter again at a rally in Pakistan in which he explained his original comments as "brotherly advice," according to accounts published in Afghan media. "Afghanistan considers recent statements of Imran Khan explicit interference in internal affairs of Afghanistan and deems PM's remarks a return to his previous stance," Ahmadi tweeted. U.S. and Taliban officials have held several rounds of talks but the Taliban has refused to talk directly to the Afghan government, which they consider an illegitimate regime. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's mandate officially expires in May. The date for the next presidential election has been postponed twice and is now set for Sept. 28. Ghani has been shut out from the peace talks and is under pressure from rivals to step aside and allow a caretaker government to take over, a suggestion he has rejected. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Kabul; Editing by Alexandra Hudson) Abidjan (AFP) - Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, known as Africa's richest man, told a forum in Ivory Coast on Saturday how he once took $10 million in cash out of the bank just to look at it and get it into his head that this was real money, not just figures on paper. "When you're young your first million is important, but after, the numbers don't mean much," Dangote, a manufacturing tycoon with a range of companies spanning cement to flour, told the Mo Ibrahim forum in Abidjan. "One day, I cashed 10 million, put them in the boot of my car I put it in my room. I looked at them and thought 'now I believe I have money' and took it back to the bank the next day," he told his audience. Anecdotes aside, Dangote said that the two most promising sectors for Africa's future were agriculture and new technologies. But he advised young African entrepreneurs not to get carried away by the first flush of success. "Often in Africa we spend our projected incomes. There are ups and downs" in business, he warned. Dangote said he regretted the customs and administrative problems that hamper business development throughout the continent. As an example he cited the difficulties his cement group faces in exporting to Benin from Nigerian factories 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the border. Benin imported "more expensive" cement from China instead. By Jayson Mansaray LONDON (Reuters) - Productions about gay men in New York City, friendship after the Sept. 11 attacks and love in Mississippi dominated Britain's prestigious Olivier Awards for best theater on Sunday. In a distinctly American-themed night, "The Inheritance", a play about the generation after the peak of the AIDS crisis, was joint overall winner with four awards: best new play, best director (Stephen Daldry), best actor (Kyle Soller) and best lighting. Written by Matthew Lopez, the two-part play transposes E.M. Forster's classic 1910 novel "Howards End" to modern New York, where a group of young, ambitious men ponder their existence and the previous generation's legacy. "I don't have the proper vocabulary ... It feels like an out-of-body experience ... a bit crazy," Soller told Reuters after winning the award over other nominees like Ian McKellen and David Suchet. "To be speaking for a community where there's so much pain, so much healing to be done, it is just really incredible, very emotional," he added. In his acceptance speech, Soller paid tribute to the victims of AIDS and lamented that in some nations people can still be stoned to death for being gay. "Come From Away", a musical about the power of kindness among air passengers grounded in Canada after the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, also won four awards including best new musical. "Company", a reworking of U.S. composer Stephen Sondheim's comedy with a woman instead of a man in the lead role, took three prizes including best musical revival. "Summer And Smoke", a rarely-staged Tennessee Williams' drama about love, loneliness and self-destruction set in small-town Mississippi, took two honors for best actress (Patsy Ferran) and best revival. "I wasn't expecting it ... Nobody knows who I am," Ferran told Reuters afterwards, clutching a glass of champagne. "I might be slightly hung over tomorrow, don't tell anyone!" Prince Charles' wife Camilla joined stars of British theater for the glitzy ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London. (Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne and Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Sonya Hepinstall) The Independent Scientists say they finally have an explanation for a mystifying, bright blue light that came from deep in space. Three years ago, astronomers were stunned to see a bright blue flash that came out of the spiral arm of a distant galaxy, some 200 million light-years away. It looked like a supernova, but it was even brighter and faster than those already extreme events. Scientists found that it consisted not only of the bright flash of light, but also pulsing and powerful X-rays, with hundreds of millions of such pulses being traced back to the same object. Barack Obama warned on Saturday that US progressives risk creating a circular firing squad at a time when prospective presidential candidates are competing fiercely against each other to run against Donald Trump. Related: 'Our mantra is chaos': Republican researchers target 2020 Democrats The former president was speaking in Berlin, at an Obama Foundation event. One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States, he said, maybe its true here as well, is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, Uh, Im sorry, this is how its going to be and then we start sometimes creating whats called a circular firing squad, where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues. And when that happens, typically the overall effort and movement weakens. Sign up for the US morning briefing Among Democrats, the field of prospective presidential nominees has swelled to nearly 20. All are eager to appeal to a party base pushed left in opposition to a hard-right president and motivated by success in the midterm elections. Championed by progressive luminaries including the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, policy ideas such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal have achieved rising prominence. On either side of the aisle, party primaries are traditionally brutal affairs in which candidates are tested against rivals from other wings or factions. The first debates of the 2020 Democratic contest are months away but fierce fire is already being directed towards some more centrist candidates. Obamas former vice-president, Joe Biden, for example, has not yet entered the race but has nonetheless attracted attacks on his record over close to 50 years in national life, including previous stances on racial issues and womens rights. He has also struggled to respond effectively to claims from a number of women that he made them physically uncomfortable. Story continues Among other candidates, the former Texas congressman Beto ORourke has been attacked over a voting record on issues such as the environment and immigration which indicates a willingness to engage with Republicans. Kamala Harris, the California senator, has attracted broadsides over her prosecutorial record before she entered national politics. Republicans are of course seeking to stoke the flames of controversy themselves. Sarah Dolan, executive director of the America Rising political action committee, told the Guardian this weekend the groups mantra this cycle is really just to cause chaos, especially with how big the field is. Barack Obamas remarks in Berlin. In Germany, Obama also discussed the virtues and drawbacks of political compromise. He advised his audience of young Europeans to take some time to think in your own mind and continually refine and reflect, What are my core principles? Because the danger is if you dont know what your principles are, thats when you compromise your principles away. He added: You cant set up a system in which you dont compromise on anything, but you also cant operate in a system where you compromise on everything. Answering questions, Obama said progressives needed to think about remaining true to our values and principles while recognising that in democracies the only way we are going to be able to get things done is that we agree to a certain set of rules and part of those rules are that you never get 100% of what you want. He cited the Paris climate agreement as an example of an imperfect deal achieved under his presidency with the aim of building on it later. Trump has withdrawn the US from the deal. Rennes (France) (AFP) - After Britain leaves the European Union some 900 Britons serving on local councils in France will also have to give up their seat at the table. Like all EU citizens living in another member country, Britons in France have the right to vote in local elections and stand for election to their local council. But in leaving the bloc Britain will forfeit that right, meaning that British residents will no longer be able to represent the communities some have served for years. Sandra Sheward and her husband moved to the western French region of Brittany 13 years ago. "Our children fled the nest and we decided to drop out of the rat race in London," said Sheward, 58, a former training specialist for a property services company. The pair restored a farmhouse on the edge of Saint-Caradec, a riverside village of 1,200 people, where Sheward was courted by the mayor to join his slate of candidates for the municipal council in 2014. Being the only non-French councillor, and one who has yet to fully master the language, has not been an obstacle, says Sheward, a born organiser who developed the village's Christmas art market and helped set up a yoga class, among other activities. "She doesn't speak much during council meetings but when she does it's always very constructive, Mayor Alain Guillaume said. In a region that draws large numbers of British tourists and where a number of Britons have second homes, it's also helpful to have a native English speaker to call on for translations and other assistance. But if Britain leaves the EU as expected, Sheward will be forced to bow out of politics at the next local elections in 2020. "French villages are like ghost towns so it has been nice to be on the council. You get to meet more people!" said Sheward, who has applied for residency in France. "I'd like to be re-elected but it depends on Brexit," she said, adding with a sigh: "I just wish they'd get on with it so that we too can get on with our lives." Story continues - 'Mad Englishwoman with dogs' - According to official British statistics, France is home to a little over 157,000 British citizens, making it the biggest expatriate British community after that of Spain. Outside Paris, large numbers are to be found in Brittany and the southwestern Dordogne region. France has given them a year after Brexit to apply for residency but many have decided not to wait for divorce day to get their papers in, swamping local authorities. The government has attempted to fend off panic, with former European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau assuring in March: "We want them to stay. They are an asset for France." About 10 kilometres to the west of Sheward's village in Brittany, an Englishwoman is also a lynchpin of her community. Jacqueline Bertho, 60, from Yorkshire, ended up in France in 2000 after a divorce, and began a new life in "Kreiz Breizh" -- Breton for the centre of Brittany, where she lives with her Breton husband and their daughter. In the village of Saint-Guen (population 450), which is "very rural, like 1960s Britain", the chatty 60-year-old is a well-known figure. "I'm the mad Englishwoman with the dogs," she jokes. While still feeling "very much British", Bertho says she has thrown herself into community life, volunteering to teach English to local schoolkids, helping the elderly and, since 2014, becoming a member of the council. A year after her election, Bertho obtained French citizenship, meaning her place in France is assured. But she worries that other British couples who retired to the region, where they restored old houses and helped revive villages that were in their death throes, will struggle. "Most won't be able to become French," she said, citing their French language skills, which are put to a citizenship test, as a key hurdle. Tim Richardson, a British winemaker who sits on the council of the Dordogne village of Eymet, is one of those waiting for news on his citizenship application, which he submitted last year. The father-of-two, who has been living since 1991 in the region nicknamed Dordogneshire after its large British population, is confident of becoming French. And if he is forced to give up his council seat? "Tant pis (too bad)", he said in a telephone interview. "It's not the end of the world. There is no reason I cannot continue helping out in local life." Ottawa (AFP) - Canada's opposition leader on Sunday revealed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had threatened him with a defamation case over his comments about a political scandal that has rocked the government months before the country's election. Andrew Scheer, head of the Conservative Party, told a press conference he had received a letter from Trudeau's lawyer accusing him of "highly defamatory" comments made in response to a series of documents released by former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould at the end of March. Trudeau has been under fire since February when Wilson-Raybould accused him and his inner circle of applying political pressure to prevent a trial of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, which is accused of corruption in Libya. On March 29, the ex-attorney general released 43 pages of new documents that sought to link her January demotion to another portfolio to her resistance to allegedly undue pressure to settle the SNC-Lavalin case. Scheer in turn accused the government of lying to Canadians and of corruption. He denounced the lawsuit threat as "an intimidation tactic" by the prime minister. "It is a further attempt to silence those who are standing up and seeking the truth," he said. "If Mr. Trudeau believes he has a case against me, I urge him to follow through on his threat immediately. Canadians want this scandal to be investigated in a legal setting where Liberals do not control the proceedings," he added. A spokesman for Trudeau said Sunday afternoon that the letter had been sent to "put (Scheer) on notice that there are consequences for making completely false and libelous statements." "Andrew Scheer's press conference today is yet another attempt at talking about anything other than his own damaging plans for the economy," he said. The right-wing opposition, which is now polling ahead of the Liberals with a general election six months away, has been bombarding Trudeau since the affair broke. Scheer has called on the prime minister to resign immediately, saying he no longer has the moral authority to lead, and has demanded a public inquiry into allegations of political interference. Trudeau, hoping to turn a page on the scandal, last week ousted from his Liberal Party both Wilson-Raybould and former budget minister Jane Philpott, who had quit in protest over the prime minister's handling of the controversy. RJP-N seeking excuse to postpone national convention The Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal, the third largest party in the federal parliament, which has been struggling to convene its first unity national convention ever since it was formed with the merger of six fringe Madhes-based parties two years ago, has been seeking an excuse to postpone its scheduled convention. Government whistleblower and transgender activist Chelsea Manning reportedly has been released from solitary confinement after 28 days. Supporters who manage her Twitter account said Manning, imprisoned for refusing to answer questions before a grand jury, had finally been moved into general population at the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center in Alexandria, Virginia. But, the supporters added, while this is a big win, theres still a road ahead to get her out of jail. ** UPDATE: After 28 days in so-called "administrative segregation" (solitary confinement), Chelsea has finally been moved into general population at Truesdale Detention Center Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) April 4, 2019 Manning had been held in isolation for 22 hours each day, according to Chelsea Resists!, a support committee for the whistleblower. The group criticized the conditions of Mannings confinement as being tantamount to torture and possibly an attempt to coerce her into compliance with the grand jury. Demanding her release from the confinement, the committee said in a statement last month that the punishment had been injurious to Mannings health. A spokeswoman for the detention center told HuffPost that the groups allegations were neither accurate nor fair. Last week, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also called for Mannings release from solitary confinement, saying the former Army intelligence analyst was being tortured for whistleblowing. [Manning] should be released on bail, and we should ban extended solitary in the U.S., Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. Related: Chelsea Manning has been trapped in solitary confinement for refusing to answer questions before a Grand Jury. Solitary confinement is torture. Chelsea is being tortured for whistleblowing, she should be released on bail, and we should ban extended solitary in the US. https://t.co/95ef4xYt3k Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 2, 2019 Manning, who earlier served seven years of a 35-year jail term for sending classified documents to WikiLeaks, was sentenced to an indefinite time behind bars on March 8 for refusing to testify about the document leak before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. Story continues Assange has been hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning as part of a sexual assault investigation. Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Two children were among six wounded victims in a drive-by mass shooting this weekend in Chicago. The shooting occurred on Saturday night in the citys South Side, according to officials. Victims were reportedly at a baby shower gathering when gunfire erupted at about 6:21 pm local time in Englewood. The child victims were 8 and 10-years-old. Both were rushed to the Comer Childrens Hospital, where they were reported to be in stabile conditions. Police said both suffered gun shots, with the 8-year-old boy facing multiple wounds in his back and chest. The 10-year-old girl reportedly suffered a gunshot to her shin. The mother of the 8-year-old child was seen by local news outlets waiting outside of the hospital holding a shirt covered in blood while crying for her child. Hes just a baby, she repeatedly said. The Chicago Sun Times reported on the incident and its aftermath at the hospital. The boys grandmother confirmed to reporters that he was taken in for surgery that night. The mass shooting wasnt the only gun violence impacting children in Chicago this weekend. A 13-year-old was seriously inured also on Saturday night at 8:20 pm local time when shots were fired at a car the boy was sitting in. He suffered an injury in the hip, police said, and was also transported to Comer Childrens Hospital, where his condition was stabilised. Only one of the victims in the mass shooting was reportedly in critical condition as of Sunday, a 29-year-old woman who was shot in her chest and shoulder and rushed to Christ Medical Centre. Police said witnesses declined to cooperate after the shooting. The Chicago Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. BERLIN (Reuters) - China wants to work with the European Union on issues from climate change to trade, Premier Li Keqiang wrote in a German newspaper before a summit next week aimed at cementing ties. Diplomats in Brussels have said that tensions over trade, investments and minority rights mean China and the EU may fail to agree a joint declaration at the April 9 summit. That could dent European efforts to gain greater access to Chinese markets. In a column for Monday's edition of Handelsblatt, extracts of which were released on Sunday, the Chinese Premier denied accusations Beijing was trying to split the bloc by investing in eastern European states. "We emphatically support the European integration process in the hope of a united and prosperous Europe," wrote Li. He said Beijing's close cooperation with eastern European states was "advantageous for a balanced development within the EU". Concerned by potential Chinese dominance of strategic European industries, the EU is trying to coax Beijing to open up its markets and has tried to get it to commit to removing what Brussels sees as unfair barriers to trade. Li wrote that China was ready to work closely with Europe in upholding the Paris Climate Agreement, supporting sustainable development, retaining the international nuclear deal with Iran and fighting terrorism. He also said it wanted to exchange views on reforming the World Trade Organization. The EU is China's largest trading partner. An increase in Chinese takeovers in critical sectors in Europe and an impression in Brussels that Beijing has not kept its promise to stand up for free trade has complicated talks before the summit. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Peter Graff) Havana (AFP) - The newsprint shortages which forced Cuba's Communist daily to run a trimmed-down edition on Friday would pass off as a simple supply glitch in most other countries, but in Havana they carry chilling memories of the not-so-distant past. The last time the government cut back on newspapers because of a lack of newsprint was in the early 1990s, when Fidel Castro ushered in a "Special Period" of drastic belt-tightening in the wake of the collapse of his main sponsor, the Soviet Union. Today, the Caribbean state is facing difficulties once again, with US President Donald Trump -- who has lashed out at Cuba for its support of Venezuela's socialist regime -- determined to tighten Washington's six-decade trade embargo. Meager growth of 1.2 percent is not enough to cover the needs of an island nation that imports 80 percent of what it eats. Amid shortages, the government is being forced to ration basics like flour, cooking oil and chicken, leading to long lines outside stores. Tania, a 49-year-old nurse, has come to buy rice at a Havana grocery store but she's going away empty-handed. "It's like that with everything. Sometimes you look for a product and you can find it in one place, then you go somewhere else and you can't get it," she said, summing up the average Cuban's daily struggle to fill their shopping basket. "What's happening now doesn't look like the Special Period, because at that time it was really a disaster," she said. - 'Special Period' - Suddenly deprived of its big brother in Moscow -- responsible for 85 percent of Havana's foreign trade -- the economy on the Caribbean archipelago ground to a standstill as it struggled to absorb the shock of Soviet collapse in the early 1990s. Cubans suffered shortages of food and fuel and the emergence of diseases linked to malnutrition. Thousands fled, if they could. For long since, the country has relied on medical and teaching services supplied to countries like Brazil and, in particular, Venezuela, in return for cheap oil imports. But trade with Caracas has plummeted as sanctions-struck Venezuela's economic crisis deepens. Story continues Tourism has been a bright spot but that has suffered after hurricane damage and a new US sanctions squeeze. "For three years, Cuba has been trying to offset the impact of the slump in trade with Venezuela and the rise in tourism, private activity and foreign investment projects have helped cushion the economic shock," said Pavel Vidal, a Cuban economist at the Javeriana University in Colombia. "But the measures and threats of the Trump administration are posing obstacles to these three factors that have helped keep the economy afloat." Cuba recently defaulted on a portion of its debt to Brazil, a big supplier of poultry. At the end of 2018, Havana had accumulated short-term debt of $1.5 billion, according to former economy minister Jose Luis Rodriguez. "There is a level of debt that we will not be able to pay (in 2019) and that's affecting the smooth running of the economy," the current portfolio-holder Alejandro Gil said. In Havana, 90-year-old Leandro Lopez has seen it all before and isn't overly concerned, expressing confidence in President Miguel Diaz-Canel -- elected in 2018, the first of a new breed of leaders born after the revolution. "Diaz-Canel is trying to strengthen the economy so where he can reduce costs, we reduce them, so much the better. I do not think it will hurt the news." - Paper cuts - The cuts, announced on Thursday, saw Friday's edition of the mouthpiece Granma daily slashed from 16 pages to a pamphlet-thin eight. The measure will mean drastically shortened editions twice a week and also affect other publications. "Yes, there are shortages, long lines, especially for chicken, soap, these kinds of things," said Nelson Flores, turning away from a long line of shoppers waiting to buy poultry. So far, the crisis has spared the sacrosanct "libreta" -- the ration book which entitles Cubans to buy basics like rice, beans and bread at subsidized prices, though in insufficient quantities to last a month. Worryingly, the tourist industry is beginning to feel the pinch. A hotel manager in one of the outlying island beach paradises told AFP that tourists on all-inclusive holiday packages were unhappy about a lack of eggs, fruit and bread. The White House acting chief of staff has said Democratic lawmakers probing Donald Trumps financial dealings will never get a hold of the presidents tax returns. Mick Mulvaney lambasted the congressional investigations during a Fox News Sunday interview, suggesting efforts by the House Oversight Committee to request the presidents tax documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were nothing short of a political hit job. Democrats knew they were not going to get these taxes, they know what the law is, they know that one of the fundamental principles of the IRS is to protect the confidentiality of you and me and everybody else who files taxes, they know that, Mr Mulvaney said on Sunday. They know the terms under law by which the IRS can give them the documents but political hit job is not one of those reasons. To be clear, you believe Democrats will never see the presidents tax returns? the host asked him. Never, Mr Mulvaney replied. Nor should they. Keep in mind, thats already an issue that was already litigated during the 2016 election. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didnt and they elected him anyway. Mr Trump repeatedly declined to make his tax returns public throughout the 2016 election, despite virtually every other major candidate releasing years of their own returns. The president at the time told voters and media outlets he was unable to present his tax returns due to an ongoing IRS audit. The IRS has said audits do not stop the agency or an individual from being able to provide tax returns, however. The president shot down questions about releasing his tax returns earlier this week, telling reporters in the Oval Office, theyll speak to my lawyers. Theyll speak to the attorney general, he added, repeating, Theyll speak to my lawyers and speak to the attorney general. Lawmakers on the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee have requested up to six years of the presidents personal tax returns and several of his businesses no later than 10 April. When asked by reporters on Wednesday if hed ever release his tax returns on his own, the president told media, Until such time as I am not under audit, I will not be doing that, thank you. Want to participate in a research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and earn a $60 gift card! If you are currently a shareholder in New Jersey Resources Corporation (NYSE:NJR), or considering investing in the stock, you need to examine how the business generates cash, and how it is reinvested. This difference directly flows down to how much the stock is worth. Operating in the industry, NJR is currently valued at US$4.4b. Today we will examine NJRs ability to generate cash flows, as well as the level of capital expenditure it is expected to incur over the next couple of years, which will result in how much money goes to you. See our latest analysis for New Jersey Resources What is free cash flow? New Jersey Resources generates cash through its day-to-day business, which needs to be reinvested into the company in order for it to continue operating. What remains after this expenditure, is known as its free cash flow, or FCF, for short. The two ways to assess whether New Jersey Resourcess FCF is sufficient, is to compare the FCF yield to the market index yield, as well as determine whether the top-line operating cash flows will continue to grow. Free Cash Flow = Operating Cash Flows Net Capital Expenditure Free Cash Flow Yield = Free Cash Flow / Enterprise Value where Enterprise Value = Market Capitalisation + Net Debt After accounting for capital expenses required to run the business, New Jersey Resources is not able to generate positive FCF, leading to a negative FCF yield not very useful for interpretation! NYSE:NJR Balance Sheet Net Worth, April 7th 2019 Is New Jersey Resources's yield sustainable? Can New Jersey Resources improve its operating cash production in the future? Lets take a quick look at the cash flow trend New Jersey Resources is expected to deliver over time. In the next few years, the company is expected to grow its cash from operations at a double-digit rate of 12%, ramping up from its current levels of US$317m to US$356m in three years time. Furthermore, breaking down growth into a year on year basis, NJR is able to increase its growth rate each year, from -6.3% in the upcoming year, to 11% by the end of the third year. The overall picture seems encouraging, should capital expenditure levels maintain at an appropriate level. Story continues Next Steps: Keep in mind that cash is only one aspect of investment analysis and there are other important fundamentals to assess. I recommend you continue to research New Jersey Resources to get a better picture of the company by looking at: Historical Performance: What has NJR's returns been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of our analysis for more clarity. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business take a look at who sits on New Jersey Resourcess board and the CEOs back ground. Other High-Performing Stocks: If you believe you should cushion your portfolio with something less risky, scroll through 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. By Ahmed Elumami and Ayman al-Warfalli TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Eastern Libyan forces carried out air strikes on the southern part of Tripoli on Sunday and made progress toward the city center, residents said, escalating an operation to take the capital as the United Nations failed to achieve a truce. The Libyan National Army (LNA) force of Khalifa Haftar, which backs a parallel administration in the east, last week launched an advance on Tripoli in the west, home to the internationally recognized government. The offensive intensifies a power struggle that has fractured the oil and gas producer since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. The LNA reached the southern outskirts of the capital on Friday and says it took the former international airport, though the Tripoli military officials deny this. At least one warplane carried out an air strike in the area, a resident said. "The air force took part for the first time in the military operations," said LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari. "It conducted a very successful operation to secure the airport road (to city center)," he added. The LNA moved up north from on the road from former airport in the district of Khalat Furgan, coming some 11 km from the city center, a resident said, adding he could see the troops as forces loyal to the Tripoli government withdrew. The U.N. mission to Libya (UNSMIL) called on Sunday for a truce for two hours in southern Tripoli to evacuate civilians and wounded, it said in a statement without giving details. But the true was not observed by evening, one U.N. official said. In another sign of the situation worsening on the ground, a contingent of U.S. forces supporting the U.S. Africa Command evacuated Libya for security reasons, a U.S. statement said. It gave no details. Forces allied to the Tripoli government meanwhile announced their own operation called "Volcano of Anger" to defend the capital, a spokesman said, without giving details. The offensive has taken the United Nations by surprise, undermining plans to find agreement on a road map for elections to resolve the protracted instability in Libya. Lawless since Gaddafi was toppled by rebels backed by NATO air strikes, Libya has become the transit point hundreds of thousands of migrants trekking across the Sahara with the objective of reaching Europe across the Mediterranean Sea. Haftar, 75, who casts himself as a foe of Islamist extremism but is viewed by opponents as a new dictator in the mould of Gaddafi, enjoys the backing of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which see him as a bulwark against Islamists and have supported him militarily, according to U.N. reports. The UAE, however, has joined Western countries in expressing its deep concern about the fighting. "No justification for LNA move on Tripoli," UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt tweeted, adding he was watching the situation very closely and would discuss the "next steps" with the European Union on Monday. In the past, Haftar has struck deals with armed factions outside Tripoli to advance his forces. But gaining control of Tripoli - the ultimate prize for Haftar's eastern parallel government - would be far more complicated. Armed groups allied to the Tripoli government have moved more machinegun-mounted pickup trucks to defend Tripoli from Misrata down the coast. Misrata is known for a spirit of resisting "old regime" figures, developed during 2011 when pro-Gaddafi forces besieged it for three months. (Reporting by Ahmed Elumami, Ayman Al-Warfalli, Ulf Laessing, Nayera Abdallah and John Irish; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky, Keith Weir and Peter Graff) Brussels (AFP) - Will Russian trolls, American social media giants and opportunistic fake news merchants combine to poison Europe's political landscape ahead of May's continent-wide election? Brussels fears that online disinformation will fuel the populist wave officials believe skewed the Brexit referendum and carried Donald Trump all the way to the White House. "There are external anti-European forces, which are seeking - openly or secretly - to influence the democratic choices of Europeans," EU leader Donald Tusk warned recently. This was, he claimed, also "the case with Brexit and a number of election campaigns across Europe." Between May 23 and 26, European voters will go to the polls to choose around 700 MEPs to sit in the Strasbourg EU parliament and oversee continent-wide legislation. In the final weeks of the campaign, officials are on alert fearing that opponents -- including Moscow -- will attempt to spread fake news, amplified by viral social media. This could in turn boost support for various populist insurgent parties, deepen existing divisions in the electorate and undermine faith in democracy or EU institutions. Some go as far as to call the phenomenon a state-led attack. "There is strong evidence pointing to Russia as a primary source of disinformation in Europe," said EU Commission vice-president and former Estonian premier Andrus Ansip. "Disinformation is part of Russia's military doctrine and its strategy to divide and weaken the West," he warned, in December. Public trust in national and EU institutions and in the so-called mainstream media is already low, and web-users seeking cash from advertising clicks have found a market for fake news. Add to this state-led covert propaganda and the viral effect of US-based media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube and you have a recipe for disruption. Mariya Gabriel, EU commissioner for the digital economy, brands this a an "invisible scourge" that "intrudes into the lives of our citizens and influences our opinions and decision-making". Story continues - 'State censorship' - In response to the perceived threat, the EU Commission has drawn up guidelines for member states, calling on them to support quality journalism or to work with independent fact-checkers. In March, it also set up an "early warning system", so capitals can share information on "coordinated attempts by foreign actors to manipulate" the democratic debate in real time. The European External Action Service (EEAS), the Commission's foreign affairs arm, has a team of around 15, to detect and analyse misinformation campaigns targeting the EU. Their website, "EU vs disinformation" (https://euvsdisinfo.eu/), claims credit for refuting more than 5,000 items of fake news, mainly related to Russia. But the unit's resources remain modest. And, as Paul Butcher of think tank European Policy Center observes, involving state intelligence services or ministries like the EEAS in the campaign can be counterproductive. This fuels suspicions of censorship and plays "into narratives of censorship and a culture war between 'the establishment' and 'the people'," he said, in a recent report. Better than state-led counter-propaganda, he said, "structural resistance to disinformation can be built up through the efforts of civil society, NGOs and the private sector." - 'World first' - In recent months, European authorities have increased calls for online platforms to be more accountable for the content they push in front of millions of eyeballs. While some member states, such as France, have decided to legislate, the Commission is talking to internet giants. Late last year Facebook, Google and Twitter signed a code of best practive with the Brussels authorities -- "a world first", according to Gabriel. Under the code, the industry committed to transparency in political advertising, to close false accounts and to "demonetise misinformation providers" -- to stop paid adverts on suspect sites. The initiative has produced results, but the firewall of truth is far from impregnable, as the Commission itself admits. Warsaw (AFP) - European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans hit back Sunday at accusations of political bias from Poland's right-wing government, as he campaigned as a Socialist candidate for May's European elections. In his commission role on Wednesday Timmermans announced fresh action against Poland over its controversial judicial reforms, saying a new disciplinary regime for judges would have a "chilling effect" on judicial independence. On Thursday, Jaroslaw Sellin, a deputy culture minister in Poland's right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government, accused Timmermans of playing politics by launching the new infringement procedure ahead of the May 26 European vote in Poland. But Timmermans dismissed the accusations in comments to reporters in Warsaw Sunday. "There is no link whatsoever even though the Polish government pretends this is linked to the elections," he said. "This has nothing to do with the election." He was speaking at a joint press conference with Robert Biedron, the leader of Poland's new progressive Spring party at a campaign event for the European ballot. "It is clear from all evidence that the way the new disciplinary measures work, it has a chilling effect on Polish judges, so it intimidates them," Timmermans added. The new infringement procedure is the latest round of the bitter tussle between Brussels and the PiS government in Warsaw. Poland has been at loggerheads with the bloc over the sweeping reforms its government insists are needed to tackle corruption and overhaul a judicial system still haunted by the communist era. The EU has already launched unprecedented proceedings against Poland over "systemic threats" to the rule of law that could see its EU voting rights suspended. On Thursday, Sellin said of Timmermans: "He has a political interest in it because he is in the heat of the election campaign," the Polish PAP news agency reported. "He wants to be the chief European commissioner on behalf of the socialists, he fights for this position and wants to renew his mandate." An IBRIS poll on the European ballot published Friday put the ruling PiS ahead with 39 percent compared to 36.5 percent support for the European Coalition, an alliance of liberal, centre-right and leftist opposition parties. Timber logs worth millions seized from Chure region in the past 45 days The Division Forest Office in Sarlahi has heightened its surveillance in Chure forest areas to control timber smuggling. (Refiles removing garble in crosshead for 15th para to read SHAS) By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM, April 7 (Reuters) - Israelis vote in a national election on Tuesday. Polls show that veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking a fifth term in office, is best positioned in the tight race to win and head the next government. His decade-long dominance of Israeli politics has been the biggest issue of the campaign. WHAT ARE THE POLLS SHOWING? Recent polls have shown that the right-wing bloc led by Netanyahu will win a majority in the Knesset. But they also show a new centrist party headed by a popular former general emerging as the largest faction in parliament. Surveys detect many undecided voters who could swing the election either way. HOW DOES THE ISRAELI ELECTION WORK? The 120 Knesset seats are allocated by proportional representation to party lists. In order to win seats in the Knesset, a party must pass a threshold of at least 3.25 percent of the national vote, equivalent to 4 seats. No single party has ever won an outright majority in the Knesset, making coalition governments the norm. After the election and consultations with party leaders, Israels president ask the candidate whom he judges has the best chance of forming a coalition to try and put together a government. That is usually the person heading the largest party, but not necessarily. That candidate has 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. If he or she fails then the president tasks a different candidate with the job. In the 2019 election, about 5.8 million Israelis are eligible to vote, according to the Israeli statistics bureau. WHAT PARTIES HAVE BEST CHANCE OF WINNING KNESSET SEATS? LIKUD, HEADED BY PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU The biggest right-wing party in Israel is predicted to win about 29 seats. Likud champions tough security policies when it comes to Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many of its members oppose the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu, in a last-minute election promise, said he would annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term. In the run-up to the vote, Likud has rallied around Netanyahu, who is facing possible indictment in three corruption cases in which he has denied any wrongdoing. Story continues BLUE AND WHITE, HEADED BY FORMER MILITARY CHIEF BENNY GANTZ Gantz has emerged as a serious rival to Netanyahu. His party is forecast to win 31 seats. Gantz is a popular former armed forces chief and a political newcomer. He joined forces with the right-wing Moshe Yaalon, a former defense minister, and center-left former finance minister Yair Lapid to form the new centrist Blue and White party. Gantz has called for pursuing peace with the Palestinians while maintaining Israeli security interests. He has signaled he would make territorial concessions toward the Palestinians but has also sidestepped the question of Palestinian statehood. Gantz has vowed clean government, while at the same time giving mixed signals over whether he would join a Netanyahu-led coalition. LABOUR, HEADED BY AVI GABBAY Opinion polls have shown left-wing Labour, which governed Israel for decades, plummeting to 10 seats in the election from its current 18. Its campaign has stressed social and economic reform, as well as pursuing peace and a two-state solution with the Palestinians. THE NEW RIGHT HEADED BY NAFTALI BENNETT AND AYELET SHAKED Bennett, Israel's education minister, and Justice Minister Shaked split from Israel's national-religious faction to form a new far-right party that would appeal to more secular constituents. Polls presently show them winning 6 seats. Bennett calls for annexing most of the West Bank, offering autonomy to Palestinians. Shaked has vowed to "reign in" Israel's supreme court which she has branded as too liberal and interventionist. THE RIGHT WING UNION, HEADED BY RABBI RAFI PERETZ Predicted to win 7 seats, Israel's national-religious party is the most prominent political representative of Israeli settlers in the West Bank. It repudiates the idea of a Palestinian state and stresses Israel's biblical and religious connections to land Palestinians seek for a state. The union includes Jewish Power, an ultra-nationalist religious party that includes disciples of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane who advocated the "transfer" of Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries and a ban on intermarriage between Jews and Arabs. ZEHUT, HEADED BY MOSHE FEIGLIN An ultra-nationalist religious party that has surged in the polls in recent weeks and is forecast to take around 6 seats - partly over its support for legalizing marijuana use. Zehut calls for the voluntary transfer of Palestinians to neighboring Arab states and bills itself as a libertarian force, pushing for a free market economy. KULANU, HEADED BY FINANCE MINISTER MOSHE KAHLON A former Likud member, Kahlon has partly come through on his pledge to halt soaring housing prices but has fallen short on dramatically reducing overall living costs. His party casts itself as moderate right-wing and has focused its campaign on socio-economic issues. Kulanu is expected to win only half of its current 10 seats. ISRAEL BEITENU, HEADED BY AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN The far-right party, which has counted on the support of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, has been teetering on the electoral threshold in recent polls. Moldovan-born Lieberman is a former defense minister whose policies include trading Arab towns in Israel to any future Palestinian state for territory in the West Bank where Jewish settlements have been built. He also wants to make loyalty to the state a condition for citizenship. UNITED TORAH JUDAISM (UTJ), HEADED BY DEPUTY HEALTH MINISTER YAKOV LITZMAN UTJ represents ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredim, of European origin and is seen winning about 6-7 seats in the Knesset. Successive coalition governments have had to rely on support from ultra-Orthodox parties, which traditionally put their sectoral demands above larger issues like security and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. UTJ is primarily concerned with safeguarding state benefits for Hared men who devote themselves to full-time religious study and do not serve in the conscript military or work. SHAS, HEADED BY INTERIOR MINISTER ARYEH DERI Allied with UTJ, SHAS (an acronym for Union of Sephardic Torah Observers) has like UTJ been an almost permanent fixture in successive governments and represents Haredi Jews of Middle Eastern origin. According to opinion polls, it will win 5-6 seats in parliament. HADASH-TAAL, HEADED BY AYMAN ODEH AND AHMED TIBI Predicted to take 7-8 seats in the Knesset, the socialist Jewish-Arab party draws most of its voters from Israel's 20 percent Arab minority. It advocates an Arab-Jewish alliance to fight discrimination, racism and social inequality in Israel. Arab parties have never joined governing coalitions in Israel. RAAM-BALAD, HEADED BY ABAS MANSOUR Predicted to win 4 seats, Raam-Balad's leaders are a mix of Islamist and Arab nationalists. It describes itself as a democratic movement opposed to Israels occupation of Palestinian territory. MERETZ, HEADED BY TAMAR ZANDBERG Predicted to win 5-6 seats in the Knesset, the left-wing party has not been part of a coalition government in the past two decades. Popular with liberal middle-class Israelis, the party advocates a two-state solution with the Palestinians. (Writing by Maayan Lubell Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Mark Heinrich) By Kenneth Li and Ju-min Park NEW YORK/SEOUL, April 5 (Reuters) - When it comes to who triumphed in the multi-billion dollar global race to launch the world's first 5G next generation wireless network, the winner is clear ... depending on who you ask. Early Wednesday in South Korea, Reuters published a story quoting South Korean officials declaring victory over the United States and China as the site of the world's first commercial launch of a fifth generation telecoms network. They made their assertion on the basis that the new network connected to an actual 5G phone. U.S. carriers disputed South Korea's claims to be first. After the piece was published, AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc intensified their angry rejections of South Korea's boast in post-publication communications sent to Reuters on Wednesday. AT&T said it was the victor because it announced on Dec. 18 that it planned to launch its 5G network in 12 U.S. cities that month. However, its network is available only to consumers using a mobile hotspot device, not on 5G phones. Verizon, for its part, countered that it had come first. Hours after the Reuters report, it said it had already launched its 5G network and that it would be available on a new Motorola phone - though only in Chicago and Minneapolis. "We stand by our story," a Reuters spokeswoman said. The intensity with which company representatives disputed each other's claims underscores the high stakes in the battle for supremacy over an industry that is expected to spend $275 billion over seven years in the United States alone, according to Accenture estimates. The winner is seen playing a central role in helping to generate some $12.3 trillion in annual revenue across a broad range of industries by 2035, according to IHS Markit. The technology, which can provide data speeds at least 20 times faster than 4G, will also underpin the great advances of the next era, from self-driving cars and augmented reality to smart cities and artificial intelligence. Story continues "Being first is important in our industry and we want that recognition," an AT&T spokesman said. Some experts point out that the jockeying will mean little to consumers. "The reason you're getting that reaction is this is a battle of marketing vaporware rather than real network evolution," said Craig Moffett, telecoms and communications analyst at MoffettNathanson. "They're tripping over themselves to claim they have a 5G network," he said. "But we're years away from it having any impact on user experiences." Bragging rights aside, being first is a matter of national pride. So excited was U.S. President Donald Trump about dominating the telecoms future, he invented a technology that does not yet exist - 6G - in a Feb. 21 tweet. "I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible. It is far more powerful, faster, and smarter than the current standard. American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind," he tweeted. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. RACE TO LAUNCH On Wednesday April 3, South Korea's carriers announced plans to launch their 5G networks by Friday. But by 5pm local time, word was spreading that Verizon was planning a surprise debut of its own 5G network around April 4, a full week ahead of its original intended schedule, an official at South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT told Reuters. To snatch victory from the jaws of Verizon, the South Korean carriers raced against the clock and agreed to collectively light up the country's 5G networks just six hours after finding out about Verizon's plans, said the official, who declined to be named. South Korean carriers including SK Telecom and KT Corp flipped the switch at 11pm local time (1400 GMT/1000 EST), nearly an hour ahead of when Verizon confirmed it had launched in the two markets in the United States at 10:55am EST (1455 GMT). "It is a pretty big deal for every mobile carrier who can be called the world's first," the Ministry of Science official said. On why Verizon accelerated its launch plan by a week, a Verizon spokesman said its network was ready. "Our customers were enthusiastic and ready to use 5G," the spokesman added. (Reporting by Kenneth Li in New York and Ju-Min Park in Seoul; additional reporting by Angela Moon in New York; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) By Kenneth Li and Ju-min Park NEW YORK/SEOUL (Reuters) - When it comes to who triumphed in the multi-billion dollar global race to launch the world's first 5G next generation wireless network, the winner is clear ... depending on who you ask. Early Wednesday in South Korea, Reuters published a story quoting South Korean officials declaring victory over the United States and China as the site of the world's first commercial launch of a fifth generation telecoms network. They made their assertion on the basis that the new network connected to an actual 5G phone. U.S. carriers disputed South Korea's claims to be first. After the piece was published, AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc intensified their angry rejections of South Korea's boast in post-publication communications sent to Reuters on Wednesday. AT&T said it was the victor because it announced on Dec. 18 that it planned to launch its 5G network in 12 U.S. cities that month. However, its network is available only to consumers using a mobile hotspot device, not on 5G phones. Verizon, for its part, countered that it had come first. Hours after the Reuters report, it said it had already launched its 5G network and that it would be available on a new Motorola phone - though only in Chicago and Minneapolis. "We stand by our story," a Reuters spokeswoman said. The intensity with which company representatives disputed each other's claims underscores the high stakes in the battle for supremacy over an industry that is expected to spend $275 billion over seven years in the United States alone, according to Accenture estimates. The winner is seen playing a central role in helping to generate some $12.3 trillion in annual revenue across a broad range of industries by 2035, according to IHS Markit. The technology, which can provide data speeds at least 20 times faster than 4G, will also underpin the great advances of the next era, from self-driving cars and augmented reality to smart cities and artificial intelligence. Story continues "Being first is important in our industry and we want that recognition," an AT&T spokesman said, adding that the company spent $130 billion over the last five years to upgrade its network. Some experts point out that the jockeying will mean little to consumers. "The reason you're getting that reaction is this is a battle of marketing vaporware rather than real network evolution," said Craig Moffett, telecoms and communications analyst at MoffettNathanson. "They're tripping over themselves to claim they have a 5G network," he said. "But we're years away from it having any impact on user experiences." Bragging rights aside, being first is a matter of national pride. So excited was U.S. President Donald Trump about dominating the telecoms future, he invented a technology that does not yet exist - 6G - in a Feb. 21 tweet. "I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible. It is far more powerful, faster, and smarter than the current standard. American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind," he tweeted. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. RACE TO LAUNCH South Korea's carriers had announced plans to launch their 5G networks by Friday. But by 5 p.m. local time Wednesday word began to spread that Verizon was planning a surprise debut of its own 5G network as early as Thursday, a full week ahead of its original intended schedule, an official at South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT told Reuters. To snatch victory from the jaws of Verizon, the South Korean carriers raced against the clock and agreed to collectively light up the country's 5G networks just six hours after finding out about Verizon's plans, said the official, who declined to be named. South Korean carriers including SK Telecom and KT Corp flipped the switch at 11pm local time (1400 GMT/1000 EST), nearly an hour ahead of when Verizon confirmed it had launched in the two markets in the United States at 10:55am EST (1455 GMT). "It is a pretty big deal for every mobile carrier who can be called the world's first," the Ministry of Science official said. On why Verizon accelerated its launch plan by a week, a Verizon spokesman said its network was ready. "Our customers were enthusiastic and ready to use 5G," the spokesman added. (Reporting by Kenneth Li in New York and Ju-Min Park in Seoul; additional reporting by Angela Moon in New York; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. sanctions have prevented the Iranian Red Crescent from obtaining any foreign financial aid to assist victims of flooding that has killed at least 70 people and inundated some 1,900 communities, the group said on Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that Washington was ready to help via the Red Cross and Red Crescent, but accused Irans clerical establishment of mismanagement in urban planning and in emergency preparedness. No foreign cash help has been given to the Iranian Red Crescent society. With attention to the inhuman American sanctions, there is no way to send this cash assistance, the Red Crescent said in a statement. It said the group had received some non-financial help from abroad which had been distributed to flood victims. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said last week that U.S. sanctions - reimposed after Washington quit a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers - were impeding aid efforts to flood-stricken towns and villages. Blocked equipment includes relief choppers: This isnt just economic warfare; its economic TERRORISM, he said on Twitter. The flood disaster, arising from exceptionally heavy rainfall since March 19, has left aid agencies struggling to cope and seen 86,000 people moved to emergency shelters. The government has told citizens, and especially flood-affected farmers, that all losses will be compensated. Irans state budget is already stretched under U.S. sanctions on energy and banking sectors that have halved its oil exports and restricted access to some revenues abroad. Iran acted on Saturday to evacuate more towns and villages threatened by floods after continued rain in the southwest. (Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Photo credit: Dong Wenjie - Getty Images From Popular Mechanics A new industry group has been formed to create standards for developing, testing, and the public use of fully automated vehicles. The Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium (AVSC), partnered with the SAE International engineering group, so far includes only Ford, General Motors, and Toyota. No federal standards exist for AVs, and state regulation is all over the map. With the explicit encouragement of a hands-off federal government, three automakers are creating a new safety group with the engineering group SAE International to draft national standards for autonomous cars. This week, Ford, Toyota, and General Motors joined the SAE to form the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium (AVSC), a group that will "responsibly evolve" the technology while it's tested, and eventually, when driverless cars are picking us up from bars at 2 a.m. AVSC is concerned with Level 4 and 5 automation-the most advanced categories previously defined by the SAE and accepted by the industry-that will lead to autonomous cars driving in restricted areas (Level 4) or nationwide (Level 5). First on the agenda is figuring out how to develop technical standards that automakers, suppliers, and developers will universally adopt. That has been the crux of the SAE's existence since its founding in 1905. The federal government currently has no statutes on autonomous cars and no plans to restrict or regulate them. In October, transportation secretary Elaine Chao introduced the department's third round of voluntary guidelines for autonomous cars that would align federal agencies toward the goal of letting automakers lead and self-police their development. Chao said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in particular would remove language from current rules that require steering wheels, pedals, mirrors, and other equipment that tomorrow's cars won't use. Despite the lack of formal rules, she also called for automakers and tech companies to quell the "public's legitimate concerns about the safety, security, and privacy of this new technology," which is exactly what the AVSC says it will do. Story continues No Common Ground-Yet We understand that autonomous vehicles need to operate safely and reliably in concert with infrastructure and other road users to earn the trust of the communities in which they are deployed, said Randy Visintainer, Ford's director for autonomous vehicles, in a statement. At this point, the AVSC is just a dry-erase board of ideas. While the majority of states have enacted either legislation or executive orders on testing autonomous cars, there is no common ground on what is considered safe, no shared goal of best practices, and nothing approaching a standard like those the industry has met on passive-safety features such as ABS, airbags, and seatbelts. The U.S. government isn't even evaluating driver-assistance systems-the insurance-industry-funded Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does that-and automakers have so far shown little interest in making systems such as automated braking function uniformly at a baseline level. Aggressive first-to-market pushes from companies including Tesla that beta-test automated features on their customers have been greeted with media fanfare instead of careful analysis. The AVSC isn't yet addressing these semi-automated systems (Levels 1 through 3) that will become widespread for many years before fully automated systems are introduced nationwide. It's a Wild West of AVs and semi-AVs right now, which is part of the reason that AVSC was founded: to rein in some of the mess. ('You Might Also Like',) PHOENIX A 54-year-old Mexican man held in a detention center by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement died this week after showing signs of the flu, the federal agency said. Abel Reyes-Clemente is the fourth person to die in ICE custody since Oct. 1, officials said. Two children held by the border patrol began vomiting and died in December. Lawsuits have alleged poor hygiene and medical care at detention centers. ICE provides detainees with "comprehensive medical care," the agency said. Reyes-Clemente was detained at a Florence immigration center on Feb. 26 after serving time at a Maricopa County jail for a misdemeanor conviction of driving under the influence, officials said. He had been deported five times before, most recently in 2008, the agency said. Reyes-Clemente became sick and was "placed into medical observation" on April 1, ICE said. Two days later, facility personnel found him around 6 a.m., unresponsive and not breathing. Medical staffers at the detention center and local paramedics who responded failed to revive Reyes-Clemente, the agency said. Doctors at Mountain Vista Medical Center declared him dead at 6:33 a.m. "All ICE detainees receive medical, dental and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to daily sick call and 24-hour emergency care," officials said in a written statement. "ICE annually spends more than $269 million on the spectrum of healthcare services provided to detainees." An autopsy to determine the cause of death is pending. Follow Rebekah L. Sanders on Twitter: @RebekahLSanders. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Fourth person in six months dies in ICE immigration detention center Voting for change An integrated electoral system will not only limit electioneering costs but also make the representatives responsible to their voters. Last month, reports surfaced on crypto mining research conducted by tech conglomerate Cisco with the following headline: College kids are using campus electricity to mine crypto. Indeed, many students dont have to worry about paying power bills, as per their university housing contracts, which tend to cover electricity expenses. That free power allows them to host cost-efficient mining rigs, where the only expense is the actual hardware. It almost seems too good to be true: Mining students receive a passive income, which can potentially cover the purchase of a few textbooks or even pay for the whole semester and more. However, theres a catch: No electricity is actually free, and someone ultimately has to pay the price. How popular is mining among students? Ciscos security researchers investigated cryptocurrency mining activity across various industry verticals. The research was carried out with the companys cloud security platform Umbrella, which monitors clients network connections to screen malicious activity, allegedly revealing incidents of crypto mining. According to the findings, university campuses are the second-biggest miners of virtual currency across industry verticals at 22 percent, second only to the energy and utilities sector, with about 34 percent. As Cointelegraph reported, miner revenues began to wane in 2018 (the last full year for statistics), thanks to the crypto winter and its attendant price drop. That made mining less profitable. But hash rates have continued to increase, indicating that the global mining pool continues to grow, even as individual miners come and go. Cisco threat researcher Austin McBride explained the trend to PCMag, saying that "you leave [the mining rig] running in your dorm room for four years, you walk out of college with a big chunk of change." While running mining rigs in dorm rooms, students purportedly avoid electricity costs associated with cryptocurrency mining profitability, said McBride, adding: Story continues "Mining difficulty for a lot of coins is very high right now which means it costs more for electricity and internet than the profit you can produce from mining those coins. If you don't have to pay for those costs, then you are in a really good spot for making money on the university's dime." Cointelegraph reached out to Cisco and Cisco Umbrella to clarify which campuses were monitored, but has yet to receive a response. A similar report was conducted earlier in March 2018, when cyber attack monitoring firm Vectra found out that both intentional cryptocurrency mining and cryptojacking was becoming more prevalent on college campuses than in any other industry. As per Vectra, universities are not able to monitor their networks as closely as large corporations with high-budget IT departments, at best [advising] students on how to protect themselves and the university by installing operating system patches and creating awareness of phishing emails, suspicious websites and web ads. Students who take advantage of this free power, in turn, are simply being opportunistic as the value of cryptocurrencies surged over the past year, Vectras blog post stated. Matt Walmsley, Europe, Middle East and Africa director at Vectra, told Cointelegraph that, while the scope of their research was international, he cannot disclose which universities participated in the study: The data was provided by from education establishments around the world on the understanding that any identifying information would remain anonymous. Therefore, while it is difficult to pinpoint the hot spots for college virtual currency mining on the map, the phenomenon seems to be quite popular overall. According to the 2019 Vectra report issued earlier this year, cryptocurrency mining has surged in popularity with students and criminals, particularly among universities with large student populations. Is it really that simple? One of the main things about mining in university housing conditions is that it has to be discreet otherwise, the wardens might hear the noise and start investigating. Mark DAria, founder and CEO of Bitpro, a New York-based installation and mining operation management firm, told Cointelegraph: I suspect the vast majority of mining from college campuses isn't from what you would think of as mining rigs those giant machines with multiple GPUs [graphics processing units], purpose built for mining. ASICs [application-specific integrated circuits] are also certainly going to be extremely rare simply because they're so loud and hot that no one is going to tolerate them in their dorm room for very long. The student is going to need to explain that, and he's not going to get away with it for long. Instead, most of the mining seems to be coming from students' old-fashioned PCs, the Bitpro CEO suggested. Notably, casual machines could provide their owners with a moderate income even during the current, bearish market. Given that additional electricity-related expenses are covered by a third-party, of course. According to DAria: A gaming rig with a single high end GPU could produce maybe $1/day. But even a run of the mill laptop could produce a few cents as well. The important thing to recognize is that even though $1/day is small if you don't have to pay for electricity, there's no reason for someone with a gaming rig or reasonably powerful laptop *not* to mine. It's literally free money. Moreover, generating cryptocurrency with a computer does not necessarily require substantial technical skills and knowledge. It's extremely easy to do with services such as NiceHash [a crypto cloud mining marketplace], which can be set to automatically mine when you're not using your PC like a screen saver, DAria added. Indeed, Tom (a pseudonym to maintain confidentiality), a University of Mississippi pharmaceutical sciences student, told Cointelegraph that he used NiceHash with his gaming PC to mine Bitcoin for about two months, but soon decided to abandon the idea because of the continuously high workload and rising GPU prices: I was able to make about $120 USD if the price of bitcoin had stayed at $15,000. With bitcoin currently around $4,000 USD it may be profitable, considering I was getting free electricity. However, because of the strain on the system, plus the overinflated prices of GPUs, I wouldnt do it anymore. Tom specified that, being a resident advisor in the dormitory, he was able to make inroads with the local maintenance assistant. That allowed him to make sure that his floor had sufficient air conditioning to host a miner: It would be impossible to tell if I had my PC on all the time, especially since it was a huge, 11- story building. Toms room felt chilly during the winter months, so additional heat was actually useful. He said, I just used my computer instead of a space heater. However, sometimes, mining students get exposed. Ken (a pseudonym to maintain confidentiality), an Arizona State University undergraduate who studies applied physics, showed Cointelegraph a screenshot of an alleged email from a university staff member. In it, Ken was being informed that the security team has detected a coin miner program on two of his devices. We would like you to either uninstall the programs, or run a virus scan in the event that you were unaware of these programs, as this is indicative of malware on your devices, it stated. Ken indeed was using NiceHash at the time, as he confirmed to Cointelegraph. After consulting with fellow miners on the r/BitcoinMining subreddit, he decided to use a virtual private network (VPN) whenever he was mining, saying: I already had one, and I made sure that it turned on startup and the internet kill switch was active so they couldnt track me. However, once Ken had managed to mine a couple of hundred dollars, NiceHash was hacked, and the student lost a large percentage of his funds, as he hadnt yet moved them to a private wallet. Chris Partridge is a computing security graduate from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), who also mined cryptocurrency during his time in college, starting in 2015 and continuing until mid-2016. I was curious about Bitcoin and that seemed like a good way to learn, he told Cointelegraph. His setup was a bit more advanced compared with Tom and Ken, as he used a couple of Antminers, a BFL Monarch and a Prospero X1. Consequently, the amount of heat produced by his equipment was significantly higher: None of them [the mining rigs] were remotely current-gen even at the time, and all of them were heavily underclocked/undervolted/modded to be cooler and quieter. Living up in Rochester [New York), where it was freezing all the time, we had our window open 24/7 (even during blizzards!) and the miners pointed out into it, or else it became too hot in our living areas very quickly. It was a bit of a strain for my roommate and I, but he was a good sport about things. Partridge said that he was never caught in the act, despite a couple of room checks that occurred due to unrelated reasons. Nobody seemed to care, he said. Especially since it was a very small operation I suppose I came off as a bit eccentric, but no further investigation was prompted. Even though it wasnt a profit-focused endeavor for the former RIT student, he walked away with around 0.4 BTC, which he then sold for a hefty sum of $6,000. The earnings came at just the right time: Partridge needed cash that would carry him through to an internship. After spending the money on general living expenses for a few months, he even had some left over for nonessential shopping: I also bought a Roomba, because if there's anything I'm going to spend profits from magic internet money on, it's a Roomba. There are even larger success stories: Marco Streng, co-founder and CEO of Genesis Mining, a large cloud mining company whose farms are located across several countries, claims that he essentially started his business out of a dorm room back in 2013. He declined to specify which university he went to, however, saying that its the same anywhere in the world. There was this kind of sauna atmosphere in my 10-13 square meter room, and the noise was really loud, he told Cointelegraph. We tried to mitigate it by putting some pillows over the miner and put it closer to the window to cool it down. Streng said that, while the uproar was attracting attention, his neighbors didnt seem disturbed. I mean, I found it annoying, but it was a trade-off for me, he added. I was excited, passionate, and there was an economical aspect it created some money. Around 2014, Streng realized that the local student community had started to actively set up their own mining rigs across campus. The rumour was spreading, so it [mining] got some traction, he recalled. The electricity bill of the student dorm went up quite significantly. When crypto market began growing and Strengs activity became increasingly profitable, he realized that he could run a few thousand of those machines, establishing a mining operation on an industrial scale. That lead to the creation of Genesis Mining, one of the largest mining companies, Streng told Cointelegraph. Im really happy that I did that in my dorm and found that opportunity. Otherwise, it would never have come this far. How legal and ethical is that? While no university seems to have a specific policy in regard to cryptocurrency mining on its premises, in January of 2018, Stanford University issued a public warning against crypto mining on campus, arguing that school resources must not be used for personal financial gain. The warning also cited the universitys chief information security officer: Cryptocurrency mining is most lucrative when computing costs are minimized, which unfortunately has led to compromised systems, misused university computing equipment, and personally owned mining devices using campus power. Indeed, many universities seem to prohibit the use of their resources for personal financial gain including the ones observed in this article. RITs code of conduct for computer use, for instance, states the following: No member of the RIT community may use an RIT computing account or any communications equipment that is owned or maintained by RIT to run a business or commercial service or to advertise for a commercial organization or endeavor. [...] Consistent with other specific policies, members of the RIT community should not waste university resources or use them for personal benefit or for the benefit of a non-university entity. However, not having specific rulesets for cryptocurrency mining might actually induce tax problems for educational institutions who (unwillingly or not) host such activity on their premises. As Selva Ozelli, international tax attorney and CPA, told Cointelegraph: Given that electricity is usually included in a student's tuition or rent, Universities would need to set policy as to whether they will allow cryptocurrency mining on campus premises or not or whether students should be charged extra for electrical expenses relating to cryptocurrency mining. If Universities do not set proper policy in this regard, they could subject themselves to tax problems. Because section 4, Q&A-8 of Notice 2014-21 states that cryptocurrency mining which is treated as a service activity should be treated as ordinary income in the year it is mined, and the expenses of mining including electrical charges deducted as incurred based on the matching of income and expenses." From an ethical point of view, the situation is also quite complex, and opinions vary even among those who benefited from mining on campus. I pay to have the room and since no explicit details in my contract punished overuse of electricity I figured I was fine, especially since I would have had to use a space heater anyway because students couldnt control the temperatures in their own rooms, said Tom from the University of Mississippi, denying that he was in the wrong for setting up a mining rig in his room. Rochester Institute of Technologys Partridge was more critical. I don't believe it's ethical to mine at scale on college campuses, he told Cointelegraph. The electricity being free to me isn't the same as the electricity being free, unfortunately. The former RIT student recalled that he burned around $200 while mining in his dormarty, assuming they get pretty solid commercial electrical rates. He continued: Most people who claim that mining on campuses is ethical don't take into account an important second variable: this is not without risk. Student housing isn't designed to accommodate large quantities of electronic equipment, and couldn't suppress or otherwise contain electrical fires - that could easily lead to massive property damage and loss of life. Streng, the Genesis Mining CEO, believes that, while students can contribute to the decentralized network via mining, they shouldnt exploit the resources of their universities and inform the local administration, if possible. I think its great if a student wants to do it [mine in his/her room] and is excited about it, he said. But of course they have to pay their bills. He continued: The new side-effect of the whole cryptocurrency idea is that someone living in a small room can turn electricity to money. There are many institutional setups not only in education when someone is paying for the electricity of a specific area, while residents have to pay a flat contribution no matter how much electricity they consume. I think those providers should be aware of these possibilities now and that people can make use of them. They should respect that and draft it into their agreements. Therefore, if universities continue to largely overlook mining on their premises, the phenomenon is likely to stay, allowing students to at least earn some beer money. I can't imagine any college student is going to turn down $30/month or even $5/month, said DAria of Bitpro. Even though they're dealing with small amounts on an individual basis, dorm room mining is introducing cryptocurrencies to a whole generation of young adults. It doesn't take them long to figure out how easy and useful it is to use something like Ethereum to split the cost of a 12 pack of natty ice particularly when there's no credit card statement their parents can keep an eye on. Related Articles: By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Five lions, five monkeys, four ostriches, three peacocks, two wolves and a hyena departed Gaza for Jordan on Sunday, after being rescued from a Gaza zoo where many animals died of starvation and lack of care. The animal welfare group Four Paws international carried out the relocation, which also included dogs, cats, foxes, porcupines and 10 squirrels. Fathy Jomaa, owner of the zoo in Rafah, southern Gaza, blamed bad economic conditions and a decade of Israeli-led blockade on the narrow coastal enclave for leaving him unable to properly feed and care for his animals. Jomaa had come under intense criticism by animal care groups after a series of recent deaths and mishaps. Four lion cubs died from cold during a storm in January. A monkey killed another, and a porcupine died more recently of unknown causes, said the owner. Earlier this year he de-clawed two young lions so that zoo visitors could safely pose for selfies with them. Now only the birds remain at the site. They were left behind by Four Paws. Four Paws veterinarian Amir Khalil, who led the rescue mission, said cages at the Gaza zoo had become too small to house the animals and their offspring. He said the animals would go to a sanctuary in Jordan. "It is a tough decision, I feel like I am losing my family. I lived with some of those animals for 20 years," Jomaa told Reuters, saying that economic hardship left him with no choice. "I hope they find a better place to live," he said. The head of the Land Crossings Authority at Israel's Ministry of Defense, Shlomo Saban, said in a statement they "used every means at our disposal to help transfer the animals as quickly as possible". Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza for security reasons after the Islamist group Hamas took control of the territory in 2007. The World Bank says the blockade has reduced the territory, home to 2 million Palestinians, to a state of economic collapse. (Writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Peter Graff) Want to participate in a research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and earn a $60 gift card! The CEO of KWG Group Holdings Limited (HKG:1813) is Jian Kong. First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. Next, we'll consider growth that the business demonstrates. And finally - as a second measure of performance - we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO. View our latest analysis for KWG Group Holdings How Does Jian Kong's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies? According to our data, KWG Group Holdings Limited has a market capitalization of HK$29b, and pays its CEO total annual compensation worth CN4.8m. (This number is for the twelve months until December 2017). While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at CN3.5m. As part of our analysis we looked at companies in the same jurisdiction, with market capitalizations of CN13b to CN43b. The median total CEO compensation was CN2.7m. It would therefore appear that KWG Group Holdings Limited pays Jian Kong more than the median CEO remuneration at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this fact alone doesn't mean the remuneration is too high. We can get a better idea of how generous the pay is by looking at the performance of the underlying business. You can see, below, how CEO compensation at KWG Group Holdings has changed over time. SEHK:1813 CEO Compensation, April 7th 2019 Is KWG Group Holdings Limited Growing? On average over the last three years, KWG Group Holdings Limited has grown earnings per share (EPS) by 4.8% each year (using a line of best fit). It saw its revenue drop -35% over the last year. I would prefer it if there was revenue growth, but it is good to see EPS growth. In conclusion we can't form a strong opinion about business performance yet; but it's one worth watching. It could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future. Story continues Has KWG Group Holdings Limited Been A Good Investment? Boasting a total shareholder return of 136% over three years, KWG Group Holdings Limited has done well by shareholders. As a result, some may believe the CEO should be paid more than is normal for companies of similar size. In Summary... We compared total CEO remuneration at KWG Group Holdings Limited with the amount paid at companies with a similar market capitalization. As discussed above, we discovered that the company pays more than the median of that group. Over the last three years returns to investors have been great, though we might have liked stronger business growth. So, considering these tasty returns, the CEO compensation may be quite appropriate. So you may want to check if insiders are buying KWG Group Holdings shares with their own money (free access). Important note: KWG Group Holdings may not be the best stock to buy. You might find something better in this list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt. 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. SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co on Sunday denied a report that it had signed a preliminary deal with Chinese technology firm Tencent Holdings to develop software for driverless vehicles. Hyundai's comments come a day after South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper cited unnamed industry sources on Saturday saying that the two companies planned to conduct joint research and development on safety and security systems for self-driving cars, which Hyundai seeks to roll out commercially by 2030. Both companies had not offered any immediate comments on Saturday. Hyundai said in a statement on Sunday that its cooperation with the Chinese tech giant was focused on infotainment. Modern cars have so-called infotainment systems on a screen below the dashboard to provide services such as navigation and music. (Reporting by Jane Chung and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) A man has been charged with threatening to kill one of the first Muslim women to serve in the US Congress. Patrick Carlineo Jr was arrested after placing a call to Ilhan Omar's office in which he allegedly called the Democrat a terrorist before threatening to shoot her, federal prosecutors said. The FBI said that the 55-year-old sounded angry during the call to the Washington DC office of the of Minnesota representative, but he spelled his name correctly and provided contact information to a staffer. Mr Carlineo later told bureau investigators that he loves the president and that he hates radical Muslims in our government, according to the criminal complaint filed by US Attorneys Office in the Western District of New York. Ms Omar became one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress at last years midterms, joining the House of Representatives in January. During the call the 55-year-old allegedly said: Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, shes a (expletive) terrorist? Ill put a bullet in her (expletive) skull. The 21 March call was initially reported to the US Capitol Police, who began an investigation in coordination with the FBI. The prosecutors office said Mr Carlineo had been arrested and charged by criminal complaint with threatening to assault and murder a US official. He is being held pending a detention hearing on 10 April. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. Mr Carlineos defence attorney declined to comment on the charges. Ms Omar was met with a backlash for remarks she made earlier this year on Israel, including comments that US supporters of Israel are pushing people to have allegiance to a foreign country. Both leading Republicans and members of her own Democratic party criticised Ms Omars comments as antisemitic. She later apologised, saying antisemitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of antisemitic tropes. Additional reporting by Associated Press * Engines remained at take-off power throughout flight, data show * Pilots faced some downward trim as they fought flawed software * Airline says crew were trying to climb, followed all procedures * Boeing says software fix will prevent similar accidents (Adds further airline comment, details, background) By Tim Hepher, Eric M. Johnson and Jamie Freed PARIS/SEATTLE/SINGAPORE, April 8 (Reuters) - Minutes after take-off, the pilots of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX were caught in a bad situation. As soon as the pilots retracted the flaps and slats, according to flight data, a key sensor began to feed faulty information into Boeing's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), designed to prevent stalls. Flying at full take-off power, according to the flight data, the crew then struggled with nose-down commands from MCAS, four aviation experts told Reuters. The high speed and the jet's forward-leaning posture made it nearly impossible to use the controls to pull the nose up. Moments later, the Boeing Co jet hit the ground, killing all 157 people onboard after six minutes of flight. A complicated picture of what happened in the cockpit of Flight 302 on March 10 is emerging from the sparse commentary of a preliminary report and a new data plot showing how crew and technology interacted. Ethiopia's transport minister said on Thursday that the pilots followed all correct procedures in trying to keep the plane in the air. "The preliminary report confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that the crew followed the right procedures," Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement to Reuters on Sunday. "Under the circumstances, with a number of simultaneous warnings in the cockpit, the crew have performed professionally." The engines remained at full take-off power as the airline's youngest-ever but highly-experienced captain, a 29-year-old with 8,122 hours of flying time, and his 25-year-old co-pilot, with 361 hours, flew the aircraft out of its initial climb. Story continues That would be an unusual step in a regular flight, according to the experts and five current and former pilots interviewed by Reuters, most of whom were not authorized to speak publicly. "You would never, ever have full power for the whole flight," said Hart Langer, a veteran former senior vice president for flight operations at United Airlines. The reason the engines continued at full take-off power was not given in the report. But it is not part of a usual procedure for pilots dealing with the loss of key information such as the sensor data, the four experts said. ENGINE POWER The Ethiopian Airlines statement suggested the crew left the throttles at take-off power because they intended to continue to climb and were hampered by the nose-down commands of MCAS. By the end, the aircraft was traveling at 500 knots (575 mph, 926 kph), far beyond the Boeing jet's operating limits. The Ethiopian Airlines statement said "no excess speed was noted at the initial phases of the flight." The aircraft's gathering speed and its downward "trim" when MCAS switched on for the last time may have contributed to a situation in which the pilots were unable to fight flawed Boeing software that eventually sent the jet into an uncontrollable dive, the four experts said after studying the data. Trim is a manual or automatic setting that helps to keep the plane on a desired up or down trajectory by making it harder for pilots to pull the other way. The Ethiopian Airlines crash, and another in Indonesia five months earlier, have left the world's largest planemaker in crisis as its top-selling jetliner is grounded worldwide, and Ethiopia scrambling to protect one of Africa's most successful companies. All 737 MAX aircraft have been grounded and Boeing is working on an MCAS software fix and extra training that it says will prevent a repeat of such accidents. CEO Dennis Muilenburg said on Friday the two accidents were caused by a chain of events, "with a common chain link being erroneous activation of the aircraft's MCAS function." Sources who reviewed the crash data said the problems started barely 12 seconds after take-off. A sudden spike in black box data was consistent with a bird or other debris hitting the plane as it was taking off, shearing away a vital airflow sensor, said the four experts and two U.S. officials briefed on the data. Ethiopian Airlines on Sunday called that scenario "completely speculative." Chief investigator Amdye Ayalew Fanta said on Thursday there was no indication of such damage. Boeing said it would not comment on ongoing investigations. As with the Lion Air crash in Indonesia, faulty data from the 'angle of attack' sensor, which measures how the wing is cutting through the air, may have set off a volatile chain of events. In both cases, the faulty sensor tricked the plane's computer into thinking the aircraft was about to stall, or lose lift. The anti-stall MCAS software then pushed the nose down forcefully by intervening in the aircraft's trim system. The first time the MCAS software kicked in, flight data shows the Ethiopian Airlines pilots reacted quickly by flicking switches under their thumbs - they had recognized the movements as the same type flight crews had been warned about after the Lion Air crash. But data shows they were not able to fully counteract the computer's movements. At that point, they were a mere 3,000 feet above the airport, so low that a new warning - a computerized voice saying "don't sink" - sounded in the cabin. When MCAS triggered again, the jetliner's trim was set to push the nose down at almost the maximum level, flight data shows, while the control column noisily vibrated with another stall warning called a "stick shaker." This time, the pilots countered MCAS to greater effect, the experts said after studying the data. But when they turned off the system - as they were instructed to do by Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the wake of the Lion Air disaster - the nose was still trimmed downwards, making it harder to pull up the plane. The combination of the plane's speed - edging up towards design limits with the engines still at their take-off power - and the trim setting meant the pilots would have had to exert 50 pounds of force to pull back the control columns, the four experts and one of the pilots said, and moving a backup manual wheel instead was impossible. Ethiopian Airlines' position is that the control problems only resulted from the crew's losing battle with MCAS, a source familiar with the airline's thinking said. Boeing declined to comment. The preliminary report did not cover this issue. 'PULL UP, PULL UP' The captain called out "pull up" three times, according to the cockpit voice recorder. The co-pilot reported problems to air traffic control. In the meantime, the aircraft's speed remained abnormally high, the five pilots and four aviation experts said. Several experienced pilots said there was an array of stressful factors sapping the pilots' attention. Among the distractions was a "clacker" warning telling the pilots their aircraft was going too fast. This only kicked in after the MCAS system had started firing, the airline said. "As pilots have told us, erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high-workload environment," Muilenburg said Thursday, adding Boeing was "sorry for the lives lost" in the crash. "It's our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it and we know how to do it." As the nose gradually fell, the captain asked the co-pilot to try to trim the plane using the manual backup wheel in the center console to help the plane recover from the dive, according to the voice recorder. But it was too hard to move the wheel. Both men then tried to pitch the nose up together. The captain, according to the report, said it was not enough. MCAS RE-ACTIVATES Data shows the electric trim system was switched back on in an apparent effort to force the reluctant nose higher, the experts said. This in turn would have also reconnected MCAS. Reactivating MCAS is contrary to advice issued by Boeing and the FAA after Lion Air. The report did not address that. The airline did not comment. The pilots managed to lift the nose slightly using the electric thumb switches on their control column. The data readout shows they flicked those switches only briefly. The report does not provide a reason for this. It does show the pilots fully engaged in trying to save the plane. With its power restored, a final MCAS command kicked in, eventually pushing the nose down to a 40 degree angle at 500 knots, far beyond the plane's safe operating speed, defined by Boeing as 340 knots. As the 737 MAX plunged, G-forces turned negative, pulling occupants out of their seats. Just six minutes after take off, the plane crashed into a field. (Additional reporting by Jason Neely in Addis Ababa, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, David Shepardson in Washington, and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Daniel Wallis) MUSCATINE, Iowa While Iowa struggles on whether to restore voting rights to felons who have completed their prison sentences, Sen. Bernie Sanders said people convicted of felonies should never lose access to the ballot box in the first place. At a town hall meeting in Muscatines West Middle School gymnasium Saturday, the Vermont senator was asked whether the imprisoned should have the right to vote. Only his home state and Maine allow felons to vote from behind bars. "I think that is absolutely the direction we should go," he said. While most states disenfranchise felons, Sanders said the convicted still have a right to participate in elections. "In my state, what we do is separate. Youre paying a price, you committed a crime, youre in jail. That's bad," he said. "But youre still living in American society and you have a right to vote. I believe in that, yes, I do. Democratic presidential candidate hopeful Bernie Sanders speaks to Eastern Iowans during a town hall meeting at West Middle School in Muscatine on Saturday, April 6, 2019. Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren was asked about the issue during a recent forum on rural issues in Storm Lake. She said felons who have served their time deserve the franchise. But Warren stopped short of saying those in prison should be able to vote. Stay politically savvy: Subscribe to the Des Moines Register's politics newsletter "While theyre incarcerated, I think thats something we can have more conversation about," she said. Sanders skipped that presidential forum, which was attended by Warren, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former U.S. housing secretary Julian Castro, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan. This year, Iowa's Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has advocated for a constitutional amendment to allow people convicted of felonies to automatically have their voting rights restored once they have served their sentence. Right now, Iowa is one of two states that only allow felons to vote if a governor gives them permission. But hopes for Iowa to start the yearslong process to approve that constitutional amendment were dashed this week when the Republican-controlled Senate thwarted the plan, likely killing it for the year. The Republican-controlled House had overwhelmingly approved the plan earlier. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: In Iowa, Bernie Sanders says states should allow felons to vote from behind bars The ex-campaign manager for former Iowa congressional candidate Theresa Greenfield publicly apologized in a newspaper ad on Sunday for faking signatures on petition paperwork last year. The fake signatures led Greenfield to drop out from the Democratic primary for Iowas 3rd Congressional District race in 2018. In a full-page ad in the Des Moines Sunday Register, Noah Wasserman said he falsified signatures in petition documents that Greenfield and other Iowa candidates were required to submit in order to get onto the ballot. The ad was the first time Wasserman has publicly commented on the incident. In March 2018, Greenfield abruptly withdrew her petition signatures shortly before the deadline and announced that her campaign manager had faked signatures. Theresa Greenfield, a Democratic candidate for Iowa's Greenfield said she immediately fired Wasserman, though at the time she did not share his name. Greenfield attempted, with the help of staff on other Democratic campaigns, to collect new signatures to qualify for the primary ballot. She ended up coming short, ending her election bid. Rep. Cindy Axne went on to win the June primary for the congressional seat and defeated David Young last November, making history as one of the first women to represent Iowa in the House of Representatives. Wasserman said in the ad that the pressure of the campaign "was truly affecting me." "I was exhausted and frustrated. With just a week remaining to submit the necessary signatures, we were still a few signatures short. I desperately wanted to shift our attention to other matters namely the upcoming fundraising deadline and county conventions. Instead of asking for help, I falsified signatures, lied to Theresa, and told her to submit the nomination documents. Neither she, nor anyone else, knew what I had done," he wrote. Wasserman said despite the help of friends, family and a therapist, "I struggled to move forward in life." Wasserman said the fear of criminal prosecution held him back from saying more in the months since the incident. He said he wrote apology letters in January to Greenfield and others on the campaign. Story continues Wasserman said he wanted to apologize to the people whose signatures he used and to Iowans "for denying you the possibility of voting for a terrific candidate." "So while some would call what I did an 'error in judgment,' it feels even more personal like a betrayal. For that, I am especially sorry," he wrote. Wasserman said he has not spoken with Greenfield. On Sunday, Greenfield said news of the ad "took me back to a lot of emotions." She said she did receive a letter from Wasserman in January. "Its good to see Noah on a healing path," she said. "Apologizing for his actions and accepting responsibility is really a good first step along that path." Greenfield has been quiet about her future in politics. She has been mentioned by some as a potential Democratic challenger to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who is up for re-election in 2020. "I cant confirm anything at this time," Greenfield said Sunday about her future plans. But she reiterated that she made the right decision last year to immediately withdraw her petition signatures when she learned of Wasserman's actions. Greenfield added: "I would run for office again, absolutely. This experience did not shake me. In some ways, it inspired me." This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Democrat's ex-campaign manager apologizes for fake 2018 signatures Tehran (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iraq to demand US troops leave "as soon as possible", warning that Washington is plotting to remove the government in Baghdad. The remarks came during a visit to Tehran on Saturday by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, whose country is under pressure from the United States to distance itself from Iran. "You should take actions to make sure the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because wherever they have had an enduring presence, forcing them out has become problematic," Khamenei told Abdel Mahdi. "The current government and parliament in Iraq and the political figures are not what the US desires; they plot to remove them from the political scene of Iraq," he said, according to his official website. Abdel Mahdi, on his first official trip to Iran, also met Saturday with President Hassan Rouhani, who visited Iraq last month. Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year and hit Tehran with sanctions. 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 advisers" and equipment along with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) elite Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. - Terrorism blacklist - According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington is planning to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO), an unprecedented step that would escalate tensions between the two countries. Story continues The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said President Donald Trump's administration would announce the long-mulled decision as soon as Monday. But it said the Pentagon and the US Central Intelligence Agency were concerned the move could increase risks for US troops without doing much more to damage the Iranian economy. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the expected measure was "another US disaster" in the making, and warned Washington on Sunday of the consequences it could have. "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region," Zarif said on Twitter, referring to supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf. @realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster," he added. The Guards' commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said US troops would no longer "enjoy the peace they have today" in the Middle East if Washington goes ahead with "such foolishness," according to the IRGG's website. Iran's parliament has vowed to retaliate by passing an urgent bill putting American troops on a terrorism blacklist alongside the Islamic State group, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported. "Even though we believe one should not play along with America's extreme acts, the reality is that we must retaliate," the head of Iran's influential national security and foreign policy commission, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, told ISNA. A statement signed by a majority of MPs in support of the bill said any action against Iran's national security and its armed forces was "crossing a red line" and the US administration would "regret" its decision. The IRGC was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the new system. Designating the Guards as a terrorist organisation would "effectively be a service to terrorists," Falahatpisheh said, since they have "the biggest role in combatting terrorism" in the region. 1. Yes. Patrol cars in the lot and armed officers inside would deter would-be criminals. 2. Yes. Police should announce their plans and be highly visible during store hours. 3. No. The citys police officers have other obligations. More private security is the answer. 4. No. Perhaps, but installing more surveillance cameras would be a better deterrent. 5. Unsure. More police might help, but it could also stretch KPDs resources too thin. Vote View Results Jerusalem (AFP) - Israelis vote Tuesday in a high-stakes election on whether to extend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long tenure in power despite corruption allegations against him and a strong challenge by an ex-military chief. Bolstered by his reputation as guarantor of Israel's security and economic growth, Netanyahu has spent more than 13 years as premier and opinion polls show that he could well win again. He would be on track to surpass founding father David Ben-Gurion as Israel's longest-serving prime minister if he wins. In a last-minute appeal to right-wing voters, Netanyahu said Saturday he was planning on annexing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins. The deeply controversial move could end hopes for a two-state solution with the Palestinians if done on a large scale. Netanyahu is fighting for his political life while facing a dual threat in this year's election. The possibility of indictment hangs over him while a centrist alliance headed by political novice Benny Gantz is battling his Likud neck-and-neck in opinion polls. Some surveys have shown that Netanyahu's party could win fewer seats than Gantz's Blue and White, but still be best placed to form a governing coalition based on support from other right-wing parties allied to him. Through much of the acrimonious campaign, polls have shown Likud and Blue and White with around 30 seats each in the 120-seat parliament -- far short of an outright majority and necessitating a coalition, as is usual in Israel. Netanyahu heads what is already seen as the most rightwing government in Israel's history, and if polling trends hold, his next coalition could be even further to the right. But analysts caution against drawing conclusions just yet, pointing to the number of undecided voters and the possibility that smaller rightwing parties fail to win the 3.25 percent required to enter parliament. "The Likud bloc seems to have a majority," said Gideon Rahat of the Israel Democracy Institute think tank. Story continues But "it still can change because opinion polls cannot really tell you whether a party will pass the threshold". - Essential statesman? - Victory seemed sure for Netanyahu when he decided in December to call for early elections even though they were not due until November 2019. The move by the 69-year-old known for his deft political skills was widely seen as a tactic to face the corruption allegations with a fresh electoral mandate behind him. But since then, Gantz has emerged as a serious contender. He has been helped by his decision to ally with two other former military chiefs as well as with ex-finance minister Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party, which currently holds 11 seats in parliament. The attorney general's announcement in February that he intends to indict Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust pending a hearing gave the premier's opponents a further boost. Netanyahu has employed divisive populism throughout the campaign in what critics say has amounted to the demonisation of Arab Israelis and others. Citing a law passed last year declaring Israel the nation state of the Jewish people, he said recently the country was "not a state of all its citizens". He has also brokered a deal that could see the entry into parliament of a member of an extreme-right party many view as racist. But he has bet on his experience as well, portraying himself as Israel's essential statesman, while denouncing Gantz's alliance as leftist and "weak" despite its security credentials and the fact that many of its policy ideas are similar to his. In the weeks ahead of the election, the prime minister has met with his close ally US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Russian President Vladimir Putin. - 'No leader is king' - Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, as well as Putin's help in returning the remains of an Israeli soldier missing since the 1982 Lebanon war, have played in his favour. "What is important is who leads, the diplomatic navigator," Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel Hayom newspaper on Friday. "I'm working against Israel's greatest enemies. They aren't." Voters could again be drawn to the right-wing leadership of a man some have referred to as "King Bibi" due to his long tenure at the top, using his nickname since childhood. Gantz, a former paratrooper who was armed forces chief of staff from 2011-2015, has highlighted his security background while offering a centrist vision on social issues. He has argued that he can heal divisions he says Netanyahu has exacerbated. "I do think that the time for him to end his job in a dignified manner has arrived," Gantz said in a recent interview. When launching his campaign, he said: "No Israeli leader is a king." With the election expected to be close, much will likely depend on post-poll negotiations to form a coalition. "Whatever the results are, the formation of a coalition will probably be the most complicated one since 1961," said political scientist Abraham Diskin, referring to when it took David Ben-Gurion months to form a government. More than six million Israelis are eligible to vote in Tuesday's polls, which open at 7:00 am (0400 GMT). American tourist Kimberly Sue Endicott and her tour guide, who were ambushed and kidnapped Tuesday in Uganda, have been rescued and are in good health, Ugandan authorities said Sunday. The countrys government and police announced their rescue by security forces on Twitter without addressing whether a ransom was paid. "The duo are in good health & in the safe hands of the joint security team,'' the Ugandan police tweeted. The kidnappers fled the scene when security forces moved in, according to media reports. Endicott, from Southern California, was visiting Queen Elizabeth National Park alongside Congolese guide Jean Paul Mirenge when they were abducted at gunpoint by four men who used her cellphone to contact authorities and demand a $500,000 ransom, Ugandan police said. Endicott and Mirenge were on an evening safari with a Canadian couple when the gunmen accosted their vehicle, taking the first two and robbing the 78-year-old Canadians but leaving them behind. They notified the camp manager, who rescued them. An massive search-and-rescue effort was launched after the ambush and kidnapping. President Donald Trump was among those hailing the safe release of Endicott and Mirenge, tweeting, "God bless them and their families!'' It was not known whether a ransom was paid or by whom, but U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said the American government does not pay ransom for its citizens. At a Tuesday event for families of U.S. citizens held captive overseas, before news of Endicott's abduction was out, Pompeo said he understands relatives' anguish but that paying ransom would just lead to more kidnappings. The State Department released a statement Friday saying, Whenever a U.S. citizen is taken captive abroad, we work tirelessly in partnership with local authorities to secure their release and get them home safely. More: American woman kidnapped in Uganda; $500K ransom demanded Police said Endicott, who owns a small skin-care shop in Orange County, arrived in Uganda on March 29 and on the next day flew to the park, a sprawling wildlife refuge more than 200 miles west of the capital city of Kampala. Story continues Police & its sister security agencies have today rescued Ms.Kimberley Sue, an American tourist together with her guide who were kidnapped while on an evening game drive at Queen Elizabeth National park.The duo are in good health & in the safe hands of the joint security team. Uganda Police Force (@PoliceUg) April 7, 2019 Queen Elizabeth Park is known as Ugandas most popular tourist destination and is generally regarded as safe, but the western edge borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to several rebel groups. Last year two British tourists and their driver were kidnapped in the Virunga National Park across the border in Congo. They were released two days later. Contributing: John Bacon and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY; The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kidnapped American tourist, guide rescued by security forces in Uganda Lilongwe (Malawi) (AFP) - Malawis President Peter Mutharika launched his Democratic Progressive Partys manifesto and election campaign Sunday, ahead of next months elections where he will seek a second and final term in office. Mutharika, who has been in power since 2014, will face tough opposition, including from his own deputy Saulos Chilima, at the May 21 election. "This is the most important campaign since 1994 when Malawi attained multi-party democracy," Mutharika told over 5,000 supporters at the Kamuzu Institute of Youth in Lilongwe. "This year we choose between going forward or going backwards." His government has been dogged by several high-profile cases of corruption and nepotism. Last November, Mutharika himself was forced to return a $200,000 donation from a businessman facing a corruption case in a $3-million contract to supply food to the Malawi police. But on Sunday he told his supporters: "In 2014, we made promises and kept the promises. "We are government that has done more in the last five years than any government has done in the history of Malawi. "We are ready to take Malawi further from poverty to prosperity," he told the jubilant crowd. And he held his hand out to the opposition, calling on them to "just come and join us so that we build together, because they are not presenting any new ideas". - Rival contenders - Mutharika, 78, defeated the incumbent Joyce Banda in the 2014 presidential elections. Next month, he faces three challengers, including his own Vice President Chilima. Chilima, 48, quit Mutharikas party to form the United Transformation Movement, while staying on as vice president. Under Malawi law, the president cannot fire the vice president. The other two contenders are Lazarus Chakwera, head of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP); and Atupele Muluzi, health minister in Mutharikas government. Former baptist preacher Chakwera, 64, is running with the support of former president Banda. Story continues Atupele Muluzi, 41, who launched his partys manifesto in Lilongwe on Sunday, inherited the United Democratic Front from his father, Malawi's third president Bakili Muluzi. The party entered into a parliamentary alliance with the president's party after Muluzi came fourth in the 2014 elections. About half of Malawi's 18 million population live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank, and the country relies on foreign aid. Food shortages, power outages and ballooning external debt have hurt Mutharika's popularity ahead of the vote. Want to participate in a research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and earn a $60 gift card! If you want to know who really controls Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries S.A. (ATH:MOH), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned. Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries isn't enormous, but it's not particularly small either. It has a market capitalization of 2.3b, which means it would generally expect to see some institutions on the share registry. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about MOH. Check out our latest analysis for Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries ATSE:MOH Ownership Summary, April 7th 2019 What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries? Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index. We can see that Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries does have institutional investors; and they hold 19% of the stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone, since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too. ATSE:MOH Income Statement, April 7th 2019 Hedge funds don't have many shares in Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries. 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 Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it. I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions. Our data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. It is unusual not to have at least some personal holdings by board members, so our data might be flawed. A good next step would be to check how much the CEO is paid. General Public Ownership The general public, with a 34% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies. Private Company Ownership Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 47%, of the company's shares. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company. Next Steps: It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries better, we need to consider many other factors. I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can find historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph. But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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. As the Trump administration works to address what it describes as a growing "crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said in a court filing that it may take two years for the government to identify thousands of migrant children who were separated from their families. The filing Friday outlined the government's plan to use data analysis and manual reviews to sift through the cases of about 47,000 children who were apprehended by U.S. immigration officials from July 1, 2017, to June 25, 2018, to identify which children might have been taken from family members. It estimated the process "would take at least 12 months, and possibly up to 24 months." Last month, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw expanded the number of migrant families that the government may be forced to reunite under his previous order after an inspector general report revealed that the administration had an undisclosed family separation pilot program in place starting in July of 2017. The ruling was made as part of a lawsuit led by the American Civil Liberties Union. President Donald Trump participates in a roundtable on immigration and border security at the U.S. Border Patrol Calexico Station in Calexico, California, April 5, 2019. Judge: Trump administration may have to reunite thousands of additional migrant families "The administration refuses to treat the family separation crisis it created with urgency, " the ACLU said in a statement Saturday. "We strongly oppose any plan that gives the government up to two years to find kids. The government swiftly gathered resources to tear families apart. It must do the same to fix the damage." The administration refuses to treat the family separation crisis it created with urgency. We strongly oppose any plan that gives the government up to two years to find kids. The government swiftly gathered resources to tear families apart. It must do the same to fix the damage. https://t.co/ZkOoG9kLmX ACLU (@ACLU) April 6, 2019 In recent months, the number of families crossing into the U.S. has climbed to record highs, putting severe strains on an already overburdened immigration system. In the past, most of those seeking to illegally cross the border were single, mostly male, Mexican nationals coming in search of work. Story continues More than half are now parents and children fleeing impoverished Central American countries where violent crime is rampant. "The numbers are overwhelming right now," Gregory Archambault, the director of enforcement and removal operations in San Diego for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Associated Press. "Everybody is stressed because there are these mass numbers of people." "More and more people now accepting the fact that it's a real crisis," acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday during an interview with Fox News. Mulvaney said the issues of migrant families and unaccompanied migrant children required congressional action because "there's legally nothing that the (Department of Homeland Security) can do with the children." Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., said Democrats want to work with the president on a solution. "Separating children from their families at the border is not humane. It's not what the United States should be doing, and we continue to see this administration engage in those policies," Lujan said on "Fox News Sunday." Friday's court filing came the same day President Donald Trump declared that there is "indeed an emergency on our southern border," during a tour of the border in Calexico, California. He cited an upturn in the number of migrants arriving at the border in recent months. "Its a colossal surge and its overwhelming our immigration system, and we cant let that happen," Trump said. "We cant take you anymore. We cant take you. Our country is full," he warned those who might attempt to come to the U.S. Like Trump, Mulvaney applauded Mexico for its apprehension of migrants in recent days, which he claimed was sparked by Trump's threats to close the border or impose tariffs on Mexico's auto exports if the country did not do more to stem the flow of northbound migrants. But despite the White House's claims that Mexico was apprehending migrants for the "first time in decades," Mexico has taken hundreds of thousands of migrants into custody in the past four years from the "Northern Triangle" countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Mexico said its numbers in recent months were "about average." "There is no very substantive change," Mexicos foreign secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, said this week. "There has not been a drastic change." Fact check: Trump is wrong on Mexico's migrant apprehensions Lujan said Trump "continues to use immigration as a distraction." He questioned whether the Department of Homeland Security was "accurately describing" its apprehension statistics because he said many families were voluntarily turning themselves in to seek asylum status. "This is not the national security crisis that the president continues to describe," Lujan said. "There is a humanitarian crisis, but it's created by President Donald Trump." Some immigration experts agree with Lujan's assessment. They say Trumps policies have caused so much chaos along the border that they may be encouraging illegal crossings. For example, the family separation controversy helped to highlight the fact that families wont be detained for long in the U.S. if theyre detained at all. And metering, in which people are asked to return to a busy port of entry on another day to seek asylum, may have encouraged asylum-seekers to cross illegally, said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. "This policy chaos, coupled with a sense that the U.S. government may at some point really shut down the border, has generated an urgency to migrate now while it is still possible," Selee said. More: Fourth person in six months dies in ICE immigration detention center Contributing: Alan Gomez, USA TODAY; The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: It may take 2 years to identify thousands of migrant children separated from families Rafah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - More than 40 animals, including five lions, were evacuated from squalid conditions in a Gaza Strip zoo on Sunday to be taken to Jordan, an animal welfare group said. Thin and weakened, the 43 animals, including a wolf and monkeys, had been living in "terrible conditions," said the Four Paws association, which organised the transfer. The Rafah zoo in the southern Gaza Strip is the oldest in the enclave, which has been under an Israeli blockade for more than 10 years. The animals were not in great shape, but were stable enough to be transported to a reserve in Jordan, some 300 kilometres (190 miles) from the Palestinian enclave, said Martin Bauer, spokesman for the Vienna-based welfare group. The animals were sedated to be put in cages for the transfer through Israel. Two of the lions would eventually be sent to South Africa. Four Paws was supposed to move ahead with the transfer in late March, but the organisation could not enter the enclave since the crossing was closed that week due to a flare-up of violence between Gaza militants and Israel. Bauer said the mission had the support of the authorities in Gaza, run by Islamist movement Hamas, and of the zoo's owner, who has said he could no longer afford the upkeep for the animals. Israel's permission was also received for the mission. He said it was the biggest such mission carried out by Four Paws and intensive negotiations were required. The zoo received attention recently when the owner revealed he had declawed one of its lions so customers could pay to play with her. In January, four lion cubs died of cold in the zoo. The Gaza Strip suffers from poverty and a lack of infrastructure, including a severe electricity shortage. Israel and Palestinian militants in the strip have fought three wars since 2008. Four Paws says a number of animals at the zoo have died in bombings since its 1999 opening. In 2016, Four Paws helped facilitate the transfer of the sole tiger in the Gaza Strip, eventually relocating it to South Africa. The organisation in 2017 rescued a lion and a bear from a zoo in Mosul in northern Iraq, a former stronghold of the Islamic State group. The most poignant aspect of the celebrations of NATOs 70th anniversary last week was the tension between the business-as-usual character of the meeting among the alliances foreign ministers in Washington and the continuing absurdity of Donald Trumps presidential reality show including his earlier suggestion that Americas allies be charged full costs plus 50 percent for the presence of U.S. military bases in their countries. This contrast, together with what are largely conventional policies of a largely conventional Republican administration including the strengthening of sanctions on Russia, a boost of U.S. presence on NATOs eastern flank, and a more muscular posture toward China create the impression that the idiosyncratically Trumpist challenge to the transatlantic alliance will fade away once Donald Trump leaves office. That is an illusion. Trump may be crude and unsophisticated, but his presidency is raising questions about the alliance that have to be answered. Seventy years into its existence, NATO needs to adapt or become irrelevant. Historically, after all, alliances between countries have rarely been long-lasting. In contrast, NATO has managed to outlive the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union by almost three decades. Whether that anomaly can continue hinges on the extent to which the alliance can still generate value for its members in a new global environment. Trumps antics often mirror real problems especially Europes free riding. Notwithstanding decades of American cajoling and the EUs self-professed desire to become strategically independent, few European governments are willing to invest real resources into their militaries. Germany, for example, recently revised its spending plans downwards, walking back its already timid commitment to increase defense spending to 1.5 percent of GDP by 2025. Germanys current reluctance to step up its game is at least as irresponsible as Trumps Twitter outbursts. Yet it is worth remembering that a part of the alliances initial rationale was to keep the Germans down or, more broadly, to limit the destructive power competition between European nation-states. In that sense, the feebleness of European militaries is a feature, not a bug, of the alliances design and it has to be said that it has served Europe rather well. Story continues If Germany just brought its defense spending above 2 percent of GDP, it would easily outspend Russia and become one of the largest military powers in the world. What would Germanys neighbors in Europe say, especially those countries that are concerned that Berlin is already wielding too much power within the EU? The Mediterranean periphery blames Germany, rightly or wrongly, for imposing unpopular austerity policies on its hapless economies. Leaders of Visegrad countries, most prominently Viktor Orban of Hungary, have soured on Berlin after Chancellor Angela Merkel extended her welcome to Syrian asylum seekers in September 2015. How would Germanys militarization shape the countrys relations with the Czech Republic, which expelled two and a half million ethnic Germans from the Sudetenland after World War II? With Poland? Of course, none of this is an excuse for Germanys current complacency. But how exactly Europeans step up their game is just as important as the question of whether European defense budgets will grow, and by how much. The best way to encourage Europeans to do more, without inviting back the destructive militarism of the past, is for the United States to support the deepening of the EUs defense cooperation, which already enjoys popular support across the EUs member states. Unfortunately, the administration has done the opposite displaying its hostility to the European project on every occasion imaginable. Given that European countries, including those currently governed by populist governments, are committed to the EU, euroskepticism as an official U.S. policy risks widening the already existing gap between Europe and the United States. Yet for NATO to remain viable, that gap needs to narrow. On some issues, this may be difficult. The United States sees a resurgent Iran as the most significant source of regional instability in the Middle East. Europeans, determined to salvage the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, have seemed more willing to spend political capital to circumvent U.S. secondary sanctions than to stop Irans ballistic-missile program and respond to its support for Assads atrocities in Syria. On other subjects, synergies are more natural. Similarly to the Cold War, the presence of common enemies fosters unity. In Washington, it is taken for granted that China already is Americas most important global rival. Europeans may be slow, but they too are waking up to the risks that Chinese investment might entail. On the issue of Russia, which poses an immediate threat to the security of Eastern Europe, Europe itself seems divided. Some want to have it both ways keep Vladimir Putins belligerence in check but also continue to do business with Russia as if the annexation of Crimea and war against Ukraine had never happened. The alliance has no alternative but to find a common strategic outlook, in which the European continent plays an important but no longer an exclusive part, simply because the worlds center of gravity has moved away from Europe. What is equally important is NATOs insistence on shared values. Why should U.S, taxpayers and its men and women in uniform underwrite the security of Recep Tayyip Erdogans autocratic regime in Turkey, for example? At what point does Fideszs authoritarianism in Hungary become incompatible with the countrys place within the democratic, civilized West? Membership in the alliance cannot be a one-way ratchet. It has to become a conditional privilege, with all the members playing an active role and facing a common system of graduated sanctions, culminating in expulsion for rogue regimes. Otherwise, the frequent appeals to shared values will continue to ring hollow to voters on both sides of the Atlantic. NATO is certainly not obsolete. As my AEI colleague Gary Schmitt argued , the alliance has been extraordinarily successful in encouraging states and peoples to put aside traditional rivalries in the name of greater regional cooperation while only minimally burdening the United States. It is, in short, the most successful alliance in the history of humankind. But its best days lie ahead of us only if the bloc succeeds in finding compelling responses to its threefold challenge of shared defense costs, shared strategic outlook, and shared values. I, for one, hope that Trumps brusque manners will help catalyze that process, instead of eroding the alliances credibility. More from National Review * Israeli leader in policy shift before Tuesday's election * Seeks far-right votes to boost his Likud party * Netanyahu locked in close race with centrist challenger * By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM, April 7 (Reuters) - Palestinians voiced alarm while Israelis weighed the gravity on Sunday of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's sudden election promise to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Some Israeli commentators saw the right-wing leader's pledge on Saturday, as Tuesday's national ballot approaches, as mainly a bid to siphon votes from ultranationalist rivals long advocating annexation. But after years of resisting far-right calls to formally put West Bank land captured in the 1967 Middle East war under permanent Israeli hold, Netanyahu could be counting on support for a dramatic shift from his close ally, U.S. President Donald Trump. "Who says that we won't do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it," Netanyahu, asked why he had not extended Israeli sovereignty to large West Bank settlements, told Israel's Channel 12 News. In March, Trump broke with decades of international consensus by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured from Syria. That followed his December 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the U.S. embassy's move to the holy city last May. Asked in an interview on Friday on Israel's Channel 13 why he wasn't pressing Trump now to approve a West Bank settlement status change, Netanyahu replied: "Wait until the next term." Taking Netanyahu at his word, Palestinians seeking statehood in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem called his settlement annexation remarks a violation of international law regarding occupied territory. "His declaration is not just in the heat of ... electioneering campaigns," said Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestine Liberation Organization official. "This is the end of any chances of peace." Story continues A spokesman for Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs the Gaza Strip, said "the response to (Israeli) crimes and foolishness will be met by popular resistance, armed resistance and by all our might." But Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the New Right party and author of a plan to annex parts of the West Bank, suggested Netanyahu was simply trawling for votes. "For the past 10 years, Netanyahu has blocked applying Israeli law to even a centimeter of land," Bennett tweeted. In the settlement of Karnei Shomron, spice shop owner Yehezkel Shaul said he believed Netanyahu's annexation pledge, calling him "the most reliable and honest person." At the local high school, Harel Levi, 18, was not so sure. "It's an election promise and he'll find some excuse later," Levi said. HEATED ISSUE Settlements, which Israel's B'Tselem rights group said cover about 10 percent of the West Bank, are one of the most heated issues in efforts to restart peace talks, frozen since 2014. After decades of settlement-building, more than 400,000 Israelis now live in the territory, according to Israeli figures. The West Bank is home to some 2.9 million Palestinians, the Palestinian Statistics Bureau says. A further 212,000 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Palestinians and many countries consider settlements to be illegal under the Geneva conventions, which ban settling on territory occupied in war. Israel disputes this, arguing that the status of the West Bank is still disputed. But unilateral annexation would be far harder to justify, even among allies. Trump's predecessors as president publicly discouraged the expansion of settlements, arguing that they made it harder to negotiate a viable Palestinian state, viewed by administrations from both U.S. parties as Israel's likeliest route to peace. Palestinians argue that Washington did not do enough in practice to press for settlements to be curbed. Most peace plan scenarios foresee Israel negotiating to keep some settlements in return for giving other land to the Palestinians. Annexation could take that off the table. Netanyahu's annexation promise was met with skepticism by Shaqued Morag, director of Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlements group that closely monitors their expansion. "So we must ask, why has Netanyahu said this now?" Morag said. The answer, she told Reuters, was that Netanyahu feared for his political survival and "the times dictate he makes these extreme declarations that he has no intention to follow through on." Israel Katz, the acting foreign minister and a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, said its "great fear" was a split in the right-wing vote that would result in a second-place finish behind the centrist Blue and White faction. Katz said Likud had to ensure it emerges as the biggest party, to put Netanyahu in the best position to get the nod from Israel's president to try to put together a governing coalition. No one party has ever won a ruling parliamentary majority on its own in an Israeli election. (Additional reporting by Ron Bousso in Karnei Shomron, West Bank, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, West Bank and Maayan Lubell and Stephen Farrell in Jerusalem Editing by Peter Graff) Jerusalem (AFP) - The main challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel's elections on Sunday condemned the premier's deeply controversial pledge to annex West Bank settlements, calling it an "irresponsible" bid for votes. Netanyahu said late Saturday he planned to apply sovereignty over at least parts of the occupied West Bank, a move that could prove the death knell for the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His remarks were widely seen as an appeal to right-wing voters ahead of what is expected to be a close election on Tuesday. Benny Gantz, the former military chief whose centrist Blue and White alliance has posed a stiff challenge to Netanyahu, condemned the premier's remarks in an interview with Israeli news site Ynet. "Why not ask how in 13 years Netanyahu could have annexed and didn't?" said Gantz, in reference to Netanyahu's time as premier. "I think that releasing a strategic and historic decision in an election campaign bubble is not serious and (is) irresponsible." Pressed on his personal position, Gantz said he opposed "unilateral" moves. "We said we will strive for a regionally and globally backed peace agreement while maintaining our basic principles," he said. Those principles include keeping security control of the Jordan Valley, parts of which are in the West Bank, and maintaining the large settlement blocs in the West Bank. Gantz has in the past signalled openness to withdrawing at least some settlers from other areas. He labelled Netanyahu's remarks as "a meaningless statement". "It's a shame to play with people like that," he said. - 'I don't distinguish' - Netanyahu did not provide details on how quickly he planned to move ahead with annexation and whether it would involve all settlements. If done on a large scale, annexation could end already fading hopes for a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Story continues It is a move the Israeli far right has long pushed for. "I will apply (Israeli) sovereignty, but I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements," he said in an interview with Channel 12 television. Settlements built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War are deemed illegal by the international community and their ongoing construction is seen as a major barrier to peace. But Netanyahu's right wing government has had strong support from US President Donald Trump, who declared the disputed city of Jerusalem Israel's capital in 2017 and later recognised Israeli sovereignty over the annexed Golan Heights. That prompted Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to cut off relations with Washington. Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Netanyahu's statement on annexation was "not surprising." "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administration's support," he said on Twitter. In a separate interview broadcast Friday, Netanyahu said he told Trump he would not remove settlements or settlers as part of a future American peace plan. "I said there shouldn't be the removal of even one settlement," Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 13 television. More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, backed by Israel's military occupation of the territory, home to more than 2.5 million Palestinians. A further 200,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied east Jerusalem, over which Israel has already implemented full sovereignty. The Palestinians hope to establish a state of their own in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. - 'Close race' - Washington is expected to unveil proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace some time after Tuesday's election, in which Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term. Netanyahu, running for re-election while facing the possibility of indictment on corruption charges, said he had informed Trump not "even one person" would be evicted from a settlement. The US president on Saturday was cautious about the outcome of Israel's upcoming election. "Well, it's going to be close -- I think it's going to be close. Two good people," he said, referring to Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz. The latest polls place Netanyahu and Gantz neck-and-neck, but give the former the advantage in his ability to form a coalition government. Turkey accused Netanyahu on Sunday of raising annexation as a means of improving his standing in the elections. "West Bank is Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in violation of int'l law," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote on Twitter. "Prime Minister Netanyahu's irresponsible statement to seek votes just before the Israeli general elections cannot and will not change this fact." The Palestinians say the US government's pro-Israel bias meant it could no longer mediate between them and Israel. US officials say their plan will be fair. Photo credit: Hyundai From Car and Driver At risk are 20102015 Hyundai and Kia models with 2.0-liter and 2.4-liter engines, many of which have been previously recalled for engine failures. The investigation is not a recall, but, if the government determines a defect exists, it can force a recall. Owners have reported their cars catching on fire after stalling. All of the fires under investigation occurred without a crash. Hyundai and Kia will now have to answer why they haven't recalled nearly three million cars with potentially defective engines that may catch fire. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation this week after reviewing more than 3000 reports of fires that started without any crashesand in some cases, with the engine reported to have been off entirely. Under investigation are the 20102015 Kia Soul; 20112014 Hyundai Sonata, Sonata hybrid, and Santa Fe; Kia Optima, Optima hybrid, and Sorento; and 20132014 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport. A total of 2,985,010 cars in the U.S. are potentially affected and at risk of engine fires, according to agency filings. NHTSA has tracked at least 3125 complaints of fires reported by owners and the automakers, including at least 103 injuries and one death. The reported fires, predominantly in the engine compartment, are correlated to two recalls in 2015 and 2017 affecting 1.6 million of these cars with the 2.0-liter and 2.4-liter four-cylinder engines with direct injection (labeled by the automakers as GDI). Many of these engines, known as Theta II, have improperly machined crankshafts and crankpins that can leave metal shavings within the crankshaft oil passages. They can become blocked, cause the connecting rod bearings to wear, and then seize the engine. And it is these engines that are catching fire, according to the Ralph Naderbacked Center for Auto Safety (CAS), which petitioned NHTSA to investigate them in June 2018. One Michigan driver reported to the Detroit Free Press that his 2012 Optima, after stalling on the highway, caught fire within minutes after pulling onto the shoulder and became a "big toasted marshmallow." His car, he said, was not included in the original recalls. The CAS has collected complaints of "melted wires in the engine bay, smoke, and burning odors." NHTSA is also looking at fires originating in other parts of the vehicles, including the wiring harnesses and taillights. The Theta II engines were brand-new for the 2011 Hyundai Sonata and the Kia Optima and Sportage, although the Sportage is not included in the investigation. The Soul also did not originally receive these engines when it launched for 2010, but it also has enough "non-crash fires" on record to warrant the investigation, according to NHTSA. Story continues NHTSA had been investigating the 2015 and 2017 recalls in an audit to determine if the repairs were working. Two months after CAS sent a petition letter, NHTSA requested data from Hyundai and Kia on these cars. Between December 2018 and February 2019, the automakers recalled another 740,000 cars for leaking engine oil, leaking fuel within the direct-injection system, bad ignition timing, and overheating catalytic converters that could break connecting rods. More than half of these cars involved the 1.6-liter turbo engine, which has not yet been linked to fires, and other vehicles not part of the original recalls. The company settled a class-action lawsuit in January 2017 for 20112014 Sonata owners after out-of-warranty owners were hit with thousands of dollars in repair bills for seized engines. Both automakers have offered extended powertrain warranties to certain owners of the Sonata, Sorento, Optima, and Sportage. The factory remedy for the 2015 and 2017 recalls was to replace certain engine partsand in some cases, entire enginesfor customers with actual damage. For everyone else, dealers installed a Knock Sensor Detection System that would alert drivers if the engine was about to fail. In an interview with the Free Press, CAS executive director Jason Levine likened the fix to mending an open wound with a blood-pressure cuff and telling someone to visit the hospital when it gets worse. The problem still exists, he said. The automakers did not release a statement. A NHTSA investigation does not certify that a safety defect exists or guarantee that a recall will actually occur. You Might Also Like Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday claimed his government had reliable intelligence that India was planning to carry out aggression against Pakistan later this month. India responded by accusing Qureshi of inciting "war hysteria." Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours nose-dived after a suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir in February killed 40 Indian security personnel and was later claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group. Pakistan has denied any role in the attack and Prime Minister Imran Khan offered cooperation in the investigation if credible evidence was provided by India. Talking to reporters in the southern city of Multan, Qureshi said the ambassadors of the permanent members of the UN Security Council in Islamabad had been informed about "the plan" two days ago. "We have reliable intelligence that India has made a new scheme and the planning is underway and there are chances of another aggression against Pakistan and according to our information this action can take place between April 16 and 20," he said. "I am saying it with responsibility and I have a responsible position. I know each word I say would make headlines in the international press," he said, stressing the reliability of his claim. He said the planned aggression was aimed at "increasing diplomatic pressure against Pakistan". But India's foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar, in a statement posted on his Twitter account, dismissed as "irresponsible and preposterous" the comments by Qureshi. The minister had "a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region. This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India," the statement said. Days after the Kashmir bombing, New Delhi -- which has long accused Islamabad of harbouring militants who launch attacks on its soil -- demanded Pakistan take "credible and visible action". Story continues Soon after, it launched a cross-border air raid on Pakistan that kicked off a quick succession of attacks and dogfights between the arch-rivals over the disputed Kashmir frontier that spurred fears of wider war erupting. In his statement, Kumar reiterated New Delhi's earlier call, saying Pakistan must take "irreversible steps" against militants, "rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross-border terrorism". Pakistani and Indian soldiers have continued to fire over the Line of Control -- the de-facto border dividing Kashmir, killing several civilians on both sides. Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in full and have fought two wars over it. By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday he hoped North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would use a meeting of the country's parliament next week to state publicly "it would be the right thing" for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly is due to hold its first meeting this year on Thursday and could feature the first public comments from Kim about a second summit between him and U.S. President Donald Trump Hanoi in February that collapsed. "It's something that's an annual event where the leader of North Korea speaks to his people," Pompeo told "CBS This Morning." "We'll watch very closely what he says." "I don't expect there'll be great surprise," Pompeo said, "but I do hope that he will share his sentiment, his sentiment that says: We I believe, as the leader of North Korea, I believe the right thing to do is for us to engage with the United States to denuclearize our country." Pompeo said U.S.-North Korea diplomatic channels remained open and the two sides have "had conversations after Hanoi about how to move forward," but he did not elaborate. He said he was "confident" there would be a third summit between Trump and Kim but did not have a timetable although he hoped it would be soon. Pompeo stressed though that economic sanctions would not be lifted until North Korea gave up its nuclear weapons. Pompeo said on Monday he hoped the two leaders could meet again "in the coming months ... in a way that we can achieve a substantive first step or a substantive big step along the path to denuclearization." The Hanoi summit, the second between Trump and Kim in less than a year, fell apart over a failure to reconcile North Korean demands for sanctions relief with U.S. demands for Kim to give up a nuclear weapons program that now threatens the United States. Story continues North Korea has warned since that it is considering suspending talks and may rethink a freeze on missile and nuclear tests, in place since 2017, unless Washington makes concessions. According to a document seen by Reuters last week, on the day their Hanoi talks collapsed, Trump handed Kim a piece of paper that included a blunt call for the transfer of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the United States. Analysts said the move was probably seen by the North Korean leader as insulting and provocative. Next week's North Korean parliament session will coincide with a visit to Washington by South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has pushed talks between the United States and North Korea in the past year and advocated sanctions relief. Pompeo told CBS that the United States and South Korea had "worked closely together to enforce ... sanctions." (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) Following is a summary of current people news briefs. Bill Cosby settles defamation lawsuit brought by seven women Convicted sex offender Bill Cosby on Friday settled a federal defamation lawsuit brought by seven women who said the former actor and comedian sexually assaulted them and wrongly called them liars when they went public with their charges years later. The settlement ends a court fight that predates the 81-year-old's conviction a year ago for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University administrator, in 2004. Cosby is currently serving a 3- to 10-year sentence for that crime, though his lawyers plan an appeal. Chicago will sue actor Jussie Smollett after he refuses to pay for police overtime Chicago will sue actor Jussie Smollett for the costs of police overtime spent investigating his claims that he was the victim of a hate crime, which prosecutors say were false, a city official said on Thursday. The lawsuit was being prepared after Smollett, 36, refused a demand by the city for $130,000, said Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the city's Department of Law. PHOENIX Critical tips and evidence obtained by police led to the identification and arrest Friday of 20-year-old Joshua Gonzalez, the man suspected in the shooting death of 10-year-old Summer Bell Brown, according to police. Two days after the shooting that killed Summer and wounded her father, Dharquintium Brown, police arrested Gonzalez on homicide charges after detectives connected him to the shooting, Phoenix police officials said at a Friday press briefing. Summer was shot Wednesday night in the driveway of her home and later died from her injuries in a suspected road-rage incident, officials said. Summer, known as Summer Bell, her father and family were driving home when they noticed a white Ford F-150 four-door pickup truck following their vehicle very closely, according to a police statement. More: Police: Road rage a possibility in driveway shooting that left 10-year-old Phoenix girl dead When Summer and her family pulled into their driveway, the truck stopped behind their car and the driver opened fire, officials said. Summer and her father were both shot and taken to a hospital in extremely critical condition. Her mother and sister were also in the car but were not injured, officials said. The truck driver, later identified as Gonzalez, drove away after the shooting, officials said. After receiving multiple tips through Silent Witness and looking over surveillance video of the suspect's truck, police found the truck linked to the shooting, Phoenix police Sgt. Vince Lewis said Friday in a press briefing. The truck was located in front of a home 5 miles from the scene of the shooting. While modifications had been made to the truck to change its appearance, including a change to the wheels and tires, police were able to obtain a warrant to Gonzalez's home where the truck was parked and found a handgun inside the garage, Lewis said. The gun was linked by forensic evidence to the shooting, and Gonzales was arrested and booked into jail, Lewis said. Story continues Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams attributed the apprehension of Gonzalez to "good old-fashioned police work and following leads and our community members coming forward." "This tragedy came down to critical information and tips in solving this case. The community involvement and the compassion truly assisted in bringing justice for Summer and her family," Williams said. According to Phoenix police, Gonzalez has an extensive criminal history of violence. Gonzalez was booked into a Maricopa County jail on suspicion of first-degree murder and aggravated assault. A vigil was organized for Friday at 7 p.m. in Phoenix. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Road rage suspect arrested in shooting death of 10-year-old girl, Phoenix police say Amman (AFP) - Russia's top diplomat called Sunday for the immediate closure of a desert camp near Syria's border with Jordan housing tens of thousands of displaced people in dire conditions. Speaking during a visit to Amman, Sergei Lavrov called for the Rukban camp to be closed "as soon as possible" and slammed a "de facto occupation" by American forces at a nearby garrison. Nearly 50,000 Syrians live at the camp near the Al-Tanf base used by the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group. "According to UN observers who visited the camp, most of the displaced people there want to return home, including to territories controlled by the Syrian government," Lavrov said. "It is necessary to stop the efforts preventing their freedom. I can say this because they do not feel free in this camp." The Syrian government and key backer Russia said in February they had opened corridors out of the camp, calling on residents to leave. Two weeks later, the UN said no civilians were believed to have left, for fears over their safety. Conditions inside the settlement are dire, with many surviving on just one simple meal a day, often bread and olive oil or yoghurt, according to one resident. Speaking alongside his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi, Lavrov said Moscow was ready to discuss "all steps needed" to help people leave Rukban. "The most simple and effective solution would be to end the American occupation," he said. He said the US had "unilaterally announced some sort of security zone in the area" and had "refused to discuss closing the camp". "They argued that humanitarian convoys should be sent to the camp from government areas," he said. "But that only means that they want to make this situation permanent." US President Donald Trump announced in December that he would withdraw American troops from Syria. But his national security adviser John Bolton said the following month that some forces could remain to the al-Tanf garrison as part of efforts to counter the presence of Iran, the Syrian regime's other main backer. Story continues Safadi called Sunday for a meeting between American, Russian and Jordanian officials to solve the "major humanitarian issue" of Rukban. "There can be no solution in Syria except through an American-Russian agreement supported by the international community," he said. Syria's civil war has killed at 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011. (This version of the April 5th story corrects date in paragraph 2 to April 6 not April 7) By Clement Uwiringiyimana KIGALI (Reuters) - Every weekday, Aline Uwase Turatsinze gets up, washes her face and rides a motorbike to the site where more than 60 members of her family were buried after being murdered. The quiet woman with the long braids is a guide at Rwanda's genocide museum, a memorial to the killing that claimed 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu lives after the then-president's plane was shot down on April 6, 1994. Uwase, who turns 25 on Friday, was two days old when the bloodshed began. "I lost a lot of people," she said. "It's a responsibility to be standing here ... I am protecting the memory but as well putting the 'Never again' slogan in action so that it might not happen anywhere in the world. Not in Rwanda, not anywhere in the world." The Gisozi Memorial site is the final resting place of more than a quarter of a million people killed during the 100 days of genocide. Uwase wants visitors to see the memorial as a place of respect and learning, not bitterness or recrimination. "We have reconciled," she said, echoing the line of a government that strongly discourages any talk of ethnicity. "It doesn't matter who I marry, the son of a survivor or the son or a perpetrator. The future is brighter." Each day, she walks through the memory room filled with the photos of children who were killed, accompanied by details about their favorite toys and the manner of their deaths. UNICEF estimated more than 300,000 children were killed. Most were hacked or beaten to death. "You never get used to this," she said, with tears in her eyes. "Every time I enter that room, I am never the same person when I get out." For a long time, Uwase avoided the videos of bodies floating down the river and of Hutu militias killing people with machetes because it makes her think of the father she never knew, a designer and painter whom she feels still watches over her. "I don't know how he was killed, but I imagine his death resembles this video. The murderers had machetes. Clubs..." she tailed off. Other rooms contain an exhibition of genocidal violence around the globe, and Rwanda's search for justice through an international tribunal and traditional local courts. After the killings ended, shattered communities had to rebuild themselves as survivors sometimes returned to live next to those complicit in the killings of their families. As the country recovered, some opposition leaders have criticized the government of President Paul Kagame for keeping a tight reign on the media and politics. Kagame won nearly 99 percent of the vote in 2017 polls on a 96 percent turnout. Uwase dismisses such criticism, pointing out that Kagame ended the genocide when he fought his way to the capital at the head of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebel force. "I should have been dead like any other person but I am here because of the RPF," she said. "I can tell those critics: you cant talk about something you dont know." Now Rwanda is focused on the future, she said. While some of its neighbors stagnate in corruption, the small east African nation stands out for its ease of doing business and rising investment. Although there is still poverty in parts of the country, downtown Kigali is full of new buildings lining its clean and well-kept streets. Many visiting business people come to the memorial, Uwase said. One recent visitor was Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who stars in the television series "Game of Thrones". "Every person who comes here has questions to ask ... Every time someone comes here it challenges them," Uwase said. "I have something to teach the world about what happened to Rwanda and my family." (Editing by Robin Pomeroy) North Korea has again pushed back the construction end-date of a massive beach resort -- a move analysts say shows the regime is struggling from international sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programmes. The eastern seaside strip, known as the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Area, is intended as a centrepiece of the isolated country's nascent tourism industry as Pyongyang seeks to develop its economy despite the tough economic measures. The site's construction has been closely overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, and was initially scheduled to open this April, to mark the birthday anniversary of the country's founder Kim Il Sung. But in a recent visit to the site, Kim delayed the finish date for the second time, ordering construction to be completed by the same time next year, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday. The decision, would allow the workers "to perfectly finish it so that our people would fully enjoy themselves in the impeccable tourist area from the sea-bathing season next year", KCNA quoted Kim as saying. The plan was first pushed back last August when Kim extended the project by six months to October 2019. The isolated North is under several sets of sanctions for its weapons programmes which analysts say has hampered efforts to secure materials needed to finish the vast beach complex. "North Korea can complete the external construction of the hotels by itself but most of the finishing materials for the interior are imported," Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP. The economic measures banned imports of some items and Pyongyang was supplying the sanctioned goods with its foreign currency, Cho said, adding: "But that has also dried up." Satellite images taken by US monitors in December showed the buildings previously under construction were nearing completion. "The North Korean economy has hit a limit with the sanctions," Cho added. Immediate sanctions relief was a key demand of the cash-strapped North when Kim met with US President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February for a second summit that ultimately broke down. Trump, the former real estate developer turned billionaire, has praised North Korea's tourism potential, referring to its "great beaches" he said would make ideal locations for condos. By Alissa de Carbonnel and Giulia Paravicini BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini sends texts with smileys to French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and posts selfies with Austrian far-right politician Heinz-Christian Strache. The face of the leader of Italy's far-right League party is beamed onto big screens at right-wing rallies from Prague to Sofia. Buoyed by his own success and voter fatigue with mainstream parties, Salvini is trying to build bridges before elections on May 26 to the European Parliament, the European Union's legislature. With the two biggest political blocs expected to lose their combined majority, he and other far-right leaders hope to form an opposition, eurosceptic alliance with enough seats in the assembly to block or hold up legislation. "Our idea is to come together ... into a new party that better reflects the euroskeptical views that unite us," Salvini's foreign affairs advisor Marco Zanni told Reuters. "Now is our chance to unite forces once and for all." But when Salvini starts his campaign for the elections on Monday in Milan, representatives of only three, relatively small far-right European parties will be present. Le Pen will not be there. Nor will representatives of Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice party (PiS), which governs Poland. Salvini promises a much bigger rally next month. But the absence of Le Pen and other leading far-right and nationalist leaders speaks to the policy differences and rivalries that have long stood in the way of unity among such groups. Far-right leaders share the broad ideological goals of curbing the EU's perceived liberal course and returning power to the member states' capitals. But they differ in other areas, and an attempt by U.S. President Donald Trump's former strategist, Steve Bannon, to act as a power broker among Europe's populist groups has fizzled. BIRDS OF A FEATHER? Investors expect heightened political uncertainty after the May 26 election, in which 705 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will be elected, or 751 if Britain fails to leave the EU as planned. General dissatisfaction over slow economic growth, security threats posed by Islamist militants and a backlash against migration across open EU borders have boosted support for eurosceptic nationalists in many member states. "There is a growing confidence of voters to go against the norm," said Susi Dennison, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "The 'anti- forces' are much more motivated right now than the pro-Europeans." Their gains and Britain's planned departure from the EU will mean a shake-up of the pan-national groups created by parties in the EU parliament, whose main role is checking and amending EU laws drawn up by the executive European Commission. Salvini's anti-immigrant League is forecast to more than quadruple its representation in the EU assembly with 27 seats. Along with the projected rise for Le Pen's National Rally and Strache's Freedom Party of Austria, which is in a coalition government with Strache as vice-chancellor, the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group to which they belong could be boosted to 61 seats from 37. Salvini, whose party co-rules Italy, wants to embrace other leaders whose parties are in rival groups such as Kaczynski. The two held a meeting in Warsaw in January, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hailed the prospect of them forming an alliance as one of the greatest developments of this year. Forming one big political group can also unlock funds and opportunities for patronage. "They're going to get much more resources if they're able to sit together," said Cas Mudde, an expert on the far-right at the University of Georgia. But policy differences make it likely that parties critical of the EU will remain divided into at least two groupings, one centered around Salvini and the other around Kaczynski. Salvini admires Russian President Vladimir Putin - Kaczynski vilifies him. Both are anti-immigration but at odds over how to handle it. Italy is net giver to the EU budget, Poland is a net receiver. Their views on the economy do not align. For right-wing parties in Denmark, Finland and Sweden which see Russia as a threat, Salvini and Le Pen's pro-Kremlin sympathies are also a red line. "It is a crucial aspect for many countries," Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Akesson told Reuters. "It will not succeed, there will be no such group." Many parties competing at the national level will also find it difficult to sit together. Orban has chosen to remain with the parliament's biggest political grouping despite being suspended from it last month. For all his praise of coalition-building among eurosceptics, being in a group with Europe's power brokers confers a mainstream respectability that other populists lack. Some hope that will change after the election. "Leaving a strong group to join a weak group is a difficult political decision, but leaving to join a group that is also quite strong and growing is less so," said Ryszard Legutko, a PiS lawmaker and co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group. "It is the first time there's a real chance things might change, that this political, even ideological monopoly can be somehow undermined," Legutko said. IN FROM THE COLD Links among the far-right remain largely limited to personal relationships. When leaders who have long been isolated at home and lack influence abroad attend each other's rallies, it is about showing they are not marginal. "It is about validating one another," said Duncan McDonnell, Professor of Politics in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University. But he said the far-right increasingly saw itself as "part of a new wave". The Alternative for Germany (AfD) could win many more seats in the next European Parliament, opinion polls show, and might throw its hat in with Salvini's ENF group. The polls show the Forum for Democracy (FvD) in the Netherlands, led by Thierry Baudet, could win four new seats in the EU assembly and it has said it will join Poland's PiS in the ECR. Spanish newcomer Vox has become the darling of eurosceptic groups following its success in a regional election last December in Spain, which until then had been resistant to the populist currents sweeping Europe. Vox is now being courted by both by Poland's PiS and Salvini's League. But looking ahead to the next European Parliament - where polls suggest Vox will win about five seats, up from none today -- Vox leader Santiago Abascal told Reuters: "It may be that we'll be alone." Vox has capitalized on domestic tensions over Catalan separatism - it regards Catalonia as an integral part of Spain - but some other far-right parties do not share its view. "Their support of the (separatists') coup d'etat by Catalonia is an enormous barrier (to cooperation)," he said. Even if parties are not the same group, Zanni of Salvini's League says there will be greater cooperation to try to influence or thwart EU policy. "The risk is longer-term paralysis," Dennison said, "that over time will erode the idea of EU as an effective actor." But European Parliament strategists say younger right-wing political groups have shown far weaker party discipline. "The eurosceptics are a wing of many feathers, and I'm not sure it will beat effectively," said one senior official in the European People's Party, the main centre-right group. (Additional reporting by Johan Ahlander in Stockholm, Belen Carreno and Ingrid Melander in Madrid, Joanna Plucinska and Justyna Pawlak in Warsaw, Robert Muller in Prague, Simon Carraud in Paris and Crispian Balmer in Rome, Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel, Editing by Timothy Heritage) Jordan Staal scored the go-ahead goal in the second period as the visiting Carolina Hurricanes completed a sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers with a 4-3 victory on Saturday in the regular-season finale. Staal joined Teuvo Teravainen in collecting a goal and assist for the Hurricanes (46-29-7, 99 points), who clinched the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and will face Metropolitan Division champion Washington in the first round of the playoffs. Warren Foegele and defenseman Justin Faulk scored for the second consecutive contest, Brock McGinn notched a pair of assists and Curtis McElhinney made 28 saves in the win. Rookie Oskar Lindblom scored in his third straight contest, Sean Couturier recorded his career-high 33rd goal and Travis Konecny also tallied for the Flyers (37-37-8, 82 points), who have been outscored 25-10 during their five-game losing skid. After Carolina claimed a 3-1 lead, Konecny skated through the slot and wired a low shot past a screened McElhinney to trim the deficit just 1:27 into the second. Couturier then forged a tie at 3 at 6:07 after deflecting Jakub Voracek's blast from the point for a power-play goal. The Hurricanes answered in short order, as defenseman Dougie Hamilton's attempted pass from behind the goal line caromed off Couturier's shin pads and into the slot. Staal alertly jumped on the loose puck and shoveled it past rookie Carter Hart (24 saves) to give Carolina a 4-3 lead at 7:33 of the second period. The Hurricanes claimed a 2-0 lead midway into the first period after Foegele and Faulk took advantage of defensive breakdowns to deposit loose pucks in the slot past Hart. Philadelphia answered with 5:41 remaining in the first period as defenseman Travis Sanheim skated in from along the right-wing boards before sending a feed to Lindblom, who deftly backhanded the puck past McElhinney. The Flyers' feel-good moment didn't last long as Teravainen converted from the slot just 1:21 later for his 21st goal to give Carolina a 3-1 lead. --Field Level Media By John Davison HASAKA, Syria (Reuters) - The paramedics' log at al-Hol camp in eastern Syria lists the injuries and ailments of infants rushed from the battlefield to its crowded, dirty clinic: malnourishment, stunted growth, broken leg. Those in critical need mostly emaciated babies born in war to the wives of dead Islamic State militants are taken to the nearest hospital, a bumpy two-hour drive away. Other people cram into a waiting room with a tin roof in a growing queue for basic medical treatment. At the hospital, staff have had to build two portacabins on the roof that serve as a makeshift ward for the treatment of malnourished babies, crammed sometimes two or three to a cot. Lower floors are filled with teenagers missing limbs and women with shrapnel and bullet wounds. The exodus during intense fighting of more than 60,000 people from Islamic State's final redoubt of Baghouz is overwhelming medical staff in eastern Syria who struggle to cope at the camp and ill-equipped hospitals. Scores of people, mostly children, have died on the 150-mile (240-kilometer) journey to al-Hol or soon after arriving, aid groups say. "My son has a dislocated hip. He needs an operation urgently," said Umm Mohammed, a veiled 33-year-old woman holding an expressionless six-month-old boy at the camp. "Medics keep saying they have more urgent cases to deal with - wounds and shrapnel injuries." In the waiting area, dozens of people who mostly left Baghouz during a brief truce last month, arranged for civilians and surrendering militants to evacuate, sit on wooden benches or the concrete floor. Children in wheelchairs watch while babies scream as they are bandaged or given injections. U.S.-backed forces declared the defeat in March of Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria after militants were driven out of the village of Baghouz where they made a months-long last stand. The intense bombardment and fighting to dislodge the Sunni Islamist extremist group cost countless lives and wounded many more people, including the wives of fighters, their children, IS supporters and other civilians trapped by the militants in the enclave. Those who evacuated in recent weeks have strained healthcare in Kurdish-run areas of eastern Syria beyond capacity. In the clinic at al-Hol, which is hosting more than 70,000 people displaced by violence, many people wore crude casts. One woman said she did not have enough painkillers for a wound to her hand a long metal rod from the explosion that wounded her and killed three relatives was still lodged in her knuckle. "I just want an X-ray at the hospital," she said, giving her name as Umm Ahmed. STARVING CHILDREN OF ISLAMIC STATE But local hospitals can take only the most severe cases. In one room at the hospital in the nearby town of Hasaka, 19-year-old Baraa al-Kurdi, the wife of a Syrian Islamic State member, lay motionless next to a boy with third-degree burns covering his head. "I was hit in the head by shrapnel," Kurdi said quietly. "We were next to a car packed with ammunition and explosives, including suicide belts ready for fighters to use. "My husband was killed. My daughter is one month old she's upstairs in the babies' ward." Kurdi's daughter was one of the few non-foreign infants in the ward. Others, many blond or with Asian features, lay quietly in their cots with cheekbones showing and eyes sunken into their sockets from malnutrition. The patients' register listed the names their mothers gave the hospital Ali Azerbaijani, Ali al-Uzbeki, Mohamed Skramo, a Norwegian name. Many who remained in Baghouz until the end of the fighting were die-hard supporters of Islamic State who flocked from all over the world to support its violent interpretation of Islam. A number of European countries have refused to take back citizens who joined IS, putting additional strain on local authorities to deal with prisoners and patients. "Children from the camp are arriving night and day. We currently have more than 70 babies being treated for malnutrition," a nurse in the ward said. She and other hospital staff declined to be named or for the hospital to be identified, fearing reprisals for treating the children of IS fighters. "Most cases are treated and then returned to the camp. A few have died. We're doing out best but had limited resources even before this influx." More than 200 people have died on their way to al-Hol or after arriving in the camp in recent months, according to the International Rescue Committee. It said this week that around 30 to 50 cases every day were referred to local hospitals. "We get 30 ambulances arriving each day," a local health official said, also declining to be named. "There's aid from international organizations for those from Baghouz. They're mostly foreign. We can barely provide healthcare for our own." (Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Tom Perry/Mark Heinrich) By Alex Dobuzinskis (Reuters) - Federal and state officials in Louisiana are investigating suspicious fires that destroyed three predominantly black churches in 10 days in one mostly rural parish, authorities said on Saturday. Investigators have not concluded whether the three fires at Baptist churches in St. Landry Parish, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of New Orleans, were connected, said Ashley Rodrigue, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Fire Marshall's Office. They also have not determined whether the blazes, which occurred between March 26 and Thursday, were intentionally set, she said in an email. At a news conference on Thursday, State Fire Marshall Butch Browning was asked if investigators were treating the fires as potential hate crimes. "If the hate crime definition was violated, we will certainly vet those things out," Browning said. The number of hate crimes in the United States increased 17 percent in 2017, the third consecutive year such attacks rose, according to FBI data released last fall. Investigators probing the St. Landry Parish fires were awaiting lab results but view the three blazes as "suspicious," Browning said at the news conference. Without giving details, he said certain "patterns" had been discovered, but that it was too early to say whether a single individual had started the fires. "There certainly is commonality and whether that leads to a person or persons or groups, we don't know," Browning said. The fires destroyed St. Mary Baptist Church in the community of Port Barre, and Greater Union Baptist Church and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas, the parish seat. The FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have joined in the investigation, Browning said. Investigators have concluded that a fourth fire last Sunday, more than 200 miles outside St. Landry Parish at a predominantly white church in Vivian in northwest Louisiana, was intentionally set, state fire officials said in a statement. Story continues That fire, inside the sanctuary at Vivian United Pentecostal Church, was relatively small and burned itself out. No one has been arrested in connection with any of the church fires, which have not resulted in any injuries, officials said. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Tom Brown) Tax season is a waking nightmare for Americans. Well, it is for me, at least. Between figuring out how to file, trying to understand my W2 and remembering how to do basic math, it can be extremely stressful. But theres something even scarier lurking out there this time of year: tax scammers. Yes, in case wringing your hands over the tax man werent enough, criminals are out there trying to swipe your hard-earned cash and personal information from right under your nose. Luckily, there are a few ways to spot these scams and protect yourself. Fake IRS phone calls One of the most common scams out there today is the IRS phone call. It usually goes something like this. You get a call from someone claiming to be from the IRS. They say you havent paid your taxes properly and owe Uncle Sam some serious cash. The scammer will then demand that you pay them immediately, or theyll send the feds over and have you arrested. How to avoid these 7 major tax scams. Thats some pretty scary stuff right there, especially if you have no idea what youre doing when it comes to your taxes, and live in constant fear that you screwed up your last filing and are on the hook for thousands of dollars in fines. But the truth is that the IRS will never contact you over the phone. Whats more, they wont demand that you pay on the spot. The government actually gives you an opportunity to appeal the amount you owe. And despite how scared you might be of the government, the IRS will never threaten to send in Johnny Law to arrest you for a first-time tax problem. It should also go without saying that the feds will never ask for you to pay your taxes in gift cards. Yes, thats seriously something criminals have done. Scammers trying to confirm IRS contact information This is another phone-based IRS scam, but rather than just calling you up and demanding money, the criminals use a little more finesse to steal from you. According to the IRS, the confirmation scam sees a scammer spoof their phone number to make it look like the call is coming from the IRS. Story continues When you become suspicious, the thief will tell you to open up the IRS.gov website on your web browser and look for the services telephone number. Once you see that the number on the website matches the spoofed number the scammer called you from, they will go back to demanding money for unpaid taxes. A similar scam sees criminals pretending to be from the IRSs Taxpayers Advocacy Service, an independent internal service meant to assist taxpayers with questions and issues with their tax bills. In this instance, the scammer will spoof the number of the TAS and then ask the victim to check the number on the TAS site to prove that the scammer isnt a fake. Again, the IRS will never contact you via a phone call. And even if they did, identifying themselves using a phone number should be highly suspicious. Phony IRS emails TL;DR: If you get a random email from the IRS, its not from the IRS. These are just like those fake IRS phone calls, but in email form. Unfortunately, these can be even more convincing fakes, as they include things like official-looking IRS logos and signatures. I actually received a phony email from Britains version of the IRS, HM Revenue & Customs. Considering I live in Queens, New York, and not the U.K., though, that scammer missed the mark by a few thousand miles or so. Outside of trying to trick you out of your cash, these emails also come with the added risk of malware and ransomware if you download any files embedded in them or click on any included links. One particular way scammers try to trick consumers is by including an attachment titled Tax Transcript, though it could go by other names as well. The key here is to remember that the IRS wont reach out to you via email. The only way the IRS will try to get in touch with you is via snail mail. W2 scammers This one specifically targets companies payroll and human resources departments. The scheme works like this: Criminals send an email impersonating a companys CEO or other executive officer to that organizations payroll or HR professionals asking for personal information about employees. According to the IRS, which issued a warning about this scam in January, criminals will request items like employee names, Social Security numbers, and income data. The scammers will then try to file fraudulent tax returns using the victims information in order to receive their refunds. According to a report by Sophos Naked Security Blog, Snap, Inc. fell for this exact scam back in 2016. Fraudulent websites According to Wired, the security firm Lookout has come across a number of websites masquerading as the homepages for Intuits Turbotax and Quickbooks. The idea here is to record a victims username and password or their Social Security number in some cases. The websites are specifically crafted with URLs that line up closely to TurboTaxs and Quickbooks real URLs but are slightly off by or have added a few characters. The point is to get victims to search for either website using Google or another search engine, and then trick them into believing they are clicking a link for the actual TurboTax and Quickbooks site. The best way to avoid a situation like this is to ensure that the link youre clicking on is accurate by looking at it closely before entering your private information. The non-existent federal student tax Have you ever heard of the federal student tax? No? Good, because the IRS says theres no such thing. But that doesnt stop criminals from trying to trick people into believing there is such a tax and that they need to pay for it. This works the same way as other standard IRS scams. Victims receive a phone call or email from criminals impersonating the IRS telling them that they havent paid their student tax and that if they dont theyll be arrested or fined. The crooks will then demand that the victim pay via their credit or debit card or with gift cards. Basically, if anyone tells you theyre trying to collect on the federal student tax, tell them to take a hike. Verifying tax information This particular scam sees criminals asking victims to verify items like the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, or other tax information. The scammers could also ask for items like your bank account information or your full Social Security number. Remember, the IRS wont ask you for any information over the phone. If the person is impersonating a tax preparer or preparation agency, your best bet is to hang up and call your actual tax agent or send your real tax professional an email asking if they need your information. What to do if you suspect its a scam If you receive a phone call that you think is a scam, hang up. If you receive an email you suspect is fraudulent dont reply or click any embedded links. Instead, report it to the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at the TIGTAs website, or by calling 1-800-366-4484. And if someone asks you to pay your taxes in iTunes gift cards, please ignore them. More from Dan: Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@oath.com; follow him on Twitter at@DanielHowley. Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, andLinkedIn.finance.yahoo.com/ Khartoum (AFP) - Sudanese police fired tear gas Sunday at thousands of protesters who rallied outside the army headquarters for a second day urging the military to back them in demanding President Omar al-Bashir resign. Chanting "Sudan is rising, the army is rising," crowds massed outside the Khartoum complex that also houses Bashir's official residence and the defence ministry, many having spent the night there, witnesses said. "We won't leave this area until he steps down," said demonstrator Osama Ahmed. Bashir chaired a meeting of the security council as protesters continued to chant slogans outside the compound. "The security council confirms that the protesters are part of the Sudanese community and their vision and demands have to be heard," the presidency said in a statement afterwards. "The council will take measures to enhance peace and security across the country." Protesters whistled and waved at military vehicles entering the compound, prompting some soldiers to wave back, a day after demonstrators said they were gathering to ask the army to "come join us". The European Union said an "unprecedented" number of people had come out calling for change. "The people of Sudan have shown remarkable resilience in the face of extraordinary obstacles over many years," the EU's External Action Service said. "Their trust must be won through concrete action by the government." Riot police deployed near the complex Sunday morning, firing tear gas in an unsuccessful attempt to disperse the crowds, a witness told AFP. - Symbolic day - Protest organisers chose April 6 to begin the rally outside the army headquarters to mark the 1985 uprising that toppled the regime of then president Jaafar Nimeiri. Since the start of the protests, security agents and riot police have cracked down on demonstrators but the army has not intervened. The rally was the biggest since protests erupted on December 19 in the central town of Atbara, quickly spreading to the capital and towns and cities across the country. Story continues Witnesses said protesters arrived by car and bus as well as on foot to the army complex on Sunday. Many offered afternoon prayers on the road outside the complex, while others raised Sudanese flags over their heads for shade from the afternoon sun. "Overthrow, overthrow," chanted young men and women. Many climbed on roofs of cars and buses flashing the victory sign, onlookers said. "Many people have come with food and water as if they plan to camp here for days," a witness said. Sunday's protests coincided with a nationwide blackout that the electricity ministry blamed on a technical glitch. Outside the army complex, protesters sang nationalist songs, whistled and clapped. Some protesters used rocks to block a nearby bridge linking Khartoum with the northern Bahari district, causing huge traffic jams, onlookers said. Several companies declared a day off and some arranged to deliver water, snacks and juice to the protesters, according to witnesses. Late on Sunday, protesters staged a demonstration in Omdurman, blocking roads and burning tyres, witnesses said. - 'Losing bet' - In a separate demonstration on Saturday a protester was killed in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, police said. Officials say 32 people have died since protests erupted in the east African country after a government decision to triple the price of bread. Human Rights Watch has put the death toll at 51 including medics and children. The rallies quickly morphed into protests against Bashir's government, which demonstrators accuse of mismanaging the economy, leading to soaring food prices and regular shortages of fuel and foreign currency. Bashir has acknowledged that the economic concerns raised by protesters are "legitimate", though he imposed emergency rule on February 22 after an initial crackdown failed to rein in the protests. The scale and intensity of the rallies have since shrunk, but with Saturday's events analysts say the protest movement has gained new momentum. "The scale of protests on Saturday illustrate that Bashir's gamble that he can save his regime through repression is proving to be a losing bet," said Murithi Mutiga of the International Crisis Group. Bashir, wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and genocide in the conflict-wracked region of Darfur, swept to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989. He has remained defiant, introducing tough measures that have seen protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists arrested. Want to participate in a research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and earn a $60 gift card! A large part of investment returns can be generated by dividend-paying stock given their role in compounding returns over time. Tianjin Tianbao Energy Co., Ltd. (HKG:1671) has started paying a dividend to shareholders. It currently trades on a yield of 3.9%. Should it have a place in your portfolio? Let's take a look at Tianjin Tianbao Energy in more detail. See our latest analysis for Tianjin Tianbao Energy 5 checks you should do on a dividend stock When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria: Is its annual yield among the top 25% of dividend-paying companies? Does it consistently pay out dividends without missing a payment of significantly cutting payout? Has dividend per share amount increased over the past? Can it afford to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings? Will the company be able to keep paying dividend based on the future earnings growth? SEHK:1671 Historical Dividend Yield, April 7th 2019 Does Tianjin Tianbao Energy pass our checks? The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for the stock is 45%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Furthermore, analysts have not forecasted a dividends per share for the future, which makes it hard to determine the yield shareholders should expect, and whether the current payout is sustainable, moving forward. When considering the sustainability of dividends, it is also worth checking the cash flow of a company. A business with strong cash flow can sustain a higher divided payout ratio than a company with weak cash flow. If there is one thing that you want to be reliable in your life, it's dividend stocks and their constant income stream. Unfortunately, it is really too early to view Tianjin Tianbao Energy as a dividend investment. It has only been paying out dividend for the past one year. Generally, the rule of thumb for determining whether a stock is a reliable dividend payer is that it should be consistently paying dividends for the past 10 years or more. Clearly there's a long road ahead before we can ascertain whether 1671 one as a stable dividend player. Story continues In terms of its peers, Tianjin Tianbao Energy generates a yield of 3.9%, which is on the low-side for Electric Utilities stocks. Next Steps: After digging a little deeper into Tianjin Tianbao Energy's yield, it's easy to see why you should be cautious investing in the company just for the dividend. But if you are not exclusively a dividend investor, the stock could still be an interesting investment opportunity. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, you should always research extensively before deciding whether or not a stock is an appropriate investment for you. I always recommend analysing the company's fundamentals and underlying business before making an investment decision. Below, I've compiled three fundamental factors you should further research: Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 1671s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 1671s outlook. Valuation: What is 1671 worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, it's not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether 1671 is currently mispriced by the market. Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here. 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. A former convict accused of pulling a cruel hoax by pretending pretended to be a missing boy from Illinois has been charged with making false statements. Brian Rini, 23, had claimed he was 14-year-old Timmothy Pitzen, who went missing in 2011 after his mother killed herself when he was six-years-old. He said he had escaped from an eight-year ordeal at the hands of sex traffickers. But Mr Rinis claims were debunked earlier this week after DNA tests confirmed he was not the long-lost boy. The FBI said Mr Rini had made false claims twice before, also portraying himself as a juvenile sex-trafficking victim. Law enforcement confronted him with the DNA results, and at that point the person immediately stated that he was not Timmothy Pitzen, and of course law enforcement knew by virtue of the DNA analysis that he was in fact Brian Rini, said US attorney Benjamin Glassman. The charge should send a message about the damage such false claims can do, he said, adding: Its not okay to do it because of the harm that it causes, the pain, for the family of that missing child." After confessing he was not Mr Pitzen, Mr Rini told federal agents he had heard about the missing boys case on the ABC television program 20/20 and wanted to get away from his own family, according to court documents. When questioned further, Rini stated that he wished he had a father like Timmothys because if he went missing, his father would just keep drinking, FBI agent Mary Braun wrote. Mr Rini is being held without bail until his detention hearing on Tuesday after a brief appearance in federal court. He faces up to eight years in prison if found guilty, Mr Glassman said. Mr Pitzens case has stumped authorities since May 2011. The boy was last seen with his mother, who pulled him out of school and took him on a trip to a zoo and a water park, then took her own life in a motel room, leaving behind a cryptic note about her sons whereabouts. Tim is somewhere safe with people who love him and will care for him, she wrote in the note. You will never find him. President Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on March 5. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP) As troubles mount on the borders, a brash right-wing leader beset by allegations of corruption is seeking reelection, facing opponents promising to restore trust in the countrys democratic institutions and heal deep partisan divisions. The country is Israel, and the candidate is Prime Minister Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu, but if the scenario has echoes in U.S. politics, that is more than coincidental. Not, perhaps, since Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt fought World War II side by side have the leaders of two countries been more closely aligned than Netanyahu and President Trump. And what happens in the Israeli elections on Tuesday could both foreshadow and affect Trumps fate. Netanyahus legal problems have intensified as he faces the greatest challenge to his political survival in a decade. The prime minister has been a suspect in several investigations for more than two years, with investigators alleging that Netanyahu received lavish gifts from several billionaires in exchange for personal favors and that he exchanged favorable legislation and regulatory measures for positive coverage by some media outlets. Those investigations came to a head in February when Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced his intention to indict Netanyahu on charges of breach of trust, bribery and fraud. The official indictment is not expected for a few months. But it is unlikely Netanyahus legal problems will force him to step down any time soon. A sitting prime minister charged with a crime is required to step down only after he has exhausted every legal appeal, a process that could take years. An election billboard in Jerusalem shows President Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in February. (Photo: Oded Balilty/AP) Still, Israelis are in uncharted territory: Even though former Israeli prime ministers have been brought down by legal problems, Netanyahu will be the first to be indicted while holding office, and he is violating a long-standing norm of resigning in the face of criminal allegations (as his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, did). Not only has Netanyahu refused to resign, but he has tried to delegitimize the inquiry, accusing the media of colluding with the legal establishment in order to take him down and blaming the attorney general for giving in to left-wing political pressure even though he was a Netanyahu appointee. In language that will be familiar to Americans, he has called the investigation a witch hunt. Story continues Meanwhile, Netanyahu also faces his most formidable electoral challenge since he was was ousted after his first term as prime minister in 1999, from the centrist Blue and White Party led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid. While Lapid is an experienced politician, Gantz is a newcomer to politics, but he has establishment credentials as a former chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, a common path to political power in Israel. Gantz has been conspicuously tight-lipped about the specific policies he would pursue as prime minister, and he has instead run on a broader vision of an alternative to Bibi: In place of right-wing rule, he has offered non-ideological pragmatism, and in place of Netanyahus brash style, he has promised restraint, decorum and transparency, committing himself to ending corruption and healing a society fractured by Netanyahus divisive leadership. Furthermore, while Bibi has built his career on his reputation for taking a hard line toward the Palestinians and Iran, Gantz has relied on his military background as well as those of other senior leaders of his party, such as Moshe Yaalon and Gabi Ashkenazi, who also served as chiefs of staff to bolster his national-security credentials against Netanyahu and his Likud party. Retired Israeli military chief Benny Gantz, left, with Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, as they launch their new Blue and White alliance for the upcoming Israeli elections, in Tel Aviv on Feb. 21. (Photo: Ariel Schalit/AP) The election is taking place against the background of Israels existential effort to chart a future relationship to the Palestinians and with the rest of the Middle East, and ongoing demonstrations, sporadic violence and even the threat of an imminent war coming from Gaza. Last month, in what was widely regarded as an effort to boost his ally Netanyahu, Trump declared that the United States would formally recognize Israels sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strip of land it seized from Syria in the 1967 war. And just three days before the election, Netanyahu announced on television that if reelected he would begin annexing the parts of the West Bank where Israelis have settled a fateful step that could further isolate Israel at the United Nations. Nevertheless, the campaign has largely been fought as a referendum on Netanyahus leadership. While his rivals have focused on his legal problems and his polarizing political style, Netanyahu has presented himself as a powerful figure on the world stage, who after a decade in power has developed close personal relationships with Trump and even Russian President Vladimir Putin, which are of immense value to Israels national security. The campaign has been exceptionally bitter and acrimonious even by the standards of Israels typically cut-throat politics. Gantz and Lapid have seized on a new scandal implicating close associates of Netanyahu in an alleged kickback scheme involving the purchase of naval vessels from a German ship-builder and the sale of submarines to Egypt, and questions about why deals happened without approval from the appropriate ministers. Yet Gantz has also been the subject of several scandals. In March, it was revealed that Shin Bet, Israels internal security service, believed Gantzs phone had been hacked by Iran, which raised concerns that Gantz could be blackmailed. And over the course of the election, numerous tapes of Gantz speaking in private have been leaked to the public, including one in which Gantz said he would consider joining a coalition led by Netanyahu, something Gantz now denies he would do. In the April 9 election, Gantzs Blue and White and Netanyahus Likud are expected to win roughly the same number of seats in the Knesset, although some polls give Blue and White a small edge. But given the proliferation of right-wing parties that may win at least some seats, Likud has a better chance of putting together a majority coalition in the Knesset, so even if his party comes in second, Netanyahu may still serve another term as prime minister. Campaign billboards show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, alongside the Blue and White party leaders, from left, Moshe Yaalon, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Gabi Ashkenazi, in Tel Aviv on April 3. (Photo: Oded Balilty/AP) Yet if Netanyahu does serve another term as prime minster, he may govern alongside right-wing factions that are even more empowered than they are in his current government. One question is whether the incoming government will pass an immunity law, or what Israelis call the French law, after a 2001 court ruling that the president of France was immune to prosecution while in office. Right-wing members of the Knesset have so far indicated that they are reluctant to support immunity for Netanyahu, but the issue may give them leverage in forming a new government, or in pursuing their agenda. The election outcome may also decide the fate of Trumps long-promised deal of the century, the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan proposal that Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been preparing for two years. Some expect the proposal, whose details remain largely unknown, to arrive shortly after the election. The implementation of a two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state would require Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, territories that it acquired in the course of the 1967 Six-Day War and which Palestinians want for their future state. And while the Trump administrations plan is widely assumed to call for Israel to make some territorial concessions, there are already hints that the proposal will meet widespread resistance in Israel, especially by the nationalist parties. One hint that the Israeli right will try to stymie the deal came in February, when Kushner gave an interview with Sky News Arabia and inadvertently spurred a raucous public debate in Israel. His remarks that the conflict was really about establishing borders alarmed factions that oppose territorial concessions and were the first indication that the proposal may divide the Israeli public when it is released. The remarks initiated a debate between Netanyahu and the right-wing education minister, Naftali Bennett, with Bennett accusing Netanyahu of collaborating with both Gantz and Trump and Kushner to implement a two-state solution and Netanyahu assuring the public that he opposed a Palestinian state, a point about which he has gone back and forth over the years. President Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after signing a proclamation formally recognizing Israels sovereignty over the Golan Heights, at the White House on March 25. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP) West Bank annexation is another potential obstacle to U.S. peace plans. When Trump recognized the Golan Heights as part of Israel last month, some in Israel interpreted it as a sign that the United States would tolerate Israels annexing territories in the West Bank. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denied that the policy set a precedent for other territories seized during the 1967 war, but Netanyahu hinted he saw things differently: When you start wars of aggression, you lose territory. Do not come and claim it afterward. It belongs to us, he said to reporters in Israel returning from his meeting with Trump in Washington, in which the recognition was made official. Everyone says you cant hold an occupied territory, but this proves you can. If occupied in a defensive war, then its ours. Then came Netanyahus announcement of his intention to annex parts of the West Bank if elected and not just the settlement blocs near the 1967 borders, but even remote outposts deep in the West Bank. Will we move ahead to the next stage? Yes. I will extend sovereignty, but I dont distinguish between the settlement blocs and the isolated ones, because each settlement is Israeli, and I will not hand it over to Palestinian sovereignty. When he was asked if he would evacuate settlers from Israeli settlements in the West Bank if the Trump peace plan required it, he said: That will not be happening. If thats the [Trump administrations] plan, there will be no plan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, Sen. Lindsey Graham, left, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman visit the border between Israel and Syria at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on March 11. (Photo: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters) Not all observers took Netanyahus statements at face value. Some pointed out they were reminiscent of similar remarks that Netanyahu made in the final days of the 2015 Israeli election, when, in order to shore up support from his base, Netanyahu announced that he opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state, only to backtrack in the days after the election. But whatever Netanyahu actually meant, his remarks suggest a problem on the horizon for the Trump administration. Ever since Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017, the Palestinian leadership has categorically refused to participate in U.S.-led negotiations with Israel, claiming Trump has forfeited any claim to impartiality. But now, despite his generous concessions toward Israel, he may face a right-wing government in Jerusalem that is just as suspicious of any peace plan he puts forward. Ben Manson is a freelance journalist based in Israel and New York. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: ISTANBUL, April 7 (Reuters) - Turkey on Sunday criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "irresponsible" for saying he would annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins Tuesday's election. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war, was Palestinian territory and Israel's occupation violated international law. "Prime Minister Netanyahus irresponsible statement to seek votes just before the Israeli general elections cannot and will not change this fact," Cavusoglu tweeted. Netanyahu, asked why he had not declared Israeli sovereignty over large West Bank settlements as Israel has already done in the occupied Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, said he was already discussing the move. "I am going to extend (Israeli) sovereignty and I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements," he told Israel's Channel 12 News on Saturday. Palestinian leaders reacted angrily, blaming what they said was a failure by world powers to stand up for international law. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman echoed those charges on Sunday. "Will Western democracies react or will they keep appeasing? Shame on them all!" Ibrahim Kalin tweeted. The Palestinians and many countries deem settlements to be illegal under the Geneva conventions that bar settling on land captured in war. Israel disputes this, citing security needs and biblical, historical and political connections to the land. Erdogan, whose Islamist-rooted AK Party has led Turkey for 16 years, has criticized the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over its pronounced support for Israel, including Washington's decision to move its Israel embassy to Jerusalem. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state they are seeking. Peace talks with Israel have been frozen since 2014. (Reporting by Dominic Evans Editing by Mark Heinrich) Dr. Thomas Burchard and Kelsey Turner SALINAS, Calif. Two more people have been accused in the slaying of a California psychiatrist who was found bludgeoned to death last month in a car trunk outside Las Vegas, court records show. Jon Logan Kennison and Diana Nicole Pena are facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder with the use of a deadly weapon, according to cases filed Friday at the Las Vegas Justice Court. Kelsey Turner, 25, was arrested last month in Stockton on suspicion of killing Dr. Thomas Kirk Burchard, 71, a psychiatrist from Salinas who worked at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. Burchard's body was found March 7 in the trunk of a 2017 Mercedes-Benz C300, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has said. Turner is awaiting extradition to Las Vegas. Police did not immediately return a call seeking comment Saturday afternoon. More: Warrant: Slain psychiatrist paid for model's Las Vegas home Court records show the Kennison and Pena cases were consolidated with Turner's case Friday and arrest warrants were issued. Neither is listed as being in custody in the Clark County, Nevada, Detention Center or the San Joaquin County Jail, as of Saturday afternoon. Burchard's longtime girlfriend Judy Earp has alleged that Turner, a model who has posed for Playboy's website as well as magazines, lured Burchard to Las Vegas. Burchard and Turner had known each other for about two years, and Burchard had paid Turner's rent, her family's rent and other payments, to the tune of at least $300,000, Earp has said. In a Las Vegas police report, officers say evidence suggests Burchard was attacked in the Mercedes and then his body moved into the trunk of the car. It was left about 2 miles down a dirt road east of Las Vegas, officers have said. Follow Joe Szydlowski on Twitter: @JoeSzyd_Salinas This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Two more suspects accused in slaying of California psychiatrist who was found in car trunk By Patricia Zengerle and Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who became best known for defending President Donald Trump's policy of separating migrant children from their parents, said on Sunday she was leaving her position effective immediately. Nielsen's departure was first reported by CBS News. A senior administration official said Trump asked for Nielsen's resignation and she gave it. Trump said on Twitter: "Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service." In another tweet, Trump said Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, would become acting DHS secretary. Nielsen, 46, had been DHS secretary since December 2017. Her time overseeing the sprawling department included conflict with Trump and overseeing a policy of separating children from their immigrant parents at the border with Mexico. Trump has made a clampdown on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his two-year-old presidency, as he has sought to cut back on the number of newcomers, especially Mexicans and Central Americans, entering the United States without proper documentation. Nielsen's departure was announced two days after the Republican president abruptly said on Friday he was dumping his own nominee to be the top officials at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Ronald Vitiello, saying he wanted someone "tougher." ICE is under the jurisdiction of DHS. Repeatedly subjected to tough questioning by Democrats at congressional hearings, Nielsen became a lightning rod for criticism of Trump's policies. She was confronted by protesters last year at a Mexican restaurant in Washington. As leader of DHS, Nielsen was responsible for carrying out some of Trump efforts such as his battle to build a wall on the border with Mexico, stepped-up deportations and treatment of migrant children, as images of children being held in cages were spread around the world. Trump insists that the arrival of immigrants across the southern U.S. border constitutes a national emergency so important that he sidestepped Congress' refusal to provide him with several billion dollars he requested to build the border wall. Representative Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said Nielsen's tenure at DHS "was a disaster from the start." He said in a statement, however, that she should not serve as a scapegoat, blasting Trump for "terrible and cruel policies." Noting that the department now has neither a permanent secretary nor deputy secretary, he called on the administration to work with Congress in good faith to keep the country safe. The Trump administration adopted the policy of separating migrant children from their parents early last year as part of its "zero tolerance" approach to illegal immigration, intended to deter families from leaving home in the hope of entering the United States. After domestic and international criticism, Trump signed an executive order in June ending family separations, but a government report last month showed that more than 200 children had been taken from their families since that time. Trump recently threatened to close the border with Mexico, or parts of it, if Congress did not change U.S. laws to fix what he called immigration "loopholes." Nielsen's departure has been rumored repeatedly. News reports said Trump had belittled her in Cabinet meetings, unhappy with her efforts to tighten immigration. The New York Times reported nearly a year ago, in May 2018, that Nielsen was close to resigning after Trump berated her in front of other Cabinet secretaries over increases in the number of immigrants crossing illegally from Mexico. Before she was nominated as secretary, Nielsen worked as a deputy to former Marine General John Kelly, who headed DHS before becoming White House chief of staff. Kelly resigned as chief of staff on Jan. 2 amid reports of a strained relationship with Trump. (Reporting by Diane Bartz and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Peter Cooney and Sonya Hepinstall) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Judiciary Committee Jerrold Nadler called on Attorney General William Barr on Thursday to release any summaries of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia report that were prepared by Mueller's team. Nadler, a Democrat who is also demanding release of the full Mueller report to Congress, sent a letter to Barr citing media reports that Mueller's team prepared their own summaries of the special counsel's report. "If these recent reports are accurate ... then those summaries should be publicly released as soon as possible," Nadler said. Nadler also called on Barr to produce "all communications" about the Mueller report between the special counsel's office and the Justice Department, including those on Barr's March 24 letter to Congress summarizing the investigation's main conclusions and the disclosure of the report to Congress and the public. Thursday's letter surfaced hours after the Justice Department defended its handling of Mueller's report on the investigation of Russian election meddling and contacts between President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. The department maintains that Barr must redact confidential and classified information from the nearly 400-page document. But news media reports said that members of Mueller's team were unhappy with the way Barr had characterized its main conclusions in his four-page summary. The Barr summary said Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia but also did not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice. But Barr said he concluded there was not enough evidence to show that Trump committed the crime of obstruction. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to authorize Nadler to issue subpoenas for the full report, underlying evidence from the 22-month investigation and documents and testimony from five former Trump aides. Congress, not Barr, should determine what gets made public, Nadler said. He has yet to issue a subpoena. "We are entitled to that information and we need that information," Nadler told reporters on Thursday. (Reporting by David Morgan; editing by Grant McCool) By Costas Pitas LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Saturday that the longer it takes to find a comprise with the opposition Labour Party to secure a parliamentary majority for a Brexit deal, the less likely it is that Britain will leave the European Union. May has so far failed to secure backing for her negotiated agreement with Brussels as some Conservative lawmakers and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which props up her minority government, have voted it down. She has since turned to the opposition Labour Party in a bid to secure a majority for an orderly Brexit although its leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Saturday he was waiting for May to move her Brexit red lines. "The fact is that on Brexit there are areas where the two main parties agree: we both want to end free movement, we both want to leave with a good deal, and we both want to protect jobs," May said in comments released by her Downing Street office. "That is the basis for a compromise that can win a majority in Parliament and winning that majority is the only way to deliver Brexit." "The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all," she said. May has asked EU leaders to postpone Britain's exit from the bloc until June 30. The EU, which gave her a two-week extension the last time she asked, insists she must first show a viable plan to secure agreement on her thrice-rejected divorce deal in the British parliament. It is the latest twist in a saga which leaves Britain, the world's fifth-biggest economy, struggling to find a way to honor a 2016 referendum vote to take the country out of the globe's largest trading bloc. May reiterated on Saturday her hope that lawmakers would approve a deal to allow Britain to leave the bloc as quickly as possible. "My intention is to reach an agreement with my fellow EU leaders that will mean if we can agree a deal here at home we can leave the EU in just six weeks," she said. (Reporting by Costas Pitas Editing by Alexandra Hudson) United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Friday called on Libyan forces under Khalifa Haftar to halt their advance on Tripoli, warning the military move was putting Libya's stability at risk. Haftar, the commander of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA), launched an offensive on Thursday to take the capital, held by a UN-backed unity government and an array of militias. The council "called on LNA forces to halt all military movements," German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, who holds the council presidency, told reporters following a closed-door meeting. "The members of the Security Council expressed deep concern at the military activity near Tripoli which risks Libyan stability and prospects for UN mediation and a comprehensive political solution to the crisis," he said. The appeal for Haftar to halt his offensive was unanimously backed by the council, including Russia, which has supported the strongman. Armed clashes broke out earlier Friday south of Tripoli between a pro-government alliance and forces loyal to Haftar, raising fears of an assault on the city. The council expressed its intention "to hold those responsible for further conflict accountable," said Heusgen. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who met with Haftar in Benghazi earlier, said he hoped that a "bloody confrontation" could be avoided. Guterres was in Libya to push for a political deal on holding elections when Hafter gave the order to his forces to advance on Tripoli. UN envoy Ghassan Salame told the council that Haftar made clear to Guterres that he had no intention of halting his campaign to take the capital, diplomats said. Libya descended into chaos following the 2011 overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi that has seen a bitter rivalry emerge between the Tripoli-based authorities and Haftar's supporters scrambling for control in the oil-rich country. An American tourist and her tour guide who were abducted in Ugandas Queen Elizabeth National Park last week have been rescued, officials confirmed on Sunday. Kimberly Sue Endicott, a US tourist, was captured along with her guide during an evening game drive by an armed gang who demanded $500,000 (383,427) in ransom for her safe release. "Both were rescued from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and are safely back in Kanungu district in Uganda," Ofwono Opondo, a spokesperson for the Ugandan government, said in a statement. "They are back at the lodge and she is expected to be in Kampala tomorrow." Police also confirmed the safe release, saying in a statement the duo are in good health [and] in the safe hands of the joint security team. Ugandan security teams had been hunting down the gunmen after the kidnapping took place within the national park that is popular with tourists. They were ambushed on 2 April in Queen Elizabeth National Park, a protected area near the porous border with Congo, according to Ugandan authorities. It remains unclear if a ransom was paid in the case of Ms Endicott, who is from Costa Mesa, California, where she has a small skin care shop. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said at a Tuesday event for families of US citizens held captive overseas that he understands some people want to do anything to get their loved ones back but paying ransom would just lead to more kidnappings. In a Friday statement the State Department said that the safety and security of US citizens abroad is its highest priority. Additional reporting by AP. More follows (Reuters) - Warren Buffett, Wells Fargo & Co's largest shareholder, urged the bank in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday to look outside Wall Street for a new chief executive officer. "They just have to come from someplace (outside Wells) and they shouldn't come from Wall Street. They probably shouldn't come from JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs," Buffett told the FT. "There are plenty of good people to run it (from the Wall Street banks), but they are automatically going to draw the ire of a significant percentage of the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, and that's just not smart," Buffett was quoted as saying. Wells Fargo, JPMorganChase and Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc were not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours. Tim Sloan, stepped down as chief executive of Wells Fargo last month, becoming the second CEO to leave the bank in the fallout of a wide-ranging sales practices scandal. The company's board said in a statement at the time that it concluded it was best to seek an outside candidate to replace Sloan. The bank's general counsel, C. Allen Parker, one of the few newcomers in the bank's top ranks, serves as interim chief executive. (Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney) Suspected bandits have burnt down a police station at Kakangi village, Birnin Gwari local government area of Kaduna state, killing two policemen. The gunmen arrived the community on motorbikes around 5:00am and began shooting sporadically. A resident of the community, who did not want to be named said the suspected bandits, who were armed with AK-47, killed two other persons. Those who sustained injuries in the attack have reportedly been taken to the hospital for treatment. Ibrahim Nagwari, chairman of the Birnin Gwari Vanguard for Security and Good Governance (BVSGG), also corroborated the account of the resident. Nagwari said the security situation in the community had worsened owing to the activities of bandits. Security situation has worsened due to armed banditry and kidnapped, Nagwari said in a statement. Many communities particularly along Birnin-Gwari Funtua road had deserted their homes and took refuge in Birnin-Gwari and elsewhere. Yakubu Sabo, spokesman of the Kaduna state police command, is yet to respond to inquiry on the incident. KINDLY DROP A COMMENT BELOW Home | World | Africa | Mnangagwa not worried about 'Chamisa's tourism jaunts' PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa's government, says it is not worried about opposition leader Nelson Chamisa's regional and continental diplomatic offensive. In the last few weeks, MDC leader Chamisa, has been to West and East Africa as well as Botswana in the region where he met the country's former President Ian Khama. In an interview with newzimbabwe.com, Ministry of Information secretary Nick Mangwana, described Chamisa's travels as "nothing more than tourism escapades." "We will not be worried by tourists. Former President Khama is a major player in Botswana's tourism industry and he receives a lot of people. Chamisa is one of many tourists who has just been there (Botswana) and that is not something we will be worried about as a government," said Mangwana. However, sources in government told newzimbabwe.com, that authorities have been watching the opposition leader "like hawks", amid reports there are growing divisions within the region and beyond on not only Zimbabwe's political problems but also the Morocco/Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) conflict. "Chamisa's meeting especially with Khama is viewed with great suspicion. Khama is doing everything in his power to destabilise President Mokgweetsi Masisi's administration. He is reportedly funding a rival candidate (a foreign minister, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi) ahead of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP)'s upcoming congress," a source said. In a dramatic turn of events, Venson-Moitoi threw in the towel on Friday, allowing Masisi a safe nomination as the BDP's candidate for the country's general elections set for October. Chamisa's handlers on the other hand, claim the diplomatic engagements have been "very successful" but no information has been publicly made available as to who he met especially in West and East Africa. There are claims he might have met AU chairperson Moussa Faki and other African leaders "who are unwilling to have the engagements made public for now." Masisi reportedly did not attend the SADR solidarity conference, choosing to send his deputy while he tried to firefight political temperatures at home. "Khama's meeting with Chamisa could be part of a greater scheme to destabilise the region and that will not be allowed to happen. "In fact the Sadc region is divided because while there was a solidarity conference on SADR in South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania had representatives at a rival meeting held in Rabat," said another insider. It is believed Faki attended the meeting called by Morocco instead. But Mangwana played down the significance of the Rabat meeting. "Sadc and the AU have positions as well as standing resolutions on SADR. They have positions on Zimbabwe so there is no division whatsoever. Of course we are aware (of the Rabat meeting) but there are a lot of diplomatic maneuvers going on. Chairperson Faki is a top diplomat and has been doing a lot of work around the Morocco/SADR issue. "We are not worried at all. It's the same as when he came here to meet former President (Robert) Mugabe. Morocco wants to return to the AU and the diplomatic engagements will continue," Mangwana said. SADR remains under Moroccan colonial rule and two weeks ago, Sadc leaders met in South Africa for a solidarity conference meant to push the North African economic power out of Africa's remaining colony. Morocco has already been admitted to the African Union after years of suspension over its occupation of SADR. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa Vice-President Kembo Mohadi has not been censured for allegedly threatening to his kill his ex-wife and damaging her property because no police report has been made a week after the shocking incident, it has been revealed. Mohadi allegedly stormed Senator Tambudzani Mohadi's Beitbridge home where he hacked three doors using an axe before towing away his former wife's three cars. At least 25 police officers witnessed the incident, but refused to take a report from the under- siege senator. The Beitbridge senator argued she would only sign, as both witness and victim, a statement by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers who were present during the violent attack on her person and property on Saturday last week. She said what police were requesting her to do was like a policeman who sees someone being killed and waits for a report from the victim. "They were the witnesses, they have an eyewitness account. They must take action based on that. A crime was committed in their presence," she said in an interview. Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi referred all queries about the Mohadi case to the Information ministry. Women Affairs minister Sithembiso Nyoni said she would not comment on the matter, which she said was private. "I was out of the country when this happened, but it is a private family thing. It also involves the VP," she said. "I have no comment." Meanwhile, on Friday the Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) demanded that Mohadi be held accountable. "We are outraged by the reports of violence perpetrated by the VP against Tambudzani Mohadi," the coalition said. "It has also been reported that such shocking acts were committed in the presence of members of the ZRP. "We believe that these are very serious allegations, which require investigations and due process of the law." WCoZ said the VP showed lack of respect for both the supreme law of the land and women. "The battle against violence perpetrated on women and girls can never be won when the perpetrators are men in whom the people have vested the authority and trust to lead the nation," the statement added. "The VP of a nation should always be above reproach when it comes to violence and women's rights issues. "The VP, being a servant of the people, therefore must be reminded that the very foundation of our democracy and freedom is that this case should be treated as exemplary to all those who abuse their power to inflict pain and suffering upon women." The women also urged the police to act speedily and investigate the case. "In addition, we call upon the judiciary to treat all cases of violence against women and girls as high priority and ensure that justice is served at all times," read the statement. "The failure by the ZRP to promptly address the issue raises concern over the failure by critical institutions to adequately provide redress to survivors of violence and thus there should never demonstrate laxity in responding to such cases." Meanwhile, former Harare West legislator Jessie Majome said it was wrong for people to always expect only women's groups and activists to protest when women are abused. "Why should the women only make noise when it is clear no one is listening or making an effort to act?" she said. Majome described Mohadi's case as a litmus test for the police and the judiciary. "We were let down by the police, where is accountability in all this? Impunity at the highest level," she said. Former Zanu-PF Goromonzi West legislator Beatrice Nyamupinga called for Mohadi's arrest. "For a whole number two in the country to be so disrespectful to women is grossly unacceptable," she said. "If he respects himself, he must resign. How do we end gender-based violence when those who are supposed to champion the end to gender-based violence are actually on the forefront of being perpetrators? "This is a clear case of abuse of power, and domestic violence and as such, he must be arrested." Mohadi divorced his wife early this year and the two are embroiled in a dispute over property. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa Bitcoin is atop the most-searched keywords in China. | Source: Shutterstock. Edited by CCN By CCN.com: Bitcoin is now top of the list of trending keywords in the Baidu search engine, Chinas equivalent to Google. Due to the recent price surge, #bitcoin tops today's Baidu hottest emerging keywords. (Baidu is like China's Google) pic.twitter.com/AWtVw9aOzw cnLedger (@cnLedger) April 4, 2019 After plummeting from the all-time high in late December, Bitcoin reached a low of around $3,200 before surging in recent days above $5,000. The $5,000 line has proved itself to be a crucial battleground as a psychological market of support/resistance. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is testing resistance and trading at $4,997.95. Understandably, the surge has led to a renewed interest in Bitcoin. The leading cryptocurrency is clearly a hot topic in the enormous Chinese market Google also shows a major increase. The following Google Trends search analysis shows a massive spike in Bitcoin searches in recent days. Bitcoin searches more than tripled from 31 to 100 since March 31. 90-day chart for keyword: bitcoin | Source: Google Trends Bitinfocharts.com shows that the number of tweets sent per day with the word bitcoin also spiked following the price surge. Read the full story on CCN.com. Outgoing CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo revealed that the regulatory agency faced major pushback for its pro-bitcoin stance. | Source: SIFMA/YouTube The CFTC chief delivered more than an earful about the way some outsiders really feel about bitcoin. J. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is nearing retirement when his term ends later this month. Known as Crypto Dad to the SECs Crypto Mom Hester Peirce, Giancarlo might deserve the title as Crypto Hero, instead, considering the heat he has had to endure for refusing to stifle blockchain innovation. Crypto Dad Defends CFTCs Blockchain Stance Against Bitcoin Skeptics cryptodad j. christopher giancarlo cftc bitcoin CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo has more than earned his affectionate Crypto Dad nickname. | Source: YouTube In a speech at the Eurofi Financial Forum in Bucharest, Romania, Giancarlo was generous with his opinions, citing Romanian poet Ion Luca Cariagiale who once said: Opinions are free, but not mandatory. Giancarlo might think he used the platform to put forth a few free opinions, but he also dropped a bomb with details of his experience as a regulator in the crypto space. While he didnt squeal on anyone, the CFTC chief said enough. Crypto Dad made it clear that while the CFTCs approach has been to nurture the development of new derivatives products on crypto-assets like bitcoin, not everyone he comes across feels the same. We have resisted calls to use our legal powers to suppress the development of crypto-assets and the underlying technologies that support them. Instead, we have favored close monitoring of market developments while not hindering the introduction of new products like bitcoin futures, which have proven invaluable in letting market forces determine the appropriate value of the bitcoin. This resistance Crypto Dad refers to has been a hurdle not only to innovation but also to the adoption of blockchain technology by businesses across jurisdictions. Read the full story on CCN.com. 2018 wasnt easy for China, as the worlds second-largest economy was going through deleveraging in its debt-ridden economy and has been caught up in a trade dispute with the U.S. The GDP growth rate fell to its lowest level in 30 years, and its domestic stock market was the worst in a decade. Now analysts are seeing silver linings, as the Chinese government moves to implement fiscal and monetary stimulus measures to support the economy, and a trade deal with the U.S. is likely to be finalized in the coming weeks. China is set to be a key turnaround story this year after having been a drag on global growth since early 2018, analysts at BlackRock wrote in their Q2 2019 Global Investment Outlook. We are increasingly confident that Chinese growth is likely to reaccelerate from the second quarter onward, as the credit impulse (the year-on-year change in credit growth) turns positive and fiscal stimulus gains traction. Some economic indicators from the first quarter are already sending some positive signals. Chinas manufacturing PMI for March released on Monday came in much stronger than expected at 54.4, rising to the highest level since June 2018. Allan von Mehren, Chief Analyst at Danske Bank said the turn provides more evidence that the economy bottomed in the first quarter and a moderate recovery could be expected this year. Chinas stock market (SSE), which is dominated by retail investors with high volatility, already recovered 30% year-to-date, as sentiment turns positive. China PMI rebounds in the first quarter of 2019. (Danske Bank) The driver behind the improvement in the Chinese economy is likely to be easing across a range of fronts: credit easing, monetary easing, fiscal easing and easing in trade tensions, Mehren wrote in a note. Last month, China announced to cut company taxes and employer social insurance contributions by nearly 2 trillion yuan ($298 billion), in an effort to buoy private sectors and consumption. Analysts said a turnaround in the Chinese economy will underpin the global economy in its late cycle. But some worry that the stimulus could mean putting a stop to more long-term oriented structural reforms, including cracking down on shadow finance and deleveraging the economy. Story continues Kate Moore, chief equity strategist at BlackRock Investment Institute, said policy easing and structural reforms arent mutually exclusive, and the reform will still remain a key task for the government. The policymakers are very focused on longer-term growth and sustainable growth at that, Moore told Yahoo Finances The Ticker. They're not looking to accelerate the pace of growth, but rather stabilize what is actually a very high level for an economy of its size. Krystal Hu covers technology and China for Yahoo Finance. Write to her via krystalh@yahoofinance.com Read more: China builds the worlds longest high-speed rail as a rail stalls in the U.S. Apple cuts iPhone XR price for partner sellers in China Amazon eyes closed Sears stores for Whole Foods expansion The main challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel's elections on Sunday condemned the premier's deeply controversial pledge to annex West Bank settlements, calling it an "irresponsible" bid for votes. Netanyahu said late Saturday he planned to apply sovereignty over at least parts of the occupied West Bank, a move that could prove the death knell for the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His remarks were widely seen as an appeal to right-wing voters ahead of what is expected to be a close election on Tuesday. Benny Gantz, the former military chief whose centrist Blue and White alliance has posed a stiff challenge to Netanyahu, condemned the premier's remarks in an interview with Israeli news site Ynet. "Why not ask how in 13 years Netanyahu could have annexed and didn't?" said Gantz, in reference to Netanyahu's time as premier. "I think that releasing a strategic and historic decision in an election campaign bubble is not serious and (is) irresponsible." Pressed on his personal position, Gantz said he opposed "unilateral" moves. "We said we will strive for a regionally and globally backed peace agreement while maintaining our basic principles," he said. Those principles include keeping security control of the Jordan Valley, parts of which are in the West Bank, and maintaining the large settlement blocs in the West Bank. Gantz has in the past signalled openness to withdrawing at least some settlers from other areas. He labelled Netanyahu's remarks as "a meaningless statement". "It's a shame to play with people like that," he said. - 'I don't distinguish' - Netanyahu did not provide details on how quickly he planned to move ahead with annexation and whether it would involve all settlements. If done on a large scale, annexation could end already fading hopes for a two-state solution with the Palestinians. It is a move the Israeli far right has long pushed for. "I will apply (Israeli) sovereignty, but I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements," he said in an interview with Channel 12 television. Settlements built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War are deemed illegal by the international community and their ongoing construction is seen as a major barrier to peace. But Netanyahu's right wing government has had strong support from US President Donald Trump, who declared the disputed city of Jerusalem Israel's capital in 2017 and later recognised Israeli sovereignty over the annexed Golan Heights. That prompted Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to cut off relations with Washington. Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Netanyahu's statement on annexation was "not surprising." "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administration's support," he said on Twitter. In a separate interview broadcast Friday, Netanyahu said he told Trump he would not remove settlements or settlers as part of a future American peace plan. "I said there shouldn't be the removal of even one settlement," Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 13 television. More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, backed by Israel's military occupation of the territory, home to more than 2.5 million Palestinians. A further 200,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied east Jerusalem, over which Israel has already implemented full sovereignty. The Palestinians hope to establish a state of their own in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. - 'Close race' - Washington is expected to unveil proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace some time after Tuesday's election, in which Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term. Netanyahu, running for re-election while facing the possibility of indictment on corruption charges, said he had informed Trump not "even one person" would be evicted from a settlement. The US president on Saturday was cautious about the outcome of Israel's upcoming election. "Well, it's going to be close -- I think it's going to be close. Two good people," he said, referring to Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz. The latest polls place Netanyahu and Gantz neck-and-neck, but give the former the advantage in his ability to form a coalition government. Turkey accused Netanyahu on Sunday of raising annexation as a means of improving his standing in the elections. "West Bank is Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in violation of int'l law," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote on Twitter. "Prime Minister Netanyahu's irresponsible statement to seek votes just before the Israeli general elections cannot and will not change this fact." The Palestinians say the US government's pro-Israel bias meant it could no longer mediate between them and Israel. US officials say their plan will be fair. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term in Tuesday's election More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements as part of Israel's military occupation of the territory, where more than 2.5 million Palestinians live The latest polls place ex-military chief Benny Gantz and Netanyahu neck and neck but give the incumbent prime minister the advantage in his ability to form a coalition 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. The renewable energy revolution that many have been seen as a threat for the oil and gas industry will actually benefit one significant segment of it: Big Oil. Thats what Goldman Sachss head of natural resources research in the EMEA region told CNBC this week. The reason for the counterintuitive conclusion has everything to do with size: the same factor that has made Big Oil the most likely winner in the shale patch as long as oil and gas prices dont slump too low. The decarbonization push, the push from the market to adapt to climate change, is tightening the financial conditions in the sector so much that were recreating the barriers to entry and were reconsolidating the market structure we lost at the beginning of the 2000s, Michele della Vigna said. As the barriers to entry rise higher, there is less competition for Big Oil and more opportunities to maintain and improve profitability. In other words, the rise of renewables had provided the worlds supermajors with one more competitive advantage over smaller oil and gas companies. Yet this competitive advantage from renewable energy is not the only factor working for Big Oil. According to della Vigna, the worlds supermajors will also benefit from the slowness of the transition process from fossil fuels to renewable energy. We hear a lot of stories of long-term substitution of oil demand with electricity but its going to take a long time. And in the meantime, demand remains robust, particularly in the emerging markets which continue to buy a lot of crude. This is nothing new, in fact. China, India and other emerging economies are the main swing factors where oil demand is concerned. Every bit of economic data coming from that direction swings prices in the blink of an eye and will likely continue to do so amid what now looks like permanent supervolatility in the oil market. Again, the supermajors are better placed to respond to demand from emerging economies, not least because their size and the scale of their operations allow for deeper cost cuts. This, in turn, makes their oiland their gasmore competitive than the commodities of smaller producers lacking the financial and other resources to reduce their costs sufficiently. Related: Sharp Rise In Rig Count Pressures Oil Prices So, it seems, we are now witnessing what Goldmans analyst calls the restoration of the industrys oligopolistic market structure. After the flurry of independents that made the so-called first shale revolution possible before the 2014 price crash, now things are returning to their normal state with the supermajors dominating the landscape in oil and gas, in both shale and conventional production. And if that isnt enough, heres some more good news for Big Oil: according to della Vigna, the oil market will swing into a deficit in the next decade, reflecting the slump in investments in new production during the downturn. Those with big cash piles will be the companies to benefit from the tighter supply situation. There is always the possibility of a surprise, of course, but bar any of these, supermajors have scarce competition to look forward to over the next few years. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Libya is heading for a military showdown as East Libyan strongman General Haftar has initiated a full confrontation with the UN-backed West-Libyan GNA Al Serraj government, based in Tripoli. After prolonged military operations in Eastern and Southern Libya, Haftars forces and militant groups, all combined under the LNA (Libyan National Army) are now heading to Libyas former capital Tripoli. For months, the LNA has experienced success after success, removing not only extremist Islamic terrorist groups hiding in remote regions of Libya but also taking full control of most the countrys only real revenue generator, its oil and gas fields. Haftar has been long been preparing for this last showdown in Tripoli. Backed by several Arab countries, such as Egypt and the UAE, with tacit support (both military and political) from Russia, Haftar gave the order to take Tripoli on Wednesday. LNA troops have taken several major cities around Tripoli, encircling Libyas capital. The international community, led by the UN, is feverishly trying to quell the risk of a full-scale military confrontation between the two parties, with the scheduled elections now having been cancelled. France, Italy, the UK and even Russia have stated that a military solution is to the crisis in Libya is out of the question. The leader of the GNA, Al Serraj, officially backed by the UN and Western countries, can only rely on military support from the Misrata militias, Turkey and Qatar. Looking at the situation on the ground, it appears that Haftar is paying little attention to these calls from the UN. LNA forces are close to Tripoli, preparing for a possible full-scale attack, with some news agencies reporting that some LNA operations have been pushed back by GNA loyalists. Related: Sharp Rise In Rig Count Pressures Oil Prices In the coming hours and days the future of Libya may well be decided. Taking into account the overall military situation, it seems clear that Haftars LNA will be able to take Tripoli by force if needed, but it remains unclear what would happen after such an operation. The role of Haftar as a potential strongman or leader of a new Libya will depend not on his military strength but increasingly in the coming months on the deals he is able to make with several other tribes and strongmen in the country. Some even argue that Haftars encirclement of Tripoli at present is not a military move but a political one to put pressure on the Al Serraj GNA government to take a step back. Strategically, that move makes a lot of sense as the UN is still preparing to hold a conference later this month in the southwestern city of Ghadames to discuss a political solution to prepare for long-delayed elections and avoid a military showdown. With this in mind, Haftar has urged his forces to enter Tripoli without using force. While his move may have surprised some analysts and the UN, Haftars move is one that we have been pointing to for weeks. In recent weeks, the LNA has taken over and secured Libyas main oil and gas infrastructure and ports, while sending troops to the south to remove the remaining pockets of Daesh, Al Qaida and foreign operators and smugglers. By securing the main revenue generators of the Libyan economy, Haftar has not only gotten the attention of international governments and investors, but he is also now able to pay for loyalty and services from the remaining tribes and militant groups. The growing attractiveness of the LNA as the main power broker in the country has already diminished support for the GNA government and militants in and around Tripoli. For now, the GNA continues to hold its positions in Tripoli and Misrata. The threat of a renewed bloody civil war in the western region however, does not only emanate from the tensions between the GNA government and Haftars LNA military powers. Libya, after the forceful removal of former dictator Muammar Ghaddafi by the West, has become a dangerous mix of regional and international actors, all positioning themselves to take a piece of the cake (oil and gas) in the future. It has been a very long road for General Haftar to gain the upper hand in this geopolitical game of thrones. He has been able to secure major economic and military support deals with Egypt, the UAE and Russia. At present, Arab, Russian and European corporations and governments are weighing their options and deciding upon how they can best position themselves in the Libyan power struggle. The Al Serraj government (GNA) is still being backed by the UN, EU and some Western countries. However, without strong support from Turkey and Qatar, Tripoli would have been on its knees long ago. The Libyan internal conflict is an extension of the Saudi-Egypt-UAE vs Turkey-Qatar conflict. Related: Russia Seeks New Arctic Oil Frontier One unpredictable factor in this power struggle is Moscow. While Russia has been openly courting Haftar, who has been a regular visitor and prominent guest in Moscow, Russian official statements call for a diplomatic solution. Kremlin spokesman Peskov reiterated that the most important thing is that military operations there do not lead to bloodshed. The official standpoint of Haftars other key supporter, the UAE, is also to show restrain. At present it is not clear which strategy Haftar is going to pursue. A full, but prolonged, conflict with the GNA in Tripoli is unlikely. Supply lines and the current support of LNA aligned militias will come under pressure if the battle takes too long. While Haftar holds the power over almost all of Libyas oil and gas infrastructure, he still doesnt have power over Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC) or the Central Bank, where all export revenues flow. Another factor to consider is that a prolonged conflict would stretch Haftars forces, leaving him vulnerable to possible adversaries in the east, his current power base. The Libyan situation, regardless of how it develops, will generate additional bullish sentiment for oil markets. The possibility of a military conflict, which could spread to LNA held oil and gas regions, Libyas overall production and export capacity will take a hit. OPECs production cut strategy will be even more effective if additional Libyan volumes are taken out of the market. As global oil demand is still growing, supply issues will be increasingly bullish. Haftar has once again made the oil markets sit up and watch. When looking at the looming crisis in Algeria, Libyas neighbor, one could argue that a Haftar victory in Libya could be a blessing in disguise for the oil market. A strong leader controlling Libya after 5 years of turmoil would likely stabilize oil flow from the country and calm markets. By Cyril Widershoven for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Oil prices gained around 30 percent in the first quarter this year, with both WTI and Brent posting their best quarterly performance in a decadesince the second quarter of 2009. At the start of the second quarter of 2019, WTI Crude had already topped $60 last week and has been trading above that level in the first week of April, while Brent Crude has been flirting with the $70 mark for days. At the end of last year, the analysts predicting such a fast rise in oil prices in 2019 were in the minority, after market participants panicked over gloomy forecasts about slowing oil demand growth this year that sent oil tumbling nearly 40 percent in Q4 2018. A quarter into this year, signs have started to appear that concerns over faltering demand growth may have been overblown. Demand has been resilient--actually it has been holding more resilient than many pundits had expected at the end of last year. Coupled with a tightening market due to OPEC and allies cuts and U.S. sanctions crippling Venezuelan and Iranian oil sales, oil prices may have surprised to the upside many forecasters. Higher oil prices have naturally led to higher gasoline prices, and forecasts suggest that U.S. drivers should brace for further increases in gas prices as spring comes and motorists drive more. Refinery maintenance season in the U.S. is also weighing on gasoline stocks and prices, AAA said in an update on April 4. Until refineries return to normal operations, which will take a few weeks, American motorists should expect pump prices to continue increasing as gasoline demand gains steam, according to AAA. Related: The Worlds Cheapest Natural Gas Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said on April 1: Theres no fooling motorists, gas prices have continued to surge. For the seventh straight week the national average has continued to rise, unabated, due to seasonal impacts. The run-up this spring has felt worse than prior years, and thus far, the national average is up nearly 50 cents per gallon from our 2019 low. Unfortunately, this a rut well be stuck in yet for at least a few more weeks, DeHaan noted. One of the drivers of higher oil prices so far this year has been very resilient demand, Michele Della Vigna, head of EMEA natural resources research at Goldman Sachs, told CNBC this week. Everybody came into the year with a very negative view and actually demand has been resilient, della Vigna said. Demand remains robust particularly in the emerging markets, which continue to buy a lot of crude, Goldmans expert noted. The current price level works for everybody on the producer frontit helps to manage deficits in some OPEC members to sustainable levels, it is actually very profitable for the industry, and its enough for U.S. shale to keep growing, della Vigna told CNBC. Goldman Sachs doesnt see Brent Crude prices breaking significantly above $70 or below $60 a barrel in the coming weeks. But there are events expected in coming weeks and a couple of months that could impact global oil supply and determine the trend in oil (and gasoline) prices into the summer. Assuming that demand growth holds, as Goldman says it has so far this year, supply is expected to further tighten with the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and the upcoming review of the U.S. waivers for Iranian oil customers. The Trump Administration is not expected to cut off all Iranian buyers in early May, considering President Trumps aversion to high gasoline prices and the current Brent price a hairs breadth away from $70 a barrel. Related: Russia Seeks New Arctic Oil Frontier OPEC and its Russia-led non-OPEC allies will review their production cut pact in late June, but at that meeting they will have a clearer picture of where supply might be going, because the U.S. will have already decided whether to extend and to whom to extend waivers for Iranian oil purchases. OPEC leader Saudi Arabia has made it crystal clear that it would do whatever it takes to rebalance the market, with cuts potentially going through the end of 2019, while non-OPEC leader Russia is, as usual, signaling its reluctance over continued cuts. On the demand side, there is always weakening global economic growth and the U.S.-China trade war lurking in the shadows to spook the oil market again. The first quarter this year saw a combination of resilient demand and tightening supply pushing oil prices higher. U.S. sanctions policies toward Iran and Venezuela, the state of the global economy, emerging markets growth, trade disputes, OPEC members fiscal needs, or a sudden supply disruption, in Libya for example, will all determineto various degreeswhere oil prices will be in coming quarters. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei 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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 A 52-year-old electrician in the Ikorodu suburb of Lagos has admitted in court that he sucked his daughters breasts to make them round and big, just as the 17-year-old girl told the court that her father did not only begin to suck her breasts when she was 12, he had also been sexually abusing her until he was caught in the act by her mother after four years of continuous sexual molestation. Mr Folorunso Oluwaseun, a father of five children, was reported to have started having sex with his daughter when she was just 12 years old and was caught right in the act by his estranged wife when the girl was 17. The accused, who resides in Ikorodu area of Lagos State, was said to have defiled his first daughter at his residence between August 8, 2013, and April 2017. Problems started when Oluwaseuns wife walked out of their matrimonial home, in 2012 leaving him with five children to cater for. The family reportedly had issues resulting in constant quarrels and shouting matches with the man accusing his wife of being tired of the marriage because he was poor. But soon after she left the ex-husband who is an electrician by profession, he started having sex with his daughter. He allegedly started by sucking her breasts. He was said to have told the girl that sucking the breasts would make them become as big and round as those of her mates. He graduated from sucking her boobs, to having sex with her. He then assured the girl that the sperm would make her become as fat as her friends. Luck, however, ran out on him when his former wife got wind of the development and confronted her daughter who confirmed the act. She then took the matter to an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, Lagos State. Oluwaseun, however, denied the offence claiming that he was framed by his wife and his in-laws. But despite vehemently denying ever having sex with his daughter, he admitted having an inappropriate relationship with the girl. I only sucked my daughters breasts. I didnt have sex with her! he said. He added that he only sucked her breasts while he was drunk. The accused was later charged to court, where he denied having sexual intercourse with his daughter under cross-examination by the prosecution counsel, Babajide Boye, claiming that he only sucked her breasts while he was drunk. The victim, however, told the court that her dad sucked her breasts, claiming that he told her that he did so to make them as big as her mates and then ended up having sexual intercourse with her for four years. The girl explained that her father started sexually abusing her when she was 12 years old and would often force her to drink salt in water solution after having sex with her and releasing his sperm inside her private parts. The victim told the court that her mother left her fathers house in 2012 as they were always having misunderstanding. She said, My four siblings and I were staying with my father in a room apartment. The whole thing started one day when my father called me and said that my breasts were not as big as those of my mates; he said that he would help to suck them so that they could get bigger. I was in Junior Secondary School (JSS3) when he started. He asked me to sleep with him on the bed and he began to suck my breasts. The accused, Oluwaseun, later changed his narrative to claim that police asked him to admit sucking his daughters breasts. Share this: From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As... " " According to the United States Sentencing Commission, Hispanics and African-Americans bear the brunt of mandatory sentences. Erika Kyte/Getty Images With only nine police officers at his disposal, Maxwell Jackson, police chief of Harrisville, Utah, says he needs all the help he can get to combat the drug trade in his tiny corner of America. Harrisville's proximity to Interstate 15, just north of Ogden, Utah, makes the town a ripe target for drug traffickers whose crimes often rise to the level of federal prosecution. About 10 years or so ago, crystal meth was the drug du jour in Harrisville. These days it's heroin and opioids. Advertisement So, when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a memo on May 10, 2017, to federal prosecutors telling them to charge federal defendants with crimes that carry the most severe penalties, Jackson applauded. Sessions' directive reversed the policy of President Barack Obama's Justice Department whose prosecutors avoided charging certain defendants with offenses that would trigger long mandatory minimum sentences. Jackson knows the issue well. He testified before the United States Sentencing Commission in 2010 telling the bipartisan group that "minimum mandatory sentences removes [the] most extreme offenders from society for long periods of time." Plus, the chief said, mandatory minimums are an important crime-fighting tool. "The threat of minimum sentencing is huge," Jackson says. "Prosecutors use it as leverage to get people to plead to [lesser] state charges instead of the [higher] federal charges. If a defendant is looking at a 15-year mandatory sentence, he'll probably roll on someone who is a bigger fish. Ninety percent of them will roll." Netting a "bigger fish" is one of the main reasons many in law enforcement, including the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, welcome Session's new get-tough-on-crime directive. Yet, opponents say the assumption that a defendant will "roll" on a "bigger fish" is nothing more than a red herring. Researchers say the number of cases where a defendant's cooperation is sought in mandatory minimum cases is on par with other federal crimes. Sessions' memo, which he said returns "the enforcement of laws as passed by Congress," reignited the decades-old debate of whether mandatory minimum sentences are good for society. Politicians and law enforcement personnel from both ends of the political spectrum have long supported mandatory minimums. In their views, the rules not only punish the convicted, but keep them from committing more crimes. They also believe that mandatory minimums have a deterrent effect that stops others from committing similar crimes. However, opponents say mandatory sentences do more harm than good. Harsh sentencing has added to already overcrowded prisons and negatively impacts the families of the convicted and society writ large. Specifically, the laws unfairly and disproportionately impact minorities, while failing to reduce crime and costing taxpayers substantially. "There is no credible evidence that the enactment or implementation of [mandatory] sentences has significant deterrent effects," University of Minnesota Law School professor Michael Tonry wrote in the journal Crime and Justice in 2009. "But there is massive evidence ... that mandatory minimums ... produce injustices in many cases; and result in wide unwarranted disparities in the handling of similar cases. The weight of the evidence clearly shows that enactment of mandatory penalties has either no demonstrable marginal deterrent effects or short-term effects that rapidly waste away." Back in the 1980s and into the 1990s, Congress increased criminal penalties for federal drug offenders and other criminals. Lawmakers were reacting to the public outcry over an explosion in drug-related crime. By 2010, 80 percent of drug offenders in federal lockups were there because they were convicted under the minimum penalty rules. But by 2014, drug offenses had fallen to 67.8 percent of the 16,048 offenders who were convicted of crimes with a mandatory minimum penalty that decline was due in part to the regulations put in part by the Obama administration. Even still, as of today, there are more than 95,000 inmates serving time for drug-related offenses in federal prisons. In 1980, there were only 5,000. Critics say the minimum sentencing requirements tie the hands of judges and makes it impossible for them to impose more lenient sentences, even if they think the punishment does not fit the crime. Critics also charge that prosecutors, who have wide latitude in deciding what charges to file, often stand to benefit professionally by winning convictions that carry longer sentences. But that's only a truncated version of what is wrong with mandatory sentencing. Consider these numbers: According to the United States Sentencing Commission , Hispanics and African-Americans bear the brunt of mandatory sentences. Slightly more than 40 percent of Hispanic defendants were convicted of crimes in 2014 that carried a minimum penalty. Blacks were nearly 30 percent and whites, 26.8 percent. The Obama administration echoed the concern of many lawmakers, researchers and justice advocates by saying that mandatory sentences do little to stop crime. According to statistics compiled by Obama's White House, a 10 percent increase in average sentence length corresponds to a 0 to 0.5 percent decrease in arrest rates. Moreover, the recidivism rate increases the longer people are incarcerated. More than 5 million children have a parent who has been in prison. Most are black and Hispanic. Research shows that when a parent is incarcerated, their children are at risk for mental problems, antisocial behavior and are more likely to drop out of school. The average prison sentence for federal drug offenders rose 36 percent from 1980 to 2011. It costs the Department of Justice $6.7 billion a year to run the federal prison system, or roughly 1 in 4 tax dollars that the department receives. Chief Jackson and others in law enforcement understand the guidelines are flawed. He'd like to see reforms implemented, that among other things, provide a "safety valve" for "miscarriages of justice." "I recognize there are circumstances where there are people in the system that shouldn't be there," the chief says. "That's not where they belong. But, minimum sentencing laws gives law enforcement leverage to [arrest someone higher in] the food chain. Most people [serving long sentences] are highly deserving of the honor." Now That's Interesting According to research conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts, while the average amount of time that released violent and property crime offenders spent behind bars grew from 39 to 44 percent from 1988 to 2012, the time drug offenders spent in prison increased 153 percent from 23.2 to 58.6 months. Labour's toxic disciplinary problem hit a new low this morning with revelations in the Sunday Times that they have failed to take action against hundreds of members accused of anti-Semitism under Jeremy Corbyns leadership.The paper says that a hard drive of emails and a confidential database last updated on March 8 reveal how the partys system for dealing with such complaints is bedevilled by delays, inaction and interference from the leaders office. These documents reveal members investigated for posting such online comments as Heil Hitler, F*** the Jews and Jews are the problem have not been expelled, even though the party received the complaints a year ago.Examples given by the Sunday Times include a sitting councillor in Lancashire, who was let back into the party after fuming about Jewish media attacks and the Rothschild family. She told party investigators she meant Jewish as a blanket term of description without any racist connotations. While in Manchester, a trade union official was readmitted despite sharing material saying Jewish Israelis were behind 9/11:Labour's Deputy Leader, Tom Watson, is quoted as saying the Labour Party needs to get to grips with this problem, but there is little sign of them doing so, especially when the Leader's office is failing to offer leadership and continues to interfere in the disciplinary process. A new consumer credit rating system being developed by Chinas central bank could go so far as to record whether people have paid their utility bills, according to a state media report. The Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) has been building a database of individuals spending and payment records for some time, and an initial version of it is expected to be ready to go into service soon, Xinhua said on Saturday. As Beijing battles soaring corporate and personal debt levels, the aim of the project is to develop a credit rating system similar to those used in other countries. Last year, the PBOC opened a new consumer credit bureau, Baihang Credit Scoring Co, to support the work of its Credit Reference Centre. In most countries, any form of debt is considered as part of your credit score. Utility bills would just be another measure that the bank would use to look at individual credit score. Andrew Collier, Oriental Capital Research Andrew Collier, managing director of Oriental Capital Research, said the new credit reporting system was a step in the right direction in giving banks a more comprehensive picture of an individuals financial position and their credit risk. In most countries, any form of debt is considered as part of your credit score, he said. Utility bills would just be another measure that the bank would use to look at individual credit score. But with the prevalence of informal financing channels such as private lenders and even loan sharks, there are concerns that the new system will not be able to provide a complete picture of a persons credit position. The problem is that there is a lot of lending occurring outside the banking system that the credit reporting system wont be able to capture, Collier said. The other issue is that the credit system is being tied to state control, which raises a lot of issues about how the central bank is going to separate social policy with finance. While almost all adults in the United States have a personal credit score, only about half of the 950 million people monitored by Chinas Credit Reference Centre have active credit histories, according to a report published by Moodys in September. Story continues The credit reporting system in China differs from other Asia-Pacific countries in that it is to a much larger extent government-run, it said. According to former shadow banker Joe Zhang, who now runs his own business collecting and repackaging credit card delinquency from banks to sell to investors, the new database would also help the central bank to monitor the creditworthiness of businesspeople. People dont realise that credit in the whole private sector is vast, and that it is all linked to the controlling shareholders personal credit ratings, he said. Its a risk to the banking industry. Despite Beijings deleveraging campaign, which has succeeded in slowing the growth of corporate and public debt, household borrowing has been steadily rising since 2008, according to a study by Natixis. Household debt, which includes mortgage loans and credit cards, currently accounts for 52 per cent of the countrys gross domestic product. Meanwhile, the new PBOC database is also likely to raise fresh concerns over data privacy. Last year, the government passed the Cybersecurity Law, the Consumer Protection Law and the E-Commerce Law in a bid to limit private companies access to personal data while giving the state more power to monitor individuals and business activities. Even though there is still a lot of debate and discussion inside China about what these rules mean and how they will be implemented, weve already seen both foreign and Chinese businesses facing increased scrutiny over the way they handle personal data, Samm Sacks, a cybersecurity policy and China digital economy fellow at US-based think tank New America said at the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai last week. More from South China Morning Post: This article Chinas new credit rating system will even monitor peoples utility bill payments first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019. Ko Jin-young birdied five holes on the front nine to seize slim lead over two other South Koreans heading into the final round of the ANA Inspiration, the first major of the LPGA season. The 23-year old from Seoul fired a four-under 68 to lead second round leader Kim In-kyung as the Korean juggernaut steamrolled its way to the top of the leaderboard at the Mission Hills Country Club course near Palm Springs, California. Four of the top seven players are Korean-born. Ko said she is going to stick to her game plan going into Sunday's fourth round. "I just have to play golf, 18 holes," she said. "I am not nervous, and I am not afraid." Ko's round was far from perfect as she stumbled down the stretch with a double bogey and bogey on Nos. 14 and 15 respectively to reach a eight-under 208 total. The reigning LPGA rookie-of-the year led by five strokes at one stage after sinking a long putt on the par-four 10th. But her tee shot on 14 landed in the water and she dropped further with a bogey on the next hole which saw her lead cut to just one stroke. "I'm not a robot, I'm human," Ko said about the pitching wedge wobble on 14. "Everyone can do a miss shot. Doesnt matter. It happens sometimes." Kim is in sole possession of second place and just one stroke back after shooting a one-over 73. She struggled on the front nine but bounced back on the back and closed with a birdie on the last hole. Lee Mi-hyang and Korean-American Danielle Kang are tied for third at five under 211, three shots back of Ko. Lee blasted a superb hole-in-one on the 181 yard 17th hole to put herself into contention. - Big picture - Kim was trying to look at the big picture after a frustrating round in which she surrendered a three-shot lead to start the day. "I quite lost it," she said. "I don't know what it is, expectations I could (not) live up to. "I was tough on myself but I learned a lot and tomorrow is another day. "I hit many good shots. So far, it is already my best year." The 30-year-old Kim is hoping to redeem herself after missing a 35 centimetre (14 inch) putt on the 18th hole of the 2012 tournament that would have delivered her the championship. Instead she went into a playoff with compatriot Yoo Sun-young where she lost on the first extra hole. Despite her final hole stumble in 2012, Kim is not without a major victory. In 2017, she captured the Women's British Open, in a season that saw her win three times on the Tour. Canada's Alena Sharp, Australian Katherine Kirk and Lee Jeongeun6 of South Korea are tied for fifth at three-under. Sharp shot the best round of the trio with a five-under 67. In addition to the professionals, five amateur players are competing in the event continuing a longstanding tradition of exemptions for top women amateurs. Patty Tavatanakit, who is ranked third in the world, is the top amateur in the field after shooting an even-par 72 on Saturday to move into a tie for 50th with seven others -- including fellow Thais Ariya Jutanugarn and Pornanong Phatlum. Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years For "Kids For Cash" entropy Bird Truther. User ID: 476071 04-06-2019 03:00 AM Posts: 2,857 Post: #1 Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years For "Kids For Cash" Advertisement https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/...ry-scandal Quote: A Pennsylvania judge was sentenced to 28 years in prison in connection to a bribery scandal that roiled the state's juvenile justice system. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was convicted of taking $1 million in bribes from developers of juvenile detention centers. The judge then presided over cases that would send juveniles to those same centers. The case came to be known as "kids-for-cash." The AP adds: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea. Ciavarella, 61, was tried and convicted of racketeering charges earlier this year. His attorneys had asked for a "reasonable" sentence in court papers, saying, in effect, that he's already been punished enough. "The media attention to this matter has exceeded coverage given to many and almost all capital murders, and despite protestation, he will forever be unjustly branded as the 'Kids for Cash' judge," their sentencing memo said. More at source. More at source. Upside Down Just hangin out User ID: 459953 04-06-2019 03:03 AM Posts: 51,759 Post: #2 RE: Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years For "Kids For Cash" i am surprised and respectful that you seem to quote from NPR and from the AP. you seemed like such an ignorant asshole. Reality are the hearts and minds of those who try. Everything that is not illusion is confusion. entropy Bird Truther. User ID: 476071 04-06-2019 03:04 AM Posts: 2,857 Post: #3 RE: Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years For "Kids For Cash" Upside Down Wrote: (04-06-2019 03:03 AM) i am surprised and respectful that you seem to quote from NPR and from the AP. you seemed like such an ignorant asshole. Just doin my job. I know it's kinda ironic for a place called "Lunatic Outpost" to have rules but it is what it is. Just doin my job. I know it's kinda ironic for a place called "Lunatic Outpost" to have rules but it is what it is. Upside Down Just hangin out User ID: 459953 04-06-2019 03:06 AM Posts: 51,759 Post: #4 RE: Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years For "Kids For Cash" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jne9t8sHpUc bs. Reality are the hearts and minds of those who try. Everything that is not illusion is confusion. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 492890 04-06-2019 03:08 AM Post: #5 RE: Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years For "Kids For Cash" Bright Bart Wrote: (04-06-2019 03:00 AM) https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/...ry-scandal Quote: A Pennsylvania judge was sentenced to 28 years in prison in connection to a bribery scandal that roiled the state's juvenile justice system. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was convicted of taking $1 million in bribes from developers of juvenile detention centers. The judge then presided over cases that would send juveniles to those same centers. The case came to be known as "kids-for-cash." The AP adds: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea. Ciavarella, 61, was tried and convicted of racketeering charges earlier this year. His attorneys had asked for a "reasonable" sentence in court papers, saying, in effect, that he's already been punished enough. "The media attention to this matter has exceeded coverage given to many and almost all capital murders, and despite protestation, he will forever be unjustly branded as the 'Kids for Cash' judge," their sentencing memo said. More at source. FYI, this story is 8 years old FYI, this story is 8 years old entropy Bird Truther. User ID: 476071 04-06-2019 03:11 AM Posts: 2,857 Post: #6 RE: Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years For "Kids For Cash" LoP Guest Wrote: (04-06-2019 03:08 AM) Bright Bart Wrote: (04-06-2019 03:00 AM) https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/...ry-scandal More at source. FYI, this story is 8 years old Noted. Appreciated. Noted. Appreciated. Back to Forum AS INTEREST in Mactan Island from offshore gaming firms continues to rise, a property research firm identified Mandaue City as the next expansion pad of this sector.Joey Roi Bondoc, senior research manager AS INTEREST in Mactan Island from offshore gaming firms continues to rise, a property research firm identified Mandaue City as the next expansion pad of this sector. Joey Roi Bondoc, senior research manager at Colliers International Philippines, said its proximity to the airport and the growing condominium developments positions Mandaue City as the next city to enjoy the spillovers of offshore gaming opportunities. Our office still receives queries from offshore gaming firms planning to locate in Mactan Island. But after Mactan, Mandaue comes second, said Bondoc in an interview. Bondoc cited the presence of an international airport and condominium developments as key considerations of gaming operators when relocating. Although, Mandaue is still home to non-business process management firms, such as banks, insurance firms and manpower agencies, Bondoc said offshore gaming opportunities are on the rise in Mandaue. An offshore gaming firm occupies almost 5,000 square meters (sq.m.). He said the rise of offshore gaming is expected to drive leasing activities in Cebus office sector as well as condominiums, as employees of these offshore gaming companies occupy residential developments. An offshore gaming operation seems like a call center operation so workers in this industry need to be billeted near their workplace. Bondoc earlier said online gambling operators demand for Cebu office spaces grew by 25,700 sq.m. in 2017. In Manila, offshore gambling is driving the leasing activity of properties, which also have condominium components. And with the continued rise, we expect the same trend to replicate here, said Bondoc. Offshore gambling is emerging as a major plank of the Cebu office market, he added, provided that Cebu implements a more conducive local regulatory environment. Moreover, Bondoc said the rise of offshore gaming firms in Cebu also boosted indirect business and job opportunities. He said while offshore gaming operators need to employ Chinese nationals because they speak the language of the patrons, any expansion or relocation of an offshore gaming company means indirect jobs and business opportunities for Filipinos to take advantage of. Story continues Meanwhile, an inter-agency task force formed to monitor the number of foreign nationals employed in Philippine online gaming operations (Pogo) has come up with an initial list of 138,000 workers employed in these internet-based operations, as well as in other businesses. The Department of Finance said this was an apparently untapped subsector that could yield for the government an estimated P32 billion in additional income taxes annually. In their report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III during a meeting last week, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Bureau of Immigration came up with a reconciled list of 138,001 workers, of which 54,241 were issued alien employment permits and another 83,760 were granted special working permits. Dominguez said he noticed that the names in the submitted list had no taxpayer identification numbers) and their corresponding salaries reported were only around P20,000 each per month, which was ridiculously low for skilled foreign workers for Pogos. (WITH PR) The Singapore government unveiled a bill last week containing tough measures to tackle "fake news", prompting warnings from tech giants and rights groups Tech giants have reacted with horror after Singapore proposed laws against "fake news" allowing authorities to order the removal of content and impose hefty fines, in what critics say is an assault on free speech. The government unveiled a bill last week containing tough measures, including powers for ministers to order social media sites like Facebook to put warnings next to posts authorities believe to be false and in extreme cases take them down. If an action is deemed malicious and damaging to Singapore's interests, companies could be hit with fines of up to Sg$1 million ($740,000). Individuals could face jail terms of up to 10 years. Authorities in the tightly-controlled countrylong criticised for restricting civil libertiesinsist the measures are necessary to stop the circulation of falsehoods which could sow divisions in the multi-ethnic city-state. But press freedom groups condemned the proposals, saying they could stifle online discussion, as did tech companies which have big investments in the ultra-modern city. "As the most far-reaching legislation of its kind to date, this level of overreach poses significant risks to freedom of expression and speech," said the Asia Internet Coalition, an industry association whose members include Facebook, Google and Twitter. Simon Milner, Facebook's vice president of public policy in Asia-Pacific, said the social media giant was concerned about potentially being compelled to remove content. "Giving people a place to express themselves freely and safely is important to us and we have a responsibility to handle any government request to remove alleged misinformation carefully and thoughtfully," he said in a statement. Critics say one of the most worrying aspects of the "fake news" legislation is that it is up to authorities to decide what is false The internet is a relatively free space in Singapore and there are some local alternative news sites, which are typically more critical of the authorities than the traditional, pro-government newspapers and TV. Singapore is among several countries pushing legislation to fight fake news, and the government stressed ordering "corrections" to be placed alongside falsehoods would be the primary response, rather than jail or fines. A government decision can also be appealed to the courts. 'Courts will decide' K. Shanmugam, law and home affairs minister, said in a Facebook post that "the proposed law targets false statements of factnot opinions, not criticisms. "Ultimately, disagreement over truth and falsity will be decided by the courts". Google, Facebook and Twitter have their Asia headquarters in Singapore, a city of 5.6 million which is popular with expats as it is developed, safe and efficient. But there were already signs of tensions with tech companies as the government prepared to unveil the laws. During parliamentary hearings last year about tackling online falsehoods, Google and Facebook urged the government not to introduce new laws. The government unveiled the bill last week, proposing tough measures to combat "fake news" In November, Facebook refused a request to remove an article linking Singapore to a financial scandal in Malaysia which the government said was untrueprompting the law ministry to say the firm "cannot be relied upon to filter falsehoods". Critics say one of the most worrying aspects of the new legislation is that it is up to authorities to decide what is false and what is not. While authorities insist decisions can be appealed, Kirsten Han, the Singapore-based editor of regional news site New Naratif, said most people do not have the resources or will to fight the government. "Even if you are convinced that your Facebook post is in the right, how many average Singaporeans would appeal to the minister, and then spend thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer and file an application in the court?" she told AFP. Human Rights Watch has described the bill as "sweepingly broad" while critics note Singapore already has tough laws against sedition, defamation and disturbing racial harmony, that can be used to police the web. But it is not yet clear how the legislationwhich is likely to pass easily through the ruling party-dominated parliamentwill be used in practice, and some believe authorities will wield it cautiously. "I think that the government will be very careful in their implementation of the law," said Professor Ang Peng Hwa, from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in Singapore. "I think, in general, there's a very high level of trust in the government and its institutions by foreign entities, and so I don't see them... being too trigger-happy about the implementation of this bill." 2019 AFP In this Oct. 8, 2002, file photo, Sydney Brenner, a professor in the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, Calif., gestures during a press conference in Munich, Germany. Brenner, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist who helped decipher the genetic code and whose research on a roundworm laid the groundwork for decades of human disease research, has died. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California said Brenner died Friday, April 5, 2019 in Singapore. He was 92. (AP Photo/Jan Pitman, File) Sydney Brenner, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist who helped decipher the genetic code and whose research on a roundworm sparked a new field of human disease research, has died. He was 92. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, where Brenner spent part of his seven-decade career, said he died Friday in Singapore. "He will be remembered in perpetuity for his brilliant discoveries that ushered in a new era of science and a new generation of scientists," said Ronald Evans, a biologist at the institute. Brenner shared the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2002 for his contribution to work unraveling how genes control cell division. He and two colleagues, John Sulston and Robert Horvitz, traced a transparent roundworm known as C. elegans to determine how cells divide and create something new. The findings on programmed cell death were key to understanding how cancers develop and laid the groundwork for making C. elegans a major model organism in research. His most important contribution to science, however, was the work he did with Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA, and others to determine the genetic code. In 1961 they demonstrated that DNA is made up of a series of three nucleotides called codons, which encode the amino acids that make up a protein. In this Monday, Dec. 10, 2002, file photo, Dr. Sydney Brenner of South Africa, left, receives the Nobel Prize in Medicine from King Carl Gustaf of Sweden, right, during a ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Brenner, from the Molecular Sciences Institute, Berkeley, Calif., shares the prize with H. Robert Horvitz, of the United States and John E. Sulston, of Britain. Dr. Sydney Brenner, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist who helped decipher the genetic code and whose research on a roundworm laid the groundwork for decades of human disease research, has died. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in Calif., said Brenner died Friday, April 5, 2019 in Singapore. He was 92. (AP Photo/Henrik Montgomery/Pool, File) He also helped discover messenger RNA, the molecule that directs the cell's production of amino acids. Born in South Africa in 1927, Brenner spent much of his early career in Britain, earning his PhD from the University of Oxford. Later, he joined the University of Cambridge and shared an office with Crick for 20 years. In this Oct. 29, 2003, file photo, Nobel laureate Dr. Sydney Brenner of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, Calif., gives a lecture at the opening of Biopolis in Singapore. Dr. Brenner, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist who helped decipher the genetic code and whose research on a roundworm laid the groundwork for decades of human disease research, has died. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California said Brenner died Friday, April 5, 2019 in Singapore. He was 92. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-e, File) In the early 1990s, Brenner went to California where he first worked at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla and later rejoined Crick as a distinguished professor at the Salk Institute. He spent the last part of his career building the biomedical sciences in Singapore, where he became its first honorary citizen. Brenner is survived by his three children. His wife died in 2010. 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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. 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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 Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 India may attack Pakistan in mid-April, Islamabad says citing reliable intellig ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 493119 04-07-2019 02:26 PM Posts: 5,423 Post: #1 India may attack Pakistan in mid-April, Islamabad says citing reliable intellig Advertisement The Indian military may attack Pakistan sometime in less than two weeks, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi claimed citing reliable intelligence. The two nuclear powers had a major flare up of tensions in February. We have reliable intelligence that India is planning a new attack on Pakistan. As per our information this could take place between April 16 and 20, Qureshi announced. The minister, who was visiting his hometown of Multan on Sunday, told journalists that Pakistan shared its concerns with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The official would not elaborate on what evidence Islamabad has to back his claim, but indicated he was speaking on the instruction of Prime Minister Imran Khan. India would not immediately respond to the allegations. Tensions between the nuclear-armed rival neighbors escalated this year after a suicide bombing attack killed dozens of Indian police troops in the disputed region of Kashmir in mid-February. Two weeks later, Indian warplanes conducted an air raid on Pakistani territory, targeting what India said was a training camp of the militant group which claimed credit for the attack. An outraged Pakistan retaliated on the following day with its own bombing raid in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, which escalated into a clash between two nations air forces. India lost one fighter jet and claims to have shot down one of Pakistans F-16 aircraft, which Islamabad denies. The situation was deflated within days, with Islamabad quickly releasing a captured Indian pilot from the plane it shot down. The stand-off led to surge of nationalist feelings on both sides. https://www.rt.com/news/455772-india-may...-pakistan/ It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... India may attack Pakistan in mid-April, Islamabad says citing reliable intelligenceThe Indian military may attack Pakistan sometime in less than two weeks, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi claimed citing reliable intelligence. The two nuclear powers had a major flare up of tensions in February.We have reliable intelligence that India is planning a new attack on Pakistan. As per our information this could take place between April 16 and 20, Qureshi announced.The minister, who was visiting his hometown of Multan on Sunday, told journalists that Pakistan shared its concerns with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The official would not elaborate on what evidence Islamabad has to back his claim, but indicated he was speaking on the instruction of Prime Minister Imran Khan.India would not immediately respond to the allegations.Tensions between the nuclear-armed rival neighbors escalated this year after a suicide bombing attack killed dozens of Indian police troops in the disputed region of Kashmir in mid-February. Two weeks later, Indian warplanes conducted an air raid on Pakistani territory, targeting what India said was a training camp of the militant group which claimed credit for the attack.An outraged Pakistan retaliated on the following day with its own bombing raid in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, which escalated into a clash between two nations air forces. India lost one fighter jet and claims to have shot down one of Pakistans F-16 aircraft, which Islamabad denies.The situation was deflated within days, with Islamabad quickly releasing a captured Indian pilot from the plane it shot down. The stand-off led to surge of nationalist feelings on both sides. The Ghost Of LOP Registered User User ID: 358986 04-07-2019 02:28 PM Posts: 43,298 Post: #2 RE: India may attack Pakistan in mid-April, Islamabad says citing reliable intellig I shall declare war and launch nuclear missiles on this thread but but i posted firstI shall declare war and launch nuclear missiles on this thread I am so confused !!! 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Walthers is superintendent/president of Allan Hancock College. You can access the full CEW report at cew.georgetown.edu/5Rules, and a comparison of net-price calculations at bit.ly/price-comp. Researchers demonstrated that hackers can modify 3D Computer Tomography scans to add or remove evidence of a serious illness, including cancers. A group of researchers from the Ben-Gurion University and the Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, in Israel, have demonstrated that hackers can modify 3D medical scans to the result of a clinical examination. Attackers can add or remove evidence of various illnesses, including aneurysms, heart disease, blood clots, infections, arthritis, cartilage problems, torn ligaments, and tumors in the brain, heart or spine. The experts developed proof-of-concept (PoC) malware that uses a machine learning technique known as generative adversarial network (GAN) to alter 3D images generated during a Computer Tomography (CT) scan . Scan s are sent to picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) that store them. The format used to transmit and store the images is DICOM. GE Healthcare, Fujifilm, Philips, and RamSoft are main vendors of PACS systems. PACS and DICOM servers are often left exposed to the Internet, the experts found roughly 2,700 servers exposed online using the Shodan search engine. The experts also discovered that medical imagery data are transmitted without encryption, an attacker can potentially run man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks to manipulate them. The experts conducted a penetration test in a radiology department of a hospital. In a test scenario, they connected a small MitM device between the CT scanners workstation and the PACS network that allowed them to intercept traffic from the CT scanner. The researchers developed an attack framework dubbed CT-GAN to manipulate the images via the GAN technique. The experts used a dataset of 100 Computer Tomography scans that were analyzed by three radiologists involved in the experiment. They used a mix of 30 authentic Computer Tomography scans and 70 scans that they modified by using the CT-GAN tool. The PoC malware developed by the experts allowed them to alter the images by introducing evidence of malign cancer into the scans and remove cancer from the scans of sick patients. We also evaluated the attack by determining how well CT-GAN can fool humans and machines: radiologists and state-of-the-art AI. reads the research paper. We found that, with out knowledge of this attack, radiologists are fooled 99% of the time for injection, and 94% of the time for removal (the AI was fooled 100% of the time) Then the experts informed the radiologists of the attack, and repeated the test. Radiologists still misdiagnosed 60% of those with injections, and 87% of those with removals of evidence of the cancer. There are many more reasons why an attacker would want to tamper with the imagery. For example: falsifying research evidence, sabotaging another companys research, job theft, terrorism, assassination, and even murder. continues the paper. Further technical details are reported in the research paper, experts also published a video that shows how an attacker could plant malware in a healthcare organization. Pierluigi Paganini ( SecurityAffairs Computer Tomography, hacking) Share this... Linkedin Share this: Twitter Print LinkedIn Facebook More Tumblr Pocket Share On US Sentencing Commission promulgates new guideline amendments | Main | "With repeal of state death penalty, death row questions arise" April 13, 2012 A Beastly articulation of my (foolish?) hope candidate Romney might embrace the Right on Crime movement I had the great fortune and honor to be asked by folks at The Daily Beast to expound a bit on themes in this post from earlier this week titled "Could Romney appeal to independents and minorities with bold crime and punishment vision?." The last few paragraphs of this now-published Daily Beast piece of mine adds these ideas to my prior thoughts: A conservative politician with true conviction on [liberty and limited government] issues could further argue that federal and state governments ought to rely far less on incarceration as a response to less serious crimes, or that the long-running war or drugs (which surely restricts individual liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise as much as alcohol prohibition did a century ago) suffers from many of the same big-government flaws as other top-down efforts to improve society. Of course, it may be not only naive but even foolish to expect Romney to pioneer change in this arena. After all, he has not yet shown much boldness in his campaign strategies so far, and I wonder if he has either the political courage or the personal convictions needed to reshape the GOP message on crime and punishment for the better. Indeed, when Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he took heat from both the left and the right when he tried to develop a foolproof death-penalty system for the state. That experience, together with the knee-jerk tough-on-crime stance most politicians still readily embrace, may ensure that Romney will see more political risks than rewards on this path. But theres a toe in the water opportunity here, provided last summer by none other than Ron Paul. Together with outgoing Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, Paul introduced a bill that, while allowing the federal government to continue enforcing interstate marijuana smuggling, would let states develop and apply their own distinct laws on marijuana production and use so that individuals could grow and sell it in places that choose to make it legal. If Romney were to express his support for this bill, he might not only pull in libertarian-leaning independents who have helped fuel the Paul campaign, but he would signal to minority groups who rightly lament the disparate impact of the drug war on people of color that he understands and respects their concerns. Further, if Romney adopted this sort of states rights approach to marijuana laws and regulations, he could reinforce and reiterate the nuanced principles behind his claims in the health-care-reform debate that there are some areas where the federal government ought to butt out. But Romneys apparent lack of conviction isnt his only obstacle. In the last few election cycles, traditional criminal-justice issues have not been a topic of much discussion, perhaps because of recent declines in the crime rate and because, post-September 11, voters seem to care more about how candidates view the war on terror than how they view the war on drugs. Tellingly, Romneys official campaign website has an Issues page with detailed positions on two dozen topics, none of which address traditional crime and punishment concerns. Yet that same page asserts that the foundations of our nations strength are a love of liberty and a pioneering spirit of innovation and creativity, and another page champions a simpler, smaller, smarter government and asserts that as president, Mitt Romney will ask a simple question about every federal program: is it so important, so critical, that it is worth borrowing money from China to pay for it? The important recent work of many Republican governors on sentencing reform, as well as the existence of prominent conservatives supporting the Right On Crime movement, indicate that many on the right would support and even help champion a commitment to reconsider the efficacy of drug war and to question which parts of the massive federal criminal-justice system are not worth the cost. Perhaps with prodding from those on both sides of the aisle, this election could bring us more real talk about criminal-justice reform from candidate Romney than from President Obama. April 13, 2012 at 05:32 PM | Permalink TrackBack TrackBack URL for this entry: https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451574769e20163041df12e970d Listed below are links to weblogs that reference A Beastly articulation of my (foolish?) hope candidate Romney might embrace the Right on Crime movement: Comments If he truly cared enough to risk controversy for "libertarian-leaning independents," his positions on social issues wouldn't be so Rick Santorum friendly. Ron Paul might support something like this -- he did get around eventually to be against the death penalty -- but he gets single digits in actual elections these days. Posted by: Joe | Apr 13, 2012 6:52:42 PM Spot on and well written. If Gary Johnson -- the former governor of New Mexico and the Libertarian candidate for President -- were included in the general election debates, this issue would be addressed. Unfortunately, the debates will be limited to two unprincipled, empty suits. Posted by: Calif. Capital Defense Counsel | Apr 13, 2012 8:50:29 PM Romney is going to have trouble enough winning this election, although he might pull it off. The guaranteed way to lose, however, is to campaign for the legalization of drugs (more euphemistically termed "ending the war on drugs"). Not only would it further expose him as a flip-flopper (has he ever taken such a position before?), but it is vastly unpopular. Most polls show a majority still opposed to legalization of marijuana (CBS, CNN, Pew, Newsweek; contra, Gallup (50%)), and the legalization of any other drug whatever is so unpopular it isn't even polled. It's no coincidence that those pushing for Romney to do this are not friends of the Republican Party. To be successful politically, it really helps understand what a majority of the electorate wants. The idea that anything close to a majority wants drug legalization is not merely wrong but crazy. Where's even a shred of neutral evidence for that view? It's simply a druggie fantasy, occasionally dressed up as libertarianism. If one cares to look beyond defense-oriented legal blogs, what libertarians actually care about is getting rid of the Obamacare monstrosity, avoiding the yoke of national bankruptcy, and turning away from the government wet blanket over the lives of LAW-ABIDING people. Romney in particular is the last candidate who show snuggle up to drugs as an issue. The big knock on him is that he doesn't care about what ordinary people think about -- jobs, the "recovery" from the recession, and out-of-control debt and taxes. If Romney starts going off on, of all things, drugs, it will further reinforce the view that he hasn't a clue about what middle class voters actually want. Posted by: Bill Otis | Apr 13, 2012 11:20:15 PM The Republican party is interested in votes. Accordingly, the party's appeal is to the lowest common denominator. Based on my observations from the South Carolina Republican primary, that is low indeed and the lowest common denominator would never stand for consideration of these issues on the merits. The chances of Romney addressing the above issues is the same as the Cubs winning the World Series, ZERO! Posted by: Stanley Feldman | Apr 13, 2012 11:27:21 PM Right on Crime is on the right track. Out here in fly over country there are many fically conservative voters who also value liberty. Romney also needs the many independents who would welcome a republican party that actually acted on their spoken support of a smaller less intrusive government. Posted by: beth | Apr 14, 2012 12:20:44 AM beth -- "Romney also needs the many independents who would welcome a republican party that actually acted on their spoken support of a smaller less intrusive government." That's exactly the reason the Republicans should talk about getting rid of Obamacare and leave drugs by the wayside. The vast swath of middle class voters who will decide this election are, according to every measure of public sentiment, very concerned about the former and unconcerned about the latter. The legalization lobby is just out of touch with reality. The huge majority of adults don't do pot or any other illegal drug and basically spend zero percent of their day thinking about it. They do, however, think about who's going to control their access to medical care, who's going to pay the bill, and why we still have over 8% unemployment years after the recession. Obama's people would be overjoyed to see Romney get sidetracked on an issue that will prove, as few others could, how out of touch he is, and simultaneously dilute and help drown out his discussion of the issues that could actually win him the election. Finally, it's not just that drug legalization is not what people are thinking about. On those rare occasions when they do think about it, they oppose it, as the polls I noted show. It's news to me that a winning strategy for a politician is to highlight issues people don't care about -- at the expense of ones they do -- and then, to top it off, take the side most of them oppose. Posted by: Bill Otis | Apr 14, 2012 9:23:29 AM Bill, the latest Gallup poll from Oct 2011 reports that a majority of all voter now support marijuana legalization: http://www.gallup.com/poll/150149/record-high-americans-favor-legalizing-marijuana.aspx. I bet in some interesting swing states -- e.g., Colorado, Michigan -- the numbers would be even stronger More important for the point of this piece, this Gallup poll shows support is at 62% for voters 18 to 29, at 57% for moderates and independents, and at 55% for those in the west and 54% for those in the midwest. Romney needs to get significant support from all of these groups to have a shot in the general election. Further still, the key themes here for Romney would be states' rights and individual liberty concerning another heath care/personal choice: using/buying local marijuana for medical/personal reasons. Of course, if you ultimately believe most voters really do not care about these broader values, but only talk about when a convenient way to attack Obama, then your perspective is spot-on. I harp on this issue because I think it helps reveal whether folks on the right really care about conservative principles or just conservative power. If it is really all about power, your take on this matter is forceful. If it is really about principles, than I think I have a useful point here. Posted by: Doug B. | Apr 14, 2012 12:51:46 PM Corporations would have to approve first and that is not likely since the private prison industry has an interest. See The Atlantic. Exposing ALEC: How Conservative-Backed State Laws Are All Connected Apr 14 2012, 8:00 AM ET 18 A shadowy organization uses corporate contributions to sell prepackaged conservative bills -- such as Florida's Stand Your Ground statute -- to legislatures across the country. Lisa Graves is executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, the group that built ALEC Exposed. She's also a former Justice Department official in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Says Graves on a call this week, "We built out the material using Google, the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine, primary records that were previously on ALEC's website, old old Lexis news clips, and the tobacco library," as in the digital archive run by the University of California of San Francisco as part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of the late '90s. "There was a lot of material out there that was just not widely known."">ALEC Exposed. She's also a former Justice Department official in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Says Graves on a call this week, "We built out the material using Google, the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine, primary records that were previously on ALEC's website, old old Lexis news clips, and the tobacco library," as in the digital archive run by the University of California of San Francisco as part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of the late '90s. "There was a lot of material out there that was just not widely known." Posted by: George | Apr 14, 2012 3:05:31 PM Doug -- 1. "[T]he latest Gallup poll from Oct 2011 reports that a majority of all voter now support marijuana legalization...I bet in some interesting swing states -- e.g., Colorado, Michigan -- the numbers would be even stronger." You ignore the four other polls I cite. The CBS poll, which is slightly more recent than Gallup's, shows 51% against legalization and 40% in favor. That is outside the margin of error. The Gallup poll, by contrast, found 50% in favor of legalization and 46% opposed, which IS within the poll's margin of error. If Michigan is a swing state, it's news to me. It hasn't voted for the Republican candidate in almost 25 years. And what do you think the voter sentiment is about pot in a genuine swing state like North Carolina? 2. "More important for the point of this piece, this Gallup poll shows support is at 62% for voters 18 to 29..." ...who are the least likely to vote. What you omit to mention is that the more likely to vote you are, the more likely you are to oppose legalization. "...at 57% for moderates and independents, and at 55% for those in the west and 54% for those in the midwest." The Republicans are going to win the bulk of the Midwest, and the Democrats are going to win the West Coast no matter what Romney says or fails to say about pot. "Romney needs to get significant support from all of these groups to have a shot in the general election." The first thing he (or any candidate) needs is to secure his base. (This is what Obama is doing with this ridiculous "Buffet rule" and his surrogate's attack on Romney's wife). As you implicitly and correctly admit, the Republican base is overwhelming against legalization. That base already distrusts Romney, and if he goes pot legalization on them, he can kiss this election goodbye. You win with your base, not the other guy's. 3. "Further still, the key themes here for Romney would be states' rights and individual liberty concerning another heath care/personal choice: using/buying local marijuana for medical/personal reasons." What the "health care/personal choice" people are actually interested in has zilch to do with pot and everything to do with the government takeover of the distribution of medical care. The Republicans enjoy a big advantage there, and would be foolhardy to squander it by talking about the wonderfulness of dope. Every successful campaign knows to stay on message. I also have to smile at how you lump together "medical/personal reasons." "Medical" marijuana is almost (not entirely) a fraud, as even most pot enthusiasts now admit. The "dispensaries" are nothing but drug dealers in storefronts. The real reason people want pot legalized is that they want to have an easier road to getting blasted. It's no great moral crusade, and its invocation of "states rights" is a facade. Very, very few of them give a hoot about states rights, as is shown by the fact that they have had little or no interest in them at any other time or in any other context. "Of course, if you ultimately believe most voters really do not care about these broader values, but only talk about when a convenient way to attack Obama, then your perspective is spot-on." The "convenient way to attack Obama" is to talk about what shape the country is in. Record high sustained unemployment. Slowest and weakest recovery from a recession since the Great Depression. Quasi-socialized medicine. Debt out of control. Bowles-Simpson Commission recommendations ignored. Iran building the Big One while we try the 89th round of feckless "sanctions." Apologizing around the world for the United States. The "re-set" with Russia a joke. Divisive and unworthy hate-mongering against "the rich" while ignoring the central problem of entitlement reform, then demagoguing it against Paul Ryan when Ryan at least takes a serious stab at it. Dishing out taxpayer money to his bundler buddies running Solyndra, knowing full well it was headed for bankruptcy. And of late, telling us that judicial review is "unprecedented." No, Romney doesn't need a "pot is wonderful" plank in the platform. 4. "I harp on this issue because I think it helps reveal whether folks on the right really care about conservative principles or just conservative power. If it is really all about power, your take on this matter is forceful. If it is really about principles, than I think I have a useful point here." Your mistake is in believing that being pro-legalization is a "conservative principle." It isn't. It's a libertarian principle, but libertarians are a very small segment of the conservative contingent in this country. Were it otherwise, Ron Paul would be where Romney is now. Posted by: Bill Otis | Apr 14, 2012 11:41:57 PM For what it's worth, I see the pro legalization movement as very diverse. You will find people of all political persuasions there including a few tea party members. It is internet savy, growing and networking globally. You don't hear them talk about political parties, but about political action. You will find democrats and republicans there - probably more democrats, but most especially independents. Additionally they are not all young. Obama may have received their vote, but he is by no means revered or admired. They are republicans and democrats who beieve in smaller less intrusive government, fiscal responsibility civil liberties and freedom. There are no talking points from either party, but the occasional sentiment that they are one issue voters now. I don't know about the swinging changes of opinion polls, but I do know many conservatives who would not tell a pollster that they favor legalization, when in fact they do. Democrats and Independents are a bit more likely to speak up. As for the question about how supporting legalization would help or harm Romney or Obama, I think it's a moving target. Right now neither of them support it. They will not win a general election by playing to their base. They need a % of the growing independents. If neither Obama or Romney support ending the war on drugs, but a third party candidate does, that candidate could receive 5, 10, or 15% of votes. Which party do you think they will come from? Posted by: beth | Apr 15, 2012 4:23:14 PM Post a comment What should we make of Florida special prosecutor's decision to forego a grand jury in the Martin-Zimmerman case? | Main | A habeas example of man bites dog: New York loses habeas appeal based on procedural default April 10, 2012 Could Romney appeal to independents and minorities with bold crime and punishment vision? It seems now all but certain that Mitt Romney is going to secure the Republican nomination and take on President Obama in the general Presidential election this Fall. Consequently, I am starting to think about whether and how criminal justice issues might play a role in the coming Romney v. Obama 2012 campaign. In particular, I am wondering about who might be giving Romney advice on crime and punishment issues, and I am especially hoping that Romney might seriously consider a bold new GOP approach to these issues in an effort to reach out to independent and minority voters (especially young ones). As regular readers know, the Right on Crime folks have set forth an effective "conservative case" for criminal justice reform. In this statement of principles, which stresses "limited government, transparency, individual liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise," there is a strong suggestion that incarceration should play a smaller role in modern criminal justice systems and that the drug war ought to be scaled back significantly. GOP stalwarts ranging from Jeb Bush to Newt Gingrich to Grover Norquist to Edwin Meese to John DiIulio to Ralph Reed to Larry Thompson have all signed off on these principles and likely would be supportive of their embrace by candidate Romney. Meanwhile, I strongly suspect that many folks (myself included) who thought President Obama might be an effective advocate for needed criminal justice reforms have been persistently disappointed by the work of the Obama Administration in this arena. On issues ranging from federal marijuana policy to criminal discovery reform to mandatory minimum sentencing statutes to clemency practices, the last few years have represented a missed opportunity for needed federal reforms with a deeply disappointing failure in leadership and vision. I fully understand political and practical reasons why President Obama has not been able to engineer the sort of hope and change in the criminal justice system promised by candidate Obama. But this very reality prompts me to believe there is a real opening for candidate Romney to seize on this issue and, without having to do any major Etch-a-Sketch revisions to his campaign rhetoric, to demonstrate to many potential swing voters and even a part of the Obama base that he is ready and willing to bring the GOP's rhetoric about the evil of big government to bear on the big federal criminal justice system. Because Romney has not yet shown much boldness in his campaign strategies to date, and because criminal justice issues are sure to continue to take a back seat throughout the rest of the 2012 election season, I am not expecting much here. But I continue to hope for change, and the recent work of a number of GOP governors on sentencing reform suggests to me that it now may be more likely to hear real talk about real criminal justice change from candidate Romney than from President Obama. Some recent and older related posts: April 10, 2012 at 10:23 AM | Permalink TrackBack TrackBack URL for this entry: https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451574769e2016303ef3eed970d Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Could Romney appeal to independents and minorities with bold crime and punishment vision?: Comments 1. The main reason the campaign is not going to be about criminal law issues is that crime -- now at a 50 year low in part because of increased incarceration and policing -- is not what the electorate is thinking about. The readers of this blog are thinking about it, sure, but they are not representative of the population at large. 2. The electorate is thinking about big government, sure, as well it should. But what it means by "big government" are the main programs sparking the massive increase in our debt. Prison is not among them. If the Bush tax cuts expire (as they will unless Congress and Obama act), EVERYONE'S income taxes are going up at the end of the year (not just the rich). That, along with out-of-control entitlement spending, are what's on the "big government" radar this year. 3. If Romney is foolish enough to try to run to Obama's left on crime issues, Obama need only point out that crime has decreased every year he's been in office. Romney will have no answer to that, since it's true. 4. Finally, if Romney does try to run to Obama's left, it will merely add to the impression that he flip-flops. It was Romney who proposed capital punishment when he was Governor, and if he ever embraced any part of the let-them-out-now platform, I never heard of it. Posted by: Bill Otis | Apr 10, 2012 11:14:08 AM "many folks (myself included) who thought President Obama might be an effective advocate for needed criminal justice reforms have been persistently disappointed by the work of the Obama Administration" IMO anyone who is "disappointed" by the Obama Administration's criminal justice record wasn't paying attention to his campaign rhetoric back in 2008. Any idea he would be a reformer was a mere projection of wishful thinking. He never remotely suggested such, either while running for office nor certainly once he ascended to power. More than any politician I've ever seen, Obama is like a blank palette onto which everyone projects their own views. People's expectations of Obama - pro and con - tend to say much more about them than the President. This could be an opening for Romney, but the fact that criminal justice issues just aren't a top priority for voters right now either way makes me think it unlikely. If he's got any sense Romney will steer the discussion back to jobs, the economy, bailouts, etc.. Though I'd love to see him take it on, criminal justice is not an issue on which the 2012 election will be won or lost. Posted by: Gritsforbreakfast | Apr 10, 2012 11:16:14 AM There is nothing bold about Romney. The only way you will ever get prison/corrections reform is if budget/deficit hawks on the right lead the charge as part of compromise budget cutting with liberals. Problem is, while liberals tend to be against the "police state" in principle, they are deathly afraid of losing votes by being seen as "soft on crime" so nearly all Democrats are just as bad at playing the fear-mongering game as Republicans now, or at least keeping silent out of fear. The war on drugs is an old horse, and has finally resulted in de facto legalization of pot at the state level. The new major abuse is sex offenders: the most vulnerable segment of the population because they are the most loathed. Although only a small portion of sex offenders are molesters and rapists, the public wisdom is that ALL sex offenders are molesters and rapists, and that they are 100% recidivists. Posted by: lawguy | Apr 10, 2012 12:52:05 PM "nearly all Democrats are just as bad at playing the fear-mongering game as Republicans" Worse, in my experience. Big-government liberals believe the state can solve every problem, and creating new crimes and/or sentence enhancements is frequently the method of choice: Ban what you don't like, subsidize what you do. This is an area where big-government conservatives and liberals routinely ally against libertarians, civil and otherwise - almost the ultimate litmus test on limited government. One either, at root, supports or opposes expanding state power over the citizenry. One's stance on criminal-justice issues tells you who's serious about small government and who's just a poseur. Posted by: Gritsforbreakfast | Apr 10, 2012 1:37:59 PM Hey Grits, you may not recall that candidate Obama gave a pretty progressive speech on criminal justice issues in September 2007, as blogged here: http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2007/09/obama-talking-a.html. After some bold assertions/promises in this speech, Obama did not bring this issue up much on the campaign trail. Still, in contrast to Hillary, he supported retroactivity of new crack guidelines in Dec 2007, and he continued to "talk a decent game on this front" when pressed on these matters (e.g., lots of talk about drug courts, perhaps scaling back mandatory minimums, and stopping raids on med marijuana facilities). At the very least, candidate Obama at least remotely suggested he would be better than prior administrations on these fronts. And, if the focus is on just crack sentencing or even broader post-Booker sentencing realities, arguably his administration has been better. But there is a big gulf between better and good, and I wonder if Romney could perhaps see a bit of a political opportunity here. Again, I am not going to bet on it, but I can still hope (and advocate). Posted by: Doug B. | Apr 10, 2012 2:01:53 PM http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/05/obama-drug-policy-reforming-criminal-justice-system "A progressive speech" is not really too much to base hopes on without more, at any rate. Posted by: Joe | Apr 10, 2012 2:20:12 PM I agree with Bill and will add one further point. "the GOP's rhetoric about the evil of big government" But it's just that, rhetoric. Romney doesn't believe in the evils of big government. Never has, never will. Government has gotten bigger under every Republican president of the last 75 years. He's no exception. Posted by: Daniel | Apr 10, 2012 2:46:16 PM One of the better articles I've seen. i think that romney have a little surprise for obama, and its only get better. Posted by: text your ex back review | Apr 10, 2012 2:49:55 PM I'm sorry, but did you just use the words "Romney" and "bold" in the same sentence, with no hint of irony or sarcasm? Hoo boy. I would actually like to think that there could be something bold and different about Romney as a candidate, and maybe this is it, and maybe he will pleasantly surprise all of us by developing principles, or something, between now and the general election. But I'll not hold my breath, thankyouverymuch. Posted by: Guy | Apr 10, 2012 3:06:21 PM Is this the Nixon and China gambit? Only Republicans can propose meaningful criminal justice reform, because if the Dems did it, the "vast right-wing conspiracy" would jump all over them. Even Sen. Jim Webb couldn't get his commission approved by GOP Senators. All of this 'reform' in the states results from trying to maintain balanced budgets by reducing spending. Since prisons eat up larger and larger parts of state budgets, GOP Governors have committed themselves to 'reform.' Posted by: Howard Silver | Apr 11, 2012 11:34:29 AM Romney has a lot of surprises for the American people, none of which they are going to like when it all comes out... Posted by: Cars | Sep 29, 2012 12:50:46 PM I think that Romney had to go after Independents and minorities if he wants to win the election. Right now, the President is polling ahead among Latinos, Blacks, and Women. These are the same people that Romney keeps alienating. I do not think one single policy will court these voters. He seems to alienate them just as fast as he gains them. Posted by: Auto Credit Express | Oct 22, 2012 7:32:26 PM Post a comment "Third-Class Citizenship: The Escalating Legal Consequences of Committing a 'Violent' Crime" | Main | Notable new (though incomplete) accounts of the state of death penalty politics April 7, 2019 Are more re-enfranchised former offenders now registering as Republicans rather than as Democrats? The question in the title of this post is prompted by this notable New York Sun piece headlined "Trumps First Step Toward 2020." Here are excerpts: Could President Trumps bipartisan criminal justice reform known as the First Step Act prove to be a first step in a political revolution? We ask because of a startling disclosure by one of the Presidents shrewdest lieutenants in the campaign for First Step, Jared Kushner. It turns out, he said, that greater numbers of ex-cons being granted suffrage in Florida are registering as Republicans. Mr. Kushner, the Presidents son-in-law, dropped that surprise almost in passing toward the end of an interview with Laura Ingraham. The interview was mainly about the First Step Act celebrated Monday at the White House. Toward the end of the interview, though, they chatted about the Democratic field. Ms. Ingraham popped one of those classic one-word questions: Socialism? I dont think thats where the country is, Mr. Kushner said. One statistic that I found very pleasing is that in Florida they passed a law where former felons can now vote. Weve had more ex-felons register as Republicans than Democrats, and I think they see the reforms . . . Ms. Ingraham cut in: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Youve had more ex-felons register as Republicans than Democrats? Thats the data that Ive seen, replied Mr. Kushner. I think that will surprise a lot of people when they see the new coalition that President Trump is building for what the Republican Party has the potential to be. No doubt it would be a mistake to make too much of this. Its been but months since Florida amended its constitution to restore voting rights to felons. It will take years for the effects to show up in voter registration and at the polls. Yet it would be a mistake to make too little of it, as well. Particularly because weve had some not to put too fine a point on it close races in the Sunshine State. Floridas constitutional amendment, after all, restored, at least de jure, suffrage to something like 1.5 million ex-cons, according to the various press accounts. The Democrats were the party pushing for putting these men and women back on the voting rolls. That brings Florida in line with most states. The party seems to have taken for granted that they will reap the advantage. That could prove to be yet another underestimation of Mr. Trump. Were not predicting that, just marking the possibility. The video of the event at the White House to celebrate the the First Step Act underscores the point. It is, we dont mind saying, breathtaking and worth watching in full. It illuminates the Presidents abilities as an inclusive, bipartisan leader.... Its not our purpose to suggest that the First Step Act is without issues (it was opposed by a number of the most conservative senators). Our purpose is to mark that while the Democrats are trying to get out of first gear theyre still focused on the Mueller report Mr. Trump is setting up his 2020 strategy in a highly premeditated way, one that the Democrats seem determined to underestimate yet again. I am really drawn to this New York Sun piece for a host of reasons. First and foremost, I agree with the assertion that, as I noted here, last week's event at the White House to celebrate the the FIRST STEP Act was breathtaking and worth watching in full (via this twitter link). In addition, though I would like to see first-hand data out of Florida on re-enfranchised registrations, the specifics may matter less than that Jared Kushner believes (and is surely telling his father) that criminal justice reform and re-enfranchisement efforts have real political potential for the Republican party. Many years ago, I urged in posts and in a Daily Beast commentary that then-Prez-candidate Mitt Romney should embrace "Right on Crime" rhetoric about the need for criminal justice reforms in order to help the Republican party appeal more to younger voters and voter of color. Jared Kushner clearly seems to tapping into these ideas when talking up a "new coalition that President Trump is building for what the Republican Party has the potential to be." The event celebrating the FIRST STEP Act suggests a willingness, even an eagerness, for this White House to double down on criminal justice reform because they sense a distinct political opportunity as good politics starts to match up with better policies in this space. This reality bodes well for future reform efforts no matter who is truly getting the bulk of the benefit from re-enfranchised voters. Finally, politics aside, there is no good reason in my view to disenfranchise categorically any class of competent voters (and my basic thinking on this front was effectively explained in this Big Think piece years ago headlined "Let Prisoners Vote"). The long-standing perception that re-enfranchisement efforts would help Democrats a lot more than Republicans has contributed to political divisions over doing what is right and just, namely letting everyone have proper access to the franchise. I hope development in Florida and elsewhere can undermine the belief that only one party benefits from re-enfranchisement efforts so that both parties can fully support the fundamental commitment to democracy that re-enfranchisement represents. A few prior related recent posts: April 7, 2019 at 04:08 PM | Permalink Comments Imagine the moral judgement from Ingraham and Fox if those ex-felons registered as Democrats. I'm all for the enfranchisement, however people register and vote. Posted by: Paul | Apr 8, 2019 7:35:12 AM Leaving a comment for Paul Wright, Directors of the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC) and Editor of Prison Legal News: As someone active on felon voting issues for over 3 decades I am not surprised more felons are registering as republicans rather than democrats as that fits in with what little research has been done on the topic. Criminals tend to be a conservative and reactionary lot and also people tend to vote by race in this country. When the ACLU and its donors pushed Amendment 4 they focused on the racial justice narrative and how many black people were disenfranchised and left it unsaid that most Black people vote democratic. But at the end of the day more white felons were reenfranchised than Black felons and I predicted this will lead to more republican voters and will probably lock in a narrow republican majority. If republicans could overcome their innate bigotry they might be able to position themselves better. BTW, HRDC opposed amendment 4 because of the exclusion of sex offenders and murderers. https://www.news-journalonline.com/opinion/20180930/paul-wright-case-against-amendment-4-on-felon-voting-rights We take the position that everyone should be allowed to vote unless they were convicted of a voting related crime like voter fraud. Posted by: Doug B. | Apr 10, 2019 8:42:11 AM Post a comment "Making Jail a Last Resort" or "If Prisons Dont Work, What Will?" | Main | "Third-Class Citizenship: The Escalating Legal Consequences of Committing a 'Violent' Crime" April 7, 2019 Shouldn't every criminal justice institution include leaders with past criminal justice involvement? In his landmark book, "Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order," Judge Marvin Frankel famously urged the creation of a "Commission on Sentencing" which would include "lawyers, judges, penologists, and criminologists, ... sociologists, psychologists, business people, artists, and, lastly for emphasis, former or present prison inmates." As Judge Frankel goes on to explain, having such persons on a sentencing commission "merely recognizes what took too long to become obvious that the recipients of penal 'treatment' must have relevant things to say about it." Judge Frankel's astute comments from nearly half a century ago came to mind (along with the question that is the title of this post) on a lovely Sunday morning when I saw this lovely local article headlined "Freed from prison nine years ago, Brandon Flood is new secretary of Pa.s pardon board." Here are excerpts: This column will probably come as something of a shock to all the people in Harrisburg who only know Brandon Flood a bow-tied, bespectacled policy wonk with sartorial flair as the persona that he laughingly calls Urkel Brandon, in a homage to one of TVs most famous nerds. Flood, now 36, readily admits most folks who know him from nearly a decade as a legislative aide or lobbyist will be shocked to learn of his past that includes boot camp for juvenile offenders, a physical scuffle with Harrisburgs then-police chief, and finally felony convictions and two lengthy prison stints for dealing crack cocaine and carrying an unlicensed gun. But starting last week, Floods turnaround saga has become a talking point and a mission statement for his new job as secretary of the five-member Pennsylvania Board of Pardons anchoring one leg of a broader push in Harrisburg for criminal justice reform, aimed at giving more convicted felons a chance for clemency or to wipe their slate clean with a pardon. What makes Floods appointment even more remarkable is that to steal a phrase from TV infomercial lore hes not just Pennsylvanias new top pardons administrator, hes also a client. Gov. Wolf signed off on Floods own board-approved pardon, erasing his past convictions, just a few weeks before Flood stepped in as secretary. Taking a break last Monday during his first day on the job for a sit-down interview, the soft-spoken Flood said a number of new initiatives to not only call attention to Pennsylvanias pardon process but also to make it easier to apply for one will hopefully show former inmates that the state is more focused on rewarding good post-prison behavior. If they see this [a pardon] as a viable option, they will continue to be productive citizens, Flood said, who plans to use his own story as a powerful example of that. They will see theres a light at the end of the tunnel. Floods hiring was the brainchild of Pennsylvanias new lieutenant governor, John Fetterman. Policy-oriented, progressive and looking for areas where he can make a difference in the oft-neglected No. 2 slot, the burly, black-shirted Braddock ex-mayor has honed in on his designated role as chairman of the Board of Pardons. Fetterman told me that Flood is a singularly unique person to have in order help remake the process ... which is only the only remedy for anyone in Pennsylvania who wants to move forward with their lives in this way. Floods arrival helps mark the beginning of one era in Pennsylvania criminal justice and arguably the end of another. It was exactly 25 years ago that a convicted murderer named Reginald McFadden was granted his freedom by a Board of Pardons led by then-Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark Singel, who was also running for governor that year. McFadden almost immediately killed two people and raped a third, and the case, with its overtones of the infamous Willie Horton affair, was cited by experts as a reason for Singels defeat that fall. The political fallout dramatically changed Pennsylvanias pardon math. Critics (including the man Fetterman ousted in a 2018 primary, ex-Lt. Gov. Mike Stack) came to say that the states pardon system was broken in an era of skyrocketing mass incarceration. Commutations of life sentences ground to a virtual halt, post-McFadden, while pardons for lesser crimes slowed as long backlogs and a confusing process discouraged applicants.... For Fetterman, who hails his close working relationship with Wolf on criminal justice reform, Floods hiring is symbolic of both down-to-earth pardon reforms a $63 application fee was eliminated last month, and the board is looking to digitize the application process and possibly open satellite offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and eventually elsewhere and a bold new attitude. In December, Wolf granted board-recommended clemency to three life-sentenced inmates after only signing two in his first 47 months in office. Fetterman, whos currently on an all-67-county tour to discuss the possibility of legalizing marijuana, also said he wants a task force to look at granting widespread pardons for past pot-related convictions. These are simple charges that are damning peoples career possibilities, he said. I am so very pleased to see these developments in the Keystone State, especially because I think having a robust parole, commutation and pardon system can play a key role in encouraging persons to return to a law-abiding life after a run-in with the law. Moreover, beyond whatever reforms or actions are led by Brandon Flood, his very appointment to this position serves as an important symbol of redemption and potential. In line with this state development and with the question in the title of this post, it dawns on me that the US Sentencing Commission has likely never had, over its now 35-year history, any commissioners with any personal history with the criminal justice system. (I am not entirely certain of this assertion, as I do not know everything about the past of the 30 persons here listed as former commissioners.) Judge Frankel's astute staffing suggestions have not been followed in various ways in the federal system e.g., I cannot recall any business people or artists on the USSC but I think the absence of a former offender is especially glaring. With five(!) open spots on the USSC, and with Prez Trump talking up the importance of "successful reentry and reduced unemployment for Americans with past criminal records... starting right away," now would seem to be an especially opportune time for a USSC appointment of someone with a "past criminal record" in the federal system. Names like Matthew Charles and Shon Hopwood and Alice Johnson and Kevin Ring immediately come (alphabetically) to mind, but I am sure there are many others who could serve admirably in this role as "recipients of penal 'treatment' [with] relevant things to say about it." April 7, 2019 at 01:23 PM | Permalink Comments Great point, Doug. There could potentially be a USSC staff position that might also fill this need. Not the same as a voting member of the Commission, a staff member but would have more day-to-day input than only hearing indirectly about incarceration from experts, advocates groups, etc. Posted by: TJH | Apr 8, 2019 12:52:55 PM Post a comment Shouldn't every criminal justice institution include leaders with past criminal justice involvement? | Main | Are more re-enfranchised former offenders now registering as Republicans rather than as Democrats? April 7, 2019 "Third-Class Citizenship: The Escalating Legal Consequences of Committing a 'Violent' Crime" The title of this post is the title of this notable new article authored by Michael M. O'Hear now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract: For many years, American legislatures have been steadily attaching a wide range of legal consequences to convictions and sometimes even just charges for crimes that are classified as violent. These consequences affect many key aspects of the criminal process, including pretrial detention, eligibility for pretrial diversion, sentencing, eligibility for parole and other opportunities for release from incarceration, and the length and intensity of supervision in the community. The consequences can also affect a persons legal status and rights long after the sentence for the underlying offense has been served. A conviction for a violent crime can result in registration requirements, lifetime disqualification from employment in certain fields, and a loss of parental rights, among many other collateral consequences. While a criminal conviction of any sort relegates a person to a kind of second-class citizenship in the United States, a conviction for a violent crime increasingly seems even more momentous pushing the person into a veritable third-class citizenship. This article provides the first systematic treatment of the legal consequences that result from a violence charge or conviction. The article surveys the statutory law of all fifty states, including the diverse and sometimes surprisingly broad definitions of what counts as a violent crime. While the articles aims are primarily empirical, concerns are raised along the way regarding the fairness and utility of the growing length and severity of sentences imposed on violent offenders and of the increasingly daunting barriers to their reintegration into society. April 7, 2019 at 02:10 PM | Permalink Comments Post a comment A forest fire in southwest China that left 31 people dead reignited on Saturday afternoon, just a day after local authorities said it posed no further risk, according to the state broadcaster. Witnesses spotted at least three helicopters flying over the site in Muli county, Sichuan province, on Sunday morning, China Central Television reported. The fire returned to the remote spot at an altitude of more than 3,700 meters (12,000 feet) in the northeast of the forest at about 5pm on Saturday, and because of the windy conditions soon spread to an area of five to 10 hectares (12.5 to 25 acres), the report said, citing sources from Muli and the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture. Almost 900 firefighters from nearby towns and regions were dispatched to tackle the blaze, the first of whom arrived on the scene about 5am on Sunday. The press office of the local fire brigade issued a statement saying the fire reignited in an area under a rocky overhang that was mostly hidden from view. Burning embers then rolled down the hillside and set fire to more trees, it said. As the flames rose up into the canopy they became a crown fire a type of blaze that spreads from treetop to treetop and sparks were blown to the eastern side of the forest which had escaped last weeks devastation, the statement said. The initial fire broke out about 6pm on March 30 and was thought to have been brought under control on Tuesday. On Friday, officials from the Liangshan branch of the Sichuan Forest Fire Brigade said there was no risk of it reigniting and that all firefighters had been withdrawn from the scene. The last three fire points have completely settled, they said in a statement. The whole site is fully under control and there is no risk of it restarting. An investigation into the fire, which left 27 firefighters and four helpers dead, concluded it had been caused by lightning. Acting on witness accounts, investigators identified an 18-metre pine tree split by lightning as the origin point. Story continues Most of the victims were killed by a huge fireball that was created by the explosive combination of wind, dry air and combustible materials, state media reported earlier. A firefighter who survived the experience said the fireball moved so quickly that trees on the ridge were consumed within seconds, with flames rocketing up as if someone triggered a huge flame-thrower. The local government said efforts to tackle the blaze had been badly hampered by the high altitude, difficult terrain, poor vehicular access, thick humus layer and difficulty getting water to the site. This article 900 Chinese firefighters sent back to Sichuan mountain as deadly blaze reignites first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019. Journalists and media professionals in discussions with the Workers Party on Saturday, 6 April 2019. This photo was shared on WP social media accounts. PHOTO: The Workers Party Facebook page Journalists and media professionals in Singapore are generally in favour of the creation of a fact-checking coalition in the wake of impending legislation intended to combat online falsehoods but they are divided on its role and function. At a roundtable organised by the Workers Party (WP) on Saturday (6 April), participants expressed concerns about the wide-ranging powers that the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) will give ministers to decide what a falsehood is and to compel corrections and takedowns by media outlets. And while a fact-checking body could serve as a check on the government, it was pointed out that its effectiveness would be limited if information from the government is not free flowing. Furthermore, participants could not agree on whether the body should have an advisory role or be the final arbiter. What if the body makes a decision and the government disagrees? Does the government go ahead and label it as false? asked one participant. The roundtable was hosted by WP chief and Member of Parliament for Aljunied Pritam Singh, as well as Non-Constituency MPs Daniel Goh and Leon Perera. Representatives from media outlets such as Yahoo News Singapore, The Straits Times, Today and Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao were present, as well as alternative media outlets such as The Online Citizen and Rice Media. The WP was seeking feedback from media professionals on POFMA. The discussion was held in accordance with Chatham House rules, which means that information disclosed during the meeting can be reported, but its sources cannot be identified. A fact-checking coalition Among its 22 recommendations to the government, a fact-checking body to debunk falsehoods swiftly and credibly, or to give support to such initiatives, was mooted by a Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods last September. The Committee included Pritam Singh, as well as Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam. Story continues But while the recommendations were accepted by authorities, Yahoo News Singapore understands that during recent media briefings conducted only for mainstream media outlets, government officials said there are no plans to set up a fact-checking body. Shanmugam has also said the courts would be the final arbiter of any dispute over falsehoods under the new laws. In a statement last Thursday, media conglomerate Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) supported the establishment of a fact-checking coalition. And while ministers will be empowered by POFMA to decide on what is a falsehood, SPH said, we continue to believe that an independent authority would have provided a neutral avenue for content creators or news organisations to appeal to, short of resorting to a legal challenge. According to the draft Bill, which had its first reading in Parliament last Monday, a statement is false if it is false or misleading, whether wholly or in part, and whether on its own or in the context in which it appears. Ministers are empowered to issue a correction or takedown notice if a false statement of fact is being communicated in Singapore, and if he feels it is in the public interest to do so. Public interest is defined by the Bill as, among other things, preventing any influence of the outcome of an election and preventing a diminution of public confidence in the government. It is also prohibited for any individual or organisation to disseminate any false statement that is prejudicial to public health, public safety, public tranquillity or public finances. Those accused of making false statements have the right to appeal against the correction or takedown notice, but only after their appeal to the minister to cancel the order has failed. Proposed sanctions include fines of between $30,000 and up to $1 million, and/or jail time of up to 10 years. The penalties could be doubled if the falsehood will or is likely to impact public interest as defined in the law. Other concerns Participants at the WP roundtable were also concerned about the very blurred definition of falsehoods, as well as the power to compel corrections. Noting that government agencies are in constant dialogue with media outlets over disputed articles, one felt there must be a properly defined trigger that is very clearly articulated in the law before authorities can invoke the fake news laws to compel a correction. Another suggested that there be a periodic accounting, perhaps in Parliament, of all the occasions when the government has compelled corrections and takedowns. All agreed that the process needs to be transparent. Since ministers have the power to label something a falsehood, they should come out and explain why every time they do so. There must be a justification for why the public interest is harmed. Related stories Singapore government should pass laws against fake news: Select Committee Parliament: Draft bill proposes up to 10 years jail for individuals who deliberately spread fake news Military vehicles of Misrata forces, under the protection of Tripoli's forces, are seen in Tajura neighborhood, east of Tripoli, Libya April 6, 2019. REUTERS/Hani Amara PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron discussed by phone the situation in Libya with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, on Saturday, the French Presidency said in a statement. The two leaders "stressed the importance of a political solution to the current crisis, in respect of humanitarian law and of the Security Council resolution," the statement said "France will continue to support the U.N. mediation in Libya". (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Alexandra Hudson) Treebeard Registered User User ID: 479750 04-07-2019 05:07 PM Posts: 4,313 Post: #1 Trump lays legal framework for Iran War this week. Advertisement In this light, it has long been the goal of Neocons to declare The Islamic Republic of Iran to be a terrorist entity, regardless of the truth, as long as it is presented as the maintained truth by THE UNITED STATES Federal entity and its accoutrements, the use of force is sanctioned. This past week, in a very suspicious move, the Trump Administration decared Iran is directly accountable for the deaths of exactly 608 American troops during the Iraq War. This is a higher assessment than was first estimated by Gen. Dunford of the Pentagon in 2015, the first year such estimates were concocted for reasons to lay the foundation for war against Iran. Iran was responsible for the deaths of at least 608 American troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, according to a newly revised casualty estimate produced by the Pentagon. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told a State Department press briefing Tuesday that Tehran is to blame for 17 percent of all U.S. service personnel deaths between 2003 and 2011, having supplied weaponry to Shiite militias fighting U.S. occupation. https://www.newsweek.com/iran-us-iraq-wa...as-1385990 Pentagon Claims Iran Killed 608 US Troops in Iraq War Tomorrow, or very soon, the Trump Administraton is set to officially declare the most prestigious branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, the Republican Guard, as a terrorist group. This is unprecedented and was not expected by anyone except the most rabid conspirators of war against Iran. The only reason for doing this is to set coverage under the AUMF that the American President may order military forces to engage and destroy the Republican Guard wherever it may be present, including within Iran itself, without Congressional approval. US to Declare Irans Revolutionary Guards as Terrorist Group, Announcement expected as soon as Monday US to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guards as terrorist group: WSJ https://www.france24.com/en/20190406-us-...-group-wsj The United States will designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, an unprecedented move that would ramp up pressure on the elite force, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said President Donald Trump's administration would announce the long-mulled decision as soon as Monday and that concerned defense officials were bracing for the impact. The 2001 AUMF (Authorization of Military Force) against terrorist groups has been used carte blanche by THE UNITED STATES Federal entity since 9-11 to authorize military conflicts and operations for almost 20 years - without Congressional war declaration necessary.In this light, it has long been the goal of Neocons to declare The Islamic Republic of Iran to be a terrorist entity, regardless of the truth, as long as it is presented as the maintained truth by THE UNITED STATES Federal entity and its accoutrements, the use of force is sanctioned.This past week, in a very suspicious move, the Trump Administration decared Iran is directly accountable for the deaths of exactly 608 American troops during the Iraq War. This is a higher assessment than was first estimated by Gen. Dunford of the Pentagon in 2015, the first year such estimates were concocted for reasons to lay the foundation for war against Iran.Iran was responsible for the deaths of at least 608 American troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, according to a newly revised casualty estimate produced by the Pentagon.Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told a State Department press briefing Tuesday that Tehran is to blame for 17 percent of all U.S. service personnel deaths between 2003 and 2011, having supplied weaponry to Shiite militias fighting U.S. occupation.Tomorrow, or very soon, the Trump Administraton is set to officially declare the most prestigious branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, the Republican Guard, as a terrorist group. This is unprecedented and was not expected by anyone except the most rabid conspirators of war against Iran. The only reason for doing this is to set coverage under the AUMF that the American President may order military forces to engage and destroy the Republican Guard wherever it may be present, including within Iran itself, without Congressional approval.US to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guards as terrorist group: WSJThe United States will designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, an unprecedented move that would ramp up pressure on the elite force, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said President Donald Trump's administration would announce the long-mulled decision as soon as Monday and that concerned defense officials were bracing for the impact. Arrested former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn is set to name the people he believes are responsible for his downfall in Japan, his wife said in an interview on Sunday as she fled Tokyo out of fear she could be detained. Ghosn was re-arrested last week in the Japanese capital over fresh allegations of financial misconduct which will see him held in custody until at least April 14. Speaking to the Journal du Dimanche newspaper in France, his wife Carole detailed the latest twists in the extraordinary saga, saying that Ghosn had recorded a video interview in English before his detention. "He names the people responsible for what has happened to him. The lawyers have it. It will be released soon," she told the newspaper. Carole added that she had fled Tokyo on a flight to Paris -- with support from the French ambassador to Tokyo -- because she "felt in danger." Despite her Lebanese passport being confiscated by Japanese authorities, Carole said she was able to use her American passport to board a flight and was accompanied by the ambassador to the airport. "He didn't leave me until the plane," she explained. "Up to the last second, I didn't know if they were going to let me fly. It was surreal." The role of the French ambassador could lead to fresh friction between the countries over the highly sensitive case, which involves Nissan and French car maker Renault, which were both previously run by Ghosn. Japanese news channel NHK said prosecutors in Tokyo wanted to question Carole on a voluntary basis. Other reports in Japan say that investigators are looking into allegations that company money allegedly misused by Ghosn could have transited through a business that was run by his wife. - 'Different person' - Carole intends now to try to pressure the French government to do more for her husband whose 108-day imprisonment in Japan between November 19 and March 6 had left him a "different person," she told The Financial Times in a separate interview. France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday he had raised the case during talks with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono on the sidelines of the meeting of Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers in the French resort of Dinard. Le Drian said he had "reminded him of our attachment to the presumption of innocence and the full rights of consular protection." Japanese authorities are looking into new allegations that Ghosn transferred some $15 million in Nissan funds between late 2015 and mid-2018 to a dealership in Oman. They suspect around $5 million of these funds were siphoned off for Ghosn's use, including for the purchase of a luxury yacht and financing personal investments. Prosecutors say Ghosn "betrayed" his duty not to cause losses to Nissan "in order to benefit himself." Ghosn denies the allegations and says he is also innocent of the three formal charges he faces: two charges of deferring his salary and concealing that in official shareholders' documents, and a further charge related to investment losses. The man previously seen as the most powerful figure in the global car industry told French channel TF1 last week that he was "a combative man and an innocent man" and vowed to "defend myself to the bitter end". And he voiced concern that he would not be given a fair hearing in Japan where around 99 percent of trials result in a conviction. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iraq to demand US troops leave "as soon as possible", warning that Washington is plotting to remove the government in Baghdad. The remarks came during a visit to Tehran on Saturday by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, whose country is under pressure from the United States to distance itself from Iran. "You should take actions to make sure the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because wherever they have had an enduring presence, forcing them out has become problematic," Khamenei told Abdel Mahdi. "The current government and parliament in Iraq and the political figures are not what the US desires; they plot to remove them from the political scene of Iraq," he said, according to his official website. Abdel Mahdi, on his first official trip to Iran, also met Saturday with President Hassan Rouhani, who visited Iraq last month. Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year and hit Tehran with sanctions. 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 advisers" and equipment along with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) elite Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. - Terrorism blacklist - According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington is planning to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO), an unprecedented step that would escalate tensions between the two countries. The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said President Donald Trump's administration would announce the long-mulled decision as soon as Monday. But it said the Pentagon and the US Central Intelligence Agency were concerned the move could increase risks for US troops without doing much more to damage the Iranian economy. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the expected measure was "another US disaster" in the making, and warned Washington on Sunday of the consequences it could have. "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region," Zarif said on Twitter, referring to supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf. @realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster," he added. The Guards' commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said US troops would no longer "enjoy the peace they have today" in the Middle East if Washington goes ahead with "such foolishness," according to the IRGG's website. Iran's parliament has vowed to retaliate by passing an urgent bill putting American troops on a terrorism blacklist alongside the Islamic State group, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported. "Even though we believe one should not play along with America's extreme acts, the reality is that we must retaliate," the head of Iran's influential national security and foreign policy commission, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, told ISNA. A statement signed by a majority of MPs in support of the bill said any action against Iran's national security and its armed forces was "crossing a red line" and the US administration would "regret" its decision. The IRGC was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the new system. Designating the Guards as a terrorist organisation would "effectively be a service to terrorists," Falahatpisheh said, since they have "the biggest role in combatting terrorism" in the region. April 8 (Reuters) - Australian rare-earths miner Lynas Corp said on Monday that it was considering initial ore processing close to its Australia mine, as regulatory hurdles facing its Malaysian processing plant mount. "We see value in operating alternative cracking and leaching processing close to our resource," Lynas said in a statement. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Friday that companies interested in acquiring Lynas had pledged to remove low-level radioactivity before shipping raw materials to the country. (Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney) Auto Nation Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Asia Pacific strengthen its 15-year partnership with the unveiling of the all-new generation Jeep Wrangler Rubicon yesterday, April 6, at the 2019 Manila International Auto Show. The launch of the highest Jeep Wrangler variant is a follow-through to the recent launch of the all-new Jeep Wrangler Sport and Unlimited Sport held in March. Presiding over the unveiling were Auto Nation Group President Felix R. Ang and Chief Operating Officer Francis Jonathan C. Ang together with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Asia Pacific executives Steve Zanlunghi, head of Jeep brand for Asia Pacific; Mike Tsesmelis, managing director for Asia Pacific; and Isaac Yeo, country head for the Philippines. A modern design that stays true to the original Jeep The Jeep Wrangler Rubicons profile is unmistakable with its defining attribute, well-sculpted lines, and muscular stance. The Rubicon carries the tradition of the iconic seven-slot grille which is now improved with a more aerodynamic design. Drive through uncharted terrain with the LT255/75R17C tires with all-aluminum wheels and enjoy more open-air driving as the Wranglers lightweight aluminum built makes key parts such as the hood, fenders, swing gate, doors and hinges easy to remove in less than 20 minutes. The windshield can easily be folded down while retaining the rearview mirror in place. Never get lost with the GPS Antenna input equipped on the Rubicon. Additionally, the Rubicon comes with outside temperature gauge, front and rear fog lamps, body-color three-piece hard top, and body-color fender flares. The Unlimited Rubicon also offers a longer wheelbase than its 2-door counterpart. Jeep Signature Interior with State-of-the-Art Technology The Rubicons interior combines authentic styling, versatility, comfort, and intuitive feature use. The modern yet iconic design of the Wrangler continues inside the vehicle, defined by sculptured forms, signature Jeep design elements, soft-touch high-quality materials, and state-of-the-art technology that make it equal and comparable to luxury SUVs. Everything in the drivers cockpitfrom the new steering wheel to the reconfigurable driver clusteris designed for intuitive use. Story continues Smartphone integration has never been easier for the Rubicon with the UConnect 4 system with NAV and an 8.4-inch touchscreen display equipped with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon also offers a 230V auxiliary power outlet. The Most Capable SUV For the Rubicon, Jeep brings back the ever-resilient 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 engine with Engine Stop-Start (ESS) with a power output of 286 hp and 353 Nm of torque. Also offered is a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine with Engine Stop-Start (ESS) which produces 268 hp of power with 400 Nm of torque. Both engines are mated with an eight-speed automatic transmission. Equipped with a Trail Rated badge, the legendary Jeep Wrangler Rubicon features Rock-Trac 44 system with a 4LO ratio of 4:1 and Tru-Lok locking differentials standard on Rubicon models. The Rubicon is also equipped with skid plates, front and rear tow hooks, an all-new front fascia and available front and rear steel heavy-duty off-road winch-ready bumpers with removable end caps for water fording and towing. The all-new Wrangler Rubicon receives a huge upgrade on safety and security with more than 75 available active and passive safety and security features, which include blind spot monitoring, rear cross path detection, parkview rear backup camera with dynamic grid lines, electronic stability control, and multiple airbags. The all-new generation Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is now available at all Jeep dealerships nationwide (EDSA Greenhills, Alabang, Clark Pampanga, and Cebu) at the following price points: All-New Generation Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon (3.6-liter engine; 4-door) PHP4.39 million All-New Generation Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon (2.0-liter engine; 4-door) PHP4.49 million All-New Generation Jeep Wrangler Rubicon (3.6-liter engine; 2-door) PHP3.99 million All-New Generation Jeep Wrangler Rubicon (2.0-liter engine, 2-door) PHP4.09 million Visit the Jeep Philippines website at http://www.jeep.com.ph for more information. The post MIAS 2019: All-New Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Breaks Ground appeared first on Carmudi Philippines. Nissan shareholders voted Monday to eject Carlos Ghosn from the board, as the detained former chairman fights multiple financial misconduct charges that have landed him in custody. The extraordinary shareholders' meeting at a Tokyo hotel was the first such gathering since the stunning arrest of the 65-year-old auto sector titan on November 19. And its vote to remove Ghosn brings an end to the auto tycoon's storied tenure at the firm, which he was once credited with having rescued. The meeting also saw shareholders vote to remove Greg Kelly, a US executive who served as Ghosn's right-hand man and who also faces charges in Japan, and approve a motion to replace Ghosn with Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard. Nissan sacked Ghosn as chairman almost immediately after his initial arrest but an extraordinary meeting of shareholders was required to remove him from the board. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa and other top executives opened the meeting by offering a deep bow to thousands of shareholders. Saikawa outlined the allegations against his former mentor, accusing him of misusing funds and seeking to conceal his compensation. "Nissan expresses its deepest regret for any concern caused by the misconduct to our shareholders," he said. "We have to admit that there was a significant problem with our corporate governance," he added, saying he had been "extremely shocked" when he learned of the misconduct. Nearly 4,200 shareholders attended the meeting, with many taking the chance of a question-and-answer session to slam Ghosn but also raise concerns about how the scandal was allowed to occur. "Nissan's governance isn't working well. I really regret that," 77-year-old shareholder Isamu Beppu told AFP before the meeting. "If there is no rebuilding of its governance, there will be no revival," he added. Ghosn faces three separate charges. The first two relate to the alleged deferring of around $80 million in income and concealing this in official documents to shareholders. The third, more complex, charge is that he attempted to transfer personal losses to Nissan and paid a Saudi contact who provided collateral from company funds. Last week, prosecutors rearrested Ghosn, who was out on bail, over an additional allegation that he transferred Nissan money to a dealership in Oman but siphoned off millions for personal expenses -- including the purchase of a luxury yacht. Prosecutors believe Ghosn moved Nissan funds totalling $15 million between late 2015 and the middle of 2018 and used $5 million of that for his own ends. On Friday, the Tokyo District Court ruled that prosecutors could have until at least April 14 to interrogate Ghosn, who denies any wrongdoing. This period can be extended for a further 10 days if the court allows, meaning Ghosn is unlikely to be released any time soon. And prosecutors could still announce additional allegations. Ghosn's wife Carole, who had been living with him in Tokyo while he was out on bail, told a newspaper on the weekend that she had fled Japan with the help of the French ambassador because she "felt in danger" after her husband's rearrest. Japanese prosecutors reportedly wanted to question her on a voluntary basis and are looking into claims that Ghosn routed suspicious funds transfers through a business run by his wife. - 'It's a plot' - Ghosn's rearrest on Thursday came less than a month after he dramatically won bail, paying around $9 million to secure his release. He had kept tight-lipped during his bail period and was subject to restrictions on his contacts with others connected with the case, and his online communications. He was also banned from leaving the country. Just before his rearrest, Ghosn had appeared on Twitter to announce a news conference for April 11. Instead, his lawyers are to hold a briefing Tuesday and play a video Ghosn recorded before his latest arrest. Ghosn also gave a combative interview to France's TF1 television channel before he was detained, where he denounced a Nissan "plot" against him and voiced fears he might not receive a fair trial. "It's obvious it's a plot," said Ghosn, adding: "Everything needs to be put on the table. Of course, I have names." "Some of them you have seen in the press, but there are others that haven't been in the press," he said. He said his downfall was orchestrated by people scared of closer integration between Nissan and its French partner Renault. The other reason for the "plot" was the "deterioration in Nissan's performance for two years," he charged. Ten overseas Chinese groups in North America have issued a joint statement urging the Hong Kong government to withdraw its controversial proposal that would allow fugitives to be handed over to mainland China, warning the move could erode the citys status as an international business hub. The Security Bureau has proposed to allow the transfer of suspects on a case-by-case basis to and from Taiwan, Macau, mainland China and any other jurisdiction where a formal agreement with the city is absent. This controversial proposal has raised serious concerns throughout the international community; citizens could be subject to arbitrary arrest while they are in transit, travelling, working and living in Hong Kong, the statement said. The passing of such an amendment would not only diminish the freedoms of speech, publication, academic pursuits and other freedoms in Hong Kong it also threatens its autonomy, prosperity and political stability. Urging the Hong Kong government to withdraw the proposal, it warned the move would undermine Hong Kongs status as a regional hub for international business, media and civil society. The statement was issued by 10 overseas Chinese organisations based in the US and Canada, including the Association of Overseas Hong Kong Chinese for Democracy and Human Rights in Boston, Canada-Hong Kong Link in Toronto, Friends of Hong Kong and Macau of Boston, the Hong Kong Forum and Movement for Democracy in China. The statement said that the Beijing government has been using intimidation, harassment, arbitrary charges, forced confessions, unlawful detention, and unfair trials in a massive crackdown on political dissidents in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. It cited the example of Gui Minhai, a Swedish citizen and a Hong Kong bookseller who has been detained in China since January last year. Gui was one of five Hong Kong-based booksellers who disappeared in late 2015 but resurfaced later in mainland China. Story continues Former Legco president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing said on Sunday that it was worrying that discussions about the proposal were more about blaming each other than rational discussions. Hong Kong officials said the extradition proposal was justified to plug a loophole exposed by a recent high-profile homicide case in Taiwan, where a Hong Kong man is wanted after he was suspected to have killed his Hong Kong girlfriend while travelling there. But the proposal has sparked concern among the pro-democracy camp, the commercial sector and the international community, with some worrying about Beijings human rights record and others of the possible re-surrender of fugitives from Hong Kong to mainland China over some inadvertent business-related offences. The extradition proposal was mentioned in a recent British parliament report, which concluded that the city was moving towards one country, one and a half systems, contrary to the ruling principle of one country, two systems under which Hong Kong is part of China but afforded certain freedom. The chairman of the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China, James McGovern, has, along with senator Marco Rubio, raised serious concerns over the extradition proposal, which he said would erode the citys reputation as a commercial hub governed by the rule of law. The European Union has also said it was worried about the potential impact of the proposal on its member states citizens living in or visiting the city. A spokesman for the Security Bureau said the government understands that opinions are divided on the issue of handing over fugitives with different concerns about the proposal. The Legislative Council will soon set up a committee to discuss and review the bill, he said. The government will then offer detailed explanation responding to and discussing every concern. The spokesman also noted that all the requests to hand over fugitives would be safeguarded by both executive authorities and courts. He added that the crimes the proposed amendment covers are serious ones rather than acts involving speech, publication or press, the freedom and rights of which are protected by the Basic Law and the laws of Hong Kong. This article Overseas Chinese groups in North America urge Hong Kong government to shelve controversial extradition proposal first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019. Singapores anti-gay sex law, Section 377A of the Penal Code, has been the talk of the town recently when the Ready4Repeal campaign was launched to repeal the law in Singapore only to face strong pushback from conservatives. (And comments calling gay people unnatural af.) Now, the leader of a key opposition party has thrown his hat into the ring, as Workers Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh reiterated how his party will also not call for the repeal of the law. There is no consensus within the partys central executive committee on the issue, said Pritam. Even within the party at large, views differ on the matter, a microcosm of Singapore society. He made these remarks at the National University of Singapores Political Association Forum 2019 on Wednesday evening and uploaded his speech on his Facebook page on Friday. In his speech, Pritam said his party will not take part in the culture war over LGBT issues because it is prejudicial to the common good of our society. We seek to rise above (the issue) because the moral courage required to address the issue of Section 377A is not in reveling in the glory of taking absolute stances on what we believe is right, but in lowering ourselves, swallowing our pride and listening to another, he said. A culture war has been brewing in Singapore between conservatives and liberals, said Pritam, and Section 377A has become the symbolic lightning rod to distinguish which camp you belonged to. While conservatives call their campaign pro-family and liberals call their campaign as a right to love, Pritam said the simplicity of both campaigns means both sides are unable to fully understand each others frustrations. As currently framed, 377A generates a lot of heat, but sheds very little light, he said. The fault in each campaign With the conservative campaign, Pritam noted that the focus on Section 377A was disproportionate and tangential to the main struggles of raising a family in todays economy and society. Story continues He brought up an Institute of Policy Studies survey which revealed that infidelity and cheating are the main concerns about marriages today, among other woes such as divorces on the rise and young people delaying marriages. We need to focus on the larger issues besetting Singaporean families it is not useful to deploy the family to defend Section 377A, he commented on how the Singapore government should be handling the conservative viewpoint. With the liberal campaign, Pritam argued that the campaign implicitly suggests that anyone who aligns to conservative values hates the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Thus, he believed that the liberal campaign weaponized the concept of love for many of those in the middle, particularly those who do not take a position on the matter. Instead of considering the tremendous contributions people of faith, including Christians and Muslims have made on society and helping those in need and providing a sacred canopy for the faithful, some of respected religious figures and friends are singularly judged through their views on section 377A, he said. Politicising 377A will worsen societal divisions: Pritam Although his party is against hate speech in the wake of the Christchurch attacks, Pritam said matters such as Section 377A may worsen societal divisions if it is made into a political issue. He raised several concerns on how the laws debate could be worsened even more: If any political party spoke in favour or against it If political leaders begin taking sides due to the majority vote instead of strengthening common space If Section 377A became the main voting issue distinguishing politicians in elections Do we want Section 377A to define the ballot box and determine elections? he said. Pritam then brought up five suggestions to handle the matter without letting it become a political issue or dragging political parties into the discussion: Focus on families, including defining the family to be an enlightened and inclusive one Never politicize the issue, by asking WP members not to pander to conservatives and liberals Continue the dialogue, by having debates tempered with mutual respect for each other Respect individual conscience, including respecting a persons religious, spiritual and philosophical beliefs Rise above the culture war, by not fighting over who is more right than the other The reactions In a reaction to the speech on Saturday, New Naratif editor-in-chief Kirsten Han called Pritam out for claiming the issue could not be politicized when it is already political in nature. Said Kirsten: The Workers Party might be able to choose not to politicize the issue, but LGBT Singaporeans never got that choice. So guess what? Its not an issue that needs to be politicizedits already political. And what were looking for is some moral courage from the only elected officials who can actually do something about the damn law. Although commenter Lian Chuan Yeoh wrote on Pritams Facebook page that he advocates for the laws repeal, he said: Where I certainly do agree with you is on the need to listen with the mindset that one could be wrong or need to adapt, and also on the fact that this one issue does not define us as a people. This article, Singapores opposition Workers Party will not ask for anti-gay sex law to be repealed: leader Pritam, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters! Gunmen opened fire on a police vehicle in a Cairo suburb at dawn Sunday, killing a police officer and the driver and wounding two others, the interior ministry said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the latest attack on security forces in Egypt, which has been battling an Islamist insurgency since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power in 2014. Police were on a routine patrol in New Nozha, a suburb east of Cairo, when their minibus came under fire, the ministry said. Four unknown assailants armed with automatic rifles opened fire at the police vehicle, it said in a statement, before fleeing in a black car. Police captain Mohamed Ahmed Abdel Razek and the driver of the minibus were killed, the statement said, adding that two policemen who were riding with them were wounded in the attack. Security forces have deployed in the area to track down the perpetrators, the ministry said. Egyptian security forces have been targeted by extremist groups since the army, then led by Sisi, overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood organisation. Hundreds of soldiers and policemen have been killed in attacks. In February last year Egypt launched a military offensive against the Islamic State group in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed about 600 suspected jihadists and around 40 soldiers, according to official figures. Sunday's deadly shooting comes weeks after a police officer was wounded and seven suspected militants killed in a Cairo firefight and subsequent raid. Prince William has completed three weeks of work experience at the UKs top spy agencies [Image: Getty] With a wardrobe of tuxedos and a glamorous social calendar, Prince William is living rather like a real life James Bond. So it is perhaps unsurprising that he has now been revealed as just having completed three weeks of work experience with some of the UKs top spies. The Duke of Cambridge has interned at security service MI5, secret intelligence service MI6 and GCHQ, according to Kensington Palace. Of his time spent at Britains intelligence agencies, the father of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis described it as a truly humbling experience. READ MORE: Prince William to visit New Zealand to honour Christchurch terror attack victims According to Kensington Palace, the princes first week was with MI6, who help the UK identify and exploit opportunities. He then proceeded to be placed at MI5, where he was given an insight into the countrys counter-terrorism efforts. The second in line to the throne then spent time at GCHQ in Cheltenham, where he was taught about the latest technology that helps them tackle security threats. In a statement, the palace said the duke had been able to witness firsthand the extraordinary work that staff across the security and intelligence agencies do. READ MORE: Where Kate and William spent half term with George, Charlotte and Louis William added: Spending time inside our security and intelligence agencies, understanding more about the vital contribution they make to our national security, was a truly humbling experience. These agencies are full of people from everyday backgrounds doing the most extraordinary work to keep us safe. They work in secret, often not even able to tell their family and friends about the work they do or the stresses they face. They are driven by an unrivalled patriotism and dedication to upholding the values of this country. We all owe them deep gratitude for the difficult and dangerous work they do. READ MORE: Royal author says, rumours of a rift are undoubtedly true Story continues A spokesperson for GCHQs head of counter-terrorism operations, who is identified only as David, said: Having the Duke of Cambridge spend time with our teams was an incredible opportunity. William worked exceptionally hard to embed himself in the team and comfortably held his own among some highly skilled analysts and operators. His royal highness asked some probing questions and demonstrated a real grasp of our mission. This was a rare opportunity to expose, in detail, the technical ingenuity and problem-solving skills needed on a daily basis to help keep the UK safe. Before beginning at Sandhurst in 2006, William completed work experience at the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange and Lloyds of London. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Get More Working Slate Plus members get extended, ad-free versions of our podcastsand much more. Sign up today. Join Slate Plus Subscribe to Working Copy this link and add it in your podcast app. copy link copied! For detailed instructions, see our Slate Plus podcasts page. Listen to Working via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. This week, Working returns to Bon Appetit to continue its spontaneous micro-mini season on the people who make the seminal food magazine what it is today. In this episode, Jordan talks to the man running the show, editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport. Adam talks about what its like to run a food magazine in the age of Instagram, how he edits recipes with home chefs in mind, and how he makes his coffee every day. You can email us at working@slate.com. Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has upped the stakes in the run-up to a critical election Tuesday, vowing to annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected to a fourth consecutive term. Netanyahu laid out the position that could very well mark the end to a two-state solution with the Palestinians as he continues to struggle to get right-wing voters excited about the election. Netanyahu made the announcement during an interview on Israeli TV when a reporter asked why he had not extended Israeli sovereignty to the large settlements in the West Bank. You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stagethe answer is yes, we will move to the next phase to extend Israeli sovereignty, he said. I will impose sovereignty, but I will not distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements. Netanyahu went on to say that the government has a responsibility for the Israelis who live there. I wont uproot anyone and I wont place them under Palestinian sovereignty. Ill look out for everyone, he said. Some 2.8 million Palestinians and 400,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Netanyahus last-minute election promise is just the latest reflection of how the vote on Tuesday has really become a referendum on the prime minister. If he wins, he will become the longest-serving Israeli prime minister but a loss would likely mark the end of his career. For now, the race is too close to call as Netanyahu battles for the top spot against Benny Gantz of the new Blue and White party. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki basted Netanyahu for his electoral promise. If Netanyahu wants to declare Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, then you know he has to face a real problem, the presence of 4.5 million Palestinians, what to do with them, Malki told the Associated Press. The number of Palestinians Malki cited appeared to refer to the total Palestinian population of the occupied West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Advertisement Advertisement Malki also accused the United States of encouraging the prime minister by recognizing both Jerusalem as Israels capital and the 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights. The Guardians Simon Tisdall also notes that President Donald Trump likely played some sort of role in the decision. His personal inclinations aside, it is unlikely Netanyahu would have floated so potentially disruptive an idea without a nod and a wink from Donald Trump, Tisdall writes. In the past, when Netanyahu claimed to have US backing for annexing West Bank territory containing the major Israeli settlement blocs, the White House publicly disavowed him. The Los Angeles Times editorial board notes that it is hard to overstate how terrible a proposal this is, adding that if Netanyahu does win re-election the best that can be hoped for is that he wont keep this dangerous and irresponsible campaign promise. Even if he doesnt go through with it though, the very idea of annexation will rouse new Palestinian fury, as well as international condemnation, writes the BBCs Sebastian Usher. Senator Aquilino Koko Pimentel III cautioned the public to exercise necessary care and caution in handling their tax matters and in dealing with tax authorities as the peak of the annual income tax season nears this month. The deadline for the filing of income tax returns is on April 15. Ive been receiving many complaints relating to BIR harassment both from individual and corporate taxpayers. There appears to be certain individuals and groups preying on and taking advantage of taxpayers who are processing and preparing their returns. All of this stems from the urgency of beating the deadline and possibly minimizing tax compliance. Pimentel suggested that victims of harassment get in touch immediately with the proper authorities within the Bureau of Internal Revenue. He likewise offered to hear and facilitate complaints, adding that he encourages those being harassed to report these acts to me.Exerting pressure on taxpayers, soliciting bribes, offering to underdeclare or completely falsify returns, these are all illegal acts punishable under various tax and criminal laws. Its important that taxpayers avoid being victims or complicit participants in these kinds of activities. The lawyer-legislator, who topped the 1990 bar examinations, authored Senate Bill 293 in 2016 which provided for a one-time amnesty on estate taxes. The bill was made part and became an integral portion of RA 11213, the new Tax Amnesty Act which was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte last February 14. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had a clear message for Democrats Sunday: Dont hold your breath. Mulvaney expressed certainty that congressional Democrats would not be able to move forward with their plan to get the IRS to deliver President Donald Trumps tax returns. Oh no, nevernor should they, Mulvaney said on Fox News Sunday when asked whether Democrats will ever see the documents that Trump has long refused to release. Thats an issue that was already litigated during the election. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns. They knew that he didnt and they elected him anyway. Advertisement In Mulvaneys view, the question of Trumps tax returns shouldnt even be on the table because the voters already made clear they dont really care what they contain. Keep in mind, thats an issue that was already litigated during the election, Mulvaney said. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didnt, and they elected him anywaywhich, of course, is what drives the Democrats crazy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MIck Mulvaney says that the democrats will never see President Trump's taxes and that they know they won't #FNS pic.twitter.com/DDjFmjGz8f FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) April 7, 2019 Advertisement Advertisement Mulvaney said Democrats wont be surprised by his words because they know theyre not going to get the returns but characterized the request as part of a strategy to avoid policy discussions. If they dont get what they want in the Mueller report, theyre going to ask for the taxes, Mulvaney said. If they dont get what they want in the taxes, theyre going to ask for something else. It doesnt surprise anybody. House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal formally asked this past week for the IRS to hand over six years of Trumps personal and business tax returns. Trump later joked that asking for six years could be a sign that Democrats are giving up but insisted he has no plans on releasing the documents using the same old excuse he has been uttering since the campaign. Is that all? Usually its 10, Trump said. So I guess theyre giving up. No, were under audit, despite what people said, and were working that outIm always under audit, it seems, but Ive been under audit for many years, because the numbers are big, and I guess when you have a name, youre audited. But until such time as Im not under audit, I would not be inclined to do that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is warning that the words of Fox News hosts have more consequences than many people seem to realize. In a Saturday night tweet, the freshman lawmaker from New York linked comments by Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to death threats against her colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar. While retweeting a news story about the 55-year-old Donald Trump supporter who was arrested for threatening to kill Omar, Ocasio-Cortez made a reference to Pirro. Understand when Jeanine Pirro goes on Fox + rallies people to think hijabs are threatening, it leads to this, Ocasio-Cortez wrote. Folks who imply were bad for politics, the party, the country, etc. have no idea the threats we deal w/ because of that kind of language. Talk policy, not personal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Understand when Jeanine Pirro goes on Fox + rallies people to think hijabs are threatening, it leads to this. Folks who imply were bad for politics, the party, the country, etc. have no idea the threats we deal w/ because of that kind of language. Talk policy, not personal. https://t.co/udFg3LMdgB Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 7, 2019 Patrick Carlineo allegedly called Omars office on March 21 and threatened to put a bullet in her fucking skull. That threat came days after Pirro questioned whether Omars hijab meant she was against the Constitution. Think about it. Omar wears a hijab, which, according to the Quran 33:59, tells women to cover so they wont get molested, Pirro said on March 9. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution? Fox News criticized Pirros words and temporarily pulled her from the air for two weeks. Advertisement Advertisement A suspected rhino poacher met a grisly demise at Kruger National Park in South Africa last week. He was part of a group of five suspected poachers who entered the park to allegedly kill rhinos but an elephant killed him and he was later devoured by a pride of lions, according to park officials. The family of the alleged poacher were told that their relative had been killed by an elephant and they requested the assistance of park officials to recover the remains. Advertisement During this search, which was boosted with a further compliment of Field Rangers, the remains of a body were discovered, South African National Parks said in a news release published Friday. Indications found at the scene suggested that a pride of lions had devoured the remains leaving only a human skull and a pair of pants. Skukuza police were notified immediately and are currently busy with further investigations into the incident. The four other suspected poachers have been arrested. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A police officer told local news website TimesLive that the men had gone poaching in the park on April 1, when suddenly an elephant attacked and killed one member of their party. Members of his party then said they carried his body to the road so that passers-by could find it in the morning before they left the park. They then informed the dead mans family about what happened and the family called park officials. Advertisement Advertisement Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise, it holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that. It is very sad to see the daughters of the diseased mourning the loss of their father, and worse still, only being able to recover very little of his remains, said Glenn Phillips, the parks managing executive. Kruger National Park is a hotbed for poachers. Of the 680 arrests involving poaching and trafficking charges in 2016, 417 took place in and around Kruger, according to CNN. This is hardly the first time suspected poachers were killed by animals. Last July, as many as three suspected poachers in South Africa were killed by lions. President Donald Trump spoke to members of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas Saturday and seemed to suggest that Jews and Israelis are one and the same. I stood with your prime minister at the White House to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Trump said referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Speaking to the American Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump refers to Bibi Netanyahu as "your prime minister" pic.twitter.com/rAv4MrxyBt Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 6, 2019 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It wasnt an isolated moment either, there were other times in his address in which the commander in chief appeared to conflate Jews and Israelis. It also happened at a point when Trump was railing against Democrats, who he accused of pushing by far the most extreme, anti-Semitic agenda in history. He then went on to warn that if Democrats were to be successful their radical agenda could very well leave Israel out there all by yourselves. Trump still seems to think that he's speaking to a group of Israelis. "If implemented, the Democrats' radical agenda would destroy our economy, cripple our country, and very well could leave Israel out there all by yourselves. Can't do that." pic.twitter.com/qWvCNKjB8V Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 6, 2019 Advertisement Advertisement Earlier in his speech, Trump mocked Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Special thanks to Representative Omar of Minnesota, Trump said. Oh, I forgot. She doesnt like Israel. I forgot. Im so sorry. Trump made the comment a day after one of his supporters was charged with making a death threat against Omar. Trumps mention of the freshman lawmaker also seemed particularly galling considering she had been accused of anti-Semitism because some claimed a comment she made suggested American Jews have a dual loyalty to both Israel and the United States. In a speech to a Republican Jewish group, Trump mockingly thanks Rep. Ilhan Omar pic.twitter.com/1k7mLCzXnH Yahoo News (@YahooNews) April 6, 2019 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president also took it upon himself to mock asylum seekers in front of the Jewish audience. The asylum program is a scam, Trump said. Some of the roughest people that youve ever seen. People that look like they should be fighting for the UFC. They read a little page given by lawyers that are all over the place. They tell them what to say. You look at this guy, you say, wow, thats a tough cookie. He also made fun of those who support asylum seekers, portraying them as naive. Oh, give him asylumhes afraid, hes afraid! Trump said. We dont love the fact that hes got tattoos on his face, thats not a good sign. We dont love the fact that hes carrying the flag of Honduras or Guatemala or El Salvador, only to say hes petrified to be in his country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Robert Gilpin, R.I.P. - The Washington Post : His greatest book was written in 1981, but the main theory in it is perhaps more trenchant now... The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless. The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well. By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism. Race-favourite Traceur Hanover headed straight to the lead and led through a quick pace in progress to a 1:50 repeat win in the $34,000 Preferred Handicap on Saturday, April 6 at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Driver Chris Christoforou floated the seven-year-old son of Western Ideal towards the lead, held by Physicallyinclined, through a :26.4 opening quarter. Traceur Hanover cleared control and continued the quick pace through a :54.1 half as Physicallyinclined edged off the rail to apply pressure rounding the final turn. Traceur Hanover maintained his speed while prompted by Physicallyinclined through a 1:22.2 third quarter and turned for home a length better. Fancourt, inheriting the pocket, slipped into contention through the stretch and mounted a late bid after Traceur Hanover, but settled for second three-quarter lengths off the winner. Maroma Beach closed for third. Owned by Richard Berthiaume, Traceur Hanover won his fourth race from nine starts this season and his 30th from 119 overall, earning $888,749. Benoit Baillargeon trains the $6.80 winner. To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park. The countdown to the 2019 Pepsi North America Cup is on, with Trot Insider profiling the horses predicted to be the top contenders for Canadian harness racing's richest prize. At 16-1, the wickedly-fast Hurrikane Emperor comes in at #6 in TROT Magazine's 2019 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book. It was in 2012 that Hurrikane Kingcole turns heads with an amazing recovery in his North America Cup elimination. After making a break before the start of the race, Hurrikane Kingcole reset for driver Tim Tetrick and finished seventh -- just 1-1/4 lengths from fifth and a spot in the final. Track officials at Mohawk told trainer John McDermott that the transponder timed Hurrikane Kingcole as pacing his mile in 1:46.1. Since retired, Hurrikane Kingcole had limited stallion production in North America before being exported to Australia for stud duty. With just nine foals, Hurrikane Kingcole has sired five starters and five race winners -- the fastest and richest of those is Hurrikane Emperor. From nine freshman starts, Hurrikane Emperor (Hurrikane Kingcole - Hurrikane Schmumma) posted a 7-1-0-1 summary and banked $226,900 for owners Jonathan Klee Racing, Kuhen Racing LLC, Pegasis Investment Group and William Garofalo. Unbeaten in New Jersey, Hurrikane Emperor's biggest win came in the 2018 KYSS Final going wire-to-wire in 1:49.3. Trot Insider caught up with McDermott for an update on Hurrikane Kingcole and the horse he hopes can connect for victory in a race his father could not. Talk about the decision to breed to Hurrikane Kingcole and your thoughts on him as a stallion. "I was comparing him the other day...he's the modern-day No Nukes. He was a disappointment on the racetrack, he showed ridiculous ability, and he just couldn't stay healthy. That was his thing. He never had a lameness issue, he just couldn't stay healthy. If you look at the two of their careers, they're about $10,000 apart in earnings, and No Nukes is the most powerful sire in the last 100 years in my opinion, and I think 'Kingcole' is going to go a great job. His foals [in Australia] have hit the ground running. They're absolutely in love with them. We had five of them. The daughter [Hurrikane Empress] made a quarter million and Emperor made $226,000 last year and won in 1:49. We took advantage of it. We had a great opportunity to breed a horse I believed in, and that's what turned out for us." Would you consider bringing him back to North America for stud duty? "I had a lot of different people reach out to me asking about standing him, but the one expense is you have to ship each way. We have a lease deal in Australia with Kevin Seymour. The person that would be interested in bringing him to North America, they're on the hook for $60,000 right off the bat. I explained to him that I wouldn't consider any thought of bringing him back unless somebody was putting that $60,000 up front and we'd work out a deal. It's real hard to get a fair shake of mares. You look at some of the crops, some of these sires, like Captaintreacherous. That group of mares he bred to last year, I think I could have turned out world champions if I bred to those mares. That was amazing the crop they got. I think if 'Kingcole' had a chance to get a really nice book of mares, we would have brought him back. Until somebody's going to do that for us, he's going to stand down here at Kevin's and have a great life." Where did he winter? "I'm in Florida every winter now. He was down there training at Pompano Park with me, and he's training back phenomenally. I think it was the middle of December I started back with him, because we were able to shut him down really early. He's dynamite. He arrived in Goshen, N.Y. last week." Where are you at with him now? "He could qualify tomorrow, not a problem. He's got enough miles. He's been 2:01 in the jog cart and coming vicious quarters and halves." Any noticeable changes in him from two to three? "The only difference is last year he was a kid and this year he's a man." What will his early schedule look like leading up to the Pepsi North America Cup? "The North America Cup is going to set up really, really nice for us. We'll probably qualify him once at the Meadowlands, and then I have two legs of the New Jersey Sire Stakes and the final. I'll use those as preps for him for the North America Cup, and we'll come to the North America Cup off those three races." What does his tentative schedule look like after the North America Cup? "It goes North America Cup, the Hempt, the Meadowlands Pace, the Adios, the Cane Pace, hopefully the Milstein in Ohio. The only big races we don't have on the schedule are the Little Brown Jug and the Breeders Crown. Cole wasn't eligible to it, so that's why he was never staked to it. But we do have the Indiana races toward the end of the year also." Would you consider a supplement to the Little Brown Jug if you won a race like the Cane? "It's something I would consider throwing out to my partners. My vote would be not to go (to the Little Brown Jug). I've never been a huge fan of it. But if my partners wanted to go, we would do it. But first off, win the Cane. We've got to win the Cane to have that problem." Is the heat racing the reason why you're against it? "I think you go heats on a half-mile track -- no matter how great of a half-mile track it is -- it's really quite absurd that we think we can do that with our horses. I wouldn't train my horse as hard as I could two trips back to back, so I don't understand why we'd want to race him like that. Half-mile track would be super for him. He loves any track; he goes around everything. It's definitely an option. Right now, it's getting him qualified and prepped up for the Meadowlands Pace, and the first thing that's on my head is the North America Cup. Everybody remembers his dad's [North America Cup] elimination when he jumped over a line on the track and spotted them a mile and a half and put in that vicious mile. I'd like to see his son put in that kind of mile without jumping over anything.] What's his biggest asset/strength? "The first thing that makes him a great horse is his daddy, because his daddy gave him something most horses don't have, and that's his wicked speed. Now, he's got the cool to be able to use that speed whenever he wants, and that's what makes him so good. 'Kingcole' was a great, sound horse, and his son is a great, sound horse. It's just so nice. I know a few of those top horses have already dealt with lameness issues, and thank God we haven't. "They were pressed really hard to get them to achieve what they achieved, and it's a great accomplishment. Our guy never had to be injected and never needed any vet work, and that's a big advantage. We really didn't get into how good he can really be." At what point last year did you think this horse was North America Cup material? "Right around January 15. I broke him in October. His sister was a real nice filly, but she would go to a knee. Her hitting her knee kind of slowed her a bit. This colt was so flawless with his gait. One partner was trying to figure out prices and values of horses. When he brought the babies up last year, I said, 'Well, you just valued the sister at $250,000. I can tell you he's way better than his sister.' He just has an air about him: he just loves his job and he does it so easily." Which race of his from 2018 impressed you the most? "My favourite was the race he got beat in, where Jordan Stratton drove him in the first leg of the Kentucky Sire Stakes. If you go back and watch the video and count how far back he was at the three-quarter pole, they charted him home in :25.4, I think, but it was more like :25 flat. He got carried out by the horse in front of him every step. Every time we moved, he moved, and that horse would not go forward. All he did was keep getting in our way. At the quarter pole, we were 13 lengths off. And when Jordan finally put him down the middle of the track, he was in orbit. Even though he got beat, it was just really amazing to see how he overcame it. It took nothing out of him." After being so close in 2012, what would it mean for you and your partners to have a horse possibly qualify for and win the North America Cup? "Between me and my partners, our big races are the North America Cup and the Meadowlands Pace. The only thing that gives the Meadowlands Pace the little edge up is that there are four of us who grew up within two miles of The Meadowlands. That's the first place I worked as a groom; one of my partners on this horse was my trainer that I worked for as a groom; one of my other partners is the brother of that trainer who introduced the trainer to me for my first job ever; the other one's my buddy who -- we've been together since 1993 -- that grew up a few blocks from there. I think the Meadowlands Pace and the North America Cup are 1 and 1A. The one thing I love about the North America Cup: I just feel you have the support of the people. I think they love racing there so much more than the States. "The one thing about this colt: You don't find too many people who own the sire and the dam and bred him themselves and have a shot at the North America Cup." Previous North America Cup Spring Book Profiles: North America Cup Spring Book - #7 North America Cup Spring Book - #8 North America Cup Spring Book - #9 North America Cup Spring Book - #10 Australia is seeking to enhance its bilateral relations with the Philippines, particularly in the area of defense and security, trade and commerce. The new Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Steven James Robinson, who started his tour of duty on Jan. 15, 2019, vowed to further enhance his countrys long-standing relationship with the Philippines since it was founded 73 years ago, especially in defense and security, development assistance and business ties. During the backyard barbeque meeting with reporters at the ambassadors residence in Makati City before the weekend, Robinson admitted that Australias relationship with the Philippines was broad and deep, which have been built on very firm foundation, and that foundation rests on defense, security, intelligence ties, development assistance and business ties. Since Marawi City siege, in particular, our defense and security ties have grown significantly . . . and that is very important to us, he said. Robinson vowed to improve Canberras already very firm relations with Manila during his three-year stint in the country. We are looking at enhancing the relationsour very already firm relationship across the board. We are looking at building defense and security links. We are also looking at increasing our development assistance to the Philippines, he said, citing that Australia currently provides $85 million to development assistance. In the next financial year, Canberra is expected to provide more development assistance funds to bankroll development projects in Mindanao. The next financial year will be devoted to the south where we are doing a lot of work in Mindanao. The Bangsamoro process, in terms of passing recently the Bangsamoro organic law, is very significant, he said, adding that development assistance also relates to education, where some 12,000 Filipinos are now benefitting from it and studying in Australia on variety of course plus more than 60 Filipinos studying or doing their masteral and PhD education. Robinson also pledged to work for improvement in trade and commerce between the two countries, noting that bilateral trade between Australia and the Philippines is comparatively small in comparison to other Asian countries.I really want to lift that quite significantly. So Id like to improve Australian businesses that are already up here and investment into the Philippines. And also want to improve the investment from the Philippines into Australia, he said, noting that more than 300 Australian companies are already operating in the Philippines, employing about 44,000 people. Thats very significant but I hope we can do lot more. And I want to do it well while Im here, he said. Robinson said that he would like more Australian companies to take advantage of the investment opportunities in the Philippines, regardless of the industry. I do note that, obviously, theres a lot happening in the infrastructure and the construction space. But I think theres more opportunities than that. So pretty much, every area has opportunity for Australia, he said Where we provide something thats unique is in science and technology and innovation; theyre the things that Australia does very well. So solar, technology, wind farms and the like, thats the stuff were really trying to focus upon, the Australian envoy pointed out. Robinson admitted that there was still a need for him to convince more businesses to expand their operations into the Philippines. Australian companies hear more about problems rather than the positive unrest, they hear about problems in the south, they hear about terrorism, they hear about all sorts of things, he said. Yes, they are issues but they are issues that are under control in a sense that were working with the Filipino government to deal with, but when you go to Metro Manila and you look at Clark, and you look at opportunities that exist around the country, there are many more opportunities, many more positives than negatives and thats what I need to get across to Australian companies, he said. We would love to hear your thoughts... 1. How did you come up with the idea for your startup? 2. What was the hardest part in the early stages of the startups growth? 3. What are the services/solutions/products that the startup offers? Who are the targeted audiences? 4. What are your strengths and advantages over your competitors? 5. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics? 6. Is the company bootstrapped or funded? What milestones will the financing get you to? 7. What is the road map ahead? How are you planning to achieve it? Key Management : Founding Year : Milestones : Awards/Recognition : Clients : Lara Kollab was fired in January from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for her outrageous statements. Looks like she then tried her luck in California. Via Jerusalem Post. Lara Kollab has been removed from a second residency program for her 2012 antisemitic tweet in which she said she would purposely give all the yahoods [meaning Jews] the wrong meds. Last week, Kern Medical confirmed that Kollabs position in the Post-Graduate-Year 1 resident in the Internal Medicine Residency Program has been withdrawn effective immediately. Dr. Kollab submitted information that was false, misleading, and incomplete to Kern Medical during the interview and match process, it said. Kern Medical is dedicated to the health and wellbeing of our patients and expects the highest level of integrity and compassion from our staff.. Meanwhile, a Palestinian dentist living in the United States was exposed last week for joking about torturing her Zionist patients. Jihad Watch and Canary Mission both posted about tweets by Nessreen Zayed, a Palestinian dentist believed to be practicing in Cincinnati, Ohio, who has openly advocated for torturing her Zionists patients, as well as shown support for Hamas and terrorism against Israel. In 2015, she was tweeted a video of a hair-raising scene from the musical Little Shop of Horrors showing Steve Martins Orin Scrivello a Dentist happily torturing his patients while doing a musical number. Zayed responded to the Tweet soon after, saying that she loved the video[.] I will enjoy doing this to Zionists patients with my pleasure.. The Japanese government has expressed its commitment to fully support the countrys resolve to achieve peace and development in Southern Philippines through the just-created Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Deputy Chief of Mission Takehiro Kano of the Japan Embassy in the Philippines said the Japanese government welcomes the establishment of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority of the BARMM, which was created following the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law during a plebiscite held in January this year. We affirm our support for the BARMM to ensure that the Mindanao peace process would proceed smoothly, especially in the next couple of years, which I think is very critical, Kano said in an interview. We are ready to provide the needed support for the success of expanded autonomous regional government in Mindanao, Kano added. As part of Japans commitment, Japanese Ambassador Koji Haneda earlier signed and exchanged notes with Food and Agriculture Organization Representative Jose Luis Fernandez and International Labour Organization Country Director Khalid Hassan, for two projects in the Bangsamoro region, as witnessed by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Carlito Galvez. The FAO project, which amounts to US $1.765 million, aims to assist farmers and fisherfolks, including former combatants, women and indigenous peoples acquire various agricultural vocational expertise. Kano explained that these new knowledge and skills will help them efficiently operate farms, gain employment or set up their own businesses.The ILO intervention, on the other hand, has a total budget of approximately 2.66 million US$. It envisions to develop water infrastructure that will benefit an estimated 11,814 households. At least 1,800 workers from the target communities will be employed to help build the water supply facilities. Both projects are seen to provide sustainable livelihood and build healthier communities, which are key milestones to achieving peace and development in Mindanao. These two undertakings form part of the Japan-Bangsamoro Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development, or J-BIRD to empower people and communities benefit from the dividends of peace. From 2006 to date, Japan has provided a total of about 13 billion pesos or 260 million US dollars worth of assistance to the Bangsamoro region, the statement released by the Japan Embassy in Manila said. Also earlier, two exchange of notes were signed in Japan for non-project grant assistance to provide underground water detection and well-drilling machines to be deployed in Bangsamoro region, worth 560 million Japanese Yen, as well as the urgent rehabilitation of socio-economic infrastructure, particularly the rebuilding of TESDA training Center in Marawi, which amounts to 1.8 billion Japanese yen. All these endeavors will strengthen the momentum for peace and optimum development in (Mindanao), the embassy statement said. 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. 3 hours ago US stocks fall after jump in wholesale prices last month Stocks fell in afternoon trading on Wall Street Tuesday as traders took in the latest sign that inflation is still running high ahead of the Federal Reserve's last meeting of the year. The S&P 500 index fell 1% as of 2:36 p.m. Read Article Health advocates pushing for a significant increase in the cost of tobacco on Sunday renewed their call for a price hike on cigarettes and other tobacco products as they celebrate World Health Day. In a rally at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, the rallyists led by former Philippine College of Physicians president Dr. Anthony Leachon called on Congress to heed the mounting calls for additional prices on tobacco products to bankroll the implementation of the governments Universal Health Care program. President Rodrigo Duterte earlier this year certified as urgent the tobacco tax increase law following hearings on the bills by the Senate ways and means committee chaired by reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara. Angara said an agreement had already been made in principle to increase tobacco taxes to provide sustainable funding source of the Universal Health Care. The measure is expected to be tackled on the floor once Congress resumes after the midterm elections on May 13. Leachon, also a former Philhealth Independent Director, explained that the extra funds generated from a significant increase in tobacco taxes will be crucial in fulfilling the mandate under the UHC law of having all Filipinos included into the National Health Insurance Program. To subsidize the premiums of those who are unable to afford it, Leachon said that a substantial amount of funds is required to help Philhelath achieve this. Significantly, increasing the tobacco tax will prove to be a dependable source of finances for the long term, and assured all Filipinos of quality health care benefits under the NHIP, said Leachon. Also, he said the UHC law seeks to strengthen the countrys primary care system. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a strong primary care system represents the backbone of UHC and its crucial in providing a full spectrum of health care services.Under the law, all Filipinos shall be registered to a primary care provider. As the first and continuing point of contact, the primary care provider will be able to comprehensively examine patients and refer them to higher levels of care only when necessary. Leachon said this will greatly reduce unnecessary out-of-pocket spending for health care, and encourage better health seeking behavior. The Department of Health said around P257 billion will be needed to finance the first year of UHC implementation alone. Meanwhile. calculations made by the Department of Finance shows that raising the tax on cigarettes to P60 per pack would generate at least 30 billion additional revenue per year. Every April 7, health advocates around the world celebrate World Health Day. This serves as an opportunity to raise awareness on a particular area of health care that the WHO considers a priority concern. This year, the WHO has selected UHC as the main theme of World Health Day celebeation. Considered by the WHO as its No. 1 goal, UHC entails ensuring that everyone is able to access the health care they need without experiencing financial hardship. For the Philippines in particular, this theme is appropriate given that the UHC Act was signed into law earlier this year. Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. on Sunday said 320,000 scholars of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, including drug dependents undergoing rehabilitation and rebel returnees, stand to lose their scholarship due to the Senates supposed unilateral action slashing Tesdas P3-billion budget under the proposed 2019 P3.757-trillion national budget. He lamented Senates move of taking away Tesdas P3-billion budget. [The] P3-billion [funds are intended] for scholarship of rebel returnees, out-of-school youths and rehabilitating drug dependents enrolled under the Universal Access to Tertiary Education. As a result, at least 320,000 students enrolled under the program would lose their scholarship this year, he said. The Camarines Sur lawmaker earlier accused the Senate of sabotaging the programs of President Rodrigo Duterte, especially the Build, Build, Build program for cutting down unilaterally P83 billion of the national budget. He challenged Senate President Vicente Sotto III to explain the budget slash and identify the senators who had pushed for the realignments and where the funds would go. All he [Sotto] has to do is explain to the public why the Senate slashed the budget not only of build, build, build projects. Now is also the time for him to reveal the names of all senators who made budget cuts and show the items where these were realigned, he said.We wish to emphasize that the details of these budget cuts were not fully discussed in the bicameral conference committee. The senators unilaterally decided on the budget cuts and realigned them to other items based on request of individual proponents. Up to now, the Senate has yet to make public a detailed report on the proponents who recommended the individual realignments, he added. Some of the items allegedly removed from the 2019 national budget by the Senate included, but not limited to, were the Department of Transportations P5-billion for right-of-way projects, Department of Public Works and Highways P11.033-billion right-of-way projects, and DPWHs foreign-assisted projects P2.5 billion. According to House Speaker Gloria Arroyo, the President would sign the national budget very soon, and that he was just preparing the items to be vetoed in exercise of his power and authority. I think it will be signed soon. Every year, the President does line-item vetoes. So theyre just working now I think on what will be the line item vetoes. But theres already a date for us to go to Malacanang, she said. Whatever the New Peoples Army rebels will do, the Philippine government will also deliver, President Rodrigo Duterte said Saturday as he ordered the armed forces to learn the art of assassination against the communist rebels. In his speech during the National Federation of the Motorcycle Clubs of the Philippines annual national convention in Iloilo City, Duterte said he had not given up his dream to create his own military squad to counter the NPA Sparrow unit. He said he had been telling the police and military forces to be wary of the NPAs liquidation unit. Im addressing myself to the police and the military. Ive been telling you sparrow, sparrow, sparrow, Duterte said. They would really take the arms, that ammunition. If they [NPA] saw you with arms, they will not stop until... So, I told them to learn the art of assassination. The President first floated the idea of matching the NPAs talent in assassinating people in November 2018. While his recommendation was previously studied by his Cabinet officials to come to fruition, human rights defenders were quick to slam him for his proposal. Still, the Palace viewed the Presidents idea against the NPA rebels as a serious one. Now, I said, this ones real. If the NPA has a Sparrow [unit], then why dont we have one? So, I told them, Well, you form a unit to target the NPA, the President said.Whatever you [NPA] do, I will do also. Why? Do you think youre the only one who wants to have an advantage in this life? In the same speech, the President advised the military not to allow themselves to be captured by communist rebels, telling them to kill themselves instead. I do not want to see planes carrying decapitated soldiers. Put the gun in your mouth and shoot yourself, Duterte said. If you surrender, you will be brought to their camp and treat you like a dog. There are homosexuals there, too. They will use you, day and night. Do not go into that kind of s*** there. You die a warrior. You kill yourself. Do not surrender. Duterte said the communist rebels were continuously trying to overthrow the government. He also said the ISIS-inspired Abu Sayyaf Group cannot be satisfied by whatever deal that you can offer them. In March, Duterte formally announced the termination of the peace negotiations with the communist rebels. According to Duterte, he will no longer entertain any interventions or persuasions in the country to hold peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. READ: Rody's tough talk on China praised READ: China a threat to the world, says Chinese Solzhenitsyn 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 Wanteraktioun (Winter action) 2018/2019 took place between the 23 November 2018 and the 31 March 2019. Despite a slight dip in numbers, demand remained high. The initiative provides shelter for the homeless and aims to prevent death by hypothermia during the coldest months of the year. The Minister for Family Affairs, Integration and the Greater Region partnered up with Inter-Action, Croix-Rouge Luxembourg and Caritas Accueil et Solidarite for this campaign. The Foyer de Jour (day foyer) recorded 17,000 visits consisting of 1,316 people, of these, 45% were Luxembourgers, 45.06% hailed from EU countries and 44,51% from outside the EU. The Foyer de Nuit (night foyer) registered 773 individuals across 14,000 overnight stays. Numbers have gone down since last year. This could be due to milder temperatures over the winter. READ: Power price hike impends in aftermath of yellow alerts Consumers are in for a double-whammy of higherandthis month. Theamid tight supply and increased demand., with diesel prices seen rising P0.10 to P0.15 per liter and gasoline going up P0.15 to P0.25 per liter starting Tuesday. There is pressure that generation charge for April will go up. There were three days of yellow alerts in the first week of March and then second, the peso was weaker in March versus February, Lawrence Fernandez, Meralco head of utility economics said. The grid operator places thewhen reserves fall below the single biggest unit in the grid. The tightness in supply due to the low reserves causes power rates in theFor both factors, there is tendency that the generation charge will go up but we need to see what the billings from suppliers are, Fernandez said. Fernandez said that while there is pressure on the rates, there are cases when the power plants operate on a continuous basis and sometimes they can offset the effect of forex depreciation. Its a mix of factors and we dont know what will prevail. But so far right now, with the info we have, there is pressure for the gen charge to go up, the official said. Fernandez also said it is still too early to predict the price trend for May given that there have been five yellow alerts in the past week alone.Every time there is a reduction in the reserves, there is also pressure in the spot market prices. Weve had five consecutive days of yellow alerts, with corresponding effects on spot market prices, he said. Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said the company is ready to provide 24/7 services during the May elections. We have contingency measures as well. Just like in the 2016 national elections, we deployed several generation sets in strategic areas. In case there will be isolated outages, we will be able to provide what is needed in terms of supply through our mobile generator sets, Zaldarriaga said. Meralco can tap 156 participants of its interruptible load program to offload 564 MW of capacity from the grid and use their own generator sets if needed by the grid, he said. Fernandez said the company is also exploring securing interim supply agreements for the dry months. Meralco is the countrys biggest power distributor with over six-million customers in its franchise area. READ: Oil price hike set this week DOJ Secretary Menardo Guevarra PDEA chief Aaron Aquino READ: High court seeks probe of 13 narco-judges READ: Narco-list includes judges, fiscals, actors, PDEA claims The Justice Department said it could not as yetbecause the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency is reluctant to share information about its so-called narco-list.Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said he had wanted an immediate investigation but decided to hold off following the pronouncement by PDEA chief Aaron Aquino that he would not share the names of thebecause his agency is still validating them. He said the PDEA decision not to share the names after publicly announcing the alleged involvement was unfair to all prosecutors and judges because it cast suspicion on all of them. It is regretful that PDEA announced it before validation because everyone in the prosecutions service, as well as judges in the judiciary, became a suspect at this point when the names are being withheld, he said. Earlier, Guevarra said he planned to personally lead the fact-finding investigation against theHe said the involvement of prosecutors in the illegal drug trade, if proven, would be unacceptable.On Tuesday, the Court authorized Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta to coordinate with PDEA for the list of the names of the alleged narco judges. The Court said it would not tolerate any illegal or corrupt activities within its ranks.On Sunday, PDEA announced it seized P5.27 billion worth of shabu in the first quarter this year, the highest volume of illegal drugs seized in the countrys law enforcement history. Aquino said in the first quarter of 2019, the agency seized a total of 776.06 kilos of shabu worth P5.27 billion, surpassing the combined seizure of 672.42 kilos of shabu worth P4.58 billion from the first quarters of 2009 to 2018. This is the highest recorded shabu seizure for the first three months of the year in PDEA history. It also more than doubled compared to the second highest first quarter seizure, which was recorded in 2015 with 314.47 kilos worth P2.14 billion, Aquino said in a statement. The PDEA chief said the 2,034 anti-drug operations conducted and 2,818 drug suspects arrested by PDEA for the period are also the highest since 2009. This volume of seizures is an indication that we are conducting high-impact operations and hitting high-value targets, the PDEA chief said. Your browser does not support the audio element. Some rehab centers in Vietnam are doing all that they can to keep their patients away from addictive substances military-like scheduling, strict behavioral expectations, and work programs with one specific goal in mind: helping to build better people who can return to society clean and drug-free. A Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporter visited these rehab centers to witness how heroin addicts are struggling to leave their dark pasts behind. A day in a rehab center Every new day starts promptly at 5:30 am at the Drug Rehab Center No.2 in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. After washing up, the centers patients exercise together in the facilities courtyard before sitting down for breakfast. Afterwards, each is assigned a different task for the day. For Bui Bao Truc, an addict from Ho Chi Minh City, this means working on a coffee plantation. At first, I could not draw enough strength to perform the task but now Im getting the hang of it, Truc told Tuoi Tre. In the meantime, others go to work at the back of the centers cafeteria, where they spend their time peeling and knitting bamboo strings, which will be turned into household items. Nguyen Phuc Hung, 35, a patient at the facility, is in for his second time. Hes never done this kind of work before and relapsed after his first time getting clean when his mother passed away. Hungs treatment process at the center has been one of self-discovery. Since entering hes realized that he can, in fact, contribute to society and find purpose in life. It was at this place that I came to terms with working and following regulations, Hung expressed. This daily procedure is roughly the same at the Drug Rehab Center No.3 in the southern province of Binh Duong. Tuoi Tre visited the center one day in March when its 1,200 patients, tired from a hard days work, were waiting for their dinner to be served. As they waited, their hearty laughter fill the space and their healthy-looking faces cast bright smiles on the room, adding an air of hope to a room full of men who, just months ago, had been totally dependent on opioids. Off and on the beaten track Nguyen Trong Thong, 40, is the oldest recovering addict at the Drug Rehab Center No.3. This is his third time in the facility. In 2016, he relapsed just two months after his first release from rehabilitation. A short time after he was released again he found himself convicted of another drug charge and sentence to two years at the center. I have nothing left, you know, Thong told Tuoi Tre. At least, here I have a schedule to follow, a task to perform, and some spare moments to reflect on myself. Patients at the center are paid for the labor. Though the wage is a meager VND2 million (US$86.23) per month, it is more than enough to encourage ex-addicts to work legally instead of turning to petty thievery upon their release. Nguyen Minh Du, a 20-year-old man who has been admitted to the center twice, agrees that the payment scheme is a priceless factor for rehabilitation. I have spent four years suppressing my addiction at this center, he said. At least, Im able to earn for myself here and make money through work instead stealing. But money isnt the only driving factor for these patients. Duong Quang Hung, 30, was forcefully admitted into the center. At first, Hung found himself brawling with other students almost on a daily basis, until one of the centers trainers, Vo Chi Cong, changed his life. Cong chose to talk with Hung and reminded the him that his mother was at home, praying for his return. The talk impacted Hung and he promised himself that hed rehabilitate to the best of his ability so that he could once again be with his mother. Nguyen Phuc Hung, a rehabbing addict, works at the Drug Rehab Center No.2 in Lam Dong, Vietnam's Central Highlands. Photo: Thao Thuong / Tuoi Tre Faith: a rare commodity Heroin addicts in Vietnam tend to be shunned by society. This prevailing attitude is a huge factor in the countrys high relapse rates. Oftentimes, addict expected to be welcomed home, but instead find that things have changed. Cuong, 38, began using in 2000 when his then girlfriends brother pressured him into trying heroine. Over the past two decades he has been in and out of various rehab centers at least four times. Each time, the moment he gets out, he goes right back in. According to Cuong, the reason for his reckless attitude towards the substance, was because no one ever believed in him, even his family, after his rehab. Every time he got too near the cash counter people are be suspicious of him. There is just no real way out, Cuong stated. Cuong is but one among many of his peers, who also got back to square one after all they had been through, merely due to social distrust. Nguyen Minh Tien, 34, thought he had risen above such prejudice, when he finally landed a job as a blue-collar worker at a local factory. But news about his past admission at the rehab center soon spread out, which heavily dampened his effort to get on to the friendly side of his colleagues. If you go to work, people will think you are just hanging out with bad guys, he said. Should you work overtime, that only means an excuse to go get a dose. Though Vietnamese rehab centers have pulled off quite some feat when it comes to its trade, it seems the whole process will just come to waste, as they cannot train the outside society to accept the ex-addicts back. According to Truong Van Hau, direct of the Drug Rehab Center No.2, aside from each rehabbing addicts willpower, to successfully stay off drugs altogether, all-in support from the community is mandatory. Without this support, ex-addicts have nowhere to turn except towards drugs. By the end of 2018, there were 223,000 officially registered heroin addicts currently in rehabilitation in Vietnam. In 2016, the figure was only 11,831. Fifty-eight out of 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam observe an increase in the number of addicts within their localities. While 50.9 percent of the addicts are 30 or older, younger people are also exposed to the addictive risk, as those aged 16-30 make up the second largest amount of 49 percent. According to the latest report, 96 percent of the addicts are male. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! WASHINGTON -- Scientists are expected to unveil on Wednesday the first-ever photograph of a black hole, a breakthrough in astrophysics providing insight into celestial monsters with gravitational fields so intense no matter or light can escape. The U.S. National Science Foundation has scheduled a news conference in Washington to announce a groundbreaking result from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, an international partnership formed in 2012 to try to directly observe the immediate environment of a black hole. Simultaneous news conferences are scheduled in Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo. A black holes event horizon, one of the most violent places in the universe, is the point of no return beyond which anything - stars, planets, gas, dust, all forms of electromagnetic radiation including light - gets sucked in irretrievably. While scientists involved in the research declined to disclose the findings ahead of the formal announcement, they are clear about their goals. Its a visionary project to take the first photograph of a black hole. We are a collaboration of over 200 people internationally, astrophysicist Sheperd Doeleman, director of the Event Horizon Telescope at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, said at a March event in Texas. The news conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. (1300 GMT) on Wednesday. The research will put to the test a scientific pillar - physicist Albert Einsteins theory of general relativity, according to University of Arizona astrophysicist Dimitrios Psaltis, project scientist for the Event Horizon Telescope. That theory, put forward in 1915, was intended to explain the laws of gravity and their relation to other natural forces. Supermassive black holes The researchers targeted two supermassive black holes. The first - called Sagittarius A* - is situated at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, possessing 4 million times the mass of our sun and located 26,000 light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). The second - called M87 - resides at the center of the neighboring Virgo A galaxy, boasting a mass 3.5 billion times that of the sun and located 54 million light-years away from Earth. Streaming away from M87 at nearly the speed of light is a humongous jet of subatomic particles. Black holes, coming in a variety of sizes, are extraordinarily dense entities formed when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. Supermassive black holes are the largest kind, devouring matter and radiation and perhaps merging with other black holes. Psaltis described a black hole as an extreme warp in spacetime, a term referring to the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time joined into a single four-dimensional continuum. Doeleman said the projects researchers obtained the first data in April 2017 from a global network of telescopes. The telescopes that collected that initial data are located in the U.S. states of Arizona and Hawaii as well as Mexico, Chile, Spain and Antarctica. Since then, telescopes in France and Greenland have been added to the network. The scientists also will be trying to detect for the first time the dynamics near the black hole as matter orbits at near light speeds before being swallowed into oblivion. The fact that black holes do not allow light to escape makes viewing them difficult. The scientists will be looking for a ring of light - radiation and matter circling at tremendous speed at the edge of the event horizon - around a region of darkness representing the actual black hole. This is known as the black holes shadow or silhouette. Einsteins theory, if correct, should allow for an extremely accurate prediction of the size and shape of a black hole. The shape of the shadow will be almost a perfect circle in Einsteins theory, Psaltis said. If we find it to be different than what the theory predicts, then we go back to square one and we say, Clearly, something is not exactly right. After exhibiting a tolerance that his critics misinterpreted as weakness, President Rodrigo Duterte last week took a strong stand against Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea, where Beijing has deployed more than 200 vesselssome of them manned by coast guards and militiaaround Pag-asa Island over the last few months. Let us be friends, but do not touch Pag-asa Island and the rest, the President said at a rally in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. If you make moves there, thats a different story. I will tell my soldiers, Prepare for a suicide mission, he added. Im just telling you [to] lay off the Pag-asa because I have soldiers there. Earlier, the Department of Foreign Affairs, called the presence of about 275 Chinese vessels near and around Pag-asa island illegal, saying it was an infringement of Philippine sovereignty. The firm stand drew support from his critics and allies alike. Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, for example, commended the President and urged everyone to rally around him. Our President is manifesting his own brand of leadership which in this instance is both appropriate and admirable, Del Rosario said in a statement.Let us all be one in standing behind him, said Del Rosario, who, along with former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, filed a case against Chinese President Xi Jinping, accusing him of committing crimes against humanity in connection with Beijings activities to gain control over most of the resource-rich South China Sea. The Presidents ally in the Senate, Senator Richard Gordon lashed out at Beijing, saying China was not a friend because its actions did not demonstrate the actions of a friend. China said they are our friends but a friend does not send... hundreds of vessels to harass our fishermen in our territory, Gordon said. In his almost three years in office, the President has opted for a pragmatic approach to the countrys giant neighbor to the north, preferring to discuss trade and development rather than territorial disputes. Given the need to improve the economy, the President took a clearly less belligerent attitude toward China than did his predecessor, paving the way for improved ties with Beijing and access to Chinese investments and loans. But last week, the President showed there are limits to his administrations accommodationand that these correctly begin where Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity are challenged. This is a strong, principled position that all Filipinos can get behind. DINARD, France -- The Group of Seven nations ended a foreign ministers meeting in western France without quarreling on Saturday, as they looked to lay the groundwork for a leaders summit in August despite the absence of the U.S. Secretary of State. U.S. President Donald Trump had thrown last years summit of the club of major industrial countries in Canada into disarray, backing out of a joint communique and firing barbs at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. France, which now has the G7 presidency, scaled back its ambitions for the latest meeting, focusing on areas where consensus could be found including the dangers of cyber crime for democracy, tackling inequalities between men and women, and trafficking in Africas Sahel region. Last year there was an end of G7 that did not go very well but the G7 here in Dinard went very well, Frances Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters, seeking to put a positive spin on the two-day meeting. The meeting was overshadowed by the absence of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who sent his deputy in his place. One diplomat said it sent a message that he had better things to do. However, it did lay out ambitions for a cyber security initiative designed to help protect liberal democracies and defend civil liberties from digital attacks, though it was the turmoil in Libya that appeared to unite them the most. As eastern commander Khalifa Haftar swept toward Tripoli, they pressed him to halt his forces advance on the capital as concerns grow of a civil war resurgence. Urging restraint from all factions, the G7 said Libyas oil installations should not be used by any group for political gain. At least there seems to be a good degree of convergence on Libya from the international community, Italys Foreign Minister Enzo Milanesi told reporters. Key issues Despite that unity, Le Drian pointed out that differences on key issues were still evident, especially on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how to handle Iran. Despite the crisp air of Dinard, we couldnt overcome some of our differences, Le Drian said. A spokeswoman for Japans foreign ministry described the debate as friendly but at times heated and frank. President Trump last year pulled the United States out of Irans international nuclear deal, rejecting the approach favored by Washingtons allies to curb Tehrans nuclear ambitions. The final communique made no mention of the Iran accord, which France, Britain and Germany continue to abide by. However, it outlined concerns over Irans regional and ballistic missile activities, and its human rights record. We intend to continue our work to counter Irans regional proliferation of ballistic missiles and its unlawful arms transfers, the communique said. The biggest difference was on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In March, Trump recognized Israels 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights in an election boost for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, drawing direct or implied criticism from the European Union and European capitals. We had an exchange of views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and there were clear differences, the communique read. G7 leaders meet in southwest France at the end of August. A traditional Vietnamese celebration commemorating the countrys ancestry and founders was held in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, on Saturday, helping spread the culture and traditional values of Vietnam, according to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA). The Hung Kings Festival is annually observed on 10th day of the third lunar month, which officially falls on April 15 this year. Officially known as Gio To Hung Vuong, literally meaning Death Anniversary of the Hung Kings," the celebration honors the Hung Kings contributions to the country as founders of the early nation state known as Van Lang, originating between 1,000 B.C. to 500 B.C. With a traditional ceremony, the national holiday of Vietnam was celebrated in the capital of Laos on April 6, a week ahead of the official celebration, thanks to the cooperation of several Vietnamese organizations and the Embassy of Vietnam in Laos. Contributing to the success of the traditional event were the association of Vietnamese people in Vientiane, a city-level association of Vietnamese in Vientiane, and an association for Vietnamese businesses and investors in Vientiane, among others. Nguyen Phu Binh, Ambassador of Vietnam to Laos, formally handed the statues of the Hung Kings to the head of the association of Vietnamese people so that Buddhist monks could start the traditional ceremony. Monk Thich Minh Quang, head of a department for the management and cooperation of Vietnamese Buddhism in Laos, chaired the traditional ceremony, according to the Vietnam News Agency. During the ceremony, representatives of Vietnamese associations, departments, and organizations in Laos had the opportunity to show their respect for while offering prayers and incense to their ancestry. The ceremony significantly contributed to spreading Vietnamese culture, traditions, and the religious practices of worshipping ancestry in the neighboring country. For the Vietnamese community in Vientiane, being able to celebrate one of the major traditional holidays of Vietnam in another country was a sacred and touching opportunity. Being organized outside of Vietnam, the celebration commemorating the first kings of the country deeply reminds Vietnamese living abroad to remember their roots and always feel grateful to their ancestry. The event also played an important role in closing the cultural gap between Vietnamese and Laotians as it helped the Laotians better understand Vietnamese culture and practices, contributing to the good diplomatic relations between the two countries. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Two Vietnamese women on Monday received a peace award in South Korea for their efforts in bringing transparency to historical truths about the massacres of Vietnamese people perpetrated by South Korean troops during the American War in Vietnam. The unrelated women, who share the same full name, Nguyen Thi Thanh, were recipients of the 2019 Peace Award presented by Jeju April 3rd, a South Korean non-governmental organization. Jeju April 3rd works to promote reconciliation between both sides of a historic massacre that saw almost the entire population of the countrys Jeju Island killed on April 3, 1948. The organization picked two Vietnamese women as recipient of this years award because they are survivors of similar massacres, conducted by South Korean troops, that took place in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam. Their stories bear resemblance to the stories of Jeju massacre survivors and represent a wish for everlasting peace and co-existence between peoples, according to the organizer. Both Thanhs saw their family members killed by South Korean soldiers during separate massacres in Quang Nam in January 1968 at the height of the American War in Vietnam. As many as 1,361 Vietnamese civilians were killed in massacres carried out by the Korean Tiger and Blue Dragon divisions from 1966 to 1968, according to estimations by the Seoul-based current affairs weekly Hankyoreh 21 and figures from Vietnams war crime investigation commission. The Vietnamese women have, for the past decade, welcomed hundreds of groups of South Korean students, journalists and social activists to Quang Nam to learn about the massacres as part of a campaign initiated by Hankyoreh 21 in 1999. Last year, they were invited to Seoul to attend a hypothetical trial on the war crimes committed by Korean troops in Vietnam that ended with a victory for Vietnamese massacre victims. It pains me greatly to retell my story over and over, but I will keep doing it because I dont want history to repeat itself, Thanh said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Police in Vietnams Mekong Delta have arrested 17 men and women after they were caught using drugs inside two rooms of a local motel on Saturday. Officers from the anti-drug unit under the Department of Police in Vinh Long Province raided Huy Thao Motel, located in Ward 3, Vinh Long City, at around 2:00 am. A total of 19 men and women, aged 20 to 25, were showing signs of being high on drugs inside two rooms within the venue. Seventeen out of the 19 people later tested positive for drugs. Officers also found a type of white powder, which was potentially a narcotic, being contained inside a plastic bag and on a plate. All 17 drug users were then escorted to the police station for further investigation. In mid-March, the provincial police department also captured five men and one woman after catching them red-handed consuming narcotics in a karaoke shop in Ward 4, Vinh Long City. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Three people were killed and two others injured after an automobile crashed into a truck in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai on early Sunday morning. According to preliminary information, the seven-seater car was steered by 31-year-old Nguyen Dac Tam and carrying a total of five people. The vehicle was traveling on a section of National Highway 20 in Tuc Trung Commune, Dinh Quan District at around 1:40 am, when it slammed into a truck driven by 36-year-old Nguyen Trong Quoc Viet, which was running in the opposite direction. The crash killed three women in the automobile, namely Tran Thao Vy, 30, Ngo Thi Xuan, 52, and Tran Thi Long, 69. Viet was admitted to the hospital with severe injuries, while another passenger in the automobile suffered minor wounds. The car was heavily damaged following the incident. Meanwhile, the truck went off road and tipped over on a plantation of a local family. Police officers have examined the crash site and believed that the car was traveling in the wrong lane. Further investigation is ongoing. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Here are todays leading news stories: Politics -- Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte is scheduled to pay an official visit to Vietnam from April 9 to 11 at the invitation of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. -- National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan concluded her working visit to the European Parliament and left Brussels, Belgium, for Doha, Qatar, on Saturday to attend the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU -140) and related meetings. Society -- A fire broke out at a warehouse in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City at around 8:00 pm on Saturday, burning down almost all plastic and garment products inside the facility. There were no casualties in the incident. -- Police in the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long have arrested 17 young men and women, aged 20 to 25, after they were caught using drugs inside two rooms of a local motel on Saturday. -- Hail occurred in a commune in the north-central province of Nghe An on Saturday afternoon and lasted for about 30 minutes. Local authorities are calculating the damage caused by the weather phenomenon. -- A 35-year-old man from the north-central province of Ha Tinh was arrested on Saturday for shooting and injuring a local resident due to personal conflicts with the victim, which arose from land disputes. -- A 37-year-old woman is about to stand trial at the Peoples Court in Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi for secretly putting a drug stack into her boyfriends car in order to frame him. -- Three people who are employees of a debt collecting company in the northern province of Quang Ninh have been attacked by a local family as they were trying to collect debts for their client. The attackers also forced the debt collectors to beg for mercy, filmed the incident, and uploaded the video to social media. -- The body of Vietnamese comedian Anh Vu, who passed away during a tour in the United States earlier this week, is expected to be brought back to Vietnam on the morning of April 9. Business -- The Vietnam Food Association under the Ministry of Health affirmed on Saturday it will promptly verify the recall of over 18,000 bottles of Chin-Su chilli sauce in Osaka, Japan over a banned food addictive. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Police in the northern Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh are probing a case where a group of debt collectors were attacked by the debtors, after a video of the incident was posted to social media. A police official in Dong Trieu Town, Quang Ninh Province confirmed on Saturday that those who were involved in the case had been summoned to the police station to assist the investigation. Preliminary information showed that three employees of Hung Thinh Debt Collecting Company, based in Ho Chi Minh City, arrived at the house of a family in Dong Trieu Town in early April. The family owes VND400 million (US$17,200) to a company in the southern metropolis and has failed to pay up for years. The firm had previously signed a contract with Hung Thinh Company, and the three employees had been tasked with collecting the debt. An argument apparently broke out during a meeting between the debt collectors and debtors, which eventually resulted in violence. One of the men is bleeding and is forced to kneel down. Photo: Facebook According to a video that was uploaded to Facebook, the three men from Hung Thinh Company were attacked by the local family. They were then forced to get on their knees, keep their faces close to the ground, and stay still. One of the men could be seen bleeding and trying to wipe the blood with a piece of tissue. According to the police official, leaders of Hung Thinh Company have also submitted a report to officers in Dong Trieu Town. An investigation is being carried out to verify the debt amount, as well as the legitimacy of Hung Thinh Companys operations. Police officers will also look into who first started the violence. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! "Washington is planning to designate the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group, the Wall Street Journal reported on April 5, citing unnamed U.S officials. According to the officials, the decision will be officially announced by the U.S. State Department as early as April 8. This will be first time Washington to formally designate another countrys military a terrorist group. The President Donald Trump administration reportedly hopes that this decision will increase pressure on Tehran. However, some U.S. officials believe that this step could endanger U.S. troops deployed near IRGC forces in the Middle East." WSJ and SF ------------- The AUMF on terrorism has been used far and wide as a hunting license to attack any armed group that could even distantly be thought a terrorist enemy. The anti-terrorism AUMF makes such attacks legal under US law. The official designation as "terrorist" of the IRGC which is a 125000 man army with its own navy and air force makes it legal for the US Armed Forces to attack the IRGC and its people wherever they are found and under any circumstances that may occur. It is a declaration of war. The neocon nitwits (Pompeo, Bolton, Hannah, etc.) may think that Iran's reaction to this declaration of war will be submission to their will but IMO that is very unlikely. IMO it is more likely that the IRGC will absorb the new reality and will prepare for war with the US. https://southfront.org/u-s-to-designate-irans-revolutionary-guard-corps-as-terrorist-group-report/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guard_Corps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_for_Use_of_Military_Force_Against_Terrorists FILE PHOTO: Isla Oil Refinery PDVSA terminal is seen in Willemstad on the island of Curacao, February 22, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Romero/File Photo By Mircely Guanipa and Deisy Buitrago PUNTO FIJO/CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA expects its crucial crude upgraders to operate well below capacity this month, according to industry sources and documents seen by Reuters, as U.S. sanctions and energy blackouts hit the OPEC nation's oil industry. Venezuela depends on the upgraders, which are mostly operated by joint ventures with foreign companies, to convert the extra-heavy crude oil produced in the Orinoco Belt into exportable grades usable in overseas refineries. Together, they have a capacity of some 700,000 barrels per day. Prolonged power outages have been adding to problems blending and exporting crude, as PDVSA's main oil port, Jose, in northeastern Venezuela remained paralysed. The Petropiar and Petromonagas upgraders, part-owned by U.S. oil major Chevron and Russian giant Rosneft respectively, have not fully restarted since a March 7 blackout. Petrocedeno, part-owned by France's Total and Norway's Equinor, stopped working after a second blackout on March 25, as did PDVSA's fully-owned Petrosanfelix. "The upgraders are still halted," oil workers' union leader Jose Bodas said. According to an internal PDVSA document seen by Reuters this week, Petropiar and Petrocedeno are "in the process of restarting." Petromonagas is expected to undergo "cleaning and repair" this month after maintenance workers found two of its furnaces were obstructed by waste products, while a maintenance process at Petrosanfelix was halted, according to the document. "The upgraders are not expected to increase processing," an internal PDVSA document detailing planning for the month of April reads. It said Petrosanfelix was unlikely to restart, while the remaining three would likely process crude at reduced rates. One industry source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a lack of authorization to speak publicly, said the blockages of Petromonagas' furnaces was likely to keep the upgrader out of commission for 20 days. Story continues The source said the company had cancelled all its shipments of upgraded crude for April. Neither PDVSA nor Venezuela's oil ministry responded to a request for comment. Total declined to comment, while Chevron referred questions to Petropiar, which like all oil joint ventures in Venezuela is controlled by PDVSA. Rosneft and Equinor did not respond to requests for comment. EXPORTS TUMBLED IN FEBRUARY The blackouts have presented an additional obstacle for President Nicolas Maduro's efforts to halt a years-long drop in oil output, Venezuela's main source of government revenue. The decline in production is expected to accelerate after the United States sanctioned PDVSA in late January, as part of its bid to oust Maduro from power. Exports fell about 40 percent in February in the immediate aftermath of the sanctions, but remained stable in March at slightly below 1 million barrels per day (bpd). To keep exports stable with limited upgrading capacity, PDVSA will need to import diluents - light crude or heavy naphtha - that can be blended directly with extra heavy oil from the Orinoco belt to make exportable grades. But the sanctions blocked U.S. companies, previously the main suppliers of diluents to Venezuela, from selling the products to PDVSA. The Petrosinovensa blending facility, a joint venture of PDVSA and China's CNPC that produces Merey crude, was producing about 60 percent of the 132,000 bpd of upgraded crude it planned to produce, the PDVSA document showed. To avoid a further drop in exports, the country has recently turned to Rosneft for supply of diluents, according to the industry source and Refinitiv Eikon data. One tanker, the Torm Hilde carrying 780,000 barrels of naphtha, has set sail for Venezuela, while a second one with 500,000 barrels was expected to set sail soon. (Reporting by Mircely Guanipa in Punto Fijo, Deisy Buitrago in Caracas and Marianna Parraga in Mexico City; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Tom Brown) Social media companies will be legally required to protect their users with senior management held personally liable if they do not comply with new rules around harmful content, according to a long-awaited Government white paper. The joint proposal on online harms from the Home Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) says a regulator will be appointed to ensure internet firms meet their responsibilities, which will be outlined in a mandatory duty of care. The duty of care will require firms to take more responsibility for the safety of users and more actively tackle the harm caused by content or activity on their platforms. The regulator will have the power to issue substantial fines, block access to sites and potentially impose liability on individual members of senior management, the proposal says. The Government is currently consulting on whether to create a new regulator or use an existing one, such as Ofcom, to enforce the new rules. The proposed measures are part of a Government plan to make the UK one of the safest places in the world to be online, and comes in response to concerns over the growth of violent content, encouraging suicide, disinformation and the exposure of children to cyberbullying and other inappropriate material online. A number of charities and campaigners have called for greater regulation to be introduced, while several reports from MPs and other groups published this year have also supported the calls for a duty of care to be implemented. Prime Minister Theresa May said the proposals were a sign the age of self-regulation for internet companies was over. The internet can be brilliant at connecting people across the world but for too long these companies have not done enough to protect users, especially children and young people, from harmful content, she said. That is not good enough, and it is time to do things differently. We have listened to campaigners and parents, and are putting a legal duty of care on internet companies to keep people safe. Story continues Online companies must start taking responsibility for their platforms, and help restore public trust in this technology. The proposed new laws will apply to any company that allows users to share or discover user-generated content or interact with each other online, the Government said, applicable to companies of all sizes from social media platforms to file hosting sites, forum, messaging services and search engines. It also calls for powers to be given to a regulator to force internet firms to publish annual transparency reports on the harmful content on their platforms and how they are addressing it. Companies including Facebook and Twitter already publish reports of this nature. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg after a meeting on harmful content in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA) Last week, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg told politicians in Ireland that the company would work with governments to establish new policies in a bid to regulate social media. The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid added that tech firms had a moral duty to protect the young people they profit from. Despite our repeated calls to action, harmful and illegal content including child abuse and terrorism is still too readily available online, he said. That is why we are forcing these firms to clean up their act once and for all. I made it my mission to protect our young people and we are now delivering on that promise. Vital discussions at G7 around online terror content especially after horrors of Christchurch. I made clear our upcoming Online Harms White Paper will ensure social media firms take more responsibility. Much more global action needed in this area #G7France (1/2) pic.twitter.com/Kc9aMPCIRG Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) April 4, 2019 A 12-week consultation of the proposals will now take place before the Government will publish its final proposals for legislation. The Government said the proposed regulator would have a legal duty to pay due regard to innovation, as well as to protect users rights online. Peter Wanless, chief executive of childrens charity the NSPCC which has campaigned for regulation for the past two years said the proposals would make the UK a world pioneer in protecting children online. For too long social networks have failed to prioritise childrens safety and left them exposed to grooming, abuse, and harmful content, he said. So its high time they were forced to act through this legally binding duty to protect children, backed up with hefty punishments if they fail to do so. We are pleased that the Government has listened to the NSPCCs detailed proposals and we are grateful to all those who supported our campaign. However, former culture secretary John Whittingdale warned ministers risked dragging people into a draconian censorship regime in their attempts to regulate internet firms. Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said he feared the plans could give succour to Britains enemies, giving them an excuse to further censor their own people. Countries such as China, Russia and North Korea, which allow no political dissent and deny their people freedom of speech, are also keen to impose censorship online, just as they already do on traditional media, he said. This mooted new UK regulator must not give the despots an excuse to claim that they are simply following an example set by Britain, where civil liberties were first entrenched in Magna Carta 800 years ago, he said. Responding to the proposals, Facebooks UK head of public policy Rebecca Stimson said: The internet has transformed how billions of people live, work and connect with each other, but new forms of communication also bring huge challenges. We have responsibilities to keep people safe on our services and we share the Governments commitment to tackling harmful content online. As Mark Zuckerberg (Facebooks founder) said last month, new regulations are needed so that we have a standardised approach across platforms, and private companies arent making so many important decisions alone. She added that while Facebook had tripled the number of people it employs to identify harmful content and continued to review its policies, we know there is much more to do. New rules for the internet should protect society from harm while also supporting innovation, the digital economy and freedom of speech. These are complex issues to get right and we look forward to working with the Government and Parliament to ensure new regulations are effective, she added. Boeing has said it is slowing production of the 737 MAX so it can focus its attention on fixing the flight-control software that has been implicated in two deadly crashes. The aircraft-maker said it is "making progress" on updated 737 MAX software that it hopes will prevent future accidents. Boeing's chief executive Dennis Muilenburg admitted the "erroneous activation" of the MCAS software had been a "common link" between the crashes of Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air. Both crashes involved the 737 MAX 8, which has an automated system that pushes the plane's nose down when the possibility of an aerodynamic stall is detected. Mr Muilenburg said in a statement: "We have the responsibility to eliminate this risk, and we know how to do it. "As part of this effort, we're making progress on the 737 MAX software update that will prevent accidents like these from ever happening again. "Teams are working tirelessly, advancing and testing the software, conducting non-advocate reviews, and engaging regulators and customers worldwide as we proceed to final certification." The crash in Ethiopia on 10 March killed all 157 people on board and a preliminary report , based on flight data and cockpit voice recorders, showed the faulty sensor sparked a series of events that caused the pilots to lose control of the plane. The problems were similar to those reported on the Indonesian Lion Air flight that crashed last October, killing all 189 people on board. The 737 MAX was grounded by the world's aviation authorities after the Ethiopia crash. Mr Muilenburg said that the firm would adjust its 737 production to allow it to prioritise software certification and returning the MAX to flight. This will see it move from a rate of 52 planes per month to 42 from mid-April. "At a production rate of 42 airplanes per month, the 737 programme and related production teams will maintain their current employment levels while we continue to invest in the broader health and quality of our production system and supply chain," he said. Story continues Boeing is finalising new pilot training courses and educational material for airlines using the MAX. Also, the firm's board of directors has been asked to form a committee to review policies and processes for aircraft design and development. Mr Muilenburg said: "Safety is our responsibility, and we own it. "When the MAX returns to the skies, we've promised our airline customers and their passengers and crews that it will be as safe as any airplane ever to fly." Shares in Boeing fell around 1% as the market closed on Friday. Two cars reportedly fell into the water as the bridge collapsed . These shocking images show the aftermath of a ridge collapsing following a bridge collision in Brazil. A ship crashed into a bridge pillar in Brazils Amazon region, causing the spans central road to plunge into the Moju River. Two cars plunged into the water as the bridge collapsed. Para state Governor Helder Barbalho said that witnesses reported seeing two small cars fall into the water from a highway leading to the port city of Belem, the state capital. It was unknown how many people were in the cars, and fire department scuba divers were searching the river. Five crew members who were on the ferry survived, but no information has been released about any victims as about 650 feet of the half-mile bridge collapsed. An inspection in January found corrosion problems on the bridge pillars. This is a sad day with this regrettable episode, Mr Barbalho said in an initial statement. Right now our priority is to speed up the search for the victims and give total support to their families. Local media reported that a January inspection of the bridge found corrosion problems on the pillars. At the time, the government did not think the problem was serious enough to close the span, but did request funds for emergency measures, the reports said. The structure is part of a complex of bridges that span a labyrinth of rivers at the mouth of the Amazon river basin to provide a road connection between many rural cities and the state capital. The state government said it would install ramps and have barges ferry cars from one end of the broken bridge to the other while the span is rebuilt. A bridge over the Moju River is seen after collapsing and potentially affecting shipments of grains, such as soybeans and corn through northern ports at Alca Viaria complex in the Highway PA-483 in Acara, Para state, Brazil April 6, 2019. Fernando Araujo/Agencia Brasil/Handout via REUTERS The governor estimated repairs and new safety measures would cost 25 million US dollars (19 million) and take about year. Mr Barbalho also said officials would install buffers and warning signs on the pillars of other bridges in the complex. A former Irish soldier who went to live in Islamic State-controlled Syria has reportedly denied fighting for the jihadist militants. Lisa Smith, a 37-year-old originally from Co Louth, is currently living in a refugee camp in Syria. In an interview with The Mail On Sunday, she spoke of her desire to return to Ireland with her two-year-old daughter, whom she claims was born to a British father while living in IS territory, a man she says died in the last three months. For me, I want to go back to my country, the former member of the Defence Forces told the newspaper. Shes (daughter) my number one priority now thats why I want to leave and take her home with me and get her educated. People here are not educated. In the interview with the newspaper, she added: The only thing for me what I can do anyway is just live my life the way I live it, in my own home, with my daughter, and bring my daughter up. I dont want to cause problems for anyone, I dont want to mix, Im still me, Im still like a good neighbour, Im still a good friend, Im just still me. Leo Varadkar has suggested Lisa Smith should be allowed to return home (Brian Lawless/PA) Im not, like, out to kill anyone, I dont believe in suicide attacks. According to the newspaper report, when asked whether she fought for Isis, Ms Smith said: No, I didnt do anything. She reportedly added: I didnt even own a gun. My husband many times said to me, you want me to buy you one? I said no. He said its just for self-defence or, I said: I dont want, I dont want. I think anyone that knows me, you know in the army or outside the army or anywhere in my life, will know that, they know me, that I wouldnt pick up the weapon and fight and stuff like that. I didnt do it, I didnt own a rifle, I didnt teach them anything. Story continues Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has already indicated that Ms Smith would be permitted to return to Ireland if she wished. But he has said a security assessment would have to be carried to make sure she is not a threat to anyone in Ireland. Asked if she should face investigation in Ireland, Ms Smith told The Mail On Sunday: I dont think I should be tried. If they want to put an investigation on me, I have nothing to hide. The only thing I did was come here and, if thats my crime, like a lot of other peoples, for coming here and realising I made a mistake. Sky News A football fan has been jailed for six years and eight months after admitting slashing a rival supporter across the face during a fight before an FA Cup tie in 2019. Billy Cowap, 29, from Lewisham in southeast London, tried to cause "serious GBH to one person" and later cut the face of another with a knife, the Metropolitan Police said. The trouble began after a group of Everton fans got off a train at Surrey Quays and went to a pub on Old Rotherhithe Road ahead of the clubs' fourth round FA Cup match at The Den on 26 January. There was later a larger fight on Hawkstone Road involving more than 100 people, during which Cowap injured the rival fan's face. Britains Conservative Party MP Jacob Rees-Mogg walks in Westminster in London, Britain, April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/Files Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that Theresa May has made active choices to prevent Brexit. The North East Somerset MP says that the Prime Ministers collusion with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as the pair try to compromise a Brexit deal risks giving a credibility to Mr Corbyn and undermining the general thrust of the Conservative argument that he is a Marxist and he would be dangerous to this nations interests. He added that there was an irony, at the very minimum, of saying one week that one thinks Mr Corbyn is dangerous and unfit for office and the next week deciding to cohabit with him. He told Sky News: The Prime Minister could have taken us out on March 29. It was the Prime Minister who asked for an extension, it was the Prime Minister who changed the date by prerogative power from March 29 to April 12. This all rests with her and upon her shoulders. The Prime Minister Mrs May has made active choices to stop us leaving and she deserves to be held to account for that. People ought to know the truth of the position, rather than trying to blame everybody else, blaming recalcitrant MPs and other Conservatives. Britains Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip leave church, as Brexit turmoil continues, near High Wycombe, Britain April 7, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson If the Prime Minister had done what she said in the first place and had stuck to the law, as set out in two Acts, we would have left the European Union by now. Theresa May warned this morning that Brexit could slip through our fingers unless the Tories worked with Labour to reach a compromise. The PM claimed that she had done everything in my power to persuade both Tory and DUP MPs to back her deal, but admitted that after three humiliating rejections there is no sign it can be passed in the near future. She said: Because Parliament has made clear it will stop the UK leaving without a deal, we now have a stark choice: leave the European Union with a deal or do not leave at all, she said. My answer to that is clear: we must deliver Brexit and to do so we must agree a deal. If we cannot secure a majority among Conservative and DUP MPs we have no choice but to reach out across the House of Commons. Story continues The referendum was not fought along party lines and people I speak to on the doorstep tell me they expect their politicians to work together when the national interest demands it. The fact is that on Brexit there are areas where the two main parties agree: we both want to end free movement, we both want to leave with a good deal, and we both want to protect jobs. That is the basis for a compromise that can win a majority in Parliament and winning that majority is the only way to deliver Brexit. The Libyan National Army (LNA) forces headed by Colonel Khalifa Haftar launched an air strike in southern Tripoli on Sunday, according to witnesses and various wire agencies. The fighting began early Sunday morning as Haftars forces and troops from the western-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) began fighting in the Wadi Raba farming area.The LNA said it has reached the southern outskirts and has taken the disused international airport, 24 kilometres from central Tripoli, but GNA military reportedly refuted this.Pro-GNA forces spokesman, Colonel Mohamed Gnounou said a counteroffensive had been launched, adding that Operation Volcano of Anger had begun purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces, referring to Haftar troops.According to reports, this air strike came one day after the GNA launched air strikes on Haftars forces, including the LNA position south of the capital.The United States said it had temporarily withdrew the small contingent of American troops that were helping local forces combat Islamic State due to security conditions on the ground.The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable, said Marine Corps General Thomas Waldhauser, head of US Africa Command.Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing US strategy, he added.Tripoli civilians were reportedly queuing outside petrol stations and supermarkets, according to French newswire AFP. At least 23 civilians have been killed since Thursday, but numbers do not reflect the Sunday air strikes. The Libyan National Army (LNA) forces headed by Colonel Khalifa Haftar launched an air strike in southern Tripoli on Sunday, according to witnesses and various wire agencies. The fighting began early Sunday morning as Haftars forces and troops from the western-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) began fighting in the Wadi Raba farming area. The LNA said it has reached the southern outskirts and has taken the disused international airport, 24 kilometres from central Tripoli, but GNA military reportedly refuted this. Pro-GNA forces spokesman, Colonel Mohamed Gnounou said a counteroffensive had been launched, adding that Operation Volcano of Anger had begun purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces, referring to Haftar troops. According to reports, this air strike came one day after the GNA launched air strikes on Haftars forces, including the LNA position south of the capital. The United States said it had temporarily withdrew the small contingent of American troops that were helping local forces combat Islamic State due to security conditions on the ground. The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable, said Marine Corps General Thomas Waldhauser, head of US Africa Command. Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing US strategy, he added. Tripoli civilians were reportedly queuing outside petrol stations and supermarkets, according to French newswire AFP. At least 23 civilians have been killed since Thursday, but numbers do not reflect the Sunday air strikes. Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley A surviving victim of the Novichok scandal has asked a Russian representative Why did your country kill my girlfriend?. Charlie Rowley had a meeting with Russias ambassador in London to question him about the death of his partner Dawn Sturgess. He said he still believed Russia was to blame for the Salisbury attack and that he was fed Russian propaganda during the 90-minute discussion. The 45-year-old was exposed to the same nerve agent used to attack ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last March. Mr Rowley and Ms Sturgess, 44, fell ill in Amesbury months later after coming into contact with a perfume bottle believed to have been used in the poisonings and then discarded. Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July. In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Mr Rowley said Alexander Yakovenko had seemed genuinely concerned about his situation when they met at the Russian embassy in Kensington, but had not changed his view on Russias involvement in the poisonings. I went along to ask them Why did your country kill my girlfriend?, but I didnt really get any answers, he said. A police officer stands outside the home of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal on the first anniversary of his poisoning, in Salisbury, England, Monday March 4, 2019, as the house remains shrouded in scaffolding, but has been declared safe after decontamination work. Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found collapsed on a park bench in the city, March 4, 2018, after they were poisoned with the deadly nerve agent Novichok. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP) I liked the ambassador, but I thought some of what he said trying to justify Russia not being responsible was ridiculous. Im glad I met him and feel I did find out some things I didnt know before. But I still think Russia carried out the attack. Mr Rowley, who says he continues to suffer from the long-term effects of exposure to Novichok, said he had asked the ambassador more than a dozen questions in all, including asking him about his claims that Britain was behind the attack. He said Mr Yakovenko told him the substance used had not come from Russia and that the country only had small amounts of Novichok. The park in Salisbury where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found collapsed after they were poisoned with the deadly nerve agent Novichok, seen on the first anniversary of their poisoning, in Salisbury, England, Monday March 4, 2019. The area has been declared safe after decontamination work. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP) Speaking to the Sunday Mirror after the meeting, Mr Yakovenko said he and Mr Rowley were on the same page and wanted to see a report into the investigation published. It is important for Russia, but also for Charlie Rowley, he said. Story continues Ive seen a normal person who has really suffered a lot and who has suffered a tragedy in his life. If he asked for it, I would give him support. In September, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service said there was sufficient evidence to charge two Russians known by their aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with offences including conspiracy to murder over the Salisbury nerve agent attack. They are accused of being members of the Russian military intelligence service the GRU. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement, with president Vladimir Putin claiming the two suspects were civilians. During an interview, the pair said they were tourists visiting Salisbury particularly its famous cathedral. Novichok victim Charlie Rowley has said he didnt really get any answers after meeting with Russias ambassador in London to question him about the death of his partner Dawn Sturgess. Mr Rowley said he still believed Russia was responsible for the Salisbury attack and that he was fed Russian propaganda during the 90-minute discussion. The 45-year-old was exposed to the same nerve agent used to attack ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last March. Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to nerve agent Novichok (Metropolitan Police/PA) Mr Rowley and Ms Sturgess, 44, fell ill in Amesbury months later after coming into contact with a perfume bottle believed to have been used in the poisonings and then discarded. Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Mr Rowley said Alexander Yakovenko had seemed genuinely concerned about his situation when they met at the Russian embassy in Kensington, but had not changed his view on Russias involvement in the poisonings. I went along to ask them Why did your country kill my girlfriend?, but I didnt really get any answers, he said. Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko, left, meets with Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley, centre, and his brother Matthew, inside the Russian Embassy in London (RTR via AP) I liked the ambassador, but I thought some of what he said trying to justify Russia not being responsible was ridiculous. Im glad I met him and feel I did find out some things I didnt know before. But I still think Russia carried out the attack. Mr Rowley, who says he continues to suffer from the long-term effects of exposure to Novichok, said he had asked the ambassador more than a dozen questions in all, including asking him about his claims that Britain was behind the attack. A perfume bottle and applicator recovered by police from Novichok victim Charlie Rowleys address in Amesbury (Metropolitan Police/PA) He said Mr Yakovenko told him the substance used had not come from Russia and that the country only had small amounts of Novichok. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror after the meeting, Mr Yakovenko said he and Mr Rowley were on the same page and wanted to see a report into the investigation published. Story continues It is important for Russia, but also for Charlie Rowley, he said. Ive seen a normal person who has really suffered a lot and who has suffered a tragedy in his life. If he asked for it, I would give him support. In September, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service said there was sufficient evidence to charge two Russians known by their aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with offences including conspiracy to murder over the Salisbury nerve agent attack. Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov (Metropolitan Police/PA) They are accused of being members of the Russian military intelligence service the GRU. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement, with president Vladimir Putin claiming the two suspects were civilians. During an interview, the pair said they were tourists visiting Salisbury particularly its famous cathedral. Sinn Fein leaders are to tell Jeremy Corbyn that Irish interests must be protected whatever the outcome of his Brexit negotiations with the Prime Minister. Party president Mary Lou McDonald and vice president Michelle ONeill will hold talks with the Labour leader in London on Monday. Mrs McDonald outlined the message she would deliver to Mr Corbyn while unveiling the partys European and local council election candidates in Co Dublin on Sunday. Party president Mary Lou McDonald, centre, addresses the media (SinnFein/PA) At the event in Roganstown, the republican leader confirmed Sinn Fein would hold a convention in Belfast next weekend to select a candidate to contest a potential European election in Northern Ireland. We are ready for the task ahead, these are very important elections because we are at a very critical time, not least because of Brexit and the chaos in London which continues, she said. We spoke with Prime Minister Theresa May in the course of last week and tomorrow a Sinn Fein delegation will go to London. We will meet with Jeremy Corbyn. We will set out again the very clear need to protect Irish interests and make it very clear that whatever way Brexit lands deal or no deal Irish interests have to be protected. She added: Our peace process, our all-Ireland economy and crucially, our citizens rights, cannot be the collateral damage to the Tory Brexit. Mrs ONeill told the launch event that Irish unity was within grasp of republicans. The partys vice president Michelle ONeill believes Irish Unity is within our grasp (Sinn Fein/PA) A new conversation and public discourse is underway about Irelands strategic interests post-Brexit and our constitutional future, she said. People of all shades of opinion can see that the Good Friday Agreement provides a peaceful and democratic path to Irish Unity and with it a pathway back into the EU. The political landscape is changing. Change is in the air. Over the past two elections in the north the unionist majority has gone. Story continues The notion of a perpetual unionist majority the very basis of partition is gone. Brexit has now also completely transformed the context. People who were previously apathetic about a United Ireland are re-engaged, and people who would have been opposed to a United Ireland are now reconsidering their position. There is no doubt that Brexit has been a catalyst for mainstreaming the debate, where people of all shades of opinion are considering the benefits of remaining within the United Kingdom against the merits of staying within the European Union through a unified Ireland. What Brexit means Deal or No Deal is that a United Ireland is no longer a long-term aim. A referendum on Irish unity is a very real prospect within the next number of years. A United Ireland is within our grasp. Tess Daly has spoken of her devastation after she accidentally ran over and killed her dog. Minnie, a Maltese Shih Tzu, escaped after builders left a door open at her family mansion, The Sun On Sunday reports. The accident happened as the Strictly Come Dancing host was returning home in her Range Rover and the pet ran under her front wheels. Vernon Kay and Tess Daly (Ian West/PA) Daly, 49, told the newspaper: Im horrified and devastated by this terrible, tragic accident. It has had a huge effect on the whole family and we are heartbroken at losing Minnie. This has, and continues to be, a very emotional time for us all. She described six-year-old Minnies death as a dog owners worst nightmare. According to the newspaper, Daly was unaware Minnie had got out of the house and did not have time to react when the pet ran under her car. The accident which has also devastated Dalys husband, TV host Vernon Kay, and their daughters, aged 14 and nine happened last month, days before the family were due to fly to the Maldives. Back-to-back Randox Health Grand National winner Tiger Roll has received a heros homecoming back in Ireland. Thousands lined the streets as the history-making horse paraded through the Co Meath village of Summerhill on Sunday evening. The nine-year-old reduced his usually unflappable trainer Gordon Elliott to tears at Aintree on Saturday in becoming the first horse since the great Red Rum in 1973/74 to win successive Nationals. Just as he did a year ago, Tiger Roll took to the streets of Summerhill less than 24 hours after racing into the history books and was treated to a rapturous welcome from the locals, who packed the small village to celebrate his triumphant return. 2019 Grand National Winner Tiger Roll with owner Michael OLeary during the parade through Summerhill, County Meath, Ireland (Brian Lawless/PA) Elliott, a native of Summerhill, who was winning his third National having struck Aintree gold with Silver Birch in 2007, said: To come back here and see the crowds, its unbelievable, its great. You get emotional, its the biggest race in the world. Everyone will remember Tiger Roll winning two in a row. Were all proud Summerhill men. Grand National Winner Tiger Roll (Brian Lawless/PA) My uncle passed away this year, he used to take me point-to-pointing and the race was for him. It was a great day, brilliant. To come here (and celebrate) two years in a row is great this is a great community, everyone gets on well, so its great to see a big crowd here. It looks an even bigger crowd than last year. Around 2,000 people were in attendance as Tiger Roll, also a four-time Cheltenham Festival winner, strutted his stuff on the main street alongside his trainer, jockey Davy Russell, his devoted groom Louise Magee and owner Michael OLeary, among others. Elliott returned to his local village on Saturday after catching a Ryanair flight from Liverpool to Dublin and the celebrations continued long into the night. Asked about plans for later on Sunday, Elliott quipped: Ill have a few quiet drinks in Shaws (pub). Story continues He (Tiger Roll) got back about 6.30am, I was in bed before him, but tonight will be a different story. Ryanair boss Mr OLeary, who runs Tiger Roll under his Gigginstown House Stud banner, said: I never thought wed win the Grand National once in our lifetime, so to do it three times in four years (Rule The World won in 2016) is phenomenal, a fantastic achievement. It was a fantastic day, the atmosphere in Aintree was electric. There was a lot of expectation he might win it again and he was a hot favourite, and very rarely does the hot favourite win the Grand National. 2019 Grand National winning jockey Davy Russell and his son Finn (three) with the cup during Tiger Rolls parade through Summerhill (Brian Lawless/PA) That they are now talking about him in the same breath as Red Rum just made for a phenomenal, historic occasion. Mr OLeary treated Ryanair passengers to free drinks on his flight back to Ireland after the race, and added: I give away free drinks every time we win the Grand National, it probably wont happen for another 45 years! CANBERRA, Australia (AP) May 18 appears the most likely date for Australia's next election at which the conservative government will seek a third three-year term. Government sources have told media that Prime Minister Scott Morrison will not call an election on Sunday, which had been widely anticipated. Sunday was the most likely choice if Morrison were to opt for the first of three dates available to him May 11, May 18 and May 25. While many commentators had previously thought May 11 the most likely election date, May 18 would give the ruling coalition another week to use government money to advertise its policies and achievements. LONDON (AP) Dozens of people protested in London on Saturday against new Islamic laws in Brunei that punish gay sex and adultery by stoning offenders to death, while the University of Oxford said it will reconsider an honorary degree it awarded the sultan of Brunei following international outcry over the Southeast Asian nation's draconian measures. The university said in a statement it shared the "international revulsion" the laws induced and that it would reconsider a 1993 decision to confer the honorary degree of civil law by diploma to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. But Oxford stressed that no one had the right "summarily to rescind" the degree. WASHINGTON (AP) China's official news agency says U.S.-Chinese trade talks "achieved new progress" in Washington this week and remaining issues will be handled through "various effective means." The terse statement by Xinhua on Saturday did not say where or when further discussions will happen. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Friday that "significant work remains" and the two sides would be in continuous contact. Xinhua said the three-day talks that ended Friday dealt with issues including technology transfer, intellectual property rights protection, non-tariff measures, agriculture and enforcement. Leading the delegations were U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. Story continues BANGKOK (AP) The leader of a popular new Thai political party that ran a strong third in last month's general election was formally charged with sedition on Saturday and expressed concern that he is to be tried in a military court. Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit was greeted by hundreds of supporters chanting "Keep fighting, Thanathorn!" as he arrived at a Bangkok police station to answer a summons on complaints of sedition, assisting criminals and illegal assembly filed by a member of the country's ruling military junta. He denied the charges, which carry a prison sentence of up to nine years. "I'm concerned because this case is under the military court instead of the criminal court," Thanathorn, leader of the Future Forward Party, told reporters. MANILA, Philippines (AP) Three hostages held by Muslim militants in the southern Philippines have made a daring escape that left one drowned, another shot in the back in critical condition and another safe after swimming to his freedom, officials said. The two Indonesians and one Malaysian separately escaped while Philippine marines were attempting to rescue them on Simusa island in southern Sulu province over the last two days, regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Gerry Besana said Saturday. The dramatic escapes leave at least three more hostages in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization due to its brutal history of bombings, ransom kidnappings, extortion and beheadings. MALE, Maldives (AP) People in the Maldives voted in a crucial parliamentary election on Saturday that many hope will help President Ibrahim Mohammed Solih overcome a coalition split that has hampered his efforts to restore political freedoms and tackle corruption. Some voters who had lined up earlier were allowed to cast their vote well after balloting officially ended at 6 p.m. in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation known for its luxury resorts, said Ahmed Akram, an election official. He said voter turnout was over 78 percent. Officials were planning to announce results later Saturday night. Solih's Maldivian Democratic Party is seeking at least 44 seats in the 87-member parliament for a majority to pass legislation needed to implement pledges from last year's presidential campaign. VATICAN CITY (AP) Pope Francis has formally named Monsignor Michael Byrnes as Guam's archbishop following the definitive sex abuse verdict against his predecessor. Byrnes in 2016 had been named coadjutor bishop for the U.S. Pacific island territory, giving him the right of succession after Archbishop Anthony Apuron was removed pending the investigation into claims by former altar boys that he assaulted them. On Saturday, the Vatican made that transition official after Apuron's guilty verdict was upheld on appeal. His sentence a lifelong ban from Guam, removal from office and prohibition of presenting himself as a bishop disappointed victims' advocates since he was allowed to stay in ministry and not defrocked. BEIJING (AP) _ Lighting sparked a forest fire in mountainous western China last month that killed 27 firefighters and four local helpers in one of the country's deadliest days for first responders, investigators said. Acting on accounts of eyewitnesses in Sichuan province's Muli county, investigators located an 18-meter (59-foot) pine tree split by lightning that they identified as the fire's origin point. They said that after igniting the tree, the fire spread to the thick layer of decomposed plant material on the ground known as humus lying in a remote area at an altitude of around 3,800 meters (12,500 feet.) The 31 died after wind, dry air and combustible material creative an explosive effect. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Insurgents killed seven policemen and three civilians in attacks across Afghanistan on Saturday, provincial officials said. Such attacks, blamed on the Taliban, have continued in recent months, even as the militants hold talks with U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to negotiate an American troop withdrawal. In a visit to Kabul earlier this week, Khalilzad lobbied for "intra-Afghan dialogue" talks that would encompass prominent Afghan figures, government representatives and the opposition, as well as the Taliban. The U.S. envoy has held several rounds of talks with the Taliban, most recently last month in Qatar where both sides said progress was made. DINARD, France (AP) _ Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations failed to reach consensus on key Middle East issues on Saturday as they wrapped up a meeting in France that was shaken by the absence of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The diplomats in attendance projected a united front while walking side-by-side along a seaside promenade before they released the agreement from their two-day meeting in Dinard. The agreement included mildly worded joint commitments on issues such as fighting cybercrime, giving women bigger peacemaking roles, and engaging with countries in Africa's Sahel region to combat migrant trafficking. NEW DELHI (AP) As she patrols for cow smugglers, Sadhvi Kamal, a Hindu holy woman in a saffron robe, rides in a white SUV with a sticker on the rear window displaying a cow framed by swords and rifles. The words in the sticker's logo say, "The cow is the mother of the world." Kamal leads a vigilante force of thousands of volunteers, mostly young Hindu men. Such vigilante forces have emerged after several Indian states banned the slaughter of cows, sacred to Hindus, in recent years. Mobs have lynched three dozen Muslims, who traditionally run meat shops and slaughterhouses. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) Korean Air's chairman, whose leadership included scandals such as his daughter's infamous incident of "nut rage," has died due to illness, the company said Monday. Cho Yang-ho had been indicted on multiple charges, including embezzlement and tax evasion, and his death came two weeks after a shareholder vote to remove the 70-year-old from the company's board over a series of scandals surrounding his family. Cho's death will likely force a court to dismiss his criminal case. The company said Cho died in the United States but did not specify his illness or provide other details in its statement. TOKYO (AP) Nissan's top executive apologized to its shareholders Monday for the unfolding scandal at the Japanese automaker and asked them to approve removing from its board its former chairman Carlos Ghosn, who faces allegations of financial misconduct. Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa and other Nissan Motor Co. executives bowed deeply in apology to shareholders attending the extraordinary meeting at a Tokyo hotel. Shareholders are also voting on the appointment of French alliance partner Renault SA's chairman Jean-Dominique Senard to replace Ghosn. Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan. Also on the agenda is the removal of Greg Kelly, a board member who is charged with collaborating with Ghosn in the alleged misconduct. Story continues BEIJING (AP) A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves: ___ EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a weekly look at developments in the South China Sea, the location of several territorial conflicts in the region. ___ US CONCERNED OVER CHINESE SHIPS NEAR PHILIPPINE ISLANDS A senior U.S. official says the presence of large numbers of Chinese vessels near islands and islets occupied by the Philippines is "a concern." The Philippine government protested the Chinese ship movements Thursday after its military monitored more than 200 Chinese vessels from January to March in a disputed area named Sandy Cay, which is near the Philippine-occupied island of Pag-asa. VARANASI, India (AP) In the Indian city Hindus consider the center of the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commissioned a grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges River with the centuries-old Vishwanath temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. It's a project dripping with equal parts symbolism Modi, the devout Hindu, restoring the ancient connection between two religious icons and political calculation. In his five years as prime minister, Modi has pushed to promote this secular nation of 1.3 billion people and nine major religions including about 170 million Muslims as a distinctly Hindu state. LUCKNOW, India (AP) Political archrivals in India's most populous state rallied together Sunday, asking voters to support a new alliance created with the express purpose of defeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The low caste-dominated Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party, which holds sway among a section of so-called "backward" castes and Muslims, have decided to contest elections in vote-rich Uttar Pradesh state in a rainbow coalition headed by BSP President Mayawati. "This election will expose BJP because the prime minister has failed to fulfill the promises" he made to lower castes, the poor and the unemployed during the last election, Mayawati, who uses only one name, said during an election rally in Saharanpur city on Sunday. MALE, Maldives (AP) Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's party declared a sweeping parliamentary election victory Sunday that could give him a free hand in efforts to restore political freedoms and tackle corruption. Local media reports said Solih's Maldivian Democratic Party was leading in 60 of the 87 seats in parliament following Saturday's vote. Official results were expected late Sunday, but there was no announcement yet. It could be the first time a single party wins a majority in parliament since the Indian Ocean archipelago nation became a multiparty democracy in 2008 after decades of autocratic rule. Afshan Latheef, the campaign spokeswoman for Solih's party, told The Associated Press that it was a "resounding victory" that "undoubtedly reflected the people's desire for reform and implementation of policies outlined in the president and government's manifesto." As his party began celebrating after the vote counting started Saturday night, Solih said the people should not forget "the immense challenges that lie ahead of us." "The work to strengthen our democratic institutions, to deliver basic services for citizens, to our promise of bringing corruption, past and present, to book and ending impunity starts now," he said in a statement Sunday. KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) Nepal's president, top officials and diplomats gathered recently at army grounds in central Kathmandu for an annual horse festival that marks the slaying of the Hindu Gurumapa demon. Soldiers race the horses and show off warfare techniques believed to keep devil spirits away through the pounding of the horses' hooves. A dedicated team of soldiers spends three months preparing the animals for the Ghode Jatra festival. According to a centuries-old tradition, people raced horses before worshipping gods with offerings of food and flowers under a tree. It has been 169 years since a Nepalese king designated the army to perform the festival rituals. CANBERRA, Australia (AP) May 18 appears the most likely date for Australia's next election at which the conservative government faces an uphill battle to win a third three-year term. Government sources have told media that Prime Minister Scott Morrison will not call an election on Sunday, which had been widely anticipated. Sunday was the most likely choice if Morrison were to opt for the first of three dates available to him May 11, May 18 and May 25. While many commentators had previously thought May 11 the most likely election date, May 18 would give the ruling coalition another week to use government money to advertise its policies and achievements. SRINAGAR, India (AP) Authorities in India's portion of disputed Kashmir on Sunday began enforcing a ban on the movement of civilian vehicles on a key highway to keep it open exclusively for military and paramilitary convoys two days a week. Soldiers patrolled the highway and erected barricades by steel and razor wire at intersections with neighborhood roads. India's government issued the order this past week, reserving a 270-kilometer (170-mile) stretch of the highway for the movement of government forces vehicles on Sundays and Wednesdays until the end of May. The order follows the Feb. 14 suicide bombing of a paramilitary convoy that killed 40 soldiers and brought archrivals India and Pakistan to the brink of war. 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on philosophy, especially in the middle and late-20th century. The field still shows a broad Australian footprint. For many years, Princeton University in New Jersey, perennially one of the highest-ranked philosophy departments, has had three or four Australians on its faculty (depending on when you look and on how you count Australians). Princeton has always been an especially clear case, but the influence is all over, an ongoing export of both people and ideas. Given the modest size of Australia (with a population of about 25 million now, but under 17 million until the end of the 1980s), and the popular image of the countrys intellectual life, this is a bit surprising. What is going on? How did this happen? More here. Leon Craig in The White Review: The light is dim, the air richly scented. Little purple tea lights flicker in the votive candle rack and the walls are decorated with twining sunflowers, exuberant passionflowers and several canvases of blousy green carnations monogrammed with Oscar Wildes prisoner ID number C.3.3. The Temple is a deconsecrated church with an attractive dark wood ceiling and matching antique chairs. A half-size marble statue of Wilde presides. The artists, McDermott and McGough, have painted various icons spelling out pejoratives such as pansy, faggot and cocksucker, adorned with gold leaf and richly-coloured paint. Towards the back are intricate woodcut-style depictions of massacres with titles like Nun Cutting Rope of Dead Homeric, black canvases with cut-out fatality statistics, and monochrome portraits of individuals more recently killed by homophobia and transphobia, such as Justin Fashanu, Brandon Teena and Marsha P. Johnson. A placard in the hallway spells out all of the bigotries the temple stands against, ending with the instruction only love here. Opposite is a purpose-built offertory box For the Sons and Daughters of Oscar Wilde. The Temples hosts, Studio Voltaire, emphasise its role as a community venue for LGBTQ+ people and their allies. The Temple is open to any members of the public who wish to visit. It is also a venue for LGBTQ+ wedding ceremonies and discussion groups, as well as a mentoring scheme for young people in partnership with the homelessness charity The Albert Kennedy Trust. Wildes fame and the high drama of his story the libel suit he brought against his lover Lord Alfred Douglass father for calling him a sodomite, his subsequent prosecution for gross indecency, his miserable years in prison and premature death in exile in France are instrumentalised by McDermott and McGough as something for everyone to rally around. The Temple was first installed in New York, in the Russell Chapel of the Church of the Village. The idea for it to travel to London developed in tandem with a campaign to erect a nearby rainbow plaque commemorating Wildes traumatic humiliation at Clapham station as he was transferred from Wandsworth Prison to Reading Gaol. Freshly out of hospital, Wilde was exposed to the homophobic jeers of his once-adoring public, while handcuffed and in convict dress. More here. Six Detained at the Rally Demanding Protection of Workers Rights After Death of Two By Messenger Staff Six activists demanding the protection of workers rights following the death of two workers on Sunday were detained by police for petty hooliganism and disobedience.A lawyer of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association Vakhushti Menabde and an activist of the White Noise Movement David Subeliani were among the detainees on the Chavchavadze Avenue, On Monday, at the scene where two workers died after the opening of a sinkhole during the construction works.The protestors blocked the street and demanded the arrival of Tbilisi mayor Kakha Kaladze, while police were trying to push them to the sidewalks.Kaladze said he was ready to meet several organizers of the rally, which was denied by protestors.After leaving the police station, constitutionalist Vakhushti Menabde said that protests against the violation of labor safety rules will continue in the future.We see people being killed at the workplace every day, the reason of which is the indifference of the state. We are protesting against this and demand from the state to take measures instead of just collecting statistics, Menabde said.Human Rights Monitoring and Education Centre says that between 2011 and 2018, 376 workers died and 1,081 received injuries at their workplace.Last year alone 199 individuals received injuries and 59 died at their workplaces.A violation of safety standards has been named as a possible reason behind the death by the Health and Labour Ministry officials.They said that several companies were involved in the construction works at the scene-a construction company, an executor company, and several contractor companies.The construction company Transmshen has been fined 7,000 GEL [2,600 USD] as it created problems for the Health Ministry employees to study the scene.An executor company Lechkombinati has been banned to continue works.One of the contractor companies Khimij Service was fined 1,000 GEL [370 USD] as it did have official permission to carry out certain works carrying threats.The protesters announced the plans to create a public movement fighting for labor rights.Experts say that the fines imposed on the companies are funny and the abuse of the people and their families who were killed. Cynthia Haven in Music & Literature: Cynthia Haven: Violence has been a theme of this conference: Juan Gabriel Vasquez on the Colombian drug wars, three sessions for the Nigerian journalist and author Helon Habila, who spoke about the kidnapped Boko Haram girls and the ongoing terrorism in Nigeriaeven the French writer and critic Raphaelle Leyris from Le Monde noted that several books a month are still coming out on the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. And todays session on literature and evil. You, too, have written about unspeakable violence going on in the middle of Europe, at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Several have commented in Bergen on how the cataclysms of mid-century Europe seem to be revisiting us today, and they wish they could shake that feeling. Dubravka Ugresic: The world certainly didnt become better with the fall of the Wall, with the fall of Yugoslavia, with the independence of former Yugoslav republics, and with the switch of former communist regimes into democratic ones. What people in Eastern and Central Europe got instead of democracy are mafia structured constellationseconomic, political, ideological. Democratura: this is the term coined by one of Yugoslavs public thinkers. The expression plays with the words dictatorship, democracy, and caricature. Instead of the democracy most people in former communist countries dreamt of, a grotesque, state-like mixture made of revisionist elements suddenly emerged. The most dangerous of such elements was neo-fascism. More here. South Dakotans lack trust in state Legislature, poll finds South Dakotans are not as trusting of the state Legislature as they are of other government or legal institutions, according to a recent statewide poll. (This article is the second and final part in a series about Paseo del Volcan.) A red bag blown against a barbwire fence is all that marks what could be the entrance to a road that could mean an economic boost for the City of Rio Rancho and Sandoval County. Longtime real-estate broker and New Mexico resident John Black looks over the site, pointing in the direction Paseo del Volcan could begin off of Interstate-40, once all the money to fund the right-of-way has been secured. Black believes in the prospect of economic stability this road would bring if it is ever completed. His family used to own what is now Quail Ranch, a patch of nearly 11,000 acres annexed into the City Rio Rancho that will host several miles PdV on donated land. With the assumption that some, if not all, of the right-of-way money has been secured, the cost estimates Ive heard to finish the two lanes from Unser (Boulevard) to I-40 are around $70 to $80 million, Black said. This is less cost than the interchange construction that was done at Paseo del Norte and I-25, and less cost than the Coors (Road) and I-40 interchange. As far as the issue being quasi-political, Black said he has seen politicians from both parties do their best to push PdV forward where they could. I believe Paseo del Volcan is a bipartisan issue, Black said. It just makes sense because this road will not only create better transportation for the West Side, but it will create a site that we can use to generate new jobs. Black said if all the money was already procured for PdV, he predicted the road could be completed within a 36 months. I think since about 2002, it has always been about the money, he said. There was not any coordinated effort by local government and state to get this thing done. Black said PdV has been gaining momentum in the last few years because city planners have realized I-25 cannot be expanded any more. Plus, there cannot be any more expansion on the West Side without a truck-rated high-speed commuter and mass-transit access highway, he said. Steve Jenkins, CEO of Sandoval Economic Alliance, said the notion of PdV was brought to his attention within his first week of taking his position. I knew that this was one of the most important economic roadways, not just for us here in Sandoval County, but for the whole state, Jenkins said. This is because it would open up the west metro for development. Without PdV, he said, there isnt anywhere else to grow economically since the metro area is surrounded. On three sides, youve got pueblos, and then on one side, youve got mountains, Jenkins said. The only place to grow is to the west, and that roadway opens up all of that for development, which will fuel the states economy also. He said he has never been in a state where it has taken this long to get a road done. Why has it taken so long to get a roadway that matters so much done? Jenkins asked. One suggestion he made was grouping all 160 parcels as one acquisition to streamline the process of completion. I think we are getting there in the acquisition of the right-of-way, but we do need construction money set aside by the legislature that triggers the federal funds to do the construction, he said. This road needs to be a true bypass; it needs to be four lanes divided with limited access for it to work well. After looking at some of the existing businesses on the southern side of where PdV would begin, Jenkins said there is upward of $1 billion of future development tied into the completion of the road. Black said as it stands now, there is only 23 miles of road left from the Sandoval County line to the edge of Unser Boulevard that still needs to be researched for acquisition. Prev 1 of 3 Next More than 20 years ago, New Mexico archaeologist Karl Laumbach was at the White Sands Missile Range collecting data at the site of the July 16, 1945, atomic bomb test detonation when he looked down and saw a perfect Folsom point, an edged stone projectile created about 10,000 years ago. It was one of my signature moments, said Laumbach, 67, who works for Human Systems Research Inc., a nonprofit that does archaeological and related research in southern New Mexico. I was recording what was left of the South 10,000 Bunker, a bunker 10,000 meters south of where they set the bomb off. It must have been right on top of a (prehistoric) site. Only in New Mexico would it have been possible to find a projectile point designed by early man for hunting at the same place where the nuclear age was launched with the fiery, first explosion of an atomic weapon. Obviously New Mexico is rich in archaeology and history, said Amy Rutledge, communications manager for the Society for American Archaeology, which is holding its 84th annual meeting at the Albuquerque Convention Center Wednesday through Sunday, April 10-14. About 5,000 archaeologists will take part in 420 sessions during the conference. Its probably one of the most important networking environments you can be in, said Matthew Schmader, adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico. You run into colleagues, people working on the same topics. You meet new people. People are cutting book deals. Albuquerque debut Founded in 1934, SAA has more than 7,200 members, including professional, student and avocational archaeologists working for museums, colleges and universities, government agencies and the private sector. With the exception of the World War II year of 1943, SAA has held an annual meeting every year since 1935. The first was in Andover, Mass., and host cities have included Austin, Honolulu, San Francisco, St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. It was in Santa Fe in 1968, but this is the first time it has been in Albuquerque. Because the conference is so well attended and geared so specifically for archaeologists, it is not open to the public. Unless he had pre-registered, Indiana Jones might not have been able to get in if he showed up Wednesday with the Ark of the Covenant in tow. Its a very intensive several days of professional papers and presentations, Schmader said. If you are trying to figure out who you want to hear, you have to go through a 350-page program. Multiple sessions going on at the same time run from 8 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday. One of the highlights of this years conference is a Saturday session called Protecting the Greater Chaco Landscape: Native Voices, during which a panel of American Indian speakers will talk about the spiritual importance of the Chaco Canyon area in northwest New Mexico, which is now threatened by fracking associated with oil and gas development. U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., one of the first American Indian women elected to Congress, will make opening remarks. Fighting back New Mexico archaeologists from state universities and other agencies and entities will be well represented at the presentations. Schmader, who got his bachelors, masters and doctorate in anthropology at UNM, is chair of a Saturday symposium titled Archaeologies of Contact, Colony and Resistance. He is presenting a paper during that symposium called The Persistence of Resistance: Resiliency and Survival in the Pueblo World, 1539-1696. The paper details the response native people had when they encountered the first European exploration and later on the first colonies in New Mexico, said Schmader, 64, who served as superintendent of the city of Albuquerques open space division from 2005 to 2016. Native peoples have always tried to resist attempts to completely change their culture. What I end up saying is that if the Pueblo people had not fought back, their culture might not have survived. Laumbach was born in Springer, N.M., and earned his bachelors degree in anthropology at New Mexico State University in 1974. He is the discussant in a Sunday symposium titled Recent Research at Jornada Mogollon Sites in South-Central New Mexico. A discussant is someone familiar with the area (of research) who can wrap things up at the end of the session and make concluding remarks about the papers, Laumbach said. He fits the bill. Laumbach has directed hundreds of archaeological projects in southern New Mexico, ranging from the prehistoric Southwest and Anglo-Hispanic interaction to the Apache wars, range wars and the Cold War. Now he is involved in the Canada Alamosa Project aimed at uncovering and understanding the stories of the generations of people who lived along Alamosa Creek, which flows through Socorro and Sierra counties to the Rio Grande in southwest New Mexico. Starting in 1999, Laumbach supervised the excavation at four major pithouse, a dwelling partly dug into the ground, and pueblo sites as part of the project. The largest of the (pueblo) sites, the Victorio site, had 450 rooms, Laumbach said. We worked on (the digs) for 13 years and are compiling all the data now. Them bones Emily Jones, associate professor of anthropology at UNM, is a zooarchaeologist, which means she spends a lot of time looking for animal bones at archaeology sites. In research she does in France, Spain and here in New Mexico, she tries to determine what roles animals played in the lives of people in past eras. What kinds of animals, for example, were those people eating? In the fall of 2017, she spent four months looking at animal bones in a 15,000-year-old cave in northern Spain. It was really fantastic, Jones, 44, said. We found a series of modified bone tools. It was the first time I had worked with anything like that. She is involved with several presentations at the SAA conference this week. On Friday afternoon she is a co-presenter of a session with the dizzying title Tracking Individual Raptors in the Archaeological Record Using Stable Isotope Analysis: Some Implications for the Study of Ritual Economies in New Mexico. Jones laughs when asked to break that down. She said it is about determining how Puebloan people of several hundred years ago used the bones of raptors, especially eagles. My part of it is what animals (hawks, eagles, other raptors) were eating in A.D. 1300 to A.D. 1600, she said. For Jones, who earned her masters and doctorate in anthropology at the University of Washington, the fascination of archaeology is imagining the landscapes people of the past lived in and trying to see that world through their eyes. In order to stay connected with people who see and think the way she does, she attends every SAA annual meeting she can. They are critically important, a chance to hear what research others are doing and to present your research, she said. Its a chance, maybe, to meet future collaborators. Prev 1 of 7 Next Between April of 2016 and March of 2017, one of the largest social justice movements in American history combusted on the North Dakota plains at the Standing Rock Reservation. Atlanta-based photographer Ryan Vizzions spent six months at the site documenting the protest, the police and the security to stand in solidarity with the movement. Vizzions will be at Santa Fes Monroe Gallery to sign No Spiritual Surrender: A Dedication to the Standing Rock Movement on Friday, April 12. The exhibition runs through April 21. With the Dakota Access Pipeline threatening the drinking water of the Standing Rock Sioux and 17 million people downstream on the Missouri River, thousands of people flocked to the resistance camps to support the Lakota Sioux. From early spring of 2016 to the late winter of 2017, more than 15,000 people camped in tepees, army tents and vehicles without electricity to draw attention to and block the potential contamination of Lake Oahe, the reservations drinking water source. Members of more than 300 tribes and indigenous communities traveled to the camps, as well as nearly 4,000 veterans and 500 clergy members. Vizzions arrived in September 2016, using social media to reach more than half a billion people with his documentation of the events as they unfolded with more than 50 law enforcement agencies from 10 states. Hailing from Atlanta, Vizzions was keenly aware of the civil rights movement and was involved in local social justice issues. As news reports emerged from Standing Rock, he turned to the internet because he couldnt afford to fly there. A stranger bought him a plane ticket. He put his personal belongings in storage, expecting to stay a month. At first, there was no conflict between protesters and law enforcement. I noticed it was something powerful, he said. I didnt know anybody. But you would see the community kitchens and 100 fires at night. It was a culture I had never experienced. It was powerful and prayerful. I would go to sleep to drums and songs. Defend the Sacred, his photo of a woman on horseback facing a line of police officers abutted by trucks, went viral. The night before, we kept hearing the police were going to come in, he said. I stayed up all night with the (Native American) security. Twenty minutes into a nap, someone woke him up and told him the police had arrived. I could see this big police line forming, he said. She rode in and just looked at the police. Someone lit a roadblock on fire, turning the confrontation into an eight-hour ordeal. The police arrested about 137 people, Vizzions said. Similarly, someone set some army trucks parked on a bridge on fire. Some thought it was the work of security details dressed as protesters. Theres this huge issue of who set those trucks on fire, Vizzions said. Security wanted to keep their jobs; they were making $1 million a month. Vizzions never saw himself as a news source. The indigenous people trusted him enough to ask him to head the media tent. I was working 18-20 hours a day signing in new journalists who showed up, he said. The protocol was no photos of prayer, no photos of children; no photos of the school. The children were being taught by professors. Everythings been taken away from them. All they have is their prayers and their culture. He waited an hour to capture an image of the protesters facing off the police, their tepees sprouting from a hill. An night shot features a tepee against the shimmering Milky Way. I woke up at 2 in the morning for a long exposure, Vizzions said. That blue light in the tepee was actually a blue tarp. Its a 100 percent natural shot. People magazine, ABC News and The Guardian chose Vizzions Defend the Sacred as photo of the year. Two years ago, pipeline opponents celebrated when the Obama administration denied a key permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline. A few months later, the Trump administration reversed that decision and approved construction. If you go WHAT: No Spiritual Surrender: A Dedication to the Standing Rock Movement WHEN: Book signing 5-7 p.m. Friday, April 12; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through April 21. WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe HOW MUCH: Free at monroegallery.com, 505-992-0800. Four Latino guys meet at Burrito World in snow-blanketed Nebraska. Homesick for the Caribbean, they decide to celebrate their roots by putting on a show at the local VFW hall, enhanced by a beauty named Maria who becomes their muse. Penned by the late Latina magazine editor Dolores Prida, Four Guys Named Jose y Una Mujer Named Maria opens at the Vortex Theatre on Thursday, April 11. The show runs for just four performances. This musical revue features a play-within-a-play as the four men one Puerto Rican, one Mexican, one Cuban and one Dominican decide to showcase the music they grew up with to counteract negative Latino stereotypes. They have never stepped on a stage before. They tell some of the history of iconic Latin American music, director Valli Marie Rivera said. Its re-connecting to your roots and your homeland. Along the way, they vie for Marias attention, cope with falling props and try to get through the night without fighting or forgetting their cues. Its very funny, Rivera said. They get to the VFW hall. Theyre really not ready and the audience is coming in. They have a Maria who has worked with them. But when they arrive, another Maria appears who doesnt know the show. The songs include Besame Mucho, La Bamba, Guantanamera, I Like It Like That and Oye Como Va, sung in four- and five-part harmony. It centers on the music, Rivera said. Its bilingual; many of the songs are in Spanish. We have translations so the audience wont be lost. Lina Ramos is the vocal director; Mariano Morales leads the band. Former Rio Arriba County Sheriff Tommy Rodella, given a 10-year prison term in January 2015 for roughing up a motorist while brandishing a firearm, is still fighting to overturn his convictions and set aside his sentence now without a lawyer. In a recent motion he prepared at the Texas prison where hes incarcerated, Rodella argued that he was deprived of effective assistance of counsel because his attorney, Robert Gorence of Albuquerque, failed to mount an adequate defense at trial. Gorence had no comment when contacted earlier this week. Rodella was convicted of brandishing a firearm and depriving the rights of Michael Tafoya, age 26 at the time, during what federal prosecutors described as a road-rage incident near Espanola. Authorities say Rodella was in plain clothes and in his personal vehicle when he tailgated, then pursued and stopped Tafoya, jumped out of his SUV with a gun and shoved his sheriffs badge into Tafoyas face after Rodellas son had pulled the motorist from his car. At the trial, three other motorists in addition to Tafoya testified to aggressive or threatening behavior by Rodella at traffic stops. Rodellas new motion, dated March 20, says Gorence failed by not calling Rodella to testify and that the then-sheriff adamantly fought to testify as the first defense witness. Without his account of what happened, Rodellas motion says, Tafoyas court testimony went unrebutted and Mr. Gorences ineffectiveness resulted in a miscarriage of justice. Unmentioned in the new motion is that Rodellas son, Thomas Rodella Jr., did testify and disputed much of what Tafoya said. Tommy Rodellas motion provides his own seven-page version of the March 2014 traffic incident. Rodella maintains Tafoya was speeding and driving recklessly; twice nearly drove over Rodella while Rodella was out of his car; and nearly collided with other vehicles. Tafoya said he had no idea who was harassing and chasing him, and that he feared for his life. A jogger along the route testified that Tafoya called out for the jogger to call police. But Rodella wrote that he showed his badge at an initial encounter in the early stages of the incident. It is beyond any reasonable doubt that had the jury heard Rodellas account, the outcome of the trial would more then (sic) likely have been quite different, says his motion. The motion states that he has had to study federal law at the prison to learn the legal issues that Mr. Gorence deprived him of. He said he now relies on a jailhouse lawyer. Rodella also maintains that Gorence failed to investigate various issues in the case, including police dispatch logs that Rodella says would have discredited Tafoyas version of events, and that Gorence should have raised objections to plain errors by the prosecution. Rodella says another lawyer who represented him on appeal also failed to raise clear errors that were on the record. Forest Service issue Finally in his motion, Rodella makes an argument that Gorence used, unsuccessfully, when he tried to disqualify the U.S. attorney for New Mexico and his staff from prosecuting Rodellas case. Gorence maintained that Rodella was illegally targeted for prosecution as part of a vendetta and political witch hunt because the then-sheriff had rejected requests from the U.S. Attorneys Office to deputize federal Forest Service agents to enforce state law. Some Rio Arriba residents maintain that the Forest Service, with stops and arrests, terrorizes people who try to use national forests for wood gathering or other traditional activities. The issue resonates in northern New Mexico, since many historic common-use land grants from Spain and Mexico have diminished over the decades by swindles, sell-offs and other means. Rodella and then-U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez met on the issue, but could not agree, not long before Rodella was charged in the road-rage case. Rodella writes in his new motion that his resulting incarceration represents a weaponization of the federal criminal justice system. His motion says that 139 days after the meeting on the forest law enforcement dispute with Martinez, he was convicted for protecting the county of Rio Arriba. Rodella had a controversial career as a State Police officer, magistrate judge and repeat political candidate before winning election as sheriff in 2010. i National Autism Center to be built in Tbilisi By The Messenger Staff Yesterday was the World Autism Awareness Day, an internationally recognized day celebrated on April 2 every year. The Messenger joins in taking measures to raise awareness about people with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Georgia and throughout the world.The Autism Research and Support Foundation will build a multi-functional Autism National Center in Tbilisi. The project was presented on April 2 on the World Autism Awareness Day. Presentation was attended by the Prime Minister of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze; the Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs, Davit Sergeenko; the Minister of Education, Science, Culture And Sport, Mikheil Batiashvili and Mayor of Tbilisi, Kakha Kaladze.Protection of the rights of persons with autism is related to many challenges in Georgia. It is problematic to ensure needs-based health care for people with autism and to provide continuous habilitation-rehabilitation services for them, taking into consideration geographical accessibility.In 2010, Sopo Kereselidze, co-founder of the Autism Research and Support Foundation, established the first Autism Center in Georgia and pioneered ABA therapy in cooperation with Professors of Fresno State University, Central California for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The successful operation of the center and the increasing numbers of ASD diagnosis triggered the wave of other similar centers in Tbilisi. Most importantly, Autism has become a word with a priority in the government agenda of Georgia.Yet all the available programs provide therapy services to children under 15. No follow-up services are available that are necessary to maintain the progress and develop social and employment skills. That means, in feasible future, a growing number of individuals will be doomed for dependent living. Stemming from the above described problem, Autism Research and Support Foundation, led by Ms. Sopo Kereselidze and Ms. Tamar Melashvili in consultation with Professor Trevor Stokes of the Madison University embarked on a new mission: building National Autism Center.The goal of the National Center is promoting economic and social independence of ASD individuals. Through providing tailored care, social behavior therapies, educational and vocational trainings, as well as, providing employment opportunities at social enterprises, the National Center will empower beneficiaries for future employment and consequently an independent living. The National center will also support its beneficiaries in seeking job opportunities elsewhere according to their fields of interest.The project is unique of nature in Georgia and the region. Its significance and the prospects of social-economic advantages for ASD individuals brought together government and private companies, world known opera stars, media, cinema and music celebrities, business sector, Georgian Ragby Union and the wider society: social campaign aaa aa aaa a /aI am herea united more than 37 000 people.aWe want to encourage companies and Georgian entrepreneurs to do more in this regard. Iam sure that the National Autism Center will significantly improve the lives of people with autism spectrum and will insure their integration into the societya a said Mamuka Bakhtadze at the event.National Autism Center will serve people with autism spectrum of 16 years and up. The services provided at the center will help them gain skills necessary for independent living and will enhance their unique abilities. Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal Its back to the drawing board with the third and final phase of the huge Tierra Contenta residential development, and planners are seeking help from the public to determine what shape the 384 acres on Santa Fes south side will take. The first of what is expected to be several public meetings for Phase 3 of Tierra Contenta, a public-private endeavor that cranked up in the 1990s, is scheduled for this Thursday at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center. Planners are soliciting input about how roads and neighborhoods should be laid out, where parks and open space should go, and how much commercial development should be allowed. They also want to know what area residents want and dont want, and what to leave in and what to leave out, based on what was learned from development of the first two phases. Were going back to the starting gate to ask the public about what they would like to see done regarding the layout of roads, housing and other aspects of the community addressed by the master plan, said Peter Werwath, interim executive director of the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust, one of the entities guiding the process. Its really in the best interest of the development of the city to come up with a better map. It has been 25 years since the master plan for Tierra Contenta was first drafted. Times have changed, even in the past 10 years since the project essentially stalled when the bottom dropped out of the housing market during the Great Recession. In addition, the city, which itself was working through financial issues on top of what is now $250 million worth of deferred road repair and maintenance needs, hasnt come up with the money to build the infrastructure needed for expansion to proceed. While planners are seeking input, a couple of things are for sure. Phase 3 will include new housing possibly as many as 1,800 new residences. But how much of that will be affordable housing, rental units, single-family homes or apartments will need to be decided. Also, extension of Paseo del Sol connecting that road with Jaguar Drive on one end and to the roundabout at Herrera Drive on the other, thus creating easily traversed routes to and from N.M. 599 and Cerrillos Road is critical to the project. Basically, we cant subdivide it or sell it until that infrastructure is in place, Werwath said. But who will pay the estimated $8.2 million cost to build the road and create the infrastructure corridor is one thing the public cant help decide. That will have to be worked out between the city of Santa Fe, the Tierra Contenta Corp. and the housing trust. Harmonizing programs The city bought 860 acres of undeveloped land in 1992. A year later, it set up the nonprofit Tierra Contenta Corp. to serve as landowner and developer, and took out a $6.3 million mortgage on the property. TCC has since paid off $4.17 million on the mortgage with revenue generated by land sales to develop the first two phases. But by 2009, after the Great Recession hit, TCC merged with another nonprofit group, the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust, and became a subsidiary. At the time the city bought the land, a master plan was adopted that allowed for a mix of low-density, medium-density and multi-family homes, and set a quota for affordable housing, requiring that at least 40 percent of the homes built there would qualify. Affordable housing is housing earmarked for families with incomes below 80 percent of the area medium. Werwath said that of the approximately 2,200 residential dwellings built during phases 1 and 2 of the project, 59 percent of them meet that definition of affordable housing. He said he couldnt promise that 40 percent of the homes that will be built during Phase 3 would fit the criteria, but its certainly something we aspire to. There will be some residential tracts set aside for what he called affordable rental housing. How much affordable rental housing? We dont know, he said. Well be guided by the community, economics and call it the greater good. Santa Fe has for years faced a shortage of rental units, and apartment vacancy rates have been minuscule. Asked if Phase 3 of Tierra Contenta would put a dent in Santa Fes affordable housing problem, Werwath said, Well, not enough of a dent. But other than the citys housing program and lower-income tax credit program, this is the only way affordable housing is going to be built. Werwath said planners hope to accomplish several goals this year as the project moves forward, one of which is to form a land use advisory group and two working groups one to draft revisions to Tierra Contentas design standards and another to develop a housing affordability plan. The next big component will be the affordability plan, he said. We want it to harmonize with the home program offered by the city. Theres already an advisory commission that includes such people as Mike Loftin of Homewise, Ed Romero of the Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority, Inc., and Daniel Werwath, Peters son, who is with the New Mexico Inter-Faith Housing Corp. Commercial development? Peter Werwath said planners learned a thing or two from the first two phases that probably wont be included in Phase 3, such as back alleys. Back alleys were one of the things allowed under the first master plan. Theyre not popular. I think people see them as inconvenient, he said, adding that the alleys are narrow, making it hard to turn into driveways. Werwath also said the alleys were the result of neo-traditional planning embraced 25 years ago. Basically, its to try to return to the principles of the old hometowns, with wide roads and fairly dense neighborhoods, he said. City Councilor Chris Rivera has represented the district that includes the Tierra Contenta development for the past seven years and has heard complaints. Besides the alleyways, there are the common driveways, he said, adding that some driveways serve four residences. Some people like them, but a lot of people dont. Another thing that has caused problems is that residents are responsible for maintenance of property right up to the curb. But in some neighborhoods, theres a wall along the back of the property and a sidewalk beyond that. That makes people responsible for pulling weeds along a strip of property they cant even see from their back door. Weeds then overtake the sidewalks and make residents subject to fines. Roman Abeyta, the other city councilor representing District 3, has lived in Tierra Contenta for the past 16 years. He knows all about those issues and others. The other thing that well have to try to address is if its going to be individual subdivisions with individual neighborhood associations, because some will be more active than others. So, you could have some really nice areas and walk down the street a little ways where theres a different homeowners association thats not as active and its not as nice, he said. Another thing we need to look at is the impact it will have on the public schools in that area. Its great to have 1,800 new homes, but those homes come with families and children. And what about other amenities, like parks, recreation centers and stores? Councilor Abeyta said the south side is short of parks and has no recreation centers. And how much commercial development should there be? Abeyta says theres a big difference between the old Santa Fe of the east side and the south side, where almost all the citys growth is taking place. A lot of the residents I represent want the modern amenities and modern services. They dont have a problem with chain stores. The residents I represent, they like Albuquerque Uptown, and Apple stores and Costco, he said. We love having a mall that has an H&M and a Forever 21 those stores that our kids like to shop at. About 128 acres south and east of Capital High School is owned by the New Mexico School for the Deaf and falls within the boundaries of the Tierra Contenta master plan, Werwath said. But what, if any, development goes on there as part of the project is unclear. Harold Moya Jr., who manages facilities and construction projects for the school, said in an email to the Journal that the School for the Deaf property is not part of Tierra Contenta and the school currently has no plans to develop it or sell the land. Werwath said planners will work as closely as possible with the school during the planning process. Public Input Meeting Phase 3 of Tierra Contenta development When: 5: 30-7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 11 Where: Genoveva Chavez Community Center, 3221 Rodeo Rd. Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal It was 1919. World War I, the war to end all wars, had recently ended. Women were still a year away from gaining the right to vote. Prohibition was right around the corner, and the country was mourning the death of former President Theodore Roosevelt. In Santa Fe, that year marked the first season for the Community Theater of Santa Fe. Later called the Santa Fe Little Theater, the company went through several names before landing on the one it has today: The Santa Fe Playhouse. The original season consisted of two, one-night-only performances in February and May in the St. Francis Auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art. In 1922, the organization would officially incorporate as a business and produce the first Fiesta Melodrama, spoofing local politics and mores. Today, it is the oldest continually operated theater company west of the Mississippi. Recognizing the 100th anniversary of the inaugural season, a re-imagining of the May 1919 performance will be staged at the St. Francis Auditorium Saturday night. The script-in-hand performance meaning the cast will have costumes and setting, but will still hold onto their scripts throughout is something of a prelude to more centennial celebration projects planned for 2022, according to Santa Fe Playhouse artistic director Vaughn Irving. For that anniversary of the companys incorporation, the Playhouse hopes to produce either a book or a short documentary chronicling the history of the company. To me, it is really a celebration of the last 100 years of theater in Santa Fe, said Irving. I want it to be a lot of fun, I want it to be historically relevant, but really were all coming together to celebrate the fact that this (company) has been around for 100 years. Recreating the evening of three one-act plays was put into the hands of Santa Fe-based playwright and author Mark Dunn. Saturdays performance includes abridged and slightly modernized versions of the old theater pieces. The evening will have an emcee, via a portrayal of historical figure and Playhouse founder Mary Hunter Austin, who organized the shows in the companys first season. The writer, environmental advocate and womens rights activist moved to Santa Fe in the early 20th century, at a time when many other artists were flocking here as the city was establishing itself as an arts hub. As the visual arts were taking off, Dunn said, Austin realized there wasnt a theater group yet established in the City Different. There was no Little Theatre movement; obviously we were light years away from having a opera company with an international reputation, Dunn said. I think they were just finding their way through the visual arts, with the painting and the sculpture inspired by where we live. And (Austin) sort of added that artistic, aesthetic layer to what was going on here artistically. And she helped to make this a real arty little town way back in the day. Austin will be played by Emmy Award-winning actress Michael Learned, known for her starring role as Olivia Walton on the 1970s CBS show The Waltons. According to Irving, Learned, who used to have a home in Santa Fe and still has friends in the city, was interested in doing a local show. The podium shell stand at during the performance, Irving mentioned, was also used in the 1919 show. The Neighbors The first play is The Neighbors, a 1914 play by early 20th-century playwright and author Zona Gale. Weve forgotten her but, at the time, she had a huge following, Dunn said of the writer, who was the first woman to win a Pulitzer prize. Hes pared down her play with a Midwest, small town flavor about a woman who is helped by her neighbors as she takes care of a young boy to focus on a love story between two of the characters. The only local play in the show, El Conejo, was written by Fayette Curtis Jr. The amateur playwright was also a teacher at the Los Alamos Ranch School, the boys school that closed in 1943 after the government needed the property for the Manhattan Project. The play is a love story that also includes a man rescuing a woman who has been accused of being a witch. Dunn imagines that Curtis was influenced by the silent movies of the era, many of which include the knight-in-shining-armor cliche. He wrote this play and probably just submitted it to Miss Austin, and she liked it and decided, because its the only play in the evening that has a strong Spanish feeling to it, that they probably needed to have something like that in the evening. The play that needed the most updating for todays times, Dunn said, was the 1915 French play The Man Who Married A Dumb Wife. The word dumb in this case refers to someone who cannot speak. As awful as that title is, this is a very famous play . It wasnt just this weird, misogynistically titled play that appeared out of nowhere, he said. It was a play a lot of people were doing because it was very, very farcical. Playwright Anatole Frances work is about a man who marries a woman who is mute. After he takes his wife to a doctor who performs surgery on her so she can speak, the wife does not stop talking. In the original ending of the play, Dunn said, the woman talks so much that she ends up going crazy and biting people, who then also become crazy. Dunn condensed the play and has rewritten the ending. In Saturday nights show, its Austin and her contemporaries in the Santa Fe Womens Club who make the changes. Because she (Austin) is a famous feminist, and I cant see how she did, but I cant see how she would have stomached the ending of that play, said Dunn. Dunn said he hopes the updates make the works more palatable for todays audience. And theres also going to be some real tongue-in-cheek (moments), because we also have the pleasure of looking back at this with perspective, added Irving. So theres going to be some meta-humor in there about how we now recognize this is not necessarily where theater stayed. In between the one-acts, Dunn has also added historical elements and characters, including World War I doughboys, suffragettes and the presentation of a speech originally given by Roosevelt during a visit to Santa Fe in 1903. Dunn wanted to add extra theatrical elements to the show in case the plays dont have the same flair they had a century ago. But Irving also said the additions help provide context for a past time that may be a little abstract to people; a time that doesnt have the same renown as the Roaring 20s that came next. I love those interstitial moments because they do give us the sense of how long ago this was and what was going on, said Irving. And some people do watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, Dunn added with a laugh. If you go Re-imagining Mary Hunter Austins 1919 Performance WHEN: Saturday, 7:30-9:30 p.m. Doors open at 7 a.m. WHERE: St. Francis Auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace TICKETS: Advance ticket prices are $15 general admission, $10 for balcony seat. Tickets at the door cost $20. Purchase at santafeplayhouse.org. Former President Barack Obama said Saturday that he is concerned about rigidity among some liberal Democrats who take aim at others in the party for straying from purity on the issues. His remarks come amid an internal debate in the party over the most effective path to take in challenging President Donald Trump for the White House in 2020. Democrats recaptured the House in November in large part due to a surge of liberal energy. But as some have embraced sweeping proposals such as Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal plan to combat climate change, others have balked, arguing that the party should take a more centrist approach. At a town-hall-style event hosted by the Obama Foundation in Berlin, the former president was asked about the art of compromise. He told the crowd of mostly young people that, in politics as well as in the civic arena, you have to recognize that the way weve structured democracy requires you to take into account people who dont agree with you. One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States maybe its true here as well is a certain kind of rigidity, where we say, Oh, Im sorry. This is how its going to be,' Obama said. He lamented that Democrats sometimes create whats called a circular firing squad, where you start shooting at your allies because one of them is straying from purity on the issues. When that happens, typically the overall effort and movement weakens. . . . You cant set up a system in which you dont compromise on anything. But you also cant operate in a system where you compromise on everything; everythings up for grabs. That requires a certain amount of internal reflection and deliberations, he said. Obama told the crowd that, while his signature domestic achievement the 2010 Affordable Care Act did not contain everything he wanted, he viewed its passage as a success. That was not the ideal health-care program that I wanted to set up. Its what I could get at the time, and if I could establish the principle that everybody gets health care and get 20 million people more health care even if 10 million still hadnt gotten it thats what Im going to do now, he said. In the throes of an identity crisis, Alex Nunez starts putting on a mask. Its a vejigante mask, one that a dancer would wear during Carnivale celebrations in Puerto Rico. Thats one part of the costume for El Coqui Espectacular. Alex and this superhero are the focus of a new comic book-esque play opening at Teatro Paraguas later this week. El Coqui Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom, written by Brooklyn-based playwright Matt Barbot, premiered in 2018 at the Two River Theater in New Jersey. Director Roxanne Tapia said the new show stuck out to her as the theater group was searching for Latino plays for this season. It was funny, clever, relevant and different from what weve done, said Tapia. The story moves between the real life and the imagination of Alex, a comic book writer who lives in Sunset Park, a Puerto Rican community in Brooklyn. According to Tapia, Alexs character greatly struggles with his Latin identity. Though his parents are from Puerto Rico and hes visited the island, hes not from the island. He and his brother dont speak fluent Spanish and, growing up in New York, they were not connected to the culture in the same way their parents are. One of the guys who used to bully Alex in school, the character notes in the show, labeled him a Sorta Rican. Blurring the lines between Alexs comic book world and reality, that bully and the supervillain existing in his imagination El Chupacabra are played by the same actor. Hes from New York, Tapia said about Alex. Hes a little not Puerto Rican enough. As a result of these feelings, Alex creates El Coqui. His Puerto Rican comic book character is named after a type of frog native to the island. His superhero call is the same whistle noise the frog makes, and the heros backstory has roots in other elements of the culture, such as Santeria and Taino symbols. His horned vejigante mask is based on one his late father brought back to New York from Puerto Rico. But after Alex gets a bad case of writers block, he decides to dress up as his character and patrols the Sunset Park neighborhood in costume, blowing up on social media after a photographer named Yesica starts taking pictures of him. Though he considers his costumed outings a way to better understand his imaginary character, also its a way for him to be what he sees as the ideal version of himself, said Miles Blitch, who plays Alex in the Santa Fe production. Somebody whos deeply connected to Puerto Rican culture. At the same time, Alexs brother Joe has similar issues of not being as connected to his Boricua roots. However, working for a corporate advertising agency, he is often considered the Latin guy in the room for many of the companys projects, including its latest one for a soda being marketed to Hispanic millennials. He eventually gets Alex involved with this endeavor, which causes issues for the characters later on. Its kind of a generational thing, too, which I think we all relate to in our own individual lives, said Jake McCook, the actor portraying Joe. Theyre kind of stuck between these two worlds of the past, tradition and the way the neighborhood used to be, and gentrification and how its changing. They want a little bit of both worlds and they dont know where they fit. Through the quirky comedic elements of the show, the play touches on themes of identity, as well as Latin stereotypes, cultural sensitivity, commercialization and generational divides. Because of those wide-ranging themes, McCook said he feels theres something that everyone can relate to. Different generations are going to get something out of it, he said. Theres something for everyone. Someone from the older generation is going to connect really well with the mother and the storylines about the father, but its a great play for millennials, its great for young people who are into comic books. The show is recommended for all ages, with the disclaimer that there is some use of foul language. El Coqui Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom also stars Cristina Vigil as Yesica, Ricky Mars as Junior and El Chupacabra, and Juliet Salazar as the Nunezes mother and other small roles throughout the performance. The shows run begins Thursday and goes until April 28. Call me, maybe? is on the brink of becoming Call me, never. Robocalls, those computer-generated shysters, are making some people stop answering the phone altogether. The rest of us trust unknown calls about as much as truck stop sushi. By several estimates, Americans got more than 5.2 billion automated calls in March a record of about 16 for every man, woman and child. Its happening because the internet made it incredibly cheap and easy to place thousands of calls in an instant. But we dont have to just bury our heads in the spam and take it. While lawmakers debate what to do about the roboscourge, engineers have cooked up some clever ways to make bots work for us, not against us. Verizon just began offering free spam-fighting tech like AT&T and T-Mobile, if you sign up. The right app or service on your phone can make it safer to say hello again or even extract revenge. Yes, revenge. So lets battle, bots. I collected dozens of robocalls from my Washington Post colleagues along with the (good grief) 30 I got myself in March. I get lots in Chinese; one colleague gets one for a medical-grade brace that he definitely doesnt need. Then I took this list of 100 naughty numbers and a few legitimate calls like pharmacies and schools to six tech companies that flag and block robocalls on cellphones: Hiya, Nomorobo, RoboKiller, TNS, Truecaller and YouMail. (Landlines and VoIP phones also get barraged, but some of the solutions are different.) My test lasers in on one important question: Who was first at identifying the bad guys? I discovered no service could flag more than two-thirds of the calls on my list, in part because so many robocalls spoof their identities. Those are the callers that look conspicuously similar to your number, or copy the caller ID of some poor soul who gets lots of angry return calls. In a robocall deathmatch, speed matters. And one free app was, on average, faster at adding bad guys to its blacklist. It comes down to how much effort you want to put into battling robocalls, and how much personal information youre willing to share to make it happen. Just adding numbers to your phones individual block list wont get you very far, but there are a few simple steps everyone could benefit from. Heres my recommended plan of attack. Round 1: Register on the Do Not Call list It wont help much, but it only takes 30 seconds so why not? The list, kept by the Federal Trade Commission, tells legitimate telemarketers not to bother you the equivalent of a no trespassing sign on your lawn. Bonus: It also registers with the government that you care about this issue. Its free to register at donotcall.gov. Round 2: Activate your service providers free protection Phone companies have finally realized that stopping robocalls is an essential part of what we pay them for. You may have heard that recently the biggest carriers pledged to support new network technology with a James Bond name STIR/SHAKEN that will help identify the true origin of calls. Thats a good thing to help stop all those spoofed calls, but theres still a lot to work out before it might make a noticeable difference. Meanwhile, everyone should take advantage of tech the carriers offer to identify and block certain robocalls. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon offer free services that monitor network activity and crowdsourced reports to block suspected fraudulent calls. The carriers outsource these services to Hiya, First Orion and TNS, respectively. Dont worry: they cross-check your contacts list to make sure they dont block someone legitimate. One caveat: If your company pays for your phone service, it might have to authorize turning on some of these services. AT&T: Download an app called AT&T Call Protect. The free level of service will label suspected spammers and gives you the option to automatically block calls that are a fraud risk. Unfortunately, if you also want to automatically block nuisances like spam, political calls and telemarketers, you have to pay $4 per month, which also comes with access to AT&Ts mobile security service. Verizon: Download an app called Verizon Call Filter. As of last week, Verizon stopped charging for basic service, which labels suspected robocalls and gives you three options based on risk level for how many to block. If you pay $3 per month, youll also get caller ID. T-Mobile: Most T-Mobile customers already have the companys Scam ID and Scam Block service turned on, with no need to download an additional app. If you pay $4 per month, youll get better caller ID and the ability to send more kinds of calls straight to voicemail. In my test, the carrier services were slower at adding spammers to blacklists than some independent apps and paying for their premium versions wont make them faster. In everyday use, these services take advantage of algorithms that might have stopped spoof numbers my test didnt pick up. Verizons service provider TNS and AT&Ts provider Hiya identified nearly the same number of robocalls, though Hiya did so, on average, a bit faster. (T-Mobiles provider First Orion declined to participate.) Just as important: Both let the legitimate calls through. Round 3: Get a robocall-blocking app Independent apps offer a few tricks of their own, but theyre not all effective and might be after the personal data in your phone. Into my bot battle, I threw four popular apps: Nomorobo, RoboKiller, Truecaller and YouMail. I also spoke with the companies behind them about how they make money and handle our privacy. I recommend starting with the free YouMail, which won my robocall speed test. The main reason its faster is that it has data the carrier-provided services dont: the contents of your voicemail. YouMail replaces your phones existing voicemail service, and it uses software to identify when robocallers leave messages like Shazam for spam. That helps it quickly crowdsource the identity of new robocallers and block them from other phones. If YouMail, which has about 10 million registered users, sees a scam rotating through lots of different spoofed numbers, it knows not to block those numbers that belong to legitimate callers for all its users. A coming update will also let you automatically block spoof calls designed to look like theyre coming from neighbors. And my favorite part: YouMail tries to trick known robocallers into taking you off their lists by playing them the beep-beep-beep sound of a dead line. I wouldnt blame you for being hesitant about handing over so much data, including (on Android phones) the details of every call that comes in. Youre required to use the YouMail app to listen to your messages, but it does helpfully transcribe them, make them accessible on the web and offer fun outgoing message options. YouMail says it makes money through selling a premium voicemail service for businesses and through advertising, but over its 12-year history has also run an identity-verification data service. The company told me its ending its data business and wont sell user data or share it with others unless its part of an effort to stop robocalls. If you dont want to give up your voicemail, the most-effective option is Truecaller, which replaces your phones main call app and crowdsources spam numbers from some 300 million users worldwide (including 10 million in the U.S.). But it wasnt my favorite app, because you have to pay $3 per month to automatically block top spammers, and it stuffs in lots of functions unrelated to robocalling. The simplest app, $2 per month Nomorobo, is one of the first robocall blockers on the market with a popular service for home lines. On your smartphone, Nomorobo doesnt sell your data or monkey around with your voicemail or calling apps, and it is smart about blocking spoofed calls that appear to be from neighbors. But I also found it was the slowest to add my tests robocalls to its blacklist. Round 4: Get revenge For some, dark times call for dark measures. The $4 per month RoboKiller, which ranked second in my speed test, also takes over and fingerprints your voicemails but adds a clever twist: answer bots. Theyre voicemail messages that try to keep robots and human telemarketers on the line, listening to nonsense. Answer bot options range from Trump impersonators and extended coughing sessions to someone doing vocal exercises. Even better, RoboKiller will send you an often-hilarious recording of the interaction. (It only uses these recordings when its very sure its a spam call.) Another service, called Jolly Roger, doesnt sell itself as a robocall blocker but takes this auto-generated annoyance idea a step further by actively trying to game the spammers systems, such as when to press 1 to speak to a human. It calls this tech artificial stupidity. It costs $11.88 per year. Its possible youre better off not engaging with a robocall in the hopes the dialer with decide the line is dead. And its also not clear how much these actually cost the people placing robocalls. But any time robocallers spend with your bot might be minutes theyre not calling someone else, so you can think of it as community service. I expect well see more call software that works like this. Googles Pixel phones last year added a button to have a robot assistant screen calls for you. Even if youre not interested in revenge, good bots can play a role in combating bad ones. Video: Ever get a phone call from a number that looks suspiciously like your own? This video explains them, and what you should do about them.(Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post) Police are investigating after a man and woman were found dead Saturday afternoon inside a home south of the University of New Mexico, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. Its in the early stages, said APD spokesman Simon Drobik. Were trying to find out what happened here. He said an acquaintance came to the house in the 600 block of Princeton SE around 6 p.m. and found the pair, who were beyond help. He did not identify the couple, say how they died or give any other details. Drobik said the block of Princeton, north of Burton, would be closed off for much of the night as police investigate and talk to neighbors. Crime scene tape cordoned off the area as several police vehicles and a mobile crime lab parked along the street. Neighbors came out of their houses and stood on the sidewalk to get a better look at what was going on. Last month, the Navajo Nation and the All Pueblo Council of Governors (APCG) came together for a historic summit to declare our shared commitment to the Greater Chaco Landscape and to call on our congressional leaders and the Department of the Interior to conserve these sacred lands for future generations. We were joined by many other elected leaders from New Mexico who stand with us in this critical endeavor. The Greater Chaco Landscape is a truly significant resource that brings together the Pueblos of New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. Including this summit, the Navajo Nation and APCG have only met three times, with each meeting focusing on the importance of protecting the abundance of cultural and historical resources. New Mexicans and people from all around the world visit the region in large numbers every year to view historical sites and gaze at the breathtaking starry skies that hover above these lands at night. It captures the imagination like no other place on Earth. Navajo and Pueblo leaders, along with members of New Mexicos congressional delegation, our governor and our state land commissioner have repeatedly sent a strong and unified message to the Department of the Interior and the BLM: Protect public lands near Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Whether the agency chooses to respect our tribal and state leaders request will be seen as the BLM readies the release of a draft management plan amendment for the area. In recent months, the agency suggested it would ignore this unprecedented level of support for land conservation by allowing lands within a roughly 10-mile buffer of the park to be developed for oil and gas. More than 90 percent of our public lands in the region are already leased for energy development, and the few remaining unleased areas near the park form a near pristine landscape of cultural objects and sacred sites. While the BLM works on its management plan, we seek alternative ways to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape. Last year, we supported legislation sponsored by U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich that would withdraw lands around Chaco National Park from oil and gas leasing. Last month, our nations renewed our support for this bill and called on New Mexicos federal elected leaders to reintroduce it, along with a similar companion bill in the House of Representatives. This important legislation would provide long-term assurances for this critically important landscape, but it should not act in lieu of BLMs responsibility to listen to our communities and protect these lands through the administrative process. Either through the legislative or administrative process, our nations are committed to seeing through the widely supported plan to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape. We hope Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and lawmakers in Washington, D.C., will respect our reasonable request. Now is the time for all of us who treasure this landscape to come together. Please join us in our efforts to demand that the BLM do more to protect the lands near Chaco. If we continue working together, we can permanently protect the Greater Chaco region. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams first legislative session is over, and her collaboration with the Democratic-controlled House and Senate means things in New Mexico will start to look very different in the coming year. Some will be great improvements, some absolutely wont, and some need to play out before being put in either category. Perhaps the pinnacle of legislation Lujan Grisham signed made good on her campaign promise to put green energy front and center. The Energy Transition Act commits New Mexico to a carbon-free energy system within 25 years and puts the state out in front in the battle to mitigate climate change. Education was also high on the governors campaign-promise list. Her signature on a new Early Childhood Department promises to bring efficiencies and accountability to the states disparate pre-kindergarten programs. Her approval of hundreds of millions more dollars for K-12 education is designed to improve opportunities for the states most disadvantaged students while complying with a court order. Her increasing teacher pay honors the profession and should aid morale. And her requiring the Children, Youth and Families and Public Education departments to follow students who move among districts and services should ensure more kids are safe and on track. Unfortunately, the governor took the Legislatures lead and removed the one window parents have into how well their childs school is doing. A-F school grades will be replaced with an incomprehensible dashboard. And, unfortunately, the signed bill that provided raises for teachers will also automatically boost many school administrators salaries 6 percent, sending money that could have gone to classrooms into the pockets of those in Central Office instead. And the governor is phasing out the important ability for students over the age of 22 to still get a public education and high school diploma. One of the most controversial initiatives the governor took up this session was gun control. The measures she signed drew much support and much criticism, but all are pragmatic, middle-ground reforms that promise to make our communities safer. New Mexico has joined roughly 20 states in requiring background checks for nearly all gun purchases, and it now prohibits domestic abusers from possessing a firearm. Several anti-crime initiatives also received the governors signature this session, including expanding pre-prosecution diversion for nonviolent offenders; establishing a data-sharing network so police, prosecutors and other agencies can track offenders who use aliases or commit crimes in different communities; and banning the use of solitary confinement for pregnant or minor inmates and limiting it for those with a serious mental disability. Unfortunately, the governors inclination to focus on helping New Mexicos most vulnerable residents overrode the very serious consequences of redacting information in police reports and expunging criminal records. One point that has not been stressed: In this Facebook and internet world, expunging records does nothing to erase whats already on the web allowing claims of charges to be posted online without any way for the public to check if theyre accurate or were dropped. When it comes to doing business here, the governor was able to sign off on a minimum wage compromise that tries to balance employee and employer concerns by phasing in increases, to $9 hourly next year and $12 by 2023, keeping but increasing tip wages, and not mandating increases tied to a national index in perpetuity. She also approved opening the state up to a new industry the production, research and manufacturing of hemp that should create a new private-sector revenue stream and help diversify our agricultural economy. However, the governor ignored the will of residents in 10 counties and banned right-to-work ordinances, which bar unions from collecting fees from non-members. After years of trying and numerous attempts to hijack the legislation, New Mexico will finally have an independent ethics commission. Hard-fought compromises protected most of the publics right to know what allegations are being leveled at their elected officials. And lobbyists will now have to report their cumulative spending on individual meals or other items that cost less than $100 each, giving the public a better idea of who is trying to influence their lawmakers. Lujan Grishams signature also made the state a little safer for those New Mexicans subject to guardianships and conservatorships, giving them and those who care about them a greater voice in the process that can turn over their lives and finances to a court-appointed stranger. Its an important provision that builds on the states monumental guardianship reforms of 2018. The changes Lujan Grisham approved on the election front were, however, all bad. Lawmakers refused to recommend open primaries, so New Mexico will continue to disenfranchise around one out of five voters who decline to pledge allegiance to a party line. Yet New Mexicans can now register to vote on Election Day, opening the door back up to candidates and advocacy groups rounding up folks and driving them to the polls, then encouraging a vote for the price of a chicken dinner. Residents will also be automatically registered to vote when they sign up for public assistance or a drivers license, eliminating the concept of having individuals put a little conscious thought into the responsibilities that come with casting a ballot. And many of those votes could come to naught, since Lujan Grisham signed away the states Electoral College votes to whomever wins the national popular vote for president. Finally, New Mexicos landscape got much-needed protections this session. In addition to creating an office of outdoor recreation to better capitalize on the many amazing places to visit in the state, the governor approved changes that give the Oil Conservation Division authority to directly impose penalties on oil and gas operators, raise fines for violations for the first time since 1935 and set new rules for oil and gas operators to follow regarding brackish water. And she approved the ban on the brutal and disturbing practice of killing as many coyotes as possible for prizes. It is unfortunate lawmakers did not send her a ban on trapping as well. As long as this list is, it represents a fraction of what our elected state representatives, senators and governor lived and breathed over 60 days. Whether you agree with the outcomes or not, they each deserve our thanks for their time and dedication to trying to make New Mexico a better place. As for those laws that didnt make it or dont work out? Well, theres always next session. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal CIUDAD JUAREZ Curious children at the Casa del Migrante shelter quickly surround the visitors as they fan out to speak to families. Monique Jacobson sits on the ground, and the children form a circle around her. The kids laugh as she points to her eyes and they tell her the word in Spanish is ojos. I see you, she says as she plays peek-a-boo with a small boy. Making sure migrant children are not overlooked as U.S. and Mexican authorities cope with an influx of families at the border is the goal of the Santuario del Corazon project. Ive seen what happens if they dont get that kind of support and the long-lasting generational impact it can have, if kids dont get support when they experience trauma, Jacobson said during a recent visit to Ciudad Juarez. Jacobson served as secretary of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department until December, then quickly accepted an offer in mid-January to join the Santuario del Corazon project, which is focused on providing trauma care for migrant children on the border. We felt a strong desire to get there and see what are the needs and what can we do to help fill the gaps, Jacobson said. The project is managed by Las Cumbres Community Services, a nonprofit organization founded in 1977. Other team members have worked with families in northern New Mexico for years with Las Cumbres. The nonprofit was awarded a $307,000 federal grant in December to help migrant children coping with trauma, especially those separated from a parent. Its one of 13 organizations nationwide awarded the supplemental grants. Paving the way We have a unique role here even though most people coming across the border dont stay in New Mexico. We want to help connect them to services wherever they land, said Stacey Frymier, Las Cumbres director of child and family services. The goal is to offer some brief mental health first aid and intervention, then link families and kids to providers of evidence-based trauma treatment once they relocate to cities where they have sponsors while their asylum cases move through immigration court, Frymier said. The sponsors are usually relatives, and the immigrant children will be referred to organizations that are part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Frymier said children are coping with trauma related to the migration journey, but also the fact that a lot are carrying traumatic experiences that caused them to flee. Last month, President Donald Trumps administration expanded the remain in Mexico policy to the El Paso area, which requires families seeking asylum to return to Mexico to wait for a decision on their cases, instead of allowing them to stay in the U.S. months or years until a judge decides whether they qualify. In the El Paso area, so far, fewer than a dozen immigrants have been returned to Mexico. In March alone, an estimated 55,000 families and an additional 40,000 unaccompanied minors crossed the Southwest border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Border Patrols El Paso sector, which includes all of New Mexico, has become a hub for asylum seekers from Central America. It is one of the areas where Customs and Border Protection officers at official ports of entry have been reassigned to help overwhelmed Border Patrol agents process hundreds of asylum-seeking families that are turning themselves in. The shifting of more than 750 officers to help with asylum seekers has created long delays at official border crossings for legal trade and travelers. The more than 500 migrants staying at the Casa del Migrante shelter in Ciudad Juarez put their names on a long waiting list to make an asylum claim at a legal port of entry in the El Paso area. CBP officers have been allowing a few dozen a day to enter the U.S. through an official border crossing to ask for asylum. The women I was just talking to, they dont know what to expect. Theyve been waiting here in the shelter. They had a long journey, said Jose Gonzalez, Santuario del Corazon project coordinator. They just wanted to get to the United States, which they know is a safe place for them and their children. Gonzalez, who works in Las Cumbres in Taos, is bilingual and bicultural. He saw a growing need to also help migrant parents and children on the border. We want to be able to give them hope, facilitate their care and be the best support available to them, Gonzalez said. Facing stigma Common misconceptions keep some families from getting help, he said. Coming from a Hispanic or Mexican culture, even growing up, when you hear psychologist or counselor, its like, youre completely crazy, youre loca for you to go seek some help, he said. He works to dispel those myths and encourage parents to get help for their children. The Santuario del Corazon has added three bilingual therapists to help families on the U.S. side of the border in New Mexico. Funding for services is limited to the U.S., but the team visits Ciudad Juarez once a month to gauge needs and make contact with families before they cross the border. Therapist Faye Finley said she spends a lot of time at the Ciudad Juarez shelter just listening. So for me, letting folks maybe tell their story is more than a lot of them are even having the opportunity to do. I think thats cathartic, Finley said. Several of the mothers at the shelter on the day the team visited in late March said they were worried about whether they would be allowed to cross into the U.S. to apply for asylum. Its very dangerous here, said Maria, a 30-year-old mother who did not want her last name used. She left her rural village in Guatemala with her 2-year-old daughter Reyna two months ago. They were trying to reach relatives in Georgia. During a tour of the facility, a man with two black eyes timidly approached Olga Flores, the shelter manager, and said, I want to go home. Flores was surprised because she said few migrants ask to be returned to their home countries. Hes afraid and (would) rather go back, Flores said. The man from Guatemala had arrived with his 5-year-old son three days ago. The father was robbed and beaten by a group of men, and his son witnessed the attack, according to Flores. When he got here, the child cried and cried. We tried to hug him, but he wont let anyone touch him, she said. Flores told him she would be in touch with the Guatemalan Consul General to arrange for their return home. Las Cumbres Frymier said she understands some Americans are critical of migrant parents for bringing their children on the risky journey north to the U.S. border to ask for asylum. There is a strong tendency to want to create separation, like an us and them sort of attitude. And people in that space can look at another person and say, Whats wrong with you? she said. What we want to do is try to help people understand how to ask, What happened to you? Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal At age 24, Jeyden Barnhill is known for her hasty getaways. Federal court records allege that she led Albuquerque police on a car chase after an armed robbery last June involving her husband. During a two-month crime spree last summer of armed robberies and break-ins at four Albuquerque businesses, Barnhill is alleged to have been a lookout, a driver and a passenger in the getaway vehicles, some which had been stolen, according to federal records. Late last week, the FBI announced that Barnhill and two other defendants are facing federal charges of armed robbery of a business engaged in interstate commerce, carjacking and firearms offenses. Yet, a U.S. magistrate judge in Albuquerque on Monday trusted Barnhill to behave and sent her to stay at a court-approved halfway house awaiting further prosecution in the federal case. The next day, Barnhill lived up to her reputation. She was last seen walking out of La Pasada halfway house in Albuquerque on Tuesday at 5:20 p.m., just after staff there heard a vehicle outside honk its horn. Barnhill jumped into a waiting red car, witnesses say, and never returned. According to an emergency federal warrant for her arrest, Barnhills whereabouts are presently unknown. At the time of last summers armed robberies, she and her husband, Jared Barnhill, were out on pretrial release, pending trial on state charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for attacking a woman with a screwdriver after an SUV break-in. Her federal public defender, Aric Elsenheimer, couldnt be reached for comment Friday. At a detention hearing Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura Fashing heard arguments on whether Barnhill should be jailed pending trial on the new federal charges. The charges were filed as part of a six-month FBI-New Mexico State Police investigation that culminated in a March 29 multi-agency raid in the citys International District. As a result of that crackdown on habitual violent offenders, 31 people were charged or arrested on state or federal crimes; 21 firearms were seized, along with two stolen vehicles and more than a pound of methamphetamine and a pound of heroin, the FBI announced late last week. During Jeyden Barnhills detention hearing in the case, her defense attorney noted her family ties in Edgewood and Albuquerque and that she has a 6-year-old daughter living in Albuquerque with a relative. Records show that Jeyden Barnhill has a history of substance abuse. Tom Outler, a special assistant U.S. attorney, argued that Barnhill be confined in jail pending trial. Given her history of failing to appear for court or violating other conditions of release, Outler said, She doesnt deserve another chance. Fashing said she would agree with the defense request to send Barnhill to the halfway house under extremely strict conditions. She warned Barnhill that she would face the consequences if she messed up. Less than an hour after Barnhill absconded on Tuesday, Fashing authorized the warrant for her arrest and revocation of her release, court records show. Meanwhile, Barnhills co-defendant, Samuel Richard Perez, has been detained in jail on the federal charges. Barnhills husband is in state custody and has not yet been arraigned on the new charges, FBI and federal records indicate. Revolving door Jeyden Barnhills revolving door experience in the state district court system isnt unique. She and her husband were arrested in August 2017 in what state prosecutors described as a random and unprovoked attack of violence at the Archery Shoppe on Carlisle and Candelaria NE. Albuquerque police reported that the two were loitering in the store when an employee became suspicious and asked them to leave. Jared allegedly pulled a knife and threatened to kill the employee and his family. Meanwhile, Jeyden went outside to the parking lot and broke into a 1999 Chevy Tahoe SUV. When the owner approached and saw Jeyden inside, a physical altercation ensued. Jared came out of the business, saw the fight and started to kick and punch the SUVs owner, hitting her with both ends of a screwdriver, the APD reported. With lacerations to her forehead and body, the SUVs owner, covered in blood, was taken to a hospital. The Barnhills were arrested by APD officers after a foot chase. That prosecution resulted in Jeyden Barnhills being held without bond in jail in August 2017, after the Bernalillo District Attorneys Office argued that no release conditions for her would protect the safety of others and the community. But the charges were ultimately dismissed months later, with the option of being refiled, after a judge found that the DAs Office hadnt turned over certain evidence to the defense. When the charges were refiled, in late March 2018, the couple was released from custody pending trial. By the end of June 2018, federal criminal records allege, their spree of armed robberies, break-ins and carjackings had begun. Crime spree According to the federal complaint, the crimes included: The June 28 robbery of a Giant convenience store at 2401 San Mateo in which two armed, masked men stole 2,471 lottery tickets, packs of cigarettes and multiple bottles of liquor. The men got into a stolen Hyundai Sonata, driven by a woman with blond hair. Jeyden is suspected of being the driver. APD officers who responded spotted the Sonata and gave chase. But the pursuit of the car was halted due to public safety concerns. The July 3 armed robbery of a business called Seductions in the 5200 block of Menaul NE, involving two masked men, with one brandishing a short-barrel rifle. They stole more than $13,500 worth of merchandise and, on the way out, demanded a customers car keys and escaped in her Nissan Versa. The July 5 armed robbery of a Metro PCS cellphone store off Menaul by a masked man brandishing a gun. He left with cash and 91 cellphones, escaping in a Nissan Versa occupied by two other accomplices, one of whom authorities believe was Jeyden. Hours after the robbery, Albuquerque police traced one of the stolen phones to a silver Subaru sedan parked outside a motel. A female occupant, later identified as Jeyden, was in the backseat and two men were in the front. While police detained the driver of the Subaru, the male passenger, identified as Jared Barnhill, jumped into the drivers seat, started the car, accelerated over a curb and parking lot barrier and fled the scene, at a high speed, with his wife That same day, after the Subaru was abandoned, a surveillance video showed a male and female, matching the descriptions of the Barnhills, breaking into a fenced area outside the Floorscapes business on Paseo Alameda. The two are alleged to have stolen a company truck, plowing through a gate to get away. On July 6, the APD found the stolen Versa used in the cellphone store robbery. Another surveillance video at a chimney sweep business showed a man and woman that include who authorities believe were the Barnhills exiting the car, and changing their clothing. Both were observed on the video making a hasty getaway from the Nissan Versa, stated the federal criminal complaint. Acting on a tip, police arrested Jeyden Barnhill the next day with the stolen truck nearby. Inside the truck, police found five stolen firearms and prescription controlled substances stolen during a burglary of an Edgewood home. Ten days later, her husband was arrested and jailed. Days before her arrest on the federal charges last month, Jeyden Barnhill finally got her day in state court on the aggravated battery charges involving the 2017 screwdriver attack. After she pleaded guilty, a state district court judge sentenced her to three years in prison, but suspended the sentence and placed Barnhill on three years probation. By Text by Wallace Wyss Photographs by Richard Bartholomew Nobody in the old car collecting field is as irrepressible as Gary Wales of Woodland Hills, California. Formerly known first as a Ferrari collector when still in Detroit, and then as an old Bentley guy, in recent years you never know what direction he will go next. He jumps from one marque to another, like his matched set of 37 RR boattail cars, and then a 1915 car called La Bestioni Rusty Two, the second time he has done a beast of Turin. At the Benedict Castle Concours in Riverside on March 31, 2019, he showed up with his latest creationa pretty convincing copy of the 1938 Buick Y job. The original GM show car was honored in 1993, when it came home to the GM Design Center in Warren, Mich., where it now resides as an honored member of GMs heritage collection. The 1938 Buick Y-Job is generally considered the industrys first concept car. Created by General Motors Styling and Buick Engineering, it was designed by Harley J. Earl, GMs first design chief. Earl had been hired away from the business he and his father had built customizing cars for Hollywood stars (and before that, unbelievably, wagons and carriages!). He had learned as a boy how to create a car design by molding scale models of clay drawn from a nearby riverbed. Once he came to GM he began having full size dream cars built, most of those being featured in the stage shows he had travel the country, called Motoramas. In between shows he would drive the dream cars to and from work, every so often having the car brought in and updated. This original Y-job was built on a production Buick chassis modified by Charlie Chayne, then Buicks chief engineer. Power was supplied by a Buick 320 cubic inch straight 8. Always the contrarian, Earl had called it Y because so many makers dubbed experimental cars X. (later GM went back to X for later dream cars, though) Styling cues and mechanical features of the Y-job showed up on GM products, particularly Buick and Cadillac, throughout the 40s though the hidden headlamps were particularly show to make the showrooms. Noteworthy is the introduction of a wide horizontal grille with thin vertical bars, which remains a Buick styling feature to this day. Doubtless we will hear the story of Wales creation of the car in the future but meanwhile I wanted to congratulate him for completing another project. Let us know what you think in the Comments. THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is the author of 18 automotive histories and co-host of Autotalk broadcast weekly from KUCR FM Riverside. Richard Bartholomew is an artist and photographer based in Southern California. He is open to interesting consignments and can be reached at zeroagenow@aol.com Thank you for supporting My Car Quest For some, attending the Fiestas de Albuquerque in Old Town on Saturday was a chance to connect with their heritage. Sisters Aurelia Saiz Jaramillo and Frances Saiz Jenkins, who gathered with family, say their roots in New Mexico can be traced to 1600s, and the Fiestas has a special familial connection, too. I remember my great-grandparents talking about when they were small that their mom and dad would bring them to the Fiestas de Albuquerque in a covered wagon, Frances Saiz Jenkins said. Jenkins said her grandparents even met at the Fiestas, and this deep connection is what brought her back to the event. We love it because its all about our family, its all about our background, said Aurelia Saiz Jaramillo. Charlotte Jaramillo Mcilrath Jaramillos daughter said she moved from California back to Albuquerque in the 1990s due to her love of the city. Its our New Mexico roots that brought us back there, Mcilrath said. Hundreds gathered in the plaza and elsewhere around Old Town for the Duke Citys 313th birthday celebration, which aimed to highlight the history and traditions of the city with dances and performances by local musicians. Many of those in attendance said that the unique culture of Albuquerque was the main draw. I really love Albuquerque for its cultural richness, said Alma Arango with Ballet Folklorico Fiesta Mexicana. Arango, a dancer of more than 30 years, performed in the plaza for the celebration and said she enjoys the ability to showcase her dance with locals and tourists. The celebration allowed the different cultures in New Mexico a similar chance to display their traditions. Emmet Yepa, a member of the Jemez Pueblo, said events such as this allow others to experience his pueblos culture. One thing thats really fun for us is that its the first time for a lot of people to ever see something like this, he said. Besides having a chance to present his pueblos culture, Yepa said he was excited to be at the event and meet the different groups in attendance. Theres a lot of similarities between cultures from New Mexico, Yepa said. SANTA FE Records released last week by the Santa Fe Police Department show that witnesses saw a city government driver running a snowplow over two pedestrians at an intersection near downtown in January. Also, the reports show that a city supervisor wrote in a report shortly after the incident that city snow removal crews were stressed after working long hours without weekend breaks because of storms between Christmas and when the pedestrians were hit on Jan. 11. The police had not previously disclosed that anyone other than those directly involved had witnessed the incident, in which Joseph and Toni Fammartino, both 68, were injured. Joseph was in the hospital for several days with broken bones in his face. Snowplow driver Billy Kavanaugh didnt stop after hitting the couple as they started to cross Paseo de Peralta in a crosswalk at the intersection with Galisteo. He has told police he didnt realize he had struck anyone when he made a left turn onto westbound Paseo from northbound Galisteo. He has been charged with careless driving. The newly released reports say Kavanaugh told investigators he was not on his phone when he hit the couple. The SFPD did not respond to a Journal question about whether police sought a warrant to search his phone, a common practice in serious accidents. No search warrant documents for this case have appeared in the public file at the Santa Fe County courthouse. As God is my witness, I didnt see anyone, Kavanaugh says in one police report. He also said he didnt feel any impact while making the turn. Tests showed he was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A police report says that a city supervisors report dated Jan. 14, three days after the incident, says a safety meeting had been held with road crews regarding the amount of hours they have been working and how fatigue sets in. We need to slow down and stay focused while out on snow removal, the report stated. It added: Staff is stressed from amount of time put in since 12/25/18. Due to storms the crews have not had a weekend break. The driver in the crash was in disbelief and did not realize (he) hit pedestrians. Witness accounts The people who witnessed the incident are a couple who operate a small shop downtown and who were stopped in their car, westbound on Paseo, at a red light. The husband declined Journal requests for an interview. According to a police report, they watched as Kavanaugh got a green light, made his left turn onto Paseo and hit the Fammartinos after they entered the crosswalk after getting a walk signal. The witness couples accounts are in line with what both the Fammartinos and Kavanaugh have said about the incident. But the fact that the witnesses were stopped at the intersection, presumably with their car headlights on to illuminate the street and crosswalk to some degree at least before the snowplow made its turn in front of them is a new detail. Police reports have emphasized that the intersection was dark, with no streets lights working. Traffic lights were functioning. The incident took place about 6:15 p.m., about an hour after sundown. The witnesses were able to see the Fammartinos waiting to cross the street, then get hit by the snowplow after the pedestrians took two or a few steps into the street. The snowplow was not going fast and didnt brake before hitting the couple, the woman witness said. It did make a wide turn into the right lane of westbound Paseo, closest to the curb where the pedestrians were. Paseo has two lanes each way. The woman said she doesnt believe the snow plow driver saw the Fammartinos or knew that he hit them. She said it was not snowing; Kavanaugh said snow was falling at a medium rate. Blade an issue? Another issue raised in the report is whether Kavanaughs snowplow blade may have blocked his view as he made his turn that night, when he was salting streets, not plowing snow. The woman witness said Kavanaughs blade was elevated and not on the ground, a little low, not high. Kavanaugh said his plow was all the way up, but couldnt say how high it was off the ground. When police checked the snowplow at a storage yard, no one knew if the drivers seat or the blade had been adjusted since the incident. But a photo was taken by an officer from the drivers seat of two other officers, one 6 feet, 1 inch tall and the other 5 feet, 10 inches, and only their heads were visible over the blade. Tina Fammartino said she remembered that the snowplow had two lights on. She said she called out, Oh, my God, they are going to hit us before the plow hit the couple. Kavanaugh is still employed by the city, on modified duty and not driving, and is scheduled for a trial on his careless driving charge on Thursday in Magistrate Court. A lawyer for the Fammartinos has filed a tort claim notice with the city, a first step toward a lawsuit, a spokesperson confirmed. A police report says a Public Service Co. of New Mexico crew member reported that a blown fuse had knocked out the street lights at the Galisteo/Paseo de Peralta intersection. The PNM worker said a tree located on the northeast corner of the intersection contributes to the fuse being blown. Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal The United States accomplished its mission and should have gotten out of Afghanistan years ago, according to a former CIA officer who was part of a team there in the months following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. I dont consider myself an expert on Afghanistan, I dont consider myself an Afghanistan scholar, retired CIA senior officer Douglas Wise said. But Afghanistan is part of my journey. And Im a short part of Afghanistans journey. Wise shared his story about being a member of one of the first CIA teams sent to Afghanistan after 9/11 and his opinions about the continuing presence of American troops in the war-torn country at an event hosted by the Albuquerque International Association on Friday. Wise said hes no fan of President Donald Trump, but I find myself in agreement with the president on this issue. Trump announced plans of a pullout earlier this year, saying the U.S. would reduce the number of troops in the country from 14,000 to 7,000. The U.S. has been involved with peace negotiations with the Taliban. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., co-sponsored legislation with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., earlier this year that would bring an end to the war and bring the troops home. Wise was part of a team that deployed to the eastern part of Afghanistan to begin operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban. He said part of the teams mission was to seal off an escape route that could be used by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to flee the Tora Bora region, which was under assault by U.S. troops and their allies. Wise said his team, working with the military, rid the area of al-Qaida and the Taliban. We had to respond to the tragic events of 9/11, Wise said. He said the U.S. established a presence to counterterrorism efforts by al-Qaida. Wise said the U.S. at one point rid the country of al-Qaida and the Taliban had fled back into Pakistan where it had originated. We accomplished that, Wise said, then we should have left. He said conditions in Afghanistan are not ripe for a policy of nation-building. He calls Afghanistan a country, not a nation where ethnic divisions make it difficult to have an effective centralized government. Hes also of the opinion that the dream of a democratic Afghanistan is also unachievable. Is there an acceptable, feasible, achievable goal (with a continuing U.S. presence)? Wise asked. My answer is no. He said it is entirely possible that the Taliban which he said had a closer connection with the Afghan people than Westerners in the country could again regain control of the government and things could return to pre-9/11 conditions. He said its possible a Taliban-led Afghanistan could again become a base for terrorist organizations. Wise feels the only way the U.S. could prevent that would be through an unlimited military presence and unlimited treasure. Wise said its possible a Taliban takeover would again lead to the subjugation of women and the return of torture. But he said that wouldnt make Afghanistan much different from other conservative Islamic countries, including U.S. ally Saudi Arabia. The Taliban have not attacked Americans outside of Afghanistan, Wise said. He said the same could not be said of Saudi Arabia, where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been accused of ordering the death of U.S. legal resident Jamal Khashoggi, a reporter for The Washington Post. Wise served two tours in Afghanistan. He is also a former deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Former CIA operative, author and activist Valerie Plame said Friday she is considering a 2020 run for an open U.S. congressional seat in New Mexico. Plame told the Associated Press she is spending time with residents and will make a decision soon. The seat is currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who is stepping down to run for U.S. Senate. Right now, I am going around and meeting with people, said Plame, a Democrat. I have a lot to learn and I would like another opportunity to serve my country. Plame had previously told media outlets she was considering the U.S. House seat or a bid for the U.S. Senate but told The AP on Friday she is looking at the House to continue Ben Rays legacy. Plame became a national figure after her identity as a CIA operative was leaked by an official in President George W. Bushs administration in 2003 in an effort to discredit her then-husband Joe Wilson. Wilson is a former diplomat who criticized Bushs decision to invade Iraq. Plame left the agency in 2005. Plame said shed be honored to represent the sprawling district, which covers all of northern New Mexico, parts of the Navajo Nation and a large portion of the states east side. She would face several Democratic contenders if she decides to run. State Rep. Joseph Sanchez, businessman Mark McDonald, and former Navajo Nation presidential and vice presidential candidate Dineh Benally have already announced they are candidates and Santa Fe District Attorney Marco Serna is considering a bid. I. Lewis Scooter Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney was convicted of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice following the 2003 leak. President Donald Trump issued a full pardon to Libby last year. In 2017, the Wilsons launched an unsuccessful crowdfunding effort to buy Twitter so Trump couldnt use it. At the time, Plame said if she didnt get enough funding to purchase a majority of shares, she would explore options to buy a significant stake and champion the proposal at Twitters annual shareholder meeting. Plame and Wilson divorced later that year. Plame is the author of the memoir Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House. The book was made into a 2010 movie starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. He loved his mom and all that but, well, he was a teenager now and being kissed good night by her just wasnt in keeping with his advanced age. His mom didnt buy that. When he started saying he didnt want my good-night kiss, I told him, You never know when it might be the last time, Wendy Hein said. So that became our thing. Every night he would give me a kiss. Besos y abrazos, hed say. Hugs and kisses. And, oh, how she wishes she could have kissed him that last time in November 2015. How she wishes she could have his besos y abrazos still. She was hundreds of miles away from Tijeras, where she and her husband, Eric, had raised their daughter, Rachel, and son, Riley. Her ailing mother had needed her in Oceanside, Calif. She was among the first to awaken that Nov. 13, 2015, morning, her mothers home quiet, save for the giggles and cooing of her visiting 6-month-old grandnephew. I was listening to this happy little boy, and I was thinking: Im so lucky to have a son, she said. And I just felt an overwhelming warmth of unconditional love move through me. She thought about Riley, that he had also been a happy baby, that he had grown up to be a happy 16-year-old who woke up with a smile and went to sleep with a smile and, usually, one of her kisses. She pulled up Facebook on her phone and saw a post from a friend back in Tijeras complaining that the morning Friday the 13th was not starting out so lucky. Interstate 40 through Tijeras Canyon was shut down because of a fiery, fatal crash involving a semitrailer and a Honda Civic. And I just knew, she said. It was my worst nightmare. Six gut-wrenching, frustrating hours later, the Heins received confirmation that Riley was the fatality. The Manzano High School junior was driving west in the right lane of I-40 through Tijeras Canyon on his way to band practice when a tractor-trailer veered out of the center lane, struck the Honda, trapped it under the body of the trailer from the side, dragged it for nearly a half-mile and scraped it along a concrete barrier before the Honda burst into flames. Riley was burned over 75 percent of his body. He died at the scene. Just like that, everything changed, Eric Hein said. We had a really good family life, and it came to a screeching halt. What hasnt been halted is the Heins efforts to hold those who caused Rileys death accountable and to help find ways to prevent a similar tragedy. In June 2016, the Heins, through their attorneys Michael Sievers and Randi McGinn, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Choptank Transport, GNB Trucking and Barkandhi Express, all trucking companies involved with the tractor-trailer, and the state Department of Transportation. A second amended complaint filed Sept. 18, 2017, introduced a new defendant Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co., one of the largest manufacturers of truck trailers, including the one involved in the crash. UTM, which remains the sole defendant in the lawsuit after settlements were reached with other parties, is accused of manufacturing and selling a dangerous and defective product that contributed to Rileys death. Eric Hein said the focus switched to UTM because of an NPR interview of Marianne Karth and Lois Durso, two mothers who joined forces to advocate for truck safety after their daughters died in separate crashes with tractor-trailers. Like Rileys crash, they were killed when their vehicles were forced under the trucks trailers. These underride crashes, as they are known, account for an estimated 300 to 500 of deaths annually, although no official statistics are kept. One of the most notorious underride crashes occurred in 1969 when actress Jayne Mansfield and two others were killed after their car went under the rear of a semitrailer obscured by a fog of pesticides, shearing off the top front of the car. The crash led to the trucking industrys implementation of rear underride guards, which are often called Mansfield bars. But much of the trucking industry has been averse to side underride guards, despite studies indicating that such guards could greatly reduce the number of fatalities in semitrailer-related crashes. A 2017 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that side guards could reduce injury risk in about 75 percent of side-trailer crashes. But trucking groups such as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the American Trucking Associations oppose the side guards, arguing that they add too much weight and wear out the trailers sooner. To date, the federal government has determined that side-impact guards have not been shown to be technologically or economically feasible, attorneys for UTM wrote in a response to the Heins lawsuit. Still, the Heins remain convinced that side guards will save lives and have joined with Karth, Durso and other families to support federal legislation that would require side and front underride guards and would update the standards for rear guards. The Stop Underrides Act is Senate Bill 665, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and 10 co-sponsors, including U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. House Bill 1511 is a similar version. Both were introduced last month after a first attempt in 2017 failed to gain traction. The Heins traveled to Washington, D.C., for the introduction. Less than four months after the crash, the Heins moved away from Tijeras, away from the place in the canyon where their son died, away from the home they had moved into on his due date. We had to leave, Eric Hein said. There were too many memories. The house was too quiet without Rileys laughter. But the happy boy with the constant smile is still a strong presence in their lives. They wear wristbands that read Release Your Inner Riley. They see him in the ocean waves near where they now live, in the sunshine that warms a cold morning, in their efforts to save lives, in the besos y abrazos they can only now imagine. UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor. Albuquerque-native Ishan Loomba has been selected as one of only 24 elite young pianists to compete in the 2019 Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition in Dallas this spring. He made the final group from an original 230 applicants ages 13 to 17 from 32 countries. Organizers said this event is widely considered one of the best in the world. Loomba, born and raised in Albuquerque, made his solo recital debut at 8 and orchestral debut at age 10, according to a news release. I feel that music is the most important part of my life for reasons that are innate and unquantifiable, but also because music has given me a purpose beyond my own passions, he said in a statement. This purpose is grounded in the need to communicate with others and to move them. Loomba is a pre-college student in Southern Methodist Universitys Gifted Students Institute and attends high school at Early College Academy. He has given public performances in New Mexico, Texas, Florida, California, New York, and Colorado, with appearances at the Aspen Music Festival, Texas State International Piano Festival, Colburn Music Academy Piano Festival, organizers said. Loomba already is three-time Chopin Foundation Scholarship recipient. He enjoys singing, learning languages, and running, they said. The Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition takes place May 31-June 8 in Dallas with the first rounds at SMUs Caruth Auditorium and the final round performance at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Cliburn spokeswoman Maggie Estes said the final competitors come from 11 countries: seven from the US; five from China; four from Japan; three from Canada; two from Hong Kong; and one each from Armenia, Australia, Austria, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan. They range in age from 13-17. This particular competition and festival was established in 2015 as another means for the Cliburn organization to encourage up-and-coming great artists. The competitors will be judged by international jurors, garner worldwide media coverage and webcasts, and those who make the finals get to perform with an orchestra in a festival atmosphere. The event includes performance experience and artistic workshops. These young pianists are competing for: a cash award of $15,000 for first place; $10,000 for second; and $5,000 for third. Albuquerque teen selected for Cliburn Junior Competition Alamogordo High School senior David Fillmore was one of 104 students and two from New Mexico chosen to be a part of this years United States Senate Youth Program in early March. The week and a half tour of Washington, D.C., is supported by the senators, the legislative and the judicial branch, and they all get together, and they support the youth, and theres speakers and conversations about policy, Fillmore said. Those chosen to participate in the program get a $10,000 scholarship toward undergraduate study. Although the program encourages political science studies, Fillmore said he may end up taking a different route. Im not entirely sure what I want to do with my life, Fillmore said. I hope the big part of my life can be interacting with people. I think people are the most important thing, at the end of the day. As long as Im able to talk to those around me and cooperate and work with them, its sort of my thing. Some people have suggested that Fillmore go into politics, but he said he doesnt like that idea. A lot of people have predicted me going into politics, but I never really trust career politicians, you know what I mean? Fillmore said. I mean, their job is to get elected, and I find that kind of discomforting. Fillmore said he thought he wanted to be a business consultant like his grandfather but has not decided yet. He has applied to three universities: Brigham Young University, Harvard University and Stanford University. He said that so far, he has been accepted at BYU. He has not chosen a major course of studies yet. Its still up in the air, Fillmore said. Im hoping to figure things out more at college. Fillmore is a member of a team that is designing a high-speed sled to be tested at the Holloman High Speed Test Track. He also serves as the secretary of the New Mexico State University-Alamogordo Student Council, the senior patrol leader for Boy Scouts of America Troop 127 and has been recognized as an Eagle Scout and member of the Order of the Arrow. He was awarded the American Legion Prospero L. Sanchez Scholarship and the Eastern New Mexico University Presidential Talent Award. He also volunteered as a precinct captain for Steve Pearces gubernatorial campaign. Two high school students from each state are chosen to attend; Fillmore was joined on the trip by Piedra Vista High School senior Katie Broten. The program began under President John. F. Kennedy and is funded by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. HAYFORK, Calif. - Six people were arrested at a downtown property in Hayfork on Friday and charged with cannabis cultivation and for possessing controlled substances with intent to sell them. While searching for evidence at the property deputies found 464 unpermitted cannabis plants, more than 400 pounds of processed cannabis, 578 tabs of Ecstacy, 386 grams of Ketamine, more than 330 grams of Psilocybin mushrooms, and close to 400 grams of concentrated cannabis. The six people arrested were 27-year-olds Gladys Rosetti and John Angelopoulos; 23-year-old Romeo Risacher; 32-year-olds Abraham Lintvelt and Frank Crudo; and 42-year-old Devon Dorchies. Deputies from the Trinity County Sheriff's Office said Frank Crudo had refused to identify himself, and was later found to have an outstanding felony arrest warrant from Kansas. Charges against the six suspects are cultivation of cannabis,; possession of cannabis with intent for sales; possessino of a controlled substance; possession of a controlled substance with intent for sales; and conspiracy to commit a crime. NEW YORK, N.Y. - Two newbies take the stage Saturday, Apr. 6, 2019 on "Saturday Night Live!" Kit Harington, who plays the role of Jon Snow on "Game of Thrones" will host for the first time, and musical guest Sara Bareilles makes her first appearance as well. Watch this video to see scenes from when other "Games of Thrones" stars have graced the "Saturday Night Live!" stage. The show airs on KNVN, Channel 24, at 8:30 p.m. on Saturdays. That is the east coast feed. Later in the evening we play the west coast feed of the program. It is hard to miss "Saturday Night Live!" on Channel 24, starting at 8:30 p.m., with a 1/2 hour break for the 11:00 p.m. local newscast with anchor Hayley Watts. After that, "Saturday Night Live!" will be repeated again. CHICO, Calif. - The Boys & Girls Club of the North Valley is hosting a cook-off to raise money so that kids impacted by the Camp Fire can take part in summer programs. The event was taking place between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, Apr. 6, 2019 at Nettleton Gym on Wall St. There was a four-course cooking competition among both master and amateur chefs, along with opportunities for visitors to sample the good eats. The chefs were competing for the "Golden Spoon" award. There were also awards for best decorated station, a People's Choice award and a Kid's Choice award. There was also live music and they had raffle prizes for lucky attendees. All the money raised will go to scholarships to summer camps and other opportunities for kids impacted by the fire -- can take part in what the club has to offer. For 23 years, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the North Valley have been at the forefront of youth development in after-school and teen services. There are 10 club sites throughout Butte and Glenn Counties. CHICO, Calif. - About 3,000 prospective students and their families got a first hand look at Chico State University. Check out the photos capturing the 2019 Choose Chico event that were taken by University photographer Jessica Bartlett. The campus-wide open house gives incoming students a chance to explore the campus and the community to get a taste of what it is like to be a Chico State student. Choose Chico! is an exclusive event for those who have already been admitted for the fall semester of 2019. University organizers believe it is a must-attend event for those students and families that are still deciding whether they will attend Chico State or not this coming school year. Community bus tours were held as part of the event. Butte Regional Transit took visitors on a tour every thirty minutes through the South Campus neighborhood, downtown Chico, over to Lower Bidwell Park and back to campus. Organizers also set up an 'Intent Tent' on Trinity Commons. there new students could capture the moment they delcared their intent to enroll at California State University, Chico at a special photo booth. Right afterwards the new students' names were announced as new 'Wildcats' on student radio station KCSC. 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. https://www.aish.com/f/p/5-Jewish-Bedtime-Rituals-to-Try-Today.html Transform your kids bedtime routine into a powerful spiritual moment. Putting my kids to bed has always been my favorite part of the day. True, some nights bedtime seems to go on forever feeling like both the best and the worst time of day simultaneously but bedtime is when my children and I enjoy our best quality moments. Its also when my kids and I have explored Jewish ideas and traditions, ending the day with Jewish prayers and songs. Here are five tried and true Jewish bedtime rituals that can help make bedtime a time to bond with one another and with Jewish tradition. Bedtime stories with a Jewish twist Its her favorite book, My good friend became a new mom and when I was looking for a present for her and her new baby my eyes lighted on a book of Jewish bedtime stories in a local bookshop. I worried a little that the book seemed too religious but the bright pictures were appealing and fun. Now, a few years later, my friend was telling me it was her daughters favorite bedtime book. My friend and her daughter werent particularly religiously observant, and this book with its Jewish stories quickly became one of their main sources of Jewish knowledge. My daughters fascinated with the stories; theyre so unusual. My friend wound up acquiring a whole series of Jewish-themed books to read to her daughter at bedtime. It was their special place to get to know about Jewish values and traditions and tales. Shema Yisrael The Shema is the quintessential Jewish bedtime prayer, declaring our faith in one God. Shema Yisrael, Adonoi Eloheinu, Adonoi Echad. (Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One.) Traditionally, we cover our eyes while we say it, to better concentrate on the awesome meaning of these words. These timeless Jewish words gives our kids a powerful sense of who they are. A generation ago, the Shema even led some Jews back to their families after the Holocaust. Rabbi Joseph Kahaneman (1888-1969), a brilliant scholar, educator, former member of Lithuanias Parliament, and head of the famous Jewish school called the Ponevezh Yeshiva, recognized the danger facing Jewish children. While World War II raged, Rabbi Kahaneman started an orphanage for European Jews in Israel. In 1946, he returned to Europe, searching for Jewish children whod survived the Holocaust. In one town, locals told him that many Jewish families had handed their children in desperation to the local orphanage. The priest who ran the home refuted this claim. Rabbi Kahaneman asked if he could only just meet the children, and the priest relented. Standing amidst the orphans, Rabbi Kahaneman recited the Shema. Soon, Jewish children whod last heard those words years before began crying out Mama! Mama! and placing their hands over their eyes. Then, as now, hearing the Shema at bedtime is a defining Jewish moment for Jewish children. Saying Thank You Discussing what were grateful for is a great way to wind down at the end of the day with our kids and a creative way to start discussions. Feeling grateful is also associated with emotional resilience, improved health, and higher levels of happiness. Prof. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Prof. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami asked two groups of students to spend time journaling: one group was asked to record their days activities, and a second group was asked to record what they were grateful for. The results were dramatic. Students who spent time each week chronicling what they were thankful felt markedly more optimistic and happier about their lives. (Students who recorded neutral journal entries reported no such gains.) Feeling grateful is also a profound Jewish value. Consider asking your children to share something theyre grateful for each night and give it a try yourself too. This bedtime ritual can boost everyones mood and well-being. Family Stories Who am I named after? Tell me the story of how Grandma and Grandpa met again. My kids enjoy hearing about their relatives, and its especially fun when tales about family lore lead back to them. A few years ago, a major study by Emory University psychologists Robyn Fivush and Marshall Duke showed just how powerful passing along family lore can be. Children who know details about their relatives lives and family histories show much more resilience and greater emotional health. It turns out that spending time talking about what our families have lived through and the experiences that shaped our ancestors is one of the best gifts we can give to our children. The quiet moments of bedtime are an ideal time to start. Reviewing the Day Its traditional in Judaism to take the moments before bed to think back over the day and try to fix mistakes we might have made. Many Jews review their days and make an effort to forgive anyone who might have harmed them. While this concept might sound a bit heavy, for many children reviewing their days with a parent at bedtime is a great way to let their parents know whats going on in their lives, and a chance for parents to share their problem solving skills. Asking questions like How did you feel when that happened?, What do you wish youd done differently?, and What do you think you should do next time? can all foster discussions and help kids problem solve. Bedtime is a quiet, low-stress place to talk about the challenges of the day, and to talk about hopes for tomorrow. https://www.aish.com/jw/id/Zachary-Baumels-Burial.html The entire nation came together to mourn. Israel kept its word. The soldiers who fight for its survival know that there is an unbreakable covenantal commitment to never forget or forsake them if they perish. And so it was last week, after 37 years Sgt. Zachary Baumels body was at long last brought home to his final resting place. The Israeli government spent almost four decades tracking Baumels remains to Syria and maintaining relentless diplomatic efforts to finally reunite one of its heroes with the soil for which he gave his life. Eulogizing her brother, Osna Haberman, his sister, said, All of our prayers during these 37 years went to one place and were here. I thought about what I would do here in this place. I cant even embrace you. So I thought to turn to the ground and ask the land to embrace you. After a few minutes I understood that I dont even need to ask. The land embraces you so strongly. And why? Because there is absolute love between the son that gave everything for the land and the land itself, and there is a perfect union here. You are together now. Of Baumels Jerusalem-based American-born parents, only his mother survived to witness this moment. His father had passed away 10 years ago. But all of Israel reacted as family. All of Israel felt the profound meaning of an event that captured the essence of Jewish faith and Jewish peoplehood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succinctly defined it: Bringing our sons back home touches the deepest part of our identity as Jews and Israelis. In the name of these values, and out of love for Israel, Zachary went to war. It was only one soldier. Yet deep in the psyche of every Jew is the Talmudic dictum that he who saves one person is as if he saves the world; that God created us all from Adam to teach the importance of every single individual on earth. Indeed, Jews may never be counted by number. Only those who sought to destroy us wouldnt grant us the value and the holiness of personal identity and chose instead to stamp us with numeric tattoos. Zachary was not one soldier. He was all of us. He was all of our children. He was our people in microcosm. For the burial of Zachary Baumels remains an entire country wept and gave thanksgiving. Zachary was not one soldier. He was all of us. He was all of our children. He was our people in microcosm. He was our youth deprived of the joys of middle age, our young doomed to early death by the irrational hatred of our enemies. We could not prevent his tragic demise. At the very least we were finally able to grant him eternal rest in his homeland among the people for whom he perished. But for those who still do not understand why this was so important, why this concern for the dead represents a fundamental Jewish value of such significance, it needs to be clarified. There is a remarkable biblical law concerning a case of what is known as met mitzvah. A met mitzvah is a corpse found unattended in a field with no known family. There is no relative to perform a burial. The Torah transfers what is normally a familial obligation to any and every Jew. More, even though a Kohen, a member of the priestly family, is generally forbidden to have any contact with the dead, in this instance he is commanded to ignore this restriction. Honoring the dead takes precedence. Imagine further, the Talmud continues, this is the law even for the high priest. And yes, even if the high priest was on his way to perform the service in the temple and even if it were on the holiest day of the year, on Yom Kippur, respect for the dead body has priority! How can we grant such importance to the mere former physical receptacle of the soul? The soul and the body were inseparable during life. They maintain a profound connection even after our passing. We go to the graves of our loved ones to pray. That is where we best remember them. And that is where their souls most closely hover and are most keenly aware of their ongoing link with friends and family. It may seem strange that even those who are uncertain or even deny the continued existence of the soul after death are somehow drawn to the burial site of loved ones. Even the most secular of Israelis share the powerful need to seek the return of the bodies of soldiers killed in battle. It is an intuitive and universal truth. We dare not forsake those we loved so much in life by disrespecting their remains. In some mystical way, souls and bodies are inseparable even after death. In the case of Zachary Baumel there was an amazing reminder of this truth. Upon hearing of the death of a family member, Jewish law commands the mitzvah of kriah - rending ones garment. A fascinating explanation given is that a torn garment symbolizes the very meaning of death. We wear clothing to cover ourselves. Clothes however are not our essence; they are external appendages to our real selves. The relationship of clothes to our bodies is comparable to the one between our bodies and our souls. If our clothes are ripped, we still remain the same. So too death is merely the tearing away of our external bodies; our souls, representing our divine image, are immortal and remain spiritually intact for eternity. The ongoing mitzvah symbol for this truth is tzitzit, the ritual fringes worn on a four cornered garment. It teaches us that our bodily garment is holy as well as the home of our soul. The body of Zachary Baumel was returned. With it, unexpectedly and inexplicably, was included Zacharys tzitzit! See also The Life, Death and Burial of Zachary Baumel CAIRO Egypts Al-Azhar has had a significant presence abroad in recent years, especially in its efforts to counter the effects of the Islamic State's rise in several countries. The Sunni religious and educational institution has undertaken joint programs to support Islamic countries' fight against extremism and participated in conferences held by international organizations. All this activity, however, apparently has made President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi a bit suspicious of the motives behind it. He and Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb have been known to vie for influence. On April 2, Al-Azhar International Academy, which Tayeb established last year, began offering courses to train imams and preachers from 20 countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria. On its website, the academy says it shares with participants Al-Azhar's expertise in Islamic studies, "refining their skills and giving them modern experiences and methods that raise their scientific level and help them to deal with intellectual, jurisprudential and doctrinal issues." In January, the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) inaugurated the International Awqaf Academy, a training institute distinct from Tayeb's for imams and preachers in 6th of October City with the goal of drawing Egyptian and international figures together to renew Islamic discourse. There are many branches of Al-Azhar-affiliated associations that work to strengthen its role of spreading moderate Islamic views. In 2015, Tayeb established the Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism. Its website offers information in English, French, German, Spanish, Urdu, Swahili and Persian. Through its representatives, the observatory also participates in international forums on Muslim relations with non-Muslims. Tariq Shaaban, head of the observatory, told Al-Monitor by phone, We have forged several protocols of cooperation with governments of European countries and international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union on the issue of terrorist groups and how they manage to attract and mobilize young people. We are also working to pinpoint the reasons behind the growing Islamophobia in Europe." Shaaban said many collaboration protocols are in place between the observatory and Jordans Royal Institute For Inter-Faith Studies. Commenting on Al-Azhars motives for collaborating with international agencies, Shaaban said, Al-Azhar believes that this role is its national duty amid external circumstances and the noticeable rise of terrorist organizations. This, therefore, requires a greater presence of the most important and oldest Islamic institution to confront these fundamentalist ideas. He stressed that international agencies such as the UN and EU and the governments of most African and Arab countries, are keen to consider the views of Al-Azhar in this regard and benefit from its long history and the confidence of millions of Muslims in it. Hamad al-Safti, a member of the World Organization for Al-Azhar Graduates, told Al-Monitor that the group has been working to establish 10 new branches in addition to the existing 18 branches around the world, which include ones in Chad, Libya and Kenya. The organization is a non-governmental institution headed by Tayeb. Safti explained that in the past year, the graduates association has organized training courses for imams in Libya, Russia, Nigeria and other African countries. These efforts come within the framework of renewing religious discourse and honing imams' and preachers skills to help them rectify misconceptions about Islam. Safti was part of a delegation that visited Russia. We have also held debate sessions in coordination with the security authorities in several Arab countries, where people who espouse IS ideologies were invited to share their opinion. The goal was to try to dispel their misconception of Islam and provide them with correct Sharia material, Safti said. However, researcher Islam Barakat at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent think tank, has a different view of Al-Azhar's recent efforts. I believe all this action abroad is part of Al-Azhars vision of itself as the guardian of Islam around the world and as a partner rather than an affiliated institution to the Egyptian state, Barakat told Al-Monitor. All these activities abroad immunize the institution to criticism from the Egyptian political authorities or efforts to isolate the grand imam, especially in light of the dispute between Tayeb and Sisi, he added. An undisclosed government source told independent Egyptian newspaper Mada Masr, Sisi is not comfortable with the extent of independence that Al-Azhar is wielding, nor its role abroad. [The] grand imam is acting as though the institution does not operate under the umbrella of the Egyptian government. This is obviously an issue of discomfort for the president. In January, Sisi banned Tayeb from traveling on official trips without prior permission. But Barakat told Al-Monitor he doesn't expect Al-Azhar to slow down in its activities regardless of the restrictions. The new Arab generation in Israel is similar in a way to the new ultra-Orthodox generation. The new Arab, much like the new ultra-Orthodox Jew, demands civic recognition (no longer as a marginalized minority group but as equal citizen) and understands that in order to achieve that goal, he must be part of the political game. Or, as I was told by Ghanim my friend from Sakhnin who asked that his full name not be divulged We are sick and tired of being the ones on the back rows. We want to be on the playing field, even on the bench, but at least partners. A statistics expert who spoke to Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity relayed the finding of an academic study carried out in September 2018 regarding the Arab population. The study showed that 77% of the respondents support integration of Israels Arabs in the State instead of fighting it, and 70% support the statement that the Joint List party must deal more with the interests of Arab Israelis over those of the Palestinians in the territories. The Arab political system in Israel is not indifferent to this civic demand. The Joint List used to include four factions: Taal, Hadash, Balad and Raam. But in January 2019, Taal and Hadash each split from the Joint List alliance, leaving Balad and Raam. Taal and Hadash are now running on a joint slate. This dismantling reflects the growing demand within the Arab public for a civic approach aspiring to social inclusion. In fact, the Balad party, which champions turning the State of Israel into a "state of all of its citizens," and the Islamist Raam party constitute stumbling blocks in this inclusion trend. These parties object to joining forces with other parties and participating in a Likud-blocking bloc or supporting in any way a coalition. The partys prominent representatives cannot be considered potential partners to Zionist parties in any political deal. Not former Knesset member Azmi Bashara, who was accused of spying; not former Knesset member Basel Ghattas, who was indicted for smuggling telephones to security prisoners; and certainly not outgoing Knesset member Hanin Zoabi, who had become known for her extremist views. Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh from the Hadash Party implemented this demand for inclusion to a certain extent in the outgoing Knesset. For example, he was involved in Government Resolution 922: Five Year Economic Development Plan for Arab Society. This plan budgeted 15 billion shekels ($4.2 billion) to narrow the gaps between the Arab and Jewish populations. Knesset member and Ta'al leader Ahmed Tibi joined up with Odeh in the Joint List toward the April 9 elections. In the past, he promoted legislative initiatives to encourage hiring Arabs in the public sector and more. Without Balad and Raam, Odeh and Tibi were able to adopt more pragmatic positions toward resolution of the socio-economic problems of the Arab public. In an interview given by Odeh, he made it clear that he was willing to go far in order to promote the direction of civic involvement now that he is released from the chains of Balad and Raam. In fact, he even considers a partnership in the coalition, if only from the outside. Odeh is more focused and passionate than ever with regard to direct political issues, especially by the struggle against the Nationality Law that anchors the Jewish nature of the State of Israel. In response to the question of whether he would support a center-left coalition headed by the Blue and White party, he invokes demands that are mainly socio-economic in nature. Of course, well tell the president about our deep opposition to [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his racist policies. But were not in [Blue and White leader Benny] Gantzs pocket either. First of all, he must display some kind of orientation toward equality to be willing to revoke the Nationality Law, for example. But in addition, other corrections have to be made, Odeh said. These include, according to Odeh, an extended continuation plan for Resolution 922; a national program for overcoming crime in the Arab society; and revoking the Kaminitz Law, which mandates more severe punishments for construction infractions one of the more painful issues in the Arab sector. Odeh is definitely not sure about Gantz: At the beginning of the election campaign, the former chief of staff boasted about the numerous Palestinians killed by the IDF in Gaza. Odeh is concerned about whether Gantz will be a true partner to what he views as "reconciliation with the Arab society," but already raises one important, central precondition: official Israeli recognition of what he calls "past injustices" including the massacre in Kfar Kassem, nationalization of Arab lands and more. Such a reconciliation could include making Arabic an official language and removing opposition to conducting a discussion on what he calls national rights of the Arab-Israeli citizen in Israel. Odeh added, If and when Gantz chooses the path of historic conciliation and willingness to accept the conditions I raised, we will sit together and responsibly decide about a possible partnership. The willingness expressed by Odeh and his partners is no less historic. The last time an Arab party expressed willingness to support a coalition from the outside and participate in an obstructive bloc stemmed from the historic event of the 1993 Oslo Accord. Now, the pressure from the Arab public on its representatives for more political involvement and the concern over the growth of apathy in the Arab society resulting in a drop in voting percentages is bearing fruit. On the other hand, the heads of the Blue and White party have made statements that they will only consider partnerships with the Zionist parties, thus making it uncertain that Odehs aspirations will bear fruit. And, of course, there is great likelihood that a right-wing government will arise headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. Nevertheless, Odehs change of direction is important. The representatives of the Arab public will have to be real partners in decisions that affect their fate. Even if they dont become part of the next coalition, perhaps they will join another coalition in the future. In the interview, Odeh made another interesting statement that makes it hard to believe it came from the mouth of an errant socialist with a communist background: Ultimately, the market will win out over racism. Odeh explained that in the 1950s, one of the main reasons that Israel removed the military government from the Arab localities was the need in Israel for Arab builders. Similarly, the economic needs of the state today dictate government programs on behalf of the Arab society, ironically under a diehard right-wing government. The new chairman of Balad, Mtanes Shihadeh, will be very surprised if the Hadash Party and Taal will be prepared to lend any kind of support to the coalition, even from the outside. The significance of his words is that Odeh would not have been able to even bring up the option of discussing such a thing if the Joint List had remained united. Even Shihadeh, who has a doctorate in political science, expresses a slight change of direction regarding the emphases of his party. Yet he is careful not to disparage Knesset members Hanin Zoabi and Jamal Zahalka, outgoing party leaders, who came under much criticism from the general Jewish public. He explains that Balad challenges the accepted conventions of Israeli society and, therefore, arouses strong feelings. Shihadeh notes that even Azmi Bashara, the founder of Balad who skipped the country after being accused of spying for Hezbollah, and Hanin Zoabi were both partner to numerous struggles for changes in civil legislation. In practically the same breath, he adds, We will be more ready for a dialogue with the Jewish society, including those who most oppose us on the Israeli right. Perhaps we will succeed in showing them that our demands are logical and democratic. An interesting step in that direction is the placement of a female Jewish candidate, Orly Noy-Abekasis, in the sixth spot on the list (though according to polls, it is not a realistic spot). Balad prepared an organized action-plan on the basis of findings of research studies. But unlike the past, the research basically focuses on economic and civil issues. For proponents, CBD products can ease symptoms for everything from arthritis to anxiety. For critics, the influx of mostly unregulated CBD products is akin to a consumer version of the wild west. Either way, CBD is now legal and on the market. Heres what you need to know: What is CBD? CBD stands for cannabidiol. CBD is a naturally occurring substance derived from the hemp plant and, used by itself, does not cause a high. It comes in several forms, including lotions, pills, or edibles (usually gummies) but CBD oil is the most common. What is CBD oil used for? Proponents said it can be used to treat anxiety disorders, PTSD, addiction, arthritic, chronic plan and other conditions. Researchers are UAB also found success using CBD to lessen seizure frequency and treat those with epilepsy. Why the sudden interest in CDB? In December 2018, the U.S. House passed the Farm Bill, which contained a provision legalizing CBD derived from industrial hemp, as long as it has a THC concentration of no more than 0.3 percent. Technically, the bill changed the legal status of hemp from a controlled substance to an agricultural commodity. That decision meant people could buy and sale CBD legally. Is it legal in Alabama? After the passage of the farm bill, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a notice that CBD derived from industrial hemp, with a THC concentration of not more than .3 percent on a dry weight basis, can be legally produced, sold and possessed in the state of Alabama. As a result, retailers across the state are now offering CBD products in Alabama. Is CBD the same as medical marijuana? No. Medical marijuana is prohibited in Alabama, with few exceptions: Products prescribed for those enrolled in a UAB Department of Neurology study under Carlys Law; or those being treated for a chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition, including one that produces seizures under Lenis Law. Is CBD addictive? A 2017 study by the World Health Organizations Expert Committee on Drug Dependence found that, in its pure state, CBD does not appear to have abuse potential or cause harm. Does CBD have side effects? According to Harvard University, the side effects of CBD can include nausea, fatigue and irritability. Reports of side effects are not widespread under normal use. Food and Drug Administration concerns CBD products are not evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and that causes concern among health officials. FDA continues to be concerned at the proliferation of products asserting to contain CBD that are marketed for therapeutic or medical uses although they have not been approved by FDA. Often such products are sold online and are therefore available throughout the country. Selling unapproved products with unsubstantiated therapeutic claims is not only a violation of the law, but also can put patients at risk, as these products have not been proven to be safe or effective, the agency said. FDA hearing The FDA is set its first public hearing on legalizing CBD in food and drinks. The hearing is set for May 31. Alabama health officials issue warnings The Alabama Department of Public Health has concerns about CBD. State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said cannabidiol can be tainted and possibly have negative side effects. Products labeled as CBD oil and/or other CBD-related products might contain any number of substances, and there is no assurance they are safe to consume as they have not been evaluated or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Harris said. Instead of helping relieve symptoms, using CBD products can have side effects that include harmful interactions with other medications. If you suspect a tainted CBD product has caused you to be ill, contact a poison control center and seek medical attention," he advised. Buying online A 2017 study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found nearly 70 percent of CBD extracts sold online are mislabeled. The study found about 43 percent of the products surveyed contained too little CBD, while 26 percent contained too much. One in 5 of the products contained THC, that active compound chemical compound in cannabis responsible for making a person feel "high. Can CBD cause you to fail a drug test? Yes, it can happen, though its rare, according to experts. In some cases, the positive test can come from impure products sold as CBD. The big problem is that the needed quality assurance oversight from the Food and Drug Administration is not available. There are currently no standards for producing, testing, or labeling these oils, said Marcel Bonn-Miller, PhD, an adjunct assistant professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Selling these oils without oversight, there is no way to know what is actually in the bottle. Other people may metabolize CBD differently, triggering a positive result, according to Tod Cooperman, president of Consumerlab, a company that tests natural supplements like hemp. Patients who consume more than 1,000 milligrams of CBD per day can have a false positive on a drug test, but the average user consumed between 120 to 160 milligrams daily. About 10 percent of users who take the smaller dose experience a false positive, Cooperman said. You can read more about CDB and drug tests here. Jefferson Dunn became Alabamas prison commissioner four decades into a spiraling crisis as overcrowding and violence drew harsh scrutiny from law enforcement and civil rights groups. According to some prison observers, the problems he inherited have become worse on his watch prompting concerns his focus on new construction allowed conditions to decline in existing prisons. Earlier this week, the Department of Justice issued a scathing report documenting dozens of murders, rapes and drug overdose deaths in Alabama prisons. In 2017, a federal judge found the state violated the Constitutional rights of mentally ill prisoners by depriving them of treatment. And once-rare breakouts from maximum security prisons became increasingly common, with three escapes from St. Clair Correctional Facility in a little more than a year. From the beginning, Dunn was an unlikely pick. A military man and educational administrator, he came to the department with training in organization and logistics, but no political experience. Despite his unusual credentials, Dunn recently found himself in a familiar place for Alabama prison commissioners: The hot seat. The damning DOJ report issued Wednesday depicted chaotic dormitories ruled by gangs and violence and virtually un-policed by a shoestring correctional staff. Bob Horton, spokesman for the department, said the commissioner has already taken action to improve conditions. ADOC is committed to investigating every known act of violence within its system, Horton said. It has implemented a series of measures to curb the prevalence of weapons inside the facilities. On February 28, the ADOC conducted an operation with multiple law enforcement agencies to find and remove illegal contraband from the St. Clair Correctional Facility. More than 300 law enforcement officials assisted the ADOC in a comprehensive search for contraband inside the facilitys housing, training and work areas and prison grounds. Former Gov. Robert Bentley appointed Dunn prison commissioner in 2015, after the resignation of Kim Thomas. Thomas had risen through the ranks at the department of corrections, where he started as a correctional officer in 1983. After obtaining a law degree, he moved into the legal department and served as general counsel before his appointment to commissioner in 2011. Thomas had a rocky tenure. Overcrowding increased during his term and the Equal Justice Initiative filed a lawsuit after violence escalated at St. Clair Correctional Facility. The Southern Poverty Law Center and Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Center challenged the adequacy of mental and medical health care in the state-run prisons, where suicides became alarmingly common. In 2013, the DOJ issued an explosive report detailing rampant sexual abuse at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women. Federal investigators discovered widespread rape by prison guards, who often leveraged access to basic sanitary supplies in exchange for sex. Mother Jones magazine named it one of the 10 worst prisons in America. In 2014, state Rep. Allen Farley, who served on a prison oversight committee, called for a change of leadership at the department. He said Bentley should seek an outsider to whip ADOC into shape. "I think they need a general," Farley said. "Maybe somebody who over the years hasn't become friends with wardens and lieutenants and captains." Instead of a general, the state got a colonel. Dunn served 28 years in the U.S. Air Force and led the Thomas Barnes Center for Enlisted Education at Maxwell Air Force Base. Hed never worked in politics or corrections before his appointment and said in 2017 testimony that the closest hed ever come was sending delinquent airmen to custody. Dunn said in court a former commander called him in September 2014 and asked him to accept a meeting with Bentley. The colonel hadnt considered state employment before that meeting, but after an hourlong discussion, became interested in the opportunity, according to transcripts. Dunn said he didnt meet with his predecessor, Thomas, before he took over the department, and spoke only briefly to him after his April 1, 2015 swearing in. Instead, he prepared by touring Alabama prisons, speaking to administrative staff and undergoing training from the Association of State Correctional Administrators. Dunn earns about $157,197 a year, according to the Alabama Department of Finance. He manages a correctional population of 27,000, with more than 21,000 in prison. A 2015 prison reform bill led to decreases in prison population, but only by about 1,200 people, according to the DOJ report. The number of correctional officers has fallen by more than a third under Dunn, according to the SPLC. Correctional staffing numbers have dropped from 2,300 when he started to 1,450, where they are today, said Maria Morris, senior supervising attorney for the SPLC. A lot of that happened in the first two years or so that he was in office and it has sort of leveled off since then. Both the recent DOJ report and decisions by U.S. Judge Myron Thompson cited overcrowding and low staffing rates as the largest contributors to dismal conditions inside the prisons. The Tutwiler report also called staffing levels catastrophically low and said that helped create the environment for sexual misconduct. Thompson ordered the department to hire at least 2,000 more staff members to reduce suicide risk and improve care to patients with mental illness. Yet, earlier this year, Dunn proposed a plan to lawmakers adding just one quarter of the required correctional officers and building three new prisons. During both the Bentley and Kay Ivey administrations, Dunn has touted new facilities as the solution to the states long-running prison woes. DOJ investigators found major problems with the physical condition of Alabama prisons that led to the closure of its oldest prison in 2017. Still, Bentleys $800 million Alabama Prison Transformation Initiative failed in 2016 and 2017. Ivey and Dunn revived the plan to build new prisons in February with a proposal for three mens facilities to replace more than a dozen spread around the state. Lawmakers have not yet voted on the plan, and several have expressed skepticism at the cost and the focus on new facilities instead of staffing. I think he has fixated on his idea that new prisons will fix the problem, Morris said. Morris said staffing in the prisons has gotten stuck in a vicious cycle. As correctional officers quit, conditions deteriorate, danger increases and administrators require more mandatory overtime, causing more staff to leave. In a statement Wednesday, Dunn said the ADOC cooperated on the latest investigation and had already starting focusing on problems highlighted by the DOJ. Our primary objective is to ensure each facility provides a humane, secure, and safe environment for inmates, and that reforms already in place and proposed bring about positive, tangible changes throughout the prison system, Dunn said. A post on the website of the Free Alabama Movement, which advocates for the rights of prisoners, accused Dunn of turning a blind eye to deadly conditions at Holman, one of the states maximum-security prisons. Officers are expressing concern that the Commissioners of the ADOC are intentionally exacerbating violence at the expense of human life in efforts to push forward their plan to extort the public for 1.5 billion to build new prisons in next years Legislative Session, it read. Dunn must appeal to the legislature for funding increases and has no control of correctional staff salaries set by state law. But he does steer the departments priorities. Attorneys in the mental health case have questioned Dunn about simple fixes that remain undone despite scrutiny from a federal judge. Almost two years after Thompson found conditions horrendously inadequate for inmates with mental illness, cells remain riddled with dangerous objects and tie-offs used in more than a dozen hangings, according to testimony. The suicide issue has become more urgent in the past year. Since December 2017, there have been 15 suicides in Alabama prisons. The string of deaths prompted the SPLC, ADAP and Thompson to seek emergency action in January. Since that motion was filed, three more suicides have occurred. Thompson called ADOC deliberately indifferent. Thompson ordered two experts involved in the mental health trial to produce a list of immediate changes for the department and they delivered the four-page report March 8. Dunn admitted on April 1 more than three weeks later that he hadnt read it, according to plaintiffs attorney Anil Mujumdar. "At trial on Monday, I showed the Commissioner a supplemental report completed by the parties' experts in the case which was designed to provide immediate remedies to prevent suicides in Alabama's prisons, Mujumdar said. The Commissioner testified he had never even seen the report." According to Horton, Dunn read a longer report that contained the same points as the supplement. As Commissioner Dunn testified in court, he reviewed the experts full report to understand all of the recommended remedial changes., Horton said. Commissioner Dunn is fully aware of the departments suicide prevention plans, procedures and policies. He has hired a director of psychiatry, director of mental health, and has increased mental health care staff by more than 60 percent since April 2018. Its not the only time Dunn has appeared detached from the department. In a brief press conference after the execution of Domineque Ray, who argued that he was entitled to the services of a Muslim cleric, Dunn said the state hires chaplains off a state registry. In reality, no such registry exists. Dunns vision for the department includes major investments in new facilities, but he has failed to win over state lawmakers. In editorials, hes written that new prisons could be designed with better visibility that would require less staff and increase safety. Mentally ill patients can be difficult to monitor in older prisons with few security cameras and plenty of blind spots. We must improve working conditions for our officers, Horton said. This means we must either build new prisons or renovate poorly designed prisons. As confirmed by a year-long employment study, the current working conditions and deteriorating facilities present a challenge to the retention of qualified correctional professionals. A state-of-the-art prison system will ultimately lead to higher recruiting and retention rates. Advocates believe they still havent heard enough about staffing and mental health, even with federal judgments against the department. You havent gone to the legislature to seek approval for additional increased funding specifically for mental health care, have you? Mujumdar asked in 2017. No, I havent, Dunn responded. The state increased funding for the department by $86 million last year, much of it earmarked for mental health care. Dunn said he was seeking an additional $31 million for next years budget. State Sen. Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) recently threw his support behind Dunn. I think hes done a great job, Ward said. We have been the policy makers who have let this fall apart for decades and decades to blame him is wrong. It should be all of us. Alabama prisons have been overcrowded, violent and under the federal microscope since the 1970s. In 2017, the department conducted an assessment of its staffing problems, and discovered that compensation, overtime and poor working conditions all made it difficult to recruit and retain workers. Efforts have been made to improve those issues. ADOC has increased the number of recruiters, hired an outside recruiting firm, and increased the marketing budget, Horton said. We are deeply committed to obtaining the necessary staff and are engaged in proactive efforts to do so. Morris said Dunn has brought a needed change of perspective to a department that long resisted any criticism by acknowledging the problems. But she said she would like to see more urgency to address critical issues identified by Thompson and the DOJ. Part of the problem is that Commissioner Dunn came into his role without any corrections background, Morris said. Its good that hes thinking outside the box. But hes also not looking at the things that are in the box. John Sharp and Ivana Hrynkiw contributed to this report This is an opinion column. Regionalcooperation. Thats been a dirty word around here for, oh, more than half a century. Say it in some circles even now and youre showered with a hail storm of Hail Marys and might even get your mouth flushed with soap. Say it to the mayors of the 15 cities who refused to put their names on the historic no poaching pledge signed by 22 of the regions boldest mayors and you may get a hearty hrmph and a skeptical side-eye. Or a wink, which translated means: Well sign after we finish plucking (fill-in-the-blank business) from (fill-in-neighboring city). The signing mayors agreed to stop the petty practice of stealing businesses from each other by dangling enticing incentives like tax breaks and land near-giveaways. In the past, companies looking to move within the region played one eager, tax-money hungry municipality against anotherlike cool kids playing one school clique against the other before deciding which theyll join. Officials in the winning city high-fived and popped champagne, but, in truth, the practice was akin to moving from one bedroom to anotherin the same house. But then Birmingham hasnt been the same house for some time nowfor more half a century. Not since white flight took off in the wake of events in the 1960s that made Birmingham ground zero for the national civil rights movement. Not since white folks who didnt want black neighbors, didnt want their children sitting in classrooms next to black kids, and certainly didnt want to sit next to black diners at lunch counters or share a water fountain or bathroom with blacksnot since they scurried for the hills. Or, more correctly, over the mountain to those cities founded in hatred and separated from the regions core by virtual walls that said: Youre not welcome here. They took their wallets and didnt just go home; they built new homescreating the disparate kaleidoscope of 35 school systems, police and fire departments and whatnot that makes ours the most unique region in the nation. A region still wrestling with discord and wounds founded in the race and class differences between outlying cities and the one they left behind. The city still struggling to yank itself out of the muck of poverty and its stifling repercussions. Birmingham has not been one houseone citysince. Instead, it was Humpty-Dumpty laying on the ground in yolk-stained (no, bloodstained) fragments. And any effortsno, any hintof trying to put the pieces back together again was heresy. Saying regionalcooperation even if only talking about pooling to get a better deal on, say, toilet paperand folks wailed: Youre trying to integrate our schools! And some mayor would get their hand slapped. But something changed. Maybe it was a generational purge of the racist attitudes that ignited white-flightOK, thats just a polite way of saying maybe some racists have gone on to glory. But something did change. Three years ago, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham initiated an extensive study to determine what factors residents throughout the region believed were most important to future growth and prosperity. The organization engaged hundreds and hundreds of stakeholders and thousands and thousands of bits of information, says President and CEO Christopher Nanni. One of the five main priorities the community told us they wanted us to focus on was regional cooperation. That surprised us. I did not know it had seeped into the communitys consciousness. It has. Finally. And thankfully, 22 mayors recognized that. There was definitely a feeling of hope and momentum and excitement and change in the leadership," Nanni says. Even some older mayors who jumped onto this. There was definitely less pessimism and more, Lets do it. The long, arduous effort to create an agreement each city could embrace wasnt led, as you may expect, by the mayor of the areas largest city, Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin, but by the mayor of wealthy, neighboring Mountain Brook, Stewart Welch, a successful wealth manager who certainly knows a rising, cooperative tide should lift the entire region. He calls the Good Neighbor Pledge a complete paradigm shift for Birmingham-Jefferson County. What came through clearly was a sense of hope and urgency, Nanni says. The combination of those two presents a window we can capitalize on; if we dont, it will close and hope will turn into cynicism. Indeed, even before the hand-shaking was over last week as the mayors were discussing other ways to work togetherspecifically, improving a fractured 911 system that now transfers a caller between four different systems (and making them provide the same information each time) en route from Birmingham to Grandview. Also, collectively approaching Alabama Department of Transportation to improve the lighting on highways. So, make no mistake: The Good Neighbor Pledge signed by the 22 mayors may be specific to poaching businesses. But, its really a Declaration of Dependence, a document that finally acknowledges that the ultimate sum of our region is greater than any single part can be alone. Moving forward, said Center Point Mayor Tom Henderson, who served on the committee that drafted the pledge. we really believe this pact will lay a better foundation for the future of our county, each of our cities and our children and grandchildren. So, go ahead and say it: regionalcooperation. It isnt a dirty word anymore. A voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama, Roys column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj A Mississippi man died Sunday afternoon in a single-vehicle crash a half-mile west of Oxford in Calhoun County. Matthew Minor, 57, of Mississippi, was driving on Interstate 20 West and overturned his GMC Yukon at 12:48 p.m. Sunday, according to a press release from Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Minor was pronounced dead on the scene. No other information was available as Alabama State Troopers continue to investigate. By continuing to use AliExpress you accept our use of cookies (view more on our Privacy Policy). You can adjust your Cookie Preferences at the bottom of this page. Female migrants quit factory labour for sex work to survive and provide a better life for relatives back home. Milan, Prato, Rome and Venice, Italy Wearing a knee-length winter coat, Xiaoyan* waits for her next client near the main train station in Venice. Clinging to her bag, she looks like any other bundled-up passer-by in the evening cold. But the 45-year-old Chinese woman from the Zhejiang province, on the countrys eastern coast, has been working as a prostitute for the past three years. She arrived in Italy in 2007 and, like many of her compatriots, initially found work in small clothes and footwear businesses. With an estimated 300,000 Chinese nationals, Italy hosts the largest diaspora community in the European Union. Xiaoyan is gaunt but has a delicate appearance, with shoulder-length black hair and a short fringe. She lived in Civitanova Marche, a central city, before heading north. I used to work in small Chinese-run footwear enterprises, making around 1,000 euros ($1,123) a month, she said, her voice barely above a whisper. Shifts were non-stop. I hardly slept. When orders arrived, I even worked up to 24 hours. I could not cope with that any longer. I wasnt able to keep the pace any more. In China, Xiaoyan was a stay-at-home mother, looking after her two children. But her family needed money, so she left. People of rural origin in China have reported being denied basic rights and benefits. A household registration system known as hukou determines citizens access to education and social welfare. Leaving the village becomes the only way for rural migrants to secure a better future. After a challenging trip financed with loans from relatives and friends for a tourist visa, Xiaoyan eventually reached Italy. Labourers slept inside the [premises], she said. Our Chinese boss provided food and lodging, I never left the factory during those years. Hours upon hours of bad posture saw a doctor diagnose her with chronic body pain. Sex work has also impacted her mental and physical health. With an estimated 300,000 Chinese nationals, Italy hosts the largest diaspora community in the EU [Elisa Oddone/Al Jazeera] Two years ago, Xiaoyan was unable to eat for several days when her face became partially paralysed from prolonged exposure to the cold. In 2017, a man picked her up and drove out of the city. He assaulted and raped her, then stole her belongings. She managed to rush out of the car and grab his ID. But when she went to the police to file a report, she was unable to communicate in the little Italian she knew. Clients can be good and can be bad. Sometimes, I am scared, Xiaoyan said. I only work until midnight because this area turns very dangerous after that. It is easier to get mugged. Sexual intercourse with her costs 50 euros ($56), she says. With a little extra, she might agree to sex without a condom. For other acts, she charges between 10 and 30 euros ($11 and $34). The interview ends when headlights catch her attention. A client arrives, her job starts. Meanwhile, seven other Chinese women have appeared on the street. Prostitution is legal in Italy, but organised prostitution solicitation, whether indoor, on the street or controlled by third parties, is not. Brothels were also banned in 1958. There is an extremely high demand for prostitutes in Italy, said Davide Prosdocimi, a social worker with the Milan-based Somaschi, a religious foundation working with vulnerable individuals. Clients are extremely numerous. Women and transsexuals, mostly hailing from Albania, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Nigeria, Peru and Romania are easy to find online, at massage parlours and on the streets. He said some women are underage and are forced by their pimps to ask for more money from clients. The Chinese dont, he said. But regardless of their age, most of the women tend to remain on the streets for a long time, up to eight years. Like in several other Italian municipalities, clients in Mestre risk fines between 250 and 500 euros ($280 to $561) if caught. My husband fell sick in China and I had to pay 60,000 euros for his medical expenses. Today, I am a widow, I am scared my son might find out about this job. But what else can I do? Meiling* According to Marianna Benetello from the Numero Verde Nazionale in aiuto alle vittime di tratta e/o grave sfruttamento (Italys hotline for victims of trafficking and/or exploitation), around 30 Chinese women work on the streets of the Venice area. Others are in about a dozen massage parlours, while more work hidden inside flats. The hotline works in partnership with governmental and local agencies. There are no exact figures for the number of Chinese prostitutes working indoors. They are usually older than 29 and are considered the most vulnerable group. Their landlords, mostly Chinese, do not question their activities, although in many cases they are aware of them. Chinese women in parlours usually possess regular documents and are in good health, while those in apartments dont. Both move fast, hopping from city to city. This lifestyle is also documented by client complaints on dedicated forums like gnoccaforum or gnoccatravels (gnocca being the Italian for chick). Web entries describe encounters in graphic language, detailing the way women look, what they offer, costs, GPS coordinates to reach the location, and the presence of architectural barriers for people with disabilities. In Italys vast online prostitution world, Chinese ads represent between five and 10 percent of the offers. We are in regular contact with 13 Chinese women working on the street, says Benetello, also an Italian-Chinese cultural mediator in Venice. We accompany them to regular checkups and help them out with documents. Their average age is around 50. The youngest is 32, the oldest is 62. Women who work on the street or inside apartments are older because they come from previous work experiences, either as labourers or maids, she said. Never-ending work shifts had a very strong impact on womens bodies, mind and psychology. There are no exact figures for the number of Chinese prostitutes in Italy [Elisa Oddone/Al Jazeera] Chinese workers in Italy are forced to live in factories to be more productive. When large orders arrive, they often work up to 16 hours a day. Labourers are paid per piece, sometimes earning between 1,500 and 2,000 euros ($1,685 to $2,246) a month. But earnings are not proportional to peoples efforts. Eventually, when their productivity decreases due to physical limits and sight problems, the workers lose their jobs. Men are left with no choice but to return to China. Some women decide to stay, taking jobs as babysitters or maids for Chinese compatriots, for very low salaries. Others end up being exploited and enter prostitution. Exploitation passes very fast, and in a fluid way, from work exploitation to sexual exploitation, Benetello said. History of migration The Chinese started to reach Italy during World War II. In the 1980s, their presence grew across the local garment sector, and in the booming 1990s, workers from across China relocated to produce clothes, shoes and handbags carrying the prized Made in Italy label. Today, thousands work in small companies across Padua and other areas. Around 50,000 Chinese are employed in Prato alone, Italys textile capital near Florence. Several businesses have been accused of using undocumented migrant labour, ignoring safety rules and evading taxes. Experts and activists say criminal organisations are likely responsible for exploiting Chinese women [Elisa Oddone/Al Jazeera] In Prato, ads written in Chinese are found everywhere, reading: Newly opened massage parlour, 18-year-old Chinese girls, newly arrived from China, very pretty, elegant, and well-mannered at your service. Others read: Newly arrived young pretty girls from Taiwan. Full service. In light of their young age, social workers say human trafficking could be involved. Still, they say the hurdles that exist to accessing Chinese-only circles has made it impossible to connect with the victims directly. Meanwhile, Chinese women working on the streets in Prato are older. Their clients are elderly Italian men or migrants. Women in this position keep an extremely low profile, wear modest attire and, in many cases, talk to potential clients while pretending to wait at bus stops or in public parks. Race to climb Chinas social scale Around 300km north, in Milan, prices for sex with Chinese women on the street drop to between 20 and 30 euros ($22 to $34). They work in a relatively central area, day and night. Most used to work in factories or massage parlours. Still, they prefer the street because it offers anonymity. Yanyan*, a smartly dressed 45-year-old from Chinas northeast, works every day with fixed clients in Milans Vallazze street. The road is near cheap motels where prostitutes, also of other nationalities, bring clients. Yanyan is divorced and moved eight years ago to support her son. After working in clothes factories, she needed a more lucrative job. I send money to my son when he needs it, she said. He lives with his grandmother and saves a lot. He is 25 and currently taking state exams to get a job in the public sector. This is a very hard exam. There are thousands of people fighting for that one place. For the past 25 years, China has undergone radical transformation and unprecedented economic growth, said Daniele Brigadoi Cologna, a Chinese language lecturer and researcher at the Insubria University of Como. People are extremely worried about being left behind in the race to improve social status, he said. This makes it very hard to offer alternatives to these women, whose only goal is to make money for their families and guarantee their own survival, social workers say. In this [struggle], people may feel that there are no clear boundaries and that everything is allowed, Brigadoi Cologna says. This pushes people to conceive their own commercialisation 360-degrees, embracing all aspects of life, starting with work. This is the driving force setting migration in motion. All women and men arrive using a tourist visa for a planned long stay in the country. Chinese migrants dont enter the country via boats from the Mediterranean or from the Balkans, said Lorenzo Gestri, Pratos Public Prosecutor. In 2014, his team found a group of Chinese people packed into an apartment with three-month Polish and French entry visas. The Schengen visa system allows people to legally travel across the European Union for 30 days after arrival. It seems a journey package costs between 7,000 and 10,000 euros ($7,863 and $11,232), including the visa, trip, lodging and several job offers. These trips are organised by middlemen back in China, he said. He added that it is difficult to pin down information on these middlemen. It is reasonable to think that the first year of work serves to repay the whole journey. Some women pay more than $10,000 to arrive in Italy to work and send money home [Elisa Oddone/Al Jazeera] When employers need labourers, fresh workers arrive almost immediately in Prato. Chinese scouts are allegedly in charge of recruiting new workers and coordinating their trip with organisers back in China. When people arrive, they lack all kinds of information, also ignoring the existence of a residency permit or their condition as [undocumented] migrants, said Federica Festagallo, a China expert with Rome-based Be Free, a social cooperative against trafficking, violence and discrimination. Chinese people only count on their own community when abroad. Also at a later stage, documents and residency permits are obtained with the help of people within their own community, in exchange for money. The person who exploits them is also the one who is feeding them, giving them a job and the chance to survive in Italy, Festagallo said. It is very hard to suggest to them to sue their exploiters. At the time of publication, the Chinese embassy in Rome had not replied to Al Jazeeras request for comment. We dont have any judicial cooperation with Chinese authorities, said Gestri, Pratos public prosecutor. Each time we asked, [their] answers didnt show availability to cooperate. We don't know who the owners of these parlours are. We can presume there is some criminal organisation behind them. Carolina Jimenez, Somaschi foundation in Milan Among Italy-bound Chinese women, some are directly recruited to work in massage parlours. They respond to adverts online and in Chinese newspapers. Parlours protect clients by reducing the risk of police fines and also save them the money usually spent on motels. Women, meanwhile, maximise their income by living and working on the premises. Parlour windows are usually covered with pink or blue curtains, or tinted. A spy hole in the door allows women to see their clients arriving. On average, three to four work in one parlour. Comparing data gathered from clients chatting on online forums with information from social workers, we noticed that in two-thirds of the cases, women in massage parlours offer what they consider minor sexual services, researcher Brigadoi Cologna said. They do not think of themselves as prostitutes in the absence of complete sexual intercourse. At around 11:30am on a Monday, a woman in her late thirties wearing shorts and a tight t-shirt opens the door of a two-storey massage parlour in Milans Viale Padova. Neon lights illuminate the bare architecture. An Italian client carrying a backpack enters from another door and asks for the usual woman. At this point, the woman makes brisk signs for these reporters to leave. The client begins walking downstairs to the lower floor, where the rooms presumably are. We dont know who the owners of these parlours are, said Carolina Jimenez, from the Somaschi foundation in Milan. We can presume there is some criminal organisation behind them. What we see is that women are in charge of these spaces. They are probably prostitutes who managed to make a career over the years and climb a sort of career ladder. Still, the women dont tell the whole truth. Several women work from inside massage parlours [Elisa Oddone/Al Jazeera] Back in Venice, on the streets of Mestre, Meiling*, Xiaoyans flatmate, said she has been in Italy for the past 20 years. After working for 14 years in Chinese-run businesses making leather goods, the 51-year-old became a masseuse on Italian beaches. She moved to massage parlours later on but quit when she injured her hand. When I work on the street, I usually have a couple of clients a night, she said. Before landing on the street I tried to run a shop but went bankrupt shortly after. I lost 35,000 euros ($39,000). Meanwhile, my husband fell sick in China and I had to pay 60,000 euros ($67,300) for his medical expenses. Today, I am a widow, I am scared my son might find out about this job. But what else can I do? Donbass, Ukraine The tension between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatists of the Donetsk Peoples Republic and Luhansk Peoples Republic, which declared independence in 2014 with military support from Moscow, shows no sign of abating. Despite the Minsk ceasefire agreement, conflict continues to affect everyday life; the hiss of bullets flying overhead and the crack of far-off sniper fire are familiar sounds. The regular Ukrainian army patrols the trenches and fights on the front line because pro-Russian snipers are positioned nearby. Along the 400 kilometres of the Donbass contact line the fighting continues, while thousands of civilians are trapped in the villages nearby. They still live in what remains of their homes. In this no-mans-land, where internal fragmentation and international isolation have caused this wearying conflict to be forgotten, people continue to die. And civilians live every day as the last. The testimonies of Rwandan women helped establish rape as a war crime and paved the way for its prosecution. Long before Twitter, Harvey Weinstein, and #MeToo, African women in a Rwandan village decided to speak up about rape. Their courage changed the world. Twenty-five years ago, today marks the start of the Rwandan genocide. Over a few short months in 1994, up to a million people were killed primarily on the basis of their ethnicity. Soldiers and militia raped thousands of women. Though rape had been defined as a war crime, it had never been prosecuted. Like looting, rape was considered a spoil of war. It was accepted as inevitable and not recognised as the weapon of war it was. That was about to change. In 1995, when I arrived in Kigali as an investigator for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (the United Nations institution created to address the atrocities in Rwanda), it did not appear to be a promising venue for landmark court decisions. The prosecutors office was virtually deserted. The few people on staff were away looking for witnesses abroad because of security concerns in Rwanda. When police officers lent by the Dutch government arrived a few weeks later, they removed doors from hinges to use as desks and sat on upturned rubbish cans. The court in Arusha, Tanzania was still under construction and investigations were barely under way when we got a rare call on the one unreliable phone extension in the office: it was the Zambian government letting us know they had arrested several people from our most wanted list. Since we did not have such a list, the call was quite a surprise. One of those arrested, Jean-Paul Akayesu, was the mayor of a commune called Taba. In the communes, the mayor plays a crucial role in many aspects of the residents lives: he or she resolves disputes, decides who goes to school and gets civil service jobs, and is responsible for assigning required weekly community service. Our investigation revealed that during the genocide, Akayesu had initially prevented killings but then had a change of heart and ordered all Tutsis to be killed. Within days, over 2,000 Tutsis in the area were massacred by their neighbours. Women and children sought safety in front of the bureau communal where Akayesu had his office. Our indictment initially focused on the killings and establishing genocide. When Human Rights Watch brought widespread rapes in the commune to our attention, we sent female investigators and interpreters to see what we could find, but we still could not link the rapes to Akayesu. It was not until a witness testified during the trial that Akayesu was present during the assaults that we realised we might be able to hold him accountable for the rapes. Several women in Taba had been following the trial closely on the radio. When they heard the testimony about the rape, they decided to tell their stories too. One of them, Victoire Mukambanda, sought shelter with her sister and young babies in front of the bureau communal where they were systematically assaulted. While she was being raped, Akayesu told her assailant, Never again ask me what a Tutsi woman tastes like. Despite having just given birth, and being feverish with malaria, she was determined to give evidence. Mukambanda, her surviving sister, and several other women overcame their fear of flying and the daunting prospect of appearing in a foreign court before berobed foreign judges who did not speak the same language. She said of her decision In speaking out, I hoped to restore my dignity and that of other women in my community who had suffered as I had. At the time, she did not realise that rapes had happened throughout Rwanda and that it is used as a weapon of war in many conflicts. She did not know her testimony would help set a precedent that would be used to prosecute rape in conflicts around the world and that her courage would encourage others to speak about their experiences. She only knew that not speaking out was killing her slowly and by speaking out, she was able to move forward. Since the 1998 decision, international criminal justice has developed rapidly. A permanent International Criminal Court was established in The Hague in 2002. Hybrid national and international courts were set up to address horrific crimes in Cambodia, Sierra Leone, and Bosnia. Fifty convictions for rape have been handed down in international courts. Yet as we have seen in Myanmar, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria and elsewhere, rape is still all too often used as a weapon of war. Accountability will only meaningfully deter sexual violence when the threat of arrest is real. The International Criminal Court has no ability to execute its arrest warrants and has limited jurisdiction. To make real progress, the international community must ensure accountability in places beyond the reach of international courts and require the arrest of indicted suspects. Governments must vigorously condemn and prosecute gender-based violence domestically, even in times of peace, to demonstrate that this behaviour will not be tolerated. Only then will the promise of the Akayesu judgment be realised. Jean-Paul Akayesu, handcuffed and surrounded by UN security personnel, arrives at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania on January 9, 1997 [File: Sayyid Azim/AP] The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Ceremony commemorating killing of 800,000 people in 1994 ushers in week of remembrance, 100 days of national mourning. Kigali, Rwanda Rwanda has begun 100 days of mourning to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a genocide that tore the small country apart and left close to a million people dead. President Paul Kagame and several other heads of state on Sunday laid wreaths and attended the lighting of the remembrance flame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial to signal the start of the mourning period, which coincides with the duration of the brutal campaign of killings in 1994. The memorial in the capital holds the remains of more than a quarter of a million people who lost their lives in the slaughter. Fear and anger have been replaced by the energy and purpose that drives us forward young and old, Kagame said during the commemoration ceremony in Kigali, adding that his country will never repeat past mistakes that led to the genocide. Nothing has the power to turn Rwandans against each other, ever again. This history will not repeat. That is our firm commitment, he added. 100 days of killings On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali. Everyone on board, including Cyprien Ntaryamira, president of neighbouring Burundi, was killed. The two leaders were returning from Tanzania where they had signed a peace agreement with rebels from the Tutsi minority group. The downing of the plane triggered some 100 days of slaughter. More than 800,000 people, mainly Tutsi, were killed by government-allied Hutu forces who accused them of killing Habyarimana, a Hutu. Thousands of moderate Hutus were also killed for refusing to take part in the genocide. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) group, headed at the time by Kagame, accused Hutu hardliners of shooting down the plane to provide an excuse for carrying out the premeditated slaughter. Several investigations have been unable to determine who fired the rocket that brought down the jet. More than 800,000 people, mainly Tutsi, were killed by government-allied Hutu forces [Baz Ratner/Reuters] Move into the light Kagames speech on Sunday marked the start of a week of events in the country to remember the victims an estimated one in 10 people were killed in the genocide. Rwandan officials and about 3,000 people joined in a walk to remember from the houses of parliament to the citys national stadium, Amahoro, where a night vigil was held. President Paul Kagame has lit the flame of Remembrance assisted by a generation of 25 years at the @Kigali_Memorial. The flame will burn for the next 100 days for the 25th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. #Kwibuk25 pic.twitter.com/SVKOsSvjyu Kwibuka Rwanda (@KwibukaRwanda) April 7, 2019 Earlier in the day, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who as an 18-year-old served as part of an Ethiopian peacekeeping mission in Rwanda in 1995, said the countrys response and development was an example to the rest of the world. The mistakes of yesterday has propelled your country to greater height, Abiy said. Acknowledging the dark past of history but choosing to move into the light is a courageous act of perseverance, he added. For his part, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commissions president, said at the remembrance ceremony that it is our generations duty to never forget what humankind is capable of. It is only by remembering that we can build a brighter future together, he added. Time can never erase the darkest hours in our history. Migrants clash with police for the third day in northern Greece. The anti-riot police in Greece have used tear gas on hundreds of migrants trying to cross into North Macedonia. It is the third day of unrest, concentrated near the city of Thessaloniki. Migrants travelled to the area after rumours spread on social media that the border would be opened. Al Jazeeras Catherine Stancl has more. Greek law says refugee children must be offered free education. Al Jazeera looks at what is keeping them out of class. Greece is trying to offer education to young refugees on the Aegean Islands. However, getting children into classes is proving difficult. The already thin resources are being stretched too far, say locals, while refugee parents are wary of Greek schools. Al Jazeeras John Psaropoulos reports from the Island of Samos. Fresh flooding may affect 400,000 people in southern Iran, officials say, after 70 people were killed by rising waters. Tehran, Iran Dozens of villages and towns have been evacuated in southern Iran as authorities issued warnings for a fresh round of flooding in the regions bordering Iraq, home to a number of rivers and dams. Continuous floods that started in March have so far claimed 70 lives, destroyed infrastructures and displaced thousands of people across Iran. On Saturday, Iraq officially closed the Chazabeh border crossing after Iranian authorities banned travelling and trade through the border amid flood warnings in the south Iranian province of Khuzestan. Customs authorities of Khuzestan had called on trade companies on Wednesday to use another border crossing further south as a replacement, Irans state news agency IRNA reported. 190402160344449 The transit road to the border passes through lands surrounding Karkheh River that is expected to carry floodwaters as authorities ordered an emergency discharge in its dam to alleviate water pressure. Khuzestan has three major rivers that pass through several villages, towns and cities, including Karoun River that cuts through the provincial capital Ahvaz. Iranian authorities ordered the evacuation of six cities along the Karkheh River in southwestern Khuzestan province [Mehdi Pedramkhoo/Tasnim News/AFP] Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said flooding might affect about 400,000 people in Khuzestan out of more than 4.7 million residents of the province. Heavy showers are also expected in the northeastern provinces, including the city of Mashhad. Stalled relief efforts Flash floods recently displaced thousands and prompted chaos and panic in the western Lorestan province. The town of Poldokhtar bore the brunt of the disaster but floodwaters also submerged homes in numerous other villages in the province, while destroyed infrastructures slowed emergency relief efforts. Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abdolhashem Hassannia said on Saturday roads to 275 villages in the province were blocked. During the floods, 200 bridges and 400 kilometres of roads were 100 percent destroyed, Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA) quoted Hassannia as saying. Lorestans representative in Parliament, Mohammadreza Malekshahi, said many residents who left their homes due to the flood have no place to sleep. The level of the damages left by the recent floods has been unprecedented during the past century, ILNA quoted him as saying. A bridge destroyed by the flood is seen in Lorestan Province [Khashayar Javanmardi/Tasnim News/Reuters] Much of the disaster occurred during Irans New Year holiday, Nowruz, when many Iranians travel, leaving thousands stranded either at home or at holiday destinations. On March 25, flash floods killed dozens in the southern city of Shiraz, a popular destination for tourists. Heavy rainfalls caused the flood to spread through the city, move vehicles and wash away pedestrians. Flooding also killed one person in Sar-Pol Zahab county in the western Kermanshah Province, where some residents still live in temporary cabins. They are trying to restore or rebuild homes and apartments damaged by a strong earthquake that took hundreds of lives last year. In the northern Mazandaran Province, dozens of bridges were destroyed, while in other parts hundreds of villages were submerged by flood water. The northern floods started mid-March, hitting mostly areas in Golestan Province southeast of the Caspian Sea. Reports indicate that 95 out of 800 villages hit by the flood in Golestan have not yet recovered from the flood. The Meteorological Organization forecasts more rainfalls in the northern region. Many schools in Golestan are yet to open, even though national holidays ended on Friday. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has slammed the United States over sanctions he said were blocking international aid and relief efforts. The US campaign of so-called maximum pressure on Iran is impeding aid efforts by #IranianRedCrescent to all communities devastated by unprecedented floods, he wrote in a tweet. Blocked equipment includes relief choppers: This isnt just economic warfare; its economic TERRORISM, he added. The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Ali Asghar Peyvandi, also criticised the US for blocking the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). We used a number of bank accounts connected to SWIFT, which we used for receiving international aid. But at the moment these accounts are subject to sanctions, Iranian Students News Agency quoted him as saying. Its impossible to transfer cash from other countries as well as the International Federation of [Red Cross and] Red Crescent Societies, he said. Move by Washington to blacklist elite security organisation would draw reciprocal action, officials in Tehran say. Iranian officials have cautioned the United States against pushing ahead with a rumoured move to designate Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist group, warning it could destabilise the region and draw a tit-for-tat response. The expected shift in Washingtons policy was initially reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, which cited unnamed US officials claiming it could be rolled out as soon as Monday. Seen as part of a broader effort to make good on US President Donald Trumps vow to take a tougher line against Iran, the proposal would if implemented mark an unprecedented step against an entire institution of a foreign government. It would also go far beyond pre-existing sanctions put in place by the US to target entities linked to the IRGC, including the Quds Force, which is in charge of the forces operations abroad. On Sunday, Irans Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said such a measure was another US disaster in the making, and warned of the consequences it could have. #NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region, Zarif wrote on Twitter, referring to supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, Irans regional archenemy. In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf. @realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster, Zarif added. #NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region. In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf.@realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster. pic.twitter.com/i4bcfgxybT Javad Zarif (@JZarif) April 7, 2019 Iran readies reciprocal response Separately, Mohammad Ali Jafari, the IRGCs commander, said US troops stationed in the Middle East would lose their current status of ease and serenity should Washington went ahead with such foolishness and warned of a reciprocal move from Tehran. If reports prove to be true that the stupid US administration intends to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, then the IRGC [Revolutionary Guards] will also specify the US army as a group like ISIL in all parts of the world, specially the Middle-East, Jafari said, using the acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, also known as ISIS. 180523053245629 Jafaris remarks coincided with a statement issued by a majority of Iranian legislators confirming that the countrys parliament would respond-in-kind to any shift by Washington, according to a report by Irans state-run IRNA news agency. Irans most powerful security organisation, the IRGC was set up to protect the countrys Shia clerical ruling system after its 1979 Islamic Revolution, which toppled the Western-allied secular monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and led to the formation of the Islamic Republic. The force is in charge of Irans ballistic missiles and nuclear programmes, and answers directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is estimated to have 125,000 personnel, comprised of army, navy and air units. After the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, the IRGC also became heavily involved in reconstruction and has expanded its economic interests to include a vast network of businesses, ranging from oil and gas projects to construction and telecommunication. Netanyahu will have to beat Gantzs Blue and White Party to become Israels longest-serving prime minister. About 5.88 million eligible voters are set to vote in the Israeli elections on April 9 to elect a party that will lead the next Israeli government. Fourteen main parties are competing for 120 seats in the 21st Knesset (parliament). A party has to secure a majority of 61 seats out of 120 in order to form a government and choose a leader to become prime minister. Israel has seen particularly high turn-out rates in the past, with 71.8 percent of eligible voters casting their ballots in the 2015 election. Israels incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, is seeking a fifth term in office. According to polls, its a tight race against his main rival Benny Gantz, a former army chief who leads the centrist Blue and White party, a party merged in alliance with former finance minister and TV personality Yair Lapid. Heres what you need to know about Israels elections: Main contenders Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu, 69 If re-elected on April 9, Netanyahu could become Israels longest-serving prime minister and the first sitting prime minister to be indicted on corruption charges. A corruption investigation involving one case of bribery and two cases of fraud and breach of trust culminated in February 2019 when Israels attorney general announced that he intends to indict Netanyahu. But Netanyahu dismissed the allegations, calling it a witch-hunt concocted by his opponents. Despite the charges, most younger Israelis prefer Netanyahu for prime minister over rival Benny Gantz, according to a pre-election poll by the Israel Democracy Institute. Netanyahu currently leads the most right-wing government in Israeli history and also serves as defence minister. Over the past decade, hes become known as Mr Security, casting himself as the one who can best keep Israel safe in the tough neighbourhood of the Middle East. During his tenure, US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital and recognised Israels claim on the occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967, which may boost his popularity at the polls. Benjamin Benny Gantz, 59 As security always takes centre stage in Israeli politics, Benny Gantz, former chief of staff of the Israeli army, is Netanyahus biggest challenger. Along with two other former Israeli army chiefs of staff, he quickly formed the Centrist Blue and White party in February 2019 in alliance Lapid in a bid to unseat Netanyahu. Gantz boasts military credentials that appeal to much of the Israeli public. He served as chief of staff during two military assaults on the besieged Gaza Strip in 2012 and 2014. Once praised by Netanyahu as an excellent officer to whom Israelis owed gratitude, the prime minister has now branded his competition as a weak leftist. In a bid to win right-wing voters, Gantzs controversial campaign videos boast of killing Palestinians and sending Gaza back to Stone Age referencing to the air attacks the army launched in 2014. Many have criticised him for lacking a clear political stance, including on the future of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. However, as part of his platform, he has vowed to fix the controversial Jewish nation-state law, which defined Israel as the exclusive homeland of the Jewish people. How the elections work Voters will be casting their ballots for a party, not a candidate. The more votes a party gets, the more seats it obtains in the Knesset as the government is based on a nationwide proportional representation system. A party must secure at least 61 out of a total 120 Knesset seats in order to form a government. During elections, parties must pass an electoral threshold of 3.25 percent to gain a Knesset seat. To stand a better chance of passing this threshold, many parties form coalitions. Once the results are in, all parties that pass the threshold then submit their choice of candidate for prime minister to President Reuven Rivlin. Rivlin then assigns the job of forming a coalition to the party leader he thinks has the best chance of doing so. Some refugees and migrants say they have been left without food and water, others say they were forced to move weapons. As fighting between rival forces rages on the outskirts of the Libyan capital, thousands of refugees and migrants locked up in detention centres inside Tripoli say they are terrified of what might happen to them. Renegade General Khalifa Haftar on Thursday ordered his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), which is allied to a parallel administration in the east, to march on Tripoli, the seat of the countrys internationally recognised government which is protected by an array of militias. Despite international calls for a truce, clashes have intensified, with dozens of people killed on both sides since the fighting began. In recent days, Al Jazeera contacted detainees in several migrant detention centres across Tripoli. The detainees, who use hidden phones to communicate, asked that their names not be published for fear of retaliation. Some of the detention centres are also not named to protect the detainees identities. Their statements could not be independently verified, but they offered similar accounts. 190405214022194 Some of the refugees and migrants said they had been left without food or water, including hundreds in the middle of an active conflict zone. Others said they had been taken from their cells and forced to move weapons. We can see the military, said a man in Qasr bin Ghashir detention centre, on the southern outskirts of Tripoli, in an area where clashes are ongoing. Speaking to Al Jazeera on Sunday, he said hundreds of refugees and migrants being held there had not had any food in two days. The food store is empty, he said. The war is still continuing. Even the electricity and water supply stopped. Two men wearing military outfits reportedly arrived to tell Qasr bin Ghashirs detainees, including children, they would be moved to a safe place but those being held there were worried the men were traffickers or smugglers who might take them for ransom. Maybe theyll take us to sell us, said one man, who sent recordings in which loud explosions could be heard. 190406195133847 All people are crazy. Were in a bad situation now, but we dont know where we can go, he added. All the people want to run away from here. We are very stressed now. Already our mind is losing hope. In Ain Zara detention centre, southeast of Tripoli, a detainee said most of the guards in charge of them had left and food had run out. During another outbreak of conflict in August last year, more than 400 men, women, and children were abandoned in Ain Zara after the Libyans guarding them ran away. In a Twitter post on Sunday, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said it was very concerned about the situation in Ain Zara and Qasr bin Ghashir, where there were ongoing clashes. #UNHCR remains concerned about developments in Libya & calls for safe, unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access to all affected areas. UNHCR team remains on the ground responding to situation of IDPs & refugees @Refugees UNHCR Libya (@UNHCRLibya) April 7, 2019 In another post, it called for safe, unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access to all affected areas. We can hear the sounds of the guns now. We have many children and women here. We need evacuation. We dont want to die here, a refugee said in a recording sent to Al Jazeera. This place is not safe. This place is for armed groups who are forcing refugees to load weapons or move weapons. So terrified The majority of migrants and refugees in Libyas official detention centres were intercepted on the Mediterranean Sea and brought back to the North African country after trying to reach Europe. 190406075042211 The detention centres are formally under the control of the UN-backed governments Department for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM), though many are actually run by militias. There are currently around 6,000 people detained in DCIM-run centres, including more than 600 children, according to the United Nations. Among them are people from Eritrea, Somalia, and Sudan fleeing war or persecution. A detainee at a Tripoli detention centre said dozens of male refugees and migrants had been taken out of a big hall, where they are being held, to carry and load weapons. In return for working in a nearby military headquarters, they may be given bread and vegetables, or cigarettes, though the detainee reiterated they do not have much choice about whether they go. (The guards) use force in everything, he said. In another centre in southern Tripoli, refugees were concerned about what might happen if Haftar took over and whether they would be treated better or worse. The situation is quite weird. There are no police around. We are all so terrified, said one man, before asking whether he would be safer if he tried to escape onto the streets. Around 15,000 refugees and migrants were returned to Libya last year alone, under a two-year-old deal in which the European Union supports the Libyan coastguard with funds, ships and training, in return for carrying out interceptions and rescues. The UN continues to reiterate that Libya is not a safe country to return refugees and migrants to. Last week, the International Organisation for Migration released a statement saying the country cannot be considered a safe port or haven for migrants. The security and humanitarian situations in the country remain dangerous. Army of Tripoli-based government vows to reclaim all areas seized by forces loyal to renegade General Khalifa Haftar. The army behind Libyas UN-backed government has announced a counteroffensive to defend Tripoli, vowing to reclaim all areas seized by forces loyal to renegade General Khalifa Haftar, who have been marching on the outskirts of the capital. Colonel Mohamed Gnounou told reporters in Tripoli on Sunday that the counteroffensive, dubbed Volcano of Anger, was aimed at purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces. The announcement came as Haftars forces said they conducted the first air raid on a Tripoli suburb as part of their aim to overthrow the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and take control of Tripoli. The alleged attack came after GNA forces launched air raids on Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) around 50km south of Tripoli on Saturday, reportedly killing one person. The health ministry of the UN-backed Libyan government said on Sunday that clashes in the southern part of Tripoli resulted in 11 killed and 23 wounded. Meanwhile, the UN mission in Libya (UNSMIL) made an urgent appeal for a two-hour truce in the southern suburbs to evacuate the wounded and civilians caught in the fighting. [UNSMIL calls on] all armed parties in the Wadi Rabi area, Al-Kayekh, Gasr Ben Ghachir and Al-Aziziya to respect a humanitarian truce [between 14:00 and 16:00 GMT] to secure the evacuation of wounded and civilians by rescue teams and the Libyan Red Crescent. The European Unions foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, who spoke to UN special envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame on Monday, said Europes message should be for a full implementation of the humanitarian truce and to avoid any further military action and escalation and a return to the political track. Civilians flee Fearing that large-scale fighting could break out, the citys residents have begun stocking up on food and fuel. Some 2,200 people had already fled fighting south of Tripoli since April 4, the UN humanitarian office said in a new report. The civilian population in some combat-affected areas are unable to flee the area and emergency services are unable to reach them, the report said. The fast increasing deployment of forces could potentially result in significant population displacement, it said. At least 35 people, including civilians, have been killed on both sides since Haftar launched his offensive four days ago. The health ministry of the Tripoli-based government said in a statement that at least 21 people were killed, including a doctor, and 27 others were wounded. Ahmed al-Mesmari, a spokesman for Haftars forces, said on Saturday that 14 troops were killed. The GNA controls Tripoli, situated in northwestern Libya, while the LNA is allied to a parallel administration based in the east of the oil-rich country, which splintered into a patchwork of competing power bases following the overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. LNA members, commanded by Haftar, head out of Benghazi to reinforce the troops advancing to Tripoli [Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters] On Sunday, the US military said it had temporarily pulled some of its forces out of Libya amid the upsurge in fighting in the North African country. Due to increased unrest in Libya, a contingent of US forces supporting US Africa Command temporarily relocated from the country in response to security conditions on the ground, it said in a statement. It did not detail how many military personnel had been withdrawn. US Africa Command, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, said its mission in Libya involves military support to diplomatic missions, counterterrorism activities, enhancing partnerships and improving security across the region. It said it would continue to monitor conditions on the ground in Libya and assess the feasibility for renewed US military presence as appropriate. The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable, said US Marine Corps General Thomas Waldhauser, commander of US Africa Command. Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing US strategy. Betrayal On Saturday, the head of the GNA accused Haftar of betraying him after the latter launched his military offensive on Tripoli. In a televised speech, Fayez al-Sarraj said Haftars forces would meet firm resistance from forces loyal to the GNA. We have extended our hands towards peace but after the aggression that has taken place on the part of forces belonging to Haftar and his declaration of war against our cities and our capital he will find nothing but strength and firmness, al-Sarraj said. He also warned of a war without winners. Al-Sarraj and Haftar held talks in Abu Dhabi in late February, their first confirmed meeting since November 2018, during which they agreed that national elections were necessary, according to the UN. They also agreed on ways to maintain stability in the country and unify its institutions, the UN Libya mission said in a Twitter post after the Abu Dhabi meeting. Jason Pack, the founder of consultancy organisation Libya Analysis, argued that the goal of Haftars offensive was not to capture Tripoli but make a statement before a UN-sponsored national conference scheduled for later in April. It is a media conflict. Haftar is posturing before the national conference. Hes parading his troops, hes making a few air strikes here, trying to control some strategic points but not trying to conquer the city by force as hed like to have us believe, Pack said. I think that the UN and the international community has doubled down on this conference, that theyre not going to be swayed by violence and spoilers and that they have a plan. The problem is that there is a lot of dissension within international ranks. Its actually quite shameful now. The French do one thing with their statements and do another thing on the ground and there are other actors who are saying we support the UN position but actually are known to be supporting on the side or factions. Analysts say its just election talk to grab votes on the right, but Palestinians take the Israeli PMs words seriously. Jerusalem Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he would annex illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in office, in an attempt to win over right-wing voters. He made the statement in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 News on Saturday, three days before the April 9 election. Reuters news agency reported that he was asked why he had not extended sovereignty to West Bank settlements since Israel had annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights without international recognition during the 1967 war. Who says that we wont do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it, Netanyahu said, according to Reuters. You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend [Israeli] sovereignty and I dont distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements. 190403125039342 Mitchell Barak, an Israeli political pollster and analyst, told Al Jazeera he classifies Netanyahus comments as nothing more than election talk. Whatever happens in the election, stays in the election. I dont think he has any real intention of [annexing settlements]. We dont know. Its highly unlikely that this will turn into policy, Barak said. If [voters] see him embracing this policy, they may move to vote for him, but its nothing more than an election gimmick at this point. However, many Palestinians have been taking his words seriously, including Aida Touma-Suleiman, a member of the Knesset (MK) running for the joint Arab Haddash-Taal party. On the eve of the last election in 2015, Netanyahu similarly made waves by stating that if he returned to the office he would never establish a Palestinian state, reversing his previous endorsement of a two-state solution. Since then, he has done precisely what he said, Touma-Suleiman told Al Jazeera. Everyone thought it was election talk. But for four years he has step by step almost accomplished the mission he stated In my opinion, he is going to annex the settlements, Touma-Suleiman said. I hope well be able to see a government thats more rational at least. I dont believe that [Benny] Gantz is an alternative. I dont believe that generals will bring hope to this country but I can see the damage that Netanyahu is doing, which is long-term damage and I would like to see it stopped immediately. Creeping annexation Over the years, reports have highlighted the creeping annexation that has been enfolding, with the government also initiating legislative measures that sought to apply Israeli law to the West Bank and the 2017 settlement regularisation law, which retroactively legalises settlements. Currently, there are some 600,000 to 750,000 illegal settlers living in about 150 settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, built on land the Palestinians had envisioned for a future state. Netanyahu has made significant achievements in the past two years. Most recently, during Netanyahus visit to Washington on March 25, US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation recognising Israels sovereignty over the Golan Heights, reversing 52 years of official US policy. Israel has occupied Golan Heights since 1967 when it seized the Syrian territory along with East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Many saw the move as paving the way for the subsequent annexation of the West Bank. During Netanyahus term, Trump also recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital in December 2017, a catastrophic declaration for Palestinians who had envisioned East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. MK Ahmad Tibi, running as the second candidate on the Hadash-Taal list, told Al Jazeera that Netanyahus latest statement is a direct continuation of his declaration made in 2015 that he would never agree to a Palestinian state. An annexation of Palestinian land, he considers it an issue in the elections [because] it brings him more votes [among the right]. This is the real Netanyahu, Tibi said. If he will lead the next government, it will be more right, more extreme and more ready to annex the land with Donald Trump in the White House. There has been a surge of tenders for settlement construction in the past two years since President Trump took office, according to the Israeli organisation Peace Now. In 2017 and 2018, there were tenders for 3,154 and 3,808 settlement housing units, respectively, compared with just 42 in 2016. However, Akiva Eldar, a senior columnist for Al-Monitor, told Al Jazeera that annexing the illegal settlements outright would be difficult to do; Netanyahus statement may be just a last-minute spin like in the previous election. It [would be] breaking the status quo its going to rock the boat. I dont think Netanyahu is interested, Eldar said. Hes very satisfied with the political status quo in diplomatic negotiations and the creeping annexation. Hes been making statements but doing it one by one, one centimetre at a time, changing facts on the ground without having to pay a price in the diplomatic arena. The Israeli prime minister is further stirring ethnic divisions as he tries to get support from far-right parties in his re-election bid. Israelis head to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been fighting hard to maintain his hold on the premiership in what has been a bitter campaign. Up against a strong challenger and facing corruption charges, he has launched an attack against his opponent, the legal system and the media. His critics say Netanyahu has again used race to divide voters. Al Jazeeras Harry Fawcett reports from West Jerusalem. Jordans foreign minister dismissed Omans remarks at World Economic Forum saying issue is that theres an occupation. A top Omani government official has said Arabs must take initiatives to make Israel overcome fears for its future in the region, drawing criticism from Jordan. The remarks on Saturday by Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, the minister responsible for foreign affairs in Oman, came on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum hosted by Jordan on the shores of the Dead Sea. The West has offered Israel political, economic and military support and it now holds all the means of power but despite that, it fears for its future as a non-Arab country surrounded by 400 million Arabs, he said. 181114134809202 I believe that we Arabs must be able to look into this issue and try to ease those fears that Israel has through initiatives and real deals between us and Israel, he told a panel discussing geopolitics. While Abdullahs title is Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs, Omans ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said remains the official Minister of Foreign Affairs. The panels moderator, journalist Hadley Gamble, interrupted him to ask if the best solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict is recognising Israel and its right to exist. The minister said, No. Not recognising, but we want them themselves to feel that there are no threats to their future. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, whose country is the only Arab nation along with Egypt to have a peace treaty with Israel, dismissed the remarks saying the issue is that there is an occupation of Arab land. The Arab world has recognised Israels right to exist. The Palestinians themselves recognised the Israeli right to exist that is not the issue, Safadi told the panel. The issue is that there is an occupation. Is this occupation going to end or not? 181027090318188 Israel, Safadi said, must withdraw from Arab lands occupied since 1967 and allow the creation of a Palestinian state. This is the issue, he said. If they [Israel] say they are not comfortable, that is not my problem, said Safadi. The problem is not with Arabs giving assurances the problem is with Israel doing what is right for peace, he added. Israel is not doing the right thing. Actually, it is doing more of the wrong things by suffocating Palestinians, the Jordanian foreign minister said, referring to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip. Gaza is probably, as you heard many times, the worlds largest prison, he added. In recent months, Israel has been courting Gulf Arab states. In February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met one-on-one with Alawi at an international conference in Warsaw, attended by officials from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. In October last year, Netanyahu held surprise talks with Sultan Qaboos in Muscat raising Palestinian fears of normalisation of ties. Last year, Alawi told a regional conference in Bahrain it might be time for Israel to be treated the same [as states in the Middle East] and also bear the same obligations. Bahrain endorsed the remarks which at the time were said to be aimed at moving the Israeli-Palestinian narrative from intractability to a new focus of pragmatism. About 30 inmates started the strike on Sunday, and up to 1,500 others will join them in the coming week. Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have launched an open-ended mass hunger strike over deteriorating conditions inside. About 30 inmates started the strike on Sunday, and up to 1,500 others will join them in the coming week, the prisoners including administrative detainees said in a statement circulated by local media. The move comes two days ahead of Israels general election, in which Israels incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the far right-wing Likud party, is seeking a fifth term in office. The prisoners will reject the intake of any food or water, mainly in protest against the recent installation of mobile phone reception blocking equipment in the Ramon prison, a notorious Israeli military jail in the southern Negev region. This equipment is a health hazard that harms the prisoners and may lead to cancer, the prisoners said in their statement. According to Israels Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, the installations are necessary to halt terror activity an allegation Palestinian prisoners deny. They say without mobile phone service, they are unable to communicate with their family members, many of whom are unable to visit their jailed relatives. Prisoners have long called for the installation of payphones, yielding only some results as part of demands associated with previous hunger strikes. At times, prison authorities would resort to force-feeding, a practice criticised by the United Nations. Under no circumstance will force-feeding of prisoners and detainees on hunger strike comply with human rights standards, the UN special rapporteur on the right to health had said in a 2015 statement. In January, Erdan announced plans to worsen conditions for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including rationing water supplies and reducing the number of family visits. He said, the plan which needs parliamentary approval will also see jails removing cooking rights and limiting prisoners access to television as well as blocking funds from the Palestinian Authority. Other demands On Sunday, the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) said it would respond forcefully and with determination to ensure the installation of the jamming equipment would not be removed, according to an Israeli daily. According to local media reports, the IPS said negotiations over conditions would resume after the Israeli elections, due to take place on Tuesday. Palestinian prisoners are also protesting against the ban on family visits for prisoners from the besieged Gaza Strip, and are demanding the expanding television service and the stocking of additional goods in the prison canteens. Prisoners who are on hunger strike are expected to be subject to punishment, including solitary confinement or transfer from one prison to another under the pretext of security. Israel holds 5,450 Palestinian prisoners, including nearly 200 administrative detainees (people held without charge), according to the latest figures from Jerusalem-based Palestinian prisoners rights group, Addameer. Most are held in jails inside Israel, in contravention of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires that an occupying power hold prisoners from an occupied land within that area. Israel has for years held Palestinians in overcrowded prisons with poor hygiene standards with many prisoners confined to a 2.9sq metres cell, according to Addameer. Rights groups say more than 1,800 inmates are in need of medical care, with about 700 suffering from serious or chronic illnesses. Most of those killed in the attack were children, a spokesperson for the rebel-controlled health ministry said. Air raids by a Saudi-UAE-led coalition in a residential area in Yemens Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, have killed at least 11 civilians, including children, according to local officials. Youssef al-Hadrii, a spokesman for the rebel-controlled health ministry, was quoted by DPA news agency as saying that the attack on Sunday left more than 39 people wounded. He said most of the victims were students killed in the bombing of houses and a school. Citing local medical sources, The Associated Press news agency put the number of those killed at 13, including seven children. More than 100 were wounded, it added. Everyone was hysterical, some were crying and shouting in panic, said Fatehiya Kahlani, principal of Al Raei school. The situation was horrible as the school population is 2,100. Some girl students were killed and others were wounded and are in a hospital as a result of the missile strike. The school building was destroyed too. We suddenly heard a fighter jet while we were at school. We then heard the first strike. We remained calm. Then came the second strike and then the third, which was the strongest of them all, said Ali Ahmed, a wounded student. The building was damaged and we were injured by broken glass. As the fourth air strike came in, we panicked and ran home. The Saudi-UAE-led alliance fighting the Houthis said its jets had struck a military camp in the Sanaa suburb of Sawan, according to DPA. But the coalition did not provide casualty figures. The state-run news agency in Aden, aligned with the coalition-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, said a warehouse used by the Houthis to store weapons was targeted. The latest conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of Sanaa by Houthi rebels, who toppled Hadis government. Air raids by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, killing thousands of Yemeni civilians. The Houthis have fired long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia and targeted vessels in the Red Sea. The fighting in the Arab worlds poorest country has killed thousands of civilians, left millions suffering from food and medical shortages, and pushed the country to the brink of famine. UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock has said about 80 percent of Yemens population 24 million people needs humanitarian assistance, including nearly 10 million just a step away from famine and nearly 240,000 facing catastrophic levels of hunger. Demonstrators gather outside army HQ in the capital for second straight day in bid to precipitate presidents removal. Thousands of protesters have rallied for a second successive day outside the headquarters of the Sudanese army in the capital, Khartoum, urging the countrys military to back their demands for President Omar al-Bashir to resign. Chanting Sudan is rising, the army is rising, crowds massed on Sunday outside the complex, which also houses al-Bashirs official residence and the defence ministry. Sudanese police fired tear gas at the demonstrators in a bid to disperse the protest, AFP news agency reported, citing a witness at the scene. The protest movement began in a reaction to a government decision to triple the price of bread in December, but it has since escalated into growing demands for al-Bashirs departure after three decades in office. Many of those protesting at the complex on Sunday had camped at the site overnight following demonstrations at the location on Saturday, which saw one of the largest turnouts in the months-long rallies against the presidents rule. Protest organisers chose April 6 to begin the rally outside the army headquarters to mark the 1985 uprising that toppled the administration of then-President Jaafar al-Nimeiri. The military removed al-Nimeiri before handing over power to an elected government, which in turn was overthrown by al-Bashir in a 1989 coup. Al-Bashir, meanwhile, has refused to step down, saying his opponents should seek power through the ballot box, and on Sunday chaired a meeting of the countrys security council. The security council confirms that the protesters are part of the Sudanese community and their vision and demands have to be heard, the presidency said in a statement afterwards. The council will take measures to enhance peace and security across the country. Scores killed, HRW says Sarah Abdel-Jaleel, a spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, told The Associated Press news agency earlier on Sunday that four people were killed in Khartoum by security forces. Another protester was killed at a separate demonstration in Omdurman, Sudans second-most populous city, Abdel-Jaleel said. The state-run SUNA news agency on Saturday quoted police spokesman General Hashim Abdel-Rahim as saying that one person was killed during disturbances in Omdurman. He called the protests illegal gatherings. There was no official comment regarding the alleged killings in Khartoum. Officials say 32 people have died since the protests erupted. Human Rights Watch said at least 51 people have been killed during the demonstrations, however. Hundreds of protesters, including opposition leaders, activists and journalists, have also been jailed by the widely-feared National Intelligence and Security Service. Critics accuse al-Bashir of mismanaging the economy, leading to soaring food prices and regular shortages of fuel. Sundays protests coincided with a nationwide blackout that the electricity ministry blamed on a technical glitch. Al-Bashir has acknowledged that the economic concerns raised by protesters are legitimate, though he imposed emergency rule on February 22 after an initial crackdown failed to rein in the protests. The Sudanese leaders term ends in 2020 and he has repeatedly promised over the years not to make new runs for the presidency. Without amending the countrys constitution, he can not run for a third term. US campaign of maximum pressure on Iran leaves Lebanese allies of Hezbollah scrambling to ease concerns in Washington. Beirut, Lebanon Barely a fortnight after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Lebanon and threatened Hezbollahs political allies to contain the group or face US sanctions, some of them have flown to Washington, DC, to lobby against them and assuage US concerns. Officially, however, the Lebanese delegation is travelling to attend the 2019 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. While in Lebanon, Pompeo had said that the US is inclined to sanction political individuals linked to Hezbollah to curtail the groups military and political growth and in effect the influence of its patron, Iran, in the region. Hanin Ghaddar, a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Al Jazeera that, according to her sources, Pompeo warned President Michel Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Speaker Nabih Berri of the Amal movement, with personal sanctions. 190309072655637 I checked with people who were present at the dinner organised for Pompeo. They confirmed to me that he told both Aoun and Berri that they would be sanctioned unless they pull the reins on Hezbollah, Ghaddar said. May Chidiac, the new minister of state for administrative development and a representative of the Christian Lebanese Forces Party, which is seen to be close to the US, said that while she is not privy to the details of one-on-one meetings between the leaders, Pompeos message was clear. It was a strong warning for all those who back Hezbollah that the sanctions may include them, its political allies. He said it very bluntly, Chidiac said. Stability, not war The first on the list to be targeted are believed to be Hezbollahs Shia allies in the Amal Movement. Yassine Jaber, an MP affiliated to the Amal movement, boarded a flight to the US on Saturday, along with Ibrahim Kenaan of the FPM. He downplayed the visit and said it was not an assignment to cajole the US, rather it was just a routine meeting on the invitation of the World Bank. However, he told Al Jazeera that Lebanon was not looking for any sort of confrontation with USs ally, Israel, and he would tell the US the same. Lebanon wants stability, not war, he said. We have too much on our plate. We have to resurrect our economy, take care of the burden of displaced Syrians. We dont want war with Israel. In fact, the southern border has been peaceful for over a decade. Rami Najem, spokesperson of the Amal Movement, cautiously worded his response and simply said that any kind of sanctions would be debilitating. We think that the whole country will feel the bad consequences if sanctions are imposed, he said. Alain Aoun, an MP with the FPM, was clearer, saying the Lebanese delegation would discuss a range of issues in their meetings, including the looming sanctions. In their meetings with the US Congress they will address all issues, also, of course, the sanctions, any sanctions, he said. Jaber and Kenaan will be in the US for five working days. Once they have wrapped up the World Bank conference they will meet Marshall Billingslea, an assistant secretary of the US Treasury Department and David Satterfield, US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. Counterproductive policy While Hezbollahs political allies are tight-lipped about the threats made, a scramble to control the situation has begun behind closed doors, sources told Al Jazeera. Berri and Aoun cannot contain Hezbollah, the sources said, and are instead hoping the US might understand the limitations on their power. Meanwhile, experts say a punitive policy against Hezbollahs political allies could backfire. Thanassis Cambanis, a fellow with The Century Foundation and author of a book on Hezbollah, said that while applying pressure against Hezbollahs destabilising military moves is understandable, it is less understandable, and certainly counterproductive, to sanction Lebanese citizens and politicians who are considered legitimate figures in public or civic life and who are not alleged to be involved in violence. At a minimum, they might inflict pain or inconvenience on some figures who support Hezbollah, he said. At worst, these sanctions could punish Lebanese who are not advancing Hezbollahs project, and could backfire by inviting more sympathy for Hezbollah. The US under President Donald Trump, however, seems to have ventured on a relentless campaign to put maximum pressure on Iran. Reportedly, Washington is soon to ban the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in its entirety as a terrorist organisation. The US sees Hezbollah as a proxy for the IRGC. While sanctioning the groups allies is bound to affect the already fragile state of Lebanon, it appears as if the Trump administration sees this as mere collateral damage in its efforts to curb Irans influence in the Middle East. Theresa Mays overtures to Labour come ahead of EU summit on Wednesday where she must secure another Brexit extension. UK Prime Minister Theresa May defended on Saturday her decision to turn to the countrys main opposition to get her EU divorce deal approved, warning that without cross-party consensus, Brexit could slip through our fingers. The beleaguered leader opened talks this week with the Labour Party in a bid to break months of stubborn opposition in parliament to the withdrawal agreement she struck with European leaders last year. Her deal, finalised with the bloc last November, has been by rejected by MPs three times. Mays overtures to Labour came in the run-up to an EU summit on Wednesday where she must secure another Brexit extension, until June 30, to prevent Britain crashing out the bloc at the end of next week with no accord. 190403131647449 The countrys original March 29 departure date was delayed to April 12 last month. We must deliver Brexit and to do so we must agree a deal, May said in a statement released by Downing Street, adding that the two main parties agreed on major aspects of Brexit. That is the basis for a compromise that can win a majority in parliament and winning that majority is the only way to deliver Brexit. The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all. It would mean letting the Brexit the British people voted for slip through our fingers. However, after several days of negotiations with Labour, its leader Jeremy Corbyn said he had not noticed any great change in the governments position so far. Im waiting to see the red lines move, he added. Meanwhile, EU members, who must give unanimous backing to any further Brexit delay, are growing increasingly impatient at the dysfunction in Westminster. They could offer just a short postponement or a longer period of up to a year. Frances Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters at a G7 meeting in France on Saturday that it was time for the Brexit crisis to end. The British authorities and the British parliament need to understand that (the EU) is not going to be able to constantly exhaust itself with the ups and downs of domestic British politics, he said. However, Irelands Prime Minister Leo Varadkar cautioned it was extremely unlikely a member would veto another extension, while revealing he now favoured a lengthy delay. Restore national identity Despite the continued uncertainty over Brexit, it emerged on Saturday that the British government has begun issuing passports with the words European Union removed from the front cover. The interior ministry said a long-standing decision to start introducing the travel documents without reference to the bloc had gone ahead on March 30. 190406075906121 But it confirmed that some newly issued passports will still bear the blocs name due to an attempt to save public money by using up leftover stock. British passports had already become ensnared in the countrys Brexit divisions. The government in 2017 announced that it would return to traditional blue passports to restore national identity, pleasing Brexiteers but drawing scorn from Remainers. The travel documents had dark blue covers from 1921, but Britain switched to burgundy in 1988, similar to the colour used by other members of the then-European Community. The new production contract is to begin in October 2019, with burgundy passports currently being issued. Listen to suggestions Whether Britain will have left the bloc by then is uncertain. Even Mays Conservative colleagues who back her deal have denounced any outreach to Labour, while the most hardline Brexiteers remain implacably opposed to her deal. Reports in Britains Sunday newspapers said Tory MPs would try to remove May if Britain had to contest European Parliament elections in late May as part of a lengthy Brexit delay. 190405140141479 But Finance Minister Philip Hammond, who backed Remain in Britains 2016 referendum and is seen as favouring as soft a Brexit as possible, urged his divided party to show flexibility. We should be open to listen to suggestions that others have made and some people in the Labour Party are making other suggestions, he said. Labour is pushing for a much closer post-Brexit alliance with the EU, including participation in a customs union. May has previously dismissed the idea because it bars Britain from striking its own trade deals with global giants such as China and the United States. But the opposition party is also facing internal division on the issue. Eighty Labour MPs wrote to Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday, urging him to secure a guarantee of a second referendum in any Brexit deal he reaches with May. External Link EXTERNAL LINK EXTERNAL LINK, This article will take you to an external website Since my return to civilian life from service in Korea during the war over sixty years ago, I have witnessed America shift off its foundation. Then and now are like antipodes between two worlds, one touted innocent by post-60s media, yet easily shown to be saner, the other sophisticated, yet despite its burgeoning array of advances in science, technology, and industry, conspicuously deranged. A Democrat running for president in 1952 stated publicly: I have asked the merciful Father, the Father to us all, to let this cup pass from me. But from such dread responsibility one does not shrink in fear, in self-interest or in false humility. The reluctant candidate to the presidency was Adlai Stevenson, (He lost to World War II hero Dwight Eisenhower.) Compare this to the most recent Democrat running for president who proudly declared publicly that she would support a womans right to kill her own baby. The shocking contrast between start and finish of this historically minute bit of time highlights a dissection in our country that predates the Civil War. The rift, then and now, stems from the unresolved conflict between those who trust in God, as did the founders of America, and those who trust in man. At the national level, where those in the latter camp are entrenched, leaders with poor peripheral vision regarding human nature the result of a tragic disconnect with the Creator steer a blinded and now enfeebled nation. Believing they are enlightened by reason, these benighted leaders fail to see that human life is sacred. This inherited blind spot of Enlightenment intellectuals, who lost their souls in their scramble to apply reason to formulas and agendas for a better world, is why we find ourselves on the way to dystopia, the predictable consequence of meddling with the fundamentals of a life that we did not create. The rift between those who heed and those who scoff at a divine voice in human affairs has generated enough evil to shout with one voice the absurdity and folly of pretending that we can be our own god in any major pursuit of justice and wellbeing. The governance of a people is difficult enough without reshuffling time-neutral principles to accommodate what suits the desires of men and women in any given moment, the aggressive among whom take charge and lord over others. For good reason Americas founders settled upon a system of government predicated on the rule of law that respected the intelligence of the One who created them and us law that trusts God, not erring humans. The ongoing absurdity and folly of acting like God as do the architects of a dystopian new world order cannot be missed by anyone with eyes to see, ears to hear, and a mind connected to the heart. My brother, a World War II veteran who (like all veterans) took an oath before God to defend his country, a nation founded on immutable principles of life and liberty, dedicating all (including his life) to that cause, is justly bitter over the fact that millions of fellow warriors sacrificed and died fighting for . . . what? . . . today's mindless, reckless, vile and cruel culture? Did he (we) fight for the disregard of principles that override every generation's personal spin on liberty and justice? Have todays young Americans fallen for the myth that there is no right and no wrong and they are judge and jury over everything that crosses their path? Does freedom include the right to do anything one pleases, riding a wave of vanishing restrictions against all rules of law, at the hands of a government that has forgotten the meaning of law, including its relevance to the sacredness of life? Is justice really what nine people in robes decide it is at any given moment? Let no one be deluded that todays rulers are going to accomplish what countless rulers of the past tried to accomplish by relying on the power of reason lasting peace with justice without divine guidance. And let no one get starry-eyed over the possibilities of the Internet, a tool for good and evil, keeping in mind that malicious intent can turn the Worldwide Web into worldwide mind manipulation and control. The growing ownership and misappropriation of data by global-oriented tech giants waves a blinding red flag. (The possibilities of cyber mind control dwarf the sci-fi scenarios of past generations.) Let no one be fooled into believing that the wisdom and restraint required to maintain peace and justice in an inherently dangerous and uncertain world resides in the U.N., the E.U., or any of the globalist cabals claiming to make the world better an idea as phony as they come, embraced even by religious leaders, including the Pope. The plain and ugly truth is that leaders and followers of the left, the right, and the muddle [pun intended] dont care who gets trampled and crushed on their way to a future not fit for humans. Photo credit: Kevin Dooley Anthony J. DeBlasi is a war veteran and lifelong defender of Western culture. While the nation debates anti-Semitism, a Florida House bill to condemning anti-Semitism faces opposition. House Bill 741 would officially denote the State of Floridas opposition to anti-Semitism and define anti-Semitism for Florida hate crimes legislation. The bill defines anti-Semitism to include: ...calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews, often in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist interpretation of religion. The Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida declared its opposition to the bill on March 5th. CAIR Florida claimed that the bill clearly violates the right of freedom of speech and would criminalize legitimate criticism of Israel. They objected to portions of the bill which would limit criticizing Israel for inter-religious tensions or political tensions and ordering an investigation of the State of Israel for human rights violations. In a Facebook note, CAIR Florida official Wilfredo Amr Ruiz attacked the bill on the grounds that it failed to protect other religious minorities. He wrote, But Wilfredo Amr Ruiz with CAIR says hes concerned the bills dont do enough to protect other religious minorities in the state. What about the Muslims that suffer hate crimes continuously? What about the Sikhs as their temples have also suffered hate crimes here in Florida? The bill was introduced during controversy surrounding the actions of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Omar was accused of making anti-Semitic statements connected with her support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The BDS movement seeks to isolate Israel economically, often on anti-Semitic grounds. In a tweet attacking House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Omar contended that McCarthys only reason to support Israel and the Jews was to seek campaign donations. Omar referred to McCarthy, writing, Its All About the Benjamins. Omar stated that the Benjamins represented the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The remark was only one of many statements by Omar that implied conspiratorial Jewish influence on the American political process. Omar initially faced a U.S. congressional resolution to condemn anti-Semitism from House Democrats. But after criticism from leftist and pro-Palestinian groups, the resolution was broadened to include other forms of bigotry, including Islamophobia. Omar supported the bill, while 23 Republicans opposed the bill to protest its failure to emphasize the unique challenge of anti-Semitism. The bill comes at a time of increased effort by CAIR Florida to target its critics. For example, in January, CAIR Floridas Spanish-language chapter launched a Facebook campaign to remove Ms. Anabelle Lima-Taub, a Jewish Hallandale city commissioner, from her position after she signed a petition against Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Tlaib is facing scrutiny after having her photo taken with Abbas Hamideh, a Palestinian BDS activist known for publicly supporting the terrorist group Hezballah. Hamideh placed a Twitter post on January 12, 2019, with a photograph of himself and Tlaib. He reposted this tweet on March 31, 2019. The text of the tweet was I was honored to be at Congresswoman @Rashida Tlaib at swearing in ceremony in #Detroit and private dinner afterword with the entire family, friends, and activists across the country. #Palestine#TweetyourThobe#RashidaTlaib, Its no surprise that CAIR Florida defends Tlaib and Omar and opposes the Florida legislation condemning anti-Semitism, when one considers CAIR Floridas record. Federal judge Jorge Solis declared during the Holy Land Foundation financing trial that the U.S. government provided ample evidence of CAIRs ties to the terrorist group Hamas. Hamas is dedicated to the killing or harming of Jews, often in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist interpretation of religion. CAIR Florida Executive Director Hassan Shibly engages in what the bill defines as anti-Semitism. The bill defines anti-Semitism to include demonizing Israel by using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism to characterize Israel, drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, or blaming Israel for all inter-religious or political tensions. On April 8, 2018, Shibly shared a Facebook post from Abdul Ibrahem that juxtaposed a photograph of a Jewish Holocaust victim alongside a photograph of an Israeli soldier fighting Palestinian Arabs. The text of Ibrahems Facebook post was The image on the left is a Nazi sniper kills defenseless Jewish prisoners in cold blood from the film Schindlers List. The image on the right is that of an Israeli sniper killing Palestinian defenseless civilians in cold blood in Gaza a few days ago. Hollywood will not be making a film about the daily slaughter of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis. The bill declares that examples of anti-Semitism include making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective, including allegations such the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government, or other societal institutions. Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a Puerto Rican convert to Islam and CAIR leader, supports the type of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that would be banned under Florida House Bill 741. In a 2015 Spanish language post on WebIslam, Ruiz adopted classic Christian anti-Semitic tropes such as false attacks on the Talmud. He falsely contended that the Talmud portrays Christians as idolators, murderers, fornicators, filth, and beasts. He also quoted a 19th-century defrocked Russian Catholic priest Justinas Prainatis, who wrote an anti-Semitic book attacking the Talmud titled The Talmud Unmasked: Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians. Ruiz also liked a Facebook post that praised Hitler and supported Holocaust denial. CAIR Florida attempts to portray its opposition to Florida House Bill 741 in the context of freedom of speech to discuss foreign affairs and criticize Israeli policies. But Florida House bill 741 accurately describes CAIRs sordid anti-Semitic behavior. Rebecca Witonsky is South Florida Associate of the Counter Islamist Grid. She resides in Boca Raton. Like him or hate him, President Trump has proven to be extremely adept at doing the one thing that all politicians hope to do: get his message out in a clear and unfettered manner, so that his audience knows exactly how he stands on a given issue or policy. He Tweets his messages daily directly to his audience, circumventing the distorting filter of the hopelessly biased liberal media, leaving them to comment and criticize him after the fact, once President Trump has already made his stance clearly and definitively known. Another thing that President Trump does in marked contrast to virtually every major national politician who has preceded him in the last several decades is that he actually says what he means. He doesnt couch his comments in trick phrases, codespeak and slippery euphemisms. The Democrats are absolute masters of rhetorical trickery. Being attuned to satisfying so many special-interest groups, the Dems have perfected the art of communicating in a deceptive manner, designed to deliver the message that their targeted audience wants to hear, whether or not the Democratic politician actually means it. That targeted audience might be a desired voting bloc (women, minorities, LGBTQ, immigrants, Millennials, etc.) or it could be a media outlet from whom that politician is hoping for favorable coverage (CNN, MSNBC, NY Times, WaPo, Facebook, etc.). Either way, Democratic language is invariably intentionally crafted and preplanned to yield maximum positive political benefit. Lets look at some of these Democratic phrases: Its not a partisan issue. When you hear this one, your antennae should spring to attention. This means one thing and one thing only: It is a partisan issue and the Republicans are wrong. Its a cover phrase that then gives the Democratic talker free reign to criticize Republicans for any and all reasons under the sun while maintaining the appearance of balance and nonpartisanship. We can all agree on this. This is code for, If you dont agree with the Democratic position on this issue, youre a prejudiced, anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-LGBTQ self-absorbed ignorant religious conservative zealot concerned only with your fat-cat donors. Its not about the money. Its precisely about the money. We want a fair and open process. Translation: Were pretty sure this investigation is going to go our way and show the Republicans to be at fault for some grievous, Constitutional-level crime so please dont interfere with it in any way, no matter how blatantly corrupt and unfair the investigation process is. I dont think we should go down that path [Trump impeachment]. What this actually means is, Im praying -- like our entire party is -- that well uncover a raft of undeniable, unequivocal crimes so heinous that we wont even have to go through the bother of initiating the impeachment process in the first place. Instead, well go straight to resignation, ideally being led out of office in handcuffs. You have a right to be believed. Were with you. This really means than even the slightest whiff of questionable behavior on the part of a Republican male towards a woman should be assumed to be the Crime of the Century but blatantly worse, seemingly inexcusable acts by a Democratic male are to be forgiven or ignored, because we need to understand the context. Its a manufactured crisis. This is a good one. Whenever Republicans bring up a legitimate issue, Democrats dismiss its importance, especially if they (the Democrats) do not want to address it or have no solution for it. The border wall is the latest example of that. National security, drugs, and violent illegal immigrants pouring in through a porous border certainly comprise a real issue, but the Dems -- looking to cultivate votes -- do not want to address the problem. They also want to deny President Trump a political win, by depriving him of the opportunity to say he fulfilled his campaign promise and built the wall. An ancillary benefit to the Dems of claiming this is a manufactured crisis is that it deflects attention away from their own manufactured crises (like the Mueller investigation, which has been exposed as nothing more than an empty distraction fabricated by petulant, detached-from-reality Democratic partisans emotionally incapable of accepting the stark finality of the 2016 election) and enables them to play offense and keep the political pressure on Republicans. This is the language of todays Democratic politicians. Their liberal media allies eat this up and cut them all the slack they need, never drilling down past the surface cliches or holding them to account in any meaningful way. In all candor, some Republican politicians employ the same type of slick codespeak, but they do not enjoy anywhere near the same degree of political cover from the popular media as do the Dems. Therefore, its not as effective when a Republican does it. Refreshingly, President Trump Says What He Means However, unlike the Democrats, President Trump does not speak in slippery euphemisms. He says what he means: I will build a wall to keep out the drugs and violent criminals. Europe is a mess -- weak economy, weak military. Were going to have great trade deals for this country, unlike what weve had in the past. The days of China ripping us off are over. A country without borders is not a country. When you look at your 401k, its a beautiful thing. People may disagree with the actual substance of his comments. People may dislike the style in which his comments are delivered. But President Trump communicates in a manner unlike any politician before him: Direct. Unequivocal. Unambiguous. That, we really all can agree on. Could it finally be roustabout and prominent Brexiteer Boris Johnson's turn? Could the yellow-haired former journalist finally become British prime minister and teach the continent a lesson? Could Britain finally get a matching conservative to the U.S.'s Donald Trump to form a Thatcher-Reagan tag team redux? Sure looks like it. The British bookies are saying yes, and here's what the Sun of U.K. is reporting: BORIS Johnson has leapfrogged the competition to become favourite for next PM - after apparently teaming up with Remainer Amber Rudd. The top Brexiteer is in pole position to take over from Theresa May as Tory leader later this year, bookies said today. His chances were posted following reports that Boris is planning to run on a joint ticket with Ms Rudd. Jacob Rees-Mogg backed the pair today and warned that the Tories would have to unite Brexiteers and Remainers to take on Jeremy Corbyn. Obviously, the continuous back and forth in parliament and the inability to get any results on Brexit, despite the efforts of soggy Prime Minister Theresa May is part of this rise. The Tory prime minister's inability to get results is a shame, but the worst part of it is that now the crazed and far, far-left Labour Party is in a position to take the prime minister's seat. The new scenario, instead of having a Tory wet get Britain out of Europe's clutches, one who never supported Brexit, but promised to heed the result, is to get Johnson paired with an authentic remainer, Amber Rudd as his second-in-command. This might fall apart, too, as badly as having a waverer in the driver's seat did, but it's all they've got. Johnson is very conservative on most matters, but he's not a perfect conservative, as Thatcher was, and might fall into a RINO trap. That said, he's all they've got now, and Jeremy Corbyn's far-left forces are amassing. Britain should go for it. A clean break for Brexit, deal or no deal, sets the stage for Britain being able to throw its weight around on the world stage once more and and strengthens our alliance. Britain has lots of friends globally, and ought to be able to bounce right back on its feet again on the trade front, with President Trump already promising Britain "front of the line" on a trade deal. Could Johnson pull it off? I don't know. But I know for sure he's a better bet than May ever was, and he should have been made Prime Minister back when she got the job in the wake of the Brexit vote. Now maybe history can correct itself. Go for it, U.K.! Image credit: Back Boris 2012 Campaign, Andrew Parsons / i-Images, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0 Like lemmings, Democrats are rushing toward a cliff. The spectacle of many of the Democrats running for president prostrating themselves before race-hustler and pogrom-inciter Al Sharpton is disgusting. Bonchie at Red State reviews the sordid history of Sharpton, if you are unfamiliar with it. Why they would embrace this horrible man is not too hard to guess: Sharpton is an expert at implying threats of demonstrations and demonization as a racist. His organization that sponsored the event attended by the Dems, the National Action Network, has prospered with contributions from corporations cowed by the fear of such retaliation. But worse than mere association with such a man is the promise that seems to have been required: support for a commission to study reparations for slavery. Watch (only a couple of minutes) as Sharpton frames the question to Robert Frances ORourke as support for reparations, who responds with a pander of epic degradation: John Hinderaker of Powerline can barely contain his glee at the prospects of a Democrat nominee defending the concept. I think there is plenty of public awareness of the issue, and the public is right. Reparations would be an outrageous injustice, as pretty much everyone who wont be cashing a check recognizes. Which leaves one wondering, whatever are the Democrats thinking? Is Al Sharptona notorious extortionist, perpetrator of fraud, and anti-Semite who is complicit in murderso powerful in the party that presidential candidates are forced to walk the plank by supporting an issue that will be a millstone around the neck of the eventual nominee? Or do they assume that after getting the nomination, the Democratic candidate will be able to tack furiously toward the center, with the collusion of the press, so that reparations never get mentioned after the Democratic convention? I dont know what they are thinking. All I know is, the more the Democrats talk about reparations, the better. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit sees the disaster ahead for Dems: Republicans want the Democrats talking about reparations because it will energize Republican voters, and push a bunch of independents away from the Democrats. But the issue could also explode the Democrats coalition. All the other minority constituencies will wonder why they arent getting the same goodies, especially when they realize that they are being taxed to fund the money going to black people. Theres plenty of racial animosity among the various minority groups, and this would seen to exacerbate it dramatically. I wonder if the Dems have a plan for that? The GOP certainly should have one. An online friend who must remain anonymous because of the danger of retaliation in this era of low-grade terror has put together a list of questions which reparations would require answers for. He jokes around with the numbers, but they are not that inaccurate as an estimate of the number of questions that need answers: 1) If your ancestor owned a slave do you pay less than if your ancestor owned two slaves? 2) If your ancestor was a free Black and owned a slave do you owe reparations? 3) If your ancestor came to America after slavery do you owe reparations or are entitled to reparations? 4) If your ancestor died fighting against slavery in the Civil War do you get reparations yourself? 5) If your ancestor lived in a slave state but owned no slaves at all, do you pay reparations? 6) If your ancestor lived in a free state but voted for John C. Breckenridge, do you pay reparations? 7) How do you prove just who your ancestor was? (snip) 452) How shall the government deal with individuals who are part Black and part White? What if youre only 128th Black? 453) What if youve been pretending to be Black (the Dolezal Paradox)? 454) Will a DNA test be required to qualify as Black? 455) Do you still qualify for reparations if you have a book at home by Shelby Steele or Frederick Douglass? 456) What if youre Black but married a White person? 457) Are reparation taxes to be progressive? 458) Will there be a deductible on the Reparations Tax form? 458) Are reparation taxes to be paid annually or just once? 459) Are reparation payments to be paid annual or just once? 460) Are women also due reparations? 461) If so, how shall the Department of Racial Justice treat a white woman? Does she pay herself? 462) Who will be appointed as the first Secretary of Racial Justice? Democrats should be encouraged not just to come out in favor of reparations, but also explain how theyd administer them. Graphic credit: YouTube screen grab California Gov. Gavin Newsom is going all in on opposing President Trump - and the majority of the American people - on the problem of illegal migration as the caravans from Central America fire up. Now he's heading off to El Salvador to "examine the root causes of migration," as Big Daddy holding out the bag of goodies to would-be illegal immigrants in their home countries. To him, they're his constituents. So he's got to find some justification for this trip and you can bet he will. My bet's on him using the trip as a soapbox to make claims about global warming causing it. He's started with this package of goodies for illegals described on his gubernatorial website: In his first weeks in office, Governor Newsom signed AB 72, legislation to fast-track state aid to asylum seekers who are being abandoned at bus stations and on the side of the road by the federal government. It was the first bill he signed into law. AB 72 established a Rapid Response Relief Fund of $5 million in immigration assistance, which helped support the opening of a migrant support shelter in San Diego. Have pork, will travel. But his claimed mission is worth looking at, too - to examine the "root causes of illegal migration" not to stop it, but as his pork demonstrates, to encourage more of it. Latest "narrative" coming from the left is that global warming causes illegal migration. You can bet he will use it. RealClearPolitics ran a long, very long, article from the New Yorker about how global warming is the real reason illegal migrants are heading in their caravans, not to the next convenient country, but to the United States, that country more than 1,000 miles away that is largely English-speaking and has a modern economy, with modern conventions such as flush toilets and washing machines. The link to "How Climate Change is Fuelling the U.S. Border Crisis" is here. Global warming. Which, though the idea is a rapidly discrediting superstitition from the left, is a wonderfully convenient excuse for justifying illegal migration. See, global warming is caused by gringos, so gringos did it. Get ready for the illegal migrants with their hands out as a result. The New Yorker piece is very very long, (and pretty interesting as a descriptive piece), so I won't quote it, but suffice to say, the author of it failed to make her point. I will sum up what its writer found so as to make her argument that global warming causes illegal immigration: Guatemala's western highlands are in a drought. That drought is creating food shortages. (Left unsaid: Guatemala's government is apparently doing nothing about it, despite it being its own people). The Guatemalans are clueless about how to adapt to any drought-like conditions. That means they need U.S. NGO aid workers to teach them about crop rotation, saving seeds in their own seed banks, and minimizing the need for water through shade planting. Guatemalans can't figure that out on their own. Aid from American NGO workers is the only thing that can keep people fed. And not just any aid, only American aid (Guatemala is apparently excused from the need to provide aid, despite the record remittances in hard currency it receives). Mean President Trump is cutting off aid. Yet he's the one who caused this whole debacle because he doesn't buy into the idea of global warming. The writer keeps trying to circle around and claim that global warming is the cause of the Guatemalan drought, as if the region had never seen one earlier, but it's a tenuous and unpersuasive argument, never proved. The writer can describe problems, but can't analyse or consider multiple scenarios, and she wrecks her piece by trying to shoehorn it all into a "narrative' about global warming with insufficient evidence. Rest assured, she didn't wreck her piece from the perspective of the agenda she was promoting. That influential ''narrative" is going to get into the Democratic party line as justification for cartel-led and gang-led illegal immigration, which of course strengthens cartels and gangs at U.S. taxpayer expense. Global warming means it's all O.K.., and never mind that detail about Guatemala's failure to take care of its own people during what in reality is a temporary weather condition for farmers whose capacity to adapt is basically by fleeing north. Rest assured, Newsom will be up on this by the time he gets out of El Salvador. He's got to claim he did something other than shovel pork. He's going there to blame Trump for everything, and global warming is a big low hanging fruit for him. Image credit: Refracted Moments, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0 Has President Trump finally met his match in Vladimir Putin? The stakes are getting very high as Russia expands its presence in Venezuela and the U.S. retreats from the use of military force. CBNC calls it a "showdown of world power," writing: The first major showdown of our new era of great power competition, unfolding with accelerating speed over the past ten weeks in Venezuela, has entered a dangerous new phase. That is true, most of all, for the Venezuelan people, but also for Latin American democracies and for vital US interests in the Western Hemisphere. How this drama turns out may mark the most significant test yet of the Trump administrations credibility, following a highest-level chorus this week of President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton, who all declared in one way or another that Russia had to get out of the country. But things aren't looking all that great now from the U.S. side. Elliott Abrams, the State Department's Special Representative for Venezuela has pretty well taken U.S. military intervention off the table with his statement that: I do not think Europe, Latin America, Canada and the United States are thinking, at this moment, of a military reaction. April Glaspie, call your office. Abrams then really blew it, as the conservative/libertarian PanAm Post's editor, Luis Ball, notes, when he started giving advice to Venezuela's democrats about what their national assembly could ask for, making them look like the U.S.'s little pawns, for one, and telling them beforehand not to even think of asking us for a Marine invasion. Not a good look diplomatically for the U.S. as Russia rolls in the reinforcements in Caracas, and the whole thing makes it easy for Maduro to start arresting the democratic Venezuelans since he knows he has nothing to worry about by doing it. The Venezuelans have been thrown under the bus. The State Department seems to know the whole thing was a mistake, too. PanAm Post's Orlando Avendano, wrote a column describing what a disaster it was and his editor headlined it as a 'surrender.' I wrote about that yesterday, here. The State Department then made three calls to the PanAm Post demanding that they change their headline. The publication rightly dug in its heels, and the State Department spokeswoman then threatened to declare them a 'Russian troll,' which was shockingly unprofessional. (Presumably, the U.S. has authentic intelligence about who is and isn't a Russian troll, and if they did, they would know the PanAm Post isn't - and they wouldn't throw that charge around to just anyone they had a spat with as a result. Now one wonders if they do have authentic intelligence about such matters at all. And Putin smiles.) That wasn't the State Department's only countermove. Besides slapping at the PanAm Post, "a senior U.S. official" (Abrams himself?) called up reporters, including the Washington Examiner, to say this: A military intervention to oust Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro remains a very serious option for the United States, according to President Trumps national security team. Obviously, thats a result that no one would like to see but clearly one that is seriously considered as events unfold, a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters Friday evening. That sounds like damage control. And the WashEx's piece was linked on the Drudge Report, dissociated from any other anchor stories, so it had to be about this spat with the PanAm Post. Damage control is nice, but the cat's out of the bag. My take? The U.S. now needs to make the best of this. There is no need to be fighting among ourselves about this. We all know that President Trump is reluctant to get the U.S. involved in military adventures and even if we do send the Marines to hose out Caracas, we are likely to see it written up as U.S. wicked intervention in the Latin American history books, so in a way, we can't win even if we do free the hemisphere from socialist domination. It's a tough thing to swallow, but understandable, and the polls show the U.S. has little appetite for more foreign interventions. Venezuela's democrats do have to be protected, however, because they are now in increased danger by the U.S. retreat, with Maduro now knowing nothing he does is going to trigger a Marine invasion and Russia more than willing to step up to the plate to help him stay in power. Some means of protection has got to be found. If the U.S. doesn't want this military solution, it needs to focus on Russia and Cuba, the two tyannies that are propping Maduro up in power. Cuba has no money or military equipment, so force and dirty tricks are the only thing they are going to understand. Russia, though, is something else. It's in Venezuela in part because it's a major lender to Venezuela and the socialist hellhole owes it some $60 billion in loans for military equipment. Could the U.S. and Venezuela's democrats work out something to put the squeeze on Russia on that front? Could the Venezuelans warn Russia that if it doesn't get its troops the hell out, it won't get paid once the democrats get into power? The U.S. could support that by vowing to not transfer any of the money or use some other mechanism to make it painful. Economic warfare on this front might be helpful. Russia itself is in lousy economic condition, too. Could the U.S. ramp up the costs of Russia's military adventure in Venezuela by finding ways to force Russia's costs higher? Russia's public has little taste for military adventurism, too, and right now is hurting on the domestic front. Some kind of blockade on ships coming into the Caribbean ought to ramp up costs, and perhaps a lot of CIA dirty tricks such as false assassination and bomb plots for them to investigate (in fairness, that may be a Maduroite pretext for arresting democrats, so it's dangerous), and anything that can block military rations or supplies, forcing costly end-runs for Russia might work. Russia has been defeated in the past by the U.S. forcing its rival to spend itself into the ground, as the great Ronald Reagan demonstrated. Maybe this is the tool we have. It might be the only way to dislodge the Maduro regime at this point if a Marine invasion is untenable. As Pedro Burelli noted in a tweet: "After many years in the capital of the empire [meaning, Washington, D.C., where he lives], I am sure the United States will not invade. BUT, it will not fail." If the U.S. wants to fight the Venezuelan war on the Russian front, we can only hope that Burelli right. A great power showdown looks like the next stage of this Venezuela confrontation. Image credit: Kremlin.ru // CC BY-SA 4.0 Cook County states attorney Kim Foxx tried (and failed) to limit the damage from the repudiation and demands for her resignation she suffered on Thursday, when (via the Sun-Times): Resign. That was the message a host of officials from police departments across Cook County delivered to Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx Thursday in an escalating face-off between the countys top prosecutor and the cops who work hand-in-hand with her office. The 40 or so chiefs on other police officials who gathered at the Chicago Police Departments union hall and represent dozens of municipalities in the county pointed to the abrupt end of the Jussie Smollett prosecution and a perceived failure to bring and uphold criminal charges in other cases as some of their main reasons for demanding Foxx step down. Of course, her scheme was to racialize the issue by featuring a group of black suburban police chiefs to express support for her, in an event planned for Saturday. With (who else?) Jesse Jackson. One small problem: no black police chiefs showed up. CWBChicago reports: Chicago media gathered at Rainbow PUSH headquarters in Kenwood on Saturday morning for what was supposed to be a rally for Kim Foxx featuring south suburban African American police chiefs. Well, as it turns out, there were no black suburban police chiefs at today's Kim Foxx press conference. Here's the media release that said the chiefs would be there. Not clear why none showed up. pic.twitter.com/0jagcDFCwX Nader Issa (@NaderDIssa) April 6, 2019 No uniforms in evidence (photo credit Nader Issa via CWB Chicago) In an update, CWB reports that Foxx is claiming they met with her in secret! A south suburban mayor states that Foxx met privately with a group of south suburban mayors and black police chiefs in Markham more than two hours before the Rainbow PUSH press conference. Theres no word on why the meeting took place separately or why suburban chiefs did not appear for the media availability as promoted. I have a theory as to why the meeting was in secret: the black police chiefs want to retain the respect and support of the officers that they lead. They may fear retaliation from Jesse Jackson and Foxx, but they fear more a rebellion among their own men and women in blue. One question I have is the degree to which Foxxs well-known association with Toni Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County board, affected Preckwinkles landslide loss to Lori Lightfoot in the mayors race. Lightfoot got 74% of the vote, which is stunning, considering Preckwinkles visibility and former political power. A Chicago friend opines that the Foxx fiasco cost Preckwinkle a lot of votes, but that is only an impressionistic take. A poll would be very interesting. The post-presidential era of his life seems to be a bit of a challenge to the ego of Barack Hussein Obama. Never shy about referring to himself while president, now that that man in the White House is reversing his policies and spectacularly succeeding its got to be hard on his self-esteem. And lets not forget the psychological pressure that may be building in the wake of the collapse of the Russia Hoax and the possible investigation of its origins. So, whats a comparatively young (age 57) man with decades of life ahead to do to compensate? Self-reflection and personal growth are out of the question, of course (this is Barack Obama, after all, the man who claimed to better at everything than his aides charged with speech-writing, economic policy and much more), so it appears that defensive ego boosting is his chosen course. As it happens, the venue for his speech was Berlin, where in 2008 he addressed the largest crowd of his career. I dont know the size of his audience yesterday in Berlin, but it had to be a tiny fraction of the 100,000+ he faced back when things were going his way. Our friends at Grabien have produced a video compilation almost five minutes of rampant egotism if you can stand it and offer a count of the personal pronouns employed: Heres the breakdown of his personal pronoun use (based on a rush transcript of the event): I 312 Me 33 My 43 Id 9 Im 61 Myself 9 The former presidents comments began on his favorite topic: himself. Its been over ten years since I spoke to a slightly larger crowd in front of the Victory Column when I was running for president, Obama said to a notably quiet crowd. I had a little less gray hair then. And since then Ive been back to Germany I think at least ten times. Ive been to Europe countless times. But Im as excited to be here with you as I have been ever when Ive come to Europe. Image credit: Grabien screen grab (cropped) So what's all this cuchi-coo between President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel? The former U.S. president was reportedly meeting with the woman he's described in the past as his favorite European politician this very week. There was a smattering of reportage, and insistence from officials that this was all on the up and up. Here's the Fox News report: BERLIN Chancellor Angela Merkel has received former U.S. President Barack Obama at her office in Berlin for a meeting characterized by German officials as a routine private encounter with a former international peer. Obama could be seen waving as he left the chancellery alongside Merkel Friday. Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said she has met repeatedly with ex-heads of state and government "with whom she worked together closely and well for a time." Kind of sounds like they were having a conversation about their (non-existent) grandchildren on the tarmac, eh? DC Whispers, for one, thinks that the two Trump-hating politicians might have a less savory agenda, writing: The king of open borders USA met privately with the queen of mass migration Europe this week in what some are justifiably calling an example of shadow government in action. Please read closely the cause and effect details outlined below: It should also be noted that the meeting between the former president and the outgoing German chancellor took place within 24 hours of this report via D.C. Whispers: - The Full Story of How Obama, Hillary and Brennan Carried Out The Crime of the Century An entire segment of that report was devoted to the relationship between Obama and Merkel and included the following: Obama had been called out by the Drudge Report for visiting foreign leaders in Europe in the spring of 2017 right before President Trump visited those leaders in Europe. It turns out that one of those Obama meetings is now under scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein gave a redacted document to Rep. Devin Nunes, showing two major redactions about the creation of the Trump Dossier and the launch of FISA warrants and Robert Muellers investigation during the 2016 campaign. The redactions were: the name of a country and the name of a foreign agent who supplied information. Now we know: the country is Germany and the foreign agent was either Angela Merkel or someone who worked for Angela Merkel in foreign intelligence. The redacted sections will be referencing one of the European countries and agents that share SIGINT (signal intelligence) to US Intelligence, says Chuck Marler, a longtime agent of the FBI Special Surveillance Group under Robert Mueller, who is an official whistleblower in this case. Interesting things are shaping up on the continent to the south. Despite the Monroe Doctrine, or perhaps because of it, Russia has installed soldiers in Venezuela. Not that long ago, Vlad Putin said he was willing to do a rerun of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and he's clearly pushing and shoving to see who'll do something about it. Donald Trump has made it clear he doesn't want to send troops to Venezuela. In fact, Elliott Abrams has pretty much taken off the table any likelihood of us intervening militarily for the time being. Some interpret the Abrams remarks as temporizing; I see them as diplo-speak for watchful waiting. We have a history of meddling in Latin American countries. That history, particularly in Venezuela (which came up with "Yankee Go Home"), has to be factored into whatever we do. Because of it, I don't think military intervention right now would be the smartest move. We do, nevertheless, need to keep the option open and to be seen keeping it open. Words alone won't suffice. On the principle of not letting our troops and Russian troops onto the same battlefield at the same time, perhaps some anti-cartel assistance to Colombia along her border with Venezuela would make the point. Airpower. Lots of it. Some gunboats off the Venezuelan coasts, on each side of the Panama neck, also to interdict drug-trafficking. The troublemaker in all this, as usual, is Vlad Putin. Nicolas Maduro's regime owes Russia billions for past services rendered, but that's not why Putin put a hundred soldiers in Caracas. With Europe (Germany, anyway) in his hip pocket via natural gas, he now wants to control South America the same way. But we stand in his way. Putin's about destabilizing Latin America in order to cause problems with more refugees on our border and with firebrands running loose throughout the region. Control of Venezuela means control of the largest petroleum reserves on the planet, meaning control of much of South America. In the bargain comes leverage over China, which has no appreciable oil of her own but does control the Panama Canal, and Japan, also with no oil reserves of her own and also vulnerable to petrol extortion. Imagine having the three most potent economies of Europe and the Far East vulnerable to you. It's all about geostrategic power via oil. While no change from ten years ago, or 20, or even 40, the players and personalities have changed. It may even be that we're not Putin's Number One target. Given China's lengthy border with Russia and the fraught history there, Xi may well be the one Putin's really hoping to impress. By introducing military forces into Venezuela a little at a time, he sets the stage to throttle the Panama Canal out of Caracas. It's a big gamble for Putin, going for the throats of two of the largest economies in the world (China and Japan) plus his two most dangerous military adversaries (China and America). The boy has shown he has the 'nads, the brains, and the chutzpah to play this game. He hopes to do what the Nazis did in the mid-thirties, going slowly so as not arouse too much suspicion while he lines up his ducks. I don't think he wants war; I do think he wants to see how far he can push until somebody blackens his eye diplomatically, of course. Donald Trump has shown himself an unusually astute player of geopolitics. In Putin, he may have met his match. Watching it unfold will be engrossing if scary. Many years ago, a friend in school asked me about Cubans and the GOP. I explained that our attitudes toward the GOP and Democrats had a lot to do with the Bay of Pigs. It looks as if foreign policy may be once again creating "Republicanos" or, in this case, "Republicanos Venezolanos." This is from Fox: For the first time in 60 years, South Florida's political magnifying glass is on a country other than Cuba. The unfolding humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has pulled it to the forefront of the political conversation not just in the Sunshine State, but across the country. As the country's problems worsen, Democratic Venezuelan-Americans question whether their party's actions go far enough. A growing number of exiles say they feel forgotten by a new generation of outspoken, progressive Democrats, leaving them less beholden to a party they had long supported. Issues that for years were hotly debated in an area of Miami known as "Doral-zuela" due to its vibrant Venezuelan community, have made their way to the ears of some of the most powerful lawmakers in Washington, D.C. The Venezuelans are angry that, as the country continues to spiral, some Democrats keep calling on the U.S. to pull out of Venezuela and lift all sanctions against the government. "This is where the Democrats have consistently dropped the ball ... they have never felt like it was an important issue ... it's very difficult to feel and coexist in the same party that is saying these things are so ignorant about my homeland," said Venezuelan immigrant Helena Poleo. To be honest, I don't know how big an electoral factor this Venezuelan vote is yet. Nevertheless, we did see Governor Scott and Representative DeSantis win close elections for the U.S. Senate and the governorship. Furthermore, my guess is that any naturalized Venezuelan is going to show his support for President Trump in 2020. It's hard to see any of the current crop of Democrats inspire much confidence in South Florida. And if Senator Sanders wins the nomination, then all that the Trump campaign has to do is run those videos praising Castro and Ortega's Sandinistas. At one time, you could count on Democrats to stand against socialism. Not anymore, and that's something making a lot of Venezuelans very mad. PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter. Weather Alert ...HIGH WIND WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM TO 9 PM CST WEDNESDAY... * WHAT...Southwest winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 70 mph expected. * WHERE...Portions of east central, northeast and southeast Nebraska and southwest and west central Iowa. * WHEN...From 9 AM to 9 PM CST Wednesday. The strongest winds begin to overspread the area from the southwest by 12 pm and beyond. * IMPACTS...Damaging winds will blow down trees and power lines. Widespread power outages could occur. Damage to structures will be possible. Travel will be difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Unsecured outdoor objects may be blown away. Areas of blowing dust could also occur in open areas or near construction zones. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... People should avoid being outside in forested areas and around trees and branches. If possible, remain in the lower levels of your home during the windstorm, and avoid windows. Use caution if you must drive. && TCI, will design, certify and manufacture A350 XWB Bar Units according to upscale requests of Airlines and requirements of Airbus. This agreement has been a critical milestone for TCI as being a supplier for Airbus. Since its commercial service entry in 2015, A350 XWB operators and passengers around the world have experienced the unbeatable efficiency and comfort of the worlds most modern wide body family and the long-range leader. The A350 XWB offers by design unrivalled operational flexibility and efficiency for all market segments up to ultra-long haul (9,700 nm). Its Airspace by Airbus cabin is the quietest in its class and offers passengers and crews the most modern in-flight products for an exclusive flying experience. TCI Cabin Interior, joint venture of Turkish Airlines and TAI (Turkish Aerospace Industries); two major aviation companies of Turkey, was established to carry the strength and quality of the two exceptional companies into Aircraft Cabin Interiors industry. TCI is located in 500.000 sqm HABOM facilities, which is planned to be the new hub of MRO services in the region and is located in Sabiha Gokcen Airport of Istanbul. What now after COP26? With the frenetic weeks of COP26 over and disputes over its actual achievements still in full spate, here are a few developments that may help put the United Nations climate conference into perspective. A Polisario official defected to Morocco surrendering his arm on the defense wall near Smara, Le 360.ma reported few days after a similar defection by a senior separatist leader. The increase in defections is reflective of a weakening of the corruption and inhumane living conditions. The unrest in Algiers and the indifference to the separatist thesis among the Algerian people also sounds the alarm bell for the separatists who fear a volte-face of the Algerian state in favor of a mutually acceptable solution. More defections are coming as the separatist thesis wanes amid the population held against their will in the Tindouf camps where they are deprived of their refugee rights including the right to return to their homeland, because of Algerian regime reluctance. Morocco however needs to be careful and bear in mind the experience of 2011 of Gdim Izik when a group of infiltrators from the Polisario militias entered Morocco to stage unrest and crimes against security forces. BJP President Amit Shah will be contesting from there now. New Delhi: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday asked Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to maintain decorum in his political speeches, saying she had been deeply hurt by his remarks on BJP stalwart L.K. Advani. Rahulji Advaniji is our father figure. Your words have hurt us deeply. Please try to maintain some decorum of your speech, Ms Swaraj tweeted. According to media reports, Mr Gandhi, while addressing a public meeting in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, on Friday had taken a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of having booted out Mr Advani. The reference was to the fact that Mr Advani had not been given a ticket by the party to contest the Gandhigagar Lok Sabha seat from where he had won earlier. BJP President Amit Shah will be contesting from there now. The festival of Baisakhi is scheduled to be celebrated next week and speculation is rife that Pak may announce the major goodwill gesture next week. The Sikh pilgrimage on the corridor is likely to begin in November and help Indian pilgrims to visit the famous KartarpurSahib Gurudwara close to the border in Pakistani Punjab. New Delhi: Despite talks over the Kartarpur Sahib corridor being stuck in a limbo following Indian concerns over Khalistani propaganda in Pakistan, Islamabad may be gearing up for offering another bonanza to Indian Sikh pilgrims by allowing them to visit holy shrines on its territory on the occasion of Baisakhi, sources said. The festival of Baisakhi is scheduled to be celebrated next week and speculation is rife that Pakistan may announce the major goodwill gesture next week. In what could be another positive development, Pakistan may also agree to Indias suggestion to hold another meeting of technical experts in mid-April to discuss the alignment of corridors at the zero-point crossing of the border for the Kartarpur Sahib corridor that is being built by both sides in their respective territories. The Sikh pilgrimage on the corridor is likely to begin in November and help Indian pilgrims to visit the famous KartarpurSahib Gurudwara close to the border in Pakistani Punjab. Incidentally, Pakistan high commissioner and now foreign secretary-designate Sohail Mahmood is expected to meet Indian foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale in New Delhi next week in a courtesy call before Mr Mahmood returns to Pakistan to take over as foreign secretary in Islamabad. It may be recalled that Mr Mahmoods innings as Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi was marked by his strong push for strengthening people-to-people ties between the two countries despite political and military tensions between the two neighbours. He said while the chowkidar showed guts to hit terrorist safe havens inside Pak, the Grand Old Party wants to dilute the powers of the armed forces. Balod (Chhattisgarh)/ Sundargarh (Odisha): Five days before the first phase of voting for Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday sought a big mandate for the BJP and launched a multi-pronged attack on the Congress, targeting it for its reluctance to hit terror camps in Pakistan, using poverty as a major political weapon and attempting to dilute the powers of the armed forces. Urging voters to provide a majboot sarkar (decisive government) at the Centre, the Prime Minister said, When the government is strong, the county does not sit quiet after a terrorist attack. It retaliates strongly. He also mocked Congress president Rahul Gandhis decision to fight LS polls from Keralas Wayanad, besides Uttar Pradeshs Amethi, saying the naamdar (dynast) has had to run away to find a safe seat. Launching the BJPs campaign in Chhattisgarh at a rally in Balod, Mr Modi cautioned that the Congress along with its allies would only give a majboor sarkar (helpless government) to promote their self-interests if elected to power in the 2019 parliamentary elections. He said while the chowkidar showed guts to hit terrorist safe havens inside Pakistan, the Grand Old Party wants to dilute the powers of the armed forces. He slammed the Congress election manifesto promising to dilute the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Afspa) and the sedition law if voted to power, warning that such a move would be detrimental to the security of the country. Terrorists and Maoists will be let off the hook with such measures. It is against the interest of the internal security of the country as well as our defence forces, he said. At a rally in Odisha, the Prime Minister accused the Congress of always using poverty as a major political weapon and said the best remedy to eradicate poverty was to do away with that party. I want to tell you about the conspiracy of the Congress to rob the assistance meant for the poor. The Congress wants to implement such policies which will double the prices of essential items, including rice and wheat available through PDS, Mr Modi said. He spiced up his election speech at the two political rallies with famous quotes from former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and virtuous terms and terminologies to woo voters. At the Sundargarh public meeting, Mr Modi repeated Vajpayees famous quote Andhera chatega, suraj niklega, Kamal khilega (Sun will shine to end darkness, and Lotus will bloom) and gave a clarion call to bring BJP to power and build a majboot (strong) Odisha. Mr Modi took a dig at the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government for discriminating against western Odisha. He asked the crowd, Do you want to see vikas-bad (development) or bhed-bhav (discrimination)? Gandhi also hit out at the BJP alleging that it does not respect diversity of India. New Delhi: Sowing the seeds of a possible common agenda for Opposition parties if they get a shot at forming the government post elections, UPA chairperson and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday shared the platform with a host of political leaders and civil society groups and together with them launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. Mrs Gandhi accused the Prime Minister of destroying institutions which had been built painstakingly over 65 years and said that her party, if voted to power, would put in place a mechanism to ensure that all promises made during elections are kept. The way the soul of our nation is being trampled for the past some time through a well-planned conspiracy is a matter of great concern, she said adding, Regressive forces have systematically dismantled our institutions. The current government has undermined the welfare architecture that was laid down over last 65 years. Mrs Gandhi also hit out at the BJP alleging that it does not respect diversity of India. New definition of patriotism is being taught to us today. Those rejecting diversity are being labelled as patriots. Discrimination among our own citizen is being justified on the basis of caste, religion and ideology, the UPA chairperson said. Mrs Gandhi was speaking at an event at the Talkatora Stadium here where almost all Opposition political parties were represented, as were over 200 peoples movements and civil society organisations from Rajasthan, Bihar, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Delhi, among others. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Loktantrik Janata Partys Sharad Yadav, RJDs Tejashvi Yadav addressed the event through video conferencing. Also present were top Congress leaders like Ahmed Patel, K. Raju, Rajiv Gowda and Jairam Ramesh. The event can be read as an attempt to sow seeds of a common agenda or Peoples Agenda for Opposition parties in case they get a shot at forming the government after the results of the Lok Sabha polls are declared on May 23. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had announced that a Common Minimum Programme (CMP) would be prepared before polls and a draft CMP was prepared by Samruddha Bharat Foundation, which has many Opposition leaders on its board. The Asian Age had reported earlier that plans were afoot to rename any new Opposition coalition if formed as the Peoples Progressive Alliance. As part of efforts to form a common agenda, at the meeting at the Talkatora Stadium on Saturday civil society groups presented a 40-page charge-sheet indicting the current government along with a series of demands. In her speech Mrs Gandhi recalled how the UPA government had kept civil society on board while taking major policy decisions which had drastically affected the lives of people. With women forging the way, here are some exceptional stories of community health workers, who work relentlessly for public healthcare. Mumbai: The agenda for the global health awareness day or World Health Day 2019 is Universal Health Coverage, making healthcare services affordable and accessible for all. In India, the government through its initiative Mission Indradhanush, has significantly increased the immunisation coverage across states and districts, making life-saving vaccines accessible to pregnant woman and children in the country. The real force working towards achieving this target efficiently are the community health workers. They are the unsung heroes of healthcare in India, making immunisation possible even in the most far-flung areas of the country. The Measles Rubella (MR) campaign of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is underway in Assam where all children between the ages of 9 months- 15 years are given this vaccine. A shot of this vaccine prevents the two diseases measles and rubella by the efforts of teams of health workers, mostly consisting of women. Popularly known as gateway of western Assam, the historic town of Dhubri is often referred as the land of rivers. To reach these communities living in the chars for immunisation is extremely challenging but that does not deter the dedicated ASHA health workers here. Practically no roads exist in these areas and even boats are not available. The only way to cross the waterbodies and wetlands is either on foot or with the help of makeshift rafts and bridges made with jute, bamboo and banana trees. The teams traverse the rough terrain, carefully carrying the distinct blue boxes, insulated vaccine containers that ensure safe storage of the vaccines. ASHA Abaron Bibi, is the only person who ferries the ASHA team across the wetland, all by herself in extremely hot and humid conditions in Golakganj, Assam. (Photo: MoHFW) The ASHA team here consisting of workers like Manibala Roy and Abaron Bibi are expectionally dedicated to the cause of immunisation and improving the quality of life of the people of their area. Abaron Bibi, manually ferries the ASHA team across the wetlands on makeshift rafts, each time the ASHA team visit her side of Golakganj. Abaron is the only person who can do so and she as sincere and hard-working as one can expect a community health worker to be. Its my village and Im the ASHA. If I refuse, then who else will do this?, replied the shy widow and mother of five. The ASHA workers continue towards remote areas without a break, wading through waterbodies and shifting the weight of the 'blue boxes', vaccine carriers from one shoulder to another in Dhubri, Assam. (Photo: MoHFW) The team of dedicated Auxiliary Nurse Midwifes or ANMs, village level female health workers in India as well as the ASHA workers of this area are a brilliant example of how women empowerment can translate into better healthcare for all at the grassroots level in India. They reach out to even the remotest regions of Assam, carrying out immunisation, mobilising communities and saving millions of lives from premature deaths. Another heroic tale is of the feisty duo from Malana, Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh. The massive mountains of the region are no match to the determination of ANM Meena Kumari and ASHA Nirma Devi. Situated at an altitude of 8,701 feet (2652 meters), Malana is an ancient village, nestled among the lush green forests and the snowcapped mountains of the Parvati valley. With a total population of only 1935 and 220 households, Malana is isolated from the rest of the world. For the district immunisation officials of Kullu, Malana remained outside the ambit of immunisation as no one was willing to travel to it. In April 2015, Meena Kumari joined as the ANM in Pini sub-centre. Undeterred by the geographical toughness of the Malana, she set forth on the mission to immunise the children of Malana. Since no Alternate Vaccine Delivery (AVD) was possible due to the hilly terrain, Meena had to carry the vaccine carriers from the cold chain point of Jari CHC, 40 kilometres away from Malana all by herself. Literally taking the road less travelled, partly by public transport and partly on foot. Meena never failed to conduct a session at Malana, even during the winter season when the region received the heaviest snowfall. Today, Meena is no longer an outsider or an untouchable for the Malanis. They are grateful to both Meena and Nirma for the healthcare services they provide, including immunisation. (Photo: MoHFW) Fortunately, during the same time of April 2015, Nirma Devi joined as the ASHA worker. Nirma is the first ever Malani who agreed to work as an ASHA for her village. Nirmas involvement cleared another difficult obstacle, the language of Malanis called Kanashi. Malanis do not speak or understand any other language and rest of Himachal not understand Kanashi. She received malediction and threats for bringing Meena, an outsider, to Malana. As per the villagers, Nirma was violating the order of the guardian deity of Malana, which was a bad omen and make everyone suffer. Initially, they did not allow Meena or even Nirma to touch their children. Mothers in Malana happily participate in each immunisation session and there is no unvaccinated children left in Malana today. (Photo: MoHFW) It took almost a year for Nirma to convince the council as well as the villagers that Meena was there to ensure the good health of the women and children. Nirma organised a meeting of the senior women of the village and advocated about the benefits of vaccines and the positive effects of immunisation on childrens health. She along with Meena met the village council several times and urged the Malanis to have faith in the governments vaccines, assuring that no harm will befall their children after vaccination. Along with support of Nirma, Meena immunised all the 170 mothers for antenatal care and subsequently continued immunising their children. Today, Meena is no longer an outsider or an untouchable for the Malanis. Malani mothers are now grateful to Nirma and also look after Meena, offering her food while she is at work. Due to their efforts and determination, there are no unvaccinated children left in Malana today. The role of the AVDs is an essential one in the chain of the public health system in India, especially when it comes to the immunisation programmes. They ensure that vaccines and logistics are delivered on site on time for the immunisation session days. The AVD provider is often a local person, who is generally part of the immunisatin campaign on a part time basis. Motorcycles are the only resort to travel in these far flung areas of Barwani and Alirajpur because of the bad road conditions and the absence of roads altogether. (Photo: MoHFW) Districts Barwani and Alirajpur of Madhya Pradesh has a team of dedicated AVD service providers, known as the men in pink. These men relentlessly work to support immunisation, tackling some of the toughest and remotest terrain of India. Pink shirts are their official dress code and like true beacons of hope, they ride their motorcycles across falias and tolas, local words for small habitations or hamlets. Gagaprasad Saste, a young man from Badwani is one such driving force of AVDs of villages under Semlet sub-centre of Barwani. He has been working as an AVD in this district for last 3 years. He works as a kufli seller in these areas and hence is familiar with every nook and corner of the area. Gangaprasad is also famous in this area for his singing talent and he has even recorded few albums of the traditional Nimari songs of Barwani of his own. Gangaprasad was initially hesitant to be a part of the healthcare system. The success of the AVDs lies on the reliable shoulders of health workers like Gagaprasad Saste. The AVD system has also generated employment opportunities for rural unemployed youth, who often volunteer for it. (Photo: MoHFW) But later on after few interaction with the supervisor, Jitendra Dudwe, he became interested and agreed to take up the job. Having learnt a lot from Dudwe sir, Im now familiar with all the vaccines and I am even able to converse with mothers and advise them on the benefits of immunisation, says Gangaprasad. Spreading awareness on immunisation selflessly is now a passion of Gangaprasad, adding even more to his popularity at the block and district level. The Prime Minister accused Mamata of supporting those calling for breaking India into pieces and demanding for two PMs for India. Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday indicted Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee of treachery in a blistering attack accusing her of supporting those calling for breaking India into pieces and demanding for two PMs for India. Dismissing the calls and throwing a challenge to the West Bengal chief minister, he wondered whether anyone could beat him in the ensuing Lok Sabha election. Mr Modi alleged that Ms Banerjee has been abusing him and threatening the Election Commission because she has started having sleepless nights due to scare and frustration as her political influence has been diminishing in the state. Addressing his grand poll campaign rally for the second time in North Bengal, this time in Cooch Behar, the PM alleged, Promises of Maa, Mati, Manush are now one side while the Trinamuls truth is on the other. For the sake of votebank politics Didi however forgot Maa and has stood up with those who are giving slogans to break India intopieces. This is an insult to Maa. Didi, you have also committed treachery with Mati by protecting the infiltrators for political gains. She has crushed allhopes of Manush by handing over West Bengal to the goons of the Trinamul. He claimed, She has thrown their lives in risk. Didi is now supporting those who cry for two PMs for India. Should there be two PMs in India? Can you ever imagine one of them for Jammu and Kashmir? Didi, your allies are demanding for two PMs for India. It should beremembered that a great son of this Bengal: Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee had once sacrificed himself for Ek Pradhan Ek Nishan Ek Vidhaan. The brave son of Bengal abolished the dream of two PMs for India for her unity. And Didi, you are sitting with those who demand two PMs for India? Mr Modi asked, Isnt it an insult to Bengal? Isnt it also an insult to the sacrifices and brave martyrs of the country? In her battle opposing Modi, Didi has now teamed up with such allies. If anarchy prevails in the country, Didi is not bothered. You have reposed your faith in her. But she dashed your dreams. The partnership of Bua-Bhatije (read Ms Banerjee and her nephew MP Abhishek Banerjee ) is busy in turning this state into a den of goons, extortionists and infiltrators. Taking a dig at the Trinamul chief, he noted, Some people are pained to see our country becoming strong. When India is becoming a super power in space, Didi becomes very much bothered. She sees more problem when India flexes its power against terror. So she is now repeating same words day and night. Dr Suhas Pingle, secretary, IMA, said that the government should consider doctors views too before implementing the bill. Mumbai: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, seeking his intervention and to discuss the proposed draft of the Bombay Nursing Home Act 2006 before implementing it. The IMA has stated that some clauses in the act, if implemented, will affect patient management. The draft states that there should be good space and more than adequate staff. Dr Suhas Pingle, secretary, IMA, said that the government should consider doctors views too before implementing the bill. There are certain things in the Bill such as, space, maintenance of blood units and posts, pre-surgical equipment and surgery-related things in a small-time nursing home. These things are not possible in small set-ups. If we increase any of these, the treatment cost will also rise. Not every patient can afford the royal treatment, he said. The BJP has fielded Kanchan Kul to take on the sitting NCP MP Supriya Sule, daughter of Mr Pawar, in the Baramati seat. Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to hold a rally in Baramati, the hometown of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to win Pawar familys bastion for the first time. The rally is likely to be held on April 10 or 11, said sources from BJP. The BJP has fielded Kanchan Kul, wife of sitting legislator Rahul Kul, to take on the sitting NCP MP Supriya Sule, daughter of Mr Pawar, in the Baramati seat. According to party sources, Ms Kul has been receiving good response in areas such as Khadakwasla, Daund, Purandar etc. in the Baramati constituency. If the Prime Minister holds a rally, her chances of winning the seat will get further boost, said sources. The rally will also give Mr Modi an opportunity to target Mr Pawar on his home turf, they said. We are will definitely hold Modijis rally in Baramati. We have planned at least two rallies of Mr Modi each in the four phases of Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra. Baramati is one of the venues, said a senior BJP minister. Mr Modi and Mr Pawar have been engaged in a verbal duel against each other during this election campaign. Speaking at a rally in Gondia on Wednesday, Mr Modi had said that the NCP leaders were unable to sleep as their sleep was jailed in Delhis Tihar. He was apparently referring to the jailed corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar. Mr Pawar had later hit back at Mr Modi, saying he did not heed criticism from every Tom, Dick and Harry. In Baramati, the BJPs candidate is contesting on a lotus symbol this time, as against 2014 polls, when the alliance partner Mahadev Jankar had contested on his party, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP), symbol. The BJP has denied a ticket to Mr Jankar this time, as he refused to contest on its symbol. During 2014 polls, Mr Modi had held a rally in Baramati for Mr Jankar. In his speech, he had criticised the Congress-NCP combine for failing to provide reservation to Dhangar community, which have a sizeable presence in Baramati. Mr Thackeray referred to a recent statement from the US, which stated that all the F-16 jets in Pakistani fleet were accounted for. Mumbai: Though Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray spoke for more than an hour at his partys Gudi Padva rally at Shivaji Park, he did not divulge more on his partys future plans. During the entire speech, he targeted only Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah. The MNS had announced that they will not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the state. However, Mr Thackeray clarified that the decision may not remain the same for the Vidhan Sabha polls. Mr Thackeray denied that he is campaigning in favour of the Congress-NCP combine in the Lok Sabha polls. There are murmurs that I have been used by the Congress and the NCP, but I am not that silly. I will work towards making the country free from Mr Modi and Mr Shah, the MNS chief said in the rally, which received a good support from the party followers. According to sources, the think tank of the party has advised Mr Thackeray to stay away from LS polls and instead focus on the state Assembly polls to be held later in the year. However, he provided no hint on this, in his speech. The MNS chiefs speech included some of the old allegations about Pulwama terror attacks and the alleged failures of the BJP government that he had made during his earlier rallies. Mr Thackeray referred to a recent statement from the US, which stated that all the F-16 jets in Pakistani fleet were accounted for, contrary to the Indian governments claim that one intruding jet was shot down after the Balakot aerial strike. Why did PM Modi lie on this? He should answer that. Mr Modi had got such a rare opportunity, as the BJP had won the majority vote in 2014, 30 years after (late PM) Rajiv Gandhi secured such a huge mandate. What did you do in five years? Mr Thackeray drew a parallel between the acche din promise and a similar slogan given by the then US President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940s and by German dictator Adolf Hitler. Traits of Modi and Hitler are similar. The then US president Franklin Roosevelt had also said that good days would come. Even Hitler had said the same; and now Mr Modi is also talking about acche din, he said. CPEC, which was until recently being projected as a game-changer for the country and the region, has lost its attraction in policy discourse. Grappling with a crippling economic crisis at home, Pakistan is compelled to tread slowly and carefully in the emerging geoeconomics and politics of the region. Although financial help and support from China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have contributed to partially resolving the countrys balance of payments crisis, yet an IMF bailout seems inevitable. Some would translate it as a return to old partners in the West or the US to be more precise. The outgoing government used the investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) not only to overcome the energy crisis and infrastructure-building but also to counter pressure from the US, which was growing with the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The previous government also tried to maintain Pakistans traditional policy of keeping a balance in its relationship with Saudi Arabia and Iran and, therefore, withstood pressure to send Pakistani troops into Yemen. The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has apparently completely revised Pakistans Middle East policy. There is an impression in national and international policy circles that, in the process of economic recovery, Pakistan has lost its geopolitical equilibrium as well. CPEC, which was until recently being projected as a game-changer for the country and the region, has lost its attraction in policy discourse. In the process of rationalisation of CPEC projects, Pakistan has put many projects on hold, thus discouraging private Chinese companies and individuals from investing in the special economic zones (SEZs). Beijing has supported Mr Khans idea of rationalising CPEC projects for two major reasons. First, the aggravating economic situation in Pakistan has made China concerned about the repayment of the loans it has provided for CPEC projects. Second, China wanted to give time to Pakistans new government to overcome its economic challenges, for which it also provided a couple of bailout packages. The government also tried very hard to diversify its options for the foreign investment, and succeeded to a certain extent but with a heavy price. Pakistan is fast losing balance in its relationship with Iran and Saudi Arabia. The $10 billion Saudi pledge for a refinery and petrochemicals complex in Gwadar has not only come as cause for caution for Iran, but also China. The latter has concerns that it may lead to Saudi-Iranian proxy warfare in the coastal region, at the bottleneck of CPEC. The Baloch in Gwadar also see the refinery in the context of Iran-Saudi Arabia rivalry. They believe it will bring in US influence due to the common strategic objectives of the Saudis and Americans against Iran. Pakistans support for talks between the Afghan Taliban and the US is widely welcomed. It could become a hugely positive contribution to regional peace. But many in Pakistan are also arguing about what this country has achieved so far through the facilitation. An IMF bailout package could be one but, at the same time, the US is not willing to reduce pressure on Pakistan on multiple strategic fronts. It is believed Pakistan could have gained much more had it extended its support for the peace process a few years ago, when the Obama administration was desperate to achieve a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan. It is not the economy alone that has pushed Pakistan to a restricted geopolitical position but also militant groups. Some analysts even suspect that the Afghan Taliban will remain a reliable ally of Pakistan. Certainly, by bringing the Taliban to the table, Pakistan has done what it had been avoiding for years. Internal security and economic challenges notwithstanding, international compulsions and obligations are also bearing upon Pakistans policy responses. Looking ahead, Pakistan needs to develop a geoeconomics framework of engagement with its neighbours and allies. This country can make sure that Saudi investment is coming with no geostrategic strings attached, and that it would be for economic purposes only under the compulsion of the Saudi Vision 2030. Pakistan must not allow any proxy group to use its soil against neighbours. Though it would be difficult to maintain such a relationship with an assertive Saudi regime, Pakistan can maintain a balance through a China-Pakistan-Iran economic partnership. It is often heard in strategic policy discussions in the federal capital that Pakistan is changing its focus from geostrategic to geoeconomics, but this transition needs a clear direction. Pakistan has to set out priorities of a traditional zero-sum game to ensure that its relationship with one nation do not come at the cost of its relationship with another. This country does not have a multiplicity of options to attract foreign investment, and those that are available need to be fully harnessed. By arrangement with Dawn As the Rwandan government on Sunday raised the curtain of a three-month remembrance period, marking the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi, King Mohammed VI addressed a written message to President Paul Kagame. The royal message expresses Moroccos solidarity with the Rwandan people and renews its strong resolve to bolster bilateral relations at all levels, said head of the Government Saad Eddine El Othmani who handed over the message to President Kagame. El Othmani, who had been dispatched by the King to attend the genocide commemoration, said in Kigali that President kagame has entrusted him with conveying his greetings to the Sovereign and his consideration for the key role he plays at the level of the continent. The genocide claimed the lives of over 1 million people, mainly ethnic Tutsis. The annual commemoration is held every year from April 7 to July 4 in line with the period of the genocide. In 1994 there was no hope, only darkness. Today light radiates from this place, President Kagame said during the memorial. African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker joined President Kagame and his spouse to lit the flame of remembrance after laying wreaths together with other heads of state and government at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the genocide. The UN is also celebrating April 7 as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. 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. Democrat Pam Iovino, who served in then-President George W. Bush's Department of Veterans Affairs, has triumphed in a state Senate special election in a Pittsburgh district President Trump won in 2016. Why it matters: Pennsylvania is a swing state and Navy veteran Iovino claimed victory in the seat left vacant by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R)."The district is being watched because it voted overwhelmingly for the president in 2016, so we'll see how strong that foothold is," Iovino told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Monday. Go deeper: Trump's 2020 map from hell Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned, President Trump tweeted Sunday. "Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service. I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary for @DHSgov. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!" Behind the scenes: A source close to DHS told Axios that Nielsen would be having a showdown with the president on Sunday night. "Frustrations were building on both sides," the source said. "She was undercut at every turn. She's done everything she can do. The White House is eating their own." CBS' Paula Reid reported earlier Sunday that Nielsen was "expected to resign" in her meeting with Trump that night, but Trump's ambiguous wording reflects the predictably messy end to this relationship, which was formalized in a meeting in the White House residence. It may well be that Nielsen was the one who formally resigned but the formalities don't really matter. Trump has wanted Nielsen gone for months because he believes she's "weak" on immigration, per multiple sources with direct knowledge of the president's thinking. The big picture: It's been a tortured relationship from the beginning, with Trump blaming Nielsen for every problem at the southern border and for the recent spike in families coming from Northern Triangle countries. Trump has long felt that Nielsen isn't "tough enough" when it comes to defending the border and kicking illegal immigrants out of the U.S., according to sources who've discussed the subject with the president. During her tenure, Nielsen was put in the position of having to defend the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy that resulted in thousands of migrant children being separated from their families, for which she was often maligned in the media and by Democratic lawmakers. In January, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) formally requested that the FBI investigate whether Nielsen lied under oath when she told Congress in December 2018, "We've never had a policy for family separation." The latest: Nielsen said in a tweet Sunday night she had agreed to stay on as homeland security secretary until Wednesday "to assist with an orderly transition and ensure that key DHS missions are not impacted." Go deeper: A New York man has been charged and arrested for threatening to kill Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in March because she is Muslim, according to the incident's affidavit, CNN reports. The bottom line: After Patrick Carlineo called Omar's office, called her a terrorist and threatened to "put a bullet in her (expletive) skull," he said in an interview with authorities that he loves President Trump and "that he hates radical Muslims in our government," per the affidavit cited by CNN. Go deeper: Protesters rally against Ilhan Omar during her speech at LA event Democrats would "leave Israel out there" if they won in 2020 and they've allowed anti-Semitism to "take root in their party and their country," President Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition conference Saturday. Details: During his speech in Las Vegas, Trump called the asylum program "a scam" and mocked its applicants and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). He explained why the U.S. now recognized Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights and referred to Israeli PM Netanyahu as "your prime minister" while addressing the gathering of Jewish Americans. What he's saying: Trump said the asylum-seekers were "some of the roughest people you've ever seen people that look like they should be fighting for the UFC." He said they read a "little page" prepared by lawyers that says: "I am very fearful for my life, I am very worried that I will be accosted if I'm sent back home." On planned aid cuts to 3 central American countries, Trump defended the decision, saying he had "a feeling" the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras could "stop caravans from forming in those three countries." In a dig at Omar, who has been accused of trafficking in anti-Semitic tropes, Trump thanked the freshman lawmaker before saying: "She doesnt like Israel. I forgot. Im so sorry." The other side: In a retweet of a Twitter post noting Trump criticized her a day after a New York man was arrested and charged with threatening to kill her, Omar said late Saturday: "My Lord, forgive my people for they do not know." The Jewish Democratic Council of America's executive director Halie Soifer said in a statement responding to Trump's speech: "We strongly denounce President Trumps continued assault on decency and truth." Go deeper: AOC slams Jeanine Pirro after man's arrest for Ilhan Omar kill threats By Trend In 2019, Azerbaijan is expected to implement a project for creating a face recognition system, Zakir Karimzade, the head of Audatex Azerbaijan, told Trend. The program is being developed by the Digidentity company. Karimzade noted that this system is already used in several countries, such as Denmark, the Netherlands, and the US. Karimzade also named the UK as an example, where taxpayers use this program when submitting a tax report. As noted by Karimzade, the system recognizes the persons identity by checking the citizens identity card, and then comparing the photo in the certificate with the person himself. If it is a match, the access is granted. He also said that this program may be very useful in Azerbaijan. In particular, Karimzade highlighted the relevance of the program for banking institutions when opening bank accounts, for example. It may also prove useful for the tax system in identifying taxpayers. Karimzade deems it to be especially important for the program to be introduction into the compulsory health insurance system. In 2015, this identity management platform was introduced to government bodies of the Netherlands, and was used by the tax and customs administration and the education system for checking the identity of Dutch residents online. In 2015, the platform was used for authentication about 200 million times by 12 million citizens. The system is also tied to the national identification number of the Netherlands the so-called Citizen Service Number (BSN). Since 2006, the program has been mandatory when filing tax forms in electronic form. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The piping fabrication at Kipoi (Albania) is complete and over 90 percent of the piping is installed, with hydro strength testing progressing on schedule, Lisa Givert, TAP Head of Communications, told Trend. "The three compressors are installed, and final alignment is complete, with mechanical and electrical hook up in progress. The electrical low and medium voltage boards are being energized," she said. In Fier, according to Givert, the piping fabrication is also complete with piping installation over 86 percent finalized, and hydro strength testing under way. "With the three compressors installed in June 2018, final alignment has been completed," she added. Finally, the metering station at Bilisht, Albania (near the Greek border) is more than 84 percent complete overall, said Givert. "At the stations our teams are working towards overall completion scheduled towards the end of 2019. Completion process is ongoing in all three stations," she concluded. TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union (EU). The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries. Connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network. The project is currently in its construction phase, which started in 2016. Once built, TAP will offer a direct and cost-effective transportation route opening up the vital Southern Gas Corridor, a 3,500-kilometer long gas value chain stretching from the Caspian Sea to Europe. TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent). --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The tender for selecting a contractor for design, procurement and construction (EPC) of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), which envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, is close to the end, the ICGB, the project company, told Trend. Reportedly, the estimated value of the tender is set as a total price of 145 million euros excluding VAT "Over 10 Bulgarian and foreign companies and consortia expressed interest in the public procurement and submitted documents in the first phase of the procedure. The admitted candidates invited for phase two are as follows: DZZD "IGB-2018", Consortium MAX STREICHER - TERNA/ICGB, Consortium Spiecapag Trace IGB 2018, J&P - AVAX S.A and Joint Venture CPP-AKTOR," said the company. As the ICGB said, two of the candidates invited for the second phase of the tender submitted offers within the deadline specified by the Contracting Entity - DZZD "IGB-2018" and J&P - AVAX S.A. The next steps include review and evaluation of the technical proposals, technical assessment in accordance with the indicators of the methodology and opening of the price proposals, reads a message from the company. ICGB said it plans to complete the selection process in May, securing the start of the construction works in June. "The project company and its shareholders have mobilized all the resources to comply with the schedule for starting construction, relying on the high quality of the technical proposals of the participants and their professionalism", said the Executive Officers of the company Teodora Georgieva and Konstantinos Karayannakos. IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets. The initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz An Israeli Arab woman walks past an electoral billboard showing Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Haifa, Israel, last Thursday. Photo: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he would annex parts of the Israeli occupied West Bank if he is reelected, and made it clear that he would reject Palestinian statehood in any form, arguing that it would endanger our existence. The announcement, made during a television interview, was clearly made to attract support from Israels far-right, including voters at the polls on April 9, as well as smaller more hard-line political parties that could help Netanyahu form a coalition government if his Likud party fails to win a majority in Israels parliament. On Friday, final polls showed that Netanyahu, who is also facing corruption charges, was trailing his centrist challenger Benny Gantz. Regarding just how much, if not all, of the West Bank Netanyahu would annex, he promised to extend sovereignty over all Israeli settlements in the territory, regardless of how isolated they were. Beyond that, he seemed to imply Israel was entitled to do whatever it wants, and that no Israeli would ever be subject to Palestinian sovereignty. It is also possible that Netanyahu is making an empty election-eve promise that hell later find some reason to back out of. But even if that is the case, his wide-reaching rhetoric wont soon be forgotten, and the same political forces which have made Netanyahu embrace harder and harder lines will remain. Roughly 2.8 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under the control of the Israeli military, and some 400,000 Israelis live in the territory in settlements which are illegal under international law as would be their annexation by Israel, since the territory was acquired by war. The settlements have also been the most contentious sticking point in the peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and the talks have remained stalled since 2014. Pro-settler political forces in Israel, meanwhile, have continued to gain influence and seek the annexation of the West Bank settlements. Ten years ago, Netanyahu was one of the politicians who rejected that minority view and supported a two-state solution. A lot has changed since then, particularly in the White House, where a new administration has taken a starkly different stance to Israel than its predecessor. President Trump and his administrations pro-Netanyahu policies have enabled and emboldened the Israeli leader and his rightward lurch, and that definitely includes the West Bank vow. On Saturday, Netanyahu boasted that Trumps recognition of Israels claim to sovereignty over the Golan Heights region itself an unprecedented break with decades of U.S. policy was proof that the U.S. would back him and the West Bank annexation. According to one news report, Netanyahu didnt even consider asserting sovereignty over the West Bank settlements until after Trumps Golan Heights decision, and he was certain Trump would give him backing and legitimization for the subsequent move once the long-expected U.S. peace proposal was released and inevitably rejected by the Palestinians. Palestinian negotiators have boycotted contact with the Trump administration since it, in another break with longtime policy, moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognized the city as the countrys capital, enraging Palestinians, who also consider the city their capital. Its not clear what Trump himself understands about the regions history, especially after his speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition on Saturday: Trump on what he said to learn about the history of the Golan Heights: "Fellas do me a favor. Give me a little history, quick, I want to go fast, I gotta lotta things I'm working on. China, North Korea. Give me a quickie." Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 6, 2019 Such a statement by Netanyahu is not surprising, Dr. Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian official, said in response to the prime ministers comments on Saturday. Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administrations support and endorsement of Israels violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine. Trump says of his advisor Jason Greenblatt and "a young man named Jared Kushner": "Peace in the Middle East. If they can't do it, nobody can." Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 6, 2019 Trump has teased the long-promised U.S. peace proposal as the deal of the century, but it will undoubtedly be as Netanyahu-sided as everything else the Trump administration has done when it comes to Israel. And if Netanyahu wins reelection to his fourth consecutive term on Tuesday, and with Trumps blessing, goes forward with annexing the West Bank settlements, the two-state solution will almost certainly be dead for good. By Trend Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay a visit to Russia on April 8, Trend reports April 6 with reference to the press service of the Turkish leader. According to the service, the head of the Turkish Republic will take part in the eighth meeting of the Russian-Turkish High-Level Cooperation Council, which will be chaired by the heads of Turkey and Russia. The meeting will include issues of bilateral relations, in particular the situation in Syria, as well as other regional issues. It is planned to sign various agreements. Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin will meet with businessmen of both countries. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Shorn of his committee assignments and treated like an outcast, Steve King is running for reelection on sheer fury. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images Its tough getting yourself denounced for racism by todays Republican Party, a place where it often seems racism is only attributed to people who call it out among poor, pitiful, persecuted white folks. But Iowa congressman Steve King, by sheer persistence, succeeded in getting himself cast into the outer darkness by the powers that be in his party, as the New York Times recently noted: House Republican leaders removed Mr. King from his committee assignments in January, after comments he made to The New York Times questioning why white supremacist was considered offensive. A number of powerful party leaders, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, and Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, suggested he should resign, and the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution disapproving of Mr. Kings statements. Iowa Republicans, including both U.S. senators and Governor Kim Reynolds, joined in condemning King, who for years strode through Iowa GOP politics as an iconic, if always edgy, figure of angry conservatism. These pooh-bahs sent an implicit signal to ambitions Republican pols in Kings conservative district that taking him out in a 2020 primary would be a welcome development. They built it, and the candidates have come: Hoping to win over prominent conservatives tired of putting out Mr. Kings fires, three Republicans widely considered the most serious challengers Mr. King has faced in years have already pledged to run in the 2020 primary race, including an assistant majority leader of the Iowa State Senate, Randy Feenstra, who represents one of the most conservative swaths of the district. Feenstra is focusing less on Kings racism, than on the influence the district has lost because of the egregious nature of that racism: Today, Iowas Fourth District doesnt have a voice in Washington because our current representatives caustic nature has left us without a seat at the table, Mr. Feenstra said in January. Its a shrewd if amoral approach. Iowa has always treasured its bipartisan clout in Washington to an unusual extent. King lost his state and district a prized position on the House Agriculture Committee. Even constituents who dont mind their member of Congress insulting people of color on a regular basis frown at the recklessness that forfeited actual power (fortunately for Iowa, freshman Democrat Cindy Axne was appointed to the Ag Committee). Kings pariah status in Washington has, however, given him a lot of time to focus on his district (a Washington Post reporter followed King around the Capitol and environs recently, and found he didnt have much to do). Often an indifferent fund-raiser and campaigner, Kings now on fire: Mr. King is returning to basics, reasserting an aggressive presence in his northwestern Iowa district, scheduling events in every county and holding as many as three town halls in a week, where constituents pack in, then linger to take photos and shake hands. And now that hes firmly identified as an extremist, he seems liberated to let it all hang out: Just an elected official joking on his verified Facebook account over the weekend about a civil war and how his side would be more heavily armed pic.twitter.com/DrzHr0q4V5 Tim Mak (@timkmak) March 18, 2019 In his primary, King will be appealing to ideology over influence, at a time when Donald Trump could well be helping him by whipping up conservatives into a fear/hate frenzy. His 4th congressional district gave Trump 61 percent of its vote in 2016, so the ground is fertile for King-style fury, even though it contradicts every convention of Iowa Nice. If King survives his primary, Democrats could give him a run for his money, too, particularly if 2018 opponent J. D. Scholten, who came within less than 11,000 votes of upsetting the incumbent last year, runs again. Ultimately it will come down to whether a majority of western Iowa voters love Steve King enough to proudly share his shame. Sign Up for the Intelligencer Newsletter Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. Bakersfield, CA (93308) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. High 44F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Some clouds. Low 39F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released their slogan, theme song and TV commercials for the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. The party is likely to release its manifesto for the upcoming General Elections on Monday. BJP's theme for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections would be 'Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar'. Earlier today, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati held a rally in Deoband today. It was their first joint rally since the SP-BSP alliance was announced ahead of the elections. Yadav and Mayawati took turns to address the gathering and criticised both Congress and BJP. They said that the leading national parties remember the poor only during elections. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started off the day's campaign in West Bengal's Cooch Behar. Speaking at Mamata Banerjee's home turf, Modi criticised the West Bengal CM and said that she was the "speedbreaker" in the development of the state. The Prime Minister will also address two more rallies today - in Tripura's Udaipur and Manipur's Imphal. Additionally, houses of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's close aides were raided by I-T sleuths today. Follow Lok Sabha Elections 2019 news updates on BusinessToday.In's LIVE blog: 5:26pm: Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer has taken cognisance of Mayawati's speech in Deoband today where she urged Muslims to vote only for the Mahagathbandhan. Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer has taken cognisance of BSP chief Mayawati's speech she delivered today in Saharanpur's Deoband. The Officer has sought a report from the local administration. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/RfPHvo3twp ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 7, 2019 5:22pm: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley slammed BSP chief Mayawati for her remarks that the Muslim community should vote only for BSP-SP-RLD alliance. Jaitley urged not to carry out political propaganda on communal lines. 5:05pm: Robert Vadra to campaign for Congress across India, starting from Uttar Pradesh. He will accompany Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi when they go to file their nominations for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. 4:47pm: BJP's theme for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections would be 'Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar'. 4:45pm: A day before releasing its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP has released the slogan and theme song for the poll campaign. The party also released the TV commercial for the 2:40pm: Visuals from the SP-BSP rally in Deoband. 2:38pm: "The BJP party claims to be the custodian of dharma. But in Kumbh, Modi's 56 inch chest was nowhere to be found," said Akhilesh Yadav in Deoband. 2:37pm: "BJP is dividing people more than the Britishers," said Akhilesh Yadav at the SP-BSP rally. 2:35pm: "BJP should pledge not to lie again. They are making fake promises on rural electrification," said Akhilesh Yadav. 2:30pm: "There's no difference between BJP and Congress. Congress just was want to come to power in the state and is not interested in development," said Akhilesh Yadav in Deoband. 2:25pm: "They call us 'milawati gathbandhan', but they themselves are drunk on power," said Akhilesh Yadav. 2:21pm: "What happened to promises made in 2014 Lok Sabha polls," asks Akhilesh Yadav who took the stage after Mayawati at the SP-BSP rally in Deoband. 2:20pm: "BJP and Congress remember poor section only before polls," said Mayawati in Deoband. 2:16pm: "The Muslim community knows that we finalised a ticket for Muslim candidate a while ago," said Mayawati. 2:15pm: "Congress trying to sway poor people by giving them Rs 6,000 per month. We will give govt jobs to people if voted to power," said Mayawati. 2:13pm: "We will win if there is no rigging," said Mayawati in Deoband at the SP-BSP rally. 2:10pm: "GST, demonetisation was launched without preparation or any planning," said Mayawati. 2:05pm: "BJP will lose even if their leaders will do their best," said Mayawati in Deoband. 2:00pm: "When Modi gets to know about the fervour of the alliance rally today, he will be scared," Mayawati in Deoband. 1:57pm: "I'm warning, especially people of Muslim community, that Congress isn't in a position to fight BJP in UP. Only 'gathbandhan' can fight BJP. Congress knows this but they're going by mantra 'Hum jeete ya na jeete, gathbandhan nahi jeetna chahiye'. Therefore, Congress party has fielded candidates from such castes & religion which will benefit BJP. Therefore I am warning members of Muslim community," said Mayawati in Deoband. 12:55pm: "In comparison to other states of the country, Odisha is lagging in water, houses, health, security for women, education and other fields. Despite being rich in resources, the people here are poor," said Amit Shah in Odisha. 12:50pm: "BJD has proved worse than Congress in Odisha. They haven't been able to live up to the expectations of the people of Odisha," said Amit Shah in Odisha. 12:45pm: "We promise that the convicts of rape will be given capital punishment. After completing 10+2 exam, exceptional students will be given two-wheelers," said Amit Shah in Odisha. 12:20pm: Congress new slogan is 'ab hoga NYAY'. Read the full story here. 12:15pm: BJP releases their manifesto for Odisha. Odisha: BJP releases party's election manifesto for the state, in Bhubaneswar. pic.twitter.com/Hm0Jk1CwPo ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 11:45am: Congress removed a couple of stanzas of their election campaign song after the Election Commission objected to the same. The EC said that these lines accused the NDA government of spreading hatred and pitting communities against one another. The Congress slogan for the elections is 'Ab hoga NYAY'. 11:36am: "The promise of 'Ma Maati Maanush' is on one hand and the truth of TMC on the other hand. Didi betrayed 'Maati' when she tried to protect infiltrators for her political benefit. When she handed over the people of West Bengal to goons of TMC, she shattered the hopes of 'Maanush'," said Modi in Cooch Behar. 11:35am: "We brought a strict law against human trafficking. If we come to power, we'd ensure its implementation in Bengal," said Modi in Cooch Behar. 11:30am: "This region is full of potential, especially tourism. The Centre has spent a lot of money on infrastructure like the Railways," said Modi in Cooch Behar. 11:25am: "People are aware of who has pocketed money from the widespread scams in West Bengal," said Modi in Cooch Behar. 11:22am: "Has Didi informed you why recommendations of 7th pay commission were not implemented? Has Didi told you why despite clearing exams no appointments are being done in Bengal?" asks Modi in Cooch Behar. 11:20am: "Didi has put a break on free treatment for the poor under Ayushman Yojana and on financial assistance to farmers,"said Modi in Cooch Behar. 11:15am: "For vote bank politics, Didi now stands with the people who want to break India. She is supporting people who want two PMs in India," said Modi in Cooch Behar. 11:10am: "Before 2014, terrorist used to strike every now and then. Then govt was aware of where these terrorists came from. However, they failed to take any strict action despite requests from the armed forces. Now the situation has changed entirely. We now enter the homes of the enemies and kill them," said Modi in Cooch Behar. 11:05am: "The centre approved projects worth crores for Cooch Behar. It appeared impossible but it's possible now," said Modi in Cooch Behar. 11:00am: "The chants of Modi, Modi give sleepless nights to 'speed breaker'. Didi is the speed breaker of West Bengal," said Modi in Cooch Behar. 10:45am: Priyanka Gandhi slams BJP for selective patriotism. "Whenever there is a big announcement, they add 'patriotism' to it. Is there any person in this country who is not a patriot? Everybody is a patriot. If these BJP leaders, who make tall claims, were big patriots, then they should have respected all martyrs, whether that martyr was a Hindu, Muslim or father of Opposition party leader You can't select amongst them and then pay respect. If you are a patriot then respect all the martyrs. Respect Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi too," Priyanka said at a public gathering in Uttar Pradesh's Jahanabad. 10:30am: The Election Commission of India on Saturday said the Bharatiya Janata Party's theme song composed by Asansol MP Babul Supriyo cannot be played anywhere. "Election Commission has said BJP MP Babul Supriyo's song against which TMC had objected won't be allowed to play. The song was being used by BJP in various parts of Bengal without permission. The song will have to be withdrawn," said West Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer. Congress has finally decided on a slogan for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Their slogan for the polls is 'Ab Hoga NYAY'. According to reports, Congress had spent a while on their campaign slogan before finalising on 'Ab Hoga NYAY'. This indicates that the Congress' campaign is heavily banking on the minimum income scheme. As mentioned in a report in Indian Express, internal surveys carried out by Congress shows that the NYAY scheme has gained traction in several states. A senior Congress leader told the daily that they will keep talking, simplifying and communicating about it as much as they can. The party had finalised the agencies to execute the campaign a fortnight ago. The creative media work will be executed by a Bengaluru agency. Percept and Golden Rabbit will be executing the electronic media advertisements at the national and regional levels. Active Media and Golden Rabbit will execute the print advertisements. Active Media will be responsible for the radio advertisements, the daily mentioned. On March 25, the Congress party announced their ambitious NYAY scheme. According to the party, the NYAY scheme, a minimum income support scheme (MISP), will provide Rs 72,000 annually to 20% of the poorest families. Congress said that this scheme will help around 5 crore families comprising around 25 crore people. "The estimated cost will be <1 per cent of GDP in Year 1 and <2 per cent of GDP in Year 2 and thereafter. As the nominal GDP grows and families move out of poverty, the cost will decline as a proportion of GDP," stated the Congress manifesto. "Congress intends to implement NYAY as a joint scheme of the central and state governments. The scheme will be funded through new revenues and rationalisation of expenditure. Current merit subsidy schemes that are intended to achieve specific objectives will be continued," the manifesto declared. "This money would go to the bank account of the woman in the family. Every month, this money will directly go to the bank accounts of women. Crores of women will get power and India would stand on its own," said Rahul Gandhi at an election rally. As per former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the NYAY scheme would cost 1.8% of the GDP at any given time as per the party's calculation and would not cross 2%. Also read: Congress manifesto: NYAY scheme to be tested for 6-9 months before rollout Also read: MIT professor suggested minimum income plan to Congress, but not Rs 6,000 per month Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan blamed India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for "whipping up war hysteria" over claims that India shot down a Pakistani F-16 during a standoff in February, saying the truth is always the best policy. US-based Foreign Policy magazine, citing US officials, said all of Pakistan's F-16 combat jets had been accounted for, contradicting an Indian air force assessment that it had shot down one of the jets. "The truth always prevails and is always the best policy," Khan said in a tweet. "BJP's attempt to win elections through whipping up war hysteria and false claims of downing a Pak F 16 has backfired with US Defence officials also confirming that no F16 was missing from Pakistan's fleet." Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan engaged in an aerial battle over the disputed region of Kashmir a day after Indian jets crossed over into Pakistan to attack a suspected camp of anti-India militants. The truth always prevails and is always the best policy. BJP's attempt to win elections through whipping up war hysteria and false claims of downing a Pak F 16 has backfired with US Defence officials also confirming that no F16 was missing from Pakistan's fleet. - Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 6, 2019 An Indian jet was brought down during the fight and its pilot captured when he ejected on the Pakistani side of the border. He was later released. India said it too had shot down a Pakistani aircraft and the air force displayed pieces of a missile that it said had been fired by a Pakistani F-16 before it went down. Foreign Policy said in a report published on Thursday two US defence officials with direct knowledge of the matter said US personnel had done a count of Pakistan's F-16s and found none missing. Details of the India-Pakistan air engagement have not been fully provided by either side. If the US report turns out to be true, it would be a further blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had said that India had taught Pakistan a lesson, ahead of elections next week. The BJP is campaigning on a platform of tough national security, especially with regard to arch foe Pakistan. New Delhi blames Pakistan for stoking a 30-year revolt in Muslim-majority Kashmir but Islamabad denies any involvement. BJP spokesman Bizay Sonkar Shastri dismissed Khan's accusations. "Firstly, their (Pakistan's) habit of lying is no secret to the world. Secondly, this is absolutely clear that the roots of terrorism lie in Pakistan and terrorism is cultivated in Pakistan," he told Reuters. The success of Indian air strikes on a camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group in northwestern Pakistan has also been thrown into doubt after satellite images showed little sign of damage. High-resolution satellite images reviewed by Reuters last month showed that a religious school run by Jaish appeared to be still standing days after India said its warplanes had hit the Islamist group's training camp on the site and killed a large number of militants. Pakistan closed its airspace amid the standoff but most commercial air traffic has since resumed and major airports have opened. Pakistan offered to open one air route on Friday, an Indian government official said, without specifying details and declining to be named as the matter was not public. An Air India official said on condition of anonymity that Pakistan has opened one of its 11 air routes, from the southern side, adding that the carrier began operations via this route on Friday. "Pakistan has opened one air route over India on April 4th, it is a north-west bound route," Mujtaba Baig, spokesman for Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority, told Reuters on Saturday. An email sent to the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation was not immediately answered. Air India did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Also read: Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale to give proof of Pakistan's misuse of F-16s to top US officials Also read: A day after Pulwama attack, IAF was ready with plan to strike Jaish camps in Balakot, PoK: Here's a timeline Ferrucci Registers First IndyCar Top 10 Starting Position Posted by: ASkyler on Apr 06, 2019 - 08:37 PM Ferrucci Registers First IndyCar Top 10 Starting Position For the second race in a row, Dale Coyne Racings Santino Ferrucci made it to the second round of qualifying when he placed his #19 David Yurman 10th on the grid for Sundays Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, once again improving on his best starting position in the NTT IndyCar Series. After sitting outside of the Top 6 in the first round of qualifying for the first half of the 10-minute session, Ferrucci jumped up to first thanks to a lap of 1:08.5672, registered on the Firestone Alternate tires, before ending the session in third. While Ferrucci felt like he had a car to make it into the Firestone Fast 6, he was unable to put together an optimal qualifying lap during Round 2 and had to settle with 10th after putting in a lap time of 1:09.0213 around the 2.38-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park permanent road course. Ferruccis previous best qualifying result was 11th at Circuit of the Americas a couple of weeks ago. I cant thank my #19 Dale Coyne Racing, David Yurman crew enough today, expressed Ferrucci. Weve had a good car all weekend so far, and it deserved to be in the Firestone Fast 6 today. Unfortunately, I didnt put the lap together at the end and we ended up P10. This crew has worked really hard and deserved an even better starting position, but, that said, Im confident we can have a really good race and move up the field, when it really counts. Im super excited for the Honda Indy Grand Prix tomorrow. The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama will be broadcast live on NBCSN from 4pm ET on Sunday, April 7 with the green flag scheduled for 4:15pm ET (3:15pm local). PaddockTalk Perspective Police have confirmed that a cyclist was found dead on a Co Down road on Saturday. Read More The man was found collapsed on the Ballynahinch Road in Dromara at around 1.05pm. Police and the Ambulance Service attended the scene but were unable to revive the man and he was pronounced death. A PSNI spokesperson said that "at this stage, the death is not being treated as suspicious." The Ballynahinch Road was closed for a period on Saturday afternoon but has since reopened to traffic. An ATM machine has been stolen from a filling station in Co Londonderry, the eighth similar incident this year. The latest incident took place outside Dungiven in the early hours of Sunday morning. The theft from the filling station on Feeny Road was reported to police just before 4:30am. A digger, believed to have been taken from a site a short distance away, was used to rip the machine from the wall at the side of the shop leaving substantial damage to the building. The digger was not set alight and was located at the scene. Read More Shop owner Martin O'Kane surveyed the damage from behind a police cordon on Sunday afternoon. "The men who did this are just scumbags," he said. "There are going to be less and less ATMs about now because of these attacks. There is one basically happening every week now. "I probably won't get another cash machine in again - and that will be the local community losing out." The latest theft marks the ninth ATM stolen in Northern Ireland this year across eight separate incidents. A number of ATMs have also been targeted in the Irish Republic in recent months. Earlier this year a dedicated PSNI team was set up to investigate and police warned that paramilitaries could be profiting from the thefts. Retail NI Chief Executive Glyn Roberts said words failed to describe his anger after the latest incident. Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close The scene at O'Kane's filling station outside Dungiven, Co. Derry, where an ATM was stolen with the aid of a digger in the early hours of Sunday morning. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye PACEMAKER 07/04/2019 Thieves have used a digger to steal a cash machine from a shop in County Londonderry. Police said the incident at a shop outside Dungiven happened at about 04:30 BST on Sunday. It is the latest in a series of ATM thefts on both sides of the Irish border, with the PSNI saying it was the eighth such incident in 2019. It warned there could be several gangs involved in the theft of cash machines in Northern Ireland. PHOTO STEPHEN DAVISON/PACEMAKER An ATM has been stolen from a cash machine in Dungiven. Credit: Cop/vosa watch Derry / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The scene at O'Kane's filling station outside Dungiven, Co. Derry, where an ATM was stolen with the aid of a digger in the early hours of Sunday morning. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye "Yet again a local independent retailer, who provides an invaluable service to the local community, is awakened from his sleep to be told his business is smashed up and ATM stolen, he said. The gangsters behind these attacks are systematically targeting independent retailers. Our members in every part of Northern Ireland feel under siege, and are asking themselves if they will be next I will be seeking an urgent meeting with the Chief Constable and the Chair of the Policing Board to discuss this crisis and what further can be done DUP Mid Ulster MLA Keith Buchanan called on the PSNI to "step up their focus" on the issue. "DUP Policing Board members will meet the Chief Constable later this week and the spate of ATM thefts is something we will raise during that meeting," he said. Detective Inspector Richard Thornton said police were working to combat the spate of recent ATM thefts. "Unfortunately, the public and the business community are today waking to the news that another ATM machine has been stolen; that another business has been targeted by these brazen thieves," he said. "As in all of these ATM thefts, the actions of these criminals have not only caused immediate financial harm to the business targeted, but they have understandably caused fear in the community and impacted upon a vital service many local people rely on. "I want to appeal to anyone who was in the area and who may have witnessed the theft, or who saw the digger being driven to the scene, to contact us. "I would also appeal to anyone who saw any suspicious activity in the last few days in the area to call us. If you have information which you believe could assist our investigation please, pick up the phone and call detectives on 101, quoting reference number 357 of 07/04/19." Detective Inspector Thornton appealed on members of the public to report any suspicious activity to police. We are doing all we can to catch the people responsible it is a key priority for us however, I want to reiterate that the key to stopping these crimes and getting ahead of these criminals is information from the public," he said. We need people to report anything suspicious, including seeing any unusual activity or people in areas close to ATMs. For example, if you hear machinery late at night or in the early hours please let us know. "If you see any cars being driven in a suspicious manner close to where ATMs are located, please let us know. No matter how insignificant you think it is, call us and we will investigate. It could be key to catching the criminals responsible. Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime. Police at the scene of the crash on the Castleward Road. Picture: Philip Walsh A man in his 60's has been killed following a crash between two cars and a motorcycle in Co Down on Sunday morning. The three vehicle crash took place on the Castleward Road in Strangford around 11:30am. It was reported that a motorcycle, a Renault Clio and a Nissan Qashqai were involved in the incident. The Castleward Road has reopened to traffic after being closed for a number of hours. Police have appealed for information. We are appealing to anyone who witnessed the collision or who may have dash-cam footage available to contact police on 101, quoting reference 608 7/4/19," a PSNI spokesperson said. Michaella McCollum with Melissa Reid at the time of their arrest in Peru in 2013 'Peru Two' drug mule Michaella McCollum is currently in talks with a production company about bringing her story to the small screen. The Co Tyrone woman came to prominence in 2013 after being caught with Scottish woman Melissa Reid attempting to smuggle 1.5m worth of cocaine out of Peru. She initially denied the charge, claiming that they had been forced to become mules. The pair later admitted to drug smuggling and were jailed for six years and eight months. Both women were released in 2016. The high profile 25-year-old was set to publish her book 'House of Women' about her time in a South American prison last year, but the publication has been delayed. Read More Earlier this week, while on a trip to London, McCollum posted on her Instagram page with the caption: "Successful meeting with production company. What would you like to see the book turned into?" House of Women will be released by John Blake Publishing and is described as "the prison memoir of Michaella McCollum, one half of the infamous 'Peru Two' imprisoned in a Peruvian jail for attempting to smuggle 11kg of cocaine". "Told through her own diaries and letters to her mother, family and friends, and the 'stupid mistake that would change her life forever'," promotional material for the book reveals. "Recounting tales of vicious guards, psychotic inmates and horrendous prison conditions, the story is truly shocking. Expand Close Michaella McCollum / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michaella McCollum "Before she made the decision that would characterise the rest of her life, Michaella was just an ordinary girl who enjoyed a good time. "Many readers will be able to identify with her a party girl who took it a step too far." A well-placed source has said that the book could become the next big crime drama. "There is huge demand, real life is often stranger than fiction. Think Netflix series Narcos, based on druglord Pablo Escobar, or The People vs OJ Simpson," the source revealed. "Danny Boyle directed Trust about the Getty kidnap, earlier this year the ITV series Manhunt was big, starring Martin Clunes as the man who brought serial killer Levi Bellfield to justice. "The book Manhunt by the cop who got Bellfield (Colin Sutton) was timed to come out at the same time for maximum impact. If Michaella does the same she could make a fortune. "The series also ran back to back on consecutive nights. You are seeing now that with mini-series drama they are rolled out over a week as we have a binge-watch and box set generation now. "You can go on Netflix and consume a whole series as quick as you like and true crime drama is huge right now - but there are very few based on women." The source said that a television production could prove very lucrative for McCollum. "That will be a major hand to play for Michaella - a young attractive woman finds herself involved in the world of international drug trafficking and ends up languishing in a grotty Peru prison. It's a great story, what's not to like?," the source said. "The book, a TV series, modelling, a spoken word tour - there is the potential there for Michaella to make thousands and get very rich from it." Since being released from prison McCollum has signed with management company BLVK which handles the careers of reality television stars from programmes like 'Geordie Shore' and 'Ex on the Beach'. She gave birth to twin sons last year. Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle ONeill has claimed there will be an Irish unity referendum within the next short number of years. The Mid Ulster MLA made the comments while addressing colleagues at the partys local election campaign launch in Dublin yesterday. Mrs ONeill said that the Brexit debate had changed opinions on a united Ireland and called on people to begin preparing for a border poll. She said that change is in the air, pointing to the electoral success of Sinn Fein in the two most recent votes. Over the past two elections in the north the unionist majority has gone, Mrs ONeill added. Unionists no longer hold the majority of the seats in the Stormont Assembly. Mrs ONeill said the notion of a perpetual unionist majority the very basis of partition is gone and that Brexit had completely transformed the context. People who were previously apathetic about a united Ireland are re-engaged, and people who would have been opposed to a united Ireland are now reconsidering their position, she added. There is no doubt that Brexit has been a catalyst for mainstreaming the debate now under way, where people of all shades of opinion are considering the benefits of remaining within the United Kingdom against the merits of staying within the European Union through a unified Ireland. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) Read More Mrs ONeill said that because of Brexit, Irish unity was no longer a long-term aim, and that a referendum was a very real prospect within the next short number of years. She called on party members to reach out and work with people from all identities and ideologies, and persuade them that interests are best served in a united Ireland. A united Ireland is within our grasp. We are in the most defining period since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and Ireland is changing rapidly, she said. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald confirmed that the party will meet in Belfast next week to select its local candidate for the upcoming European elections. Expand Close Martina Anderson / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Martina Anderson It remains to be seen whether UK candidates will participate, but Prime Minister Theresa May has indicated they could as she seeks another Brexit extension until June 30 due to the ongoing chaos at Westminster. It is anticipated European Council president Donald Tusk will suggest a year-long extension, which can be ended if the UK agrees a withdrawal deal before an upcoming summit in Brussels. Sinn Fein will be ready, we will be prepared to energetically contest EU elections in the north, Ms McDonald said. We will give the people of the north the opportunity to vote for a Sinn Fein candidate who will stand up for their interests, for the interests of Ireland. Nominations for the candidate will open today and close on Friday with a selection convention held in Belfast next Saturday. Party veteran Martina Anderson is the standing Sinn Fein MEP. Ryanair has cancelled a number of Belfast to London flights. Ryanair have told some passengers flying to London Stansted from Belfast International Airport that their flights have been cancelled. The BBC has reported that passengers were informed of the cancellations in an email, which blamed it on an "operational review". It comes after a decision to reduce flights from Belfast to London Stansted to twice weekly from June 2. The airline currently operates three return flights a day between Belfast International and Stansted with an extra flight on Sundays. Read More In March Ryanair blamed air passenger duty (APD) and a weak market in the UK for the reduction. "Our services to London Stansted and Manchester will reduce from three and two times daily, to twice weekly services, due to the weak UK market, and UK air passenger duty, which is currently payable at both airports on domestic routes (26)," a statement said. Ryanair have been approached for comment in relation to this story. Sinn Fein leaders Michelle ONeill (left) and Mary Lou McDonald will speak to Jeremy Corbyn on Monday (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Sinn Fein leaders are to tell Jeremy Corbyn that Irish interests must be protected whatever the outcome of his Brexit negotiations with the Prime Minister. Party president Mary Lou McDonald and vice president Michelle ONeill will hold talks with the Labour leader in London on Monday. Mrs McDonald outlined the message she would deliver to Mr Corbyn while unveiling the partys European and local council election candidates in Co Dublin on Sunday. At the event in Roganstown, the republican leader confirmed Sinn Fein would hold a convention in Belfast next weekend to select a candidate to contest a potential European election in Northern Ireland. We are ready for the task ahead, these are very important elections because we are at a very critical time, not least because of Brexit and the chaos in London which continues, she said. We spoke with Prime Minister Theresa May in the course of last week and tomorrow a Sinn Fein delegation will go to London. We will meet with Jeremy Corbyn. We will set out again the very clear need to protect Irish interests and make it very clear that whatever way Brexit lands deal or no deal Irish interests have to be protected. She added: Our peace process, our all-Ireland economy and crucially, our citizens rights, cannot be the collateral damage to the Tory Brexit. Mrs ONeill told the launch event that Irish unity was within grasp of republicans. A new conversation and public discourse is underway about Irelands strategic interests post-Brexit and our constitutional future, she said. People of all shades of opinion can see that the Good Friday Agreement provides a peaceful and democratic path to Irish Unity and with it a pathway back into the EU. The political landscape is changing. Change is in the air. Over the past two elections in the north the unionist majority has gone. The notion of a perpetual unionist majority the very basis of partition is gone. Brexit has now also completely transformed the context. People who were previously apathetic about a United Ireland are re-engaged, and people who would have been opposed to a United Ireland are now reconsidering their position. There is no doubt that Brexit has been a catalyst for mainstreaming the debate, where people of all shades of opinion are considering the benefits of remaining within the United Kingdom against the merits of staying within the European Union through a unified Ireland. What Brexit means Deal or No Deal is that a United Ireland is no longer a long-term aim. A referendum on Irish unity is a very real prospect within the next number of years. A United Ireland is within our grasp. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Leo Varadkar said the new deal should attract more medics into general practice (PA) Major reforms to GP contracts in Ireland will encourage more doctors to enter general practice, the Taoiseach has predicted. Leo Varadkar said the package agreed with the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), including a 40% funding boost of 210 million euro over the next four years, would make being a GP a more attractive career option. Mr Varadkar joined health minister Simon Harris at a healthcare centre in Dublin on Saturday as they announced details of the contractual reforms. Expand Close Mr Varadkar, left, and Mr Harris announced the new reforms at the Centric Health Primary Care Centre in Dublin (@LeoVaradkar/Twitter/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Varadkar, left, and Mr Harris announced the new reforms at the Centric Health Primary Care Centre in Dublin (@LeoVaradkar/Twitter/PA) The agreement includes proposals to extend free GP care to children aged six to 12 on a phased basis, starting in 2020. Currently free GP care only extends to children aged five or under. The package outlined on Saturday includes a new structured chronic disease management programme, which is predicted to benefit more than 430,000 Medical Card and GP Visit Card patients over the next four years. There are also several modernisation measures in the areas of eHealth, medicines management and multidisciplinary working. Initiatives include the roll-out of electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) and the development of shared electronic patient records. This year will also see the introduction of a pharmacist-led medication reviews system. The contract includes increased funding support for rural practices and for those in disadvantaged urban areas. Improvements to maternity and paternity leave arrangements for GPs have also been agreed. Joined @LeoVaradkar to announce major new deal for GPs -investment of 210m will support GPs, increase rural allowance, provide fund for areas of deprivation, expand maternity/paternity supports, hire more practice nurses, expand eligiblity & new chronic disease management plan pic.twitter.com/Z2XINQX1xI Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) April 6, 2019 Mr Varadkar said: I am very happy that we have been able to conclude an agreement with the IMO on a revised GP contract. The agreement provides for a 40% increase in funding for general practice over the next four years and its front-loaded. I believe this will encourage more doctors to go into general practice and will provide new funding to develop practices and the services they provide. In return, GPs will agree to work with us on much-needed reforms including more cost-effective prescribing of medicines, waiting list validation and use of new ICT systems. The Taoiseach added: The minister for health and I are also signalling our intention to extend the free GP care scheme for children which currently applies to children aged five and under, to all children aged 6-12. Announcing agreement with @IMO_IRL on a major package of #GP contractual reforms to benefit patients and their GPs - 40% frontloaded increase in funding for GP over 4 years. A vital move to implement @slaintecare providing the right care in the right place at the right time pic.twitter.com/e7pPhbB3hr Department of Health (@roinnslainte) April 6, 2019 Alongside the new staff nurses contract agreed with unions earlier this week and the reduction in prescription charges and the widening of income limits for the GP Visit Card, I believe this represents a major step forward in the implementation of Slaintecare, increased resourcing of primary care, transferring chronic disease management from hospitals to the community, and widening the provision of free and subsidised healthcare. Mr Harris said: This agreement is a landmark for the health service. For the first time we will see the structured care on a large scale of patients with chronic conditions in a primary care setting. I am delighted also that GPs will engage strongly with the exciting eHealth agenda which will enable safer, joined-up patient care and will also help the health service to greatly reduce the use of outmoded paper-based communications and record-keeping. Theresa May has warned that Brexit could slip through our fingers unless a compromise deal can be reached with Labour. The Prime Minister, who has been accused by Labour of failing to propose changes to her deal in cross-party negotiations, insisted their positions offered the basis for a compromise. She said agreeing a deal could lead to the UK leaving the European Union in six weeks but a failure could result in no Brexit at all. The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all. It would mean letting the Brexit the British people voted for slip through our fingersTheresa May Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wants a customs union to be part of a deal and he is also under pressure from his party to insist on a second referendum on any agreement although that could trigger a revolt by some of his MPs, including senior frontbenchers. Mrs May faces anger from Conservative Brexiteers over the prospect of the UKs departure being delayed, with one minister saying that if Britons were required to elect MEPs on May 23 it would be like writing a suicide note for the Tory party. The Prime Minister heads to Brussels on Wednesday to ask for an extension to June 30, with the possibility of an earlier Brexit day if a deal is agreed but the EU has signalled it would insist on a longer delay rather than risk repeated requests for extra time. The Prime Minister said she had done everything in my power to persuade Tory and DUP MPs to back her deal but acknowledged the Withdrawal Agreement had been rejected by the Commons three times and there is no sign it can be passed in the near future. Because Parliament has made clear it will stop the UK leaving without a deal, we now have a stark choice: leave the European Union with a deal or do not leave at all, she said. My answer to that is clear: we must deliver Brexit and to do so we must agree a deal. If we cannot secure a majority among Conservative and DUP MPs we have no choice but to reach out across the House of Commons. The referendum was not fought along party lines and people I speak to on the doorstep tell me they expect their politicians to work together when the national interest demands it. The fact is that on Brexit there are areas where the two main parties agree: we both want to end free movement, we both want to leave with a good deal, and we both want to protect jobs. That is the basis for a compromise that can win a majority in Parliament and winning that majority is the only way to deliver Brexit. But she warned that the longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all. It would mean letting the Brexit the British people voted for slip through our fingers. I will not stand for that, she said. Labour has accused Mrs May of refusing to consider changes to the Political Declaration, the document setting out a framework for the UKs future relationship with the EU. Mr Corbyn said: The Labour position is a customs union with the European Union, access to European markets and the retention of regulations for environment, consumers, and workplace rights as a base on which we can build a dynamic relationship which means we can never fall below them. Weve set all that out. I havent noticed any great change in the Governments position so far. Im waiting to see the red lines move. The prospect of a long extension to the Article 50 process could mean the UK being required to take part in the May 23 elections to the European Parliament, almost three years after voting for Brexit. Government minister Nadhim Zahawi issued a stark warning about the seismic changes to British politics that would be unleashed if the UKs delayed departure meant the elections went ahead. It would be, I think, a suicide note of the Conservative Party if we had to fight the European elections, he told BBC Radio 4s Today. European leaders will decide on Mrs Mays request at an emergency summit on Wednesday in Brussels. #Brexit: "Another extension requires the UK to put forward a plan with clear and credible political backing," says Europe Minister @AdeMontchalin: https://t.co/bagQYZwApB pic.twitter.com/2sOiKYtb6F French Embassy UK (@FranceintheUK) April 5, 2019 European Council president Donald Tusk is expected to recommend a longer postponement of one year, with a break clause in the case of earlier ratification, in a so-called flextension deal. An extension is not automatic and requires the agreement of all 27 other EU countries, with France demanding a plan from Mrs May that has clear and credible political backing. Irish premier Leo Varadkar warned that any EU country vetoing an extension would not be forgiven. If one country was to veto an extension and, as a result, impose hardship on us, real problems for the Dutch and Belgians and French as neighbouring countries they wouldnt be forgiven for it and they would know they might find themselves on the other end of that veto power in the future so it is extremely unlikely that I could see any country vetoing it, he told RTE Radio One. Mrs May has already obtained one extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process, postponing the date of Brexit from March 29 to April 12. Chancellor Philip Hammond acknowledged the frustration with the British among the 27 other EU members. Most of the colleagues that I am talking to accept that we will need longer to complete this process, so I am optimistic about the council on Wednesday, he said. I understand that EU colleagues are somewhat fed up that the process has taken as long as it has; we are also fed up that we havent been able to complete this earlier, but I am very confident that we will get it done. The no confidence motion was passed at the AGM of the Jewish Labour Movements annual general meeting (David Mirzoeff/PA) The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) has said it has no confidence in Jeremy Corbyns leadership following the anti-Semitism rows in the party. The no confidence vote was passed overwhelmingly at JLMs annual general meeting, with the group labelling Mr Corbyn unfit to be prime minister. Labour insisted Mr Corbyn was fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community. At the JLM meeting a motion noting the crisis of anti-Semitism within the party since Mr Corbyns election as leader was passed almost unanimously. The group said there were were strong speeches from Labour MPs Dame Margaret Hodge, Ruth Smeeth and Dame Louise Ellman at the event at a north London synagogue. Motion 1 - Labour Party Antisemitism (with Amendment B - No Confidence in Jeremy Corbyn) passes almost unanimously after strong speeches from members including @margarethodge @RuthSmeeth and @LouiseEllman #JLM2019 Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour) April 7, 2019 The no confidence motion was passed despite a plea from shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti not to personalise the issue by focusing on Mr Corbyn because he wont be leader forever. My plea to the Jewish Labour Movement is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together, not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn, because he is one person and he wont be leader forever, she said. The JLM motion concludes that the blame for both the crisis of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party and the partys failure to deal with it ultimately rests with Jeremy Corbyn. It added that Jeremy Corbyn is therefore unfit to be prime minister and a Labour government led by him would not be in the interest of British Jews. Amendment A has passed 81-67 so we now move on to Amendment B on motion 1: No Confidence in Jeremy Corbyn #JLM2019 pic.twitter.com/Ba5ouJalFW Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour) April 7, 2019 Speaking after the meeting, Liverpool Riverside MP Dame Louise said the no confidence vote reflected the deep anger about the Labour Partys failure to address anti-Semitism. Stoke North MP Ruth Smeeth said she felt sick after the meeting and added: Jewish members of the Labour Party have come together in anger and frustration to make it clear to the leadership that enough really must be enough. A Labour spokesman said: Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and its organisations. Anti-Semitism complaints received since April 2018 relate to about 0.1% of our membership, but one anti-Semite in our party is one too many. We are determined to tackle anti-Semitism and root it out of our Party. Sources stressed that Mr Corbyn had repeated expressed a determination to root out anti-Semitism and stressed that anyone who spreads anti-Semitic poison does not do so in his or the partys name. "He is one person and he won't be leader forever" - Shami Chakrabarti asks the Jewish Labour Movement to "stay in the Labour movement and tackle racism together. Not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn" #Ridge https://t.co/q2DW9wNbzD pic.twitter.com/uwtX5Nywkg Trevor Phillips on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) April 7, 2019 The JLM meeting took place after the Sunday Times said it had seen leaked internal documents which showed the partys system for dealing with complaints had been beset by delays, inaction and interference from the leaders office. Some members investigated for posting comments online such as Heil Hitler and Jews are the problem had not been expelled despite complaints being made a year ago, while Mr Corbyns office had been involved in approving, delaying or blocking at least 101 complaints, the paper reported. But Labour said lines from internal emails had been selectively leaked to misrepresent their overall contents and cases stopped being referred to the leaders office once Jennie Formby became general secretary a year ago. Lady Chakrabarti, who led a review into anti-Semitism allegations in the party, told Sky Newss Sophy Ridge On Sunday: Jennie Formby is a very strong general secretary who is committed to making this a priority. So there is no interference from Jeremy Corbyn or his staff in the disciplinary process. Marie Scott is being awarded the highest French decoration, the Legion dhonneur (The Taxi Charity/PA) A former switchboard operator at the communications headquarters for the D-Day landings is being awarded the highest French decoration. Marie Scott was 17 years old when she was involved in listening to and collating messages for Operation Overlord at Fort Southwick, Portsmouth, Hampshire. Now the 92-year-old from New Malden, south-west London, is being presented with the Legion dhonneur for her role in the invasion to liberate western Europe from the Nazis. Expand Close Former switchboard operator Marie Scott (The Taxi Charity/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former switchboard operator Marie Scott (The Taxi Charity/PA) As part of the 75th anniversary of D-Day in June, Ms Scott will travel with the Taxi Charity to Normandy with a group of 30 Second World War veterans. She will be officially presented with the Legion dhonneur by a French general at the Memorial Pegasus Museum in Normandy on June 5. She said: I am truly overwhelmed to receive the Legion of Honour for the part we played in the D-Day landings. Very few women have received this medal and it is a true honour. Being officially presented with the medal at the Pegasus Museum on June 5 surrounded by a group of World War Two veterans will be a very moving experience. Expand Close Ms Scott will travel with the Taxi Charity to Normandy with a group of 30 Second World War veterans (The Taxi Charity/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ms Scott will travel with the Taxi Charity to Normandy with a group of 30 Second World War veterans (The Taxi Charity/PA) The Taxi Charity for Military Veterans was formed in Fulham in 1948 and arranges trips for veterans from all conflicts. A spokeswoman for the charity said: Working on the switchboard in Fort Southwick, Marie would pass messages from the continent to the leaders of Operation Overlord, General Eisenhower and Field Marshall Montgomery. One of her most vivid memories is that when the beaches transmitted she could hear the gunfire. Cross-party talks between the Government and Labour are expected this week as Theresa May warned Brexit could slip through our fingers unless a compromise can be found. Shadow business minister Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of Labours negotiating team, said it was disappointing that there had not been any shift in the Governments red lines but the overall mood is quite a positive and hopeful one. Labours key demand is for a customs union with Brussels in order to protect the flow of goods, but Brexiteers vehemently oppose anything that would restrict the UKs ability to strike free trade deals through being bound by tariffs set by the EU. Expand Close Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip attended a Sunday church service ahead of another crucial week for the Brexit process (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip attended a Sunday church service ahead of another crucial week for the Brexit process (Andrew Matthews/PA) Ms Long-Bailey told BBCs Andrew Marr Show that Labour had discussed how any changes to the Brexit agreement could be entrenched so that any potential future Conservative leader, such as Boris Johnson, would not be able to rip up any compromise a so-called Boris-proof deal. She said a customs union was defined in international law and the proposals we have seen from the Government so far and their direction of travel over the last two years have not been compliant with the definition of a customs union. But Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said the Prime Ministers deal with Brussels already had a customs arrangement in it aimed at tariff-free trade. She added: My expectation and Im not party to the discussions is that the Prime Minister will only seek to agree those things that still constitute Brexit. The Prime Minister heads to Brussels on Wednesday for an emergency summit aimed at securing a further delay to Brexit, with Mrs May hoping for an extension until June 30 at the latest, with the option of leaving the EU earlier if a deal can get through Parliament. If no extension is agreed then the UK is set to leave without a deal on Friday. It is a very hypothetical question Shadow Business Sec Rebecca Long-Bailey on revoking Article 50 to avoid a no deal #Brexit#Marr https://t.co/YDe43V1G51 pic.twitter.com/6uX3gljWSL BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) April 7, 2019 Ms Long-Bailey suggested Labour could be prepared to revoke Article 50, cancelling Brexit, if the UK was heading towards a no-deal scenario. We have promised our party members and our constituents that we will do all we can to avoid a no-deal situation and its something that we would consider very, very strongly, she said. Signalling that talks aimed at reaching a deal with the Tories were expected to continue she said hopefully at the beginning of next week we will be having further discussions. But we are currently waiting for the Government to come back to us now to state whether they are prepared to move on any of their red lines, she said. Ms Long-Bailey also said that Labour had raised the prospect of a second referendum to prevent a damaging or no-deal Brexit. Some 80 MPs, including frontbenchers, have written to Jeremy Corbyn demanding a public vote on any deal that emerges from the talks. Brexiteer Mrs Leadsom said she would never back the revocation of Article 50, insisting the UK could survive and thrive after a no-deal exit and it would be not nearly as grim as many would advocate. No deal #Brexit would "not be nearly as bad as many like to think it would be" says Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom#Marr https://t.co/Ne0ZloZP6f pic.twitter.com/oK4mLnNch0 BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) April 7, 2019 The Commons Leader said the Tories were working with Labour through gritted teeth, adding that a second referendum is an appalling idea and taking part in the European elections would be utterly unacceptable. The Prime Minister said she had done everything in my power to persuade Tory and DUP MPs to back her deal, but acknowledged the Withdrawal Agreement had been rejected by the Commons three times and there is no sign it can be passed in the near future. Because Parliament has made clear it will stop the UK leaving without a deal, we now have a stark choice: leave the European Union with a deal or do not leave at all, she said in a statement. Defending the cross-party approach, she said: The fact is that on Brexit there are areas where the two main parties agree: we both want to end free movement, we both want to leave with a good deal, and we both want to protect jobs. That is the basis for a compromise that can win a majority in Parliament and winning that majority is the only way to deliver Brexit. But she warned that the longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all. It would mean letting the Brexit the British people voted for slip through our fingers. I will not stand for that, she said. Tory Eurosceptics are furious at the Prime Ministers handling of the Brexit process. European Research Group chairman Jacob Rees-Mogg told Sky News: The Prime Minister could have taken us out on March 29. It was the Prime Minister who asked for an extension, it was the Prime Minister who changed the date by prerogative power from March 29 to April 12. This all rests with her and upon her shoulders. The Prime Minister, Mrs May, has made active choices to stop us leaving and she deserves to be held to account for that. Ex-whip Michael Fabricant predicted open revolt in the Conservative Party and among Leave voters if Mrs May agreed to a customs union. The Sunday Telegraph reported that Conservative activists are refusing to campaign for the party and donations have dried up because of Mrs Mays leadership. In a letter to the Prime Minister, more than 100 current and would-be Tory councillors state that they are unable to muster the volunteers needed to effectively fight next months local elections because belief in the party they joined is gone. Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab said Mrs Mays approach threatens to damage the Conservatives for years and that teaming up with Mr Corbyn could be potentially disastrous for the nation. Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said: There is now a danger that Brexit could be lost and that the Government could fall handing the keys to Downing Street to Corbyn. A white paper on online harms has been published by the DCMS and the Home Office (Nick Ansell/PA) The Government will introduce world first internet safety laws designed to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online, new proposals claim. A white paper on online harms, published jointly by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Home Office, proposes strict new rules be introduced that require firms to take responsibility for their users and their safety, as well as the content that appears on their services. It suggests punishing social media companies with large fines or blocking them from being accessed. Overseen by an independent regulator, internet companies which break these rules could even see senior management held personally liable for the failings. A newly introduced duty of care will require firms to take more responsibility for the safety of users and more actively tackle the harm caused by content or activity on their platforms. The internet can be brilliant at connecting people across the world - but for too long these companies have not done enough to protect users, especially children and young people, from harmful contentTheresa May The regulator will have the power to issue substantial fines, block access to sites and potentially impose liability on individual members of senior management. However, the proposals have prompted warnings that oversight should not amount to state censorship. A 12-week consultation will now take place before ministers publish draft legislation. The proposed measures are part of a Government pledge to make the UK one of the safest places in the world to be online, and comes in response to concerns over the growth of violent content, encouraging suicide, disinformation and the exposure of children to cyberbullying and other inappropriate material online. A number of charities and campaigners have called for greater regulation to be introduced, while several reports from MPs and other groups published this year have also supported the calls for a duty of care to be implemented. Prime Minister Theresa May said the proposals were a sign the age of self-regulation for internet companies was over. Expand Close The Prime Minister says self-regulation for internet firms is over (Victoria Jones/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Prime Minister says self-regulation for internet firms is over (Victoria Jones/PA) The internet can be brilliant at connecting people across the world but for too long these companies have not done enough to protect users, especially children and young people, from harmful content, she said. Online companies must start taking responsibility for their platforms, and help restore public trust in this technology. The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, added that tech firms had a moral duty to protect the young people they profit from. Despite our repeated calls to action, harmful and illegal content including child abuse and terrorism is still too readily available online, he said. That is why we are forcing these firms to clean up their act once and for all. Vital discussions at G7 around online terror content especially after horrors of Christchurch. I made clear our upcoming Online Harms White Paper will ensure social media firms take more responsibility. Much more global action needed in this area #G7France (1/2) pic.twitter.com/Kc9aMPCIRG Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) April 4, 2019 The proposed new laws will apply to any company that allows users to share or discover user-generated content or interact with each other online, the Government said, applicable to companies of all sizes from social media platforms to file-hosting sites, forum, messaging services and search engines. It also calls for powers to be given to a regulator to force internet firms to publish annual transparency reports on the harmful content on their platforms and how they are addressing it. Companies including Facebook and Twitter already publish reports of this nature. Responding to the proposals, Facebooks UK head of public policy Rebecca Stimson said: New rules for the internet should protect society from harm while also supporting innovation, the digital economy and freedom of speech. These are complex issues to get right and we look forward to working with the Government and Parliament to ensure new regulations are effective. Peter Wanless, chief executive of childrens charity the NSPCC which has campaigned for regulation for the past two years said the proposals would make the UK a world pioneer in protecting children online. For too long social networks have failed to prioritise childrens safety and left them exposed to grooming, abuse, and harmful content, he said. So its high time they were forced to act through this legally binding duty to protect children, backed up with hefty punishments if they fail to do so. However, there have been warnings that the proposals could amount to state censorship. This mooted new UK regulator must not give the despots an excuse to claim that they are simply following an example set by BritainJohn Whittingdale These things are always justified as being for good, kind and worthy objectives, but ultimately its giving power to a state regulator to decide what can and cannot be shown on the internet, Victoria Hewson, of the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank, told the BBC. Maybe the authorities should be trying to stop these things at source. Former culture secretary John Whittingdale warned ministers risked dragging people into a draconian censorship regime in their attempts to regulate internet firms. Writing in the Mail On Sunday, he said he feared the plans could also give succour to Britains enemies, giving them an excuse to further censor their own people. SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said Labour should be very careful in their negotiations with Theresa May on Brexit (Jonathan Brady/PA) The SNPs Westminster leader has warned Labour that they will pay a price at the ballot box in Scotland if a deal with the Tories increases the risk of a hard Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May has been holding talks with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to reach a compromise deal to break the Brexit deadlock. Mr Corbyn wants a customs union to be part of a deal and he is also under pressure from his party to insist on a second referendum on any agreement However, Ian Blackford MP said that Labour should be very careful as any future government would not be bound by what was agreed by a previous one. @IanBlackfordMP on #SundayPoliticsScotland warns Labour that if they are the midwife to a Tory Brexit to rule out Customs Union and free movement of people then they will pay the price in Scotland. Stacey McCrear (@StaceyMcCrear92) April 7, 2019 Earlier, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom told the Andrew Marr show: No government binds the hands of a future government. Mr Blackford warned that if someone like Boris Johnson were to become prime minister, the risk of a hard Brexit would be very real. He told BBC Sunday Politics Scotland: I would say to colleagues in the Labour Party be very careful because if you do allow this deal to get through, and we know that Theresa May is going to go, you could end up with someone like Boris Johnson as prime minister and quite frankly he can come along with any legislation that he chooses to do so. There are no guarantees through this process, and the risk of having a hard Brexit, having Scotland being outwith not just the single market and the customs union, would be very real, and I would say to Labour dont do this, be very careful with what you are doing or quite simply you will pay a price at the ballot box in Scotland. Mr Blackford said the Prime Minister is asking Mr Corbyn to effectively be the midwife of Brexit and to rule out free movement of people. He urged both parties to be very careful because free movement of people is absolutely essential to Scotland to deliver growth in its economy. A Labour spokesman said: The Prime Minister hasnt moved on her red lines and there hasnt been much compromise from the Tories. Labour is still working to find a solution that avoids a disastrous no-deal Brexit. The Duchess of Sussex is awaiting the birth of her first child (Dominic Lipinski/PA) The Duchess of Sussex has appointed her own delivery team to oversee the birth of her first child, it has been reported. The Mail on Sunday reports that Meghan has broken from royal tradition by not appointing the Royal Household gynaecologists because she does not want the men in suits to supervise the birth. The paper said the 37-year-old, who is expected to give birth later this month, has appointed an unnamed female doctor to lead the team instead of Alan Farthing and Guy Thorpe-Beeston. Expand Close The Duchess of Sussex has reportedly appointed her own delivery team (Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duchess of Sussex has reportedly appointed her own delivery team (Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror/PA) The two gynaecologists attended at the arrival of all three of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges children, it adds. A spokesman for the Royal Family declined to comment. However, it is understood that there will definitely be a role for the Queens doctors in the birth, but it might not be a prominent one. Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko, left, meets with Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley inside the Russian Embassy in London (RTR via AP) Novichok victim Charlie Rowley has said he didnt really get any answers after meeting with Russias ambassador in London to question him about the death of his partner Dawn Sturgess. Mr Rowley said he still believed Russia was responsible for the Salisbury attack and that he was fed Russian propaganda during the 90-minute discussion. The 45-year-old was exposed to the same nerve agent used to attack ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last March. Expand Close Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to nerve agent Novichok (Metropolitan Police/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to nerve agent Novichok (Metropolitan Police/PA) Mr Rowley and Ms Sturgess, 44, fell ill in Amesbury months later after coming into contact with a perfume bottle believed to have been used in the poisonings and then discarded. Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Mr Rowley said Alexander Yakovenko had seemed genuinely concerned about his situation when they met at the Russian embassy in Kensington, but had not changed his view on Russias involvement in the poisonings. I went along to ask them Why did your country kill my girlfriend?, but I didnt really get any answers, he said. Expand Close Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko, left, meets with Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley, centre, and his brother Matthew, inside the Russian Embassy in London (RTR via AP) AP / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko, left, meets with Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley, centre, and his brother Matthew, inside the Russian Embassy in London (RTR via AP) I liked the ambassador, but I thought some of what he said trying to justify Russia not being responsible was ridiculous. Im glad I met him and feel I did find out some things I didnt know before. But I still think Russia carried out the attack. Mr Rowley, who says he continues to suffer from the long-term effects of exposure to Novichok, said he had asked the ambassador more than a dozen questions in all, including asking him about his claims that Britain was behind the attack. Expand Close A perfume bottle and applicator recovered by police from Novichok victim Charlie Rowleys address in Amesbury (Metropolitan Police/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A perfume bottle and applicator recovered by police from Novichok victim Charlie Rowleys address in Amesbury (Metropolitan Police/PA) He said Mr Yakovenko told him the substance used had not come from Russia and that the country only had small amounts of Novichok. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror after the meeting, Mr Yakovenko said he and Mr Rowley were on the same page and wanted to see a report into the investigation published. It is important for Russia, but also for Charlie Rowley, he said. Ive seen a normal person who has really suffered a lot and who has suffered a tragedy in his life. If he asked for it, I would give him support. In September, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service said there was sufficient evidence to charge two Russians known by their aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with offences including conspiracy to murder over the Salisbury nerve agent attack. Expand Close Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov (Metropolitan Police/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov (Metropolitan Police/PA) They are accused of being members of the Russian military intelligence service the GRU. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement, with president Vladimir Putin claiming the two suspects were civilians. During an interview, the pair said they were tourists visiting Salisbury particularly its famous cathedral. The Scottish Greens have argued they are the only the only political party to have maintained a rock solid Brexit position. In her closing speech at the party conference in Edinburgh, the parliamentary co-leader Alison Johnstone criticised both the Conservatives and Labour on Brexit. She said: In the face of timidity, stupidity, selfishness, tribalism and outright racism we have been rock solid. People know where we stand on the EU. Members of other parties dont have that certainty. But folk know the Greens wholeheartedly want to be in the EU, and to work to change what needs to be changed. No ifs, no buts. She accused the Conservatives of having plumbed new depths on Brexit, while saying the behaviour of the Labour Party on the issue has left her baffled. 'International socialists don't collude with the Tories to end freedom of movement in Europe' @AlisonJohnstone #SGPConf pic.twitter.com/nykaBcM0CV Ross Greer (@Ross_Greer) April 7, 2019 The MSP told delegates: How can it be the case that not a single Scottish Conservative has voiced their disquiet about the behaviour of their colleagues in Westminster? We are told that the majority of Scottish Conservatives, like the overwhelming majority of people in Scotland, like every local authority area in Scotland, voted to remain in the EU, yet not a peep. Not even in the face of the hardest of Brexits. I was going to say that Im not surprised at their behaviour, but I am. Their behaviour has plumbed new depths. Its now clear that they dont care if livelihoods are lost, if ordinary people suffer as a result of their obsession. And what about the so-called official opposition? Their initial response, the incredible Jobs First Brexit? To put it politely I am absolutely baffled by their behaviour. International socialists? International socialists dont collude with the Tories to remove the right of citizens to freedom of movement within the EU. Voting to remove the rights of people to move, and to work. The so-called party of the worker. British Sculptor Nic Fiddian-Green puts the finishing touches to his new 6m high copper horse in his Surrey studio, before it is transported to Venice in Italy for the Biennale Art fair, which runs from May 1 to July 31. The UK sculptor behind the 33ft Marble Arch drinking horse in London has crafted two more horse heads which will be displayed at the Venice Biennale art exhibition. Nic Fiddian-Green has created an 18ft piece called Serenity, as well as an 8ft head called I Search Beyond which will be transported by barge down the Great Canal in the Italian city on April 27. The heads, forged from copper and gold leaf beaten by hand, will then be put on display at the Church of the Madonna dell Orto. Expand Close Nic Fiddian-Green puts the finishing touches to a horse head in his Surrey studio (Steve Parsons/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Nic Fiddian-Green puts the finishing touches to a horse head in his Surrey studio (Steve Parsons/PA) Fiddian-Green has been a full-time artist sculpting horses for 35 years, working with an ancient bronze casting technique. I Search Beyond weighs 500kg (1,100lb) and took six months to complete. It is part of Fiddian-Greens Roman Horse series. Serenity, which is part of the Still Water series that includes the Marble Arch head, weighs 1,000kg (a tonne) and took a year to complete. Expand Close Still Water head, called Serenity, weighs 1,000kg and took a year to complete (Steve Parsons/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Still Water head, called Serenity, weighs 1,000kg and took a year to complete (Steve Parsons/PA) He said: Im thrilled to be showing at the next Biennale. Ever since I saw the horse of Selene, one of the Elgin Marbles, as a student I have followed this lifelong obsession sculpting the horses head and I have been fascinated by mans relationship with the horse over the centuries. Part of the exhibition for me is the journey and travelling with horse as generations have done, from my studio in England, across Europe and the Alps and then arrive by sea to the Grand Canal and this beautiful church. Here, where the great artist Tintoretto painted the altarpiece and is buried, a vision of the Virgin Mary also occurred. I feel honoured to be showing at such a Holy place this is Holy ground in this most beautiful city. Expand Close The horse head sculpture will be transported to Venice for the famous Biennale (Steve Parsons/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The horse head sculpture will be transported to Venice for the famous Biennale (Steve Parsons/PA) To create his heads, Fiddian-Green sculpts a clay form and then covers it in plaster. From this he creates a resin-fibreglass form. He then beats copper sheets over the form and uses brass rivets to secure the copper. The final process is to patinate (colour) the metal with heat and chemicals. The exhibition will take place between May 1 and July 31. Serenity will be on show outside the church, while the Roman Horse will be inside the building, alongside a five-metre beaten copper monument titled Almighty Hands a sculpture of the artists own hands in prayer. Theresa May has defended her decision to hold cross-party talks with Labour (Andrew Matthews/PA) Time is running out for Theresa May to reach a Brexit compromise with Labour ahead of a summit with European leaders this week. The Prime Minister has angered Tories by holding talks with Labour, with Brexiteers including Boris Johnson concerned she will accept a customs union as the price for a deal with Jeremy Corbyn. Mrs May has told European Union leaders she wants a delay to Brexit until June 30 at the latest, with the possibility of an early exit if she can get a deal through Parliament. But Brussels is expected to demand a clear strategy from the Prime Minister at a meeting of EU leaders on Wednesday and could insist on a longer delay which would require the UK to participate in European elections. Let me explain what's happening with Brexit.pic.twitter.com/gjGkvFk8fT Theresa May (@theresa_may) April 7, 2019 In a video message recorded in her Chequers country retreat, Mrs May said both sides will have to compromise in the cross-party talks with Labour. The negotiations stalled after Labour said the Prime Minister had refused to set out any changes to her Brexit red lines and no further face-to-face meetings have yet been confirmed. The Prime Minister acknowledged that she could not see the Commons accepting her deal in its current form and MPs would not agree to a no-deal exit currently the default position at 11pm on Friday unless an extension is granted. That was the reason for the new approach of cross-party talks with Labour as the choice that lies ahead of us is either leaving the EU with a deal or not leaving at all. She said: Itll mean compromise on both sides but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us. If no deal can be reached with Labour, Mrs May has committed to putting a series of Brexit options to the Commons and being bound by the result. If the UK were to commit to remaining in the customs union, it would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum resultBoris Johnson Solicitor General Robert Buckland told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour that a customs union does mean that we deliver an end to freedom of movement and it does mean that we deliver the vast majority of the aims of Brexit, which was to leave the institutions of the European Union. Its not perfect but, frankly, in this particular hung parliament none of us can get perfection, we need to compromise. He said that something approximating a customs arrangement or customs union would be the most likely outcome of the process. But former foreign secretary Mr Johnson used his Daily Telegraph column to warn that Tory MPs would not allow Mrs May to surrender to Mr Corbyn. If the UK were to commit to remaining in the customs union, it would make a total and utter nonsense of the referendum result, he said. To agree to be non-voting members of the EU, under the surrender proposed by Jeremy Corbyn it cannot, must not and will not happen. In a further sign of the constraints on Mrs May, Brexiteer Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt warned a long delay to Brexit would be unacceptable to the public and businesses which were already having to prepare for a whole raft of eventualities. For me, the critical thing is that we leave, we do it swiftly, we dont get locked into fighting European elections, she told City AM. Brexit is something we have to do to arrive at where the public wanted to be, which is to have more control over laws, borders, money and trade, and having an independent trade policy. Shadow business minister Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of Labours negotiating team, said while it was disappointing that there had not been any shift in the Governments red lines last week, the overall mood is quite a positive and hopeful one. Expand Close Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip attended a Sunday church service ahead of another crucial week for the Brexit process (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip attended a Sunday church service ahead of another crucial week for the Brexit process (Andrew Matthews/PA) Ms Long-Bailey told BBCs Andrew Marr Show the proposals we have seen from the Government so far and their direction of travel over the last two years have not been compliant with the definition of a customs union. But she indicated talks aimed at reaching a deal with the Tories were expected to continue early this week. It is a very hypothetical question Shadow Business Sec Rebecca Long-Bailey on revoking Article 50 to avoid a no deal #Brexit#Marr https://t.co/YDe43V1G51 pic.twitter.com/6uX3gljWSL BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) April 7, 2019 Ms Long-Bailey suggested Labour could be prepared to revoke Article 50, cancelling Brexit, if the UK was heading towards a no-deal scenario on Friday. We have promised our party members and our constituents that we will do all we can to avoid a no-deal situation, she said. On Monday, peers will continue considering Yvette Coopers Bill forcing the Prime Minister to request a Brexit extension rather than leave the EU with no deal. The Bill, which gives MPs significant power over the Brexit process, scraped through the Commons by a single vote last week. Meanwhile, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier will travel to Ireland for talks with Leo Varadkar ahead of Wednesdays summit. At the weekend, Mr Varadkar said his preference was for a longer delay than the June 30 date proposed by Mrs May and said it was extremely unlikely that any one of the 27 EU leaders would use their veto over an extension at the European Council meeting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected. The vow marks a dramatic policy shift apparently aimed at rallying his nationalist base in the final stretch of a tight race. Mr Netanyahu has promoted Jewish settlement expansion in his four terms as prime minister but until now refrained from presenting a detailed vision for the West Bank, seen by the Palestinians as the heartland of a future state. An Israeli annexation of large parts of the West Bank could snuff out any last flicker of hope for an Israeli-Palestinian deal on the terms of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in 1967. A so-called two-state solution has long been the preferred option of most of the international community. However, intermittent US mediation between Israelis and Palestinians ran aground after President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital early in his term. The Palestinians, who seek Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as their capital, suspended contact with the US. I will not uproot anyone, and I will not transfer sovereignty to the Palestinians.Benjamin Netanyahu More recently, Mr Trump recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a plateau Israel captured from Syria in 1967. The move was viewed in Israel as a political gift by Mr Trump to Mr Netanyahu who is being challenged by former military chief Benny Gantz. Polls have indicated a close race, though Mr Netanyahus Likud Party is expected to have a better chance than Mr Gantzs Blue and White slate to form a ruling coalition. Polls forecast more than 60 out of 120 parliament seats for the Likud and smaller right-wing and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties On Saturday, Mr Netanyahu gave an interview to Israels Channel 12 TV. He portrayed the US policy shifts on Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as his achievements, saying he had managed to persuade Mr Trump to take these steps. Mr Netanyahu pledged that he would not dismantle a single Jewish settlement and that Israel would retain control of the territory west of the Jordan River the West Bank. More than 600,000 Israelis now live on war-won lands, two-thirds in the West Bank. The interviewer asked why he had not annexed some of the larger settlements during his current term. The question you are asking is an interesting question, whether we will move to the next stage and the answer is yes, he said, adding that the next term in office would be fateful. We will move to the next stage, the imposing of Israeli sovereignty. I will impose sovereignty, but I will not distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements, he said. From my perspective, any point of settlement is Israeli, and we have responsibility, as the Israeli government. I will not uproot anyone, and I will not transfer sovereignty to the Palestinians. In any partition deal, the more isolated Jewish settlements would likely have to be uprooted to create a viable Palestinian state. Saeb Erekat, a veteran former Palestinian negotiator, said he held the international community, especially the Trump administration, responsible for Israels policies. Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administrations support and endorsement of Israels violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine, he said. The Chicago prosecutor whose office dismissed charged against Jussie Smollett has defended the decision, saying the Empire actor was treated no differently than thousands of other defendants whose charges were similarly dropped since she took office. Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx made the comments during a defiant and emotional address at the Rev Jesse Jackson Srs Rainbow Push Coalition. Ms Foxx openly wondered if her race had something to do with the harsh criticism she has faced since her office announced that charges against Smollett had been dropped. The actor was accused of staging what he claimed to be a racist and homophobic attack in January. I have been asking myself for the last two weeks what is this really about, she said. Expand Close Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx (Kiichiro Sato/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx (Kiichiro Sato/AP) As someone who has lived in this city, who came up in the projects of this city to serve as the first African American woman in this role, it is disheartening to me that when we get in these positions somehow the goalposts change. Ms Foxx, who recused herself from the case after she communicating with a Smollett relative during the probe, reiterated that she welcomes of an independent investigation into the way she and her office handled the case. She also reminded the audience that her office did the same thing for the nearly 6,000 low-level defendants who had their charges dropped with deferred prosecution during her tenure. Further, she said that under the law, Smollett could be fined a maximum of 10,000 dollars and that the actor did pay that amount because his 10,000-dollar bond was forfeited. But Ms Foxx did not address specifics of the case, or the criticism levelled by legal experts and others who said it was highly unusual not to require an admission of guilt by Smollett, particularly since at the time they dropped charges, prosecutors said they believed they could have proven the charges against the actor. In my 48 years of practice, I certainly have never seen a deferred prosecution done like that, Richard Kling, an IIT-Kent Law School professor told the Chicago Sun-Times last week. Ms Foxx also responded to the calls by various critics to resign, saying that she will complete her term that ends next year and has plans to run for re-election. Guwahati: The gate-keeping role of traditional media has been questioned by observers, despite the advent of social media where everyone has a say but there is little credible analysis. Reacting to the recent controversy over NaMo TV, the Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA) has urged news channels in particular to introspect whether they too are facing a major credibility challenge. The forum, in a statement issued today, posed the question whether common viewers are turning to raw news rather than interpretative news content aired by recognized news channels. If the answer is yes, it could mean professional journalists are being rendered irrelevant as news consumers prefer 'unedited' content to make up their minds about public issues 'without any journalistic manipulation'. It may be noted that since March 31 last, a new 24x7 channel, named NaMo TV, became available in all major direct-to-home (DTH) and cable platforms across the country. It started telecasting mostly full (or uncut') speeches, some in real time, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a few other leaders and Union ministers of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). NaMo TV doesnt feature on the list of Information and Broadcasting Ministrys (GoI) permitted private satellite TV channels and hence since its arrival, a major debate has been sparked over its legality and ownership. The Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have complained to the Election Commission (EC) against the channel, arguing that it violates the model code of conduct, following which the EC sent notices to the concerned ministry. Meanwhile, former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi, in a recent interview, commented that NaMo TV does not violate the poll code, which came into effect on March 10 with the Election Commission declaring the 7-phase national polls starting from April 11, counting of which would take place on May 23. Universal health coverage or UHC is WHOs number one goal globally. The World Health Organization has said quality healthcare services for people at the community level across all age groups, wherever they live and whenever they need them, without financial hardship, is fundamental to advancing universal health coverage for achieving health and well-being of everyone, everywhere. A well-functioning primary care system that meets most of a persons health needs, throughout the life course, is central to universal health coverage, said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, on World Health Day, celebrated every year on 7 April. The theme of the day this year is Universal Health Coverage, Health for All: Everyone, Everywhere. Universal health coverage or UHC is WHOs number one goal globally. In the WHO South-East Asia Region, UHC has been a flagship priority program since 2014. The Region has seen encouraging progress, with essential health service coverage improving in all countries, along with the availability of doctors, nurses and midwives. There is also growing inter-country collaboration to improve access to quality medicines through the South-East Asia Regulatory Network. However, more needs to be done as, despite progress, around 800 million people still lack full coverage of essential health services and at least 65 million people are pushed into poverty because of health spending, most of which goes on medicines, Dr Khetrapal Singh said. Identifying opportunities and areas where efforts are needed to advance UHC, the Regional Director said frontline services must adapt to emerging challenges - such as for continuing care for increasing numbers of people with noncommunicable diseases and health issues associated with ageing. Primary care services should lead in preventing and treating disease. Frontline and hospital services should work together, to increase the use of primary care and decrease over-crowding in hospitals. As a large share of outpatient care is delivered by private providers and financed by out-of-pocket payment, we need new approaches to address the double challenge of protecting people from financial exploitation and poor-quality care, while harnessing the private sectors extensive assets, the Regional Director said. Community and local government representatives are key allies in building healthy communities. Digital technologies could be better leveraged to empower people and communities to look after their own health. In October 2018, at the Global Conference on Primary Health Care in Astana, countries from across the world agreed that providing quality primary health care was fundamental to advancing UHC. In September 2019, the UN General Assembly will hold a high-level meeting on UHC, where delivering more equitable access to primary health care will be core to the discussion to achieve Health for All: everyone, everywhere. Now more than ever, the Region can harness the momentum from these global processes and drive real impact where it matters most: in countries, and at the grassroots. Doing so is crucial to achieving health and well-being for all, at all ages, the Regional Director said. 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? 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You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). VANCOUVER - A protracted court battle over a gold, diamond-studded eagle statue has landed in favour of a major insurance company, which will now be allowed to challenge a claim over the treasure that was allegedly stolen in the Vancouver area nearly three years ago. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 6/4/2019 (983 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. VANCOUVER - A protracted court battle over a gold, diamond-studded eagle statue has landed in favour of a major insurance company, which will now be allowed to challenge a claim over the treasure that was allegedly stolen in the Vancouver area nearly three years ago. Justice Robin Baird of the British Columbia Supreme Court overturned a default judgment against Lloyd's Underwriters, saying the insurer has a substantial defence against a company called Forgotten Treasures International and its president Ron Shore. Lloyd's, which was ordered last December to pay out a claim against the eagle, argued Shore violated the terms of a policy involving the statue, which was encrusted with 763 diamonds, weighed eight kilograms and was appraised at $930,000. "The plaintiff's decision to take default judgment was ill-advised but it falls short of reprehensible conduct worthy of chastisement or rebuke," Baird wrote in his ruling, which also lists two other insurance companies as defendants. It says the eagle was supposed to be the main prize as part of an international treasure hunt Shore operated to raise money for cancer research. The eagle was allegedly stolen by "unknown assailants" on May 29, 2016, when Shore was putting a knapsack containing the statue in the trunk of his vehicle following a promotional event in Delta, B.C., the ruling says. Lloyd's denied Shore's claim, saying he breached the terms of a policy by transporting the eagle without a designated employee or representative at all times except when it was deposited in a bank safe or vault. Shore filed a notice of civil claim in May 2018, alleging breach of contract and failure to investigate the claim in a timely manner, breach of duty as well as negligence by an adjuster. Baird said that by the time Lloyd's was served with the lawsuit, it had already interviewed a woman who accompanied Shore out of a venue in Delta and established she was a friend, not a designated employee or representative, and that she had driven away in her own vehicle when the alleged robbery occurred. Lloyd's had not wilfully and deliberately failed to respond to Shore's civil claim, he wrote, adding Shore was not required to provide meet the insurer's "tactical demand" for more information about the allegations, which he said were not frivolous but may ultimately be difficult or impossible to prove. "In my view, default judgment should not have been sought or taken," he said. "Communications between the parties had made it perfectly clear that there was an active, ongoing dispute between the parties with a substantial defence forthcoming, and not one that was merely worthy of investigation, but one which had been communicated clearly and precisely." Baird ordered Lloyd's to file a response to Shore's civil claim within 21 days and said each party must pay its own costs. MONCTON, N.B. - A lawyer retained by women who suspect they were improperly given a labour-inducing drug says the number of alleged victims of a Moncton nurse's inappropriate treatment is growing. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. MONCTON, N.B. - A lawyer retained by women who suspect they were improperly given a labour-inducing drug says the number of alleged victims of a Moncton nurse's inappropriate treatment is growing. The Horizon Health Network has publicly confirmed there were "at least two" pregnant women who had to receive emergency intervention after receiving the drug inappropriately from the registered nurse. A spokeswoman has also said 40 more women had come forward as of Tuesday seeking information from the Moncton Hospital about their treatment. The health agency declined further comment on Sunday, citing an ongoing criminal investigation by the RCMP. However, John McKiggan, a medical malpractice lawyer based in Halifax, says he and the Moncton firm Fidelis Law have been asked to represent "dozens" of women who suspect they were also treated by the nurse. The lawyer said more than two women have told him the Moncton Hospital has informed them they were also victims of the inappropriate administration of oxytocin by the nurse. "I know for sure there are more than two because the hospital has told women that they were a victim of this nurse," McKiggan said, though he said he is unclear on the total numbers. Oxytocin is a drug given to women to induce and speed up labour by causing the uterus to contract. Hospitals normally have strict policies in place requiring pregnant woman receiving the drug to be closely monitored for adverse effects from the sudden contractions, as they may lead to a reduction of oxygen flow to the baby. "It's a terribly dangerous drug and one you have to carefully monitor. And it would be shocking that a nurse could have access to oxytocin without a hospital knowing that, and it being administered without anyone else being aware of it," said McKiggan. The Halifax-based lawyer says women who were hooked up to an IV and who started suffering strong contractions shortly after receiving the IV have been contacting the hospital and his office. He said the hospital should be providing women with more information, as in some instances the mothers aren't being told if the registered nurse being investigated was involved in their treatment. The hospital "should be acknowledging their responsibility for what happened and offering whatever information they can to mothers who were concerned about whether or not they were victimized," he said in an interview. "I spoke to one mom this week who called the hospital to try and find out if the nurse involved was part of her labour and delivery team ... but the hospital refused to tell her whether the nurse was on the team." Horizon Health spokeswoman Emely Poitras referred The Canadian Press to a prior posted comment by the hospital which invites women "who experienced quick onset labour" to contact the health agency and discuss their medical concerns. The Moncton Hospital has confirmed that the unidentified nurse had been fired after at least two pregnant women were allegedly given the drug oxytocin inappropriately. Dr. Ken Gillespie, the hospital's chief of staff, has said the pregnant women required emergency intervention but added the mothers and their babies were not harmed. RCMP have confirmed they are investigating the case, but were unavailable for further comment on Sunday. Some research has suggested oxytocin can cause the uterus to tear, with potentially catastrophic consequences. Horizon Health operates the Moncton Hospital and 11 others, along with more than 100 medical facilities and clinics in New Brunswick. by Michael Tutton in Halifax OTTAWA - Andrew Scheer is challenging Justin Trudeau to follow through on a threat to sue him over his assertion that the prime minister politically interfered with the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavlin. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer asks a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, April 3, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick OTTAWA - Andrew Scheer is challenging Justin Trudeau to follow through on a threat to sue him over his assertion that the prime minister politically interfered with the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavlin. The Conservative leader revealed Sunday that he received a letter on March 31 from Trudeau's lawyer, Julian Porter, threatening a libel suit. "I stand by every single criticism I have made of Mr. Trudeau's conduct in regards to this scandal, including those Mr. Trudeau's lawyer cites in his letter," Scheer told a news conference. "If Mr. Trudeau intends to pursue this course of legal action, if he believes he has a case against me, I urge him to do so immediately. This is an urgent matter of public interest and it deserves to be heard in a legal setting where Liberals do not control the proceedings." Scheer said he looks forward to Trudeau testifying "for hours" under oath in open court. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer speaks during a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Sunday, April 7, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang That said, Scheer made it clear he believes Trudeau is bluffing. He called the threatened lawsuit "a bullying attempt" to prevent the official Opposition from doing its constitutional duty to hold the government to account and a continuation of Trudeau's attempts to "silence those who stand up to Justin Trudeau and who seek the truth" just as he tried to silence former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, Scheer said. In a statement, the Prime Minister's Office said Scheer and his party "have repeatedly made false and defamatory statements. We put him on notice that there are consequences for making completely false and libellous statements." Wilson-Raybould maintains she was inappropriately pressured last fall by the Prime Minister's Office to stop criminal proceedings against SNC-Lavalin on bribery charges related to contracts in Libya. She believes she was moved to Veterans Affairs in a mid-January cabinet shuffle as punishment for refusing to override the director of public prosecutions, who had decided not to negotiate a remediation agreement, a type of plea bargain, with the company. She resigned from cabinet a month later. Last week, Trudeau expelled both Wilson-Raybould and fellow former cabinet minister Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus. Philpott had resigned from cabinet in early March, citing a loss of confidence in the government's handling of the SNC-Lavalin case. At issue in the threatened libel suit is a statement Scheer issued on March 29 in which he said documentation provided by Wilson-Raybould to the House of Commons justice committee including a surreptitiously recorded phone conversation with the clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick is "concrete evidence that proves Justin Trudeau led a campaign to politically interfere with SNC-Lavalin's criminal prosecution." Porter called the statement "highly defamatory." "The prime minister supports wide-ranging and vigorous political debate on matters of public policy," he said in his letter to Scheer. "However, your statement, in its entirety, is beyond the pale of fair debate and is libellous of my client personally and in the way of his occupation as prime minister." Porter said it's "entirely false" to say Trudeau interfered in the SNC prosecution, which has not been halted, or that he personally directed Wilson-Raybould to "break the law" and "fired" her when she refused. It's also entirely false to suggest Trudeau was aware of Wilson-Raybould's concern that he was politically interfering in the SNC case but lied to Canadians about it, Porter said. Scheer's statement that the affair amounts to "corruption on top of corruption on top of corruption" was meant to suggest that Trudeau "had engaged in dishonest and corrupt conduct that would contravene the Criminal Code," a crime deserving of up to 14 years in prison, Porter said. That too was "entirely false." Undeterred, Scheer repeated that phrase twice during his news conference Sunday. While Conservatives have embraced every other aspect of Wilson-Raybould's testimony as the absolute truth, they have not accepted her conclusion that nothing illegal occurred. "That was her opinion on that," said Scheer, noting that he's asked the RCMP to investigate whether any laws were broken. He said he's not heard anything from the RCMP other than an acknowledgment of his Feb. 28 request for an investigation. Scheer's lawyer, Peter Downard, wrote back to Porter on Sunday, saying that Scheer "will not be intimidated." If Trudeau is serious about suing, Downard said he must immediately take steps to preserve all relevant documents and to notify all members of his government, past and present, who've been involved in the SNC-Lavalin matter that they can expect to be called to testify. If Trudeau does not proceed with the threatened lawsuit, Downard said Scheer will conclude that Trudeau "has properly acknowledged that Mr. Scheer's statements were appropriate and grounded in evidence before the Canadian people." OTTAWA - Andrew Scheer is challenging Justin Trudeau to follow through on a threat to sue him over his assertion that the prime minister politically interfered with the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavlin. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer asks a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, April 3, 2019. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press files) OTTAWA - Andrew Scheer is challenging Justin Trudeau to follow through on a threat to sue him over his assertion that the prime minister politically interfered with the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavlin. The Conservative leader revealed Sunday that he received a letter on March 31 from Trudeau's lawyer, Julian Porter, threatening a libel suit. "If Mr. Trudeau believes he has a case against me, I urge him to follow through on his threat immediately," Scheer said in a statement. "Canadians want this scandal to be investigated in a legal setting where Liberals do not control the proceedings." Scheer said he looks forward to Trudeau testifying under oath in open court. He called the threatened lawsuit "an intimidation tactic" aimed at silencing the Conservatives, who have been demanding a thorough, independent investigation of the affair. It's the same kind of tactic Trudeau has employed to silence former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, said Scheer. "This is what Justin Trudeau does when you stand up to him. He threatens you." Like Wilson-Raybould, Scheer added: "We will not back down. We will continue to do our jobs, hold him to account and get to the bottom of this." Wilson-Raybould maintains she was inappropriately pressured last fall by the Prime Minister's Office to stop criminal proceedings against SNC-Lavalin on bribery charges related to contracts in Libya. She believes she was moved to Veterans Affairs in a mid-January cabinet shuffle as punishment for refusing to do so. She resigned from cabinet a month later. While she has called the pressure improper, Wilson-Raybould has said she doesn't believe anything illegal occurred. Last week, Trudeau expelled both Wilson-Raybould and fellow former cabinet minister Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus. Philpott had resigned from cabinet in early March, citing a loss of confidence in the government's handling of the SNC-Lavalin case. At issue in the threatened libel suit is a statement Scheer issued on March 29, in which he said documentation provided by Wilson-Raybould to the House of Commons justice committee including a surreptitiously recorded phone conversation with the clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick is "concrete evidence that proves Justin Trudeau led a campaign to politically interfere with SNC-Lavalin's criminal prosecution." Porter called the statement "highly defamatory." "The prime minister supports wide-ranging and vigorous political debate on matters of public policy," he said in his letter to Scheer. "However, your statement, in its entirety, is beyond the pale of fair debate and is libellous of my client personally and in the way of his occupation as prime minister." Porter said it's "entirely false" to say Trudeau interfered in the SNC prosecution, which has not been halted, or that he personally directed Wilson-Raybould to "break the law" and "fired" her when she refused. It's also entirely false to suggest Trudeau was aware of Wilson-Raybould's concern that he was politically interfering in the SNC case but lied to Canadians about it, Porter said. Scheer's statement that the affair amounts to "corruption on top of corruption on top of corruption" was meant to suggest that Trudeau "had engaged in dishonest and corrupt conduct that would contravene the Criminal Code," a crime deserving of up to 14 years in prison, Porter said. That too was "entirely false." In response, Scheer's lawyer, Peter Downard, wrote back Sunday that Scheer "will not be intimidated" and is simply performing his "constitutional duty" to hold the government to account. If Trudeau is serious about suing, Downard said he must immediately take steps to preserve all relevant documents and to notify all members of his government, past and present, who've been involved in the SNC-Lavalin matter that they can expect to be called to testify. If Trudeau does not proceed with the threatened lawsuit, Downard said Scheer will conclude that Trudeau "has properly acknowledged that Mr. Scheer's statements were appropriate and grounded in evidence before the Canadian people." MONTREAL - Thousands of Montrealers chanted for solidarity and loudly denounced Premier Francois Legault on Sunday as they took to the streets to oppose the Quebec government's proposed secularism bill. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. People hold up signs during a demonstration in Montreal, Sunday, April 7, 2019, in opposition to the Quebec government's newly tabled Bill 21. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes MONTREAL - Thousands of Montrealers chanted for solidarity and loudly denounced Premier Francois Legault on Sunday as they took to the streets to oppose the Quebec government's proposed secularism bill. The crowd chanted slogans such as "Quebec, it's our home!" as they marched against the legislation that would ban the wearing of religious symbols on the job for public sector employees deemed to be in positions of authority, including teachers, judges and police officers. The protesters included Aymen Derbali, who was seriously injured in the January 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting where six Muslim men were killed. Derbali, who attended with fellow survivor Said El-Amari, told the crowd that rather than working to reduce stigma and Islamophobia, the government is tabling discriminatory legislation that unfairly targets Muslim women. "Instead of weighing in on societal problems, (the Legault government) wants to adopt a law that oppresses the rights of women to wear their hijabs and to work," said Derbali, who was partly paralyzed in the shooting and now uses a wheelchair. Taran Singh, a member of Montreal's Sikh community, said the government should focus on issues such as the school dropout rate and hospital emergency room wait times rather than pitting Quebecers against each other. "What the political parties in Quebec are doing is dividing us," Singh said. "Anglophones against francophones, federalists against sovereigntists, laypersons against religious immigrants. "This mentality of us versus us doesn't serve anyone." Selsabil Hamiham, a 21-year-old student, said the proposed bill attacks her identity. "I don't believe Francois Legault has the power to tell me how to dress, how to be," she said. Wearing a hijab was her own choice, she added. "Since nobody forced me to wear it, nobody can make me take it off," she said. Sunday's event was the largest of a series of protests that have been held to denounce the legislation, known as Bill 21. The crowd included representatives from many of Montreal's cultural groups, including the Muslim, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese communities. The event was organized by Adil Charkaoui, a controversial Islamic educator who was once accused by Ottawa of having terrorist ties. Charkaoui was arrested under Canada's security certificate system in 2003, but he was never charged. On Sunday, he called on Quebecers to reject the bill, which he said aims to tell Muslim women how to dress and where to work. The Quebec government argues the bill is reasonable and in line with the values of Quebecers, and last week Legault said it doesn't violate religious freedom. People who would be excluded from public sector jobs because of the law can find other work, he said. Legault also noted that his government included a grandfather clause that would exempt current employees from the restrictions as long as they remain in the same job. Popular author and broadcaster Gareth OCallaghan is busy writing his next book and is staying positive despite being diagnosed with a rare life-changing and incurable disease. The father of three left his role in Classic Hits FM last Summer after receiving a diagnosis of Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), a neurodegenerative illness. The progressive disease results in a loss of function and death of different types of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Around 3,000 people in Ireland and the UK have been diagnosed with it. Following an absence of several weeks updating fans on how his health has been on his official Facebook page, OCallaghan revealed he has been keeping busy writing his latest book. He posted: I've been meaning to say hello to you for some time now. The days are slipping by, and I keep saying to myself write something. "Then something pops up and gets in the way, and I end up thinking I'll do it tomorrow. So here I am. Thank you to those of you who message me to say 'hello', and ask me to put up a few words. What have I been up to? Well, I've been writing something that I think is quite special. Hoping for a publication date before the end of the year. OCallaghan hinted that his forthcoming book may be on a similar vein as that of cancer awareness advocate Vicky Phelan. Speaking of books, I'm really looking forward to reading Vicky Phelan's memoir, which is due to be published in October. Vicky is truly special. She has saved so many lives because of her single-minded determination, and her refusal to bow to establishment pressure. She will always be a hero in the hearts of this generation. It promises to be an amazing book. O'Callaghan has been writing since 1995 and is the author of six best-selling works five novels and a memoir. He wrote A Day Called Hope: A Journey Beyond Depression about his own personal experience of severe depression. It has been published in 15 countries, and translated into 10 languages. The mental health advocate also update fans on how his health has been, So where are we now? Good question. Good days, and some not so good. New medications that help you to sleep. Others that ease pain. Extra physio(therapy) which is really helping my legs and back; and now, from next week, Speech Therapy. This will help to keep my voice strong and consistent. I might even be able, at last, to sing without emptying a room! I'm also continuing to stay positive. I have to. There is no choice here. I've spent a lot of time over the past few weeks thinking about how important time has become to me. I've wasted so much precious time over the years. Now I'm trying to make sure that not another minute is wasted. It also occurred to me recently just how beautiful and uplifting a simple smile can be. Something so simple can be the most defining moment of your day. It's all so obvious, and I had to wait until now to truly realise what are among the most important things on this curious, unpredictable journey each of us is travelling. The tide is coming in behind me @PaulaDelaney53 is asking me to stand perfectly still until she gets a better pic! pic.twitter.com/jMVyH62SNm Gareth O'Callaghan (@GarethOCal) March 28, 2019 Thousands of people reacted to his announcement with messages of support and love. One fan messaged him by saying, What a truly amazing guy you are. Following you progress with great interest. Stay well and I will read your book for sure. Another added: Lovely to hear from you Gareth I thought of you during the week when I heard a Don Henley song. You always played him miss you so much on the radio keep strong. Donegal gardai have paid a touching tribute to their tragic colleague Robbie McCallion on the 10th anniversary of his death. The Mayo-Garda, who was based in Letterkenny, was killed when he was struck by a vehicle while investigating an attempted robbery of another car at Tara Court in 2009. 130 Irish troops will arrive back in Ireland today, following a six-month deployment in the Middle East. The 58th Infantry Group were due back from their mission with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force on Thursday. However, issues with the conflict in Syria prevented them from flying, as flights are organised on a case by case basis. Glad to see the rotation of the 58 & 59 Inf Gps #UNDOF #Syria will be completed on Sun 07 Apr. Deploying to challenging regions is never simple. Spoke directly to Lt Col Ray Murphy OC 58 Inf Gp today & all are looking forward to meeting their families on Sun. #OglaighnahEireann Mark Mellett (@mark_mellett) April 4, 2019 Minister for Defence Paul Kehoe says it's an important day for the families involved: It's an especially important day for the children of those personnel because I have seen in the past the smiles on their faces, the excitement when they see either their mams or dads returning. "It is an extremely special day for them." Sean Cox will attend a charity match to raise funds for his recovery at the Aviva Stadium on Friday. It will be the first time he will attend an event outside a hospital setting since he was assaulted. Health Minister Simon Harris is being called on to clarify if he was aware of a temporary ban of recruitment and overtime in the HSE. The Labour Party published details of a letter outlining the policy in a bid to control this year's budget. Lisa Smith, the Irish woman who went to Syria is 2015 and married an ISIS fighter, has said that she wants to come home to Ireland. Ms Smith, originally from Dundalk, was interviewed in the Al Hawl refugee camp on the Iraq border in Syria when CNN's Connect The World travelled to the camp where so-called "Isis brides" are being held. Reporter Jomana Karadsheh Scott said she spoke to a woman who did not give her name "but she has been identified by Irish media as Muslim covert Lisa Smith". The woman, who spoke in an Irish accent and appeared to be the former member of the Irish Defence Forces, told CNN's Jomana Karadsheh Scott: I think that people should just realise that all the people here are not terrorists. "I want to go home," she said. When asked about the prospect of being prosecuted, she said: "I know they'd strip me of my passport. And I wouldn't travel and I'd be watched.....but...I'm already in prison (in the camp)." Even if they put me in prison at home, its better than being here, a Canadian citizen tells @JomanaCNN who gets rare access to #SDF-controlled camps where more than 1,000 foreign #ISIS fighters are stranded as their home countries seem reluctant to take them back. #Syria pic.twitter.com/FKxCXzUDp3 Connect the World (@CNNConnect) March 24, 2019 The Dundalk widow is in the camp with her two-year-old daughter toddler, told the Irish Daily Mail: "I dont think I should be tried because like, okay, if they want to put an investigation on me, they can. I have nothing to hide. The only thing I did was come here, so if thats my crime for coming here and realising that I made a mistake and, for me, I cant get out, I couldnt get out so I know what they see is bad. Earlier this month, Defence Minister Paul Kehoe said Lisa Smith, 37, will be treated like any Irish citizen who finds themselves in trouble abroad. The Taoiseach added that Ms Smith will be allowed to return to Ireland despite serious concerns over the safety of the wider public from ISIS supporters coming home. At the time he said, "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. The panel discuss the repatriation of an Irish ISIS bride and Brenda and Anne-Marie clash on burqas. #CuttingEdge live now pic.twitter.com/M3JBL0XOrR Cutting Edge (@CuttingEdgeRTE) April 3, 2019 "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." A Rwandan national whose family was devastated by the 1994 genocide has admitted on its 25th anniversary that not even time can heal the wounds. Chantal Mutesi came to live in Ireland in search of a better life after the horrific genocide that claimed the life of her husband, four brothers, a sister, her mother and other members of her extended family and friends. She survived with her three-week-old baby, who has grown up in Cork and next month, at the age of 25, will go to her homeland for the first time. Sadly, Chantals horrific personal toll from the genocide was by no means the exception as the 100-day war saw up to one million people killed in a country the size of Munster. Chantal travelled with fellow Rwandan Egwyge Roussard to be guests of aid agency Bothar, as it hosted a special commemoration near its Limerick headquarters to mark the 25th anniversary. The gathering at OBrien Park saw Mayor of the City and Council of Limerick James Collins plant a birch tree, a symbol of hope and new beginnings, to mark the event. The two Cork residents also made a special tribute to Irish public for its response to the humanitarian crisis post-genocide and signalled out Bothar for its ongoing work in lifting families out of poverty with donations of cows, goats and other income and food-producing gifts. The commemoration was one of hundreds held across the world today. Addressing the event, Mayor of Limerick James Collins said it was only right that Ireland would stand in solidarity with the people of Rwanda at this time, to mark the horrific genocide but encourage the continuation of their recovery. We cant ever really know the suffering that your nation has endured. What I do know is the hope that your nation is all about today, he said. Today we are here to mark the darkest period in your countrys history, one that your nation is thankfully putting behind it, in no small part thanks to the response and intervention from the likes of Bothar, whom we are very proud of in Limerick. The aid agency began working in Rwanda 22 years ago and since then has transformed the lives of thousands of impoverished families. It supports the Rwandan governments Grinka programme of giving each poor family in rural areas a cow cows are sacred in Rwandan culture - and last year also sourced and sent out five pedigree Irish bulls, purchased by the Rwandan government, to enhance its breeding programme. Irish cows provide six times the yield of the Rwandan equivalent. Speaking after the ceremony, Chantal Mutesi, who now lives in Cork, said she deeply touched by Bothar and the Irish peoples support for her homeland. It means a lot to have this tree planted here in this beautiful park. It means a lot to be able to say that I have a place in Limerick that I can come and say that I was here to mark the 25th anniversary of the genocide. Recalling her horrific personal experience of the genocide, she said: I was 26 when it happened. I was there. I lived through it. I survived it with a baby who was only three weeks old when it started. Memories don't fade despite people saying time is a healer. It's not really it just you learn how to cope. Memories are still fresh. Seeing the next morning was a bonus. I lost my husband, brothers and my sister. My mom. My grandmother. And my cousins my aunties my best friends and my you know. "The whole life was changed overnight. Commemorating, remembering our loved ones today and the same time acknowledging whats happening; the courage, the faith and the progress we've made, I couldn't be prouder. Chantal had a special word of thanks for Bothar, its supporters and the wider Irish public. Really thank you for everything you have done for us for the families who are now able to send kids to school, she said. Chantal Mutesi and David Moloney, Chief Executive of Bothar at the solemn gathering for the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Rwanada genocide. Picture: Sean Curtin/True Media. Niamh Mulqueen, Bothar Chief Operating Officer said that despite the agencies 20 plus years of work in Rwandan, the stories of survivors still shock to the core. When we hear the stories that we've heard today it can actually stop in your tracks. It really makes you think how cruel life can be. However, I think an important message to take away from today is to show the positivity that is in Rwanda now 25 years later, the hope that they have. The resilience that they have. I think the whole world could learn from them," she said. Indigenous students' literacy and numeracy skills have improved at twice the rate of their peers' over the past 10 years, but not fast enough to close the education gap before next century. The 2018 national NAPLAN report shows strong growth among Indigenous primary school students across all indicators since testing began in 2008. Students from non-English speaking backgrounds have also improved. Indigenous students are improving at a faster rate than the general population, but not fast enough to close the education gap before next century. Credit:Martin Hunter Across the general population, there has also been improvement in years 5 and 9 numeracy, years 3 and 5 reading and spelling, and years 3 and 7 grammar over the decade, but writing has gone backwards since 2008. Indigenous year three students have improved at a rate of 7.4 per cent, compared with 4.2 per cent among the wider population, while their year five counterparts have improved at a rate of five per cent, compared with 2.2 per cent. Day-trippers swarm onto the Narrabeen ferry at Circular Quay in central Sydney, from a line snaking its way out of wharf three and onto the busy boulevard. On a warm autumn day, even the Freshwater-class ferries the largest in the state government-owned fleet have their limits. This ferry is now at full capacity, the announcer declares over the public address system as staff close gates to the Narrabeen, stopping more people from boarding. The Narrabeen is packed with day trippers as it sails from Circular Quay to Manly on Sunday. Credit:James Alcock With Sydney's four Freshwater ferries facing retirement over the coming years, the ability of smaller Emerald-class vessels to handle large crowds on summer days and at weekends is one of the reasons often given for retaining the older ferries. The Freshwater ferries can carry about 1100 passengers, compared with about 400 on the Emerald-class catamaran ferries which will begin plying the Manly-Circular Quay run as early as next year. A southern Queensland abattoir owner has given three lambs to a group of animal rights activists, ending their two-hour protest early on Monday. Police were called to Carey Bros Abattoir in Yangan, 100 kilometres south-east of Toowoomba, about 3.30am and began negotiating with the activists. Green Shirts Movement Queensland, a group of farmers and graziers, posted on Facebook that the activists had chained themselves to abattoir equipment and demanded three animals. Police said following negotiations and the handing over of three lambs, the 20 activists who had gone inside the abattoir and the "dozens" outside left the premises about 5.30am. South Africa: President to witness testing of new PRASA train sets President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to visit the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) in Cape Town where he will be briefed on efforts to improve commuter services next week. The meeting, set for Tuesday, will allow the President and the agency to look at ways to stimulate economic activity and industrialisation through PRASAs modernisation programme, the Presidency said on Friday. The Presidents visit to Cape Town follows his recent personal experience of commuter frustration and technical problems with rolling stock between the Mabopane and Bosman train stations in Pretoria earlier this month. During an engagement with commuters, the train on which the President was travelling broke down, turning a 45-minute journey into a three-hour delay. On Tuesday, PRASA will take the President through elements of the 20-year modernisation programme which aims to revitalise the rail industry through local manufacturing of parts, maintenance, the establishment of training facilities, the achievement of 65 percent local content, and training and skills development for PRASA employees and young people interested in the rail industry. Furthermore, President Ramaphosa will observe the testing of new train sets that were manufactured locally. The new trains will be deployed on upgraded infrastructure, as part of PRASAs Rolling Stock Fleet Renewal Programme that will see the manufacturing of more than 7 000 new trains over a period of 20 years - or close to 30 per month. The Presidency said the visit is part of governments commitment to providing safe and sufficient passenger rail services that will benefit commuters and the economy is reflected in its investment of more than R170 billion. This will to ensure that passenger rail services offer modern, safe and reliable trains for commuters, faster trains which will increase capacity of the network, improved overall safety of trains and reduced energy costs as well as improved, predictable and reliable services to passengers. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. NSW is on track for its worst measles outbreak in five years after two young travellers from the state's North Coast became the latest to fall victim to the highly contagious disease. The "unusual" figures have sparked a warning from health authorities and vaccination advocates, who have stressed that measles can have serious and sometimes fatal complications. The tell-tale blotchy rash of a case of measles. Credit:ninevms The travellers in their 20s, who had not been vaccinated, are believed to have been exposed while holidaying in the Philippines last month. The pair were unwell and infectious during Scoot flight TR6 from Singapore to the Gold Coast on March 29. A new electronic tracking system to monitor hazardous chemicals will be introduced in Victoria, as residents cry out for action following a slew of factory fires. The Andrews government has confirmed it will provide the Environment Protection Authority with new technology to supersede the current paper-based system, but it remains unclear when it will be operational or exactly what form it will take. The Campbellfield factory ablaze on Friday. Credit:Paul Jeffers. The government maintains it is too early to provide further details about plans for the tracking system despite calls for action from residents who are furious about yet another factory fire in their neighbourhood. On Friday morning a Campbellfield factory holding dangerous chemicals caught fire, sending acrid smoke across the northern suburbs. It was the eighth factory fire in Melbourne since October last year. The children of militants who have left Australia to join terrorist group Islamic State should be allowed to return home, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has indicated. Mr Shorten said on Sunday that children should not be forced to pay for appalling decisions made by their parents. Hoda Sharrouf (right) has begged to be allowed back into Australia. She is pictured with sister Zaynab before leaving the country. I do think that any parent who took their children to a war zone is a shocker, not worth the title parent. But the kids didnt do this, he said. I do think we need to work with families to make sure the kids are not the collateral damage of the shocking thinking of the parents. So in a few weeks all of us citizens over 18 who are not in jail for a very long time will be casting a vote to decide who governs us and how for the next three years. This is a serious and profound responsibility. By the time we come to make our choices we will have been subjected to weeks of promises, threats and warnings about the candidates arrayed, or at least their parties. We will have been asked to share their vision of a bounteous nation, for Australia Felix, not only for the 46th parliament but "into the future going forward, as they are prone to say. Our future nation ... it is ours envision and to shape. In that cardboard confine, many a thinking voter will reflect on their expectations, experiences and needs in order to compare them with the past performance and promises of the candidates. Then, when all the votes are in and counted, we'll have to hope that the winners' vision is the one we shared, and that it is deliverable. So it is important for each voter to have a view: what would their best or better Australia look like? The Chinese government bullied a local council into black banning an Australian-owned media company because they believed it did not toe Chinas Communist Party line. Officials from the Chinese consulate in Sydney told the Georges River Council in Sydneys south last year that if it did not abandon a sponsorship deal with the Australian Chinese-language media organisation, Vision China Times, it risked harming relations between NSW and Beijing. The Vision China Times. The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC's Four Corners have obtained council documents showing how Chinese consular officials issued at least eight warnings to the council over the last 14 months after learning it was planning to have Vision China Times sponsor a Chinese New Year event. The campaign had an effect and, in 2018, Vision China Times was banned. The Georges River Council is of intense interest to the government in Beijing because it has one of the nations largest populations of Chinese Australians. Scott Morrison is the leader at a particularly toxic moment in Australia's history. Credit:AAP However, it is the case the country is more confused, as the historian Stuart Macintyre puts it, than at other contentious moments in its history. Political journalists like to predict that each election will be more divisive, and, yes, more toxic than others that have gone before. These forecasts should be regarded sceptically. Prime Minister Scott Morrison finds himself astride a particularly toxic moment in Australian history, and one whose entrails will be exposed in an election campaign. The rise of populism, including an unpleasant version of anti-other ethno-nationalism, with its echoes in a Persil-white Australia, is reflective of the countrys mood. This is Australias Tea Party movement. The American version's influence on American politics was disregarded by a Democratic Party in thrall to the out-of-touch Clintons until it was too late and we got Donald Trump. What is clear is that the centre of Australian politics is under increasing stress. A reasonable question on the eve of this 2019 election is: can the centre hold, or will we witness a further fragmentation of the political system and, therefore, more instability? Ian McAllister, of the ANU, whose long-established Australian Election Study is the authoritative survey of election trends and voter attitudes, has little doubt that a trend apparent over the past decade of diminishing trust in politicians and the system itself will persist. What that means is that a trust deficit risks widening further. This is not the least of Morrisons challenges, nor Bill Shortens for that matter. Labor is hoping to shake up the race to replace Julie Bishop in the blue-ribbon seat of Curtin by making a late switch to former Fremantle MP Melissa Parke, who left Parliament at the 2016 election after delivering a stinging rebuke to both major parties on asylum seeker policy. It is understood Labor will be looking to draw Liberal resources to the seat in WA after the retirement of the former foreign minister. Former Fremantle MP and asylum seeker advocate Melissa Parke is seeking another shot at Federal Parliament. Curtin, which the Liberals hold by a margin of 20.7 per cent, is one of the safest in the country, but sources suggest the selection of conservative Celia Hammond and the retirement of the high-profile Ms Bishop could whittle down the margin. Ms Parke confirmed via a statement on social media she would be Labor's candidate in the seat. Latest News Finsure to be sold by BNK Shock as one of Australia's biggest aggregators announces $151m sale Hejaz seeking to become first Islamic bank Three key new hires as sights set on achieving ADI status A customer-owned bank has unveiled a trial intended to transform the home loan contract process through enabling customers to submit completed forms online, bringing enhanced speed and quality. Gateway Bank CEO, Lexi Airey, said: Customer-centricity is at the core of our organisation and service simplification will have a positive effect both for our valued members and our staff. The platform allows for digital delivery, completion, and return of loan contracts and mortgages. It also provides a way for loan documents to be signed online and returned instantaneously. Two-factor authentication measures are built into the platform to ensure that the swift processing doesnt come at the cost of lessened security. The trial was announced by Gateway days after Parliament passed a bill that will improve the capacity of Australias customer-owned banking sector to more easily raise capital and increase its ability to compete with the nations major banks, according to the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA). The news was welcomed by COBA, as past legislation has at times constrained customer-owned institutions. However, recent developments suggest that may be shifting. According to Cordell Smith, the managing partner at Galilee Solicitors, the platform developer for Gateway, Mortgages have long been a stumbling block in the pursuit of an entirely digital loan process. Recent changes to NSW legislation that enable electronic witnessing, align with existing Victorian and South Australian capabilities, and probably represent a new beginning for the mortgage lending industry. Gateways digital mortgage platform has gone live in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. The bank has confirmed its commitment to working with the government to make the acceptance of digital mortgages possible throughout the rest of Australia as well in the future. Latest News Finsure to be sold by BNK Shock as one of Australia's biggest aggregators announces $151m sale Hejaz seeking to become first Islamic bank Three key new hires as sights set on achieving ADI status Australias leading aggregator is preparing to welcome a new lender onto its panel in a move that reflects brokers growing interest in diversifying from mortgage lending. Connective director Mark Haron told Australian Broker that ThinkTank is set to join the aggregators panel of lenders later this month. The independent commercial property lender provides a range of borrowing options and services to SME businesses and commercial property investors. According to Haron, They have some very good measures to aid a number of specialist asset finance and cashflow funders, and can help brokers through that process as well. Connective is also looking to remain agile and position itself within the changing market on a larger scale through bolstering its white label program. Were talking to a number of different funders. Were bringing on a [bank backed] white label product, as well as a Pepper white label product, said Haron. Haron also spoke to some of the hot button topics currently dominating the industry space. In regards to proposed remuneration changes, Haron said, Trail is an accountability structure. Brokers arent guaranteed all the trail; if the loan goes into arrears, the payment stops. If the loan gets refinanced because it wasnt the right product, the trail payments stop. The brokers dont burn off all the value of the commission that they mightve done if it had been an all-upfront payment. However, while Haron is vocal and active in ensuring that brokers continue to be compensated fairly, he has reservations with industry members calling for a pay raise. He explained that while its true that brokers are putting in more time and shouldering more responsibilities than in the past, banks are as well. Rather than mobilise for an increase in compensation, Haron believes that the push should be for better communication and delegation between banks and brokers. Weve got a very inefficient process at the moment, where brokers are doing it and the banks are doing it. We need to get to the point where one does certain things and the other does other things and were not duplicating. Then, thered be more value which could be shared. Brokers would have less expenses in terms of time and what they have to do with loans, so they could potentially write more business. We have got to get rid of these redundancies, Haron concluded. Latest News Finsure to be sold by BNK Shock as one of Australia's biggest aggregators announces $151m sale Hejaz seeking to become first Islamic bank Three key new hires as sights set on achieving ADI status Recent data has shown that being required to provide property as security against new loans is one of the most pervasive frustrations in the SME space, second only to loan conditions. Scottish Pacific commissioned research spanning more than 1,200 SMEs across all industries from November 2018 to January 2019. Of those surveyed, 80% communicated that they resent providing property as security to fund their SMEs, with two-thirds going as far as saying they would definitely be prepared to pay more in interest to avoid using their personal property as collateral. According to Scottish Pacific CEO Peter Langham, This has more than doubled in the past few years, rising from 29.5% to 65%. A not-too-distant future where there may be more entrepreneurs renting than buying, means that business owners will increasingly have to consider business borrowing secured against assets other than property. Speaking to Australian Broker, Langham stressed the importance of finance brokers in educating and guiding SME business owners to more ideally structured solutions. He explained, Business owners need assistance in understanding what options are out there as opposed to being given more options. If there are more options, they might not even know about them. The data also revealed that for the first time, SME owners are about as likely to turn to alternative lenders as they are a traditional bank, which unshackles the family home from business growth and frees it to be used in other ways to secure their personal financial futures. However, Langham again reiterated that despite the widespread discontentment with the predominant standing arrangement, a majority of SME owners dont know about many of the options available to them. Too many business owners remain unaware they can use balance sheet assets as security instead of property - assets including equipment and invoices issued. Business-owners are time poor. They need support from brokers, Langham concluded. Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC To the Editor, We are supposed to learn from history. However, too often, we do not learn its lessons. New York City is a tourist mecca. Our great landmarks include the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the Coney Island Boardwalk, and the United Nations, to name just a few. These attractions bring tourists to New York and help the economy. One of these attractions is the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Standing on the Promenade, you get a great view of the New York skyline. I have met many tourists on the Promenade. These individuals then shop in the local shops. The BQE that goes under the Promenade is due for much-needed repairs. The proposals that seem to be most likely to be adopted would require the closing of the Promenade for several years. This would be a disaster for several reasons: It would reduce the number of tourists coming to Brooklyn Heights. There would be reductions in store revenue. There would be a loss of jobs as a result. There is no guarantee that the Promenade would be restored at all, let alone in the magnificent manner that it is. The better method would be to keep the Promenade as is and use the streets.Alan Podhaizer Coney Island Gotcha! To the Editor, A few months ago I wrote about those wonderful smart meters being installed by Con Edison. By the hundreds, our old meters were replaced with a new wireless system that would let millennials and others watch every watt consumed and do billing and such, using their hand-held device. I also warned that the benevolent Edison would start charging for time-of-day use, though neighbors pooh-poohed the notion. GOTCHA! Con Edison has just announced that it will inaugurate Time of Day demand charges for residents. Now, during certain hours of the day, stay-at-home mothers and retirees have to choose whether to turn on the air-conditioning, pay through the nose, or swelter in the heat. Thinking about doing your laundry at noon? Better put it off until midnight. The price for turning on your electric clothes dryer will bring tears to your eyes, and if you have an electric hot water heaterFORGETTABOUTIT! We are told that, thanks to the greenies stymieing every effort in power plant construction, we have now started going backward. No power plants equal no additional power to energize your electronic goodies you cannot live without. So, as one by one the major plants retire, without a solid reliable source to replace them, it is time to squirrel away a pile of extra cash to pay for your upcoming energy bills. Candles anyone?Robert W. Lobenstein Sheepshead Bay Congestion questions To the Editor, Your paper broke new ground last week and not in a good way with a two-page editorial for congestion pricing instead of a letters page (Congestion tolls are the price of progress, Editorial, March 29April 4). You are asking us to write lawmakers a blank check to fund the MTA. Many unanswered questions first need to be addressed: Will all the money go to the MTA, and what percent will be spent within New York City on subways and buses? How much will go to paying bonds and pensions? Past proposals called for half the monies to go to roads. Would any money go toward bicycle lanes and ferries? If so, why? How much will it cost, and once implemented, will it increase every two years as fares and tolls currently do? Will there be off-peak discounts, and why should it be in effect on weekends when half the subways are not operating normally? How much, if any, will be spent on just providing improved off-peak service levels so bus riders do not have to wait forever and subway riders are not packed in like sardines on Saturday nights at 11 p.m.? Will the FDR be exempt, and why should someone traveling a mile on Canal Street just to get from Brooklyn or Queens to New Jersey be charged the same as someone traveling five miles or more in Manhattan? Their alternative is traveling an extra 20 miles using the already congested BQE to reach the Verrazano or GW Bridge. Congestion pricing will not reduce congestion. Will tolls be cut in half on other MTA bridges as once promised if congestion pricing is enacted, and how long would that remain in effect? Where is the MTAs incentive to become more efficient by cutting construction costs and inflated management and to care more about its riders? How much of this money would instead go toward increased salaries? Those old enough will remember other false promises such as if we double to TBTA tolls from 25 cents to 50 cents, the MTAs financial problems will be over, a bond issue will get us a Second Avenue Subway, and a state lottery will greatly increase our support of public education. Instead, teachers now have to use their own money for school supplies. The days of trusting our politicians to do the right thing is over. Money should be used to fund new and restructured bus routes, not trading increased frequencies for reduced bus coverage as the MTA wants to do. Yes, there should be no tolls on the Cross Bay and Marine Parkway Bridges. However, we need assurances, not promises, before we support congestion pricing.Allan Rosen Sheepshead Bay Vote for 99 percent To the Editor, Overcrowded streets, avenues, highways, trains, stores, and such are all due to over development. Enough already! Go build in Wyoming; there is plenty of open sky and green space there for real estate developers and their dutifully approving elected officials to ruin. And while you are at it, give us some elected representatives who care to improve the quality of our (the tax-paying citizens) lives; and who understand efficient budgeting and oversight so that our tax dollars stop going down what feels like an abyss of nothingness, causing our taxes to endlessly go up with little to show for it, and the work of people elected to representate us. I recently renamed The White House to The White Nationalist Grifter House. This symbolic and very real place that is the whole of D.C. politics needs become lily white, via new tenants in the executive and legislative branches, come January 2021. Frankly, at this point, I dont care if you vote blue or red because the REAL BATTLE is economic, a CLA$$ WARFARE; and it always has been. If youre not part of the one percent you should be VERY angry at the extreme dysfunction of the electoral and political systems in place, and the only partisan voting should be for and with the 99 percent tribe PERIOD. In this day and age, there are still some differences between the blue and red parties, and for me the blue rhetoric better approaches a kind, thoughtful, generous heart that is first for WE THE PEOPLE, the tax-paying, voting citizenry. Please: I implore people to think and feel for yourself; the world isnt black and white, nor are most decisions; and surely the vital issues before us should not be solely decided by tribal upbringing unless its the 99 percent tribe.Barry Brothers Homecrest Eat local To the Editor, In these difficult economic times, it is especially important to patronize your local neighborhood restaurant not only during Dine The Boroughs March 1829 but all year round. There are so many great resturants in Brooklyn to select from. Some of my favorites include Juniors, Floridian Diner, Brennan and Carr, and Roll and Roaster. My wife and I dont mind occasionally paying a little more to help our local restaurants survive. Dont forget your cook and server. We try to tip 20 percent against the total bill including taxes. If it is an odd amount, we round up to the next dollar. If we can afford to eat out, we can afford an extra dollar tip. When ordering take out, we always leave a dollar or two for the waiter or cook. It is appreciated. Remember these people are our neighbors. Our local entrepreneurs have continued to create new employment opportunities without the assistance of federally-funded taxpayers stimulus dollars. They work long hours, pay taxes, and provide local employment. If we dont patronize our local restaurants to shop and eat, they dont eat either. Please join me and your neighbors in continuing to support the Park Slope, Bay News, Graphic, and MillMarine Brooklyn Courier publications. Patronize their restaurant advertisers; they provide the necessary revenues to help keep them in business. Let them know you saw their ad.Larry Penner Great Neck The Club Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age Leo Damrosch Yale University Press; $30; 473 pages O conversation the staff of life, the young T S Eliot wrote to his Harvard friend and fellow poet Conrad Aiken in 1914. Shall I get any at Oxford? A newcomer to England, Eliot looked to London as a city that once had been a centre of civilisation. There, conversation among thinkers fizzing with originality had its acme in a club founded in 1764 by the dictionary-maker Samuel Johnson and the portrait painter Joshua Reynolds. They asked seven ... Carole Ghosn, wife of former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, has flown to Paris to appeal to the French government to help her husband and said the government "should do more for him", the Financial Times reported on Sunday. "I think the French government should do more for him. I don't think they've done enough. I don't think he's had enough support and he's calling for assistance. As a French citizen, it should be a right", she told the FT in an interview before boarding her flight out of Japan late on Friday. Ahead of a listing on the stock exchanges, Catholic Syrian Bank plans to change its name to CSB Bank Limited. In a notice to its shareholders, the management has said the present name had been a locally known one in Kerala and nearby states for around a century, though it now has branches in many states. There is a misconception by the general public, of the bank being owned by a particular community and this is not true, it has explained for the proposed change. Many customers even within India are averse to conducting any business dealings with the bank for ... It's said that everyone gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make it big in his/her life. But for 28-year-old Anjali Mehta when that opportunity came in the form of an overseas job in 2017, lack of financial support let her down. She applied for a Rs 1-lakh loan in two banks to fund her trip to Dubai, but by the time the money came, it was too late. This, she laments, was only because the financial sector in India is still non-inclusive and works in a traditional manner. However, things have improved since then and especially with the advent of blockchain technology, experts see ... 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 Perils of signing discharge vouchers It is common for the employer to demand discharge vouchers from contractors before paying the final amount. But this could lead to bitter litigation, as the dues could still be disputed. Two such cases were decided by the Supreme Court last week with opposite results. The first case was an appeal of the Railways, which claimed that its contractors had signed discharge vouchers and therefore, there was no need for arbitration. However, the Supreme Court ruled that an arbitration agreement will stand even if the contractors accepted an amount and signed ... For many years it was believed Gaetan Dugas was the man whom HIV originated with in the U.S. Being a flight attendant for Air Canada and one of the earliest high-profile gay men to die of the virus he seemed like a likely candidateas suggested by some back in the early 1980s. The media ran with this idea calling him patient zero and Robert Shilts 1987 book on the AIDS crisis titled And the Band Played On further implicated Dugas. In the late 1980s Doctors and scientists were still struggling to understand the disease and how it operated and most of all where it came from. By complete coincidence around the same time as Shilts books release some doctors studying the AIDS virus were recalling an incident that happened nearly 20 years before in 1969. In 1968 a 15-year-old African-American boy named Robert (Bobby) Rayford admitted himself into a St. Louis, MI area clinic with some rather unusual symptoms. His genitals, pelvic region, and lymph nodes were swollen. He had warts, sores, and lesions all over his body. After spending a short amount of time in the clinic he grew weaker, began to look pale and had trouble breathing. Doctors initially believed he had lymphedema but became more alarmed when he claimed these symptoms have come and gone since 1966. Further testing revealed he had chlamydia, herpes, and genital warts that had spread all over his body. Rayford refused to allow the doctors to perform a rectal examination. When asked about his sexual history Rayford became very shy and withdrawn. He would only admit to having had sex once with a neighborhood girl. Still...doctors believed him to be highly promiscuous and the idea of homosexuality was never something that occurred to doctors at the time to even ask about. They tried everything they could think of to slow his declining health, but nothing seemed to stop it. A beacon of hope came in early 1969 when after giving him strong antibiotics his condition briefly improved. By spring of 1969 his condition declined again. His white blood cell count was almost nonexistent and doctors found his immune system to be simply nonfunctioning. He was so weak one of his doctors said he could barely say the words boo and shortly thereafter he developed a fever that turned into pneumonia which killed him at 11:20 p.m. on May 15, 1969, just one month before the Stonewall Riots. His autopsy did nothing to help solve the mystery. In fact, it further puzzled doctors when they learned that the lesions on his body were Kaposi Sarcoma, then only known as a rare form of skin cancer that often only affected older Mediterranean men. With no idea what was wrong with Rayford doctors froze his blood, brain, and organ tissue for preservation at a University of Arizona lab for further study in the future. His case was only professionally published once in the university's Journal of Lymphology in 1973. By 1987 Rayfords case was long forgotten about but a few doctors who once worked on Rayford's case were now investigating the AIDS crisis and one recalled his symptoms back then and pressed to locate Rayford's preserved tissue samples and blood for further testing against the information they now knew about HIV. A most sophisticated and sensitive test was performed on his tissue samples and it came back solid with nine HIV proteins in Rayford's blood. There was now no doubt that Rayford was suffering from the effects of AIDS in his final days. While it was a relief to have finally solved that mystery, all it did was open up another one. It was now proven with Rayford's case that HIV was certainly in the U.S. well before the late 1970s as previously hypothesized. There were so many unanswered questions...how did Rayford get it? Where did that person get it? Where did they come from? Little is known about Rayford's life prior to this incident. He was described in the 1973 "Lymphology" journal article as being mildly retarded. Rayford was likely living on the streets and doctors at the time had suspected he had been sexually abused, but with more known about the gay community in the late 1980s it was now recognized he most definitely could have been a male prostitute. In the late 1960s homosexually was heavily condemned which would explain Rayford's unwillingness to talk much about his sexual activity with doctors or the fact that he did not allow them to examine his rectum. So why didn't this disease spread quickly at the time in St. Louis? Doctors believed that because St. Louis was a hub for Trans World Airlines it was likely someone who entered the city through that connection that brought it to the area in the first place. But, because there was a very small gay population, if really at all, at the time there was no major vehicle for the disease to continue to spread quickly. It's very possible that there were other AIDS cases in the area at the time, but because the disease hides so well doctors simply saw these individuals as dying of other causes, such as pneumonia, which was not uncommon. Rayford's case was only different because he was a minor and had so many things wrong with him that were unusual for someone his age. Still, there is no solid proof any of the above was how Rayford got the disease. There are other theories. There are accounts that Rayford had claimed to doctors that his grandfather, Percy Rayford, had suffered similar symptoms and died in his early 50s in 1966. Researchers had tossed around the idea that perhaps Rayford was born with the disease, but Rayford did have two siblings who lived full lives and his mother lived to be 80. Edward Hooper's book "The River" even theorizes he might have gotten it from open-air chemical tests done by the Army Chemical Corps in the 1950s in the area of St. Louis that Rayford lived. This book, however, has been heavily criticized since its publication in 1999 and that scenario seems unlikely. In all likeliness the most widely accepted theory is that Rayford likely contracted the disease through prostitution. The mystery is just where and from whom. Today further tests could be done to his tissue and blood to study the strain of HIV he had which might reveal more information, but his samples have since disappeared after the initial 1987 discovery. Other than pictures in the 1973 journal article of his swollen body parts, no photographs of him have ever surfaced. Despite the importance of his story, it is relatively completely forgotten today. Rayford's memory should be remembered though as one of first certain victims to suffer from this horrid disease...not only in the context of the disease but because he suffered from it when nobody could understand what it was or what to do about it and, as only a teenage boy, that must have been terrifying. Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India will attack again this month, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday, as tension over a February standoff between the two neighbours had appeared to ease. The attack could take place between April 16 and 20, he said. A suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmirs Pulwama killed at least 40 paramilitary soldiers on February 14 and the risk of conflict rose dramatically on February 27, when India launched an air strike on what it said was a terrorist training ... Pakistan, warning of a possible new attack by giant neighbour India, said on Sunday it had summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner to protest against any "misadventure". Indian deputy high commissioner was summoned for demarche in line with Foreign Minister's briefing of today and warned against any misadventure, Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said in a Tweet. Pakistan had "reliable intelligence" that India would attack again this month, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said earlier, as tension over a February standoff between ... Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan blamed Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for whipping up war hysteria over claims that India shot down a Pakistani F-16 during a standoff in February, saying the truth is always the best policy. U.S.-based Foreign Policy magazine, citing U.S. officials, said all of Pakistans F-16 combat jets had been accounted for, contradicting an Indian air force assessment that it had shot down one of the jets. The truth always prevails and is always the best policy, Khan said in a Tweet. BJPs ... Five sanitation workers, all from the lowest rung of Indias caste system, were chosen in late February to meet a very important guest: Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As cameras flashed, Modi proceeded to wash the feet of the workers, one by one, using water and his hands, a gesture intended to honour staff who clean toilets at the Kumbh Mela, a massive religious gathering in north India. But sanitation workers, scores of whom die each year from asphyxiation while removing waste from underground drains, have had enough, said Bezwada Wilson, the head of the Safai Karmachari ... Two hallmarks of American economic policy under President Trump are a reflexive aversion for regulation and go-it-alone nationalism. But in technology policy, that stance is changing. In September, the Trump administration abandoned its hands-off approach and began working closely with the 36-nation Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to create international guidelines for the design and use of artificial intelligence. The administration has also started to discuss a new law to protect privacy in the digital age, seeking consensus domestically and common ground ... Springtime has arrived here in Wilton Manors. Many might not have noticed as we marched right past the spring equinox a few weeks ago, perhaps still too busy adjusting our clocks ahead one hour. The springtime arrival brings many annual events to our wonderful city. Along with the upcoming Easter and Passover holidays comes a somewhat lesser known spring event, the Goals and Objectives Workshop, a sure sign that the first quarter of the year is now behind us and spring is already moving ahead at a quickening pace. The Goals and Objectives Workshop is the first step in the yearly budget cycle. Elected officials meet with city management and staff to discuss the future goals, needs and budgeting for our city. This is an opportunity for departments to present a wish list, and to discuss ideas, staffing requests, capital projects and so much more. Our elected officials join in the fun and present their own list and concerns. Thankfully, the next stage of the budget process weeds out the bulk of these well-intentioned proposals, once the financial reality of the actual budgeting process snaps everyone back to reality. This annual rite of spring is normally observed by a relatively few lucky Islanders, mainly city staff, budget advisory committee members, elected officials and perhaps one other person sitting off to the side of the Commission Chambers. However, this year the chamber was all a buzz with chatter and close to full capacity. Perhaps this is a sign, a good omen of sorts, during this annual ritual passage of seasons. Residents vibrant participation in our local government will reap great benefits for our entire community. Our police department led the way with their proposal for a new helicopter. Not satisfied with the results of the pilot drone program, the department is requesting manned aerial vehicles to fly overhead. This is sort of our local version of Mike Pences request the same week to have men on the moon by 2024. I must be missing something here; I thought we did something like that over 50 years ago. Not wanting to be overshadowed, Leisure Services laid forth their grand vision of turning large swaths of land into more and more park facilities. Looking at the recent success of utilizing money from our Water and Sewer Fund to purchase the property needed for the Colohatchee Park access, their management team is requesting substantial increases of water rates to keep the funding tap flowing for years to come. Mayor Justin Flippen strongly advocated for increased technology to propel our Island City into the future. Artificial intelligence will come at a cost, but just think about the savings with robots replacing city staff. No worries about lunch breaks, sick time, or benefits. Hope you dont mind the thousands of cameras to be installed city-wide to monitor our every move. Just a necessary requirement needed to feed data from every area of our city back to the new AI platforms. Commissioner Paul Rolli stated the need for a city-wide Master Plan to study the Parks Master Plan, the Water and Sewer Master Plan, the Police Efficiency Master Plan, and about five other Master Plans. Only then would he feel comfortable having an additional study done to tell us what other studies are needed to accurately make any decisions on what our goals and objectives should actually be. Vice Mayor Tom Green was all giddy about the 1 percent sales tax increase passed in Broward County last election. Funds for local transportation projects include a railed trolley system down the middle of Wilton Drive that will eventually be tied into the regional transportation network currently envisioned for South Florida. Just a few more years of on-going construction along the Drive, but all is good because the city has decided not to charge for parking during daytime hours on the few remaining street parking spots to assist businesses hurting from the ongoing construction. Ok, enough already. I will admit to indulging in another spring time ritual, that of April Fools skullduggery. Hopefully you caught on before getting too enraged at the insanity of it all. In reality, our city has been very diligent in the financial planning and sound budgeting for our citys future. This year many challenges are facing South Florida municipalities. Immediate planning and funding for resiliency needs due to future impacts of weather and sea-level rise are of top priority. Commissioner Rolli is correct in wanting a more defined roadmap of where our city should be heading in the years ahead, but we cannot spend too much time studying the course over and over before we start making some needed decisions. Spring always brings a sense of freshness and renewal. I am confident that with our elected officials, city staff and active residents, our future will be as great as we can make it, cause life is just better here. More than six months after the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed a new deal to govern more than $1 trillion in regional trade, the chances of the countries ratifying the pact this year are receding. The three countries struck the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA) on Sept. 30, ending a year of difficult negotiations after US President Donald Trump demanded the preceding trade pact be renegotiated or scrapped. But the deal has not ended trade tensions in North America. If ratification is delayed much longer, it could become hostage to electoral politics. The ... Israelis vote in a national election on Tuesday. Polls show that veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking a fifth term in office, is best positioned in the tight race to win and head the next government. His decade-long dominance of Israeli politics has been the biggest issue of the campaign. What are the polls showing? Recent polls have shown that the right-wing bloc led by Netanyahu will win a majority in the Knesset. But they also show a new centrist party headed by a popular former general emerging as the largest faction in parliament. Surveys detect many undecided ... With Congress president Rahul Gandhi filing nomination from Wayanad, this hill town of Kerala has come into spotlight and residents are pinning hopes on the Lok Sabha polls to see a boost in development of the region. Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency comprises of assembly constituencies from three districts namely Wayanad, Kozhikode, and Malappuram. The constituency has a significant Muslim population and residents call the district as the perfect example of living in utmost harmony. Members of the community say that all their problems and issues are the same as that of other residents of the district. Outlining the key issues of the region, M P Nawas, State general secretary, Muslim Students Federation (MSF) said, "Wayanad is a perfect example how people of a different religion can live together without disturbing each other. There is true secularism here. According to the recommendation of Sachar Committee, this is one of the most backward districts in India. We are hopeful that now development will come in the region after leaders have taken an interest here." Another resident of the district, Rashid Gazzali, Management consultant and spiritual psychologist, also echoed similar sentiments and said, "People are living here without any hostility. The core issue that any new leader has to focus is on education. The employability ratio is very low in Wayanad. Our educated youth is facing issues regarding connectivity to industries. We need better institutes and better job opportunities." "We also need better tourism prospects and promote eco-friendly tourism in Wayanad. This will create better infrastructure and also would bring employment to the region," Gazzali added. Rahul filed his nomination for Wayanad Lok Sabha seat on April 4 in the presence of his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Kerala, which has 20 Lok Sabha seats at stake, will go to polls on April 23. The 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.) BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan alleged that Chief Minister Kamal Nath is trying to save corrupt by stopping the proceedings of Income Tax Department. "The Chief Minister is trying to stop the proceeding of the I-T Department when he should have supported this. I-T Dept is doing its work. CRPF soldiers were on duty. They were being stopped. MP Police clashed with CRPF. Is this not an attempt to save corrupts," Chouhan asked while speaking at a press conference. "It was alleged that the proceedings are taking place at the behest of BJP. Did the BJP keep the cash there? I have seen in media reports that cash is being recovered. Documents are found. Properties are unearthed," Chouhan said. Madhya Pradesh police alleged the people inside the housing complex of Sharma, an associate of Praveen Kakkar, who is Kamal Nath's officer on special duty (OSD) had reached out to the Station House Officer (SHO) of the area seeking assistance. "I am surprised that the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh instead of cooperating, he is trying to stop the Income Tax Department's proceedings. What Mamata ji did in West Bengal, the same game is being played in MP," he said. Earlier in the day, I-T officials in a pre-dawn swoop carried out raids at the residences of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's private secretary, Praveen Kakkar, in Indore and former advisor R K Miglani in Delhi, on charges of alleged tax evasion. Officials are conducting searches at 50 locations including Indore, Bhopal, Goa, and Delhi, according to sources. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Sunday released its election manifesto for Odisha, in which it promised to invest over 1 lakh crore in the irrigation sector and provide a pension of Rs 3,000 per month to farmers above the age of 60 years among others. "The manifesto is based on nine points. These are the nine pillars of our vision for the development of 'New Odisha', " Shah said at the release of the election manifesto in Bhubaneswar. "Farmers will be given loans at zero per cent interest to ensure that they are not burdened by it. In the irrigation sector, the BJP will invest over 1 lakh crore. We will give over Rs 3000 per month pension to the small and medium farmers above the age of 60," Shah said. Addressing a gathering here Shah said that the BJP will push Rs 3500 crore fund for the 'Skill Odisha' initiative, which promises to benefit over 20 lakh people in the span of five years. "We have also made a fund of Rs 1000 crore for the startup companies in the state," he added. Furthermore, he reiterated his promise to give capital punishment to the convicted rapists. The manifesto also promises two-wheelers to exceptional students who complete class 12th examination. Shah also made a pitch for his party's commitment towards creating employment and said: "If voted to power, recruitment for the vacant seats at various departments will be filled within two years of the formation of the government. The government will also arrange to provide free education to all the poor students from pre-primary to post graduation level." The BJP president also launched a scathing attack on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party, saying that their governance in the state proved to be "worse" than that of the Congress. "BJD did not live up to the expectations of the people of Odisha," added Shah. Criticizing the state's incumbent government for ignoring the poor of the state, Shah remarked: "Despite being rich in resources, the people in the state are poor. In comparison to the other states of the country, Odisha is lagging in drinking water, houses, health, and security for women, education and other fields." Shah also took a dig at the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for spreading corruption in every sphere of the administration, ranging from the allotment of mines to the chit fund cases. Urging people to vote for BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, he said: "This time, the people of Odisha will choose the government who will remove corruption. Inaction, Laziness and corruption are the three demons with whose support, Patnaik has destroyed the state. People will now choose a government which believes in eradicating poverty and corruption from the state." Odisha will vote in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. The state will be voting simultaneously for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats. The 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 complaint was filed against Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Agra on Sunday for promising removal of the sedition law in the Congress manifesto. Lawyer Narendra Sharma filed the complaint in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate and said that it will come up for hearing on April 16. "What is Rahul Gandhi trying to prove. Is he trying to settle terrorists in the country? If the (sedition) law is removed, then the situation in the country is likely to deteriorate," he said. "I have lodged a complaint on the issue. The date of hearing is April 16," he added. Congress has promised in its manifesto to remove the sedition law to give a "fillip to freedom of expression" in the country. The provision for sedition under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code says, "Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt,or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government established by law shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day before the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is expected to release its election manifesto, Uttarakhand unit of the Congress party on Sunday released a charge-sheet highlighting the failures of the BJP led government. The Congress party has accused the BJP of destroying the Constitutional institution. "BJP government is of the fascist ideology, which is in conflict with the basic principles of the country's Constitution," the Congress party has alleged in its charge-sheet. The charge-sheet was released here by senior Congress leader and former minister Navprabhat, the chairman of the Charge-sheet Committee. "First time in the history of Independent India, the judges of the Supreme Court held a press conference and said that they were not being allowed to work," the charge-sheet reads highlighting the failures of the BJP led government. Last year, Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph held a press conference and alleged that the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Deepak Misra violated the conventions in his role as the master of the roster. The judges had also appealed to the people to save their institution if they wanted democracy in the country to survive. The Congress party further alleged that it was the first time under the BJP rule that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested its own senior officer and the Director of the agency was released from his post during the midnight. Last year, the CBI filed an FIR against its own Special Director Rakesh Asthana in connection with Moin Qureshi case. Asthana also accused the CBI director Alok Verma of trying to thwart investigations in important cases. However, the CBI later issued a statement in which it defended Verma and criticised Asthana. Asthana was heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was probing Qureshi's case. "It was first time that secret service agency of a rival country Pakistan was given permission to enter our military bases and investigate the Pathankot terror attacks," the party said, further attacking the government over Pathankot terror attack investigation. Talking about the state of affairs in Uttarakhand where teh BJP is in power, the Congress party alleged that businessman, industrialist and hotel owners here have to pay GST over the income of Rs 10 lakh while in the other states the limit is Rs 20 lakh. "GST was launched in a hurry," he said. Seven-phase Lok Sabha elections in the country will start from April 11 and culminate on May 19, while the counting of votes will take place on May 23. Uttarakhand will go to polls on April 11 for the five seats at stake in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a high-level drama, CRPF personnel accompanying IT officials conducting raids at the premises of Ashwin Sharma linked to Chief Minister Kamal Nath clashed with the state police in scenes, which evoked memories of the face-off between Kolkata police and CBI earlier this year. Madhya Pradesh police personnel alleged that people inside the housing complex of Sharma, an associate of Praveen Kakkar, who is Kamal Nath's officer on special duty (OSD) had reached out to the Station House Officer (SHO) of the area seeking assistance. "We've nothing to do with Income Tax and its ongoing raids. It is a residential complex, there are people inside who need medical assistance and they called the local SHO for help. They have closed the entire residential complex because of the raid," said City SP Bhupinder Singh. The CRPF, which is accompanying the IT officials in conducting the searches have alleged that the police was obstructing it from performing its duty. "We have not done anything to anyone. They are just trying to show off their rank and obstruct us. The Madhya Pradesh Police is not letting us work. We are from the CRPF and we only follow the orders of our seniors. CRPF is always there for the safety and security of the people. The investigation is still on and this is why we are not allowing people inside," CRPF official told media. Earlier in the day, IT officials in pre-dawn swoop carried out raids at the residences of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's private secretary, Praveen Kakkar, in Indore and former advisor R K Miglani in Delhi, on charges of alleged tax evasion. Officials are conducting searches at 50 locations including Indore, Bhopal, Goa and Delhi, according to sources. Earlier this year, Kolkata Police had detained a team of CBI officials who had reached the residence of Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam. The issue had blown up with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee going on a strike against the central government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russia's Soyuz MS-12 crew ship is pictured docked to the International Space Station's Rassvet module as the orbital complex flew 258 miles above the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands. Credit: NASA. NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. Got a question or comment? Use #spacetoground to talk to us. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Jammu Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Verma on Saturday said that the decision to allow movement of convoys of security forces only two days of every week was taken to ensure the safe passage of troops passing through vulnerable areas near Jammu-Srinagar Highway. "Civilian traffic on Jammu-Srinagar highway will be restricted on Sundays and Wednesdays of every week. Medical emergency vehicles will be exempted from this order. The main purpose is to ensure that the security forces are given safe passage so that their movement is faster and secure. District magistrates, SHOs, SDMs, and tehsildars have been deployed so that people can approach them if they require assistance," Verma told ANI. Asked on people using the highway during the affected days in times of emergency, Verma informed that passes would be issued subject to verification and establishment of the credential of purpose. "To avoid incidents like Pulwama and Banihal, the highway has been sanitised to ensure safe and secure passage of security forces so that they can reach their destination safely. Troops will be going up and down for deployment during elections or other assignments. So, keeping this in mind, this has been done," he said. There will be a "complete ban" on civilian traffic on most parts of the 300-km long Jammu-Srinagar Highway on Sundays and Wednesdays from 4 am to 5 pm. These restrictions would remain in force till May 31, 2019, a press release issued by Jammu and Kashmir administration said. The state administration said the decision has been taken in view of the possibility of a terror attack on security forces' convoys during their movement for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. The prohibition on movement of civilian traffic on these two days of each week would be from Baramulla through Srinagar, Qazigund, Jawahar-Tunnel, Banihal, and Ramban till Udhampur, the statement said. Echoing similar sentiments, Bhim Singh Tuti, DIG, Udhampur-Ramban range urged the public to cooperate with the administration when the restrictions are in effect. "Prohibitory orders have been imposed in Ramban and Udhampur districts. An adequate number of personnel has been deployed. We urge the public to cooperate with us. Plying of two-way traffic is difficult. At some places, landslides are frequent, which increases the vulnerability of the troops. After the Banihal incident, this decision has been taken," he said. In the event of any requirement for local traffic movement for any emergency or for other purposes, the local administration and police would evolve necessary procedures for this as is done during curfew days. The restrictions comes after a CRPF convoy, on its way from Jammu and Srinagar, was attacked by a suicide car bomber on the Highway in Pulwama district, killing 40 personnel on February 14. Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) had claimed responsibility for the attack. Subsequently, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, during his visit to Kashmir, had announced that no civilian traffic movement would be allowed during the convoy days. On March 30, there was a possible 'fidayeen' (suicide) attack on another security force convoy at Banihal when an attempt was made to trigger an explosive-laden vehicle. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Police has arrested two persons for misbehaving with Traffic Police personnel in Ber Sarai on April 5 after they were stopped for riding without helmets. The traffic personnel in his statement said that the girl broke the challan machine while the boy tore the uniform of an ASI. An FIR has been registered against the two under Sections 186, 353 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act at Kishan Garh police station. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday justified the transfer of four senior cops in the state, stating that the poll panel had already appointed a special observer to ensure free and fair Lok Sabha polls. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday wrote to the ECI condemning the transfer of four senior police officers. The Central Police Observer (CPO) Vivek Dubey on Friday night had removed Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma, Bidhannagar Police Commissioner Gyanwant Singh, Birbhum Superintendent of Police Shyam Singh, and Diamond Harbour Police Superintendent S Selvamurugan. In the letter addressed to Chief Minister Banerjee, Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) Chandra Bhushan Kumar states: "After the review of preparedness by the Election Commission in Kolkata, Special Police Observer was appointed for West Bengal." "On feedback from the Deputy Election Commission, West Bengal, and Special Police Observer, the action was taken to transfer four police officers," writes Kumar, terming Chief Minister Banerjee's allegations as "factually incorrect innuendoes." "The Commission spent two days in West Bengal to assess the in-depth review of the preparedness and fairness of the electoral process. The review meetings of the Commission invariably start with an interaction with the political parties and other officials," Bhushan writes. "DEC in charge of West Bengal also reviewed the situation sometime in the mid-March in Kolkata. After this, the Special Police Observer was appointed for West Bengal as well as for Jharkhand, Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, and Telangana." "It is based on the cumulative feedback from the DEC who oversees electoral process in West Bengal and Special Police Observer that action was taken for transferring four police officers. It is understood that the government of West Bengal has already operationalised the decision of ECI in respect of transfers," Kumar further states in the letter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It's "extremely unlikely" that European Union's member-states will veto a proposal seeking another extension for Brexit, said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. Varadkar's comments come just a few days before the EU is slated to meet to decide on the United Kingdom's proposal to extend the country's exit from the bloc to June 30, reports Xinhua. Speaking to a local media channel RTE, Varadkar called for solidarity, patience and understanding between EU members while dealing with the UK on Brexit. He added that if an EU member was to veto Britain's proposal, "they wouldn't be forgiven for it" as that would cause hardships on Ireland, along with Netherlands, Belgium and France. Efforts are on in the United Kingdom to break the deadlock on Brexit, with British Prime Minister Theresa May holding talks with Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to make headway on an agreement which is unanimously accepted by the British Parliament. The House of Commons has rejected the previously negotiated Withdrawal Agreement thrice now, with Corbyn indicating that the accord may be tabled again in the Parliament for a vote next week. No respite seems to be in sight for the United Kingdom, as it is now poised to exit from the bloc on April 12. While the opposition has called for a second referendum, May has dismissed the scenario. She now seeks another extension from the EU. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The police have solved a murder case after 18 years in which a mother allegedly hired people to kill his son since he was involved in wrongful activities like gambling, and alcohol addiction. Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad Anjani Kumar, said: "On credible information, the Commissioner's Task Force, South Zone Team, with the assistance of Mailardevpally Police of Cyberabad unearthed the mystery behind this 18-year old murder case and apprehended three accused persons." The accused have been identified as Syed Hasham, Mohd Rasheed and Basheer Ahmed Qureshi, who were allegedly involved in the murder. According to police, the deceased's mother Masooda Bee had three sons and five daughters. After the demise of her husband, she performed marriages of all her children except her second son Mohd Khaja. He became a burden to her since he was addicted to alcohol, playing cards and other social vices. "Even after he grew up, he depended upon his mother for his expenses and harassed other family members. He started attacking his mother physically and sold the household articles in the house to meet his personal expenses," the Police Commissioner said. "Masooda Bee felt insecure to the future of other family members due to Khaja, and made up her mind to get rid of Khaja. So she discussed her plan with her fourth and fifth son-in-laws Rasheed and Basheer respectively," he said. The police said that they all agreed and consulted their family friend Hasham, an auto driver, who assured to assist them in the murder. "He was offered some amount towards expenses by Masooda Bee for completing this task," the police said. The police further said, "In pursuit of their plan, about eighteen years ago, on 4 June 2001 evening time, three accused Hasham, Rasheed and Basheer invited Khaja for consuming toddy and all the four went to a toddy shop at Bandlaguda in Hasham's auto." "Later, as per their plan, the three accused persons injured Khaja over the forehead with granite boulder and killed him. Thereafter, they went to Masooda Bee and informed her about Khaja's death," the Police Commissioner said. The police said that the death of Khaja as an unidentified person was reported and a case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered at Rajendranagar Police Station in Cyberabad on June 5, 2001. Police said that Masooda Bee who is involved in the case is absconding. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Sunday asserted that if Pakistan fires a bullet at India, their party will fire it back. Addressing a gathering at Vijay Sankalp Samavesh Programme here, Shah said: "If they fire a bullet at us, we will fire it back, unlike Rahul Gandhi and his confidant Sam Pitroda, who suggested us to have a dialogue with Pakistan." The BJP president also claimed that the counter-attack launched by the country in response to Pulwama terror attack could not have been done by anyone other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Shah also made a pitch for his party's commitment towards creating employment and reiterated its promise of providing employment to the youths of the state. Earlier today, after releasing the manifesto for the state, Shah promised to fill vacant positions within two years of the formation of their government in the state. He also promised to provide free education to all poor students from pre-primary to the post graduation level. Shah also alleged that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik cannot work for the welfare of Odisha, as he cannot speak Odiya fluently. "I was listening to Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He was speaking fluent Odiya. Will Naveen Babu be able to speak even five lines in Odiya, without looking at the paper," he remarked. He alleged that in the last five years, Rs 5.56 lakh crore was sent by PM Modi for Odisha, which has not reached the people. Urging the people to vote for the BJP, he said that their government would free the state from corruption. "I request the people to throw out the current government in this election. If Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is elected again, the state will witness the chit-fund scam again," he said. Odisha will vote in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. The state will be voting simultaneously for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats. The 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.) The road opening party (ROP) of 27th battalion of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) thwarted a Naxal attack in Fadki area here on Sunday, said police. A soldier, Shrinivas, who discovered the IEDs sustained minor injuries in a remote-controlled twin improvised explosive device (IED) blast triggered by Naxalites. He is out of danger. "ITBP soldiers were deployed between Ambagarh and Manpur for a public meeting programme of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel," said police. "The ITBP soldiers at around 9.30 am noticed some IEDs were being planted near the road to target security forces moving on the main road," police said. Police have recovered batteries from the spot. "This is the first time in the recent history that Naxals have used remote-controlled IEDs to target security forces," said police. (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 said it has not approved the announcement of a merger between Lakshmi Vilas Bank and Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited. The clarification comes after media reports suggested that the two firms had entered into a merger on April 5. "Reserve Bank of India has learnt through media reports that Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) and Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited (IBHFL) have made a merger announcement on April 5, 2019 with approval of their respective Boards. It has been reported in a section of the media that the presence of two nominee directors of the RBI on the Board of LVB implies RBI's indirect approval of the proposal," read a statement issued by Chief General Manager Yogesh Dayal on Saturday. The RBI went on to say that the presence of Additional Directors nominated by the central bank on the Board of LVB "does not imply any approval of the RBI of the merger proposal." Moreover, the Additional Directors have clearly mentioned at the meeting that they have no view on the proposal, it added. "It is clarified that the merger announcement does not have any approval of RBI at this stage. The proposals, as and when received from these entities, will be examined in RBI as per extant regulatory guidelines/directions," the statement further said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Head back to your homes. We will help you rehabilitate," said Lt Gen KJS Dhillon on Sunday while requesting Kashmiri boys who joined terrorist groups to return home and lead a peaceful life. "Life of a terrorist after he picks up the gun is three days to 30 days to three months or a few months. So I would request you to get back to your home and we will help you re-establish and rehabilitate," said Lt Dhillon, while talking to ANI. I would like to request all students and boys who are joining terrorist groups to surrender and especially mothers to ask them to surrender," Lt Gen KJS Dhillon told ANI. Giving details of Saturday's encounter, Dhillon said that two terrorists were killed in the encounter, out of which, one was a local and a technical graduate, and joined the terrorist group on April 3 and was killed within days. "In 2018, more than 250 terrorists were killed. This year, the figure is almost touching 70 in three months. After Pulwama terror attack, we have targeted the leadership of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). JeM is non-existence in Kashmir valley and if they come we will eliminate them again," Lt Dhillon, also GOC, 15 (Chinar) Corps Commander, said. He also appealed to the Kashmiri mothers to stop their children from joining terrorist groups. "I would like to request mothers of Kashmir to look after their kids and don't allow them to join such terrorist groups," he said. Speaking about the preparedness ahead of the elections: "It is the principal responsibility of the Election Commission, supported by the civil administration and state police, to hold elections peacefully." "Indian Army has a role to play in Kashmir for overall and peripheral security. Security to election staff, election material, and the general public is 100 per cent." "I assure you that the elections would be held peacefully. The army is providing security to the public, election staff, and election material," he said. Jammu and Kashmir will go to polls in five phases of seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, beginning April 11. The results will be declared on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With less than a week to go for the commencement of polling in the country, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar has upped the ante, stating that Narendra Modi will not be the Prime Minister for long. Addressing a rally here on Sunday, Pawar said, "The nation's mood towards Prime Minister Modi has changed. He is not going to stay for sure after this election." However, Pawar refuted assertions by a section of Opposition leaders that the ensuing Lok Sabha polls will be last in the country if BJP comes to power once again. "Today in the whole country, we see a different situation and many experts say that if this continues, it would be the last election of this country. I personally don't accept this," he said. "Today if anyone is saying that this is the last election, then I won't agree to it. Politicians may be wrong but I won't accept that it is the last election of the country." Questioning the BJP-led NDA government's policy of "zero-tolerance" on terrorism, the NCP chief said,"The time when the plane was hijacked, it was BJP government in power, when the attack happened on our Parliament, it was BJP government, Pathankot attack happened during BJP government. All the terror attacks that happened in the country in the recent period have happened during BJP government only." "From the last 2.5 years, Kulbhushan has been lodged in Pakistan jail but this 56-inches chest could not get him back. He (PM Modi) says 'Behno aur Bhaiyon sab thik kar dunga', then how are we facing (terror) attacks," he added. Accusing the Prime Minister of being close to businessmen, he said, "75 per cent of the economy of this country is owned by 15 per cent people. These 15 per cent must be their close ones only. Many of you know their names." "Recently one has been caught in England and his name is also Modi. There is one big Modi and one small Modi. Nobody knows who is bigger Modi and who is smaller," he quipped. Pawar also accused the BJP government of failing to fulfill its promises on Ram Temple and cleaning river Ganga. "They have one person named Sakshi Maharaj who said before 2018, we will build Ram Mandir. Where is the temple?" he asked. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said after demonetisation to hang him (Prime Minister) after 100 days at any corner if he failed now. Which place should we choose?" The Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra are scheduled to be held in four phases - on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. The results will be announced on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It isnt often that you hear the name Bill Murray in association with horse racing. The legendary funnyman has been entertaining the masses for decades, years in which he has kept audiences howling from his endearing performances. Recently, Bill Murray has been mentioned in the same vein as horse racing, oddly enough, and its unfortunately not for the most positive of reasons. Okay, take a second now breathe. It appears as though Bill is in the clear. In late March, numerous media outlets reported that well known Thoroughbred announcer and personality Dave Johnson, 77, had filed a lawsuit against multiple entities, including the Weinstein Co., due to copyright infringement. According to Johnsons suit, his trademark phrase and down the stretch they come was used in the 2014 film St. Vincent, which starred Murray. Johnson had trademarked the phrase, which has become ingrained in North American sporting culture, in 2012. Murray, pictured taking it easy in St. Vincent. Murray, pictured taking it easy in St. Vincent. Johnsons suit has been directed at the producers and distributors of the film, which sees Murray take the screen alongside fellow Hollywood heavyweights Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris ODowd, Terrence Howard and others. Murray has not been named a defendant in Johnsons lawsuit. In the film, Murrays character utters Johnsons much-loved phrase as he is engaged in a wheelchair race with a young boy. Johnson has stated that he wasnt aware that his trademarked phrase had even been used in the film. It took Johnsons neighbour mentioning the reference in the movie for Johnson to know anything about it. St. Vincent grossed over $54 million globally. Johnson is seeking unspecified damages. He has stated that if the ruling turns out in his favour, he will be donating the monies to horse racing-related charities, including an organization for injured jockeys. Ive spent my whole life calling races, and thats something I wanted to protect, Johnson recently told Reuters. Its obviously mine. Thats my phrase. (With files from Reuters and The Blast) Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said that he would annex settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins the Tuesday's elections. "I am going to apply Israeli sovereignty, but I do not distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements. From my perspective, each of those settlement points is Israeli. We have the responsibility [for them] as the government of Israel. I don't uproot any, and I won't transfer them to the sovereignty of the Palestinians. I take care of them all," Times of Israel quoted Benjamin as saying. Netanhayu made these remarks during an interview to a news channel just three days before Israel's Presidential election. According to some of his officials, last month's US's recognition of Golan Heights as Israel part has reportedly, bolstered Netanyahu to further claim West Bank. Netanyahu believes US President Donald Trump "would give him backing and legitimization to annex or extend Israeli law to all West Bank settlements or at least some of the blocs," an anonymous Israel official said. However, Netanyahu made it clear to Trump that he did not intend to evacuate "a single person" from any West Bank settlements. However, Turkey has reportedly reacted on the Netanhayu's comment with sharp criticism, terming it as "irresponsible". "Prime Minister Netanyahu's irresponsible statement to seek votes just before the Israeli general elections cannot and will not change this fact," Turkey Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted. West Bank is a disputed territory, with Israel and Palestinians equally claiming it. Over 400,000 Jews live in West Bank settlements. Another 200,000-plus live in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods annexed by Israel after the 1967 war. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan on Sunday summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner to lodge a protest against any "military aggression" by India. Dunya News reported that Pakistan's Foreign Ministry has warned India of any misadventure in the upcoming days. The warning came after Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a statement on Sunday alleged that India was "hatching a new plot and may resort to military aggression" against the country between April 16 and 20, according to Pakistan media. "Pakistan has reliable intelligence inputs that India is hatching a new plot and may resort to military aggression against Pakistan between April 16-20," he said during a presser. "An incident similar to Pulwama could recur in the occupied Kashmir Valley," Ary News quoted him as claiming, referring to the Jaish-e-Mohammed perpetrated February 14 Pulwama terror attack. However, India rejected Qureshi's claims, dubbing it as "irresponsible and preposterous" statement made by Pakistan "with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region." "This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India," official spokesperson of India's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "It has been made clear to Pakistan that it cannot absolve itself of responsibility of a cross border terrorist attack in India," the spokesperson added. India further noted that no attempt at creating an alibi for its complicity in such attacks will succeed. "Pakistan needs to take credible and irreversible steps against terrorism operating from all territories under its control rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross- border terrorism," the spokesperson said. "Pakistan has been advised to use established diplomatic and DGMO channels to share any actionable and credible intelligence it has about imminent terror attacks," the statement noted. "India reserves the right to respond firmly and decisively to any cross border terrorist attack," it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on Sunday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that he ridiculed Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), but did not have the courage to close the scheme in the last five years. "Prime Minister Modi criticised and ridiculed MNREGA but did not have the courage to close it in the past five years," said Pilot while addressing an election rally here. NREGA was first proposed in 1991 by then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. However, it was passed in the Parliament in 2008. It aims to provide 100 days of wage employment to enhance livelihood security in rural areas. Lambasting the BJP for offering attractive schemes but not implementing them, Pilot said: "The BJP is a government of jumlas. Its leaders are doing under the guise of our heroic soldiers and people have understood that." "They gave a dozen of slogans in five years but did nothing to bring them on the ground. Digital India, India Shine, Make in India are some of the slogans which were not helpful for the people.""Now, the phase of change has set in across the country and the BJP will get an apt reply from the public in this Lok Sabha election," he added. Speaking about the Congress' new campaign slogan 'Ab Hoga Nyay' (Now, there will be justice), Pilot said: "Rahul Gandhi has promised Nyuntam Aay Yojana which will provide Rs 72,000 per year to the poor people of the country." "The BJP has no tool to challenge our scheme. If you question the BJP, then they will declare you a traitor or an anti- "Seven-phased Lok Sabha elections in the country are slated to begin on April 11 and will conclude on May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. Uttarakhand will go to polls on April 11, where five Lok Sabha seats are at stake. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Forty-year-old Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the founder of the youth-backed Future Forward Party (FFP), has been charged with sedition by the military junta here on Saturday (local time). A part of the pro-democracy alliance, the party presents itself as an anti-junta party, according to CNN. Thanathorn is "convinced" that the complaint is "politically motivated," seeing how it comes just a few days after elections were held in the country. "The regime creates fear for the society to silence us," Thanathorn said after appearing at a police station here. "I urge all Thais and the international community to call for civil rights to stand for human rights for the betterment of our society," he added. It is still unclear which party will be able to form the coalition government following the elections, which were held for the first time this year following 2014's military coup. The police allege that Thanathorn attended a demonstration against the military coup in 2015. He helped a protest leader, who violated the ban on gathering more than five people. He is accused of breaking article 116 of the Thai criminal code - the sedition law, article 189 for assisting others who committed a crime and article 215 for the unlawful assembly of more than 10 people. FFP is immensely popular with Thailand's seven million first-time voters due to its comparatively progressive policies like changing the military-drafted constitution, strengthening democratic institutions, bringing in government transparency, amongst others. This is the second charge against Thanathorn, who is already facing criminal charges for criticising the military regime online - a charge which he has denied. He is slated to stand trial in a military court. He could face nine years in prison if found guilty. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Conference (NC) chairman Farooq Abdullah on Sunday alleged that the people who are running the government in Delhi are the ones who were the killers of Mahatma Gandhi. "Mahatma Gandhi was killed. It was the RSS people who killed him. It was also banned by Union Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Because they wanted to create a Hindu Rashtra, which was not accepted by leaders of that time. People who are running the government in Delhi are the ones who are killers of Mahatma Gandhi," Abdullah said while addressing an election rally here. Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said: "You promised Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. What have you done for the development of Jammu and Kashmir? Did they bring peace here?" Abdullah also hit out at the Centre for closing Srinagar-Jammu highway. "They have closed the road. When the Kargil war took place? It was not closed then. I was the CM. No road was closed. Which war is taking place now? There is no fight. You have failed on the promised you have made," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump on Saturday (local time) took a jibe at Senator Ilhan Omar, a day after a man from New York, was arrested for threatening to kill the Minnesota Democrat. Addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition at Las Vegas, the US President said, "Special thanks to Representative Omar of Minnesota." "Oh, I forgot. She doesn't like Israel. I forgot. I'm so sorry," The Washington Post quoted Trump as saying. According to a statement issued on Friday by the US attorney's office for the Western District of New York, the accused, named Patrick W Carlineo Jr, allegedly called Omar a "terrorist" and vowed to put a "bullet in her [expletive] skull" during a telephonic conversation with a member of her staff in Washington D.C. "Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood?," Carlineo questioned the staff. President Trump's attack on Omar was a part of his wide-ranging speech in which he even declared that the US-Israel bond "has never been stronger." He argued that Democrats "aren't fighting for Israel in Congress," The Washington Post reported. "Republicans believe that we must never ignore the vile poison of anti-Semitism. We do. All of us," Trump said. He also claimed at another point in the speech that a "radical agenda" being pushed by Congressional Democrats' could "very well leave Israel out there all by yourselves." Omar, who was elected in November, is one of the first two Muslim Congresswomen to serve in the House. She is an outspoken critic of the US policies toward Israel and has been in controversies several times since coming to Congress. After Omar said that the US support for Israel was motivated by donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, several House Democrats dubbed the comments as offensive and invoking anti-Semitic stereotypes. However, neither Omar's Office nor the US Capitol Police have responded to a request for comment on Trump's remarks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister and BJP leader SS Ahluwalia will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Burdwan-Durgapur Parliamentary constituency in West Bengal. The BJP on Sunday released the list of two candidates for the Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal. Asis Kumar Biswas has been given the party ticket from Krishnaganj, which is a reserved seat for SC. In the current Lok Sabha, the 67-year-old Ahulwalia currently represents the Darjeeling seat in West Bengal. West Bengal will witness polls for its 42 Parliamentary constituencies starting April 11. The Lok Sabha election will start on April 11 and will end on May 19. The result will be announced on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iraq will never allow a third party to use its soil against Iran, said Iraqi Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Othman al-Ghanemi on Sunday. "My country's officials will never allow Iraq's soil to be used against Iran by a third country," affirmed General al-Ghanemi to his Irani counterpart Major-General Mohammad Baqeri. General al-Ghanemi is a part of a delegation headed by Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, which is on a three-day visit to Iran. Iran and Iraq are expected to sign agreements covering a wide range of common security issues such as human trafficking, combating terrorism and providing security for borders. The visit comes a month after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's maiden visit to Iraq. Iran, who has long-standing ties with US-ally Iraq, had faced a dilemma after Washington levied sanctions on Tehran. Iraq is Iran's second-largest market after China and purchases everything from food and machinery to electricity and natural gas from Tehran. Last year, United States President Donald Trump had announced had "toughest sanctions" against Iran, which has punctured the country's economy. Tehran has seen its oil exports plunge and its currency losing more than half of its value. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday said that her talks with the opposition Labour Party to break the current Brexit deadlock would mean "compromise on both sides." May, in a video message posted on Twitter, defended her decision to engage in cross-party talks with Labour on leaving the European Union (EU). The decision touched off criticism and anger among her Tory lawmakers. Further talks are expected this week after the prime minister earlier warned Brexit could "slip through our fingers" unless an agreement could be reached. However, there have been no reported signs of compromise from the Labour Party. May reiterated her warning that Britain may not leave the EU at all if she cannot get a deal through Parliament, Xinhua news agency reported. "Where we're at is that the government negotiated a deal with the EU, and my preference was for that deal to be passed by parliament, and we could leave the EU on that basis," she said. "But parliament's now rejected that deal three times, and right now as things stand, I can't see them accepting it," she said. The prime minister tried to win over the hostile Labour Party in order to get her Brexit deal, reached by London and Brussels in November 2018 after long painful negotiations, through parliament after it has been voted down three times since January. "But at the same time parliament has also said that they don't want us to leave without a deal, with no deal," the prime minister said. "So the choice that lies ahead of us is either leaving the EU with a deal or not leaving at all," said May. With less than a week to go before the prime minister must travel to Brussels to request a further Brexit delay from EU leaders, little progress was reported to have been made on finding a compromise deal both the government and the Labour Party could back. EU leaders will meet to decide on whether to give Britain an extension -- and how long it could be -- on Wednesday night. Britain is currently due to leave the EU on April 12 and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by British lawmakers. Labour wants Britain to remain a permanent member of a customs union with the EU, which would mean zero customs tariffs and a single joint trade policy. However, the Tories want to leave the customs union so that Britain can strike unilateral trade deals. --IANS vc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Besides spicing up your food, chilli, it seems, also has some medicinal value. New research suggests the compound responsible for chilli's heat could help slow the spread of lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women. Most cancer-related deaths occur when cancer spreads to distant sites, a process called metastasis. "Lung cancer and other cancers commonly metastasise to secondary locations like the brain, liver or bone, making them difficult to treat," said one of the study authors Jamie Friedman from Marshall University in the US. "Our study suggests the natural compound capsaicin from chilli peppers could represent a novel therapy to combat metastasis in lung cancer patients," said Friedman, a doctoral candidate who performed the research in the laboratory of Piyali Dasgupta at Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. In experiments involving three lines of cultured human non-small cell lung cancer cells, researchers observed capsaicin inhibited invasion, the first step of the metastatic process. They also found mice with metastatic cancer that consumed capsaicin showed smaller areas of metastatic cancer cells in the lung compared with mice not receiving the treatment. The findings were presented during the 2019 Experimental Biology meeting being held from April 6-9 in Orlando, Florida. Additional experiments revealed capsaicin suppresses lung cancer metastasis by inhibiting activation of the protein Src. This protein plays a role in the signalling that controls cellular processes like proliferation, differentiation, motility and adhesion. "We hope one day capsaicin can be used in combination with other chemotherapeutics to treat a variety of lung cancers," said Friedman.--IANS gb/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Longtime Standardbred trainer/driver Sylvester DeCample, 76, passed away on March 20, 2019, in Freehold, N.J. DeCample recorded 1,231 wins as a driver and he steered his mounts to more than $3.4 million in purse earnings. As a trainer, he recorded 323 victories and more than $1.2 million in purses. Trot Insider will update this notice with additional if/when it is received. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Sylvester DeCample. (With files from the USTA) The Congress on Sunday asked Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to break his silence over involvement of a company that has stakes in 'tainted' Canadian firm SNC Lavalin in an infrastructure bond floated by the state government. A row flared up last week after the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) concluded its debut international issue, closing its Rs 2,150 crore Masala Bond, both the BJP and the Congress alleged that one of the main investors was Canada's CDPQ, that has invested in SNC-Lavalin, black-listed in Kerala. "The deep silence of Vijayan on what role the company (CDPQ) has in SNC Lavalin is baffling. Vijayan should come clean on if there is an intermediary in the Masala Bond. First, state Finance Minister Thomas Issac said that there is no role of SNC Lavalin in this, but later, KIIFB's CEO said that CDPQ has invested in SNC Lavalin. It's also surprising that the name of Lavalin comes up when Vijayan is in office," Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala told media here. KIIFB CEO K.M. Abraham, however, said CDPQ is a government body in Canada and had been created in 1965 by an act of the Quebec National Assembly. "It is a public sector body whose entire beneficial interest is held by the Government of Canada. The CDPQ is an institutional investor which manages pension funds and insurance programmes, and has its headquarters in Quebec. It is the second largest pension fund in Canada. CDPQ has investments in 75 countries," said Abraham, a former Chief Secretary of the state. Issac, meanwhile, said that the Congress has reached a stage where they need the name of Lavalin during every election. "Until this money was raised, Chennithala, time and again, called the KIIFB a bluff and when this money came in last week through bonds, they have turned to use the name of Lavalin. What they fail to realize is these bonds have been cleared by the Reserve Bank of India and other regulatory bodies. The Congress is short on issues and hence they fall back on these," Issac said in a Facebook post. This Bond is going to be launched on May 17 at the London Stock Exchange, the first time it is happening for an Indian state's bond, and Vijayan has been invited on the occasion. SNC Lavalin was blacklisted by the V.S. Achuthanandan-led Left Democratic Front government (2006-11) over allegations that an agreement with them in 1997 for the renovation and modernisation of Pallivasal, Sengulam and Panniar hydroelectric projects in the state's Idukki district caused a loss of Rs 266 crore to the state exchequer. This deal was inked when Vijayan was the State Power Minister and the Oommen Chandy-led Congress government had, in 2006, called for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the entire agreement. Even though the CBI charge sheeted Vijayan, he got relief from the Kerala High Court, which discharged him in the case in 2017. But later, the CBI approached the Supreme Court and demanded that Vijayan face trial. The apex court is expected to give its final orders on this after summer vacations and the Lok Sabha polls in April-May. --IANS sg/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the Lok Sabha polls approaching, the politicians are busy attacking each other with sharp criticism. In a similar case, Congress spokesperson Alok Sharma on Saturday threw a glass of water on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson KK Sharma during a live TV debate. In the video, that has now gone viral on social platforms, Alok Sharma lost his cool when his BJP counterpart called him a "traitor" multiple times. In the fist of rage, he assaulted the BJP spokesperson by throwing a glass of water on him. The water splashed over anchor's jacket, leaving him drenched. The anchor had to change his outfit to present the remaining programme. Though no one was hurt pieces of glass could be seen across the studio. The BJP spokesperson asked Alok Sharma to apologise for his behaviour. At the same time, the Alok Sharma continued his stand and asked for an apology for being called a traitor. --IANS vc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday announced that his party will waive off interest on loans issued before March 31, 2019 if it comes to power after the coming Lok Sabha elections. He also promised to introduce the single-window system for loans. "Till the time the student has not landed a job, the banks will not charge any interest," Gandhi said in a Facebook post in Hindi. The Congress, in its recently-released manifesto for the 2019 polls, promised autonomy to universities, adequate funds, reservations and student rights to gain popularity among the young voters. But, it did not mention anything regarding student loans. The latest announcement is indicatively targeted at the middle class, which has the highest volume of student loans. It is also in sync with the claims of the manifesto that India needs more universities. "Congress promises to establish more public universities in the country, especially in under-served areas. We promise to restore the autonomy of colleges and universities," said the manifesto. The manifesto also promised that it will separate organisations to ensure the regulation, grading and funding of colleges and universities. "We will provide the University Grants Commission or its successor with sufficient funds to make liberal grants to colleges and universities, based on need and merit," it said. --IANS ss/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Sunday said the Congress wanted to punish people belonging to the middle class and had not mentioned them in their manifesto. "The Congress is keen to punish the middle class people as they are supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). That's why the Congress did not mention them in its manifesto," Modi said at an election rally, 60 km from Agartala. He accused the Congress of planning to burden the middle class with more taxes and said the manifesto had nothing for them. "With more tax burden, the Congress wants to bring back the 'licence raj'. When the BJP government is trying to reduce the tax burden of the people, the Congress is eager to raise it." In his 27-minute speech in Hindi, the Prime Minister said the Congress and the Left parties were fighting against each other in Kerala and Tripura, but maintaining friendship in Delhi. Terming their electoral battle against each other just a show, Modi said they were fighting against the country's chowkidar Narendra Modi. All the parties, like Pakistan, were against the chowkidar "who is killing terrorists," he said. He also demanded to know why Congress President Rahul Gandhi was contesting from a Kerala seat and not from any other states. "He (Gandhi) would not contest from Punjab as the Congress has committed many offences in the state," he said. Modi arrived in Tripura after addressing a rally in West Bengal's Cooch Behar. Addressing the gathering, he said, "I sincerely thank you for ending the 25-year-rule of the Left in the Assembly elections in 2018. This time if you cast your vote for 'lotus' it would go to the account of Narendra Modi." Modi on Sunday addressed rallies in West Bengal, Tripura and Manipur to make a strong pitch for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. Tripura and Manipur, ruled by the BJP, account for two Lok Sabha seats each. Polling in these four constituencies will be held on April 11 and April 18. Highlighting the BJP's performance and initiatives for the all round development of tribals, remote and rural areas and workers of the unorganised sector, Modi said wherever the Left parties ruled they prompted political violence. "The Left parties and the Congress are only creating miseries for the people. Poor people now (under the NDA rule) get concrete houses, free cooking gas connections, adequate treatment support through the 'Ayushman Bharat' scheme and electricity connections." He praised the one-year-old BJP government, led by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, for developing and improving the law and order situation in the state. "Tripura is connected with the rest of the country through broad gauge rail. The double engine of the 'lotus' would develop Tripura more. The BJP government at the Centre has given more powers to the Tribal Autonomous District Council in the state," he said. Deb, Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma and other state leaders were also present at the event. --IANS sc/mag/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Australias federal government will provide a $17.1 million subsidy to Disney to shoot a yet untitled Marvel movie, speculated to be the first superhero film with an Asian protagonist, at Fox Studios Australia. Disney took ownership of the Sydney studios last month as part of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox, reports variety.com. Australia also offers location incentive schemes, known as offsets, that are directly linked to the amount of production spending in the country. The film will also be able to claim the 16.5 per cent location offset. "The Australian government's location incentive increases the existing location offset rate from 16.5 per cent to 30 per cent for eligible large budget international productions that are successful through the application process," according to Federal Minister for Communications and the Arts Mitch Fifield and the New South Wales (NSW) state government's Minister for the Arts Don Harwin. Harwin said the film will additionally be able to tap into the $7.1 million per year made in NSW fund which is intended "to support the attraction to NSW of significant international screen projects". The amount going from the NSW fund to the new film was not specified. Neither Disney nor the Australian authorities have confirmed the title of the film they are proposing to subsidize, describing it only as "a major new Marvel Studios movie" and "a big-budget superhero film". But Australian Media have speculated that it is "Shang Chi", recently pitched as Marvel's first superhero movie with an Asian protagonist. Last month, Marvel announced that Destin David Cretton would be the film's director and that Dave Callaham is currently writing the script. --IANS sug/rb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Coming from a family of doctors, 25-year-old Aparajita Singh Sinsinwar of Rohtak town in Haryana, around 70 km from Delhi, has secured 82nd rank in the UPSC Civil Services results announced on April 5. A doctor who completed her MBBS degree in 2017, Aparajita's parents - mother Nita and father Amar Singh - are both doctors based in Bharatpur in Rajasthan. Her two younger brothers also hold MBBS degrees. Raised by her maternal grandparents in Rohtak and having completed her MBBS from the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak, Aparajita took the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination in June 2017 - her first attempt. She said that she failed to clear the UPSC in her first attempt but persisted with her efforts and took the examination again in June last year. With 180 posts earmarked for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), including 91 in the general category, the young doctor is expected to get into the prestigious IAS cadre. Aparajita studied on her own for the tough Civil Services examination, and now says she is looking forward to contributing to society as an administrator, not only in the health sector but also in areas like women empowerment. She is proud of her grandparents as they had always supported good for girls in the family. Their three daughters, including Aparajita's mother, are all doctors. "I have been raised in Rohtak and this is where I completed my MBBS. I wanted to give the UPSC examination a try and did it successfully," she said. --IANS js/bc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A marriage party had to obtain permission from the district authorities on Sunday to travel on the highway from Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district to Doda. Authorities have ordered closure of the national highway on Sundays and Wednesdays for all civil and public transport to secure the movement of security forces convoys. The order issued by the Additional District Development Commissioner, Anantnag, said that the marriage party of Danish Ali will include 12 other people who will travel on Sunday in four vehicles on thehighway and their travel would be subject to frisking and checking by the security forces. The permission issued also specified the registration numbers of the vehicles. Authorities had issued a notification earlier to disallow all civil and public transport on the national highway from Udhampur district in the Jammu division to Baramulla district in the valley on Sundays and Wednesdays to secure the movement of security forces convoys. From 4 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays and Wednesdays, only security forces convoys would travel on the highway. The notification said the order would be in force till May 31. The decision was taken in the aftermath of February 14 terror attack on the highway in Pulwama district in which 40 CRPF troopers were killed. Authorities, however, said the highway ban order would not apply to school buses, medical emergencies and other bonafide movements like those of tourists, businessmen and agriculturists. --IANS sq/pg/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido, here on Saturday, announced an upcoming gathering of world leaders in Venezuela to address what the opposition calls a humanitarian emergency in the oil-rich nation. "We will have a great global encounter here in Venezuela of leaders to talk about the situation in Venezuela, about the humanitarian emergency, about the solution and the alternatives for change in Venezuela," he told thousands of supporters in Caracas. The speaker of the opposition-controlled National Assembly provided no details about the date of the encounter and did not name the participants, but his press team said that more information would be provided in the coming days, Efe reported. The rally Guaido addressed in the capital was one of more than 350 planned demonstrations across Venezuela to denounce the leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro for a series of nationwide power blackouts, including one that lasted five days. Guaido, recognised as interim president by the US and more than 50 other countries, urged public employees to come to the National Assembly on Monday to activate the next phase in "Operation Freedom," the name he gives to the effort to oust Maduro, whose May 2018 re-election the opposition and its foreign allies deem illegitimate. "Everyone into the streets for the definitive phase of the end of the usurpation," Guaido said. The assembly speaker said that police used tear gas to break up an opposition protest in the western state of Zulia and briefly detained two lawmakers. As Guaido spoke in eastern Caracas, thousands of government supporters marched to the presidential palace, on the other side of the capital, to listen to a speech by Maduro. The president expanded on his government's previous claims that the power failures plaguing Venezuela in recent months were the result of sabotage orchestrated by Washington. "We have discovered new sources of attack, from Chile, Colombia, cyber-attacks supported by the government of the US have been carried out to damage the electrical system of Venezuela," Maduro said. A massive power failure on March 7 kept virtually the whole country in the dark for five days until the government managed to regain control of the situation and restore electric service. The government said at the time that sabotage at the Guri hydroelectric complex, which supplies 70 percent of Venezuela's electricity, was to blame for the blackout. The opposition, however, blamed the Maduro government for failures in the system, saying that the government's poor management of the grid was the real cause of the outage. China, Russia and India are among the dozens of countries that continue to support Maduro. --IANS vc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The makers of Tamil film "Suriya 38" organised a puja ahead of the commencement of the film's shoot here on Sunday. Producer Guneet Monga, one of the co-producers of the film, took to Instagram to share glimpses from the ceremony. "Aarambikkiradhu (it's starting) 'Suriya 38'," she captioned the photograph in which the movie's cast and crew members have posed with a priest. Monga said the film will go on floors from Monday. "Suriya 38" is a tentative title. Directed by Sudha Kongara Prasad, the Tamil film will feature actor Suriya and Aparna Balamurali. G.V. Prakash Kumar has been roped in to compose music. Aparna said: "Delighted, gratified and in short of words here. Announcing my next with utmost happiness and a feeling of triumph. Couldn't ask for anything better. Seeking all your blessings." Suriya also posted the puja's photograph, asking his fans to shower their blessings and "love" upon the film's team. Suriya, along with the director, visited Ajmer dargah a few days ago to seek blessings. --IANS sim/rb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Expensive air fares as a result of capacity constraint and high fuel prices are expected to further decelerate India's passenger growth numbers, experts opined. Even though, there has been a growth in passenger numbers on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the traffic on a sequential level has shown a negative trend. As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, on a YoY basis, growth rate in February stood at 5.62 per cent to 1.13 crore, while it was 9.10 per cent in January and 11.03 per cent in December 2018. Even data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed a similar trend. The growth rate of India's domestic air passenger volume -- measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) -- slowed in February to 10 per cent from a rise of 12.4 per cent in January. Industry observers blamed the downward sequential growth trend on high air fares. According to experts, since March 14, passengers had to shell out high fares as several airlines cancelled operations for a number of reasons, including grounding of Boeing 737-MAX aircraft. During this period, some sectors continued to see a rise of more than 100 per cent in case of last minute bookings. "Indian aviation has seen a capacity constraint due to multiple reasons over last couple of months. The immediate impact of this reduction noted on fares was an average of 15-20 per cent hike in price," said Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C) of Yatra.com. "While that acted as a deterrent for people who were looking to book air tickets in short notice, however, the traffic was not seen to be affected as the fares did moderate for people booking in advance," Additionally, oil marketing companies increased the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) which is also expected to buoy air fares. "High ATF, grounding of several flights and a tough operating environment have further impacted the domestic sector crisis and will impact passenger growth for the month of March," said Aloke Bajpai, CEO and Co-founder, ixigo. "However with unused Jet slots now being allocated to other airlines, an increase in capacity will help in normalisation of fares before the peak summer travel season." In a recent note, ratings agency Fitch said that Indian aviation market has seen a sharp increase in airfares in the last few months due to tight supply, which has been worsened by the suspension of the 737 MAX aircraft. "Fitch expects the growth in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), which decelerated to 12.4 per cent in January (2018: 19.9 per cent), to weaken further until supply increases," the rating agency said in a note. In addition, the note said that Jet Airways, which along with its subsidiary JetLite had the second-largest share of the domestic market until January, has been steadily losing market share as it has been forced to shrink its operating fleet due to financial troubles. "Market leader IndiGo cancelled around 30 flights per day (2 per cent of total) from around the middle of February until March, with industry participants highlighting pilot shortage as a key reason," the note said. "SpiceJet was then forced to ground its 737 MAX jets, which form around 15 per cent of its fleet." (Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in) --IANS rv/sn/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pre-dawn raids at the premises of confidantes and relatives of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Sunday have raised a political storm in the state. While Kamal Nath maintained a stoic silence on the day's developments, one of his former officers on special duty (OSD) Bhupendra Gupta said the raids were obviously politically motivated and that their timings could only recoil on the ruling party at the Centre. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, quite predictably, expressed happiness over the shock value of the action. Former senior Minister and BJP leader Narottam Mishra alleged, "one person had earned Rs 100 crore through his 100 days in office and the Lok Sabha elections would ensure the people bid good bye to his party." However, Mishra did not reveal how he arrived at the figures mid-way through the raids. Searches were conducted on at least 50 premises in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh against people linked to Kamal Nath. Raids were also carried out at Kamal Nath's former OSD Praveen Kakkar's residences in Indore and Delhi's Green Park. Premises of another former OSD of Kamal Nath, Rajendra Miglaani, in Madhya Pradesh were also searched. Houses of executives working for Moser Bayer, the maker of computer peripherals, owned by Kamal Nath's brother-in-law, were also targeted. Reports suggested the raids were linked to leaks by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over commissions paid in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case. Kamal Nath's nephew Ratul Puri, questioned by the ED a couple of days ago, accepted the action without any fuss. He said he had no link whatsoever with the AgustaWestland deal. Even Kamal Nath was unruffled by the questioning. Former IPS officer Kakkar and Miglani had resigned from their posts after the Lok Sabha polls were announced. Kakkar's residence at Indore's Vijay Nagar was searched by 15 police officers from Delhi who landed there at about 3 a.m. The officers claimed to have recovered some incriminating documents, which were being scrutinised, said sources linked to the Indore Police. The state police were reportedly kept in the dark about the raids. Kakkar had earlier served as the OSD to former Union Minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA regime. His family is associated with several businesses, including hospitality. The police said searches were conducted in Goa also. Raids were also being carried out against a Kolkata-based businessman, Paras Mal Lodha. Kamal Nath has several businesses in Kolkata. Govind Singh, Minister for General Administration in the MP government, said the actions reflected character of Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which can't stand those who oppose them. He said one classic example of the Modi government's vindictive nature was when its officials searched premises of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh during his daughter's wedding. Congress spokesperson K.K. Tiwari said Sunday's raids showed that government agencies were being misused for political reasons. But the top BJP leadership would not succeed in demoralising the state government, he added. "The Congress would take appropriate action at the appropriate time to deal with such misadventure. This bunch of thieves should not try to teach us political conduct," Tiwari said. Meanwhile, Kamal Nath's office said the Chief Minister would continue to cooperate with the agencies. --IANS naidu/arm/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As social media giants fight to curb fake news ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, an Indian-origin tech junkie has stressed it is not enough as the nation needs better human-centric Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based solutions to combat the spread of misinformation. For Lyric Jain, a 22-year-old Cambridge and MIT graduate, social media platforms and other stakeholders, including the government, may design solutions to fight fake news but there will be glitches, as is with the case with any technology. "India needs to prepare better as the stakes are high. Facebook is taking the problem of fake news seriously but there are many other digital platforms that aren't working towards that direction," Jain told IANS. Conceived by Jain, Logically has been developed by a diverse team of data scientists, coders, designers and journalists. Adding a layer of credibility to the Internet to battle misinformation, the Logically platform acts as a real-time, user-friendly filter, ensuring users can quickly consume information that is fair, authentic, credible and trusted (FACT). "News isn't just limited to media houses anymore. The idea is to create 'responsible sharing' among people," said Jain. "Logically will analyse whether the information is fake or not, even if the information is being provided by a well-known journalist from a credible publication," he added. When asked how the technology works, Jain replied: "It is a human-centric AI effort". "We analyse the content or text, check the metadata that is being mined and see how information is being circulated across networks. "We then combine these indicators and conclude whether the news is credible or not. Also, our human fact-checking team complies with the international fact-checking standards," Jain said, adding that it was the fake news and political interference debate around Brexit and the 2016 US Presidential elections that drove him to launch the Logically platform. As the India elections inch closer, Jain said the platform will try its best to analyse the flow of information. Logically taps deep learning algorithms and web graphs of millions of web sites from top publishers around the world to identify top quality sources for trending, quality news, per category, query, or article. "Logically will look for information that is misleading, distorting or interfering with the elections," he added. (Vivek Singh Chauhan can be contacted on vivek.c@ians.in) --IANS vc/na/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India on Sunday rejected as "irresponsible and preposterous" Pakistan's statement that New Delhi will attack it again and accused Islamabad of trying to whip up war hysteria in the region. "India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region," Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in a statement. "This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake terror attack in India," he said. Pakistan has been advised to use the established diplomatic channels to "share actionable and credible intelligence" it has about terror attacks, he added. "India reserves the right to respond firmly and decisively to cross-border terrorist attack," the spokesman said, adding said it has been made clear to Pakistan that it cannot absolve itself of responsibility of a cross border terrorist attack in India. "No attempt at creating an alibi for its complicity in such attacks will succeed. Pakistan needs to take credible and irreversible steps against terrorism operating from all territories under its control rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross-border terrorism." Earlier, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said India was planning to attack Pakistan after staging a "mishap" in Jammu and Kashmir and this could happen between April 16 and 20. Qureshi told the media that Islamabad had "reliable intelligence that India is devising a new plan" to attack Pakistan. "I am speaking responsibly, I hold a position of responsibility, and I know the words I utter will be picked up by the international media," he said. --IANS bns/vd (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.) Kuwait authorities have arrested an Indian trucker while trying to enter the country with 3 kg of cannabis from Iraq, the media reported. The arrest was made by a team from the Directorate of Search and Customs Investigation, the Arab Times quoted the Al-Rai daily as saying on Saturday. The trucker was arrested after the team received information that he would travel to Kuwait. --IANS ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The claim by hackers that they had broken into the database of Israeli voters, just days before the parliamentary elections, has been dismissed by Israeli officials, a media report said. Israel will go to the polls on Tuesday to elect the 21st "Knesset", or Parliament. Hackers on Saturday claimed they had stolen information on millions of Israelis after breaking into the voter registry. But the country's Central Elections Committee said they had no evidence of a hack, and critics dismissed the hackers' claims saying the data displayed was from another data leak in 2006, the Hamodia newspaper reported on Sunday. It has now become a routine for thousands of hackers around the world to target Israel-based web sites on April 7, which has come to be known as "opIsrael," said the report. The attacks are ostensibly organised by international hacking group Anonymous, it added. --IANS gb/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japanese prosecutors have asked judges to question Carlos Ghosns wife in connection with funds allegedly misappropriated by the former Nissan Motor chairman, public broadcaster NHK said on Sunday. Tokyo prosecutors are considering questioning Ghosn's wife, Carole, over an allegation that part of the automaker's sales incentive payments to an Omani distributor was channeled to her company for personal use, informed sources said on Saturday. Prosecutors suspect that Carole Ghosn's company used the money partly to fund the purchase of a luxurious yacht mainly for their family's use. The prosecutors asked her to meet them for voluntary questioning as an unsworn witness, but the request was turned down, which prompted them to ask judges to question her on their behalf before they open the first hearing on the allegations, The Japan Times quoted NHK as saying. Such a request gives judges the power to question on a mandatory basis witnesses who refuse to testify, according to the broadcaster. Meanwhile, Carole Ghosn has flown to Paris to appeal to the French government to help her husband and said the government "should do more for him", the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Ghosn was rearrested on Thursday on suspicion he had tried to enrich himself at Nissan's expense, in another dramatic twist that his lawyers said was an attempt to muzzle him. The fresh arrest opens up the possibility that he will be interrogated again without his lawyer present, as is the norm in Japan. The additional charge would likely prolong Ghosn's trial, which is expected to begin later this year, his lawyer has said, adding that loss of access to Ghosn's trial-related documents could put his client at a disadvantage in fighting his case. Tokyo prosecutors confiscated Carole Ghosn's passport and a mobile phone on Thursday when they served a fourth arrest warrant on Ghosn in connection with the misuse of Nissan monies paid to the Omani company, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles. It was not clear if her passport had been returned or whether she holds multiple passports. Suhail Bahwan Automobiles allegedly received $15 million between December 2015 and July 2018 and transferred $5 million of it to a bank account of Good Faith Investments, a Lebanese investment firm Ghosn effectively owns. Ghosn has denied all of the allegations. The Tokyo District Court on Friday approved the prosecutors' request for Carlos Ghosn to be detained up to 10 days until April 14. His detention could be extended if approved by the court. Ghosn was first arrested in November and has since been indicted on charges including violating the financial instruments law by underreporting remuneration to regulators for years and aggravated breach of trust in relation to the alleged transfer of private investment losses to Nissan, all of which he has denied. Ghosn holds Brazilian, French and Lebanese nationality. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan-origin actor-comedian Kumail Nanjiani is in talks to join Angelina Jolie to star in Marvel Studios "The Eternals". If the deal falls in place, it will be Nanjiani's first venture into the superhero realm. Details about the movie and what characters Nanjiani and Jolie will play are being kept under wraps, reports variety.com. Created by Jack Kirby in 1976, the story of "The Eternals" is set millions of years ago when the cosmic beings known as the Celestials genetically experimented on humans to create super-powered individuals known as the Eternals along with the villainous Deviants. The two groups went on to battle each other throughout history. The Eternals also warred with Greek, Roman and Norse deities before leaving Earth to explore the stars. Chloe Zhao will direct the film from a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo. Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige is producing the project. --IANS sug/rb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) They are connected by family ties but separated politically. As the May 19 polling for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections nears, a father and his son may take on each other's political parties but they have promised not to get personal. Congress greenhorn Ashray Sharma, who learnt for years from his father Anil Sharma, a Cabinet Minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) state government, is in the fray from Mandi Lok Sabha seat. He is pitted against BJP's first-time MP Ram Swaroop Sharma. The father and son belong to the political dynasty of former Union Telecom Minister Sukh Ram, 91. Popularly known as Panditji in his bastion of Mandi, six-time MLA and three-time MP Sukh Ram and his grandson Ashray Sharma rejoined the Congress on March 25 after quitting the BJP. At the launch of the Congress campaign, BJP leader Anil Sharma announced that he would campaign for his party but not against his son. "I have made it clear to my party high command, including Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, that I will not campaign against my son in his constituency," Anil Sharma told IANS. But as a party worker, he would campaign for BJP candidates in other constituencies. "I will also not share any public platform against my son. If the party does not support my stand, it is free to take any action against me," Anil Sharma added. Not agreeing with the Minister, Chief Minister Thakur was categorical that Anil Sharma was a BJP leader and he has to campaign for the party even in Mandi. "If he doesn't want to campaign for the BJP in Mandi, then he has to resign both from the Cabinet and the party. We can even remove him from the Cabinet and the party," Thakur told IANS. Taking a jibe at his rivals, Ashray Sharma said "his father's soul is in the Congress while only the body is in the BJP". In the campaign, his grandfather Sukh Ram is leaving no stone unturned to wrest Mandi from the BJP. He is devoting his maximum time and energy in the constituency to ensure a Congress win. "My grandson is seeking votes on the basis of my devotion with the people of Mandi," Sukh Ram said. Political observers say Ashray Sharma is also cashing in on the legacy of his father Anil Sharma. Anil Sharma, a MLA from Mandi, was a Minister in the state in 1993-97 and in 2012-17. The Sukh Ram family joined the BJP just before the 2017 Assembly polls, with the former Minister saying he was being constantly humiliated by Virbhadra Singh. State BJP General Secretary Chander Mohan Thakur has asked Anil Sharma to clarify whether or not he would campaign for the party in Mandi. "He would have to campaign in Mandi, which he represents in the Assembly, if he wants to stay in the party," he said. Interestingly, Sukh Ram's tainted past has given an opportunity for Ashray Sharma's rivals to target him. Sukh Ram has been dubbed an 'Aya Ram Gaya Ram'. Sukh Ram had to resign as the Communications Minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in 1996 in the wake of a financial scandal involving purchase of telecom equipment from a Hyderabad-based firm. His known rival Virbhadra Singh, a six-time Chief Minister, is distancing himself from the new Congress entrant in his campaign. The Mandi Lok Sabha seat has been a traditional Congress bastion and it lost it for the first time in 1977. The constituency, which includes Kullu, Mandi and some areas of Chamba and Shimla districts, besides the tribal-dominated Assembly constituencies of Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti, is one of the country's largest. (Vishal Gulati can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in) --IANS vg/pg/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Sunday released its manifesto for Odisha, promising waiver of crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh per family, 33 per cent reservation for women in government jobs and a government or private job for every family. The manifesto, released by state Congress President Niranjan Patnaik in the presence of senior party leaders, also mentions assistance of Rs 6,000 per month under the NYAY scheme to the poor. Patnaik said that if his party comes to power, a government or private job will be given to every family, Rs 3,000 monthly allowance would be provided for the jobless, all contractual workers will be regularized and there would be relaxation in age limits for jobs. The manifesto also promised land for every landless family and shelter for every homeless by 2024. A five-year plan will be prepared to provide homestead land to every landless family in a village and shelter for every urban homeless family, it said. For empowerment of women, 33 per cent reservation would be ensured in Parliament, state assemblies and government jobs, the manifesto said. The Congress also assured that the healthcare sector will get a boost with setting up of more medical colleges, if the party is voted to power. On the farming sector, the manifesto, apart from promising waiver of crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh per family within the 10 days of government formation, held out special financial assistance of Rs 10,000 per year to farmers for three years and that the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy per quintal would be hiked to Rs 2,600. It assured free education up to Class 12 for women at all levels and marriage assistance to needy families. The party said that apart from an old age pension of Rs 1500 per month, a Rs 2,000 monthly allowance for widows and single women above 60 years of age would be provided. Polling for Odisha's 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats will be held simultaneously in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. --IANS cd/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee venting her anger on the Election Commission, on her officials, and on him, showed she fears defeat in the coming Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday. Addressing a rally at the Raash Mela Maidan here, Modi again dubbed Banerjee as "Bengal's speedbreaker 'Didi' (elder sister, as Banerjee is called)" and said the enthusiasm of people at his rallies symbolised a wave in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "The more you chant 'Modi, Modi', the more she loses her sleep. Who is she?..speedbreaker. Bengal's speedbreaker Didi, who is not having sound sleep," Modi said. While addressing an election meeting four days back in Siliguri in north Bengal, Modi had also called Banerjee the "speed-breaker" to Bengal's development. "She is taking out her anger and frustration on her officials. She is taking out her anger on the Election Commission. If somebody wants to understand how in the ground slips from under the feet, then didi's irritation and anger gives a good idea," Modi said. "The way she is using choice invectives against me and attacking the Election Commission, indicates she is petrified," said Modi to thunderous applause. The was uncertainty on Saturday over the holding of Modi's rally after the Trinamool Congress refused to stop the construction of a stage for Banerjee's election meeting on the same ground on Monday - around 30 metres from the one built by the BJP for Modi to address the rally. The local authorities finally allowed the Trinamool Congress to complete constructing the stage, but asked the party to take down the bamboo barricades it had begun erecting for the people attending Monday's meeting. Referring to the episode, Modi pointed to the under-construction stage and said: "This is a monument of Didi's defeat, a living example of Didi's end." Modi alleged that the stage was built to reduce space for the people attending his rally, and ridiculed the Trinamool Congress' behaviour as "child-like antics". Accusing Banerjee of having slowed down the speed of central projects, he asked people to teach "speedbreaker Didi a lesson," and expose her real face. Referring to the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scams and the Narada sting footage, he said: "Everyone knows where all the money went. I assure that chowkidaar will take an account of all those who looted the poor people," he said. He also accused Banerjee of "unsuccessfully trying to stop the NRC (National Register of Citizens) in Assam" and making efforts to put a break on the Citizens' Amendment Bill "that was meant to give security to the people of the soil". Upping her ante against the Bengal Chief Minister, Modi claimed that she was always talking of ousting him from power as she was "upset" over a number of Indian achievements starting from becoming a "superpower in space" to its actions against terrorism. Comparing the scenarios in Bengal and Tripura, where the CPI-M led Left Front ruled for 25 years, Modi said the BJP has not adopted the Left model after coming power in Tripura and has charted a new path of development. "We chased away goons and corrected the problems in bureaucracy, paving a path for development. What did Didi do in Bengal? She took the shortcut. The shortcomings of the Left regime were adopted by her and she followed their path. "No one had imagined that this will be the fate of Bengal after Left rule. Not even me," he added. Referring to the enclave issue with Bangladesh, Modi claimed the BJP government has solved the "decades long problem" while previous regimes at the Centre had chosen to ignore it. Banerjee had also referred to the issue during her rally in the district four days back and claimed all the credit should go to her government for taking the initiative. Referring to the Balakot airstrike, Modi said while the erstwhile Central governments were scared to take action against terrorism, the "new India" under his leadership is ready to kill terrorists even by entering their homes. --IANS mgr/ssp/bc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Richwood, TX (77531) Today A few clouds. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 70F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 70F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. British Prime Minister Theresa May is being warned by her rebel Cabinet MPs that they will move to oust her within weeks if the UK is forced to participate in the European elections next month and extend its European Union (EU) membership beyond June. The MPs from the ruling Conservative Party were believed to have become increasingly angry at the prospect of voters being asked to go to the polls to elect Members of European Parliament (MEP) three years after the Brexit referendum, the Guardian reported on Sunday. The warnings came as the Prime Minister made a last desperate appeal on Saturday night to MPs to back a deal, saying there was an increasing danger Brexit would "slip though our fingers". "Because Parliament has made clear it will stop the UK leaving without a deal, we now have a stark choice: leave the European Union with a deal or do not leave at all. "The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all. It would mean letting the Brexit that the British people voted for slip through our fingers. I will not stand for that. It is essential we deliver what people voted for, and to do that we need to get a deal over the line," she said. Following her appeal, Conservative MP Nigel Evans said on Saturday night that if May failed to deliver Brexit and all she could do was secure a long extension at an EU summit on April 10, she would face an overwhelming pressure to step down. "At the moment there is focus on delivering Brexit, but if a long delay becomes a reality I believe the noises off about removing the Prime Minister will become a cacophony," he said. Nigel Adams, a former Minister who quit last week over May's decision to hold talks on Brexit with opposition Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said: "Over 170 Conservative MPs including cabinet ministers signed a letter to the Prime Minister last week urging her to ensure the UK does not take part in the European elections. Doing so will not end well." On Saturday night, Downing Street said discussions with Labour to find a Brexit compromise that could pass through Parliament before the April 10 EU summit were "ongoing" at a technical level, but declined to be drawn on whether there were any plans to hold votes on Monday or Tuesday, before May heads to Brussels. The UK is due to leave the EU on April 12 and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by the House of Commons. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BSP leader and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday urged people to defeat the BJP as well as the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections, saying both had betrayed the electorate. Addressing the first joint BSP-SP-RLD rally in the state, Mayawati also said that removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi alone would not do and that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also needed to be shown the door. "Gathbandhan is winning and the BJP is going, provided they don't tamper with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)," Mayawati said, adding that the voters would end the "drama of chowkidari". Modi, the BSP leader said, had not fulfilled even one fourth of the promises he made before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that brought him to power. The Prime Minister had also failed to protect the borders, she added, citing increasing instances of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir in particular. Mayawati did not spare the Congress either, calling its recently released election manifesto as 'hawa-hawai'. The BSP leader said that her party never issued election manifestos as she believed in talking less and delivering more. With a large number of people in the rally being Muslims, she asked the minorities to vote en bloc for the BSP-SP-RLD alliance after accusing the Congress of trying to split the anti-BJP votes. "If Muslims want BJP to lose, they have to stand firmly behind Gathbandhan." --IANS mr-pg/bns (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior separatist leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq on Sunday decided to appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Delhi for questioning in the terror funding case, a Hurriyat spokesman said. The NIA had recently served a third notice to the Mirwaiz asking him to appear before the agency in Delhi on April 18 after he had expressed security concerns regarding his visit to the national capital while responding to the two notices served to him by NIA earlier. A spokesman of Mirwaiz-headed Hurriyat group said that the Mirwaiz will travel to Delhi for the questioning, and he will be accompanied by Hurriyat executive members including Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Gani Lone and Masroor Ansari. "Despite repeated attempts to hold the questioning in Srinagar, the NIA refused to conduct it in Srinagar and has said that it would take care of the security concerns expressed by the Mirwaiz. "It is unfortunate that they are insisting on the investigation in Delhi. It has been decided in the Hurriyat executive meeting held today (Sunday) that the executive members will accompany Mirwaiz to New Delhi," the spokesman said. "People are deeply anguished by the harassment of Mirwaiz," he added. The Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat has, however, appeared people to remain calm and peaceful. --IANS sq/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "seasonal bird" for coming to north Bengal only ahead of elections, and dismissed his claim that she was petrified, saying it was he who was scared of her. "Babus of Delhi set fire in the hills and we defused it. You (Modi) had not come to Darjeeling during the days of unrest. Where were the BJP leaders when there were disturbances in the hills?" Banerjee said in a strongly-worded speech at a rally at Churabhandar in Jalpaiguri district, hours after Modi spoke at an election meeting in Cooch Behar. Addressing a rally later in the day at Falakata in Alipurduar district, she said BJP leaders "are seasonal birds who come here only during elections and run away after polls" while Trinamool Congress leaders and activists have been with the people 365 days a year For the major part of 2017, the hills in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong witnessed violence and political turmoil over the revived demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland to be curved out of the northern West Bengal hills. The entire region came to a standstill for 104 days following the longest-ever shutdown called by the pro-Gorkhaland outfits. Responding to Modi's remarks that she was petrified at fearing defeat, Banerjee said: "They are saying Didi and Trinamool Congress are scared. I am not scared of any dacoit like you and it is not so easy to frighten Didi. Didi was beaten up from head to toe and I have injuries all over my body. I had fought in front of bullets and guns. "When rest of India remained silent (during the note ban and the NRC), we raised our voice. That is why Modi babu is afraid of us and he knows he will be defeated," she said. In Churabhandar, Banerjee also asked why the people of Bengal would vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as "Modi has done nothing for Bengal" and "has not even cleared the proposal for changing the name of the state to Bangla". She attacked the BJP for nominating "tainted" candidates such as John Barla from Alipurduar, whom she accused of indulging in "violence and efforts to create division between hills and plains". Banerjee also alleged that the saffron party was offering cash to the youth and the people so that they come and join its meetings and rallies. "They are threatening people and fighting the elections with money power," she said. Responding to the Prime Minister describing the Trinamool Congress as "Saradha-Narada" party, Banerjee said: "You had linked the Trinamool with the Saradha chit fund scam in 2014 and with the Narada sting case in 2016. But during today's rally in Cooch Behar, you shared the stage with persons who were accused in both the cases and are now controlling your meetings." "Sarada-Narada-Hawala leaders have now become BJP's leaders," she said at Falakata. Incidentally, BJP leader Mukul Roy, who had jumped ship from the Trinamool to the BJP and was questioned by the central investigation agencies in these cases, was present at Modi's rally in Cooch Behar earlier in the day. Amid the controversy over removing senior police officers in the state by the Election Commission, Banerjee claimed that the saffron party will not win the Lok Sabha elections by transferring officers. "Why the Cabinet Secretary and your Secretary won't be removed ahead of the elections? There were many allegations against you (Modi)," she said. Taunting Modi for calling himself a "chowkidar" (watchman), Banerjee wondered whether the Prime Minister knew that many "chowkidars" at the ATMs do not even get their salary regularly. "We want real chowkidar, not the fraud. I will say chowkidar jhoota hain. Chowkidar lootera hain. Chowkidar did note-ban and is corrupt," she said at the Falakata rally. --IANS bdc-ssp/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for coming to north Bengal only ahead of the elections, and skipping the region when the hills were turbulent. "Babus of Delhi set fire in the hills and we defused it. You (Modi) had not come to Darjeeling during the days of unrest. Where were the BJP leaders when there were disturbances in the hills," Banerjee asked while addressing a rally here, hours after Modi spoke at an election meeting in Cooch Behar. "Now you are coming and seeking votes ahead of the elections. Are you not ashamed? Where were you in the period of unrest? Had you inquired during the days of turbulence in Darjeeling or during the floods in Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar," Banerjee asked, as she again referred to Modi as the "expiry Prime Minister". For the major part of 2017, the hills in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong witnessed violence and political turmoil over the revived demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland to be curved out of the northern West Bengal hills. The entire region came to a standstill for 104 days following the longest ever shutdown called by the pro-Gorkhaland outfits. Banerjee also asked why the people of Bengal would vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as "Modi has done nothing for Bengal" and "has not even cleared the proposal for changing the name of the state to Bangla". She attacked the BJP for nominating "tainted" candidates such as John Barla from Alipurduar, whom she accused of indulging in "violence and efforts to create division between hills and plains". Banerjee also alleged that the saffron party was offering cash to the youth and the people so that they come and join its meetings and rallies. "They are threatening people and fighting the elections with money power," she said. Responding to the Prime Minister describing the Trinamool Congress as "Saradha-Narada" party, Banerjee said: "You had linked the Trinamool with the Saradha chit fund scam in 2014 and with the Narada sting case in 2016. But during today's rally in Cooch Behar, you shared the stage with persons who were accused in both the cases and are now controlling your meetings." Incidentally, BJP leader Mukul Roy, who had jumped ship from the Trinamool to the BJP and was questioned by the central investigation agencies in these cases, was present at Modi's rally in Cooch Behar earlier in the day. Amid the controversy over removing senior police officers in the state by the Election Commission, Banerjee claimed that the saffron party will not win the Lok Sabha elections by transferring officers. "Why the Cabinet Secretary and your Secretary won't be removed ahead of the elections? There were many allegations against you (Modi)," she said. Taunting Modi for calling himself a "chowkidar" (watchman), Banerjee wondered whether the Prime Minister knew that many "chowkidars" at the ATMs do not even get their salary regularly. --IANS bdc/ssp/arm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Spain's Garbine Muguruza defeated Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova 6-2, 6-3 to reach the final of the Monterrey Open, where she will clash with Belarusian Victoria Azarenka to defend her title, reports Efe news. Muguruza, 19th in WTA rankings, took advantage of Rybarikova's left knee injury and broke her twice at the start of the match to take a 4-0 lead that marked the course of the set on Saturday night. Rybarikova began moving more and won a couple of games but lost the set 6-2. In the second set, Muguruza again took a 4-1 lead. Though her opponent regained her ability to respond, managing a break in the seventh game, but could not prevent Muguruza from winning the second set 6-3. --IANS kk/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lok Janshakti Party chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Sunday claimed that a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) "wave" is sweeping the country and the Narendra Modi government would easily come retain power. "It is certain that Narendra Modi would become Prime Minister again as people have made their mind to support and vote the NDA to power. NDA would win all 40 Lok Sabha seats of Bihar and more than 350 across the country," he told media after releasing his party's manifesto here. "It is more or less certain that NDA government would be formed. Only the formality remains." Paswan said that his party manifesto promised the right to work to deal with the major problem of unemployment in the country. He said that the LJP has demanded strict action against violence in the name of cow protection as well as harsh punishment for those found guilty in cases of lynching. The LJP also promised stern action against those spreading hatred and communal propaganda. The party is contesting from 6 seats in Bihar as per the NDA seat-sharing formula, with the BJP and JD-U fighting from 17 seats each. --IANS ik/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Netflix has suddenly withdrawn support for Apple's AirPlay, a feature that let people watching Netflix on their iPads and iPhones to instantly play the content on their TVs, the media reported. The move came as a shock to may fans as Netflix for iOS had been supporting AirPlay since 2013. The news comes after Apple last month announced Apple TV+, a subscription-based streaming service scheduled to launch this autumn. Netflix, however, denied that the drop of AirPlay support has anything to do with Apple emerging as one of its competitors in the streaming space, Digital Trends reported on Saturday. "Airplay is no longer supported for use with Netflix due to technical limitations," according to a support page on Netflix's official website, thereby leaving built-in Chromecast, the Netflix 2nd Screen feature, and external cables as the only ways to connect Netflix for iOS to a TV. "We want to make sure our members have a great Netflix experience on any device they use. With AirPlay support rolling out to third-party devices, there isn't a way for us to distinguish between devices (what is an Apple TV versus what isn't) or certify these experiences," a Netflix spokesperson was quoted as saying by Digital Trends. "Therefore, we have decided to discontinue Netflix AirPlay support to ensure our standard of quality for viewing is being met," the spokesperson added. --IANS gb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu Additional Chief Secretary Jagmohan Singh Raju has accused Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) K.V. Chowdary of "caste-based and malicious discrimination" against him. Raju, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste, has sent a notice to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), urging it to take action against Chowdary based on the recommendations made against the CVC by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. He sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention into the matter as per his commitment towards the welfare of the Scheduled Castes. Raju, in the notice sent via his counsel Prashant Bhushan, sought the initiation of action to remove the CVC under the terms of Section 6 (1) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, including making a Presidential reference to the Supreme Court for holding an inquiry. The legal notice was sent to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), seeking registration of an FIR against the CVC under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The DoPT is under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The notice was also marked to the President, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Secretary and the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary. In the notice, Raju alleged that the CVC had acted in a discriminatory manner when he ordered re-investigation into some closed, pseudonymous complaints against him. As a consequence, Raju was denied vigilance clearance required for his empanelment to the post of Additional Secretary. During the hearing of Raju's complaint in the NCSC, it was found that the committee appointed by the Vigilance Commission concluded that the charges against Raju couldn't be proved. "If such a senior Scheduled Caste IAS officer has to face discrimination and injustice, leading to impediment to his career by delay in empanelment, then what is the recourse of the thousands of ordinary government servants belonging to SCs," the NCSC had observed. The recommendations were made by the NCSC on December 9, 2016. The Commission recommended that the government should carefully examine the case and initiate action under Section 4 of the SC/ST (PoA) Act. The CVC did not submit any additional material to defend the charges levelled against him by Raju. Under these circumstances, the NCSC repeated its observations in March 2017. When the DoPT did not consider the NCSC recommendations, Raju moved the Delhi High Court in December 2018. The high court directed the government to decide on the recommendations made by the NCSC. Later the DoPT sought the views of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which in January this year, citing the Delhi High Court order, observed that the merits of the case indicated at the probability of applicability of Section 4 of the SC/ST (PoA) Act. The notice sent by Bhushan said that action should be taken against the officials responsible for the ill-treatment of Raju, who has had an "unblemished and illustrious career" of nearly three-and-a-half decades. The notice alleged that no action was taken against the CVC despite the NCSC indicting him for acting maliciously towards the SC officer. The notice also alleged that the DoPT, after gathering views from the Delhi High court, the NCSC, and the Ministry, surprisingly forwarded the matter to the Central Vigilance Commission for necessary actions on the NCSC's recommendations. Seeking the registration of a criminal case against the CVC, the notice said that Raju apprehended that the CVC could harass and intimidate not only him, but also family with the help of central agencies like the CBI, the ED and the Income Tax Department by registering false cases. --IANS ss/arm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Public sector banks, led by State Bank of India, have given themselves 180 days to resolve the Jet Airways account even though the time limit has become irrelevant post Supreme Court order that quashed an earlier RBI circular on debt resolution. Official sources in the Finance Ministry said that banks have informed the ministry that they were not ready to wait endlessly to restore health of the beleaguered airline and if attempts to bring in a strategic investor fails or is not completed by June 30, lenders may immediately initiate bankruptcy proceedings against Jet. "All attempts are being made to see that Jet Airways does not fail and its operations are maintained albeit on a smaller scale. Banks, including SBI and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have already decided to provide interim funding support of Rs 1,500 crore to Jet," a source in the finance ministry said. "Now effort is on to bring in a strategic investor. But if there are no satisfactory bids, banks would not wait anymore and refer the airline to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for resolution," the source added. Jet first defaulted on loan repayment on December 31. Going by this, the 180 day period from default will end on June 30. Once the matter lands in NCLT, banks get another 180 days to find a resolution of the stressed asset with an extension of 90 days, if required. Post this, if banks fail to resolve the account, liquidation process starts. "We will go by the 180-day deadline that was being followed as per now defunct RBI circular. With each day the problem at Jet seems to be multiplying and if a resolution is not achieved immediately, there is no point to drag the issue any further but to take the account for bankruptcy. Otherwise, the airline account can become a further drag on the banks," said an official of public sector bank asking not to be named. The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the February 12, 2018 circular of RBI that asked banks to start resolution of an account even if there was one day default in repayment of loans. This resolution would have to be completed in 180 days failing which it would be mandatory upon banks to refer it for bankruptcy proceedings. Following this order from the apex court, it was widely believed that banks would use extra time now available with them for resolution. But for Jet, PSBs are in no mood for extended period of resolution. Meanwhile, the lenders on Saturday invited expression of interest (EoI) from investors looking to pick up majority stake in Jet. The EoI would have to be submitted by April 9. Extensions could be considered, if bids are not satisfactory. A statement issued on Thursday by a consortium of lenders led by the State Bank of India (SBI) said : "The lenders intend to pursue the bank-Led resolution plan for sale of stake in the company in a time-bound manner under the present legal and regulatory framework and intend to invite expressions of interest." Jet Airway's former Chairman Naresh Goyal has said he has cooperated fully and facilitated the bank-led resolution programme for the company. On March 25, Goyal had stepped down from the board of the airline and ceded majority control to the SBI-led consortium. Under the debt resolution plan, the lenders would inject up to Rs 1,500 crore working capital into the airline and convert their debt into equity, to revive the airline and then sell their stake in it. The airline owes over Rs 8,000 crore to lenders. At present, the airline is hard-pressed for funds. It is expected to receive the first tranche of the Rs 1,500 crore promised by banks as part of the debt resolution plan. Industry sources informed that the first tranche of fund is expected in a day or two. However, without further funding the airline's fleet size is expected to shrink further. It has already shrunk to 26. Jet Airways has been struggling with cash flows for the past six months because of rising fuel costs and intense competition. It has even delayed payment to lessors, airport operators and oil marketing companies besides a part of its workforce to keep the company running. On Wednesday evening, the airline informed employees that salaries for March will be delayed. Salaries are pending since January. (Subhash Narayan can be contacted at subhash.n@ians.in) --IANS sn/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Rohingya rights group in Bangladesh on Sunday said more than 20 people were killed and 50 were injured during an air strike on April 3 by the Myanmar Army on members of the ethnic group in Rakhine state, contradicting the government version of the incident. The Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH) said innocent Rohingya villagers were gathering bamboo in streams near Phon Nyo Leke when Myanmar military helicopters flew low overhead and shot at ordinary Rohingya making rafts in the river, reports Efe news. "More than 20 people were killed and over 50 were injured. Many people had arms and legs blown off by the bombs," the ARSPH said in a statement. Headed by former school teacher Mohammad Mohibullah, the ARSPH was formed by Rohingyas following the exodus in 2017 to champion the cause of the persecuted Muslim community. "The genocidal military issued a statement on April 5, saying that only six Rohingyas were killed because they are working with a terrorist group," said ARSPH. "This is completely false information," it said, adding that it was evidence that the military continues "to take every opportunity to clear all Rohingya from their homeland and complete the genocide that they started 40 years ago". The Myanmar Army confirmed the death of six Rohingya, who according to the military, collaborated with the rebels of the Arakan Army (AA), during an air strike against a bastion of insurgents in the west of the country. The UN, which accuses the armed forces of "intentional genocide" for the operation against the Rohingya, indicated this week its "deep concern" about the recent clashes. More than 738,000 Rohingya refugees have fled violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state since August 2017, while 200,000 members of the community had earlier escaped to Bangladesh. Most refugees live under harsh conditions in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar area, near the Myanmar border, that has become the biggest refugee camp in the world. Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingyas, a mostly Muslim minority, as its citizens and considers them Bangladeshi immigrants, although Dhaka has also treated them as foreigners. --IANS ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rwanda on Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide in which about a tenth of the African nation's population was killed. The country will mourn for 100 days, the time it took for 800,000 Rwandans to be massacred, the BBC reported. Most victims were minority Tutsis, killed by ethnic Hutu extremists. Paul Kagame, 61-year-old President, who led the rebel force that ended the genocide, started the commemoration by lighting a remembrance flame at the memorial in the capital Kigali, where around 250,000 victims are said to be buried. The flame will burn for 100 days. Kagame will make a speech at the Kigali Convention Centre and then lead a vigil at the Amahoro National Stadium, which was used by UN officials to protect the Tutsis during the killings. On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying then-President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down, killing all on board. Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi rebel group Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) for it. But the RPF denied the accusation. In a well-organised campaign of slaughter, militias were given hit lists of Tutsi victims. Many were killed with machetes. One of the militias was the ruling party's youth wing, the Interahamwe, which set up road blocks to find Tutsis, incited hatred via radio broadcasts and carried out house to house searches. --IANS ksk/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee has clocked 20 years in the world of fashion, and he celebrated the glorious journey of his label with a grand fashion show here. He presented an exclusive collection of shoes and handbags in collaboration with French fashion label Christian Louboutin on Saturday, read a statement. On the collection and his journey so far, the 45-year-old couturier said: "In the summer of 1999, I graduated from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Calcutta. My graduation collection was called Kashgaar Bazaar - inspired by global nomads, gypsies, prostitutes, performing artists and my imagination of the Silk Route. "In 2019, as I celebrate 20 years of the brand, I present Kashgaar Bazaar to my global audience. Drawing inspiration from my first design collection - Kashgaar Bazaar - this collaboration explores the conflict between cultures, colours, textiles and crafts. Under the overarching theme of rustic baroque, the entire collection is a patchwork of different textile influences derived from the Silk Route." The glam quotient was quite high at the gala. From actress Alia Bhatt to Aditi Rao Hydari and Janhvi Kapoor, several Bollywood divas gathered together to be a part of the '#0yearsofSabyasachi' bash. Alia was dressed in printed Sabyasachi Toga sari, while Janhvi opted for a red western dress. --IANS sim/rb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Tamil Nadu Police on Sunday arrested one person from Dindugul district in connection with the murder of a female college student. According to the police, Pragathi, who studied at a college in Coimbatore, was found murdered with her throat slit near Pollachi on Friday. The police said Satishkumar, the arrested person, wanted to marry Pragathi but her parents turned down the proposal. Later he got married to someone else. Pragathi's parents had also finalised a boy for her and the wedding was fixed for this June. On Friday, Satishkumar took Pragathi in his car and enroute her native village, he allegedly killed her as he was not able to digest the fact that she was getting married to someone else. In recent times, there has been a spurt in the number of cases of girls getting killed by their spurned lovers. "Gone are the days of Devdas, when the boy failed by love wished his love well and moved on," Chitra Aravind, a city-based consultant psychologist, told IANS. "The way boys are brought up has changed. They are not given much love and affection at home. They have low self-esteem. So when a girl rejects him, his ego gets hurt. Such people will suffer from unhealthy mind and would resort to violent acts," Aravind said. "They think of love as a major factor. To them, the girl is a part which will make him a complete person. Such people want to harm the person who rejects them," Aravind added. According to her, such boys normally have a history of violent behaviour and committing a murder is the climax to that. "There are girls who would fall for such characters with an idealistic notion of reforming them. Such girls are usually victims of childhood abuse," Aravind said. It all boils down to the values that the parents follow and inculcate in their wards. she said. "Those born in the '70s were clear. If it was no, then it was no. They were able to take it. But those born in the '90s are a confused lot. The television serials showing extra marital affairs in our drawing rooms condition their minds that nothing is wrong," Aravind added. --IANS vj/arm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) While marketers have feared that social media distracts viewers from advertisements and minimises their impact, a new study found that tweeting during TV pushes people for online shopping. "Social shows" are more beneficial to advertisers because commercials that air in those programs generate more online shopping on the advertisers' websites. "We find that advertisements that air in programmes with more social activity see increased ad responsiveness in terms of subsequent online shopping behaviour," said Beth L Fossen, Assistant Professor of marketing at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. This result varies with the mood of the ad, with more affective ads -- in particular, funny and emotional ads -- seeing the largest increases in online shopping activity. "Our results shed light on how advertisers can encourage online shopping activity on their websites in the age of multi-screen consumers," Fossen maintained. The researchers also observed that ad timing played a major role in affecting online shopping. Advertisements airing near a half-hour interval increased online purchases. For the study, published in the INFORMS journal, Fossen and her co-author, David Schweidel of the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, examined the online shopping activity of one lakh active internet users. They found that an increase in online chatting about a retailer boosts the advertiser's website traffic. "Online program engagement may encourage a loyal, committed viewing audience. And media multitasking may decrease the ability for the viewer to counterargue or resist persuasion attempts, increasing ad effectiveness," Fossen said. --IANS vin/rt/pg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Social media firms, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, face hefty fines or ban in Britain if they fail to remove harmful content quickly under new laws, set to be unveiled on Monday, the media reported. The new duty of care laws could even hold social media executives personally liable for terrorist and child abuse content on their platforms. UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid is considering measures that would block errant firms' access to UK users, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The social media firms that fail to sanitise their platform could be removed from search engines like Google. Citing a leaked government document, The Guardian reported on Thursday under the new plans, an independent regulator will have the power to impose substantial fines on companies that breached their duty of care. The move comes after the livestreaming of the New Zealand terror attack, in which 50 people were killed, sparked global outrage. The video was viewed over 4,000 times before it was removed. The video was later shared in millions on other social media platforms, including Twitter and YouTube. "Vital discussions at G7 around online terror content -- especially after horrors of Christchurch. I made clear our upcoming Online Harms White Paper will ensure social media firms take more responsibility. Much more global action needed in this area," the UK Home Secretary said in a tweet on Thursday referring to the New Zealand terror attack in Christchurch. --IANS gb/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths arrived in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday for crisis talks with Shia Houthi rebel group. Griffiths is set to offer a new plan for implementing the first phase of Stockholm Agreement at the Hodeidah port city, a source close to the rebel group told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, reports Xinhua news agency. The plan detailed the operational steps of military redeployment and withdrawal of the rebels from the port city, the source said without elaborating further. Griffiths has been shuttling between the rebels in Sanaa and the Yemeni government in the Saudi capital Riyadh to push the deal toward implementation. Saudi Arabia-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. Yemeni warring parties reached a peace deal in December last year in Stockholm as a first step toward a comprehensive political solution. However, the deal has hit a deadlock as the warring forces have largely held the cease-fire deal but failed to withdraw from the city. Grinding into fifth year, the war has so far killed more than 10,000, displaced three million and pushed more than 20 million Yemenis into the brink of famine, according to the UN aid agencies. --IANS mr/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US government has said that it may take federal officials two years to identify what could be thousands of immigrant children who were separated from their families at the country's border with Mexico. According to court documents filed on Friday, a federal judge had asked for a plan to identify these children and their families after a report from government inspectors in January revealed that President Donald Trump's administration most likely separated thousands more children from their parents than was previously believed, The New York Times reported on Saturday. These families were separated before the administration unveiled its "zero-tolerance" immigration policy in the spring of 2018, when nearly all adults entering the country illegally were prosecuted and any children accompanying them were put into shelters or foster care. To identify these families, the government said it would apply a statistical analysis to about 47,000 children who were referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and subsequently discharged, according to the court filing. From there, the government said it would manually review the case records of the children who appeared to have the highest probability of being part of the separated families. In explaining the reason for such an arduous process, the government said the US Customs and Border Protection did not collect specific data on migrant family separations before April 2018. Lawyers representing the Office of Refugee Resettlement has not commented on the development. The government's proposed plan arose from a class-action lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of California. Last June, Judge Dana M. Sabraw ordered the reunification of children and parents who had been separated under the Trump administration policy. President Trump rescinded the policy that same month. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned the US' presence in Syria saying it was an "unjustifiable occupation" at a press conference on Sunday. Lavrov, who is on an official visit to Jordan, addressed the press with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, in the capital Amman. "We don't know the justification of the US occupation of an area in Syria, where the Americans exchange illegal interests with extremist organisations," Lavrov said. He was referring to the al-Tanaf area, bordering Syria, Jordan and Iraq, where US troops have been deployed during the Syrian armed conflict, Efe reported. "The Americans say that they are prepared to discuss their presence there, but this is incorrect," Lavrov warned. "They are trying to increase their presence in Syria." The Russian minister accused the US of "obstructing" the evacuation of the Rukban refugee camp and the return of its occupants to their homes within Syria. The Rukban camp is located in al-Tanaf, an area controlled by US troops where some 40,000 internally displaced Syrian people live. "We reject the US presence in that area and we see that the Rukban refugees should be allowed the right to return to their homes," Lavrov said. However, both Lavrov and Safadi acknowledged that their countries were involved in negotiations with the US through the Amman-based coordination office with a view to evacuating the Rukban camp. "There is dialogue with Russia and the United States to reach agreement on this issue," Jordanian said. "According to UN reports, 95 per cent of the occupants of the Rukban camp want to return to their homes in Syria," Safadi added. Jordan had closed the border with Syria to prevent the passage of refugees and the infiltration of terrorists following an attack on the camp in Dec. 2016. Lavrov also urged the UN "to re-launch a settlement in Syria on the basis of the UN resolutions and outcome of the Astana and Sochi rounds," which were sponsored by Russia. "We hope the UN will re-launch a Syrian dialogue in Geneva," the Russian minister added. Furthermore, Lavrov said that his country supported a two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and also blasted the US administration's decisions supporting Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. "We condemn the American decisions regarding the Golan Heights and Jerusalem because they are illegal decisions," he said. --IANS vc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would extend the country's sovereignty over parts of the West Bank if re-elected in the April 9 legislative polls, a major policy shift that would stir Arab opposition. Just three days before Israelis vote on whether he should get a fifth term, Netanyahu said on Saturday that he was contemplating moves that would upend decades of the nation's policy acknowledging that the lands it seized in the 1967 war would be part of a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians, Efe news reported. The Prime Minister's apparent push to cement control over the West Bank comes in the wake of victories in getting the US to acknowledge Jerusalem as the country's capital and its sovereignty over the Golan Heights seized from Syria in 1967 as Israeli territory. In recent weeks, Netanyahu has become more strident in speaking about lands seized, saying territory taken in a defensive war need not be returned. On Saturday, an Israeli Channel 12 interviewer asked Netanyahu why, with the broad consensus of Israel's right wing over the sovereignty for the settlements, he hadn't annexed or placed Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank during four years of leading a right-wing government. "We are on the way; we are in discussions about it and other things... Everyone understands the next term will be fateful," he said. Netanyahu went further, contradicting previous American-led peace plans that would have allowed Israel to negotiate the annexation of large settlement blocs but not smaller isolated settlements that would break up the continuity of an eventual Palestinian state. "I am going to apply Israeli sovereignty, but I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements." Israeli sovereignty would ensure that Israeli civil law applies in its settlements there, while annexing them would claim the territory outright. Netanyahu is trying to marshal his right-wing base, as his party, Likud, is in a tight race with a coalition led by his former army chief of staff, Benny Gantz, and trails him in most recent polls. Right-wing parties are doing well enough that the prime minister could still be in position to form a government, but the election is expected to be close. US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that there were "two good people" running in Israel's coming election and that the race would be tight. Israel already controls the West Bank militarily, allowing Palestinians a limited form of autonomy in a few densely populated pockets. Applying Israeli sovereignty and civil law or annexing territory outright would be fiercely opposed by the nearly 3 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank as well as much of the Arab world. Netanyahu previously had backed resolving settlements' fate in final status discussions, though in recent years has said he won't support the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israelis have grown accustomed to viewing Israeli settlements as part of their country. Polls show about half of Jewish Israelis no longer support a Palestinian state. The Trump administration is expected to release its peace plan shortly after the Israeli elections, and little is known about it. The Trump administration's ambassador to Israel David Friedman said the President understands Israel's need to maintain security control over the West Bank. The premier has made last minute election policy shifts before. In 2015, he came out against a Palestinian state just days before the vote, when polls suggested that he was trailing Zionist Union's Isaac Herzog. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) If the NTR clan continues to dominate the in Andhra Pradesh for over three decades, the YSR family remains its biggest rival since taking the centre stage in 2004. The family of Congress leader and former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy is the second most powerful political dynasty of the state with his son Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy locked in a neck-and-neck battle for power with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in the April 11 elections. Jagan Mohan Reddy is the President of YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), the political identity of the YSR family since 2011, while Naidu is the leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), founded by his father-in-law N.T. Rama Rao, a leading actor who was popular as NTR. Naidu claims to be carrying forward the political legacy of NTR, while Jagan quit the Congress to float a party to perpetuate the legacy of his late father. Jagan made his electoral debut in 2009 when his father Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy, popular as YSR, led Congress to power for the second term in a row in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. The young businessman was elected from Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency, considered YSR family's pocket borough, defeating his nearest rival P. Srikanth Reddy of TDP by a margin of 1.78 lakh votes. The death of YSR in a helicopter crash in September 2009, a few months after he assumed the office of the Chief Minister for a second term, plunged the state into political chaos. The Congress leadership preferred K. Rosaiah as YSR's successor even as Jagan was lobbying for the top post. With the backing of a section of YSR loyalists, Jagan defied the party leadership to embark on "Odarpu yatra" to console the families of those who died of shock on hearing the news about his father's death. Amid the dissidence in the ruling party camp, Jagan's uncle Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy was inducted into the state cabinet. Angry over what he called "attempts by the Congress to create division in the family", Jagan quit the party and also resigned from the Lok Sabha. His mother Y.S. Vijayalaxmi also resigned as MLA from Pulivendula, from where she was declared unopposed following YSR's death. In 2011, Jagan launched Yuvajana Sramika Rythu (YSR) Congress Party with a promise to introduce the welfare schemes implemented during his late father's rule. Within three months, he was re-elected from Kadapa in the by-election with a record majority of over 5.43 lakh votes. Vijayalaxmi also won from Pulivendula, defeating her brother-in-law Vivekananda Reddy of the Congress by a margin of over 85,000 votes. The margin of victory in both the constituencies bettered the record held by YSR. Till then, the YSR family had won Kadapa and Pulivendula for six and 10 times, respectively, on Congress ticket. In 2011, the family retained its hold but this time contesting as YSRCP candidates. However, Jagan was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a disproportionate assets case in May 2012. He remained in jail for 16 months. When Jagan was behind the bars, his mother ran the party as its honorary President and his sister Y.S. Sharmila conducted a "padyatra" or foot march to mobilise public support for him. In 2014, Jagan contested and won from Pulivendula while his mother unsuccessfully contested from the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat. Though TDP came to power, YSRCP replaced the Congress as the second biggest player in state politics, bagging 67 seats in the 175-member Assembly. This time, Jagan is contesting again from Pulivendula while his cousin Avinash Reddy is seeking re-election from Kadapa. Jagan's maternal uncle, P. Ravindranath Reddy, is also contesting for the Assembly from Kamlapuram in Kadapa district. His another uncle, Y.V. Subba Reddy, is a key leader of the party and is the outgoing MP from Ongole. This time Jagan has not fielded him. The murder of Vivekananda Reddy at his house in Pulivendula in March rattled the YSR family when it was gearing up for the elections. Vivekananda had joined YSRCP and was working for the party. The family pointed fingers at the TDP and alleged that there was a conspiracy to kill all the family members. After YSR and his father Raja Reddy, Vivekananda was the third member of the family to have met with unnatural death. In Kadapa district of Rayalaseema region, once notorious for bloody fights among rival factions backed by political parties, Raja Reddy was the leader of a group supported by the Congress. In 1998, he was killed in a bomb attack by the rival faction supported by the TDP. Out of the five sons of Raja Reddy, only YSR and Vivekananda Reddy were in While YSR went on to become one of the most popular leaders of the state, Vivekananda maintained a low profile. The two brothers always shared the Pulivendula Assembly seat or the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat, depending on the role YSR chose for himself. (Mohammad Shafeeq can be reached at m.shafeeq@ians.in) --IANS ms/mag/arm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Wisdom dawned on L K Advani when he was denied the party ticket to contest the Lok Sabha election. Depending on their political inclinations and loyalties, some say that the denial of ticket to him is an act of humiliation and betrayal while others say it is time the octogenarian retires. It is a bit doleful that he was sent to political oblivion by someone who grew up under his tutelage. Advani mentored Narendra Modi as his protege and saved him from being shown the door by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the wake of the Gujarat pogrom. For his critics, it is poetic justice of sorts ... The Supreme Court has upheld a Kerala High Court judgment against the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), as a consequence of which certain amendments to how pensions have been calculated will be struck down. This will create a situation in which those who had a particularly high previously drawn salary and several years of service might see their pension raised by as much as 1,000 per cent. This is naturally not in keeping with the ethos of the provident fund, which has always been scaled towards aiding the saving and retirement of those at the lower rung of the formal ... Two notorious smugglers were arrested in separate incidents Sunday as police foiled three attempts to smuggle bovines in Kathua and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir, an official said. Police seized three trucks and 23 animals were rescued, he said. Police intercepted two trucks on the Jammu-Pathankot highway near Korepunnu in Kathua district and rescued 14 animals. Another truck was intercepted near Lam village in Rajouri district and nine animals were rescued. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fifty-nine registered but unrecognised parties have fielded candidates for the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, a state which has traditionally seen direct fights between the BJP and the Congress. Among them, Hindustan Nirman Dal and Bahujan Mukti Party have fielded eight and six candidates respectively, while the Right to Recall Party and Vyavastha Parivartan Party will fight from four seats each. The Garvi Gujarat Party, Manvadhikar National Party and the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Party have fielded candidates from three seats each. Other outfits like the Gujarat Janta Panchayat Party, Rashtriya Jankranti Party are also in the fray with their candidates filling nominations for two seats each. Yuva Sarkar Party, which has fielded its candidate on Navsari seat, believes that political parties should not give tickets to candidates over 50 years of age. The party claims power was still concentrated in the hands of elderly leaders despite over 65 population of the country being under 35 years of age. The Indian Business Party, which claims to be a political party for India's businessmen, has fielded its candidate for the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat. While these parties are registered with the Election Commission of India, they are not recognised as either state or national parties, as they fail to meet the criteria specified for such recognition. As per the EC, out of 2,293 political parties in India, only seven are recognised as national parties, and 59 as state parties. These registered but unrecognised political parties have to choose from a list of free symbols issued by the poll panel. "It is not easy to specify why such political parties contest elections. While some are serious about elections, many field candidates in the hope that someone will ask them to withdraw their candidature in their favour," said Jagdeep Chhokar of the Association for Democratic Reforms, an organisation working in the area of electoral and political reforms. "They dont aspire to become anything, they just contest elections, file nominations in the hope of getting some advantage out of a serious candidate. When the contest is close, every vote counts," Chhokar added. "Registering as political parties gives them the advantage of paying no tax on donations they receive. Out of 2,000-odd parties registered with the EC, hardly 200 contest elections. The rest are just money-making machines," he said. Among the recognised parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded its candidates in all 26 seats in Gujarat, while the Nationalist Congress Party will contest from Patan and Surendranagar, the Communist Party of India in Surat and the Aam Aadmi Party from Mehsana. A total 573 candidates have filed their nomination papers for the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state, elections to which will be held on April 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : A total of 65 live star tortoises and four gold idols of Lord Ganesh worth Rs 65 lakh were seized at the airport here Sunday and one person was arrested, Customs officials said. In the first seizure, a passenger bound for Thailand Saturday was subjected to a check and it yielded the star tortoises, the officials said. The reptiles, which were endangered species, were handed over to the forest department, while the passenger was detained. In the other reported Saturday night, the officials intercepted a passenger upon his arrival from Paris. On suspicion, his bags were checked and they contained the Ganesha idols. He was arrested, the officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Scientists in the US are developing artificial intelligence (AI) systems that could help robots assist soldiers in the battlefield in future. For the research, published in the journal Science Advances, team looked at soldier brain activity during specific tasks for ways to incorporate AI teaming to dynamically complete tasks. According to Jean Vettel, a senior neuroscientist at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in the US, technologies that can predict states and behaviours of the individual soldier may help create a more optimised team. The work between ARL and the University at Buffalo is looking at ways the dynamics and architecture of the human brain may be coordinated to predict such behaviors and consequently optimize team performance. "In military operations, soldiers perform multiple tasks at once. They're analysing information from multiple sources, navigating environments while simultaneously assessing threats, sharing situational awareness, and communicating with a distributed team," said Vettel. "This requires soldiers to constantly switch among these tasks, which means that the brain is also rapidly shifting among the different brain regions needed for these different tasks," he said. "If we can use brain data in the moment to indicate what task they're doing, AI could dynamically respond and adapt to assist the Soldier in completing the task," he added. To achieve this future capability, the researchers first sought to understand how the brain coordinates its different regions while executing a particular task. They used a computational approach to understand how this may be characterised to inform the behavioral prediction. To complete the study, researchers mapped how different regions of the brain were connected to one another in 30 different people via tracts of tissue called white matter. Scientists converted these maps into computational models of each subject's brain, and used computers to simulate what would happen when a single region of a person's brain was stimulated. They then used a mathematical framework, which they developed, to measure how brain activity became synchronised across various cognitive systems in the simulations. "While the work has been deployed on individual brains of a finite brain structure, it would be very interesting to see if coordination of Soldiers and autonomous systems may also be described with this method, too," said Javier Garcia, an ARL neuroscientist. "Much how the brain coordinates regions that carry out specific functions, you can think of how this method may describe coordinated teams of individuals and autonomous systems of varied skills work together to complete a mission," Garcia said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's son Nara Lokesh, who is contesting assembly elections for the first time, feels it is "impossible" to imagine an alternative force without the support of either the Congress or the BJP. He, however, wants the national parties to be prepared to play a supporting role if regional parties including Telugu Desam Party (TDP) win good number of seats in the Lok Sabha polls. "All coalitions have either the BJP or the Congress. But there is a role for regional parties at national level. So, I believe an alternative front minus the Congress or the BJP does not exist. It is impossible to imagine," Lokesh told PTI in an interview. He is contesting from the Mangalagiri assembly segment, a seat which the TDP has not won since 1985. His main rival is sitting YSRCP MLA, Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, who had defeated the Telugu Desam candidate by 12 votes in 2014. Asserting that India needs a prime minister who listens to states, the 36-year-old TDP leader says "voices of states" should not be "choked" and the federal spirit need to be maintained as he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "match fixing" with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) to defeat the TDP at any cost. Lokesh, the incumbent IT minister and a member of the legislative council, says he does not "subscribe" to an idea of a "non-BJP and non-Congress" front being toyed by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, also called KCR. "No one trusts KCR. Everyone knows his narrative and are smart enough to understand. It (non-BJP, non-Congress) does not work. I do not subscribe to KCR's idea," he says. Asked if national parties should play a supporting role, Lokesh says, "It will depend on numbers. If regional parties have strong number, definitely the Congress might end up supporting." He argues that the next government should have a strong state representation because the nation is strong only if states are strong. "The challenge today is the voice of the states is choked. BJP-rules states don't talk in the GST council meeting, they simply nod in the meeting. The federal spirit is required but that does not exist," he says. He predicts a big TDP win in the elections -- 125 out of 175 assembly seats and 18-20 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats -- in the simultaneous elections to be held for the first time in the newly carved out Andhra Pradesh. He claims successful implementation of welfare schemes like 'Pasapu Kumkum', infrastructure development and employment will work in its favour. "Opposition claims there is anti-incumbency but it does not have a clear agenda," he says, adding that the YSRCP only criticises the TDP in rallies. "People are noticing it. At the end of the day, our opponent has zero experience. Naidu has 40 years of experience, people really want him to come back," he adds. Asked if his father would leave the state for a role in New Delhi, Lokesh says, "Andhra is in crossroads. He is required here and will continue to be the chief minister. We need an experienced leader and visionary like him at least for next five years." "Naidu is required in Andhra Pradesh but the country needs a prime minister who actually listens and willing to hear problems of each state," he said and shared how his father even at the age of 68 years takes feedback from people seriously and works up on it. "There is no magic wand to solve all problems. However, we have to navigate and figure out solutions. Modi made big promises but he delivered nothing," he says and accuses the prime minister of "neglecting" Andhra Pradesh and "deceiving" people of the state after bifurcation. He says the state requires the Centre's support but "the prime minister has no idea what is going on in India. He is always on the plane. He never gets into the dust of India". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Alleged arms dealer Manish Nagori, who was arrested earlier in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case, was held again on Saturday night for violating externment rules hours after he was released on bail, police said Sunday. After being released Friday from Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail on bail in an Arms Act case, Nagori had gone to Kolhapur despite being earlier externed from there, an official said. "He was arrested for violating externment norms and entering the jurisdiction of Kolhapur police," Senior Inspector Sanjay More of Shahupuri police station in Kolhapur said. Nagori was held by Pune police in August, 2013 in connection with the murder of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar. Nagori's name was not mentioned in the Central Bureau of Investigation's charge sheet and he has approached court seeking discharge from the case. Police said Nagori has around 20 cases of extortion, arms dealing and murder. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian Army motorcycle team set off on a 1,000-km expedition of the Karakoram Range's unforgiving terrain and extreme climate from Ladakh on Sunday, a defence spokesman said here, describing it as one-of-a-kind journey. The expedition will continue over 14 days and commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Kargil Vijay Divas, celebrated on July 26 every year to mark the victory of the Indian armed forces over Pakistan in 'Operation Vijay'. Eleven motorcycles are part of the expedition organised in partnership with Royal Enfield and Himalayan Motorsports, the spokesman said. "With due acclimatisation at every stage, the team will be roaring their engines over some of the highest motorable passes including Chang La and Khardung La, inhabited villages and iced water bodies, to an altitude of 18,176 feet," he said. The motorcyclists will pass through areas where temperatures could drop as low as minus 40 degrees, where breathing will be laboured, blizzards may be frequent and visibility often zero. "The team is ready to brave all the odds in the unforgiving terrain and the extreme climate of the region, to complete a motorcycle expedition to the Karakoram Range, one that has never been attempted before," the spokesman added. The expedition was flagged off from Karu near Leh. Indian Army riders in the team are from the Army Service Corps. They are: Maj K Renuka, Maj Bhupesh Rawat, Capt Arpit Kapila, Capt Jabez Philip, Capt Akshay Joshi, Capt Nikita A Nair, Sep Diwakar, Sep Abhijeet and Sep Shivsingh. Sachin, Aditya, Hema and Nihal are representing the Enfield team and the Himalayan Motorsports Association (HMA) team has Vijay Parmar. In January this year, 19 hopefuls participated in an exacting selection process organised by the HMA in Himachal Pradesh, after which 11 men and women were selected to be part of the team. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Commercial vehicle major is looking to set up more assembly plants overseas, including the CIS region and African countries, as part of plans to scale up its global operations, a top company official said. The company is banking on its new range of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) to help it enter new regions beyond its traditional stronghold such as the Middle East, SAARC countries and pockets of The Chennai-based Hinduja flagship firm is in the process of developing a new modular platform on which it plans to roll out its future medium and heavy products from next year. The company, which has earmarked a capex of Rs 1,500 crore for various projects during the current fiscal, is also working on a separate platform for light commercial vehicles (LCVs). The company expects to roll out the new range of products from April next year. "In some markets where volumes are promising we can also put some assembly plants. But these would be established in a very cost effective manner, rather putting up large manufacturing facilities," Chairman Dheeraj Hinduja told in an interview. When asked if the company has identified some of the countries where it would like to set up such units, he said: "In Africa, we have looked at and Both these countries are quite significant. We are considering some of the CIS countries as well." Hinduja said the company in some places might even consider partnerships whether it is local body builders or people who might already have existing units. The new product range would add a lot more thrust for the company in new markets. "Our traditional markets have been the Middle East, SAARC countries and pockets of With the LCV and ICV range (Boss and Guru) we will be able to enter ASEAN market as well. Putting all this together with new range we see the growth in international markets coming in a much stronger way," Hinduja said. The company, which currently exports 10-12 per cent of its total production annually, expects the overseas shipments to rise up to 20 per cent over the next five years driven by new range of products and entry into new markets. "We see it (exports out of total production) slowly move up to 15 per cent, even moving up to 20 per cent in the longer term. I would say within a time frame of five years we should get to 20 per cent," Hinduja said. currently has manufacturing operations across nine countries, including the UAE, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the UK. The company is now among the top ten truck makers globally, besides being among the top five bus makers globally. BSP supremo Mayawati Sunday said the BJP is "panicking" and will face a defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, as she addressed the first rally of opposition grand-alliance in Uttar Pradesh, where she also slammed the Congress, saying it does not want the grouping to win and will only divide votes. Flanked by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal's Ajit Singh, Mayawati said the Congress and the BJP have ruled the country for majority of the period post-Independence, but they followed "wrong" policies. "The Congress has failed, despite ruling for so many years. In the Congress-ruled states, wrongful practices came to notice...so they eventually lost their voter base," she claimed. For the BJP, she said, it failed to fulfil it promises and, therefore, it "will keep advertising its hawa-hawai (lofty) schemes till the poll results are announced". "If the prime minister (Narendra Modi) was serious about welfare of poor, they would not have been inaugurating schemes after polls were announced... they would have performed during their five years. In the last budget... whatever announcements were made by the government were nothing but empty poll promises," she said. "Now that the BJP is panicking, you should know they are on their way out... and grand alliance will come to power," she said. She said the BJP will lose the elections because of its "policies inspired by hatred, especially their 'chowkidar' campaign. No matter how much the chhote, bade chowkidars try, the BJP will not win", she said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi have often referred to himself as "chowkidar" (watchman) of the country's interest -- both within and outside India, and even prefixed the word to him name on Twitter. Several BJP leaders followed the prime minister and added 'chowkidar' before their names. Mayawati said, "Removing Modi is not enough, (UP CM) Yogi (Adityanath) also needs to be shown the door." Eight western UP seats are going to polls on April 11, the first phase of elections. Unsparing in her attack on the Congress, she targeted it over its manifesto promise of ensuring a minimum guaranteed income for poor under a scheme called 'NYAY' -- Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY). "Indira Gandhi too made a 20-point programme to remove poverty. Was it effective?" she asked the gathering. She said if the 'mahagathbandhan' comes to power after the poll, "our government, instead of giving minimum income support, will give employment to poor people." She said that unlike others "we are silent workers". "Our party performs without making noise. The Congress too has been making tall claims. Haven't they been given enough chances over decades? They were wiped out from several states. The 'Nyay' is not a stable solution for removing poverty." She railed against the BJP government, alleging it has been "misusing" probe agencies such as the CBI and ED against its rivals. She also claimed that the "divisive thought" process of these parties are hurting the backward communities and they are "not benefiting from reservation". "They are being exploited. Minorities are also suffering," she claimed. She also charged that corruption has increased at all levels under the present government. She bracketed the Congress and the BJP together on the issue. "The Congress was tainted by the bofors scam, the BJP dispensation by the Rafale," she said, "you don't need to give another chance to them. These parties have already been given enough chances". She also criticised the practice of opinion poll, alleging they are used by political parties to "misguide voters". "Do not get swayed," she appealed to the voters. She assured the gathering that if voter to power, a grand alliance government will ensure farmers are no longer in debt. "Sugarcane farmers are suffering in UP... their grievances are being ignored," the former chief minister said. She said the Congress thinks alliance should not win, even if they lose. "Roadshows, holy dips in the Ganga, Yamuna and giving tickets to film stars are just strategies for these parties to win elections. The Congress is not strong enough to give a tough fight to BJP...only the grandalliance can fight the BJP. The Congress is of the view that whether they win or not... alliance shouldn't win," she said. "Especially in western UP, where people of all communities reside...In Saharanpur, Bareilly, where there is a huge Muslim population... I want to tell the people of Muslim community... Don't divide your vote...Give your vote to the BSP, the RLD. "When you people vote on the polling day, please come out in huge numbers. I want to tell you that women will definitely not be on the backfoot when it comes to casting vote," she told the gathering. She claimed that the Congress was busy dividing the votes. "You don't have to divide your vote, you have to vote for the deserving side," Mayawati said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With just four days to go for polling, the election buzz is getting louder but it's not enough to drown out the voices of discontent that echo through the streets of this western Uttar Pradesh town. The lack of health facilities, sanitation and electricity tell the sorry tale of development in the town of 50,000, which goes to the polls on April 11. The contest here is between Bharatiya Janata Party's Satya Pal Singh, who is hoping for another term in the Lok Sabha, and Jayant Chaudhary, RLD leader Ajit Singh's son being fielded as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance. Both the candidates will have to address the pressing local concerns of the people and the cynicism about politics and politicians, said several locals in the town. The district hospital, the only government hospital in the area where patients and their relatives find either doctors are missing or medicines, sums up the state of affairs. "If a person needs emergency treatment here, she or he is most likely to die rather than get treated," said a distraught Aamir, who had to rush out of the town to get his 10-year-old daughter treated for jaundice. "We come under the national capital region but lack basic amenities. Politicians make big promises which they are unable to fulfil," he said, adding there has been zero development under the current MP. The lack of doctors and medical facilities are a constant worry. Rajjo's pregnant daughter is critical and has been admitted in the district hospital for the last three days but is yet to be examined by a doctor. "They say there is no gynaecologist to check her. They are now asking us to go to Delhi. How will I take her in this condition?" the 65-year-old said, bursting into tears. Also in the hospital is Sonu, who has been diagnosed with gallstones. "I have been sitting here for five hours. No one has paid me attention. Each time I ask the staff to send me to a doctor, they ask me to wait. I am sure there is no doctor. It is tough to keep travelling to Meerut or Delhi for treatment," said the tea-stall owner. According to general physician Dr Azad, Baghpat is the most neglected town, especially when it comes to healthcare. "We don't have basic health facilities. If there is an emergency, the patient will surely die as there is zero care in such circumstances. We have one government facility and two-three private hospitals. Mostly, patients are turned down due to lack of medicines and injections. There are many vacancies in these hospitals," said the doctor, who runs a clinic here. The government's National Health Protection Scheme, aiming to provide health cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation under Ayushman Bharat, offers hope but people say they still await their health cards. "We filled up the form under the government health scheme five months ago, but have no word on the status of our health card," said Hajra, a resident of Qyampur village that falls in the constituency. Daily wage worker Kamla, who works in the sugarcane fields outside Qyampur, said she applied for benefits under the scheme three months ago but is yet to get a response from the authorities. "A government representative came to our house and told us about this scheme. We filled the form as we liked the scheme. But now there has been no communication at all. We don't know who to ask," she said. Besides lack of healthcare facilities, the locals also complain about sanitation issues and lack of toilets. "There is so much filth and dirt everywhere that it is tough to breathe. There are no toilets. The current government has not done anything for us," said Ram Singh, a sweet shop owner. Consumed as they are by their everyday problems, many residents say they will look at the macro picture while casting their votes. "I am a Modi fan and I voted for BJP in the last election, but no work has been done here. The BJP candidate who won in the name of Modi from here is hardly seen," said Vishal Singh, a grocery shop owner. He said he would still vote for the BJP in the elections as it carried out air strikes in Pakistan. "They are doing bigger things for the country. My vote will be for Modi," he added. Balbir Singh, a businessman, also backed Modi. "Development may not be much in Baghpat but he is doing well for the overall growth of the country." Shamim, a transport company employee, said he supported the BSP-SP-RLD 'gathbandhan' or alliance. "We don't want BJP but anyone fielded by Akhilesh's coalition. There is no development and we are living in poor conditions in terms of healthcare, electricity, infrastructure." Baghpat is one of the eight western UP constituencies which go to vote on April 11. In 2014, all eight seats went to the BJP. There was a bypoll held in Kairana subsequently that went to the RLD. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bangladesh on Sunday deployed heavily-armed border guards to an island near its southern border with Myanmar for the first time in 20 years, officials said. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) distributed images showing dozens of troops carrying assault rifles disembarking at Saint Martin's island, a small island in the Bay of Bengal that has caused diplomatic tensions between the neighbours. The BGB said the troop deployment was part of "regular activities" to ensure border protection and curb drug trafficking. But the force's lieutenant colonel, Sarker Mohammad Mustafizur Rahman, told AFP it was the first time since 1997 their men had landed there. "After more than 20 years we felt we should deploy," he said. The deployment comes just two months after Bangladesh's foreign ministry summoned Myanmar's ambassador in Dhaka to protest the inclusion of Saint Martin inside their territory in some maps printed inside the Southeast Asian country. He was also summoned in October last year, after a Myanmar government website depicted the island as within Myanmar's territory. Ties between the neighbours have soured since the Myanmar military launched a crackdown on the Rohingya minority in Rakhine, a troubled western state bordering Bangladesh. The brutal operation has forced some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh since August 2017, transforming parts near the border into the world's largest refugee camp. Muslim-majority Bangladesh has accused Myanmar of perpetrating genocide against the Rohingya, who share some cultural and linguistic similarities with Bangladeshis in the country's southeast. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP will release its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls scheduled to start from April 11 on Monday, with issues of development and national security set to be its key highlights. Top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its chief Amit Shah, will be present at the launch of the manifesto, described by the BJP as its "sankalp patra". A party statement said members of its parliamentary board, the BJP's apex body whose members include Modi, will be present on the occasion. With the Congress manifesto putting major thrust on welfare measures, including a promise of giving Rs 72,000 to the poorest 20 per cent households in India, the ruling party is likely to make a slew of promises to woo different sections of the society, especially farmers, youth and women, besides the downtrodden. Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley Sunday unveiled campaign themes and other materials of the party's election campaign, with "Phir ek baar, Modi sarkar (Modi government, once more)" as the tag line. A 16-year-old boy drowned while taking bath in the Yamuna river here on Sunday, police said. Shoab and Usman both 16-year-old, and Sameer (17) were bathing in the river when they drifted into deep water. Locals rushed in and rescued Sameer and Usman from drowning, an official said. Shaheen Bagh police station was informed abut the incident at 2.27 pm. The Delhi Fire Service said they received call around 2.30 pm after which officials rushed to the spot. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said Shoab's body was fished out with the help of NDRF rescue team called on the spot. The body has been kept in Alsifa hospital and inquest proceedings have been initiated, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man, who was part of gang whose members posed as electricians and plumbers to burgle flats, was arrested here with ornaments worth Rs 10 lakh, police said Sunday. Rajesh alias Sumit was arrested from the Gaur Green intersection in Abhay Khand and he was a member of the Rafeeq Bengali gang of Jahangirpuri in Delhi, they said. The gang used to target locked flats in residential areas here. He has admitted to stealing ornaments and cash from locked flats, Superintendent of Police, City, Shlok Kumar, said. On searching his bag, police recovered gold and silver ornaments, he said, adding that a car and lock breaking equipment were also seized. These were used in several crimes, Kumar said. The gang used to target the locked flats during morning and afternoon hours. Its members used to pose as courier delivery men, electricians and plumbers, police said. Sumit, a resident of Jahanagirpuri, further told the police that last month his gang's leader Rafeeq was arrested while he was burgling a flat in Noida, according to Kumar. The gang has committed around six dozen thefts in the National Capital Region, the officer said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Can Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra or other members of the Gandhi family distinguish between sugarcane and chari, a locally-grown fodder crop, asked Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Rana. This was his reply when he was asked about Priyanka Gandhi's attack on the government over a recent report that claimed dues of sugarcane farmers had crossed Rs 10,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh. "When the Congress was in power, it did not pay dues to the farmers. If Priyanka Gandhi or any other member of the Gandhi family can distinguish between sugarcane and chari, I will start believing that they have the right to speak on farmers," he told PTI in an interview. The UP minister of state (independent charge) for sugarcane development and sugar mills also claimed that Congress president Rahul Gandhi has "accepted moral defeat" and has "fled from Amethi". On the steps taken by the Yogi Adityanath government for cane farmers, Rana said, "When our government was formed, there were pending cane dues but so far, dues amounting to nearly Rs 60,000 crore have been paid." He said the amount was bigger than the budgets of some states, but the government paid it. "In the previous regimes of the SP and the BSP, nothing was done for the sugarcane farmers and as a result, they died of starvation," he alleged. The minister said that sugarcane cultivation area in the state has increased by 22 per cent to 28 lakh hectare which showed that the Adityanath government has worked for the welfare of sugarcane farmers. Out of 119 sugar mills in the state, there are 70 whose dues for 30-45 days had to be paid, Rana said, adding that there were some mills where the dues were pending only for the current season of 2-2.5 months. Sugarcane season is generally from November to April and it might extend to May, he said. When asked whether the BJP has been able to overcome last year's shocking defeat in the Kairana bypolls, Rana said, "The by-elections were not for electing or deciding the prime minister of the country or the chief minister of the state." "Everybody knew that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue to be at the Centre, while Yogi Adityanath will continue to be in the state. This (Lok Sabha) election is to make Modiji the prime minister once again. Areas which witnessed more than 70 per cent polling in the assembly elections saw nearly 50 per cent polling in bypolls," he said. Rana is an MLA from Thana Bhawan constituency in Shamli district. The seat is an assembly segment of Kairana parliamentary constituency. The minister said the party's margin of win in the Lok Sabha elections will be bigger than the 2014 polls. Taking a jibe at Congress president Rahul Gandhi on contesting from Wayanad in Kerala in addition to Amethi, he said, "Rahul Gandhi has fled from Amethi. People of that place have seen a glimmer of development (vikaas ka diyaa) only during the five years of Modi government." "He (Rahul Gandhi) has accepted moral defeat and has fled apprehending that the voters of Amethi will seek an answer from him for duping them," Rana claimed. On the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, he said, "There have been attempts to forge alliances on the basis of caste, but these are not natural unions. This is only an alliance of leaders, and not of their votes or party workers. People have forged a natural alliance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi." On the importance of western Uttar Pradesh, Rana said, "Since it is situated in close proximity to the National Capital Region, hence the western part of the state also has its share of importance in national " "Western UP has always been associated with major agro-political movements. Secondly anti-national forces tried to expand their footprints during the previous governments in the region. The of exodus also first emanated from western UP," the UP minister said. The BJP has done a lot of work on these issues, and hence the voters are enthusiastic about the saffron party, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Riding the Modi wave, young Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan made a successful debut five years back from the reserved parliamentary constituency named after this district, but the going may not be that easy this time due to changed caste equation. The 36-year-old Chirag Paswan, whose political debut came a couple of years after his acting debut received critical appreciation but met with commercial failure, had achieved a comfortable victory with a margin of about 80,000 votes. The return of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), to the NDA has earned a following among the 'mahadalits' through targeted affirmative action and would provide the ballast that may be crucial in this Lok Sabha segment which is spread across three districts Munger, Jamui and Shekhpura and encompasses six assembly constituencies. The poorest among the dalit groups were given the name 'mahadalits' by the Nitish Kumar government in 2007 for whose welfare, special schemes were started. However, Paswan stares at a contest that could still turn out to be tight, a reason why he has hardly stepped out of his constituency for past several days and star campaigners who have canvassed in his favour include heavyweights like Kumar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The Lok Sabha seat came into existence in the delimitation of 2008 and Bhudeo Chaudhary, who won it in the first general elections that followed, is now pitted against the LJP MP. The constituency will see voting in the first phase on April 11. Chaudhary, who was the NDA candidate in 2009, fought on a JD(U) symbol and beat by about 30,000 votes his nearest RJD rival Shyam Rajak. He is now with the RLSP and the candidate of the 'Mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance). Paswan, who has emerged as the de facto leader of the party his father Ram Vilas Paswan had founded nearly two decades ago, has quite a few accomplishments under his belt which he banks upon in addition to the formidable caste arithmetic that the BJP-JD(U)-LJP alliance brings to the table. Voters of the constituency acknowledge developments like a central school, a medical college, road connectivity to the village Chirag had adopted and a new railway line as his achievements as a first-term MP. Tall and handsome, the young MP easily strikes a chord with the people by virtue of his humble demeanour. The constituency has about 15.5 lakh voters, 46.58 per cent of them women. Nevertheless, caste often trumps everything else in Bihar politics and some political developments have made re-election for the LJP MP a task not easy. Bhudeo Chaudhary, 59, as an RLSP candidate would bank on the support of Kushwahas who have a sizeable presence here. The party is headed by Upendra Kushwaha, a former associate of Nitish Kumar, who charted his independent course a few years ago with the aim of getting for his community its due. Kushwahas exit from the NDA a few months ago and the BJPs inability to give a ticket to its state vice-president Samrat Chaudhary, who belongs to the community, from anywhere in Bihar is said to have not gone down well with members of this caste group. Besides, denial of ticket in the adjoining Banka to Putul Kumari who has been expelled from the BJP for entering the fray as an independent candidate, is said to have angered the Rajputs here since her late husband Digvijay Singh, a several-term MP from the neighbouring constituency and a minister in governments headed by Chandra Shekhar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee is held in very high esteem in the entire region. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP leader Prakash Javadekar Sunday claimed that a clear trend in his party's favour had emerged for the Lok Sabha polls, as he made light of the challenge from a "divided" opposition, saying the Congress has become a "fringe" party under Rahul Gandhi. Expressing confidence that the BJP will better its 2014 tally and win over 300 seats, the Union minister said that last time around people voted in "hope" (of better days) and now they will vote in "confidence" seeing the Modi government's performance. The opposition's grand alliance hardly exists and its constituents have been fighting each other in states such as Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh, he claimed, adding that the people believe that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's only agenda is taking the country forward. "I see a very clear trend in BJP's favour. People want to give Modi another chance. They voted in 2014 in hope because he was not tested in Delhi. "Now, they will vote in confidence because they believe he is a man who leads from the front, is decisive, ended policy paralysis and works round-the-clock," Javadekar told PTI in an interview. The seven-phase general elections are starting on April 11 and the counting will be held on May 23. To a question about the several promises made by the Congress in its manifesto, including paying poor families Rs 72,000 annually, Javadekar said the opposition party is promising the moon as it knows that "it has no chance of coming to power". They had earlier promised to eradicate poverty, and give electricity and houses to the poor, but they never fulfilled it. People know it and will vote for the BJP for performance, prosperity, progress and decisiveness, he said. The Congress, Javadekar said, has been reduced to a "fringe" party under its president Rahul Gandhi as it has neglected issues of national security and because of its association with "all the bad elements", including the "tukde-tukde gang", a reference to those allegedly favouring India's disintegration. When asked about the opposition's criticism that the BJP was pitching national security as a key poll plank to turn the spotlight away from issues like unemployment and development, he said, world over national security will dominate any polls if a country is challenged. "We are no exception. It was the Pulwama terror attack which triggered it and the way Pakistan is supporting terrorism. There is tremendous anger against it. And, the way the prime minister allowed the air force to do what was needed...This has created confidence in a decisive government," he said. Javadekar claimed that the BJP will increase its tally from eight seats in the North East to around 22, in West Bengal from two to 22 and in Odisha from one to 15.This will lead to an improvement from its last poll tally of 282, he said. Even in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where the Congress had defeated the BJP in assembly polls, the saffron party will repeat its 2014 performance in this Lok Sabha polls, he said. People in these three states are feeling "betrayed" as the Congress is not fulfilling its promises, Javadekar said. He claimed that people vote differently in different elections. In Lok Sabha polls the issue is about who will lead the country and make it more secure, the Union minister said. Javadekar noted that in 1999 people in Maharashtra had voted in favour of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the Lok Sabha polls but not in the assembly poll, which was conducted simultaneously. He said as there was a pro-Vajpayee mood in 1999, a similar pro-incumbency feeling was present among voters and added that the BJP had now become much stronger and will win a majority of seats like it did in 2014. In the snap polls held in 1999, after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government fell by one vote, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance had returned to power under him. Rejecting any comparison between the 2004 polls, when the BJP under Vajpayee had suffered a shock defeat and the coming general election, Javadekar said the party organisation is much stronger now and the Modi government has delivered not just the "general good" like roads, but also "individual good" like electricity, houses, LPG connections and health facilities. People have been given over Rs 4.5 lakh crore under 355 welfare schemes of the Modi government, he said. The Opposition, he said, is divided and offers no policy or programme. The SP-BSP-RLD alliance has kept the Congress away in Uttar Pradesh. The Trinamool Congress, the Left and the Congress are fighting each other in West Bengal and a similar fractured opposition exists in many other states, he claimed. Opposition leaders want a "majboor sarkar" (helpless government) as they believes in of entitlement while the BJP is for of empowerment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Capitals skipper Shreyas Iyer said he is not worried about the recent batting collapses of his team but stressed on the need to work on certain areas ahead of their next IPL match. Delhi Capitals had suffered a collapse against Kings XI Punjab, losing seven wickets for eight runs to eventually lose the match by 14 runs. In the next game at home, Delhi Capitals lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 5 wickets after they could only manage 129-8. Chasing 150 to win against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi on Sunday were going strong 145-3 before they lost three wickets for just two runs before Axar Patel sealed the win with a boundary. Asked if it was a concern, Iyer said: "The collapse isn't worrying, but we need to think further moving on. We will think about such areas we can work on." "I'm really positive the boys will come back positively. Big satisfaction when you win a game. I'm doing alright as a captain, want to maintain it." The Mumbaikar anchored the Delhi chase with a 50-ball 67 and he said it was difficult to score runs on that wicket. "Tough pitch to bat on, wanted to play positively. I bank a lot on my cut-shots, and I need to wait for those balls to play them. Wanted to maneuver the ball, and keep the singles," he said. "I think they were 10-15 runs less on this wicket, it was two-paced, and very happy how Rabada bowled in the last two overs. Really good for the team." Delhi will next take on Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A BJP worker has lodged a police complaint accusing Bollywood actor and Congress' Lok Sabha candidate from Mumbai North constituency, Urmila Matondkar of making anti-Hindu remarks, an official said Sunday. The BJP worker also sought actions against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for allegedly instructing Matondkar to make the "calumnious comments" and journalist Rajdeep Sardesai allegedly for letting the actor make the remarks on his channel and telecasting them. However, Matondkar said the complaint was bogus and filed with "ulterior motives". Suresh Nakhua, a Mumbai BJP worker, in his compliant lodged with the Powai Police here on Saturday claimed that the remarks hurt the Hindu community's sentiments. Matondkar is pitted against BJP MP Gopal Shetty from the Mumbai North constituency, which goes to poll on April 29. Nakhua said he submitted the complaint after watching Matondkar's interview on a television channel in which she said the "Hinduism is the most violent religion in the world". "We have received the application. After seeking a legal opinion, we will take further action," a Powai police station official told PTI. Nakhua said Matondkar's comments were "false, mischievous, deceitful and frivolous", and alleged that they were made with a deliberate motive to cause disharmony among people and malign the country at global level. The BJP leader, in a tweet, said, "Cong Candidate from Mumbai, Urmila Matondkar says: The religion which has been known for its tolerance has become the most violent!! This is abuse of Hindus!!!" He also alleged that Matondkar made these "malicious, mischievous and calumnious comments on the instructions and orders of Congress president Rahul Gandhi". Nakhua further alleged that journalist Rajdeep Sardesai allowed Matondkar to make the comment and broadcast it on the television channel. He demanded action against Matondkar, Gandhi and Sardesai under sections 295A, 505 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The sections respectively pertains to committing "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings", making "statement causing public mischief" and "acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention". Reacting to the allegations levelled against her, Matondkar said in a statement that the complaint was "ex facie bogus, baseless and filed with ulterior motives". "I have been grossly misquoted by the complainant who is a BJP member with malafide intentions," she stated. The actor said that during the interview she only objected to the "fake, divisive and violent ideology" being promoted by the BJP in the name of Hinduism to misguide people and bring disrepute to the great religion. "Hinduism is an epitome of peace, inclusiveness and non violence. I believe in Hinduism which embraces benevolent concepts of 'Wasudhaiv Kutumbakam' (Whole world is a family) and 'Ahimsa Paramodharma'," the actor stated. "This is the Hinduism promoted by our great forefathers and Lokmanya Tilak, Gandhiji, Vivekanand and Sardar Patel," she said. "I believe in, love and respect Hinduism in this sense and not in what BJP wants to promote," she added. Matondkar further said that raising voice against the BJP's ideology and speaking the truth amounts to committing a crime these days, which is unfortunate. "I have been victimised like so many others in the last five years by the BJP. I deplore this aggressive and hostile policy of the BJP. 'Satymev Jayate'," she said. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the BJP was trying to polarise voters, as the ground was slipping from beneath its feet. Sensing defeat in Mumbai North, earlier an attempt was made to peek into Matondkar's personal life and marriage, he said. "The BJP has realised voters prefer Urmila rather than the incumbent MP (BJP's Gopal Shetty)," the Congress leader added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A has lodged a complaint with police accusing Bollywood actor and Congress' Lok Sabha candidate of making anti-Hindu remarks, an official said Sunday. The also sought actions against for allegedly instructing Matondkar to make the "calumnious comments" and allegedly for letting the actor make the remarks on his news channel and telecasting them. Suresh Nakhua, a BJP worker, in his complaint lodged with the Powai police in on Saturday claimed the remarks hurt community's sentiments. Matondkar is the Congress' candidate from North Lok Sabha constituency. Nakhua said he submitted the complaint after watching Matondkar's interview on a television news channel in which she said the "Hinduism is the most violent religion in the world". Mumbai @BJP4India s spokesperson @SureshNakhua has filed a complaint with @MumbaiPolice against actor & @INCIndia candidate from Mumbai North @OfficialUrmila alleging that her statement on most violent religion to a news channel was to cause disharmony among citizens of India. pic.twitter.com/nDZP8ErA63 Singh Varun (@singhvarun) April 6, 2019 "We have received the application. After seeking a legal opinion, we will take further action," a Powai police station official told Nakhua said Matondkar's comments were "false, mischievous, deceitful and frivolous", and alleged they were made with a deliberate motive to cause disharmony among people and malign the country at a global level. The BJP leader, in a tweet, said, "Cong Candidate from Mumbai, says: The religion which has been known for its tolerance has become the most violent!! This is abuse of Hindus!!!" He also alleged that Matondkar made these "malicious, mischievous and calumnious comments on the instructions and orders of Rahul Gandhi". Nakhua further alleged that allowed Matondkar to make the comment and broadcast it on the television channel. He demanded action against Matondkar, Gandhi and Sardesai under sections 295A, 505 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The sections respectively pertain to committing "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings", making "statement causing public mischief" and "acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention". When contacted for his reaction, Maharashtra spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the ground was slipping from beneath the BJP's feet. Sensing defeat in Mumbai North, earlier an attempt was made to peek into Matondkar's personal life and marriage and now they are trying to polarise voters, Sawant said. "The BJP has realised voters prefer Urmila rather than the incumbent MP (BJP's Gopal Shetty)," he added. The Congress on Sunday announced that its campaign slogan for the Lok Sabha polls will be 'Ab Hoga Nyay' while alleging that an atmosphere of 'anyay' (injustice) was prevailing in the country. The party's campaign will be centred around 'Nyay' and the word not only alludes to the Congress' proposed minimum guarantee scheme but encompasses justice to all sections of society, senior leader Anand Sharma said at a press conference. "There is a cry for justice in the country which has been denied to the poor," he said while emphasising that "the campaign will focus on winning hearts". Sharma said the party has followed the Election Commission guidelines and taken all necessary permissions for its publicity. The campaign's main theme song 'Main hi toh Hindustan hoon' has been penned by Javed Akhtar. While the campaign film has been directed by Nikkhil Advani and the cinematography is by Tushar Kanti Ray, the concept and script was provided by Anuja Chauhan, and the music was composed by Arjunna Harjai, the Congress said. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, members of the campaign panel as well that of the core committee were involved in brainstorming the campaign strategy, Sharma said. Advertising agency Percept is behind the publicity campaign, he said, adding a young team also worked for the party as part of its digital media campaign. Its campaign on digital media platforms is being taken care by SilverPush, while other supporting agencies involved in the campaign include Design box and Nixon, he said. The themes covered in the campaign include the 'Nyay' scheme, poverty eradication, jobs for unemployed youths, farmers, women reservation, simplified GST, universal health care, education and startups as promised in the Congress manifesto. Party leaders said it is a 360-degrees cross-platform campaign that includes TV films, cinema spots, radio jingles, hoardings and digital screens, print advertisements, social media and public transport. A special feature of the campaign will be thousands of container trucks with Congress campaign advertisements on them taking the party's message to various parts if the country starting Sunday. The campaign also has regional adaptations in six vernacular languages, including Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese, and Malayalam. Members of the publicity committee interacted with civil society organisations, farmers, students, lawyers and a cross section of the society, said Singh, flanked by other members of the committee and senior leaders such as Motilal Vohra, Rajiv Shukla, Randeep Surjewala and Pawan Khera. The 'Nyay campaign' promises justice to youth, farmers, entrepreneurs and all those who have suffered injustice at the hands of the Modi government, Sharma said. The Congress has also come out with a number of campaign videos targeting the BJP government's policies such as note ban, its "hollow promises", and "rhetoric". One of the videos also traces the Congress' legacy and achievements of the past. "People are scared of talking over phone, there is an atmosphere of fear," Sharma said, adding 'nyay' (justice) was the need of the hour. Surjewala alleged that the BJP has divisiveness and hate in its mindset, and claimed the Congress will do justice. Responding to a question, Sharma said in 2014, one of the factors was the BJP's money power which played a major role in the saffron party's victory. "Yes it is true we could not counter them. The BJP is the biggest advertiser of country. We cannot match them in money to power... We will beat them in truth and connecting with people," he said, adding that jingles and radio will be used extensively for the party's campaign. To a question on the issue of nationalism, he said it was not the sole right of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk about nationalism and the Congress has lost two prime ministers while protecting the nation. Training his guns on the prime minister, Surjewala said, "We have got a 'prachar mantri' for five years. He spends crores on publicity." Slamming the Modi government's Pakistan policy, he said the prime minister wants to eradicate terror but he went to Pakistan without invitation and the ISI was "invited to probe" the Pathankot terror attack. The armed forces belong to India and not to Narendra Modi, he said. Asked to comment on Modi remarks regarding the Congress' minimum income scheme 'Nyay', Surjewala alleged, "Modiji is disrespecting farmers. He is against the move which aims to benefit 25 crore people. He doesn't want money to reach the women beneficiaries." The Congress' chief spokesperson also dared the prime minister for an open debate with the grand old party's leadership on the minimum income scheme. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP's Jammu and Kashmir unit Sunday accused the Congress of being in habit of backing anti-Indian forces, saying its promise to amend the AFSPA in militancy-hit Kashmir will only embolden terrorists. "The Congress has always strengthened the hands of anti-Indian forces. It is shocking that the Congress has promised to revoke the AFSPA. It will only be a morale booster to terrorists and embolden them," senior BJP leader Sham Lal Sharma told a public rally in Aknoor border belt. The Congress is promising to dilute the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, when 91 security personnel and 38 civilians were killed in over 600 terror strikes, said Sharma, who recently quit the Congress and joined the BJP. Thanks to the valour of security personnel, who killed 250 terrorists in anti-terror operations, but the Congress is seeking to restrain them by diluting the AFSPA, he added. "What one fails to understand is the Congress' attitude," he said. "Is it the same Congress of Sardar Patel? Is it the same Congress that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was a part of?" he asked. "It's the Congress' attitude of always trying to strengthen anti-Indian forces due to which they have gone on to question even the surgical strikes by the Indian forces," he said. "They insult the bravery of our defence forces, he added. Sharma also questioned the Congress' allies in the state, including the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party for "supporting" the Congress. "The whole country is talking in one voice, but these Congressmen are talking in a different voice. Do you accept this language of the Congress, of the PDP and the NC? Pakistan applauds their language," said Sharma. "Every citizen of the state is aware of the real faces of these parties," he said, cautioning people against their "false propaganda". He said the three parties "have stooped to such a low level of that they are repeatedly questioning even the Indian airstrikes at JeM training camp in Pakistan's Balakot". Terming the Congress' manifesto, Sharma said it has also promised to abolish the sedition laws. This totally exposes the real face of the party, he added. Sharma said the BJP has proved itself as a party of the masses at every front and ensured overall development of all the three regions of the state. He appealed to the people of Jammu constituency to elect BJP candidate Jugal Kishore, saying electing him means making Narendra Modi prime minister once again and keeping the country on the path of development and glory. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday alleged that the Congress, through its manifesto, is blowing the trumpet of Pakistan more than that of India. Addressing a rally here, Modi also noted that Congress had claimed no one could tamper with Article 370 of the Constitution, an assertion which Pakistan agreed to. "Congress is helping spread propaganda of Pakistan across the world... Congress' hypocrisy document seems to blow the trumpet of Pakistan more than that of India," he said. Article 370 grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and limits Parliament's power to make laws concerning the state. "The Congress stands with those who want separate prime ministers for India and Jammu and Kashmir," Modi said. Polling for the two Lok Sabha seats in Manipur will be held on April 11 and April 18. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hitting out at the Congress and the Left Front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday the opposition parties were hell-bent on removing him from power, even if that meant singing paeans to Pakistan. Addressing a rally in Udaipur, Modi said the people of Tripura has set a precedent for the entire country by ousting the Left Front government after 25 years. "Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has been trying its best to make inroads into Tripura, but people here would not let that happen. They have tolerated the atrocities of the Left Front, waiting patiently for the BJP to rise. I thank the people of Tripura for believing in the BJP," he stated. Modi asserted that the opposition parties could stoop to any level to remove him from power. "The Congress and the Left are working together to oust Modi. They have stooped too low, singing paeans to Pakistan even when the NDA government was taking on the terrorists on the soil of the neighbouring country. "In Tripura, they (Left and Congress) are fighting each other, but in Delhi they stand united, holding each other's hand. If there was no help from the Left, or there was no game behind the curtains, why would the namdar of the Congress go to Kerala for the contest?" Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is contesting the general election from Wayanad in Kerala and Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. "If he (Rahul Gandhi) wanted to contest from south, he could have gone to Pondicherry or Karnataka. He could have also gone to Andhra Pradesh, where the Congress has recently forged friendship with U-turn babu, or to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh." Modi has coined the moniker "U-turn babu" for Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu, who pulled out his party of the NDA in March 2018. "He (Gandhi) would dare not enter Punjab as people there haven't forgotten the 1984 (anti-Sikh) riots," the prime minister added. Taking a jibe at the Congress manifesto, Modi said, "The grand old party came out with its 50-60 page hypocrisy document, where there is no mention of middle-class. "The middle-class has long suffered under the Congress rule. Some parties, including the Congress, have said that more taxes should be levied on the middle-class." Attacking the Left parties, the prime minister said they consider their "party's constitution bigger than that of the country's". "The Left parties don't want to give the country a direction. They are only keen on furthering their own interests in the country," Modi said. Heaping praise on Chief Minister Biplab Deb, he said the state government has improved the law and order situation and developed infrastructure in just one year. "Our government has started procuring agricultural produces from the farmers directly. The middlemen and the moneylenders have suffered a setback," he claimed. Under the Saubhagya scheme, the NDA government has ensured power connection in almost all homes in the state, the prime minister noted. "As promised before the assembly election, we have initiated work on broad gauge rail line, built bridges, started train services, connecting Agartala with other parts of the country. Work is also underway to give Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport an international makeover," he said, adding that his government has taken adequate measures to ensure safety of women and children. Election to two Lok Sabha seats in Tripura will be held on April 11 and 18. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress had to remove one stanza from its campaign theme song, which was an apparent jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after the Election Commission objected to it, sources said. A media monitoring committee of the Election Commission had Saturday objected to the stanza. After it was removed, the song was cleared for release, sources in the EC said. The Election Commission has set up media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC) at state and district levels to clear political advertisements and campaign material for the Lok Sabha election. The Congress had referred its theme song to MCMC in Delhi. The song 'Main hi toh Hindustan hoon' has been penned by Javed Akhtar. While the campaign film has been directed by Nikkhil Advani and the cinematography is by Tushar Kanti Ray, the concept and script was provided by Anuja Chauhan, and the music was composed by Arjunna Harjai, the Congress said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several persons were injured in clashes among supporters of Congress's candidate Nasimuddin Siddiqui over biryani, which officials said was being served at an election meeting without permission, prompting authorities to lodge a police case and arrest nine. The election meeting was organised at the residence of former MLA Maulana Jameel, who recently switched over to the Congress, at Tadheda village under Kakroli police station on Saturday. was to be served for lunch after the meeting, but clashes erupted as those present there scrambled for the first serving, officials said. Police rushed to the spot and dispersed the violent mob. A case has been lodged against 34 persons including Jameel and his son Naeem Ahmad under various sections of the IPC and for violation of the model code of conduct, Circle Officer Ram Mohan Sharma said, adding that nine persons have been arrested so far in connection with the incident. He said security has been tightened in the village and additional forces have been deployed to check any further violence. Jameel switched over to the from BSP last week. He was elected from the Meerapur assembly constituency in 2012. will vote in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 11. The Congress on Sunday announced 'Ab Hoga Nyay' as its battle cry for the Lok Sabha polls and launched a campaign centred around the theme of 'justice', while alluding to the party's proposed minimum income scheme and the 'anyay' (injustice) "prevailing under the BJP rule". The campaign places Congress chief Rahul Gandhi at its core and reflects his style, which is informal, real, and helps him connect easily and genuinely with people, the party said. The themes covered in the campaign include the 'Nyay' scheme, poverty eradication, jobs for youth, farmers, women's reservation, simplified GST, universal healthcare, education and startups, as promised in the manifesto titled 'Congress will deliver'. As a special feature of the campaign, thousands of container trucks with Congress campaign advertisements on them will take the party's message to various parts of the country starting Sunday. The campaign will be centred around 'Nyay', which not only alludes to the Congress' minimum income scheme but encompasses justice to all sections of society, party leader Anand Sharma said. "People were promised 'achche din', but they have had a harrowing time under this government.... A large section of society was kept from their constitutional rights. There is a cry for justice in the country," he said, while emphasising "the campaign will focus on winning hearts". Sharma said the party has followed the poll panel's guidelines and taken all necessary permissions for its publicity. The campaign's main theme song 'Main hi toh Hindustan hoon' has been penned by Javed Akhtar. While the campaign film has been directed by Nikkhil Advani and the cinematography is by Tushar Kanti Ray, the concept and script was provided by Anuja Chauhan, and the music was composed by Arjunna Harjai, the Congress said. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, members of the campaign panel as well that of the core committee were involved in brainstorming the strategy, Sharma said. Advertising agency Percept is behind the campaign. A young team also worked for the party as part of its digital media campaign. Other agencies involved were SilverPush, Design box and Nixon, he said. "NYAY or justice is the underlying theme of the campaign calling for justice for the poor, unemployed youth, farmers, women, Dalit and Adivasi brothers and sisters, businessmen ruined by GST, and justice for each of us who have been lied to and taken for granted by the present government whose time has run out," the Congress said in statement. 'NYAY' stands for 'Nyuntam Aay Yojana' or minimum income scheme under which the Congress' has committed Rs 72,000 into the bank accounts of five crore of the poorest families annually. All visual elements in the campaign featuring Rahul Gandhi are from his interactions with people from all walks of life over the past few years, it said. Party leaders said it is a 360-degree cross-platform campaign that includes TV films, cinema spots, radio jingles, hoardings and digital screens, print advertisements, social media and public transport. It also has regional adaptations in six vernacular languages, including Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese, and Malayalam. Members of the publicity committee interacted with civil society organisations, farmers, students, lawyers and a cross section of society, said Sharma, flanked by other members of the panel and senior leaders Motilal Vohra, Rajiv Shukla and Randeep Surjewala. "The 'Nyay' campaign promises justice to youth, farmers, entrepreneurs and all those who have suffered injustice at the hands of the Modi government," he said. The Congress has also come out with campaign videos targeting the BJP government's policies such as note ban, its "hollow promises" and "rhetoric". One of the videos also traces the Congress' legacy and past achievements. "People are scared to talk over phone. There is an atmosphere of fear," Sharma said, asserting 'nyay' was the need of the hour. He said in 2014, one of the factors was the BJP's money power which played a major role in its victory. "We could not counter them. The BJP is the biggest advertiser of country. We cannot match them in money power... We will beat them on truth and in connecting with people," he said. On nationalism, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have the sole right to talk about it and the Congress has lost two prime ministers while protecting the nation. Referring to the prime minister's statement on anti-satellite missile test, he said, "PM Modi did not bring the technology from Ahmedabad on May 16, 2014. India's space programmes had begun during Jawaharlal Nehru's tenure. Nuclear tests were conducted first under Indira Gandhi. The country's first satellite Aryabhata was launched in 1975. These people (BJP) have a habit of bragging. That's the difference between us and them." Training his guns on Modi, Surjewala said, "We got a 'prachar mantri' for five years. He spends crores on publicity." Slamming the BJP government's Pakistan policy, the Congress chief spokesperson said Modi went to Pakistan without invitation and the ISI was "invited to probe" the Pathankot terror attack. The armed forces belong to India and not to Narendra Modi, he said. On Modi remarks regarding the Congress' Nyay scheme, Surjewala alleged, "Modiji is disrespecting farmers. He is against the move which aims to benefit 25 crore people. He doesn't want money to reach women beneficiaries." He also dared Modi for an open debate with the Congress leadership on the minimum income scheme. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on Sunday accused the Congress of neglecting Dalits during its rule and defeating the vision of Baba Saheb Ambedkar, alleging that the opposition party only used the community as a votebank. During a Dalit Yuva Sammelan at Delhi BJP office, Tiwari urged the participants to vote to bring Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power once again. He alleged the Congress only did in the name of Dalits and used them as votebank. But the governments of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi worked for the benefit of the community, he asserted. "It was our PM Modi who led the development of Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, so that people could visit it know more about Ambedkar. Also, the Modi government built the 'Panchteerth' associated with Baba Saheb," he said. The term is used to collectively refer to five places which portray the life history of the Dalit icon. The government has launched a project to link the five places. Tiwari said Modi is working for all sections of society and choosing him as PM will shape the future of India. He said the BJP has started the Stand Up scheme under which Dalit entrepreneurs can get a loan of Rs 1 crore at 4 per cent interest. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress released its manifesto for Dakshina Kannada (DK) district Sunday ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, describing it as a 'realistic' document and not a 'jumla' (gimmick). Releasing the manifesto, senior Congress leader and former state minister B Ramananth Rai recalled the contributions of Congress parliamentarians from DK for the development of the district. The development projects implemented by Congress included construction of New Mangalore Port, Mangaluru airport, KREC which was upgraded as NIT-K, MRPL and the national highways network in the district, he said. The new manifesto proposes to take steps for developing small scale industries in the district. Inclusion of Tulu language in the eighth schedule of the Constitution, construction of ESI medical college and introduction of a pension scheme for auto rickshaw drivers are the other promises in the manifesto. It also promises to stop privatisation of Mangaluru airport and annul the merger of Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda. KPCC vice president Radhakrishna, DCC president Harish Kumar and former MLAs Abhayachandra Jain and J R Lobo were present. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra arrived on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka on Sunday during which he will call on President Maithripala Sirisena and participate in several high level defence meetings. Mitra, who arrived in Colombo along with six other Indian officials, will also visit the central town of Kandy and the north central town of Anuradhapura, Sri Lankan officials said. The Defence Secretary will have bilateral defence talks in Colombo and will take part in several high level meetings. He is scheduled to meet President Sirisena, his counterpart Hemasiri Fernando and chief of defense staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, officials said. Mitra's visit comes nearly three months after a constitutional and political crisis precipitated by Sirisena's action to sack Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister and replace him with Mahinda Rajapaksa. The over 50-day constitutional and political impasse ended mid-December when Sirisena was directed by the Supreme Court to restore Wickremesinghe. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dutch investigators have arrested three former employees of a local firm suspected of laundering USD 1.2 billion through over-invoicing services and works rendered for a gas pipeline built by a unit controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, a charge vehemently denied by Reliance Industries. East West Pipeline Ltd (EWPL), which was previously known as Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd (RGTIL), denied that any money was laundered at any stage during implementation of the project and that higher capital cost of a pipeline would result in higher tariff for users for receiving natural gas through the line. Ambani's listed firm Reliance Industries too denied any link to the pipeline company saying he neither set up any gas pipeline in 2006 nor did it have contracts with any Netherlands company for any gas line. The Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service & Economic Investigation Service (FIOD-ECD) arrested three former employees of Dutch pipeline firm A Hak, NL, alleging that an estimated USD 1.2 billion in profits earned by the company through over-invoicing services and works rendered to RGTIL were "creamed off" to Singapore-based Biometrix Marketing Ltd, a company they claim is allegedly linked to Reliance. An AFP report quoting a statement issued by public prosecutor's office said that the company acted as "invoice duplicator" to enable the Indian firm to claim costs twice from gas customers. "It is suspected that the Dutch company used to increase the amounts on the invoices for the materials and services supplied," it said. "The 'profits' earned in this way were subsequently creamed off via the Dutch company," it said. The gains were then transferred via a complex web of businesses based among others in Dubai, Switzerland and the Caribbean, before eventually ending up at a business owned by the Indian company in Singapore, AFP said adding the suspects allegedly received payments of up to USD 10 million for their involvement. "In this case Dutch companies are suspected of assisting an Indian client to launder suspected illegal earnings," AFP quoted the statement as saying. The real losers "were probably individual citizens in India" as the cost of production of gas is passed onto the consumer, it added. Reached for comments, EWPL said the pipeline project was built by a privately owned entity, in which promoters' private funds were invested. "No public funds were invested and all borrowings from banks, financial institutions and others have been fully repaid by the promoters. We strongly deny any suggestion of any money having been laundered at any stage during the implementation of the project. Suggestion of such impropriety lacks logic and economic rationale and is emphatically denied," EWPL said in a statement. The pipeline project, it said, was implemented by a consortium of independent contractors from India, China, Russia and the Middle East. "A Hak, Middle East was one of the contractors. The Project was completed expeditiously at globally competitive costs which have been benchmarked by reputed independent agencies." EWPL said that the suggestion that a higher capital cost would result in higher tariff is "wrong" and "not in line with the applicable tariff regulations in India". "According to the tariff regulations, the cost of fixed assets to be reckoned for the purpose of transportation tariff is lower of actual cost or the cost normatively assessed by the statutory authority, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB). Tariff has been approved for the East West pipeline on the basis of normative cost determined by PNGRB by employing professional consultants which is evident from the tariff order dated 19th April 2010. Hence, the actual cost of setting up the East West Pipeline is not relevant for fixing the transportation tariff," EWPL's statement said. It, however, did not reply to PTI query on PNGRB's March 12, 2019 ruling fixing tariff of the pipeline based on claims of cost made by the company. "As a matter of policy and good governance, at all times we have cooperated with the statutory authorities and will continue to do so. It is clear from the media reports that the investigation has proceeded on assumptions and presumptions without factual basis. We once again strongly deny suggestions of any impropriety," EWPL said. In a statement, RIL said neither it nor any of its subsidiaries set up any gas pipeline in 2006. Also, it never had any contracts with any Netherland company for setting up of any gas pipeline and hence the report cannot relate to RIL. "RIL has always complied with all rules, regulations and applicable laws and any suggestion of impropriety by RIL is emphatically denied." Last month, Canadian investor Brookfield-led India Infrastructure Trust (InVIT) agreed to pay Rs 13,000 crore to buy the loss-making East-West gas pipeline that transports RIL's eastern offshore KG-D6 gas from east coast to customers in the west. PNGRB had on March 12 approved a 37 per cent rise in tariff from April 1 for the pipeline to Rs 71.66 per million British thermal unit on a gross calorific value basis. This was against Rs 151.84 that the operator wanted to charge from 2018-19 to 2035-36 claiming that the pipeline had a total capex of Rs 18,307.37 crore under two heads - actual capex of Rs 16,347.96 crore and future capex of Rs 1,959.41 crore. The arrests in The Netherlands were made in connection with alleged over-invoicing of materials and services supplied by A Hak International Contractors Asia FZE (a firm set up by A Hak, NL, in the UAE) for building a gas pipeline with RGTIL in India between 2006 and 2008. It is alleged that false insurance contracts were used to "cream off" about USD 1.2 billion of profit. This was done using 'bearer documents'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Election campaigns are gaining momentum in the Jammu region with all the political parties trying their best to woo voters as only a few days are left for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah addressed separate election rallies here in support of the party candidates, the Congress was banking on the services of its veteran leaders -- former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and erstwhile 'Sadre-e-Riyasat' and scion of Dogra dynasty Karan Singh. The Jammu region is spread over 10 districts which are covered by two Lok Sabha seats of Jammu and Udhampur which are going to polls in the first two phases of the parliamentary elections on April 11 and 18, respectively. Jammu, Samba, Rajouri and Poonch districts falls in the Jammu Lok Sabha seat and Udhampur, Kathua, Reasi, Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar districts together make the Udhampur parliamentary constituency. A tough battle is on the cards as political analysts predicted no cakewalk for the BJP which is trying to retain the two seats which it won along with the Ladakh seat during the last general elections - its best ever performance from the state. The BJP has been aggressively campaigning for its candidates Union minister Jitendra Singh (Udhampur) and Jugal Kishore (Jammu) who are facing tough challenge from the Congress, which has managed support of its National Conference ally for its two candidates in the Jammu region. The PDP has not fielded any candidates to ensure that secular votes are not divided. The Union minister is seeking re-election from the Udhampur seat and is facing challenge from 11 candidates, including Congress candidate and Karan Singh's son Vikramaditya Singh, Choudhary Lal Singh of Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan and National Panthers Party chairman Harsh Dev Singh. Choudhary Lal Singh, who distanced himself from the BJP to form his own party, is also trying his luck from the Jammu parliamentary seat. The Congress has fielded former minister Raman Bhalla from the seat, which has a total number of 24 candidates - prominent among others being veteran politician and patron of National Panthers Party (NPP) Bhim Singh. Modi addressed an election rally in support of Kishore in Akhnoor on March 28, the day when he started his campaign trail for the Lok Sabha elections across the country. Shah joined the election campaign in the state by addressing two rallies in Udhampur and Sunderbani in Rajouri district on April 3, while BJP general secretary Ram Madhav also hit the campaign trail in the state when he addressed two elections rallies in the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri on Saturday. "More star campaigners of the party are in the pipeline to visit the state in the coming days," a BJP leader said, adding that state BJP president Ravinder Raina has himself addressed more than 60 rallies since the Election commission announced dates for the polls. The Congress, on the other hand, are banking on the local and National Conference leaders who are criss-crossing both the constituencies, holding election rallies and leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters. Chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, when contacted, said the star campaigners of the party are reaching the state but their scheduled is yet to be finalised. Choudhary Lal Singh, who had twice won the Lok Sabha polls from Udhampur seat on Congress ticket before switching over to the BJP in 2014, has also launched an aggressive campaigning across the region. Choudhary Lal Singh, who was enjoying good support, especially in his Kathua district, was recently sacked by the BJP after he refused to withdraw from the contest after filing nomination papers from the twin seats. National Panthers Party leaders also organised dozens of rallies across the region over the past one week to garner support of the voters. Other contesting candidates are also trying their best and going from house to house, hoping to get votes from the masses. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Defending electoral bonds, Minister Sunday said they are aimed at checking the use of black money for funding elections, as was sought to be achieved through electoral trusts proposed during the UPA-II regime. Highlighting the problem of black money in elections, Jaitley said according to reports Rs 1,500 crore has been seized as a result of initiatives taken by the and revenue authorities. "Surprisingly the attack is against the bonds and not the electoral trusts because the earlier was brought by the NDA and the latter was by UPA. The underlying principle of both is the same," Jaitley said in his blog titled 'The Choice of Political Funding - Cheque, Electoral Bonds or Blackmoney from Contractors and middlemen'. He further said in the absence of the electoral bonds, the donors will have no option but to donate only by cash after siphoning monies from their businesses. "The recent and IT raids have shown that it is taxpayers/ Government's money, which, through PWD and other Departments of the Government, is being siphoned out and round-tripping into politics," Jaitley added "Is that a better option or the reformed system of all white money and improved, if not a perfect transparency? NGOs and commentators must look beyond their nose, he added. The Sunday searched at least 50 locations in and against people linked to state Chief Minister Kamal Nath, officials said. The searches are linked to suspected movement of hawala money during the ongoing poll season and tax evasion, they added. Last month, the tax department searched premises of aides of a JD(S) minister in Karnataka, leading to the state government dubbing the raids as politically motivated. Similarly, searches were conducted at the premises of senior DMK leader Duraimurugan in Vellore district over suspected use of unaccounted money for electioneering and Rs 10 lakh of alleged "excess" cash was seized. The government had in 2018 brought in the electoral bond scheme as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of its efforts to bring transparency in political funding. Under the scheme, the name of the donor is known only to banks. Jaitley said both the electoral trusts, proposed by the then minister in 2010, and electoral bonds assured total white money and improved transparency but masked the identity of the link between the donor and the party. "This obviously has been done to encourage donors to donate white money without fear of consequences," he said. The minister said the past few days have witnessed several cases where the and the revenue authorities, both separately and acting jointly, were trying to curb the use of black money in elections. "These actions have been particularly significant in States like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, North-East and The Election Commission and the Income-tax authorities work in close tandem during elections. In many cases, monies have been coming from Government contractors and beneficiaries," Jaitley said. He said in one state, contractors passed on monies to engineers who were to distribute it to the candidates. "In another state, which only four months ago elected a new Government, 50,000 Government transfers became a revenue generating exercise. Reports have also indicated that an amount of about Rs.1500 crore has already been seized," Jaitley added. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party said Sunday it will demand a recount of all ballots cast in Istanbul during last week's mayoral election won by an opposition candidate. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) will make the demand by 5 pm (1400 GMT), its vice president Ali Ihsan Yavuz said. A recount is already under way in several of Istanbul's 39 districts. On Saturday, a party spokesman said the AKP would accept the results of local election recounts in Istanbul as well as Ankara, no matter which party is declared the winner. The AKP won most votes nationwide in last Sunday's election, but results showed the ruling party lost Ankara and was also narrowly defeated in Istanbul in what would be one of their worst setbacks in a decade and a half in power. Electoral authorities are conducting a recount in scores of districts in Ankara and in Istanbul where tallies showed the opposition CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu with a very slim lead over the AKP. Losing Istanbul would be a blow to Erdogan, who built his political career as mayor of the city before becoming prime minister and later president. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Private equity player Everstone Group will acquire a controlling stake in Sahyadri Hospitals Ltd, Maharashtra's leading hospital chain, for an undisclosed amount, according to a release. Pune-headquartered Sahyadri Hospitals operates five tertiary care and three secondary care hospitals with 750 beds across Pune,Nashik and Karad areas. In a release on Sunday, Everstone said it has signed an agreement to buy a controlling stake in Sahyadri Hospitals. "The combination of primary and secondary capital outlay is expected to increase the bed-count significantly in the next five years," the release said. Everstone would leverage its significant healthcare expertise and experience to grow the overall business, Everstone Group CEO Sameer Sain said. The group's healthcare portfolio includes controlling stakes in domestic pharma distribution platform Ascent Health and South East Asia-based diagnostic device platform Everlife. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Nagpur collector-cum-returning officer Sunday assured the Bombay High Court that every direction and guideline issued by the Election Commission (EC) will be followed during the elections and post-poll arrangements. The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court was hearing a petition filed by Nana Patole, Congress' Nagpur Lok Sabha candidate. Patole had filed the petition on Saturday, seeking, among other things, an order to the authorities to ensure that CCTV cameras installed outside two strongrooms in the city, where electronic voting machines are kept, function properly. A division bench of justices R K Deshpande and S M Modak had sought a reply from the authorities concerned on Sunday. The petitioner's first grievance was that representatives of the candidate were not permitted to put 1,000 strokes on selected EVMs during a mock trial as per the guidelines of the Election Commission. To this, Returning Officer Ashwin Mudgal told the court that it is the officer who would do this in the presence of the representatives of the candidate. The court then specifically asked the returning officer as to who shall be permitted to put the 1,000 strokes on the EVMs. Mudgal replied that there should be no problem in permitting the representatives of all candidates to do so. To another grievance that only one representative of each candidate is permitted to attend the mock trial of the EVMs, the returning officer replied that two representatives of each candidate are permitted to attend the trial. One more representative could be allowed as per discretion, he said. Replying to a demand of making CCTV footage available, Mudgal said the cameras installed in the two strongrooms were functioning and surveillance was going on. The CCTV cameras were inoperative for some time but everything is being video-graphed and a record is preserved and available, he said. The returning officer assured the court that as far as possible, efforts would be made to meticulously comply with each and every direction or guideline of the Election Commission. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Mexican President Vicente Fox says armed men tried to storm into his house, just months after President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador cut off security for the country's ex-presidents. He reported Saturday's incident on Twitter without giving details. He has a large ranch in the central state of Guanajuato. Fox also tweeted: "I hold President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador directly responsible for the security of myself, my family and my belongings." Lpez Obrador responded via Twitter that he has instructed Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval to create a security detail to protect Fox and his family "but without the excesses" of prior administrations. Lpez Obrador dismantled the Mexican equivalent of the U.S. Secret Service after being sworn in as president Dec. 1. Fox was president in 2000-2006. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 65-year-old farmer was bludgeoned to death in Alipur by some unidentified person, police said Sunday. The deceased, identified as Ravinder Singh, lived with his family in Tajpur village. The matter came to light when one of his relatives found his body lying in a cattle shed. Singh sustained deep injuries to his head and a blood-stained farm tool was found lying next to the body, a senior police officer said. Police suspected personal enmity to be the motive behind the killing, he said. A case was registered at the Alipur police station and the probe was underway to nab the accused, the officer added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Syrian government forces and insurgents exchanged a barrage of rockets on Sunday in the country's northwest that killed at least 13 people and hit a government-run hospital, activists and government media reported. The violence strained a fragile months-old truce negotiated between Russia and Turkey that averted a government offensive on Idlib and surrounding areas, the last major rebel stronghold in the country. The region is home to some 3 million people, including many displaced from other battles in the eight-year-old civil war. The head of the local hospital in government-held Massyaf said insurgent shelling killed a rescue worker and four other people. Maher Younis told the state-run Ikhbariya TV that five children who were arriving at the hospital and two dentists were wounded. The network aired footage of broken glass at the entrance of the hospital. One of the wounded told Ikhbariya from her hospital bed that the missile landed when she and her mother were arriving to do some medical tests. "We only felt a big bang. I was wounded in my hand and my mom in her leg," she said, without giving her name. Hospitals and civilian infrastructure have frequently come under fire over the course of the war, and rights groups say government forces have targeted medical facilities on several occasions. The government denies targeting such facilities, which it says the rebels use for military purposes. The rebels do not have precision missiles, and mainly rely on homemade or outdated arms. The insurgents' fire came amid heightened tensions following days of government fire on villages and towns on the edge of the enclave. Opposition-allied first responders known as the White Helmets said government shelling killed at least eight people, including one child, in Saraqeb and Nairab towns in eastern Idlib. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at nine. The activist-run Shaam agency said the shelling in Saraqeb hit civilians who were visiting a local government office. Russia, which backs the government of President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, which supports opposition factions, reached the truce deal in September. It set up a demilitarised zone on the edge of the rebel-held enclave which was to be cleared of militants. But since the deal, al-Qaida-linked militants have expanded their presence in the enclave, seizing land from other armed groups. The government so far has kept up limited military pressure. Experts say government forces are focused on opening key highways that pass through Idlib, linking northern Syria to the capital, Damascus. Opening the highways was one of the key provisions in the September deal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A documentary film produced by actor Shabana Azmi to mark the birth centenary year of her father Kaifi Azmi launched with a world premiere screening at the UK Asian Film Festival in London on Sunday. 'Kaifinama' traces the life of the famous poet and lyricist behind classic films such as 'Kagaz Ke Phool' and 'Garam Hawa' and analyses the influence of his membership of the Progressive Writers Movement on his Urdu poetry replete with messages of social change. The film, directed by Sumantra Ghosal, includes extensive interviews with the late poet himself, his stage actor wife Shaukat Kaifi, insights from both his children Shabana and Baba Azmi as well as friends and colleagues. "It is a deeply moving experience for me to share this film at its first public screening anywhere," said a teary-eyed Shabana Azmi, who was given a standing ovation at the end of the screening at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in London. "This film is not just about the individual but also reflective of that time. In today's day and age, his message of social change and social justice is all the more relevant," said the National Award-winning actor of films such as 'Ankur' and 'Arth'. The film uses extensive archival footage to reconstruct the pre-independence era, Kaifi Azmi's small town roots in the village of Mijwan in Uttar Pradesh and the enormous change he brought about to his birthplace, his commitment to socialism and the Communist Party, his wide-ranging body of work and a glimpse behind some of his most famous poems such as 'Aurat' and 'Makaan'. "His belief that art should be used as an instrument of change is what drove him to be the revolutionary that he was," said his daughter, who commissioned the documentary to mark 100 years since her father's birth in January 1919 and plans to travel with it around the world. From London, 'Kaifinama' travels to Glasgow, Scotland, and then to the US before a series of screenings planned in India. The producers, Mijwan Welfare Society, plan to eventually make the film available on an online platform such as Netflix to ensure a wide global reach. The world premiere in the UK was also marked by the launch of a new book of translations titled 'Kaifi Azmi: Poems/Nazms', compiled by poet Sudeep Sen. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : A former panchayat president was arrested Sunday for allegedly assaulting a 10-year-old girl rag-picker near here, police said. C Raghavan, formerly chief of Vattamkulam panchayat, thrashed the girl for picking rags and scrap metal on his property, the police said. The girl suffered head injuries after Raghavan grabbed her sack and attacked her, an investigating official told PTI. "He (Raghavan) hit me with the sack containing metal pieces," the girl told reporters. A case has been registered against the accused, police said. Opposition leader in the Kerala assembly Ramesh Chennithala, who met the victim at the hospital, told reporters that the state government was not doing anything for the safety of women and children. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four Indian nationals were arrested on Sunday from the national capital's Tribhuvan International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle nearly 6 kgs of gold, police said. The four were arrested as soon as they landed from a Thai International Airlines aircraft from Bangkok at the airport here. "Police have confiscated from them 5.8 kgs of gold," a bulletin issued by the police said. The police have initiated further investigation by taking them into custody. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four persons, including three of a family, were hacked to death by a man, allegedly in an inebriated state in Odisha's Kalahandi district, police said Sunday. This incident took place at Palas village under the jurisdiction of Jaipatna block on Saturday night when the accused chased people on the street holding an axe and attacked whoever he saw, police said. The sudden attack by the youth, identified as Jatindra Naik, claimed the lives of four persons, including three members of one family, they said adding that the accused was stated to be in an inebriated state. The youth was nabbed by the police and the weapon used in the offence was seized, police said adding he was being interrogated and investigation was in progress. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Patidar leader from Gujarat, Hardik Patel, who recently joined the Congress, Sunday mocked the BJP's 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' campaign, saying the ruling dispensation was raising the issues of Kashmir and Pakistan as it had nothing to speak about its performance. He said the country's youth was angry with the BJP and it was time to send Prime Minister Narendra Modi back to Gujarat. Addressing a meeting here to campaign for Congress candidates Sanjay Nirupam and Urmila Matondkar, Patel said, "Have you ever heard anybody in the world saying 'I am a chowkidar, vote for me'?" "Army jawans are being put on election campaign posters. Since they have nothing to speak about on their performance, issues of Kashmir and Pakistan are being raised," he said. Patel also criticised Modi for asking people to vote for him. He alleged that the BJP of trying to win the elections though "money power". "The party has a lot of money. Each candidate is spending Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore. People are being misled on the issue of sedition," he said, referring to the BJP's criticism about the Congress, which has announced that it would scrap the sedition laws if voted to power. "Youth is angry with the BJP and it is time to send Modi back to Gujarat," he said. Urmila Matondkar, Congress candidate from Mumbai North constituency, said the 2019 election was a time for everyone to decide what kind of India they wanted. "The need of the hour is to throw out communal thoughts," she said. Referring to the criticism by opponents, she said she was not bothered about trolling on social media. She said in a democracy voters were the real stars. Nirupam, who is contesting the election from Mumbai North West, said Congress manifesto focused on the youth. Without naming MNS chief Raj Thackeray, Nirupam said even Congress's political opponents wanted Rahul Gandhi to become the prime minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ghulam Mohammad Bhat started off from his home here to reach a hospital where his daughter is admitted, but cannot find any means of transport to get there due to the ban on civilian traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. "I have been walking for the past 15 minutes, but there is no public transport in sight. I have to reach JVC hospital (SKIMS Medical College and Hospital, Bemina), where my daughter is admitted," Bhat told PTI near Tengpora bridge as he braced himself for another hour of walk. The government has ordered the closure of the Jammu-Srinagar-Baramulla highway for all kinds of civilian traffic from Udhampur to Baramulla on every Sunday and Wednesday in order to facilitate movement of large number of security forces for election duty. Concertina wires and barricades have been put on roads connecting the highway in order to prevent the movement of civilian vehicles. The Army, police and CRPF personnel have been deployed in strength to ensure that the ban in implemented in letter and spirit. However, the scale of inconvenience caused by the ban order has just started to come to the fore as dozens of people can be seen at each intersection, pleading the security forces to allow them to cross to the other side of the highway. There were people who had patients in the vehicles and wanted to take them to hospitals or parents accompanying their children on way to tuition ahead of the various competitive exams due next month. A groom from Anantnag district, who got married in Doda district on other side of the Jawahar Tunnel, had to obtain permission from the authorities concerned to take his wedding entourage to the bride's home. Danish Ali, a resident of New Qazibagh in Anantnag, got the permission for himself and his 12 companions to travel on the highway on Saturday and Sunday, but only after the entourage was put to proper frisking and security check. Pained by the scenes, a urologist decided to cycle his way to his hospital instead of travelling in an ambulance, which have been exempted from this ban order. "I decided to use the cycle so that I can feel the pain of the people, what they are going through because of this order. I am not going to get into arguments with anyone if I am stopped. I will change my way and pedal on," Dr Umar said. Umar said roads were the lifeline of any place and shutting them down meant shutting down the city, state or the country. Politicians were quick to lambast the ban order, with former chief minister Omar Abdullah terming it mindless. "Driving to Uri I'm getting to see first hand the extent of disruption and inconvenience that is being caused to people because of the mindless highway closure order that is in place today," Abdullah tweeted. Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said her party would not allow Kashmir to be turned into an "open air prison". "This is Kashmir, not Palestine. We wont allow you to turn our beloved land into an open air prison. 'Jis Kashmir ko khoon say seencha, woh Kashmir humara hai' (The Kashmir we have nourished by our blood, is ours)," Mufti tweeted. Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone said the highway ban was turning into a "humanitarian disaster". "Flooded will (with) calls from across the state. People in dire need to travel in order to tend to their day to day needs of survival stuck in a state of helplessness. @jandkgovernor urgently needs to scrap the inhuman order," Lone tweeted. Several PDP leaders, led by former MLA Sonawar Mohammad Ashraf Mir, tried to defy the ban order by travelling on the highway, but were stopped by police at the Athwajan crossing. "People are being harassed.... This is terrorism by the governor's administration to ban movement of people two days every week," Mir told reporters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has sought details of works done by its various divisions in the last 15 months to prepare an annual report. The move comes at a time when Lok Sabha elections are approaching fast. The first phase of elections will take place on April 11. Ministry's deputy secretary R Prem Anand has written to all officers concerned of various divisions seeking details of works in the 15 months. "As per guidelines, the annual report will incorporate data/material from January 2018 to March 2019," Anand said in the written communication. An official said the annual report will showcase works on a range of issues pertaining to CPWD, Delhi Development Authority, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, NBCC and among others. "In order to complete the task of finalising, printing and supplying the Annual Report, all the wing heads/division heads are requested to kindly ensure that the matter may include actual figures for January 2018 to March 2019 in respect of their divisions and attached offices/subordinate offices..." it stated. Following the order, the Central Public Works Department has asked its officers to furnish details by incorporating actual figures of March 2019. The CPWD is the government's largest construction agency and it looks after maintenance of central government buildings and erecting of fences along the country's international borders, among others. The agency also carries out projects in foreign countries under friendship programmes with India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Asserting that joining the Congress was not an overnight decision, Shatrughan Sinha has said he is hopeful of a long-term association with the party as he is a "loyalist" who doesn't do things in "josh" (impulsively) but "hosh" (consciously). Sinha also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for decisions such as demonetisation, implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and asked him to come clean on the Rafale deal issue. "Why don't you (Modi) come out and give a clarification (on Rafale). If you come forward and answer the questions raised on the Rafale deal, will your 56 inches chest become six inches," he told PTI in an interview after joining the Congress. On being fielded by the Congress from Patna Sahib, Sinha said he has the blessings of the people who fondly call him "Bihari babu". Asked if the "Bihari babu" will make hat-trick of wins from Patna Sahib, the actor-turned-politician said: "Hope, wish and pray." Asked about his impending electoral battle with senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, Sinha said he regards him as a family friend and has respect for him. "He (Prasad) has four years in Rajya Sabha and some people may think he is fighting safe but even if he is fighting safe, so what. My best wishes to Ravi Shankar Prasad ji. Let the best man win. But when I say this, it is for the people of Patna to decide. Let them finalise it, he said. Sinha, who has been critical of Prime Minister Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah's leadership for long, joined the Congress on Saturday. Asked if it was a long-term association and commitment he had sealed with the Congress, Sinha said: "Haven't I stayed with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) despite ifs and buts, and hiccups and road blocks over more than 25 years. Haven't I been by their side since they had just two seats in Lok Sabha. I am a loyalist, I am a friend, I don't take things overnight and don't leave things overnight. He said he has always held the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family in high-esteem. Sinha said that in his book 'Anything but Khamosh', he has stated that former prime minister Indira Gandhi was very fond of him and he always used to get affection from her. "I have written in my book that had she been alive, I would have been in the Congress party only and not in any other party. I have always held the Nehru-Gandhi family and Congress in very high esteem," he said. Sinha asserted that even when he was a loyal, staunch supporter of the BJP, he never uttered a word against former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Nehru-Gandhi family. "I see them as nation builders. That family has contributed so much to the country," he said. On joining the Congress with a vision to serve in the long term, he said: "Hope so. I don't do things overnight. I don't do things in josh but hosh. I have been thinking over it, observing and watching BJP people's behaviour or rather ill behaviour, their performance or rather non-performance." "I have been seeing the BJP's democratic system turn into an autocratic system. Gone our the days of collective decision. "It is certainly not the party of Atal Bihari Vajpayee because you see what is happening to people like Advani ji and others Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie," he said. LK Advani was among several veteran BJP leaders who were dropped from their parliamentary seats this time by the party. It seemed that the BJP decided to do so to ease out several of its old guards from electoral after keeping them out of government by introducing an age bar of 75 years. "As far as I am concerned...They say either my way or the highway, I say I'd rather go the best way to the best party," the 73-year-old leader said. He also heaped praises on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He is a dynamic, "tried, tested and successful" leader and the face and future of India, Sinha said. "He (Rahul) does what he says and says what he does,"he said. Asked if his fight from Patna Sahib this time is the biggest political challenge of his career, Sinha said: "Not really. I have got full faith in my people --people of Patna Sahib and the family of Bihar." "They are also very fond of me and say I'm their Bihari babu...So this time also people's blessings are there with me," he said. Sinha said though he would be campaigning against many of his former colleagues in the BJP, there were some he would not campaign against as with them he had a bond of "once a friend, always a friend". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Income Tax Department Sunday launched pre-dawn raids at 52 locations, including in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, against close aides of MP Chief Minister Kamal Nath and others on charges of tax evasion and hawala transactions, officials said. A team of nearly 200 officials from I-T department and state police swooped down on the premises at around 3am and recovered undisclosed cash amounting to Rs 10-14 crore, they said. Sources added there is a "strong possibility" of this cash being used as an election inducement to fund political campaigns and bribe voters in the poll-bound state and in Delhi. A preliminary report of the raids has been shared with the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the policy-making body of the I-T department, and the Election Commission in Delhi, the sources told PTI. The recovered cash figure continues to build up and more note counting machines are being arranged in Bhopal, they said. The search operation is being carried out by the investigation wing of the department in Delhi with assistance from its units in Bhopal and neighbouring Raipur. Sleuths used buses, auto-rickshaws and taxis to fan out in the state to keep the surprise element intact, they added. The raids are linked to suspected movement of hawala money during the ongoing poll season and tax evasion, they said. Locations in Indore, Bhopal, Goa and Delhi (Green Park) were raided and included Nath's former Officer on Special Duty Pravin Kakkad, former adviser Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser Bayer and his nephew Ratul Puri's company, officials said. Locations in Ahmedabad are also among the total 52 premises being searched. The properties linked to Ashwin Sharma, allegedly associated to Kakkad, in Bhopal's Platinum Plaza residency were also covered during the operation. Both Kakkar and Miglani resigned from their posts just before the dates for Lok Sabha polls were announced, officials said. In Indore, the raids were conducted at Kakkad's residence in Vijay Nagar area and other places linked to him, sources said. Searches were also conducted at Kakkad's house in Bhopal's Nadir Colony and a couple of other places in the state capital, they said. Officials said documents related to undisclosed transactions worth Rs 281 crore are being scrutinised and a number of them have been seized. Some costly liquor brand bottles, firearms have also been recovered from some premises being raided, they added. The raids are also being conducted against Kolkata- based businessman Paras Mal Lodha, the sources added. Lodha was arrested by Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges post demonetisation. The department, this time, had a tip off about Lodha-linked operatives making hawala transactions in connection with a money laundering case being pursued against Nath's brother-in-law Deepak Puri, they alleged. Kakkad, a former Madhya Pradesh police officer, was appointed OSD to Nath after the Congress-led government came to power in the state last year. He served as OSD to former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA government. Bhuria is contesting this Lok Sabha poll from Ratlam-Jhabua seat in MP. Kakkad's family is associated with a number of businesses, including hospitality. Ratul Puri was last week grilled by ED in Delhi in connection with a probe into the controversial Rs 3,600 AgustaWestland helicopters deal. Reacting to the raids, a Congress leader in MP accused the BJP-led central government of targeting opposition leaders for "political vendetta". MP Congress's media cell vice-president Bhupendra Gupta, also a former OSD to Nath, charged, "The BJP government has been targeting opposition leaders across the country due to political enmity. Due to such act of political vendetta, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister (N Chandrababu Naidu) and DMK leader M K Stalin had to stage protest against the Centre." The BJP hit back saying thieves were now having a complaint against the 'watchman'. "Blackmoney worth crores was recovered during the Income Tax Department's raid at the house of the private secretary of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath. This has made one thing clear that those who are thieves have a complaint against the watchman," BJP's national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Activists of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Sunday staged a protest near Rajwada Palace here in Madhya Pradesh on a day when the Income Tax department conducted searches at the house of Praveen Kakkad, the former OSD to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath. During the protest, two workers of the BJYM sported masks of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Nath while others showered currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2000 denominations on them, and raised slogans against the Congress, police said. Sarafa police station in-charge Dinesh Bhanwar said 11 workers of the BJYM have been booked under section 188 (disobedience to the order of government officer) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for holding a protest without permission and for violating the model code of conduct. Meanwhile, Indore Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ruchi Vardhan Mishra reached Kakkad's house where the Income Tax officials were conducting searches under the vigil of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel. Eye witnesses said, Mishra enquired with the CRPF personnel about any protest by workers of any political party in Vijay Nagar area. When contacted, Mishra told PTI, "Since workers of a political party staged a protest without permission in Rajwada area after Income Tax raids, I took stock in Vijay Nagar area as a precautionary measure". About 20 armed personnel of the Madhya Pradesh police led by the city SSP were seen outside Kakkad's house. Vijay Nagar area CSP Pankaj Dikshit said the personnel were deployed in the area as a routine process to maintain law and order. Dikshit said the situation is peaceful. The Income Tax Department Sunday launched pre-dawn searches on at least 50 locations in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh (Indore and Bhopal) against people linked to Nath on charges of alleged tax evasion, officials said. The department had roped in the armed personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to keep a vigil during the searches. Kakkad, a former Madhya Pradesh police officer, was appointed OSD to Nath after the Congress-led government came to power in the state last year. His family is associated with a number of businesses, including hospitality. Besides Kakkad, those whose locations were being searched included Nath's former adviser Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser Baer and his nephew Ratul Puri's company, the officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP heavyweight Mahesh Sharma has returned with accounts of his development work, Congress is hoping a young Arvind Kumar Singh would regain a seat it lost in the 1980s and BSP's Satveer Nagar, a rural favourite, could pull off a victory as a coalition face in Gautam Buddh Nagar. The district is known for its high-rise apartments, expressways, plush corporate offices and the metro rail in Noida and Greater Noida, while issues related to land acquisition of farmers, high fees in private schools, unemployment, flat buyers, and road traffic plague the constituency with a large rural population spread in 1,186 villages. It is widely but inaccurately identified only as Noida, a high-tech satellite city of Delhi with smooth roads that lead one to interiors of the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh. The Lok Sabha seat is spread across Noida, Dadri, Jewar, Khurja and Sikandrabad assembly segments, with the last two technically falling in Bulandshahr district. Of the 22.97 lakh voters, 6.68 lakh are in the mixed-crowd, urban Noida, and the rest in the remaining four rural segments, where caste factor and central leadership of political parties are a major talking point. BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have addressed events in the run up to the poll, with "terrorism", "Pakistan" and "Modi factor" being their focal points. "I have brought projects worth Rs 50,000 crore including an international airport in Jewar, a power plant in Khurja, a metro rail connecting Noida and Greater Noida since 2014," Sharma told PTI, noting "a lot more remains to be done". BSP's Nagar is seen as the most likely threat to Sharma, who polled 5.99 lakh votes in 2014, because of his party's alliance with Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal which may give him an edge due to caste equations and Aam Aadmi Party also supporting him. "Nagar is fighting to get the farmers' issues resolved, get them their compensation due and get the local youth into jobs. Other poll agendas include fees in private schools, getting government higher education institutes, healthcare," the party's media incharge Raghvendra Dubey said. Congress's Singh, whose father is a BJP leader from Aligarh, is fighting the "outsider" label, which he says was being played up by Sharma's party, and has identified job creation, farm distress, women safety, a ceiling on fees of private schools as his focus areas. We have a 17-point agenda for Gautam Buddh Nagar. I have an action plan to remove the problems like those of buyers and builders," Singh has said, claiming Sharma's tenure has been "full of flaws" as he could not get the district a new government hospital despite being a doctor himself. Around 3.11 lakh new voters have joined the electorate since the 2014 polls, with the district administration saying most of them are flat buyers and migrant workers. Traffic is a major issue in the city and nothing much has happened since 2014 for it. Elevated roads and underpasses have come up but bottlenecks still remain, only their locations have changed, said Amit Gupta, a software engineer. They also rue abolition of village panchayat and municipal corporation system, claiming this has hampered transparency and growth in Noida and Gr Noida, where local industrial development authorities take decisions even on civic matters. If this could be resolved, a lot of serious problems including those relating to land deals will be solved, said Ranjan Tomar, lawyer and president of the Noida Village Residents' Association. UP Udyog Vyapar Mandal's district president Sushil Kumar Jain said an MP or an MLA does not have much a role to play in Noida, which is among top revenue earning cities for the state government, and local authorities should be held accountable. The BJP government has brought some good policies but hasn't raised proper awareness about their details, Jain said, adding earlier the trader community was a fixed supporter of the BJP, but now BJP is the only choice. Political observers in the rural areas believe that as the election date is nearing the caste factor is gaining more importance than any other discussion. There are around 4 lakh Thakur votes, and between 3 to 4 lakh votes each in Brahmin, Gujjar, Muslima and Dalits communities, while others including the Jats in the rest. A major chunk of Thakur votes is spread in the Jewar, Sikandrabad and Khurja triangle, which has also been the spot for several BJP events recently. But Congress's Arvind Kumar Singh is also a Thakur and if he cuts into the BJP's Thakur votes, this may give BSP's Satveer Nagar an edge over Mahesh Sharma. Nagar already has a clear support of BSP, SP, RLD votebanks, that is the Gujjars, the Jats and all anti-BJP votes, said Dharampal Singh Nagar, a Dadri resident and retired government school teacher. He added that having four of the five MLAs, three of them Thakurs, has certainly given some ground support to the BJP. Asked about caste factor, Congress's Singh earlier told PTI: "You cannot rule it out, but you also don't know what may happen. This time, it's a very complicated election, very complicated." In 2014, Sharma had raked in 50 per cent of the total votes polled to defeat SP's Narendra Bhati by 2.80 lakh votes while BSP's Satish Kumar got 1.98 lakh votes. Congress's Ramesh Chand Tomar had got only 12,727 votes as 20 other candidates forfeited deposits and 3,836 votes went for NOTA (None of the Above). Nomination of AAP's Shweta Sharma was rejected, leaving 12 candidates including two independents in the fray in 2019, down from 24 in 2014. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India Sunday rejected as "irresponsible" and "preposterous" Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi's claim that India was planning to carry out another attack on Pakistan, saying his comments were aimed at whipping up war hysteria in the region. Qureshi told reporters in Multan that Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India was planning to attack Pakistan again between April 16 and 20, adding that five permanent members of the UN Security Council were apprised about it. In a strongly worded statement, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar termed Qureshi's comments as "public gimmick" appearing to be "a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India." "India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region. This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India," Kumar said. He said India reserves the right to respond "firmly and decisively" to any cross-border terrorist attack. India struck the biggest terrorist training camp of terror group Jaish-e-Muhammed deep inside Pakistan on February 26, twelve days after the dastardly Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. The JeM had claimed responsibility for the attack. On February 27, the Pakistan Air Force retaliated by unsuccessfully targeting several military installations in Jammu and Kashmir. Kumar said it has been made clear to Pakistan that it cannot absolve itself of responsibility of a cross-border terrorist attack in India. "No attempt at creating an alibi for its complicity in such attacks will succeed. Pakistan needs to take credible and irreversible steps against terrorism operating from all territories under its control rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross-border terrorism," he said. The MEA spokesperson said Pakistan has been advised to use established diplomatic and DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) channels to share any actionable and credible intelligence it has about imminent terror attacks. Earlier in the day, Qureshi told a press conference in his hometown of Multan that India was devising a new plan to attack Pakistan. "A new mishap could be staged... And its purpose will be to justify their [India's] offensive against Pakistan and to increase diplomatic pressure against Islamabad," he alleged. "If it happens, you can imagine the impact of the occurrence on the peace and stability of the region. According to our information, the action could be taken between 16-20 April," Qureshi said. He further said, "We want the international community to take notice of this irresponsible behaviour and reprimand them [India] for taking this route. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India's Ambassador to the Netherlands Venu Rajamony has highlighted the Dutch response to floods in the past and its innovations in water management as an example for India to avoid deluges like the one which devastated Kerala last year. Ambassador Rajamony authored a book -- 'What Can We Learn From The Dutch: Rebuilding Kerala Post 2018 Floods' and stressed on the need for the state to equip itself with technical expertise to avoid another such disaster. Kerala was hit by massive floods in August last year. At least 488 people died due to the rains and floods which hit 14 districts. The book, co-authored by Rotterdam architect N M Ramesh, was released here on Friday at an event attended by the members of the Dutch and Indian community, including Dutch water experts. The event, followed by a seminar on Indo-Dutch Cooperation in Water Management, was co-organised by the Foundation for Critical Choices for India and the Netherlands India Chamber of Commerce and Trade. The book highlights the Dutch response to floods in the past, its innovations in water management and the lessons Kerala can learn from the northwest European country. The seminar on Indo-Dutch Cooperation in the field of Water Management was addressed by Jan Busstra, Head of the International Water and Marine Division, Ministry of Infrastructure, Netherlands, Prof Eddy Moors, Rector, UNESCO-IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and Paul Van Meel, Integrated Water Resources Management Expert who was part of the UN and Dutch missions to Kerala after the floods. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Sunday said the only 'contribution' of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre is that it had "decimated" the constitutional institutions in the country during the last five years. Addressing reporters at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) on his arrival here to campaign for Congress-JD(S) alliance candidates in the coastal belt, he said the BJP MPs in the region had "failed" to address the problems of people in the region. Citing the Centre's decision to privatise airports including MIA and the merger of profit-making Vijaya Bank with the Bank of Baroda, he sought to know from BJP on what count the people in Dakshina Kannada district should vote for them in the coming elections. He said the self-respect of people belonging to the region has been hurt by these decisions. Can Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to come here on April 13, ask votes from people for these 'achievements?' he asked in a sarcastic tone. The Chief Minister criticised the media for being "unethical" while covering relating to the JD(S). The media is behaving as if elections were being conducted in Mandya alone and is churning out fake about the chances of his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy, who is contesting there. He said the JD(S) was sure about Nikhil's victory, but the media was spreading false without understanding the ground reality in the constituency. The truth would be revealed once the results were out on May 23, he said. Kumaraswamy said the Congress and JD(S) were working in tandem to recapture Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha seats in the coming elections. Congress president Rahul Gandhi will visit Mangaluru next week for campaigning, he said. Later, the Chief Minister left for Karkala to address a joint meeting of Congress and JD(S) leaders and workers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Israelis vote Tuesday in a high-stakes election on whether to extend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long tenure in power despite corruption allegations against him and a strong challenge by an ex-military chief. Bolstered by his reputation as guarantor of Israel's security and economic growth, Netanyahu has spent more than 13 years as premier and opinion polls show that he could well win again. He would be on track to surpass founding father David Ben-Gurion as Israel's longest-serving prime minister if he wins. In a last-minute appeal to right-wing voters, Netanyahu said Saturday he was planning on annexing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins. The deeply controversial move could end hopes for a two-state solution with the Palestinians if done on a large scale. Netanyahu is fighting for his political life while facing a dual threat in this year's election. The possibility of indictment hangs over him while a centrist alliance headed by political novice Benny Gantz is battling his Likud neck-and-neck in opinion polls. Some surveys have shown that Netanyahu's party could win fewer seats than Gantz's Blue and White, but still be best placed to form a governing coalition based on support from other right-wing parties allied to him. Through much of the acrimonious campaign, polls have shown Likud and Blue and White with around 30 seats each in the 120-seat parliament -- far short of an outright majority and necessitating a coalition, as is usual in Israel. Netanyahu heads what is already seen as the most rightwing government in Israel's history, and if polling trends hold, his next coalition could be even further to the right. But analysts caution against drawing conclusions just yet, pointing to the number of undecided voters and the possibility that smaller rightwing parties fail to win the 3.25 percent required to enter parliament. "The Likud bloc seems to have a majority," said Gideon Rahat of the Israel Democracy Institute think tank. But "it still can change because opinion polls cannot really tell you whether a party will pass the threshold". Victory seemed sure for Netanyahu when he decided in December to call for early elections even though they were not due until November 2019. The move by the 69-year-old known for his deft political skills was widely seen as a tactic to face the corruption allegations with a fresh electoral mandate behind him. But since then, Gantz has emerged as a serious contender. He has been helped by his decision to ally with two other former military chiefs as well as with ex-finance minister Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party, which currently holds 11 seats in parliament. The attorney general's announcement in February that he intends to indict Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust pending a hearing gave the premier's opponents a further boost. Netanyahu has employed divisive populism throughout the campaign in what critics say has amounted to the demonisation of Arab Israelis and others. Citing a law passed last year declaring Israel the nation state of the Jewish people, he said recently the country was "not a state of all its citizens". He has also brokered a deal that could see the entry into parliament of a member of an extreme-right party many view as racist. But he has bet on his experience as well, portraying himself as Israel's essential statesman, while denouncing Gantz's alliance as leftist and "weak" despite its security credentials and the fact that many of its policy ideas are similar to his. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Madhya Pradesh police officials and CRPF personnel engaged in a heated exchange outside the residence of Ashwin Sharma, an alleged aide of Chief Minister Kamal Nath's former OSD Praveen Kakkad, whose house here was raided on Sunday in connection with a tax evasion probe. The I-T department launched pre-dawn searches on at least 50 locations in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh (Indore and Bhopal) against people linked to Nath on charges of tax evasion. The department had roped in armed personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force to keep a vigil during the raids. In the evening, an angry exchange took place between officials of CRPF and MP Police outside Sharma's residence, at Platinum Plaza apartment in New Market area, which was raided by an Income Tax Department team. The exchange lasted for more than 30 minutes and happened in front of camerapersons. Sharma, a businessman, lives in the apartment where he also has an office. According to police officials, residents of the apartment have complained that the CRPF personnel have restricted their movements and not allowing them to come out of the building. On the other hand, a CRPF official said the argument ensued when a few police personnel tried to force their entry inside the premises. Eyewitnesses said a large number of police personnel reached the spot. City Superintendent of Police Bhupendra Singh said a police team reached the spot, after the residents of the building complained about the "restrictions". He clarified that the police department has nothing to do with the raid at Sharma's home. "The residents of the complex are facing problems and calling the local SHO (station house officer) to complain about restrictions (on movements). There are people who needed medical help. Entire complex was sealed," Singh told reporters, following the argument. CRPF official Pradeep Kumar, who was leading the team, alleged that police officials were obstructing their work. "Only those people whose places are being raided are inside the building. But the local police is not letting us work and abusing us. We are only doing our duty. We are directed by our seniors to not let anybody inside the building complex," he said. Later, another CRPF official told reporters that the situation is under control. Local police personnel, who had gathered at the spot in a large number, left soon after. Later, an ambulance was seen outside the complex. The searches are linked to suspected movement of 'hawala' money during the ongoing poll season and tax evasion, I-T department officials said. Asked about his connection to Nath and Kakkad, Sharma has told reporters, "I am a BJP man". He also said the money found by the officials from his house belonged to him. Sources said Sharma runs an NGO. Kakkad, a former Madhya Pradesh police officer, was appointed officer on special duty to Nath after the Congress-led government came to power in the state last year. He served as OSD to former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA government. Bhuria is contesting the coming Lok Sabha poll from Ratlam-Jhabua seat in MP. Kakkad's family is associated with a number of businesses, including hospitality. Besides Kakkad, those whose locations were being searched included Nath's former adviser Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser Baer and his nephew Ratul Puri's company, the officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Jack O'Connell has boarded the cast of the BBC's new thriller series "The North Water", which features Hollywood star Colin Farrell in the lead. According to Digital Spy, the "Skins" star will play a disgraced former army surgeon called Patrick Sumner who joins a whaling expedition to the Arctic in the four-part series. In Arctic he meets Farrell's character Henry Drax, a harpooner and brutal killer whose "amorality has been shaped to fit the harshness of his world". The series is based on Ian McGuire's novel of the same name. Andrew Haigh is adapting the book, with shooting due to begin later this year. "Jack is a fiercely instinctual actor who brings nuance and complexity to every character he plays. I can't wait to see him bring Patrick Sumner to life," Haigh said. "Casting the right leads is the most important part of any project and I'm thrilled to have Colin Farrell on board. I am a huge admirer of his work and can't wait to see him bring Drax vividly to life," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Paris, TX (75460) Today A few showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Areas of patchy fog. Low near 65F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight A few showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Areas of patchy fog. Low near 65F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%. National security and corruption have emerged as some of the main issues in the Lok Sabha elections but regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir have kept protection of the state's special status under the Constitution of India as their key poll plank. The National Conference, its arch rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and new entrant People's Conference led by Sajad Gani Lone have been talking about protection of Articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution in their rallies in the run-up to the polling which is scheduled to begin on April 11, latching on to BJP chief Amit Shah's remarks that Article 35A will be repealed by 2020. "Protecting the special status of Jammu and Kashmir as guaranteed in the Constitution of the country, is one of the main cornerstones of our campaign for these elections," National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah told PTI. The former chief minister dismissed suggestions that six Lok Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir were numerically insignificant in case the special provision related to the state were to be scrapped through a legislation in Parliament. "It is not a numerical argument, it is an argument based on facts. Yes we only have six seats but Jammu and Kashmir bats far above its rankings otherwise. The smallest thing in Jammu and Kashmir becomes international news, very big things in other states are often ignored. So, I think six members in Parliament can do more than 60 from another state," he said. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti is using the special status of the state and the buzz surrounding it to stage a comeback after her party's coalition government with the BJP fell last year. She has adopted a more hardline posture than any of the regional parties on the issues related to Article 35A and Article 370. "The relationship between our state and the country is based on our special constitutional position that legitimises it. If we remove, what legalises this relationship, it will turn into an occupation and colonisation," she said. Mehbooba, while reacting to Shah's remarks on Article 35A, said the relation of Jammu and Kashmir with India will end if the terms and conditions of state's accession to the Union were changed. "2020 will also be a deadline from Jammu and Kashmir to the nation. If you remove those terms and conditions on which Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India, our relation with the country will also finish," the former chief minister, who is contesting from Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, said. Lone, who was a minister in the PDP-led coalition government in the state from the BJP quota, has also vowed to defend the state's special status. "Article 35A is a matter of faith and dignity for the people of the J&K through which the Constitution of India guarantees to safeguard the special identity and unique status of Jammu & Kashmir. In matters of pride and identity, profit and loss is immaterial. Can a country allow a foreign country to undermine its sovereignty and national pride just for the sake of some monetary gains," Lone asked. He said Jammu and Kashmir was not the only state with special residency laws. "All northeastern states and even Himachal Pradesh have laws prohibiting non-locals from purchasing land. Why are politicians in New Delhi only against J&K's special status? What are their views on Art 371-A to 371-K which guarantee provisions like 370 as applicable to the northeastern states," he said. Although Congress leaders in their campaign have focussed more on issues dominating the discourse at national level, the local leaders have made it a point to raise the issue of protecting the special status in electioneering in the valley. "No power in the world can revoke Article 370 and Article 35-A," state Congress chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir, who is contesting from the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, claimed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Julia Jones has been cast as a series regular in the third season of Amazon Studios' hit legal drama show "Goliath". The third season, which will premiere this year, will see Billy Bob Thornton reprising his critically-acclaimed and Golden Globe-winning role of lawyer Billy McBride. The show has also cast Leslie Grossman, best known for "The Good Place", in a recurring role. Jones joins previously announced actors Dennis Quaid, Amy Brenneman, Beau Bridges, Griffin Dunne, Sherilyn Fenn, and Shamier Anderson in the new season. The third season will see McBride take up a case in the drought-stricken Central Valley, where he comes face-to-face with a new Goliath: a billionaire rancher (Quaid) and his sister (Grossman). According to Deadline, Jones, who most recently featured in HBO's "Westworld", will portray Stephanie Littlecrow, a Hollywood stuntwoman and unlikely heiress to a coveted piece of property who becomes a thorn in the side of the Valley's biggest corporate farmers who wants her land, no matter what the cost. "Goliath" is created by David E Kelley and Jonathan Shapiro. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 40-year-old labourer died Sunday when the wall of an under-construction bunker collapsed in a village along the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district, police said. Another labourer was injured in the incident which took place at Nanga village in Ramgarh sector, a police official said. He said the labourers were building the underground bunker near the house of one Roop Lal, when one of the walls collapsed suddenly, trapping them. The labourers were rescued and shifted to a hospital where Raj Kumar (40), a local resident, was declared brought dead, the officials said, adding the body of the deceased was handed over to his family for last rites after completion of legal formalities. Work on hundreds of underground bunkers for the safety of border residents facing Pakistani shelling is going on along the IB and Line of Control in five districts of Samba, Kathua, Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri. In December 2017, the centre had sanctioned 14,460 bunkers at a cost of Rs 415.73 crore for the border residents in Jammu division. While 7,298 bunkers were sanctioned for the twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch along the LoC, 7,162 others were meant for the residents living along the IB in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) National Conference president Farooq Abdullah Sunday said the Lok Sabha elections are significant since this time the country is fighting a decisive battle against the Modi government. He said the people of the country have suffered in the last five years due to the "imprudent and ill-conceived" policies of the BJP government. "Farmers, unemployed youth, artisans, minorities, everyone has been at the receiving end. Every vital sector is in shambles. People across the country are beseeching for respite from this BJP government. Whatever PM Modi had promised to the people during his 2014 election campaign turned out to be a damp squib," Abdullah said in a series of election rallies here. He said the farmers are distressed in most parts of the country while the petrol prices have skyrocketed in the last five years. "The claims of Modi on providing jobs turned out to be a mere slogan. The prices of commodities are soaring. Perhaps the biggest ever failure of this government is its sheer failure to control the prices of petroleum products, including cooking gas," the NC leader said. The former chief minister said the development scenario in Jammu and Kashmir also presents a grim situation. "Our state has been at the receiving end all long since Modi came to power. No effort was made to bring Kashmir on the railway map of India. The railway stretch connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country was supposed to be completed by 2014. Unfortunately, the deadline has been extended to 2022. "Not just that, the work on 30-mile stretch of Banihal and Ramban on J&K national highway is still impending completion. On the other side we see China making fast strides towards connecting its countryside with effective road and rail connectivity," he said. Abdullah said the idea of India is facing a "threat from communal forces who were responsible for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi". "The very constitutional rights were infringed upon since the BJP took the reins of power. We were told what to eat and what not to eat. The minorities throughout the country suffered immensely at the hands of cow vigilantes. Hundreds of poor cattle traders were attacked upon and intimidated. A message was sent that India belongs to the adherents of a particular faith. "Today opportunity is tapping our door; these parliamentary elections afford us an opportunity to clean the state and the country from the communal yolk. We should avail this opportunity and give the BJP and its cronies a befitting reply for all the wrongs it committed and for lying to the nation," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Winning the Lucknow seat will be a "cakewalk" for Home Minister Rajnath Singh as the opposition is yet to find a suitable candidate for the seat that was once held by former prime minister A B Vajpayee, according to UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma. As per my information Mira Talwar, Dauji Gupta, SP Singh, Alka Das (wife of former Union minister Akhilesh Das), a railway leader and Jitin Prasada were approached by the SP and Congress but all have refused to contest from this seat," Sharma said. "A new name (of Poonam Sinha) is doing the rounds now as opposition candidate. This is because people here are sensitive and have an emotional attachment with BJP candidates, Sharma, who was Lucknow's mayor for 10 years, told PTI in an interview. The opposition, he said, "is unable to find a suitable candidate from this seat held by former PM Atalji, who had emotional connect with people of the state capital. Over half a dozen candidates have refused to contest from here. The seat will be a cakewalk for Rajnathji, who has carried forward development vision of Atalji in this constituency". The Lucknow seat is with BJP since 1991 when A B Vajpayee won. He broke his own record in 1996 by defeating Raj Babbar (SP) by a margin of 1,18,671 votes. In 1998, SP gave ticket to Muzaffar Ali, who also tasted defeat and Atal's victory margin rose to 2.16 votes. In 1999, Karan Singh of Congress tried to give a tough fight to Vajpayee but ultimately lost by 1.23 votes. In his last polls in 2004 again he again won by defeating Madu Gutpa (SP) by 2.18 lakh votes. The legacy of Atalji was taken forward by his old associate Lalji Tandon, now serving as Governor in Bihar. He won the 2009 polls by securing 34.93 per cent votes while rival Rita Bahuguna Joshi (then Congress) got 27.93 per cent votes. BSP candidate Akhilesh Das was in third place and SP's Nafisa Ali was at fourth place. In 2014, when BJP gave ticket to Rajnath Singh he broke all records and won by a margin of 5,61,106 votes by defeating his nearest rival Congress candidate Rita Bahuguna Joshi (now in BJP). Not only parliamentary polls, the people of Lucknowalso gave their support to BJP is mayoral polls. The Lucknow mayor seat is with BJP for over two decades in which Dr SC Rai and Dinesh Sharma served for ten years each and presently the seat is held by BJP's Sanyukta Bhatia. Recalling Vajpayee's connect with the people, Sharma said, When I was contesting for the first time in 2006 Atalji came to campaign for me. At a meeting he was climbing stairs slowly even as people looked on When he reached the dais he said 'you (people) need a person who can walk fast not slowly like me. Atalji was pointing at me and people understood what he wanted and I won. In my next election, I did not ask any BJP leader to campaign for me. I even did not open election office and never campaigned after 6 pm, Sharma said trying to drive home the point that Lucknow is BJP's stronghold. He said Rajnathji has only carried forward Atalji's vision of development and that is why he is widely accepted, he added. The Lucknow constituency will got to polls on May 6 in the fifth phase. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The first phase of Lok Sabha elections covering seven constituencies in Maharashtra will see a tough contest between the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena and the opposition Congress-NCP alliances. The Congress is in a direct fight with the BJP in four of these constituencies and with the Shiv Sena in two others. Besides, the NCP is locked in a battle with the BJP in one seat. There are 116 candidates in fray and over 1.30 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise at 14,919 polling centres. Of the total voters, 66.71 lakh are men, 63.64 lakh women, and 181 belong to the third gender category. Voting for 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state will be held in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. In the first phase, Wardha, Ramtek, Nagpur, Bhandara- Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Chandrapur and Yavatmal-Washim constituencies will go to polls. In Nagpur, Union minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari and Congress' Nana Patole, who quit the saffron party in 2017, are pitted against each other. Dalit and Muslim voters are likely to play a crucial role in Nagpur, which is the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), say political observers. In the other constituencies, the Kunbi and Banjara communities could be the deciding factors, they say. In Chandrapur, Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir is seeking re-election for the fourth time. The BJP leader's main rival is Suresh Dhanorkar, who last year quit the Shiv Sena and joined the Congress. In Wardha, the Congress has fielded Charulata Tokas, its women's wing chief, against sitting BJP MP Ramdas Tadas while in Gadchiroli-Chimur, BJP nominee Ashok Nete's main opponent is Namdeo Usendi of the Congress. Besides, senior Congress leader Manikrao Thakre is in fray from Yavatmal-Washim where Shiv Sena's sitting MP Bhavna Gawli is seeking a fourth term. In Ramtek, the Congress has fielded Kishore Gajbhiye against Sena's sitting MP Krupal Tumane. In Bhandara-Gondiya, the NCP, contrary to speculations of fielding party heavyweight Praful Patel, has nominated Nana Panchbuddhe against BJP's Sunil Mendhe. The NCP has replaced its sitting MP Madhukar Kukde, who won the last year's bypoll after Nana Patole resigned from the seat and the BJP. In view of the summer heat during the polling time, the Election Commission has directed the authorities to make drinking water available and put up sheds for voters. The material required for polling has been given to the district collectors. Polling in Naxal-hit areas of Gadciroli-Chimur seat will be held from 7 am to 3 pm. In Wardha, comprising 17.41 lakh voters, there will be 2,026 polling centres, while in Ramtek, 19.21 lakh voters will exercise their franchise at 2,364 polling centres. In Nagpur, 2,065 polling centres will be set up where 21.6 lakh voters would exercise their franchise, while the Bhandara-Gondiya constituency will have 2,184 polling centres for 18.08 lakh voters. In Gadchiroli-Chimur, there will be 1,881 polling centres for 15.80 lakh voters, while Chandrapur will have 2,193 polling centres for 19.08 lakh electorate. Besides, the Yavatmal-Washim constituency will have 2,206 polling stations for 19.14 lakh voters. Nearly 44,000 electronic voting machines (EVMs) and 20,000 VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) machines will be put to use and 73,837 people will be deputed to conduct the polling process. Two ballot units will be placed at the polling centres having more than 15 contestants, along with one control unit. For the first phase, 26,000 ballot units and 18,000 control units have been provided. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Trinamool Congress Mamata Banerjee Sunday accused the Centre of intervening in state matters, while questioning the removal of Andhra Pradesh chief secretary by the Election Commission. She sought to know why Prime Minister Narendra Modi isn't removing his own Cabinet secretary or the Union home secretary, if he was so "fond of making last-minute changes". "Why is the Centre intervening in state matters? Why was Andhra Pradesh chief secretary removed?" Banerjee asked at an election rally here. "Why don't you (Modi) remove your own cabinet secretary," she asked. The Election Commission on Friday removed Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Anil Chandra Punetha from the post and appointed senior-most IAS officer LV Subrahmanyam in his place. Reacting to the poll panel's move of removing four IPS officers in West Bengal, including Kolkata and Bidhanagar police commissioners, the West Bengal chief minister Saturday wrote a letter protesting its decision. The letter said the removals were "unfortunate, highly arbitrary, motivated and biased" and taken at the behest of BJP, and urged the poll panel to review its decision. Retorting to PM's claim that the TMC supremo was afraid of him, Banerjee said that it was Modi who was afraid of her and not the other way round. Without naming former political associate Mukul Roy, whom she addressed as a traitor for quitting her party to join the BJP, she accused Modi of holding meeting with a person accused in Saradha, Narada cases. "Have you (PM Narendra Modi) been able to clean the Ganga at Varanasi, that you are looking at Bengal?" Banerjee questioned, saying that the BJP should trying to save its seat in Delhi before turning to Bengal. She dared the BJP to implement NRC in Bengal, saying it will never be allowed in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Meteorological Department Sunday issued a yellow weather warning for rain in Himachal Pradesh, an official said. The weather department forecast thunderstorm with hail in isolated places of mid hills, including Shimla, Mandi, Kullu, Chamba, Solan and Sirmaur, Shimla MeT centre director Manmohan Singh said. The MeT office issues colour-coded warnings to alert people ahead of severe or hazardous weather which has the potential to cause "damage, widespread disruption or danger to life". Yellow is the least dangerous out of the weather warnings - it indicates the possibility of severe weather over the next few days that could affect people. Meanwhile, rainfall occurred at isolated places over the state during the last 24 hours, he said, adding that minimum temperatures decreased by one to two degrees Celsius Sunday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will appear before the NIA Monday in connection with a case related to terror funding after he was assured by the probe agency that his security would be ensured, officials said here Sunday. He was served a third summon recently in which he was given an assurance that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) would ensure complete security to him. Hurriyat Conference leaders Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Maulana Abbas Ansari have also decided to rally behind the Mirwaiz and would be accompanying him to the NIA headquarters to express their solidarity, members of the separatist conglomerate said. The NIA had on February 26 carried out searches at premises of several leaders, including the Mirwaiz. The NIA had earlier 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. He had been asked to appear before the NIA on March 11 and March 18 but the Mirwaiz had expressed his inability to join the investigation in the national capital fearing for his security in view of "conditions of hostility". The Mirwaiz had informed the NIA that he was not acquainted with the subject matter of the FIR referred to in the NIA's notice and also added that the notice to the separatist leader appears to have been issued on the basis of "fallacious assumptions and misinformation solely aimed at maligning" him. 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 Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the Mirwaiz, Hizbul Mujahideen and Dukhtaran-e-Millat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq will appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Monday in connection with a case related to terror funding, after he was assured by the agency that his security would be ensured, officials said Sunday. The Mirwaiz was served a third summon recently in which he was given an assurance that the NIA would ensure his complete security. Hurriyat Conference leaders Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Maulana Abbas Ansari also decided to rally behind the Mirwaiz and would be accompanying him to the NIA headquarters to express their solidarity, members of the separatist conglomerate said. In 2004, the same group of leaders had met the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then home minister L K Advani for finding a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue. A statement issued by the Hurriyat Conference in Srinagar said that a meeting of its executive members was held which strongly condemned the move of summoning the Mirwaiz. It claimed that its chairman was "being deliberately harassed and there was an effort to criminalise leadership for their political stand". It said the Hurriyat is a coalition of political parties striving for the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue and to associate it with anything to do with terror is ridiculous and a deliberate victimisation for their political ideology. "It's unfortunate that while they have always maintained that Kashmir is a political issue that needs resolution peacefully and humanely and always worked towards that end... yet rulers of the day are resorting to such tactics to harass and intimidate them under the garb of legality," it said. The statement said that despite having nothing to do with the matter, the Mirwaiz through his lawyer had said he was ready to cooperate in the investigation but asked the agency to hold it in Srinagar as he had several genuine concerns, including serious security concerns in New Delhi. "It is unfortunate that they did take into account the other concerns and are insisting on investigation in Delhi. The meeting decided that they will all accompany the Mirwaiz to New Delhi for the investigation," it said. The Mirwaiz or any member of Hurriyat Conference has nothing to do with the "so called funding case and it is sheer vindictiveness on the part of authorities", it said. The NIA had on February 26 carried out searches at premises of several leaders, including the Mirwaiz. The probe agency 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. He had been asked to appear before the NIA on March 11 and March 18 but the Mirwaiz had expressed his inability to join the investigation in the national capital fearing for his security in view of "conditions of hostility". The Mirwaiz had informed the NIA that he was not acquainted with the subject matter of the FIR referred to in the NIA's notice and also added that the notice appears to have been issued on the basis of "fallacious assumptions and misinformation solely aimed at maligning" him. The NIA probe seeks to identify the chain of players behind the financing of terrorist activities, pelting of stones on on security forces, burning down of schools and damaging of 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 Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the Mirwaiz, Hizbul Mujahideen and Dukhtaran-e-Millat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister and chief will share the stage at a rally in on Tuesday for the first time after the tie-up of their parties for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The two leaders will address a public gathering at Ausa in Latur in support of the alliance candidates in that district and Osmanabad, where polling will be held on April 18, BJPspokesman Keshav Upadhyay said on Sunday. Modi and Thackeray last shared the dais in in December 2016 at a function to lay the foundation stone of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off the On Saturday, Modi addressed a rally in Nanded, where state andformer chief minister is contesting against BJP's Pratap Chikhalikar. The Sena, which has often been critical of the BJP and policies of the NDA government, entered into a seat-sharing pact with it recently after the ruling party's president, Amit Shah,visited Thackeray at his residence here. The BJP and Sena announced to contest 25 and 23 seats, respectively, in which has 48 Lok Sabha constituencies. Earlier, the two parties went separate ways after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and contested the Assembly elections held later that year on their own. The BJP-led government under the leadership of took charge in the state in October 2014 and the joined it in December that year. Polling for the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29, and the results will be declared on May 23. Reacting to the Income Tax searches on the premises of his close aides, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath Sunday said the BJP was taking such actions for electoral gains sensing defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The Income Tax (IT) department launched pre-dawn searches on at least 50 locations in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh (Indore and Bhopal) on Sunday against people linked to Nath on charges of alleged tax evasion, officials said. The searches were linked to suspected movement of hawala money during the ongoing poll season and tax evasion, they added. In a statement issued through Madhya Pradesh Congress media cell coordinator Narendra Saluja, Nath said, "The situation about the I-T raids is not clear yet. It would be appropriate to speak on this after the situation is clear. But the entire country knows how the constitutional institutions were used and against whom they were used during the past five years." "These institutions were used to scare people. When they do not have anything to say on development and their work, they used this kind of tactics against their opponents," the CM's statement added. "When the BJP saw its defeat in the coming Lok Sabha polls, they started taking such actions deliberately to take benefit in the election. They also used such tactics before the last Assembly polls," he asserted. Nath added that several political parties and states had witnessed such kind of tactics during the last five years. "We were ready for this. There should be an impartial inquiry into everything. Such tactics do not make any difference to us. "The people of the state know the truth. In the coming Lok Sabha polls, the people of the state will answer these acts," the chief minister said in the statement. The BJP-led central government also came under fire from former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Expressing ignorance about the cash found during Sunday's I-T raids, Singh said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could go to any extent (to have its way). Asked about the saffron party's allegation that crores of rupees were found from people who had been claiming that the "watchman" was a thief, Singh said, "Thousands of crores would have been recovered if the (I-T) raids were conducted at the houses of mama-mami (referring to former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his wife) and (BJP president) Amit Shah. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mumbai's Joint Commissioner of Police (law and order) Deven Bharti was transferred on Sunday after the Election Commission (EC) asked the Maharashtra government to shift him, an official said. Bharti became the city's joint commissioner of police (law and order) in April 2015 and was the longest serving officer on the post. The Maharashtra government had earlier sent a proposal to EC for continuing Bharti on the post, but it was rejected. The EC directed the state government on Saturday to shift Bharti following which he transferred, a senior official told PTI, adding that his new posting was yet to be decided. Meanwhile, a search for Bharti's successor was on, he said, adding that the post will be filled soon. The 1994-batch IPS officer conducted investigations in several high-profile cases, including the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and journalist J Dey's killing. He was also instrumental in breaking the backbone of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Maharashtra Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not be elected again after elections. Addressing a rally here in Maharashtra, he also said the BJP candidate from Nagpur will also lose. Union minister Nitin Gadkari is pitted against Congress' Nana Patole from the Nagpur constituency in the Vidarbha region. The former chief minister further said that in view of the "anti-BJP wave" in the country, the ruling party will not win more than 150 seats. "I want to tell you that after May 23 (the date of counting for Lok Sabha elections), you will not see Narendra Modi as prime minister again nor will you see any other BJP leaders getting elected again," he said without taking name of Gadkari. Referring to Gadkari, Chavan said BJP leaders from Nagpur are hoping to become prime minister, but that will not happen as the party's candidate will lose against Patole. "There is an anti-BJP wave in the country. People are suffering due to agrarian distress, rising unemployment and faulty implementation of GST," he said. The former chief minister said the Congress did "developmental work" for the backward Vidarbha region and set up new industries in Nagpur through Multi-modal International Hub Airport (MIHAN), and by proposing metro rail through 'Advantage Vidarbha'. "We started industries here through 'Advantage Vidarbha', but the BJP failed to continue the good work done by us," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The main challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel's elections on Sunday condemned the premier's deeply controversial pledge to annex West Bank settlements, calling it an "irresponsible" bid for votes. Netanyahu said late Saturday he planned to apply sovereignty over at least parts of the occupied West Bank, a move that could prove the death knell for the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His remarks were widely seen as an appeal to right-wing voters ahead of what is expected to be a close election on Tuesday. Benny Gantz, the former military chief whose centrist Blue and White alliance has posed a stiff challenge to Netanyahu, condemned the premier's remarks in an interview with Israeli site Ynet. "Why not ask how in 13 years Netanyahu could have annexed and didn't?" said Gantz, in reference to Netanyahu's time as premier. "I think that releasing a strategic and historic decision in an election campaign bubble is not serious and (is) irresponsible." Pressed on his personal position, Gantz said he opposed "unilateral" moves. "We said we will strive for a regionally and globally backed peace agreement while maintaining our basic principles," he said. Those principles include keeping security control of the Jordan Valley, parts of which are in the West Bank, and maintaining the large settlement blocs in the West Bank. Gantz has in the past signalled openness to withdrawing at least some settlers from other areas. He labelled Netanyahu's remarks as "a meaningless statement". "It's a shame to play with people like that," he said. Netanyahu did not provide details on how quickly he planned to move ahead with annexation and whether it would involve all settlements. If done on a large scale, annexation could end already fading hopes for a two-state solution with the Palestinians. It is a move the Israeli far right has long pushed for. "I will apply (Israeli) sovereignty, but I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements," he said in an interview with Channel 12 television. Settlements built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War are deemed illegal by the international community and their ongoing construction is seen as a major barrier to peace. But Netanyahu's right wing government has had strong support from US President Donald Trump, who declared the disputed city of Jerusalem Israel's capital in 2017 and later recognised Israeli sovereignty over the annexed Golan Heights. That prompted Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to cut off relations with Washington. Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Netanyahu's statement on annexation was "not surprising." "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administration's support," he said on Twitter. In a separate interview broadcast Friday, Netanyahu said he told Trump he would not remove settlements or settlers as part of a future American peace plan. "I said there shouldn't be the removal of even one settlement," Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 13 television. More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, backed by Israel's military occupation of the territory, home to more than 2.5 million Palestinians. A further 200,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied east Jerusalem, over which Israel has already implemented full sovereignty. The Palestinians hope to establish a state of their own in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Washington is expected to unveil proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace some time after Tuesday's election, in which Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term. Netanyahu, running for re-election while facing the possibility of indictment on corruption charges, said he had informed Trump not "even one person" would be evicted from a settlement. The US president on Saturday was cautious about the outcome of Israel's upcoming election. "Well, it's going to be close - I think it's going to be close. Two good people," he said, referring to Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz. The latest polls place Netanyahu and Gantz neck-and-neck, but give the former the advantage in his ability to form a coalition government. Turkey accused Netanyahu on Sunday of raising annexation as a means of improving his standing in the elections. "West Bank is Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in violation of int'l law," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote on Twitter. "Prime Minister Netanyahu's irresponsible statement to seek votes just before the Israeli general elections cannot and will not change this fact." The Palestinians say the US government's pro-Israel bias meant it could no longer mediate between them and Israel. US officials say their plan will be fair. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India Sunday rejected as "irresponsible and preposterous" Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi's comments that India was planning to attack Pakistan again between April 16 and 20. In a strongly worded statement, Spokesperson said the comments by the Pakistani foreign minister is aimed at whipping up war hysteria in the region. "India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the foreign minister of Pakistan with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region. This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India," Kumar said. India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the Foreign Minister of #Pakistan intended to whip up war hysteria in the region. This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India. https://t.co/Mvlurlt6e7 pic.twitter.com/WiKqN12XBf (@MEAIndia) April 7, 2019 ALSO READ: Pakistan foreign minister says India preparing another attack this month The MEA spokesperson's statement came hours after Qureshi said in a press conference in Multan that Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India is planning to attack Pakistan again between April 16 and 20. India struck the biggest terrorist training camp of terror group Jaish-e-Muhammed deep inside Pakistan on February 26 nearly two weeks after the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. On February 27, retaliated and downed a in an aerial combat and captured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday sought to write off his jailed arch rival, RJD national president Lalu Prasad, with the remark that with adequate power supply in the state the days of 'lantern' the opposition partys ubiquitous poll symbol were over. Prasad, who is in Ranchi serving sentences in fodder scam cases, took to twitter and likened his associate-turned-adversary to "the species that keeps leaping from one tree branch to another" while accusing Kumar of being "paltuon ka sardar" (the king of turncoats). "Electricity has reached every household in Bihar. Now there is no use for the lantern," Kumar told an election rally in Jamui Lok Sabha constituency in a veiled attack on the RJD that evoked applause from the crowds. The chief minister, who heads the JD(U), an NDA ally, was canvassing for local MP Chirag Paswan of the LJP, which is the third constituent in the state of the BJP-led coalition. Defending his decision to return to the NDA in 2017, four years after having snapped ties with the BJP, Kumar said he took the step keeping in mind the interests of Bihar and the state has witnessed accelerated growth with Prime Minister Narendra Modis cooperation. Kumar also lauded Modi for acting tough on terror and raising the countrys prestige on the international stage. Prasad, who has been sore ever since Kumars abrupt exit from the 'Mahagathbandhan' stripped the RJD off power and caused his sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav to lose their ministerial berths, shared a newspaper clipping from 2014, wherein the chief minister was quoted as having said "I shall rather be consigned to dust than align with the BJP." Known for his acerbic wit, Prasad captioned the photograph in Hindi "read the statement of the creature that keeps leaping from one tree branch to another. He has been responsible for changing loyalties five times in as many years. Hence he has been called the king of turncoats." Prasads barb of changing loyalties five times in five years was in the context of Kumar having snapped ties with the BJP in 2013, fought the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with Left parties the following year and stepped down as Chief Minister taking moral responsibility for the JD(U)s moral debacle, installing his then cabinet colleague Jitan Ram Manjhi in his place. Manjhi, who is now an RJD ally, was made to resign less than a year later to facilitate the return of Kumar as chief minister, which Prasad had supported at that time. The arch rivals, along with the Congress, formed an alliance that inflicted a crushing defeat on the NDA in the 2015 assembly polls of which Manjhi was then a part. Kumar returned as CM while Tejashwi Yadav became his deputy and Tej Pratap Yadav got a cabinet berth. However, corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav made Kumar put in his papers in July, 2017 heeding what he called his "inner voice" though he was back as the chief minister in less than 24 hours, this time with the BJPs support. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Top EU leaders meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang this week at a summit in Brussels, but their hopes of winning solid commitments on trade look set for disappointment. Brussels is trying to beef up its approach to the Asian giant as it shows little willingness to listen to longstanding complaints about industrial subsidies and access to its markets, and as fears grow about growing Chinese involvement in European infrastructure. But the half-day summit on Tuesday is on course to fizzle out with little to show in terms of agreements, with European sources saying it looks highly unlikely a final joint statement will be agreed. EU officials say China is unwilling to give binding commitments on their key demands, including the inclusion of industrial subsidies as part of World Trade Organisation reform, and they are reluctant to agree the kind of anodyne declaration of good intentions pushed out after last year's summit in Beijing. The European Commission last month issued a 10-point plan proposing a more assertive relationship with Beijing, labelling China a "systemic rival" -- a move welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron as a belated awakening. But while the EU's 15 trillion euro market gives it significant economic clout, it struggles to maintain unity among its 28 members on issues of foreign policy, allowing China to pursue one-on-one deals with individual countries. "When economic policy intersects with foreign policy and security, the EU lacks the will and capacity to act strategically," Philippe Legrain, visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics' European Institute, wrote in an analysis for Project Syndicate magazine. "Apart from France and the UK, which is leaving the EU, member governments lack a geopolitical mindset." This most striking recent example came last month when Italy became the first G7 nation to sign up to China's "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI), a massive network of transport and trade links stretching from Asia to Europe. Concerns have been raised about the way the BRI saddles countries with Chinese debt and leaves key infrastructure nodes owned by a potential strategic rival, though Beijing insists the initiative is a "win-win" arrangement. Former Greek finance minister and scourge of the EU, Yanis Varoufakis, said Europe only had itself to blame if Mediterranean countries turned to China. "We created a vacuum and the Chinese are filling it. The Chinese are coming in because there is a dearth of investment in this continent... We are failing to generate investment that would give our business the opportunity to compete with them," he said in Brussels last week. Macron's own China initiative last week -- hosting President Xi Jinping for a summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker -- may also have been a double-edged sword for the EU. The meeting in Paris gave the EU -- through its two most powerful members -- the chance to press its concerns directly with the paramount Chinese leader. But analysts say it also seriously undercut this week's summit in Brussels, where Li will hold talks not with heads of government but with Juncker and EU Council President Donald Tusk. "The China summit has already taken place. It is not Europe for China without France and Germany in the same room," Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the ECIPE Brussels think-tank, told AFP. "Xi has already spoken. Xi has already shaken hands with his counterparts so by default the summit has already taken place. In a sense, they only bring out Li for Europe or when something bad is going to happen and somebody needs to take the blame." At the same time, Lee-Makiyama warned, Europe risks being left playing catch-up if ongoing US-China trade talks result in a deal between the world's two biggest economies. "China is going to probably offer us some watered down version of what they gave to the Americans, but that also means that we have to give something," he said. But while Tuesday's meeting may not yield a breakthrough in the EU's complex relationship with China, European officials insist it still has value in keeping up the pressure. "There is broad agreement within the EU that it is important to communicate to China that we are at a point where we want to see... concrete steps forward on their willingness to work with us at the WTO," an EU diplomat told AFP. "What is important is that we give a signal to China that the EU is partner but also a competitor and requires Beijing to make some steps. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Congress leader Rajeev Shukla said on Sunday no decision had been taken yet about general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contesting the election against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Shukla claimed that under the leadership of Vadra, who is the party's incharge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, the Congress would do well in the Lok Sabha election and sweep the 2022 assembly election. On the recent speculation about Vadra contesting from Varanasi, Shukla told PTI: "In response to a question, she had made a comment which is unnecessarily being talked about now. No definite decision has been taken on her contesting the election.'' During campaigning at Rae Bareli a fortnight ago, Vadra had dropped a hint that she is not averse to taking on Modi in his own Lok Sabha constituency. "Shouldn't I fight from Varanasi?" Vadra had quipped when a party worker asked her to contest from Rae Bareli, the constituency of her mother and UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi. Shukla said Vadra was getting a very good response from the public wherever she is going for campaigning. "In the past 20 years, the Congress has become very weak in Uttar Pradesh. The party has to be strengthened under her leadership for 2022." The former Union minister said the common people would benefit from all the promises made in the Congress manifesto. "Providing Rs 72,000 per annum under the Nyay (minimum income) scheme and increasing the agricultural budget will be the priority," he said. The Congress leader exuded confidence that Nyay could be implemented. "I have been a planning minister, this scheme can be implemented. People who are spreading rumours did the same when our government launched the MGNREGA (rural job guarantee scheme). There will be no burden on the middle class or working class." Shukla also hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party on the issue of nationalism. "Nationalism was displayed during the Indira Gandhi government when Pakistan was taught a lesson in 1971. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also given a fitting reply to Pakistan. Modi has just created a ruckus through false propaganda." The Congress leader said the party's focus was employment, farmers and women's safety. "The BJP is only talking about Hindu-Muslim and Pakistan. We are more concerned about the common man," Shukla said. "The biggest problem India is facing is that of unemployment. Our agenda is to give jobs to the youths and look after the issues of farmers and women's safety in the country." The former Union minister claimed that the "Modi brand" would not work this time, adding that the Opposition was fighting strongly in different states and would collectively get a majority. Asked if the Opposition parties would accept the leadership of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi after the election, Shukla said: "The Congress president himself has mentioned that there is no dispute over the leadership and later he will accept what everyone decides. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state and a BJP citadel for long, has not had a Muslim Lok Sabha MP since senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel won from Bharuch in the 1984 polls. Muslims form around nine per cent of the state's population, and are traditionally seen as Congress supporters. Congressman Patel won from Bharuch defeating Chandubhai Deshmukh in 1984. He lost to Deshmukh in 1989. Patel, a Rajya Sabha MP now, had won from the seat in the 1977 and 1980 general elections as well. A Hindutva surge following BJP patriarch LK Advani's Rath Yatra from Somnath in the state to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh in 1990 has made the state a saffron citadel, leading to Muslim candidates drawing a blank at the Lok Sabha hustings, observers said. While the Congress has fielded Muslim candidates, at least one, in every Lok Sabha poll, the ruling BJP is yet to do so. "In Gujarat, unfortunately, we have a clear communal divide which the political leadership has created with a definite vision. The purpose is political gains," political analyst Dr Hari Desai told PTI. "Earlier, seats like Banaskantha and even Bharuch, where Hindus are in a majority, have had Muslim MPs. But after the 1990 rath yatra, which started from Somnath in Gujarat, it seems impossible for a Muslim candidate to win due to the polarisation," Desai added. He predicted that it would be difficult for a Muslim candidate to win in the near future from Gujarat. "Gujarat has seen many riots between the two communities which is another reason for the political marginalisation of Muslims in the country," he said, citing the 2002 Godhra riots as an example. "Though the BJP talks about sabka saath, sabka vikas (support and progress for all), it has never given tickets to members of the minority community. They even try to brand the Congress as a Muslim party," Desai claimed. "When Prime Minister Narendra Modi is setting the agenda, the Congress is also caught in the trap and has to follow soft Hindutva, which is evident in the various temple visits by their leaders," he said. Mujahid Nafees of the Minority Coordination Committee, an NGO working for minority rights and greater representation for them in the political sphere, said, "There are several reasons why Muslims are not being elected. One of them is that, in our democracy, it works on caste and religious lines." "So it is now difficult for a minority member to get elected as MP. We have released a list of demands of the minorities to all political parties seeking social, economical and political inclusion of their members who are marginalised here," he said. The opposition Congress blamed the situation on the "Hindutva laboratory" and the "polarisation" created by the BJP. "The Congress believes that minorities should be given representation in the political process at every level in order to empower them. However, in Gujarat, post polarisation in the 1990s, the scene has changed. The state, being a Hindutva laboratory, politics has taken a new turn and it is difficult for them (Muslims) to get elected," state Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said. "The Congress has given tickets to minority community members in parliamentary to village panchayat elections," he added. The BJP, however, said that winnability is the deciding factor in choosing a candidate rather than his faith. "Our chief minister Vijay Rupani belongs to a minority community. We believe in sabka saath, sabka vikas and work according for development of all. We do not have a problem with any community or religion," state media coordinator of BJP Prashant Vala said. "Winnability is the criteria when we distribute tickets. CM Rupani, though he hails from a minority community, is winning from his seat," Vala said. Rupani belongs to the Jain community. In Gujarat, three seats- Kutch, Ahmedabad West and Bharuch have sizable number of Muslims. In Bharuch Lok Sabha seat, the population of Muslims stands at over 22 per cent, which is the highest, while the other two seats are reserved for members of the Scheduled Caste communities. In 1962, in the first Lok Sabha polls after Gujarat was formed out of Bombay state, Johra Chavda had won from Banaskantha. In the 1977 general elections, the state sent two Muslim MPs to Parliament, the highest ever, with Patel and Ehsan Jafri winning from Bharuch and Ahmedabad seats respectively. The state has 26 Lok Sabha seats, all of which were won by the BJP in the 2014 polls. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Trend: The tender for selecting a contractor for design, procurement and construction (EPC) of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), which envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, is close to the end, the ICGB, the project company, told Trend. Reportedly, the estimated value of the tender is set as a total price of 145 million euros excluding VAT "Over 10 Bulgarian and foreign companies and consortia expressed interest in the public procurement and submitted documents in the first phase of the procedure. The admitted candidates invited for phase two are as follows: DZZD "IGB-2018", Consortium MAX STREICHER - TERNA/ICGB, Consortium Spiecapag Trace IGB 2018, J&P - AVAX S.A and Joint Venture CPP-AKTOR," said the company. As the ICGB said, two of the candidates invited for the second phase of the tender submitted offers within the deadline specified by the Contracting Entity - DZZD "IGB-2018" and J&P - AVAX S.A. The next steps include review and evaluation of the technical proposals, technical assessment in accordance with the indicators of the methodology and opening of the price proposals, reads a message from the company. ICGB said it plans to complete the selection process in May, securing the start of the construction works in June. "The project company and its shareholders have mobilized all the resources to comply with the schedule for starting construction, relying on the high quality of the technical proposals of the participants and their professionalism", said the Executive Officers of the company Teodora Georgieva and Konstantinos Karayannakos. IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets. The initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas. The Congress Sunday said it was not in talks with the AAP or any other party for alliance in Haryana and Punjab, and will soon declare its candidates for the two states. Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the party is yet to reach a decision on stitching an alliance with the AAP in the national capital. On Saturday, an AAP leader said the party will firm up an alliance with the Congress in Delhi only if Rahul Gandhi's party agrees to fight the Lok Sabha polls jointly in Haryana and Chandigarh too. "There's no talk on alliance with any party, including the AAP, either in Haryana or in Punjab. We are soon going to declare our candidates (for the two states)," Surjewala said Sunday at a press conference where the Congress unveiled its campaign slogan for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls -- "Ab Hoga Nyay". "The party is yet to reach a decision on forging an alliance with the AAP in Delhi," he added. Congress president Rahul Gandhi had Saturday discussed the issue again with his party leaders from the city. Delhi Congress president and former chief minister Sheila Dikshit, All India Congress Committee General Secretary and in-charge of the party's national capital unit P C Chacko and some other senior leaders were present at the meeting held in Gandhi's residence. As another pre-condition for firming up an alliance, the AAP has asked the Congress to openly declare its support to full statehood for Delhi. The AAP has reportedly conveyed to the Congress that it would support the grand old party in Chandigarh if it gets to contest three seats in Haryana - Faridabad, Gurgaon and Karnal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The likely swing of the OBC and tribal votes and the effectiveness of the Congress' bid to build the poll narrative on agrarian distress seems to be the main factors at play in Mahasamund Lok Sabha constituency in Chhattisgarh, which votes on April 18. Among other factors, the votes of the Sahu community, the traditional vote bank of the BJP and a dominant OBC sub-caste, could tilt the scales in favour of either of the BJP or the Congress, according to poll observers. In the 2018 assembly polls, in which the Congress ended the BJP's 15-year old rule, the Sahus had largely favoured the Opposition party. The predominantly agricultural Mahasamund constituency is spread across eight assembly segments, including four in Mahasamund district and two each in Dhamtari and Gariaband districts. As per demographics, the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) constitute around 51 per cent of total population in this constituency. Other dominant communities are the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and the Scheduled Castes (SCs) which comprise around 29 per cent and 13 per cent of the total voters, respectively. However, with a share of around 19 per cent, the Sahus form the largest OBC sub-group. Other influential sub-castes are Yadavs and Kurmis. Well aware of the caste arithmetic, the Congress has fielded party MLA Dhanendra Sahu while the BJP has brought in its former MLA Chunnilal Sahu in place of two-time MP Chandual Sahu. "If the choice is between Chunnilal and Dhanendra, the latter is more influential," Hemlal Sahu, a farmer from Bhoring village in Mahasamund district, told PTI. Hemlal, who owns around 2.5 acres of land, said if the BJP manages to retain the seat, it will be purely due to "Modi magic". He said factors like farm distress and anti-incumbency went against the BJP in the last assembly polls, but also added that a different scenario is emerging as far as the upcoming elections are concerned. In the general elections held in 2014, BJP's Chandulal Sahu had defeated former chief minister and then Congress strongman Ajit Jogi from Mahasamund. In 2009, he had defeated Motilal Sahu, also of Congress. Hemlal further said a sizable chunk of the Sahu vote and people from other OBC communities like the Yadavs, Kurmis and Marars had then voted for the BJP whereas tribals and SCs thrown their weight behind Jogi. Pitambar Nishad, a 19-year-old from Gopalpur village, feels employment is an issue for local youths. However, he also feels that Prime Minister Narendra Modi deserves another chance. Nishad said he quit studies after completing class 12 last year and started working due to ill health of his father. "Like me, several other youths in the village left studies and went to Raipur in search of good jobs. Youths neither wanted to take up farming nor they wanted to do small jobs. Employment issue cannot be denied but Modi ji should be given another term," said Nishad who works in a medical store in Tumgaon. Poll analysts say the Sahus and other OBC communities voted for the Congress in the assembly polls apparently due to the party's promise of waiving farm loans and the higher MSP for paddy procurement. However, Sushil Trivedi, an analyst and former commissioner of the Chhattisgarh State Election Commission, believes the Sahus will not be the only deciding factor this time. "Elections cannot be won only on the basis of a caste equation. As both the leading parties have fielded candidates from the same community, the Sahu vote will be divided this time. It will be interesting to see how other OBC communities and tribals vote in Mahasamund, which is likely to influence poll outcome," Trivedi said. A total of 18 candidates are in the fray in Mahasamund constituency which will vote in the second phase. The state, which has 11 Lok Sabha seats, will vote in three phases. Among 16,37,002 eligible voters in Mahasamund, 8,24,219 electors are women and 8,12,761 are men. There are 22 third gender voters. Earlier, former Union minister and Congress stalwart late Vidyacharan Shukla had represented the seat six times. The constituency had also sent high-profile leaders like Shyamacharan Shukla (1999), Ajit Jogi (2004) and Pavan Diwan (1991 and 1996) of Congress, and Chandrashekhar Sahu (1998) of the BJP to the Lok Sabha. Of the eight assembly segments, the Congress represents Mahasamund, Khallari, Saraipali (SC), Basna and Rajim while the BJP has MLAs on Bindranawagarh (ST), Dhamtari and Kurud seats. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday accused Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of having created a "bizarre" political culture of giving bureaucrats an edge over the powers of elected representatives. Shah, after releasing the party's manifesto here, alleged that senior leaders of the ruling BJD have been sidelined and their rights are handed over to bureaucrats. "Odisha is being run without peoples' representatives, which is against the democratic spirit of the nation. "A 'vichitra' (bizarre) political culture has evolved during the tenure of Naveen Patnaik where rights of elected representatives' are being bestowed on officers," the BJP chief said. Pointing out that corruption has "spread from top to bottom" in Odisha, Shah said the malaise is pushing the state backward in all parameters. The BJP president said those involved in corrupt practices will be put behind bars if his party comes to power in Odisha. "While corruption was rampant in allocation of mines, chit fund scam flourished because of the protection provided to those involved in corrupt practices. "A large number of innocent and poor investors were taken for a ride. The BJP, after coming to power, will put them behind bars," he asserted. Coming down heavily on the CM's style of dealing with party colleagues, Shah alleged, "Patnaik does not respect colleagues, and throws them out from the party one after another..." The people of Odisha had rejected the Congress in 2000, and brought the BJD government with the expectation that the regional party would meet their aspirations, he said. "But the BJD government has proved to be worse than the corrupt Congress government in the past," Shah alleged. The BJP chief said lack of vision, lethargy, corruption and hunger for power are the hallmark of the BJD government, which has kept Odisha at the bottom of the development index. While appealing to the people to save the state from the BJD onslaught, Shah said, "Elect a government that works in tandem and does not clash with the Modi government." This is only possible if the people of Odisha bring a "double engine" government both in the state and at the Centre, he said. The BJP manifesto for the state focuses on the welfare and empowerment of farmers, women, youth and the weaker sections of society, the BJP chief said. Assembly election in Odisha is slated to be held along with the Lok Sabha polls in four phases, beginning April 11. The state has 147 assembly and 21 LS seats. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Left frustrated after their sixth successive defeat, Royal Challengers Bangalore all-rounder Moeen Ali Sunday blamed the poor shot selection of the batsmen for their four-wicket loss to Delhi Capitals in IPL here. Virat was the top-scorer with a 33-ball 41 as RCB could manage 149 for eight against Delhi Capitals after being asked to take first strike here. "I think they (Delhi Capitals) bowled well. Our shot selections wasn't good," he told reporters in the post-match press conference here. "Obviously we needed a good partnership. I think, we started off well, but could not capitalise on it. Also we gave away wickets at the end and probably it wasn't smart enough," he said. The hosts were also sloppy on the field as Delhi returned to score 152 for 6 in 18.5 overs. The English off-spinner said his team is repeating the same mistakes of dropping catches and giving away wickets. "Obviously it is very frustrating as players. We are training hard. We are doing right things in the training, but not delivering on the field. We are making same mistakes - dropping catches and giving away wickets." Ali said it was harder for batsmen to score in the first six overs. "It was definitely harder for the first six overs when we batted. The wicket generally here is quite good. The wicket did get easier later, but it was a good wicket," he said. After this loss, it will take a herculean task for RCB to win all the remaining eight matches to qualify for the knockout stage. "You can't afford to do that in IPL. We got to improve and we have to win remaining games. We know that," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Pakistani-origin British woman who joined ISIS in Syria and attempted to recruit other Western girls to become so-called jihadi brides wants to return to the UK to live a "normal life". Tooba Gondal, who was born in France and grew up in the UK, has claimed that it was a "relief" to leave ISIS territory, where there had been food shortages and "constant bombing, sniping and bullets". The 25-year-old, being held in Ayn Issa camp in Syria with her two children, was caught by US-backed Kurdish forces as she tried to flee ISIS' last stronghold of Baghuz. "I feel British, but Britain refuses to take us. I know the British public are scared of us. They don't want to deal with us, but they must," she said in an interview from the camp with the Rojava Information Centre last week. "We are not threat to their society, we just want a normal life again," she said. Her London-based family broke their silence this weekend to urge the UK authorities to allow her and her children safe passage to the UK. "For the past three years she tried to leave, but they [ISIS] threatened to kill her children," Gondal's younger sister Maryam told 'The Sunday Times'. "She tried to leave two or three times. But she had no money and no means of escaping. She was trapped," she said, adding that her two-year-old nephew Ibrahim and one-year-old daughter Asiya had been on the brink of starvation under ISIS. Pleading for Gondal and her "innocent" children to be allowed back to the UK, her family also disclosed that Asiya had suffered a shrapnel wound in her leg after an airstrike. They believe she travelled to Syria in 2015, when she was 21, after being "brainwashed" online. Their plea comes in the wake of Bangladeshi-origin ISIS bride Shamima Begum having lost her newborn baby at one of the detainee camps in Syria after her British nationality was revoked. Gondal's case mirrors that of Begum, who had fled to join ISIS as a schoolgirl in February 2015 until she resurfaced in a Syrian detainee camp pleading for her return to the UK. Her lawyer Tasnime Akunjee is preparing for a potentially lengthy legal battle against the removal of her citizenship. In Gondal's case, she has permanent residency of the UK on a French passport and the nationality of her two children by different husbands, both killed in fighting, remains unclear. She was served with a UK Home Office exclusion order a year ago and has over time lost her right to appeal. Soon after her arrival in Syria, Gondal said Britain was a "filthy" country and posted an image of herself wearing a burqa and holding an assault rifle. She praised the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks and was accused of luring other British girls to marry jihadist fighters, earning her the nickname of "the ISIS Matchmaker". Since US-backed forces cleared out the final ISIS stronghold in Syria last month, over 76,000 women and children are believed to be living in such detainee camps. Of these, more than 10,000 are believed to have travelled from outside Syria and Iraq, while around 1,000 are unaccompanied children. The UK government is under increasing pressure from international aid agencies to repatriate the children of so-called ISIS brides from Britain. "We are ready to help any government that faces an issue. Children are first and foremost victims," said Elodie Schindler, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), after Germany and France both announced measures for such repatriation of children born to their nationals. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A police case has been registered against Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) leader Raju Shetti for making alleged anti-Brahmin remarks during a poll rally in Kolhapur district. Election Commission of India officials, apart from issuing notice to Shetti over the remarks, Saturday night approached Hatkanangale police station and lodged a complaint against the sitting Lok Sabha MP, a police official said Sunday. Speaking at a rally Wednesday, Shetti purportedly said that while farmers' children join the Army and fight for the country, those of "Deshpandes and Kulkarnis" (denoting Brahmins) shun the Army but preach others patriotism. The rally was held in Herle village in Hatkanangale. The police official said a case has been registered against Shetti under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code. Shetti had apologised on Friday claiming that he did not have a casteist mindset. Shetti had claimed, while apologising, that he did not intend to hurt the sentiments of any community but was speaking about giving justice to the kin of martyrs. Shetti is contesting from Hatkanangale in western Maharashtra with the support of the Congress-NCP alliance and is pitted against Shiv Sena's Dhairyasheel Mane. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir Sunday took out protest marches against the government's restrictions on movement of civilian traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway. The government has ordered the closure of the Jammu-Srinagar highway for all kinds of civilian traffic from Udhampur to Baramulla every Sunday and Wednesday in order to facilitate movement of security forces for Lok Sabha election duty.It will remain effective till May 31. National Conference president Farooq Abdullah has demanded the immediate roll back of the restrictions, while PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti termed the government's decision as "wrong". The decision came in the aftermath of the February 14 terror attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy on the highway in Pulwama district. Forty CRPF personnel were killed. On March 30, another attempt was made to target a CRPF convoy with a car bomb on the highway near Banihal in Ramban district. National Conference (NC) leaders led by Abdullah took out a march at Athwajan on the highway to protest the ban imposed by the government. "This is a wrong order. They should use train service for the movement of the security force personnel or they can move them at night so that people do not have to suffer,the NC president said. "It is our demand that this order be revoked. It sounds like dictatorship," Abdullah added. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti also took out a protest march against the ban. "This is very wrong. We dont have an occupational army here. If the government of India thinks that by resorting to such tactics they can suppress the people here, they are wrong," she said. The former chief minister said her party will go to court against the ban order. "Kashmir belongs to Kashmiris. That they will have to seek permission to use their own roads, we will not allow this to happen. I appeal to people to defy this ban," she said. Later, Mehbooba took to Twitter saying she will not allow Kashmiris to be imprisoned in their own land. "Protested against Guv admins callous & absurd ban today. How can you restrict civilian movement on our main highway? You want to smother Kashmiris, change the demographics of the state & imprison them in their own land? Over my dead body," she tweeted. The People's Conference leader and candidate for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat Irfan Ansari also staged a protest near Bemina against the ban. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Political parties need not teach District Collectors the model code of conduct",Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena said Sunday in response to issue of notice to Thrissur NDA candidate Suresh Gopi allegedly seeking votes in the name of Lord Ayyappa. He was responding to the state BJP leadership terming as 'utter nonsense,' the action of Thrissur District Collector V T Anupama issuing notice to the actor-turned-politician. Anupama had on Saturday sought an explanation within 48 hoursfrom actor turned politician Suresh Gopi for allegedly invoking Lord Ayyappa during his speech after a roadshow campaign on Friday. "I am seeking votes in the backdrop of Sabarimala. My Ayyan (lord Ayyappa), our Ayyan, if our Ayyan is an emotion for us, this brutal government will be given a befitting reply by the people of Kerala," Gopi was seen saying in a video. However he also said he would not discuss the Sabarimala issue during his campaign. Sabarimala had witnessed intense protests in December last year against the LDF government's decision to implement the landmark September 28 2018 Supreme Court verdict, permitting women of all age groups into the hill shrine. Traditionally, women of menstruating age or in the age group of 10 to 50 years were not allowed to enter the temple as the deity, Lord Ayyappa, was a "Naishtika brahmachari" (perennial celibate). "The Collector had sent the notice after properly studying the issue. If Suresh Gopi has any grievances over the notice, he can express that in the explanation letter. Political parties need not to teach collectors about the model code of conduct. The district collectors, who are the returning officers, are well-versed in the model code of conduct," Meena told a channel. Asked about the issue of notice to him, Suresh Gopi said the people would respond to it. "Look at the plight of a devotee. One cannot even use the name of his favourite God. What sort of democracy is this? People will deal with this," he told reporters Sunday. The state BJP leadership came down heavily on the issue of notice, alleging that the Collector was acting as a slave of the Pinarayi Vijayan government. "The act of the collector is utter nonsense and shows her ignorance. The collector was acting as a slave of the Pinarayi government," BJP leader B Gopalakrishnan told reporters. Gopi was chosen as the candidate on Tuesday after NDA's ally BDJS chief Thushar Vellapally was fielded in Wayanad against Congress chief Rahul Gandi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Poverty can leave a lasting imprint in our DNA, say scientists who have found that low socioeconomic status is linked to changes in over 1,500 genes. Previous research has shown that socioeconomic status (SES) is a powerful determinant of human health and disease, and social inequality is a ubiquitous stressor for human populations globally. Lower educational attainment and/or income predict increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, many cancers and infectious diseases, for example. Furthermore, lower SES is associated with physiological processes that contribute to the development of disease, including chronic inflammation, insulin resistance and cortisol dysregulation. Scientists from Northwestern University in the US found evidence that poverty can become embedded across wide swaths of the genome. They discovered that lower socioeconomic status is associated with levels of DNA methylation (DNAm) -- a key epigenetic mark that has the potential to shape gene expression -- at more than 2,500 sites, across more than 1,500 genes. In other words, poverty leaves a mark on nearly 10 per cent of the genes in the genome. "First, we have known for a long time that SES is a powerful determinant of health, but the underlying mechanisms through which our bodies 'remember' the experiences of poverty are not known," said Thomas McDade, a professor at Northwestern University. "Our findings suggest that DNA methylation may play an important role, and the wide scope of the associations between SES and DNAm is consistent with the wide range of biological systems and health outcomes we know to be shaped by SES," said McDade. Experiences over the course of development become embodied in the genome, to literally shape its structure and function. McDade said he was surprised to find so many associations between socioeconomic status and DNA methylation, across such a large number of genes. "This pattern highlights a potential mechanism through which poverty can have a lasting impact on a wide range of physiological systems and processes," he said. Follow-up studies will be needed to determine the health consequences of differential methylation at the sites the researchers identified, but many of the genes are associated with processes related to immune responses to infection, skeletal development and development of the nervous system. "These are the areas we'll be focusing on to determine if DNA methylation is indeed an important mechanism through which socioeconomic status can leave a lasting molecular imprint on the body, with implications for health later in life," McDade said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prince William has spent three weeks on undercover work placements with Britain's security and intelligence agencies to gain a first-hand understanding of the role they play in combatting terrorism. The 36-year-old second in line to Britain's throne described the experience of working with the MI5, MI6 and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) as a humbling one, while the GCHQ said the royal had worked exceptionally hard during his internship. "William worked exceptionally hard to embed himself in the team and comfortably held his own amongst some highly skilled analysts and operators. His Royal Highness asked some probing questions and demonstrated a real grasp of our mission," the head of counter-terrorism operations at GCHQ, an anonymous post, said in a statement. William, the Duke of Cambridge, undertook his workplace attachments last month and concluded his mission on Saturday. "Spending time inside our security and intelligence agencies, understanding more about the vital contribution they make to our national security, was a truly humbling experience," he said. Staff at the security and intelligence agencies "work in secret, often not even able to tell their family and friends about the work they do or the stresses they face", he said, adding that the country owes them deep gratitude for the difficult and dangerous work they do. According to Kensington Palace, William learned about risks to the UK's national security and economy and also observed counter-terrorism teams analysing intelligence and carrying out investigations. During his visit to MI6 the home of fictional spy James Bond William also learnt about the agency's secret overseas missions and how its officers nurture foreign contacts and feed back intelligence to the UK. He would have attended security briefings with senior officials to discuss the prioritisation of the most serious terrorism threats. The prince, a former Royal Air Force pilot, had given up his flying career with East Anglian Air Ambulance in 2017 to take on full-time royal duties. His attachment comes after his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, celebrated GCHQ's centenary earlier this year with a visit to its former top secret base, Watergate House in London. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More live demonstrations of machinery and technology will be available to potential buyers than in previous editions at the Gulf Print & Pack 2019, to be held in Dubai, with the introduction of the new Innovation Trail led by leading manufacturers. Gulf Print & Pack 2019, the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) regions leading trade show for the commercial and package printing sector, will take place from April 15 to 18, at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Visitors will be able to experience live demonstrations over the entire four days of the show, said a statement from the organisers. Canon, HP, Konica Minolta, Phoenix Technologies, Ricoh and Xerox are among the exhibitors taking part, it said. Technology being showcased includes: a central reprographic department from Canon, designed to present an entire printing solution in one place; two hardware solutions from HP; workflow and color management software from Xerox, including their Iridesse Production Press; and digital printing solutions from Konica Minolta including the MGI JETVarnish 3DS machine and AccurioLabel 190 label printer. The show is the only platform in the region that brings all these leading manufacturers and more together under one roof. Lisa Milburn, managing director, Gulf Print & Pack 2019, commented: Innovation is the golden thread running through this years show, and we are delighted to be able to offer even more live technology demonstrations for potential print buyers than before, and build real momentum in the industry. This, coupled with the fact that around half of exhibitors are coming from outside the Mena region, is proof that it continues to be an essential destination for the commercial printing industry to invest in. We are looking forward to meeting with exhibitors and visitors at the event in April, she added. Chris Lynch, head of MEA Production at Xerox, said: We believe the Middle East plays a significant role when it comes to digital transformation and developing innovating technologies. Being part of the Innovation Trail will allow us to showcase the latest digital solutions and services which help add value to print, reduce costs, improve productivity or automate many of the processes involved in print operations. This is a great way to connect further with the market and to have open and honest conversations with customers about how suppliers can help overcome their challenges, and provide new and innovative solutions to help grow their businesses, he added. Mark Ward, large format manager for Middle East and Saudi Arabia, HP Inc, added: The show gives us a welcome opportunity to open a dialog with customers from across the region and to get a better understanding of their specific needs, while demonstrating our existing solutions that best fit their needs. Shadi Bakhour, B2B business unit director, Canon Middle East, said: The objective of this display is to educate customers about the value of having a complete printing solution at the organisation. We hope that by walking through the process, customers will be encouraged to take strides towards unlocking their full printing potential, Bakhour added. Also being introduced at the show is a new Print Decor Lounge area, where visitors will be able to experience the diverse possibilities of printing. Everything will be printed, from textiles, furniture, wallpaper, to non-slip flooring using technology such as web-to-print. Exhibitors taking part include NDigitech, who will be showcasing their innovative Dubaiprint.com e-commerce printing platform, Multisystem Technology and Heliozid. Displaying the newest in multi-substrate presses, wide and narrow format digital presses, laser die-cutting, smart labels/packaging, and software, Gulf Print & Pack 2019 is aimed at printers, service providers, brand owners and designers, it stated. TradeArabia News Service The Maharashtra Kranti Sena (MKS), a recently formed pro-Maratha political outfit, on Sunday joined the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. MKS founder president Suresh Patil was one of the leaders who earlier spearheaded the agitation to seek reservation for the Maratha community in government jobs and education. The party, which recently named 15 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, will now withdraw its nominees in support of the saffron alliance, Patil told reporters here. Nine candidates who earlier filed their nominations on MKS ticket will withdraw from the race, while the remaining will not file their papers, he said. Patil, who had also filed his nomination from Hathkanangale seat, said he was joining the BJP-Sena alliance as a partner and that his support was "unconditional". "The welfare and development of the Maratha community is my priority. The Congress and NCP betrayed the Marathas. The current state government led by Devendra Fadnavis worked hard for the welfare of the community," he said. State education minister Vinod Tawde, who was also present at the press conference, said the government granted 16 per cent reservation to Marathas last year not for votes but for the community's betterment. "If we want only votes then the reservation wouldn't stand legal scrutiny. Till now, the Bombay High Court has not stayed the reservation," he said. Transport ministerDiwakar Raote said Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was committed to the welfare of Marathas. Raote and Tawde gave letters of assurance to Patil on behalf of Thackeray and Fadnavis, respectively, about their commitment towards welfare of the Maratha community. On November 29 last year, the Maharashtra legislature passed a bill granting 16 per cent reservation in education and government jobs for the Maratha community under the socially and educationally backward category (SEBC). This 16 per cent quota will be in addition to the existing 52 per cent reservation for other groups, taking the total percentage in the state to 68 per cent. Lok Sabha elections to 48 seats in the state will be held in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29, and the results will be declared on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hundreds of anti-discrimination demonstrators massed on Saturday outside the Brunei-owned luxury Dorchester Hotel in over the southeast Asian country's adoption of harsh new laws, including the death penalty for gay sex. Led by human rights activist Peter Tatchell, several hundred people gathered outside the hotel, many armed with rainbow flags, placards and banners calling for homophobia to be stamped out. A tough penal code in the tiny country on tropical Borneo island -- ruled by the all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah -- came fully into force last Wednesday after several years of delay. It has sparked a storm of global criticism from politicians, celebrities and rights groups, with actor and pop star calling for Brunei-owned hotels to be boycotted. "It's a good way... to make it clear that they don't support the actions of the Sultan of Brunei," said protester Matthew Robins, 38, a solicitor, of the boycott call. Tatchell told the crowd if Brunei failed to revoke the laws, the British government -- which has a military garrison there -- should sever ties with its former protectorate. "If the Sultan will not listen to reason and compassion we believe the British government should sever all diplomatic, economic and military ties with the regime," he said. Britain's government has described the new laws, which also include the amputation of hands and feet for thieves, as "a backward step" for Brunei. However, it has resisted calls for a stronger response over the penal code, including for the Commonwealth -- a bloc of former British colonies -- to consider expelling Brunei. Mark Fields, a junior foreign minister, on Thursday told the House of Commons: "Rather than making threats... a more positive way is to try to hold them close, recognise that there are very some strong connections there." Elsewhere, pressure has continued to build on Brunei. The University of Oxford said Saturday it would reconsider its decision to award an honorary degree to the Sultan. It added it shared the " revulsion" of the laws and that the decision to confer the honorary degree to Bolkiah in 1993 would be reconsidered through its "established process". Meanwhile on Thursday said it had removed the Brunei-owned Dorchester Collection group from the list of hotels its employees use. The Collection said in a statement it was "deeply saddened" by the protests against the group. "We understand people's anger and frustration but this is a political and religious issue that we don't believe should be played out in our hotels and amongst our 3,630 employees," it added. Makkal Needhi Maiam Chief Kamal Haasan Sunday urged the Tamil Nadu government to take stringent measures to prevent attacks on women, saying such incidents only caused outrage among the public. Referring to the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl in the district recently, Hassan told reporters here that protection to women was found to be reducing and continuous incidents of 'sexual assaults' aroused anger. The government should take stringent steps to prevent such attacks and allow the police department to function freely, he said. To a question on pre poll surveys, Hassan quipped that when each and every political party owned a television channel, the survey would favour them. He claimed that his party found a place in every genuine survey. MNM leader reiterated that his party would ask its candidates to step down if they were not functioning satisfcatorily. The actor-turned politician was here to campaign for the party candidates contesting from Coimbatore and Pollachi constituencies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi Sunday again challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a debate on the issue of corruption. Gandhi shared a clip of Modi's interview to a TV channel on Twitter in which the prime minister is seen asking the reporter if she believed the Supreme Court verdict on Rafale fighter jet deal with France. "You can run Mr Modi but you can't hide. Your karma is about to catch up with you. The country can hear it in your voice," Gandhi tweeted. "Truth is a powerful thing. I challenge you to a debate on corruption," he said. Gandhi had first challenged Modi for a debate on national security, corruption and foreign policy on April 2 while addressing a gathering at Congress's manifesto release event at the party headquarters here. The opposition party has repeatedly criticised the new Rafale deal signed by the Modi government, claiming it is costlier than the one negotiated by the UPA and there is corruption involved. The Congress has also accused Modi of helping businessman Anil Ambani make a profit of Rs 30,000 crore by favouring him as the offset partner in the deal. The government has denied any wrongdoing in the fighter jet agreement. Ambani has also strongly rejected all allegations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CPI Sunday said Congress president Rahul Gandhi's contest in Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala against the party candidate was a "wrong decision" and denied any match fixing between Congress and the Left parties. "It is a wrong decision by Gandhi. It has sent a wrong signal among the people about the intention when both the Left parties and Congress were fighting against the BJP," CPI General secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told reporters here. He replied in the negative to a question whether there was any understanding between the CPI-M and Congress in Wayanad. "It is not correct. There is no match fixing by CPIM or other Left parties," Reddy said. The ruling LDF in Kerala has fielded CPI's P P Suneer in Wayanad while the BJP-led NDA named Thushar Vellappally, president of Bharath Dharma Jana Sena, for the seat. Top leaders of both the CPIM and CPI have criticised the Congress move. Gandhi, who filed his nomination last week, has, however, said he would not speak against the Left during his campaign though he understood CPI(M) has to attack him. On the Kashmir issue, Reddy said it had been proved in the past 70 years that "no bullets and army can solve" it. The issue should be solved only through discussion, he added. The CPI leader, who is here to campaign for the DMK-led Secular Progress Alliance candidates in the Lok Sabha elections, claimed BJP would lose and not gain much in southern states. In the last two years, BJP had faced defeats in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, he said adding the Left parties were trying to forge a post-poll alliance of anti-BJP opposition parties for forming the next government at the Centre. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four months ago, when Kaushalya Devi needed a surgery on her leg, the 83-year-old had to be carried on a cot to the motorable road outside the village and then transferred to an ambulance. For over five-six decades, the residents of the Lahru Tika village in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district have been using the 200-metre-long stretch, about three feet wide, of an adjoining village to reach the motorable road. The footpath is too narrow for four-wheelers -- and sometimes it takes toll. Kaushalya Devi is doing well now after the surgery, but Subedar Bishamber Dass (retd) was not so fortunate The 300-odd residents of Lahru Tika have been pressing their demand of a proper road for over two decades now, but in vain, Kaushalya's nephew Vipin Kumar claimed. Fed up with the neglect and the apathy of the authorities, the villagers have now decided to make it an election issue and have threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha polls. Banners calling for boycott of the parliamentary elections have come up in and around the village. "Road nahin tau vote nahin (No vote, without Road)," one of them reads. Located some 35 km west of district headquarters Dharamsala and about 180 km from state capital Shimla, Lahru Tika falls under the Sullah assembly segment of the Kangra parliamentary seat. The villagers also met Kangra BJP candidate Kishan Kapoor,who is the state Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs minister, and Sullah MLA Vipin Singh Parmar, the state Health minister, when they were passing through the main road near Lahru Tika on April 2 along with their supporters. They even raised "Road nahi tau vote Nahi" and "Road dau, vote lau (Construct road, get votes)" slogans at them. Kaushalya Devi is doing well now after the surgery, Kumar told PTI. Subedar Bishamber Dass (retd) was, however, not so fortunate. He was paralysed and needed to be taken to the hospital frequently for treatment. This perilous routine took a toll on his health and he passed away several months ago. The villagers have been using the narrow path, passing through a private land of the adjoining Matehar village to reach the motorable road, Kumar said. "So, we demand that the government persuade private landowners to give some of their land in public interest to construct a six-foot-wide road. If they do not provide land on their own, the government should acquire three feet more land to construct the road," he added. Backing the demand, Naura Zila Parishad member Thakar Singh said,"The patients of Lahru Tika village face a lot of problems. Their demand is genuine and a proper road should be constructed to connect this village to the main road." "(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi talks of digital India but how can we achieve a digital India without even proper roads connecting a village, that too in the 21st century," Kumar asks. When contacted by PTI, MLA Parmar said,"The villagers reiterated their decision of boycotting the elections when we were passing through the village as part of our canvassing." "Actually, the government has no land to construct the road. The private landowners are not providing their land. I told the villagers that you persuade the owners to provide their land. We will also try to persuade them," he added. The villagers are ready to reconsider their if political parties give them a written assurance to build the road and a written promise by land-owners to provide the land, Kumar asserted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The security and operations of the strategic Hambantota port are totally under the Sri Lankan government's control, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said, allaying fears that the Chinese investment in the island nation could cause concerns for countries like India. Sri Lanka in 2017 reached a long-term lease agreement with China to set up an industrial park at Hambantota and convert Colombo's high commercial debt with Beijing into equity, triggering concerns in New Delhi over Beijing's efforts to expand influence in the region. Addressing the two-day long Third Asia Europe Political Forum here, Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka maintains friendly relations with all countries and is well aware of the current global trends. "India is our partner from our history. We share same civilisation with Pakistan and Bangladesh.We joined Japan at the San Francisco Conference. Despite the opposition from the United States, Sri Lanka recognised People's Republic of China and first signed a trade agreement. We will maintain this situation.We do not get caught up in someone's competition," he was quoted as saying by the Colombo Page. "Many people consider that the Hambantota port as a Chinese military base. I accept that there will be a military camp. But it is a Sri Lanka Navy camp. Once installed, a Sri Lankan Rear Admiral will be in control. Any ship from any country can come there. But we control the operations," he added. Wickremesinghe said that it was important for the island nation that there is no military conflict in the Indian Ocean. "What is important to us is that there is no military conflict in the Indian Ocean. There is only one military base there that is of the Sri Lanka Navy, he said. Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka has control over the strategic Hambantota port. Any ship can come but it is us who control entry and access, he stressed. He said that for the Hambantota airport the Sri Lankan cabinet has approved a joint-venture between the Sri Lanka Airport Authority and the Indian Aviation Authority. India is working in the hill country and in the North and East while Japan has joined to develop the central district of Kandy. Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka could only develop if it maintained its friendly relations across the region. India has been our historical partner. We have excellent relations with Japan and we were one of the first countries to recognise China, he said. Japan and India are working together on the Asia Pacific growth corridor and India itself is focusing towards the region with their look West, Act East and neighbourhood policy, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy Sunday said a section of people wanted to "finish him off politically" by defeating his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy in the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency. Reflecting the widening cracks in the ruling coalition, Kumaraswamy said he was relying "only on the JD(S) MLAs, MLCs and the sitting member of parliament L R Shivarame Gowda (in Mandya)." Speaking to reporters in Udupi, the Chief Minister said he did not depend on the alliance partner, Congress in Mandya. "Some Congress leaders are working and some are not working (in Mandya), but I am not upset with that. There is a section out to finish me off by defeating Nikhil Kumaraswamy. However, they don't have the support of the local people there," Kumaraswamy alleged. He was responsing to a query about the squabbling among coalition partners--JDS and Congress. "I have eight MLAs (in Mandya Lok Sabha constituency), three MLCs and the sitting Lok Sabha member (L R Shivarame Gowda) are there.. They will work.. I won't blame anybody." Noting that the situation was 'adverse' for JDS in Mandya while there was reported discord among coalition partners in Tumakuru and Hassan also, he however said, "We will not let down the candidates of our alliance partner."Three days ago, the JD(S) workers had openly rebelled against the Congress candidate for Mysore constituency, C H Vijayashankar and shouted pro-BJP slogans in the presence of Higher Education Minister and JD(S) MLA G T Deve Gowda. The outburst was against the 'hostility' of Congress in Mandya and Hassan, the two constituencies where former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's grandsons Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Prajwal Revanna are contesting the Lok Sabha election. Reacting to film actress Sumalatha Ambareesh's accusation that the JD(S) was playing 'mischief' in Mandya, the chief minister retorted it was she who has been running a negative campaign. He also refuted her charge that the JD(S) fielded her three namesakes. "How can I stop anyone from contesting election? Kuaraswamy contended. Sumalatha, the widow of popular Kannada actor and former MP from Mandya Ambareesh, is giving a tough time to Nikhil with the support of BJP and some disgruntled Congress and JD(S) leaders. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Central Association of Private Security Industry (CAPSI) has tied up with the Quality Council of India for certification and rating of private security agencies, with an aim to enhance employability scope of security guards and also their credibility in the eyes of those employing them. Interestingly, this comes at a time when private security guards or watchmen have become talk of the nation as the term "chowkidar" has been popularised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' campaign ahead of elections. CAPSI, an apex body of security guards, joined hands with the council last month for certification and rating programme for the private security agencies. Christened as Security Agencies Rating Scheme (SARS), the unique process of standardisation will help the agencies enhance their credibility and consequently their business. While CAPSI and the Quality Council of India (QCI) will be the joint scheme owners, the governing structure of the scheme shall be under a multi-stakeholder steering committee (MSC). The MSC is supported by a technical committee and a certification committee constituted by CAPSI and the QCI. As per a specified procedure, a consensus based technical criteria has been formulated for the private security agencies that would be evaluated by a competent third party certification bodies. These bodies are accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB), which is part of the international system of equivalence of accreditation and certifications, in accordance with appropriate international standards. The private security industry, comprising over 85 lakh guards, is one of the largest employment generating sectors of the country. There are over 22,000 private security agencies which employ these guards. Operating in the private security environment, the majority of private security agencies fall in the ambit of MSME enterprises. "So far there were no parameters laid down wherein private security agencies can be evaluated based on certain professionally accepted criteria. This factor acted as an impediment for the principal employers while they are in the process of identifying the most suitable private security agency to be entrusted the task of providing security to their establishment. But now with the QCI certification this anomaly has been taken care" CAPSI Chairman Kunwar Vikram Singh told PTI. Stating that CAPSI has complied with all statutory requirements, Singh said this scheme has already been approved by the commerce and industry ministry. "We have roped in top bureaucrats like former Maharashtra Director General of Police and Mumbai Police Commissioner M N Roy as appointee chairman of the standing committee in which high ranking bureaucrats from ministries of home affairs, MSME and commerce are also members. This will make star rating process more stringent and transparent," he added. The guards deployed by private security agencies are mandatorily governed under the Private Security Agencies Regulation Act, 2005 (PSARA) and are monitored by the respective controlling authorities of the states which grant them licenses for operating in the state based on the parameters laid down in the law. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South Africa has downgraded its embassy in Tel Aviv, the foreign minister said Sunday, following a decision taken by the ruling party more than a year ago. Foreign Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told journalists in Johannesburg that the plans to downgrade the embassy in Israel were well underway. "We will not be putting up a nomination for a representative at the level of an ambassador in Israel," Sisulu said. "The office will remain at the level of a liaison and that is how it will operate," she added. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) resolved to downgrade the South African Embassy in Israel to liaison office level 16 months ago. The party of the late president Nelson Mandela has in the past voiced its solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, which many South Africans see as similar to the struggle against white minority rule in South Africa which was ended in 1994. Last May South Africa recalled its ambassador to Israel after at least 52 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli forces during protests over the United Sates moving its embassy to Jerusalem. Addressing delegates at the South African Institute of International Affairs on Wednesday, Sisulu said the liaison office in Tel Aviv "will have no political mandate, no trade mandate and no development cooperation mandate. It will not be responsible for trade and commercial activities". She added that the office would focus on consular and "people-to-people relations". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dubai-based publisher and events organiser, The Maritime Standard, has officially launched the Maritime Standard Awards 2019. The company has confirmed they will be held at The Atlantis, the Palm Dubai, on October 21. This is the sixth time in a row that this famous venue has been chosen to stage the awards, reflecting the high calibre and quality of the event, said a statement. The TMS Awards, widely accepted as being the leading event of its kind in the region, is an occasion which aims to recognise and reward exceptional performance and achievement within the maritime industry. Trevor Pereira, managing director, said: I am really looking forward to this years awards and delighted to be returning to the Atlantis. It is always a joyous, celebratory occasion and I am sure October 21 this year will be no different. The awards are attended by a Whos Who of the regional shipping, ports and related sectors. Around 750 senior executives and decision makers will once again gather for one night under one roof, creating unrivalled opportunities for networking with genuine decision makers. The evening will witness the presentation of around 28 different awards, covering different aspects of the maritime industry. The Maritime Standard will be seeking nominations for these awards over the next few months. The Maritime Standard Awards have since their inception been held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and chairman Emirates Airline and Group. Clive Woodbridge, editor of The Maritime Standard, said: A highly qualified independent judging panel ensures that only the best of the best are shortlisted and that the eventual winners are fully deserving of the accolade. As a result, the awards are uniquely placed to recognise excellence and consistently high levels of performance in the ports, shipping, and related sectors, he added. The 2018 Awards were hosted by the well-known BBC journalist Tim Wilcox, and this year another significant personality is being lined up to act as master of ceremonies. This individual will follow in the impressive footsteps of the likes of Ruud Gullit, Alistair Campbell, Jim Clancy, and Lara Dutta, who have fulfilled this role in previous years, it stated. TradeArabia News Service Winning the Lok Sabha or assembly polls in Sikkim has eluded the national parties for the past four decades since the state came into being. It has been the regional parties - Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP) of Nar Bahadur Bhandari and Sikkim Democratic Front(SDF) of Pawan Kumar Chamling which have won the lone Lok Sabha seat and the state assembly since 1979. In an exception, in the first Lok Sabha polls held in Sikkim in 1977, two years after its merger with India, the Congress had won unopposed to the Parliament. In respect to the assembly polls it has tasted limited success so far. The party had won an assembly seat in 1984, two in 1994 and a lone one in 2004. The BJP is yet to open its account in the 32-member assembly of the Himalayan state. The fortunes of parties like the CPI, CPI-M, Trinamool Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), who have contested in Sikkim at various times, have been equally disappointing so far with more than 60 per cent candidates of all national parties forfeiting their deposits since 1979. Asked, a BJP senior leader said that strong regional sentiments among the people, who feel more comfortable with local leaders has led to the complete rout of the national parties in the polls in the state. "The regional parties like the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front have milked the vulnerabilities of the local people to their advantage by telling them that if the national parties come to power in the state they will abrogate Article 371(F), which protects their rights and provides special provisions for Sikkim," he said. "We have been unsuccessful so far in convincing that we will safeguard their rights," the BJP leader said, adding, it would require more interaction between the party's leadership and the people for any headway in the electoral of Sikkim. This time the party is repeating its foray in the state assembly polls despite the previous debacles and has put up candidates in 12 seats as well as in the lone Lok Sabha seat. The Sikkim National Peoples Party (SNPP) president Delay Barfungpa confirms the analysis of the BJP leader. "We cannot trust the national parties to protect Article 371F," Barfungpa said. The Sikkim PCC president Bharat Basnett felt that the national parties have not given enough importance to Sikkim because it has "just one Lok Sabha seat". "It is the national parties' indifference towards Sikkim, its people and issues which have prevented them from making inroads in the state's politics," he said. Basnett, who is the party's candidate for the lone Lok Sabha seat this time, said Congress had done important things for Sikkim like granting special status to it under Article 371F and inclusion of Nepalese language under eighth schedule of Constitution. "Yet the Sikkimese people have not reposed confidence in the Congress, elections after elections, for decades," he said. He also blamed the regional ruling parties for creating a fear psychosis among the people against the national parties saying they will snatch the special status if allowed to rule Sikkim. The SDF spokesperson Bhim Dahal, agrees that the Sikkimese people are not comfortable with the national parties when it comes to voting for them in elections. "The national parties like the Congress and BJP have paid only lip service to the aspirations of Sikkim while ruling at the Centre ... The tendency of the central government to sit on important demands of the Sikkimese people for decades have led to strong undercurrent against them among the local people," he said. Dahal, a former Lok Sabha MP, cited the issue of delay in reservation of assembly seats for the Limboo and Tamang communities as an example of the national parties' apathy towards Sikkim. As long as the national parties continue to remain indifferent towards Sikkim it is unlikely that the Sikkimese people will trust them, he added. The SSP had been in power in the state since 1979 to 1994, while the ruling SDF under Pawan Kumar Chamling has held the tight reins of the state since 1994. Chamling is the longest-serving chief minister of the Himalayan state and is looking forward to return to power for the sixth consecutive term. Polling for the 32-member assembly and the lone Lok Sabha seat will be held on April 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath Sunday said described the Telugu Desam Party and the Congress as dynastic parties where only family members can become leaders unlike the BJP where any common man can rise to the top. Addressing an election rally at Sri Kalahasti, 40 kms from here, in support of the BJP in the April 11 Lok Sabha elections, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi alone can provide good governance and take the nation to further heights. In the TDP and the Congress, only family members can rule, but in the BJP common man can also scale the peak, he said. He pointed to Modi, vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu and BJP president Amit Shah who have risen to their present positions from a common man background, he added. Andhra Pradesh is going to polls for 175 assembly and 25 lok sabha seats on April 11 with a multi-cornered contest involving the ruling TDP, YSRCP of YS Jaganmohan Reddy, Jana Sena of Pawan Kalyan, the Congress and the BJP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) RLD chief Ajit Singh took a swipe at the BJP's "achche din" promise on Sunday, saying the good days were not meant for the people of the country but for Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Addressing a rally here, which witnessed the top leadership of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance coming on one platform to kick-off the joint campaign of the "mahagathbandhan" for the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls slated for April 11, Singh said, "What has PM Modi done in five years? He was not talking about your achche din, but his own achche din." Elated over the massive turnout at the rally, Singh, a prominent Jat leader from the area, said it was an indication that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was going to be wiped out in the coming polls. "The BJP will not just be defeated but will be wiped out," he said, adding that the Constitution had given the right to the people of the country to evaluate the performance of a government and, if not satisfied, change it in five years. "The coming election will decide the future of democracy...four Supreme Court judges, for the first time in 70 years, said democracy was facing a threat in the country.... Modi sahab has paralysed all constitutional agencies. Today, the CBI and the ED are being used to harass political opponents," the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief said. Alleging that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was not consulted during demonetisation and the employment-related report of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) was kept under the wraps, he said, "If Modi wins, then as (BJP chief) Amit Shah says, he will be in power for the next 50 years and as (BJP MP) Sakshi Maharaj says, this would be the last election. "If the power of voting given by (BR) Ambedkar is taken away, then there will be no one to listen to you." On Modi, the former Union minister said in his "Mann ki Baat" radio programme, the prime minister said he was a "fakir" (a religious ascetic who lives on alms), who would leave with his bag one day. "Oh god, let us all be fakir like him...we will wear new suits and tour the entire world and when we fail to fulfil our responsibilities, we will say bye bye, I am a fakir...will you keep such a government or kick it out?," he asked the gathering. The veteran leader assured the farmers that the Swaminathan Commission report would be implemented, 150 per cent of the production cost would be given to them and cane prices would be cleared in 14 days after a new government came to power. "At Baghpat, Modi said the cane price would be Rs 400 per quintal...During the days of (former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers) Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav, the rates were revised, but not a single paise was increased by the Yogi (Adityanath) government," Singh, who is also the candidate from Muzaffarnagar in the upcoming polls, said. He alleged that the government was not taking any action on the sugar mill owners even though the courts had directed them to clear the farmers' dues, while stressing that the economy of western Uttar Pradesh was based on cane. Singh also recalled his works in the interest of the cane growers of the area. "Everyone knows that the BJP is anti-farmers and that it never won in the villages...it has come to power only because of riots and there is no other reason for it...people in the villages say Modi and Yogi are grazing our crops," he said, referring to the stray cattle menace in the villages. The RLD chief, who wants to carry forward the legacy of his father late Chaudhary Charan Singh -- a former prime minister who was regarded as a farmers' leader -- said lathis were used on farmers when they marched to Delhi and no BJP MP stood by them, while asserting that farmers would not pardon the saffron party. He also alleged that the BJP had come to power in 2014 because of riots as it had no presence in the western parts of Uttar Pradesh. Claiming that the rate of unemployment had increased under the Modi government, Singh said "Modi asks the youth to make pakodas...when pakodas are eaten, someone will make them, what is the government's contribution in it." Pointing out that Modi had promised to put Rs 15 lakh in the bank accounts of all the citizens after coming to power in 2014, the RLD chief said, "He never speaks the truth. His parents have not advised him to speak the truth." On the BJP government's promise of giving Rs 2,000 to farmers, he said farmers did not need alms but the right remuneration for their produce. "Modi is the prime minister of the BJP and he cannot be the PM of all," Singh said. This was the first joint election meeting of the "mahagathbandhan" in western Uttar Pradesh, parts of which go to the polls in the first phase on April 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three people died and more than 30 injured in a twin suicide blast in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, militia sources and residents said Sunday. Two female bombers late Saturday detonated their explosives among a crowd in Muna Dalti on the outskirts of the city, the birthplace of the Boko Haram jihadist group. "They came around 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) and detonated their suicide vests," Umar Ari, a local militia leader told AFP. "They killed three people and seriously injured 33 others," said Ari, who was involved in the evacuation of victims. Residents gathered Sunday morning for the funeral of the three victims. The scene of the bombings, a popular night time venue for residents, has been repeatedly targeted by Boko Haram suicide attacks, said resident Gremah Umar. The area houses a sprawling camp for thousands of people displaced by Boko Haram violence. The attacks there were largely blamed on the Boko Haram faction loyal to longtime leader Abubakar Shekau, notorious for suicide attacks on civilian targets including schools, mosques and motor parks. Another faction affiliated to the Islamic State focuses on attacks against military targets. Boko Haram's decade-long violence has killed 27,000 people in the northeast abd displaced another 1.8 million from their homes, creating a dire humanitarian crisis. The conflict has spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military response to combat the jihadist group. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hollywood star Will Smith says his trip to India awakened a new understanding of himself and the world around him. The actor, who visited Haridwar to shoot for his Facebook Watch show "Will Smith's Bucket List", took to Instagram Saturday to share the pictures of the experience. "My Grandmother used to say, 'God Teaches through Experience'. "Travelling to India and experiencing the colours, people and natural beauty has awakened a new understanding of myself, my art and the truths of the world," Smith captioned the series of photographs and a video, including that of the Ganga aarti. For a previous episode, titled "Will Smith's Bucketlist: Bollywood Dancing", Smith shot a Bollywood dance sequence, which he said, was a dream come true for him. In his latest India tour, the actor also roamed around in an autorickshaw across the busy streets of Mumbai and got some dance lessons from actor Ranveer Singh and filmmaker Karan Johar. Smith's dance sequence will also feature in Johar's upcoming production "Student of the Year 2". This was not the Hollywood star's first visit to the country. In 2017, Smith had come to Mumbai for the promotion of Netflix film "Bright". He also visited New Delhi for a conclave. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Once a pocket borough of the Congress, Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency, with its seven assembly segments, is poised for a triangular contest in the upcoming polls. While the Congress seems to be struggling to regain its lost glory, the ruling BJD is leaving no stone unturned to score a hat-trick in the seat in south Odisha. The BJP, which had demolished the four-decade-long Congress dominance in the seat in 1999 riding on the Kargil euphoria and its alliance with Biju Janata Dal (BJD), is going all out to stage a comeback in the constituency, fuelled by the much-hyped Balakot air strike. Election in the constituency is slated to be held on April 11. The state is going to simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. The electoral history of Berhampur shows that the Congress never suffered a poll debacle here before 1999. The grand old party had even waded through the anti-emergency wave in 1977 and emerged a winner in the constituency. As it turned out to be a safe seat for the party, former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao had not just contested and bagged the seat in 1996, but also retained it, leaving his home turf Nandiyal. Propelled by its alliance with the BJD and the Kargil victory wave, the BJP snatched this south Odisha seat from the Congress in 1999. The grand old party, which bounced back and registered a victory in 2004 elections, was pushed to the background twice again in 2009 and 2014, with cinestar and BJD candidate Siddhanta Mahapatra winning two consecutive Lok Sabha polls from the seat. Though the Naveen-Patnaik-led party bagged the seat in 2014, overcoming the Narendra Modi wave that swept the country, BJP candidate Rama Chandra Panda polled more votes than the party's assembly nominees in six of the seven segments in Berhampur. The ruling BJD's vote share had nosedived in 2014 as compared to 2009 despite its impressive performance in some assembly segments. The vote share of the BJP also increased remarkably in several assembly seats. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJD candidate polled 43.97 per cent votes, while the Congress nominee bagged 39.86 per cent votes, followed by the BJP candidate with 17.34 per cent votes. Alarmed at this disturbing trend, the Naveen Patnaik- led party sought to take precautions to secure its vote bank. It received a shot in the arm with the induction of Congress heavyweight and former Union minister Chandra Sekhar Sahu and others into the regional party. While the BJD has fielded Sahu from the Lok Sabha constituency this time, replacing Mahapatra, the BJP nominated its state unit general secretary Bhrugu Baxipatra. The Congress, on its part, fielded V Chandrasekhar Naidu, a greenhorn. Exuding confidence that he will win the seat, Sahu said the clean image and charisma of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and development programmes undertaken by the BJD government will work in his favour. Baxipatra, on the other hand, contended that the achievements of the BJP-led government at the Centre will ensure his victory in the polls. "I have been visiting the voters at their homes to tell them about the failures of the BJD government in bringing about development in the state," he said. Congress nominee Naidu, a newcomer, claimed that he is banking on the traditional vote bank in the constituency. "The anti-incumbency factor against the BJD as well as the BJP will give the Congress a fillip in Berhampur," he said. According to poll analysts, the current state-of- affairs indicate that the ruling BJD appears to have an edge in the seat, even as the BJP is making all efforts to bolster its poll prospects. The assembly segments under Berhampur Lok sabha seat are likely to witness straight fight between BJD and BJP, with some seats bracing for a neck-and-neck fight, they said. The Digapahandi assembly seat is all set to witness an interesting contest marked by glamour and glitz, with the saffron party fielding actor Pinky Pradhan to take on BJD stalwart and state minister S N Patro, the analysts said. The BJD also appears to be well-placed in assembly segments of Gopalpur, Chikiti, and Paralakhemundi, they said. The party has fielded state minister and erstwhile royal family member Usha Devi from Chikiti seat and heavyweight Pradeep Panigrahi from Gopalpur. Similarly, Kalyani Devi, a member of the former princely state, is in the race as BJD nominee from Paralakhemundi. Her father Gopinath Gajapati was elected to Lok Sabha twice from Berhampur in 1989 and 1991 as a Congress candidate. Over the next two days, the high-voltage campaign in the constituency is expected to reach a crescendo, with top guns of political parties making large-ditch efforts to woo the voters here. While BJP president Amit Shah visited the constituency last week, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to address an election rally in Digaphandi on April 9. BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik, who kicked off his party's poll campaign in the constituency, is likely to hold road-show and public meetings at Paralakhemundi and Mohana in Gajapati district of the constituency during the second leg of his campaign. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A British man poisoned along with his partner with a nerve agent, amid an assassination attempt on a Russian ex-spy in England blamed on Moscow, met its top UK envoy on Saturday, according to reports. Charlie Rowley, 45, whose partner Dawn Sturgess died after exposure to the toxin, held a 90-minute meeting with Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko at Russia's embassy in London, Britain's Sunday Mirror said. "I went along to ask them 'why did your country kill my girlfriend?'" he told the tabloid newspaper. "But I didn't really get any answers. I just got Russian propaganda," Rowley added, saying Yakovenko's explanations of Russian innocence in the plot were "ridiculous". Rowley and Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three children, who lived near the southwestern English city of Salisbury, fell ill on June 30 last year. Authorities determined they had been exposed to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the latter days of the Cold War. The poison was contained in a perfume bottle that Rowley had found in Salisbury and given to Sturgess. She died eight days later but after two weeks in an induced coma, he was discharged from hospital. It followed former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia being left in critical condition after they were targeted with Novichok in Salisbury three months earlier. The pair survived and have made full recoveries, according to British authorities. Western allies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being ultimately responsible for the poisoning, which sparked dozens of diplomatic expulsions by both sides. British prosecutors in September issued arrest warrants for two alleged officers of Russia's military intelligence service, known as the GRU. But the Kremlin has repeatedly denounced the accusations as "unacceptable." "The ambassador kept saying the substance definitely wasn't the novichok they had made because if it was it would have killed everyone," Rowley told the Mirror. "He (Yakovenko) kept on saying the British won't talk to him so he can't tell us anything that he hasn't read in the media, so he can only give his view." A Russian TV station also reported Saturday's meeting, saying Rowley was eager for answers that Britain had failed to provide. Yakovenko gave him a book on the "unanswered questions" concerning the events in Salisbury and a tour of Russia's grand west London embassy on one of its most exclusive streets, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Opposition grand-alliance in Uttar Pradesh Sunday organised its first joint rally, where its leaders not only slammed the BJP, which they claimed will be defeated in the Lok Sabha polls, but also castigated the Congress, saying it does not want the grouping to win and will only divide votes. In a grand show of strength of the anti-BJP coalition in the religiously sensitive town in Saharanpur district, which goes to polls in the first phase on April 11, BSP supremo Mayawati, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh addressed the rally, and announced only their alliance can challenge the BJP. "The Congress is not strong enough to give a tough fight to the BJP. Only the grand-alliance can,"said Mayawati, who addressed the rally first. "The Congress too has this realisation. But they think whether we win or not, alliance should not win. They have given tickets on caste and religious calculations to help the BJP," she claimed. Mayawati said the Congress was busy dividing the votes and cautioned the gathering to guard against any such attempt. "In western UP, where people of all communities live...in Saharanpur, Bareilly, where there is a huge Muslim population...I want to tell the Muslim community...don't divide your votes...give it to the BSP, SP and RLD alliance," she told the rally at the Jamia Tibitiya Medical College ground here. The venue wore a festive look with workers of the alliance partners carrying party flags in myriad hues. The BSP chief also said the BJP will advertise its "hawa-hawai (lofty)" schemes till the poll results are announced, wasting thousands of crores of money which could be used for the welfare of the poor. "If the PM (Narendra Modi) was serious about welfare of the poor, they would not have been inaugurating schemes after polls were announced. They would have performed during their five years. In the last budget...whatever announcements were made by the government were nothing but empty poll promises," she said. "Now that the BJP is panicking, you should know they are on their way out...and grand alliance will come to power," she said. She was equally critical of the Congress' Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY), under which the party promise a minimum guaranteed income to the poor. "The Congress too has been making tall claims, haven't they been given enough chances for decades? The Nyay scheme is not a stable solution for removing poverty, the BSP believes giving jobs to every hand is," she said. Muslim vote is expected to be one of the deciding factors this election, especially in western UP. Deoband is a town in Saharanpur where the Darool Ulum, one of the biggest learning centres of the Muslims, is located. The Dalit leader also flayed the BJP government for "misusing" probe agencies. "Even people from backward communities are suffering. The divisive thought process is hurting these communities. These communities are not benefiting from the reservation. They are being exploited. Minorities are also suffering," she said. "Removing Modi is not enough, (UP CM) Yogi (Adityanath) also needs to be shown the door." On corruption, she bracketed the Congress and the BJP together. "The Congress was tainted by the Bofors scam, BJP by the Rafale," she said, "you don't need to give another chance to them. These parties have already been given enough chances". She also criticised opinion polls, alleging they are used by political parties to "misguide voters". "Do not get swayed," she appealed to the electorate. Mayawati, who had to check the slogan shouting supporters, said if voted to power, farmers will no longer be in debt. Yadav, who lashed out at Prime Minister Modi accusing him of failing to keep his promises, said, "The policies of both the Congress and the BJP are the same...The Congress does not want to bring in a change." The SP president took a swipe at the ruling BJP asking its leaders to take a pledge not to speak lies during the holy period of Navaratri. "In 2014, we trusted a 'chaiwala' (tea seller), the poll promise of crores of jobs and so many other promises. Now we are being told to trust the 'chowkidar'. We will remove 'chowkidars' (watchmen) from all the 'chowkis' (post)," he told the crowd, that cheered and applauded him. "We want to appeal to the BJP leaders...during this holy period of Navratri, you should pledge not to speak a lie," he said. Hitting back at the PM for his criticism of the alliance, the SP leader said, "This 'gathbandhan' (alliance) is not 'milawat' (adulterated), this is 'mahaparivartan' (mega change)." "They call us 'milawat gathbandhan'... they are drunk on power. This is an alliance for electing a new government and new prime minister." RLD president Ajit Singh, who is contesting from the Muzaffarnagar seat, took a dig at the promise of 'achchhe din', saying Modi wasn't talking about people's, but his own 'achche din'. "All are aware that the BJP is anti-farmer. It came to power in 2014 because of riots," Singh alleged. He said Modi calls himself a 'fakir' (hermit). "Let us all be a fakir like him...will wear new suits and tour the entire world and when fail to fulfil responsibilities will say bye bye I am a 'fakir'. Will you keep such a government or kick it out?" he asked the gathering. "Modi said Rs 15 lakhs will come...has anyone checked the account? Does the PM of India tell a lie? No. He never speaks the truth. His parents have not advised him to speak the truth," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Trump administration is preparing to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization," an unprecedented move against a national armed force that could have widespread implications for US personnel and policy in the Middle East and elsewhere. Officials informed of the step said an announcement could come as early as Monday, after a monthslong escalation in the administration's rhetoric against Iran, its support for militia groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, as well as anti-Israel groups in the region and beyond. It would be the first such designation by any American administration of an entire foreign government entity, although portions of the Guard, notably its elite Quds Force, have been targeted previously by the United States. Two US officials and a congressional aide confirmed the planned move. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The designation, planning for which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes with sanctions, including freezes on assets the Guard may have in US jurisdictions and a ban on Americans doing business with it or providing material support for its activities. Although the Guard has broad control and influence over the Iranian economy, such penalties from the US may have limited impact. The designation, however, could significantly complicate US military and diplomatic work, notably in Iraq, where many Shiite militias and Iraqi political parties have close ties to the Guard. In Lebanon, the designation could further restrict with whom US officials can interact. The Guard has close ties to Hezbollah, which is part of the Lebanese government. Hezbollah is already designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US. Its presence in Lebanon's parliament and executive branch have forced the US to avoid any contact with Hezbollah members even as the US continues to provide assistance to and works with the Lebanese army. Without exclusions or waivers to the designation, US troops and diplomats could be barred from contact with Iraqi or Lebanese authorities who interact with Guard officials or surrogates. The Pentagon and US intelligence agencies have raised concerns about the impact of the designation if the move does not allow contact with foreign officials who may have met with or communicated with Guard personnel. Those concerns have in part dissuaded previous administrations from taking the step, which has been considered for more than a decade. It was not immediately clear whether the designation would include such carve-outs. In addition to those complications, American commanders are concerned that the designation may prompt Iran to retaliate against US forces in the region, and those commanders plan to warn US troops remaining in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere of that possibility, according to a third US official. This official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Aside from Iraq, where some 5,200 American troops are stationed, and Syria, where some US 2,000 troops remain, the US 5th Fleet, which operates in the Persian Gulf from its base in Bahrain, and the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, are potentially at risk. A similar warning is also expected from the State Department of possible Iranian retaliation against American interests, including embassies and consulates, and anti-American protests, the first two US officials said. Similar alerts were issued at the start of the Iraq War in 2003 and more recently when the Trump administration announced it would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Despite the risks, Iran hard-liners on Capitol Hill, such as Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and elsewhere have long advocated for the designation. They say it will send an important message to Iran as well as deal it a further blow after the Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed economic sanctions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton have taken up the call and have in recent months spoken stridently about Iran and its "malign activities" in the region. Pompeo has made clear in public comments that pressure on Tehran will only increase until it changes its behaviour. Just last week, Pompeo's special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, accused Iran and its proxies of being responsible for the death of 608 US troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. He cited newly declassified Defence Department information for the claim, which is expected to be used in the justification for the Guard designation. "Secretary Pompeo will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to press the regime to change its destructive policies for the benefit of peace in the region and for the sake of its own people, who are the longest-suffering victims of this regime," Hook said, in an indication that new action is coming. The department currently designates 60 groups, such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State and their various affiliates, Hezbollah and numerous militant Palestinian factions, as "foreign terrorist organizations." But none of them is a state-run military. Once a designation is announced by the secretary of state in coordination with the Treasury secretary, Congress has seven days to review it. If there are no objections, it then will take effect. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Saturday launched what he promised will be a "definitive" escalation of pressure to force the country's embattled leftist leader from office. Addressing a giant anti-government rally in Caracas, Guaido -- whose claim to be interim president is supported by around 50 nations -- kicked off what he called "Operation Liberty," his plan to oust President Nicolas Maduro. "Everyone to the streets, let's start the final phase of the end of the usurpation!" he told supporters, speaking from the back of a pickup truck. He called for a huge nationwide turnout on Wednesday, and urged his followers to redouble their efforts to maintain pressure in the streets. "The greatest escalation of pressure we have seen in our history" has begun, Guaido said. The call comes amid massive blackouts and the collapse of water supplies affecting the nation, further exacerbated a growing political crisis. The United States meanwhile has stiffened its economic sanctions against Maduro, and one top US official warned Venezuela's military that it must protect the rights of peaceful protesters. At the rally, Guaido also warned Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel that the supply of subsidized Venezuelan oil to the Caribbean communist island nation was over. Venezuela has been sending cheap oil to Cuba in exchange for labor from Cuban doctors and teachers, but Guaido said the oil was actually financing a Cuban intelligence group known as G2 that was cracking down on Maduro opponents in the Venezuelan military. "The exploitation of Venezuelan oil is over, so Mr Diaz-Canel... Venezuelan oil will not be used to submit and investigate our military officials" through the G2, he told the crowd. Pro-Guaido protests drew thousands in rallies across the country on Saturday. A pro-Maduro counter-demonstration in Caracas, with supporters dressed in red, drew a large crowd that gathered at the Miraflores presidential palace. "Together, permanently mobilized, let's keep defending national peace and independence; no more interference!" Maduro tweeted. Later, he called upon Mexico and Uruguay to relaunch their proposal for dialogue to resolve the crisis without foreign intervention. The two countries had first introduced that idea in January. Two opposition deputies were detained at an anti-government demo in the western city of Maracaibo, but a few hours later Guaido announced that the two had been released. Elimar Diaz, a lawmaker who marched in Maracaibo, told AFP the protest there had encountered "brutal repression," including tear gas canisters dropped from helicopters, the use of National Guard armored vehicles and attacks by members of the pro-government militia, known as "colectivos." Diaz said people in Maracaibo had gone "days without electricity" amid "inhumane rationing" by the government. Maduro has blamed US-backed sabotage for the massive blackouts that have deprived millions of power. The opposition blames a failure to maintain critical infrastructure. Facing intense pressure at home and abroad, the Maduro government has sought to weaken Guaido. The government has stripped his parliamentary immunity, authorized his prosecution for proclaiming himself acting president, and banned him from holding public office for 15 years. Guaido said earlier this week he feared that he could be abducted by government agents. Speaking to the pro-government Constitutional Assembly, Maduro's top lieutenant Diosdado Cabello slammed the US point man on Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, as an "assassin." "It is Abrams who should be in prison, condemned in the United States for genocide in Central America," said Cabello, referring to the US official's controversial role in the Central American conflicts of the 1980s. Washington meanwhile kept up the international pressure on Maduro to step down. Vice President Mike Pence on Friday announced fresh sanctions against 34 vessels belonging to Venezuela's state oil company and two companies that ship crude to Cuba. "This is only a first step," US national security advisor John Bolton tweeted on Saturday in reference to the sanctions. He cautioned the Venezuelan defense minister in a separate tweet of the official's "constitutional responsibility to protect innocent civilians who are peacefully demonstrating," adding: "Do not let the Cubans or the 'colectivos' inflict violence against Venezuelan patriots." Maduro is supported by the Venezuelan military, China and Russia. Washington and its allies view the socialist president as illegitimate since he took office in January for a second term following elections widely seen as deeply flawed. Washington has convened a UN Security Council for Wednesday to discuss the Venezuelan crisis. Since Venezuela's massive blackout of March 7, the country has been subject to repeated power cuts, with electricity being rationed outside of Caracas. The blackouts have knocked out water supplies as well as transport and communications, forcing many people to trim their work days to six hours. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Capillary Technologies, a leader in cloud-based customer experience, will showcase its AI powered experience platform at the upcoming Seamless 2019, a major payments and commerce event, in Dubai, UAE. The platform integrates Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities to enable brands to get a deeper understanding into their customers buying preferences. The platform allows brands to engage with their consumers through personalised communication, while providing easy and connected cross channel commerce experiences to help build loyalty to reward and retain their consumers. Consumers in the region highly prefer a tailored service regardless of whether they shop online or offline. While it is fairly convenient for brands to gather shopping profiles and preferences from an online platform, it remains a challenge to maintain continuity into their offline stores to create a seamless customer experience, said Sunil Suresh, chief marketing and strategy officer at Capillary Technologies. Our AI-driven solutions are meant to bridge this gap with our core product offerings. Insights+ creates a clickstream for retailers to increase sales and elevate a shoppers in-store shopping experience, while Engage+ enables hyper-personalized engagement campaigns. Anywhere Commerce + helps retailers create memorable online shopping experiences and Loyalty+ enables brands to retain and reward their best customers. Our participation at Seamless 2019 is a perfect platform to reach out to retailers and brands to help them understand and use our technology efficiently to sell more by understanding customer buying patterns and preferences, he added. Sunil will also be presenting on April 10 a topic on Marrying the Online and the Offline experience, In Store, where he will share insights on the modern consumers behaviour and outline Capillarys groundbreaking experience platform powered by Zero AI. He will showcase Capillarys ability to solve some of the major pain points that retailers and brands currently face, such as discovering shopper intent, providing store insights, executing personalised consumer engagement campaigns based on product, offers and time to creating bespoke online shopping experience just the way the consumer wants it. Artificial Intelligence currently has the potential to disrupt markets in the Middle East, especially with the UAE and Saudi Arabia demonstrating strong commitment to implementing AI across a number of key sectors. According to PwC, the potential impact of AI in the Middle East is estimated to reach $320 billion by 2030, with the UAE alone contributing $96 billion. It is estimated that the Middle Easts retail, consumer goods, and wholesale trade industry will contribute $23 billion by 2030, demonstrating that AI will play an important role in the life of consumers. The speed at which consumers have evolved is astounding, especially in the Middle East. The widespread use of smartphones and the ability to access the internet from anywhere has empowered consumers to browse and shop instantly. This trend has encouraged many brands and retailers to take their products online in addition to their offline stores. Our aim and vision is to use the power of AI to level the field between offline and online stores, and help businesses get ahead of the digital evolution and stay Always Consumer Ready, added Suresh. Capillary Technologies has a strong presence in the Mena region and covers over 300 million consumers, 35,000 stores and over 400 marquee brands across various industries on its SaaS platform across 30+ countries. Seamless 2019 takes place on April 10 and 11 at the Dubai International Convention Centre. TradeArabia News Service With the BJP making politics of dynasty one of its election issues, the JMM has sought to know from the saffron party whether children of political leaders shouldnt join politics like the wards of doctors and engineers willingly following their parents profession. The Congress, JMM, RJD, JD(Secular), DMK have been under attack from the BJP for their politics of dynasty and family. "... There is a saying that if one lie is said hundred times it appears to be true. But it is not like that. The truth is the truth and they are mistaken if they think saying dynastic politics again and again people will believe it," Jharkhand Mukti Morcha working president and former chief minister Hemant Soren told PTI in an interview. "BJP should explain if a son or daughter of a doctor or an engineer can choose profession of their parents why can't children of politicians join politics? I dont understand their (BJP) meaning of dynasty. What do you (BJP) want? Shouldnt we take forward politics? I would like to ask the BJP whether political parties should not have 'vansh' (dynasty)," Hemant Soren, asked, in an apparent support to politics of family. The latest entry of the Soren family in politics is Shibu Sorens daughter Anjali Soren, who is contesting from Mayurbhanj (ST) Lok Sabha seat from neighbouring Odisha. Sorens late son Durga Soren was an MLA from Jama and his daughter-in-law, Sita Soren, succeeded him. His youngest son Basant Soren is a leader of the youth JMM. "As people have accepted dynastic politics, should we reject their desires and love towards Guruji (as his father Shibu Soren is known in Jharkhand)? They love, respect, adore him. Should Guruji be taken off (the contest)?" asked Hemant Soren. The JMM working president told PTI that the main issues of the opposition 'Mahagathbandhan' in the Lok Sabha election will be unemployment and farmers. GST (Goods & Services Tax) has hit the poor, the farmers, the small and middle level traders, workers. Unemployment, lay-off, farmers distress are other issues which are being raised now, he said. "Suicide by farmers were reported in the country. Suicide cases among the unemployment youth were reported, which is a dangerous indication," Soren said. Asked whether Pulwama attack and the subsequent Balakot airstrike will sway the public mood towards the BJP, Soren asked back, "Do you think the unemployed people struggling to eke out a living will think of Pulwama or look for employment?" The 44-year-old JMM working president alleged that BJP "humiliates" its own senior leaders, in an apparent reference to L K Advani, Sumitra Mahajan, Murli Manohar Joshi and Karia Munda being denied tickets. The JMM had won two out of the 14 seats in Jharkhand in 2014 with the BJP winning 12. JMM president Shibu Soren who retained the Dumka (ST) seat in the face of Narendra Modi wave in 2014 has been re-nominated this time from the same seat. On his 75-year-old father, Shibu Soren, who began his political career fighting landlords and moneylenders before joining statehood struggle and becoming member of Lok Sabha multiple times, Hemant said, "No other politician travelled as extensively across Jharkhand as Guruji to get in touch with people." "Efforts had been made several times to ruin Guruji (politically) in different ways, but if ones intention is clear no one can stop him from reaching to the goal of serving people. That resulted in creation of Jharkhand. The BJP says A B Vajpayee had created separate Jharkhand. But who had struggled for the cause? Who received police batons? Who made their pen sign the papers (for separate statehood)?" he said. "We won every political fight, and we will win many more electoral battles in the coming days. We have to protect the Constitution. We will never compromise on our values," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The wife of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn says she hastily left Japan after her husband's latest arrest because she feared for her own safety. France's weekly Journal du Dimanche quoted Carole Ghosn saying in an interview published Sunday that she saw police take her husband back into custody and "felt in danger" when officers confiscated her Lebanese passport. Carole Ghosn told the newspaper she left for France on Friday using a different passport. She said that since Carlos Ghosn was accused of financial misconduct, the former auto industry star has been "dropped by everyone" because of "cowardice" despite saving Nissan and Renault. Ghosn previously was jailed in Tokyo from November until March for allegedly falsifying securities documents and having Nissan shoulder personal investment losses. He says he is innocent. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hitting out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his party's promise to abolish sedition law, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said Sunday that he will not be allowed to come to power by supporting "traitors". Thackeray was addressing an election rally at Kalmeshwar in support of Shiv Sena's Ramtek constituency candidate Krupal Tumane. He said the BJP, Shiv Sena and the Republican Party of India (RPI) have come together on one ideology for the love of the nation. "But, I want to ask why have Maha Aghadi come together who have conflicts between them. Who are these people? Our dream is for the country, what about you? Your dream is only power. Our prime minister will be Narendra Modi tomorrow also. And I want to ask the opposition to announce one name for the PM's post," said Thackeray. Thackeray also took a potshot at Congress' promise in its manifesto to abolish the sedition law. "Do you agree with this?... Anyone who commits treason should be hanged," he said. "If Gandhi thinks he will come to power by supporting traitors, we will not let it happen," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad shows he has the confidence to win from both north and south India, senior said Sunday and asked whether Prime Minister would have the courage to fight from a seat in or With Gandhi contesting the polls from Kerala's Wayanad constituency, there is palpable excitement across the southern states that the next prime minister could be elected from the region, Tharoor told in an interview. Tharoor also slammed Modi and the BJP for suggesting that Gandhi chose Wayanad to "run away" from majority dominated areas, saying the ruling party has repeatedly resorted to peddling bigotry. It was dismaying that this was coming from the prime minister, he added. "By reinforcing his role as a torchbearer for the BJP's bigotry, Mr Modi has disregarded the principled position that a prime minister of must be a prime minister for all Indians," he told from Thiruvananthapuram. Addressing a rally in Wardha in Maharashtra, the prime minister had said the opposition party was "scared" to field its leaders from constituencies where the majority dominates. Tharoor claimed Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad comes at a time of "unprecedented strain" on the spirit of cooperative federalism that has held the country together since its Independence in 1947. Under the BJP-led Centre, he alleged, relations between the southern states and the federal government have "steadily deteriorated" over a number of issues such as threats to the economic security of the south as well as the future of its political representation. In that context, Gandhi has made a bold statement of intent to suggest he can be the bridge that repairs the growing north-south divide within the country, Tharoor said, adding that it also signals that the chief has the confidence to win elections in both the north and the south. "Can make such a claim? Would he have the courage to fight for a seat in or " the former diplomat turned politician asked. His remarks come after Gandhi, who is fighting the elections from his traditional bastion Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday also entered the poll fray in Wayanad by filing his nomination papers from the constituency in Tharoor, who himself is seeking a third straight term from Thiruvananthapuram, cited the "incredibly warm and rousing reception" Gandhi received in Wayanad and said it was reflective of the genuine spirit of celebration that has seized the south. Asked if the message of support for the people of that Gandhi wanted to convey by contesting from Wayanad was well received, Tharoor said, "I think it certainly has and today as a result of his decision there is a palpable excitement across the southern states that the next prime minister of the country could be elected from the south." Quoting Gandhi's statement that " feels hostility from Narendra Modi" and he wanted to send a message of support to the people there, Tharoor said a sense of confidence and reassurance is spreading across the region, including in Kerala and neighbouring and Asked if the move could create a 'Rahul wave' in the south, Tharoor said, "In Kerala, it has had an invigorating effect among our workers particularly those working on the ground and we are already seeing a ripple effect of this 'wave' spreading across neighbouring and Tamil Nadu. " arguably, the implications of his decision have not just been prompted by a strategic choice to energise the workers, but by a larger sense of duty and commitment," the former Union minister added. Discussing the BJP's criticism of the move and the PM remarks at the Wardha rally, Tharoor said for the country to have a prime minister with such "well documented and blatant disregard for minorities" is one of the "greatest tragedies" of the five years of the present ruling dispensation. It is also a severe "blemish" on the record of the illustrious men and women who have held the post before him, he said. "But for all this bigotry, the BJP has still not managed to open their account in Kerala and their chauvinistic ideals have been repeatedly rejected by the people of the state," the 63-year-old said. According to him, Kerala's educated and inclusive electorate is once again going to offer "the same boot" to the BJP's hopes in the state. Tharoor asserted the Congress chief will be one of the rare leaders in the country who enjoys a clear and demonstrated popularity in both the south and the north if he wins from both Amethi and Wayanad. And, most important, the south will be galvanised by the fact that its concerns are unlikely to be ignored by such a leader, one who will walk into Parliament on the back of their support," he said. Asked if Gandhi's fighting from south also boost his credentials as a prospective prime minister, Tharoor answered in the affirmative. Gandhi's decision to contest from the south is part of a larger outreach to the southern states and to demonstrate his electability among the voters of the south, he said. At the same time, the Congress is also reiterating the party's historic commitment towards an inclusive India, the author-politician said. Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad shows he has the confidence to win from both north and south India, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said Sunday and asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have the courage to fight from a seat in Kerala or Tamil Nadu. With Gandhi contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Kerala's Wayanad constituency, there is palpable excitement across the southern states that the next prime minister could be elected from the the region, Tharoor told PTI in an interview. Tharoor also slammed Modi and the BJP for suggesting that Gandhi chose Wayanad to "run away" from majority dominated areas, saying the ruling party has repeatedly resorted to peddling bigotry. It was dismaying that this was coming from the prime minister, he added. "By reinforcing his role as a torchbearer for the BJP's bigotry, Mr Modi has disregarded the principled position that a prime minister of India must be a prime minister for all Indians," he told PTI from Thiruvananthapuram. Addressing a rally in Wardha in Maharashtra, the prime minister had said the opposition party was "scared" to field its leaders from constituencies where the majority dominates. Tharoor claimed Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad comes at a time of "unprecedented strain" on the spirit of cooperative federalism that has held the country together since its Independence in 1947. Under the BJP-led Centre, he alleged, relations between the southern states and the federal government have "steadily deteriorated" over a number of issues such as threats to the economic security of the south as well as the future of its political representation. In that context, Gandhi has made a bold statement of intent to suggest he can be the bridge that repairs the growing north-south divide within the country, Tharoor said, adding that it also signals that the Congress chief has the confidence to win elections in both the north and the south. "Can Narendra Modi make such a claim? Would he have the courage to fight for a seat in Kerala or Tamil Nadu?" the former diplomat turned politician asked. His remarks come after Gandhi, who is fighting the Lok Sabha polls from his traditional bastion Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday also entered the poll fray in Wayanad by filing his nomination from the seat. Tharoor, who himself is seeking a third straight Lok Sabha term from Thiruvanathapuram, cited the "incredibly warm and rousing reception" Gandhi received in Wayanad and said it was reflective of the genuine spirit of celebration that has seized the south. Asked if the message of support for the people of south India that Gandhi wanted to convey by contesting from Wayanad was well received, Tharoor said, "I think it certainly has and today as a result of his decision there is a palpable excitement across the southern states that the next prime minister of the country could be elected from the south." Quoting Gandhi's statement that "south India feels hostility from Narendra Modi" and he wanted to send a message of support to the people there, Tharoor said a sense of confidence and reassurance is spreading across the region, including in Kerala and neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Asked if the move could create a 'Rahul wave' in the south, Tharoor said, "In Kerala, it has had an invigorating effect among our workers particularly those working on the ground and we are already seeing a ripple effect of this 'wave' spreading across neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. " arguably, the implications of his decision have not just been prompted by a strategic choice to energise the Congress workers, but by a larger sense of duty and commitment," the former Union minister added. Discussing the BJP's criticism of the move and the PM remarks at the Wardha rally, Tharoor said for the country to have a prime minister with such "well documented and blatant disregard for minorities" is one of the "greatest tragedies" of the five years of the present ruling dispensation. It is also a severe blemish" on the record of the illustrious men and women who have held the post before him, he said. "But for all this bigotry, the BJP has still not managed to open their account in Kerala and their chauvinistic ideals have been repeatedly rejected by the people of the state," the 63-year-old leader said. According to him, Kerala's educated and inclusive electorate is once again going to offer "the same boot" to the BJP's hopes in the state. Tharoor asserted the Congress chief will be one of the rare leaders in the country who enjoys a clear and demonstrated popularity in both the south and the north if he wins from both Amethi and Wayanad. And, most important, the south will be galvanised by the fact that its concerns are unlikely to be ignored by such a leader, one who will walk into Parliament on the back of their support," he said. Asked if Gandhi's fighting from south also boost his credentials as a prospective prime minister, Tharoor answered in the affirmative. Gandhi's decision to contest from the south is part of a larger outreach to the southern states and to demonstrate his electability among the voters of the south, he said. At the same time, the Congress president is also reiterating his commitment towards an inclusive India, he said. The Congress' idea of India is where all Indians matter -- unlike the present dispensation, which has made it clear through its actions that some Indians come first and others are beyond their comprehension, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Income Tax (I-T) department raided the houses of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's close aides. Praveen Kakkar's house in Indore and RK Miglani's house in Delhi were raided by the I-T team in connection with an alleged illegal transaction case. Kakkar is MP CM Nath's Officer on Special Duty (OSD). A team of fifteen officers raided Kakkar's house in Bhopal around 3 am. A showroom in Vijay Nagar and four other places are also being investigated. The two officers had quit from their posts last month after the model code of conduct came into force. Indore: Visuals from official premises of Praveen Kakkar, OSD to Madhya Pradesh CM, where income-tax officials are conducting a raid. pic.twitter.com/fWoOS4qT4o - ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 These raids take place a week after I-T sleuths raided the premises owned by people linked to Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and the Congress. A day before the raids, Kumaraswamy had said that early morning raids on Congress and JD(S) leaders were going to take place with the help of CRPF jawans. Strongly defending its action, the I-T department had said its activities should not be politicised, personalised or trivialised. Delhi: I-T raid underway at residence of RK Miglani, close aide of Madhya Pradesh CM, in Green Park. pic.twitter.com/XEKcEpY8a7 - ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 Chief Minister Kamal Nath is campaigning for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara. Karnataka will go to polls in two phases in 14 constituencies each, on April 18 and 23. Also read: CBI conducts raids at Bhushan Power & Steel premises for Rs 2,348-crore bank fraud Also read: AgustaWestland case: Jaitley using diary entries to level bogus charges, but mute on Yeddy, Sahara diaries, says Congress The ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is scheduled to release its manifesto on April 8, almost a week after the leading Opposition party released theirs. Since the release of the Congress manifesto, BJP has been very critical of the Opposition party's promises. As such, what kind of agenda can be expected from the ruling party? To get an idea of the same, here's a look back at the Narendra Modi-helmed BJP's 2014 manifesto. In their 2014 manifesto, BJP stated that their goal for the next five years was 'Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat' (One India, Great India), the path to which was 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'. The BJP manifesto stated that some of the key imminent issues that they would address are: Price Rise: They said that they would stop hoarding and black marketing as well as use technology to disseminate real time data to farmers. They said that they would stop hoarding and black marketing as well as use technology to disseminate real time data to farmers. Employment: BJP said they would develop high-impact domains like labour-intensive manufacturing, and tourism. Transforming Employment Exchanges into Career Centres was another promise. BJP said they would develop high-impact domains like labour-intensive manufacturing, and tourism. Transforming Employment Exchanges into Career Centres was another promise. Corruption: BJP manifesto stated that they would establish a system that would eliminate the scope for corruption. e-Governance, system-based policy-driven governance, task force to track and bring down black money and engage with foreign governments to facilitate information sharing on black money were also some of the other promises made to keep corruption in check. BJP manifesto stated that they would establish a system that would eliminate the scope for corruption. e-Governance, system-based policy-driven governance, task force to track and bring down black money and engage with foreign governments to facilitate information sharing on black money were also some of the other promises made to keep corruption in check. Policy paralysis: They stated that they would "reignite the engine of the government" and encourage bureaucracy to take on decades of maladministration, scams and policy paralysis. They stated that they would "reignite the engine of the government" and encourage bureaucracy to take on decades of maladministration, scams and policy paralysis. Poor delivery: Remove bottlenecks and missing links to ensure seamless delivery of policies, scale and speed to implement futuristic vision and build "institutions for today and tomorrow" were also promised by the BJP. Remove bottlenecks and missing links to ensure seamless delivery of policies, scale and speed to implement futuristic vision and build "institutions for today and tomorrow" were also promised by the BJP. Credibility crisis: They promised to restore the trust and credibility in the government by building a chain of accountability into the system. The BJP proposed to reform the system in the following manner: By putting India and its national interest first. "It is complete India; without exclusion, without exception," the manifesto stated. With an open government, accountable administration, people-centric policies, mandatory performance review and social and environment audit for all government programmes, and finally, with minimum government and maximum governance. Through e-Governance such as Digital India, broadband in every village, promotion of IT in Indian languages and digitisation of all government work and records. Through administrative, judicial, police and electoral reforms. The BJP also promised to bridge the gap between sections of the society in the following manner: By uplifting the poorest of the country, identifying 100 of the most backward districts and bringing them at par and Universal Food Security. By bringing about economic justice and political empowerment of the SC, ST, OBC and other weaker sections. Enabling equal opportunity for education, health and livelihood, eradication of manual scavenging and untouchability, preservation of tribal culture and languages were also promised. Augmenting of traditional artisanship, empowering of the Waqf Boards were promised by the BJP. Delivering better public service to meet increasing aspirations in terms of education, health, housing, public transport of the neo-middle class. Bringing about integrated strategies for personal, economic and social well being of the rural areas, bring urban amenities to rural areas and village-level infrastructure. By bringing in 100 new cities, focused on specialised domains, building on concepts like twin cities and satellite towns, Wi-Fi in public places were some of the promises made for the urban areas. Also read: Congress poll manifesto promises to simplify GST, create a department to help startups The BJP stated that they would take the nation forward. Here are some of the promises they made to follow that agenda through: Social security for children, senior citizens and specially-abled. Make student loans simpler and affordable, implement program to identify and train extraordinary sporting talent. Healthcare for women, strict implementation of laws for rape and acid attack victims, women-friendly police stations as well as save and educate the girl child campaign - Beti Bachao Beti Padhao were promised. Among the promises for education were raising of public spending on education to 6% of GDP, universalising of secondary education, apprenticeship program and multi-country student exchange programmes. Promotion of Yoga and Ayurveda, social health program, health assurance to all Indians, AIIMS-like institute in every state, universalisation of emergency medical services, make India open defecation free and eradicate malnutrition were some of the promises BJP made for healthcare. Implementation of GST, stabilise economic growth, revisit foreign and domestic policy framework, reform banking, protect MSMEs. The BJP promised farmers a consumer friendly farmers' market, welfare measures, promotion of organic farming and more. Breaking open the economic space for MSMEs was one of the few promises for traders. Identity cards to unorganised sector labourers, access to modern financial services and strengthening pension and health insurance to labourers were promised. Pucca house for every family by 2022, massive low cost housing programme were promised. Freight corridors, Sagar Mala project, modernised and upgraded Railways, connecting North East and J&K with rest of India through world class highways and rail lines, tourist rail, bullet train were some of the promises when it came to physical infrastructure. Inter-linking of rivers, drinking water to all, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sinchayee Yojana with a motto of 'har khet ko paani' were promised. Rebooting and reorienting foreign policy was promised. The BJP stated that they would revive the anti-terror mechanism dismantled by the Congress and strengthening of Civil Defence and Home Guards. The BJP promised to deal with cross border terrorism, establish 4 dedicated defence universities, implement One rank, One pension. Clean Ganga, protect cows and build the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya keeping all possibilities within constitutional framework in mind were also promised. Draft Uniform Civil Code for gender equality. Also read: What's doable in Congress' jobs manifesto? Also read: Congress manifesto: NYAY scheme to be tested for 6-9 months before rollout The Pakistani military sucks at fighting - it has lost all four wars against India - but when it comes to lying, it's in a league of its own. Throughout its short history Pakistan has attempted to hide its quite considerable war losses while making highly exaggerated claims about imaginary victories notched up by its armed forces. After decades of Islamist indoctrination, the Pakistani military establishment has become so deeply infected with the virus of jihad that it will never admit losing to India. In this backdrop, the February 27 downing of a Pakistan Air Force F-16 Falcon over Kashmir by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman is unlikely to be acknowledged by Islamabad. The reason why it clings to lies and fakery is that for all its size the Pakistan military machine is a paper tiger that cannot fight India for more than a few days. To shore up morale - and to keep up the myth of the invincibility of the Pakistani soldier against the Indian - the military has to present defeats as victory and at the same time claim to have routed Indian forces. Although many Pakistani military officers and media commentators now agree that India defeated Pakistan in all four wars, the gullible masses of that country remain convinced that Pakistan has never been defeated. The Pakistanis know their claims will get traction in the West. Because most of Pakistan's war fighting equipment is of Western origin, Islamabad has plenty of supporters in the West, especially in the Pentagon - the US Defence Department - and the virulently anti-Indian left liberal media. The ingratiating behaviour of Pakistan Army generals has also endeared them to Westerners who back up their stories by offering 'expert' analysis. Such analysis is gamed from the start because these so-called experts are at best company men or at worst charlatans. However, they have one thing in common - they work for Western interests and are by no means neutral or unbiased. The latest instance of Western 'experts' trying to bolster the Pakistani narrative comes from Foreign Policy magazine which quotes two anonymous American military officials on the F-16 shooting. The magazine reports that US defence personnel conducted a physical count of Pakistan's F-16 fleet and found none missing. The difference this time was that the Pentagon quickly declared it wasn't aware of such an investigation. Limits of lying Truth is the first casualty of conflict. All countries take advantage of the fog of war to hide one's own setbacks while also denying the enemy's victories. Since wars are a mind game, there is little incentive to hand the enemy any information that could give him an advantage or boost its morale. On March 21, 2011 an American F-15 fighter enforcing a no-fly zone was shot down by a Libyan air defence unit. The US Air Force declared the cause of the crash as "lead ingestion". During the 1991 Gulf War, President George H. Bush boasted the Patriot 3 missile system had a 95 per cent interception rate. A year later, Theodore Postol of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Reuven Pedatzur of Tel Aviv University testified before a US House Committee that according to their independent analysis of video tapes, the Patriot system very likely had a zero success rate. Also read: Pakistan PM Imran Khan accuses BJP of war hysteria over downed F-16 claim; says truth always prevails On November 26, 1943 a Luftwaffe aircraft launched an Hs-293 glide bomb at the British troop transport ship Rohna, killing 1,149 American soldiers. It was not until the 1960s that US authorities even admitted that Rohna had been sunk by a guided missile rather than conventional weapons. However, with Pakistan the equation is different. The Pakistani military leadership operates like a totalitarian state where domestic opinion is all that matters. The population must be kept in the dark about the failings of the military. In order to convince the masses they are in good strong hands, the Pakistani military establishment indulges in what can only be described as the theatre of the absurd. 1965 War drama One of the biggest lies peddled by Pakistan was the "30 seconds over Sargodha" incident. On September 7, at the height of the 1965 War, Mohammed Alam, a Pakistan Air Force squadron leader, claimed he had shot down as many as five Indian Hunter aircraft in only 23 seconds. British writer John Fricker was commissioned by the PAF to write a book, in which Fricker eulogised the Pakistanis. His 'Battle for Pakistan - The Air War of 1965' made it to the stores only in 1979 as he couldn't find a publisher. Because he couldn't narrate his tales soon enough, Fricker wrote an article titled "30 Seconds Over Sargodha" which was published in 'Aeroplane' magazine. Fricker's article popularised Alam's claim in the West, where they gleefully accepted such fiction as truth. There was a huge sense of satisfaction in the West at India's apparent failure. Cold War and colonial biases had trumped logic and military aerodynamics. However, highly credible research by military historian Pushpinder Singh Chopra and others has shown that Alam was exaggerating. In an article titled 'Laying the Sargodha Ghost to Rest' Singh explained why the PAF backed Alam's claims: "The people of Pakistan had to be re-assured their air force's super image, carefully cultivated over the years, was restored by examples of daring-do and glory." Not all Pakistanis, however, are delusional. Retired PAF air commodore S. Sajad Haider has demolished Alam's claims in his exhaustive book 'Flight of the Falcon: Demolishing Myths of the 1965 War'. Referring to Alam as a "very unprofessional" pilot, Haider says, "It is tactically and mathematically very difficult to resurrect the incident in which all five Hunters in a hard turn were claimed to have been shot down in a 270-degree turn in 23 seconds." Alam had said he had blown away all five aircraft and that none of the pilots were able to eject. On this Haider adds, "Logically, since the five were claimed to have been shot down in 23 seconds, then they should all have crashed in close proximity. The conjecture that all the rest could have crashed after 8-9 minutes of flying is superfluous and unworthy of the official PAF history." Even the PAF is having trouble swallowing such a blatant lie. According to Bharat Rakshak, "While the PAF's 1982 history accepts Alam's story as told by Fricker, the PAF's 1988 history is surprisingly silent about the names. In fact, the PAF's 1988 history does not even list the names of the five IAF pilots." Also read: Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale to give proof of Pakistan's misuse of F-16s to top US officials This is not to say the Pakistanis were chumps. On the contrary, due to superior training as part of Pakistan's membership in Western military alliances, some were excellent flyers and gunners. The PAF also had large numbers of the latest F-104 and F-86 jets whereas the IAF - thanks to Jawaharlal Nehru and Defence Minister Krishna Menon's neglect of the armed forces - was flying outdated World War II aircraft. However, PAF pilots seemed to have underestimated the IAF's resolve; they also believed their President Ayub Khan's claim that one Pakistani was equal to three Indians. In fact, Ayub had assured the military: "As a general rule, Hindu morale would not stand for more than a couple of hard blows delivered at the right time and the right place." Religious fanaticism was also seen rearing its ugly head in the PAF, with many pilots believing they were under divine protection. Alam, for instance, became an Islamic fundamentalist and berated his fellow officers and seniors who consumed alcohol. Not surprisingly, he was sidelined on the rather amusing allegation that he could not read or write. Post retirement, he lived like a mullah, a virtual recluse. Had he been a real war hero, he would not have been treated in so humiliating a manner. Tank battle flip "Pakistan Victorious" screamed the headline in The Australian, dated September 14, 1965, followed by this intro: "Pakistani forces have repulsed a massive Indian armoured assault in the greatest tank battle since the African desert campaign of World War II." The Australian media were, at worse, liars or, at best, parroting a lie. In fact, everything about the report was false. Firstly, the greatest tank battle since World War II was the Battle of Asal Uttar where the Indian Army destroyed 70 Pakistani tanks. India also captured 25 tanks which were abandoned by panic stricken Pakistani soldiers in the face of withering Indian fire. So basically, the West flipped the report of a massive Indian victory into a Pakistani win. Secondly, the greatest tank battle of World War II was not in Africa, but in Kursk, Russia, where the Red Army hammered the Germans. This is an instance of the Anglo-American media not wanting to acknowledge a massive Russian victory. The point is that in some sections in the West there is a great desire to see India fail. It was like that during the Cold War when Pakistan was a loyal sidekick and India a hated ally of Moscow; and it is so today. Nothing's changed. The credibility of the "anonymous" experts cited by Foreign Policy magazine must be viewed in this backdrop. 1971 War: PAF caught fudging losses This incident is eerily similar to Foreign Policy's unsubstantiated F-16 count. During the 1971 War the IAF notched up a large number of air-to-air kills, particularly of the Mirage-III fighter. After the war ended, in order to dent India's claims, the Pakistanis said they had received 24 Mirages from France and that that all of them were intact. The PAF conducted a major PR exercise, lining up 22 Mirage-III jets to show that none had been lost in combat. Plus, the PAF claimed that one Mirage was written off in a training sortie prior to the war and another was undergoing repairs. Also read: US officials say no Pakistani F-16s missing raising doubts over India's claim: report However, in a major embarrassment to Pakistan, the French aircraft maker Dassault revealed that the PAF had taken delivery of no less than 28 Mirage-IIIs in and not 24 Mirages as claimed by the PAF. Further, Chris Bishop writes in The Encyclopedia of 20th Century Air Warfare (2001 edition) that six Mirages were supplied to the PAF during wartime by Libya. Since the IAF only claimed one or two Mirage-IIIs confirmed as destroyed on the ground and one shot down by anti-aircraft artillery, it is quite likely that the Mirage did suffer a number of air-to-air losses at the hands of IAF fighters. Western bias: Chuck Yeager's intolerable hatred India won the 1971 War so decisively that most Pakistanis do not dispute their entire defence forces capitulated in a matter of days. Over 93,000 Pakistan Army soldiers and officers were held for a year in Indian POW camps - cowering in fear from Bengali mobs - and it remains the single most humiliating episode in Pakistan's history. It was also the largest capitulation in history - greater than the surrender at Stalingrad of 91,000 German soldiers of General Paulus' Sixth Army. And yet a decorated American general claims that Pakistan won that war. Chuck Yeager, a WW II fighter pilot and the first person to travel faster than the speed of sound, is so besotted with Pakistan that he claimed in a tweet on September 8, 2016: "...Pakistan won. They are a sovereign nation. India did not annex them." Yeager's hostility goes a long way. In his autobiography, he wrote a lot of nasty things about Indians, including downright lies about the IAF's performance. Among the things he wrote was the air war lasted two weeks and the Pakistanis "kicked the Indians' ass", scoring a three-to-one kill ratio, knocking out 102 Russian-made Indian jets and losing 34 airplanes of their own. The reality is that it took the IAF just over a week to achieve complete domination of the subcontinent's skies. A measure of the IAF's air supremacy was the million-man open air rallies held by the Indian Prime Minister in northern Indian cities, a week into the war. This couldn't have been possible if Pakistani planes were still airborne. The IAF did lose a slightly larger number of aircraft (75 vs 58) but this was mainly because the Indians were flying a broad range of missions. While Pakistani pilots were obsessed with aerial combat, IAF tactics were highly sophisticated in nature, involving bomber escorts, tactical recce, ground attack and decoy runs to divert Pakistani interceptors away from the main targets. Plus, the IAF had to reckon with the dozens of modern aircraft being supplied to Pakistan by Muslim countries like Jordan, Turkey and the UAE. Also read: IAF refutes US report on F-16s, says shot one down during Feb 27 dogfight Most missions flown by Indian pilots were conducted by day and at low level, with the pilots making repeated attacks on well defended targets. Indian aircraft flew into Pakistani skies thick with flak, virtually non-stop during the 14-day war. Many Bengali guerrillas later told the victorious Indian Army that it was the sight of epic air battles fought over their skies by IAF pilots and the sight of Indian aircraft diving in on Pakistani positions that inspired them to fight. Indeed, Indian military historians like Chopra have painstakingly gathered the details of virtually every sortie undertaken by the IAF and PAF and have tabulated the losses and kills on both sides, in order to nail the outrageous lies that were peddled by the PAF and later gleefully published by Western writers. In reality the 1971 air war was a complete and utter rout for the PAF. According to a report by Indranil Banerjie, Rupak Chattopadhyay and Air Marshal (retired) C.V. Gole titled '1971 India-Pakistan War: The Air War', "By the end of the first week of the war, PAF fighters in the west appeared to have lost their will to fight. By this time, the IAF was repeatedly hitting secondary targets including railway yards, cantonments, bridges and other installations as well as providing close air support to the army wherever it was required. The most dangerous were the close air support missions which involved flying low and exposing aircraft to intense ground fire. The IAF lost the most aircraft on these missions as is proved by the high losses suffered by IAF Sukhoi-7 and Hunter squadrons. But their pilots flew sortie after sortie keeping up with the army and disrupting enemy troop and tank concentrations." Once it was known that the Indian Army was knocking at the gates of Dhaka, the PAF in the west virtually gave up flying. "During the last few days of the war, the IAF brass ordered attacks on PAF airfields with the sole purpose of drawing out their aircraft. But that rarely succeeded as the PAF aircraft for the most part remained secured inside their pens, refusing to come out and fight." Even the Pakistanis agree that the PAF was too scared to fight. Lt. Gen. A.A.K. Niazi, the commander of the Pakistan Army in East Pakistan, wrote in his book The Betrayal of East Pakistan: "While the enemy was free to fly over our territory, Air Marshal M. Rahim Khan kept himself and his air force hidden during the conflict." On December 11, with the PAF almost neutralised and the Indian Army scything through East Pakistan towards Dhaka, here's what Pakistan's Morning News published on its front page: "Indian forces in East Wing suffer significant losses." The blatant lying continued even after Niazi and his 93,000 soldiers were in Indian custody and Bengalis were celebrating the birth of Bangladesh. On December 17, the day after Pakistani forces had surrendered and the fighting had ended, here's what the newspaper Dawn headlined: "War Till Victory." You get the picture: the Pakistani military leadership and civilian elites will never admit they have lost to India. They need to assure the masses that the country is in safe hands and that India has been checkmated. Unfortunately, the jihadi fervour of the average Pakistani and the hatred of India and Hindus that is drilled into every Pakistani from childhood ensure that the people of Pakistan rarely question their military's competence - or the lack of it. The danger for Pakistan is that the complete denial of past defeats - and the refusal to analyse these setbacks - will continue to cost its armed forces dearly in future wars. (The author is a New Zealand-based defence and foreign affairs analyst) Also read: Indian Air Force shoots down Pakistan F-16 fighter jet: report Commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland is looking to set up more assembly plants overseas, including the CIS region and African countries, as part of plans to scale up its global operations, a top company official said. The company is banking on its new range of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) to help it enter new regions beyond its traditional stronghold such as the Middle East, SAARC countries and pockets of Africa. Also Read: Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Congress' new slogan for the polls is 'Ab Hoga NYAY' The Chennai-based Hinduja flagship firm is in the process of developing a new modular platform on which it plans to roll out its future medium and heavy products from next year. The company, which has earmarked a capex of Rs 1,500 crore for various projects during the current fiscal, is also working on a separate platform for light commercial vehicles (LCVs). The company expects to roll out the new range of products from April next year. "In some markets where volumes are promising, we can also put some assembly plants. But these would be established in a very cost-effective manner, rather putting up large manufacturing facilities," Ashok Leyland Chairman Dheeraj Hinduja told PTI in an interview. When asked if the company has identified some of the countries where it would like to set up such units, he said: "In Africa, we have looked at Kenya and Ivory Coast. Both of these countries are quite significant. We are considering some of the CIS countries as well." Also Read: I-T dept officials raid houses of Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath's close aides Hinduja said the company in some places might even consider partnerships whether it is local bodybuilders or people who might already have existing units. The new product range would add a lot more thrust for the company in new markets. "Our traditional markets have been the Middle East, SAARC countries and pockets of Africa. With the LCV and ICV range (Boss and Guru) we will be able to enter the ASEAN market as well. Putting all this together with the new range we see the growth in international markets coming in a much stronger way," Hinduja said. The company, which currently exports 10-12 per cent of its total production annually, expects the overseas shipments to rise up to 20 per cent over the next five years driven by the new range of products and entry into new markets. "We see it (exports out of total production) slowly move up to 15 per cent, even moving up to 20 per cent in the longer term. I would say within a time frame of five years we should get to 20 per cent," Hinduja said. Ashok Leyland currently has manufacturing operations across nine countries, including the UAE, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and the UK. The company is now among the top ten truck makers globally, besides being among the top five bus makers globally. Also Read: Turbulence hits aviation, hotel industries; disrupts holiday plans this season Dubai Investments Park, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dubai Investments and the regions unique integrated, commercial, industrial, and residential community, has signed a $86-million contract with ABB Industries to commission a new 132/11kv substation within the development. The 132/11kv substation from Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) is the seventh operational substation in total across DIP 1 and 2. Located in the heart of DIP 1, it will be energised this July. The contract, signed by DIP general manager Omar Al Mesmar and Dr Mostafa Al Guezeri, MD UAE, Gulf and Near East for ABB Industries, covers supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the 132/11kv substation. On the deal, Al Mesmar said: "This new substation will help us meet the demands of the businesses located in Dubai Investments Park. All sectors will be served from this substation and it will ensure the growth of logistics, residential, commercial and industrial sectors within DIP." "The substation shows our commitment to the many businesses in a wide variety of sectors who choose to make Dubai Investments Park their home," he stated. ABB Industries is an approved Dewa contractor and specialist in the field of 132 kv substation projects worldwide. Dubai Investments Park is a unique, self-contained mixed-use industrial, commercial and residential development operated by Dubai Investments Park Development Company. Spread across an area of 2300 hectares, it is a city within a city offering world-class infrastructure and outstanding facilities and services. As a business destination it offers industrial facilities for small, medium, and large-sized enterprises, a wide array of warehousing, a large space for staff accommodation, plus over 20 million sq ft of office space and showrooms, said the statement from the company. It is also a thriving community, with over 12,000 residential units and 120,000 residents as well as a university, six schools, five operational hotels, a state-of-the-art healthcare facility and various retail options, it added.-TradeArabia News Service About seven months after Narendra Modi government launched its mega healthcare scheme Ayushmann Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), the reduction in the overall cost of treatment for Rs 18.45 lakh patients was over 50 per cent, Indu Bhushan, CEO, AB-PMJAY has said. Speaking at the annual session of apex industry body Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in Delhi on Friday, Bhushan said the treatment cost, without the reduction facilitated by the collective bargaining power of the scheme would have been Rs 5500 crore, instead of the total spend of Rs 2500 crore. "Two third of this amount has gone to private sector, which will see a significant expansion in the future," he said. Also read: Congress poll manifesto promises to simplify GST, create a department to help startups According to Bhushan, successful rollout of Ayushman Bharat with its AB-PMJAY and primary healthcare components will result in a continuum of healthcare with technology-driven linkage between primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare, between private and public healthcare and patients' health records. He also said that the assurance to provide treatment to the poor will reduce treatment related impoverishment. "Currently around 6 crore people fall into poverty (due to out of pocket healthcare expenditure). This model makes sure impoverishment does not happen," he said. As of April 4, 2.91 crore beneficiary cards were generated for the scheme that is expected to cover 5 crore under-privileged people. Speaking on the occasion, Preeti Sudan, Union Health secretary said the central government has come out with a policy to encourage foreign direct investment in healthcare sector in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities and towns of the country. "We have a mechanism of viable gap funding too. State governments have to notify it now," Sudan said. On health research, Sudan said the government has attempted a paradigm shift in de-regularising clinical trials through a recent notification. "We have come out with new clinical trial rules which has provisions for deemed approvals, and clear compensation norms. We hope it will result in more research coming to India," she added. The secretary also sought suggestions from the stakeholders on the new rules as the processes of several exemptions prescribed under the new rules are yet to be finalised. Also read: What promises did the BJP make in its 2014 manifesto Also read: Congress manifesto: NYAY scheme to be tested for 6-9 months before rollout GST officers have started seeking clarification from companies whose tax payments did not match with the e-way bills generated, as revenue authorities start matching supplies data to check tax evasion, sources said. Touted as an anti-evasion measure, e-way bill system was rolled out on April 1, 2018, for moving goods worth over Rs 50,000 from one state to another. The same for intra or within the state movement was rolled out in a phased manner from April 15, 2018. Also Read: Turbulence hits aviation, hotel industries; disrupts holiday plans this season Following this, it has come to the notice of tax officers that some transporters are doing multiple trips by generating only a single e-way bill or not reflecting e-way bill invoices while filing sales return. It has also come to the notice that certain businesses are not generating e-way bills even as supplies are being made. Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the company which handles the technology backbone for GST, has started sharing details of e-way bills vis-a-vis taxes paid to help tax officers identify any discrepancy, sources added. In one of the letters issued by Ghaziabad GST commissionerate, a taxpayer has been asked to provide "clarification" within three days on the difference between taxes paid and the liability which the tax officer has ascertained after analysing sales return GSTR-3B and e-way bill data for the period October 2018 and January 2019. Matching of invoices of e-way bills with the sales shown in sales returns helps taxmen in assessing whether the supplies have been accurately shown in the returns and GST paid on the same. GSTN has also provided the facility to businesses to include details of e-way bills generated while filing the final monthly sales return under GSTR-1 to avoid double data entry. The government is banking on anti-evasion measures to meet its GST collection target for the current fiscal. For fiscal 2019-20, the government proposes to collect Rs 6.10 lakh crore from Central GST and Rs 1.01 lakh crore as compensation cess. The Integrated GST balance has been pegged at Rs 50,000 crore. Also Read: I-T dept officials raid houses of Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath's close aides AMRG & Associates Partner Rajat Mohan said tax officers have started using the pile of GSTN data retrieved through return filings and e-way bill mechanics to carve out a summary reconciliation statement of estimated tax liability, compelling businesses to justify the outward tax liabilities in a comprehensive manner. "Tax authorities would be at fault if they presume that reconciliation difference is due to tax evasion only. There be other reasons for this difference like clerical errors, cut off supplies and pre-delivery expiry of e-way bills," Mohan added. To further streamline the e-way bill system, GSTN is planning some changes, including auto calculation of route distance based on PIN code and blocking of generation of multiple e-way bills on one invoice/document. The matching of e-way bill data with that of tax payment is in addition to the analysis being done by GSTN by matching taxes paid in summary sales return GSTR-3B and final returns GSTR-1. Also, businesses whose GSTR-1 did not match with GSTR-2A, which is a purchase return auto-generated by the system from the seller's return, have been flagged by GSTN systems. Based on this, last year tax officers sent scrutiny notices to taxpayers seeking an explanation for the reason for the discrepancies. Also Read: Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Congress' new slogan for the polls is 'Ab Hoga NYAY' You ever stop to think about how far cake art has come in the last 10 years? No? Well, you're about to: (Bakingist, California) That's not embroidery thread, it's ICING. All of it! WHAAAAAT. When I first set out to find crafty cakes for this week I expected the usual sewing baskets and yarn balls, but let me tell you, Sweet friends: Craft cakes have come a loooooong way. (Lindy's Cakes, UK) This mosaic tile design looks like actual ceramic! So pretty! And tell me this doesn't look like a modern stained-glass lamp: (Maggie Austin Cake, Washington, D.C.) **drool** This cross-stitch cake juuust about broke my brain: (Ana Salinas, Brazil) Again, yes, really cake, with icing "thread"! THIS IS AMAZING. Would you believe I even found a cake for mixed-media scrapbookers? (Larissa Ubartas, Germany) Tell me this doesn't scream Tim Holtz to you. Look at that verdigris! I always love it when bakers use icing "paint": (Katarzynka Sztuka Cukrowa, Poland) And I want to see more fondant quilling, bakers! Like this! (Cecilia Campana Cake Art, Italy) CHOP CHOP. Here comes another tile cake, this time with a gorgeous hand-painted design: (Antonio Ventieri, Italy) I know we're supposed to be focusing on the tile, but I love all the cheery lemons with it! So sweet with that blue. And finally, my friends, I found not one, but TWO cakes this week that completely fooled me. I don't say that lightly, either; I consider myself an expert at sussing out what's cake and what's not. AND YET: (Magical Edible Art, Canada) This one totally got me. It it wasn't on a cake board I would have scrolled right on past. As it was, I though someone crocheted a cake & stuck it on a board to be cute. NOPE IT'S REALLY CAKE. And while we're all reeling over that, here's an even bigger one that I 100% *refused* to believe was cake until I visited the baker's site: (American Cake Decorating Magazine, tutorial here) Frankly, I'm still suspicious, lol. Look at this close-up and tell me you'd ever in a million years think it was made of sugar: Mind: BLOWN. Happy Sunday, everyone! Here's hoping it's crafty and happy and Sweet. ***** Do you shop Amazon? Then how about clicking through my affiliate link to shop? USA, UK, Canada. Visiting Amazon through those links will help support the site, and costs you nothing. Thanks, guys! And from my other blog, Epbot: news, latest-news A wacky, old aunt has a plan to cut down children's screen time. But Aunt Matilda isn't real. She is a fictional character and the brainchild of a former Canberra lawyer who is about to launch a new business aimed at getting families to turn off their devices and switch on to the world around them. From: Aunt Matilda founder Carly Saeedi said when she was a child, she was warned too much television would make her eyes go square. Born and raised in Canberra, she speaks fondly of a lazy childhood spent outside. "I'm in my mid-30s and I'm in the last generation that will grow up relatively screen-free," she said. "I mean, we had TV, which we were told would make our eyes go square, but we didn't have it on demand like kids do today where they can just sit there watching show after show after show." Mrs Saeedi had strict limits placed on the amount of time she was allowed to spend looking at screens, but these days, many children are unable to tear themselves away. As revealed by the Sunday Canberra Times last weekend, Australian Bureau of Statistics research shows most Australian children aged between five and 14 are participating in screen-based activities outside school for 10 or more hours each week. While her children loved being outside to the point where the family had to stop while driving through Fadden recently to allow five-year-old Anya to climb a tree she'd spotted kids' increasing obsession with screens got Mrs Saeedi thinking over the summer. The mother of four decided that instead of returning to the legal profession, she would start From: Aunt Matilda, which launches next month in time for families who sign up to receive their first delivery in early June. Mrs Saeedi said for a $38.50 monthly subscription fee, families would receive a box of themed items from "Aunt Matilda" that encouraged active play. The concept was aimed particularly at children aged between three and 11. "It's a bit of an old-school experience," she told the Sunday Canberra Times. "A lot of kids these days don't even get mail, so they'll have to wait for it and it won't just be available on demand. "They'll get a letter from 'Aunt Matilda' with every box. I really want it to be like an adventure." Mrs Saeedi said themes for the monthly deliveries would include countries, fairytales and elements of nature, and each month's theme would remain a mystery until the box arrived. The contents of the boxes would be sourced locally, wherever possible, to support local businesses and would include eco-friendly products, artisan items, wooden toys, healthy recipes, musical instruments and books. "It'll be completely natural, so no plastic, no batteries, no glitter, no electronics," she said. New national guidelines launched on Thursday recommend no more than two hours of sedentary screen time a day for kids. The 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Young People also urge parents to set a good example with their own screen habits, and advocate for at least one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day. Professor Tony Okely, a physical activity expert at the University of Wollongong, said it was important to clarify that the guidelines referred only to recreational screen time, and did not refer to using electronics for educational purposes. "The evidence shows that too much recreational screen time when you are sedentary [sitting or lying down] is associated with poorer health outcomes and a negative relationship with obesity, psychosocial health and cognitive development in particular," he said. "It can also compromise the quality of sleep if its done too close to bedtime or during the night." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/4d057d0b-775c-45c2-87a9-3302ff9c71e7/r0_258_4752_2943_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news, The ACT government is working to re-design the rates assessment notices that created confusion for some Canberra homeowners by making it appear as though the full year's bill had to be paid at once, rather than in instalments. Last year, the government issued rates notices with "PLEASE PAY NOW" printed in the top right-hand corner in a large box, along with the total bill for the year. The various payment options were listed in a less prominent area on the back of the notice. Residents including Watson man George Gamkrelidze, who wrote to a letter to the editor in The Canberra Times to warn fellow Canberrans, derided the notices as misleading. ACT Greens treasury spokeswoman Caroline Le Couteur called on the government to make the notices clearer, in a motion brought forward in the Legislative Assembly. Ms Le Couteur said a major trigger that led people to move from being financially stretched to being in financial hardship was the arrival of bills like rates notices, and it was crucial that payment options were made as clear as possible. With the motion having passed the Assembly, an ACT government spokeswoman said the government was addressing the issues raised. The spokeswoman said the government had aimed to make rates notices "simpler and clearer for Canberra homeowners to read and understand" with the change in format last year. But she conceded the new-look notices sent to households in 2018 had created uncertainty for some ratepayers. "The government has heard and understood feedback from the community that the re-design of the rates notices has resulted in confusion for some Canberra householders," the spokeswoman said. "All annual rates notices have now been issued for the 2018-19 year, but we are using this feedback to inform further design work on the notices for future years, including addressing the issues raised through the Greens Assembly motion." The territory government has already taken action on another aspect of Ms Le Couteur's motion, which called for the government to write to all residential ratepayers who received concessions to explain the payment options available to them, including deferrals. These letters were sent to some 13,700 Canberra households last month. "Life in Canberra can be a tale of two cities," Ms Le Couteur said. "While Canberra is a high-income community with a growing economy, a substantial number of Canberrans struggle financially and rely on federal government assistance payments to make ends meet. By ensuring that those eligible concession holders who pay rates know what supports are available to them, were working to ensure that the system is fairer for all. The next batch of ACT government rates assessment notices is due to be issued in August 2019. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/3ccc2dc8-ecbf-455f-bfb8-8955f00150ef/r0_16_329_202_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news A parliamentary committee has urged the federal government to keep a close eye on the development of a futuristic technology that could make it possible for Canberrans to travel to the capital cities of four Australian states within an hour. In a new report, the House of Representatives' standing committee on infrastructure, transport and cities said it would be "a little premature" for the government to make a formal commitment to the development of hyperloop technology in Australia. Nevertheless, it described the concept as having "significant potential" and said the federal government "should keep abreast of developments ... with a view to exploiting its potential in the future". In December, the Sunday Canberra Times revealed US company Hyperloop Transportation Technologies' vision for an "ultra high-speed", tube-based transportation system capable of fixing what it described as Australia's "broken" public transport system. According to estimates in the company's submission to the standing committee's inquiry into automated mass transit, a trip between Canberra and Sydney would take just 14 minutes. Canberrans could also reach Melbourne in 23 minutes, Brisbane in 51 minutes and Adelaide in 56 minutes. The longest trip on the proposed network, which would also link to regional areas, would be a journey of one hour and 47 minutes between Brisbane and Adelaide. With a maximum projected speed of 1223km/hr, the hyperloop system proposed for Australia would involve pressurised capsules magnetically levitating in low-pressure tubes propelled with "nearly zero" friction. The system, which would be faster than any ground transportation now in existence even at half its maximum speed, would be powered by solar panels on the roof of the tubes and at stations. It would include passenger and cargo capsules, with each passenger capsule able to carry 38 people. While the concept is undoubtedly futuristic, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is already testing and commissioning similar systems all over the world. Wesley Heron, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies' head of business development in Australia, told a standing committee public hearing the hyperloop technology was "not a pipedream, somewhere over the rainbow". "It's being designed and built in a project in Abu Dhabi this year," he said. The company's co-founder and chairman Bibop Gresta said it had another 12 contracts in different stages of implementation around the world, including in France and Germany. Mr Heron and Mr Gresta have proposed a public-private partnership to build a hyperloop system in Australia, saying that before work could start, they would need the government to commit to investing in feasibility studies and hyperloop "innovation hubs". Asked how long it would take to have a hyperloop up and running in Australia, Mr Gresta told standing committee chairman John Alexander "we could do it in four years". He told the committee studies suggested a return on investment period of between eight and 15 years. "We're stuck in traffic, bumper to bumper. We're losing our time 10 minutes here, 30 minutes or one hour there," Mr Gresta said. "The hyperloop promises to change our lives, not by going faster but by bringing people closer faster. "The Australian population is ageing. Many people live in rural areas. Imagine giving them the opportunity to easily access healthcare specialists in the cities. "Imagine giving Australians affected by housing affordability the change to live in the country and commute to work in the city in minutes." Hyperloop Transportation Technologies was formed in November 2013 and is one of several companies racing to be the first to bring billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's hyperloop concept to reality. Another company, Virgin Hyperloop One, has built a full-scale test system in the US state of Nevada. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/9d1149b6-8839-449d-9daa-bbc5cc5c2e3d/r0_140_7000_4095_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg Help India! TCN News Dalit Adivasi Adhikar Andolan released a 10 point manifesto for Safaikaramcharis to ensure that political parties take note and implement their demands. Support TwoCircles The Safaikaramcharis who are mostly manual scavengers lead pathetic lives in sub-human conditions and as many as thousands have even lost their lives due to occupational hazards. Yet no political party has taken up their issue to ensure safety measures or suitable compensation or their right to a life of dignity. The manifesto begins with a demand for an unconditional apology from the Prime Minister for the historic injustice done through manual scavenging. And to release every individual whether it is a child, man or woman from this labour in a time bound manner. The manifesto also demands that the sewerage deaths of the safaikarramcharis should be recorded and brought out in public along with the measures taken by the Government to stop these deaths. Implementation of Article 21 of the constitution of India which guarantees the right to Life is another point in the manifesto. This right to be given in the form of issuance of RL 21 card . This card should ensure the safai karamchais and their dependants access to quality education, healthcare, livelihood along with all other social security schemes and entitlements. Demand for 1% budget allocation exclusively for the welfare of Safai Karamcharis from the Union budget; a special session in the parliament to stop sewer deaths and liberation and rehabilitation of persons engaged in manual scavenging are another two demands in the manifesto. The manifesto even demands a separate Ministry to release and rehabilitate manual scavengers headed by the Prime Minister. In order to increase the accountability the district magistrate should be held responsible for every sceptic or sewer death. Compensation on the death of a worker should be enhanced to 1 crore a one time payment and subsequent grant of 50 lakhs for rehabilitation. Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. Long-time Nationwide Chief Executive Officer Steve Rasmussen plans to retire later in 2019, the company disclosed. Rasmussens last official day as CEO will be Oct. 1, 2019, capping more than 10 years leading the Ohio-based insurer. Nationwide noted, however, that he plans to be available to the company through years end to enable a smooth transition. Already, Nationwides board of directors is searching for a successor, backed by an independent CEO succession advisor. Nationwides strong heritage and diverse portfolio have positioned us well, but its our associates that set Nationwide apart and make our company great. Nationwides future is bright and the leadership team is strong, Rasmussen said in prepared remarks. I look forward to working with my successor on a smooth transition as the company starts a new chapter from a position of strength in every aspect products, service, talent, technology, innovation and culture. Nationwide, in a release announcing Rasmussens planned retirement, credited him with enabling significant growth at the insurer, which now has 30,000 employees and booked nearly $47 billion in total sales in 2018. Today, it is one of the nations largest insurance and financial services companies. Rasmussen has overseen a number of key acquisitions that broadened Nationwides market share, the insurer noted. These include the merger with Harleysville Insurance in 2012, which solidified Nationwides position as a commercial lines industry leader and the purchase of Jefferson National in 2017, which expanded Nationwides registered investment advisor distribution and fee-based product offerings. As well, Rasmussen led the consolidation of multiple brands to leverage the iconic Nationwide name and Nationwide is on your side-tag line, elevating the companys profile across all of its product offerings. In addition, he established a focus on innovation and emerging businesses to position the company for the future, Nationwide said. Nationwide also pointed out that the insurer, under Rasmussens leadership, has been widely recognized for its strong culture of engagement and inclusion. Nationwide has been named one of Fortune Magazines 100 Best Companies to Work For, a Great Place to Work by Gallup and a best place to work for LGBTQ equality by the Human Rights Campaign. Nationwide also has been honored by the National Urban League, Black Enterprise, Latina Style and Catalyst, among others. A Long History With Nationwide Rasmussen has been CEO at Nationwide since February 2009, and has spent his 45-year career at the insurers family of companies. He was president and chief operating officer of the companys Property and Casualty insurance division from 2003 to 2009. He first joined Nationwide in 1998 as a result of the merger with Allied Insurance, where he served as president and chief operating officer. He joined Allied in 1974. As Nationwide noted, Rasmussen has also been an active leader outside of Nationwide, serving on the boards of the Nationwide Childrens Hospital, OhioHealth, American Electric Power and Catalyst. He is also a member of the Columbus Partnership, has previously served on the boards of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, National Urban League and the Insurance Information Institute, and co-chaired the United Way of Central Ohio Alexis de Tocqueville Vingt-Cinq Society campaign. Tim Corcoran, Nationwides board chairman, credited Rasmussen for helping to evolve Nationwide into what it is today. His invaluable leadership guided the companys transition to one brand, strengthened our core businesses, evolved our distribution approach, prioritized investments in innovation and emerging businesses, and sharpened our focus on customers, Corcoran said. He asserted that Rasmussen and his strong bench of leaders has helped ready Nationwide for long-term success even as the board searches for his successor as part of a deliberate and thoughtful succession planning process. Source: Nationwide Photo: The Canadian Press Camryn Bloom, 6, sits on the shoulders of family friend Paul Pellerin at Queen's Park to protest the provincial government's recently announced changes to education. Throngs of demonstrators covered the lawn in front of the Ontario legislature Saturday afternoon to protest the Progressive Conservative government's changes to the provinces education system. Many in the crowd carried signs declaring "Cuts hurt kids" or "Standing together for students," while others banged on drums or chanted slogans denouncing the government's measures. The Tories under Premier Doug Ford have come under fire for recent changes including increasing class sizes, making students take more online courses and overhauling the province's autism program. Sam Hammond, the head of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, opened his speech with a call-and-response session with the boisterous crowd. "Work with me here: If you're here to stand up for and fight for children with autism and their parents.... If you're here to protect publicly funded education.... Say 'I am!'" Hammond shouted to raucous cheers. Hammond's union is one of five labour groups, representing education workers across Ontario, that organized Saturday's rally. The ETFO said earlier in a statement that thousands of people were expected to attend and more than 170 buses were bringing teachers to the rally from as far away as Sudbury. The event followed mass student walkouts that took place across Ontario on Thursday, which Education Minister Lisa Thompson characterized as "political stunts" encouraged by unions. Hammond forcefully denied that claim on Saturday, saying the student activism on display showed the province's future is in good hands. "Don't forget, Doug Ford: those students are going to be voting in the next provincial election. And we're voting with them!" he said. In a statement Friday, Thompson said the government would not be distracted by what she called "union tactics" such as protests and rallies. "The fact is that Ontarios teacher unions have been handed control of the education system for the past 15 years," Thompson said. "Despite what unions say, their priority has not been student success and as a result our province's math scores are dropping and our students find themselves falling further and further behind." Prime Minister of Armenia continues to fight against the war party, and this fight is so important for Nikol Pashinin that this week he made an unprecedented step in the history of his country - he appeared before the court as a witness to talk about an incident during the 2017 election campaign. This incident was a gross violation of public order with the use of violence against head of the election headquarters of the Yelk block in 2017, Hayk Sarkisyan. Arthur Ayvazyan, who had previously been sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing the most important witness in the October 27 case (shooting in the parliament in 1999), is accused of attacking Sarkisyan. According to Armenian media, speaking as a witness in the court of under Yerevan's jurisdiction, Pashinyan said: "It was in the evening of March 31, 2017, the last day of election campaign before the parliamentary elections. They called me and said that an armed attack was committed on several members of our headquarters, in particular on Hayk Sarkisyan, who was chief of staff. Before the incident, I saw remaining campaign booklets in the headquarters, and asked Hayk to distribute them... Then they called me and told about the incident..." Prime Minister said that after that phone call, he went to the campaign headquarters, where he learned about the details of what happened. Staff members left the building and saw that there was no flag on the mobile headquarters car, in addition, there was paint on their promotional poster. They tried to find out who removed the flag, and one citizen said that he did it. He said that we had no right to use this flag. After that, our people asked him to return the flag, and citizen who took the flag hit Hayk Sarkisyan. Members of our headquarters intervened to prevent further strikes. This man pointed a weapon at Hayk, one of those present quickly responded, hit his arm and took away the weapon. We called the police, told what had happened, Pashinyan said. He explained his presence at the court session is necessary because every citizen of Armenia, after being notified by the court or investigator, should come to the court. At first glance, Pashinyan's decision seems to be another populist PR stunt by people's premier. However, it shouldn't be forgotten that the Prime Minister began judicial revolution long ago. Even at a rally in Yerevan on August 17, he declared that the old cadres in judicial system interfere with justice. By that he meant Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan's appointees - a group of Karabakh separatists - a war party that came to power through blood. At the same August rally, Pashinyan announced that the case on events of March 1, 2008, was finally fully resolved, and none of the perpetrators could escape. Interestingly, after the riots in Yerevan in 2008, Pashinyan himself was put on the wanted list and sentenced to 7 years in prion on charges of organization of those events. However, after a year and a half, he was released under amnesty. The fight against representatives of the previous government began last summer. The Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan made a decision to arrest second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan. CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov, former Defense Minister Michael Harutyunyan, ex-MP, General Manvel Grigoryan, former Defense Minister Michael Arutyunyan were also accused... Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, who is on a working visit to Jordan, met with representatives of the Armenian community of the country on Saturday, News.am reported citing the President's office. During the meeting, Sarkissian noted that the fact that Armenians live in the different countries of the world and scattered worldwide should be considered an advantage, as there are few nations in the world can say: we are a small country, but a world nation. Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said on Sunday that she would be accompanying Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen during his visit to Moscow in the near future, Urdu Point reported. In late March, Bulat Khaydarov, the press attache at the Russian Embassy in Vienna, told Sputnik that the visit of the Austrian head of state was being prepared but no exact dates had been fixed. The diplomat, however, noted that the visit would most likely take place in the next few months. "No, I will be accompanying the federal president," Karin Kneissl told the ORF2 broadcaster when a journalist suggested that she would not travel to the Russian capital with Van der Bellen. Kneissl paid a two-day working visit to Russia in mid-March. I am still trying to read the leaves in the bottom of the tea cup and, while the immediate view is still foggy, I sense a dramatic change coming in the thus futile efforts to salvage public education in Chattanooga. The most telling clue? Last week Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos met in a closed-door round table with 30 of those across the state who realize our children are our future and at least six of the invited in the room were from Hamilton County. In the latest school ratings provided by the state this spring, 48.3 percent of Hamilton County students need remedial work in math and 35.2 percent in reading. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission report was prepared for the state legislature and, not surprisingly, 46 percent of all students who go on to college require remedial work in math and another 30 percent in reading. A new education initiative, Hamilton Flourishing, was well-represented at the Governors roundtable as Governor Lees educational saving-account plan was approved by a House committee. DeVos has maintained a strong stance in giving families a school choice and freedom in education and the visit with Governor Lee left her thrilled about doing the right thing for every kid and every kids future. Hamilton Flourishing, which is now being led by Doug Daughery, is a conservative effort that has emerged since a leftist group, UnifiEd, was outed as a thinly-guised political action sham. Among those at the Governors roundtable last week were Hugh O. Macellan, Ted Alling, Hugh Morrow, Val Armstrong and Fred Decosimo. Suffice it to say than none of Chattanoogas liberal elites were present and it appears Hamilton County just got a different sway. As the HCDE diversity plan has faltered, the new banner of the liberal elites is white privilege and its state battleground is Williamson County, the affluent Nashville suburb. A series of in-service films are questionable, and in early May, a couple of Tolerance Teacher Workshops will be conducted in Franklin by the liberal Southern Poverty Law Center out of Montgomery, Ala. Williamson County School Superintendent Mike Looney has been roundly criticized and there are claims the super and the school board may have broken the law. Sources on the state level predict it is only a matter of time before the racially-charged distraction reaches Hamilton County. I hope we dont do this, school board member Rhonda Thurman told the news outlet. This has no place in the school house and we dont need to be teaching anything that divides us. I dont know what this has to do with educating students, she added and, in the mind of Tennessee Star political editor Steve Gill, Thurman is right. Based upon the poor performance of Chattanooga schools, as reflected in the recent THEC Report and their TVASS scores, Chattanooga taxpayers are being grossly misrepresented by a school board that seems more focused on producing social justice warriors than students who can achieve high levels of competence in reading, writing, science and math. Truer words were never spoken and many in the school system claim basic education has become overwhelmed by the dummies high on the food chain. UnifiEd, which even has a Political Action committee, grievously undermined the true intent of education in Chattanooga, and in the paraphrase of one county educator, We want our schools back. In Governor Lees new plan, $75 million would be set aside in each of the next three years to enable poverty-zone children to seek and attend a better school outside their district. Opponents fear such school vouchers will be a great threat to funding in public education, but proponents counter what is now being done has the same failure rate since integration in the late 60s. One thing is for certain. What we are doing on the local and state level is not working, and neither are the social-justice warriors' that are today perceived to be meaningful members of the school board. royexum@aol.com Superstore is one show on TV that aims to be relatable to the average person. In its promo, it notes, Youve shopped there, maybe youve even worked there. Superstore is a fun and satirical look at the lives of a group of employees at the local big box store, Cloud 9. The show features great writers, a standout cast, and plenty of laughs. In its fourth season, Superstore has gained a loyal following. The show just returned from its fall break and now fans are wondering: Will Superstore return for season 5 or has it been canceled? The shows cast is plain funny Superstore features a few familiar faces. America Ferrera stars as Amy, one of Cloud 9s managers. Fans will recognize Ferrera from her four-year stint as the titular character in the ABC comedy Ugly Betty. Ugly Betty showed off Ferraras charm and comedic timing and made her one of the most loved actresses on TV. Ferrera is joined by Ben Feldman who plays Amys co-worker Jonah. Feldman is best known for his work on the Lifetime show Drop Dead Diva and his time on Mad Men, the latter of which he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Star in a Drama Series. Rounding out the cast is Lauren Ash, Colton Dunn, and Nico Santos. Superstore comes to us from the same creative mind that produced The Office. Justin Spitzer has a history of creating popular shows that know how to make audiences laugh. In addition to The Office and Superstore, Spitzer has written for Scrubs and has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy three times. Superstore thrives on being relatable Its obvious that the creators want to present a series that represents a group of people that is relatable. The show focuses on average people, working an average job, dealing with average, everyday issues. The shows star, Ben Feldman told UPI that it is this focus on everyday people that makes Superstore a success. Feldman told the website, Were not approaching it as a different species of human. We are all the same. Some people wear vests and live in Missouri and some people wear tuxes and live in Hollywood. But we all talk about whats going on in the news. We have relationships. We make mistakes. Were all human and were just reflecting that. I think its comforting for people to see themselves. Superstore is a show that doesnt have you feeling bad about the size of your house or how much money you bring in. Its a show that you can truly sit down and laugh with because, chances are, youve been there. The show is holding its own amongst tough competition Superstore | Evans Vestal Ward/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank The fact that Superstore has managed to survive in its current time slot is a testament to the quality of the show and cast. The show airs on NBC Thursday nights at 8 pm. That puts it in direct competition with ratings monsters The Big Bang Theory and Greys Anatomy. But Superstore has managed to bring in strong ratings, despite its formidable competition. The show averages a 1.4 rating among viewers 18-48 and 4.4 million viewers overall. Will Superstore return for season 5? NBC announced in early March that the popular comedy will be returning for season 5 next year. Co-presidents of programming at NBC, Lisa Katz and Tracey Pakosta said, Week after week Justin Spitzer, our amazing writers, and cast and crew masterfully deliver a comedy that not only makes us laugh but speaks to the larger issues of the day. Season 4 debuted on October 4, 2018, so fans can expect season five to hit screens sometime in late September or early October. With Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile set to premiere on Netflix in May, much attention has been directed at Zac Efron concerning his portrayal of Ted Bundy. However, while Efron will portray the notoriously charming and manipulative serial killer, much of the film is told from Bundys Ex-fiance Elizabeth Kloepfers perspective. Lily Collins | Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images Lily Collins portrays Elizabeth Kloepfer: the girlfriend who refused to believe that the man she loved could be such a heinous murderer; thus, according to Variety, Lily Collins did not look at any crime scene pictures before filming. She knew such a decision would have been in discord with the real-life Elizabeth. However, this does not mean Collins did not adequately prepare. Collins likely prepared too much for this role, as she admitted to waking up in the middle of the night from awful nightmares for consecutive weeks before filming. In an interview with Variety, Lily Collins sat down to discuss the movie, her portrayal of Elizabeth, and the various responsibilities and daunting nature that come with such a role. Lily Collins: Why she needed to flip through family photo albums and read Ted Bundys love letters to Elizabeth Kloepfer While those who never knew Ted Bundy personally only see in him a manipulative charmer who admitted to killing 30 women, those who know him would have never seen it coming. Bundy was a friendly neighborhood fella. He was charming and sweet. With a trustworthy smile and a polite demeanor, Bundy didnt scream killer, which is what makes his story all the more haunting. Lily Collins gets to play one of the many individuals fooled by Bundys charm; specifically, she portrays the woman who still engaged the man amidst all the criminal accusations. Kloepfer was so certain, based on Bundys love, affection, and devotion, that her fiance was not a killer. Why? Maybe Bundys love letters played a role. According to Daily Mail, Lily Collins visited Elizabeth Kloepfer home as part of her preparation for the role. She met with both Elizabeth and her daughter. She spoke with both of them, looked at family photo albums, and read handwritten love letters from Bundy. Lily read the letters and turned through pages in various photo albums for she wanted to experience what [it] felt like to be Elizabeth, not the press, or the general public, or the police. Rather, the woman who, for too long, could not see beyond her admiration. It was as if Bundy had placed a veil over her awareness. This was a gift that Bundy wielded in the worst way imaginable. Lily Collins goes onto explain that, for months before filming began, she woke up every night at 3 or 4 am for a month. She told Variety, I was woken up with visions of destruction around rooms, logs, and broken glass, as reported by Daily Mail. Playing a serial killers fiance is no easy task and the emotional distress that ensued definitely placed Collins, while traumatic, in the place she needed to be to deliver what is destined to be a equally captivating and convincing performance. Who else will star alongside Zac Efron and Lily Collins in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile? While Lily Collins and Zac Efron will be at the center of this films success, the supporting ensemble is not to be dismissed. Jim Parsons plays Florida Prosecutor Larry Simpson on a mission to bring down Bundy. John Malkovich plays judge Edward Cowart, presiding over the case. Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense, Forrest Gump, Secondhand Lions), James Hetfield (co-founder of Metallica), Grace Victoria Cox (Heathers, Under the Dome), and Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) round out the main cast members. When we first met the Duggar family years ago, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were firmly planted in Arkansas and not much has changed since then. A few members of the family, like Josh Duggar, have moved out of the state, but theyve since found their way back home near mom and dad. And fans are pretty happy that all of the family members live near each other, too, as it makes the possibility of family photos all the more plausible. The Duggars arent the only huge Christian fundamentalist family on reality TV anymore, either. We know the Bates family for also having 19 children (though many fans noted they seem to be way more laid-back than the Duggars ever were). And the Bates are primarily based out of Tennessee. It seems some members of the Duggar and Bates families have announced theyre moving and fans noticed the simultaneous timing. Heres whos going where and what fans have to say about it. Jinger Duggar announced shes moving to Los Angeles If theres any Duggar family member that fans always thought would fly the coop, its Jinger Duggar. This rebellious Duggar has discussed her excitement for big-city life in the past. And while it was always squashed by Michelle Duggar, Jinger and her husband, Jeremy Vuolo, are finally accomplishing their dreams and heading out west. As they wrote on their family blog, Through much prayer and counsel, the next step for our family is to relocate to Los Angeles to attend Grace Community Church as Jeremy pursues graduate studies at The Masters Seminary. Fans seem ultra excited for Jinger and Jeremy to finally make their big move, as theyve discussed the possibility in the past and have already been making small steps to find their own path apart from the rest of the Duggars. We know they already were out of Arkansas and living in Laredo, Texas, prior to their announcement, and it looks like theyll be the only Duggars to ever have moved to the West Coast. Micheal Bates is also moving, but back toward home to Tennessee Jinger and Jeremy arent the only ones moving, as noted before. Michael Bates, the oldest daughter in the Bates family, is also making a big move. Unlike Jinger, however, shes not moving further away from her family. Instead, In Touch Weekly notes shes moving back to Tennessee in order to pursue nursing school. As she wrote on social media, To build on the college degree I currently have, Tennessee looked like the best and most affordable option for schooling. So we are now in the process of moving to TN! As one fan noted on the Counting On Reddit page, Is it Fundie Moving Season? First Jinger and Jeremy are moving to Los Angeles and now two of the Bates are moving back to Tennessee. And it seems Jinger is also excited for Michael to start this new chapter of her life, too. As she commented on her Instagram, Wow! So excited for you all! Many think Jessa Duggar could be next to move The Duggar family | D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Extra If it really is Fundie Moving Season, as the Reddit user called it, then that means perhaps we can expect yet another move, too. And some fans suspected it could be Jessa Duggar whos set to pack her bags next. Jessa and Ben Seewald have two children, and shes currently pregnant with her third child whos due this spring. Jessa and Jinger are ultra close, and some suspected that perhaps Jinger could sway the Seewald family to move out west with her and Jeremy. Unfortunately, fans will have to keep on dreaming if they want Jessa to move. In Touch Weekly reports when one fan asked her on social media if she had any plans to move to a bigger space to accommodate her growing family, Jessa responded with, We are staying put for now! If we are still here in a few years, we have a carport under our roofline that we may end up closing in for a bit more square footage. Jessa has also recently spruced her home and really seems to love it there, so it seems like well have to look toward the other Duggar and Bates family members to see who may move next. Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Its always gratifying to see bullies put in their place! Of all the stars on the hit show NCIS: Los Angeles, Hetty Lange is one of the most beloved. The character of Hetty is played by the actress Linda Hunt and she absolutely nails the role. When Hetty was absent from the series for several episodes this season, fans began to worry that shed been written off the show and demanded to have her back. Its clear that NCIS: Los Angeles devotees couldnt imagine a world without Hetty in it. But sadly, the 4 foot 9 inch actress recently admitted that she used to get teased for her height when she was a child. So sad! At least as an Academy Award winning television actress, Linda Hunt gets the last laugh. Linda Hunt | Ron P. Jaffe/CBS via Getty Images Why is Linda Hunt so petite? Linda Hunt hails from Westport, Connecticut where she lived a fairly normal childhood with her parents. But in a CBS Sunday Morning interview, Hunt admits that she got bullied by other children because of her medical condition. In the interview, it was revealed that Linda Hunt has a rare form of dwarfism that kept her from growing any taller than her current height. And the other kids were merciless towards her for being different. Everybody either wanted to take care of me or push me around, you know? she said. I was teased a lot, sure I was, of course. Fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, everybody was taking their spurts except me. I was not growing up, Hunt said. But even though she was an outcast amongst her peers, Linda Hunts parents were always supportive of her. I was so lucky my parents were encouraging on every level, she said. Linda Hunt | Richard Cartwright/CBS via Getty Images How did she break into acting? Linda Hunt may have had a hard time figuring out where she belonged socially, but when it came to her career, she discovered her calling early on. After Hunt saw the Broadway production of Peter Pan, she knew she belonged in the spotlight. It was bigger than life, she said during an interview. In some sense, I longed to be bigger than life, because I wasnt. Even though Lindas father was supportive of his little girl, he did worry about her not getting cast in any roles. But it turns out he neednt have fretted not only does Linda Hunt play the role of Hetty on NCIS: Los Angeles, she also won an Oscar for her work in The Year of Living Dangerously and has been in several other notable productions. Linda Hunt | Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic Why did Linda Hunt leave NCIS: Los Angeles? Fans were concerned when Hetty didnt appear on a few episodes of the show. But it turns out Linda Hunt was taking a break for a very good reason. She was in a car accident and focused on recovering from injuries sustained from it. Luckily, Linda is fine now and finally made her return to the show. Hunt explained that she loves working on NCIS and has no plans of leaving anytime soon. Hooray! Princess Diana and Prince Charles got divorced in 1996 after their four-year separation. With divorce still fresh on Dianas mind, she refused to wear an iconic designer for a heartbreaking reason. Keep reading to get all the details on the designer Diana wouldnt wear after her divorce from Prince Charles. Australian designer Jayson Brundson told Harpers Bazaar Australia why Princess Diana would wear a specific designer after her divorce. Brundson went to the Ritz Carlton in Double Bay to help the princess get ready for a hospital charity event. Hairdresser Joh Bailey, who was Dianas hairdresser for the event, invited Brundson because he knew he was a big fan of Dianas. Princess Diana| Neil Munns PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images [] After Joh had finished her hair she had to get ready for a hospital visit and she said Im going to wear a cream Versace skirt suit. It was a very fitted jacket and pencil skirt, and she said, but I dont know what accessories to wear with it,' Bundson told Harpers Bazaar Australia. Joh then said, well Jaysons really good at these things so why dont you ask him? and I was kind of put on the spot. So she said, alright, well Ill go and show you what Ive got.' The designer Diana refused to wear She went back to her bedroom and she came out holding like handfuls of shoes and bags and just dumped them all down on the couch. Then said, What do you think? so I went through them all and I found a pair of Chanel shoes, and I said, Well these would look great with the Versace, and she said No, I cant wear linked Cs, the double C. So I asked why, and she said, its Camilla and Charles,' Bundson said. Instead of the Chanel shoes, she wore a pair by Gucci. The timing was important It was definitely the timing, it being post-divorce, Brundson said of Dianas decision to abstain from wearing the Chanel shoes. She would have seen linked Cs and they would have just reminded her of Charles and Camilla. The shoes were quite boldly Chanel, I think they had gold linked Cs on them. And I think for photo optics, people would have honed in on that considering it was so fresh after the divorce as well, he added. The divorce Princess Dianas divorce from Prince Charles came after years of drama surrounding Charles relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles. Charles met Camilla in the 1970s and the two maintained their relationship for decades before getting married in a civil ceremony in 2005. Camilla wasnt considered wife material by the royal family so Charles had to find a more suitable match. Enter Princess Diana. Charles and Diana started dating in 1980 and got married the following year in one of the biggest royal weddings ever. The first time they met, Diana was sixteen years old and Charles was dating Dianas sister, Lady Sarah Spencer. In tape recordings with royal biographer Andrew Morton, Princess Diana discussed her marriage with Prince Charles and his affair with Camilla. She talked about one instance in particular when she confronted Camilla. At the time of publication, no one knew Mortons source was actually Princess Diana herself. That piece of information was released later. Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles | Anwar Hussein/WireImage I was terrified of her. I said, I know whats going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that, Diana told Morton. She said to me: Youve got everything you ever wanted. Youve got all the men in the world fall in love with you and youve got two beautiful children, what more do you want? So I said, I want my husband. And I said, Im sorry Im in the way and it must be hell for both of you. But I do know whats going on. Dont treat me like an idiot. The Brown family of Sister Wives fame are officially residents of Flagstaff, Arizona. While there was much debate within the family if now was the time to move away from Las Vegas, they picked up in the oppressive July heat, packed up four moving fans and hit the road. Nearly a year out from the big move, they are settling into life in the Arizona city, but there is one question that is on everyones mind; are the residents of Flagstaff, Arizona happy about their newest neighbors? Why did the Brown family leave Las Vegas? The Browns settled down in Las Vegas after fleeing Utah amid fear of being prosecuted for living a plural lifestyle. While their concerns were, allegedly, overblown, they decided that they could never return to Utah. While the family has deep roots in the state heavily known for its large Mormon population, it was no longer the right fit for their expanding group, but the Brown family also knew that Las Vegas didnt exactly feel like home. The oppressive desert heat, the hustle, and bustle of Sin City and growing concerns about how their family would diverge now that many of their oldest children are striking out on their own led the family to the decision to move. While patriarch, Kody Brown was all-in on finding a new locale for his family that includes 18 children and four wives, not everyone in the family was onboard. Both Janelle and Meri voiced serious concerns about uprooting their established life in Las Vegas; they noted that the liberal city had been especially kind to their alternative lifestyle; something they had not found in previous living situations. Why did the Brown family choose Flagstaff, Arizona? Kody Brown offered an extensive interview in the months following his familys big move. He noted while he considers the city of Flagstaff heaven, the family is living in hell, while they try to navigate their current living situation and the plethora of moving boxes that have yet to be unpacked. Regardless of the logistics of moving, the family is settling into Flagstaff, but many fans wonder what put the city of 71,000 on the familys radar. According to The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Flagstaffs seasons, open-mindedness, proximity to colleges and alternative population are the reason the family decided to put down roots. Brown has long asserted that the hippie population is what interested him most about the area. He also noted that he was looking forward to winter; something the family seriously missed from their days in Utah. Are residents of Flagstaff happy about their newest neighbors? Flagstaff residents dont seem to have a problem with the Brown family; at least they arent concerned about how they choose to live their life. In fact, Flagstaff is an incredible inclusive city that aims to make everyone feel safe and welcome. Kody noted, upon picking the locale, that the open-minded residents were his top reason for thinking Flagstaff was the perfect place to call home. Flagstaff main square (Getty Images) While the residents of the city situated 7,000 feet above sea level may be totally cool with plural living, they do have their concerns about the Brown family. According to The Chicago Sun-Times, residents of the city are most concerned about filming. They dont want their sleepy town to turn into a circus, and they fear filming, and looky-loos could create congestion and chaos in the slow-paced city. Another resident told reporters that while shell remain courteous to the family, she doesnt agree with the patriarchal nature of their living situation. Calling the entire family setup sexist, the resident went on to argue she doesnt want to normalize such behavior, especially for her two children. Irans top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iraq on Saturday to demand U.S. troops leave as soon as possible, during a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi that showed off Tehrans strong influence in Baghdad despite U.S. pressure, Reuters reports. You must make sure that the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because expelling them has become difficult whenever they have had a long military presence in a country, Khamenei was quoted as saying by state media. The Iraqi government, parliament and current political activists in the country are undesirable for the Americans ... and they are plotting to remove them from Iraqi politics, said Khamenei. Now that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have their own Instagram account, fans are closely following along maybe too closely. Fans recently noticed that there was an error on the Sussex Royal Instagram account that Prince Harry and Markle corrected. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage The Duke and Duchess of Sussex launch Instagram account, break records The Duke and Duchess of Sussex launched their own Instagram account, Sussex Royal, last week and fans went wild. The account quickly nabbed followers, catapulting it to record-breaking status. The Sussex Royal account swiftly broke the world record for the fastest time to gain a million followers on Instagram. The Guinness World Records confirmed the account had broken the record, reaching 1 million followers in 5 hours and 45 minutes. This beat the record previously held by K-Pop star Kang Daniel, who gained 1 million followers in 11 hours 36 minutes in January, and prior to that, Pope Francis, who reached one million in 12 hours. Fans have been watching the account closely With the creation of the new account, fans have been checking it out to see what Prince Harry and Markle have been up to. Theyre definitely easing in to posting photos, but theres been plenty for followers to look at and take notice of. While many fans giving the Sussex Royal account a passing glance might not have noticed, some eagle-eyed followers spotted that one photo was posted, deleted, then reposted with a slight edit. Did you catch it? One of Sussex Royals posts included a picture of graffiti with Nelson Mandelas face that included a quote. The fan account Gerts Royals pointed out the difference in what was posted/removed/reposted, taking to Twitter to share a comparison for anyone that missed it. The first image posted was a partial portrait of Mandelas face with the quote, but it was replaced by a zoomed-in version that cropped out the face and included just the message. The photo from #SussexRoyal original post on @TheLunchboxFund vs. the 2nd posting. I assume the change was to include the full quote, not to crop the picture of Nelson Mandela out in particular. Harry & Meghan have spoken very highly of him & visited a exhibit on him in 2018 pic.twitter.com/HPVQt6PH3f Gert's Royals (@Gertsroyals) April 6, 2019 Fans have theories about why they edited the image Gerts Royals explained the theory behind why the account would make the change, noting: The photo from #SussexRoyal original post on @TheLunchboxFund vs. the 2nd posting. I assume the change was to include the full quote, not to crop the picture of Nelson Mandela out in particular. Harry & Meghan have spoken very highly of him & visited a exhibit on him in 2018. The quote is from Mandelas book Long Walk to Freedom: No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Prince Harry had met Mandelas widow, Graca Machel, in 2015 and the couple opened an exhibition at the Southbank Centres Queen Elizabeth Hall in tribute to Mandela last July. Mandelas granddaughter shared that Prince Harry and Markles stance on justice and fairness in the world makes them a shining example for the youth of today. Prince Harry and Markles new Instagram account was timed with the split of their household from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and move to Frogmore Cottage. Of course, fans are eagerly anticipating the first baby photos the couple post to the account. Meghan Markle completely changed the dynamic of the royal family when she married Prince Harry almost a year ago. Suddenly, England had a duchess who wasnt afraid to bend the rules slightly when it came to her outfit choices, being with her friends, and showing affection with her new husband. The world loves the Duchess of Sussex, which is made clear as she is photographed wherever she goes. While we admire the other members of the royal family as well, fans cant help but wonder if Meghan will always be a bigger celebrity than other royal family members? Meghan rose to fame in the world of acting We have to first take into consideration that Meghan rose to fame in the world of acting. Her father, Thomas Markle, Sr., was a lighting director on the popular show Married With Children and his daughter often accompanied him to the set. Upon her college graduation, Meghan began accepting small roles, and finally got a huge break when she landed the role of Rachel Zane on the legal drama Suits. Meghan had quite the fan base long before she was ever set up on a blind date with Prince Harry. Many other family members were commoners Those who have married into the royal family in past years, such as Kate Middleton and Sarah Ferguson, were considered commoners. Princess Diana, on the other hand, was born into a family of British nobility, so although she was not considered a commoner, she certainly didnt come from a Hollywood background like Meghan. Kate, on the other hand, rose to fame simply from her relationship with Prince William, and although the public much admires her, she isnt considered a celebrity as much as she is the future queen of England. Meghan has a group of celebrity friends While Kate Middleton certainly has friends that she is close to, most of her pals dont really have connections to Hollywood. The ones that do, she got to know after she married into the royal family. Meghan is close friends with some pretty well-known people, such as Priyanka Chopra, Serena Williams, and George and Amal Clooney. Meghan enjoys the spotlight Having spent most of her career in front of the camera, Meghan doesnt shy away from the spotlight. The camera loves her, and she knows it, as she has done photo shoots and created videos in the past. She has done many interviews throughout her career, appeared in magazines, and was even a case holder on the show Deal or No Deal. Most of the royals follow a strict set of rules The queen has certain expectations of the members of the royal family, and they do their best to abide by her wishes. While Meghan doesnt defy what the queen asks of her, she tends to put her own personal touches on the way she goes about living royal life. She may not always follow dress codes exactly, and she even traveled to New York for a baby shower with a group of her celebrity friends. This is something that most other members of the family would never consider doing, but as we said, Meghan likes to do things her way! Will Meghan always be a bigger celebrity than other royal family members? Chances are, she will. Given her ties to the celebrity world, her close connections, and her strong beliefs, Meghan Markle will likely always be a bigger celebrity than other royal family members. This certainly doesnt mean that we dont love the other members of the royal family just a much as we do Meghan! Her celebrity status simply comes from her background, and her rise to fame before becoming a royal. At just 26 years old, Safiya Nygaard is on top of the world. The YouTube personality is recently engaged and living her very best life. Nygaard was one of the founders of Ladylike; a popular Buzzfeed video series that brings female producers together to try out different products and compete in challenges. Just like The Try Guys series, Ladylike amassed a considerable following. While LadyLike is still going strong, Nygaard has struck out on her own as an independent content creator. How did Nygaard land a job at Buzzfeed? The Chicago-born Nygaard left Illinois to attend Stanford University in 2010. During her time in California, the industrious content creator set her sights on internet producing with a series of intern positions in theatre, production, and marketing. Eventually, she landed a gig with Buzzfeed, first as an intern then a video producer. During her Buzzfeed tenure, Nygaard worked on a variety of productions for the media giant but is most recognizable for her work on the Ladylike series. The team of four ladies tried out everything from henna hair dye to spending a day without using any period products. Nygaards strategic departure from Buzzfeed While Safiya Nygaard first joined YouTube in 2011, long before she was known on the internet, her user count didnt grow substantially until she left Buzzfeed in 2017 and struck out on her own. Since leaving the media giant, Nygaard has amassed nearly 8 million subscribers on YouTube and 1.7 million followers on Instagram. One of her first videos on her personal channel after leaving the media company focused on her reasoning for walking away from the business that offered the fresh-faced college graduate a chance to craft content. According to Variety, Nygaard simply no longer felt like her vision and Buzzfeeds were aligned. She also noted that her desire to craft more personal content and interact with her fanbase influenced her decision. Nygaard has delivered on that promise, offering her fans videos that chronicle her day-to-day life with fiancee Tyler, as well as videos that experiment with makeup and beauty trends. Nygaards eclectic filming style seems to keep fans interested. What is Safiya Nygaards net worth? Walking away from a salaried position to strike out independently is never an easy choice, but like many Buzzfeeders before (and after) Nygaard managed to leverage her Buzzfeed following to craft a healthy income stream. According to Social Blade, Nygaards channel likely pulls in around $2 million a year. Currently, her net worth is estimated to be approximately $2.4 million. Howard University president says safe space activism can be counterproductive Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment NEW YORK Howard University President Dr. Wayne Frederick suggested Friday that creating safe spaces at historically black colleges and universities can be counterproductive if it means disengaging from partners who can advance their cause. Frederick made the point during a panel discussion on the future of historically black colleges and universities at the National Action Network's annual convention with presidents of several other HBCUs, including: David Wilson of Morgan State University, Phyllis Worthy Hawkins of Bennett College, Roslyn Artis of Benedict College and Herman Felton Jr., of Wiley College. Howards first motive when it was founded in 1867 was equal rights and knowledge for all . When Howard University was founded in 1867, the 17th president of the United States, a known racist, Andrew Johnson, was the one who signed that charter. The same day he signed the charter to start Howard University he vetoed a reconstruction act, Frederick noted. The prominent HBCU leader made an apparent connection with the current political climate without naming President Donald Trump, who is repeatedly branded as racist by political foes and former associates. My point is that we have to be at the table, he argued. If the men who started Howard University did not go to the table and insist that that president sign that particular charter despite his racist views, we would not be in existence today. And we are at a time in our country where we are often talking about safe spaces but I want us all to think about something, he continued. The term safe space, is commonly associated with universities, but includes other locations like workplaces, where people who feel marginalized can come together and share their experiences of being a part of the marginalized community. Activism for safe spaces, which remains a controversial concept, is driven primarily from the separatist impulses associated with the politics of identity on many college campuses, the Los Angeles Times said. Some people believe that safe spaces insulates them from not just hostility, but the views of people who are not like them. Our HBCUs are safe spaces but we must recognize that they are not safe spaces because we are allowing the other spaces to be unsafe, Frederick warned the throng of black activists who had gathered to hear the discussion. Enrollment at HBCUs is on the rise, according to federal data. In 2017, some 298,138 were enrolled at HBCUs, a jump of 2.1 percent over the previous year. Theresa Price, founder and chief executive of the National College Resources Foundation, which hosts the Black College Expo, told The Washington Post last month that students are increasingly coming to see HBCUs as a safe haven from racist views she argues which have become more easily expressed publicly since the election of President Trump. I think definitely the political environment has encouraged people to take a better look at the schools, Price said. Frederick argued, however, that HBCUs should be treated as spaces where all students succeed in a way that strengthens them to fully engage with society. Lets not be fooled. People want us to go to our corner and occupy that corner. They want us to not be a part of broader society. And Im going to advocate that if we make our HBCUs strong we will make America strong. But we will also make America safe for all of our citizens, he added. While Frederick and the other presidents highlighted the value and the necessity of HBCUs in building the black middle class and producing graduates in STEM fields, he also pointed to the recent college admissions scandal involving wealthy parents and their children gaining access to elite colleges. We have a contemporary experience right now in this country where college admissions [is concerned]. We have been able to demonstrate that the institutions that we deem elite have a different admissions standard for those who have the means versus those who dont. And as you can tell, there are probably quite a few underrepresented minorities who applied to those schools whose parents arent wealthy enough to buy their [way in] that is indicative of all the societal issues that we have, Frederick said. Rwanda genocide 25 years later: How a Christian nation overcomes its troubling past Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment RWANDA The doors to the church building were open as the sound of prayer and worship echoed into the street for all to hear as pedestrians, cars and loud dirt bikes went by. Dozens were gathered for a service at an Anglican church in the town of Kacyiru, just outside of the landlocked African nations capital city. The worship band was decked out in blue robes as they belted their songs of praise, thanking the Lord for all that He has done and is doing to restore unity to the once genocide-ridden country. Churchgoers heard a sermon from a visiting evangelical pastor that mirrored the motto that Rwandan churches and the Rwandan central government have stressed since the end of one of the worst human rights atrocities in decades: the need to live as one body under Christ. Or in the secular sense, the need for people to coexist as one Rwanda. Although just two-and-a-half decades removed from the brutal murder of nearly 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus by extremist Hutus and security forces, the predominantly-Christian country today looks much different than it did in the summer and spring of 1994. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can see in Christ that You made it possible for us to be one, to be one body, to be one Church, Pastor Daniel Ledema prayed on a mid-February Sunday morning. We know that this is something that we could never have achieved ourselves. [Please] break our hearts to help us see what are some of those walls that should be broken down and walls that should be put down. Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the beginning the genocide against the Tutsi, one of the worst atrocities in world history. With the permeation of extremist anti-Tutsi ideology through radio and newspapers, thousands of Hutus were pushed to mass violence after a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down on April 6, 1994. In the 100 days following, at least 800,000 or more people were killed, most of whom were minority Tutsis or moderate Hutus accused of being Tutsi lovers. Despite Rwanda being about 90 percent Christian at the time, neighbors killed neighbors and Christians killed Christians in some of the most horrific ways imaginable. No mercy was spared even for children and infants. In some cases, babies were killed while in their mothers arms. In addition to communal violence, security forces were also responsible for the deaths of thousands of Tutsis, many of whom were killed inside of churches or other buildings they were told would be safe. But today, there are genocide memorials and mass graves throughout the country filled with broken remains to educate and remind the next generation of Rwandans what a massive lack in education and the persistence of dangerous ideologies can do to communities that had once coexisted peacefully. Today, the nation the size of Maryland but twice as populated is largely unified. The government no longer officially recognizes tribal and ethnic differences, something that used to be front and center on a persons official government identification. The country serves as an example of how a nation scarred from genocide pulled together with the help of government programs, churches and nonprofits to overcome ethnic division. With neighbors having killed neighbors, the only way forward for many communities was for people to wholeheartedly embrace the radical forgiveness expected of them by their savior, Jesus Christ. While social tension in Rwanda is not perfect with anger and pain impacting at individual and familial levels, Hutu-Tutsi tension generally isnt felt at a national level anymore. With reconciliation having occurred in many communities, the focus now is on how to not only keep people unified but also how to improve the quality of life for people living in the densely populated nation of 12 million people. Without many desirable resources like gold and diamonds, and an economy reliant on agriculture, about 20 percent of Rwandas population lives in extreme poverty and 44 percent live in moderate poverty, according to World Vision Rwanda Integrated Program Director Ananias Sentozi. The average income is about $150 per month. But as part of the Rwandan governments Vision 2020, the desire is to see Rwanda become a middle-income country. Although that may not happen by 2020, Rwanda has seen economic growth. Over the last several years, the government, churches, and nonprofits like the evangelical-minded World Vision International have worked in some cases together to find ways to create better lives for these impoverished communities. Moving beyond reconciliation, the goal is to help move people from dependency to dignity. Unity, togetherness, and oneness Unity and reconciliation have been a national goal set by the Rwandan government led by the Rwandan Patriotic Front and President Paul Kagame, the former military leader who commanded the RPF rebel force that ended the genocide. Kagame has been elected to three terms since he took office in 2000 and his current term ends in 2024. Despite concerns about how the RPF-led government has silenced political dissent, cracked down on the press, strictly governed and taken a stronghold on the Rwandan political system, Rwandans who spoke with The Christian Post were largely appreciative of the push the RPF has made in the last two-plus decades in challenging Rwandans to seek forgiveness, reconcile and work together to improve Rwanda. After the genocide, about 100,000 Hutus were arrested and imprisoned for alleged involvement in the genocide, some of whom were innocent, locals say. With those many suspects awaiting trial, it would have taken over a lifetime to handle all those cases. Struggling to dole out justice on such a massive scale, the federal government instituted a system of community justice in the early 2000s called the Gacaca court, where perpetrators could be tried among their peers in their communities who witnessed the crimes they committed. Along with that was an emphasis on the idea that perpetrators should go back to their communities to seek forgiveness. Several perpetrators were let out of prison to be tried in their community courts where victims could attest to the crimes they committed. In many cases, perpetrators were forgiven by their victims. Considering there was much work to do to rebuild the destroyed communities, many perpetrators were released from prison and sentenced to work toward the reconstruction of homes and buildings in their communities. Some communities even established associations of genocide perpetrators and survivors working together to rebuild the homes. Over time, with teachings from the government and churches, more relationships were reconciled. "The motto for our country is unity, togetherness and oneness," Jean Bosco, a Catholic priest serving in the rural village of Rugango in Rwandas Southern Province, told reporters who visited him during a World Vision press trip. "Because there was one mission to reunite Rwandans and build the country, it was easy for the government and the church to come together to make that a reality." Boscos parish last year, with the help of World Vision Rwanda, the nations largest humanitarian organization that has been active in the country since 1994, set up classes for genocide perpetrators and victims to help them embrace the biblical call to forgive those who trespassed against them and call for those who have wronged to repent. The classes are open to all community members even if they are not part of the parish. One student of the class was a Pentecostal man who is the lone survivor from a family of 40. Boscos parish is one of many churches across the country that have partnered with World Vision to help foster reconciliation among Hutu and Tutsis in their communities. With an evangelical mission, World Vision began in 1994 providing relief and assistance. The charity later transitioned to focus on fostering unification in the Rwandan communities. In addition to the teachings on forgiveness, the months-long course in the Rugango parish culminates into a business cooperative among the members of the group. As a way to help economically empower the poor agricultural community, the first class of 84 graduates from the course launched a beekeeping enterprise that they hope will one day bring about financial gain. The parish launched a second group of perpetrators and survivors that are now going through the months-long course. Rugango community leaders plan to hold more reconciliation classes in the future. So far, over 160 people in their village have taken the course. Despite the fact that it has been 25 years, those memories never go away and crimes never really go away, the class facilitator Mukankrange Vestine, who lost several members of her own family during the genocide, said. So, they are blessed to leave them behind. While many international humanitarian organizations were present during the immediate aftermath of the genocide, many are no longer active there. One that has remained present in Rwanda for the last 25 years has been World Vision, which has branches in nearly 100 countries. Now that reconciliation has been achieved in many Rwandan communities, World Visions focus these days lies in faith and development work. World Vision seeks to teach villagers to look deeper in themselves to see their true potential. Yes, our motto is the mind, the heart, and the pocket, Aimable Nsengiyumva, who heads up World Visions cluster office in the Southern Province, said. We start with the mind, which changes the heart. When the mind is changed, the heart changes. When the heart is changed, [so is] the pocket. 1 2 3 4 Next At Al Sharptons NAN convention, 2020 Democrat candidates support reparations for African Americans Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment NEW YORK Democrat presidential candidates Andrew Yang, Beto ORourke and Julian Castro voiced strong support for reparations for the descendants of slaves to a packed gathering of civil rights activists and African-American voters on Wednesday. I have said several times during the last several weeks that I have long believed that our country will never truly heal until we address the original sin of slavery, Castro, the former secretary of U.S. Housing and Development under former President Barack Obama told the affirming crowd at the Rev. Al Sharptons annual National Action Network convention in Manhattan. If under our Constitution we compensate people if we take their property, why wouldnt we compensate people who were considered property and sanctioned by the state? I support Congresswoman Jackson-Lees HR 40 to appoint a commission to make a recommendation to the president of the United States on how we can do reparations in the country and I believe that for the black community, for the white community, for every other American, that its important to address that original sin. And until we do, we may feel like were moving forward as one nation but I dont think we ever will, Castro said. Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee introduced the H.R. 40 bill in January called the Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans Act. This legislation is intended to examine the institution of slavery in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present, and further recommend appropriate remedies. Since the initial introduction of this legislation, its proponents have made substantial progress in elevating the discussion of reparations and reparatory justice at the national level and joining the mainstream international debate on the issues, Lee noted in a statement. Though some have tried to deflect the importance of these conversations by focusing on individual monetary compensation, the real issue is whether and how this nation can come to grips with the legacy of slavery that still infects current society. Through legislation, resolutions, news, and litigation, we are moving closer to making more strides in the movement toward reparations. O'Rourke, a former Texas representative who currently enjoys somewhat of a rock star status among some Democrats, said during an interview with Sharpton at the convention that he would sign Lees bill into law as president. I think she is absolutely right. That is something I would sign into law as president of the United States. Talking to someone like Bryan Stevenson whos done so much work in ensuring that we dont just celebrate civil rights victories and leave that as the story of race in this country. But we also look at the brutality, the violence, the continuing suppression today, ORourke told Sharpton. Texas [was] 50th in the nation in 2018 in [voter] turnout, not because we like our democracy any less but people were written out of their democracy and therefore [unable] to represent the true genius of a state and by extension our country. Accepting that truth, that story, those facts is the beginning of a process of repair and that is as the root of any reparation discussion that will follow. So I support my former colleague Sheila Jackson Lee in this effort and want to make sure that at a minimum, we have that conversation and share those facts with the rest of the country, he said. He later reiterated his support for the proposal before the large audience, explaining how he learned a lot on the issue of reparations from founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson. I had a chance to speak with, learn from and listen to Bryan Stevenson in Montgomery, Alabama, and learn from his work on working with the community to build a memorial to justice and to peace. And he said foundational to reparations is the word repair, foundational to repair is the truth. And so all Americans understand that civil rights are not just those victories that I began with at the outset, but the injustices that have been visited and continue to be visited on people we will never get the change to live up to the promise of this country. So absolutely I would sign that into law, he said to applause. Yang who pitched his $1,000 a month Universal Basic Income platform called reparations a logical step. I would go again further, I would put $1,000 a month in the hands of every adult starting at age 18 and then I would say this is not reparations. We need to study reparations independently of the fact that we can make this economy work for you all, minimum, minimum, he said. Trump admin projected to resettle fewer refugees than already record low cap, World Relief reports Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Trump administration is on track to resettle far fewer refugees than their historically low ceiling allows, according to a report from World Relief. Last September, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that no more than 30,000 refugees will be resettled to the U.S. in fiscal year 2019, which is Oct. 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2019. Pompeo blamed a defective vetting process and a backlog of approximately 800,000 refugees for the decision to reduce the resettlement cap. The 30,000-refugee cap is the lowest ceiling number set by any administration since the passing of the Refugee Act in 1980 and was also 15,000 below the cap for fiscal year 2018. World Relief released a report on Tuesday which noted that, halfway through the fiscal year, the administration is on track to resettle about 5,600 fewer refugees than the ceiling would allow. The projected total of approximately 24,300 refugees is only about one-third the average number of refugees welcomed into the United States since 1980, which is approximately 75,000. This decline in refugee resettlement is hurting a number of persecuted religious minorities, including Christians fleeing intolerant Muslim-majority nations like Iran, Pakistan, and Syria. The humanitarian group predicted severe declines of both Christian and Muslim refugees fleeing both countries where they are the majority religion and where they are the minority religion. World Relief projected a 48 percent decline in Christian refugees arriving from all countries and a 90 percent decline in Muslim refugees arriving from all countries, both compared to FY 2016. World Relief President Scott Arbeiter said in a statement emailed to supporters that the projected total for the current fiscal year does not reflect the capacity or willingness of Americans to receive and resettle refugees. We are gravely concerned that the U.S. has abdicated its role in exemplifying the moral leadership needed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable displaced around the world, stated Arbeiter. Furthermore, the dramatic decrease in the numbers of persecuted Christian and other religious minority refugees resettled in the U.S. to escape religious persecution contradicts the administrations previously stated willingness to help these populations. News of the decreased numbers of resettled refugees comes as the Democrat-led House of Representatives is considering legal action against President Donald Trump over his declaring a national emergency to construct a wall on the Southern border. The House opted to sue President Trump for his national emergency, which was issued in February and allowed him to move $3.6 billion from a budget for military construction to building the border wall. The president's action clearly violates the Appropriations Clause by stealing from appropriated funds, an action that was not authorized by constitutional or statutory authority, stated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as reported by the Washington Examiner on Thursday. Ex-transgender Walt Heyer: 'We are ruining an entire generation of young people' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment WASHINGTON A man who underwent a sex change and now regrets it is urging people to resist transgender medicine and related therapies, saying we are medically "manufacturing" children as transgender and abusing them. Speaking on a panel before a small crowd gathered at the Heritage Foundation Thursday, Walt Heyer, a man who formerly lived and identified as a transgender woman named Laura for eight years. He underwent surgery in 1983 and spoke of his experience of being psychologically abused and how that contributed to significant discomfort with his body. This is now playing out on a massive scale, he said, and the medical establishment is pushing these dangerous hormonal treatments and surgical interventions on thousands of young people. Heyer is the founder of Sex Change Regret and is reportedly hearing from many more people who now feel as he does. "We get letters from parents or the transgenders themselves asking for help, after they've lived the life like I did for five, six, 15, 18, 20, all the way up to 30 years. And they are saying 'Walt, can you help me de-transition. This was the biggest mistake of my life.'" He recently helped a schoolteacher, a pharmacist, and his good friend Jamie Shupe, the first man to be legally recognized in the United States as "non-binary." "I think it's important for us to realize that there is nothing good about affirming a young boy at four years old like my grandma did me," he said. Heyer's grandmother put him a purple chiffon dress and told him how wonderful he looked, which confused him. Children should not be sent those kinds of messages because it communicates that there is something wrong with them, Heyer said. "That is child abuse," he asserted. "We need to be calling it what it is. It's not affirming a child. It's causing them to be depressed and anxious about who they are." "The only reason I am able to speak to you today is because after 46 years dealing with this issue, I was able to de-transition in 1990 after I had psychotherapy, the very same psychotherapy [transgender activists] are trying to prevent people from having. Why? Because they don't want them to de-transition." "It's painful to get these emails from people whose lives have been totally torn apart." The entire basis of much of transgender medicalization is self-diagnosis. "We are manufacturing transgender kids," he asserted. "We are manufacturing their depression, their anxiety, and it has turned into a huge industry that people are profiting from after kids lives are completely torn apart." "It's really beyond my understanding why we are even having this discussion because it shouldn't be happening. I don't believe any doctor who injects a young person with hormone blockers should have a license to do so." People must start speaking up about this, he stressed. "We do not know who the transgender kids are," he said, referencing the words of Kristina Olson, a research psychologist at the University of Washington who has said scientists "dont have definitive data one way or another" on who is and who is not transgender. "Do you get that? That should sink in. They cannot actually identify who trans kids are except by them saying so. There is no test. there is no proof," he said. Even the American Psychological Association says in their handbook that children are not born transgender, he pointed out. "And yet, we're treating them with medical treatment as if they were and trying to alter them. They're not born that way," Heyer said. "I want to say it again. We are manufacturing transgender kids," he reiterated. As a result of the trauma from the gender reassignment surgery, Heyer recounted that he drank heavily and used cocaine to stifle the pain. Heyer has worked with hundreds of people over the past decade who have sought to de-transition and over half of them were sexually abused, he said. Heyer himself was sexually abused several times when he was 9 years old by his uncle. His parents did not believe him and said he was a liar, which compounded his gender confusion. "Boys who were abused at a young age come to the conclusion that the only way they can prevent themselves from being sexually abused again is to cut off their genitalia and become females. In their mind that is their defense mechanism for sexual abuse. Girls who were sexually abused want to be men as a way to fend off any intruder or sexual abuser so they will no longer be attractive for sexual abuse," Heyer said. "We're ruining an entire generation of young people, and it's serious business. I'm not pulling any punches anymore. And you shouldn't either," Heyer concluded. Representing the Kelsey Coalition a recently formed non-partisan group of parents of trans-identifying children that have been harmed by transgender medical treatments one such mother, "Elaine," explained the horror of what can happen when surgeons cut off the reproductive organs of minors, highlighting the case of transgender television star Jazz Jennings of TLC's "I Am Jazz." "Jazz was born a boy, but raised as a girl since the age of 5. He was treated hormonally since age 11. Last year, at the age of 17, Jazz had surgery to remove his penis and create a simulated vagina out of his stomach lining," Elaine said. An emergency follow-up surgery had to be performed after the initial operation because Jazzs wounds began separating and a blood blister began to form. Jennings' doctor said that as he moved Jennings to the bed he heard something go "pop," and upon examination "the whole thing had split open. "This is a medical experiment on a child that has been playing out on television for the past 12 years. No one knows what might happen next," Elaine asserted, urging that the clinics that perform these operations be shut down. Michigan county takes down billboard accused of being pro-abortion; issues apology Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Michigan county health department took down a controversial billboard critics claimed was pro-abortion and released a statement apologizing for its content. The Sandusky-based Sanilac County Health Department posted a billboard ad last month captioned You Can Choose that featured a photo of a distraught pregnant young woman next to a photo of a happy nonpregnant young woman in graduation attire. Take control of your future, says the Health Departments billboard, which includes a phone number for the department. Groups like the Michigan chapter of Right to Life denounced the message of the billboard, posting about it on their Twitter page. The Sanilac County Health Department put this new billboard up. This is the abortion mindset that pits mother against child. Is this the best we can do to advertise health services? tweeted the pro-life group. Also outraged, Protect Life Michigan commented on Facebook: "Is it just us, or does it seem like theyre telling women that we have to choose between being mothers or being successful?!" In response to the outcry, the county department released a statement apologizing for the content of the billboard, noting that they appreciate the many members of our community that contacted us with their apprehension for the messaging that is perceived on the billboard. We now realize, and apologize, that our original intent for the billboard was not correctly portrayed by its content, stated the department. We believe in strengthening the health and wellness of all our community members; women, children, and men, and this billboard did not accurately portray that. Please accept our apologies and know that the billboard is being taken down as quickly as possible. The Christian Post reached out to the Sanilac County Health Department on Thursday morning. A representative confirmed that the billboard has been taken down. Bryant Wilke, environmental health director at the Sanilac County Health Department, told the Huron Daily Tribune that he was surprised by the backlash. It came as a bit of a surprise to us that people thought that it was anything but a teenage pregnancy prevention billboard, explained Wilke to the Tribune. Not to get confused with any pro-choice movements or anything like that, this was specifically meant for teen pregnancy prevention. Wilke also told the Tribune that he felt that there should have been more on the billboard explaining the context of the images. Typically, when you look at the statistics, if you get pregnant between the ages of 15 and 19, you drop out of high school. When you look at the billboard, obviously there are no percentages or any types of statistics up there, continued Wilke. By all means, if through this, it starts to educate about teenage pregnancy in our community, that's a great thing, but we want to do it with appropriate messages. Meanwhile, Protect Life Michigan has posted photos of mothers during their graduation to show "women are capable of some incredible things." "We love how these moms showed the world that to be a mom does not mean we have to give up success, dreams, or a future." Amman is ready to cooperate both with Russia and the United States in bilateral and trilateral format in order to reach an agreement on the resettlement of the inhabitants of Rukban camp for internally displaced people, located on the Syrian-Jordanian border, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Sunday, Urdu Point reports. "We call on finding the only right solution which is the resettlement of all those currently in this Rukban camp, because these are Syrian people. We are ready to cooperate with Russia and the United States, we are already having multiple bilateral meetings, but also in a trilateral format in the interest of reaching an agreement," the minister said during his joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Michigan health center accused of stopping senior citizens from telling kids about Christmas Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A conservative law firm has accused a Michigan-based health center of censoring two senior citizens who attempted to explain the religious meaning of Christmas to visiting children. The First Liberty Institute sent a letter to the Kalkaska Memorial Health Center on Thursday on behalf of two residents of Kalkaska Senior Living Center. At issue was an incident last December in which students from the Centers Child Development Center and Preschool visited the assisted living residents. During the visit, residents were allowed to read Christmas-themed stories to the children. However, when resident Wilma Wells tried to explain why people celebrate Christmas, an unnamed teacher reportedly told her not to. Later, according to First Libertys letter, another resident named Joan Wilson was reading A Charlie Brown Christmas to some children. When she attempted to explain the part where the nativity was mentioned, the unnamed teacher abruptly ended the visit. As a government-owned facility, the Kalkaska Memorial Health Center is subject to the constraints of the U.S. Constitution through the Fourteenth Amendment, wrote Michael Berry of First Liberty. Here, the CDCP teachers actions constitute unlawful discrimination and violate the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Berry called on the center to remedy these constitutional violations by providing assurance that all Kalkaska Memorial Health Center employees will abide by the Constitution and federal law as well as an apology to Wilson and Wells. Should you refuse or fail to provide these remedies, we are prepared to take any and all necessary legal action and provide pro bono representation of the affected residents, concluded Berry. Keisha Russell, associate counsel for First Liberty, denounced the alleged actions at the center as a government Grinch crushing the spirit of Christmas. Our clients were simply exercising their constitutionally protected rights by reading a much beloved Christmas story to children when they were silenced. KMHC needs to ensure that the rights of its residents are protected and issue an apology, said Russell in a statement emailed to supporters. This is not the first time that A Charlie Brown Christmas has been at the center of a church-and-state dispute. In December 2016, a judge ordered that a Texas school district restore "A Charlie Brown Christmas" themed display after administrators took it down because it featured a Bible verse. Bell County State District Judge Jack Jones issued a temporary injunction against the Killeen Independent School District, stopping it from enforcing the decision against the decoration. "Religious discrimination toward Christians has become a holiday tradition of sorts among certain groups," stated Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2016 about the injunction. "I am glad to see that the court broke through the left's rhetorical fog and recognized that a commitment to diversity means protecting everyone's individual religious expression." Texas bans chaplains from execution chambers; religious liberty law firm expresses concern Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Texas implemented a ban on chaplains being present in execution chambers for condemned inmates in response to two high-profile court cases on the issue. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for a Buddhist inmate who was prohibited from having a chaplain of his choosing in the chamber. A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice told the Texas Tribune that the ban was to take effect immediately. TDCJ Chaplain(s) will continue to be available to an offender until they are transferred to the execution chamber. The chaplain will also be present in the viewing room if requested, explained the spokesperson. Late last month, the Supreme Court halted the execution of 57-year-old Patrick Murphy, a Buddhist who had been sentenced to death for his involvement in a prison escape that resulted in a murder of a police officer. At issue was Murphys denied request to have a Buddhist spiritual adviser present with him in the execution chamber, even though Christian and Muslim chaplains were permitted to be present. In a concurring opinion, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that Texas had two options to resolve the constitutionally problematic policy. (1) allow all inmates to have a religious adviser of their religion in the execution room; or (2) allow inmates to have a religious adviser, including any state-employed chaplain, only in the viewing room, not the execution room, wrote Justice Kavanaugh. In any event, the choice of remedy going forward is up to the State. What the State may not do, in my view, is allow Christian or Muslim inmates but not Buddhist inmates to have a religious adviser of their religion in the execution room. Luke Goodrich, senior counsel and vice president at the religious liberty law firm Becket, expressed concern over Texas new ban, arguing in a series of posts to Twitter that it would not survive a legal challenge. If this new policy is fully litigated, Texas will lose. Texas has already shown that clergy can be present in the execution chamber without harming security. So it wont be able to prove banning all clergy is the only way to maintain security, tweeted Goodrich on Wednesday. Religious freedom *includes* the vital requirement of equal treatment across all religious faiths. But it also means the government cant prohibit religious practices without a very powerful reason for doing sowhich Texas doesn't have here. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment For the last two years, our churchs work with our local international population has brought me into contact with hundreds of other pastors who are deeply convicted about the Churchs role in loving, welcoming, and serving immigrants and refugees. Many are also conflicted, because the topic of immigration is so divisive in our current cultural climate. A poll of Protestant pastors released in February by LifeWay Research reveals that, though the majority of pastors believe it is the biblical responsibility of Christians to serve immigrants, only 3 out of 10 could say that their churches are actually doing so. In my own conversations with pastors, I have met many who are actively engaged in such ministries, and some who are seeking to take the first steps. I have also spoken to others who attempted to wade into the breakers but, having seen waves in front of them, decided to back up onto the shore. The world of advocacy can be a lonely place at times, but it need not be on this issue. My experience has been that most church people are eager to not only show compassion, but to serve and be generous also. Moreover, this recent collection of findings from the Cato Institute reveals that church-going people are far more likely to seek constructive and compassionate solutions for immigrants than those who do not attend church. As we who are pastors continue to teach and lead according to the Scriptures, together we can demonstrate that it is entirely possible to honor Christ, love our immigrant neighbors, and uphold the law at the same time. First and foremost, pastors and parishioners alike must draw our insights about immigration from the Bible. Indeed, the Scriptures are neither vague nor ambiguous about this topic. Dozens of clear and consistent instructions in each part of the Bible speak to our responsibility to those who are strangers in our land from the Hebrew narratives, to the Law, to the Prophets and the Writings, to the ministry and teachings of Jesus, and throughout the New Testament letters as well. Guided by such biblical teachings, my own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), unanimously voted for a resolution on immigration in 2018. The resolution displays a consistent commitment by many leaders in the SBC, including myself, to love and serve immigrants and refugees, while also being upstanding, law-abiding citizens as the Bible instructs. Further reflection on this issue beyond the SBC reveals that most Protestant pastors are very like-minded regarding immigration related issues. This includes being appropriately concerned about illegal immigration. According to the full LifeWay data, 80 percent of pastors surveyed agree that the U.S. government has the responsibility to stop illegal immigration. We do not allow our churches to willfully facilitate any illegal activities. We want to see the Constitution upheld and immigration laws enforced in the most humane ways possible. That said, we also believe that legal status does not nullify our Christian duty. More than three-fourths of the pastors LifeWay surveyed believe Christians have a responsibility to assist immigrants, even if they are here illegally. Again, this does not mean pastors condone breaking or abolishing any laws. In our church, for example, we have developed ministries and strategies that are fully committed to helping people take the appropriate steps to secure and maintain legal status. Unfortunately, our complicated immigration system creates a very frustrating process that is currently experiencing many puzzling delays. The more we as pastors work with immigrants directly, the more we see an urgent need for the comprehensive immigration reform that Congress has been seeking for decades. I find the six principles of the Evangelical Immigration Table to be a helpful tool to share in terms of immigration reform that has strong biblical roots. We also believe citizenship should be an attainable goal for more immigrants. In the LifeWay poll, 70% of pastors said they are in favor of immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for those who are in the country illegally. From my own conversations, the number is far higher when pastors are asked about those who were brought to the U.S. as undocumented children, many of whose parents have now gained legal status while they have not. The response to this question affirms something I have observed repeatedly: Pastors are digging into this issue both biblically and factually and becoming more informed. The 70 percent support represents a significant shift from less than five years ago, when only 58 percent of pastors affirmed the same language. It is important to note here that supporting a path to citizenship for undocumented people already in the United States is not the same as supporting illegal immigration. Nor is it the same thing as being for blanket amnesty, which implies a complete forgiveness or overlooking of the violation of U.S. immigration law. Instead, most proposed legislation includes an earned process requiring some form of restitution, which the aforementioned resolution from the SBC calls for specifically. As complicated and contentious as all of this seems, I choose to be encouraged. I believe there are several clear areas where pastors and their parishioners can find common ground, if we are committed to questioning and learning together. We can begin by affirming that the second great commandment to love our neighbor shows no partiality based on status. We can commit to treat all others as we would want ourselves or our own families to be treated if we ended up in the same situations, regardless of race, religion, status, or politics. We can also commit to one another that we will not purposely create further division, but rather to love one another and our international neighbors as we seek to be one body, united in faith and in Spirit through the bond of peace. Eric Costanzo is lead pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You can follow him on Twitter @eric_costanzo. Brunei's draconian new laws don't just affect gay people, Christians are at risk too As the backlash grows over Brunei's new gay stoning laws, some Christians are wondering why there isn't more outcry about the threat of death to the country's Christian community. The full extent of Sharia law came into effect in the majority-Muslim country on April 3, threatening anyone who engages in gay sex with punishment by stoning or whipping. The news has angered celebrities like George Clooney and Ellen DeGeneres who have called on people to boycott hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei, who has pushed the implentation of the new laws since 2014. Protests have been held outside the Dorchester in London, which has shut down its social media pages over the backlash. The Universities of Oxford and Aberdeen are both considering revoking honorary degrees awarded to the Sultan. Despite the focus of media attention on the threat to LGBT people, the laws also affect the Christian community, with conversion from Islam and insulting the Prophet Muhammad both carrying the death penalty. "The newest and third phase of the law is difficult news for Christian converts who are expected to have to go into deeper hiding," said Open Doors USA. The first phase, which rolled out five years ago, already curtailed the freedoms of Christians and other faiths by making it a crime to "persuade, tell or encourage" Muslim children under the age of 18 "to accept the teachings of religions other than Islam". Anyone who does so risks being fined or imprisoned. Brunei ranks 36th on the Open Doors World Watch List of the 50 worst countries for persecution against Christians. Around two thirds of the population are Muslim and the Islamic faith is strictly enforced. In 2015, the Sultan of Brunei cancelled Christmas celebrations. Tomas Muller, a persecution analyst for Open Doors' World Watch Research unit, said converts stand to be particularly badly affected by the latest changes to the law, with risks including separation from spouses and children, or forced divorce. "It is to be expected that not only society will changedepending on what exactly will be considered as 'anti-Islam' but also that the country's Christian converts will be forced to hide their faith even more carefully," he said. The threat to religious freedoms was pointed out by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bauchelet. "Any religion-based legislation must not violate human rights, including the rights of those belonging to the majority religion as well as of religious minorities and non-believers," Bauchelet said in a statement. Amnesty International also warned that the changes are putting women at risk too. "Brunei's Penal Code is a deeply flawed piece of legislation containing a range of provisions that violate human rights," Rachel Chhoa-Howard, a researcher for Amnesty International, said in a statement. "As well as imposing cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments, it blatantly restricts the rights to freedom of expression, religion and belief, and codifies discrimination against women and girls." Writing on Twitter, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu said it was a "crime against the innocent" to outlaw sex between two consenting adults. "The Criminalisation of sex between two Consenting Adults is,in my book,repugnant to Natural Justice!Therefore,it is a Crime against the innocent!What the State of Brunei has just passed as"law" must NEVER be implemented in our Global Village!PLEASE GOD!!" he tweeted. But other Christians raised questions about why the plight of believers in the country is being largely overlooked. Dr Ian Paul, Director of Publishing at Grove Books, said: "Christians and gay people are being threatened with death; one group is highlighted; the other is ignored. If any other group was made invisible like this, we could call it out as media bias. I find it odd that Christians go along with this, rather than critically reflecting." That of all the shocking things in Brunei, the only one highlighted in BBC headlines and being tweeted about is LGBT rights. For some reason, the suffering of Christians appears to have been eclipsed. That is the really strange thing. Dr Ian Paul (@Psephizo) April 5, 2019 Church-backed app receives over 900 reports of possible slavery at car washes An app that allows people to anonymously report possible slavery at car washes received hundreds of reports in the first five months after it launched. Between June and December last year, the Safe Car Wash app received over 2,200 entries, of which 41 per cent (930) were deemed likely to be modern day slavery after users were asked a series of questions. The pioneering app allows drivers to go through a check list of possible evidence of slavery or exploitation at hand car washes, which have exploded across the UK in the last 10 years. Drivers are asked to look out for things like child workers, the absence of protective clothing like boots and gloves, and evidence of people living on site as possible signs of slavery or exploitation. Other possible indicators include being asked to pay by cash or to give the payment to the manager, and whether the car wash cost less than 6.70. Research by the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab found that in nearly half of the reports (48 per cent), app users said workers did not have access to suitable protective clothing, despite the fact that many hand car washes use harsh chemicals. Four in five users reported that the car wash had a cash-only policy, while nearly one in 10 (8 per cent) reported children working on site. Fourteen per cent said there were signs that people were living on site and 17 per cent said workers looked fearful. Users who were told by the app that slavery was likely were asked to call the Modern Slavery Helpline and their anonymised findings were shared in real time with police and the Gangmasters' and Labour Abuse Authority. The app, which has so far been downloaded over 8,000 times, was launched jointly by the Church of England's anti-slavery Clewer Initiative in partnership with the Catholic Church's anti-slavery drive, the Santa Marta Group. It was launched in response to the lack of reliable data on suspected exploitation at hand car washes in the UK. Bishop Alastair Redfern, Chair of The Clewer Initiative, said: "This research from the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab shows that the Safe Car Wash app has made an excellent start towards mapping the extent of modern slavery and labour exploitation in hand car washes, and, crucially raising public awareness of this issue. "Sadly, the findings so far confirm what we already feared - that many car washes do not protect their workers. "Our conversations with colleagues from law enforcement suggest that the data from the Safe Car Wash app is providing another piece in the puzzle of how to combat this complex crime. We hope to continue to build on this progress." Bishop Patrick Lynch, from the Santa Marta Group, said: "I welcome this report into the results of the Safe Car Wash app. I hope the app and this report will help many people become much more aware of the exploitation that workers in the car washing sector often have to endure." Dr Akilah Jardine, Research Associate at the Rights Lab, said: "Investigations and operations on hand car wash activities have identified the sector as a high-risk area for labour exploitation. Though often operating in plain sight, a great challenge in tackling abuses is the lack of data on the size and scope of the industry and the nature and prevalence of labour exploitation. "The Safe Car Wash app shows the potential value of using technology in raising public awareness and leveraging the real life experience and insight of the community to improve our understanding of the sector and also gather the intelligence required to lead effective investigations." The Church of England is asking drivers to check: Do the workers have access to suitable protective clothing? Look out for gloves and boots. Is there evidence of workers living on site? Can you see a caravan or mattresses and bedding? Does anyone appear controlling or intimidating? Does the body language of the workers appear withdrawn or fearful? Do there appear to be minors working at the car wash? Did you pay less than 6.70 for the car wash? Does the car wash only accept cash? Did they offer a receipt? Did you have to pay the manager? How churches in Rwanda are bringing victims and perpetrators of the 1994 genocide together to rebuild communities Farmer Habarurema Bosco did not feel like a human anymore after losing all of his family in the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi minority that saw the loss of about 1 million lives. He and his family were hunted like animals by the Hutu ethnic majority, incited by the government and extremist propaganda spewed over the radio and through newspapers. Even religious leaders were utilized to spread the message of hate. As the only survivor from a family of 40, he lost all hope for the future. At the time, he didn't have faith in Christ. He resorted to doing drugs and drinking alcohol to ease his pain and make him feel more human. But thankfully, a man of God shared the Word of God with him and prayed for him and his salvation. As a result, Bosco joined a Pentecostal church. It was there he learned that all humans are made in the image of God. Today, Bosco, whom God has blessed with a wife and six kids to keep his family line going, is helping his neighbors in Rwanda's southern province to transform their hearts and forgive those who trespassed against them and their families. "The first miracle that happened in my life is being transformed from that life to this kind of Christian life," Bosco told reporters from the United States who visited him and his friends in the village of Rugango. The press trip was sponsored by the evangelical humanitarian charity World Vision U.S. "Now I praise God that saved me and because I will be able to live in peace with other members. My heart now is free and God is living in me. As God has saved me, I want to share that love with others and I will teach them to pray because it is from praying that I lived again." Although Bosco is Pentecostal, he is an integral part of a program run by the Catholic parish of Rugango that began in 2017 training and equipping genocide survivors and perpetrators of all Christian walks to put their pasts aside and work together in an attempt to create more economic empowerment for their impoverished farming community. In August of that year, the church began months of training for 84 genocide survivors and perpetrators to truly forgive and be forgiven from the bottom on their hearts. But there is more to it than just forgiveness. Every Sunday, the class gathered for four hours. It was led by a community reconciliation facilitator and the parish priest. The key to this group, called "Peace Warriors," is for those participating to go beyond repenting and forgiving and be truly reconciled to create a new way to support themselves and their loved ones. "From that mindset change is a genuine mindset change process," Mukankrange Vestine, the community facilitator for the program who herself lost 14 family members in the genocide, explained. "Genocide victims, they have lost their [loved ones]. They do not have husband and they do not have children. So physically, they are not ready to work alone. They still need people to work with. Only people to work with are those neighbors who were against them during the genocide. So now what you are doing is calling on people to come support them and go on together for the rest of their lives." In Rwanda, about 20 percent of the population is living in extreme poverty and 44 percent are living in moderate poverty. Malnutrition for children can reach up to 38 percent. Thanks to the international evangelical humanitarian charity World Vision and church leaders, this community in Rugango is being taught the importance of not being dependent upon handouts. This group of 84, which is the first of many groups that the Rugango parish plans to train and equip with the power of radical forgiveness, is now involved in a beekeeping enterprise that they hope will one day produce enough profit to help all families involved. So far, the community is taking care of 39 beehives located in the woods on the parish property. After training, all 84 members of the group play some role in maintaining the hives. But since the hives are relatively new, the group has not yet been able to harvest the honey. But they are patiently and optimistically waiting to reap the reward. A second group of about 86 Rugango genocide survivors and perpetrators, which has not yet been named, began its training and classes last year following the end of the first session. Although that group has not yet figured out what their economic empowerment endeavor will be, they are working with the country's largest humanitarian organization, World Vision Rwanda, to figure that out. "Our motto is the mind, the heart and the pocket. We start with the mind, which changes the heart," said Aimable Nsengiyumva, the leader of World Vision's efforts in the Southern Province. "When the mind is changed, the heart changes. When the heart is changed, [so should] the pocket. " I know what I did was sin Among the genocide perpetrators involved in the "Peace Warriors" group is a man named Boniface. Boniface stood up and admitted to reporters that he was among the Hutus incited to carry out heinous crimes against their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, who they were driven to believe were the enemy of the state. "The fifth commandment among the Ten Commandments of God says that you will never kill a human being," he explained. "I know that God has created a human being in His image. I know that killing a human being is like putting a finger in the eye of God. I was told that when I killed the image of God, I have killed myself." Before the genocide in 1990, a propaganda newspaper promoted something called "the Hutu Ten Commandments." It was basically a list of commandments that incited the Hutus' hatred of the Tutsis saying that those who supported or befriended Tutsis would be considered traitors. But such a document conflicts with the real teachings of the Gospel. Boniface decided to humble himself before God and ask God and the one he wronged for forgiveness from the bottom of his heart. "[I] pray that I will never sin again against my God," he said. "I can't say that I am a perfect person today but that sin of killing the image of God, I pray that sin will never happen again in my life. I am ready to follow those spiritual leaders that God ... gave us." 'So many people were killed in our churches' On top of the Rwandan government's initiative to let many genocide perpetrators out of jail in order for them to go to their communities to seek forgiveness through local Gacaca courts, the Catholic Church leaders in Rwanda launched their own initiative for people to go beyond the forgiveness given to them by the local jurisdictions. The church desired to promote true forgiveness at more than just the societal level. The church wanted reconciliation at the personal level between individuals to ensure that they are reconnected. Leaders of the church selected community reconciliation facilitators within the churches. The leaders were trained and given orientation to help facilitate that process in their communities. Along with facilitator Vestine, parish priest Jean Bosco played a central role in helping educate the victims and perpetrators in Rugango about what the Bible actually says. "So many people were killed in our churches. So as a church, it was shocking and astonishing to see that," Bosco said. "People no longer respected places of worship and that was where more people were being killed. So as faith leaders, we decided to think of a way that we can help lead the country in a different direction because we had lost so many of our brothers and sisters. "That is why we thought about bringing Christians together and how they can bring together those who are perpetrators and those who are victims to join them together with the Word of God. So we took the Word of God to prisons and to communities where victims and survivors were. We took the Word of God everywhere." It took about 23 years for the Rugango parish to establish reconciliation classes and groups like "Peace Warriors." Bosco said that is because the hearts of Rwandans were "really broken." "Something of the genocide magnitude is not something that you can just wake up from and say, 'Hey, let's forgive and ask for forgiveness.' It took a while," Vestine noted. "They needed sufficient time for [healing] to take place and for people to believe that it was possible to forgive and ask for forgiveness." Those walls must fall The Catholic Church is not the only denomination trying to foster reconciliation and unity. On Sunday, Pastor Daniel Ledema, an evangelical pastor who was guest preaching at an Anglican Church in the outskirts of the capital Kigali in the town of Kacyiru, preached on the importance of walls being broken down so that unity in the body of Christ as demanded throughout the Bible can take place. In a message that was very relevant in the context of the country he lives in and the genocide that occurred nearly 25 years ago in which Christians slaughtered other Christians, Ledema told the faithful gathered for the two-hour 8 a.m. service that it was Christ who made the gentiles and Jews one body. When people come to Christ, they become part of one family that is brought together in Christ's sacrifice, he stressed. "Unity is hard work," he declared during the English service. "I want you to reflect on how you see other people who are Christians. Do you have a problem?" In most cases when people have a problem with their nuclear family members, they try to work it out. The same should be true for brothers and sisters in Christ, he noted. "[There are walls people are building] but when one truly comes to Christ, Christ breaks those walls down. When you come to Christ, those walls must fall," he said. "What Christ has done through His flesh and through His body, being crucified and put to death, [He] died for your sins. ... We are all [Christians] because Christ died for our sins." During the service, a congregant took the stage to issue a prayer for other countries where division and conflict are rampant, such as Kenya and Yemen. Unity, togetherness and oneness Unity and reconciliation is not just a goal for the Church, it has also been a national goal set by the Rwandan government under the control of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and widely popular President Paul Kagame, who has been in office since he took power in 2000. The RPF is responsible for helping to bring the genocide to an end when it won the Rwandan Civil War in July 1994. To ensure that such a crime never happens again, Rwanda has opened several genocide memorials and museums that are visited by Rwandan school children every year. It shows them the horrors of the crimes committed against Christians by Christians so that the future generation is educated enough to reject any potential extremist ideology. At the memorials are the mass graves of hundreds of thousands of victims. Some of the memorials show the smashed skulls and bones of victims. One even allows visitors to walk into rooms where nothing stands in the way of them and dozens upon dozens of preserved corpses. The smell of limestone and death is unforgettable for anyone who dares to walk in those rooms. Denying the genocide is also a crime in Rwanda that is punishable by years' imprisonment. Many Rwandans will tell visitors who ask that there is "no more Hutu and Tutsi," a social identity construct that was maintained in the country as a byproduct of European colonization. "The motto for our country is unity, togetherness and oneness," Jean Bosco, the Rugango priest, explained. "Because there was one mission to reunite Rwandans and build the country, it was easy for the government and the church to come together to make that a reality." While Rwanda was 90 percent Christian when the genocide happened, Christianity has continued to grow. Today, about 95 percent of the country is considered Christian, most of them being Catholic. The genocide led people to Christ through the realization that God protected them or the realization that their sins can be forgiven through Christ. Unlike some of its African neighbors, there is no hostility to faith exhibited by the government, says World Relief Rwanda Program Manager Ananias Sentozi. Even though the government made headlines and received heat for shutting down thousands of churches and mosques last year after passing a law regulating churches and requiring that pastors receive theology degrees, Sentozi believes the government is the victim of "misrepresentation" in the media. "The Rwandan government does not interfere with faith and church's work in this country," Sentozi told the journalists gathered at the Hotel des Milles Collines in Kigali, an institution known from the movie "Hotel Rwanda." "I know there has been kind of misinterpretation of what happened early last year I think in February when the government decided to close a number of churches that were not fulfilling their requirements." "Some of those [churches] were in the households of people. Some of those were just gathering under tents. Some didn't have wash facilities, there was no car parking, there was no sound management systems. There was no water. There were not any minimum requirement of bringing people together," Sentozi, who has worked with World Vision Rwanda for 19 years, added. "The government said that we are not closing but these facilities they are using are not appropriate for such a service. Some would just bring sound system and put there and they don't care about the communities that come to them. So the government said, 'No, find a way of getting your own place.' The government of Rwanda does not interfere with faith development at all." Although people were shocked at the beginning when the law was instituted, Sentozi believes that in the end, many people today are celebrating the law. "Because now in church, you find it looks nice and they manage their sounds and have basic facilities like wash, water, a toilet. You could imagine if you go to one of our churches, the highest population are the children and the shortest service here will take two to three hours. You can imagine gathering children for three hours in a place that doesn't have water with no toilet. What could be the effect? I think there have been good improvement and we appreciate the decision of the government." Courtesy of The Christian Post Kim Kardashian West is "high key freaking out" about the arrival of her fourth child and wants nothing more than to Zen out at her baby shower. Hence, her planned CBD-themed bash, the reality star and makeup mogul told E! News. There will be massages and a tea ceremony with crystals, she said while promoting her new line of sunglasses. The baby, the second boy for Kardashian West and husband Kanye West, is due soon. It's her second by surrogacy. Kardashian West said she's done with traditional baby games and showers after three but thinks her kids will benefit from a party ahead of the birth to help them celebrate the surrogacy situation. That's what happened with her oldest two when Chicago, her third and first by surrogate was on the way. And the latest party theme? Well, CBD is short for cannabidiol, the chemical compound in the cannabis plant. It's known for promoting relaxation and has been embraced in health and beauty products, along with just about every other aspect of life. To further enhance the relaxation idea: "We're going to have a drink at this baby shower. We're not pregnant," Kardashian West said. "This is the massages for all, just like meditation calm before the storm baby shower." Associated Press Gangs unite for rapper's memorial People are coming together to honor and remember late rapper Nipsey Hussle. Leaders from multiple gangs in southern California got together in a show of unity in the aftermath of the rapper's fatal shooting, while a memorial service for Hussle was set in Los Angeles, TMZ reported. Members of gangs from Los Angeles, Compton and other California cities met and spoke on Friday in an effort to spread a message about ending violence and led to a peace march in honor of Hussle in Crenshaw, according to the celebrity gossip site. A memorial service for Hussle, meanwhile, will reportedly take place at the Staples Center on Thursday, with attendees needing to purchase tickets to attend the event. Hussle real name Ermias Joseph Asghedom was killed on March 31 when a gunman opened fire on him and others, police said. Two others were also injured in the shooting. Suspected shooter Eric Holder, 29, was arrested and taken into custody on Tuesday. New York Daily News Baldwin grateful for miscarriage comfort Hilaria Baldwin is moved by the support she's received since revealing in an Instagram post that she's "most likely experiencing a miscarriage." Baldwin, 35, thanked those who shared kind messages and stories with her following her announcement. "I want to assure you that I know I will be ok. I have perspective to understand sadness and loss in the grand scheme of things," she captioned a new Instagram post Friday that shows her sitting with her four kids. "I was very nervous to share, and am so relieved that it was received with such love." Baldwin, who is married to actor Alec Baldwin, added that she finds it "extremely comforting to know that I am not alone on this difficult journey." The post came a day after Baldwin first shared what she was going through. New York Daily News Rarely seen works on show in Boston A little bit of 19th-century Paris is coming to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. "Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris," an artistic collaboration with the Boston Public Library, opens to the public on Sunday. The exhibition of approximately 200 works draws on both institutions' extensive holdings of rarely displayed graphic works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Toulouse-Lautrec, whose career lasted just a decade, is famed for his bold colors and radical compositions featured in evocative posters, prints and paintings. Associated Press Fiction 1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect. 2. Run Away by Harlan Coben. A family is torn apart when the daughter becomes addicted to drugs and goes missing. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: DeLillo, Yeats and Houston's toxic cloud 3. Celtic Empire by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. The 25th book in the Dirk Pitt series. 4. Wolf Pack by C.J. Box. The Wyoming game wardens Joe Pickett and Katelyn Hamm take on killers working for the Sinaloa cartel. 5. Cemetery Road by Greg Iles. Journalist Marshall McEwan returns to his hometown, which is shaken by two deaths and an economy on the brink. 6. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. A fictional oral history charting the rise and fall of a 70s rock n roll band. 7. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. Theo Faber looks into the mystery of a famous painter who stops speaking after shooting her husband. 8. The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See. The friendship over many decades of two female divers from the Korean Island of Jeju is pushed to a breaking point. 9. Silent Night by Danielle Steel. After tragedy strikes, a child TV star loses her memory and ability to speak. 10. The Chef by James Patterson with Max DiLallo. Caleb Rooney, a police detective and celebrity food truck chef, must clear his name of murder allegations. "GIRAFFES ON HORSEBACK SALAD": Houstonian Josh Frank merges Salvador Dali with the Marx Brothers in new graphic novel Nonfiction 1. The Right Side of History by Ben Shapiro. The conservative commentator reflects upon what he considers most impactful to Western civilization. 2. Becoming by Michelle Obama. The former first lady describes her journey from the South Side of Chicago to the White House. 3. Educated by Tara Westover. The daughter of survivalists educates herself enough to leave home for university. 4. Doing Justice by Preet Bharara. The former U.S. Attorney of New York gives insights into our legal system. 5. Kushner, Inc. by Vicky Ward. The HuffPost editor at large gives her perspective on Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trumps agenda. 6. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. The rise and fall of Theranos, the biotech startup that failed to deliver on its promise to make blood testing more efficient. 7. Mamas Last Hug by Frans de Waal. The death of a chimpanzee frames a look animal and human emotions. 8. Shortest Way Home by Pete Buttigieg. A memoir of the first openly gay Democratic candidate to run for president of the United States. 9. The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. How climate-related crises may cause food shortages, refugee emergencies and other catastrophes. 10. First: Sandra Day OConnor by Evan Thomas. A biography of the first female Supreme Court justice. New York Times PREVIEW: Get experts picks for concerts, kids stuff, fine arts, movies and more delivered to your inbox weekly. The Good Oil Days were grander in its 39th iteration. City officials engineered a return of The Blowout, an occasion where part of Humbles Main Street in front of Uptown Park became a dance floor on Friday. On Saturday, the venue transformed again to host the vendors and the characters from Cars, participating in the Family Street Festival. Ive been here 20 years, and we didnt have the street dance, said Pat Gill, the Good Oil Days co-chair. The festival has not been stellar for a few years, it hasnt been the best, and we want to grow it. So Gill, together with Humble Civic Center Director Jennifer Wooden and City Manager Jason Stuebe, searched for ideas to recharge the event, which is designed to celebrate Humbles layered past with oil dating back to the early 1800s. Wooden added that feedback from residents and local businesses also helped with the process. Stuebe concurred. While Stuebe was aware that some of the newness introduced at this Good Oil Days might fare better than others, he said the festival couldnt reman in its previous form. And anything we can do to bring people to downtown that otherwise wouldnt come here on a Friday night is good for downtown Humble, Stuebe said. This is a very blue-collar town thats very proud of its roots and it should be and so this is an opportunity for us to celebrate that while also looking toward the future. Mayor Merle Aaron expressed optimism about the whole event, noting that the weather was an improvement this year warmer and sunnier and that the event committees revamping strategy turned out great. He arrived right when the Louis Adams Diaz Band, opening for Jason Cassidy from New Caney, changed to a livelier number. The people are enjoying this, the people are dancing, he said. When the people are happy, the mayor is happy. He added that he will take note of the attendees reactions to the changes so subsequent Good Oil Days can be better. He wont forget to enjoy the festivities, though. It makes us not just a spot on the map, Gill said of Good Oil Days. We are a city thats welcoming and is saying, Come see us well have a good time together. nguyen.le@chron.com Come August, Joseph Colwell turns 98 but he grabbed the attention March 31 of attendees at the Texans Embracing Americas Military after T.E.A.M. founder Ralph Oliver said, I believe him to be the oldest retired U.S. Marine veteran from World War II. Not only did Colwell receive a standing ovation, but after the program people came up to him to thank him for his service and many people wanted to have their picture taken with him. We would have no way of confirming that Mr. Colwell is the oldest Marine veteran from World War II, said Yvonne Carlock, deputy communications strategy officer Manpower & Reserve Affairs, U.S. Marine Corps, in an April 2 email. We have no way of tracking whether or not veterans of our past conflicts are still living. Oliver said that Colwell served in the U.S. Marines from 1942-46 and was part of the Battle of the Midway and the Battle of Okinawa. Historians say the Japanese fleet suffered heavy losses during the Battle of the Midway and that the Battle of Okinawa, the last major battle of World War II, is considered to be one of the bloodiest. District 22 U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, called Colwell a true, true American hero. Olson said World War II veterans saved the world from tyranny. Colwell, who lives near Jersey Village, also spoke to the Second Baptist Church-West Campus audience, which included recruits who have enlisted in the U.S. military and are headed to basic training. In part, Colwell said, "They're going to ask you recruits to do things you think are stupid and not connected with the military. Anything they have you doing is for a purpose usually related to discipline. One of these days it will register with you." He shared his enlistment experience. "I tried to get into the three services when war broke out and at that time if you weren't 21 years old you had to have parent's permission. My dad wouldn't sign for the Army and the Navy. I brought the papers home from the Marine Corps and he said I'm going to sign these papers. Don't ever write or call or tell me you're sorry I signed these papers." Laughter followed his next comment. "I was in Parris Island (cq) less than half a minute and I was sorry he had signed them." But he went on to say, "Believe me, the Marine Corps was the best thing I ever did. It makes a man out of a boy in a hurry." Taking a challenge, wanting to broaden their education and become a better person, receiving health benefits and following a family tradition are among the reasons recruits gave for enlisting in the military. Cameron Wall, 18, a Sealy High School graduate, said he was to leave April 1 for San Diego. He enlisted in the U.S. Marines with a focus on motor transport/mechanic/operator. I wanted to make a big start in my life and I love challenges, said Wall. Other U.S. Marine Corps recruits were Kristian Rojasmiller, Jessica Navarro, Noah Parrie and Trevor High. U.S. Army recruits included Gema Angono Bikie, Harry Kincaid, Tyra Martin and Kevin Cao. Featured speaker Bill Hastings, retired Katy police chief, told the recruits, This is one of the biggest decisions youve ever made in your life. It will change your life. It will better your life. You will grow up to be an amazing thing. He thanked families for their support of the young recruits and for instilling in them the values that make them want to serve their country. Youre in for the ride of your life, Hastings said. I admire every one of you for what youre doing. karen.zurawski@chron.com Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko has said that working under Russian President Vladimir Putin corresponded to the best years of her life in an interview for the documentary timed to her 70th anniversary, broadcast on the Rossiya-1 channel on Sunday, TASS reports. "I have been working for Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putins] team since day one, and I would like to say from the bottom of my heart that these have been the best years of my life. They have been tough, they have been difficult, but they have been very interesting and eventful," she said. "If he [Putin] invites someone to his team, it means that he trusts this person, that is his principle," the speaker stressed. Putin has praised Matviyenkos work ethic in an interview for the same documentary. "Of course, Valentina Ivanovna [Matviyenko] is a very useful and important link in the whole state structure of our todays work," the Russian leader stressed. He also noted the top senators diplomacy skills, which she uses in her current position. Courtesy photo This week we want to spotlight one of our members of the Conroe Noon Kiwanis Club. The Conroe Noon Kiwanis club has been serving children and youth in the Greater Conroe area since 1952. In 1954 Mickey Deison joined the Conroe Kiwanis Club and helped build the Kiwanis Shelter, operated by the club until 1980. William Moran donated a 25-acre tract to be used for the facility which eventually became the Buckner Child Care in 1980 and later turned over to Montgomery County Youth Services, or now know as Yes to Youth. We still have that bond with the organization! Deison is with the law firm Baggett, Gordon and Deison as a founding partner in Downtown Conroe and has lived in Conroe since 1948. He received his undergraduate education from the University of Texas and Sam Houston State University. After serving in the Korean War with the US Navy from 1951-1954, he came back to Conroe. He married Justine Calfee, a native from Conroe in December of 1957. In May of 1966, Desidon received his law degree from South Texas College of Law. He first set up his law practice at the First Savings Building and Harry Brooks from The Woodlands officed with him. He has also officed on Simonton, and a building known as the Louisiana Pacific building at FM 2854 and I-45. He has been at his current location at 307 San Jacinto since 1990. A storm that swept through the Houston area Sunday afternoon is causing driving and flight delays. All northbound lanes of U.S. 59 were closed near Polk because downed powerlines were in the roadway, the Houston Police Department announced around 2 p.m. The Texas Department of Transportation and CenterPoint Energy are assessing the situation. BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: Get your Houston breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox Meanwhile, a number of flights in Houston-area airports were canceled due to lightning. A ground stop on inbound flights was issued at George Bush Intercontinental Airport at 1:43 p.m., according to a spokesperson from Houston Airport System. United also ceased airfield operations, which includes loading and unloading planes, because of the lightning. 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. Iowa City, Iowa It was hard to miss Cheri Pichone's excitement about Bernie Sanders' second presidential run. She showed up to a recent Iowa rally decked out in Sanders gear, complete with a figurine of the Vermont senator and progressive icon. But underneath her exuberance, the 36-year-old was still mad about the last Democratic primary, when Sanders' bid for the presidency fell short to Hillary Clinton. "They cheated," she said, directing much of her anger at the Democratic National Committee. The party establishment, she lamented, was "actively working against us." Pichone voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in 2016 and said she may vote for a third party again if Sanders doesn't clinch the nomination. She's emblematic of a persistent group of Sanders supporters who won't let go of the slights real and perceived from the last campaign. The frustration is notable now that Sanders is a 2020 front-runner, raking in $18.2 million in the first quarter, downplaying concerns about DNC bias and highlighting his success in bringing the party around on liberal policies it once resisted. Some establishment-aligned Democrats worry the party could lose in 2020 if lingering concerns about the last primary aren't put to bed. "It has the potential to escalate, and it has the potential to help re-elect Donald Trump," said Mo Elleithee, a former spokesman for Clinton and the DNC. The acrimony stems from a fiercely fought campaign and a sense among Sanders loyalists that party leaders privately favored Clinton. DNC leaders at the time scheduled fewer debates than Republicans and sometimes slated them for nights with low television viewership. Often opaque delegate allocation rules also contributed to a belief among some Sanders supporters that the primary was essentially rigged. According to data from the Pew Research Center, the tension took a toll. About 81 percent of people who consistently supported Sanders during the primary season and were confirmed to have voted in the general election said they ultimately voted for Clinton, while 11 percent said they supported Stein or Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, and 3 percent supported Trump. In a closely contested election, those moves away from Clinton may have factored into the results. Since the election, party leaders have sought to smooth things over with Sanders and his supporters. DNC Chairman Tom Perez is planning a robust debate schedule. The rules governing superdelegates party insiders who overwhelmingly backed Clinton have changed. Sanders has publicly expressed confidence in the process this time around, but in terms that suggest he won't soon forget 2016. "In 2016, I think I will not shock anybody to suggest that the DNC was not quite evenhanded," he said during a CNN town hall in February. "I think we have come a long way since then, and I fully expect to be treated quite as well as anybody else." In an interview Friday, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir echoed that optimism. "If you're talking to anyone at the Democratic National Committee who's there now, I'm sure they will tell you that their relationship with the Bernie Sanders campaign is great and that we are operating in good faith and we are talking to each other on an almost daily basis," he said. "Anyone suggesting that there's any kind of friction there is living in the past. They are living with some grudges that they are holding onto from a bygone time." A man accused of faking a burglary to cover up money stolen from his daughters sale of Girl Scout Cookies faced a judge Friday. Brian Couture, 40, of Forest Grove, Oregon, pleaded not guilty to charges of initiating a false report and improper use of an emergency reporting system. Police said Couture called 911 on March 6 and reported that someone had gotten into his home through a sliding glass door, leading to a struggle. Couture was unresponsive when police arrived, and he was taken to the hospital. The area was searched, but no suspect was located. Police said Couture later admitted that he had staged the incident. Detectives determined he did it to conceal the theft of money from a nonprofit organization. A Girl Scouts spokeswoman confirmed Couture is the father of a Girl Scout and there is around $740 in unaccounted-for cookie sales in connection with this case. Since the March 18 arrest in this case, we have been in contact with the Forest Grove Police Department and are working with them to resolve the matter, according to a statement from the Girl Scouts. At this time, Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington is following our normal procedure to collect on funds owed. The stewardship of Girl Scout troop funds is a top priority for our organization, and that is our focus in this matter. Advertisement By The Associated Press Apr. 07, 2019 | WASHINGTON By The Associated Press Apr. 07, 2019 | 04:00 PM | WASHINGTON Attorney General William Barr is defending his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia investigation, saying the confidential document contains sensitive grand jury material that prevented it from being immediately released to the public. The statement Thursday came as Barr confronts concerns that his four-page letter summarizing Mueller's conclusions unduly sanitized the full report in President Donald Trump's favor, including on the key question of whether the president obstructed justice. House Democrats on Wednesday approved subpoenas for Mueller's entire report and any exhibits and other underlying evidence that the Justice Department might withhold. The disparity in length between Barr's letter and Mueller's full report, which totals nearly 400 pages, raises the likelihood of additional significant information that was put forward by the special counsel's office but not immediately shared by the attorney general. In Thursday's statement, Barr defended the decision to release a brief summary letter two days after receiving the report on March 22. He has previously said he did not believe it would be in the public's interest to release the full document in piecemeal or gradual fashion, and that he did not intend for his letter summarizing Mueller's "principal conclusions" to be an "exhaustive recounting" of the special counsel's investigation. Barr is now expected to release the entire report, with redactions, by mid-April. "Given the extraordinary public interest in the matter, the Attorney General decided to release the report's bottom-line findings and his conclusions immediately without attempting to summarize the report with the understanding that the report itself would be released after the redaction process," the Justice Department statement said. The statement also said that every page of Mueller's report was marked that it may contain grand jury material "and therefore could not immediately be released." A Justice Department official, speaking Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential process, said summaries of the findings that Mueller's team included as part of its report also contained grand jury information, making it hard for a swift release. Barr has said that while Mueller did not establish a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign, the special counsel left open a decision on whether the president had tried to obstruct the Russia investigation. The Mueller team laid out evidence on both sides of the question in a way that neither established a crime nor exonerated Trump, according to Barr's letter. Barr has said that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined that Mueller's evidence was insufficient to support an obstruction allegation. Barr said he was continuing to work with Mueller's office on redactions to the report so that it could be released to Congress and the public. Two brothers are accused of gunning down a rapper in a recording studio in southeast Houston, according to court documents. The siblings Eran and Ethan Jenkins were charged last week with capital murder in the March 25 death of Jon Whitfield, court records show. Houston police arrested Ethan Jenkins, 23, on April 3, while his younger brother, Eran, 19, remains on the lam. A witness to the shooting handed the 42-year-old musician who performed as O.G. Nitty a gun before letting the brothers into the Hoodkat Music Group studio at 4119 Reed Road, according to charging documents, citing surveillance footage recorded inside the studio. The two men walked into the studio around 10:15 p.m. and one of them aimed a gun at the witness, prompting Whitfield to brandish his weapon and fire the first shot, the footage shows. He missed. Both of the suspects returned fire, investigators wrote. A spray of bullets pierced the walls to the neighboring smoke shop, according to court documents. Whitfield was fatally struck in the exchange of fire. After the shooting, a suspect began ransacking the studio for drugs and money, while his sibling forced the witness into another room by gunpoint, court documents read. He demanded that the witness delete the file that captured the shootout and their unconcealed faces on video. The brothers left the studio and were last seen driving their mothers GMC Yukon, court records show. The witness told police he encountered the brothers at the smoke shop minutes before the shooting. One of the suspects pulled out a weapon and jokingly told an employee to give him everything, the witness said. The brothers were at the door of the recording studio within minutes of the supposed prank, he recounted. The witness, the smoke shop employee and an FBI source identified the suspects as the Jenkins brothers, documents state. In an interview last week, Whitfields daughter, Diamond, said she feared her father knew the suspects and that his death was a setup, she said. The court documents do not indicate if Whitfield knew the assailants. The brothers have no prior history of arrests in Harris County, court records show. nicole.hensley@chron.com twitter.com/nkhensley Casting politics aside for the weekend, more than 10,000 people were expected to flock to the new larger site of the Houston Palestinian Festival this weekend to share culture and traditions. Palestinian, United States and Texas flags decorated The Water Works in Buffalo Bayou, where the Palestinian American Cultural Center Houstons held its ninth annual celebration featuring food, such as falafel and hummus, live performances from dabke dance groups and Palestinian performing artists, and a bazaar with local Palestinian vendors. Mona Fareed, lead organizer for PACCH, said the event had to move from its previous location, Jones Plaza, to the larger location at the Water Works to make way for the larger crowd. The whole goal of the festival itself is to promote the Palestinian culture and heritage with the community, she said. We want to give them a sense of their own identity and culture and we also just really want to educate the non-Palestinian community on who we are, what we do. What better way to do it than with food and music? Both days of the festival were hosted by comedian Amer Zahr, a shift from when events were hosted by members of PACCH, Fareed said. Throughout the course of the festival 10 to 12 dabke groups performed traditional Middle Eastern dances in between performances and announcements from local Arabic artists along with Raad Kabha and other widely known artists in Palestine. Fareed said the aim of the festival, which is expected to have more than 10,000 attendees overall, was to bring Palestine to Houston. I grew up in Kingwood, where I graduated out a of a class of 1,000 without another Arab that graduated with me, she said. You kind of lose a sense of your culture and I just wanted to be proud of what I came from and meet other Arabs that share similar values. Several groups, including vendors such as MK Cakes, a Palestinian owned bakery, and Authentic Wall Art, an Arab art seller, decorated the aisles of the bazaar along with mannequins with carts and clothing used to simulate a bazaar shopping experience. Students from the University of Houston had a booth for their group Students for Justice in Palestine. Arielle Aranzamendez, member of the OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, was registering voters for upcoming elections, and said she was glad to attend the festival Ive never been to the Palestinian festival, so I just wanted to know more about it, she said. Ive never been here before, so thats ridiculous. Fareed said she is looking forward to the future of the Houston Palestinian Festival, specifically the 10th year of the event next year. I remember standing on stage last year, seeing that because of all of our hard work that people could celebrate, she said. We're non-religious and non-political and it's a big thing to say we could celebrate our culture and our heritage and there are so many people who want to learn more and just don't know. We don't want them to just see what they see on TV. chevall.pryce@chron.com Houston police gave new details Friday morning about a shocking murder case in which prosecutors say two gang members killed a young woman as a satanic sacrifice. Detectives "believe strongly" that they have identified the slain woman, police announced, and are looking for other people who may have been involved. Prosecutors charged yesterday that two alleged members of violent Salvadoran gang MS-13 -- identified in court documents as Miguel Alvarez-Flores, 22, and Diego Hernandez-Rivera, 18 -- killed the young woman and held a 14-year-old girl against her will. Authorities asked the public's help identifying the slain female after the medical examiner could not determine her identity. On Friday, homicide detective Sgt. Chris Sturdivant said police are confident they have identified her. Detectives met Thursday with her family members, whom Sturdivant said were "just distraught that they lost a daughter." The sergeant also revealed that there was a third young girl held captive along with the slain female and the 14-year-old who survived. The third captive also survived and is back with her family, he said at a news conference. The three "young, impressionable young women" ages 14-16 came under the influence of the adult male gang members and eventually were held in an apartment, Sturdivant said, confirming that at least two of them had been reported missing. After they were arrested Monday at the apartment in the 2200 block of South Gessner by SWAT officers with a warrant, Sturdivant said, both of the men charged in the young woman's death admitted their involvement. The young woman, identified only as "Genesis" and thought to be 15, was found lying against a west Houston curb with gunshot wounds to her face and chest, authorities said. A man driving his kids to school found the body about 7 a.m. on Feb. 16. She was small and petite. She stood 5 feet tall, weighed 108 pounds and wore size 0 jeans. The medical examiner found three silver rings on her fingers, one with a playful pattern of elephants following each other with raised trunks and slight smiles. A MOCKERY OF MURDER: Accused killers smile, laugh and wave to media cameras in court appearance The young woman was killed in a satanic ritual by two MS-13 members after she disrespected their shrine to Satanism, prosecutors said Thursday in court. She died after she was shot several times in the face and chest, the Harris County medical examiner's office determined after she was found in the 9900 block of Sharpcrest Street, not far from Beltway 8 near Houston's Chinatown area. Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle The chilling allegation is at the center of a still-unfolding case that includes murder and kidnapping, cocaine dealing and sex trafficking by two members of a street gang that prides itself on violence. The FBI's multiagency local task force on gangs is coordinating the investigation, Sturdivant said. Prosecutors said both men were living in the United States illegally. In general, Sturdivant said, "the majority of the MS-13 members we come into contact with are here illegally." Alvarez-Flores, 22, also known as "Diabolico," told police that he was the leader of a local set of the infamous Salvadoran gang, prosecutors said in court. He is accused of directing the younger member, 18-year-old Hernandez-Rivera, to kill Genesis. Former President George H.W. Bush will be honored with a commemorative stamp, the United States Postal Service announced Saturday. The Forever stamp features a portrait of the 41st president painted by award-winning artist Michael J. Deas. The artwork is reportedly based on a 1997 photograph taken by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. George H.W. Bush: Former president's Houston office closes up shop after 26 years A first-day-of-issue ceremony is scheduled to be held at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station on June 12, the president's birthday, according to the press release. The former president died on Nov. 30, at the age of 94. He guided the U.S. through the end of the Cold War and drove the creation of a multinational coalition that successfully forced Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War, according to the release. Bush was also an advocate for public service. He explained his vision of a nation of volunteers as "a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky." The stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp, which will always be equal in value to the current first-class mail 1-ounce price, according to the U.S. Postal Service. The stamps are now available for pre-order on the USPS website. 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 San Marcos police are searching for a man they have named a suspect in the shooting death of another at an apartment complex Friday. Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for murder for An-drew Stephen Jones, 23, of San Marcos, following a shooting at the Uptown Square Apartments, according to a news release. Officers responded about 6:37 p.m. after police say they were told a man had been shot while in the complex's parking lot on the 13oo block of Thorpe Lane. RELATED: Body found near Government Canyon not that of missing businesswoman When police arrived they say they found Nicholas Devone White, 21, of Manvel, suffering from a gunshot wound and administered first aid. White later died from his injuries at Seton Hays Medical Center, according to the release. Police say a witness told them he arranged to meet White to purchase drugs when the two were confronted by a man police say was Jones. The witness told police that was when White was shot, according to the release. Police say White's shooter, wearing a yellow shirt and light-colored shorts, fled in a silver SUV. Surveillance video used by police to obtain a license plate on the SUV then led detectives to Jones' residence at another apartment complex. Officers found the SUV there, which was later impounded by police. About 5:30 a.m., officials say San Marcos Hays County SWAT, a combined unit of the Hays County Sheriff's Office and SMPD, raided the apartment using explosives to breach the residence and serve a search and arrest warrant. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox The apartment unit was empty, according to release, and police continue to search for Jones. Anyone with information about Jones' whereabouts is asked to contact Detective Patrick Aubry at 512-753-2306. By The Associated Press Apr. 01, 2019 | 11:07 AM | LOUISVILLE Protesters briefly interrupted remarks by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell while he hosted a campus event in his Kentucky hometown. Nearly a dozen protesters stood up Monday at an event at the University of Louisville. The protest broke out when McConnell was about to introduce Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. Identifying herself as a McConnell constituent, one protester shouted at the Kentucky Republican: "If you expect our leadership, why don't you stand with us?" She condemned McConnell for accepting campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry. Protesters stood up as McConnell praised students on campus. McConnell didn't respond directly to the protesters, who sang "Which side are you on now, which side are you on?" while led out by police. When his remarks resumed, McConnell said, "Welcome to America these days." The event continued with Kaine's speech. CLEVELAND, Ohio Gordon Parks made it look easy. As director of the Shaft detective movies in the 1970s, and as a composer, author, winner of the National Medal of Arts and more than 50 honorary doctorates, Parks (1912-2006) was a leading black cultural figure who left a sizable imprint on 20th century America. But the core of his accomplishment rests on his work as a photographer who mastered everything from street smart photojournalism to fashion photography, celebrity portraits and corporate PR that functions as trenchant social commentary. The through-line of the powerful new exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art is that Parks astounding eye vaulted him to fame after he grew up poor and afraid of white racist terrorism in early-20th-century Kansas. After picking up a camera at a Seattle pawn shop in 1937, Parks quickly mastered lighting, composition and the ability to trip the shutter at the right moment. Langston Hughes, Chicago, December 1941. Gordon Parks (American, 19122006). Gelatin silver print; 33.3 x 27 cm. The Gordon Parks Foundation.Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation During the 1940s, he worked for the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information before freelancing and eventually joining Life, the worlds leading picture magazine, as its first black staff photographer. By his late 30s, Parks was roving the globe as a brilliant photographer, and as a member of a black American cultural elite that included Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks and Maya Angelou. Organized by Philip Brookman, consulting curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Gordon Parks, The New Tide: Early Work, 1940-1950, ranges from gritty images of urban poverty in Washington, D.C., to elegant shots of fashion models in Paris and a pathos-filled portrait of actress Ingrid Bergman. Beyond narrating how Parks skill led to his success, the shows fundamental message is that regardless of the assignment or the client, he turned commercial or journalistic work into high art, often with a searing social message. Thats why his work matters. Just one example: In 1946, Parks got hired by Standard Oil of New Jersey to photograph the face of oil. He joined a publicity campaign aimed at repairing the image of a company damaged by revelations it had made a deal with a Nazi industrial firm that disadvantaged America during World War II. The assignment led Parks to produce photos such as an ad-ready portrait of an Esso dealer in rural Maine, smiling in the sun with a gas pump in his hand. He visited refineries in New Jersey and drilling fields in Alberta, Canada, and documented how petroleum powered the economy. As part of that work, Parks created a portrait of a coal sketcher, a black man who worked as a helper on a New York City coal truck, and whose pay depended on how many deliveries he could make in a day. A coal sketcher is a helper on a coal truck. The number of trips he makes a day determines the extent of his salary. Harlem River, New York City., November 1946. Gordon Parks (American, 19122006). Gelatin silver print; 23.2 x 23.8 cm. Standard Oil (New Jersey) Collection, Photographic Archives, University of Louisville, SONJ Archives43727.Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation The deep furrows and worried expression on the sketchers face, caught in raking light against a shadowy background, show that life at the bottom rung of the global carbon economy was no fun. The photo isnt PR, its an indictment. It shows how Parks combined a silky aesthetic power with an ability to subvert the racism and power relationships of the time in which he lived. Parks came to his piercing empathy by surviving a violent childhood in Jim Crow Kansas. Born in Fort Scott, he was the youngest of 10 children reared by Jackson Parks, a poor farmer, and his wife Sarah, who died when the future photographer was 15. Until my mid-teens I lived in fear: fear of being shot, lynched or beaten to death and not for any wrongdoing of my own, Parks wrote in a memoir quoted in the exhibitions catalogue. Some mornings I stood before the single cracked mirror in our house and asked God over and over again why He made me black. After his mothers death, and after finishing his sophomore year in a rural high school, Parks moved to St. Paul, MN, to live with his older sister Maggie and seek a better education. After a family quarrel, he began a decade of wandering during which he worked as a busboy, a piano player in a brothel, a big-band musician, a worker in the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, and a railroad waiter. It was in 1937 that a fellow waiter on the North Coast Limited handed Parks a magazine that changed his life. There was a portfolio of photographs in it that I couldnt forget, Parks wrote. They were of migrant workers. Dispossessed, beaten by dust, storms and floods, they roamed the highways in caravans of battered jalopies and wagons between Oklahoma and California, scrounging for work. The photos that so impressed Parks were taken for the federal Resettlement Administration by photographers including Dorothea Lange and Arthur Rothstein, according to the catalogue. After setting in Chicago with his wife, Sally Alvis, Parks worked for four years as a free-lancer and local journalist before landing a pivotal grant to document black contributions to World War II for the History Section of the Farm Security Administration. His work at FSA, and later the Office of War Information, echoes the compassionate viewpoint of the Depression-era photographers, while adding acute perceptions of black life in America. Washington, D.C. Government charwoman, July 1942. Gordon Parks (American, 19122006). Gelatin silver print; 23.7 x 18.2 cm. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., LC-USF34-013407-C [P&P].Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information Photograph Iconic images from the period include a young boy standing on crutches in the doorway of a row house. A terse caption notes that the boys leg cut off by a streetcar while he was playing in the street. Also unforgettable is Parks portrait of a black charwoman, or janitor, posing with a mop and broom in front of an American flag in a composition reminiscent of painter Grant Woods American Gothic. Parks himself subtitled the photo after the Wood painting. With more than 150 vintage prints and ephemera, including digital displays of layouts in Life and Ebony, the Parks exhibition enables viewers to follow Parks inspiring journey from breakthrough to breakthrough. The experience is thrilling. And it demonstrates that although Parks astonishing talent made his rise look easy, it was anything but. By Marcia Pledger CLEVELAND, Ohio - As the new medical marijuana market in Ohio takes shape, theres bound to be some confusion for businesses and consumers alike. About one-quarter of the states 56 licensed dispensaries are now open. While the owners face challenges in figuring out how they can or cant advertise and adapt to continually changing regulations, lots of potential candidates for using medical marijuana just want to know the basics of how to get a card, where to find dispensaries and how much the products will cost. That means small-business owners learning about the industry are also faced with a new type of customer: the first-time cannabis user. Businesses cant just be focused on the bottom line, they have to focus on educating consumers, as well. With this program still being so new in Ohio, there is a bit of a learning curve for patients as they try to navigate the process of purchasing medical marijuana and picking the right product, said Thomas Rosenberger, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association of Ohio. "So as dispensaries open up across the state, we're seeing them position themselves not only as a place to purchase medical marijuana, but also as an educational resource for patients, Rosenberger said. "Right now we have a concentration of dispensaries open in the northern and eastern parts of the state, and none in the southwestern part of the state, he said. Over the next several months, though, we're going to see more and more dispensaries open and more and more patients will have easy access to one." So far, nearly 450 physicians have signed up to recommend medical marijuana in the first 12 months the state medical board has been approving doctors for the program. However, only about a quarter of them are actively prescribing medical marijuana cards that are needed to purchase products. Kate Nelson, chief operating officer of Greenleaf Apothecaries, said two of the companys five botanist dispensaries are now open in Canton and Wickliffe. The Cleveland location, on Lakeside Avenue, which recently passed the state inspection, is expected to open in April. Our ultimate goal is to bring education, whether its to patients or members of the community, Nelson said. Between mid-January and mid-March, there were about $1.85 million worth of marijuana sales statewide, about 245 pounds of the cannabis flower. Right now, its only sold in bud form. Dispensaries also sell grinders and vaporizers. Processed products will be available soon. Ohio law permits patients to medicate with oils or plant material for vaping, patches and creams for transdermal application, as well as with tinctures and edibles for consumption. Nelson, who studied medical marijuana in college, said shes gratified when she hears from people who tried the product for the first time and tell her theyre finally able to sleep well, theyre now pain-free, or their appetite increased instead of feeling nauseous from chemotherapy treatments. We dont know that it can help everyone who has one of the 21 qualifying conditions, but we want to be available to provide an alternative so that they have the opportunity to alleviate the symptoms theyre suffering from, Nelson said. Education Process The learning curve is stiff. Most people start with an online search for physician referral clinics. Then they make an appointment with a doctor whose goal is talk about a patients qualifying condition and how to use medical marijuana and minimize any possible adverse effects. Were the first to educate new patients about the process, said Lenny Berry, co-owner of Lakewood Medical Clinic and Maple Heights Medical Clinic. We teach them how cannabis might help them with their condition and how to properly dose it. Doctors talk to them about how it might interact with other medications that theyre taking. Berry said most conferences are trade show-based, but he plans to host a patient-and-caregivers-focused conference July 13 in Independence. Its going to focus on the health of the patients and how cannabis might help them, Berry said. We want participants to leave feeling knowledgeable and encouraged. Patients Of more than 20,000 patients registered so far with the state board of pharmacy, data at the medical marijuana advisory committee show most are seeking medical marijuana for chronic or severe pain. Also, so far only about a quarter of the patients have used their cards. Robneeka Robinson, who suffers from fibromyalgia and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, said she got a medical marijuana card two months ago, but she has yet to use it. Shes concerned about the process. Even though shes heard basic information from a physician referral clinic, she wonders what the buying experience will be like at a dispensary and how shell be treated. The reason I want to try it is because I suffer from real pain. But because of the opioid addiction, doctors are hesitant to make certain prescriptions, she said. And people like me who really need the medication cant get it. They give me ibuprofen and anti-inflammatory medication, but nothing for pain. Robert Hawkins, 72, of Cleveland, is a Vietnam vet who said he is glad he got a card after his recent hip replacement. He also suffers from glaucoma. Since Ive been taking medical marijuana the pressure in my eyes has reduced to where I dont have to take the eye drops anymore, he said. Im looking forward to when the processors start putting out products. I want to try ointments for my arthritis. I want to live the rest of my life at a pain level of maybe 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, Hawkins said. Im hoping that medical marijuana will help me. The current dosage landscape Patients are allowed up to 8-ounces of Tier 1 plant material every 90 days. Tier 1 plant material refers to less-potent medical marijuana that contains up to a 23 percent concentration of THC. Tier 2 plant material has a higher potency and refers to anything greater than 23 percent of the main psychoactive component in the cannabis plant. While patients have a year to use their medical marijuana card, if someone waits until the fourth month to make a purchase, the recommended quantity allowed in the first 90 days will no longer be available. Patients dont understand that if you dont use it, you lose it, she said. The 90-day supply starts to go down as soon as a marijuana card is issued. Patients also can designate up to two caregivers who can buy and administer the cannabis. Caregivers must be at least 21 years old and are limited to two patients. So far, patients said they are surprised about the purchase process that includes only being able to use cash. Nelson said its the reason each of the Botanist locations has ATM machines. Terrasana, in Garfield Heights and Columbus, offers Hypur for electronic payments. They plan to open a third location in Fremont sometime this month. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Its every travelers nightmare: You find out, midway through your trip, that your flight home is canceled, the airline is out of business. That happened to thousands of travelers last month when Wow Air announced that it was shutting down, stranding passengers in Europe and the United States. Among them was former Clevelander Scott Ellsworth, now of Columbus, who flew Wow from Detroit to Iceland and was midway through his vacation when he was notified by his Airbnb host that he no longer had a way home. I immediately went online and tried to find another flight, he said. The situation was not as dire for Cleveland-area travelers booked on Icelandair, which last week announced it was canceling all spring and summer flights from Cleveland, citing the aircraft shortage caused by the grounding of Boeings 737 Max planes. Icelandair service from Cleveland was expected to resume May 17, and many Northeast Ohioans were relying on the airline to get them to Europe this summer. Icelandair, at least, was obligated to rebook passengers, or refund their money. Even so, some local travelers are out substantial amounts of money because of the changes in their flight plans. One of them is Alan Gross, of Shaker Heights, who got a refund from Icelandair and then rebooked his flight to London on United Airlines. He had to pay more money for the new flight, but thats not all: Because he canceled plans for a stopover in Iceland -- he was to spend five days there on his way back to Cleveland -- he is also out the nonrefundable payment he made to Airbnb for accommodations in Reykjavik. I dont believe there is any way for us to recover that loss, he wrote in an email. In any event, it may be a long time before we venture to Iceland via Cleveland. The back-to-back Iceland aviation problems last month should provide a cautionary tale for travelers: Its not easy to predict all the potential crises and calamities of international travel. But it is possible to be prepared. Among the lessons learned: Use a credit card for major purchases. Immediately after hearing about Wows suspension of service, Ellsworth went online to dispute the initial Wow payment he made on his credit card. Under the Truth in Lending Act, Ellsworth should be reimbursed for goods that werent delivered as agreed. Travelers who used a debit card may not be as lucky. Debit cards are governed by a separate law and dont have the same legal protections. But some banks may offer reimbursements even if they arent legally required to. Plead your case. Consider travel insurance. But not just any travel insurance, says travel agent Bill Coyle, owner of Encompass the World Travel in Brunswick. Make sure the policy includes trip cancellation coverage for financial default, which should cover travelers for all expenses related to an operator that goes out of business, including the cost of another airline ticket, extra hotel room nights, etc. Coyle also recommends using a travel agent, who are skilled at helping travelers solve unanticipated problems, including natural disasters, illness, operator insolvency and other issues. Coyle advises travelers who are at the airport when a flight is canceled to go immediately to the airlines customer service desk. They will get you reticketed faster than anyone, he said. Theyre looking at live inventory. While youre waiting, he said, do your homework -- know the alternative routes to your destination, pick your top choice and then plead your case to the airline representative. They usually have the ability to book you on another carrier. The Ellsworth family, left to right: Kai, Becky, Rae and Scott. They were vacationing in Iceland when Wow Air went under. Ellsworth, who was traveling with his wife and two children, didnt use a travel agent and didnt purchase travel insurance. He was on his own. Shortly after hearing about Wows collapse, he began searching for a way home. He first tried Icelandair, one of several carriers that offered discounted rescue fares to help stranded Wow passengers get home. It took him hours on hold to get through. Icelandair first offered Ellsworth a flight five days after his originally planned departure, which he rejected because he and his wife couldnt miss another week of work. The carriers second option: a flight that cost $1,400 per ticket, one way. I turned them down, said Ellsworth, and he started looking himself. He finally settled on a route that took him, via Icelandair, to Tampa, Florida, where he had a nine-hour layover, then flew the next morning via Spirit Airlines to Detroit, where he had left his car. (In Tampa, his flight was delayed by the software problem that grounded planes across the United States. He thought, What is this, an April Fools Day joke?) He landed in Detroit with just enough time to drive to Cleveland for the Indians home opener, a long-time family tradition. Hes back in Columbus now, where he owns the bar Threes Above High, and is reflecting on his experience. A pilot friend warned him about Wow before he booked, told him that the airline was in financial trouble. Indeed, the warning signs go back at least to last fall, when Wow canceled service to Cleveland and several other cities. Next time, said Ellsworth, hell listen to his friend. In the meantime, hes trying to recoup some of his expenses. But he added, Ive got a great story to tell. Related: Icelandair cancels service from Cleveland, cites Boeing 737 Max 8 woes BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- A large crowd helped to celebrate the induction of four new members of the Brunswick High School Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame this year, as well as honoring two retired staff members. The annual Spring Fling, sponsored by the Brunswick Education Foundation, was held Saturday (April 6) at Coppertop at Cherokee Hills in Valley City, where high school Principal Keith Merrill introduced Debbie Watring Manning, Jan Davis Rizzo, Dr. Peter Katsaros and Nolan Masterson. Masterson was unable to attend the ceremony because he is 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. His brother, Jesse, accepted the award on his behalf. Masterson, class of 2003, 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 in Taiwan. Manning, class of 1987, gave a moving speech as she thanked all of those who helped her succeed, despite being hearing impaired from the time she was a young child. She went to Towslee Elementary School and on to middle and high school without the kinds of services now available, by learning lip reading. The ceremony was signed by American Sign Language interpreters who were busy the whole evening. When Katsaros, class of 1982, came to Brunswick, he said he was very shy and had a difficult time fitting in, but was encouraged along the way by teachers and family. He thanked his family, particularly his dad, who died last year. He got a laugh when he explained that he met his wife, Theresa, in high school. He went on to college while she finished her final year here, then she went to work in Cleveland while he went to medical school. I worked on Friday, we got married Sunday and I started medical school on Monday, he said. He added that his wife and sons are used to the life of a small-town doctor -- he is an internist in Norton -- and know that he can be called in at any time. Luckily, his phone didnt ring on Saturday. Rizzo, class of 1976, is well known to just about anyone who has dealt with the school district. Merrill said she is the districts executive director of first impressions. Rizzo spent her entire school career in Brunswick and at the Medina County Career Center, where she got her first job. In 1977, she came to the Brunswick Board of Education office, then became the superintendents secretary. When I started working, I never dreamed I would be here 42 years later, she added. Staff members honored this year include Bill Parschen and Kim Tomashefski. A portrait of the late Parschen was on an easel at the front of the room as his fiancee -- longtime secretary of Towslee Elementary School Nancy Purcell -- accepted the award on his behalf. Parschen was already a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame, and she said she knew he would be extremely proud of this honor. Parschens brother was also on hand for the ceremony. Tomashefski -- a former teacher, high school principal and assistant superintendent -- credited her success to the administrators who believed in her and helped her thrive. She also said that much of her success was made possible by the students, parents, staff and administration. She said she knew her late husband, Paul, was up there somewhere -- probably with Bill Parschen -- smiling. The Spring Fling is the major fundraiser for the Brunswick Education Foundation, with proceeds going toward scholarships for graduating students and special grants for innovative projects by Brunswick teachers. Merrill encouraged everyone to nominate someone for next years award. He explained that the selection committee would be revamping some of the applications for next year and said they would be online on the school website by the end of the year for submission. The entire event was videotaped by the BEAT and can be seen starting next week at thebeat.viebit.com/ and on cable TV. For more news from the Brunswick Sun, visit here. PEPPER PIKE, Ohio -- Failure to control, Interstate 271: An apparently uninjured Cleveland woman, 52, was cited once police caught up with her late on March 31 after she rolled her 2015 Hyundai Tucson at 60 mph while merging into the express lanes, landed upright on the wet pavement, and attempted to continue on her way. Although the police report mentions her leaving the scene of an accident, she did not appear to have been charged for that. No other vehicles were involved as she rolled back over into the median and slip lanes, then proceeded north. She was wearing her safety belt at the time, and both the front and side airbags were deployed, with damage to the car listed as still functional. Suspicion, Pinetree Road: Officers responded to a Lander Road home around 11:30 a.m. April 3 to take a suspicious-activity report from a woman involving a girl, 17, while she was at Heinens grocery store less than an hour earlier. Warrant served, parking permission; Chagrin Boulevard: An eastbound South Euclid man, 26, was turned over to police there after a Pepper Pike officer ran a registration check that showed an outstanding warrant just before 9 a.m. March 28. If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page. Read more news from the Chagrin Solon Sun here. CLEVELAND, Ohio A series of crashes on Interstate 90 early Sunday left one man dead and several people injured, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reported. Investigators on scene learned that before 3 a.m., three vehicles were involved in a crash in I-90 eastbound near Eddy Road, a news release from the highway patrol says. Two vehicles a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis and a 2001 Dodge Ram pick-up truck with an attached trailer were off the main roadway. The people inside of the Grand Marquis and the Dodge Ram were outside of their vehicles, trying to load the damaged car onto the pick-ups trailer, the release states. Then, a 2019 Kia Sportage drifted into the berm and hit two people standing on the shoulder. The Kia eventually came to a rest in the center lane of I-90, the release states. One of the men hit by the Sportage, 56-year-old James Blankenship, of Willowick, was killed in the crash. His 26-year-old son, who was not named by authorities, was seriously injured and taken to University Hospitals. The 36-year-old driver of the Kia Sportage suffered minor injuries and was also taken to University Hospitals for treatment, officials said. After the initial fatal crash, Bratenahl police officers in marked cruisers were at the scene. One of the cruisers was rear-ended by an eastbound vehicle, the highway patrol says. The struck cruiser set off a chain reaction causing two other vehicles sitting in traffic to be hit. The Bratenahl police officer involved in the cruiser crash was treated and released from the hospital. The driver of the car that hit the police car was taken to the hospital for treatment, officials said, and the occupants of the other two vehicles were not hurt. Investigators believe that alcohol and/or drug use is a factor in both crashes. The crashes remain under investigation, and charges are expected to be filed, authorities say. If youd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- BEAM ME UP!" Rep. Tim Ryans former boss and predecessor once declared on the House floor. Ryan would now like to be beamed up to the front of the already too crowded 2020 Democratic presidential primary race he just entered, and ultimately, to the presidency. Failing that, Ryans hope may to be beamed up to the V.P. spot on the ticket, and failing that, a cabinet spot in President Bidens , Betos, Kamalas or Buttigiegs administration? Ryans sub-compact entry into the bumper-to-bumper 2020 DNC-NASCAR race traffic jam is expected to be followed by a few more entries, chiefly the Biden bus. The Mahoning Valley area Congressman made his announcement Friday in a video on his website and twitter page, followed by an appearance on The View. Saturday, Ryan held his first official campaign rally in Youngstown. Ryan says hes running for president to, first and foremost, try to bring this country back together because a divided country is a weak country. Weve been divided for a long time. That division has prevented us from being able to be the best that we could possibly be. You cant be for business and for labor. You cant be for border security and immigration reform. You cant be for cities and rural America. You cant be for the north and south. You cant be for men and women. Im tired of having to choose. I want us to come together as a country. Ryan said on The View that he can win Western PA.,Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin. And that means Donald Trump is going back to Mar-a-lago full time. Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman Dave Betras told Cleveland.coms Seth A. Richardson that if 77,000 people in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania had voted Democrat, Trump would have lost in 2016, and that Ryan is the perfect candidate to win those 77,000 voters back in 2020. Senator Sherrod Brown might have helped win those voters and states had Hillary Clinton shown the wisdom to choose him as her running mate in 2020. Had Brown decided to enter the 2020 race, its doubtful Ryan would now be running. During his appearance on The View Ryan acknowledged the value and importance of Browns Dignity of Work message, which Brown believes Democrats must fully embrace in the 2020 campaign. On paper, Ryan would look to do well in all of Ohio and Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Ryan is a right leaning moderate who comes from a working class district. All I know is Tim has the it factor...I think people are looking for authenticity. Theyre going to get that," Betras told Cleveland.coms Seth A. Richardson. If Ryan has the it factor hasnt been established the way it has with Beto ORourke. Ryan isnt even the biggest Democrat star in Ohio, Brown is. Ryan has always been brought up as a potential candidate for governor or U.S. Senate, yet after always flirting with the idea, hes never dived in. Could he have beaten Cordray in the primary? Probably. Could he have beaten Mike DeWine? Thats less certain. Ryan failed in his bid to unseat Nancy Pelosi as the Democrats House leader. And ultimately decided not to challenge her again in 2018. Cleveland.coms Robin Goist reported an estimated 300 people showed up at Ryans rally Saturday, and not all of them were Ryan supporters. In comparison, the announcement rally of Sen Kamala Harris drew thousands. While Ryan doesnt have the name recognition and following of Berni, Biden and Beto, he is better positioned than other Whoseville candidates running, like Hickenlooper and Inslee. The bigger challenge for Ryan, is not going to be name recognition and media attention, its going to be raising money. A crowd of only 300 doesnt bode well for his grassroots fundraising ability. How far and long would his union financial support last once Biden officially enters the race? Ryan failed in his attempt to unseat Pelosi, but his reasons for wanting to do so was correct. Like Browns Dignity of work message, Ryan was correct in pointing out that Pelosi and the Democrats were still tone-deaf about why working class and rural voters in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania abandoned the Democratic Party and voted for Trump. With Ryans entry, moderates also bolster their position against the far left wing of the party. A wing that cannot outfly Trump in a general election. Ryan, Harris, Klobuchar, ORourke and Biden are all established moderates. It hasnt been mentioned much, but I believe one of the reasons far left progressives are targeting Catholic and personally pro-life Biden is because his less than enthusiastic pro-choice position. The Catholic Tim Ryan has traveled the same Abortion position path as Biden, and former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, for that matter. So expect far left progressives to reject Ryan as a Democrat Rino. Even if Ryans campaign doesnt get far, his presidential candidacy will still raise his profile in Ohio and nationally, and combined with Sherrod Browns already established influence, should greatly increase the eventual Democrat nominees chance of winning the state. CLEVELAND, OhioIf the marketers of cannabidiol, or CBD are to be believed, their product can treat everything from insomnia to schizophrenia. CBD is being sold in creams, oils, ointments, gummies and even facial masks. And consumers are grabbing it up: the market for CBD is growing faster than cannabis, with one recent analysis estimating it will become a $22 billion industry over the next few years. Recently, The Plain Dealer asked readers about their use of CBD and the questions they have about the exploding popularity of the product. We heard from people using CBD for a wide range of conditions, including anxiety, arthritis pain, depression, migraine headaches and insomnia. Many readers had two main questions about CBD: Where is it legal to buy it, and does it actually live up to the hype? Well have to get back to the first question after Ohio settles its policy on the sale of hemp and CBD; Recently the Ohio Senate unanimously passed a bill that would make it possible for people to grow, process and sell hemp and CBD derived from the plant. The bill will now head to the House for a vote. To answer the second question we asked a group of local and national experts on cannabis and cannabidiol to help sort out the myths from the facts. What is CBD? Cannabidiol is one of more than 100 chemicals called cannabinoids that can be distilled from Cannabis plants, which include both marijuana and hemp. THC, the component of marijuana that produces a high, and CBD are the most abundant cannabinoids in Cannabis plants, and generally have an inverse relationship: the more THC there is in a plant, the less CBD. Marijuana, bred to contain lots of THC, therefore has less CBD. Hemp, which generally contains a lot of CBD, has very little THC. The effects of [the compounds] are kind of yin and yang, says Dr. Kevin Hill, director of the division of addiction psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, with THC causing a high and the potential for psychotic symptoms, and CBD causing no high and possibly tamping down anxiety and psychosis in animal models. Pure CBD, whether its derived from hemp or marijuana, should in theory contain no THC and thus not cause any intoxication. What we know about CBD For most conditions, we dont yet know a lot about CBD. People are suggesting that its good for almost and anything and everything, and that is almost certainly not going to be true, says Dr. Igor Grant, chair of the department of psychiatry at University of California San Diego and director of its Center for Medical Cannabis Research. Epidiolex, a medication that treats two rare and very severe forms of childhood epilepsy called Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndromes, is the first and so far only CBD-based medication to be tested in randomized clinical trials and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The best evidence of CBDs potential for other conditions comes only from pre-clinical, or animal, trials, which provide some indication that the substance may reduce inflammation, anxiety and psychotic symptoms in the short term, Grant says. But while theres promise that CBD may help in these areas, the early evidence is far from conclusive. I dont think we can yet say this really works for anxiety, for example, he says. Anecdotal evidence from patient testimonials abounds when it comes to CBD and the treatment of insomnia, pain and in easing recovery from addiction, but the evidence in these areas is even more shaky, or entirely lacking. For insomnia, some studies indicate CBD causes sedation, while others show the opposite. It may be other cannabis-derived substances that are mixed in with the CBD that make people drowsy, or even the solutions the CBD is dissolved in, says Hill. In treating addiction, theres no evidence that CBD works, says Dr. Ted Parran, addiction specialist at St. Vincent Charity Hospitals Rosary Hall treatment center and an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. While CBD wont produce a high and is therefore likely safer than the increasingly popular idea of treating addiction with medical marijuana, there are no trials in people comparing its use against a placebo, the gold standard for measuring effectiveness. Its possible CBD may prove useful for people with pain related to inflammation, such as arthritis, because the compound does have anti-inflammatory properties. But little is known about the required dose, and how the CBD should be delivered (whether by an oil, cream or solution) in order to work. CBD products are available in oils, ointments, drops and edibles such as gummies. Research is scarce on which methods work, and how CBD can or should be taken. Hill cautions his patients against spending a lot of money on small tubes of CBD to rub on aching joints because even if it helps, it probably wont be much more effective than other less-expensive topical pain relievers such as Icy Hot or Ben-Gay. Evaluating safety A lot of people assume CBD is safe because its considered natural and because its widely available without a prescription in health food stores and even some gyms and coffee shops. Research on CBD has provided some good news about the products safety when its pure: its non-intoxicating, meaning it doesnt produce euphoria or a high, and in the clinical trial that led to the FDAs approval of Epidiolex, the CBD drug did not cause side effects severe enough to discontinue treatment, even at high doses. In that trial, the most commonly reported side effects were sleepiness (and on the flip side, insomnia) elevated liver enzymes, gastrointestinal symptoms, rash and infections. One of the biggest problems consumers face is uncertainty about what theyre actually getting. Because the products are primarily marketed and sold as a supplement, theyre not regulated by the FDA. Theres no guarantee of safety or purity, despite what companies claim. Two recent studies have raised concerns about whats in the products being sold, with one finding wide variation in both CBD and THC content, and the other turning up potentially dangerous medications and chemicals such as cough medicine and the synthetic cannabinoid known as K2, or Spice. If you buy something off the Internet, you may be getting more CBD than you think youre getting, or you may be getting less, says Hill. You might not be getting any at all. It may be safest to buy CBD products from state-licensed marijuana dispensaries, he says, because products sold there are more closely regulated and should have been tested for purity. But all the doctors agreed that if you plan on using CBD, you need to have a conversation with your physician first. And because the evidence of CBDs effectiveness in treating most conditions is still shaky, at best, you should never forgo another medication in its favor, they say. Implications for drug-testing While CBD is not supposed to contain THC, the compound that would produce a positive result for marijuana use, some CBD, particularly if its made from marijuana rather than hemp, may contain THC. Dr. Paul Terpeluk, medical director for employee health at The Cleveland Clinic, says he often fields questions about CBD at the health system, where employees are subject to random drug testing. If you take this product and you have a high level of THC in your urine and youre going to claim that it was from this CBD oil, thats a risk for you, he says. Its one of many reasons Terpeluk advises pretty much everyone to not take CBD. Why would you take a medication when you dont know whats in it, he says. I dont care what it is. The bottom line The doctors are uniformly optimistic about the potential of CBD, but call for more, and better, research before wholeheartedly endorsing it for anything beyond its FDA-approved uses. Even though the products are available as supplements, doctors caution that there's no guarantee or purity or effectiveness until the research is done. It may take a while before that research materializes though, due to regulatory, financial and other obstacles. While there are many early-stage trials across the country, there are currently no CBD-related drugs in the FDA-approval pipeline. That may be because of a lack of interest from pharmaceutical companies, which have to pump a lot of money into potential approval and then compete in a market where the product is available far cheaper online. It may also be because those selling CBD would rather such studies not come out, Hill says. If youre doing very well financially selling these products just based on their promise, maybe you wouldnt want to see the research done that may run counter to your claims, he says. We owe it to the public to find out the answers. CLEVELAND, Ohio Financial advisor Sally Gries has been tapped as the new board chair of the Cleveland Foundation, a one of the largest community foundations in the world. Gries, the founder of Gries Financial Partners, is the third female board chair for the philanthropy, which supports initiatives across Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties. Gries, of Shaker Heights, joined the 15-member board in 2012. She was elected chair by her fellow board members to replace Rev. Stephen Rowan, who is retiring. Board members now predominantly women can serve for two five-year terms. Today represents an exciting new chapter in our history, Cleveland Foundation President and CEO Ronn Richard. I have had the privilege of working with Sally for the past seven years as a member of our board. The breadth and depth of her knowledge and her commitment to our community will be tremendous assets as she continues the legacy of inspired leadership so thoroughly exemplified by Rev. Rowan. Gries company was the first investment advisory firm run by a woman in Ohio. She sold her company three years ago, which gave her more time to focus on the foundation. Ive been committed to this community for so many years, said Gries, who spent part of her childhood in the Cleveland area, before moving back to city for good as an adult in 1969. I thought I had the time and the interest to really step up and take us forward and build on the programs we already have going for us. Gries said womens representation on the board is significant. Women have achieved leadership roles in so many parts of our economic development and our education, Gries said. I think that we are very equipped to work at a peer level with men and to achieve great things together, so I think its a very important time for all of us. The foundation, which supports arts, culture, the environment and more, is focusing much of its energy this year on Say Yes! to Education, a national organization that helps high school students pay for college. Its also looking at workforce readiness and implementing diversity and inclusion strategies. Two new members are also joining the Cleveland Foundation board of directors: Rev. Robin E. Hedgeman, the senior pastor at Bethany Christian Church; and Kathleen Ferry, a principal with FocusCFO, a financial company. Hear more from Gries below: As the incoming chair of the Cleveland Foundation board of directors, what do you plan to do differently? As we look forward, were in an interesting point with Cleveland, in order (for) Cleveland to build economic renaissance and make it sustainable we really need to do three things. We really have to grow our job skill bank, through the proper education of our children and the training and retraining of adults. We need to bring in fresh capital and we need to bring in entrepreneurial thinking and leaders to promote the growth through innovation. We really feel that weve come a long way and now we have to take it to the next level. So building on what weve done in the past and really driving forward in a very meaningful, cohesive way. Why is the Cleveland Foundation important to Cleveland? Weve played a leadership role throughout our years, in serving as a grant maker, convener and facilitator. And our commitment to the community in terms of diversity and inclusion means that we are trying to be very responsive to all residents of Greater Cleveland, now and for the generations to come. How will your background in finance help you as the chair of the Cleveland Foundation? Id have to say its a background as a woman in finance because it raises the diversity issues that that industries faces, including the financial industry, and also the importance of building value. In Cleveland, we have to learn how to build value in terms our job skillset and also we have to build value in the community. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Joe Biden came to Cleveland last summer and publicly invaded Mary Rose Oakars personal space. It was a welcome invasion, the former 8-term congresswoman from Clevelands Westside told me Thursday afternoon. The invasion occurred at a fundraising event for Senator Sherrod Brown in June. Oakar caught Bidens eye as he exited the stage from which he had just spoken about Browns re-election bid. Oakar was off to the side of the stage and didnt expect to make contact with her old congressional colleague and friend but when Biden recognized her in the crowd, he waved. He walked up and said, Mary Rose, how are you!? He then got down on his knee, took my hand, kissed it and said, the queen of Cleveland, recalled Oakar with a chuckle. It was a warm encounter between former comrades. It was also a vivid display of the type of unscripted affection that has Biden now defending his public behavior and complicated legacy as a champion of female advancement. Oakar, 79, says she has watched with concern as a growing number of women accuse Biden of inappropriate contact. She has also listened closely as Biden, 76, explained the behavior that has forced him onto the defensive as he weighs a 2020 presidential bid. You know, social norms have begun to change, theyve shifted, and the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset, and I get it, I get it, said Biden in a video posted Wednesday. Oakar said she knows a creep when she sees one. She said she saw no shortage of them roaming Capitol Hill during her 16 years in Washington, D.C. Biden wasnt one of them. Always kind and courteous, he projected well as a consummate family man and principled human being, she said. Still, one thing has long lingered in Oakars memory about Biden. Biden did not protect Anita Hill. He helped feed her to the wolves. Oakar was one of four female congresswomen who attended the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas nomination for the Supreme Court in October 1991. The women attended as a show of support for Hill, who had accused Thomas of sexual harassment in his prior role as her supervisor at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Hill testified under oath that Thomas had subjected her to talk about his sexual prowess, his fondness for pornography, the size of his genitals, and descriptions of group sex and bestiality. But the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Biden, wasnt having it. The 14 senators reacted with extreme skepticism if not outright disbelief. The late Arlen Specter led the charge, attacking Hills testimony and casting doubt on her character with a savagery that Oakar said left her in shock. When the committee took a lunch break, Oakar said Hill sat with the four congresswomen in a conference room and wept openly. Hill questioned why she had agreed to voluntarily testify before the committee. She told the congresswomen that she had no idea that her testimony would turn into a character assassination. Before the hearing resumed, Oakar said she angrily confronted Biden in a hallway and asked him why Hill was being attacked personally. Biden told me he didnt like the tone of the hearing but doubted that he could control the behavior of the senators, Oakar recalled. Thomas subsequently was approved for the Supreme Court by 4-votes. Three years after the combustible confirmation, Biden was the lead author of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which is credited for raising awareness about the plague of domestic violence. Perhaps, that was a form of atonement. Fast forward to this year, Biden acknowledged that he has regrets about the way he handled the Anita Hill testimony. He said he wishes he could have done something. Now, he finds himself confronted with a growing list of women who say he invaded their personal space without an invitation. Thats the mixed legacy of Biden. Some, including Oakar, now question whether time and cultural norms will prove unforgiving. When you consider the current occupant of the White House, its unbelievable that some people are questioning the character of Joe Biden. But, its clear that he must change. Some of his behavior is inappropriate in todays climate, especially when it is displayed toward strangers, said Oakar. An unavoidable question will soon be answered. Has Joe Biden been caught in the crosshairs of his own hugs? BROOKLYN, Ohio The echoes of two wars still ring in Bill Marzolas ears. Thats the price hes paid for serving in Army artillery units in Europe during World War II, and later in the Korean War. Back then, there wasnt any high-tech ear protection like they have now for artillery crews. Not even ear plugs. Nobody thought about anything like that, Marzola recently said. Youre there, and you just have to do what you have to do. Now, at age 95, its time for hearing aids. The hearing loss is something Marzola matter-of-factly accepts, much the same as when he got drafted in 1943 on the day of his commencement at East Technical High School. Marzola wasnt nervous about going to war. No, as a young kid, you dont even think about those kind of things. At least I didnt, anyway, he said. When youre young, you think youre invincible. Orlando Bill Marzola, who grew up as one of six children of Italian parents living on Orange Avenue, wound up in the 670th Field Artillery Battalion. The unit landed in Europe in early 1945, and paced the Allied offensive into Belgium and Germany. Being in artillery, youre fortunate that youre not right up there where all the battle is going on, Marzola said. You cant even see whats going on from the position youre in. Life became a series of setting up the 155mm howitzers, digging your foxholes and firing infantry support barrages, then moving forward to the next position. Occasionally you got a break. Marzola recalled getting a leave to Paris where he visited the museums and the Folies Bergere cabaret music hall. After Germany surrendered, Marzola said his unit was a week away from shipping out to fight the war in the Pacific when Japan capitulated. Back in Cleveland, he joined the inactive Army Reserves. I figured we were going to be at war with Russia within five years, and I had a pretty good rating (sergeant). I didnt want to start from the bottom up again, he said. But when the Army reached out and selected him for a war against the North Koreans and Chinese in 1950, Marzola was less than thrilled. Hed just gotten married the previous year. He soon discovered that the Korean War was much different than World War II. In Europe, you had the feeling you wanted to win, Marzola said. But when we were in Korea, I got so damn mad, because we were going up to 38th parallel and then you had to stop, and then theyd push you back a little bit, back and forth, he said. What the hells going on here? Were losing people both ways. Going and coming, he added. It just dont make sense. That disheartened me quite a bit. Marzola was serving with another artillery unit, this time with bigger guns the 155mm Gun M1, nicknamed the Long Tom, capable of hitting targets 13-16 miles distant. Heck, the gun weighed 16 tons. The tractor [that pulled the gun], 16 tons. Thats where I learned to respect the Marines, because they would never leave until you got out,Marzola said. If the weather was bad, the mud and stuff, you didnt know how long it was going to take you to get out with that kind of weight, and they always stayed until you got out, he added. The Army, you wake up in the morning and theyre gone. When asked what kept him going through the frustration and sacrifice of his second war, Marzola said, I dont know, to tell you the truth. You have to make up your mind. You dont have no choice. The day came when he was sent home to his wife, Dolores (who died in 2017), and they raised six children. Marzola became an electrician specializing in high-voltage-cable splicing. There were no welcome-home parties or parades for veterans of what became known as the forgotten war in Korea. That didnt bother Marzola. No, no. I just was glad to get home. Thats all I cared about, he said. In looking back on his two wars, the veteran said it was generally a good experience. And he learned something. It changed him, in a way. I think, you know, it hardens you to life, he said. When you got back to civilian life, things werent as bad as they could have been if you hadnt had that experience. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine scored a big policy victory with last weeks passage of a 2019-20 highway budget thatll boost road-building and repairs. Ohios gas tax, now 28 cents a gallon, will rise to 38.5 cents, and diesel fuel, also now 28 cents a gallon, to 47 cents. (FYI, the Ohio Constitution says gas-tax money may only be used for to build or fix roads or to fund the State Highway Patrol.) The Legislative Service Commission reports the tax hike will produce an additional $865 million in each of the next two years. Thats roughly 70 percent of what DeWine requested, but significantly more than some counterproposals. Senate Republicans, for example, initially wanted to provide only an additional $400 million 46 percent of the $865 million DeWine reeled in. Two sidelights: Next year, Ohio will stop requiring front license plates. And legislators are fighting traffic cameras. (DeWine didnt seek either provision.) The highway bill requires the state to cut a local governments state aid, dollar for dollar, by the amount of traffic-camera fines that a local government collects. Thatll likely make traffic-camera fines a wash for local governments. True, speed kills. So does running red lights and stop signs. But in practice, traffic cameras can amount to toll gates on the streets of money-hungry towns. Securing the first fuel-tax increase since 2005 was a DeWine victory in terms of long-term investment in Ohios needs. A key figure in helping get that done: House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican from Perry Countys Glenford. The Statehouses three other top legislators, Senate President Larry Obhof, a Medina Republican, Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko, a Richmond Heights Democrat, and House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, an Akron Democrat, also voted yes on the highway budget. In DeWines inaugural and state of the state speeches, he vowed that investing for Ohios future would be his focus. The highway budget does that. For some General Assembly members, taking the long view is like switching from taking baby steps to running the policy sprints that Ohio so obviously needs. The highway budget was one of the three big-stakes items the General Assembly will debate from now through June 30, when the current state operating budget expires. The second major item is to pass a new, two-year operating budget (House Bill 166), introduced on March 25, sponsored by Rep. Scott Oelslager, a Canton Republican, and pending in the Houses Finance Committee. A third major debate looms, possibly the stickiest: A bailout though at the Statehouse youre not supposed to call it that of Ohios nuclear power plants: The Perry plant (in Lake Countys North Perry village) and Davis-Besse (in Ottawa Countys Carroll Township, nine miles northeast of Oak Harbor). Whats now FirstEnergy Corp. built both. Their owners are soon-to-be-independent FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. Davis-Besse is named for the late John K. Davis, once Toledo Edison Co.s chair, and the late Ralph M. Besse, once the Illuminating Co.s chair. Both utilities, with Ohio Edison, are now part of Akron-based FirstEnergy. Without a bailout (subsidies), the plants will shut down and shed jobs. Reason: The juice they produce costs more than power generated by ever-cheaper natural gas. Possible name for the bailout: The Clean Energy plan. It could surface this week in Ohios House. It would apply to all forms of generation, not just nuclear, but also coal, gas, solar and wind. The measure would likely require Ohio electricity customers to pay a monthly charge possibly $2.50 per residential customer, more than that for commercial and industrial customers. Key issue: Would each customer category pull its weight, or would residential customers monthly charges subsidize commercial and industrial customers? Ohios Air Quality Development Authority would pool the monthly charges. Electricity generators, in exchange for cutting carbon emissions, or not producing any, could qualify for Air Quality Authority payments or tax credits. Solar and wind generators dont produce carbon emissions. Neither do nuclear plants. (They do produce nuclear waste.) If, as is logical, Clean Air payments or tax credits would be based on the number of low- or no-carbon kilowatts generated, Perry and Davis-Besse, huge electricity generators, would win big. Could the same be said for Ohios residential utility customers? Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens. To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@cleveland.com, 216-999-4689 Have something to say about this topic? Use the comments to share your thoughts. Then, stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the Follow option at the top of the comments, and look for updates via the small blue bell in the lower right as you look at more stories on cleveland.com. State Reps. Robert Cupp, a Lima Republican, and John Patterson, a Democrat from Ashtabula County, and their collaborators deserve praise for tackling Ohios public school funding system." Its a funding system never truly remedied in the 22 years since the Ohio Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. Their systematic, bipartisan approach has led to a plan that amounts to a genuine public service. The General Assembly and its leaders must be constructive in considering what Cupp and Patterson and their collaborators suggest. A list of key points in the plan says it seeks "additional funding to help students in poverty. Thats a promise that must be kept. That means making certain that Ohios poorest school districts, the ones struggling the most to find the money to educate Ohios most disadvantaged children and largest numbers with special needs, receive additional net state aid. Plainly put, the quality of a young Ohioans public schooling must not hinge on where she or he happens to live. As proposed, though, the Cupp-Patterson plan presents two key challenges. First is money. Its highly unlikely legislators can immediately muster the sums of net additional state school aid the plan envisions. It would require an additional $420 million in basic state aid next fiscal year and $320 million more the year after that. Gov. Mike DeWine had instead wanted the General Assembly to provide schools with close to $250 million in additional state support next year, $50 million the year after that. In other words, the Cupp-Patterson plan -- even before its funding deficiencies for the states poorest districts are addressed -- would still cost more than twice what DeWine has proposed. And it would do so in a budget whose revenue estimates the building blocks of Ohio's budgets are under debate. Then there are the plans aforementioned funding deficiencies for the poorest of the poor urban districts. Spreadsheets released with the study indicate that the Cleveland and East Cleveland schools, despite the desperate needs of many of their pupils, would see a zero increase in state funding. The same goes for the Lorain and Youngstown districts, already designated, like the East Cleveland schools, as in academic distress," triggering a state takeover. Nor would the Dayton district, said to be on the brink of an academic distress designation, receive more state aid. The Plain Dealers Patrick ODonnell reported that, in most cases, the flat funding is due to lower enrollments. On its face, that seems logical. Yet an enrollment drop does not correspond to a proportionate drop in the prevalence of a school districts transcendent economic and social challenges. DeWine, to his great credit, has asked for an additional $500 million to provide wraparound services for at-risk pupils. That money must be used as intended. Legislators must not tap that allocation to help form the overall basic school funding boosts the Cupp-Patterson plan envisions. Speaking to reporters recently, House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican from Perry Countys Glenford, signaled that hes aware of the acute needs of school districts with significant numbers of pupils from poor families. Im always going to have a lot of concerns for poor school districts, whether theyre urban or rural, Householder said. Given that the original school funding lawsuit originated in Perry County, theres every reason to take Householder at his word. The Cupp-Patterson proposal is a great starting point no more, no less for building a fair Ohio school-funding framework. The legislature should take it up accordingly. But the measure of the eventual frameworks fairness will be whether it offers real opportunity to pupils living in poverty. About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization. Have something to say about this topic? * Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication. * Email general questions about our editorial board or comments on this editorial to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com. * Use the comments to share your thoughts. Then, stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the Follow option at the top of the comments, & look for updates via the small blue bell in the lower right as you look at more stories on cleveland.com. Jason Fried, Founder and CEO of Basecamp, speaks at the @Work event in New York City, on April 2, 2019. Jason Fried considers time his most precious resource. He doesn't believe in to-do lists, endless meetings or 80-hour workweeks what's now the norm for today's professionals. The co-founder and CEO of Basecamp, a web-based project-management tool that he calls a "one-stop shop for all the things teams do together," instead believes in keeping it simple. He sticks to a strict 40-hour workweek and ensures that his 56 remote employees, spread out across 32 different cities around the world, have well-balanced lives that don't involve working around the clock. In fact, during the months of May through September, the company rigidly enforces a 32-hour, four-day week. Simplicity and treating each other like family enables Basecamp's employees to think more clearly and therefore be more productive. Shorter workweeks force employees to prioritize their workload. Basecamp's approach seems to be working. The company will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year since Fried founded Basecamp as 37signals with Carlos Segura and Ernest Kim in 1999. The number of active accounts has doubled from 1.5 million to 3 million since 2014. More than 100,000 companies now rely on Basecamp's products worldwide. Basecamp still has only one investor though: Jeff Bezos. He invested $6 million in the company in 2006. At the CNBC @Work + HR Talent conference this week in New York City, Fried spoke out against today's workplace policies and called for a paradigm shift, contending that America's workforce is at a tipping point. "I don't think work is getting better. It's getting worse," he said. "Too many endless meetings, emails, being on call 24/7 and 80-hour workweeks are driving people crazy. Employees are now too busy to think." He also believes it is up to the C-suite to make that change. "Leaders need to respect and preserve the time of their employees so they can be happier and more productive at work," said Fried. "One of the worst inventions in modern technology is the shared calendar where everyone can steal each others' time. Technology and distractions are sapping everyone's attention." Janice Marturano, founder of the Institute for Mindful Leadership, agrees. At CNBC's @Work + HR conference, the former vice president of public responsibility and deputy general counsel at General Mills said most people in this 24/7/365 world find it impossible to cut out all the distractions. The result? Bad decisions are being made across the board, and personal time and family life are suffering. An American tourist who was kidnapped alongside her driver in a national park in southwestern Uganda has been rescued unharmed, the Ugandan military told Reuters on Sunday. Kimberley Sue Endecott, 35, was abducted by gunmen in Queen Elizabeth National Park, near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 4. The kidnappers later demanded a ransom of $500,000 for her release. "She has been located and rescued unharmed," Uganda military spokesman, Brigadier Richard Karemire told Reuters. Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said in a tweet that driver Jean Paul had also been rescued. Endecott and Paul were on a game drive on Tuesday evening when four gunmen ambushed their vehicle, a police statement said. Later Sunday President Donald Trump tweeted his support for Endecott's release. @realDonaldTrump: "Pleased to report that the American tourist and tour guide that were abducted in Uganda have been released. God bless them and their families!" Various illegal groups from Somali Islamists to Congolese-based rebels sometimes operate in Uganda, but the kidnappers' identity was not known. An elderly couple also at the scene were not taken and raised the alarm. "I suspect the kidnappers left them because they were elderly. They took all their possessions," Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said last week. Califonia-based Endecott and the couple, whose relationship was unclear, entered Uganda on March 29 and flew the next day to the park in the country's southwest, the spokesman added at the time. The U.S. embassy in Kampala said last week, "We take seriously any threats against U.S. citizens abroad. Security forces are responding to the incident." The Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab has carried out attacks in Uganda in the past, but has never been known to kidnap anyone for ransom there. The park, Uganda's most visited, is located about 400 km (250 miles) southwest of the capital Kampala, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is home to many fragmented rebel groups. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., listen as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, focusing on allegations of sexual assault by Kavanaugh against Christine Blasey Ford in the early 1980s. Sen. Cory Booker said in an email to supporters Sunday that his 2020 presidential campaign raised more than $5 million in February and March, exceeding his goal for the first quarter. Booker said his campaign "didn't take a dime" from political action committees or federal lobbyists. In his email to supporters, Booker said the average online donation to his campaign was $34. The senator from New Jersey said his presidential campaign will report $6.1 million in cash on hand when it files with the Federal Election Commission later this month. Booker may have exceeded his fundraising expectations, but his campaign still trails behind the other candidates. Bernie Sanders, the Independent senator from Vermont, leads the pack of 2020 hopefuls with a total haul of $18.2 million and an average donation of $20. Sen. Kamala Harris of California is in second place after raising $12 million with an average donation of $55. Booker's first-quarter haul, in other words, puts him near the bottom of the pack. Booker acknowledged that his campaign has a long way to go: "There's no question we're an underdog in this race but I wouldn't bet against this team," he said. WATCH: Green New Deal remains in the spotlight for the 2020 elections Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, sits in the Volkswagen Digital Lab in Friedrichshain, Germany, for a joint press conference with the chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen on Feb. 27, 2019. Every week generally on Thursdays MIcrosoft CEO Satya Nadella and his top lieutenants convene to discuss the company's growing number of artificial intelligence projects. Known as AI 365, the meetings started over a year ago and reflect Microsoft's increased emphasis on AI across the product portfolio, Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott told CNBC in a recent interview. The meetings are in addition to the longstanding gathering of the senior leadership team each Friday. "When there's friction and obstacles and inefficiencies in the system, people can raise their hands and say, 'I can't do this thing,'" Scott said. Having all the highest-ranking executives in the room at the same time means Microsoft can resolve those issues quickly, he said. AI is one of the hottest trends in technology, and is a focus at the biggest companies, including Amazon, Google and Facebook. They're all building intelligence into the products they use internally as well as the things they sell and provide to users. AI systems run behind the scenes in several Microsoft products, including the Bing search engine, which uses it to find images containing similar objects, and the Excel app for Android, which relies on AI to convert data on a page you photograph into a spreadsheet you can populate and edit. AI also powers the Cortana voice assistant and is used to figure out which PCs should receive the latest Windows 10 updates first. Along with AI's popularity, there's mounting controversy about potential misuse of the technology. After all, engineers are developing algorithms so that machines can do their own training and make decisions independent of human involvement. Microsoft takes the issue seriously enough to warn investors about it in the latest annual report. Edward Morse, the global head of commodities research at Citi Group, gave a bullish outlook for global oil markets Sunday, saying that current inventories were at a "constructive" level. Crude futures have surged in recent months, with Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) both rallying more than 20 percent since the start of 2019. International benchmark Brent crude stood at $70 a barrel on Friday, with WTI trading at around $63. Morse believes that more upside is in store with supplies being taken off the market in Iran and Venezuela, as well as major oil cartel OPEC. "I think there's much more upside than downside," he told CNBC's Dan Murphy in Dubai Sunday. "I think it's under bought, I think it was oversold ... The market is very constructive, it's fairly tight and we think it's going to be in the $70 range through the second quarter and into the third quarter depending on what happens. And there's a lot of variables between now and then." One variable is whether the President Donald Trump administration will extend sanctions waivers on eight countries importing Iranian oil and he has until May 2 to decide. Morse believes that the focus for the U.S. will be sanctions and Venezuela and this would likely see "kinder" actions on those importing Iranian oil. Meanwhile, Fereidun Fesharaki, the chairman of leading consulting group FGE, backed up Citi's forecast, telling CNBC Sunday that the supply and demand fundamentals will likely push the oil price up to $75 and $80 for the second half of this year. "There may be a Trump ceiling of $70 or close to it but so far as the fundamentals are concerned, if nobody touches anything, the second half of this year will be $75, $80," he told CNBC's Dan Murphy. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen answers questions during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 18, 2018. Kirstjen Nielsen is leaving her role as Homeland Security secretary as President Donald Trump intensifies his focus on the nation's border with Mexico. Trump said on Sunday that she is leaving her position and thanked Nielsen for her service. Kevin McAleenan, the current Customs and Border Protection commissioner, will serve as acting Homeland Security secretary. Although she was originally set to vacate the position immediately, Nielsen later said in a Twitter post that she had agree to stay on through Wednesday, April 10 "to assist with an orderly transition and ensure that key DHS missions are not impacted." Trump has sought to toughen his policy on the southern border in recent weeks. The president threatened to shut large portions of the border if Mexico did not stem the flow of migrants and drugs. He later backed down from that threat, giving Mexico a year to meet his demands or face car tariffs or a border closure. Trump tweet 2 A White House aide told CNBC that Nieslen's departure was unexpected despite months of speculation about whether she would be fired or quit. In her resignation letter, Nielsen said she had "determined that it is the right time for me to step aside" without out citing reasons why. Nieslen Tweet: Its been an honor of a lifetime to serve with the brave men and women of @DHSgov. I could not be prouder of and more humbled by their service, dedication, and commitment to keep our country safe from all threats and hazards. Nielsen was a protege of former White House chief of staff John Kelly, who stepped down in frustration over his inability to bring discipline to Trump's chaotic administration. Kelly had led Homeland Security before he took over the chief of staff position in summer 2017. She had reportedly considered resigning last year after Trump criticized her in front of the Cabinet, accusing her of failing to secure the country's borders. Nielsen also faced heated criticism from Democrats for defending the administration's policy of separating migrant families who arrive at the border. Democrats had called for her resignation last year. The Washington Post reports that several names have been floated to replace Nielsen, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who was also reportedly considered for the role when Kelly left the position. "Secretary Perry is very happy where is, leading the Department of Energy," a Department of Energy spokesperson told CNBC. The White House is also considering former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to head up Homeland Security, according to the Post. CNBC's Tom DiChristopher contributed to this article. Brexit 1) Tory activists go on strike over the further delay The Conservatives bad decisions on Brexit are hurting chances of our would-be councillors Simon Clarke, Sunday Telegraph UKIP returns from the dead Sunday Telegraph Conservative activists are refusing to campaign for the party and donations have dried up because members feel that Theresa May has betrayed them over Brexit and the Government has completely lost touch with voters, council candidates have warned. In a letter to the Prime Minister, more than 100 current and would-be Tory councillors state that they are unable to muster the volunteers needed to effectively fight next months local elections because belief in the party they joined is gone. The stark warning came as Mrs May was forced to insist that she would maintain her pledge to take back control of the UKs borders after Brexit, after Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said the Government had no red lines in its talks with Jeremy Corbyn over a potential compromise Brexit deal. Tory activists reacted with fury after Mrs May signalled last week that she could agree a deal involving remaining in a customs union with the EU a move explicitly ruled out in her 2017 manifesto and which she has repeatedly insisted she could not countenance. Sunday Telegraph >Yesterday: ToryDiary: Inviting Labour into Downing Street has proved costly, and benefited only Corbyn Brexit 2) PM defends talks with Corbyn Prime Minister Theresa May has insisted she had to reach out to Labour in a bid to deliver Brexit or risk letting it slip through our fingers. In a statement on Saturday night, Mrs May said there was a stark choice of either leaving the European Union with a deal or not leaving at all. Some Conservatives have criticised her for seeking Labours help after MPs rejected her Brexit plan three times. Three days of talks between the parties ended without agreement on Friday. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was waiting to see the red lines move and had not noticed any great change in the governments position. He is coming under pressure from his MPs to demand a referendum on any deal he reaches with the government, with 80 signing a letter saying a public vote should be the bottom line in the negotiations. BBC Party management is being put ahead of the national interest Leader, The Observer Gove told the Cabinet: You can say that you want lobster thermidor but if the only things in the canteen are corned beef and cabbage youve got to make a decision. Sunday Times May is closer Corbyn than you might think Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday Brexit 3) Tory MPs threaten to oust May if the Euro Elections take place How do European elections work? BBC Split between UKIP and the Brexit Party could limit impact Sunday Times Farage says he will recruit big names to his new party Sunday Express The Independent Group looks to European elections for breakthrough The Observer Theresa May is being warned by her mutinous MPs that they will move to oust her within weeks if the UK is forced to take part in European elections next month and extend its EU membership beyond the end of June. Tory MPs are increasingly angry at the prospect of voters being asked to go to the polls to elect MEPs three years after the Brexit referendum, in an election they fear will be boycotted by many Conservatives and be a gift to the far right and Nigel Farages new Brexit party. Senior Tories said one silver lining of a long extension would be that it would allow them to move quickly to force May out, and hold a leadership election starting as soon as this monthConservative MP Nigel Evans, an executive member of the 1922 committee of backbenchers said last night that, if May failed to deliver Brexit and all she could do was secure a long extension at an EU summit on Wednesday, she would face overwhelming pressure to step down. The Observer >Today: ToryDiary: Does the Conservative Party have enough money to fight a European election campaign? Brexit 4) EU officials worry that a long extension to cause disruption from the UK Hardliners, most notably France, are wary of granting the UK a long extension without conditions. Michel Barnier, the EUs Brexit negotiator, voiced concerns, as did Belgium and Spain. Their worst fear is a rogue Britain that lives up to the caricature sketched in the TV series Yes Minister. We tried to break it up from the outside, but that wouldnt work, the fictional Sir Humphrey told Jim Hacker in a lesson on Britains then-EEC strategy. Now that were inside we can make a complete pigs breakfast of the whole thing. Brussels cannot impose conditions on the UK that would restrict its rights as a member. The UK could promise not to take part in crucial votes, but there would be no legal method to hold the UK to this promise. Sunday Times Attempt to secure delayed departure from EU could leave UK on course for no deal Brexit, senior lawyer warns Sunday Telegraph France, Spain and Belgium ready for no-deal Brexit next week The Observer Brexit 5) PM offers to make concessions Boris proof Transition could last until 2023 The Sun on Sunday Brexit 6) Government willing to conde Customs Union if its called something else Theresa May is preparing to offer Jeremy Corbyn a legally binding soft Brexit deal with a Boris lock that would make it difficult for a future Eurosceptic prime minister to tear up after she leaves No 10Under the new plan, the prime minister would offer to rewrite the governments withdrawal bill to enshrine a customs arrangement in law. That is designed to satisfy Labour fears that any deal reached with May would be ripped up by her successor. The Boris lock would mean a Eurosceptic leader taking over would have to overturn primary legislation to get a hard Brexit. Sunday Times Theresa May was last night poised to mount a humiliating climbdown over a customs union as the price of winning Labour support for her Brexit deal. According to senior sources, Tory negotiators have told Labour that the Government would accept UK membership of a customs union a red line for Brexiteers but on condition that they call it something else to avoid inflaming anger among Eurosceptic Conservatives.Said one source: It must look like a duck and quack like a duck, but it doesnt have to be called a duck. Mail on Sunday Brexit 7) Dale: The Conservatives face an electoral backlash Brexit 8) Cleverly: The PMs deal can be adapted over time The local elections will likely show a net loss of hundreds of Tory councillors, who will lose through no fault of their own. I did a random phone-around of Tory MPs, candidates and activists on Saturday. With the exception of one MP, I found not a single one of them who would be voting Conservative in the European elections. To a man and woman, they all said they would be voting for The Brexit Party. Interestingly none mentioned Ukip, a party which is now identified with rampant Islamophobia, rather than Euroscepticism. The European Elections will be a kind of second referendum. The political classes will be sent a very clear message by the electorate: You have betrayed us, and we wont stand for it. Iain Dale, Sunday Telegraph We need decisions, not inertia. We need to realise that there is no such thing as a perfect Brexit. If five years ago Brexiteers could see that we were now so close to leaving the EU, deciding and controlling our own immigration policy, keeping those billions of pounds, controlling agriculture and fisheries, making our own laws, we would have jumped at the chance to secure it. And to the MPs who say its not quite right I remind them that our new relationship with the EU is not set in stone. It will evolve. Future Governments will be able to make changes to policy just like we do in other areas of government. James Cleverly, The Sun on Sunday Were running out of time Andrea Leadsom, Sunday Telegraph Brexit 9) Raab: Step out of the failing Eurocracy and walk tall in the world There is now a danger that Brexit could be lost and that the Government could fall handing the keys to Downing Street to CorbynAs Brexit Secretary, between July and November last year, I warned the Prime Minister we could end up in this position. I urged her to take a firmer line with Brussels, insisting on an ability to exit the now-notorious backstop a regime of laws to be imposed on the UK without us having any say. My efforts were undermined by others within GovernmentIf the EU continues to seek to humiliate our country, the Government must not cower. Instead, buoyed by the self-belief and courage of the British people, we should step out of the failing Eurocracy and walk tall in the world. Dominic Raab, Mail on Sunday Brexit 10) Davis: How we could still get a deal agreed Encouragingly this week, we hear noises from Jean Claude Juncker, Leo Varadkar and others that they will do whatever is necessary to avert a hard border whatever the circumstances in which the UK leaves. If they believe this is possible under the circumstances of No Deal it is clearly possible in the event of a deal.Which is why the comments of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer are so important. It is very likely that she reflects the real opinion of Angela Merkel. If the Prime Minister took her at her word, and sent Steve Barclay and the British negotiating team back to Brussels, perhaps backed up by David Trimble, with clear instructions to present the alternative arrangements for Northern Ireland, then we have a decent chance of getting a response that will get her over the line in the House of Commons. David Davis, Sunday Telegraph Other comment The Brextremists are right to tremble: we could be on the path to staying in Adam Boulton, Sunday Times If we stay in a customs union like Labours demanding, itll be a betrayal to Brexit and shackle us on the world stage Leader, The Sun on Sunday The Prime Minister takes her begging bowl to Brussels again Leader, Sunday Times How Sir Oliver Letwin went from arch Thatcherite to King of the Remainers Simon Heffer, Sunday Telegraph Moves to stay in the customs union and the cosying up to Corbyn are an insult to voters Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Sunday Times If we want Brexit, Theresa May must go Leader, Sunday Telegraph Corbyns plan is worst of all worlds John Whittingdale, Sunday Express Embrace a long extension, kick out Theresa May, and get ready for a real Brexit Janet Daley, Sunday Telegraph You cannot cancel Brexit forever, however hard Remainer MPs might try Daniel Hannan, Sunday Telegraph >Today: James Arnell on Comment: A second referendum is now Brexiteers best chance of getting what they want Leadership 1) Rudd poised to back Johnson Candidates seek support from MPs with military backgrounds Mail on Sunday Leadership 2) We must attract the young, says Hancock Amber Rudd is preparing to back Boris Johnson to be the next Tory leader after MPs approached her allies urging the work and pensions secretary to join a dream team alliance that they have dubbed BAmber. Rudd thinks Michael Gove is the most attractive candidate and Jeremy Hunt is best placed to succeed Theresa May. But she believes that Johnson is the one who can win a general election. Allies say Rudd will not make a public declaration about who she is supporting until the contest is under way, after she moved early to back Johnson in 2016, only to see his campaign implode. Instead she will wait to see whether anyone runs from the pure remainer wing of the Conservative Party who could represent the new group of One Nation Tories. Sunday Times Matt Hancock, the health secretary, today calls on Tories to change their tone towards modern Britain or watch Jeremy Corbyn drive the party from Downing Street, as he sets out his stall to run for prime minister. In the clearest signal yet that the youngest minister in the cabinet intends to run for the leadership when Theresa May steps down, Hancock, 40, says the Tories face a generational challenge because they are haemorrhaging the votes of young people. The Sunday Times can also reveal that he is now consulting Ameet Gill, David Camerons former director of strategy, about how to put together a leadership campaign team. Sunday Times Change our tone, reach out and we can save the young from a red disaster Matt Hancock, Sunday Times Whittingdale warns against internet censorship Morgan calls for a return to civility A government clampdown on social media risks giving succour to Britains enemies such as Russia, a former Culture Secretary warns today. Sajid Javid has warned that a government clampdown on social media risks giving help countries such as Russia. Javid prepares to unveil plans to tackle extreme content on the internet in a White Paper tomorrow. Tory grandee John Whittingdale spoke out as Home Secretary Sajid Javid prepares to unveil in a White Paper tomorrow plans to tackle extreme material on the internet, including images of terrorism and child abuse. A new online regulator would make the bosses of companies such as Facebook or Instagram personally liable to be fined, prosecuted or even blocked from operating in Britain. Mail on Sunday Hysterical MPs have been ordered to cut out the insults and show more respect to their colleagues. Senior figures are alarmed by the angry and offensive language used by politicians on social media, TV, radio and in the Commons.Former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has called for them to adopt a calmer tone.Ms Morgan, who co-chairs One Nation Caucus, said: We are living through unprecedented times, with many Members unable to spend as much time with the families as they would like to and its not at all helpful to everyday hear people albeit a minority competing to be the loudest and boldest. So today the One Nation Caucus will pledge that all Members will engage only in constructive, polite and respectful discourse. We hope this is the beginning of a change in tone at Westminster and invite all Members to sign our pledge. The Sun on Sunday Leaked dossier shows Labours failure to act on anti-semitism complaints September 11 attacks an inside job, claims would-be councillor Sunday Times Half of complaints made by MPs unresolved Sunday Times PMs bomb plot accuser, Pam Bromley, returns to Labour Party ranks Sunday Times Official blocked bid to bar Labour candidate accused of abuse Sunday Times Labour cant sweep this anti-semitism under the carpet Leader, Sunday Times May vows to expel anti Muslim racists The Sun on Sunday Netanyahu promises to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank The Labour Party has failed to take disciplinary action against hundreds of members accused of anti-semitism under Jeremy Corbyns leadership, according to internal documents leaked to The Sunday Times. A hard drive of emails and a confidential database last updated on March 8 reveal how the partys system for dealing with such complaints is bedevilled by delays, inaction and interference from the leaders office. They reveal members investigated for posting such online comments as Heil Hitler, F*** the Jews and Jews are the problem have not been expelled, even though the party received the complaints a year ago. A sitting councillor in Lancashire was let back into the party after fuming about Jewish media attacks and the Rothschild family. She told party investigators she meant Jewish as a blanket term of description without any racist connotations. In Manchester, a trade union official was readmitted despite sharing material saying Jewish Israelis were behind 9/11. Corbyns office has been involved in approving, delaying or blocking at least 101 complaints. Sunday Times Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected. Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday and Mr Netanyahu is competing for votes with right-wing parties who support annexing part of the West Bank. The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. Last month the US recognised the occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967, as Israeli territory. Israel has settled about 400,000 Jews in West Bank settlements, with another 200,000 living in East Jerusalem. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. BBC Mitchell: Why genocide in Rwanda still haunts Britain News in brief Are both May and Corbyn prepared to risk splitting their parties? James Forsyth, The Spectator The messages MPs will be getting from their local Market Square Alastair MacMillan, Brexit Central 55 per cent say any deal that left the UK subject to the rulings of the European Court of Justice would be unacceptable Independent Why I wont be knocking on doors for Mays quislings Conservative Woman The Prime Minister is hoping to present a long extension as something done to her, rather than by her. Her plan may backfire Stephen Bush, New Statesman Once the killing stopped, those responsible for these appalling events fled the scene of their crimes. Many escaped over the borders into neighbouring countries. But the richer and better connected the bigger fish escaped to Europe and North America, often with the active support or passive acquiescence of the French government. Over the intervening years most have returned voluntarily to Rwanda to be tried in the gacaca courts. Some have faced justice in the countries to which they fled and others have been extradited to Rwanda including from the US, Canada, France, Belgium and Sweden (some of whose governments were, at the time, close to the genocidal regime). Britain, sadly, is a glaring exception. In 2015 and 2017, a British district judge and our own High Court in London ruled that even though there was a prima facie case of genocide made out against five individuals living in the UK, none could be sent back to Rwanda because such action could breach their human rights. Andrew Mitchell, Sunday Times As ever on a Sunday, Tim Shipman provides compelling reading. His write-through of the tragicomedy in Cabinet is replete with detail, right down to the Prime Minister rolling her eyes at Philip Hammond. But there is one point in particular that leapt out at me in the contents of a briefing delivered to the assembled ministers: In No 10 there had been advocates of May shaking things up by calling a snap general election. Any notion that this was an attractive notion had been swiftly expunged earlier on Tuesday when cabinet ministers were given a presentation by the party chairman, Brandon Lewis, and the chief executive, Mick Davis. Shellshocked cabinet ministers listened as party chiefs explained that their internal polling showed that Labour leads on all domestic issues, with the cost of living, the NHS and the environment topping voters lists of concerns. Davis explained that the party did not have enough money in the bank. He also argued for a different approach on Brexit, warning that business was grotesquely unprepared for no deal. In sum, misery upon misery. But heres the bit that grabbed me: Davis explained that the party did not have enough money in the bank. This confirms something we have been hearing whispers of just as ordinary members have been quitting or withholding their voluntary efforts, many donors are reportedly unwilling to give any more, either because they are fed up with the personality and policy currently occupying the helm, or because they reason they may as well hold off until there is a new leader in place to work with. This has already started to bite in various ways, and is alleged to be getting worse. It may be that Daviss report persuaded the Cabinet that their Party cant afford to fight a snap General Election. But I wonder: have they considered that the same might apply to a possible European election? Fighting such a campaign would be a massive uphill struggle even with a full warchest, given the widespread anger over Theresa Mays Brexit retreats and dilutions. If the cupboard is bare, it will be even worse. 100% Website celgene.com 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 426912 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 160674 bytes (156.91 kb uncompressed) and 20185 bytes (19.71 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-10-29, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. 85% Website ebo-shop.com uses latest and advanced technologies. It supports HTTPS. The main html page has a size of . This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-08-14, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. 71% Website mielno.pl uses latest and advanced technologies. It supports HTTPS. The main html page has a size of . This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-11-02, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. 100% Website q-files.com uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 44510 bytes (43.47 kb uncompressed) and 9814 bytes (9.58 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-11-03, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. Richard II hands over the crown to a usurper, and the now-deposed monarch asks for a mirror. That it may show me what a face I have. In the new production at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe, the glass is a rectangle, size of an i-pad. Richard takes it in both hands and looks, long and hard. What face does Richard see? Not, as in virtually any previous production, the face of a white man, one of a rarely-broken chain trudging back to the plays premiere in 1595. But, this time, the face of a black woman, Adjoa Andoh. What does it mean to see that face? During the past two decades, black actors cast as kings have helped change the mood music on the British stage. Theres something about the twin sacrosancturies of Shakespeare and English royalty that resonated when David Oyelowo played Henry VI at the RSC (in 2000, followed by Chuk Iwuji in revival) and Adrian Lester was Henry V at the National three years later, taking on a role suffused with British pluck since Oliviers Wehrmacht-baiting film. If the national pageant can be claimed, they seemed to argue, everything is up for grabs. And now, almost 20 years on, Andoh and Lynette Linton co-direct the first British production of a Shakespeare play entirely performed by women of colour. Its another landmark that feels almost inevitable. What does it mean to have Andoh playing Richard? Nothing and everything. Nothing because, surrounded by women of colour, her Richard isnt an exception. Every bloke in this bloke-laden drama is played by a woman, All the dead white dudes are resurrected by people of colour. A ruler, played by one black woman, gives way to a usurper played by another black woman (Sarah Niles sturdy Bolingbroke). Bracingly, in an instant, this all becomes the new normal. The auditorium is hung with photos of the casts female forbears grannies and aunties in excelsis which rewrites heritage drama in a stroke. (The gorgeous design, with costumes simply glowing in the candlelight, is by Rajha Shakiry photo above by Ingrid Pollard.) Which also means here is that no actor feels any need to serve as ambassador for their character. So often, in trad Shakespeare, the actor playing Ophelia or Imogen or (good luck with this one) Miranda will talk about how shes actually a really strong female character, as if to stake her ground amid a sea of bloke. But here, the cast dont have to be advocates. The effect has an almost satirical edge, as they dont need to coddle the entitled mighty or squabbling second-raters, testy with testosterone. My favourite may be Indra Ove as both a piratical Mowbray and a vindictive Northumberland unscrupulous power players both. But Andohs Richard is everything. Female actors often hymn the new expressive opportunities they get when cast as classical male leads apart from anything else, the chance to carry the brimming weight of a story from first to last. For actors of colour, its even rarer. You dont get the same opportunities, its just plain, Cecilia Noble said in a recent interview. Theres no denying that my counterparts have probably played hundreds of leads whereas I dont think Ive ever been seen for a lead on TV. I dont think Ive ever seen Andoh hold the centre of a play (though shes recently been witheringly focus-pulling in Julius Caesar, at both the RSC and Bridge Theatre, and Leave Taking). The face in the mirror is just the start of this story So to see and hear Andoh let rip at a flawed protagonist, using the full extent of her extraordinary voice, is thrilling. She can snap, sing, croon, roar, ricochet through Richards lambent verse. This is one Shakespeare show where you leave wishing you could buy the cast album. And it may be inspiring for hers to be the face in Richards mirror, but she doesnt give him any quarter. In his pomp, Andohs Richard arrives with a derisive bark, and messes with his courtiers lives with wide-eyed delight. Hes mocking, mean, even cruel. Ive also never noticed before how venal Richard is a lot of the complaints about him are financial, and Andoh and Linton bring his avarice to the fore. A scene with his queen has them both in the counting-house, weighing out dubiously-gotten gains. Richard plays a contemptuously high-risk game, and Andoh shows us why hes bound to lose. So, when power is gone, Richard is bewildered by his reflection. Was this the face/ That like the sun did make beholders wink? The monarchs brittle glory lost, Andoh breaks the mirror not on the ground, as usual, but by smashing it on her forehead. The face destroys its own reflection, and a whole range of ideas deepen the role, a new palette of colours enters her voice. The face in the mirror is just the start of this story. Propwatch previously on Richard II Follow David on Twitter: @mrdavidjays The Karnika is out of a Singapore drydock facility and now heading for her operation for start-up Jalesh Cruises. The 1990-built vessel underwent a large scale refurbishment turning her from the Pacific Jewel targeted for the Australian market into the Karnika, targeted at the Indian source market. The ship will arrive in Mumbai later this month and debut into the Indian cruise market. Princess Cruises welcomed celebrity judges Anggun and Jay Park together with hosts Alan Wong and Justin Bratton onboard Majestic Princess to film a creative opener for the Results Show over the weekend. Princess is the official cruise line of Asias Got Talent Season 3, The ship had arrived at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre after completing her first Australian homeporting season with a 12-night cruise from Sydney. The judges were greeted onboard by Captain Dino Sagani for the filming that took place on the top deck overlooking the city's skyline. A specially-curated vignette of this filming will be screened during the Results Show on 11 April 2019 on AXN channel. The Results Show is highly anticipated by fans all over Asia as they witness one aspiring performer or group become Asias next superstar. Majestic Princess, a celebrity of the cruising world in Asia Pacific, has provided the perfect setting for a creative opener to the show with her spectacular features set against the stunning Singapore skyline, said Farriek Tawfik, Director Southeast Asia, Princess Cruises. The Grand Finals Show had been held at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore on April 4 where nine finalists from around Asia vied for a chance to win $100,000. The winner will be announced on April 11. The finalists have been on a mesmerizing journey performing to an incredible standard to reach the finals and have garnered thousands of fans from all around Asia. All of us at Princess Cruises are proud to have been part of Season 3s fantastic voyage to discover new talent in Asia and we wish all the finalists the very best of luck, added Tawfik. The Majestic Princess is now enroute to Hong Kong where she will arrive on next week, after which she will sail to Keelung (Taipei) to begin her Taiwan homeporting season with cruises to Japan and South Korea. Majestic Princess will also offer Shanghai sailings and in August, for the first time, she will sail on an 8-night Japan Explorer cruise round trip Shanghai to Tokyo, Shimizu, Osaka and Kochi. A Florida woman pulled a gun on another person after being told to stop feeding stray neighborhood cats in Orange County, police said. Authorities said the victim was on her porch around 5:30 a.m. when a woman, later identified as Lisa Saunders, pulled up in a vehicle. The victim told authorities she asked Saunders to stop putting cat food out on the sidewalk because it was attracting sick cats. Saunders replied by pulling a handgun from her vehicle and saying, "Don't (expletive) with me," authorities said. Authorities said Saunders then got back into her vehicle and drove away. Police said the victim told them Saunders had been feeding the cats for the past few months and she was worried children in the neighborhood would get scabies from the sick animals. According to police, animal control services tried to trap the sick cats but was unable to because Saunders would feed the cats away from them. The victim identified Saunders as someone who delivered pizza from a Domino's on Burton Avenue. When authorities went to the pizza restaurant, they spoke to the manager, who identified Saunders and said she has been feeding stray cats for around two years. Saunders was taken into custody and faces aggravated assault charges. WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Pete Buttigieg sat in the back of a black SUV with a couple of staffers, sipping a still-steeping cup of tea to ease the fatigue from his suddenly frenetic schedule, when he looked out the window and interrupted himself. "Man," said Buttigieg, taking in the rainbow-hued signs and colorfully dressed passersby that signaled he had entered West Hollywood, Los Angeles' de facto gay neighborhood. "It got real gay real quick out there." Few Democratic presidential candidates could assess their surroundings so bluntly without seeming painfully out of line. But Buttigieg is not like any other Democratic presidential candidate - in part, if not exclusively, because he is gay. 2016 ELECTION NIGHT MELTDOWN: Kamala Harris ate a massive bag of Doritos to cope with Trump winning He was also a Rhodes Scholar, a McKinsey & Co. consultant who pored over grocery prices and a military officer in Afghanistan. He was a mayor at 29 and re-elected at 33. All of those experiences, he says, have chiseled him into the surprising presidential candidate he is at 37, barely beyond the constitutional age requirement for the job. So has the fact, Buttigieg says, that he needed the Supreme Court to give him the freedom to marry his partner, Chasten Glezman. Same-sex marriage was illegal in Indiana until 2014, and he cites that to illustrate how government alters lives; his marriage exists, he tells voters at every stop, "by the grace of one vote on the Supreme Court." Buttigieg's emergence gives Americans their second openly gay presidential candidate - activist Fred Karger sought the GOP nomination in 2012 - but the first, by far, to earn so much attention. Many gay Americans are celebrating Buttigieg's quick climb as a sign of tangible progress. Others, mainly outside that community, wonder whether talking about Buttigieg's candidacy as historic means undermining the notion that sexuality doesn't matter. "I don't know which response I like more - the response that talks about how much it means to people, or the response that people don't care," Buttigieg said. "I think it's most significant for people who have a problem with it, or for people who are in the same boat and are struggling with it." BEYONCE DIVERSITY DRAMA: Reebok denies Beyonce walked out on deal and said, 'Nobody in this room reflects my background, not my skin color' Buttigieg will almost certainly have to navigate anti-gay sentiment as his campaign continues. Colorado Democrat Jared Polis, who in January became the nation's first elected gay governor, faced homophobic bumper stickers during his campaign. Last year, a group hoping to draft a more conservative opponent attacked Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., as a "liberal lesbian extremist." But for now, his rise is electrifying many in the gay community, symbolizing an acceptance its members could hardly imagine even a decade ago. His campaign says it raised $7 million in the first quarter of 2019, signaling unexpected support and potential staying power in the sprawling Democratic field. "Representation matters," said Michael Latz, a 48-year-old openly gay rabbi from Minnesota. "To have gone from this time of rampant homophobia and AIDS-phobia to - in a little more than a generation - a time when we have marriage equality and an openly gay man who is running for president and raised $7 million in the first quarter is so extraordinary." William Toledo, a 33-year-old who grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said he couldn't be open about his sexuality in high school because of lingering anti-gay sentiment. "I know this is a silly reference, but for us, it's like when [the movie] 'Black Panther' came out," Toledo said. "What that did for young African American children who saw themselves in a superhero - it's that kind of representation I don't think we ever saw." Clearly, Buttigieg's rise hardly means homophobia is a thing of the past, any more than Barack Obama's election marked the end of racism. A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 68 percent of voters were comfortable with a gay presidential candidate - a big jump from previous years and an all-time high, though that 30 percent minority could prove to be vocal. Some groups within the Democratic coalition, including some socially conservative black churches, have shown discomfort with same-sex marriage. 'TOLERANT' LEFT: Palo Alto woman loses job after harassing MAGA-hat-wearing Starbucks customer And Buttigieg's identity alone won't earn him the support of the gay community. Toledo and his husband, for example, ardently support Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Rod Townsend, head of the Stonewall Democrats, New York's largest LGBTQ Democratic club, said that although he has donated twice to the mayor, he has not yet picked a candidate. Still, when Buttigieg headed to a fundraiser in West Hollywood a few weeks ago, the largely LGBT crowd was captivated as he circulated among the attendees, chatting with Olympic diver Greg Louganis and making plans with comedian Billy Eichner. "I really think Americans kind of see him as their Mayor Pete - that's transformative," Louganis said. "There's an amazing amount of power in that, that he's someone so many people can identify with." That support in the gay community - or at least a desire to have his voice in the race - is translating into fundraising dollars. Broadway mogul Jordan Roth and his husband will host Buttigieg for a fundraising event. The LGBTQ Victory Fund ran a social media and email campaign to help Buttigieg cross the 65,000 donor threshold that qualifies him for the Democratic debates. Few can better measure the progress than former congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., who began his service in 1981, a year before Buttigieg was born. Frank is gay, and that meant he had a problem. "To be a politician, you had to be respected," Frank said. "And to be gay was to be disrespected." He was haunted for years by "the gay thing," he wrote later, tormented that people might find out. Then he heard that a former Republican congressman, Robert Bauman, was about to publish a book that would reveal Frank's secret, and he decided to tell then-House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, D-Mass. O'Neill told Frank he was "sorry to hear it." "I thought you might become the first Jewish speaker," Frank remembers him saying. LIBERTARIAN JUICE: I tried John McAfee's signature 2020 cocktail and I will never be the same Frank came out in 1987. Twenty-five years later, in 2012, he became the first openly gay congressman to wed while in office when he married carpenter Jim Ready. "It became more and more respectable to be gay," Frank said in an interview, "and less and less respectable to be a politician." When Karger sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, he found support at the top of the party, he said, but intolerance elsewhere. A Republican National Committee member from Iowa, Steve Scheffler, sent a threatening email calling Karger a "radical homosexual," according to press reports at the time. Buttigieg recently signed a copy of his memoir to Karger, addressing it to "a trailblazer." Buttigieg himself was still largely closeted when he was commissioned as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve in 2009. And he couldn't have shared his sexuality with his fellow officers even if he'd wanted to, given the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. When he was elected mayor of South Bend, Indiana, in 2011, he had told only a few friends he was gay. In 2015, Mike Pence, then governor of Indiana, signed the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which critics said legalized anti-gay discrimination if justified by religion. A short time later Buttigieg, then 33, told his parents he was gay, then penned an article in the South Bend Tribune to inform his constituents. Some of the reaction was hostile. A neighbor started a group called the South Bend Leadership Coalition, demanding that Buttigieg disclose any other gay people in his administration and have them explain why their sexual orientation wouldn't hurt their ability to serve. But Father John Jenkins, then president of University of Notre Dame, which is located in South Bend, issued a statement lauding Buttigieg for "his admirably honest, thoughtful and very personal statement." Many voters agreed, and Buttigieg won re-election with 80 percent of the vote. He says he's more affected by attacks on his politics than insults to his sexuality. "When someone's attacking me over a decision I made that might be wrong, a thing I said I maybe shouldn't have said - that's going to keep me up at night," Buttigieg said. "If someone calls me a faggot, I mean, OK." On the stump, Buttigieg does not avoid discussing his gay identity, but doesn't focus on it. He talks of serving in the military, how that made him realize his time was finite, and wanting to find love. He uses his marriage to explain his understanding of why government matters, and argues forcefully that faith and a gay identity are not contradictory. "Other people can have their interpretations of their religion," he said at one recent stop. "But we live in a country that is committed to the idea that people of any faith, or no faith all, have equal claim over the blessings of life in this country." But most of Buttigieg's message focuses elsewhere, on the need for younger leadership and his push for official Washington to run more like a small city than a gridlocked bureaucracy. That message, especially as articulated in a March 10 appearance on a CNN "town hall" program, won Buttigieg plaudits from mainstream political analysts. But to many in the LGBT community, the most poignant moment of that appearance came before Buttigieg answered any questions at all. Host Jake Tapper brought up Buttigieg's playful feud with his husband, Chasten, over how to pronounce their last name. Pete says it's "boot-edge-edge." Chasten says "Buddha-judge." "You and your husband seem to have a disagreement on how to pronounce your last name," Tapper said. "Uh oh," Buttigieg responded, and the audience laughed. Members of the LGBT community praised the exchange as the kind of joke a TV host might make with a straight couple - evidence of the normalization of same-sex marriage, unfolding before a national audience. "This moment . . . made me emotional," tweeted Yashar Ali, who writes for HuffPost and New York magazine. "A discussion of something silly, like the spousal bickering of a same-sex couple treated normally, is something I wish I had as a kid." Chasten Buttigieg - a teacher originally from Traverse City, Michigan - met Pete in 2015, just months after he came out to his constituents. The mayor of South Bend swiped right on Chasten's Hinge profile. Pete Buttigieg now speaks about "the rush" he felt when the couple first held hands. The two married last year. Chasten has emerged as a major part of his husband's campaign. He was recently asked to speak at a Human Rights Campaign event in Houston, and his Twitter profile continues to rise. He tweets about missing his husband while he's on the campaign trail, jokes about waiting for food deliveries while his husband is "crushing townhalls" in South Carolina, and describes groggily looking for his slippers while Pete conducts early-morning interviews. That social media candor, unique among political spouses in the 2020 field, has made Chasten a Twitter darling. The campaign is receiving so many requests for interviews with him that it hasn't sorted out how to handle them. "That he's so unembarrassed - that is a good lesson for other gay and lesbian people about him and his husband," Frank said. "We've gone in gay marriage from BFD to NBD." But for all the attention, his presidential bid is hardly a juggernaut. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Harris, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former congressman Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, regularly eclipse him in the polls. Serious questions surround his candidacy. At 37, he would be the youngest president ever. And no mayor has ever jumped directly to the White House, let alone from a mid-sized city of roughly 100,000. But for many older members of the LGBT community, the most welcome surprise is that his sexual identity has not been considered among the bigger questions. "He's a very young guy who's been the mayor of a medium-sized city," Frank said. "I think, frankly, he's getting more favorable attention than he otherwise would have because he's gay. Which I think is great." Whether Buttigieg is rising because he is gay or despite it, and whether he should be celebrated as a symbol or viewed no differently from anyone else, depends on perspective. From Buttigieg's perspective, the best evidence of progress is not that an openly gay person is running for president, but that some wonder why anyone is talking about his sexuality at all. "One of the most moving things is talking to young people and learning it's made things a little easier for them," Buttigieg said. "Or talking to gay people of an older generation, who never could have imagined that they would live to see us debating whether it's interesting or newsworthy that somebody like me is doing something like this." Though more than 500 people, mostly teenage boys, were in there, the auditorium of the Regina A. Quick Center at Fairfield University was still, as quiet as a dawn snowfall. Not a cough, a throat-clearing. No restless shifting in the seats. Nothing. Dr. William V. Begg III, vice chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine at Danbury Hospital, stood at the microphone and was in the midst of explaining to this audience of Fairfield Prep students why he was there. There were two life-changing moments in my life, he said. The first was the death of his father, a result of medical malpractice, which propelled the young Bill Begg to a medical career by way of Fairfield University, incidentally. Im still a proud Stag, he said. But the doctor now was having trouble with his composure. The voice quivered. The breath was uneven as he went on. And on December 14, 2012, I was the doctor in charge at the emergency room at Danbury Hospital, he said. That, of course, was the day a deranged young man armed with, among other things, a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle, killed 20 first-graders and six educators. Begg did not and did not have to go into any detail about his experience that day. The painful scar that lurks inside him still, more than six years later, spoke for itself. Beggs appearance was part of an initiative that has sprung from the book Bullets into Bells, Poets & Citizens Respond to Gun Violence, a collection of poems about the human fallout from gun violence and reactions to those poems. The collection was co-edited by Brian Clements, a professor of writing, linguistics and the creative process at Western Connecticut State University. As part of Fairfield Preps Living Author Series, a six-member panel talked to the students Thursday afternoon in the Quick Center. Clements and Dean Rader, of the University of San Francisco, another co-editor, were on the panel with Begg, Clements wife Abbey, a Sandy Hook teacher who survived that horrible day; Matthew Olzmann, a poet and professor at Dartmouth; and Iran Nazario, a former Los Solidos gang member from Hartford, who now is the founder and CEO of the Peace Center of Connecticut. So far, the group has conducted 40 events in 26 states. The presentation was not a tirade against the NRA the organization was never mentioned nor gun manufacturers, nor whack job Sandy Hook conspiracists like Alex Jones. It was something far more powerful: an appeal to a group of bright students many headed for college and promising futures to get involved in the fight against gun violence. And it was an exposition of the power of words, poetry in particular, to lay open the unbearable grief that gun violence has brought into peoples lives. As noted in a moving introduction to the book written by Colum McCann, the Irish-born author of, among other works, Let the Great World Spin: Many people in this book have suffered publicly, but the point of their poetry is not to whine or moan or even set things aflame but rather to communicate the intricate nuances of that suffering with others. It is a form of public sharing. Take these words. Weigh them up. Listen. Pause a while. Help reality touch justice. There was a decidedly generational feel to the event. Not a torch passing, exactly, but, rather, a display of the torch and an invitation to a new generation to join the run, as did students from Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., after last years shooting there. Its your job to own this, Begg told the students. If its nothing more than liking an effort, or showing up at a rally. The burden is now with you. Yes, another generation having to face the scourge of gun violence, a yoke around all our necks. Michael J. Daly is retired editor of the Connecticut Post editorial page. Email: mike.daly@hearstmediact.com. The numbers are meant to be eye-popping. In a proposal centered around a $100 million donation from the philanthropic foundation of Ray Dalio, the hedge fund manager who is one of the nations richest people, Gov. Ned Lamont announced a plan Friday to invest $300 million in private and public dollars in Connecticuts schools. Dalios gift would be matched by $100 million in state funds plus another $100 million from other private sources. Together, the five-year plan would focus attention on some of the states neediest school districts, with high poverty rates and a large number of young people showing signs of disengagement or disconnection, as the governors office put it. Any donation of this size to a worthy cause is something to be celebrated. Improving education in the hardest-to-reach pockets of Connecticut is crucial to improving the outlook for everyone. The states cities are vital to economic development, as the governor said, and better schools will bring better outcomes for all. At the same time, the plan as announced presents many more questions than answers. Lamont wants the state Legislature to authorize the matching funds this session, but there is much that lawmakers need to know before proceeding. As described by the governors office, the plan would work with local stakeholders, help advance positive outcomes, utilize practices with demonstrated positive impact and leverage community expertise. Theres nothing wrong with any of that, but it also doesnt mean much. If there is a specific plan for the money, it is at this point a mystery. Its also important to put the numbers into perspective. Large though it sounds, $300 million over five years, or $60 million per year, looks different when compared with current education spending. The 2018-19 Bridgeport school budget, for instance, came in at $247.9 million, with other targeted districts in a similar range. Sixty million dollars divided among an undetermined number of school districts would certainly be welcome, but is not going to turn around a district on its own. Even with those questions, there is plenty of reason for excitement. The Dalio Foundation, under the leadership of Barbara Dalio, has demonstrated a commitment to public education in recent years that runs counter to a previous era of philanthropy, which tended to focus on charter schools. Charter schools may have their place, but are ultimately a distraction from the truly neediest students, who are too often left behind by education reformers. The Dalio Foundation has understood this. The goal of focusing on disengaged students is promising. Ensuring that school means something to people who might otherwise drift away is essential to making a better future. This approach, too, shows promise above that of earlier reform efforts. The plans purported focus on economic development is questionable school is about more than preparing the next generation of workers. Still, there is much to like. Bring some specifics and let lawmakers make an informed decision. This WWII vet wants to find, thank the girls who gave him a gift news In his most famous dialogue, The Republic, Plato, via Socrates, explored the idea that a just state would best function under the leadership of a perfectly just philosopher king. That is, an intellectually curious person who pursues knowledge, is intelligent, reliable and wise, and embraces the simple life. To test the hypothesis, Socrates is asked by an interlocutor to imagine a competition between a perfectly just man who would be perceived by an ignorant public as unjust and a perfectly unjust man, who is ruthless, immoral, gets away with murder, figuratively, but appears to be just. Though this is more complicated than described here, one unavoidably thinks of Donald Trump, who, apparently seems just to or at least is approved by 39 percent of the electorate, yet meets the very definition of unjust. Ruthless and immoral, he somehow always escapes accountability. As we know, Trump doesnt like to read, seems to abhor knowledge, is unreliable from moment to moment, and embraces a gaudevillian, as well as vaudevillian, life. Hes the opposite of the philosopher king and, given the pendulum theory of presidential succession, were now primed and ready for one. But, who? Does such a person even exist in the land of Twitter and Snapchat? Does our narcissistic culture engender the sort of person we last saw strolling along a wooded path lost in thought? If such a person were to exist, would he or she stand a chance of attracting voters with the kind of message that urges people to think rather than cajoles them with sophistry? The Greek sophists were learned men who made clever arguments that were, in fact, false. This also nearly defines our president, who has manipulated people by invoking emotion rather than reason. It must be sublime to be unencumbered by conscience, weightlessly bloviating to the cheers of admirers without the burden of truth. Then again, maybe not. My guess is that a majority of voters know that they deserve better. And the ambient unease people feel is the very real sense that the ship of state is listing and a lunatic mans the helm. So, lets say were in the market for a philosopher king or queen who understands the extraordinary challenges ahead because he or she has studied them. Someone who is reliable and wont say one thing today and its opposite the next. Given our dot on the timeline, perhaps he or she might also be a bit witty. We surely wouldnt want to be bored. The diverse roster of Democratic candidates is testament to how far weve come from the ridiculous era of playboys, fast cars and the bigger-better-richer-than-thou dogma to which Trump has entrusted his flexible faith. Is there a perfectly just philosopher president among them? Well find out during the next 19 or so months, as stories are shared about humble origins who has suffered poverty, endured discrimination, or been sexually harassed or hugged by Joe Biden. But, which one of them is capable of elevating the dialogue, of inspiring citizens to look beyond their immediate needs to something that unites all? Were not only physical beings with basic needs; were also soul-filled and spiritually yearning for something greater than ourselves. It is to the latter that our next president should focus some of his or her attention, because we are entering a new age without much guidance. At this particular time in history, we have to answer an exceedingly tough question: What does it mean to be human? Technological advances have so overwhelmed us that we may be unable to process their ethical ramifications, which have an increasing impact on our daily lives from robots and artificial intelligence to synthetic biology. With advances in gene manipulation, well soon be creating improved humans, most likely without the bother of mating and pregnancy. Enough of: Who am I? The question now is: Who are we as a species? Many of these developments are already upon us. And though academics and scientists may be well-versed in various consequential scenarios, no one in the public sphere has yet approached the deep philosophical/psychological implications that could lead to circumstances most unpleasant. If you think income inequality is challenging, wait for gene inequality and its companion privileges. I dont know who our philosopher president could be, but I feel safe in saying that the country is ready for her or him. Kathleen Parker is syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group Lower Merion A body found in the Schuykill River by a fisherman at 6:25 p.m. Thursday was identified Friday morning as that of Geoff Partridge. Partridge, 36, of the Villanova section of Radnor Township, has been missing since Dec. 5. Lower Merion police assisted by the Philadelphia Police marine unit recovered the body, said Tom Walsh, a spokesman for the township. After an autopsy on Friday, the Montgomery County coroner determined that it was Partridge and ruled that suicide was the cause of death, Walsh said. Partridges silver 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee was found in the Schuylkill River at Lower Merions Flat Rock Park in Gladwyne, but there were few clues to his whereabouts. His cell phone was found inside the running car, which was partially submerged with the door open in about 3 feet of water off an embankment near a parking lot. although there was an extensive search, his whereabouts were a mystery and Partridges family and friends had held out hope for his safe return. Theresa Mays Tories have always been far closer to Jeremy Corbyn than they like to admit. Thats why all their attacks on him fail so badly, and why there is a real possibility that he will become Prime Minister if the Government is idiotic enough to call an Election. The Tories wild, Trotskyist policies on marriage, equality, diversity and education actually arent much different from Mr Corbyns. See their recent imposition of compulsory politically correct indoctrination in schools. Their spending and tax levels arent much lower than his would be, either. And, while they go on about Mr Corbyn and the IRA, it is a Tory Government that is ready to let former British soldiers go on trial for actions in Northern Ireland, while IRA killers benefit from an amnesty. Theresa May's Tories have always been far closer to Jeremy Corbyn than they like to admit. That's why all their attacks on him fail so badly, and why there is a real possibility that he will become Prime Minister if the Government is idiotic enough to call an Election As for Mr Corbyns nasty connections with Hezbollah, the May Governments fervent and crazy support for Al Qaeda fanatics in Syria isnt really any more defensible. I might add that anti-Semitism is not exactly unknown in dimmer regions of the Tory Party This is why the Tory assault on Mr Corbyn has been so personal. There wasnt really anything else left. Embarrassingly for both Labour and Tories, some of his actual policies are often more sensible than Mrs Mays. Well, no, of course soldiers shouldnt be using pictures of elected politicians as targets. But isnt the more surprising thing, for most people, that there are still British troops in Afghanistan, scene of one of our most hopeless and costly military failures ever. Bring them home. A country that cant control knife crime in its own capital has no business sending soldiers abroad. Advertisement He is, for a start, a lifelong opponent of British membership of the EU, like his hero Tony Benn. She is a lifelong supporter. Comically, neither of them dare admit their real views openly. Millions of commuters have come round to his view that the sooner the railways are renationalised, the better. And everybody now knows he was right to oppose the Iraq War, when both the big-party front benches supported it. So lets not get too righteous about the Prime Ministers attempt to co-operate with him, in the hope of escaping from the hopeless mess we have got ourselves into over the EU. It is a rare instance, in these times, of politicians at least trying to put country before party. It is not exactly a rerun of Stalin and Hitlers pact in 1939. I fear it will fail anyway, but given the price millions will pay if we mess this up it was a risk worth taking. I wont condemn it. The concrete-headed behaviour of many Tories, who have in the past three years become fanatics in a cause they couldnt have cared less about in 2010, and still dont understand, is the reason for this. Morals are a turn-off Interesting that The Aftermath, a film set in Germany immediately after the war and starring Keira Knightley has sunk without trace. It has many ingredients that normally bring in audiences 1940s glamour, wartime reminiscence, steam trains, forbidden love. Could it be that its admission that ordinary Germans suffered terribly from our bombing, and the ultimate refusal of the heroine to abandon her marriage, lacks modern appeal? Interesting that The Aftermath, a film set in Germany immediately after the war and starring Keira Knightley has sunk without trace The Left-wing magazine Private Eye says the BBCs drama Call The Midwife has become a series of liberal editorials on medical and social issues. A gaggle of pro-abortion groups has praised the programme for repeatedly handling this issue extremely sensitively and courageously, that is, in a way they like. Yet the BBC still absurdly denies any bias. A genuinely independent body must be created that can rule on such cases. One by one, respectable and respected organisations in this country become mouthpieces for the well-funded and cynical campaign for drug liberalisation Police join ranks of the dope deniers One by one, respectable and respected organisations in this country become mouthpieces for the well-funded and cynical campaign for drug liberalisation. This happens even though evidence of the grave dangers of marijuana grows by the day. The latest citadel to fall is the Police Federation, a major catch for these people. Sergeant Simon Kempton, who speaks for that organisation on drug matters, called for an honest and open debate based on results because prohibition has not worked. This is the standard fake claim peddled incessantly by the liberalisers, who use the word prohibition to make an entirely false parallel between Britains drug laws and the failed US attempt to ban alcohol nearly a century ago. He also made the usual fatuous claim that if police stopped enforcing the drug laws they would be free to pursue supposedly more important crimes. Actually, the problem is that the police stopped seriously enforcing the drug-possession laws decades ago. And there is no sign that doing so has made them more effective against any other sort of crime. Rather the opposite. If Sergeant Kempton really wants an open and honest debate on this subject, I challenge him to hold one with me, in front of his members. Every ten minutes we are reminded of the supposed political assassination of the Labour MP Jo Cox (above), allegedly by a 'Right-wing extremist' A tragedy twisted into a bogus 'terror plot' We are told by some police functionary that 10,000 officers are on standby in case of unrest. We are told that there is a febrile atmosphere. And about every ten minutes we are reminded of the supposed political assassination of the Labour MP Jo Cox, allegedly by a Right-wing extremist. Well, if its so febrile, its odd that the turnout at Thursdays Newport West by-election was only about half what it was in 2017. I think weariness, rather than rage, is the most common feeling. But can we once and for all stop making the absurd claim that Jo Coxs killer, Thomas Mair, was a serious political actor? First, his killing of a much-loved mother of a young family predictably achieved more or less the exact opposite of what he supposedly intended and he would have grasped this in a second had he been in a normal state of mind. In fact his abnormality is the most striking thing about him, despite the fact that it was almost wholly ignored by the police and the courts. News reports from the time repeatedly quoted Mairs brother Scott as saying that the killer had a history of psychiatric problems. His half-brother confirmed this, saying Mair would clean himself with Brillo pads and had obsessive compulsive disorder. OCD is often treated with powerful mind-altering drugs, yet I know of no attempt to establish if Mair had been prescribed such drugs. But there is evidence he had been. He had told a local newspaper in 2010 how volunteering at a park near his home had helped his mental health, saying: It has done me more good than all the psychotherapy and medication in the world. Just before his crime, he walked into the Wellbeing Centre in Birstall and asked for help. He said his medication for depression wasnt working and seemed agitated and treading from side to side. After he was caught and charged, his lawyer oddly said he would not bring his medical history into the case. Why not? Plainly Mair is a danger to others and his action was a terrible one. But why does authority ignore such vital facts? Does the Government want to believe, and to spread the idea, that there is some organised Right-wing terror plot? Please question these claims. If you want to comment on Peter Hitchens, click here A naturopath has spoken candidly about how her father's devastating cancer battle sparked her booming organic skincare business. Bridget Carmady, from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, was studying naturopathy when her father Pat Aulton was tragically diagnosed with throat cancer. As she sat anxiously at his appointment, the then-27-year-old was shocked when an oncologist handed him a 'petroleum-based barrier cream' to 'help' his radiation burn. While her cancer-stricken father suffered excruciating pain, she decided to create a natural cream so her father could apply daily after his treatment. And much to everyone's surprise, his burns improved dramatically. Fast forward 10 years, the now-38-year-old mother-of-two transformed her humble homemade cream into a six-figure organic skincare brand called Clemence Organics. Australian naturopath Bridget Carmady (pictured) has spoken candidly about how her father's devastating cancer battle sparked her booming organic skincare business Ms Carmady said her father Pat Aulton was a talented musician who was known for his famous jingles such as 'Aussie kids are Weetbix kids' and 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' (Ms Carmady pictured with her father as a toddler) 'It was the cream I made for my dad's radiation burn that really lit a spark in me,' Ms Carmady told Daily Mail Australia. 'His burn improved dramatically. Much more than other patients who were being treated at the same time. He had very little redness at all. His pain was minimised. I was so happy. 'The fact that something so simple could make such a big difference in someone's life was huge. His radiation burn was clearly reduced and left him in less pain. Even the nurses at his ward commented on what a difference it was making and wanted to know more.' Following her creation, she started to do more research about treating radiation burns with various creams and balms. 'As I began practicing and seeing patients at my clinic in the Blue Mountains, I started attracting clients who had skin issues and would make them skincare products based on their needs. Word of mouth grew and soon I was selling these products at a local market and to local stores.' And in 2016, she launched her 'fully-fledged' skincare line after she saw an opening in the market for products containing organic ingredients. Targeted for people with severe acne or eczema, the skincare range contains non-toxic ingredients such as certified organic rosehip oil, calendula, jojoba oil and rose otto. What happened after Ruby used Clemence Organics? When Ruby returned to Australia after living in Spain for a year with her partner, she started experiencing 'real difficulty' with her skin. 'It was rashy every single day, red, bumpy and very easily irritated for a period of about four months. Every day I woke up and felt flat. It's insane how much your skin can alter your confidence,' she said. 'I spent lots of money on a number of reputable skin care brands of which always irritated my skin more and inevitably added to my level of frustration. 'I tried cutting out things from my diet, as I thought things like dairy may be adding to the aggravation, too. After using Clemence Organics products, Ruby said her skin completely cleared up After visiting a dermatologist, she was diagnosed with perioral dermatitis - an inflammation of the skin. 'Being acutely aware of many of the chemicals and harsh irritants are used in many products, I decided organic was the way to go,' she said. 'My dermatologist also advised me that a number of products including the aforementioned ones would do more harm then good for my skin condition.' She started using the Clemence Organics Ultimate Biome Spritz and 2 in 1 Face Scrub + Mask after receiving it as a gift. 'The results were a very welcome relief,' she said. 'The face scrub was so gentle, smelt divine and was the only product I encountered that left my skin feeling so unbelievably soft, even early days when my rash was still very prominent. 'Never once has my highly sensitive skin been irritated after using it. You can tell it is absolutely a high quality product. Using the face mask in particular and having such positive results so rapidly was a real comforting relief after struggling for so long. 'I have since told my girlfriends and family members about the brand and intend to use it for quite some time to come. I need to buy my next tub. Am an absolute convert.' Advertisement Speaking fondly about her father, Ms Carmady said he was a talented musician who was known for his famous jingles such as 'Aussie kids are Weetbix kids', 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' and 'Oh what a feeling, Toyota'. 'He could sing beautifully, play guitar and piano, and write songs at the drop of a hat,' she said. The family were left reeling when they were told about his shock cancer diagnosis. 'I was both sad and scared... Nothing ever prepares you for cancer and how it turns lives upside down,' she said. 'My dad always seemed unbreakable to me and so how could this be? Of course he had been a drinker and smoker for most of his life, and so my rational mind knew that it wasn't completely unexpected. 'He faced many other challenges in his life and so I figured this was just the next.' When doctors advised him to remove part of his throat, including his voice box, Ms Carmady said her father was 'having none of it' as 'his voice was his instrument'. Fast forward 10 years, the now-38-year-old mother-of-two transformed her humble homemade cream into a six-figure organic skincare brand called Clemence Organics When doctors advised him to remove part of his throat, including his voice box, after his cancer diagnosis, Ms Carmady said he was 'having none of it' as 'his voice was his instrument' So when he started undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, Ms Carmady said she refused to let her father use the cream with toxic chemicals on his skin. 'How could they give cancer patients something so bad for them when their body is already struggling? Towards the end he was in a lot of pain with his throat and so struggled to take anything,' she said. Losing both my father and sister in a relatively short period of time has taught me to make the most of my life, to give everything I have to give and to cherish my health 'I felt that he really wanted to live and so was willing to give anything a go, and knew that my recommendations came from the heart. 'The cream I made for his radiation burn was a no-brainer for me.' Just one year after his diagnosis, her father tragically lost his battle to cancer on the evening of February 13, 2009 at the age of 70. 'I was devastated when he died... The last words dad said to me on were "be strong". I haven't always lived up to his words, but I feel his strength in me,' he said. 'I had never lost anyone close to me before and so it was a very challenging time. Grief is an all-encompassing beast that never quite leaves you. 'I was engaged to be married at that time and so facing my wedding without my father was very difficult for me. Thankfully I had my now-husband and we had each other as a family.' While her cancer-stricken father suffered excruciating pain, Ms Carmady created a natural cream so he could use on his after undergoing radiation treatment 'It's now been 10 years since my father passed away. It's heartwarming to know that my father's cancer spawned something so positive,' she said By sharing her story, Ms Carmady said she wanted people to draw hope from her experiences While juggling her start-up business and her two young children, Ms Carmady also lost her sister to breast cancer at the age of 46. 'Losing both my father and sister in a relatively short period of time has taught me to make the most of my life, to give everything I have to give and to cherish my health,' she said. For anyone who wants to start a business, Ms Carmady advised: 'Don't be afraid to ask for help and advice from people who have done it before. 'If your business is coming from the heart, then there's no way you won't succeed. I would also say to just start somewhere, even if its small. 'More often than not you'll feel your products or services aren't perfect and you want to wait until they are. You may find yourself waiting a long time, even forever, if you do. 'Don't let fear affect your decision making. I would also say not to underestimate the role that the mind plays in cancer. Your mental health is so very important.' By sharing her inspiring story, Ms Carmady said she wanted people to draw hope from her experiences. 'It's now been 10 years since my father passed away. It's heartwarming to know that my father's cancer spawned something so positive,' she said. 'The winds of change are sweeping across the beauty industry, and I've never felt more excited and optimistic about this movement. 'I sincerely believe that when you use my collection, you'll look into the mirror and be amazed by the healthy and glowing skin looking back at you.' For more details, please visit Clemence Organics via the website or Facebook. A personal shopper who claims she find any sold out piece of designer clothing or accessory counts celebrities like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Hailey Bieber as fans of her fashion detective work. Gabriel Waller, from Sydney's Bondi Beach, is the Australian woman glamorous (and wealthy) men and women rely on to find everything from Celine jackets to Balenciaga stilettos. Since 2018, the 25-year-old has had to be available 24/7 to handle requests from more than 50 clients at once, who live in the U.S, Britain and Australia. Gabriel Waller, who lives close to Sydney's Bondi Beach, is the Australian woman glamorous men and women rely on to find everything from Celine jackets to Balenciaga stilettos 'I have a large number of VIPs that have been shopping with me from the very early days who are based in various cities worldwide,' she told FEMAIL. 'This demonstrates how important it is that I'm available and ready to work in various different time zones daily. Sleep? What sleep?'. Her most popular requests are always about pieces from iconic brand Chanel. She said she finds the items thanks to her impressive brand connections. 'The two Celine coats that were sourced for both Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Hailey Bieber would most definitely be a number one highlight,' she said 'Definitely all things Chanel, from their custom and fashion jewellery, to their footwear, all the way up to their ready-to-wear,' she said. 'My Australian clientele in particular are eager to purchase Chanel pieces that are either sold out completely nationwide or did not make it into the Australian assortment.' But one of the most unique requests she has ever received was from a male client who was recently looking for a Vetements leather jacket, which can retail for between $3,000 and $5,500. 'The Old Celine Madame Boots for Kourtney Kardashian were also another huge career highlight, I still have "pinch me" moments when I see her photographed wearing them,' she said 'It was unfortunately never produced off the runway,' Gabriel said. 'I could have left it at that, closed the door and walked away, but that is not how I do business. 'My clients know and expect me to move mountains to make things possible. In this case, that's exactly what I did. 'Fast forward to today, the brand agreed to custom make this jacket as a one-off, and it's currently in production to then be shipped directly to him in the United States. The countdown is now on.' There have certainly been some famous faces sporting wares that were uncovered by Gabriel, and the ecstatic feeling of finding those unique pieces doesn't go away. There have certainly been some famous faces sporting wares that were uncovered by Gabriel, and the ecstatic feeling of finding those unique pieces doesn't go away 'The two Celine coats that were sourced for both Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Hailey Bieber would most definitely be a number one highlight,' she said. 'I've recently sourced another pair of Old Celine boots for Rosie (set to arrive with her this week) which I'm very excited about. 'The Old Celine Madame Boots for Kourtney Kardashian were also another huge career highlight, I still have "pinch me" moments when I see her photographed wearing them.' And while she's yet to find a request she couldn't fulfill there are certainly times when a popular item makes it very difficult to come by. Having only been working for herself since 2018 it's an incredible feat to be a name passed around by well known models and actresses alike (Gabriel pictured) 'Moments after Rosie Huntington-Whiteley posted the photo of her wearing that now iconic Old Celine coat I was completely inundated with requests for it,' Gabriel said. 'As much as I would have jumped to successfully tick off every single one of those requests, the demand for that coat had skyrocketed by that point, and to this day no private seller is willing to let go of theirs.' Having only been working for herself since 2018 it's an incredible feat to be a name passed around by well known models and actresses alike. And she feels as though the market for personal shoppers is only going to get larger. 'I don't keep any stock on hand so all I need from my end is an image of the item and their preferred sizes and I will then work every sourcing miracle I can to secure it for them,' she said. 'It's a very fast and convenient service for new season pieces and it's perfect for the time-poor individual who needs an item quickly and efficiently.' A well-stocked pantry is a must for any chef, whether home or professional - and no one knows this more than Clodagh McKenna. The Irish cookbook author - who is in Sydney for the launch of her new book Clodagh's Suppers - said there are a number of products that are non-negotiable in her kitchen - such is their ability to lift even the most basic of dishes. Speaking to FEMAIL, Clodagh revealed her pantry essentials - as well as the products she recommends you scrimp and splurge on. Irish chef Clodagh McKenna (pictured) said there are a number of products that are non-negotiable in her kitchen - such is their ability to lift even the most basic of dishes Clodagh (pictured) said the most important things for her pantry are a range of spices, good quality sea salt and olive oil, as well as canned foods and vinegars So what does she keep at home? 'The first thing I think any cook should have is a range of spices,' Clodagh said. 'A good range of spices can instantly change the quality of any dish, so even if it's pricey to get your hands on them, remember that they will last.' Clodagh also thinks it's a good idea to stock up on a range of canned foods - which mean you can always put together a simple but delicious supper. 'Good quality Italian cherry tomatoes in a can, cannelloni beans and some really good sea salt - I normally use Cornish sea salt - are all really good options,' she said. Clodagh (pictured) said she swears by rose water and orange blossom, which she said can 'instantly change a dish like a cous cous salad' What are Clodagh McKenna's pantry staples? * A range of spices * A selection of canned foods * Good sea salt * Great olive oil * A selection of vinegars * Rose water * Orange blossom * Cous cous * Bulgur wheat * Various types of rice Advertisement Like many other chefs, Clodagh swears by the power of a good quality olive oil. 'It's so important,' she said. 'As is a range of vinegars, from apple cider vinegar to balsamic.' One of her more unusual items she keeps in her pantry is rose water and orange blossom water, which Clodagh said are her simple secrets for lifting a dish. 'Both of these instantly change a dish like a cous cous salad,' she said. 'You can buy them at the supermarket, but still lots of people don't know about them. 'I add them into dressings and salads to add a really decadent flavour.' 'You can scrimp on canned foods like tomatoes, cannelloni beans, cous cous and bulgur wheat,' Clodagh (pictured) said - but you should spend bigger on olive oil and salt When it comes to the items you should scrimp and splurge on, Clodagh said she divides her pantry into two camps. 'You can scrimp on canned foods like tomatoes, cannelloni beans, cous cous and bulgur wheat,' she said. 'Keep your splurging for your sea salt and your good quality olive oil.' The Irish chef recommends you make cutbacks with your olive oil by cooking with a 'lighter oil' like rapeseed or sunflower. 'Just use your olive oil to drizzle over vegetables or dressings,' she said. What should you scrimp on? * Canned foods like tomatoes * Cous couse * Bulgur wheat Advertisement What should you splurge on? * Good quality sea salt * Really great olive oil * Vinegars Advertisement Lastly, Clodagh shared the major mistakes home chefs make. 'The first is not having a well-stocked pantry,' she said. 'If you don't have a well-stocked pantry with the likes of the above, then how can you expect to make any sort of delicious dish.' She also said she sees to many people overcook fish, which ruins it. 'Cooking shouldn't be stressful,' she said. 'Look at it as though it's something that is enjoyable.' Clodagh McKenna is the author of Clodagh's Suppers. For more information, please click here. Kelly Macdonald has addressed parallels between new BBC drama 'The Victim' and the harrowing real life James Bulger case. The British actress, 43, who rose to fame for her role as Diane in 1996 hit Trainspottting, plays a grieving mother who is suspected of anonymously sharing the whereabouts of her son's newly-released killer, following the murder of her child 15 years earlier. The story, which she has explained is entirely fictitious, appears to echo that of James Bulgar, who was brutally tortured and murdered aged two, by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were just 10-years-old at the time. Venables returned to prison in 2010 and was given a new sentence of two years - after being caught sharing an downloading images of child abuse - at which point Bulgers mother, Denise Fergus, called for his anonymity to be removed. In February James' father and uncle, Ralph and Jimmy Bulger, appealed to change a lifelong anonymity order made when Venables was released in 2001. Kelly Macdonald, pictured in New York last July, has adressed parallels between new BBC drama 'The Victim' and the harrowing James Bulger case Speaking about the similarities between the new BBC drama and the real life Bulger case, Kelly told The Guardian's Observer magazine: 'I can see why people might compare, but this The Victim isnt based on any specific real-life case. There are parallels but its a fictional story.' Speaking about how it was going to a 'dark place as a mother', she added: 'It wasnt so much as a parent, just as a human. Those emotions apply to anyone. Mothers dont have a monopoly on them.' And explaining her recent roles as a mother, which include her part in Ian McEwans The Child in Time. she argued that she wasn't being typecast adding: 'You reach a certain age and get cast as a mother. 'And because its dramatic, sometimes a grieving mother. Plus of course, I give good grief face!' The actress, 43, plays grieving mother Anna Dean, who is suspected of anonymously sharing the whereabouts of her son's newly-released killer, following the murder of her child 15 years earlier. Left, killer Craig Myers played by James Harkness, right, John Hannah as DI Steven Grove BBC1 thriller The Victim is set in Glasgow and Edinburgh and stars John Hannah as DI Steven Grover, alongside Trainspotting's Kelly Macdonald, and rising star James Harkness who plays killer 'Craig Myers', and it will be up to viewers to decide which of the characters is the real victim. Kelly's character, Anna Dean, is a grieving mother whose nine-year-old son Liam was brutally murdered 15 years before by a boy four years his senior called Eddie J Turner. Turner has now been released from jail and is allegedly living under the pseudonym Craig Myers, but an anonymous post on social media claims to know where he is. The message receives thousands of likes, and Myers (James Harkness) a hard-working family man is visited by a hooded figure who viciously attacks him - but does he have the right man? James Harkness as Craig Myers, with his onscreen daughter Jessica Myers. The drama will explore if it's a case of mistaken identity and let the viewer decide who the victim really is Whoever wrote the social media message stands accused of incitement to murder, and Anna Dean is an obvious suspect given that she's long campaigned for the killer's new identity and whereabouts to be revealed. And she seems even more likely to be the perpetrator when she's visited by DI Grover. We also learn in the first episode that Grover has been seconded to the Glasgow area from Edinburgh while some allegations against him are investigated, but is there any truth to them? As the drama progresses, the viewer is invited to decide whether Anna Dean, Craig Myers or indeed DI Grover is the real victim. The Victim airs every evening from Monday to Thursday, at 9pm on BBC1. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex almost broke the internet when they unveiled their own Instagram account last week. And over the weekend, eagle-eyed fans who have been watching their every move, spotted the palace deleted, then reposted, a picture featuring a Nelson Mandela quote. Fan account Gert's Royals took to Twitter to point out that the Sussex Royal account had shared a multi-post of a painting on wall featuring one of the former president's most famous messages, along with a partial portrait of his face. However the post was quickly deleted and a zoomed-in version of the picture was reposted, cropping out Mandela's face so the message was more visible. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex almost broke the internet when they unveiled their own Instagram account last week, and fans noticed a correction over the weekend And many of the account's 4.2million followers soon noticed the move, with fan account Gert's Royals tweeting both versions of the picture. 'The photo from #SussexRoyal original post on @TheLunchboxFund vs. the 2nd posting,' they wrote. 'I assume the change was to include the full quote, not to crop the picture of Nelson Mandela out in particular. 'Harry & Meghan have spoken very highly of him & visited a exhibit on him in 2018'. FEMAIL have contacted Kensington Palace for further comment. Fan account Gert's Royals took to Twitter to point out that the Sussex Royal account had shared a multi-post of a painting on wall featuring one of the former president's most famous messages, along with a partial portrait of his face However the post was quickly deleted with a zoomed-in version of the picture reposted, cropping out his face so the message was more visible Fan account Gert's Royals tweeting both versions of the picture. 'The photo from #SussexRoyal original post on @TheLunchboxFund vs. the 2nd posting,' they wrote The quote, from Mandela's book 'Long Walk to Freedom', reads: 'No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. 'People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.' Indeed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have previously expressed their admiration of Mandela, with Harry previously meeting his widow Graca Machel in 2015. The pair opened an exhibition at the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall in tribute to Mr Mandela on the centenary of his birth last July. Joining them at the time was Nelson Mandela's granddaughter, who said that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's stance on 'justice and fairness in the world makes them a shining example for the youth of today'. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's new social media account, Sussex Royal broke the world record for the fastest time to gain one million followers on Instagram. Among the gallery of their highlights the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are pictured during their visit to Sussex last October Last week the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's new social media account, Sussex Royal, has broken the world record for the fastest time to gain one million followers on Instagram. The profile racked up a staggering 150,000 followers in the 30 minutes after it was unveiled on Tuesday afternoon, and by Wednesday morning had accumulated a record-breaking 2.2 million followers. The Guinness World Records confirmed they had broken the record by reaching the 1 million milestone in just 5 hours and 45 minutes, taking the title from K-Pop star Kang Daniel, who achieved 1 million followers in 11 hours 36 minutes in January. Before this, the record holder was Pope Francis, who reached one million in 12 hours after debuting his verified Vatican media channel franciscus in 2016. Among the followers are celebrities David Beckham and Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as Princess Eugenie who commented 'welcome cousins'. Kensington Palace's account, which has now been assigned to Prince William and Kate, currently stands at 7.1million followers. By Wednesday morning had accumulated a jaw-dropping 2.1 million followers - despite following just 23 people, including Kensington Palace and Princess Eugenie The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's first post - which announced they were joining the social network along with a gallery of their highlights - received 755,000 likes by Wednesday morning The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's first post - which announced they were joining the social network along with a gallery of their highlights - received 755,000 likes by Wednesday morning. And followers were keen to share their support for Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37, who are expecting their first child this month and are expected to share the first picture of their little one online. The profile picture is an image bearing a white version of couple's royal cypher the entwined initials H and M below a coronet on a navy background. Their first post - a picture gallery- is kicked off with the same blue background featuring their monogram, and a welcome message written in a mix of italics and upper case fonts. The carefully chosen pictures featured in the gallery, highlight the work they are most passionate about, and include their recent visit to a girl's school in Morocco, Harry's work with African conservation charities and Meghan's cooking project with the Grenfell community. The new @SussexRoyal Instagram account notched up nearly 300,000 followers within an hour of launching including Meghan's best friend Jessica Mulroney and celebrities David Beckham and Gwyneth Paltrow. The account follows just 23 people, including Kensington Palace, Princess Eugenie, the Duke of York, and various wildlife conservation charities. Followers were keen to share their support for Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37, who are expecting their first child this month and are expected to share the first picture of their little one online Harry and Meghan said @SussexRoyal would be used to share the work that drives them, and important announcements. The move comes as the duke and duchess are splitting their household from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, whose Instagram account is @KensingtonRoyal. Meghan and Harry's new household will be based at Buckingham Palace, while William a future King and Kate will remain at Kensington Palace. In a message on their first post, Harry and Meghan thanked people for their support, saying: 'Welcome to our official Instagram; we look forward to sharing the work that drives us, the causes we support, important announcements, and the opportunity to shine a light on key issues. 'We thank you for your support, and welcome you to @sussexroyal.'- Harry & Meghan.' Among the thousands of uplifting comments, one follower wrote: 'I truly wish I could personally give Meghan an apology' Another dedicated follower added: 'Let's make this Instagram what Henry and Meghan's all about positiveness I love'. The account has seen a staggering influx of followers, racking up 12,500 followers within 8 minutes of joining Instagram on Tuesday afternoon The gallery includes a picture of Meghan as she shares a light-hearted moment with a well-wisher during a walkabout in Sydney. The image was one of three in the gallery taken on their royal tour last year Ex-Suits star Meghan used to have her own personal Twitter and Instagram accounts, as well as a lifestyle website thetig.com, but closed them down ahead of her wedding to Harry. The Sussexes' new Instagram account has been introduced less than a month after the royal family published new guidelines for members of the public interacting with them on social media. It warned that trolls who post offensive or abusive messages on official royal channels will be blocked, and may even be reported to the police. Another cause close to their hearts is wildlife and in the gallery Prince Harry, is seen far right, helping to tip a sedated elephant before it's relocated to a wildlife reserve in Malawi, Africa Another of the snaps shared on Harry and Meghan's Instagram account, believed to be taken during a stop on the royal tour of Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji last year Kensington Palace's account, which has now been assigned to Prince William and Kate, currently stands at 7.1M followers - but will Harry and Meghan overtake them? This followed news that Kensington Palace staff were spending hours each week moderating online abuse aimed at Kate and pregnant Meghan. Some of the worst, hate-filled personal abuse is said to be between rival fans of the duchesses. The royal family's website said the guidelines were introduced to try to maintain a safe environment on channels run by the three households, and it called for users to show 'courtesy, kindness and respect'. At the moment, Harry and Meghan do not have a separate Twitter account, but their names have been removed from the @KensingtonRoyal Twitter account bio, which now reads: 'The official account of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Royal Foundation, based at Kensington Palace.' A huge collection of fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld's earliest sketches, including two that he penned for Elizabeth Taylor, are going under the hammer in Florida this month. This archive of 125 original sketches and portfolios has been privately owned since the 1960s and will be auctioned in Miami on April 18th by Urban Culture Auctions. Lagerfeld died in Paris on February 19th at the age of 85. Many of the hand-colored drawings include fabric swatches and annotations added by the famous German designer. Designer Karl Lagerfeld died in Paris on February 19th, aged 85, following complications from pancreatic cancer. This is the first significant auction of his work since his death A selection of early sketches from late designer Karl Lagerfeld will be auctioned in Miami on April 18th 2019. Two of the sketches, including this one, were special designs made for actress Elizabeth Taylor during the sixties The second design for Elizabeth Taylor, drawn by Karl Lagerfeld during his time as a couturier for Italian fashion house Tiziani in Rome One of the hand-coloured sketches drawn by Lagerfeld during his time at Tiziani in Rome. Some of the sketches, like this one, are accompanied by swatches of fabric The collection is derived from Lagerfeld's six-year tenure as a couturier at the House of Tiziani in Rome, Italy. Tiziani's faithful clients during his period at the fashion house included Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Duke, Gina Lollobrigida and Principessa Borghese. Lagerfeld's two designs for Taylor are expected to sell for around $3,000 (2,300) each. The other portfolio collections, dated between 1963 and 1969, carry an estimate of $2,000-$4,000 (1,533-3,067). Hand-writing: Some of the Lagerfeld sketches are annotated with brief descriptions of the garments or of the outfit A portion of the archive, which has been publicly owned since the 1960s, was auctioned in 2014, but many of these new sketches have never been seen by the public before Lagerfeld sketches are extremely rare, as the designer was known to destroy all of his work and once told the New York Times: 'I throw everything away' 'These sketches are the work of one of the most brilliant couturiers of the last half century,"' said Rico Baca the co-owner of Urban Culture Auctions, who is holding the sale. 'They are very rare and might not have survived had they remained in Lagerfeld's possession,' he added. The collection is considered rare because the designer was known to destroy most of his sketches. Lagerfeld worked at Tiziani in the 1960s, before freelancing for several fashion brands, including Fendi, Balmain and Patou Two of the sketches being auctioned in Miami on 19 April. Lagerfeld is most known for bringing French label Chanel back from the near-dead in the 1980. He's the man behind the brand's iconic 'C C' monogram A dress full of swinging sixties influence; Lagerfeld's sketches reflect the style of the period In 2007, he told The New Yorker magazine, 'I throw everything away,' with a nod to a nearby wastebasket filled with discarded drawings. Back in 2014, another auction was hosted by Palm Beach Modern Auctions, of which Urban Culture Auctions is a subdivision. The 'Lagerfeld + Liz' sale featured sketches from the same Tiziani archive. The 2014 sale included over 300 original vintage fashion design sketches along with drawings, photos and correspondence from film star Taylor. In the notes on this outfit, Lagerfeld wrote 'very soft cocktail dress made of Crepe-de-chine silk' Art: One of the sketches that will be auctioned on April 18th. Lagerfeld worked for Tiziani in Italy for six years Pretty in Pink. The sketches auctioned are dated from 1963 to 1969. 14 years later he started working for Chanel and remained the fashion house's creative director until his death in 2019 Baca said the owner of the collection auctioned in 2014 had withheld some of his favourite sketches at the time, but now had felt it was time to pass the archive onto new collectors. Lagerfeld is best known for revamping Chanel in the 1980s. The French fashion house was a 'near-dead-brand' at the time. The German designer breathed fresh air into the label's ready-to-wear collection and turned it into a international fashion powerhouse. He's the man behind the iconic entwined 'CC' monogram. Before he joined Chanel in 1983, he worked for other famous European couture houses including Fendi, Chloe, Patou, Balmain and of course Tiziani. Picture: one of Lagerfeld's sketch book as well as five hand-coloured sketches featuring different styles. Some of the notes next to the drawings are written in French while other were written in Italian He continued working on projects with Fendi until his death following complications from pancreatic cancer. Lagerfeld requested no formal funeral with plans for cremation and ashes spread at secret locations alongside his mother as well as his late partner, Jacques de Bascher. The sale will take place via Urban Culture Auctions on Thursday, 18th April 2019. A charity given a royal nod by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex say they are 'completely astounded' by the honour - and it's driven their Instagram following up by more than 2,000 in under 48 hours. London-based Little Village, which collects clothes, toys and kit for kids under five in need, were among four charities named by Meghan and Harry in a post on their Sussex Royal page on Friday. The couple, who are expecting their first child in the coming weeks, are urging fans to donate to 'charities for children and parents in need' rather than send them gifts for their baby. A Little Village spokesperson told how the call that they would be mentioned came 'out of the blue' an hour before the post went live. Harry and Meghan, who are expecting their first child in the coming weeks, are urging fans to donate to 'charities for children and parents in need' rather than send them gifts for their baby The mention saw a surge in visits to their Instagram page, with the charity now boasting 4,158 followers. Last night Little Village shared a thank you message to Meghan and Harry, welcoming their new followers and admitting they've been left 'speechless' by the response. Along with an illustration by a four-year-old boy called Arlo, the post read: 'Hello 3000!! It's not quite the professional post we we try and aspire to (!) but we weren't expecting to have to say hi to 1,000 new followers for the second time in a week! 'You can put that down to the Harry and Meghan effect! Seriously, a MASSIVE thank you to SussexRoyal for believing in our work and to each and every person who has donated and taken the time to message us - we've been left speechless by the response.' London-based Little Village (representatives of which are pictured), which collects clothes, toys and kit for kids under five in need, were among four charities named by Meghan and Harry in a post on their Sussex Royal page on Friday Little Village posted a thank you message to its new fans, which have grown by more than 2,000 since Friday It goes on to direct fans to its Just Giving link, explaining that it costs them around 100 to support one family. Little Village's chief executive Sophia Parker said the charity has received donations from as far afield as Australia, Texas and Hong Kong as a result of the special shout-out. 'We've been completely astounded by the response we've received since being mentioned on the Duke and Duchess' Instagram account,' she said. 'It's fantastic to think that people across the world appreciate our work. We're a very small charity, so support like this is crucial. According to a list of official gifts presented to the royal family in 2018, Harry and Meghan's new baby has already received more than 90 soft toys, 19 teddy bears, a pair of wellies and 15 baby vests 'We often see families whose babies are being forced to sleep on cushions on the floor and children with shoes two sizes too small. 'We support families by providing clothing for their children, safe places for them to sleep, and toys and books to help them thrive.' She went on to say that the charity receives no public funding and are entirely reliant on donations. Its JustGiving page reads: 'Our dream is that no child in the capital is without the basic essentials they need. All donations received by Little Village are passed on to local families who are dealing with challenging circumstances including homelessness, unemployment, low wages and domestic violence The charity supports families by providing clothing and equipment for their children, safe places for them to sleep, and toys and books to help them thrive 'In our first three years we've fulfilled 4,000 requests for help across our three sites in London.' All donations received by Little Village are passed on to local families who are dealing with challenging circumstances including homelessness, unemployment, low wages and domestic violence. Families are referred to them by their network of referral partners, which includes health visitors, children's centres and midwives as well as faith organisations, other charities and public servants. The charity currently operates in the London Boroughs of Wandsworth, Southwark and Camden. Families are referred to Little Village by their network of referral partners, which includes health visitors, children's centres and midwives as well as faith organisations, other charities and public servants Harry and Meghan launched their own Instagram page on Tuesday and it already has more than four million followers. In its recent post the couple said they are 'immensely grateful for the outpouring of love and support in anticipation of the birth of their first child'. According to a list of official gifts presented to the royal family in 2018, Harry and Meghan's new baby has already received more than 90 soft toys, 19 teddy bears, a pair of wellies and 15 baby vests. Harry and Meghan launched their own Instagram page on Tuesday and it already has more than four million followers They added: 'In lieu of sending gifts, the couple have long planned to encourage members of the public to make donations to select charities for children and parents in need. 'If you already made a donation, the couple send you their greatest thanks. 'If you are thinking about it, they ask that you kindly consider the following organisations they've selected.' As well as Little Village, the pair recommended the Lunchbox Fund, which works to provide a daily meal for impoverished children in South Africa; WellChild, which tries to get ill children out of hospital and back home; and Baby2Baby, which tries to provide necessities for children up to 12 years old. Daniel Martin, the man behind the Duchess of Sussex's wedding make-up, and her long time friend, has been spotted in the UK this weekend. The American make-up artist from New York was seen in London's Soho district on Thursday, before he posted pictures from the picturesque town of Windsor, new home to pregnant Meghan, 37, and Harry, 34. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved out of Kensington Palace and into their new residence - the newly refurbished Frogmore Cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle - just ahead of the birth of their firstborn this month. And Daniel may well have been their first official visitor, if pictures shared to his Instagram story on Saturday are anything to go by. Scroll down for video Daniel Martin, the man behind the Duchess of Sussex's wedding make-up, and her long time friend, has been spotted in the UK this weekend On Thursday Daniel was spotted in Soho, reportedly to give a beauty talk, sporting a stylish bomber jacket and wide-legged trousers as he chatted on the phone. Just two days later, on Saturday, Daniel posted a picture to his Instagram stories, sharing a snap of a historic high street building on Windsor's high street, which is now jewellers Jersey Pearl. 'Hmm', he simply captioned the snap, the location of which hinted that he had been to visit the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's new home in Windsor. The visit comes as Meghan's due date, which she previously confirmed to be the 'end of April/ beginning of May', draws closer. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved out of Kensington Palace and into their new residence - the newly refurbished Frogmore Cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle- just ahead of the birth of their firstborn this month American make-up artist Daniel posted pictures from the picturesque town of Windsor, new home to pregnant Meghan, 37, and Harry, 34 In January Daniel shared a picture of the afternoon tea he enjoyed while visiting Meghan at Kensington Palace. The spread, thought to have been put on by Meghan herself, included black tea, 'Sandringham' coffee truffles and slices of avocado toast served on silver crockery. Daniel, who was responsible for Meghan's wedding make-up, delighted fans by sharing a snap of the spread referring to her now defunct lifestyle site, writing: 'Back to our Tig days.... 'Thank you Meghan for being the consummate hostess this weekend and still being the #avocadotoast whisperer, YUM! #foodie #foodiegram.' The chocolates are Fortnum and Mason's 13.95 Sandringham Coffee Truffles, which were served directly from the royal retailer's distinctive blue box. The crockery was elegantly mismatched, with a brushed blue ceramic tea pot and cup sitting in contrast with the formal scalloped edged silver saucer and side plates. On Thursday Daniel was spotted in Soho, reportedly to give a beauty talk, sporting a stylish bomber jacket and wide-legged trousers as he chatted on the phone Daniel, who has known Meghan for a number of years, discreetly shared details of the afternoon tea's venue by geo-tagging his Instagram post 'London, United Kingdom'. It suggests the photo was taken at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Kensington Palace residence. Meghan and Harry have officially moved out of their Kensington Palace home and into their new Frogmore cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle, which they reportedly spent 3 million renovating. The couple recently moved into the refurbished Frogmore Cottage, which according to The Express has had a new floor with a yoga studio installed, so the family can enjoy regular sessions together. New reports suggest Meghan will not give birth at the 6,000-a-night Lindo Wing where sister-in-law Kate gave birth to her three children, before stepping out for photos with her newborns just hours later. A source told The Sun: 'This child will not be born at the Lindo. 'Meghan also has the added stress of the world's attention on her everyone wants to catch the first glimpse of the new royal addition. 'She and Harry have decided that rather than go somewhere as public as the Lindo they will allow Meghan to recover somewhere more private.' 'Harry and Meghan realise there is intense public interest but this baby is not a direct heir to the throne and they want the birth to be as private as possible.' A British brand of baby formula revered by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has landed a 85million export deal with China. Cumbrian-based Kendal Nutricare supplies its Kendamil follow-on milk and oat porridge to Kensington Palace for Prince Louis, who turns one later this month. William and Kate were introduced to the formula by their nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, who contacted the company in June 2018 after becoming concerned by parent claims that a new formulation of Aptamil powdered baby milk formula was making babies ill. Having weaned Prince George, five, and Princess Charlotte, three, on formula made abroad, the Cambridges opted for Kendamil - which claims to be the only infant formula made in Great Britain - for their youngest in November last year. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have chosen to wean Prince Louis on Kendamil formula - which claims to be the only infant follow-on milk made in Great Britain They are said to be so happy with the products that they recommended them to Kate's sister Pippa Matthews for her five-month-old son Arthur. She has since put in an order, reports the Sunday Telegraph. Kendal Nutricare chief executive Ross McMahon said the royal appointment began after he met the Prince of Wales last April at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. After informing him about his full-cream baby formula, which sources its milk locally from Cumbria and Lancashire farms, he invited Charles to visit the factory in the Lake District. Following this meeting Ms Borrallo got in touch on behalf of the Cambridges. Cumbrian-based Kendal Nutricare supplies its Kendamil follow-on milk and oat porridge to Kensington Palace for Prince Louis, who turns one later this month William and Kate were introduced to the formula by their nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, after weaning Prince George and Princess Charlotte on formula made abroad Mr McMahon said: 'She asked me questions for about an hour about the provenance of the product and the difference between Kendamil and other products. 'We sent our product to Norland for them to consider and taste test and they were very happy.' According to the Kendamil website, its formula - which carries the crown logo - is 'easily digested, has a more natural and sweeter taste due to its full cream content and contains less vegetable oil than competitor formulas made from skimmed milk'. Kendal Nutricare is based in Kendal, Cumbria, the gateway to the Lake District National Park It's also vegetarian and allergy-free as its omega 3 and 6 is derived from pure marine algae rather than fish oil. Mr McMahon, who bought the factory for 1 in 2015, told the Sunday Telegraph his business has since grown by 400 per cent. Last year he signed a five-year contract with Orient International Holding Shanghai Foreign Trade Company, worth an eye-watering 85million. A 900g tin of Kendamil Stage 2 Follow On Milk, suitable for infants aged six months to a year, costs 9. A mother whose young daughter was left writhing in agony by itchy chicken pox scabs has revealed that a simple shampoo helped to soothe them. Clare Jenkin, from Musselburgh, East Lothian, said she was amazed when her daughter Reagan's doctor advised the family to use Head and Shoulders Classic Clean shampoo to calm the child's inflamed skin. So impressed was Clare by the transformation in her daughter's skin, she took to social media to share the remedy. Clare Jenkin, from Scotland, with her daughter Reagan. Clare's GP told her to use Head and Shoulders' classic shampoo to help with her daughter's chicken pox, which were inflamed and very itchy Reagan before her mother Clare used the popular shampoo as a bubble bath to try and soothe her daughter's chicken pox Reagan's back after the treatment: Clare said she was amazed at the difference. The little girl's GP advised the family to try the remedy and they were surprised by how well it worked Writing on Facebook, she said: 'Anyone whose kiddies pick up chicken pox, I cannot recommend this enough. She continued: 'Reagan went to the docs today and we were advised to use Head and Shoulders CLASSIC as a bubble bath to soothe the spots. 'The difference is unbelievable! Over an hour without a single scratch or moan! No more angry red spots. Hopefully this helps anyone else who is at their wits' end with scratching children.' Clare also shared pictures of her daughter's skin in a post that has now gone viral, gathering 27,000 likes and more than 158,000 shares. Clare shared her discovery along with pictures of Reagan to Facebook, where the post was liked more than 27,000 times and shared 158,000 times Blemish free again: Clare with her daughter Reagan; several parents have commented on the post saying they would try the hack if and when when their children get chicken pox Many have commented on the post confirming that the surprising technique worked, while many others made a note to use the shampoo when their own children get the childhood infection. One mother wrote: 'Weve used it the last two days it has helped,' Many Facebook users also commented that Head and Shoulders shampoo comes in handy for other skin conditions such as eczema or even acne. 'A colleague of mine also recommended Head and Shoulders for eczema,' one user wrote. Another added: 'I've heard it's really good for acne too, it has the same ingredients as a lot of spot remedies'. Angry scabs covered Reagan's back after she fell ill with the common childhood illness Parents said they would bookmark this hack for their own children as other Facebook users recommended the shampoo against acne and eczema as well as chicken pox Chickenpox is highly contagious and caused by the Varicella Zoster virus. Although you can get it at any age, it mostly affects children and last one to two weeks. It starts with red spots which then fill with fluid, before bursting and scabbing over. The challenge for parents is to keep their children from scratching the scabs which can cause scarring if not allowed to heal on their own. Other side effects of chickenpox include a high temperature of 38C, aches and pains, generally feeling unwell and a loss of appetite. Reagan enjoying an iced lolly during her chicken pox recovery. Her mother Clare said she was 'at her wits' end with scratching' her daughter Writing my memoir, Lost Dog, I knew I had to be brutally honest. There are enough books celebrating women being amazing, or getting angry and righteous about women as victims. If my book was going to stand out, I needed to be brave and confess the worst of me. Debt and accepting financial support from my boyfriend: that made me squirm. Like most people, I want to be thought of as successful. But once my debt was out in the open, I realised that while its the biggest cause of stress in my life, it is also a rich vein of humour. Author Kate Spicer, pictured, said she worried about upsetting the sisterhood in her new book I felt terrible writing about certain aspects of my childhood. I didnt want to upset my parents or my stepparents, but I went there for the sake of the story. But worse than upsetting my parents was upsetting the sisterhood. This is what really had my fingers hovering, paralysed in fear, over my keyboard. How could I dare admit I have trouble trusting women, especially the powerful alpha females who are the loudest mouthpieces for feminism today? While what they are fighting for is good, that doesnt negate the fact that, in my experience, they can sometimes be . . . mmmmm, whats the phrase? Right cows. Theres a specific incident, burnt like a scar on my memory, when just such a woman shot me down after Id told her I fancied getting married one day. Ouch! It was humiliating. She floored me with her disgust, as she outlined why I was a pathetic failure at feminism. Should I admit to this and the subsequent dislike I have always harboured for this well-known feminist figure (who, for the record, went on to get married several times)? Or would I be seen as a traitor to the cause? I said it anyway. Kate, pictured with her dog Wolfy at a book party in London, said 'perhaps its time to separate feminism from the concept of sisterhood' Theres been an extraordinary explosion in feminism in the past few years. Its a mass movement now, helped along by a roll call of toxic men such as President Trump and strong female figures that have been deified and made into cartoon-like superheroines: Malala Yousafzai, Michelle Obama and Beyonce spring to mind. Today, feminism is no longer an academic pursuit, explored in dense books that most of us only ever got a few pages into. You dont need to read all 900 pages of Simone de Beauvoirs The Second Sex; theres a zippy short read called We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Or, even easier, watch Beyonce dancing in front of a 10 ft neon Feminist sign, singing about being an Independent Woman. Feminism is truly mass market now. No one needs to read Clarissa Pinkola Estes Women Who Run With Wolves; they can just knit themselves a pink hat. Of course, an ability to digest dense essays on feminism doesnt make one better at it. Its simply that everyone talks about being a feminist these days, but doesnt necessarily follow through with the sisterly behaviour that todays feminists love to shout about. The author, pictured with Wolfy, suggested that for some 40 something women dealing with a 'creepy male boss' it can be less stressful than having a manipulative, bullying female boss A few years ago, I watched as a dear friend was professionally stabbed in the back at work by a colleague she considered her best friend. I cant talk to her about it because that woman is still her best friend! This is not an isolated incident. Ive seen this happen so many times, its practically an algorithm for success. Perhaps its time to separate feminism from the concept of sisterhood. Fight for equal rights and equal pay, but stop pretending youve got every womans back. There may not be a better time for a girl to be born in Britain, but if you hold up your hand and go, Actually, Ive been treated badly by a woman and I think women can be monsters too, then you are betraying the sisterhood. 34 per cent of British women call themselves a feminist Which is why the thing I was most afraid to do in my book was question why I found certain women so terrifying. Why dont I trust them? Why do they leave me skittering nervously like a cat on a hot tin roof? Why do I feel like real feminism is a club Im not allowed to be a member of? Nothing makes me more anxious than the thought of a female networking event. Every month I think about going to one then look at a number of its leading lights and decide to stay in and wash out my bins instead. The sisterhood doesnt exist in a lot of workplaces. For some of my generation of 40-plus women who have been in the workplace for decades, dealing with a creepy male boss who makes you feel slightly uncomfortable is less stressful than a manipulative, bullying female boss. Some female bosses of mine have been easy to deal with and supported me in incredible ways; others have left me feeling sabotaged and insecure. On the night of my book launch, an older editor a feminist whom I had always looked up to came over and muttered in my ear: I liked what you said about the sisterhood. The next morning I emailed to ask what she meant. Kate, pictured with her dog, asked if it is possible to separate the goal of feminism, equality, from the concept of sisterhood? and said that some women are 'nice' and some 'nasty' For all the talk about how having a female boss is so much better than a male boss, she said, if your experience is the opposite, you dare not express this as it would be seen as unsisterly. Its not just my generation. Millennials are extremely critical of their sisters, while shouting loudly about feminism. Someone needs to explain to the younger generation that sisterliness is about a great deal more than writing Feminist on your social media profile. Sometimes the women who talk the most about sisterhood are the least trustworthy of all. It can feel like feminism is entirely about attacking other women who dont agree with you or reflect your own idea of what is right. I interviewed the former leader of the Womens Equality Party a few years ago. From the get-go the interview went badly. She criticised me for not watching her on a Sunday politics show. The story I was writing was for a womens magazine: politics wasnt my goal. When Kate's dog Wolfy went missing she tweeted about it and it was retweeted by Jeremy Clarkson, Ricky Gervais and Amanda Holden In the end, the piece never ran. Id tried too hard to write a smart political story to please her a cardinal sin as a journalist. I crumpled under my interviewees pious and angry gaze. I self-censored myself. I think that was the one that did for me. If I couldnt feel sisterly with the head of a party for women, then truly I was a feminist doomed. Yes, I actively mentor young women into work and love it. I want women to feel strong and confident. My heart breaks to see women in abusive, controlling relationships and I will speak out. But let me be very clear. I would never hold myself up as a glowing example of female saintliness. I can be a right cow. I can be as unsisterly as the next sister. At nearly 50, I have a good bank of girlfriends. I just struggle to trust a lot of women. The truth is the sisterhood is about as real as the brotherhood. Women are primarily human beings, and human beings can be nice, they can be nasty, they can be bitches, and they can be the most heartfelt, supportive, loving friends you ever had. Some women will take a bullet for you and some will stab you in the back. And sometimes those women can be one and the same person. Is it possible to separate the goal of feminism, equality, from the concept of sisterhood? I believe in a feminism without the lie of the sisterhood. Hows that? It takes the stress off us all. Lost Dog: A Love Story, by Kate Spicer (16.99, Ebury Press), is out now. Never mind whats happening in the actual Church in the run-up to Easter. My pressing Lenten question is: does every generation have a hot screen priest? Obviously, these potentially idolatrous ponderings are prompted by Phoebe Waller-Bridges Fleabag, which promises to reach an incendiary conclusion on the BBC tonight. In it, brilliant Irish actor Andrew Scott plays a recently ordained Catholic cleric whose potential demons (gin-in-a-tin for elevenses, anyone?) were obvious, even before Fleabag became a temptation. British literary expert Patricia Nicol shared a selection of books focused on priests including Umberto Ecos The Name Of The Rose (pictured left) and Graham Greenes The Power And The Glory (pictured right) Scott is not the first small-screen priest to make viewers hot under the collar. I am just old enough to remember the national will-they-wont-they anxiety sparked by Richard Chamberlains Ralph De Bricassart in The Thorn Birds. Protestants of any kind high, low, Anglican, Quaker, Brethren, Free Presbyterian, Zwinglian just dont cut it in the desire stakes: that vow of celibacy needs to be tested. All the way through Western literature, priests have been tested and sometimes found wanting. The Western Wind, by Samantha Harvey, is set in the fictional Somerset backwater of Oakham in 1491. Harvey chose that date because it was just before the world changed irrevocably with the discovery of the New World and the Reformation. Her narrator is village priest John Reve, roughly woken on Shrove Tuesday to the news that a bloated corpse has been seen in the river. Is it the body of his missing friend, Newman? If so, which sin brought about his death: suicide or murder? Another medieval cleric turns detective in Umberto Ecos blockbuster The Name Of The Rose. In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville arrives at a monastery for theological disputation to discover theres a killer on the loose. In Graham Greenes riveting The Power And The Glory, a self-destructive whisky priest becomes an unlikely hero when he stands up to tyranny in Mexico. With Easter approaching, why not make one of these a bookshop holy order? A revolutionary 60-minute therapy for high blood pressure could allow patients to throw their tablets away for good. The unlikely remedy involves blasting nerves in the kidneys with sound waves to stop them sending signals to the brain that drive up blood pressure. It could slash the risk of heart attacks and strokes, two of Britains biggest killers. New research reveals the treatment, called renal denervation, keeps high blood pressure at bay in almost 60 per cent of volunteers. More than a third are able to stop taking their prescription medicines altogether, while others could take fewer pills reducing the risk of side effects ranging from diarrhoea and dizziness to headaches and fatigue. The unlikely remedy involves blasting nerves in the kidneys with sound waves to stop them sending signals to the brain that drive up blood pressure. It could slash the risk of heart attacks and strokes, two of Britains biggest killers (stock image) In 2016, NHS England ruled there was insufficient evidence to make renal denervation widely available on the health service. Its not yet clear whether the new findings will lead to a change in that rule, but professor Melvin Lobo, who led the study at Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust, said the results could transform treatment for high blood pressure. He said: This could soon be offered as an alternative to lifelong medication. We know from research that this kind of treatment can be effective for at least three years. Its too early to say its a permanent cure but we certainly expect the benefits to be long-lasting. Blood pressure is a measure of the force exerted on the walls of the arteries by blood flow. The higher the pressure, the harder the heart is working to pump blood, putting the muscle under added strain. The increased pressure also damages blood vessel walls, so theyre prone to forming clots, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke. High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects one in five adults in the UK and is thought to be responsible for half of all heart attacks and strokes. It is estimated that more than half of all patients on medication are still poorly controlled. The procedure is carried out under local anaesthetic, with a long, thin tube, called a catheter, inserted into an artery in the groin. Pictured is a graphic showing how the process works The kidneys remove toxins and waste products from the blood, which is excreted as urine. But they are also integral in regulating blood pressure, releasing an enzyme that interacts with other hormones in the body to cause blood vessels to contract. In healthy people this raises blood pressure to normal levels, but if too much of the enzyme is released, blood pressure becomes permanently high. By damaging the nerves in the kidneys, this process can be switched off, helping return blood pressure to manageable levels. The procedure is carried out under local anaesthetic, with a long, thin tube, called a catheter, inserted into an artery in the groin. Doctors use X-ray images to navigate through the body until the tip of the tube is located close to nerves in the walls of blood vessels attached to the kidney. A thin wire is then fed through the catheter and, at the press of a button, high-energy sound waves are generated to heat up and destroy nerves in the firing line. The whole process takes just under an hour because doctors usually need to zap at least half a dozen different points to destroy as many nerve endings as possible. Patients are normally allowed home the same day. There is a small risk of bleeding and bruising and the nerves can grow back, although they no longer send faulty messages. Blood pressure will also continue to rise during times of stress or anxiety, but should return to a healthy level once this subsides. Blood pressure (stock image) is a measure of the force exerted on the walls of the arteries by blood flow. The higher the pressure, the harder the heart is working to pump blood, putting the muscle under added strain The latest investigation, published in the journal Circulation, looked at 140 UK patients who failed to get better on drugs alone. Six months after renal denervation, 58 per cent still had healthy readings through a combination of the nerve-zapping treatment and reduced reliance on daily pills. The treatment also seems to improve the bodys response to medication. Almost 36 per cent had been able to quit taking tablets completely. Neil Boughton, 59, from Watford, had the treatment in December 2017 after suffering with high blood pressure for years. Doctors first noticed he had high readings during routine medical checks when he was in his late 30s.His GP prescribed daily tablets but these made little or no difference. In 2017 father-of-two Neil, who is a train driver, spotted a newspaper advertisement recruiting volunteers with a history of high blood pressure for a new clinical trial involving renal denervation. He said: The procedure was relatively quick and pain-free. I am taking a very low dose of blood-pressure medication but more than a year later, my readings are still well within the healthy range. Its given me real peace of mind about my future heart health. Make your own wild garlic pesto Unusual ingredients can often be hard to come by especially if you dont live near a well-stocked supermarket, or if you do your shopping online. So I hope those living in more rural areas will find this recipe easy. It uses wild garlic, a green leafy plant with pretty white flowers that grows in abundance at this time of year in wooded areas, and even by roadsides. Making your own pesto (pictured) minimises the unnecessary added salt many brands contain. Personally I just find it delicious mixed into pasta or served as a dipping sauce Its prized for antibacterial properties and even believed by natural health advocates to reduce blood pressure. Making your own pesto minimises the unnecessary added salt many brands contain. Personally I just find it delicious mixed into pasta or served as a dipping sauce. INGREDIENTS 100g wild garlic Juice of 1 lemon 50g pine nuts 50g parmesan cheese Olive oil DIRECTIONS 1. Chop the wild garlic into rough chunks. This helps it mix more evenly. 2. Add the garlic, a dash of oil and the lemon juice to a food processor. 3. Whiz until a coarse sauce texture, then add the grated cheese. 4. Whiz for another minute, adding oil until you are happy with the consistency. By Frederick Faulkner An Iowa man was awarded more than $12million by a jury after he underwent surgery to have his prostate removed to treat cancer - only to learn he never had the disease at all. The Iowa Clinic was ordered on Friday to pay Rickie Lee Huitt, 67, of Panora, $12.25million after a pathologist mixed up his tissue sample slide with that of another patient in January 2017. During the surgery to remove the prostate gland, Huitt suffered nerve damage and was left impotent and incontinent, reported the Des Moines Register. Huitt and his wife, Judy Huitt, originally sought $15million in compensation and damages from the medical clinic and the pathologist, Dr Joy Trueblood. The Iowa Clinic and pathologist Dr Joy Trueblood (left) were was on Friday to pay Rickie Lee Huitt (right) $12.25million after he underwent surgery to have his prostate removed to treat cancer - only to learn he never had the disease at all According to court records viewed by the Register, Iowa Clinic urologist Dr Carl Meyer had performed a blood test on Huitt, then 65, which suggested he may have cancer. Dr Meyer submitted a tissue sample of Huitt's prostate to Dr Trueblood in the pathology department. Based on her inaccurate report, Dr Meyer told Huitt he had prostate cancer and that if he didn't have the gland removed, he had no more than five years left to live. The American Cancer Society says prostate cancer is the most common cancer in US men aside from skin cancer. In 2019, more than 174,600 men are expected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 31,600 will die from the disease. Prostate cancer typically grows slowly and, if detected early while it's still confined to the prostate gland, there is a successful chance of treatment. The most common surgery to treat prostate cancer is called a radical prostatectomy, which is when the entire prostate gland is removed along with some surrounding tissue. On April 3, 2017, Dr Meyer removed Huitt's prostate at Iowa Methodist Medical Center, also in Des Moines. Dr Trueblood of the Iowa Clinic in Des Moines mixed up Huitt's sample of his prostate with that of another patient in January 2017 and told him he had prostate cancer. Pictured: Iowa Clinic where the misdiagnosis was made After the surgery, Huitt said he suffered from urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction, according to the lawsuit. He claimed that the serious side effects strained his relationship with his wife. On April 26, a pathologist at Iowa Methodist examined the prostate that had been removed and found no signs of cancer. A sample of the prostate was then sent to the Mayo Clinic, where doctors confirmed there was no cancer. 'It's mind-boggling. It's a terrible, sad thing,' Huitt's attorney, Randy Shanks, told the Register. Dr Trueblood told Shanks in a July deposition that the mix-up occurred because of a scanner glitch, according to the Register. She explained a barcode scanner matches slides to a patient's records and that the scanner read the code incorrectly. Dr Trueblood said the glitch has occurred before, but she's caught the errors in the past. She described the incident as a 'horrible situation' that was because of 'human error.' 'Why didn't you catch [the glitch] this time?' Shanks asked her, according to the Register. 'I don't have any idea,' Dr Trueblood said. The Iowa Clinic says the other patient, whose name has not been revealed, was informed of his cancer diagnosis and has since undergone proper treatment. The Register reported that an attorney for the clinic and Dr Trueblood suggested that the jury award Huitt $750,000. Defense attorney Jack Hilmes argued that $15million was not 'reasonable' but Nick Rowley, another attorney for the Huitts, call the sum a 'fair appraisal'. The Huitts told the Register that the mix-up with the tissue samples delayed the other patient's diagnosis by four months and hope one day to speak with him. 'We felt like we led his life for a few months. We just hope he's okay,' Judy Huitt said. It goes without saying that the supermodels new baby Matilda and partner Steph are his first loves. But it was adopting rescue pup Dora that made him settle down and prepare for first-time fatherhood Sometimes its hard to be a professional, especially when youre a journalist trying to interview a male model and hes brought his rescue dog with him; shes a little yorkie terrier called Dora who seems to be made purely from fluff and love. You might think youre immune to the piercing blue-eyed magnetism of Britains only male supermodel, but when David Gandy lifts Dora into his lap for a snuggle and tells you how brilliantly she also behaves around his new human baby daughter, Matilda, its a little hard not to melt. After 15 years as Britains most successful male model, David had reached a moment in his life where he wanted to take stock, and he admits that Dora may have been the turning point Its a myth that rescue dogs are aggressive, says David, and he should know, because hes fostered six of them. He is an ambassador for Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, and he fosters dogs who require a few weeks of family time to find out who they are. While David and his family are mainly based in London, his parents live in Suffolk with plenty of land, so the whole Gandy clan works together to gauge each dogs needs will they need more rural running around, a big group, or could they handle city living? before they are permanently rehomed. Some of them belonged to lonely people who died, he explains. When we got Dora we didnt know exactly what breed or how old she was, but she had a lovely temperament. She was just frightened of a lot of things. After a fortnight the idea was that she would return to Battersea, like her predecessors, but my girlfriend Steph couldnt bear it and said, No, were keeping her, shes family now. Dora, murmuring in his lap, clearly endorses this decision, but she might not realise that she was the trigger for her new humans to change their lives. This is because, after 15 years as Britains most successful male model, David had reached a moment in his life where he wanted to take stock, and he admits that Dora may have been the turning point. David says: When we got Dora we didnt know exactly what breed or how old she was, but she had a lovely temperament. She was just frightened of a lot of things Having been something of a serial monogamist (previous girlfriends include Mollie King from The Saturdays), David met his match when mutual friends introduced him to Stephanie Mendoros, a family-law barrister. She moved in with him fairly quickly; within a year or so they had committed to the dog and, two years after that, their baby Matilda was born last December. David will turn 40 next year, and he says hes stopped travelling relentlessly for work, having intentionally built a business empire that will allow him to step back and be more present for his family. The underwear lines that he and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley have created for Marks & Spencer are worth 20 million, and he works constantly on other ventures. Im never going to compare a dog to a child, he says, smiling, but a dog is a good starter because of the responsibility. You have to be there for them, feed them, look after them; you cant stay out all night. There is a responsibility in that and when we had Dora our lifestyle changed, so a baby was the next step. Obviously parenthood is a bit of a shock to everyone, but we were prepared for it and Matilda is a great baby. When David drove his new family home from the hospital, he brought Dora out to the car to meet the newborn so that they could enter the house together. When a nappy needs changing, she is invited upstairs too, where she gets a treat from a jar kept beside the changing table. She isnt forgotten about downstairs, shes part of the gang, so she doesnt behave in a jealous way. Jumper, Private White VC. Im never going to compare a dog to a child, David says, smiling, but a dog is a good starter because of the responsibility' Although the couple recently bought a beautiful old house in the Cotswolds, they are mainly based in their townhouse in Londons Fulham, where David goes out for morning walks with Matilda strapped to his chest and Dora trotting alongside them and so far things have gone pretty smoothly. Well, apart from the day the baby had a screaming meltdown in public, with people starting to stare. Having checked all the obvious things (it wasnt her nappy, she wasnt hungry), he couldnt work out what was wrong with her until it dawned on him that hed wrapped her up so carefully in so many layers that she was just really, really hot! I assure him that all new parents have done the same thing. When I say how nice it will be for his daughter to grow up alongside their dog, he replies, Well exactly that was the whole intention. As a child, David grew up in a loving, very outdoorsy family in Billericay, Essex, with business-minded parents Brenda and Chris who owned property and freight companies. He attended the local state schools but felt some social isolation, which he says was a consequence of being bullied because he was slightly overweight, so his familys two cocker spaniels provided him with important companionship. When I say something about him not being one of those waif-like male models, he laughs and says clearly, gesturing to his physique, almost as if he still sees himself as carrying extra pounds, even though its all muscle now. David with partner Stephanie David mentions his parents frequently every childhood holiday seems to have involved wildlife-spotting somewhere around the world. When he was 17, though, and got his first ramshackle car, I said to my dad, Look, could I have the money for car parts and skip the holiday? He replied, Oh, you dont have to come on holiday with us any more but dont think for a minute that Im going to be paying for your car. David laughs, but his dads attitude clearly helped to instil a work ethic that has only increased over the years. Plus he was secretly relieved to join them on that holiday because they went to see the brown bears of Alaska, something he was still able to rave about recently 20 years on when he met Sir David Attenborough. A dog is a good starter for a family you cant stay out all night I imagine David might be embarrassed when I ask why he has been more successful than other male models, but he takes it quite seriously because hes so interested in the business side of things. He says that when young men find their way into the fashion industry, they often see modelling as a stepping stone. You know, I can do this for a couple of years, then maybe go into acting or music or something else. Whereas I thought, Hang on a second, theres something to this. Modelling is one of the few industries in which women outearn men, and he jokes that this can be slightly amusing at a time when everyones talking about equality and Im like [he does a little comedy wave], Hello! (Actually, he thinks that Britain has done rather well for equality, since we have a female prime minister, a female chief of police and a queen.) David believes the reason why leading female models get paid more than their male counterparts is because theyre clever enough to strategise. When he was younger, he studied their paths. I spoke to Gisele, I looked at the platforms of Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and I went, How have you done this? How have you got to where you are? He stresses the difference between wanting success and just wanting fame, and that often people are surprised to discover how business-minded he is. Its tough, sometimes, to walk into a meeting and feel you have to get past some barriers because youre a model you have to constantly prove yourself. Then again, in life, when do you not have to prove yourself? It was Dolce & Gabbana who really put David on the map in 2006, choosing his muscly, 6ft 3in physique at a time when male waifs were more common in fashion. In 2007, they put him in tight swimming trunks on an Italian beach and had Mario Testino shoot him for the advert for their Light Blue fragrance. The ad ended up on a 50ft billboard in New Yorks Times Square and caused a sensation. I always wanted to create something iconic, and then Light Blue happened I went from no one knowing me outside the fashion industry to newspapers calling, paparazzi outside. I knew I had to build on that. I did a coffee-table book with Dolce & Gabbana, then I said I wanted my own clothing range, so I started talking to brands. Life is a bit like a game of chess, he muses. How do you know what you want to reach or where you want to get to if you dont have a goal? Private White VC. Shirt, Berena Venezia. Trousers, Edward Sexton. Sunglasses, Ray-Ban. Boots, George Cleverley If I was in government, Id make David Gandy the tsar of a business task force the man is absolutely focused on it. He clearly has no truck with ditherers. Dithering bothers me; its a pet hate. I always say, Lets try it and see if it works, or Right, Ive finished that, lets get on to the next thing. Im constantly pushing forward, wanting to achieve. Though he is the first to admit that it can be a bit irritating for people around me sometimes. They say, Can you not have 15 projects on the go at once? I wonder how he has the time. It turns out he doesnt sleep. I always saw sleep as a waste. I want to keep doing things, so I dont want to go to bed until very late, and I like that time when everyone else is in bed and the phones stopped ringing. Im a bit of a loner at times and I quite enjoy that. But when I first started going out with Steph she was like, You have this other life when Im asleep. Shed come downstairs and the living room furniture would be moved around. Or wed have been discussing a holiday and then shed find out Id booked it. Shed say, When did you do this? and Id go, Oh, two, three in the morning. His philanthropic work includes part-funding a mentoring programme at his old primary and secondary schools in Essex, run by the charity Achievement for All. He says he certainly didnt breeze through school himself, and he had support, so this ensures that kids whose background or circumstances might limit their achievement are encouraged all the way. Crew neck, Private White VC. Joggers, David Gandy for Autograph at Marks & Spencer T-shirt, David Gandy for Autograph at Marks & Spencer. Joggers, Mr P He talks fondly about the man he calls his father-in-law Stephs dad, a Greek entrepreneur who moved to Yorkshire, where Steph grew up, because Margaret Thatcher encouraged people like him to come and set up businesses in Britain. Davids elder sister Claire lives in Spain, where she raises her six children (so Im never going to complain about having just one baby). He recently had a word with her about his almost-teenage nephew being on Instagram, so they agreed he would come off it. David doesnt believe it is a great place for youngsters to develop healthy self-esteem, and quotes a survey that showed how teenagers who were taken off all social media for two weeks saw their anxiety levels plummet. With close to a million followers on Instagram himself, David could probably double that number if he were to post videos of his home life and not just work photos but he refuses. So I ask what he would do if his daughter wanted to be a Kardashian. There is a pause, before he replies, quite firmly and unequivocally: She wont be. He adds that its hard not to be impressed by the Kardashian clan I mean, I would never say anything against them because the daughters a billionaire. [He is referring to news reports that Kylie Jenner, 21, younger sister of Kim Kardashian, recently became the worlds youngest billionaire.] So how can you argue with that? Easily, I would imagine. Well, yes, he admits, because even if you see something of the brilliance of that, its all based on selling your life. I came into this business to be a success, and with that comes some fame and recognition. You can build on that however you like but my privacy is far more important than the money. WIN! a private tour of Battersea dogs Home with David Gandy WIN! a private tour of Battersea dogs Home wi th David Gandy YOU is offering readers the opportunity to be given their very own tour of Battersea with David. As an ambassador for the world-famous rescue centre, David is keen to share his puppy love with a YOU reader and introduce them to the gorgeous dogs looking for a new home. The winner will also receive a signed photo of David and Dora from our exclusive shoot. Nine runners-up will receive a signed photo. For your chance to win, answer the question and follow the instructions below. Question In what year was David Gandy born? HOW TO ENTER Call 0901 293 5222 and leave your answer and details OR text DOGS followed by a space, your answer, name and postcode to 65700 (eg, DOGS 1928 John Smith W8 5TT). TERMS AND CONDITIONS Texts/calls cost 1 plus your standard network charge. All proceeds go to Battersea. Competition closes at 11.59pm on Thursday 11 April 2019. The winner must answer their phone if we call on Friday 12 April 2019 between 9am and noon or else forfeit the prize; We will try a maximum of three times. first prizewinners name will be published in next weeks Mail on Sunday. Winners will be selected at random from all qualifying entries. Open to UK (excluding NI) residents aged 18 or over. No cash alternative. Date of visit subject to David Gandys availability. Travel expenses not included. Signed photos will be supplied unframed. Full terms and conditions apply see Puzzles section of the Mail on Sunday in main paper Advertisement As for him having said, previously, that he didnt need to get married because having a child with someone is an even bigger commitment, I ask if that isnt just a good excuse to avoid it? He smiles and admits that, yes, that could possibly be true I knew that quote would come back to haunt me. But having a child with someone really is the biggest step you can take. He warms to his theme, and wants to explain why people might have the wrong idea about him and marriage. I dont talk about Steph and Matilda much in public and people may think that, because I dont put them on social media, Im not proud of my family. But its just not true. Im awfully proud of my family, and were ridiculously close. I tell them that Im proud of them to their faces. I tell them that I love them. I dont need to do that on the internet. Its important to me to keep it private. David is represented by Select Model Management. He is an ambassador for Battersea. For more info, visit battersea.org.uk Its well acknowledged that all-inclusive holiday options can divide traveller opinions rather radically. For some triggering traumatic flashbacks to sad looking warming trays overflowing with decidedly unappealing chips and indistinguishable local spirits. Others rave about the ease afforded by the all-inclusive option, especially when travelling with families. Citing wealth of choice and the undeniable extravagance of realistic budget management whilst denying yourself no little treats as being the major pulls. Previously synonymous with European holiday destinations, those existing all-inclusive fans and those who have yet to be converted (bear with me here) need to know about Rixos Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. Having opened in October last year, this is the latest offering from the Turkish grown hospitality brand, and has the accolade of being Abu Dhabis first ever all-inclusive resort. In destinations such as Abu Dhabi and neighbouring Dubai, who are known and celebrated for their indulgent luxury, competition is rife and the standards are high, with this in mind Rixos have taken every care to ensure there are no compromises at Saadiyat Island. Making an entrance at the Rixos Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi As everyone knows, first impressions stay with you and the grandeur of the lobby is not one any guest will forget any time soon. Rich sapphire tones contrast crisp white marble, the carvings so intricate they stop you where you stand. And of course just enough decadent gold flourishes as you would hope for in this part of the world. This opulence set the tone for the rest of the resort, set around an impressive courtyard and framed by towering archways leading you through to the sprawling private beach, affording you panoramic views of the Persian Gulf. It goes without saying this is a super-sized resort with 366 rooms and suites, plus 12 three and four bedroom villas for those travelling with families, but due to its epic proportions of your surroundings you never feel overwhelmed by other guests. Whereas others raved about the Rixy kids club and the aqua park, I jumped at every opportunity offered by the enthusiastic activities team. Unashamedly I am naturally one of those people, I hanker after organised fun on holiday, plus its my job to try it out so you dont have to. Indeed if I wasnt that type of person I wouldnt be able to tell you about the joys of aerial yoga, there is a lot to be said about the inner calm you experience whilst hanging upside down listening to the waves crashing on the beach behind you. A big thank you to the team and in particular Marianna for her never-ending patience with this scaredy cat, you made me feel like a graceful circus performer although I am sure I looked like a cat stuck in a sleeve. Google these videos on a rainy day, they are sure to bring a smile to your face. Opulent jewel tones are continued throughout the rooms After a long day spent alternating pool side lazing and obscure fitness classes, I relished going back to my room and putting on my finery for a long languid dinner, usually accompanied by too much wine. Its fair to say I love the pomp and ceremony of a meal, scanning the menu in ambient lighting, the anticipation between courses, people watching, its all part of the experience. Which is why I have been left feeling disappointed by traditional all-inclusive resorts, a buffet every night just doesnt cut it. As if with me in mind (although I very much doubt it) Rixos boasts an astonishing 10 restaurants and bars, which include specialist Italian, Turkish, Japanese and seafood a la carte restaurants, visits to which are included at no extra cost. Be sure to make your reservations on arrival to ensure you arent disappointed. An extra special shout out goes to the Orient for traditional Turkish cuisine and Aja for A grade teppanyaki and sushi. With the evening restaurant dilemma sorted, its safe to say I am fast becoming an all-inclusive convert. The Spa is not a spot to be missed however long your stay With so much on offer, it can be overwhelming if you are only on a short stay. But I beg of you, do not miss the Spa, pay a visit to check out the inspired Ottoman architecture, a fitting homage to the brands Turkish roots. As well as steam rooms and saunas, the courtyard adult only swimming pool, is a serenely blissful spot, offering protection from the sea breeze should you be travelling a little out of season. Those looking for a little extra indulgence will relish the traditional Turkish Hamman and the extensive treatment list. Its worth noting that Saadiyat Island itself is looking set to become a cultural hub upon its full completion next year, with the arts worlds big hitters joining the roster, the Louvre (already welcoming visitors) and Guggenheim (set to open in July) leading the pack. In all Rixos Saadiyat heralds a change in pace for resorts in this part of the world, and sees them seamlessly translating the customary luxury and high end flourishes within an all-inclusive setting. I can fast see it becoming a favourite with British travellers. Not to mention, a perfect place to catch some winter sun in the early months of the year whilst your traditional European all-inclusive destinations have yet to warm up. I am convert, see you there (thankfully there are more than enough sunbeds for all of us). Rooms at Rixos Saadiyat Island start from 205 per person, per night, all-inclusive (excluding a small selection of alcoholic beverages and cigars/shisha at Shisha Lounge). rixossaadiyatisland.com. Snaffle them now before they sell out! No7 Laboratories Firming Booster Serum Ive had an exclusive first look at two Boots No7 skincare launches and I can all but guarantee that these will garner waiting lists as long as your arm so if they speak to you and you spy them on the shelf, grab them. While wrinkles remain a top concern, Dr Mike Bell, skincare scientific adviser for Boots, says, By the time people are in their late 40s and 50s, and have been through the menopause, theyve lived with wrinkles for a certain amount of time, and its the sagging around the jawline and the neck that becomes the problem. Enter No7 Laboratories Firming Booster Serum, which is four times more concentrated than the brands already clinically proven offering. It starts delivering firming results in one week and lifting benefits in two. With ingredients including hibiscus (to boost collagen production), low- and high-molecular weight hyaluronic acid (to aid skins moisture at a deep and surface level) and Matrixyl 3000 Plus (to give a protein framework for elasticity/firmness), testers saw results within a week but cumulative benefits meant that after eight weeks some had friends asking whether theyd had fillers. No7 Laboratories Dark Spot Corrector Booster Serum Also a big welcome to No7 Laboratories Dark Spot Corrector Booster Serum, which has six times more lightening complex than its current offerings. It works to reduce the overproduction of melanin. Trial results show testers were willing to forgo their next planned laser treatment for these pesky melatonin issues, which is impressive stuff. Of course, continued use is required to maintain the effects. Although it hasnt been tested specifically to help with melasma (larger brown patches on skin thought to be more driven by hormonal factors), this may be worth a try. Though this is not a claim Boots could or would make. Both cost 38 and are available in-store and at boots.com from Wednesday. The hottest debate of all Does steam and heat really open pores? We asked renowned facialist Sarah Chapman for the lowdown. While pore size is determined by genetics, a build-up of oil can block and enlarge them. Heat and steam help to open pores by increasing micro-circulation, loosening blockages and allowing cleansers to penetrate the skin. So here are our favourite heat-giving skincare launches Ole Henriksen Pore-Balance Facial Sauna Scrub, Patchology Warm Up Perfect Ten Self-Warming Hand & Cuticle Mask, Peter Thomas Roth Hungarian Thermal Water Mineral-Rich Atomic Heat Mask Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below. S.M. writes: I tried to buy Bitcoin using my online account with First Direct, which is part of HSBC. Not only was the transaction declined, but the bank froze all my online payments and insisted I had to phone them instead. I was then told I could make online payments again, but only to previously existing accounts. So, is it illegal to buy Bitcoin? Concern: Bank staff did not want to facilitate the purchase of medicinal cannabis No, it is not illegal to buy Bitcoin. You were told more than once by First Direct that it would not make the payment you requested and that this was for your own protection. But as you have told me and the bank, you have more than 3 million in assets and were only switching 1,000 into Bitcoin, so you hardly needed protecting. What then was the reason for First Direct's refusal to let you spend your own money as you wish? When I discussed this with you and the bank, the answer gradually became clear. The account to which you were sending your 1,000 was flagged as suspicious on the bank's systems, which is why the transfer was blocked and you were questioned. You explained that you are in your 60s and your wife is in her 70s and ill. Here is the problem. You were honest enough to explain that you were going to buy medicinal cannabis online from a dealer who would only accept Bitcoin as payment, presumably because it would be hard for the authorities to trace. You let matters lie for a week and then tried again, giving a different reason for the deal. But the bank again turned you down, repeating that this was for your own protection. Frankly, I think it was more for the bank's protection. Without intending it, you had put the bank in the position of being a potential money launderer, handling funds for your drug deal. I am not making any judgment on the uses or misuses of cannabis, but I can understand completely that if your cannabis was intercepted in the post, and you told the police that HSBC knew all about the deal, then that would cause the bank more than a little embarrassment. Officials were reluctant to talk about this. Eventually they told me: 'We take the financial security of our customers extremely seriously and have advanced safeguards in place to deter and detect financial crime.' A bank spokesman added: 'We fully appreciate Mr M's position, but we also cannot knowingly facilitate any activity which is potentially illegal.' Your honesty means the bank will be watching for unusual transactions, but I am sure that after a while you will find that normal services are resumed. Probably after bank staff have stopped grinning at the fact that you and your wife have a joint account. You can escape tax on your pension lump sum G.H. writes: I have deferred my state pension as I am still working but will retire shortly. In the tax year 2019-20, my income will be below the tax threshold, so I will pay no tax. When I claim my state pension, even with my other income, I will still be below the tax threshold. I was told I would only pay tax on my state pension lump sum if my total income is above the threshold in the year claimed. So, I was alarmed last Sunday to read in your column about a gentleman who had to pay tax on his lump sum. Worried: G.H. was alarmed to read last week in Tony's column about a gentleman who had to pay tax on his lump sum The lump sum is taxable when you stop deferring your state pension and begin to claim it, but this only applies as long as your other income makes you a taxpayer. You can even claim the state pension but postpone the lump sum until the following tax year. This means that if your income drops and you become a non-taxpayer, the lump sum escapes tax. What went wrong for the reader whose letter we published last week was that he received his lump sum in a year when he had still been earning. He was therefore a taxpayer, so the lump sum was quite correctly taxable. WE'RE WATCHING YOU: Loan note duo shut down in land scandal I wrote last week about the risks involved in investing in unregulated loan notes or IOUs issued by Certain Bridge Limited, headed by Gary Hall, and promoted by a separate company, ASP Consulting, which is run by Abdool Saleem Peerbux. Now I can reveal that by an almost X-Files coincidence, companies that had been headed by Gary Hall and Abdool Saleem Peerbux ended up in the High Court on the same day, before the same judge, and with the same result they were shut down. That was in January 2010, when the Insolvency Service won court orders to wind up nine companies it had investigated, all of them 'part of a land-banking scheme', officials said. At the time, land-banking investment schemes were a scandal. Companies bought fields without planning permission and then sold house-size plots at vastly inflated prices, often with false claims that planning consent was just around the corner. Hall had been a director of four of the nine companies. Peerbux was a director of one. Hall's lawyers say his four companies never dealt with the public, but provided land for others to sell on. In a remarkably worded statement, they told me: 'These sales were not WEAPONS or DANGEROUS materials or PROTECTED wild animals, it was Cheshire and Lancashire LAND. What these purchasing companies did with their purchases was their business.' So why did the court close down all four companies? Equally remarkably, Hall says the Insolvency Service lied: 'The statements made under oath were riddled with perjured statements which included downright lies, untruths, falsehoods and manipulated events bearing no resemblance to true facts.' Nonetheless, the four companies committed a string of offences while Hall was a director. Every one failed to file accounts at Companies House or to give details of its owners. Although legally responsible for the running of the companies, Hall says he relied on someone else. Similarly, Peerbux now says that although he was a director of Impact Marketing.com Limited, and described himself in official documents as a 'property broker and land portfolio manager', he also left responsibility for the company to someone else. Peerbux was also behind a company called Prime Acquisitions Resources. I warned in 2010 that it was marketing a dubious scheme that offered an estimated 15 per cent yield and 50 per cent capital gains, all through growing rice in Sierra Leone. Although Peerbux sold the scheme, it was run by a Cheshire property developer, Robert McKendrick. Four weeks ago I reported that McKendrick has now been jailed for six months for contempt of court after trying to sidestep an order to repay investors more than 15 million. Lawyers for Peerbux told me Prime Acquisitions Resources was dissolved because overheads and expenses became too high against revenue. In fact, it failed to ever file any accounts and was compulsorily struck off in 2013. When I raised questions about claims made by his current company ASP Consulting, Peerbux took down its website. His lawyers refused to discuss this because, they said, Peerbux is seeking approval as a representative of a firm licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority. The regulator refuses to comment, but has said that any firm that appoints a representative takes full responsibility for seeing that they stick to the rules and must be able to prove that they carry out close monitoring. Those dreaming of buying a vacation bolthole in the country or by the sea could find their plans rained on by a Corbyn administration. Second home owners are already accused of sending prices skyrocketing to unattainable levels for locals. But Labour is likely to turn the screw on those using hard-won savings to treat themselves to a home away from home. It suggested recently that the tens of thousands of owners of second homes who use their properties just for holidays could be taxed an average 3,000 a year with the cash used in part to fight homelessness. Those who rent out their homes would escape the tax. Bolthole: But a Labour Government could slap a tax on those with a second home Labour might also take a harder line on holiday property council tax perks. Currently, some local authorities offer council tax discounts on second homes but this could be ended by Corbyn. The Conservatives have already made ownership of second dwellings less financially appealing. Since April 2016, those purchasing an additional property must pay higher rates of stamp duty in England and Wales. Buyers must fork out an extra three per cent. In Scotland, where it is known as Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, the additional charge is 4 per cent. A buyer purchasing a 250,000 property in England would pay stamp duty of 2,500 (2,450 in Wales, 2,100 in Scotland) if it were their only home. But if it were a second property, the bill leaps to 10,000 (9,950 in Wales, 12,100 in Scotland). But Sarah Coles, of broker Hargreaves Lansdown, warns second home owners not to act in haste and sell up. She says: 'There are so many unknowns. If you've finally bought the cottage by the sea you have always dreamed of, it would be a shame to sell in a panic over a possible change of government.' The United States is expected to designate Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organization, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labeled another country's military a terrorist group. The decision, which critics warn could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the U.S. State Department, perhaps as early as Monday, the officials said. It has been rumored for years. The Pentagon declined comment and referred queries to the State Department. The State Department and White House also declined to comment. The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Iranian revolutionary guard soldiers march in 2013 during the annual military parade marking the Iraqi invasion in 1980. The US will soon designate them a terrorist organization U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident Iran hawk, has advocated for the change in U.S. policy as part of the Trump administration's tough posture toward Tehran. The announcement would come ahead of the first anniversary of President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and to reimpose sanctions that had crippled Iran's economy. The administration's decision to make the designation was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but the organization as a whole is not. In 2007, the U.S. Treasury designated the IRGC's Quds Force, its unit in charge of operations abroad, 'for its support of terrorism,' and has described it as Iran's 'primary arm for executing its policy of supporting terrorist and insurgent groups.' Iran has warned of a 'crushing' response should the United States go ahead with the designation. IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari warned in 2017 that if Trump went ahead with the move 'then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world.' Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard arrive for a February ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, at the Azadi (Freedom) square in Tehran Such threats are particularly ominous for U.S. forces in places such as Iraq, where Iran-aligned Shi'ite militia are located in close proximity to U.S. troops. Republican Senator Ben Sasse said the move would be an important step in America's maximum pressure campaign against Tehran. 'A formal designation and its consequences may be new, but these IRGC butchers have been terrorists for a long time,' Sasse said in a statement. Former Under-Secretary of State and lead Iran negotiator, Wendy Sherman, said she worried about implications for U.S. forces. 'One might even suggest, since it's hard to see why this is in our interest, if the president isn't looking for a basis for a conflict,' said Sherman, who is director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. 'The IRGC is already fully sanctioned and this escalation absolutely endangers our troops in the region.' Set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi'ite clerical ruling system, the IRGC is Iran's most powerful security organization. It has control over large sectors of the Iranian economy and has a huge influence in its political system. The IRGC is in charge of Iran's ballistic missiles and nuclear programs. Tehran has warned that it has missiles with a range of up to 1,242 miles, putting Israel and U.S. military bases in the region within reach. The IRGC has an estimated 125,000-strong military with army, navy and air units and answers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is unclear what impact the U.S. designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization might have on America's activities in countries that have ties with Tehran, including in Iraq. Baghdad has deep cultural and economic ties with Iran and Oman, where the United States recently clinched a strategic ports deal. (Additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Michelle Nichols and Parisa Hafesi; Editing by Mary Milliken, Tom Brown and Daniel Wallis) Ernest F. "Fritz" Hollings, the silver-haired Democrat who helped shepherd South Carolina through desegregation as governor and went on to serve six terms in the U.S. Senate, has died. He was 97. Family spokesman Andy Brack, who also served at times for Hollings as spokesman during his Senate career, said Hollings died at his home on the Isle of Palms early Saturday. Hollings, whose long and colorful political career included an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, retired from the Senate in 2005, one of the last of the larger-than-life Democrats who dominated politics in the South. He had served 38 years and two months, making him the eighth longest-serving senator in U.S. history. Nevertheless, Hollings remained the junior senator from South Carolina for most of his term. The senior senator was Strom Thurmond, first elected in 1954. He retired in January 2003 at age 100 as the longest-serving senator in history. In his final Senate speech, made in 2004, Hollings lamented that lawmakers came to spend much of their time raising money for the next election, calling money "the main culprit, the cancer on the body politic." FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2004 file photo, Sen. Ernest ''Fritz'' Hollings, D-S.C., who is retiring in January, addresses the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this image from video. Hollings, a moderate six-term Democrat who made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1984, has died. He was 97. Family spokesman Andy Brack says Hollings died early Saturday, April 6, 2019. (AP Photo/APTN, File) "We don't have time for each other, we don't have time for constituents except for the givers. ... We're in real, real trouble." Hollings was a sharp-tongued orator whose rhetorical flourishes in the deep accent of his home state enlivened many a Washington debate, but his influence in Washington never reached the levels he hoped. He sometimes blamed that failure on his background, rising to power as he did in the South in the 1950s as the region bubbled with anger over segregation. However, South Carolina largely avoided the racial violence that afflicted some other Deep South states during the turbulent 1960s. Hollings campaigned against desegregation when running for governor in 1958. He built a national reputation as a moderate when, in his farewell address as governor, he pleaded with the legislature to peacefully accept integration of public schools and the admission of the first black student to Clemson University. "This General Assembly must make clear South Carolina's choice, a government of laws rather than a government of men," he told lawmakers. Shortly afterward, Clemson was peacefully integrated. In his 2008 autobiography, "Making Government Work," Hollings wrote that in the 1950s "no issue dominated South Carolina more than race" and that he worked for a balanced approach. "I was 'Mister-In-Between. The governor had to appear to be in charge; yet the realities were not on his side," he wrote. "I returned to my basic precept ... the safety of the people is the supreme law. I was determined to keep the peace and avoid bloodshed." In the Senate, Hollings gained a reputation as a skilled insider with keen intellectual powers. He chaired the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and held seats on the Appropriations and Budget committees. But his sharp tongue and sharper wit sometimes got him in trouble. He once called Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, the "senator from the B'nai B'rith" and in 1983 referred to the presidential campaign supporters of former Sen. Alan Cranston, D-California, as "wetbacks." Hollings began his quest for the presidency in April 1983 but dropped out the following March after dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire. Early in his Senate career, he built a record as a hawk and lobbied hard for military dollars for South Carolina, one of the poorest states in the union. Hollings originally supported American involvement in Vietnam, but his views changed over the years as it became clear there would be no American victory. Hollings, who made three trips to the war zone, said he learned a lesson there. "It's a mistake to try to build and destroy a nation at the same time," he wrote in his autobiography, warning that America is now "repeating the same wrongheaded strategy in Iraq." Despite his changed views, Hollings remained a strong supporter of national defense which he saw as the main business of government. In 1969 he drew national attention when he exposed hunger in his own state by touring several cities, helping lay the groundwork for the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, feeding program. A year later, his views drew wider currency with the publication of his first book "The Case Against Hunger." In 1982, Hollings proposed an across-the-board federal spending freeze to cut the deficit, a proposal that was a cornerstone of his failed presidential bid. He helped create the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and write the National Coastal Zone Management Act. Hollings also attached his name to the Gramm-Rudman bill aimed at balancing the federal budget. Hollings angered many of his constituents in 1991 when he opposed the congressional resolution authorizing President George Bush to use force against Iraq. In his later years, port security was one of his main concerns. As he prepared to leave office, he told The Associated Press: "People ask you your legacy or your most embarrassing moment. I never, ever lived that way. ... I'm not trying to get remembered." He kept busy after the Senate helping the Medical University of South Carolina raise money for the cancer center which bears his name and lecturing at the new Charleston School of Law. Hollings' one political defeat came in 1962 when he lost in a primary to Sen. Olin Johnston. After Johnston died, Hollings won a special election in 1966 and went to the Senate at age 44, winning the first of his six full terms two years later. Ernest Frederick Hollings was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on Jan. 1, 1922. His father was a paper products dealer but the family business went broke during the Depression. Hollings graduated from The Citadel, the state's military college in Charleston, in 1942. He immediately entered the Army and was decorated for his service during World War II. Back home, he earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1947. The next year, he was elected to the state House at age 26. He was elected lieutenant governor six years later and governor in 1958 at age 36. As governor, he actively lured business, helped balance the budget for the first time since Reconstruction and improved public education. Hollings had four children with his first wife, the late Patricia Salley Hollings. He is survived by three of his four children. His second wife, "Peatsy," died in 2012. A funeral home handling arrangements said that after a three-hour visitation April 14 in Charleston, the senator's body will lie in repose Monday, April 15, at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, with a funeral service to follow the next day at the Citadel in Charleston. ___ Former Associated Press Writer Bruce Smith contributed to this story. FILE - In this Friday, July 23, 2010, file photo, Vice President Joe Biden chats with former U.S. Sen. Ernest Fritz Hollings during the dedication ceremony of the new Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library in Columbia, S.C. Hollings, a moderate six-term Democrat who made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1984, has died. He was 97. Family spokesman Andy Brack says Hollings died early Saturday, April 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain, File) FILE - In this Nov. 10, 1966 file photo, Senator-elect Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., poses in front of the Capitol in Washington. Hollings, a moderate six-term Democrat who made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1984, has died. He was 97. Family spokesman Andy Brack says Hollings died early Saturday, April 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Henry Griffin, File) FILE - This July 20, 1983 file photo shows Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) in Washington, DC. Hollings, a moderate six-term Democrat who made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1984, has died. He was 97. Family spokesman Andy Brack says Hollings died early Saturday, April 6, 2019. (AP Photo/File) FILE - This July 20, 1983 file photo shows Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) in Washingrton D. C. Hollings, a moderate six-term Democrat who made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1984, has died. He was 97. Family spokesman Andy Brack says Hollings died early Saturday, April 6, 2019. (AP Photo, File) The family of a boy who went missing in 2011 says they hope publicity surrounding a hoax perpetrated by a man claiming to be the 14-year-old will generate new leads. Timmothy Pitzen has been missing since age six, might have been found and the family had a glimmer of hope on Wednesday when someone claimed to be him. But the teen was in fact 23-year-old Brian Rini, of Medina, Ohio, a convicted felon released from prison in March after serving a sentence for burglary and vandalism. Although the family says they are devastated at the hoax, they hope this sparks some renewed interest in Timmothy's case. 'It's a blessing in that respect, that the more coverage he gets, the better,' one of his aunts, Jen West, told The New York Times. 'If it couldn't be him, at least his face gets out there and his name is out there, so more people saw him.' Brian Rini, 23 (left), of Medina, Ohio, told police last week that he was missing Timmothy Pitzen (right), who vanished in 2011. DNA tests proved Rini lied to investigators and he's been charged with false statement or representation to a federal agent Timmothy's grandmother, Linda Pitzen, 71, said when she heard the news, she found it frightening to wonder whether Timmothy would remember his name after 'supposedly being kept captive' for so long. 'You don't want to get your hopes up, but yet you are hoping that it could be him,' Linda told The Daily Record. But she hopes that there will now be new fresh leads for authorities to follow. 'This was the first time we've had national coverage of this and there are people telling us that: "We've never heard about this before",' Linda said. '...And maybe somebody's seen something and will call the police.' Timmothy vanished after his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, pulled him out of kindergarten in Aurora, Illinois, nearly eight years ago, took him on a two-day road trip to the zoo and a water park, and then killed herself at a motel. Timmothy, then six, vanished after his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, committed suicide in a motel room and left a note saying the boy was safe but would never be found. Pictured: Timmothy with his mother Timmothy Pitzen's family say they are heart-broken to find themselves back at square one in their search for Timmothy. Pictured: Alana Anderson, maternal grandmother and Kara Jacobs, aunt of Timmothy Pitzen She left a note saying that her son was safe with people who would love and care for him and added: 'You will never find him.' Rini was found wandering the streets on Wednesday in northern Kentucky and told authorities he had just escaped his captors after years of abuse, officials said. He claimed he had been forced to have sex with men, according to the FBI. When confronted with DNA results proving he wasn't Timmothy, Rini acknowledged his identity, saying he had watched a story about the missing boy on ABC's 20/20 and wanted to get away from his own family, the FBI said. What happened to Timmothy Pitzen? On the morning of May 11, 2011, James Pitzen dropped his son off at Greenman Elementary School in Aurora. At 8:30am, Timmothy's mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, appeared at the school telling educators that she needed to remove her son from class because of a 'family emergency'. Later that day, James returned to the school to pick Timmothy up, but was told Amy withdrew him from class hours earlier. For more than a day, he found no sign of Timmothy or Amy, until eventually she called James and his brother on May 12, telling them 'Timmothy is fine. Timmothy belongs to me. Timmothy and I will be fine. Timmothy is safe'. The last CCTV images of Amy and Timmothy alive together were captured on May 12 as they checked out from the Kalahari Resort, in Wisconsin Dells. The following day, Amy was spotted alone on CCTV 120 miles away in a supermarket near Rockford, having purchased a pen, paper and some envelopes. On May 14 she was found dead in her Rockford Inn motel room having committed suicide by slashing her wrists. A note found next to her body said that Timmothy was safe, and in the care of others, but added: 'You'll never find him'. Timmothy's identification card was found inside the room, but workers at the motel said Amy had checked-in alone. Police say they've investigated several false leads since Timmothy's disappearance in 2011. The last potential breakthrough came in 2014, when a woman said she saw a boy matching his description at her yard-sale. Police were never able to confirm the sighting. Advertisement He has been charged with false statement or representation made to a federal agent of the US. He could face up to eight years in prison if found guilty. The charges follow an FBI affidavit filed on Friday that said Rini has made similar claims of being a victim of child sex trafficking to authorities twice before. 'I just hope this young man who claimed to be Tim realizes how much hurt he caused,' Linda, Timmothy's grandmother, said. 'And now everybody is hurting. And I just don't understand how somebody could be so sick to do this.' She said she hoped Rini would get mental health treatment so that he would never hurt a family like this again. A court docket shows a Medina Municipal Court judge in 2013 ordered Rini to be 'compliant' in taking his psychiatric medication. In 2017, Rini was treated at an Ohio center for people with mental health or substance abuse problems, according to court documents. Rini's brother, 21-year-old Jonathan Rini, told The Associated Press on Saturday it has been four years since he has spoken to his brother. 'I wasn't surprised he did something stupid,' Jonathan said. 'I was just surprised he stooped that low for attention.' Jonathan said that while he has no compassion for his brother, he has 'deep sorrows' for Timmothy's family. 'It's too much for them,' he said. 'They shouldn't have to go through this. 'No one in the world should have to go through this.' In an interview with CNN, Jonathan revealed that his brother suffers from Asperger's and bipolar disorder, but insisted that he 'should have the rational thinking not to do something like this'. 'He was receiving treatment, but then he stopped and started getting in more trouble, actually started going to, well...he was in [juvenile detention] a lot when we were kids and the he started going to actual jail, and then he recently just got out of prison,' Jonathan said. Brian was released from prison on March 7 after serving an 18-month sentence for disorderly conduct and criminal trespass, having broken into a home and thrown an elaborate house party, causing $1,250 worth of damage. 'Once he started using my name for things he was doing, I have no compassion for him whatsoever,' said Jonathan. 'He used my name in a traffic stop in Norton and then skipped court and I received a traffic warrant for it. I'd tell the family that I'm sorry for what he's done, but for him, I wouldn't even speak to him.' Timmothy's father, James Pitzen (left) is said to be devastated once more after Rini's impersonation gave him false hope A day earlier, Rini allegedly approached a woman on a residential street in Kentucky and claimed he was Timmothy and had just managed to flee two kidnappers who had been holding him captive for eight years. Pictured: Rini moments after claiming to be Timmothy Brunswick Hills chief of police Tim Sopkovich said he was not surprised to her Rini's name mentioned as the alleged impostor, calling the accused a 'dirt bag'. 'He's a mastermind,' Sopkovich declared to Fox 8. 'I don't know if he has multiple personalities or what, but he had our realtor convinced he was buying the house, he had neighbors convinced he was living there.' Timmothy Pitzen's family say they are heart-broken to find themselves back at square one in their search for Timmothy. 'It's devastating. It's like reliving that day all over again and Timmothy's father is devastated once again,' one of the boy's aunts, Kara Jacobs, said in a press conference, reported TODAY. A young family is grateful for the return of their beloved family pet after she was stolen in a home invasion last month. The five-month-old Cavoodle, named Rosie, was reported missing on March 4th following the Randwick, Sydney, home invasion that also saw robbers make off with cash and jewellery. But in a strange twist of events, the pup was returned home three weeks later in a cardboard box on the family home's nature strip. The five-month-old Cavoodle, named Rosie, (pictured) was reported missing on March 4th following the Randwick, Sydney, home invasion that also saw robbers make off with cash and jewellery 'It was a rainy day and by mid-morning our neighbour started to hear some barking and grunting and she noticed Rosie popped out of the box,' Nick Young, Rosie's owner, told The Daily Telegraph. 'She was generally healthy and there were no signs of mistreatment. She was just skinny and scared,' he said. While the wait for Rosie's return was daunting, Mr Young said he was just relieved she was back home. While the wait for Rosie's return was daunting, Mr Young (pictured with his wife) said he was just relieved she was back home 'We still don't know exactly what happened or where she was for those three weeks. We're just relieved to have her home. 'Rosie's loved dearly by us and our five-year-old daughter, and she's also popular in our street with all the kids,' he said. The box is understood to have been left outside the family home overnight on March 25. Mr Young is also grateful for the community's involvement The box had several holes poked in the side, allowing the pup to breathe. Mr Young said he is grateful for the community's involvement and help. The family man also thanks the local police, who posted pictures of Rosie on their social media calling for help. Despite the safe return of the adored Cavoodle, police are still investigating the robbery, and its possible connection to another home invasion. Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers. A man who illegally shot 19 rainbow lorikeets before abusing wildlife officers has been fined a hefty $15,000. Brendon Edwards shot and killed the protected native birds on his Red Hill property, south of Melbourne, on April 24, 2018. Wildlife officers and Victorian Police arrived at Edwards' property and saw him carrying a loaded 12-gauge Miroku MK-70 shotgun over his shoulder. Officers also saw Edwards's wife close the back of a ute and prepare to drive away at the request of her husband. Brendon Edwards shot and killed the protected native birds on his Red Hill property, south of Melbourne, on April 24, 2018 (pictured) Officers searched the ute and were horrified to find 19 dead lorikeets in the back. Edwards then abused the officers, calling them a 'pissweak bunch of c***s and bludgers', and told another officer to 'take it to the street', Herald Sun reported. Under Section 13 of the Animal Welfare Act 1985, anyone who ill-treats an animal is guilty of an offence. This Act is enforced by the RSPCA, departmental wardens, livestock animal health officers, biosecurity officers and the police. Edwards appeared in Dromana Magistrates Court on March 29, where his lawyer said the birds were shot because they were attacking his apples. He was charged with a range of offences, including destroying protected wildlife, using a gun for purpose of taking wildlife and verbally abusing authorised officers. Edwards' gun licence was also cancelled. The man - who owns several orchards - claimed the birds were destroying his crops (stock) Social media users expressed their outrage and commended the wildlife officers for their great work. 'Should also have been given 6 months behind bars with hard labour,' one wrote. 'Penalty isn't sufficient. Killing birds that would eat out of your hand. Send the barstard (sic) to jail with a slippery bar of soap,' another wrote. Social media users expressed their outrage at the shooting of the lorikeets and commended the wildlife officers for their great work 'Omg poor birds, why would you have a need to shoot them,' someone else commented. Anyone with information about the ill-treatment of animals is urged to report it to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Desperate parents are buying dangerous cannabis oils from unscrupulous drug dealers on Facebook to treat their sick children, a Mail on Sunday investigation has found. Some of the oils sold online contain more than 400 times the legal limit of a psycho-active ingredient which can cause hallucinations and even induce psychosis. It is feared that hundreds of parents have been taken in by drug pushers claims unsupported by clinical evidence that their treatments will cure epilepsy, chronic pain and even cancer. The dealers fail to warn of the risks in giving children the high-strength cannabis oil, which is four times more powerful than the strongest recreational street form of the drug. Cannabis oil more than 400 times the legal limit is being sold to parents over Facebook. A Mail on Sunday reporter bought some that arrived hidden in a Valentine's-style bag While cannabis products containing cannabidiol (CBD) are now legal, any with more than 0.2 per cent of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are against the law, with penalties of up to five years in prison for possession and 14 years for dealing. Yet an undercover Mail on Sunday reporter going through Facebook forums for parents nursing sick children was able to buy cannabis oils that laboratory tests showed had THC levels far in excess of 80 per cent. Cannabis containing small, carefully controlled amounts of THC has been claimed to help young children with severe epilepsy, including Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley, for whom Home Secretary Sajid Javid has licensed use of the drug after the high-profile campaigns spearheaded by their mothers. Last night, Billys mother Charlotte Caldwell voiced her horror at the unregulated, high THC cannabis being sold online, saying: It could kill a child. She added: The thought of people with no expertise taking advantage of desperate families in this way fills me with anger and fear. Instead of this risky free-for-all, we urgently need formal clinical trials. Cannabis oil bought from a different buyer came inside a pencil case (pictured) with smiley faces on it The Government must commit to a trials timetable so we can get safe and effective cannabis-based medicines into practice as soon as possible. We must make progress before something tragic happens. Posing as a father on Facebook groups where parents discuss giving their child cannabis oil, our reporter found links to sellers of the illegal products. There is no suggestion those who set these groups up or administer them have done anything wrong. One dealer we contacted called themselves Hidden Healer and posted an advert on Facebook for Full spectrum high quality THC oil, claiming it kills cancer, repairs the digestive tract, helps with epilepsy, the list keeps going Billy Caldwell takes cannabis oil for his severe epilepsy. His mother Charlotte has campaigned for the legalisation of the substance The seller gave our reporter a choice from a range of black market cannabis products including a 60ml course for 1,500 and Chewy Sweets for 25. There was no warning from the dealer about the potential health risks of giving illegal, high-strength cannabis oil. The cannabis oil was sent through the post in syringes placed in a pencil case bearing smiley yellow faces and also containing a matching ruler, pen and pencil sharpener. Analysis by the TicTac Drug Identification laboratory in London found the sample to contain 86 per cent THC and a very low level of CBD. Our reporter was also able to buy the illegal products from another dealer called That Healer Chick. The dealer sent a single 5ml syringe filled with cannabis oil in the post. It too was disguised this time being sent in a Valentines style bag also containing foiled-wrapped chocolate hearts with pink and red confetti. The laboratory found the oil to be similarly strong 82 per cent THC with a very low CBD level. Alfie Dingley has also been a face of a campaign to make cannabis oil legal. He also suffers from sever epilepsy Neurologist Professor Orrin Devinsky, a world-leading expert on the use of cannabis-based medicines for childhood epilepsy, cautioned parents against giving unregulated high THC cannabis oils to their children. He said: Its not something that we have safety and efficacy data on. When [the medicine] is high in THC, we know it can have psychiatric effects. Hidden Healer told The Mail on Sunday: Why are you trying to take down people who are doing good things? I do not sell to any children. That Healer Chick said: Are you aware there are real sick people in the UK that benefit from cannabis oil? A Facebook spokesman said: We thank The Mail on Sunday for bringing these pages to our attention. They have now been removed. Mum of desperately ill child has her supply seized by customs Emma Appleby had cannabis oil confiscated at Heathrow Airport, which was meant for her daughter Teagan A mother whose daughter suffers hundreds of fits every day broke down in tears after medicinal cannabis oil was seized by customs officers when they flew back into Britain yesterday. The emotive scenes at Southend Airport in Essex, where Emma Appleby arrived with nine-year-old Teagan, echoed previous high-profile cases that have resulted in the Government allowing the drug to be used to treat other children. The mother and daughter, from Aylesham, Kent, were returning from Holland after buying 4,600 of cannabis oil, containing two per cent of the active ingredient THC ten times the legal limit. Teagan has a rare chromosomal disorder called Isodicentric 15 which causes her to have up to 300 fits a day. Her mother believes the cannabis oil can help, but their batch was seized by officials who then let the mother and daughter leave. Fighting back tears, Emma said she was completely devastated. She told The Mail on Sunday: We had no option but to go abroad. She desperately needs this medication. This is our last resort. She said Teagan had seizures every single night, every single day adding: I dont know if she is going to wake up in the morning. They went to Holland for the medicine after doctors refused to prescribe it. Specialist clinicians are now allowed to prescribe cannabis-based medicines, after a legal change last autumn. So far Alfie Dingley whose campaigning mother Hannah Deacon was with Emma and Teagan and Billy Caldwell are the only children to have been given the drug on the NHS. There is limited evidence about the safety and effectiveness of such medicine for someone with Teagans epileptic condition, called Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. As a result, many doctors will not prescribe it. When the Applebys arrived back at Southend, Tory MP Sir Mike Penning, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Medicinal Cannabis under Prescription, said: I will be urging all my parliamentary colleagues to get this medicine returned to Emma as soon as possible. However, there are concerns that the Applebys plight is being used by those who want to loosen Britains cannabis laws much further. While their trip was funded with 10,000 donated via crowdfunding site JustGiving, the family has also been supported by the campaign group End Our Pain. End Our Pain has received 50,000 from a UK private equity group, Kingsley Capital Partners. KCP is hoping to make millions selling cannabis for recreational purposes in the US and wants to turn its Mr Nice cannabis products into a global brand. The family of hotel heir William Billy Evans reportedly believes he has been brainwashed by his fiancee, the disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Despite attempts by close friends and family members to talk him out of marrying Holmes, Evans insists on going ahead with the union, according to the New York Post. His family is like, What the f*** are you doing? one source close to Evans told the New York Post. Its like hes been brainwashed. Evans, for his part, reportedly told his friends: The media has it all wrong about her. Despite the unwanted attention, the couple has no plans to dissolve the relationship. White fang: Elizabeth Holmes, 35, is dating William 'Billy' Evans, the heir to a hotel fortune who worked for the driverless car start-up Luminar Technologies (Holmes and Evans with Balto) Not 'Sunny': Holmes and Evans live in San Francisco in a luxury high rise with Balto, the husky whom Holmes believes is a 'wolf' Love bugs: Evans wrote in another snap with Holmes that 'the last year has been the best I've had' (above) 'The wedding invites were sent out about two weeks ago,' the source said. Holmes is the founder of Theranos, a tech firm that under her leadership claimed to have invented a device that could diagnose illness by analyzing blood from a finger prick. But those claims had no basis in fact. Last year, she and her company were indicted on charges that they engaged in schemes to defraud investors, doctors and patients. Prosecutors said that Holmes and former Theranos CEO Ramesh Balwani used advertising and solicitations to encourage doctors and patients to use its blood testing laboratory services despite knowing the company could not produce accurate and reliable results consistently. Timeline: Evans is the son of William and Susan Evans, and his paternal grandparents founded the Evans Hotel Group which owns properties on the West Coast (Evans left in 2015, Holmes right with Jared Leto at the Women of the Year Awards in 2015) Dad: Evans' father is described as 'a passionate collector of California Impressionist art, rare specimen palm trees and subtropical plants, and antique racing automobiles' (Evans and his father in 2015) Squad: Evans' mother (above with her son and not Balto in 2012) 'made the commitment to dedicate herself to raising their three children Billy, Rex, and Graciebefore accepting her current position' reads her bio on Evans Hotel Group Holmes, who started Theranos at the age of 19, was celebrated as a rising star of Silicon Valley until it became clear that many of the claims about the companys supposedly revolutionary blood test were bogus. The company reached a $9 billion valuation based on its promise to disrupt the laboratory testing business. Holmes, who is due in court later this month, could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Evans, however, doesnt appear too concerned about his future wifes legal perill, according to sources. Hes had a lot people very close to him sit him down and have a talk, the colleague, who used to work with Evans at Luminar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, said. Among the messages that Evans has received include: This could be the biggest mistake youll ever make; The negativity around her could blow back on you; Youve never encountered anything like this; and You need to think hard about what youre doing. The source said that the relationship is advantageous for both Holmes and Evans. Its kind of like Billy is her shiny new toy, the colleague said. Shes super enthusiastic about being with him. The relationship is opportunistic for the both of them. Elizabeth needs a lot of support in her life right now, and Billy is looking for whatever way he can raise his profile. By being in a relationship with Holmes, Evans is at risk of destroying [his] social value, according to the source. But you will get something else in return - fame. The pair share a luxury apartment in San Francisco, are co-parents to the Theranos founder's wolf-dog Balto and even traveled off to Burning Man last year to party in the desert as the doors to Holmes' company were shut for good. A photo was posted by the pair on August 29, just six days before an email was sent to the few remaining employees of Theranos announcing that the company was dissolving for good. Holmes seemed carefree at the time, wearing purple sunglasses and a white military-style blazer with sequined pinstripes and a fur collar - a far cry from her standard uniform of black turtlenecks and pants. Evans meanwhile wore a military hat and a shirt that read: 'Sex Breakfast of Champions.' A source close to Evans said that the relationship is advantageous for both Holmes and Evans. Its kind of like Billy is her shiny new toy, the colleague said In another photo, Holmes smiles while wearing a shirt with the name of Evans' company written across the front. The two are joined in that photo by Balto. Evans colleague says that Holmess fiance likes to date women who attract attention. I met two of his ex-girlfriends, the colleague said. They were both Instagram models, and he was super proud of that fact. He would date young, absolutely drop-dead-gorgeous girls [with big followings]. The source said that Evans would routinely follow his social media accounts to keep track of the number of followers and likes he generated. But since news broke of his engagement to Holmes, he has deactivated his Facebook and Instagram accounts. Luminar is a tech firm that manufactures sensors used for self-driving cars. According to Evanss colleague, Holmes would bring her dog, Balto, and pay a visit to Luminars offices a lot. Some employees did not like the fact that Holmes dropped by, especially . It was inappropriate for her to be in the office, the colleague said. Luminar has been in a constant state of flux for a year and a half [due to layoffs]. And then you have this total fraudster in the office while you have investor meetings. If I was an investor and I saw [Holmes] walking down the hallways, Im going to be like, Holy s***, get me out of here! A spokesperson for Luminar told the Post that Holmes did not frequent the companys office and had no business with Luminar Technologies Inc. Evans no longer works at Luminar, according to the Post. Evans is a far cry from Holmes' ex, Balwani. Holmes and Balwani met in China just after her high school graduation when he was 37 and she was just 18. Balwani divorced his Japanese artist wife Keiko Fujimoto shortly after he met Holmes, and the two kept their relationship a secret for years. Evans is a player in the Silicon Valley scene, and recently worked at Luminar as the director of special projects. He attended prep school in San Diego from an early age, enrolling at Francis W Parker when he was in kindergarten and remaining there until he went off to college. Evans chose MIT for college, and was able to also spend time in China at Fudan University. He graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor's Degree in Science and Economics, at which point he took a post at LinkedIn before making the move in 2017 to Luminar Technologies. That is the company which is currently hard at work attempting to create and then mass market driverless cars. Shady lady: Holmes and her ex Sunny Balwani are facing decades in prison for defrauding investors and of defrauding doctors and patients Photos of the couple obtained by DailyMail.com show the two are very close, and very private. They are seldom seen with anyone but each other or Balto, who wrecked havoc on the board rooms of Theranos in the company's final days, Evans is one of three children born to William and Susan Evans. The family grew up in the San Diego area, which is where Evans' grandparents, William and Anne, started the Evans Hotel Group in 1953. The hotel group now owns three major resort properties on the west coast: the Catamaran, the Baha and The Lodge at Torrey Pines. Anne remains the chairman emeritus of the company, and when her husband passed away in 1984 her children William and Grace joined the company. They were soon followed by their spouses, and those five now comprise the leadership team for the hotel group. On the company website, Evans' father is described as 'a passionate collector of California Impressionist art, rare specimen palm trees and subtropical plants, and antique racing automobiles'. Evans' mother, it is noted, 'made the commitment to dedicate herself to raising their three children Billy, Rex, and Graciebefore accepting her current position.' An Arizona grandmother is accused of murdering her two grandchildren then trying to take her own life after the horrific killings. Dorothy Flood, 55, from Tucson, was arrested Friday, a day after the twin boys, Jordan and Jaden Webb, 8, were found dead of gunshots at her residence. Pima County Sheriffs Office said paramedics were called to Floods home on the 2400 block of West Kessler Place on Thursday in response to a call for medical assistance. Dorothy Flood, 55, (pictured), from Tucson, was arrested Friday, a day after twin boys, Jordan and Jaden Webb, 8, were found dead of gunshots at her residence Jordan, (left), and Jaden Webb, (right), were allegedly killed by their grandmother who was their carer 'Upon arrival, they discovered an unresponsive adult female inside the residence' who turned out to be Flood, police said. Authorities said Flood, the young boys guardian, showed symptoms of an apparent overdose and was transported to a local hospital. When investigators got there, they found the two boys dead in separate bedrooms as paramedics worked to revive Flood, the PCSO said. They died after suffering from gunshot wounds. Family friend Chaundra McCord said she was shocked to learn of the boys' deaths and claimed the Floods were rocked by several tragedies years previously. She told KOLD News 13: 'My first reaction was of course no. It could not be the same Dorothy we knew. Somewhere, something snapped.' McCord worked with Flood for several years at University Medical Center. She claimed Flood had her office space filled with photos of her grandchildren. Flood, (pictured), is facing two charges of first-degree murder and is being held without bond in the Pima County Jail Family friends claimed Flood adored the two boys and had looked after them well following their mothers' death form suicide After Flood lost her husband in 2014, McCord, also a widow, said they were able to talk and try to heal together. 'Her and I became widow sisters. We would help each other and talk things through. The twins' mother killed herself a couple of years later and Dorothy became the sole care taker for the children. Family friend Chaundra McCord, (pictured), said she was shocked to learn of the boys' deaths She added: 'You could see the fear that she had of the future. She was afraid she wasnt going to be able to handle it. 'She loved those grand-kids and she loved her family. We just wish she would have reached out. To any one of us at any time.' She said Dorothy later gave up her job to devote herself to the boys full-time. McCord claimed that Flood had a medical condition that may have affected her brain. She claimed that maybe Flood acted out of desperation because she could see no other way out. Pima County Sheriffs Department said Flood, is facing two charges of first-degree murder. She is being held without bond in the Pima County Jail. One neighbor, who has lived on the street for more than 40 years, shared details about the family that lived a few houses away from him. 'They kept more to themselves. They would wave 'hi' or 'bye,' but they kept to themselves. Police said they received a 911 call about multiple gunshot victims at the home near Ruthrauff and La Cholla around 2 pm One neighbor, who has lived on the street for more than 40 years, shared details about the family that lived a few houses away from him 'See them every day, they were good kids. They didnt talk, but they were good kids. She took care of them real good.' He claimed that the two children had special needs but this has not been confirmed. 'Its heartbreaking,' said Ruth Parra, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 50 years. I never imagined children, really did not think of children.' Laurie Sauceda also claimed: 'I was in a hurry to get here, but then when I saw it was children, my heart just sunk. 'I wasnt in a hurry to get here and find out anymore because it was just, I dont want to know who in the neighborhood it is. 'Kids ride their bike up and down the street, who are we going to be missing now?.' Kim Kardashian has been accused of cultural appropriation after the reality TV star donned a traditional Indian maang tikka head piece for a church service. The 38-year-old mother-of-three shared her outfit on social media with the caption 'Sunday Service Vibe', but some Instagram users were unimpressed with her apparent mishmash of cultural items. Kim, who boasts 133 million followers on Instagram, accessorized her flowing white dress with gold Indian-inspired jewelry, including the head piece typically worn at times of celebration. Kontroversy: Kim Kardashian has been accused of cultural appropriation after the reality TV star donned a traditional Indian maang tikka head piece for a church service. The 38-year-old mother-of-three shared her outfit on social media with the caption 'Sunday Service Vibe', but some Instagram users were unimpressed with her apparent mishmash of cultural items The photo made a stir when it was shared yesterday, amassing almost 2 million likes. One user said that 'culture is not a costume' and that it was wrong for the media mogul to be wearing the ornament. 'This is not a Sunday Service Vibe, it's an Indian vibe,' another complained. 'Who is your stylist?!!' another user moaned. Someone else explained the cultural significance of the head piece and wrote in depth about how Kim had appropriated her culture. 'For those of you who don't know, the maang tikka is a ceremonial head piece traditionally worn by the bride. Wearing white in India is traditionally reserved for funerals,' another explained. 'On top of that she wore this to a Christian service. She probably thought it was just jewelry, but when that piece has literally been used for centuries wouldn't you kinda think there must be some sort of significant meaning held towards it?' Not everyone was offended, however. One user said she didn't feel the fashion choice was quite so offensive. 'As an Indian woman I think Kim K looks GREAT and frankly don't care what she wears. We all get influenced by each other's culture, ethnicities we should be honored that such a stylish woman appreciates our culture instead.' The photo made a stir when it was shared yesterday, amassing almost 2 million likes. One user said that 'culture is not a costume' and that it was wrong for the media mogul to be wearing the ornament But there appeared to be a real sense of anger towards Kim for her outfit choice. 'She's done appropriating black culture, now she's moved onto south Asian,' another critic said. This isn't the first time Kim, who has Armenian roots on her late father's side, has been accused of cultural appropriation. In June 2018, she was slammed for wearing tight, cornrow-style braids to the MTV Movie and TV Awards show. Tony Abbott could be swept out of his Sydney seat of Warringah - amid reports of 'diabolically bad' polling, as the former prime minister faces a swing of 12 percent. With the election looming, the former prime minister's campaign team is pulling out all the stops to secure the seat he's held for 25 years - even investing $1million. Despite the damning figures, the Liberal Party is confident of regaining Malcolm Turnbull's former seat of Wentworth. Tony Abbott (left) is competing for the seat of Warringah against Independent Zali Steggall (right), amid claims Abbott's polling has been 'diabolically bad' Senior NSW Liberal sources told the Sydney Morning Herald was 'looking good' and that candidate Dave Sharma was 'tracking well'. But, the same source also confirmed Abbott's polling was 'diabolically bad' in his Warringah seat - as he faces a 12 per cent swing. Abbott is up against Independent Zali Steggall for the blue ribbon seat. Both Abbott and Steggall used Saturday's NRL game between Manly and South Sydney to campaign - however Steggall's supporters claim they were asked to leave. In a video posted to Reddit, a security guard is seen asking Steggall's campaigners to move on from the Brookvale oval, which sits in the heart of the contested seat of Warringah. The Independent's supporters, donning Zali Steggall t shirts, can be heard asking why they were told to leave, but Abbott's supporters weren't. 'Tony Abbott supporters are allowed to be here, but other supporters can't?' one man asks. 'I've been asked to ask these people [referring to Zali supporters] on the precinct to move over there,' the bouncer tells the small group. The man then says 'have you been asked to move non-Tony supporters?' - to which the security guards doesn't respond. The Liberals are hoping to win over most of their Wentworth voters who supported Kerryn Phelps in last year's by-election. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is going into this election worse for wear - holding only 74 sears in what will be a 151-seat parliament, meaning he'll have to win seats to form a majority government. Liberals believe they're ahead in the Penrith seat of Lindsay - which is held by Labor's Emma Husar on a 1.1 per cent margin. Independant Zali Steggall is campaigning for Abbott's Warringah seat, and is being backed by activist group GetUp The government has also set its sights on Macarthur in south-west Sydney, and the seat of Dobell on the Central Coast - despite Labor's current margin. The government doesn't have much of a stronghold on Victoria - with Labor banking on several Melbourne seats of Corangamite, Dunckley, Chisholm, La Trobe and Casey. Liberals are vying for the Victorian regional seat of Indi from retiring independent MP Cathy McGowan. Australians won't be learning the date of the next federal election on Sunday as expected - as the Morrison government buys itself more time on the campaign trail to spruik their budget. The Opposition believes the election has been pushed back so the government can exploit taxpayer-funded advertising - which Labor claims to be more than $600,000 a day. Australians are now expected to go to the polls on May 18. Weve all been there. Tossing and turning through a sleepless night, anxiety levels rising as the hours slide by. In fact, insomnia affects a third of UK adults on a regular basis. We spend millions on sleep aids and remedies, and yet the more obsessed we become, the more we worry. With good reason, too. We know that a good nights rest reduces anxiety, keeps us focused and even helps to prevent heart disease and certain cancers. And yet sleep scientists are only just beginning to appreciate that dreaming, too, plays a key role in providing those benefits. From the ancient Greeks to Sigmund Freud, mankind has long pondered the significance of dreams. I first became fascinated by them as a student and have spent the past three years researching their power. Insomnia affects a third of UK adults on a regular basis and millions are spent on sleep aids and remedies in the UK But only now are we, as a society, starting to recognise their vital importance to our health. Some scientists believe that dreaming is as fundamental to human life as breathing. Harnessing the power of dreams all starts with learning how to remember them. And the good news is, its a skill that anyone can acquire Why sleeping on it really does work Dreams are an essential part of our bodys in-built mechanism for maintenance and repair. But they are crucial, too, to our mental health, which is why dream deprivation can be associated with depression and anxiety. They help us learn new skills, find answers to complicated problems and process stressful situations so we can deal with them calmly. They are like subconscious homework, repeating and refining what weve learned during the day, so we get better at it, even in our sleep. The oft-repeated advice that we should sleep on it when wrestling with a dilemma is rooted in hard science. One dream researcher gave 500 students copies of brain-teasers and instructions not to look at them until before bed, when they were to spend 15 minutes trying to solve the problems. In the morning they wrote down whatever dreams they could remember and tried the riddles again. The first puzzle was a sequence of letters: O, T, T, F, F with the students asked to predict how the series continued. One student dreamed about strolling through an art gallery counting the pictures on the wall: One, two, three, four, five. When he came to the places where the sixth and seventh paintings should have been, he found only vacant frames. In the morning he realised that the letters represent the first letters used in spelling out the numerical sequence. S for six and S for seven was of course the continuation of the pattern. In all, the researcher found that of 1,148 dream reports, 87 referred to the problem and seven contained the answer. Dreams are an essential part of our bodys in-built mechanism for maintenance and repair and are crucial for mental health Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett tried a more personal experiment. She asked students to choose a problem in their life and, every night for a week, to spend 15 minutes thinking about it before bed. They recorded their dreams in the morning. Over the course of the week, half dreamed about their problem and a quarter came up with a solution in their sleep. When we dream we allow ourselves to consider ideas we might otherwise dismiss. When were conscious, we tend to be inhibited by societys conventions. But in dreams, our brains are working in a wider network of associations, drawing on memories from the past as well as recent experiences, turning up long buried thoughts and truths that we might, while conscious, try to quash. If we ignore our dreams, we waste a real opportunity. On average, we spend a third of our lives asleep, and about 20 to 25 per cent of that time in REM (rapid eye movement sleep, which is one of the five distinct phases of sleep through which the brain cycles at night). And this is the phase of sleep where most dreaming takes place. So if you live until youre 75, youll spend five years dreaming. And if we know how to remember and understand our dreams, thats five years of solving problems, learning skills, and dealing with stresses. In fact, many sleep experts now think improving your ability to recollect and interpret dreams is key to a happier, more tranquil existence. Dreams can help us cope with universal struggles, such as coming to terms with death. Mourning is messy and individual, but for most people, the work of grieving continues in sleep. In vivid, unforgettable dreams, the dead come back to us. In a 2014 study of nearly 300 mourners at a New York hospice, 58 per cent could recall at least one dream about the person who had died. Although they were not always pleasant, the dreams usually helped mourners accept their loss, led to heightened feeling of spirituality and an overall sense of well-being. And dreaming is vital to our physical health, too. Animals deprived of REM sleep suffer many of the same symptoms as animals that arent allowed to sleep at all. Rats die after about four to six weeks with REM, but after only two to three if denied sleep altogether. Tricks that can help you remember your dreams For many, simply deciding you want to remember dreams is enough and reminding yourself of this intention as you fall asleep can yield a wealth of memories in the morning. It helps not to drink too much before bed, since alcohol suppresses REM sleep. The easiest, most effective way to boost dream recall is to keep a dream journal and write in it first thing in the morning. Do it as soon as you become conscious. You can write your dreams down or record them into a voice recorder before making coffee, before looking at your phone, before getting out of bed; even, if possible, before properly opening your eyes. Any bodily motion or engagement with the physical world can erase your memories from the night. If these methods arent working, you could try resuscitating a memory by re-enacting the poses you held in your sleep. We pass through a series of body postures as we sleep you might fall asleep on your side, but wake up on your back with an arm hanging down the side of the bed, for example. Going through each of these positions can help unlock memories of the dream that occurred during your sleep. Another approach is to set your alarm to go off at the end of an REM stage of sleep. Each sleep cycle in which we pass between Non-Rapid Eye Movement, when our eyes are still, and REM, when our eyeballs flick left and right and our most vivid dreams occur lasts around 90 minutes. REM comes at the end. When people are woken during REM sleep, they can usually remember their dreams. Its best, then, to time the alarm to go off at the end of an REM stage so by a multiple of 90 minutes after going to sleep. If you turn off your light at 10.45pm, and are normally asleep by 11pm, try setting your alarm for 6.30am or 8am. If youre still struggling to remember anything at all, there is one last trick you can try. Plan to wake up at strategic intervals throughout the night, towards the end of REM phases. So if you sleep for eight hours, you might set an alarm to go off after three REM cycles (about four and a half hours into the night). Every time you wake up even in the middle of the night you should take notes. Even brief bullet points from the middle of the night can trigger detailed memories of your dream the next day. What your nightmares are trying to tell you Weve all had dreams about turning up to work naked, getting lost on the way to a job interview, or sleeping through an alarm on the day of an important meeting. These dreams are unsettling but one theory says theyre actually our minds way of helping us prepare for similar pitfalls in real life. If weve dreamed about sleeping through an alarm, well probably set two; if were worried about getting somewhere on time, were more likely to plan a route in advance. Still, most of the emotions we experience in dreams are negative. The most common ones include fear, helplessness, anxiety and guilt and nightmares can be disabling. Unfortunately, theres no failsafe way to tame them. Various drugs have been prescribed over the years, but they have proved unreliable and have side effects. But one way to tackle nightmares is to become conscious, so you can wake yourself up or even banish your dream foes. This is known as lucid dreaming. When people lucid dream they become aware they are dreaming and can take some control over the plot, making it easier to capitalise on all the benefits that dreams offer us. The dream directors who do it as a hobby Most people experience a lucid dream at some point in their lives, but only about ten to 20 per cent of us have them regularly. For some in that minority, lucid dreaming is so pleasurable it becomes a hobby. Those who master it can dream about specific problems, probe the recesses of their own unconscious and practise new skills. Like much else in life, it takes time and effort. Good dream recall is one of the prerequisites for lucid dreaming, as is a hyper-awareness of our surroundings. According to Stephen LaBerge, a world expert on the subject, aspiring lucid dreamers should make a habit of asking themselves at regular intervals throughout the day whether they are awake or asleep. Because daytime routines work their way into dreams, they should pose the same question in their sleep. Hopefully, they will respond that they are asleep, and a lucid dream will commence. LaBerge has used this technique to successfully teach thousands of people to become lucid dreamers. Other tricks to induce lucid dreams include meditating before bed and as with remembering your dreams waking up at strategic points in the night. The more time you spend thinking about dreams, the more youll unite your sleeping and waking worlds, bringing conscious thought into dreams. Unravel the symbols to unlock your secrets If you go online, you can find websites claiming to explain your dreams theyll tell you that losing your teeth means youve experienced a recent hardship, and that sort of thing. To interpret our dreams properly however, we have to understand what different concepts mean to us. For one person a cat might represent cosiness and home, while for another it might represent a malevolent force. Some people find that discussing their dreams with a therapist, or even just with friends, can help them unravel the symbols within. If dreams are so important, why do they often seem incomprehensible? Garbled metaphors and disjointed images are more interesting to think about mysteries are always more compelling than straightforward lessons. Because while there is an amazing range in how different people dream, there is a surprising constancy in each individuals dreams over the course of a life we each express our fears and fixations in our own vocabulary, returning to the same symbols and characters over the years. Once we learn the language of our own dreams, we can recognise when something shifts. We can draw hope from signs that we are on the mend, such as when a pattern changes or when we start to assert ourselves more. We might even be able to identify problems we havent consciously recognised before. Research has linked suicidal thoughts to a loss of dreaming or a drop in dream recall, and dreaming about traumatic events can help us heal, while artists, musicians and writers from Beethoven to Dali credit dreams with some of their most famous creations. Alice Robb, 2019 Adapted from Why We Dream, by Alice Robb, published by Picador, priced 20. Offer price 16 (20 per cent discount, with free p&p) until April 14. Order at mailshop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640. Spend 30 on books and get free premium delivery. Youngsters trust the stars of social media more than their parents, according to new research that reveals how digital habits are sidelining family and friends. Experts found that 18- to 35-year-olds the millennial generation are twice as likely to trust internet influencers as a close relative or companion. Dubbing them gullennials for gullible millennials researchers found 53 per cent believe advice on Facebook, Instagram and from online bloggers is more reliable than from family and friends when booking a holiday. Young people using laptops and smartphones. Young people, aged 18-35, trust the advice of influencers and YouTube stars more than relatives and close companions, according to a recent study Critics, however, warn that online advice is not always unbiased or trustworthy. Companies are increasingly sponsoring posts by celebrities who can subtly use their influence among their millions of followers to increase sales. As a result, social-media influencers can earn vast sums by promoting lifestyle products and holiday destinations to huge fanbases. The digital agency 383 surveyed 2,032 UK adults on the trustworthiness of internet recommendations. Spokesman Sukhi Dehal said: Its a huge concern that the younger generation is so trusting of a source that may or may not be telling the whole truth. Yes, be inspired by social media, but its important travellers do their homework with a broader spectrum of trusted resources whether thats family and friends or reputable travel-relevant sites. Four people were rushed to hospital after more than a dozen people brawled outside Melbourne's Crown Casino. The huge fight broke out about 2.35pm on Sunday with 16 people joining the fray before police arrived. Two men and two women, both in their 20s, were rushed to hospital with non life-threatening facial injuries. One is in a serious condition. Three men aged 22, 24, and 26 were arrested at the scene but released as police continued to investigate the brawl. Police do not yet know what sparked the brawl. A search is underway for a man who allegedly tried to sexually assault a woman as she stood on the side of a street. The 28-year-old woman was standing on the corner of Terminus Street, Petersham, west of Sydney, when she was approached by the man about 1.30am on Thursday. The man allegedly forced himself on to the woman and attempted to sexually assault her, police said. The victim pushed the alleged attacker away and ran away in the opposite direction before contacting police. Officers from the Inner West Police Area Command attended and investigated the scene. Detectives have released images and CCTV footage of a bearded man in his 20s they believe will be able to help them with their inquiries. Detectives have released images and CCTV footage of a man who could help (pictured) He is described as being of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean appearance with an olive complexion. He was wearing a black polo shirt with a red collar, red vertical stripes on the sides, and a crest on the right breast, as well as cuffed tracksuit pants, a backwards dark trucker hat, and bright red New Balance joggers with a white N on the sides. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Thousands of desperate parents are removing their children from school midway through the academic year because of bullying. Shocking figures reveal almost 1,300 families who applied to transfer their children to a new school last year cited bullying as the main reason. The startling statistic comes from 16 of England's 152 local education authorities (LEAs). If the figures were replicated across the country, it would mean more than 12,000 children a year are seeking to switch school as a result of classroom thugs. An estimated 12,000 children a year are seeking to move schools because of a bullying epidemic Campaigners last night described the scale of the problem as 'staggering' and urged education watchdog Ofsted to investigate. And experts said the rise of cyber-bullying meant many victims were unable to escape their tormentors, even at home. Lauren Seager-Smith, of the Kidscape charity, said: 'If a child is having to change school mid-term because of bullying, we should be alerting Ofsted. 'Very often a child who has been through this level of bullying will be traumatised. 'The likelihood is that if that child then goes to another school, it can happen again because the pupil is so vulnerable.' The figures emerged from replies by LEAs to a Freedom of Information request to provide a breakdown of the reasons given by parents for wanting to move their child during the school year. Most councils do not collect such information, but among the 16 councils that do, 1,278 families listed bullying as the reason. In Knowsley on Merseyside, 19 per cent of applications to change schools last year cited bullying, while in Dudley in the West Midlands, the figure was seven per cent. Campaigners last night described the scale of the bullying problem as 'staggering' and urged education watchdog Ofsted to investigate There has been a recent spate of videos posted on social media appearing to show bullying. One on Facebook featured pupils at Canterbury Academy in Kent jeering as a 14-year-old was punched before teachers intervened. The school said those involved in the incident had been dealt with 'swiftly and severely'. In a Snapchat video, autism sufferer Amy McAloon, 14, was seen being attacked by fellow pupils at Alsop High School in Liverpool. The school said the 'very regrettable incident' had been dealt with by staff. Martha Evans, of the Anti-Bullying Alliance, said: 'Local authorities should use the information so that schools where bullying takes place are aware that it is forcing families to take drastic measures.' Ofsted said: 'Our inspectors always check a school's records of bullying incidents and talk to pupils about how safe they feel.' A supply issue has been blamed for the recent disappearances of much-loved products from Australian supermarket shelves. There are now fresh concerns the fresh fruit and vegetable market could also be impacted, as suppliers link the shortages to environmental issues impacting farmers. Last week, Woolworths and Coles reportedly become embroiled in a price war with popular pet food brands after Pedigree and Whiskas products were removed from shelves across Australia. Now, Uncle Tobys oats has experienced a similar fate. New pictures surfaced on Sunday of retailer shelves cleared out of some of the brands' most beloved products. Iconic Australian brand, Uncle Tobys oats, has been shunted off Woolworth's shelves after the supermarket giant reportedly refused to comply with rising supplier costs Nestle spokesperson, Margaret Stuart, confirmed that the supplier had encountered issues with Woolworths Nestle's media release claims that the price of products will be impacted because of the drought affecting their farmers in Victoria. The National Retail Association chief executive, Dominique Lamb, suggested similar cost pressures hitting farmers may also impact fresh food. Ms Lamb told Weekend Sunrise that suppliers were under mounting pressure as costs rise. 'We know a lot of businesses are finding it difficult with increases in utilities prices. 'Also with the cost of labour... all businesses are going through these things so I think we will see this continue from time to time,' she said. NESTLE OWNED BRANDS: Nescafe (Dolce Gusto) Nespresso Nesquik Uncle Tobys (Cheerios, Oats, Plus) Maggi Milo KitKat Allens Soothers (Butter-Menthols) Sustagen Optifast Purina (Felix, Supercoat, ONE) Advertisement When it came to the fresh food market, Ms Lamb said: 'I think it will happen... but hopefully everyone can maintain their relationships, because as consumers we will all suffer.' But according to Ms Lamb, the financial interests of supermarket giants' should not come first. 'It is the consumer who bears the difficulties around this where they can't get their product of there are big price hikes,' she told the program. Nestle spokeswoman Margaret Stuart confirmed that the supplier had encountered issues with Woolworths. 'We have a supply issue with Woolworths which were both working hard to resolve to make sure that our breakfast cereal products are available again there soon,' Ms Stuart said. However, she confirmed the 'supply issue' has not impacted Coles. 'We can confirm that Uncle Tobys and Nestle breakfast cereals are available at Coles.' Both Woolworths and Coles have also taken down pet food products after manufacturer, Mars, increased prices Both Woolworths and Coles have also been struck in a price war with popular pet food brands after reports that the manufacturer also raised prices The price wars between Nestle and Woolworths are of particular concern to consumers because of the popular brands the manufacturer owns. MARS, INCORPORATED OWNED BRANDS: Pedigree Whiskas Royal Canin Nutro Greenies Dine My Dog Advance Optimum Iams Eukanuba Advertisement According to their website, '(they) have more than 2,000 brands, from global icons to local favourites.' Some of these brands include Australian household favourites, including Maggi and Milo. A Woolworths spokesman told Daily Mail Australia the company has experienced some supply shortages on a 'small range of products.' 'We've been working with suppliers to address these availability issues and expect to see stock returning to our shelves in the coming days.' The previous products that were impacted were all manufactured by Mars, Incorporated. The company also own a large portion of Australia's pet food brands. A representative for Mars previously told Daily Mail Australia that 'we're working through supply issues with some of our products, and hope to have them back on shelves soon. Daily Mail has contacted Coles for comment. It is staggering that the European Union has been allowed to mesmerise our hapless Government and self-indulgent Parliament. What is the huge attraction of remaining stuck to an enterprise in such steep decline? Just look at what is actually happening across Europe, where opposition among voters to Brussels is growing. The reasons are obvious. While the EU helps big corporations, bureaucrats, politicians and professionals, there is very little benefit to most people. In fact, it wrecks lives among the most vulnerable. Why, for example, after nearly five months, does France remain in the grip of the enraged 'yellow vests'? Because President Macron, the would-be leader of a European federal superstate, has tried to push public spending down to levels centrally approved by the EU. It is staggering that the European Union has been allowed to mesmerise our hapless Government and self-indulgent Parliament (Pictured, Theresa May) A dozen people so far have lost their lives. The police use dangerous rubber bullets, which are banned elsewhere. Public buildings are protected by the army. Yet still, every week, people turn out to protest and with reason. France has become one of the most indebted countries in the world. Twenty per cent of people under 25 are out of work. And Macron's financial policy is in ruins. France is not the only EU country to be suffering from Brussels' own financial policies. In Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria, mass unemployment is a fact of life, especially for the young. In Greece, 40 per cent of young people are unemployed, and when it comes to young people from poor backgrounds, the figures are even worse. They subsist on odd jobs and handouts from their grandparents if they're lucky something to which Britain's young EU enthusiasts seem blithely indifferent. Youth unemployment on this scale and for this duration does permanent damage no money means no home, no children, no life and the political consequences are inevitable, and serious. Extremist parties are growing, even in relatively prosperous northern Europe, some with a fascist tinge. Contrast this with the situation here in Britain. Although EU membership has long been a drag on our economy, especially manufacturing, we have so far escaped the worst damage. Our employment rate is at record highs, in fact, and wages are rising, thanks to a welcome post-referendum fall in the pound. There is much to celebrate yet look at the way we are going to Brussels on bended knee time and again. We have been humiliated before, and sometimes we have been shamed. But I cannot think of any time when we have been so widely ridiculed and even pitied. Our rivals are mocking us. Even worse, our friends are embarrassed. Why, for example, after nearly five months, does France remain in the grip of the enraged 'yellow vests'? Because President Macron, the would-be leader of a European federal superstate, has tried to push public spending down to levels centrally approved by the EU 'England is the mother of parliaments,' said the great reformer John Bright. But the Parliament we are suffering now has brought world-wide disgrace upon the family. The damage to our political system and to our global reputation for stability, honest politics and reliable good sense is worse than any possible downside to Brexit which we now know has been shamelessly exaggerated to frighten voters. A senior Foreign Office official said to me recently that he had spent his career telling other governments they should respect democracy. Even banana republics must be laughing now. 'Representative democracy', which Westminster pioneered and exported to every continent, is a simple idea going back centuries. A country of millions of people can't make every political decision themselves, so they elect people to do the detailed work on their behalf. But there are two fundamental assumptions. First, that the people elected to Parliament know better than ordinary electors what they are doing. And second, that they will honestly carry out what the people have voted for. The present Government and Parliament fail in both. On the first point, they clearly don't know what they are doing. The EU, by applying common sense and elementary negotiating skills, has twisted the May Government around its collective finger. Europeans used to think that our politicians and diplomats were clever, even cunning. We were thought to be a practical people imbued with common sense. 'Keep calm and carry on' was a slogan recognised around the world. But now, as my French brother-in-law puts it: 'You're governed by incompetents and you seem to have gone crazy.' The EU can hardly have believed its luck as demand after demand, however unreasonable, was conceded by our witless negotiating team. It has been reported that MPs needed a 'workshop' to explain to them what a customs union actually is. So much for the superior wisdom of our representatives. As the British people get steadily more angry, our politicians become ever more supine. Rejecting a perfectly viable exit under WTO rules, they are moving instead towards a senseless and damaging outcome: a customs union. This, remember, gives us no significant benefits while loading us with multiple constraints and giving away control over our trade. Then there is the question of honesty: it is clear a majority of MPs are ignoring what they promised to do when they were elected to take Britain out of the EU. If manifestos can be junked without explanation, then the other pillar of representative democracy has gone: it is neither representative nor democratic. The outlook is poor both for the EU and for a Britain still clinging to the coat tails of Brussels. Europe's problems have been building for 20 years, they are deeply embedded in its system and they will not go away. The adoption of a single currency, as many economists warned at the time, was a terrible mistake, for example. It puts very different countries Portugal and Holland, Greece and Germany in the same economic framework. The weaker countries can no longer compete with the stronger. Their businesses collapse and their young people leave. Italy has had no economic growth for 20 years. The EU reaction to the 2007/08 crash has been gravely wrong-headed, too. Struggling countries have been forced into austerity, increasing the damage. Many have built up huge debts, threatening not merely long-term decline, but sudden financial disaster. France is not the only EU country to be suffering from Brussels' own financial policies EU banks have lent staggering sums to governments which can never be repaid. Even the European Central Bank has run out of remedies. It is now incapable of stimulating economic growth or staving off a serious crisis. Respected independent experts are giving ever more urgent warnings, yet this is the system to which our politicians, in their wisdom, wish to shackle us. I cannot understand their thinking, and I'm not the only one. Are they so much a part of the European 'club' that they resent the loss of connections and prestige? Are they frightened by the responsibility? Some, no doubt, are outraged at being out-voted by those they consider their inferiors. They remind me of the Jacobites, who refused to accept the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688, which brought William and Mary to the throne and opened a proud new chapter in British history. Instead, the Jacobites longed for the return of James II, the 'king over the water' even though James was an authoritarian ruler who had become the puppet of hostile European powers. The Jacobites were a nuisance, and sometimes a danger, but by rejecting the nation's choice they condemned themselves to eventual political extinction. Like their ancestors, today's true believers cannot see what stares them in the face. Our trade with the EU has been declining in importance for 20 years, while that with non-EU markets has been growing. We have a huge and unsustainable deficit in trade with the EU, while we have a very profitable surplus with non-EU countries. Moreover, the EU gives no benefit to our huge and world-beating service industries, for which the rest of the world is eager. It is plain common sense to diversify our economy as much as we can in an uncertain world, and detach ourselves from the declining and crisis-prone Eurocracy. We can all wish our neighbours good luck. But we must not be dragged down with them. Theresa May has warned Brexit could 'slip through our fingers' as she makes a last ditch attempt to rally support for her deal from MPs. The Prime Minister said Parliament has clearly rejected leaving the EU without a deal, the choice is either leaving with a deal or not leaving at all. She told MPs: 'The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all. Theresa May has warned Brexit might not be delivered at all after MPs rejected leaving without a deal 'It would mean letting the Brexit that the British people voted for slip through our fingers.' Mrs May said it was essential Parliament delivers what people voted for in 2016 and secure a deal to leave the EU orderly, according to The Guardian. The warnings came as Mrs May herself came under pressure from MPs who have said she may be ousted within weeks. A number of MPs are said to be furious a potential Brexit extension would mean Britain would take part in the European elections in May nearly three years after people voted to leave. Tory MPs fear the election will be boycotted by many voters and allow Nigel Farage's new Brexit party to gain power and influence. Nigel Evans, a Conservative MP, said May will face increasing pressure to stand down if she fails to agree a deal with Parliament Some senior Conservatives believe the only positive will be an early opportunity to dispose of May and force a leadership election. Conservative MP Nigel Evans said if she failed to agree a deal and can only secure an extension at Wednesday's summit with the EU, she will face increasing pressure to stand down. He said: 'At the moment there is focus on delivering Brexit, but if a long delay becomes a reality I believe the noises off about removing the prime minister will become a cacophony.' A hitman who is serving a life sentence is campaigning for prisoners to have the rights to conjugal visits so he can father a child. Aaron Newman, 28, wants to be able to have children, despite the fact he is serving life imprisonment for murdering young mother-of-two Hayley Pointon in 2013. Newman argues he should have the right to be able to conceive a child even if this has to be by artificial means. Aaron Newman (right) is serving life imprisonment for murdering Hayley Pointon (right) in 2013 However, Hayley's mother Kerry Poynton told the Sunday People: 'He should be castrated.' 'Why should he have kids when Hayley's children are being brought up without their mum? Newman was hired, along with Aaron Power, in 2013 to murder Hayley's boyfriend Nigel Barwell in Hinkley, Leicester. The pair instead mistakenly shot Hayley, who died before the paramedics arrived. Hayley's was murdered, after Newman and Aaron Power botched a hit on Nigel Barwell Mr Barwell was running into the house as his girlfriend was gunned down. Both men were found guilty of the murder in 2015 and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum jail term of 31 years. Newman wrote about his plan to impregnate his girlfriend through IVF treatment in inmates' magazine Inside Time. 'As a lifer in the dispersal system who has no children, I should have the right to conceive a child by natural or artificial means,' he said. CCTV footage showing Newman and Aaron Power's car outside the house where Hayley was murdered If successful, Newman would not be the first inmate to be allowed to have IVF treatment while serving prison time. There has been 10 prisoners granted permission since 1965 to have IVF in order to have children. Among them, is murderer Kirk Dickson and his wife Lorraine. They were allowed to conceive a child through IVF in 2007, while Dickson was serving time. Victoria Beckham is reportedly helping Meghan Markle spruce up her new home at Frogmore Cottage after she moved in with Prince Harry. The former actress, 37, is said to have spoken to Victoria, 44, about interior design of the Grade II-listed building which sits on the Frogmore Estate in Windsor. And the expectant mother has also moved posters and artwork to the cottage from her former apartment in Toronto to make it as 'homely as possible', a source told the Mirror. Victoria Beckham is reportedly helping Meghan Markle spruce up her new home at Frogmore Cottage after she moved in with Prince Harry It was previously believed the royal couple's home would be designed by Vicky Charles - the former design director of Soho House. A source said: 'Harry and Meghan want to make Frogmore as homely as possible and Meghan has brought over a lot of posters she used to have at her apartment in Toronto when she was filming Suits. 'She had a lot of memories in that home, and wants to bring some of them to her new pad. She has also been talking to Victoria Beckham a lot about their design ideas. 'People thought Vicky Charles had been hired to transform but actually thats not the case, it was the wrong Victoria.' The former actress, 37, is said to have spoken to Victoria, 44, about interior design of the Grade II-listed building which sits on the Frogmore Estate in Windsor A 3 million renovation began on the property in January when workers put up a giant marquee around the cottage. Photos from the Windsor estate showed a huge white marquee which could be seen from Long Walk which is a public walkway. Documents revealed the couple's builders plan to add fireplaces, staircases, and a floating floor, but will keep the original floorboards and shutters. As well new additions, the royal couple were also set to go green and install a 50,000 energy unit that will provide heat, hot water and electricity and also install a satellite dish outside. The expectant mother has also moved posters and artwork to the cottage from her former apartment in Toronto to make it as 'homely as possible' There have been concerns about the security of Frogmore Cottage, prompting the renovations, which are reportedly being overseen by Meghan. The Grade-II listed cottage is just 200 yards from the publicly accessible Long Walk, triggering major concerns about the couple's privacy. The new plans have been revealed in planning documents published by the local council alongside strict conditions imposed to 'protect and preserve' the house. The couple are believed to have moved to the cottage this month ahead of the birth of their first child as work was completed last week. A map shows the couple's new home in the grounds of the Windsor Estate in relation to nearby landmarks and public walkways. There are major concerns about security, with the cottage located just 200 yards away from the Long Walk Frogmore Cottage was built in the 18th century for Queen Charlotte, the consort of King George III. Queen Charlotte used the property as a countryside retreat for herself and her unmarried daughters. Queen Victoria had breakfast at the cottage in 1875 and said it was a place with an 'immense number of frogs' which she found 'quite disgusting'. I know a man who jumped in his car and drove 200 miles to talk his parents out of the divorce they were threatening. They were in their 90s. He managed it, but an increasing number of couples are deciding after 20, 30, 40 years to call it time. Silver splitters, if you must. Having survived bringing up children, balancing family and work, and building a home together, this should be the stage when couples can enjoy each other again. While men tend to quickly replace one woman with another, a growing number of women are finding new love with members of their own sex [File photo] Time for that long-promised safari, visits to art galleries, movies, lie-ins. But the reality is that many couples, once free of the children and the need to put on a show of domestic unity, realise they have nothing to say to each other, dreading even a long car journey together, let alone the prospect of a holiday. Breaking up with your spouse in later life is a different proposition to when you are younger. You have to confront the fact that it is statistically less likely you will marry again. Your children may be more independent but an empty nest deprives you of the comfort and absorption of caring for them. You are, of course, likely to be poorer, and shared long-time friends often end as shrapnel in the battleground of divorce. Even so, there is nothing as lonely as being stuck in a moribund marriage. Why stay in a union that provides nothing but a carapace of security? By your 50s, intimations of mortality is not just a phrase but a reality, and nothing is a greater spur to action than the knowledge that time is not on your side. Breaking up with your spouse in later life is a different proposition to when you are younger. You have to confront the fact that it is statistically less likely you will marry again [File photo] In the words of a friend describing a mutual acquaintances somewhat heartless decision to ditch her husband: Shes like that. She just decided to move on. Most often it is the wives who initiate these splits, less worried about the financial consequences and more prepared to weather the social and emotional turmoil than men. And it seems they are also more sexually adventurous. While men tend to quickly replace one woman with another, a growing number of women are finding new love with members of their own sex. Having had their children, dealt with the menopause and discovered the limitations of their heterosexual marriage, what better time to try something different? Late-onset lesbianism may sound like an illness but silver sapphism is really the trend of the moment. A Brunei backlash but will it last? I remember the previous call for a boycott of the Sultan of Bruneis hotels, which include The Beverly Hills, Pariss Le Meurice, Principe di Savoia in Milan, and The Dorchester in London all very popular among the film and fashion community. For about six months of fashion weeks and awards season, we all examined our consciences and scurried around finding different places to take our business. It didnt take much time, though, for the old favourites to be back in the fold. George Clooneys well justified callout over Bruneis new laws dictating death by stoning for homosexuality and adultery, has kick-started a huge backlash against the hotels. Will the rich and famous be prepared to forsake their cocktails at the Polo Lounge and China Tang for a more meaningful period this time around? Ill be fascinated to see Celebrities including George Clooney, Elton John and Ellen DeGeneres have called for a boycott of the hotels owned by the tiny country in protest over the new laws Cashmere calamity How is it that moths have such expensive tastes? This year the pests have munched their way through my priciest pieces of cashmere but turned their noses up at woollies from M&S. I want a cheap flight, not a diversity lesson Since Virgin Atlantic shows no sign of being in trouble, I have no idea why it has decided on one of the silliest logo changes I have seen in a long time. The airline has swapped its Varga Girl with a cast of characters including a gay white man in rainbow colours, an Asian woman and a black man. Changing logos is almost always a pointless and hugely expensive exercise. Im sure customers would much prefer Virgin to lower its baggage fees than fly on an Airbus A350 with a racially diverse nose. Since Virgin Atlantic shows no sign of being in trouble, I have no idea why it has decided on one of the silliest logo changes I have seen in a long time [File photo] A library without books... thats novel Our local library is a splendid Victorian building. Inside it serves several functions: a creche, a free wi-fi spot, a computer bank, a refuge from the rain, a desk space but stocks hardly any books. We have far too many books at home and many are recently published. Kilburn Library is pictured above [File photo] OK, there are several shelves of crime, a mass of James Patterson and Danielle Steele, one shelf of local author Zadie Smith and a few of childrens stories. But anyone hoping to find contemporary fiction by Zadies peers, or biography or poetry, would be disappointed. We have far too many books at home and many are recently published, such as last years Man Booker Prize winner The Milkman and Michelle Obamas bestseller. Surely they are worthy of a slot in Kilburn Library? I asked if they would accept these and other mint condition donations? No because they hadnt been published this year. So would they accept Shakespeare, I asked? Well, they might make an exception for Shakespeare, was the answer. Council policy. No wonder cash-strapped libraries are being closed all over the country. 26 years later and Kates still in Vogue Kate Moss is on the cover of May's British Vogue. Her first was in early 1993 when she was photographed with barely there make-up Twenty-six years after Kate Mosss first Vogue cover, below, shes back again, with appearance number 40. Her first was in early 1993 when she was photographed with barely there make-up and hair pulled back from her face. I chose her because she was the polar opposite of the glamazon supermodels like Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell who had dominated the catwalks. Kate was relatable but compelling, the schoolgirl smoking a fag at the bus shelter who you cant quite stop looking at. Fashion had just fallen for the anti-glitz of the grunge movement and Kate was pitch-perfect, new and exciting. I had no idea that she would still be at the top of her game nearly three decades later, now the epitome of the sophisticated glamour that all that time ago she was hired to detonate. The best present I never gave my son It was my sons birthday yesterday. I remember how, when he was born, he was somebody I immediately recognised. Thank heavens it was so long ago that I didnt feel pressured to have somebody post a picture of that moment on social media. It might have been love at first sight, but sweaty-haired and bloody (both of us), it was a sight best kept for the eyes of the brilliant NHS team and Sams dad. As a renowned dance troupe made up entirely of over-60s performers, Company of Elders has won acclaim across the globe. But now longstanding members of the troupe have been told they have to leave to make way for more black and Asian recruits. The decision by the prestigious Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, which runs the contemporary dance company, has been attacked as sacrificing the wellbeing of current members many in their 70s and 80s on the 'altar of political correctness'. Until now members have been able to stay with the company as long they can perform. Some have been there for more than 20 years, with the dancers attributing their high level of fitness to the regular classes and performances. Company of Elders, a renowned dance troupe made up entirely of over-60s performers, has cut some of its members to make way for more black and Asian recruits The news of the forced retirements is said to have come as a 'bombshell'. One source close to the company said: 'It has been all they know. It's not just about the dance, but the socialising, the end of isolation, and growing old and growing another lease of life. Naturally, they were devastated. People are upset because they feel they are being pushed aside in the interests of inclusivity.' Under the new rules, anyone who has been with the troupe for ten years or more has been told they can stay for only another three years. Those who have been there for less than ten years can stay for another five. A spokesman for Sadler's Wells said the plan was to encourage 'people from BAME [black and minority ethnic] backgrounds to join'. Founded in 1992, the company is made up of about 20 dancers aged between 60 and 89 and has performed at the National Theatre, in Japan and at the Venice Biennale, as well as being the subject of a BBC1 documentary. The decision by the prestigious Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, which runs the contemporary dance company, has been attacked as sacrificing the wellbeing of current members many in their 70s and 80s on the 'altar of political correctness' Trevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: 'If you are genuinely interested in diversity one of the things you will not do is reduce the range of ages you have in the company. It's a bit scandalous to play off one minority group people of colour against another minority group older dancers.' Former Tory MP and Strictly contestant Ann Widdecombe said: 'It seems to me the logical thing is that people can stay there until they can no longer perform because their health diminishes their performance. If this group needs to diversify it needs to do it naturally.' Sadler's Wells has been given 9.8 million of public funds from the Arts Council for the period 2018 to 2022. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said last night he was surprised that a publicly funded organisation would introduce such an 'ageist' policy. He added: 'One of the problems of chasing diversity quotas is that someone has to lose out and it appears that it's the Elders who are being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness in this case. 'At a time when we have an aging population it is surprising that an organisation which receives so much public money would embark on such a blatantly ageist policy.' But Joce Giles, the director of learning and engagement at Sadler's Wells, said: 'We would like to give more people the opportunity to join Company of Elders. We felt that introducing a timed membership was the fairest solution to ensure more people of all backgrounds are able to benefit from the opportunities that Company of Elders offers.' Mr Giles added: 'Membership for new dancers joining the company is for a maximum of five years. We have developed an alumni programme to support those stepping down and to ensure their valued connection with us is not lost.' But the company source said of the alumni programme: 'Existing members were offered a monthly dance class in some remote studio nothing compared to touring internationally and dancing in the Venice Biennale.' A Sadler's Wells spokesman added: 'We are not reducing the age range of the Company of Elders with the new policy which aims to offer more people the opportunity to join. 'All members of the company, whether existing members or new joiners, are over 60 and we do not have an upper age limit on membership. If people over 60, 70, 80, 90 or 100 wish to be considered to join the company, they are all equally welcome.' Authorities investigating the disappearance of former Mouseketeer Dennis Day have found a body inside the former child star's home - eight months after he went missing. Human remains were discovered at the property on 510 Pine Street in Phoenix, KOBI 5 TV reported. Police on Thursday asked the coroner to identify the remains. Authorities would not release more information about the circumstances of the discovery. An Oregon State Police forensics truck was seen outside the home on Friday, according to the Mail Tribune. In February, Day's family joined the search for him after learning of his disappearance six months after he went missing. His husband, Ernest Caswell, first reported him missing in July 2018, but he had forgotten how to contact Day's family because he is ill with dementia. Former Mouseketeer Dennis Day, 76 (left), was reported missing in July 2018 by his husband Ernest Caswell (right). Day's family only discovered he had vanished in January 2019 Day, an actor, was cast as an original Disney Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer in 1955 The body was found at the home on 510 Pine Street in Phoenix, Oregon (above). Police on Thursday asked the coroner to identify the remains. Authorities would not release more information about the circumstances of the discovery Denise Norris, Day's niece, posted a message on the 'Help us find Dennis Day' Facebook group, which was created to generate public awareness of Day's disappearance. '2 dogs and a drone search for my Uncle Dennis will be starting today at 2pm,' Norris wrote on Thursday Denise Norris, Day's niece, posted a message on the 'Help us find Dennis Day' Facebook group, which was created to generate public awareness of Day's disappearance. '2 dogs and a drone search for my Uncle Dennis will be starting today at 2pm,' Norris wrote on Thursday. 'We are asking for LOTS of prayers that he will be found. We need this nightmare to end!' Friends, neighbors and police in Phoenix, Oregon, started looking for the 76-year-old former Mickey Mouse Club cast member since he was reported missing by his husband and partner of 46 years, Caswell, in late July 2018. Day was last seen walking down his driveway on foot, saying he was going to visit friends But, it wasn't until one of Day's relatives, who also lives in Oregon, saw a local news report in early January that the rest of his California-based family was alerted to the fact that Day had vanished. The relative 'saw it on the news broadcast and called us immediately,' Day's sister, Nelda Adkins, told Dateline in late February. 'I called Phoenix Police Department the very next day, and weve been working on it ever since. The whole family got in on it.' Adkinds said that police told her that Caswell had reported Day an actor who got his big break after being cast on the Mickey Mouse Club cast alongside Annette Funicello in 1955 missing six months prior. Caswell had been in the hospital at the time, receiving treatment for dementia, when 'he realized Dennis hadnt come to visit him in a few weeks' and asked a hospital staffer to call police, Adkins said. Day's California family wasn't notified at the time because Caswell couldn't remember their contact information. Day (left) and Caswell (right) have been partners for 46 years. Caswell suffers from dementia and was unable to give police Day's family's contact info at the time he went missing Day's sister Nelda Adkins (pictured with Day) said that she and her brother don't talk too often, so it was not unusual that she hadn't heard from him in several months Police think Day may have voluntarily left town, but his niece Denise Norris (pictured with Day) and neighbors don't believe that's true as he rarely traveled and left his beloved pets behind Day (front row, far right) appeared in the first two seasons of the Mickey Mouse Club. He was part of the original cast, alongside Annette Funicello (front row, far left) Adkins said that although she and her brother were close as children even auditioning for the Mickey Mouse Club together they didn't speak to each other often as adults, so it wasn't a surprise that she hadn't heard from him in several months. Adkins said police told her that a man who was living at Day and Caswell's home at the time Day went missing had said that on the day he was last seen, Day had left the home on foot, stating he was going to go visit friends. 'Dennis had a car, but the car was left behind,' Adkins said. 'He left his dog and his cat behind, too he loved them dearly, just like children.' Police told KOBI 5 that Day's car was initially missing, but it was soon found on the Oregon coast. Two people were said to have been in the car, although neither Day nor Caswell appeared to be familiar with them. The driver of the car is said to have told police that Day had given him permission to use the car, a 1996 Ford Escort wagon, according to the Mail Tribune. 'There was no evidence of a crime there, there was no evidence of a crime in the car,' Phoenix Police Department Lt. Jeff Price told the news station, noting that it was possible that Day left town voluntarily. Day's niece, Denise Norris, told Dateline that Day 'doesn't even leave his house to travel anywhere' and last left Phoenix 12 years ago to attend his mother's funeral. She said that Day had been constantly at Caswell's side following Caswell's colon cancer and dementia diagnosis. 'Hes not the type of person who would just disappear. Especially with his significant other being in the hospital he was very dedicated to him,' Norris said. Day's neighbors also doubt that he would have just left town. 'When I found out his dog had been found roaming the street that was the moment that I said, 'Oh, no,' Day and Caswell's neighbor, Allie Jensen told KOBI 5. Adkins said that over the six months since Day was reported missing, police have searched his home and a nearby graveyard and creek. Cadaver dogs were also used at one point, but did not find any signs indicated a crime had occurred. None of Day's bank accounts or credit cards appear to have been used since he went missing and police have not been able to track his cell phone because he only had a prepaid phone. Police said that a letter, supposedly written by Day and found at a neighbor's home, implied that the man who was living with Day and Caswell at the time had assaulted Day once, but police said there wasn't any evidence to back up the claim. Since Day's disappearance, Caswell has been released from the hospital and is being taken care of at an assisted living facility. Jack the Ripper is thought to have killed at least five young women in Whitechapel, East London, between September and November 1888, but was never caught. Numerous individuals have been accused of being the serial killer. At the time, police suspected the Ripper must have been a butcher, due to the way his victims were killed and the fact they were discovered near to the dockyards, where meat was brought into the city. There are several alleged links between the killer and royals. First is Sir William Gull, the royal physician. Many have accused him of helping get rid of the alleged prostitutes' bodies, while others claim he was the Ripper himself. A page from the Illustrated Police News page covering the murders of Jack the Ripper A book has named Queen Victoria's surgeon Sir John Williams as the infamous killer. He had a surgery in Whitechapel at the time. Another theory links the murders with Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Victor, the Duke of Clarence. At one point, cotton merchant James Maybrick was the number one suspect, following the publication of some of his diary which appeared to suggest he was the killer. Some believe the diary to be a forgery, although no one has been able to suggest who forged it. Other suspects include Montague John Druitt, a Dorset-born barrister. He killed himself in the Thames seven weeks after the last murder. George Chapman, otherwise known as Severyn Kosowski, is also a suspect after he poisoned three of his wives and was hanged in 1903. Jack the Ripper is thought to have killed at least five young women in Whitechapel, East London, between September and November 1888 Another suspected by police was Aaron Kosminski. He was admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum and died there. Dr Thomas Neill Cream poisoned four London prostitutes with strychnine and was hanged in 1892. Some of the more bizarre links include Lewis Carroll, author of the Alice in Wonderland books, who taught at Christ Church until 1881 - which was at the forefront of the Ripper murder scenery. Winston Churchill's father - Lord Randolph Churchill - has also been named as a potential suspect. Crime writer Patricia Cornwell believes she has 'cracked' the case by unearthing evidence that confirms Walter Sickert, an influential artist, as the prime suspect. Her theories have not been generally accepted. Author William J Perring raised the possibility that Jack the Ripper might actually be 'Julia' - a Salvation Army soldier. In The Seduction Of Mary Kelly, his novel about the life and times of the final victim, he suggests Jack the Ripper was in fact a woman. Police discovering the body of one of Jack the Ripper's victims, probably Catherine Eddowes In February 2019, it was suggested that Jack the Ripper may have been a sinister Dutch sailor who murdered two ex-wives in his homeland and bludgeoned to death two other women in Belgium. Crime historian Dr Jan Bondeson has named Hendrik de Jong as a prime suspect for the most notorious set of unsolved murders in history. At the time of the Whitechapel murders, de Jong is believed to have worked as a steward on board a ship which made frequent trips from Rotterdam to London, providing him with the perfect means of getting out of the country after his heinous crimes. He later murdered two of his ex-wives in his native Netherlands in 1893 and bludgeoned to death two women above a pub before attempting to set their bodies on fire in Belgium in 1898. Her male colleagues may get the limelight, but one female member of the government has been given a much deserved promotion, balancing out the gender balance. After quietly getting on with her work, Evie the Cabinet Office cat is now in the spotlight as she becomes the new face of the Equalities Unit. A picture of Evie, who moved into the department earlier this year, was shared on the Cabinet Officers official website. Evie has been promoted to the Equalities Unit after doing a fantastic job in her previous role. She has gone under the radar, partly due to the high profile coverage Larry and Palmerston have received for their very public feuds. Penny Mordaunt, International Development Secretary, took the decision to raise Evie's profile. The MP is also in charge of the women and equalties unit. Evie arrived in November 2016 from the Celia Hammond Animal Trust, along with her son Ossie and is Whitehall's only female mouser. Her more famous colleagues have hogged the spotlight recently, with Larry and Palmerston. Larry lives next door at Downing Street, while Palmerston lives at the nearby Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They have been living out a very public feud in the last year, with spectacular fights to compete with top bill MMA fights. (Left) Palmerstone and (right) Larry have been involved in a very public feud, resulting them in being split up. They are the two more popular parliament pets in recent years. Larry has gained fame and even has over 200,000 followers on Twitter. Gladstone has been working in Whitehall but has recieved much less publicity than Larry or Palmerstone Meanwhile, Evie has kept a low profile, getting on with keeping the mouse population down. Larry has become an international TV sensation because of updates from outside Downing Street. He has 245,000 Twitter followers while Palmerstone has 81,300. Evie has yet to reach those heights, amassing only 35,700 followers on her Twitter account, but that could soar with her new found fame. Another cat who resides in cabinet is Gladstone. He is Cheif Mouser at the HM Treasury at Whitehall and assumed the position in 2016. An Aboriginal mother charged with manslaughter after her two sons drowned in a river will be kept behind bars for her own safety. Leanne Chyrsilla Eatts, who is charged with 14 offences, including two counts of manslaughter, appeared in Townsville Magistrates Court, in Queensland, on Saturday for a bail hearing, Courier Mail reported. Eatts broke down as she listened to the charges pending against her. Her two sons, Barak Austral, five, and Jhulio Sariago, three, were found in a deep section of the fast-flowing Ross River, in Townsville, on February 26. Leanne Chyrsilla Eats (pictured) appeared in court on Saturday and was denied bail for her own safety Tragic: Barak Austral (left), five, and Jhulio Sariago (right), three, were found dead in the Ross River near Cranbrook in Townsville in February The court heard it was Eatts' 'lack of supervision of the boys' that resulted in the 'preventable tragedy of their death'. Police prosecutor Kellie Mythen told the court Eatts should remain behind bars to 'keep her safe from the outraged community'. Following an extensive five-week investigation, Ms Mythen said police had 156 statements from witnesses who observed Eatts' 'lack of supervision', the publication reported. The boys' mother Leanne Eatts (left) was arrested in relation to the death of her two sons on Friday The boys were found dead in a river after they were seen walking there on CCTV On Friday, police were also informed Eatts was recovering from a heavy night of drinking when her two sons left home and later drowned. Barak and Jhulio went missing from their Brett St home on February 25 sparking one of the biggest ever search operations in Townsville with up to 100 policemen, rescuers and residents joining in. The boys were found submerged in the Ross River in Townsville just before 7am on February 26. Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Miles said their investigation showed the death of the two young boys was preventable. 'This investigation centres around the care of these young boys and what led to their tragic passing. This is a catastrophic result for this family and it is a preventable tragedy,' he said. 'There is no way that these boys should be been able to go down to the river. Their deaths, under appropriate supervision and management by a parent, would have been averted.' Police will allege Ms Eatts was 'solely responsible for the failure of these two young boys.' Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Miles (pictured) said the charges related to the care and responsibility a parent should have for children Two young Aboriginal brothers Barak (left) and Jhulio (right) were found dead in a river after they went missing from their home CCTV footage tragically shows the last time the boys were seen alive, with Barak wearing his school uniform (in red shirt on the right) Townsville residents leave tributes for the two young boys who drowned in the river At the time, Eatts made a series of desperate posts to social media asking for help to find her boys. 'Mum is missing you boys so much,' she posted to Facebook. 'My two babies have been missing since 5.45. I got eight police cars at my house and everyone on foot looking for them please keep a close eye out for them on the streets... they just walked off. Please help Townsville. 'I am so tired and empty.' When the bodies were found, the boys' aunt Ros Eatts said: 'Everyone's in shock and total devastation. I'm totally gutted. Leeann, the mum, is inconsolable.' Eatts described her sons as 'inseparable'. She said: 'They were nine days apart, Barak born on 17 May 2013 and Jhulio born 8 May 2015, and they died on the same day - Jhulio was born the day after my birthday,' she said. 'Jhulio was so smart - he knew everything. He was a good kid, so loveable, lovely little face and beautiful nature I'm going to miss them. Up to 100 policemen, rescuers and residents joined a frantic search for the boys Following the boys' deaths hundreds of people attended a memorial service on the banks of the Ross River on March 3. Now questions are being raised about the donations made by family, friends and members of the public following the boys' deaths. Mr Miles said the majority of the $13,000 raised from GoFundMe was used to transport the boys' bodies to their hometown in the Northern Territory, Townsville Bulletin reported. 'My understanding is a lot of that money was used to repatriate the boys' bodies back to Darwin and pay for their funeral,' he said. 'I don't think that anyone in the community would have any particular issue with that, having regard to what it was used for.' A spokesman for GoFundMe told the publication that if donations are not used for the intended purpose, then they will be protected. 'Donors may receive a refund when they donate to a campaign and the campaign organiser or beneficiary commits a 'misuse',' the spokesman said. '(The term 'misuse' includes circumstances where) the campaign organiser or beneficiary is formally charged with a crime directly related to their actions, omissions, and/or misrepresentations made by that individual in the campaign.' A 140-pound female python measuring 17 feet in length was captured in the Florida Everglades - the largest snake ever to be caught at Big Cypress National Preserve. Big Cypress posted a photo on Facebook showing four people holding the snake from its head to its tail. The preserve said on its Facebook page that the python was euthanized and its 73 developing eggs were destroyed. She is the largest python ever removed from Big Cypress National Preserve and she was caught because of research and a new approach to finding pythons, the preserve said. Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida posted a photo showing a 17ft female python after it was captured on Friday She is the largest python ever removed from Big Cypress National Preserve and she was caught because of research and a new approach to finding pythons, the preserve said In order to track down female pythons, researchers outfit male pythons with radio transmitters. The males then lead researchers to breeding grounds, where they usually find females. All of the python work at Big Cypress is focused on controlling this invasive species, which poses significant threats to native wildlife, the preserve said on its Facebook post. While Fridays catch was impressive, it appears to have fallen short of the state record. In 2014, engineers in the Everglades stumbled upon a Burmese python measuring more than 18 feet long during a routine inspection of levees. The snake, measuring at 18 feet 2 inches, fell short of the state record by 6 inches, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In 2013, a snake collector in the state discovered the largest python on record there, measuring 18 feet 8 inches. The pythons, which can grow to more than 20 feet in their native habitat in Southeast Asia, are one of the most problematic invaders of Floridas sprawling Everglades wetlands. They eat indigenous species and their food sources, fueling concerns that the predator snakes will fundamentally change the ecosystem. In December, a huge 18-foot-long python weighing 150 pounds was caught roaming in the Everglades. Hunter John Hammond caught the snake, which was subsequently euthanized, as part of the Python Elimination Program In December, a huge 18-foot-long python weighing 150 pounds was caught roaming in the Everglades. Hunter John Hammond caught the snake, which was subsequently euthanized, as part of the Python Elimination Program. The wildlife trapper took 45 minutes to snare the beast after letting it tire itself out before dragging it to his truck. It is said to be the largest snake that has been caught since the program started. Python hunters are said to have caught more than 1,850 of the snakes in the area after they started to wreak havoc on Floridas ecosystem. The were brought to the state in the 1970s as pets and can grow up to 20 feet long. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission allows for Burmese pythons to be killed without a permit or hunting license. They say people are more likely to see pythons during the day during the cooler months. A Florida high school teacher was suspended for showing her students nudity during an art class. Brenda Fischer, a teacher at Western High School in Davie, faces a three-day suspension after she admitted to showing her students a video with nude models that were placed in sexually suggestive positions, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The incident took place during two creative photography classes on August 23, according to a complaint by the Broward County School Board. The complaint alleges that Fischer by her own admission, had previewed the video before she played it for her students. The students said that the video, which is not named, shows a number of photos taken by a photographer. Brenda Fischer, a teacher at Western High School in Davie, faces a three-day suspension after she admitted to showing her students a video with nude models that were placed in sexually suggestive positions Fischer showed students images of a topless female holding the genitals of a male who was naked from the waist down, the complaint says. The students say they also saw images of a male kneeling and appearing to stare into the naked genitals of a female standing in front him, according to the complaint. A total of nine students statements are included in the complaint. One student says the photos showed a male crouched on the floor being explained as submitting to a dominant sex partner. Another student reported seeing a male and female, both nude, and the female's hand was on the male's groin area. Fischer is accused of misconduct in office, incompetence, and willful neglect of duty. But the teachers' union vows to fight the suspension, saying that she was doing her job as an art teacher. Fischer has a history of being disciplined by the school board for allegedly inappropriate conduct. In March 2017, she kissed students on the cheek and hugged students without their permission during class. She also placed her arm around the waist of a 15-year old female student and held her for approximately 90 seconds. Fischer was reprimanded by the state and fined $750 last year. In 2009, she was suspended for three days for inappropriate language. In 2014, she was reprimanded for exposing a student to unnecessary embarrassment and disparagement. Saturday Night Lives cold open took aim at Joe Biden and his alleged inability to keep a respectful distance from womens personal space in the wake of accusations of inappropriate touching against the former vice president this week. Jason Sudeikis, an SNL alum, returned to NBCs comedy variety show to reprise his impersonation of Biden. Sudeikis was a regular player on SNL between 2005 and 2013. The sketch stars Sudeikis, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Aidy Bryant. It begins with Strong and Thompson wondering whether Biden's behavior can be reined in so that he would have a chance at winning the Democratic nomination for president. Jason Sudeikis returned to Saturday Night Live to play Joe Biden, who is undergoing 'sensitivity training' from his advisers, including Kate McKinnon (seen above on the left with Sudeikis as Biden) Sudeikis was a regular player on SNL between 2005 and 2013 The sketch begins with Biden's advisers, played by Cecily Strong (left) and Kenan Thompson (right), trying to figure out how to rein in the former vice president 'You know, Joe's a good guy, and he means well,' Strong says. 'He's just - he's a little behind the times.' Thompson replies: 'Yeah, I'm sure this whole ordeal is just tearing him up inside.' Sudeikis' Biden then barges in, full of energy, and exuberant - which appears to mirror Biden's demeanor in real life. SNL spoofed Biden's penchant for getting up close and personal with people. Sudeikis' Biden is seen above hugging Cecily Strong's character Sudeikis' Biden then moves in to give Thompson's character a warm embrace The vice president then moves on to 'brother man' Thompson. Biden embraces Thompson and touches his head a few times In real life, Biden has been criticized this week for not taking seriously enough the issue of unwanted touching The vice president joked at an event on Friday about 'being given permission' to embrace young children - which prompted criticism from those who say he is not taking the issue of inappropriate touching seriously enough. In the SNL sketch, Biden walks in and hugs 'Jackie,' the adviser played by Strong. Jackie is visibly uncomfortable with Biden's embrace. The vice president then moves on to 'brother man' Thompson. Biden embraces Thompson and touches his head a few times. When the aides tell Biden that they need to speak about a serious matter, the former vice president jokes: 'Oh, I know, it's about my March Madness bracket, right? 'Look, I know I had Delaware winning the whole thing even though they didn't make the tournament. 'Okay, but hey, it's better than last year I picked Amtrak. Right?' Biden's aides then let him know that he will be working with 'Gwen,' who will provide sensitivity training Gwen, played by McKinnon, then quickly finds out that she has her hands full with Biden, who moves in for a handshake and then presses his forehead against hers 'Really great to meet you, Gwen,' Biden says. 'I appreciate you coming here' When the other aides try to alert Biden that he is behaving inappropriately, he says: 'One second, I'm connecting' Delaware is the state which Biden represented in the United States Senate before he became vice president under Barack Obama. Amtrak is the rail service which Biden frequently used to commute between Delaware and Washington, D.C. But the aides let Biden know that his behavior with women was the issue that needed to be discussed. 'Its about all the touchy-feely stuff,' Thompson said. 'If you're really going to run in 2020, you have to change the way you interact with women,' Jackie says. Biden says in response: 'You guys know that I'm a tactile politician, right? 'Im a hugger; Im a kisser, and Im a little bit of a sniffer. 'The last thing I ever want to do is offend anyone.' Biden's aides then let him know that he will be working with 'Gwen,' who will provide sensitivity training. Gwen, played by McKinnon, then quickly finds out that she has her hands full with Biden, who moves in for a handshake and then presses his forehead against hers. 'Really great to meet you, Gwen,' Biden says. 'I appreciate you coming here.' When the other aides try to alert Biden that he is behaving inappropriately, he says: 'One second, I'm connecting.' Biden's aides struggle to rein in the former vice president, who decides he's in the mood to party Biden has Alexa play Lou Rawls' You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine As the song plays, Biden brags to his aides that he can 'think and shimmy at the same time' Gwen says: 'So this is exactly the kind of thing I'm here to prevent.' Biden then says that he thinks 'nose to nose will be OK' because he got his DNA checked 'like Lizzie, what's her name, Warren, right? 'I'm 1 per cent Eskimo, so I'm allowed to do the kissing. It's okay.' Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts who has announced her candidacy for president, generated controversy when she claimed she was part Native American - only to take a DNA test that revealed she was really a tiny fraction Native American. 'Ideally when you meet a female stranger for the first time there would be no kisses or hugs of any kind,' Gwen tells Biden. But the former vice president says: 'That's a human connection. That's my whole thing. 'That's like telling Mario Batali to take his Crocs off.' Batali is the famous chef who was accused by several women of abusive behavior. 'I wouldn't bring him into this,' Gwen tells Biden. Biden then invites Gwen to sit down and asks Alexa to play Lou Rawls' You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine. As the song plays, Biden brags to his aides that he can 'think and shimmy at the same time.' When Thompson tells Alexa to shut off the song, Biden remarks: 'Of all the people...', a reference to Thompson's race. Gwen then tries to teach Biden how to properly greet a woman. When Biden suggests a handshake, Gwen agrees it's a good idea. But then Biden asks if it's ok if he 'tickles her palm a little bit.' 'No tickling at all,' Gwen says. 'Really? Even on her birthday?' Biden says. The former vice president then asks Gwen if it's okay if he 'lifts up a woman's shirt and blows on her tummy.' 'Absolutely not,' Gwen says. Biden then suggests doing 'that gorgeous lift that they do at the end of Dirty Dancing.' Gwen then invites Jenny, played by Aidy Bryant (center), into the meeting so that Biden could 'learn by doing' 'What am I doing?' he sheepishly asks Gwen. 'Oh, I know, I cradle her face in my hands' Sudeikis and SNL are spoofing Biden's penchant for putting his hands on women's faces when greeting them When Gwen disapproves, Biden says he should 'keep it neutral and greet her like a guy' 'Who would you do that with?' Gwen asks Biden. Biden replies: 'Whoever's strong enough to pick me up, I guess.' Gwen then says she invited two 'Democratic women voters' so that Biden could 'learn by doing.' Biden then asks Alexa to play Legs by ZZ Top - which his aides immediately shut off. When he is told one of the voters got laid off from General Motors because they 'downsized her unit,' Biden jokes: 'I'd like to upsize my unit.' Gwen then brings in Jenny, played by Bryant. 'Jenny, it is an absolute pleasure to meet you,' Biden says while awkwardly approaching her to greet her. 'What am I doing?' he sheepishly asks Gwen. 'Oh, I know, I cradle her face in my hands.' When Gwen disapproves, Biden says he should 'keep it neutral and greet her like a guy.' 'Come here you son of a b****,' he says to Jenny while taking her in a headlock and rubbing her head with his knuckle. When his aides intervene, Biden says: 'I'm just messing around.' Jenny responds by punching Biden in the stomach and storming out. 'Well, you know, I would say she's still on the fence, that's clear as day,' Biden says. The aides then bring in 'Mrs. Douglas', a software engineer from Oakland. Mrs. Douglas, played by Jones, tells Biden: 'Wait a second, I know who you are. Oh, my god, you're Obama's granddaddy!' At this point, an excited Mrs. Douglas gives Biden a huge embrace The former vice president then asks her to give a 'low five', which she does by slapping his rear end Mrs. Douglas then grabs Biden's behind and exclaims: 'I am so going to vote for you!' The aides then bring in 'Mrs. Douglas', a software engineer from Oakland. Mrs. Douglas, played by Jones, tells Biden: 'Wait a second, I know who you are. Oh, my god, you're Obama's granddaddy!' At this point, an excited Mrs. Douglas gives Biden a huge embrace. The former vice president then asks her to give a 'low five', which she does by slapping his rear end. Mrs. Douglas then grabs Biden's behind and exclaims: 'I am so going to vote for you!' After the aides ask if Biden learned anything, he says 'not really.' 'So let's hug it out, America, what do you say? Biden and some woman in 2020, right? We can do this.' Cheats who target desperate university students could be imprisoned and fined under strict new policies proposed by the Morrison government. Frauds who write an essay or complete an exam on behalf of a student will be targeted and could face two-years in prison, as well as fines reaching up to $210,000. The last minute bid to win back the support of disenfranchised voters has seen PM Scott Morrison come down on people who capitalise off fraudulent behaviour. Cheats who target desperate university students could be imprisoned and fined under strict new policies imposed by the Morrison government 'It's simply not good enough,' Federal Education Minister, Dan Tehan, said. 'It's not fair for those students who are doing the hard yards, for those students who are doing all the work, for those students who put hours into studying.' Mr Tehan said he believes hardworking students shouldn't have to compete with 'swindlers and frauds.' He said he was willing to impose the hefty fines and possible jail terms if his government is voted back into power during the next Federal election. The minister also claimed to be especially 'wary' of sophisticated cheating services based overseas, according to SBS. 'If you're a cheating service, understand now you are going to face the full force of the law if you provide those services to students here in Australia. 'For those services based overseas, we are going to use blocking to make sure that they cannot provide those services. 'For those who are here and operating in Australia, understand that we will come after you.' The last minute bid to win back the support of disenfranchised voters has seen PM Scott Morrison (pictured) come down on people who capitalise off fraudulent behaviour 'It's simply not good enough,' Federal Education Minister, Dan Tehan, said in Canberra (pictured) The upcoming federal election, which Scott Morrison has yet to announce a date for, is the coalition's greatest concern. The Liberal party was thrown into chaos last year after in-house feuding saw then-prime minster, Malcolm Turnbull, ousted from his role. The tensions also cost the coalition his former seat of Wentworth, which went to Independent candidate, Kerryn Phelps. The Morrison-led government is now in a vulnerable position, with the coalition holding just 43 seats in comparison to Labor's 69 seats. The latest newspoll revealed a +4.36 swing towards Labor, after the coalition lost -19 in preferences. Donald Trump blamed Mexico for his decision to deploy 750 agents at the Southern Borders Ports of Entry to the U.S. The President's late night tweets on immigration came after he insisted that illegal crossings must be stopped as he inspected a refurbished section of fencing at the Mexican border. He tweeted on Saturday night: 'We have redeployed 750 agents at the Southern Borders specific Ports of Entry in order to help with the large scale surge of illegal migrants trying to make their way into the United States. Donald Trump, (pictured) blamed Mexico for his decision to deploy 750 agents at the Southern Borders Ports of Entry to the U.S. 'This will cause traffic & commercial delays until such time as Mexico is able to use its powerful common sense Immigration Laws to stop illegals from coming through Mexico into the U.S., and removing them back to their country of origin.' Trump gave a a briefing on immigration and border security in Calexico before viewing a 2-mile see-through steel-slat barrier that was a long-planned replacement for an older barrier - and not new wall. 'There is indeed an emergency on our southern border,' Trump said at the briefing, adding that there has been a sharp uptick in illegal crossings. 'It's a colossal surge and it's overwhelming our immigration system, and we can't let that happen. ... We can't take you anymore. We can't take you. Our country is full." As Air Force One touched down in the state, California and 19 other states that are suing Trump over his emergency declaration to build a border wall requested a court order to stop money from being diverted to fund the project. But Trump, who ratcheted up his hard-line immigration rhetoric in recent weeks, declared that his move, which included vetoing a congressional vote, was necessary. And he reiterated those views on Saturday night, by declaring on Twitter: 'In the meantime, the Democrats in Congress must help the Republicans (we need their votes) to end the horrible, costly and foolish loopholes in our Immigration Laws. The President's tweets on illegal immigration came after he insisted that illegal crossings must be stopped as he inspected a refurbished section of fencing at the Mexican border Trump gave a a briefing on immigration and border security in Calexico before viewing a 2-mile see-through steel-slat barrier that was a long-planned replacement for an older barrier House Democrats filed a lawsuit preventing Trump from spending more money than Congress has approved to erect barriers along the southwestern border 'Once that happens, all will be smooth. We can NEVER allow Open Borders!.' House Democrats filed a lawsuit preventing Trump from spending more money than Congress has approved to erect barriers along the southwestern border. Congress approved just under $1.4 billion for work on border barricades. Trump has asserted he can use his powers as chief executive to transfer an additional $6.7 billion to wall construction. Trump, who earlier in the week threatened to shut down the border over the high numbers of migrants trying to enter the U.S., appeared to walk back his comments Thursday. He said Friday that it was because Mexico had gotten tougher in stopping an influx of immigrants from moving north. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he visits the U.S.-Mexico border with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy A Mexican federal police member stands guard during the visit of U.S. President Donald Trump to Calexico on Friday 'Mexico has been absolutely terrific for the last four days,' the president said as he left the White House. 'I never changed my mind at all. I may shut it down at some point.' The president's visit came a day after he withdrew his nominee to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Longtime border official Ron Vitiello appeared to be cruising toward confirmation, but Trump said Friday that he wanted to go in a "tougher direction." Arrests along the southern border have skyrocketed in recent months, and border agents were on track to make 100,000 arrests or denials of entry in March, a 12-year high. More than half of those are families with children, who require extra care. A group of about 30 Brazilian migrants, who had just crossed the border, sit on the ground near US Border Patrol agents on the US-Mexico border in Sunland Park, New Mexico Residents of Anapra, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, gather next to the border fence during a prayer with priests and bishops from Mexico in February Central American migrants queue at a warehouse used as a shelter in Piedras Negras, Coahuila state, Mexico in February The southern border is nearly 2,000 miles long and already has about 650 miles of different types of barriers, including short vehicle barricades and tall steel fences that go up to 30 feet high. Most of the fencing was built during George W. Bush's administration, and there have been updates and maintenance throughout other administrations. Trump has yet to complete any new mileage of fencing or other barriers anywhere on the border, though he declared Friday that at least 400 miles (650 kilometers) of the border barrier would be erected over the next two years. While most illegal border-crossers used to be single Mexican nationals coming to the U.S. in search of work, more than half are now parents and children who have traveled from Central America to seek refuge in the U.S. Those families, along with unaccompanied children, are subject to specific laws and court settlements that prevent them from being immediately sent back to their home countries. Immigrant processing and holding centers have been overwhelmed, forcing officials to dramatically expand a practice Trump has long mocked as "catch and release." Indeed, ICE has set free more than 125,000 people who came into the U.S. as families since late last year and is now busing people hundreds of miles inland, releasing them at Greyhound stations and churches in cities like Albuquerque, San Antonio and Phoenix because towns close to the border already have more than they can handle. A family-owned cafe has been forced to close its doors and leave staff jobless after they were relentlessly abused by vegan animal activists for months on end. The Gippy Goat Cafe in the small Victorian town of Yarragon, about 110km south-east of Melbourne, closed its doors for the final time on Sunday, claiming they could no longer stand the abuse. Owners John and Penny Gommans said they have been targeted for months. They claim tensions have only gotten worse since activists broke into their farm and stole three goats last December. They claim tensions have only gotten worse since activists broke into their farm and stole three of goats last December (pictured) 'For the sake of our health and safety and that of our families and staff we feel that [closing] is regrettably the best option,' they said in a statement on Sunday. 'Our staff and customers have been subjected to nearly four months of constant harassment, vile statements and threats from the abusive vegan activists. 'We have personally been subjected to an appalling stream of threats of extreme violence against ourselves, our family, our staff and even their families. 'Our staff have been subjected to daily threats and harassment by phone, and we cannot in good conscience ask them to continue working under such a condition.' The cafe offered a full menu and encouraged customers to feed the on-site goats and watch them get milked. The Gippy Goat Cafe in the small Victorian town of Yarragon, about 110km south-east of Melbourne, closed its doors for the final time on Sunday Activists stole three of the cafe's goats in December after tormenting the owners and staff They prided themselves on being a local, family-friendly venue with a great relationship with many of their patrons. Those patrons have expressed outrage over Mr and Mrs Gommans' experience. Many described the activists involved - who have not been named - as 'utterly disgusting'. 'For a business to feel like they must close their doors because of harassment is unacceptable. This is where our police and justice system needs a review.' The couple also noted their business' name had been dragged through the mud by the same activists, who falsified negative reviews on Facebook. The couple also noted their business' name had been dragged through the mud by the same activists, who falsified negative reviews on Facebook The cafe (pictured) offered a full menu and encouraged customers to feed the on-site goats and watch them get milked 'The courts have proven to be ineffectual, the enforcement agencies declined to prosecute to the full extent, so, to the thieves, trespassers and activists; you have won,' they said. Meanwhile, the Queensland government has recently announced they will be implementing a crackdown against activists of this nature. Police and agricultural officers will be entitled to hand out 'hefty fines' to offenders who are caught. Deputy Opposition Leader Tim Mander went a step further, stating they should be jailed, The Courier Mail reported. The Queensland government have recently announced they will be implementing a crackdown against activists of this nature 'These are well-organised, well-funded animal extremists who will stop at nothing to get their way,' Queensland's Deputy Opposition Leader Tim Mander said 'These are well-organised, well-funded animal extremists who will stop at nothing to get their way,' Mr Mander said. 'These people need to be fined heavily if they break the law and they need to face the risk of jail as well.' 'Please know that your ignorant indignation, lust for outrage and the false reality you inhabit through your social media streams will prevent you from effecting any positive societal change - only harm to real human beings - and you only have yourselves to thank.' Nationals MP for the Eastern Victoria Region Melina Bath said she would 'fight in parliament to stop this atrocious behaviour. 'Good people, innocent people working lawfully targeted in such a way is totally unacceptable and unAustralian. 'I and my Nationals colleges will work to strengthen penalties, create real deterrents and stop this type of harassment.' Jeremy Corbyn has lost a no confidence motion by the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) 'overwhelmingly' this afternoon after the group's leader announced he would vote against the Labour leader, despite Mr Corbyn's shadow attorney general pleading with the group to look past her leader and not 'personalise' the vote. It comes as internal Labour Party documents have revealed only three per cent of nearly 900 anti-Semitism disciplinary cases have resulted in a member's expulsion from the party. Shortly before 3.30pm today, the JLM voted for an amendment, to a broader motion about Labour Party anti-Semitism, which read: 'The leadership of the Labour Party, including the Leader, the Shadow Cabinet as a collective body, the NEC and the General Secretary, have fundamentally failed to address antisemitism within the Labour Party.' It went on: 'The leadership of the Labour Party have demonstrated that they are antisemitic, and have presided over a culture of antisemitism'. It said the leadership had 'used their influence to protect and defend antisemites', concluding 'Jeremy Corbyn is therefore unfit to be Prime Minister'. the Jewish Labour Movement today passed a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn declaring him 'unfit to be Prime Minister' The full motion later passed 'almost unanimously', according to the JLM's official Twitter account, after powerful speeches including one from Labour MP Margaret Hodge. This morning JLM's national secretary Peter Mason told Sky News Jewish members of the party are 'looking on in horror' at what has been happening in the Labour Party and at this afternoon's AGM will table a confidence motion in the leadership of Mr Corbyn. Mr Mason said he would be voting no confidence - and would even consider voting to dissociate from the party should such a motion be tabled. JLM's national secretary Peter Mason said he would be voting against Mr Corbyn in a confidence motion at this afternoon's AGM He said: 'The Jewish community is looking on in horror. We have had this affiliation for 99 years and it looks like it could come to an end.' He added: 'Members voted just a few weeks ago to remain affiliated with the party, because we believed we should stand and fight. '[Mr Corbyn] is the one responsible for leading the party and ensuring it acts in an appropriate way - members will be voting on whether he should be leader and should be prime minister.' This morning shadow AG Shami Chakrabarti appealed directly to the group in an interview with Sophie ridge, saying: 'My plea to them is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together, not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn. 'He is one person and he won't be leader forever.' Baroness Chakrabarti said: 'My plea to them is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together, not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn' Following revelations about the party's disciplinary procedure in today's Sunday Times, one his his own MPs said either Jeremy Corbyn had lied to her, or his office had lied to him, after leaked emails appeared to show direct involvement by the leader's office in some members' cases, despite his personal assurances he does not intervene. The paper said leaked internal documents show the party's system for dealing with complaints had been beset by delays, inaction and interference from the leader's office. Some members investigated for posting comments online such as 'Heil Hitler' and 'Jews are the problem' had not been expelled despite complaints being made a year ago. And Jeremy Corbyn's office had been involved in approving, delaying or blocking at least 101 complaints, the paper reported. Jeremy Corbyn promised Margaret Hodge MP he never intervened in members' disciplinary cases but the Sunday Times reports his office has done so But Labour said lines from internal emails had been 'selectively leaked' to 'misrepresent their overall contents', adding that it was 'committed' to rooting out anti-Semitism within the party. According to The Sunday Times, the hard drive of emails and a confidential database last updated on March 8 also showed that a trade union official was readmitted after being accused of sharing material saying 'Jewish Israelis' were behind 9/11. In another case, a Labour official ruled a council candidate accused of describing Jewish MPs as 'Zionist infiltrators' met the threshold for suspension, but then ruled he should not be suspended as he 'is a candidate', the paper said. It reported that 454 of 863 complaints were unresolved, including 249 where the party had not started an investigation, and that of 409 cases where a decision was reached, 191 members faced no further action, 145 received a formal warning and fewer than 30 were expelled. Labour said the figures quoted in the story were 'not accurate'. Dame Margaret Hodge has previously accused members of Jeremy Corbyns inner circle of interfering in the outcome of anti-Semitism cases A spokeswoman said: 'The Labour Party takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously and we are committed to rooting it out of our party. 'All complaints about anti-Semitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures. We can't comment on individual cases. 'Lines have been selectively leaked from emails to misrepresent their overall contents. 'One of the emails shows the General Secretary's Office ending the practice started by former staffers of asking the Leaders' Office for their help with clearing the backlog of cases. This practice lasted for a few weeks while there was no general secretary, and was ended by Jennie Formby.' Other emails are reported to show Thomas Gardiner, head of Labour's governance and legal unit, stepping in to frustrate efforts by a member of his staff to fast-track an investigation of a member who condemned two Jewish MPs for being 'sh**-stirring c** buckets' in the pay of Israel'. People with placards and Union flags demonstrated as part of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism outside the head office of the Labour Party in London last April A Labour Party source said: 'These emails show Thomas Gardiner arguing for an anti-Semitism complaint to be recorded as anti-Semitism, in line with the Macpherson principle, and to ensure the case is dealt with through the fast-tracked anti-Semitism procedures. 'In another email Thomas makes clear it's right and appropriate that Jennie Formby had ended the practice of LOTO (leader of the opposition's office) being asked for help with cases, and it is untrue and misleading to say LOTO are involved as there is a firewall between the complaints process and the Leader's Office. He was outlining and supporting this process.' Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP for Barking, told the paper: 'The scale of the abuse, the depth of the hatred and the total lack of action by the Labour Party is astonishing.' Jewish MP Luciana Berger received death threats and a slew of abuse. She left the Party She added: 'Jeremy gave me assurances that he does not intervene [in complaints]. 'This investigation proves that either he is lying to me or his office are lying to him.' The paper also revealed that in a meeting in which Corbyn and his political secretary, Amy Jackson, assured Hodge his team would 'never' interfere in complaints, he told the MP: 'It doesn't come here . . . I don't involve myself in the complaint at all.' And Ms Jackson added: 'Absolutely not. I could tell you 100% we would never do that, that would be an appalling thing to do.' But in the leaked emails the leader's chief of staff says Jackson herself must be kept abreast of certain complaints. In an email dated April 5 last year, Corbyn's chief of staff, Karie Murphy wrote: 'I think it's important for Amy Jackson to have an overview of all complaints that involve elected politicians or candidates.' Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: 'The Sunday Times investigation shows that our demands to root out anti-Jewish racism have been treated with utter contempt. 'Rather than own up to the problem, the Labour leadership has put its efforts into a cover-up operation. 'Any claims to a politically independent system can now be seen as a total sham. 'Labour must now urgently open up its processes to scrutiny by the Jewish community. 'We stand united with all decent people in the fight against ugly racism.' Saturday Night Live waded into the Brexit impasse with a hilarious send-up of embattled Prime Minister Theresa May who is scorned and ridiculed until she shares a passionate kiss with Winston Churchill and saves the United Kingdom. The sketch was part-music video, part-film in which Kate McKinnon portrays May as beleaguered and unpopular. As Sara Bareillis plays her ballad She Used To Be Mine, McKinnons May is seen being mocked and ridiculed by the British public. Nothing goes right for the prime minister, who is routinely scorned in the press while getting angry stares whenever she appears in public. Theresa May (played by Kate McKinnon on the left) is seen kissing Winston Churchill (played right by Kit Harington) McKinnon portrays down-on-her-luck May as she tries to guide Britain through the Brexit impasse The sketch was part-music video, part-film set to Sara Bareillis's song She Used To Be Mine Kate as Theresa appeared to be having an extremely troublesome day as she got herself into all sorts of mishaps, starting with being caught in a rainstorm, leading the leader to use her handbag as a shield. In one scene, she tries to eat her fish and chips in the park, only to discover that her ketchup bottle is full of water and a bird ends up defecating on her meal from above. While waiting to cross the street, a taxi cab drives into a puddle, splashing water onto her as she waits helplessly on the sidewalk. When May types in 'Theresa May Fans' into Google, she gets '0 results.' May tried to take solace in her fans online, only to be told by Google that there aren't any Royal guards let May know what they think of her on the streets of London Her fortunes begin to change when she derives inspiration from a portrait of Winston Churchill May is then transported into a dance with Churchill, who romances her and leads her to get parliamentary approval for Brexit Appearing down-and-put, Kate slipped on comfy slippers as she slumped by a London phone box and pulled a defeated expression. May is out of answers and down on her luck until she walks by a London storefront and sees the image of Churchill. The scene then cuts to an intimate dance between the two prime ministers, which ends in a kiss. Churchill is played by the show's guest host, Kit Harington. After the kiss, May walks into parliament where she is informed by opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn that her Brexit plan passed. A split second later, May is awoken from her dream, only to turn on the television and see that she is being criticized on the news. A woman has been photographed diving into a donation bin, with witnesses saying she was 'fishing' for clothing. An image was posted online of the woman head-first into the Good Sammy's bin with her legs dangling out, in Secret Harbour, a suburb south of Perth. 'Lady falls into a Salvation Army collection bin whilst loading up her car with donated goods!' the post read. An image was posted online of the woman head-first into the Good Sammy's bin with her legs dangling out, in Secret Harbour, a suburb south of Perth (pictured) Witnesses, including a local family, were left stunned by the scene before one of them called the police. A witness told Yahoo News the woman's skinny frame allowed her to get in and out of the bin easily. 'She had gone in for more quite a few times and was bringing bags back out with her,' they said. Some social media users condemned the woman for her actions. 'Someone should have put her shoes in the bin next door,' one user wrote. 'I hope she was stuck there for a long time,' another added. Other sympathised with the woman, saying the woman might have been desperate for something. 'People are quick to judge...' one wrote. 'She may be more in need than any of you realise,' another suggested. A major brawl has broken out at a correctional centre which ended with two prisoners being rushed to hospital. Prison guards were forced to use tear gas in a bid to break up the fight at Long Bay Correctional Centre in Malabar, 12km southeast of Sydney, on Sunday around 1.30pm. The centre, which houses minimum and maximum security inmates, is now thought to be in lockdown. Long Bay Correctional Centre (pictured) houses minimum and maximum security inmates Five ambulances were deployed to the jail, as well as a specialist medical team. Three people are thought to have been injured in the brawl, with two being taken to hospital for medical treatment. Geoff Senior an inspector and paramedic said multiple specialists had attended the scene. 'Multiple specialists and other resources, a total of five ambulances [attended] on top of that we had some inspectors and supervisors and also a medical team,' he told 7News. The incident occurred at Long Bay Correctional Centre at Malabar, Sydney on Sunday afternoon 'We assessed and treated two patients with minor puncture wounds,' he added. He also confirmed the injured inmates were taken to separate hospitals, with one being taken to Prince of Wales hospital and the other being transported to St Vincent's hospital. A third inmate is thought to have suffered facial injuries. No staff are believed to have been injured in the incident. It's understood the altercation had initially broken out in exercise yard of the facility, with seven inmates suspected to be involved in some way. All have since been identified by staff, it's understood. Officers have also seized a number of makeshift weapons. It's thought New South Wales police will assist the Corrective Services with the investigation into the incident. (File picture) The injured inmates were taken to separate hospitals, with one being taken to Prince of Wales and the other being transported to St Vincent's hospitals This is the shocking moment Bret 'The Hitman' Hart was tackled to the floor by a spectator while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony. Hart, who was being inducted for the second time - this time as part of the tag team The Hart Foundation along with the late Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart - was standing at the podium alongside Neidhart's daughter when a fan charged him. The man was promptly subdued by several people who came to Hart's defense on Saturday night and taken into custody by police at the Barclays Center. Bret 'The Hitman' Hart, who was being inducted for the second time - this time as part of the tag team The Hart Foundation along with the late Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart - was standing at the podium alongside Neidhart's daughter when a fan charged him Not part of the show: Hart, who was being inducted for the second time - this time as part of the tag team The Hart Foundation along with the late Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart - was standing at the podium alongside Neidhart's daughter when a fan charged him The man was promptly subdued by several people who came to Hart's defense on Saturday night and taken into custody by police at the Barclays Center Hall of Fame wrestler Bret 'The Hitman' Hart during his prime in 1994 A law enforcement official said a 26-year-old man was in custody and facing criminal charges. The official was not authorized to discuss to the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. Several shocked onlookers posted footage of the incident online. The induction event resumed after the fan was taken into custody. 'An over-exuberant fan surpassed our security at ringside and made his way briefly into the ring,' WWE later said in a statement. 'The individual has been turned over to the proper authorities.' After the individual was arrested, Hart, 61, finished his speech off and appeared to be uninjured. Bret Hart's brother Owen Hart, a fellow wrestler, died in 1999 after a stunt went wrong and he plunged 78ft to his death during a pay-per-view event in Kansas. A man was shot in the mouth and cheek with a sawn-off shotgun during a home invasion early on Sunday morning. Reece King, 26, and his older brother Brandon, were attacked in their Pymble Place home, in Robina on the Gold Coast. Mr King, was shot in the head, while Brandon, was hit in the back of the head with a hammer. Reece King (pictured), 26, was shot in the mouth and cheek with a sawn-off shotgun during a home invasion Mr King's brother Brandon was hit in the back of his head with a hammer at their Pymble place home (pictured) A nearby nurse quickly responded and applied pressure to the victim's facial wound before paramedics arrived at 11.40am. A shocked neighbour told the Gold Coast Bulletin he was listening to music when his dog suddenly started barking. 'It's pretty crazy,' he said. 'In the two decades I've lived here, I've only ever seen one cop car.' Soon after, police knocked on his door and advised him to remain inside after reports of an assault on two men. 'It's normally very chilled,' he said. Another man, who also lives on the street, said he had also heard screams around the same time. 'I heard screaming but thought it was kids screaming,' he admitted. 'But I did hear a car tear away at high speed we never would have expected anything to happen in such a quiet street. Police are searching for the three men they believe might have been involved in the attack A nearby nurse quickly responded and applied pressure to the victim's facial wound before paramedics arrived at 11.40am (stock image) Both men were taken to Gold Coast University Hospital where they remain in a stable condition 'You do get worried, there's lots of young families here and we don't know the motive,' he said. Both men were taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital in a stable condition. Police are searching for three men they believe might be involved in the attack. A crime scene has been declared. A drug user who tried his hand at growing marijuana was spared jail time because the plants he was growing were so bad nobody could get high off them. The 37-year-old horticulturalist from Balingup in Western Australia grew more than 50 cannabis plants on a fruit orchard. But he avoided jail time during a sentencing hearing at Bunbury District Court last Monday after the judge noted his produce was 'unusable'. When police raided the Balingup fruit orchard the man was working on September 19, they found 39 small cannabis plants, 10 mature plants and five seedlings. A drug user who tried his hand at growing marijuana was spared jail time because the plants he was growing were so bad nobody could get high off them A hydroponic room was set up in one of the sheds on the farm. The man admitted he had been 'experimenting' with growing the drug, but said the only reason he had so many plants was because they had all failed, The Kalgoorlie Miner reported. He said he had been intending to create 'medicinal marijuana' for personal use, and spoke freely of his addiction to the substance. The man first began using when he was in his late teens, but his habit had escalated and he was spending upwards of $400 a week. The man first began using when he was in his late teens, but his habit had escalated and he was spending upwards of $400 a week 'Had he have been able to actually grow the cannabis plants to a point where he could get flowering to occur and buds to develop then he would not have had 54 plants he wouldn't have had 10 mature plants,' his lawyer Twistie Venning said. 'It is slightly ironic that he is a trained horticulturalist, but actually failed to obtain usable material from the cultivation of the cannabis.' The man pleaded guilty to cultivating and possessing cannabis with intent to supply. He was handed a 12 month suspended sentence. An off-duty police officer has recounted the terrifying moment he was forced to confront a group of revellers who allegedly attacked police on the streets of St Kilda. Constable Lucas-John O'Donoghue had been in Melbourne with his brother for an Eminem concert when he witnessed the alleged attack on two fellow officers. Sickening video footage of the alleged assault, in which at least six people set upon Senior Constables Adam McKenzie and Darren Shepherd, went viral after it was captured on Fitzroy Street late last month. The 26-year-old, who usually works in a remote town of Kintore, 530km west of Alice Springs, said he had to step in as the situation had the potential to take a 'really bad' turn. Scroll down for video Lucas-John ODonoghue (pictured right) was awarded a Police Association certificate of recognition to a standing ovation 'It reached the point where one of the police officers wasn't getting up. And I thought, well, if he's not getting up and someone tries to grab his gun or something else off his belt, it could turn really bad,' Mr O'Donoghue told The Herald Sun. 'That's when I just ran out and pretty much shirtfronted the bald man to get him away I managed to push him far enough back to create a bit of space and I was just telling them all to leave it and move away,' he added. Mr O'Donoghue said he initially had reservations about involving himself in the altercation in case the officers thought he was another person from the group. Despite his second thoughts Mr O'Donoghue ran over and jumped on one of the alleged attackers backs in a bid to restrain him before the police arrived and arrested him. Video of the incident shocked the nation and went viral soon after its release on social media. The father-of-three said in hindsight he was glad he helped his fellow police officers, despite being in an unfamiliar place or having any equipment. 'I just knew that something needed to happen because if one of those people took one of the police officers' guns, then there could have been a lot of damage caused,' he said. Mr O'Donoghue has since been awarded a Police Association certificate of recognition to a standing ovation. The 26-year-old said he had to step in as the situation had the potential to take a 'really bad' turn One of the officers left injured has now returned to work while the second is believed to still be recovering. His horrifying account comes as the six people accused of participating in a horrific attack have now been charged - and released back into the community. Daily Mail Australia revealed last month the full police version of events leading up to the alleged attack, including the venues the accused had attended before all hell broke loose. How it happened 3AM: Trent Potts allegedly gets into an argument outside of Poison nightclub on Fitzroy St Moments later he allegedly kicks a transgender in the genitals Police are called They arrive quickly and find Potts, dressed in pink, about to climb into a cab They attempt to talk to him He allegedly runs A passerby driving along Fitzroy St notices the fracas and starts filming Officer McKenzie attempts to arrest Potts. Kayla Potts allegedly intervenes and is seen being cracked in the face with Mr McKenzie's torch Houldcroft, in yellow, charges at the officer Potts, in pink, can be seen dragging officer Shepherd - in high viz vest - away O'Donnell allegedly drops the boot before jumping on top of officer Shepherd Jake Mitchell allegedly holds the policeman down and kicks him in the head Tobin, believed to be wearing a hat, approached and allegedly spits on the officer O'Donnell allegedly slams the officer's head into the footpath six times Houldcroft allegedly spear tackles the officer before punching on with Mr McKenzie Advertisement Jack Houldcroft and his partner Kayla Potts are both accused of attacking a policeman. Holdcroft can allegedly be seen in dramatic video wearing a yellow shirt. Potts was cracked in the head by police with a torch Jake Mitchell, 26, of Frankston fronted Melbourne Magistrates' Court on March 8, where he faced seven charges including assaulting police, affray, violent disorder, intentionally causing injury and other assault-related offences. The hearing was over in minutes with Mitchell making a run for it when approached by a Daily Mail Australia photographer outside court. Mitchell is alleged to have held down a policeman and kicked him in the head during the all-in-brawl. Police had not opposed his release on bail and had earlier bailed him from the police station. His co-accused, Jack Houldcroft, 27, was also released from jail after spending 19 days in custody. Jake Mitchell runs for cover after leaving the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday. He allegedly held a policeman down and kicked him in the head during a violent altercation caught on video Houldcroft was pictured smiling as he arrived at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday Police had opposed his release, arguing he was a risk of committing further offences. He had been the only one of the six accused not to apply for bail after being arrested. Police are convinced they now have each of the offenders responsible for the alleged assaults, which left both officers with nasty injuries. Phillip O'Donnell, Trent Potts and Jules Tobin have all been charged over the attack on police. O'Donnell allegedly slammed a policeman's head into the footpath while Tobin allegedly spat on one The men join Jules Jerome Tobin, 26, Trent Potts, 26, Phillip O'Donnell, 38, and Potts' 25-year-old sister - and Houdcroft's partner - Kayla Potts, free on bail. They are expected back in court in June where they face mandatory prison sentences of six months each if found guilty of the attacks. On release of the video, senior police described the footage as 'animalistic' and the state premier slammed it as 'disgusting'. Health Secretary and Tory leadership contender Matt Hancock has launched a blistering assault on the BBC, accusing them of Brexit scaremongering. In an eviscerating letter to Newsnight bosses, the Department for Health claimed a report warning of shortages of epilepsy drugs was 'inaccurate in parts and misleading in others'. The Corporation's flagship current affairs show aired a story last Wednesday claiming that some life-saving drugs are impossible to stockpile and there was therefore a risk they would run out if the UK's borders are blocked during a disorderly EU exit. Mr Hancock is understood to be infuriated by the allegation, and his department's letter branded it 'inaccurate reporting which could needlessly cause substantial worry to anyone reliant on epilepsy medication'. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has launched a blistering attack on the BBC Health chiefs insist that they are ready for a potential No Deal exit, with detailed plans to fly in critical medical supplies should there be disruption to traditional supply chains. Allies of Mr Hancock insist that Health is the best-prepared government department for a No Deal exit, which could come as soon as this Friday if EU chiefs veto another Brexit extension. A Government source said: 'We have robust contingency plans in place for all eventualities, but others seem to be most interested in scaremongering and unnecessarily stoking fears about medicine supply.' In the letter to the BBC, seen by The Mail on Sunday, an aide to Mr Hancock writes: 'The scaremongering tone and inaccuracies in the piece will unnecessarily worry patients with epilepsy. This is irresponsible reporting.' The letter goes on to dismiss what it said were suggestions that the Department of Health or the NHS had tried to 'cover up' the possibility of shortages occurring as 'completely misleading and untrue'. Last night, a BBC spokesman hit back at the accusations. He said: 'We strongly refute any suggestion that our reporting has been inaccurate or 'scaremongering'. 'The piece was a fair reflection of the legitimate concerns of some senior clinicians to the current approach to aspects of No Deal planning, and it was therefore appropriate to bring the issues to the attention of our audience.' The next poet laureate could be from a black and minority ethnic (BAME) background, amid calls from poets for the new appointment to reflect multicultural Britain. The current holder of the position, Carol Ann Duffy, is due to step down from the 10-year role at the end of this month and her replacement will remain a royal appointment. A list has been submitted to Buckingham Palace by Downing Street and lifelong poetry fan the Prince of Wales is said to be closely monitoring the process, the Times reported. Charles is known to admire the work of BAME poets, and Sir Jonathan Bate, provost of Worcester College, Oxford, described the prince as 'passionately committed to poetry'. The next poet laureate could be from a black and minority ethnic (BAME) background, with Prince Charles apparently keen that the new occupant reflects multicultural Britain He said: 'Charles does see himself as the future monarch of a very multicultural Britain and, of course, many of our most interesting poets do come from ethnic minorities.' Poet Daljit Nagra, the son of Indian immigrants who uses a colourful mix of Punjabi and English - or Punglish - is one contender for the role. Other BAME names mentioned include Pakistani-born Imtiaz Dharker, the winner of the Queen's gold medal for poetry and Lemn Sissay, who sold his first poetry to Lancashire miners on strike. Poet Daljit Nagra, the son of Indian immigrants who uses a colourful mix of Punjnabi and English - or Punglish - is one contender for the role Sissay is the son of an Ethiopian woman who came to Britain to study from Ethiopia in 1966 to study. Last year, Jackie Kay, Scotland's poet laureate, told The Guardian that black and ethnic minority poets should be considered to replace Duffy. Kay, whose father was Nigerian, cited the work of Sissay and Dharker and also named Benjamin Zephaniah and Patience Agbabi as names who should be added to the list. 'It would be inspiring and exciting to have a black poet laureate,' she added. John Agard, who was born in Guyana and came to Britain in 1977, said it was about time that the laureate was black. He said that rather than a black poet being seen as part of 'a cabinet of curiosities', they were part of 'the British fabric of being, it's not an anomaly'. With Charles's coronation as monarch on the horizon in the next decade - given the age of the Queen, 92, and Prince Philip, 97 - the selection committee which compiled the shortlist is understood to have discussed the prospect and the emotions it could provoke. They may still go for a specialist in the traditional verse of the likes of William Wordsworth and Alfred Tennyson, but could equally opt for a modern voice and the new laureate could perform at Charles' ceremony. Another contender is Lemn Sissay, the son of an Ethiopian immigrant who sold his first poetry to Lancashire miners on strike Clarence House told MailOnline that 'the Prince of Wales has had absolutely no involvement in this process at any stage'. However, the future monarch may be taking a keen interest because the new laureate's poems could be about him. Republican poet Benjamin Zephaniah has previously criticised Charles's involvement in public affairs and ruled himself out of contention for the laureateship by tweeting: 'I won't work for them. They oppress me, they upset me, and they are not worthy.' The compilation of the shortlist had the help of a 15-strong 'steering group' featuring the heads of poetry organisations, literary festivals and libraries around the country. Other BAME names mentioned include Pakistani-born Imtiaz Dharker, the winner of the Queen's gold medal for poetry, pictured above (second from right) with current poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy (centre) The best-known poet laureates Alfred, Lord Tennyson - from 1850 until his death in 1892 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, wrote the celebrated Charge Of The Light Brigade Tennyson was born in in August 1809, in Somersby, Lincolnshire, where his alcoholic father was rector. His parents separated when he was a teenager and he grew up fearful of mental illness and worried about money. He was extremely short-sighted and needed a monocle to be able to see to eat. The mixed reception of his 1832 poems hurt him deeply but the success of two volumes published in 1842 changed his fortunes. In 1845 he received a Civil List pension, which enabled him to marry. With the success of The Princess and In Memoriam he became the most popular poet of the Victorian period. Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, greatly admired his work, and Tennyson later dedicated The Idylls Of The King to Albert's memory. At Queen Victoria's insistence, he accepted a peerage, which he had previously turned down when it was offered by both Gladstone and Disraeli. The Charge Of The Light Brigade was written in 1854, only minutes after Tennyson had read a newspaper account of the battle which contained the line 'Someone had blundered' - which he then incorporated into what became the most famous poem about war until World War I. Sir John Betjeman - from 1927 until his death in 1984 Sir John Betjeman was one of Britain's most celebrated poet laureates Sir John Betjeman was born in London on August 28, 1906, was one of Britain's most popular poet laureates as well as a much-loved figure on British television. Much of his work satirised the promoters of what he saw as destructive 'progress' and he devoted much of his time to defending Victorian architecture. He published his first collection of poetry and first book on architecture, Ghastly Good Taste, in 1933. Betjeman wrote four more volumes of poetry before the publication of hisCollected Poems in 1958. His later works included HIgh and Low (1966), A Nip In The Air (1974), Church Poems (1981) and Uncollected Poems (1982). His celebration of Britain's heritage proved popular with a British public which had recently been through the upheaval of the Second World War and the austerity it imposed. He was knighted in 1969 and succeeded Cecil Day-Lewis as poet laureate in 1972. Ted Hughes - from 1984 until his death in 1998 Ted Hughes was regarded as one of the best poets of his generation Ted Hughes, born in August 1930 in the village of Mytholmroyd in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was regarded as one of the best poets of his generation. Also a celebrated writer, Hughes published numerous works of fiction and poetry collections, including best-selling volumes such as Lupercal (1960), Crow (1970), Selected Poems 1957-81 (1982) and The Birthday Letters (1998). He also wrote the much-loved children's book The Iron Man (1968), about the arrival of a giant 'metal man' of unknown origin who befriends a small boy and defends the world from a dragon from outer space. It was later used as the basis for animated 1999 film The Iron Giant. Hughes was married to American poet and author Sylvia Plath from 1956 until her death from suicide in 1963. Advertisement They then met cultural department officials before Number 10 was handed their recommendations. However, the post does remain a royal appointment and final approval rests only with the Queen. Charles's love of the poetry of Ted Hughes, who served as laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998, extended to him erecting a 'shrine' to the writer at his home. Current laureate Carol Ann Duffy is paid 5,750 a year for her role, despite it not entailing any specific duties Bate said the prince 'worshipped' Hughes and regarded him as a mentor. He added that the prince once told him how 'wonderful' it was to sit at Hughes's feet and listen to him. Current laureate Carol Ann Duffy is paid 5,750 a year for her role, despite it not entailing any specific duties. She was criticised in 2016 for opting to write a poem about gas meters rather than pen one for the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations. Duffy reportedly only wrote a poem for the weddings of Princes William and Harry after much pressure was applied. She once also refused to write a poem for Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, saying that 'no self-respecting poet should have to'. A gun-toting jihadi known as 'the ISIS matchmaker' was told her two young children would be killed if she tried to leave the terrorist group, her family have revealed. Tooba Gondal, now 25, left her home in Britain and went to live in the groups de facto capital of Raqqa in 2015. But despite repeated attempts to leave Syria over the last three years she felt 'trapped', according to her 20-year-old sister Maryam. Tooba Gondal, now 25, left her home in Britain and went to live in the groups de facto capital of Raqqa The former student, who used the pseudonym Umm Muthanna Al Britaniyah, is now in Ain Issa camp in northern Syria after a failed escape attempt two months ago. She made a break for the Turkish border when her children were on the brink of starvation during ISIS' last redoubt in Baghuz. But she was stopped and handed over to western-backed Kurdish forces. Her children, Ibrahim, two, and Aslya, one, were malnourished when they arrived at the camp and reportedly clapped and cheered when they were given bananas for the first time in a year. Gondal, pictured holding an AK-47 in Syria, encouraged young girls to flee to Syria and marry ISIS killers Gondal's family have broken their silence to plead for the mother and her 'innocent' children to be allowed back to the UK. 'For the last three years she tried to leave but they threatened to kill her children. 'She tried to leave two or three times. But she had no money and no means of escape. She was trapped,' her sister Maryam told The Times. Tooba Gondal, 25, was a Jihadi 'matchmaker' who groomed British girls for ISIS fighters in Syria And she suffered a shrapnel wound to her leg after an airstrike, according to her family. Gondal travelled to Syria in 2015 at the age of 21 after her family believe she was 'brainwashed' online. She later became known as 'the ISIS matchmaker' after she was accused of encouraging other young girls to marry ISIS fighters. Her children are from two husbands - both were killed in fighting and the children's nationalities are unknown. Her father, Mohammed, 59, said Gondal was served with a Home Office exclusion order last November. She was given 39 days to appeal but the letter was dated October 2017. Speaking from the camp, Gondal told the Rojava Information Centre she wanted to come home. According to the centre, which published the interview on Twitter, she said: The British public are scared, they dont want to deal with us. But they must. We cant stay in this camp for the rest of our lives, they must deal with us. We are not threat to their society, we just want a normal life again. She said she wanted to be repatriated back to the UK, adding: The women and the children [of ISIS] became the victims if I did not harm anyone, if I committed no harm in Syria for four years, what kind of threat can I be to Britain? In 2016 the Mail on Sunday reported how her poisonous outpourings on the internet had glorified the murderous acts of Islamic State terrorists. They were meant to lure young British Muslim women to travel to Syria as Jihadi brides. Through her prolific output on social media, she was said to have commanded a powerful influence on her following of largely young girls. In her rants, she called Britain a filthy country and praised the 2015 terror attack on a Paris theatre. Gondal, who lived in Walthamstow, east London, and was a student at Goldsmiths, University of London, is the eldest daughter of a successful London businessman. She lived in the ISIS-controlled city of Raqqa, pictured, from early 2015 Her propaganda fell quiet in 2016, leading to speculation as to her whereabouts. The Rojava Information Centre said after the death of her first husband, a Lebanese recruiter, she married at least one more man, a Pakistani fighter who was also killed. Following his death, she spent a year and a half always having to move from one village to another in the Deir Ezzor region as ISIS was eradicated. She said: We didnt know whos on the left attacking us, whos on the right... who are we even with... it was a complete mess. She was stopped at a checkpoint close to the Turkish border, detained and taken to the refugee camp. Gondal has a strong presence on social media from Syria, pictured, and often posts inflammatory messages about the UK, taunting security forces for not catching her Runaway schoolgirl Shamima Begum has said she now regrets moving to Syria and was brainwashed by ISIS. Her latest interview contrasts sharply with her unrepentant comments after she was found in a refugee camp in February, when she said a lot of people should have sympathy for me. But following criticism, the schoolgirl from Bethnal Green, east London, has softened her tone, now saying: When I first came out ... I was still in the brainwashed mentality. I really regretted everything I did, and I want to go back to the UK for a second chance to start my life over again. Ganna Ziuzina now known as Julianne Moore was accused at an inquest in 2017 of being behind the hit-and-run killing of businessman Barry Pring, 47, on the outskirts of Kiev in 2008 A Ukrainian model dubbed the Black Widow after she was accused of arranging the murder of her British millionaire husband has won 65,000 from the coroners office and the dead mans family. Ganna Ziuzina now known as Julianne Moore was accused at an inquest in 2017 of being behind the hit-and-run killing of businessman Barry Pring, 47, on the outskirts of Kiev in 2008. A verdict of unlawful killing was later quashed when coroner Elizabeth Earland admitted allowing hearsay evidence and not giving Ms Ziuzina adequate opportunity to attend the hearing. A new inquest is scheduled for July 29. Now Ms Ziuzina, who lives in Marbella, Spain, with her British partner Ivan Lister, has been awarded almost a third of her costs, estimated to be about 200,000. A friend told The Mail on Sunday: Ganna feels very strongly she has been the victim of a miscarriage of justice the first inquest was grossly unfair but the coroner, Mrs Earland, was allowed to quietly retire afterwards. Ganna was accused of being a murderer without any evidence and there were huge stories in the papers about her, but when the inquest was quashed and Mrs Earland retired, no one said anything. She feels that these awards towards her legal costs are a first step in vindicating her. Ms Ziuzina met Mr Pring online early in 2006 and they married in Kiev, the Ukraine capital, in January 2007. Ms Ziuzina, who lives in Marbella, Spain, with her British partner Ivan Lister, has been awarded almost a third of her costs, estimated to be about 200,000 They had been celebrating their first anniversary at a restaurant outside the city when the businessman met his death. The couple were trying to hail a taxi by the roadside when Ms Ziuzina returned to the restaurant to find a missing glove. It was at that moment that Mr Pring was struck by a vehicle that has never been traced. Mr Prings family accused Ms Ziuzina of involvement in his death at the subsequent inquest before the Exeter coroner. The unlawful killing verdict caused a sensation but the model took immediate legal action. When the verdict was quashed at the High Court eight weeks later, Ms Ziuzina claimed costs and received 40,000 from the coroners office. In the latest ruling two weeks ago, Shaughan Pring, the businessmans brother, and mother Irene Pring, as executors of his estate, were ordered to pay 25,000 to Ms Ziuzina. She refused to comment. Novichok victim Charlie Rowley asked Russia's ambassador 'did your country kill my girlfriend?' when questioning him about the death of his partner. Mr Rowley said he still believed Russia was responsible for the Salisbury attack and that he was fed 'Russian propaganda' during the 90-minute meeting in London. The 45-year-old and his partner Dawn Sturgess, 44, were exposed to the same nerve agent used to attack ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last March. Mr Rowley said he still believed Russia was responsible for the Salisbury attack and that he was fed 'Russian propaganda' during the 90-minute discussion The couple fell ill in Amesbury months later after coming into contact with a perfume bottle believed to have been used in the poisonings and then discarded. Ms Sturgess tragically died in hospital in July after spraying the perfume laced with poison on her wrists. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Mr Rowley said Alexander Yakovenko had seemed 'genuinely concerned' when they met at the Russian embassy in Kensington, but had not changed his view on the country's involvement in the poisonings. Mr Rowley said: 'I went along to ask them "Why did your country kill my girlfriend?", but I didn't really get any answers.' And the ambassador told Mr Rowley that his country wasn't behind the Salisbury attack because Russian Novichok 'would have killed everyone'. Mr Rowley said: 'I liked the ambassador, but I thought some of what he said trying to justify Russia not being responsible was ridiculous.' The 45-year-old and his partner Dawn Sturgess, 44, were exposed to the same nerve agent used to attack ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last March 'I'm glad I met him and feel I did find out some things I didn't know before. But I still think Russia carried out the attack.' Mr Rowley, who says he continues to suffer from the long-term effects of exposure to Novichok, said he had asked the ambassador 'more than a dozen questions in all', including asking him about his claims that Britain was behind the attack. He said Mr Yakovenko told him the substance used had not come from Russia and that the country only had small amounts of Novichok. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror after the meeting, Mr Yakovenko said he and Mr Rowley were 'on the same page' and wanted to see a report into the investigation published. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement, with president Vladimir Putin claiming the two suspects were civilians 'It is important for Russia, but also for Charlie Rowley,' he said. 'I've seen a normal person who has really suffered a lot and who has suffered a tragedy in his life. If he asked for it, I would give him support.' In September, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service said there was sufficient evidence to charge two Russians - known by their aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - with offences including conspiracy to murder over the Salisbury nerve agent attack. They are accused of being members of the Russian military intelligence service the GRU. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement, with president Vladimir Putin claiming the two suspects were civilians. During an interview, the pair said they were tourists visiting Salisbury - particularly its famous cathedral. A brave mum who pulled her two children from a car seconds before it exploded has labelled the scare as the 'ultimate wake-up call'. Catherine Mayes, from Canberra, escaped serious injury when she used quick thinking and evacuated her four-year-old Mazda CX-5 as it filled with smoke on Saturday. The close-call was caught on camera and showed the vehicle explode and became engulfed by flames moments after the family fled. In an emotional Facebook post on Saturday evening, Ms Mayes processed her near-death experience. A brave mum who pulled her two children from the car seconds before it exploded has labelled the scare as the 'ultimate wake-up call' The close-call was caught on camera and showed the vehicle explode and became engulfed by flames moments after the family escaped 'I had a guardian angel looking after me and my boys today that's for sure,' she wrote. 'This was the ultimate wake up call that life is short and can be over in a matter of minutes, that lives are so much more important than possessions.' Ms Hayes was having problems with her car battery so she decided to buy a back-up battery pack to keep in her car and jump start the engine when need be. However, when the young mother pulled up to a park at Gordon Adventure Playground in Gordon, Canberra, with her four-year-old and five-month-old, the battery pack 'popped open and made a fizz sound'. 'I quickly got Tommy out and as I was getting him out it exploded and let out a crazy amount of smoke and started to catch fire so I raced to get Hunter out,' Ms Hayes wrote on Facebook. Catherine Mayes (pictured), from Canberra, is lucky to be alive after her four-year-old Mazda CX-5 filled with smoke before exploding into fire 'This was the ultimate wake up call that life is short and can be over in a matter of minutes, that lives are so much more important than possessions,' Ms Mayes wrote on Facebook Seconds after she grabbed both her boys and ran away from the smoke, the car exploded into flames and was caught on nearby CCTV. The young mother's panic was caught on voicemail to her partner John Stasik, where Ms Hayes can be heard saying 'We gotta get away bubba' to her panicked children. 'I was just like autopilot, like I need to get my babies out,' Ms Hayes told Nine News. Mr Stasik received the worrying voicemail as he was driving home and couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the cloud of smoke. Catherine Mayes is lucky to be alive after her Mazda CX-5 exploded into flames (pictured with partner John Stasik) Seconds after she grabbed both her boys and ran away from the smoke, the car exploded into flames and was caught on nearby CCTV (pictured) The battery pack is made by the brand Boxo and has a warning about not being left in the sun for too long. But technology expert Trevor Long said it's concerning that such a high powered battery can have such a dangerous outcome when it fails. Although Ms Hayes says the 'what ifs are overwhelming', she knows both she and her family are extremely lucky. 'I am so lucky that it happened while I wasn't driving, and that I went into auto mode and got my boys out of the car and away from danger,' she wrote. Although Ms Hayes says the 'what ifs are overwhelming', she knows both she and her family are extremely lucky A 23-year-old man was arrested last night after a spate of knife attacks left three injured - including a woman who was stabbed in the stomach. A woman in her 20s was stabbed in the stomach on Holloway Road in Islington, North London, just over a mile away from Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. And later last night a 23-year-old man was arrested near the scene under suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. A woman in her 20s was stabbed in the stomach on Holloway Road in Islington, North London The woman was stabbed in a house before stumbling on to the street where she was found with wounds that are not life threatening. Another two attacks happened within hours of each other as a teen was knifed in Kingsbury, Brent in Northwest London and another man was stabbed in Brixton, North London. A section 60 stop and search order was put in place until 6am this morning. Lambeth MPS tweeted: 'Following a serious stabbing in Brixton, a Section 60 Stop and Search authority has been authorised by Inspector Varotsis until 6 am this morning to prevent further violence.' The stabbing happened just over a mile away from Arsenal's Emirates Stadium A Met Police spokesman said of the Islington incident: 'Police were called at 11.07pm on Saturday, 6 April to reports of a stabbing at Holloway Road, N19. 'Officers and London Ambulance Service attended. 'At the scene a woman, aged 20s, had suffered knife injuries inside a residential address before making her way out onto the street. 'The injured female was taken to a north London hospital where her injuries are not life threatening. 'A 23-year-old male, no further details, was arrested nearby on suspicion of grievous bodily harm. 'He was taken to a north London police station where he remains at this time. 'Officers from Islington investigate. Enquiries continue.' Home Sectretary Savid Javis has given police more powers to stop and search after the number of fatal stabbings rose dramatically this year. It comes after fatal stabbings rose to 285 in 2017-18, the most ever since records began 70 years ago. There have been more than 40 fatal stabbings in the UK this year, including at least 23 in London The chairman of Tory Eurosceptic bloc the European Research Group has thrown his weight behind fellow Old Etonian Boris Johnson, saying the former Foreign Secretary could 'unite the party and win an election'. Jacob Rees-Mogg this morning denied his group should shoulder any blame for the current political impasse, saying the Prime Minister's deal didn't have unanimous Tory backing because it broke manifesto pledges. His comments came after it emerged the Prime Minister has offered a so-called 'Boris lock' to Mr Corbyn, promising to enshrine any deal they reach in legislation so a future Tory leader cannot tear it up. But the shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey indicated this morning that if no deal is reached between Mr Corbyn and Mrs May, Labour could be prepared to revoke Article 50, cancelling Brexit, if the UK was heading towards a no-deal Brexit on Friday. Jacob Rees-Mogg told Sophie Ridge on Sky today: 'I think very highly of Boric Johnson, who managed to win in London, twice, in a Labour area, has a great connection with voters, is a clear Eurosceptic, but otherwise is very much in the middle of the Conservative Party. Theresa May pictured outside church today. She has said she will step down from the Party leadership shortly 'He's not particularly a factional character beyond the European issue and therefore I think could unite the party and win an election.' It comes as potential leaders jockey for position, with some in the party calling for a 'Bamber' ticket with Boris Johnson in the leadership role and Remainer Amber Rudd in a senior position like Chancellor of the Exchequer. One Tory MP said last night that they would 'crawl across broken glass' to vote for the 'unity' ticket, adding: 'Amber would take half the party with her, while Boris is the man you need to beat Corbyn at a General Election.' Mr Rees-Mogg said: 'I've always thought highly of Amber Rudd, she's a longstanding friend of my sister's.' He went on: 'Believe it or not there will come a time when there are other things to talk about and we'll need all the talents in the Tory party, not just those of Brexiteers.' Mr Rees-Mogg denied blame for Britain's remaining in the EU should lie with his grouping, saying 'blame for this muddle rests squarely on the Prime Minister's shoulders'. Asked whether Theresa May had to work with Jeremy Corbyn because she cannot rely on Conservatives to back her deal - that they had 'forced her hand' - he said: 'I think that's an odd way of looking at it. 'The reason the Prime Minister hasn't been able to get all Conservative MPs to back her deal is that she failed to deliver on the promises she made in the Conservative Party manifesto, in the Lancaster House speech and in the Mansion House speech. 'She came back with a deal which potentially led to a division between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. So the reason she's in difficulties is her own creation, it's not forced upon her. Asked about a 'dream ticket' of Johnson and Rudd, Jacob Rees-Mogg said there would come a time when the party would need to draw on all its talents Jacon Rees-Mogg told Sophie Ridge Boris Johnson could unite the Conservative Party Liberal Democrats offer to back deal if public gets final say The Liberal Democrats have urged Theresa May to bring her Brexit deal back to the Commons with an amendment saying it should be subject to another referendum. Leader Sir Vince Cable said agreeing to a confirmatory referendum on the deal could secure the Commons majority Mrs May needs for her Withdrawal Agreement. In a letter to the Prime Minister, he said that as talks with Labour appear to have stalled, a referendum presents an 'alternative way forward'. He said: 'As long as such a confirmatory referendum can include an option to remain, my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I will support it and we know we would be joined by a great many others across the House. 'Providing Jeremy Corbyn sticks to his party policy, you could achieve a majority akin to that which was obtained for triggering Article 50.' Advertisement He went on: 'Rather than blaming recalcitrant MPs and Conservatives, if the Prime Minister had done what she said in the first place, and had stuck to the law as set out in two Acts, we would have left the European Union by now.' He insisted Parliament had authorised a no-deal Brexit, saying: 'Parliament has passed motions objecting to a no deal Brexit, but it passed two laws which provided for us to leave on March 29, now delayed. And law trumps motions'. He added: 'She has made active choices to stop us leaving and she deserves to be held to account for that. 'If she had done what she said in the first place and stuck to the law as set out in two Acts we would have left the EU by now.' He reiterated his call for Britain to be 'very difficult' if we remain in the EU in the medium term under a flextension arrangement, suggesting the UK could veto the EU budget. 'Each annual budget is set by majority voting, but the seven-year budgetary framework requires unanimity and we could veto that,' he said. Saying the EU had 'not acted with sincere co-operation', the ERG Chairman said, adding: 'what is sauce for the goose or sauce for the gander.' Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey being interviewed by Andrew Marr His statement came amid mounting speculation that Mrs May could be preparing to offer the Opposition a customs union to get Labour backing for an amended deal. According to senior sources, Tory negotiators have told Labour that the Government would accept UK membership of a customs union a 'red line' for Brexiteers but on condition that they 'call it something else' to avoid inflaming anger among Eurosceptic Conservatives. It also emerged the PM has offered Jeremy Corbyn a 'lock' mechanism, which would prevent any future pro-Brexit Prime Minister such as Boris Johnson from unravelling the deal by having it written directly into legislation. Under the new plan, the prime minister would offer to rewrite the government's withdrawal bill to enshrine a customs arrangement in law - so any deal reached with May could not be ripped up by her successor. SNP warns Labour it will 'pay the price' in Scotland if it allows a hard Brexit The SNP's Westminster leader has warned Labour that they will pay a price at the ballot box in Scotland if a deal with the Tories increases the risk of a hard Brexit. Ian Blackford MP warned that if someone like Boris Johnson were to become prime minister, the risk of a hard Brexit would be 'very real'. He told BBC Sunday Politics Scotland: 'I would say to colleagues in the Labour Party be very careful because if you do allow this deal to get through, and we know that Theresa May is going to go, you could end up with someone like Boris Johnson as prime minister and quite frankly he can come along with any legislation that he chooses to do so. 'There are no guarantees through this process, and the risk of having a hard Brexit, having Scotland being outwith not just the single market and the customs union, would be very real, and I would say to Labour don't do this, be very careful with what you are doing or quite simply you will pay a price at the ballot box in Scotland.' Advertisement This morning Rebecca Long-Bailey MP told Andrew Marr Labour had discussed how any changes to the Brexit agreement 'could be entrenched'. She said a customs union was 'defined in international law' adding: 'What we have on the table isn't a customs union, it certainly doesn't meet the criteria that many business organisations such as the CBI have been asking for,' she said. On the prospect of a second referendum, Ms Long-Bailey said: 'We have asked the Government whether they would consider complying with our policy position and as yet we haven't seen anything to suggest that they will.' She indicated Labour could be prepared to revoke Article 50, cancelling Brexit, if the UK was heading towards a no-deal Brexit on Friday. 'We have promised our party members and our constituents that we will do all we can to avoid a no-deal situation and it's something that we would consider very, very strongly,' she said. In a sign of the softening position on the Tory front bench, arch-Brexiteer Andrea Leadsom, Leader of the House of Commons today refused to rule out a customs union deal with the EU arising from the current cross-party talks, but insisted it would be 'appalling' even to consider a second referendum. Andrea Leadsom told Andrew Marr this morning that it would 'depend' what kind of customs union Jeremy Corbyn demanded Andrea Leadsom Andrew Marr it would 'depend' what kind of customs union Jeremy Corbyn demanded should be in a redesigned political declaration about the UK's future relationship with the EU, in his talks with Theresa May. She said the Prime Minister's own deal, which Ms Leadsom has repeatedly backed, included 'a customs agreement', adding: 'There are various different type of arrangements... whatever we deliver it has to be Brexit. 'The Prime Minister's proposal is an excellent proposal and it has a customs arrangement within it to ensure completely tariff-free and non-tariff-barrier free customs arrangements for agri-food and industrialized goods. so that is a type of customs arrangements. 'So we can't be purist about it, we're now at the point of Brexit slipping away altogether, we have to face what's in front of us.' With just four days to go until an emergency Brussels summit on whether to further delay Britain's exit: People at Gold Coast airport and several NSW north coast towns have been warned to remain alert for measles symptoms after two tourists caught the disease in Asia. NSW Health on Sunday said two young travellers likely acquired the infection while in the Philippines in mid-March and were unwell before landing on the Gold Coast on March 30. The pair then visited shops in Pottsville and Cabarita on April 2 before seeking medical treatment in Murwillumbah and Tweed Hospital the following day. People at Gold Coast airport and NSW north coast towns have been warned to remain alert for measles symptoms (file image) Anyone on Scoot flight TR6 on March 30 or in the same locations as the travellers have been urged to be alert for measles symptoms, such as a cough or rash, until April 22. Last month, a young woman caught the disease while at a medical clinic in Eastwood, north-west Sydney. She visited the clinic while an infectious patient who caught the disease in Thailand was present. Another woman in her 40s also caught the infection while in the Northern Territory and shortly after visited a number of public events in Melbourne. The primary health networks of NSW North Coast (90.6 per cent) and the Gold Coast (92.2 per cent) have some of the lowest rates of fully vaccinated five-year-olds in Australia. Two babies were confirmed to have caught the infection in Sydney earlier this week. Anyone on Scoot flight TR6 on March 30 is also urged to be on alert after two travellers who caught the disease in Asia were on the flight (file image) A Queensland couple is suing a luxury cruise line amid claims a tool box weighing 20kg fell onto the husband's head head and chest as he relaxed on a deck chair. Sallyanne and Louis Bignoux were aboard the Royal Caribbean's 'Legend of the Seas' in 2018 to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary when their dream holiday turned into a nightmare. It was during the final stretch of the round trip to New Caledonia, on board their favourite cruise ship, when the trip came undone, Mrs Bignoux told news.com.au. Queensland couple Sallyanne and Louis Bignoux (pictured) are suing a luxury cruise line after the husband had a tool box weighing 20kg fall onto his head and chest as he sat back and relaxed on the ship The couple were aboard the Royal Caribbean's 'Legend of the Seas' (pictured) in 2018 to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary when the incident occurred As Mrs Bignoux stood on the deck having a cigarette, her husband had taken up a position on a pool chair to relax. Overhead was a crew member who had climbed a ladder with a toolbox weighing at least 20kg to perform maintenance, the couple claim. They say the crew member lost control of the toolbox and it came crashing down onto Mr Bignoux's head and chest. 'After he (crew member) started climbing, the next thing I heard was Louis screaming in pain and holding his head and his chest. He didn't look like he was with it all,' she told the publication. The tool box was full of heavy hammers, spanners and a variety of other heavy tools needed for ship maintenance. Mrs Bignoux said the crew member was left shocked by the accident and kept shouting 'oh my god' ad they climbed down the ladder. As the ship sat in the sea port at Noumea (pictured) the couple decided to stay on board and relax which is when the tool box fell down and smashed into Mr Bignoux's head and chest A number of other tourists and crew members rushed to Mrs Bignoux's aid before he was taken to the ship's sick bay. Mr Bignoux was left with heavy bruising on his head and chest and had started getting intense headaches in the aftermath. In the months following the incident Mr Bignoux has developed post traumatic stress disorder from the incident which he said also caused social anxiety and depression. Crew members were extremely attentive to Mr Bignoux for the remainder of the trip which Mrs Bignoux did commend, however the couple will still be launching legal action. 'Every other cruise ship would have roped off an area for maintenance, if someone is painting or tightening a bolt, there's always an area roped off. But the man going up the ladder would've seen Louis on the deckchair, but at no time was he asked to move,' Ms Bignoux said. She said the incident could have ended much worse if the passenger who was hit was an elderly or frail person instead. The couple employed Shine Lawyers who commenced legal proceedings in August 2018 and allege the Royal Caribbean had failed in its duty of care to passengers. A Royal Caribbean spokesman wouldn't comment on pending legal action but said they 'operate all our ships safely, professionally and responsibly.' Daily Mail Australia has approached Royal Caribbean for further comment. This is the dramatic moment a suspected thief was chased and tackled to the ground by brave passers-by - despite him pulling out a knife. Public-spirited residents were captured in mobile phone footage heroically detaining the thug in the Small Heath area of Birmingham at 3.30pm on Saturday. He was originally stopped in his tracks on Grange Road by several men who accused him of stealing a woman's purse at a bus stop moments earlier. The suspect was arrested by passers-by who accused him of stealing a woman's bag. After they refused to let him go he reached into a bag (left) and pulled out a knife. The men then chased him around the corner and pinned him to the ground (right) The agitated suspect begged with his captors to let him go and even got down on his knees to 'ask for forgiveness' when his alleged victim arrived. He could be heard saying 'please brother, let me go, I'm sorry, I've f***ed up' but the group of men refused and police were called. Realising he was not going to be let off, the man then reached into a Farmfoods bag and pulled out a large kitchen knife around four inches long. But rather than running away, the men chased the suspect down a nearby street where he allegedly threatened them with the blade. He was then pinned to the ground. The footage was filmed by Birmz Is Grime and uploaded to their social media channels where it has already been viewed thousands of times. Brummies have since praised the have-a-go heroes' courageous actions. The man was later arrested by police, who praised the bravery of the people who tackled him. He is pictured here on the floor. His face has been obscured for legal reasons Zoia Samaya Theone wrote: 'I really appreciate the act of these men. It could've been my mum, sisters, aunts or even me. Thank you.' Kimberley Matthews said: 'Well done to the guys that risked their own life to help the young girl!!! That knife was massive could have been a lot worse.' Stuart Griffiths added: 'Well done lads, love it when people come together to do good.' Jason Charles Cooper Perry put: 'Well done, working as a community all should stand together like this.' Szymon Rorbach said: 'We need more people like those guy, all due respect lads.' West Midlands Police today praised the 'public spirit' of the men who detained the knifeman and commended their bravery. The force confirmed they received a 999 call at around 1.50pm on Saturday after members of the public detained the man on Grange Road, Small Heath. The blade the suspect pulled out of the bag was around four inches long, and is pictured here A police spokesman said: 'It's understood the suspect, aged 22, snatched the phone from the woman as she sat at a bus stop before making off on a pedal cycle. 'He was stopped by members of the public a short distance away but then threatened the group with what appeared to be a serrated carving knife. 'The man was arrested at the scene by police and transferred to hospital for treatment to injuries sustained during the citizens' arrest. 'He remained in hospital overnight and will be interviewed in due course.' Chief Inspector Stu Bill, of West Midlands Police, said: 'I'd like to praise the public spirit of the people involved in detaining the suspect...they were determined he wouldn't get away and I applaud their bravery.' Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley Jess Phillips A Labour MP has ruled out running for the leadership for the moment because the job 'doesn't look look much fun'. Jess Phillips, backbench Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, told Sophie Ridge on Sky she might like to be leader one day.her Asked whether she wanted the next party leader to be a woman, Ms Philips replied: Yes, of course, abso-bloody-lutely' 'I think it would be a massive embarrassment, amongst other things, if the Labour Party once again fails to have a woman leader.' But, she added: 'I recognise that some people would like me to stand, and you never know - maybe. One day. 'At the moment I feel so tired I can't think of a job I'd less like to have than to be the leader of the Labour Party. It doesn't look like much fun, at the moment. She said both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn 'both seem to have aged quite a lot over the period, they do seem quite stressed. 'I can't imagine what it's like when they're chatting to each other but I imagine they could probably get on quite well, really. 'They've got quite a lot of shared stress they could give each other a bit of a therapy session. She joked they would joke about missing sleep and missing out on 'the latest episodes of Fleabag.' Ms Phillips said: 'At the moment I feel so tired I can't think of a job I'd less like to have than to be the leader of the Labour Party. It doesn't look like much fun, at the moment' Mr Phillips, acknowledged there was 'a bit of a feeling' that Labour were playing politics, saying within the Party membership, and the country, it has not been clear what the party's position was. She said that muddled briefings over Brexit by different members of her party had been 'quite confusing for members of Parliament, members of the Labour Party, and members of the public'. But she said her passion for the Party had been 'reignited' since an interview three weeks ago in which she thought she could see the 'end of the road', saying the party was more unified now. It comes after she suffered a torrent of abuse from hard-Left trolls who called her a 'traitor' and demanded her deselection, when she said she would make a better Prime Minister than Jeremy Corbyn. In a wide-ranging profile article last month, Ms Phillips likened both Mr Corbyn and Theresa May to characters from 70s sitcom The Good Life The 37-year-old MP for Birmingham Yardley has been an outspoken critic of the party leader. In a wide-ranging profile article, she likened both Mr Corbyn and Theresa May to characters from 70s sitcom The Good Life. She said: I think Id be a good Prime Minister. Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn are of a bygone era. Its like The Good Life shes Margot, hes Tom. Theres an old-fashionedness about them. Their politics are so 70s its hate migrants, love miners. 'Theyre both in this terrible situation where theyre very traditional, very stubborn, bloody difficult people and they cant assimilate with groups of people who arent like them or admit when theyve made mistakes. Winter is less than two months away but parts of Australia are about to swelter through a late summer blast of heat. Much of New South Wales and Queensland will experience warmer than average autumn temperatures ranging from the high 20s to the mid 30s on Monday. Sydneysiders are in for a glorious day with the CBD set to reach a top of 32C and 34C in Penrith in the west. Sydneysiders will flock to Bondi Beach on Monday as the temperatures climbs to 32 degrees Temperatures are tipped to be be several degrees hotter in the west in suburbs such as Richmond, Penrith and Campbelltown. The hottest place in NSW will be in the state's north-west, where Bourke and Brewarrina are tipped to reach a high of 36 degrees, followed by Tibooburra with 35C. Along the NSW north coast, regions such Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour will be in the high 20s while further inland, Grafton will reach a top of 33C. Monday's weather forecast for Australia's capital cities 'We're seeing winds from central Australia bring warm air across of much of state ahead of the cold front approaching from south-west,' Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Craig Ryan told Daily Mail Australia. 'The temperatures will cool down once that cold front comes through.' Sydney will cool down to 27C on Tuesday with possible showers before plummeting to 21C on Wednesday. Temperatures will remain in the low to mid 20s for the rest of the week. Much of Queensland will also be warmer than average temperatures with Brisbane set to hit a top of 30C on Monday, while the Gold and Sunshine coasts will reach 28C. Temperatures in north Queensland will remain in the low 30s for much of the week. Birdsville in the central west will be hottest part of the state with a top of 35. Brisbane's Southbank beach (pictured) will also be packed over the coming days 'Monday's temperatures will be three to five degree above average for this time of the year,' senior forecaster Gabriel Branescu told Daily Mail Australia. 'Temperatures will remain 2-3 degrees above average for the next few days until the cool change comes through on Thursday. Forecasters were unable to say whether Monday's temperatures will be be final summer blast before winter. Elsewhere across Australia, the west is also seeing temperatures in the 30s. The mercury will rise to 32 at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Monday ahead of a cool change The weather forecast is a different story in the state's south. Melbourne and Adelaide will both see a top of 22 on Monday while Hobart will reach just 18 degrees. Meanwhile in the Top End, northern coastal areas of the Northern Territory are bracing for torrential rain and 100 kilometre damaging winds. A severe weather warning was issued by the Bureau of Meteorology on Sunday after monsoon trough was located near the northern Arnhem coast. Parts of Australia's south aren't getting the same late surge of summer further north Around 50-100mm of rainfall and wind gusts up to 100km/h are expected. Coastal areas, including Jabiru, Maningrida and Numbulwar will experience moderate to heavy rain and may cop flash flooding. Damaging winds and thunderstorms are expected for Cooinda, Bulman, Birany Birany but should ease late on Sunday. Outraged Tory activists are refusing to campaign for the local elections because they feel Theresa May has betrayed them over Brexit. In a letter penned to the Prime Minister more than 100 current and prospective councillors said they are struggling to get enough volunteers to help them fight the upcoming May local elections. It comes after Mrs May provoked fury in her own party last week by abandoning hopes of persuading hardline Brexiteers and the DUP to support her deal and instead offering talks with Jeremy Corbyn on delivering a softer Brexit. A number of MPs are apoplectic with rage at the move, while some Conservative members took to social media to cut up their membership cards. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip leave after attending a church service, near her Maidenhead constituency, this morning. Mrs May haw provoked the anger of her party after she announced talks with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn last week And now councillors have warned that donations are drying up and members feel 'betrayed over Brexit.' A excerpt of the letter sent to the Prime Minister, seen by the Sunday Telegraph said: 'We are short of party members to come out and canvass because the belief in the party they joined is gone. 'Many of us have knocked on the door of paid-up party members only to hear that they will no longer support Conservatives because they feel betrayed over Brexit. Donations have dried up. 'We are extremely concerned that the Government's breach of faith with the electorate on Brexit will result in long-serving Conservative councillors losing office through no fault of their own. 'Democracy only works if you make manifesto promises you will intend to keep Frankly, we have not witnessed anger and incomprehension like this.' Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks at the Pill Millennium Centre, Newport, after Ruth Jones won the Newport West by-election last week. Mr Corbyn has been in discussions with Mrs May about Brexit What happens next with Brexit? WEDNESDAY APRIL 10: EU SUMMIT Another summit with EU leaders where May will ask for a new delay beyond April 12. May's new plan is to strike a cross-party consensus in London and persuade EU leaders it means the deal can be delivered in time for Brexit on May 22. She may have to accept a longer extension that means holding EU elections, as Brussels has made clear this is a red line - and will take a decision on delay without Britain and it must be unanimous. EU officials including Michel Barnier have warned that the risk of an accidental No Deal is increasing if May arrives with no plan. FRIDAY APRIL 12: BREXIT DAY Britain is due to leave the EU without a deal on this date if no delay is agreed. Advertisement Mrs May could face further resignations this week if she does agree a softer Brexit with the Labour leader or agrees a further exit delay with the EU when she attends a summit on Wednesday. It comes just days after livid Tory activists were cutting up their membership cards and sharing the results on social media, describing Theresa May's announcement that she will hold Brexit talks with Jeremy Corbyn as the 'final straw'. Pub owner Adam Brooks, from Essex, was one of many to share a photo of his chopped up card. Mr Brooks said the Labour leader 'has no right to be involved' in Brexit talks and Mrs May has 'killed' the Conservative Party. Lawrence Gartshore, 16, said he cancelled his membership hours after the Prime Minister's announcement from Downing Street on Tuesday evening. 'The Conservative Party are not conservative any longer,' the school student from Warwick said. 'This emphatic capitulation by May was really the final straw.' Thats me finally done.. I couldnt now care less about voting for the next leader . Jeremy Corbyn has no right to be involved after his behaviour over the last two years .@theresa_may you just killed @Conservatives party pic.twitter.com/wOw9LYkni1 Adam Brooks (@EssexPR) April 2, 2019 For fellow Brexit advocate Busta Miller, 24, this is the second time he has cut up a Conservative membership card in three weeks. 'I was angry a few weeks ago and cut up my old conservative membership card,' the 24-year-old from Ealing said. 'I was hoping it would show the party how people like me felt.' After his latest card cutting, Mr Miller said: 'Asking to meet with Corbyn for a way forward on Brexit was the last straw for me. 'As this incompetent leader has said numerous times, no deal is better than a bad deal. Well that was just another lie among the many and I'm done with it.' Tony Esposti, 35, had to change two-year-old son Joseff on a Wheelie bin in Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire. He is pictured here with his son and wife Joanne A father is calling for unisex baby changing facilities after he was forced to change his son on a Wheelie bin. Tony Esposti, 35, had taken his two-year-old son Joseff to the seaside in Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire, and stopped in a cafe for lunch. But he was forced to change the tot on the windy seafront when there were only baby changing facilities in the ladies' loos. Tony is now calling for all public buildings to have unisex areas to change youngsters. He started a petition in February that has 125 signatures calling for baby changing to be made available in both male and female toilets. He said: 'Not having baby changing facilities accessible to both women and men is so easily solved. Essentially, it's just a table. 'There are same-sex families which have two men so I wouldn't know how they would cope with changing their baby. Tony said that getting accessible baby changing facilities for both men and women is 'easily solved'. 'Essentially, it's just a table,' he said 'It's not just inconvenient for dad and their babies but for other people around you who don't want to see a pooey nappy when they are eating or just going about their business.' Tony, a computer engineer from Cardiff, also said sometimes he doesn't take his son out even when he's with wife Joanne because he doesn't want to deal with the problem. 'There are times when I don't take him out because I don't want to deal with the faff of having to change him,' he told ITV Wales. 'If my wife and I are going out I don't want to rely on her because that's not fair on her either. It's not as if she's the only parent in the family.' He started a petition last month, which now has 125 signatures, calling on the Welsh Assembly to make baby changing facilities available Tony also said that fathers sometimes have to change their babies on the floor, their laps and benches outside due to the lack of baby changing facilities He started a petition asking the Welsh Government to make baby changing facilities available in both male and female toilets. 'Within Wales there are many businesses, hospitals and council run parks/sites that don't have baby changing available for use by both men and women. 'Normally the facilities are only available in female toilets. 'This means that men are often forced to hunt out facilities that they can use, or on many occasions, use makeshift measures like changing their child on the floor, on top of Wheelie bin lids in toilets, balancing on their laps and on benches outside. 'We would ask the Assembly to ensure that all future renovations and new builds within areas open to the public have an area that provides a safe and clean space to change babies/allow toddlers to go to the toilet safely and as a short term measure make a standalone or drop down changing unit available'. The Welsh Assembly's petitions committee has supported the call. It follows a tweet from Donte Palmer, which shows a toilet door with a cross over a picture of a man changing a baby, that helped inspire the 'Squat for Change' movement. He had trouble changing his son when they went to a seaside cafe in Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire. (Pictured) A view across the Saundersfoot bay from Wisemans Bridge A reckless drone pilot risked disaster by trying to take aerial images of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's new home in the middle of Heathrow's busy flight path yesterday. A photographer walking in Windsor Great Park took shots of the quad-copter soaring hundreds of yards in the air as flights with thousands of passengers onboard were passing around 300 feet above in preparation for landing. The drone flew south to north along the line of The Long Walk - the route Harry and Meghan took in a carriage on their wedding day last year - and hovered over Windsor Castle, where drone flights are banned to protect the Queen. It then returned south down The Long Walk before swerving east and heading directly to Frogmore Cottage before returning south and disappearing. The flight took place between 5.02pm and 5.08pm, when passenger jets were flying by every two minutes. It comes just months after drone sightings at Gatwick led to more than 1,000 flights being cancelled. Scroll down for video. A photographer walking in Windsor Great Park yesterday took shots of the quad-copter soaring hundreds of yards into the air. It is seen here in a zoomed-in image The flight took place right in the centre of Heathrow's flight path. Pictured is Frogmore Cottage with a passenger jet passing ahead yesterday The drone flew south to north along the line of The Long Walk - the route Harry and Meghan took in a carriage on their wedding day last year - and hovered over Windsor Castle The photographer, who took the images using a long lens, estimated the height of the drone to be more than 980 feet. The passenger jets were at a height of between 1,300ft and 1,400ft according to a flight tracking website. However, a source at Heathrow said they were at approximately 2,000 and 2,500ft, which would mean they were more than 1,000ft away. The maximum height a drone can be legally flown, even in an uncontrolled airspace, is 300ft. The route taken by the drone was within an area of tightly controlled airspace called the London Central Zone. The gadget was also within five miles of the airport, which is a further controlled zone by law, and near Windsor Castle, which is a banned zone for drone flights. It is also illegal to fly zones within the confines of Windsor Great Park. Between midday and 7pm on Saturday, this precise area was in the middle of the flight path for all arrivals into Heathrow airport with passenger planes flying through it at low altitude every two minutes. The drone spotted above Frogmore Cottage yesterday. MailOnline has contacted Heathrow and Thames Valley Police for comment Frogmore Cottage was yesterday under the flight path for planes arriving at Heathrow The site's proximity to Windsor Castle means drone flights are banned even if planes aren't passing above A passer-by said of the drone flight: 'We were walking along the Long Walk towards Windsor Castle a few hundred meters from the castle. 'The passenger jet flight path switches between times of day and at this time [5pm] arrivals were coming in right over our heads. 'They are always very low. The noise is deafening. There were Boeing 747 jumbo jets and super jumbos [Airbus A380] and others. Meghan and Harry are pictured on Tuesday at a reception at Buckingham Palace in London to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the investiture of the Prince of Wales 'They come about every two minutes and on Saturday that was their flight path all afternoon. 'Then in between the flights we heard the distinctive whirring of a drone overhead. I was quite shocked. It seems like such an obviously dangerous thing to do with the planes coming so low overheard and so regularly right in this area. 'It flew over our heads at about 200 meters up towards Windsor Castle and then went up very high almost out of sight but we could see that it came back towards us then went to the east over to the area where I know Frogmore Cottage is. 'Then it returned to the Long Walk and flew back over our heads and went south out of sight. It was in the air above us for about five or six minutes. In that time, three flights must have come over in the exact same air space and also very low.' Harry and Meghan only moved in to Frogmore Cottage on Friday after months of renovations. Meghan, 37, is set to give birth towards the end of this month and will enjoy a slower pace of life away from cameras in their new home in the countryside. The couple reportedly spent a record 3million renovating their Grade II-listed residence. The couple moved into Frogmore after months of renovation work. It is seen here before the building work took place Protective covering had previously been seen over Frogmore Cottage during the renovation Revealed: The 120 near misses between drones and aircraft last year A large 'commercial drone' that came within 22 yards of an Airbus coming into Heathrow was one of 120 near misses in the last year - it was revealed in January. The number of near misses between drones and aircraft were up 29 per cent from 2017 - where just 93 were recorded. While in 2014 just six incidents were recorded. Now an anti-drone system has been placed on top of a commercial vehicle at Heathrow in a bid to stop the rising tide of drone related incidents. An anti-drone system (bottom) has been placed on top of a commercial vehicle at Heathrow in a bid to stop the rising tide of drone related incidents Over Christmas a drone sighting at Gatwick led to 120,000 passengers unable to take off or land at the airport. Passengers were stuck on planes for several hours and were forced to sleep on floors inside the airport as flights were cancelled between December 19 and 21. While on January 8 this year flights halted for almost 90 minutes at Heathrow Airport after a drone was spotted at around 5.05pm. The AUDS (Anti-UAV Defence System), pictured, is able to detect, track and ground drones and has been designed to stop them being used for terrorist, espionage or other malicious activities Travel experts estimated that around 40 flights were delayed in the shutdown, with Scotland Yard later confirming that 'military assistance [had] been implemented' to bring the incident to an end. Details of 18 of near misses in the past year were revealed by the UK Airprox Board (UKAB). Four of those investigated by the UKAB involved airliners which were approaching the west London hub. A pilot of an Airbus A380 spotted a large 'commercial drone' pass along the right side of the aircraft within 20 metres at an altitude of 3,400 feet. The UKAB assessed that the drone was being flown in a way which was 'endangering other aircraft' and concluded that the incident on July 22 last year involved the highest risk of collision. Another category A near miss featured an Embraer 190 aircraft at an altitude of 800 feet as it was coming into land at Glasgow Airport on September 7. A 'shiny white drone' was flown immediately above the plane at just 15-30 metres away. The UKAB concluded that a 'definite risk of collision had existed'. Advertisement The sighting comes amid growing fears about the threat of drones to the safety of UK passenger jets. Between 19 and 21 December 2018, hundreds of flights were cancelled at Gatwick Airport following reports of drone sightings close to the runway. The reports caused major disruption, affecting approximately 140,000 passengers and 1,000 flights. Flights were also suspended for an hour at Heathrow in February. Thames Valley Police said they had not received any specific reports of drones flying in Windsor Great Part yesterday. Kensington Palace refused to comment. MailOnline has contacted Heathrow Airport. A trade union boss has been accused of hypocrisy after it emerged her female staff earn less than their male colleagues. Frances O'Grady called for big employers to do more after figures released last week showed nearly half of all major British companies failed to reduce their gender pay gap over the last year. But figures show a gap exists within the TUC's own employees, with women at the organisation now earning 94p for every 1 earned by a man. Two years ago there was no gap at the union between what women and men were paid, according to figures from the Gender Pay Gap Service. OGrady, who is the TUC general secretary, saw her pay grow last year by 18,000 - bringing her total package to 175,000 a year. TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady told big employers to do more to tackle their gender pay gaps. She is pictured speaking at a trade union press conference on Brexit She recently criticised firms that did not tackle the their own gender pay gaps and called bosses who did not take action to be fined. Earlier this week she said: 'Big employers clearly aren't doing enough to tackle the root causes of pay inequality and working women are paying the price. 'Government needs to crank up the pressure. Companies shouldn't just be made to publish their gender pay gaps; they should be legally required to explain how they'll close them, and bosses who flout the law should be fined.' New figures published last week showed nearly half of all major British companies have failed to reduce their gender pay gap over the last year. Of the organisations which met last week's deadline for reporting gender pay figures, 78 per cent have shown a gap in favour of men - despite Theresa May vowing last year to tackle the 'burning injustice' of unequal pay. The gap actually became bigger in 45 per cent of companies - mainly due to men's earnings rising faster than women's. A TUC spokesman said that the shift in the union's pay gap was down to it being a small organisation that had seen recent changes to staff members. He said: 'We keep a careful eye on our pay gap data, which we publish voluntarily. Frances O'Grady after a meeting at 10 Downing Street in January to discuss Brexit 'As a small organisation, a few staffing changes can have a big impact on our headline figures. 'We have put robust measures in place to ensure a low pay gap including transparent pay structures and generous childcare policies, and we'll continue to monitor and update our action plan.' Other unions also have wide gender pay gaps, including Unite the Union, where women earn 28 per cent less than their male counterparts. Public sector union, Unison, which is the largest in the UK, sees female employees earn 85p for every 1 a male worker earned, according to the figures. Nearly half of all major British companies failed to reduce their gender pay gap over the last year, the figures revealed. Employers whose gender pay gap increased in size year-on-year also include Huddersfield Town FC, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Dyfed-Powys Police, Ryanair and Kwik Fit. Police have made a desperate appeal for information after a British father and son vanished while on holiday in Malaga. Daniel and Liam Poole, 46 and 22, spoke to their family six days ago after checking into the Valle Romano Hotel but have since completely dropped off the radar. Their respective partners are now reportedly preparing to fly out to the Spanish seaside city to meet with officers who are scrambling to find the missing Brits. Daniel and Liam Poole, 46 and 22, from Burgess Hill, Mid Sussex, disappeared six days ago on a holiday to Malaga 'This is completely out of character for them, they never have their phones off and always keep in touch, we are so worried', Tara Poole, Daniel's partner, told the Olive Press. She last heard from car repair shop owner Daniel on Monday evening during a 'normal' phone conversation. And Liam's bank account records, which his girlfriend has access to, logs his last purchase in an internet cafe in Estepona, a town in the south west of the province by the Costa del Sol. Police in the UK have also upped their investigation into the disappearing father and son, from Burgess Hill, Mid Sussex. Tara Poole spoke to her partner Daniel on the phone after the holidaymakers checked in to the after checking into the Valle Romano Hotel Detective Sergeant Alan Fenn of the Missing Persons Team said: 'This is extremely unusual behaviour from Daniel and Liam to not be in contact with their family. 'They have been on holiday together before but never have they lost contact with family members in Burgess Hill where they live. 'We, and their family, are eager to hear from anyone who has made contact with either Daniel or Liam since Monday. Daniel is described as white, 5ft 9, and of heavy build with short grey hair while Liam is also white, 6ft and of medium build with short light brown hair. If you see Daniel or Liam please dial 999. If you have information on their whereabouts or have made contact with either of the pair since the last known contact, please report online or call 101 quoting 720. A millionaire property heiress has spoken about the moment her ex-boyfriend attacked her and has urged other domestic violence victims to seek help. Chloe Pidgley, 26, was left 'screaming and crying' after being attacked by convicted thug and drug dealer Antonio Henry, 29, who burst into her Earl's Court home and punched and kicked her in the face. He also threw a chair at her, and slammed a door on her hand as she tried to escape, breaking two of her fingers, in the assault last June. Ms Pidgley, granddaughter of Berkeley Homes founder Tony Pidgley, has now urged other victims of domestic violence to seek help. Chloe Pidgley, 26, was left 'screaming and crying' after being attacked by convicted thug and drug dealer Antonio Henry, 29, who burst into her Earl's Court home and punched and kicked her in the face Antonio Henry, 29, subjected Ms Pidgley to a terrible assault in her own home in London Chloe Pidgley, 26, was beaten around the head with a radiator at her London flat. Her attacker threatened to return with acid during the incident in Kensington The 26-year-old told the Sun on Sunday: 'If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. 'I want to encourage others in abusive relationships to get help before things escalate.' Ms Pidgley met Henry in January 2018 and they began dating. But the 29-year-old started becoming aggressive and refused to leave Ms Pidgley's London pad, and would also steal from her. She broke up with him, but he continued turning up at her flat and sending her abusive messages, before breaking into her home. Five days before the assault she confronted Henry over messages he sent to her, her sister and mother. On the day of the incident she heard a smash at her home in Earl's Court and found Henry standing in her bedroom when she went to investigate. Tony Pidgley is the founder of the famous property developer Berkeley Homes and thought to be worth a staggering 310million He slammed the door on Ms Pidgley's fingers before attacking her. She said: 'He was sitting on my chest. I couldn't breathe. 'He started punching my face. I thought, 'This is it, I am going to die.' I curled up in the foetal position. Then he got off the bed and kicked my head. 'He threw a big, heavy, chair at me and that's when he picked up this radiator that I keep next to the bed for winter and smashed it over my head. 'My blood was on the walls. I pleaded with him to stop. 'We were barricaded in the room my housemate was a man but could not get in to help me.' Judge Hannah Duncan jailed Henry for 21 months after he admitted assault and criminal damage at Isleworth Crown Court. Ms Pidgley, who was in court to see Henry sentenced, broke down in tears as the judge passed the sentence. Both Chloe and her model sister, Chantelle, reportedly received a 'coming of age' sum of 1million each Henry has a long history of convictions dating back to 2003 mainly for offences of violence including assault causing actual bodily harm. His record also includes offences of battery, harassment, threatening words and behaviour and conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Henry, from Ealing, admitted assault occasioning actual body harm and criminal damage. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison. A restraining order preventing him from contacting Ms Pidgley was also issued. Tony Pidgley is the founder of the famous property developer Berkeley Homes and thought to be worth a staggering 310million. Both Chloe and her model sister, Chantelle, reportedly received a 'coming of age' sum of 1million each. A casual health worker who was filmed shooting up just metres from the drug injection clinic where he worked has lost his job. The casual employee worked at the North Richmond Community Health site's needle exchange room, in the same building as the injecting rooms, before he was fired after the footage became public in February. In the footage, two men are shown sitting on the private driveway appearing to use needles to inject drugs, The Herald Sun reported. A casual health worker who was filmed allegedly shooting up just metres from a drug injection clinic has lost his job after the footage went public The casual employee allegedly worked at the North Richmond Community Health site's needle exchange room before he was fired after the footage became public in February A lady walks by out of frame and begins to film the men before telling them the clinic is just 120 metres away. However the men, it is not known which one is the former employee, shouted abuse back at the woman. 'When you're taking photos you're invading my privacy, I'll smash your f****** phone,' one man says before calling the woman gutter trash. Victoria Health announced in October of 2018 that it would be coordinating a trial of the medically supervised injecting room at North Richmond Community Health. The announcement stated the plan was to reduce the number of deaths from drug overdoses while also keeping the public safe. The trial will run until June 29, 2020, with an option to extend the trial for a further three years. An independent panel will review the medically supervised injecting room trial and report on their findings in 2020. 'The department and North Richmond Community Health are working together with key stakeholders including local residents, schools, businesses and the City of Yarra to ensure they are engaged with and informed throughout the trial,' the statement read. The plan was put forward after it was revealed the City of Yarra had the highest rate of heroin deaths from 2009 to 2016. 'In 2015, there were around 35 deaths linked to heroin in the City of Yarra - either people who overdosed in the area or for whom heroin they purchased in the area contributed to their death,' a report read. However data released by Ambulance Victoria had shown a rise in the number of drug related call outs to the area in the early months of 2018. Spiking to as high as 20 call outs in January alone. Those call outs have ranged from assault to stabbing, overdoses and issues relating to mental health. Former President Barack Obama has been one of the few key allies of Joe Biden who has not spoken out on the inappropriate touching allegations brought up against his former vice president. Obama hasn't been vocal on the allegations, but a source who has spoken with him in recent weeks claims that he is still supportive of Biden. 'President Obama thinks the world of him and thinks he'd be an excellent president,' the source explained to The Hill. 'He's spent an infinite amount of time talking about his character, and they remain in touch and good friends.' Scroll down for videos Obama hasn't been vocal on the allegations, but a source who has spoken with him in recent weeks claims that he is still supportive of Biden But sources also noted that Obama has stayed clear away from any of the recent news surrounding the embattled Biden, let alone anything concerning the Democratic primary. 'President Obama is not going to be weighing in on the primary and the day-to-day stories around it,' the source added. 'And Joe Biden would be the first to tell you that he'll have to earn the nomination on his own.' Obama had praised his former vice president, two weeks ago during a sold-out event in Canada. Allegations against Biden became prominent last Friday when Lucy Flores, a former Nevada state assemblywoman and candidate for state lieutenant governor, wrote an essay alleging that Biden touched her shoulders and kissed her head in 2014 'He complemented me,' Obama said. 'He looked at the world and approached certain problems with a different set of experiences. But he had integrity, and he is a big-hearted person and a loyal person. And we shared a common set of values.' But another source added that Obama is keen on not shaping public opinion on sensitive topics. 'President Obama thinks the world of him and thinks he'd be an excellent president,' the source said. 'He's spent an infinite amount of time talking about his character, and they remain in touch and good friends' 'He tends to not want to shape public opinion on this sort of thing, which is a juxtaposition to our current president who is all about this,' the source said. Allegations against Biden became prominent last Friday when Lucy Flores, a former Nevada state assemblywoman and candidate for state lieutenant governor, wrote an essay alleging that Biden touched her shoulders and kissed her head in 2014. Six other women have since come forward and accused Biden of similar incidents. Biden remained silent on the subject until this week when he defiantly refused to apologize for his history of over-familiar touching and behavior towards women. On Saturday, Biden spoke to reporters in Washington following his speech and addressed the accusations - but eschewed a direct apology. He said: 'I'm not sorry for any of my intentions. I'm not sorry for anything that I have ever done. I have never been disrespectful intentionally to a man or a woman. 'So that's not the reputation I've had since I was in high school, for God's sakes,' On Saturday, the former vice president then quipped to the audience: 'I just want you to know I had permission to hug Lonnie'. His words drew cheers and laughter from the audience During the speech, which was to International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Biden shook hands with union president Lonnie Stephenson and gave her a pat on the back. The former vice president then quipped to the audience: 'I just want you to know I had permission to hug Lonnie'. His words drew cheers and laughter from the audience. His refusal appears to have angered Flores even further as she took to Twitter today to slam the increasingly likely Democrat presidential candidate. She wrote: 'It's clear @JoeBiden hasn't reflected at all on how his inappropriate and unsolicited touching made women feel uncomfortable. To make light of something as serious as consent degrades the conversation women everywhere are courageously trying to have.' A young woman who entered a Miss Hitler beauty contest seductively pouts for the camera in front of a Nazi flag in new images released by police. Alice Cutter, 22, posed for the selfie with a Swastika emblem draped in the background in a photograph taken on her phone on June 2, 2017. It was shown to the jury at her trial after she was accused of belonging to the banned far-right organisation National Action. Alice Cutter, 22, pictured pouting in front of a Nazi flag in an image on her phone. The photo was taken on June 2, 2017 Cutter is pictured here holding a gun. She is on trial at Birmingham Crown Court accused of being a member of the banned far-right group National Action Pictures of Knives were also found on Cutter's phone. She entered a beauty contest under the name 'Buchenwald Princess' after the concentration camp where Jewish prisoners were killed Birmingham Crown Court was also shown images of Cutter and her fiance Mark Jones, 24, posing with guns. The engaged couple both deny being members of National Action, alongside co-defendants Garry Jack, 23, and 18-year-old Connor Scothern. Jurors were also shown photographs of Buchenwald concentration camp, which were found on Jones' phone after he had visited Germany. He is accused of being one member pictured making a Nazi salute in an execution room where Jewish prisoners were slaughtered during the Second World War. The court heard how Cutter had entered herself into the Miss Hitler competition as 'Buchenwald Princess' - after the Nazi death camp her partner had visited. Photos of her fiance Mark Jones, 24, holding a gun were also shown to the court An image from Jones' phone shows a copy of Mein Kampf with a knuckle duster next to it An image of Buchenwald concentration camp taken from Jones' phone Buchenwald concentration camp image from Jones' phone. At the camp many Jewish prisoners were killed The jury saw images of knives on Cutter's phone and a group photo of suspected and convicted National Action members meeting at a Nottingham bar on February 4, 2017. A photo of Scothern performing a Nazi salute in front of a Swastika Union Jack flag was also revealed as well as an image of Jones' copy of Mein Kampf. A piece of homophobic artwork found on Jones' computer featuring a noose and the words 'necklaces for nonces' was also shown by prosecutor Barnaby Jones QC. Mr Jones told the court previously: 'This case is about a tiny, self-selecting group of young people in this country, for whom Hitler's work will always be unfinished. 'A group for whom the Final Solution to the Jewish question, to use Hitler's words, remains to be answered by complete eradication. 'We are talking about a group seeking to mimic Hitler's 'Sturmabteilung' or storm detachment - the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi party. This image, released by West Midlands Police, shows Hitler 'National Socialism' artwork Connor Scothern, 18, is also accused of being a member of banned far-right group National Action. He is pictured here doing a Nazi salute 'It is a world that will transport the court back to the horrors of Nazi Germany: the concentration camps, the gas chambers, the mass executions, the crematoria and the Satanic chimneys.' Cutter, of Mulhalls Mill, Sowerby Bridge, Halifax, West Yorkshire, and Scothern, of Bagnall Avenue, Nottingham, are on bail. Jones, also of Mulhalls Mill, and Jack, of Heathland Avenue, Shard End, Birmingham, remain in custody. The trial continues. A vindictive young woman sent her fiance to Australia's toughest jail for a violent rape he never committed - but one photo helped unravel her malicious lies and prove his innocence. Daniel Jones, 31, spent four-and-a-half months in Goulburn prison, 195km south-west of Sydney, in 2014 after his then fiancee Sarah Jane Parkinson made 32 horrific allegations against him. A dedicated investigator later proved Parkinson to be a compulsive liar, beginning with a timestamped social media photo that showed Mr Jones wasn't at the scene of what she claimed was a brutal sexual assault. Canberra man Daniel Jones (left) thought Sarah Jane Parkinson (right) was the love of his life when they met in 2011 Daniel Jones, 31, spent four and a half months in Goulburn prison, 195km south-west of Sydney, in 2014 when his ex-fiancee accused him of rape Mr Jones' life would forever change at age 25, when he met 20-year-old Parkinson in Canberra in 2011. After a whirlwind romance, the young couple quickly made plans to marry and Mr Jones even built a house so they could live together. 'She was cute and innocent, a bit of old-fashioned... she always wore nice dresses and all that kind of thing,' Mr Jones 60 Minutes of his ex-fiancee. Shortly after moving in together, Mr Jones' life began to fall apart at the hands of the woman he thought was the love of his life. Parkinson got a job at Queanbeyan Police as a clerical assistant and began feeding her colleagues lies about her partner. The young woman, who the Jones' family described as 'clumsy', would turn up to work with self-inflicted bruises and marks. Almost two years into their relationship, Mr Jones was called into Queanbeyan Police Station where he was hit with an Apprehensive Violence Order amid allegations he was assaulting Parkinson. Mr Jones confronted Parkinson and he believed her reassurances that her colleagues were being over-protective. Mr Jones' father, Ian, said he also confronted Parkinson and she told him the allegations were false and that couple were madly in love. Ian said he began to suspect the family had let a 'rat' into their home. The couple continued to live together, but Mr Jones became increasingly concerned his partner was cheating on him with a policeman. The affair came to light when Mr Jones questioned Parkinson and their relationship came to an end in November 2013. 'I was crushed I'd just built a house. She'd moved in with me, everything was going well, I had a good career, my dream car I always wanted. Everything was going right and in that instant everything just went to s***.' Days after their break up, Parkinson ramped up her allegations against Mr Jones, accusing him of urinating on her, locking her outside of their home in the rain and hitting her in the face with a plank of wood. 'You've come from meeting this innocent, sweet girl to this premeditated monster who is capable of making all these allegations against you without a care in the world,' Mr Jones said. On March 21 2014, Mr Jones was arrested for raping Parkinson despite this picture proving he was somewhere else at the time of the alleged assault Mr Jones pictured with his parents Michelle and Ian who went to battle for their son amid the false accusations On Christmas Eve 2013, Mr Jones was finishing his shift as a prison officer when he was arrested in front of his colleagues and hit with 32 charges related to domestic violence. Mr Jones was released on strict bail conditions and moved back in with his parents - while Parkinson stayed in the former couples' home with her new lover and his three children. But on March 21 2014, police arrived at the Jones' home without warning and he was arrested. This time Parkinson alleged her former partner had raped her - despite photographic evidence proving otherwise. Mr Jones' sister-in-law had taken a photo of Mr Jones holding his baby nephew at the time of the supposed assault. Mr Jones was not the first man Parkinson (pictured) accused of rape. She alleged a Canberra man, the father of her best friend at the time, sexually assaulted her The information attached to the photo included a time stamp and Mr Jones' location. Despite the evidence, Mr Jones was sent to Goulburn prison while his devastated parents prepared for the battle of their lives. Ian said the family were put into fight mode as they were up against the police and incurring huge legal costs. The family were fearful Mr Jones could spend over a decade in prison - until Detective Sergeant Leesa Alexander stepped in. Detective Alexander, from the ACT criminal unit, quickly noticed a number of holes in Parkinson's claims and evidence and begun to thoroughly investigate her. 'As far as I was concerned and what the evidence showed is (Dan) wasn't responsible for any of it. It didn't happen,' she said. Mr Jones was sent to Goulburn prison (pictured) while his devastated parents prepared for the battle of their lives Parkinson made allegations the Jones family were harassing her, including claims her house was broken into and she was attacked by a man wielding a knife. A police warrant at Parkinson's home matched the knife from the alleged attack to her own knife set. Parkinson alleged her iPad was stolen when her house was robbed and said she had tracked it to the Jones' house. But a GPS tracker in her vehicle found she made the journey to the property, dumping the device outside the Jones home. Detective Alexander said it was clear Parkinson had lied - and it made her question what else she had been dishonest about. The ACT Department of Public Prosecutions called an emergency bail hearing and Mr Jones was released from jail. Mr Jones' mum, Michelle, described Detective Alexander as a 'Godsend' and Ian said his son would probably still be in jail without her. Ian said the family were put into fight mode as they were up against the police and incurring huge legal costs The family became increasingly fearful Mr Jones could spend over a decade in prison - until Detective Sergeant Leesa Alexander came to save the day 'Hand on my heart, it was him': Chilling police interview with a 'vindictive, cancerous' woman A woman who falsely accused her fiance of rape told a police investigator she knew for certain he was the man who attacked her. Daniel Jones, 31, spent four-and-a-half months in Goulburn prison, 195km south-west of Sydney, in 2014 after his then fiancee Sarah Jane Parkinson made 32 horrific allegations against him. In a police interview that same year, Parkinson told Detective Sergeant Leesa Alexander she was convinced Mr Jones had committed the vile act against her. 'Hand on my heart that was Daniel, I know it was Daniel, I recognised him,' she said. 'I think it was just sheer desperation, like it's been a rough few years with Daniel.' Detective Sergeant Alexander said she saw photos of Parkinson on her phone looking 'very happy' while Mr Jones was in prison. 'I found that very difficult, that a person could be so happy while someone else is in jail,' she said. Advertisement 60 Minutes revealed that this was not the first time Parkinson made false allegations of rape. Canberra man Keith Lewis was wrongly accused of sexually assaulting Parkinson a decade ago. Lewis' daughter, Sarah, was best friends with Parkinson at the time the false allegations were made. An emotional Sarah questioned why someone so trusted in her life would lie about something so serious. She said that people at her school falsely thought her father was a rapist for ten years. Mr Lewis was never charged over the allegations as there was no case, but the family suffered emotional torment at the hands of Parkinson. 'I think she's a lying, vindictive, cancerous human who should not be around other people at all,' Mr Jones said. Parkinson was jailed for three years and one month. During sentencing magistrate Beth Campbell described as 'incomprehensible, wicked behaviour', The Australian reported. Her crime has also been described as a mockery of genuine domestic and sexual violence victims. Mr Jones has now found love again. But a relative, Emma Holsty, said the family is still trying to bounce back after losing 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' in legal fees to fight for his innocence and freedom. 'That is before any compensation for the damage she (his ex-fiancee) caused for my cousin and his immediate family - now torn apart,' she wrote on Facebook. 'It really has been a six year nightmare that will never be repaired.' Mr Jones has now found love again, but his family say his family are still struggling after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees A GoFundMe page has since been set up to raise money for the family. 'Last week the perpetrator of this crime, Sarah Jane Parkinson, was sent to prison for three years for false rape accusations and faking a crime scene,' the page, posted in January says. 'This followed five years of Parkinson's vicious attempts to destroy Dan, her ex-fiance, and his family, with the help of crooked cops.' 'Her campaign led to Dan spending four months wrongly imprisoned and his parents blowing their life savings, spending over $300,000 trying to protect their son.' The page has already raised more than $20,000. An FBI employee has revealed how he repeatedly risked his life to expose his special agent boss as a Russian spy. Former FBI agent and counter-terrorism operative Eric O'Neill tells how he went undercover within the Federal Bureau of Investigation, posing as Robert Hanssen's assistant to secretly gather information on the veteran agent who was suspected of working with the Russians. The plot worked and Hanssen was eventually prosecuted for spying in 2001 - more than 25 years after he joined in 1985. In his new book, Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy, O'Neill shares how he was instructed by Special Agent Kate Alleman to gather intelligence on Hanssen. He was also told to intentionally anger the short-tempered agent, who would refer to O'Neill as a 'worthless clerk' and wore a 'revolver in an ankle holster and keeps an automatic [weapon] in his desk'. A new book tells the story of how the Federal Bureau of Investigation finally nabbed Robert Hanssen (left) in 2001, thanks to help from his assistant Eric O'Neill (right) After numerous near-blows, an unarmed O'Neill helped the FBI deepen the psychological profile of Hanssen. O'Neill wrote how he helped get the bureau the evidence they needed, despite numerous near-misses where Hanssen suspected his assistant of snooping around his office and allowing agents to search his car when he wasn't around. A successful office raid revealed that Hanssen was a double agent when O'Neill obtained and copied a letter that revealed Hanssen 'dreamed of being a spy against his country since the age of 14, after reading a book about Kim Philby the British intelligence officer who was also a Russian double agent'. Eric O'Neill's Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy was published by Crown in March 'I scooped the devices into my arms and sprinted for the stairway,' O'Neill writes in his book about a 'James Bond' moment where he obtained a PalmPilot, floppy disk and flash drive from his boss' bag. 'I slammed the door behind me and slid to a halt in Hanssen's office.' In the letter Hanssen penned: 'One might propose that I am either insanely brave or quite insane. I'd answer neither. I'd say insanely loyal. Take your pick. There is insanity in all the answers.' The documents also unveiled how Hanssen showed frustration to the Russians and also he came to request the PalmPilot device that would ultimately help lock him up for life at the ADX Florence federal supermax prison in Colorado on three counts of espionage and two related counts. 'I have come about as close as I ever want to come to sacrificing myself to help you, and I get silence. I hate silence' Hanssen wrote at one point. 'The US can be errantly likened to a powerfully built but retarded child, potentially dangerous, but young, immature and easily manipulated. But don't be fooled by that appearance. It is also one which can turn ingenious quickly, like an idiot savant, once convinced of a goal.' The FBI detained Hanssen (center) in February 2001, more than 25 years after he joined in 1985 Hanssen (center right) is said to have told FBI 'What took you so long?' when taken into custody As well as proving he had damaged the country's counterintelligence capabilities and revealed identities of undercover agents, the FBI learned that medical tape and chalk were Hanssen's tools for signalling the Russians that a drop of classified documents had been made at bridge in Foxstone Park, Virginia. The location was nearby where on February 18, 2001, Hanssen was finally detained en route to collect a payment of $50,000. Hanssen is said to have told FBI 'What took you so long?' when he was taken into custody. The FBI learned that medical tape and chalk were Hanssen's tools for signalling the Russians that a drop of classified documents had been made at bridge in Foxstone Park, Virginia The location was nearby where on February 18, 2001, Hanssen was finally detained en route to collect a payment of $50,000 The double agent dodged the death penalty after he agreed to fully cooperating and now age 74, he has no possibility of parole. O'Neill left the FBI in May 2001 and his story was told in 2007 motion picture Breach. The 46-year-old is a national-security strategist for cyber-security company Carbon Black and runs his own investigative and security-services firm. He told the New York Post about Hanssen refusing to be interviewed for his book, published by Crown last month: 'I would like to ask him why he did it. He has never answered that question for anyone. It's the one scrap of power he's kept for himself.' The double agent dodged the death penalty after he agreed to fully cooperating and now age 74, he has no possibility of parole The local woman had complained about Saunders before over fears that children could get scabies from some of the sick cats that came for the feeding The cat lover who was recognized by the alleged victim as a local Domino's Pizza driver had been feeding stray cats in the area over the past two years Lisa Saunders, 55, of Orlando allegedly brandished a handgun at a local woman confronting her about feeding feral cats in the neighborhood A cat-loving pizza delivery driver is accused of pointing a gun at a neighbor who asked her to stop feeding feral strays in the neighborhood. Lisa Saunders, 55, of Orlando, Florida, was arrested on April 4 on a charge of aggravated assault with a firearm after the local woman confronted her about attracting sick cats, according to Click Orlando. The alleged victim says she noticed Saunders get out of a silver Nissan Altima and place cat food on the sidewalk around 5.30am on March 30. Lisa Saunders, 55, of Orlando, Florida, was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault with a firearm for brandishing a handgun at a woman who took issue with the feeding of feral cats in her neighborhood She said she then went out and told Saunders to stop leaving food out, but that Saunders went back to her car, pulled out a handgun and said, 'Don't f**k with me.' Saunders then got back into the vehicle and drove off, according to the victim who then called the police. The woman identified Saunders, who she knew from complaining about her feeding stray cats in the past and as a driver from a local Domino's Pizza who had recently delivered to her home. The local woman who confronted Saunders says she was afraid that the feedings attracted sick cats to the neighborhood that could get children sick as well The pizza store employee had been feeding feral cats in the surrounding area for two years, a Domino's manager confirmed to police. The alleged victim says she was prompted to confront Saunders over concerns children in could get 'scabies' from sick cats. Saunders allegedly had been feeding them away from animal control traps placed in the neighborhood, the Miami Herald reported. Saunders' bond was set at $10,000 and is not allowed to possess a weapon or make contact with the alleged victim. British jihadists trapped in Syria face 10 years in jail upon their return to the UK under a new law that requires no evidence of them taking part in fighting. The 'designated area' offence introduced last month makes it a crime to travel to a blacklisted region or remain there after a one-month grace period unless for a legitimate reason, such as journalism. Currently this covers the northwestern province of Idlib, which is partly controlled by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, but it could soon extend far wider. The new 'designated area' offence introduced last month makes it a crime to travel to a blacklisted region. This is expected to cover Idlib in Syria (pictured on March 22) but could soon extend far wider A new list of designated areas will go before MPs later this year and is likely to include large parts of Syria, and parts of Libya, Afghanistan and Somalia, reported The Sunday Times. Home Office minister Victoria Atkins recently told MPs: 'It will be an offence to remain in an area after it has been designated - even if the person has been there for some time. 'Individuals will have one month to leave the area, following which they will face prosecution if they remain.' Scores of suspected terrorists have been trapped in Idlib since 2012 after becoming sandwiched between Turkey's now-closed border and the forces of loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Only 40 out of 400 ISIS supporters who have come back to the UK from Syria and Iraq have so far been prosecuted because of the difficulty of collecting evidence against them in a war zone. As evidence against suspected ISIS members is hard to gather in conflict zones the government has instead stripped some, such as Shamima Begum, (pic) of their citizenship The British government has instead stripped some of their citizenship, including ISIS bride Shamima Begum, who joined the terrorist group after fleeing aged 15 from her school in Bethnal Green, east London. Begum has appeared in numerous media interviews, including one in which she spoke of her boredom with hearing about Brexit from the camp where she lives in Syria. She told The Times: 'It goes on and on without end. It's so boring now that I ask the sisters to flick on to the cartoon channel just to get away from it.' Security Minister Ben Wallace, said: 'In order to deal with the challenges posed by terrorist safe heavens, the Government has introduced a designated area offence. 'We will not hesitate to use this as and when the opportunity arises. 'Of course for security reasons, deliberations about exactly where they will be used will remain confidential until such time as we present them to Parliament. 'Potential terrorist fighters should make no mistake that they risk up to 10 years in jail should they travel to an area once it has been designated.' A poignant ceremony was held in Rwanda on Sunday to mark 25 years since 800,000 people were slaughtered in the country's genocide. Cherie Blair and Jean-Claude Juncker were among those to attend the commemorations, as the country continues to grapple with the lasting consequences of the mass killings. Rwandan President Paul Kagame and first lady Jeannette Kagame laid wreaths and lit a flame at the mass burial ground of victims at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center in the capital. Cherie Blair arrives to lay wreaths at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda Jean-Claude Juncker and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame light the flame of remembrance at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Those also attending the ceremonies included the leaders of Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Djibouti, Niger, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, as well as the African Union and the European Union. 'I am moved beyond words at this memorial to tragedy,' said Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission. There will be a procession through the capital to Kigali's National Stadium where are many as 30,000 are expected to participate in an evening candlelit ceremony. Cherie Blair represented her foundation, which supports women entrepreneurs in low income countries across the world, alongside the President of the Swiss National Council Marina Carobbio Guscetti. 'Twenty-five years ago, Rwanda fell into a deep ditch due to bad leadership, today, we are a country of hope and a nation elevated,' Agnes Mutamba, 25, a teacher who was born during the genocide told The Associated Press in Kigali. Rwanda's President Paul Kagame (left), his wife Jeannette and his son Ivan (right) pay their respects in front of a wreath for the 25th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide President Kagame looks on as his wife wipes her face during a commemoration event 'Today, the government has united all Rwandans as one people with the same culture and history and is speeding up economic transformation,' said Oliver Nduhungihere, Rwanda's state foreign affairs minister. The mass killing of Rwanda's Tutsi minority was ignited on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like the majority of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu. The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane and the bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering the Tutsi, with support from the army, police, and militias. Kagame's government has previously accused Hutu-led government of 1994 of being responsible for shooting down the plane and has blamed the French government for turning a blind eye to the genocide. President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (left) and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (right) prepare to lay wreaths at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali It comes as French President Emmanuel Macron wants a day every year to commemorate the Rwandan genocide, now marking the 25th anniversary. In a brief statement Sunday, April 7, the day the slaughter began a quarter century ago, Macron expressed 'solidarity with the Rwandan people.' On Friday, Macron ordered a government study into the country's role in Rwanda before and during its 1994 genocide. Macron ordered a commission of researchers and historians to investigate the 'role and involvement of France' in Rwanda from 1990-1994. It is to make conclusions within two years. Kagame has won praise ending that violence and making advances in economic development and health care, although he is criticized for authoritarian control. President Kagame (left) shakes hands with former Germany's President Horst Kohler, after lighting a remembrance flame Ethnic reconciliation is a cornerstone of the rule of Kagame, Rwanda's de facto leader since the genocide ended in 1994 and the country's president since 2000. He is credited with bringing Rwanda stability, economic growth, and improved health and education. However, Kagame's critics charge that he is intolerant of criticism and his government is repressive, jailing opposition leaders. Some opponents say that Rwanda's reconciliation is forced. A quarter-century after the genocide, bodies of victims are still being found. Last year, authorities in Rwanda found discovered mass graves they say contain 5,400 bodies of genocide victims. 'Twenty-five years on, the victims and survivors should remain the center of everyone's thoughts, but we should also take stock of progress and the need to ensure accountability for all those who directed these horrific acts,' Human Rights Watch said. The feds are examining the role Emma Coronel Aispuro (pictured), 29, may have played in her drug lord husband's elaborate 2015 escape from a Mexican prison The glamorous wife of convicted drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is being investigated by federal authorities who suspect she may have helped in her husband's daring 2015 escape from a Mexican prison. Former beauty queen Emma 'La Reinita' Coronel Aispuro, 29, whose Spanish nickname means 'Little Queen', has been in the process of launching her new fashion line, inspired in part by the now-62-year-old diminutive crime boss, whose notorious Spanish nickname means 'shorty'. Coronel married Guzman in 2007 when she was just 18 and he was 50. Coronel was born in the US, but has dual citizenship in Mexico. She hasn't been arrested or charged with a crime, but the feds have had their eyes set on her ever since one of Chapo's top lieutenants implicated her during his criminal trial earlier this year. Former Mexican cartel member and Chapo crony Damaso Lopez Nunez, aka 'El Licenciado', testified during the trial that Guzman sent him letters instructing him to coordinate with Coronel, the mother of his twin daughters, before Lopez ended up meeting with her in March of 2014. 'She's being investigated for conspiracy in this country. She is being looked at for her part in El Chapo's escape,' an anonymous federal law enforcement official recently told the New York Post. During Chapo's trial in January, Lopez said Coronel told him her husband was thinking about breaking out of prison again and was wondering if Lopez would help him pull it off. 'I said sure,' Lopez told the courtroom in January. When Guzman first met Lopez almost 20 years ago, Lopez was a corrupt security official at Puente Grande, a prison in Jalisco, Mexico from which Chapo launched his first successful escape plan back in 2001. Former Mexican drug cartel member Damaso 'El Licenciado' Lopez Nunez (left) first met Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (right) almost 20 years ago when Lopez was a corrupt security official at Puente Grande, the maximum security prison in Jalisco, Mexico from which Chapo launched his first successful escape plan back in 2001 Coronel (center, in February outside court in Brooklyn, New York) is in the process of launching a new fashion line inspired and named after her notorious spouse The crime boss wanted Lopez to work with his wife and sons to help him break out once more, this time from the Altiplano Federal Prison in Juarez, regarded as Mexico's most secure prison. Lopez said he and Coronel met later with some of Chapo's many sons. He said the Little Queen told her step kids their father wanted them to buy an armored truck and a GPS watch while purchasing land near the prison. Chapo's sons obliged his request, buying the land before digging a mile-long tunnel to his prison cell complete with lighting, air ventilation, even a motorcycle rigged to a rail line for him to ride to freedom. Guzman used that tunnel to flee the facility in July of 2015, turning up the TV in his cell to drown out the loud hammering sound of his co-conspirators chiseling away at the stone beneath his bathroom floor. A courtroom sketch of El Chapo crony Damaso Lopez Nunez who testified during the crime boss's trial in January that Guzman sent him letters telling him to coordinate escape plans with Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel, in 2015 (L-R) Defense attorney Mariel Colon, accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, defense attorney A. Eduardo Balarezo and Joaquin Guzman's wife Emma Coronel Aispuro, sit in court in this courtroom sketch during Guzman's trial in Brooklyn federal court in New York City, on January 30, 2019 Emma Coronel Aispuro, (C right), wife of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman leaves at the US Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York on February 11, 2019 When the digging was done, Chapo slid his shoes on and disappeared behind a dividing wall between his shower and the rest of his cell, a moment captured by the cell's surveillance cameras. When guards checked Guzman cell 20 minutes later, he was gone. Lopez told the court Coronel's brother helped Guzman ride an ATV to a warehouse Lopez had rented. From there, Chapo was transported to an airstrip 'where a plane was waiting to take him to Sinaloa,' according to the New York Post. Marines in Mexico caught Chapo six months later after a January 2016 shootout that left five people dead, the New York Times reported. After his arrest and return to Altiplano prison, Lopez said he and Coronel were contacted about busting Chapo out yet again. 'My comadre [Coronel] told me my compadre [Guzman] sent his regards and that he was going to make a huge effort to escape again,' Lopez told the court in January. View of the hole (L) in the shower of the Almoloya prison where Joaquin Guzman Loera 'El Chapo' Guzman was and through which he escaped, on July 15, 2015 in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico A view of the tunnel through which Guzman escaped from Mexican Maximum Security Prison of 'El Altiplano' on July 15, 2015 in Mexico City View of the tunnel Guzman used to escape, during an operation on the surroundings of Mexican Maximum Security Prison of 'El Altiplano' on July 15, 2015 in Mexico City Mexican marines captured 'El Chapo' on January 8, 2016, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa 'What you said is Emma was involved in planning it?' defense attorney Eduardo Balarezo asked him. 'No, what I said is she was bringing a message,' Lopez replied. A lawyer for Coronel declined to comment on the fed's investigation on Friday. Heaven Conner, 23 (pictured), was found on Thursday morning naked in Kids on the Move Learning Center in Stafford, Virginia A woman has been arrested after she broke into a children's daycare, stripped naked, and proceeded to tell the staff they were 'fired', according to police. Police responded to a 911 call on Thursday morning from the Kids on the Move Learning Center in Stafford, Virginia. When officers arrived, they found Heaven Conner standing inside the center with a fork in each hand, reported the Free Lance-Star. Conner told authorities that she shouldn't be taken into custody because she's the daycare owner's wife. According to the Lance-Star, one of the daycare center employees arrived early for her shift and turned the lights on. That's when she saw the suspect standing naked in one of the classrooms. None of the children had arrived yet. It remains unclear when and how Conner entered the daycare. Police have not said if she was intoxicated at the time. According to Stafford County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Amanda Vicinanzo, Conner said the woman was 'trespassing' and 'fired her', reported the Lance-Star. The staffer and another staffer that recently arrived for work left the daycare and called police. Sgt Jason Aubry arrived on the scene around and found the woman, who by that time, was dressed in black and holding a fork in each hand. The employees told Sgt Aubry that neither of them recognized Conner. When police arrested Conner, she told police they were making a mistake in arresting her and that she was the wife of the daycare owner. Pictured: Kids on the Move Learning Center She allegedly told police that they were making a mistake in arresting her and that she was the wife of the daycare owner. Vicanzio told the Lance-Star that police received a complaint earlier on Thursday about a suspicious person walking on US Route 1. Officers discovered that the woman has just been released from jail after being arrested on charges of domestic assault charges. Conner, of Spotsylvania, is currently being held at Rappahannock Regional Jail and has been charged with unauthorized entry and indecent exposure. Advertisement A high-risk expedition in the Amazon has reunited an isolated group with relatives and eased tensions with a rival tribe near the border with Peru, Brazil's agency for indigenous peoples said on Friday. The FUNAI agency said a team of nearly two dozen reached 34 members of the Korubo tribe in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. The expedition included relatives of the Korubos and also aimed to avoid a possible conflict with the Matis tribe living about 12 miles away. Scroll down for video. A high-risk expedition in the Amazon has reunited members of the isolated Korubo tribe with relatives and eased tensions with a rival tribe near the border with Peru, Brazil's agency for indigenous peoples, FUNAI, said on Friday. Above: A FUNAI member checks the heart rate of one smiling tribe member FUNAI said a team of nearly two dozen reached 34 members of the Korubo tribe in the Brazilian state of Amazonas The Matis tribe repeatedly requested FUNAI's intervention in the case because they believed the isolated Korubos wanted revenge, mistakenly believing their relatives had been killed by the Matis. The main concern of FUNAI analysts was that the isolated group would not believe that the Korubos in the expedition were in fact their relatives, which made them call the mission 'high risk'. 'It was actually quite moving. We soon found one of the two Korubos we saw first was a brother of one of the members of the expedition,' said FUNAI co-ordinator Bruno Pereira. The expedition included relatives of the Korubos and also aimed to avoid a possible conflict with the Matis tribe living about 12 miles away. Above: Members of the Korubo tribe, who live in the Valley of Javari in Brazil The Matis tribe repeatedly requested FUNAI's intervention in the case because they believed the isolated Korubos wanted revenge, mistakenly believing their relatives had been killed by the Matis. (Above: A FUNAI offical vaccinating a member of the tribe during the recent expedition) 'There was a lot of emotion and tears.' The trip lasted 32 days in the Javari Valley, an area of about 31,000 square miles. Brazilian law says that contact with isolated tribes can be used only as a last resort to preserve the lives of indigenous peoples, and the expedition was FUNAI's biggest since 1996. The main concern of FUNAI analysts was that the isolated group (pictured in 2014) would not believe that the Korubos in the expedition were in fact their relatives, which made them call the mission 'high risk' The trip lasted 32 days in the Javari Valley, an area of about 31,000 square miles. Above: Korubo tribe members in 2014 It is also the agency's first major operation during the administration of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Brazil's new leader has often criticised bodies that handle indigenous issues. He has also promised to stop demarcation of indigenous lands and allow miners and farmers to operate in their lands. Disturbing footage of a kangaroo being kept in a small cage at a United States petting zoo has sparked a petition to bring the marsupial home. Video uploaded to Facebook showed the animal caged in Connecticut among what looks to be sawdust cushioning the hard floor. The kangaroo, which is alone, is seen pacing back and forward in the cage and sticking its nose through the wire. Disturbing footage of a kangaroo being kept in a tiny cage at a Unites States petting zoo has lead one American resident to launch a petition in the hoped of getting the marsupial home A protest has also been set up under the hash tag, #savetherooCT, and is set to take place outside the petting zoo on Monday (Australian time) The heartbreaking scene prompted Connecticut woman Danielle Le to start the Change.org petition to get the kangaroo relocated to Australia. 'The roo is in a small confined space and really should be with other kangaroos in its natural environment,' Miss Le wrote. 'I doubt it would be able to survive in the bush/wild now, so hopefully we can get it to a wildlife park or sanctuary in Australia.' Miss Le said she hoped the petition would at least get the kangaroo moved to a sanctuary in the Unites States - if not back to its native land. 'If anyone has any further information about how this can proceed (legally), please comment in the relevant field below,' she wrote. 'I have contacted two places in Australia to hopefully receive some assistance.' So far the petition has collected more than 700 of the desired 1000 signatures. A protest has also been set up under the hash tag, #savetherooCT, and is set to take place outside the petting zoo on Monday (Australian time), The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Western Massachussets Animal Rights Advocates, Sheryl Becker, said the kangaroo is subjected to extreme weather conditions. 'In September each year, (the petting zoo) has this poor guy outside in a pen for 17 days at an agricultural fair,' Miss Becker told the publication. 'We can have extremely cold temperatures at that time of year ... I have heard folks claim that the kangaroo often seems drugged - it is usually asleep.' Western Massachussets Animal Rights Advocates, Sheryl Becker, said the conditions the kangaroo is subjected to is also cruel Kangaroos tend to be most active during the dawn and dusk hours before mostly grazing at night and are a natural pack animal, living in mobs. The story comes only weeks after an Australian woman found a kookaburra caged up and on sale for $1,200 in a US pet shop. Wendy Davidson - who's been living in the United States since 2015 - said she heard about the bird and decided to visit the local pet store to see for herself. 'I was deeply saddened to see one of our native protected species in a small cage alone and so far from home,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'I couldn't stop thinking about him being a prisoner in solitary confinement.' Ms Davidson said the pet shop told her the bird had held been at the store for more than four years. She reached out to zoos both back in Australia and in Virginia, as well as the wildlife trafficking alliance, the Australian Consulate General in New York, and the US Department of Agriculture and Animal Care. 'Those that did reply basically fobbed me off or claimed that they didn't have jurisdiction of the issue,' Ms Davidson said. Libya has erupted into civil war as the rebel army commander Khalifa Hafter launched airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Tripoli in defiance of a UN truce. It is the latest stage of a four-day offensive by Haftar's force, which backs a rival administration in the east, against the home of the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). It has so far claimed 21 lives. The airstrikes have prompted a 'Volcano Of Rage' counter-offensive by the GNA, with a spokesman claiming advancing government forces had already captured several of Hafter's armoured vehicles. Members of the rebel Libyan National Army, (LNA) commanded by Khalifa Haftar, head out of Benghazi to reinforce the troops advancing to Tripoli today Troops with the LNA pose for pictures on their armoured cars. Government forces have announced a 'Volcano Of Rage' counter-offensive The offensive intensifies a power struggle that has fractured the oil and gas producer since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. Hafter's troops, which called themselves the Libyan National Army, claim to have reached the southern outskirts and taken its former international airport, though the Tripoli military officials deny this. A war plane carried out an air strike in the same area, a resident and eastern military source said. No more details were immediately available. The UN Mission to Libya today for a truce for two hours in southern Tripoli to evacuate civilians and wounded, it said in a statement without giving details. In another sign of the situation worsening on the ground, a contingent of US forces evacuated the country for security reasons. The offensive has taken the UN by surprise, undermining plan to find agreement on a path to elections to resolve the protracted instability in Libya. Haftar's troops (pictured) are thought to have reached the southern outskirts and taken its former international airport, though the Tripoli military officials deny this The country is a transit point for refugees and migrants trekking across the Sahara with the objective of reaching Europe across the Mediterranean Sea to the north. Haftar, 75, who casts himself as a foe of Islamist extremism but is viewed by opponents as a new dictator in the mould of Gaddafi, enjoys the backing of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which see him as a bulwark against Islamists and have supported him militarily. The UAE, however, has joined Western countries in expressing its deep concern about the fighting. In the past, Haftar has struck deals with armed factions outside Tripoli to advance his forces. But gaining control of Tripoli - the ultimate prize for Haftar's eastern parallel government - would be far more complicated. Armed groups allied to the Tripoli government have moved more machinegun-mounted pickup trucks from Misrata to Tripoli to defend it against Haftar's forces. In a press briefing on Sunday from Tripoli, Libyan Army spokesman Mohammed Gununu said his forces have firm and accurate tactics that will foil all attacks by Haftar's forces The city is known for a spirit of resisting 'old regime' figures, developed during 2011 when pro-Gaddafi forces besieged it for three months. In a press briefing on Sunday from Tripoli, Libyan Army spokesman Mohammed Gununu said his forces have firm and accurate tactics that will foil all attacks by Haftar's forces on Tripoli. 'The Libyan Army rejects coups and militarization of the state. Libya will always be a civilian state and the army will protect it and secure the people.' he said. 'This attack is a surprising one that destroyed the Libyans' hopes for democracy as all of them were preparing for the upcoming national conference in Ghadames.' It was also claimed by the GNA that it had 'taken dozens of captives from Haftar's troops, confiscated many vehicles and repelled rival troops' from the boundaries of the city of Gharyan. Royal Australian Air Force pilots are taught to think of women and take a 'gender perspective' during bombing operations. The 'Gender in Air Operations' doctrine informs pilots what they should do before dropping bombs in war zones to ensure women aren't placed in danger. It gives the example of how destroying a bridge used by enemy troops could force local women to walk further to fetch water or wood. Royal Australian Air Force pilots are encouraged to take a 'gender perspective' and think of woman during bombing operations (file image) 'Although destroying this target may provide a military advantage against the enemy, the second order effect may mean that, due to the gendered social roles, women need to travel further afield, on unfamiliar and less secure, well-known or well-lit routes to gather water and firewood,' the doctrine said. The program has been designed to encourage a 'new way of thinking' in which vulnerable woman aren't at an increased risk of violence or threat. Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans Association NSW/ACT president Bruce Relph said the program will also protect pilots. 'This is going to make the pilot hesitate, afraid he might be charged with war crimes, and that puts his life in danger because the enemy will not be hesitating to shoot him down,' he told The Daily Telegraph. However former army officer Bernard Gaynor said: 'We need our Defence Force to train combat warriors, not social justice warriors. The sooner Defence returns to its core business the better.' A New Mexico father has been arrested for allegedly beating his five-year-old daughter to death. Brandon Reynolds, 36, of Albuquerque was charged Friday with intentional abuse resulting in the death of a child under the age of 13, according to the police. Police say he'd become furious when his daughter, Sarah Dubois-Gilbeau, refused to do her homework on Thursday around 8pm. He told officers he was so angry that he 'blacked out' when spanking her with a shoe, ABC News reported. He then called 911 at 1am Friday morning claiming that his daughter was in cardiac arrest, said Police Chief Michael Geier in a press conference. Scroll down for video Brandon Reynolds, 36, was booked into Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County on the charge of intentional abuse leading to the death of his five-year-old daughter Sarah Dubois-Gilbeau, 5, who was diagnosed with autism according to her mother, died after her father allegedly beat her for refusing to do her homework on Thursday night 'The AFR responded to the scene, administered medical treatment before transporting that child to the hospital,' said Geier. 'At the same time rescue personnel called APD because they identified additional concerns and factors that they believed the police should be involved.' The five-year-old girl was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital where she was declared deceased and hospital staff recognized that she had suffered serious injuries. Investigating officers found blood on the walls and the carpet of the living room, according to a criminal complaint. Chantel Dubois, mother of Sarah shown here, lost custody of her daughter to Brandon Reynolds after he accused her of marijuana use. He then moved with the little girl to New Mexico from California Albuquerque Fire Rescue was called to this apartment complex after receiving a 911 call from Brandon Reynolds saying his daughter was going into cardiac arrest, but when they arrived, rescue personnel noted details that made them contact the police 'Her dad refused to accept she was autistic. Her father killed her because he could not deal with her autism,' wrote the girl's mother, Chantel Dubois, on a GoFundMe page for Sarah's burial. 'As sweet as my daughter was, as all children they have resistance it seems that is something her father was not able to deal with.' 'She didn't deserve this,' said a sobbing neighbor and former babysitter to KOAT Action News. 'She was so cute. She was a little angel.' Reynolds allegedly told police he struck his daughter with a water shoe, a type of footwear used during activities like kayaking, all over her body until she stopped moving, according to the Albuquerque Journal. 'Once he realized she was lethargic he cradled her on the floor of the living room,' according to the complaint. Albuquerque Police Chief Michael Geier briefs reporters on the tragic death of five-year-old Sarah Dubois-Gilbeau on Friday Sarah Dubois-Gilbeau was in the care of her father, Brandon Reynolds, when he allegedly repeatedly struck her with a water shoe and then did not immediately call for aid Reynolds then allegedly applied ice to her back, and left her in bed for hours until her heartbeat grew faint prompting him to call 911. Court records show that Reynolds retained sole custody of his daughter after a dispute in California where he accused Chantel of marijuana use and she accused him of having 'PTSD which causes him to not be able to handle or care for a child properly.' Reynolds is currently being held in Bernalillo County's Metropolitan Detention Center. Chief Geier told reporters that there was no history of abuse registered locally with the New Mexico Child, Youth and Families Department. 'This is definitely a heartbreaking tragedy and our officers and detectives are working diligently at this time to get justice for this little girl,' said Chief Geier. President Donald Trump on Sunday attacked special counsel Robert Mueller's team for 'illegally leaking information' to the press and then blasted the media for making up stories, calling them a 'joke.' 'Looks like Bob Mueller's team of 13 Trump Haters & Angry Democrats are illegally leaking information to the press while the Fake News Media make up their own stories with or without sources - sources no longer matter to our corrupt & dishonest Mainstream Media, they are a Joke!,' he tweeted. The president has been on the attack since The New York Times reported a story on Thursday that suggested Mueller's final report might be more damaging to the president than Attorney General William Barr's four-page synopsis of its conclusions indicated nearly two weeks ago. President Donald Trump attacked special counsel Robert Mueller's team for 'illegally leaking information' to the press Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said there were no concerns the full Mueller report could be more damaging than Attorney General William Barr's summary But Trump attorney Jay Sekulow gave a simple answer Sunday when asked if there were concerns that the full Mueller report could be more damaging than Barr's summary. 'No,' he told ABC's 'This Week.' But he also said it would be a problem if Mueller's team was leaking to the media. 'If this is true that there are actually members of that team leaking their concerns about the way things have been phrased to the public, I think is problematic,' he noted. The president frequently attacks news reports he doesn't like as 'fake news.' And he has long blasted Mueller's investigation as a 'witch hunt' and charged that his staff is made up of mostly Democrats. Mueller is a registered Republican who was appointed by Republican Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein to investigate Russia's actions in the presidential election. Of his 17 team members, 13 are registered Democrats, according to reports. Trump went after the Times shortly after it released its bombshell report that there could be more to the Mueller report than Barr's summary indicated. Barr told Congress that the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between Trump or any of his campaign officials and Russia during the 2016 election. Mueller also left it up to the attorney general to decide whether Trump should be charged with obstruction of justice. Barr, working with Rosenstein, decided not to charge the president. Democrats are demanding Mueller's full report. The president directly attacked The New York Times' ethics, saying the story couldn't possibly be based on information from people with actual knowledge of what the report contains. The Times 'had no legitimate sources, which would be totally illegal,' he said, complaining about the kind of press leaks that have made large segments of his administration fertile hunting ground for journalists. 'In fact, they probably had no sources at all!' he said. The paper's PR office tweeted a broadside back in the direction of the Oval Office. 'False,' read the tweet. 'Our reporters interviewed multiple government officials and others to gather the facts for the story.' President Donald Trump lashed out at The New York Times on Thursday for claiming discontent among Speical Counsel Robret Mueller's team about how their final report was characterized by Attorney General William Barr Trump claimed on Twitter that it would be illegal for Justice Department officials to leak anything to the Times, meaning they 'probably had no sources at all' The Times fired back, saying reporters 'interviewed multiple government officials and others, but didn't say any of them had first-hand knowledge The article described conversations with 'government officials and others' who conveyed second- and third-hand information, including what some of Mueller's investigators reportedly 'told associates.' Its central conclusion was that some on Mueller's team thought Barr's March 24 letter to a quartet of congressional leaders understated the seriousness of evidence that Trump obstructed justice. The Washington Post, in its own story, reached some of the same decisions based on second-hand reporting about what 'members of Muellers team have complained to close associates' about. Both the Times and the Post reporter that that Mueller's team prepared its own report summaries with the expectation that they might be released to the public something Barr, a Trump appointee, pre-empted with his own summary. The Justice Department said Thursday, however, the final Mueller report was littered with warnings about 'protected' material that would need to be vetted before any public release.. 'Every page of the confidential report provided to Attorney General Barr on March 22, 2019 was marked may contain material protected under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) a law that protects confidential grand jury information and therefore could not be publicly released,' according to a Justice Department statement Thursday. 'Given the extraordinary public interest in the matter, the attorney general decided to release the reports bottom-line findings and its conclusions immediately without attempting to summarize the report, with the understanding that the report itself would be released after the redaction process,' according to the statement. Members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's (left) team are reportedly unhappy with Attorney General William Barr's (right) four-page summary of their investigation The statement reasserted what Barr wrote in his letter to Congress: 'He does not believe the report should be released in serial or piecemeal fashion.' It also said the department is 'continuing to work on redactions' a process that Barr has said should allow him to provide a redacted report to Congress within weeks. Trump has long complained about newspapers' unfavorable coverage of him, taking special aim at the use of unnamed sources to draw conclusions that impact elections and move markets. He tweeted Thursday that the Times is a 'Fake News paper' that has previously 'been forced to apologize for their incorrect and very bad reporting on me!' That's a recurring claim based on a Times editorial published days after the 2016 election in which the paper's publisher wrote about how his team would regroup after failing, like much of America's media industry, to understand the Trump phenomenon. 'We will rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism. That is to report America and the world honestly, without fear or favor, striving always to understand and reflect all political perspectives and life experiences in the stories that we bring to you,' Arthur Sulzberger Jr. wrote, never directly apologizing to Trump or the paper's readers. The Times reported Wednesday that some members of Muellers team believe Barr should have included more of their material in the summary he released on March 24 of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. The Times said the officials and other sources declined to flesh out why some of the special counsels investigators viewed their findings as potentially more damaging for the president than Barr explained. It was also not clear how widespread among Muellers team, which included dozens of lawyers and investigators, are concerns about differences between Barrs summary and Muellers report, the Times said. Barr, a Trump appointee, said in the summary that Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia during the election. Barr also said the special counsel did not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice. Barr himself subsequently concluded that Muellers inquiry had not found sufficient evidence to warrant criminal obstruction charges against Trump. Trump and the White House have hailed the conclusions as a victory for the president, who has denied conspiring with Russians or obstructing justice. The attorney general has pledged to release the nearly 400-page report by mid-April with certain portions blacked out for reasons such as protecting secret grand jury information and intelligence-gathering sources and methods. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that members of Mueller's team say Barr did not accurately describe the findings of their investigation, which are more damaging to President Trump (seen above at the White House on Wednesday) than originally thought The Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday to enable its chairman, Jerrold Nadler, to subpoena the Justice Department to obtain Muellers unredacted report and all underlying evidence as well as documents and testimony from five former Trump aides, including political strategist Steve Bannon. Trump cheered the outcome of the Mueller report - or, at least, Barr's summary of it - but also laid bare his resentment after two years of investigations that have shadowed his administration. 'Its a shame that our country has had to go through this. To be honest, its a shame that your president has had to go through this,' he said. Democrats pointed out that Mueller found evidence for and against obstruction and demanded to see his full report. They insisted that even the summary by the presidents attorney general hardly put him in the clear. READ IN FULL: Attorney General Barr's letter to Congress summarizing the Mueller investigation findings Advertisement Muellers conclusions, summarized by Barr in a four page letter to Congress, represented a victory for Trump on a key question that has hung over his presidency from the start whether his campaign worked with Russia to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. That was further good news for the president on top of the Justice Departments earlier announcement that Mueller had wrapped his investigation without new indictments. That could deflate the hopes of Democrats in Congress and on the 2020 campaign trail that incriminating findings from Mueller would hobble the presidents agenda and re-election bid. But while Mueller was categorical in ruling out criminal collusion, he was more circumspect on presidential obstruction of justice. Despite Trumps claim of total exoneration, Mueller did not draw a conclusion one way or the other on whether he sought to stifle the Russia investigation through his actions including the firing of former FBI director James Comey. According to Barrs summary, Mueller set out 'evidence on both sides of the question' and stated that 'while this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.' Barr, who was nominated by Trump in December, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in May 2017 and oversaw much of his work, went further in Trumps favor. The attorney general said he and Rosenstein had determined that Muellers evidence was insufficient to prove in court that Trump had committed obstruction of justice to hamper the probe. Barr has previously voiced a broad view of presidential powers, and in an unsolicited memo last June he cast doubt on whether the president could have obstructed justice through acts like firing his FBI director that he was legally empowered to take. A British mother facing jail in Dubai over a three-year-old Facebook post says she is 'frightened to death and feels abandoned by Britain as she awaits her fate. Laleh Shahravesh, 55, told MailOnline she has had 'little help' from consular officials in the UAE after her arrest almost a month ago. She is anxiously awaiting her court appearance later this week. The single mother was arrested along with her 14-year-old daughter Paris when she arrived in the Arab kingdom for her ex-husband's funeral last month. She discovered that his second wife had complained about a disparaging social media post she had made in 2016, and she was held under Dubai's strict cyber crime laws. While her daughter was allowed to return home to Britain, Laleh was banned from leaving the country as her passport has been confiscated. Lawyers have told the single mother she faces up to two years in jail and a fine of 50,000 when she appears in court later this week. Laleh Sharavesh was arrested along with her 14-year-old daughter Paris when she arrived in the Arab kingdom for her ex's funeral last month Laleh said she wrote two comments in Farsi where she described 42-year-old Tunisian born Samah al Hammadi as a 'horse' and called her ex an 'idiot' Laleh told MailOnline: 'I am terrified. I can't sleep or eat. I have gone down two dress sizes because of the stress. 'And my daughter cries herself to sleep every night. We are so close, especially since her father left us and we only have each other. It breaks my heart to be kept apart from her'. Her ordeal began on March 14 when Laleh and her daughter flew to Dubai's for her ex husband Pedro's funeral. He died aged 51 from a heart attack on March 3 and Laleh and her daughter, from Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, wanted to pay their final respects. Two years earlier after the Portugese banker had left her after 18 years of marriage for a younger woman she lashed out in anger on his Facebook page when she saw a photo of his new wife on their wedding day. Laleh said she wrote two comments in Farsi where she described 42-year-old Tunisian born Samah al Hammadi as a 'horse' and called her ex an 'idiot'. As she made the Facebook post while living in the UK she thought nothing more about the comments. She was unaware al Hammadi had complained to Dubai authorities where social media posts can be used in a prosecution. Her ordeal began on March 14 when Laleh and her daughter flew to Dubai's for her ex husband Pedro's funeral Her husband and his new wife Samah Al Hammadi (pictured) were living in Dubai when the Facebook posts were made in October 2016 Laleh said: 'I had no idea he was getting married again, and so soon after our own marriage broke down. 'I reacted badly. I lashed out and wrote two unpleasant comments about his new wife on his Facebook page. 'I know shouldn't have. I should have behaved better, but I felt angry, betrayed and hurt. After 18 years of marriage, such a small amount of time apart, he was getting married so quickly. He didn't even have enough respect for me to tell me in advance'. As soon as Laleh and her daughter landed in Dubai on March 10, intending to stay for five days, they were arrested at the airport. Immigration authorities had an outstanding arrest warrant following the complaint made in 2017 about the Facebook post. The two offending posts were: 'I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse' and 'You married a horse you idiot'. The terrified pair spent 12 hours in a police station and were not offered any food and hardly any water. As soon as Laleh and her daughter landed in Dubai on March 10, intending to stay for five days, they were arrested at the airport Laleh said she was offered a statement to sign in Arabic and the translation of the Facebook post bore no relation to what she had written. The word 'bitch' had been substituted for the word 'horse.' Laleh was told she could not leave Dubai while she awaited a court hearing. Her daughter was allowed to fly home and is desperately missing her mother while she stays with friends. Laleh lived in Dubai for eight months with her husband after he landed a job with the HSBC bank. She returned home with their daughter expecting her husband to return after he completed his work commitments. But she later discovered he had begun a relationship with another woman and filed for divorce after 18 years. Laleh said she had no idea her husband planned to marry so soon after their split. Her husband and his new wife Samah Al Hammadi were living in Dubai when the Facebook posts were made in October 2016. Laleh said she has lost her job at a homeless shelter due to her absence and now faces losing her home as she has racked 5,000 in debt while being forced to stay in Dubai. She said: 'I have lost everything because of this. Laleh said she has lost her job at a homeless shelter due to her absence and now faces losing her home as she has racked 5,000 in debt while being forced to stay in Dubai 'I have no money left after paying to stay in a hotel here for over a month. I have lost my job and am unable to pay for rent on the flat I live in with Paris, because of this we are about to lose the flat. 'I am even in debt to my family for over 5,000. My life is in ruins, and that is even before the huge fines and jail I am facing here. All of that is less important than being separated from my daughter, and that's all I want now, just to be back with her'. Laleh's sister Laden said the family appealed to the British Embassy for help but were told they could not intervene. She said: 'All they did was recommend her an expensive list of lawyers. When Laleh told them she can't afford to stay in even a cheap hotel while she waits and is in danger of becoming homeless in Dubai, the FCO staff just told her she should "find someone to borrow money from".' Radha Stirling, CEO of human rights organisation Detained In Dubai is officially representing Laleh. She said: 'I have spoken with Laleh, her mother, sisters and daughter Paris. Their experience is heartbreaking. 'Not only has Paris lost her father, but in going to visit him to say her final goodbye, she wound up in a frightening Middle Eastern police station, and is now without her mother. 'Every family member was teary and it was very emotional to speak with all of them. They are all extremely damaged by what has happened and I expect it will be a long and psychological recovery process for them. 'Paris is writing a letter to Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE to appeal for her mother's release. I also call on Sheikh Mohammed to ensure Laleh is swiftly reunited with her daughter in London and to review the content and application of the UAE's cybercrime laws. I also call on Laleh's MP Zac Goldsmith and Jeremy Hunt to enter into diplomatic discussions with the UAE to ensure Laleh's safe return. 'It is simply unreasonable that a country wishing to attract Western tourism arrests and charges a woman for a Facebook post made years ago from outside of the UAE's jurisdiction. 'The post would never be prosecuted as a criminal offence in England, and if the UAE intends to detain tourists for posts made from England, it will find itself rendered a no go zone to foreigners.' Sterling said the UAE have draconian cyber crime laws that can be enforced at any time. 'The UAE is the most likely place for British nationals to be arrested abroad and the Cybercrime laws have potentially rendered almost every visitor a criminal. 'The laws are enforced arbitrarily, which leads to even greater confusion over what is or isn't a crime. 'I have warned the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office that their advice to tourists is insufficient. 'When the UAE introduced Cybercrime laws, it rendered almost every visitor to the country a criminal. 'Visitors to Dubai are rightfully unaware that they could be jailed for a Facebook or Twitter post made from outside the jurisdiction of the UAE, and made years ago. The UAE's cybercrime laws apply extraterritorially and retroactively. The Cybercrime laws prohibit sharing charities online such as Amnesty international, they prohibit fundraising, sharing photos taken in public, for example that includes a vehicle or other people. 'The laws further forbid anything 'defamatory' against the UAE and this can even include the reporting of a news article and further prohibit the use of a VPN.' Chantelle Saunders, who is transitioning from male to female, said she was left 'very, very upset' by the way she was treated by staff A hospital has been forced to apologise to a transgender woman who visited a ward dressed as Mrs Claus at Christmas after the nurse mistook her for a man and exclaimed 'erggh' when corrected. Chantelle Saunders, who is transitioning from male to female, said she was left 'very, very upset' by the way she was treated by staff at Royal Devon and Exeter hospital. The 34-year-old claims a nurse replied 'Er...it's a man' when she wished her 'Happy Christmas' while wearing an Ann Summers Mrs Claus outfit. Chantelle, from Exeter, visited the hospital on Christmas Eve last year in full make-up, wig and costume to spread some festive cheer. But she said she was disgusted after the nurse believed she was a man and then replied 'erggh' when she informed her she was a transgender woman. In a letter the hospital told Chantelle that the nurse thought she was male because 'you had a full beard and were dressed in male attire'. But they have now apologised and said they are keen to speak to Chantelle to see if they can 'explore how we can resolve any remaining issues she has'. Chantelle said she has never had a beard, even before she began her three year transition, and blasted the nurse's actions. She said: 'I was very, very upset. I'm a transgender woman - transitioning from male to female. I went to visit my friend in hospital on Christmas Eve on one of the RD&E ward. 'She was in having an operation and there was a nurse in the cubicle. I said 'Happy Christmas' and the nurse replied 'Er...it's a man'. 'I said 'No I'm a transgender woman' and she said 'errgh'.' The incident happened on Christmas Eve at Royal Devon and Exeter hospital (seen in a file photo) Chantelle said she complained to the NHS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) and received a comment back from the assistant head of nursing apologising for saying 'happy Christmas, sir'. 'But I appealed and made another complaint about that because they didn't speak to me or speak to my two witnesses. 'Now I have had a letter back from the deputy chief executive/chief nurse which basically says that the nurse involved has no recollection of making the comment - but again they never spoke to my two witnesses.' She then read out part of the letter, which said that staff were trained to enquire about how people wished to be addressed. Chantelle continued: 'The bit of the letter that has really upset me is this bit, it says, 'However when a person is visited we are advised to address the person as they are seen. In your case I understand you had a full beard and were dressed in male attire'.' Chantelle said if the hospital had contacted her witnesses they would all testify that she was dressed as a woman, as she has for the last three years since she began transitioning and taking female hormones. The 34-year-old claims a nurse replied 'Er...it's a man' when she wished her 'Happy Christmas' while wearing an Ann Summers Mrs Claus outfit She said: 'I am always dressed as a woman. I had full make-up. I had my hair on. I am on female hormones and do not have a beard. 'Even my passport shows that I am female. This second letter is even worse than the first. 'Life is difficult enough when you are transitioning. I have had hate crimes committed against me. 'But I am very surprised that this is how I have been treated. They are usually very good and treat me properly. But this is just ridiculous.' Friend Chloe Palmer, 20, said: 'I was with Chantelle. She had got a Mrs Claus outfit from Ann Summers and she had stockings and make-up and her hair done. 'I was upset because in that industry they should be used to having different kinds of people going in and out without passing judgement. I was a bit shocked.' In a statement from the hospital, Chief Nurse Em Wilkinson-Brice said: 'We are always sorry to hear when a patient or visitor is unhappy with their experience at the RD&E. 'In this case we have investigated the complaint and apologised for any offence caused. 'We are keen to speak with Ms Saunders to explore how we can resolve any remaining issues she has. 'All staff at the RD&E undergo equality and diversity training as standard, reflecting the importance we place on the value of inclusion and collaboration.' Meghan Markle has become the latest victim of fierce online conspiracy theorists who extraordinarily accuse the mother-to-be of faking her pregnancy by wearing a prosthetic bump. Sick trolling directed at the Duchess of Sussex who is just weeks away from her likely due date is festering on social media channels where it is being viewed by tens of thousands. At the extremes, one particular YouTube profile which boasts over 30,000 subscribers churns out almost daily videos attacking her and other Royals. Sick trolling directed at the Duchess of Sussex, who is just weeks away from her likely due date, centres on extraordinary allegations that she is faking her pregnancy One video watched over 200,000 times claims to provide 'absolute proof' that Meghan is duping the public about her impending baby. And while channel's so-called 'prosthetic belly' theory may seem like a bizarre conspiracy, it is being lapped up by followers, with one even posting: 'It is really disgusting how she is insulting everyone's intelligence.' These YouTube allegations have spilled over on to other online platforms where they are repeated by usually anonymous profiles. One such troll tweeted: 'Wow, this is so fake! If she were really pregnant, she wouldn't be so insecure about showing the bump. This is such a fraud.' They fan their wild theories across the internet using hashtags such as #moonbump, referring to the widely-contested 1969 moon landings. The trolls have invented a wild conspiracy theory where they claim the Duchess of Sussex's bump is prosthetic The allegations have spilled over on to other online platforms where they are repeated by usually anonymous profiles. They fan their wild theories across the internet using hashtags such as #moonbump, referring to the widely-contested 1969 moon landings But other online users have leaped to the Duchess's defence and hit back at the trolls. One said: 'I'm so tired of all the hate displayed regarding Meghan Markle. How the hell do you fake a pregnancy?... to all the haters, for goodness sake, get a life!' On a recent trip to King's College London to mark International Women's Day, Meghan revealed that she does not look at social media. Although five days ago, she and Prince Harry set up a new official Instagram account which has already racked up five pictures. Kensington Palace have not announced Meghan's exact due date but she is expected to give birth later this month or in early May. And she is reportedly poised to snub the famous Lindo Wing where Kate Middleton gave birth in favour of a private clinic to her Frogmore Cottage home in Windsor. A-mother-of-three who was given weeks to live after she shunned chemotherapy has baffled doctors by treating her cancer with illegal super strength cannabis and Manuka honey. Susan Dhillon, 51, from Slough, Berkshire, was diagnosed with inoperable stage four cancer of the mouth, nose and lower skull in June 2018. Doctors said unless she had chemotherapy and risky facial surgery her only option was end of life care. Susan Dhillon, 51, from Slough, Berkshire, was given weeks to live after she shunned chemotherapy. But she has been treating her cancer with illegal super strength cannabis and Manuka honey But despite the tumours growing at a rate of 5 per cent a month, Mrs Dhillon chose not to have the treatment. The former NHS prescription administrator started taking a near-pure form of illegal cannabis tablets. Mrs Dhillon, a grandmother-of-one, buys the drug from a friend at a cost of around 16 a day. It has an 80 per cent cannabinoid strength - 78.8 per cent over the legal treatments - and contains THC, the principal psychoactive constituent of the drug. The mother of four and grandmother of one uses a cannabinoid with 80 per cent strength. Her cancer has stopped growing or shrunk, but she is not in remission yet And after five months of taking a tablet a day, doctors were surprised to find some of the tumours had disappeared and others had stopped growing or shrunk. A letter from her consultant confirms the regression and said: 'I can only conclude that Mrs Dhillon appears to have gained significant benefit from the Manuka honey and Cannabis oil treatment'. Nine months since her diagnosis, a scan carried out last month showed 'encouraging' results - her disease was found to be 'completely stable' with no sign of progression. What research has gone into the link between cannabis and cancer? Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabidiol and cannabidiol have been looked into to see if they could have any role in cancer treatment Most scientific research has been done in a laboratory But they found cannabinoids can: Cause a cell to die Stop cells from dividing Stop cells from developing new blood vessels But they have also found that cannabinoids can: Damage important blood vessels in some situations Encourage cancer cells to grow Source: Macmillan cancer support Advertisement Mrs Dhillon is hoping she will enter remission and is still taking a cannabis tablet every day. She said: 'It's an absolute miracle. 'I was told I could die in weeks or months. They told me it was inoperable. 'Any hope I had just vanished when they said I didn't have long. 'I was basically told there's nothing they can do. 'I didn't want chemotherapy because the side effects are awful. It just wasn't the right thing for me to do. 'All I wanted to do was achieve life. I wanted to live for as long as I could. 'When I got these results I felt like I had been handed a lifeline. It felt like someone had given me a second chance at life. 'I was over the moon. It was the best news I could possibly have been told. I didn't think I'd see my next birthday. She claimed: 'The cannabis is keeping the cancer at bay.' Mrs Dhillon went to the doctors after food started to come out of her nose while she was eating and she noticed she had holes in her mouth in May last year. She was fast-tracked to see specialists at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough, for an urgent cancer referral and given an MRI scan and a biopsy. Two weeks later, in June, she was told she had stage four advanced sinonasal carcinoma involving the skull - a rare cancer of the nasal cavity. After five months of taking a cannabis tablet a day, doctors found some of Mrs Dhillon's tumours had disappeared and others had stopped growing or shrunk Mrs Dhillon said: 'I went through a really sad time with my family. 'I didn't know what to do with myself and spent a lot of the time being very upset. I went through a time of crying whenever I was awake.' Letters between experts describe her case as 'very difficult' and the tumours as 'extensive'. In the letters, they said her treatment options were either chemotherapy followed by very risky surgery, or palliative radiotherapy. The letter, from July, said the surgery was associated with 'significant morbidity' and if she chose radiotherapy 'ultimately the cancer will continue to grow and will not be cured'. 'I felt like there was no hope for me,' said Sue, who is single. 'I didn't want chemotherapy. It's not natural and I don't believe in it. 'It wasn't right for me. I didn't want to have to deal with those side effects. 'If l only had a few weeks left then I wanted to stay healthy and happy, so I looked for another option on my own. 'I took to the internet to look for an alternative treatment. 'I wasn't going to just settle for it. 'I saw a lot of people talking on forums about cannabis oil and how it was helping them. 'I was willing to try anything. I didn't know what else I could do.' Former NHS prescription administrator holds the cannabis oil that she takes in pill form that she gets from a friend Mrs Dhillon has three children, Dyl Find, 28, Satnam Dhillon, 25, Monica Dhillon, 22 and one granddaughter, Shakira Thind, aged four. She found out about a type of cannabis oil called Rick Simpson oil, and then discovered an old school friend, who has MS, was making her own tablets from the substance. Rick Simpson oil is different from the CBD oil - which is available on the NHS in cases of 'exceptional clinical need' - because it is much more potent. It contains psychoactive substance THC, which is the part of the drug that makes people feel 'high'. The oil isn't available on the NHS and is illegal in the UK, and the version Mrs Dhillon uses contains around 80% THC, she said. She took her first 1mg tablet in July, shortly after scan results showed the tumours in her mouth and throat were growing at 5 per cent a month, she claims. She said: 'They make me feel very sleepy and very hungry but all three of my kids look after me. 'I don't feel the pain anymore either and I did have pain before. I used to get headaches a lot and I was very sore. 'I pick up a new lot every month from my friend. I was scared and didn't know what else I could do.' After five months of daily doses, she went back to hospital in December for a scan to see if her tumours had grown. Her consultant was stunned to find 'no obvious sign' of a tumour in her mouth or nasal cavity - despite being diagnosed with advanced tumours in both areas six months earlier. The consultant was 'pleasantly surprised' to see the cancer had regressed, and told Mrs Dhillon he was happy for her to continue taking the illegal cannabis oil drug. In a letter to her, dated February 7, 2019, he said: 'When I first saw Mrs Dhillon in June 2018, the sinonasal cancer appeared to be very aggressive. 'When I reviewed Mrs Dhillon on January 17 I was pleasantly surprised to see regression of the cancer in the oral cavity with no evidence of any obvious tumour in the palate. 'There is no evidence of any active cancer in the nasal cavity. 'A CT scan in December 2018 has also confirmed stable disease with no evidence of any progression. 'Although I am unable to explain the possible healing properties of the treatment, I can only conclude that Mrs Dhillon appears to have gained significant benefits from the Manuka honey and cannabis oil treatment. 'I have no objection to her continuing with the cannabis oil treatment.' Mrs Dhillon received the positive scan results a few days before Christmas and three weeks before her 51st birthday in January. For her and her family, the news was 'the best Christmas present ever'. Mrs Dhillon's cancer is 'completely stable' and she hopes she will enter remission before too long She said: 'I got the results just before Christmas Eve. It showed it hadn't progressed anymore. 'I can't tell you how happy I was. In June I didn't think I'd be still here. 'I didn't know if I'd see another Christmas. It was like I was given a lifeline. 'I was over the moon. I was so relieved about how things had turned out. 'It's a miracle medication.' She claimed: 'My doctor said he was happy for me to take something that's illegal.' Her prolonged survival also gave her the chance to enjoy Mother's Day with her loved ones. She said: 'I was able to enjoy an absolutely lovely Mother's Day. All my kids came round and my granddaughter made me a card. 'They gave me flowers and roses and it was lovely. 'I have been able to spend more time with my daughter. She is my baby and is really important to me. 'I love my family and family time is really important to me. I want to be able to spend as much time as possible with them.' Mrs Dhillon has also separately been prescribed Sativex - the first cannabis-based medicine to be licensed in the UK that has only been available since December 1 last year. She claimed she was the first cancer patient in the UK to be prescribed the drug on the NHS, and started taking earlier this month. Sativex is prepared from cannabis plants and contains THC and CBD in equal proportions. Mrs Dhillon's recent scan results showed her cancer is being kept at bay - but she faces a longer wait to find out if her cancer will regress any further or totally disappeared. 'If it doesn't grow any more then I will be able to live with it,' she said. 'I've just got to hope it continues to keep it at bay.' She said before taking her tablets she had 'never taken' drugs before. 'It has given me a reason to live again. It has had such a positive impact on my life. 'I am hopeful for the future now. I am 99 per cent sure the next scan will show no further progression.' While Ms Dhillon may be convinced of the powers of her cannabis tablets, there isn't any conclusive proof that CBD oil can help those suffering with cancer. Dr Tom Freeman, who led a review on the use of CBD in cancer patients at the University of Bath and University College London, wants more tests. He told the Mirror: 'Products available on the high street don't meet standards for medicinal products. Quality is not assured. 'There's no data to support their safety. 'They haven't been tested and so aren't suitable. There's a big risk of self-medication for a product that won't be effective.' At least eleven schoolgirls have been killed by an explosion at a warehouse in Yemen, medical officials say. A total of 54 people in Sanaa have been wounded with eleven children in nearby schools pronounced dead after a metal workshop exploded. Officials revealed it is not known what caused the blast but Houthi rebels, who have controlled the capital since 2014, blame an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition. A Yemeni schoolboy reacts after his sister was allegedly killed in an alleged Saudi-led airstrike A wounded Yemeni schoolgirl lies on a bed as she receives treatment at a hospital The area has been sealed off after the blast destroyed the metal workshop and damaged nearby schools. There was no immediate comment from the coalition, which has been at war with the Iran-aligned rebels since 2015. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity after they were told not to brief media. Yemenis gather around a wounded schoolgirl. There was no immediate comment from the coalition, which has been at war with the Iran-aligned rebels since 2015 A Yemeni man receives treatment at a hospital. The area has been sealed off after the blast destroyed the metal workshop and damaged nearby schools Caleb Stirrat, 3, will be joined for his proton beam therapy treatment in the US by his sisters and grandparents thanks to kind donations of 6,000 from the public The aunt of a three-year-old boy with brain cancer has thanked the public after a fundraising drive to take the family to the US reached more than 6,000. Claire Smith, a nurse and the aunt of ill toddler Caleb Stirrat, said the widespread generosity from the public has reduced the family to tears. The money will be used to bring his sisters, gran and granddad to the US to support him for his proton beam therapy as the NHS is only funding the flight for Caleb and his parents Karen, 33, a charity worker, and Andy, 42, a self-employed taxi driver. The healthcare provider has also offered to fund the accommodation for anyone that can make it to the States. Last week the family was told by doctors that the NHS will pay for him to undergo treatment in Florida, US. Caleb, from Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, was one of three triplets - alongside sisters Alyssia and Poppy - born 27 weeks premature in January 2016. After suffering from headaches towards the end of February, a CT scan revealed Caleb had atprical teratoid rhabdoid tumour (ATRT), an aggressive and rare form of brain cancer. He had surgery to have it removed and last month the youngster began a six month course of chemotherapy at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Children. Caleb Stirrat, who was born prematurely at 27 weeks, has brain cancer The NHS said they would fund Caleb and his parent's flights and accommodation for anyone that could join them in the US Last week, Caleb's mum Karen, 33, and dad Andy, 42, were told by doctors that the NHS will pay for him to undergo proton beam therapy treatment in Florida, US. The family are set to leave in two weeks and the NHS will cover the costs of accommodation for anyone going, however, they only cover the flight costs for Caleb and his parents. The treatment will take nine weeks and a consultant advised the family to go together, but the costs of taking Caleb's siblings and his grandparents along were too much for the family to shoulder. Karen said: 'The NHS are only providing 1000 for expenses which for a family of 5 abroad for 3 months and still having to cover bills etc. here is nowhere near enough. 'So we are fundraising to get the girls, gran and granddad over and cover expenses as no one should have to worry about money at a time like this.' Claire, aunt to Caleb and a nurse, set up the JustGiving page three weeks ago to raise the funds for other family members to join them In response, Claire kick-started a fundraiser to try and help Andy, a self-employed taxi driver, and Karen, a charity worker, pay for additional flights and cover living costs while the family are in America. Claire, a nurse, set up a JustGiving page three weeks ago, which has garnered 6,158 from 350 kindhearted contributors. She said: 'I thought because Caleb's dad is self employed how are they going to manage with the costs of child care and no sick pay. 'It's to support the family because there's no income.' Yesterday, Claire and three others went out collecting money with buckets in Glasgow city centre, which raised 258 and left her emotional at the public's kind response. She said: 'We put hi-vis vests on and printed off a logo for our fundraising. A picture uploaded to his Justgiving page shows Caleb in hospital. Claire, who uploaded the image, thanked all the people that had donated for their support 'When people were giving us 10 and 20 notes we were actually crying. 'That was amazing, everybody's been so lovely and generous.' Claire, 36, originally set the fundraising target at 1,000, but that figure has since been smashed and is continuing to rise. She said: 'It started plateauing around 4,000 but in the last few days it's gone crazy. 'We've got a lot of businesses within Clydebank that are helping raise money as well. 'We're trying to organise a fundraiser night and we've been offered a venue so we'll try and get that organised over the coming weeks - every little bit helps.' Since Caleb's chemotherapy began, his health has deteriorated at times and he's only been home twice in the last month. A screenshot from Caleb's Justgiving page on Sunday showed he had received donations of 6,385 so far to help his family Claire said: 'He's had high temperatures, his platelets and hemoglobin keep dropping. 'He's also lost all his hair now. 'The prognosis of the type of this cancer is poor so it's essential we get the family over there together. 'We can't have them split up.' Claire, who has been fundraising tirelessly in her spare time, insisted the public help has been 'overwhelming' and the family wouldn't be able to make it to the US together otherwise. She said: 'It still doesn't feel like we're actually talking about a member of our family. 'We could never have imagined that we'd be in the position we're at just now. 'We're so grateful to everybody that's donated and the family are so overwhelmed. 'Financially as a family we wouldn't be able to support it so they've really made a difference - it means so much to us all.' She added: 'Even if people aren't in a position to donate, even if they could share the fundraising page it would be most helpful.' House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler attacked Attorney General William Barr on Sunday as a biased 'an agent' of the president's and vowed to go to court to get access to the full report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. 'It's not up to the attorney general to decide with respect to that or with respect to other material that he decides Congress can't see. It's not up to him. Remember, he is a biased person. He is someone who is an agent of the administration, is an appointee, a political appointee of the president, whose interests he may very well be protecting here,' Nadler said on CBS' 'Face the Nation.' 'He's a biased defender of the administration, and he's entitled to be a defender of the administration, but he is not it entitled to withhold the evidence from Congress,' he noted. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler attacked Attorney General William Barr as 'biased defender' and 'an agent' of President Trump's Nader said he wants Attorney General William Barr (center) to release Special Counsel Robert Mueller's (right) full report on President Donald Trump (left) to Congress Nadler said he doesn't want Barr to redact of any Mueller's report when it is delivered his House Judiciary Committee. And he argued there is past precedent for that in the special counsel investigations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. 'Our position is that he should redact none of it. Congress, the judiciary committee, in every similar situation in the paths, whether with Nixon or with Clinton or with in other situation, the judiciary committee has gotten all the information, all the underlying documents and evidence, and the judiciary committee has decided what of that cannot be released to the public,' the New York Democrat said. He confirmed they would go to court to get everything, including information from Mueller's probe that is being used by grand juries in current cases. President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said Nadler and his committee should get the full report but he slammed the chairman for attacking Barr. 'I would like him to get all the information,' Giuliani said on 'Face the Nation.' But, he added, 'I can't control that, and I can't change the law.' He then defended Barr against Nadler's attacks and noted Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein also helped with the summary that went to Congress. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said Nadler should get the full report and defended Barr from the allegations 'The attorney general has a difficult job, and I didn't appreciate his suggestion the attorney general would be biased. I know Bill Barr for many many years. I think people in this town know him. He's a man of the highest integrity. Also everything he's doing is also being run by Rod Rosenstein. That report was put out by Barr and Rosenstein,' he said. 'Rosenstein started the investigation, supervised the investigation allowed the special counsel to do things that I thought were kind of off base. He certainly gave them full scope to do their entire investigation,' Giuliani continued. 'There'd be no reason why Rod Rosenstein would sign his name to something that says they found no evidence of collusion. No evidence of obstruction. They couldn't reach a conclusion on obstruction.' 'I guarantee you except for little quibbles, I'm not worried about the report at all. There's no way those two good lawyers would have written that kind of letter if there's any issue,' the former New York City Mayor said. Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow argued that not all the material from Mueller's report could legally be released. 'You can't release grand jury material, that is also a felony. You have situations where people may have been looked at but not charged, that would be inappropriate,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.' 'And then of course you've got methods regarding national security interests. There's a process going forward, I think it's moving quickly,' he added. House Democrats are demanding Mueller's full report, particularly after a New York Times story on Thursday that suggested the final report might be more damaging to the president than Barr's four-page synopsis of its conclusions indicated nearly two weeks ago. Members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's (left) team are reportedly unhappy with Attorney General William Barr's (right) four-page summary of their investigation Nadler demanded all communications between the Justice Department and the special counsel's office over the release of the Mueller report. The powerful Judiciary chair is also demanding any summary materials drafted by Mueller's team following reports Barr chose not to release writings prosecutors drafted with the intention of having them be released to the public. Central to the battle for information has been a four-page letter by Barr that President Trump has used to claim complete exoneration after the two-year Russia probe, with Congress still yet to get a look at the report itself or even its summary materials. Nadler's request, in the form of a letter released Thursday afternoon, follows reports that Mueller's prosecutors produced their own summary material that could have been released to the public. Instead, Attorney General William Barr produced his own four-page letter on the Muller report which according to leaks Mueller's team believes is more generous to the president than the actual 400-page report. Among the latest revelations are reports of tension within Mueller's team on whether there was enough information to charge President Trump with obstruction. 'You have already provided an interpretation of the special counsel's conclusions in a fashion that appears to minimize the implications of the report as to the president,' Nadler wrote Barr in the letter. 'Releasing the summarieswithout delaywould begin to allow the American people to judge the facts for themselves.' House Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler of New York is demanding all communications between the Justice Department and the special counsel's office over the release of the Mueller report Nadler referenced a Washington Post report that prosecutors were 'particularly disappointed' to see Barr did not release summary information that they had prepared with an eye toward disclosure, with minimal redactions needed. Nadler wrote that those summaries 'should be publicly released as soon as possible.' Nadler sent out the demand for information after Barr pushed back earlier Thursday after leaks claimed Mueller's report is more damaging to President Trump than the law officer's four-page summary letter implies. NBC News reported that there was a split among Mueller's team, and that the evidence Trump sought to impede the Russia probe was stronger that Barr's own letter suggested. Democrats have spent days blasting Barr's letter published two days after Mueller's report was finished, which said the special counsel had cleared Donald Trump of collusion, and that Barr himself was clearing the president of obstructing justice. But government officials have told the New York Times and Washington Post that Mueller's team have warned that the 400-page report contains findings more damaging to Trump than Barr's letter suggests. The reports say that Mueller's team drafted their own summaries, with the expectation that they might be released to the public something Barr, a Trump appointee, pre-empted with his own summary. But in a new Justice Department statement Thursday, Barr states that the entire report contained a warning that it may contain 'protected' material which presumably could not be released to the public. 'Every page of the confidential report provided to Attorney General Barr on March 22, 2019 was marked may contain material protected under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) a law that protects confidential grand jury information and therefore could not be publicly released,' according to a Justice Department statement Thursday. 'Given the extraordinary public interest in the matter, the attorney general decided to release the report's bottom-line findings and its conclusions immediately without attempting to summarize the report, with the understanding that the report itself would be released after the redaction process,' according to the statement. The statement reasserted what Barr wrote in his letter to Congress: 'He does not believe the report should be released in serial or piecemeal fashion.' It also said the department is 'continuing to work on redactions' a process that Barr has said should allow him to provide a redacted report to Congress within weeks. Trump kicked off the push-back Thursday morning, tweeting that he experienced 'the highest level of Presidential Harassment in the history of our Country!' In another tweet he attacked the New York Times, which along with the Washington Post reported on the complaints from Mueller's team. 'The New York Times had no legitimate sources, which would be totally illegal, concerning the Mueller Report. In fact, they probably had no sources at all! They are a Fake News paper who have already been forced to apologize for their incorrect and very bad reporting on me!' Trump tweeted. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also weighed in on the topic Thursday: 'There's an easy answer to this. Release the Mueller report,' she said. The move comes as some of Mueller's investigators have warned that the findings of their probe are much more damaging for President Trump than Barr indicated in his four-page summary, The New York Times reported last week. Citing government officials and others familiar with the situation, the Times said some members of Mueller's team believe Barr should have included more of their material in the summary he released on March 24 of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. The Times said the officials and other sources declined to flesh out why some of the special counsel's investigators viewed their findings as potentially more damaging for the president than Barr explained. It was also not clear how widespread among Mueller's team, which included dozens of lawyers and investigators, are concerns about differences between Barr's summary and Mueller's report, the Times said. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Barr, a Trump appointee, said in the summary that Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia during the election. Barr also said the special counsel did not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice. Barr himself subsequently concluded that Mueller's inquiry had not found sufficient evidence to warrant criminal obstruction charges against Trump. Trump and the White House have hailed the conclusions as a victory for the president, who has denied conspiring with Russians or obstructing justice. The attorney general has pledged to release the nearly 400-page report by mid-April with certain portions blacked out for reasons such as protecting secret grand jury information and intelligence-gathering sources and methods. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that members of Mueller's team say Barr did not accurately describe the findings of their investigation, which are more damaging to President Trump (seen above at the White House on Wednesday) than originally thought The Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday to Nadler to subpoena the Justice Department to obtain Mueller's un-redacted report and all underlying evidence as well as documents and testimony from five former Trump aides, including political strategist Steve Bannon. Trump cheered the outcome of the Mueller report - or, at least, Barr's summary of it - but also laid bare his resentment after two years of investigations that have shadowed his administration. 'It's a shame that our country has had to go through this. To be honest, it's a shame that your president has had to go through this,' he said. Democrats pointed out that Mueller found evidence for and against obstruction and demanded to see his full report. They insisted that even the summary by the president's attorney general hardly put him in the clear. Mueller's conclusions, summarized by Barr in a four page letter to Congress, represented a victory for Trump on a key question that has hung over his presidency from the start whether his campaign worked with Russia to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. That was further good news for the president on top of the Justice Department's earlier announcement that Mueller had wrapped his investigation without new indictments. That could deflate the hopes of Democrats in Congress and on the 2020 campaign trail that incriminating findings from Mueller would hobble the president's agenda and re-election bid. But while Mueller was categorical in ruling out criminal collusion, he was more circumspect on presidential obstruction of justice. Despite Trump's claim of total exoneration, Mueller did not draw a conclusion one way or the other on whether he sought to stifle the Russia investigation through his actions including the firing of former FBI director James Comey. According to Barr's summary, Mueller set out 'evidence on both sides of the question' and stated that 'while this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.' Barr, who was nominated by Trump in December, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in May 2017 and oversaw much of his work, went further in Trump's favor. The attorney general said he and Rosenstein had determined that Mueller's evidence was insufficient to prove in court that Trump had committed obstruction of justice to hamper the probe. Barr has previously voiced a broad view of presidential powers, and in an unsolicited memo last June he cast doubt on whether the president could have obstructed justice through acts like firing his FBI director that he was legally empowered to take. Advertisement An oil pipeline has exploded in the Mexican city of Leon in the aftermath of a botched attempt to steal fuel by one of the country's notorious drug cartels. Flames reaching as high as sixteen feet were the only lights some residents of the central Mexican city could see on Saturday night as the explosion caused mass blackouts. The explosion occurred after a group of 'huachicoleros' - cartel bandits who steal petrol and adulterated alcohol - were trying to pilfer oil from the pipeline when they accidentally caused the explosion. Fifteen foot flames were seen in Leon, Mexico after criminals caused an explosion while trying to tap into an oil pipeline The Mexican Army was called in to the town to guard the perimeter and keep watch over the fire. No one was injured in the incident The country's army was called in to keep watch over the blaze to ensure the safety of Leon's residents. Firefighters eventually got the blaze under control without any recorded injuries. The pipeline in question belongs to the state-owned oil firm Pemex, which is one of the world's largest petroleum companies. Theft from oil pipelines has become a large industry in Mecixo for the country's notorious cartels. Gangs of 'huachicoleros' scale the country, drilling into unguarded pipelines to steal thousands of litres of oil at a time. Oil theft is a large trade for the country's notorious drug cartels. The practice saps more than 1 billion worth of state revenue annually A man takes a photo of the fire from a distance. The fire caused a mass blackout on Saturday night for the city's residents With Pemex's status as Mexico's largest oil company, the practice has become a drain on the nation's public finances. It has been reported that the cartel's activities deprive the state of more than 1 billion in revenue every year. Mexican President Manuel Lopez Obrador ordered the temporary closure of some of the country's largest oil pipelines in an attempt to combat the problem. A Detroit police officer is under investigation after he showed up to breathalyzer training intoxicated. Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the officer, who has not been named, attended a training session with his partner in Lansing, Michigan, on Thursday, reported WXYZ-TV. At one point, he volunteered for a demonstration, which is how the trainers discovered that he was under the influence of alcohol. The unidentified officer attended a breathalyzer training session in Lansing, Michigan, and blew 0.08 percent, considered to be legally impaired in the US. Pictured: Michigan State Police headquarters Craig said that when the officer blew into the breathalyzer, the machine registered that he had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 percent. When someone's BAC s 0.08 percent or higher, they are considered to be legally impaired in the US. 'This was a Michigan State Police training, he blew a 0.08,' Craig told WXYZ-TV. 'Certainly that's a problem. It's a problem for me, and it may be a problem on how it was handled after that.' The officer was not arrested at the time because he was driven by his partner to the training and he did not have his gun on him. 'I want to know what the failures are at and if the failures are at supervision,' Craig told WXYZ-TV. 'If the failures are at the command level, I'm going to take action. I'm consistent with that.' According to the Detroit Free Press, the unidentified officer was in a training class on the use of a breathalyzer known as a DataMaster. 'During that class he volunteered to give a sample and it was determined he had alcohol in his system,' Lt Mike Shaw told the newspaper. 'The MSP sergeant dismissed him from the class and sent him to his department. His command staff was notified. He does not work for us so we cannot discipline him. That will be up to his employer.' A spokesperson for Detroit police told the newspaper that the officer is under investigation, but declined to share any further details. Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg, a breakout star of the 2020 campaign, slammed evangelical Christians on Sunday for their support of President Donald Trump given his payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels. 'I can't believe that somebody that was caught writing hush money checks to adult film actresses is somebody they should be lifting up as the kind of person they want to be leading this nation,' he said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' He said Trump's hypocrisy is 'unbelievable.' Pete Buttigieg, a breakout star of the 2020 campaign, said he can't believe evangelical Christians support President Donald Trump Buttigieg said he can't believe evangelical Christians support President Donald Trump (left) given his payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels (right) 'Here, you have somebody who not only acts in a way that is not consistent with anything that I hear in scripture or in church, where it's about lifting up the least among us and taking care of strangers, which is another word for immigrants. And making sure that you're focusing your effort on the poor. But also personally, how you're supposed to conduct yourself. Not chest thumping look-at-me-ism, but humbling yourself before others,' he said. 'We see the diametric opposite of that in this presidency. I think there was perhaps a cynical process where he decided to, for example, begin to pretend to be pro-life and govern accordingly. Which was good enough to bring many Evangelicals over to his side,' Buttigieg added. The South Bend mayor has seen his long shot presidential campaign experience a boom in recent weeks, thanks to his criticism of Trump, who he's criticized before for his payoffs to Daniels. Buttigieg, 37, is the first openly gay man to run for president Trump has denied an affair with the actress but his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to campaign violations tied to the $130,000 paid to Daniels in exchange for her signing a nondisclosure form about an affair she said she had with Trump back in 2014. Buttigieg, a 37-year-old who is the first openly gay man to run for president, has been steadily rising in the polls, overtaking Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand but not quite outpacing front runners like Sen. Kamala Harris or former Rep. Beto O'Rourke. But he raised an impressive $7 million in his first quarter of fundraising and plans to formally announce his bid next Sunday in South Bend. Buttigieg, whose only political experience is as mayor, defended his qualifications for the Oval Office. 'I would stack up my experience against anybody. I know it's not as traditional. I haven't been marinating in Washington here for a very long time and I know I'm not part of that establishment,' he said on 'Meet the Press.' 'I think you can also see pretty clearly that I'm about as different from this president as it gets.' He also argued while a capitalist, democracy is more importan. 'America is a capitalist society but it has to be a democratic capitalism. That is really important and it is slipping away from us. When capitalism comes into tension with democracy, which is more important?' he said. 'I believe democracy is more important. When you have capitalism capturing democracy, where you have the kind of regulatory capture where powerful corporations can arrange the rules for their benefit, that's not real capitalism,' he added. He also said this is the time in history when it makes sense for his candidacy. 'If you would have asked me two years ago what would you be doing in 2019, I don't think I would have said this,' Buttigieg noted. 'But here you have this moment, probably the only moment in American history, where it just might make sense for somebody my age, coming from an experience in the industrial Midwest, nonfederal, from different background, bringing something that will actually help Americans.' Buttigieg and his husband, school teacher Chasten Buttigieg, have become social media stars and embraced by Democrats - particularly the younger crowd - as they hit the campaign trial. 'I really don't mind sharing him on the trail because I'm really enjoying watching people fall in love with him,' Chasten Buttigieg told DailyMail.com at a fundraiser for his husband in Washington D.C. Thursday evening. On January 23, Pete Buttigieg declared he was looking at forming an exploratory committee to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. A town hall meeting at South by Southwest in March - where he called out Vice President Mike Pence, an evangelic Christian, for serving in the 'porn star presidency' - pushed him into the national spotlight. It's not the first time he was tough on Trump administration. When Buttigieg ran for Democratic National Committee chairman in 2017, he called Trump a 'draft-dodging chickenhawk.' 'I'll be damned if we're going to have a draft-dodging chickenhawk president of the United States - who thinks he's too smart to read his own intelligence briefings - ordering the people I served with back into another conflict because he can't be bothered to do his job properly,' he said at a forum in Baltimore. Buttigieg, who was deployed to Afghanistan while in the Navy Reserves, argued in previous media appearances that hypocrisy needs to be called out. Mayor Pete Buttigieg (right) is one of the latest Democrats to enter the 2020 presidential fray, but it's his husband Chasten Buttigieg who is leading the race in most popular candidate for 'First Gent' 'I worked hard to make sure when we oppose this president we're not emulating him. But we do need to call out hypocrisy when we see it and when we have people wrapping themselves in the flag who evidently faked a disability in order to get out of serving, when you have somebody seeming to want to impose his religion on others as the vice president has and at the same time teaming up with the presidency that seems to have no regard for at least what I would consider to be Christian values, I do think that hypocrisy needs to be called out forcefully but we need to be factual and we need to be honest and we do in resolving all of this disagreement need to be decent as well,' he told ABC's 'Good Morning America' last week. An American tourist who was kidnapped alongside her driver in a national park in southwestern Uganda has been freed after the safari tour company allegedly paid their $500,000 ransom. Kimberly Sue Endicott, 56, and the Wild Frontiers safari guide were released 'unharmed' and in 'good health' after five harrowing days being held by gunmen in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Unfortunately, her captors escaped and military operations continue to try and track down the kidnappers. On Saturday, Endicott was pictured greeting Wild Frontiers' Uganda director Paul Goldring who helped free the 56-year-old American and the tour guide. Scroll down for videos Kimberly Sue Endicott, 56, was taken back to her lodge in the Queen Elizabeth National Park where she was kidnapped in Sunday She was pictured clutching a large bottle of water and appeared to be in shock as she shook the hand of Wild Frontiers Uganda director Paul Goldring Tour guide company whose driver was also kidnapped paid to release them near the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a source told New York Times. Married father-of-two Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo, 48, grinned as he shook Goldring's hand at a dining table The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of $500,000 for her release and a source claimed to the New York Times that the tour company paid for her release, which reportedly took place on the Democratic Republic of Congo side of border area Ishasha. Jane Goldring, a director at Wild Frontiers, confirmed they were freed. Someone else at the company who wished not to be named told the Times the two were 'enjoying a square meal and hot shower'. Married father-of-two Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo, 48, grinned as he shook Goldring's hand at a dining table. The state-run Uganda Wildlife Authority on Thursday criticized the driver for not taking an armed guard with him, despite widely-known government advice. AFP reported Mike Walker, manager of Wild Frontiers Safaris, text that the two were 'back safe'. 'Ransom paid and people exchanged,' he wrote, adding he did not know the 'precise amount yet'. Endicott was rescued on Sunday after being kidnapped with Remezo Tuesday A friend said Thursday that Endicott (left) had shared an image on Instagram of four armed guards and had been posting about her trip Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said in a tweet that driver Jean Paul had also been rescued. He said: 'They are back at the lodge and she is expected to be in Kampala tomorrow.' US President Donald Trump also expressed happiness at the outcome. He tweeted: 'Pleased to report that the American tourist and tour guide that were abducted in Uganda have been released. God bless them and their families!' The pair were taken to a lodge at the park, a spokesman for safari organizers Wild Frontiers Uganda told ABC News. Wild Frontiers Safari tour company driver is married father-of-two Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo. The 48-year-old was born in Congo and grew up near Goma At least six military helicopters were spotted landing at a nearby airport on Sunday as well as soldiers driving quickly in the area of the park. 'Security services have this evening managed to rescue kidnapped citizen Kimberly Sue Endicott and her driver Jean Paul Mirenge [Remezo],' the Government of Uganda tweeted. 'Appreciation goes to [Uganda Police Force and sister security agencies that led the operation to return Sue and Jean Paul.' The gunmen's identity is unclear but the area where the abduction took place was once roamed by fighters belonging to an anti-Kampala rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which is now mostly dormant. The group is still believed to have camps in eastern Congo. It comes just in time for the grandmother's 57th birthday on April 15. Her family had pleaded for her ransom to be negotiated. 'The family has done whats been asked of them to do. I think its the governments time to help us,' the woman's cousin, Rich Endicott, told the Associated Press. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week the United States does not pay ransoms to release its citizens. 'Please remember that any payment to a terrorist or a terrorist regime gives money so that they can seize more of our people,' he said after meeting families of other citizens that had been kidnapped. 'Even a small payment to a group in, say, Africa can facilitate the killing or seizure of tens or even hundreds of others, including Americans or foreign nationals in that region.' Endicott's cousin said about Pompeo's comment: 'I heard our Secretary of State get on there and say we dont pay ransom. OK, fine. Then get the Navy SEALS, get them on a plane and go save her. Dont pay ransom, Im good with that. But he didnt say any of those things, and maybe theyre doing those things, but who knows.' US President Donald Trump also expressed happiness at the outcome in a Sunday tweet Joint Security teams cut off all exit areas on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Endicott was reportedly rescued on the Congo side of Ishasha The group was driving through Queen Elizabeth National Park without an armed guard, according to Uganda Wildlife Authority On Sunday, assistant inspector general of the Ugandan Police, Abbas Byakagaba, was optimistic before Endicott's release. 'I think we will be able to resolve it,' she told ABC News. Ugandan minister of tourism, Ephraiam Kamuntu, was equally as positive. 'If I had lost hope, I wouldn't be here,' he said from the park. Endicott was on a game drive when her vehicle was ambushed Tuesday evening, according to police. A friend said Thursday that Endicott had shared an image on Instagram of four armed guards before she suddenly stopped posting. 'I know she was planning this trip for a while, because its something that shes always wanted to do,' Endicott's client Pam Lopez told KTLA in a phone interview. 'This was always a big trip she wanted to take.' Lopez told the station that Endicott - who has a daughter and a granddaughter - was fulfilling her lifelong dream to go to see gorillas in Uganda. 'She had been posting pictures of her trip up until it looks like two days ago, which brings it to Tuesday, which I believe is the day she got kidnapped.' Canadian elderly couple Martin Jurrius and his wife Barbel, both 78, were left behind on the Edward Track between Katoke Gate the wilderness camp, and reported the kidnapping to the camp manager who came to rescue them They were on a Wild Frontiers Safari tour and alerted a manager when they were abandoned in the ambush But Lopez admitted she wasn't sure if Endicott's loved ones even knew she had been kidnapped. She added about the Costa Mesa aesthetician: 'Honestly, I dont know what to think. Im still trying to process it.' Endicott works at Solutions Skincare Studio according to her Facebook profile. On Thursday teams 'widened the search area' to include the districts of Kanungu and Rukungiri, where approximately 500,000 people live. Between 5pm and 7pm on Tuesday, the tourist and her driver were taken. The safari company's website says Remezo is married with two children, was born in Congo and grew up in the area near Goma. He moved to Uganda in 1992 and joined the company with in 2007 with five years of experience in the tourism industry. He speaks English, Swahili and French. Canadian elderly couple Martin Jurrius and his wife Barbel, both 78, were left behind on the Edward Track between Katoke Gate the wilderness camp, and reported the kidnapping to the camp manager who came to rescue them. Deputy Police spokesperson ACP Polly Namaye, said the captors took the keys the van the couple was left in. They were not abducted or physically harmed. Endicott and the couple entered Uganda on March 29 and flew the next day to the park in the country's southwest, a Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) spokesman said. The group quickly made their demand for Shs1.8billion using Endicotts cellphone. Uganda Wildlife Authority spokesman Bashir Hangi (pictured) said: 'They should have notified us and informed us that they're going out for a game drive and then we would have availed them [an armed] guard but they didn't do this' 'We strongly believe this ransom is the reason behind this kidnap,' the police stated Wednesday. 'The Joint Security teams have cut off all exit areas on the border between Uganda and the DRC in search of the victims.' On Thursday police said the captors were still using devices from the kidnapped people to ask for ransom money. 'They (the abductors) continue to use cell phones of the victims to call the lodge they were staying asking for $500,000 ransom, which we will not offer,' Uganda Deputy Police Spokeswoman Namaye said. The state-run Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) said an armed ranger is supposed to be with tourists and their guides at all times. 'We have armed ranger guides, if you're going out on a drive in the park you're supposed to have one but these tourists went out on their own without a guard,' spokesman Bashir Hangi told Reuters. 'From their camp in the park, they just got into a vehicle and went out. They should have notified us and informed us that they're going out for a game drive and then we would have availed them a guard but they didn't do this.' Queen Elizabeth, in southwestern Uganda lies some 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, famous among tourists for gorilla trekking Hangi added to ABC News on Thursday: 'This is a one-off incident, its an isolated incident. It is not something that we are known for. We call it an accident. Its very unfortunate, it is regrettable, but it happened. 'Our parks are very safe right now, tourists are in the parks as I speak. We are known to be a safe country for all visitors. We are known to be a country with people who are warmly welcoming those they dont know. Thats what we are known for and thats who we are, and thats who we are going to remain to be despite this incident.' On Wednesday it said 'is aware of reports that an American citizen was kidnapped and warned to 'exercise caution when traveling to this area due to ongoing security activity'. 'We want to further reassure the public that this is the first incident of its kind registered in such a peaceful setting and those planning to visit the national park and its surrounding should not be discouraged,' police had said. Queen Elizabeth, in southwestern Uganda lies some 90 miles north of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, famous among tourists for gorilla trekking. In 1999, Rwandan rebels killed eight foreign tourists there, inflicting an enormous blow to Uganda's tourist industry. Queen Elizabeth National Park, one of the East African nation's most famous wildlife reserves, runs along the frontier with conflict-wracked regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It borders its famous Virunga national park, Africa's oldest national park. Elephants at a zoo in Thailand are forced to perform handstands on their front legs and pedal a bicycle made with car tyres across a stage. One shocking video shows how a baby elephant, nicknamed Dumbo, is forced to perform tricks for visitors at a show at Phuket Zoo. Campaigners have claimed that the infant performs up to three times a day 'under threat of the sharp bullhook' in the shows, which are 20 minutes long. Campaign group Moving Animals said Dumbo has a 'skeletal body' and suggest that he could be suffering with malnourishment and exhaustion. They also claimed he is locked in chains when not performing Thousands of people have signed a petition online calling on Phuket Zoo to release Dumbo the elephant to a sanctuary. Campaign group Moving Animals said the animal has a 'skeletal body' and suggest that he could be suffering with malnourishment and exhaustion. They also claimed the animal is locked in chains when not performing. A spokesman for the group said: 'We watched as tourists laughed and took selfies, all while this baby elephant stood with her eyes closed, quietly sucking on her trunk. 'The cruel life that 'Dumbo' the baby elephant will endure is heartbreaking, and so we've started a petition calling for her release to a sanctuary. 'We hope that one day soon she can live in a place where she can feel happiness and peace, without the threat of abuse or being forced to perform'. An Uber driver who refused to pick up Jewish customers has been banned by the ridesharing company. The driver, who called himself Ahmad to passengers, was formerly a London Uber driver. However, he has been permanently banned from taking customers through the Uber app for his strict no Jews policy. An Uber driver who refused to pick up Jewish customers has been banned by the ridesharing company The Jewish Chronicle reported that two men wearing kippahs, a traditional Jewish headdress for men, were refused a ride by Ahmad on High Road, Wembley. One of the men, Sam Adler, said the driver: 'Turned around, and as he drove past us, said "I don't take Jews." 'Then he hightailed it, just legged it.' Ahmad then officially cancelled the ride via the Uber app. The two men were denied a ride by the driver who told them that 'I don't take Jews'. STOCK PHOTO Uber apologised to the two men and banned the driver, but refused to pay any compensation to the pair. The multinational company told Mr Adler: 'We would never want to minimise an experience like you describe by putting an arbitrary monetary value on the situation.' Antisemitic incidents in the UK rose by 16 per cent in 2018, according to British Jewish charity Community Security Trust, which is an all-time high for the third straight year. Claims of institutional antisemitism in the Labour Party have also been prominent over the past year, resulting in the mass exodus of nine Labour MPs. The Equality and Human Rights Commission announced in March it was launching an investigation into antisemitism in the party. Two Oregon college students are facing jail after allegedly raking in $895,800 an iPhone scam. Yangyang Zhou and Quon Jiang are alleged to have sent a total of 1,500 fake iPhones to Apple claiming the imports from Hong Kong were faulty, in order to get real devices back and sell online. Corvallis Oregon State engineering student Zhou could spend five years behind bars and have to pay $10,000 for making false or misleading claims on an export declaration. Jiang who studies electrical engineering at Linn Benton Community College in Albany, faces 30 years in prison and $2million in fines accused of trafficking in counterfeit goods and wire fraud. Yangyang Zhou and Quon Jiang are alleged to have earned $895,800 by sending fake iPhones to Apple and claiming they were faulty and needed replacements. Pictured are boxes at Zhou's home A March court filing states authorities were tipped off about Chinese students in the US on student visas until completing their courses last year by US Customs and Border Protection who discovered at least five products that appeared fake. They started investigating two years ago and by March 2018 Jiang had been accused. Documents say Zhou used 216 different warranty claims, but alleged scam leader Jiang far outdid that with 3,069. Apple did not accept 1,600 of the claims because they seemed to have been tampered with. It's claimed they paid associates to have the iPhones and fake phones delivered to their homes. The genuine products would then be sold for hundreds of dollars from abroad. But the suspects were linked by either names, addresses, emails, IP addresses. Jiang allegedly said in a December 2017 interview with Homeland Security at the Port of Portland that he regularly received packages containing up to 30 iPhones from China. They allegedly got someone overseas to sell them online from abroad for hundreds of dollars He claimed he was never told by Apple the iPhones were fake. But lawyers for Apple sent cease and desist letters to a Corvallis address associated with Jiang in June and July 2017. However Apple reportedly stated told investigators they can't examine whether an iPhone that won't power up is counterfeit until a while after processing the replacement. 'Jiang explained that in exchange for his labor and efforts, his associate in China pays Jiang's mother, who also resides in China, who in turn deposits the proceeds into a [bank] account that Jiang is able to access here in the United States,' documents claim. He is currently not in custody but is under GPS monitoring. US Customs and Border Protection tipped off authorities in April 2017. Jiang who studies electrical engineering at Linn Benton Community College in Albany, faces 30 years in prison and $2million in fines accused of trafficking in counterfeit goods and wire fraud Corvallis Oregon State engineering student Zhou could spend five years behind bars and have to pay $10,000 for making false or misleading claims on an export declaration Authorities took Apple devices from Zhou at San Francisco International Airport last August and discovered images that showed dozens of shipping boxes and product codes on packing from the tech giant. They retrieved more than 300 iPhones at his home and intercepted three Portland shipments containing replica phones. Jiang's lawyer declined comment to The Oregonian. A legal representative for Zhou claimed his clients wasn't aware of any counterfeiting. He told KOIN 6 News: 'Mr. Zhou was not aware of any alleged counterfeiting, and we believe Mr. Zhou will be vindicated.' A switchboard operator from London who worked at the communications headquarters for the D-Day landings as a 17-year-old is being awarded France's highest honour. Marie Scott, 92, will be presented with the Legion d'honneur for her role in WWII Marie Scott, now 92, listened to and gathered messages for Operation Overlord at Fort Southwick in Portsmouth during WWII. Ms Scott, from New Malden in south-west London, will be presented with France's Legion d'honneur for her role in the invasion to liberate western Europe from the Nazis. As part of the 75th anniversary of D-Day in June, Ms Scott will travel with the Taxi Charity to Normandy with a group of 30 Second World War veterans. She will be officially presented with the Legion d'honneur by a French general at the Memorial Pegasus Museum in Normandy on June 5. She said: 'I am truly overwhelmed to receive the Legion of Honour for the part we played in the D-Day landings. 'Very few women have received this medal and it is a true honour. 'Being officially presented with the medal at the Pegasus Museum on June 5 surrounded by a group of World War Two veterans will be a very moving experience.' The switchboard operator listened to and gathered messages for Operation Overlord at Fort Southwick in Portsmouth during WWII The Taxi Charity for Military Veterans was formed in Fulham in 1948 and arranges trips for veterans from all conflicts. A spokeswoman for the charity said: 'Working on the switchboard in Fort Southwick, Marie would pass messages from the continent to the leaders of Operation Overlord, General Eisenhower and Field Marshall Montgomery. 'One of her most vivid memories is that when the beaches transmitted she could hear the gunfire.' It sounds like a scene from a horror movie, but for Pauline Williams it is an everyday reality. The mother of three suffers from a rare neurological condition which prevents her keeping her eyes open. Several times a day, they clamp shut and she is powerless to open them for hours at a time. Pauline Williams, of Settle, North Yorkshire, suffers from a rare neurological condition which prevents her keeping her eyes open. Her condition was so severe that her GP advised her to register as functionally blind and use a white stick Custom-made glasses with special wire clamps for her eyelids failed to help, so doctors came up with a new way to cure the problem Botox. The 63-year-old has been put on a special course of injections to dampen the muscle strength in her eyelids. She has also been prescribed Parkinsons drugs to control the eye spasms. Mrs Williams condition was so severe that her GP advised her to register as functionally blind and use a white stick. Eventually she was diagnosed with Meige syndrome a neurological problem in which face muscles forcibly contract. It made her eyes hypersensitive to light or wind. Professor Bernie Chang, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Optegra Eye Hospital Yorkshire, pictured above, suggested the six-weekly Botox injections. After months of perfecting the dose, she began to recover [File photo] They could shut at any point some days I could hardly open them at all, said Mrs Williams, from Settle in North Yorkshire. There was no knowing when that would happen and it was like a paralysis I had to physically pull my eyelids open and hold them there. The glasses were made with metal clamps to hook on to her eyelids and keep them open. It was dreadful and so uncomfortable but I was desperate, she said. Even after Mrs Williams was diagnosed, it took months of appointments before Professor Bernie Chang, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Optegra Eye Hospital Yorkshire, suggested the six-weekly Botox injections. After months of perfecting the dose, she began to recover. I will have to keep taking the drugs and the Botox for the rest of my life and I just hope I do not become resistant to it, she said. I am back at work, I have my driving licence back, and have my life back. Mrs Williams form of Meige syndrome is called blepharospasm and affects 20 in every million people worldwide. She also has lid apraxia a linked condition which hinders her ability to reopen her eyes. Back-to-back Grand National winner Tiger Roll has received a hero's homecoming back in Ireland. Thousands lined the streets as the history-making horse paraded through the Co Meath village of Summerhill on Sunday evening. The nine-year-old reduced his usually unflappable trainer Gordon Elliott to tears at Aintree on Saturday in becoming the first horse since the great Red Rum in 1973/74 to win successive Nationals. 2019 Grand National Winner Tiger Roll with trainer Gordon Elliott (left), and owner Michael O'Leary during the parade through Summerhill Just as he did a year ago, Tiger Roll took to the streets of Summerhill less than 24 hours after racing into the history books and was treated to a rapturous welcome from the locals, who packed the small village to celebrate his triumphant return. Elliott, a native of Summerhill, who was winning his third National having struck Aintree gold with Silver Birch in 2007, said: 'To come back here and see the crowds, it's unbelievable, it's great. 'You get emotional, it's the biggest race in the world. Everyone will remember Tiger Roll winning two in a row. Grand National Winner Tiger Roll with connections including jockey Davy Russell and his son Finn, 3, and trainer Gordon Elliott (right) Just as he did a year ago, Tiger Roll took to the streets of Summerhill less than 24 hours after racing into the history books 'We're all proud Summerhill men. 'My uncle passed away this year, he used to take me point-to-pointing and the race was for him. 'It was a great day, brilliant. To come here (and celebrate) two years in a row is great - this is a great community, everyone gets on well, so it's great to see a big crowd here. 'It looks an even bigger crowd than last year.' Davy Russell with his son Finn during the Tiger Roll's parade through Summerhill, County Meath Trainer Gordon Elliott holding up two fingers to signify Tiger Roll's two National victories Around 2,000 people were in attendance as Tiger Roll, also a four-time Cheltenham Festival winner, strutted his stuff on the main street alongside his trainer, jockey Davy Russell, his devoted groom Louise Magee and owner Michael O'Leary, among others. Elliott returned to his local village on Saturday after catching a Ryanair flight from Liverpool to Dublin and the celebrations continued long into the night. Asked about plans for later on Sunday, Elliott quipped: 'I'll have a few quiet drinks in Shaw's (pub). Davy Russell and his son Finn with the cup during Tiger Roll's parade through Summerhill Around 2,000 people were in attendance as Tiger Roll, also a four-time Cheltenham Festival winner, strutted his stuff on the main street 'He (Tiger Roll) got back about 6.30am, I was in bed before him, but tonight will be a different story.' Ryanair boss Mr O'Leary, who runs Tiger Roll under his Gigginstown House Stud banner, said: 'I never thought we'd win the Grand National once in our lifetime, so to do it three times in four years (Rule The World won in 2016) is phenomenal, a fantastic achievement. 'It was a fantastic day, the atmosphere in Aintree was electric. 2019 Grand National winning trainer Gordon Elliott with Lynn Elliott, wife of the late Will Elliot Tiger Roll with trainer Gordon Elliott (left), owner Michael O'Leary (right) his wife Anita (second right) and their children Zac and Tiana holding the Cup during the parade 'There was a lot of expectation he might win it again and he was a hot favourite, and very rarely does the hot favourite win the Grand National. 'That they are now talking about him in the same breath as Red Rum just made for a phenomenal, historic occasion.' Mr O'Leary treated Ryanair passengers to free drinks on his flight back to Ireland after the race, and added: 'I give away free drinks every time we win the Grand National, it probably won't happen for another 45 years!' The Democratic candidate, who previously said he did not support monetary reparations for slavery in the past now says he is willing to back a study on subject should he become president. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont made this latest concession when pushed by Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Network convention on Friday, according to Yahoo News. 'There's been the debate around reparations for the descendants of African slaves. If you are elected president, Sheila Jackson Lee, a member of Congress has a bill calling for a commission to study reparations,' Sharpton said to Sanders. 'If that bill were to pass and come to your desk would you sign it? Jackson Lee has said her bill would 'make recommendations concerning any form of apology and compensation to begin the long delayed process of atonement for slavery.' Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) at the National Action Network National (NAN) convention in New York City, NY on April 5. Sanders told the convention attendees he would support legislation for a commission to study reparation proposals Rev. Al Sharpton who heads the National Action Network pressed each Democratic presidential hopeful on the issue of reparations for slavery 'If the House and Senate passed that bill, of course I would sign it,' Sanders responded. However, he then pivoted away from specifics about compensation for the black community and discussed a more general economic policy outlook. 'There needs to be a study, but let me also say this, that I think that what we need to do is to pay real attention to the most distressed communities in America,' he said. 'We have got to use 10 percent of all federal funds to make sure that kids who need it get the education, get the jobs, get the environmental protection that they need. And that would be a major focus of my efforts.' Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee attends the 50th NAACP Image Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 30. The Democratic congresswoman from Texas has sponsored a bill calling for a commission to begin studying the possibility of financial compensation to descendants of American slaves Sanders had made a similar pivot on 'The View' talk show in March when asked about reparations by broadening the scope 'to distressed communities: black communities, Latino communities, and white communities.' 'I think right now our job is to address the crises facing the American people in our communities,' Sanders said on the show.' 'And I think there are better ways to do that than just writing out a check.' The Senator from Vermont, while only incrementally modifying his stance on reparations, did have stronger words for other National Action Network priorities. From calling President Trump an outright racist to expressing 'zero tolerance for police brutality,' Sanders called attention to his own heritage when making his case to the African-American community. 'I am the son of an immigrant, whose family was murdered by the Nazis,' Sanders said at the event. 'So, from a very young age I knew that we must stand up to bigotry, wherever and whenever it exists.' Rev. Al Sharpton (left) and the National Action Network convention on Friday gave a platform for Democratic presidential candidates and first-year Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (right) to talk about reparations While Sanders has moderately warmed up to the idea of reparations, he has enthusiastically signed on to some National Action Network priorities like combating the issue police brutality against African-Americans Another candidate, Gov. Amy Klobuchar, has similarly deflected the reparations question saying there was a need to 'invest in those communities that have been so hurt by racism.' 'That means looking at, for our whole economy, community college, one-year degrees, minimum wage, child care,' she said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'It doesn't have to be a direct pay for each person.' Other Democratic candidates who have expressed some form of support for reparations include Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The representative from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used her platform at the Al Sharpton-sponsored conference to call for the 'examining and pursuing an agenda of reparations' - among a list of other left-leaning policies including support for free public colleges. Fifty-two percent of the African-Americans surveyed in a 2015 CNN-Kaiser poll supported cash payments to the descendants of slaves. But 89 percent of the white Americans polled opposed the idea. The United States has handed out reparations in the past including to Japanese-Americans put in internment camps during World War II. The seven young lads under my command in J Company, 42 Commando, had been on patrol for eight hours that crucial day a lifetime in the merciless 40-degree heat of Helmand Province. They were weary and desperate to get back behind our compound walls to recuperate for good reason, as I, their 38-year-old veteran troop sergeant and a father figure to them, knew only too well. It was September 2011, and the war in Afghanistan had long since stopped being one of open confrontations with the Taliban. Now the enemy was all around us, hidden in plain sight. A local chap smiling at you one moment might be your killer a moment later when he activated the bomb expertly buried in the path of your patrol. A man might rake you with gunfire one moment, then abandon his weapon and pick up a farm tool the next. Sergeant Alexander Blackman was arrested for war crimes after an incident in Afghanistan in 2011 Troop numbers were constantly being chipped away by deaths and life-changing injuries from booby-traps. In the aftermath of one sudden violent explosion, the body parts of a fellow soldier whose corpse we hadnt been able to recover were strung up in the trees to taunt us. All we could do knowing that every civilian we met was a possible killer and beneath every step we took was a possible mine was endure. And though today had been particularly long and gruelling, at least we were nearing the end of our six-month tour. In a few days wed be bugging out of this godforsaken command post in the middle of nowhere and en route home. These days of constant watchfulness and dread, the sense that any moment could be your last, would be over. Then the radio crackled and everything changed. One of our neighbouring compounds was under attack. A Taliban insurgent armed with an automatic rifle had been spotted. We had to heave back on the heavyweight body armour wed just taken off and go out again into the blazing sun and the danger. Outside in the open countryside, I ordered the lads most of them on their first tour and their first experience of war to take up a defensive position in the undergrowth while we awaited further orders. Then came the familiar thudding and the heavy chopping of rotor blades as an Apache helicopter arced over us and off to the north, searching for the insurgent. Not long after, we heard a burst of heavy fire from a chain gun as the Apache blasted more than a hundred rounds at the enemy on the ground. In the silence that followed we were told over the radio the insurgent was deceased and we were to go to him and recover his Kalashnikov rifle standard procedure, to stop it falling into other enemy hands. Roger that, I said, as I gee-ed up my exhausted troops for our final mission of the day. About a mile away lay the insurgent, cut to ribbons by a heavy-duty chain gun designed to knock out tanks rather than individuals. Checkpoint Omar was Sergeant Blackman's outpost in Afghanistan. He stayed there with 15 other Marines for six months We would retrieve his weapon and then, at last, we would be back taking it easy in our compound. But every time you think you know the way the world is going, you are wrong. A persons life can turn on an instant and for me although I didnt know it then that instant had come. What happened next would see me branded a murderer, jailed and dismissed from the Royal Marines in disgrace after 16 years in which Id given my whole life, body and soul, to the service of my country. Just over a year passed. Back in the UK, Id been promoted to a military training role. It meant a more regular life, and the joy of weekends with Claire, my wife of three years. Slowly, bit by bit, I was no longer dogged by the incessant fear that somebody out there, just beyond my line of sight, was planning to get me. I stopped checking that the back doors of our house in Taunton were locked and went to sleep not thinking about rockets exploding across our walls. And Christmas was spent at home, not in the middle of the desert under threat of attack. It was a new beginning, and I was glad of it. Sergeant Blackman was 'branded a murderer, jailed and dismissed from the Royal Marines in disgrace'. Stock photo One Saturday morning in October 2012, we were lying in bed, dozing, with no particular plans for the day ahead, when there was a knock at the front door. In her dressing gown, Claire went down to answer it and I rolled over. I heard male voices, but thought nothing of it until she called out: Al, come down here . . . On the door step were four military police officers in plain clothes and two uniformed policemen from the local constabulary. Colour Sgt Alexander Blackman? one of them asked. I nodded. Colour Sgt Blackman, were arresting you on suspicion of committing war crimes. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention . . . The rest of it faded away as I tried to comprehend what was happening. The idea of being arrested was just unreal. And for war crimes! I invited them in, one produced a search warrant, and they fanned out into our home, rifling through everything we owned. All I could think was that this must be some strange mistake, that it would be finished with soon, the whole affair explained as some accident or miscommunication. Sergeant Blackman with his wife Claire in 2017. He has previously said 'wouldn't have survived' without his wife's help I was a Royal Marine. Id spent the last year training soldiers. I hadnt, I was certain, done anything that warranted the military police opening every cupboard and drawer, shining a torch into every intimate area. Over the next couple of hours, they assembled all our electronic equipment, every phone, tablet, laptop, every possible storage device in our home. Finally, they returned to the living room, where Claire and I had been sequestered. Colour Sgt Blackman, the lead officer said, youll have to come with us. I wasnt handcuffed and I wasnt grappled on either side as we headed to a waiting car. I think the policemen understood I was not the kind of man who was going to make a scene, or worse still, try and fight his way out of this. But I was feeling knotted inside. Ever since I was a boy, I had believed in the system, that laws and government and all our institutions existed to make sure the right thing happened at the right time. My respect for the system had only become stronger during my military career. Consequently, as they escorted me inside the police station and the desk sergeant took down my details, emptying out my pockets and finally leading me down a whitewashed corridor to a cell, I still believed all of this was about to be straightened out. A still of the video, which was used to convict Sergeant Blackman of murdering an Afghani insurgent in 2011 Even as the door closed behind me and I heard the dull thud of the lock, I believed it was a waiting game. After several hours I was led to an interview room, accompanied by a duty solicitor who had been found for me. The military police took their seats across the table and one of them said: Youve been arrested because evidence has emerged that suggests you committed acts that may amount to war crimes in September 2011. It had been some time since Id dwelt on those months Id been with 42 Commando in Helmand. I was one of the fortunate ones who had been able to push much of it to the recesses of my mind and get on with my new job. Others were not so lucky: theyd come home missing arms or legs. Right now, I felt like a different person, my time there a different era. What evidence? I ventured. Video footage has emerged of you on patrol in September 2011. I froze. The idea that there could have been unofficial video footage of any part of my tour was a revelation to me. Sergeant Blackman on a 2001 Royal Marines exercise camp in Oman It was not unheard of for young soldiers on their first tours of duty to take illicit footage as mementos, but it was frowned upon, and Id had no idea that any of my lads in 42 Commando had done this. Id always been of the opinion that if a soldier has time to turn on a camera and start shooting surreptitious footage, then they are not doing their job properly. We took official footage. Our patrols always included a local interpreter, who carried a camera on which we shot high-quality images and video in order to build up a data bank of local figures in the area. The idea that other footage existed unnerved me. I was told: Were going to show you this video. It doesnt last long. And after that, wed like to go through some of the specifics of what youve seen. I watched it flicker on the screen, lasting only seconds, perhaps a minute. I recognised the lads instantly. You do not easily forget the people with whom you spent six of the most difficult, testing months of your life. But, at first, I didnt know where or when this really was. It could have been any one of a hundred days pacing the lanes and roads of Helmand. In the shaky images on the screen, I saw four of us, diminutive specks in the distance, approaching in a hurry through a cornfield. The overriding noise was the chopping of helicopter blades. The figures grew bigger with every step. And there I was. My own face, looming up in the frame. Between two of the marines alongside me, there hung the body of a Taliban insurgent. Then, as the video neared its completion, we dropped the mortally wounded insurgent down into long grass at the edge of the cornfield. Voices fired back and forth, and I recognised my own among the others. We were uttering oaths. We were calling the man we had been carrying things that, here in the police station, sounded abusive and vile. The video ended, and my mind was reeling, still trying to place this day and this particular incident out of the hundreds Id been through in Afghanistan. Nothing Id been watching screamed out at me. The questions began. Do you recognise yourself, Colour Sgt Blackman? Of course I did. That is to say I recognised the physicality of the man in the video who had been leading his lads as they carried the insurgent. What I found more difficult to recognise were the things we were saying. It didnt sound like me, but there is no doubt it was my voice so I told the police officers that I did. The next question stopped me in my tracks: Why were you carrying him [the wounded insurgent] like that? I looked at them quizzically. Carrying him like what? So roughly, so inattentively. It seems to me, as an impartial observer, that you and your fellow marines are dragging an injured man bodily out of that field. At first, I didnt know what to say. I knew the images were not pretty. They did not capture any of us in our best lights, and the choice language some of us had been using denigrated us further still. It did not represent us the way Royal Marines always strive to be represented, as the very best of the best. But though it might have looked as if we were roughly manhandling the insurgent and treating him with complete disregard, we had actually been carrying him in the way we had been trained to do. With two of my lads grasping the mans limbs, spreading his weight between them, we were able to support his body as we crossed a distance as swiftly as possible while limiting the risk of compounding his wounds or generating any new ones. Mrs Blackman at a 2016 rally in Parliament Square, London to free Sergeant Blackman on appeal Id carried my own comrades like that when I had to. It was a technique designed to strike the right balance between getting help for an injured colleague and minimising the risk to yourself. In times like this, speed matters. An extra second in the field recovering an injured comrade means an extra second exposed to enemy fire. But the things we were saying in the video, the curses and the insults, framed it so badly that I understood the question I was being asked. I, too, was horrified by the language we were using. It was unacceptable, cruel and crude. Yet it did not seem so very unusual. Throw a group of men together in circumstances that might, at any moment, end any of their lives, and sometimes the simple rules of civility melt away. It isnt that you want to be cruel, rude or cause offence. But the tension can explode out of you in myriad ways, and releasing some of it by ranting and raving, goading and taunting each other, is something that men in combat situations have done throughout the centuries. Do you think its appropriate? I was asked. This time, I didnt answer. I dont know how many times I was shown the snippet of video that day. By the time we were done, we seemed to have been through it frame by frame. As I watched and answered what questions I could, the memory rose up from all the thousands of others Id locked away of my time in Afghanistan. I remembered the sound of the Apache helicopters rotor blades as it had charted its course overhead, before loosing the power of its chain gun and slicing the insurgent down. But I still had little idea where the video had come from, how it had come into their possession and whether the war crimes they stipulated were based purely on the things they had seen and heard here, or on other evidence as well. (I wouldnt discover until much later the videos provenance. One of the lads wed been on patrol with that day, a relative newcomer, had secreted a tiny camera in his helmet to take personal footage, which he later shared with friends. One of them had a bitter falling out with his wife, the police became involved and they seized the mans laptop. In scouring it for evidence to substantiate her allegations of violence, they found this snippet of video from our patrol in Helmand Province.) Back in the solitude of my cell, I reflected on everything Id seen. I wondered if the other marines whod featured in the video had also spent their days in police cells, being asked the very same questions over and over again. Or perhaps, because I was the ranking officer that day, it was only me being asked to explain. That same afternoon I was released without charge but I was left under no illusion that this wasnt the last time I would be questioned. As I was driven home, I had this ominous sense that the madness and the tensions of Helmand were reaching out for me even now, beneath beautiful English skies. When the police dropped me off at home, I stalled momentarily before entering. I had been in so many life-threatening situations during my military career in Iraq and Afghanistan that they had almost become normal. But even when sitting in a desert compound under rocket attack, I never got the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had now. Sergeant Blackman's wife Claire campaigned tirelessly for her husband's release after his conviction The video had triggered in me recollections of that day in Helmand, and as Id been driven home Id been drawing all the disparate pieces of it back together. In the next few moments, I was going to have to re-live it all for the benefit of the most principled and pragmatic person I know and the person who loved me more than anything else in her world Claire. I tried to formulate the words to explain that it really was a war crimes charge I was facing to explain to her what took place that day in the desert and the disjunct between the man in the footage and the man I had always held myself to be. There have never been any secrets between Claire and I. It is one of the foundation stones of our relationship. I had never lied to her about my time in Iraq or Afghanistan, but that was a mark of how little Id dwelt on that day in the desert. In fact, I hadnt give it another thought after we returned to our compound on the night it happened. Now it all came flooding back, and I had to get it off my chest. Claire, I began, Theres something I have to tell you. I told her how we were 200 metres from the safety of our compound and holding our defensive position in the undergrowth when we were given the shot insurgents grid reference and ordered to go and retrieve his weapon. It took an hour moving slowly and methodically to guard against IEDs buried in the ground before we reached the field where he had been gunned down. Up above, the Apache helicopter was still circling the area on the lookout for other insurgents. There were more Taliban out there whether near or far, we didnt know. From the shelter of some long grass, we scanned the field and I caught sight of the shape of a body lying out there in the middle, with his weapon next to him. Going to him would be risky. Wed have no cover if anyone was out there. But we had our orders and the quicker we got this done, the better. I turned to Jack, one of the lads, and said, Youre with me. Then, turning to the rest of the patrol, I said, Stay sharp, boys. We may be coming back at a run. Hoisting our packs onto our backs, Jack and I took off into the field. Sergeant Blackman said he was at first certain the Afghani fighter was dead when he found him in 2011. Stock photo When we got to the insurgent, there was no doubt in my mind that he was dead. He was lying in a pool of his own blood and gore, the earth steeped in the fluids that had pumped out of his body when the Apaches chain gun opened up on him. Steeling myself because you never truly get used to handling the dead I got down on my knees and began searching him for any other weapons. The sheer amount of viscera repelled me. We marines had also been warned about the risk of catching blood-borne infections from casualties in the field. But the second I put my hands on him, I told Claire, he opened his eyes. Until that moment I had not considered the possibility he might be alive. Not a breath had come from his lips, nor the merest twitch in his body. Yet now his eyes were open. There was no lucidity in them, but his eyelids fluttered and came apart, and that meant that some corner of him still clung on. How I will never know. There was a huge cavity in his back and his lungs were hanging outside his body. My immediate reaction was frustration and anger. Not because he was alive, but because it meant that now, instead of quick march back to the security of our compound, we would have to get this man, critically injured by our own ordnance, out of this field and to a military hospital. I radioed a message up the chain of the command, telling them the insurgent wasnt dead. Somehow, we would have to clear a landing zone, call in a casevac (casualty evacuation) helicopter and load him aboard. Sergeant Blackman recalled that 'the cornfield was littered with shrapnel. There may even have been IEDs hidden around us as well as other armed insurgents' I looked around me. The cornfield was littered with shrapnel. There may even have been IEDs hidden around us as well as other armed insurgents. Any of those things could frustrate a helicopter landing. For now, though, what we needed was shelter, and I called over two of the other guys to carry him to the edge of the field. They used the two-man drag method wed been trained in, hooking their arms under his armpits and heaving him along. It wasnt gentle, but it was competent, safe and quick. We reached the others, laid him down and attempted to stabilise him, dressing what wounds we could and making sure his airways were clear. But there seemed to be no movement whatsoever from him. On the video footage they showed me in the police station, Id heard the dark things the lads were saying, the gallows humour, how we joked about finishing what the gunner in the Apache helicopter had started and getting out of there. In the quiet of that police station it had seemed so brutal to me. Out there, in those fields, on those patrols, in our base under rocket fire, I thought so little of it. By now, the Apache had gone, and the silence around us was deafening. A helicopter hanging above makes you feel more secure, knowing any insurgents will think twice about springing an ambush on you. In its absence, all that remained was the pervading sense that we were out here on our own. I looked at the insurgent, the lads clustered around him administering what medical aid they could, and it all seemed so pointless. There were so many holes in him. Any casevac helicopter would take a full half hour to get here, and I couldnt even call one in before Id found and cleared a landing zone. Meanwhile, the radio was still crackling with the news that other insurgents hadnt been accounted for. The lads, still teenagers some of them, were increasingly jumpy. And so was I, for all my years of experience. You hold it together, because thats what youve been trained to do. But I was scared. There were Taliban somewhere out there, and yet here we stood, hidden by nothing but long grass, attending to the body of a mortally wounded insurgent who, only a couple of hours ago, had been launching an attack on our neighbouring compound. I looked at him again. What scant signs of life there had been now seemed vanishingly rare. There was no way he was making it back to any military hospital alive. It was a wonder he had lasted this long. There was nothing more we could do for him. Hes dead, lads, I said. I got on the radio, reported this back up the command chain, and waited. Then waited some more. Back in our sitting room in Taunton, I looked at Claire. And then I shot him. A woman who was found dead near a block of flats has been named by friends. The victim, named locally as Annabelle Lancaster, was found in the street just before 6pm yesterday evening in Enfield, north London. A man was arrested nearby on suspicion of murder and taken to a north London police station. A large police forensic tent has been erected outside the tower block and is being guarded by a police officer The victim's next of kin have been informed about her death and an investigation is ongoing A friend who only wanted to give her name has Courtney, 22, came to lay some flowers at the spot where she was found. 'I knew Annabelle from when we were staying in a mother and baby unit together,' she said. 'I know she was really close with her family, especially with her mum. 'She was one of those really bubbly girls, always up for a laugh. I don't think I've ever seen her upset. 'She was always so happy. I feel bad that I haven't spoken to her in so long.' Her next of kin have been informed while a post-mortem examination and formal identification will be carried out in due course, police said. Heartbroken friends, relatives and residents have left messages at the scene today Floral tributes have been left at the crime scene in north London today The investigation, pictured above, is the 33rd murder probe in the capital this year Police cordoned off the area outside a block of flats in Enfield, north London, where a woman in her 20s was found dead The Brookbank block of flats in Turkey Street, Enfield, north London, where a woman in her 20s was found dead this evening A police spokesman said: 'Police were called to Brookbank, Turkey Street, EN1 at 5.49pm on Sunday, April 7, by London Ambulance Service. 'A woman, aged in her 20s, was found injured in the street and was sadly pronounced deceased at the scene. 'A man was arrested nearby on suspicion of murder and he has been taken to a north London police station. 'Next of kin have been informed. A post-mortem examination and formal identification will take place in due course. 'A police cordon remains in place and officers will be in the area while initial investigations are carried out. 'Residents are encouraged to speak with officers if they have any information which could help enquiries, or if they have any concerns.' Police at the scene of the fifth stabbing, in Aberdeen Road, Edmonton, on Tuesday. Jason Kakaire appeared in court on Friday charged with five counts of attempted murder Double shooting in Leyton just an hour after woman found dead Two men in their 20s were shot around an hour after a woman was found dead in Enfield, north London. A gunman fired at the two men in Francis Road, Leyton, east London, just before 7pm this evening. When police arrived officers found the two victims suffering from gunshot wounds. They were taken to hospital but were not in a life threatening condition, according to police. Advertisement Last week Calvin Bungisa became the 32nd murder in London this year when he was found dead in Kentish Town. The 22-year-old was stabbed to death by a group of masked thugs as a witness saw his mother run 'screaming' from her home nearby into the street. Father-of-three Gavin Garraway, 40, was stabbed to death in Clapham, south London, four days earlier. TeenagerZion Chiata, appeared in charged with his murder. On Friday Jason Kakaire, 29, appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates's Court charged with five counts of attempted murder after a spate of knife attacks. The 29-year-old is accused of stabbing five people in three days in Edmonton, north London. Speaker Nancy Pelosi will receive the Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation later this year, it was announced on Sunday. Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late president, called Pelosi 'the most important woman in American political history.' 'Speaker Pelosi leads with strength, integrity and grace under pressure using her power to protect the most vulnerable of our citizens,' Kennedy said in a statement. Speaker Nancy Pelosi will receive the Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation later this year Pelosi at the start of the 110th Congress when she became the first female speaker in U.S. history Pelosi's slow clap of President Trump during his State of the Union address took the internet by storm 'Coming from Caroline, that's an enormous compliment,' Pelosi told CBS' 'Sunday Morning.' 'However, going with it are shoulders for other people to stand on. I've stood on many women's shoulders, who have paved the way for us. And now we have to pave the way for others. So, it's about the future.' The award is given for an act, or a lifetime, of political courage. It was created in 1989 and is one of the most prestigious in politics. Past recipients include former Presidents Barack Obama, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush; the late Sen. John McCain; and civil rights champion Rep. John Lewis. 'You have to be ready to take a punch, and you have to be ready to throw a punch,' Pelosi said. 'I'm in the arena. And I know that when you're in the arena, this is what you should expect. But if you don't have the courage, don't get in the arena.' The award will be presented on May 19 during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Pelosi was the first woman to be elected speaker of the House and is the most powerful woman in the U.S. government. She stands in second in line to the presidency. She has served in the House of Representatives since 1987. She also has been praised as one of the great legislative leaders in modern history. Most recently, she stood toe-to-toe with President Donald Trump during the longest government shutdown in American history, in which he eventually conceded and reopened the government without a guarantee in funding for his wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. And she became an internet sensation with her burnt orange Max Mara coat and sunglasses, which she slipped on after a White House meeting in which she told the president: 'Mr. President, please don't characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats, who just won a big victory.' She worked with Republican President George W. Bush to pass an economic bailout package in 2008 and with Democratic President Barack Obama to pass healthcare reform in 2010. Pelosi met John Kennedy at a dinner when he was still a senator and her father was mayor of Baltimore Pelosi with President Barack Obama in September 2010; her work on the Affordable Care Acted was cited in the Profile in Courage Award statement Pelosi became an internet sensation last December with her Max Mara coat and sunglasses It was her work on the Affordable Care Act that was cited by the Kennedy Library in announcing her award and was her return to the speakership after Democrats won the House in the 2018 election. Pelosi is being honored 'for putting the national interest above her party's interest to expand access to health care for all Americans and then, against a wave of political attacks, leading the effort to retake the majority and elect the most diverse Congress in our nation's history.' The California Democrat said in a statement that she recalled President Kennedy's inaugural speech in which he spoke of 'the energy, the faith, the devotion . . . [to] light our country and all who serve it and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.' 'It is inspiring that the award itself is a lantern, a manifestation of that light,' Pelosi said. 'That energy, faith and fire have inspired my work in the Congress and as Speaker, and it is my hope that my receiving this award will encourage others to pursue public service, and lead with courage, conviction and conscience.' The award was named for President Kennedy's book, 'Profiles in Courage,' in which he recalled the unselfish acts made by eight senators during times of adversity. The award itself is represented by a sterling-silver lantern symbolizing a beacon of hope. Pelosi retook the Speaker's gavel in January of this year Pelosi with President Bush and Vice President Cheney at the 2007 State of the Union Address, her first as speaker of the House Pelosi will receive the award on May 19 during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston The winner is selected by a bipartisan committee of national, political, and community leaders. Pelosi, whose father Thomas D'Alesandro was mayor of Baltimore, attended Kennedy's inauguration and had met him at a dinner when Kennedy was still a senator. 'My father was the mayor of Baltimore and there was a big dinner, black tie dinner, where Senator Kennedy was going to speak. My mother, she said, 'If you want to go in my place to the dinner, please do,'' Pelosi recalled to CBS News. 'It's a great picture, relating to the inspiration that President Kennedy was to my generation and those that followed,' she said. None of the 50 Afghan interpreters promised sanctuary in Britain has arrived, despite increasing threats in their homeland. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson was accused of 'empty words' last night after vowing last June to honour the 'extraordinary service' of those who put their lives on the line for British troops. Mr Williamson said he would tear up the previous policy and give 50 interpreters and their families refuge. But ten months on, not a single translator has made it to the UK under the new rules. One retired colonel described the situation as a 'tragedy in the making'. Those left abandoned in Afghanistan at the mercy of a resurgent Taliban question if there are even 50 interpreters who could qualify under the strict Ministry of Defence criteria. Last night Mr Williamson said he would look into the issue as a 'matter of urgency', adding: 'This is taking longer than we hoped.' Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson during a visit to Salisbury Plains Training Area. He has been accused of 'empty words' after not honouring pledge to give refuge to translators It comes as three translators who helped the US were reportedly killed in a Taliban ambush. Days before, the brother of a former interpreter for the British Army was shot by gunmen searching for his sibling. In another attack, an interpreter for British forces amazingly survived his vehicle being sprayed with gunfire by Taliban fanatics. Interpreters for British forces last night said the attacks underlined the mounting threat posed by the Taliban. Colonel Simon Diggins, a former defence attache at the British embassy in Kabul, criticised the Ministry of Defence. He said: 'Despite the Government's promise of a relaxing of the criteria for our interpreters coming to this country, to date, as far as we can tell, not a single additional interpreter has been helped. 'This is beyond disappointing these are tragedies in the making. Our former interpreters' lives, and those of their families, are on hold, while we wait for the Government just to do the decent thing. How much longer must we wait?' Mr Williamson said last June up to 200 people would benefit from his new policy, which would see the relocation eligibility criteria extended by six years. His team said this would account for 50 interpreters plus their families. In this May 27, 2016 file photo, Taliban fighters react to a speech by their senior leader in the Shindand district of Herat province, Afghanistan Announcing the changes, Mr Williamson said 'we owe them more than just warm words', adding: 'They served our nation with dazzling distinction. And we will do what is right to honour their extraordinary service.' Just one interpreter has been told he can come to Britain under the new rules. Niz, 31, is expected to arrive with his wife and five children within weeks. The previous policy welcomed only those serving in Helmand after December 2012, excluding those who had worked with British troops before that date, when the fighting was at its worst. The new criteria opened relocation applications to those who had served since May 1, 2006. But it applied only to interpreters who had spent a year with British troops and who were specifically made redundant. Mr Williamson's team promised a review to look at the cases of those on short-term contracts which expired or those who quit when they were subjected to death threats once their identities became known. Interpreters whose contracts expired claimed they were told by MoD officials in Afghanistan they did not qualify. The Ministry of Defence said last night the review into those on such contracts was continuing, with several international departments involved. Former translator Rafi Hottak, who is campaigning for more interpreters to be allowed to find safety in the UK, said they were 'misled and given false hope'. Mr Hottak, who was injured in an explosion on the frontline before being granted asylum in the UK, said: 'We know that translators are in the sights of the Taliban, who are making more and more targeted attacks. 'Those who had faced death threats, attacks and intimidation after many years of loyal service but were not made redundant believed they too would have the opportunity to live a safe life in the UK under the change of policy but it seems that this is not the case and that so far no one I know of has been granted sanctuary.' Referring to Mr Williamson's comments at the time, he added: 'He promised to honour extraordinary service but that is just not happening. The previous policy welcomed only those serving in Helmand after December 2012, excluding those who had worked with British troops before that date 'Some of those who risked the most and now face the greatest threats as a result have been told simply 'sorry, you don't qualify'. 'It is so disappointing and people feel let down. There is still hope but so far the risks and service together with the real threats are just not being recognised.' Sam, who served on the frontline in Helmand, has been told he does not qualify to come to the UK despite threats and his family being attacked. He said: 'We feel we have been let down and rejected again because he (Mr Williamson) has been shown to have spoken empty words. How can those who risked the most and have suffered ever since just be dismissed?' Dr Julian Lewis, Tory MP and chairman of the defence select committee, added: 'I am sure the Secretary of State would be alarmed to learn that the welcome changes he introduced in response to public concern for these interpreters have not yet made a difference on the ground.' The Mail's award-winning three-year Betrayal of the Brave campaign has highlighted the cases of dozens of former and current translators who believe they have been 'abandoned' by the British to the Taliban. A total of 1,150 Afghans have been rehomed in Britain under the previous scheme. Another 400 interpreters have been offered financial or training packages in Afghanistan. An MoD spokesman said: 'Our specialist team is working hard to identify which Afghan interpreters are eligible for relocation under the expanded scheme. 'This requires close collaboration with other Government departments, the Afghan government and the International Organisation for Migration, and therefore takes time. We encourage anyone who experiences intimidation because of their employment by the UK to contact our Intimidation Investigation Unit.' A woman who falsely accused her fiance of rape told a police investigator she knew for certain he was the man who attacked her. Daniel Jones, 31, spent four-and-a-half months in Goulburn prison, 195km south-west of Sydney, in 2014 after his then fiancee Sarah Jane Parkinson made 32 horrific allegations against him. In a police interview that same year, Parkinson told Detective Sergeant Leesa Alexander she was convinced Mr Jones had committed the vile act against her. 'Hand on my heart that was Daniel, I know it was Daniel, I recognised him,' she said. Daniel Jones, 31, (pictured) spent four and a half months in Goulburn prison, 195km south-west of Sydney, in 2014 when his ex-fiancee accused him of rape Mr Jones was not the first man Parkinson (pictured) accused of rape. She alleged a Canberra man, the father of her best friend at the time, also sexually assaulted her 'I think it was just sheer desperation, like it's been a rough few years with Daniel.' Detective Sergeant Alexander said she saw photos of Parkinson on her phone looking 'very happy' while Mr Jones was in prison. 'I found that very difficult, that a person could be so happy while someone else is in jail,' she said. Detective Sergeant Alexander proved Parkinson to be a compulsive liar, beginning with a timestamped social media photo that showed he wasn't at the scene of what his fiancee claimed was a brutal sexual assault. Canberra man Daniel Jones (left) thought Sarah Jane Parkinson (right) was the love of his life when they met in 2011 Mr Jones was 25 when he met 20-year-old Parkinson in Canberra in 2011. In a whirlwind romance, the young couple quickly made plans to marry and Mr Jones even built a house so they could live together. 'She was cute and innocent, a bit old-fashioned... she always wore nice dresses and all that kind of thing,' Mr Jones told 60 Minutes of his ex-fiancee. Shortly after moving in together, Mr Jones' life began to fall apart at the hands of the woman he thought was the love of his life. Parkinson got a job at Queanbeyan Police as a clerical assistant and began feeding her colleagues lies about her partner. The young woman, who the Jones' described as 'clumsy', would turn up to work with self-inflicted bruises and marks. Almost two years into their relationship, Mr Jones was called into Queanbeyan Police Station and handed an Apprehensive Violence Order amid allegations he was assaulting Parkinson. Mr Jones confronted Parkinson and believed her reassurances that her colleagues were being over-protective. Mr Jones' father Ian said he also confronted Parkinson and she told him the allegations were false and that couple were madly in love. Ian said he began to suspect the family had let a 'rat' into their home. On March 21 2014, Mr Jones was arrested for raping Parkinson despite this picture proving he was somewhere else at the time of the alleged assault The couple continued to live together, but Mr Jones became increasingly concerned his partner was cheating on him with a policeman. The affair came to light when Mr Jones questioned Parkinson and their relationship came to an end in November 2013. 'I was crushed I'd just built a house. She'd moved in with me, everything was going well, I had a good career, my dream car I always wanted. Everything was going right and in that instant everything just went to s***.' Days after their break up, Parkinson ramped up her allegations against Mr Jones, accusing him of urinating on her, locking her outside of their home in the rain and hitting her in the face with a plank of wood. 'You've come from meeting this innocent, sweet girl to this premeditated monster who is capable of making all these allegations against you without a care in the world,' Mr Jones said. Mr Jones pictured with his parents Michelle and Ian who went to battle for their son amid the false accusations On Christmas Eve 2013, Mr Jones was finishing his shift as a prison officer when he was arrested in front of his colleagues and hit with 32 charges related to domestic violence. Mr Jones was released on strict bail conditions and moved back in with his parents - while Parkinson stayed in the former couples' home with her new lover and his three children. But on March 21, 2014, police arrived at the Jones' home without warning and he was arrested. This time Parkinson alleged her former partner had raped her - despite photographic evidence proving otherwise. Mr Jones' sister-in-law had taken a photo of Mr Jones holding his baby nephew at the time of the supposed assault. The information attached to the photo included a time stamp and Mr Jones' location. Despite the evidence, Mr Jones was sent to Goulburn prison while his devastated parents prepared for the battle of their lives. Ian said the family were put into fight mode as they were up against the police and incurring huge legal costs. The family were fearful Mr Jones could spend over a decade in prison - until Detective Sergeant Alexander stepped in. Detective Sergeant Alexander, from the ACT criminal unit, quickly noticed a number of holes in Parkinson's claims and evidence and begun to thoroughly investigate her. 'As far as I was concerned and what the evidence showed is [Mr Jones] wasn't responsible for any of it. It didn't happen,' she said. Mr Jones was sent to Goulburn prison while his devastated parents prepared for the battle of their lives Parkinson made allegations the Jones family were harassing her, including claims her house was broken into and she was attacked by a man wielding a knife. A police warrant at Parkinson's home matched the knife from the alleged attack to her own knife set. Parkinson alleged her iPad was stolen when her house was robbed and said she had tracked it to the Jones' house. But a GPS tracker in her vehicle found she made the journey to the property, dumping the device outside the Jones home. Detective Sergeant Alexander said it was clear Parkinson had lied - and it made her question what else she had been dishonest about. The ACT Department of Public Prosecutions called an emergency bail hearing and Mr Jones was released from jail. Mr Jones' mum Michelle described Detective Sergeant Alexander as a 'Godsend' and Ian said his son would probably still be in jail without her. The family became increasingly fearful Mr Jones could spend over a decade in prison - until Detective Sergeant Leesa Alexander came to save the day Parkinson had made false allegations of rape before. Canberra man Keith Lewis was wrongly accused of sexually assaulting Parkinson a decade ago. Lewis' daughter Sarah was best friends with Parkinson at the time the false allegations were made. An emotional Sarah questioned why someone so trusted in her life would lie about something so serious. She said that people at her school falsely thought her father was a rapist for ten years. Mr Lewis was never charged over the allegations as there was no case, but the family suffered emotional torment at the hands of Parkinson. 'I think she's a lying, vindictive, cancerous human who should not be around other people at all,' Mr Jones said. Parkinson was jailed for three years and one month. During sentencing magistrate Beth Campbell described as 'incomprehensible, wicked behaviour', The Australian reported. Her crime has also been described as a mockery of genuine domestic and sexual violence victims. Mr Jones has now found love again, but his family they are still struggling after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees. Emma Holsty, who is related to Mr Jones, said the family is attempting to recover since losing 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' it cost in legal fees to fight for his innocence and freedom. 'That is before any compensation for the damage she (his ex-fiancee) caused for my cousin and his immediate family - now torn apart,' she wrote on Facebook. 'It really has been a six year nightmare that will never be repaired.' Mr Jones has now found love again, but his family say his family are still struggling after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees A GoFundMe page was set up to raise money for the family. 'Last week the perpetrator of this crime, Sarah Jane Parkinson, was sent to prison for three years for false rape accusations and faking a crime scene,' the page, posted in January says. 'This followed five years of Parkinson's vicious attempts to destroy Dan, her ex-fiance, and his family, with the help of crooked cops.' 'Her campaign led to Dan spending four months wrongly imprisoned and his parents blowing their life savings, spending over $300,000 trying to protect their son.' The page has raised more than $20,000. A Utah mayor has admitted to handcuffing his female coworker with a zip tie and being a 'touchy person' with his staff, a new report has revealed. Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall was investigated by the city after six people who worked with him told the Salt Lake City Tribune that his aggressive behavior had made them uncomfortable. More than a dozen witnesses alleged in the report that Marshall screamed and yelled at his coworkers and touched people inappropriately at work. Shauna Kertamus, a former Grantsville zoning and planning administrator, said the mayor once handcuffed her in zip ties and made her feel 'terrible [and] claustrophobic'. Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall has admitted to to handcuffing his female coworker with a zip tie and being a 'touchy person' with his staff, a new report has revealed Marshall was investigated by the city after six people who worked with him told the Salt Lake City Tribune that his aggressive behavior had made them uncomfortable Kertamus said Marshall walked into her office one day holding the zip ties in his hand. She asked the mayor what they were for and he 'grinned' and told her to stand up and put her arms out, according to the report. After she did as told, Marshall put a zip tie around her wrist and 'started laughing out loud'. Kertamus said she immediately asked Marshall to take them off, but he made her walk with him across the building and into his office before he took out a pair of scissors and cut the ties from her wrists. 'It was frightening. It was like, "Brent, please take these off,"' Kertamus recalled to the Salt Lake City Tribune in January. 'I had to parade through the whole building with these things on my wrists and follow him over into his office for him to remove them.' Kertamus said that, in another incident, Marshall once called her into his office so that she could listen to a resident complain on speakerphone about her work on a zoning issue. More than a dozen witnesses alleged in the report (pictured) that Marshall screamed and yelled at his coworkers and touched people inappropriately at work The resident was 'very angry' and berating her with 'foul language', so Kertamus got up to go. But Marshal then 'grabbed her wrist and pointed at the chair' to prevent her from leaving, she told investigators. Kertamus said Marshall's behavior was one of the reasons why she decided to leave her job in 2014. Shauna Kertamus said the mayor once handcuffed her in zip ties and made her feel 'terrible [and] claustrophobic' (file photo) 'I loved my job, I felt I was good at it,' she said. 'To be demeaned by him...he absolutely had no respect for me or my position in the city. It was absolutely nothing to him.' 'When President Trump was [elected to] office, I said to my husband, "That is just like having a Brent Marshall win president of the United States,'" she added. Marshall told investigators that he 'probably shouldn't have touched' Kertamus but that he's 'been that way all my life'. The mayor also admitted he handcuffed Kertamus with zip ties but claimed it was 'all in fun' and that she 'wanted it done'. Rachel Wright, who worked as the Gransville City Recorder under Marshall, said the mayor once pushed her and yelled at her for two hours straight. Wright, who had just come back from deployment with the Air Force in December 2012, said Marshall became angry with her after she reporting him for signing a contract without following the proper procedure. Marshall - who was 'very angry' - came into Wright's office, put his arms on her shoulders, and pushed her back down into the chair. Marshall admitted to investigators that he was a 'touchy person' but said he didn't realize 'that was offensive to a lot of people' 'He grabbed my shoulders and he pushed me and made me sit down,' Wright told the Salt Lake City Tribune. 'He pushed me into one of the chairs and told me I wasn't leaving'. The mayor then told her, 'You are going to sit here and listen to me because I'm not going to tolerate someone going behind my back and throwing me under the bus', the report states. 'It really shook me up,' Wright said. 'I had just come back from deployment and so I was having a hard time from that and then when I came back, I had to deal with a whole bunch of stuff with [Marshall]. So it really...it set me into a pretty good depression.' Eric Johnsen revealed he once had to tell Marshall to take his hands off his wife. In 2015, Susan Johnsen had went into a conference room after a council meeting to ask Marshall a question. She said the mayor draped his arms across her shoulders. His elbows were pointing down into her shoulder blades and his hands were pointing straight up. Eric, who said Marshall was 'face-to-face, almost nose-to-nose contact' with Susan, then walked into the room and yelled, 'Mayor, get your hands off my wife!' He recalled that Marshall then 'chuckled' after backing off from Susan and 'tried to make light of the issue'. 'His manner is intimidating,' Susan Johnsen said. 'Whether that's meant to be on purpose or through ignorance, I can't tell. He talks loud, he stands too close, he yells in you face on top of you when you're trying to make a point. It's just, you know, that kind of boorish behavior.' Laurie Hurst claimed Marshall also once aggressively placed his hands on her shoulders while they were arguing about an article she had written. The final three pages of the report, under the heading 'Allegations and Conclusions', has been completely redacted (pictured) It remains unknown if Marshall has received any punishments for his behavior She said the mayor 'continued to get louder and angrier' and then 'with fists forward, slammed his forearms on my shoulders as he leaned over me and yelled within inches of my face'. He calmed down mere minutes later and then 'forced his arm' around Hurst's shoulder as they walked down the road, she added. Hurst said that every single time she met with Marshall, he got 'red in the face' and yelled at her 'no matter how calm and non-confrontational' she tried to be. Grantsville City Council member Neil Critchlow said Marshall had also once 'forcefully placed his arms or hands' on his shoulders as well. He said the mayor was verbally and physically aggressive, couldn't control his temper, and had a 'tendency to get close to personal space'. Marshall admitted to investigators that he was a 'touchy person' but said he didn't realize 'that was offensive to a lot of people'. The city has spent the last year trying to keep details of the investigation into Marshall from going public, according to WTVR. And the final three pages of the report, under the heading 'Allegations and Conclusions', has been completely redacted. It remains unknown if Marshall has received any punishments for his behavior. But a number of anonymous witnesses claimed that Marshall has never apologized and was not disciplined following the report. Models Gigi, Bella and Anwar Hadid made a surprise appearance at this weekend's Arab Conference at Harvard 2019 to support their father, real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid, as he spoke about the family's Palestinian roots. Mohamed was interviewed by journalist Jessica Azar on stage Sunday in front of a large audience at the conference titled (Re)Imagining Home at Harvard University's campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The 70-year-old was born in Nazareth, Palestine, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He was only 18 months old when his family was forced to flee to Syrian refugee camps. He spent his childhood living in Damascus, Beirut and Tunis where his father worked for Voice of America until the family came to America when he was 14. During Sunday's interview, Mohamed, who has American and Jordanian citizenship, opened up about how important it is for him to have his children help keep the Palestinian identity alive. He then asked all five of them - Gigi, Bella and Anwar from his second marriage to Yolanda Foster and Marielle and Alana from his first marriage to Mary Butler - to join him on stage as he was presented with an award. Models Gigi (far right), Bella (second right) and Anwar Hadid (far left) made a surprise appearance at the Arab Conference at Harvard 2019 to support their father, real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid (fourth right), as he spoke about the family's Palestinian roots on Sunday Mohamed Hadid was interviewed by journalist Jessica Azar (left) on stage in front of a large audience at the conference titled (Re)Imagining Home at Harvard University's campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts Azar opened the interview with Mohamed by asking him whether he had ever considered changing his name after coming to America at 14 years old. Mohamed said he hadn't, adding: 'I was very comfortable with it, the problem was other people are uncomfortable with it.' Mohamed, who was born in Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, spoke of how important it is for him to have his children keep the Palestinian identity alive Azar also pointed out that the father had given each of his children Arabic names: Jelena Noura [Gigi], Isabella Khair [Bella], Anwar Mohamed Gerard, Alana Amal and Marielle Zain. Mohamed responded by joking: 'I think their mothers had something to do with it as well,' later adding more seriously: 'They kept both cultures within our kids.' Asked how he taught his children about their Arabic roots, Mohamed said: 'They know that they're Palestinians - I tried to explain to them that their culture is very rare. I try to teach them to keep it alive.' 'One of my dreams is to have my kids carry the name Palestine with them everywhere they go because it seems like we are losing that name as we go on.' Gigi, 23, and Bella, 22, have long been vocal supporters of Palestine both on social media and during several protests including one in 2017 in response to President Donald Trump's Muslim ban. The supermodels were beaming with pride as they joined their father on stage alongside brother Anwar, 19, and half-sisters Alana, 33, and Marielle, 38. Mohamed Hadid, Hassan Morshedy, & the Startup Pitch Competition Live from the Arab Conference at Harvard 2019, a conversation with Mohamed Hadid, keynote speech with Hassan Morshedy and our Startup Pitch Competition. Posted by Harvard Arab Alumni Association on Sunday, April 7, 2019 Mohamed asked all five of his children- Gigi, Bella and Anwar from his second marriage to Yolanda Foster and Marielle and Alana from his first marriage to Mary Butler - to join him on stage. Pictured from left to right are Anwar, Marielle, Alana, interviewer Jessica Azar, event organizer Dina Masri, Mohamed, organizer Raja Ghawi, Bella and Gigi Bella donned a blue denim suit over a white turtleneck with white sneakers. Gigi paired grey slacks with an oversize white button-down shirt and black loafers Anwar sported a pair of track pants with a structured black jacket and a thin striped scarf. Alana wore a dark blue velvet suit with black boots and her sister Marielle donned a blue dress, matching blue shoes and a brown coat Bella donned a blue denim suit over a white turtleneck, finishing off the look with relaxed white sneakers. Gigi played with the business motif even more than her younger sister, pairing grey slacks with an oversize white button-down shirt and black loafers. Alana wore a dark blue velvet suit with black boots and her sister Marielle donned a blue dress, matching blue shoes and a brown coat. Anwar sported a pair of track pants with a structured black jacket and a thin striped scarf. The guest of honor, Mohamed, wore a double-breasted jacket with sleek black pants accessorized with a blue scarf. The Trump administration is denying three Democratic congresswomen access to a shelter for migrant kids in South Florida. House Reps Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Donna Shalala, and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell were not permitted to enter the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children in Homestead, the Miami Herald reported on Sunday. The denials of access were confirmed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The three members of Congress said they plan to attempt to tour the facility on Monday. House Reps Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Donna Shalala, and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell were not permitted to enter the Homestead child migrant shelter in Florida. Shalala (left) and Mucarsel-Powell (center) are seen with Rep Sylvia Garcia (far right) after touring the facility in February Schultz is seen far right with then-Senator Bill Nelson (center) and House Rep Kionne L. McGhee walking toward the Homestead facility in June 2018 The denials of access were confirmed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The three members of Congress said they plan to attempt to tour the facility on Monday. Migrant children are seen above at the facility in February They said that the Trump administration is violating the law by denying legislators access to the shelter. We have had significant interest for facility visits, HHS told the Herald. To ensure a facility visit does not interfere with the safety and well-being of our [children], we require a minimum two-week notification at the convenience and availability of the facility. This has been policy since 2015. Schultz, Shalala, and Mucarsel-Powell blasted the administration for denying them access, calling the action illegal. The lawmakers cited Section 234 of bill 115-245, also known as the 2019 Department of Health and Human Services Appropriations Act. Guards are seen at the Homestead shelter for migrant children in Homestead in June 2018. The Obama administration opened Homestead as a temporary shelter for up to 800 migrant teens for 10 months in 2016 The law was amended this year and included language which states that members of Congress cant be prevented from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any U.S. facility used for maintaining custody of or otherwise housing unaccompanied alien children. HHS would not comment on the congresswomens allegation that it was in violation of the law. The three Democratic lawmakers released a joint statement which read: During our last visit to Homestead, we witnessed children living in cramped, prison-like conditions. The idea to force even more children into an already full detention facility is not only unsafe, but is cruel and violates basic tenets of human decency. In February, Mucarsel-Powell, Shalala, and Schultz were part of a five-member Congressional delegation which toured the facility. Mucarsel-Powell says she met a girl who was separated from her aunt and had been at the center for nine months. Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, the chairman of the Hispanic caucus, was part of the delegation. What we saw today as we visited the facility was very troubling. It had a prison-like feeling, said Mucarsel-Powell, whose district includes Homestead, a Miami suburb. Federal requirements implemented last year mandated more stringent background checks on their families, which slowed the children's release to family members. The average length of stay at Homestead went up from 25 days last June to 67 days last December. A demonstrator holding a sign confronts pro-Trump supporters during the 'Keep Families Together' march outside of the Homestead temporary shelter for unaccompanied migrant children in Homestead on June 23, 2018 Last week, federal officials announced they were once again expanding the Homestead detention camp as the number of immigrants crossing into the U.S. rises. Schulz said in a Tuesday statement that the Trump administration notified members of Congress that its capacity was growing from 2,350 to 3,200. A Monday email from an adviser of the Department of Health and Human Services said the expansion was due to a surge of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Children who arrive without parents or legal guardians are placed in custody of the agency. The government had announced in December that the facility in Homestead, Florida, was increasing the number of beds from 1,200 to 2,350. About 2,000 teenagers were being detained there as of last week. The Obama administration opened Homestead as a temporary shelter for up to 800 migrant teens for 10 months in 2016. Comprehensive Health Services is the company that has been running the facility since then. But it was bought by a Washington private equity company called DC Capital Partners last March before the Trump administration announced a policy that led to more than 2,700 children being separated from their families and placed in shelters. John Kelly, who stepped down as President Donald Trump's chief of staff in January, sat on the board of DC Capital Partners right before joining the White House, first as Homeland Security secretary. He also was a member of boards of other companies that are part of the private equity firm's portfolio. The private equity company formed Caliburn in August by grouping Comprehensive Health Services and three other companies. Last month, Caliburn abandoned its plans to go public as controversy grows around policies that lock up children crossing the Mexico border. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen met with President Donald Trump Sunday evening and submitted her resignation Nielsen was with President Trump when he visited the border on Friday U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan will be acting Department of Homeland Security secretary The chairman of Caliburn, Thomas J. Campbell, sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission saying it no longer wishes to conduct a public offering. The Virginia-based company said in a press release the reason was variability in the equity markets, adding that business continues to grow. Previous filings cited risks of negative publicity as something that could affect share price. In securities filings, Caliburn reported total revenue of $785 million in 2017. That does not include two large contracts totaling more than $250 million that the federal government has awarded Comprehensive Health Services since 2018. In a sign of dissatisfaction over the situation at the border, the Trump administration announced that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will no longer be in her position. President Trump made in the announcement in a tweet, as the administration pursues an overhaul of the department responsible for immigration policy. Her departure was first reported by CBS News, which said it was unclear whether Nielsens departure would be voluntary. In another tweet, Trump said Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, would become acting DHS secretary. Nielsen, 46, has held the position since December 2017. As it includes immigration and customs enforcement, her department is responsible for carrying out some of Trumps most contentious policies as he has sought to cut back on the number of Mexicans and Central Americans entering the United States without proper documentation. Repeatedly subjected to tough questioning by Democrats in Congress, Nielsen has overseen Trump plans such as his effort to build a wall on the border with Mexico and the separation of migrant children from their families. Trump insists that the arrival of immigrants across the southern U.S. border constitutes a national emergency. He recently threatened to close the border, or parts of it, if Congress did not change U.S. laws to fix what he called immigration loopholes. Websites which break a new online code could be blocked in Britain under the biggest shake-up of internet laws in a generation. The proposal is designed to force tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to clean up harmful material on their platforms. It has been hailed as a victory by online safety campaigners. But it sparked fears that the efforts to crack down on the spread of child abuse images, terrorism, revenge pornography and hate crime could backfire and lead to totalitarian-style censorship. Ex-Culture Secretary John Whittingdale drew parallels with the regimes in China and Russia, whose governments routinely stop freedom of speech. Ex-Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said the new internet reforms are similar to Chinese and Russian suppression of free speech The idea is one of a slew of reforms set out today in the Government's White Paper on Online Harms. It also suggests companies could be wiped from internet search results and app stores if they fall foul of the law. In the most serious cases they could be banned from the internet altogether. Under the new rules, any website which allows users to post content will have a legal 'duty of care' to all users. The regulations will apply to firms such as Google and Facebook, which have repeatedly come under fire for hosting vile material, including terrorist and paedophile content. But they will also apply to smaller websites which allow users to post comments, including blogs, and online news and review sites. Web firms will be held to account by an independent regulator, which will set out the new code and have the power to hand out severe punishments. Facebook and Google have previously come under fire for hosting paedophile and terrorist content However, the regulators' rules on terror and child exploitation will have to be approved by the Home Secretary. The Government is launching a consultation on the extent of the regulator's powers, but the paper's proposals include: Personal fines for individual senior managers at firms which seriously break the rules; Web firms needing to provide annual reports setting out the amount of harmful content on their platforms; Civil fines of up to 20million, or 4 per cent of annual turnover, for firms which break the rules; In the worst circumstances, the regulator could have offending websites blocked by internet service providers, so they cannot be accessed in the UK. The regulator will also have powers to tackle disinformation so-called 'fake news' although the White Paper concedes this has no clear legal definition. The measures come amid growing concerns that tech giants are damaging democracy with misinformation. They have been criticised for circulating instruction manuals for would-be terrorists, hosting extremist videos and providing a 'service' for paedophiles to direct each other to illegal material. Under new rules, any website which allows users to post content will have a legal 'duty of care' to all users The Government will say it is considering the extreme measures due to 'the serious nature of the harms in scope and the global nature of online services'. It will add that the threat of disconnecting websites from the internet would 'only be an option of last resort'. Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright said: 'The era of self-regulation for online companies is over. We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to go online.' Charities and campaigners welcomed the measures. NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said: 'Social networks have failed to prioritise children's safety. It's high time they were forced to act through this legally binding duty.' But critics raised fears the measures threaten freedom of speech. Mr Whittingdale, Culture Secretary from 2015 to 2016, said the proposals risk dragging Britons into a 'draconian censorship regime' in the mould of China, Russia and North Korea. He added: 'This mooted new UK regulator must not give the despots an excuse to claim that they are simply following an example set by Britain.' Mark Stephens, a media lawyer at Howard Kennedy, said: 'We are the first Western regime to consider this. The only other countries doing this are Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Russia. It is not appropriate for a Western democracy.' Last night the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said the White Paper had 'no intention' of impacting editorial content. A spokesman said: 'These measures are not about regulation of the press, they are about tackling online harms and the damage they can do to people's lives. The independent regulator will take a sensible, risk-based approach.' A man who allegedly terrorised an Islamic family as they enjoyed an afternoon picnic yelled: 'F*ck the Muslims. You're dead. I'll f**king kill you,' a court has heard. Sharaf-Deen Yusuf, 43, allegedly drove doughnuts around the family and yelled anti-Islamic threats at the large family at Bulli Tops Lookout, south of Sydney, on Sunday. Yusuf, who was also found to be in possession of a boxcutter knife and hammer, was charged by police over the incident and faced Wollongong Local Court on Monday. But his appearance before the court was cut short after he became irate and started yelling that he was being discriminated against for himself being 'black and Muslim'. The large family were having lunch at a popular picnic area at the Bulli Tops Lookout (pictured), south of Sydney, on Sunday when 43-year-old Sharaf-Deen Yusuf approached the group Police allege that when Yusuf arrived at the popular lookout he began taking photos of the victims' cars when they pulled in minutes later, the Illawarra Star reported. One of the family members then approached Yusuf and asked what he was going. When Yusuf didn't respond the victim wondered if he was deaf, so pulled at his shirt. An angry Yusuf then allegedly responded: 'Don't f**king touch me, I'll f**king kill you. You'll be dead.' After seeing the situation unfold, two other members of the family then approached Yusuf at which point he allegedly exploded again. 'F**ck the Muslims. You're dead. I'll f**cking kill you,' he allegedly said again. Yusuf then went to his car, with the court hearing the victims believed he was going to get a weapon. Members of the family attempted to restrain him but he allegedly lashed out, forcing them to let him go. Yusuf then allegedly hopped behind the wheel of the car and began to perform three doughnuts, just metres away from where the large family - including several children - were standing. When police were called about 12.40pm he allegedly fled the scene, but returned five minutes later and was arrested. Officers were called to the picturesque lookout about 12.45pm after the 43-year-old intimidated the family and scared young children (stock image of Bulli Tops lookout) He was charged with intimidation and dangerous driving. In court on Monday, Yusuf was refused bail and ordered to reappear on April 23. Police say considering the wet and muddy conditions, Yusuf could have lost control of his vehicle while allegedly performing the doughnuts. 'It could have been a catastrophe,' Wollongong Superintendent Chris Craner said on Monday. Superintendent Craner told media that the family were 'doing the Australian thing' of having a weekend picnic when they were allegedly targeted. 'There is no place for any type of intimidation, abuse, or violence in New South Wales and I encourage the community to contact us to ensure every instance can be investigated,' he said. 'The safety of the community is our priority, and the NSW Police Force continues to work closely with all community groups to make sure not only are they safe they feel safe.' Jack Shepherd, 31, told Georgian prison guards yesterday that he was 'sorry'. He is due to come back to Britain on Wednesday Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has issued a reluctant apology to the parents of victim Charlotte Brown, but continues to blame her for the crash. Speaking ahead of his extradition from Georgia on Wednesday, he said: Her actions led to the fatal accident. Miss Brown, 24, a business consultant from Clacton in Essex, was killed when a speedboat she and Shepherd were in crashed on the Thames in December 2015. The pair were on a first date on his boat, which he used to pull women, when it hit an obstacle. They were both were thrown into the icy water. Convicted killer Shepherd, 31, continued to shift the blame for his dates death on to her, insisting: Ultimately, it was her action to accelerate in the manner that she did. He added: There are matters of luck and fate an unseen log in the path of the boat. In the end I survived while Charlotte lost her life. These things could have been very different. Shepherd has been found guilty of manslaughter after Charlotte Brown, 24, died in 2015 when his speedboat flipped on the Thames while they were on a first date The web developer told The Sun: I agree with the assessment that I bear some of the moral responsibility for Charlottes death and I can understand why her family apportion the entire blame on me. But the reality is not quite so simple. Referring to Miss Browns parents, Graham Brown and Roz Wickens, he said: Absolutely, unreservedly, I apologise for the role I played and undeniably I did play a part. They have my sincere sympathies and condolences and I understand why they apportion the blame as they do. If I was in the same situation I would probably feel the same way. I am very sorry for what happened. It was a tragedy and if I could do anything to change what happened I really would. Shepherd fled Britain after being charged with Miss Browns manslaughter, and was given a six-year prison sentence in his absence. The fugitive finally handed himself into Georgian police after an international manhunt was sparked and the Daily Mail put up a 25,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. He has since been in Gldani Prison No 8 in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. Asked if he regretted fleeing before his trial, he said: Primarily, yes. The consequences for me and others, the way Im perceived, its upset a lot of people and it was against my own interests also. I truly believe if Id been there in court to explain myself, the jury would have come to a different conclusion. But also, the choice I felt I faced at the time was between running and suicide, so in a way Im not entirely regretful because at least I didnt choose the other option. Two months after Miss Browns death, Shepherd married his fiancee who did not know he had been romancing other women and had been involved in Miss Browns death. The pair, who lived in north London before moving to Wales, have a young son together. He admitted he would not go back to his wife, but would fight to see his child, whether that was in Britain or another European country. He said: My son is in Britain and Ive always worked there. But it may be difficult for me to find work given the negative media coverage Ive experienced. I do have obligations, debts, I want to provide for my son, so Im going to have to find decent work somewhere, be that in the UK or another European country. Although he is yet to begin his sentence in Britain, he has also toyed with the prospect of a career change, saying: Its tempting. If some opportunity arises in prison to try my hand at something else like carpentry, Id give that a go. He is an honorary Air Chief Marshal in the RAF and an Admiral of the Royal Navy Backlash against the Sultan of Brunei grew yesterday amid calls for him to be stripped of two honorary roles awarded by the Queen. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who has brought in laws making gay sex punishable by stoning to death, is an honorary Air Chief Marshal in the RAF and an Admiral of the Royal Navy. The calls come after a celebrity-inspired campaign demanded a boycott of the ruler's hotel empire, which includes the Dorchester in London. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who has brought in laws making gay sex punishable by stoning to death, is an honorary Air Chief Marshal in the RAF and an Admiral of the Royal Navy [File photo] More than 100 protesters gathered outside the Park Lane hotel on Saturday bearing rainbow flags. Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, said: 'Stripping the Sultan of the honours they [the services] have bestowed upon him would send out the important message that they do not wish to be in any way associated with this medieval barbarism.' Buckingham Palace refused to be drawn into the row, with a spokesman saying: 'Her Majesty acted on the advice of Government in relation to these honorary appointments.' The Cabinet Office would not comment on individuals. The Sultan faces being stripped of honorary degrees by the University of Oxford, of Aberdeen and King's College London this week. Potential candidates to succeed Theresa May stressed their desire to win over young voters yesterday after a study showed voters do not switch to the Tories until the age of 51. International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said the party needed to 'act swiftly' to win over the younger generations who were turning away from the centre-Right in 'unprecedented' numbers. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, also called on the Conservatives to change their 'tone' towards modern Britain or face Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister. They will both speak alongside Environment Secretary Michael Gove at the launch of a report setting out proposals aimed at appealing to younger voters. International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said the party needed to 'act swiftly' to win over the younger generations The Generation Why? report by centre-Right think-tank Onward found that every generation and ethnic group, including Remain supporters, back curbs on immigration. The policy is supported by 38 per cent of 18-24 year-olds, 68 per cent of over-65s, 40 per cent of Asian voters, 45 per cent of Black voters and 40 per cent of Remain voters. Only 16 per cent of under-35s said they would currently vote for the Conservatives. Just 17 per cent of Tory voters are aged under 45, and only 4 per cent are under 25. The age at which people become more likely to vote Conservative than Labour is now 51, up from 47 at the 2017 election and 34 before that. Onward's director Will Tanner, a former aide to Mrs May, said: 'Everyone is focusing on Brexit, but the growing age gap in vote intention is a bigger threat to the Conservative Party's future.' The think-tank set out a series of policies aimed at rejuvenating the centre-Right, including low taxes, controlling immigration and protecting the environment. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary celebrated Tiger Roll's second successive Grand National win with passengers on board the flight back to Ireland. Tiger Roll, owned by O'Leary's Gigginstown House Stud, became the first horse since Red Rum to win back-to-back Nationals on Saturday. Following the nine-year-old's success last year O'Leary treated passengers to one free drink and this time around he provided two beverages on the house. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary celebrated Tiger Roll's Grand National win with passengers Tiger Roll's trainer Gordon Elliott (right) and jockey Davy Russell were two passengers on flight Michael O'Leary at his best again pic.twitter.com/wwoEgpPC1i Leon Blanche (@BoyleSportsLB) April 6, 2019 'As is traditional on evenings when we win the Grand National and Cheltenham, we're having a free bar on board this flight,' he said on the intercom. 'I got some criticism last year by limiting it to one drink per person so that the crew could get to the end of the aircraft but now you can have two drinks per person. 'If anyone orders a ham and cheese panini or sandwich I'm offloading you personally. You can buy your food in Dublin, on board this flight we're drinking.' Tiger Roll became the first horse since Red Rum to win back-to-back Nationals on Saturday Tiger Roll's trainer Gordon Elliott and jockey Davy Russell were two of the passengers on board the flight home from Liverpool. O'Leary added: 'I want to congratulate Gordon Elliot who is sitting in row 6C. And Davy Russell who is sitting down at 8D.' Tiger Roll beat 66-1 outsider Magic Of Light by two and three-quarter lengths. Memorably, and with affection, 12 months earlier, O'Leary had called Tiger Roll a 'little rat of a thing'. This time he simply said: 'God, I am so in with rats'. Owner O'Leary (left), trainer Elliott and jockey Davy Russell (right) celebrate at Aintree O'Leary added after the victory: 'This is phenomenal. There was no pressure today. I did not think he would win. They don't win two in a row and Red Rum was a legend and now Tiger Roll is a legend. I am floating on air. 'The aim today was for him to come back in one piece. He is so precious to me and he is to everyone now. The cheering he got at the finish was great for the crowd and it was bad for the bookies which is always a good thing. 'These are the most days in my life. You never expect to win one Grand National and we have now won three. Tiger Roll is not a Gold Cup horse but he is a legend in his own right now. 'We will have a very good party tonight and the Ryanair flight from Liverpool will be going a few minutes late again I suspect.' Advertisement They may have been built hundreds of years ago - but castles continue to capture the imagination today. And these incredible images show why. They appear in a fascinating new book called Castles of the World by Phyllis Jestice, which examines more than 150 fortifications from across the world, from 5th century fortresses and fairy-tale Alpine wonders to Norman keeps and Samurai strongholds. Delve into this tome and you'll find images of the ancient Arg-E Bam fortress in Iran, Trakai Castle, built on a small island in the middle of stunning Lake Galve in Lithuania and a jaw-dropping aerial shot of the longest-occupied palace in Europe - Queen Elizabeth's Windsor Castle. Jestice says: 'This book is a beautiful examination of past worlds viewed through castles that continue to enrich the modern landscape. They evoke an imagined age of aristocratic warriors and noble aspirations for which many people still yearn today.' Scroll down to see 20 of MailOnline Travel's favourite images from the tome... Arg-E Bam in Iran is the largest building in the world made from adobe. The citadel covers a 44-acre site surrounded by a massive wall over a mile long. The Achaemenid Persians in the fifth century BCE built the earliest fortress on the site due to its key location on the Silk Road and assured its prosperity for millennia. Arg-E Bam was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in 2003. The photograph shows the site before the earthquake Krzyztopor Castle in Poland, pictured, had a very short history as a viable fortress. It was probably completed in 1644. Swedish forces, however, occupied the castle in the invasion of 16551657, causing so much damage that the decision was made not to rebuild it. Destruction was completed by Russian troops in 1770. For about a century after the castle was damaged by the Swedes, several Polish noble families continued to live in the best-preserved part of the castle. Today, about 90 per cent of the castle's external walls still stand, but the buildings within Krzyztopor are in a ruinous state This Segovia structure owes its shape to the Christian rulers of Castile in Spain. Alfonso VIII of Castile began converting the Almoravid fort to stone around 1200 and John II (140654) added its most distinctive feature, the 'new tower', while Philip II decorated the castle with tall spires in the 16th century Sir Edward Dalyngrigge made his fortune fighting on the continent in a mercenary company. After returning to England, in 1385, he received a royal licence to build a castle. Dalyngrigge's East Sussex home of Bodiam Castle was built out of fear of French raids, but the old-fashioned walls suggest a greater interest in showing off than defence Grand Duke Kestutis began constructing Trakai Castle on an island in Lake Galve in Lithuania in the 14th century as a major administrative centre. The castle was badly damaged in an attack by the Teutonic Knights in 1377, but during a truce the grand duke brought in the Order's own stonemason to rebuild the fortress. Sometimes called 'Little Marienburg', the castle is constructed of red brick in the style of Teutonic Order fortifications. A wooden footbridge now connects the castle to the mainland, but during its time as a Lithuanian royal centre the fortress would only have been accessible by boat First fortified in 474 BCE, Castello Aragonese defended the Bay of Naples off the coast of Italy. The present castle and name come from the rebuilding of the castle by Alfonso V of Aragon in 1441. Castello Aragonese was badly damaged by British bombardment in 1809, but restored in the 20th century One of Europe's largest castles in area, Spis Castle in Slovakia was first built in the 12th century. A settlement formed in its shadow, which was then incorporated into the castle with an encircling wall. As further settlements were established, more expansive walls were built in the 14th and 15th centuries. Abandoned in the early 18th century, the castle has only been partially restored After occupying a fort in the hills above Oberhofen, the von Eschenbach family moved to the shore of Lake Thun in Switzerland and began constructing the current Oberhifen Castle in around 1200, beginning with a keep. The gatehouse still attests to the castle's originally strong fortification, which included a moat on the landward side. In 1306, the Habsburgs forced the von Eschenbach family to sell Oberhofen Castle to them. But after the Swiss Federation decisively defeated the Habsburgs at the Battle of Sempach (1386), the canton of Bern took control of the castle, before selling it to one of the leading families of the city Perched above the Moselle River between Koblenz and Trier in Germany, Eltz Castle has been owned by the Eltz family since the 12th century. The keep dates back to the 12th century, but Eltz above all owes its security to the Elzbach River, which surrounds it on three sides, and its position on a rock spur. Eltz was more impressive before it endured a two-year siege in the 1330s. After capitulating, the outer defences were demolished, leaving the castle as a simpler fortified residence. Branches of the family owned the castle in common, occupying more than one hundred residential rooms The castle in Soroca, Moldova, was built by order of Prince Stephen the Great of Moldavia, with the first stones laid in 1499. It is one of a string of fortifications constructed along the Dnieper River to protect the Moldavian/Ukrainian frontier. In the late 17th century, Jan Sobieski's Polish-Lithuanian forces successfully defended Soroca from an Ottoman attack. Historians speculate that Prince Stephen of Moldavia brought in western European architects to design his castle. It was engineered in the late medieval western fashion, with curved walls and round outer towers, better able to resist cannon fire than older fortification styles. The castle was still of military importance during the campaigns of Peter the Great in the early 18th century One of Spain's oldest castles, Loarre in Huesca was erected in stages between around 1020 and the early 12th century to support the early steps of the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Constructed on a rocky outcrop that prevented a single unified plan, it consists of a number of buildings surrounded by curtain walls Tourbillon Castle dominates the town of Sionin in Switzerland from one of the twin rocky outcrops (on the left) that stand on the flank of the Alps. It can only be reached by a long, winding stairway. The other hill, to the right, is home to the Basilique de Valere, a Catholic basilica constructed in the 11th to 13th centuries Erected between 1300 and 1310 to protect Brussels, Beersel Castle's wide moat compensates for its lack of elevation. Beersel suffered sieges in the 14th and 15th centuries, but each time the damage was soon repaired. The castle housed a cotton factory for nearly a century before its restoration as a tourist site James II of Aragon and Majorca constructed Castillo de Bellver on the Mediterranean island of Majorca in the 14th century. It is one of the few circular castles in Europe. The castle is well preserved, thanks to the fact that it was used as a prison from the 18th century until the middle of the 20th century Although first mentioned in a document of 1013, Bojnice Castle in Slovakia bears little resemblance to the small wooden fortress of the 11th century. The castle was gradually rebuilt in stone, and in the 16th century was transformed into a Renaissance castle. Bojnice is now a 19th-century romantic fairy-tale castle, thanks to the rebuilding masterminded by owner, Count Janos Ferenc Palffy between 1888 and 1910. Deeply impressed by the French chateaux of the Loire Valley, Palffy invested a fortune in recreating this French style in Slovakia The archbishop of Seville began construction of the well-preserved Coca Castle in 1448 and work continued until the end of the 15th century. Coca is constructed of brick because of a lack of good building stone in the region. The castle never suffered a serious attack and its impressive defences may have been largely for show. This is the best example of Mudejar castle-building on the Iberian Peninsula. The Christian architect incorporated many elements of Islamic art, fusing the style into an overall late Gothic design. Primarily used as a residence, Coca Castle now houses a school Sir Edmund Bedingfeld began construction of Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk around 1482. It is still owned by his descendants, although now administered by the National Trust. Oxburgh is a moated country house. It looks imposing but would not have been able to hold out against determined assault Beaufort Castle in Luxembourg had its start in the early 11th century as a small square stone building protected by a moat. A keep was added in the first half of the 12th century, with further additions in the 1340s. In the 16th century the owner stayed in touch with the times by adding a Renaissance wing. Beaufort fell derelict and was abandoned at the time of the French Revolution (178999). For a time the site was even used as a quarry. Fortunately, in 1893 the castle's owner decided on a programme of renovation, opening the castle to the public in 1928 Now the longest-occupied palace in Europe, the first castle at Windsor was constructed in the 11th century after the Norman invasion of England. Built to defend the new Norman dominance on the Thames upstream from London, the castle was expanded and renovated numerous times over the centuries. With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II rebuilt much of the castle with Baroque state apartments that survive today. The Round Tower is based on an original 12th-century building, but was extensively remodelled in the 19th century. Still a royal residence for the Queen, today parts of Windsor are open to the public. The Queen holds state banquets there and the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle took place in St George's Chapel at Windsor in 2018 The citadel within the town of Carcassonne in France has the largest intact wall of any town in Europe. It is protected by a double wall, the inner circuit dating to the Visigoths in the seventh century, the outer added after 1226, when Carcassonne passed to the French crown. By the 19th century, the walls of Carcassonne were so derelict that the government ordered their demolition. Following public outcry, however, it was decided to restore the fortifications. The task was given to the architect and antiquarian Eugene Viollet-le-Duc in 1853. His creative reconstruction, however, was strongly criticised by some as being unsuitable for the climate and not in keeping with the architecture of the region Victoria finally saw the debut of the long-awaited 'bathing machine' scene on Sunday night. In the brief moment that saw Jenna Coleman's monarch almost drown, a fitting metaphor began to emerge as she struggled to stay afloat in a sea of marital woes. Victoria's clashes with Albert continued as they battled over foreign affairs, their child's schooling and general status quo, and as predicted last week, it seems this is only the beginning when it comes to tension in the royal couples' marriage. Taking to water: Victoria finally saw the debut of the long-awaited 'bathing machine' scene on Sunday night's episode The episode begins with Victoria still furious that she is staying in Osborne House, as she missed the moment the Chartists peacefully delivered their Charter to Parliament. As tensions rise in the royal Household, the Queen summons the Prime Minister and Lord Palmerston, as they have granted an audience to Lajos Kossuth Of Hungary. Meanwhile Victoria and Albert continue to clash over their son Bertie, who has little interest in an education that would make him an accomplished future king. Tension: Victoria's clashes with Albert continued as they battled over foreign affairs, their child's schooling and general status quo But the episode's highlight came when Victoria finally donned her 'Little Chef' outfit for a dip in the sea - complete with a Victorian bathing machine. It proved a surprisingly brief moment as the Queen made her way into the water, before being pulled under by the current. After her maid Nancy to come the rescue, the episode has the best line of the series so far: 'I think we have established the Queen is NOT a fish.' Son: Victoria and Albert continue to clash over their son Bertie, who has little interest in an education that would make him an accomplished future king Back to the foreign political matters, and Lord Palmerston is reprimanded AGAIN by the Queen, leading to another great line: 'I can't help the disposition of my face ma'am.' Eventually the pair reach an understanding, and Victoria invites the politicians for dinner. However, ever the charmer, Palmerston tries to worm his way into the heart of the Duchess of Monmouth - Emma - who is still saddened to be separated from her son. Having a swim: The episode's highlight came when Victoria finally donned her 'Little Chef' outfit for a dip in the sea - complete with a Victorian bathing machine Her overly-oppressive - though gratefully unseen - husband is to blame for that. Emma's head is turned, but she has also grown close to the footman Joseph, who loves nothing more than skinny dipping and skipping church *gasp!* Luckily a nighttime blunder with Victoria's sister Feodora puts Palmerston back in line, and he rejects Emma's advances. Meanwhile a disastrous evening sees Victoria and Albert violently clash over Bertie's language and education, and as Her Majesty demands respect as the Queen, she proceeds to throw a gasp of wine over her husband. Not a water baby: It proved a surprisingly brief moment as the Queen made her way into the water, before being pulled under by the current Clash: Meanwhile a disastrous evening sees Victoria and Albert violently clash over Bertie's language and education Feodora then begins her plot to turn the couple against each other, as she weeps about the prospect of returning to Germany. Her scheme also seems to have been rumbled by Palmerston, who sussed she is keen to stay in England. Victoria is then left reeling to hear that Nancy is resigning, after husband Francatelli did the same earlier in the episode. Departure: Victoria is then left reeling to hear that Nancy is resigning, after husband Francatelli did the same earlier in the episode As the couple say their goodbyes to Buckingham Palace - after a spot of private time in one of the bedrooms - they put Mr Penge in his place in a satisfying moment. It's actually the second time he's shown up, after Emma insists Joseph be reinstated. Eventually the Queen agrees Lord Palmerston should dine with Lord Kossuth, only for the gesture to end in abject humiliation for the Hungarian. As Victoria demands to return to London, she and Albert are at odds again, shutting each other out in a tense scene that leaves out favourite couple hanging in the balance. Victoria continues on Sunday 14th April at 9pm on ITV. Emmerdale fans have been left baffled after a hooded assailant attacked the village vicar Harriet Finch on Friday. During the dramatic episode, the mystery attacker pushed the police officer-turned-vicar Harriet, played by actress Katherine Dow Blyton, to the gravel before making off with the money she had collected for the church. However following the cruel mugging, fans were left stunned at the vicar's inability to fight back despite her years of police training. Shock: Emmerdale fans have been left baffled after a hooded assailant attacked the village vicar Harriet Finch on Friday As the episode drew to a close, viewers were left on the edge of their seats as a mysterious figure followed the vicar to the church. Viewers were given a glimpse of a gloved hand tapping at the fence before Harriet was pushed to the ground and had her bag containing the charity money stolen. The startling move to remain on the ground and resist the urge to fight left fans in a world of confusion. Bewildered fans took to Twitter to share their dismay at Harriet's lack of fight while also trying to place their guesses at who the hooded assailant might be. Baffled: However following the cruel mugging, fans were left stunned at the vicar's inability to fight back despite her years of police training Confused fans: Bewildered fans were surprised that Harriet did not fight back despite her police training One fan wrote: 'Doubt it was Dawn who attacked Harriet, too obvious #Emmerdale.' Another user commented: 'I think it's too obvious it's Dawn that mugged Harriet..but could it be that obvious? #Emmerdale' A different account added: 'Absolutely howlin what kinda pathetic mugging was that. Harriet pet you used to be a copper.' Another soap watcher remarked: 'Why is the vicar so pathetic? Thought she was an ex copper who appears to have forgotten her training.' The guessing game: Other Emmerdale fans tried to guess who the mysterious attacker might be Culprit: Viewers were given a glimpse of a gloved hand tapping at the fence before Harriet was pushed to the ground and had her bag containing the charity money stolen While another user added: 'So that was the attack on Harriet? I thought it was supposed to be something bigger. Eh.' Earlier during the episode, viewers saw the vicar lock horns with Dawn Taylor, played by Olivia Bromley, after it was revealed she had been involved in the sacking of Manpreet Jutla's daughter Aiesha Richards played by Shila Iqbal. The scene left some fans thinking the hooded attacker was Dawn herself but others believed it was someone closer to home. However, viewers will have to wait and see who the real culprit is. Emmerdale continues weekdays at 7pm on ITV. Newly released reports claim Home and Away star Pia Miller and her fiance Tyson Miller have split. And on Saturday, the brunette beauty, 35, shared a cryptic post alluding to heartbreak on Instagram Stories. Pia shared a screenshot of the song Right Back by Khalid, which she appeared to be listening to on Spotify. Sending a message? Home and Away star Pia Miller (pictured) shared a cryptic post alluding to heartbreak after reports claimed she and Tyson Mullane split just 18 months after announcing their engagement The stunner also penned a heart emoticon beside the post. It appears Pia may have been relating the lyrics of the song to her own relationship with Tyson. In the track, Khalid tells the story of a man trying to 'bring back' his relationship after it fell 'off track'. Cryptic post: Pia shared this screenshot of the song Right Back by Khalid on Sunday. In the track, Khalid tells the story of a man trying to 'bring back' his relationship after it fell 'off track' Pia's post appears to confirm rumours that she and Tyson are not on amicable terms. It comes after the Daily Telegraph claimed the pair had ended their engagement after 18 months on Saturday. The paper alleges that the couple have 'recently moved out of their shared home' but that the split is amicable and they remain 'close friends'. Already over? On Saturday, The Daily Telegraph claimed Home and Away star Pia Miller (right) and Tyson Mullane (left) have split just 18 months after announcing their engagement Daily Mail Australia have reached out to Pia Miller's representatives for comment. Pia and Tyson, 30, first sparked split rumours in January when fans took to Instagram to ask about the status of the couple's relationship. Many had noticed that film producer Tyson hasn't appeared on Pia's page since September last year. Out? The paper alleges that the couple have 'recently moved out of their shared home' but that the split is amicable and they remain 'close friends'. Pictured in August 2018 Ringing it in: The mother-of-two had recently been spotted without her engagement ring on multiple occasions. Pictured in a recent social media snap The mother-of-two had recently been spotted without her engagement ring on multiple occasions. Pia and Tyson first began dating in 2015 before publicly announcing their romance on Valentine's Day in 2016. They got engaged 18 months later in November 2017. Engaged! Pia and Tyson first began dating in 2015 before publicly announcing their romance on Valentine's Day in 2016. They got engaged 18 months later in November 2017 The actress was previously married to former AFL player Brad Miller for eight years, before they separated in 2015. She is mum to son Lennox, 11, with former husband Brad and 15-year-old Isaiah from a previous relationship. Tyson previously dated model Cheyenne Tozzi. Ready on the set! Filming for the third installment in the Bad Boys franchise - Bad Boys For Life - was back in action on the bustling streets of Miami, Florida on Saturday. And the film's two stars, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, were seen getting ready to shoot a scene while driving a high-performance midnight blue Porsche that gets caught in the middle of a police chase. Scroll down to video Movie star ready: Will Smith was seen on the set of Bad Boys For Life in Miami on Saturday Getting into mode to play Detective Lieutenant Mike Lowrey, stylists on the set dressed the 50-year old Ali star in white form-fitting pants and a red polo-style shirt. They rounded out his ensemble with brown suede boots and kept his trademark goatee beard in tact. Eventually Lawrence, who plays Detective Lieutenant Marcus Burnett, stepped out from a crowd of workers to greet Smith, dressed casually-cool in a dark button-down shirt with brown pants. Miami style: Smith got into mode to play Detective Lieutenant Mike Lowrey, dressed in white form-fitting pants and a red polo-style shirt Quiet on the set! Once everything was nearly ready, Smith greeted co-star Martin Lawrence and the two sprung inaction for the scene driving a blue Porsche Once everything was nearly in place on the set, the two actors sprung into action and hopped into the car to shoot the scene. As part of the day's shooting, that blue Porsche was involved in a tricky stunt along the busy streets as extras and fans looked on in awe. When the director yelled action, a stunt driver had to drive the back backwards and maneuver around a couple of quick turns while police in hot pursuit. The logistics of the stunt also included a number of trucks and cars on the streets and people walking along the sidewalk. Action! The blue Porsche was also used for a police chase scene, where a stunt driver drove backwards; Bad Boys For Life is set to premiere January 17, 2020 Shooting for the third buddy-cop movie began in January, although Smith and Lawrence didn't begin production for their scenes until February. This go-around begins with Marcus (Lawrence) as a police inspector and Mike in a midlife crisis. They unite again when an Albanian mercenary, whose brother the pair killed, promises them an important bonus. Also returning from the first two films is Joe Pantoliano's Captain Howard. The cast also includes newcomers Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton and popular musician DJ Khaled. Bad Boys For Life is slated to hit theaters January 17, 2020. She's one of the most sought after faces in the modeling world. And Kendall Jenner looked fashion forward while spending her Saturday riding around town with her friends in a luxe vintage Cadillac. The IMG beauty, 23, coordinated her style and her car, rocking a chunky lilac sweater and matching bandeau which was the same hue as her ride. Model behavior: Kendall Jenner looked fashion-forward in two-toned pants and a lilac knit top while out in LA on Saturday Vintage vehicle: The model's look was perfectly matched to her 50s era Eldorado Biarritz Kendall's abs looked awesome in the lavender knit set, which was perfectly matched to her 50s era Eldorado Biarritz. She continued to turn heads in high-waisted two-tone trousers that had chap-like leather panels over denim. Glossy Oxfords, micro-sunglasses and a delicate gold necklace tied everything together. In full bloom: Kendall fetched some flowers during her day out Abs-olute stunner: Kendall's abs looked awesome in the lavender knit set Best tressed: Kendall wore her hair down and parted in the center Flower power: She ran a quick errand, picking up several orchids before unwinding with her boys Guy gang: She was joined by a trio of dudes Accessorize! Glossy Oxfords, micro-sunglasses and a delicate gold necklace tied everything together During her outing Kendall exuded a makeup-free glow, letting her dark locks hang down with a glossy sheen. She ran a quick errand, picking up several orchids before unwinding with her boys. Earlier in the day the cover girl got together with pal Hailey Baldwin Bieber for a Pilates class. Natural beauty: During her outing Kendall exuded a makeup-free glow, letting her dark locks hang down with a glossy sheen Color coordinating: Kendall's outfit was made for her ride Warm day: Jenner slipped off her sweater to get some sun during her drive Riding in cars with boys: She took a spin around the neighborhood with her guy pals Cruise or lose: The star was the epitome of laid back during her joy ride with friends Top up: Jenner shared a shot of the car with its top up on Instagram Ride along: She shared Instagrams from the cool ride Behind the wheel: She shared a first person look from the driver's perspective Windswept: She let her locks blow back in the wind while cruising in the convertible Just days prior the model was down under in Australia where she appeared at the opening of Tiffany & Co.'s Sydney store launch. There Jenner stunned in a leggy pink dress with flounces and feathers. And though it was just a one day trip for the star, she still earned quite the paycheck for her appearance. Kendall reportedly earned a whopping $500k for her 24-hour trip to Oz, according to The Daily Telegraph. Diamonds are a girl's best friend: Just days prior the model was down under in Australia where she appeared at the opening of Tiffany & Co.'s Sydney store launch They've entertained fans for over four decades with their infectiously catchy songs. And Abba star's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus left Mamma Mia fans thrilled as they took to the stage to mark the West End show's 20th anniversary at the Novello Theatre in London on Saturday. The Swedish singing sensations, aged 72 and 73, who wrote the music and lyrics to the popular musical, were welcomed to the stage with huge applause as they celebrated two decades of the show. Success: Abba's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus thrilled Mamma Mia fans as they took to the stage to mark the show's 20th anniversary at the Novello Theatre in London on Saturday Looking dapper in a blue and white polka dot blazer, Bjorn, 73, addressed the crowd, telling them it was 'both strange and wonderful to be on this stage tonight'. He also thanked them for being 'a fantastic audience'. Meanwhile, Benny, 72, spoke backstage, where he said it had been 'too long' since he saw the show, while also praising the 'wonderful' cast. He added: 'There is a chance to be immersed, to get moved and I was tonight and Im happy that I can feel that.' Greetings: Looking dapper in a blue and white polka dot blazer, Bjorn, 73, addressed the crowd, telling them it was 'both strange and wonderful to be on this stage tonight' Praise: Meanwhile, Benny, 72, spoke backstage, where he said it had been 'too long' since he saw the show, while also praising the 'wonderful' cast In a touching nods to the shows impressive span, they were joined by 12 former Dynamos, the band in which lead character Donna was part of with her two best friends. Benny and Bjorn, who make up the band alongside Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, were also joined on the stage by producer Judy Craymer, director Phyllida Lloyd and writer Catherine Johnson. Mamma Mia tells the Sophie of bride-to-be Sophie, who invite's her mother Donna's three exes to her wedding in the hope of discovering which of the men are her father. Set on an idyllic Greek island, the heartwarming tale is accompanied by a plethora of Abba's biggest hits including Waterloo, Dancing Queen, The Winner Takes It All and of course Mamma Mia. Hello: The Swedish singing sensations, who wrote the music and lyrics to the popular musical, were welcomed to the stage with huge applause as they celebrated two decades of the show Anniversary: Benny and Bjorn, who make up the band alongside Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, celebrated 20 years of Mamma Mia on stage Cheers: In a touching nods to the shows impressive span, they were joined by 12 former Dynamos, the band in which lead character Donna was part of with her two best friends The musical was adapted into a film in 2008, which starred Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth and Julie Walters. The cast (minus Meryl) returned for the sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in 2018, this time joined by actress Lily James and music legend Cher. Meanwhile, the London stage show which has been watched by more than nine million people throughout over 8,000 performances. It originally opened at the Prince Edward Theatre on 6 April 1999, before transferring to the Prince of Wales Theatre in 2004, before finally settling into its current home in 2012. She's the bubbly brunette who rose to fame on Love Island. And Georgia Steel celebrated her 21st birthday with family and friends at The Gallery in London on Saturday. The stunner, who turned 21 in March, dressed for the special occasion in a tiny black crop top that showed off her toned abs and a matching mini skirt. Beauty in black: Georgia Steel has celebrated her 21st birthday with family and friends at The Gallery in London on Saturday. The stunner dressed for the special occasion in a cropped top that showed off her toned tummy and a mini skirt that drew attention to her leggy display Her ensemble was complete with a shimmering, sheer chiffon sash-like feature that draped her slender physique. Georgia styled her luscious locks up in a high pony tail, while for make-up she opted for hues of pink on her eyelids and pout, fluttery false lashes and contoured cheeks. The birthday girl walked the red carpet upon entering the venue and posed for photos with her guests. She posed for a friendly photo with her former Love Island partner Niall Aslam as well as her former co-star Eyal Booker. Former flames: The stunner, who turned 21 in March, dressed for the special occasion in a tiny ensemble as she posed for a friendly photo with her former Love Island partner Niall Aslam Looking good: The hunky reality TV star opted for a casual outfit in a tight-fitting maroon shirt that drew attention to his intricate tattoo sleeves and blue skinny jeans Work it: She looked striking outside the party in her tulle look The hunky reality TV star opted for a casual outfit in a tight-fitting maroon shirt that drew attention to his intricate tattoo sleeves, blue skinny jeans and brown jumper around his waist. Fans of Love Island will remember Niall, who was couple up with Georgia in the early stages of the show, abruptly left for personal reasons. The 23-year-old later revealed on his Instagram that he has Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism where a person has difficulty in social relationships and in communicating. Dapper: Also at the event was another villa resident Eyal Booker who dressed for the event in skinny black jeans and a khaki green shirt leaving a few buttons undone Co-stars again: The two are set to star in Channel 5's Celebs on the Ranch, which was filmed in Arizona in late 2018 Delight: She wrapped her arm around Eyal for a photo Having fun: She greeted Eyal with a smile Cosying up: Eyal pulled her in for a hug outside the venue Also at the event was another villa resident Eyal Booker who dressed for the event in skinny black jeans and a khaki green shirt leaving a few buttons undone. The two are set to star in Channel 5's Celebs on the Ranch, which was filmed in Arizona in late 2018. Abigail Clarke was also invited to join in on Georgia's birthday festivities as she attended the event with a male pal. The TOWIE starlet flaunted her curvaceous figure in a tight-fitting jumpsuit, which drew attention to her pert derriere and a plunging neckline that highlighted her ample assets. Stunning: Abigail Clarke was also invited to join in on Georgia's birthday festivities as she attended the event with a male pal Peachy: The TOWIE starlet flaunted her curvaceous figure in a tight fitting jumpsuit drew attention to her pert derriere and a plunging neckline that highlighted her ample assets She's expecting her third child with NRL star husband George Burgess. And on Saturday, glamorous WAG Joanna Burgess bonded with her mother-in-law and Burgess matriarch, Julie, while attending an NRL game. Clad in a chic ensemble, the glowing mother, 29, struck a pose with Julie, her son Boston and daughter Birdie in a cheerful snap shared to Instagram. Family day out! Joanna Burgess (center) bonded with her mother-in-law Julie (left)... after reports claimed Phoebe and NRL star husband Sam are 'well and truly back together'. Pictured with Joanna's son Boston (right) and daughter Birdie (left) in a snap shared to Instagram on Saturday Joanna looked radiant as she flaunted her burgeoning baby bump in an olive green T-shirt, which she teamed with white shorts for the occasion. The blonde beauty accessorised her look with a pair of aviator sunglasses and styled her flaxen-coloured locks in a half-up-half-down 'do. And the family snap comes after NRL star Sam Burgess and Phoebe are reportedly 'back to normal', three months after their shock split. Back on track? The family snap comes after NRL star Sam Burgess (left) and Phoebe (right) are reportedly 'back to normal', three months after their shock split In pictures obtained by News Corp, the former magazine journalist and Sam showed no signs of strain at Sydney's Redfern Oval last Saturday. The paper said the couple are 'well and truly back together' as they bonded with their children, daughter Poppy, three, and son Billy, three months. Photos published by the paper on Saturday, saw the pair looking relaxed and at ease, ahead of the NRL Rabbitohs versus Titans game at ANZ Stadium on Sunday. Reports: The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday that the couple have patched things up, following their 'messy' marriage split in December. Phoebe is pictured with the couple's daughter Poppy, two Phoebe, 29, cradled son Billy, while Sam, 30, doted on their precious daughter Poppy. The united front comes after Sam split from his wife of three years, Phoebe in December, just three weeks after the birth of their second child Billy. The breakup came after Sam was cleared of any wrongdoing by his South Sydney club after he was embroiled in a sexting scandal. Family: Sam split from Phoebe just three weeks after the birth of their second child Billy [pictured] In February, the footy star reportedly moved out of celebrity accountant, Anthony Bell's, $11.5 million Dover Heights mansion and back into the $3.8 million Maroubra home he shares with Phoebe. An insider told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time, that they are 'working on things' for the sake of their young children. Earlier this month, the couple, who married in 2015 after one year of dating, were spotted together at Gordon's Bay. 'You have no care in the world for your sister-in-law!' Joanna Burgess (left) was been accused of 'lacking compassion' after publicly commenting on Phoebe (right) and Sam's marriage split in December last year An onlooker told Daily Mail Australia that Sam and phoebe 'looked loved-up and very much back together'. Meanwhile, Joanna was criticised after publicly commenting on her brother-in-law Sam's split from wife Phoebe three months ago. The WAG, who is the wife of Sam's brother George Burgess, shared a surprisingly candid Instagram post at the time, revealing that Phoebe had 'never joined the Burgess side of the family' for Christmas in the past. Joanna's revelation prompted one of her social media followers to say she had displayed a 'lack of compassion and humility'. Backlash: Joanna's revelation that Phoebe 'never attended' the Burgess family's annual Christmas lunches prompted one of her social media followers (above) to say she had displayed a 'lack of compassion and humility' The interior design student subsequently turned off all comments on her Instagram. One critic wrote: 'You made a comment as though you had no care in the world for your sister-in-law. 'It was the inability to show compassion and humility that caught the attention of your followers because however close you might be now with your husband and his family, another in a very similar circumstances was suffering [sic].' They concluded: 'Compassion and looking outside your circumstances is the real test of character and that post demonstrates you have neither.' Breaking her silence: In December, Joanna (right) - who is the wife of Sam's brother George (left) - shared a surprisingly candid Instagram post revealing that Phoebe had 'never joined the Burgess' side of the family' for Christmas in the past Daily Mail Australia has contacted Joanna Burgess for comment. The purpose of Joanna's original post about the Burgess family's annual Christmas lunches was to shut down speculation that she had taken a 'swipe' at Phoebe. In another post shared to Instagram late last year, Joanna had claimed the most recent get-together, which took place at a restaurant in Watson's Bay, 'was the best one yet'. Phoebe wasn't pictured in the family photo, leading fans to wonder whether Joanna's post was a thinly-veiled swipe at her sister-in-law. 'It is not my nature': The purpose of Joanna's original post about the Burgess family's annual Christmas lunch (above) was to shut down speculation that she had taken a 'swipe' at Phoebe But Joanna clarified last week: 'It is not in my nature to take a dig at someone. 'Phoebe has never joined the Burgess side for previous Christmas festivities. Therefore it couldn't possibly be aimed at her!' She continued: 'My last year's Christmas upload I used a similar caption as it was our son's first Christmas. This year we had our daughter join the three of us, hence it being the "best one yet"'. Joanna later deleted the post. Taking a swipe? In this post shared to Instagram late last year, Joanna had claimed the Burgess family's most recent get-together 'was the best one yet'. Phoebe wasn't pictured in the photo, leading fans to wonder whether Joanna's post was a thinly-veiled swipe at her sister-in-law It comes after Daily Mail Australia revealed that Phoebe had unfollowed Joanna and George Burgess on Instagram. Shortly afterwards, Joanna likewise unfollowed Phoebe. At the time, reports surfaced describing Phoebe and Sam's marriage split as 'pretty messy'. A close friend of the former couple told The Daily Telegraph that 'things have been bad for a while'. The insider explained that the break-up was particularly hard on Phoebe because Sam's mother Julie was standing by her son. It's over! It was revealed last week that Sam and Phoebe separated shortly before Christmas, just weeks after the birth of their second child. Pictured on September 28, 2016 in Sydney 'It would have been hard for Phoebe because Julie would have completely stuck by Sam... and there's talk she didn't offer Phoebe much support,' they claimed. Sam and Phoebe separated shortly before Christmas, just weeks after the birth of their second child, son William 'Billy' Burgess. Fans soon began rallying behind the glamorous journalist on Instagram after news of the split made headlines. 'I'm very sorry to hear what has happened. Sending all of my love during this difficult time,' one person commented. 'You're doing an awesome job as a mum': Fans began rallying behind Phoebe (pictured while pregnant last year) on Instagram after news of her split from Sam made headlines Other comments included: 'My heart is breaking for you' and 'You're doing an awesome job as a mum to a toddler and a newborn and you've got this.' Sam also disabled comments on some of his Instagram photos where he was pictured with Phoebe due to trolling. Sam and Phoebe first met at an Avicii concert in Sydney in January 2014. They kept their fledgling relationship a secret for eight months, before making their debut as a couple at the Dally M Awards in Sydney in September that year. Their relationship progressed quickly and just a month later, in October 2014, Phoebe relocated to England to support her boyfriend after he signed with a rugby union team in Bath, Somerset. Support: Sam and Phoebe (pictured on February 11, 2016 in Sydney) married in December 2015. In January 2017, the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Poppy Alice. Their second child, son William 'Billy' Mark, was born only last month Hard times: Despite welcoming their son Billy in December last year, there's no denying 2018 was a difficult year for the NRL's 'golden couple' By June 2015, they were engaged following a romantic holiday in Greece. The couple returned to Sydney in November 2015, after Sam re-signed with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and they married a month later in December 2015 at Phoebe's parents' home in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. In January 2017, the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Poppy Alice, two. Their second child, son William 'Billy' Mark, was born last December. They're three of the Time's Up movement's most vocal members. And Reese Witherspoon, 43, Natalie Portman, 37, and Eva Longoria, 44, joined forces on Saturday, when the three high-profile actresses departed after hanging out together at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood, a source told DailyMail.com. Also at the lunchtime catch-up were Tracee Ellis Ross and America Ferrera. Ladies who lunch: [L-R] Reese Witherspoon, 43, Natalie Portman, 37, and Eva Longoria, 44, joined forces on Saturday, when the three high-profile actresses departed after hanging out together at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood Reese dazzled in a summery dress which the mother-of-three wore with orange heels. A thigh split showed off plenty of the Sweet Home Alabama star's perfect pins. Witherspoon accessorized with a wicker handbag and dark shades, and covered her blonde tresses with a white fedora. Spring into summer: Reese dazzled in a summery dress which the mother-of-three wore with orange heels Sun smart: Witherspoon accessorized with a wicker handbag and dark shades, and covered her blonde tresses with a white fedora New mom Eva Longoria meanwhile sheathed her own gorgeous gams in a pair of pristine white pants for the lunch meeting. On her upper half the Desperate Housewives star covered her white blouse with a navy blazer. Eva shielded her eyes against the California glare with a pair of mirrored aviator shades. White on! New mom Eva Longoria meanwhile sheathed her own gorgeous gams in a pair of pristine white pants for the lunch meeting Blaze it: On her upper half the Desperate Housewives star covered her white blouse with a navy blazer Black Swan star Natalie also kept it chic in blue trousers with a white blouse. The dual Israeli-US citizen pulled her brunette tresses back in a low ponytail and kept her jewelry minimal with simple gold hoop earrings. Reese spoke about the Time's Up movement in the February issue of Vogue. In the magazine, Reese talked about the need for there to be more female-led projects in Hollywood that boosted up the gender. Eva shielded her eyes against the California glare with a pair of mirrored aviator shades 'The idea is to put women at the center of the story,' she told the magazine. Reese played a key role in the Time's Up movement that was founded at the start of 2018. 'I was sick of making movies where I was the only female lead on the set,' she continued. 'I was sick of seeing scripts where there was one female role, badly written, and yet every actress in town wanted the part because there was nothing else.' The actress had an incredible year in 2018 after starring in the hit HBO show Big Little Lies and releasing her own book entitled Whiskey in a Teacup. Lil Xan's fiancee Annie Smith appears to have suffered a miscarriage. Smith shared the sad news along with a collection of Instagram videos of special moments with the Betrayed rapper, 22. Expressing her sorrow, she wrote: 'Today i feel a hurt i never knew existed.' Annie also addressed her 'beautiful angel', tell her unborn: 'To my beautiful angel, mommy loves you more than she ever knew possible.' Tragic: Lil Xan's fiance revealed she has had a miscarriage in a Saturday Instagram post Annie's post included a number of candid clips with Xan, real name Nicholas Diego Leanos. 'These were taken the first day we met and the first few months we knew each other. feels like a lifetime ago,' she began. Annie continued to express her love for the SoundCloud rapper, writing: 'The moment i met you i knew you were special. i fell head over heels in love with you and only love you more and more every single day. i didnt know it was possible to feel this way about another human. Then she turned to the tragic topic at hand: 'Starting a family with you has been the most magical, beautiful blessing God has given me.' 'Today i feel a hurt i never knew existed. a pain that comes from my soul. to my beautiful angel, mommy loves you more than she ever knew possible.' 'You have made me the happiest woman in the world knowing i had the chance to be your mommy. feeling you grow inside my body has been the most special gift i have been given, my prayers were answered with you. Laying low: Though Xan didn't address he and Annie's loss directly, he did use Instagram to share a somber post Saturday The latest: Annie Smith previously denied accusations she lifted an online image of an ultrasound and said it was her own in a recent clip she posted to YouTube 'I wish more than anything that i could meet you, hold you and love you. teach you all the beautiful things in life and show you the world. i wish you couldve known how truly blessed you were to have a daddy like diego. we love you little angel. always.' Though Xan didn't address he and Annie's loss directly, he did use Instagram to share a somber post Saturday. 'Hey guys i'm really not feeling well today. I'm sorry if I'm M.I.A. for the next few days, I just need to get my mind right [broken heart emoji.] I love you guys to death.' Xan and Smith have been dealing with trolls since first sharing their baby news back in February. After first sharing an image of her ultrasound, Smith faced accusations she lifted an online image and said it was her own. In a YouTube clip 'FIRST BABY PICTURES!!' Annie and the 22-year-old rap artist sat on a bed as they perused photos of their baby's ultrasound on her phone. A number of online commenters claimed that the ultrasound Annie showed in the clip, from the ninth week of her pregnancy, was lifted from Google . Smith opened up to E! News that she was 'honestly really disappointed' that 'this is the rumor floating around,' pointing at a third party she claimed to be responsible for the mix-up. Annie told the outlet: 'When i posted my YouTube video with my ultrasound pictures, a girl (i'm not going to comment on who) photoshopped them with another persons name, year, birthday etc, and uploaded them to Google.' Proud papa-to-be: The rap artist, whose full name is Nicholas Diego Leanos, showed off the ultrasound on his fiancee's phone Adapting: Smith said she was likely going to pull back from engaging online to ensure she's happy amid her pregnancy Annie said she was likely going to pull back from engaging online to ensure she's happy in her pregnancy. 'I'm traveling and stressed at the moment so i think for the baby and myself it's best to stay in a positive environment,' Smith said. 'I really am just staying off the internet for the time being because it's really sad for me to see these things. Annie said that she wasn't letting the naysayers get to her during what should be a wonderful time for her. 'In my opinion it doesn't matter what anyone else says it's a special time between my fiance and i and like i said we are very happy that's all that matters,' she told the outlet. Lil Xan, who dated Noah Cyrus last year, earlier this month took to Instagram to announce his impending fatherhood. Parents-to-be: Lil Xan shared his girlfriend Annie Smith is just five weeks pregnant, as he admitted he made the announcement early as he 'couldn't contain my excitement' In an interview with TMZ, the rapper and his partner beamed with delight as they revealed they're 'super excited' to become parents. The Betrayed hitmaker grinned from ear-to-ear as he detailed the moment the blonde told him the happy news. He enthused: 'I feel amazing, I've never felt more alive in my life. It was definitely a surprise, but we've kind of been trying.' Annie added: 'I just took a test at home, and ran into the bedroom and said: 'I'm pregnant!' The Color Blind rapper confessed he made the early announcement with his fans after he went 'M.I.A'' on social media. Delighted: In a recent interview with TMZ , the 22-year-old rapper, real name Nicholas Diego Leanos, and his partner Annie beamed with delight as they revealed they're 'super excited' to become parents High spirits: 'I feel amazing, I've never felt more alive in my life. It was definitely a surprise, but we've kind of been trying', he enthused 'I wanted to wait a lot longer, until she started showing. We're only five weeks along, but I couldn't contain my excitement so I wanted to let the world know. 'I was M.I.A on social media, and people were wondering what was going on. I just wanted to let them all it was nothing bad, I was just taking it all in.' Lifting the lid on their plans to have more children in the future, the California-based musician continued: 'I was pretty shook, and I'm not going to lie, I cried tears of joy. We're hoping for a boy first, then a girl, then hopefully another boy.' 'It's crazy how something so simple can stop the internet, it was crazy. Everyone is very supportive, they'll all invited to the gender reveal party! Speaking out: The Color Blind rapper confessed he made the early announcement with his fans after he went 'M.I.A'' on social media Happy: 'I wanted to wait a lot longer, until she started showing. We're only five weeks along, but I couldn't contain my excitement so I wanted to let the world know', Xan admitted 'Regardless of the gender, this has just inspired me more and more each day as I'm going to be a father', the excited star added. Xan first announced the big news in a sweet Instagram post on Sunday, just five months after he broke up with Noah Cyrus. He shared a photo of him kissing Smith from a balcony overlooking downtown L.A., alongside the lengthy caption: 'I wanted to wait but i just cant leave my fans in the dark,its official im going to be a father. 'I love you guys so much and hope you stay along for this crazy journey and Ive never felt more happy in my life. AIl of you are invited to the gender reveal party i promise ! Cant wait to show the world everything Ive been working on at youtube space and my official sophomore album "Be Safe". 'And to my baby my angel my sunshine @anniiesmith i love you with all my heart thank you for saving me i love you more then words could describe,' he concluded. Just a few days earlier, blonde beauty Annie posted the same photo, where they were wearing matching brown sweaters in a sweet Valentine's Day post. Reveal: Xan first announced the big news in a sweet Instagram post on Sunday, just five months after he broke up with Noah Cyrus Xan was previously dating Noah Cyrus from late June 2018 until September 2018 when they split. The rapper was previously addicted to Xanax, which lead to his rap name Lil Xan, and recently checked into rehab after rapper Mac Miller died from an overdose. He also made headlines in late September when he was hospitalized for stomach pain, after claiming he ate too many Flamin' Cheetos. She was a familiar face on Australian television in the early 2000s, with hosting roles on Changing Rooms and Our House. And Suzie Wilks revealed to News.com.au on Sunday, why she 'disappeared' from screens nearly eight years ago. The now 49-year-old, who shares daughter Ruby, seven, with ex-husband Nick O'Halloran, underestimated the difficulty of balancing motherhood and a TV career. 'I didn't want to miss out on my daughter's life': TV host Suzie Wilks, 49, revealed to News.com.au on Sunday, why she 'disappeared' from the spotlight nearly eight years ago. Pictured with daughter Ruby, seven Suzie resigned from Nine's Changing Rooms at the end of 2005, after seven years as host. Having shot for 40 weeks of the year, Suzie now admits that she didn't realise the hours involved. 'I thought it was the type of job where I could be a mum and provide for my kids and still work and earn an income, but what I didn't realise that it's actually quite the opposite of that,' she told news.com.au. Describing her work schedule at the time as 'extremely time consuming,' Suzie said that she didn't want to 'miss out' on her daughter Ruby's life. Challenges: Suzie resigned from Nine's Changing Rooms at the end of 2005, after seven years as host. She told News.com.au that she didn't realise the difficulty in juggling motherhood and a TV career 'I'm grateful for everything, but it got to a stage where I thought thought to myself, 'I don't have a life', so I decided to resign. I didn't want to miss out on Ruby's life.' Following her resignation, Suzie moved over to the Seven network in 2008 for a stint on Dancing With The Stars. It proved to be the worst timing, with her mother Ann having suddenly died from a brain aneurysm at 67. By 2011 she had retreated from the spotlight completely, focusing on raising daughter Ruby. Stint on Seven: Following her resignation, Suzie moved over to the Seven network in 2008 for a stint on Dancing With The Stars. Pictured with dance partner Jonathan Doone Suzie told Daily Mail Australia in February that she and Ruby lead a very active lifestyle. 'I always am really present with her [Ruby] and I physically try and do what she's doing,' Suzie said. 'When I became pregnant, I've never been so healthy in my life and I had a wonderful pregnancy, because nutritionally, I was really great,' she continued. 'I try and eat healthily. My main incentive is to be around as long as I can for my daughter.' She is the face of his beauty line. And on Saturday, Kaia Gerber stepped out for the nuptials of Marc Jacobs and Char Defrancesco in New York. The 17-year-old gave a nod to the '80s with her wedding guest ensemble. Wedding guest: On Saturday, Kaia Gerber stepped out for the nuptials of Marc Jacobs and Char Defrancesco in New York Kaia tucked in a black corset into a pair of tan, high-waist trousers. The pretty teen added an oversize blazer complete with padded shoulders, and accessorized with a black bag and delicate earrings. The young model wore her brunette hair down and pin straight. Blast from the past: Kaia tucked in a black corset into a pair of tan, high-waist trousers. The pretty teen added an oversize blazer complete with padded shoulders Colorful: The star was joined a male pal, who was dressed in a green velvet suit Kaia, along with guests such as Rita Ora and Gigi and Bella Hadid, stepped out for the wedding of designer Marc Jacobs, 55, and Char Defrancesco, 37. The duo became engaged last year at a Chipotle restaurant, which saw a flashmob perform and Marc propose. The duo, dressed in blue and green suits, later enjoyed a dinner reception at Grill Room. Nuptials: Rita, along with guests such as Kaia Gerber and Gigi and Bella Hadid, stepped out for the wedding of designer Marc Jacobs, 55, and Char Defrancesco, 37 Kaia began modeling with a little help from her mother, who was one of the most famous supermodels of the '90s. But the California-born star has proved her skills on her own, and has become the face of campaigns in addition to Marc Jacobs, including Stella McCartney and Jimmy Choo. She's also walked the runways of various brands, including the prestigious Chanel. She recently tried to reinvigorate her relationship with rapper Travis Scott by posting a snap of their 'baecation'. But family was the only thing on Kylie Jenner's mind on Saturday as she dined with her sister Kendall Jenner, 23, and mother Kris Jenner, 63. The 21-year-old billionaire enjoyed an evening of fine Japanese food at Nobu in Malibu, California. Family get-together: Kylie Jenner, 21, dined dined with her sister Kendall Jenner, 23, and mother Kris Jenner, 63, on Saturday at Nobu in Malibu, California The 5ft6in Keeping Up With The Kardashians star put on a busty display in the low-cut black dress. The dress featured a long slit running up her thigh that showed off her trim legs and incredible post-baby body. Her outfit featured a leather belt with unusual and edgy safety pins connected to studs on the dress. She wore a pair of thick black boots and had her dark locks in a low-slung bun. LBD alert: The 5ft6in Keeping Up With The Kardashians star put on a busty display in the low-cut black dress Flaunting her figure: The dress featured a long slit running up her thigh that showed off her trim legs and incredible post-baby body Strange choice: Her outfit featured a leather belt with unusual and edgy safety pins connected to studs on the dress Extra height: She wore a pair of thick black boots and had her dark locks in a low-slung bun Nobu is a popular spot for the KardashianJenner clan, and various members have been spotted dining their many times. The restaurant is named for Japanese chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, who runs multiple locations across the globe. Kris opted for a more conservative look for the family get-together with her youngest daughters. She had on a long gray overcoat and gray slacks for the chilly evening. The family were joined by a plethora of security for the night out. Favorite restaurant: Nobu is a popular spot for the KardashianJenner clan, and various members have been spotted dining their many times Swanky spot: The restaurant is named for Japanese chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, who runs multiple locations across the globe Huge entourage: The family were joined by a plethora of security for the night out Keeping it classy: Kris opted for a more conservative look for the family get-together with her youngest daughters Bundled up: She had on a long gray overcoat and gray slacks for the chilly evening Kendall Jenner was glimpsed leaving the restaurant at the conclusion of the meal. She went the opposite of Kylie's revealing dress, opting for a white mock turtleneck and a pair of black leather pants. She bundled up with a long dark overcoat and stood out with a dash of scarlet lipstick, contrasting Kylie's more muted shade. Kris and Kylie drove away from the Malibu retreat in the same Range Rover. Sister act: Kendall Jenner was glimpsed leaving the restaurant at the conclusion of the meal Modest look: She went the opposite of Kylie's revealing dress, opting for a white mock turtleneck and a pair of black leather pants Striking lips: She bundled up with a long dark overcoat and stood out with a dash of scarlet lipstick, contrasting Kylie's more muted shade Heading home: Kris and Kylie drove away from the Malibu retreat in the same Range Rover When she wasn't sampling delicious cuisine, Kylie was engaged in revitalizing her relationship with the father of her child. She posted some steamy black and white photos of herself and Travis Scott, 27, as they embraced and stared deeply into each others' eyes in an empty pool. 'Baecation,' she dubbed the romantic time together. Kylie shares a daughter, one-year-old Stormi, with the Astroworld rapper. The couple began dating in April of 2017. Relationship fix: Kylie posted some steamy black and white photos of herself and Travis Scott, 27, as they embraced and stared deeply into each others' eyes in an empty pool Showing off her assets: On Friday, she shared another photo, this time flaunting her impressive bust in a beige bodysuit On Friday, she shared another photo, this time flaunting her impressive bust in a beige bodysuit. The reality star seemed to be soaking up the sun in the gorgeous snap before running her fingers through her dark tresses. 'Rise and shine,' she captioned it. Stars of all sorts gathered for The Library Foundation of Los Angeles' Young Literati's 11th Annual Toast at City Market Social House in LA on Saturday. There, Constance Zimmer, 48, made a stylish entrance in a striped shirt dress. Meanwhile, the beautiful Ginnifer Goodwin, 40, turned heads in a prim floral look with a high collar. Giving back: Constance Zimmer and Ginnifer Goodwin wowed during The Library Foundation of Los Angeles' Young Literati's 11th Annual Toast at City Market Social House in LA on Saturday Unreal star Zimmer was chic in a burgundy, blue, and cream striped number from Australian fashion house Elliatt. She teamed her silky dress with a pair of soft blue heels for a hint of contrast. Goodwin, famed for her roles in Big Love and Once Upon A Time, looked ready for spring in an ultra feminine floral frock with tiers of flounces trimmed in lace. She went for an energetic burst of beauty, adding hot pink lips and a rosy glow. Coupled up: Goodwin attended with husband Josh Dallas Blazer-ing trails: Also there was actress Hari Nef, who looked sharp in a long plaid skirt and pussybow blouse with a smart blazer All dressed up: Natalie Morales and June Diane Raphael both put their best foot forward Also there was actress Hari Nef, who looked sharp in a long plaid skirt and pussybow blouse with a smart blazer. Natalie Morales of the new NBC sitcom Abby's looked flirty in purple floral. June Diane Raphael, most recently seen on Netflix's Grace And Frankie, dazzled in a rhinestone adorned pantsuit with pointed heels. Slick dresser: BJ Novak was dapper in a salt-and-pepper colored coat with a crisp white button up Booted: Colin Hanks teamed a black denim jacket with grey jeans and handsome boots Dynamic duo: Mark Duplass looked handsome in burgundy while there with wife Katie Aselton BJ Novak was dapper in a salt-and-pepper colored coat with a crisp white button up. He put a casual twist on the look with sneakers and black jeans below. Colin Hanks teamed a black denim jacket with grey jeans and handsome boots. Mark Duplass looked handsome in burgundy while there with wife Katie Aselton. Paul Scheer was laid back while Paul F. Tompkins went for a classic look in a three-piece suit. Guy style: Paul Scheer looked laid back while Paul F. Tompkins went for a classic look in a three-piece suit Ben Lee and Ione Skye did date night at the event The Library Foundation of Los Angeles' 11th annual Young Literati's Toast is 'an evening of literature, music, and comedy celebrating the Los Angeles Public Library.' According to the non-profit's website: 'The Library Foundations Young Literati is a membership group for engaged Angelenos in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who have a shared interest in the literary life of our city.' Olivia Molly Rogers, 27, has denied she was making fun of Aboriginal culture when she covered herself in clay and attempted to resemble an indigenous dancer. The former Miss Universe Australia faced intense backlash this week, when she posted a snap of herself trying out brand Swisse's new clay masks. Appearing to look like a dancer in a traditional corroboree, the photograph had written under it: 'Connecting to our indigenous roots.' 'It wasn't me': Former Miss Universe Australia Olivia Molly Rogers has denied she was making fun of Aboriginal culture after sharing this snap of herself in clay on Instagram The questionable snap received an intense backlash, with Olivia hitting back at claims it was an act of cultural appropriation. On Sunday, in a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Olivia claimed she did not write the 'indigenous roots' comment. 'While the comment about 'indigenous roots' was not my own, it was added to my social media upon another influencer re-sharing it,' she said. Setting the record straight: In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Olivia claimed the offending comment 'indigenous roots' was not her own, and was actually written by another influencer 'I promise to learn and grow from the experience, and grow my understanding around cultural appropriation and cultural sensitivities,' she continued. 'I owe as much to not only myself, but to my followers, and the Indigenous community more widely.' Earlier this week, Olivia hit back on Instagram writing she was just doing what she was 'instructed' to do by lathering herself up in the clay. Comment: 'As a public figure, I owe as much to not only myself, but to my followers, and the Indigenous community more widely,' Olivia said in the statement to Daily Mail Australia 'We literally just covered ourselves in clay as instructed and exfoliated it off,' Olivia posted to her Instagram account. Despite referring to her 'indigenous roots', Olivia went on to claim that it was not meant to be an act of cultural appropriation. She went on to offer an apology, claiming it would have never been her intention hurt anybody. Nothing untoward: 'We literally just covered ourselves in clay as instructed and exfoliated it off,' Olivia said 'I am really sorry if I have offended anyone, this is absolutely not my intention and never would be,' she finished. In the past, Olivia, who won Miss Universe Australia in 2017, has called for more more honestly and sincerely on social media. The model pointed out that too many many pretend the have 'perfect lives' online and masquerade reality by only ever posting their 'highlight reels.' Social responsibility: Olivia has previously said Instagram users needed to be 'more real', as young girls put them on a pedestal. Pictured in Melbourne in March She went on to say it was important to protect other users, which include young girls going through adolescence. 'There are so many beautiful amazing people on there ... and young girls put them on a pedestal and say: 'I wanna be like them,' she told the Herald Sun in 2017. She went on: 'But everyone has their own struggles and insecurities, and being open about that helps.' After shooting to fame in the Miss Universe Australia competition, Olivia has become a regular fixture on the social scene. She previously served as an ambassador for the Melbourne Cup. They finished joint last and made a measly $10,000 as contestants in the 2014 series of The Block Glasshouse. But last month Michael and Carlene Duffy cashed in after selling their beloved caravan Bumblebee for $24,000. The couple celebrated their 12-year wedding anniversary on March 24 and sold the yellow-and-white mobile home a day before. Cashing in! Last month Michael and Carlene Duffy (pictured) cashed in after selling their beloved caravan Bumblebee for $24,000 'Yesterday we officially sold our lil ray of sunshine, Bumblebee which is very exciting for us and for the new owners,' the pair wrote in an Instagram post. Their creation, which includes a dining table which turns into a bed, sold just before it was due to go to be auctioned at Ray White's Auction Under The Stars in Brisbane. It comes complete with an oak and ratten cabinet - which the couple said brought 'all the bright and breezy holiday feels' in an promotional Instagram post. A better result: They finished joint last and made a measly $10,000 as contestants in the 2014 series of The Block Glasshouse (pictured together) Bedding also comes included and features a pocket-spring mattress and comforters. They heavily marketed the caravan in the weeks leading up to its sale on their Instagram page before announcing they had found a buyer a fortnight ago. The 3.6m-long mini-home is the fourth vintage caravan to be renovated by the couple - who live on the Gold Coast and run their own home design company. Before and after: The vintage caravan was extensively renovated to create the trendy home on wheels Michael and Carlene regularly share their DIY tips on their social media channels -partnering their company Cedar and Suide with tilers Amber Tiles to do so. Nine years ago they bought a home in the Gold Coast's hinterland in Tallebugera and are still renovating it to this day. They currently host Ready Set Reno and Open Homes Australia. Kourtney Kardashian's rumoured ex Luka Sabbat enjoyed an evening out with actress Chloe Sevigny as they attended Marc Jabobs' wedding together. The influencer, 21, and the actress, 44, linked arms as they arrived to the fashion designer's wedding to his partner Char Defrancesco in New York City on Saturday. Luka donned a black printed t-shirt with a matching blazer and black trousers. Out and about: Kourtney Kardashian's rumoured ex Luka Sabbat enjoyed an evening out with actress Chloe Sevigny as they attended Marc Jabobs' wedding together Chloe cut a stylish figure in a navy mini-dress with a cinched waist and a ruffled detail. Adding height to her frame with a pair of black heels, she completed her look with a black jacket. Chloe and Luka are said to have become close friends after they connected on the set of forthcoming zombie film The Dead Don't Die, which also stars Tilda Swinton, Selena Gomez and Bill Murray. Chloe told The Cut: 'I remember seeing this beautiful boy and being totally struck. He smiled at me and I melted. I was like, "Who is this kid?" Guests: The influencer, 21, and the actress, 44, linked arms as they arrived to the fashion designer's wedding to his partner Char Defrancesco in New York City on Saturday Fashion: Chloe cut a stylish figure in a navy mini-dress with a cinched waist and a ruffled detail Casul: Luka donned a black printed t-shirt with a matching blazer and black trousers Close: Luka and Chloe looked cosy at the nuptials where they were seen resting their heads together outside The actress later found Luka's social media, where he has a large following on Instagram. She said: 'To me, its not about his style. Its more about his energy and his vibe. I feel like its the same with me: People are always like, "Oh, she's a style icon". 'But its like, theres gotta be something else, you know?' Despite the rumours in recent months surrounding his relationship with Kourtney Kardashian, Luka insisted in the same article the pair are 'definitely' not dating. Pals: Chloe and Luka are said to have become close friends after they connected on the set of forthcoming zombie film The Dead Don't Die Chloe said: 'I remember seeing this beautiful boy and being totally struck. He smiled at me and I melted. I was like, "Who is this kid?"' She added: 'To me, its not about his style. Its more about his energy and his vibe. I feel like its the same with me' Past: Despite the rumours in recent months surrounding his relationship with Kourtney Kardashian, Luka insisted the pair are 'definitely' not dating (pictured in November 2018) They were previously reported to have first gotten together in September, just weeks after she ended her nearly two year relationship with French model Younes Bendjima. The two visited The Nice Guy before heading to the Chateau Marmont, where Luka was spotted putting his arm around Kourtney. A source told People in November: 'Kourtney is no longer seeing Luka. It was a fun fling for her, but not a big deal.' Kourtney and Yousef dated for nearly two years but pulled the plug after spending weeks together on vacation in Europe over the summer. Rumours: They were previously reported to have first gotten together in September, just weeks after she ended her relationship with Younes Bendjima (pictured in November 2018) They declared their love for one another at the final vows ceremony during last week's episode of Married at First Sight. But on Sunday's finale reunion episode, Heidi Latcham, 38, confirmed that she and Mike Gunner, 44, split just two days after they said 'I love you'. The pair arrived at the reunion separately and avoided one another throughout the dinner. 'I haven't spoken to him since': Married at First Sight's Heidi Latcham (pictured) confirmed during Sunday's episode that she has split with Mike Gunner Speaking to her co-stars around the dinner table, Heidi confessed they tried to make it work, with Heidi even moving to the Gold Coast for the pair to be together. 'So we got to the end, we did the final vows and we told each other that we loved each other. I moved to the Gold Coast, and then it just went to s**t,' she said. Heidi went on candidly: 'It was great for two days and then it just went to s**t. And I havent spoken to him since.' Solo: The pair arrived at the reunion separately and avoided one another Over: Heidi confessed they tried to make it work, with Heidi even moving to the Gold Coast for the pair to be together She concluded that there would be no reunion, stating: 'Its not like I dont want to talk to him, but this was the hardest thing I ever had to do and it shattered me. My emotions are very heightened and I just can't talk about it tonight.' Mike meanwhile told producers that, while things fell apart, he still has feelings for his former 'wife'. 'Coming into this night as a single man wasnt what I wanted or expected,' he said after arriving at the dinner solo. Silence: Heidi told her co-stars candidly: 'It was great for two days and then it just went to s**t. And I havent spoken to him since' 'Right after the final vows, Heidi and I went back to the Gold Coast together, but it didnt take long until the wheels started coming off.' He added: 'Seeing her tonight, she looks gorgeous. I knew immediately why I fell in love with her.' Later, Mike seemed regretful about the split while talking to Jessika Power, but confirmed there was no chance they'd get back together. He said: 'At this point it just feels like theres nothing left to be done with. Its as sad as it is a relief to know where I stand.' 'Its a shame, it would have been great to live a life with her.' She is the My Kitchen Rules star who earned a reputation as a 'villain' and enjoyed only a short-lived stay on the reality cooking program. But on Sunday six-foot socialite Karolina Borkovic, 46, stole the show in a vibrant floral two-piece as she appeared at the Bentley Polo in the Valley event in Perth. Completing the look with a pair of brown leather sandals, she appeared at the Swan Valley event alongside the cast of popular soap opera Home and Away. Eye-catching: On Sunday six-foot socialite Karolina Borkovic, 46, stole the show in a vibrant floral two-piece at the Bentley Polo in the Valley event in Perth Cast-mates Patrick O'Connor, Sophie Dillman, Timothy Franklin and Courtney Miller were in attendance. Patrick, who plays Summer Bay top dog Dean Thompson, wore a simple but stylish grey suit with an open-neck white shirt. Timothy meanwhile opted for a checkered light blue and white suit, but it was the attire of his female co-stars that were perhaps most striking. Star-studded: Completing the look with a pair of brown leather sandals, Karolina appeared at the Swan Valley event alongside the cast of popular soap Home and Away (pictured left to right Patrick O'Connor, Sophie Dillman, Timothy Franklin and Courtney Miller) Sophie stunned in a gleaming white jumpsuit with a two-toned bow in her hair, while Courtney was equally elegant in a pearl-coloured dress. The group spoke about the recent plot developments in the much-loved Australian drama to PerthNow. Sophie's character Ziggy has been cheated on by her husband, and the actress said fans have rallied around her as a result. The stars are out: Patrick, who plays Summer Bay top dog Dean Thompson, wore a simple but stylish grey suit with an open-neck white shirt while Timothy opted for a checkered light blue and white suit 'The fans have actually been incredibly supportive. Ive had a lot of fans message me saying they dont like to see me cry and Ziggy is so hard done by,' she told PerthNow. The TV stars were joined by Princess Diana's niece Lady Kitty Spencer - who looked gorgeous in a black and white floral dress. The event helps support Youth Focus and Telethon, with Kitty telling Perth Now this week shows how much she loves supporting such positive initiatives. Tenille Favios and Ivan Krslovic will be joining the Bachelor In Paradise line-up. Ivan, 27, was from Ali Oetjen's season of The Bachelorette, while Tenille, 25, failed to find love with Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins on last year's The Bachelor. The two new additions will mingle with the likes of Alex Nation, Brooke Blurton and Richie Strachan on Ten's dating show - which premieres on Tuesday night. New kids on the block: Tenille Favios and Ivan Krslovic will be joining the Bachelor In Paradise line-up this year Flight attendant Tenille hit the headlines with her abrupt exit from The Bachelor. She chose to leave the show after Nick took her aside to express his concern that she wasn't 'opening up' with her emotions. 'I get the feeling you're not going to get past the fact that I'm a little bit withheld, and I can't help that,' Tenille told Nick as she wiped away tears on the episode. Drama: Flight attendant Tenille hit the headlines with her abrupt exit from The Bachelor. She chose to leave the show after Nick took her aside to express his concern that she wasn't 'opening up' with her emotions There he is! Meanwhile, Ivan (L) became best known during his time on The Bachelor for constantly breaking into dance as well as his lacklustre kitchen skills The hunk responded: 'I feel what you're saying, and it hurts me a lot and I just think that hurdle is going to be too tough for us in this environment. So... can I walk you to the car?' The two embraced before Tenille hopped in the vehicle and departed the show. Meanwhile, Ivan became best known during his time on The Bachelor for constantly breaking into dance as well as his lacklustre kitchen skills. Revealed: The first cast photo for Bachelor in Paradise season two was released last month, offering a glimpse of the contestants at Fijis Mango Bay Resort During a two-on-one date with Ali and rival Bill Goldsmith, Ivan baffled viewers with his bizarre attempt to blend avocados with the skin and pit. Ali was also confused by his efforts, axing him later on in that episode. Also returning from The Bachelor 2018 are 'mean girl' Alisha Aitken-Radburn and innocent romantic Cassandra Wood. Richie Strahan and his ex-girlfriend Alex Nation, who fell for each other on The Bachelor 2016, are also due for an awkward reunion on the show. Care consultant Shannon Baff, legal secretary Vanessa Sunshine, Brittany Weldon and jewelry designer Cat Henesey-Smith round out the list of those giving romance another go after that ill-fated season. Sunny skies: The cast features a bevy of stars from Nick Cummins' now-infamous season of The Bachelor She's back: Bachelor In Paradise line-up - Six of Nick Cummins' rejects, an American intruder and fan favourite James Trethewie will join exes Alex Nation and Richie Strahan in Fiji for season two (pictured Cassandra Wood) They are busy planning their upcoming nuptials after getting engaged in December. And Petra Ecclestone, 30, took a well-deserved break from wedding planning as she enjoyed a dinner date night at Los Angeles eatery Catch with fiance Sam Palmer on Saturday. The F1 heiress was sure to turn heads during her outing as she donned a striking marijuana leaf print kimono for the outing at the celebrity hotspot. Walk this way: Petra Ecclestone, 30, took a well-deserved break from wedding planning as she enjoyed a dinner date night at Los Angeles eatery Catch with fiance Sam Palmer on Saturday Mother-of-three Petra teamed the statement floor-length garment with a pair of high-waisted leather-look leggings, which accentuated her slender frame. The socialite rounded off the ensemble with a white vest and accessorised by layering long necklaces as she teetered out of the venue in a pair of stilettos. Petra worked her golden locks into a tousled wave, which complemented her radiant beauty look, and sported a bold neon yellow manicure. Letting her take the fashion lead, art gallery manager Sam wore a red check shirt and black jeans for the occasion. Can you be-leaf it? The F1 heiress was sure to turn heads during her outing as she donned a striking marijuana leaf print kimono for the outing at the celebrity hotspot alongside Sam In the wake of their engagement, the Maddox art gallery manager posted a sweet tribute to the socialite after exclusively announcing their engagement to MailOnline. He told his followers Petra accepting his proposal was one of his personal highlights of 2018. As the former electrician delighted over the news, Petra's Formula 1 tycoon father, Bernie Ecclestone, 88, seemed less impressed, saying he 'doesn't know what the hurry is' - just 14 months on from his daughter's explosive divorce. Leafing through the front door: Mother-of-three Petra teamed the statement floor-length garment with a pair of high-waisted leather-look leggings, which accentuated her slender frame Stepping out: The socialite rounded off the ensemble with a white vest and accessorised by layering long necklaces as she teetered out of the venue in a pair of stilettos Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: 'I told her I dont know what the hurry is I dont understand the reason.' The businessman's reaction stood in stark contrast to Sam's words. The vintage car dealer wrote: 'A personal thank you to everyone that made opening Maddox Gallery Los Angeles possible. Mane attraction: Petra worked her golden locks into a tousled wave 'I hope everyone had as an amazing year as us and that 2019 brings lots of love,health and happiness to all. 'My personal highlights have been opening the gallery in LA with the woman I love and her agreeing to marry me Here is to a fantastic 2019.' Petra and Sam announced their engagement on New Year's Eve after one year of dating, and just 14 months on from her acrimonious divorce from James Stunt, with whom she shares three children. Advertisement She was pictured earlier this week looking fresh-faced figure as she touched down in Caribbean alongside her beau Joseph Bates and son Indio. And now Jodie Kidd, 40, appeared to be having a whale of a time as she splashed around in the Caribbean sea in Barbados with her long-term love on Saturday. The British supermodel showcased her enviable statuesque frame in a simple black bikini with gold clasp detailing while she soaked up the sun. Seas the day: Jodie Kidd, 40, appeared to be having a whale of a time as she splashed around in the Caribbean sea in Barbados with her long-term love Joseph Bates (R) on Saturday Jodie's choice of swimwear drew attention to her toned stomach and lean legs while she lapped up the water on the shoreline. Enjoying the breath-taking scenery around her, she teamed her two-piece with two gold necklaces and a pair of oversized black shades. The runway star, who has been divorced twice, worked her brunette tresses into a messy top knot on the crown of her head and wore minimal make-up for the beach day. Soaking up the good weather, Jodie's other half Joseph wore a pair of turquoise swimshorts while he walked on the golden sand shirtless, highlighting his many intricate inkings. Model behaviour: The British supermodel showcased her enviable statuesque frame in a simple black bikini with gold clasp detailing while she soaked up the sun No shade: The former Royal Marine turned creative agency exec appeared carefree as he chatted to the beauty, wearing a pair of trendy sunglasses Water about that: Jodie's choice of swimwear drew attention to her toned stomach and lean legs while she lapped up the water on the shoreline Shell, yeah: Enjoying the breath-taking scenery around her, she teamed her two-piece with two gold necklaces Tis the sea-son: She wore a pair of oversized black shades Sun's out, puns out: Jodie's bikini top boasted criss-cross detailing on the back The former Royal Marine turned creative agency exec appeared carefree as he chatted to the beauty, wearing a pair of trendy sunglasses. Later in the day, Jodie was pictured enjoying a dip in the sea with her son Indio, who she welcomed with her ex, Argentinian polo player Andrea Vianini. Jodie and Joseph were first seen holidaying in Barbados in October 2017, after she accompanied him on a disaster relief mission to Dominica following Hurricane Irma. According to the Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare at the time, the duo had previously rowed in kayaks 120 miles down the Gironde, to recreate a World War 2 commando raid. Golden girl: Jodie boasted a golden glow while on the beach Don't get tide down: The runway star, who has been divorced twice, worked her brunette tresses into a messy top knot Girls just wanna have sun: She wore minimal make-up for the beach day All you need is a good dose of vitamin sea: Later in the day, Jodie was pictured enjoying a dip in the sea with her son Indio Keep palm and carry on: The fashion star welcomed the seven-year-old with her ex, Argentinian polo player Andrea Vianini It shore is perfection: Jodie appeared great spirits during her relaxing breakaway They then made their first public appearance at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival, but the couple have since denied they are engaged. The model first married internet entrepreneur Aidan Butler in 2005 after a year of romance, but the pair split after 18 months. She then embarked on a relationship with Argentinian polo player Andrea Vianini, and the pair welcomed son Indio together in 2011, before parting ways two years later. The blonde went on to tie the knot with author David Blakeley in 2014, but the marriage was collapsed in just four months. Feeling fin-tastic: Former Royal Marine Joseph turned creative agency exec appeared carefree as he chatted to the beauty, wearing a pair of trendy sunglasses Sofishticated: Jodie and Joseph were first seen holidaying in Barbados in October 2017, after she accompanied him on a disaster relief mission to Dominica following Hurricane Irma Life's a beach: They then made their first public appearance at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival, but the couple have since denied they are engaged Turtle-y radical: The model first married internet entrepreneur Aidan Butler in 2005 after a year of romance, but the pair split after 18 months Feeling nauti: Joseph showcased his colourful tattoos across his shoulder, chest and forearm while out in the sun Salty but sweet: The executive appeared in jovial spirits as he walked towards Jodie, who was lying across a sun lounger About to get schooled: Jodie fixed her bikini bottoms as she relaxed on the beach furniture Fishing for puns for the halibut: The pair chilled out while they made the most of their holiday Jodie recently made a sensational return to the runway for London Fashion Week, after speaking to the Daily Mail about her struggles with anxiety. She said: 'I would like to write about anxiety next, having suffered from it for so many years. I would like to talk about it a bit more, even though I'm not an expert therapist. Through the years of suffering I've explored different avenues.' Jodie, who made one charity catwalk appearance in 2015, has talked of suffering from anxiety her whole life, which compelled her to stop modelling. 'It's not performance anxiety it's full-on anxiety,' she said. 'I had proper wobbles when I was in my late teens and there was a lot of pressure in the fashion industry, which made things worse. Namast' ay at the beach: Jodie previously embarked on a relationship with Argentinian polo player Andrea Vianini, and the pair welcomed son Indio together in 2011, before parting ways two years later Hey gull friend: The blonde went on to tie the knot with author David Blakeley in 2014, but the marriage was collapsed in just four months Adios, beaches: Jodie recently made a sensational return to the runway for London Fashion Week, after speaking to the Daily Mail about her struggles with anxiety Sink or swim: She said: 'I would like to write about anxiety next, having suffered from it for so many years' 'I had to stop. I could be backstage about to go on the catwalk, or even doing something as ordinary as the weekly shop, and I'd panic. I knew I couldn't walk down another catwalk again.' A local girl, originally from Petworth in West Sussex, Jodie travelled around the globe after she was first scouted by photographer Terry O'Neil on a beach in Barbados. She has appeared in campaigns for Chanel, Ernesto Esposito, Fendissime, Ghost, Lagerfeld, Monsoon, and Motorola. Yeah, buoy: She added: 'I would like to talk about it a bit more, even though I'm not an expert therapist. Through the years of suffering I've explored different avenues' Vitamin sea: Jodie, who made one charity catwalk appearance in 2015, has talked of suffering from anxiety her whole life, which compelled her to stop modelling She recently snapped up a lavish five-bedroom $2.8million home in Brisbane. And Erin McNaught seemed keen to put her own personal touch on the mega-mansion, as she went shopping in David Jones' homeware section on Friday. The 36-year-old model rocked tiny shorts and trainers as she joined her British rapper husband Example for a spot of retail therapy. Shopping for the new pad? Erin McNaught picked up supplies for her new $2.8million mansion in Brisbane on Friday Keeping things casual for the relaxed outing, she completed her look with black and white trainers and a pink crossbody bag. Sweeping her glossy tresses back into a tousled half-up 'do, Erin showed off her natural beauty by going make-up free. Example, meanwhile, cut a casual figure in a simple printed shirt and khaki shorts. Looking good: The 36-year-old model rocked tiny shorts and trainers for a spot of retail therapy Turning heads: Keeping things casual for the relaxed outing, she completed her look with black and white trainers and a pink crossbody bag Erin and Example moved out of London last month to relocate to Australia with their two sons. They have moved into a Brisbane pad boasting five bedrooms, four bathrooms, six-metre high ceilings, a rooftop terrace, swimming pool and sauna. The Graya Construction property took two years to build but only one day to sell, after it was snapped up within 24 hours in a record-breaking off-market deal. Casual look: Sweeping her glossy tresses back into a tousled half-up 'do, Erin showed off her natural beauty by going make-up free There he is: Example, meanwhile, cut a casual figure in a simple printed shirt and khaki shorts The couple, both 36, moved permanently to Australia last month after living in the UK for six years. They plan to raise their sons Evander, four, and Ennio, two, closer to their family. Both Erin and Example's parents reside in Queensland. In June last year, the model told Daily Mail Australia about her plans to leave London. New pastures: Erin and Example moved out of London last month to relocate to Australia with their two sons Lavish: They have moved into a Brisbane pad boasting five bedrooms, four bathrooms, six-metre high ceilings, a rooftop terrace, swimming pool and sauna 'London is an amazing city and I do love it but once you've had kids you realise just how amazing Australia is,' she said. 'Everything is so accessible and there are so many amazing activities at our fingertips in Australia, whereas London I tried to book my boys into swimming lessons here and there is a four-month waiting list or something. It's crazy! We definitely do plan on moving back there (Australia) sooner, rather than later. 'We're hoping for the next year or so. My family all live in Brisbane and my husband's parents live on the Gold Coast and his sister is in Sydney, but we'd probably move to Brisbane. The whole reason to move back would be to be closer to family.' Exciting: The couple, both 36, moved permanently to Australia last month after living in the UK for six years She's jetted off to India to celebrate her son Damian's 17th birthday in style. And Elizabeth Hurley was showcasing her incredible figure in a scarlet swimsuit on Sunday as she continued her envy-inducing getaway in style. The star, 53, took to her Instagram account to share her 'greetings' from her luxury hotel, posting a number of sizzling snaps. Wow: Elizabeth Hurley was showcasing her incredible figure in a scarlet swimsuit as she continued her envy-inducing getaway in style on Sunday Elizabeth flaunted her age-defying physique in the plunging one-piece, showing off her ample cleavage. She highlighted her stunning features with a glamorous, full face of make-up and wore her brunette locks down in loose waves. The Royals star captioned one snap: 'Greetings from the beautiful @anandainthehimalayas #elizabethhurleybeach #india'. Stunning: The star, 53, took to her Instagram account to share her 'greetings' from her luxury hotel, posting a number of sizzling snaps Beauty: Elizabeth flaunted her age-defying physique in the plunging one-piece, showing off her ample cleavage Last week, Elizabeth paid tribute to her beloved son Damian on his 17th birthday. Her dazzling roster of celebrity pals - including Elton John and Joan Collins - were quick to echo the message. She shared a trio of images from throughout his life with the caption: 'Happy 17th Birthday to my heavenly @damianhurley1 . No one could have brought me more joy. You have made me a very proud mama'. Twins! Elizabeth and her son Damian look almost identical as they both appear to wear the same camo shirt Having a giggle: She frequently honours her son Damian on social media Elizabeth shares Damian with her ex, American businessman Steve Bing, who initially denied paternity of their child as he claimed he had a 'brief, non-exclusive relationship' with Elizabeth in 2001 however a DNA test proved he was the dad. She is famously close to her son and the duo are practically inseparable, with Damian scooping a role on Elizabeth's show The Royals. In the most recent snap in her collage, the duo looked incredibly sweet as they posed for a selfie while putting on giddy expressions. In the older snaps, Elizabeth looked incredibly ageless as she cradled the tot while making their firm bond plain to see. Happy days: Thursday was a special day for the actress, 53, as she took to Instagram to pay tribute to her beloved boy on his 17th birthday, while her dazzling roster of celebrity pals - including Elton John and Joan Collins - were quick to echo the message The whole gang! A slew of stars were quick to honour the teen on his birthday Damian, who has six godfathers including actor Hugh Grant and Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish, is often rubbing shoulders with his mum's celebrity pals, as she insists she has an 'open house' policy in order for her son to meet her friends. Naturally the comments section was flooded with well wishes, including messages from Elton, David and Joan Collins. Damian took the time to individually reply to his nearest-and-dearest, as he professed his love for all his A-list correspondents. Fans meanwhile responded with a shock at their likeness Proud mama: In her stunning tribute to her son, she shared a trio of images from throughout his life with the added caption: 'Happy 17th Birthday to my heavenly @damianhurley1 . No one could have brought me more joy. You have made me a very proud mama' Way back when: Elizabeth shares Damian with her ex, American businessman Steve Bing (pictured in 2006), who initially denied paternity of the tot as he claimed they had a 'brief, non-exclusive relationship' however a DNA test proved he was the dad Elizabeth has previously confessed that she often ropes Damian into taking photographs of her - including her bikini-clad snaps she posts to social media. Following the confession, she ridiculed claims made suggesting she takes him on holiday to purposely play photographer. On their relationship, she told You: 'Damian is a great photographer, and he instinctively knows what younger people want to see, but thats all... 'Our downtime together is usually spent watching something scary on Netflix or Vikings on Amazon Prime. By default we spend a lot of time together and we are utterly comfortable in each other's company.' Her biggest fan! Elizabeth has previously confessed that she often ropes Damian into taking photographs of her - including her bikini-clad snaps she posts to social media They soared to fame as a double act... and then had a monumental fall-out, resulting in a seven year feud. But Matt Lucas and David Walliams seem to have very much buried the hatchet these days, posing together at the 40th birthday party of their mutual pal, actor Luke Evans. The appearance together comes after they were both in attendance at Dale Winton's funeral in May 2018 - the first time they were seen in the same place at the same time since 2011. Friends again: Matt Lucas and David Walliams seem to have very much buried the hatchet these days At the humanist service for the TV presenter, the Little Britain stars were seen coming face-to-face as they both arrived at the London event. And while that was a somber affair, the comedians were in much higher spirits to honor Luke on his milestone birthday on Saturday night. Each attending the fancy dress do in white ensembles, David, 47, appeared to be dressed as the queen while Matt, 45, was a troll. Luke, meanwhile, looked to be having a whale of a time in snaps taken by David, wearing a matador costume, standing next to a blue tiered cake. Grudge: They soared to fame as a double act... and then had a monumental fall-out, resulting in a seven year feud Pals: They were at the 40th birthday party of their mutual pal, actor Luke Evans David and Matt's feud ended the Little Britain pair's partnership after almost a decade of working together. In his autobiography, Matt revealed how tensions boiled between the pair in 2005 during their Little Britain Live tour, leading to a spectacular backstage fight. Matt was also noticeably absent when Walliams received his OBE last October. Matt released his autobiography Little Me: The A-Z Of Matt Lucas the same month in which he uncovered their explosive backstage fights as well the manic performances that made them, briefly, the most celebrated comedy duo in the country. In the tome he snipes: 'Walliams has now sold so many children's books he can probably buy his own private jet, all decked out in pink, with a river inside it for him to swim up' a swipe at the fame Walliams acquired when he swam the Channel and, later on, the length of the Thames. Whale of a time: Luke, meanwhile, looked to be having a whale of a time in snaps taken by David, wearing a matador costume, standing next to a blue tiered cake Back together: The comedians were seen together for the first time in seven years last spring as they both joined a slew of celebrities attending Dale Winton's funeral Tensions between the pair are believed to have escalated during the Little Britain Live tour in 2005, when the two men demanded separate dressing rooms but found they had to prepare together before every show, just to cope with all the technical issues each night. Disputes started over trivial matters, such as David's apparent insistence that jumbo packs of Maltesers should be provided by the promoter at every venue. Matt objected there were much better choices than Maltesers, he felt. David and Matt have not worked together since their airport satire series Come Fly With Me in 2010, and while BBC commissioned a second series, David confirmed in 2013 there were no future episodes in the pipeline. David and Matt first met in The National Youth Theatre, and broke onto the comedy scene with the sketch series Little Britain in 2003. Catching up? The pair appeared to exchange the briefest of pleasantries before heading into the service Old hands: Fans will most remember the pair's work in the BBC sketch series Little Britain, which ran from 2003 and 2005, and sparked nationwide tours and a US spin-off series The series created iconic characters such as Andy and Lou (with the catchphrase 'I don't like it'), Vicky Pollard ('Yeah but no yeah but no but') and Carol Beer ('Computer says no'). After three series the show concluded in 2005, but sparked a US spin-off three years later and numerous one-off specials for Comic and Sport Relief. But is was around the shows conclusion that tensions first reportedly began to bubble between the pair, as Matt described in his autobiography. Cabin fever began to set in, with things finally boiling over in Oxford a few nights before a Comic Relief special, and while the pair reconciled a similar bust-up at the end of the Australian tour in 2007 severed ties further. David previously spoke about their disputes whilst promoting his own autobiography, Camp David in 2012. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Mark Lawson he admitted: 'We're very different people and probably want different things and had different working methods.' Over: Matt and David last worked together in 2010 on the airport satire series Come Fly With Me, amid ongoing rumours of a feud between the pair Happier times: Since their last show together Matt (above in 2011) went onto land a slew of TV acting roles while David has been a judge on Britain's Got Talent since 2012 When asked whether his use of past tense implied the partnership is finished, David added: 'Well, it's over for the time being. Whether it's over for ever I don't know. But Matt wanted to go off and do his own thing, he wanted to be himself on a show, he wanted to do The Matt Lucas Awards and that's why at the moment we are not doing things together. 'Whether we will in the future, I don't know. I certainly hope so. But for the moment I'm enjoying my freedom.' Since their split David has gone onto land a spot on the Britain's Got Talent in 2012 - and has remained ever since - alongside publishing ten children's books, and was awarded an OBE last year for services to charity and the arts. Meanwhile Matt went onto land a regular role as Nardole opposite Peter Capaldi in Doctor Who in 2015, as well as plenty of TV guest appearances. He has also starred in Hollywood movies such as Alice In Wonderland and Bridesmaids. The Sunday Project suffered a ratings drought last year despite star co-host Lisa Wilkinson spending weeks overseas interviewing celebrities. And the 59-year-old will no doubt be hoping for better results this time around after returning from another international tour. Taking to Instagram on Sunday, Lisa shared her happiness at having returned from a 35,000km-long trip to conduct interviews for the Channel 10 show. Another trip! Taking to Instagram on Sunday, Lisa Wilkinson shared her happiness at returning from a 35,000km-long trip to conduct interviews for The Project 'That Sunday night feeling (after eight international and domestic flights in the last seven days, over 35,000km travelled, and some fabulous interviews in the can),' she wrote in the caption 'That Sunday night feeling (after eight international and domestic flights in the last seven days, over 35,000km travelled, and some fabulous interviews in the can),' she wrote in the caption. 'When you get to scrub off all the makeup, have a hot shower and jump into bed. Bliss!' Lisa was formerly the long-running co-host of Channel Nine's Today show alongside Karl Stefanovic, and actually interviewed his ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn on The Project last month. Was she worth the $2million paycheck? Sadly, Lisa has been unable to pull The Sunday Project from its ratings drought despite spending weeks overseas interviewing celebrities During a somewhat awkward interview, Lisa asked Cassandra about her 'memorable year', and the children's author replied that she was in a 'happy' place after her divorce was finalised. In late 2017, Channel 10 offered Lisa a rumoured $2million contract to anchor its new weekend show, The Sunday Project. But in September 2018, it was revealed that Lisa still hadn't delivered ratings success - despite embarking on numerous overseas trips interviewing celebrities. According to OzTam ratings at the time, the Sunday Project fell to thirteenth place in the prime time slot, with just 312,000 metro viewers tuning in. By contrast, a solid 481,000 metro viewers had tuned in to watch Lisa mark her territory on the show eight months earlier, in January. The Project has had success more recently though, with Channel 10 confirming an uptick in viewers following the Christchurch massacre. On March 26, the network announced the previous night's exclusive interview with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern brought the highest average audience since July 2018. Decline: Channel 10, which was bought by CBS in August 2017, showed a noticeable decline last year between January and October. Lisa debuted on The Sunday Project in January 2018 Speaking to WHO magazine following a bout of particularly disastrous ratings in April 2018, Lisa insisted she wasn't focusing on the numbers. 'In the end, I just want to do good work and the rest will follow,' she said. 'We're bedding down particularly The Sunday Project at the moment and working out the best mix for the show and one of the wonderful things about going to The Project is the trust that people have in the journalism. 'They trust us in my experience more than any other interview program on Australian television.' Oh, dear! According to OzTam ratings from September 2018, the Sunday Project fell to thirteenth place in the prime time slot, with just 312,000 metro viewers tuning in She flew to Las Vegas in February 2018 to interview Celine Dion, before jetting to New York in April that year for a one-on-one chat with Amy Schumer. She also travelled to Britain the following month to cover the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Clearly bitten by the travel bug, Lisa also took holiday leave to embark on a European getaway with her husband Peter FitzSimons in August of last year. Jenna Coleman has insisted she and boyfriend Tom Hughes never take their characters from Victoria home with them when the cameras turn off. The actress, 32, stars as Queen Victoria in the series while Tom, 32, plays her other half Prince Albert. It was a case of life imitating art for the pair who began dating in 2016 after they met on set. Real life couple: Jenna Coleman has insisted she and boyfriend Tom Hughes never take their Victoria characters home with them when the cameras turn off (pictured in 2016) Speaking to The Telegraph, Jenna said: 'No, I definitely do not go home and play Queen Victoria, I want to make that clear. 'But I really enjoy the company of her, if that makes sense. There's a lovely familiarity, and getting to know them as a couple has been a real joy.' Quizzed whether Tom keeps up his German accent around the house, Jenna looked horrified and exclaimed, 'No... No, no.' Jenna often works 14-hour days on the set of Victoria and struggles to find time to exercise. However, she regularly does yoga and is conscious of her health after she became ill while filming the first series. In character: The actress, 32, stars as Queen Victoria in the series while Tom, 32, plays her other half Prince Albert She said: 'I got glandular fever while shooting the first series of Victoria, so I have educated myself about what I put in my body.' While they may never take their characters home with them, Jenna told The Australian that she never sees Tom as anything else other than the character he plays while they are on set. She said: 'What's incredible about him is he's always completely authentic when he comes to set. There's never a moment when I don't see Prince Albert.' Their romance almost never happened, as Jenna has revealed she turned down the role of the iconic monarch twice before finally accepting the part. She said: 'No, I definitely do not go home and play Queen Victoria, I want to make that clear' (pictured in 2017) Speaking to Radio Times, the actress said of the near-miss: 'I had just finished doing nearly four years on Doctor Who and I didn't want to do another long TV project. 'I wanted to do lots of different things, but now I'm doing Victoria, I find her quite addictive.' Jenna recently told how she has watched One Born Every Minute to prepare for the labour scenes, as Victoria had nine children. She added: 'I really enjoy the company of her, if that makes sense. There's a lovely familiarity, and getting to know them as a couple has been a real joy' Preparation: Jenna recently told how she has watched One Born Every Minute to prepare for the labour scenes, as Victoria had nine children Speaking on The Jonathan Ross Show, she said: 'I have had many a labour scene now, Im running out of noises for labour scenes. 'I try to [change it up]... Ive just given birth to the seventh child now. And there is still no pain relief as of yet either [in the era the show is set]. 'To be honest, I find if I build up adrenaline and then dont think about it and then watch it back, I think I sounded like a sheep on one thing that I saw back before. 'Id just have loads of caffeine and then get really built up and then Im sure one day maybe if I ever give birth Ill realise I was totally wrong.' Married At First Sight contestant, Cyrell Paule has finally confirmed she is dating Love Island Australia star Eden Dally after weeks of speculation. Cyrell, 29, who was pictured kissing the Melbourne prison guard, 26, in Sydney last month revealed the romance on Sunday's episode of Talking Married. 'He's a cool guy we're seeing each other,' the outspoken Filipino-Australian told the panel. 'We're seeing each other!' Married at First Sight's Cyrell Paule (pictured) finally confirmed she is dating Love Island Australia's Eden Dally on Sunday's episode of Talking Married 'He's one of those guys who's so attractive that at first I was like, "no", but then you talk, and it grows,' she explained. The former 'bride' was then asked to compare her new squeeze with her 'ex-husband' Nic Jovanovic from MAFS. 'I think Eden's a bit more fun and outgoing and Nic was a bit more reserved. He likes to go to bed at 9:30pm,' she said. 'It's cute but we're all different women and we all like different things and I like adventure,' she added. Loved up! 'He's a cool guy we're seeing each other,' the outspoken Filipino-Australian told the panel. Eden Dally and Cyrell are pictured at a charity event together in Sydney last week 'I think Eden's a bit more fun and outgoing!' The blushing former 'bride' (pictured left) was then asked to compare Eden with her 'ex-husband' Nic Jovanovic (right) from MAFS Just last week, fledgling couple Eden and Cyrell put on a very cosy display for the second time, as they stepped out for a charity event in Sydney. It came after the reality stars were spotted getting hot and steamy during a lust-filled dinner date in Sydney last month. The pair could hardly keep their hands - or lips - off each other during the raunchy date in the Harbour City. Cosy: Just last week, the fledgling couple put on a very cosy display as they stepped out for a charity event in Sydney After first being spotted with Eden on March 19, Cyrell downplayed their romantic interlude in a post on her Instagram Stories. 'Yeah we had dinner and yeah I kissed him,' she wrote, sharing photos of their passionate embrace. 'But I didn't steal him and he wasn't married... so settle down.' 'Yeah we had dinner and yeah I kissed him': After first being spotted with Eden on March 19, Cyrell downplayed their romantic interlude on her Instagram Cyrell isn't the first Married At First Sight star from this season who Eden has been linked to. In February, he was linked to Jessika Power, with the pair taking a cosy selfie together which sparked romance rumours. Despite this, Jessika has repeatedly denied anything happened, and insisted they are just friends. Vigilante superhero, bank robber, notorious gangster, he has been no stranger to roles that find him on the wrong side of the law while on the screen. But Ben Affleck found himself face to face with a real-life police officer on Saturday, after getting pulled over in his sleek Bentley for allegedly driving on the shoulder of an LA freeway. The 46-year-old actor looked calm and collected, however, as he sipped a beverage and smoked a cigarette following the incident. Run in with the law: Ben Affleck found himself face to face with a real-life police officer on Saturday, after getting pulled over for allegedly driving on the shoulder An eye-witness told DailyMail.com that the Batman star was pulled over for allegedly driving on the shoulder, and Affleck was spotted chatting with a officer just off the highway while behind the wheel. It remains unknown whether or not he received a ticket, but the actor did stop to collect his thoughts following the interaction. Sporting a navy blue windbreaker and khakis, the Live by Night actor looked relaxed as he puffed away on the sidewalk before returning to his vehicle.' He sported reflective silver-framed aviators and his salt and pepper locks were cut short and perfectly coiffed. Whoops: The 46-year-old actor looked calm and collected, however, as he sipped a beverage and smoked a cigarette following the incident Puffing away: An eye-witness said the Batman star was pulled over for allegedly driving on the shoulder, and Affleck was spotted chatting with a officer just off the highway while behind the wheel Ben recently rekindled his romance with Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus. The Town star has been sober since getting out of his most recent stint in rehab and sources close to Shookus say she's been 'impressed' by his commitment to his well being. In fact, it was Ben's choice to seek help and get clean that prompted Shookus to want to start their relationship back up, according to Us Weekly. A source close to the 38-year-old producer told the outlet that she reached out to the Batman star 'because she was impressed that he'd gone back to rehab and was sober.' Another insider close to the couple told Us that Ben and Lindsay haven't missed a beat and 'picked up right where they left off.' Back on: Ben recently rekindled his romance with Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus In 2017, the couple went public with their relationship, though some reports claimed that they were dating in secret for years by then. The following year the pair split amid Ben's spiral into drinking and substance abuse. Since getting sober again Affleck has been focused on his health, his children, and his work. The star shares three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner, Violet, 13; Seraphina, 10; and Samuel, seven. Advertisement It is the biggest night of the year in British theatre, with the West End stars mingling with Hollywood favourites. And Katharine McPhee led the glamour at the Olivier Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Sunday night, in a ceremony hosted by Jason Manford. The Waitress actress, 35, ensured all eyes were on her as she strutted down the red carpet in a strapless scarlet chiffon gown with lace inserts, while Gillian Anderson, 50, who lost out on Best Actress for All About Eve, cut a sophisticated figure in a black semi-sheer dress. Leading ladies: Katharine McPhee and Gillian Anderson led the glamour at the Olivier Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Sunday night Katharine teased a hint of cleavage in the Bardot dress, which hugged her slender frame before falling out into a pleated skirt. Pulling out all the stops, the American Idol runner-up paired the stunning gown with a statement ring, silver cascading earrings and a bold red lip. Gillian looked equally as glamorous as she slipped into the black striped dress, which showcased her incredible figure thanks to its sheer cobweb lace detailing. Beauty: The Waitress actress, 35, ensured all eyes were on her as she strutted down the red carpet in a strapless red chiffon gown with lace inserts Feminine: Delicate floral lace inserts under the bust highlighted Katharine's taut midriff, while rope links and textured detailing added drama Sophisticated: Gillian looked equally as glamorous as she slipped into the velvet black striped dress, which showcased her incredible figure thanks to its sheer cobweb lace panels Timeless beauty: The X Files star styled her hair in a voluminous chignon and highlighted her radiant complexion with a pink palette of make-up Charming: The Duchess of Cornwall opted for an elegant navy dress and diamond necklace for the award ceremony, where she presented a lifetime achievement honor to Matthew Bourne, the choreographer behind Swan Lake Belle of the ball: Sophie Okonedo, who was nominated for the Best Actress gong for Antony and Cleopatra, looked every inch the princess in a white tulle dress with metallic gold detailing Glamour: Strictly's Kevin Clifton and his sister Joanne were among the first of the stars to tread the red carpet Leggy display: Joined by her brother, Joanne, 35, exuded glamour in a plunging glittery ice blue gown which had a perilous thigh-high split Vision in blue: All My Sons' Sally Field looked pretty in a pale blue Emilia Wickstead dress and navy shawl as she hit the red carpet with her co-star Bill Pullman VIPs in the house: The Hollywood acting legends later took to the stage to present the Best Actor award The stage star accessorised the look with a red velvet clutch bag and hoop diamond earrings. Meanwhile, The Duchess of Cornwall was the guest of honour for the evening. Camilla, who wore an elegant navy dress and diamond necklace, presented a lifetime achievement honor to Matthew Bourne, the choreographer behind an iconic production of Swan Lake. Stunning: Darcey Bussell looked the epitome of elegance in a vibrant green gown with metallic detailing Sparkly: The retired ballet dancer, 49, complemented the glamorous dress with diamond hoop earrings and gold heels Graceful: (L-R) Ruthie Henshall, Rachel Tucker, Katherine Parkinson looked effortlessly demure in their monochrome outfits Strutting her stuff: Adrienne Warren flaunted her incredible figure in a cut-out beaded fringe minidress All-star attendees: Kelsey Grammer and his wife Kayte Walsh were joined by Danielle de Niese, who is leading soprano and stars alongside the Frasier legend in new musical Man of La Mancha. She presented two awards on the night - Best New Opera Production and Outstanding Achievement in Opera Meanwhile, former Strictly star Joanne Clifton, 35, exuded glamour in a plunging glittery ice blue gown as she hit the red carpet with her brother Kevin. Joanne, who is currently starring in the Rocky Horror Show with Blue's Duncan James, flashed plenty of leg in the floor-length gown, which featured a wrap over skirt and deep v neckline. The 2016 Strictly series winner dazzled as she strutted down the red carpet, teaming the glittery dress with sparkly silver Louboutin stilettos. She styled her blonde locks in Hollywood curls and finished off her show-stopping ensemble with a polished make-up look. Kevin, 36, was also dressed to impress for the occasion. Looking dapper in a black tailored suit, the current Strictly king beamed with pride as he posed with Joanne on the red carpet. Stealing the show: Dancer Ashley Shaw looked breathtakingly beautiful in a black floral gown with a plunging neckline Dressed to impress: L-R: Former CBBC presenter Angelica Bell took a walk on the wild side in a leopard print dress while Anita Rani and Beverley Knight dressed their incredible figures in floor length gowns Fashion maven: Camilla Kerslake stood out from the crowd in a hot pink suit, which nipped her in at the waist with its double breasted design Well-dressed: Former Strictly stars Jay McGuiness, Aston Merrygold, Louis Smith and Harry Judd were suited and booted for the ceremony Suave: Tom Hiddleston looked devilishly handsome as he hit the red carpet in a navy suit with silk lapels and black bow tie by Ralph Lauren Glitzy ceremony: The Night Manager star was joined by Charlie Cox, who looked smart in a black suit and matching bow tie Pretty in pink: YouTube star Louise Pentland was also in attendance at the event, looking lovely in an embroidered dress Darcey Bussell looked the epitome of elegance in a vibrant green gown with metallic detailing. The retired ballet dancer, 49, complemented the glamorous dress with diamond hoop earrings and gold heels. Other noticable attendees included Sally Field, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Cox and Beverley Knight. Musicals Come From Away and Company led this year's race for recognition with nine nominations apiece. At the end of the evening though there was no outright winner, with the two musicals and The Inheritance all coming away with four awards. Come From Away, about the Newfoundland town of Gander that hosted thousands of travelers stranded by canceled flights after the 9/11 attacks, won Best New Musical, as well as Outstanding Achievement in Music, Best Theatre Choreographer (Kelly Devine) and the Royal Albert Hall Award For Best Sound Design (Gareth Owen). Here come the boys: (L-R) Our Girl star Luke Pasqualino was joined by EastEnders' Danny Dyer and presenter Jason Manford Winners: (L-R) Monica Dolan, winner of the Best Actress In A Supporting Role award for All About Eve and producer Sonia Friedman, winner of Best Revival for Summer And Smoke proudly showed off their gongs Thrilled: Kyle Soller won Best New Play for The Inheritance at Young Vic and Noel Coward Theatre and posed with Sally and Bill Congratulations: Hollywood giants Bill and Sally looked delighted for the young actor Gobsmacked: Patsy Ferran was stunned to be crowned winner of Best Actress Their moment: Patsy beamed with joy as she joined director Rebecca Frecknall, winner of Best Revival for Summer And Smoke A gender-switched production of Stephen Sondheim's Company took home the prize for best musical revival. Jonathan Bailey picked up his first ever Olivier Award, winning Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for his portrayal of Jamie in Company, which also won the Blue-i Theatre Technology Award for Best Set Design (Bunny Christie) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Patti LuPone. The epic gay-history drama The Inheritance had eight nominations, including best supporting actress for Vanessa Redgrave, who lost out to Monica Dolan for All About Eve. Quite the duo: Danny Dyer (R) and Cunard Captain Inger Klein Thorhauge were also among the star presenters Funny man: Jason Manford played host for the night in front of the A-list crowd in the world famous venue VIP guests: Tom Parker-Bowles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall had the best seats in the house Guest of honour: Camilla later took to the stage to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Matthew Bourne. She was joined by Darcey and Richard E. Grant All together now! Janie Dee, Ruthie Henshall and Jason had the audience laughing by performing together Circle of life: There was also a performance from the cast of the Lion King, who were celebrating the show's 20th anniversary in the West End On the stage: Katharine McPhee and Jack McBrayer took to the stage to present the Best Actor award Overwhelmed: Katharine and Jack looked on proudly as winner Kobna Holdbrook-Smith burst into tears Family: Joanne and Kevin looked immaculately dressed as they presented their award Winners: (L-R) Kelly Devine, winner of the Best Theatre Choreographer award for Come From Away, Laura Wade and Tamara Harvey, accepting the Best New Comedy award for Home, I'm Darling and Marianne Elliott and Chris Harper, winners of the Best Musical Revival award for Company Proud: Jonathan Bailey, winner of the Best Actor In A Supporting Role In A Musical award for Company, couldn't hide his delight as he made his acceptance speech Breathtaking: A ballet dancer performed a series of leaps during a stunning performance of Swan Lake on stage Matthew Lopezs play did win the American Airlines Best New Play, while first-time nominee Kyle Soller won Best Actor for his role in the production. The Inheritance also won the White Light Award for Best Lighting Design (Jon Clark) and the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director (Stephen Daldry). Eight of the winners were first-time nominees, including Best Actress winner Patsy Ferran, who won for her performance in Summer And Smoke (which also claimed the award for Cunard Best Revival), beating Gillian Anderson and Sophie Okonedo. Other first-time nominee winners included Chris Walley, who won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, and Kobna-Holdbrook Smith, who won Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Ike in Tina The Tina Turner Musical. Dapper group: Louis Smith, Jay McGuiness, Harry Judd and Aston Merrygold took to the stage to present a prize Winner: Kelly Devine accepted the award for Best Theatre Choreographer for Come From Away, presented by Strictly pros Joanne and Kevin Clifton Talented trio: Charlie Cox, Zawe Ashton and Tom Hiddleston presented the Best Actress award on stage Star power: Beverley Knight was one of the big performers during the glamorous evening Four gongs: Come From Away took home one of the night's big prizes- Best New Musical presented by Gloria Estefan Dapper: Danny Dyer, Sir Ian McKellan and Luke Pasqualino all looked suitably stylish for the star-studded event Star: Tom Hiddleston, who will star in Avengers: Endgame this year, took time out from his busy schedule to attend the event Colour: Kelly Devine, Joanne Clifton and Nell Hudson all displayed an array of colour for this year's awards Lovebirds: Camilla Kerslake attended the awards with her husband Chris Robshaw, who she married in 2018 An actress who also picked up her first ever Olivier Award was Monica Dolan, who won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in All About Eve. Named for the late British actor Laurence Olivier, the prizes honor achievements in London theater, musicals, dance and opera. Winners in most categories are chosen by a panel of stage professionals and theatergoers. This year's show also saluted long-running musicals The Lion King and Mamma Mia, each celebrating 20 years in London's West End. Matthew Bourne - the choreographer behind an iconic production of Swan Lake - received a lifetime achievement honor, presented by Prince Charles' wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. They recently tied the knot in a glitzy ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall in London. And now former Hollyoaks star Ali Bastian and her new husband David O'Mahony have shared details of their 'incredible' honeymoon getaway to The Maldives. Posing for stunning snaps in OK! Magazine, the loved up couple also looked back on their idyllic wedding and discussed their plans for the future. Wedded bliss: Hollyoaks star Ali Bastian and her new husband David O'Mahony have shared details of their luxury honeymoon getaway to The Maldives Opening up on their stunning trip to the South East Asian country, Doctors actress Ali, 37, said: 'It was incredible, just so exciting. We were still on a high from our wedding.' In fact their romantic holiday was so great that Ali admitted 'I cried before when we said goodbye!' Although the couple were treated to a feast before they left, indulging in a 'seven-course' candlelit dinner. Meanwhile, David reflected on their big day as he revealed his favourite moment from the wedding. The first time I saw Ali walking down the aisle towards me,' he explained. 'That will stay with me forever. Newlyweds: Posing for stunning snaps in OK! Magazine , the loved up couple also looked back on their incredible wedding and discussed their plans for the future The couple became man and wife at the Old Marylebone Town Hall in London, before enjoying a star-studded reception at the Star & Garter in Richmond. They were surrounded by loving family and friends including Ali's former Hollyoaks co-stars Jodi Albert, Sarah-Jayne Dunn and Carly Stenson. With the festivities now over, the couple are looking into the future and it seems as though babies are in the horizon. 'We really hope to be blessed with a family at some point,' declared Ali. Happy: Opening up on their stunning trip to the South East Asian country, Doctors actress Ali, 37, said: 'It was incredible, just so exciting. We were still on a high from our wedding Oh baby! With the festivities now over, the couple are looking into the future and it seems as though babies are in the horizon Ali and David announced their engagement last April in OK! Magazine, after an 18-month romance. Read the full story in this week's OK! Magazine David was planning on proposing to Ali, who used to play Becca Dean on the Channel 4 soap, during a romantic holiday to Bali, but instead he spontaneously decided to pop the question when he returned from a musical. Talking to the publication at the time, the stage actor revealed: 'I was 99.99 per cent sure that shed say yes, but there was still a scary but exciting feeling. 'Moments after I proposed to Ali I felt this huge amount of relief that I didnt have to keep the secret any more!' While Ali added: 'Even though wed discussed marriage, it took me completely by surprise. I still think, has this really happened?' Modern Family's Sarah Hyland pampered herself at the spa Shape House in Studio City on Saturday. The 28-year-old actress - who relies on stylist Brad Goreski - paired her permed shag with an orange Cotton On jumpsuit, nude sandals, and a black bag. Later that day, the four-time SAG Award winner attended the bridal shower of Kimberly Hidalgo alongside Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale. Curly locks: Modern Family's Sarah Hyland pampered herself at the spa Shape House in Studio City on Saturday Spring style: The 28-year-old actress - who relies on stylist Brad Goreski - paired her permed shag with an orange Cotton On jumpsuit, nude sandals, and a black bag Sarah flaunted significant cleavage in strapless red floral co-ords and she wore large-framed glasses for the poolside feminine festivities. Fans of High School Musical would be pleased to see castmates Vanessa and Ashley - who played Gabriella and Sharpay - still hanging out 11 later. As for Hyland, she co-starred with Tisdale in Scary Movie 5 in 2013 and she once appeared in a 2012 episode of MTV prank show Punk'd with Hudgens. The native New Yorker - who's undergone 16 surgeries - relies on her gal pals to help her through her medical woes, most recently a viral respiratory infection. 'Here's to the ladies who lunch with filters!' Later that day, the four-time SAG Award winner attended the bridal shower of Kimberly Hidalgo (2-L) alongside Vanessa Hudgens (3-L) and Ashley Tisdale (R) 'I love you @kimhidalgo!' Sarah flaunted significant cleavage in strapless red floral co-ords and she wore large-framed glasses for the poolside feminine festivities Reunited! Fans of High School Musical would be pleased to see castmates Vanessa and Ashley - who played Gabriella and Sharpay - still hanging out 11 later 'I always make things weird': As for Hyland, she co-starred with Tisdale in Scary Movie 5 in 2013 and she appeared in a 2012 episode of MTV prank show Punk'd with Hudgens (pictured) 'Sisterhood': The native New Yorker - who's undergone 16 surgeries - relies on her gal pals to help her through her medical woes, most recently a viral respiratory infection 'Most of the surgeries I've had were before I was 4, so at least that's kind of a distant memory,' the doe-eyed starlet told GMA on March 1. 'But surrounding myself with my friends, this like sisterhood that I have with these girls, which is amazing. And also dogs are the greatest thing to ever happen in the entire world. Dogs are amazing. They're everyone's best friend and they really get me through a lot.' Sarah also receives a lot of support from her live-in love - The Bachelorette 12 alum Wells Adams - whom she's been dating since October 2017. Career-wise, the 34-year-old reality star is a paid partner for brands like Poo-Pourri and he co-hosts Your Favorite Thing podcast with Brandi Cyrus. Beau: Sarah also receives a lot of support from her live-in love - The Bachelorette 12 alum Wells Adams - whom she's been dating since October 2017 (pictured Tuesday) 'This week we've git Hunter Hayes!' Career-wise, the 34-year-old reality star is a paid partner for brands like Poo-Pourri and he co-hosts Your Favorite Thing podcast with Brandi Cyrus (R) Hyland's pregnant character Haley Dunphy will reportedly wed boyfriend Dylan (Reid Ewing) in this Wednesday's episode - titled 'Can't Elope' - of the ABC mockumentary sitcom. The Wonderful World of Disney host and her castmates Rico Rodriguez, Nolan Gould, and Ariel Winter scored a 'significant' pay raise for the 10th (and final) season, according to Variety. It's unclear the exact dollar amount but the adults - Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ed O'Neill, and Sofia Vergara - all earn an eye-popping $500K per episode. 'Can't Elope': Hyland's pregnant character Haley Dunphy will reportedly wed boyfriend Dylan (not pictured) in this Wednesday's episode of the ABC mockumentary sitcom Their father Luke Perry passed away last month after a massive ischemic stroke. And after spending the last month grieving, Jack Perry, 21, and Sophie Perry, 18, have gotten back to work. Jack made his return to professional wrestling on Saturday and posted a clip of highlights from the match to his Instagram later that day. Back: After spending the last month grieving, Jack Perry made his return to professional wrestling on Saturday The video showed Jack, aka Jungle Boy, triumphantly returning to the ring and winning his match. 'Im not sure Ill ever be ready, but Im back. Thanks for all the love and support. @gamechangerwrestling #jjsb3 #wrestlemaniaweekend2019,' he captioned the video. Throughout the clip, Jack is seen pulling off a number of highly technical moves, and he ends it with a submission victory. Volunteer work: Sophie Perry also revealed on social media Sunday that she has returned to her volunteer work in Malawi while wearing an Andrews Construction cap in a nod to her dad Triumphant return: The 21-year-old wrestler posted a clip of highlights from the match to his Instagram later that day Work: The video showed Jack, aka Jungle Boy, triumphantly returning to the ring and winning his match Jack was last scheduled to wrestle on March 13 at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles, but revealed days before the match that he would be skipping the event. 'Unfortunately Jungle Boy will no longer be wrestling at our March 13th show,' the promotion said on its Twitter account. 'Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family at this time.' Luke Perry - who shot to fame in the early 90s playing Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills, 90210 - died March 4, about five days after he suffered a massive stroke at his Sherman Oaks, California home February 27. Changed: 'Im not sure Ill ever be ready, but Im back. Thanks for all the love and support. @gamechangerwrestling #jjsb3 #wrestlemaniaweekend2019,' he captioned the video Motorcycle ride: Sophie also shared a video of herself riding three people on a motorcycle Sophie meanwhile revealed on social media Sunday that she has returned to Africa to continue her mission work. She posted a selfie wearing a blue cap with an Andrews Construction label while traveling in a vehicle and also a video of herself riding three people on a motorcycle for her roughly 92,000 followers on Instagram. Luke at the time of his death was portraying Fred Andrews on Riverdale who owned his own construction company Andrews Construction. Charity trip: The teenager cut short her six-month charity trip when Luke suffered the stroke TV tribute: Sophie in a selfie wore an Andrews Construction cap in a nod to her father's character Fred Andrews on Riverdale Sophie wrote in the caption: 'First few days back in Malawi have been very emotional but it feels right to come back, to finish what I started, to do the most with whatever time we have left. 'I recently learned that may not be as much time as we think. It was quick and scary to leave home again so soon, but theres a job to be done, and someone to make proud,' she wrote. Sophie added: 'Also excuse my ''post 30 hours o travel'' face'. Good times: She was back in Malawi where she was volunteering to develop pre-schools In September Sophie, who lived in Dowagiac, Michigan, posted a video describing her charity work for non-profit One World Center, and asked for fundraising help for her trip. 'I'm in a group of eight people, seven of us are going to Africa and one of us is going to Brazil,' she said. 'We're going to be there for six months, and we're going to be working on community development projects. These can range from teaching teachers, building schools, helping with agriculture, providing water purification, all types of good stuff.' Technique: Throughout the clip, Jack is seen pulling off a number of highly technical moves, and he ends it with a submission victory Moving forward: Jack was last scheduled to wrestle on March 13 at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles, but revealed days before the match that he would be skipping the event Loving: 'He was a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, he was always Dad,' he began Jack posted a touching tribute to his father on Instagram two days after the actor died at the age of 52. 'He was a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, he was always Dad,' he began. 'He loved supported me in everything, and inspired me to be the best that I could possibly be.' Jack continued: 'I've learned so much from you, and my heart is broken thinking about everything you wont be here for. Touching: Jack posted a touching tribute to his father on Instagram two days after the actor died at the age of 52 'I'll miss you every day that I walk this earth. 'I'll do whatever I can to carry on your legacy and make you proud. 'I love you Dad.' Memories: 'He was a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, he was always Dad,' he began Rating: Like every idyllic Greek island holiday, our sojourn with The Durrells on Corfu has to end. But for the first time in this gentle Thirties romantic drama, we received a chilling reminder of why. Reality has hovered at a great distance for the past three series, as English widow Louisa (Keeley Hawes) brought up her four unruly children in a glorious, shambolic paradise beside the Mediterranean. We knew, in theory, that Fascism was on the rise in Germany and Italy, and that it threatened Greece too. But the weekly tales stayed faithful to the light, humorous spirit of Gerald Durrell's autobiography, My Family And Other Animals. If it suddenly turned into Captain Corelli's Mandolin, all jackboots on the jetty and Greek villagers shot as saboteurs and spies, that would be an unbearable way to leave. The final series began with bags of reassurance that, though nowhere in Europe can escape the coming storm, The Durrells won't descend into invasion and internment. Keeley Hawes as Louisa Durrell and Milo Parker as Gerry Durrell. Reality has hovered at a great distance for the past three series Gun-mad Leslie (Callum Woodhouse, front) was taking potshots at fruit, and scatterbrained feminist Margo (Daisy Waterstone, centre right) was trying out her latest money-making scheme as a hairdresser. Business as usual, then, Chez Durrell The opening episode introduced a political terrorist and a sinister police martinet, but played it all for farcical laughs. No Nazis Please, We're British! From the start, all the family were eager to assure us that nothing had changed in their sun-soaked, penniless lives. Gerry (a newly baritone Milo Parker) was carrying a tame barn owl around in a satchel. Novelist brother Larry (Josh O'Connor) was leaning out of an upstairs window, threatening to hurl his typewriter at a honking pelican. Gun-mad Leslie (Callum Woodhouse) was taking potshots at fruit, and scatterbrained feminist Margo (Daisy Waterstone) was trying out her latest money-making scheme as a hairdresser. Business as usual, then, Chez Durrell. Not quite. Odd-job man Spiros was keeping his distance. After years of hiding his longing for Louisa, he finally declared his love in the last series only to make a chivalrous withdrawal when his estranged wife returned to the island. We never see Spiros's wife. Like Captain Mainwaring, or Niles Crane in Frasier, he is cursed with a spouse so awful, she must be kept out of sight of viewers. The only new development was the insertion of Miles Jupp (pictured) as a permanent cast member paying guest Basil, the defrocked solicitor from Dorset, whose manners are even grosser than his appetite From the start, all the family were eager to assure us that nothing had changed in their sun-soaked, penniless lives. Gerry (a newly baritone Milo Parker) was carrying a tame barn owl around in a satchel But she has him on a tight leash Spiros turned up briefly in his role as odd-job man, to announce that he believed Louisa was now running a bawdy house, and then hurried away. He meant 'boarding house'... though since the two young dancers sharing Larry's bed were staying rent-free, perhaps Spiros (Alexis Georgoulis) got it right the first time. The only new development was the insertion of Miles Jupp as a permanent cast member paying guest Basil, the defrocked solicitor from Dorset, whose manners are even grosser than his appetite. Jupp enjoyed the best sight gag of the night: after complaining to Louisa that his 'laundry could be crisper', he spent the rest of the show in starched shorts as stiff as chipboard. Keeley Hawes as Louisa Durrell and Callum Woodhouse as Leslie in The Durrells Over all this silliness and frolicking, how could any shadow fall? An accident-prone Communist agent checked in to skulk in the attic room, but before the family could decide whether they condoned anti-Fascist shootings, Margo had given the poor man one of her haircuts. He didn't look such an extremist maniac then. The political element was soon subverted further, with the failed assassin dodging policemen by dangling from a windowsill in a desperate attempt to reach an escape ladder that wasn't quite long enough. It only needed his trousers to fall down for the picture to be complete. To get the bungling Commie off Corfu required the services of Spiros. He arrived by white motor launch, sailing round the headland standing nobly at the tiller, with the endless blue horizon at his back. There hasn't been such an ideal Greek hero since Alexander the Great. Never mind Adolf if this series doesn't end with Spiros and Louisa eloping together, there really will be reason for a world war. Married At First Sight's Martha Kalifatidis has been told 'not to go out alone' after receiving credible death threats following Sunday night's reunion episode. The makeup artist, 30, told The Kyle and Jackie O Show she is 'scared for her life' after being contacted by people stalking her parents' home in Melbourne. 'Last night was a new level. The amount of death threats I received... I actually told Michael [Brunelli, her husband], "I'm actually scared now",' she said on Monday. Martha continued: 'People were writing and saying they know the shops I go to because I'm back living with my parents and I've been going to the shops by myself. 'They're like messaging me like, "Wait until I see you at, you know, so and so".' Radio host Kyle Sandilands then asked: 'What's Channel Nine and the production company doing to protect you? Or are they like, "You'll be fine, don't take it to heart".' 'They take it seriously,' Martha responded. 'Last night was an all new level. Michael even said, "Maybe just don't go out alone for a while".' 'Some of these messages were really scary. Like, they know exactly the places that I go to,' she added. 'They know where I live!' Married At First Sight's Martha Kalifatidis (pictured) is 'scared for her life' after receiving DEATH THREATS from people stalking her parents' home in Melbourne Later in the interview, Martha revealed she has been unable to work as a freelance makeup artist due to fears for her personal safety. 'I was freelancing and I just feel like, right now, I don't really want to be turning up to people's houses, you know?' she said. 'I just don't feel safe at the moment, I really don't. I don't know who I can trust.' Martha then explained she had asked to go back to her old job in retail, but was rejected for being a 'liability'. 'I'm just in a hard spot at the moment,' she concluded. Fears: Martha also revealed on Monday's Kyle and Jackie O Show that she has been unable to work as a makeup artist due to fears for her personal safety. Pictured left: Kyle Sandilands It comes after Daily Mail Australia reported last week that Channel Nine planned to send MAFS' most controversial participants to remote 'safe houses' in the outback. Martha, along with Jess Power, Dan Webb and Ines Basic, were told they could stay at rural rentals in Queensland for four days if they were concerned for their safety. The producers were hoping this move would protect them from the public backlash following the two part-finale, which concludes on Monday night. Preparations: It comes after Daily Mail Australia reported last week that Channel Nine planned to send MAFS' most controversial participants to remote 'safe houses' in the outback. Pictured: Jessika Power Protection: Jessika Power, Daniel Webb (pictured), Ines Basic and others were told they could stay at rural rentals in Queensland for four days if they were concerned for their safety 'I'm worried someone will hurt her': Jessika Power's family 'live in fear of a physical attack' Jessika Power, who was branded 'Australia's most hated woman' after her affair with Daniel Webb, has been receiving death threats over the past few weeks. Her aunt Rebecca recently told Daily Mail Australia that their family is now living in fear of a physical attack. 'I know [the trolls] are mostly just keyboard warriors but they are just so hateful,' Rebecca said. Fears: Jessika Power's aunt Rebecca (pictured) says she lives in fear that her niece will get attacked due to the amount of death threats she receives 'Jess is waking up every day to people telling her to kill herself and that she needs to die. I'm copping threats too from local people, and so are the rest of the family. 'I am concerned, as her auntie, that someone really will hurt her. She was on the train yesterday and I felt sick. I have to work and can't be with her every day. I'm worried that people are going to act upon what they say.' Advertisement A production source told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday: 'This year the level of threats and hate has been unprecedented. 'Although most of [the violent threats] have no credible basis and are just trolls on social media, producers are really worried the reunion may push some viewers over the edge. 'They are prepared right now for an intense public backlash against some of the participants.' Married At First Sight continues Monday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine Line Of Duty has become so complicated I now have a wall in the living room covered in photos of the characters with hundreds of links between them in red marker pen that hopefully will come off. Viewers struggling to follow it did have one consolation though: at least they were in good company. Its even more complex and troubling than we first thought, Superintendent Ted Hastings told the Police Crime Commissioner, confirming he was better at summing up the programme than actually understanding what was actually happening. Or he appeared to anyway. Line of Duty: Its even more complex and troubling than we first thought, Superintendent Ted Hastings told the Police Crime Commissioner in Sunday's episode of the BBC drama Whether the venerable AC-12 boss knew too little or too much was fast becoming one of Series 5s biggest issues. To say Supt. Hastings looked nervous would be an understatement, particularly in scenes involving: former love interest Gill Bigeloe, Steve Arnotts briefing on Robert Denmoor, and a meeting with retired DCI about something called The Kettle Bell Complex. By the time DS Arnott and DI Fleming started interrogating DS Jane Cafferty and she supposedly identified H, poor Ted was watching from his office sweating like the pilot in Airplane! Tense: By the time DS Arnott and DI Fleming started interrogating DS Jane Cafferty and she supposedly identified H, poor Ted was watching from his office sweating What it all meant, and whether it meant Hastings was H, remains to be seen. Of course Episode Two did provide us with some clarity, mostly in regards to DS John Corbett who hadnt gone rogue but was still undercover in the organised crime gang (the UCO in the OCG) and still trying to identify the bent cops at the top. At least he said he was... As last weeks piece suggested, Corbett had authorised the killing of Maneet Bindra and three officers shot in the opening hijack because they were corrupt - not because he was. Is it him? What it all meant, and whether it meant Hastings was H, remains to be seen How else do you expect me to keep my cover! he raged to DS Arnott. Probably not like that... Id never get an honest copper killed! he objected, as if offended. The bent coppers deserve it! Theyre vermin! he insisted, in a particularly heavy Scouse accent. For the most though, as usual with Line Of Duty, only created more uncertainty and intrigue. Episode Two saw Mercurio set a new Personal Best for Horribly Complicated Storylines, smashing his own British record (created last week). Ex: To say Supt. Hastings looked nervous would be an understatement, particularly in scenes involving former love interest Gill Bigeloe For a start he added even more characters/cops that could yet turn out to be corrupt - the likes of: Police Crime Commissioner Rohan Sindwhani, his senior counsel Gill Bigeloe, Deputy Chief Constable Andrea Wise, and DS John Corbetts former Covert Ops Manager, Inspector Cameron. More importantly/confusingly, Mercurio expanded the scope of his storyline(s) further to include DCI Roz Huntley, her Federation rep DCI Mark Moffatt (now retired), and even the notorious villain-turned-informer assassinated while being escorted to a new safe house by Lindsay Denton all the way back at the start of Series 2. This unit used to be run by Tommy Hunter, Lisa McQueen told Corbett. Hunter got immunity, witness protection, the works. We still got to him. Thats what happens to a rat. Undercover: Corbett didnt know whether Hastings was H but he considered him one of the top brass who wanted his undercover operation stopped By the time Mercurio had joined the dots between McQueens colleague Lee Banks, Robert Denmoor, DCI Roz Huntley, PC Maneet Bindra, and ACC Hilton, D.I. Kate Fleming concluded: theres a proven association between Corbetts Organised Crime Gang and all the corrupt officers weve been investigating all these years. Steve Arnott had reminded the squad/the viewers that forensic evidence had linked Denmoor to OCG interference into an operation led by Roz Huntley. Unfortunately the fact that Denmoor had been shot dead by Ted Hastings meant the Superintendent was a link too. In on it? There were even more characters/cops that could yet turn out to be corrupt including Deputy Chief Constable Andrea Wise Corbett didnt know whether Hastings was H but he considered him one of the top brass who wanted his undercover operation stopped, pointing out to Steve Arnott that the Superintendent forced Maneet Bindra out, and killed the OCG operative Robert Denmoor unnecessarily. There were a dozen AFOs with weapons on him. Are you seriously telling me they couldnt have brought Denmoor in for questioning?! A good question neither Steve nor we had the answer to. Whether it was reassuring that Ted Hastings wasnt the only character who didnt know what was going on is another one. After all, if the likes of Steve Arnott, John Corbett, and the head of AC-12 couldnt follow the storyline, what chance did we have? Survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their families rallied in Melbourne, calling call on the federal government to change the national redress scheme. About 100 people gathered on the steps of Victorian parliament on Sunday chanting "make them pay" and calling for an overhaul to the $3.8 billion redress scheme. Lawyer and victims' advocate Judy Courtin, who organised the rally, said the scheme was "appalling". "Victims and survivors and their families are still having to fight what are very, very profound injustices," Dr Courtin told AAP at the rally. "The royal commission did an extraordinary job ... they did all the hard work and basically (the government) have thumbed their noses. "It is simply appalling, something has to shift very quickly." All of the recommendations of the royal commission into child sexual abuse in Australian institutions should be implemented, she said. But Dr Courtin called for the cap on redress to be lifted to up to $400,000, from the current $150,000 cap. "(The victims) have to be compensated because they don't cope in life. The institutions that caused this must be responsible," Dr Courtin said. The current assessment framework for determining claims used an artificial formula that re-traumatised survivors, she added. Chrissie Foster, a mother of two girls abused by a Catholic priest, agreed the redress scheme was flawed. "The two worst offenders, the Catholic Church and the government, have been in workshops together and changed the royal commission recommendations to save themselves money and screw the victims," she told AAP at the rally. About 60,000 survivors of child sexual abuse in Australian institutions are eligible under the scheme that began last July, but few are expected to get the maximum $150,000 compensation. Opposition leader Bill Shorten told reporters on Sunday he was open to improving the scheme, if elected. "I am prepared to try to improve the deal, what I wasn't prepared to hold up any deal whilst we sort for better arrangements," he told reporters at another event. "What I am not going to do is to tell the advocates and survivors that this current government properly implemented the royal commission because it didn't." A couple in South Australia has been charged with 17 offences for animal ill-treatment after ten dogs were seized by the RSPCA. The RSPCA alleged the dogs, seized from a property in the state's southeast in October last year, showed chronic behavioural issues and mental suffering. They were among almost 300 other dogs kept in small and overcrowded cages as part of a large-scale breeding operation, the RSPCA said in a statement on Sunday. The breeders, Colin Ross and Kerrie Fitzpatrick, were only permitted to have 100 dogs on the property, according to the RSPCA. They have been charged with ill-treatment of animals causing serious harm and failure to comply with animal welfare notices. The couple appealed to the Supreme Court on Friday for the return of the dogs but Justice Sam Doyle dismissed their application. All 10 of the seized dogs may be euthanised, with the RSPCA waiting on behavioural report results to determine the best course of action. A pre-trial conference for Ross and Fitzpatrick will be held in the Murray Bridge Magistrates Court in May. Prescription medications will be monitored across Victoria in real-time in less than 24 hours in a move to prevent doctor-shopping and save lives. Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told reporters on Sunday the $29.5 million system, ScriptSafe, will go online on Monday after a successful trial in western parts of the state. "Safescript will save lives, it will provide a way for doctors and pharmacists to have a conversation with patients who come in to fill their scripts, and to prevent doctor shopping ... which is putting people at harm of addiction and overdose," she said at a pharmacy in Melbourne. Today's Birthday, April 1: Former federal senator David Leyonhjelm (1952 - ) David Leyonhjelm has cut a swathe through Australian politics, armed with a liberal attitude and a controversial disdain for political correctness, but it wasn't enough to win him a coveted seat in the NSW Upper House. The Liberal Democrat spectacularly quit federal politics in March to contest the NSW election, on the heels of a year that saw him engulfed in controversy after he told Greens' Senator Sarah Hanson-Young to "stop shagging men" in parliament. But on election day he walked away empty-handed. Born in 1952, Leyonhjelm grew up on a dairy farm outside the Victorian town of Heywood. His family struggled financially and a young Leyonhjelm would trap rabbits for meat and later worked in town in a shoe shop. He once described his childhood as "relatively dysfunctional" to Fairfax. His father walked out when he was 15, making money even tighter, and his mother decided to move her family of four children to Dandenong, where she worked a series of low-paid jobs to support them. Leyonhjelm no longer talks to anyone in his family, save for his mother. He won a scholarship to study vet science at Melbourne University and kicked off the first of his politically charged moves by refusing to register for conscription in the Vietnam draft. After signing up as a member of Young Labor, where he first began his opposition to governments overstepping their boundaries, he headed overseas to work as a vet in Zimbabwe. It was there where he became committed to socialism. He returned to Australia in 1979 and worked for an animal pharmaceutical company before setting up a marketing business. Leyonhjelm also went on to join the Liberal Party (but resigned in the wake of John Howard's sweeping changes to gun laws), the Shooters Party (where he was eventually pushed out) and the Liberal Democrats - the party he now leads. Leyonhjelm has been with partner Amanda for the past 30 years, but they've never formally married in a refusal to require a piece of paper from the government to cement their "marriage". South Australia's peak employer body is calling on the state government to consider further payroll tax incentives in the June state budget. Business SA released a wish list from its 2019-20 pre-budget submissions. Seventeen priorities were identified. It includes further funding for the human service sector and implementing a gas efficiency program. Business SA's government engagement director Anthony Penney said new companies should be offered further incentives, while those existing be rewarded for remaining headquartered in SA. "This would be a symbolic step away from picking economic winners, by showing South Australia is a genuinely competitive place to do business," Mr Penney said. "It could mean more international businesses either settle here or large Australian companies move or stay here." He said businesses that employ science, technology, engineering and maths PhD graduates should be granted payroll incentives. "This is to increase collaboration between universities and business, with an exemption equivalent to 200 per cent of wages." Business SA also calls for a Gas Efficiency Program which provides assistance to reduce gas use and source viable alternatives. A state government-funded investigation to duplicate the Augusta Highway from Port Wakefield to Port Augusta was another suggestion. US President Donald Trump, here in July 2018 at NATO's Brussels headquarters, has questioned the value of the alliance Seventy years after it was formed to counter the Soviet Union, Russia has returned to the top of the agenda for NATO. But the alliance faces another, more unlikely problem -- criticism from the US president. The 29-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization is celebrating its 70th anniversary with talks among foreign ministers Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, where, in a Cold War redux, the resurgent power of Russia will be the chief item. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the ministers will work "to make sure that NATO is around for the next 70 years" and take aim at Russia over its 2014 takeover of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. Pompeo told a congressional hearing he was hopeful "we will be able to announce another series of actions that we will jointly take together to push back against what Russia is doing there in Crimea." But if countering Russia is a familiar role for NATO, its new internal dynamics are not, with President Donald Trump repeatedly suggesting that the allies are freeloaders. The businessman-turned-president, who berated allies at a NATO summit last year at the group's Brussels headquarters, is pressing member states to meet the alliance's goal set in 2014 of spending two percent of GDP on defense. Trump has even derisively asked whether it is worth defending small NATO states such as Montenegro. Pompeo said he will discuss spending and again pointed to Germany, which plans for defense spending well below two percent and declining by 2023. "When I talk to my counterparts, they will begin by saying, 'America needs to do X and Y because Russia poses a threat,'" Pompeo told a forum of the conservative National Review magazine. "Then you ask them 'Well, that's awesome. Tell me what you're prepared to do.' And they say, 'It's tough. Our voters just really don't like to spend money on defense," Pompeo said to laughter. - Lower-key anniversary - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg meets in Tblisi with Georgian soldiers who were injured during a peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan NATO leaders will hold an annual summit in December in London, but the 70th anniversary celebrations are notably low-key. It marks a stark contrast with the 50th anniversary in 1999, which rattled Russia and sealed off Washington streets in a way that locals still talk about. Heads of state visited Bill Clinton's White House, new members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland were inducted, and leaders plotted the next moves in NATO's bombing campaign in Serbia. This year foreign ministers will be speaking at The Anthem, a hip new music venue booked for the occasion. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will meet Trump Tuesday and deliver an address to Congress the following day. Derek Chollet, who managed US defense policy on NATO under former president Barack Obama, said he expected NATO members to present a "good news story" on the value of the alliance without the drama of a high-stakes summit. "But the concern is Trump. There is a sort of tangerine cloud hanging over all of this," said Chollet, executive vice president at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. "They are concerned that the founding member of the alliance has become the most unpredictable, and perhaps most unreliable." - Should NATO have outlived Cold War - Leftist activists rally outside the White House ahead of summit marking NATO's 70th anniversary While the populist right has stepped up attacks on NATO, the alliance has long been a bane for the left, which plans to be out in force to protest the anniversary. Peace groups plan marches around Washington and a counter-conference on alternatives to NATO. "NATO should have been retired rather than reprogrammed for domination in the 21st century," said Joseph Gerson, disarmament coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee, the Quakers' peace advocacy organization. He said that, even if one does not empathize with President Vladimir Putin, it should have been expected that Russia would be "snapping back" in response to NATO's expansion. "Just think how concerned the US is with a couple of Russian planes going to Venezuela," he said. "We also want people to understand that NATO has become a global alliance in ways that have very little to do with the defense of Europe," he said. Indeed, Trump recently proposed bringing Brazil into the alliance as he welcomed the country's new hard-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. Protesters are angry at NATO interventions beyond Europe such as Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan And NATO has been engaged in 17 years in the war in Afghanistan -- a mission unlikely to have been envisioned by NATO's first secretary general, Hastings Ismay, who famously said the alliance was designed to "keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down." Chollet said that recent years have shown that Russia remains the core threat for NATO, although he said the alliance could also increasingly discuss the challenges from a fast-growing China. "You ask yourself -- how many partners do Russia and China have that are willing to work with them and defend them in the spirit of all for one, one for all?" he said. "Despite its problems, NATO is a unique asset that has never really existed before in history and which the United States is lucky to have," he said. Byju's has become one of the world's largest online learning sites since it was founded in Bangalore in 2011 From a multi-billion-dollar education startup to wired-up mannequins, technology is helping to revolutionise the way Indian schoolchildren are learning -- provided their parents can afford it. A host of online platforms are taking advantage of a surge in smartphone ownership to engage millions of youngsters with interactive games and animated video lessons. India's education system suffers from a lack of investment, and the apps aid students who want extra tuition away from overcrowded classrooms and crumbling schools. Major foreign investors are ploughing funds into India's growing "edtech" industry as they seek to capitalise on the world's largest school-age population who face fierce competition for university places. "I have been using Byju's since last year and my performance has really improved. I understand mathematical concepts much better now," says 16-year-old Akshat Mugad referring to a Facebook-backed, Indian education app. Byju's has become one of the world's largest online learning sites since it was founded in Bangalore in 2011 and is currently embarking on an ambitious overseas expansion. It is just one of dozens of startups betting that kids are eager to learn differently from rote memorisation techniques that are used across much of Asia. Edtech platforms are also taking off in other Asian countries, notably China and Taiwan. "We wanted to make education fun," said Manish Dhooper, the founder of New Delhi-based Planet Spark, which uses "gamified" teaching methods. - Interactive - Garima Dhir enrolled her six-year-old boy into a Planet Spark programme to study maths and English because she wanted him to get used to using technology at a young age. "With interactive classes, my son is picking concepts without any stress and enjoying the process without fear of failure," she told AFP. Robomate, Toppr, Simplilearn, Meritnation and Edureka are others in the market. Use in school of an Amazon Echo device hidden in a mannequin is improving attendance rates, a teacher told AFP India has an estimated 270 million children aged between five and 17. Its online education sector is projected to be worth $2 billion to Asia's third-largest economy by 2021, according to research published by accounting group KPMG two years ago. With revenues heading for $200 million, Byju's says it has around 32 million users in India using its e-tutorials that feature animations, live classes and educational games to match India's school curriculum. It has raised more than $1 billion in funding since the beginning of last year, including from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, valuing the firm at around $5.4 billion. "We want to be the largest education company in the world," founder Byju Raveendran, 39, whose stake in Byju's is now thought to be worth almost $2 billion, told AFP. - 'Ask Alexa' - Analysts say technology has the power to transform education in India but note that at the moment it is largely the domain of middle-class families. A year-long subscription to Byju's can cost upwards of $150 for example, a small fortune for the majority of Indians. At a state-run school in Mumbai teacher Pooja Prashant Sankhe is using technology in a rather different way to change how her pupils engage with lessons. Byju's office in Bangalore. A year's subscription to the learning site can cost upwards of $150, a small fortune for most Indians The 45-year-old hides an Amazon Echo device in a shop window mannequin. When AFP visited children aged 11 approached and asked questions such as, "Alexa, how many states are there in India?". They also did sums and then asked Alexa for the answer to find out if they had done them correctly. The device plays the Indian national anthem at the start of the school day and healing music during meditation sessions. Indian media have carried reports of a teacher doing the same thing in another school in rural Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital. "The kids get really excited when they ask her questions," said Sankhe, 45. "Pupils are coming to school more regularly now because of Alexa," she added. Villagers in Fakaha in northern Ivory Coast say Picasso once visited the spot, leaving his mark on one of the locally produced cotton canvases "I'm sure! I tell you, he came. I saw him!" insists Soro Navaghi, keen to extinguish any doubts about Picasso's visit to a small Ivorian village famed for its painted textiles. Whether in tourist brochures or online, it is not unusual to find references to Picasso's reputed visit to Fakaha, a remote village in northern Ivory Coast, some 650 kilometres (400 miles) from Abidjan, the economic capital. French travel guide Petit Fute describes Fakaha as "internationally renowned" for its hand-spun cotton cloth which is painted by the Senufo people and that once "charmed a certain Picasso as he paid a discreet visit to the region at the turn of the century." A whole mythology has grown up around the question of Africa and Picasso, who never spoke of having been to Fakaha. For the artist who once provocatively brushed off the subject, saying: "Negro art? Don't know it" was also an ardent admirer and passionate collector of African art, who built up an impressive private collection. Highlighting the resemblance between African sculpture and some of Picasso's work, many art critics see the symbolism and imagery of Africa as one of his sources of inspiration. In tourist brochures or online, it is not unusual to find references to Picasso's reputed visit to Fakaha, but the artist never spoke of having been and there are no traces of it One often-cited example is the striking similarity between an African Grebo mask and one of the faces in his 1907 work "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon". "Whenever someone emphasised the influence of African art on the development of his own work, he would shrug his shoulders, annoyed at being reduced to that: although it is certain he was influenced by it from 1906 when he experienced his first (African) sculptures," says Gilles Plazy, one of his biographers. "Picasso used everything that came through his door and integrated it into the constant evolution of his artistic process," he told AFP. "He opened up new paths." - Out of the bush, barefoot - For the several hundred residents of Fakaha, there is no question about where the celebrated Andalusian artist and sculptor found his inspiration, after stumbling upon their village some 15 km from the main road to Korhogo. For decades, these local artists have been hard at work in open huts around a sandy track, where they can be found smearing earth-based pigments onto canvas. Fakaha has a tradition of producing hand-spun cotton cloth paintings Their dexterity is fascinating, their moves precise. Working with knives or sticks, they plunge their tools into the bowls of colour, quickly transforming the white cotton into a work of art covered with animal motifs and figures in masks. And there is an element of Picasso in it, with a definite similarity between his works and those of the artists of Fakaha. But is this just a random resemblance or creative coincidence? Or did Pablo Picasso actually see or even own one of the Fakaha canvases? "I tell you, he came here. He was inspired by us," repeats Soro Navaghi, aged in his 60s. Picasso apparently broke down while driving to Korhogo, but set off on foot and eventually turned up in the village "bare chested and without shoes", Navaghi says. The artist stayed there for several days and even gave the villagers some advice, they say. - A Picasso self-portrait? - "It was him who taught us to use sponges and toothbrushes to be quicker and more precise," says Silue Naganki, one of the artists who takes his inspiration from long-dead ancestors. "Before him, we never used the frames either. It was him who advised us to paint the frames." Ducking into his house, Soro Navaghi comes up with the "ultimate proof" -- a cotton canvas featuring Picasso himself. For the several hundred residents of Fakaha, there is no question about where the celebrated Andalusian artist and sculptor found his inspiration The fabric is covered with multiple motifs of a bald, white man, sometimes wearing shorts, sometimes in a grass skirt, who is variously clutching a pencil or paintbrush or even some twigs. A self-portrait by the master! Surely there can be no doubt, even for an amateur, that this is Picasso, proclaims Navaghi. Attached to the canvas is a self-declared certificate of authenticity signed by a travel agent who attests to having witnessed the visit. "Picasso came barefoot to Fakaha in 1968. He worked shirtless and without clothes," says the document, a copy of the original which is kept in the village archives for safekeeping. For biographer Plazy, the account would have delighted the eclectic painter, the idea of him visiting Fakaha "like a magician, and infusing the traditional local art with an invigorating breath of fresh air. "That is a fantastic tale which would have pleased him very much," he told AFP. "There were a lot of stories about Pablo Picasso, and since he had a sense of humour, he would sometimes pretend some of them were true." - End of his life - Picasso died in 1973 at the age of 91, and other villagers concede that his visit was probably earlier than 1968 given his age by then. Fakaha villagers plunge knives or sticks into bowls of colour to transform the white cotton into a work of art covered with animal motifs and figures in masks At that time, the world-renowned painter, in his mid-80s, would have walked 15 km through the bush, chancing upon a village with no electricity or running water and staying there several days. And all this passing under the radar... Even though Picasso continued working until his death, it certainly wasn't only at the end of his life that African influences appear in his works. But could he have been in Fakaha around the turn of the century, as travel guide Petit Fute suggests? If there is no trace of Picasso's visit, it is because he wanted it to be kept secret and not give away the fact that he had been inspired by Fakaha, a young villager says. - Picasso impersonator? - If he did make the journey, Picasso would have had to take a boat to Abidjan, then travel the remaining 1,000 km by road in scorching, dry conditions with little shade from the sun -- an adventure more suited to an explorer. Such an epic trip would have taken at least several months, and would likely have featured in one of his biographies. Even so, the story retains an element of mysterious intrigue. In a bid to seek expert input, AFP contacted the Picasso Museum in Paris, which declined to comment, then spoke with several of his biographers, who also refused to be pinned down. One theory put forward by residents of the city of Korhogo is that it was a false Picasso -- a man who clearly resembled the famed Spanish painter and fooled the villagers by pretending to be him. But that also raises a question: why? Firms are struggling to recruit - and retain - people with the expertise they need in highly polluted Asian cities like Beijing From smog breaks to pollution bonuses, Asia's businesses are promising increasingly inventive perks in a desperate bid to lure executives to a region where toxic air engulfs major cities for much of the year. Health concerns are putting off those initially attracted by Asia's growing economic opportunities, experts warn, so firms are struggling to recruit -- and retain -- people with the expertise they need. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, some 92 percent of people in the Asia-Pacific region are exposed to levels of air pollution that pose a significant risk to health. This means that on top of large salaries, businesses are having to offer extra incentives. These include paying for smog breaks every few months, or allowing non-traditional working arrangements so people can commute from less polluted areas, says Lee Quane, Asia director for consultancy ECA International. At "a location with a higher level of pollution, you're likely to see us recommend allowances of anywhere between 10 to 20 percent of the person's base salary," he says. This estimate, derived from a rating system his firm uses to help companies decide appropriate financial compensation for relocation, would also incorporate factors such as crime rates and access to services, he adds. Other provisions employees could expect for moving to a highly polluted area include better insulated apartments, air purifiers for home and office, breathing masks, and regular medical check-ups. "If you look at the cost associated with even those smaller things... youre probably looking at a minimum cost, on an annual basis, of maybe US$5,000 to $10,000 a year," Quane said, with location allowances an additional expense. - Lower calibre employees - In 2014, Panasonic confirmed that it offered a "pollution premium" for those working for the company in China, while media reports revealed Coca Cola was offering an environmental hardship allowance of around 15 percent for employees moving there. China has since taken measures to improve its air quality, but Beijing -- along with other key urban centres in South Asia including New Delhi -- routinely exceeds World Health Organisation safe limits for air pollution. As a result, these places are seeing a "reduction in calibre" of employees, Quane warns, arguing that firms are forced to opt for people who are less qualified. Patrick Behar-Courtois, who ran an organisational behaviour consulting firm in Shanghai for more than a decade, agrees. He says "generous financial offers" were not enough to offset the pollution concerns of the highly skilled people he wanted to recruit. India has one of the world's fastest growing economies, but it is also home to seven of the most polluted cities "I basically had to revise my hiring policies and look for people locally, so obviously it means that I got profiles that were less experienced and I had to spend more time training them," he says. Executives with families are often unwilling to put their children's health at risk however attractive the job offer. World Health Organisation experts have repeatedly warned the very young are particularly vulnerable to air pollution and could face a lifetime of illness because of it. Eddy Tiftik built his career in China and held a senior position at one of the world's largest real-estate developers, but felt he had to leave for his family's wellbeing. His then-five-year-old son was constantly unwell with asthma because of Beijing's very high levels of pollution. "He literally would spend three weeks out of a month going back and forth from the hospital," Tiftik tells AFP. - Children at risk - India has one of the world's fastest growing economies, making it an appealing career option, but it is also home to seven of the most polluted cities, according to a recent report by Greenpeace and IQ Air Visual. "All senior executives want to have India experience on their CVs. There is however, a fear of pollution related health issues," says Atul Vohra, managing partner of Transearch, a global recruitment firm. Such concerns are not just an issue for expats, he says, adding that Indians are also turning down work in areas of the country with severe smog. A smoggy day in Beijing. Executives with families are often unwilling to put their children's health at risk for a job. For many the rewards are simply not worth the risks. Behar-Courtois recently left Shanghai, which has seen its air quality deteriorate in the past few years, after his wife developed thyroid issues he believes are linked to the smog. "In the last three to five years, I've seen a lot of people, especially with kids, who basically chose to put an end to their career here and move," he reveals. He now works as a professor in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, where the air is cleaner. Tiftik says his son's symptoms abruptly stopped after the family moved to Bangkok, which has air quality problems of its own, but are fall less severe than Beijing. He would consider leaving the continent altogether if pollution worsens, he says, even though his Mandarin skills give him an edge in the Asian market. He adds: "Although my career is very important, my familys health is more important." As millions of people in Asia choke under polluted skies, authorities have turned to water-dispersing drones and outdoor air purifiers to improve air quality, while companies have tried to cash in by selling everything from canned air to purifying teas. As billions of people in Asia choke under polluted skies, authorities have turned to water-dispersing drones and outdoor air purifiers to improve air quality, while companies have tried to cash in by selling everything from canned air to lung-purifying teas. Around 92 percent of the population in the Asia Pacific region are exposed to levels of air pollution that pose a significant risk to their health, according to UN Environment. Here is a look at some of the ways those living under the haze try to limit its effects. - Spraying water - As public anger rises over toxic air, authorities have turned to spraying water, which is thought to stick to pollutants and carry them to the ground. But tools such as water cannons have been criticised as having little effect and being a "band-aid" solution that distracts from root causes. New Delhi -- the world's most polluted major city -- tried in 2017 to use helicopters to sprinkle water over the city, but the choppers were not able to fly due to low visibility caused by smog. In Bangkok, the government tried a raft of measures to combat a murky haze that blanketed the city for weeks in January, including spraying overpasses with water, cloud seeding and even deploying a fleet of water-dispersing drones. Cloud-seeding is used to stimulate rain by injecting chemicals into clouds using rockets, cannons or aircraft, but the technique is not always successful. An attempt by South Korea to create artificial rain to tackle air pollution in January failed, after an aircraft sent to seed clouds with silver iodide only produced several minutes of misty rain. - Outdoor air purifiers - The northern Chinese city of Xian is experimenting with a giant air purifier the size of an industrial smokestack which can reduce PM2.5 concentration by 15 percent within 10 square kilometres, according to researchers. Hong Kong this year opened a 3.7km tunnel equipped with an air purification system touted as the largest of its kind in the world in terms of volume of air handled - 5.4 million cubic metres of vehicle exhaust every hour. The government says it will be able to remove at least 80 percent of harmful particulates and nitrogen dioxide using large fans which suck exhaust into air purification plants in three ventilation buildings along the tunnel. New Delhi last year announced a plan to install huge air purifiers at traffic intersections and mount air filters on the roofs of buses that trap pollutants as they move, according to Hindustan Times. - 'Smog refugees' - During particularly bad spates of air pollution, which tend to come during the winter, many residents in smoggy Chinese cities escape to cleaner places, such as resorts in the south of the country, for a temporary break and return after it has cleared. Ctrip, Chinas largest online travel agent, estimated in 2016 that every year, over a million residents of smoggy cities such as Beijing and Shanghai leave the country to escape the smog. Popular destinations for these so-called "smog refugees" include places such as Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Some even travel to Antarctica on "lung-cleansing trips," according to Ctrip. - Commercial remedies - Although experts say residents in smoggy cities are unlikely to see health effects from breathing bottled air, that hasnt stopped entrepreneurs from selling them canisters of the stuff from New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Switzerland. For about US$22, consumers can order an 8 litre can of Banff Air from the popular tourist spot in Canada, or pay US$125 for a jar of air from the British countryside. In China, "anti-smog" teas are promoted by vendors as a way to clean the lungs, while Mongolian residents drink "oxygen cocktails" - made by spraying oxygen into glasses of juice using machines or cans of air. Advertisements boast that "drinking just one oxygen cocktail is equal to a three-hour-walk in a lush forest", despite no scientific evidence they protect from pollution. Ulaanbaatar's toxic pollution presents huge risks to children, including stunted development, chronic illness, and in some cases death In the world's coldest capital, many burn coal and plastic just to survive temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees -- but warmth comes at a price: deadly pollution makes Ulaanbataar's air too toxic for children to breathe, leaving parents little choice but to evacuate them to the countryside. This exodus is a stark warning of the future for urban areas in much of Asia, where scenes of citizens in anti-pollution masks against a backdrop of brown skies are becoming routine, rather than apocalyptic. Ulaanbaatar is one of the most polluted cities on the planet, alongside New Delhi, Dhaka, Kabul, and Beijing. It regularly exceeds World Health Organisation recommendations for air quality even as experts warn of disastrous consequences, particularly for children, including stunted development, chronic illness, and in some cases death. Erdene-Bat Naranchimeg watched helplessly as her daughter Amina battled illness virtually from birth, her immune system handicapped by the smog-choked air in Mongolia's capital. Pollution in Ulaanbataar is so bad that parents have little choice but to evacuate their children to the countryside "We would constantly be in and out of the hospital," Naranchimeg told AFP, adding that Amina contracted pneumonia twice at the age of two, requiring several rounds of antibiotics. This is not a unique case in a city where winter temperatures plunge towards uninhabitable, particularly in the districts that rural workers moved to in search of a better life. Here row upon row of the traditional tents -- known as gers -- are warmed by coal, or any other flammable material available. The resulting thick black smoke shoots out in plumes, blanketing surrounding areas in a film of smog that makes visibility so poor it can be hard to see even a few metres ahead. Hospitals are packed and young children are vulnerable, common colds can quickly escalate into life-threatening illness. - Birth defects - The situation was so bad that doctors told Naranchimeg the only solution was to send her little girl to the clean air of the countryside. Now aged five, Amina is thriving. She lives with her grandparents in Bornuur Sum, a village 135 kilometres away from the capital. "She hasn't been sick since she started living here," said Naranchimeg, who makes the three-hour round trip to see Amina every week. "It was very difficult in the first few months," she said. "We used to cry when we talked on the phone." Five-year-old Amina was sent to the countryside to live with her grandparents, after doctors warned the toxic air in the Mongolian capital was making her sick But like many parents in Ulaanbaatar, she felt the move was the only way to protect her child. The levels of PM2.5 -- tiny and harmful particles -- in Ulaanbaatar reached 3,320 in January, 133 times what the World Health Organisation (WHO) considers safe. The effects are terrible for adults but children are even more at risk, in part because they breathe faster, taking in more air and pollutants. As they are smaller, children are also closer to the ground, where some pollutants concentrate, and their still-developing lungs, brains, and other key organs are more vulnerable to damage. Effects to prolonged exposure range from persistent infections and asthma to slowed lung and brain development. The risks apply in utero, too, because gases and fine particles can enter a mother's bloodstream and placenta, causing miscarriage, birth defects and low birth weights, which can also affect a child for the rest of their lives. Researchers are now investigating whether pollution, like exposure to tobacco smoke, has health effects that could even be passed down to the next generation. - 'Terribly afraid' - Buyan-Ulzii Badamkhand and her husband need to stay in the capital for work, but they have decided to send their two-year-old son Temuulen more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away. The 35-year-old mother-of-three struggled with the decision, even moving from one ger district to another in the hope her son's health would improve. But successive bouts of illness, including bronchitis that lasted a whole year, finally convinced her to send Temuulen to his grandparents. Hours after he arrived, she called her mother-in-law to discuss her son's medicines. "But my mother-in-law asked me 'does he still need medicine? He isn't coughing anymore," she said. Ulaanbataar air pollution "I tell myself that it doesn't matter that I miss him and who raises him, as long as he is healthy, I am content." Respiratory problems are the most obvious effect of air pollution, but research suggests dirty air can also put children at greater risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life. And the WHO links it to leukaemia and behavioural disorders. When air pollution peaks in winter, Ulaanbaatar's playgrounds empty and those who are able to are increasingly travelling abroad to wait out the smog. In desperation, Luvsangombo Chinchuluun, a civil society activist, borrowed money to take her granddaughter to Thailand for all of January. "We can't let her play outside (in Ulaanbaatar) because of the air pollution, so we decided to leave," she said. The persistent smog has caused tensions in the city, with those living in wealthier areas blaming the ger residents for the pollution and even calling for the tent districts to be cleared. But the ger residents say coal is all they can afford. "People come to the capital because they need sustainable income," said Dorjdagva Adiyasuren, a 54-year-old mother of six. "It's not their fault," she added. In a bid to tackle the problem, the local government banned domestic migration in 2017, and a ban on burning coal comes into force from May. But it is unclear whether the moves will be enough to make a difference. For Naranchimeg, the problems are serious enough to make her consider whether she wants more children. She explained: "Now, I am terribly afraid of to give birth again. It is risky to carry a child and what will happen to the child after it is born in this amount of pollution?" Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office following the resignation of his predecessor Hailemariam Desalegn, after more than two years of anti-government protests In his first speech as Ethiopian prime minister last April, Abiy Ahmed called for an end to the repressive, exclusionary governance that had plunged the country into turmoil. It was a promise on which he is seen to have delivered dramatically, earning him both international acclaim and domestic popularity so great that his keenest supporters say he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. "Before Abiy came, our fear was that Ethiopia would descend into civil war," said Hassen Hussein, a top official in the Oromo Democratic Front, one of the many banned groups welcomed back from exile. Yet the new prime minister's first year in office has also been marked by a surge in ethnic violence that has forced 1.8 million people out of their homes. While Abiy has remade the public face of the ruling omnipotent Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), diplomats and politicians say politics remains very much as usual at the local level. "Many people, especially at the grassroots level, are asking, where is the change?" said Merera Gudina, a top opposition politician. "Both the depth and pace of change... people are really doubting." As Abiy enters his second year in office, he faces a new challenge: keeping his promise to make 2020 elections free and fair despite rising political violence. Abiy, who was sworn into power on April 2, 2018, took office following the resignation of his predecessor Hailemariam Desalegn, after more than two years of anti-government protests and growing discord within the EPRDF. - Negotiating with opposition - A former science minister, Abiy comes from the Oromo people, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group. He rose up through the military and intelligence services, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. The 42-year-old won over Ethiopians with his rapid, dramatic reforms, often delivered with a personal touch. He met publicly with newly-freed political prisoners and held repeated meetings with old foe Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki to negotiate a July 2018 agreement re-establishing relations following a bloody 1998-2000 border war. "For the first time in the country's history, he is negotiating with the opposition," said Merera, who was jailed under Hailemariam, then released on the eve of his resignation. But Merera worries whether the four parties that make up the EPRDF -- and especially the old guard from the Tigrayan minority that dominated the coalition until Abiy's rise -- really support him. "We are not sure the degree to which the EPRDF is committed," he said. At the local level, politics has changed little. "The ruling party is the ruling party; the cadres are the same, the service delivery is the same," Merera said. Those who have met the prime minister worry over his tendency to show off his accomplishments while revealing little about his plans to tackle the country's challenges. - 'One-man show' - Abiy made headlines last October by appointing a cabinet in which half the ministers were women. But critics say he has taken power into his own hands and sidelined government ministries. "It's a one-man show... it's not a functional government," one foreign diplomat told AFP, adding that among embassies, "a few eyebrows are now rising." Shortly after Abiy took office, a long-running dispute over land in southern Ethiopia's West Guji and Gedeo zones erupted into ethnic fighting that forced nearly a million people from their homes. Such violence continued through Abiy's first year. Last September at least 58 people, mostly from minority ethnic groups, were killed on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, while aid groups said in December that ethnic violence in western Ethiopia had displaced 250,000 people. Analysts have blamed rising violence on a slackening of the tight control the EPRDF once maintained on regional security forces and administration. Abiy has touted his moves to improve media freedom -- following in the footsteps of Hailemariam, who released several prominent jailed journalists -- but instability threatens this progress. Elias Kifle, who heads the online news outlet Mereja, believes Oromo police officers sanctioned the February mob beating two of his journalists in the town of Legetafo. "I considered it not only an attack on the media, but on the reform," he said, adding that he does not blame the prime minister for the assault. In a sign of the country's apparent precariousness, officials in March postponed a national census, which was seen as a precursor to next year's vote. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't," Hassen said of the elections. "With the level of polarisation that exists now, I'm not sure an election would do any good for Ethiopia and Ethiopians." A group of armed men burst into Pyongyang's Spanish embassy last month and roughed up employees before fleeing with documents and computers North Korea on Sunday described the February raid on its embassy in Madrid by a dissident group as a "grave terrorist attack" and urged an investigation into the perpetrators. A group of armed men burst into Pyongyang's Spanish embassy last month and roughed up employees before fleeing with documents and computers. The incident came just days before a high-stakes nuclear summit in Hanoi between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump that ultimately failed to reach an accord. In its first official comment on the raid, North Korea suggested the possible involvement of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and called on Spanish authorities to bring the "terrorists and their wire-pullers to justice". "A grave terrorist attack occurred on February 22, where an armed group assaulted the DPRK Embassy in Spain," a spokesman for the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, using the acronym for the North's official name. "We are following the rumours of all hues now in the air that FBI of the United States and the small fry of anti-DPRK 'body' were involved in the terror incident," it added. "We expect that the authorities concerned in Spain... carry out an investigation into the incident to the last in a responsible manner." An investigation into the raid is already underway in Madrid. On Wednesday, a Spanish court named Mexican national Adrian Hong Chang as leader of the group who contacted "the FBI in New York five days after the assault" with information related to the incident in the embassy. According to investigating judge Jose de la Mata, two of the assailants took the embassy's commercial attache to an underground room and urged him to defect, which he refused to do. - Dissident group - Speculation over the identity and motive of the assailants has swirled in the media since the murky raid, with some suggesting links to the US Central Intelligence Agency and FBI. Speculation over the identity and motive of the assailants has swirled since the murky raid Hours after the court statement, the Cheollima Civil Defense (CCD) -- a dissident group believed to include high-profile North Korean defectors -- claimed responsibility for the raid. It said the raid had no links to the Hanoi summit -- which ended abruptly with no agreement -- and that no other governments were involved until after the event. "The organization shared certain information of enormous potential value with the FBI in the United States, under mutually agreed terms of confidentiality," the CCD said in a statement posted on its website last week. Reports of the alleged ties between the intruders and the FBI appeared to have prompted Pyongyang to break its silence after more than a month, said Thae Yong Ho, a former North Korean diplomat who defected in 2016. "The fact that North Korea's reaction comes 37 days after the incident shows it put a lot of consideration into the official statement," Thae wrote on his website. He added that the North was pressuring Spanish authorities to confirm the identity of the group responsible for the raid. The CCD -- which offers to assist people attempting to defect from North Korea -- emerged in 2017 when it posted an online video of the son of the North Korean leader's assassinated brother, saying it had guaranteed his safety. Last month the group declared itself a government-in-exile for the North called "Free Joseon", using an old name for Korea. The CCD has identified itself as a group of defectors around the world but it is still unclear who is behind the shadowy organisation -- although some speculate it has links to South Korea's spy agency. Growth was likely driven by seasonal factors as factories ramped up production after February's Lunar New Year holidays China's manufacturing sector ended its four-month downward trend in March, official data showed Sunday, but exports continued their long slide in the wake of the Washington-Beijing trade war. The official Purchasing Managers' Index, a measure of factory activity, rose to 50.5 in March from the previous month's contraction and three-year low of 49.2. The growth was likely driven by seasonal factors as factories ramped up production after February's Lunar New Year holidays. Some steel mills and coal power plants also increased output as winter smog restrictions end. Factory output also grew at its fastest pace in six months in March, China's National Bureau of Statistics reported, but export orders shrank for the 10th straight month amid slowing global growth and as collateral damage in the trade spat the United States. Over the last eight months, Washington and Beijing have slapped tariffs on more than $360 billion in two-way goods trade, weighing on the manufacturing sectors in both countries. US and Chinese negotiators wrapped up trade talks in Beijing on Friday ahead of another round next week, when China's economic tsar Liu He will head to Washington to continue discussions on a possible deal. China has announced a raft of stimulus measures to cushion the impact from it's cooling economy. Earlier this month, Premier Li Keqiang announced more spending on roads, railways and other big-ticket infrastructure projects, along with tax cuts worth 2 trillion yuan ($297.27 billion) to ease pressure on companies and spur employment. China announced a lower growth target of 6.0 to 6.5 percent this year, down from 6.6 percent growth in 2018. Guards are instructed to confiscate unusually valuable items and mobile phones from those in the camp Clashes with guards, violent factional quarrels and a new strain of ultra-extremism -- the Islamic State group's territorial "caliphate" may be defeated, but a camp in eastern Syria is emerging as a fresh jihadist powder keg. Dislodged in a final offensive by a Kurdish-led ground force and coalition air strikes, thousands of wives and children of IS fighters have flooded in from a string of Syrian villages south of the camp in recent months. Among the hordes of Syrians and Iraqis, some 9,000 foreigners are held in a fenced section of the encampment, under the watch of Kurdish forces. When they want to go to the camp's market or receive aid rations, these high-risk prisoners are escorted by armed guards. But tensions are rife among the foreigners themselves. "We don't have the same mentality -- they (the extremists) want to impose their vision of Islam," said Vanessa, who came to Syria from her native Guyana as a convert in 2013 with her husband and children. "They say that we are infidels," the gangly 36-year-old said, singling out the camp's Tunisians as especially "extreme". The semi-autonomous Kurdish administration that rules much of northeastern Syria is urging countries of origin to take back their citizens. The women and children need to be "re-educated and reintegrated by their home countries," said Kurdish official Abdel Karm Omar. Otherwise, he warned, they will become "the terrorists of the future". - 'These people scare me' - Under IS's so-called caliphate -- declared in 2014 over large swaths of Syria and neighbouring Iraq -- minors were systematically indoctrinated and even exposed to public executions. In a gesture of continued loyalty to IS, some children at the camp -- a few grinning, others staring coldly -- pointed their index finger to the sky in front of AFP reporters. Tens of thousands of people are held in Al-Hol camp One woman threatened to hit a cameraman, but others -- anxious to return home and declaring they regret joining IS -- were keen to talk. Some of the Tunisians and Russians interned at Al-Hol have adopted "very extreme beliefs", confided a Belgian woman who came to Syria in 2013. "These people scare me", she said. Even just "talking to the guards, or requesting to go to the market, can make us infidels" in their eyes, she added. Once someone is labelled a non-believer, these women decree it lawful to strip the person of their belongings, the Belgian said. "They can burn our tents and do whatever they want to us." But tensions are not limited to the foreigners' section. Everything from nappies to potatoes are on sale at the Al-Hol market A few days ago, a confrontation escalated in the main area, populated by Iraqis and Syrians. Kurdish police were forced to intervene. Some of the residents "threw stones" at their fellow residents, a policeman told AFP, without giving his name. Nabil al-Hassan, who heads the camp's communications, insisted the "security situation is under control". But, he admitted, major logistical challenges give rise to "problems", including tensions over access to tents and aid. - 'It's not mine' - Heavily pregnant Lamia, 21, told AFP she is steadfast in her loyalty to the IS cause. "We remain with the (Islamic) State," said the former resident of Manbij, a northern Syrian town that was occupied by the jihadists until the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces prevailed. Lamia wants to go back to her hometown and has been at the camp for a month; her first husband was killed in combat, the second is in prison. Back at the entrance to the foreigners' area, several women including Algerians and Ukrainians gathered at the gate, insisting it was their turn to go to market. Blonde children and those from central Asia mingled in the dust. The women returned from the market hauling trolleys full of eggs, potatoes, nappies, and gas cylinders. Among the hordes of Syrians and Iraqis, some 9,000 foreigners are held in a fenced section of the encampment, under the watch of Kurdish forces Everything is meticulously searched by the guards, who are instructed to confiscate, log and store unusually valuable items and mobile phones. These "security measures" are needed to stop residents stealing from each other -- and from smuggling goods or cultivating contacts in the outside world -- Hassan said. Delving through a black handbag, the guards retrieved a phone and small piece of paper with a contact number scrawled on it. "It's not mine, it belongs to my friend," the Tunisian owner insisted. A little later, in another bag, the guards dug out a ring and a hefty gold chain, carefully hidden in a tiny plastic bag. The dismayed owner gripped the sentinel's hands in an attempt to prise back the items, to no avail. "She's not coming back inside. Take her to the cell," the guard said. The woman clung to the wire fence and wailed. Authorities have said the FR Tower, the site of the blazing inferno Thursday, had been extended illegally and lacked adequate fire safety measures Police in Bangladesh said Sunday they had arrested the owners of an office tower in Dhaka that caught fire earlier this week, killing 26 people and renewing the country's debate over lax safety standards. The latest deadly blaze to hit Bangladesh's congested capital tore through the 22-storey FR Tower on Thursday, leaving some of the hundreds trapped inside screaming for help as horrified onlookers massed outside. Police said they had detained two men, S.M.H.I. Faruque and Tasvir Ul Islam -- who is district leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) -- in the capital, after filing charges against them for criminal negligence. "We arrested Faruque just after midnight. He is the 45 percent owner of the building. He also owns the land on which the building was constructed," deputy commissioner Mashiur Rahman told AFP. Senior police official Shahjahan Saju told AFP that Islam, who contested the parliamentary election in December and lost, was arrested at 11pm (1700 GMT) Saturday over allegations he owns part of the FR building -- which authorities have said was extended illegally and lacked adequate fire safety measures. Police said they were also looking for the owner of the construction firm which built the tower in the 1990s. Some of those stuck inside the burning building, in the upmarket Banani commercial district, made it to safety by sliding down cables on the side of the building, but others took their chances and jumped in a bid to escape the smoke and heat. Six people leaped to their deaths. Firefighters backed by military specialists -- some in helicopters -- tackled the flames, lowering ropes to help people escape, while rescuers on long ladders smashed through windows. The arrests came as a senior minister called the fire an act of murder amid growing public clamour for better building safety standards. "Definitely this is murder. It is not an accident... Nobody will escape the law," housing and public works minister Rezaul Karim told reporters on Friday. Authorities have ordered an investigation into safety measures at the tower. Fire officials said the blaze-hit building lacked fire exits and sprinklers, while access to its emergency staircase was padlocked. The city's housing authority later said five upper floors in the building were illegally added without official permission. According to a 2012 study by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, most high-rise buildings in 15-million-strong Dhaka have inadequate fire safety measures. Experts said inspections of buildings in the city frequently found fire stairs blocked with stored goods and exit doors locked. Deadly industrial accidents are common in China, where safety regulations are often poorly enforced An explosion at a electronics component manufacturer in east China on Sunday killed seven and injured five others, local authorities said. The blast happened when a container for storing scrap metal burst into flames outside a factory in an export processing zone in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, the local government said on its official WeChat social media account. "The cause of the accident outside Kunshan Waffer Technology Corp. Ltd. is still under investigation," the statement said. The fire from the storage unit spread to a nearby factory workshop, it added, while one of the five people injured was in a critical condition. The incident comes barely a week after one of China's worst recent industrial accidents, in which an explosion at a chemical plant in the same province killed 78 people and injured hundreds. The powerful explosion in the eastern city of Yancheng toppled several buildings in the industrial park, blew out windows of nearby homes and even dented metal garage doors. It prompted the State Council, China's cabinet, to order a nationwide inspection of chemical firms including risk assessments to identify safety hazards. Deadly industrial accidents are common in China, where safety regulations are often poorly enforced. In November, a gas leak at a plant in the northern Chinese city of Zhangjiakou, which will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, killed 24 people and injured 21 others. Leaked chloroethylene came in contact with a fire source causing the explosion, authorities said in a February report, which also claimed the Chinese chemical firm responsible for the accident had concealed information and misled investigators. And in 2015, China saw one of its worst industrial accidents when giant chemical blasts in the northern port city of Tianjin killed at least 165 people. The Erez crossing for people (pictured) and the Kerem Shalom crossing for goods reopened Sunday morning, an official told AFP Israel reopened its crossings with the Gaza Strip on Sunday after having kept them closed for nearly a week following a rare long-distance rocket strike from the Palestinian enclave, an official said. The Erez crossing for people and the Kerem Shalom crossing for goods reopened Sunday morning, a spokeswoman for COGAT, the defence ministry unit that oversees the crossings, told AFP. They were closed on Monday after the rocket fire that wounded seven Israelis and led to Israeli retaliatory strikes. The reopening comes after tens of thousands of Palestinians protested along the Gaza border with Israel on Saturday, to mark the one-year anniversary since demonstrations and clashes erupted there. Four Palestinians were killed on Saturday during protests and clashes, but unrest was limited and fears of mass bloodshed were averted after Egyptian-led negotiations. Five rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip at Israel overnight, leading Israeli tanks to fire on Hamas military posts. No casualties were reported from either the rockets or tank fire. Hamas officials say an understanding was reached that would see Israel ease its crippling blockade of Gaza in exchange for the protests remaining calm. Israel, which has fought three wars with Hamas since 2008, has not commented on the claims of an agreement. Israel goes to the polls in a keenly contested general election on April 9 in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a stiff challenge from centrist former military chief Benny Gantz. He is widely seen as wanting to avoid a major escalation before the polls, but has faced accusations from political opponents of being soft on Hamas. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (L) was greeted on arrival in Israel by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro arrived in Israel on Sunday just ahead of the country's polls in which his ally Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a tough re-election fight. Bolsonaro was welcomed by Netanyahu and an official ceremony at the airport near Tel Aviv. He will walk a diplomatic tightrope during the three-day visit as he seeks to shore up ties with Netanyahu while avoiding angering key Arab trade partners. Bolsonaro's controversial pledge to move Brazil's embassy to Jerusalem is expected to be high on the agenda, as Netanyahu uses the occasion to boost his standing ahead of April 9 elections. Months after promising the shift, which sparked an angry response from Palestinian leaders, Bolsonaro has yet to announce a timetable. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Bolsonaro suggested he was in no hurry to make a decision. "Trump took nine months to decide, to give his final word, so that the embassy was transferred," Bolsonaro said. "Perhaps now we will open a commercial office in Jerusalem." While moving the embassy would please Bolsonaro's evangelical Christian support base, it would run the risk of provoking commercial retaliation from Arab states, some of which are major importers of Brazilian meat. Netanyahu became the first Israeli prime minister to visit Brazil when he travelled there for Bolsonaro's January 1 inauguration. In their discussions then, the two right-wingers talked up their budding "brotherhood" which they said would boost military, economic, technological and agricultural cooperation. Netanyahu is facing a tough challenge from centrist former military chief Benny Gantz in Israel's elections and is also under threat of indictment on corruption allegations. Myanmar is believed to be the world's biggest producer of low-grade crystal meth tablets, known as "yaba" Bangladesh security forces have shot dead a Rohingya woman in a border town known as a gateway for smuggling meth pills from neighbouring Myanmar, officials said Sunday. Rights activists said Rumana Akter, 20, was the first Rohingya woman to be killed in a clampdown by Bangladesh authorities against the narcotics trade. She was one of three alleged smugglers killed in two separate incidents in Teknaf, which is close to refugee camps housing about one million Muslim Rohingya who have fled from Myanmar. Teknaf is a hub for dealing in "yaba" -- a methamphetamine-based stimulant that translates in Thai as "crazy medicine" -- which has become popular in Bangladesh. More than 300 people -- including nearly 20 Rohingya -- have been killed in the clampdown launched in May last year. Impoverished Rohingya refugees are used by dealers to transport the drug from Myanmar, officials say. A military crackdown against the Rohingya in August 2017 sparked an exodus of 740,000 refugees to flee the country and join some 300,000 refugees already in camps in Bangladesh. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said the Rohingya woman was killed during a gunfight between security forces and armed smugglers on the Naf river, which acts as a border between Bangladesh and Myanmar. BGB spokesman Shariful Islam told reporters the woman's body was found after a 15-minute gunbattle "along with 10,000 pieces of yaba and three sharp knives in her bag". Akter came from a refugee camp in Teknaf. Rights activists questioned the death, saying the woman's name was not on a list of known drug traders kept by Bangladeshi law agencies. Two alleged drug traders were killed by police in a separate incident in Teknaf late Saturday. Police said 10,000 pieces of yaba, six guns and 18 rounds of ammunition were found. As part of clampdown Bangladesh authorities in October made yaba a class-A banned substance and parliament passed a law allowing the death penalty for dealing in the drug. The Erez crossing for people (pictured) and the Kerem Shalom crossing for goods reopened Sunday morning, an official told AFP Israel reopened its crossings with the blockaded Gaza Strip on Sunday after having kept them closed for nearly a week following a rare long-distance rocket strike from the Palestinian enclave, an official said. The Erez crossing for people and the Kerem Shalom crossing for goods reopened Sunday morning, a spokeswoman for COGAT, the defence ministry unit that oversees the crossings, told AFP. They were closed on Monday after the rocket fire that wounded seven Israelis and led to Israeli retaliatory strikes across the Gaza Strip, another serious flare-up between the two sides. Hamas announced an Egyptian-brokered truce that ended the exchange of fire. The reopening also comes after tens of thousands of Palestinians protested along the Gaza border with Israel on Saturday, marking the one-year anniversary since demonstrations and clashes erupted there. Four Palestinians were killed on Saturday during protests and clashes, but unrest was limited and fears of mass bloodshed were averted after Egyptian-led negotiations. Five rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip at Israel overnight, leading Israeli tanks to fire on Hamas military posts. No casualties were reported from either the rockets or tank fire. Hamas officials say an understanding was reached that would see Israel ease its crippling blockade of Gaza in exchange for the protests remaining calm. Israel, which has fought three wars with Hamas since 2008, has not commented on the claims of an agreement. - Year of protests - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) greets Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the airport near Tel Aviv Israel goes to the polls in a keenly contested general election on April 9 in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a stiff challenge from centrist former military chief Benny Gantz. He is widely seen as wanting to avoid a major escalation before the polls, but has faced accusations from political opponents of being soft on Hamas. On Sunday, while welcoming Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for a three-day visit, Netanyahu again said Israel was prepared for a major operation in the Gaza Strip if necessary. "You arrive in Israel in a tense period, and so I gave the order to leave military forces in full deployment around the Gaza Strip," Netanyahu said during a ceremony at the airport. "This includes tanks, artillery, ground forces and air forces. We are prepared for every scenario, and if needed, also for a wide campaign." The year of demonstrations and clashes along the Gaza border are calling for Palestinians to be allowed to return to land their families fled or were expelled from during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation. Israel says any such mass return would spell the end of a Jewish state and that its actions have been necessary to defend the border and stop infiltrations and attacks. Around 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire during the protests and clashes. Israel accuses Hamas of orchestrating violence, and one of its soldiers has been killed by a Palestinian sniper along the border. But the Israeli military's use of live fire has come under heavy criticism. In February, a United Nations probe said Israeli soldiers had intentionally fired on civilians in what could constitute war crimes. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has cancelled peace talks with the communist rebels and ordered troops to "destroy" them Rights groups on Sunday condemned what they called a "massacre" of 14 farmers by police in the central Philippines as authorities defended the incident as a legitimate operation against suspected communist rebels. Police say the 14 men on Saturday shot at officers with search warrants for illegal firearms, prompting them to return fire. But rights groups insist the men were "farmers asserting their rights to land", the latest victims caught up in a violent crackdown under President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte's government has cancelled peace talks with communist rebels -- who are waging a 50-year-old insurgency that has killed thousands -- and has ordered his troops to "destroy" them. The latest violence occurred in three separate incidents in Negros island, the centre of the nation's sugar industry and home to some of the country's wealthiest landowners as well as some of its poorest farm workers. Authorities say the operation was a response to communist rebel attacks in Negros, adding one policeman was wounded. "They fought back against our operating units. We were forced to fire back. Some of (the 14 men) are farmers but we cannot confirm how many," provincial police spokesman Edilberto Euraoba told AFP. Police arrested another 12 men while they recovered various firearms from those killed, Euraoba added. However rights and peasant groups said the 14 men killed on Saturday were farmers, some elderly, citing witness accounts contradicting the police's statement. "They were defenceless. It's clear that it was a massacre. They are tagged as members and sympathisers (of communist rebels) but they are farmers asserting their rights to land," Maria Sol Taule, legal counsel for rights group Karapatan, told AFP. "President Duterte is attacking his critics including people fighting for their rights. It's an all-out attack on all they suspect to be enemies, whether farmers or lawyers." Rows over land have become increasingly common as Manila faces criticism for its slow-moving programme to redistribute farmland to millions of sharecroppers -- tenant farmers who give a part of each crop as rent -- who remain mired in poverty. The Federation of Agricultural Workers condemned the latest deaths, saying it highlighted growing rights violations on Negros island. The nation's rights body said it would investigate Saturday's incident, expressing "grave concern" over what it called a rising number of killings in the country. Taule added that the incident was the latest in a series of attacks on farmers, following the killing of nine farmers by gunmen also in Negros in October. Farm workers account for about 20 million people, a fifth of the Philippine population, who live on less than two dollars a day, the government says. Mourning relatives of those who died in the ferry tragedy have expressed outrage at allegedly corrupt officials The owners of a ferry that capsized in Mosul killing 100 people have been arrested along with engineers who had allegedly certified the vessel, Iraq's judiciary said Sunday. "The committee set up to investigate the sinking of the ferry announced the arrest of the boat's owners" along with three engineers who "had certified that it complied with regulations", the Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement. The boat was packed with families from the northern city, a former bastion of the Islamic State group, crossing the River Tigris to celebrate the Kurds' Nowruz New Year holiday. Most of the victims of the accident on March 21, Iraqi Mother's Day, were women and children. The strong current washed some bodies miles downstream, and dozens of people are still missing. The tragedy came after authorities had warned that water levels were dangerously high, and sparked anger among Iraqis who blamed official corruption and neglect. The judiciary did not name the owners who were arrested, but said they were caught in Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region. Their cases have been transferred to a panel of three judges and a prosecutor, it said. The Iraqi parliament has fired the governor of Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the main city, who has gone on the run. A burqa-clad Afghan woman crosses a bridge following flash floods in Herat province Villagers in western Afghanistan began cleaning up Sunday after the worst floods in a decade swept away houses and forced many families -- already displaced by drought -- to abandon damaged homes. Heavy rains that started early Friday and continued for two days caused flash floods in at least five provinces in western and northern parts of Afghanistan, killing at least 35 people. Aside from washing away houses, the floods destroyed some internally displaced people's shelters and cut off access to remote villages across several parts of the country. In Herat province in the west, at least 10 districts and some parts of Herat city were affected. Video footage from Herat province showed crumpled cars buried deep in mud, collapsed walls, mud houses strewn with debris, fallen trees and people trying to rescue whatever was left of their property from the mud. "We have lost everything here and have nothing left to survive on," Bibi Gul, a resident of Herat who had lost her house, told AFP. Fazel Ahmad, another resident, described a similar sense of loss. "Cows, sheep and even our pigeons are under the debris," Ahmad said. Mohammad Hanif Arbabzada said about 80 percent of the houses in his village were destroyed. In all, more than 3,000 houses were either partially or completely destroyed, according to Hashmat Bahaduri, a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Disaster Management Authority. Heavy snowfall across large swathes of Afghanistan this winter raised fears of severe flooding as spring approaches, following years of devastating drought. Earlier this month, at least 20 people were killed by flash floods caused by heavy rains that swept away thousands of homes and vehicles in southern Kandahar province. The election had been postponed in Beni because of conflict and an Ebola epidemic Voters in Beni and Butembo, towns in northeastern DR Congo ravaged by conflict and an Ebola epidemic, took part in long-delayed elections on Sunday. Parliamentary and municipal polls also took place in the western Yumbi region some 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of the capital Kinshasa, three months after a massacre claimed at least 535 civilian lives. All three are opposition strongholds in the vast central African country, with a combined electorate of around one million. Voting was proceeding smoothly in the Mavivi and Ngadi districts of Beni that have seen frequent unrest involving armed militias, according to an AFP correspondent on the ground. At stake are 15 seats in DR Congo's lower house of parliament, which counts 500 lawmakers. But they are not eligible to vote in the presidential election, three months after veteran opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi won that election, the country's first peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Nor will the vote will have any impact on the balance of power in parliament, where the party of former president Joseph Kabila won a commanding majority of seats. Tshisekedi's party is working to put together a coalition government with Kabila's. The formation of the new government is being closely watched for signs that Kabila will continue to hold sway in the nation's politics, if many top cabinet posts are filled by his supporters. In Beni, voter Patrick Kasunga said "we're not altogether happy" in the three towns voting Sunday since they "all wanted to vote for president but the (electoral commission) stole this choice from us." Sunday's polling follows an uptick in cases of Ebola in recent days after a lull of several weeks. The epidemic, which broke out in August, has so far killed more than 650 people. Xem them ... Tin bai cuoi cung Khong con du lieu e load China has significantly stepped up diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan since Tsai took office in 2016 Taipei hit out at China on Sunday for what it said was a "reckless and provocative" incursion by two fighter jets across a largely respected line dividing the two sides in the Taiwan Strait. The Defence Ministry said Taiwan scrambled its own aircraft on Sunday morning and broadcast warnings after two J-11 fighter jets crossed over the "median line" within the waters that separate the island from the mainland. "At 11 am, March 31, 2 PLAAF J-11 jets violated the long-held tacit agreement by crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Twitter. "It was an intentional, reckless and provocative action. We've informed regional partners and condemn China for such behavior," the ministry added. China has ramped up the number of fighter and warship crossings near Taiwan or through the straits in recent years, rattling nerves on the island at a time when relations are at a low point. But it is highly unusual for them to cross the so-called median line, a widely agreed upon boundary that passes through the middle of the straits. Taiwanese media said the last time Chinese jets had crossed the line was in 2011. That incident was portrayed by both sides as an inadvertent mistake by two jets responding to a nearby US spy plane. But on Sunday Taipei described the latest incursion as a deliberate act. Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang called the flights "provocative and damaging the cross-straits status quo". The flights come a week after the US sailed a destroyer and a coastguard ship through the Taiwan Strait, angering Beijing. Although the straits are an international waterway China often hits out when US or other western navy ships pass through them. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting unification, even though the two sides have been ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949. Washington diplomatically recognises China over Taiwan but remains the island's chief military ally and arms supplier. Earlier this month Taiwan said it had made a formal request to the US for new fighter jets. Since 2002, the US has repeatedly denied such requests, fearing a possible backlash from Beijing. But in that time China has massively increased spending on its armed forces, including highly advanced fifth-generation jet fighters. That has left Taiwan with an ageing airforce that analysts say is outgunned and in desperate need of an upgrade. China has significantly stepped up diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan since the Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, including staging a series of military exercises near the island. She will be fighting for reelection in January 2020. Last week Tsai made a brief stop in Hawaii to deliver a speech, prompting China to lodge an official protest with Washington. Sudanese protesters chant slogans as they respond to a call to march on the army headquarters in Khartoum Thousands of Sudanese demonstrators marched in Khartoum Saturday, many reaching the army headquarters for the first time since deadly protests against President Omar al-Bashir erupted last year, witnesses said. Chanting "One Army, One People," the protesters rallied in the capital's streets following a call by organisers to march on the compound, which also includes Bashir's residence. The crowds chanted the movement's catchcry "peace, justice, freedom" as they marched towards the complex where the defence ministry is also based, onlookers said. "They were also calling on Bashir to step down," a witness said. Taking a break from shouting anti-government slogans, protester Ghada Mohamed said the rally signalled a "bright future" for Sudan. Protester Amir Omer said the demonstrators had managed to send a message to the military. "We still haven't achieved our goal, but we have delivered our message to the army and that is: come join us," he told AFP. Protest organisers led by the Sudanese Professionals Association said earlier this week that demonstrators would march Saturday to demand the army either "take the side of the people or the dictator's". - 'Historic moment' - Soon after reaching the compound, organisers called on the protesters to hold in place outside its fortified walls. "At this historic moment, we ask you to not leave the army headquarters and hold a sit-in in the nearby streets," the organisers said in a statement. "We appreciate that the army did not touch the protesters and we hope that it will take the side of the people." Since the protests erupted in Sudan late last year, security agents and riot police have cracked down on demonstrators but the army has not intervened Since the protests erupted, security agents and riot police have cracked down on demonstrators but the army has not intervened. In a separate demonstration Saturday, protesters reached the army office in the town of Madani southeast of the capital, witnesses told AFP by telephone. Protests have rocked the east African country since December, with angry crowds accusing Bashir's government of mismanaging the economy that has led to soaring food prices and regular shortages of fuel and foreign currency. Demonstrations first erupted on December 19 after a government decision to triple the price of bread. But they quickly escalated into nationwide rallies against Bashir's rule, with protestors calling on him to step down. On February 22, the veteran leader imposed a nationwide state of emergency to quell the protests after an initial crackdown failed to rein in protesters. Since emergency rule came into effect, the demonstrations have been largely confined to the capital and its twin city of Omdurman, but organisers had called for widespread rallies and a march on the army headquarters on Saturday. - Heavy security - April 6 was chosen for the nationwide rallies as it was the day of a 1985 uprising that toppled the then regime of president Jaafar Nimeiri. Before the protests began, security forces deployed in large numbers in key Khartoum squares and in Omdurman, across the Nile. "There's a heavy security deployment where the protesters were to gather for the march, but they still came out and are chanting anti-government slogans," a witness told AFP without revealing his name for security reasons. Analysts say the protests movement has emerged as the biggest challenge yet to Bashir's three-decade rule Security agents were preventing passers-by from reaching downtown areas and ordered shops and markets in the area closed, witnesses said. "Those walking in groups were immediately detained or asked to return to their homes by security forces," another onlooker said. Activists in recent days have been circulating leaflets urging residents to participate in Saturday's march, residents said. The protest movement was initially led by the Sudanese Professionals Association, but later several political parties including the main opposition National Umma Party threw their support behind it. Analysts say the movement has emerged as the biggest challenge yet to Bashir's three-decade rule. But the veteran leader has remained defiant, introducing tough measures that have seen protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists arrested. Officials say 31 people have been killed in protest related violence so far, but Human Rights Watch has put the death toll at 51 including children and medics. Unemployed Indian teachers at a protest to demand jobs earlier this year. A newspaper reported unemployment under Modi hit its highest mark since the 1970s Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power five years ago on a business-friendly manifesto that promised to shake up Asia's third-largest economy and boost employment. As Modi, 68, seeks a second term in India's almost six-week mega-election beginning on Thursday, AFP looks at how he has delivered on his main economic pledges. - Jobs, jobs, and more jobs - Young people voted for Modi in droves in 2014 after he said he would create 10 million jobs a year. Many, however, have been left disappointed -- and jobless. A newspaper recently published what it called an official report buried by Modi's government showing unemployment at its highest since the 1970s. Analysts say that the economy has failed to expand at the rate required to employ the one million Indians who enter the workforce every month Last year a staggering 19 million people applied for 63,000 positions at Indian Railways. The opposition has used unemployment as one of its main lines of attack in the campaign, with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi attacking Modi for creating a "national disaster". Analysts say that the economy has failed to expand at the rate required to employ the one million Indians who enter the workforce every month. - Corruption crackdown - In 2014, Modi projected himself as an anti-corruption crusader who would eradicate graft and so-called "black money". While Modi has been widely credited with ending a culture of crony capitalism throughout government his overall record on corruption is mixed. He has been lauded for toughening anti-corruption laws, including one outlawing "benami" property, where owners purchase real estate through third parties to hide money. India has risen three places to 78th in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index under his watch, five places behind South Africa but nine ahead of China. However, Modi's first term will perhaps most be remembered for a shock cash ban that rendered 86 percent of the high-currency bank notes void overnight and hit growth. Modi said "demonetisation" would root out illegal money but almost all notes returned to the banking system, while the move caused untold suffering to millions of poor who operate outside of India's formal economy. - 'Make in India?' - Modi promised to boost foreign investment by making it easier for companies abroad to do business in India. To a large extent he has succeeded. The government has relaxed stringent foreign direct investment rules in many sectors including in infrastructure, aviation and single-brand retail. Modi promised to boost foreign investment by making it easier for companies abroad to do business, and FDI in India rose to nearly $62 billion Foreign capital inflows into India have increased as a result. FDI in India rose to nearly $62 billion for 2017-18 and the government hopes it can register $100 billion annually within two years. One of the most high-profile investments was US retail giant Walmart's purchase of a 77-percent stake in Indian e-commerce behemoth Flipkart last year for $16 billion. Investors have expressed concern about recent protectionist measures in e-commerce though. The government announced surprise restrictions in December that would limit how companies like Amazon and Walmart could operate. Analysts are in general agreement that Modi's much-trumpeted "Make in India" initiative failed to turn the Asian giant into a manufacturing hub, despite an advertising blitzkrieg. - Taxing - Modi delivered on one promise that previous governments had said they would achieve but never did -- pushing through a single national goods and services tax (GST) designed to make conducting business in India easier. The tax, which came into effect on 1 July 2017, was designed to replace more than a dozen state and national levies and transform India's $2 trillion economy into a single market for the first time. Modi pushed through a single national goods and services tax designed to make conducting business in India easier First proposed in 2006, it got the backing of most economists as being long overdue and was hailed as the biggest tax reform since independence. It has been credited with helping India soar up the World Bank's "ease of doing business ranking", with the institution saying India had jumped 23 places to 77th position between 2017 and 2018. The government has been forced to announce several changes to the GST however, after small-scale businesses complained they were being unfairly hit by high tax rates. - Bad debt - Indian banks are saddled with some of the highest levels of bad debt anywhere in the world and Modi made tackling them a key priority. The government has given the central bank greater powers to intervene in cases of bad loans and in 2017 approved a $32 billion recapitalisation plan to help state-owned banks clean up their books. Analysts say progress is being made but the difficulty of recovering dues from alleged offenders, such as fugitives Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, show that there is still a long way to go. In 2016 Modi's government overhauled archaic bankruptcy laws by passing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code which sought to make it easier to wind down companies and help banks recover soured loans. The law set a 180-day deadline to resolve bankruptcy cases, which previously took over four years on average. However, the Supreme Court issued a verdict this week which could again delay some insolvency proceedings. Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, during an AFP interview in Jordan, said "governmental and non-governmental politicians" need to be on one platform for talks on future peace and reconciliation Afghanistan's chief executive Abdullah Abdullah welcomed Kabul's decision Sunday to send a delegation to meet with the Taliban, saying he hoped they would present a "unified position" for the Afghan people. In an ongoing push to find a way out of the country's 17-year-old war, Kabul had earlier announced it would send representatives to "exchange views" with Taliban officials at fresh talks, due to take place in the Qatari capital Doha later this month. US and Taliban officials have held several rounds of talks but the militant group has so far refused to talk directly to the Afghan government, which they consider an illegitimate regime. "We need to have governmental and nongovernmental politicians in one platform, and talk future peace and reconciliation," Abdullah told AFP on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan. "The aim of (the delegation) is to present a unified position of (the) people of Afghanistan", he added. Mohammad Omar Daudzai, President Ashraf Ghani's envoy for peace, said the delegation would serve only to swap views with the Taliban, and its members would not necessarily be the same as a formal negotiating team. Officials will meet Wednesday in Kabul to finalise delegates, and to decide who might comprise an official negotiating team. In a statement, the Taliban said the upcoming Doha talks would clarify participants' "views and policies and sharing their stance". "The said conference is not a negotiations summit or meeting," the Islamist extremist group said. The Taliban and Afghan opposition groups held a similar meeting in Moscow in February. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad spent last week in Afghanistan as part of an ongoing push for a peace deal. His visit came against the backdrop of strains between Washington and Ghani's administration, which has complained bitterly of being sidelined in peace talks. Khalilzad has repeatedly called on Ghani to form a strong negotiating team to reach a deal before the country's delayed presidential elections, now slated for September. On Friday, during a side trip Khalilzad made to Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan said he had some "brotherly advice" for Afghanistan, suggesting an interim government in Kabul to help smooth the talks process. It was not the first time Khan had made such a suggestion. Kabul was again furious, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned a Pakistani diplomat to explain the remarks. The notion of an interim government to tide things over between the end of Ghani's term in May and an election has sparked controversy in Afghanistan, and there is as yet no clarity as to what will happen. An "interim government for the sake just of interim government, I am not for it, (it) will not solve anything," Abdullah said. "An interim arrangement as a result of the package for peace that is agreed upon between both sides -- why not?" Khalilzad left Afghanistan on Sunday following what the US embassy called "productive" talks. "Khalilzad was pleased to see the Afghans with whom he met, inside and outside government, coming together to put peace first," the embassy said in statement. PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Taking drastic action over illegal immigration, President Donald Trump moved Saturday to cut direct aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, whose citizens are fleeing north and overwhelming U.S. resources at the southern border. The State Department notified Congress that it would look to suspend 2017 and 2018 payments to the trio of nations, which have been home to some of the migrant caravans that have marched through Mexico to the U.S. border. Amplified by conservative media, Trump has turned the caravans into the symbol of what he says are the dangers of illegal immigration - a central theme of his midterm campaigning last fall. With the special counsel's Russia probe seemingly behind him, Trump has revived his warnings of the caravans' presence. Trump also has returned to a previous threat he never carried out - closing the border with Mexico. He brought up that possibility on Friday and revisited it in tweets Saturday, blaming Democrats and Mexico for problems at the border and beyond despite warnings that a closed border could create economic havoc on both sides. "It would be so easy to fix our weak and very stupid Democrat inspired immigration laws," Trump tweeted Saturday. "In less than one hour, and then a vote, the problem would be solved. But the Dems don't care about the crime, they don't want any victory for Trump and the Republicans, even if good for USA!' As far as Mexico's role, he tweeted: "Mexico must use its very strong immigration laws to stop the many thousands of people trying to get into the USA. Our detention areas are maxed out & we will take no more illegals. Next step is to close the Border! This will also help us with stopping the Drug flow from Mexico!" President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a visit to Lake Okeechobee and Herbert Hoover Dike at Canal Point, Fla., Friday, March 29, 2019. Trump says he will close the nation's southern border, or large sections of it, next week if Mexico does not immediately stop illegal immigration. In a tweet, Trump ramped up his repeated threat to close the border by saying he will do it next week unless Mexico takes action. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) When reporters asked Trump on Friday what closing the border could entail, he said "it could mean all trade" with Mexico and added, "We will close it for a long time." Trump has been promising for more than two years to build a long, impenetrable wall along the border to stop illegal immigration, though Congress has been reluctant to provide the money he needs. In the meantime, he has repeatedly threatened to close the border, but this time, with a new group of migrants heading north , he gave a definite timetable and suggested a visit to the border within the next two weeks. A substantial closure could have an especially heavy impact on cross-border communities from San Diego to South Texas, as well as supermarkets that sell Mexican produce, factories that rely on imported parts, and other businesses across the U.S. The U.S. and Mexico trade about $1.7 billion in goods daily, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which said closing the border would be "an unmitigated economic debacle" that would threaten 5 million American jobs. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke out Saturday against cutting off aid to Central America, declaring that "foreign assistance is not charity; it advances our strategic interests and funds initiatives that protect American citizens." And a group of House Democrats visiting El Salvador denounced the administration's decision to cut aid to the region. "As we visit El Salvador evaluating the importance of U.S. assistance to Central America to address the root causes of family and child migration, we are extremely disappointed to learn that President Trump intends to cut off aid to the region," said the statement from five lawmakers, including Rep. Eliot L. Engel of New York, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The President's approach is entirely counterproductive." The Trump administration has threatened before to scale back or cut off U.S. assistance to Central America. Congress has not approved most of those proposed cuts, however, and a report this year by the Congressional Research Service said any change in that funding would depend on what Congress does. Short of a widespread border shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the U.S. might close designated ports of entry to re-deploy staff to help process parents and children. Ports of entry are official crossing points that are used by residents and commercial vehicles. Many people who cross the border illegally ultimately request asylum under U.S. law, which does not require asylum seekers to enter at an official crossing. Border officials are also planning to more than quadruple the number of asylum seekers sent back over the border to wait out their immigration cases, said an administration official. The official said right now about 60 migrants per day are returned and officials are hoping to send as many as 300 per day. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about internal plans and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday his country was doing its part to fight migrant smuggling. Criminal networks charge thousands of dollars a person to move migrants through Mexico, increasingly in large groups toward remote sections of the border. "We want to have a good relationship with the government of the United States," Lopez Obrador said. He added: "We are going to continue helping so that the migratory flow, those who pass through our country, do so according to the law, in an orderly way." Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico's foreign relations secretary, tweeted that his country "doesn't act based on threats" and is "the best neighbor" the U.S. could have. Alejandra Mier y Teran, executive director of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce in San Diego, said the mere threat of border closures sends the wrong message to businesses in Mexico and may eventually scare companies into turning to Asia for their supply chains. "I think the impact would be absolutely devastating on so many fronts," said Mier y Teran, whose members rely on the Otay Mesa crossing to bring televisions, medical devices and a wide range of products to the U.S. "In terms of a long-term effect, it's basically shooting yourself in your foot. It's sending out a message to other countries that, 'Don't come because our borders may not work at any time.' That is extremely scary and dangerous." ___ Merchant reported from Houston, Lucey from Washington. Associated Press writers Peter Orsi in Mexico City, Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Colleen Long, Catherine Lucey and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. President Donald Trump walks with, from left, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., during a visit to Lake Okeechobee and Herbert Hoover Dike at Canal Point, Fla., Friday, March 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., Thursday, March 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) FILE - This June 2018 file photo shows protesters walking along Montana Avenue outside the El Paso Processing Center in El Paso, Texas. Two dozen people being held in immigration detention in Louisiana are on a hunger strike to protest their inability to be free while making a case for asylum. Immigrant advocates say the strike started last week with about 150 people, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says only 24 people have continuously denied meals. The strike follows one in El Paso in which ICE force-fed some of the detainees after obtaining a court order. (Rudy Gutierrez/The El Paso Times via AP, File) GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Militants fired five rockets from Gaza into Israel early Sunday, the Israeli military said, following a day of Palestinian mass protests along the Israel-Gaza perimeter fence. Four Palestinians, including three teen-agers, were shot dead and dozens were wounded by Israeli soldiers. The rocket fire threatened to undermine Egyptian-mediated efforts to cement a deal that the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers hope will ease a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the crowded territory. No casualties were reported from the rockets and no Palestinian group claimed responsibility. Tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied in the Gaza Strip on Saturday to mark the anniversary of their mass protests along the Israeli border. Most demonstrators kept their distance from the border, though small crowds of activists approached the perimeter fence and threw stones and explosives toward Israeli troops on the other side. The forces fired tear gas and opened fire, killing four Palestinians and wounding 64. Hamas had pledged to keep the crowds a safe distance from the fence to avoid inflaming the political atmosphere during negotiations of a possible easing of the blockade. Medics and protester evacuate a wounded youth, who was shot by Israeli troops from near the fence of the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, while marking first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Tens of thousands of Palestinians on Saturday gathered at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence. (AP Photo/Abdel kareem Hana) Hamas officials say that Israel is offering a package of economic incentives in exchange for calm along the volatile border. Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, said the group had received "positive signs" from the Egyptians. He added that the Egyptian team was to return to Israel on Sunday to continue the talks. "We will continue our marches until all our goals are achieved," he said. Saturday's protest came at a sensitive time, with Israel and Hamas, bitter enemies that have fought three wars and dozens of smaller skirmishes, both having a strong interest in keeping things quiet. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking his fourth consecutive term in April 9 elections, but is facing a serious challenge from a group of ex-army chiefs who have criticized what they say is his failed Gaza policy. With a lack of alternatives, Netanyahu has been forced at times to rely on Hamas to maintain stability along Israel's volatile southern front. In the final stretch of the campaign, Netanyahu needs to keep the Israel-Gaza frontier quiet, without seeming to make concessions to Hamas. Netanyahu took heavy criticism this week for what was seen as a soft response to renewed rocket fire out of Gaza. Hamas, meanwhile, faces growing unrest in Gaza as a result of worsening conditions after more than a decade of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade. The two countries imposed the blockade in 2007 after Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel's destruction, seized control of Gaza from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The blockade has helped drive unemployment over 50 percent, led to chronic power outages and made it extremely difficult for Gazans to travel out of the territory. Earlier this month, Hamas violently suppressed several days of public protests, staged under the slogan "We want to live," over the dire conditions. Speaking on the group's Al-Aqsa TV station, Hamas' top leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, praised the protesters. "With this big turnout, our people say, 'We want to live!" His use of the protesters' slogan appeared to be aimed at diverting the recent criticism of his group. Hamas blames the blockade and punitive measures by its West Bank-based Palestinian Authority for worsening the living conditions. The fence protests, which began exactly a year ago, have been aimed in large part at breaking the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza, but haven't delivered major improvements. Saturday's demonstrations were held at five rallying points along the border with Israel. Dozens of volunteers in fluorescent vests were deployed to restrain demonstrators, and cool rainy weather also appeared to affect enthusiasm. But as the crowds swelled throughout the afternoon in response to Hamas' calls for a large turnout, dozens of protesters approached the fence, unfurling Palestinian flags and throwing rocks and explosives toward Israeli soldiers. The Israeli forces responded with tear gas and live fire. The Israeli military estimated 40,000 Palestinians were gathered at the marches. "The rioters are hurling rocks and setting tires on fire. In addition, a number of grenades and explosive devices have been hurled at the Gaza Strip security fence," it said in a statement. In a statement, Prime Minister Netanyahu praised the army's preparation and performance in maintaining "calm." Gaza's Health Ministry said that a 17-year-old protester died immediately after being shot in the face in east Gaza City. In the evening, the ministry said another 17-year-old died hours after being shot in the chest in a different protest location. A third teenager, also aged 17, succumbed to his wounds and died in the late evening. A 21-year-old Palestinian also died around dawn after sustaining injuries in overnight protests before the main demonstration. While bloodshed was not avoided, it was far less than previous high-profile protests. Over 60 people were killed during intense protests on May 14, the day the U.S. moved its embassy to Jerusalem. As Saturday's protest was winding down, organizers vowed to continue the marches and said they would gather again as usual next Friday. The military released video footage showing large crowds of protesters gathered near the fence and hurling objects. In one scene, a group of activists went up to the fence and hurled stones at the other side. In another scene, a youth could be seen trying to pull apart barbed wire along the fence. The army also said it caught two young Palestinian children who had tried to cross the border with a knife. The children were returned to Gaza through a border crossing. Earlier on Saturday, Gaza health officials said Israeli troops shot and killed a 21-year-old Palestinian man near the perimeter fence, hours before the mass rally. The army said about 200 Palestinians "rioted during the night along the fence" and that the army used riot dispersal means against them. The marches near were initially organized by grassroots activists who were calling for a mass return to ancestral homes in what is now Israel. Hamas quickly took the lead in the protests, using the gatherings to call for an easing of the blockade. The border marches routinely ended in confrontations, with some of the Palestinian demonstrators burning tires, hurling fire bombs or setting off explosives and Israeli troops firing live rounds and tear gas. According to a Gaza rights group and a count by The Associated Press, 196 Palestinians were killed in the demonstrations over the past year, including 41 minors, and thousands were wounded by live fire. An Israeli soldier was also killed in the context of the marches. Israel says the army has been defending the border. The army accuses Hamas of using the large crowds as cover and encouraging demonstrators to hurl explosives, incendiary balloons and grenades across the border. But Israel has come under heavy international criticism for the large number of unarmed people who have been harmed. Egypt has repeatedly tried to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, stepping up efforts in recent days after a Gaza rocket struck a house in central Israel earlier this week, injuring seven Israelis and threatening renewed escalation. ___ Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre contributed reporting from Jerusalem. A masked protester waves his national flag near the fence of the Gaza Strip border with Israel, marking first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered Saturday at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Israeli soldiers deploy on the Israel and Gaza border during a Palestinian protest, Saturday, March 30, 2019. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov) Israeli soldiers takie positions on the Israel and Gaza border during a Palestinian protest, Saturday, March 30, 2019. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov) Relatives mourn over the body of 21-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Saad, at the family home during his funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Gaza's Health Ministry says Saad was shot dead by Israeli forces near the fence with Israel, hours before an expected mass protest there. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) A protester hurls stones near the fence of the Gaza Strip border with Israel, marking first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered Saturday at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Protesters run to cover from teargas fired by Israeli troops near fence of Gaza Strip border with Israel, marking first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered Saturday at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Protestors gather near the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, marking first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered Saturday at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) A protestor woman walks toward the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, while others gather to mark first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Tens of thousands of Palestinians on Saturday gathered at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) A wounded protesters waves his national flag as others gather near the fence of Gaza Strip border with Israel, marking first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Tens of thousands of Palestinians on Saturday gathered at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Protesters run to cover from teargas fired by Israeli troops near fence of Gaza Strip border with Israel, marking first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Arabic reads that " Millionth of the land and return". Tens of thousands of Palestinians on Saturday gathered at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) A protester hurls stones near the fence of the Gaza Strip border with Israel, marking first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Tens of thousands of Palestinians on Saturday gathered at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) Protesters throw stones at the fence of Gaza Strip border with Israel, marking first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Tens of thousands of Palestinians on Saturday gathered at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) WASHINGTON (AP) - Teresa Tomlinson is a former mayor of a mid-sized city with no national profile. Yet she hopes she'll be national Democrats' top recruit to run for the Senate from Georgia next year - if one of the party's rising stars, Stacey Abrams, takes a pass. "I feel comfortable I'll be their Plan B," says Tomlinson, 54, the first female mayor of Columbus, a minority-majority community and one of Georgia's largest cities. Nineteen months from Election Day, a political eternity during which plenty can change, Democrats are looking at Plan B in Senate races around the country. Even in a campaign cycle that looks far more promising than last year's, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who heads the party's Senate campaign arm, have struggled to recruit candidates who are battle-tested statewide. Yet the loss of well-known contenders merely compounds Democrats' chief problem as they begin an uphill fight to capture a Senate majority next year: There are precious few Republican-held Senate seats that Democrats have a clear-cut chance of capturing. In Democrats' favor, Republicans will be defending 22 of the 34 contested Senate seats, with just one incumbent Democrat in obvious jeopardy: Sen. Doug Jones of deep-red Alabama. Democrats say their voters will be supercharged by the polarizing President Donald Trump, who'll be seeking his second term, and their focus on pocketbook issues like health care, wages and jobs. "It's trending in our favor, and I think we've got an opportunity to take back the majority in the Senate," said Cortez Masto. FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2019, file photo, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., talks to reporters in her office in Reno, Nev. Democrats hoping to capture Senate control next year face a far more promising map than last year, when they had to defend most of the seats that were in play. "It's trending in our favor, and I think we've got an opportunity to take back the majority in the Senate," said Cortez Masto. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner, File) It's a much better Senate battlefield than last year, when Democrats had to defend a nightmarish 26 of the 35 seats. That included 10 in states Trump carried in 2016, five by landslides, and Democrats were fortunate to lose just two net seats. Even so, the 2020 map looks tough for Democrats. Trump carried 20 of the 22 states where GOP seats are at stake next year and narrowly lost the other two. Those were Democratic-leaning Colorado, where Sen. Cory Gardner seems to be the most endangered Republican incumbent, and Maine, where Democrats will try denting Sen. Susan Collins's reputation for independence as she seeks a 5th term. Since Republicans control the Senate 53-47, Democrats need to gain three seats to take over if they defeat Trump next November and four if Trump wins, thanks to the vice president's tie-breaking vote in the chamber. If Jones loses in Alabama, which party strategists consider likely, those numbers rise to four Democratic pickups if Trump loses and five if he wins, meaning Democrats will practically need to run the table of winnable Senate contests to take the majority. "I think we get close," said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. "Everything has to break our way to make it over the top." Republicans beg to differ. They say the GOP should hold the Senate because the jam-packed field of Democratic presidential candidates will spend months noisily competing for their party's liberal base. That means plenty of talk about the Green New Deal plan for aggressively curbing climate change and "Medicare for All" proposals for expanding the federal role in health care - ideas that go too far for some moderate voters. "Green New Deal is something we can't wait to run against," said Jesse Hunt, spokesman for the Senate GOP's campaign committee. Arizona seems headed toward a competitive contest. Republican Sen. Martha McSally, appointed to one vacant seat shortly after losing a 2018 election for another to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, could end up facing former astronaut Mark Kelly. The gun control advocate and husband of former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was wounded in a 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, is expected to run a centrist campaign. A close race could also loom in North Carolina. In one of this year's most significant Senate votes, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis initially said he'd oppose Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the southwest border, then voted for it. That turnaround has risked alienating hard-right Trump supporters and moderates alike, leaving Tillis exposed both to a potential GOP primary challenge and in the general election. Democrats might have had a stronger chance against Tillis if state Attorney General Josh Stein, who's seeking re-election, had succumbed to Schumer's appeal to run for Senate. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who are running for president, also rebuffed pleas to seek the Senate. Another who turned down Democratic leaders is former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who's seeking the White House. That's opened the door to potential contenders like MJ Hegar to challenge Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn. "It's pretty much all I'm thinking about lately," said Hegar, 43, an Air Force combat veteran who narrowly missed ousting a longtime GOP incumbent last year from a safely Republican House district outside Austin. She might end up in a Democratic primary against Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose twin brother, former federal housing secretary Julian Castro, is running for president. A handful of other GOP senators could face competitive races, including Georgia's Sen. David Perdue, especially if he's challenged by Abrams, who narrowly lost a gubernatorial race last year but gained a national following. Other possibilities include Montana's Steve Daines and Iowa's Joni Ernst. Democrats would love to oust Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, but that's a longshot. Strong GOP challengers could also force incumbent Democrats into tough races. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., would face a real fight if Gov. Chris Sununu challenges her. Trump lost New Hampshire by a knife's edge in 2016. Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is running again in Michigan, which Trump narrowly carried. Democrats say Trump will help them in closely contested states because his near-exclusive appeals to core supporters make it hard for GOP candidates to win over both conservatives and party moderates. "Trump creates a rock-and-a-hard-place scenario for Republicans running in blue-leaning and purple states," said Democratic pollster Geoff Garin. Republicans say battleground states could shift their way depending on whether the Democratic presidential nominee is a moderate like former Vice President Joe Biden or a hard-left liberal like Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. "There could be states that come on or off the board, depending on who the Democrats nominate for president," said GOP pollster Robert Blizzard. The Latest on Trump administration moves on immigration through U.S. border with Mexico (all times Eastern): 6:15 p.m. President Donald Trump is taking the first steps to cut direct aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, whose citizens are fleeing north and overwhelming U.S. resources at the southern border. The State Department says it will work with Congress to suspend 2017 and 2018 payments to the trio of nations. All have been home to some of the migrant caravans that have marched through Mexico to the U.S. border. Trump has turned the caravans into the symbol of what he says are the dangers of illegal immigration. The president also has returned to a previous threat he never carried out - closing the border with Mexico. He brought up that possibility on Friday and revisited it in tweets Saturday, despite warnings that a closed border could create economic havoc on both sides. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., Friday, March 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) ___ 11:20 a.m. Congressional Democrats say President Donald Trump's move to cut aid to three Central American countries will only increase the flow of immigrants to the United States. The State Department's announcement that it would be cutting aid to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala at Trump's order came as leading House Democrats were on a congressional visit Saturday to El Salvador. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and other lawmakers say in a statement that U.S. aid is helping those countries deal with the root causes of migration by families and children. The Democrats call Trump's move "entirely counterproductive." ___ 10 a.m. The Trump administration says it is cutting direct U.S. aid to three Central American countries. The State Department says in a statement that it will suspend 2017 and 2018 payments to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The Trump administration gave no immediate explanation for the move. Trump has made slowing immigration from those countries through Mexico a bedrock issue of his presidency. The announcement comes as Trump threatens to shut down the U.S. border with Mexico overall over immigration. ____ 6 a.m. President Donald Trump says he is likely to shut down America's southern border next week unless Mexican authorities immediately halt all illegal immigration. Such a severe move could hit the economies of both countries, but the president emphasized, "I am not kidding around." Trump says that "could mean all trade" with Mexico. Trump has been promising for more than two years to build a long, impenetrable wall along the border to stop illegal immigration, though Congress has been reluctant to provide the money he needs. In the meantime, he has repeatedly threatened to close the border. But this time, with a new surge of migrants heading north, he gave a definite timetable. NEW YORK (AP) - Cities around the world marked Earth Hour on Saturday by turning off lights at 8:30 p.m. local time in a call for global action on climate change. Earth Hour, spearheaded by the World Wildlife Fund, calls for greater awareness and more sparing use of resources, especially fossil fuels that produce carbon gases and lead to global warming. Beginning in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has spread to more than 180 countries, with tens of millions of people joining in. The Empire State Building participated as clocks hit 8:30 p.m. on the U.S. East Coast with a dimming of the skyscrapers' lights. In Hong Kong, major buildings along Victoria Harbour turned off their non-essential lights and the city's popular tourist attraction known as the Symphony of Lights was canceled. Over 3,000 corporations in Hong Kong signed up for Earth Hour 2019, according to the WWF Hong Kong website. Iconic skyscrapers including the Bank of China Tower and the HSBC Building in Central, the city's major business district, switched off their lights in response to the global movement. The City of Lights also turned off the Eiffel Tower's nightly twinkle to mark Earth Hour. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo dimmed the lights Saturday on the city's most famous monument for an hour. The Chicago skyline is partially powered down for Earth Hour on Saturday, March 30, 2019. Earth Hour, spearheaded by the World Wildlife Fund, calls for greater awareness and more sparing use of resources, especially fossil fuels that produce carbon gases and lead to global warming. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune via AP) In Italy, public buildings and historical monuments in 400 cities participated in Earth Hour. Lights were also switched off at St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Some of most emblematic architectural treasures in Spain participated, including the Alhambra palace in Granada and Barcelona's La Sagrada Familia basilica. In Taipei, Taiwan's capital, the island's tallest building, Taipei 101, joined surrounding buildings in shutting off the lights as part of the Earth Hour event. In coal-reliant Poland, top tourist sites also turned off their lights when local clocks hit 8:30 p.m. In the country's capital city, Warsaw, the spired landmark Palace of Culture and Science turned off its night illumination, along with some churches and Old Town walls. Lights were also switched off in several landmarks in the Greek capital. The Acropolis, Athens City Hall and Lycabettus Hill, towering above the Athens center, went dark and the Parliament building joined in. However, the Athens mayor's calls for the people to join in by turning off the lights in their houses went mostly unheeded. Philippine Boy Scouts play with their flashlights at the countdown for the 12th Earth Hour event Saturday, March 30, 2019 in suburban Makati city east of Manila, Philippines. Earth Hour is the symbolic switching off of the lights for one hour to help minimize fossil fuel consumption as well as mitigate the effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) Philippine Boy Scouts switch on their flashlights at the countdown for the 12th Earth Hour event Saturday, March 30, 2019 in suburban Makati city east of Manila, Philippines. Earth Hour is the symbolic switching off of the lights for one hour to help minimize fossil fuel consumption as well as mitigate the effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) The Willis Tower in Chicago is partially powered down for Earth Hour on Saturday, March 30, 2019. Earth Hour, spearheaded by the World Wildlife Fund, calls for greater awareness and more sparing use of resources, especially fossil fuels that produce carbon gases and lead to global warming. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune via AP) An activist lights a candle, that is part of a design that forms the number 60, to represent the minutes in an hour, during the Earth Hour celebrations, in La Paz, Bolivia, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Earth Hour takes place worldwide and is a global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes in a bid to highlight the global climate change. The Earth Hour was started in Australia in 2007, which has become a global event. (AP Photo/Juan Karita) People take part in a candlelight vigil marking Earth Hour in La Paz, Bolivia, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Earth Hour takes place worldwide and is a global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes in a bid to highlight the global climate change. The Earth Hour was started in Australia in 2007, which has become a global event. (AP Photo/Juan Karita) A fire eater performs during the Earth Hour celebrations in La Paz, Bolivia, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Earth Hour takes place worldwide and is a global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes in a bid to highlight the global climate change. The Earth Hour was started in Australia in 2007, which has become a global event. (AP Photo/Juan Karita) People gather near the arrangement of candles that form the number 60, to represent the minutes in an hour, during the Earth Hour in La Paz, Bolivia, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Earth Hour takes place worldwide and is a global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes in a bid to highlight the global climate change. The Earth Hour was started in Australia in 2007, which has become a global event. (AP Photo/Juan Karita) Lights are off for the global Earth Hour at the vaulted at the 14th-century red brick St. Mary's Basilica in the southern Renaissance city of Krakow, Poland, Saturday, March 30, 2019. The Earth Hour gesture calls for greater awareness and more sparing use of resources, especially fossil fuels that produce carbon gasses and lead to global warming.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) The Houses of Parliament are dark to mark Earth Hour in London on Saturday, March 30, 2019. Cities around the world were turning off lights at 8:30 p.m. local time in a call for global action on climate change. (David Parry/PA via AP) Lights are off for the global Earth Hour at the 14th-century red brick St. Mary's Basilica in the southern Renaissance city of Krakow, Poland, Saturday, March 30, 2019. The Earth Hour gesture calls for greater awareness and more sparing use of resources, especially fossil fuels. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) Lights are off for the global Earth Hour at the 14th-century red brick St. Mary's Basilica in the southern Renaissance city of Krakow, Poland, Saturday, March 30, 2019. The Earth Hour gesture calls for greater awareness and more sparing use of resources, especially fossil fuels that produce carbon gasses and lead to global warming. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) This combination of photos shows the Hungarian Parliament, the Chain Bridge and the Buda Castle before, left, and after the lights were switched off for one hour to mark Earth Hour in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Earth Hour is a world-wide environmental campaign that is observed on the last Saturday of March every year, and is a global call to turn off the lights for 60 minutes to raise awareness of the danger of global climatic change. (Marton Monus/MTI via AP) Activists of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) set up led-lights in front of the illuminated Brandenburg Gate to mark Earth Hour, in Berlin, Saturday, March 30, 2019. The global event Earth Hour is the symbolic switching off of the lights for one hour to help minimalize fossil fuel consumption as well as mitigate the effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) Activists of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) set up led-lights in front of the blacked out Brandenburg Gate to mark Earth Hour, in Berlin, Saturday, March 30, 2019. The global event Earth Hour is the symbolic switching off of the lights for one hour to help minimalize fossil fuel consumption as well as mitigate the effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) Activists of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) write the words 'Earth Hour' with led-lights in front of the blacked out Brandenburg Gate to mark Earth Hour, in Berlin, Saturday, March 30, 2019. The global event Earth Hour is the symbolic switching off of the lights for one hour to help minimalize fossil fuel consumption as well as mitigate the effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) Activists of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) write the words 'Earth Hour' with led-lights in front of the blacked out Brandenburg Gate to mark Earth Hour, in Berlin, Saturday, March 30, 2019. The global event Earth Hour is the symbolic switching off of the lights for one hour to help minimalize fossil fuel consumption as well as mitigate the effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) Activists of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) write the words 'Earth Hour' with led-lights in front of the blacked out Brandenburg Gate to mark Earth Hour, in Berlin, Saturday, March 30, 2019. The global event Earth Hour is the symbolic switching off of the lights for one hour to help minimalize fossil fuel consumption as well as mitigate the effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) In this two photo combination, Mumbai's historic railway station Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus is seen lit, top, and then the same location in darkness, after the lights were turned out for one hour to mark Earth Hour in Mumbai, India, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Earth Hour takes place worldwide which is a global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes in a bid to highlight the global climate change. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade) This combination of photos show the Acropolis hill before and after having its lighting switched off to mark Earth Hour in Athens, on Saturday, March 30, 2019. Earth Hour takes place worldwide and is a global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes in a bid to highlight the global climate change. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis) Activists of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) write the words 'Earth Hour' with led-lights in front of the Brandenburg Gate to mark Earth Hour, in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, March 30, 2019. The global event Earth Hour is the symbolic switching off of the lights for one hour to help minimalize fossil fuel consumption as well as mitigate the effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) Mumbai's historic railway station Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus is seen after the lights were switched off for Earth Hour, in Mumbai, India, Saturday, March 30, 2019. Earth Hour takes place worldwide and is a global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes in a bid to highlight the global climate change. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade) EL PASO, Texas (AP) - The latest on Beto O'Rourke official presidential campaign kickoff in Texas (all times local): 6:10 p.m. Beto O'Rourke has evoked a school shooting last year near Houston to call for banning assault weapons and points to that city's 2017 devastation during Hurricane Harvey to push for fighting climate change. The former Democratic congressman is formally launching his presidential campaign with Saturday rallies across Texas. He began in his native El Paso, then visited Houston's historically black Texas Southern University and is holding a late-night Austin event. Wearing a Texas Southern cap, O'Rourke recalled the deadly shooting at Santa Fe High School last May. He advocated for universal background checks for firearms purchases. O'Rourke also said he wanted to ensure that weapons "sold to the United States military with the sole purpose of killing people" are confined to the battlefield. Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke acknowledges the crowd as he arrives on stage with his family at his presidential campaign kickoff in El Paso, Texas, Saturday, March 30, 2019. With him are his wife, Amy, and their children, Ulysses, 12, left; Molly, 10, center, and son Henry, 8. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) He said Harvey meant Houston understands the perils climate change "better than just about anyone." ___ 12:30 p.m. Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke has told 1,000-plus supporters near the Texas-Mexico border that immigrants make the country stronger. Formally kicking off his campaign in his hometown of El Paso on Saturday, O'Rourke offered support for unapologetically liberal positions, including backing federal legalization of marijuana. He promised to strengthen unions nationwide, make it easier to register to vote and end U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The former congressman again vowed to work with Republicans, saying that a unified campaign will help him win his party's 2020 nomination and "defeat Donald Trump." President Donald Trump has threatened to shutter the U.S.-Mexico border to combat a rise in the number of immigrants crossing. Speaking mere blocks from the border, O'Rourke said, "We have learned not to fear our differences but to respect and embrace them." ____ 5:30 a.m. Beto O'Rourke is formally kicking off his presidential campaign with three rallies across his home state, where he came close enough to upsetting Sen. Ted Cruz to generate the national buzz now buoying his 2020 White House bid. The Democratic ex-congressman is holding a Saturday morning rally mere blocks from the U.S.-Mexico border in his native El Paso, then traveling to historically black Texas Southern University in Houston before an evening event in the shadow of Austin's state Capitol. O'Rourke has visited nine states since joining the race March 14, though he'd promised to head home for an official launch. Texas is America's largest red state, but Democrats aren't writing it off in 2020. Another presidential candidate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, drew large crowds at Texas Southern last weekend. WASHINGTON (AP) - Border officials are aiming to more than quadruple the number of asylum seekers sent back over the southern border each day, a major expansion of a top government effort to address the swelling number of Central Americans arriving in the country, a Trump administration official said Saturday. It was the latest attempt to ease a straining immigration system that officials say is at the breaking point. Hundreds of officers who usually screen cargo and vehicles at ports of entry were reassigned to help manage migrants. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen asked for volunteers from non-immigration agencies within her department, sent a letter to Congress late this past week requesting resources and broader authority to deport families faster, and she met with Central American and Mexican officials. The efforts are being made while President Donald Trump is doubling down on threats to shutter the U.S.-Mexico border entirely, a move that would have serious economic repercussions for both the U.S. and Mexico but wouldn't stop migrants from crossing between ports. His administration also announced it was cutting aid to the Central American countries home to most of the migrants. Right now, about 60 asylum seekers a day are returned to Mexico at the San Ysidro, Calexico and El Paso ports to wait out their cases, the official said. They are allowed to return to the U.S. for court dates. The plan was announced Jan. 29, partially to deter false claimants from coming across the border. With a backlog of more than 700,000 immigration cases, asylum seekers can wait years for their cases to progress, and officials say some people game the system in order to live in the U.S. Officials hope to have as many as 300 people returned per day by the end of the week, focusing particularly on those who come in between ports of entry, said the official, who had knowledge of the plans but was unauthorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. But the process so far has been slow-going, and such a sizeable increase may be difficult to achieve. The plan has already been marred by confusion, scheduling glitches and an inability by some attorneys to reach their clients. In San Ysidro alone, Mexico had been prepared to accept up to 120 asylum seekers per week, but for the first six weeks only 40 people per week were returned. A person crosses the street at a U.S Mexico border crossing in El Paso, Texas, Friday, March 29, 2019. Threatening drastic action against Mexico, President Donald Trump declared on Friday he is likely to shut down America's southern border next week unless Mexican authorities immediately halt all illegal immigration. Such a severe move could hit the economies of both countries, but the president emphasized, "I am not kidding around." (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Plus, U.S. officials must check if asylum seekers have any felony convictions and notify Mexico at least 12 hours before they are returned. Those who cross illegally must have come as single adults, though the administration is in talks with the Mexican government to include families. Children are not returned. Homeland Security officials have been grappling with an ever-growing number of Central American children and families coming over the border. Arrests soared in February to a 12-year-high and more than half of those stopped arrived as families, many of them asylum seekers who generally turn themselves in instead of trying to elude capture. Guatemala and Honduras have replaced Mexico as the top countries, a remarkable shift from only a few years ago. Migrants from Central America cannot be easily deported, unlike people crossing from Mexico. Mexico has been treading lightly on the subject. After Trump lashed out, saying Mexico and the Central American nations were "doing nothing" about illegal immigration, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his country would do everything it could to help to maintain a "very respectful relationship" with the U.S. government and Trump. Meanwhile, Nielsen sent a letter to the heads of other agencies within her sprawling, 240,000-person department, asking for volunteers to help with border duties. And she wrote to Congress asking for more temporary facilities to process people, more detention space, and the ability to detain families indefinitely and to deport unaccompanied minors from Central America. While children from Mexico can be returned over the border, laws prohibit deportation to other countries. Democratic congressional leaders expressed deep concern, saying the administration wanted to revive "horrific" and "immoral" plans, noting its failed hardline border policies have created "senseless heartbreak and horror." "Democrats reject any effort to let the administration deport little children, and we reject all anti-immigrant and anti-family attacks from this President," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. ___ Associated Press Writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. Central American migrants wait for food in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, March 27, 2019, in a pen erected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to process a surge of migrant families and unaccompanied minors. Earlier, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, center, announced the the Trump administration will temporarily reassign several hundred border inspectors, during a news conference at the border in El Paso. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio) Cars and trucks line up to enter the U.S. from Mexico at a border crossing in El Paso, Texas, Friday, March 29, 2019. Threatening drastic action against Mexico, President Donald Trump declared on Friday that he is likely to shut down America's southern border next week unless Mexican authorities immediately halt all illegal immigration. Such a severe move could hit the economies of both countries, but the president emphasized, "I am not kidding around." (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) FILE - This June 2018 file photo shows protesters walking along Montana Avenue outside the El Paso Processing Center in El Paso, Texas. Two dozen people being held in immigration detention in Louisiana are on a hunger strike to protest their inability to be free while making a case for asylum. Immigrant advocates say the strike started last week with about 150 people, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says only 24 people have continuously denied meals. The strike follows one in El Paso in which ICE force-fed some of the detainees after obtaining a court order. (Rudy Gutierrez/The El Paso Times via AP, File) LAS VEGAS (AP) - In a story March 30 about the Stellar Gospel Music Awards, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Jonathan McReynolds won six awards. He won eight. A corrected version of the story is below: Jonathan McReynolds wins big at Stellar Gospel Music Awards Jonathan McReynolds wins big at Stellar Gospel Music Awards during a ceremony that also included a posthumous tribute to the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin LAS VEGAS (AP) - Jonathan McReynolds was the top winner at the Stellar Gospel Music Awards, taking home eight trophies during a ceremony that included a posthumous tribute to the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Thanks to his album "Make Room," Chicago gospel artist McReynolds was crowned artist of the year Friday night and his song "Not Lucky" was named song of the year. He also took home honors for best contemporary male vocalist, contemporary CD and producer of the year. Jekalyn Carr was named female vocalist of the year and The Walls Group won the award for duo/chorus group of the year. The best new artist trophy went to Jabari Johnson.amc The tribute to Franklin was performed by Kelly Price, Regina Belle and Erica Campbell. Members of Franklin's family were presented with the inaugural Aretha Franklin ICON Award. Gospel legend Delores Washington Green of The Caravans was given the Legend Award. And James Robinson Jr., Jackie Patillo and Phil Thornton were inducted into the Stellar Honors Hall of Fame. Kirk Franklin returned to host the live taping of the awards show at Las Vegas' Orleans Arena. The Stellar Awards will be telecast on BET on April 21. ___ Online: http://www.thestellarawards.com STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) - Some Democratic presidential candidates expressed support Saturday for the Nevada political candidate who alleged former Vice President Joe Biden kissed her on the back of her head in 2014. But they didn't say it disqualifies Biden from joining the race. Speaking to reporters in Iowa, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former HUD Secretary Julian Castro said they believed Lucy Flores. She wrote in New York magazine that she felt uncomfortable with her interactions with Biden. Warren and Castro said it's up to Biden to decide whether he should join the race. Biden spokesman Bill Russo said in a statement that Biden doesn't remember kissing Flores. The rally's organizer, Henry R. Munoz III, said in a statement Saturday that he spoke to several key people and staff who attended the rally and that they "do not believe that circumstances support allegations that such an event took place." BEIJING (AP) - A gauge of Chinese manufacturing improved in March in a possible sign government efforts to reverse an economic slowdown amid a tariff war with Washington might be gaining traction. The statistics bureau and an industry group said Sunday their monthly purchasing managers' index rose to 50.5 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show activity increasing. That was up 1.3 points from February. Chinese manufacturing declined last year as the fight with President Donald Trump over Beijing's technology ambitions weighed on exports and domestic consumer demand weakened. The government loosened lending controls and increased spending to reverse the slowdown, but authorities moved gradually to avoid igniting a rise in debt. The ruling Communist Party also has promised to give entrepreneurs who generate China's new jobs and wealth a bigger role in the economy. Private sector forecasters expect the downturn to bottom out by mid-year say any growth rebound will be modest. Chinese leaders warned previously that a recovery would be "L-shaped," meaning the decline would end but there would be no return to the previous decade's double-digit growth. Last year's growth in the world's second-largest economy sank to a three-decade low of 6.6 percent. The ruling party set this year's official target at 6 to 6.5 percent as part of efforts to steer the economy to a more sustainable expansion based on domestic consumption and reduce reliance on exports and investment. Exports in the first two months of 2019 fell 4.6 percent from a year earlier. U.S. and Chinese negotiators met last week in Beijing for talks aimed at ending the tariff war that has weighed on sales of goods from soybeans to medical equipment. They ended Friday with no formal agreement but the two sides said they would meet again in Washington. "The confidence of enterprises, production and operation activities are showing a recovery trend," said the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing in a statement. Sub-indexes for exports, employment and new orders all improved. An index that shows expectations by companies of future new business rose 0.6 points to 56.8. DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - Police in Bangladesh's capital have arrested two of the owners of a commercial complex that caught fire this past week, killing 26 people and injuring about 70, an official said Sunday. F.R. Tower's owners Tasvir-ul-Islam and S.M.H.I. Faruque were arrested in Dhaka and charged with negligence and violations of a building code that resulted in casualties, Additional Deputy Commissioner of the Detective Branch Shahjahan Shaju told The Associated Press. In cases where deaths occur as a result of negligence, defendants also usually face culpable homicide charges. The arrests were made late Saturday night and early Sunday. The blaze that burned for several hours Thursday trapped people inside the building, some shouting for help from windows on upper floors and the roof. Authorities say the complex on a busy avenue in Dhaka's Banani commercial district had no fire-protected staircases and some top floors of the 22-story building were illegally constructed. Shaju said Islam, who is the chief executive of Quasem Drycells Ltd., was the owner of the top three floors and had no permission for the construction, while Faruque was the land owner of the complex. There are other partners who jointly own the building and police were looking for the chief of the construction company that built the complex. CORRECTS PHOTOGRAPHER'S NAME - A high-rise office building damaged by Thursday's fire is pictured in Dhaka, Bangladesh Friday, March 29, 2019. A Bangladeshi housing official said Friday criminal charges would be filed against the owner of the building where a fire killed dozens of people and which had four upper floors constructed illegally.(AP Photo/Al-emrun Garjon) Islam, a district level leader, is tied to the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Officials said earlier that the owners of the complex sought permission from the Capital Development Authority in 1996 to construct an 18-story complex but later raised it illegally. Fire officials said the complex did not have an adequate fire protection and detection system in place despite repeated warnings by them during previous inspections. Corruption and lack of monitoring often create scope for the builders and owners to slip through holes in Bangladesh, which is seeking to grow economically after maintaining more than 6 percent growth for the last decade. The fire was the latest in a country where crowding, flouted building regulations and safety norms have made deadly blazes common. Bangladesh has fixed its main export-earning garment sector to a great extent in terms of safety and environment after a 2013 collapse of a complex housing five factories near Dhaka. Last month, a fire in the oldest part of Dhaka, a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses, left at least 67 people dead. In 2012, a fire at a garment factory killed at least 112 people trapped behind its locked gates. Less than six months later, another building containing garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people. Another fire in a house illegally storing chemicals in Old Dhaka killed at least 123 people in 2010. BACOLOD, Philippines (AP) - Philippine police said Sunday that 14 suspected communist rebels were killed after they opened fire during raids in a central province, but rights groups countered that the men were farmers and the latest victims of extrajudicial killings. Dozens of police, backed by army troops, were to conduct court-authorized home searches Saturday in a city and two towns in Negros Oriental province when the 14 men violently fought back, police officials said. A police officer was shot in the leg and wounded in the anti-insurgency and criminality sweep that also led to the arrests of 15 other suspects, they said. Regional police chief Debold Sinas said six suspected insurgents and rebel supporters escaped. Law enforcers seized three shotguns, 25 pistols, a homemade rifle, three grenades, ammunition and rebel documents in the simultaneous raids in Canlaon city, where eight suspects were gunned down, and the towns of Manjuyod and Santa Catalina, where the rest were killed in the reported gunbattles. "There were 14 suspects that engaged the raiders in a shootout during the implementation of the search warrants resulting to their deaths," Sinas told the national police chief in a report. Human rights and farmers' groups condemned the killings of the men they said were farmers, including two village chiefs, and called for an independent investigation. The Federation of Agricultural Workers cited the wife of one of the dead men, Edgardo Avelino, as saying that 10 men in uniform forcibly entered their home at around midnight saying they would serve an arrest warrant. Moments after, the men reportedly gunned down Avelino and his brother, Ismael, the farmers' group said. A Roman Catholic bishop, Gerardo Alminaza, said among those killed was a church minister known for his good character and some members of a church group. Atrocities committed by law enforcers, Alminaza said, "will make you best recruiters for the underground movement." "The appalling conduct of these 'police operations' obviously aims to make peasants, activists and other ordinary citizens of Negros to cower in fear, surrender their rights, and accept the wave of terror under the de facto martial law," the Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates said. The group said six farmers were killed and more than 50 others arrested in similar police raids in December in Guihulngan city in Negros Oriental, which lies on a sugar-producing agricultural island long known for its gaping divide between the poor and wealthy landowning families. President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the country's south in 2017 to contain a deadly siege by Islamic State group-aligned militants and other insurgents. Although Negros Oriental lies outside the south, it is in a region about 590 kilometers (366 miles) south of Manila where military and police forces have intensified counterinsurgency raids in recent years. Police denied the 14 men killed in Saturday's raids were victims of extrajudicial killings. Aside from unlicensed firearms, police were looking for suspected New People's Army guerrillas involved in a failed attack on a Canlaon city police station this month and other assaults on police officers, Sinas said. Communist guerrillas have waged a rural rebellion in the Philippines for half a century, one of Asia's longest. The violence has left about 40,000 combatants and civilians dead. It also has stunted economic development, especially in the countryside, where the military says about 3,500 insurgents are still active. HONG KONG (AP) - Business and human rights groups are expressing concern over proposed changes to Hong Kong's extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China, where they could be subject to torture and unfair prosecution. They say the move would harm the Asian financial hub's attractiveness to international business. Hong Kong currently limits such extraditions to jurisdictions with which it has existing extradition agreements or to others on an individual basis under a law passed before the semi-autonomous territory's handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997. China was excluded because of concerns over its poor record on legal independence and human rights. However, changes to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance would expand the scope for the transfer of criminal suspects to China and remove the legislature's right to scrutinize individual extradition decisions filed by Hong Kong's chief executive. Thousands of members of the city's beleaguered pro-democracy camp marched to government headquarters on Sunday afternoon, an unusually large turnout for such events in recent years. "The number of people turning up speaks loads about the concerns of Hong Kong people," Alan Leong, chairman of the Hong Kong Civic Party, told participants. Protesters raise placards and flags against an extradition law during a march toward the government headquarters in Hong Kong, Sunday, March 31, 2019. Business and human rights groups are expressing concern over proposed changes to Hong Kong's extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China where they could be subject to torture and unfair prosecution. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) "Hong Kong people have complete lack of confidence in the independence and impartiality of the judicial system in China," said Albert Ho, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China. Police put the number of participants at 5,000, while participants said at least 10,000 turned out. In a statement issued Sunday, Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said, "These amendments would heighten the risk for human rights activists and others critical of China being extradited to the mainland for trial on fabricated charges." "The amendments would tarnish Hong Kong's reputation for the rule of law, and should be scrapped," Richardson said, adding that the legal changes would put Hong Kong people "at risk of torture and unfair trials." Those concerns were reflected in a letter to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam authored by Human Rights Watch along with the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor and the local branch of Amnesty International. The groups warned that fear of extradition to China - which routinely uses trumped-up charges of tax evasion or other economic crimes to punish political critics - could stifle civil society and freedom of speech in Hong Kong, where civil liberties are already under assault from pro-Beijing groups. In recent years, several people connected with a Hong Kong publishing house that produced unflattering books on mainland Chinese leaders have appeared in Chinese police custody after apparently being abducted, along with a prominent business person wanted on the mainland. Unlike China, Hong Kong is subject to the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as "customary international law," which "prohibit returning people to places where there is a real risk of torture and other ill-treatment, unfair trials, and other serious human rights violations," the letter said. Separately, the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong issued a letter saying its members "continue to have serious concerns" about the proposed changes, saying they would "reduce the appeal of Hong Kong to international companies considering Hong Kong as a base for regional operations." "Hong Kong's international reputation for the rule of law is its priceless treasure," said the letter. ___ Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report. A protester against an extradition law holding British flags marches toward the government headquarters in Hong Kong, Sunday, March 31, 2019. Business and human rights groups are expressing concern over proposed changes to Hong Kong's extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China where they could be subject to torture and unfair prosecution. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) Protesters against an extradition law hold banners reading "Hong Kong Independence" during a march toward the government headquarters in Hong Kong, Sunday, March 31, 2019. Business and human rights groups are expressing concern over proposed changes to Hong Kong's extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China where they could be subject to torture and unfair prosecution. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) A protester against an extradition law raises a yellow umbrella during a march toward the government headquarters in Hong Kong, Sunday, March 31, 2019. Business and human rights groups are expressing concern over proposed changes to Hong Kong's extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China where they could be subject to torture and unfair prosecution. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) Protesters against an extradition law march toward the government headquarters in Hong Kong, Sunday, March 31, 2019. Business and human rights groups are expressing concern over proposed changes to Hong Kong's extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China where they could be subject to torture and unfair prosecution. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) Protesters against an extradition law march toward the government headquarters in Hong Kong, Sunday, March 31, 2019. Business and human rights groups are expressing concern over proposed changes to Hong Kong's extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China where they could be subject to torture and unfair prosecution. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) Protesters against an extradition law march toward the government headquarters in Hong Kong, Sunday, March 31, 2019. Business and human rights groups are expressing concern over proposed changes to Hong Kong's extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China where they could be subject to torture and unfair prosecution. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) TOKYO (AP) - North Korea said Sunday it wants an investigation into a raid on its embassy in Spain last month, calling it a "grave terrorist attack" and an act of extortion that violates international law. The incident occurred ahead of President Donald Trump's second summit with leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi on Feb. 27-28. A mysterious group calling for the overthrow of the North Korean regime has claimed responsibility. The North's official media quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that an illegal intrusion into and occupation of a diplomatic mission and an act of extortion are a grave breach of the state sovereignty and a flagrant violation of international law, "and this kind of act should never be tolerated." He claimed an armed group tortured the staff and suggested they stole communications gear. The 10 people who allegedly raided the embassy in Madrid belong to a mysterious dissident organization that styles itself as a government-in-exile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty. The leader of the alleged intruders appears to be a Yale-educated human rights activist who was once jailed in China while trying to rescue North Korean defectors living in hiding, according to activists and defectors. Details have begun trickling out about the raid after a Spanish judge lifted a secrecy order last week and said an investigation of what happened on Feb. 22 uncovered evidence that "a criminal organization" shackled and gagged embassy staff before escaping with computers, hard drives and documents. A U.S. official said the group is named Cheollima Civil Defense, a little-known organization that recently called for international solidarity in the fight against North Korea's government. FILE - This Wednesday, March 13, 2019 file photo shows a general view of North Korea's embassy in Madrid, Spain. The 10 people who allegedly raided the North Korean Embassy in Madrid last month belong to a mysterious dissident organization that styles itself as a government-in-exile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty in North Korea. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File) Spain has issued at least two international arrest warrants for members of the group. ___ Talmadge has been the AP's Pyongyang bureau chief since 2013. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter: @EricTalmadge FILE - In this Wednesday, March 13, 2019 file photo, a member of the North Korea's embassy tells reporters not to take pictures of the diplomatic building in Madrid, Spain. The 10 people who allegedly raided the North Korean Embassy in Madrid last month belong to a mysterious dissident organization that styles itself as a government-in-exile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty in North Korea. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File) In this Wednesday, March 13, 2019 photo, a Spanish postman talks to a member of North Korea's embassy, not seen, in Madrid, Spain. A Spanish court is accusing an American, Mexican and South Korean part of a 10-strong group that led an attack on the North Korean Embassy in February, saying the FBI was offered stolen data. National Court judge Jose de la Mata on Tuesday, March 26 lifted a secrecy order, announcing it had found evidence of various crimes, including trespassing, injuries, threats and burglary committed by "a criminal organization." (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Somalia's al-Shabab Islamic extremist group says it has executed four men accused of spying for the British, Djibouti and Somali intelligence agencies. Al-Shabab announced the killings on its Andalus radio station on Sunday, saying they were carried out by a firing squad in a public square in Kamsuma, a town in the Lower Jubba region. The group's spokesman said its recent spate of attacks on hotels in the capital, Mogadishu, have been part of its drive against Somali intelligence agents and other government officials who he said were staying at the hotels. "We don't attack every hotel in Mogadishu, but those specific ones (hotels) attacked by Mujahideen fighters have got specific features meriting them for attacks," said Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, on the rebels' radio station. "A standard public hotel that civilians stay in is not protected by blast walls and soldiers. These apostates have got no distinct offices, and most of those men were killed at hotels they use as their offices," he said, apparently referring to Somali government officials. Mogadishu has seen series of attacks by al-Shabab in recent weeks, highlighting challenges facing the Somali government, which said recently that it is considering imposing a state of emergency in Mogadishu to try to contain the attacks. Rage also said that the recent withdrawal of Kenyan forces, who are part of the multinational African Union forces in Somalia, from villages were made as result of increased attacks and deaths and budget constraints faced by the Kenyan government. Al-Shabab, which is al-Qaida's East Africa affiliate, has fought for years to impose a strict version of Islam in the Horn of Africa nation. Despite losing territory in recent years, the extremist group continues to carry out deadly attacks in many parts of the country, especially in Mogadishu. A truck bomb there in October 2017 killed more than 500 people. ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - When Florida authorities shut down 10 massage spas last month and charged hundreds of men with buying sex, they broke a longstanding pattern of meting out minor charges and punishment for owners, letting patrons off scot-free and turning a mostly blind eye to signs of human trafficking. An Associated Press review of state records over the past decade shows that while police officers and sheriff's deputies in Florida have investigated hundreds of individual massage parlors within their own counties for illegal sexual activity, it was usually low-level massage therapists who were arrested, while owners mostly were exempted or charged with misdemeanors resulting in fines and probation. Johns usually were not charged at all. In stark contrast, the investigation announced last month spanned several jurisdictions between Palm Beach and Orlando and focused heavily on the possibility of widespread human trafficking. Several spa owners, most of them women originally from China, were charged with felony racketeering and money laundering and could face years in prison. Authorities also charged 300 men accused of being patrons, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former Citigroup President John Havens. Authorities say Kraft was twice recorded on video engaging in and then paying for sex acts at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa, located in a shopping center in Jupiter. Both men have denied wrongdoing. Florida has more than 8,600 licensed massage therapy establishments. It's difficult to know how many of them sell sex, based on the records. Nationwide, the anti-trafficking advocacy group Polaris estimates there are 9,000 massage establishments with therapists who are trafficked from other places and forced to provide sex acts. The AP reviewed records from more than 150 Florida Department of Health cases involving massage parlors whose licenses had been revoked, suspended or voluntarily surrendered in the past decade. FILE- In this Feb. 19, 2019 file photo, a sign is posted outside Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Fla. An Associated Press review of state records shows that officers and deputies in Florida have investigated hundreds of massage parlors for illegal sexual activity for years, but the owners and employees usually get off with civil fines and misdemeanor charges, even when there are signs of potential trafficking.(Hannah Morse/Palm Beach Post via AP, File) Of the spas that lost their licenses, almost 40 percent had massage therapists involved in sexual activity, the AP found. Sex cases were found statewide, in 26 of the state's 67 counties, with the tourism-heavy Orlando area having the most. Few of the cases resulted in charges of human trafficking, and those that did ended with only minor punishments. In 2017, Mi Cha Jones, owner of the Jee Jee spa in Miami Beach, was charged with two felony counts of human trafficking and one felony count of deriving support from the proceeds of prostitution. Jones was sentenced to only two years of probation after pleading guilty to the latter count in 2018. Nearly five years ago, investigators found clear evidence of prostitution and a potential sign of human trafficking - women living on the premises - at the O Asian Wellness Spa and Massage in Boca Raton. The spa's owner was facing a minimum of four years and maximum of 35 years in prison, but was sentenced to only nine months in jail and probation after a plea deal. None of the johns who patronized the parlor were charged at all. In 2013, an inspector found three rooms with beds, clothes, computers, cellphones, desks and a refrigerator full of food at Serenity Massage in Tampa. The owner admitted massage therapists were living there but was ultimately only fined. There was no indication any investigation into human trafficking was ever launched. Florida Department of Health spokesman Brad Dalton said revoking a spa's license is the most severe punishment available to the department's Board of Massage Therapy. "Any action above that would have to come from law enforcement," Dalton said. A tougher stance is being championed by Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, whose agency spearheaded the current investigation after receiving a tip from a state health investigator. "When I saw the videos of the women being used ... I began to change my whole thoughts and view of it," said Snyder, a former state lawmaker who sponsored a 2012 bill that made human trafficking illegal in Florida. He was elected sheriff that same year. Still, it remains to be seen whether anything will truly change. No one has yet been charged with human trafficking, something Snyder said can be difficult to prove, especially if women don't testify against their abusers. He said many of the women fear deportation, even though they could be eligible for a visa if they cooperated. They also fear traffickers will harm their families back home, he said. And while hundreds of men identified as johns have been accused, Kraft and others have been charged only with misdemeanors that prosecutors have offered to drop if they agree to participate in a diversion program. Jail time for johns, what Snyder sees as the "holistic" answer to stemming human trafficking, looks highly unlikely. Still, the sheriff says he hopes the national spotlight that has shone on the Kraft case will make other potential clients think twice before risking a visit to an illicit massage parlor. "I have come to understand that as long as there is a demand, there will be a supply," he said. "Even if the demand diminishes microscopically and a few women in some forlorn province in China are not enticed to come here under false pretenses and trafficked, it will all be worthwhile." ___ Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP Follow Terry Spencer on Twitter at https://twitter.com/terryspen ___ This story corrects that Kraft, Havens and many others accused were charged but not arrested. With AP Photo BENI, Congo (AP) - Voters who were not given the chance to take part in Congo's presidential election because of the Ebola epidemic and violence cast legislative ballots Sunday amid continuing resentment. Residents in eastern Congo's cities of Beni and Butembo were not included in the January presidential vote. At the time government officials said the decision was made because of Ebola, although the current outbreak remains a threat, with the number of cases still increasing this past week. Voters had to wash their hands before entering polling stations Sunday in an effort to prevent disease transmission. Ebola, a highly deadly virus, is transmitted through contact with the bodily fluids of sick people. Malikidogo Kathembo, a 48-year-old farmer, cast his ballot in Beni for national and regional legislatures though he remains upset about what happened in January. Kathembo remains skeptical about the reason given for preventing the people of Beni from voting in the presidential election. "We voted today in spite of Ebola so why did they refuse (in January) to let us vote?" he asked. "I think it was a political move to block us out." Polling stations also were open in Butembo, now the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic that is now the second deadliest in history with more than 1,000 deaths. And voters could take part Sunday as well in Yumbi, where the January vote was called off because of intercommunal violence. The decision to cancel the presidential elections in areas hit by Ebola only further deepened the suspicion that the epidemic was being used for political or financial gain, observers say. Health workers have struggled to get sick people to seek treatment in health centers, resulting in those with Ebola infecting others as a result. A study published last week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal found that one-fourth of the people surveyed back in September in Beni and Butembo believed Ebola wasn't real. ___ Associated Press writers Saleh Mwanamilongo in New York and Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report. ROME (AP) - Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said he is running for the European Parliament in May's election because he wants to fight for a more united European Union faithful to the vision of the bloc's founders. Berlusconi, 82, spoke at a weekend convention of his center-right Forza Italia party, which in recent years has seen its popularity fall as voters turn to parties on the right with anti-migrant and euroskeptic messages, especially Italy's League party. The League governs Italy in a coalition with the populist 5-Star Movement. Its leader. Matteo Salvini, who is also the country's hard-line interior minister, has been reaching out to nationalist parties beyond Italy in hopes that they can join forces and make gains in the European Parliament elections that run May 23-26 in all EU nations. Their aim is to halt the process of European integration and return more powers to national capitals. Berlusconi said Saturday that he, in contrast, wants Europe "to return to the project of the founding fathers, who wanted a much more united Europe, a Europe with only one foreign policy, with only one defense policy." He said by uniting its militaries, Europe could become a "world military power" that could sit "with the other military powers at the table where the destiny of the world" is decided. The three-time Italian premier, who has made a career out of rebounding from legal woes, personal scandal, heart trouble and political setbacks, first announced in January that he planned to run in the European elections. FILE - In this file photo taken Thursday April 12, 2018, Forza Italia (Go Italy) party leader Silvio Berlusconi at the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome. Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Sunday March 31, 2019, that he will run for election to the European Parliament in May 2019, because he wants to fight for a more united European Union faithful to the vision of the bloc's founders. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, FILE) Berlusconi had been barred from running for public office for nearly five years due to a tax fraud conviction. Citing his good conduct, a court last year ruled that he could once again run. He said that "even in my old age" he wants to work for change in Europe. JERUSALEM (AP) - Down in the polls, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party has released a new campaign trying to paint his main rival, former military chief Benny Gantz, as mentally unstable. The video ads are the latest move in a campaign that has been heavy on personal insults and short on substance. Elections are scheduled on April 9. Recent polls have placed Gantz's Blue and White party ahead of Likud. Gantz's campaign has stressed his security credentials - an important quality with the Israeli electorate. But since Gantz fumbled two television interviews last week, Likud has tried to capitalize by publishing a video with extracts zooming in on the former general's wide-eyed look with the signature violin screech from Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" playing in the background. The Likud captioned the video: "Completely stable." Israelis have grown long accustomed to negative campaigning. FILE - In this Wednesday, March 27, 2019 file photo, retired Israeli general Benny Gantz, one of the leaders of the Blue and White party, prepares to deliver a speech during election campaigning for elections to be held April 9, in Ramat Gan, Israel. Down in the polls, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party has released a new campaign trying to paint Gantz, his main rival, as mentally unstable. The video ads are the latest move in a campaign that has been heavy on personal insults and short on substance. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File) In 2015 elections, Netanyahu released an election-day video warning that Arab voters were streaming to the polls as he beseeched his supporters to turn out. In the current election, he has drawn accusations of incitement by claiming his opponents will cooperate with Arab politicians. Gantz's campaign has tried to capitalize on a series of corruption investigations against Netanyahu, while also criticizing his inability to halt rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on southern Israel. Netanyahu marked his 10th year in office on Sunday, and is now seeking his fourth consecutive term. Combined with an earlier term in the 1990s, Netanyahu will surpass David Ben Gurion, Israel's founding prime minister, as the longest serving leader of the country if re-elected. His latest tactic against Gantz has dismayed Israeli psychologists and former comrades of the retired general. A Maariv newspaper columnist published an unsourced claim on Friday claiming that after retiring from the military in 2015, Gantz was "treated by a psychologist" and received "prescription medication." The publication prompted Gantz to issue a denial, insisting he had met with an "organizational consultant." Employing Hebrew wordplay -the terms for "pill" and "bullet" are identical - Gantz said the only ones he knew were "5.56 and 7.62," calibers for M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles. Amir Eshel, a former air force chief who served alongside Gantz, defended his former commander in Sunday's Yedioth Ahronoth daily. "To call a chief of staff who dedicated his life to the state 'insane' just because of a political rivalry is an act you don't do," he wrote. The Israel Psychology Association issued a statement protesting "the delegitimization of those who receive psychological treatment," saying seeking counseling is "a virtue not a shortcoming." It called on politicians to "deal with mental health in an appropriate and respectful manner." LONDON (AP) - London police are searching for a man who is believed to have stabbed four people in a series of unprovoked attacks. The Metropolitan Police Service says two of the victims are in critical condition. Officers are warning there will be increased police activity in the Edmonton area of north London after the four attacks, which occurred over 15 hours Saturday night and Sunday morning. Police say the attacks are not terror-related. Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Smillie says the victims "appear to have been selected at random" because they were alone and vulnerable. The attacks come amid an escalation of knife-related crime in Britain. Authorities have announced that some police forces have been given greater powers to stop and search suspects without reasonable suspicion in an effort to stop future attacks. ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Algerian media say a top Algerian businessman, Ali Haddad, has been arrested at an Algerian border post as he was apparently trying to go to Tunisia amid political crisis in the country. Journalists at Haddad's private television channel Dzair News said he was arrested overnight in Oum Tboul, close to the Tunisian border, confirming a report from the daily El Watan. Haddad, long a backer of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, resigned this week as head of Algeria's Business Forum, apparently trying to distance himself from the unpopular leader whose government has been accused of corruption. Massive protests started last month to demand that the ailing, 82-year-old president resign. Bouteflika, who has been in power for 20 years, withdrew from running for a new term but cancelled Algeria's April 18 presidential election. HAVANA (AP) - U.S. donors and Cuban builders have completed one of the longest-running joint projects between the two countries at a low point in bilateral relations. Officials from the Boston-based Finca Vigia Foundation and Cuba's National Cultural Heritage Council cut the ribbon Saturday evening on a state-of-the-art, $1.2 million conservation center on the grounds of Ernest Hemingway's stately home on a hill overlooking Havana. The center, which has been under construction since 2016, contains modern technology for cleaning and preserving a multitude of artifacts from the home where Hemingway lived in the 1940s and 1950s. When he died in 1961, the author left approximately 5,000 photos, 10,000 letters and perhaps thousands of margin notes in roughly 9,000 books at the property. "The laboratory we're inaugurating today is the only one in Cuba with this capacity and it will allow us to contribute to safeguarding the legacy of Ernest Hemingway in Cuba," said Grisell Fraga, director of the Ernest Hemingway Museum. U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, spoke at the ceremony and called it a sign of the potential for U.S.-Cuban cooperation despite rising tensions between the Communist government and the Trump administration. U.S. Democratic congressman for the state of Massachusetts and House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. Jim McGovern, center left, attends the inauguration of a conservation center in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, March 30, 2019. U.S. and Cuban conservators open a conservation center at Finca Vigia, Ernest Hemingway's Havana home. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) McGovern, who met with President Miguel Diaz-Canel and other Cuban officials during his visit, said that despite tensions over Venezuela, a Cuban ally, he still believed respectful dialogue was the most productive way of dealing with Cuba's government. The Trump administration has said it is trying to get rid of socialism in Latin America. MIAMI (AP) - State police are investigating after Miami police fatally shot a man they say was armed with a shotgun and wearing a bulletproof vest. Authorities received a call that the unidentified man was walking through a neighborhood Saturday. According to a press release, officers tried repeatedly to negotiate with the man but were not successful. Few details were released, but authorities said he was shot after refusing to drop his weapon and was pronounced dead at the scene. A Miami Dade Police offer was also injured but authorities did not say how. A shotgun and bulletproof vest were recovered from the scene. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating. NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Ken Gibson, who became the first black mayor of a major Northeast city when he ascended to power in riot-torn Newark almost five decades ago, died. He was 86. NJ.com reported that Gibson, who died Friday, served as the city's mayor from 1970 to 1986, helping establish a foundation for black political power. "He always thought that if you could help somebody, then that's what you should do," his wife, Camille Gibson, told NJ Advance Media. "That's what he thought being the mayor was. He was very happy to do that." Elected three summers after the devastating 1967 riots, Gibson is credited with stabilizing the city's finances and improving the health of citizens. "He gets a lot of credit for holding things together when things could have easily fallen apart," said the late Bob Curvin, who spearheaded Gibson's 1970 campaign and later directed the Ford Foundation's Urban Poverty Program. Born in 1932, Gibson spent his early years in Enterprise, Alabama, and came to Newark with his family when he was eight years old. He attended Newark College of Engineering, now the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and worked as an engineer for the Newark Housing Authority. A 1966 run for mayor was unsuccessful but garnered 15,000 votes. The riots occurred the following year, and following his 1970 election he became a national spokesman on the plight of America's cities, featured on the cover of Time magazine and in 1976 becoming the first African-American elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Gibson ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1981 and 1985. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to three years of probation. Speaking to NJ Advance Media in 2017 during the 50th anniversary of the Newark riots, Gibson said he was seeing the city's reputation finally recover. "The city's rep really got to be bad because of the disturbances in '67," Gibson said. "Trying to overcome that is very difficult. It never goes completely away. It gets better, though," he said from his home. Camille Gibson called him a good husband and father, and "probably the best, sweetest and nicest man that anybody could know and love." "I haven't spent a day without that man in 40 years," she said. "I just don't know how I am going to get through it, either." ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Filmmaker Denali Tiller started capturing footage of a former inmate's life four years ago. A Rhode Island School of Design student at the time, she soon was introduced to a few children of inmates serving prison sentences for violent crimes. On Monday, Tiller's project, "Tre Maison Dasan," is scheduled to air on most PBS stations as part of the series "Independent Lens." It comes after the Albuquerque woman filmed more than 350 hours of three Rhode Island boys coping with incarcerated parents. The film follows Tre Janson, Maison Teixeira, and Dasan Lopes over three years as they struggle with anger, loneliness and uncertainty from having a parent behind bars. The Albuquerque Academy graduate said the boys - and their parents - invited her and her crew into their lives despite the emotional toll before them. Sometimes, Tiller handed over the camera and let the boys capture images. Other times, Tiller sat silently in a corner and watched the boys experience regular issues of growing up like wearing Spiderman costumes or listening to music. "Through building a friendship, they began to build ownership of their own stories," Tiller said. She said was also honor that the families of color allowed her, a white woman, into their world. But it was through the captured interaction with the parents where Tiller said she felt viewers could see what the children experience. In one scene, Tre cries uncontrollably in front of his father and inquiries when he's coming home. Later in the film, an older Tre wears an ankle bracelet after getting into trouble, shares stories with his father about how annoying the bracelets are when they have to be charged. His father laughs and shares his own memories, then stops. In this undated photo provided by filmmaker Denali Tiller, Maison Teixeira, left, and his father color during visiting hours at John J. Moran Medium Security Prison in Cranston, R.I. Tiller's four-year-long project "Tre Maison Dasan," documenting the lives of children with parents in prison, is set to air Monday, April 1, 2019, on most PBS stations as part of the series "Independent Lens." (Denali Tiller/Hello World Productions via AP) "This ain't normal," the father laments while holding back tears. In another scene, Maison and his grandmother prepare a gift Maison wants to give a girl he likes. The grandmother worries Maison's heart will be broken. That evening, Maison calls his dad to give him a play-by-play: he asked the girl to be his Valentine, and she said yes. "Yes! Oh my god, I've been so freaking stressed out all day," his dad yells on the phone. Maison, now 14, says he hopes the film opens minds about the lives of children of prisoners. "There is a lot of stigmas that the children of incarcerated parents will end up like there. That's not true," Maison said. "Even with our parents in prison, we keep moving. It doesn't define us." ___ Russell Contreras is a member of The Associated Press' race and ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras TIRANA, Albania (AP) - An international climate conference in the Western Balkans has been disrupted over tensions between Kosovo and Serbia. Delegations from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia gathered Friday in Tirana to appeal to Western ambassadors and donors for more climate project funding. But Serbia's delegation insisted that Kosovo couldn't be represented with its national flag, and that it needed to participate under the U.N. Mission in Kosovo, or UNMIK, logo. Kosovo Environment Minister Fatmir Matoshi considered that unacceptable and walked out along with Albania's representative. The conference proceeded, but only with technical experts. UNMIK governed Kosovo from 1999-2008 following NATO's intervention to stop a bloody Serb crackdown there. The U.N. mission has had a reduced presence after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move that Belgrade doesn't recognize. Kash Ali was disqualified for biting British rival David Price during the fifth round of their heavyweight clash at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool. After Price had connected with a strong counter-punch right hand on the previously undefeated Ali, both men ended up grappling. As the pair, who used to be sparring partners, fell to the canvas, Ali landed on top of the Liverpool fighter and subsequently bit him under the ribs. David Price had a clear bite mark on his body (Peter Byrne/PA) After Price showed referee Mark Lyson the bite marks, Ali docked a point in the third round after previously being warned for punching to the back of the head was swiftly disqualified. The result saw the Birmingham fighter suffer a first defeat after 17 contests, and also had his purse withheld. As he left the ring, several drinks were thrown from the crowd. There had been little love lost between the rival fighters during the build-up, which included an expletive-laden exchange from Price at a pre-fight press call. David Price was declared the winner in front of his home crowd at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA) Speaking in the ring, the fight broadcast on Sky Sports, Price was asked about a rematch, but he said: I dont want to share a ring with an animal like that again. Former world cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew branded Ali a disgrace and called for him to be banned. Tory MPs are warning Theresa May they will resist any attempt by the Prime Minister to call a snap general election in a bid to end the Brexit crisis engulfing the party. MPs from both the pro-Brexit and pro-EU wings of the party warned they could face an electoral disaster if she goes to the country early. Downing Street aides have signalled the Prime Minister will make another last-ditch attempt to get her deal through the Commons after it was voted down for a third time on Friday. Following the vote, Mrs May said there would be grave implications and, in a hint at a general election, warned they were reaching the limits of this process in this House. Sir Alan Duncan said a snap election would only make the situation worse (Leon Neal/PA) Her comments set alarm bells ringing among MPs who fear the party is in no state to fight an election. Mrs May would effectively be a lame duck leader having said she will stand down once she has got Brexit through and voters would be voting blind not knowing who her successor would be. Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan told The Observer: If we have a general election before Brexit is resolved, it will only make things worse. Under the terms of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, the Prime Minister needs a two-thirds majority in order to call an election. However, after her disastrous decision to go to the polls early in 2017, Tory MPs made clear they would not be prepared to support her in doing so again. Pro-EU backbencher Antoinette Sandbach, who backs a second referendum, told The Observer: The answer is not a general election, and I would vote against that. We need to find a way forward in Parliament. Her comments were echoed by Mark Francois, the deputy chairman of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, who told the paper there was not a chance MPs would back an election under her leadership. Of course they wouldnt not after last time. And remember, she needs a super majority to do it, he said. Nigel Evans, executive secretary of the backbench Conservative 1922 Committee, said the Cabinet would block it. I dont believe the Cabinet would allow her to do it, he told the paper. Theresa May cannot call an election, she cannot be the leader who would lead us into it. The party would not tolerate it. The warnings came as MPs prepared to take control again of the Commons timetable with a second series of indicative votes starting on Monday in attempt to find a alternative plan which can command a majority in the House. Many Brexiteers fear the cross-party initiative led by former minister Sir Oliver Letwin will inevitably lead to a softer Brexit and a lengthy delay, or even no Brexit at all. Sir Oliver Letwin is organising a new round of indicative votes (Dominic Lipinski/PA) With frustrations growing on all sides at the continuing deadlock, it emerged that 170 Tory MPs had written to the Prime Minister demanding a swift departure with or without a deal. The letter was said to have been signed by 10 members of the Cabinet including Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Home Secretary Sajid Javid and 20 other ministers. Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis confirmed the existence of the letter, saying: I havent signed the letter. I do know about it. The letter followed a warning by the Prime Minister that an extended delay to Brexit was almost certain if her deal does not go through. Following the defeat on Friday, she warned the Commons would not allow Britain to leave without a deal on April 12 the new deadline set by the EU. Any extension beyond that date would require Britain to take part in elections in May to the European Parliament something Brexiteers are desperate to avoid. Thousands more police officers can now authorise enhanced stop and search activity after ministers relaxed rules on the tactics as part of efforts to tackle the knife crime crisis. From Sunday, forces in badly-affected areas will be able to activate powers designed to head off violence at a lower level of seniority. Home Secretary Sajid Javid has also made it simpler for police to use Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. This allows officers to stop and search anyone in a designated area for a limited time if serious violence is anticipated. Once authorised, police can stop and search people or vehicles regardless of whether they have reasonable grounds for suspecting they will find offensive weapons or dangerous items. Mr Javid has now lifted two conditions introduced in stop and search guidance rolled out in 2014 when Theresa May was home secretary. The Best Use of Stop and Search Scheme, which all forces are signed up to, requires a section 60 order to be signed off above chief superintendent rank, and states the authorising officer must reasonably believe serious violence will take place. Under the changes announced this weekend, which initially apply to seven forces, the rank at which a section 60 can be approved has been lowered to inspector. This will result in at least 3,000 more officers being able to authorise the use of the powers, officials estimate. (PA Graphics) In addition, the degree of certainty required has been lowered, so that the authorising officer must reasonably believe serious violence may occur. Mr Javid said: Stop and search is a hugely effective power when it comes to disrupting crime, taking weapons of our streets and keeping us safe. Thats why we are making it simpler for police in areas particularly affected by serious violence to use Section 60 and increasing the number of officers who can authorise the power. Mrs May, who will host a summit on serious youth violence on Monday, said stop and search is an important tool in the fight against knife crime. She added: As a whole society, we also need to take a hard look at the root causes of these crimes so we can intervene earlier and stop young people from being drawn into violence in the first place. Section 60 is often enforced after an incident of serious violence when police anticipate reprisals, or at major public events. The power was deployed at last years Notting Hill Carnival, and during an operation outside Stratford station in east London last year. In 2017/18, police in England and Wales carried out 2,501 stops and searches under section 60, up from 631 in the previous year. Overall, police stop and search activity has plunged in recent years. As home secretary, Mrs May introduced reforms to ensure more targeted use of the powers following criticism they unfairly focused on black and minority ethnic individuals. Mr Javid has backed the tactics since his appointment last year. He has already announced plans to widen the circumstances in which they can be deployed to combat acid attacks and misuse of drones. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said her force has increased its use of Section 60 in the last 18 months. Cressida Dick said the Met had increased its use of stop and search (Victoria Jones/PA) She said: Stop and search is an extremely important power for the police. Our well-trained officers, acting on intelligence, use their powers professionally every day to remove weapons and other illegal items from the streets and to arrest violent offenders and those who habitually carry weapons. The announcement forms part of the Governments efforts to tackle surging violence after a spate of fatal stabbings prompted warnings of a national emergency. There were 285 homicides where the method of killing was by a knife or sharp instrument in the year to March 2018 the highest number since records started in 1946. The Section 60 changes will initially apply in London, West Midlands, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Wales and Greater Manchester for up to a year. Forces are expected to engage with communities on its use, and nobody should be stopped on the basis of their race or ethnicity, the Home Office said. A record breaking steam engine is being prepared to operate a public service on the mainline railway for the first time since 1988. Clun Castle will take passengers on a day trip from the West Midlands through the Cotswolds to Oxford via the Great Western Mainline on April 6. It follows a 750,000 overhaul of the locomotive by owner Vintage Trains which ensured every part was repaired, restored or replaced. Clun Castle was built at the former Great Western Railway works at Swindon in 1950. In 1964 it broke the record for the fastest steam-hauled train from Plymouth to Bristol, before being decommissioned by British Rail four years later. The locomotive will pull trains to a range of destinations this year, including Chester, Llandudno and Hereford. The steam locomotive Clun Castle passes over the M42 motorway (Robin Coombes/Vintage Trains/PA) Vintage Trains managing director Cath Bellamy said: Vintage Trains is pleased to be back on the mainline, with our magnificent flagship engine Clun Castle leading the way following its overhaul at Tyseley Locomotive Works. The romance of steam has a huge following with Vintage Trains offering a range of destinations complete with silver service dining. In September last year, the Office of Rail and Road granted Vintage Trains a Train Operating Company licence to operate scheduled mainline services. Their trains, including Clun Castle, will feature on timetables between Birmingham Snow Hill and Stratford-upon-Avon from the summer. The firm recently announced a partnership with the West Midlands Rail Executive to promote the areas economy by attracting visitors, creating apprenticeships and regenerating stations. Democratic presidential candidate Beto ORourke has declared that immigrants make the country safer as he staged rallies across Texas to formally kick off his 2020 White House bid. The former congressman, who represented El Paso for three House terms until last year, began the day addressing 1,000-plus supporters in his hometown, across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. He later spoke at historically black Texas Southern University in Houston, before heading to Austin for a third event in the shadow of the red-granite state Capitol. There's nothing wrong in this country that we can't make right with the people of this country. Thankful for the leadership coming from Houston, Harris County, and Texas. pic.twitter.com/4ZhPUzW6I5 Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) March 31, 2019 Bounding onto a makeshift El Paso stage in a blue button-down shirt to The Clashs Clampdown, Mr ORourke declared: We are safe, not despite the fact that we are a city of immigrants and asylum seekers. We are safe because we are a city of immigrants and asylum seekers. We have learned not to fear our differences, but to respect and embrace them, he told a crowd that waved small American flags and black-and-white signs reading Viva Beto. In a series of tweets on Friday, Mr Trump warned he could close the US southern border next week if Mexico doesnt immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States. In later comments to reporters he added: Well keep it closed for a long time. Im not playing games. Mr ORourke has made promoting the border as culturally rich and economically powerful the centrepiece of his campaign and spoke on a street corner a few blocks from it. Beto ORourke kicked off his 2020 bid in El Paso, Texas (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) He decried federal officials recent decisions to hold people who crossed into the US to seek asylum in cages under El Pasos international bridges, saying those detainees are our fellow human beings and deserve to be treated as our fellow human beings. Mr ORourke entered the race on March 14 and has already visited nine states, but had promised to return to El Paso for an official kickoff. As he has previously, he renewed calls to work with Republicans and Democrats, saying before anything else, we are Americans first and prompting chants of USA! USA!. But he also made bolder predictions than in the past, saying that if his campaign could bring people from across the ideological spectrum together he could top the rest of the crowded Democratic 2020 presidential field and defeat Donald Trump. Despite such nods to bipartisanism, however, Mr ORourke offered many positions on Saturday that were liberal enough to make moderates nervous. He vowed to legalise marijuana nationally, defend abortion rights, strengthen unions and bring home all troops from the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands of supporters gathered near the Texas-Mexico border (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) He also renewed his support for a House proposal called Medicare for America, which he says will guarantee universal health care coverage while allowing people who like getting insurance through their employer to continue doing so. Texas has not elected a Democrat to statewide office in 25 years. But the party is hoping that a booming Hispanic population and large numbers of new residents moving in from other states could keep Texas close in 2020 potentially reshaping the electoral college. This state and its 38 electoral votes count like theyve never counted before, Mr ORourke said in El Paso. All of us matter. Ukrainians are casting ballots in a presidential election that follows a campaign marred by vicious political infighting and allegations of bribing of voters. The nation of 42 million people will choose from among 39 candidates it hopes can guide the country out of troubles including endemic corruption, a seemingly intractable conflict with Russia-backed separatists in the countrys east and a struggling economy. Opinion polls have shown comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy leading the field with President Petro Poroshenko and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko trailing behind by a broad margin. If none of the candidates gets an absolute majority of the vote, a run-off between the top two will be held on April 21. A woman holds a pet and casts her ballot at a polling station in Kiev (Efrem Lukatsky/PA) Concern about the elections fairness spiked this week after the interior minister said his department was showered by hundreds of claims that campaigners for Mr Poroshenko and Ms Tymoshenko were offering money in exchange for votes for their candidates. Mr Poroshenko, a confectionery tycoon whose popularity has sunk amid Ukraines economic woes and a sharp plunge in living standards, has been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption. Ultra-right activists have shadowed him throughout the campaign, demanding the jailing of Mr Poroshenkos associates who are accused of involvement in a military embezzlement scheme. Like his famous character, a schoolteacher who becomes president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral, Mr Zelenskiy has focused strongly on corruption, proposing a lifetime ban on holding public office for anyone convicted. He also called for direct negotiation with Russia on ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine. A woman looks at the list of presidential candidates (Sergei Grits/AP) Ms Tymoshenko has played heavily to the economic distress of millions of Ukrainians, denouncing the price hikes introduced by Mr Poroshenko as economic genocide and promising to reduce prices for household gas by 50% within a month of taking office. The incumbent shot back at his rivals, describing them as puppets of self-exiled billionaire businessman Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who lives in Israel. Mr Zelenskiy and Ms Tymoshenko have rejected those claims. Many political observers have described Ukraines election campaign as a battle between Mr Kolomoyskyi and Mr Poroshenko, who was on Forbes Magazines list of billionaires in 2014 before dropping off the following year. Both the president and Mr Kolomoyskyi have relied on an arsenal of media outlets under their control to exchange blows. Just days before the vote, Mr Kolomoyskyis TV channel aired a new season of the Servant Of The People TV series starring Mr Zelenskiy as Ukraines leader. A leading figure from the food and drink industry has said he is absolutely terrified about the impact of a no-deal Brexit if it leads to the imposition of tariffs on trade with the EU. Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, said a no-deal Brexit would cause enormous amounts of disruption and enormous amounts of difficulty for its members. He told BBC Breakfast: The real problem here is that the disruption that we would have from no deal would very quickly lead to empty shelves, it would lead to more expensive products, and it would lead to a real diminution of choice particularly for people in poorer areas and at the end of distribution chains. Mr Wright said most of the federations members would be horrified by the imposition of tariffs on EU trade, adding: Im absolutely terrified of the prospects for our economy and our food and drink industry by the prospect of tariffs. It will cause enormous amounts of disruption and enormous amounts of difficulty. Brexit-supporting Wetherspoons founder Tim Martin highlighted that leaving the EU will allow the UK to lift existing tariffs on trade with countries outside the bloc. Fears have been raised about increased prices in the event of a no-deal Brexit (Jon Super/PA) Well have far less tariffs on New Zealand wine, on rice, on oranges, on bananas, he told the broadcaster. If we leave the EU without a deal the number of tariffs will be vastly reduced. Firefighters have been tackling a well-developed blaze at a church building. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) was called to Great George Street, in the west end of Glasgow, just after 3am on Sunday. Six fire engines were sent to the scene, where crews have been working to extinguish the flames at the three-storey building. There are no casualties. A spokeswoman for the SFRS said crews were expected to remain in attendance at the scene for some time. Senior politicians from across the political divide have joined together in an effort to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland. Figures including acting Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw, former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and Scottish Green co-convener Patrick Harvie have written in The Sunday Times Scotland saying the legislation change is needed to help provide dignity in death for people who face the most terrible suffering. The nine MSPs, including SNP and Liberal Democrat members, highlight the case of Geoff Whaley, an 80-year-old with motor neurone disease who recently ended his life at a Dignitas facility in Switzerland. In a letter to the newspaper, they claim that 80% of people in Scotland support a change in the law. They write: For some of our colleagues, we understand that there are issues around how we develop safe, robust law. For others, there are concerns that this diminishes the role of palliative care. It is our view that with a more considered debate, and careful thought, we can craft a law that addresses those concerns and draws on the experience of other countries and regions around the world. Assisted Suicide Bill supporter Patrick Harvie speaks at a display outside Holyrood in 2015 (Andrew Milligan/PA) The uncomfortable truth is that we are failing the people we met in parliament this week. We cannot go on pretending the status quo is acceptable it is not. Previous attempts to change the law on assisted dying in Scotland have failed. The politicians at Holyrood now hope to have a formal consultation on assisted suicide towards the end of this parliament. If introduced, Scotland could become the first part of the UK to bring in such legislation. The other MSPs to sign the letter were the SNPs George Adam and Gail Ross; Labours Mary Fee; the Lib Dems Alex Cole-Hamilton and Liam McArthur; and Conservative Michelle Ballantyne. The commander of a battalion in the largest infantry regiment in the British Army said he would welcome his daughters serving on the front line. Last October, the Army announced it was changing its long-held rule that only men could serve in frontline combat roles. Commanding Officer of Co Antrim-based 2 Rifles Sam Cates likened the change to the Army finally allowing openly gay men and women to serve in 2000. Speaking to the Press Association while leading his battalion on Exercise Askari Storm in Kenya, Lieutenant Colonel Cates said he was aware of at least one female officer that he expects to join The Rifles in the next year. Lt Col Cates said he is excited to see women on the front line, and when asked how he would react to any of his three daughters serving, he said he would be absolutely thrilled. In my first 10 months in the Army, the statement was issued saying it was OK to be gay in the army. Nothing changed, some came out, some didnt, he said. The bar has been lifted on women in the British Army serving on the front line. (Ministry of Defence/Crown Copyright) Exactly the same will happen (with women in infantry regiments). So far we have only selected 50% of the population, so why wouldnt you open yourself up to 100%. I am really up for it, really excited. I hope it will be during my command tour. A Rifleman from 2 Rifles listens to a briefing while on exercise Askari Storm in Kenya. (Rebecca Black/PA) Lt Col Cates said the decision to allow women to serve on the front line was taken by commanders including those who had seen action with the Parachute Regiment, Special Forces and the Rifles. We need to be a 21st century Army. This is the right thing to do, he said. I am the father of three little girls, if they wanted to join the Rifles, I would be absolutely thrilled. I really would. Soldiers from 2 Rifles take part in Exercise Askari Storm in Kenya. (Robbie Hodgson/Crown Forces/PA) He was speaking to Press Association while leading his battalion on the challenging training exercise Askari Storm in central Kenya designed to test their readiness to deploy to Kabul next year. 2 Rifles, who are based at Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn, Co Antrim, are spending seven weeks in Kenya close to the Equator, taking part in challenging exercises in extreme conditions, including temperatures up to 40 degrees and basic living conditions. They spent the first two weeks training in Laikipia Province before moving to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Simba, close to Archers Post from where they spent nights in the African bush under the stars. 2nd Battalion The Rifles are currently in Kenya on Exercise ASKARI STORM. The Battalion spent the first two weeks training in Laikipia Province before moving to FOB SIMBA, at Archers Post, where we caught up with them in the searing 37C heat for week three of the exercise. The Battalion operated out of FOB SIMBA for the Centurion phase of the exercise, which consisted of Company level training, live firing and defensive phases. #Swift&Bold The Rifles British Army Training Unit, Kenya - BATUK Posted by Armed Forces in Northern Ireland on Sunday, March 24, 2019 It includes long marches carrying kit weighing up between 20-40kg and taking part in simulated attacks. One of these was a night-long advance supported by the Kenya Defence Forces to find the enemy acted by the Queens Dragoons Guards defending a remote FOB. A soldier from the Queens Dragoon Guards plays the enemy in Kenya, defending a forward operating base (fob) from an attack by 2 Rifles. (Robbie Hodgson/Crown Forces/PA) Lt Col Cates said the exercise was to prepare 2 Rifles for their next deployment to Kabul next year. He said he has been staggered by how well his men have coped with the challenging conditions. Every single time I have been to see them training, I have just been amazed at how professional they are, how much enthusiasm they have for the job and how proud they are making me. Large-scale pig farming could ruin the beautiful scenery near where Game Of Thrones was filmed, one of the actors has said. Jerome Flynn plays Ser Bronn of the Blackwater in the hugely successful HBO fantasy series. It was partly shot at dramatic locations around Northern Ireland. Flynn said: Its a majestic, beautiful land which, as soon as you bring in a factory farm, is completely ruined. Its polluted. People wont want to walk there anymore. It becomes dangerous for children to play there. Lets subsidise the local farmers who want to ethically rear their animals and want to give them a life thats worth living, the free life that they deserve. Lets support them rather than pouring money into an industry which is threatening the whole balance of the ecosystem. Northern Irelands Audit Office, a public spending watchdog, has begun an investigation into payments which subsidise owners of anaerobic digesters which create electricity from animal waste. Subsidies in Northern Ireland are more valuable than in the rest of the UK, campaigners against the process said. Lobby group Farms Not Factories is concerned the green scheme aimed at reducing reliance on fossil fuels has encouraged the construction of large-scale farms. It calls them pig factories in Northern Ireland and suggested 14 such facilities were seeking planning permission. Digesters require significant amounts of animal waste to run. They use the organic material to create a biogas like methane, which is then converted to electricity. Payments to companies which generate electricity from renewables like biogas come from a levy on electricity bills. The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) says theres no evidence that the introduction of anaerobic digestion plants was driving growth in pig farming in the region. (Owen Humphreys/PA) Tracy Worcester, director of the Farms Not Factories campaign group, said: We can use the power of our purse to only buy from real farms, not animal factories. When buying pork, look for the high welfare labels Outdoor Bred, RSPCA Assured, Free Range or best of all Organic. When waste is produced by a moderate number of animals on a farm, it is not pollution but a fertiliser. The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) said there was no evidence the introduction of anaerobic digestion plants was driving growth in pig farming in the region. UFU deputy-president Victor Chestnutt said: Northern Ireland prides itself on its small family farming structure. We are recognised globally as a world-class food producing region, punching far above our weight in many respects. When it comes to anaerobic digestion, there is no evidence to suggest that the introduction of AD plants have encouraged a growth in pig farming. Anyone saying so is clutching at straws and lacks a basic understanding of NIs agricultural industry. The UFUs Victor Chestnutt (Cliff Donaldson/PA) He added: In terms of biogas yield, pig slurry only produces 15-25 m3/t compared to grass silage which produces 160-200 m3/t, which makes it unattractive for anaerobic digestion. It is also not accurate that Northern Ireland AD plants receive four times as much subsidy as those in GB. The two subsidy systems are set up differently and cannot be compared like-for-like. Up until mid-2014, sub-500kW AD plants in GB received 15.8p per kW hour in feed-in tariffs. These payments have reduced but AD plants in GB are eligible for other subsidy payments, like the renewable heat incentive scheme, which cannot be claimed in NI. There are many environmental and economic benefits to anaerobic digestion, which recycles agricultural and other organic wastes into renewable energy and natural fertiliser. It is a vital technology for decarbonising agriculture, managing waste and generating renewable energy in Northern Ireland. A would-be robber bit off part of a mans earlobe at a shop in Belfast. A 21-year-old man was arrested following the attempted robbery in north Belfast. The PSNI said a man entered an off licence on the Antrim Road at around 7.40pm on Saturday. The man grabbed a female staff member, putting her in a headlock and demanded cash before being tackled by two other male staff members. A police spokesman said: During the ensuing altercation with the staff, the would-be robber bit off part of the earlobe of one of the male employees. The intruder was then restrained by a male customer until police arrived a few minutes later. Part of a mans earlobe has been bitten off by a would-be robber at a shop in Belfast (Niall Carson/PA) This customer left the store a short time after police arrival and I am appealing for him to get in touch with us on 101. The arrested male remains in custody at present. Theresa May has been warned by one of her senior ministers that she cannot afford to ignore the will of Parliament if it unites around a softer Brexit. With MPs set to hold a second round of indicative votes on alternatives to the Prime Ministers deal on Monday, Justice Secretary David Gauke said she would have to look closely at any option that could command a majority. After 170 Tory MPs including 10 members of the Cabinet wrote to Mrs May urging her to take the UK out of the EU quickly as possible, Mr Gauke reiterated he would resign rather than support a no-deal break. Despite MPs rejecting Mrs Mays deal for a third time on Friday, Downing Street has made clear that she intends to to bring it back to the Commons for a fourth vote possibly on Tuesday or Wednesday. Mr Gauke said that while he believed it still remained the best option, the Government had to accept that so far it did not have the numbers to get it through Parliament. Justice Secretary David Gauke on The Andrew Marr Show (Jeff Overs/BBC/PA) He said that if MPs did coalesce around a plan by veteran Tory Ken Clarke for a customs union which came closest to securing a majority in the last round of votes ministers should be prepared to consider it. Mrs May has so far strongly rejected the idea of a customs union, saying it went against the Conservative general election manifesto and would prevent Britain striking trade deals around the world. Any move to accept a customs union would infuriate Brexiteers and would almost certainly lead to ministerial resignations. However Mr Gauke told BBC1s The Andrew Marr Show: If Parliament is voting overwhelmingly against leaving the European Union without a deal but is voting in favour of a softer Brexit, then I dont think its sustainable to ignore Parliaments position and therefore leave without a deal. He added: I think we also have to recognise my party does not have the votes to get its manifesto position through the House of Commons at the moment. We are in an environment when it is not just about going for your first choice. Sometimes you do have to accept your second or third choice in order to avoid an outcome you consider to be even worse. His comments come amid fears among Brexiteers that the indicative vote process controlled by a cross-party group of MPs led by former minister Sir Oliver Letwin will inevitably lead to a softer Brexit. No 10 hopes that pressure will lead to more Brexiteers reluctantly backing Mrs Mays deal after it cut the majority against it from 230 and 149 in the first two votes to 58 on Friday. Mr Gauke, who along with fellow pro-EU ministers Amber Rudd and Greg Clark, previously made clear he could not support a no-deal Brexit, said he would resign if that happened. My position is that it is not the responsible thing for a government to do, to leave without a deal in these circumstances, so obviously I wouldnt be able to remain a member of the Government that pursued that as a policy, he said. With the Government now up against a new EU deadline of April 12, ministers played down suggestions that Mrs May could call a snap general election to break the deadlock. Sir John Major has said there may have to be a government of national unity (Jeff Overs/BBC/PA) Deputy party chairman James Cleverly acknowledged sensible and pragmatic preparations were under way in case Mrs May was forced to go to the country early, but insisted that was not their plan. I dont think an election would solve anything. Time is of the essence, we have got Brexit to deliver. We dont want to add any more unnecessary delay, he told Sky Newss Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme. Mrs May, meanwhile, was said to be 100% focused on building support for her agreement, with a view to bringing it back for yet another attempt to get it through the Commons. However, former prime minister Sir John Major warned that if Parliament was unable to agree a way forward there could come a point where there would have to be a government of national unity. I think it would be in the national interest to have a cross-party government so that we can take decisions without the chaos that were seeing in Parliament at the moment where every possible alternative is rejected, he told The Andrew Marr Show. Mr Gauke said he did not believe the idea was workable, saying: I dont in all honesty think that it is practical. Meanwhile, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry launched a highly personal attack on Mrs May, saying her judgment was impaired and she was out of control. Even with just days to go she is just saying It is my deal or no deal. That is not meaningful, that is not democracy. That is Theresa May stamping her feet and saying I want this, no one else is allowed to do anything,' she told Sky Newss Sophy Ridge On Sunday. No wonder she is in trouble. She is out of control. She is not listening to anyone. No one knows what it is that she is going to do next. I think her judgment has been undermined. A Welsh soldier has said it is better fun playing the enemy as his battalion challenged an infantry counterpart ahead of their deployment to Afghanistan. Trooper Thomas Ashley Hopkins, 26, from Merthyr Tydfil, is one of the 1st Queens Dragoon Guards personnel testing 2 Rifles readiness to deploy next year as part of Exercise Askari Storm in Kenya. Co Antrim-based 2 Rifles are facing a gruelling exercise in bushland in a remote part of the African nation, contending with temperatures reaching the high 30s. A soldier from the Queens Dragoon Guards plays the enemy in Kenya, defending a forward operating base (fob) from an attack by 2 Rifles. (Robbie Hodgson/Crown Forces/PA) Trooper Hopkins was involved in defending a forward operating base (fob) from an attack by 2 Rifles working with the Kenyan Defence Forces. So we are trying to provide 2 Rifles with a free thinking enemy and trying to test them before they deploy to Afghanistan, and its going well, he said. Its better playing the enemy, you try to get one up over them. Members of the Queens Dragoon Guards defend a forward operating base (fob) in Kenya from an attack by 2 Rifles during a training exercise. (Robbie Hodgson/Crown Forces/PA) The Merthyr man has been in the Queens Dragoon Guards (QDG) for 18 months after transferring from the Parachute Regiment. I never really knew about the QDG to be honest until I looked into transferring, he said. I made the transfer, most people think the Welsh Guards are the main regiment for Welsh boys, but the QDG also recruit from south Wales. I was 19 when I first joined the Parachute Regiment, I got discharged on medical grounds for doing my ligaments in my ankle during selection. Its not as tough as people think, its genuinely not, it was just bad luck that I got injured. I came back in 2015 and went back to the Parachute Regiment, but transferred over to the Queens Dragoon Guards. I enjoy where I am now, and vehicles make life a bit easier. Although we do a lot of dismounted work as well. Im a vehicle operator and heavy machine gunner. While the dirt tracks in the African bush proved difficult driving conditions, Trooper Hopkins described Salisbury Plain as the hardest conditions he has had to drive in. Over the last 18 months I have done battle group exercises with Wessex Storm and deployed to north-east Poland as a deterrent to Russian threat, he said. Trooper Hopkins described the deployment to Poland as being in a town close to forests, a short distance from the border with Russia. We were out there as a deterrent, its more of a show of force from Nato and reassuring Europe. There wasnt a lot to do, Id rather be doing what 2 Rifles are doing here. There was a tender moment during the Duke and Duchess of Sussexs wedding ceremony which encapsulated their shared dream of starting a family. When the Dean of Windsor spoke of marriage being the foundation of family life in which children are born and nurtured, Harry looked into his brides eyes and smiled. Harry and Meghan in St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle during their wedding service (Jonathan Brady/PA) The pair both have long held ambitions to become parents. Meghan once described motherhood as being on her bucket list, while Harry has often told how he would love to have children. So it came as no surprise when Kensington Palace made the announcement, just five months after the royal wedding, that the duchess was expecting. Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a baby in the Spring of 2019. pic.twitter.com/Ut9C0RagLk The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 15, 2018 The topic had even cropped up in the couples engagement interview. You know, I think one step at a time, and hopefully well start a family in the near future, Harry said. In the run-up to the wedding, Meghan also hinted at starting her own brood. Sinead Murphy from Shnuggle baby products shows Prince Harry and Meghan Markle a baby bath during a visit to Catalyst Inc science park in Belfast (Niall Carson/PA) On a trip to Belfast less than two months before their big day, Meghan joked when she was shown an innovative range for newborns: Im sure at some point well need the whole (lot). It was in an interview in 2016, that she said becoming a mother was on her bucket list. I cant wait to start a family, but in due time, she said then. Prince Harry with nephew Prince George and niece Princess Charlotte, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the palace balcony for Trooping the Colour (Steve Parsons/PA) Harry revealed in 2015, before he met Meghan, that seeing his brothers family continue to grow made him wish he had children of his own. Of course I would love to have kids right now but theres a process that one has to go through Harry said. Hopefully Im doing all right by myself. It would be great to have someone else next to me to share the pressure, but you know, time will come and whatever happens, happens. The Duke of Sussex serves a hot healthy lunch to children during a visit to a community centre (Chris Jackson/PA) He is already godfather to five or six of his friends children, and also more recently to Zara and Mike Tindalls youngest daughter Lena. I think the key to that is to be able to grow up, but also be able to stay in touch with your childhood side, Harry added of being good at the role. Harry with bridesmaids and a page boy after the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey in 2011 (Matt Cardy/PA) The duke is known for being at ease with youngsters, but Meghan has also impressed onlookers with her affectionate nature when meeting children on royal engagements. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex receive native flowers from Finley Blue and Dasha Gallagher at Taronga Zoo in Sydney (Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA) When two-year-old Catalina Rivera crept through the railings during a walkabout by Harry and Meghan in Rotorua, New Zealand, she was rewarded with a hug from the duchess. The former actress, who shot to fame playing paralegal Rachel Zane in the US drama Suits, already has two fairy god-daughters. She described the children of her close friend Benita Litt as such in a 2016 post on her since deleted Instagram account, and the girls Remi and Rylan were among her bridesmaids at her wedding. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have released three official photographs from their Wedding day. These photographs were taken by photographer Alexi Lubomirski at Windsor Castle, following the carriage procession. #RoyalWedding pic.twitter.com/WBim9EkI4D The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) May 21, 2018 The duchesss father Thomas Markle had also spoken of Meghans hopes of becoming a mother. He said on ITVs Good Morning Britain in an interview a month after the wedding: Shes wanted children for a long time and when she met Harry and she spoke about how much she loves him, theres got to be a child in the making, somewhere soon. Harry has previously shown off his fatherly credentials in his interactions with nephew Prince George in front of Barack and Michelle Obama. Prince Harry hosts Michelle Obama @FLOTUS for tea at Kensington Palace earlier today pic.twitter.com/EbFTiTf3r9 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) June 16, 2015 When the then-US president and his wife visited the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Harry in 2016 at Kensington Palace, they saw George and his uncle together. Mrs Obama said about Harry: I have to say the most precious thing if you havent already fallen in love with him, is to see him with his nephew. But it appeared Harry was on his best behaviour, as Mrs Obama said of George: He said Uncle Harry, why are you so quiet? Why are you so quiet?' Meghan has given Harry the best endorsement, telling a well-wisher during a royal visit to Merseyside in January he will make a fantastic father. It is 4am in a remote location in central Kenya, and there is the distant sound of gunfire. Protecting a tiny forward operating base (FOB) a very long way from home, the 1st Battalion Queens Dragoon Guards are settled into layers of defensive positions. The outline of the soldiers can barely been seen in the pre-dawn light hunched over their guns surveying the landscape. The outline of a soldier from the Queens Dragoon Guards taking part in a training exercise in challenging conditions in central Kenya. (Rebecca Black/PA) It has been a night of trying to sleep on a narrow cot pitched on the red sand, listening to muffled conversations of the commanders and faint shuffles of soldiers patrolling the perimeter, occasionally silhouetted against the bright full moon in the sky overhead. There is a pervading sense of watchfulness in every direction as just a few miles away, the soldiers of 2 Rifles supported by the Kenyan Defence Forces inch closer with plans to uphold their reputation as thinking Riflemen and their motto with a swift and bold attack. As dawn eventually creeps in, there are the flashes and thuds of explosions and the sound of gunfire. Simulated explosions at dawn as 2 Rifles launch an attack on a remote forward operating base (FOB) in Kenya as part of Exercise Askari Storm. (Rebecca Black/PA) While every detail of the scene feels eerily real, it is in fact a training exercise designed to challenge 2 Rifles to prove they are battle ready. The blasts are simulated with pyrotechnics, the guns are fitted with blanks and the soldiers wear sensors which when hit with lasers from the guns indicate whether the wearer has been injured or killed, and should withdraw. But there is no faking the challenging terrain which include bushes with thorns so sharp they can tear apart a leather boot or wildlife including scorpions and snakes, not to mention to searing heat and the kit the soldiers are carrying over all those miles that can weigh up to 40kgs. A soldier from the 1st Dragoon Guards defends a remote forward operating base (FOB) in Kenya during Exercise Askari Storm. (Rebecca Black/PA) There is also no faking that by this stage the soldiers have been living in this climate in basic conditions for three tough weeks already. Around 400 soldiers from 2 Rifles and the Kenyan Defence Forces have fought across 15km of this challenging landscape overnight, building bridges and encountering the enemy enroute before laying siege to the FOB where a ferocious sounding gun battle ensues. 2 Rifles and Kenyan Defence Forces launch an attack on a remote forward operating base (FOB) in Kenya during Exercise Askari Storm. (Robbie Hodgson/Crown Forces/PA) The exercise, which is undertaken by six British battalions every year, is tough, but it is designed to prepare these infantry soldiers physically and mentally for whatever deployment they may find themselves in. For 2 Rifles, that next deployment will be Kabul in 2020, but with the battalion due to be on readiness from April 1, these soldiers could be sent anywhere in the world as the sharp end of the UKs international relations if the delicate balance of diplomacy should falter. The extreme heat which soldiers faced on a challenging exercise in central Kenya was one of the biggest worries for the medical staff working to support them. Soldiers taking part in Exercise Askari Storm were advised to drink six litres of water a day in the remote area of African bush close to Archers Post where temperatures can reach 40 degrees. While carrying the extra water makes their kit even heavier, the fluids were essential to ensure they were able to keep soldiering on. Soldiers from 2 Rifles take a break during the hottest part of the day while on Exercise Askari Storm in Kenya where temperatures can reach the high 30s. (Robbie Hodgson/Crown Forces/PA) Captain Kate Taylor, a general duties medical officer from Harrogate in Yorkshire, explained there are two teams of medics on exercise with the soldiers one focused on actual injuries and another dealing with simulated injuries. We have two different teams of medical cover working out here. I am part of the PHTT which is the Pre Hospital Treatment Team which is real-life support, so any actual casualties that soldiers sustain, she said. There is another team called the RAP, the Regiment Aid Post, which is looking after the simulated casualties to exercise the whole medical team. Capt Taylor said the heat had been an inevitable factor but they had not seen an extraordinary level of injuries on the exercise. Lance Corporal Rosanna Rowbotham, a medic for 2 Rifles B Company took part in Exercise Askari Storm in Kenya. (Robbie Hodgson/Crown Forces/PA) For Lance Corporal Rosanna Rowbotham, a medic attached to Co Antrim-based B Company of 2 Rifles, her primary task was to treat the simulated casualties. This kind of environment definitely puts you to your limits with the heat and carrying the weight around, she said. Most of the injuries are muscular or skeletal, guys rolling ankles carrying weight and back injuries. They are more common than your actual battlefield injuries and heat-related injuries. Soldiers from 2 Rifles cool down with ice cream in high temperatures on Exercise Askari Storm in Kenya. (Robbie Hodgson/Crown Forces/PA) L/Cpl Rowbotham, who is from Norfolk, said she tends to be positioned at the back of the infantry soldiers with the Sergeant Major. If a guy notices their mucker is going down, we tell them to strip them down, fan them, cool them with a spray bottle, give them water if they can, put them in the shade and then I start moving forward to assess how severe the casualty is, she said. The guys here have learned quickly that they need to drink a lot more than they would back in the UK. We are talking six litres upwards in this sort of climate, and if you are patrolling you need to increase that again. It makes the kit a lot heavier, which hinders them in this heat, but it is a vital part of keep them soldiering in this environment. Captain Kate Taylor, an army medic, was among those taking part in Exercise Askari Storm in Kenya. (Deborah Lowe/Crown Forces/PA) Capt Taylor revealed that she joined the army after feeling undecided about which speciality to pick during her medical training in the NHS. I didnt know what speciality to do when I finished my foundation year training in the NHS so I joined the army to do something different, she said. I really enjoy it. Its the best thing I have ever done and I have been to lots of different countries and different environments around the world, including the jungle, desert and eastern Europe, and now Kenya. Its quite challenging. It is different for us than the NHS because I am working with combat medical technicians who are very highly trained soldiers but without any actual medical qualifications, so I help to teach them and often they help to teach me as well. I think here I have learned a lot that would probably be useful when I go back to the NHS, mostly thats around tropical medicine. There are also injuries and illnesses that you have to deal with out here that you wont necessarily deal with back home, such as snake bites and scorpion stings they dont happen very often in the UK. The SNP MP behind a revised plan to revoke Article 50 if a no-deal scenario seems inevitable has said she has been approached by many Labour MPs who want to back it. Joanna Cherry QC said she has been working closely with some Labour politicians to find a more palatable way of wording the proposal. Scottish Labour MP Paul Sweeney has suggested that he and others are sympathetic to the idea, which he described as a sensible safeguard. MPs are preparing to take control of the Commons timetable with a second series of indicative votes on Brexit, starting on Monday, in a bid to find a plan which can command a majority in the House. SNP MP Joanna Cherry has proposed a way to rule out a no-deal Brexit (House of Commons/PA) Ms Cherry has confirmed that she has tabled a fresh version of her motion that calls for Article 50 the mechanism for leaving the European Union to be revoked in certain circumstances. Under the reworked motion, if the UK gets to April 10, the date of a European Council summit, without a deal, an extension to Article 50 will be sought. If that extension is not granted, the UK Government would then be mandated to put a vote on no deal before the Commons. Ms Cherry told BBC Scotland: Were confident that that will be defeated, and the motion goes on to say that if the vote for no deal is defeated, the Government must revoke Article 50. The reworked version also provides for a public inquiry to be set up within three months of revocation to look at Britains future relationship with the EU and whether a majority can get behind it. Ms Cherry said the proposal has been tabled for Monday, although it will be up to the Speaker to decide which motions are selected. Speaking on the Sunday Politics Scotland programme, she said: Ive worked very closely with some Labour MPs who didnt feel able to support the way it was worded last time to craft it into a form thats more palatable for them. The MP continued: I dont know if Labour are going to whip for it yet, but I have been proactively approached by many Labour MPs who didnt vote for it last time who want to support it this time round. Asked whether Labour as a whole could support the plan put forward by Ms Cherry, Mr Sweeney responded: Well were sympathetic to it, but well see what happens next week. I think its certainly a very sensible safeguard. On Labours way forward, he told the show: Its about building a coalition that is going to come together and actually establish a majority for a way forward in Parliament. We are clear that some of the compromise options around a customs union and Common Market 2.0, as its known, is a clear runner. But we also want to make sure that any deal is subject to a confirmatory public vote. On the question of whether a reasonably long extension to Article 50 is now inevitable, he said: I think it is inevitable. The prospect of crashing out with no deal is just so unpalatable to anyone, even the Government, in my opinion, that they wouldnt entertain it. Leaders meeting in Tunisia for the annual Arab League summit were united in their condemnation of Trump administration policies seen as unfairly biased toward Israel. This years summit comes against a backdrop of ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen, rival authorities in Libya and a lingering boycott of Qatar by four fellow League members. Algerias president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Sudans president Omar al-Bashir skipped the meeting as they contend with mass protests against their long reigns. Arab leaders pose for the camera ahead of the summit (Zoubeir Souissi/AP) Representatives from the 22-member league not including Syria aim to jointly condemn US President Donald Trumps recognition of Israeli control over the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war, and Mr Trumps decision last year to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital. But they remain divided on a host of other issues, including whether to readmit founding member Syria. At the opening of the summit, King Salman said Saudi Arabia absolutely rejects any measures undermining Syrias sovereignty over the Golan Heights and supports the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with east Jerusalem as its capital. He added that Irans meddling was to blame for instability in the region. Saudi Arabias King Salman attends the summit (Fethi Belaid/AP/) One of the few things that has united the Arab League over the last 50 years is the rejection of Israels occupation of the Golan Heights as well as east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories seized in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for their future state. The international community, including the United States, largely shared that position until Mr Trump upended decades of US policy by moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem last year and recognising Israels 1981 annexation of the strategic Golan plateau earlier this month. The Arab leaders meeting in Tunisia are expected to issue a statement condemning those moves, but are unlikely to take any further action. This is in part because regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have cultivated close ties with the Trump administration, viewing it as a key ally against their main rival, Iran. Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi chairs the opening session (Fethi Belaid/AP) Both face Western pressure over their devastating three-year war with Yemens Houthi rebels, and Riyadh is still grappling with the fallout from the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents last year. Lebanons foreign minister Gebran Bassil said on Saturday that Arab ministers had voiced support in a preparatory meeting for a declaration that Mr Trumps Golan move violates the UN Charter, which prohibits acquiring territories by force. In Syria, small protests against Mr Trumps Golan move were held in different parts of the country and state media criticised the Arab summit. The Golan is not awaiting support from the Arabs, and not a statement to condemn what Trump has done, the Thawra newspaper said in an editorial that accused Arab leaders of taking their orders from the US and Israel. Tunisian protesters burn a representation of the Israeli flag at a demonstration against the summit in downtown Tunis (Hussein Malla/AP) The Arab League is expected to consider readmitting Syria, a founding member that was expelled in the early days of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad. But officials speaking ahead of the meeting said it was unlikely Syria would be welcomed back anytime soon. The United Arab Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus last year, and other Arab states have expressed support for restoring relations. Tunisian riot police in Tunis push back protesters at a demonstration against the summit (Hussein Malla/AP) But Saudi Arabia and Qatar have actively supported the rebels trying to overthrow Mr Assad, and many other states view his government as an Iranian proxy that should be shunned. In a rare sign of easing tensions across another regional rift, King Salman and Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sat at the same sprawling table when the heads of delegations met on Sunday. It is the first time the two leaders have appeared in the same room since Saudi Arabia led the boycott of Qatar nearly two years ago over Dohas ties to Iran and its support for regional Islamist groups. A man has been seriously injured after he was hit by a reversing car. The 36-year-old was in Glasgows Bath Lane on Friday afternoon when he was struck by a BMW coming out of a garage. He was taken by ambulance to the citys Royal Infirmary, where medical staff describe his condition as serious. The 51-year-old driver was not injured in the incident, which happened at around 4.30pm. Sergeant Kenny Malaney, of the road policing unit, said: From our inquiries we know that a man in a white van stopped to assist after the incident, however, unfortunately he left prior to police arriving. We would be keen to speak to him as he may have some information that could assist our inquiries. The injured man was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary (David Cheskin/PA) Anyone with information can contact the road policing unit in Glasgow via 101. Please quote incident number 3176 of the 29 March 2018. Firefighters remain at the scene of a serious blaze at a church building. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) was called to the well-developed fire at Great George Street, in the west end of Glasgow, just after 3am on Sunday. Six fire engines were sent to the scene and crews have been working over a number of hours to extinguish the flames at the three-storey building. An SFRS spokeswoman confirmed that crews were still at the scene 12 hours after they were alerted to the fire. There were no reports of any casualties. It is understood the building was being converted into flats. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service sent six engines to the scene (Jane Barlow/PA) Police Scotland said a joint investigation involving the fire service and police is being carried out to establish the cause of the blaze. A spokeswoman said: Inquiries are continuing. Proposed changes to Hong Kongs extradition law, allowing suspects to be sent to mainland China, have been met with concerns from business and human rights groups. Opponents to the move, which could see suspects subject to torture and unfair prosecution, have said it will harm the Asian financial hubs attractiveness to international business. Hong Kong currently limits such extraditions to jurisdictions with which it has existing extradition agreements or to others on an individual basis under a law passed before the semi-autonomous territorys handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997. China was excluded because of concerns over its poor record on legal independence and human rights. Protesters hold banners reading `Hong Kong Independence during the march (Vincent Yu/AP) But changes to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance would expand the scope for the transfer of criminal suspects to China and remove the legislatures right to scrutinise individual extradition decisions filed by Hong Kongs chief executive. Thousands of members of the citys beleaguered pro-democracy camp marched to government headquarters on Sunday, an unusually large turnout for such events in recent years. The number of people turning up highlights the concerns of Hong Kong people, Alan Leong, chairman of the Hong Kong Civic Party, told participants. Hong Kong people have complete lack of confidence in the independence and impartiality of the judicial system in China, Albert Ho, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China, said. Protesters demonstrate in Hong Kong (Vincent Yu/AP) Police put the number of participants at 5,000, while participants said at least 10,000 had turned out. In a statement issued on Sunday, Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said: These amendments would heighten the risk for human rights activists and others critical of China being extradited to the mainland for trial on fabricated charges. The amendments would tarnish Hong Kongs reputation for the rule of law, and should be scrapped. She added that the legal changes would put Hong Kong people at risk of torture and unfair trials. These concerns were reflected in a letter to Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam authored by Human Rights Watch along with the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor and the local branch of Amnesty International. A protester holds Union Jacks during the march (Vincent Yu/AP) The groups warned that fear of extradition to China which routinely uses trumped-up charges of tax evasion or other economic crimes to punish political critics could stifle civil society and freedom of speech in Hong Kong, where civil liberties are already under assault from pro-Beijing groups. In recent years, several people connected with a Hong Kong publishing house that produced unflattering books about mainland Chinese leaders have appeared in Chinese police custody after apparently being abducted, along with a prominent business person wanted on the mainland. Unlike China, Hong Kong is subject to the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as customary international law, which prohibit returning people to places where there is a real risk of torture and other ill-treatment, unfair trials, and other serious human rights violations, the letter said. Separately, the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong issued a letter saying its members continue to have serious concerns about the proposed changes, stating they would reduce the appeal of Hong Kong to international companies considering Hong Kong as a base for regional operations. Hong Kongs international reputation for the rule of law is its priceless treasure, the letter stated. A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman was found injured in a north London street. Police were called to Enfield by the London Ambulance Service at about 5.50pm on Sunday where they found a woman injured in the street. The Metropolitan Police said the woman, who was in her 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene near the Brookbank building in Turkey Street. Her next of kin have been informed while a post-mortem examination and formal identification will be carried out in due course, the force added. A man was arrested nearby on suspicion of murder and taken to a north London police station, police said. Man arrested after death of woman in Enfield https://t.co/GVeXXlgdzP pic.twitter.com/dT1conGpnb Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) April 7, 2019 The Met said a police cordon remained in place on Sunday night and that officers will be in the area while initial investigations are carried out. A man has been arrested (Joe Giddens/PA) A spokesman added: Police were called to Brookbank, Turkey Street, at 5.49pm on Sunday, April 7, by the London Ambulance Service. A woman, aged in her 20s, was found injured in the street and was sadly pronounced deceased at the scene. A man was arrested nearby on suspicion of murder and he has been taken to a north London police station. Witnesses should call the police on 101, quoting CAD reference 5516/7April, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Ad The Gold Letter An Urgent Message For Any Investor Who's Worried About Inflation As Washington Prepares to hit America with record-setting spending. Worried investors are looking for a way to protect their wealth. Many are looking to invest in gold bars, bullion, and coins. However, this "Backdoor Gold Play" is pumping out twice the returns of gold... American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. 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The company operates through four strategic business units: Canadian Personal and Business Banking; Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; and Capital Markets. The company offers chequing, savings, and business accounts; mortgages; loans, lines of credit, student lines of credit, and business and agriculture loans; investment and insurance services; and credit cards, as well as overdraft protection services. It also provides day-to-day banking, borrowing and credit, investing and wealth, specialty, and international services; correspondent banking and online foreign exchange services; and cash management services. The company serves its customers through its banking centers, as well as direct, mobile, and remote channels. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More Royal Dutch Shell Plc engages in the oil and natural gas production. It operates through the following segments: Integrated Gas, Upstream, Oil Products, Chemicals and Corporate. The Integrated Gas segment manages liquefied natural gas activities and the conversion of natural gas into gas to liquids fuels and other products. The Upstream segment manages the exploration for and extraction of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. The Oil Products segment manages the Refining and Trading, and Marketing classes of business. The Chemicals segment operates manufacturing plants and its own marketing network. The Corporate segment comprises holdings and treasury, self-insurance activities, and headquarters and central functions of the company. The company was founded in February 1907 and is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. Read More There is not enough analysis data for Revolution Bars Group. 5.0 Community Rank Outperform Votes Revolution Bars Group has received 285 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) 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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 There is not enough analysis data for BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Trust. 3.9 Community Rank Outperform Votes BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Trust has received 137 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Trust has received 98 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Trust has received 58.30% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Trust and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe BTZ will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe BTZ will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next The Most Extensive and Reliable Source of Information Related to the Mexican Drugs Cartels. You will not find this level of coverage anywhere else, join us! Send information, pictures or videos, you remain 100% anonymous. Envia fotos, videos, notas, enlaces o informacion todo 100% Anonimo. Borderland Beat? We love to have you in our team, send Sol Prendido or HEARST an email! Want to be a contributor or citizen reporter forBorderland Beat?We love to have you in our team, sendoran email! WARNING: Posts may contain strong violent material, discretion is advised. COMMENTS: We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. This week, the Senate failed to pass a disaster funding bill that would have restored adequate food assistance for more than 1 million Puerto Ricans. Why? While Senate Republicans did include the food assistance funding, they blocked other badly needed money for the islands continuing recovery in the wake of two 2017 hurricanes. Nor did the Senates bill include funds that the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and American Samoa need to avert cuts to their Medicaid programs in coming months. GOP leaders were unable to find 60 votes for this inadequate bill. The solution is right in front of us: The House has approved a disaster funding bill that includes these critical pieces of funding. Policymakers must act now to address the mounting suffering in Puerto Rico and the coming health care crises in the Pacific territories. To avoid further delay, the Senate should adopt the House approach to meeting these needs and Congress should include it in a final disaster bill. Even before Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico in late 2017, poverty and hunger were far more common there than anywhere else in the United States. More than 1 million people in Puerto Rico were food insecure, meaning they sometimes didnt have access to affordable, nutritious food including a whopping 56 percent of Puerto Ricos children, which is more than three times the rate of food insecurity among families with children elsewhere in the United States. Making matters worse, Puerto Ricos Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) operates fundamentally differently than the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (formerly called food stamps) to the detriment of Puerto Rico residents. Under SNAP, which operates in every state and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, everyone eligible who applies receives benefits. So, the program expands automatically in response to immediate needs after a disaster and to rising levels of poverty and unemployment. Under NAP, however, Puerto Rico receives capped funding of about $2 billion a year. Thats not enough to meet Puerto Ricos nutritional needs under ordinary circumstances much less after two hurricanes. Its far less than what the commonwealth would receive if NAP operated like SNAP. After the two hurricanes dissipated, policymakers provided significant funding in October 2017 to enable Puerto Rico to raise NAP benefits and expand the number of people eligible for it. Unfortunately, these funds are now depleted, and NAP benefits have returned to previous low levels. Anticipating that would occur, Gov. Ricardo Rossello in November requested an additional $600 million to maintain NAP benefits at the more adequate levels for about six more months. The House approved the request more than two months ago, but, because the Trump administration opposed the House package, the Senate didnt include the NAP funding in Februarys spending bill to keep the government open. Then, the administration agreed to support a Senate disaster bill that included the NAP funding. But, again, the Senate didnt act before leaving for its March recess and, as a result, about 1.35 million people more than one-third of Puerto Ricos population lost 35 to 40 percent of their food-assistance benefits last month, including more than 300,000 children. Benefits will remain at these reduced levels until policymakers enact additional disaster relief. Over the long run, the nations leaders should restructure NAP so it operates like SNAP. For now, however, Puerto Rico needs the additional infusion of money to prevent more of its people from going without enough to eat. As for Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa all of which suffered widespread destruction from disasters last year they and the other territories suffer from a similar problem in Medicaid that Puerto Rico does in NAP. Unlike the states, where federal funding covers a specified share of their Medicaid funding, the territories receive a fixed amount of federal funding each year. Even under normal circumstances, that funding is inadequate to address their needs. The territories have avoided cutting their Medicaid programs in recent years because they received added federal funds through the Affordable Care Act, beginning in 2011. But Northern Marianas has exhausted its ACA funds this year, and Guam and American Samoa cant provide the matching funds needed to draw down theirs. American Samoa is struggling to find funding for its medical center the islands only Medicaid provider which cares for almost all of the territorys residents. (Three-quarters of American Samoans qualify for Medicaid.) Thus, the House bills funding is critical for the Pacific Island territories to sustain their Medicaid programs through the fiscal year. Policymakers will subsequently need to address Medicaid shortfalls for all of the territories (including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) later in this calendar year. As the richest nation on Earth, we surely can provide the funds to prevent millions of our fellow Americans from suffering unnecessarily. But we need our elected officials in Washington to act. Balmaceda is a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Mumbai: The most sought after filmmaker of Bollywood currently, Zoya Akhtar will announce the nominations for the first-ever Critics Choice Film Awards, a pan-India awards that celebrate the diversity of Indian cinema. At an event in Mumbai, on the 9th of April, Zoya Akhtar along with the Film Critics Guild and Motion Content Group unveil the nominations for the first ever Critics Choice Film Awards. After a successful outing at the Critics Choice Short Film Awards, the Film Critics Guild and Motion Content Group have joined hands once again to present the first-ever Critics Choice Film Awards, a pan-India awards body, which is the only title after the prestigious National Film awards to award filmmaking in eight major languages. The awards will be a celebration of the best of Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam cinema. In December 2018, the Film Critics Guild and Motion Content Group collaborated to announce a one of its kind Critics Choice Short Film Awards. With entries coming in from all parts of the country, a panel comprising of India's top film critics who first curated and shortlisted the nominees. The Guild as a whole then voted for and felicitated the best short films from across the country with the aim of acknowledging and appreciating the rising growth of the industry as a whole. While the short film awards were decided based on entries by filmmakers, the Critics Choice Film Awards will decide on nominees and winners based on theatrical releases from the year 2018. With the participation of credible film critics from all over India, the Critics Choice Film Awards aim to honor films based on the art of filmmaking as opposed to mere popularity. The ceremony of Critics Choice Film Awards will take place on 21st April. Former Miss South India pageant winner and popular model Meera Mitun, who made an impressive debut playing a North Chennai girl in 8 Thottakkal and later seen in Thaana Serndha Koottam, has bagged a meaty role in her next. Titled Bodhai Yeri Budhi Maari, the film is directed by Chandru, a known name in short film circuit. Talking to us Meera says, The title may suggest that the film could be on alcoholism and its menace. It is not! BYBM is an edge-of-the-seat thriller and the title justification comes towards the climax. It deals with an important issue faced by todays youth. When the director narrated the script, I didnt want it to let go off my hand. The story revolves around my character. The film has shaped up well with Balasubramaniem sir who handles camera in a poetic manner helming the cinematography. She adds, People often ask me if I am open to glam role being a Tamilian who are touchy about when it comes to exposing a bit. I come from the modelling world, filled with glitz and glam. So long as the character justifies my role, I am game for glamour. Also, I am ready to go to any extent including tonsuring my head if the role demands. Producer Dil Raju has purchased the remake rights of the Tamil film 96 and will be producing it in Telugu. Sharwanand has been roped in to play the role of the lead actor opposite Samantha while C. Prem Kumar, the director who directed its Tamil version, will be directing this one, too. Raju launched the new film at his office in a simple ceremony on Ugadi. We are going to begin shooting in the second half of this month in Kenya, where we will shoot for 15 days. After we return from Kenya, we will continue its shoot in Vizag and Hyderabad, he said. He also revealed that the film is a feel-good love story. The movies launch was attended by Tollywood directors like Vamshi Paidipalli, Harish Shankar, and Indraganti Mohan Krishna. Chinar trees, found on the Char Chinari island on Dal Lake are one of the most important heritages of the beautiful valley. (Photo: Representational/Pixabay) Srinagar: In an effort to attract tourists and restore the sheen of the famous island Char Chinari located at the Dal Lake, the tourism authorities have come forward to plant two new Chinar trees on the island. It is a popular tourist destination and used to be one of the favourite spots of Bollywood films for shooting movies. Kashmir is popular for its traditional cultures and heritage that has for years attracted tourists from across the world. Chinar trees are one of the most important heritage of the beautiful valley. The small island located in the Dal Lake has always attracted tourists during the Shikara riding. Kashmir is also known as the photographers paradise. Earlier, filmmakers used to prefer shooting their films in Char Chinari, where the majestic Chinars at the four corners of the island were used to increase the beauty of the films. However, two of its trees had decayed over time, especially during the 2014 September floods. Now, the department of tourism in support from Floriculture department of Kashmir have planted two new Chinar trees at this famous Island of Dal Lake. These two Chinar trees will help to restore its glory which will attract more tourists in the future. Hailing the initiative by the authorities, a local resident told ANI, It is a good initiative taken by the authority. Char Chinari has been an important tourist attraction for years. Two of the trees have damaged due to some disease. So the government has taken a very good initiative at the right time. So the glory will get restored with time. A tourist spoke to ANI about the famous island and said, Dal Lake is the most popular and beautiful lake in India. Char Chinaar has a different charm altogether with beautiful snow covered hills and greenery all around. I have come here five to six times and I always feel a sense of relaxation when I visit this place. Kashmiri people always welcome tourists with warmth and love. When we visit this place we also stay in houseboats and the houseboats owner treats us with some delicious delicacies every time. Stakeholders hoped that tourists would start returning to Char Chinari and the Valley in good numbers in the spring and summer seasons. Hyderabad: Home minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali, at a meeting held in Suryapet on Saturday, said that the respect for Muslims in the state has grown under the rule of Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao. When the Centre released, Rs 4,700 crore for welfare of minorities in the budget, the Telangana state alone has allotted, 2,400 crore. When the Congress ruled the state, the budget for welfare of Muslims was only Rs 80 lakh, he said. Mr Ali said a survey has been conducted to ascertain the condition of the minorities in the state which found that a large number of Muslim families were finding it difficult to get their daughters married before the age of 30 years. He said in view of this the TRS government introduced the Shaadi Mubharak scheme. He said the fear of Hindu-Muslim clashes and threat of Maoists have disappeared under the rule of TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao. Kashmiri people also want a leader like KCR, to sort out their crisis, added Mr Ali. Muslims consider Bibi Nacharamma, who was married to Lord Venkateswara, a daughter of the community. Kadapa: This Saturday, on the occasion of Ugadi, which marks the first day of the year according to the Hindu calendar, thousands of Muslim devotees from Kadapa showed up to offer their prayers to Lord Venkateswara. For many years now, hundreds of Muslims have been visiting the Devuni Kadapa Sri Laxmi Venkateswara Swamy temple every year on the day of this festival. This is said to be the result of the communal harmony in Kadapa. Muslims consider Bibi Nacharamma, who was married to Lord Venkateswara, a daughter of the community. Consequently, they consider Lord Venkateswara as their son-in-law and therefore, present gifts to their son-in-law every year on the occasion. In an exclusive interview with Deccan Chronicle, the priests Macha Seshacharyulu and Trivikram explained that this practice has been observed over centuries and that Muslims make the first prayer every year on Ugadi day. Additionally, Muslim devotees present saris and other materials to their daughter Bibi Nancharamma, they said. RLD chief Ch Ajit Singh (left), Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati (centre) and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav (right) wave at the supporters during their joint election campaign rally at Deoband in Saharanpur on Sunday. (Photo: AP) Kolkata/Imphal/ Udaipur (Tripura): Four days before the first phase of Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a simultaneous offensive against the Trinamul, the Congress and the Left. Taking a jibe at the Congress manifesto, Mr Modi said, The grand old party came out with their hypocrisy document of 50-60 pages. They havent mentioned the middle-class even once in the notification. The middle class has long suffered under the Congress rule. Some parties, including the Congress, have said that more taxes should be levied on the middle class. He accused the Congress of blowing the trumpet of Pakistan and attacked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for supporting those calling for breaking India into pieces and demanding two PMs for India. Addressing election rallies in West Bengal, Manipur and Tripura, the PM trained his guns on the Left for joining hands with the Congress to remove him from power. The Congress and the Left are working together to oust Modi. They have stooped too low, singing paeans to Pakistan even when the NDA government is taking on terrorists on the soil of the neighbouring country. Attacking Ms Banerjee in Cooch Bihar, he said, Promises of Maa, Mati, Manush are now on one side while the Trinamuls truth is on the other. For the sake of votes, Didi forgot Maa and has stood up with those who are giving slogans to break India into pieces, he said. He was referring to Ms Banerjees support for National Conference leader Omar Abdullah who recently sought a separate Prime Minister for Jammu and Kashmir. Accusing Ms Banerjee of creating hurdles for development in West Bengal, Mr Modi said speed-breaker Didi has applied brakes on several Central schemes, denying people of the benefits available in other parts of the country. The Trinamul president fired back at Mr Modi from the stage of her rally in Jalpaiguri and accused him of misusing government machinery and institutions to intimidate the Opposition. She also questioned the removal of Andhra Pradesh chief secretary by the EC for alleged model code violation. Addressing his grand poll campaign rally for the second time in North Bengal, this time in Cooch Behar, the PM alleged, Promises of Maa, Mati, Manush are now one side while the Trinamuls truth is on the other. For the sake of votebank politics Didi however forgot Maa and has stood up with those who are giving slogans to break India into pieces. This is an insult to Maa. Didi, you have also committed treachery with Mati by protecting the infiltrators for political gains. She has crushed all hopes of Manush by handing over West Bengal to the goons of the Trinamul. At a rally in Manipurs Imphal, the Prime Minis-ter said, The Congress is helping spread propaganda of Pakistan across the world... Congress hypoc-risy document seems to blow the trumpet of Pakistan more than that of India. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. Hyderabad: YSR Congress Member of Parliament Vijaya Sai Reddy lodged a complaint against V. Radhakrishna, managing director of Telugu news channel ABN, at the Jubilee Hills police station on Sunday. The complaint said the TV channel had telecast a fake audio tape, which tarnished Mr Reddys reputation. The complaint states: The ABN channel, using a person from Australia to impersonate my voice, ran a story as if I was being critical of my party chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. I don't know certain words attributed to my voice. The voice in the recording says: The people of Andhra Pradesh dont have self respect and commitment compared to the people of Telangana state. Inspector K. Balakrishna Reddy of the Jubilee Hills police station said, Questioning the authenticity of the recorded voice, Reddy has filed a complaint with the Jubilee Hills police, with the evidence, saying it has defamed him. The police are taking legal opinion before registering the case. The complaint alleged that there is a big conspiracy behind the telecast and that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was behind it. The complaint requested the police to file a case under section 153A of the Indian Penal Code and as an election offence under section 125 of the Representation of the People Act. Nirmal: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday criticised the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the promoting communal hatred in politics to divide the people in order to get the votes. While addressing a public meeting in Nirmal, Mr Rao questioned why the BJP was criticising him for his belief in Yagam and astrology. He said he would give prasadam to Mr Modi after performing puja if the Prime Minister visited him. Mr Rao alleged that the BJP was playing cheap politics of communal in nature instead of talking about the development issues and other problems. Mr alleged that Mr Modi was dividing people of the country on communal lines and said that India was the only country where people of different religions practice their own faith with harmony. He criticised Mr Modi for cheating the people of the country by promising to deposit `15 lakh in bank accounts of individuals, 10 crore jobs and bringing back black money stashed in banks abroad. PERAMBALUR: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday accused that the Congress of spoiling Indias and Tamil Nadus culture during its rule, adding the grand old party was now attempting to get to power through backdoor. Singh made this observation while addressing a poll campaign meeting in favour of the Perambalur Lok Sabha constituency AIADMK Candidate N.R Sivapathy here. He said not only the leaders of the Congress but also its alliance party leaders are in jail and bail and asked how they could give good governance to the country. The Congress front is a drowning ship,he said, adding, the BJP-front led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would sweep the Lok Sabha elections and form the government at the centre again. Listing various achievements of the BJP government, he said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) declared that India is a fast-growing economy in the world. He said it has provided housing facility to 1.30 crore people and reached individual toilet facility at 95 per cent of the rural people against 40 per cent during 60-year rule of Congress. He also assured the establishment of a special economic zone for Perambalur, and a rail link between Perambalur and Ariyalur if the BJP was returned to power. Recalling the surgical strike against Pakistan and attack on Balakot, Mr. Rajnath said that the surgical strike was in retaliation to the Pulwama terror attack, that too within 15 days; the attack against Balakot in Pakistan was never an attack against the defense forces or general public of Pakistan, but only to send out a message that if they crossed their limit, we are ready to face it. New Delhi: Rahul Gandhis decision to contest from Wayanad shows he has the confidence to win from both north and south India, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said on Sunday and asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have the courage to fight from a seat in Kerala or Tamil Nadu. With Mr Gandhi contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Keralas Wayanad constituency, there is palpable excitement across the southern states that the next prime minister could be elected from the the region, Mr Tharoor told PTI in an interview. Mr Tharoor also slammed Mr Modi and the BJP for suggesting that Mr Gandhi chose Wayanad to run away from majority dominated areas, saying the ruling party has repeatedly resorted to peddling bigotry. It was dismaying that this was coming from the prime minister, he added. By reinforcing his role as a torchbearer for the BJPs bigotry, Mr Modi has disregarded the principled position that a prime minister of India must be a prime minister for all Indians, he told PTI from Thiruvananthapuram. Addressing a rally in Wardha in Maharashtra, the prime minister had said the opposition party was scared to field its leaders from constituencies where the majority dominates. PTI Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. The campaign's main theme song 'Main hi toh Hindustan hoon' has been penned by Javed Akhtar. (Photo:AP) New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday announced that its campaign slogan for the Lok Sabha polls will be 'Ab Hoga Nyay' while alleging that an atmosphere of 'anyay' (injustice) was prevailing in the country. The party's campaign will be centred around 'Nyay' and the word not only alludes to the Congress' proposed minimum guarantee scheme but encompasses justice to all sections of society, senior leader Anand Sharma said at a press conference. "There is a cry for justice in the country which has been denied to the poor," he said while emphasising that "the campaign will focus on winning hearts". Sharma said the party has followed the Election Commission guidelines and taken all necessary permissions for its publicity. The campaign's main theme song 'Main hi toh Hindustan hoon' has been penned by Javed Akhtar. While the campaign film has been directed by Nikkhil Advani and the cinematography is by Tushar Kanti Ray, the concept and script was provided by Anuja Chauhan, and the music was composed by Arjunna Harjai, the Congress said. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, members of the campaign panel as well that of the core committee were involved in brainstorming the campaign strategy, Sharma said. Advertising agency Percept is behind the publicity campaign, he said, adding a young team also worked for the party as part of its digital media campaign. Its campaign on digital media platforms is being taken care by SilverPush, while other supporting agencies involved in the campaign include Design box and Nixon, he said. The themes covered in the campaign include the 'Nyay' scheme, poverty eradication, jobs for unemployed youths, farmers, women reservation, simplified GST, universal health care, education and startups as promised in the Congress manifesto. Party leaders said it is a 360-degrees cross-platform campaign that includes TV films, cinema spots, radio jingles, hoardings and digital screens, print advertisements, social media and public transport. A special feature of the campaign will be thousands of container trucks with Congress campaign advertisements on them taking the party's message to various parts if the country starting on Sunday. The campaign also has regional adaptations in six vernacular languages, including Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese, and Malayalam. Members of the publicity committee interacted with civil society organisations, farmers, students, lawyers and a cross section of the society, said Singh, flanked by other members of the committee and senior leaders such as Motilal Vohra, Rajiv Shukla, Randeep Surjewala and Pawan Khera. The 'Nyay campaign' promises justice to youth, farmers, entrepreneurs and all those who have suffered injustice at the hands of the Modi government, Sharma said. The Congress has also come out with a number of campaign videos targeting the BJP government's policies such as note ban, its "hollow promises", and "rhetoric". One of the videos also traces the Congress' legacy and achievements of the past. "People are scared of talking over phone, there is an atmosphere of fear," Sharma said, adding 'nyay' (justice) was the need of the hour. Surjewala alleged that the BJP has divisiveness and hate in its mindset, and claimed the Congress will do justice. Responding to a question, Sharma said in 2014, one of the factors was the BJP's money power which played a major role in the saffron party's victory. "Yes it is true we could not counter them. The BJP is the biggest advertiser of country. We cannot match them in money to power... We will beat them in truth and connecting with people," he said, adding that jingles and radio will be used extensively for the party's campaign. To a question on the issue of nationalism, he said it was not the sole right of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk about nationalism and the Congress has lost two prime ministers while protecting the nation. Training his guns on the prime minister, Surjewala said, "We have got a 'prachar mantri' for five years. He spends crores on publicity." Slamming the Modi government's Pakistan policy, he said the prime minister wants to eradicate terror but he went to Pakistan without invitation and the ISI was "invited to probe" the Pathankot terror attack. The armed forces belong to India and not to Narendra Modi, he said. Asked to comment on Modi remarks regarding the Congress' minimum income scheme 'Nyay', Surjewala alleged, "Modiji is disrespecting farmers. He is against the move which aims to benefit 25 crore people. He doesn't want money to reach the women beneficiaries." The Congress' chief spokesperson also dared the prime minister for an open debate with the grand old party's leadership on the minimum income scheme. Mr Goyal said, 'It is a shame and completely deplorable attitude of the opposition parties.' New Delhi: After Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan comments on the F-16 aircraft, BJP hit out at the opposition parties, alleging that they were strengthening the hands of those harbouring terrorism by "distrusting" the government and the armed forces. Imran Khan had accused the BJP of "whipping up war hysteria" and making a "false claim" of downing an F-16 aircraft. Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said it was deplorable that the opposition was trying to strengthen the argument of the neighbouring country with its attitude. Also Read: 'Truth always prevails': Imran criticises BJP over US magazine's report on F16 "Here the Prime Minister Modi sends the air force to cross the line of control, get into Pakistan, attack terrorism at its roots in Balakot, and on the other hand, the opposition is trying to strengthen the arguments of the neighbouring country," he said. "When you have people like Sam Pitroda and Farooq Abdullah and other Congress leaders, distrusting their own government and their own armed forces, obviously you are going to strengthen the hand of the people and the parties, and the countries, who are harbouring terrorism," the BJP leader said at a press conference when asked about Mr Khan's remarks. Mr Goyal said, "It is a shame and completely deplorable attitude of the opposition parties." National Conference president Farooq Abdullah Saturday accused the PM Modi-led government of "lying" to the nation on the Balakot air strike and shooting down of a Pakistani F-16 in the aerial dogfight between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). Also Read: Pentagon 'not aware' on Pak F-16 count after Feb aerial dogfight with IAF "He (Modi) said we shot down their (Pakistani) fighter plane F-16. Now, the US has come up saying all the Pakistani F-16s are counted. Not one has been shot down. There must be some basis for even lies, Modi ji. How long will you lie to people? And did you win (the battle)? Has Pakistan disappeared? Why are you lying? Do you think the Hindus will buy into all this?" Mr Abdullah said. Mr Pitroda, Indian Overseas Congress chief, had last month told media that one cannot "jump on entire nation" (Pakistan) just because some people from there "came here and attacked". In an apparent reference to Pulwama terror attack, the Congress leader said attacks happen all the time and then referred to the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 when the Congress-led UPA was in power, saying the then government could have sent its planes but that is "not the right approach". Taking to Twitter, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Saturday, "The truth always prevails and is always the best policy. BJP's attempt to win elections through whipping up war hysteria and false claims of downing a Pak F-16 has backfired with US Defence officials also confirming that no F-16 was missing from Pakistan's fleet." Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine reported on Thursday that American personnel had recently counted the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) F-16s and found none of the planes missing. It had quoted two senior US defence officials with direct knowledge of the situation. The Indian Air Force, however, stuck to its stand on Friday, saying that it had conclusive proof of shooting down a PAF F-16 on February 27. Reacting to the Foreign Policy report, Prime Minister Khan took to Twitter to criticise the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday slammed both the BJP and the Congress at the first joint rally with SP and RLD here, less than a week before voting for the first phase of voting. (Photo: Twitter/ANI) Deoband: BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday slammed both the BJP and the Congress at the first joint rally with SP and RLD here, less than a week before voting for the first phase of voting. "BJP will lose this election because of policies inspired by hatred especially their "chowkidar" campaign... no matter how much the chhote, bade chowkidars try, the BJP will not win," she said. Addressing the rally in the presence of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Ajit Singh, she said, "The Congress has failed despite ruling for so many years." The BSP chief said, "Our government, instead of giving minimum income support, will give employment to poor people. Indira Gandhi too made a 20-point programme to remove poverty, but was it effective?" She said, "We are silent workers, unlike other parties. Our party performs without making noise, we are silent workers. The Congress too has been making tall claims, haven't they been given enough chances for decades? They were wiped out from several states. The Nyay scheme is not a stable solution for removing poverty." At the same time, she said the BJP government has been misusing probe agencies. "Even the people from backward communities are suffering... The divisive thought process of these parties are hurting these communities... At the Centre or state level... reservation issue for these communities was ignored. These communities are not benefiting from the reservation. They are being exploited. Minorities are also suffering." Mayawati said corruption has increased at every level. "The Congress was tainted by Bofors. BJP government is tainted by Rafale... The BJP government has been misusing probe agencies - CBI, ED - against its rivals. You don't need to give another chance to them. The parties that have already been given enough chances in the election season, political parties use opinion polls to misguide voters. Do not get swayed," she appealed to the voters. She assured the electorate that if voted to power, farmers will no longer be in debt. "Sugarcane farmers are suffering in UP... their grievances are being ignored amid empty announcements. When our party was in power, we made sure dues of sugarcane farmers were paid," the former chief minister said. Mayawati said the BJP's poll promises have still not been fulfilled. "The ground realities can't be ignored. BJP will keep endorsing its hawa-hawai (lofty) schemes till the poll results are announced. Thousands of crores have been wasted... That's taxpayers money... could be used for the poor...If PM was serious about the welfare of poor, they would not have been inaugurating schemes after poll dates were announced... they would have performed in five years of tenure. In the last budget... whatever announcements were made by the centre are nothing but empty poll promises," she said. "Now that BJP is panicking, you should know BJP on its way out... and grand alliance will arrive. After Independence, for a long time, Congress and BJP were in power... even in the Congress-ruled states, wrongful practices came to notice... so they eventually lost voter base... BJP misusing Pulwama issue, GST & note ban caused huge job loss; don't allow these people to come back, Mayawati tells Deoband rally. The drama of 'chowkidari' will not save BJP, added Mayawati attacking Congress, said its rule full of wrong policies. We will win if there is no rigging said Mayawati at SP-BSP-RLD rally. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP's Mayawati and RLD's Ajit Singh addressed their first joint rally in Deoband ahead of Lok Sabha polls. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. New Delhi: Asserting that joining the Congress was not an overnight decision, Shatrughan Sinha has said he is hopeful of a long-term association with the party as he is a "loyalist" who doesn't do things in "josh" (impulsively) but "hosh" (consciously). Sinha also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for decisions such as demonetisation, implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and asked him to come clean on the Rafale deal issue. "Why don't you (Modi) come out and give a clarification (on Rafale). If you come forward and answer the questions raised on the Rafale deal, will your 56 inches chest become six inches," he told PTI in an interview after joining the Congress. On being fielded by the Congress from Patna Sahib, Sinha said he has the blessings of the people who fondly call him "Bihari babu". Asked if the "Bihari babu" will make hat-trick of wins from Patna Sahib, the actor-turned-politician said: "Hope, wish and pray." Asked about his impending electoral battle with senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, Sinha said he regards him as a family friend and has respect for him. "He (Prasad) has four years in Rajya Sabha and some people may think he is fighting safe but even if he is fighting safe, so what. My best wishes to Ravi Shankar Prasad ji. Let the best man win. But when I say this, it is for the people of Patna to decide. Let them finalise it, he said. Sinha, who has been critical of Prime Minister Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah's leadership for long, joined the Congress on Saturday. Asked if it was a long-term association and commitment he had sealed with the Congress, Sinha said: "Haven't I stayed with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) despite ifs and buts, and hiccups and road blocks over more than 25 years. Haven't I been by their side since they had just two seats in Lok Sabha. I am a loyalist, I am a friend, I don't take things overnight and don't leave things overnight. He said he has always held the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family in high-esteem. Sinha said that in his book 'Anything but Khamosh', he has stated that former prime minister Indira Gandhi was very fond of him and he always used to get affection from her. "I have written in my book that had she been alive, I would have been in the Congress party only and not in any other party. I have always held the Nehru-Gandhi family and Congress in very high esteem," he said. Sinha asserted that even when he was a loyal, staunch supporter of the BJP, he never uttered a word against former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Nehru-Gandhi family. "I see them as nation builders. That family has contributed so much to the country," he said. On joining the Congress with a vision to serve in the long term, he said: "Hope so. I don't do things overnight. I don't do things in josh but hosh. I have been thinking over it, observing and watching BJP people's behaviour or rather ill behaviour, their performance or rather non-performance." "I have been seeing the BJP's democratic system turn into an autocratic system. Gone our the days of collective decision. "It is certainly not the party of Atal Bihari Vajpayee because you see what is happening to people like Advani ji and others Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie," he said. LK Advani was among several veteran BJP leaders who were dropped from their parliamentary seats this time by the party. It seemed that the BJP decided to do so to ease out several of its old guards from electoral politics after keeping them out of government by introducing an age bar of 75 years. "As far as I am concerned...They say either my way or the highway, I say I'd rather go the best way to the best party," the 73-year-old leader said. He also heaped praises on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He is a dynamic, "tried, tested and successful" leader and the face and future of India, Sinha said. "He (Rahul) does what he says and says what he does,"he said. Asked if his fight from Patna Sahib this time is the biggest political challenge of his career, Sinha said: "Not really. I have got full faith in my people --people of Patna Sahib and the family of Bihar." "They are also very fond of me and say I'm their Bihari babu...So this time also people's blessings are there with me," he said. Sinha said though he would be campaigning against many of his former colleagues in the BJP, there were some he would not campaign against as with them he had a bond of "once a friend, always a friend". Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. Jalpaiguri: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Sunday accused the Centre of intervening in state matters while questioning the removal of Andhra Pradesh chief secretary by the Election Commission. She sought to know why Prime Minister Narendra Modi isn't removing his own Cabinet secretary or the Union home secretary if he was so "fond of making last-minute changes". "Why is the Centre intervening in state matters? Why was Andhra Pradesh chief secretary removed?" Banerjee asked at an election rally here. "Why don't you (Modi) remove your own cabinet secretary," she asked. The Election Commission on Friday removed Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Anil Chandra Punetha from the post and appointed senior-most IAS officer LV Subrahmanyam in his place. Reacting to the poll panel's move of removing four IPS officers in West Bengal, including Kolkata and Bidhanagar police commissioners, the West Bengal chief minister Saturday wrote a letter protesting its decision. The letter said the removals were "unfortunate, highly arbitrary, motivated and biased" and taken at the behest of BJP, and urged the poll panel to review its decision. Retorting to PM's claim that the TMC supremo was afraid of him, Banerjee said that it was Modi who was afraid of her and not the other way round. Without naming former political associate Mukul Roy, whom she addressed as a traitor for quitting her party to join the BJP, she accused Modi of holding meeting with a person accused in Saradha, Narada cases. "Have you (PM Narendra Modi) been able to clean the Ganga at Varanasi, that you are looking at Bengal?" Banerjee questioned, saying that the BJP should try to save its seat in Delhi before turning to Bengal. She dared the BJP to implement NRC in Bengal, saying it will never be allowed in the state. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. Visakhapatnam: With elections nearing, leaders of various parties have decided to up their ante in their poll campaigns. While the TD cadres are all smiles about their leader and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidus whirlwind tour and roadshows in Vizag on Friday, Mr Naidu is being criticised for not touring Gajuwaka constituency. Mr Naidu was supposed to tour the Gajuwaka constituency, but in the last minute, he changed plans. Rumours are that Mr Naidu did not want to campaign in Gajuwaka because he does not want to hamper the winning chances of Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, who is contesting from the constituency (apart from Bheemavaram). Reciprocating Mr Naidus gesture, the JS chief too is not campaigning in Mangalagiri constituency where Mr Naidus son N. Lokesh is contesting. Mr Naidus move of skipping his poll campaign in Gajuwaka and Mr Pawans no-show at Mangalagiri have not only drawn flak but also fuelled rumours about the TDs secret pact with the Janasena. YSRC leader Botsa Satyanarayana said it was evident that Mr Naidu and Mr Pawan were in secret ties. He urged the people not to vote for parties that indulge in manipulation. Jana Senas Gajuwaka candidate V.V. Lakshmi-narayana, however, said all these reports were baseless. He said, The reason for Mr Naidu not campaigning in Gajuwaka is that the TD is aware of its poor prospects there. Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan is not campaigning at Mangala-giri because we are very confident that we will win there. The voters are in our favor because they kow that we aim to trigger a change in governance. About his local connection, Mr Lakshminarayana said, My dad worked in the Sileru plant. My mother used to stay in Vizag. I was in my mothers womb during that time. So I have tasted the food and water of Vizag. I am, therefore, a localite and I also promise my voters that I will remain accessible and stay here, come what may. On his experience of political life, he said, I entered politics to serve the people on a larger scale. I am still taking baby steps and have a long way to go. I hope to learn things with experience and our manifesto, which is people-centric, will be taken to the people aggressively. Meanwhile, the TD MLA contestant from the Gajuwaka constituency Mr Palla Srinivas Rao downplayed all the accusations made by the YSRCP on the secret TD-Janasena deal. He stated that since Mr Chandrababu Naidu had only four hours for the whirlwind tour, he had to ensure that his trip was comprehensive. Since Mr Naidu's trip from Kurnool was already delayed, we had very little time to cover different constituencies. If he were to conduct the campaign in Gajuwaka as planned, then he would have had to go back into the airport after coming out, which was a cumbersome process. Instead, we zeroed in on one straight route forward from the airport(only highways). Moreover, we want Mr Naidu garu to campaign in segments that are vulnerable like Bheemili, and not Gajuwaka, Srinivas explained. Srinivas further argued that the YSRC is spitting venom on the TD leaders because they have realized that they cannot win. Sharad Pawar said the insinuation was coming from a man who did not have any experience of a family, nor does he know where they are presently. (Photo: File) Pune: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday admitted to the possibility of the BJP emerging as the single-largest party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, but felt that the party would not be able to gain a majority that would ensure PM Modi a second term. "If the BJP does not get a clear-cut majority, and I am sure that they won't, they won't be able to form a government by themselves. In such a situation, there's every possibility that somebody will form a government with the support of others. But even in a case where some parties do support the BJP, they will want a leader other than Narendra Modi," Pawar told NDTV. Pawar claimed that the country was witnessing a definite shift in public mood against the BJP. "Rural India is practically bent on defeating Modi. They are against the Modi government, they are unhappy with the Modi government," he added. The senior NCP leader on Saturday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for claiming there were disputes in the former's family. Pawar said the insinuation was coming from a man who did not have any experience of a family, nor does he know where they are presently. PM Modi, during a rally in Wardha on April 1, had said that Pawar was losing his grip on the Nationalist Congress Party which was hit by a "family feud". "Pawar's grip on the party is loosening. The situation is that Pawar saheb's nephew (Ajit Pawar) is trying to take control of the party. Because of this, the NCP faced problems in ticket distribution," the PM had claimed at the rally. Hitting back, Pawar on Saturday said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his rally in Wardha said there are disputes in the Pawar family. That Ajit Pawar has taken control of the family and that the Pawar family is no longer united." "I would like to tell him that we brothers were raised in a cultured atmosphere and our mother gave us virtues," the NCP chief said. He went on add that his brothers were all reputed in their own fields and said how great his mother was that her sons have got Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. While Pawar is a Padma Vibhushan, his brother Pratap is chairman-managing director of Sakal newspapers and has been awarded the Padma Shri. "A person who does not have any experience of a family nor any idea where his family is presently is trying to inquire into (that of) others," Pawar said. Pawar said he had got values and virtues of politics from stalwarts like former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and YB Chavan, Maharashtra's first chief minister and a former Deputy Prime Minister. "Now these people, in order to hide their failures, are criticising the Gandhi family. Now my family is also included (in the attacks)," he added. Stating that a BJP MP had spoken about changing the Constitution, he said the people would oppose any such move and "your ideology would burn in their (public) anger". He asked the gathering to commit themselves to defeat the BJP in the April-May Lok Sabha polls. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. Shashi Tharoor claimed Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad comes at a time of "unprecedented strain" on the spirit of cooperative federalism that has held the country together since its Independence in 1947. (Image: File) Thiruvananthapuram: Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad shows he has the confidence to win from both north and south India, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said today as he asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi whether he had the courage to fight from a seat in Kerala or Tamil Nadu. With Rahul Gandhi contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Kerala's Wayanad constituency, there is "palpable excitement" across the southern states that the next prime minister could be elected from the region, he told news agency PTI in an interview. Shashi Tharoor also slammed PM Modi and the BJP for suggesting that Rahul Gandhi chose Wayanad to "run away" from majority dominated areas, saying the ruling party has repeatedly resorted to peddling bigotry. It was disappointing that this was coming from the prime minister, he added. "By reinforcing his role as a torchbearer for the BJP's bigotry, Mr Modi has disregarded the principled position that a prime minister of India must be a prime minister for all Indians," he added. At a rally in Maharashtra's Wardha, PM Modi had said the opposition party was "scared" to field its leaders from constituencies where the majority dominates. Shashi Tharoor claimed Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad comes at a time of "unprecedented strain" on the spirit of cooperative federalism that has held the country together since its Independence in 1947. Under the BJP-led Centre, he alleged, relations between the southern states and the federal government have "steadily deteriorated" over a number of issues such as threats to the economic security of the south as well as the future of its political representation. In that context, Rahul Gandhi has made a "bold statement" of intent to suggest he can be the bridge that repairs the growing north-south divide within the country, Shashi Tharoor said, adding that it also signals that the Congress chief has the confidence to win elections in both the north and the south. "Can Narendra Modi make such a claim? Would he have the courage to fight for a seat in Kerala or Tamil Nadu?" the former diplomat turned politician asked. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. Peddapalli: People should teach a befitting lesson to parties working against the nation, said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at a meeting held on the Government Junior College grounds in the district headquarters on Sunday. He claimed that there was a BJP wave in the state, with the Congress nowhere on the scene. It is a battle between the BJP and the TRS. That is why both Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his son K.T. Rama Rao are targeting the BJP party instead of the Congress, the UP Chief Minister said. He said the farming community was against the TRS. This was evident with farmers filing nominations in Nizamabad from where TRS MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha is contesting, he said. This is the first step of the fall of the TRS in the state, he said, adding that intellectuals and educationists had taught a befitting lesson to the TRS in the recently-held MLC elections. TRS MP K. Kavitha had called the BJP the jhoot (lying) party. It is not a jhoot party, but a jeethne wali (winning) party, Mr Adityanath said. He called the TRS the Telangana Rakshasa Samiti, which would engulf the innocent people of Telangana. If TRS MPs win, the Telangana people would became servants in their farm houses, he said. He said the Chief Minister and the partys working president were not talking about development and were diverting the attention of the people with mesmerising words. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi is talking about development of the nation, Mr rai is talking about Hinduism, he said. The UP Chief Minister called Mr Rao a fake Hindu. Mr Rao was criticising Mr Modi only to favour the Owaisi brothers and if Mr Rao was a real Hindu, he should participate in the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Mr Adityanath said, harping on his favourite theme. The TRS came to power promising water, funds and jobs, but betrayed the people after coming to power. Though the TRS has not fulfilled any of its poll promises, he claimed, it is criticising the BJP. It is the BJP that re-opened the Ramagundam fertiliser company which had been closed for several years, Mr Adityanath said. With the dictatorial rule of the TRS government led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Telangana people will soon witness Nizam-type rule in the state, the UP Chief Minister said. He brought up the tired cliche of the Congress party supplying biryani packets to terrorists, while the BJP gave a fitting lesson to terrorists, with bullets. Both Congress and TRS parties have joined hands with anti-nationalists and want to disturb the peaceful atmosphere that has prevailed under the Narendra Modi-led BJP government, he alleged. Showing his communal bias yet again, Mr Adityanath said: Voting for TRS is nothing but voting for the MIM and voting for Congress party is nothing but voting for terrorists. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. Nirmal: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday made a special appeal to young and educated voters to think carefully about who they will vote for in this election. He also said he was going to bring in a new Revenue Act that will benefit landowners, and issue exclusive land deed titles to landowners. He said his government wants to spend Rs 30 lakh crore over the next 10 years on development of the state. Mr Rao was addressing a public meeting at Nirmal as part of the election campaign for the TRS candidate, Mr Godam Nagesh. It is said that Mr Rao has changed his line after party candidates were defeated in the MLC teachers and graduates constituencies in the state. Mr Rao enumerated the welfare schemes and development being implemented in the state and touched upon establishing a Federal Front with a secular ideology to change the direction of the country towards development. He criticised the BJP for its double standards. BJP national leaders had promised to establish a Turmeric Board if they were voted to power. The TRS has been demanding the same for the last five years, without success. He questioned the BJPs raising the Pakistan issue just before the elections. The Central government has also failed to give a minimum support price (MSP) for crops and now the farmers of Nizamabad are facing the same problem of low prices for red jowar, he said. Increasing MSP for crops is in the hands of the Central government, he said, but they have been neglecting it. The Federal Front will give a good MSP if it comes to power. Mr Rao said his government would make Adilabad into another Kashmir by increasing irrigation and added that the administration was decentralised by creating the new districts of Nirmal, Asifabad and Mancherial. The Chief Minister also said his government would provide all benefits to farmers for the Podu lands on the lines of general farmers and promised to apply Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bheema, free electricity and water to the Podu farmers. He was committed to inclusive growth and the development of all communities and groups in the state, Mr Rao declared. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to visit West Bengal, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh after Parliamentary elections to be held in the state on April 11. Mr Rao has been batting for a non-Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre, and urging consolidating of regional parties, post-elections, in his election campaigns. He is relying on backing from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and leaders of various other regional parties. He has announced that Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar, and president of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh party is also supporting him. Unconfirmed reports indicate that Mr Rao will participate in election rallies during his visit to these other states. Mr Rao has said he is confident of winning 16 Lok Sabha seats with his ally, the Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslimeen winning the Hyderabad seat. He is also confident of the YSR Congress winning more than 20 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh. .Sources said Mr Rao was chalking out a strategy to convince regional parties that have ideological differences with the Congress and the BJP to have a non-Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre. After the Assembly results in December 2018, Mr Rao had visited Ms Banerjee, Mr Patnaik and also met Mr Akhilesh Yadav and Ms Mayawati and discussed the formation of a Federal Front that could play a crucial role in forming the next government at the Centre. Sources said that with surveys indicating that neither the BJP nor the Congress will emerge with a clear majority, Mr Rao is thinking of intensifying his lobbying with regional party heads. YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi have already announced that they would go with the TRS. Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading. Many Western liberal democracies have been swept up by an anti-globalisation and xenophobic mood, leading to the rise of rabble-rousing populists, reaching a zenith with US President Donald Trumps election in 2016. In Asia, the contagion is much older, beginning with Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power as Prime Minister since 2003 and after 2014 as President. He has emasculated the media, incarcerated journalists, undermined the secular moorings created by modern Turkeys founder Turkey Kamal Ataturk and caged the military, the traditional custodians of those values. Mr Erdogan was humiliated in last weeks city elections, where his party lost control over the capital Ankara and, more significantly, Istanbul, as the mayor of which he rose to power after 1993. The fate of three other major Asian leaders - in Israel, India and Indonesia is on test as their nations go to the polls on April 9, 11 and 17, respectively. Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Narendra Modi of India are both in the Erdogan mould, although even in Indonesia democratic competition has been narrowed considerably. Their fate will show whether the tide of populist and majoritarian politics has begun receding in Asia, or the Turkish example is an aberration. Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled for the past decade. The Economist describes him in a cover story as an embodiment of the politics of muscular nationalism, chauvinism and the resentment of elites long before such populism became a global force. Mr Netanyahu faces an election on Tuesday, April 9, two days before Indias seven-phase Lok Sabha polls get under way on April 11. The chemistry between him and Narendra Modi transcends the normal relationship between two friendly heads of government. Unstated is the RSS and Hindu Rights infatuation with the theocratic structure of Israel, and its ability to deter its Arab and Muslim neighbours. The proposed tweaks to Indias nationality law to allow non-Muslims of Indian origin in South Asia to have a right of return to their homeland is akin to the right all Jews have to return to and reside in Israel. Excluding Muslims or non-Indians ignores the secular moorings of the Indian Constitution, on which any asylum policy should have rested. Mr Netanyahus politics also bears similarity to the electoral strategy of the BJP under Mr Modi. Like Mr Modi on Pakistan, with a policy of zero-tolerance of terror shutting the door on dialogue with Pakistan, Mr Netanyahu pays lip service to peace with Palestinians while exacerbating differences between Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The Economist dubs it anti-solutionism, which equally well describes the Modi approach to the Jammu and Kashmir imbroglio and India-Pakistan relations. Mr Netanyahus critics fault him for creating a successful economy marred by inequality, a shakier democracy and low productivity. The same can be said about India under Mr Modi. Mr Modis ministers poured scorn over the Congress manifesto, without rendering their account of the promises made five years ago. Likewise, Mr Netanyahus party Likud hasnt even bothered to produce an economic charter, claiming its record speaks for itself. Instead, both he and Mr Modi raise the spectre of external danger. Mr Netanyahus bugbear is Iran and for Mr Modi the fixation is on Pakistan, although China presents a graver threat. Both leaders pillory their opponents, blame the media and resurrect known and unknown enemies allegedly thwarting their aim to make their nations great. The Economists concluding remark chillingly applies to India -- that today Israeli politics feels tired and uninspired, an unhealthy democracy where nothing is debated other than who should lead. Both leaders are geo-strategically in the US-Saudi-Emirati corner. Donald Trump did the unthinkable by endorsing Israels annexation of the Golan Heights, belonging to Syria and annexed in the 1973 war. Clearly, the aim was to burnish Mr Netanyahus credentials on the eve of elections. The UAE decided to confer its highest civilian award on Mr Modi and would perhaps have him inaugurate the Hindu temple at Abu Dhabi in the middle Indias elections. Both actions raise questions about propriety and interference in the electoral processes of India and Israel by foreign players. It seems that internationally, as the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Indias elections have a strange peculiarity this time. Some big states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have seven-phase polling, corresponding to the seven phases of the overall polls. It seems tailormade for the BJP with two key campaigners Mr Modi and his alter ego, party chief Amit Shah. The Opposition, by comparison, has multiple national and regional leaders, with the Congress and BJP pitted against each other only in half a dozen states. The Opposition is trying to keep the focus on bread and butter issues confronting the common man. The BJPs attempt is to drive the narrative towards national security, thereby baiting Opposition to either comment and be dubbed anti-national or ignore and be seen as weak-kneed. David Axelrod, political-messaging savant and critical to President Barack Obamas electoral success, in his book Believer notes that voters rarely opt for a replica of what they have, even when the outgoing leader is popular. People, he adds, want successors whose strengths address the perceived weaknesses in the departing leader. So, after a decade of quiescent and almost invisible Manmohan Singh, India opted for in-your-face Modi-the-dragon-slayer. But India does not have a presidential system, although strong Prime Ministers tend to appear presidential. The change from a highly autocratic and centralised system of governance comes not by a single knight confronting the emperor-like national leader, but by people reverting to their regional identities and individual or ethnic or caste hurts and aspirations. India may be in the process of this regression, as perhaps also Israel. In 1910, US President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt gave his rousing New Nationalism speech, decrying excesses of the Gilded Age of crony capitalism. He sought and later delivered fairness and broad opportunity to the American people, including creating regulatory mechanisms to control markets and competition. Mr Modi has not been the honest chowkidar of the Teddy Roosevelt kind, as the rich garnered the bulk of wealth. The corruption charges, endorsed by prosecutors, against Mr Netanyahu indicate that warped norms of honesty are not sustainable. Thus, some key Asian nations are at inflexion points to decide whether rabble-rousing leaders with ability to incite and divide and thus win elections need to be despatched. People may want their democracies back with non-charismatic but healing and uniting leaders. Shatrughan Sinha, the celebrated Hindi film actor, left his association of a quarter century with the BJP on Saturday. He will now contest the Patna Saheb seat of which he is the sitting BJP MP as a Congressman. This makes him one of the most high-profile defectors in Indian politics. For the record, the actor left the BJP as he was denied the party ticket to contest the coming Lok Sabha election. This is probably because for the past five years he has been a running critic of the Narendra Modi government. In BJP circles it is speculated that unlike former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, who had made Mr Sinha a Cabinet minister, Mr Modi wasn't solicitous of him at all, and this was the reason for his rebellion. The actors departure, thus, wasnt on a point of principle or ideological dissonance. It was the simple transactional matter of not being given a chance to again be an MP. Alas, this is how low the noble realm of politics has sunk in India. Over the years, its the Congress that has been at the receiving end of such politics. In more recent times, the ship was being deserted as the party has grown weak and seen as less likely than before as being a vehicle of power. And much of the time, the party that shamelessly poached from the Congress (and sometimes other parties) has been the BJP, which threw principle to the winds and unscrupulously sought to make members of other parties defect to it. Such shameful conduct caught on, though it wasnt the BJP that started the trend of defections. But the saffron party did turn it into a fine craft form. In the final analysis, a regular traffic of legislators between parties reduces the party system, on which democracy crucially rests, to a joke; indeed to a commercial proposition most of the time. Defectors are anyway unreliable, and no one can be sure how long Mr Sinha will remain with the Congress even if he wins his election. Switching parties has become like trying out another shop. Its a pity a party like the Congress has stooped to play this game. However, it is not for the likes of BJP stalwart and former Himachal Pradesh CM Shanta Kumar to criticise Mr Sinha for playing the politics of dishonesty, as he did on Saturday. Mr Kumar had not winced when in the 1990s his party had enticed the very corrupt but influential Congress leader and former CM Sukh Ram to defect to the BJP. Just days ago, Mr Sukh Ram has done a return defection to the Congress, and this has hurt Mr Kumar as much as Mr Sinha becoming turncoat. The conscience should not twinge selectively. There is some confusion about the meaning of the message sent by L.K. Advani to Narendra Modi through his blog. The former deputy Prime Minister and former BJP president wrote a farewell blog a few days after his safe seat in Gandhinagar (which he has represented six times since 1991) was taken away by current party president, Amit Shah. Mr Advani said two things mainly. The headlines were taken up by the first point. Mr Advani wrote that right from its inception, the BJP has never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our enemies, but only as our adversaries. And he added that in our conception of Indian nationalism, we have never regarded those who disagree with us politically as anti-national. The party has been committed to freedom of choice of every citizen at the personal as well as the political level. This was said at a time when the Prime Minister had been accusing the Congress president of running away from Hindu majority seats, and the finance minister had said that the Congress manifesto represented the tukde-tukde gang, and was aimed at breaking up India. Mr Shah had said that Congress leaders should drown themselves for proposing the weakening of the Afspa law. So it was clear that Mr Advani was referring to this sort of thing when he clarified that under him and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, there was more tolerance towards Opposition than under Mr Modi. Did the message go through to Mr Modi? Apparently not. The same day as Mr Advani wrote his blog, Mr Modi tweeted saying that Advaniji perfectly sums up the true essence of BJP, most notably the guiding mantra of Nation First, Party Next, Self Last. Proud to be a BJP karyakarta and proud that greats like L.K. Advaniji have strengthened it. He was referring to the headline of the blog, and its second important point, about which Mr Advani wrote: The guiding principle of my life has been Nation First, Party Next, Self Last. And in all situations, I have tried to adhere to this principle and will continue to do so. This is where Mr Modi was able to turn the tables on Mr Advani. Let me explain why. The argument of those who accuse other Indians of being anti-national is based on this same principle. What does Nation First, Party Next, Self Last mean? The idea is that there can arise a conflict between the individuals interest and the nations interest or the partys interest and the nations interest. And when such a conflict arises, Mr Advani will put India first. The question is: When does such a conflict arise? For the average middle class citizen, national interest would be in fully paying income tax, or not bribing to get things done, or following the law, rules and so on. What is the reality here? The truth is that most of us put ourselves and our interests before our nations. We have the lowest ratio of income tax payers of any major democracy and rule-breaking is second nature to all Indians. Is this what Mr Advani means by Nation First, Party Next, Self Last? No, because by the standard I have described above, most Indians would be anti-national or whatever word of abuse one may want to use. So clearly that is not the meaning of Mr Advanis motto. He means something else, but what? The truth is that the grand statement Nation First is actually empty and foolish. It doesnt mean anything. I will be 50 years old this year and there has never been a time in my life when I have had to choose between my nation and something else and I suspect it is the same for you also. How many people in history have had to make a choice between their nation and their religion or between the nation and anything else? And at what point does that choice appear for us as a moment of decision? If we think about it, we recognise that the actual words in Mr Advanis statement comprise bombast: high sounding language that has no real meaning. There is only one way in which Mr Advanis statement can be read. And he is in fact saying exactly the same thing that Arun Jaitley, Mr Shah and Mr Modi have said over the last few days. That anyone who disagrees with their ideology is anti-national and part of the tukde-tukde gang. That is what India First wants: that all dissent against the slogan be suppressed. There is no difference between what Mr Advani is communicating when he says Nation First, Self Last and what Mr Modi, Mr Jaitley and Mr Shah have said about their opponents. This is why Mr Modi punctured Mr Advanis rebellious blog and tweeted within minutes to say that he totally agreed with Mr Advanis mantra. It is that contradiction within Mr Advanis blog that Mr Modi picked out and held up for the rest of us. It is all very well for Mr Advani to say that there should be no accusations of treason against people who are only opposed to you politically. But it could be argued that Mr Advanis entire lifes work has been invested in doing just this: treating other Indians, particularly those of a different religion than him, as enemies and anti-nationals whose damage must be reversed. At the point when he has been retired against his will, Mr Advani appears to have found the merits of tolerance. It took his one-time pupil (30 years ago, Mr Modi had personally made all the arrangements for the first leg of Mr Advanis famous Rath Yatra from Somnath in September 1990) to teach the old man his own lesson. As convenor of the Congress Partys election manifesto committee, Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Gowda played a key role in preparing the partys manifesto which was released last week. In a freewheeling interview with Anita Katyal, he talks about the extensive public outreach undertaken by the manifesto committee in preparing the document, how the top-up scheme for the poor was converted into a direct income benefit scheme, the partys stand on AFSPA and the political situation in his home state of Karnataka. How is this manifesto different from the earlier documents and how did you go about preparing it? It is true that in the past manifestos were prepared by senior leaders but this is the first time, in my knowledge, that this kind of public outreach was undertaken. We held extensive consultations with the public both offline and online. In addition to using email, websites, and WhatsApp, we also had something called change.org where people signed petitions on various issues more than two lakh people signed in. We tried to accommodate all their concerns in the manifesto. Clearly, the message had gone out that the Congress is willing to listen and is willing to act by actually putting their suggestions in the manifesto. An election manifesto is not generally taken seriously I agree manifestos earlier were full of motherhood and apple pie statements. Having said that whenever I am asked if the manifesto should be taken seriously, I refer to the exercise we undertook in the last Karnataka election. One of our central points was that the government made 161 promises and 153 were fulfilled. This is a society where there is a certain kind of accountability. There are many activist groups which reached out to us, they will be keeping an eye on us and they will hold us accountable. The fact is that manifestos are no longer random things they need to be readable and actionable. The Nyuntam Aay Yojana (Nyay), or the income benefit scheme offered by your party is the centerpiece of this manifesto. Is it true that Raghuram Rajan and Thomas Piketty were consulted in conceptualising the scheme? That job was entrusted to my colleague Praveen Chakravarty. Hes the one who consulted experts and Im confident that the two names you mentioned have been consulted. But I was not directly involved in this exercise. What was the extent of P. Chidambarams involvement in conceptualising Nyay? And did you consult former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh? As chairman of the manifesto committee, Mr Chidambaram worked closely with all the sub-groups and attended many public and closed-door consultations. And when it came to writing the manifesto, it is his language. He was actively involved in conceptualising Nyay. From within the party, he was one of the co-creators of the programme. As for Dr Singh, Mr Chidambaram and I took the manifesto to him once the draft was ready. It was later in the process. I brought up some more issues during the discussion and he mentioned that some of them may not be fiscally viable. One of them was doing more on the farm loan business. So then you decided to simplify it After a lot of work, we arrived at the figure of Rs 6,000 per month, which amounts to Rs 72,000 per year per family for 20 per cent of the poor. The Congress president had initially said that it will be a top-up scheme. Pegging the average income of the targeted beneficiary at Rs 12,000 per month, it was proposed that the shortfall will be made up by the government. The basic idea was to reach that level of income but topping was not found to be feasible right now as we first need to know each persons individual income and that keeps changing. So it was simpler to go in for direct benefit transfer of a certain amount. A lot questions are being asked about the feasibility of this scheme and how you will raise resources to fund it. Have you asked the Prime Minister how he is going to double the income of farmers? Basically, we plan to roll it out in phases start with a pilot project and move ahead once we are satisfied that we have the basics figured out. We expect it to be less than one per cent of the GDP in the first year and less than two per cent of the GDP in the second year. This will pump in resources, push up consumption and remonetise the economy. Besides, the GDP is also growing. By promising doles, the Congress has been accused of indulging in welfarism and that you want to ensure that the poor stay poor. One of the things we want to do is to build night shelters for the homeless. Thats welfarism. So should we let the homeless die in the cold? We have to be a compassionate society its part of our agenda. Mr Chidambaram put it nicely when he said that we want to create wealth and provide welfare. We are focused on creating wealth but we also want to make sure that some of that wealth is shared with the less fortunate amongst us. These are people who are worried about their survival. Giving them a little bit of money will free them of that burden. An impression has been created that the Congress is anti-corporate sector and anti-big industry Without them, where would we be? We have laid down our philosophy very clearly in our manifesto. There is a clear role for the private sector we want to see that demand picks up, investment picks up and that manufacturing reaches 25 per cent of the GDP. We are open to foreign capital we have no problem with the market. In fact, we are often accused by activists of following neoliberal policies. On the one hand we are neoliberal ,and on the other, we are welfarist. Actually, we are a bit of both. The BJP has accused the Congress of being soft on terror and undermining the security forces because of your stand on AFSPA. The BJP also pledged to get rid of AFSPA in certain parts of the Northeast please see their manifesto. They are twisting what we said. We said we will balance the needs of the security forces with the protection of human rights. We said no one should take shelter behind the AFSPA for crimes such as torture and rape. If people say security forces should be allowed to rape and torture, then we have a bit of a disagreement here. After all, victims of this are our own citizens. The BJP is also attacking you for promising to scrap the sedition law. As for scrapping the sedition law, it is part of our freedom agenda. We must let freedom ring, to quote Martin Luther King. We all know it has been misused like crazy by this government. You criticise the Prime Minister and you are jailed under the sedition law and you protest against the Sterlite factory and you are put in jail under the sedition law. And we dont lose anything by doing away with the sedition law. The Defence of India Act and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act both take care of the offence of waging war against the state. The manifestos focus on minorities has been muted is it in line with the partys recent soft Hindutva approach? This is a case of damned if we do and damned if we dont. But the central issue which came out in our consultations with the delegations of minorities was security. So we say we will have a law to deal with lynch mobs. Hyundai, the worlds 5th largest automaker together with affiliate Kia Motors, has been fostering partnerships with self-driving tech and social media firms as it aims to introduce highly automated vehicles by 2020 and fully autonomous vehicles by 2030. South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co and Chinese technology firm Tencent Holdings have signed a preliminary deal to develop software for driverless vehicles, South Koreas Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Saturday. Both companies plan to conduct joint research and development on safety and security systems for self-driving cars, which Hyundai seeks to roll out commercially by 2030, the report, which cited unnamed industry sources, said. The agreement was signed on the sidelines of a business forum held in Seoul on Thursday by the South Korean government and Chinas Guangdong province, it said. Hyundai and Tencent did not offer any immediate comments on the report. The two companies are also exploring ways to utilize Tencents popular WeChat messaging app in developing China-targeted car models, the newspaper said. Hyundai, the worlds 5th largest automaker together with affiliate Kia Motors, has been fostering partnerships with self-driving tech and social media firms as it aims to introduce highly automated vehicles by 2020 and fully autonomous vehicles by 2030. Hyundai Mobis, another affiliate of the car maker, clinched an agreement last month with Russias largest internet search engine Yandex to jointly develop control systems for driverless vehicles. Shenzhen-based and Hong Kong-listed Tencent has also ventured into self-driving tech and had advertised to recruit engineers in Silicon Valley last year. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Victor Mengot Arrey Nkongho Archives Victor Mengot Arrey Nkongho, Cameroons Minister in charge of Special Duties at the Presidency of the Republic has adopted a fresh approach towards seeking a solution to the deepening crisis in the North West and South West Regions. Meeting in Yaounde on Saturday, April 6, 2019, Mengot and his kinsmen from Manyu Division, South West region agreed on a community-centered strategic plan of action as a partway to restoring peace in their backyard. To achieve their plan, the people of Manyu say they will identify those rocking the Manyu boat and engage them in frank dialogue. It will also have to do with providing succor to communities that have since banished secession and embraced peace. Mengot is of the opinion that solutions to the crisis have to be sought from home community after community. Systematically, we want to tackle the problem from the roots each community should identify theirs who are taking part in the crisis and find a way to bring them back on the rails, he said on state media. The community-centered strategic plan of action is said to take the form of monitoring the activities of outlaws and secessionists as well as push through the virtues of dialogue and harmonious co-existence. It aims at bringing peace to our villages and communities. We know that the people who have been disturbing the peace are our children. They have been kidnapping, burning houses and structures. Our communities are suffering, the economy of our region has deteriorated to the level where we dont know how many years we will take to bring back the level it was in 2016, the career diplomat said. Clan heads, quarter heads, traditional authorities, kingmakers, local councilors, the religious among other stakeholders are expected to play an invaluable role in rolling out the peace plan. The plan, we learnt, will also include engaging the fighters to heed to the Head of States fatherly call for them to drop their weapons and get reintegrated into mainstream society. It is not clear if a team will also engage dialogue with Manyu sons and daughters abroad, especially those who have turned out to be the face of the struggle for the restoration of the independence of Ambazonia. Many have said the Mengot initiative is welcome, given the fact that peace is all the people need. U.S. Attorney General William Barr has said he plans to make public a redacted copy of the nearly 400-page investigative report. (Photo:AP) Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had not read Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report investigating contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russia that his Democratic opponents say should be released in full. "I have not read the Mueller Report yet, even though I have every right to do so," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Only know the conclusions, and on the big one, No Collusion." U.S. Attorney General William Barr has said he plans to make public a redacted copy of the nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by the middle of this month, if not sooner. On March 22, Mueller completed his 22-month probe and Barr sent a four-page letter to Congress two days later outlining the main findings. Barr told lawmakers the investigation did not establish that members of Trump's election campaign conspired with Russia, but also did not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice. Barr said he had concluded there was not enough evidence to show that Trump committed the crime of obstruction. But news media reports this week said members of Mueller's team were unhappy with the way Barr, a Trump appointee, had characterized the report's conclusions. Asked in an interview with Fox and Friends Weekend about calls for the release of the full confidential report, Trump said: "It's really up to the attorney general, whatever he wants to do." In another tweet, Trump called the report "a total waste of time." Barr did not meet a demand by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives to provide the unredacted report to lawmakers by April 2. He told Congress in a letter last week he must redact material that was presented to a grand jury, as required by law, as well as information that could reveal U.S. intelligence agencies' sources and methods. Congressional Democrats have indicated they will fight those redactions in court if the subpoena is ignored. Russia's government has denied interfering in the U.S. election. Outgoing Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib, Shatrughan Sinha, on Saturday formally joined the Congress party. The four-term parliamentarian has been fielded as the Congress candidate from Patna Sahib and will be contesting against BJP nominee Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is also Union Law Minister. While joining the grand old party in New Delhi, Shatru lauded Congress president Rahul Gandhi for bringing in NYAY scheme, also known as minimum income guarantee scheme, in the party manifesto. Providing Rs 6000 to every poor so that his basic minimum income could rise up to Rs 12000 per month is really a commendable step, said Shatru. MUST READ: Shatru made poll debut against dost Rajesh Khanna #WATCH: Shatrughan Sinha after joining Congress says, 'Shakti Singh Gohil ji (Bihar Congress In-charge) has been backbone of BJP in Bihar and in Gujarat,' corrects himself later. pic.twitter.com/ktaMjkkgSW ANI (@ANI) April 6, 2019 He slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of demonetisation. Rahul Gandhi has rightly said that demonetisation could be the biggest scam in the country. If any one has benefited from it, it is the Chartered Accountants, said Shatru. The former BJP leader, who served under Vajpayee regime as Union Health Minister, besides Shipping Minister, lamented that senior and talented people were not given due respect in Narendra Modi-Amit Shah dispensation. Leaders like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie were benched for no fault of theirs. The latest episode of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan (where the veteran parliamentarian from Indore has been denied Lok Sabha ticket), shows that the present BJP is being run as a one-man show and two-man army, said Shatrughan, in an oblique reference to Modi and Shah. Lower Merion-A body found in the Schuykill River by a fisherman at 6:25 p.m. Thursday was identified Friday as that of Geoff Partridge. Partridge, 37, of Villanova, had been missing since Dec. 5. Lower Merion Police assisted by the Philadelphia Police marine unit recovered the body, said Tom Walsh, a spokesman for the township. After an autopsy on Friday, the Montgomery County coroner determined that it was Partridge and ruled that suicide was the cause of death, Walsh said. Partridges silver 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee was found in the Schuylkill River at Lower Merions Flat Rock Park in Gladwyne, but there were few clues to his whereabouts. His cell phone was found inside the running car, which was partially submerged with the door open in about 3 feet of water off an embankment near a parking lot. although there was an extensive search, his whereabouts were a mystery and Partridges family and friends had held out hope for his safe return. Jill Turanski, Partridges fiance, was too distraught to comment on Friday. However, she did say that she does not think his death was a suicide. I would like to make it absolutely clear that this was not suicide, despite what officials are saying, Turanski said via email. Geoff was suffering from neurological complications related to late stage Lyme disease and had a history of head trauma. His death was accidental and in no way intentional. Mark Hopkins chief of the Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue said he had hoped that Partridge would be found alive. Hopkins, who has been doing search and rescue work for 23, years said, You never want to get numb. This one bothered me. It was different. I had a little bit of optimism. The relationship between him and his girlfriend, they had the kind of love plays are written about. I was hoping for an optimistic outcome. What happened is just not the outcome anybody wanted. Turanski told Hopkins that they were talking about getting married and having children shortly before Partridge disappeared so he could understand how she could believe it had not been a suicide. Hopkins said there should be a term for involuntary suicide like involuntary manslaughter. There are times people harm themselves and are not in control, he said. Given the limited vocabulary we have, that is the term officials use but perhaps our vocabulary should be expanded. The original version of this story is below: Lower Merion A body found in the Schuykill River by a fisherman at 6:25 p.m. Thursday was identified Friday morning as that of Geoff Partridge. Partridge, 37, of the Villanova section of Radnor Township, has been missing since Dec. 5. Lower Merion police assisted by the Philadelphia Police marine unit recovered the body, said Tom Walsh, a spokesman for the township. After an autopsy on Friday, the Montgomery County coroner determined that it was Partridge and ruled that suicide was the cause of death, Walsh said. Partridges silver 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee was found in the Schuylkill River at Lower Merions Flat Rock Park in Gladwyne, but there were few clues to his whereabouts. His cell phone was found inside the running car, which was partially submerged with the door open in about 3 feet of water off an embankment near a parking lot. although there was an extensive search, his whereabouts were a mystery and Partridges family and friends had held out hope for his safe return. Photoshoot to Crown Session with BEAC, GICAM and APECCAM officials Archives Cameroon Banker's Association known as APECCAM, as well as Cameroon business cartel, GICAM over the weekend, organised a working session to better understand the newly programmed exchange laws with the Central African Economic and Monetary Community. Meeting in The countrys economic capital on Friday, the private economic operators led by GICAM boss, Celestin Tawamba, and the President of APECCAM, Alphonse Nafeck, all condemned the complicated procedure in the execution of monetary transfers, which remains detrimental to the growth of the private sector. GICAM president, said some of these transactions, go as far as four months before they are executed, following complicated procedures. He further decried that financial institutions are left to suffer when Cameroonian banks and the Bank of Central African States, BEAC disagree on certain principles. He highlighted that 71% of economic operators face a lot of unnecessary paper work during transactions which doesnt only delay them, but theres also the phenomenon of high taxes imposed at customs and high bank charges. On his part, the main organisers of the session, APECCAM president, Nafeck Alphonse said the forum was a perfect one to express the aforementioned grievances as they all evaluate the new regulations involved in exchanges within the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). This he said, was timely, due to the presence of the Deputy Governor of BEAC in the session. He reassured the private sector that Cameroonian banks would continue partnering with them to achieve same objective of economic growth, which is one of the goals of the event. The revised law governing exchanges in the CEMAC region was adopted by the ministerial committee of CEMAC during the ordinary session of 21st December 2018, and was implemented on the 1st of March 2019, giving a period of six months for economic operators to meet up to expectations. The idea was first nursed in Yaounde, on the 23rd of December, 2016 during the heads of state summit of CEMAC zone, on the economic and monetary stability of Central African states. The unprecedented drop in fuel prices, as well as the American restrictive measures on its monetary deals, greatly pushed Heads of Central African States to reconstitute their exchange rates. These CEMAC Presidents implemented measures aimed at strengthening the economies of the sub region, promote banking system and promote the handing over of credits to economic gurus. These measures resulted to raising the key exchange rate of central bank, the abolition of statutory requests of member states, restricting the refinancing of banks with collateral as government securities, strengthening bank supervision and the modernisation of liquidity management system. The representative of BEAC, Deputy Governor, Evou Mekou, reassured business operators that the revised laws gives the impression that things have become complex, when that isnt the case. He continued that it was for the good and these regulations werent just instituted today. SALT LAKE CITY Utah Gov. Gary Herbert declared 2019 the Year of the Train, and the Beehive State has taken that declaration to heart. While May 10 will mark 150 years since the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads joined at Promontory Summit in Box Elder County to complete the transcontinental railroad, many locations across Utah including the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University and the Rio Gallery in Salt Lake City are already celebrating that monumental moment. We felt like it's such an important event that we wanted to have a chance to highlight how photography played into that and be a part of the larger Spike 150 plans for this year, said Ashlee Whitaker, acting head curator at BYUs Museum of Art. A revolutionary presence BYU's exhibit, After Promontory, commemorates the sesquicentennial of the transcontinental railroad and explores the lasting impact of railroads in America. Whitaker collaborated with the Center for Railroad Photography and Art and BYUs library and special collections to choose photos that focus on the West. The railroad and the camera were both technologies that were developing simultaneously, Whitaker said. The novelty of the camera brought the novelty of the railroad to life. The exhibit has five sections: First Transcontinental looks at the construction of the lines; Constructing the West shows images of workers and how the rail shaped communities; Utah and the Transcontinentals focuses on stories that tie into the community; and two other sections feature contemporary photography and show how photographs were used in publicity to develop Americas idea of the West. Some scholars have compared the transcontinental railroad and the network that developed from that to the internet, Whitaker said. It revolutionized communication, how economies work, how people interact, how people traveled and the growth of communities. It had such a widespread effect. As Whitaker delved into the stories of the railroad and its construction, she gained a greater appreciation for the revolutionary presence it became in America, the engineering feats and the sheer grit that went into creating the railroad. She was also inspired by stories of intrepid photographers like Charles Roscoe Savage (C.R. Savage), a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who was one of three photographers present at the linking of the transcontinental railroad in Promontory. Other exhibit images include indigenous people of the area and the Chinese men who worked on the railroad. To me, (those photos) are poignant and there is a kind of sadness as we reflect on the impact that (the railroad) had on the open ways of the West, Whitaker said. A total of 65 photographs, along with videos and educational components, are included in the After Promontory exhibit. We want people to come out with a greater appreciation for the role of the railroad in shaping America, in shaping the West and our communities and see how complex the story of the railroad is, Whitaker said. For those who want to, you can take it a step further and see how complex the discussion is in terms of (how) it built America in certain ways and it also impacted in ways that some people see as both negative and positive. 'Telling the stories of those involved' About 45 miles north of After Promontory, the Rio Gallery has also been celebrating the railroad's influence with its Transcontinental: People, Place, Impact exhibit. Co-curated by Amanda Moore and Felicia Baca, who was recently named the director of the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the exhibit goes beyond the effects of transportation on the nation to look at the histories of the specific people who made it possible. Reflecting on a more complete picture and telling the stories of those involved was an important part of our mission, Baca wrote in an email to the Deseret News. Amongst many people that are part of the story, this exhibition includes members from the Shoshone, Paiute and other Native American tribes, as well as descendants of Chinese railroad workers. The work from artists from all across the state both emerging and established created a variety of conversations around many topics such as heritage, environment, myth, labor, indigenous communities, ingenuity, travel and the impacts, both positive and negative, of the construction of the railroad. David Koch, of Richmond, Cache County, is one of 35 artists featured at the Rio Gallery. Koch primarily paints in oils at his Logan studio. The textural quality and the versatility lend itself as a perfect medium for him to paint landscapes, figurative work, still life and historical scenes. I like to envision what it may have looked like, Koch said of crafting historical works. Two of his murals interpreting historical events can be found in the House of Representatives Chamber in the Utah State Capitol Building. His fascination with picturing historical events and the railroad came together in his work titled The Golden Road. The oil on canvas depicts workers laying down the Union Pacific line coming from Omaha and heading west. Its warm palette of yellow, orange and brown features telegraph lines along the banks of the Platte as the calm, golden river fades into the horizon. Koch noted the life-sustaining Platte River served as a highway for animals and people. The Native Americans traveled the gentle waters. Mormon pioneers traveled the curves west to the Oregon Trail. And later the countrys first transcontinental highway, The Lincoln Highway, would follow the broad river across the Great Plains. Thats the epic quality of the piece, Koch said of the large wall art. I wanted to portray the vastness of the plains, the very obscure, maybe even dusty sky and the promise of whats on the horizon and that golden road leading west. Both exhibits from the Rio Gallery and BYU's Museum of Art are part of the Spike 150 celebrations, an initiative of Utahs Transcontinental Railroad 150th Celebration Commission that was established by Herbert and the Utah State Legislature in 2017, according to spike150.org. We hope (the exhibit) will bring (the railroad) to life in ways that people leave with new appreciation and excitement for this part of our history, Whitaker said. If you go What: Transcontinental: People, Place, Impact Where: Rio Gallery, 300 S. Rio Grande, Salt Lake City When: On display through June 14; artist reception, April 19, 6-9 p.m.; museum open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Cost: Free Web: artsandmuseums.utah.gov/rio-gallery Also What: After Promontory Where: Brigham Young University Museum of Art, North Campus Drive, Provo When: On display through Oct. 5.; museum hours through May 4: Monday, Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; museum hours May 6-Sept. 2: Monday-Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 pm.; Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Cost: Free Web: moa.byu.edu/after-promontory Other: Visit spike150.org for more events, including the sesquicentennial celebration at the Golden Spike National Historic Site, May 10-12. At the recent United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York City, a short but powerful film premiered. Its focus was the irreplaceable influence of ordinary womens efforts to secure peace after lengthy periods of horrific conflict in Northern Ireland and Liberia. After 25 years of violent struggle between Protestants and Catholics, loyalists and unionists, it was a group of working and middle-class women who profoundly influenced peace efforts in Northern Ireland. Very few of them had ever been involved in politics. But they came together to organize the Northern Ireland Womens Coalition, because as one described, It was peace that I wanted this was about our lives, our futures, the futures of our children. Many were bereaved of husbands or had sons, brothers, or fathers in prison, but they refused to pursue political agendas. Their whole focus was working towards peace, reaching an agreement and bringing that peace home to their communities. As women they believed they were the most experienced peace negotiators in the room. As one leader said,) not biologically, but because thats where we have traditionally been located in society. We sort out the problems between siblings. We sort out the problems across the street. In the end they were not the dominant force in creating the Belfast Agreement, but they were a dominant force in changing the culture of conflict in Northern Ireland. By promoting peace and reconciliation, inclusion and cooperation, they made widespread acceptance of the Belfast Agreement a reality. In Liberia, after 14 years of a relentless and bloody civil war, with 200,000 people dead, and a third of the population displaced, it was a group of women who launched the non-violent campaign for peace that eventually led to the conflicts end. Their leader, Leymah Gbowee, dreamed one night that she was told by God, Gather the women and pray for peace. Women from Christian and Muslim organizations, from indigenous and elite classes, set aside decades of learned prejudice to unite together and demand that the warring parties find a peaceful solution to the conflict. United by their shared experience as mothers, sisters, daughters, and aunts, they had endured the pain of watching their young daughters endure unbelievable atrocities, and their young sons recruited into violent warfare, drugged up, and forced to commit terrible atrocities. They refused to bear any more. Like the Northern Ireland women, they refused to take sides in the conflict; their only goal was absolute peace. In Gbowees powerful words, We are now taking this stand because we believe as custodians of this society, tomorrow our children will ask us, Mama, what was your role during the crisis? Dressed in white, having removed any visible distinctions of class, or religion, thousands of them sang and prayed in the central fish market for hours on end. They lined the streets around the rebels hotels, refusing to leave until rebel leaders agreed to attend the peace talks. After months of dead-end negotiations, 200 of these women held a sit-in outside the building where the peace talks were held and physically barricaded the assembly room until the cease-fire was signed and the chief mediator promised to establish a peace agreement. Within two-weeks, under the womens demands and threats from the international community to deny much-needed funding, a peace agreement was reached. What we watched that day in a United Nations conference room underscored a profound reality about the nature and work of ordinary women. Grounded in their natural commitment to and awareness of others their children, their families, their communities these women were able to do what others had not. Transforming compassion into responsibility, they pursued peace above political gain and through determination and resilience rescued and transformed conflict ravaged nations. It was their relational ties, their familial bonds, rooted in their unique work as women, that gave them the strength, vision and capacity to do so. As Bruce Hafen once wrote, women have always lifted entire cultures beginning at societys very core the home. But culturally we have spoken less about how womens devotion to relationships prepares them to offer the voice and perspective that our world desperately needs. As women in Northern Ireland and Liberia taught us, we need to create a world where this gender gift is valued, nurtured and heard. SALT LAKE CITY Members of Utah's Sikh community celebrated the Vaisakhi festival in the state Capitol Saturday, an observance of great significance in their faith. It was also an opportunity to shed light on Sikhism, the fifth-largest religion worldwide, said Mani Singh Grewal, a Utah Sikh and small-businessman who led the effort to hold the festival for the first time in a public place. Sikhism is a "universal religion," Grewal said. "You may have a belief even in other faiths but you can still believe in the principles of Sikhism. So as a result, it is open to all. The fundamental principles are equality of all colors, women and men alike, black and white, rich and poor," he said. Other core principles include brotherhood, "kindness for the flora and fauna on the planet, being humane and being kind, sharing with less-fortunate people," Grewal explained. Sikhs contribute at least 10 percent of their income "for the causes of humanity," he said. Sikhs are also known for their hospitality, serving vegetarian food to all people, regardless of background, for free. On Saturday, Utah Sikhs served langar meals at the library and at the Volunteers of America Center for Women and Children in Midvale. Grewal said there are about 150 Sikh families in Utah. The first Sikhs settled in the state about 90 years ago, he said. "We are a very humble community. We want to be a part of the neighborhoods where we live. I ran for the City Council of Draper, unsuccessfully, but that's OK. We want to be able to contribute to the society we live in," said Grewal. Many Sikhs own businesses such a convenience stores, gas stations, motels and restaurants. "We are in IT, we are professors and doctors. We are the trucking business," he said, adding that many Punjabis are professionals such as engineers, educators, real estate agents and attorneys. "We have a very prominent district attorney, Sim Gill," he said, referring to the Salt Lake Democrat, elected in 2010. Vaisakhi festival included the opening ceremony of the living scriptures, the Holy Book of Sikhs, prayer and the singing of hymns and chanting with musical instruments. The event also included displays of Sikh symbols and artifacts, live lessons and demonstrations how to tie a turban and the distribution of booklets on Sikhism and Vaisakhi. Vaisakhi, which usually falls on April 13 or 14, marks the beginning of new solar year for the Punjabi community and Sikhs. "This is the celebration of the Vaisakhi festival. This one of the most important festivals of the Sikhs because this was the day Sikhs were born," Grewal said. More than 300 years ago the 10th guru of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, founded Khalsa Panth the Order of Pure Ones and gave a unique identity to the Sikh community. In doing so, the differences between castes and creeds were eliminated. The guru gave the gift of distinctive Sikh clothing and headwear and offered five emblems of purity and courage: unshorn hair, the wooden comb, iron bracelet, sword, and undergarments "for the laws of chastity," Grewal explained. The sword "is not for oppression but it is for defense or if somebody is being cruel to the helpless then you stand up to it to protect someone as a good Samaritan. Sikhs are always good Samaritans," he said. Even so, Sikhs are misunderstood, thus the need for public outreach, he said. "We have a mistaken identity. Many people think we are from other places and as if we are terrorists. You are with the most patriotic people, very loyal, very educated, very high per capita income people yet the most patriotic people as well. "You will never see a Sikh in a road rage. You will never see a Sikh cussing someone or doing hand signals. We are a peace-loving people and we protect the helpless people. We protect the underprivileged and we help the poor people. We are equal. We never feel we are superior than anybody else." SALT LAKE CITY Every morning reporter Pat Reavy hits the phones and scans the computer, reading search warrants and court documents, and reaching out to sources for information as he tries to understand both the good and bad of society. He's worked the crime beat for the Deseret News since 2000. But it's a mistake to think he's reporting on crime. He's reporting on people, many of whom are in the throes of life-altering situations. What is remarkable is the willingness of good people to help others, even when they themselves are grieving as victims of someone else's bad (criminal) behavior. The ubiquitousness of technology has pushed the impact of criminal activity toward younger and younger victims, and it's having a devastating impact on our youth and their families. "Every day I read search warrants and sadly, you notice that there are a lot these cases," Reavy said last week, as the newsroom discussion turned to the victimization of children and teenagers. Teens are getting ensnared in what they think is playful behavior, but wind up being victimized by fraudsters or others who convince them to send a compromising photo "send a nude selfie just between us friends," comes the lie and then they try to extort money from the inexperienced teens who feel backed into a corner. "What's sad is that there are so many of these that I can't write about all the cases. So I look for trends. What got me was just how overwhelming the number of cases were," Reavy said. That included a group of middle school girls sending explicit pictures to grown men. He worked with the Internet Crimes Against Children task force and discovered the pervasiveness of the problem. But conversations with task force officers about that case led to an even more disturbing reality: this crime is becoming fatal. Both adults and teens are taking their own lives because they think they will be humiliated or face other consequences if a compromising photo or video gets out, and they don't know what to do about it. As Pat wrote last week, in "Uncovering the secret that led to son's suicide": "The person who got to him was actually telling him you should do this. 'You should end your life. You should take your life. You ruined your life. If you dont, Im going to ruin your life. You should take your life, said the mother of a 16-year-old Utah boy who died by suicide after being extorted by a person later traced to the Ivory Coast. Every teenager makes mistakes of one kind or another. The brave story the Tobler family told Reavy will save lives because educating parents and teens about this problem is crucial to preventing it. Whether from the Ivory Coast or just around the corner, people with evil intentions are exploiting minors. They're also exploiting adults, preying on their weaknesses. It's why the story went viral, with more than half a million readers in just days. It's why the Pennsylvania National Guard Association is linking to it, and the Maine National Guard Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program took note. Many agencies across the country are reaching out to Utah's Internet Crimes Against Children team for help. Reavy will have more on the impact of the story thanks to the unselfishness of the family to reach beyond their pain to help others. Here is some of the Facebook reaction to this story and the personal impact it is having on families: "My heart goes out to the family with prayers of healing. I hope they know with opening up their lives to share this may save many lives!" One adult to another: "The boys need to read this." "My daughter was involved in a similar situation at her middle school. If you wanted to be part of 'the squad' which was a group of the more popular kids, you must confide your deepest secret to the 'leader' many kids joined 50+ and then were manipulated and threatened to bully others or their secret would be exposed to the school. It was horrific. My heart and prayers go out to this poor boy's family." "This family is remarkable to share their story in order to help others." "This is very sad, but worth reading, as it may help you protect your families from this kind of exploitation." The Internet Crimes Against Children task force is a national network. Its website notes that 61 coordinated task forces represent more than 4,500 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The more people are willing to come forward to tell their stories to the task force, the greater chance we have to inform our children of the risks and catch those who are perpetrating such a horrible crime against children. There are no words to truly comfort a family grieving from such a loss. But this family's willingness to tell their story will save lives. God bless them. NEW YORK Donald Trump isn't on the ballot for Israel's national election, yet he's a dominant factor for many American Jews as they assess the high stakes of Tuesday's balloting. At its core, the election is a judgment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has won the post four times but now faces corruption charges. In his battle for political survival, Netanyahu has aligned closely with Trump a troubling tactic for the roughly 75% of American Jewish voters who lean Democratic. "The world has come to understand that Netanyahu is essentially the political twin of Donald Trump," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal pro-Israel group J Street. "Unlike his previous elections, there is a much deeper antagonism toward Netanyahu because of that close affiliation between him and Trump and the Republican Party." Netanyahu featured Trump in a recent campaign video, while Trump has made a series of policy moves viewed as strengthening Netanyahu in the eyes of Israeli voters, including relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and officially recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory. "It's troubling," said Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. "The U.S.-Israel relationship should not be about any two leaders or any two parties. The American Jewish community wants the relationship to remain on a bipartisan basis." Though it leans Democratic overall, the American Jewish community numbering 5.5 million to 6 million is not monolithic. Most older Jews remain supportive of Israel's current Middle East policies, as does the roughly 10% of the Jewish population that is Orthodox. Jewish billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has been a staunch financial supporter of Trump and the GOP. Trump extended his personal thanks to Adelson on Saturday in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. The president also boasted extensively about his Israel-related policy moves. "Unlike other presidents, I keep my promises," he said, referring to the embassy relocation. Trump mentioned Netanyahu only briefly in his speech, predicting the election would be close and describing both the prime minister and his main challenger, former army chief of staff Benny Gantz, as "good people." Divisions among U.S. Jews have been exacerbated by recent allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the Democrats' two Muslim congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Seizing on the controversy, Trump tweeted his support for a purported "Jexodus" movement that would encourage Jews to leave the Democratic Party. "Republicans are waiting with open arms," Trump tweeted on March 15. Morton Klein, president of the conservative Zionist Organization of America, predicts such an exodus will take place because of the Democrats' decision to avoid explicit condemnation of the congresswomen. Ben-Ami scoffed at the notion, suggesting that Jexodus was a fantasy of pro-Trump operatives. "I've yet to meet an actual Obama/Clinton voter who's said publicly they're switching to vote for Donald Trump," he said. "This is not real. It's completely made up." New York-based journalist Jane Eisner, former editor of The Forward, a Jewish newspaper, said many American Jews have "Netanyahu fatigue" even some who supported him in past. Among liberal Jews, Eisner said, there are strong worries that Netanyahu will push Israel's government even further to the right if he wins, perhaps moving to annex some land in the occupied West Bank with confidence that the Trump administration will not object. Morton Klein conceded that some Jews have grown weary of Netanyahu, but predicted he would prevail. "People would be nervous if he's not there," Klein said. Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, said any surge in Netanyahu fatigue should not be interpreted as a weakening of American Jews' support for Israeli. "There is a sense of fatigue having one leader for 10 years," Rosen said. "Just as we've had Clinton fatigue and Bush fatigue." Among liberal and centrist American Jews, dismay with Netanyahu extends beyond his alliance with Trump. Some say he's been too harsh in his treatment of migrants, and they bemoan his backtracking on a promise to allow mixed-gender prayer at the Western Wall. Perhaps most disturbing has been Netanyahu's alliance with an ultranationalist political party linked to a movement previously banned for anti-Arab racism and incitement. That political alliance was assailed as "repugnant" by Eric Yoffie, a rabbi from Westfield, New Jersey, in a March 27 op-ed in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Yoffie also decried Netanyahu's "excessive enthusiasm" for Trump. "Cordial relations are essential," wrote Yoffie, president emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism. "But the sycophantic buddy movie that Bibi has produced with America's unbalanced and unpredictable president is something else altogether ... Bibi's egregious and unnecessary embrace of everything Trump will cost Israel dearly." In Israel, a prevalent view, at least in pro-Netanyahu ranks, is that the prime minister's friendship with Trump is paying unprecedented dividends. There is widespread sentiment that liberal American Jews, as a constituency, are dissipating due to intermarriage, and that the evangelical Christian community in the U.S. is a more dependable ally for Israel. At last year's ceremony in Jerusalem celebrating the relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, evangelical Christian pastors allied with Trump delivered the opening and closing blessings. Netanyahu's main challenger in the election is popular in Israel but has a relatively low profile in the United States. American Jews who dislike Netanyahu view Gantz as preferable, due in part to a less combative personality, but liberals note with frustration that the platform of Gantz's Blue and White party makes no mention of Palestinian statehood, and says that Israel will maintain control of parts of the West Bank. Emily Mayer of IfNotNow, a group of youthful American Jewish activists opposed to Israel's treatment of Palestinians, is dismayed at how that issue has been marginalized in the Israeli election campaign. "Regardless of the winner, the utter erasure of Palestinian humanity from this election cycle and the normalization of an undemocratic and immoral military occupation should alarm any Jew who cares about freedom and dignity of Israelis and Palestinians," Mayer said in an email. ___ Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report. ROOSEVELT, Duchesne County A man who reportedly shot himself in the head as a deputy fired at him in eastern Utah early Sunday is expected to survive, authorities said. The gunfire rang out as officers responded to a Roosevelt home about 2 a.m. on a report of domestic violence. They found a man outside the home and were trying to detain him when he allegedly brandished a handgun, chambered a bullet and raised the weapon, the Duchesne County Sheriff's Office said in a prepared statement. One deputy feared for his safety and that of others, so he fired twice when the man raised the gun, according to the sheriff's office. Both shots missed the man and hit a car. The man, whose name and age have not been released, shot himself in the head as the deputy fired and was transported to Uintah Basin Medical Center in Roosevelt before being flown by medical helicopter to a hospital on the Wasatch Front. The sheriff's office said the man is expected to survive but did not give details on his injuries. None of the officers were wounded. The deputy who fired his gun has been placed on paid administrative leave as the sheriff's office conducts an internal probe and the Basin Critical Incident Team leads an independent review. The home where the shooting happened is near 500 East and 5000 South in Roosevelt, according to the sheriff's office. SALT LAKE CITY Sen. Mitt Romney on Sunday echoed President Donald Trump's call for Congress to pass immigration legislation to toughen rules on asylum. Romney, R-Utah, said unaccompanied young immigrants arriving at the border, along with an influx of families seeking asylum, are "overwhelming our system." "By virtue of our laws and processes here, we bring them into the country. We don't begin to have enough space in our facilities to maintain the kind of care that these people deserve, and so they're being just turned out into our country," Romney said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday morning. Utah's freshman senator also touched on a dialed-back law to expand Medicaid in Utah and said he would like the president to release his tax returns, but opposes a push by Democrats in Congress to obtain them. Romney's comments came two days after Trump on Friday declared our country is full while in California visiting the Mexican border. Romney condemned Democrats on Sunday, saying they have treated the issue as a partisan one. "This is a winning issue, I think, for Republicans, but more importantly, it's a winning issue for Americans to say we have to have the sovereignty of our nation. I think the president has tapped into something which the people feel very deeply," Romney continued. He called for a border fence to be completed, along with an electronic system to document fraud by those seeking jobs in the U.S. but don't have legal status. When he declared last year that he would be tougher than Trump on immigration, Romney said, he was referring to his own opposition to legislation granting legal residency to those brought to the U.S. as children, "but that's in the past." "I would provide legal status for those Dreamers in the country. That's something the president's put on the table. I think we should get that job done," Romney said. In Utah, a 2019 state law limiting a voter-approved plan to fully expand Medicaid is reasonable, Romney said. The new law cut the number of Utahns who would have been covered under the ballot initiative by about half and required federal waivers for various aspects of the program, some of which have been approved by the Trump administration. State legislators said the changes were needed to control costs down the road. "I think it's a reasonable position that the Legislature has taken," Romney said Sunday. On the national stage, he emphasized that he favors a repeal of the Affordable Care Act in favor of a new health care system that would give states more flexibility under private insurance. Romney also said he would like the president to release his tax returns but is confident that the U.S. Supreme Court would not order them to be released. Romney called a push from Democrats in Congress to obtain the returns from the IRS "moronic. That's not going to happen." Romney said he doesn't agree with the president on everything. He recently told the president he's opposed to steel and aluminum tariffs, he recalled, "but on the other hand, I said, I'm overwhelmingly in favor with what you're doing on China." The administration has imposed tariffs on China in an attempt to pressure the nation to end a trade war. Romney said the president "has followed the Republican playbook when it comes to the domestic economy. Lowering taxes, lowering regulation. The economy's doing very, very well. It's hard not to recognize that's a pretty strong record." SALT LAKE CITY During much of the 2019 Utah Legislature, tax reform was all anybody could talk about as they waited for details of the Republican leadership's plan to impose sales taxes on a wide array of services. But there's been nothing but silence on the subject since the session ended March 14 without any action to restructure a state tax base unbalanced by shrinking sales tax revenues. The tax reform plan surfaced so late in the 45-day session and generated so much controversy that it ended up being shelved in favor of taking up the issue again in a special session later this summer. Last-minute legislation creating a tax force to put together a new plan passed the final night of the session. HB495 calls for an initial report from the task force in June and final recommendations in August. Gov. Gary Herbert has already said he plans to call a special session of the Legislature to "get this thing completed" once there's consensus on a tax reform plan. Now, nearly a month after the Legislature adjourned, legislative leaders are expected this week to formally start discussing the process and settling on the makeup of the task force. The goal is for what's been dubbed the Tax Restructuring and Equalization Task Force to be up and running by the Legislature's first interim meeting day, typically in mid-May. "I think there's still plenty of time," said Rep. Tim Quinn, R-Heber City, the sponsor of the tax reform bill that was set aside. "I think we could have accomplished this in the seven-week session." Quinn said there were enough votes in the House to pass his bill, HB441, but not in the Senate. He said the problem his plan ran into is that it was seen as a tax increase. Adding sales taxes to services ranging from getting a haircut to hiring an attorney was considered raising taxes even though his bill lowered both the sales and income tax rates and ultimately included a $75 million tax cut, Quinn said. "I will concede there is still a lot of misinformation in the public," he added. Yet to be determined is whether Quinn's bill will be a focus for the task force's work or if the 10 voting members appointed by House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, and Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, will start from scratch. "I always like the 'all of the above' answer," Adams said. He said that means while taxing services will continue to be discussed, so will other possible solutions, including restoring the full state sales tax on food and amending the Utah Constitution so income taxes can be used for needs other that education. Last session, the Senate passed a proposed constitutional amendment that, once passed by voters in a general election, would have allowed income taxes to also be spent "to provide services for the poor, the disabled or the elderly." A bill raising the state sales tax on food from the current 1.75 percent to the full state sales tax rate with a $60 million tax credit for families earning up to $65,000 was drafted but not introduced by Senate Majority Whip Dan Hemmert, R-Orem. Among other suggestions likely to be considered are boosting statewide property taxes. Rate cuts are part of the picture, too, with $75 million set aside in the budget for some type of tax reduction. "We don't have a revenue problem," House Majority Whip Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said. "We have a revenue structural balance problem. That's what we need to work on. That's the No. 1 goal. It's not to generate new revenue." The problem comes as a result of income tax revenue growth outpacing sales tax collections, thanks to a shift in consumer spending from goods that are taxed to services that largely are not. Because sales taxes make up the bulk of the general fund that pays for everything other than education, there's a fear that the state won't be able to keep up with increasing needs in transportation, human services and other government functions. Schultz said including a tax cut in what package the tax reform task force comes up with is "going to be extremely important," at least for the supermajority of Republicans in the Legislature. Democratic lawmakers already are raising concerns about the impact on education of changing the constitutional earmark on income taxes, and on the poor by increasing food taxes. With Democrats making up just two of the 10 voting members of the tax reform task force, they're hoping the process won't be a repeat of what happened during the session, when Republicans worked behind the scenes to put together the bill. "I think they thought this would be easier," Senate Minority Leader Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City, recently told the Deseret News editorial board. "When you get kind of mixed up and things aren't right, you stop and I think that's what happened." Mayne said a case can be made for adding sales taxes to services, but it's going to be difficult to do. She said the services that may be easier to tax are those that are most likely to have a "big voice" on Capitol Hill. Even so, the Democratic legislative leader said she expects results. "I just can't imagine we're going to open up Pandora's box and then shut it again because we can't figure it out," Mayne said. "Maybe it won't be as grandiose as we wanted it to be. Maybe it will be in levels or increments or whatever. But you'll see something." Matthew Burbank, a University of Utah political science professor, also said what comes out of the task force may be less sweeping than what's been looked at previously. Making sales taxes a more stable revenue source by taxing at least some services remains the likely path, Burbank said, especially if that's made more palatable by some tax cuts. "That's still going to be something that will make a lot of sense," he said. "They're probably going to have to find some way of carving out more exemptions or way of not taxing some services." Putting off the issue until the interim between regular legislative sessions does call into question the urgency of finding a solution, Burbank said, suggesting lawmakers had been hoping to get a bill through late last session "to avoid a big bloodbath." Lawmakers won't be on their own to come up with a tax reform plan. Herbert, who proposed extending sales taxes to services in his proposed budget released late last year, will stay involved. The task force legislation allows for nonvoting members with "taxation expertise" to be appointed by legislative leaders, taking into consideration the governor's recommendations. "We expect to have a collaborative partnership with the Legislature over the next few months," Kristen Cox, executive director of the Governor's Office of Management and Budget, said. Lawmakers gave themselves some extra incentive to approve a tax reform plan by allocating only temporary funding for $320 million in government services in the new $19 billion budget. Not committing to pay for services after the upcoming budget year ends on June 30, 2020, including substance abuse treatment for the homeless and tuition assistance for Utah National Guard soldiers, is seen as added pressure to rebalance revenues. "That's something that is a motivation to get this done," Adams said, acknowledging that in reality, lawmakers don't have to restore ongoing funding for those programs until the next general session begins in January 2020. The Senate president said he hopes to have a tax plan in place by the end of summer or early fall, even though it make take longer to tackle during the legislative interim than it would during a regular session. "We've got a problem, but I want the right fix," Adams said. "Whether it takes an hour or it takes a year, for me, it isn't about the time element. It's getting it right. There's too much at stake." While it's not now or never for tax reform, BYU political science professor Adam Brown said that if something doesn't get passed in the coming months, the issue may not come up again for some time. "This is a huge chunk of policy they're playing with. Extending sales tax to services touches the economy in so many ways. Everyone is going to want their hands on it," Brown said. "If they really put in the full effort and fail, people are going to be tired of talking about it." Actor Ranbir Kapoor is with his parents, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor, in the US and it seems his visit has brought much-needed cheer to them. Rishi is undergoing treatment for an undisclosed illness in New York where he has been stationed with his wife since September last year. Sharing two photos with her son and husband, Neetu wrote, That amazing feeling in your lows when there is positivity! Happiness, love and that wink! Among those who lined to send her love to the family were Ranbirs girlfriend Alia Bhatt and her mother, Soni Razdan. Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, Ranbirs sister, also commented with heart emojis. Ranbir had earlier visited his parents with Alia as well. Ranbir opened up about his father at the Zee Cine Awards. Honoured with the best actor award for Sanju, Ranbir said, I would like to dedicate this award to very special people in my life, starting with my father. He is going through a little bit of a rough patch in his life and I have often heard that whenever you come at crossroads in your life, you can really tell who you are as a person. Whenever I speak to him, he only talks about movies. He only talks about how is this film?, how is this film doing?, how is this performance?, what are you doing in this scene? And more so, he speaks to me about his insecurities that when he gets back, will he get to work in movies? Whether people will offer him films? Will he be able to act in movies? Earlier, Ranbir had revealed Rishi may soon return too India. Hes (Rishi) doing very well, and he will be back very soon. He is missing the movies and working in films. I really hope that with all your wishes and prayers he comes back very soon. Netflix says that with AirPlay support rolling out to third-party devices, there isnt a way for the platform to distinguish between devices or certify these experiences, and hence it dropped the support. Netflix has pulled the AirPlay support from the iOS app, a media report has said. SlashGear reports that there have been a lot of instances where users have complained that the AirPlay was no longer working for them on their iPhones and iPads. The development was first spotted by a streamer on the video streaming platforms support page. We want to make sure our members have a great Netflix experience on any device they use. With AirPlay support rolling out to third-party devices, there isnt a way for us to distinguish between devices (what is an Apple TV vs. what isnt) or certify these experiences. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue Netflix AirPlay support to ensure our standard of quality for viewing is being met. Members can continue to access Netflix on the built-in app across Apple TV and other devices, Netflix reportedly said. AirPlay on iOS and Mac devices is a feature that allows users to send audio, video, images and screenshots between Apple devices that share a similar network. Using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, AirPlay lets users to play the same song on the multiple HomePod speakers in a house. Moreover, as several smart TV manufacturers add support for the feature, it also lets content from an iOS or Mac device to be viewable on smart TVs. Netflixs iOS app has supported AirPlay since 2013, but now the users are stating that when they tried to use AirPlay in the Netflix app, a pop-up error message appeared that said, Cannot play title. Please try again later. Even if the AirPlay support is pulled, iOS users can stream videos on smart TVs because the Netflix app usually comes installed them. The one edge that AirPlay users on iOS had was the ability to stream content from their own account on a smart TV without punching in their Netflix login credentials. Recently, Apple launched its own premium video streaming service Apple TV+ that comes with the iPhone-makers original programming in a redesigned Apple TV app. The Apple TV app will also be available across a range of smart TVs and platforms, including Sony, LG, Samsung and even on Amazon FireTV stick as well as on Roku devices. Related Read: Are you offering them new skills? A skill, yeah, by explaining it through my own experience. I was a lawyer before; I gave up law; and then told myself Im going to make a living with my hands. In the beginning I had a friend who commissioned me to do frames for mirrors. He lived in Bahia so I used seashells I picked up on the beach there to make the mirrors. That was my beginning. So its always been about the material. And the hands. This community Im going to today is based near a brick factory. When I first went there I didnt have a clue what to do with the group. But then I saw the brick factory, and asked the owner to give me bricks in a humid state, and we did this workshop with them. [A colleague brings in some vases developed from the bricks.] I do things with flexibility. I guess this is the magic. It also has a sense of hybridism. I told them to put all their anger, hate, hopes and fantasies into these vases, so they started banging the humid bricks down. [Humberto shows how the form at the bottom of the brick vases transformed under the manipulation to create new forms.] I try to transform things. These are now sold in museum shops. We do these sort of things with other communities, too. And every month we bring kids here to the studio from the favela and give them workshops. The idea of the studio and Instituto Campana is going in this direction. I know youre rescuing skills and keeping traditions alive by using artisanal knowledge in Brazil. How is this being done? We bring craft to the level of design. I push the people who work here to better their skills of crafting. For instance, the ladies who made the armchair youre sitting on they came from fashion. So I taught them how to use their skills on another project we made pillows and then attached one to the other to make the chair. Passing on skills to the next generation Thats the idea. To maintain our legacy. Even creating a small museum with our foundation. We have made a lot of things, and theyre all in storage. Do you weave yourself? I use artisans. I dont try to change their technique. I just try to give another plus to their technique. Like in the TransPlastic collection where we weave plastic with the rattan weave. Someone whos used to weaving a fruit bowl all their life can now weave with plastic. Theres another project we did three or four years ago with embroidery. We were invited to work with an NGO in the north-east of Brazil. What those ladies normally do is embroider tablecloths and napkins and I gave them another challenge. Why not embroider their faces in lamps? Do you see a material and say, What can I do with this? or do you say, I want to create a chair, so what material will I use? Whats your approach? Nowadays its both. For instance, for those [Humberto points to wool-woven screens perched on the counter behind Tracy], I imagined an installation where someone would weave with colourful cords. Id like to create a room full of these hanging pieces. And Im keeping all of thoseleftovers [Humberto points to a pile of appliance-protector Styrofoam on the floor] because I want to create a sofa with them. Everything happens in this way. I think its so wonderful that youre able to create value out of things that people would not even look at again, or would normally throw away. This, I guess, is my richness, my treasure. Nowadays more and more people are looking at alternatives but me and my brother were the ones who started this not a revolution, but this consciousness to create the fake diamond. Its like were forming a diamond, but its fake. Who needs diamonds anyway? Yeah, exactly! [Humberto laughs.] 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. Lisa Smith, the Dundalk woman currently detained in a Syrian camp, has told the Irish Mail on Sunday that she doesn't think she should be tried, should she return to Irealnd. In an interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday, Miss Smith said: "The only thing I did was come here and if thats my crime, like a lot of other peoples, for coming here and realising I made a mistake." According to the Mail, Smith is now in among 76,000 other men, women and children in a Syrian camp near the town of Sinjar. In her interview, Smith said that they were told that: "we would be in the camps for two months and after that we would have somewhere to go, to Turkey, or back to our countries." When asked why she moved from the Irish Defence Forces to ISIS, Smith said that she saw it as "just a job, just a career" "I was very depressed in my life and I didnt want to live any more", she said. "I guess I was suicidal. If you dont get answers, you end up killing yourself." "Then I came across Islam, I learned about it through Facebook. I watched debates and I read the Koran and then, for me, that was it. I knew this was the truth in life. This is the path I want to take." Smith admitted in the interview that she made a rushed decision to move to Syria: "I rush into everything. I didnt take my time. I left my job, I did everything so fast. My family thought I was going through a phase. They said, Shes going to regret this, But I didnt regret it." Read the full interview here Trumps comments came during the period when he was most actively caging and orphaning kids This tweet resurfacing Donald Trumps comments calling immigrants animals went viral this weekend: .@realDonaldTrump on people asking for asylum These arent people. These are animals. pic.twitter.com/pTKY08Obm2 Mark Elliott (@markmobility) April 5, 2019 Yes, this actual comment was made on May 16, 2018. Members of the press a profession Trump again smeared as enemies this week despite several instances of his fans plotting to murder his enemies, in addition to Trump applauding an actual attack on a reporter sought to earn bonus points by pointing out that the comment wasnt specifically about asylum seekers and adding other context. This also happened in May of 2018 when Trump spoke these words and Republicans sought to gaslight anyone who was honest about the obvious racism of his words. Reporters want to be careful, though from the moment he announced his 2016 campaign Trumps entire rhetorical game has been obvious. He aims to label all immigrants as criminals, while throwing in slight vague exceptions to provide plausible deniability to those who might shy away from obvious racist propaganda. Dehumanizing rhetoric works in exactly this way: It slaps the dehumanizing slur on the least sympathetic subgroup and then conflates that subgroup with the larger group that is the real target, then piously feigns innocence of any intention to tag the slur on the larger group, as Greg Sargent noted at the time. Everyone knows what Trump is doing here. He continually lies and fictionalizes stories to create hype and fear to justify his cruel unnecessary policies that have failed in every measurable way, except in their pure ignorance, laziness, lies, corruption, incompetence, as Bloombergs Francis Wilkinson noted. Those who compare Trumps rhetoric on immigration the early stages of the Third Reich are correct. In Iowa, @BetoORourke says the presidents rhetoric on migrants and calls to ban Muslims sound more like the Third Reich than the USA. Asked about the comparison after the rally, he emphatically stood by it. Watch the exchange here pic.twitter.com/aAmE3AgWGd Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 5, 2019 While pundits and reporters were busy improperly giving Trump the benefit of the doubt about his animals comment in the middle May of 2018, the Trump administration was at the height of its family separation policy at the border. At least 2,600 children were taken from their families at the border. The total number of children separated from a parent or guardian by immigration authorities is unknown, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. Since these children have been effectively orphaned, the administration has argued that they should not be reunited with their parents or other relatives for years because it might traumatize them, though experts argue that continuing to force these kids to endure the toxic stress of separation is the far greater risk. Trumps constant smearing of all immigrants, even asylum seekers, is what matters here. Trumps casual use of racist/Nazi terminology like infest is the context that matters here. Trumps willingness to go beyond words to use his power to permanently traumatize children is the context that matters here. This is flirting with fascism in the open, in broad daylight now. @SanhoTree of Institute for Policy Studies on Trumps demonization of immigrants. pic.twitter.com/YwBsrljqGn Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 29, 2018 Removing that context when Trump ties his rhetoric into knots we wrestle with as he commits further atrocities only makes us his accomplice. You know who doesnt have any trouble figuring out who Trump is targeting with his hate speech? His fans. Or maybe the fact that counties that hosted a 2016 Trump rally saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes is just another odd coincidence. Rushen Parish Commissioners opt to join Climate Change Coalition Rushen Parish Commissioners have chosen to add their support to an environmental lobby calling for drastic climate action. The local authority has voted to join the Climate Change Coalition, after it was proposed by chairman David Radcliffe. Commissioners were keen to assist the coalition in achieving its aims which include investment in renewable energy, reduction in emissions, and to keep sustainability promises to UNESCO. Rushen Parish has embarked on two initiatives in recent months, including conversion of street lights to low-energy LEDS, and to work with the Department of Environment Food and Agriculture to plant several thousands trees in the parish. Alice Quayle, a representative of the Climate Change Coalition, says the lobby wholeheartedly welcomes local authorities getting involved. Shes recently returned from a climate emergency conference held by Lancaster City Council, where local authorities from across the UK shared ideas on tackling the issues. Rushen chairman David Radcliffe told Local Democracy Reporter Ewan Gawne the climate issue was bigger than just the parish: Media Rushen Climate Change I have not read the Mueller report, says Trump On March 22, Special Counsel Robert Mueller completed his 22-month probe and US Attorney General William Barr sent a four-page letter to Congress two days later outlining the main findings. US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had not read Special Counsel Robert Muellers report investigating contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russia that his Democratic opponents say should be released in full. "I have not read the Mueller Report yet, even though I have every right to do so," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Only know the conclusions, and on the big one, No Collusion." "THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE" US Attorney General William Barr has said he plans to make public a redacted copy of the nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by the middle of this month, if not sooner. Barr told lawmakers the investigation did not establish that members of Trumps election campaign conspired with Russia, but also did not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice. Barr said he had concluded there was not enough evidence to show that Trump committed the crime of obstruction. But news media reports this week said members of Muellers team were unhappy with the way Barr, a Trump appointee, had characterized the reports conclusions. "IT'S UP TO GENERAL" Asked in an interview with Fox and Friends Weekend about calls for the release of the full confidential report, Trump said: "Its really up to the attorney general, whatever he wants to do." In another tweet, Trump called the report "a total waste of time." Barr did not meet a demand by Democrats in the US House of Representatives to provide the unredacted report to lawmakers by April 2. He told Congress in a letter last week he must redact material that was presented to a grand jury, as required by law, as well as information that could reveal U.S. intelligence agencies sources and methods. Congressional Democrats have indicated they will fight those redactions in court if the subpoena is ignored. Russias government has denied interfering in the US election. More irregular migrants held across Turkey Turkey has been the main route for refugees trying to cross to Europe, especially since the beginning of the civil war in Syria. At least 136 irregular migrants were held across Turkey on Friday, according to security sources. MIGRANTS WERE HELD ABOARD RUBBER BOATS In northwestern Balkesir province, gendarmerie forces held 17 migrants, said a source, on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media. Also, 43 irregular migrants aboard rubber boats were held by the Turkish Coast Guard off the Aegean coast of Aydn province. In two separate operations, 76 irregular migrants were held aboard rubber boats in the Aegean province of Izmir. Three human smugglers were also arrested in central Krklareli province, security sources said. All of the migrants were later referred to provincial migration directorates. Some 268,000 irregular migrants were held in Turkey in 2018, according to the Interior Ministry. The migrants were mostly Afghan, Pakistani, Syrian and Iraqi nationals. Turkey issues travel warning for Libya Foreign Ministry recommends Turkish citizens who plan to travel to Libya to follow the latest developments, review travel plans. Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Sunday issued a warning for its citizens traveling Libya after the recent clashes in the country. EMBASSY TO CONTINUE ACTIVITY "Considering the developments in Libya and especially the conflicts around Tripoli, it is recommended that our citizens who plan to travel to Libya should follow the latest developments and review their travel plans in this context," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry said that the Turkish embassy in Tripoli and Consulate General in Misrata are continuing their activities. On Thursday, East Libya-based commander Khalifa Haftar launched a military campaign to recapture Tripoli from UN-backed Government of National Accord forces. Libya has remained beset by turmoil since 2011 when a NATO-backed uprising led to the ouster and death of President Muammar Gaddafi after four decades in power. Since then, the countrys stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of power: one in the eastern city of Al-Bayda, to which Haftar is linked, and another in Tripoli. Orlando, Fla. (April 7, 2019)--Estradiol is a commonly prescribed estrogen therapy. Previous research has found that rats treated with the hormone experience an increase in sugar consumption. But according to new research, blocking the body's opioid receptors can reverse this effect. The findings will be presented today at the American Physiological Society's (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2019 in Orlando, Fla. Estradiol is a naturally occurring estrogen hormone and common medication used in various hormone treatments, such as menopausal hormone therapy and birth control. Previous studies by this research team found giving estradiol replacement in a rat model of menopause caused the rats to consume more of an offered sugar solution. Because the opioid system is known to contribute to overindulgence of highly palatable foods, the researchers decided to examine its role in estradiol's impact on sugar intake. Rats were assigned to either estradiol treatment or a control. Researchers then continuously infused rats with either naltrexone, which blocks opioid receptors, or saline. In a second experiment, the research team injected naltrexone or DAMGO, a synthetic compound that stimulates the opioid system, into an area of the brain associated with reward (the nucleus accumbens). In the first experiment, naltrexone treatment reversed the estradiol-related increase in sugar consumption. Injection of DAMGO stimulated sugar intake in both treated and control rats, but the effect was smaller in estradiol-treated rats than in control rats. These suggests that the opioid system plays a role in the estrogen-induced enhancement of sugar intake, but opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens is not likely to be directly involved in the estrogen-induced enhancement of sugar intake. Lead author Kurumi Iida noted that these findings suggest that extra sugar intake caused by estradiol "is possibly mediated by the opioid system." However, a potential site of the action for this phenomenon remains unknown. Kurumi Iida, an undergraduate student at Nara Women's University in Nara, Japan, will present "Involvement of the opioid system in the 17-estradiol-induced enhancement of sucrose intake in ovariectomized rats" Sunday, April 7, at a poster session in West Hall B of the exhibit hall of the Orange County Convention Center. ### NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: To schedule an interview with a member of the research team, please contact the APS Communications Office or 301-634-7209. Find more research highlights in the APS Press Room. About Experimental Biology 2019 Experimental Biology is an annual meeting comprised of more than 14,000 scientists and exhibitors from five sponsoring societies and multiple guest societies. With a mission to share the newest scientific concepts and research findings shaping clinical advances, the meeting offers an unparalleled opportunity for exchange among scientists from across the United States and the world who represent dozens of scientific areas, from laboratory to translational to clinical research. Physiology is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function in health and disease. Established in 1887, the American Physiological Society (APS) was the first U.S. society in the biomedical sciences field. The Society represents more than 10,000 members and publishes 15 peer-reviewed journals with a worldwide readership. Scientists trace path of bacterial toxins from the mouth to the brain and other tissues Orlando, Fla. (April 7, 2019) - Researchers are reporting new findings on how bacteria involved in gum disease can travel throughout the body, exuding toxins connected with Alzheimer's disease, rheumatoid arthritis and aspiration pneumonia. They detected evidence of the bacteria in brain samples from people with Alzheimer's and used mice to show that the bacterium can find its way from the mouth to the brain. The bacterium, Porphyromonas gingivalis, is the bad actor involved in periodontitis, the most serious form of gum disease. These new findings underscore the importance of good dental hygiene as scientists seek ways to better control this common bacterial infection. "Oral hygiene is very important throughout our life, not only for having a beautiful smile but also to decrease the risk of many serious diseases," said Jan Potempa, PhD, DSc, a professor at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry and head of the department of microbiology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. "People with genetic risk factors that make them susceptible to rheumatoid arthritis or Alzheimer's disease should be extremely concerned with preventing gum disease." While previous researchers have noted the presence of P. gingivalis in brain samples from Alzheimer's patients, Potempa's team, in collaboration with Cortexyme, Inc., offers the strongest evidence to date that the bacterium may actually contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Potempa will present the research at the American Association of Anatomists annual meeting during the 2019 Experimental Biology meeting, held April 6-9 in Orlando, Fla. The researchers compared brain samples from deceased people with and without Alzheimer's disease who were roughly the same age when they died. They found P. gingivalis was more common in samples from Alzheimer's patients, evidenced by the bacterium's DNA fingerprint and the presence of its key toxins, known as gingipains. In studies using mice, they showed P. gingivalis can move from the mouth to the brain and that this migration can be blocked by chemicals that interact with gingipains. An experimental drug that blocks gingipains, known as COR388, is currently in phase 1 clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease. Cortexyme, Inc. and Potempa's team are working on other compounds that block enzymes important to P. gingivalis and other gum bacteria in hopes of interrupting their role in advancing Alzheimer's and other diseases. The researchers also report evidence on the bacterium's role in the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis, as well as aspiration pneumonia, a lung infection caused by inhaling food or saliva. "P. gingivalis's main toxins, the enzymes the bacterium need to exert its devilish tasks, are good targets for potential new medical interventions to counteract a variety of diseases," said Potempa. "The beauty of such approaches in comparison to antibiotics is that such interventions are aimed only at key pathogens, leaving alone good, commensal bacteria, which we need." P. gingivalis commonly begins to infiltrate the gums during the teenage years. About one in five people under age 30 have low levels of the bacterium in their gums. While it is not harmful in most people, if it grows to large numbers the bacteria provoke the body's immune system to create inflammation, leading to redness, swelling, bleeding and the erosion of gum tissue. Making matters worse, P. gingivalis even causes benign bacteria in the mouth to change their activities and further increase the immune response. Bacteria can travel from the mouth into the bloodstream through the simple act of chewing or brushing teeth. The best way to prevent P. gingivalis from growing out of control is by brushing and flossing regularly and visiting a dental hygienist at least once a year, Potempa said. Smokers and older people are at increased risk for infection. Genetic factors are also thought to play a role, but they are not well understood. Jan Potempa will present this research on Sunday, April 7, from 1-1:30 p.m. in Room W208A, Orange County Convention Center (abstract). Contact the media team for more information or to obtain a free press pass to attend the meeting. ### Images available. About Experimental Biology 2019 Experimental Biology is an annual meeting that attracts more than 12,000 scientists and exhibitors from five host societies and more than two dozen guest societies. With a mission to share the newest scientific concepts and research findings shaping clinical advances, the meeting offers an unparalleled opportunity for exchange among scientists from across the U.S. and the world who represent dozens of scientific areas, from laboratory to translational to clinical research. http://www.experimentalbiology.org #expbio About the American Association of Anatomists (AAA) AAA is the professional home for an international community of biomedical researchers and educators focusing on the structural foundation of health and disease. Founded in 1888, the Association advances anatomical science through research, education, and professional development. http://www.anatomy.org Find more press materials at: https://www.eurekalert.org/meetings/eb/2019/newsroom/. A new study has found that cystic fibrosis patients who have a common virus may experience faster disease progression than patients who do not have the virus. Signs of faster cystic fibrosis disease progression included earlier times to lung transplant referral and reaching the final stages of the disease. The study looked at the cytomegalovirus, a typically harmless type of herpes virus that is often contracted during late adolescence and early adulthood. It is estimated that over 90% of people aged 80 years have the virus, and it does not usually cause symptoms. The researchers say their findings, which are published in the European Respiratory Journal [1], suggest the virus may be an unrecognised contributor to cystic fibrosis, but more research is needed to confirm whether the virus causes the disease to progress more quickly. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic condition that affects the body's ability to control the movement of salt and water between cells. This can cause a build-up of thick mucus in the lungs, making it more difficult to breathe and causing patients to be more likely to develop lung infections. The average life span of cystic fibrosis patients is 37 years, and around 0.6% of patients have an organ transplant each year as it has the potential to extend their lives. Michael Parkins is Associate Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary, Canada, and was one of the lead researchers. He explained: "We already know that the cytomegalovirus can harm the health of cystic fibrosis patients who have had a lung transplant, as it can increase the risk of organ rejection, but we know very little about how this virus affects pre-transplant cystic fibrosis patients. "An increasing body of evidence has demonstrated a link between cytomegalovirus and a number of chronic conditions such as Alzheimer's, heart disease and several cancers, but to date no studies have looked at the link between the virus and deterioration in chronic respiratory disease." The study included 56 cystic fibrosis patients who were referred for lung transplant at the Calgary Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic. Of those patients, 30 (54.6%) tested positive for cytomegalovirus. Researchers also recorded patients' sex, BMI, education and presence of other infections and genetic traits, to assess if these factors affected when patients were referred for transplant or reached the final stages of cystic fibrosis disease. The analyses showed that infection with the virus was the most important factor linked to disease progression. Patients with the virus were referred for lung transplants at a much younger age than patients who did not have cytomegalovirus, eight years earlier on average. Patients with the virus also died ten years earlier on average, compared to patients who did not have the virus. Professor Parkins explained the findings: "Cytomegalovirus is normally dormant in people who have it, but it can become active again and spread more quickly after infection with other bacteria. We know that cystic fibrosis patients are more likely to develop lung infections, so it's possible that repeated cycles of activation of the virus exaggerates the damage to patients' lungs, contributing to faster disease progression. "The association we found does not necessarily mean that cytomegalovirus directly causes more rapid disease progression - further studies are needed before such a bold statement could be made. However, our findings provide the first indication that this virus may have an impact on progression of cystic fibrosis, potentially leading to earlier transplant referral and even death." The researchers say that a number of cytomegalovirus vaccines are currently being investigated in other areas of medicine, and that these could be trialled among cystic fibrosis patients to prevent possible infection. The research team say there are also several interventions that could be trialled to manage cytomegalovirus among cystic fibrosis patients. Professor Parkins said: "Treatment might involve regular medication to slow the spread of the virus. Alternatively, treatment could be given only during times of reactivation, for example following infection or symptom flare-ups." The researchers caution that the study is limited by the small number of patients included who all came from just one clinic, and by the lack of information about the direct cause of death or transplantation among patients. Professor Tobias Welte, from Hannover University, Germany, is President of the European Respiratory Society and was not involved in the study. He said: "With improved diagnosis and medical treatment, cystic fibrosis is changing from a disease of childhood into a disease of adults, as patients are living for longer. The average life span for people with the disease is now around 37 years of age, but just 5% of cystic fibrosis patients across Europe are aged over 40 years. "This is an exploratory study that raises an interesting hypothesis, however, due to the limitations of the study, it does not confirm a role of the cytomegalovirus in cystic fibrosis. Further observational studies are necessary to be able to confirm the value of these findings." The researchers say that they are now conducting further research in this area using larger international registries and multiple patient centres. ### Scientists have developed a new imaging technology to visualise what cells eat, which could aid the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer. The team has designed chemical probes that light up when they attach to specific molecules that cells eat, such as glucose. Researchers used microscopes to watch cells eating glucose inside live zebrafish embryos, which are transparent and easy to observe. They found the technique also worked with human cells growing in the lab. The team says their approach could easily be adapted to look at other molecules that are important for health and disease. All cells rely on glucose and other molecules for their survival. If a cell's eating habits change, it can be a warning sign of disease. Researchers say the new technology could help detect tiny changes in cells' eating habits inside the body's tissues, making it easier to spot diseases sooner. Doctors could also use the technology to monitor how patients are responding to treatment, by tracking the molecules that are eaten by healthy and diseased cells. The study, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, was funded by Medical Research Scotland, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the European Research Council. The Royal Society and the Wellcome Trust also provided funding. Dr Marc Vendrell, Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Imaging at the University of Edinburgh, said: "We have very few methods to measure what cells eat to produce energy, which is what we know as cell metabolism. Our technology allows us to detect multiple metabolites simultaneously and in live cells, by simply using microscopes. "This is a very important advance to understand the metabolism of diseased cells and we hope it will help develop better therapies." ### I n art history, the Delft School of Painting was an important movement in the mid-17th-century Netherlands. Its most famous representative was Charles Vermeer. This movement was best known for its acute sense of details in scenes of the daily life, portraits and still lives. It was a Golden Age for the Netherlands, both economically and culturally, having just gained independence from Spain. His sense of aesthetics is not unlike the masters of the 17th century, with a modern twist: its use of 3D metal printing. Established in the historical centre of Delft, watchmaker Michiel Holthinrichs is a proud ambassador of the contemporary arts scene in the Dutch city. His sense of aesthetics is not unlike the masters of the 17th century, with a modern twist: its use of 3D metal printing to craft its designs, with a certain sense of timeless beauty... Beauty has always fascinated me and initially led me to become an architect, he says. Practice has taught me that compromises in favour of costs and efficiency often come at the expense of my pursuit of beauty. This experience is what led me into watchmaking. Drawing his first sketches in 2013, then conducting 3D printing tests, Michiel Holthinrichs launched his first model, Ornament 1 Ruthenium, three years ago. The specific concept of adding material, rather than removing it, requires a new, unconventional way of thinking while designing. The Ornament 1 Delft Blue was introduced to celebrate the town of Delft. Last year, at the EPHJ fair in Geneva, Michiel Holthinrichs launched a first 3D-printed solid gold watch. He has since started the production of its own in-house dials and presented the first 3D-printed platinum watch ever. 3D metal printing is a key aspect in his work. The specific concept of adding material, rather than removing it, requires a new, unconventional way of thinking while designing, he says. The use of 3D printing allows for the creation of unprecedented designs with far-reaching options for customisation. Although seemingly paradoxical to this use of state of the art technology, every part of the watch is finished by hand in my atelier. With this combination of present and future I offer small series or unique and bespoke timepieces on request. The following gallery offers a glimpse into the horological world of Michiel Holthinrichs. GBP/ZAR FORECAST UPDATE: The South African Rand (ZAR) started the weekly session retreating from a five-week best against the Pound Sterling (GBP) with investors turning to US-China trade negotiations and Brexit updates for clues as to directional drivers for the cross. Corporate treasury manager at Peregrine Treasury Solutions, Biance Botes wrote "Rand marks time while waiting for direction, adding "Currency markets continue to focus on the China-US trade talks and Brexit developments. On the trade front, last week saw another successful round of negotiations in Washington, leading Trump to announce he expects a deal to be struck within four weeks. On the Brexit front, focus is on cross-party talks - which have thus far failed to yield a joint deal - ahead of the European Union summit (Wednesday) in which EU leaders are expected to decide on whether or not the further delay Brexit. February mining figures and manufacturing output numbers for South Africa are due on Thursday while for the UK, GDP growth figures are also due (Wednesday). GBP/ZAR FORECAST: The Pound (GBP) fell back against the South African Rand (ZAR) this week as ongoing Brexit uncertainty left Sterling defenceless against a resurgent Rand. This came as MPs were still unable to agree how to move forward with Brexit, with a second round of indicative votes resulting in parliament rejecting all of the options on the table once again. After striking a one-month low, the GBP/ZAR exchange rate sought to rally late on Tuesday after Theresa May announced she would hold talks with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in an effort to find a cross-party solution to Brexit that could make it through parliament. However capping the Pounds gains in the mid-week was the publication of the UKs latest Services PMI, as it revealed a shock contraction in the UKs most important sector in March. IHS Markit reported that Brexit uncertainties resulted in growth in the service sector putting in its worst performance since July 2016 last month and warned this made indicate that the UK economy stagnated in the first quarter. The second half of the week then saw the Pound begin to drift lower again as limited progress in the cross party talks dampened hopes that a new deal could be put before Parliament before an upcoming EU summit on 10 April. This lead May to formally request another Brexit delay from the EU on Friday, asking that the UK be allowed to remain until 30 June. South African Rand (ZAR) Surges as Moodys Delays Credit Review Meanwhile the South African Rand (ZAR) got off to a roaring start this week after Moodys decision to delay its credit rating review came as a major relief to local investors. Observers had previously feared that the review could strip South Africa of its last investment-grade credit rating. The delay therefore can as a welcome surprise to ZAR investors, with sentiment in the Rand being further bolstered after Moodys struck a broadly positive note in a research note published in the first half of the week. However the Rand gave up some ground in the mid-week amid reports that the government was considering plans to provide further financial support to the cash-strapped Eskom. The national power utility has had to implement frequent rolling load-shedding as it continues to struggle to meet demand. ZAR investors fear another costly bailout of Eskom could be the tipping point, which would see Moodys downgrade South Africans investment grade to junk status. This wasnt enough to prevent the Rand rallying again in the tail end of the session however as it followed other emerging currencies higher amid hopes that the US and China were closing in on a trade deal. GBP/ZAR Exchange Rate Forecast: Brace for Another Week of Brexit Volatility Looking ahead to next weeks session, trade in the Pound South African Rand (GBP/ZAR) exchange rate is likely to remain erratic as we enter yet another week in which Brexit is set to dominate. The UK is currently set to leave the EU on 12 April if parliament is unable to agree to a withdrawal deal. May has of course requested another extension, but it is not a given that this will be granted, so all eyes will be on the Emergency EU summit taking place on Wednesday, in which EU leaders will weigh up their options. This is likely to overshadow the release of the UKs latest GDP figures, which otherwise may have weakened Sterling as growth is forecast to slow in February. Meanwhile ZAR investors will likely be focused on the publication of South Africas latest production figures, with another contraction in manufacturing output likely to dent the Rand. GBP/JPY FORECAST UPDATE #2: Price action for the Pound Sterling to Japanese Yen exchange rate remained confined to a narrow range through Monday and into Tuesday's European session with the GBPJPY last seen trading at 145.600. With recovering risk-appetite prompting an exodus from the Yen and Brexit jitters capping the Pound, the near-term direction for the cross is uncertain. The EU are expected to give their verdict on a Brexit delay on Wednesday meaning investors may not have to wait long for the next market-driving development and while EU leaders are expected to grant a delay, it's not a forgone conclusion. GBP/JPY FORECAST UPDATE #1: While the Pound to Yen exchange rates generally traded flat or marginally lower against major peers last week, against the Japanese Yen, the GBP gained 0.79% as tentatively resurgent risk-appetite prompted an ebb from the safety of the Yen. At the time of writing, the Pound-to-Yen (GBPJPY) exchange rate was last seen trading at 145.630, up marginally from the weekly open. Following last week's slide in real wage growth, focus for the Yen will likely be on the February machinery order numbers alongside the Governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ), Haruhiko Kuroda's press conference on monetary policy with expectations recent data and the current global economic context could prompt a dovish tone. Risk appetite has generally recovered over the last week amid reports that a US-China trade deal could be close to completion. White House economic advisor, Larry Kudlow said the sides were closer and closer to a deal while President Trump claimed a deal could be signed within four weeks. For the GBP, Brexit remain a critical factor as cross-party talks continue ahead of the special EU summit (Wednesday 10th), at which EU leaders will decide whether or not to offer the UK a further delay, beyond April 12th. On Monday the Pound (GBP) rallied against the Japanese Yen (JPY) as the Nikkei manufacturing PMI revealed that Marchs output fell at its fastest rate in almost three years. Meanwhile, the UKs manufacturing PMI rose to a 13-month high as the pace of stockpiling hit a new record high ahead of Brexit. Brexit pessimism weighed on Sterling as MPs voted against all four alternatives to Theresa Mays withdrawal agreement, leaving the House of Commons in Brexit deadlock. The pairing continued to fall on Tuesday as data revealed that the UK construction PMI fell into contraction for the second month in a row. The Japanese services PMI showed that while business activity continued to expand in March, business confidence dipped to an 18-month low. Meanwhile, the UK services PMI contracted for the first time in more than two and a half years as new orders fell for the third consecutive month. On Wednesday evening, the House of Commons voted by a majority of one to force Theresa May to request an extension to Brexit from the EU and give Parliament the power to decide the length of the extension. The Yen slipped as Japans annual overall household spending rose less than expected, and real wages slipped at the fastest pace in more than three years. However, Japans Leading Economic Index rose for the first time in four months in February. Despite this, the government maintains their view that the economy was at a turning point towards a downgrade. The pairing remained muted at the end of the week following reports that Theresa May wrote to the EU to request a further Brexit delay to 30 June. Will Sterling (GBP) Slide as GDP Stagnates? On Monday, the Pound (GBP) could make gains on the Japanese Yen (JPY) following a vote in the House of Lords. If the House of Lords vote for Yvette Coopers Brexit Bill, Sterling could receive an upswing of support as Brexit optimism rises. The Pound could slide against the Japanese Yen on Wednesday following the release of the UKs monthly GDP. Markets are expecting Februarys GDP to stagnate at 0% following the previous months rise of 0.5%, which could cause the Pound Japanese Yen (GBP/JPY) exchange to slide. Could a Dovish BoJ Weigh on the Japanese Yen (JPY)? The Japanese Yen (JPY) may slide against the Pound (GBP) on Tuesday following the release of machinery orders. If Februarys new orders slide by an annual rate of -5.2% following the previous fall of -2.9%, it could dampen sentiment in the Japanese Yen. On Wednesday, the Governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ), Haruhiko Kuroda is due to hold a press conference on monetary policy in Tokyo. If Kurodas tone is dovish and he discusses the recent slide in real wages and the pressure the bank is under, the Pound Japanese Yen (GBP/JPY) exchange rate may rise. GBP/CAD FORECAST UPDATE #2: After tentative gains early in Monday's session, the Pound to Canadian Dollar exchange rate reversed direction to dip 0.3% as Brexit uncertainty weighed on the Sterling and boosted oil prices supporting the Loonie. At the time of writing, GBPCAD was last seen trading at CA$1.73909, flat from the daily open. With little in the way of high impact economic data on the agenda, Brexit is expected to remain a key driver for all crosses as PM May meets with European leaders to state her case for a further Brexit delay ahead of Wednesday's emergency EU summit. With oil currently trading at a 2019 high above $71 on supply concerns as the situation in Libya deteriorates alongside recovering risk-appetite, the crude-coupled Loonie could remain supported. GBP/CAD FORECAST UPDATE: The British Pound to Canadian Dollar exchange rate kicked off the weekly session on a firm footing with the Sterling edging higher against the Loonie to trade at CA$1.74591. With the price of oil having breached the $70 per barrel level, the Loonie could find itself supported as concerns over Libyan supply-lines as well as further OPEC+ production cuts keep prices elevated. US-China trade will also be a focus for the commodity-coupled Loonie with the latest news-flow suggesting a deal could be struck within a month. Larry Kudlow, Trump's economic advisor said the sides are moving "closer and closer" to a deal while Trump said it could be another four weeks until its finalised. For the Sterling, Brexit remains central and is likely to overshadow the upcoming GDP growth release. With the EU summit (April 10th) and April 12th deadline just days away, expectations of a last-minute deal being reached between Prime Minister May and labour Leader Corbyn are limited, shedding doubt on how the EU will respond to the UK's request for a further Brexit delay. Senior Danske Bank analyst, Kristoffer Kjr Lomholt, expects the EU to permit a lengthier delay, "Theresa May has asked for one to 30 June, which the EU leaders will probably reject by proposing a longer one, at least to year-end, when the EU summit takes place on Wednesday." GBP./CAD FORECAST - For most of last week, the British Pound / Canadian Dollar exchange rate trended with an upside bias as Pound investors became more hopeful that a soft Brexit was possible, while market demand for the Canadian Dollar was limited by some underwhelming Canadian data. Despite this, the Pound was unable to hold its gains as Brexit uncertainties persisted. After opening last week at the level of 1.74001, GBP/CAD strengthened on Brexit hopes and touched on a weekly best level of 1.7610 on Thursday. However, GBP/CAD gains were limited by risk-sentiment for most of the week, and even when the Canadian Dollar weakened on Friday the pair still tumbled as fresh Brexit uncertainty kicked in. GBP/CAD trended more closely to the level of 1.7440 as markets drew to a close for the week. Pound to Canadian Dollar Exchange Rates Tumbles from Weekly Best on Brexit Jitters and Weak Canadian Data In the first half of last week, the Pound to Canadian Dollar exchange rate climbed on fresh hopes that the Brexit process would end without a no-deal scenario or a general election. No-deal Brexit fears persist, as the UK has still not found a solution to Brexit with less than a week until the current formal Brexit date on the 12th of April. Despite this uncertainty though, attempts from UK Parliament to prevent a no-deal Brexit have kept investors hopeful that another solution will be found. Hopes for the Brexit process to move in a softer direction to help it to pass Parliament pulled the Pound even higher in the middle of the week. However, towards the end of the week, the uncertainty of the Brexit date being just a week away set in while the UK government and EU appeared to disagree over how a further Brexit delay should be handled. UK Prime Minister Theresa May asked the EU for a Brexit extension until the 30th of June, though a similar previous request has already been rejected by the EU. European Council President Donald Tusk, on the other hand, reportedly wants to push for a flexible Brexit delay of up to a year. These made the Pound weaker towards the end of the week, briefly making it easier for a resilient Canadian Dollar to climb on higher risk-sentiment and oil prices. Demand for the Canadian Dollar was a little weaker at the end of the week though, as Canadas latest job market report was published and March saw the creation of less new jobs than analysts predicted. This softened the GBP/CAD fall seen at the end of the week. GBP/CAD Exchange Rate Forecast: Will Brexit be Delayed? By How Long For? Some relatively notable UK ecostats will be published next week, particularly during Wednesdays session. UK trade balance, manufacturing and industrial production, and of course UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate data from February will be published on Wednesday. However, these stats are unlikely to influence the Pound outlook much when compared to potential Brexit developments and the week looks to be yet another major one for Brexit. The UK is currently still expected to leave the EU on the 12th of April with no deal by default. This will be avoided if a Brexit deal is confirmed by the end of the week, or if the UK and EU agree to delay the process. Analysts generally expect that Brexit will be delayed, but there is still uncertainty over how long or how the UK will tackle the process next. Developments regarding the next steps for Brexit are likely to dominate Pound movement, and amid a lack of particularly influential Canadian data due out throughout the week Brexit news will likely be the biggest cause of GBP/CAD movement overall. CAD GBP Exchange Rate: Trade News in Focus amid Low-Influence Data Demand for the Canadian Dollar may remain subdued for much of the coming week, as upcoming Canadian data is unlikely to be highly influential. Canadian housing starts and building permits stats will come in on Monday, with new housing prices stats due on Thursday. As last weeks Canadian job market stats disappointed and meant the Bank of Canada (BoC) was unlikely to become more hawkish again any time soon, the Canadian Dollar is unlikely to see much shift in demand from domestic factors. Instead, Canadian Dollar investors will look to global growth and trade news. Any major or surprising movement in bond yields or markets, as well as developments in US-China trade talks, could influence market risk-sentiment and the Canadian Dollar. CONTINUE... Now it is the time to deal with DoHA. Applicants: Myself, Spouse, son and daughter (both children were under 7 years of age). A newborn was added later. (Total 5) Country of Origin: Pakistan Country of Residence: Saudi Arabia, on a Working visa Occupation: 261313 Software Engineer Nominated by: Queensland Points: 65 (25 Age + 10 English PTE + 10 Experience + 15 Qualifications + 5 state nomination) Documents Uploaded: Color Scanned documents without any attestation as per the checklist mentioned on the website (Experience letters, Qualifications, passport, birth & marriage certificates etc. ) 8 Jul 2017: Got the invitation by Department of Home Affairs (DoHA) to apply for SN190 visa 19 Jul 2017: Lodged the visa application 20 Jul 2017: Updated DOHA about the notification of incorrect answer. I mistakenly uploaded few academic certificates of my wife to my sons document list. 21 Jul 2017: Updated DOHA about the notification of incorrect answer in spouses Form 80 regarding the one incorrectly ticked checkbox. 28 Jul 2017: CO contacted (first time) for PCC, medical and evidence of spouse English language 16 Aug 2017: Pressed information provided button after uploading PCC, IELTS Scorecard and medical 16 Oct 2017: CO contacted me (second time) for updated contact details of HR of those employers I claimed points for (According to DHA, they were not able to reach my most recent employer. My HR manager told me that he received neither a phone call nor an email from DoHA, The CO also mentioned in the letter (s56) that if they are not satisfied, they will reject the application) 19 Oct 2017: Pressed information provided button after uploading HR contact detail of most recent employer only. (I also sent an email to the HR manager (and CC DHA) requesting him to cooperate with DoHA accordingly) 29 Oct 2017: Uploaded contact details of all employers (most recent+ previous) 11 Jan 2018: Updated DOHA about change in circumstances regarding the resignation and last day of employment with the most recent employer at the time of application lodgment 20 Jan 2018: Updated DOHA about change in circumstances regarding new position, company and joining date, in another city 21 Jan 2018: Updated DOHA about the change of address Lessons learned until here: After the submission of my application, I got a new job as project manager about which I informed the DoHA. I think, change in position which is different from your ANZCO code after the submission of application may not have a negative impact. Furthermore, it is better to inform the department if you found any mistake in any of the submitted forms (CO never asked me for explanation). 19 Feb 2018 (7 Months Passed): I contacted DOHA by phone to inquire status, the operator told me that it is internally in the process and cannot give more details. 06 Mar 2018: On 3rd March last updated date in immiAcount changed to 17 Nov 217. I contacted DOHA by phone to inquire about this updated date as I did not receive any message from DOHA on this day. The operator said that my file was last reviewed in December 2017, everything is fine, it is just a matter of wait and he left a note for the CO. Probably, due to some immiAcount updates, the status changed to Further Assessment. 26 Mar 2018 (8 months passed): I contacted DOHA by phone before Easter holidays to get the update, the operator said that external checks which are conducted by the department are in progress, visa grant is on the way and it is a matter of wait. 23 Apr 2018 (9 Months passed): I sent an email to DOHA about priority processing (on the advice of operator) by informing them some important circumstances (Saudi Arabia visa expiry, Kids Academic year, Home Rent, Job contract ending). I also called DoHA to follow up on my email after a couple of days but nothing changed. 19 May 2018 (10 Months passed): The global processing time decreased to 6-10 months from 8-11 months. I called DHA, the operator said that my application was last reviewed twice in the last two weeks, till now everything is fine and is in progress. I can call again if the visa is not issued in a month. 20 June 2018 (11 Months passed): The global processing time decreased to 5-8months. I called DHA, they said that my application was reviewed today and yesterday. Delay is due to the huge volume of applications. Lesson learned till here: Calling DOHA does not speed up the processing. After June, probably call centre was outsourced due to which operator never gave me any last reviewed date. Now they used to say that they cannot see anything except status and last contact date in their system. [B]10 Jul 2018:[/B] I emailed CO about wifes pregnancy & delivery date. (no reply from CO of any kind) 05 Sep 2018: I emailed CO about the newborn and attached birth certificate 16 Sep 2018: CO contacted me (third time) for further documents of newborn and new PCC for myself & wife. Status remained the same as Further Assessment 19 Sep 2018 (14 Months passed): Newborn was added to the immiAcount applicant list. No additional fee. (Free!!!) 6 Nov 2018: Uploaded the new PCC and pressed IP button. Status remained the same as Further Assessment 29 Nov 2018: CO Contacted me (fourth time) for medical of the newborn. It was just a general checkup (weight, height etc.). No blood test, no X-ray. 3 Dec 2018: Medical completed by the clinic and pressed the IP button. 19 Jan 2019 (18 months passed): Submitted the feedback to expedite the process through the website. 21 Jan 2109: Got a standard reply from DoHA. I replied to the same email requesting them to take action. 28 Jan 2019: Employment verification completed by phone (Someone from Dubai consulate called me to get the updated phone number of HR manager, which I already provided to DoHA in October 2017. So, the same number was given again after which he called HR immediately.) 20 Feb 2019 (19 months passed): CO contacted me (sixth time) to re-do medical for myself, spouse and 2 kids as previous medical reports are expired. 22 Feb 2019: Medical result submitted by the clinic and pressed the IP button. 24 Mar 2019: I submitted the second feedback form requested to grant the visa mentioning about the end of the academic year of my kids' school. Before submitting feedback, I phoned them but same standard reply to wait. 28 Mar 2019: I got a reply from DoHA, that they cannot advise the possible grant date and suggest not to contact DoHA to avoid delay. (To renew my Saudi Arabia visa, I was about to pay approx. AUD 5000. I gave a try if I can get the grant before that but all in vain. I paid the renewal fee for the next year.) 04 April 2019: Visa Granted 15 Sep 2109: Initial Entry Date (based on the PCC issuance/expiry date) Lesson Learned till here: Keep yourself busy in other activities as much as possible. Otherwise, you will be frustrated due to the wait and no-response of your inquiries from the department. I completed 2 PMI certifications to keep away from this frustration. After providing the requested information to CO, the frustration level started increasing until the saturation point where I started to focus on other things. Interestingly, whenever I involved myself in other stuff to forget about the visa application delay, I got a CO contact and cycle continued till the visa grant. Remarks: I do not understand the reason for the delay in visa processing. I provided the information on time and my case was also simple, at least in my opinion. The feedback I submitted in January 2019 push the CO to move ahead. However, the visa grant healed all the pains caused due to the painful wait. I am planning for a validation trip soon and may move permanently next year. Good luck to all of you. I will keep you posted. From: American Evaluation Association (AEA) For Immediate Release: Dateline: Washington , DC Sunday, April 7, 2019 Michael Craft and Sinduja Srinivasan. We are evaluators at the United Nations Secretariat within the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) To kick off a week-long series of posts by our IED colleagues, we are presenting some lessons we have learned looking at evaluation functions across more than thirty different UN departments and offices. Lessons Learned: Evaluations need to be more strategic! Enhancing the strategic orientation of evaluations creates opportunity for greater change. When asked how to strengthen evaluation, a representative sample of UN program managers ranked the strategic focus of evaluations at the very top. This makes sense given the challenging operational context in which we work and the sheer size of the UNs actual workload! In the previous biennial period of 2016-17, it was estimated that $31 million was spent producing evaluations covering a portfolio of entities totaling $27 billion. Enhancing the strategic orientation of evaluations creates opportunity for greater change. When asked how to strengthen evaluation, a representative sample of UN program managers ranked the strategic focus of evaluations at the very top. This makes sense given the challenging operational context in which we work and the sheer size of the UNs actual workload! In the previous biennial period of 2016-17, it was estimated that $31 million was spent producing evaluations covering a portfolio of entities totaling $27 billion. There is a large gap in evaluation capacity! Some entities across the UN system have a long way to go to establishing adequate evaluation capacity. Our office found that the gap continues to widen between parts of the system that have established adequate evaluation capacity and those that are falling further behind. Program managers, as well as evaluators, must demonstrate the functions value across a diverse range of organizational contexts to close this gap. IED serves as an independent internal evaluation oversight function. Our portfolio is wide thematically, deep functionally and dispersed geographically. We will be sharing more challenges, some related to the above, later in the week as part of this AEA365 series. You can read more our work and our recently published reports Over the week, youll be hearing from 5 great IED evaluators, each with their own unique perspective on evaluation in the UN system! Heres a quick word from our Director Eddie. Thank you Michael and Sinduja for introducing IED to AEA! As OIOS celebrates its 25th anniversary, for me, it has been a humbling and gratifying experience to evaluate the important work of courageous women and men all over the world, working towards peace and development of the peoples of the United Nations, championing their rights, providing humanitarian support, empowering women and fighting climate change. The evaluation functions of the UN have the role of informing Member States, the Secretary-General, UN colleagues and the rest of the world, on whether or not results are being achieved, and why. We also suggest how to do better. And to do our evaluations better, we are excited to be part of the larger international community of evaluators at this forum, to learn from you, and to share our experience. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on our lessons learned in evaluating the UN! The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Inspection and Evaluation Division (IED) of the UNs Office of Internal Oversight Services. All posts this week are contributed by evaluators who work in IED. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the About AEA The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association and the largest in its field. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products and organizations to improve their effectiveness. AEAs mission is to improve evaluation practices and methods worldwide, to increase evaluation use, promote evaluation as a profession and support the contribution of evaluation to the generation of theory and knowledge about effective human action. For more information about AEA, visit www.eval.org. Hello to all! Our names areand. We are evaluators at the United Nations Secretariat within the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) Inspection and Evaluation Division (IED). Our office is celebrating 25 years of evaluation work, telling the United Nations what it needs to know to be more relevant, efficient and effective, and we are excited for the opportunity to connect with fellow evaluation professionals!To kick off a week-long series of posts by our IED colleagues, we are presenting some lessons we have learned looking at evaluation functions across more than thirty different UN departments and offices.IED serves as an independent internal evaluation oversight function. Our portfolio is wide thematically, deep functionally and dispersed geographically. We will be sharing more challenges, some related to the above, later in the week as part of this AEA365 series. You can read more our work and our recently published reports here Over the week, youll be hearing from 5 great IED evaluators, each with their own unique perspective on evaluation in the UN system!Heres a quick word from our Director Eddie.The American Evaluation Association is celebratingAll posts this week are contributed by evaluators who work in IED. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The city and San Antonios firefighters union have agreed to continue contract negotiations with assistance from a mediator, avoiding arbitration for now. The two sides will meet April 17 and April 18 with former Texas Supreme Court Justice Deborah Hankinson, who presided over court-ordered mediation between the two sides in 2017. Its not clear whether the sessions will be public. We are encouraged the fire union accepted our proposal for mediation, City Attorney Andy Segovia said Sunday. By involving a neutral third party, we have a better opportunity to reach a resolution that is fair to both our firefighters and our taxpayers. The union has the power under Proposition C, a city charter amendment approved by voters in November, to declare an impasse at any time and send the talks to binding arbitration. Negotiating team have met 10 times since the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association returned to the bargaining table in late January. The two sides were set to hit an impasse today under state law. On Express-News.com: Years-long contract stalemate for San Antonio firefighters reaches new crossroads Talks stalled last week when the city essentially shot down the unions proposal to provide firefighter health care through a trust funded by city taxpayers but controlled by the union. The bargaining teams left their session Tuesday without resolving how to proceed. At that session, the union proposed extending the negotiations for 15 days. But city officials said the negotiations had become futile. They said they wouldnt agree to an extension unless the union consented to the use of a mediator and provided more detailed proposals about health care benefits and premiums. It seemed unlikely the union, with Proposition C in its arsenal, would agree to mediation, but it did so this weekend. The negotiating teams confronted a stark divide after making their initial proposals March 1 and have been unable to make progress on the most contentious issues: health care and wages. Under the current health care system, the city sets aside a pool of money and hires an insurance company to manage claims. Firefighters and their families receive coverage without having to pay monthly premiums, and they have low deductibles. The union wants to manage its own benefits and premiums. It has asked for a $50-million lump-sum payment to help start a health care trust and offset the pay freeze firefighters have experienced since their most recent contract expired in 2014. The union has asked for additional increases in firefighter compensation totaling 17.5 percent over the next five years, along with payments of $19,000 per firefighter to continue funding the health care trust. The plan would cost the city approximately $157 million more than the current system. The city has proposed a 2 percent lump-sum bonus for all firefighters and a health care package similar to the one the police union agreed to in 2016. Under the city proposal, firefighters would have two health insurance options a consumer-driven plan with premium-free coverage but higher deductibles, and a value plan in which firefighters would pay premiums for their spouses and children. The cost of health care per firefighter is now about $19,655, compared with $16,000 for police and $8,000 for civilian employees, city officials have said. SEYMOUR After the death of a retired town police officer, the Seymour Police Department remembered his 19 years of service with the department in a post on Facebook. Retired Seymour Police Officer James L. Martin, 77, of Beacon Falls, died Tuesday at his home surrounded by his family, an obituary said. Martin was born in Norwalk on July 20, 1941. Jim proudly served his country as a member of the United States Marine Corps, obtaining the rank of Lance Corporal, the obituary said. Upon his retirement from military service, Jim went on to a career in law enforcement. He was an officer for the Auxiliary Connecticut State Police, the Oxford Police Department, the Beacon Falls Police Department, the Southbury Police Department and the Seymour Police Department, the obituary said. The Seymour Police Department said of Martins 30-year career in law enforcement, he spent 19 of those years serving on the Seymour police force. The Officers of the Seymour Police Department extend their heartfelt condolences to the Martin family, the department said in a Facebook post. Among the awards Martin received were National Law Enforcement Officer of the Year, Citation for Meritorious Service from the Connecticut State Police, Exemplary Performance of Duty from the Connecticut State Police and Citation for Distinguished Service from the Town of Seymour. But above all else, Martin loved spending time with his family and friends, the obituary said. He will be sadly missed by all, but will remain forever in our hearts, it said. Martin is survived by his wife of 25 years, Mary Babineau Martin, his children, his brothers, his grandchildren and his great-granddaughter. Calling hours for friends and relatives will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 11 at the Miller-Ward Funeral Home in Seymour. There will be a funeral service held with full military honors on Friday, April 12 at 1 p.m. in the Chapel of the State Veterans Cemetery, 317 Bow Lane in Middletown. In lieu of flowers, Martins family asks for memorial donations made in Martins honor to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. Donations can be mailed to 18900 Jefferson Davis Highway, Triangle, VA, 22172 or online at www.marineheritage.org. FAIRFIELD As of Saturday, 48 people have signed an online petition to have the off-leash policy for dogs at Lake Mohegan be changed. The petition, which was started by a town resident on Thursday, has garnered 48 signatures in two days. The town resident is only identified on the page as Aaron M. In his description of the petition, he voiced his strong disapproval of the policy at Lake Mohegan a public area for dogs to be off-leash. The off leash dogs are not only an issue for non-dog owning residents trying to enjoy the area but also to the quality of the open space itself, the resident said in the description. He goes on to say that the amount of off-leash dogs at the park greatly detracted from the beauty, enjoyment, and safety of a hiking area prized for the stunning features of the cascades, river, and lake. The petition creator said dog owners dont follow park rules and that there is no one at the park to truly enforce the rules. When hiking with my children I cannot let them walk more than 10 feet from my side as I need to be close to ward off dogs whose owners are nowhere to be seen, the description said. Then, the description turns to environmental impacts, talking about dogs wandering off trail and damaging or killing vegetation and causing possible soil erosion. Those who signed the petition expressed similar concerns about the area. Im a dog lover, grew up with them my whole life, but the attitudes of some of the dog owners at the lake are deplorable, Stephanie Johnson wrote when she signed the petition on Friday. I sign for my son, an avid fisherman, who has been bulldozed more than once by people whod impeded his space as if he had no right being there. John Pinto, who signed the petition on Thursday, said he supported it as a avid outdoorsman and dog owner. Some dog owners walk the lake as if they own it, he wrote when he signed the petition. They dont pick up after their dog and/or they bag it and throw it off the trail. I have had several encounters, while fishing, that a dog would jump in the water in front of me. The petition can be found here. The Hershey Co. engages in the manufacture and market of chocolate and sugar confectionery products. The firm operates through the following geographical segments: North America; and International and Other. The North America segment is responsible for the traditional chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery market position of the company, as well as its grocery and snacks market positions, in the United States and Canada. The International and Other segment is the combination of all other operating segments which are not individually material, including those geographic regions where the company operates outside of North America. Its brands include Hershey's, Reese's, and Kisses. The company was founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894 and is headquartered in Hershey, PA. Read More Fairfield, MT (59436) Today Snow this evening will taper off and give way to cloudy skies late. Low 14F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.. Tonight Snow this evening will taper off and give way to cloudy skies late. Low 14F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulations less than one inch. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Awareness program to expand distribution of Company's updates to retail and institutional investors Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 6, 2019) - CardioComm Solutions, Inc. (TSXV: EKG) ("CardioComm" or the "Company"), a global medical provider of consumer heart monitoring and medical electrocardiogram ("ECG") software solutions, announced that it has made its second issuance of shares under its online marketing and awareness program with AGORA Internet Relations Corp. ("AGORACOM"). The Company initially announced the online marketing and awareness program in its press releases dated November 8, 2018 and December 13, 2018. Under this second share issuance, the Company issued 132,941 common shares of the Company ("Shares"), representing a price of $0.085 per Share, for services valued at $10,000 plus 13% HST that were provided by AGORACOM. To learn more about CardioComm's products and for further updates regarding HeartCheck ECG device integrations please visit the Company's websites at www.cardiocommsolutions.com and www.theheartcheck.com. About AGORACOM AGORACOM is the pioneer of online investor relations, online conferences and online marketing / branding services to North American small and mid-cap public companies, with more than 250 companies served. More than just lip service, AGORACOM is the home of more than 808K investors that visited 5.6 million times and read 52.4 million pages of information every year (Average 2008 - 2015). AGORACOM traffic ranks within the top 0.5% of all websites around the world. These traffic results are independently tracked and verified by Google analytics. AGORACOM traffic can be attributed to its strategy of maintaining the cleanest, moderated small-cap discussion as a result of implementing the first ever Investor Controlled Stock Discussion Forums. AGORACOM Founder, George Tsiolis, publishes the leading blog on small & mid cap investor relations. His 50 Small-Cap CEO Lessons are a must read for CEO's looking to increase their education and knowledge about online investor relations. About CardioComm Solutions CardioComm Solutions' patented and proprietary technology is used in products for recording, viewing, analyzing and storing electrocardiograms for diagnosis and management of cardiac patients. Products are sold worldwide through a combination of an external distribution network and a North American-based sales team. CardioComm Solutions has earned the ISO 13485 certification, is HIPAA compliant and holds clearances from the European Union (CE Mark), the USA (FDA) and Canada (Health Canada). FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Etienne Grima, Chief Executive Officer 1-877-977-9425 x227 egrima@cardiocommsolutions.com investor.relations@cardiocommsolutions.com Forward-looking statements This release may contain certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of CardioComm Solutions and certain of the plans and objectives of CardioComm Solutions with respect to these items. Such statements and information reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. By their nature, forward-looking statements and forward-looking information involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future and there are many factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. In evaluating these statements, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements and forward-looking information contained in this release other than as required by applicable laws, including without limitation, Section 5.8(2) of National Instrument 51-102 (Continuous Disclosure Obligations). Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/43925 BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday called upon the electorate to give 'rest' to Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik as he is 'tired' and 'lacks the will' to develop the state Polosara: BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday called upon the electorate to give "rest" to Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik as he is "tired" and "lacks the will" to develop the state. Shah was addressing a rally in Aska Lok Sabha constituency in Odisha's Ganjam district where polling is slated to be held on 18 April. "There has been no developmental work during Naveen Babu's tenure in 19 years. He is tired. Therefore, give BJP a chance to meet the aspirations of the people," Shah said promising that the BJP will take Odisha on the path of development. Alleging that the Odisha is being run by the officers, Shah said, "The next BJP government will end 'Babu-dom' in Odisha". He alleged that officers call the shots in the Naveen Patnaik government while the elected MLAs and MPs have no voice. The BJP national president also came down heavily on the BJD government alleging that it failed to reach the benefits of welfare schemes, launched by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, to the people of the state. "The Modi government in the last five years has allocated Rs 5.56 lakh crore for Odisha's development. Did the money reach the people in their villages?" Shah asked. Assuring the people that only the saffron party can ensure better governance in the state, the BJP leader appealed to the people not to repeat the mistake of voting the BJD again. If the BJP comes to power in Odisha, it will punish people indulging in unlawful activities, including those involved in mining and chitfund scams, he said. Assembly election in Odisha is slated to be held along with Lok Sabha polls in four phases, beginning 11 April. The state has 147 assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats. Workers and owners of handlooms in Dharmavaram say that many schemes meant for them have either been stopped or not implemented. 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 *** Dharmavaram: The saree may never fall out of fashion, but the popularity of certain types of sarees is definitely on the wane. The elaborate, handwoven sarees of Dharmavaram once the pivot of any important occasion are no longer as sought after as they used to be. The artists engaged in the trade were traditionally from weaver communities like Togata, Devanga, Padmashali, Kurni, and Swakula Sale, but over a period of time, the trade found takers across castes and religions, owing to severe drought in the district. Weavers make up half of the voting population in the town which, in 2014, had recorded an 83.96 percent turnout in the Assembly and 83.96 per cent in the Lok Sabha elections. Given these numbers, its no surprise that parties are tripping over each other to get the attention of these artist communities with promises of higher pension schemes and a dedicated bank. But the handloom industrys back is broken. Decades of being sidelined in favour of powerlooms has made the situation here so desperate that a weaver who used to earn Rs 5,000 twenty years back per month now barely earns Rs 8,000 to Rs 9,000. On an average, a weaver manages to weave four sarees roughly worth 3,000 each - per month and earns one-third of the sarees cost while the rest is pocketed by the master weaver, who is technically their employer. Smaller operations have half a dozen people while big master weavers are known to employ more than a hundred weavers. The weavers here say their sons and daughters dont want to take up the profession, unlike their times, when they were proud to learn the craft and continue the family's traditions. Weaving a slow death P Ramanjaneyulu, state president of Andhra Pradesh Handloom Workers Union, says the industrys steady deterioration started with the Centres reforms initiated under late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. According to him, merging the handloom sector with the power loom and mills sectors sounded the death knell. This, he says, deprived the handloom sector of a dedicated ministry and bureaucratic machinery needed for its welfare. He adds that all these moves have reduced allocations for the handloom sector as more money is given to the powerloom and mill sectors, which have the wherewithal to lobby. The unorganised nature of the handloom sector doesnt give it any leverage with the powers that be. The changes brought in 1985 reserved 11 items for the handloom sector - sarees, dhotis, pavada (a long skirt worn by young girls), and towels among others. This, activists say, is being violated to the hilt. The mill lobbys attempts to get all items de-reserved for handloom failed when the Supreme Court, in its ruling in Parvej Akhtar and others Vs Union of India and others in 1993, ruled in support of the 1985 Act, upholding it as a measure necessary for protecting the livelihood of weavers. However, in 1996, the central government eased the norms to allow 45 percent of the items reserved for the handloom sector to be made in the powerloom and mill sectors, further revising the figure to 55 percent in 2008, which resulted in the violations. The machinery to implement these norms is based in Chittoor districts Tirupati, which is 260 kilometres from Dharmavaram. Chittoor district, too, has handloom hubs, namely Madanapalle and Nagari. Ramanjaneyulu says getting the government to fulfill its own promises is proving to be a task. A case is pending in the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking proper implementation of the handloom zone in Dharmavaram. Acceptance of this demand would mean a strict enforcement of the ban on powerlooms in the town, he adds. There are 450-odd powerlooms in Dharmavaram, all openly flouting norms. There is an advisory board at the central level, which meets every six months to look into the status of the implementation of the 1985 Act. This body comprises those who represent the powerloom and the mill sectors, ignoring the handloom sector. A survey should be done to find out how many are dependent on each sector, and budget should be allocated accordingly. The start of the (GS)Taxing times G Parthasarathy, president of Dharmavaram Handloom Merchants Association, says, Handlooms provide employment to more people. Powerlooms are cutting into our profits. And while we didnt have any taxes earlier, we now have to pay GST on raw materials and a 5 percent tax on the finished product. We provide goods on credit and can get back money only six to 12 months ahead. But we have to pay GST on all the goods we sell, as our business is above the Rs 20 lakh threshold, which puts us in the tax bracket." He adds, Meanwhile, tax credits from the GST mechanism are delayed, while chartered accountants expenses have increased. To raise bills and file these returns, we need extra staff. Its high time the government implemented the Supreme Court order on the 1985 Act. However, C Narayanaswamy, owner of a proprietary firm, avers that GST is good as it helps to account for all goods. But he does cite delay in refunds of GST credits as a problem. Our business is seasonal. Some parties pay us in a month, some even take 12 months. The amount paid as advance GST, even on unsold stock, gets stuck, he explains. Only premium sarees are being made in handloom now. Over the last two years, business has veered towards the powerloom, as the traders get goods after paying GST and can claim tax credits. Moreover, more designs are being made in powerlooms as older ones have become passe. Small traders with less turnover find it difficult to pay tax before sales. S Suryanarayana, owner of Sri Ramanjaneyulu Silks in Dharmavaram, says those with handlooms of their own are able to earn better, as they save on weaving costs. I had sold handloom for 15 years, but for the last three years, I have only been able to sell powerloom sarees. Silk has become costlier, and only a handful are able to sell sarees to premium customers and survive. Where have all the schemes gone? Workers and owners of handlooms say that many schemes meant for them have either been stopped or not implemented. A scheme under which 4 kilograms of inputs like zari and silk were being given with a 10 percent subsidy was scrapped four years ago after traders, in connivance with officials, swindled funds. This was after chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu promised to provide raw materials at 50 percent subsidy. The Centre has at least four schemes targeted specifically at the handloom sector, including one to supply yarn and a comprehensive welfare scheme. Andhra Pradesh was allotted 39.75 crore in the past five years, one of the highest, barring Tamil Nadu. This included cluster development programmes at the block level and marketing events and incentives. But there is no hint of these funds having reached the ground. Many other schemes that were useful to us have been stopped, including a health scheme introduced by the previous government, which was discontinued in 2014, says K Easwar Ranga, a weaver. A scheme to give Rs 4,000 to weavers to help them survive during monsoons has not been implemented for 20 years now, says A Suryanarayana, adding that he had to mortgage some gold to help his daughter to continue her studies. A scheme to give Rs 1,000 to every weaver has not been implemented for around 25,000 families since 2011. Hence, they are losing Rs 12,000 per year. Shaikh Mohammad, a weaver, alleges that corrupt officials are denying them the weavers passbook (an identity card for a weaver). We are asked for Rs 3,000 as bribe, while our earnings are Rs 6,000 a month. If we can get that additional Rs 1,000 per month, it will help us a lot. A scheme of the Central Silk Board, under which an individual weaver could buy a handloom by paying just 25 percent of the amount, also has been discontinued in the last four years. Weavers rue that the sector is increasingly being dominated by those who own more handlooms, as their margin of profit is higher and many of them even double up as merchants to sell it directly in market, cutting down on the middleman cost. Also, most small-time master weavers, who can employ only two-three weavers, live at the workplace itself. A majority of handloom weavers are landless labourers, and 65 percent dont have their own houses. In the absence of their own house, the burden of rent adds to their woes. The government had promised apartments to weavers; that wouldnt have helped at all though, as the unit used for weaving is fixed to the ground in a pit, which is not possible in an apartment. It took several protests for the government to realise that and promise plots, says Ramanjaneyulu. According to the weavers unions, Naidus TDP government did increase the pension amount to Rs 1,000 from Rs 600, but of the nearly 3 lakh weaver families in the state, only around 26,000 have got bank loans. The implementation of loan waivers, even after their announcement, took three years under the YS Rajasekhar Reddy government and two-and-a-half years under the Naidu government, says Ramanjaneyulu. The weavers say this makes them defaulters in the banks eyes, making it impossible to get loans in the future. Thats why, small handloom owners say, they have been demanding a dedicated bank for the sector for a long time. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu promised to transform Dharmavaram into a smart city, while Pawan Kalyan vowed to take Dharmavaram into the international limelight by promising to work for patent rights for the Dharmavaram saree. YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy promised, among many things, pension payment of Rs 3,000 monthly for every eligible weaver right from the age of 45 years. The YSRCP candidate for Dharmavaram, Kethireddy Venkatrami Reddy, during his campaign, has promised a dedicated bank for weavers, alleging that nearly Rs 290 crore meant for weavers welfare has gone back to the government unutilised. When contacted, the ruling party candidate and incumbent MLA G Suryanarayana refused to comment. Though the majority of the population in Dharmavaram belongs to the weaver community, it has been practically unrepresented in the Legislative Assembly, barring Kasetti Srinivasulu, who won in 1952 as member of the Praja Party of Prakasam Panthulu (the first chief minister of AP) and Pallem Srinivasulu who won as an Independent. (The author is a Tirupati-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters) The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has on Tuesday opened applications for students who want their answer sheets reviewed. BSEB declared the results of the Class 10 exam last week. Bihar Board class 10 results 2019 | The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has on Tuesday opened applications for students who want their answer sheets reviewed. BSEB declared the results of the Class 10 exam last week. However, candidates who are willing to apply for the scrutiny process are advised to be fully sure about their decision, because at times, scores tend to get reduced. According to News18, students can apply for rechecking or reevaluating of answer sheets by paying a nominal fee. The opening day for scrutiny process will be updated on the official website - bsebinteredu.in. Students need to carefully fill in the details and then make the payment. Around 16.6 lakh students had registered for the examination that was held between 21 and 28 February. In 2019, all the registration work for Bihar board exams was done online by the BSEB. The board had also taken some strict measures in an to prevent cases of cheating. If you still haven't checked your Bihar Board class 10 result 2019, then these are the steps to find out: Step 1: Visit the official website - bsebinteredu.in Step 2: Click on the link: Bihar Board matric result 2019. Step 3: Once the login page opens enter your Roll number and Roll Code Step 4: Click on Submit and your result will be displayed on the screen Alternatively, students can also send SMS BSEBROLLNUMBER to 56263 to get their result on their phones. The JKPCC on Sunday demanded immediate revocation of a ban on movement of civilian traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, describing the order as 'undemocratic and anti-people'. Kokernag: The JKPCC on Sunday demanded immediate revocation of a ban on movement of civilian traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, describing the order as "undemocratic and anti-people". The demand was raised by JKPCC president Gulam Ahmed Mir while addressing election rallies at Achabal in Shangus and Kokernag in Anantnag district. "We demand immediate revocation of a ban on civilian traffic on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway. The ban is undemocratic and anti-people," he said. Mir claimed that the prohibition order imposed on civilian movement on the highway twice in a week has caused huge inconveniences and created restlessness among the people and therefore, the order needs to be revoked forthwith to ensure people do not suffer. He alleged that the prohibition order is not in the interest of people, besides it will badly affect the business community both in Jammu and Kashmir regions. Referring to the upcoming parliamentary elections in the state, Mir asked the people to rise to the occasion to defeat communal and fascist forces by exercising their franchise in favour of the Congress candidate. "My appeal to you is vote for the Congress as we have served the people and will continue to serve them to the best of our ability," said Mir, the Congress candidate for Anantnag Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency. Lashing out at the PDP for "misgovernance and misrule" in the state, he said, "The PDP aligned with the BJP for the sake of power. There was resent and anger among the people at large scale, as result of which, the people of Kashmir Valley lost trust in the democratic process," he said. Today's top stories: Narendra Modi will campaign for the Lok Sabha election in Manipur, West Bengal and Tripura; EC bans ads around days of polling, and more Modi to campaign in Bengal, Tripura, Manipur; Amit Shah in Odisha, Maharashtra With a few days to go for the first phase of the Lok Sabha election on 11 April, the top BJP duo will address public rallies across the country on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address rallies in West Bengal's Cooch Behar, at Udaipur in Tripura and at Imphal in Manipur. Meanwhile, BJP president Amit Shah will campaign in Odisha and Maharashtra. As many as 91 parliamentary constituencies spread over 20 states and Union Territories will go to polls in the first phase of the general election. These include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Telangana and Uttarakhand. The votes will be counted on 23 May. Modi on Saturday dismissed the electoral challenge from the Congress, describing the party as "a Titanic ship that is sinking". He also criticised it for promising to scrap the sedition law. Addressing a rally in Maharashtra in support of BJP candidates from Nanded, Latur, Hingoli and Parbhani, Modi also said Congress president Rahul Gandhi had opted for a second seat where the "majority community is in a minority". In an apparent reference to the Congress manifesto promise of ensuring a minimum income guarantee to the poor, the prime minister said the Opposition party plans to burden the middle class with more taxes to fund the scheme. It offers the middle class, which is the backbone of the country, nothing, Modi claimed. EC bans advertisements on days around election day The Election Commission on Saturday barred parties, candidates and others from publishing political advertisements on polling day and a day prior to it in each of the seven phases of the Lok Sabha polls unless their content are pre-certified by screening committees. The watchdog used its constitutional powers to make the decision. It had made the first such decision before the 2015 Bihar Assembly election. Its proposal to ban political advertisements on election day and a day before has been pending with the law ministry for years. The poll panel said on Saturday that instances of advertisements of offending and misleading nature published in print media had been brought to its notice in the past. "Such advertisements in the last stage of the election vitiate the entire election process. The affected candidates and parties will not have any opportunity of providing clarification/rebuttal in such a scenario," it said. Imran Khan accuses BJP of 'war hysteria' after US media report on F-16 Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday accused the BJP of "whipping up war hysteria", saying its false claim of India downing a Pakistani F-16 had "backfired". He made the comment two days after a leading American magazine claimed that none of the US-manufactured fighter jets of the PAF were missing. Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine reported on Thursday that American personnel recently counted the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) F-16s and found none of the planes missing. It quoted two senior US defence officials with direct knowledge of the situation. The Indian Air Force, however, stuck to its stand on Friday, saying it had conclusive proof of shooting down a PAF F-16 on 27 February. Reacting to the Foreign Policy report, Khan took to Twitter to criticise the ruling BJP. "The truth always prevails and is always the best policy. BJP's attempt to win elections through whipping up war hysteria and false claims of downing a Pakistani F-16 has backfired with US defence officials also confirming that no F-16 was missing from Pakistan's fleet," he said in a tweet. However, the BJP pointed fingers at the Opposition after Khan's accusation. The saffron party alleged that Opposition leaders were strengthening those harbouring terrorists by "distrusting" the government and the armed forces. IPL 2019: Struggling RCB take on DC at Chinnaswamy; RR host KKR The Royal Challengers Bangalore will lock horns with the Delhi Capitals at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday as they continue their quest for their first points of the Indian Premier League. Virat Kohli's men having lost all five games so far. In the second game of the Sunday double-header, Rajasthan Royals host Kolkata Knight Riders at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, with both teams entering the match on the back of contrasting wins. Modi biopic expected to release in 38 countries The team of PM Narendra Modi is planning to release the film in 38 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the UAE. The film is directed by Omung Kumar. "The film will release in 1,700 screens in India and we plan to release it in about 600 screens overseas," a producer of the movie was quoted as saying by reports. PM Narendra Modi is set to release on 11 April, when the Lok Sabha election begins, the makers announced on Friday. It will be available in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. The team is planning to release it on the same day in other countries, as well. World Health Day 2019 Every year, 7 April is observed as the World Health Day. The day has been celebrated since 1948 under the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO). Across the world, on this day, various awareness campaigns and discussions are organised with the motive to celebrate health and remind the world the importance of access to healthcare. Each year, the event is based on a theme that WHO decides, which, for 2019, is Universal Health Coverage. The EC on Saturday barred parties, candidates and others from publishing political advertisements on polling day and a day prior to it in each of the seven phases of Lok Sabha polls unless their contents are pre-certified by screening committees. New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday barred parties, candidates and others from publishing political advertisements on polling day and a day prior to it in each of the seven phases of Lok Sabha polls unless their contents are pre-certified by screening committees. The Commission used its constitutional powers to take the decision. The EC had taken such a decision for the first time in 2015 Bihar polls. Its proposal to ban political advertisements on election day and a day before is pending with the law ministry for years. The poll panel said on Saturday that instances of advertisements of offending and misleading nature published in print media have been brought to its notice in the past. "Such advertisements in the last stage of the election vitiate the entire election process. The affected candidates and parties will not have any opportunity of providing clarification/rebuttal in such a scenario," it said. The EC order said that to ensure that no untoward incident takes place because of any inflammatory or hate advertisements, it is using its constitutional powers to direct that "no political party or candidate or any other organization or person" will publish any advertisement in the print media on the day and one day prior to poll day in all the phases, unless the contents are pre-certified by screening committees. As of now, only electronic media is barred from showing election publicity material during the last 48 hours before conclusion of polling. In 2016, the EC had urged the government to amend electoral law to bar political advertisements in newspapers 48 hours before the day of polling on the lines of the restriction on electronic media. The move had come in the wake of poll panel using its constitutional powers to ban such newspaper advertisements on a case-by-case basis during the Bihar assembly election in October-November of 2015. Photo: The Canadian Press President Donald Trump speaks as he visits a new section of the border wall with Mexico in Calexico, Calif., Friday April 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Tensions are rising, fingers are pointing and the search for solutions is becoming increasingly fraught. Overwhelmed by an influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border that is taxing the immigration system, President Donald Trump is grasping for something anything to stem the tide. Trump, who campaigned on a promise to secure the border, has thrown virtually every option his aides have been able to think of at the problem, to little avail. He has sent out the military, signed an emergency declaration to fund a border wall and threatened to completely seal the southern border. On Thursday he added a new threat, warning of hefty tariffs on cars made in Mexico if the country doesn't abide by his demands. Now, with the encouragement of an influential aide and with his re-election campaign on the horizon, Trump is looking at personnel changes as he tries to shift blame elsewhere. The first move was made Thursday, when the White House unexpectedly pulled back the nomination of Ron Vitiello to permanently lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where he had been acting director. The abrupt reversal was encouraged by top Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller and seen by some as part of a larger effort to bring on aides who share Miller's hard-line immigration views. "We may go a different way. We may have to go a very tough way," Trump said in an interview with "Fox & Friends Weekend" that aired Saturday. An empowered Miller is also eyeing the removal of Lee Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which runs the legal immigration system, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal staffing matters. The White House did not respond to questions Friday about whether Trump was on board with that plan. Trump has become increasingly exasperated at his inability to do more to halt the swelling numbers of migrants entering the country. Aides, too, have complained they are stymied by regulatory guardrails, legal limitations and a Congress that has scoffed at the president's requests for legislative changes. "There is indeed an emergency on our southern border," Trump said Friday during a visit to the southern border in Calexico, California, where his frustration was evident. "It's a colossal surge and it's overwhelming our immigration system, and we can't let that happen. So, as I say, and this is our new statement: The system is full. Can't take you anymore." He went on to flatly declare: "Our country is full." Immigration experts say Trump's own immigration policies have caused so much chaos along the border that they may be encouraging illegal crossings. The furor over family separations last summer helped to highlight the fact that families won't be detained for long in the U.S. if they're detained at all. And metering, in which people are asked to return to a busy port of entry on another day to seek asylum, may have encouraged asylum-seekers to cross illegally, said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think-tank . "This policy chaos, coupled with a sense that the U.S. government may at some point really shut down the border, has generated an urgency to migrate now while it is still possible," he said. Whatever the reasons for the migrant surge, there is a growing consensus that federal border resources are overwhelmed. While illegal border crossings are still down sharply from their peak in 2000, they have nonetheless reached a 12-year high. While most illegal border-crossers used to be single Mexican nationals coming to the U.S. in search of work, more than half are now parents and children who have travelled from Central America to seek refuge in the U.S. Those families, along with unaccompanied children, are subject to specific laws and court settlements that prevent them from being immediately sent back to their home countries. Immigrant processing and holding centres have been overwhelmed, forcing officials to dramatically expand a practice Trump has long mocked as "catch and release." Indeed, ICE has set free more than 125,000 people who came into the U.S. as families since late last year and is now busing people hundreds of miles inland, releasing them at Greyhound stations and churches in cities like Albuquerque, San Antonio and Phoenix because towns close to the border already have more than they can handle. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen also has voiced increasing exasperation, equating the situation to the aftermath of a Category 5 hurricane. "We have tried everything that we can at DHS," she said Thursday on CNN. "We are out of the ability to manage this flow and they need help." She recently called on Congress to consider changes to the immigration system. But those efforts have so far landed with a thud. House Democrats would almost certainly reject any plans to simply deport unaccompanied minors or otherwise rewrite the law governing asylum or family detentions that they see as protecting young migrants who are often fleeing difficult conditions. In the Senate, where Republicans have the majority, there's little interest in big legislative proposals this year, especially on a divisive issue like immigration. Trump's ideas could be especially tough for senators facing re-election in 2020 in Colorado, Arizona and North Carolina, swing states with sizable Latino and immigrant populations. In the meantime, tensions between agencies and at the White House have been bubbling up. At Homeland Security, officials have expressed frustration with colleagues at the Health and Human Services Department and at the Pentagon, accusing them of doing too little to help. And there are complaints about the White House and what some see as an effort by Miller to dismantle the leadership of the department, in part to shift the blame away from the White House. LK Advani-led Hindu nationalism in the BJP in 1980s and 90s, is NaMo TV a channel or advertisement, restraint at Pro Kabaddi League 2019 auctions; today's must-read stories LK Advani led BJP's Hindu nationalism movement in 80s,90s; espousing diversity today won't erase his past The climax of the onslaught on Muslims was Advani's rath yatra in 1990, aimed at building a Hindu vote bank to counter then prime minister VP Singh's implementation of the Mandal Commission Report, which granted reservation to Other Backward Classes. Amid inflammatory speeches and displays of weapons and blood, Advani spoke of the need to "restore national honour" by demolishing the Babri Masjid, a "symbol of slavery", and building a Ram Temple in its place. Unsurprisingly, the yatra left a trail of riots in its wake. Is NaMo TV legal? First, ask if it's a news channel or advertisement and what grey areas it inhabits A prima facie perusal of NaMo TV and the content that it displays (Narendra Modis speeches and rallies) present two important questions of legal compliance, the answers to which should (ideally) determine the future of this channel: first, does NaMo TV comply with the requirements under broadcasting law?; second, does NaMo TV comply with the requirements under election law? Importantly, if the answer to either question is in the negative, then the channel must cease to operate with immediate effect. Pro Kabaddi League 2019 Auctions: Restraint set to prevail despite increased purse after last year's big splash Pro Kabaddi League 2019 franchises have been offered Rs 40 lakh more in their purse than last year. However, the franchise owners must be smarting after spending Rs 45.93 crore in total to purchase 181 players last season. Most of the big-money purchases flopped last season and the best purchases came as a result of good scouting and teams that appeared to have done badly in the auctions, like Bengaluru Bulls and U Mumba. So instead of splurging big bucks for the established stars, expect intriguing bidding wars for relatively unknown names. Atal Setu, a new bridge in Bihar over troubled Kosi, raises risk of higher flood sources The Atal Setu was inaugurated recently with much fanfare and was declared to be the culmination of a plan to improve connectivity in north-eastern Bihar and bring much needed economic activity to the region. Local residents, however, are afraid it will do the opposite because it has raised the risk of higher flood surges. People living in villages immediately downstream of Atal Setu are the most scared, since they can foresee the capricious Kosi river flooding their farms and homes after every heavy monsoon. Mouni Roy on RAW, the upcoming Brahmastra, and how her transition from TV to Bollywood has gone so far After making a splash with her work on television with supernatural shows like Devon Ke DevMahadev and Naagin and then marking her debut in Bollywood opposite Akshay Kumar in Gold, Mouni Roy will be seen in a negative avatar alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film Brahmastra. She will also be seen in pivotal roles with powerhouse of talents like Rajkummar Rao and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Made In China and Bole Chudiyan respectively In a high-level drama, CRPF personnel accompanying IT officials conducting raids at the premises of Ashwin Sharma. Bhopal: In a high-level drama, CRPF personnel accompanying IT officials conducting raids at the premises of Ashwin Sharma, linked to Chief Minister Kamal Nath, clashed with the state police, which evoked memories of the face-off between Kolkata police and CBI earlier this year. Madhya Pradesh police personnel alleged that people inside the housing complex of Sharma, an associate of Praveen Kakkar, who is Kamal Nath's officer on special duty (OSD), had reached out to the Station House Officer (SHO) of the area seeking assistance. "We've nothing to do with Income Tax and its ongoing raids. It is a residential complex, there are people inside who need medical assistance and they called the local SHO for help. They have closed the entire residential complex because of the raid," said City SP Bhupinder Singh. The CRPF, which is accompanying the IT officials in conducting the searches, have alleged that the police was obstructing it from performing its duty. "We have not done anything to anyone. They are just trying to show off their rank and obstruct us. The Madhya Pradesh Police is not letting us work. We are from the CRPF and we only follow the orders of our seniors. CRPF is always there for the safety and security of the people. The investigation is still on and this is why we are not allowing people inside," CRPF official told media. Earlier in the day, IT officials in pre-dawn swoop carried out raids at the residences of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath's private secretary, Praveen Kakkar, in Indore and former advisor RK Miglani in Delhi, on charges of alleged tax evasion. Officials are conducting searches at 50 locations including Indore, Bhopal, Goa and Delhi, according to sources. Earlier this year, Kolkata Police had detained a team of CBI officials who had reached the residence of Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam. The issue had blown up with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee going on a strike against the central government. Published on the eve of India's next general elections, The Verdict by Prannoy Roy and Dorab R Sopariwala uses psephology, original research and as-yet-undisclosed facts to talk about the entire span of India's electoral history from the first elections in 1952. Published on the eve of India's next general elections, The Verdict: Decoding Indias Elections uses psephology, original research and as-yet-undisclosed facts to talk about the entire span of India's electoral history from the first elections in 1952. Written by journalist and NDTV co-founder, Prannoy Roy, and channels editorial advisor, Dorab R Sopariwala, the book provides pointers to look out for, to see if the incumbent government will win or lose. The following is an excerpt from the book discussing "why Indian elections should be a dream to forecast". The Verdict is published in India by Penguin Random House. *** India has more landslide elections perhaps than any other country. This simple rule makes forecasting elections in India the safest country to make predictionsand so we dubbed ourselves landslide forecast experts. We are now becoming a little worried about this nickname. Landslides are theoretically easier to forecast than close fights. Even with a sampling error, a forecast in a landslide election will still at least name the correct winnereven if the number of seats is wildly off. One reason for the large number of landslides is a combination of statistics and passion. Statistically, a first-past-the-post electoral system tends to generate large and stable majorities. When it is combined with a fragmented Opposition, landslides are the norm. In addition, we have encountered a deep passion and belief in the power of their vote among people we have interviewed. The most common sentiment we come across sitting at chai shops in the small towns of India is, The MP (or MLA) hasnt even come to see our town once in five years, and now he comes begging forgiveness. Just watch us kick the scoundrel out of the seat in this election. The passion is also often positive, especially when it is combined with non-economic issues. In the recent elections in Telangana where a mood of sub-nationalist pride invigorated the electorate, the cry of Jai Telangana led to a huge landslide for the leader who many said to us had struggled for thirty years to give us our own state. The passion of nationalism and sub-nationalism is, and has always been, one of the most effective mobilizers of public support and votes. What is a landslide: A clear victory is often defined as a sweep or a landslide, for example, the largest party wins a least twice as many seats as the runner-up. In India the magnitude of landslide victories is even greater. An analysis of all the sixteen Indian Lok Sabha elections, from 1952 to 2014, reveals that the largest party/alliance on average wins nearly 60 per cent of the seats. This, more importantly, is on average three times the seats won by the runner-up party/alliance. By any global standards a 31 victory is winning by an enormous landslide. The same analysis for votes rather than seats, shows that the percentage of votes that the largest party/alliance gets is twice as many as the runner-up party/alliance. In a landslide this wide margin of victory between the winner and the runner-up clearly makes poll forecasting simpler. The 20 per cent margin of victory of winning parties in India allows for high error rates in polls. Even a large sampling error of about 3 per cent will still forecast the right winner even if it gets the seats and votes wrong. Lucky Indian pollsters? Not quite, as we shall see later. In India, where a fragmented Opposition is the norm, when the largest party wins 60 per cent of the seats it usually also wins twice the number of votes won by the runner-up. Both definitions generally apply to landslides in India. Consequently, under either definition, Indian electoral history points to a story of almost the same number of landslides. From 1952 to 2019 a remarkably high 77 per cent of all elections in India have been landslides, when computed for each state separately in Lok Sabha elections. Over the years the percentage of landslides, even at the level of each state, during Lok Sabha elections has not changed. Indian landslides have remained at around 75 per cent and above and stayed consistently high over the years. The high landslide rate is even more remarkable given that Lok Sabha elections are now more analogous to a combination of a series of simultaneous state elections for the Lok Sabha than a single unified all-India national Lok Sabha election. For instance, the issues and party combinations in the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu are completely different from those in West Bengal or Maharashtra. If Lok Sabha elections are landslide-ridden, what about the history of State Assembly elections? State Assembly elections have a lower rate of landslides. There are a couple of major differences between elections to State Assemblies and Lok Sabha elections. First, lets focus on the recent period 20022018. State Assembly elections now have a lower rate of landslides of around 53 per cent (compared with 74 per cent for the Lok Sabha). A 53 per cent landslide rate is still high by global standards, but it makes these State Assembly elections a little trickier to forecast than Lok Sabha elections. The second difference is that unlike Lok Sabha elections, the landslide rate in State Assembly elections has changed significantly as state politics have become intensely competitive over time. As a result, there has been a clear drop in the proportion of landslides recently. In big and medium-sized states, the high landslide rate of 83 per cent in the early post-Independence honeymoon phase has now dropped to only 53 per cent. A similar trend of a declining landslides is true of the small states of India.Another exercise when looking at Lok Sabha elections is to compare the results of simultaneous (Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections held together) with non-simultaneous elections. In non-simultaneous elections, the winning party does almost as well in the Assembly segments that make up the Lok Sabha seats. While in the Lok Sabha seats the largest party wins 72 per cent of the seats on average, this drops by only 5 per cent, in the corresponding Assembly segments. However, in elections held simultaneously for both the Lok Sabha and the State Assembly, local issues appear to impact the result. The success rate of the winning party in Lok Sabha seats drops by a significant 9 per cent in the corresponding Assembly segments. And even more significantly, the largest party wins only 55 per cent of the seats in the actual State Assembly election, a major drop of 15 per cent from the 70 per cent success rate in the Lok Sabha elections. Earlier we had indicated that a higher turnout in State Assembly elections could mean a greater interest in local issues. This is further buttressed by the significant impact that simultaneous State Assembly elections have on the success rate of Assembly segments in Lok Sabha elections. Yet another sign of the strong influence and importance of state assemblies in comparison with the Lok Sabha for the voter. This of course is a preliminary finding and hopefully will generate more research in this area. Returning to the analysis of landslides, one reason for the drop in the number of landslides in State Assembly elections in the last twenty years is increasing competitiveness and the end of the dominance of the major national parties. The growth of regional parties in India and their increasing importance in State Assembly elections where local issues are more important is significant in the history of Indias democracy. A factor that has led to the rise of regional parties is the first-past-the-post electoral system which rewards parties with many more seats per percentage vote if, and only if, their vote is more concentrated in a region rather than spread out over the country. While the lower rate of landslides makes forecasting a little more difficult, it is compensated by the greater homogeneity of the voter population in states, which makes sampling for State Assembly elections a little simpler. So for pollsters, getting their forecast correct calls for a balance between the negative influence of greater heterogeneity of the all-India sample during Lok Sabha elections, which complicates the sample design, and the positive effect of the higher proportion of Lok Sabha landslides that is tolerant of a higher margin of error. While all these landslides suggest that it should be a dream for Indian election forecasters to make the correct call about who will get a landslide, in reality this is not wholly true. For one thing, it takes guts to forecast a landslide! Every time pollsters predict one, they really stick out their necks. To get it wrong is to be discredited and forever reminded of it, while getting a close fight wrong is almost forgivenif not forgotten. This is one key reason why poll forecasts tend to underestimate the winner, as pollsters (like voters!) play safe. Summing up, Indian Lok Sabha elections are easier to forecast because of the unusually high proportion of landslides averaging around 77 per cent which allows for a larger room for error. However, while they once used to be in high-landslide territory, the incidence of landslides in State Assembly elections has come down dramatically dropping from over 80 per cent, to a landslide rate of just over 50 per cent now. This means pollsters find forecasting Lok Sabha landslides a little less testing than forecasting State Assembly elections. Though the relative homogeneity of the voter population in a state compared with the enormous diversity at the all-India level makes sample design a little easier at the state level. Hundreds of nondescript villages in the tribal lands of south Gujarat seem lost in time. Hundreds of nondescript villages in the tribal lands of south Gujarat seem lost in time. Anyone coming from the glittering cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara and the likes, are immediately transported into a different world of Bhils, Pagris, Dhodia, Dhanka and their ilk. Living in their serene environment, largely untouched by the winds of development, the tribals are now encountering interference from the outside world, causing a threat to their culture, beliefs and unity. And this defines their current psychological state. Till a few years back, there was hardly any temple in the areas of Dangs, Bharuch and Valsad but now, many small temples dot the small hills. Ask any local and he denies any knowledge of how and by whom these temples were built. Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) leader and seven-time MLA from Jhagadiya constituency is seriously upset by these intrusions. He accuses saffron outfits of trying to create dissension and confusion among nature worshippers. Upset and hurt by Patels going away from it (thanks to the emergence of Hardik Patel), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hard-pressed to woo tribal voters. The tribal population stands around 19.23 percent, and is spread over in five districts of south Gujarat (Tapi, Bahruch, Dangs, Valsad and Surat), Sabarkantha in north, Panchmahals in north central, and Vadodara in central Gujarat. BJP has allotted five out of 26 seats to Tribals (ST), hoping that they will make up for the loss of seats due to disenchantment of Patels. BJPs performance was not as impressive in the tribal-dominated seats as the party had expected in 2017. The state has a total of 37 constituencies with a significant tribal population, of which the BJP had won 19 seats and the Congress 15. While two seats went to BTP, one was won by an Independent. Out of the 35 seats in south Gujarat, 12 are dominated by Scheduled Tribes. BJPs gamble BJPs popular tribal leader and sitting MP from Bharuch Mansukhbhai Vasava wields influence in the tribal belt of south Gujarat. BJP is banking on him to help in consolidating votes in the region. A senior BJP leader, who has been active in the tribal belt, candidly acknowledges that the belt has not been a strong pocket for the BJP. In the last three years, RSS and other organisations have worked hard to make inroads in the area and build some support. A spate of Ram Kathas were organised, several big Hindu godmen made trips to Dangs, Bharuch and other areas to sway the voters. A decade back, the RSS had launched its biggest offensive against conversions in the tribal-dominated Dangs district in Gujarat through Shabari Kumbh Mela, which was attended by over five lakh people. At the Kumbh, elaborate arrangements were made for the pilgrims under tight security and there was no violence, contrary to apprehensions. There were as many as 31 tent townships, equipped with sleeping arrangements for 5,000 people, set up along an 8-km stretch of the River Purna. Around 8,000 swayamsevaks and hundreds of pracharaks had managed the event. There are about 18 Christian missionary groups active in Dangs. As alleged by the RSS leaders, these missionary groups were systematically converting Adivasis to Christianity. Chhotubhai Vasava is sure of victory against the BJP and Congress candidates, though he appears to be slightly shaky. Exuding confidence of his win, Chhoubhai said: Whatever tricks BJP may play, my support base among my people is solid. Chotu Vasava, the lone Janata Dal (United) MLA of Gujarat, has won six state Assembly elections from the Jhagadiya constituency. He floated Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) three years ago and was hoping that Congress leader and close confidant of the Gandhis will honour his help in getting Patel elected to Rajya Sabha. He expects them to repay his favour and not field any candidate from Bharuch in Chhotus favour. Congress first asked Patel to contest from this seat but he chickened out, citing party commitments. The party then turned to Nadod MLA PD Vasava, but he too declined. Left with no choice, the party decided to field a young leader, president of Bharuch Youth Congress, Sher Khan, to take on six-time BJP candidate, Mansukh Vasava and six-time MLA from Jhagadia. Its a big task for him to beat two political heavyweights in their strongholds. He and his supporters expect some public meetings by Rahul Gandhi and other senior central leaders in his constituency. Only 16 days are left as of today for the campaigning, which ends on 21 April. Rahul has too much on his plate to give much time to Sher Khan. Rahuls public meetings are still being planned by the state leadership. Differences among tribals BJP, on the other hand, can benefit from the division among tribals. Rathwa tribals were the first to create a difference, declaring themselves as the Kshatriyas among tribals. The BJP government found an opportunity to hit back and removed them from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) quota list, suggesting that Kshatriyas are not ST. Realising that they will have much to lose, Rathwas organised massive protests and forced the government to bring them back into ST quota list. The dominant Bhil community has been opposing inclusion of Rabaris, Bharwads and Charans in the ST quota but so far, they have not been able to put pressure on the government to yield to their demand. Bhils stand strongly behind BTP leader Chhotubhai Vasava and repose their faith in him for bringing justice to them and protect their homes and hearth. Their grouse is that the fifth and sixth schedule of the Constitution has never been implemented in the tribal belt. Chhotubhai Vasava has been raising these issues, alleging that the tribals have no scope to avail the benefits of jobs or livelihood in those factories. Moreover, the waste from these factories continue to ruin precious agricultural land and produce. Former chief minister Suresh Mehtas assessment is that there is serious unrest among tribals against the BJP and it will surely cost the party, especially in the central part of the Adivasi areas. This offers a good opportunity for the Congress to capitalise on it in Bharuch, Chhotaudepur, Sabarkantha and Banaskantha areas. Major tribes There are 11 major tribes in Gujarat; the largest being Bhil, constituting 47.89 percent of the state's tribal population. The notified tribal areas are in Tapi (Uchchhal, Vyara, Nizar, Songadh, Valod, talukas), Bharuch (Dediapada, Sagbara, Valia, Nandod and Jhagadia talukas), Dang district and taluka , Valsad (Bansda, Dharampur, Chikhali, Pardi and Umbergaon talukas), Pachmahal (Jhalod, Dohad, Santrampur, Limkheda and Deogarh), Vadodara (Chhota Udaipur and Naswadi talukas and Tilakwada Mahal), Sabarkantha (Khedbrahma, Bhiloda and Meghraj talukas and Vijayanagar mahal) and Surat (Mahuwa, Mandvi, Mangrol and Bardoli taluka) districts. About 16 months back, around 10,000 landless people comprising mostly Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes members had staged protest demonstrations in Gandhinagar against the state government for not implementing various laws relating to land rights for them. About 28 different organisations, including those belonging to tribal communities from Gujarat, had joined hands in this effort to stake claim on land ownership for its people under the aegis of Jamin Adhikar Zumbesh (JAZ) (land rights campaign). According to their leaders , the Gujarat government was supposed to grant them land rights according to various laws but it has been shying away from implementing it. A 2005 notification allowed allotment of government wasteland to the corporates for contract farming. Under this, 27,000 hectares of land has been given out to 55 industrialists from the total 45 lakh hectares of such land earmarked for the purpose. According to activist Jayanti Makadia, who took part in the demonstrations, more than 90,000 families from 33 districts in the state applied for land under the Land Ceiling Act but there has been no response from the government. It's sheer selfishness of state BJP leaders that allowed these issues to linger on and now, the anger of Adivasis is so deep and spread out that they (BJP) are panicking, commented Suresh Mehta, who now runs some NGOs and works to strengthen democratic values. Bullet train conflict The much publicised bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai has created new areas of conflict. The National High Speed Rail Corporation plans to ply multiple trains on the route every day, with a train every 20 minutes during peak hours. This is meant to benefit textile and diamond merchants and other working professionals who frequently travel between the two cities. To build the elevated rail lines, the corporation plans to acquire tracts of land with a width of 17.5 metres all along the 508-km route. More land will be acquired to build the 12 railway stations en route. These land areas fall in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Farmers in Valsad and other affected districts and home owners affected by the bullet train project have been mobilising support to fight for their land. According to the protesting farmers, the steps taken by the National High Speed Rail Corporation and the state government during the public consultation and land acquisition process have been opaque, insensitive and often illegal. They have taken the matter to the High Court. The bullet trains glitz and glory is totally lost on these adivasis. It was pretty evident in the areas falling under the train corridor. While passing through a weekly haat in Valia village in Bharuch district, a casual chat with a vegetable vendor evoked a quick retort, Why should we give our precious lands for a train which we will never ride? Now, the ball is definitely in the tribal court and they would possibly like to teach a befitting lesson to those in power who had repeatedly failed to fulfill their promises. Lok Sabha Election campaign 2019 LIVE updates: Sharpening his attack on the Congress, Narendra Modi alleged there is a collusion between Congress and Pakistan. The prime minister also said that the party's poll manifesto was more in favour of Pakistan, than that of India. Auto refresh feeds Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing a public rally in West Bengal's Cooch Behar. "I am honoured to talk to the people of West Bengal," he said. "Your enthusiasm shows that West Bengal wants to rid itself of Mamata Banerjee," Narendra Modi said. India has given a fitting reply to terrorists, says Narendra Modi in Cooch Behar. "How has all this that seemed impossible been made possible? This is because of you, your vote. Your chowkidar is working for you, are you happy with his efforts?" Modi said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a rally in West Bengal's Cooch Behar reiterated his "decisiveness" pitch over terrorism. "The previous governments were scared to take strong action against terrorists. Now, your chowkidar is here to protect the country. But some are troubled by the anti-terrorist operations by this governmenet," he said. "Didi (West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee) is asking for Narendra Modi to be removed. But how can your chowkidar be removed? Would you allow it?" Modi said. "Didi is supporting those who are calling for the tukde-tukde of India. People of West Bengal are disappointed with Mamata Banerjee," Modi said. "The BJP has been working to bring development to West Bengal, but the speed breaker didi (Mamata Banerjee) has halted the speed of the progress of our efforts. In these Lok Sabha elections, she will be given a fitting reply by the people. It is important to bring the real face of Mamata Banerjee out in the open. She is destroying the lives of the citizens of West Bengal," Modi said. We are working to eradicate poverty in Cooch Behar, but the progress is halted by 'speed breaker didi' "The BJP has improved the Left's model of governance in Tripura. We have brought to development to the state. But what has happened to West Bengal? Mamata Banerjee took a short cut, she used the same model as the Left had in the state. I could never have imagined that Mamata Banerjee would take this route. She has destroyed the state over the Saradha scam," he said. "I want to assure you, all those who loot the poor, I will hold them all accountable. Your chowkidar is completely alert to protect the country," Modi said. "Our attempt is to keep the imposters out of the country, but speed-breaker didi has put a halt in that also. Until Mamata Banerjee is supporting those against development in West Bengal, there will be no progress in the state," Modi said. "People have made up their minds in West Bengal. Now there will be no space for goondagardi in the state. Now you and I will create a government that will rid the state of the TMC and Left's bullying," Modi said. "If you want to strengthen the country, you need a strong government. For a strong government, Modi needs to be strong. Your vote for the BJP is your vote for Modi," says the prime minister in Cooch Behar. Your vote for the BJP is your vote for me, says Narendra Modi In his rally days ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a rally in West Bengal's Cooch Behar made the crowd chant 'Main bhi chowkidar' with him. "This slogan will ensure India's development," he said. " The more you chant 'Modi Modi', the more someone loses their sleep. You know who it is? 'Speed breaker'. The speed breaker of West Bengal Didi. She is losing her sleep and is taking out her anger on her officers, on Election Commission," Modi said. "The promise of 'Ma Maati Maanush' is on one hand and the truth of TMC on the other hand. For vote bank politics, Didi forgot 'Ma' and sided with those who raise slogans of 'Bharat ke tukde tukde'. This is an insult to 'Ma'," Modi said. " Didi betrayed 'Maati' when she tried to protect infiltrators for her political benefit. When she handed over the people of West Bengal to goons of TMC, she shattered the hopes of 'Maanush'," Modi said. "Ab hoga nyay" is the slogan the Congress will use for its Lok Sabha election campaign on billboards, TV and print media, and social media, which was released by party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala in Delhi. The Congress leadership, including party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, in a press conference on Sunday said that thousands of trucks carrying the Congress' message for the Lok Sabha election will tour the country. Thousands of trucks with the message of the Congress' campaign will tour the cou ntry Soon after the BJP released its manifesto for the Odisha Assembly election, the Congress also released its own manifesto in Bhubaneshwar. These lines had accused the NDA government at the Centre of spreading hatred and pitching communities against each other. The song highlights the party's proposed minimum income guarantee"NYAY" scheme. They, however, said that the Commission objected to a few lines after which the party had to replace them. Ahead of the launch of Congress' campaign song for the Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, the party had to remove a couple of stanzas after the Election Commission of India (ECI) reportedly objected to the lines that explicitly referred to alleged "disturbed communal harmony." BJP president Amit Shah, who launched the party manifesto for the Odisha Assembly election said that it would usher in a "new Odisha". "I have been making efforts in Odisha for the last four years. This is a region of immense potential. There are many possibilities for infrastructure development, revenue development and cultural development, which have not been explored," Shah said. "The government has spread corruption to every sphere in Odisha's administration, from the allotment of mines to the chit fund cases," he added. BJP president Amit Shah launched an attack on Odisha chief minister and BJD leader Naveen Patnaik after he launched the BJP's manifesto for the Assembly election. "The Biju Janata Dal's way of governance is even worse than that of the Congress. The people had voted for Naveen babu with hope for better governance, but that didn't happen," Shah said. Amit Shah said, "This time, the people of Odisha will choose a government which will remove corruption. Choose a government that is going to get rid of inaction and laziness. Choose a government whose agenda is development and poverty eradication." "In comparison with other states of the country, Odisha is lagging in drinking water, houses, health, security for women, education and other fields. Despite being rich in resources, the people here are poor," Shah said. "Farmers will be given loans at zero percent to ensure that farmers get rid of their debt. In the irrigation sector, the BJP will invest 1 lakh crore. We will prioritise micro and minor irrigation. We will arrange for monthly pension for small and medium farmers, and labourers above the age of 60," Shah said. BJP president Amit Shah after launching the party's manifesto which promised a "New Odisha" based on "9 pillars", said, "We promise that the convicts of rape will be given capital punishment." BJP president Amit Shah made a pitch for his party's commitment to creating employment in Odisha. "After completing 10+2 exam, exceptional students will be given two-wheelers. Recruitment will be done in all the vacant places within 2 years of the formation of the government. The government will also arrange to provide free education to all the poor from pre-primary to post graduate level," he said. Bhim Army supporters were spotted the at Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance rally in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur. The rally is being held at Saharanpur's Deoband. BSP chief Mayawati said, "You can be sure that at least here in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP will be out and the grand alliance is going to form the government. I ask for your attention to a few important things so that this mahagathbandhan to succeed." "This time, the 'chowkidar' naatak is not going to save the BJP. In this election, no matter how many small or big chowkidars put their strength together, they will not be voted back," Mayawati said. "Narendra Modi, to lure voters, in the interim Budget, provided hollow and fake promises for the people," she added. "The BJP has used several crores of the national treasury for various reasons but did not use the funds for the upliftment of the poor and backward," says Mayawati. She added, "If they were serious about the upliftment of poor people, they would have completed the implementation of schemes for the same much before the election. Instead, they have been busy making the already rich even richer. "If our grand alliance is given power in Uttar Pradesh, there will be no pending dues for farmers," Mayawati said. "The backward and marginalised communities have suffered at the hands of the previous BJP and Congress governments," Mayawati said. "The BJP needs to work in other areas too, the recent 10 percent quota for the economically backward sections of the general category will not ensure re-election at the Centre," Mayawati said. 10 percent quota for economically backward sections will not help BJP come to power, says Mayawati "Since Independence, the previous governments have largely proved ineffective. The people have given them multiple chances, but now they don't need to anymore," Mayawati said. Mayawati called the BJP's 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' slogan "nothing but jumlebaazi". She also slammed Congress president Rahul Gandhi over the NYAY scheme. "If you give us a chance to make a government at the Centre, we will ensure employment in government and non-government jobs," Mayawati said. "The Congress and BJP have not worked for the Muslim community. Only the alliance can give a strong response to the BJP in the Saharanpur constituency," said Mayawati. BSP chief Mayawati launched a blistering attack on the BJP and Congress. "I am urging you to give your vote only to the alliance for the sake of the state and the country. Only the alliance will work for the betterment of the people." "BJP's is the first government that promises benefits for the people, but works exactly opposite the promises," Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said during the SP-BSP-RLD joint rally. He launched an attack on the BJP over the GST and pending dues for sugarcane farmers. "This election is the one to drop the walls of hate, this election is to stop the divisiveness, this election is to bring the people back together," Akhilesh said. Akhilesh Yadav in Saharanpur latest updates: This election is going to be historic, SP chief says Akhilesh Yadav, addressing a joint rally of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, said, "There is not much difference between the Congress and BJP, if you will look at their policies. They are both same. This grand alliance is meant to bring change in the country, but Congress party doesnt want that, it wants to form govt in Uttar Pradesh." The Congress party on Sunday released a list of nine candidates for elections to the state legislative assembly of Odisha. "Tripura has become a symbol of change across the country. Our BJP government has brought development to Tripura through will power. Forces that are coming in the way of development can be tackled," Modi said. "Rahul Gandhi could have fought in Pondicherry or Karnataka, or Andhra Pradesh, or even Chhattisgarh, or Madhya Pradesh. But why did he go to Kerala for a second seat? Because the Congress and the Left parties are together," Modi said. Narendra Modi in Tripura latest updates: Congress, Left parties are in contest with each other only for show, says PM "Previous governments did not give enough attention to the development of the northeastern states in India. But now you are seeing the difference, now the chowkidar has instituted a welfare board for the marginalised communities of these regions," Modi said. "The Left front has been in power in multiple states, but they never cared about the labourers in the informal sector. In a short time, at least 13,000 labourers have joined the welfare scheme of the BJP government," Modi said. "I am making you aware, I want to tell the whole country to be aware of the anti-middle class policies of the Congress. The party released their manifesto, but there was not a single mention of the middle class. Why? Why is there anger against the middle class? Because they voted for Modi?," the prime minister said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his rally in Tripura on Sunday praised the BJP government in the state for various "development" projects. "Our party has not been in power for too long in Tripura, but we can already see the benefits brought by the policies of the government," he said. "To the Left parties, their constitution is more important than the constitution of the country. Parties that had dozens of MPs, CMs and MLAs, are showing signs of fatigue. The Left parties are sweating. They are seen in TV debates rather than on the ground with the people," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a rally in Tripura. "I promised to give HIRA to Tripura before the state assembly election. We've completed many projects and many more are in progress to fulfill that promise," Modi said. "Tripura government is directly procuring produce from the farmers and benefiting the people. We have destroyed the ecosystem of corruption comprising of middlemen. We have decided to provide financial assistance amounting to Rs 350 crore to 5.5 lakh small farmers. More than 1.5 lakh farmers have already received the first installment. BJP president Amit Shah during a rally as part of the party's Lok Sabha election campaign in Odisha slammed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and said, "I was listening to Dharmendra Pradhan ji. He was speaking fluent Odiya. Will Naveen babu be able to speak even 5 lines in Odiya, without looking at a paper? The man who can't speak Odiya even after being chief minister for 19 years, can never work for welfare of Odisha." Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday addressed a rally in the state and said that people would choose to name their children after Narendra Modi instead of Rahul Gandhi. Farmers will be given loans at zero percent interest to ensure that they are not burdened by it. In the irrigation sector, the BJP will invest over 1 lakh crore. We will give over Rs 3000 per month pension to the small and medium farmers above the age of 60," Shah said. "The manifesto is based on nine points. These are the nine pillars of our vision for the development of 'New Odisha'," Shah said at the release of the election manifesto in Bhubaneswar. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah released party manifesto for Odisha on Sunday. In the manifesto, the party has promised to invest over one lakh crore in irrigation sector and provide a pension of Rs 3,000 per month to farmers above the age of 60 years, among other promises. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed the media on Sunday about BJP's campaign theme for the ensuing seven-phased general elections and also that the main election theme would be 'Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar'. "We want a government with one captain and not a team of 11 members with 40 captains," said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley after releasing the party's campaign song on Sunday. The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) campaign theme will have parts. The first theme will focus on "Kaam Karne Wali Saarkar", the second theme is "Imaandar Sarkar" and the third theme will focus on "Bade Faisle Lene Wali Sarkar". Taking a jibe at Narendra Modi, RLD leader Ajit Singh said that the prime minister has never been taught to tell the truth. "Modi had promised that every person will receive an amount Rs 15 lakh each. how can the prime minister of a country lie?," Ajit said. "The Congress and the Left are working together to oust Modi. They have stooped too low, singing paeans to Pakistan even when the NDA government was taking on the terrorists on the soil of the neighbouring country. Modi asserted that the Opposition parties could stoop to any level to remove him from power. "Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has been trying its best to make inroads into Tripura, but people haven't allowed that. They tolerated the atrocities of the Left Front, waiting patiently for the BJP to rise. I thank the people of Tripura for believing in the BJP," he stated. Addressing a rally in Udaipur, Modi said the people of Tripura has set a precedent for the entire country by ousting the Left Front government after 25 years. Hitting out at the Congress and the Left Front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged that the Opposition was hell-bent on removing him from power, even if that meant singing paeans to Pakistan. "The Congress and the Left are working together to oust Modi. They have stooped too low, singing paeans to Pakistan even when the NDA government was taking on the terrorists on the soil of the neighbouring country. Modi asserted that the Opposition parties could stoop to any level to remove him from power. "Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has been trying its best to make inroads into Tripura, but people haven't allowed that. They tolerated the atrocities of the Left Front, waiting patiently for the BJP to rise. I thank the people of Tripura for believing in the BJP," he stated. Addressing a rally in Udaipur, Modi said the people of Tripura has set a precedent for the entire country by ousting the Left Front government after 25 years. Hitting out at the Congress and the Left Front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged that the Opposition was hell-bent on removing him from power, even if that meant singing paeans to Pakistan. "The only question is What is their (political parties) fund collection culture? Do they still prefer the old obsolete style of only black money being collected or do they prefer to collect it by legitimate methods like crowdsourcing, cheque and electoral bonds? Obviously, the BJP prefers the latter," said Jaitley. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addressed the issue of black money during elections in his blog on Sunday. Naming states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, North East and Madhya Pradesh, Jaitley said in most cases the money come from government contractors and beneficiaries. Farmers will be given loans at zero percent interest to ensure that they are not burdened by it. In the irrigation sector, the BJP will invest over 1 lakh crore. We will give over Rs 3000 per month pension to the small and medium farmers above the age of 60," Shah said. "The manifesto is based on nine points. These are the nine pillars of our vision for the development of 'New Odisha'," Shah said at the release of the election manifesto in Bhubaneswar. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah released party manifesto for Odisha on Sunday. In the manifesto, the party has promised to invest over one lakh crore in irrigation sector and provide a pension of Rs 3,000 per month to farmers above the age of 60 years, among other promises. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed the media on Sunday about BJP's campaign theme for the ensuing seven-phased general elections and also that the main election theme would be 'Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar'. "We want a government with one captain and not a team of 11 members with 40 captains," said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley after releasing the party's campaign song on Sunday. The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) campaign theme will have parts. The first theme will focus on "Kaam Karne Wali Saarkar", the second theme is "Imaandar Sarkar" and the third theme will focus on "Bade Faisle Lene Wali Sarkar". Vadra further saiid that he would accompany Rahul when he files his nomination from Amethi. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's husband Robert Vadra on Sunday said that he would join the campaign trail for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. Union Finance Minister & BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Robert Vadra to campaign for Congress party for the #LokSabhaElections2019 : I don't know if this will be an asset for the campaign of Congress party or for the campaign of BJP. pic.twitter.com/xZyGiw0Xuy Arun Jaitley on Robert Vadra campaigning for Congress in UP: This can be an 'asset' for the BJP "Congress has fouled in NE, it's time to show them the red card and let them set aside in North East as well in rest of the country," Modi said. Sharpening his attack on Congress, Narendra Modi said that the party is visible in the North East only during election season. Lok Sabha Election campaign 2019 LATEST updates: Sharpening his attack on the Congress, Narendra Modi alleged there is a collusion between Congress and Pakistan. The prime minister also said that the party's poll manifesto was more in favour of Pakistan, than that of India. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's husband Robert Vadra on Sunsay said that he would join the campaign trail for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed the media on Sunday about BJP's campaign theme for the ensuing seven-phased general elections and also that the main election theme would be 'Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar'. Narendra Modi praises Tripura government for 'pro-people' policies. "Tripura government is directly procuring produce from the farmers and benefiting the people. We have destroyed the ecosystem of corruption comprising of middlemen. We have decided to provide financial assistance amounting to Rs 350 crore to 5.5 lakh small farmers. More than 1.5 lakh farmers have already received the first installment. "I promised to give HIRA to Tripura before the state assembly election. We've completed many projects and many more are in progress to fulfill that promise," Modi said. Narendra Modi begins address in Tripura. "Tripura has become a symbol of change across the country. Our BJP government has brought development to Tripura through will power. Forces that are coming in the way of development can be tackled," Modi said. Akhilesh Yadav, addressing a joint rally of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, said, "There is not much difference between the Congress and BJP, if you will look at their policies. They are both same. This grand alliance is meant to bring change in the country, but Congress party doesnt want that, it wants to form govt in Uttar Pradesh." BJP is anti-people and anti-poor, says Akhilesh Yadav. "BJP's is the first government that promises benefits for the people, but works exactly opposite the promises," Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said during the SP-BSP-RLD joint rally. He launched an attack on the BJP over the GST and pending dues for sugarcane farmers. BSP chief Mayawati launched a blistering attack on the BJP and Congress. "I am urging you to give your vote only to the alliance for the sake of the state and the country. Only the alliance will work for the betterment of the people." "The Congress and BJP have not worked for the Muslim community. Only the alliance can give a strong response to the BJP in the Saharanpur constituency," said Mayawati. Mayawati called the BJP's 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' slogan "nothing but jumlebaazi". She also slammed Congress president Rahul Gandhi over the NYAY scheme. Mayawati speaks at first joint SP-BSP-RLD rally in Saharanpur. She said, "You can be sure that at least here in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP will be out and the grand alliance is going to form the government. BJP president Amit Shah, who launched the party manifesto for the Odisha Assembly election said that it would usher in a "new Odisha". "I have been making efforts in Odisha for the last four years. This is a region of immense potential. There are many possibilities for infrastructure development, revenue development and cultural development, which have not been explored," Shah said. Saradha scam is destroying West Bengal, says Narendra Modi. "I want to assure you, all those who loot the poor, I will hold them all accountable. Your chowkidar is completely alert to protect the country," Modi said. Your vote for the BJP is your vote for me, says Narendra Modi. "If you want to strengthen the country, you need a strong government. For a strong government, Modi needs to be strong. Your vote for the BJP is your vote for Modi," says the prime minister in Cooch Behar. We are working to eradicate poverty in Cooch Behar, but the progress is halted by 'speed breaker didi'. The BJP has been working to bring development to West Bengal, but the speed breaker didi (Mamata Banerjee) has halted the speed of the progress of our efforts. In these Lok Sabha elections, she will be given a fitting reply by the people. It is important to bring the real face of Mamata Banerjee out in the open. She is destroying the lives of the citizens of West Bengal," Modi said. Narendra Modi launches blistering attack on Mamata Banerjee. "Didi is supporting those who are calling for the tukde-tukde of India. People of West Bengal are disappointed with Mamata Banerjee," Modi said. With a few days to go for the first phase of the Lok Sabha election on 11 April, the top BJP duo will address public rallies across the country on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address rallies in West Bengal's Cooch Behar, at Udaipur in Tripura and at Imphal in Manipur. Meanwhile, BJP president Amit Shah will campaign in Odisha and Maharashtra. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath will also be on a day-long visit to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Sunday where he will address public meetings in various districts. Adityanath will begin his tour by addressing the public at Government Junior College in Telangana's Peddapalli town, according to a statement issued by the office of Uttar Pradesh chief minister. After this, he will be in Yellareddy assembly segment of the Zaheerabad parliamentary constituency in Telangana. From here, Adityanath will address public meetings in Ananthpur and Srikalahasthi in Chitoor district of Andhra Pradesh. As many as 91 parliamentary constituencies spread over 20 states and Union Territories will go to polls in the first phase of the general election. These include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Telangana and Uttarakhand. The votes will be counted on 23 May. Modi on Saturday dismissed the electoral challenge from the Congress, describing the party as "a Titanic ship that is sinking". He also criticised it for promising to scrap the sedition law. Addressing a rally in Maharashtra in support of BJP candidates from Nanded, Latur, Hingoli and Parbhani, Modi also said Congress president Rahul Gandhi had opted for a second seat where the "majority community is in a minority". In an apparent reference to the Congress manifesto promise of ensuring a minimum income guarantee to the poor, the prime minister said the Opposition party plans to burden the middle class with more taxes to fund the scheme. It offers the middle class, which is the backbone of the country, nothing, Modi claimed. Rahul on Saturday on his campaign trail in Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir said the BJP should not question the feasibility of the minimum income scheme promised by his party when, he alleged, the Narendra Modi government had no qualms in "giving money" to businessmen like Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. Addressing rallies at Almora, Srinagar and Haridwar in Uttarakhand to drum up support for party candidates in the five Lok Sabha seats of the state going to polls on 11 April, Rahul said, "He (Modi) didn't think for a moment when he took your money to give it to the likes of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Anil Ambani." "And now, when it has come to paying some money to the poorest as an income support, he is asking where will the money come from," the Congress president said. "I have consulted economic experts and they said it is feasible without derailing the economy," he said. Nearly 2,000 civilian vehicles, which were left stranded on Jammu-Srinagar national highway following a massive landslide, were cleared as the two-day per week ban on movement of civilian vehicles came into effect on Sunday. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference (NC) leaders, including party chairman Farooq Abdullah, on Sunday held a protest march against the order closing the Jammu-Srinagar of highway to civilian traffic for two days a week. Taking a jibe at the administration that is currently functioning under the governor, Abdullah called the highway order "wrong and undemocratic". "Order to shut highway for civilian traffic is wrong and undemocratic, " said Abdullah. #NewsAlert @jkpdp and @JKNC_ protest against highway closure for civilians. Order to shut highway for civilian traffic is wrong: Farooq Abdullah. | @islahmufti with more details pic.twitter.com/owoHaw1z5T News18 (@CNNnews18) April 7, 2019 Reacting to the restriction order, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti asked civilians to defy it and said that her party will approach the court against the highway ban. Mehbooba Mufti, PDP on civilian movement restricted on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway 2 days a week: You saw that the students are facing a lot of problem due to it. I urge people not to accept the ban. Defy it, go wherever you want. We will approach the court against this ban. https://t.co/bESMdDBhD7 ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 Nearly 2,000 civilian vehicles, which were left stranded on Jammu-Srinagar national highway following a massive landslide, were cleared as the two-day per week ban on movement of civilian vehicles on the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with rest of the country came into effect on Sunday, officials said. The governor administration last week announced a ban on civilian traffic on the 270-km highway on Sundays and Wednesdays to facilitate safe passage of security convoys till 31 May, a decision which was criticised as "anti-people" and "undemocratic" by almost all political parties and cross-section of the society including business community in the Valley. The decision comes in the aftermath of the terror attack on a CRPF convoy on the highway in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on 14 February, which left over 40 CRPF personnel dead, besides another attempt to target a CRPF convoy with a car bomb on the highway near Banihal in Ramban district on 30 March. A massive landslide blocked the highway near Anokhi fall in Ramban district on Saturday afternoon, leaving nearly 2,000 Jammu-bound vehicles stranded. "The highway was cleared of the debris around 3 am after hectic 14-hour long operation and accordingly, the stranded vehicles were allowed to move towards Jammu," Deputy Superintendent of Police, traffic (National Highway, Ramban), Suresh Sharma told PTI. He said it was decided that the stranded civilian vehicles, both trucks and passenger vehicles, would be cleared first before the highway is closed for the civilian traffic to ensure smooth passage of the security convoys. However, the officer said no fresh civilian traffic was allowed either from Srinagar or Jammu since Sunday morning in view of the restrictions which are in force from 4 am to 5 pm. "The security convoys started moving from both sides to reach their destinations," Sharma said. Army, police and CRPF personnel have been deployed at all intersections leading to the highway to ensure that civilian traffic does not interfere with movement of convoys of security forces, officials said. Amid public outrage against the curbs, the authorities earlier clarified that patients, students, tourists and others in emergency will be allowed to move after scrutiny during the restrictions. Meanwhile, authorities gave permission to a wedding party to travel on the highway from Anantnag district in south Kashmir to Doda district in Jammu region. The order issued by the Additional District Development Commissioner, Anantnag, said the wedding party of Danish Ali will include 12 other people who will travel on Sunday in four vehicles on the highway and their travel would be subject to frisking and checking by the security forces. The permits issued also specified the registration numbers of the vehicles. With inputs from PTI He did not elaborate on what evidence Pakistan had or how he could be so specific with the timing, but he said Prime Minister Imran Khan had agreed to share the information with the country. Karachi: Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India will attack again this month, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday, as tension over a February standoff between the two nuclear-armed neighbours had appeared to ease. The attack could take place between 16 and 20 April, he said, adding that Pakistan had told the five permanent members of the UN Security Council of its concerns. A suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary personnel on 14 February and the risk of conflict rose dramatically on 27 February, when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base. The following day, Pakistan shot down an Indian fighter jet and captured its pilot who was later released. "We have reliable intelligence that India is planning a new attack on Pakistan. As per our information, this could take place between 16 and 20 April," Qureshi told reporters in his hometown of Multan. He did not elaborate on what evidence Pakistan had or how he could be so specific with the timing, but he said Prime Minister Imran Khan had agreed to share the information with the country. India's foreign office didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Khan blamed India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for "whipping up war hysteria" over claims that India shot down a Pakistani F-16 during the February standoff. India said it, too, had shot down a Pakistani aircraft and the air force displayed pieces of a missile that it said had been fired by a Pakistani F-16 before it went down. The success of Indian air strikes on a camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group in northwestern Pakistan has also been thrown into doubt after satellite images showed little sign of damage. Pakistan closed its airspace amid the standoff but most commercial air traffic has since resumed and major airports have opened. In a strongly-worded statement, EAM spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the comments by the Pakistan foreign minister are aimed at whipping up war hysteria in the region. New Delhi: India on Sunday rejected as "irresponsible and preposterous" Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi's comments that India was planning to attack Pakistan again between 16 and 20 April. In a strongly-worded statement, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the comments by the Pakistani foreign minister are aimed at whipping up war hysteria in the region. "India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the foreign minister of Pakistan with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region. This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India," Kumar said. The MEA spokesperson's statement came hours after Qureshi said in a press conference in Multan that Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India is planning to attack Pakistan again between 16 and 20 April. India struck the biggest terrorist training camp of terror group Jaish-e-Muhammed deep inside Pakistan on 26 February nearly two weeks after the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. On 27 February, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on 1 March. When asked about the migration in Kairana, Tabassum Hasan said, 'Migration is not an issue here. When there are no employment opportunities, people will have to go out to work and also for better education. In the coming time, our focus will be on creating employment opportunities here.' Kairana (Uttar Pradesh): Thousands of people have migrated from Kairana in search of employment most of them belong to Mallah community, which has been traditionally involved in farming along the Yamuna delta. Mallah community is involved in growing crops along the Yamuna river especially Watermelon and Musk melon. They go in search of employment when the river dries up and come back for marriage or family functions. Mustagi Mallah, a resident of Ramna in Kairana said, "The Mallah community depends on Yamuna river. But for some time, the river is drying. There is huge unemployment. These people go in December and in July they plant crops of watermelon. They migrate for eight months and their number is around 20,000." Kairana Lok Sabha constituency comes under Western Uttar Pradesh which gained some headlines when its MP Hukum released a list of Hindu families and alleged that there had been a mass exodus of Hindus from his constituency due to the law and order situation. Another village resident, Shamsher Khan said: "These people are unemployed and go out in search of a job. Employment is the biggest issue here. Hindus and Muslims live here with peace and our area is an example of unity between both communities." According to people, the community returns home only during Monsoon season when there is the overflow of water in rivers. They stay for four months in Kairana and then leave their homes in December-January to search for jobs. After the demise of Hukum Singh, the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal had jointly fielded Begum Tabassum Hasan who later won the elections after beating Singhs daughter Mriganka from BJP. When asked about the migration in Kairana, Tabassum Hasan said, "Migration is not an issue here. When there are no employment opportunities, people will have to go out to work and also for better education. In the coming time, our focus will be on creating employment opportunities here." Hasan will contest from the constituency on Samajwadi Party ticket for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. "Earlier, people migrated because of the criminal elements. This is not an issue now, but they are migrating due to financial conditions," BJP leader Mriganka said. The BJP has denied ticket to Mriganka and fielded Pradeep Choudhary. Kairana parliamentary constituency will witness voting in the first phase of general election on 11 April. A huge disparity in access & distribution of healthcare in India makes Universal health coverage a must. Around 2.4 million lives are lost to treatable conditions every year in India. Coronary artery disease (8.76 million people), stroke that can lead to brain injury or disability (6.24 million people) and lower respiratory infections by viruses and bacteria (3.19 million) are the three deadliest causes of deaths in the world according to World Health Organization. Lifestyle choices and communicable diseases significantly affect the health and longevity of a person. In simple words, just being free of illness is not a sign of good health but being fit in all aspects signifies healthiness. To highlight this fact, 7th of April, in the year 1950 was declared World Health Day by the World Health Organisation. This annual day under WHO's leadership commemorates a comprehensive umbrella event that does not target a specific disease but raises awareness on the importance of overall health. Over the years, WHO's work has persisted towards awareness campaigns and eradication of preventable diseases like smallpox and polio from the world. It is also on the verge of removing Rubella, mumps, measles (MMR), the highly infectious respiratory disease that has potentially severe to permanent complications and could prove fatal. World Health Day 2019 theme This years nominated theme is Universal health coverage (UHC): everyone, everywhere. The campaign draws on two key areas of focus providing good medical care despite economic hardships and accessibility whenever and wherever. The essential feature of this coverage is to ensure quality health services to all communities and people. Apart from that, it intends to provide people with a strong primary healthcare facility that focuses on prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. Efforts towards healthcare for all in India Poor quality of care and good healthcare have been a major reason for the humongous number of preventable deaths in India every year. To tackle this problem, over the last few years, the government has focused and introduced many healthcare schemes and projects. Ayushman Bharat, launched in 2018, being the largest co-funded central and state government-funded program in the world is one such initiative. This program is in line with WHOs UHC. Under this, the objective is to provide superior healthcare, wellness facilities, and insurance to rural and underprivileged people by offering an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakhs per family in a year. The allocation of funds for this scheme has been increased to Rs 6,400 crore for 2019-2020. Mission Indradhanush is another vital program which aims to increase the immunization coverage by 90 percent and target children who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated in both urban and rural cities. Since 2014, Rotavirus vaccine, Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccine, and JE vaccine for adults have been launched under this public health initiative. The Indian government is also taking vital steps in this direction and in this years interim budget raised their 2019 healthcare spending to $8.9 billion from $7.45 billion in 2018, making it a 13.6 percent increase year-on-year. Challenges to good health in India Though various governments in power have, over the years, implemented many health-related schemes, and even provided medical insurance to people below the poverty line, it has not avoided out-of-pocket expenses of the poorest strata of our society to meet their medical needs. Moreover, India ranks the lowest in public health spending. Even countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan, which have a lower-income than our nation, spend more on healthcare for its citizens. The countrys spending on public health has increased (albeit, marginally) to 1.4 percent in 2016-17, as per the Budget allocation, but it was still 6 percent less than the global average. Another significant challenge is the doctor-patient ratio in India. As per government data form 2017, for every 921 patients, India has one doctor, which makes the scenario for than a little concerning. Solutions like telemedicine for online consultations in real-time are one of many intended tools to bridge that gap. But, the challenge still remains, to provide these people with the necessary drugs and high-tech medical equipment, etc they may need to attend to their health at an affordable price. The country is also facing severe issues related to contaminated drinking water and clean sanitation facilities that have put the lives of people at risk. These factors increase the chances of diseases and unreachable healthcare facilities only add to the problem. Hence, for a country like India where there is a huge disparity and inaccessibility in the distribution of healthcare facilities, Universal health coverage is a must. World Health Day may be celebrated annually, but for a country like India and the progress it needs in this crucial area, a single day isn't enough. It requires rigorous, constant work to provide UHC to all. The various government programs that are currently implemented are a step in the right direction and more of these can help speed up the process. Therefore, on account of the World Health Day, as a citizen, lets vow to participate and follow these small steps- conserving the environment, keeping the surroundings tidy, and reaching out to the health workers or doctors when in need. The author is a senior consultant in the medical team at Docprime.com. Photo: Transit Police Charges have been laid against a man accused of groping a young girl on Vancouver's SkyTrain. Metro Vancouver Transit Police say the alleged incident took place Feb. 2 after the victim and her mother boarded a train at Commercial-Broadway station. Anthony Dennis Gulbrandsen, 57, has been charged with assault, CTV News reports. The Burnaby man turned himself in to police after surveillance images were released by transit police. The accused is alleged to have "made several comments to the girl that were extremely vulgar and sexual in nature," and then touched the girl's buttocks. with files from CTV Vancouver Pointing to the dismissal of DMK governments by the Congress in the past, Singh said, 'Their alliance is not only opportunistic but unholy.' Perambalur: Senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Sunday slammed the DMK-Congress front in Tamil Nadu, saying it was not a progressive alliance, but a 'corrupt' and 'unholy' combine which would end in a 'disaster'. Canvassing votes for Perambalur Lok Sabha constituency candidate Sivapathy of AIADMK, he said, "in the Congress-DMK alliance, many people are on bail or in jail. It was not a progressive alliance but a corrupt alliance". DMK is leading the Secular Progressive Alliance in the state which also comprises the Congress and the Left parties among others, while the BJP is part of the AIADMK-led front for the 18 April Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu. The Congress was trying to get a foothold in Tamil Nadu through the "backdoor" by stitching alliances with the Dravidian parties after being totally rejected by the people several decades ago, he said. "The anti-democratic Congress has been chased out of Tamil Nadu several decades ago. And this election will see that it is swept clean out of the state", he said, referring to the ouster of the Congress in 1967. Pointing to the dismissal of DMK governments by the Congress in the past, Singh said, "Their alliance is not only opportunistic but unholy." The BJP leader recalled the comments made by late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi. "I still remember those golden words spoken by Dr Kalaignar Dr M Karunanidhi when he said, "unholy alliances will always end in disaster. The DMK-Congress alliance will also end in disaster", he said. However, on the other hand, the AIADMK-BJP combine was well received by Tamil Nadu people, he said. "If the BJP was elected, it would protect the Tamil culture and tradition," Singh said and assured Special Economic Zones would be set up in Perambalur. Referring to the recent air strikes on terrorists base in Pakistan, he said India was not against Pakistan's sovereignty and was only aiming at the terrorists' bases. "We respect the sovereignty of Pakistan. Our attacks were aimed at only the terrorist camps there. We are not against the Pakistan people," he said. Later, addressing a campaign meeting in Madurai, Singh said he was overwhelmed by the warmth and enthusiam of the temple city. He assured the BJP would protect and preserve the cultural heritage of Tamil Nadu and listed the developmental activities of the Centre in the southern state. The themes covered in the Congress campaign include the 'Nyay' scheme, poverty eradication, jobs for unemployed youths, farmers and women reservation. New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday announced that its campaign slogan for the Lok Sabha polls will be 'Ab Hoga Nyay' while alleging that an atmosphere of 'anyay' (injustice) was prevailing in the country. The party's campaign will be centred around 'Nyay' and the word not only alludes to the Congress' proposed minimum guarantee scheme but encompasses justice to all sections of society, senior leader Anand Sharma said at a press conference. "There is a cry for justice in the country which has been denied to the poor," he said while emphasising that "the campaign will focus on winning hearts". Sharma said the party has followed the Election Commission guidelines and taken all necessary permissions for its publicity. The campaign's main theme song 'Main hi toh Hindustan hoon' has been penned by Javed Akhtar. While the campaign film has been directed by Nikkhil Advani and the cinematography is by Tushar Kanti Ray, the concept and script was provided by Anuja Chauhan, and the music was composed by Arjunna Harjai, the Congress said. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, members of the campaign panel as well that of the core committee were involved in brainstorming the campaign strategy, Sharma said. Advertising agency Percept is behind the publicity campaign, he said, adding a young team also worked for the party as part of its digital media campaign. Its campaign on digital media platforms is being taken care by SilverPush, while other supporting agencies involved in the campaign include Design box and Nixon, he said. The themes covered in the campaign include the 'Nyay' scheme, poverty eradication, jobs for unemployed youths, farmers, women reservation, simplified GST, universal health care, education and startups as promised in the Congress manifesto. Party leaders said it is a 360-degrees cross-platform campaign that includes TV films, cinema spots, radio jingles, hoardings and digital screens, print advertisements, social media and public transport. A special feature of the campaign will be thousands of container trucks with Congress campaign advertisements on them taking the party's message to various parts if the country starting Sunday. The campaign also has regional adaptations in six vernacular languages, including Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese, and Malayalam. Members of the publicity committee interacted with civil society organisations, farmers, students, lawyers and a cross section of the society, said Singh, flanked by other members of the committee and senior leaders such as Motilal Vohra, Rajiv Shukla, Randeep Surjewala and Pawan Khera. The 'Nyay campaign' promises justice to youth, farmers, entrepreneurs and all those who have suffered injustice at the hands of the Modi government, Sharma said. The Congress has also come out with a number of campaign videos targeting the BJP government's policies such as note ban, its "hollow promises", and "rhetoric". One of the videos also traces the Congress' legacy and achievements of the past. "People are scared of talking over phone, there is an atmosphere of fear," Sharma said, adding 'nyay' (justice) was the need of the hour. Surjewala alleged that the BJP has divisiveness and hate in its mindset, and claimed the Congress will do justice. Responding to a question, Sharma said in 2014, one of the factors was the BJP's money power which played a major role in the saffron party's victory. "Yes it is true we could not counter them. The BJP is the biggest advertiser of country. We cannot match them in money power... We will beat them in truth and connecting with people," he said, adding that jingles and radio will be used extensively for the party's campaign. To a question on the issue of nationalism, he said it was not the sole right of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk about nationalism and the Congress has lost two prime ministers while protecting the nation. Training his guns on the prime minister, Surjewala said, "We have got a 'prachar mantri' for five years. He spends crores on publicity." Slamming the Modi government's Pakistan policy, he said the prime minister wants to eradicate terror but he went to Pakistan without invitation and the ISI was "invited to probe" the Pathankot terror attack. The armed forces belong to India and not to Narendra Modi, he said. Asked to comment on Modi remarks regarding the Congress' minimum income scheme 'Nyay', Surjewala alleged, "Modiji is disrespecting farmers. He is against the move which aims to benefit 25 crore people. He doesn't want money to reach the women beneficiaries." The Congress' chief spokesperson also dared the prime minister for an open debate with the grand old party's leadership on the minimum income scheme. Follow live updates on the Lok Sabha election campaign here According to Congress, the necessary changes have been made in the campaign song. The sources said that both the song and the slogan would be released on Sunday afternoon. New Delhi: Ahead of the launch of Congress' campaign song for the Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, the party had to remove a couple of stanzas after the Election Commission of India (EC) reportedly objected to the lines that explicitly referred to alleged "disturbed communal harmony" and asked Congress to vet the same. "The song highlights the party's proposed minimum income guarantee NYAY scheme," according to Congress sources. They, however, said that the Commission objected to a few lines after which the party had to replace them. These lines had accused the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre of spreading hatred and pitching communities against each other. The sources said that necessary changes have been made and both the song and the slogan would be released on Sunday afternoon. The campaign song also mentions the job situation, demonetisation, women's security, GST and farmers' suicide, among other issues. The slogan is - Ab hoga NYAY. Congress in its manifesto has promised to give Rs 72,000 per year to the 20 percent of Indias poorest under its NYAY scheme, if his party comes to power. The Lok Sabha polls will start on 11 April and will end on 19 May. Counting of votes will take place on 23 May. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Sunday said the BJP was taking such actions for electoral gains. Bhopal: Reacting to the Income Tax searches on the premises of his close aides, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Sunday said the BJP was taking such actions for electoral gains sensing defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The Income Tax (I-T) department launched pre-dawn searches on at least 50 locations in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh (Indore and Bhopal) on Sunday against people linked to Nath on charges of alleged tax evasion, officials said. The searches were linked to suspected movement of hawala money during the ongoing poll season and tax evasion, they added. In a statement issued through Madhya Pradesh Congress media cell coordinator Narendra Saluja, Nath said, "The situation about the I-T raids is not clear yet. It would be appropriate to speak on this after the situation is clear. But the entire country knows how the constitutional institutions were used and against whom they were used during the past five years." "These institutions were used to scare people. When they do not have anything to say on development and their work, they used this kind of tactics against their opponents," the chief minister's statement added. "When the BJP saw its defeat in the coming Lok Sabha polls, they started taking such actions deliberately to take benefit in the election. They also used such tactics before the last Assembly polls," he asserted. Nath added that several political parties and states had witnessed such kind of tactics during the last five years. "We were ready for this. There should be an impartial inquiry into everything. Such tactics do not make any difference to us." "The people of the state know the truth. In the coming Lok Sabha polls, the people of the state will answer these acts," the chief minister said in the statement. The BJP-led central government also came under fire from former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Expressing ignorance about the cash found during Sunday's I-T raids, Singh said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could go to any extent (to have its way). Asked about the saffron party's allegation that crores of rupees were found from people who had been claiming that the "watchman" was a thief, Singh said, "Thousands of crores would have been recovered if the (I-T) raids were conducted at the houses of mama-mami (referring to former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his wife) and (BJP president) Amit Shah." LK Advani was the driving force behind the BJP's Indian nationalism and Hindutva concepts. Today, when he reminds the party about the BJP's 'respect' for 'diversity' and 'freedom of choice', does he expect them or us to believe him? In an age where the term "media" has become synonymous with only electronic media, and where news anchors seem to be uniformly under 40, perhaps BJP veteran LK Advani thought he could get away merely by publicly wringing his hands at the way his party now revels in calling its political rivals "anti-national". However, journalists who reported on the tumultuous 1980s and 1990s can only find Advani's supposed anguish hypocritical, for he is the man who made it perfectly normal to taint an entire community as "anti-national". What's a political rival compared to that? It is important to recall those two decades because it was then, for the first time since Independence, that the terms "Hindu" and "Indian" were sought to be made interchangeable. At the centre of this movement was the man who now claims the BJP has never described those who disagree with the party as "enemies". Advani will forever be associated with the campaign that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, though he did not begin it. Another arm of the Sangh Parivar, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), had started the campaign in 1984. The movement gathered momentum in 1986, after the Rajiv Gandhi government enacted the Muslim Women's (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act. The Act nullified a 1985 Supreme Court judgment that had angered the male Muslim leadership by granting maintenance to an old Muslim divorcee, Shah Bano. But even before the BJP and RSS seized l'affaire Shah Bano to outrage against "Muslim appeasement", the VHP had started a nationwide movement aimed at uniting Hindus. Fed up of caste and police atrocities on them, a thousand-odd Dalits of Meenakshipuram in Tamil Nadu converted to Islam in 1981, followed by Dalits in four other districts of the state. This prompted the VHP's "Ekatmata (unity) Campaign", marked by processions that passed through Muslim areas and incendiary slogans. The campaign resulted in riots in 1982 in Pune, Solapur and Meerut, and in 1983 and 1984 in Hyderabad. In one unforgettable incident of the Pune riots, participants of VHP rallies carrying copies of the Manusmruti tore down the sign of a road that bore the name of Maulana Azad. By now, the slogan "Is desh mein rahna hoga toh 'Vande Matram' kehna hoga" (if you want to live in this country, you have to say Vande Mataram') had made an appearance. It was accompanied by "Yeh desh Hinduon ka, nahin kisike baap ka". Both slogans made it clear that to this Hindutva group, Muslims were not citizens of India. When the first slogan was sought to be defended during the hearings of the BN Srikrishna Commission of Inquiry in the 1992-93 Mumbai riots case, Justice Srikrishna retorted that a group laying down conditions of residence for any citizen, let alone a community, was not just communal but also fascist. It was during the VHP's campaign to demolish the Babri Masjid and replace it with a Ram Temple that the group began to portray Muslims as traitors. Equating Mughal emperor Babar to a foreign invader who had destroyed a symbol of India, it dubbed all "Ram drohis" "desh drohis" and added a few more slogans to its campaign: "Is desh mein rahna hoga, toh Hindu banke rahna hoga" (if you want to live in this country, you will have to live as a Hindu) "Gaddaron ki kya pehchan? Babri Masjid, Pakistan" (what is the mark of traitors? Babri Masjid and Pakistan). In its processions, the VHP carried bricks meant to build the temple in Ayodhya. Listing the schedule of such programmes, a senior VHP leader had grumbled to this reporter: "No nationalist activity can be held in Muslim areas." This campaign, too, triggered riots across the country in Meerut and Maliana; Nashik, Panvel and Beed; Muzaffarnagar and Badaun; Hazaribagh, Sasaram and Bhagalpur; Kota; Indore and Mhow. It was after the VHP had done the groundwork to build a consolidated Hindu vote bank through this violent anti-Muslim campaign equating a Hindu god with the country and Muslims with traitors that Advani, the then president of the BJP, jumped in. Thanks to him, "pseudo secularism" had become a common expression. That was his coinage after the Shah Bano controversy, used to describe the way the Congress and all other "secular" parties and intellectuals had "rejected" the country's Hindu heritage to appease minorities. The BJP's manifesto for the 1989 general election declared that the party was wedded to "Desh and Dharma". Where did that leave India's non-Hindu citizens? The manifesto made it clear that the party had no patience with such questions, asserting that an end to the "minority complex" was "imperative" for national integration. For the first time, the 1980s saw intolerance against minorities become respectable even in the national press. This started with the Meenakshipuram conversions, but Advani's onslaught on "pseudo-secularism" made it commonplace. Under the former deputy prime minister's aggressive espousal of Hindu nationalism, the BJP's Lok Sabha tally went up from two to 86. Emboldened by their success, party leaders no longer held back from expressing what, till then, RSS leaders would only tell you in private. Thus, Sunder Lal Patwa, the then Chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, described Christian missionaries as "traitors" at the first meeting of the National Integration Council in 1990. When the head of the Madhya Pradesh Christian Association wrote to the President of India for permission to sue Patwa, the chief minister challenged her to face him in "the court of public". In a state where minorities constituted nearly 28 percent of the population, the Bajrang Dal put up a board at the Bhopal Railway Station, which said: "Welcome to the capital of the Hindu Rashtra." The climax of this onslaught on Muslims was Advani's rath yatra in 1990, aimed at building a Hindu vote bank to counter then prime minister VP Singh's implementation of the Mandal Commission Report, which granted reservation to Other Backward Classes. Amid inflammatory speeches and displays of weapons and blood, Advani spoke of the need to "restore national honour" by demolishing the Babri Masjid, a "symbol of slavery", and building a Ram Temple in its place. Unsurprisingly, the yatra left a trail of riots in its wake. Between October 1990, when Advani was arrested, and 6 December, 1992, the day the Babri Masjid was demolished, the saffron party carried out a relentless campaign to equate Ram and Hinduism with the nation. The year 1991 saw former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi take out an "Ekta Yatra" to hoist the national flag in Srinagar. Joshi had described his yatra as a successor to the many other processions that had been organised since ancient times "against terrorism", beginning with Ram's yatra against Ravan and those held by Adi Shankaracharya, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Swami Vivekananda. Throughout the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign, Muslims were called "Babar ki aulad" (Babar's children), but they could, if they so chose, describe themselves as "Ram ki aulad, which is how Patwa always described them. At a Bajrang Dal recruitment drive in Mumbai in 1991, new members were given trishuls with the advice that they could use the weapon against "anti-national, anti-social and anti-religious elements". As Justice Srikrishna put it: "Some speeches and slogans (in the months prior to the demolition) warned Muslims that dissent on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute would be an act of treachery, for which (they) would be banished from the country." Ten years after it had declared its commitment to "Desh and Dharma", the BJP, in its 1998 manifesto, spoke of new commitments to "one nation, one people, one culture"; to "Sanatan Dharma", which was "synonymous with Indian nationalism"; and to "Hindutva" or "cultural nationalism". It described the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, a movement aimed at establishing the dominance of Hindus over Muslims, as the "greatest mass movement post-Independence". Advani was the driving force behind these concepts. Today, when he reminds the party's leadership about the BJP's traditional respect for "diversity" and "freedom of choice", does he expect them or us to believe him? By their continuous abuse of their rivals as "anti-national", the party is only taking what he started to its logical end. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday dismissed the electoral challenge from the Congress party, describing it to be 'like a Titanic ship which is sinking', while also slamming it for promising to scrap the sedition law. Nanded: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday dismissed the electoral challenge from the Congress party, describing it to be "like a Titanic ship which is sinking", while also slamming it for promising to scrap the sedition law. Addressing a poll rally in support of BJP candidates from Nanded, Latur, Hingoli and Parbhani in central Maharashtra, Modi also said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi has opted for a second seat where the "majority community is in a minority". With an apparent reference to the Congress' manifesto promise of ensuring a minimum income guarantee to the poor, the prime minister said the Opposition party plans to burden the middle class with more taxes to fund the scheme. It offers the middle class, which is the backbone of the country, nothing, Modi claimed. Whenever the Congress is in trouble, it makes false promises and then becomes "Ghajini" (the character, played by Aamir Khan, which suffers from memory loss), Modi said. "The Congress is like a Titanic ship which is sinking," Modi said, adding the party was reduced to just 44 seats in 2014 and it stares at a worse situation this time around. He said the Congress has more factions in Maharashtra than the number of MLAs it has in the state. "The Congress' promise of scrapping the sedition law is like giving an open licence to the 'tukde-tukde gang' (those who want disintegration of India)," Modi said. He said the Congress' "naamdar" (dynast) had to use a microscope to look for a second "safe" seat. In the constituency he has chosen, "the majority community is in minority. He has also said he will not speak against his main Left rival," Modi said. Earlier, at a rally at Wardha on 1 April, Modi had said that Congress leaders were afraid of contesting from "constituencies dominated by majority population (Hindus)". Rahul is contesting from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh as well as Wayanad in Kerala. Referring to pictures of Rahuls roadshow in Wayanad, Modi quipped, "One had to find Congress flags in the Congress president's roadshow. Will Amethi tolerate this insult?" he asked. "Congress (sitting) MP in Hingoli, Sharad Pawar and his commander Praful Patel have run away from the electoral field," Modi said. All three leaders are not contesting the elections. The Congress was responsible for the problems in Jammu and Kashmir, and those of terrorism and Naxalism, Modi alleged. The prime minister accused the Congress of wanting to hold talks with separatists "who take money from Pakistan". "The Congress and its allies want two prime ministers one in Delhi and another in Jammu and Kashmir", Modi said, referring to a demand made by National Conference leaders Omar Abdullah. Odisha Congress released its manifesto for the upcoming polls making a slew of promises, including waiver of crop loans and 33 per cent reservation for women in government jobs, parliament and assembly Bhubaneswar: Odisha Congress on Sunday released its manifesto for the upcoming polls making a slew of promises, including waiver of crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh per family and 33 per cent reservation for women in government jobs, parliament and assembly. With a focus on farmers, youth, women, tribals and dalits, the 32-page document titled "Your Voice Your Choice" also promised to give Rs 72,000 each to five crore poor families under the 'Nyay' scheme as announced by the AICC. With Odisha going for simultaneous assembly election and Lok Sabha polls, the state unit of the party released the separate manifesto which promised concrete steps to address issues such as unemployment, farm distress, safety and empowerment of women besides uplift of tribals and dalits. Releasing the manifesto in the presence of senior party leaders here, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik said, an assistance of Rs 6,000 per month under the NYAY scheme, would be transferred directly to the account of the woman of an eligible family. Promising employment for all, the manifesto said one person in every family will have a job, either in the public or private sector, while the jobless will be entitled to an unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000 per month. All contractual workers in the public sector will be regularised while there shall be no contractual employment in teaching, healthcare and social security services, the manifesto said. It also promised land to the landless and home to homeless. A five-year plan will be unveiled to provide homestead land to every landless family in a village and shelter for every urban homeless family. Noting that Congress is committed to give the farmers their due, the manifesto said crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh per family will be waived within the first 10 days if the party is voted to power, while loans repaid after March 31, 2018 would be reimbursed. Announcing a minimum support price of Rs 2,600 per quintal for paddy, the manifesto said every farming family will get a special financial assistance of Rs 10,000 annually for the next three years. There will be guaranteed remunerative price for all major farm and forest produce, it said. Access to irrigation, affordable electricity and seeds would be provided for all and farmers above the age of 60 years will get a monthly pension of Rs 1500. On women empowerment, the manifesto promised to enforce 33 per cent reservation for them in central and state government jobs in addition to a quota of 33 per cent in parliament and state assembly. Free education at all levels and financial assistance would be provided to needy families for their daughter's marriage, while Rs 2000 monthly pension will be given to widows and single women above 60 years of age, it said. It promised that Anganwadi workers would be taken on regular service with a higher pay of Rs 9,000 per month. The Congress also promised to raise an incubation fund or Rs one crore in each block to support women entrepreneurs. On tribal welfare, the manifesto said all forest offence cases, except those involving criminal acts, will be withdrawan in the first 100 days of forming government, while management of forest resources will be vested with Gram Sabhas and PESA Act, 1996 will be implemented within 100 days of the party forming government. Voicing concern over the rising atrocities against dalits, the party said exclusive dalit protection cells and special courts will be formed to expedite cases of atrocities. Manual scavenging will be abolished and landless dalits will get priority in land distribution and all reserved vacancies in government jobs will be filled within a year, the manifesto said. The party manifesto said a comprehensive state education policy will be brought within a year and right to education will be extended up to Class 12, while allocation for education will be raised to at least 20 per cent of the budget. Amid continued uncertainty over its alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday discussed the issue with senior party leaders of the city again. New Delhi: Amid continued uncertainty over its alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday discussed the issue with senior party leaders of the city again. Delhi Congress president and former chief minister Sheila Dikshit, All India Congress Committee general secretary and in-charge of the party's national capital unit PC Chacko, and some other senior leaders were present at the meeting held in Rahul's residence, a source said. According to sources, Delhi Congress leaders told Rahul about the party's prospects in Delhi in this Lok Sabha polls and if the party goes for a pre-poll alliance with the AAP what effects it may have, given that Assembly elections in the national capital are scheduled in 2020. A Congress leader, who was present in the meeting, claimed that an alliance with the AAP was "almost certain" and now the two sides need to sit together to fine-tune the seat-sharing formula. Sources said that Dikshit, who has been opposed to tying up with the AAP in Delhi, was "upset" although she has chosen to go by the party high command's diktat. Chacko visited the Delhi Congress president at her residence after the meeting with Rahul, following which the two leaders avoided media queries on the alliance. Asked about her two meetings on the day, Dikshit told PTI, "Leaders visit me often." A senior Congress leader said the party high command was in favour of the alliance with the AAP if the grand old party was given New Delhi, Chandni Chowk and North West Delhi seats to contest. However, the AAP sources asserted that there will be no alliance unless the Congress agrees to fight the Lok Sabha polls jointly in Haryana and Chandigarh too, besides openly declaring its support to full statehood for Delhi. Chacko has been in discussion with AAP leader Sanjay Singh and the two have held several rounds of talks over the issue. These discussions mark a fresh round of talks between the Congress and AAP leaders after renewed efforts by some opposition leaders like Sharad Pawar who urged both the parties forge an alliance in Delhi. Confounding the confusion, YSR Congress Party chief Jaganmohan Reddy dropped a bombshell in an interview, saying he has 'forgiven' the Congress. Reading between the lines isnt easy. And its tougher when there are no lines in the first place. This has been the case with Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) leader Jaganmohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh for some time. A deafening silence has been the strategy of both on the issue of backing an NDA government after the elections, which has been widely speculated and even taken for granted. But with their silence speaking louder than any words they might have uttered, analysts have been adding two and two in this case, probably rightly. And in the case of KCR, his actions always revealed more than concealed. On most of the issues that the Opposition took the BJP to task ranging from demonetisation to lynchings the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader either supported the Modi governemnt or simply said nothing. On his part, Jagan was cosying up to Modi in an oblique fashion around the same time when his mail rival Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Chandrababu Naidus relations with BJP were beginning to take a knock last year. Then, KCR was the first to break this silence, in time for the December 2018 Telangana Assembly election. He had to necessarily attack Modi and Congress, which he did. Then came the turn, more recently, of Jagan to speak up. He began to sing a song which, on the face of it, looked different from KCRs. Jagan began praising Modi even while attacking BJP sometimes. These are tactical moves by both leaders more in the nature of local strategies in their respective states than being indicators of their national game-plans. Opinion polls predict that both Jagan and KCR will do exceedingly well in Andhra Pradesh (25 Lok Sabha seats) and Telangana (17 seats), respectively. Why Jagan forgives Congress Confounding the confusion, Jagan dropped a bombshell in an interview to CNN-News18, saying he has forgiven Congress, which he ditched in 2011 to lead his new party. After the UPA government broke the state in 2014 and created Telangana, Congress got nearly decimated in Andhra Pradesh. Jagan said in the interview: As of now, I will be very candid to say that I dont have any vengeance or any grievance against anybody. I believe in God. And I do read Bible every day. And I have a lot of faith in God. I strongly believe that vengeance is not mine...its for God to decide. And I have forgiven them (Congress) in my heart. As far as I am concerned, my state is my priority...Special Category Status (SCS) is priority. Andhra Pradesh has been demanding SCS to compensate for its loss of resources following the 2014 bifurcation. For the first time, @ysjagan says he has forgiven the Congress leadership. Is this an indication of things to come? https://t.co/dvT6ZzMtBk Marya Shakil (@maryashakil) April 5, 2019 This is no random shot. This is a sequential culmination of what Jagan has been saying or not saying for a while. After Naidu began to accuse Jagan, KCR and Modi of being an evil triumvirate out to destroy him, the YSRCP leaders initial silence first led to these comments: Whats wrong if I support or accept support from KCR since he is also backing SCS for Andhra Pradesh? Well support whichever party (at the Centre) gives SCS to the state. Modi is a good guy. He has done well, though his party has come a cropper in the state. Jagan had to necessarily utter these things. Denying his obvious nexus with KCR would have been poor strategy. Even KCR was referring to him as a friend. Refuting it would also have amounted to a political inconsistency of the kind that is getting Naidu into a load of trouble with people. The TDP leaders shifting stands towards BJP and Congress are among the reasons for his dwindling fortunes in the state. And the good certificate of performance that Jagan hands out to Modi these days is again a well thought-out move. Its meant to tap into the pro-Modi vote that exists in Andhra Pradesh to some degree despite the strong anti-BJP mood there. But this goes with the risk of keeping away minorities. Besides, this raises the question about his support for Congress, since that party has pledged to accord SCS to Andhra Pradesh if elected. These questions have now been taken care of by Jagans new inclination to "forgive" Congress. KCR eyes anti-Modi vote If Jagan is angling for part of the pro-Modi vote in Andhra Pradesh, KCR is trying to mop up some anti-Modi voters in Telangana. Unlike in Andhra Pradesh, where Congress is all but gone, the party still survives in Telangana and is the main rival of KCR there. The Telangana chief minister hopes that his fulminations against Modi will, besides keeping his impressive minority vote bank intact, shift at least some of the anti-BJP votes from Congress to TRS. In other words, while Jagan is trying to keep both Modi and Congress in good humour, his friend KCR is attacking both each for his own well-calibrated reason. So who will the two Telugu leaders support at the Centre in case of a hung Lok Sabha? Jagan evades a direct reply, saying he will back any party that gives SCS to the state. KCR ducks the question by talking about his dream of a victory for regional parties. All this doesnt preclude the possibility of either Jagan or KCR or both backing Modi after the polls in case he needs numbers and they have them. For the time being, however, the two leaders are keeping their options open As they walk the tightrope, they should hope that they wouldnt slip and fall from it. The author tweets @sprasadindia Photo: CTV News A protracted court battle over a gold, diamond-studded eagle statue has landed in favour of a major insurance company, which will now be allowed to challenge a claim over the treasure that was allegedly stolen in the Vancouver area nearly three years ago. Justice Robin Baird of the B.C. Supreme Court overturned a default judgment against Lloyd's Underwriters, saying the insurer has a substantial defence against a company called Forgotten Treasures International and its president Ron Shore. Lloyd's, which was ordered last December to pay out a claim against the eagle, argued Shore violated the terms of a policy involving the statue, which was encrusted with 763 diamonds, weighed eight kilograms and was appraised at $930,000. "The plaintiff's decision to take default judgment was ill-advised but it falls short of reprehensible conduct worthy of chastisement or rebuke," Baird wrote in his ruling, which also lists two other insurance companies as defendants. It says the eagle was supposed to be the main prize as part of an international treasure hunt Shore operated to raise money for cancer research. The eagle was allegedly stolen by "unknown assailants" on May 29, 2016, when Shore was putting a knapsack containing the statue in the trunk of his vehicle following a promotional event in Delta, B.C., the ruling says. Lloyd's denied Shore's claim, saying he breached the terms of a policy by transporting the eagle without a designated employee or representative at all times except when it was deposited in a bank safe or vault. Shore filed a notice of civil claim in May 2018, alleging breach of contract and failure to investigate the claim in a timely manner, breach of duty as well as negligence by an adjuster. Baird said that by the time Lloyd's was served with the lawsuit, it had already interviewed a woman who accompanied Shore out of a venue in Delta and established she was a friend, not a designated employee or representative, and that she had driven away in her own vehicle when the alleged robbery occurred. Lloyd's had not wilfully and deliberately failed to respond to Shore's civil claim, he wrote, adding Shore was not required to provide meet the insurer's "tactical demand" for more information about the allegations, which he said were not frivolous but may ultimately be difficult or impossible to prove. "In my view, default judgment should not have been sought or taken," he said. "Communications between the parties had made it perfectly clear that there was an active, ongoing dispute between the parties with a substantial defence forthcoming, and not one that was merely worthy of investigation, but one which had been communicated clearly and precisely." Baird ordered Lloyd's to file a response to Shore's civil claim within 21 days and said each party must pay its own costs. Kishore Kumar An estimated 15 million babies are born too early every year, or in other words, preterm (before 37 completed weeks of gestation). That is more than 1 in 10 babies. Approximately 1 million children die each year due to complications of preterm birth. Many survivors face a lifetime of disability, including learning disabilities and visual and hearing problems. And this number is rising year by year. In India, 27 million babies are born each year out of which 3.5 million babies are born prematurely as per the estimates. This is a tip of the iceberg, as it doesnt include extreme premature babies. Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age, responsible for approximately 1 million deaths. According to Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth, released by Save the Children, The March of Dimes Foundation, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health and The World Health Organization, India tops the list of 10 nations contributing 60 percent of the worlds premature deliveries with the maximum number of preterm births with 3,519,100 of them, almost 24 percent of the total number. A lack of awareness Preterm birth (PTB) is a significant public health concern and a leading cause of infant mortality and morbidity worldwide and often contributes to various health complications later in life. Several factors such as emotional, stress, social, racial, maternal anxiety, multiple pregnancies, infections during pregnancy, diabetes and high blood pressure, and in-vitro fertilization pregnancy have been shown to be associated with PTB. Data that is emerging also indicated that several occupational, environmental exposure and lifestyle factors might also be associated in part with preterm birth or low birth weight. There is a lack of awareness amongst parents about the understanding of the causes and mechanisms that will advance the development of solutions to prevent preterm birth. The extremely premature babies (born between week 24 to 27) are not even counted by the statistics in India as the viability is defined in India as 28 weeks and beyond. These babies need advanced neonatal care for them to survive and to survive without disability we call it intact survival they need to be delivered in a place with advanced neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) who have the expertise to cater for such babies. This requires a teamwork and expertise not available in all hospitals. Generally, as a rule of thumb, both moderate and extremely premature babies should be born in hospitals with advanced NICUs for better outcome hence most organisations like American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) UK, Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) & National Neonatology Forum (NNF) along with FOGSI (Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecological Society of India) recommend in-utero transfer of babies to the hospitals with advanced NICUs to deliver them there rather than deliver in a place with no NICU and then transfer the baby after being born. This is essential for many reasons including what we call as Golden hour and Golden Day the first hour of transition from the womb to outside world for these babies is crucial as many babies suffer from brain hemorrhage called IVH (Intra Ventricular Hemorrhage) within the first hour if the babies are not resuscitated properly. The care in the first 24 hours determines their outcome in the next few years of life whether they survive at all or with or without disability. What does India need to do? Despite several efforts, our systems in India are currently lacking the need for more effort in identifying women at risk of preterm labor and support them to give birth in a health facility that can offer extra care when needed, such as support for adequate feeding with breast milk, continuous skin to skin contact, antibiotics, and antenatal corticosteroids. Inequalities in survival rates around the world are stark. In low-income settings, half of the babies born at or below 32 weeks (2 months early) die due to a lack of feasible, cost-effective care, such as warmth, breastfeeding support, and basic care for infections and breathing difficulties. In high-income countries, almost all of these babies survive. Suboptimal use of technology in middle-income settings is causing an increased burden of disability among preterm babies who survive the neonatal period. Most late preterm babies have higher chances of low temperature (hypothermia) and jaundice requiring treatment (hyperbilirubinaemia) and if provided proper care, they do well and they may not need to stay in the hospital longer than a term baby in general. India needs to build upon the infrastructure facilities for improving neonatal survival outcomes at the same time strengthen the tertiary care services at medical colleges, creating secondary care special care neonatal units at district and sub-district health facilities and improving linkages. This is a huge task and needs innovative private-public partnership models, which can facilitate sharing the load taken on by public institutions that have limited capacity to deliver increasing demand for equitable services. In high-income countries, the increases in the number of preterm births are linked to the number of older women having babies, increased use of fertility drugs and resulting multiple pregnancies. In some developed countries, medically unnecessary inductions and Cesarean deliveries before full-term have also increased preterm births. In many low-income countries, the main causes of preterm births include infections, malaria, HIV, and high adolescent pregnancy rates. In rich and poor countries, many preterm births remain unexplained. Prevention of early birth, however, presents several great challenges. The condition merely describes an event that occurs before its due time and is not a diagnosis in itself. There are many pathways leading to preterm birth and its prevention, each requiring different kinds of scientific inquiry and clinical strategies. Together, they encompass a wide array of measurement systems and clinical interventions across many health-care disciplines that are yet to take hold in Indian healthcare. The author is a neonatologist and Chairman of Cloudnine Group of Hospitals Rohit MA The global healthcare industry is going through a transformation. There is a growing emphasis on improving the quality of care being delivered. Among other key developments, "data analytics" and "digital health" are arguably the most significant. Wearables, sensors, artificial intelligence, blockchain and robotics, internet of medical things (IoMT), digital and virtual reality are just some of the technologies disrupting health care around the world. These technologies are helping diagnose and treat diseases, making massive improvements in the speed, quality, and accuracy of diagnosis, treatment and a better experience for patients. All this is enabling more connected, remote and personalised services that are empowering citizens, reducing hospital admissions and deliver better health outcomes at a lower cost. The conversation is shifting increasingly towards how outcomes of healthcare can be measured. Everyone looks at access to healthcare services that isn't just easy and simple but accessible. It has become increasingly necessary for healthcare data to be digitized, since it facilitates ease in searching, accessing and retrieving crucial medical information and more. Big Data brings Innovation and Intelligence The healthcare industry is under more pressure than ever before. Better outcomes from healthcare and cutting costs are crucial for reasons that benefit the industry and patients differently. Fortunately, big data is helping healthcare providers meet these goals in unprecedented ways. Today, the amount of medical data in the world is massive and quickly growing. This is the result of and incredibly convergence of evolutionary changes in multiple technologies over the past decades. Projects in data-driven knowledge, decision-making, and uses of big data are ongoing in every area of medicine. For big data projects to succeed, the expertise and participation of doctors and physicians is needed at every step. It goes beyond hospital records, clinical trial data, and even claims to include data from wearable devices, social media listening, personalized genome services, and medical imaging. Big data can play a big role in improving personalized and precision medicine, comparing drug effectiveness data and better treatment decisions while also potentially impacting the way clinical trials are conducted in remarkable ways. The future of medicine will offer patients individualized care tailored to their needs, integrated care, intelligent decision-making support for physicians, a greater emphasis on prevention, and a systems-oriented rather than reductionist approach to our understanding of disease and illness. All of these goals are enabled by big data. Big data in healthcare is being used to predict epidemics, cure disease, improve quality of life and avoid preventable deaths. With the worlds population increasing and everyone living longer, models of treatment delivery are rapidly changing, and many of the decisions behind those changes are being driven by data. Today, driving the industry is a need to understand as much about a patient as possible, as early in their life as possible. Comprehensive medical histories can help identify warning signs of serious illnesses early enough that treatments are far simpler (and less expensive) than if it had been spotted at later stages. The recent improvements in technology and better interconnectivity has led to a tremendous increase in the amount of healthcare data now available. With stakeholders in healthcare governments, hospitals, research organizations, pharmaceutical companies, payers, social organizations and patients ever-expanding, we need to not just collect data from all these sources, but consolidate and analyse it for important insights. These insights unlock better treatment outcomes, lower costs, reduce insurance premiums and reduce the time taken for innovative drugs and diagnostics to reach the market. The importance of healthcare analytics for hospitals Analytics is an "enabler." Hospitals and medical centers can use healthcare analytics to match the patient to the most appropriate doctors, provide personalized and timely treatment, improve patient care and outcomes, reduce cost, ensure better patient safety and reduce human error. The implementation of good analytics rests on some important pillars like data access, tools to measure and evaluate the information, skilled resources, good governance and collaboration. Data must be collected in a format that makes it accessible and easy to share. In the dynamic world of analytics, it is easy to see how important the capturing of data is. For hospitals and healthcare providers, a key component of data capture is the widespread adaptation of electronic health records (EHR). As Indians, we still rely heavily on pen, paper and memory, when it comes to maintaining patient records. This, however, creates hurdles in accessing and sharing data across the health sector and geographical boundaries, which is often the situation in our country. While a number of hospitals do have their own system of recording and storing data electronically, given the absence of suitable standardized protocols or algorithms to capture the data, it is difficult to transfer this data to other hospitals. As a result, there are silos of information. This affects the continuum of care for a patient and poses challenges for surveillance of disease and developing policy. Adoption of EHR has helped a number of countries improve their overall patient care. In Denmark, doctors can now see 10 percent more patients a day, because a patients clinical history is available in a nationwide health portal. The US is to increase its EHR adoption from 12 percent in 2009 to 90 percent this year. National eHealth Authority (NeHA) of India Indias health ministry is looking to set up a National eHealth Authority (NeHA) that will be "responsible for development of an Integrated Health Information System (including Telemedicine and mHealth) in India, while collaborating with all the stakeholders, viz., healthcare providers, consumers, healthcare technology industries, and policymakers". NeHA aims to facilitate the storage and exchange of health and governance data in a cost-effective manner, integrate different health information technology solutions and oversee the implementation of EHR while respecting the privacy and confidentiality of patients. The ethical considerations Whenever we talk of patient data or patient material, the ethical considerations involved cannot be ignored or brushed aside as trivial. The ongoing story of Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells is proof of that. A clear regulatory framework would have to be defined, by all the concerned stakeholders, to ensure that patient privacy is protected and the appropriate consent is in place prior to use. A technology-enabled system of care is seen by most as the way forward for India's healthcare industry. However, the wide-scale adoption of technology within India is fraught with challenges, such as: the initial need for high investments of capital lack of standardisation amongst various healthcare management system concerns around confidentiality, privacy, ownership and cybersecurity of patients personal medical records healthcare providers struggling with a lack of in-house IT-expertise and support from IT vendors Despite these challenges, technological innovations have made huge progress in the last few years, largely thanks to Indias start-up culture focused on providing cost-effective services to those residing in remote areas. Progress has been aided by recent increases in government finance, infrastructure investment and administrative support. The author is the co-founder and Managing Director, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals. Press Trust of India The government's recent advisory asking states to clamp down on e-cigarettes may not be enough to root them out, say experts, advocating a "special mechanism" to ensure a blanket ban on the devices that many users mistakenly view as a safer alternative to combustible cigarettes. Terming e-cigarettes poisonous and as dangerous as regular cigarettes, the experts said the Centre and state have made efforts but clandestine online portals and dingy shops selling them in nooks and crannies across India's towns continue to function. "Even if the advisory of the government asks states to curb the sale of e-cigarettes in their jurisdiction, it is very difficult to keep a check at the ground level if the sale is happening through small vendors," Dr P C Gupta, director of HEALIS-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, Mumbai, told PTI. "There is a need for a special mechanism by the government to keep a tab on the vendors from time to time, he added. On March 12, the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation wrote to all drug controllers in states and Union territories to not allow the manufacture, sale, import and advertisement of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), including e-cigarettes and flavoured hookahs, in their jurisdictions. The move was in concert with several other organisations. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, too, proposed an amendment to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2018 to ban the advertisement of e-cigarettes. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs also issued a circular recently, directing that all import consignments of e-cigarettes must be cleared first by the drug controller. There is no legislation to regulate the sale of e-cigarettes in the country, experts have said while calling for a blanket ban. "E-cigarettes are just a mechanism to deliver nicotine in an attractive format. They are marketed as a harm reduction product which is contrary to the truth. They do not fall within the scope of existing national legislation on tobacco production, distribution and use yet pose significant health risks that are frighteningly similar to those of conventional cigarettes," said Bhavna B Mukhopadhyay, chief executive, Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI). Twelve states have already banned e-cigarettes, she said, stressing on the need for a total ban. Drugs Controller General S Eswara Reddy is hopeful states will fill the existing gaps in the policy on banning e-cigarettes. "We have already given an advisory to all the states and expect the states to take strongest action against the sale of e-cigarettes," Reddy told PTI. Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan has written to Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhwan to block JUUL, a western company manufacturing sleek vaping devices like e-cigarettes, from entering India. Smoking e-cigarettes is called vaping. Sudan said the entry of JUUL products, if not prevented, could undermine the efforts taken by the government towards tobacco control. Other experts have also called for a special arrangement by the government to keep a tab on unorganised vendors and the online sale of e-cigarettes. According to Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi of Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital, people consuming e-cigarettes will add to the cancer burden of India. "Any nicotine product should be taken under strict medical supervision for controlling withdrawal symptoms during cessation therapy. I laud the government of India for taking a tough stand against these newer nicotine delivery devices," he said. "However, it should ensure there are no loopholes at the ground level by leaving a space for small vendors to sell it illegally," he said. E-cigarettes are also fast becoming a fashion statement for the young. The constant introduction of new products, each with its own list of ingredients, that are marketed as smart alternatives to smoking pose a huge challenge. Studies have found that the percentage of students who initiate e-cigarettes and hookah smoking before 10 years of age has increased from 26 percent to 45 percent in the last one and half decade. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), there were 14 lakh cancer patients in 2016. Of these, the highest number of cases was of lung and oral cancer, which is often caused by tobacco and smoking. The VHAI, which is a New Delhi-based public health organisation, has also taken up the cause. A recent study by the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions in Chicago, investigated the effect that e-cigarettes have on the endothelial cells, that line the inside of the body's blood vessels. Endothelial cells produce nitric oxide, a molecule that helps keep the blood vessels healthy and controls blood pressure levels. Several countries, including Mauritius, Australia, Singapore, Korea (Democratic People's Republic, Sri Lanka and Thailand among others, have banned ENDS in their countries. M C Misra, former director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said the government should come down hard upon the companies for advertisements that show e-cigarettes as less harmful than tobacco. It is proved that e-tobacco cannot be used as a cessation method. The advertisements that say this should be banned and face actions, Misra said. KAMPALA (Reuters) - An American tourist who was kidnapped alongside her driver in a national park in southwestern Uganda has been rescued unharmed, the Ugandan military told Reuters on Sunday. KAMPALA (Reuters) - An American tourist who was kidnapped alongside her driver in a national park in southwestern Uganda has been rescued unharmed, the Ugandan military told Reuters on Sunday. Kimberley Sue Endecott, 35, was abducted by gunmen in Queen Elizabeth National Park, near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 4. The kidnappers later demanded a ransom of $500,000 for her release. "She has been located and rescued unharmed," Uganda military spokesman, Brigadier Richard Karemire told Reuters. Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said in a tweet that driver Jean Paul had also been rescued. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Catherine Evans) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Buddhism has always been perceived by the Chinese as one of the most formidable hurdles en route exercising total control over Tibet. Six decades after establishing its hold on the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), China has now started meddling with the religious training imparted to the Buddhist monks and nuns residing in the area. They are later made to undergo tests, ostensibly to improve their legal awareness. Translated loosely, that should be taken to mean they are required to prove their allegiance to the Communist Party of China (CPC). Buddhism has always been perceived by the Chinese as one of the most formidable hurdles en route exercising total control over Tibet. The CPC has, therefore, been unsparing about killing and incarcerating monks on grounds as flimsy as possession of Dalai Lamas pictures, demolishing monasteries and destroying ancient sacred texts. As a part of Chinese measures aimed at exercising greater control over all forms of religious activity in TAR, 30,000 Buddhist monks and nuns were required to undergo a test. They were grilled for their knowledge of the Chinese constitution, anti-espionage and anti-terrorism activities and regulations pertaining to practising religion, as per a report published in Chinas official publication Global Times. The justice department of the regional government insists that the purpose of the test was to reinforce the notion that abiding by law comes before adhering to religious tenets and that laws of the land are superior to religious regulations. Systemic Chinese attempts at indoctrinating Tibetan monks and nuns The Chinese government now wants to train the monastic subjects to integrate the tenets of Tibetan Buddhism with the ethos of Chinese supremacy through Democratic Management Committees (DMCs) which have been set up within monasteries and nunneries in TAR. The DMCs serve as government agents and are instrumental in implementing the policies and directives laid down by the CPC from time to time. These DMCs work hand-in-hand with work teams designated to carry out the tasks of political education and investigation. These work teams routinely move into monasteries and nunneries on the pretext or arranging meetings and discussions or conducting surveillance. These are all parts of patriotic re-education campaign which was officially started in 1996. The DMC officials evoke terror in the life of these spiritual trainees by forcing them to sign a five-point pledge which includes denouncing the Dalai Lama while branding him as a secessionist, accepting the Panchen Lama appointed by China as their real authority and admitting that Tibet has historically been a part of China. Political and ideological education is imparted to these monks and nuns, as a part of which they are required to study books like Chinese version of Tibetan history, books on policies of the Chinese government, books opposing separatist tendencies, and others meant to make them good and law-abiding citizens. The CPC regularly conducts workshops wherein monastic communities are trained to stay loyal besides brainwashing the religious cadres into believing that knowing the law of the land can help them become 'patriotic, good monks'. Knowledge of the laws can make me patriotic good monk, regulate my behaviour and help us all obey Buddhist commandments better, as testified by Ngawang, a monk from Sera monastery, one of the three main monasteries in Lhasa, much earlier. Killing someone, for example, is not only against the law of the land, he is reported to have said. It also violates the basic Buddhist principles. A booklet titled 'Why Tibet is Burning' published by the Tibet Policy Institute elaborates, Monks and nuns are made to recite: I oppose Dalai Lama and his clique; I will not keep the Dalais photo in my house; my thinking will not be influenced by the Dalai clique; I love the Communist Party, etc. DMCs and work teams together carry out written exams for monks and nuns after imparting them 'patriotic education'. Monks and nuns are asked to answer questions like: Why must you oppose Dalai Lama and other separatists? How can you show your love for your motherland? What is the most important political responsibility of TAR? Why Tibetan religious experts are furious "Since many years, the Chinese government has been conducting patriotic re-education and examinations for Tibetan monks and nuns. The examination includes questions on the Chinese version of the history of Tibet and denouncing His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a separatist, points out Sonam Norbu Dagpo, the official spokesperson of Mcleodganj-based Tibetan government-in-exile. As per the current report, 98 percent of those appearing for the test managed to clear it. There is no mention about the nature of punitive action initiated against those who failed to do so. Earlier in 2014, 26 nuns were expelled from Palden Kharkyodling Nunnery in Driru (eastern Tibet) for refusing to denounce Dalai Lama and non-compliance with the political agenda which has now become an integral part of their monastic education. Dagpo agrees. These monks and nuns are then forced to pledge their support for the Communist Party of China and praise the Communist party leaders. In case of failure to do so, they could be expelled from the monasteries and nunneries. And perhaps even arrested. Sensing that religion is and will continue to be an integral part of any Tibetans life, the CPC has now started entrusting the religious leaders with the task of propagating the tenets of Tibetan Buddhism in a manner that will justify and reassert Chinese presence in the area. "In their pursuit of gaining total control over Tibet, the Communist Party of China is keen on firmly subjugating Tibetan monks and nuns in Tibet. This naive and wishful thinking of the state has led to a systematic and continuous violation of the Tibetan people's rights, and their Freedom of Religion over the years, according to Dukthen Kyi, Head of Human Rights Desk, Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). There is, of course, nothing wrong in requiring the monks and nuns to be aware of the law of the land and various legal procedures. What has stirred up Tibetan sentiment is the blatant manner in which the clergy, apart from other Tibetans, is being forced to display portraits of President Xi Jinping and other Chinese political leaders on their altars and forced to prostrate and make offerings while compelling them to remove those of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. What kind of 'democratic reform' China is claiming to have achieved in Tibet when the core sentiments of the Tibetan people are crushed, their rights infringed, and their voices suppressed? Kyi wants to know. Election officials estimated the final turnout in Maldives to be between 70 and 80 percent, down from the 89 percent recorded at the September presidential election which unexpectedly toppled Yameen. Male: The exiled former leader of the Maldives has led his party to a landslide victory only five months after returning to the country, preliminary results showed Sunday. Ex-president Mohamed Nasheed, 51, was set for a dramatic return to the top of the national parliament, with his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) headed for a two-thirds majority in the 87-member Assembly. Saturday's poll was the first test of public opinion since autocratic former president and Nasheed's arch-rival Abdulla Yameen was forced to stand down after his five-year term, facing charges of money laundering and embezzlement. Nasheed returned to the country after his former deputy President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won an unexpected victory in September presidential elections for the MDP. Yameen had barred Nasheed from contesting. Preliminary results from Saturday's election showed the MDP winning 50 out of the 87 seats, while private media reports projected the party eventually getting up to 68 seats. "The Maldives is about to welcome a new dawn, a golden yellow dawn," Nasheed told his supporters in Male on Saturday. Yellow is the colour of his party. Election officials estimated the final turnout to be between 70 and 80 percent, down from the 89 percent recorded at the September presidential election which unexpectedly toppled Yameen. Nasheed, now set to take over the leadership of the legislature, has promised to turn the country into a parliamentary democracy by scrapping the executive presidential system adopted under political reforms in 2008. President Solih said in a statement that the MDP had "secured a huge majority in Majlis (parliament)". "While we celebrate, we must also not forget the immense challenges that lie ahead of us," he said. Solih campaigned for the MDP asking voters to return a parliament that could work with him to deliver on his election promises in September to investigate corruption under Yameen. While Yameen was not a candidate, his Progressive Party of Maldives was seen as the main challenger to the MDP - but ended up with a poor showing, and is projected to get only four seats. Nasheed was jailed for 13 years on a controversial terrorism charge when Yameen was in power. However, the conviction was overturned in 2018 after the presidency changed. Election commissioner Ahmed Shareef told reporters there had been no complaints of irregularities in the run-up to the vote, during balloting or at the count. The Maldives was on the verge of being slapped with Western-led sanctions before Solih won the presidential election on a pledge to end corruption in the country best known for its luxury tourism. By Dominique Vidalon and Simon Carraud PARIS (Reuters) - Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Paris and other French cities on Saturday for a 21st straight weekend of anti-government 'yellow vest' protests, but turnout was sharply lower than last week and the marches were largely peaceful. The quieter nature of the demonstrations should be a relief to President Emmanuel Macron, who this week wrapped up two months of nationwide town hall meetings as part of his 'grand debat' initiative. By Dominique Vidalon and Simon Carraud PARIS (Reuters) - Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Paris and other French cities on Saturday for a 21st straight weekend of anti-government "yellow vest" protests, but turnout was sharply lower than last week and the marches were largely peaceful. The quieter nature of the demonstrations should be a relief to President Emmanuel Macron, who this week wrapped up two months of nationwide town hall meetings as part of his "grand debat" initiative. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is due on Monday to outline the initial findings that emerged from hours of discussions with local mayors and officials, high-school students, workers, intellectuals as well as 1.9 million online contributions. Macron, who launched the debate in a bid to calm the protests and determine which policies people want the government to focus on, is due to announce proposals based on the results later this month. By early evening on Saturday, there were 43 arrests in Paris and also a few clashes with police in Rouen on the margins of otherwise peaceful demonstrations. Protesters carrying French flags and holding signs calling for referendums tabled by citizens also marched largely without violence in Bordeaux and Lille. The protests, named after the high-visibility safety jackets worn by demonstrators, began in November as an expression of public anger against fuel tax increases. The movement soon morphed into a broader backlash against Macron's government, despite a swift reversal of the tax increases and other hurried measures worth more than 10 billion euros to boost purchasing power for less affluent voters. Turnout on Saturday was down sharply with 22,300 demonstrators nationwide, according to government estimates, compared with 33,700 a week earlier. In mid-November nearly 300,000 people had demonstrated across France. In Paris, two rallies had been authorised, including one from Place de la Republique in the east to La Defense business district in the west. Turnout was 3,500 compared with 4,000 last week. As in recent weeks, authorities banned protests in potential trouble spots, including the French capital's Champs Elysees, fearing a repetition of the vandalism seen three weeks earlier. (Editing by Helen Popper and Alexandra Hudson) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Yesim Dikmen ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The last commercial passenger flight took off from Istanbul's Ataturk airport on Saturday and convoys of trucks ferried thousands of tonnes of equipment across the city to a giant new airport which Turkey plans to make the biggest in the world. The mammoth transfer between the two hubs, described by Turkish authorities as unprecedented in scale and speed, was already largely complete a little more than 24 hours after it began before dawn on Friday By Yesim Dikmen ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The last commercial passenger flight took off from Istanbul's Ataturk airport on Saturday and convoys of trucks ferried thousands of tonnes of equipment across the city to a giant new airport which Turkey plans to make the biggest in the world. The mammoth transfer between the two hubs, described by Turkish authorities as unprecedented in scale and speed, was already largely complete a little more than 24 hours after it began before dawn on Friday. The new Istanbul Airport, costing some $8 billion and one of several mega-projects championed by President Tayyip Erdogan, will initially be able to handle 90 million passengers a year, close to the world's largest existing airport capacity. Authorities plan to expand that capacity to expand to 200 million. Overnight hundreds of trucks carried equipment such as aircraft-towing vehicles and security sensors from Ataturk, on the shores of the Sea of Marmara, 20 miles (30 km) north to the new airport by the Black Sea. By early Saturday more than 90 percent of the move was complete, Turkish Airlines executive Yahya Ustun said. Overnight the final commercial passenger flight from Ataturk took off for Singapore, a departure which Transport Minister Mehmet Turhan described as historic. "I am glad to send you off as the last commercial passengers of Ataturk Airport," he said moments before the plane took off at 2.44 am (2344 GMT). "Upon your return, you will land in Istanbul Airport, a monument of victory, the world's biggest airport." The new airport, which was formally opened nearly six months ago but which has been handling less than 20 flights a day, inaugurated its new chapter on Saturday afternoon with a domestic flight taking off for the capital Ankara. (Reporting by Yesim Dikmen; Editing by Dominic Evans and David Holmes) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will lend its neighbour Belarus up to $600 million so Minsk can refinance outstanding loans it previously took from Moscow, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will lend its neighbour Belarus up to $600 million so Minsk can refinance outstanding loans it previously took from Moscow, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday. Belarus is also set to receive $200 million from the Russia-led Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development by the end of April, in what would be the seventh tranche of funds designed to help stabilise the country's budget, Siluanov said. (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Catherine Evans) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Photo: The Canadian Press Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer plans to present new documents related to the SNC-Lavalin controversy this afternoon. His announcement is set for 2 p.m. eastern time at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa. A Saturday afternoon release from the Conservatives offers no more details, and party spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday morning. The Tories have been hammering Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the SNC-Lavalin affair since the Globe and Mail first broke the story in early February. Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper reported that aides in the PMO and others had pressured former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the prosecution of the Montreal-based engineering and construction giant. The director of public prosecutions decided last fall not to negotiate a deferred-prosecution agreement with the company, which is facing charges of bribery related to business in Libya. Wilson-Raybould later resigned from cabinet, claiming she had been removed from her post in a January shuffle because she wouldn't bow to the pressure from Trudeau and others. Last week, Trudeau expelled Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus for what he described as breaking the bonds of trust with their fellow MPs over the government's handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair. Photo: Telus Stick out your smartphone and say AHHHHH. Although it's early days for a new wave of telemedicine, some Canadians can now avoid trips to the doctor's office by using their mobile phone's video camera. In March, Telus Health launched a new video link between patients and select doctors in British Columbia, the only province with a billing code to pay doctors for such visits. Other companies are experimenting with similar services, but Telus has hopes of becoming the main player in Canada's burgeoning market for consumer-oriented medical technology. "I think we are far ahead of any competitors in this space in Canada," Telus vice-president Juggy Sihota said in an interview from Vancouver. Over the past decade, the owner of the Telus and Koodo wireless networks has spent $2.5 billion to build a national medical records business. Telus Health estimates that more than 50 per cent of general practice doctors offices in Canada use the electronic medical records software at their office; more than 60 per cent of pharmacies use its pharmacy management software. It's now adding Babylon by Telus Health, which including video visits by smartphone, to its lineup. "This is a key strategic priority for our organization and a key personal priority for (Telus CEO Darren Entwistle)," said Sihota, Telus's vice-president of consumer health. Telus is the Canadian partner of London-based Babylon Health one of many companies that have developed smartphone apps that aim to help consumers diagnose their own symptoms. What's distinctive about the new Babylon by Telus service is its ability to connect by interactive video with doctors covered by B.C.'s health services payment system. "It is as though you went into a walk-in clinic and see the doctor that's there," according to Sihota. Patients aren't required to use a Telus wireless phone and they won't be charged for video doctor visits. Eventually, Telus hopes to generate revenue by selling a technology platform to general practice doctors and other health professionals. Dr. Ed Brown, who is chief executive officer of the Ontario Telemedicine Network, said forms of video doctor visits have been around for many years. "For example, a patient living in a small town could go into a hospital and see a specialist that's many, many miles away without having the make the trip." But Brown agrees that what Telus is doing "is a little bit different." For one thing, it's using widely available mobile technology that patients can use anywhere there's a fast enough wireless service. Babylon by Telus also connects with general practitioners, rather than specialists. Brown said that Ontario's health system doesn't have a billing code to pay doctors for their telemedicine services, but OTN is working to overcome that barrier. "We want to really make this part of mainstream health care," Brown said OTN is funding a pilot program with 277 physicians and 30,000 patients in five of Ontario's 14 health care regions. He said that seeing a new doctor each visit "is OK for some things but, for the most part, we also like people to have direct access to their own doctor." OTN a provincially funded not-for-profit organization is working with Novari Health and Think Research on a mobile phone connection between Ontario doctors and their patients. "Patients are able to text their own doctor, and that can be escalated to a video or audio call if that's required," Brown said. He said only a small percentage of patients in the pilot project use the video feature, relying mostly on text messages. "Babylon may have some differentiating features that may give them an edge, here and there, but I think there's a lot of competition in this space." Brown said. From Sihota's point of view, video consultations offer big advantages over traditional visits to the doctor's office. For example, she said, patients can replay the virtual consultations with the Babylon doctor either for themselves, a trusted family member or personal doctor. And if a general practice doctor refers a patient to a specialist, the service provides notifications along each step of the process and gives the patient opportunities to ask questions along the way. What happened Shares of Southern Copper ( SCCO -0.37% ) an industry leader in copper production, rose 11% last month, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The stock's upward movement is unsurprising, considering the similar uptick in the price of copper throughout the month. But the stock's rise is attributable to much more than merely this. The stock's rise in March is an extension of a climb that began in mid-February, after the company reported Q4 2018 earnings. In addition, management's intimation that the company may be expanding beyond its expertise of copper, molybdenum, zinc, and silver mining gave additional life to the share price. So what Since there's a strong correlation between the price of a mining company's stock and the related commodity's price, the lift in Southern Copper's stock in March comes as no shock, considering the average price of copper last month was $2.8997 per pound -- more than 1.5% higher than the average price in February. More noteworthy than that, however, is that the average monthly price of copper has risen in each of the past four months, suggesting that the price of copper is rebounding from the 2018 low of $2.6923 per pound it reached last September. Besides the rise in the market price of copper, investors continued to respond strongly to the Q4 earnings report revealing that the company achieved a company record for annual net sales of $7.1 billion. Beyond the top line, there were more reasons to celebrate, including the company's $1.54 billion in net income, which represents 112% year-over-year growth. Although management chalked up the earnings growth "to the one-time, non-cash income tax adjustment of $785.9 million recorded in 2017" and not operational improvements, it didn't seem to bother investors. Perhaps that was due to the luster on the cash flow statement, where the company reported 2018 operating cash flow of $2.24 billion, a 13% year-over-year increase, which management attributed to "strong cash generation from operations due to higher sales volume and metal prices." Lastly, investors took note of management's apparent interest in diversifying its portfolio. Speaking with Reuters last month, Oscar Gonzales, Southern Copper's CEO, revealed that company officials had visited a lithium project in Mexico. Gonzales characterized lithium as "interesting and profitable," though he indicated that the company hadn't made an offer on the project. Now what For investors interested in gaining exposure to copper, this industry stalwart provides a compelling opportunity. While the continuing rebound in the copper market may help the company's financials -- and excite investors -- even further, management's interest in the Mexican lithium project should give investors pause, as it raises the question of whether the potential reward of diversifying its portfolio with the new metal outweighs the risk. In any case, it's a development worth following closely. So far, marijuana stocks have fared pretty well overall this year. In the first quarter, the biggest winners included relatively smaller Canadian marijuana producers. But which marijuana stocks look like good picks to buy in Q2? There are plenty of strong candidates. However, two marijuana stocks that I think look attractive right now are CannTrust Holdings (OTC:CNTTQ) and Innovative Industrial Properties (NYSE:IIPR). Here's what makes these two stocks stand out in my view. A Canadian comeback candidate CannTrust Holdings had nearly doubled year to date at its peak level in late February. But the stock crashed at the end of March after CannTrust reported disappointing fourth-quarter results. CannTrust is now 25% off its highs from earlier this year. I think, though, that CannTrust looks like an ideal comeback candidate. The company's Q4 revenue came in well below what analysts expected. However, CannTrust still posted 132% year-over-year sales growth. And while its net loss was much worse than predicted, the company had pretty good reasons for its uninspiring bottom-line performance, in my opinion. Those reasons included higher spending on launching adult-use recreational cannabis brands, beefing up its teams to support research and development and international expansion, and listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Basing an opinion of a stock on its performance in one quarter isn't a smart idea. It's much wiser to look at the big picture. And I think the big picture for CannTrust looks pretty good. CannTrust isn't in the top tier of Canadian marijuana producers in terms of production capacity at this point, but that could change in the not-too-distant future. The company has completed its phase 2 expansion at its Niagara Perpetual Harvest Facility, increasing its annual capacity to around 50,000 kilograms. A phase 3 expansion should double CannTrust's annual production capacity by the second half of 2020. But the intriguing move by CannTrust is the company's decision to grow cannabis outdoors. CannTrust recently closed on its purchase of 81 acres in British Columbia. The company intends to secure more land as well, bringing its total outdoor cultivation space to 200 acres. With this outdoor capability, CannTrust expects to boost its annual production capacity to between 200,000 and 300,000 kilograms. Granted, the quality of cannabis leaf grown outdoors won't match up against indoor-grown cannabis. However, for extracting THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids, it shouldn't matter how the cannabis was grown. CannTrust has its eyes on the cannabis edibles market that is expected to open in Canada later this year and shift into high gear in 2020. The company's plan to expand into outdoor production could be a key factor in the stock bouncing back nicely as it capitalizes on this opportunity. A U.S. marijuana stock with the REIT stuff Innovative Industrial Properties (IIP) has at least two things in common with CannTrust. Both stocks are listed on the NYSE, and both stocks have lost some of their oomph from earlier in the year. IIP was up as much as 90% before giving up some of its gains. There are two key differentiating factors for IIP, though. First, the company focuses on the U.S. medical cannabis market. Second, IIP doesn't actually produce cannabis itself. It's instead a real estate investment trust (REIT) that leases properties to cannabis businesses. Both are big pluses for this stock in my view. I like IIP's focus on the U.S. market for a couple of reasons. One is that the U.S. cannabis market is enormous. Thirty-three states have legalized medical cannabis, with more likely on the way. Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics project that the U.S. medical cannabis market will reach $7.7 billion by 2022 -- bigger than the entire Canadian market including medical and adult-use recreational sales. If you throw in recreational marijuana sales in the U.S., the total market could top $23 billion by 2022. Another reason why IIP's U.S. focus could be important is that marijuana remains illegal at the federal level despite the large number of states that have legalized medical and/or recreational cannabis. I'm not worried that this will hurt IIP, though. Instead, I think that progress toward changing federal laws could provide significant catalysts for the stock over the next couple of years. Then there are the advantages for IIP in being a REIT. The company currently owns and leases 13 properties in 11 states. These properties are leased for long periods, with a weighted-average remaining lease length of more than 14 years. IIP makes a great return on the properties also, with an average current yield on invested capital of over 15%. IIP has been consistently profitable, with tremendous earnings growth. As a REIT, it's required to distribute at least 90% of taxable income to shareholders as dividends. The company's dividend yield currently stands at 2.25%. Not just for one quarter I think that CannTrust and Innovative Industrial Properties could be solid winners in the second quarter. More importantly, though, I think these two stocks should be successful over the long run. CannTrust and IIP are two top marijuana stocks to buy in Q2 not necessarily for their potential performance in the quarter but for the returns they could deliver to investors for many quarters to come. Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) introduced several policy tweaks that will go into effect at its stateside theme parks next month. The ban on smoking, as Disney World and Disneyland eliminate designated smoking areas on both coasts, is garnering most of the media attention, but the new changes won't just affect smoking and vaping inside the gated attractions. Young families will also have to comply with new stroller restrictions going into effect on May 1. Guests will no longer be able to bring in strollers longer than 52 inches or wider than 31 inches. Traditional wagons aren't permitted in the parks, but starting next month, stroller wagons will also be banned inside any of the Disneyland or Disney World theme parks. Rolling with the changes Disney conveniently rents single or double strollers that meet the new requirements, so at first glance this may seem like a selfish money grab. Disney World charges $15 a day for strollers and $31 for double strollers, with discounts available for multi-day rentals. Disneyland also asks $15 a day for strollers. The original California resort doesn't currently offer double strollers, though it soon will, but it does discount two single strollers for just $25 a day. One can argue that Disney's stroller rental revenue is about to spike, but in reality most outside strollers already comply with the new size regulations. Disney is simply trying to make it easier to get around at its theme parks. Stroller wagons and larger strollers are challenging to navigate in a crowded park, and that's becoming the norm at Disney these days, with the attractions generating record attendance levels. The larger strollers are also cumbersome for the rest of the park visitors trying to work their way around them. It's also worth noting that the new stroller policies won't have the same kind of impact on Disney's attendance as its smoking ban. Families with young children can still wheel their kids around the parks, as long as it's not being done with mammoth-sized vehicles. There will inevitably be some cancellations, especially if a family invested in a new set of wheels with the intention of using them at the parks. The number of smokers cancelling future trips to Disney's stateside parks should be greater, but at least there you can partially offset the impact through other guests who may come more often given the cleaner air. The new stroller and stroller wagon policy isn't going to create incremental visits elsewhere, as those Disney strollers will still ram the back of your ankles just as hard as the now-banned vehicles. Disney has obviously put a lot of thought into the controversial measures kicking in at the end of this month. Disney's theme parks -- now lumped together with its consumer products division -- make up the largest revenue-generating segment in its latest quarter, and it has also been the media giant's most consistent producer. Disney also has enough new rides and attractions coming to both coasts in the next few years to keep attendance at record levels. Smokers and owners of large strollers aren't happy with Disney right now, but revenue and operating profits should continue to grow in May and beyond. Photo: CTV News As a man remains in hospital in serious condition, police are asking for the publics help solving an early morning shooting. Surrey RCMP are investigating a shooting that took place at 2 a.m. on April 3 inside a residence near 91 Avenue and 148 Street. Police believe it was a targeted shooting and a man still remains in hospital after being shot. The serious crime unit is now looking for dash-cam video from any vehicles that travelled in the area between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. on April 3. Shooting incidents can erode the publics feelings of safety in our community, said Cpl. Eleanor Sturko. Surrey RCMP will continue to strategically target individuals and groups who put the public at risk through violent criminal activity. The investigation is ongoing, but police dont believe there is any risk to the public safety. Photo: Contributed British Columbia's attorney general is encouraging people to make a will, especially because most residents with dependent children do not have one. David Eby says that's the reason the province has proclaimed the upcoming week as Make a Will Week. He says in a release that people without a will would have their estate distributed according to the law, not necessarily how they would have wished. Eby says important decisions such as who would raise children are part of a will, and not having that legal document may lead to potentially time-consuming and costly court action. A will can be written using a kit, but Eby says a notary or lawyer may be required, depending on certain situations. People whose circumstances have changed, including by a marriage, birth of a child or purchase of a home, are also encouraged to update their wills. Photo: The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick Andrew Scheer is challenging Justin Trudeau to follow through on a threat to sue him over his assertion that the prime minister politically interfered with the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavlin. The Conservative leader revealed Sunday that he received a letter on March 31 from Trudeau's lawyer, Julian Porter, threatening a libel suit. "If Mr. Trudeau believes he has a case against me, I urge him to follow through on his threat immediately," Scheer said in a statement. "Canadians want this scandal to be investigated in a legal setting where Liberals do not control the proceedings." Scheer said he looks forward to Trudeau testifying under oath in open court. He called the threatened lawsuit "an intimidation tactic" aimed at silencing the Conservatives, who have been demanding a thorough, independent investigation of the affair. It's the same kind of tactic Trudeau has employed to silence former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, said Scheer. "This is what Justin Trudeau does when you stand up to him. He threatens you." Like Wilson-Raybould, Scheer added: "We will not back down. We will continue to do our jobs, hold him to account and get to the bottom of this." Wilson-Raybould maintains she was inappropriately pressured last fall by the Prime Minister's Office to stop criminal proceedings against SNC-Lavalin on bribery charges related to contracts in Libya. She believes she was moved to Veterans Affairs in a mid-January cabinet shuffle as punishment for refusing to do so. She resigned from cabinet a month later. While she has called the pressure improper, Wilson-Raybould has said she doesn't believe anything illegal occurred. Last week, Trudeau expelled both Wilson-Raybould and fellow former cabinet minister Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus. Philpott had resigned from cabinet in early March, citing a loss of confidence in the government's handling of the SNC-Lavalin case. At issue in the threatened libel suit is a statement Scheer issued on March 29, in which he said documentation provided by Wilson-Raybould to the House of Commons justice committee including a surreptitiously recorded phone conversation with the clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick is "concrete evidence that proves Justin Trudeau led a campaign to politically interfere with SNC-Lavalin's criminal prosecution." Porter called the statement "highly defamatory." "The prime minister supports wide-ranging and vigorous political debate on matters of public policy," he said in his letter to Scheer. "However, your statement, in its entirety, is beyond the pale of fair debate and is libellous of my client personally and in the way of his occupation as prime minister." Porter said it's "entirely false" to say Trudeau interfered in the SNC prosecution, which has not been halted, or that he personally directed Wilson-Raybould to "break the law" and "fired" her when she refused. It's also entirely false to suggest Trudeau was aware of Wilson-Raybould's concern that he was politically interfering in the SNC case but lied to Canadians about it, Porter said. Scheer's statement that the affair amounts to "corruption on top of corruption on top of corruption" was meant to suggest that Trudeau "had engaged in dishonest and corrupt conduct that would contravene the Criminal Code," a crime deserving of up to 14 years in prison, Porter said. That too was "entirely false." In response, Scheer's lawyer, Peter Downard, wrote back Sunday that Scheer "will not be intimidated" and is simply performing his "constitutional duty" to hold the government to account. If Trudeau is serious about suing, Downard said he must immediately take steps to preserve all relevant documents and to notify all members of his government, past and present, who've been involved in the SNC-Lavalin matter that they can expect to be called to testify. If Trudeau does not proceed with the threatened lawsuit, Downard said Scheer will conclude that Trudeau "has properly acknowledged that Mr. Scheer's statements were appropriate and grounded in evidence before the Canadian people." Photo: Contributed UPDATE: 1:40 p.m. Police have located a missing boy and say he is safe. ORIGINAL: 1:25 p.m. Police on Vancouver Island are searching for a missing nine-year-old boy on Sunday. George Dawson was last seen Sunday morning near his home in the Cedar Hill area. He is described as First Nations, four-foot-10, stocky build with short dark mohawk styled hair. Saanich police says Dawson was last wearing a blue jacket, pants, black runners and was on a white scooter. Anyone who sees Dawson is being asked to call police immediately. South Africa: Solomon Mahlangu remembered The life, times and last moments of struggle icon Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu came under the spotlight when government and the Mahlangu family observed the 40th anniversary of his execution. The commemoration on Saturday began with a walkabout at the gallows of Kgosi Mampuru prison where Solomon took his last 52 steps before he was brutally hanged by the then apartheid government. This was followed by a wreath-laying ceremony at the Mamelodi West Cemetery, where Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa, Acting Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and NYDA Chairperson Sfiso Msweni paid their tributes as they reflected on his life. Mthethwa said Mahlangu will always be remembered as a unique example of a bold revolutionary leader, who embodied the great traditions of the liberation movement. These, he said, include selflessness, dedication, discipline, hard work, loyalty to the cause and commitment to the service of the people. We are inspired by this revolutionary hero who sacrificed his life for humanity. Mahlangu never fought for fame or to be rewarded. Mahlangu made an indelible contribution when it was not fashionable to be a comrade. In Mahlangus honour, Mthethwa said government remains committed to making great strides in the transformation, reconstruction and development despite the challenges unemployment, poverty and inequality. The Minister went on to challenge young people to keep the legacy of the struggle stalwarts- like Mahlangu- alive by taking advantage of opportunities to build the country and change their lives. The tasks of the youth today. Young people should join the ranks of active and responsible citizens by participating positively in democratic structures and processes like the coming elections. They should cherish and jealously protect schools, libraries and other centres of learning, Mthethwa added. The 22-year-old Umkhonto we Sizwe combatant was born on July 10, 1956. He was one of 134 political prisoners convicted and sentenced to death at the Pretoria Central Prison. He was tried and convicted of two murders and three counts under the Terrorism Act, after being arrested in 1977 upon his return from Mozambique and Angola where he underwent training to assist in the student protests at the time. He was hanged on 6 April in 1979. His commemoration was held under the theme: The Fruits of Freedom on the 25th Anniversary of Democracy. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. VALPARAISO, IND. A bizarre case of family homicide is unfolding in northern Indiana, where authorities charge that a housewife orchestrated the murders of her husband and her mother-in-law by her teenage sons. The first slaying, the fatal shooting of volunteer firefighter Paul Witte, 43, on Sept. 1, 1981, was ruled accidental at the time. Advertisement His son Eric, then 15 years old, told police he tripped on a rug while carrying a gun; the gun discharged, hitting his father once in the head as he dozed on the living room sofa in the family home in Beverly Shores in Porter County. The death was reinvestigated and reclassified as murder, however, after the victim`s mother, Elaine Witte, 74, was slain three years later with a medieval-type crossbow in the hands of another grandson. Advertisement After Elaine Witte was killed in her home in the Trail Creek retirement community just south of Michigan City, authorities said, she was dismembered and parts of her body were dumped in California. The motive for the two slayings was the victims` savings and Social Security checks, authorities say. On May 24, John ''Butch'' Witte, 16, admitted in La Porte County Superior Court that he killed his grandmother with an arrow from his crossbow in January, 1984, and that he acted at the urging of his mother, Hilma Marie Witte, 37, known as Marie. The youth, originally charged with murder, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter and awaits sentencing June 21. As part of the plea agreement in the case, he will testify against his mother and his older brother, Eric, now 18, in connection with the grandmother`s death, said Chief Deputy Prosecutor William Herrbach. Shortly before John Witte`s courtroom appearance in Michigan City, prosecuting attorney Daniel Berning in adjoining Porter County said the shooting death of Paul Witte by his son Eric was no accident. On June 3, Marie Witte was arraigned on charges of murder and attempted murder in her husband`s death. Eric Witte also has been charged with murder; Advertisement and Marie`s mother, Margaret O`Donnell, 59, of Michigan City, has been charged with attempted murder. Court documents filed in the Paul Witte slaying allege that he was killed with a handgun only after unsuccessful attempts were made by the two women to kill him by lacing his meals with drugs and rat poison. Marie and Eric Witte, accompanied by federal marshals, were returned to Indiana last month from California, where they were convicted of forging and cashing Elaine Witte`s Social Security checks. The mother and son were extradited to stand trial in Michigan City, La Porte County, in connection with the slaying of Elaine Witte. On April 8, a federal judge in San Diego sentenced Marie Witte to 10 years in prison and fined her $10,000 for forging and cashing $1,135 in Social Security checks stolen from her mother-in-law. On her return to Indiana, Marie Witte was charged with murder and conspiracy in the death of Elaine Witte in her La Porte County home--a home Marie Witte and her two sons were sharing at the time. Herrbach said the charges were based largely on her younger son`s statements to police. Eric Witte was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Authorities believe Eric, then a Navy seaman, helped his mother dismember his Advertisement grandmother`s body and then disposed of parts of the body in a landfill in San Diego, Herrbach said. Marie and Eric Witte are to be tried separately in Michigan City in the crossbow case. Herrbach and Berning said they hope to decide soon which of Marie Witte`s murder trials will be heard first. The charges filed in Porter County last month resulted from the reopening of the investigation into Paul Witte`s death after that of his mother, Berning said. He said that the charges were based on statements given by John Witte and his maternal grandmother. China, Philippines conclude dialogue on South China Sea issues People's Daily Online (CNTV) 14:42, April 05, 2019 China and the Philippines have wrapped up talks on the South China Sea issues as well as maritime activities in a friendly and constructive manner, and achieved fruitful outcomes, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Thursday. Geng hailed the meeting as successful on Thursday while answering a question about the Philippine side calling the presence of Chinese vessels at Zhongye Island illegal. "Both sides reiterated their commitments to full and effective implementation of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and agreed to maintain the positive momentum of the negotiations towards the early conclusion of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, based on consensus," read a statement issued after the Fourth Meeting of the Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) on Wednesday. Issues related to the South China Sea are not the sum total of Sino-Philippine relations, Geng said, stressing both sides should not exclude mutually-beneficial cooperation in other fields. Both sides reiterated their commitment to addressing disputes by peaceful means through friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign states directly concerned, Geng added. The two countries also discussed how to enhance maritime cooperation and exchanged views on oil and gas development, Geng noted. China looks forward to working with the Philippines to make efforts to safeguard the overall interests of Sino-Philippine cooperation, as well as the peace and stability in the South China Sea, the spokesperson stated. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pompeo calls for NATO unity to confront Iran, Russia, China Iran Press TV Fri Apr 5, 2019 07:09AM US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on NATO members to get united in the face of what he called emerging threats from Iran, Russia and China. "We must continue to do so, especially in this new era of great power competition from Russia, from China, and the Islamic Republic of Iran," he told a meeting of NATO's foreign ministers in Washington. The ministers gathered to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, but the meeting was marked by public rifts among the member states. Pompeo said addressing the new challenges required enhanced military and security spending. "We must adapt our alliance to confront emerging threats whether that's Russian aggression, uncontrolled migration, cyber attacks, threats to energy security, Chinese strategic competition, including technology and 5G, and many other issues," he said. The ministers approved a new raft of measures in the Black Sea to counter Russia and boost Georgia and the Ukraine - two aspiring NATO members - with increased maritime cooperation, patrols and port visits. Pompeo has also been seeking with limited success to persuade US allies not to choose Chinese telecom giant Huawei for their fifth-generation networks, claiming that the company poses risks to security and personal privacy. US President Donald Trump has called on NATO countries to increase military spending to 4 percent of their gross domestic product and singled out Germany for not doing enough. The gathering on Thursday was overshadowed by those rifts as well as a deepening dispute with Turkey over Ankara's planned purchase of Russian-built S-400 air defense missile systems. Though Pompeo did not address the spat with Ankara in his speech, he reiterated Washington's displeasure on the issue in a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu a day earlier. Cavusoglu, however, made it clear that the purchase of the missile system from Russia "is a done deal" and that Ankara does not have to choose between Russia and other countries. "We are not choosing between Russia and any other allies We don't see our relations with Russia as an alternative to our relations with others. And nobody, neither West nor Russia, should or can ask us to choose," he said. The US has already suspended deliveries of equipment of F-35 jets to Ankara over the dispute. Cavusoglu said Washington has made a final offer for Patriot defense system sales to Turkey, but "we couldn't get it for 10 years." Bolton campaigning against China at UN US National Security Adviser John Bolton is busy campaigning against China's influence in the United Nations and other international organizations, American news publication Foreign Policy magazine reported. "The effort is one part of a broader bid by the Trump administration to try to stall China's rise as a global power, breaking with decades of US diplomatic efforts to manage China's inevitable emergence as a responsible global competitor," it wrote. In recent months, the United States has moved beyond trade sanctions, pressing European governments to bar the Chinese telecom giant Huawei from building the region's infrastructure for high-speed 5G internet access. According to Foreign Policy, Bolton's new push to contain China's influence at the UN is ironic given the national security adviser's efforts to sideline the international institution. European allies have warned that the Trump administration's withdrawal from a range of international organizations and agreements have paved the way for China and other powers to fill the diplomatic vacuum. The Europeans, however, are looking to avoid an outright confrontation with Beijing, while key European countries, including Greece and Italy, have decided to participate in China's Belt and Road Initiative. The dispute reflects the emergence of an increasingly confrontational approach to China by the US since Bolton's appointment to the White House's top national security job last April. The two powers are currently locked in a deepening trade dispute and a confrontation in the South China Sea which is mostly claimed by Beijing. The US sends its bombers and warships to the sea in a show of force. China has warned that the US would have to pay a "price" if it continued to interfere in territorial disputes between Beijing and its neighbors over the South China Sea. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Philippines' Duterte warns China with 'military action' over disputed island Iran Press TV Fri Apr 5, 2019 08:48AM Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to send his troops on a "suicide mission" if China does not back off from a disputed island in the South China Sea. Speaking at a rally in the city of Puerto Princesa in Palawan, Duterte called on Beijing not to "touch Pagasa Island and the rest." "I will not plead or beg, but I am just telling you that lay off the Pagasa because I have soldiers there," said the president, using the local name for Thitu. "If you touch it, that's a different story. I will tell my soldiers 'prepare for suicide mission'." Thitu, also known as Pagasa, is located in the Spratly group in the South China Sea. Duterte made the remarks though he has repeatedly acknowledged that in an event of a military confrontation with China, his country would lose and suffer heavily. China is involved in maritime disputes in the South China Sea, where several countries, including Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines, have overlapping claims. It has also constructed several artificial islands over the past few years in the South China Sea, in a move that Washington has denounced as a land reclamation project. The US, which sides with China's rivals in their territorial claims, also sends its warships close to the islands in what it calls "freedom of navigation" patrols. Back in March, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington will defend the Philippines against "armed attack" in the disputed waters. Reacting to Pompeo, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Beijing was committed to keeping peace and stability in the region. China has constantly warned Washington that close military encounters by air and naval forces of the two countries in the region could easily trigger miscalculation or even accidents at sea or in air. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taliban Fighters Storm District In Western Afghanistan, Killing Dozens April 05, 2019 Afghan officials say hundreds of Taliban militants stormed a district in the northwestern province of Badghis, killing dozens of government soldiers and police. Waris Sherzad, the district governor of Bala Murghab, said at least 30 security personnel have been killed since the Taliban launched the attack late on April 3. He said fighting was ongoing. Abdul Aziz Baig, head of the Badghis provincial council, said Taliban fighters captured several security checkpoints outside the government headquarters in Bala Murghab. He said only the district police headquarters and a base of the Afghan National Army remained in the control of the government. The Defense Ministry said in a statement late on April 4 that government forces chose to "tactically retreat" from the checkpoints to prevent civilian casualties. The ministry said it called in multiple air strikes on Taliban positions. Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said the militant group attacked from four directions, capturing five checkpoints. The attack comes less than three weeks after 50 government soldiers were killed during a weeklong battle in Bala Murghab. Nazari said 100 Afghan soldiers fled their posts and tried to cross into neighboring Turkmenistan during the battle in mid-March. Many were captured by Taliban fighters after Turkmen government forces prevented them from crossing the border safely into Turkmenistan's territory. Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and dpa Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/taliban-storm- district-in-western-afghanistan- killing-dozens/29862828.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 U.S. Considers Extending F-35 Jet Sales To Romania, Poland: Report April 05, 2019 Reuters is reporting that the United States is considering expanding sales of Lockheed Martin-made F-35 fighter jets to five new countries, including Romania, Poland, and Greece. The news agency reported on April 4 that Vice Admiral Mathias Winter, who is chief of the military's F-35 office, said that "future potential Foreign Military Sales customers include Singapore, Greece, Romania, Spain, and Poland. The comments came in written testimony by Winter submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives and seen by the news agency. Belgium in 2018 was the first new customer for the F-35 in several years, deciding on the U.S.-made warplane in a $4.55 billion deal over the Eurofighter Typhoon. Nine other countries have signed up to buy the fighter-jets -- Britain, Australia, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, South Korea, and Turkey. However, Washington has suspended Turkey's participation in the F-35 program over Ankara's decision to purchase Russian S-400 missile defense systems against U.S. and NATO opposition. Other U.S. allies, including Finland, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates, have also considered purchasing F-35 jets. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-considers -extending-f-35-jet-sales-to-romania- poland-report/29862833.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 PACAF hosts first U.S.-Mongolia Airman-to-Airman talks Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs / Published April 05, 2019 JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (AFNS) -- Pacific Air Forces hosted a delegation from the Mongolian Air Force Command for Airman-to-Airman talks here, March 26-28. The multi-day event marked the first A2A talks between the U.S. and MAFC, a newly separated branch of the Mongolian Armed Forces. A2A talks are jointly held discussions between the U.S. and partner nation air forces designed to bolster relations and provide an opportunity to share best practices from a variety of subject matter areas. "As we launch our inaugural Airman-to-Airman talks, I hope we will use this venue to ultimately build and develop a solid roadmap for future engagements, exchanges and activities," said Maj. Gen. Russ Mack, PACAF deputy commander. "I look forward to fruitful and candid discussions from both sides that will positively shape our military-to-military relationship." The bilateral delegation of more than 20 Airmen, led by Mack and MAFC commander Brig. Gen. Enkhbayar Ochir, discussed initiatives to improve readiness and effectiveness to respond to real-world challenges. The delegation represented experts from a variety of specialties, to include safety, personnel, maintenance and logistics. "This has been very great to talk, not just (at) the leadership level, but at the action officer and the subject matter expert level. My expectation in the future would be to expand the subject matter experts and the specialties we discuss," Ochir said. "We understand the support we will be able to help in the safety and security of the Indo-Pacific region through our Mongolian operations and exercises." The next U.S.-Mongolia A2A talks are scheduled to be hosted in Mongolia. The talks allowed the delegation to reflect on shared interests and a common history. "The journey of 1,000 miles starts with a few steps," said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey R. King, PACAF Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection director. "When our Air Force separated from the Army in 1947, many asked why we did it. Our first three decades were marked with organizational changes. For us, technology drove our success as an Air Force. We are happy to share our experiences as (the MAFC) continues to grow and develop." In addition to A2A talks, the U.S. and MAFC have participated in previous iterations of Silver Flag and Pacific Unity. "We are very grateful this key event has happened today to prepare for future enriched events that will strengthen our relationship," Ochir said. "I would like to give my gratitude on behalf of every airman in the Mongolian air forces for this warm welcome we received." PACAF engages in a number of A2A talks with ally and partner nations to continue to build strong relationships in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Acknowledges 2 Civilians Killed in 2018 Somalia Airstrike By Carla Babb April 05, 2019 U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) says new information reveals a woman and child were killed last year in a U.S. airstrike in Somalia, the first civilian casualties acknowledged in the U.S. military's war against Islamist militants there. The AFRICOM director of operations, Marine Major General Gregg Olson, said Friday that an ongoing review uncovered the civilian deaths, which went unreported for nearly a year. "We follow the law of armed conflict and regret that this incident resulted in the loss of two innocent lives," Olson told reporters in a teleconference. "AFRICOM is committed to transparency, and we have a solemn obligation to the Somali people we're trying to protect." Olson said AFRICOM is working with the U.S. embassy in Somalia on a way forward to potentially provide restitution for the family of the woman and child. Targeting al-Shabab On April 1, 2018, a U.S. drone strike near the town of El Burr in central Somalia killed what U.S. officials initially said were five al-Shabab militants in a vehicle. The command received an allegation of civilian casualties at the time, but determined that it was not credible. About a week later, an "AFRICOM subordinate unit conducting counterterrorism operation in Somalia" received new information, Olson said, which prompted the team to open up its investigation. That investigation concluded that the strike 12 months ago had actually killed the woman and child along with four al-Shabab militants. AFRICOM said it was only informed of the new information, investigation, and discovery of civilian casualties last week, after the commander of AFRICOM, Marine General Thomas Waldhauser, launched an audit of all U.S. airstrikes in Somalia since 2017. Officials say the audit was prompted by a report by Amnesty International, which alleged that five U.S. strikes in Somalia killed at least 14 civilians, along with questions from Congress. The command strongly rejected the rights group's conclusions in the report. U.S. Africa Command at the time said it looked at the five Amnesty allegations and concluded there were no civilian casualties in four of them. AFRICOM said it did not even conduct a strike at the time and place of one of the locations referenced in the report. The strike that killed the woman and child was not one of those detailed by Amnesty International. The United States has conducted airstrikes against al-Shabab since 2011 in support of Somalia's government. Daphne Eviatar, the director of the Security with Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA, Friday said, "AFRICOM's acknowledgement of civilian casualties is an important step forward from their previous denials of any civilian deaths or injuries from U.S. airstrikes in Somalia." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Survey Shows Less than Half of Americans Support NATO By VOA News April 05, 2019 A new survey shows that less than half of Americans support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an alliance originally designed to provide collective security against the Soviet Union, but now focused on Russia and non-state actors such as the Taliban and the Islamic State group. The YouGov survey, released to commemorate the 70th anniversary of NATO, found that only 44 percent of Americans support the United States' place in the agreement. That was down 3 percentage points from when the survey was conducted in 2017. The poll also surveyed other NATO countries and found that support for the alliance had decreased significantly in the past two years among key European allies. Support for NATO dropped in Britain from 73 percent to 59 percent, in Germany from 68 percent to 54 percent, and in France from 54 percent to 39 percent. YouGov said there is a generational divide in the United States over support for NATO, with 56 percent of the Baby Boomer generation, who grew up at the beginning of the Cold War, believing that the treaty continues to serve an important role in defending Western nations. Only 35 percent of Millennials and 33 percent of Generation X members support U.S. participation in the alliance. There is also a political divide, according to the survey, with 60 percent of Democrats in the United States agreeing the alliance serves an important role, while only 38 percent of Republicans believe the same. YouGov contacted more than 1,200 U.S. adults for the survey, which was conducted online, as well as more than 1,000 adults in several European countries. NATO was formed to be an alliance of Western nations that would balance the military power of the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe. After the former Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, some experts questioned what part the alliance would play in international security, but the return of Russian assertiveness under President Vladimir Putin has partly changed that. NATO has expanded to include countries that were once part of the Soviet bloc, and has also added countries that are further away, such as Turkey and Greece. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the group, saying many NATO members do not spend enough on defense to fully meet their commitments under the agreement. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said at a Tuesday event for families of U.S. citizens held captive overseas that he understands some people want to do anything to get their loved ones back but paying ransom would just lead to more kidnappings. Pakistan Wants 'Truth' From India About Recent Aerial Dogfight By Ayaz Gul April 05, 2019 Pakistan's agreement with the United States does not prevent it from using F-16 fighter jets in a conflict with India, and Indian claims of shooting down a Pakistani aircraft in a recent dogfight between the two nations is untrue, according to an influential U.S.-based publication. Foreign Policy magazine quoted two senior U.S. defense officials with direct knowledge of the situation as saying American personnel recently counted Islamabad's F-16s and found none missing. It did not identify the officers. The personnel were invited by Pakistan to count its F-16 planes after the incident. "The findings directly contradict the account of Indian Air Force officials, who said that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman managed to shoot down a Pakistani F-16 before his own [MiG21] plane was downed by a Pakistani missile," said the report published Thursday. The Indian pilot took a missile hit during the Feb. 27 aerial battle over the disputed Kashmir region and ejected safely into Pakistani territory. He was captured by Pakistani troops and freed two days later, effectively bringing the two countries back from the brink of another full-scale war. The two nations previously have fought four wars, in 1947, 1965, 1971 and a limited conflict in 1999. The magazine noted "the count, conducted by U.S. authorities on the ground in Pakistan, sheds doubt on New Delhi's version of events, suggesting that Indian authorities may have misled the international community about what happened that day." There was no Indian or U.S. official reaction to the report. The Pakistan military has consistently maintained it did not lose any aircraft and instead asserts the dogfight destroyed two Indian fighter jets claims New Delhi rejected. A military spokesman Friday hailed the findings by Foreign Policy, saying the "truth always prevails." "Time for India to speak truth about false claims & actual losses on their side including the second aircraft shot down by Pakistan," tweeted Major-General Asif Ghafoor. The dogfight occurred a day after Indian jets crossed deep into Pakistan territory and allegedly destroyed the suspected training camp of an anti-India militant group. Pakistani officials rejected Indian claims of hitting any camp or killing a large number of militants before undertaking the retaliatory military action the following day. Foreign media reports from the site, backed by satellite images, also contradicted Indian claims the Feb. 26 counterterrorism cross-border strike had damaged any structure or killed militant casualties. "When the incident occurred, India asked the U.S. government to investigate whether Pakistan's use of the F-16 against India violated the terms of the foreign military sale agreements," according to Foreign Policy magazine. However, "the agreement did not involve any terms limiting the use of the F-16s," the magazine quoted the second U.S. defense official as saying. "It would be incredibly naive for us to believe that we could sell some type of equipment to Pakistan that they would not intend to use in a fight," the official said. General Ghafoor tweeted a picture Friday of what he said were four unused Indian missiles mounted on the downed MiG-2 to support assertions that no Pakistani aircraft got hit in the dogfight. "All 4 missile seeker heads recovered intact from the wreckage & held. Pakistan and its professional armed forces staying humble by not drum beating. We have more truth on this to share," Ghafoor said. The reported revelations are seen as a fresh blow to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, heading into an election next week that observers anticipate will be a tight contest. Indian media and opposition politicians have been demanding that Modi offer proof to support claims the airstrikes hit terrorists in Pakistan's Balokot region. They insist the Indian leader orchestrated the military action merely to achieve political gains ahead of the polls. "Another blow delivered to India," observed Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center in a series of tweets. "There could be some deleterious political implications there, just days before the election." The cross-border counterterrorism airstrike has been a top campaigning issue during Modi's election rallies, underscoring that he's tough on national security, especially with regard to Pakistan if BJP returns to power. Indian officials said the air raid had struck a camp allegedly linked to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, which reportedly had claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 suicide car bombing in Kashmir's Pulwama district that killed more than 40 Indian security personnel. Islamabad had denied any role in the violence and offered New Delhi cooperation to investigate it and bring perpetrators to justice. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Revokes Visa of Chief Prosecutor of International Court By VOA News April 05, 2019 The United States has revoked the visa of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, over a possible investigation of U.S. soldiers' actions in Afghanistan. Bensouda's office said Friday that U.S. authorities revoked the prosecutor's visa for entry into the United States, and a U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed the action. The spokesperson said Friday, "The United States will take the necessary steps to protect its sovereignty and to protect our people from unjust investigation and prosecution by the International Criminal Court [ICC]." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that the United States would revoke or deny visas to ICC staff investigating possible war crimes by U.S. forces. The United States in not a member of the ICC, along with Russia and China. Bensouda's office said that Bensouda, a Gambian national, would exercise her duties as ICC prosecutor "without fear or favor." It said the U.S. decision was not expected to impact Bensouda's travels to the United Nations in New York where she gives regular briefings to the U.N. Security Council. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: "We very much hope [the United States] will honor the agreement" for ICC staff members to travel to the United Nations. Bensouda is expected to brief the U.N. Security Council next month about her investigations in Libya. ICC judges have been reviewing materials on possible war crimes committed by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, but have yet to make a decision on whether to open a formal investigation into the matter. The ICC, located in The Hague, prosecutes crimes only when other nations are unwilling or unable to bring suspects to justice. Cindy Saine at the State Department and Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel's Netanyahu vows to annex occupied West Bank Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 11:02PM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken a further step in violating the international law by saying that he would annex the occupied Palestinian region of West Bank if he wins another term in office. In an interview on Saturday, Netanyahu said he would not shy away from expanding Israel's illegal annexations to cover the West Bank, a land currently accommodated by settlers which Israeli regime occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. "Who says that we won't do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it," Netanyahu said while responding to a question from the Israeli Channel 12 News on why he had not annexed the West Bank like the occupied east Jerusalem al-Quds and Syria's Golan Heights. "You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage - the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage," he said, adding, "I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements." The comments come just three days before Israel's April 9 election where Netanyahu is seeking a reelection despite widespread allegations of graft and financial wrongdoing affecting him and his family. They also come following a controversial move by the United States to recognize Israel's annexation of Syria's Golan Heights. Netanyahu had previously said that the fate of the West Bank, where the Palestinian government has its sit of power in the capital Ramallah, should be decided in talks with the Palestinians who seek to establish their own state in the territory. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Netanyahu's new comments, which many believe have been made to change the tide in his favor in the upcoming election, would not affect the illegal nature of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank which currently hosts some 400,000 settlers. "Any measures and any announcements will not change the facts. Settlements are illegal and they will be removed," said Nabil Abu Rdainah. A majority of countries in the world consider Israel's occupation of the West Bank, the East Jerusalem al-Quds, and the Golan Height as illegal under the Geneva conventions that bar settling on land captured in war. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address EU backs ICC after US revokes prosecutor's visa over probe into Afghan war crimes Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 06:03PM The European Union has expressed its "full support" for the International Criminal Court (ICC), voicing "serious concern" after the United States revoked the entry visa for the intergovernmental organization's chief prosecutor over a possible probe into US soldiers' actions in Afghanistan. On Friday, the office of ICC's chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian lawyer, confirmed that Washington had slapped a visa ban on her, stressing that according to the Rome Statute governing the organization, she has an "independent and impartial mandate." "The EU expects the US to ensure that any measures adopted by the US in relation to the ICC is in full compliance with their international obligations, having also due regard to the ICC-UN Relationship Agreement," the EU said in a statement. "The EU fully supports the ICC and its independence and remains committed to cooperate with the ICC to guarantee its effectiveness and efficiency and expects States to lend the necessary assistance and support." The European bloc highlighted the "key role" of the ICC in its fight against impunity. It also emphasized that "protecting the neutrality and judicial independence of the ICC is paramount to its effectiveness and proper functioning." Back in November 2017, Bensouda asked ICC judges for authorization to launch an investigation into purported war crimes in Afghanistan by the Taliban militant group, Afghan government forces and international forces, including American troops. The court, however, has not yet decided whether to open a full-scale investigation. The move against Bensouda came less than a month after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced restrictions on ICC staff who investigate US or allied personnel. "I'm announcing a policy of US visa restrictions on those individuals directly responsible for any ICC investigation of US personnel," Pompeo said at a State Department briefing on March 15. Washington has refused to cooperate with international investigators over their probe into alleged war crimes committed by US military personnel in Afghanistan, claiming they violate US sovereignty. The US insists that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over American citizens because the US never ratified the Rome Statute, which established the court in the first place. The administration of US President Donald Trump has already rebuked and questioned the ICC. One of National Security adviser John Bolton's first speeches was about the ICC, condemning its investigation into the conduct of US personnel. The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and overthrew a Taliban regime in power at the time. But US forces have remained bogged down there through the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and now Donald Trump. The ICC has repeatedly highlighted alleged abuses of detainees by American troops between 2003 and 2005. It believes the human rights violations have not been adequately addressed by the US government. Washington, however, claims that it has its own robust procedures in place to deal with American soldiers who engage in misconduct. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sudanese protesters march on President Bashir's residence Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 02:55PM Thousands of protesters marched on the residence of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir in the capital Khartoum on Saturday, in what seemed to be the biggest anti-government rally since protests erupted last year. The people, waving the Sudanese flag and holding placards demanding Bashir's resignation, approached the presidential compound, which also houses the defense ministry and the security services headquarters, from three directions. Security forces fired tear gas and clashed with the protesters, arresting a number of them. The protest is the latest in a series of anti-government demonstrations that began in mid-December, when food prices increased, coupled with bread and fuel shortages. Saturday's protest, however, marked the anniversary of the start of the 1985 uprising that prompted the military to topple then strongman President Jaafar Nimeiri. The ongoing protests represent the most serious challenge to Bashir's rule since he took power in a 1989 coup. As part of his attempt to end the protests, Bashir has declared a state of emergency across the country, dissolved the central government, replaced state governors with security officials, boosted police powers and prohibited unauthorized public gatherings. Despite the new measures, the protests have continued, albeit with generally lesser intensity in most instances. Some analysts believe the "old school dictatorship" imposed on the society by the government of President Bashir is outdated. "The old school dictatorship is not working anymore ... this generation is not standing for it, and they will keep on sustaining this until, and unless, they get a result that they want," Riaz Karim, director of the Veritas Center for Strategic Studies, told Press TV in an interview earlier this year. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US military admits to killing civilians in Somali airstrikes Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 10:41AM The United States military has admitted for the first time that it killed two Somali civilians in one of its airstrikes in the African country's central El Burr region. The US Africa Command (AFRICOM) had for a long time insisted that it was only taking out "terrorists" in its alleged precision strikes in Somalia. However, it admitted in a Friday statement that an internal review of the airstrikes had found hints at civilian casualties in April last year. "During a commander-directed review of airstrikes conducted in Somalia since 2017, US Africa Command learned an April 1, 2018, airstrike killed two civilians," read the statement. "The April 2018 airstrike was designed to degrade the al-Shabaab terrorist group near El Burr, Somalia. In the airstrike four al-Shabaab militants also were killed," it added. The statement noted that a previous report on the airstrike, which stated five alleged terrorists had died in the attack, was not correct. The AFRICOM insisted that the error in reporting and assessment was an "isolated occurrence." "Because of the reporting error, US Africa Command was not informed of the assessment's conclusion -- and subsequently the information was not reported to external authorities, such as the host nation and Congress," AFRICOM said in its statement. The force said it had notified the Somali government of the casualties. The statement gave no further details of the civilians killed in the airstrike. AFRICOM also denied any relations between the casualties and a report by Amnesty International around the same time of the attack. Amnesty International had reported civilian casualties in US airstrikes before the April raid took place. However, AFRICOM had insisted back then that its attacks followed a firm "zero casualties" policy. US airstrikes, described as "unlawful killings," could well amount to "war crimes", according to Amnesty. The London-based rights group believes that AFRICOM's civilians death report understate the real numbers recorded by investigators based on reports. Last month, Amnesty reported that 14 civilians had been killed in only five US airstrikes that they had examined out of a total 110 missile strikes. The US military campaign in Somalia, which includes missiles fired by manned aircraft as well as drones, expanded in Somalia after Donald Trump became president and declared southern Somalia an "area of active hostilities". Trump authorized the military in March 2017 to conduct "precision strikes". US forces have been reportedly targeting Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked extremists, mostly recruited by the al-Shabaab terrorist outfit. However, a large portion of the targets of US attacks are said to be civilian victims. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pence announces sanctions on Venezuela oil vessels, Cuba shippers Iran Press TV Fri Apr 5, 2019 11:07PM The United States announces sanctions on 34 vessels of Venezuela's state oil company and two companies that ship crude to Cuba. The announcement by US Vice President Mike Pence came on Friday as Washington is working to increase pressure on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and enticing Venezuelan officials to defect to an opposition figure. Speaking in a speech at Rice University in Houston, Pence said, "Those looking on should know this: All options are on the table. And Nicolas Maduro would do well not to test the resolve of the United States of America." "The United States will continue to exert all diplomatic and economic pressure to bring about a peaceful transition to democracy," he added. The 34 vessels sanctioned by the Treasury Department are owned or operated by Venezuelan state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A, or PDVSA. The two companies are linked to the Despina Andrianna , a tanker the US sanctioned too for shipping crude oil from Venezuela to Cuba. One of the two companies is based in Greece and the other is in Liberia. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement, "The United States remains committed to a transition to democracy in Venezuela and to holding the Cuban regime accountable for its direct involvement in Venezuela's demise." "Treasury is taking action against vessels and entities transporting oil, providing a lifeline to keep the illegitimate Maduro regime afloat," added Mnuchin. Venezuela has been in political chaos since opposition figure Juan Guaido declared himself "interim president" late in January. Guaido has received backing and encouragement from the US government along the way. Washington has been pressuring other countries into following suit and has not ruled out using the military option to oust the government of Maduro. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address uban President Slams New US Sanctions on Venezuela as 'Act of Interference' Sputnik News 23:34 06.04.2019(updated 23:35 06.04.2019) CARACAS (Sputnik) - Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Saturday strongly condemned Washington's new round of sanctions targeting vessels and companies linked to Venezuela's oil giant PDVSA. "#US imposed sanctions this Friday to vessels and companies engaged in oil shipments between #Cuba and #Venezuela, a lawful activity under commercial contracts. These measures are an act of extraterritoriality, interference and imperial arrogance," Diaz-Canel wrote on Twitter. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry has also strongly condemned the US move and noted that Caracas would respond to these sanctions in an appropriate legal manner. On Friday, the United States sanctioned 34 vessels tied PDVSA, controlled by the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and two companies that allegedly transport oil from Venezuela to Cuba. Moreover, a senior official from the administration of US President Donald Trump said the latest round of sanctions was introduced at the request of the Venezuelan opposition-led National Assembly. Venezuela has long been suffering from an acute economic crisis exacerbated by the US sanctions against the country. In January, opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president of Venezuela after disputing Maduro's re-election in May. Washington immediately endorsed Guaido and called on Maduro to step down. Maduro has accused the United States of trying to orchestrate a coup in order to install Guaido as a US puppet. Russia, China, Cuba, Bolivia, Turkey and a number of other countries have voiced their support for Maduro as the only legitimate president of Venezuela. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Wasp Carrying F-35s Sails in S China Sea Amid Tensions With Beijing - Report Sputnik News 22:05 06.04.2019(updated 22:15 06.04.2019) The US military has been eyeing the possibility of transforming their amphibious ships into light carriers amid the Pentagon's plans to reduce the number of their "bigger brothers". A US amphibious assault ship, the USS Wasp, carrying 10 F-35 fighter jets on board has sailed through disputed waters of the South China Sea amid ongoing tensions with China, the National Interest reported. The ship was heading toward Subic Bay in the Philippines. The ship was carrying twice the usual amount of fighters on board, allegedly testing the American military's theory that Wasp-class ships can serve as small aircraft carriers amid plans to reduce the number of large carriers in the US fleet. Beijing has not yet commented on the ship's passage, although it regularly does so when US Navy vessels sail through the disputed waters of the South China Sea. Washington claims that it is conducting freedom of navigation operations, but Beijing slams them as "provocations" and demands that the US remove its ships from the waters. The dispute over the US military presence in the region, contested by several countries but largely controlled by the Chinese military, has been a source of tension between Washington and Beijing, along with the ongoing trade dispute. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Netanyahu: Israel to 'Extend Sovereignty' Over West Bank Settlements Sputnik News 20:24 06.04.2019(updated 21:50 06.04.2019) Earlier, the Israeli prime minister hinted that he may annex the West Bank's Area C, which is fully controlled by Tel Aviv. He also announced that he had told US President Donald that in his opinion, all settlements in the West Bank "must remain under Israeli sovereignty". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he is going to extend Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the occupied West Bank territories if he wins another term in the upcoming elections, which are set to place on 9 April, Reuters reported. "You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend [Israeli] sovereignty and I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements", he said in an interview with Israeli Channel 12. Speaking in an interview with Channel 13 on Friday, Netanyahu said that in his opinion "all the [West Bank] settlements must remain under Israeli sovereignty" and that he had forwarded his position to US President Donald Trump. When asked whether he believes Trump would recognise the move, the Israeli prime minister said to "wait until the next term". "I promise that you will be surprised. I cannot talk about the plan, but [US President Donald] Trump is a big friend and I doubt there will ever be any bigger friend than him", he said durinng an interview with Hebrew-language daily newspaper Israel Hayoum. Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the US has made several moves in support of Israeli territorial claims. First, Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the American Embassy there from Tel Aviv, where most diplomatic missions are located, in May 2018. Later, on 25 March, the US recognised Israeli claims over the occupied Golan Heights, where Tel Aviv recently held municipal and local elections. Both recognitions were widely condemned by the international community and the UN, but welcomed by Tel Aviv. The move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem also sparked protests at the Gaza border, which have been ongoing for over a year on a weekly basis. The protesters have regularly clashed with Israeli forces on the border, leading to hundreds of casualties during the course of the rallies. Tel Aviv has denounced the protests, claiming that they are organised by Hamas to covertly attack Israel. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Fires that destroyed two vacant mills in Connecticut are under investigation. The Norwich Bulletin reports more than 140 firefighters from dozens of area departments battled the fierce flames Saturday at a 120-year-old former cotton mill in Killingly and at a former factory building about 26 miles away in Windham. No injuries were reported in either blaze and the state fire marshal's office is investigating to determine the causes. Residents of Killingly were urged to stay indoors as a precaution. An official said state and federal environmental officials were monitoring air and water quality around the mill to make sure no hazardous chemicals were released during the fire. Records show the property had recently been sold to a Hartford-based real estate firm through a foreclosure process. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Dutch F-16 Jet Damaged by Its Own Ammunition During Training - Reports Sputnik News 18:23 06.04.2019(updated 18:29 06.04.2019) During an exercise in January, a pilot of the Royal Netherlands Air Force had to reportedly opt for an emergency procedure after an F-16 was damaged by its own ammunition, some of which ended up in the jet's engine. The Dutch military is investigating an incident involving an F-16 jet that was considerably damaged by its own ammunition during a training flight this January, the outlet Nederlandse Omroep Stichting reports. The safety probe is aimed at finding out how an F-16 had struck itself and whether the flight crew or ground personnel were at risk during the training. Investigators are carrying out practical tests and are speaking with the staffers involved. "It is a serious case. Therefore, we want to find out what happened and how we can prevent this in future", says Safety Inspector General Wim Bargerbos, as cited by the outlet. According to the newspaper, the incident happened on 21 January when two F-16 jets fired at a target on the Vliehors training ground in Vlieland with their on-board cannons. One of them was allegedly struck with its own ammunition. At least one piece of the ammo damaged the cladding, while some fragments got into the jet engine itself. However, no one was injured. The pilot activated the emergency protocol and the jet safely landed at Leeuwarden Air Base. F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole fighters are US-made fourth-generation jets. The Netherlands, along with neighbouring Belgium, has been upgrading its air force with next-generation aircraft, pressured into purchasing more up-to-date US-built warplanes. In December 2018, Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld told the ANP news agency that the Netherlands would boost its defence spending in the coming year to acquire more F-35s. The country had already purchased 37 F-35A stealth fighters, enough for two squadrons, but NATO insisted on a third, ANP reported. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Zero Casualties' No More: US AFRICOM Admits to Killing Civilians in Somalia Sputnik News 00:53 06.04.2019 US Africa Command (AFRICOM) admitted on Friday that a 2018 airstrike in Somalia killed two civilians, claiming a clerical error previously obscured it. However, it's no mere error of reporting: AFRICOM's very method for analyzing airstrike victims omits the possibility they could be civilians. "During a commander-directed review of airstrikes conducted in Somalia since 2017, US Africa Command learned an April 1, 2018, airstrike killed two civilians," says a Friday statement by AFRICOM, which is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. The statement notes that the onus for the review came from "a recent increase in airstrikes and continued interest by Amnesty International and Congress on civilian casualties." AFRICOM says it missed "credible evidence" of the civilian casualties because of a "reporting error." "Consequently, on April 2, 2018, US Africa Command stated in a press release based on an initial post-strike intelligence review the strike killed five al-Shabaab terrorists, and that the command assessed 'no civilians were killed in this airstrike,'" the statement continues. "Unaware of the subsequent assessment and findings, senior leaders later stated during congressional testimony and media engagements that US forces caused zero civilian casualties in Africa." However, the command is careful to state it believes the killings "to be an isolated occurrence." Last month, London-based human rights NGO Amnesty International (AI) blasted AFRICOM for a spike in civilian casualties in the East African nation, where the US has stepped up its air war against the militant group al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda. AI's March 20 report "The Hidden US War in Somalia" found 14 civilian deaths in five airstrikes just between October 2018 and February 2019, either as collateral damage from a strike against al-Shabaab or due to mistaken identification as al-Shabaab fighters themselves. In response to this, AFRICOM put out a statement saying that absolutely zero civilians had been killed in that time. "We take all allegations of civilian casualties seriously regardless of their origin," AFRICOM said, noting that during the period covered by AI's report, "Our assessments found that no AFRICOM airstrike resulted in any civilian casualty or injury." US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a Somali-American refugee who fled the country's civil war as a young girl, grilled experts last month on AFRICOM's claim of no civilian deaths from airstrikes in the country. During a March 26 House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Omar asked Joshua Meservey, an expert on the campaign at the hawkish conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, if he found AFRICOM's claims "to be credible in the face of overwhelming reports that are to the contrary?" "There's a fog of war in a place like Somalia," Meservey replied. "It's very difficult to distinguish there the difference between combatants and non-combatants." Sputnik has reported before on how AFRICOM no longer makes the distinction between civilians and militants in the undeclared war in Somalia, meaning it's impossible for AFRICOM to refute AI's claims that US airstrikes have killed civilians. Former US AFRICOM commander Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc told the Daily Beast last November that the US military presumes that everybody it kills are enemy fighters until protests are raised by journalists, governments or NGOs. Before March 2017, the US' rules for its strikes in undeclared war zones like Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan required it to obtain, with "near certainty," evidence of a target's presence, as well as the absence of potential civilian casualties, before an airstrike could be authorized. However, the Trump administration shed these requirements, only stating that a "reasonable certainty" of the presence of the target was required before the strike could be made in other words, civilians were totally dropped from the analysis. With the airstrike in which AFRICOM has admitting to murdering innocent Somalis happening over a year after those changes took effect, it seems the command is keeping true to Bolduc's summary of its conduct: AFRICOM will only investigate reports of civilian casualties when reporters make a stink about it. That means that either the evidence was always there and Pentagon indifference to civilian deaths in a Third World country led them to ignore it or make no effort to look for it, or AFRICOM has made up these numbers to assuage the rage about its indiscriminate massacres from the sky. Neither possibility looks good. AI responded to AFRICOM's admission Friday, saying it was "an "important step forward but this is only a first step." "We still need new investigation procedures and all cases of civilian casualties we have documented re-investigated," said Daphne Eviatar, director of security with human rights at Amnesty International USA. "The family and community members of victims of these and other strikes who have had neither communication nor support from AFRICOM will find little solace in this initial response." According to AFRICOM, the command has executed 28 airstrikes in Somalia in 2019, compared to 47 in 2018 and 35 in 2017. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At Least 10 People Killed in Afghanistan Attacks By VOA News April 06, 2019 At least seven policemen and three civilians were killed Saturday in a series of attacks in Afghanistan, officials said. In the eastern Ghazni province, Taliban insurgents killed three policemen in attacks on security checkpoints, according to provincial police chief spokesman Ahmad Khan Serat. Associated Press reported the Taliban claimed responsibility. At least four policemen were killed when the Taliban stormed a security checkpoint in the northern Sari Pul province, provincial council leader Mohammad Noor Rahmani said. Two explosions in Jalalabad, in the eastern Nangarhar province, claimed the lives of at least three civilians, said Attahullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor. No groups claimed responsibility for the attacks in Nangarhar and Sari Pul. Islamic State established a presence in Nangarhar in 2015. Fighting among militant groups has intensified in recent weeks amid ongoing peace negotiations, as have clashes between the Taliban and Afghan forces. U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad lobbied in Kabul earlier this week for talks that would include leading Afghan figures, government officials, the Taliban and other opposition representatives. Khalilzad said progress was made during several rounds of negotiations with the Taliban last month in Qatar. Despite the ongoing talks, the Taliban continue to attack Afghan forces and refuse to talk directly with the Afghan government, maintaining it is merely a puppet of the U.S. Also on Saturday, Pope Francis blamed the U.S. and Europe for fueling the conflict in Afghanistan, as well as those in Syria and Yemen, by selling weapons in war zones. The pope told students and teachers at Milan's San Carlo Institute there are so many wars in the world because "the rich Europe and America sell weapons ... used to kill children and kill people." He added: "A country that produces and sells weapons has on its conscience the death of every child and destruction of each family." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NATO Chief Rejects 'Spheres of Influence' By Natalie Liu April 06, 2019 At the final press conference marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a question was raised as to whether NATO was partly responsible for current tensions with Moscow, "because it has expanded right up to the borders of Russia" and whether it was a good idea to "publicly advertise open invitations to Georgia and Ukraine" to join the alliance. Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General since October 2014, responded by saying: "Just the idea that it is a provocation against Russia that Georgia aspires for membership, or that Ukraine does the same, is really, really dangerous." "As soon as you accept that that's a provocation against Russia, you accept that Russia has the right to decide what neighbors can do," he said, adding that doing so equates accepting "a world order where big powers can decide what neighbors can or cannot do," which will then lead to re-establishing "the whole idea of spheres of influence." The Cold War-era Warsaw Pact, where Central and Eastern European nations were subjected to Soviet Union's guidelines and dictates, is widely seen as an example and demonstration of "spheres of influence" at work. Stoltenberg, who twice had served as Norwegian prime minister before assuming the leadership role at NATO, spoke of his and his country's experience. Describing his native land as another "small country bordering Russia," Stoltenberg said: "I'm very glad that back in 1949 when we joined NATO, the United States and the United Kingdom and the other founding members of NATO never accepted (the notion) that the Soviet Union could decide what Norway could (or could not) do." Earlier in the week, in a speech delivered at the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within NATO, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo marked the 70th anniversary of NATO by recalling his own personal experience. "As a young armor officer a couple decades back, I patrolled the border between then-East Germany and West Germany. I know the nature of the regimes that want to undermine what it is we're here to talk about today." Pompeo reiterated in his speech that NATO's success lies in deterrence, democratic underpinnings and collective defense commitment. Two years ago, the United States Senate voted overwhelmingly in support of Montenegro's membership in NATO; it is now reviewing North Macedonia's bid. Speaking on the growing size of NATO, Stoltenberg noted that "the enlargement is not NATO moving east," instead, he pointed out, it is due to Central and Eastern European nations' wish - often determination to seek membership in the alliance. Daniel S. Hamilton, a transatlantic relations expert at Johns Hopkins University, told VOA that over the years indeed the last seven decades NATO has demonstrated a "sort of a magnetic quality." In February of this year, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described pursuing membership in NATO and the European Union as a "strategic mission" and amended his country's constitution to the effect that Ukraine may one day become a member of these organizations. Meanwhile, Georgia, another country often described as situated on Russia's doorstep, is acknowledged as "one of the alliance's closest partners." Observers have noted Georgia's significant contribution in support of NATO's war effort in Afghanistan as an unambiguous sign of its commitment to the organization and existing member states. Ultimately, "Georgia and Ukraine are independent sovereign nations which have the sovereign right to choose their own paths," said NATO's secretary general. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Boko Haram Militants Target Civilians in Niger's Diffa Region By Lisa Schlein April 06, 2019 The United Nations reports armed men killed dozens of civilians and displaced thousands during increasingly violent and frequent attacks last month in the Diffa region in southeastern Niger. The Diffa region, which borders Nigeria and Chad, is home to more than 200,000 internally displaced people and refugees victimized by the Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria. U.N. officials say the spike in violence and displacement is related to increased activity by Boko Haram or Boko Haram-affiliated armed groups in the Lake Chad Basin. They report 88 civilians were killed last month alone, compared to a total of 107 civilian deaths during all of 2018. Spokesman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Jens Laerke told VOA the dramatic jump in the number of attacks and civilian deaths seems to indicate a shift in tactics by these armed groups. He said very vulnerable civilians appear to be deliberately targeted. "So, it is not only armed men fighting armed men. It is also armed men fighting civilians, families, women and children. So, that is, of course, very disturbing. Some of those who have been targeted in these attacks in March were already displaced people and some were already refugees," Laerke said. The United Nations reported 21 attacks carried out in March forced nearly 18,500 people to flee their homes. It said they have joined the already heavily populated settlements of internally displaced people and refugees in the urban center of Diffa and surrounding areas. Despite the increased violence in the region, Laerke said there will be no break in the U.N.'s humanitarian operations. He said aid workers will continue to assist the desperate people. He said a recent assessment mission shows people are in critical need of water and sanitation, shelter, food and household items. He said the needs are there and the will to help is there. Unfortunately, he noted the money needed to provide this aid is not there. He said the International community has contributed less than three percent of the U.N.'s $383 million appeal for humanitarian operations in Niger this year. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Cameroon Deploys Troops Bracing for Anti-Biya Protests By Moki Edwin Kindzeka April 06, 2019 Cameroon has deployed troops to crack down on protesters calling for the release from jail of 150 opposition party members, including their leader Maurice Kamto, who says he won the October presidential election, not long-serving President Paul Biya. Kamto has been in jail for more than two months and his supporters say he should be unconditionally released. It was a quiet but tense Saturday morning in some neighborhoods of Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, as residents went about their daily activities, watched by combat-ready police. Half a dozen officers have been deployed around the headquarters of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement party of Kamto, who remains in jail and insists he won the presidential election on Oct. 7, even though official results give a decisive victory to incumbent Biya. Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji said security forces are there to protect the population from the opposition political party that he said wants to see the country in chaos. He said even though President Biya has kept Cameroon democratic and peaceful, with freedoms and liberties, authorities will not accept protests carried out in disrespect of the law and they will not tolerate those who want to use violence to make their voices heard. He said Cameroonians are peace-loving people who reject the violence some opposition parties want to bring. Nji said Saturday the government banned protests organized by the opposition MRC party until April 13 because the action is provocative and intended to create an uprising in a country that already has Boko Haram terrorism to contend with on its northern border with Nigeria. He pointed out that Cameroon also has suffered from carnage that has spilled over from the neighboring Central African Republic on its eastern border and has had to deal with the separatist crisis that killed at least 1,000 people in the English-speaking regions of the bilingual country that also has French as its official language. Nji said April 6, which the MRC chose for its protests, remains a painful day for Cameroonians because it is the anniversary of a 1984 coup attempt to oust Biya from power. He said he has instructed all 10 regional governors to arrest anyone who protests. MRC Party Secretary General Christopher Ndong says members are mobilized and ready to demonstrate their support for jailed members of their party and Kamto, who claims his victory was stolen by Biya. "Do you expect us to fold our hands and stand. Professor Maurice Kamto won the 2018 presidential election and the president that was supposed to be [in power] was the one caught and locked up. The government does not want him to take over power. Our liberties are infringed, our right to freedom of speech infringed. It is not because the government is clamping down on us that will make the population fear," Ndong said. The protesters had asked for authorization to march and asked the government to solve the crisis in the English-speaking regions that has gone on for three years. Pierre Hubert Mbida of the Cameroon Citizenship Movement said by refusing to authorize the protest and deploying security forces to clamp down on protesters, Cameroon is simply confirming that it disrespects people's rights and freedoms. He said the Cameroon government is abusing public liberties and people's freedoms and expresses joy only when its supporters sing praises about its management of public affairs, governance and its long serving leader Biya. He said it is funny that when people go to the streets to complain that they lack water to drink, they are described as unpatriotic citizens who are a menace to public order. He said it is intolerable that for quite some time now, Cameroon has continued to recruit soldiers to protect its leaders. Biya, who has led Cameroon for 36 years, won 71.3 percent of the vote, far ahead of Kamto's 14.2 percent, according to official results of the Oct. 7 poll. Police arrested Kamto and his supporters more than two months ago after days of peaceful protests turned violent in Yaounde and three other cities. Kamto is charged with sedition, insurrection and inciting violence in Cameroon and its embassies, including in Paris and Berlin. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sudan Protesters Reach Military Headquarters for First Time By VOA News April 06, 2019 Many of the thousands of Sudanese demonstrators marching in Khartoum Saturday reached the country's military's headquarters for the first time since deadly anti-government protests erupted nearly four months ago. After protesters began rallying on the streets of the capital city Khartoum, many heeded a call by organizers to converge on the military's headquarters, located near the residence of President Omar al-Bashir. Protesters also reached the army's building in the east central Sudanese city of Madani, witnesses told AFP. The protests began on December 19, with demonstrators accusing Bashir's government of economic mismanagement that has sparked skyrocketing food prices, and fuel and foreign currency shortages. Bashir imposed a nationwide state of emergency on February 22 in an attempt to suppress the protests after an initial crackdown failed. The government said weeks ago that 31 people had been killed, but the group Physicians for Human Rights estimates the death toll is at least 60. The government continues to enforce tough measures that have resulted in the arrests of protesters, opposition leaders and journalists. Since the state of emergency took effect, protests have largely been confined to Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman. But on Saturday organizers called for more rallies and a march on the military's headquarters. The protest movement was first spearheaded by the Sudanese Professionals Association but later won the support of several political parties, including the main opposition party, the National Umma Party. Protest organizers chose April 6 for nationwide rallies because it was on that date in 1985 when a military uprising led to the overthrow of the government of President Jaafar Nimeiri in a bloodless coup. After an elected government was in place for a few years, Bashir, a career army officer, toppled the leadership in a 1989 coup with the support of Islamist hardliners. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Minister: Iran exports 1500 megawatt of electricity to Iraq IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, April 6, IRNA -- Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said on Saturday that the Islamic Republic of Iran is to export 1500 megawatts of electricity to Iraq under the current circumstances. The Iranian minister made the remarks on the sidelines of his meeting with Iraqi Minister of Electricity Louay Al Khateeb on Saturday. Iran's electricity is now exporting to Iraq and relative down payments have been made in due course, he said. 1430**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran denies floods affected joint oil fields with Iraq Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 09:41PM Iranian authorities have reject reports that massive floods have affected crude production in joint oil fields with neighboring Iraq. Head of Iran's Petroleum Engineering and Development Company Turaj Dehqani said on Saturday that historic flash floods that inundated parts oil-rich province of Khuzestan in southwest of the country over the past days had not caused the crude production in joint fields with Iraq, located to the west of the Karun River, to stop or slow down. "Areas to the West of Karun have always been exposed to flooding, however, despite these difficult conditions, the oil development activities have continued unabated," Dehqani told the official IRNA agency, adding that flash floods had caused some minor problems to current operations in the joint fields. Heavy floods, described by authorities as unprecedented in the past 70 years, have affected around two thirds of Iran's 31 provinces with areas in northeast, west and southwest of the country suffering the worst. Nearly 70 people have been killed since the heavy downpours began to hit Iran on March 19. All the five oil fields shared between Iran and Iraq are located near the Hawizeh Marshes which straddles the border between the two countries and is known to the locals as Hurolazim. Dehqani also rejected reports that authorities had decided to divert the flood waters from the Hurolazim in order to protect the oil installations in the area. He said all environmental standards have been observed during years of development of the joint oil fields. Dehqani said Iran's oil production from joint fields with Iraq had reached some 350,000 barrels per day, generating some USD 10 billion for the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address FM Zarif rebukes US 'flip-flop' on Iran's power Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 05:20AM Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has castigated the administration of US President Donald Trump's "flip-flop" on Iran's power, saying American officials make "contradictory" claims that fit an occasion. In a post of his Twitter account on Friday, Zarif cited Trump's interview with Bloomberg News last August, during which he claimed that his policies may lead to the collapse of the Iranian government. The top Iranian diplomat compared Trump's remarks to the comments made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who told a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Thursday that the US-led military alliance should get united in the face of "great power" challenges from Iran, Russia and China. Zarif also stressed that despite "contradictory" statements made by the US officials, Iran has always been a "responsible and peace seeking" nation. Under the Trump administration, the US has stepped up its pressure campaign against Iran. Trump's hostile approach intensified last year, when he unilaterally withdrew Washington from the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and unleashed the "toughest ever" sanctions against Iran. The US has since been trying to coerce the Europeans into following its lead in mounting pressure on the Islamic Republic. Since the US left the JCPOA, the deal's remaining powers -- China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK -- have struggled to provide the sanctions relief promised in the deal. Despite all US belligerent measures, Iran has made major breakthroughs in its defense program, which Tehran says is merely based on deterrence. The Islamic Republic has also contributed to regional security by providing military advisory assistance to Iraq and Syria in their counter-terrorism operations at the request of the two countries' governments. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Reports: U.S. Set To Designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards As Terrorist Organization By RFE/RL April 06, 2019 U.S. media are reporting that the United States will soon designate Iran's hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization, which would be the first time Washington has given that label to the military unit of another country. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, citing U.S. officials, reported on April 5 that that Washington could add the IRGC on its Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) list as early as April 8. The issue has been the subject of speculation for several years. The United States has designated the IRGC's external branch -- the Quds Force -- and a number of individuals and entities associated with the organization as terrorist, but not the IRGC as a whole. The IRGC has been involved in enforcing Islamic codes and crushing dissent at home, experts say, while taking part in covert operations, arms smuggling, and other efforts aimed at expanding Iran's influence abroad. It answers directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The WSJ said national-security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are strong proponents of the move, asserting that it would help Washington crack down on businesses in Europe and elsewhere controlled by the IRGC. But critics and some Pentagon officials have said the move could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly foreign governments. The WSJ said General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the CIA oppose the move, although there were no comments from either. A senior Iranian lawmaker said on April 6 that in response Iran may put the U.S. military on its own terror list. "If the Revolutionary Guards are placed on America's list of terrorist groups, we will put that country's military on the terror blacklist next to Daesh," Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the head of parliament's national security committee, said on Twitter, using an alternate name for the Islamic State (IS) extremist group. IRGC chief General Mohammad Ali Jafari made the same warning in 2017 when he said Tehran would "consider the American army to be like [the extremist group] Islamic State all around the world" if Washington blacklisted the IRGC. At the time, Iranian President Hassan Rohani said that a blacklisting of the IRGC would be a "mistake beyond mistake." The WSJ quoted Jason Blazakis, who served until last year as director of the State Department's Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office, as saying that "the designation of IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization [FTO] is precedent-setting." "Never before has the FTO sanctions tool been directed at a state body. The future ramifications of this decision will be profound," he said. The IRGC has a force of some 100,000 personnel and runs Tehran's ballistic missile programs, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has said. The IRGC's powerful Quds Force, which conducts foreign operations in the Middle East, has arranged weapons deliveries and advised pro-Iranian militias in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and elsewhere. Last October, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain -- both bitter rivals of Iran -- added the IRGC and senior officers from the Quds Force to their lists of people and organizations suspected of involvement in terrorism. Saudi security services said Qassem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC Quds Force, was on the list together with Quds Force officers Hamed Abdollahi and Abdul Reza Shahlai. In 2011, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the three amid allegations that Soleimani, Abdollahi, and Shahlai were linked to a failed plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's former ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir. Iran at the time dismissed the accusations as false and demanded an apology from Washington. With reporting by The Wall Street Journal and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-reportedly-set-to- designate-iran-revolutionary-guards- terrorist-organization-/29864204.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 Explosion Rocks Iranian Military Shipyard Killing at Least Three - Reports Sputnik News 16:54 06.04.2019(updated 17:31 06.04.2019) The blast has ripped through a shipbuilding plant some 37 kilometres west of the port of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz, according to local media. At least three staff members in the Iranian defence industry have been killed in a blast in a submarine under construction in southern Iran. The Fardanews website reported that three technicians had died after three batteries on the vessel exploded. The incident took place at a shipyard in Bandar Abbas overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. "Three Defence Ministry staff were martyred after a submarine battery exploded at the Shahid Darvishi shipyard in (the Gulf port of) Bandar Abbas which builds and repairs military ships and submarines", IRIB said on its website. The Iranian Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics has not issued any statements on the incident. Tehran has been developing light and heavy weapons ranging from mortars and torpedoes, to tanks and submarines. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US to Declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a Terrorist Group - Report Sputnik News 00:55 06.04.2019(updated 01:41 06.04.2019) The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing sources in the administration. The move could be announced as early as Monday, April 8, according to WSJ. If carried out, it will mark the first time another country's military has been branded as a terrorist group. Reuters reports that three sources close to the matter confirmed the WSJ account to them, and that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been pushing for the new designation. The IRGC is already sanctioned by the US: the Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on the military organization in October 2017 under a 9/11-era executive order issued during the George W. Bush administration. "The IRGC has played a central role to Iran becoming the world's foremost state sponsor of terror. Iran's pursuit of power comes at the cost of regional stability, and Treasury will continue using its authorities to disrupt the IRGC's destructive activities," Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said at the time. "We are designating the IRGC for providing support to the IRGC-QF, the key Iranian entity enabling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's relentless campaign of brutal violence against his own people, as well as the lethal activities of Hizballah, Hamas, and other terrorist groups. We urge the private sector to recognize that the IRGC permeates much of the Iranian economy, and those who transact with IRGC-controlled companies do so at great risk." Per the US Department of State, designating a group a foreign terrorist organization is "an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business." The most recent group to be added to the list is the militant jihadist organization Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin. It was added on September 6, 2018. The decision to designate a group a terrorist organization is done in consultation between the secretary of state, US attorney general and the secretary of the treasury. Once the decision is agreed to by the trio, Congress is notified and given seven days to review the move. After the seven-day waiting period comes to a close, and lawmakers do not block the decision, notice of the designation is published in the Federal Registrar and goes into effect. The designated organization, however, can ask for the designation to be reviewed by a US appeals court within 30 days of the official pronouncement. Relations between the US and Iran in recent months hit a new low after the Trump administration pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plane of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, triggering the reactivation of a series of sanctions against the Middle Eastern country. A senior Trump official indicated this week that the administration was considering the possibility of introducing further sanctions next month. On Tuesday, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook blamed Iran for the deaths of more than 600 US servicemembers during the Iraq War. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Make US troops leave Iraq as soon as possible: Ayatollah Khamenei Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 06:04PM Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the Baghdad government should expel US forces from Iraq as soon as possible. "Relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq are beyond relations between two neighboring countries and the Iranian government and nation regard progress and prosperity of Iraq as beneficial to themselves," the Leader said in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and his accompanying delegation in Tehran on Saturday. "But despite their remarks, the Americans regard democracy and Iraq's current political activists to their detriment and based on this, the Iraqi government should do something [to ensure] that American military troops will leave Iraq as soon as possible," Ayatollah Khamenei added. The Leader emphasized that Iraq could turn into the Arab world's most influential country thanks to its human capacities and rich underground resources. The US and its stooges in the region oppose the current democratic process in Iraq and believe that it would be against their interests, the Leader stated. Ayatollah Khamenei added that the Iraqi government, parliament and current political activists were not favored by the US and therefore it was hatching plots to eliminate them from the political scene of Iraq. The Leader pointed to contradictory remarks and intentions of American and Saudi officials and said, "They funneled money, weapons and equipment to Daesh at a time that they [the terrorists] had occupied Mosul, and now that Iraq has overcome Daesh, they are expressing friendly words." The Leader hailed Abdul-Mahdi's wise and prudent stance on regional issues, particularly the developments in Iraq, and said the Iraqi youths were among the country's human capacities that had passed the exam of the fight against Daesh terrorists in a good and admirable way and marked a historical event. Ayatollah Khamenei added that scientists and elites were among Iraq's other human capacities and said the US had killed many Iraqi scientists because it was aware of the significance of "this important asset." The Leader stressed the importance of maintaining full vigilance against the Daesh remnants "because they will once again embark on their crimes, if they feel a moment of weakness among the Iraqi government and nation." Ayatollah Khamenei said the presence of US troops in the region could harm the interests of any country where they had established a long presence. The Leader further said that the Iranian and Iraqi nations had common beliefs and cultural and historic bonds. During the meeting, which was also attended by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the Iraqi prime minister said the Iranian government and nation had always supported the Iraqis in difficult times, particularly in the fight against Daesh. Abdul-Mahdi hailed his country's relations with Iran and emphasized that Iraq would never join US sanctions against Tehran.\ Speaking at a joint press conference with the Iraqi prime minister earlier in the day, Rouhani said Iran and Iraq were keen to expand their cooperation in the fight against terrorism and smuggling while seeking stronger ties in the power, gas and oil sectors. "Border cooperation to fight terrorism, narcotics and smuggling will become stronger between the two countries," Rouhani said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran's Supreme Leader Tells Iraq To Push U.S. Troops Out As Soon As Possible By RFE/RL April 06, 2019 Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Iraq about the "detrimental" effects of having U.S. forces on its territory and urged its neighbor to get the troops to leave as soon as possible. In a series of tweets after meeting with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi in Tehran on April 6, the Iranian leader questioned the motives of the United States, saying it opposes Iraq's "current democratic setting." "U.S. military presence in Iraq is detrimental to countries and nations of the region. You should take actions to make the U.S. withdraw its troops from Iraq because wherever they have had enduring presence, forcing them out has become problematic," he said in the first of five tweets. "The U.S. pursues goals beyond simply maintaining military presence in Iraq. They seek enduring presence and interests as well as forming a government like the military states that existed during the early years of occupying Iraq," he added. The Iraqi prime minister is on a two-day visit to neighboring Iran as the countries seek to expand commercial ties. Earlier on April 6, Mahdi met Iranian President Hassan Rohani, who said they discussed expanding their gas and electricity trade and working towards fulfilling a plan to connect their railroads. Mahdi's visit came after Rohani made his first official visit to Iraq in March, with Tehran seeking to bolster its influence in its neighboring country as Baghdad is under pressure from the United States to limit ties with Iran. 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. "If the Iraqi government and officials follow the U.S., they won't have problems with them. But the current Iraqi government, parliament and political activists are unfavorable to the U.S., thus they devise plots to push this assembly out of the political scene in Iraq," Khamenei said in another tweet. 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. The United States has called on Baghdad to form partnerships with American companies to become energy independent. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-khamenei- tells-iraq-push-u-s-troops-out-soon- as-possible/29865375.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 Iran's Supreme Leader Urges Iraq to Ensure US Troops Leave "as Soon as Possible" Sputnik News 19:43 06.04.2019(updated 20:12 06.04.2019) Earlier in the day, Iran vowed to equate US troops to the Daesh* if Washington designates its Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, during a meeting with his Iraqi colleague, called on Baghdad to ensure that US troops leave "as soon as possible", according to his official website. "You must make sure that the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because expelling them has become difficult whenever they have had a long military presence in a country", Khamenei was quoted as saying. The statement comes amid reports about the White House's plans to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, part of the Iranian armed forces) a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) on 8 April. Earlier, the Foreign Policy magazine reported, citing US officials, that the administration of President Donald Trump is considering the possibility of cutting diplomatic personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq as soon as this year or the next. On 26 March, the United States introduced a new round of sanctions against Iran by adding 16 entities and nine individuals to the sanctions list over their alleged financial support of the IRGC and other units of the Iranian Armed Forces. Tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated since Washington withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement last year and reinstated sanctions against Tehran. The nuclear agreement envisaged the gradual lifting of sanctions in return for Iran keeping its nuclear programme peaceful. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin Offers Russian Help To Build Kazakh Nuclear Plant By Bruce Pannier April 06, 2019 There is once again talk in Kazakhstan of constructing a nuclear power plant (NPP) -- a proposal that's been debated on and off since the late 1990s. This time, the idea seems to have quickly picked up momentum. President Vladimir Putin proposed Russian help to build such a plant when he met with Kazakhstan's new president, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, in Moscow on April 3. A day later, Deputy Kazakh Energy Minister Magzum Mirzagaliev said there was no "concrete decision" to construct a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan, but he also revealed that officials have already chosen a site for such a project near the town of Ulken, in the southeastern Almaty Province. Both Russia and Kazakhstan have agreements with many nations about cooperation in civilian atomic-energy use, but the Kazakh-Russian nuclear relationship is probably the most complicated of all. Putin's overture to Toqaev was far from the first time Moscow has offered help building a nuclear plant in Kazakhstan, though it was interesting that Putin decided to publicly repeat the proposal to Toqaev, who only became Kazakhstan's president on March 20 and was making his first official visit abroad in that capacity. It is also far from the first time the issue of nuclear power has been raised in Kazakhstan. It is a difficult sell in a land that has seen more nuclear tests than virtually any place on the planet. Between 1949 and 1989, when Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union, 340 underground and 116 atmospheric tests were conducted in the Semipalatinsk region of northeastern Kazakhstan. Health problems continue to plague residents of the area. No wonder Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry released a public statement on April 4 assuring the public would be consulted about building any such plant until "after public hearings and consent from local executive bodies on the territory where construction of an [nuclear power plant] is possibly planned." 'Russian Technology' On April 3, Russian media carried the headline Putin Offers Toqaev The Construction Of An NPP In Kazakhstan Using Russian Technology. Putin was quoted as saying the two countries would be moving to a new form of cooperation. By "Russian technology," Putin presumably means Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear company. China has pushed its Belt and Road Initiative global trade network forward by extending huge loans and sending Chinese companies and workers to some of the world's poorer countries. The loans, and the reliance on Chinese companies for training, spare parts, repairs, and such, promise to keep these countries dependent on China for decades to come, simultaneously increasing Beijing's influence around the globe. Rosatom does the same thing. The company boasts a $100 billion portfolio, and its website says it has 36 nuclear reactor projects in 12 countries -- in places like Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Belarus, Iran, Turkey, Hungary, and China. Rosatom submits bids for every nuclear-power-plant contract worldwide. And Rosatom also has nuclear cooperation agreements with countries in South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The cost of a nuclear power plant starts at around $8 billion, and that is in cases where there is only one reactor, such as Rosatom's VVER-1000. During Putin's visit to India in October, Rosatom signed a contract to construct six VVER reactors at a new site in India, in addition to the four other reactors Rosatom is already contracted to build at India's Kudankulum site. Two VVER reactors are already in operation there. Russian financial institutions usually loan most, or nearly all, of the money to those countries for the construction of such plants, and Russian nuclear-fuel provider TVEL frequently receives the contract for fuel supplies. Different Sort Of Customer Kazakhstan would be a different sort of customer for Rosatom. It has been the world's leading uranium producer and exporter since 2009. And Kazakhstan does more than just extract uranium. State company Kazatomprom has worked for years, and is now able to take uranium through all the cycles, from raw uranium to nuclear fuel. From 2007 to 2017, Kazatomprom owned a 10-percent stake in Westinghouse. So Kazakhstan has a large domestic source of uranium and can produce its own nuclear fuel; and Kazatomprom has nuclear technicians trained mostly by Russia but also some trained in Japan, France, and other countries. Russia and Kazakhstan cooperate to mine uranium in Kazakhstan. Putin mentioned "six Russian-Kazakh enterprises for extracting and enriching uranium." Kazatomprom exported nearly 15,290 tons of uranium in 2018, and about 17 percent of that went to Russia. Kazakhstan and Russia established the International Uranium Enrichment Center in Angarsk in 2007. As its name suggests, the center will provide low-enriched uranium (LEU) to interested parties. The center has been internationally hailed as ensuring a steady supply of uranium for nuclear reactors while not transferring the technology to enrich uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Kazakhstan's government also established an LEU bank at Kazakhstan's Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Oskemen, "a physical reserve of up to 90 metric tons of low enriched uranium suitable to make fuel for a typical light water reactor." The IAEA and Russia have an agreement on transporting the uranium to the LEU bank in Oskemen. The April 4 statement from Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry said nuclear-power-plant technologies from five countries, "including Rosatom," were being studied. But the ministry also said other projects were being reviewed, such as more gas-fired plants, hydropower projects, and coal-fired thermal plants. Proposed Locations Russian news agency Interfax noted in its report that Russian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Aleksei Boroodavkin said in February, "We are hopeful that a decision will be taken soon for the construction of an atomic power station that we hope Rosatom will construct." When the idea of building a nuclear plant was floated at the end of the 1990s, the chosen location was the shore of Lake Balkhash in eastern Kazakhstan, roughly between Almaty and Astana (now Nur-Sultan). This plan was scrapped (and eventually South Korea's Samsung C&T Corp helped build a 1,320-megawatt, coal-fired, thermal plant there); but by 2006 there was a plan to build a nuclear plant near Aqtau, in western Kazakhstan on the Caspian coast. Western Kazakhstan is where most of the country's oil-and-gas fields are located, but the region continues to experience power shortages. That plan, too, was discarded; but in 2009, with Russian offers of help, there was discussion of building a nuclear facility in Kurchatov, in northern Kazakhstan in the Semipalatinsk area where the nuclear tests were conducted in the Soviet days. In May 2014, Russia and Kazakhstan signed a memorandum of cooperation on the construction of a nuclear plant in Kurchatov. When, and why, officials decided on Ulken in southeastern Kazakhstan is unclear. Almaty is no longer Kazakhstan's capital, but it remains the most populous city in the country. However, when former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev decided to move the capital north, earthquakes in the Almaty area were one of the reasons he gave for transferring the capital. It is not yet a certainty that Kazakhstan will build a nuclear power plant. Talk of building one has sparked protests in the past in Kazakhstan, so it is not something Kazakh officials would want to move on quickly. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-putin-offers- russian-nuclear-plant-help/29865177.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 Libya's Haftar forces targeted by airstrike as they march for capital Tripoli Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 03:57PM Forces of the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Libya's strongman Khalifa Haftar, say they have been targeted by an airstrike south of Tripoli, as they are pushing forward to seize the capital reportedly with support from the United Arab Emirtes, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. The North African country has been divided between two rival governments, the House of Representatives, based in the eastern city of Tobruk, and the internationally-recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj, or the Tripoli-based unity Government of National Accord (GNA). Haftar is presumably loyal to the one in the east. Middle East Monitor quoted a senior Libyan general as saying that there are Emirati and Egyptian weapons being used by Haftar's fighters in the battle to capture the capital and oust the GNA, stressing that Saudi Arabia gave Haftar the green light for his attack and supplied him with money in order to take over the west Libya. "Egypt and the UAE supplied Haftar with arms and heavy equipment... Haftar is also using militias from Chad and the Sudanese opposition," Libyan Brigadier General Mohammad Al-Qunidi, who is chief of the military intelligence loyal to Sarraaj, has said, noting, "The three Arab countries support Haftar's militias in order to create a new Sisi in Libya," referring to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. "Haftar does not have money and arms enough to face Al-Bunyan Al-Marsous forces [the coalition formed to expel Daesh from the central city of Sirte in 2016] and the Libyan army together in the western area. His move came only after his latest visit to Saudi Arabia," he told Al Khaleej Online on Friday. According to the Guardian, Haftar met King Salman of Saudi Arabia on 27 March in Riyadh. However, King Salman did not meet with Sarraj at the Arab League meeting in Tunis two days later, a move that could be taken as a signal of support for Haftar at a time when it was known he was considering an attack on Tripoli. The LNA media office said in a statement on Saturday that a military plane, reportedly taken off from the city of Misrata, conducted the airstrike "in the al-Aziziya region," some 50 kilometers south of Tripoli. Forces in Misrata are mostly loyal to the GNA. "We strongly condemn the air raid," said the statement. Meanwhile, forces loyal to the GNA arrived in Tajura, a coastal suburb of Tripoli, from their base in Misrata. On Thursday, the eastern forces fully seized Gharyan town, located about 100 kilometers south of Tripoli, and on Friday they captured the former Tripoli International Airport. Earlier Friday, forces allied to the GNA had pushed back Haftar's forces from a key checkpoint less than 30 kilometers from Tripoli. The United Nations has already voiced its deep concern regarding the outcome of the soaring conflicts for the African nation, strongly urging Haftar to halt his forces' advancement toward the capital. UN insists to hold national conference Additionally on Saturday, the UN said that it was determined to hold Libya's national conference on possible elections on time despite the current surge of fighting. The world body aims to hold a conference in the southwestern town of Ghadames on April 14-16 to weigh elections as a way out of Libya's factional anarchy. "We know that holding the conference in this difficult time of escalation and fighting is a difficult matter. But we are determined to hold it on time unless compelling circumstances force us not to," said Ghassan Salame, a senior UN envoy, in a press conference in Tripoli. Furthermore, the G7 foreign ministers on Saturday warned Haftar to desist from his thrust on the capital, threatening the GNA there, or face possible international action. Libya has been the scene of increasing violence since 2011, when former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled from power after an uprising and a NATO military intervention. His ouster created a huge power vacuum, leading to chaos and the emergence of numerous militant outfits, including the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Libya's Haftar forces close in on Tripoli, capture former international airport Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 08:14AM Forces loyal to Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar say they have advanced into the southern outskirts of the country's capital city and seized the former Tripoli International Airport in a dangerous escalation. Ahmed Mismari, a spokesman for Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA), said the forces were in full control of Tarhouna and Aziziya, two towns near Tripoli, as well as their villages nearby. "Aziziya is now under our control, the road to Aziziya that reaches Zeltan is also under our control. In addition, Alhira district is under our control as well as Tarhouna," Mismari said. "This is considered a great achievement and progress towards Tripoli, it means that we are technically inside Tripoli," he added. Earlier Friday, forces allied to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), administered by Fayez al-Sarraj, had pushed back Haftar's forces from a key checkpoint less than 30 km from Tripoli. Media reports said 145 LNA fighters had been captured in Zawiya, west of the Libyan capital, and 60 vehicles belonging to pro-Haftar forces had also been confiscated. The recent escalation prompted the UN Security Council to call for an emergency meeting behind closed doors on Friday. It came as UN chief Antonio Guterres left the chaos-wracked country after meeting Haftar to try to avert civil war. "I leave Libya with a heavy heart and deeply concerned. I still hope it is possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli," he said on Twitter. Haftar on Thursday announced that his forces would begin an offensive against Tripoli, which is currently controlled by the county's internationally-recognized government. The LNA claimed that its advance on the country's west was meant to root out what it called "terrorist groups" in the restive region. The United Nations is scheduled to hold a conference later this month in the southwestern Libyan city of Ghadames to discuss a political solution to the conflict and stabilize country. Libya has been the scene of increasing violence since 2011, when former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled from power after an uprising and a NATO military intervention. His ouster created a huge power vacuum, leading to chaos and the emergence of numerous militant outfits, including the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group. The oil-rich country is now divided between two rival governments the House of Representatives, based in the eastern city of Tobruk, and the government of Sarraj, or the Tripoli-based GNA. Haftar and the LNA have been backed by certain Arab governments, including the United Arab Emirates and Libya's neighbor Egypt. Some European governments that once contributed to the NATO military operation to oust Gaddafi have also offered Haftar some diplomatic support. On Friday, Russia stressed that it had not assisted Haftar's forces in their latest push to take over Tripoli, calling for a political solution to the recent flare-up of tensions in Libya. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN To Press Ahead With Libya Election Conference Amid Uptick In Fighting By RFE/RL April 06, 2019 The United Nations says it will press ahead with a national conference next week on possible Libyan elections even as the country teeters on the brink of civil war. Forces of Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar made a dramatic move toward the capital of Tripoli on April 6, taking the former international airport. That prompted foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations, who were meeting in France, to warn of possible action against the commander if he didn't stop his advance toward the internationally recognized government based in Tripoli. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged all sides to reach a peace deal while simultaneously warning against foreign meddling in the North African nation. The UN special envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, said he hoped to stem the crisis and forge ahead with a conference in the southwestern town of Ghadames to consider whether elections can put an end to the factional rivalries that are holding the country back. "We know that holding the conference in this difficult time of escalation and fighting is a difficult matter. But we are determined to hold it on time unless compelling circumstances force us not to," he told reporters in Tripoli. After an emergency meeting on April 5, the UN Security Council warned that the military activity of Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) was putting the country's stability at risk. Deeply Concerned The UN is looking at the elections as a way of restoring stability in a country that is often the transit hub for refugees heading north through Africa to Europe. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the move by Haftar's forces "untimely" and said there can only be a political solution to Libya's problems. "It is important that all of the international community takes the same line," Le Drian said. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Haftar in Benghazi on April 5 as part of efforts to forestall an outright assault on Tripoli and avoid a bloody civil war. "I leave Libya with a heavy heart and deeply concerned. I still hope it is possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli," he said on Twitter after his meeting. Guterres has also been in Tripoli this week to help organize a national reconciliation conference planned for later in April --a plan that looks increasingly unlikely with every day of continued fighting. Russia, which has provided Haftar with backing in the past, claimed it was not helping the commander's forces in the offensive and that it supported a negotiated political settlement that ruled out any new bloodshed. Speaking in a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo on April 6, Lavrov said Moscow was in contact with all parties in the conflict and also backed a mutual and peaceful agreement. "Along with Egypt, we insist that the Libyans themselves should determine their future. They should start an inclusive and businesslike dialogue without any artificial deadlines, which some are trying to impose on them from the outside, and without being prompted against their will," Lavrov said. Haftar's LNA on April 4 launched the offensive aimed at taking the capital. Reuters and other news agencies said Haftar's forces took the town of Gharyan, about 80 kilometers south of Tripoli after fighting against forces allied with Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, who is based in Tripoli. Tripoli-allied forces also reportedly took dozens of soldiers from Haftar's units prisoner in a town west of the capital. Sharp Escalation The advance by Haftar's LNA was a sharp escalation of the power struggle that has gone on since longtime Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown in 2011. Haftar is supported by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), which are worried about the threat of Islamic militants. In 2014, he assembled former Qaddafi soldiers and in a three-year battle seized the main eastern city of Benghazi. He captured the south with its crucial oilfields in recent months. Haftar traveled to Moscow twice in 2016 seeking political support. The Financial Times has reported that Russia has helped the administration Haftar set up in eastern Libya issue a parallel currency, a pointed challenge to the Tripoli-based central government. Russian officials sharply criticized U.S. and European actions that preceded Qaddafi's ouster and blamed the West for the chaos that engulfed Libya. With Dmitry Medvedev as president, Russia abstained from the vote on the UN Security Council resolution that allowed air strikes by NATO forces in 2011, but Vladimir Putin -- then prime minister -- likened it to "medieval calls for crusades." The U.S. State Department also sounded the alarm about the new fighting. "At this sensitive moment in Libya's transition, military posturing and threats of unilateral action only risk propelling Libya back toward chaos," the department said in a statement issued jointly with France, Italy, Britain, and the United Arab Emirates. The U.A.E. added its name to the statement even though it has supported Haftar. With reporting by Reuters, Financial Times, AFP, and dpa Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/un-to-press-ahead -with-libya-election-conference-amid- uptick-in-fighting/29865350.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 French Foreign Minister: Libyan Crisis Can Only Be Resolved by Political Means Sputnik News 21:36 06.04.2019(updated 22:05 06.04.2019) PARIS (Sputnik) - The Libyan crisis cannot be resolved through "a military victory," as a political settlement is the only option in light of growing tensions in the Maghreb country, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian stated. "In Libya, we know what needs to be done. Yesterday evening, we set forth the communique with no difficulty. There is one basic principle which that in Libya there will not be a military victory. The solution can only be a political one", Le Drian said at a press conference closing the meeting of G7 foreign ministers in France. The political solution for the Libyan crisis includes calling a national conference and a subsequent holding of elections, the French foreign minister noted. "Now, for all of this to happen in a calm setting, we need many elements of the present situation to stop, and different players to restrain themselves", Le Drian underlined. The statement comes after France, jointly with Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates expressed concern over the latest outbreak of fighting in Libya. The situation in Libya escalated on 4 April as Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the commander of forces loyal to East Libya-based government, ordered an offensive to retake Tripoli from the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA)-backed forces. The LNA has already recaptured a number of settlements on its way to the capital, while leader of Libya's UN-supported government Fayez Sarraj has ordered its troops to use force if necessary. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN Keeps Working in Libya to Resolve Conflict - Special Envoy Sputnik News 19:10 06.04.2019(updated 20:12 06.04.2019) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UN Special Representative for Libya Ghassan Salame has stated that the organisation continued to work in order to find a peaceful solution to the Libyan conflict. "I want to reassure the Libyans that the @UN will not leave them by themselves & will stay in #Libya, working towards a political solution, silencing the guns & a peaceful political understanding between the various parties", Salame said after his meeting with the head of the Government of National Accord, Fayez Sarraj, as quoted by UN Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Twitter. The statement comes after LNA spokesman Ahmed Al-Mismari said on 5 April that Haftar's army was carrying out an offensive on Tripoli in several directions at once but has not yet entered the capital. He stated that he could not yet name the date of the end of the operation, but confirmed that the offensive would continue until all objectives were achieved. G7 Urges Libyan Conflicting Parties to Avoid Using Oil Facilities for Political Purposes Meanwhile, the G7's foreign ministers said on Saturday in a communique following their talks in France's Dinard and Saint-Malo stated that oil facilities and production in Libya should not be used by parties to the conflict for political purposes. "We recall that Libya's oil facilities, production, and revenues belong to the Libyan people, and must not be used by any party for political gain," the communique says. The day before, the G7 states called on all parties in Libya to immediately cease hostilities and support UN efforts to establish peace. The situation in Libya escalated on 4 April as Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander of forces loyal to East Libya-based government, ordered an offensive to retake Tripoli from the forces of the UN-backed GNA. The LNA has already recaptured a number of settlements on its way to the capital, while the leader of Libya's UN-backed government Sarraj has ordered its troops to use force if necessary. The escalation caught UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on his trip to Libya as part of the UN-led efforts to boost the political settlement of the Libyan conflict. On Friday, Guterres met with Haftar and then left Libya. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Libyan Government of National Accord Appoints Official Spokesman of Armed Forces Sputnik News 17:41 06.04.2019(updated 17:54 06.04.2019) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Prime Minister of the Tripoli-based UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez Sarraj appointed Col. Muhammad Kanunu on Saturday as the official spokesman of the army. "Air Force Col. Muhammad Hassan Muhammad Kanunu is appointed the official spokesman of the Libyan army," the government said in a decree published on Facebook. The decree comes into force from the date of publication. The decision was announced amid a tense situation in the country, with the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by commander Khalifa Haftar, carrying out an offensive to retake Tripoli from the GNA-backed forces. The LNA has already recaptured a number of settlements on its way to the capital, while the leader of Libya's UN-backed GNA government Fayez Sarraj has ordered its troops to use force if necessary. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Khalifa Haftar told Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in a phone call about the LNA's actions in the fight against terrorists. "Haftar shared information about the actions undertaken by the Libyan National Army in recent days, aimed, as it was emphasized, at intensifying the fight against terrorist and extremist groups present in various parts of the country, including the capital of Tripoli, which pose a threat to stability of Libyan society and impede the implementation of agreements on the establishment of a sustainable inter-Libyan inclusive political process and a consensus dialogue aimed at creating effective government bodies," the ministry said. Earlier in the day, the LNA announced the establishment of a no-fly zone for combat aircraft over the western part of the country and established full control over Tripoli International Airport, located 34 kilometres (21 miles) from the Libyan capital, which has not been in operation since 2014 as its infrastructure was significantly damaged. Though both sides, GNA and LNA, held the UN-supported talks in February, the conflict continues to escalate. This two-sided division of the country has been established following years of conflicts and a revolt, backed by NATO, that ended up with the murder of the ex-head of state Muammar Gaddafi. Since then, there was no single central government in Libya. The Tobruk-based parliament, elected in 2014 and backed by the LNA, governs the east of Libya, while the GNA, established in 2015, controls Libya's western parts from Tripoli. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Concerned Over Use of Combat Aircraft by Armed Groups in Libya Sputnik News 14:25 06.04.2019(updated 16:22 06.04.2019) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has addressed the tense situation in Libya, which has recently escalated amid the Libyan National Army's advance toward Tripoli. The offensive is aimed, according to LNA head Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, to liberate the city from militants. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Moscow's stance on the Libyan conflict on Saturday, stressing that Russia is against putting the blame of the crisis on any side. "We advocate the position that there should be no attempts to unilaterally appoint the perpetrators. The reason for the Libyan crisis is what NATO members did to this country in 2011. It's been since then that it has become a ruined state, let's call things by their proper names, and turned into a black hole through which terrorists go to the south, along with the illegal smuggling of weapons, and to the north the flow of illegal migrants", Lavrov said at a press conference after talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. According to Lavrov, Moscow is in contact with all Libyan political factions and is sending each of them the same signals. "We, like Egypt, are in favour of the Libyans themselves defining their fate, that they begin an inclusive dialogue without any far-fetched dates that some are trying to dictate to them from the outside, and without someone pressuring them against their will", Lavrov stated. Concluding, the Russian top diplomat underlined that Russia and Egypt both advocate for a diplomatic resolution of conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. "We talked about the tasks of combating terrorism and extremism and about the existing hotbeds of tension in Africa. Russia and the Arab Republic of Egypt advocate for political, diplomatic and peaceful settlements of all conflicts, which should be based on international law and without any foreign interference. We will continue our coordination", Lavrov said at a press conference after talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. Reacting to Lavrov's statements during the meeting, Egypt Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called on all parties to the conflict in Libya to show restraint. The Russian foreign minister's visit to the Egyptian capital is taking place amid an aggravation of the situation in Libya, where on Thursday the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Marshal Khalifa Haftar, ordered his forces to launch an offensive on Tripoli to "liberate the city from terrorists". After a series of conflicts that hit Libya after the NATO-backed rebellion and murder of ex-head of state Muammar Gaddafi, there has been no single central government in Libya. The Tobruk-based parliament, elected in 2014 and backed by the Libyan National Army, rules the east of Libya, while the Government of National Accord (GNA), established in 2015, controls Libya's western parts from Tripoli. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address LNA Announces No-Fly Zone for Combat Aircraft Amid Advance on Tripoli - Reports Sputnik News 11:44 06.04.2019(updated 16:30 06.04.2019) According to Al Jazeera, aircraft from the Government of National Accord (GNA) have conducted an airstrike against troops from the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, 80 kilometres south of Tripoli. The broadcaster reported that the airstrike was conducted in the city of Gharyan, earlier seized by the LNA without any clashes. Following the reports, the LNA announced the establishment of a no-fly zone over the western part of the country. "The Libyan Army declares the western region of the country to be a zone of military operations and is imposing a ban on flights of combat aviation in this area", the LNA statement, cited by Al Arabiya, said. "We will strike any airports in the west from which combat aircraft carry out their missions". The millitary also said that their units have gained full control over Tripoli International Airport, located 34 kilometres (21 miles) from the Libyan capital, which has not been in operation since 2014 as its infrastructure was significantly damaged. "In an unprecedented historical event for the residents of Libya, the [LNA] has just established control over the whole Tripoli International Airport", the press service of LNA said in a statement, seen by Sputnik. A source in the LNA previously told Sputnik that the forces had already captured several settlements and key positions to the west, south, and southwest of Tripoli, including Gharyan, Al-Swani, Janzur, and a checkpoint, located in the Wershiffana area. The LNA offensive began on Thursday, with Haftar stating he aimed at "liberating Tripoli from terrorists". The conflict between the factions continues to escalate despite the talks that Haftar and Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, who heads the UN-supported GNA held in February. During the negotiations, both sides agreed to unite state institutions and hold general elections in the country by the end of the year. As a result of a years-long series of conflicts that erupted following a rebellion and murder of the ex-head of state Muammar Gaddafi, there has been no single central government in Libya. The Tobruk-based parliament, elected in 2014 and backed by the LNA, governs the east of Libya, while the GNA, established in 2015, controls Libya's western parts from Tripoli. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Libyan GNA Chief Agrees to Meet With LNA's Haftar Who Rejects Option - Reports Sputnik News 07:11 06.04.2019(updated 07:23 06.04.2019) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Fayez Sarraj, prime minister of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord, agreed to meet with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the rival Libyan National Army (LNA), but the latter has refused to attend such a meeting, media reported, citing diplomatic sources in the UN Security Council, on Saturday. Al-Jazeera reported, citing sources, that Sarraj had agreed to meet with Haftar in Geneva given the clashes in Libya have been halted. The broadcaster added, that UN Special Representative Ghassan Salame had informed the UNSC that he would talk to Haftar later on Saturday and would meet with Sarraj, too. The situation in Libya escalated on Thursday when Haftar ordered an offensive to retake Tripoli from the GNA-backed forces. The LNA has already recaptured a number of settlements on its way to the capital, while Sarraj has ordered his troops to use force if necessary. The escalation caught UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on his trip to Libya as part of the UN-led efforts to boost the political settlement of the Libyan conflict. On Friday, Guterres met with Haftar and then left Libya. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry of the Tripoli-based Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) said in a statement, shared with Sputnik, that it had held an emergency meeting with local hospitals regarding the preparedness of their ambulance services to provide assistance to the public amid the escalation of tensions in the Libyan capital. "An emergency meeting held by Deputy Health Minister Mohamed Haitham Issa and a number of directors of major hospitals, specialising in ambulance services in Tripoli, has just started This meeting is held to consider the readiness of ambulance departments in the hospitals and cope with any emergency shortage that might happen in the future", the press release on the meeting, held on Friday, read. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UNSC Says to Hold Those Responsible for Libyan Conflict Escalation Accountable Sputnik News 00:47 06.04.2019(updated 01:00 06.04.2019) The United Nations Security Council has called on Libyan parties to the conflict to de-escalate tensions and cease military activity, saying that there can be no military solution. The United Nations Security Council said that it is deeply concerned about military activity in Tripolithat pose risk to political settlements of Libyan conflict. UNSC also said it will hold those responsible for the escalation of Libyan conflict accountable, adding that it supports UN-lead efforts to stabilize the crisis. As a result of the years-long civil conflict, there is no single central government in Libya. The country's eastern and western parts are controlled by separate powers. The Tobruk-based parliament, elected in 2014 and backed by the Libyan National Army, governs the east of Libya, while the UN-supported interim Government of National Accord controls Libya's western parts from Tripoli. On Wednesday, the GNA declared a general military alert after Haftar-led eastern forces announced they were moving to western parts of the country. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Forces Loyal to Haftar Advance on Parts of Tripoli By Edward Yeranian April 06, 2019 Forces loyal to eastern Libyan military commander Gen. Khalifa Haftar appear to have gained ground along the outskirts of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Arab media broadcast video of Haftar's forces entering the gates of Tripoli's now-closed international airport, before taking positions outside terminal buildings and along the now-unused runways. There did not appear to be any resistance to the takeover. Arab media also showed residents of neighborhoods near the capital cheering as Haftar's forces entered. Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV said Haftar's forces had entered the Khalat al-Fargan district of the capital. VOA could not independently confirm the claim. Four towns controlled Haftar's military spokesman, Col. Ahmad Almismari, told a press conference Saturday afternoon that forces under Haftar's command were gaining ground. He said Haftar's forces were in control of the towns of Gharyan, Jendouba, Qasr al-Beshir and Suwani. He said 14 soldiers fighting with the Libyan army had been killed in fighting. The spokesman said air force planes loyal to Haftar had launched at least four raids near the Bab al-Aziziya military compound south of the capital, but that there were no casualties. He said, however, that planes from the nearby town of Misrata, which opposes Haftar, had killed a number of civilians in a raid over the town of Ghariyan, which Haftar now controls. As the fighting appeared to spread, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres insisted, during a visit to Jordan, that the U.N. "would never give up its support [for] the Libyan people." U.N. special envoy Ghassan Salame, who is in Libya, said he was monitoring the situation closely. He said tensions were increasing in a number of places in and around Tripoli and that he was keeping tabs on the situation. He said it was urgent that tension in those areas be ended and that civilians' safety be ensured. In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called on the international community to take action to restore stability to the Libyan capital. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri told visiting Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that Libya has been out of control since the revolution that overthrew Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Shoukri said the situation in Libya has been worrisome over the past few years with respect to the lack of stability and spread of terrorism, increasing the danger to the Libyan people. Lavrov: Commence talks Lavrov urged all parties to stop fighting and start negotiating and said the international community must prevent the situation from escalating. He urged Libya's warring parties to cease military operations and sit down at the negotiating table. U.N. envoy Salame, for his part, insisted that "every effort would be made to hold the upcoming national dialogue conference" in the southern town of Ghadames, "unless the situation on the ground made it impossible to do so." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pakistan Says Indian Claim Of Downing F-16 Proven 'False' April 06, 2019 Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan says India's claim it downed a Pakistani F-16 fighter aircraft during a military standoff in February has proven to be "false." U.S.-based Foreign Policy magazine issued a report on April 4, citing U.S. officials, that said all of Pakistan's F-16 combat jets had been accounted for. "The truth always prevails and is always the best policy," Khan said in a tweet on April 6. Khan said the "false claims" were an attempt by Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi's government to win upcoming elections "through whipping up war hysteria." India is holding general elections on April 11. The Indian Air Force rejected the Foreign Policy report and said it had proof that it shot down a Pakistani F-16. India says it shot down a Pakistani F-16 when tensions flared between the nuclear-armed rivals after a February suicide bombing killed 40 Indian troops in Indian-administered Kashmir. That led to India launching an air strike inside Pakistan, where it said it was targeting militants responsible for the bombing. In response, Pakistan then shot down two Indian jet fighters. Based on reporting by Reuters, dpa, and Foreign Policy Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-says-indian-claim -of-downing-f-16-proven-false-/29865157.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 foreign minister slams Israel's 'inadmissible' shelling of Syria Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 04:46PM Russia's foreign minister has slammed as "inadmissible" Israel's airstrikes on Syria, underlining the need for respecting the sovereignty of the Arab country. In an interview with Egypt's al-Ahram newspaper on Saturday, Sergei Lavrov said Moscow's stance on the inadmissibility of Israeli shelling of Syria's territory has not changed. "Our principled stance concerning shelling Syria's territory has remained unchanged. We have always clearly expressed our attitude to that. We proceed from the need for strict respect for Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity," Lavrov said. "We are opposed to turning the country's territory into a scene of armed standoff between various regional players," Lavrov said when asked to comment on remarks by some political analysts about softening Moscow's stance on Israeli shelling of Syria. The top Russian diplomat said, "During our contacts with all parties concerned, we highlight the importance of preventing an upsurge in tensions and the dangerous escalation of the situation in Syria, which are fraught with negative consequences for both neighboring countries and the Middle East region in general." He went on to say that Russia in cooperation with Iran and Turkey contributed to working to set up a de-escalation zone in Syria's south and southwest. "Now these areas are under the control of the Syrian government. Russian military police officers help maintain law and order there," Lavrov said. Israel began carrying out military strikes in Syria in 2013. The Tel Aviv regime has recently increased its airstrikes in the Arab nation. Earlier in March, the Israeli regime launched the attacks on Shaykh Najjar industrial city located 10 km northeast of the city of Aleppo. The Syrian government has on multiple occasions slammed the Israeli regime's act of aggression and also warned about the "dangerous repercussions" of Israeli assaults on its territories. Israel is widely believed to have been providing weapons to anti-Damascus militants as well as medical treatment to Takfiri elements wounded in Syria inside the occupied Golan Heights. Israel often claims that it conducts airstrikes targeting "Iranian assets" in Syria. Damascus and Tehran have repeatedly rejected Israeli claims that Iran has military bases in Syria. Iran has been offering military advisory support to Syria at the request of the Damascus government, enabling its army to speed up its gains on various fronts against terror outfits. Russia has also conducted aerial bombardment of terrorist positions. In the past, the Syrian army has confiscated Israeli-made arms and military equipment from terrorists fighting the government forces. There are also reports that Tel Aviv has been treating the extremists wounded in Syria. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address MOFA refutes report saying U.S. arm sales to Taiwan on hold ROC Central News Agency 2019/04/06 14:32:26 Taipei, April 6 (CNA) The U.S. sale of F-16V fighter jets to Taiwan has not been put on hold, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Saturday, refuting a claim in a U.S. media report that the Trump Administration has temporarily set aside the arms sale in order to reach a trade deal with China. MOFA spokesman Andrew Lee () told CNA that Taiwan had maintained close communications with the U.S. after the Letter of Request for the purchase of F-16V fighter jets was submitted to the U.S. Lee said the U.S. was now conducting the review procedures and "the sale had not been shelved." MOFA's comments came in response to Time magazine's report on Friday saying that the U.S. has shelved the Taiwan arms sale until a trade deal with China is sealed, citing three anonymous Administration officials. Time magazine's report said the White House's initial decision reported in late March to offer tacit approval for Taiwan to buy 60 Lockheed Martin F-16V fighter jets was widely seen as a U.S. show of strength against China. But the decision to delay approval of the sale has contributed to concern among some in the Administration that Trump may go soft on China in his desire to secure a trade deal, according to Time. It cited the U.S. officials as saying that the draft trade agreement currently under negotiation would boost Trump's political fortunes and ease the jittery stock market, but it is unlikely to address many of the issues at the core of the U.S.-China trade dispute. Congress must also approve of any arms sales to Taiwan, and the Administration has yet to submit that request to lawmakers, the magazine reported. The State Department, which opposed the proposed arms sale, has also called for an interagency meeting to determine whether the U.S. can sell Taiwan M1 tanks, Time cited an Administration official as saying. Taiwan's MOFA spokesman Lee, however, said the relationship between Taiwan and the U.S. has been close and cordial. Since President Trump's inauguration, Lee said, the U.S. has sold arms to Taiwan twice, demonstrating its firm support for Taiwan's security. High ranking U.S. officials also have publicly reiterated their support of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), he added. Signed into law on April 10, 1979, following the switch of recognition from Taipei to Beijing by the U.S., the TRA authorizes Washington to provide Taiwan with defensive arms. Echoing MOFA's comment, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said the Time magazine report was not based on facts, adding that U.S. arm sales to Taiwan was in accordance with the TRA and the"six assurances." The"six assurances"were issued by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1982, stipulating that the U.S. would not set a date for termination of arms sales to Taiwan; alter the terms of the TRA; consult with China in advance before making decisions about arms sales to Taiwan; mediate between Taiwan and China; alter its position about the sovereignty of Taiwan or pressure Taiwan to enter into negotiations with China; or formally recognize Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. Asked about the issue, the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. embassy on the island, said it does not comment on proposed arms sales. "We only comment after they have been notified to Congress." (By Elaine Hou, Wang Cheng-chung and Chung Yu-chen) Enditem/cs NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump delays Taiwan aircraft deal amid China trade talks: Report Iran Press TV Sat Apr 6, 2019 10:13AM United States President Donald Trump has postponed an arms deal with Taiwan until after he secures a trade deal with China, according to a new report. "The Trump Administration has put on hold a previously reported sale of jet fighters to Taiwan until the United States seals a trade deal with China," three US officials were quoted as saying in by the Time. The State Department approved in September the proposed sale to Taiwan of spare parts for military aircraft worth up to 330 million dollars. The deal covered parts for Taiwan's F-16, C-130, F-5, Indigenous Defense Fighters, and other aircraft systems. Beijing has strongly objected to Washington for approving the proposed arms sales to Taiwan, warning that providing the self-ruled island with advanced weaponry would breach Chinese sovereignty and do "severe damage" to bilateral relations. American and Chinese officials have held several rounds of talks to end a months-long "trade war" that has seen the Trump administration impose heavy tariff's on Chinese imports in retaliation for China's "unfair" trade policies. According to latest reports, it was not clear whether the two sides were nearing a deal. Trump, however, claimed on Thursday that the trade talks with the Chinese side were "moving along nicely", saying he could be signing a trade deal with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping within weeks. "If we have a deal, there will be a summit," Trump told reporters at the White House before a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. "I would say we'll know over the next four weeks." Trump began his trade war with China in early 2018, accusing the Chinese of stealing American intellectual property among a series of other measures. The Time report suggested that some of the more hawkish members of the Trump administration were worried that the president may soon go soft on China in his desire to close a trade deal. International affairs pundits say the trade tensions between the two countries are a disguise for political and economic supremacy. Hendrik du Toit, the chief executive of Investec, a major asset management firm, was quoted by CNBC as saying that trade talks between the US and China were not simply about trade, but "a new world order". NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pardon Our Interruption As you were browsing something about your browser made us think you were a bot. There are a few reasons this might happen: You've disabled JavaScript in your web browser. You're a power user moving through this website with super-human speed. You've disabled cookies in your web browser. A third-party browser plugin, such as Ghostery or NoScript, is preventing JavaScript from running. Additional information is available in this support article. To regain access, please make sure that cookies and JavaScript are enabled before reloading the page. After completing the CAPTCHA below, you will immediately regain access to the site again. West Lafayette, Ind., March 28, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- One frustration for doctors and patients dealing with certain cancers and autoimmune diseases is that they know the cause, but they dont know how to reduce its effects in the body. A clue can be found with the immunoproteasome, a protein complex in the body that is present in specific types of cancers, such as colorectal, colon and breast. It also is present in autoimmune diseases where cells have encountered a pro-inflammatory signal where the bodys immune cells start to attack and destroy themselves. Identifying and reducing this autoimmune response is an ongoing challenge for medical professionals. It is well understood which types of cells will express the immunoproteasome,said Darci Trader, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology in Purdues College of Pharmacy , who leads the research team. How its activity can be perturbed to affect disease is not. Trader and her Purdue University team have designed a new probe to monitor and label immunoproteasome-expressing cells. Current probes are inefficient for monitoring the activity of the immunoproteasome in live cells becausethey are not very cell permeable and can easily be degraded by other cellular proteases. The work is published in the March 20 edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society . Having an immunoproteasome-selective probe that can work in live cells allows for a quicker readout of how small molecules are affecting the activity of the immunoproteasome, Trader said. We are going to use our new immunoproteasome probe to discover small molecules to help tweak the immune system response for people dealing with cancers, infections and autoimmune diseases. In the case of cancer or infections, the aim is a quicker immune system response. In the case of autoimmune diseases, the goal is to lessen the immune systems response. As the probe fluoresces to indicateimmunoproteasome is present, the identification of small molecules could lead to increasing or decreasing the immune system response to best serve the patient. Trader said they also are working to test the ability of the probe to detect the immunoproteasome and then use it as a vehicle to release drugs to treat cancer and other diseases. They are specifically looking at the use of prodrugs, which are biologically inactive compounds that selectively produce medication effects based on how they are created. Their work aligns with Purdue's Giant Leaps celebration, celebrating the global advancements in health as part of Purdues 150th anniversary. Health is one of the four themes of the yearlong celebrations Ideas Festival , designed to showcase Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues. Trader has worked with the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization to patent several technologies to help in disease monitoring and treatment. Her research team is looking for additional partners and researchers. PORTSMOUTH, N.H. and MELBOURNE, Australia, April 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Kinetics Pty Ltd., a medical device company focused on the development and commercialization of the first FDA-cleared and CE-marked wearable watch for the objective treatment and management of Parkinsons disease, called the Personal KinetiGraph (PKG), today announced the appointment of Gregory Barrett, a distinguished medical device industry expert, as an independent director to its Board of Directors. We are pleased and excited to welcome Mr. Barrett to our Board, said John Schellhorn, CEO of Global Kinetics Corporation. With his success scaling multiple medical device companies and his proven leadership qualities, Greg will be an invaluable voice on our Board of Directors as GKC continues to bring technologies to market which improve the lives of patients with Parkinsons disease. Mr. Barrett has over 40 years of medical device experience, including in the fields of spine, radiology, oncology, gastroenterology, urology, cardiology, and cardiovascular surgery. Previously he served as president and CEO at DFINE Inc. where he restructured the company and negotiated its sale to Merit Medical. Prior to Dfine, Mr. Barrett was Chairman, President, and CEO of BARRX Medical. BARRX was sold to Covidien in January 2012. Previous to joining BARRX Medical, Mr. Barrett served as President and CEO of ACMI Corporation, which was acquired by Gyrus Medical and subsequently by Olympus Medical. Currently, Mr. Barrett sits on the Board of Directors for BTG PLC, Cutera Inc., and Aqua Medical. He holds a B.B.A. in Marketing from University of Texas: Austin. About Global Kinetics Pty Ltd. Global Kinetics Pty Ltd. is committed to improving the lives of those with Parkinsons disease with advanced medical technologies. The company was formed in 2007 to commercialize its lead product, the Personal KinetiGraph (PKG). The PKG enables the precise monitoring, quantification, and reporting of movement symptoms in Parkinsons. To date, Global Kinetics has supported clinical decisions for doctors who have treated more than 40,000 patients with Parkinsons Disease, generating more than 6,000,000 hours of clinical data from our FDA-cleared, CE-marked PKG wearable device. Global Kinetics, a privately held company, is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia with offices in London, UK, Minneapolis, MN, and Portsmouth, NH, USA. For more information, visit: www.globalkineticscorporation.com Follow our LinkedIn updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/globalkineticscorp PERTH, Australia, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Perseus Mining Limited (Perseus or the Company) (TSX & ASX: PRU) is pleased to report that it has accepted a Committed Letter of Offer from three leading international banks to provide a US$150 million corporate debt facility, which will be available to the Company for general corporate purposes, including providing funding for the development of its third gold mine, the Yaoure Gold Mine in Cote dIvoire. With debt funding commitments in place, which are subject to execution of formal documentation and customary conditions precedent for a facility of this nature, including the grant of an Exploitation Permit by the Ivorian government and final Board approval, Perseus plans to proceed with the development of Yaoure in accordance with its strategic plan of producing more than 500,000 ounces of gold per year at an all-in site cost of less than US$850 per ounce from 2022. YAOURE DEVELOPMENT FINANCING PLAN The total capital cost of developing the Yaoure Gold Mine is estimated to be US$265 million (including a contingency). It will be funded from the US$150 million corporate debt facility, over US$80 million of cash and bullion currently on hand, along with additional contributions from future operational cash flows and proceeds from the exercise of warrants that expire later this month. Corporate Debt Facility A consortium of three international banks including Macquarie Bank Limited from Australia, Nedbank Limited (Corporate and Investment Bank) from South Africa and Societe Generale of France, has committed to provide Perseus with a revolving cash advance facility of US$150 million. A Committed Letter of Offer and comprehensive Terms Sheet was executed by all parties on April 5, 2019. Preparation of definitive finance documentation is now in progress and will reflect the terms as outlined in the Committed Letter of Offer with the objective of the facility being available for first drawdown no later than June 30, 2019, subject to satisfaction of usual conditions precedent. The facility takes the form of a revolving line of credit with the borrowers being Perseus Mining Limited, the parent entity of the Perseus group of companies and certain operating subsidiaries. Specific terms of the facility are typical of a corporate line of credit of this type. Interest payable on the loan will be LIBOR plus a margin that initially will be 4.25% and will vary in line with the Companys Leverage Ratio. Perseus will continue to hedge the sale price of its gold production in line with its long stated and applied hedging policy of hedging no more than 30% of projected gold production in any given year. Existing Cash Reserves As at March 31, 2019, Perseuss existing cash and bullion on hand (excluding all escrowed cash balances) totalled US$80.8 million, which is available to fund the Yaoure development as required. Future Cashflows At an average gold price of US$1,250 per ounce for the two-year period from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2021, Perseus forecasts that it will generate significant operating cashflows from its two existing mines (Edikan and Sissingue) after paying royalties, corporate overheads and taxes. Nine successive quarters of strong operating performance in line with market guidance from the Edikan and Sissingue Gold Mines underpin the Companys confidence in this forecast. After allowing for investment expenditure on sustaining capital for Edikan and Sissingue, discretionary exploration plus financing activities including the retirement of existing debts (US$44.5 million as at March 31, 2019) and the servicing of the new debt facility, the cashflow available for investing in the Yaoure development comfortably exceeds the contribution required to the development of Yaoure. This current funding plan does not account for any potential inflows of cash arising from the exercise of approximately 124 million Perseus warrants outstanding as at April 5, 2019 that mature on April 19, 2019. If fully exercised, additional cash of approximately US$40 million would be available for the Yaoure development which would further enhance the Companys ability to fund a major proportion of the project development cost from cash rather than interest bearing debt. PERMITTING OF THE YAOURE GOLD MINE The final application for the granting of an Exploitation Permit (EP) to Perseuss Ivorian subsidiary, Perseus Yaoure SARL, to develop and operate Yaoure, is due to be considered by the Ivorian Cabinet on April 10, 2019. The EP is the final permit that Perseus requires to start developing the Yaoure mine. Once the EP is granted, Perseus and the Ivorian departments of Mining and Geology and Budget and Finance will negotiate the terms of a Mining Convention to confirm fiscal stability and other arrangements that will apply during the life of the Yaoure Gold Mine. DEVELOPMENT OF THE YAOURE GOLD MINE With funding commitments in place, which are subject to execution of formal documentation and customary conditions precedent for a facility of this nature, including the grant of an Exploitation Permit by the Ivorian government and final Board approval, Perseus plans to proceed with the development of the Yaoure Gold Mine. On January 10, 2019, Perseus issued a Notice of Award for the Engineering and Supply Contracts for the Yaoure Gold Project to the highly accomplished Australian engineering company Lycopodium Limited. Perseus has collaborated successfully with Lycopodium in the past, most notably on the ahead-of-time, on-budget development of the Sissingue Gold Mine that was commissioned in early 2018. With the granting of the Yaoure EP, and Board approval to proceed with the development, the final conditions precedent to executing the contract with Lycopodium will have been satisfied and contract will be formally executed. Preliminary site works are scheduled to commence in mid to late April 2019 under the management of Perseuss experienced in-house development team and funded from existing cash reserves. Full scale development of Yaoure and associated infrastructure is scheduled to start in late April 2019 and based on our plans, first gold is expected to be produced in December 2020. Perseuss Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Mr Jeff Quartermaine said: The agreement on the terms of the debt facility with our banking syndicate was a critical step that needed to be completed to enable the development of the Yaoure Gold Mine. Perseus acquired Amara Mining plc in April 2016 with the specific objective of developing the Yaoure, which was then considered one of the best undeveloped gold resources in West Africa. Since acquiring the project, our technical teams have validated our original belief and methodically created a compelling commercial case to develop the gold mine. With our international banking syndicate agreeing to provide debt finance, we have put in place the final piece of the funding plan required to deliver our original vision. As a management team we believe that the Mineral Resources and Reserves reported to date represent a proportion of the potential of this property. We are looking forward to the challenge of, firstly, developing Yaoure on time and on budget and then operating the gold mine in line with expectations. In addition to this, we recognise the enormous untapped exploration potential within the Yaoure tenements and with access to funding we expect to be able to materially add to the expected life and value to investors of this operation. To discuss any aspect of this announcement, please contact: Managing Director: Jeff Quartermaine at telephone +61 8 6144 1700 or email jeff.quartermaine@perseusmining.com General Manager BD & IR: Andrew Grove at telephone +61 8 6144 1700 or email andrew.grove@perseusmining.com Media Relations: Nathan Ryan at telephone +61 4 20 582 887 or email nathan.ryan@nwrcommunications.com.au (Melbourne) Competent Person Statement: All production targets for Edikan and Sissingue referred to in this report are underpinned by estimated Ore Reserves which have been prepared by competent persons in accordance with the requirements of the JORC Code. The information in this report that relates to the Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve estimates for the EGM deposits was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement released on 29 August 2018. The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affect the information in that market release and that all material assumptions underpinning those estimates and the production targets, or the forecast financial information derived therefrom, continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company further confirms that material assumptions underpinning the estimates of Ore Reserves described in Technical Report Central Ashanti Gold Project, Ghana dated 30 May 2011 continue to apply. The information in this report that relates to Mineral Resources for Sissingue was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement released on 15 December 2016 and includes an update for depletion as at 30 June 2018 as well as an adjustment of the model constrained to a US$1,800/oz pit shell which were reported in a market announcement on 29 August 2018. The information in this report that relates to Mineral Resources for Fimbiasso was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement released on 20 February 2017 and includes an adjustment of the model constrained to a US$1,800/oz pit shell which was reported in a market announcement on 29 August 2018. The information in this report that relates to Ore Reserves for Sissingue and Fimbiasso was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement released on 31 March 2017 and includes an update for depletion as at 30 June 2018 which was reported in a market announcement on 29 August 2018. The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affect the information in these market releases and that all material assumptions underpinning those estimates and the production targets, or the forecast financial information derived therefrom, continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company further confirms that material assumptions underpinning the estimates of Ore Reserves described in Technical Report Sissingue Gold Project, Cote dIvoire dated 29 May 2015 continue to apply. Caution Regarding Forward Looking Information: This report contains forward-looking information which is based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management of the Company believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made by the Company regarding, among other things: the price of gold, continuing commercial production at the Edikan Gold Mine and the Sissingue Gold Mine without any major disruption, development of a mine at Yaoure, the receipt of required governmental approvals, the accuracy of capital and operating cost estimates, the ability of the Company to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner and the ability of the Company to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which may have been used by the Company. Although management believes that the assumptions made by the Company and the expectations represented by such information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking information involves 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 anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the actual market price of gold, the actual results of current exploration, the actual results of future exploration, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated, as well as those factors disclosed in the Company's publicly filed documents. The Company believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the Companys ability to carry on its exploration and development activities, the timely receipt of required approvals, the price of gold, the ability of the Company to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner and the ability of the Company to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Perseus does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. "I couldn't believe that the security had missed him in the first place and the next thing you know there was Shane McMahon and Travis Brown on top of him the crowd was going crazy booing," Fisher said. "Everyone was cheering when one of the wrestlers punched him." 521 Roslyn Road, Kenilworth: $5,750,000 | Listed: Nov. 12, 2021 This eight-bedroom home has five full bathrooms, three half-baths, carved marble fireplaces and a three-season porch. The kitchen is equipped with a double oven, hardwood floors and granite counters and is located next to the butlers pantry and breakfast room. The dining and living rooms have coffered ceilings, hardwood floors and leaded windows, and the office offers views of the private yard. The primary bedroom suite has a separate dressing room, a walk-in closet and a bathroom. The remaining bedrooms have custom moldings and millwork. A mudroom and a two-bedroom, two-bathroom coach house with a four-car garage complete this home. Agent: Amy Rowe, Engel & Volkers, 847-372-6389 *Some listing photos are virtually staged, meaning they have been digitally altered to represent different furnishing or decorating options. To feature your luxury listing of $800,000 or more in Chicago Tribunes Dream Homes, send listing information and high-res photos to ctc-realestate@chicagotribune.com. Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news. Australia passed legislation aimed at stopping violent crime and acts of extremism from being live-streamed on the internet despite warnings from the legal profession and technology companies that the new law is flawed. The legislation, drafted in the wake of the deadly mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 50 people dead, carries penalties of up to 10 percent of a company's annual turnover and potential prison sentences of up to three years for executives of social-media companies who fail to expeditiously remove abhorrent violent material from their platforms. Facebook came under sharp criticism for not taking down a video live-streamed by the alleged Christchurch gunman fast enough. The bill, aimed at preventing the "weaponizing" of social media platforms by terrorists and criminals, became law after passing the lower house on Thursday, the last sitting day before parliament dissolves ahead of elections next month. It cleared the upper house late Wednesday with no debate or amendments. A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment on the law. Taking Action "This is most likely a world first in terms of legislating the conduct of social media and online platforms," Attorney-General Christian Porter told reporters after the legislation was passed. The law allows police to lay charges "where an organization like Facebook lets something live-stream and play for a long period of time on their platform," he said. Australia's measures come after Singapore announced plans to introduce tough new laws to hold online outlets accountable for the spread of fake news. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is calling for new global regulations for everything from hate speech online to privacy and data protection. The Law Council of Australia says it's concerned the Australian legislation "is being thought up on the run without any proper consultation." The council says it is not clear whether companies would be fined according to their global annual revenue, or on turnover generated in Australia -- adding the legislation meant firms would be punished based on their size rather than the seriousness of the breach. "Such an approach to penalties, if used as a precedent for other areas of government regulation, could have a chilling effect on businesses investing in Australia or providing their services in this country," Arthur Moses, the council president, said in a statement. Scott Farquhar, the billionaire co-founder of enterprise software company Atlassian, said the legislation should be properly scrutinized by a parliamentary committee. "In its blind rush to legislate, the government is creating confusion and threatening jobs," he said in a post on Twitter. Andrew Bushnell, a research fellow at Melbourne free-market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, agreed that the legislation is flawed. "Throwing media executives in jail will increase costs to taxpayers without improving community safety or addressing concerns about violent content being shared on social media platforms," Bushnell said in an op-ed on the institute's website. "This is a blatant attack on the freedom of the media to report on matters of public interest and goes well beyond what would be necessary to achieve the stated goal." Broadcasting of the Christchurch massacre is the latest example of social media companies' struggle to keep offensive content from sites that generate billions of dollars in revenue from advertisers -- a problem that's seen Zuckerberg grilled by Congress. In India -- which is set to begin its federal election on April 11 -- Facebook has announced it has enlisted five new organizations to help with fact-checking that will review news stories on the platform and rate their accuracy. The Digital Industry Group Inc., an Australian consortium of tech companies whose members include Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, on Friday slammed the country's new legislation as ineffective and out of step with regulation in other democratic countries. "This law, which was conceived and passed in five days without any meaningful consultation, does nothing to address hate speech, which was the fundamental motivation for the tragic Christchurch terrorist attacks," said DIGI's managing director, Sunita Bose. She said the law was at odds with so-called notice and take down regulations in the U.S. and Europe that require firms to remove potentially illegal content only after they're notified about problems. By contrast, Canberra's new regulation "encourages companies to proactively surveil user-generated content," Bose added. "This is not how legislation should be made in a democracy like Australia." - - - Bloomberg's Shelly Banjo contributed. Some of a hospitals smallest patients can ride into surgery in style -- and perhaps ease some anxiousness -- by getting behind the wheel. The Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, California, has two miniature cars that pediatric surgical patients can ride in on their way to the operating room. The children are able to choose from a mini black Mercedes or a mini pink Volkswagen Beetle. This appeared in Sunday's Washington Post. - - - The fact that the first-round winner in Ukraine's presidential election is an actor who plays a president in a sitcom could be taken as a sign that the country's fledgling democracy is dysfunctional. In fact, the success of Volodymyr Zelensky, who is now regarded as the favorite to win the presidency in a runoff later this month, shows that in at least some respects, Ukraine's political system is working pretty well. Since rebelling against a corrupt and autocratic regime five years ago, Ukrainians have been deeply frustrated by the failure of their post-revolution government to tackle endemic corruption and implement reforms that would jump-start economic growth. The two most established candidates in the presidential election, including incumbent Petro Poroshenko, offered more of the same. Poroshenko, a member of Ukraine's despised oligarch class, has shielded the entrenched interests holding back a country that, despite abundant resources, remains one of the poorest in Europe. Zelensky offered voters the option of an untainted outsider - a choice that Russians and citizens of many other post-Soviet states can only dream of. The election that propelled him past 38 other candidates was judged free and mostly fair by international observers, another achievement that will impress Vladimir Putin's subjects. Meanwhile, what was once strong support for candidates who promised fealty to Moscow and its autocratic system all but disappeared. The leading pro-Russian candidate in the race won just 12 percent of the vote. One reason for that shift was the appeal of Zelensky. A Russian speaker, he has promised to negotiate with Putin about ending the 5-year-old war in eastern Ukraine while continuing the country's pro-Western orientation. It's not at all clear that he would be competent at those difficult tasks, or able to deliver on his promise to tackle corruption and instill the rule of law. The actor has done a good deal of business with one of Ukraine's most notorious oligarchs, who moved to Israel after being implicated in a major banking scandal. Zelensky has taken some reassuring steps, including taking on as advisers prominent reformers who abandoned or were forced out of Poroshenko's government. He told Western journalists he feels an affinity with French President Emmanuel Macron. But he also said he admires the Brazilian nationalist Jair Bolsonaro, and diplomats who have spoken with Zelensky say his knowledge of international affairs is thin. It's possible that in the second-round vote Ukrainians will swing back behind the known quantity of Poroshenko, who has built his campaign around Ukrainian nationalism. Putin will be hoping for a victory by Zelensky, whom he could then seek to manipulate. But in one crucial respect, Putin has already lost the Ukrainian election. A vote Moscow tried and failed to discredit showed that Ukraine is cohering as an independent nation - and that its democracy is working. In 1832 the Bailly girls received 1,280 acres in what was then called Carey Township, including the present site of Monee as part of a U.S. treaty with the Potawatomi tribe, who along with other tribes had allied with the U.S. in its conflict with the Sac and Fox tribes. About one year after students across America walked out of school to protest gun violence, the Connecticut Supreme Court dealt a stunning blow to the gun industry by ruling that families of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School could proceed with a lawsuit against Remington, the company that made the gun used to kill their loved ones. The families argue that Remington violated Connecticuts unfair trade practices act with an unlawful marketing campaign to sell civilians assault weapons the company promoted for offensive, military-style missions, lauding their military-proven performance and touting them as the ultimate combat weapons system. It remains to be seen whether a jury will ultimately agree that such ads helped prompt the Sandy Hook shooter to use the weapon for the purpose it was designed for killing large numbers of people in a short amount of time. But, crucially, the decision means the families can have their day in court and a chance to persuade a jury. Thats how our civil justice system works when it comes to unscrupulous marketing whether its guns or tobacco and drug companies lying about whether cigarettes or opioids are addictive. Given the toll of gun violence in America nearly 40,000 deaths and more than 100,000 non-fatal shootings per year scrutiny of gun industry advertising and the role it plays in fueling that violence is welcome. And its not without precedent. During the 1990s, as the industry promoted irresponsible and dangerous conduct that put kids at risk, academics and advocates petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to intervene. One egregious ad from Beretta that caught their ire depicted an unlocked pistol on a bedside table, next to a photo of a mom and two kids, and urged gun buyers to Tip the odds in your favor. Other similar ads also depicted unlocked guns in the nightstand, despite the clear danger to children when loaded guns are left unattended. The complaints to the FTC got the industrys attention and curbed the most egregious ads promoting irresponsible gun storage. But questionable advertising tactics continue today, and before the Connecticut Supreme Courts decision, the industry showed all signs of believing it could operate with impunity. Besides selling the tacti-cool vision of civilians aping military combat techniques, the industry touts guns as the simple and only solution for safety in a dangerous world. These ads suggest that if someone just buys the right gun and ammo, she can protect herself and her family, at home or on the go, just as well as an army ranger or experienced police officer. Notably absent from gun industry ads is any information about the challenges of using a gun for self-defense under the stressful conditions of armed confrontation challenges that can lead even trained law enforcement in gunfights to miss their mark more than 80 percent of the time. And nowhere to be found in gun industry ads are acknowledgments of well-established social science showing that the presence of a gun in the home is associated with significantly increased risks of suicide, intimate partner homicide and unintentional shooting. Omitting this data from advertisements promotes the industrys bottom line, which depends on convincing more people to buy and carry guns, and to believe that firearms in the home make it more safe, not less. That social science disproves the industrys big lie is evidently not enough. A generation ago more than half of all Americans believed having a gun in the home made it less safe, but today more than 60 percent of Americans believe guns make a home safer twice as many as think they increase risk. Parallel to the misinformation campaign it wages with misleading ads are the gun industrys efforts to block research that shows the truth about gun violence. After a landmark 1993 study found that having a handgun in the home tripled the risk that someone would be killed there, the gun lobby scrambled to scuttle further research and convinced Congress to enact restrictions on gun research that have blocked federal research for more than two decades. Fortunately, an unprecedented coalition of doctors and public health experts has teamed up this year in a concerted push to provide meaningful federal support for gun violence research. And the state Supreme Court decision opened the door to using our civil justice system to police the worst abuses in firearm marketing and the most deceptive gun advertisements. The gun lobbys survival rides on promoting the illusion that our safety depends on carrying guns wherever we go, and keeping unlocked, loaded guns at the ready in our homes. Now, regulators and victims of gun violence have a tool to hold gun companies accountable when they promote those myths through unethical, illegal advertising. Its time to hold the gun industry accountable for its lies. Adam Skaggs is chief counsel at Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which urged the Connecticut Supreme Court to allow the families false advertising claims to proceed. It's been another busy week full of phone news so let's take a look back at the clutter and focus on the major stories. Samsung was in the spotlight with a couple of interesting relevations. The biggest was a video of Samsung's alleged first slider phone, the Galaxy A90. It has a slide-out rotating camera that's used both as the rear and the selfie camera. Additionally, a story broke that Samsung is working on two Galaxy Note 10 devices for the fall - one with a 6.4-inch display (same size as the Galaxy Note 9) and one with a larger 6.7-inch display. Next is an interesting report which suggests that Apple won't be ready with a 5G iPhone until at least 2021. Reportedly Qualcomm turned down Apple's offer to use its modem while Samsung stated that it wouldn't have enough supply of its own Exynos 5100 5G modem. This could leave Apple no option but to go with a MediaTek modem and even then it would leave the Cupertino company way behind its competitors. Moving on - Nokia's first foray into punch hole displays became official this week. The Nokia X71 brings a 6.39-inch FHD+ display and a Snapdragon 660 along with a 48MP main and 8MP ultra-wide camera to the Chinese market. We expect the X71 to make its global debut as the Nokia 8.1 Plus a bit later on. In Apple-related chatter we heard that there may be an interesting shift in the iPhone lineup come 2020. Industry sources suggest we'll get three all new OLED iPhones next year - a 5.42-inch, a 6.06-inch and a 6.67-inch one. We saw a lot of the Oppo Reno this week. One leak showed images with a dual rear camera and no periscope 5x zoom to be found. Later we saw promotional banners of an Oppo Reno that has a triple camera with periscope lens. It's becoming clear that Oppo is preparing a whole lineup. Meanwhile Xiaomi is reportedly working on a quirky phone with a dual selfie camera in a bottom-placed notch; OnePlus 7 case renders suggest a notch-free display and a triple camera; we saw a render of the unofficial Remi Pro 2 with a Snapdragon 855 and a pop-up selfie camera; we got our first glimpse of a possible Motorola phone with four cameras (including a 48MP one); and finally the Poco launcher was updated with a universal dark mode. See you in a week! Samsung Galaxy A90 video shows a slider with a rotating camera Once the slider goes up, the rear camera can be rotated 180 to become a selfie camera. Nokia X71 debuts as the company's first phone with a punch hole display This is the first Nokia branded device with a punch hole display as well as the first X-series phone to launch outside China. Samsung preparing a smaller Galaxy Note10 The smaller variant is rumored to retain the 6.4-inch screen of its predecessor. OnePlus 7 case renders show off notch-less display and triple rear cameras The smartphone is rumored to have Snapdragon 855 SoC at helm with a 48MP snapper on the back. Qualcomm and Samsung won't sell 5G modems to Apple An analyst at UBS thinks that the earliest 5G iPhone will come out in late 2021 at the earliest. Redmi Pro 2 with Snapdragon 855 chipset could have a pop-up camera A render of the phone has surfaced on Weibo along with basic specs - 48MP camera, in-display FP reader. Xiaomi Mi 9 Explorer tops AnTuTu's performance chart for March The phone is closely followed by the vanilla Mi 9, with the vivo iQOO Monster in third. Poco Launcher updated with dark mode Which goes well with the system-wide dark mode of MIUI 10. By the way, the Poco Launcher can be used by anyone, not just Poco owners. Oppo Reno official images appear, no 10x zoom camera in sight The images confirm the notchless design and the dual camera setup on the back. Xiaomi terminates support for seven Redmi phones The list includes the popular Redmi Note 4 that is less than three years old. Hill said firefighters were able to extinguish the fire in 30 minutes, but they stayed to clear the scene and start determining the fires cause, adding that the Indiana Fire Marshals Office has been contacted to lead the investigation. Haiti - FLASH : Names of 3 possible Prime Minister In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the President of the Republic Jovenel Moise met yesterday, Saturday, April 6, 2019, at the National Palace for consultations, the Presidents of the two branches of Parliament, as part of the process leading to the choice of the new Prime Minister whose the name will be known incessantly. Gary Bodeau, President of the Chamber of Deputies, and Senator Carl Murat Cantave, President of the Senate have informed that after 3 hours of discussions around the choice of Prime Minister, President Moise will choose among these 3 personalities : Majorie Alexandre Brunache (Lawyer at the Bar of Port-au-Prince, former Consul General of Haiti in Boston, daughter of President Boniface Alexandre), Jean Michel Lapin (current acting Prime Minister, since the departure of Prime Minister Ceant following a motion of the Chamber of Deputies), and Gabriel Fortune (former Senator and current Mayor of Les Cayes). HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Social : 216th anniversary of the death of Toussaint Louverture This Sunday, April 7, 2019 reminds us that Toussaint Louverture hero of independence, was deported to France in June 1802 and incarcerated in the autumn of the same year at Fort de Joux (Doubs, Savoie, 1,000m above sea level) at the ground floor of the dungeon, in a cell of 6.50 m by 3.90 m by order of Napoleon Bonaparte, for having opposed by the weapons, to the restoration of slavery of the blacks. Although Bonaparte's orders stated that Toussaint Louverture was to receive a decent treatment, the harsh climate of the mountains was hard to tolerate for an already sick Caribbean man and Toussaint Louverture died in his cell on 7 April 1803. On this day of remembrance, as every year, Lesly Conde, former Consul General of Haiti in Chicago (August 26, 2004 - May 25, 2018) does not fail to share with all Haitians his thoughts : Message from Lesly Conde : "It's time to reflect together on the importance of this great man's life for the history of humanity, and especially that of our Nation. At a time when the dehumanization of an entire race served the interests of the slave system, he was known for his bravery, integrity, sagacity, and unwavering devotion to the cause of human dignity. For having established the solid foundations of the valiant fight against this sordid exploitation of the human by the human, for having fiercely defended the ideals of justice and freedom in defiance of its own privileges, Toussaint Louverture deserves to be known as the one of the most legitimate heroes the human race has ever produced. Toussaint Louverture therefore dedicated his entire life to the struggle for universal justice and freedom. Even though his heritage belongs to the whole world, he is first of all ours. We Haitians are the deep and numerous roots to which he referred to the dark moment of his kidnapping. If nothing prevents us from being proud of Toussaint and our unique identity from which he is at the origin, we must also honor his precious memory by practicing, like him, the self-esteem, the solidarity and an unconditional attachment to our common dignity. At a time when our country is facing the challenges of the twenty-first century, we, like Toussaint Louverture, must be guided by wisdom, patience and determination. Patriotically." In addition, at the initiative of the Federation of the Haitian Diaspora in Europe "FEDHE", a group of Haitian organizations from Europe will visit this Sunday, April 7 Fort de Joux (France) to participate in the ceremony of remembrance marking the 216th anniversary of the death of Toussaint Louverture. A wreath of flowers will be deposited on the memorial of this universal hero. SL/ HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Romania : Haiti's participation in a high level training in International Human Resources A Haitian delegation from the University College of Romania in Haiti (CUR) left Haiti on April 4th for the Western University of Timisoara (Romania) to participate in the 2nd Edition of the Spring School in International Human Resources. The CUR delegation in Haiti is composed of Djaenael Yutzi Chauvin and Jean Muller Pierrelus, diplomacy and international relations students, Mihaela Banulescu Professor of Romanian Language, and Huswald Timothee, MBA, Honorary Consul General of Romania in Haiti, President of the CUR. This Sunday, a hundred representatives of partner universities of the Western University of Timisoara as the University College of Romania in Haiti, from 12 countries (Albania, Algeria, England, Austria, Greece, Haiti, India, Malaysia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Switzerland) will meet on the campus of the University of West Timisoara. The training will take place in Timisoara, on the campus of the Faculty of Economics and Management from 8 to 15 April 2019. Academicians and lecturers of great renown around the world, through perspectives and sharing experiences , contribute to a better understanding of HR and talent management topics, by encouraging new thinking and inspiring debate. The University of Western Timisoara also plans to move participants to the sites of several local and multinational companies (UVT, FEAA, IHRM) for their recognized expertise in the field of International Human Resources where other practical training complementary to will be dispensed. This action is part of multicultural exchanges in the field of human resources, an initiative of the Faculty of Economics and Management of the prestigious University of Western Timisoara whose major mission is to support and to bring out training related to International Human Resources skills and Talent Management in response to the expectations of local and international companies in the digital age. HL/ S/ HaitiLibre Published on 2019/04/07 | Source Chinese electric vehicle maker Future Mobility plans to set up operations in Korea at GM Korea's former plant in Gunsan, which was shut down last year. Advertisement Future Mobility is part of the MS Consortium, which signed a deal last month to acquire the Gunsan plant, according to an industry insider on Wednesday. The consortium is led by Korean parts maker MS Autotech, but Future Mobility provides the capital. It will invest W200 billion in the plant to assemble 50,000 EVs annually with parts from China starting in 2021 (US$1=W1,135). Large Korean companies are also considering investments. Future Mobility was created in 2016 by Chinese Internet giant Tencent and Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn to create premium EVs. They scouted former executives from BMW, Nissan and Tesla and established a brand called Byton, which unveiled the M-Byte, an all-electric battery-powered SUV concept car, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January this year. The SUV can travel up to 520 km on a single charge and is capable of autonomous driving even on freeways. It will first go on sale in China, the U.S. and Europe in 2020 and possibly in Korea in 2021. Korean automakers are bracing for the entry of more rivals. Recently China's Songuo Motors set up a joint venture with Korean EV maker SNK Motors and aims to build a plant in Gunsan capable of rolling out 100,000 EVs a year. And last year China's largest EV maker Chery Automobile joined hands with Korea's Nanos to build a W120-billion plant nearby capable of rolling out 50,000 EVs annually starting in 2021. One industry insider said, "If Chinese manufacturers enter Korea, the competitive landscape here will change completely. Rather than rejoicing at the benefits of job creation, I'm worried that Chinese companies will take over the auto industry here". Read this article in Korean Published on 2019/04/07 | Source The Korea Tourism Organization is making great efforts to attract corporate groups on incentive tours, a lucrative business in the tourism industry. Advertisement Some 1,800 employees of the Hong Kong branch of British insurance company Prudential will visit Korea next week. Last month, 1,292 employees of Vietnamese paint producer 4 Oranges visited the country. Incentive tours are offered by companies to employees as a reward for achieving business objectives. As the average spending per tourist on an incentive tour stands at W2.48 million, compared to W1.68 million for an ordinary tourist, many countries are going to great lengths to attract incentive tours (US$1=W1,137). "We expect Prudential Hong Kong staff's visit to produce revenues of W4.84 billion", said a spokesman at the KTO. China used to account for the largest number of such tourists to Korea, with the percentage reaching 45 percent with 120,000 visitors in 2016. But the number dropped to a mere 17,000 in 2017 due to China's unofficial boycott of Korean products and services over the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery here. As a result, of some 248,000 foreign visitors on incentive tours and for business meetings last year, up 22.6 percent from 202,500 in 2017, some 24 percent were those from Vietnam, 15 percent from Thailand, 13 percent from Taiwan and 12 percent from Indonesia. Chinese accounted for 16 percent. Published on 2019/04/07 | Source /Yonhap A memorial to Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun reopened Saturday at the site in Harbin, China where he assassinated top Japanese colonial official Hirobumi Ito in 1909. Advertisement The memorial had been moved temporarily two years ago due to renovations at the railway station. The size of the memorial has doubled from its original 200 sq.m. A frieze depicts Ahn's activities during the 11 days in Harbin leading up to the assassination, as well as his final days in prison. Former President Park Geun-hye asked Chinese President Xi Jinping during a summit in 2013 to set up the memorial. Xi accepted and the memorial was set up in January 2014. Published on 2019/04/07 | Source SK Teleom's firstcomers for 5G mobile service including figure skater Kim Yuna (3rd from left) pose with their phones in Seoul on Wednesday, a day ahead of the official launch. /Yonhap Advertisement Korea on Wednesday became the first country to launch the high-speed 5G mobile phone service, with connections starting at 11 p.m. The country's three mobile providers originally planned to start the service on Friday for Samsung's Galaxy S10, but the schedule was brought forward by two days so Korea would not lose the title to U.S. provider Verizon. The Ministry of Science and ICT summoned representatives from SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus for an urgent meeting on Wednesday. "We got a tipoff that Verizon will start the 5G service on Thursday", a government official said. "We held a meeting with the three providers and Samsung to readjust the timing in order to become the world's first country to offer commercial 5G services". Verizon was supposed to start the service in Chicago and Minneapolis next week for Motorola phones but decided to turn on the service a week ahead of schedule. Telecoms resorted to various gimmicks in choosing their firstcomers. The first subscribers to SKT's 5G service were a user named Park Jae-won, picked for being the most loyal customer, figure skating ace Kim Yuna, para swimmer Yun Sung-hyuk and Baek-hyun and Kai of boy band EXO. The first subscriber to KT's was Lee Ji-eun, the wife of a KT worker on the patriotically loaded islets of Dokdo, and the first subscriber to LG Uplus' was YouTuber Kim Min-young. Read this article in Korean Published on 2019/04/07 | Source Families of victims who died in the Jeju massacre look at a marble wall which bears their names at a memorial on Jeju Island on Wednesday. /Yonhap Advertisement The Defense Ministry has for the first time apologized for a bloody decades-long anti- Communist crackdown on Jeju Island that began just after World War II. The ministry issued a statement recognizing the sacrifices of the island's people on Wednesday, which marked the 71 anniversary of the event. Some 10 percent of the island's people were killed in the Communist uprising of 1948 and its aftermath, many of them civilians who had no or only tenuous connections to the insurgents. Vice Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk also visited a memorial space set up at Seoul's Gwanghwamun Plaza to pay respects to the victims on the same day. Published on 2019/04/07 | Source The Seoul Metropolitan Government wants to expand Gimpo International Airport's overseas services. Advertisement Passengers can currently fly from Gimpo to China, Japan and Taiwan but no further than a 2,000 km radius from there. But the city wants the restriction to be lifted so that the airport can operate long-haul routes. That would take some of the pressure off Incheon International Airport but also put the two airports in direct competition. A feasibility study is underway and the results are expected around June. Gimpo became a purely domestic airport when Incheon opened in 2001. It resumed flights to Tokyo in 2003 and later to Osaka, Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei. Passenger traffic jumped because it is close to Gangnam and downtown Seoul, and it now operates about 20,000 international flights a year, a quarter of those at Incheon but 67 percent of the annual number of international passengers it had before Incheon opened. "Gimpo Airport could be an international airport particularly for business travelers since it is so close to downtown Seoul", a city official said. "Runways and other facilities are in good condition, so adding more international routes will not be difficult if the regulation changes". The city hopes to focus on medium-haul flights first to popular destinations in Asia like Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. By William Schwartz | Published on 2019/04/06 Soo-hyeon (played by Jung Ho) is a North Korean defector who works in a sparsely populated public library. Life is pretty boring in there, although every so often his boss will pop and complain about some trivial problem. Life takes a turn for the weird when Soo-hyeon starts having serial abstract conversations with other defectors who coincidentally happen to be visiting the library. And then, of course, there's the framing device of Detective Kim (played by Park Gi-ryoong) who's trying to figure out where Soo-hyeon disappeared to, and also the recurring setpiece of the fish in the fishbowl with weird colors. Advertisement "Visitors - 2019" is a very pretentious film. Except for the whole fish thing it's really more of a stage play than a film. Well, I suppose there are those moments of action which have some reasonably decent close-up shots. But even then, it's hard not to notice how the actual focus is on the highly metaphysical dialog. The people Soo-hyeon talks to exist largely as ciphers for themes of loneliness, rage, and nostalgia for a North Korean identity that lacks much in the way of meaning. At times director Stanley Park is able to paint a startingly accurate portrayal of the hopelessness inherent in depression. The increasingly fantastical nature of Soo-hyeon's experiences, where the other people in the library feel less like actual people and more like figments of his imagination, really sell the North Korean defector experience as something basically unsolvable. Discussion of a North Korean state assassin start to feel less like a threat and more like a blessing, since Soo-hyeon doesn't have much to live for anyway. But I don't want to risk making "Visitors - 2019" sound more interesting than it actually is. For a movie that's only around seventy minutes long the movie feels twice that length. Almost nothing actually happens. There's just a lot of discussion of events that either have already happened or might happen at some point in the future. While this allows for a very purgatorial atmophere that doesn't make the film any more watchable. "Visitors - 2019" is also crudely enough made that its status as a film at all is a bit questionable. While I appreciate that director Stanley Park likely had budget constraints, the visual and sound quality is so low I often wondered whether he was somehow working with ancient film equipment from several decades ago. "Visitors - 2019" has the feel of old, weird, amateurish films from the sixties and seventies where sincere artistic ambition was left clashing with both technical limitations and a lack of formal training. This does, admittedly, help with "Visitors - 2019"'s generally ethereal atmosphere. I couldn't help but be creeped out by the exterior shots, where we can hear birds chirping. Most movies don't have that kind of unscripted ambient noise, thanks to modern editing techniques. Elements like this give "Visitors - 2019" a very distinctive feeling that, while generally unpleasant, shows surprising resonance in memory. Review by William Schwartz "Visitors - 2019" is directed by Stanley Park, and features Jung Ho, Song Kyung-eui, Park Gi-ryoong, Kim Gi-roo. Published on 2019/04/07 | Source /Yonhap Incheon International Airport last week celebrated its 18th anniversary. Advertisement Often rated one of the best in the world, the airport said Sunday that the number of global travelers passing through its gates has been growing at an average of 7.7 percent a year. Last year saw an all-time high of 67.6 million passengers. Since opening on March 29, 2001, it has become the fifth-busiest airport in the world after Dubai International, London's Heathrow, Hong Kong International and Amsterdam's Schiphol. THE Henley and Peppard branch of the Royal British Legion has been presented with two awards. It received the organisations Duncan Trophy for the most improved branch in Oxfordshire and a certificate in recognition of its growing membership. In the past year 12 more people have joined, bringing the total number of members to 112 at a time when Legion numbers nationally have been falling. The organising committee says the awards are down to its improved social offering with monthly meetings held at the Christ Church Centre in Reading Road, Henley. Up to 50 members attend the gatherings, which are held every third Monday and include a guest speaker and lunch with a glass of wine followed by coffee. The awards were presented by Lynda Atkins, who chairs the Legions Oxfordshire branch. Membership secretary Mollie Jeffrey, who lives in Harpsden and joined in 2016, said she was tickled pink by the honour. She said: When I moved to Henley I hoped to make more friends and I was invited by Stan Ainsley, a friend of mine and previous branch secretary, to join. It is a friendly group of interesting people. Were all a team and have got some good people who are reaching out to others. I would like to be able to introduce some younger people. Because of the size of the community you get to know people and recognise them when youre out and about. I would like to think that part of our success is to some degree down to the feeling that we are all in it together. There are other groups in Henley and there is always some overlap of members. One friend might introduce another saying, You might enjoy this, as Stan said to me. Mrs Jeffrey said she got the idea of having talks at meetings from similar events she attended at Phyllis Court Club in Henley. She said: I liked the idea of learning through talks and I thought the ones Id been to were interesting and different. Weve had Rebecca Stevens, who became the first British woman to climb Everest, and weve also had people talking about their time working on cruise ships. People enjoy coming to our social group and you dont have to have military knowledge or background. Mrs Jeffrey thanked the Henley Standard for publicising the work and fund-raising efforts of the branch, saying it showed that members had fun. She undertook a sponsored sky-dive in May which raised 3,500 and branch chairman John Green has taken part in a number of the annual Nijmegen Marches in the Netherlands. Mr Green said: Mollies hard work and enthusiasm has been instrumental in securing the increase in membership against the national trend. Before we moved to the Christ Church Centre we would welcome about 15 members to meetings but now they are really popular. Lieutenant Colonel Peter Blaker, who became branch president in December, said: We are proud of the recognition given to us by these two awards but there is no room for complacency. We are fortunate to have a branch which is well led by a lively, competent and dedicated committee. We take seriously our duties to those former members of the armed forces and their dependents who need our help. Brigadier Malcolm Page, the branchs patron and past president, said: I am very gratified that we have progressed in this way and that we have been able to reach out. The membership trend is downwards nationally because there are fewer people in the forces and older members are dying off but we seem to have bucked this trend and that is largely down to the social aspects. We had tried evenings previously but they were not as popular as lunchtime events. Tickets to the lunches cost 10 and anyone can attend. For more information or to join the Legion, call Mrs Jeffrey on 07768 851615 or visit www.rbl-henley.org A FEATURE film is being shot in Ewelme. Ambrose Quarry is being used by film crews for 13 weeks. Field guns have been spotted in the quarry, off Old London Road, and scaffolding has been erected at the south-east end. Gary Flux, who runs the Shepherds Hut pub in the village, said: Weve had a few of the security teams coming in but we havent had any of the actors. They normally come in incognito with a hat, glasses and a beard! Its not the first time we have had this sort of stuff around here. Anything like that is only to the benefit of the local community and being the only pub in the village its pretty beneficial to us. Rachel Wallis, who runs the Chilterns View lodges in Ewelme, said she been approached by the crews on Wednesday about potentially staying there. She said: Its helpful, especially weekdays when its quiet. Im hoping they take the accommodation. In February, South Oxfordshire granted planning permission to construct temporary sets and storage buildings at the quarry, which is owned by Grundon. There are also facilities for support services and parking for 200 cars and 15 light goods vehicles. The number of people working on site at any one time will vary from 30 to 250. The area will be used until mid-May but the council said most activity would be during the rehearsal and filming phase, which will take place over three days towards the middle of this month. In 2013, Shirburn was used to film scenes in Second World War film Fury, starring Brad Pitt, and South Oxfordshire is a popular location for the Midsomer Murders TV series. You are here: Business China and the United States concluded the ninth round of high-level economic and trade talks which ran from Wednesday to Friday in Washington. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chief of the Chinese side of the China-U.S. comprehensive economic dialogue, co-hosted the talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The two sides discussed the agreement text on technology transfer, protection of intellectual property rights, non-tariff measures, services industry, agriculture, trade balance and enforcement mechanism, and achieved new progress. The two sides also decided to continue their consultations regarding the remaining issues through various effective means. A mourning service was held in northeast China's Liaoning province to commemorate martyrs who died in their resistance against Japanese invasion. This year marks the 88th anniversary of the September 18 Incident. On Sept. 18, 1931, Japanese troops blew up a section of railway under its control near Shenyang, then accused Chinese troops of sabotage as a pretext for attack. They bombarded barracks near Shenyang the same evening, starting the bloody invasion. The mourning service was held Friday in the Sept. 18 Historical Museum in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province. About 200 people attended the event, and laid flowers at a monument dedicated to the deceased. Among the participants were some middle and primary school students, as the museum is a base for patriotic education. "We have held such mourning services for 10 consecutive years," said deputy curator Zhang Yunfeng. "The public can join mourning activities by laying flowers at the site and donating books about the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression," he sadi, adding that online mourning services are also available. An opera was also staged at the museum to depict the story of a heroine who fought fearlessly during the war. "We hope the high spirit and characters of the martyrs can inspire people, so that the public can carry on the spirit of the heroes and work hard towards a better future," Zhang said. For many people, late-night calls bring unwanted disturbance, but for 74-year-old Zhao Yonghua, they are a cause for excitement. When his phone rings at night, Zhao, a volunteer advocate for body donation, replies "I'll be there asap," puts on his clothes and rushes to the scene. "Sometimes a phone call informs me the death of a voluntary body donor, and in such cases every minute counts," he said. Upon arriving at the scene, Zhao helps bereaved families fill in application forms, and answers their questions on the body donation procedure. Formerly a worker in north China's Tianjin municipality, Zhao has been an advocate for body donation for about 20 years. In 2002, Zhao notarized his will for body donation, as did his wife. Before that, the couple had set up a service hotline to promote body donation and organized voluntary activities. So far, Zhao's volunteer group, which has over 100 people, has assisted more than 2,000 people to apply for body donation, with their registrations being filed. "My job does not stop at getting them to sign the papers. We visit the families of the donors often and show them respect," he said. In a memorial park in Tianjin, the names of 803 body donors are engraved on a monument, and Zhao knows a third of them. Zhang Ping, director of department of anatomy and histology at Tianjin Medical University (TMU), said that a growing number of volunteers like Zhao Yonghua had contributed to the increase of body donations in the school. "Anatomy is a basic medical course. Students can obtain a better understanding of physiology and pathology through practical operations," Zhang said. The university started receiving willed bodies for medical training in the 1980s. Total donations reached 797, among which 86 were received in 2018. Li Rui, a senior student at TMU, said she had been deeply touched after visiting the hall that was built by the university in 2002 to display the last words of the body donors. "I pay tribute to these donors and want to be one like them," Li said. Figures from the Red Cross Society of China Tianjin branch show that a total of 827 body donations, 908 organ donations and 456 cornea donations had been completed as of March 2019. In Beijing, more than 2,600 donated bodies have been used for medical research and education since the city launched body donation registry in 1999. Liu Wenhua, an employee with the Red Cross Society of China Nanjing branch, said more than 2,000 donations have been received so far in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province. China's body donation rate rose from 0.03 to 4.53 donors per million in the past decade, with the number of registered body and organ donors exceeding 1.16 million by the end of March, according to the China Organ Donation Administrative Center. Crash involving three tractor-trailers, vehicle, closes I-81 Southbound Interstate 81 in Washington County has been closed following a crash involving three tractor-trailers and a vehicle. China has attracted businesses from different countries around the world; the EU wants to develop even strong ties with China, and vice versa. The EU plays the role of an indispensable trade partner and technological cooperation stakeholder of China. As a result of their friendly cooperation, China and the EU have experienced increasingly closer economic and trade ties over the past few years. Generally speaking, China and Europe welcome each other; though there are some technical problems for them to solve together. However, rumors such as "high level of mistrust China is facing in Europe" is substantially based on wrong assumptions. Nowadays a growing number of people in both China and Europe are optimistic about the future of EU-China relations, due to their high potential of economic and cultural cooperation and minimal strategic-security conflicts. Last month, Italy signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China to jointly advance the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to deepen the bilateral cooperation in ports, logistics, marine transportation, and other areas. Moreover, France who regards China as an important strategic cooperation partner has also pledged to strengthen strategic communication and collaboration with China further. Following the broad trends in China-Europe relations, some issues need to be addressed. The cooperation under the BRI framework should be a key focus. Some Europeans perceive the initiative as a way for Chinese contractors to make money from other countries. Many European companies often ask, "What can China as an economic world power offer?" China's answer is clear and inspiring: China is happy to share its economic opportunities with the world through the BRI cooperation. Notably, the principle of "business is business" equally applies to the BRI, which means only qualified contractors can win the contract. Therefore, the duty of the Chinese government and its affiliated organizations, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), is to create a fair arena for all companies in the world to compete for the lucrative BRI contracts and economic opportunities. China continues to reform its legal system. Recently, China adopted the new Foreign Investment Law and is modifying existing regulations to adapt to the current situation and meet the demands of both domestic citizens and global markets. Undoubtedly, these reforms will offer new opportunities for all foreign companies, investors, and tourists. Wang Peng is an associate research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, and a researcher at the Charhar Institute. Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, 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 China-European Union (EU) relations in tourism get a boost as the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year has scored a success, an official recently said. During the tourism year, China and the EU held more than 100 promotional activities. It "has been extremely successful," said Eduardo Santander, executive director of the European Travel Commission (ETC). There was a 5.1-percent year-on-year increase in Chinese arrivals in EU destinations in 2018, and among the top ones in terms of the volume of Chinese arrivals were Britain, Germany and France, according to the latest figures from the ETC and the air travel analysis agency ForwardKeys. "We continue to see the benefits in 2019," Santander added. "The growth in Chinese travellers has been solid, and the near future, judging by current bookings, will see the EU continuing to increase its share of this valuable market, not just to traditional destinations, but lesser-known and emerging ones as well." Chinese bookings to the EU for the first four months of 2019 are 16.9 percent ahead of where they were at the end of 2017, said the ETC, adding that this compares very favorably to the global trend, which is 9.3 percent ahead. According to a recent report by China Tourism Academy and China's online travel agency Ctrip, 70 percent of Chinese tourists in 2018 chose "package tours" when traveling in Europe, due to language, visa, culture and other factors. Nevertheless, the proportion of independent and customized travel continues to rise. In 2018, the demand for customized European tours booked by the travel website increased by 127 percent over the past year, far higher than the growth rate of the overall market, said the report. In addition, a number of new routes were launched between China and Europe in 2018, including direct flights from Fuzhou to Moscow, Changsha to London, Jinan to Paris, and Shenzhen to Brussels. In 2018, there were more than 600 flights a week between China and Europe, according to the report. Ctrip in 2018 forecast that consumption of each tourist in Europe will exceed 25,000 yuan (about 3,721 U.S. dollars) in two years, with the total annual consumption to reach 150 billion yuan (about 22.3 billion dollars). "Our findings confirm what a concerted effort to boost tourism can achieve. It also appears to have lasting effects, as we can see in the forward booking figures," said Olivier Jager, CEO of ForwardKeys. China's domestic travel agencies are also deepening the cooperation with Europe. For example, the SkyScanner, Ctrip's online travel search platform, set up its first overseas calling service center in Edinburgh in April 2018. Flash Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) countries agreed on many issues , but the difference on issues related to the conflict in the Middle East and ties with Iran remains, French top diplomat Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday. "There is a very long, positive and comprehensive press release. Nevertheless, it shows some differences of opinion...," Le Drian told reporters at the end of a two-day meeting in Dinard in western France. "We wanted to be completely transparent and say that on two topics in particular -- the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the way to follow regarding relations with Iran -- we have divergences that are known...," he said after receiving his counterparts from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan and Canada in Dinard, western France. "Despite the crisp air of Dinard, we couldn't overcome some of our differences. I think the talks were constructive and pleasant both in tone and in the fundamentals," he stressed. The French minister said the divergence did not prevent the participants from agreeing on issues including international security challenge, cyber interference in democracies and poverty in Africa, unlike the last G7 summit held in Canada in June 2018, which was marked by tense talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and his counterparts from the club over trade and climate change. In a final joint statement, G7 foreign ministers, admitted "clear differences" over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but they said "we remain united in our belief that this conflict has gone on for too long." They asked all regional stakeholders to play a pivotal role in reviving peace process and actively supporting the parties in maintaining the conditions for meaningful negotiations. "We support the resumption of substantive peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians aimed at achieving a negotiated solution that ensures the peace and security of both parties," they added. Committed to working together and promote international peace and security, they called for "coordinated approaches to prevent the use and spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their means of delivery, and reaffirm the importance of non-proliferation norms." "We are deeply concerned by Iran's ballistic missile activities, which are inconsistent with UN Security Council resolutions and which contribute to increased tensions and instability in the region," they said, asking Tehran "to immediately cease activities related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology." Speaking about unexpected military escalation in Libya, the top diplomats of G7 "reaffirm that there is no military solution to the conflict..." in the North Africa's main oil exporter, reiterating "the need for the international community, regional partners, and multilateral organizations to continue supporting the UN's efforts toward an inclusive Libyan-owned solution," to end the political vacuum and restore stability. The ministers also showed convergence on the necessity to join efforts to combat migrant smuggling and human trafficking. "We recognize that forced displacement and migration are a challenge to be addressed through national action and appropriate international cooperation, including with countries of origin, transit and destination," they noted. They also stressed the need to work together to protect human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, including those in the most vulnerable situations, in accordance with international obligations." Recognizing the link between peace and security, economic growth and development, and the respect of human rights and good governance in Africa, foreign ministers of the seven rich countries called for commitment to invest in bilateral and multilateral partnerships with African countries to support peace and sustainable economic development across the continent. France will host this year's G7 Leaders' Summit in the southwestern town of Biarritz on Aug. 24-26. This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. Learn more here Grand Prize Winner: Donna Rickey Blog Winners: A Song for her Enemies by Sherri Stewart: Mary Ann Hake Spies & Sweethearts by Linda Shenton Matchett: Connie Ruggles Sword of Trust by DebbieLynn Costello: Brenda Walters Justice for Julia by Donna Schlachter: Natalya Lakhno Party Prize winners: Sherri Stewarts Winners A Song for her Enemies: Angie Pool Bottle of Dutch Syrup: Carol Koch Alscheff Corrie ten Boom book: Deb Gramie Burgess Linda Shenton Matchetts winners: $5.00 gift card to online retailer or choice (Kobo, B&N, AppleBooks, Amazon): Karen Hadley A Bride for Seamus: Carol Osterhouse Wotring DebbieLynn Costellos winners: Sword of the Matchmaker: Melissa Planas Sword of Forgiveness: Paty Hinojosa Gomez Shattered Memories: Charlene Zall Capodice Sword of the Perfect Bride: Licha Haney Donna Schlachters winner: Leather Journal: Lisa Turley GIVEAWAY RULES Winners must leave their email address and will be notified by email and the winners name will be announced in the days comments. No one under 18 can enter our giveaways. No purchase is necessary. All winners have one week to claim their prize. USA shipping only. Offer void where prohibited. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants. Flash Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Iraq should consider the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from the country, Financial Tribune daily reported. "The presence of American military forces in regional states is to the detriment of these countries and the people in the region, so the Iraqi government needs to take action to urge Americans to pull out their troops from Iraq as soon as possible," said Khamenei during his meeting with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. "If the U.S. forces are entrenched in Iraq, it will become difficult to dislodge them in the long run," he explained. Meanwhile, the Iraqi prime minister praised Iran for standing by Iraq in hard times including during the battle against the terrorist groups. Abdul Mahdi arrived in Iran's capital Tehran on Saturday to discuss bilateral ties with the Iranian officials. New Delhi : The Indian Air Force on Friday asserted that it shot down an F-16 fighter jet of Pakistan during the February 27 dogfight, refuting a leading US news magazine report contradicting Indias claim. Issuing a statement after the American magazine Foreign Policy reported that a US count of the F-16s with Pakistan has found that none of these jets are missing, the IAF said, during the aerial engagement, one MiG 21 Bison of the IAF shot down an F-16 in Nowshera sector. IAF sources also said it has conclusive circumstantial evidence including wireless intercepts, signals and graphic captures from airborne warning and control system (AWACS) and electronic signatures to conclude that the F-16 jet was shot down during the aerial combat. In its report, the US magazine said two senior US defence officials with direct knowledge of the situation told it that American personnel recently counted Islamabads F-16s and found none of the planes missing. The report contradicted the claim made by New Delhi that during in an aerial duel on February 27, a day after India carried out air strikes in Pakistans Balakot to target a terror camp, Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman had engaged with one of the Pakistani F-16s and shot it down before his Mig-21 Bison was downed. Varthaman was captured by Pakistan and was released after spending nearly 60 hours in Pakistani custody. The Indian Forces have confirmed sighting ejections at two different places on that day. The two sightings were at places separated by at least 8-10 km. One was an IAF MiG 21 Bison and other a PAF aircraft. Electronic signatures gathered by us indicate that the PAF aircraft was a F-16, the IAF said in the statement. Pakistan Air Forces attempted reposte on February 27 comprising a large force of Pakistan Air Force comprising F-16s, JF 17s and Mirage III/V aircraft were picked up by the IAF radars, the IAF said. They were intercepted by IAFs Su30-MKI, Mirage 2000 and Mig 21 Bison fighters guided by ground radars and AWACS. All attempts of the PAF to attack any targets were thwarted by the IAF, the IAF said. The Indian Air Force on February 28 displayed pieces of an AMRAAM missile, fired by a Pakistani F-16, as evidence to conclusively prove that Pakistan deployed US-manufactured F-16 fighter jets during an aerial raid targeting Indian military installations in Kashmir. Pakistan has denied that it lost any F-16 jet during the aerial combat. Sources said electronic signals from the F-16 aircraft which was engaged by an Mig 21 Bison ended abruptly, confirming that it crashed after being hit. They said IAFs AWACS picked up signals of presence of an F-16 aircraft when Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthamans MiG-21 Bison was engaging with the enemy jet. However, around eight seconds later, the F-16 went missing from the graphic screen of the AWACS, reflecting that the jet went down. IAF sources said radio intercepts showed that two pilots had ejected after the aerial engagement and one of them was admitted to a Pakistani hospital. They said, Indian ground forces also sighted two parachutes coming down at Sabi Kot and Tandar following the aerial combat on February 27. The two places are separated by a distance of around 8 to 10 kms. According to the report in Foreign Policy, evidence also suggested that Pakistans F-16s were involved in the aerial battle with the Indian Air Force. According to the magazine, Pakistan invited the US to physically count its F-16 planes after the incident as part of an end-user agreement signed when the foreign military sale was finalised. Some of the aircraft were not immediately available for inspection due to the conflict, so it took US personnel several weeks to account for all of the jets, one US official said. Source : TOI We just dont know what she went through, a friend told me when we lost a close friend who struggled with poor mental health for years to suicide. This remains one of Indias biggest challenges in addressing mental illness: a general lack of mental health literacy. Mental illnesses anxiety, depression, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia among many others are neglected in India. Today, April 7, marks World Health Day, on which the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019 is focusing on universal health coverage. India has taken a step in the right direction, specifically towards mental health insurance and through the Mental Health Act, 2017. But why does India rank poorly in treating mental illnesses? In April 2018, a study titled How India Perceives Mental Health across eight cities with 3,556 respondents provides an insight. It revealed that although 87% of the respondents were aware of mental illnesses, 71% used terms associated with stigma - stupid, mad, crazy and even retard to describe mental illnesses. Recently, politician Akhilesh Yadav was criticised for calling the BJP schizophrenic. In a comprehensive piece titled Generation Stress in Foreign Affairs, Sylvia Mathews Burwell looked at three factors behind the mental health crisis on American college campuses. These factors intersect in a country with a complex socio-cultural setup like ours. They are: safety, economics and technology. Examining the factors: Safety: In India there are two cohorts which greatly lack safety: gender and certain castes. While India is making strides towards inclusion, it is time to push the boundaries. It should start with the recognition that depression is more common in women than in men (World Mental Health report, WHO). But gender isnt just about women. India celebrated the historic Supreme Court verdict decriminalising homosexuality. But questions of equal opportunity and social inclusion remained. The civil rights of the LGBTQ+ community continue to be limited. Caste further exacerbates the problem. The pervasive socioeconomic exclusion faced by the LGBTIQA+ community in intersection with caste, class and gender sets up a structural baseline of insecurity. Social exclusion, shaming and abuse can constitute serious blows to ones mental health, said Karthik Bittu Kondaiah, a trans-activist and scientist. Gender and caste determine access and opportunity, and therefore, ones place in society. Lower castes face intergenerational trauma through social exclusion, oppression and negative stereotyping, leading to poor mental health and stigma. Economics: In many low-to-middle income countries, there are many hurdles in the way of upward mobility. This is especially true for India, with a vast rural-urban divide, a growing unorganised sector and little to no dignity of labour. Writing for The Hindu in October 2018, Jacob Koshy and Bindu Shajan Perapaddan observe that the rural youths mental health is most neglected. Interestingly, since villages are more community-oriented than cities, the environment is more conducive to address such issues. However, Indias dismal ratio of one psychiatrist per every 100,000 persons (National Mental Health Survey, 2015-16) proves that even if there is access, options for professional intervention are severely limited and unaffordable. Dr Purnima Nagaraja, a therapist and psychiatrist, believes that people need to move away from an anti-psychiatry attitude and seek help. But due to entrenched patriarchy, vulnerable groups, such as women and children, are often deemed to be overreacting or seeking attention. There is no support system for women since it involves time and money, causing them to believe that theyre a burden on the family. Technology: Over-dependence on technology has been shown to be harmful to the mind. A study by Amy L Gonzales (Cornell University) proves technology helps social diversification. It pushes disadvantaged communities to virtual conversations which they would otherwise prefer not to have. Technology can push people into categories of haves and have-nots, but can serve as a problem and a solution. Dr Rajneesh Choubisa, an assistant professor at BITS Pilani, who works on technology and wellbeing believes that technical and digital literacy can help spread awareness. We can solve issues through carefully-crafted interventions to rationalise and control the problem. For instance, since viral content registers and plays up in ones psyche, positive content on mental health can trigger a change in attitudes. Indias Mental Healthcare Act (2017) provides, protects, promotes and fulfils the rights of persons with mental illnesses. The Mariwala Health Initiative, Bridge the Care Gap wants to prioritise mental health in policymaking. As political parties are currently working on their manifestos, this is the right time to intervene and make a difference in the lives of millions of people affected by psychosocial disabilities, Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico says on their website. While this move is welcome, policy alone wont work. There is a need for mental health literacy. An ecosystem of care, empathy and inclusion requires involvement of politicians, celebrities, activists, scholars and citizens. Only then can we change the way we address mental illnesses. The conversation must start. The conversation is slowly beginning, both in rural and urban India. But once help-seeking behaviours change, that is, when people start to look at mental illnesses the way they would their physical health and destigmatise it by asking for help, we can move from conversation to treatment, Dr Purnima adds. As the first director-general of the WHO, Brock Chisholm declared in 1954, Without mental health there can be no true physical health. So, even though Mental Health awareness has its own day (October 10), its important to keep the two together. marika.gabriel@htdigital.in Actors Alia Bhatt, Janhvi Kapoor, Ananya Pandey and Tara Sutaria, along with several other stars attended a Sabyasachi event on Saturday, and pictures from the red carpet appearance have arrived online. Designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee launched a new collection on Saturday to commemorate his 20 years in the business. Sabyasachi launched the new collection, titled Kashgaar Bazaar: In Retrospect, in collaboration with French fashion designer Christian Louboutin. Alia, who is gearing up for the release of her first period drama Kalank, wore a green saree for the event and tied her hair in a simple pony. She completed the look with big earrings and minimal makeup. Actors Ananya Pandey and Tara Sutaria were also spotted at the event. Both Tara and Ananya will make their Bollywood debut with Student of The Year 2, which also features Tiger Shroff. When Janhvi shared her red carpet look for the event, fans began comparing her with her late mom and actor Sridevi. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and Kalki Koechlin posed together at the red carpet along with the filmmakers daughter Aaliyah. Anurag and Kalki, who met on the sets of Dev D in 2008, divorced in 2015 - four years after tying the knot. Later, Kalki shared a video with Aaliyah and captioned it, Aint we cute. Rumoured couple Farhan Akhtar and Shibani Dandekar were also spotted together at the event. They posed with the man of the hour, Sabyasachi. Follow @htshowbiz for more Janhvi Kapoor is no stranger to being compared with her mother, late actor Sridevi. A recent series of Janhvis photographs have attracted renewed discussions online on the similarities between the mother-daughter duo. Janhvi posed in a red silk Sabyasachi dress at the designers 20-year anniversary event, and shared the photos on Instagram. She wrote in the caption, Pomegranate constellations. The post has over 500,000 likes and several fans in the comments noted Janhvis striking similarity to her late mother. OMG!!! You look like Sridevi ji, one fan wrote, adding sad emojis. A replica of Sridevi Ji, wrote another. One fan couldnt hide their disbelief. They wrote, In your 1st look I just thought its Sridevi standing. Sridevi died due to an accidental drowning in Dubai last year. Janhvi made her film debut a few months later, with Dhadak, opposite Ishaan Khatter. Janhvi said that she was still in shock when the movie came out. I think, I was still in that state of shock, to be very honest. I think I am still in shock. None of it has been processed. Like, I have no memory of three or four months, she said in an interview to Filmfare. Also read: Janhvi Kapoor says she has still not processed her mother Sridevis death Asked about comparisons to her mother, Janhvi told Hindustan Times, I think its just genetics and biology. I am her daughter so zaahir hai ki main unki tarah hi dikhungi. But my mum holds such a strong space in peoples heart and had a very personal connect. I hope I can please her fans also in some way in a bid to show gratitude for all the love she got. I hope I am given an opportunity to create my own identity. I dont think anyone can be like her. What she had to offer to films and to peoples lives was greater than what any artiste could. Janhvi will be seen in producer Dinesh Vijans film Rooh-Afza and Karan Johars multi-starrer Takht. She is also said to be working on a biopic of Gunjan Saxena, an Indian Air Force combat pilot, where Pankaj Tripathi plays her father. Follow @htshowbiz for more Bollywood actor Kartik Aaryan may have walked out of the Hindi remake of Kannada hit Kirik Party citing creative differences, media reports suggest. Originally slated to go on floors in October 2018, the new version of a reworked script has only just been finalised. A Mumbai Mirror report quoted a source as saying, Directed by Abhishek Jain, the film was to roll last October. However, the script had to be sent back to the writing table as most people on board felt that the adaptation failed to capture the humour and charm that made the original Kannada film such a success. Also read: Varun Dhawans fan threatens to harm his girlfriend, yells I will kill Natasha after being denied meeting Apparently, the Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety star did not like the new version of the script. Kartik wasnt sold on the revised screenplay. A few weeks ago, he had a meeting with the producers and expressed his doubts. Also, since he has allotted bulk dates in May to Imtiaz Alis Aaj Kal, the date clash was posing another problem. So, he decided to exit the project. The makers are currently scouting for a new lead, the source further told the tabloid. The Hindi remake is produced by Dheeraj Wadhwan, Ajay Kapoor, and Vrithika Laykar. Last seen in the surprise hit Luka Chuppi opposite Kriti Sanon. He will be seen in the Love Aaj Kal follow-up, reportedly titled Aaj Kal, with Sara Ali Khan. Kartik also has Pati Patni Aur Woh starring Ananya Pandey in the pipeline. Follow @htshowbiz for more A police complaint has been lodged against a fan of Bollywood actor Varun Dhawans after she threatened to kill his girlfriend and fashion designer Natasha Dalaal. According to media reports, after waiting to meet Varun for hours at his residence, a fan turned violent started yelling that she will kill Natasha. A Mid Day report quoted a source as saying, There was a female fan, who was doing the rounds of his house for a long time. We are used to such things and on most occasions, the fans are sweet and never cross their limits. Varun sir usually obliges their selfie requests, if he is available. But, he is currently pressed for time and is juggling too many things. She was waiting for a couple of hours. Sir came late and she was insisting that she meet him then and there. He was pretty tired from the days work and wanted to rest. She refused to leave and got into a squabble. Initially, she said she will hurt herself. When the security still didnt get her through to Varun sir, she threw a fit. She kept mumbling how she will harm Natasha maam. Also read: Ranveer Singh sings Tum To Thehre Pardesi and Apna Time with 83 crew, trains with Kapil Dev. Watch The source continued, It was alarming for us because usually, fans dont get so aggressive. We informed Varun sir, who panicked. She kept saying, I will kill Natasha. After the woman refused to leave even after 45 minutes, we had to call the local police station. The tabloid also reported that a complaint had been lodged at Santa Cruz police station and Varun declined to comment. Last year, when Varun appeared on Koffee with Karan, he confirmed his relationship with Natasha . When host and filmmaker Karan Johar asked him, the Kalank star confirmed that the two were indeed in a relationship and even said he plans to marry her someday. Talking about his wedding plans, Varun recently told Filmfare in an interview, Its not going to happen this year. Im not saying I wont get married but its not this soon. If Im doing all these movies, I need to find the right time for that. Varun, who was last seen in Sui Dhaaga alongside Anushka Sharma, is promoting his upcoming film with Alia Bhatt, Kalank. Directed by Abhishek Varman, the film also stars Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt, Aditya Roy Kapur and Sonakshi Sinha. He is also working on a dance film, Street Dancer, opposite Shraddha Kapoor. Follow @htshowbiz for more A chartered accountant (CA) was robbed of 15,000 and jewellery when four men on two-wheelers held him at gunpoint on the Ashram flyover in south Delhi on Saturday morning. The victim, Ajit Kumar Sinha, was on his way to work in Noida when the incident took place. Sinha told police that two scooter-borne men riding parallel to his car on his left, signalled him to look thorough his right window. Outside, a man riding pillion on a motorcycle was pointing a gun at him. They directed him to stop the car. Sinha stopped the car and rolled down the cars window to ask the men what the matter was. One of the assailants, forcibly opened his cars door on the drivers side, put his leg between the door and the seat and told Sinha give them whatever cash and valuables he had, said a police officer associated with the case. Police said Sinha immediately gave them his wallet. The robbers got angry, hurled abuses at Sinha, and called him bankrupt when they found 15,000 in cash. The robbers then made Sinha remove and hand over his gold chain and two gold rings, said the officer. In his complaint, Sinha told the police that the robbers threatened to kill him if he stopped his car at any police picket to report the crime. They allegedly told him to drive straight to his office in Noida. Sinha was so shaken by the brazen crime that he directly reached his Noida office through the DND flyway, despite seeing a few police patrol vans en route. Sinha, who lives with family in Delhis Malviya Nagar, later informed his colleagues and wife about the crime. The colleagues and a few family members accompanied him to the Sunlight Colony police station where he lodged his complaint. We registered a case of armed robbery on Sinhas complaint and formed five teams to identify and nab the robbers. Our team members visited the crime scene to see if the crime was captured in any CCTV camera. However, the place the incident took place was not covered under any camera. Our investigators are also scanning the cameras on the route taken by Sinha, said Chinmoy Biswal, deputy commissioner of police. DCP Biswal said that they suspect the involvement of local criminals. Some local criminals who were involved in similar crimes are being questioned for clues, he added. In a mans world of bike snatchers in Delhi, she is the odd woman out. Dressed as a man in a pair of jeans, shirt tucked out of her waist, her face covered with a helmet, 32-year-old Ramanjeet Kaur, alias Rinkle, rides pillion on a motorcycle and snatches cell phones, jewellery, and handbags for a living. Rinkle, a mother of three, features in the list of bad characters at the Nangloi police station. A bad character, according to police records, is a person with multiple criminal cases whose activities must be monitored because he or she is a threat to law and order. Last month, Rinkle was arrested for the third time in her life. She had on March 8 rode pillion and dragged a middle-aged woman, who refused to let go of the bag she had tried to snatch, for more than 100 metres on a busy west Delhi road. Rinkle is back in prison, jail number 6, the same place from where she was released a year ago. Police officers, who have interrogated her all these years, describe her in various ways a woman with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, a ruthless criminal, a kleptomaniac. They describe her differently; see her differently, but agree on one fact Rinkle is getting violent by the year. This means trouble for her and the police. In January 2018, Rinkle who police falsely believed had quit her criminal ways attacked a woman in west Delhis Kirti Nagar when the woman resisted a snatching attempt. According to the womans complaint, she was assaulted, dragged and left bleeding on the ground. Rinkle is a habitual snatcher but she wasnt violent. Of late, she has started attacking her victims if they resist. This is scary. She takes the help of other criminals to commit the crimes, an officer said, adding this time Rinkles partner-in-crime was a man named Ramneek Singh, 24. Singh has cases of assault, robbery, and possessing illegal weapons. The beginning Had it not been for her younger brothers friendship with a local criminal, Rinkle, maybe, would have never had a police record. She would always be Ramanjeet Kaur, a wife, a mother, carpenter and a homemakers daughter. Rinkle had studied at a government school in west Delhis Chander Vihar where she lived. She dropped out of Class 10. Friends and distant relatives of Chander Vihar, who have known her, say that around 2012, her brother Romi had become friends with Jagga alias Jagjeet, 35, a man with over 40 criminal cases such as murder, snatching, robbery. One of the distant relatives, who refused to be identified, said,Romi did drugs and committed snatching crimes with Jagga. They were friends. Jagga was a regular at Rinkles house. We came to know much later he had fallen in love with her. Rinkle was already married with her childhood love Tejender. Jagga was so smitten by her that to date, he has never married. Maybe it was Jaggas flashy lifestyle that lured her to crime and gave her a new life. Rinkle knew how to ride. Her father, Kuldip, had even bought her a scooter. Unlike her elder sister, she loved riding and speeding. Jagga was what she needed. A smitten Jagga gave her wings. They started in late 2012. Jagga, a veteran with over 40 cases, had offered Rinkle a part of his stolen earnings. I hired her because she is a woman and having a woman in the gang is beneficial. There is no chance of doubt and they commit the crime easily, his confession in police records read. Police records show Jagga and Rinkle were neighbours in Chander Vihar and operated across the city. Their crimes Delhis own Bonnie and Clyde were reported from Vikaspuri in west Delhi to Laxmi Nagar in east Delhi; Greater Kailash in south Delhi to Connaught Place in the heart of the city. A crime dossier, prepared by crime branch, shows they were first arrested in east Delhis Krishna Nagar on March 14, 2014. On a stolen bike, the two were fleeing after a snatching spree . That evening, Rinkles name was etched in police records for the first time. A Chander Vihar resident, who claimed he was friends with Ramanjeet before she became Rinkle, said, Within months of her arrest, her husband Tejender was also arrested for murder. He had murdered a man after a drunken brawl and dumped the body in Sonepat. Their three kids were like orphans. Their grandmother came to take care of them. After two months, on May 30 that year, Rinkle was out on bail. We thought she would mend her ways but it did not happen. She found other partners to help her in the crime. Ramneek Singh, arrested in the latest case with Rinkle, told police that he too was in love with her. With Jagga, tagged as Rinkles partner-in-crime, in police files, she needed a new man. The Chander Vihar resident said that around mid-2017, Rinkle found the perfect guy a local biker, who loved performing stunts on bikes and was often spotted at India Gate C Hexagon. Ramneek was just her man. Inspector Jai Prakash, who arrested the two, said, Rinkle became friends with Ramneek. Initially, she asked him if he could snatch potatoes from local shops while riding. Next, she asked him to snatch apples. It graduated to iPhones, jewellery and hand bags. In January last year, when the two were first arrested, police had found evidence of their involvement in nine cases of robbery. Between 2017 and 2018, they may possibly have been involved in over a 100 cases. WONT DO IT AGAIN At 32, Rinkle has 25 known criminal cases against her and these are only the cases in which police have found evidence and pinned her involvement. The actual number of cases could be too many. All the cases are in the trial stage. The annual crime data shows there are over 8,000 snatching cases every year in the national Capital. With a strength of a little over 80,000 personnel for a population of 1.98 crore residents half the force are on traffic or security duties most cases remain unsolved in the city. Only 56% of the snatching cases were solved last year. Using this to their advantage, Rinkle and her partners made a killing by snatching for a living. An officer who had arrested Rinkle in 2018 said that the woman had even bought a house in Nangloi for 25 lakh in 2017. A stolen iPhone that costs about 75,000 is sold for anywhere between 15,000- 20,000 in the black market. A phone that costs around 20,000 is sold for about 5,000. There is no dearth of goldsmiths who take seconds to melt stolen gold chains and burn every bit of evidence of the crime. Rinkle told police she loved gold chains but has never worn a single piece of gold or diamond she has snatched. Last month, they had made the mistake of throwing a stolen handbag in the bushes, instead of burning it. Police found the bag and used it as an evidence against her and Ramneek. Last month, after her arrest, inside the operations cell of the west district, Rinkle cried. She said she would not do it again. Was it acting or was she indeed repenting? None of the police officers around her could say with conviction. An officer, who was at the office, said Rinkle defended her actions and came up with different reasons as to why she had become a criminal. She said she was obsessed with snatching hand bags. To another officer, she said she needed money to repay a debt. Next, she said the business is good the lax laws help so she would not mind spending a few days in jail. Last year, she spent less than a month in prison. Delhi police have written to the government to amend anti-snatching laws to ensure harsher punishment and difficult bail provisions. More than two years later, the file is gathering dust. Police are unsure for how long Rinkle will be in prison this time. Her family refused to talk to HT. Locals said her mother is taking care of Rinkles kids. This isnt Rinkles first time in prison. But most of the locals and the police personnel are certain that it most definitely wont be her last. In 2016, the then lieutenant governor had signed an externment order barring Rinkle from living within Delhi for at least two years. Not many women get this sort of punishment. In banishment, Rinkle lived in Sonepat. She returned to Delhi after two years. Nothing has changed except she became more violent and desperate. For the price of a cup of tea, you can feed a poor patient outside Delhis prominent government hospitals such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital by donating 11 using Paytm. You can choose to pay one meal, one meal a day, or many meals a day, and can volunteer to serve them the food. A Delhi-based NGO, Uday Foundation, has been conducting these food drives three-four times in a week outside 11 government-run hospitals in Delhi for the past three years. On an average, the organisation is able to feed 30-40,000 poor people in a month, who are either patients or their attendants. The foundation has tied up with Paytm to ask for donations from people using the app to fund their initiative. Now we have tied up with Paytm, and people can donate as per their capacity. The tie-up is being launched on Sunday, and we are popularising it on Twitter by creating the hashtag #udayfightshunger, said Rahul Verma, founder, Uday Foundation. Our target is to feed at least one million people. The foundation has been running for about 10-12 years, and has also been conducting drives to collect clothes, blankets and maintain sanitation outside government hospitals. We work at the grassroots level and our aim is to connect people to people so that those in need can benefit. We thought of tying up with Paytm because a larger number of people use this app these days, and it is quite convenient to donate through the app. You dont have to be physically present, you can donate sitting in your home, office, anywhere, says Verma. A full-day campaign will be run by the foundation on April 7, 8am onwards to popularise the initiative. We have involved many celebrities that should help in making the hashtag trend on social media in order to spread the message among masses. Social media is an effective tool these days, said Verma. Today is World Health Day with a focus on universal health coverage, defined as affordable and quality healthcare to all. In India, quality care is often missing, not just in overburdened public hospitals that treat thousands every day, but also in upscale private hospitals, where care is impersonal and profits always come before patients. A friend with toothache felt disoriented after popping a painkiller and ended up in the emergency of a leading hospital in East Delhi last week. He was given intravenous NaCl (salt), leeched of blood for a battery of tests, which included one to rule out sepsis, and made to undergo an MRI to rule out stroke. It turned out that his unsteadiness, the chief symptom in his discharge summary, was because of electrolyte imbalance from dehydration and not having eaten in 24 hours. He was charged 13,551.24 and asked to come back after three days for a neurological evaluation. This is not an isolated incident of over-diagnosis at hospitals and neighbourhood clinics. When a colleagues mother had a dizzy spell when she choose to adventurously fast while she had fever, her family took her to another big private hospital in central Delhi. She was prescribed a score of tests and advised to get hospitalised immediately for three days of further tests and medical observation. A call to the family physician for a second opinion put an end to the panic. The physician promptly said the dizziness was likely because she had skipped her diabetes medication while fasting like she had done in the past, and prescribed a glass of water with glucose. The glucose led to a miraculous recovery and within minutes, she walked back to her car ready to go home even as furious doctors at the hospital insisted she was risking her health and life by going home against medical advice. In both cases, simply taking the medical history would have ruled out neurological problems immediately. Dizziness is usually caused by dehydration, sudden drop in blood sugar because of fasting or diabetes or both, low blood pressure, migraine, some medications, alcohol, and inner ear-related balance issues. Stroke needs to be ruled out if the dizziness is accompanied with sudden severe headache, double vision, nausea, speaking or walking, or trouble moving the arms and legs. Family physicians understand each patients medical history because of frequent interaction, which allows them to offer a personalised continuum of care to each one. They use their skill to assess the complex interplay of lifestyle, overall physical health and existing chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and sugar before prescribing diagnostic tests and expensive medication. Most doctors today choose specialise and work in multiple clinics and hospitals, which has led to family physicians who know their patients medical history inside out becoming rarer with each passing day. People are complicated, and their medical problems rarely come neatly packaged as the single diseases that scientists and doctors study, says an editorial in the journal Nature last year. Treating illness requires understanding case histories and treating symptoms in combination, which busy doctors in overcrowded hospitals often fail to do. Around 90% of daily ailments are from minor accidents, like cuts and abrasions, and self-limiting infections and conditions, like diarrhoea, colds and viral fever. Multispecialty hospitals must focus on medical emergencies, illnesses and infections like trauma, heart attacks, stroke, cancers and pneumonia, but unfortunately, highly trained surgeons and emergency care specialists spend most of their time treating fevers and stomach aches. India had only 1,041,395 registered allopathic doctors in 2017 to treat its population of 1.3 billion people. With 90% of healthcare needs across a lifetime provided by primary health care services, which range from maternity and child care, vaccination, chronic disease management, and supporting care of ageing populations, government initiatives like Mohalla Clinics in Delhi and Health and Wellness Centre under Ayushman Bharat fill a vital gap. Till these centres are fully operational, however, its advisable to identify a family physician who is on call 24x7 --- voice call, whatsapp or text -- to guide you through a medical emergency. The physicians should also be your go-to person for second opinions and referrals, when needed, to ensure you get unbiased advice if you need more advanced treatment. At an individual level, each one of us must keep a copy of our medical history, which must include blood group, allergies, past surgeries and major illnesses, and all the medications currently being taken, on the phone. Along with that, those who have health insurance must keep a soft copy/photograph of the health card for easy access during a medical emergency. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON World Health Day is celebrated each year on April 7, and is an initiative by the World Health Organisation to make people more aware of certain health issues. The World Health Assembly took place for the first time in 1948 and was held in Geneva. World Health Day is commemorated every year on this date because this was when WHO was founded, which came into being to address vital health care issues. The objective of the World Health Day is to spread awareness about equal health care facilities all over the world and to dispel all the myths that are there regarding health related matters. Organisations all over the world hold different kind of events related to health on this occasion. Theme for 2019 The theme for this years Health Day is universal health coverage. WHO is working towards a future where everyone should get the healthcare they need and when they need it. Adequate steps are being taken to ensure that someday in the future, this theme becomes a reality. Significance WHO acknowledges that the world is making progress in a lot of areas, however, millions of individuals still cannot get access to the right medical care at the right time. Countless others are is such a bad state that they have to choose between eating or getting the medicines for treatment. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Wildlife authorities on Sunday rescued around 550 protected Indian birds such as parakeet, Asian koel and hill myna during a raid at Galiff Street in central Kolkata where protected birds and animals are sold illegally. Hundreds of birds, along with some new born chicks, were found locked inside cramped cages. Nine people were arrested. The seizure and arrests were made in two back-to- back raids jointly conducted by Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) of the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change and the West Bengal forest department, said Agni Mitra, regional deputy director, WCCB. In the first raid, six people were arrested and around 250 parakeets rescued. The raiding teams received information that some of the sellers shifted location and were operating again after the first raid. A second raid led to the rescue of around 300 more birds and some newly hatched chicks that usually do not survive in the condition in which they were found. The forest department has consulted veterinary doctors, Mitra said. Nine bird traders, aged between 18 and 32 years, were arrested. They will be produced in court on Monday. In recent years, West Bengal has emerged as a major market and transit point for wildlife smugglers dealing in live animals and birds of Indian and foreign origin as well as animal parts that fetch hefty price in the international market. Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy Sunday said a section of people wanted to finish him off politically by ensuring the defeat of his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy from the Mandya Lok Sabha seat. Indicating that all was not well among the alliance partners Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress, Kumaraswamy said he was relying only on the JD(S) MLAs, MLCs and the sitting member of parliament LR Shivarame Gowda (in Mandya) and did not depend on his partys ally. Some Congress leaders are working and some are not working (in Mandya), but I am not upset with that. There is a section out to finish me off [politically] by defeating Nikhil Kumaraswamy. However, they dont have the support of the local people there, Kumaraswamy said. On Friday, Kumaraswamy accused coalition partner Congress and others of hatching a chakravyuha, a battle formation in epic Mahabharata, to ensure that his son did not win in the upcoming national elections. The Karnataka chief minister also attacked the PM Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, accusing it of decimating the constitutional institutions in the country during the last five years. Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in New Delhi on Monday after a summon was sent to him a third time on Friday in connection with a 2017 terror funding case. The separatist leaders decision to travel to Delhi comes after he was assured that security would be provided to him. After a meeting of the Hurriyat Conferences executive council on Sunday, it was decided that Mirwaiz would travel to Delhi on Monday and appear before the NIA. In the meeting, it was also decided that some other Hurriyat leaders would accompany Mirwaiz. Hurriyat spokesman confirmed that Mirwaiz will appear before the NIA on Monday. After several pleas to hold the investigation in Srinagar, the NIA has refused to conduct it in Srinagar and has said that it would take care of security. After a meeting, a decision was taken that all the executive members will accompany Mirwaiz to New Delhi for the investigation, said the spokesman. Mirwaiz had cited security reasons for skipping the earlier two summons sent by the NIA. The first summon was served to him in March and was asked to appear before the NIA officials on March 11. In response to the summons, the separatist leaders counsel had submitted a letter to the NIA citing different reasons which were preventing Mirwaiz Umar Farooq from appearing before the NIA. Your attention is invited to some of the distressing comments which have appeared in mainstream print media since the news of his summons to New Delhi. There are open calls for his assassination. Having regard to the comments, merely stating in the notice that security will be provided appears to be perfunctory observation, Farooqs counsel Ajaz Ahmad Dhar had said in the letter. There is growing concern over the safety of Uma Kulkarni, a doctor who is missing since April 3 from her home in Herefordshire, with the police issuing a missing persons appeal in the Bristol-north Somerset area in west England. Kulkarni, 42, completed her MBBS qualification from Nagpur University in 1999 and registered with the General Medical Council to practice in the United Kingdom in 2015, according to records. The police said her home is in Herefordshire in the west Midlands, suggesting she may have travelled to the Bristol area. The Avon and Somerset police said: She is thought to have travelled into the Avon and Somerset force area as her car a bronze coloured Toyota Auris was found near Aust Services near to the Severn Bridge crossing. The police described her as an Asian woman, 5ft tall of slim build, with black hair and both ears pierced. She normally wears earrings. It is not known what Uma was wearing when she went missing. The police said officers have carried out enquiries in the area near the Severn Bridge, which links England with Wales, adding that concern is growing for her welfare because there has been no contact from her. Doctors from India constitute the largest country group after UK-trained medical personnel in the National Health Service. Infuriated at not be allowed to meet his father Lalu Prasad who is in a hospital in Ranchi, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav took to Twitter to bait the BJP, calling its supporters cowards. I am a son of lion. I am the son of Bihar. I am not going to get scared by your antics. Why are you taking cover like cowards... come lets have a straight fight if you have drunk your mothers milk, Tejashwi tweeted in Bollywood style. In an earlier tweet Sunday morning, he said: I have been waiting since yesterday evening at the Ranchi hospital to meet my father, but the autocratic BJP government is not allowing a son to meet his father. A conspiracy is being hatched against Lalu ji. He is in jail and undergoing treatment in a hospital under security but his room is being raided every day, PTI quoted him as saying in Patna. Lalu Prasad who was convicted in a multi-crore rupee fodder scam, is undergoing treatment at Ranchis Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences for a heart ailment. Tejashwi, who is spearheading the RJDs poll campaign in his fathers absence has had to contend with his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadavs tantrums over fielding candidates in Sheohar and Jehanabad Lok Sabha seats. Income Tax officials on Sunday launched nationwide raids on Sunday, targeting at least four dozen locations in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, all residences and offices of people linked to chief minister Kamal Nath. Those raided include Naths former Officer on Special Duty Pravin Kakkar, former advisor Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-laws firm Moser Baer and his nephew Ratul Puris company, Hindustan Powerprojects Pvt Ltd, IT, and finance ministry officials said on condition of anonymity. The ostensible reason for the searches was tax evasion, according to the IT officials, who claimed they had information on this. They added that they suspect movement of money through hawala channels during the ongoing poll season. Searches on Miglani and Kakkar, as an outcome of credible information of movement of cash, are being conducted. 50 premises have been covered. ~9 crore cash has been recovered till 3 pm (on Sunday). The counting is still on. Several incriminating documents have been found, a CBDT official with direct knowledge of the matter said requesting anonymity. In a statement, chief minister Kamal Nath said: It will be appropriate to comment [on I-T raids] only when the situation regarding the raids becomes clear but entire country knows as to how and against whom they [the BJP] have been using constitutional bodies for the past 5 years. They use these bodies to frighten [others]. When they have nothing to say on development they use such sinister design against opponents. When BJP sees imminent defeat in Lok Sabha polls it has resorted to such actions to draw advantage in the election. In the assembly elections held last year too they had adopted similar tactics, he added. Miglani said he was in Chhindwara. I dont know about the raids, he said, while Kakkar couldnt be reached for a comment. Madhya Pradesh Congress media in charge Shobha Oza said: The raids are an outcome of Prime Minister Narendra Modis frustration caused by BJPs defeat in three states (Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and Rajasthan, in late 2018). Raids were carried out to malign the image of Congress party and exert pressure on it during the Lok Sabha elections. Interestingly, in a blog released on Sunday, Union minister Arun Jaitley said: The past few days have witnessed several cases where the Election Commission and the revenue authorities, both separately and acting jointly, trying to curb the use of black money in elections. These actions have been particularly significant in States like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, North-East and Madhya Pradesh. The Election Commission and the Income-tax authorities work in close tandem during elections. The raids in Bhopal and Indore began at about 3 am, and were conducted by IT officers who came from Delhi and were accompanied by CRPF personnel. There was a heated exchange of words on Sunday evening between the Madhya Pradsh police and the CRPF personnel at Platinum Plaza, where the income tax department was conducting raids. The raids were conducted at Kakkars Indore bungalow, his office, a marriage venue owned by him; and another flat. The raids in Bhopal were conducted at Kakkars official residence at Nadir Colony at Shayamala Hills,and residence of two of his associates, Ashwini Sharma at Platinum Plaza , and Prateek Joshi at Shyamala Hills. Both Kakkar and Miglani had resigned from their posts just before the Lok Sabha polls were declared. Searches on Miglani and Kakkar, as an outcome of credible information of movement of cash, is being conducted. 50 premises has been covered. Rs 9 crore cash has been recovered till 3pm (on Sunday). The counting is still on, a CBDT official with direct knowledge of the matter said, requesting anonymity. Though there was no information on cash seized, Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted: Black money worth crores has been recovered from @officeofKamalNaths personal secretary. Income tax officials in Madhya Pradesh who spoke on condition of anonymity said that apart from cash, soma diaries, with names of officers of the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service have also been seized, and that the teams conducting the raids could also target Kakkars bank lockers. Note counting machines were brought to Sharmas residence while the raid was going on. Kakkar, a former Madhya Pradesh police officer, was appointed OSD to Nath after the Congress came to power in the state last year. He had earlier served as OSD to former union minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA regime. Miglani, who has been associated with Kamal Nath for many years, was appointed an adviser to the CM Kamal Nath last year in 2018. Ratul Puri is under scanner of Enforcement Directorate for an alleged money laundering case related to the Augusta Westland VVIP chopper scam. A statement issued by his company said: Ratul Puri issues a categorical denial of having any connection or involvement of any kind in defence or the Augusta Westland case. He will be fully cooperating with the ED investigation and provide any clarification or information as may be required. It wasnt immediately clear whether Sundays raids have anything to do with this. According to the Madhya Pradesh IT officials, the raiding teams from Delhi arrived in the state, along with around 150 CRPF personnel two days ago. They arrived as tourists in five traveller buses and three SUVs. The local police was not informed before conducting the raids as, as per official sources, they apprehended a West Bengal like conflict here in Madhya Pradesh too with the local police. The incident comes over a month after the face-off betweenKolkata Police and officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation in West Bengal in February. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee sat on a dharna after a team of CBI officials reached the residence of then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to question him in connection with Saradha chit fund scam. State BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said, By standing by Kakkar and Miglani Congress has proved that its for black money, not for any action against it. Congress previous records show it has always been with corruption. Chief electoral officer, Madhya Pradesh VL Kantharao said, If Income Tax department gives any report to me then I will be able to comment on this. Pakistan foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has alleged that India is planning another military attack against Pakistan in the coming weeks. We have reliable intelligence that between 16th and 20th April, India may carry out an attack against Pakistan, said the foreign minister at a news conference in Multan on Sunday. He said that India could stage a Pulwama style attack in Kashmir to use it as justification for its military adventure against Pakistan. Qureshi said that he had consulted with Prime Minister Imran Khan and decided to make public the development in order to expose what he called was Indian designed. The purpose of such a sinister plan is to put diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, he added. Local media quoted officials as saying that Pakistan is taking the intelligence of possible Indian aggression seriously as it has already reached out to key world leaders on the development. Earlier this week, Pakistan foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua invited the ambassadors of five permanent members of the UN Security Council to share Islamabads concerns. It is believed that the recent telephonic conversation between Qureshi and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo was initiated after the intelligence reports of a renewed escalation in Indo-Pak tensions. The expose came just days before India goes to vote for the national election and thats why we fear that India may orchestrate another Pulwama type attack and use it as justification for another military action against Pakistan, said a senior foreign office official quoted by local media. An Income Tax department raid on one Ashwini Sharma who is said to be close to the Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Naths OSD Praveen Kakkar in Bhopal sparked a face-off between a CRPF contingent and the local police on Sunday which escalated into war of words between the CM and his predecessor Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Kamal Nath in a statement in the evening said, It will be appropriate to comment only when the situation regarding the IT raids is clear but the entire country knows as to how and against whom they have been using constitutional bodies for the past 5 years. They use these bodies to frighten (others). When they have nothing to say on development they use such sinister design against Opponents. When BJP sees imminent defeat in Lok Sabha polls it has resorted to such actions to draw advantage in the election. In the assembly elections held last year too they had adopted similar tactics.... We were also prepared for the same. There should be impartial inquiry into everything. This is not going to affect us. Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, There is a constitutional crisis in Madhya Pradesh. Why IT dept team is not being allowed to work? Who asked the local police to reach there (IT raids sites)? Is this not an act of promoting corruption? Earlier Sunday, some of CRPF personnel standing guard at the ground floor of Platinum Plaza accused the local police personnel of misbehaving with and abusing them while the latter accused the CRPF personnel of detaining other people in the building and not allowing them to move out even though some of them were ailing. There are several flats and offices in Platinum Plaza, other than those being raided by the IT dept. The raids at Sharmas and one Prateek Joshis properties at the Platinum Plaza and another property of Joshi at Ansal Plaza Shyamala Hills and CMs OSD Praveen Kakkars Nadir colony residence at Bhopal began early Sunday. Madhya Pradeshs Director General of Police, VK Singh said, It (raids) has been going on at Indore and Bhopal since late night but there have been no signs of police interfering in the IT department work. But there have been reactions which could have led to a law and order issue and law and order issue can be handled only by the state police because only its empowered to do so. Bhopal police chief Bhupendra Singh said they arrived at the scene after other residents complained of high-handedness. We got phone calls from some persons inside the building that they have been detained in the building and that they are not being allowed to move out. Thats why we have come here to help them out. We dont want to interfere in the IT departments process, Singh said. But a CRPF officer accused the local police of trying to interfere in their work. Bhopal police misbehaved with and abused us and they tried to interfere in our work. We have not stopped anybody from leaving the premises. We are just here to help the IT department team in their work, CRPF officer Pradeep Dadar said. During the heated exchange of words an ambulance arrived at the scene in the evening. Later, two women came out of the building whose medical check-up was conducted in the ambulance. Senior BJP leader Dr Hitesh Bajpai tweeted, Has @officeofKNath instructed MP police to create riot like West Bengal but dont allow papers which have been recovered to go into anyones hands? State Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said, We have no problem with the IT departments work against any particular person but other people who are residing in the building are complaining that the entire building has been sealed and since 5 in the morning they have not been allowed to go out of the building. What crime they have committed? But there should be no confrontation between two sides. They should amicably resolve it. According to official sources, an additional team of CRPF personnel was called in after the authorities concerned sent a report to home ministry regarding the situation developing in Madhya Pradesh. In an unprecedented development, polling staff in five districts in West Bengal began an agitation from Saturday afternoon, saying they will not report for duty unless central forces were deployed in every booth. Citing violence that marked the panchayat elections in 2018, the agitating polling staff said they would not risk their lives nor take insults that many faced when hooligans tried to rig rural polls in several districts. Employees of government offices, government-aided schools and banks are usually assigned election duties. Though violence marked many elections during the Left Front regime in Bengal, polling staff had never staged such agitations. In an embarrassment to the government and ruling Trinanool Congress, hundreds of people asked to report for election duty staged agitation and blocked traffic for three hours at Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar on Saturday, less than 24 hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed his election rally in the district. They lifted the agitation only after district officials assured them that adequate security arrangements would be made. At Uleberia in Howrah district, around 500 people staged a similar agitation on Saturday. Agitations were also held at Chetla in Kolkata and Haldia in East Midnapore district on Saturday and at Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district on Sunday. At many places, the agitators carried posters that said polling staff do not want to face the same fate as Rajkumar Roy, a school teacher whose body was found near a railway track at Raigunj in North Dinajpur district during panchayat polls in May last year. Roy was presiding officer at a polling station set up in a school building. While police said Roy was run over by a train, his family and friends alleged foul play. The memories still haunt us. Armed hooligans entered many polling booths and asked us to hand over the ballot papers. We are here to do our job. We cannot risk our lives, a state government employee said on condition of anonymity. No TMC leader was willing to comment on the development. Sanjay Basu, additional chief electoral officer for West Bengal, said, It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of polling staff. We will take all necessary steps. Interestingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded last week that all polling booths in Bengal should be declared sensitive by Election Commission of India and central forces deployed in all of them. The EC turned down the first demand but said security will be tightened in all districts. In an unrelated development, EC on Saturday banned the controversial election jingle sung by Union minister of state and BJPs outgoing Asansol MP Babul Supriyo. The song was released on social media about two weeks ago and Trinamool moved EC saying it was released without clearance from the election watchdog. The jingle insulted party chief Mamata Banerjee, TMC leaders had alleged. Rajni Chauhan, 34, walked into the mohalla clinic in Sarai Kale Khan at 11 am to get treatment for a persistent itch on her right arm that wasnt improving with skin ointments. She was prescribed a thyroid test at the clinic. The test was free, and after she was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, she was given free medicines. This clinic is close to my home and the best part is there are no queues, said Chauhan. The mohalla clinic at Sarai Kale Khan receives around 100 patients daily with complaints of fever, cough and cold, skin rashes, stomach upset, diabetes and hypertension. Since the first clinic was set up in West Delhis Peera Garhi in July 2015, 189 more have come up. The target is to set up 1,000 clinics, one in every 5km radius. States like Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are setting up urban health centres on the mohalla clinic model that is often run in portacabin clinics built at a cost of 20 lakh per two-room clinic, and provides consultation, 80 medicines and 212 tests free of cost. All the mohalla clinics are run by doctors hired on a contractual basis and paid 40 per patient as an incentive. There is a shortfall of health workers, with pharmacists and auxilliary nurse midwives (ANM) being moved from hospitals and dispensaries to staff clinics. A decision has been taken to hire additional pharmacists and ANMs on ad hoc basis after a test right after the model code of conduct is lifted, said a senior official from Delhi governments health department. The clinics are run between 8 am and 2 pm on working days in Delhi, and till 4.30 pm in Karnataka. The services are usually utilised by the urban poor, who are daily wage labourers, so evening clinics are essential... our urban clinics also provide speciality and general medicine consultation in the evenings between 5 pm and 8 pm, said Dr Prabhudev D Gowda, nodal officer for National Urban Rural Health Mission (NURHM), Karnataka, which is setting up 364 mohalla clinics. Andhra Pradesh, which has set up 244 urban primary health clinics in public-private partnership mode since October 2016, also offers specialist advice through telemedicine and evening clinics between 4 pm and 8 pm. The clinics are open all 365 days, including Sundays and holidays... Our model is very different from the Delhi governments and we provide more services, said G Vasudev Rao, state programme officer NURHM, Andhra Pradesh. One of the biggest drawbacks of Delhis mohalla clinics is that they do not offer ante-natal checkups, immunisation or basic emergency care. If a patient comes to me with injuries, I do not have dressing material, I do not have tetanus shots, so I have to refer them to the hospital, said a mohalla clinic doctor who did not want to be named. There is also a shortage of free medicines for chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and thyroid. Despite the shortcomings, former health secretary K Sujatha Rao feels it is a superb model. It is low cost and extremely effective. Also, the clinics are located right where the people live. Given support from the government, they could be scaled up to provide effective, preventive healthcare services and immunisation. This is the way to go about universal health coverage, she said. Days after reports that the Myanmarese rebel group Arakan Army (AA) has been targeting men and material involved in the Kaladan Multi Modal Transport Project (KMMTP) that India is building, the outfit said it has no problem with New Delhi and accused the Myanmar army of trying to create trouble. We have no problem with the KMMTP. We are not against it. We do not want to obstruct it. They are building a road which the people can use. We can also use that road, said Khaing Thu Kha, spokesperson of the Arakan Army and head of its information wing, over the phone. On completion, the KMMTP will help connect Mizoram with the Sittwe Port in Rakhine State of Myanmar. The Arakan Army is fighting for a confederate status for Rakhine state. On March 30, in southern Chin state, AA insurgents abducted 13 people working for a Myanmar-based contractor involved in building the Paletwa to Mizoram road, part of the last leg of the KMMTP. Five persons were later released. This 109-km road connecting Paletwa to Zorinpui on the Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram is key to completion of the project. On the Indian side, in Lawngtlai, in south Mizoram, officials said they have completed over 80% work on the 87-km road connecting Lawngtlai town to Zorinpui. We have eight persons in detention. They are spies sent by the Myanmar Army. They were working for Military Intelligence before, claimed Khaing Thu Kha. The Myanmar Army is taking advantage of the Kaladan project and sending spies in the war zone. They want to create problems between the Indian army and the AA, he said. My advice to the companies sending workers on the project is that for their security they should inform us that they are entering the war zone so that we can inform our ground forces, Khaing Thu Kha said. On March 16, a vessel carrying steel tresses for a bridge in Paletwa was targeted and set on fire by AA rebels. We had information that the Myanmar Army was transporting ammunition in that vessel, Khaing Thu Kha claimed. Officials of the Myanmar Army, quoted in a report by Irrawaddy, rubbished claims by the AA and said the outfit was trying to hamper the construction of the road. Since January 2018, clashes between the AA and Myanmar Army have intensified in the Rakhine and Chin states of Myanmar. Presidential spokesperson in Myanmar told the media recently that there have been 103 clashes between the two sides since January in which as many as 12 civilians, 58 AA combatants and 28 policemen have died. The figure does not include casualties suffered by the Myanmar Army. In February, there were reports that Indian security forces had undertaken an operation jointly with the Myanmar Army targeting Arakan Army camps. A senior official of the Assam Rifles in Mizoram said in March that security presence was increased to ensure that there is no movement of refugees from Myanmar to Mizoram. In 2017, as fighting raged in Myanmar, more than 1500 refugees had entered Lawngtlai out of which more than 200 are still living in a border village. Khaing Thu Kha, meanwhile, denied that the group had any camps in India or if it any of its members were targeted by the Indian security forces. We have no camps on the India side of the border, he said. The spokesperson acknowledged that the members of the group frequented Mizoram for ration or medical treatment. That, too, has stopped after February since Indian security presence increased, he said. The construction of the road has started, but it will be difficult since its a war zone now, Khaing Thu Kha said commenting on the problems that could arise in completion of the project. The Pakistani navy is unlikely to send warships to take part in Chinas high-profile maritime parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to be held off Chinas east coast later this month. At least two Pakistani ships were expected to attend the review to be inspected by President Xi Jinping in the coastal city of Qingdao on April 23. The withdrawal of the Pakistani ships hasnt been announced officially but the reason behind it could be the current heavy deployment of the Indian navy in the Arabian Sea. Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was quoted on Sunday telling reporters in Multan that India was planning to attack Pakistan later this month. In the aftermath of the deadly Pulwama terror attack, the Indian navy had said in a statement on March 18 that it was deploying an aircraft carrier, nuclear-powered attack submarines and several warships in the region. It could be that Islamabad was unable to spare warships at this time as it would mean withdrawing them for weeks from patrolling Pakistans maritime border; the reason for not sending warships for iron brother Chinas prestigious naval drill has to be serious. Senior military officials from Pakistan are expected to attend events related to the anniversary in Qingdao. The Pakistani embassys press office in Beijing didnt respond to phone calls and messages on the topic. India, meanwhile, has dispatched one of its frontline warships, INS Kolkata, an indigenously built stealth destroyer, to take part in the fleet review. Also read: Only 1 of its 5 submarines operational, Pakistan sends SOS to China Accompanying INS Kolkata will be one of the Indian Navys largest ships, fleet tanker, INS Shakti. Around 500 Indian navy personnel will be on the two ships. Up till now, over 60 countries have confirmed to send navy delegations to participate in the activities and multiple countries have confirmed to send naval vessels to the international fleet review, defence ministry spokesperson, Colonel Wu Qian said last month. For India, sending warships to PLANs prestige event is part of the post-Wuhan reset of Sino-India ties following the cold snap in the aftermath of the Doklam (Donglang) standoff. Military engagement between the armed forces is expected to expand. This will be the first time Indian warships are coming to China since April 2014 when the PLAN marked its 65thanniversary with events in Qingdao. The deployment of INS Kolkata at the event is a message of both cooperation and competition, Ben Ho, a naval analyst with the Military Studies Programme at Singapores S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies told HT. The deployment of the INS Kolkata and INS Shakti to the PLANs 70th-anniversary celebration may seem like a case of cooperative naval diplomacy at first glance, but there is a competitive element to it as well. Fleet reviews like the one that will take place later this month are essential bodybuilding shows for navies. The force with the best muscles will garner the most attention, Ho said. He added that INS Kolkata is a stealth destroyer with state-of-the-art capabilities like the supersonic BrahMos surface-to-surface missile, and its deployment to the fleet review is arguably an exercise in strategic messaging. Ho said though Shakti is not a warship but a tanker, and platforms like it are not as glamorous as their heavily armed brethren, they are a key force multiplier in naval operations given that they enable deployments that are longer in duration and/or distance. The Kolkata-Shakti combination is noteworthy. Through it, Delhi arguably wants Beijing to take note of its independent blue-water capabilities in far-flung regions, including perhaps the South China Sea. After all, Beijing has looked askance at previous Indian naval deployments to that contested body of water which it regards as its own backyard, he added. Last week, the Japan Times reported that the US will not send warships or senior military officers to attend the event. The report added that Washingtons decision could be seen as a snub though its allies Japan and South Korea are expected to deploy ships. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Saturday slammed Pakistan for not acting against terrorists operating from its soil despite India providing it evidence several times. Sitharaman told reporters here that Pakistan did not want to eliminate terror. Pakistan is interested in promoting terrorism. It does not want to eliminate terrorism, the senior BJP leader said when asked about Pakistan stonewalling dossiers on terrorists supplied by India. Not just this government, but even earlier governments have given dossier after dossier, evidence after evidence but Pakistan has done nothing on them, she said. Talking about the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai by Pakistani terrorists, she said even the first court in the neighbouring country had not completed the job of trying the accused. Claiming that only the Narendra Modi government could give a befitting reply to terrorists, she said opposition parties were insulting soldiers by questioning the February 26 air strikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Pakistans Balakot. The air strikes were carried out after the JeM terror outfit claimed responsibility for the February 14 Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF troopers were martyred. She said the morale of the armed forces was high and peoples support had raised their motivation level even further. On a query on the Rafale fighter jet purchase in which the Congress has alleged irregularities, Sitharaman said the deal followed laid down norms and was made in national interest. Bofors was a scam. Not Rafale. Rafale will bring back the Modi government to build a new India and stamp out corruption, she claimed. Air India has so far billed 443.4 crore for Prime Minister Narendra Modis official foreign visits, the frequency of which are seen as a reflection of Indias growing engagement with the rest of the world. The airline is yet to charge for the expenses incurred on five more overseas trips made by the PM. Air India, the official airline for the Prime Ministers overseas visits, has flown Modi on 44 international trips since he became PM in May 2014, more than any of his predecessors, according to data from the Prime Ministers Office (PMO). The airline sends the bills to the PMO; the money is then transferred to Air India by the government. The Prime Minister is expected to travel to the United Arab Emirates this month, the last official overseas trip during his first term in office, to receive the UAEs highest civilian award for the role he has played in providing a boost to bilateral strategic ties. Although he has travelled to more countries, the expenses incurred on Modis foreign visits are almost 50 crore less than what was spent by his immediate predecessor Manmohan Singh, during his second term ( 2009-2014). As PM, Singh undertook 38 trips abroad in those five years, and incurred an expenditure of 493.22 crore. Modis frequent foreign trips underline the growing interaction between India, a nuclear power and one of the fastest growing major economies, and the international community. Opposition parties have sometimes been critical of the Prime Minister for his frequent overseas trips. One reason for the lower travel cost (overall, and on average) of Modis foreign trips is because he often targets multiple destinations on the same trip. In his first interview to HT in August 2015, after taking over as the PM, Modi said that he believes in single ticket double journey or in other words, travelling to multiple destinations during an overseas trip. While Singh travelled mostly to one or two destinations, Modi flew to as many as to six countries on a single trip when he visited Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in 2015; 16 of his trips were to multiple countries. Another reason why PM Modis foreign tours seem to have cost less to the exchequer is that for six other international visits, he used the business jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) , incurring no additional expense. Modi went to Nepal, Bangladesh, Iran and Singapore in the IAFs Boeing 737 business jet that is used round the year exclusively for VVIP travel. During Singhs tenure, Ai India One was used even on short-haul tours such as Bangladesh and Singapore, too, had been taken into account. These travel costs include fuel, cost of hiring the entire aircraft and cost related to crew. Other costs that may be incurred on foreign travel, such as expenses in the destination, are not included in these. To be sure, once the remaining, unbilled trips, including the upcoming one to the UAE, are paid for, Modis foreign travels are likely to end up costing more, although the average is still likely to remain lower. The other five trips were to Japan, Singapore, the Maldives, Argentina and South Korea. Air India hasnt sent the bills for those trips yet, according to government data. The National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday held protests in Kashmir as the ban on civilian traffic on the national highway NH 44, from Baramulla to Udhampur, came into force. National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, along with party members, held a protest at Athwajan on the highway. He threatened more protests if the highway ban was not revoked. Now it is difficult to even take the sick for treatment. The Police and Army is everywhere. Is this a colony or are we living in a free country. They have kept us like they do in a prison. It is necessary that, before there is bloodshed, they revoke this order, Abdullah said. It is their own mistake. They knew the attack (at Pulwama) was happening. Where did this material come from? It is their own doing and (now) we have to face its consequences. Before we start more protests they should revoke this order, he said. The ban on the movement of civilian vehicles on Sundays and Wednesdays on the highway has been put in place after the February 14 Pulwama bombing in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. A state government notification on Wednesday said that civilian traffic would not be allowed on the Baramulla-Srinagar-Udhampur highway on Sundays and Wednesdays to ensure safe movement of security convoys during the parliamentary elections. National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah termed the highway closure a mindless order. Driving to Uri Im getting to see firsthand the extent of disruption & inconvenience that is being caused to people because of the mindless highway closure order that is in place today, he tweeted. National Conferences Anantnag Lok Sabha candidate Justice (retd.) Hasnain Masoodi, along with party leaders, held a sit-in on the highway against the ban at Wanpoh Anantnag. PDP leaders and activists held a protest near Athwajan at the highway which was led by former legislator Ashraf Mir. The protesters raised slogans against the administration under the rule of Governor. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said they would approach the court against the order. She urged people to defy the ban. This is absolutely wrong. This is no occupational force. If GoI thinks that they will suppress people here by doing these activities, this is wrong. We are defying this ban. And we will also approach court. This wont work. Kashmir is of Kashmiris. And Kashmiris dont need to seek permission to travel on their own roads. We wont allow this. I appeal to all the people to defy the ban and commute wherever they want to go, she told media. This is Kashmir, not Palestine. We wont allow you to turn our beloved land into an open air prison, she also tweeted. Former BJP ally Sajjad Lone called it a humanitarian disaster and asked the governor to scrap the order.The highway ban is now turning into a humanitarian disaster. Weve been flooded with calls from across the state. People in dire need to travel in order to tend to their day-to-day needs of survival stuck in a state of helplessness, he tweeted. Wildlife clearances for projects in the protected areas of Jammu and Kashmir will no longer be considered by the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), the standing committee of NBWL has said, clarifying that this is because of the special status granted to the state, although some activists and lawyers believe the bodys clarification is misplaced. Existing laws, including the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and the Jammu and Kashmir Wildlife Protection Act, do not provide for consultation of the NBWL for cases related to national parks or sanctuaries in Jammu and Kashmir, the committee said in a report. According to minutes of the 53rd meeting of the standing committee of NBWL published on March 25, the union environment ministry, through an office memorandum dated May 7, 2018, formed a committee to examine matters related to projects falling within national parks or wildlife sanctuaries of Jammu and Kashmir, projects in conservation reserves or community reserves, and projects falling within the eco-sensitive zone of a protected area. Jammu and Kashmir has 38 conservation reserves, 14 wildlife sanctuaries and five national parks Supreme Court judgments, such as the landmark case of TN Godavarman vs Union of India, which covers both issues related to wildlife and forests do not specifically mention the state of Jammu and Kashmir while making no exception..., the minutes said. The committee has said important cases may be referred to the NBWL by state authorities for advice or consideration but in view of the special provisions for Jammu and Kashmir, NBWL will take the view of the ministry of law before considering any case. Till now we would refer all wildlife clearance matters to the NBWL. Recently for two projects pertaining to underground drinking water pipeline and laying of optical fibre cable in Leh and Ladakh were delegated to us (state wildlife department)..., Sohail Ahmed, technical officer at the Jammu and Kashmir wildlife protection department, said. The environment ministrys guidelines for seeking recommendations of the NBWL for activities in protected areas say that activities in conservation reserves should be dealt with by its standing committee. These decisions are not pertaining to any specific cases. The ministry had enquired about these issues so the committee has answered them, said BS Bonal, chairman of the standing committee. Experts said the impact of this decision will depend on the systems that the state government puts in place to conserve biodiversity and sanctity of protected areas. ...The policies need to be assessed very carefully as Jammu and Kashmir has a very unique biodiversity of Himalayan and trans- Himalayan components, said Bilal Habib, senior scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India. But Supreme Court advocate, Sanjay Upadhyay said ... in the Centre for Environmental Law vs Union of India case in SC, the apex court on Oct 5, 2015 had held that all matters related to national parks and sanctuaries in all states should go to NBWL. So its wrong in law for NBWL to take this decision.... The Congress on Sunday launched its official campaign tagline for the Lok Sabha election; Ab hoga NYAY centered around its minimum income guarantee scheme and party president Rahul Gandhi. The manifesto titled Congress will deliver focused on the agrarian crisis and unemployment, and the Congress minimum income scheme NYAY that guarantees 72,000 a year to the bottom most or poorest 20% of households. The campaign will revolve around key promises mentioned in the partys manifesto including the NYAY scheme, universal healthcare, doubling education budget, the womens reservation bill and the separate farmers budget. Watch | Congress unveils campaign slogan Ab hoga NYAY for LS polls Congress in its manifesto promised to enact the Right to Healthcare Act and guarantee every citizen free diagnostics, out-patient care, free medicines and hospitalization, through a network of public hospitals and enlisted private hospitals. The party had also promised to pass in the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha the Womens Reservation Bill reserving 33% of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies. The campaign focuses on justice, this word embraces all, it is not limited to the big promise of providing minimum income to the poor of the country but it also promises justice to farmers, youth, the entrepreneurs and the daughters of this country, senior party leader Anand Sharma said. The slogan was launched just two days before the first phase of polling after weeks of brainstorming by its publicity committee party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari and Rajeev Shukla, besides Bhakta Charan Das, Praveen Chakravarty, Milind Deora, Kumar Ketkar, Pawan Khera, VD Satheesan, Jaiveer Shergill, partys social media head Divya Spandana and former Rajya Sabha member Pramod Tiwari. Gareebi par vaar, 72,000 (hazaar), ab hoga NYAY (Attack on poverty, 72,000, now justice will be delivered), this is our election campaign pitch, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said. The party also launched its official campaign song with lyrics penned by Bollywood song writers Javed Akhtar and Nikhil Advani. The party ran into trouble with the Election Commission on Saturday with the poll body objecting to certain lyrics. Senior party leaders said the concerned lyrics were changed by the party late last night. The campaign has been designed by digital media firm Silver Push. The song and the videos launched by the party were created by media group Percept Limited. A BJP worker has lodged a complaint with police accusing Bollywood actor and Congresss Lok Sabha candidate Urmila Matondkar of making anti-Hindu remarks, an official said Sunday. The BJP worker also sought actions against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for allegedly instructing Matondkar to make the calumnious comments and journalist Rajdeep Sardesai allegedly for letting the actor make the remarks on his news channel and telecasting them. Suresh Nakhua, a Mumbai BJP worker, in his compliant lodged with the Powai police here on Saturday claimed the remarks hurt the Hindu communitys sentiments. Matondkar is the Congress candidate from Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency. Nakhua said he submitted the complaint after watching Matondkars interview on a television news channel in which she said the Hinduism is the most violent religion in the world. We have received the application. After seeking a legal opinion, we will take further action, a Powai police station official told PTI. Nakhua said Matondkars comments were false, mischievous, deceitful and frivolous, and alleged they were made with a deliberate motive to cause disharmony among people and malign the country at global level. The BJP leader, in a tweet, said, Cong Candidate from Mumbai, Urmila Matondkar says: The religion which has been known for its tolerance has become the most violent!! This is abuse of Hindus!!!He also alleged that Matondkar made these malicious, mischievous and calumnious comments on the instructions and orders of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Nakhua further alleged that journalist Rajdeep Sardesai allowed Matondkar to make the comment and broadcast it on the television channel. He demanded action against Matondkar, Gandhi and Sardesai under sections 295A, 505 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The sections respectively pertains to committing deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings, making statement causing public mischief and acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention. When contacted for his reaction, Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the ground was slipping from beneath the BJPs feet. Sensing defeat in Mumbai North, earlier an attempt was made to peek into Matondkars personal life and marriage and now they are trying to polarise voters, Sawant said. The BJP has realised voters prefer Urmila rather than the incumbent MP (BJPs Gopal Shetty), he added. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would enter into an alliance with the Congress in Delhi only if it agreed for the same in Haryana in the Lok Sabha polls and backed its demand of full statehood to Delhi, said a senior party leader on Saturday. The talks for an alliance in Delhi were on between the two parties, with the AAP wanting it in Haryana and Chandigarh as well, the leader added. The talks are on for 18 seats -- Delhi (seven), Haryana (10) and Chandigarh (one). We said it (poll understanding) will be possible only if the Congress agreed to an alliance in Haryana, he said. The AAP has also conveyed that it could support the Congress in Chandigarh only if the Rahul Gandhi-led party extended support to it in Faridabad, Gurugram and Karnal in Haryana. These two conditions were decided at a meeting of AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal with senior party leaders Sanjay Singh, Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai on Saturday, he said. The Congress should openly declare a support to full statehood for Delhi, if it wants to have an alliance with the AAP, the leader said. The talks for Punjab were ruled out by the Congress due to Chief Minister Amarinder Singhs disagreement over the issue, he said. According to the sources, the Congress President had called a meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue with senior party leaders, including Delhi Congress President and former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. In a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav said that earlier the public was asked to trust a chaiwala and now the public was being asked to trust a chowkidar. Akhilesh was addressing the first joint rally of the alliance between the Samajwadi Party, Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party and Ajit Singhs Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha. He said that this election was an election to create history, to bring change, elevate harmony, remove hate. You must have heard their leaders come and speak here. All they had to talk about was hatred. They dont want to talk about promises. In 2014, we were asked to trust a chaiwala. He promised Rs 15 lakh in every account, crores of jobs etc. Now we are being asked to trust the chowkidar. One-by-one, we will remove all the chowkidars from their chowkis, Akhilesh said. Saying that the PM had referred to the SP-BSP-RLD alliance as a milawati alliance, Akhilesh said, this is an alliance for a great change. Speaking about the policies of the BJP government at the Centre, Akhilesh said unemployment had become a serious issue across the country. They have brought bure din instead of achhe din. There are no jobs, sugarcane dues are pending and the GST tax regime has destroyed small businesses in the state. BJP leaders have divided more people than the British, he said. The Samajwadi Party president also mocked PM Modis visit to the Ardh Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj earlier this year. If voted to power, Akhilesh Yadav promised welfare schemes for farmers, employment opportunities for the youth and a good life for the people of Uttar Pradesh. He also addressed Mayawati as desh ki neta. Speaking in his turn, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh told the massive gathering that the Lok Sabha election was meant to save the nation. Ache din aa gayeModi ke ache din aa gaye. Bhagwan hum sab ko Modi jaisa fakir bana de, he said. The BJP is anti-farmer. Farming is not a matter of profit. Takht badal do taj badal do is jhooto ki sarkar ko badal do, the RLD chief said. Also read | BJP will lose because of its policies: Mayawati at first joint rally of SP-BSP-RLD alliance in UP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expecting major gains from West Bengal in 2019. That the BJP has emerged the main opposition party against the ruling All India Trimanool Congress (AITC) is not in doubt. The BJP finished a clear, albeit distant, second in the 2018 panchayat elections n the state. Until 2016, it was the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front that was second in the state in terms of vote share. Because the panchayat elections witnessed allegations of large-scale intimidation and rigging by the AITC, there was an impression that the oppositions tally could have been better had the polls been fair. Will 2019 spring a surprise performance by the BJP in West Bengal? Two factors are worth underlining. One, in order to get a large number of seats in the state, the BJP would have to significantly increase its vote share from 2014 levels. And two, the BJPs growth in West Bengal until now has been at the cost of the opposition, namely the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front and the Congress. The AITC, in fact, has increased its vote share during this period. Unless a section of the AITC voters jump ship to the BJP, the latter will find it difficult to make significant gains in the state. The example of the AITC is useful to explain the critical minimum vote share point. After Mamata Banerjee walked out of the Congress to form the AITC (then West Bengal Trinamool Congress) in 1998, it won seven seats in the 1998 Lok Sabha election. However, these seats came with a 24.4% total vote share. To be sure, the AITC did not contest all seats in the state, and its contested vote share was much higher at 35.5%. The BJP does not have an ally in West Bengal, and its footprint is not particularly concentrated in a region of the state. This means that unless the BJP increases its 2014 vote share by at least 10 percentage points, getting a significant number of Lok Sabha seats will be extremely difficult. This raises the question of what has contributed to the BJPs growth in West Bengal since 2014. It is primarily the collapse of the CPI(M)-led Left Front. The median vote share of the Left and the BJP put together in all 42 parliamentary constituencies in the state was almost the same in 2009 (47%) and 2014 (47.8%). However, the distribution shifted discernibly in favour of the BJP in the 2014 elections. To be sure, the BJP is not the only party which has gained from the Lefts decline in West Bengal. It is the AITC which has been the biggest beneficiary of the decline of the Left. The vote share of the AITC increased from 21% in 2004, when it won just one Lok Sabha seat to 39% in 2014. This increased to 45% in the 2016 elections. If the AITC is able to retain this kind of a vote share, it might be difficult for the BJP to increase its seat tally. The other interesting question in West Bengal is the multi-polar contest in 2019. With alliance talks between the Congress and the CPI(M) not materialising, there will be three competitors for anti-AITC votes in West Bengal: BJP, Left Front and Congress. This increases the possibility of fragmentation in the opposition vote. But the absence of an alliance may have prevented some potential attrition from the Congress and the Left to the ranks of the BJP, as disagreement over seat sharing between the Congress and the Left could have pushed disgruntled local leadership of these parties towards the BJP. For example, there were reports of Deepa Das Munshi of the Congress, who lost the Raijganj seat to Md Salim of the CPI (M) by a couple of thousand votes in 2014, being in touch with the BJP when the Congress and the CPI (M) were both staking claims over Raiganj. For a party like the BJP, which is still in an organisation building exercise in West Bengal, fielding popular and known candidates is half the battle won. With both the Congress and the left competing for anti-AITC votes, the BJP has the unenviable task of attacking not just Mamata Banerjee but also the Congress and the Left to ensure that they do not divide opposition votes. Fading photographs in Siliguris Kanchenjungha stadium feature every sporting hero who has visited the largest stadium in this north Bengal town, known as the gateway to Darjeeling and the Himalayas. In almost every frame, former state minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] Ashok Bhattacharya is beaming underlining the might the Left Front once enjoyed in the state. But the party office is rundown, there is only a trickle of visitors and local leaders privately arent hopeful of a victory. Across town, Abhijit Roy Chowdhury is relaxing in his living room after a hectic day of campaign. He is the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) district president since July 2018 but a cupboard still proudly showcases his picture with former president Pranab Mukherjee, when the latter was with the Congress. Every few minutes, he fields calls from workers on the ground, who sound upbeat about the partys chances. In a way, these two frames encapsulate the political reality of West Bengal, the third-largest state in the country in terms of Lok Sabha seats. The BJP aims to grow as the principal opposition party in a space vacated by the Congress, which is facing an erosion of support, and the Left, whose iron grip on the state is already a fading memory. And it is here in north Bengal, where the saffron party is hoping to give the ruling Trinamool Congress its toughest fight yet. TRINAMOOL strengths West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is no stranger to the ups and downs of politics. The 64-year-old won her first election in 1984 from Jadavpur, defeating Left stalwart Somnath Chatterjee, and went on to become a Union minister. But disappointed at the state unit of the Congress, she left the party to form her own party in 1998 and won seven seats in the elections that year. After the 2004 election, she was the lone member of her party in Parliament but the Singur land agitation two years later gave her party a new lease of life. Riding high on the farmers agitation and discontent after three-decades of Left rule, her party won 19 seats in 2009 and dislodged the Left Front in a historic victory in 2011. Five years later, she won a resounding victory, increasing her majority in the 294-member assembly. Halfway through her second term, Banerjee remains the most popular mass leader in the state. Privately, even her rivals acknowledge her feisty fighting spirit and sharp political instinct. In governance, she is a populist with a number of welfare schemes and doles, such as fixed sums of money to neighbourhood clubs. This election, Banerjee is said to nurture ambitions of a larger role in national politics; for that, she has to maximize her partys tally in West Bengal. The BJPs best efforts to project a face to rival Didi, as she is known to her supporters, have failed miserably so far. Banerjee has quite a few things going in her favour. West Bengal has around 27% Bengali-speaking Muslims, 3% Hindi or Urdu-speaking Muslims and around 2% other non-Hindu votes. The 32% minority votes are expected to rally behind Banerjee. As one of her aides said on condition of anonymity, She will start the race with 30% assured votes in hand. Her party has the best organizational presence on the ground with party offices in every village and block that sometimes run as parallel administration centres. And, with the Left and Congress in decline in the state, Banerjees party is also eyeing some Left or Congress votes. The unprecedented seven-phase polling in the state should also help her. Being the sole star campaigner, Banerjee can afford more time to campaign in each constituency. And, finally, there is her carefully curated image of the neighbourhood elder sister and mass connect, bolstered by her image of austerity. BJPs best chance? A good performance by the BJP in Bengal can offset some of the losses the party is expected to suffer in north India, and the saffron party is determined to emerge as a serious choice to voters who are unhappy with the seven-year Trinamool Congress rule. The party commanded an admirable 17% vote in the last Lok Sabha election though far behind the Trinamools 39% -- and stood second in a number of seats, including Banerjees pocket borough of Kolkata South. Then, it emerged as the largest opposition force in the 2018 panchayat elections, doing especially well in the western, tribal-dominated districts. This time, the BJP is aiming for a higher share with party president Amit Shah announcing his party would bag 35-40 seats from Bengal, Odisha and the north-east. A large section of the people is fed up with the Trinamool. If they see a viable alternative, they will definitely vote for them, said political analyst Debabrata Chaki in the northern Bengal town of Cooch Behar. BJP Cooch Behar district chief Malati Rava emphasised that law-and-order is a pet plank for them. Also her politics of appeasement has isolated a large section of the voters. They will vote for us, she added, referring to a key BJP campaign theme: Banerjees alleged policy of favouring the sizeable Muslim population. The Trinamools key strategist Mukul Roy has shifted to the BJP, and at least three MPs and a host of local leaders have followed suit in the past three months. Veteran Congress leader Abdul Mannan also echoes similar sentiments. If we had the pact between the Congress and the Left, we could have given both the Trinamool and the BJP a tough fight across the state. But we lost that opportunity, he said. The saffron party is pulling out all stops -- from the National Register of Citizenship (aiming to drive out illegal Muslim migrants) to the Pulwama attack. In Siliguri, Roy Chowdhury said this time, the BJP would be a different ball game for Banerjee. Many non-Muslim Congress and CPI(M) votes will come to us. Remember, there is not just an anti-Trinamool sentiment but also a pro-Modi wave. But this is easier said than done. The state BJP is no match against the Trinamools powerful organisation. It still lacks grassroot-level workers in large parts of the state. Our government has given far better schemes than the Centre in the last four years. We started a package for farmers much before the Centre announced PM Kisan. Our Kanya Shri (a welfare scheme for girl children) won international accolades while their Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao is nothing but a PR exercise. We have provided millions of jobs, the BJP has taken away jobs from the young people, said Trinamool Congresss North Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh. Congress and CPI(M) The two erstwhile rivals have one thing in common: both are scrambling to stay relevant in state politics, especially after failing to stitch together an alliance. Last time, the CPI(M) received close to 30% votes and Congress around 10%. In theory, a tie-up should have been able to put up a fight especially in pockets of north and central Bengal. At his ancestral home in Siliguri, Bhattacharya admits, It is true that a section of the people have started looking at the BJP as the real alternative to the TMC. If the Congress and CPI(M) reached an understanding, these voters would have returned to us. Mannan said, We wanted an open alliance, not just some hazy seat sharing. We wanted a mix of Left and Congress candidates in every district, but Left refused to give seats in entire north Bengal. As the fight between the BJP and Trinamool intensifies, Bengals votes are likely to be more polarised among the two parties. The Congress is also facing factional frictions. The most powerful state Congress leader, Adhir Chowdhury, failed to take others along with him. Now, under the reigns of veteran leader Somen Mitra, discontent is brewing among senior leaders. Mannan even refuses to go to the Congress office as long as Mitra is the state unit chief. With the first phase of the staggered election less than a week away, the fight in Bengal appears to be between the Trinamool, looking to extend its dominance and the BJP, raring to expand in a state that has traditionally shunned the saffron party. Will Didis street-smart politics triumph or will the BJP be able to exploit anti-incumbency on this question will depend the results in the eastern state. Congress wants to punish the middle class for helping Modi win in the elections: PM Modi Congress is planning to levy more taxes on the middle class. They are attempting to push India towards license raj where 70-80% taxes were imposed. Congress wants to punish the middle class for helping Modi win in the elections: PM Congress party and the Left are ganging up to remove Modi: PM Modi The Congress party and the Left are ganging up to remove Modi. To dupe people, they show they are against each other in Kerala and Tripura but hold hands when in Delhi to abuse Modi. They stand shoulder to shoulder with people who want to break India: PM A party that indulged in Chowkidar quarter scam, cant take care of your interests: PM Modi A party that indulged in Chowkidar quarter scam, cant take care of your interests. People with such intentions and scams should lose deposit in the upcoming elections: PM Modi. Congress hypocrisy document seems to blow the trumpet of Pakistan more than that of India: PM Modi Congress hypocrisy document seems to blow the trumpet of Pakistan more than that of India: PM at Imphal rally. We changed the law around bamboo and now you can grow and sell bamboo: PM Modi Around 1.25 lakh farmers of Manipur have started receiving financial assistance from the Centre. We changed the law around bamboo and now you can grow and sell bamboo: PM Modi. Through BPOs and Mudra yojana, we have created job opportunities for the youth of the northeast: PM Modi Through BPOs and Mudra yojana, we have created job opportunities for the youth of the northeast: PM Modi. Manipur is known for football and its about time to show the red card to Congress for the foul: PM Modi They have played with your lives and respect. Manipur is known for football and its about time to show the red card to Congress for the foul: PM Modi. All the capitals of the northeast are connected with the rail lines: PM Modi If the Congress party were really wanted to develop the northeast region, they would have developed infrastructure and promoted sports. Now, all the capitals of the northeast are connected with the rail lines: PM Modi. Naamdaar are expert in manufacturing in abuses and lies: PM Modi Naamdaar claims that they will make the northeast a hub of manufacturing industry. They are expert in manufacturing in abuses and lies: PM Modi For the first time, India carried out attacks across the border against the terrorist hotbeds: PM Modi For the first time, India carried out attacks across the border against the terrorist hotbeds. People trust the Armed forces but not Congress leaders. They are supporting divisive parties and people: PM Modi. Its your blessings that any government is witnessing pro-incumbency for the first time: PM Modi Its your blessings that any government is witnessing pro-incumbency for the first time. People have anger against the opposition and not the ruling party: PM Narendra Modi. Chowkidar has done all the work with full dedication: PM Modi The chowkidar has done all the work with full dedication, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PM Modi addresses public meeting in Imphal, Manipur PM Modi addresses public meeting in Imphal, Manipur Modi govt has given 5.56 lakh crore to Odisha. However, it hasnt reached the people yet as its been gobbled up by Navin Babus people: Shah Modi government has given 5.56 lakh crore to Odisha. However, it hasnt reached the people yet as its been gobbled up by Navin Babus people, says Amit Shah. Phir ek baar Modi sarkar: BJP unveils its poll campaign tagline, theme song for Lok Sabha elections Phir ek baar Modi sarkar: BJP unveils its poll campaign tagline, theme song for Lok Sabha elections. We will make Odisha a model state if BJP forms government here: Amit Shah We will make Odisha a model state if BJP forms government here, says Amit Shah. Narendra Modi can bring development to Odisha: Amit Shah Narendra Modi can bring development to Odisha, says Amit Shah. Naveen Patnaik is B team of Congress: Amit Shah Naveen Patnaik is B team of Congress, says Amit Shah. Amit Shah addresses public meeting in Bargarh, Odisha Amit Shah addresses public meeting in Bargarh, Odisha. For the Left parties, their constitution is more important than the constitution of the country: PM Modi in Tripura For the Left parties, their constitution is more important than the constitution of the country. These Parties once had dozens of MPs, CMs and MLAs, but now they are showing signs of fatigue. There leaders are seen on television debating but not on ground with the people : PM Modi in Tripura Northeast neglected most by previous governments: PM Modi in Tripura Its because of your support that weve been able to work for the development of the regions neglected by previous governments. In fact, the northeast has been neglected the most: PM Narendra Modi at Tripura poll rally It's because of your support that we've been able to work for the development of the regions neglected by previous governments. In fact, the northeast has been neglected the most: PM @narendramodi #IsBaarPhirModi https://t.co/vVlmBiqVlP BJP (@BJP4India) April 7, 2019 They seem to be two different parties but they are united in Delhi: PM Modi in Tripura Entire opposition has come together against Prime Minister Modi, they might look two different parties here in Tripura but they get united in Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Tripura poll rally We avenged our soldiers death by airstrikes, only BJP government can protect borders: BJP chief Amit Shah at Odisha poll rally When terrorist attacked our Army men, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who ordered air strikes. We went inside Pakistan and killed hundreds of terrorist, this is why only Narendra Modi led government can protect our borders: BJP president Amit Shah in Odisha The man who cant speak Odiya even after being CM for 19 yrs,can never work for welfare of Odisha: BJP chief Amit Shah Amit Shah in Bargarh Odisha: I was listening to Dharmendra Pradhan ji. He was speaking fluent Odiya. Will Naveen babu be able to speak even 5 lines in Odiya,without looking at paper? The man who cant speak Odiya even after being CM for 19 yrs,can never work for welfare of Odisha, reports news agency ANI, Amit Shah in Bargarh Odisha: I was listening to Dharmendra Pradhan ji. He was speaking fluent Odiya. Will Naveen babu be able to speak even 5 lines in Odiya,without looking at paper? The man who can't speak Odiya even after being CM for 19 yrs,can never work for welfare of Odisha pic.twitter.com/eurM4CATs6 ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 Tripura has been far sighted, as they choose BJP over left and TMC: PM Modi Trinamool Congress had been fighting in Tripura for a very long time, but the people of Tripura have been very intelligent and far sighted, they choose BJP over left and TMC: Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tripura BJP has always opposed farmers: RLD chief Ajit Singh When farmers had reached Delhi on 2nd October, Modi ordered water cannons and lathi charge. Farmers were stopped from entering the national capital, no BJP leader was there to support farmers: Ajit Singh This election is to save democracy: Ajit Singh at joint poll rally in Deoband Elections come after five years but this election is very important as it will decide the fate of democracy in the country. He Modi is re-elected the democracy will suffer: Chaudhary Ajit Singh at joint poll rally in Deoband Congress and BJP both are same, only we can bring change: SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav Congress do not intend to bring change in the country they just want to form government. There is no difference between Congress and BJP. Only alliance can bring change in the country: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav These polls will bring peace and harmony back in country: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav This Lok Sabha election will bring harmony and peace back in the country: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav BJP promised Acche dinn but brought Bure dinn: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav They promised Acche dinn for everyone but now they have brought Bure dinn for all of us, Our country has been going behind in the world but the government has been falsely claiming to be going ahead: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, First they came as Chaiwala now they have come as Chowkidar: Akhilesh Yadav You must have listen to leaders who spit hatred, they dont want to speak about promises.First they came as Chaiwala and promised everyone 15 lakh and now they have come as Chowkidar: SP president Akhilesh Yadav Congratulate RLD and BSP for historic Joint rally: SP president Akhilesh Yadav I congratulate RLD and BSP for this historic joint rally: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav Yogi must also be removed from power along with Narendra Modi: BSP president Mayawati Need to remove Yogi Adityanath along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi: Mayawati Only alliance can stop BJP in Uttar Pradesh : Mayawati Dont spoil your vote giving to candidates who are being fielded as part of conspiracy from behind curtain. Appealed Muslim that in UP only alliance can stop BJP not congress. Congress has fielded candidates who could help BJP: BSP president Mayawati Indira also started a 20 point programme to abolish poverty but nothing happened: BSP Supremo Mayawati Dont fall in Congresss trap, Indira also started a 20 point programme to abolish poverty, nothing happened. Think also why they toss such promises at the time of election: Mayawati at Deoband NYAY not a solution to poverty in India: Mayawati at Deoband joint poll rally NYAY not the solution to poverty in India, if we are voted to power we will make sure that people from Below Poverty line are provided a permanent government job to make sure that they get continuos income with dignity: BSP Supremo Mayawati Chowkidari and Jumlebaji will not help BJP this time BJP will go out of power because of their wrong doings and wrong policies.BJP and PM Modi could not even fulfil 1/4 of the promises made by them Chowkidari and jumlebaji will not help them this time: BSP Supremo Mayawati at Deoband joint poll rally BJP will not return to power: BSP supremo Mayawati BJP will not return to power unless they do something EVM: BSP president Mayawati Supporters of Bheem army also attend joint poll rally of SP-BSP-RLD Supporters of Bheem army also attending joint poll rally of SP-BSP-RLD, supporters of Bhim army display posters of their leader Chandrashekher and flags of Bheem Army Mayawati, Akhilesh and Ajit Singh reaches Deoband to address joint poll rally Mayawati, Akhilesh and Ajit Singh reaches Deoband, three leaders will be addressing a joint -poll rally which will kick start their poll campaign for Lok Sabha election 2019 15 new smart cities for Odisha if voted to power: BJP president Amit Shah BJP promises development schemes worth rupees 3,500 crore for Odisha, also promises 15 new smart cities in the state if voted to power. Union Minister SS Ahluwalia to contest from Burdwan-Durgapur constituency Union Minister SS Ahluwalia to contest LokSabha Elections from Burdwan - Durgapur Parliamentary constituency (West Bengal), reports news agency ANI. Union Minister SS Ahluwalia to contest #LokSabhaElections2019 from Burdwan - Durgapur Parliamentary constituency (West Bengal). pic.twitter.com/zR8akMTXaR ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 Odisha lagging in drinking water, houses, health, security for women, education and other fields: BJP president Amit Shah In comparison with other states of the country, Odisha is lagging in drinking water, houses, health, security for women, education and other fields. Despite being rich in resources, the people here are poor: Amit Shah in Odisha. In comparison with other states of the country, Odisha is lagging in drinking water, houses, health, security for women, education and other fields. Despite being rich in resources, the people here are poor: Shri @AmitShah #IsBaarPhirModi pic.twitter.com/y56M3wGJ7y BJP (@BJP4India) April 7, 2019 Two wheelers for 10+2 students, capital punishment for Rape convicts in Odisha In its Election manifesto for Odisha, BJP promises capital punishment for rape convicts, added that students who pass 12th class will be provided with two wheelers. We promise that the convicts of rape will be given capital punishment. After completing 10+2 exam, exceptional students will be given two-wheelers: Shri @AmitShah #IsBaarPhirModi BJP (@BJP4India) April 7, 2019 These election Odisha will witness change at the lower level: Amit Shah Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik and his campaign manager has been spreading a theory that Modi is ok on upper level but on the lower Naveen Patnaik is must. I want to tell them, in these elections the change will occur at the lower level: BJP president Amit Shah Congress launches Ab hoga NYAY campaign Ab hoga NYAY to be Congress slogan for the Lok Sabha elections. Bengals bua-bhatija team bent upon ruining state: PM attacks Mamata The citizens of West Bengal trusted Mamata Banerjee, but the Bua-Bhatija connection in West Bengal has allowed Gunda raj, Human and animal trafficking and smuggling to take over the state: PM Modi Didis blessing with smugglers and Gunda Raj in West Bengal: PM Modi BJP wants to develop West Bengal, we see immense opportunities in the state but our plans are not possible until Gunda Raj, smugglers and human traffickers run freely in the state. They are flourishing in the state only because they have Didis blessings: PM Modi Didi supporting people who want two PMs in India: PM Modi For vote bank politics, Didi now stands with the people who want to break India. She is supporting people who want two PMs in India: PM Modi For vote bank politics, Didi now stands with the people who want to break India. She is supporting people who want two PMs in India: PM @narendramodi #IsBaarPhirModi BJP (@BJP4India) April 7, 2019 Aayushman Bharat scheme stopped in West Bengal by Didi: PM Modi in West Bengal Central government introduced Aayushman Bharat scheme, but Mamata Banerjee has put brake to the scheme in the state: PM Modi Didi puts political benefits before national interests: PM Modi Didi has problems when India tackle terrorism, now she is so troubled that she has been saying Modi hatao. She has put political benefits ahead of the national interests.: PM Modi in West Bengal Mamata and opposition fear defeat in elections: PM Modi The way Mamata Banerjee has been abusing me and the way opposition has been attacking Election Commission, it is clear that they Mamata Banerjee and the opposition fear defeat in the elections: PM Modi in West Bengal So many people reached venue, even after efforts of some people to stop them: PM Modi Even after so many efforts to stop people from reaching the venue, people have gathered in large number. Mamata Banerjee and her supporters are behaving like children: PM Modi in West Bengal Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins to address poll rally in West Bengal Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins to address poll rally in West Bengal. LIVE: PM Shri @narendramodi is speaking at a public meeting in Cooch Behar, West Bengal. #IsBaarPhirModi https://t.co/nnj8g3R51q BJP (@BJP4India) April 7, 2019 SP-BSP-RLD to hold joint rally in Uttar Pradesh The SP-BSP-RLD alliance will kick-off its joint campaign for the Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, holding its first rally in Saharanpurs Deoband town. Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) President Ajit Singh will be present in the rally to be held near Jamia Tibbiya Medical College. In the coming days they will share a stage on several occasions. reports new agency IANS. Modis West Bengal poll rally likely to start at 11 am Modis rally likely to start at 11 am. He is coming in a helicopter which will land in the adjacent district. Odisha PCC and BJP to release manifestos for Assembly elections Odisha PCC and BJP to release their respective manifesto for the Assembly election today. BJP President Amit Shah to address five poll rallies Bhartiya Janta Party president Amit Shah will be addressing three election rallies in Odisha and two rallies in Maharashtra. PM Modi to address poll rallies in WB, Tripura and Manipur The Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing election rallies in West Bengal, Tripura and Manipur. PM Shri @narendramodi will address three mega rallies in West Bengal, Tripura and Manipur tomorrow. Watch LIVE https://t.co/vpP0MI6iTu https://t.co/E31Aljkes3 https://t.co/lcXkSnweeN https://t.co/jtwD1yPhm4 NaMo TV Dial 9345014501 to listen LIVE. pic.twitter.com/nmj2FvbPJf BJP (@BJP4India) April 6, 2019 BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday attacked Congress chief Rahul Gandhis advisor Sam Pitroda for advocating peace talks with Pakistan and said India would not flirt with the neighbouring country. At an election rally in Belgaon area of Ganjams Polasara assembly constituency, Shah said after the terror attack on CRPF jawans at Pulwama there was mourning. Of the 40 jawans who were killed in Pulwama attack, 2 were from Odisha. There was anger in the country. Everyone was thinking what would happen now. But on 12th day after the Pulwama attack, Modiji did airstrike on terrorists hideouts in Pakistan, he said. Shah said though entire country was garlanding the photos of the CRPF martyrs and distributing sweets, there was mourning in Congress camp apart from Pakistan. Rahul baba was crestfallen. Rahuls team was against air strike. His guru Sam Pitroda was against the air strike and he asked what would India gain? He said we should talk to Pakistan. I want to tell Sam Pitroda that he can continue to flirt but we would reply with mortars if bullets are fired from the other side, he said, adding apart from Modi, no other leader can keep India secure. The BJP chief said he hears chants of Modi wherever he goes. The people of the country have decided to make Modi PM again. The country has been divided into two factions. On one hand BJP and NDA faction has been readying to make Modi PM again. On the other side an alliance led by Rahul baba has been readying to gain power. I ask Rahul every day please tell me name of your leader, but he is not ready to tell. When I ask him who will be his leader if his alliance gets majority, he is not able to tell. How would he say when he does not know the name? said Shah. Also read: BJP and Congress release their manifesto for Odisha Assembly polls He also attacked chief minister Naveen Patnaik accusing his bureaucrats of embezzling money sent by the Centre. Narendra Modi sent Rs 5.56 lakh crore to Odisha in last 5 years. All the money was gobbled up by babus of Naveen, he alleged. Patnaik, however, launched a counter-attack during his election campaign in Rayagada and Gajapati districts and accused the Centre of neglecting Odisha. All central leaders are Biradi Baishnab (hypocrites). For the poor people, the Centre has no feeling. We have AAHAR scheme which the Centre refused to fund. The State government has been funding the programme entirely on its own. We are also running the Rs 1 a kg rice scheme. Centre refused to give rice to 30 lakh people. In addition to that, women are getting Rs 7 lakh worth health benefits under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana. For drinking water, Centre is giving Rs 1000 crore but State is giving Rs 12,000 cr. For irrigation, State is giving Rs 20,000 crore and Centre is giving only Rs 250 crore, he said. In the 2014 LoK Sabha elections, the BJD won 20 of the states 21 seats while the BJP won only one. In western Uttar Pradesh, sugarcane farmers hold the key to electoral success or failure, and it wont be any different in the upcoming general elections. About 70% of the 15 million voters in western UP are directly or indirectly dependent for a livelihood on the sugarcane crop and can swing the result in the race for at least 18 of the 22 seats the region fills in the lower House. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the region after promising to clear the sugarcane dues owed to farmers, and its vote share was more than the combined votes polled by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which are contesting in an alliance this time. The region will vote in two phases, on April 11 and April 18. In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the BJP again won a majority of the seats in western UP, but its vote share declined to about 44% from more than 50% in 2014, according to the New Delhi-based Trivedi Centre for Political Data, indicating that the SP-BSP alliance can be a formidable force this time around. To be sure, the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the states have done their bit for the sugarcane industry. On February 19, the central government introduced a minimum price of ~31 per kilogram at which millers can sell sugar, after domestic sugar prices fell below cost of production in 2017-18. Sugar production that year was about 30 million tonnes, about 4.5 million tonnes more than the countrys annual consumption, according to agriculture ministry data. The Centre also decided to build a 3 million tonne buffer stock of sugar, doubled import duty from 50% and decided to give a subsidy of ~55 per tonne and soft loans to sugar millers. Uttar Pradeshs principal secretary (cane), Sanjay Boosreddy, said the measures taken by the Centre and the state had helped in improving the liquidity of the sugarcane industry. Dues to farmers worth ~59,750 crore have been cleared in the last two years, the highest since 2007. Of the ~35,463 crore of last year, we have paid more than 99.46%, he said. At an election rally in western UPs Saharanpur town on March 25, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath spoke extensively about what his government has done for sugarcane farmers. Neither SP nor BSP was able to clear all dues of cane farmers. We have done it and have brought reforms that will ensure better price and timely payment for farmers, the CM said. on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has directed Yogi to clear all pending dues. The BJPs local unit is distributing pamphlets on what the party has done for sugarcane farmers. Saharanpurs BJP farmers group head Advesh Rana said reforms in the sugarcane sector were benefitting all farmers and claimed that his party has delivered on what it promised to farmers before (2017 assembly) polls. The reforms include soft loans for sugar mills, single-window clearance for opening new mills and financial incentives for producing ethanol from sugarcane waste. Not that sugarcane farmers are entirely happy. They are upset that outstanding dues in the current crop year have already mounted to more than ~10,000 crore and that the UP government has not increased the procurement price, called state advisory price (SAP), for the harvest season of 2018-19. The sugarcane crop year starts in November and ends in May-June. Boosreddy said the sugarcane dues worth ~24,000 crore owed by factories for this crop year had been paid. We are doing everything to ensure the millers release the payment. Around 80% of the millers have released most of the money, he said. Farmers queuing up with tractors full of sugarcane outside the mills in western UP acknowledge steps taken by the government to resolve their problems, but are upset at the government for not increasing SAP the price at which the mills buy cane from them. A bag of the fertilizer now costs ~1,400 as compared to ~ 1,100 last year and price of electricity for the farm sector has also been increased from ~100 per month to ~150 per month. It is not fair to buy sugarcane at last years price, said Ashok Kumar, a farmer outside a government sugar mill in Baghpat, from where the Rashtriya Janata Dals Jayant Chaudhary is contesting against sitting BJP MP Satyapal Singh. Sari Tomar, a farmer in a queuing at a sugar mill in Shamli, which falls under the Kairana Lok Sabha constituency, from where SP-BSP candidate Tabassum Begum won a by-poll in 2018, recalled chief minister Adityanaths promise before 2017 assembly elections that payment will be made within 14 days of procurement . Farmers have only been paid for the 2017-18 season, he said. His (Adityanath) promise kindled hope that we will get our money quickly. That has not happened, he said. In Kairana, the SP and BSP had come together in 2018 for the first time since 1993. Rakesh Kumar , a farmer in Baghpat, praises what the governments in UP and at the Centre have done for sugarcane farmers. For the first time in a decade, all our pending dues have been cleared. Only money for the current period is pending, which we will get before the next crop cycle (that starts in September-October), said Rakesh Kumar. In Shamli district, a small cane farmer, Sompal Singh, said the opening of new mills has ensured timely payment and reduced the time for selling their produce. Earlier, we had to queue for six to eight hours. Now, it takes a maximum of two hours, he said. Madan Singh, an advocate at the Shamli Collectorate, said low sugarcane prices and the rising menace of stray cattle devouring crops have emerged as poll issues in the region, where farmers have held anti-government protests at several locations. In January, farmers in Shamli sat outside a sugar mill for 12 days, preventing any procurement, in protest against the rising arrears and low procurement price for sugar. In February, Bharatiya Kisan Unions Bijnore district president Digambar Singh locked up the local BJP office and also the home of a local MLA to protest non-payment of the sugarcane dues for 2018-19 harvest season. Nobody cares for farmers, said Deshpal Rana, who quit the BJPs farmers cell last year and formed the Kisan Ekta Manch that led the Shamli protest. The stray cows and poor sugarcane price is the biggest issue.Vinay Kumar, state vice president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union,agrees. He added that voting in western UP will be on farm-related issues and the menace of stray cows. Unlike in 2014, the most influential farmers body of the region, dominated by the politically influential Jats, has decided not to support any political party. The BJP is trying to counter the SP-Bahujan Samaj Party combine with sugarcane politics considering that its Hindutva plank is not getting much traction in western UP. Hindutva is an emotional issue for us. But, this election we are fighting on the work we have done for sugarcane farmers and voters know about it, said Avdesh Rana, the BJP BJP farmers group head. (With inputs from Zia Haq in New Delhi and S Raju in Meerut) After the Congress said that it would not go beyond the national capital for an alliance with his party, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said that they would not settle for a Delhi-specific alliance. A senior AAP leader said that the party had proposed a tie-up for 18 seats in Delhi, Haryana and Chandigarh a precondition for firming up the alliance. The development comes after Kejriwal met top party leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and party Delhi convener Gopal Rai on Saturday. The leader said that two main issues related to the alliance a possible coalition in Haryana and the Congresss stand on statehood for Delhi were discussed. Kejriwal made it clear that alliance would at no cost be limited to Delhi. We want an alliance in Haryana as well. Besides, the Congress also has to make an open announcement about full statehood. We have conveyed all this to the Congress leadership a day before yesterday. We will not change our stand, the party leader said on condition of anonymity. Delhi Congress in-charge PC Chacko on Saturday reiterated his partys stand. We are only talking about Delhi. Cannot comment on any other state. Another Congress leader said that AAP was insisting on two to three seats in Haryana and that his party leadership was discussing it. The final announcement on the alliance would take a few days, party leaders said. Meanwhile, the AAP leader said that the party was not asking for any impossible thing as earlier too, the Congress had supported full statehood for Delhi.Now why have they changed manifesto. Delhi needs democracy, he said. He added that seat sharing was yet to be discussed with the Congress in Delhi and Haryana. AAP leaders said that the Congress has not conveyed the number or names of the seats they want in Delhi. We will take any decision on seat sharing only after they clear their stand on alliance in Haryana and full statehood. If they ask for three seats in Delhi then we will also demand three seats primarily Faridabad, Gurugram and Karnal in Haryana. In Chandigarh we will support their candidate if alliance happens, the AAP functionary said. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) swept the state assembly polls in December to return to power with 88 seats in a 119-member House. The party now hopes to play a key role in the government formation at the Centre after the results of the national elections are announced. TRS working president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR)s son, KT Rama Rao, spoke to Hindustan Times about the prospects of regional parties such as the TRS in the national polls. Edited excerpts: Why does the Congress call you the BJPs B-team and BJP terms you the Congresss B-team? When Rahul Gandhi campaigned against us in the assembly elections, he called us the BJPs B team. we are the ones who trounced the BJP [in the assembly polls]. Out of the 119 seats, the BJP lost its deposits in 103. That is how badly we hit them. When [PM Narendra] Modiji comes here, he calls us the Congresss B team. I would like to tell both that we are the A and the true team of Telanganas people. We will continue to remain so. ...whatever Rahul Gandhi would like to call us or whatever he might like to believe about our alleged affiliation with Modiji, we have nothing to do with him We trounced them then and we will trounce them again. Out of [Telangana]s 17 Lok Sabha seats, I would be surprised if the BJP saves its deposits in more than two or three seats. What are the key poll issues? these 17 seats are going to give us a handle in Delhi in terms of having a decisive say in next government formation. We believe that the BJP/NDA will get between 150 and 170 seats. The Congress is not crossing 100 seats. Therefore, neither of the two so-called national parties have any hope of forming the government on their own. And at the same time, regional forces are emerging stronger. [TMC chief] Mamata Banerjee is doing well in West Bengal. So is the case with Naveenji [BJD chief Naveen Patnaik] in Odisha and SP-BSP alliance in UP. We could even see a non-BJP, non-Congress Prime Minister. It is the time for national parties to pay back and support regional forces in forming the next government. Will the PM be from south India? Our chief minister [KCR] has made it clear that he has no such ambition. That person [PM] could be from anywhere. It might sound far-fetched at this time. In 2003-04, who would have believed Manmohan Singh will be the PM for 10 years. Similarly, people would have laughed had someone said in 2010-11 that Modiji will be the PM in 2014. I am not saying that KCR will become the Prime Minister but I would also like to say that he has all the ability to run the country. It could be anyone. Both BJP and Congress would like to believe that this is the tussle between Modiji and Rahul Gandhiji because that suits them. The fact is that this country has many options. Will south India play a major role in government formation? Today, out of the 130 seats in south India, neither of the two so-called national parties can claim they could win 10 seats in any of the southern states. How can you claim to be national parties when the countrys most developed part is rejecting you? What is going to happen in north India is anybodys guess. The SP- BSP will have significant numbers in UP, which then marginalises both BJP and Congress. Likewise, it is a divided house in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Delhi. So, we in TRS believe that we will have a larger say in Delhi. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who will turn 69 in two weeks, keeps a punishing campaign schedule even in 40 degrees Celsius heat. He addresses at least five rallies a day, criss-crossing Andhra Pradesh, ahead of the simultaneous assembly and parliamentary elections in the state on April 11. Naidu spoke to Hindustan Times about the prospects of forming a grand alliance of opposition parties, his falling-out with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and key election issues. Edited excerpts: You were an ally of the BJP for four years before parting ways. In your rallies, you seem to attack Modi more than YSR Congress Party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy (the main opposition party in the state). Why did the relationship sour so much? Who started it first? When he comes here and calls me (U-turn Babu), talks of son rise (a reference to Naidus son Nara Lokesh) and how Polavaram (multi-purpose irrigation project) is an ATM, when he makes attacks on my family, should I keep quiet? My Andhra people want me to respond in the same language he uses. Modi is uncouth. If he wants respect to be given, he also should learn to give respect to others. He spoke the same disrespectful language to Akhilesh {Yadav, chief of the Samajwadi Party}, Mayawati {chief of the Bahujan Samaj Party}, Mamata {Banerjee, West Bengal CM} everywhere It is Modi who is failing to uphold the dignity of the office of PM I won my first election in 1978 and have seen PMs right from the time of Indira Gandhi... nobody behaved in this irresponsible manner. With others we might have had ideological differences but it never got personal till Modi started this. If I keep quiet, people will believe his lies. This megalomaniac needs to be paid back in the same coin. Earlier also, I had differed with him in 2002 (during the Gujarat riots) and requested then PM (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee to ensure raj dharma and have him step down. In 2013-14 when Congress divided our state, we joined hands with NDA (National Democratic Alliance) only to ensure justice for the people of Andhra. When the state was bifurcated against our wishes, both the major parties on the floor of Parliament agreed to give us special category status. All we are demanding is implementation of the bifurcation bill. As a new state needing central assistance, I tried to be on the right side of the Centre and waited for four years. There is a limit to ones patience. When we realized they had no intention of giving us our due, we decided to part ways. Modi is insecure, egoistic and jealous. He is worried (that) if special status is given, we will grow very fast and TDP rule will be praised nationally. BJP wants to grow everywhere, even when they have partners... That is not coalition dharma. Anybody who opposes him, he unleashes the Income Tax department, Enforcement Directorate and other central agencies (against them). This is not just us; he is doing (this) to all opposition parties. Is this fair? You have been in politics for four decades. What do you expect on 23rd May, the day the results will be declared? The BJP will be voted out of office. We will have a secular, democratic non-BJP government at the Centre. PM keeps pointing out that TDP was started on an anti-Congress platform and you have betrayed that by joining hands with it. Circumstances have changed since the founding of TDP. Today the greatest threat to our democracy is BJP. Today there is no Congress in several parts of the country. In 1996, didnt the United Front take support from Congress? Both Congress and BJP are non-players in Andhra. So among political, secular and democratic compulsions, we have to take Congress along. Modi is talking according to his convenience. Also read | Amit Shah says doors of NDA forever shut for Chandrababu Naidu In the last assembly and parliamentary polls, you had the support of BJP and Pawan Kalyan and even then the margin of difference between you and YSRCP was just about 1.5% in terms of votes. This time both BJP and Pawan are fighting independently. Are you confident of coming back to power? Last time we fought for united Andhra and we had a party in both states (AP and Telangana). I fought neutrally. This time I am fighting against the combination of Jagan, BJP and KCR (K.Chandrashekhar Rao, Telangana CM). I have done amazing work in the last five years. We have given good governance. Jagan is in collusion with KCR and BJP. Andhra people are bitterly against KCR and BJP... TDP will go ahead with Mission 150 plus (seats in the assembly). We will achieve it. Two of your signature projects building the Andhra capital, Amaravati, and the Polavaram irrigation project have been delayed. Would this have an impact on the elections? People realise that nowhere in the world are such massive projects built overnight, specially as the Centre denies us our rightful funds. Even then 70% of the work in Polavaram is done. Only land acquisition work of 30% is left. I am going for linking of rivers. People are convinced. Everyday 4000-5000 people visit the project site from across the state and realise the progress we have made in spite of the odds. Even in Amaravati, a lot of progress has been made... What I have done, we are very happy with. I will create a better city than Hyderabad, which I built. Also read | Chowkidar of criminals: Chandrababu Naidu continues attack on PM Modi Actor Vivek Oberoi, who plays Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a yet-to-be-released biopic, Saturday said he might think of contesting from Vadodara in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls if he joins politics. The actor was participating in an interactive session with students of Parul University here to promote the Omung Kumar-directed film PM Narendra Modi. The Supreme Court on Friday refused urgent listing of a plea seeking stay on the release of the biopic. On Thursday, the apex court had agreed to hear on April 8 a Congress leaders plea which sought deferment of the biopics release till the completion of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, alleging that it was designed to manipulate, influence and impress viewers and voters. If I join politics, I might think of contesting from Vadodara in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections just because of the love and affection people gave PM Narendra Modi when he contested from here, Oberoi said after being asked whether he would take the political plunge. He told students that he observed the PMs body language and way of talking to prepare for his role in the biopic. He claimed it took 16 days to finalise his look for the film. It is an inspiring film about a man who has become Prime Minister of the country and one of the worlds biggest leaders without any backing or caste politics, he said. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has demanded the resignation of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairman Prasoon Joshi over allegedly giving preferential treatment to the makers of the upcoming biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The film, titled PM Narendra Modi and directed by Omung Kumar, has been criticised by the opposition parties, who claim that the biopic could give undue advantage to the BJP in the polls as it will arrive in theatres before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The seven-phase polls will begin on April 11, the day the film is scheduled to release. As per the rule, the producers have to submit the final copy of the film to the censor board 58 days prior to the date of the exhibition. So why was special treatment given to the biopic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi? Amey Khopkar, President of Maharashtra Navnirman Chitrapat Karmachari Sena, said in a statement. Khopkar said the board went out of its way to give certification to the biopic. We condemn the censor board which went out of its way for this film to appease the government. Prasoon Joshi should resign immediately from his post. Union finance minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday unveiled the BJPs election tag line and theme song for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections that begin on April 11 and end on May 23, the day the votes will be counted. The partys manifesto will be released on Monday at 11 am. The party has chosen the slogan Phir ek baar Modi sarkar as its election tagline. The partys campaign will revolve around the Narendra Modi-led governments achievements in the past five years. The outdoor spots that the party unveiled mentions the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, the recent A-SAT test, launch of One Rank One Pension, and the surgical strikes in Pakistan among others. It also launched the partys theme song. Apart from this, the BJP also unveiled a series of video spots that it aims to use over the coming few days, as well as a tune that can be used as the phones ringtone. The BJPs slogan comes barely two days before the first phase of polling takes place on April 11. At the unveiling of the partys campaign slogan and theme, Union finance minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said the partys manifesto would be released on Monday. The partys campaign is a culmination of the performance of its government, he said. Referring to a series of video spots, he said, that the first theme of the campaign was based on kaam karne waali sarkar (Government that works). We formed a government in 2014 - an era of corruption, and ran an honest government. So, the second theme is Imaandar Sarkaar (Honest government). The third theme of the campaign will be Bade Faisle Lene Waali Sarkaar (Government that takes big decisions), since this government has taken tough decisions on both development and national security, he said. At the same time, he also took a dig at the alliances of opposition parties in different states and said that people have to decide between a government led by one captain or a team of 11 players with 40 captains. Earlier today, the Congress launched its official campaign tagline for the Lok Sabha election: Ab hoga NYAY, centered around its minimum income guarantee scheme and party president Rahul Gandhi. Gareebi par vaar, Rs 72,000 (hazaar), ab hoga NYAY (Attack on poverty, Rs 72,000, now justice will be delivered), this is our election campaign pitch, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said. In a first for the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab, the Fatehgarh Sahib reserved seat is set to witness a political slugfest between two former bureaucrats, who happen to be friends in real life. The Congress on Saturday announced Amar Singh, a former IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, as its candidate against Shiromani Akali Dals Darbara Singh Guru, a former IAS officer of the Punjab cadre. While two former IAS officers have jumped into the fray, the sitting Fatehgarh Sahib MP, Harinder Singh Khalsa, is also a former IFS officer, but he has opted out of the electoral contest from the seat this time. Khalsa was elected on the Aam Aadmi Party ticket and has now joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. The AAP this time has fielded Baljinder Singh Chaunda from the seat. Interestingly, both Guru and Amar Singh have several similarities in their professional and political career. Both had served as principal secretary to chief minister, before entering the political field. Amar Singh had served under former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh, while Guru was principal secretary to former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal. Another similarity is that, both former IAS officers are yet to taste success on the political turf. Guru has lost Vidhan Sabha elections twice from Bhadaur (Barnala) and Bassi Pathana (Fatehgarh Sahib), while Amar Singh lost from Raikot (Ludhiana). Guru and Amar Singh are also close friends. After the Congress announced Amar Singh candidature, they wished luck to each other. When Guru as IAS officer would visit Madhya Pradesh for election duty or other official assignment, he always had his food at the residence of Amar Singh. Though Bassi Pathana MLA Gurpreet Singh GP, was the first choice, as he had defeated Darbara Guru in 2017 assembly elections, but due to closeness to AICC president Rahul Gandhi, Amar Singh managed the ticket, said a source. After losing the election from Raikot in 2017, Amar Singh joined as adviser to local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, only to be removed unceremoniously later. Currently, Amar Singh is vice-president of Punjab Congress and is active in Fatehgarh Sahib for the last two years. I am born and brought up here and have personal contact with every constituency in Fatehgarh Sahib. For the last two years, I have resolved many issues of the segment, and do hope that people will support me for my work, he said. Akali Dal candidate Darbara Guru, who enjoys the patronage of Badal family, too has already started campaign in the constituency. He said people support him for his honesty and hard work. I will go to the people with a positive agenda, he said. The Fatehgarh Sahib seat has nine assembly segments, three in Fatehgarh Sahib district, four in Ludhiana and one in Sangrur. Most of the constituency is dominated by rural population. The Dongri police have arrested a 24-year-old man, who allegedly stalked and molested a 19-year-old student of a south Mumbai college. He also abused the student and her mother on a social media platform after the teenager refused to talk to him. Sandeep Bagdikar, senior inspector of Dongri police station, confirmed the arrest. The complainant is a resident of Dongri and a first-year Bachelor of Arts student. The accused works at a mall. In her police complaint, the woman said since December 2018, the accused would harass her and stalk her on her way to college and back home, she said. One day the accused stopped her near her building. He held her hand and told her he wants to talk to her. The woman refused. The accused got angry and from then started spitting on her houses door regularly. This ended only after the girls father caught him one day and informed the mans father, said a police officer. The accused then created an account on a photo-sharing platform under a fictitious identity. He befriended the woman and while chatting with her online, abused her and her mother. The woman lodged a police complaint. Police on Saturday questioned the accused and found that the app used to abuse the woman was operated from his phone. The sessions court on Saturday refused to interfere with the way a murder case was being investigated by the Dahisar police, claiming it did not have the power to do so. The victim was allegedly murdered by his wifes cousins in 2017, as her parents were against the marriage. The Dahisar police have so far failed to find any evidence or witness against the accused, said the prosecution. The couple had got married on February 23, 2016, against the wishes of the womans family. They did not approve of the marriage as her father had got her married to a relative when she was a child, claimed the prosecution. The couple eloped on March 4. Five days later, her family tracked them to Madhya Pradesh, and forced her to stay with the man her father had married her off to, said the prosecution. However, the man went to the police and sought their help to get his wife back. They later shifted to MP as her cousins had threatened to kill the man, the prosecution claimed. When the couple returned to Mumbai in 2017, the wifes relatives attacked the man in Dahisar, on March 23, and kidnapped him. They took him to their locality and beat him to death, said the prosecution. The woman filed a petition in the sessions court in 2018, highlighting the lacuna in the probe and seeking directions to the investigating officer to inspect the accuseds call data records and look for a witness as the crime took place in daylight. The court, which has already examined five witnesses , including the woman, her sister and a cousin, however, said it is not within its power to order the police to carry out further probe in a particular manner or particular angle and record the statement of particular witness or witnesses. It also noted that one of her cousins, who was a witness, had turned hostile and there was nothing on record against the accused so far. The woman told the court that though the incident had occurred in daylight, the police had not managed to get a single eye-witness. The prosecution has also objected to the investigating officers reply that he had tried his level best to solve the case. Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington hosted the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live, ahead of the final season premiere of the hit HBO show. A video of Kits opening monologue being interrupted by his fellow cast member Emilia Clarke has been shared online. The scripted video shows Kit and Emilia - both sporting new hairdos now that they arent mandated to keep their GoT hair - interacting during the monologue. Emilia pretends to be a fan and asks Kit if he can reveal how the show ends. Emilia, youre in the show, Kit responds. But Emilia says its been so long since they filmed the final season, she doesnt have any idea how the show ends. When Kit refuses to indulge her, she asks, Do you remember when we had sex? Kit says he does. Do you know they filmed it? Emilia shoots back, as the audience erupts in laughter. Emilia and Kits characters - Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow - met for the first time in the show recently, and a romantic future was hinted at when they had sex. It is poorly kept secret that the two are related. Also read: Colossal budgets, massive ratings: All the records Game of Thrones has broken in historic run Game of Thrones will return for an eighth and final season on April 15 in India. The show has gone on to break numerous viewership records in its run, and has made its stars into household names. It was reported a few years ago that the central cast had renegotiated their contracts, which made them the highest paid TV actors in the world. Follow @htshowbiz for more US president Donald Trump took yet another shot at India on ongoing trade differences and accused it Saturday of charging over 100% import duty on certain American goods. This was his second such attack on India in one week, marking a new escalation that should worry New Delhi, which is trying to prevent the Trump administration from terminating benefits accruing to India from a duty-free tariff programme under which India exported $5.6 billion worth of goods to the US in 2017. In a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition on Saturday, President rolled out by now his well-known list of trade issues, such as trade deficit and high tariffs, which could be, he said, 100% 200%, 250%, 300% and we charge them nothing. We have a case where a certain country, he said, and added, after a dramatic pause, to laughter, India. It is charging us, he resumed, but switched mid-sentence, as he does often, to another idea. A great country, great friend Prime Minister Modi. It is charging us, he said, returning to the original idea, over a 100% for many things (and) were charging them nothing for similar or the same product. The existence or the number of such duties, of more than 100%, could not be immediately ascertained. The president suggested the United States should be charging them something, because this is not about free trade, its stupid trade. The American president has threatened to hit India with reciprocal taxes before, specially on motorcycles. He has complained about India levying 100% tariff on Harley-Davidson motorcycles imported from the United States, whereas the United States charges nothing on motorcycles it imports from India. India has since cut duty on these motorcycle imports to 50%. But Trump continues to use the 100% figure as he did past Tuesday, April 2, when he also called India one of the highest taxing nations in the world. They charge us 100% tariff on goods. So they send a motorcycle--and they make a lot of them- Indian cycles, Trump said at the annual spring dinner of the National Republican Congressional Committee. He continued: They send them to our country, we charge them nothing. We send a Harley Davidson to India and they charge us 100%. Not fair, okay. Not reciprocal. Its not fair. President Trumps trade rhetoric has often been followed by actions. He slapped India with 25% tariff on steel and 10% on aluminum along with other countries, and did not grant it a waiver as he did with others. And this past March, he informed US congress his intention to terminate Indias eligibility to continuing benefitting from the duty-free Generalized System of Preferences scheme. It will take effect early May, at the end of the mandatory 60-day notice period if India was unable to stop it, and the only way it can is to yield to US demands to grant market access to US-made medical devices and dairy products. Failure to prevent the termination would subject GSP-covered Indian goods to usual import duties, which, in Indias estimation, could add up to $190 million annually. Not a big amount, but there are fears US buyers of these goods could shift to other GSP-covered suppliers to keep their costs down. Prince William second in line to the throne after his father, Prince Charles spent three weeks as an intern in Britains intelligence services, shadowing officers and learning how they deal with risks to the UKs national security and economy. A Kensington Palace release on Sunday said that Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, found the experience humbling while interning in the three intelligence services: MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. According to a senior officer at GCHQ, Prince William, who has previously trained with the armed forces, worked exceptionally hard during the three weeks. Spending time inside our security and intelligence agencies, understanding more about the vital contribution they make to our national security, was a truly humbling experience, said Prince William after the placements ended on Saturday. He added that staff at the security and intelligence agencies work in secret, often not even able to tell their family and friends about the work they do or the stresses they face. We all owe them deep gratitude for the difficult and dangerous work they do. Prince William also observed counter-terrorism teams analysing intelligence and carrying out investigations. The unnamed head of counter-terrorism operations at GCHQ, said in a statement: William worked exceptionally hard to embed himself in the team and comfortably held his own amongst some highly skilled analysts and operators. Pakistan has said that it will not accept the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in Kashmir, saying it would be a violation of UN resolutions. The Article 370 is a temporary provision with respect to Jammu and Kashmir and restricts the applicability of various provisions of the Constitution by curtailing the power of Parliament to make laws on subjects which fall under the Union and Concurrent lists. Pakistans Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Faisal, while addressing the media in Islamabad on Friday, made the comments on the issue of abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, saying it will be in violation of the UN resolutions. The abrogation of Article 370 of Indian constitution is violation of UN resolutions. We will not accept it under any circumstances and the Kashmiris will also not accept it, he said. Senior BJP leaders have repeatedly emphasised the partys commitment to abrogate Article 370 from the state. According to media reports, BJP President Amit Shah said it remains committal to remove the Article from the state but their lack of majority in Rajya Sabha is the reason why it has not been done so far. Shahs comments were met with some sharp criticism from political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir. National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said when the country got independence, a Constitution was created in which certain provisions were kept by which the states identity could be safeguarded. It included Article 370 and Article 35A. Unfortunately, some of our leaders made Article 370 hollow for their personal gains, he said. His father and National Conference President Farooq Abdullah had said that the relationship between New Delhi and the state will be over if Article 370 is repealed. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) Half Moon Bay, CA (94019) Today Rain showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Low 41F. WSW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Rain showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Low 41F. WSW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 50%. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You should upgrade or use an You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browser Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 are classic movies. Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan became the dynamic duo, an American with fast lips and a Chinese man with fast hands. The third movie in the series fell short of expectations though. The humor was lackluster, the action was somewhat boring, and the plot was convoluted. Still, fans are hoping for one more outing. Maybe they want to erase the memory of Rush Hour 3, or possibly they are still chasing the ghosts of Rush Hour 1 and 2. Whatever their reasons may be, the fanbase for the action/comedy series are ready for another flick, and Tucker seems to be willing to deliver. Of course, both Tucker and Chan have expressed their willingness to film another sequel, but the developments aren't progressing as planned. Still, it does not look like the two actors have given up hope. Today (April 7), is Chan's 65th birthday, and Tucker took to social media to praise his longtime friend. He posted a few pictures of the two together, and one has gotten the internet's attention. Tucker shared a picture of himself and Chan holding up four fingers together, once again teasing the arrival of the fourth Rush Hour. Will it even get made though? That is the million dollar question. Dreamville Fest's inaugural launch wasn't without its fair share of hiccups in the penultimate phase of its deployment. Right as the festival was set to open its door, a prominent activist in Raleigh grabbed the nearest media outlet for the sake of deploring the organizers and the gentrifying mess they allegedly foisted on the local economy. Joseph Okpako/WireImage/Getty Images Regardless of the fact, J. Cole and co. sought to look past those issues, in the hopes of addressing them in future iterations. At that moment, the Dreamville visionary was busy keeping his soldiers in check during an intensive 10-day training camp for the label's roster. https://twitter.com/_/status/1114723300419223553 When it was time for J. Cole the stage himself, the NC-native had a couple of surprise elements saved up for the thousands in attendance. At one point, he paused to pay respect to Nipsey Hussle, causing the riotous crowd to go silent for a brief second, on orders direct from the messiah upstairs. https://twitter.com/_/status/1114791493892333569 J Cole's other surprise came in the form of a "first time ever" concert duet with 21 Savage. Together they performed their sleeper hit "a lot" which you stream up above. After that, Meek Mill performed You Know," and "Going Bad," with the added benefit of J. Cole hyping him up the whole way through. Let's just say, J. Cole took matters into his own hands, so as to ensure the long term viability of Dreamville Fest venture. [Via] The comments Kodak Black directed towards Lauren London yesterday have caused him to lose support within the LA radio circuit. Just yesterday, the Florida-born rapper jumped on Instagram Live in a session where he unabashedly flirted with Nipsey's widowed lover, in poor taste no less. Unsurprisingly, his remarks were met with pure and utter disgust by the greater hip-hop community shortly thereafter. Scott Dudelson/Getty Images "Lauren London that's baby, though. She about to be out here single. Shes finna be a whole widow out here," Kodak can be heard raving in the now-infamous Instagram Live session. "Ill be the best man I can be for her. Ill give her a whole year. She might need a whole year to be crying and shit for [Nipsey]." https://twitter.com/_/status/1114567335715770370 As a result of his poor judgment, Kodak Black's presence and his music are no longer welcome at Power 106 in Los Angeles. The radio's decision to ban the Calabasas-transplant wasn't issued by way of a press release but handled internally, with LA Leakers co-host Justin Credible delivering the message at the behest of his colleagues. https://twitter.com/_/status/1114736602461261824 "We stand with the family of Nipsey Hussle and are appalled by the disrespectful and poor comments made by Kodak Black," Justin Credible posted late last night. "With that, Power 106 will not support Kodak Blacks music." Otherwise, Kodak Black is facing another form of aversion concerning his poor judgment. State prosecutors are steadfastly looking to speed up the process on his impending rape trial. If found guilty on all the counts he currently faces, Kodak could wind up spending up to 30-years behind bars. The Weeknd reportedly has a new track with SZA and Travis Scott set to debut during the final season of Game Of Thrones. While fan theories have circulated since the show dropped a teaser featuring music that sounds a lot like the cuts found in Abel's catalog, Pitchfork reports that sources have confirmed that the Canadian star will, indeed, be delivering on a collaborative track with SZA and Trav for the show. According to the sources, the HBO show approached Weeknd and he then recruited the TDE songstress and Cactus Jack honcho for the assist. The particular video in question arrived shortly after the opulent premiere party that took place in New York City with a clip featuring appearances from the show's stars. While there is no official word on just when the alleged collaboration will be arriving, fans can probably expect to hear it ahead of the highly-anticipated season premiere on HBO next Sunday (April 14th). Previously, Weeknd has collaborated with Travis on Scott's "Wonderful" song from 2016's Birds In The Trap Sing Brian McKnight. Trav also joined SZA on her "Love Galore" single, but this will mark the first time that all three stars collide, and we have no complaints. As GoT's premiere inches closer, be on the lookout for The Weeknd's latest. In this series, we'll be making the case for specific rappers to be included in "greatest of all-time" discussions. The more obvious choices (such as Andre 3000, Lil Wayne, Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie, 2Pac) will be ignored in favor of artists who tend to get overlooked these days, for one reason or another. Previously, our writers have made cases for Pusha T, Ice Cube, DJ Quik, Big Boi, DMX, Ghostface Killah, Busta Rhymes, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent and Black Thought. Ever since he earned his nickname during a fateful snowball fight at the age of 11, Reggie Redman Noble has stood as the epitome of keeping it real. A round the clock lyricist who sleeps in his work boots, Newarks very own Redman is a rap phenomenon whose insatiable appetite for weed paraphernalia, rough and rugged non sequiturs, and delirious debauchery catapulted him to the forefront of 90s hip hop at a time when the scene was experiencing a surge unlike any other. The same man who lit his first L before he started to crawl and whose unmatched comedic timing, spontaneity, and crankology credentials allowed him to parade through rap circles like a wild pack of Timbs would ultimately go on to become one of the premier worldwide ambassadors of the culture. Kevin Winter/Getty Images In many ways, Redmans legacy has a readily traceable impact that extends far beyond his appearance in the Def Jam fighting video game series or stoner comedy How High, a film that pushed the cognitive benefits of optimal arousal theory to the absolute limit (see his study high, take the test high, get high scores mantra). Emboldened by the unapologetic goofiness of Biz Markie, Redman grabbed the torch and helped usher in a new era just when it seemed like the Golden Age nostalgia of acts like Slick Rick and Public Enemy had run their course. The New Jersey vet first came to prominence as a member of EPMDs infamous Hit Squad after mentor Erick Sermon green lighted his clean-up-shop verse on posse cut Headbanger. A solo career promptly materialized for the cunning linguist in the wake of Whut? Thee Album, a widely heralded classic and one of the most anticipated albums of 1992. The reefer-addled offering exceeded expectations, drawing from the subterranean sounds of Zapp and Parliament, and vocal snippets from Cypress Hill, Ice Cube, and N.W.A. to create a record that has weathered the test of time. Produced almost entirely in tandem with Sermon, the album tapped many of the same G-funk samples as Dr. Dres The Chronic, only Whut? dropped three months prior to Dres equally classic debut. Although Redman was never one to aim for mainstream hits, he knew how to craft songs that made your speakers knock and rump jump. Breakout singles Tonights Da Night and the Pete Rock-assisted How To Roll A Blunt, a step-by-step tutorial with real world applicability, spawned a crazed following that propelled Redman out of the bubbling underground and into the limelight. Blow Your Mind, a song on which Funk Doctor Spock tried to freak it in Korean, became a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart seven weeks after its release. His antics on Redman Meets Reggie Noble came long before Biggie took a crack at the same formula on Gimme the Loot. And Time 4 Sum Aksion served as the music for Mike Tysons ring entrance leading up to his 1995 Hes Back bout in which he annihilated Peter McNeeley in 89 seconds. Whut? Thee Album was a smash success straight out of left field, a hysterical tour of the finest homegrown high that only The Brick City General could have concocted. Redmans disinterest in conforming to commercial guidelines took on a whole new meaning on sophomore entry Dare Iz A Darkside, an album that was far more cynical, experimental, and hardcore than its predecessor, but no less important to its creator's progression. An homage to Maggot Brain, the tonal shift was reflected in the albums artwork: Redman is buried alive in the middle of the desert, screaming at the heavens. From the opening salvo, it was apparent that the follow-up journey into the mind of the emcee who did more drugs than pharmacies would be slightly different. The mental state of raps Dennis the Menace was evaluated by Dr. Trevis to kick off the cosmic boogie movie in which the unhinged patient likened himself to the hair on Don King and bragged about letting your mom give him cornrows where the sun dont shine. By the time Muddy Waters was released in 1996, the Moby Dick of dopeness had rappers everywhere pushing the panic button. His fearless wild mans move the crowd mentality, paired with his innovative and irrepressible presence, would align him with the Wu-Tang Clan, arguably the most influential group to ever touch a mic. The obvious chemistry with partner in rhyme (and Blazenow equity partner) Method Man, who he bonded with while on tour in 1994, led the two to collaborate on nearly every other release post Do What Ya Feel (Da Rockwilder remains, to this day, one of the nastiest hip hop party anthems). Def Squads excellent El Nino arrived in the summer of 1998, and Docs Da Name 2000 closed out the holiday season as the capstone stocking stuffer on a near 10-year run of funkified dominance for Sermon. The ghetto fabulous Mario bursting through the brick wall of Docs Da Name while puffing on a fatty, his laces loose, crimson beanie pulled down over his eyes, and stethoscope dangling willy nilly, was the pure embodiment of Redmans persona. Thats to say nothing of the artwork for the single Ill Bee Dat, in which the aforementioned cartoon character waves off a seatbelt to pose in a souped-up, all-wheel drive perambulator. Redmans image as a lethal mix between Boondocks Thugnificent and a Fantasia villain with the chops to tussle with Michael Myers was cemented. Never straight-faced and always bristling with tantalizing strokes of tomfoolery, Redman quickly became a frequent flyer in guest rapper rotations, popping up (and often stealing the show) on tracks like Pacs Got My Mind Made Up, Ghostface Killahs Greedy Bitches, De La Souls Oooh, and LL Cool Js 4, 3, 2, 1. The two-month long Hard Knock Life Tour in 1999, during which the MTV Rock N Jock all-star shared the stage with heavyweights Meth, DMX, Ja Rule, and Jay-Z, remains a sacred entry in hip hop lore. His outlier of an MTV Cribs episode, where Mr. bummy for a low profile showed off a jury-rigged doorbell and the endearingly modest luxury of his secluded Staten Island De La Casa, has to be seen to be believed. He pillaged Europe (and Croatian beaches) on world tours, got cattle-prodded while on acid in the middle of a mosh pit, helped produce Shaquille ONeals Shaq Fu: Da Return, and even swooped in for Christina Aguilera's iconic pre-teen video for Dirty." Elisa Haber/Getty Images Yet Redman is often overlooked by those hoping to assign a hierarchy to musics most densely competitive genre. His longevity and productivity speak for themselves: he doled out 16 projects in 29 years, a statistic made all the more impressive by the fact that 7 of his 11 studio releases received a plaque. He showed that he still had what it took during the 2015 BET Cypher, when he rattled off the singular most impressive performance the platform had seen in years. His roughly 5,200 unique words within his first 35,000 lyrics ranks him in the top 20 individual emcees, which is ironic coming from someone who once proudly proclaimed fuck all you fools out there with a large vocabulary. Eminem, a no-brainer on any credible top 10, listed Reggie on Till I Collapse and undoubtedly borrowed from Redmans Sooperman alter-ego motif in the creation of Slim Shady, one of musics most iconic characters. As if that wasnt enough, the legendary Detroit emcee even called in to Shade 45 to reiterate his admiration while Redman was in-studio: youre one of my favorites of all-time...thats never gonna change. So why does Redmans name so rarely come up? While he was certainly culturally relevant in his prime, his headlining moments were largely drowned out by monumental figures like Biggie, Pac, Jay-Z, and Nas, and the all-consuming media maelstrom that was the East-Coast West-Coast rivalry. From a more comprehensive standpoint, the biggest knock against him is his lack of conceptual depth. He always managed to find new ways to reimagine the same tried and true subject matter such that it never grew stale, but beyond his odes to the psychological effects of herbal remedies, he never ventured into more emotionally distilled waters that mightve somehow allowed the listener to pierce the veil of Dirty Jerseys Finest. For better or worse, his discography lacks a Suicidal Thoughts, a Mind Playing Tricks On Me, or a Song Cry that speaks to something more inherently vulnerable. Whether one chooses to use this perceived shortcoming in their GOAT criteria is entirely subjective; its merely an observation worth considering. Regardless, theres certainly an argument to be made for Redmans inclusion in the conversation, as noted by Justin Hunt of Hip Hop DX: (Redmans) catalogue is longer than Biggies and Big Puns combined. Hes a technically better rapper than Pac. Hes got the solo rapping classics that Andre 3000 lacks. He never went through lethargic phases like Nas or post-jail Lil Wayne. His career span is longer than Jay-Zs with the same number of seminal offerings. Cultural impact, critical acclaim, lyrical skill: check, check, check. While Redman was never going to be the rapper who had his name hung in the rafters, or his music used as a teaching tool in higher education, his interpretation of hip hop belongs solely to him. Not once has he dumbed down his lyrics or compromised his artistic values, and you sure as hell will never find him using a gilded bidet in some lavish Louisiana mansion. Reflecting on the reception to his infamous Cribs cameo, Redman summed up the career-long motto that carried him to one-of-a-kind success: Once you do things and keep things 100% with yourself, you can never lose. Aerosol artist GONZO247 has a collection of graffiti art spanning 30 years. Growing up and into his adulthood, hed store anything he could get his hands on. It was more about Let me just hang on to it, I never thought about, the today or tomorrow, said the popular street artist, whose real name is Mario Figueroa. The importance of having archives dawned on him when he connected that the ancient civilizations scholars know most about are the ones that left records, he told the crowd Saturday at a panel at the Latino Art Now Conference at the University of Houston. Preserving archives leaves records to know more about a culture. I started getting that urgency, How much more can I contain?, Figueroa said. Since Figueroas collection was so large, his wife convinced him that having a museum to show his collection would be best. The Graffiti and Street Art Museum of Texas opened in 2015 and stayed open for almost two years in East End. Figueroa plans to bring it back in a new location at some point, he said. Orlando Lara, associate director of comparative race and ethnic studies at Texas Christian University, said the lack of writing about Chicano and Latino art in Houston can be related to the lack of archives. If no one else is going to do it, we are going to do it, Lara said. Someday, someone will know this is important. Nancy Agin Dunnahoe, who helps artist preserve their work, said its not always obvious that a flyer with art on it should be stored in a plastic sleeve then put into a bin. Archiving is for the future, Dunnahoe said, but also can inspire people right now. The importance of archiving was highlighted when GONZO247 in 2018 got to repaint a childhood mural in East End he admired growing up. The mural The Rebirth of Our Nationality by now Denver-based artist Leo Tanguma was first completed in 1973. But decades of weathering caused the artwork to become dilapidated. It was so faded, many of the dozens of people on the mural could barely be recognized. Only with photographs archiving how the mural originally looked was it able to be repainted, Figueroa said. Tanguma also wasnt physically apt to repaint his iconic mural I didnt want to own it, Figueroa said. I was being Leos hands. The mural with new life is on 5900 Canal St. I see the mural as documenting community history, Lara said of the 240-by-18-foot mural that shows the trials of the Chicano movement in Houston. One moment years ago in Bellaires Hong Kong City Mall still haunts Josh Reiss. The shopping trips with his wife, Dr. Anh Reiss, an obstetrician who had delivered thousands of Houston babies, were like shopping with Vietnamese royalty, he says. People would come up to say hi, infants and youngsters in tow. On this day, though, Josh says his wife and their two children walked past a table where a young woman, a student at Berkeley, and people helping her were trying to persuade passersby to register as bone marrow donors. They approached me, Josh recalls. And I said no. I remember walking right by them. The kids asked what the people were doing, and Josh remembers his wife Anh responding as the clinician, the scientist she was. The woman had leukemia, she told her children, and she would likely die. Not a year later, Anh herself would be diagnosed in 2009 with a form of Leukemia called myelodysplastic syndrome. On some subconscious level, Ive always felt, Was it some sort of punishment? Josh told the editorial board recently. You have survivors guilt and whatnot. Anh Reiss died Feb. 26, 2016 at the age of 48, but not before traveling across Texas and across the country to spread awareness of the need for bone marrow donors to help thousands of critically ill blood cancer patients. With family and friends, Anh helped to more than double the number of Vietnamese donors on the registry nationwide and connected some donors and recipients who did match. The doctor and mother of two never found a match herself - the only hope of a cure. Now, her husband, a prosecutor at the Harris County District Attorneys Office, is hoping his wifes story can inspire even more Texans to sign up to donate life-saving bone marrow. February 26 would be designated as Texas Bone Marrow, Blood, and Organ Donation Registry Day if a House resolution passes that was sponsored by state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, and a bipartisan list of lawmakers, including Republicans John Zerwas of Houston and Sarah Davis of West University Place. As much as hed like to, Josh Reiss cant go back and sign up to help that young woman at the Hong Kong City Mall. But he believes that a state-designated day might encourage some other Texans to take notice. According to the resolution, 95 percent of Americans support organ donation - yet only about half are signed up as donors and only 2 percent of the population is on the national registry for bone marrow. Whether the state day appeals to peoples sense of civic responsibility, or their moral duty to help thy neighbor, Josh Reiss hopes it will save lives. Initial blood donation is simple. In the event of a match, a donor undergoes what is typically an out-patient surgical procedure that requires no stitches. If we can just get people to listen, Josh says. Theyre absolutely delighted to help once they know what the deal is. We applaud Wu and his colleagues for sponsoring the legislation, and we urge the Texas Senate to follow the House and pass it. We hope Texans, whether on Feb. 26 or any other day of the year, remember Anhs story and consider registering to be a bone marrow donor. Learn more at bethematch.org. Regarding State bans spiritual advisers from death chamber (City/State, Thursday): Texas prisons should allow clergy in the death chamber. In the past, Texas prisons have allowed Christian and Muslim clerics in the death chamber that they have employed. The problem that occured is due to the prison staff not being composed of multiple religions. Prisoners who will be executed should be able to have a clergy member from their religion accompany them into the death chamber. If we look at this from a purely moral standpoint, the prisoner essentially poses no threat due to the security staff and is on the verge of being executed. His final wishes should be granted, within certain parameters that dont endanger his execution. The prisoners are still considered humans and should hold their right to religious freedom, especially on their deathbed. Austin Wilhite, Katy Enough already Regarding Be Bold, Mr. Trump (Editorial, Friday): Please stop with the crocodile tears. We dont need the president to visit the border to see how overwhelmed we are with illegal immigrants. We need Congress to change the asylum portion of our immigration laws to prevent the existing abuse of our immigration laws. Its outrageous that we have to pay these huge sums of money to take care of these illegals when we cant afford to take care of our veterans, elderly and sick Americans. At what point do we say enough is enough? Dick Flamos, League City No special privileges Regarding State bans spiritual advisers from death chamber (City/State, Thursday): I think this law is fair. Most people dont have a member of the clergy with them when they die, so why should we give that privilege to a murderer? The law makes it fair for all the inmates. The clergy member can be there before the execution, just not during it. These people were given the death sentence for a reason, so we should not give them special privileges. William Youtt, Houston Human dignity Regarding Inmate with allergy sues for cotton blanket (City/State, Thursday): The inmate should certainly receive a cotton blanket. Regardless of their crimes, prisoners are still human. No human should have to live with open sores caused by their bedding. This is not a matter of comfort. The prison system is causing him harm. To not replace the blanket would be cruel and unusual. The prison is essentially forcing Weaver to have uncomfortable sleep as well as carry wounds that put him in danger of infection and further injury by not replacing the blanket. Aidan Brown, Sugar Land Eliminate suffering The inmate deserves a cotton blanket. I understand that the quality of life in prison should be much different from the quality of life as a free man, but prisoners with medical disabilities should be accommodated for and taken care of. They should not live luxuriously or better than any of the other inmates, but should receive basic needs, and medical accommodations is definitely one. No person should have to suffer physically and mentally due to medical problems, especially if they have no control over it. As far as the monetary compensation goes, Im neutral. If he receives money, I would understand why, because you denied a man quality of life for something he couldnt control for 10 years. But if he doesnt, Id understand also, because once you are imprisoned, you lose the rights of a free man, which means you will be lose some things you once had, which was part of the decision you made when committing the crime. Camden Terry, Houston After two serious industrial accidents in the last two weeks in the Houston area, it is heartening that the State of Texas is quickly filing suit for alleged failures at both industrial sites to take precautions and appropriately respond to the accidents. Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality are seeking a citation and civil penalties against Intercontinental Terminals Company, whose Deer Park tank farm repeatedly caught fire last month, spewing black smoke and benzene into the Houstons air. Paxton and the TCEQ have also filed court papers against KMCO, where chemical plant in Crosby was the site of a deadly explosion and fire on Tuesday. Investigations and time will tell if the owners of these sites are at fault, either civilly or criminally. Unfortunately, while after-the-fact penalties are important in any good enforcement system, they are not sufficient by themselves to alter behavior to prevent such harms in the first place. And that should be the ultimate goal of state enforcement. While tort law recognizes that after-the-fact damages are meant to compensate those hurt by anothers fault, monetary penalties can never compensate for a life lost or serious injuries. Environmental damages are similarly difficult to ameliorate. It also highly unlikely that the state, county or Port of Houston will be able to fully recover the estimated billion-dollar economic hit from the closure of the Ship Channel that the ITC fire caused. To avoid (or at least lessen) similar harm in the future, the state needs to practice effective enforcement, and that requires money and time spent before a disaster occurs. Both the plants at issue were regulated under multiple laws, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, RCRA and most importantly, the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act. To protect the public, each of these laws requires effective enforcement, and that requires the state (or the EPA) to conduct a sufficient number of and effective routine inspections, levy serious fines and increase oversight when there is a pattern of violations. Unfortunately, Texas has not made before-the-fact enforcement a strong goal, often doing the bare minimum allowed under federal law. Thats even though parts of the state, including the Houston area, are heavily industrialized and face a large number of risks. Both Texas and Louisiana (another highly industrialized state) make a point of being business-friendly and try to make regulation as easy and seamless as possible. As long as a regulation is effective, there is nothing wrong with its being designed to be as easy as possible for the regulated community. Texas touts that it likes cooperative-based enforcement (instead of deterrence-based). That is fine as long as the state actually requires that violators hew to environmental and safety regulatory matters. If Texas does not want business to pay for enforcement, it will have to take money from somewhere else. The bottom line is that Texas needs to hire more personnel and spend more money on monitors to ensure that companies are doing what they say they are doing. Ineffective regulation may help some companies bottom line, but the costs of accidents are many times the cost of charging them for effective enforcement, and these costs fall on individual people and the public at large. With industrial accidents, after-the-fact penalties also are ineffective at deterring future behavior. No regulated industry expects a disaster. Nor do they think that another partys disaster means that they will be responsible for one. What industry needs instead is a constant, regular, predictable, before-the-fact enforcement of regulations. The state must demand good answers to important questions: Do you have a safety plan in place? Is the plan adequate? What happens if personnel need to evacuate in a different direction? What is the risk of fire and explosion of keeping volatile flammable chemicals in a specific configuration? If there are histories or patterns of violating health and safety laws, inspections and penalties should rise, both to ensure safety and give the more careless in the regulated community an incentive to make corrections before lives are lost. That will help in actual prevention and level the playing field for those companies that are playing by the rules and taking their obligations seriously. Accidents do happen. But effective state enforcement can make them exceedingly rare. There is wisdom in the saying: An ounce of prevention is worth it. Spending on prevention now would not only protect our lives, our air and our health, it would save the state billions later. Victor B. Flatt is Dwight Olds Chair, an environment and energy law professor at the University of Houston Law Center and a Member Scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform. 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. 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OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. iciHaiti - North-East : New mobile asphalt plant The Departmental Director of the North-East will receive a new mobile asphalt plant, which is currently at Customs of Ouanaminthe. This heavy equipment will contribute to the construction of roads throughout the department. This news has been very well received by the population of the Department of North-East who is happy to have its own asphalt unit that will allow to rehabilitate many kilometers of difficult roads. This mobile unit would be part of the $123 million of heavy equipment purchased on credit by the State https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22300-haiti-politics-government-purchases-$123m-of-heavy-equipment.html The Departmental Director of North-East states "Thanks to the asphalt plant located in Camp-Perrin (South) and that to Acul de Gros-Morne (Artibonite) and that now in the North-East, there is will have about 1,500 km of roads under construction or under rehabilitation all over the country, in less than two years..." TB/ iciHaiti Birthday wishes Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun. Happy Birthday Wishes Imperial Valley News Center Governor Newsom, Acting Governor Kounalakis Issue Statement on Death of CHP Sergeant Steve Licon Sacramento, California - Governor Gavin Newsom and Acting Governor Eleni Kounalakis tonight issued the following statement regarding the death of California Highway Patrol Sergeant Steve Licon of the Riverside CHP Area. Today we mourn the loss of a husband and father of two who lost his life while protecting the State of California. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, his friends and his many California Highway Patrol colleagues for their devastating loss. Sergeant Licon died today in an on-duty traffic collision on I-15 in Riverside County. Sergeant Licon served with the CHP in the Riverside, Baldwin Park and Santa Ana Areas over his distinguished 28-year career. He is survived by his wife Ann, daughter Marissa and step-daughter Kelly. In honor of Sergeant Licon, Acting Governor Kounalakis has ordered Capitol flags to be flown at half-staff. This is a story about Delta Air Lines, and about the most fundamental question any business has to ask itself. It's also about the intriguing answer Delta seems to have found. That question is: "What, exactly, do you sell?" Do you sell a simple product? Or do you sell an experience, or maybe a convenience -- a solution to customers' problems? It's a philosophical difference, but it has a lot of real-world repercussions. In the airline world, it's a big issue. Should an airline think of itself as selling a commodity -- a seat on a plane? Or should it think of itself as selling something bigger? No need for baggage claim? "Right now, we still sell airline tickets," Delta Air Lines president Glen Hauenstein recently told the 3 Things podcast, hosted by Red Ventures CEO Ric Elias. "What we really want to sell is the journey." For example, as Hauenstein proposes, your "journey" would include not just the flight, but airport transfers and even luggage delivery--so that you could seamlessly book a trip from your home in Atlanta to your hotel in Los Angeles--and have your luggage delivered to you, so you never even have to go to the baggage claim. "[We want] your luggage to find its way to your mode of transportation, and show up at your hotel or place of residence," Hausenstein said. "If you use Lyft for ride-sharing, if you use Hilton or Marriott as your preferred hotel vendor, we need to know that. Then, we can provide you a curated experience from start to finish. That's where we're headed." The plans are apparently for what the airline would be like in about 2025. It's not clear if this would be for all passengers, or just certain classes of service, and if this would be more about integrating services--or Delta actually coordinating it all and bundling the costs into ticket prices. In other words, there there are lots of details to be explored. But it's a vision of the very near future that would be quite different from how most of us think of airline travel now. (The podcast isn't actually available yet, but Hauenstein's remarks were reported by Darren Murph of The Points Guy. TPG is also owned by Red Ventures.) Best 'Major Airline' I read all this after having just reported on the airlines that fared best in TripAdvisor's 2019 Travelers' Choice Awards, which are based on the rankings and reviews that thousands of TripAdvisor users give various airlines during the past year. As I wrote recently, Southwest Airlines was far and away the winner among U.S. airlines in the rankings. In fact, it was the only U.S. airline that placed in the top 10 worldwide. If you look at the reviews that TripAdvisor quoted in announcing its placement, you can see why. Nobody is talking about the commodity parts of Southwest's business: things like on-time performance, or the fact that you can usually change flights without an additional fee. Instead, they're talking about the intangibles: the "friendly staff," that "really cares about you and it shows." While Southwest took the overall top prize for North America, Delta Air Lines came in first in that ranking for its category: "Major Airlines." (Southwest is considered a "Low Cost Airline." And it's It probably isn't surprising to see that the accompanying Delta reviews are fairly close in tone to the Southwest ones. It's not so much about the product or the service. It's about the feelings that the product and service inspire in the customers. Getting past the numbers Interestingly, moving away from a commoditized airline product doesn't necessarily mean squeezing either more or less money out of the product itself. For example, as Gary Leff at View From the Wing points out, Delta seats passengers nine across in some aircraft configurations, when rival airlines like United and American flying the same plane fit 10 in the same space. So Delta ostensibly gives up revenue for passenger experience in that case. But Southwest goes the other way sometimes. For example, it gets lots of good press for offering free bags and itinerary changes, but most passengers don't fully use them. By bundling the features, Southwest arguably makes more money than it would by stripping them out and selling them as-needed. Either way, it doesn't really matter in a vacuum. Passengers who care mostly about price, schedule and features can get all that information in an instant now, and they make a pure commodity decision. But lots of people don't think that way. They go past the numbers, and they make decisions more on how an airline--or any company--makes them feel as a whole. Was the trip pleasant? Did the employees seem like they wanted to be working? Is there anything about the company's public persona that doesn't square with my personal values? In most cases, those are the customers you want. Because while you have to work a little harder to get them, they're the ones who won't abandon you quickly simply because another competitor offers a slightly lower price, or a slightly more convenient schedule. In fact, as Delta seems to understand, you're probably better off getting them to stop thinking about flying with you as simply "buying a ticket." Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek. Wherever you are, the sun might finally be emerging. In my Bay Area, there's even been more darkness and wetness than in the whole of the UK Parliament over the last two years. So I thought I'd choose this moment to offer another in my occasional series entitled Alcohol By Volume. The idea is to offer a counterpoint against the professional sippers -- those who can tell a wine is wonderful or execrable with just one supposedly subtle swill. They may be experts. They may also not be your normal human. Your normal human just wants a lovely wine, at not a painful price, that'll be a perfect companion all through dinner. Your normal business human wants to surprise clients or partners with their impeccable, unusual taste. My constant search, therefore -- disclosure: I'm a Wine Ambassador at Honig Winery -- consists of not merely tasting wines but enjoying at least a glass, or sometimes even two, to see whether a wine can be at the very least a friend and, in a world of dreams, a long-term partner. Today, then, I present five wines that came out of nowhere and now reside permanently in my mouth and memory as guests to invite to dinner. They're from several parts of the world and, if you can get hold of them, I hope they can be good companions for you, too. 1. Ninfa by Joao Barbosa, Portugal The wines of Joao Barbosa appeared on my Lisbon dinner table one night and made me stop talking for a while. Yes, they've won lots of awards. Despite that, they're the sort of wines that aren't expensive -- they start at 8 Euros a bottle -- yet taste as if they were made by surgeons who studied art. After a few sips of the red Ninfa 2009, I stared at the glass. It stared right back. We looked at each other for a while, me wondering how the wine could be both smooth and emphatic and it, I suspect, beginning to giggle at how surprised I looked. This was a curious experience. My wife and I wafted through the doors of this winery in the Alentejo town of Estremoz, Portugal because, well, we saw it from the road. We were immediately invited to join a tour. Which was fascinating, but didn't involve actually tasting any wine. When we (politely) asked if we could taste some, we were (very politely) told that wasn't possible as there was another large group arriving. What to do? We bought a couple of different bottles, somewhat perturbed because Tiago Cabaco sells a wine called Blog. We took the Vinhas Velhas Branco wine back to the marvelous Raizes restaurant in Lisbon and tasted it with owner -- and secretly astute sommelier -- Marco Silva. The Vinhas Velhas white stood out like a fine tattoo on the Queen of England's face. It pretended to be light but, after several sips, here came a fresh subtlety I'd last seen when a priest pulled out his MC Hammer moves. We drank it with cheese and chorizo, with fish and meat. It never felt out of place. Occasionally, I get invited to industry events where dozens, if not hundreds of wine producers from all over the world gather, smile and plead for greater distribution. This is where sipping is mandatory. Some of the pours are generous. Some of the faces are ravenous. This is not a perfect blend. Still, after quite some sipping and a certain amount of spitting, I stumbled onto this strangely titled wine. Many -- including me -- think of Carmenere as a blending grape, if they think of it at all. Yet while Folatre's commercial director Jorge Matthei regaled me with tales of how they'd been able to use the Jackie'O name, I confess I did more than sip. This looked like a dark beast, yet drank like an emissary from peaceful shores. The winery suggests you pair it with pasta, white meat, duck a l'orange and sweet-and-sour dishes. I had it with all the finger food available that night and it worked rather beautifully. Where else do you find a Croatian wine that stuns you into existential contemplation than in a Mexican restaurant? There I was in San Francisco's Cala restaurant when the Debit Blend offered itself by the glass. Again, not an expensive wine. Some put it at $15 a bottle. Yet this was as distinctively idiosyncratic a glass as I've tasted in years. So much so that my wife took a sip and ordered a glass too. The Debit grape isn't, as I'd fancifully imagined, a bank-owned concoction for which you have to pay heavily. Instead, it's a Dalmatian thing that may or may not have originated in Italy. (The Croatians say not, naturally.) Croatian legend has it that local wine growers paid Napoleon's taxes with these grapes. Hence, Debit. I bought it on credit. I'm looking for more. Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek. Ever since the Boeing 737 MAX was grounded, airlines have been scrambling. Southwest Airlines, which already had 34 of the planes in service, is the most affected. Now that the MAX may be be out of service for a considerable part of the year, the cancelations at Southwest have mounted. In the middle of it all are passengers. On social media, they've become increasingly vocal and angry about what they see are unreasonable cancellations. A sample from Twitter: @SouthwestAir I'm extremely disappointed in my flight being cancelled without explanation. This caused a huge mess in my plans that was irreparable. -- Jus (@MadeInAfrica_) April 6, 2019 A sample from Facebook: If only #southwest treated all customers with respect. Cancelling flights, rebooking with 8 hour layovers and 8hr+ flights and then not offering to refund when we need to book a different flight to be home to see our 4 kids!!! Horrible customer service when trying to figure out our options. We understand having to take planes down because you want to make sure they are safe BUT Southwest should be bending over backwards to make things right. Not ever flying or recommending your airlines again. Keep digging your grave Southwest. Another from Facebook: Southwest's lack of planning should not have cost me a day's pay, a one day delay in arriving to my destination, a bad seat choice, and increased rental car fees. Some might think it remarkable that an airline known for customer service is being accused of offering anything but. Passengers are accusing Southwest of complete indifference to their plight, so I asked the airline for its perspective. Its spokesman Chris Mainz told me: This situation is beyond our direct control. In many ways, it's like dealing with an ATC/Weather scenario but for weeks on end. The duration is one major factor of what makes this situation highly unusual -- especially for our customers. We know it's been frustrating for our customers, but we have taken several steps to try to minimize the inconvenience and frustration. He said the airline is offering "massive flexibility." It's created a special FAQ to answer passenger concerns. It says it's canceling flights five days out in order to give passengers as much time as it can to make alternative arrangements. The airline admits, though, that 150 flights a day are being canceled. It also concedes passenger anger has increased: We've seen unusually high volumes on our social channels, but this is expected. While the overall sentiment is negative, we have to remember that we carried over 120 million customers last year. So while it is high and it seems high, it's a small percentage of our customer base. And we would expect our customers to be disappointed any time their trips are disrupted. Disappointment is one thing. Rage is another. All airlines operate with little margin for error. When something so sudden hits, airlines are often unprepared operationally and therefore unprepared to offer passengers what they need. Southwest is relatively lucky because its brand is still robust. How long, though, before a truly significant number of passengers turn their backs? Of course, Southwest isn't alone in enduring this struggle. American Airlines, with 24 MAX planes, has said it's canceled 90 flights a day. Moreover, choices for passengers are few. When four airlines own more than 80 percent of all seats in the U.S., grinning and bearing it is a necessary passenger trait. Scott Kirby. He may know you better than you do. Or not. Getty Images Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek. United Airlines has been trying. From an abject nadir a couple of years ago, when one of its customers ended up with a bloody face and considerable financial settlement, United has insisted it's learned lessons. It's tried to persuade its employees to be more friendly. Actually, it's allowed them to be more friendly. This doesn't mean United's customers have stopped complaining. Recently, I talked to a United Million Miler who was enraged about delays, not being able to get upgrades and several other apparently annoying elements. What, though, do United's customers complain about most? The airline's enterprising, but not always empathetic president, Scott Kirby, offered a revealing answer to the San Francisco Chronicle's Chris McGinnis: Poor WiFi is the number one complaint from our frequent travelers and it's definitely something we want to get fixed. And there you were thinking that customer service would be the most irritating part of flying. For me, I confess, the worst is airlines shoveling more and more seats onto planes, so they can make more money. American Airlines has managed to make itself the very symbol of this. United, though, isn't exactly innocent. It, too, is removing seatback screens, reducing legroom and decorating its planes with tiny toilets and very thin seats. For Kirby, though, it's customers' own fault that United now has 10 seats across a Boeing 777 in Economy Class. He said: Quite simply it costs us the same to fly a 777 across the Atlantic with 10 or 9 abreast. You have find what people care about and what they are willing to pay for. If you have only 9 abreast, you'd have to charge everyone 11 percent more to break even. So are people willing to pay an extra $110 on a $1000 transatlantic fare to sit in a row with one less seat? The answer is unequivocally no. It's tantalizing, isn't it? Kirby apparently has data showing that you, dear, customer, don't mind being squished to within an inch of a lung. He insists, indeed, that most of the world's airlines agree with him and fly 777's with 10 seats across. But then there's Delta. Last July, it issued a startling announcement. It was headlined: "Delta emphasizes customer comfort." The airline had decided that no, it wouldn't shove 10 seats across its Boeing 777-200 planes. Even more startling was the fact that it was going to make those Economy Class seats wider. Could it be that Delta's customers are prepared to pay a little more for greater comfort? Could it also be a general sense of superior customer service allows Delta to introduce all kinds of touches that enhance human experience and encourage loyalty? A few small details about Christopher Nolans new film have come to surface. The Hollywood Reporter has described the project as a globe-trotting adventure that has shades of the mind-bending nature of Inception but does involve the time continuum. The description comes as part of a wider piece on the news Nolan has hired a new editor, Jennifer Lame, who last worked on last years horror hit Hereditary. He worked with Australian editor Lee Smith on all his movies since 2005s Batman Begins, but Smith is currently working on Sam Mendess World War I epic 1917. John David Washington, Elizabeth Debicki and Robert Pattinson have all been cast in the film. Pattinson has said he was locked in a room in order to read the highly anticipated films screenplay. Ive been a little wary of doing big movies for years and years, but theres just something about Chris Nolans stuff, he continued. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Show all 47 1 /47 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination American Psycho (2000) Starring future Oscar-winner Christian Bale, Mary Harrons adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel in which the Vice star plays the psychopathic Patrick Bateman - didnt receive a single nomination. Rex Features 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Before Sunrise (1995) While the final two chapters of Richard Linklaters Before trilogy earned screenplay nominations, the film that introduced the world to future married couple Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) was criminally overlooked. Columbia Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Big Heat (1953) Fritz Lang had a number of films overlooked by the Academy; this noir, starring Glenn Ford, Lee Marvin and and Gloria Grahame, was one of them. Columbia Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Big Lebowski (1998) The Academys generosity to the Coen brothers peaked when No Country for Old Men beat There Will Be Blood in one of the ceremonys closest Best Picture races of all time. It remains surprising that one of their few films to evade any nominations is this endlessly quotable mistaken identity comedy starring Jeff Bridges as The Dude. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Blow Out (1981) Brian De Palma doesnt exactly make films in the hope of winning award, but his political thriller - based on Michelangelo Antonionis Blow Up would have deserved any Oscar it was nominated for. Filmways Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Breathless (1960) Breathless' failure to receive a nomination is proof that the Oscars cant be trusted. Despite being one of the most studied films in the world, Jean Luc-Godards French masterpiece has an Academy Award tally of zero. Films Around The World 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Bringing Up Baby (1938) The Academy rewarded many notable screwball comedies, though this Howard Hawks-directed standout starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn - whod go on to hold the record for most wins - wasn't one of them. Courtesy of BFI 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Don't Look Now (1973) Nicolas Roeg, who directed this Venice-set chiller, is one of the most unfairly overlooked directors in Oscars history. Rex Features 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Donnie Darko (2004) Richard Kellys science-fiction mind-bender, which made a star of Jake Gyllenhaal, was a festival favourite upon its debut in 2004. Many expected a screenplay nomination to manifest. Rex Features 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) It wouldnt be until the 1990s that western films found favour with the Academy. It was ironically thanks to Unforgiven, a film directed by Clint Eastwood whose career flourished after starring in this Sergio Leone film that many consider to be the genres peak. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination La haine (1995) Mathieu Kassovitzs black-and-white drama translated in English as Hate follows three young friends and their struggles living in the suburbs of Paris. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Halloween (1978) The Academy may not be frothing at the mouth to nominate horror films, but do have previous (see: The Exorcist and The Silence of the Lamb), which makes the absence of John Carpenters influential Halloween a glaring oversight. Aquarius Releasing 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Harold and Maude (1971) This offbeat romantic drama was a critical and commercial flop at the time of release, which probably accounts for its lack of Oscar nominations. Today, though, its cult following ensures it remains in good favour with film fans. Paramount Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Heat (1995) On paper, the big screen union of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Michael Manns cop drama was a shoo-in for awards, but no Oscar nominations manifested. Warner Bros 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination His Girl Friday (1940) Yet another Howard Hawks screwball comedy starring Cary Grant that criminally failed to secure a single Oscar nomination. L/Columbia/Koba/Rex/Shutterstock 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Insomnia (2002) While falling short of Christopher Nolans best, modest drama Insomnia made years before Batman Begins had enough strong performances (Al Pacino, Robin Wiliams, Hilary Swank) to warrant acting nominations. Alas, it received none. Warner Bros Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Local Hero (1983) Bill Forsyths beloved comedy-drama follows the mishaps of an American man sent to buy up a Scottish village where the oil company he works for wants to build a refinery. Forsyth won the Bafta for Best Director, but the film received no such love from the Academy. 20th Century Fox 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination M (1931) Youd be mistaken for thinking the M stands for masterpiece in Fritz Langs German drama that follows the manhunt for a serial killer - not that the Academy agreed. 20th Century Fox 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination A Man Escaped (1956) Robert Bressons adaptation of Andre Devignys memoirs charts the French Resistance members time as prisoner of the Germans during World War II, and is even more enthralling considering Bresson himself was held captive years before. Gaumont Film Company 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Margaret (2011) Kenneth Lonergan would go on to win an Oscar for Manchester but he Sea, but Margaret - his three-hour plus drama featuring a searing performance from Anna Paquin - failed to secure a single nomination. Fox Searchlight Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination In the Mood for Love (2000) Wong Kar-wai set the benchmark for romance in film with his acclaimed Hong Kong drama following a man and woman (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who develop feelings for one another after suspecting their respective spouses of having an affair together. defd Deutscher Fernsehdienst 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The King of Comedy (1982) It may have taken him decades to win an Oscar, but the Academy has rarely balked at nominating Martin Scorsese films especially for films starring Robert De Niro. The King of Comedy was an exception. 20th Century Fox 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Long Goodbye (1973) Robert Altmans superior thriller stars Elliott Gould as Raymond Chandlers private investigator Philip Marlowe in one of the directors most entertaining films. The director would go on to be the recipient of the Honorary Award in 2006. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Man With Two Brains (1983) He may have hosted several times, but Steve Martin has never been nominated for an Oscar. One film he deserved recognition for was Carl Reiner's 1983 sci-fi comedy, The Man with Two Brains. Warner Bros. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination A Matter of Life and Death (1946) The Academy Film Archive may have preserved A Matter of Life and Death in 1999, but voters failed to recognise the Powell & Pressburgers fantasy-romance at the time of its release in 1946. Eagle-Lion Films 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Mean Streets (1973) It may not be credited as his debut, but Mean Streets is very much the first true Martin Scorsese film. The director would go on to win a belated Oscar for The Departed in 2007, but hed have to wait until 1975 for his first nomination (Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore). Warner Bros 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Melancholia (2011) No Lars von Trier film has ever been nominated for Best Picture, though Dancer in the Dark came close (it settled for a Best Original Song nomination). He came close with Melancholia, but ultimately, the drama didn't get Canal+ 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Miller's Crossing (1990) Despite being revered as a Coen brothers favourite, not to mention its notable performances from Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney, Millers Crossing is one of few Coen brother films not to receive a single Oscar nomination. 20th Century Fox 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Though it's by no means a masterpiece, its staggering to think that Sergio Leones gangster epic - starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci - didnt acquire any Oscar nominations (the film's music was disqualified from consideration after Warner Bros accidentally omitted the composer's name from the opening credits when trimming the films lengthy running time for its American release). Warner Bros 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Paterson (2016) Critics assumed Jim Jarmuschs Paterson would have been a shoo-in for awards recognition - most notably in the Best Actor category, thanks to a quietly fantastic performance from Adam Driver - but no such luck. Amazon Studios 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Paths of Glory (1957) Stanley Kubrick never won Best Director despite being nominated four times. One of his films that didnt make the Oscars cut in any category was his black-and-white anti-war film, Paths of Glory. United Artists 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Play Misty for Me (1971) Clint Eastwood would go onto become something of an Oscar darling thanks to Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River, but his directorial debut was ignored by the Academy. Univeral Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Reservoir Dogs (1992) Reservoir Dogs may not touch Quentin Tarantinos best, but it remains a surprise that the filmmakers debut didnt get recognised in the screenplay category, at least. Miramax Films 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Rider (2018) Of all the 2018 films to be snubbed at this years Oscars, Chloe Zhaos drama - which stars a real-life rodeo cowboy and his family - smacks as the most unfair. Sony Pictures Classics 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Searchers (1956) The role of Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards might be considered John Waynes best role, but the Academy didnt agree: he would win his sole Oscar for True Grit in 1970. Warner Bros 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Shining (1980) Another Kubrick film that was completely ignored by the Academy is the directors Stephen King adaptation, The Shining. Today, its considered one of his finest works as well as being one of the most revered horror films of all time. Warner Bros 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Shop Around the Corner (1953) It may have endured as one of the best loved romcoms of all time, but it has zero Oscar nominations to its name. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Still Walking (2008) Japanese director Hirokazo Kore-eda's portrait of a family over roughly 24 hours as they commemorate the death of the eldest son was a glaring oversight by the Academy. IFC Films 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Swingers Before he became Disney's go to, Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Jungle Book and the forthcoming live-action Lion King) wrote this independent film about the lives of single, unemployed actors living in Hollywood, California during the 1990s swing revival. Rex Features 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination This Is England (2006 The 2007 ceremony would have been far better had Shane Meadows' coming-of-drama been in contention for awards. Optimum Releasing 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Three Kings (1999) The Academy deemed Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle worthy of nominations, but not David O Russells Three Kings, which remains one of his greatest films to this day. Warner Bros Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Tokyo Story (1953) Tokyo Story is deemed Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece and was named Sight & Sound's best film of all time in 2012. Rex Features 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles' classic noir wasn't as well loved at the time of release as it is today. BFI 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Tyrannosaur (2011) Olivia Colman may be in contention for Best Actress at this years ceremony, but the fact she failed to earn a nomination (or Bafta, for that matter) for her role in Paddy Considines hard-hitting drama Tyrannosaur is one of the biggest oversights in awards history. StudioCanal UK 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Walkabout (1971) Another exceptional achievement in filmmaking from Nicolas Roeg that somehow failed to receive any Oscar nominations. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination You Were Never Really Here (2018) Notch it down to bad timing, but Lynne Ramsays You Were Never Really Here - starring Joaquin Phoenix - is a sensational piece of work worthy of reward. Amazon Studio 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Zodiac (2007) Three years later, David Fincher would go head-to-head with The King Speech's Tom Hooper for The Social Network. In truth, serial killer drama Zodiac is every bit as good as the Facebook drama. Warner Bros Pictures He seems like the only director now who can do what is essentially a very personal, independent movie that has huge scale. I read the script and its unreal. Christopher Nolans untitled new film will be released in July 2020. From ancient times, we humans have put those who look different outside city walls, because they dont conform to our inward notion of outward normality. More than any other disease, skin disorders have the greatest potential to drive otherness and, thus, stigma, ostracism and associated loss of self-esteem and confidence. The truth is that skin speaks long before the mouth. In the UK, even relatively-simple dermatological conditions such as acne can cause profound loss of perceived self-worth and, tragically, a significant number of young adults commit suicide every year as a result. While we are all familiar with acne, unknown skin disease in resource-poor settings often has more sinister consequences. In Ethiopia alone, at least 1.6 million ordinary people are living lives of quiet desperation, the victims of a skin disease known as Podoconiosis (commonly known as Podo; from the Greek words for foot and dust). Podo is a form of elephantiasis, where a failure of the lymphatic system in the lower legs leads to grotesque swelling and deformity. Unlike the most common form of elephantiasis, Podo is not caused by injection of filarial worm larvae by a feeding mosquito host. Rather, it is caused simply by barefoot farming on certain types of ancient, red volcanic soil. This nutrient-rich soil is both the giver and taker of life. On the one hand, it generously bequeaths a living to around 11 million subsistence farmers in the central highlands of Ethiopia. On the other, it quietly, cynically robs life from more than 10% of those that work it, because of its biological reactivity. The disease starts with the mundane thick dry skin on the sole, callus born from years of bare-foot contact with a challenging environment. This skin cracks and splits, allowing invasion of soil and microbes. Infection is routine. Specific fractions of volcanic soil, the mulch of magma spewed from volcanic vents in Ethiopias violent geological past, are inherently damaging to human tissue. The lymphatic system in the feet and lower legs absorbs this soil and, effectively, commits slow suicide. Years of self-harm to the lymphatics in the legs and feet eventually results in full-blown elephantiasis. It is impossible to convey the human tragedy of Podo in a few words. First of all, there is the sheer visual offence of slim, sinewy Ethiopian legs, which belong on a middle-distance race-track, ballooned to caricature, cartoon proportions. For those who have suffered with Podo for years or decades, this swelling often transforms to fibrosis, abnormal multiplication of connective tissue, resulting in hardened, knotted lumps which sound like wood when tapped with a finger. Then there is the smell of Podo, the sickly stench of stubborn infection, an odour which enters a room before their physical presence. Finally, one notices the eyes darkened, bereft of hope, turned away through embarrassment and shame. Podo sufferers are routinely mistaken as infectious, cursed by god, possessed by spirits. Wives are evicted, children live with the familys livestock, men wither. Forced from home, village and community, many starve or take their own life. Because the majority of those with Podo are of productive age, it is estimated that Podo alone causes Ethiopia to lose almost a quarter of a billion dollars annually through work-force erosion. This month, a gallery on Londons South Bank hosts a remarkable exhibition, by portrait photographer Matthew Joseph, of images of those with Podo, captured in unforgiving Medium-Format on a field-trip to remote Southern Ethiopia in late 2018. This is a portrait exhibition with a difference, however. Face and feet will hang side-by-side. One would never associate the high-cheekbones and handsome features with the juxtaposed horror. Which is the point. Without doubt, this exhibition is challenging, but it is also charged with hope. Joseph gives voice and face to those caught in this silent, invisible tragedy and points to the first, vibrant green shoots of efforts made to eradicate this disease from Ethiopia within our lifetime. More detail about the exhibition can be found here oxotower.co.uk/events/podo Dr Paul Matts is founder of Action on Podo. He is a PhD Biologist, a Victor Mills Research Fellow with Procter & Gamble, Visiting Professor to the London College of Fashion, Chair of the Cosmetics Europe Trade Association Expert Team Regulatory Aspects of Sunscreen Products and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and Royal Society of Chemistry. Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists Gigi Hadid has spoken out about her recent visit to a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh. "Even with their lives in limbo, these women and girls had such desire to do more, to be more and to get educated to better their lives," the 23-year-old model told the Power of Women event organised by Variety magazine. Hadid visited the Jamtoli Refugee Camp with Unicef last August. Asked how Unicef could help them in different ways, she said the camp's residents told her it "really boiled down to" having an identity. Hadid, who was named International Model of the Year by the British Fashion Council in 2016, became visibly emotional as she spoke about the connection she forged with the refugees whom she met. Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Show all 18 1 /18 Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Sultana Begum Sultana Begum*, 30, saw her husband die in front of her. She was also shot AJ Ghani/British Red Cross Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Zaheda* with her daughter Arofa* It took and her family 18 days to walk from her village to the border with Myanmar. We went across the mountains and it was a rough journey because I was three months pregnant. In the refugee camp when it was time for the baby to be born I went into labour. I tried to give birth in my shelter but I could not. My son died soon after he was born. The doctors said it was the stress of the journey. Zaheda worries about the safety of her daughters Gulsar*, 20, and Abeda*, 18, as there are reports of trafficking in the camps, so she accompanies them everywhere, even to the toilet Abbie Trayler-Smith/Oxfam Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Arofa* and her best friend Rashida* Arofa*, six years old, one of Zahedas younger daughters, and her best friend Rashida* share a moment in the refugee camp. Arofa lives with her eight siblings, mother, father and grandmother Nur Begum, in a three-roomed shelter made of tarpaulin and bamboo Abbie Trayler-Smith/Oxfam Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Ummee* is a 16-year old girl who arrived in Bangladesh with her brother, orphaned Ummee Salma*, 16: Me and my older brother came here four months ago. My parents are either killed or lost. When violence broke out we were separated. I heard them screaming our names but we couldnt find each other. That was the last time I saw them. If my parents were alive they would have come and found us in Bangladesh Josh Estey/Care International Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Almost 1 million people, mainly women and children, are now living in the sprawling refugee camps in Coxs Bazar, making it now the largest refugee camp in the world Abbie Trayler-Smith/Oxfam Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Rohana Begum If the people of Save the Children hadnt helped me when I was unconscious I would have died, says Rohana*. Rohana Begum* was alone in her shelter made of wood and plastic sheeting when she went into labour with Khotija*, now two and a half months. After delivering the baby on her own Rohana* began to lose a lot of blood. She lay unconscious and haemorrhaging until her mother-in law returned a few hours later. Save the Children estimates that 48,000 babies were born in the camps around Coxs Bazar in 2018 Allison Joyce/Save the Children Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Women in the camps face many issues; in addition to the extreme sexual and physical violence they experienced as they fled, they are still vulnerable in the camps. Many are alone, or just with their children, and overcrowding and limited privacy means that they are at further risk of violence, sexual abuse, child abuse, human trafficking and exploitation Saikat Mojumder /Plan International Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Marjina*, 25, with her 2 month old daughter Asma, in their tent in Balukhali refugee camp I was eight months pregnant when they came. It was just before dawn and we were sleeping. We heard gunshots and looked outside to work out what was happening. When we saw the house was on fire we had to pick up the children and run. As we ran through the forest they shot at us. Conditions in the camp are not good. I dont have nutritious food to give the children. My son keeps crying that he is hungry and asking me for food. I feel bad because I cant provide for them. I worry that Im not able to care for my baby properly. Farzana Hossen/Surya Photos/Oxfam Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Sajeda Begum*, 35 (on the left), is married with five children She has become firm friends with Sobika* (right) since meeting her at the ActionAid women-friendly space where they have been encouraged to talk. I have suffered so much torture and so many struggles over the last one year. When I sleep I can still see everything. They gathered all the male heads of the family together and tortured them. They uncovered our bodies and ripped our scarves, which is a big violation. They tortured the women and the small children too. They even beat pregnant women. The memory is still too clear for me. Too clear. The first time I came here and saw the other women talking I was surprised. But I was encouraged to tell my stories of where I have come from. I feel that life is more enjoyable now I am here. Stephanie Ross/ActionAid Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis A girl sells vegetables in Kutupalong refugee camp. There are currently 6,000 unaccompanied children living in Coxs Bazar, where they face crippling food shortages and are at risk of exploitation and abuse. Whilst looking for work women and girls are falling victim to exploitation and are being trafficked into the sex trade Christian Aid Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Isamatara, 15 Isamatara takes part in a session run by Plan International in Balukhali camp, Coxs Bazar, for teenage girls to talk about what its like to have their periods in a place like this. Girls are usually married within two to three years after they start menstruating, between the ages of 12 to 16 Plan International Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Rojia*, 25, with her youngest son Sultan*, 2 Rojias husband went missing in Myanmar. She thinks he was picked up by the military. He went out for a walk after lunch and never returned. Single mothers whose husbands are missing or dead head up 1 in 6 families in the Rohingya camps. They face particular problems, having to take on public roles that challenge cultural and religious assumptions about womens place in society. Oxfam has collaborated with women refugees to design improved toilets and washrooms that afford more privacy, and is calling for more to be done to support these vulnerable women such as help collecting aid packages and more community dialogue about men and womens traditional roles Abbie-Trayler Smith/Oxfam Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Fatima Fatimas* husband was killed in the attacks and shortly after their house was burnt. Since Fatima is head of the household, she has to do most of the work. From one of the nearby water pumps in the camp she usually fetches water in the evenings. Care provides her with safe drinking water and washing facilities, critical for the 22,000 people in her camp. No aid in the world can give me back my husband Josh Estey/Care International Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Fatima Look at my feet. I had lost my toe nails as we were climbing. It was so hard to climb over the mountains and we had to carry our old mother because she cant walk, says Fatima* Josh Estey/Care International Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Dr Fatema Akter Dr Fatema Akter, 42, one of ActionAids team in Coxs Bazar, says that when the crisis started she saw 80 people a day. At the beginning, most of the women came with reproductive problems because they had to walk a long time when they were crossing the border. Sometimes they were a few weeks pregnant, but when walking on this journey they were bleeding and it turned out they miscarried. There are also many rape cases. I try to understand my patients when I see them. A common problem is women being beaten by their husbands in the camp. And another problem is women being left by their husbands. To focus myself and try to hold back my tears, sometimes I try to remember my favourite films, or think about fun moments with my friends 'When they tell us what theyre going through, we try to provide them with support.' Noor Alam/ActionAid Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Dildar Begum Dildar Begum, 25, lost her husband as she fled to save herself and her childrens lives. After reaching Jamtoli camp she was reunited with her husband and they started living happily together. But soon he started abusing her physically and emotionally. She then discovered he had a new wife, occasionally he returned to torture her further, but now he doesnt come at all. She is pregnant again, a single mother of six children, and delivered her last baby all alone in the camp. Its very difficult to explain the struggle Ive faced in Myanmar and throughout my journey towards Bangladesh. I was five months pregnant and alone with my five children. Dildar now attends a Women and Child Friendly Space run by Gana Unnayan Kendra, a partner organisation of Christian Aid. Here women come together, share their stories, sew clothes to sell and wear, and get psychosocial support Faysal Ahamed/Christian Aid Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Rahima When I lost my two children, I wanted to climb into the hole with them and lay there. Though Im sad, its very important to tell our terrible story to the whole world. One of my children was killed crossing the border, she was 11. My other child was only seven. When we crossed it was very cold and raining, we didnt have enough food so my child got sick and was taken by disease. Rahima lost her husband and two other children before she fled Myanmar. Despite her unimaginable loss, she remains determined to help others now she is here. Rahima is just one of thousands of people that the Red Cross has trained in hygiene promotion. 'I want to protect other peoples children so they dont fall to disease. I have one child now and I will try my best to protect her and the communitys children.' AJ Ghani/British Red Cross Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Minara, 20, with baby Shomima Shomima was seven days old when the photo was taken. One day, if its safe, of course we want to go home. I miss my home, my family. I miss my cows and my normal life. But at least this is safer, she says. In October 2018, a proposed repatriation deal was made between the Bangladesh and Myanmar governments. The deal was made against the wishes of many Rohingya, some of whom spoke of being terrified at being sent back. As a result of mounting concern amongst NGOs, human rights groups and the UNHCR, repatriation did not take place at this time. For now the Rohingya remain in limbo just across the border from Myanmar, and for women and girls in the camps of Coxs Bazar life remains precarious (*Names have been changed throughout gallery to protect identity) AJ Ghani/British Red Cross "Although there were definitely moments of joy, of sitting, laughing, playing games and having a human connection with the refugees, I couldnt help but continue to think about those women and what they said," she recalled. "At the end of the trip, I went home, and they were still there." She said that while donating to charity is important, and "genuinely does save lives and help people", the refugees she met wanted to inform the world of their desire for an identity. "They are human beings like all of us, and what they would do for a citizenship, for an identity," she added. "Most of us have the true gift of identity and the power to express ourselves, the power to speak out for those who cannot for themselves and the power to uplift one another." Following her trip last summer, Hadid joined forces with fellow model and Unicef ambassador Halima Aden to launch a CrowdRise page in support of Unicef's work to protect vulnerable children around the world. Tess Daly was "devastated" after she accidentally ran over and killed her family dog. Maltese Shih Tzu Minnie escaped from the Strictly Come Dancing co-host's Buckinghamshire mansion through a door left open by builders. As Daly arrived back home in her Range Rover, she was unaware that the six-year-old dog had fled the house and unwittingly ran the pet over. "I'm horrified and devastated by this terrible, tragic accident," the television presenter told The Sun on Sunday. "It has had a huge effect on the whole family and we are heartbroken at losing Minnie. This has, and continues to be, a very emotional time for us all." Daly described Minnie's death as "a dog owner's worst nightmare". The 49-year-old, who is married to fellow TV presenter Vernon Kay, also has a four-year-old Chihuahua called Blue. The accident occurred days before the couple were due to fly to the Maldives with their two daughters in celebration of Daly's upcoming 50th birthday. In 2016, Daly backed an initiative raising awareness of lungworm following the sudden death of her five-year-old Golden Retriever, Sam. We are a nation of dog lovers and I think the public will appreciate being made aware of lungworm and its dangers," she said, in support of the Be Lungworm Aware campaign. At the unusually early age of eight, Greg Jackson learned the word alienation. His single mum was studying sociology at university and writing essays about Marx and Weber. Hes never forgotten it that vision of work as hell, where youre going around in ever-diminishing circles, and your soul is being slowly destroyed. Its still happening, he says. One of the things Ive learned about most big businesses is that they recruit intelligent, creative human beings and then knock all the humanity out of them. As founder and CEO of new-kid-on-the-block Octopus Energy, hes had a good opportunity to do things differently. You shouldnt have to leave your personality at the door, he argues. I had a good roam around his Soho office, up the road from Piccadilly Circus, and not one of the people I spoke to there seemed the least bit alienated. And they definitely have a lot of energy. Rebecca talked to me about the branding strategy of Roman emperors, Lily was keen on saving the planet, and there was one guy who seemed to be mainly concerned about coming up with playlists. If you phone Octopus, the hold music you hear will be the song that was No 1 in the charts when you were aged 14 (I got The Beatles). A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman in her 20s died in a north London street. Police were called after the woman was found injured near Brookbank in Turkey Street, Enfield, shortly before 6pm on Sunday. The woman sadly died at the scene a short while later. A man was arrested nearby on suspicion of murder and taken to a north London police station, a police spokesperson said. The womans next of kin have been informed. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square Reuters UK news in pictures December 2 2021 Duchess of Cambridge inspects a Faberge egg at the Victoria and Albert Museum Getty UK news in pictures 1 December 2021 Meerkats at London Zoo with an advent calendar PA UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week PA UK news in pictures 29 November 2021 Home Secretary Priti Patel is greeted by a police dog at a special memorial service for Met Police Sergeant Matiu Ratana Getty UK news in pictures 28 November 2021 Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City battles for possession with Aaron Cresswell of West Ham United during a match at the Etihad during snow Manchester City/Getty UK news in pictures 27 November 2021 Residents clear branches from a fallen tree in Birkenhead, north west England as Storm Arwen triggered a rare red weather warning AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 26 November 2021 A shopper browses Christmas trees for sale at Pines and Needles in Dulwich, London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 November 2021 A murmuration of hundreds of thousands of starlings fly over a field at dusk in Cumbria, close to the Scottish border PA UK news in pictures 24 November 2021 Migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, on November 24, 2021, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel. AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 23 November 2021 The coffin of Sir David Amess is carried past politicians, including former Prime Ministers Sir John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the requiem mass for the MP at Westminster Cathedral, central London PA UK news in pictures 22 November 2021 The scene in Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset where police have launched a murder probe after two people were found dead Tom Wren/SWNS UK news in pictures 21 November 2021 London-based midwife Sarah Muggleton, 27, takes part in a 'March with Midwives' in central London to highlight the crisis in maternity services PA UK news in pictures 20 November 2021 Police officers monitor as climate change activists sit down and block traffic during a protest action in solidarity with activists from the Insulate Britain group who received prison terms for blocking roads, on Lambeth Bridge in central London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 19 November 2021 A giant installation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson made from recycled clothing goes on display at Manchester Central, as part of Manchester Art Fair, in a 'wake-up call for the Prime Minister to tackle textile waste' PA UK news in pictures 18 November 2021 The scene at a recycling centre in Stert, near Devizes in Wiltshire after a large blaze was brought under control. The fire broke out on Wednesday night the fire service has said and local residents were advised to keep windows and doors shut due to large amounts of smoke PA UK news in pictures 17 November 2021 The sun rises over South Shields Lighthouse, on the North East coast of England PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2021 ancer Maithili Vijayakumar at the launch of 2021 Diwali celebrations at St Andrew Square in Edinburgh PA UK news in pictures 15 November 2021 Forensic officers work outside Liverpool Women's Hospital, following a car blast, in Liverpool Reuters UK news in pictures 14 November 2021 Wreaths by the Cenotaph after the Remembrance Sunday service in Whitehall, London PA UK news in pictures 13 November 2021 Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is ending his hunger strike in central London after almost three weeks. Ratcliffe has spent 21 days camped outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London without food. He began his demonstration on 24 October after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran, saying his family was caught in a dispute between two states PA UK news in pictures 12 November 2021 Peter Green protesting outside the Cop26 gates during the official final day of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow. PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2021 Seagulls fly around the statue entitled 'Tommy', a first World War soldier by artist Ray Lonsdale at dawn in Seaham, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 10 November 2021 Climate activists dressed as characters inspired by the Netflix series Squid Game protest as they ask Samsung to go 100% renewable energy, outside the venue for COP26 in Glasgow Reuters UK news in pictures 9 November 2021 A deer statue silhouetted at Loch Faskally in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 8 November 2021 Sunrise over St Mary's Lighthouse at Whitley Bay on the North East coast of England PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2021 Activists from Friends of the Earth during a demonstration calling for an end to all new oil and gas projects in the North Sea outside the UK Government's Cop26 hub during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2021 Protesters take part in a rally organised by the Cop26 Coalition in Glasgow demanding global climate justice PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2021 Final touches are made to a life sized Sir David Attenborough cake surrounded by animals as part of a display created by a group of cake artists during Cake International at NEC Birmingham PA UK news in pictures 4 November 2021 A spectacular display of the Northern Lights seen over Derwentwater, near Keswick in the Lake District PA UK news in pictures 3 November 2021 Police and demonstrators at a Extinction Rebellion protest on Buchanan Street, during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 2 November 2021 A person walks along the Basingstoke canal near to Dogmersfield in Hampshire PA UK news in pictures 1 November 2021 Sir David Attenborough delivers a speech during Cop26 in Glasgow Reuters UK news in pictures 31 October 2021 Extinction Rebellion activists protest in Edinburgh as the Cop26 conference begins in Glasgow Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2021 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with Mapuche leader and Minga Indigena Lead Coordinator Claflin Lafkenche (right) alongside indigenous delegates at a ceremonial gathering at the Tramway in Glasgow in a symbolic gesture to mark a unified demand for climate justice PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2021 Ocean Rebellion put on a display of puking oil heads ahead of climate change conference COP26 in Glasgow EPA UK news in pictures 28 October 2021 A man dressed as Santa Claus outside Selfridges in London as the department store unveils its Christmas windows on Oxford Street PA UK news in pictures 27 October 2021 Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak during a visit to Fourpure Brewery in Bermondsey, London, after the chancellor announced a cut to beer taxes in his budget PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2021 Activist Steve Bray demonstrates with a toilet outside the gates of Downing Street, after MPs voted in Parliament against the Environment Bill, allowing companies to pump raw sewage into UK rivers and seas, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 October 2021 Second World War veteran James White, 96, at the opening of the Edinburgh Garden of Remembrance, marking the start of the remembrance period PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2021 Richard Ratcliffe holds up a photo of his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe as he protests outside the Foreign Office while on hunger strike, part of an effort to lobby the UK foreign secretary to bring his wife home from detention in Iran Getty UK news in pictures 23 October 2021 Partner of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Stella Morris and Editor in Chief of WikiLeaks Kristinn Hrafnsson attend a protest ahead of the appeal hearing over Assange's extradition, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 22 October 2021 Palace Gardener Justine Howlett adds the finishing touches to pumpkins bearing the face of Henry VIII and his wives, at Hampton Court Palace. PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2021 Flooded fields near Lingfield in Surrey, after southern England was hit overnight by heavy rain and strong winds from Storm Aurore moving in from France PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2021 A wing surfer enjoys the strong winds as they surf in the sea off of Hayling Island in Hampshire PA UK news in pictures 19 October 2021 Actor Jude Law holds hands with Little Amal, a 3.5-metre-tall puppet of a nine-year-old Syrian girl, as it arrives in Folkestone, Kent, as part of the Handspring Puppet Company's 'The Walk' PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2021 A view over Southend-on-Sea in Essex, which is set to become a city in tribute to Sir David Amess MP, who spent years campaigning for the change Getty UK news in pictures 17 October 2021 Members of the Essex Bangladeshi Welfare Association pay their respects by floral tributes laid at the scene where Sir David Amess MP was killed at Belfairs Methodist Church, in Leigh-on-Sea Reuters UK news in pictures 16 October 2021 Boris Johnson, Sir Keir Starmer, Priti Patel and Lindsay Hoyle pay respects to Sir David Amess at Belfairs Methodist Church, in Leigh-on-Sea, the site of his death EPA UK news in pictures 15 October 2021 A person lays flowers at the scene near the Belfairs Methodist Church in Eastwood Road North, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, where Conservative MP Sir David Amess has died after he was stabbed several times at a constituency surgery. A man has been arrested and officers are not looking for anyone else PA A post-mortem examination and formal identification are yet to take place. A police cordon remains in place and officers will be in the area while initial investigations are carried out. Residents are encouraged to speak with officers if they have any information which could help inquiries, or if they have any concerns. Anyone with information should call police on 101, quoting CAD reference 5516/7April, tweet @MetCC or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. More follows A former teenage switchboard operator at the communications headquarters for the D-Day landings is being awarded the highest French decoration. Marie Scott was 17 years old when she was involved in listening to and collating messages for Operation Overlord at Fort Southwick, Portsmouth, during the Second World War. Now the 92-year-old from New Malden, south-west London, is being presented with the Legion dhonneur for her role in the invasion to liberate Western Europe from the Nazis. As part of the 75th anniversary of D-Day this summer, Ms Scott will travel to Normandy with a group of 30 other Second World War veterans. She will be officially presented with the award by a French general at the Memorial Pegasus Museum in Normandy on 5 June. Marie Scott, a former switchboard operator at the communications headquarters for the D-Day landings, is being awarded the Legion d'honneur. (The Taxi Charity/PA) She said: I am truly overwhelmed to receive the Legion of Honour for the part we played in the D-Day landings. Very few women have received this medal and it is a true honour. Being officially presented with the medal at the Pegasus Museum on 5 June surrounded by a group of Second World War veterans will be a very moving experience. Ms Scott will travel with the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, which was formed in Fulham in 1948 and arranges trips for veterans from all conflicts. A spokeswoman for the charity said: Working on the switchboard in Fort Southwick, Marie would pass messages from the continent to the leaders of Operation Overlord, General Eisenhower and Field Marshall Montgomery. One of her most vivid memories is that when the beaches transmitted she could hear the gunfire. Punters have vowed never to bet on horse racing again after seeing an animal in convulsions as he died after falling on his neck in the Grand National. Up For Review was the first horse to be killed at the prestigious race since 2012, and one of three fatalities in the final 48 hours of the three-day event. About 70,000 spectators at Aintree and millions more television viewers saw the horse land on his neck at the first fence, before appearing to thrash about in pain. Officials erected screens to block the carcass from race-goers and television cameras. Horseracing chiefs siad they will review safety of the 30-jump course. But the race came in for a torrent of criticism for its barbarity, with some pledging to boycott it in future. Animals in entertainment Show all 20 1 /20 Animals in entertainment Animals in entertainment Dogs perform tricks at a circus in France Jo-Anne McArthur/One Voice Animals in entertainment Dolphins perform at an aquarium in France Jo-Anne McArthur/One Voice Animals in entertainment Kiska, a lone orca, in the tank at Marineland in Canada Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment A dolphin performs tricks for tourists at the Kahala Hotel in Hawaii Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment A bull lays dying as a matador prepares to deliver the fatal blow to its spine Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment Zeus, a walrus at Marinepark in Canada, performs for spectators Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment Penguin enclosure at SeaWorld in San Diego, California Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment A competitor is thrown off a bull during a rodeo event in Montreal, Canada Jo-Anne McArthur/Montreal SPCA Animals in entertainment Saw fish in an aquarium Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment A picador stabs at a bull Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment Orcas perform at SeaWorld in San Diego, California Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment Visitors feed fish to sea lions at Marineland in Canada Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment A frog tank in an aquarium Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment A sea lion performs at SeaWorld in San Diego, California Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment A competitor rides a bull during a rodeo event in Montreal, Canada Jo-Anne McArthur/Montreal SPCA Animals in entertainment The Beluga whale tanks at Marineland in Canada Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment The Beluga whale tanks at Marineland in Canada Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment Gift shop trinkets at the Kahala Hotel in Hawaii Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment A young boy reaches out to touch a dolphin as it swims by at the Kahala Hotel in Hawaii Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Animals in entertainment Turtles at an aquarium in Havana, Cuba Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Anthony JD tweeted: To watch #upforreview suffering so badly live on TV has seriously affected me. I knew as soon as it happened it was bad. Never betting on horse racing ever again and I dont want to watch another race as long as I live. Poor horse. Looked a beauty who didnt deserve that. Others agreed, saying they felt sick at the horrific death and would not bet on the Grand National again. The You bet they die(#Youbettheydie) hashtag was widely used, and many also signed a petition calling for ITV to stop broadcasting the race. British Horseracing Authority bosses insisted Up For Review felt no pain and died instantly. The thrashing seen was probably convulsions after death, a spokesman said, adding that a post-mortem examination would find the cause of death. We will never remove the level of risk to zero, and the same applies to all activity involving horses. However, the level of risk now sits at 0.2 per cent, said David Sykes, head of equine health and welfare. The initial pain would have been great Dene Stansall But Dene Stansall, a former racing fan, now racing consultant for Animal Aid, said it was the worst Grand National death he had seen. Up For Reviews death wouldnt have been instant it would have taken a few seconds, maybe up to two minutes, he said. The initial pain would have been great. You cant say categorically the spinal column would have broken cleanly. The heart could still be beating and legs twitching after the neck has snapped. The 40 runners was far too many, Mr Stansall said. He said he has seen hundreds of horses suffer broken necks, and some horses left quadriplegic on courses alive but unable to move their limbs. Forest des Aigles and Crucial Role were put down after being injured in different races during Ladies Day at Aintree. We worked in the run-up to this years meeting to ensure preparations to keep it safe were the best ever British Horseracing Authority In all, 84 horses have died at the Grand National since it began in 1839. Labour MP Chris Williamson tweeted: Its clear that Aintree racecourse is still far too dangerous and inflicts needless cruelty on the horses. Ricky Gervaiss comment Why would you gamble with a horses life for fun? had more than 31,000 likes. But defenders said racehorses were loved and treated like royalty. The BHA said if evidence showed further improvements could be made, they may be. After a major review last year a raft of changes, including increasing pre-race examinations, were introduced. The spokesman added: Aintree racecourse and the BHA worked together in the run-up to this years meeting to ensure preparations to keep the event safe were the best ever. However, theres a level of risk involved in any activity in which horses take part. We work hard as a sport to keep those risks to a minimum and remove avoidable risk. We will take a measured, evidence-based approach to assessing the incidents, which will include reviewing video footage of all incidents and working with jockeys and trainers. BHA figures show about 200 horses die on racecourses every year. Leading Tory Eurosceptics have attacked Theresa May for her decision to seek Jeremy Corbyns help in delivering Brexit, warning that her approach will be disastrous for the nation and threatens to damage the Conservatives for years. The prime minister reached out to the Labour leader last week after MPs rejected her proposed Brexit deal three times. Talks between the two main parties are continuing as they attempt to find a compromise solution to the deadlock gripping parliament. But the decision to turn to Labour for help in getting a Brexit deal through parliament infuriated Conservative Eurosceptics who fear the outcome will be a much softer Brexit or a fresh referendum. On Sunday, Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group of anti-EU Tory MPs, said Ms May had made active choices to stop us leaving the EU. He told Sky News Sophy Ridge on Sunday: I think having Jeremy Corbyn as part of the Brexit process is a mistake that he is not sympathetic to the government, obviously, and is a Remainer. Recommended 80 Labour MPs tell Corbyn to demand fresh referendum from May So what youve got is two Remainers trying to work out how we should leave, ignoring the 17.4 million people who voted to leave and ignoring the fact that parliament has legislated not just once but twice for us to leave with or without a deal. He said Ms May had failed to deliver on the promises she made in the Conservative manifesto and previous speeches on Brexit, and added: The reason shes in difficulty is her own creation its not forced upon her. Mr Rees-Mogg said parliament had passed legislation to allow the UK to leave the EU on 29 March with or without a deal and accused Ms May of overriding this. He said: The prime minister could have taken us out on 29 March. It was the prime minister who asked for an extension, it was the prime minister who changed the date by prerogative power from 29 March to 12 April. This all rests with her and upon her shoulders. She has made active choices to stop us leaving and she deserves to be held to account for that because people ought to know the truth of the position rather than [her] trying to blame everybody else blaming recalcitrant MPs and other Conservatives. If the prime minister had done what shed said in the first place and had stuck to the law as set out in two acts, we would have left the European Union by now. Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Show all 30 1 /30 Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Pro-Brexit leave the European Union supporters attend a rally in Parliament Square after the final leg of the "March to Leave" in London AP Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit The protest march which started on March 16 in Sunderland, north east England, finished on what was the original date for Brexit to happen before the recent extension Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit AP Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit PA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit EPA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter sips a can of Stella in protests outside of the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Dedicated anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray and likewise pro-Brexit campaigner Joseph Afrane go head to head near the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A pro-Brexit marching band in Parliament Square Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Remain supporters wave EU flags from a bus in Parliament Square PA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter shouts slogans outside parliament EPA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter protests outside parliament Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter protests outside of the Houses of Parliament Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Brexit supporters protest outside of the Houses of Parliament REUTERS Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A pro-Brexit flag is waved in Parliament Square AP Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit The March to Leave nears the Houses of Parliament Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit protester holds a sign outside parliament EPA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Brexit supporters carry the coffin of democracy AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Brexit supporters march outside parliament AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Brexit supporters take part in the March to Leave protest in London PA Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Brexit supporters protest outside parliament AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter holds a sign outside the Houses of Parliament Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A man holds satirical paintings of politicians Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit An pro-Brexit float on the March to Leave march in London Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit Far-right activist Tommy Robinson addresses protesters outside the Houses of Parliament Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter outside the Houses of Parliament Reuters Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Tommy Robinson supporter arrives at the Houses of Parliament Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A jogger gestures rudely at a Brexit supporter outside of the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Opposing protesters flock to parliament on would be date of Brexit A Brexit supporter outside the Houses of Parliament PA The Brexiteer leader also appeared to endorse Boris Johnson to be the Conservatives next leader, and said the former foreign secretary has a great connection with voters and could unite the party and win an election. Dominic Raab, one of Mr Johnsons likely rivals in the race to succeed Ms May, said the prime ministers decision to hold talks with Mr Corbyn threatens to damage the Conservatives for years. The former Brexit secretary said the desperate move was potentially disastrous for the country. Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said: This is a major mistake bad for Brexit, bad for the Tory party and potentially disastrous for the nation. Mrs May must change course, and quickly. Mr Corbyn, remember, has no serious interest in securing an effective Brexit. If the PM bends to Mr Corbyns whims now, we can kiss goodbye to the opportunities Brexit offers us. Indeed, there would be no way of taking back control of our laws from Brussels and Strasbourg. We would be stuck with the freedom of movement of people, with no control of our borders. And we would give up the right to strike global free trade deals with fast-growing and emerging economies, which would help create more jobs here as well as cutting the cost of living. Keir Starmer says Brexit talks so far have been 'disappointing' He added: It is no surprise Mrs Mays overtures have gone down badly with Conservatives. Our supporters are frustrated or simply giving up, with many threatening to take their vote elsewhere, to Ukip or even Nigel Farages Brexit Party. Indeed, her approach threatens to damage the Conservatives for years. But just as serious is the danger from Mr Corbyn and the hard-left Labour rabble he wants to put into power. The government has spent years explaining why Mr Corbyn would sink our economy with his loony left ideas. Why rehabilitate him now? Why sub-contract the biggest decision we have faced in a generation to a man whose unsavoury friends and anti-western obsessions threaten national security? Jewish Labour members have branded the party leadership as antisemitic in a fresh blow to Jeremy Corbyn. The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) passed the damning motion at its annual general meeting on Sunday, accusing Mr Corbyn of having condoned antisemitism and antisemites. The group said the Labour leader was unfit to be prime minister and that a government he led would not be in the interests of British Jews. JLM is Labours only official Jewish affiliate and has been part of the party for almost 100 years. One source at the meeting told The Independent the decision to approve the motion of no confidence in Mr Corbyn was almost unanimous. It reads: The leadership of the Labour Party have demonstrated that they are antisemitic, and have presided over a culture of antisemitism in which they have failed to use their personal and positional power to tackle antisemitism, and have instead used their influence to protect and defend antisemites. Jeremy Corbyn is directly responsible, whether through his own actions, where he appears to have condoned antisemitism and antisemites, or through his inaction to tackle the wider problem within the party. The motion said JLM has no confidence in Jeremy Corbyns ability to understand, respond to or solve the problem and claimed his leadership of the Labour Party combined with his past actions and associations shows a complete disregard for the Jewish community in Britain. It added: Jeremy Corbyn has not been an ally against antisemitism in the Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn is therefore unfit to be prime minister and a Labour government led by him would not be in the interest of British Jews. The motion of no confidence in Mr Corbyn was tabled as an amendment to a wider motion on antisemitism that claimed Labour was institutionally antisemitic and said the party leadership had directly intervened in disciplinary cases to exonerate members responsible for grotesque and overt antisemitism. Protests against Labour antisemitism Show all 14 1 /14 Protests against Labour antisemitism Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters clashed during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party AFP/Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters hold placards and flags during a demonstration, organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies for those who oppose antisemitism, in Parliament Square Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks during the protest PA Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester blows through a shofar during the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of London's Jewish community protest in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP John Mann speaks during a protest against antisemitism PA Protests against Labour antisemitism People protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party as Jewish community leaders have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he has sided with antisemites again and again PA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour politicians Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna leave after attending the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A pro-Jeremy Corbyn protester holds a placard during a counter-protest Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A support of the Labour Party hold up a placard during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Jeremy Corbyn supporters during the demo Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester holds up a sign reading For the many, not the Jew AFP It also said JLM would refuse any engagement or meeting with the leader of the opposition and his office, and that it would use its influence within communal organisations to whom it is affiliated to get them to adopt the same position. It is understood that Labour MPs Dame Margaret Hodge and Ruth Smeeth were among those speaking in favour of the main motion, which was also passed with an overwhelming majority. Last month, JLM held an emergency meeting to discuss whether it should stay affiliated to Labour. Members decided it should remain linked to the party. Speaking hours before the latest meeting, shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti urged the group to stay in the party. She told Sky Newss Ridge on Sunday: My plea to the Jewish Labour Movement is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together, not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn because he is one person and he wont be leader forever. We have to make this non-factional, non-personal and work together, and thats my plea to colleagues and comrades in the Jewish Labour Movement, who are such an important part of Labours history and Labours story. 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' Those behind the motion of no confidence in Mr Corbyn had earlier urged Jewish Labour members to support it. In a letter published in The Independent, they wrote: It is often said that Corbyn has been on the right side of history. On this issue, history will show that he failed to take a side, and by doing so, effectively sided with the oppressors. You cannot compromise on racism. If you meet racism halfway, the racists win. Our experience as Jews in the Labour Party is testament to the fact that a Labour government led by Corbyn would not be in the interests of British Jews. Corbyn is seeking high office, the power of the British state, bureaucracy and its apparatus. The treatment of our community at the hands of Corbyns Labour Party is a warning for all minority groups. We have a duty to speak out. A Labour Party spokesperson said: Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and its organisations. Antisemitism complaints received since April 2018 relate to about 0.1 per cent of our membership, but one antisemite in our party is one too many. We are determined to tackle antisemitism and root it out of our party. A shadow minister has urged Labour's only Jewish affiliate not to leave the party, saying Jeremy Corbyn "won't be leader forever". Shami Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney general, urged the Jewish Labour Movement to stay in the party as it prepares to debate its future in Labour. The group will hold a vote of no confidence in the Labour Party at its annual general meeting on Sunday after months of controversy over the party's handling of antisemitism. The meeting will also vote on a motion accusing the Labour leadership of being antisemitic and having "used their influence to protect and defend antisemites". Last month JLM held an emergency meeting to discuss whether it should remain affiliated to Labour. Members decided to "stay and fight" but suggested the issue would be revisted at the AGM. But Ms Chakrabarti, who conducted an investigation into antisemitism in the party before being appointed as a Labour peer, urged the group to retain its link to the affiliation, saying it should not leave because of Mr Corbyn. She told Sky News' Ridge on Sunday: "My plea to them is not to personalise it. My plea to the Jewish Labour Movement is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together, not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn because he is one person and he won't be leader forever. "We have to make this non-factional, non-personal and work together, and that's my plea to colleagues and comrades in the Jewish Labour Movement, who are such an important part of Labour's history and Labour's story." As well as holding a vote of no confidence in Labour, the JLM meeting will also debate a no confidence motion relating specifically to Mr Corbyn. The text to be discussed says: "The leadership of the Labour Party have demonstrated that they are antisemitic, and have presided over a culture of antisemitism in which they have failed to use their personal and positional power to tackle antisemitism, and have instead used their influence to protect and defend antisemites. "Jeremy Corbyn is directly responsible, whether through his own actions, where he appears to have condoned antisemitism and antisemites, or through his inaction to tackle the wider problem within the party." Protests against Labour antisemitism Show all 14 1 /14 Protests against Labour antisemitism Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters clashed during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party AFP/Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters hold placards and flags during a demonstration, organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies for those who oppose antisemitism, in Parliament Square Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks during the protest PA Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester blows through a shofar during the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of London's Jewish community protest in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP John Mann speaks during a protest against antisemitism PA Protests against Labour antisemitism People protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party as Jewish community leaders have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he has sided with antisemites again and again PA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour politicians Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna leave after attending the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A pro-Jeremy Corbyn protester holds a placard during a counter-protest Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A support of the Labour Party hold up a placard during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Jeremy Corbyn supporters during the demo Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester holds up a sign reading For the many, not the Jew AFP It says the group has "no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn's ability to understand, respond to or solve the problem". It comes amid reports that hundreds of complaints about antisemitism in Labour have not resulted in disciplinary action being taken. Members who had made comments including "Heil Hitler" and "Jews are the problem" were not expelled from the party, according to leaked emails obtained by the Sunday Times. The emails are also said to show Mr Corbyn's office intervening in more than a hundred cases. But Labour said the emails had been "selectively leaked" to "misrepresent their overall contents". A spokesperson said: "The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to rooting it out of our party. All complaints about antisemitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures. We can't comment on individual cases. "Lines have been selectively leaked from emails to misrepresent their overall contents." A suspected poacher was killed by an elephant at a South African national park, before a pride of lions ate his body. The man was hunting rhino when the creature struck, South African National Parks said in a statement. It added that his accomplices contacted the mans family, who in turn asked rangers at the Kruger National Park to recover his remains. Don English, the parks regional ranger, led a search party for the body, assisted by field rangers and members of the parks air wing, who flew above the area. They later discovered the mans remains. Conservation success for the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique Show all 8 1 /8 Conservation success for the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique Conservation success for the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique Tourists observe elephants Left devastated by Mozambique's civil war, Gorongosa National Park is now thriving Bob Poole / Gorongosa National Park Conservation success for the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique Waterbuck graze in the open floodplains A restoration project with government backing has battled poachers who were depleting the already slim animal populations AFP/Getty Conservation success for the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique Hippos take a dip In 2008, there were around 10,000 large animals in Gorongosa; today there are over 100,000 J Da Silva / Gorongosa National Park Conservation success for the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique Wild dogs in Gorongosa National Park Tourism is an important part of the restoration project Gorongosa National Park Conservation success for the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique Waterbuck on the savannah Tourists create jobs for locals, expanding the conservation workforce, and safaris in Gorongosa are used to educate visitors about the project Getty Conservation success for the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique A lioness The civil war killed 95% of Gorongosa's lion population, today there are 104 lions who are monitored by conservationists Ticky Rosa / Gorongosa National Park Conservation success for the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique Sunset over the Gorongosa National Park Getty Conservation success for the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique Tourists in Gorongosa National Park Bob Poole / Gorongosa National Park Indications found at the scene suggested that a pride of lions had devoured the remains, leaving only a human skull and a pair of pants, a spokesperson for the national park said. Glenn Phillips, the parks managing director said: Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise. It holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that. It is very sad to see the daughters of the deceased mourning the loss of their father and, worse still, only being able to recover very little of his remains. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Four of the mans alleged fellow poachers were arrested by South African Police Service officers. The four arrested individuals are in custody and will appear in court in due course, the park spokesperson said. At least five protesters have been killed by security forces in Sudan as thousands of protesters called for the resignation of president Omar al-Bashir, activists have said. Demonstrations began in December over price hikes and food shortages, but quickly escalated to protests against Mr Bashirs 30-year-rule. Security forces have responded with a fierce crackdown, killing at least 60 people according to Physicians for Human Rights, a New York-based rights group. The latest deaths raised the tally to at least 65 since protests began. The government has claimed 32 people have been killed, but hasnt updated its tally in weeks. Security forces have used tear gas, stun grenades and live ammunition to disperse protests, witnesses have said. Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Show all 20 1 /20 Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Protesters rally outside the military headquarters in Khartoum to demand that President Omar al-Bashir step down Reuters Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Alaa Salah leads the protest against President Omar al-Bashir Lana Haroun/Twitter Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Protesters run from tear gas deployed by security forces as they take part in a demonstration to demand the departure of the Sudanese government EPA Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Sudanese protesters rally outside the military headquarters in Khartoum on April 8 Sudan Congress Party Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Sudanese protesters rally outside the military headquarters in Khartoum on April 10 Reuters Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Alaa Salah, a Sudanese woman propelled to internet fame earlier this week after clips went viral of her leading powerful protest chants against President Omar al-Bashir, addresses protesters outside of the military headquarters in Khartoum AFP/Getty Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Sudanese protesters march on the military headquarters in Khartoum on April 8 AFP/Getty Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Reuters Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Sudanese protesters pray as they rally outside the military headquarters in Khartoum AFP/Getty Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Sudanese protesters chant slogans as they march in protest against President Omar al-Bashir Reuters Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Sudanese protesters rally outside the military headquarters in Khartoum on April 8 AFP/Getty Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Sudanese protesters rally outside the military headquarters in Khartoum on April 8 AFP/Getty Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Sudanese protesters climb onto a military vehicle beside soldiers during protests in Khartoum AFP/Getty Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Security forces deploy tear gas to disperse protesters against the Sudanese government Reuters Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Sudanese protesters rally outside the military headquarters in Khartoum on April 8 AFP/Getty Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan A wounded protester rests during a demonstration in front of the military headquarters in Khartoum AFP/Getty Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan A Sudanese protester shows bullet cartridges as protesters gather in Khartoum AFP/Getty Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Protesters march on the military headquarters in Khartoum Sudan Congress Party Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan Sudanese protesters march on the defence ministry in Khartoum to demand that President Omar al-Bashir step down Reuters Military HQ occupied by anti-government protesters in Sudan A Sudanese protester picks up waste during a demonstration in front of the military headquarters in Khartoum AFP/Getty Thousands of protesters held a sit-in outside Mr Bashirs residence in central Khartoum on Saturday, having camped there overnight. Sarah Abdel-Jaleel, a spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella group of independent professional unions, said four people were killed in the capital city of Khartoum on Saturday and another protester was killed in the neighbouring city of Omdurman. Stone-throwing protesters clashed with security forces using tear gas, live ammunition and batons to disperse tens of thousands of people gathered outside the militarys headquarters and a presidential residence in Khartoum, according to the organisers. The Sudan Doctors Committee, an SPA affiliate, said that dozens had been wounded in rallies across the country, many of them by live ammunition. Mr Bashir has refused to step down, saying his opponents should seek power through the ballot box. He has also asked parliament to postpone constitutional amendments that would allow him to seek a new term in next years elections. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events On Saturday, police and security forces blocked all bridges leading to the capitals centre from Khartoum North and Omdurman, across the River Nile to the north and west respectively, in what appeared to be a bid to prevent the sit-in from swelling. They remained closed on Sunday, causing major traffic jams. Additional reporting by agencies Two children were among six wounded victims in a drive-by mass shooting this weekend in Chicago. The shooting occurred on Saturday night in the citys South Side, according to officials. Victims were reportedly at a baby shower gathering when gunfire erupted at about 6:21 pm local time in Englewood. The child victims were 8 and 10-years-old. Both were rushed to the Comer Childrens Hospital, where they were reported to be in stabile conditions. Police said both suffered gun shots, with the 8-year-old boy facing multiple wounds in his back and chest. The 10-year-old girl reportedly suffered a gunshot to her shin. The mother of the 8-year-old child was seen by local news outlets waiting outside of the hospital holding a shirt covered in blood while crying for her child. Hes just a baby, she repeatedly said. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty The Chicago Sun Times reported on the incident and its aftermath at the hospital. The boys grandmother confirmed to reporters that he was taken in for surgery that night. The mass shooting wasnt the only gun violence impacting children in Chicago this weekend. A 13-year-old was seriously inured also on Saturday night at 8:20 pm local time when shots were fired at a car the boy was sitting in. Recommended Jussie Smollett to be sued by City of Chicago over alleged attack He suffered an injury in the hip, police said, and was also transported to Comer Childrens Hospital, where his condition was stabilised. Only one of the victims in the mass shooting was reportedly in critical condition as of Sunday, a 29-year-old woman who was shot in her chest and shoulder and rushed to Christ Medical Centre. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Police said witnesses declined to cooperate after the shooting. The Chicago Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Drug kingpin El Chapo Guzman's wife could reportedly face charges for her alleged role in the drug lords 2015 escape from a Mexican prison. Emma Coronel Aispuro regularly appeared at her husbands high-profile trial in New York earlier this year, but appeared to have no role in his criminal enterprise - until one of her husband's former associates took to the witness stand. El Chapos longtime former lieutenant Damaso Lopez Nunez claimed in court Ms Coronel Aispuro served as a liaison between her husband and his organisation while he was being held in a Mexican prison. He said the 29-year-old transferred messages to El Chapos workers who built the infamous, mile-long passageway underneath the prison bathroom which he ultimately escaped through. Shes being investigated for conspiracy in this country, an anonymous federal law enforcement official told the New York Post which was the first to report on Ms Coronel Aispuros possible conspiracy charges. Inside Mexicos top drug lord El Chapos hideout Show all 4 1 /4 Inside Mexicos top drug lord El Chapos hideout Inside Mexicos top drug lord El Chapos hideout Inside El Chapo's hideout Pictures reveal how the Mexican drug lord had been living since his escape Getty Inside Mexicos top drug lord El Chapos hideout Inside El Chapo's hideout The inside of a house searched by marine special forces where Guzman was hiding Getty Inside Mexicos top drug lord El Chapos hideout Inside El Chapo's hideout Inside a house searched by marine special forces during the military operation to recapture Guzman Getty Inside Mexicos top drug lord El Chapos hideout El Chapo's attempted escape A marine stands guard next to a manhole of the sewer system through which drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman tried to escape Getty The former beauty queen has since spearheaded efforts to launch a clothing brand in her husbands name. El Chapo signed a contract earlier this year from federal prison to use his name with the label. I am very excited and hope I can create things that everyone likes, Ms Coronel Aispuro wrote in an Instagram post. The judge presiding over El Chapos three-month federal trial denied his requests to hug his wife during proceedings, according reports at the time, citing the governments restriction that prohibits defendant from communicating with or having any physical contact with his wife. Judge Brian Cogan noted the effort was done in order to stop the drug lord from coordinating any escape from prison or directing any attack on individuals who might be cooperating with the government. Parents have been warned to stop using a portable cot made by Fisher-Price after ten children have died in recent years. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) urged parents to stop using the product as soon as their child is able to roll over. Both Fisher-Price and the commission issued a warning about the Rock n Play sleeper on Friday linking the product to ten deaths. The infants, who were three months or older, rolled from their back to their stomach or side while unrestrained, according to the commission. The warning, which failed to explain what caused the infants' death, said to never add blankets, pillows, stuffed toys, or other items to the environment and always put infants to sleep on their backs. Fisher-Price, a US toy company, had previously warned consumers to stop using the product when infants can roll over and possibly fall. 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 reported deaths show that some consumers are still using the product when infants are capable of rolling and without using the three point harness restraint, the company said in the recent statement. Chuck Scothon, general manager at Fisher-Price, said a child fatality is an unimaginable tragedy in a statement about the warning. Mr Scothon also noted that the sleeper meets all applicable safety standards. He added: Fisher-Price and every one of our employees take the responsibility of being part of your family seriously, and we are committed to earning that trust every day. Patty Davis, a spokesperson for the CPSC, said the latest death was reported last month. She said the commission is currently investigating the product. If it turns out that it needs to be recalled, we will move forward with that, Ms Davis told CNN. The con was simple. Send a fake iPhone to Apple claiming the device would not turn on and that it was under warranty and not long after a replacement arrived in the post. It was a scheme that federal prosecutors said two college students in Oregon repeated on such a scale that it amounted to nearly $900,000 (690,000) in losses for Apple as they sent in hundreds of counterfeit phones. The two students, identified as Quan Jiang and Yangyang Zhou, would then ship the iPhones overseas where they would be sold for hundreds of dollars and, in return, they would get a cut of the profit, according to court documents recently filed in a US district court in Oregon. The investigation started two years ago after customs officials seized several shipments coming from Hong Kong containing mobile phones from China. In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Show all 13 1 /13 In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook discusses the new phone In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event It looks similar to the 6 and 6s. Apple say it is the "most singular, most evolved representation of this design". In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event The iPhone has become a "cultural phenomenon". Over one billion handsets have been sold. In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event There's a new refined design for the iPhone 7. A high gloss finish and a seamless surface between the glass and the aluminium back. In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event The new enclosure is water and dust resistant. In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event It does seem to look a lot like the iPhone 6s. The big changes are slightly rounded edges, the loss of antenna lines, and what looks like a very glossy black colour. In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook discusses the App Store. Reuters In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook discusses Apple in education. Reuters In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook greets Nintendo Creative Fellow Shigeru Miyamoto. Reuters In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event Nintendo Creative Fellow Shigeru Miyamoto announces a Mario Bros game for the iPhone, as a translator stands nearby. Reuters In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during the Apple launch event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California, USA. EPA In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event The new Watch has a new display that's twice as bright as the existing one. It's brighter than any other Apple screen ever. Reuters In pictures: Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple iPhone 7 launch event Apple Watch "series 2", as it's called, is waterproof up to 50 metres. Reuters The devices appeared to be Apple products, with the logos and design features of an iPhone, but the shipping methods and packaging raised the suspicions of officials who determined that the phones were counterfeit, authorities said. Investigators discovered that the hones were bound for Mr Zhous address and were part of an importing operation that included Mr Jiang, Mr Zhous neighbour in Corvallis, Oregon, about 85 miles south of Portland. Records provided to investigators by Apple allowed them to connect Mr Jiang to 3,069 iPhone warranty claims through his name and his email, postal address and IP addresses. All of them indicated No Power/Wired Charging Issues as the reason for the claim. More than 1,500 of the claims were rejected, but nearly just as many were approved, with a new phone sent out. An Apple representative told an investigator, according to court records, that a key element of the schemes success was that the phones were inoperable, which meant the replacement process would begin before technicians could figure out they were counterfeit. Mr Jiang told investigators in an interview he had submitted some 2,000 phones in 2017. He also said he employed friends and relatives in the United States to help swap out the phones. He said an associate in China who sold the genuine phones paid Mr Jiangs mother, who lives in China; she deposited the money in a bank account that he could access in the United States. With each phone costing $600 (460), the losses for Apple amounted to $895,800 (687,070), officials said. Apple, which did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday, is not the only technology giant that has been targeted by scammers. A Lithuanian man recently pleaded guilty to an effort in which he sought to bill Facebook and Google out of millions of dollars by submitting fraudulent invoices to the companies. Prosecutors said that from 2013 to 2015 the companies wired more than $100m (76m) to the man and his associates. In Apples case, both of the men named in court records are Chinese citizens who were lawfully in the United States on student visas. Turner Prize winner: iPhone film maker Charlotte Prodger Mr Jiang was finishing studies in electrical engineering at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon, and Mr Zhou was an engineering student at Oregon State University in Corvallis. Mr Jiang is accused of trafficking in counterfeit goods and wire fraud, and he is under GPS monitoring, officials said. Mr Zhou is accused of submitting false or misleading information on an export declaration. He made his first court appearance on Friday and was ordered to not have any contact with Apple while the case continues. Mr Jiangs lawyer declined to comment on Saturday. Mr Zhous lawyer did not respond to a message seeking comment, but the lawyer, Jamie Kilberg, told The Oregonian, the Portland newspaper that first reported the allegations, we do believe that Mr Zhou will be vindicated. In 2018 federal agents searched Mr Jiangs house where they found more than 300 fake iPhones and shipping and warranty submission records. Investigators found, through company records, more than a dozen warranty returns under Mr Zhous name and address. More than 200 other total warranty claims were made using his name or derivations of it and other addresses linked to him, prosecutors said. In August, federal agents stopped Mr Zhou at San Francisco international airport when he was about to leave for China, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Among his possessions was an iPhone in like-new condition and still in a factory box. An investigator from the Department of Homeland Security said he could tell from the box that it had come from Apples warranty replacement process. But Mr Zhou told the agent it was new and given to him by Mr Jiang as payment for a debt. The New York Times A man has been accused of slashing someone with a sword after his Make America Great Again (Maga) hat was knocked off his head. Leor Bergland allegedly whipped out the weapon almost severed Gabriel Gaucin's hand. The pair had been arguing outside a roller skating rink in the Californian city of San Francisco when Mr Gaucin knocked off Mr Bergland's hat, police said. "The suspect drew a sword and cut the victims left hand before running from the scene, the San Francisco Police Department said. The victim and a witness initially chased the suspect until he turned and began advancing towards them. They ended their pursuit and suspect fled the area. After Mr Gaucin pushed the hat to the ground, Mr Bergland allegedly reached back, as if to punch the victim, but instead quickly brought his hand down, holding what the victim thought was an umbrella or nightstick. Officers had staked out Mr Bergland's residence and committed round the clock surveillance in a bid to arrest him, police said. 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range Show all 6 1 /6 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The mug 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The can cooler 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The can cooler He has been charged with attempted murder, mayhem and assault with a deadly weapon. A catchphrase used by Donald Trump throughout his presidential campaign and since taking office, some see Maga as synonymous with the administrations perceived racism and xenophobia. David Miles, owner of the Church of 8 Wheels roller-skating rink shared an image on Facebook showing the red hat next to a pool of blood outside the establishment. Prosecutors described it as one of the most gruesome photos of an assault Ive ever seen. Mr Gaucin endured a partially severed hand and was transported to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery. Officials said a witness to the slashing reportedly attempted to chase the assailant before he disappeared into a nearby park. Police are then reported to have seized the red hat and a beer bottle the suspect had been seen drinking from at the scene. Prosecutors said a sword wrapped in a red plaid vest was found poking out of a dustbin two days later - with officials later matching a fingerprint from the beer bottle and arresting Mr Bergland. No one has a right to strike someone with a sword because their hat was knocked off their head, Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the district attorneys office, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Those are the allegations in this case and those things will be figured out in court. The defendant told police he was home at the time of the incident and stated: What do you have on me, nothing cause I didnt do it, prosecutors said. He did not enter a plea during his court appearance, and his bail was set at $250,000. Donald Trump attacked one of the first Muslim women to serve in the US congress, hours after it emerged that a death threat had been made against her. Mr Trump claimed Ilhan Omar did not like Israel at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Las Vegas. Pretending to thank the congresswoman for her support of Israel, he said: Special thanks to Representative Omar of Minnesota. Oh, I forgot. She doesnt like Israel. I forgot. Im so sorry. His comments came hours after it emerged that a New York man, who said he loved the US president, was charged with threatening to kill the Minnesota Democrat. Patrick Carlineo Jr was arrested after placing a call to Ms Omars office in which he called the politician a terrorist before threatening to shoot her, federal prosecutors said. Trump backs Israels annexation of Golan Heights Show all 7 1 /7 Trump backs Israels annexation of Golan Heights Trump backs Israels annexation of Golan Heights An Israeli soldier stands next to signs pointing out distances to different cities on Mount Bental, an observation post in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Reuters Trump backs Israels annexation of Golan Heights Druze people take part in a rally in Majdal Shams near the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria Reuters Trump backs Israels annexation of Golan Heights Israeli Druzes sit together watching the Syrian side of the Israel-Syria border on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Reuters Trump backs Israels annexation of Golan Heights A European member of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) using binoculars to look towards the Syrian side of the Golan Heights AFP/Getty Trump backs Israels annexation of Golan Heights A file photo taken on October 19, 1973 shows Israeli Defence Minister General Moshe Dayan (R) looking towards the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, four days after the beginning of the Yom Kippur War AFP/Getty Trump backs Israels annexation of Golan Heights A file photo taken on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on September 5, 2014 shows members of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone (UNDOF) using binoculars to look towards the Syrian side of the Golan Heights AFP/Getty Trump backs Israels annexation of Golan Heights Members of the United Nations peacekeepers standing on a watch tower during a visit by the Israeli Defence Minister in 2018 AFP/Getty Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, shes a f**king terrorist? Ill put a bullet in her f**king skull, the 55-year-old allegedly said. He later told bureau investigators that he loves the president and that he hates radical Muslims in our government, according to the criminal complaint filed by US Attorneys Office in the Western District of New York. Ms Omar was forced to apologise earlier this year for tweets implying US politicians only supported Israel because of lobby money. She faced widespread criticism for suggesting the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) was buying influence for pro-Israel policies. Republicans and Democrats alike said the tweets stoked antisemitic tropes about Jews and money. Responding to Mr Trumps latest comments about her, the 37-year-old mother-of-three, who is the first Somali-American, the first African-born American, and one of the first two Muslim American women to serve in the US congress, tweeted: My Lord, forgive my people for they do not know. Mr Trumps attack against Ms Omar was part of a wide-ranging speech, which saw him tout his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and his recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He was nonetheless denounced by the Jewish Democratic Council of America executive director Halie Soifer. We strongly denounce President Trumps continued assault on decency and truth, as was evident in his speech earlier today before the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, Ms Soifer said. She said Mr Trumps policies and rhetoric are antithetical to Jewish values and antisemitism has increased to unprecedented levels due to Trumps divisive words, policies and willful blindness. She added: What happened today in Las Vegas was a shameful display of lies and arrogance. An American tourist and her tour guide who were abducted in Ugandas Queen Elizabeth National Park last week have been rescued, officials confirmed on Sunday. Kimberly Sue Endicott, a US tourist, was captured along with her guide during an evening game drive by an armed gang who demanded $500,000 (383,427) in ransom for her safe release. "Both were rescued from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and are safely back in Kanungu district in Uganda," Ofwono Opondo, a spokesperson for the Ugandan government, said in a statement. "They are back at the lodge and she is expected to be in Kampala tomorrow." Police also confirmed the safe release, saying in a statement the duo are in good health [and] in the safe hands of the joint security team. Ugandan security teams had been hunting down the gunmen after the kidnapping took place within the national park that is popular with tourists. 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 They were ambushed on 2 April in Queen Elizabeth National Park, a protected area near the porous border with Congo, according to Ugandan authorities. It remains unclear if a ransom was paid in the case of Ms Endicott, who is from Costa Mesa, California, where she has a small skin care shop. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said at a Tuesday event for families of US citizens held captive overseas that he understands some people want to do anything to get their loved ones back but paying ransom would just lead to more kidnappings. In a Friday statement the State Department said that the safety and security of US citizens abroad is its highest priority. Donald Trump celebrated the news in a tweet on Sunday afternoon. Pleased to report that the American tourist and tour guide that were abducted in Uganda have been released, the president wrote. God bless them and their families! Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The Associated Press contributed to this report Former president Barack Obama has said young leaders in Europe need to foster reasoned debate online to prevent politics going in a negative direction. At a town hall meeting in Berlin, Mr Obama warned activists that action was needed to control social media and create pockets of sanity and kindness on the internet. I do believe part of whats driving our politics in a negative direction is the information overload that is coming in through social media, he said. We are collectively, all of us, going to have to find ways in which we improve the conversation on the internet and social media. He added that the challenge will only become more difficult with widespread use of artificial intelligence. If you think fake news is bad now, what youre going to start seeing is the ability to duplicate peoples speech so distinguishing whats true and whats not is going to become even more difficult, he said. Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Show all 11 1 /11 Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Barack Obama's best moments in the White House May 19, 2009 The President was leaving the State Floor after an event and found Sasha in the elevator ready to head upstairs to the private residence. He decided to ride upstairs with her before returning to the Oval Office, Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Oct. 26, 2012 President Barack Obama pretends to be caught in Spider-Man's web as he greets the son of a White House staffer in the Outer Oval Office Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House A National Security staffer, Carlton Philadelphia, brought his family to the Oval Office for a farewell photo with President Obama. Carltons son, Jacob, softly told the President he had just gotten a haircut like President Obama, and asked if he could feel the Presidents head to see if it felt the same as his. Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House March 21, 2010 The President, Vice President and senior staff applaud after watching on television the House vote on H.R. 4872 for health care reform, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Dec. 3, 2009 President Barack Obama fist-bumps custodian Lawrence Lipscomb in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building following the opening session of the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Sept. 22, 2015 "The Obama family and Biden family greet Pope Francis as he arrives in the United States for the first time at Joint Base Andrews," Sept. 22, 2015. Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Feb. 21, 2014 President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden participate in a "Let's Move!" video taping on the Colonnade of the White House, Feb. 21, 2014 Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Feb. 18, 2016 President Barack Obama watches First Lady Michelle Obama dance with 106-Year-Old Virginia McLaurin in the Blue Room of the White House prior to a reception celebrating African American History Month, Feb. 18, 2016 Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Jan. 21, 2013 "The President and First Lady wave to supporters as they ride in the inaugural parade. I had asked the President if I could ride in the presidential limousine and the President joked, 'But Michelle and I were planning to make out," Jan. 21, 2013. Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama share a private moment in a freight elevator at an Inaugural Ball, January 2009 all pics: Pete Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Barack Obama rests his hand on the bible that President Lincoln used for his swear-in, being held by his wife Michelle Obama as he is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America Rex However, he rejected the idea of censoring social media, citing China and Russia as examples which he said show the potential for abuse with internet censorship. Although the former president did not mention his successor Donald Trump explicitly, the contrast between the two leaders was clear. Mr Obama spoke out in favour of tackling inequality and the existential challenge presented by climate change. He also warned nationalism, particularly from the far right, has re-emerged, adding that despite Europes social achievements and decades of peace, we know that powerful forces are working to reverse many of these trends. The town hall meeting was organised by the Obama Foundation, which aims to inspire participation in politics. Mr Obama called on young people to play an active role in politics and not allow older generations to decide the direction of their country. When we hear that young people arent voting or participating, we say to them, you would not let your grandfather or grandmother decide what clothes you wear or what music you listen to, so why would you let them decide the world youre going to live in? he said. If we can get young leaders like you to begin to work together to work in concert and teach and learn from each other, then you will change the world. Mr Obama also met with German chancellor Angela Merkel during his visit to Germany, where they reportedly discussed transatlantic relations. Ms Merkels relationship with the US has become tense under the Trump administration, with the current president repeatedly criticising Germanys contribution to military spending. However, despite a warm reception in Berlin, Mr Obama ruled out returning to frontline politics by joking that his wife Michelle would leave him if he ever ran for office again. The White House acting chief of staff has said Democratic lawmakers probing Donald Trumps financial dealings will never get a hold of the presidents tax returns. Mick Mulvaney lambasted the congressional investigations during a Fox News Sunday interview, suggesting efforts by the House Oversight Committee to request the presidents tax documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were nothing short of a political hit job. Democrats knew they were not going to get these taxes, they know what the law is, they know that one of the fundamental principles of the IRS is to protect the confidentiality of you and me and everybody else who files taxes, they know that, Mr Mulvaney said on Sunday. They know the terms under law by which the IRS can give them the documents but political hit job is not one of those reasons. To be clear, you believe Democrats will never see the presidents tax returns? the host asked him. Never, Mr Mulvaney replied. Nor should they. Keep in mind, thats already an issue that was already litigated during the 2016 election. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didnt and they elected him anyway. 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 Trump repeatedly declined to make his tax returns public throughout the 2016 election, despite virtually every other major candidate releasing years of their own returns. The president at the time told voters and media outlets he was unable to present his tax returns due to an ongoing IRS audit. The IRS has said audits do not stop the agency or an individual from being able to provide tax returns, however. The president shot down questions about releasing his tax returns earlier this week, telling reporters in the Oval Office, theyll speak to my lawyers. Theyll speak to the attorney general, he added, repeating, Theyll speak to my lawyers and speak to the attorney general. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Lawmakers on the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee have requested up to six years of the presidents personal tax returns and several of his businesses no later than 10 April. When asked by reporters on Wednesday if hed ever release his tax returns on his own, the president told media, Until such time as I am not under audit, I will not be doing that, thank you. Donald Trump has said he will not attend the White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD) for the third year in a row. The US president told reporters on Friday that he would instead stage a rally at the same time as the 27 April event. The dinner is so boring and so negative that were going to hold a very positive rally instead, he said. Presidents traditionally attend the press dinner, which is a fundraiser for university scholarships where politicians, journalists and celebrities mix. Awards for journalism are traditionally distributed at the dinner, which is usually hosted by a comedian. 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 Trump has not attended the dinner since since he took office, but had suggested he might appear this year after organisers scrapped the events usual format. The historian Ron Chernow will make a speech at the 2019 dinner instead of a comedian. Last years featured speaker, Michelle Wolf, said she thought the president did not have a big enough spine to attend. You got to love someone that just cant handle being made fun of, she told Variety. I think he doesnt have a big enough spine to attend. If a president cant take someone making fun of them, I dont really care about them. Ms Wolf also advised the president to man up. Her pointed speech from 2018 led to the WHCA shifting its approach away from comedy, in a decision that has been heavily criticised. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Were looking forward to an enjoyable evening of celebrating the First Amendment and great journalists past, present, and future, Olivier Knox, president of the White House Correspondents Association, said. Mr Trump, who has long had an adversarial relationship with the news media, also held rallies on the same night as the dinner in 2017 and 2018. The president said his team had yet to settle on a location for his rally, but added that it would be a big one. He attended the dinner in 2011, where he was famously mocked by Barack Obama. Additional reporting by agencies The wife of Nissans former chairman has reportedly left Japan and flown to Paris to appeal to the French government to do more to help him. Carlos Ghosn was taken back into custody for the fourth time last week, on suspicion he had tried to enrich himself at the car makers expense. It comes as his lawyer outlined the tough conditions for his initial release on bail in a blog post. He said Mr Ghosn will only be allowed to use only one computer, which is in his lawyers office, and one phone. Carole Ghosn meanwhile called on the French government to do more for her husband. "As a French citizen, it should be a right, she told the Financial Times. She added: "I dont think hes had enough support and hes calling for assistance." 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 She said her husbands previous 108-day imprisonment had left him a different person and that normal life under bail conditions had been impossible. She added that "you could see the fear" in her husband's eyes as rumours of his rearrest spread last week. Mr Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, has denied the charges against him. His bail conditions also said he must turn over his passport, have a camera monitoring his apartment doorway and keep a record of his phone calls and people he meets, besides his family and lawyers, according to his lawyer, Takashi Takano. On Sunday, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said prosecutors suspected Mr Ghosn siphoned off part of the payments through a company where his wife is an executive to purchase a yacht and a boat. The prosecutors asked her to meet them for voluntary questioning as an unsworn witness, but the request was turned down, which prompted them to ask judges to question her on their behalf, the broadcaster reported. Such a request gives judges the power to question on a mandatory basis witnesses who refuse to testify. Prosecutors had reportedly confiscated his wifes Lebanese passport in a dawn raid on their apartment in central Tokyo, but did not discover her US passport. Im all alone here. Its traumatising what happened, she was quoted as saying while awaiting her flight. If my husband is in detention and Im here, I wont be useful. Im going to France ... and be more useful where I can be. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Under Japanese law, prosecutors will be able to hold Mr Ghosn for up to 22 days without charging him. The fresh arrest opens up the possibility that he will be interrogated again without his lawyer present, as is the norm in Japan. Mr Ghosn faces charges of financial misconduct and aggravated breach of trust over allegedly failing to report around $82m (63m) in salary and temporarily transferring personal financial losses onto Nissans books during the financial crisis. Released on $9m (7m) bail on 6 March, the executive says he is the victim of a boardroom coup. Additional reporting by agencies Six-year-old Reto Aisaka was jumping up and down on the windswept dock. For five months, hed been counting the days until his dad, Toru, returned from a whale hunt. The boy was up at dawn to meet him. Shimonoseki, on the westernmost tip of Japans main island of Honshu, celebrated the return of its small whaling fleet late last month. The mother ship, Nisshin Maru, carried the meat from 333 Antarctic minke whales. But it was a celebration that masked deep uncertainty about the future of Japans whaling industry. The whales were taken under the guise of research a designation that has kept Japans whaling industry alive despite a three-decade moratorium on commercial whaling. In pictures: The Japanese coastal town of Minamiboso marks the start of whaling season Show all 8 1 /8 In pictures: The Japanese coastal town of Minamiboso marks the start of whaling season In pictures: The Japanese coastal town of Minamiboso marks the start of whaling season Whaling season begins in Japan The carcass of a Baird's Beaked whale is sprayed with water before being carved up at an event celebrating the start of the whaling season Reuters In pictures: The Japanese coastal town of Minamiboso marks the start of whaling season Whaling season begins in Japan Schoolchildren in the town of Minamiboso look on as the animal is prepared Reuters In pictures: The Japanese coastal town of Minamiboso marks the start of whaling season Whaling season begins in Japan Workers begin to carve up the whale Reuters In pictures: The Japanese coastal town of Minamiboso marks the start of whaling season Whaling season begins in Japan Workers saw off the whales skin and fat Reuters In pictures: The Japanese coastal town of Minamiboso marks the start of whaling season Whaling season begins in Japan A worker expertly carves up the whale carcass Reuters In pictures: The Japanese coastal town of Minamiboso marks the start of whaling season Whaling season begins in Japan Children look at the severed head of a Bairds beaked whale before sampling fried whale meat Reuters In pictures: The Japanese coastal town of Minamiboso marks the start of whaling season Whaling season begins in Japan A worker carves into the whale's blubber Reuters In pictures: The Japanese coastal town of Minamiboso marks the start of whaling season Whaling season begins in Japan Fascinated schoolchildren examine the entrails of the whale Reuters These were the last Japanese whalers to return from the rich waters of Antarcticas Southern Ocean. In December, Japan dropped the cover of research. It left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and announced plans to resume commercial whaling. The news, though, came with an important caveat: Japan would no longer hunt whales in international waters, including in the Antarctic. Its fleet would be confined to the island nations own waters, up to 200 miles offshore, where whales are less plentiful. This city has a long history of whaling in the Antarctic, says Mitsuhiro Kishimoto, a researcher at Shimonoseki City University. Its as if one big chapter of our history has closed. Japans decision to resume commercial whaling was widely seen as thumbing its nose at world opinion and an attempt to maintain the waning tradition of eating whale meat. But its also a step into the unknown. With costs high and demand low, many experts wonder whether commercial whaling is economically sustainable. There are also serious questions about the ethics and optics of continued whaling in an age of increased activism over ocean ecosystems because of climate change, pollution and other worries. Recommended Russia plans to free nearly 100 illegally captured whales At a dockside ceremony, Shimonosekis mayor, Shintaro Maeda, called the resumption of commercial whaling our long-cherished wish and tried to paint a rosy picture to an audience of officials, crew members and industry bigwigs. We will launch a new programme to promote Shimonoseki as the city of whales, said Mr Maeda, vowing to expand a school lunch programme to 100,000 servings of whale meat a year, to pass the culture on to the next generation. But when the news of Japans decision broke onboard the Nisshin Maru, the crew reacted with anxiety and worry, according to Retos father, Toru. In the city, Junko Kojima runs the small Kujirakan, or Whale House, restaurant, the only eatery here still specialising in whale meat: fried, boiled, even whale sashimi. (The tail is the sweetest part, she says.) She took over after the death of her father, a former newspaperman who was determined to keep the torch of whaling alight in the town. Whale meat from the Antarctic has always been appreciated, she says. Eating at the restaurants narrow counter, 62-year-old businessman Nori Sakura a customer for 20 years says whale meat is a personal treat. Illegal Japanese whaling filmed by the Australian Government in Antarctica But Mr Sakura is in a minority in modern Japan. Its people now consume an average of less than 1.4 ounces of whale meat a year, according to official data. Few young people eat any. Japans decision to leave the IWC came after years of frustration. Japan argues the group failed to honour its dual mandate to find a balance between preserving whale stocks and allowing the orderly development of the industry. It says the group also broke a promise made when the moratorium was agreed to in 1982 to review the ban if whale stocks recover. And as stocks of many whales have indeed recovered, the IWCs own scientific committee calculated theoretical catch limits it believes to be sustainable. Japan says it will respect those limits when it hunts for common minke, sei and Brydes whales, each believed to number more than 20,000 in the western North Pacific. Those numbers, though, are small compared with the population of Antarctic minke, thought to number more than 500,000. The irony is that they are going to take a few whales now from a more confined stock while the whales they were taking from the Southern Ocean, from a stock that is incredibly robust, probably one of the most robust whale stocks on the planet, the Southern Ocean minke whale, never made any difference, says Peter Bridgewater, an Australian who served as IWC chair from 1995 to 1997. Mr Bridgewater says he is not surprised Japan withdrew from the IWC, describing the world body as a dialogue of the deaf. If we were catching whales that were facing extinction, we would deserve to be criticised, says Nobuo Abe, captain of whale catcher Yushin Maru No 3, who has been hunting whales in the Antarctic for three decades. But if we follow a plan approved by the [IWC] scientific committee, all we hear is criticism that whaling is inhumane and the way we catch whales is bad. In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan did not need to kill Antarctic whales purposes of scientific research. The 8,145-ton vessel Nisshin Maru, where whale meat is processed by the crew during long ocean trips, is more than 30 years old and needs to be replaced soon. A 2012 poll commissioned by the International Fund for Animal Welfare found taxpayers overwhelmingly didnt want to fund a replacement. Japan has subsidised whaling research to the tune of nearly $10m (7.7m) a year, IFAW says. A plate of roasted whale at Kujirakan, or Whale House, restaurant (Shiho Fukada/The Washington Post) Now, Shigeki Takaya, the director of the whaling affairs office at Japans fisheries agency, says subsidies will still be paid for at least three years to smooth the transition to commercial whaling and give the industry a leg up. But whether the government will have an appetite for continued subsidies is unclear. Whale hunting has roots in Japanese culture dating back thousands of years, evidenced by the songs of the indigenous Ainu people, and the dolphin and whale bones found at archaeological sites. A visiting German doctor recorded the widespread consumption of whale meat, blubber and internal organs in 1823, as well as its use to purportedly cure constipation, scabies and more. The Nagato City Whale Museum displays the handheld harpoons, knives and saws used by traditional whalers men in narrow boats who used nets to trap abundant passing whales from the 17th century onwards. Japans whaling industry expanded rapidly under the Allied occupation led by General Douglas MacArthur, when whale meat was promoted as an important source of protein after the Second World War. Traditional whaling died out in Nagato at the turn of the 20th century, thanks to overfishing and the advent of modern Norwegian-style methods, with powerful harpoon guns aboard large, fast ships, and the United States, Europe and Russia gutting whale populations in the North Pacific. Activists ride whale carcass in anti-whaling protest Outside the museum, a tomb erected to the foetuses of whales killed in ancient hunts reflects the respect these fishermen had for the animals they hunted, based on Shinto and Buddhist beliefs. Today, it is not so much the needs of local communities that are sustaining Japans modern whaling industry as it is a combination of nationalist politics and a defensive reaction to the wests denunciations of Japans brutal and barbaric whaling industry. Theres also a belief that people who eat cows, lambs and pigs, often imprisoning them in appalling conditions under factory farming, are being hypocritical. If vegans say we are cruel and barbaric, they may have the right, says Kiyoshi Ejima, a parliamentarian for prime minister Shinzo Abes ruling Liberal Democratic Party and a former mayor of Shimonoseki. But if those people who eat other kinds of meat criticise us, they sound self-righteous. Japans defence of its whaling industry is also rooted in the right-wing nationalism of Abes political base, a last gesture of defiance at a world that has forced them, as they see it, to constantly apologise for their past. Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which fought a decades-long battle with the Nisshin Maru, says Japans decision means there will be no more whale hunting in the southern hemisphere. That, he says, is a victory for his organisation, after it pushed up the costs of Japanese whaling by forcing the government to spend tens of millions of pounds on security, including military-style radar, to evade his ship. Recommended Japan to pay compensation to people sterilised under eugenics law But for many in Japan, the confrontational rhetoric of some western activists not only plays into the views of the nationalist fringe but also alienates ordinary people. A January survey by state broadcaster NHK showed 52 per cent of people thought Japans decision to withdraw from the IWC was either good or very good, while 37 percent opposed it. There arent many real supporters of Japanese whaling, says Tetsuji Ida, one of Japans leading environmental reporters. The support is created by western criticism. People are just anti-anti-whaling. It also gets very nationalistic, and thats good for Prime Minister Abe. Even in Japan, some experts say the nation should stop trying to support a dying industry that damages its global reputation. But Megumi Sasaki, who made a 2016 documentary about whale and dolphin hunting, says the west needs to make more of an effort to respect Japanese culture. We talk about diversity, but is this diversity if you dont accept another cultures different relationship with animals and nature? she asks. The Washington Post Pakistan will release the first batch of 360 Indian prisoners detained for fishing illegally in the countrys territorial waters in the Arabian sea, officials in the country said. Prison official Munir Ahmed said that 100 prisoners will travel by train under police guard to the eastern city of Lahore before being handed over to Indian authorities at the Wahga border crossing tomorrow. Pakistani and Indian maritime agencies frequently arrest each others fishermen on charges of illegal fishing. The detainees are often held in prison until such goodwill gestures are shown from either side. Pakistans foreign ministry has said the remaining Indian prisoners will be released this month. 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 Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours flared up in February after a suicide bombing in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir killed more than 40 Indian soldiers. Associated Press People paid to take exams or write essays for university students in Australia could be jailed for up to two years under tough new laws. If youre a cheating service, understand now you are going to face the full force of the law if you provide those services to students here in Australia, Dan Tehan, the countrys federal education minister, told local media. For those services based overseas, we are going to use blocking to make sure that they cannot provide those services. For those who are here and operating in Australia, understand that we will come after you. In December 2018, the countrys Department of Education and Training published draft legislation which, if passed, would make it an offence to provide or advertise academic cheating services in higher education. Mr Tehan also told journalists in Canberra that providers of such services could be fined up to A$210,000 (114,500). 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 country has been considering a clampdown on so-called essay mills, which produce assignments for a fee, for some time. Contract cheating activity, if left unchecked, poses a significant threat to the integrity and reputation of Australias higher education sector both domestically and internationally, a spokesperson for the Department of Education and Training said last December. At the time the department stressed that students who used cheating services would not be liable under the proposed legislation. Students who cheat will continue to be subject to institutions own academic integrity policies, processes and academic sanctions. These institutional policies are not affected by the new legislation, the spokesperson added. The draft legislation was published after a higher education standards panel advised the government to produce a new law to deal with contract cheating. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The rate of university cheating in Australia could be as high as 10 per cent, the lead researcher of a large-scale study into the topic suggested in 2018. That means that in a classroom of 20 students, two students are outsourcing their learning and in an exam hall, hundreds are engaging in it, Tracey Bretag told The Sydney Morning Herald last year. A student leader I teach said that just that day, she had had five independent requests on social media offering these services. Students are being inundated by it and we need to nip it in the bud. Mr Tehan described the situation as simply not good enough. He said: Its not fair for those students who are doing the hard yards, for those students who are doing all the work, for those students who put hours into studying. Greek police clashed with hundreds of refugees hoping to cross to neighbouring countries and travel onwards to northern Europe. Demonstrations outside the camp in Diavata were triggered by false reports on social media saying restrictions on travel to northern Europe had been lifted, authorities said. Riot police fired tear gas at dozens of people, some with children in their arms, who responded by throwing stones and bottles as they tried to break a police cordon and reach a road leading to the border. Several refugees, including children, fainted amid the gas clouds on Saturday. Protesters lit fires to make the air more bearable, but blazes also erupted from exploding stun grenades. In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee children at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees queuing for food at the Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees' tents at the Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees at the Oxy transit camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos The graves of drowned refugees in Mytilene, Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos A building used to house unaccompanied children at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees queuing to register at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees arriving on smugglers' boats from Turkey in Lesbos Greek officials say the migrants have been mobilised by false reports originating on social media that the road to central Europe, tightly sealed to migrants for three years, is open again, and that buses chartered by non-governmental organisations were waiting on the other side of the border with North Macedonia, about 60km (40 miles) to the north of Diavata. Greek TV station Ant1 showed messages sent over social media earlier this week, in Arabic, from a purported NGO called "Caravan of Hope" advising refugees Greece was to open the border with North Macedonia on 5 April at noon. Most were not residents of the camps, but came from all over Greece to reach the North Macedonian border and had started setting up tents near the camp. Around 100 tents had been pitched in the field next to the camp, which was heavily guarded by police. People refused to leave despite calls by ministers to return to accommodation centres and warnings onward travel would be impossible. "It's a lie that the borders will open," migration minister Dimitris Vitsas told Greek state television ERT on Friday. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Tens of thousands of refugees, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, have been stuck in Greece since 2016, when Balkan countries shut their borders, closing the main passage towards northern Europe. Additional reporting by agencies A British mother faces two years in a Dubai jail and a 50,000 fine after calling her ex-husband an idiot and his new wife a horse on Facebook, campaigners claim. Laleh Shahravesh, 55, who lives in Richmond, London, was detained in the United Arab Emirates last month with her 14-year-old daughter Paris when she attempted to attend the funeral of her ex-partner. She was arrested over the two Facebook comments which were made in 2016 after her ex-husband Pedro re-married, campaign group Detained in Dubai claims. Ms Shahravesh had been in Britain when she posted the comments, but her ex-husband, who died of a heart attack on 3 March, and his new wife were living in Dubai. In Dubai, cybercrime laws mean an old social media post made by a person before they visit the country could still see them fined or jailed for years. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty According to Detained in Dubai, Ms Shahraveshs passport has been confiscated and her daughter had to fly home by herself, where she is staying with friends. In a statement released through the group, she said: I am not allowed to leave Dubai. I have been to court once, where I was not allowed to defend myself, and a police station where we were kept waiting for 12 hours without any progress. I am terrified. I cant sleep or eat. I have gone down two dress sizes because of the stress. And my daughter cries herself to sleep every night. Recommended British army veteran jailed in Dubai issues plea to come home We are so close, especially since her father left us and we only have each other. It breaks my heart to be kept apart from her. Ms Shahravesh was married to Portuguese husband Pedro Manuel Coreia Dos Santos for 18 years, and they had daughter Paris together. They had lived in Dubai for eight months where he worked for HSBC, before she returned to London in 2016 with their daughter. Ms Shahraveshs husband was reportedly due to join them in the UK once his work commitments were resolved, however she instead received divorce papers a few months later. A few months later, the mother is said to have opened Facebook and discovered photos of her ex-husbands wedding to a 42-year-old Tunisian woman. She lashed out, writing two comments in Farsi, which said: I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse, and you married a horse you idiot. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Ms Shahravesh claims she has lost her job at a homeless shelter, can no longer pay the rent on the flat she lives in with her daughter, and that she owes her family more than 5,000 as she has had to stay in hotels in Dubai. Radha Stirling, chief executive of Detained in Dubai, is officially representing Ms Shahravesh. She said: I have spoken with Laleh, her mother, sisters and daughter Paris. Their experience is heartbreaking. Not only has Paris lost her father, but in going to visit him to say her final goodbye, she wound up in a frightening Middle Eastern police station, and is now without her mother. Paris is writing a letter to Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the UAE, to appeal for her mothers release. I also call on Sheikh Mohammed to ensure Laleh is swiftly reunited with her daughter in London and to review the content and application of the UAEs cybercrime laws. A Foreign Office spokesperson told The Independent: Our staff are supporting a British woman and her family following her detention in the UAE. We are in contact with the UAE authorities regarding her case. Israels prime minister has said he will annex settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in office in a vote on Tuesday. In an interview with Israeli Channel 12 News, Benjamin Netanyahu was asked why he had not extended Israeli sovereignty to large West Bank settlements as in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, other territory seized in the 1967 Middle East war. In response, he said: Who says that we wont do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it. You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend [Israeli] sovereignty and I dont distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements. Israeli elections: growing calls for Arab boycott Show all 5 1 /5 Israeli elections: growing calls for Arab boycott Israeli elections: growing calls for Arab boycott Rafik Halabi, mayor of Daliyat al-Karmel Bel Trew Israeli elections: growing calls for Arab boycott Photos of the Druze mayors of Daliyat al-Karmel in Israel ahead of the elections Bel Trew Israeli elections: growing calls for Arab boycott Layla Zahrour, a sweet shop owner in Haifa says the Arab community are disillusioned Bel Trew Israeli elections: growing calls for Arab boycott Rooa, a Druze woman, says she will not vote in the upcoming Israeli elections Bel Trew Israeli elections: growing calls for Arab boycott Many members of the Druze community in Daliyat al-Kamel say they will boycott the upcoming elections over the Nation State Law Bel Trew The Palestinians want to establish a state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas that are also home to more than 2.6 million Palestinians. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. Some of the parties Mr Netanyahu said he would seek to include in a coalition government if he wins the election advocate annexing parts of the West Bank. The prime minister is competing with those parties for pro-settler voters in the 9 April election. His comments are likely to appeal to those voters, who object to ceding lands to the Palestinians. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Settlements are one of the most heated issues in efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, frozen since 2014. Most countries consider settlements that Israel has built in territory captured in the 1967 war to be illegal. Israel disputes this citing historical ties and says the future of the land should be determined in peace talks with the Palestinians. The United States broke with decades of international consensus last month by recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured from Syria. Palestinian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Reuters contributed to this report US troops are being moving out Libya after a surge in fighting between rival groups left foreign powers scrambling to ensure the safety of their forces and peacekeepers in the country. The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable, Thomas Waldhauser, head of US Africa Command, said. Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing US strategy. He did not say where the unspecified number of US forces stationed in the country would relocate to. The US decision came as rebel commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army mounted an offensive on the country's capital Tripoli. The city is the seat of Libyas government, which is supported by the United Nations and a number of militias. 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 Haftar is instead aligned with a rival administration and parliament, located in eastern Libya. The rebel commanders forces claimed on Saturday, to have seized Tripoli airport, which has not been functional since fighting in 2014, and the area around it. Fighting between rival groups continued at the site continued as Mr Haftar claimed to have launched air strikes on Tripolis outskirts. Libya has been gripped by violence since 2011, when a popular uprising against dictator Muammar Gaddafi led to civil war and years of unrest. Mr Haftar, a one-time army officer loyal to Gaddafi, spent years in exile in the US state of Virginia before returning and eventually declaring war on the countrys interim authorities in 2014. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events His surprise assault on Tripoli came ahead of peace talks, organised by the UN, which are to be held on 14 April. The UN is due to withdraw all non-essential staff in the area, the BBC reported. India has also relocated all 15 of its stationed peacekeepers from Tripoli, Sushma Swaraj, the countrys External Affairs Minister, said. UN secretary general Antonio Guterres struck a pessimistic tone after meeting with Mr Haftar last week. I leave Libya with a heavy heart and deeply concerned. I still hope it is possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli, he wrote on Twitter. The UN is committed to facilitating a political solution and, whatever happens, the UN is committed to supporting the Libyan people. Additional reporting by agencies The sound of drums, singing and prayers marks the opening of a powwow in Phoenix on a Saturday afternoon. Marchers carry the flags of the United States and some of Arizonas tribal nations onto the grass field, but the procession also includes rainbow flags, and the pink and blue transgender flag. It is Arizonas first Two-Spirit Powwow, one of a handful of powwows that has sprung up across North America to celebrate LGBT Native Americans. Among the marchers in the grand entry is Kay Kisto, the reigning Miss Indian Transgender Arizona. To actually be here, to be at the first-ever [Two-Spirit Powwow] in Arizona Ive been having goose bumps ever since I got here, Kisto says. Kisto, 35, grew up on the Gila River Indian Reservation, south of Phoenix. Growing up, she feared harassment or violence if she were to reveal her transgender identity. But to be able to celebrate her identity and heritage in an event on her tribes traditional lands was an overwhelming feeling and a sign of change, she says. Dozens of Two-Spirit organisations have formed around North America in recent years. Californias Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirit Powwow is now in its eighth year and draws as many as 4,000 attendees annually. Canadian cities, Saskatoon and Winnipeg, have recently hosted Two-Spirit powwows. And in 2018, a Two-Spirit contingent took part in the grand entry at the Gathering of Nations, the worlds largest powwow, for the first time. Two-Spirit, an umbrella term for non-binary definitions of gender and sexuality from Native American traditions, takes inspiration from terminology in the Ojibwe language for men who filled womens roles in society, or women who took on mens roles. Many of North Americas indigenous traditions include more than just male and female understandings of gender, but hundreds of years of forced assimilation stamped out many tribes customs and oral traditions. Two-Spirit powwows are part of a growing movement among Native Americans who say rigid ideas of gender and sexuality are unfortunate remnants of colonization participants say its time to rethink native identities on their own terms. Theres no way you can talk about colonization without talking about gender and sexuality, says Chris Finley, assistant professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, and member of the Colville Nation. Dancers perform a Two-Spirit Powwow. Powwows are usually separated into male and female dances, but in honour of Two-Spirit, gender remains mixed (The Washington Post) When Europeans came to North America, Finley believes they brought patriarchal societal traditions with them. Wrapped up in those gender roles were Europeans understandings of land ownership and inheritance, ideas that were crucial to the process of seizing the continent from indigenous people. Among the measures used to extinguish native customs in the United States was the state-sponsored Native American boarding school program, which forced generations of indigenous children to attend school away from their families to be educated in Christian, European traditions. If you dont lose your language, start practising Christianity, cut your hair and learn to speak English, you will die. Thats the choice so many native people were given, says Roger Kuhn, board member of Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits, and member of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. Assimilation means you lose a lot of your identity, Kuhn says, and in that assimilation process I think is where we went astray with sexuality. Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Show all 16 1 /16 Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen US Representative Deb Haaland hugs fellow representative Sharice Davids after they were sworn in as the first two first Native American women in the House of Representatives Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland, wearing traditional Native American attire, rides in an Uber to the US Capitol to be sworn in Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland prays with her family in her office before being sworn in Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland talks to her mother Mary before being sworn in Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland takes the oath of office Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland is joined by fellow representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after they were sworn to the US House of Representatives Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland, her sister Zoe and their mother Mary, make their way through the underground passageways of the US Capitol after she was sworn in Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland and her family pose for a ceremonial photograph with Speaker Nancy Pelosi Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland laughs after the ceremony Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland works in her office Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland speaks at a reception hosted by the Congressional Native American Caucus after being sworn in Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland was joined by actor Mark Ruffalo at the reception Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids were honoured by Ho-Chunk tribal drummers at the reception hosted Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland resting at the end of a reception Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen US Representatives Deb Haaland and Hakeem Jeffries leave the reception Reuters Deb Haaland: one of the first two Native American congresswomen Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids wait in a car to go to back to Capitol Hill to vote after they became the first Native American women in the US House of Representatives Reuters Navajo tradition includes at least four genders. But generations of Navajo people like Sheila Lopez never learned that piece of cultural history. Lopez grew up in Winslow, Arizona, just outside the Navajo Nation Reservation. Two of her three children identify as gay. Lopez is the founder of Phoenix Native PFLAG, the only Native American-focused chapter of the nationwide organisation for families and allies of LGBT+ people. This community is marginalised and stigmatised and harassed, Lopez says. When [my children] came out, it was so hard for me, because I knew that society wasnt so accepting. Attitudes towards LGBT+ people vary across North Americas more than 500 distinct indigenous cultures, but a 2015 survey from the National Centre for Transgender Equality found transgender Native Americans experienced disproportionately high rates of rejection by immediate family compared with transgender people from other backgrounds. Same-sex marriage remains a point of debate in some tribes. It was only after learning her children were gay that Lopez first heard of the Navajos broader definitions of gender. For me, its like, why wasnt I taught that? she says. We need to start talking about bringing back those traditions of accepting everyone no matter your orientation or your gender expression. In planning the Arizona Two-Spirit Powwow, Lopez looked to the Baaits Powwow. Kuhn says the event includes the music, food, dancing and handicrafts common to powwows across North America, but it takes a unique approach to gender. A Native American drum circle is generally defined as a male space, while some dance styles such as the buckskin dance are typically performed by women. Early in its history, the Baaits Powwow did away with those gender rules. Stereotypes about Native Americans often conflate living people with ancient cultures. Were the only race whos expected to stay exactly the same, Finley says. For her, gender and sexuality present exciting opportunities to create new native traditions. A lot of the things that come up with gender and sexuality are things that we actually can change within our own communities, Finley says. We dont have to wait for settlers to pass acts of Congress or start giving us our land back. This is work we can do now, for ourselves, with ourselves. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Washington Post American Airlines has extended a string of flight cancellations in June as the troubled Boeing 737 Max plane remains grounded. The airline initially announced it would cancel around 90 flights a day until 24 April. However, on Sunday it said the cancellations would now last until at least 5 June. The company acknowledged the prolonged cancellations would bring disruption for some travellers. The Max jets have been grounded in the US and elsewhere since mid-March following two deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia. Airlines that own the models have been scrambling other planes to fill some Max flights while cancelling others. Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures Show all 9 1 /9 Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures This picture taken on March 11, 2019, shows debris of the crashed airplane of Ethiopia Airlines, near Bishoftu, a town some 60 kilometres southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. - An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed on March 10 morning en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi with 149 passengers and eight crew believed to be on board, Ethiopian Airlines said. (Photo by Michael TEWELDE / AFP)MICHAEL TEWELDE/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures Family members mourn the victims at the crash site of the Ethiopian Airlines operated Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, at Hama Quntushele village in the Oromia region, on March 13, 2019. - A Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines Boeing crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including tourists, business travellers, and "at least a dozen" UN staff. Families of the victims were taken to the remote site on March 13, 2019, where the plane smashed into a field with 157 passengers and crew from 35 countries, leaving a deep black crater and tiny scraps of debris. (Photo by TONY KARUMBA / AFP)TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures A page of a Boeing flight crew operations manual is seen at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner REUTERS Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures epa07434278 Rescue workers search the site for pieces of the wreckage of an Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft near Bishoftu, Ethiopia, 13 March 2019. Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 carrying 149 passengers and 8 crew was en route to Nairobi, Kenya, when it crashed on 10 March 2019 by yet undetermined reason. All passengers and crew aboard died in the crash. The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft has come under scrutiny after similar deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia within a few months. Several countries have banned the plane type from their airspace and many airlines have grounded their 737 Max 8 planes for safety concerns after the Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed minutes after take-off on 10 March. EPA/STRINGER EPA Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures A grounded Boeing 737 MAX 8 passenger plane of the Norwegian low-cost airline Norwegian is parked at the tarmac at Vantaa airport in Vantaa near Helsinki, Finland on March 13, 2019. - 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. (Photo by Heikki Saukkomaa / Lehtikuva / AFP) / Finland OUTHEIKKI SAUKKOMAA/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures Rescue workers search the site for pieces of the wreckage of an Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft near Bishoftu, Ethiopia, 13 March 2019. Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 carrying 149 passengers and 8 crew was en route to Nairobi, Kenya, when it crashed on 10 March 2019 by yet undetermined reason. All passengers and crew aboard died in the crash. The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft has come under scrutiny after similar deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia within a few months. Several countries have banned the plane type from their airspace and many airlines have grounded their 737 Max 8 planes for safety concerns after the Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed minutes after take-off on 10 March. EPA/STRINGER EPA Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures A heap of debris from the wreckage of an Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are piled at the crash site near Bishoftu, Ethiopia, 13 March 2019. Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 carrying 149 passengers and 8 crew was en route to Nairobi, Kenya, when it crashed on 10 March 2019 by yet undetermined reason. All passengers and crew aboard died in the crash. The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft has come under scrutiny after similar deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia within a few months. Several countries have banned the plane type from their airspace and many airlines have grounded their 737 Max 8 planes for safety concerns after the Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed minutes after take-off on 10 March. EPA/STR EPA Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures A crew working with an investigative team to clear the site after the Sunday crash of the Ethiopian Airlines operated Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, carry debris at Hama Quntushele village in the Oromia region, on March 13, 2019. - A Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines Boeing crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including tourists, business travellers, and "at least a dozen" UN staff. Families of the victims were taken to the remote site on March 13, 2019, where the plane smashed into a field with 157 passengers and crew from 35 countries, leaving a deep black crater and tiny scraps of debris. (Photo by TONY KARUMBA / AFP)TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Boeing 737 MAX grounding: Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 in pictures FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8, on a flight from Miami to New York City, comes in for landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York, U.S., March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo REUTERS American Airlines Group Inc, the largest US airline by revenue, has 24 Max jets in its fleet. The Dallas-based airline said it was awaiting information from US regulators and would contact customers affected by the cancellations with available re-bookings. Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration last week said the company needed more time to finish changes in a flight-control system suspected of playing a role in the two crashes. American Airlines said on Sunday by cancelling the flights in advance, they are able to provide better service to customers with availability and re-booking options and to avoid last-minute flight disruptions. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Reservations staff will contact affected customers directly by email or phone, the airline said. The airline said in a statement: We know these cancellations and changes may affect some of our customers, and we are working to limit the impact to the smallest number of customers. On Friday, Boeing said it would cut production of the Max jet, its best-selling plane, underscoring the mounting financial risk it faces the longer the airliner remains grounded. The manufacturer plans to cut production of the aircraft from 52 to 42 planes per month so it can focus on fixing the flight control software that has been implicated in the two crashes. Preliminary investigations into the deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia found that faulty sensor readings erroneously triggered an anti-stall system that pushed down the planes nose. Pilots of each plane struggled in vain to regain control over the automated system. In all, 346 people died in the crashes. Boeing faces a growing number of lawsuits filed by families of the victims. On Friday night, Channel 4 aired Carnival Wars, part of its Unreported World series, which used Brazils infamous carnival as the backdrop to explore the intensification of homophobia in the country since the election of President Bolsonaro. I attended a screening of the documentary last week, which featured a panel discussion including director Kate Hardie-Buckley and series editor Sue Turton. Without a doubt, this work is necessary and timely. But tucked under a guise of genuine concern for human rights, the films lack of a critical, intersectional lens, as reflected in the way the event was handled, does a disservice to LGBT+ communities in Brazil. The film clearly wants to show both sides to this story, as we witness scenes of Brazils LGBT+ community, interlaced with footage of the gun-wielding, proud homophobe, Sao Paulo state representative Gil Diniz. But the problem with this framing is the suggestion of equal culpability, as well as the way in which it invokes a particular liberal response. For instance, during a Q&A portion of the panel, an audience member asked exactly why this was happening to LGBT+ people, and suggested that we are all equally at risk of being targets of far-right hate campaigns, with the LGBT+ community being the victims of this misfortune this time round. Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Show all 20 1 /20 Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Brazil's new President Jair Bolsonaro waves as he drives past before his swear-in ceremony Reuters Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Supporters wait in front of the Planalto Palace, where he will take office EPA Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Jair Bolsonaro gestures at the Congress before he is sworn AFP/Getty Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Supporters take pictures as Brazil's new President Jair Bolsonaro drives past Reuters Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Flanked by first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro waves to the crowd, as he rides in an open car after his swearing-in ceremony AP Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Jair Bolsonaro reacts as he drives past Reuters Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Reuters Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration The National Congress before Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro is sworn in AFP/Getty Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Jair Bolsonaro gestures at the Congress AFP/Getty Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Reuters Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration AP Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration AFP/Getty Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration EPA Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration AFP/Getty Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration AFP/Getty Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Reuters Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration Reuters Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration AFP/Getty Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration AFP/Getty Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right leader inauguration AFP/Getty Director Hardie-Buckley implied this was an inexplicable tragedy, a response which fails to recognise the systematic oppression at the heart of this story: repression against a historically and intentionally marginalised community made up of Brazils most vulnerable indigenous, black and poor LGBT+ people, and women. In a country like Brazil, with its legacy of slavery, indigenous dispossession and violence, we cannot ignore the link between conservative values of the pure family and whiteness. Its true that the main character in the film, Luana Hansen, is black, and so is the reporter, Seyi Rhodes. But we cannot assume that by featuring people of colour, all depictions of minorities are immune to criticism. This is evident in the rhetoric surrounding the recent election of Lori Lightfoot in Chicago the first black queer mayor to ever be elected in the US, which has been widely celebrated as a victory for all queers, without attention to her disturbing record when it comes to standing up for the marginalised communities she ostensibly represents. Intersectionality is about realising interlocking forms of oppressive power structures and dismantling them, which means having people from the communities, not only on the screens or in the room, but actively contributing to, and leading, the conversations, in the lead up to, during, and after an event like the one I attended. Hardie-Buckley struggled to answer the question I raised about the intersection between race and sexuality in the film and in the Brazilian context, and dismissed concerns by two Brazilian lesbian activists at the event that the film reinforced stereotypes of the LGBTQI community who were mostly portrayed as hedonistic and promiscuous. When I spoke them later, they also criticised the representation of a reporter playing mates with a far-right politician practising shooting in a country where there is a state-sponsored genocide of the poor, black population. Hardie-Buckley pointed to the limitations of her particular art form: a short documentary restricted her ability to talk about race, or touch on issues such as the assassination of Marielle Franco, who was killed for being an outspoken, black, lesbian woman, activist and politician. Nor did the film or panellists touch upon the issue of gay politician Jean Wyllys often compared to Harvey Milk for his crucial advocacy work who had to resign from his congress seat due to the death threats he received. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro explains his reaction to 'golden shower' tweet The film could have talked about events organised by Brazilian Women Against Fascism, and the work of civil society organisations like Casa 1, Grupo Gay da Bahia, Articulacao dos Povos Indigenas do Brasil and Maes de Maio. Instead it seemed to ignore issues of intersectionality almost altogether. Film can, and perhaps must, break boundaries, particularly when the subject matter is political. And while we might not always need the stark reflection of pain and suffering the film is effective in its flashy, eye-capturing, glittery fun, and admittedly does provide an insight into the deadly intentions of Brazils far right, as we hear from the widow of a murdered black gay man. I have no doubt that this film will galvanise people. But to what end? As an LGBT+ person of colour myself, I can say that I do not want your sympathy, pity, or to be the titillating subject to your dinner party musings. I want action. Emmanuelle Andrews is research and policy coordinator at international LGBT rights organisation Kaleidoscope Trust From the marshlands of Iraq to the most remote bush villages in South Sudan, the same demand has been repeated to me: we need clean water or we are going to die. Safe water is the most basic need for humans. It is life. And yet water crises which are often man made and have solutions never get the same attention as other humanitarian disasters such as an airstrike or a suicide bombing, even though polluted water can be far more deadly than direct conflict. Water, hygiene, sanitation or WASH in the aid agency world is usually met with a disinterested shrug. In fact, most environmental issues are dismissed as soft news and in the past have been relegated to the science sections of newspapers or features shows on TV. This has meant programmes combating the issues are often woefully underfunded. This needs to change. Before it is too late. Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action Show all 12 1 /12 Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action AFP-1F8695.jpg AFP/Getty Images Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action AFP-1F87LF.jpg AFP/Getty Images Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action AFP-1F878O.jpg AFP/Getty Images Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action 2019-03-30T171238Z-506473023-RC126F5D02E0-RTRMADP-3-EARTH-HOUR-INDONESIA.JPG REUTERS Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action AFP-1F88QL.jpg AFP/Getty Images Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action 07473114.jpg EPA Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action 2019-03-30T155633Z-968287513-RC19BA2CA200-RTRMADP-3-EARTH-HOUR-PHILIPPINES.JPG REUTERS Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action 07473485.jpg EPA Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action 2019-03-30T175754Z-1503605500-RC12C9083910-RTRMADP-3-EARTH-HOUR-RUSSIA.JPG REUTERS Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action 2019-03-30T194136Z-2063007137-RC133436E0F0-RTRMADP-3-EARTH-HOUR-RUSSIA.JPG REUTERS Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action AFP-1F91TI.jpg AFP/Getty Images Earth Hour 2019: Landmarks go dark as activists urge climate action 2019-03-30T200048Z-1595840044-RC16C8B710E0-RTRMADP-3-EARTH-HOUR-GERMANY.JPG REUTERS Last autumn the United Nations warned that we are the last generation that can prevent irreparable damage to our planet. The report, the most comprehensive of its kind, shocked many. The looming spectre of global warming or climate change can no longer be reduced to tired images of polar bears sitting atop shrinking ice caps, implausible Hollywood fantasy films or discussions about five generations times. It is happening now. From a water perspective, its complicated. I am no environmental journalist or expert, but last year I began an eight-month, seven-country investigation into water and conflict in the Middle East and beyond. What I found is that, right now, chronic shortages are not only reaching alarming levels, largely due to climate change and accidental or deliberate mismanagement of resources, but that those shortages have an impact on every aspect of the conflicts. In the countries I explored, water shortages are not only killing people due to thirst, but are complicating existing or igniting fresh domestic and international wars over resources. The lack of clean water is behind a spike in violence against women, the abduction of children, the mass movement of people, the toppling of governments and even the recruitment to jihadi groups such as Isis. At the heart of each shortage are solutions. In most instances there are not enough funding, know-how, tools or political will to implement the changes. Water wars have begun. The UN put one element of the problem in stark terms last week in a 16-nation study, released for World Water Day, that says every year 1.4 million people are killed by polluted water alone. But more disturbing is their discovery that more children are killed by unsafe water each year than bullets and bombs in protracted war zones. In fact, children under the age of five years old are 20 times more likely to die from dirty water than direct fighting. Girls and women are particularly affected, as they become victims of sexual violence as they collect water, or venture out to use latrines. Women struggle with menstrual hygiene, leading to disease, many even miss school if they are on their periods because of a lack of toilets. The list goes on. It is clear from this that we can can no longer park environmental issues in their own section, as they have bled into all aspects of reality on the ground from business to gender issues. This was was at the heart of a panel I hosted at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia this week. Panelist Sven Egenter, editor-in-chief of Clean Energy Wire, said journalists have a duty to dig deeper, connect the dots between conflict and the environment, think outside the box, and ring those alarm bells. Because there are solutions. Our focus [at Clean Energy Wire] is the energy transition, but we cover electricity, mobility, business, efficiency, politics, international relations under the prism of energy transition, he said. Our takeaway so far is that journalists from all beats should be tuned into this mega trend. Journalists must think outside their usual reporting boxes in terms of sources and ways of looking. Wim Zwijnenburg, who works for Netherlands-based NGO PAX, says attitudes towards the environment need to change from the misconception that it is just about bees and butterflies. He works closely with Bellingcat using open-source data including satellite imagery to locate and track issues such as oil spills that have ravaged farmlands in the north of Iraq, sparking displacement, poverty and fears of recruitment to extremist groups. As soon as the guns fall silent, people go out. There is pollution because someone targeted a phosphate factory next to a river or a massive amount of water infrastructure has been destroyed. People cannot have access to water, they cannot use irrigation, it affects their livelihoods, he says. Its difficult to visualise. You can visualise someone stepping on a land mine but how do you visualise someone getting sick or an outbreak of disease? It is less tangible that is why you look at it using open-source information. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Louise Sarrant, an environmental journalist covering the Middle East, says that environmental journalists are increasingly coming under fire from regimes as they uncover uncomfortable truths about bad practices. For example, according to Amnesty International, at least 63 environmental activists and researchers were arrested in 2018. Sarrant herself has written extensively on Egypts disastrous decision to import coal, and has described being stopped upon entry to Egypt repeatedly and intelligence officials watching her flat. She says lack of data in many countries is impacting the ability to report. Particularly in places like Egypt, experts are nervous about coming forward. People are scared to talk if they can avoid it... that is a recent development, she says. And so it is up to newsrooms, editors and even readers to support those working on the ground on these essential investigations. Last week, President Trump threatened to shut down the border, or large sections of the border unless Mexico stops all illegal immigration coming into the United States through our Southern border. This comes on the heels of $1 billion in Pentagon funding for new wall construction, all on top of the 600 miles of fencing on the US-Mexico border that stands already a product of the 2006 Secure Fence Act. Before getting his funding, the President vetoed a congressional resolution that rescinded his national emergency declaration at the border, saying that rejecting the border fence is dangerous and reckless. Apparently, the Pentagon agrees. While there are important worries about executive overreach here, not even a more traditional route of policy-making could justify closing the borders or building new fencing. The idea that closed borders and more fencing will increase border security isnt supported by the facts. In his State of the Union address, Trump made this argument when he credited the decline in El Pasos violent crime rate to the local border wall. But El Pasos violent crime rate had already fallen 34 per cent from 1993 to 2006 the year George W Bush authorised the wall. Meanwhile, welcoming immigration works. In 2009, only a year after the local border wall began construction, journalist Radley Balko explained how El Paso then the third safest city in the country and currently the seventh safest city proves common stereotypes wrong. To immigration restrictionists, El Paso could look like a recipe for violence and anarchy: it has the seventh largest immigrant population of any American city. Its population is over 75 per cent Hispanic and over 25 per cent foreign-born and its poverty rate is twice the national average. Many residents are likely undocumented. Yet Balko found that El Paso's embrace of its immigrants might be a big reason why the low-income border town has remained one of the safest places in the country. Immigrants actually pose a lower threat to Americans security on average than the people who live here now. The Cato Institutes Alex Nowrasteh found that illegal immigrants, non-citizens, and legal immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated, convicted, or arrested for crimes than native-born Americans are. According to Jack Levin, a criminologist Balko interviewed, this is probably because immigrants have a stake in this country, and they recognise it. Immigrants are unlikely to engage in criminal behavior because the risk they take on in the search of a better life is enormous. This is why immigrants tend to be interested in building communities and earning a livingnot criminal activity they couldve easily engaged in back home. Yet in El Paso we have a border wall that denies people the opportunity to be with family, find work, or be part of their communities. The border fence punishes people for their place of birth, without any gain to security. Walls force immigrants into dangerous illegal crossing routesroutes which kill over 4,000 people every decade. Many more immigrants just dont make the journey because of the risksrisks imposed not only by walls, but immigration quotas, labyrinths of bureaucracy, border patrol, and other impediments only consistent with a nationalist moral calculus. Open borders would get rid of the immigrant-killing hurdles in their way. Immigrant lives matter, and they should be part of the policy discussion. The idea that free immigration would invite terrorism into our nation is faulty at best. Indeed, terrorism risks are greatly inflated for political gain. From 1975 to 2015, no one on US soil was murdered or injured in a terror attack by an illegal border crosser. Of the 154 foreign-born terrorists since 1975, just 10 entered the US illegally (only three of which crossed the US-Mexico border, and as children), 54 were lawful permanent residents, and the rest entered through other legal means such as tourist and student visas. 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 In other words, the door is already open to most of the terrorists trying to get in. Its easiest to enter through legal channels, and further impediments at the US-Mexico border wouldnt have prevented any terrorist violence since 1975. So by opening the border, law enforcement could focus more resources on real threats. Why, then, should there be any coercive barriers at all? As economist Alex Tabarrok argues, all people should be free to move about the earth, uncaged by the arbitrary lines known as borders. As radical as it sounds, open borders is the morally imperative position. Dont let the Trump administration and its shiny, new Pentagon-funded wall fool you. Tearing down the wall is a common-sense position rooted in the security of Americans and foreigners alike. The rest of the US should take a lesson from El Paso and embrace immigrants, because the key to safer communities isnt a closed border its an open hand. Cory Massimino is the senior academic programs coordinator at Students For Liberty, the mutual exchange coordinator at the Center for a Stateless Society, and a Young Voices contributor. Follow him on Twitter @corymassimino Knight Frank estimated that each city had received anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 new jobs as a result of Brexit .. Photo: Yui Mok/PA Ireland's Brexit dividend has been a "remarkable outcome" for the country, with 92 UK-based companies moving their operations here. Dublin has been the largest benefactor of Brexit exiles with 86 related moves landing in the capital, according to the 'Under Pressure' report from London-based property group Knight Frank. The study of the 349 Brexit-related moves found Dublin, Luxembourg, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt gained most companies from the UK. Luxembourg was closest to Dublin with 55. "While Dublin was always a contender for attracting Brexit-related business, the global financial centres of Paris and Frankfurt were considered favourites to land the majority," the report stated. "Therefore, its more than 50pc lead ahead of its nearest competitor is certainly a remarkable outcome for the city, while the regional locations of Cork and Sligo also picked up some new occupiers too." However, despite the high number of moves, Ireland's increase in jobs was broadly the same as Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Knight Frank estimated that each city had received anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 new jobs as a result of Brexit so far. The report stated that Irelands similar legal system and its access to a young, educated, English-speaking workforce have acted as competitive advantages in attracting overseas firms. Knight Frank said demand in Irelands office space market has also surged as a result, citing the 360,000sqm of take-up achieved last year, the highest on record. Although we estimate that just 12,500sqm of take-up in Dublin so far can be directly tied to Brexit announcements, the more important move relates to companies that would have otherwise expanded within the UK but are now choosing to do so in the European cities such as Dublin, the report said. Of the moves reported in Ireland, 28pc were by asset managers, 20pc by insurers and another 13pc by banks. Fintech companies accounted for 13pc of the moves to Dublin. Knight Frank also highlighted the increase in Asian investment in the Dublin office market. The property group suggested that the investments may have been motivated by the hedging quality of the market. Elsewhere, France secured 47 Brexit-related moves while the Netherlands landed 48 moves. Germany was also a large beneficiary of Brexit moves with 49 businesses relocating there. A reduction in the number of cruise ships entering Dublin Port will cause considerable damage to the tourism sector on the island of Ireland, the leader of the DUP has warned. It is understood that Arlene Foster has been in contact with transport minister Shane Ross to outline the impact that reduced cruises will have on both sides of the border. Foster fears that companies may now go elsewhere. It follows news that the Dublin Port Company was considering curtailing its cruise business in order to make way for more freight after Brexit. Business groups have heavily lobbied against the port's decision insisting it could heavily damage businesses in the city. Almost 300,000 cruise passengers docked in the city in 2018, up 32pc. In an interview with the Sunday Independent in February, port boss Eamonn O'Reilly said that the cruise ship business would "peak during 2019 and from 2021 we will be taking significantly fewer bookings for cruises". O'Reilly said that of the 8,000 ships that used the port last year, just 150 were cruise ships. He described it as a "small part" of the business. An artists impression of how the Tara Street tower will look Developer Johnny Ronan has won approval to build Dublin city's tallest structure, the Sunday Independent can reveal. Construction of the tower is to begin imminently and the group is already in discussions with potential tenants, it is understood. The long-running saga to build the 22-storey tower on Tara Street involved four separate attempts by the developer to secure permission. An Bord Pleanala approved the plans for the 88-metre structure last Friday. The building will comprise 16,557 sq m of office and hotel accommodation and will be capable of accommodating 890 office workers, a 106-bedroom hotel over four storeys and a top-floor restaurant. Expand Close Developer Johnny Ronan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Developer Johnny Ronan Ronan Group's senior development manager, James Ronan, said he was "thrilled" the development had finally been given the green light. "This is an extremely positive and progressive move for Dublin and Ireland Inc," he said. "If we are to continue to compete with our European counterparts for much sought-after foreign direct investment we need to set our ambitions high, delivering the world-class accommodation required to facilitate our collective growth ambitions." Ronan said the development will be a "catalyst for the regeneration of this city quarter and will set a new benchmark for regeneration projects in the city". Chairman of Henry J Lyons Architects Paul O'Brien said the project will have a "transformative regenerating effect on the Tara Street streetscape". Despite repeated rejections to his plans, Johnny Ronan had secured the support of the Dublin Chamber, the Irish Hotels Federation, IDA Ireland and the Convention Centre Dublin. Expand Close James Ronan is thrilled / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp James Ronan is thrilled The planning documents state that the tower will take 30 months to construct with between 313 and 375 workers employed. Based on a previous planning application, Dublin City Council said the building would "seriously detract" from the character of Custom House, which it called "one of the city's most important architectural set-pieces". Celtic Pure Irish Spring Water is investing close to 7m in automation of its warehousing facilities in Co Monaghan. This is the final phase of an 18m investment programme undertaken by the family-owned company over the past four years. Chief executive Padraig McEneaney said that in order to future-proof the business it was investing in a so-called smart store, which will mean warehousing facilities are effectively fully automated. "We automated all our lines last year," he said. "And now this is the final stage in which the pallets move directly into the smart store." The company expects turnover of 25m this year and employs 75 people. The investment has been funded by the company's own profits and bank debt. McEneaney said the automation would not mean a reduction in current job numbers but that it would be able to expand without taking on additional staff. "Two years ago we would have produced 80m litres of water. Now we are producing 150m litres with the same number of people," he said. "We could increase our turnover by 20pc, but our labour costs will stay static." The company has also been preparing for Brexit by stockpiling product north of the Border and setting up a UK-registered subsidiary. Around 10pc of the company's product is exported to the UK. Celtic Pure has been expanding in China over the past 18 months, with demand growing there. In 2016, it secured a 12-acre site to house new management offices and storage and production facilities. Building was completed in 2017. In 2018, the company launched a Hint of Fruit, a flavoured range with no added sugars or sweeteners and infused with added B vitamins. Forecourt retailer Maxol is considering opening its own standalone coffee shops to help stop it from becoming too reliant on its fuel business. The family-owned company announced a 100m investment plan during the week that aims to move it from being a fuel-driven firm to becoming a convenience-led business. Part of the investment plan was the establishment of its own brand, Rosa Coffee. The group poured 1.7m into developing the new coffee line and will launch a new advertising campaign on April 22. "Today's road users are connoisseurs of coffee," Maxol chief executive Brian Donaldson said. "By investing in our own coffee brand, rather than bringing in a third party, we own it, we have full control of it, and we're in command of its product development." Donaldson said the group - which sold 4.35 million cups of coffee in its outlets in 2018 - would consider if there was a "good commercial case" for its own-brand coffee. He admitted that it was "one of the things we're continuing to explore". Over the last year, the Maxol Group has sought planning permission for residential developments on two of its forecourt sites. Donaldson insists this is not so the business can enter the housebuilding sector. Instead, he said that both sites are up for sale as they were not suitable for its primary business. Maxol was granted permission for 90 apartments on its site on the Beach Road in Sandymount in Dublin 4. The company has also sought permission to build on another of its locations in Saggart in south-west Dublin. Donaldson said that the business will also be heavily investing in its car wash network, which he described as "big business". Around 700,000 cars are washed through Maxol on a yearly basis. A total of 18 cashless car washes have been installed at its stations. Donaldson said there are plans for another 15. It was billed as one of the biggest litigation cases in Irish corporate history. Some 49 witnesses were due to be called. The case was expected to last for six months. The legal bills had already run into millions, and that was before it even got going. Yet the legal action against IBRC, taken by the children of Fermanagh entrepreneur and former billionaire Sean Quinn was the ultimate damp squib. It was settled this week after a series of negotiations. The outcome was positive for the Quinns even though their legal case, claiming they had signed 415m worth of loan guarantees under duress from the bank or through undue influence of their father, looked like it had been blown out of the water early on. The outcome was also positive for IBRC in so far as it no longer has this family litigation hanging around. The liquidators of the former Anglo Irish Bank were in the process of taking their own counter legal actions against the Quinn children alleging they had been involved in a conspiracy to put assets beyond the reach of the liquidators. Good result for the Quinns, good for the liquidators, but not good for the taxpayer. The misadventure of trying to secure proper title and control of the Quinn's international property empire has cost taxpayers an estimated 170m. The property portfolio should have yielded the taxpayer around 500m which would have come off the 2.8bn hit the bank took from Sean Quinn's CFD debacle. The yield from the sale of these assets may now be less than 300m, leaving a deficit to the taxpayer of around 2.5bn. That hit does not include the 1bn insurance customers are paying in a special levy to cover the collapse of Quinn Insurance. It is a 3.5bn hit for all of us because of the mistakes made by Sean Quinn, a handful of bankers and poor regulation. The administrators of Quinn Insurance have a legal action against the auditors. Pending the outcome of that case it is not possible to ascribe blame to them and the case is being vigorously defended. The Quinn children were the owners of the empire their father built up. He ran it but they owned Quinn Group with its cement, glass and radiator manufacturing operations. They were the ultimate owners of the insurance business that collapsed. They even owned the family home their parents live in back in Ballyconnell in Co Cavan. But dad blew it all when he lost around 3bn on CFDs in Anglo. The question that has to be asked though is how come they get to keep whatever assets they have left, after they signed personal guarantees of 415m? Others, from hapless borrowers to unfortunate wealth and employment creators, have not been so fortunate. The settlement reached during the week saw the family agree to judgements registered against them of 88m each. However there is a stay on those judgements if they agree to assist IBRC in securing the last pieces of the property empire and they provide information on what happened to various assets and monies that had been within the property group. Back in 2012 the Quinn children were injuncted by the courts from interfering in any way with the property assets and IBRC's attempts to secure them. Sean Quinn senior and his son Sean junior, ended up in prison for contempt of court, until they purged themselves of that contempt. Assuming that was the only contempt of court that took place, although IBRC had built up a large legal action claiming otherwise, all the Quinns have to do is precisely what they were instructed by the courts to do several years ago. In return, their 415m in personal guarantees, are effectively wiped out. Described by some as having a 'sword of Damocles' hanging over them, the settlement delivers the opposite. It removes the 'sword of Damocles' that was hanging over them since 2008 when Anglo shares collapsed after they had guaranteed these loans. The sword is lifted. All they have to do is help the liquidators. Perhaps there is more detail to that process in the settlement agreement but we have not been told because elements of the deal are confidential. This seems utterly ridiculous given the enormous sums of taxpayer money involved and the public interest issues at stake. Based on the published terms of the settlement, whatever the Quinn children own, they keep, as long as they assist the liquidators. We have no idea what their net worth is. They are free to get back into business again and perhaps raise the money to buy back some of the former family assets and firms. The cement group has been acquired by local investors backed by a consortium of US hedge funds. They paid 98m for it, at a time when its net assets were valued at 113m. They won't be long-term holders. The glass business was bought by a Spanish firm. Liberty Insurance bought the insurance business for 1 but agreed to put around 100m of new money into it. As IBRC mops up the last of the international property portfolio and finds buyers for it, one asset sticks out. The Slieve Russell Hotel remains in the ownership of receivers and has not been sold. Given the number of hotels to have changed hands since 2013, it would have made a very good acquisition but for whatever reason, ownership has not changed hands. This settlement deal clears the way for a member or members of the Quinn family to have a crack at buying back that hotel if they can raise the funds. Presumably the receivers won't want to own it forever. The Quinn children will no longer have 415m in personal guarantees hanging over them once they assist the IBRC liquidators. Sean Quinn can stay in his family home, as his children will avoid bankruptcy with this settlement. At the height of the boom Sean Quinn talked about playing poker at the local pub with old friends even at a time when he was worth 3bn. When it comes to the family, the Quinns have played a very bad hand, very well. Hibernia to return flip money Hibernia Reit has decided that if its shares are trading at very low levels, even well below its net asset value, it might as well buy some of its stock itself. The company bagged a 15pc return in just a year after buying an office block in Sir John Rogerson's Quay for 28.7m and then selling it for 35.5m. Flipping office blocks isn't exactly what listed Reits are supposed to do, but it seems they couldn't help themselves, having made a nice few quid on it. Hibernia has decided to give the money back to shareholders as part of a larger 25m share buyback programme. The move makes sense and should help with a lagging share price. Despite the buoyant office and development market in Dublin, a company like Hibernia is trading at below net asset value. The fear of darker clouds on the horizon from Brexit and global markets, to possible downturns in the UK, the US and even China, all affect investor sentiment. Hibernia appears undervalued but would you bet on all those other things coming up roses? Alan O'Neill, author of Premium is the New Black is Managing Director of Kara Change Management, specialists in strategy, culture and people development. Go tokara.ie Retention of key talent is a key issue for many organisations. Because our economy is strong, unemployment levels are at a low. From the employee's perspective, in most industries - it's easier now to get a job. In contrast, some employers are really suffering as they struggle to fill key posts. It's worth giving some thought to what you need to do to retain your key talent. In doing that there are a number of issues to consider, such as the role itself, the level of challenge in the role, the team dynamic and the reward structure. For older staff, pensions and other protections can be useful incentives, although this is a complex area which requires professional advice. The Business Risk of Losing Key Talent Before we get into the options, remember there are lots of negatives that go along with losing key employees. Firstly, the status quo is disrupted. When a key employee leaves, they bring with them all of their years of knowledge, skills and understanding of your business. That along with their goodwill, can leave a big hole in your 'system'. Even if everything that they do is documented and handed over to another employee, it could take a good year or more to rebuild continuity and a rhythm back into the role. If this leaver was particularly effective and popular, their departure can cause an atmosphere of 'mourning' with the rest of the team that can take time to recover from. It can send a negative message to your customers and suppliers and even impact on the reputation of your organisation. You can manage this by publishing an agreed statement, but people will naturally be curious and can often make false assumptions beyond your statement. There can be significant cost in hiring a new key employee. If you have to use a search agency, then there will be a fee for that. When you do find a recruit, they might have to give up to six month's notice to their current employer before they can start with you. If you're poaching that person from a competitor, most likely they will enforce the full notice period. (You'd probably do the same in similar circumstances). When you do hire a new person, they will need time to settle in. That could take anywhere between six and 12 months. In the meantime, the business is being held back from progressing as it should. In addition, the leaver is also taking a risk. They are joining a company that will most likely have a probation period. What if it doesn't work out? What if they just don't settle in? I should acknowledge here that it's also good to have some turnover of your talent over time. New people bring freshness and new ideas to a team. After all, there are risks associated with a team where there is no rotation of talent. Complacency can increase, while the level of challenge and newness can decrease. It's a question of balance. All of this said, it is also fair to acknowledge that you may be glad to see the back of this person. Not every departure is a negative. But if you value this person highly, there may be some other things you can do to retain them and prevent them even considering a move. Retention Tips with long-term benefits Colm Roantree, senior executive, wealth management in Irish Life Financial Services this week shared some thoughts with me on how to meet this challenge of rewarding staff. 1 Look at your key employees through their eyes and make it harder for them to leave you. It's highly possible that they are getting calls from your competitors, suppliers or even your customers with a view to being poached. Then consider the impact of that. 2 Recognise that your key employees have a life beyond their time working for you. They have families, mortgages and all sorts of commitments. "Specifically, they have concerns about income protection in the event of illness or death. And as they get older, they will also have concerns about maintaining a certain lifestyle in their retirement," said Roantree. 3 At the very least, remember that you as an employer must provide the facility for a PRSA scheme. This is a personal pension arrangement where on behalf of the employee, you the employer hold back an agreed amount of money from their salary and pay it into their preferred fund. 4 Consider the options where you as an employer can extend beyond a PRSA scheme. "Options here might include all sorts of income protection for illness and/or death in service. "And a pension will give comfort and security for their retirement," said Roantree. 5 Importantly, run your numbers and see what the business can afford. Bear in mind that there are options whereby pensions and income protection can be paid for by either or both parties. The Last Word If you believe that there is more that you can do for your key employees as suggested above, then seek professional advice. This is a very technical field that has all sorts of tax implications. So careful planning for the long-term benefit of you the employer and your employees, is critical. Whether you go this route to retain your key employees, or explore other options, give consideration to what their personal and family needs are. That will go a long way. 'Crude rose along with US equities after a report showed domestic hiring rebounded more than forecast in March' Stock photo Crude is set for the longest weekly winning streak since November 2017 amid concerns over supply shortfalls from countries like Venezuela and optimism over US-China trade talks. Futures in New York rose as much as 0.9pc on Friday, leading to a 4pc rally for the week. Opec's production dropped for a fourth straight month in March while Venezuela's oil output has plunged by half amid power failures, according to people familiar with the matter. As for the discussions between the US and China, China's Vice Premier Liu He said the two sides "reached new consensus on such important issues as the text" of a trade agreement, Xinhua News Agency reported. Crude rose along with US equities after a report showed domestic hiring rebounded more than forecast in March. The market is focused on "Opec confirmation that they will continue to be disciplined. We are looking at potentially less output from shale, mess in Venezuela and now there is risk in Libya," said Bart Melek, head commodity strategist at Toronto Dominion Bank. "We've seen people get a lot more happy about going long in this environment." The US benchmark crude rose more than 30pc during the first three months of the year as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies trimmed production as part of an agreement to help balance global oil markets. Escalating tensions in Libya and Venezuela are also providing support for crude. Prices have also been lifted by signs that the US and China are on track to resolve the ongoing trade dispute that has threatened oil demand. US President Donald Trump said while any trade deal with China was probably still weeks away, both sides were making progress on an accord that could be "very monumental." Bloomberg The Catholic experience within the North of Ireland has been explored recently in a number of powerful novels, including Anna Burns' Booker Prize-winning Milkman, Paul McVeigh's The Good Son, and Michael Hughes' stunning border epic, Country. With Derry Girls' irreverent take on life in a mid-1990s Catholic girls' school dominating the television listings, it seems like the Catholic voice has never been better represented or more widely acclaimed. As a Protestant writer whose work explores the culture, religion and politics most commonly associated with my community, it's unsurprising that I'm often asked why Catholic narratives seem to dominate the North's literary canon. Firstly, let me challenge the assumption of a Protestant creative void. Connal Parr, in his recent book Inventing the Myth; Political Passions and the Ulster Protestant Imagination, makes the case for a thriving, articulate Protestant voice within theatre in the North. Whilst there's a marked lack of diversity in the playwrights Parr features - they're predominately male, working-class and focused on urban-centric experiences of tribal politics and class -there is undoubtedly a rich seam of Protestant theatre running through the North of Ireland. There are also an increasing number of poets actively engaging with the culture and history of the Protestant community. Scott McKendry's writing takes an unflinching look at the working class Unionist community in which he grew up, whilst much of Jean Bleakney's recent collection, No Remedy, is a poignant and powerful account of her Protestant childhood in Newry, where her father was a border customs officer. Established Northern Irish novelists like David Park, whose 2012 novel The Light of Amsterdam sensitively explores the loss of Protestant faith, and Glenn Patterson, whose essay collection Lapsed Protestant tackles similar themes, have been enormously influential within our literary community for years. There's been a resurgence of strong prose writing emerging from within the Protestant tradition. Though it would be remiss not to mention Phil Harrison's stunning debut, The First Day with its gracious critique of Protestant evangelicalism, women are at the forefront of this movement. Writers such as Lucy Caldwell, Rosemary Jenkinson and Wendy Erskine are capturing the contemporary cultural landscape in their work and it's heartening to see pressing issues such as women's rights, gender equality, faith and class addressed alongside the usual politics which have traditionally dominated much of the North's literary output. Despite these new Protestant voices, the predominant literary narrative of the North remains bent towards the Catholic experience. I can offer no simple reason for this; more experienced academics have spent years hypothesising on the subject. I can only point towards my personal experience. It's taken me 15 years to write confidently and unapologetically about the community in which I grew up. I have encountered a number of issues along the way. Irish literature was celebrated in the Protestant Grammar I attended. We read Heaney, Sean O Faolain and Michael McLaverty. However, Sadie in Joan Lingard's Across the Barricades remains the only Protestant character I recall studying. Her experience was so far removed from my own rural, middle-class, Presbyterianism as to be almost unrecognisable. Later, I'd discover and revel in largely forgotten Protestant writers such as Janet McNeill and Ian Cochrane, but for the most part these texts came too late for me. As a young writer, I didn't see my culture represented in the books I read. I therefore wrongly assumed my culture wasn't interesting or worthy of representation. For years I wrote stories set elsewhere because I didn't believe anyone would want to read about the places and people familiar to me. Lack of representation inspires lack of representation. It's a vicious cycle, which has undoubtedly had an impact on diversity within the North's literary canon. To add to my creative reticence, I grew up in a conservative church. The prevailing theology supported a Calvinistic fear of the arts, and a belief that writing fiction was tantamount to lying. I wasn't encouraged to embrace my creativity and was often envious of the young Catholics I knew who seemed to be surrounded by music, story and art. My religious upbringing is familiar to many Protestant writers in the North. The DUP's ongoing reluctance to support the arts is evidence that this kind of poor theology is still impacting our artists negatively. Like me, many Protestant writers have had to wrestle through guilt, disapproval and condemnation just to write honestly about their experiences. Understandably enough, some have decided it's easier not to bother. Even after I began writing about Protestant culture, I discovered that many people - particularly those outside Ireland - didn't have a nuanced idea of the diverse cultures which co-exist within the North. Once, at a festival in America I was asked to talk about my Catholic childhood. When I explained that I was a Protestant, three people left immediately and others seemed perturbed that I didn't fit into their Catholic, Irish-speaking stereotype of an Ulsterwoman. It's a crass example, but an illustration of the ongoing issues many Protestant writers face as they try to interest readers and publishers in a narrative which is complex, occasionally divisive and often unfamiliar to those who primarily associate Irishness with the Catholic tradition. Video of the Day Still, I remain hopeful. There's a growing community of Protestant writers in the North. They're writing in their own, unique voices about a range of contemporary issues. Perhaps, the next generation of Protestant writers will be able to encounter something of their own lived experience in the books they come across. Maybe it will be easier for them. The North of Ireland is evolving rapidly. New writers are arriving from all over the world, adding their diverse influences and interests to the creative mix. Many local writers no longer claim allegiance to either of the two traditional sides. The literary landscape is now populated with eclectic voices. The notion of what it means to write from, and of, the North of Ireland has never been more complex or intriguing. Jan Carson's novel 'The Fire Starters' is published by Doubleday An Irish short film about a charismatic ice-cream man and the surprising challenges he faces in the course of his job is set to screen at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. While ice-cream vans are synonymous with childhood, summers, and innocence for most of us, theres a darker underbelly to the trade with ongoing turf wars which have, at times, turned violent. Aptly titled 99 Problems, the short delves into this world through the story of Irelands self-declared king of the ice-cream men, Pinky, charting his day-to-day dealings across his particular patch of Dublin and, through animation, his past. However, persuading the ice-cream men of Ireland to contribute to the film proved challenging. When director Ross Killeen and producer Louise Byrne eventually decided to focus solely on the charismatic Pinky, getting him on board was a long, arduous process of building trust, and a close relationship, over the course of two years. Expand Close Pinky, 99 Problems. PHOTO: Malcolm McGettigan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Pinky, 99 Problems. PHOTO: Malcolm McGettigan People in the ice-cream business arent very open. There were a lot of phonecalls where theyd hang up and they just werent interested, says Louise. Not everyone is dodgy of course but there had been a lot of violence in that industry so some people just didnt want to be associated with that. As for Pinky, he was very guarded she says, adding, He did not want to be involved. Ross slowly but surely would check in with him, not push him too much, but just kind of make him realise he was legitimate and it wasnt going to be an expose on him. Ross explains, It was a long courtship of trying to get him to agree to it. He thought it was going to be some sort of Prime Time/Roger Cook report, an investigative thing about ice-cream men and all the dodgy stuff they might be up to. Expand Close Pinky and director Ross Killeen. PHOTO: Malcolm McGettigan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Pinky and director Ross Killeen. PHOTO: Malcolm McGettigan While Ross wanted to highlight the little-known murky undertones in the business, he was also conscious of not destroying peoples memories of their childhoods so, by using animation to tell the back story, he managed to keep it kind of surreal and in that innocent, childlike world. The ice-cream man is a nostalgic, fun thing for everyone. It brings you back to your childhood and summer but there is a kind of undertone and an underbelly going on that not a lot of people are aware of. We wanted to tell that but keep the childlike innocence. Expand Close Pinky, 99 Problems. PHOTO: Malcolm McGettigan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Pinky, 99 Problems. PHOTO: Malcolm McGettigan Video of the Day Screening the finished product for Pinky, despite the fact that by that stage they were firm friends, was still a nerve-wracking endeavour for Ross. I was still a bit nervous the day when he came to watch it and youre sitting there for 13 minutes and its over and youre looking over at him, waiting for the reaction. Then he just started clapping and smiling and he was like, Its deadly!, reveals Ross. Expand Close Ross Killeen and Pinky - 99 Problems. PHOTO: Malcolm McGettigan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ross Killeen and Pinky - 99 Problems. PHOTO: Malcolm McGettigan In fact Pinky is enjoying his moment in the limelight so much he is even travelling to New York for the festival, as are Ross and Louise, with the support of Culture Ireland. They are, says Louise, chuffed to have had the film accepted into such a prestigious festival. 99 Problems, also which recently won the Audience Award at the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival, is a bit of a departure for Ross, whose company, Motherland, is best known for its content and commercials for brands from VHI to Dulux to Heineken. Most recently they were responsible for Tescos cuddly Cedric the bear ads. However, ads are not where he started out. It was another nostalgic documentary short which put the company on the map. Becoming Men was filmed on a whim across the road from Rosss office one day. When he uploaded it to Vimeo it went viral, leading to five years of non-stop offers for commercial gigs. Now that that side of the business is successful, he can finally take time to focus on shorts, and ultimately, features. On the back of 99 Problems, there are several other projects already in the offing for Motherland. Among them is Void, which Louise also produced, a narrative film directed by Ger Duffy and executive produced by U2s The Edge, which they hope to highlight at Tribeca. Despite five years honing their craft, Ross and Louise tried and failed to secure funding to make 99 Problems. Expand Close Pink, 99 Problems. PHOTO: Malcolm McGettigan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Pink, 99 Problems. PHOTO: Malcolm McGettigan Its a decision that was made out of my hands but I think its because we didnt have a track record, says Ross. I honestly think it was, Whos this commercial company coming looking to make a short film? They havent made short films. So, it was like we needed to make one and have a track record and thats what this film has done for us, hopefully. Has there been similar scepticism from others in the industry? I dont know, I sometimes wonder about that, says Ross although he does recall one comment. I remember someone saying to me once, years ago, Once youre an ad guy youre always an ad guy and sometimes when people say things to me Im like, Im going to prove that person wrong, he reveals. I remember that stuck with me. I think people are capable of whatever they want to achieve. Everyones walking around with ideas for films in their heads. Theyve just got to get out and do them. 99 Problems will screen four times at Tribeca, which runs Thursday April 25 to Sunday May 5. Tony and Elaine triumphed in Race Across The World (BBC/PA) Race Across The World winners Tony and Elaine Teasdale have said the British could take lessons from the people they met on their travels who all felt a deep pride for their country. The North Yorkshire couple, both 62, travelled from Greenwich, London, to Singapore, to triumph in the BBC Two programme. The former physical education teachers were first to arrive in Singapore and sign their names in an arrivals book at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, winning 20,000 of prize money. Expand Close Tony and Elaine celebrate after winning Race Across The World (BBC/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tony and Elaine celebrate after winning Race Across The World (BBC/PA) They said they had learnt many lessons from the countries they passed through, but most pertinent of all was that everyone they met had been proud. Tony told the Press Association: We could learn more pride. More pride in our country in general. People were so passionate wherever we went. For them, where they lived was the best place in the world to be. Speaking with everything that is going on at the moment, people dont give you that feeling here, of how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful country, like we do. Were really fortunate. Elaine added: Smile more, hospitality and more pride in your surroundings. Thats what we could learn. The couple travelled 12,000 miles across two continents and 21 countries to beat four other teams. Video of the Day Stripped of their smart phones and credit cards, they used only the cash equivalent of a one-way airfare to Singapore to fund the journey. Expand Close The pair were the first to reach the top of the (BBC/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The pair were the first to reach the top of the (BBC/PA) Tony faced chronic back pain on a number of occasions but never considered giving up. There was weakness there which kicked in on this last leg, he said. But the adrenaline of being desperate to finish the race and, who knows, win it, masked a lot of the pain. There was no question of giving up. It hampered how quickly we got there but we were just desperate to do it. Youve just got to grit your teeth. Elaine added: He literally didnt consider giving up. I thought he might because Ive seen the back when it goes and he cant walk. I was dreading that happening. The couple, who have three children and five grandchildren, were last to reach the first checkpoint of Delphi in Greece. However, they arrived in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and second checkpoint, in first place. This gave them a head start to the third checkpoint of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, then Huangyao in China and on to Koh Rong in Cambodia. After that they raced to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore and on reaching the observation deck realised they were the first to arrive, and therefore the winners. Tess Daly has spoken of her devastation after she accidentally ran over and killed her dog. Minnie, a Maltese Shih Tzu, escaped after builders left a door open at her family mansion, The Sun On Sunday reports. The accident happened as the Strictly Come Dancing host was returning home in her Range Rover and the pet ran under her front wheels. Expand Close Vernon Kay and Tess Daly (Ian West/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vernon Kay and Tess Daly (Ian West/PA) Daly, 49, told the newspaper: Im horrified and devastated by this terrible, tragic accident. It has had a huge effect on the whole family and we are heartbroken at losing Minnie. This has, and continues to be, a very emotional time for us all. She described six-year-old Minnies death as a dog owners worst nightmare. According to the newspaper, Daly was unaware Minnie had got out of the house and did not have time to react when the pet ran under her car. The accident which has also devastated Dalys husband, TV host Vernon Kay, and their daughters, aged 14 and nine happened last month, days before the family were due to fly to the Maldives. Tim Lovejoy quipped that the real me is at home as he hosted Sunday Brunch following Lorraine Kellys tax tribunal ruling. Kelly, 59, hit the headlines when she won a 1.2 million battle after a tax tribunal judge ruled she was not an ITV employee. The judge had ruled that Ms Kelly presents a persona of herself the act being to perform the role of a friendly, chatty and fun personality. Expand Close A tax tribunal judge ruled in Lorraine Kellys favour (Ian West/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A tax tribunal judge ruled in Lorraine Kellys favour (Ian West/PA) Now presenter Lovejoy, 51, has quipped: Im like Lorraine Kelly. Im not real. This is not really me. The real me is at home! He made the joke to Ben Elton, one of the guests on Sunday Brunch, after the comedian said he was grappling with the issue of identity crisis and outrage in his new novel. Elton had been discussing the wider issue of identity and people taking offence on the Channel 4 show, saying: Every celebrity at some point in their career will have to say, That is not who I am. But if none of us are who we are, then who are we? Lovejoy hosts Sunday Brunch with Simon Rimmer. Dessie O'Hare was paid about 10,000 a week to provide security to businesses in Dublin, according to informed sources. Gardai believe the ex-INLA figure known as the 'Border Fox' paid other associates out of the 10,000 sum but pocketed a substantial portion of the money himself. O'Hare was suspected by gardai of selling security services to businesses and individuals under pressure following the economic crash. O'Hare told gardai that he was hired by Jimmy Mansfield Jnr, son of the late self-made billionaire Jim Mansfield, to help with an eviction, the Special Criminal Court heard last week. O'Hare, who pleaded guilty, will be sentenced on Thursday for falsely imprisoning Martin Byrne, a security guard who worked for Mr Mansfield's father for 20 years. He also assaulted a second man at the Towers in Saggart, in a vicious attack that was captured on CCTV. Mr Byrne is now in a witness protection programme. Jimmy Mansfield Jnr confirmed to the Sunday Independent through his solicitor that he met O'Hare and he was "at his hotel" but denied hiring him - or anyone else - to carry out an eviction. He attended a "short pre-arranged interview" with gardai who put O'Hare's allegation to him, he denied it, and the inquiry "went no further". In a separate statement, his solicitor, Kevin Winters, said he had written to gardai seeking the "basis of the allegations" and warned that his client "will litigate" to protect his reputation as a "businessman of standing". Jimmy Mansfield Jnr was implicated in the trial by gardai in evidence to the Special Criminal Court. Superintendent Colm O'Malley said relations between Martin Byrne and Jimmy Mansfield Jnr had deteriorated. In June 2015, he brought Mr Byrne to a meeting in an industrial estate unit, at which O'Hare and another INLA figure, Declan Duffy, were waiting. Gardai told the court that Jimmy Mansfield left the unit, leaving Mr Byrne with the INLA men. The court heard that he was assaulted and his wife and children were removed from their apartment. A second man who attempted to stop the gang's entry to the estate was taken out of his home and attacked in a violent group assault that was captured on CCTV. Jimmy Mansfield Jnr's disputed association with O'Hare is the latest in a series of controversies. Once one of the richest families in Ireland, Jim Mansfield Snr, a self-made billionaire, developed the Citywest hotel and residential complex in west Dublin,and amassed an estimated 1.7bn fortune. He lost it all in the property crash. Many of his assets were taken over by the National Asset Management Agency, and his empire was dismantled. He died in 2014, and his family took over what remained of the businesses. In recent years, Finnstown Castle Hotel, which Jimmy Mansfield managed, was one of several premises raided by the garda's organised crime unit. A bomb was discovered in a car parked in the grounds of the hotel, forcing the evacuation of a wedding. In past interviews, Mr Mansfield told the Independent that he wasn't worried about reports of a threat to his safety from criminals. In another interview, he said he had no links to criminality, had never laundered money and was not involved in the IRA. "It is all bullshit," he said. At his sentencing hearing last week, Dessie O'Hare's counsel pleaded for leniency, and asked the court to view the incident as isolated. Judge Tony Hunt said the possibility of a non-custodial sentence was "unlikely". O'Hare was last jailed for kidnapping and imprisoning dentist John O'Grady. He was released 13 years ago. A 15-year-old boy who has cystic fibrosis (CF) is urging people to think before they speak when dealing with someone who has the genetic disorder, because of the hurtful comments he has endured when out in public. Benat Broderick from Blackrock, Co Dublin, has called for more education and public awareness surrounding Ireland's most common genetically inherited disease. "When people with CF are out in public everyone thinks it is the flu or a cold and presumes it's contagious and that they can catch it," he said. "So it's about education and awareness. I've had adults tell me I am coughing a lot and asking if I had the flu in a very abrupt manner. I have to explain to them that I have CF. People need to be educated that not everyone who coughs is contagious. They need to think before you speak." He said the irony is people with CF are the ones in greater danger of germs spreading from others. "The public needs to be really aware they have to manage the spread of germs because people with CF have lower immune systems," he said. "If someone near you has CF and gets infected it could put them in hospital for weeks." Ireland has the highest incidence of cystic fibrosis in the world, but also the lowest life expectancy of people with the condition. "There has been huge improvement in CF drugs," added Benat. "They are advancing a treatment called Triplecombo which is a groundbreaking drug that will come to Ireland within a few years, all going well. It will make the other drugs look like Smarties. So there is hope." He is urging people to show their support for those living with CF and their families by wearing a purple rose on Cystic Fibrosis Ireland's 65 Roses Day this Friday. "I would encourage people to buy a rose - look out for volunteers, who will be out in force," he said. "The campaign's title '65 roses' comes from the way younger people mispronounce the disorder when they hear their diagnosis." Sport Ireland remains unhappy with the lack of clarity the FAI has provided about former chief executive John Delaney's bridging loan to the association and has sought more information from it this weekend. In a letter sent to the FAI, Sport Ireland has asked it to address a number of issues raised at an Oireachtas committee hearing last week about corporate governance and finances at the association. It was sent on foot of questions Sport Ireland previously put to the FAI but the association failed to address them. Sport Ireland will update Sport Minister Shane Ross and the Oireachtas Sport Committee tomorrow about where it stands with the association. Mr Delaney, who was appointed to the new role of FAI executive vice-president in the middle of a controversy surrounding a 100,000 loan that he gave the association in 2017, is expected to be part of a delegation due to be questioned by the committee on Wednesday. Sport Ireland appeared before the committee last week and its chief executive, John Treacy, told members that he could not say he had confidence in the FAI board. At the same meeting, Sport Ireland chairman Kieran Mulvey said the FAI had contacted it last Tuesday in response to a request for information about the April 2017 loan. The FAI told Sport Ireland it was waiting on the findings of an external review from global auditing firm Mazars before it could address the questions. The FAI has asked Mazars to complete this review as soon as possible. Sport Ireland said this was unacceptable and has contacted the FAI again in search of clarity. It is seeking further information on foot of last week's committee meeting before providing a further update to politicians. The Sunday Independent understands the FAI received the follow-up letter this weekend. Mr Treacy has said he was very disappointed by the FAI's original response. "We were extremely disappointed. We are asking questions. We aren't getting answers. We think we should be able to get an answer quicker than that," he said. Questions put to the FAI on multiple occasions by the Sunday Independent about Mr Delaney's bridging loan, salary and corporate governance at the association were acknowledged by a spokesman last week but have not been answered. Requests to interview Mr Delaney were not responded to. The association is expected to come under further pressure in the coming days to explain the events that led to Mr Delaney giving his employer a loan two years ago. Details of the loan came into the public domain only after Mr Delaney failed to secure a High Court injunction against the Sunday Times publishing a story about it, Speaking on RTE yesterday, Mr Mulvey said Sport Ireland remained confident the 2.9m annual grant paid to the FAI was "properly accounted for and audited". Sport Ireland did not want to become a regulatory authority, he said, but "we will not be found wanting" if a decision needs to be made about cutting its funding to the FAI. "We must engage in a process, otherwise we will end up in courts of law over this and I don't want to be spending money that we need for sport in courts of law," Mr Mulvey added. "If there are other corporate issues within the FAI that relate to the board or the organisation or individuals -that is for them to discuss with the Oireachtas committee. "I said at the committee that there is company law involved here, there's the Office of Corporate Enforcement, the Charity Regulator - there is sufficient oversight in regard to obligations they have independent of us." Committee chairman Fergus O'Dowd has asked for Mr Delaney to be accompanied by the association's interim chief executive, Rea Walshe, and long-serving board members Donal Conway, Paraic Treanor and Eddie Murray. However, the FAI had proposed to send League of Ireland chief Fran Gavin, high performance director Ruud Dokter, business partnerships director Karen Campion and Ms Walshe to accompany Mr Delaney. Mr Treacy said it was important the FAI agreed with the committee's request and respected that it would be appearing before public representatives "elected by the people of Ireland". Fine Gael TD Noel Rock, who has made a complaint to the Office of Corporate Enforcement about the bridging loan, said he would be seeking answers from Mr Delaney at Wednesday's committee meeting. "We need to make sure we have a real climate of corporate governance within sporting organisations in the same way we have, in recent years, recognised the need within NGOs and charities," Mr Rock said. The Government has been warned a new wave of homelessness will be sparked by policies incentivising institutional landlords and forcing individuals out of the rental market. Experts have told the Government it must urgently address rental-market concerns or risk long-term unintended consequences for a generation of renters who will not be able to afford accommodation after retirement. It comes as Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe moved to defend so-called vulture funds buying loans from banks. Writing in today's Sunday Independent, Mr Donohoe says borrowers are not put at a disadvantage when their loans are sold by a bank to private equity companies. He also rounds on Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail over their calls for new legislation to offer borrowers greater protection by forcing banks to seek a customer's permission before selling a loan. Mr Donohoe writes that a new Sinn Fein "No Consent, No Sale" Bill aimed at addressing the issue will cause harm. He said Central Bank research shows the code of conduct around dealing with cases of mortgage arrears is working and there is no difference in the level of repossession activity between banks and private equity firms. Data from the Central Bank shows 166 residential properties were repossessed in the final three months of last year. Vulture funds took possession of 32 residential properties during the same period. Also writing in today's Sunday Independent, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers' chief executive Pat Davitt has warned against vast swathes of property in the capital being bought up by institutional landlords with devastating long-term consequences. "Parents will remain paying rent into retirement, many with only the State pension to support them," he said. "This pension is based on the assumption people don't have significant rent or mortgage commitments. There is every risk they will become the new homeless." There were many heroes of the Repeal the Eighth campaign, and Graham Linehan was certainly one of them. Looking back at that campaign, what made the most difference to public opinion were the people willing to tell their stories of unexpected or unhappy pregnancy, and abortion. There were so many stories, and so many circumstances. So many tragedies, unacknowledged until then. It became impossible to believe that abortion wasn't an issue that affected every single one of us. Graham Linehan and his wife Helen shared their story - a termination following a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality at 11 weeks - as part of a campaign led by Amnesty International. At the time, Linehan said: "I have always been very proud to be Irish but I am embarrassed by Ireland's abortion laws. This is just something you can't be proud of. It's barbaric." The vote carried, the Eighth Amendment was repealed. But for Linehan, anyway, a new fight began almost immediately. This was largely fought online, over something that a majority of people are possibly still confused about - the rights and demands of transsexual people - and the allegation was that Linehan, also a vocal supporter of the Marriage Equality referendum, was transphobic and a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist). The battle raged, mainly on Twitter, for the best part of a year, and, last October, civil proceedings were brought against Linehan by a transgender lawyer, Stephanie Hayden, of defamation, libel and harassment, based around the alleged misuse of gender pronouns and 'dead-naming', which means referring to a transsexual person by their birth name. Hayden claimed that Linehan allegedly published a series of tweets "deliberately misgendering" her by using her previous male name. At the same time, Linehan was contacted by police after Hayden reported him for transphobia. This was reported as Linehan having received a harassment warning. "That is not true," he says now, very firmly. "A harassment warning is a very real thing, and I never received one." Last week, Hayden dropped all charges against Linehan, leaving him free to talk about the experience. Is he relieved the case has been dropped? "Well yeah," he says. "It's been hanging over me for half a year now so it has been quite tough. It's also been tough because while I've been quiet about it, the other party hasn't. It's good that it's over. It's not a nice thing to be sued, although I always thought we'd be exonerated." But let's go back a bit. Just how did Linehan, writer of the evergreen and hilarious Father Ted as well as Black Books and The IT Crowd, go from well-known "woolly liberal" in his own words, to a figure of hate for some within the trans community? This started, it seems, with someone digging up a series of unconnected tweets, some very old, and putting them together to paint a particular kind of picture: "Someone did one of those multi-tweet threads: Here's all the things Graham Linehan said that prove he's a TERF and transphobic," Linehan explains. "I looked at them and I thought, there's nothing wrong with any of these things - every one of them is sympathetic to people with gender dysphoria and is thoughtful about the effects that trans ideology has, and is always about the ideology, not trans people. I thought, there's nothing to be ashamed of in that, so I'm going to fight this rather than accept the idea that I'm transphobic. I'm not transphobic and never have been." And so instead of explaining or apologising, he decided to react. This was in the aftermath of Repeal the Eighth. "When I was fighting for Repeal of the Eighth, I felt I was fighting for women, for women's rights, and I felt, I'm not going to stop doing that now because these people think it's the wrong cause. You have to be consistent." And, he points out: "The weird thing about this debate is that I've made so many trans friends through it. But they're not the 'right' kind of trans friends according to the ideologues." There are many, many strands and elements to the debate - all complex, highly emotive, carrying anger and hurt, and not easily resolved - but the fundamental boiling point seems to be the phrase 'trans women are women', and what, exactly, that means. For Linehan, it goes like this: "I think trans women as women as a courtesy is something that I'm fine to follow. But trans women as literally women, is something I object to. And I think everything comes off that statement." It is the "literalism" of that statement that he refutes. "If you're talking about gender - which I take to mean how you present and how you want to be seen - have as many definitions as you want. I've seen a list of something like 150 possible genders. That's fine. But it gets into trouble when you talk about there being more than two sexes." However the transgender community would argue that the phrase "sex assigned at birth" (replacing "biological sex") is a more accurate and respectful way to acknowledge the process of sex assignation that occurs at birth through a perfunctory look at external anatomy. It might not be possible in all cases (e.g. intersex) to identify an individual as male or female at birth. For trans people, assigned sex may differ considerably from gender identity. For many though, the question isn't so much what, as why? Why did Linehan fight this cause so vigorously? "I decided to start talking about it, and to keep talking about it, because everyone else who spoke about it was getting silenced very quickly and I thought if I refuse to be silenced, if I keep going, then I'll show other people that there's nothing to be scared of. That there's no shame in being critical of gender ideology." Fundamentally, it comes down to what he sees as bullying. "I decided to enter this because I noticed that women who entered it were being fired from their jobs, were being harassed, were being driven off Twitter. And the things they were saying were very simple feminist concepts. The temperature of debate was being kept so high that no one could talk about it. So I wanted to go in and try to amplify the voices of people who I'd seen abused and insulted. I felt they weren't being heard. I wanted to help the women. I saw all this happening and I thought, 'I'm going to be a nail, and they're not going to bend me easily'." Given it all to do again, he would, he says, do things a little differently. But only a little. "I did not take into account the effect that the constant harassment and smearing and vilifying and suing would have. And it has been tough." It is not, he points out "helping anyone not to talk about it, because there are obvious conflicts, and those conflicts need to be resolved. I think hopefully, bit by bit, we'll be able to chip away and show - there is going to be a conversation about this. When we say 'debate', it suggests we're taking opposing positions. There are lots of trans women who agree with me. Those people are considered traitors by the group of politicised trans people. So it's not so much a debate as a conversation in which we work from a shared position of scientific truth. These things need to be discussed to help women, to help trans people. The only people who can be harmed by such a conversation are the bad actors who are steering the conversation towards polar opposite positions, and trying to intimidate people. Those people who are concerned about the conversation becoming civil, they will try and make sure that we can never move past this point." There are, he rightly says, "so many personal stories - everyone knows someone who is trans. But that doesn't mean we can't talk about this. There are many well-meaning people who wrote to me believing they were standing up for their friends. They have been told by mainstream trans-activism, which is really extreme trans-activism, that there are no ways to talk about this, because if you do, you're debating it, and there is 'no debate'. They have had it drilled into them that anyone who steps from the path, immediately has to be shut down". Being sued was not something he expected, although "I knew the person was litigious. I certainly didn't expect the police to call. That happened the same weekend". At first, Linehan believed the phone call from the British police was good news. "I was asked, 'do you know Stephanie Hayden?' I said 'yes', and I thought, brilliant, because I had previously told the police - there's this person who might be bothering you, because I knew that was their modus operandi, and I wanted to give the police some background. So I thought, brilliant, they're calling because they're going to do something about it. But no." Linehan was asked if he could stop talking about Hayden on Twitter. "'Could you not just block them?' I said I already have, a long time ago." At the time, Linehan said, "The police asked me to stop contacting someone I had no intention of contacting. It was a bit like asking me never to contact Charlie Sheen". That phone call, like the legal letter, and the many angry tweets, are all, Linehan feels, part of an attempt to create smoke, regardless of whether there is fire. Although the case has been dropped, Linehan's legal costs, he says, are 28,000. Some 7,000 came from anonymous donations, but that still leaves him with a hefty legal bill. At first, his intention was to go to court, but "if I had gone ahead with the hearing to get the case struck out, it would have cost me another 7,000 or so". That money, or some of it, came from an unusual source. "Around the time this whole thing started, I had cancer [Linehan announced he had been diagnosed with cancer in June 2018]. To our surprise, we found that we had insurance for it, and I said to Helen that, as my gift to myself, I want to use some of this money as a way of fighting this. Because I think it's an important fight and I really hope that something good comes of it." He also says, with a laugh "I always wonder if my decision to get into this conversation was affected at all by the fact that I was on morphine coming out of the operation [after diagnosis, Linehan had a testicle removed]. That was around the time I thought, I'm really going to start talking about this now. And I always wonder, was that because I was on morphine? Because I just couldn't feel any pain! It's not out of the question!" He is now, he says, "going to back away from the whole conversation for a while. I feel I've done enough. I've proved my point, I've taken the hits, and now it's really up to other people to step up, and I hope they will. I do realise," he says, "that I was perhaps not the best person to try and break open this debate, being a straight white male, but I do think that it has had an effect." He has, of course, other fish to fry, namely Pope Ted - The Father Ted musical. "We just did our first mini run through of it," he says, "and it went very well. The way we look at it, it's the final episode of Father Ted." He is also at the "starting stages" of a few other projects; "for a writer, life is more important than reading, and I've had so much life over this last year. Maybe too much life! I think the good thing is that there's definitely a store of material I can use. This fight has been so weird, there have been so many ups and downs; I feel it's all gone into a storehouse. And the other thing is I've met so many wonderful people from all walks of life. I was in a bit of a media bubble before this, but now I know social workers, policemen, teachers - everyone is affected by this debate in different ways, and I've made so many friends through it." Does he regret getting so involved? "No. It was the right thing to do. I've always hated bullies. I was bullied in school, so I just get angry when I see it happening, especially to a whole group of people, and I saw it happening to women. In the end, I can sleep happily because I did the right thing." Lisa Smith: The Louth woman is in a Syrian camp with her daughter A former Irish soldier who went to live in Islamic State-controlled Syria has reportedly denied fighting for the jihadist militants. Lisa Smith, a 37-year-old originally from Co Louth, is currently living in a refugee camp in Syria. Expand Close Irish IS bride Lisa Smith / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Irish IS bride Lisa Smith In an interview with The Mail On Sunday speaking to journalist Norma Costello, she spoke of her desire to return to Ireland with her two-year-old daughter, whom she claims was born to a British father while living in IS territory, a man she says died in the last three months. "For me, I want to go back to my country," the former member of the Defence Forces told the newspaper. "She's (daughter) my number one priority now that's why I want to leave and take her home with me and get her educated. "People here are not educated." In the interview with the newspaper, she added: "The only thing for me what I can do anyway is just live my life the way I live it, in my own home, with my daughter, and bring my daughter up. "I don't want to cause problems for anyone, I don't want to mix, I'm still me, I'm still like a good neighbour, I'm still a good friend, I'm just still me. Expand Close Mother and daughter: Lisa Smith with her two-year old daughter Ruqayya in Syria / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mother and daughter: Lisa Smith with her two-year old daughter Ruqayya in Syria "I'm not, like, out to kill anyone, I don't believe in suicide attacks." According to the newspaper report, when asked whether she fought for Isis, Ms Smith said: "No, I didn't do anything." She reportedly added: "I didn't even own a gun. "My husband many times said to me, 'you want me to buy you one?' I said no. "He said 'it's just for self-defence' or, I said: 'I don't want, I don't want'. "I think anyone that knows me, you know in the army or outside the army or anywhere in my life, will know that, they know me, that I wouldn't pick up the weapon and fight and stuff like that. "I didn't do it, I didn't own a rifle, I didn't teach them anything." Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has already indicated that Ms Smith would be permitted to return to Ireland if she wished. But he has said a security assessment would have to be carried to make sure she is not a threat to anyone in Ireland. Asked if she should face investigation in Ireland, Ms Smith told The Mail On Sunday: "I don't think I should be tried. "If they want to put an investigation on me, I have nothing to hide. "The only thing I did was come here and, if that's my crime, like a lot of other people's, for coming here and realising I made a mistake." Probe: A garda examines the digger used in the ATM robbery at AIB in Castleblaney. Photo: Steve Humphreys Forensic officers at the scene in Dungiven, Co Derry, after a cash machine was ripped from a wall and stolen in the latest of a spate of ATM thefts. Photo: David Young/PA Wire An ATM machine has been stolen from a filling station in Derry, the eighth ATM theft in the north this year. The incident took place outside Dungiven in the early hours of Sunday morning. The theft from the filling station on Feeny Road was reported to police just before 4:30am. A digger, believed to have been taken from a site a short distance away, was used to rip the machine from the wall at the side of the shop leaving substantial damage to the building. The digger was not set alight and was located at the scene. Last week, a cash machine was stolen by thieves using a digger in Castleblaney, Co Monaghan. Gardai were investigating after the ATM was then loaded onto a trailer, which was towed by a dark coloured jeep. PSNI Detective Inspector Richard Thornton said Northern Ireland police were working to combat the spate of recent ATM thefts. Earlier this year a dedicated PSNI team was set up to investigate. "Unfortunately, the public and the business community are today waking to the news that another ATM machine has been stolen; that another business has been targeted by these brazen thieves," he said. "As in all of these ATM thefts, the actions of these criminals have not only caused immediate financial harm to the business targeted, but they have understandably caused fear in the community and impacted upon a vital service many local people rely on. "I want to appeal to anyone who was in the area and who may have witnessed the theft, or who saw the digger being driven to the scene, to contact us. "I would also appeal to anyone who saw any suspicious activity in the last few days in the area to call us. If you have information which you believe could assist our investigation please, pick up the phone and call detectives on 101, quoting reference number 357 of 07/04/19." He appealed on members of the public to report suspicious activity to police. We are doing all we can to catch the people responsible it is a key priority for us however, I want to reiterate that the key to stopping these crimes and getting ahead of these criminals is information from the public," Detective Inspector Thornton said. We need people to report anything suspicious, including seeing any unusual activity or people in areas close to ATMs. For example, if you hear machinery late at night or in the early hours please let us know. "If you see any cars being driven in a suspicious manner close to where ATMs are located, please let us know. No matter how insignificant you think it is, call us and we will investigate. It could be key to catching the criminals responsible. Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime. Eric Eoin Marques couldnt connect with peers but the child entrepreneur utilised prodigious tech skills to make money - and eventually grew up accused of being the worlds biggest facilitator of child porn. 33-year-old Marques, extradited to the U.S on on March 23, had surrendered to the FBI at Dublin Airport after a six-year legal attempt to avoid the extradition. Marques, of Mountjoy Square, Dublin city, had grown up in Clonshaugh, north Dublin. And the man now facing allegations he conspired to distribute and advertise child pornography on the dark web, had lived an isolated life as a child. Neighbours in Clonshaugh, who witnessed snippets of Marques childhood, paint a picture of a lonely child who couldnt fit in but who taught himself early tech skills, enabling him to benefit financially. The children all called Eric Casper, one elderly woman told Independent.ie, as she opened up about her familys shock at his arrest and extradition. He was a very odd boy. All my kids said he was weird. He got the name Casper because he was so pale, like the cartoon ghost. And he never hardly seemed to go out. Youd see him running up and down the street sometimes but he was always alone, he didnt play with other kids. He tried to play with my kids a few times but they didnt want to, he couldnt connect with them. They thought he was weird. The woman pointed to a green across the road. During Marques childhood in the 90s and the early 2000s - that area had been so full of children, you could hardly see the grass, she said. The green was almost empty when Independent.ie visited the area, there were a few women walking dogs. But not one child was playing there. Its all changed now. Kids are stuck to their headphones in their bedrooms on computers, one woman said. But they can get in trouble doing that too. Nowhere is safe it seems for kids. You cant help but wonder if Eric had had help, he might not have gone down the path he did. I dont know. I just know my kids were really shocked when they saw his picture in the paper for this. I mean, he was a quiet kid. But there didnt seem to be any harm in him. But another older woman, who says her children did attempt to play with Marques when he was around 10-years-old, stated she believed nothing and no one could have altered his path. Im glad the Americans have him, she said. Because if he went through the Irish justice system, it would go too easy on him. Eric had the chance to play with my kids when he was a child. He didnt want to. Hed come over to them for minutes and then just wander off and play on his own. My kids just thought he was weird, in a world of his own. He couldnt relate to other kids. But there was more to him. He was very smart. I remember my kids said he used to make some sort of CDs or video games in his room and sell them round the corner. He was using technology very early, making things to sell and I think thats pretty unusual. He was motivated to do that and to make money from it. Other kids were just running round the green, being kids, playing. His mother works very hard. She is a good woman. No mother can imagine having a son accused of something like that. I feel for her. And theres no way we should forget just what hes accused of. We are talking innocent children whose lives have no doubt been destroyed, if the accusations are true. Marques, who holds dual Irish and U.S citizenship, had lived in Dublin since childhood. Hes accused of renting out server space used to host a wide range of child abuse images and videos across the globe. Hes alleged to have made hundreds of thousands of euro from advertising and distributing the material. Eric used to stand at the window of his flat, just looking out, another older resident told Independent.ie. He was so pale. He hardly went out. I remember at around the time of the Millennium, we started having street parties. All the children would be at them. They were great events, the woman added. But Eric would never be at them, never, she said shaking her head, looking towards the ground. No one could put their finger on it but Eric just seemed to be alone and wanted to be alone. Im sure his mother did everything she possibly could for him. You still see her walking up the street after work every evening. I know shes a very hard working woman and shes got to be broken by this. No mother could in their worst nightmare expect their child would grow up accused of this. I dont know what went wrong. Arrested in Dublin in 2013, after an international investigation involving the FBI, Gardai and Europol, Marques had fought his extradition to the U.S. On Monday he appeared in the U.S District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he was remanded. Prosecuting U.S Attorney Robert K. Hur thanked the Irish authorities in extraditing the accused, stating: Criminals cannot hide on the dark web or in foreign countries. We will find them and bring them to justice Marques had offered to plead guilty provided he was prosecuted in Ireland, but the Director of Public Prosecutions rejected this. If he is convicted, Marques will face decades in a federal prison. Some of the charges carry 30 year terms. Marques taught himself the web technology which has now seen him accused of providing the web hosting space allowing criminals to operate without scrutiny, circulating child pornography. Detectives found evidence he had earned 1.15 m between 2007 and 2013, taking in 250,000 in the year before his arrest. Marques had been referred to a psychiatrist as a young teenager but there was no official diagnosis. However when he was assessed in prison, it was discovered he has Aspergers Syndrome. We didnt understand what that was years ago, one female resident where he grew up said. We didnt understand if there was something wrong. We knew he was different, we just didnt know why. And now his poor mother has to know hes gone to America and she might never see him again. Could you ever get over this, what hes accused of? I dont think we can blame him having a condition though. I think we have to blame the man. I believe he knew right from wrong. Chantal Mutesi, The Mayor of Limerick City and County of Limerick, Cllr James Collins, and Egwyge Roussard plant a tree at the solemn gathering in Limerick for the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Pic Sean Curtin True Media. A WOMAN living in Cork who survived the Rwandan genocide has paid tribute to Irish people on the 25th anniversary of the 1994 event. Chantal Mutesi (51) moved to Ireland with her baby after the horrific genocide that claimed the lives of over 800,000 people. She survived alongside her three-week old baby, who has grown up in Cork and who will go to her homeland for the first time next month at the age of 25. Ms Mutesi said she was "deeply touched" by the support of the Irish people when she first moved here. Expand Close Chantal Mutesi and Egwyge Roussard joined by Mayor of the City and Council of Limerick James Collins. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Chantal Mutesi and Egwyge Roussard joined by Mayor of the City and Council of Limerick James Collins. "I was twenty-six when it happened. I was there. I lived through it. I survived it with a baby who was only three weeks old when it started. Memories don't fade despite people saying time is a healer. It's not really it just you learn how to cope," she said at a special commemoration with aid agency Bothar today. Memories are still fresh. Seeing the next morning was a bonus. I lost my husband, brothers and my sister. My mom. My grandmother. And my cousins my aunties my best friends and my you know. The whole life was changed overnight. "Commemorating, remembering our loved ones today and the same time acknowledging whats happening; the courage, the faith and the progress we've made, I couldn't be prouder." Fellow Rwandan Edwige Roussard said the commemoration, held near Bothar's headquarters in Limerick, meant a lot to those who lived through it. "I left Rwanda when I was five but it's my home country. And I have family there and I also lost some members of my family. "I'm really glad to see how the Irish and Limerick people are dedicated to remember what happened in Rwanda. The pair were joined by Mayor of the City and Council of Limerick James Collins at O'Brien Park to plant a birch tree, known as a symbol of hope and new beginnings. The 100 days of slaughter began on April 6, 1994, after President Juvenal Habyarimana and his counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi - both Hutus - were killed when their plane was shot down over the Rwandan capital. Niamh Mulqueen, Bothar Chief Operating Officer said that despite the agencies 20 plus years of work in Rwandan,the genocide still shows "how cruel life can be". "When we hear the stories that we've heard today it can actually stop in your tracks," she said. "However, I think an important message to take away from today is to show the positivity that is in Rwanda now 25 years later, the hope that they have. The resilience that they have. I think the whole world could learn from them." Sinn Fein's deputy leader Michelle O'Neill vowed that there will be an Irish unity referendum "within the next short number of years". The Mid Ulster MLA made the comments while addressing party colleagues at Sinn Fein's local election campaign launch in Dublin on Sunday. Ms O'Neill said that the Brexit debate had changed opinions on a united Ireland and called on people to begin preparing for the referendum. She said that the "political landscape is changing" and "change is in the air", pointing to the recent electoral success of Sinn Fein. Over the past two elections in the north the unionist majority has gone," Ms O'Neill said. Sinn Fein and the SDLP currently hold one more seat in the non-sitting Northern Ireland Assembly than the traditional parties of unionism, the DUP and UUP. Ms O'Neill said that the "notion of a perpetual unionist majority - the very basis of partition - is gone" and that Brexit had "completely transformed the context". People who were previously apathetic about a United Ireland are re-engaged, and people who would have been opposed to a United Ireland are now reconsidering their position," the Sinn Fein deputy leader said. There is no doubt that Brexit has been a catalyst for mainstreaming the debate now underway, where people of all shades of opinion are considering the benefits of remaining within the United Kingdom against the merits of staying within the European Union through a unified Ireland." The Mid Ulster MLA said that because of Brexit, Irish unity was "no longer a long-term aim" and that a referendum was a "very real prospect within the next short number of years". Ms O'Neill called on people to prepare for the referendum, to "reach out and work with people from all identities and ideologies, and persuade them that interests are best served in a united Ireland". A United Ireland is within our grasp. We are in the most defining period since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and Ireland is changing rapidly," she said. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that the party will meet in Belfast next week to select their Northern Ireland candidate for the upcoming European elections. It remains to be seen whether the UK will field candidates in the election, but Prime Minister Theresa May has indicated the UK could be willing to take part, as she seeks another Brexit extension until June 30. It is anticipated European Council President Donald Tusk will suggest a year long extension, which can be broken if the UK agrees a withdrawal deal, at a summit in Brussels next Wednesday. "Sinn Fein will be ready, we will be prepared to energetically contest EU elections in the north," Mrs McDonald said. We will give the people of the north the opportunity to vote for a Sinn Fein candidate who will stand up for their interests, for the interests of Ireland." Nominations for the Sinn Fein candidate will open on Monday and close on Friday with a selection convention held in Belfast next Saturday. Party veteran Martina Anderson is the current Sinn Fein MEP for Northern Ireland. The Archbishop of Dublin has told of his shock at finding serial paedophile priests are unable to conclusively confirm newly-reported cases of abuse they were involved in because they had so many victims. Dr Diarmuid Martin made the disturbing revelation in an RTE documentary detailing how the Vatican came to exert control over almost every aspect of Irish life since the foundation of the State. Former Minister for Justice and Attorney General Michael McDowell takes a forensic look at how the Catholic Church was handed the power over health, education, social services and morality in the State for nearly a century. In the RTE programme Rome v Republic, Dr Martin talks frankly about the scale of abuse, expressing his deep concern that paedophile priests can often be unsure if they abused a victim or not when a new case comes to light. He said: "Any organisation has to ask how is it that at a particular time, there was a large number of serial paedophiles. I'm talking serious paedophiles, we're talking about hundreds. "There are cases coming forward and my people will ask, for example, a priest, if a new case comes up, from one of these historical cases, does this name mean anything to you? Sometimes they say, 'Yes, I abused that person'. "Sometimes, and this is the more worrying one, they (say) 'the name means nothing, but I can't say, it could have happened...' "They don't even, they didn't even know how many people they abused." Former President Mary McAleese, who has been studying in Rome since leaving office, reveals the astonishing attitude to abused children she still encounters in some parts of the Catholic hierarchy. She said: "I've heard it said many times here in Rome by senior churchmen in whose company I have been that 'God chose these men, and the devil works through children'. "They have no idea that the person hearing sees that as preposterous - for them it is frankly, normal." Dr McAleese also recalls she shot down a request from one of the Vatican's top cardinals to place incriminating church files beyond the reach of Irish State enquiries during a presidential visit to Italy in 2003. It occurred during a private meeting with then Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano. "I left there really quite shattered that this was the No.2 in the church I belonged to. Everything about him I found horrifying." In Rome v Republic, Michael McDowell reveals 170,000 children were sent to a network of church-run institutions from the 1930s to 1970s. "In many of the institutions, they were treated like prison inmates, neglect was widespread, children were frequently hungry and many were subjected to extreme physical and emotional abuse. In the boys' institutions ,there was an endemic culture of sexual abuse." He reveals how the State effectively let the Church off the hook when it came to paying compensation to victims. "In the dying days of the 2002 administration, Michael Woods, on behalf of the Government, met the representatives of the religious orders and did a deal with them under which the State would effectively cap the liability of the religious orders. "I was the Attorney General at the time and neither I nor members of the Government in Cabinet were consulted on this matter. The simple fact is that as a result, the State effectively signed a blank cheque that cost us 1.4bn in the end in exchange for a promise of a contribution of 100m (128m) from the religious orders." Despite two decades of horrific scandals, cover-ups and revelations, the documentary concludes that the Church remains embedded in Irish life. 'Rome v Republic', RTE One, Thursday, 10.15pm. Sean Quinn's children are working with the liquidator of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) to win control of a small number of overseas bank accounts containing what one source said was several million euro. The bank accounts are among the last outstanding assets linked to the Quinns' property portfolio yet to be recovered by the liquidators of what was Anglo Irish Bank, according to informed sources. The sources confirmed that all the major properties in the Quinns' 450m property portfolio were now controlled by IBRC, the entity that took on the assets and liabilities of the bust Anglo. The protracted legal battle between the former tycoon's family and IBRC ended when both sides agreed a confidential settlement last week. IBRC sued the five Quinn children over 2.3bn in loans advanced by Anglo to Quinn companies, while Sean Quinn's five children sued IBRC. Both sides dropped their legal actions last Tuesday, with each agreeing to pay their own legal costs. The confidential settlement obliges the Quinn children to cooperate with the bank's attempt to recover assets or have an 88m judgement enforced against them. The only Quinn family member who is not bound by the settlement is Peter Darragh Quinn, who resides in another jurisdiction, and who was the subject of a bench warrant for his arrest when he was held to be contempt of the High Court. Sean Quinn has also signed the settlement agreement. IBRC accused the Quinn family of conspiring to put their assets beyond reach, stripping the international property group of assets worth 445m in Russia, Ukraine and India. Sources confirmed that the last of these major assets, a 70m office block in India, is now under IBRC control. The IBRC's attempts to take over the office block were thwarted when the shares were secretly transferred to a Dubai company out of their reach. A source said new insolvency laws in India generated new information that led to a breakthrough in securing ownership of the building. Weeks before the landmark settlement, the IBRC revealed in the Commercial Court that new information had come to light about two Dubai firms it said were central to the alleged asset-stripping conspiracy. The other properties include shopping centres and office blocks in Russia and Ukraine, along with four pubs and two hotels, including the Slieve Russell in Ireland, and a hotel in the UK. The total cost to the State of the legal actions, the international investigations and the loss of the assets' multi-million euro rent rolls is estimated at 170m. The 'Almighty's bows-and-arrows' have reappeared in the sunshine of West Cork mornings. The martins and swallows are back to old homes and old eaves - perhaps not as 'perfect' as in The Wind in the Willows - and are bringing smiles with their swoops about farm buildings, sloping fields and plodding cows after milking. The birds are a reassurance of seasonal change, uplifting the hearts of those beings below them going about their daily tasks. On April 1, the first swallow (hirundo rustica - fainleog in Irish) seen by one reader/farmer brought a text: "Single swallow whizzing around the farmyard this morning. Great to see them back just as we've moved back to summertime." Their bow-and-arrow image - the martin (delichon urbica) is gabhlan binne in Irish - is perhaps because they, among spring's earliest arrivals, have been shooting up from Africa, and along the Atlantic coast after a four-week migration, not without its hazards of dust, tempest and predation via the Straits of Gibraltar. Cervantes wrote "una golondrina no pace verano" (one swallow doesn't make a summer) and the first West Cork bird has been joined by others, all seeking nooks of memory in outhouses, barns and porches to put a stamp of summer days to come of insect chasing high in the air and grass-top skimming among grazing cattle. Returning swallows, especially younger birds, may start to build anew with mud and grass, but others will return to older homes which will be refurbished. They are practical birds; I have seen mummified remains dumped out in a spate of nest renewal, an abandoned chick of a very late brood when the urge for going became overwhelming. Old nests become more durable as time passes; one was recorded in Britain as being in continuous use for more than 40 years. There were, and perhaps still are, some home-owners who do not welcome swallows and martins to their properties, and knock down nest materials, hoping the birds will move on and not soil the decor of their porches. But thankfully there are also people who consider it a blessing to have a wild bird's nest at their home. As the swallows and martins were returning, there were groups of much larger birds also in the skies, and bird-watching tourists to Andalusia in Spain have been looking out for kites, storks, buzzards, eagles and vultures making their way into mainland Europe. The big fellows travel in daylight much lower in the sky than smaller birds. Once most people believed swallows spent winters beneath lakes in a torpid state! Dr Samuel Johnson wrote in the 17th Century: "Swallows certainly sleep all winter; flying round and round and then thrusting themselves to lie in the bed of a river." A century later, the naturalist Linnaeus (who gave most wild creatures their Latin names), still wavered about migration. But one 19th Century Corkman, the Rev F O Morris, was emphatic. "Our swallows are not 'visitants'," he said. "Although absent for much of the year, it is with us that they inhabit their dwellings and rear their young." Now they are back, their long tails giving them great manoeuvrability, and reminding us that summer is just down the road. Poor latch, mastitis, blisters, blocked ducts... If you're a breastfeeding mother, or if you have been, the chances are you'll have heard of these. Tongue tie is another problem encountered by breastfeeding mothers. Once lampooned as a trendy fad, tongue tie is now being diagnosed more in babies, and the HSE now has a national clinical policy on it. It occurs in babies when a piece of tissue attached to the baby's tongue is tight and/or unusually short, holding their tongue down and stopping it from moving freely. It affects how the baby feeds and can cause physical problems for both mother and baby. Desperate with lack of sleep, first time mothers often feel they have nowhere to turn, and they often don't know that tongue tie is a fixable problem. "As there are more babies breastfeeding now, there are now more tongue ties being detected," Dr Alan O'Reilly, a GP and certified lactation consultant, who specialises in tongue tie, advises. "There are a growing number of pediatricians and GPs that are developing an interest in breastfeeding and tongue tie as the public's concern and interest have risen." "Most children with tongue tie will breastfeed successfully with expert lactation support and without any surgical intervention (to have the tongue tie cut)." More mothers are breastfeeding their babies today in Ireland than they were forty years ago. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of babies in Ireland were fed formula. In 1974, for example, the breastfeeding initiation rate in the Rotunda hospital was 11pc. Fast forward to earlier this year, when it was found that some 55.4pc of babies were being breastfed at the time of the public health nurse's first visit. Breastfeeding rates in Ireland are climbing (albeit that Ireland still has the lowest rate for breastfeeding in Europe.) And as the rates increase, the challenges that can come with breastfeeding, are being talked about more. In 2014 the journal Maternal and Child Health published a study looking at breastfeeding and maternal depression. It found that mothers who planned to breastfeed and went on to do so were around 50pc less likely to become depressed than mothers who had not planned to, and who did not, breastfeed. "When people choose to come in to get a frenotomy (have the tongue tie cut) done for their baby, it's a decision that they don't make lightly. They're doing it because they're passionate about breastfeeding," Dr O'Reilly said. "The babies that I see at my frenotomy clinic would continue to have breastfeeding difficulties despite maximum lactation support." Breastfeeding your baby can offer protection against gastrointestinal infections and diarrhea, middle-ear infections, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, lymphoma, leukaemia, and Hodgkin's disease. It also reduces the likelihood of childhood obesity. Mothers who are struggling with breastfeeding challenges can often continue to breastfeed successfully if they are given the right help. "It is vital that mothers and babies are assessed by healthcare professionals with experience in breastfeeding and tongue tie. In Ireland this expertise usually lies with lactation consultants and public health nurses. Doctors in general have very limited teaching and training in breastfeeding," Dr O'Reilly said. "With tongue tie, it's important that people get assessed by people qualified in the area and that they get the maximum amount of lactation support without jumping straight to a frenotomy (where the tongue tie is cut)." "Bottle-fed babies with tongue tie generally do not have a problem with feeding. The peristaltic wave-like motion that is required for efficient breastfeeding is not required for bottle-feeding." Dr OReilly cautions that tongue tie could be over-diagnosed, though. "It is true that the growing awareness of tongue tie has brought its own problems. There is a growing over-diagnosis of tongue tie in babies with completely normal tongue anatomy and function. It is important that mothers and babies see healthcare professionals with adequate experience and training." "Parents are now more informed about breastfeeding as people research their symptoms online and they discuss their symptoms with other mothers and health professionals on online forums." "Mothers of children with restrictive tongue ties and breastfeeding problems are sharing their positive and sometimes negative experiences with each other." Often the mother will be advised to push through the challenges and continue breastfeeding because babies will only become established at breastfeeding after the first two or three weeks. "It is important that babies get the chance to establish breastfeeding on their own and with lactation support if required before considering tongue tie release. There are very restrictive tongues which may not allow a baby to form a sustainable latch from birth. I feel that these babies should be seen as soon as possible by a lactation expert with experience in diagnosing tongue tie. There are also mild tongue ties that will allow for established, sustainable and pain free breastfeeding after lactation support for 2-4 weeks, Dr O'Reilly said. "It is vital that all babies with difficulty breastfeeding are also assessed by a doctor to exclude medical conditions such as infection, neurological disorders and congenital abnormalities that may be associated with breastfeeding problems for baby." Dermot Murnane is an oral surgeon who releases tongue and lip ties in infants, children and adult. "Tongue tie runs in families. It's a family trait. If you find one baby has it, a cousin has had it, for example, he said. "It's a simple one-minute procedure and the result is instant. If the baby feeds straight away, it will feel different to mum straight away. The baby might be sore for a day or two, but after day three there's generally a turn around, and the baby has a firmer latch and more rhythm to their feeding. Much happier baby, baby goes to sleep, and much happier mum then. Dr Murnane says the amount of frenotomies hes performing has increased in the last few years. The lack of provision of services is amazing. It's mind boggling how difficult it is to get such a procedure done. Maternity hospitals don't even check if there is a tongue tie. It's poo-pooed as a non-event. A lot of it is changing but people thought that was just quackery and they'd discourage you from having it released." "It's a very small tiny little procedure, and there's practically noone in the country doing it. People have to travel horrendous distances to have it done It's a 30 second procedure. "It should be a standard procedure provided in any maternity hospital. Legend has it that midwives would keep one sharp finger nail and they would do it. That of course has changed now," he said. The first thing to say is that, despite everything, the law of the land remains that the UK leaves the EU without a deal at 11pm on Friday this week. Given the alternatives, this would be much the best thing to do. The second thing to say, however, is that this is highly unlikely. The combined effect of Mrs May's weak stubbornness, her crazy last-minute legitimation of Jeremy Corbyn, and the antics of Letwin-Bercow-Cooper-Boles-Benn - hereinafter referred to, for brevity, as "Letlose" - will probably see to that. The declared purpose of Letlose was for parliament to "take control of the Brexit process". This cannot happen, because Brexit is a negotiation, and only governments, not parliaments, can negotiate. So the actual effect of Letlose is to destroy the UK government's negotiating position with the EU. This is a disgraceful thing to do; but, in a funny way, it doesn't matter, because Mrs May has destroyed her own negotiating position anyway, by declaring, despite having said the opposite a hundred times, that no deal will not happen. She has no cards left to play. All this means that parliament and the government have almost no role in what happens next - unless, as I say, they stick to what nearly 500 MPs voted for when they triggered Article 50, and let us leave without a deal. There is no point fretting about whether Mrs May's deal is better than staying in the customs union, since it is almost the same thing. It provides, in the Political Declaration and by the backstop trap, what amounts to a customs union anyway. To steal Dr Johnson's phrase, it is like disputing the precedence between a louse and flea. The important point is that Letlose and Mrs May have now handed control of Brexit to the EU. So the EU sets the timing and the terms. Therefore we can lift our eyes beyond Westminster. Rain stopped play there last Thursday afternoon. Let us pray that the roof goes on leaking for eight more days. We should consider, instead, how the EU will now try to define the UK's fate during the extension whose length it will shortly decide. The EU is not, as some of my fellow Brexiteers think, a dictatorship, but an empire. Empires are not necessarily all bad. When they work, they can bring more peace, more order and better drains, as did both the Roman and the British. When they don't work, they impoverish, oppress and kill millions, as did the Soviet Union. On a scale out of 10, if the British empire is seven and the Soviet Union is one, the EU is three or four. Their common problem is that they inevitably lack democratic legitimacy. So they perish. Empires have emperors. In this respect, the EU is a dual monarchy. Although it is also a bureaucracy - which is where, before lunch at least, Jean-Claude Juncker comes in - it really defers to whoever is Chancellor of Germany or President of France. Since the insane decision to create the euro, thus subjugating the zone to German economic preferences, the Germans have won. As far as Brexit goes, then, we need briefly to consider Emmanuel Macron. He is an arrogant man, and unpleasant about Britain, but he is only a little emperor. One longs for him to exercise his residual power to refuse us any extension, but he won't. If he has a role in our drama, it is to be the hard cop. The soft cop matters much more. WPC Merkel seems pleasant. If she were an empress in name as well as in fact, she might go down in history as Angela the Mild or Angela the Dull. This makes her more dangerous to the cause of Brexit than Mr Macron, because she will try to kill it with kindness. Despite Mrs May's best efforts, she still fears no deal at a later date because it represents imperial failure. Mrs Merkel's kindness has already wreaked havoc in Europe - the feeble deal she offered David Cameron, her dire "rescue" of Greece, and her unilateral admission of a million mainly Muslim immigrants in one year. Last Thursday, she flew to Dublin. She met people from the border counties. Like the benign empress bringing comfort to the most far-flung of her subjects, she sat down and sympathised with what she thought were their woes. As someone brought up in East Germany, she said, she knew what it was like to live with a wall dividing your country. She promised to prevent it in Ireland. This historical comparison was insultingly mistaken. It implies that the North is - or might become - like communist East Germany, a dictatorship which severs a great people. It also implies that the imagined Brexit wall would be put up by the British. Empress Angela knows perfectly well this will not happen, because the only people wanting anything "hard" at the border are not the British and not the Republic, but the EU. In the event of no deal, Europe insists on a strict external frontier: it wants its tariffs. The Irish noticed none of this, because she was their great white mother from beyond the sea. Mrs Merkel's visit had a more concealed purpose. She was saying gently to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar: "We're with you, but are you really quite sure you want to go so hard on this backstop thing? Couldn't you make it a bit more provisional? If it brings about no deal, Ireland will be the biggest loser." If there were some give on that front, the empress could then set her emissaries to work on a British government held captive during the extension period - flustered, if it stays long enough, by its inevitable hammering in the European elections. It would not surprise me if Daniel Hannan were the only Tory MEP left standing. Enticing the UK by hints on the backstop, the EU could then pick its moment to work out how best to hold us down in the customs union and, if we remain as weak as we are now, demand a second referendum, too. Then, from the EU's point of view, the worst that can happen is that it neuters the UK: its best is that we decide to stay in after all, humiliated. Angela the Mild will avoid crowing, but her European Germany/German Europe (same thing) will have confirmed its reign, and she can happily hand over to her designated successor. That is the way things are going. Can Britain do anything to stop it? Not, obviously, under Mrs May. Not under Mr Corbyn who, thanks to her begging him for help, now at last looks important. A bad Brexit, created by the Tories, is exactly what he wants. There would have to be a new Conservative leader, who was a Leaver. He or she would have to exploit the long extension period to fight and win a general election, with the no-deal option as his proposed Brexit bottom line. He would blame Labour for the sell-out (though this would hardly be the full picture) and explicitly seek the numbers of MPs required to move his party, after more than two years of drift, to decision. For this he would need a purged central organisation which would let constituencies get rid of Remain candidates and pick Leave ones. It does not sound likely, does it? The only reason to think that it might happen is the prospect of the alternative, which is annihilation. Telegraph Cervical screening was back in the news last week with the report that 80,000 women are currently waiting for smear test results - some for as long as 33 weeks - as a result of the backlog of repeat smears done on women in the fall-out from the CervicalCheck controversy. Dr Grainne Flannelly, former director of CervicalCheck who resigned in the wake of Vicky Phelan's case, said she warned officials that thousands of recheck smears would create exactly this problem and Minister for Health Simon Harris is once again in the firing line about why he offered these repeat smears in the first place. And I despair. Because in a nutshell what's happening now is opposition politicians are crying foul about repeat smear tests being rolled out to women - when those self-same politicians clamoured for those very repeat smear tests to be rolled out. They want to know why no one listened to Grainne Flannelly - a very fine physician - when the truth is no one wanted to hear from her in their rush to condemn her and CervicalCheck. Even last week I saw a former senator tweeting that women should know that the same labs are being used for CervicalCheck as were being used previously - as if that was a bad thing. That person clearly hadn't read The Scally Report or they would know that the labs in question were found to meet the international standards for labs providing cervical cytology. They are perhaps also unaware that when CervicalCheck was launched we didn't have the lab capacity needed to do the testing ourselves. And that prior to CervicalCheck - even though we were doing less smear testing - results here routinely took six months in our Irish labs. But it made me realise that people still don't really understand what happened with CervicalCheck. And it's important that they do. Because what I'm now hearing is doctors are no longer signing up for colposcopy certification. They don't want to be involved with CervicalCheck. They feel they're being scapegoated and vilified. I've also heard the labs are unhappy. Our court system is now describing misread or false negative smears as negligence. That isn't happening elsewhere. Because if approximately a quarter of abnormal test results are misread (false negative) - then ascribing negligence to all of them with subsequent million-euro compensation will simply render our screening service financially unviable. And if CervicalCheck fails because doctors and labs don't want to be involved, and because financially we can't afford it, make no mistake, it will be women who are the losers. So let us recap on what actually happened here. Cervical screening is done by sampling cells from the cervix in asymptomatic women and examining them to look for pre-cancerous abnormalities that might predict future development of cervical cancer. I've chosen those words carefully because it's a test designed to pick up small changes in well women. It's not designed to pick up cervical cancer. Even though on occasion it may do so. The difference between negative and positive (normal and abnormal) results are subtle enough. Cytologists try to differentiate between shades of purple and numbers of cells - hence the high rate of "false negatives" (smears that are read as normal but actually some abnormalities are present). But studies show that false negatives - while not being entirely normal - tend not to look the same as truly positive, obviously abnormal samples. Still with me? Basically, screening is a leaky sieve that not all abnormal - particularly subtly abnormal - samples gets picked up by. And why can't it be better? Because it can't. That's the limitation of screening - here, there and everywhere else in the world. HPV testing will increase its accuracy when it's rolled out but there'll still be false negatives. That is one of the reasons we do repeat smears - to double-check previous results. When a woman is diagnosed with cervical cancer, her old smear tests are reviewed to see if they were read correctly. This is done for quality control to make sure the rate of false negatives in the lab is within the acceptable (albeit high) range. That's called audit and systems that do this (including ours) are considered to be of a higher standard to those that don't. Most countries never disclose audit results to patients as it's done to check the system - not as part of a patient's clinical care. And also, if you knew your old smear was a false negative it'd probably bring you nothing but heartache. The UK, however, does disclose audit results - if patients request it. But it explains in advance that false negatives are inherent in screening and there may well be a false negative result in a woman with cancers past. Half of all women offered audit results there, when that is explained, refuse them. Where we went wrong was: we audited - good. But we never decided how to handle disclosure of audit results - bad. That's what The Scally Report found - not that our labs were faulty or that women's diagnoses were withheld, but that those running the system never explained audit to Irish patients. So when Irish women started to find out often inadvertently - which is truly terrible - that they'd had previously misread smears, they had no context for this. No understanding that that is a very common issue in screening. And no understanding of why this information hadn't been given to them. The difficulty we have now is that CervicalCheck is under pressure. Doctors and labs don't want to work in it. And our courts are treating misread smears as requiring compensation. The court of public opinion is also deeply sceptical of the screening programme - when the truth is that it picks up as many cancers as every other cervical screening programme in the world and has reduced the incidence of cervical cancer here by 7pc a year since its inception. It has saved thousands of lives. But sadly not every life - and that's what screening does. If it collapses, more women will get cervical cancer. And don't forget what a horrible cancer that is. It destroys women's sex lives, leaves them in terrible pain and kills one-third of them within five years. The HPV vaccine and screening are all we have to try and prevent it. The failures in CervicalCheck were all to do with disclosure and governance. They were not to do with screening itself. I can see a situation where our system either stops auditing (which would lower standards) to avoid litigation. Or where the HSE decides it simply can't afford - because of litigation - to continue it. The 'what if' of false negative is a personal tragedy for a woman with cancer but a greater tragedy for all women is the loss of life caused by no screening service at all. Screening is imperfect but it's the best tool we have in the fight against cancer. Throwing away the good because it's not the perfect, is short-sighted and dangerous. Until now, Brexit has had little material effect on everyday life other than to increase uncertainty and worry. That could change radically over the next week. Yet another crunch moment will take place on Wednesday when 28 EU leaders meet in Brussels for an emergency summit on the issue. Front and centre will be whether 27 of them agree to allow their British counterpart to drag out the process further and what terms they would demand for acquiescing to Britain's request to do so. Let's start with a clarification. There has been much talk about what "Brussels" and "the EU" will do. It should be clear the potentially momentous decisions taken this week will be made by 28 national leaders, not by Brussels or any EU institutions. European basic law, as set out in Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, says member countries decide - unanimously - on granting an extension to a departing member. Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, both presidents of EU institutions, sit at the summit table but do not have a vote. If that much is clear, not much else is. Over recent days, I have sought the views of two dozen informed people in continental countries whose leaders will be at the table on Wednesday. They are set out here, country by country. More generally, a number of themes emerged. One is acute uncertainty. In normal times, people close to affairs of state have a good sense of how things will turn out - they can predict "landing zones" with a fair degree of accuracy. These are not normal times. People whose business it is to know what is going on are much less confident in their assessments of how things will play out this week, never mind how the whole Brexit saga will end and how damaging it will turn out to be. Another theme that emerged from these conversations was a willingness to keep going with the Brexit process, despite near universal frustration with Britain and Brexit. There have been many media reports about a hardball approach being taken by some countries at Wednesday's summit but teasing this out with sources and observers suggests fear of being blamed for pushing Britain over the cliff edge on Friday night - even in the hard-line countries - remains a central determinant as leaders consider their tactics. Another almost universal view is that short-termism prevails. Avoiding a no-deal Brexit on Friday is now the main issue for most countries. There has been limited focus in capitals on thinking 10, five or even three steps ahead. For instance, very little thought is being given to how leaders across the continent would deal with prime minister Boris Johnson having a seat at their summit table in the second half of this year, next year and possibly beyond. As almost always the case in politics, there is much less thinking ahead than outside observers often believe. Messiness and the hopes of muddling through are features of even the highest politics. Yet another theme to emerge from the conversations was that while nobody expects Wednesday's meeting to be plain sailing, there was a general assumption it would be a reasoned affair, with Theresa May putting forward her request for a second extension and the other leaders setting out their terms. It is to be hoped this is how it turns out, but perhaps hope continues to triumph over expectation. The British prime minister has not just disappointed her counterparts on numerous occasions in the past. There have been times when they have found her contributions to be almost detached from what they believe to be reality. That includes the last summit in Brussels two weeks ago and a meeting in Salzburg late last year. Only one person I talked to last week spoke admiringly of the British prime minister. The big risk on Wednesday is if May does not have a viable plan and the conversation among the leaders becomes fraught. As of lunchtime yesterday, her attempts to forge a way forward with Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party were ongoing. If a joint position is agreed that would command a substantial majority in the House of Commons, EU leaders will breathe a collective sigh of relief. But there are many reasons to believe two parties as different and divided as May's Conservatives and Corbyn's Labour will not come to an agreement. If they don't, the 27 EU leaders are still expected to grant another extension but intense frustration among the minority of countries that are less amenable to dragging the process out - most notably France - could boil over. Things don't always come right on the night and efforts to muddle through can hit a wall. Germany Germany is the EU's most powerful country. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is a "status quo" player when it comes to Brexit. On her visit to Dublin last week, she went out of her way to stress her desire to avoid a disorderly exit. "Flexibility" is a word frequently used by Germans with knowledge of their capital's immediate tactical approach. On Britain holding European Parliamentary elections, those Germans I spoke to had a very broad range of views. At one extreme, Germany might not insist - if push came to shove - on having British MEPs in the next parliament in the event the country is still a member in the second half of this year. Another believes that having Britain hold elections next month would be Germany's "red line" on Wednesday night. France President Emmanuel Macron will be the other central player on Wednesday. Despite the closeness of the Franco-German relationship, the two countries can often have very different underlying views on issues of shared interest. That is true of how to handle Brexit in the short term, with Macron outwardly taking the hardest line on giving concessions to Britain, in part because he appears to be thinking further ahead than most other leaders. "A red line for him is to avoid the UK having a say on nominations to key EU positions," one person in Paris observed. Again, the European Parliament elections are a major consideration. French observers point to how British participation in the elections could influence the French campaign and the outcome of the vote. Having Britain leave in five days' time would avoid "contaminating" the campaign. This factor, however, will not override others and even if Macron ends up being May's toughest interlocutor on Wednesday, the balance of probability is that he will go along with an extension. Italy Although Italy's population and economy are roughly the same as France, the country has never punched up to its weight in European affairs. Domestic political weakness has always limited Italy's international clout and that is true today more than ever with a Trumpian government in power. Italy's national interest tends to be defined narrowly and Brexit is not considered a vital national interest. Observers in Rome do not expect the non-political premier, Giuseppe Conte, to rock the boat on Wednesday. Italy will follow whatever consensus emerges. Spain The Iberian country ranks fourth in standard assessments of the pecking order among the EU 27. One authoritative viewpoint in Madrid is that Spain will cleave closely to the French position, even if such a position does not align with Spanish interests. The always-contentious issue of Gibraltar and the fact a general election campaign is ongoing are also factors that will influence Madrid's position. Poland The biggest of the members to join since 2004, Poland is a significant beneficiary from the EU budget and has hundreds of thousands of citizens resident in the UK. A disorderly Brexit poses challenges for Warsaw on both these issues. Poland "wants to be as helpful as possible to the Brits", said one Pole. Poland has been the only country to question the Irish backstop, although it has not pursued that position after being charged with threatening the unity of the 27. The Polish government is less concerned about British participation in the European elections than other capitals. Ultimately, Poland is unlikely to have a determining outcome on Wednesday night. Denmark One of the EU countries best disposed to Britain, and with stronger trade links than most other members, Denmark has a clear interest in avoiding no deal. As such, it will not join the harder-line countries. That said, even the Danes are frustrated. One sober source described dealing with Britain as akin to dealing with a "screaming baby". Hungary An angle of particular interest in Budapest is the European Parliamentary elections. The political grouping that wins most seats gets first dibs on the big EU jobs, including president of the European Commission. That has knock-on effects for who gets other presidential roles, including the head of the European Council, Parliament and Central Bank. Currently, the biggest grouping is the centre-right European People's Party (EPP). The ruling Fidesz party in Hungary has been suspended from the EPP because leader Viktor Orban stands accused of undermining Hungary's democracy. If Britain participates in the European Parliamentary elections ,it will return a significant number of MEPs who are part of the Socialist grouping, but none for the EPP - the Conservatives pulled out of that grouping a decade ago. If Fidesz MEPs are needed to ensure the EPP is the largest grouping in the next parliament, Orban could be expected to leverage his position for all its worth. Finland Brexit is not a major issue for Finland, reflecting the position of many other countries that have no close ties to Britain. As with Finland, these countries are not going to Wednesday's summit with strong positions and their leaders may not even join the discussion. "Flexibility" is the watchword in Helsinki. That Finland is holding a general election next Sunday means Brexit is less of an issue right now. Leo Varadkar is a man who revels in media attention, so he must have been delighted last week to make headlines everywhere from London's Evening Standard to the South China Morning Post. He was particularly big news in Australia, because the story which grabbed the world's attention was the gushing fan letter which the Taoiseach had handwritten to pop star Kylie Minogue before her concert in Dublin last October asking to meet. That, and the fact the Government twice denied Freedom of Information requests before finally relenting and letting us all see what the Taoiseach does on the State's official headed notepaper. Be fair. This is all far less embarrassing than the situation in which the two world leaders with whom he's most often compared find themselves right now. Canada's Justin Trudeau is embroiled in a corruption scandal which may well lose him his job. France's Emmanuel Macron faces weekly protests from the Gilets Jaunes which have seen nearly 2,000 of his own citizens seriously injured in assaults by the police. By comparison, fanboying over Kylie is a forgiveable faux pas. Leo V Varadkar, as he shall now henceforth be known, is guilty of nothing except falling for what Noel Coward called the potency of cheap music, and he's hardly alone in that. Politicians who've appeared on the BBC radio show Desert Island Discs in recent times have revealed a similarly kitsch taste in music. It's a testament to how pop culture has invaded all our brains. Can't Get You Out Of My Head, as Kylie might say. Whether it has any deeper significance than that is doubtful. Some people did wonder what the rest of the world must think of Ireland when they see the Taoiseach behaving in this manner, but the truth is that it doesn't matter what people abroad think of the Taoiseach, any more than it matters what we think of their leaders. It's none of our mutual business. Irish people care too much about the opinion of strangers. It speaks to a peculiar lack of self-confidence. We're always worrying about what other people think. We did the same when Leo made a bit of an eejit of himself on his first visit to Downing Street, by referencing Hugh Grant's famous dance down the stairs in the film Love, Actually. If that was the worst thing to happen in No 10 in the past few years, the Brits would have got off much more lightly than they have. Compared to the slow motion car crash that is Brexit, it's doubtful that multinational corporations are holding urgent meetings to withdraw investment from Ireland because of the Taoiseach's giddy over-enthusiasm at the prospect of meeting a celebrity. If Leo wants to bop about his office in Leinster House to Spinning Around, even if it's in a pair of gold lame hotpants like his heroine, who cares, as long as he's doing his job? But there, perhaps, is the rub. The letter to Kylie was written on October 3 last year. That same day there was a huge rally in Dublin about rising rents and homelessness caused by the housing crisis. It was also the day that 119 Irish troops on UN peacekeeping duty in Syria were due to come home, only to discover that a diplomatic mix-up meant they had to stay for another two weeks. The Taoiseach was meant to be preparing for another summit in Brussels the next day. The Budget was just a week away. Now we know what was really on Leo's mind that day. It's like an Oliver Callan sketch, with thousands massing angrily at the door as the Taoiseach finishes his fan mail. Indeed, it's most reminiscent of the Callan's Kicks episode in which Leo muses sadly that he's "just too cool for Ireland". That portrayal looks more cruelly accurate each week. No doubt, his supporters would defend the Taoiseach's ability to multi-task, but in so far as it speaks to a growing lack of gravity and seriousness in public life then it's hard not to be slightly demoralised. October 3 was also the day that UK prime minister Theresa May danced on to the stage at the Tory party conference to the strains of ABBA's Dancing Queen. It's as if we're now ruled by people whose ultimate goal is to become internet memes. Being able to laugh at oneself all too easily tips over into being laughable. As it happened, Kylie didn't perform on that occasion due to a throat infection, but Leo did get to meet her at the rescheduled date in December, later becoming embroiled in a row over whether he paid for his meal. He sternly denied any impropriety, tweeting to insist that he only had drinks, for which he paid, before adding, hilariously, that "I have the receipt to prove it too." He should have been aware of the dangers of stepping outside his comfort zone. When New York band LCD Soundsystem played a gig in Dublin in 2017, the Taoiseach also posed for photographs with them. The guitarist subsequently declared that Leo was a "tosser", and the Taoiseach had to publicly deny allegations that he walked away from one of the musicians because they were wearing a Repeal The Eighth tote bag. The spat was all rather undignified, though the Taoiseach stayed admirably above it, but these are the things that can happen when you court celebrities. As a breed, they're notoriously flighty, flaky. At least Kylie was gracious enough not to embarrass the Taoiseach. Not that she needed to. He's proved more than capable of doing that without help. Tweeting a picture of himself putting a spoon in the dishwasher was another gem. One shouldn't make too much of these incidents, but it's equally important that politicians don't make the offices that they occupy look ridiculous, because they're only holding them in trust, and they need to hand them over in good shape at the end of their tenure. A man may become Taoiseach, but it's only ever for a short time, and he should never fall into the trap of conflating the self and the title. The Taoiseach, alas, is prone to overplaying his hand. His recent announcement to reporters that "I am the European Union" was far more toe-curlingly cringeworthy than anything he said to Kylie. Tony Blair's attempt to hitch himself to the Britpop wagon when he was prime minister should have been a warning to all politicians. Either Leo V Varadkar failed to notice how badly that ended, or his eagerness to meet Kylie overcame his desire to come across like a serious statesman. That's the worrying bit. He's said to be shy and awkward in company, but even that doesn't stop him wanting to hang out with celebrities in the desperate hope of absorbing some of their voguish glamour. Leaders ache to be liked, even loved, but there are other, less ephemeral ways of doing that. By working hard and championing policies that meet real public need, to name one crazy example. We have enough celebrities satisfying our need for glittery distraction, and, best of all, it doesn't matter when they mess up. Boosted by the compliant coverage of the Merkel visit by RTE and The Irish Times, Fine Gael media flakkers are firing shots at the few critics of the backstop strategy. Given only Dan O'Brien and myself have seriously challenged the backstop, and that I am not heard on RTE, you might think the Cheerfollowers and Posh Hibernians would think us not worth the bother. Perhaps it's a bad conscience. Here are four issues the Irish media avoided in ascending order of importance. First, no journalist challenged the Government's brazen reversal on the use of technology on the Border. Over the past two years I have repeatedly called for the use of technology and tariffs paid at source. Simon Coveney steadily and repeatedly rubbished these suggestions. But faced with the prospect of the EU erecting customs posts, Leo Varadkar became a sudden convert in the Dail last week. "Some things can be done remotely, the collection of tariffs for example. Customs duties can be collected as other taxes are, either online or into tax offices." Stephen Collins of The Irish Times, while supportive of the Government, is aware this reversal lays Leo and Simon open to charges of hypocrisy. "For some this means that the backstop was a contrived issue all along." As one of the ''some'', I am not convinced by Stephen claiming the Tories would have found some other excuse, especially after the ERG's volte-face. Second, last weekend the Irish media ignored Nigel Dodds repeatedly seeking some move on the backstop so the DUP could vote for May's WA proposal. Ken Reid, of UTV, tweeted that Dodds told him that if the backstop was addressed, "we would be in business". Christopher Hope, of The Daily Telegraph, also reported Dodds's call to revisit the Brady amendment. Dodds: "The PM should be on the phone to Varadkar and Merkel, saying this is what we need; let's get the deal done." So why no response from the Irish Government? The short answer is that the EU would not allow it. Tom McTague, in a recent Politico piece, records that as far back as October 2016, Michel Barnier arrived in Dublin with a clear message, "stop negotiating with the Brits". Last March, Coveney rejected side conferences with our English and unionist neighbours. As recently as last January, Helen McEntee said this: "What we can't do and won't do, because we have not throughout this entire process, is engage in any kind of bi-lateral negotiations with the DUP or any other political party, in the North or in the UK." In sum, a FG-led Irish Government has sacrificed control of Northern Ireland policy to the EU in return for Brexit solidarity - and our political correspondents neither noticed, nor cared. Third, no commentator pointed out the obvious when well-meaning Merkel, with an East German background, told us she knew about walls. No journalist had the bottle to tell us that the Irish Border was nothing like the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was put up to keep German citizens from escaping from a repressive state. The Irish Border was originally a realistic response to a deeply divided community - but until 1971 was mostly invisible along its 310 miles. The Provisional IRA changed all that. The new militarised checkpoints were a desperate attempt to stop the IRA crossing, murdering and then recrossing to the security of the Republic. Finally, far from trying to calm down the tribal rages aggravated by the Irish Government wielding the backstop like a baton, the Irish media merely throw more petrol on the fire. Last Friday, The Irish Times gave a platform to Denis Bradley who seemed to be inviting us to join Northern nationalists in a righteous anger against the DUP for doing what the DUP were elected to do - protect their place in the UK. Naturally, I am not going to join any pan-nationalist project to put further pressure on Irish unionists. Long ago, in the pre-split republican movement, I was repeatedly warned by southern veterans that Northern republicans were different from us. How different became clear when the Provisionals' "war" descended into sectarian ethnic cleansing all along the Fermanagh- South Tyrone border. Henry Patterson, in his classic book Ireland's Violent Frontier, points out that during the 1950s the southern IRA leadership decided that part-time B-Specials would not be targets. Even after the Provo campaign started, in the seven years after 1972, only one UDR man had been killed in the area. Patterson believes this was because IRA leadership was still dominated by southern-based activists who had taken part in earlier border campaigns. But once the Adams Northern group took control the Provisional IRA targeted the UDR, which Protestants had joined for their own protection. Between 1971 and 1989, nearly 200 Protestant farmers and shopkeepers were murdered. The systematic slaughter of the first born in these modest farm families was the single worst serial atrocity of the sectarian Provisional campaign. One of these defenceless victims was Douglas Deering, a devout Christian, married with three children, the last Protestant shopkeeper in Roslea in South Fermanagh. He had neither been in the B-Specials or the UDR. He was still shot dead in his shop on May 12, 1978. This campaign of ethnic cleansing cannot be widely known to the rising generation. In a recent Irish Times poll, some 45pc in the 18-25 age bracket said they would vote Sinn Fein. ***** Brexit debates become more surreal. Last week, on BBC Newsnight, Kirsty Wark asked Dr Jennifer Cassidy, a politics lecturer at Oxford University, and a prolific tweeter from a northern nationalist background, if the EU thought Theresa May intransigent. Here is a literal transcription of her full and checkable reply. Dr Cassidy: "Yeah, very much so, and from an Irish standpoint this historical and political blindness that we have seen her blinkered on the goal of leaving, um, the EU under any circumstances and I was mentioning that I, you know, I received a text from my grandmother the other day saying, you know, you should never have heard this rhetoric. You should never have heard this hate that has, eh, eskew, like been espoused towards the Irish during the Brexit negotiations. And while we always knew it was there after the Good Friday Agreement, Brex... it was never, ehhh, it was never talked about or proclaimed so loudly and Brexit really showed a very nasty side towards the Irish. And for us, you know, the children of the peace generation we're called, em, you know, the comments I've heard, the rhetoric I've heard, as my grandmother said, this was something that, you know, people fought for and died for that we wouldn't have heard, meant to hear." Dr Cassidy has well over 41,000 followers on Twitter. None seemed to have struggled, as I struggled, to make sense of her reply. Once again I am seriously out of step. Emily Ratajkowski and Sebastian Bear-McClard visit the Grey Goose suite at Arthur Ashe Stadium during the 2018 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 5, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images for Grey Goose) Emily Ratajkowski attends the What Goes Around Comes Around 25th Anniversary Party at Gitano on September 8, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Amber De Vos/Getty Images for What Goes Around Comes Around) Emily Ratajkowski attends "Welcome Home" Premiere at The London West Hollywood on November 04, 2018 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images) Emily Ratajkowski attends "Welcome Home" Premiere at The London West Hollywood on November 04, 2018 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images) Emily Ratajkowski and Sebastian Bear-McClard. The actress has shared an image of her engagement ring for the first time (PA Wire/PA Images) Emily Ratajkowski has referred to marriage as 'a joke' while explaining how her secret 'quickie' wedding was just for her and her husband. The 'We Are Your Friends' actress and her spouse Sebastian Bear-McClard tied the knot in secret earlier this year at a courthouse in New York and she really liked how low key it was. Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Emily Ratajkowski was arrested at the protest (Ian West/PA) Emily Ratajkowski attends "Welcome Home" Premiere at The London West Hollywood on November 04, 2018 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images) Emily Ratajkowski attends "Welcome Home" Premiere at The London West Hollywood on November 04, 2018 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Emily Ratajkowski was arrested at the protest (Ian West/PA) Speaking on Busy Tonight, she said: "We knew each other for a longtime before and he likes to joke like, 'Yeah, everyone thinks we got married quickly but you vetted me for two years.' "Women always know... I was always like 'Okay, I probably shouldn't hang out with that guy alone' ... and then next thing you know I'm at the courthouse getting married. It was secret for four hours. "Weddings are amazing, I want to party, I want to celebrate love and relationships, but this was just for us and it was very nice." Meanwhile, the 27-year-old model and actress previously revealed she sees marriage as a "business" and she believes there are no expectations on the institution because its history is a "joke". She said: "You know, ultimately marriage is like business. Marriage is really to me what you want to take from it, because the history of it is like a joke." Emily wanted to keep her nuptials a secret for as long as possible so shunned a traditional white wedding dress for a tailored suit. She revealed: "I was not a Pinterest bride! I do so much glam, I do fittings once a week so for me it was just so nice to throw on a Zara suit that I loved, do my own hair and make-up. I always feel the most confident when I do it myself - and not have to have the fussiness of being a bride." World foreign ministers and the United Nations have condemned fresh fighting in Libya as rebel forces from the east of the country march on the capital, Tripoli. UN sources said it was determined to hold a planned conference on new elections despite the surge of fighting as troops under Khalifa Haftar, leader of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), continued to advance. The G7 group of rich countries urged all parties "to immediately halt all military activity". The UN Security Council issued a similar call. G7 foreign ministers warned Khalifa Haftar to halt the thrust on Tripoli, which threatens the internationally recognised government there, or face possible international action. Haftar's forces were reported to have advanced into the capital's southern outskirts and taken its former international airport last Friday. The offensive by the LNA, which is allied to a parallel administration based in the eastern city of Benghazi, heightened a power struggle that has fractured the large, oil-producing country since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. The United Nations aims to stage a conference in the southwestern town of Ghadames on April 14-16 to consider elections as a way out of the country's factional anarchy, which has seen Islamist militants establish a toehold in some areas. UN envoy Ghassan Salame said he was striving to prevent the new crisis from getting out of control. "We have worked for one year for this national conference, we won't give up this political work quickly," he said. "We know that holding the conference in this difficult time of escalation and fighting is a difficult matter. But we are determined to hold it on time unless compelling circumstances force us not to." At a G7 meeting in France, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he and his counterparts had agreed they must exert pressure on those responsible for the intensification of fighting in Libya, especially Haftar. Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi said Haftar must heed international warnings to halt his advance on Tripoli or else "we will see what can be done". The UN wants to find agreement on a road map for elections to resolve the prolonged instability in Libya, an oil producer and transit point for refugees and migrants trekking across the Sahara with the aim of reaching Europe. In Cairo yesterday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the crisis in neighbouring Libya could not be resolved through military means, though insecurity there had long been a source of worry. "Egypt has supported from the beginning a political agreement as a tool to prevent any military solution" in Libya, Shoukry said during a joint news conference with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov said Russia wanted all political forces in Libya to find an agreement and warned against foreign meddling there. There were no reports of significant fighting yesterday, but Haftar's LNA said its positions were attacked in an air strike south of Tripoli but there were no casualties. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres left after meeting Haftar to try to avert full-blown civil war. "I leave Libya with a heavy heart and deeply concerned. I still hope it is possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli," he said. Haftar (75), who is viewed by opponents as a new dictator in the mould of Gaddafi, was quoted as telling Guterres his offensive would continue until terrorism was defeated. Tripoli is the ultimate prize for Haftar forces. In 2014, he assembled former Gaddafi soldiers and in a three-year battle seized the main eastern city of Benghazi. This year, he took Libya's south with its oil fields. A SUSPECTED rhino poacher was killed by an elephant before his remains were eaten by a pride of lions, according to South African National Parks. According to the family of the deceased, the man's accomplices called his relatives to notify them that he been killed by an elephant while they were in the Kruger National Park to poach rhino on Tuesday evening. However when a search team went to look for his body, they discovered "only a human skull and a pair of pants", suggesting that his remains had been "devoured" by a pride of lions. A spokesperson for South African National Parks said that they were assisted by an airwing to search for his remains. Skukuza police were notified immediately and investigations into the incident are ongoing. Four of the man's alleged accomplices were also arrested by local police. Managing executive of Kruger National Park, Glenn Phillips, commended the search party for their help and expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased. "Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise, it holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that," he said. "It is very sad to see the daughters of the diseased mourning the loss of their father, and worse still, only being able to recover very little of his remains. The four arrested individuals are in custody and will appear in court at a later date. A VOICE TO BE HEARD: Human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell addresses placard-waving protesters outside The Dorchester in Park Lane, London, yesterday in a noisy response to Bruneis new hardline stance against gay sex, which can include brutal death by stoning. Photo: Sophie Hogan, PA The crowd surged through barriers outside The Dorchester and took their protest against Brunei's anti-LGBT laws to the front doors of the luxury London hotel. More than 100 people, many bearing rainbow flags, banners and placards, chanted "Shame on you" outside the Park Lane hotel. The protest follows the growing movement against hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei in response to new national Islamic criminal laws punishing gay sex by stoning offenders to death. Signs called for homophobia to be stamped out while many people held placards saying "LGBT+ lives matter". Messages were scrawled in chalk on the pavement alongside piles of rainbow-coloured stones, a reference to the punishment of stoning offenders to death. One man climbed up to hang a rainbow flag from the building. Police stood in front of the doors, blocking the noisy crowd from getting too close. The protest initially surrounded the front of the hotel, with barriers set up around the small car park. But the crowds suddenly surged through the cordons, into the car park and up to the main doors. Human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell told the crowd that if the Sultan did not revoke the laws the British government should sever all ties with the regime. He added: "If the Sultan will not listen to reason and compassion we believe the British government should sever all diplomatic, economic and military ties with the regime. "What is shameful is that our royal family puts royal ties before human rights. "The Queen has said today the royal family will not sever ties with the Sultan." His announcement was met with cries of "shame" from the crowd. Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry told the gathering that if the laws were not revoked, Brunei should be "chucked out" of the Commonwealth. She added: "Any hatred against anyone is hatred against all of us. "Our fight is with the Sultan of Brunei. Our fight is with this terrible law. We say no." The new laws in the south-east Asian country came into effect on April 3 amid an international outcry. Under the law - which applies to children and foreigners, even if they are not Muslim - those found guilty of gay sex could be stoned to death or whipped. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah instituted the code in 2014 to bolster the influence of Islam in the oil-rich monarchy of around 430,000 people, two-thirds of whom are Muslim. Even before 2014, homosexuality was already punishable in Brunei by a jail term of up to 10 years. Ahead of the demonstration, the University of Oxford said it would reconsider its decision to award an honorary degree to the Sultan. In a statement yesterday, the university said it shared the "international revulsion" of the laws and that the decision to confer the honorary degree of civil law by diploma to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah in 1993 would be reconsidered through its "established process". But it stressed no one had the right "summarily to rescind it" and added: "We also believe in due process. Just as nobody has a right to confer an honorary degree, nobody has a right summarily to rescind it. "The decision to confer this degree 26 years ago was recommended by a committee and approved by council and by congregation at the time. "We will reconsider this decision through our established process in light of the information now available, as other British universities are doing." Sir Elton John and George Clooney are among stars who have spoken out against the laws, demanding a boycott of the hotels owned by the Sultan. The Brunei Investment Agency, through the Dorchester Collection, owns London's The Dorchester and 45 Park Lane, as well as Coworth Park in Ascot, Berkshire. Also in its portfolio of hotels, among the world's most exclusive, are two of Hollywood's best-known establishments, The Bel Air and The Beverly Hills. Protesters from the yellow vest movement took to the streets of France yesterday for a 21st straight weekend, with thousands marching across Paris and a group briefly invading the busy ring road around the capital. Riot police rounded up protesters and fired tear gas, apparently to stop others from entering a ramp on to the road. At another of the protests around the country, police also fired tear gas in Rouen, in Normandy, in a showdown with protesters. The Interior Ministry estimated there were 3,100 protesters in Paris, compared with 1,800 the week before. The ministry counted 6,300 protesters across France. The number of people taking part in the yellow vest demonstrations has been dwindling since the first protests over fuel taxes in mid-November last year, when hundreds of thousands turned out. But the grassroots movement for social and economic justice continues to pose a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron. "We will continue until victory. We give up nothing, because today, nothing has been obtained," Agnes Berger, a protester from Saint Cloud, west of Paris, said. "We still have a corrupt system, an elite that governs against the people." Jeremy Gibon, from the suburb of Le Mesnil-Amelot, called for a radical solution that creates a "new system". "It's a war of attrition," Gibon said. "We feel if we make everything fall, we can rebuild something." The grassroots yellow vest movement began with an outcry over fuel tax rises, and got its name because demonstrators wore the fluorescent safety vests motorists are required to carry in France. The movement's demands since have multiplied to include a people's referendum and the restoration of a wealth tax, with increasing the buying power of the majority of France's people a major priority. Paris police have become more proactive in countering violence like the rioting on Paris's Champs-Elysees last month. A new police chief has been appointed and the Champs-Elysees has been declared off-limits to protesters. Family photographs of some of the children who died at an exhibition at the Kigali Genocide Memorial centre in the capital Kigali (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Rwanda has commemorated the start of its genocide in which some 800,000 people were killed 25 years ago. President Paul Kagame and first lady Jeannette Kagame laid wreaths and lit a flame at the mass burial ground of 250,000 victims at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in the capital, Kigali. The ceremonies happened as the country continues to grapple with the lasting consequences of the mass killings. Expand Close Rwandas President Paul Kagame, centre, with First Lady Jeannette Kagame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rwandas President Paul Kagame, centre, with First Lady Jeannette Kagame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Those attending included the leaders of Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Djibouti, Niger, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, as well as the African Union and the European Union. Cherie Blair, wife of former prime minister Tony Blair, also attended. I am moved beyond words at this memorial to tragedy, said Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission. There will be a procession through the capital to Kigalis National Stadium where up to 30,000 are expected to participate in an evening candlelit ceremony. Expand Close A flame of remembrance is lit at the ceremony (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A flame of remembrance is lit at the ceremony (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Twenty-five years ago, Rwanda fell into a deep ditch due to bad leadership. Today, we are a country of hope and a nation elevated, Agnes Mutamba, 25, a teacher who was born during the genocide, told The Associated Press in Kigali. Today, the government has united all Rwandans as one people with the same culture and history and is speeding up economic transformation, said Oliver Nduhungihere, Rwandas state foreign affairs minister. The mass killing of Rwandas Tutsi minority was ignited on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like the majority of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu. The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane and the bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering the Tutsi, with support from the army, police, and militias. Expand Close Cherie Blair was among those who arrived to lay wreaths at the event (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Cherie Blair was among those who arrived to lay wreaths at the event (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Kagames government has previously accused the Hutu-led government of 1994 of being responsible for shooting down the plane and has blamed the French government for turning a blind eye to the genocide. Kagame has won praise ending that violence and making advances in economic development and health care, although he is criticised for authoritarian control. On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a government study into the countrys role in Rwanda before and during its 1994 genocide. A quarter-century after the genocide, bodies of victims are still being found. Last year, authorities in Rwanda found discovered mass graves they say contain 5,400 bodies of genocide victims. Twenty-five years on, the victims and survivors should remain the centre of everyones thoughts, but we should also take stock of progress and the need to ensure accountability for all those who directed these horrific acts, Human Rights Watch said. Family photographs of some of those who died hang on display in an exhibition at the Kigali Genocide Memorial centre in the capital Kigali, Rwanda (Ben Curtis/AP) Twenty-five years after the start of its genocide, in which some 800,000 people were killed, Rwanda is rebuilding with hope and shines with a new light, said its President Paul Kagame. Speaking at commemoration services on Sunday, Mr Kagame said that Rwandans would never turn against each other again. Our bodies and minds bear amputations and scars, but none of us is alone, said Mr Kagame at the ceremony attended by several heads of state. We Rwandans have granted ourselves a new beginning. We exist in a state of permanent commemoration, every day, in all that we do Today, light radiates from this place. Expand Close Rwandas President Paul Kagame, centre, and First Lady Jeannette Kagame (Ben Curtis/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rwandas President Paul Kagame, centre, and First Lady Jeannette Kagame (Ben Curtis/PA) Earlier in the day, Mr Kagame and his wife laid wreaths and lit a flame at the mass burial ground of 250,000 victims at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in the capital, Kigali. Those attending the ceremonies included the leaders of Chad, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Niger, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, as well as the African Union and the European Union. I am moved beyond words at this memorial to tragedy, said Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission. Time can never erase the darkest hours in our history. It is our duty to remember. Songs, poems and plays about the rebirth of Rwanda after the genocide the new nation were later performed at the Kigali convention centre. Expand Close Cherie Blair, also known as Cherie Booth, arrives to lay wreaths at the Kigali Genocide Memorial (Ben Curtis/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Cherie Blair, also known as Cherie Booth, arrives to lay wreaths at the Kigali Genocide Memorial (Ben Curtis/PA) Belgian prime minister Charles Michel said the duty of remembrance must be a sacred requirement. Belgian peacekeepers were among those killed in Rwanda during the genocide. Ethiopias prime minister expressed solidarity with Rwandans and said under Mr Kagames leadership, seeds of unity and never again had been sowed. Expand Close Rwandans sitting in the stands hold candles as part of a candlelit vigil (Ben Curtis/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rwandans sitting in the stands hold candles as part of a candlelit vigil (Ben Curtis/PA) Then followed a procession through the capital to Kigalis National Stadium where are many as 30,000 are expected to participate in an evening candlelight ceremony. Twenty-five years ago, Rwanda fell into a deep ditch due to bad leadership, today, we are a country of hope and a nation elevated, Agnes Mutamba, 25, a teacher who was born during the genocide said in Kigali. Expand Close From left to right, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, Rwandas President Paul Kagame, Rwandas First Lady Jeannette Kagame, and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, light the flame of remembrance (Ben Curtis/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp From left to right, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, Rwandas President Paul Kagame, Rwandas First Lady Jeannette Kagame, and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, light the flame of remembrance (Ben Curtis/PA) Today, the government has united all Rwandans as one people with the same culture and history and is speeding up economic transformation, said Oliver Nduhungihere, Rwandas state foreign affairs minister. The mass killing of Rwandas Tutsi minority was ignited on April 6 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like the majority of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu. The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane and the bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering the Tutsi, with support from the army, police, and militias. Mr Kagames government has previously accused Hutu-led government of 1994 of being responsible for shooting down the plane and has blamed the French government for turning a blind eye to the genocide. On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a government study into the countrys role in Rwanda before and during its 1994 genocide. Expand Close The children of genocide survivors and perpetrators play together in the reconciliation village of Mbyo, near Nyamata, in Rwanda (Ben Curtis/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The children of genocide survivors and perpetrators play together in the reconciliation village of Mbyo, near Nyamata, in Rwanda (Ben Curtis/PA) Mr Macron ordered a commission of researchers and historians to investigate the role and involvement of France in Rwanda from 1990-1994. It is to make conclusions within two years. Mr Kagame has won praise for ending that violence and making advances in economic development and health care. Ethnic reconciliation is a cornerstone of the rule of Mr Kagame, Rwandas de facto leader since the genocide ended in 1994 and the countrys president since 2000. He is credited with bringing Rwanda stability, economic growth, and improved health and education. However, Mr Kagames critics charge that he is intolerant of criticism and his government is repressive, jailing opposition leaders. A quarter-century after the genocide, bodies of victims are still being found. Last year, authorities in Rwanda found discovered mass graves they said contain 5,400 bodies of genocide victims. Twenty-five years on, the victims and survivors should remain the centre of everyones thoughts, but we should also take stock of progress and the need to ensure accountability for all those who directed these horrific acts, Human Rights Watch said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he would annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in office, a last-minute pre-election promise likely to enrage Palestinians and the Arab world. In an interview with Israeli Channel 12 News three days ahead of the April 9 poll, Netanyahu was asked why he had not extended sovereignty to large West Bank settlements, as Israel did without international recognition in east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both captured in the 1967 Middle East war. "Who says that we won't do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it," Netanyahu said. "You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage - the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend (Israeli) sovereignty and I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements." The veteran right-wing Israeli leader, who has dominated Israeli politics for a generation, is fighting for his political survival against former top general Benny Gantz, a political novice campaigning on a centrist platform. Netanyahu has cast Gantz as a weak leftist who would endanger Israels security by giving territorial concessions to the Palestinians. But Netanyahu, who has fought the election campaign under the shadow of corruption allegations, is also competing for votes with far-right parties who advocate annexation. His comments are likely to appeal to hardline voters, who oppose ceding lands. Palestinian leaders immediately reacted with anger. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator and a close aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump Administration's support and endorsement of Israel's violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine." In Gaza, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri urged Abbas's western-backed Palestinian Authority to halt its security cooperation with Israel in the occupied West Bank. "Netanyahu's dreams of annexing the West Bank will never be achieved and we will not allow that to happen," he said. "It is time for (the PA) to stop security coordination with the occupation, and to get united in the face of the challenges." Settlements are one of the most heated issues in efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, frozen since 2014. After decades of settlement-building, more than 400,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank, according to Israeli figures, among about 2.9 million Palestinians according to the Palestinian Statistics Bureau. A further 212,000 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Palestinians and many countries consider settlements to be illegal under the Geneva conventions that bar settling on land captured in war. Israel disputes this, citing security needs and biblical, historical and political connections to the land. The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, all territory Israel captured in 1967. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and withdrawn from Gaza. The West Bank remains under Israeli military occupation with limited Palestinian self rule. Netanyahu's remarks follow a series of announcements and policy changes by U.S. President Donald Trump that were seen to favour Israel. In March, Trump broke with decades of international consensus by recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured from Syria. That followed his December 2017 decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to move the U.S. embassy there. Both moves delighted Israel, infuriated Palestinian and Arab leaders, and were opposed by most U.S. allies. With Trump's moves on Jerusalem and The Golan, the Israeli leader may feel emboldened to advocate for annexation. U.S. officials have said they would unveil a long-awaited Trump administration Middle East peace plan after the Israeli election, but prospects to restart negotiations appear dim. The Palestinians have been boycotting the Trump administration over its Jerusalem moves and other recent decisions they view as pro-Israel bias. The U.S. State Department declined to comment about Netanyahu's remarks, which were viewed in the Israeli media as an attempt to draw right-wing votes rather than an immediate change of policy. Netanyahu has been plagued by corruption allegations throughout the election campaign, after Israel's attorney general publicly announced in February that he intends to indict Netanyahu. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in three cases of alleged bribery and fraud, but the allegations could cloud his political future and that of any government he might head, possibly leading to a new election. His main election rival, Gantz, has vowed to pursue peace with the Palestinians, but he has also stopped short at embracing their quest for statehood. A spokeswoman for Gantz declined comment on Netanyahu's remarks. On Friday, the last day polling is allowed, Gantzs centrist Blue and White party was projected to take 30 seats, more than the 26 forecast for Netanyahus right-wing Likud, according to a poll in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. But this and other polls also projected a majority of the Knesset's 120 seats will go to the parties in Netanyahus right-wing bloc, giving Netanyahu a slim but workable majority. A few days before the previous Israeli election in 2015, Netanyahu vowed there would never be a Palestinian state under his watch but then backtracked on that statement after a rebuke from Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama. Last year, however, Netanyahu told members of his right-wing Likud party that Israel and the United States were discussing the possibility of Israel annexing settlements. The White House swiftly denied that. While vowing that he would not evacuate settlers from their homes, Netanyahu has also said in the past that the future of the settlements should be determined in peace talks with the Palestinians. A woman holds a hashtag sign that reads in Portuguese Free Lula during a demonstration on the anniversary of the incarceration of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, outside the jail where he is being held in Curitiba, Brazil (Denis Ferreira Netto/AP) Thousands of supporters, many chanting Free Lula!, have protested outside the jail where former Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is being held on the anniversary of his incarceration. But many other Brazilians have chosen the day to celebrate the countrys crackdown on corruption, with demonstrations across the country. Da Silva is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering. He and his Workers Party maintain he is innocent and say he was persecuted by the judiciary and political enemies in order to prevent him from running for president again. Expand Close Workers Party President Gleisi Hoffmann, centre right, attends a demonstration (Denis Ferreira Netto/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Workers Party President Gleisi Hoffmann, centre right, attends a demonstration (Denis Ferreira Netto/AP) Lula has been kidnapped by the bourgeoisie, Joao Pedro Stedile, a leader from the far-left Landless Workers Movement, told the protesters. The ransom is for us to stop fighting. They want to bring the Brazilian people to their knees. Mr Stedile then led the crowds in a pledge to the ex-leader, instructing them to turn toward da Silvas cell window. I promise to not rest one day, to do grassroots organising, to spread the word to the people, until Lula is free, the crowds repeated with their left arms raised in a fist. Meanwhile, on the promenade of Rio de Janeiros Copacabana Beach, anti-corruption protests cheered Lulas continued incarceration. Expand Close A supporter of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wears an image of the former Brazilian president (Denis Ferreira Netto/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A supporter of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wears an image of the former Brazilian president (Denis Ferreira Netto/AP) Today marks one whole year that Lula hasnt stolen! a protester screamed from the top of a sound car while the crowds applauded. Da Silva is the most prominent figure jailed in an anti-corruption investigation called Operation Carwash that has snared dozens of prominent politicians and business figures. The anti-corruption protesters were also demanding the continued crackdown on old politicians, calling for the arrest of other corrupt politicians and applauding the judiciary that is going after them. Actress Roberta Haynes, who was one of the most prolific names in the industry and has been on the block for a long time passed away at Age 91 years old. Haynes starred opposite Gary Cooper in the popular South-Pacific set 1953 classic movie, Return To Paradise. According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter.com, Haynes died Thursday night in Delray Beach, Florida. Haynes portrayed a native on the island of Matareva who has a romance and then a child with Cooper's drifter character in Return to Paradise, directed by Mark Robson and based on a novel by James Michener. In a 2015 interview, Haynes said she adored working with the actor, who she noted was ill and on medication during filming on location in British West Samoa. "Don't feel bad if I don't make a pass at you," he told her. She also appeared in two Westerns in 1953: Gun Fury, directed by Raoul Walsh, and The Nebraskan, in which she co-starred with Philip Carey. With her dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin, Haynes often played Mexican, Native American or Polynesian women in the movies. "I wanted to be a serious actress, to play the roles that Ingrid Bergman played. But I was always typecast as a 'fiery Mexican,'" she said in a 2017 interview with Vulture. "The 'good girl' roles always went to actresses with blond hair and blue eyes." An accident involving gunfire and explosions on the set of a Western severely damaged her eyesight. She did not work for several years until operations restored most of her vision. The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at Chandigarh increased the compensation from Rs 5000 to Rs 1 lakh to be paid by Air India to an associated professor from Mohali. The professor Sardool Singh Ghumman was deboarded from an Air India flight in 2015 without mentioning any specific reason and he appealed over the deboarding in Chandigarh Consumer Forum to compensate him with Rs 5000, The Indian Express reported. Ghuman who is an associate professor at Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal in Sangrur told the Commission that on September 5, 2015, he was on returning to Chandigarh after attending the European Nuclear Physics Conference at Groningen, Netherlands. pti At the New Delhi Airport, a Chandigarh bound Air India flight deboarded him without assigning any reason. Ghuman alleged that a woman official of the carrier came to the plane and called him in a disrespectful manner and told him to get out of the plane. He was forcibly offloaded from the aircraft. He told he also approached the Staff of Air India at the airport to enquire about the reason, but they didnt tell anything. He then hired a taxi for Rs 5,000 and came to Chandigarh. Ghuman later filed a case against Air India at the Consumer Forum of Chandigarh. During the hearing, Air India pleaded that the security agencies had detained Ghumans baggage for a re-check and there was no deficiency in service on their part. However, the forum found the carrier guilty of misconduct and directed them to pay Rs 5500 taxi fare to Ghuman. AI was also directed to pay Rs 5000 as compensation and Rs 5000 as cost of litigation. Claiming the quantum of stress wasnt taken into consideration against which the compensation provided was little, Ghuman then filed an appeal at the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at Chandigarh. bccl/representational image The Commission observed that Air India had enough time to re-check his belonging as the baggage was deposited with the airlines well before the flight timings. If there were suspicion about his belonging, the Airline had enough time to re-check in front of the concerned officials. It is not admirable that for a person, who has represented our country in an international seminar to face such insult and stress, read the judgement released on April 4. Plans leaked from the UK parliament this week, and it seems the government has it out for serial offenders like Mark Zuckerberg. One of the suggestions floated was to hold social media execs personally responsible for harmful content posted on their platforms. Images courtesy: Reuters The news comes via The Guardian, which got its hands on internal documents. The plans, expected to be published on Monday, talk about possible new legislature. This would involve an independent regulator whose sole job it is to monitor content on social media and levy fines against them for instances of hate speech, extremism, or violence, like the recent Christchurch shooting that was broadcast live on Facebook. Until a new body is formed for the purpose, it's indicated that Ofcom, the UK office of communications, would perform the job. Such a body would probably be funded by a tax on these social networks, especially given the discovery in 2018 that they pay very little in taxes. It's not just social media platforms, but search engines like Google that would be regulated, as well as online messaging and file hosting services. This watchdog group, when set up, would also have special powers to act against things like terrorism and child pornography, would produce annual transparency reports, and would be expected to cooperate with the police regarding illegal activities. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg himself said something like this recently, supposedly as part of pivot to privacy. Of course, his intentions are questionable at best, to put it mildly. The government will supposedly soon put out a white paper on the topic, laying out the ethical responsibilities of tech companies. Meanwhile, New Zealand is also likely considering similar legislation as well. But the UK isn't the only country heading this way. Australia yesterday actually went ahead and passed one of the toughest legal measures they've ever introduced against digital organisations. They too decided that executives should be held responsible if they can't police the platforms under their purview. For Australia the issue is close to home, literally. It's been just a few weeks since the Christchurch shooter massacred 50 people in mosques in nearby New Zealand. This is a country that, despite being very different, the Aussies consider their nearest relative. The Australian House of Representatives passed a law requiring social media platforms to remove content that shows kidnapping, murders, rape, or terrorist attacks with all haste. Failing to do so doesn't just raise the spectre of a fine, though there is a fine that could be up to 10 percent of the company's annual profit. In addition however, employees can actually face prison time now for not moving fast enough. It's a strong stance Australia is taking in the matter, even as conservatives and the far right across the world cry "freedom of expression". Frankly it's the right move, provided the stipulations are rigid. While new laws like this are essential to push social networks into action against unsavoury elements, such a watchdog (and therefore the government) shouldn't be allowed to abuse the laws to censor the public. For instance, footage of murders are banned, which seems like an obvious decision. But consider such a law in a country like India. What if a "murder" being posted to Facebook is footage of a killing by political forces or cops brutalizing a prisoner? What if the video is essential to a protest for a worthy cause? Well, that's exactly where the watchdog organisation comes in. Laws like this mean zilch if the group doing the monitoring has no teeth. And just as important, it has to also be truly independent, and composed of people of all religions, races, and ethnic and financial backgrounds. Without all of these things, the law is just a whip made of wet noodle - soft and with no bite. Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, known as Africas richest man, said in an interview on March 6, that he once withdrew $10 million - equivalent to Rs 69.2 crore - from the bank just to look at it. He wanted to feel that it was real money and not just figures on paper. AFP I dont even look at my salary figures because of obvious reasons! *awkward laugh* But this guy made a big deal about looking at his money. When youre young your first million is important, but after, the numbers dont mean much, Dangote told a forum in Ivory Coast. One day, I cashed 10 million, put them in the boot of my car I put it in my room. I looked at them and thought now I believe I have money and took it back to the bank the next day, he told his audience. Reuters Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian businessman and owner of Dangote group. He is currently the richest man of Africa with US $10.7 billion net worth. If you're interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click here. Submit Toronto Patricia Burch has long been skeptical of the technology industrys role in public education, writing for years about its connections to privatization and other market-oriented attempts to overhaul schooling. Now, though, she sees something both larger and more subtle at work. Today at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, being held here, Burch, an associate education professor at the University of Southern California, gave a talk on technopolicy in school reform. It was part of a panel on the shifting role of business in K-12. Burchs work is still exploratory, she said. But her goal is to better understand how venture-philanthropy organizations that are founded with tech money (and remain closely tied to tech companies) are working to change the way we think about the governance of public-school systems--while at the same time making those systems more dependent on technology products and services. Thats where I think these data systems are moving, to this level of public governance, not just for use in the classroom, she said. Burchs AERA talk focused on a preliminary review of the websites, social media feeds, policy briefs, press releases, blog posts, and other public documents produced by two leading venture-philanthropy groups tied to the tech industry. One, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, is based in the United States, in Texas. The other, the Central Square Foundation, is based in Delhi, India. In a post-session interview, Burch declined to talk specifically about what shes seen at MSDF, saying shes still collecting data and cant yet draw firm conclusions about any individual groups work. But she did speak at length about the high-level trends she sees in the field. Following is a transcript of our conversation, edited lightly for length and clarity. What do you mean by managerial reform and a technocratic orientation to education? The managerial reform model, the way its framed now, holds that the problems of public schooling can be solved through a model of better data, better systems, better processes. Technology comes in to that because its a way to access and disseminate that data at scale. Who do you see as the groups promoting those ideas? Neither of those ideas are specific to education. But the knitting of the managerial approach with this kind of technocentrist approach is really being promoted by venture-capital philanthropies with tech associations, like the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the Chan Zuckeberg Initiative, among others. Do you see the aim of these groups being to sell technology products and services, or to change how we think about public education? I honestly think we dont know. If youre a VC philanthropy, on the face of it, your goal is the public interest and social impact. But the way they have devised to try to attain that goal is by selling their products and services. So I think its both. I think at the end of the day, they see their commercial interests as somehow promoting the public good. What are the ways these groups try to shape public dialogue? Social media. For example, Google just gave $2.5 million to one of these VC philanthropies I looked at for work in India. And as part of that gift, they gave them an in-kind donation of technical assistance around YouTube for their messaging. So, obviously, social media is a really critical way in which theyre trying to get their message across. Do you see that data-oriented approach in education, and using technology for continuous improvement cycles, as an inherently bad approach? Not at all. I think we need data to make good decisions. We cant see achievement and opportunity gaps without data. So there is absolutely a productive role for technology. The problem is that its framed that technology alone is key to better public-education governance. I just think its a simplistic argument. Im absolutely not arguing against the importance of data. In your talk, you said technology is often sold to schools as a silver bullet. I actually hear the opposite, with a lot of groups saying its more about technology augmenting teachers. What should we make of that shift? I think youre right on that. Theres a lot of talk about the role of the teacher. I think at this point, though, its at the level of rhetoric. The reality is that a lot of the product and services on the market, particularly for poor kids, are imagined to stand alone. Teachers and administrators often say they want better, easier-to-access data about their students. What should we make of that demand from the field? I think the demand is real. And there are things we absolutely need to outsource, because we cant do [them] in-house. These groups have the infrastructure to sometimes create these systems that states or districts cant. The caution or concern is when the data systems go further than just collecting data, when theyre actually defining what is success, what is a democratic process, what does it mean to have communities engaged. Thats where I think these data systems are moving, to this level of public governance, not just for use in the classroom. Can you explain your idea of digital education governance? Its essentially the idea that the main mechanism for improving public schools is through systems change, and the main tool for systems change is more technology. And technology not just for collecting data, but for managing and evaluating people, for designing and developing policy and programs. All those processes are not inherently good, but they are part of our democratic structure. What are the downsides of technology companies potentially playing that kind of role in governing public education? There are two things we need to ask. One, theres lots of public money being spent on these systems, at a time when were also seeing large class sizes and reductions in core services for kids. So the question becomes is this is a good use of public money? Second, we have to think about whats been happening with ed tech in classrooms. A lot of teachers are very fearful that ed tech will be replacing them. K-12 teachers, administrators, and policymakers are all very busy. Why should they take time away from the immediate challenges they face to think about these big-picture issues? These arent big-picture ideas. The systems these groups are pushing are becoming the everyday work of district administrators, school boards, and teachers. I dont see these as macro issues. I see them as having very immediate impacts on peoples work lives. See also: for the latest news on ed-tech policies, practices, and trends. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Insurance fraud seems like it might be an easy thing to do. Insurance companies are often so huge, one wonders how they might not even notic... The latest twist in the Brexit saga, promising as it may be politically, does nothing to ease the plight of businesses trading with the UK. The request by British prime minister Theresa May for an extension of the Brexit date to June 30 and the choreographically indirectly-leaked indicator from European Council president Donald Tusk, that a year-long flexible extension should be looked at, sets the scene for a further protraction in negotiations. More clarity will come from the EU summit on Wednesday, when the heads of the 27 EU member states vote their formal response to Ms May, but the odds are against her staying in power. A fresh British general election is a likely scenario and, with it, further uncertainty for exporting and importing companies who will be forced into protracted scrambling for safe options to protect their business. Despite the fact that trade with the North is less than 2% of our total export and import revenue, it is destined to continue to be central to the Brexit negotiations. The visit of German chancellor Angela Merkel to Dublin, last week, to get a better handle on the Irish border issue, will no doubt have been promoted by this consideration. With her long tenure in dealing with EU matters, it is likely that the option of triggering the so-called GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) Article 24 of the World Trade Organisation treaty, which introduces the so-called "frontier traffic exception" under the WTO most favoured nation rules, will have crossed her mind. Under this WTO article, ordinary WTO customs rules "shall not be construed to prevent advantages accorded by any contracting party to adjacent countries in order to facilitate frontier traffic." Triggering this article would enable the EU to declare the whole of the North a frontier zone to the EU customs union, thereby removing the need for customs controls at least on the EU-Irish side. There remains, of course, the issue of import and export duty and excise tariffs. These could be agreed as zero-rated by the two parties under a UK-EU transition agreement. However, the thornier question of agri-food sanitary certification, quota licenses and certificates of origin with the associated inspections to ensure compliance, remains. These may be overcome with regulatory alliance agreements, but these may take some time to negotiate and conclude. For the manufacturing industry, complying with the EU rules of origin may be its biggest stumbling block. When exporting products to third countries with which the EU has a free trade agreement, Irish exporters have enjoyed a preferential tariff rate if the products have enough EU content, according to rules of origin. Post-Brexit, exporters may no longer be able to count on UK-purchased parts used to make the finished product, being considered as EU content. The manufacturing industry in Ireland relies heavily on a wide range of imports of components from the UK. These components - ranging from fully-assembled motors, coils and switch gear, to nuts and bolts - are integrated into the finished product in Ireland before being exported internationally. Irish businesses are now re-examining their supply chains for any UK input as "non-originating", to check if they meet the EU preferential origin rules for their manufactured goods. Searching for alternative sources internationally is now a priority for many. It could, however, take years for businesses to re-adjust their manufacturing processes in order to comply with EU rules of origin. Every exporter small or large will have to determine what percentage of their goods originate in the UK according to the complex technical and legal rules. Managing to keep things going in the face of continuous uncertainty and the prospect of significant and sudden changes in regulatory requirements is a tough task at the best of times and one that Irish business does not relish. Increased export and import taxes could all mean a rise in costs. A fall in sterling's value, on the back of a no-deal Brexit, would double down on exporters' woes. John Whelan is managing partner of international trade consultancy The Linkage-Partnership A body has been recovered during the search for a missing woman in Co Clare. A search operation was mounted last night for a woman in her 40s who is understood to be have been visiting Ireland from Australia. She was reported missing in the vicinity of the Cliffs of Moher at around 11pm. Gardai mounted an initial search and requested assistance from the Coast Guard. Volunteers from the Doolin unit of the volunteer service travelled to the scene and carried out a cliff top search while the Shannon-based search and rescue helicopter, Rescue 115, was also tasked. The search was stood down at around 3.30am when no trace of the woman was found. It is understood that some personal belongings were found on the cliff walking trail. During a follow-up coastline search at first light today, a body was spotted at the base of the cliffs at Aill Na Searrach. The Naval Service Diving Section was called in to help with the recovery operation. Naval divers and Coast Guard volunteers travelled to the scene by boat at around 3.10pm. Four divers swam ashore, secured a body which they safely recovered to the Coast Guard boat. The body was transported to the Coast Guard station in Doolin where Gardai were waiting. The remains have been taken by hearse to University Hospital Limerick for formal identification and a post-mortem examination. A Garda spokesman confirmed they are investigating all the circumstances of the death but at this early stage, dont believe there is anything suspicious. Gardai have also been liaising with the family of the missing woman but will wait for formal identification of the body before confirming whether it is her. I live on the south coast of England, by the white cliffs. Thats roughly halfway between London and the French coast, were I a seagull. (Im not, but as an Irish citizen with an Irish passport, I can still move around with as much ease, no matter what those eejits in Downing Street end up doing.) Anyway, on the white cliffs the other day, several hundred people gathered, holding mirrors to flash an SOS to France: Dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot. A cry for help. People are so fed up with Brexshit, that they are close to flinging themselves off the white cliffs. (Unless they have Irish passports. Did I mention I have one?) Quite a few more 6,060,230 signed the biggest petition in British history, begging the Downing Street eejits to revoke Article 50 and throw it off the cliff; better to hurl the Brexit shitshow into the sea than the conomy, jobs, supply chain, and long-established ethos of live and let live, which has until Brexit made England a reasonably reasonable place to co-exist with ones fellows. The pleading of the six million signatories was debated by six six MPs, then rejected. As the New York Times remarked in an op-ed, The United Kingdom Has Gone Mad. That Brexit is officially causing not just politicians, but also residents, to lose the plot that is, ordinary people, as well as the flag-waving loons in plastic union jack bowler hats has been confirmed by independent research. This found that 83% of UK residents are cracking up from Brexit dominating the daily news; 64% are complaining of actual Brexit anxiety; and 84% think the politicians blocking the parliamentary S-bend should be collectively shoved off a (white, probably racist) cliff. On March 29, the day the UK was meant to leave the EU, the crackpot division of the leave brigade had originally wanted the date decreed a national holiday, like a Dads Army version of the Fourth of July. Instead, such was the ever-decreasing circle of news cycle like watching your favourite jewellery being sucked down a big, stupid plughole that the BBCs grown-up radio news was interspersing its blow-by-blow Brexshit updates with recordings of birdsong and people reciting William Wordsworth poems in soothing voices: To cool our aching brains; To stop people driving to the coast and hurtling over the edge. A million people gathered in London, politely protesting. (My Irish passport and I stayed in bed that morning, marinating in a warm glow of schadenfreude.) And still, those in power cling on, blaming the EU for the fallout of their own vicious austerity cuts, the way Trump blames Mexico. If George Orwell and Franz Kafka were locked in a room and drip fed bad acid, they couldnt make this shit up. Meanwhile, in Ireland, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar wrote Kylie a fan letter on government-headed paper. Which is, frankly, adorable. Just adorable. Many of us are slow to have our hearing checked, but it could be a symptom of a much more serious health problem, writes Margaret Jennings How often do you get your hearing tested? Did you know, for instance, that untreated hearing loss is not just about your ears? It can be linked to problems associated with blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, and dementia. In fact, a study published by the University of Manchester at the end of last year suggested that wearing a hearing aid can slow the progress of dementia by up to 75%. In Ireland, by the time we reach age 55, a quarter of us have significant deterioration in our hearing. By age 65, that increases to one third. Yet a recent worldwide survey to mark World Hearing Day (March 3) co-ordinated in this country by Hidden Hearing, found that when it comes to people in Ireland with hearing loss, our levels of awareness of the wider implications of poor hearing were less than half of those globally. And we topped the list in the global sample for putting off treatment, with 22% of us admitting waiting five years or more before seeking medical help for hearing loss. It seems that as a nation we are caught in a time warp, as a perceived stigma around the loss of this sense continues. We will happily, for instance, get our eyes tested regularly and wear glasses or lenses with 67% of us doing so, compared to the global averages of 53% and 61% respectively. However only 25% in the Irish survey with mild to severe hearing loss use hearing aids, whereas the global average is 51%, and in countries like the USA and Australia, it is over 66%. Audiologist Barry Douglas believes that one reason we are still burying our heads in the sand on this issue is because of associations we have with older hearing aids. Its absolutely stigmatised, which is crazy: there isnt any reason why we should consider that little thing on the side of your head something to be embarrassed about, says the Dublin-based Hidden Hearing practitioner. But I think people might remember that their granny used to wear a hearing aid and in a country like Ireland where people traditionally went to the health service, it used to be a big thing on the side of the head, and it used to whistle, and she was always fiddling with it so they have a preconception, he says. They will remember technology from 20 years ago and wont know that hearing healthcare technology has absolutely exploded. They will generally make their decision on whether to go for a hearing test or a hearing aid, based on their own experiences of what they know. If we got regular hearing tests then we would know all of this and the step of taking treatment would be a much smaller one, he argues. There is a cultural stigma associated with a negative ageing self-image as well: People perceive the solution to the hearing, as getting old, rather than the problem. But whats more ageing? Somebody sitting there going: What? What did you say?; or a person wearing a very discreet cosmetic hearing solution, which others generally dont see? Its the most ironic thing people will put off coming into me because they dont want to wear a hearing instrument. Yet when they actually take the step of getting one, and walk out the door, they will end up showing it off. So the very reason they put off coming is the very reason they want to show people how small the hearing instrument is how much it has changed their life. Putting our vanity aside however, there is the more serious issue of the link between hearing loss and our general health and wellness. Ongoing US research in the Medical College of Wisconsin, for instance, has shown that because the inner ear is so sensitive to blood flow, abnormalities in the cardiovascular system are noted in connection with hearing loss. Older people with hearing loss are significantly more likely to develop dementia over time than those who retain their hearing, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine in the US say. Because there can be other causes for hearing loss, practitioners can also pick up on conditions, in terms of a persons middle ear, or head, or neck and Barry says there are times he has referred clients back to their GPs. Due to such potential knock-on effects of hearing loss, Hidden Hearing Ireland regularly collaborates with the Irish Heart Foundation and Diabetes Ireland to provide free screening. While our squinting eyes will be an obvious tell-tale sign that our sight is failing, hearing loss is more gradual. The vast proportion of people who come into me, without exception, think that their hearing is better than it is, because they are generally only aware of what they can hear and not what they cant hear, adds Barry. The charming village of Portmagee, Co Kerry, is known as the gateway to the Skellig islands and it hosts tens of thousands of people annually who take the 45-minute boat trip to the Unesco world heritage site. However, there is another island here just under their noses which has early medieval buildings just as impressive as Skellig Michaels though it is far less impressive in terms of an inaccessibility. The national monument of Illaunloughan is easily spotted when crossing the bridge to Valentia, if you look to your left towards the sea, or from the western end of Valentia itself, or from the far end of Portmagee. And of all the islands in this series this one is probably the smallest, second only to Church Island at the end of Valentia Island. You can traverse its rocky parts in about one minute but irrespective of size, this minute place is an important site in Irish church history. #Watch See breathtaking views stretching out into the Atlantic Ocean, head to the edge of the world and answer the call of these mysterious peninsulas and their deserted Blasket and Skellig islandshttps://t.co/qGb0pYPL0L pic.twitter.com/IajP2G6ecA Discover Ireland (@GoToIreland) November 25, 2018 An inviting set of steps neatly built into the sea defences can be seen from the shoreline. A mere squint reveals a lot more to this island with its 7th century ecclesiastical structures. It is located only about 100m from the last house in the village and at low tide it can be accessed by foot. It is for this reason that no visible remains of any valuable portable artefacts remains. Further up Portmagee Channel along the southern flank of Valentia Island and just around the tip, lies Beginish Island from where a Viking rune stone was removed to Fitzgerald Park Museum in Cork for safe-keeping decades ago. At the top of the few steps across the stony beach a striking display of quartz stones blaze in the sunshine. These were placed by monks as well as pilgrims around the shrine and graves in the island. Jenny White Marshall and Claire Walsh have written in The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry that in ecclesiastical literature the colour white represented purity, innocence and a holy life. The writers indicate that the presence of scallop shells is also consistent with the wider European Christian tradition where the use of the shell was used to represent the presence of god or Christian rebirth. They are found in many Mediterranean sites including on the tomb of Constantius III in Ravenna, Italy, and on a Syrian shrine. The islands name possibly derives from a Saint Lachan who is mentioned in early ecclesiastical records. Settlement on the island falls into two separate eras. The first in the seventh century saw an oratory and three domestic sod huts form part of a monastery. The second, in the eighth century saw construction of a dry-stone oratory, a gable shrine and a corbelled church. Excavations revealed the burial of 25 people in different parts of the island. It has been suggested that the primary function of Illaunloughan was as a type of staging post for the construction of the monastic cells on Skellig Michael itself, which lies about 12km further out to sea, and for the transportation of the stone which was brought from the quarry on Valentia Island. If used initially as such a post it later was developed into a monastic site itself. And pilgrims en route to Skellig Michael would probably have visited this island too. It is a curiosity though why such an accessible island as Illaunloughan was chosen as a monastic site rather than say, Long Island at the end of Portmagee Channel which has comparatively rich pasture and a lot of ground for building. Probably for the very reason of easy access. There are several similarities between the buildings on Illaunloughan and Skellig Michael, not least the cell on the island which is very similar in construction to one on Skellig Michael. Illaunloughan is a mightily impressive island in its own right and a testament to human will. It was also the site in the 19th century for a cilin, the last resting place for misfortunate unbaptised children. How to get there: Walk across the stony beach at low tide from the far end of Portmagee. Other: The Iveragh Peninsula: A Cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry; editors John Crowley and John Sheehan The May 24 referendum to remove the waiting period for divorce from the Constitution and allow the Oireachtas to legislate will not result in quickie divorces, argues Josepha Madigan. When it comes to so-called quickie divorces, Russia is up there leading the way. Russians tend to marry younger than their western peers and their divorce rates are much higher. In 2016, the ratio in Russia of divorces to new marriages was 1:1.6 meaning that Russians divorce more often than they marry. In recent decades over 60% of marriages in Russia ended in official separation. The divorce figure in Ireland is nowhere near that. In fact with a divorce rate of one-in-10, we have one of the lowest rates anywhere in the world. So why has it been claimed by opponents of the May 24 referendum that by removing the waiting period for divorce from our Constitution, Ireland is on the slippery slope to quickie divorce territory? I reject that claim. Quite simply we are not. On polling day we are being asked to remove the waiting period for divorce from the Constitution and allow the Oireachtas to legislate on where a couple has been separated for two out of the previous three years. This would bring us into line with what is the European norm and nobody talks about slippery slope divorces across Europe. In my opinion, divorce is an issue of social policy but we have a tendency to put restrictions on social policy into our Constitution. This is problematic as these restrictions reflect the values of our society at a fixed point in time on an issue where public opinion is ever-evolving and changing. The Constitution is not the place for this matter. Our Oireachtas legislates for a wide range of social issues so why not divorce? If passed, the Oireachtas will treat this issue with respect and I have no doubt our successors will also deal with it responsibly going forward. This is a moderate proposal and not radical as some suggest. Opponents also claim to get out of marriage should not be made quick and easy. Let me say this to them. Divorce is never something that is considered lightly or undergone easily. That will not change with this referendum. I have witnessed first-hand the pain and trauma that the time-limit which is currently enshrined in our Constitution under Article 42.1.3 inflicts on families. Our four-year wait period exacts an enormous toll on many people who are left unable to move on with their lives. They are often caught in a long-drawn-out court process that only serves to increase acrimony in the long run. Family relationships become further strained, often beyond repair. The American writer Emily V Gordon said divorce is one of the most destructive, emotionally traumatic experiences a human being can go through, its hard, it hurts, and it takes a long time to feel normal again. The end of a marriage is like a bereavement and families going through such trauma should be treated with compassion and respect. In the 2016 census, 118,000 individuals in Ireland described themselves as separated, 283,802 people were divorced, separated, or remarried and more than 103,000 people had gone through a divorce since 1997. So how is it fair to inflict a draconian 48-month wait on thousands of people? I believe two years is a more reasonable period. It will allow couples time to obtain legal advice on property, pensions access, maintenance and other ancillary reliefs. But it is important to stress that the other provisions for divorce in Article 41.3.2 of the Constitution specifically in relation to there being no prospect of reconciliation and that proper provision is made for both parties and any dependent children, will remain as is. Irish legislation should reflect the reality that some marriages do break down. It should be designed to assist those who have separated to move on with their lives in a more humane way. It should be the responsibility of the Oireachtas, as legislators, to deal with the realities of marital breakdown, not the constitution. Four years is too long to have to wait before you can even initiate divorce proceedings. Our current system is too lengthy, too restrictive and ultimately unfair on separated couples, both financially and emotionally. As director of elections for Fine Gael in this referendum, I want to ensure the process for obtaining a divorce is fair, dignified and humane and allows both parties to move forward with their lives within a reasonable timeframe. To that end, I will lead a vigorous campaign to ensure a Yes vote. I and my colleagues will debate the issues in public and through the media. As a party, we will produce campaign material and push our message out through social media channels. The Fine Gael Parliamentary Party has been briefed and I have written to all elected members and local election candidates, encouraging them to canvass. Every house in the country will also be provided with material by the Referendum Commission. This proposal has widespread support across all political parties and civil society. Im encouraging all groups to help get the vote out. To date, polls show support for reducing the wait period spanning all genders, age groups, social classes and regions, including rural areas. However, we cannot afford to be complacent. The irreconcilable breakdown of marriage causes immense sadness and stress for all concerned. A shorter waiting period will allow all concerned to gain finality and certainty more easily. It shortens stressful and painful legal proceedings and allows for a fresh start. Nobody expects their marriage to fail. But the sad reality is that some do. This referendum will treat separating couples in a compassionate, pragmatic way by providing for divorce after a reasonable time that does not penalise or place them under further strain. That is why I am calling for a Yes vote on May 24. - Josepha Madigan is Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht The referendum was in 2016 but the UK still doesnt know when it is leaving the EU or even if it is leaving at all. How did it all come to this, asks Christopher Fear. Britons are typically a polite bunch. Theyre fearful of giving offence and traditionally slow to take it. But the project of withdrawing from the European Union (Brexit) has got more people shouting their opinions and finding people to blame than anything anyone can remember. The British prime minister and her government are weak, and both parliament and electorate are divided. The referendum was in 2016 but the country still doesnt know when it is leaving the EU or even if it is leaving at all. How did it all come to this? The only adequate answer is very long and very complex. But there are certain standout moments in the UKs relationship with the EU that have shaped the story. Early difficulties One is the UKs troubled quest to join the European Communities (EC) in the first place. Its first two attempts were vetoed by the French, but Britain was finally admitted in 1973 without a referendum. The Labour party sought to exploit ongoing unease by promising a public vote on whether to stay in the EC if it were to win the October 1974 general election, though the party itself was split on the issue. Labour did indeed win the election, and the following year the pro-European Yes campaign won the referendum with 67% of the vote, on a 65% turnout. This seemed to demonstrate that referendums on Europe could win elections and resolve party in-fighting. The following decade saw the emergence of two explicitly distinct visions for Europe. On one side, that of the EC, and, on the other, that of the iconic British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. The EC sought to centralise ever more political power and economic regulation in its own institutions. Thatcher recognised the economic convenience of the Common Market, but grew ever more suspicious of the programme of political union. The dirigisme she had spent much of her career rolling back in the UK could be reimposed across the entire EC by relatively new and unaccountable institutions. In her Bruges speech in 1988, and in the House of Commons in 1990, Thatcher signalled her divergence from the project of ever closer union. The Conservatives lost power to Labour in 1997. But while Britain remained a member of the bloc, many Conservative MPs maintained Thatchers views on Europe. Eastward expansion, westward migration From 2004 to 2007 the EU expanded to encompass former Communist states including Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The Labour government of the time (assuming that other member states would do the same) chose not to impose temporary travel restrictions on migrants from the new territories. It forecast only 5,000 to 13,000 arrivals. In fact, 129,000 people came in the first two years (2004-05). To many Britons, it appeared not only that the government had lost control of immigration, but that no British government could ever regain control again while the UK was under the EUs freedom of movement laws. Euroscepticism gained new public appeal from the recognition that continuously rising immigration would have implications for infrastructure, housing, public services and welfare, social relations and the job market. Such concerns later sharpened in view of the European migrant crisis. While the nations main political parties had avoided the issue of immigration, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), led by plain-speaking Nigel Farage and devoted above all to taking the UK out of the EU, filled the vacuum. Farage reassured voters that it was neither racist nor xenophobic to want to see immigration controlled. His partys growing popularity seemed to threaten the electoral hopes of both main parties, but especially those of the Conservatives. The once-in-a-lifetime referendum The most momentous European policy call of any prime minister since 1973 was David Camerons decision to offer an in/out referendum on EU membership in his 2015 general election campaign. Some have blamed this decision, and therefore Cameron personally, for every twist and turn of the subsequent Brexit process. Some have even painted the whole affair as nothing but the explosion of Conservative party in-fighting. But such explanations overlook the role of 17.4m Leave voters, and the widespread assumption that Leave would not win. By 2015 Cameron was under pressure to recover those traditional working-class voters who identified more with UKIP than with Camerons brand of cosmopolitan social liberalism. UKIPs growing success in European elections had shown that eurosceptic votes were out there to be won. A promised referendum could win them back, and the ensuing Remain victory would contain Conservative eurosceptic MPs for a generation. For Camerons team, the risk of holding a vote was hard to gauge, but the political strategy seemed strong. On referendum day, more people turned out than have ever voted for anything in the UK, delivering a 52% to 48% result in favour of leaving the EU. The next day Cameron announced his intention to resign. Enter Theresa May In what followed, the home secretary Theresa May emerged as Camerons successor. Though herself a cautious Remainer, May wanted to be the prime minister who would finally satisfy Britains long-running suspicion of European political unification and more recent anxieties about the freedom of movement. She saw that the UK could leave the single market and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice while retaining the benefits of other more peripheral EU programmes. Many eurosceptics also pointed to growing economic activity beyond Europe that EU rules prevented British business from exploiting fully. May had inherited from Cameron a majority in the House of Commons, but a slim one. Delivering her vision of Brexit against strong opposition in the country and in parliament would be much easier with a larger majority of Conservative MPs. With this in mind, and Labour performing poorly in opinion polls, May called a snap election for June 2017. But although she attracted the largest number of votes for the Conservatives since 1992, Labour also did much better than expected. Mays plan had backfired. She lost her majority, alienated many Conservative MPs, and weakened her governments power in parliament. Article 50 and the rules of engagement On March 29 2017, May formally announced the UKs intention to leave the EU. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union states that once this happens, there will be two years during which the terms of withdrawal will be agreed. Then, only once the member state is outside of the EU, the negotiations for a future relationship can begin (the EU is not allowed to negotiate with itself). These rules are not accidental. They are supposed to prevent member states from using false notification of withdrawal as political leverage in internal disputes. But these rules also give the EU the stronger negotiating position, making any secession very unattractive. The EU cannot be forced to relinquish (or to retain) any of its existing powers against its own will, unless no agreement is reached. Neither can it be forced to discuss the terms of the future relationship until this first stage is complete. This is what has given rise to disagreements over the open and practically invisible land border between Northern Ireland (which is an integral part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (which is not, but is in the EU). The terms of the 1998 peace deal that ended the 30-year armed conflict between British and Irish Republican groups require that the border remains open. But if Northern Ireland leaves the EU customs union with the rest of the UK, customs checks may be needed, perhaps on the border. The terms of the future relationship between the UK and the EU might have enabled (and still might enable) the border to remain open. But the EUs rules do not permit the future relationship to be discussed until the withdrawal is agreed first. The detested deal The UK and the EU agreed the terms of withdrawal, and published the details in November 2018. The agreement was met with instant criticism, including from the Brexit minister, who had not been privy to some major decisions. So far, it has been defeated three times in parliament. Some MPs are blocking the agreement because they hope that its failure will lead to the abandonment of the Brexit project altogether. Others, notably the Conservatives most eurosceptic MPs, oppose it because it surrenders too much power to the EU, and weakens the UKs position for negotiations on the future relationship. Crucially, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) also opposes the withdrawal agreement, on account of the backstop condition that it proposes for maintaining an open border with the Republic of Ireland. The proposal is that Northern Ireland will remain in a customs union with the Republic of Ireland, and therefore with the EU. This arrangement would not (necessarily) apply to any other part of the UK, only Northern Ireland, and would continue to apply if the rest of the UK does not later establish the sort of relationship with the EU that would allow the border to remain open. This proposed regulatory difference between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK is unacceptable to the DUP, which is strongly protective of Northern Irelands union with Great Britain. The DUP fears that the backstop arrangement loosens Northern Irelands ties with the rest of the UK, and strengthens the claims of Irish Republicans to sovereignty over Northern Ireland. And because May still needs the support of the DUPs ten MPs to sustain her minority government, it has been impossible for her to ignore their opposition. Brexit was always going to be complicated, since the UK had spent 40 years entangling itself with the growing political, legal, and economic institutions of the EU and especially complicated given that the majority of politicians (including the prime minister) actually voted to Remain. But many of the particular frustrations could not have been foreseen. Mays government has been unable to deliver any kind of Brexit largely because of the unique parliamentary arithmetic produced by the 2017 general election. Labour has, for a long time, maintained a strategically ambiguous position on Brexit, preferring to point to mishandling and calling for another election, but it has failed to secure one. In any case, its unclear who will win the general election when it eventually comes. But voters will certainly have a lot to think about. Christopher Fear is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at University of Hull This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article here. On the eve of elections that seem to carry particular weight for Israel and that troubled region, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if he is re-elected tomorrow. Whether that hardening, the veer further to the right, is a ploy so he might retain office and, possibly, delay corruption charges is a subjective question but then it is an ongoing tragedy that everything about Israel is subjective. Mr Netanyahus rightward swing has a ripple effect. Though he would reject any comparison, former Sinn Fein TD Peadar Toibin, speaking at the launch of his party, Aontu, at the weekend, said immigration needs to be managed. There is no doubt there is a growing unease and concern... around the issue of immigration, he warned. He may reject a comparison with Mr Netanyahu, or Nigel Farage, or Viktor Orban, or even Alice Weidel, but he has chosen the same them-or-us agenda. Aontu is not a lone voice. The Irish Freedom Party (IFP) may be further along the Netanyahu, Farage, Orban, or Weidel road, but its ambitions, and abrasive sentiments are the same. Like Ukip, it wants us to take back control. It has spent an estimated 40,000 on an anti-EU billboard campaign, though it is coy about the source of its funds. Maybe they are beneficiaries of the DUPs generosity. Arlene Fosters party, after all, has a proud record in funding anti-EU campaigns, even if they are silent about the ultimate source of the money they channelled to buy advertising in a London publication before the Brexit vote. Puppets and puppeteers abound in these murky waters it seems. Whether the DUP, or any other British party, has to commit resources to next months European elections is an open question one that points to the chaos and humiliation of British politics dangerous inability to reach a consensus on how Britain might leave. This contagion creates a vacuum instantly exploited by those who might be described as pupils of the Netanyahu, Farage, Orban, or Weidel school of politics. The EU elections have taken on an Alamo characteristic for some of prime minister Theresa Mays mutinous MPs. Participation is another Brexit red-line and Tory MPs have told Ms May they will move to replace her within weeks should that obligation transpire. This chaos deepens as Ms Mays government and Labour indicated yesterday that last-ditch talks to resolve the situation remained deadlocked. House of Commons leader and ardent Brexiteer Andrea Leadsom added spice to the mix yesterday when she said that no-deal Brexit at the end of next week would be not nearly as grim as many believe. She also warned that a departure extension long enough to require the UK to participate in European elections was utterly unacceptable. What a bubble she lives in. Any amusement this fiasco provoked faded long ago and the take-home lesson, one that Netanyahu, Farage, Orban, and Weidel Aontu and the Irish Freedom Party too cant ignore is that determined, unwavering solidarity, as the EU has shown, works and wins. This is not a time to blink. On-stage at the first keynote of the SuiteWorld conference, Evan Goldberg, executive vice-president, Oracle NetSuite interviewed his boss, Mark Hurd, chief executive, Oracle. One of the topics of conversation was the growing use of AI in ERP applications. To open, Goldberg asked something of a dorothy-dixer, "What is the role of creativity, even in very large companies? And how do you foster it?" Hurd responded, "We only do two things in the company. Build products and sell products. We have a lot of other functions to help support those two things in the company, but if we don't get those two right, not much else matters. And I think for us, trying to get innovation into our products is at the core of it. "Right now, we're going through a massive revamp of our products, not in the sense of the core code but implementing analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning. I think we're at the beginning of, in AI, what's going to be a massive move over the course of the next decade, that you and I don't even know how it's going to work out. "Things like what's being done to applications we're not a company that believes AI gets to become a separate application but it becomes a feature that's integrated into all the core applications. It's going to do everything from automating the way you communicate with people, all the user interfaces are going to change, all the analytic solutions are going to change. And so creativity for us is not only implementing and executing but not being fearful of what the outcome's going to be. So I think it's going to be a big opportunity for us." This is key. Too many organisations believe that AI is an end unto itself, but Oracle (and NetSuite) prefer to use it simply to enhance the abilities of their software. To continue, Goldberg asked, "When we think about AI, Machine Learning, we think of it not only within a company but also across companies there's so much data out there. When you see companies trying to figure out how they fit into an industry, do you think there's a role for some aggregating of this data and looking at how the whole industry is performing?" Hurd responded, "I think the first use-cases will be much more mundane. I'll give you an example. When I was CEO of HP, one of my big issues was - I'll give you an example - we used to sell $8B into China; [and] we exported $14B out of China in 2008/9... and we did it mostly out of Shanghai and [...] we'd load up a ship or two every day - it would take 28 days to cross the Atlantic [sic] with finished goods. "What I wanted to do was get those goods on the ship as fast as they were made and I wanted to allocate them, dynamically, while they were on the water. I wanted to be able to integrate my order system directly into my supply-chain system. I wanted to get - I'd never heard the work 'blockchain' in 2008 - I wanted to securely align a transaction from my order system into my supply-chain system so that I could then dynamically allocate that good that was on the boat to somebody who was going to have it, perhaps, for whatever subset of 28 days that ship was still on the ocean. "I used to tell our guys, 'this is what we're gonna do.' They would all say, 'there's no chance in hell that we're gonna be able to do all that. We don't have the systems to do that. Everything is siloed, we cannot do that.' So, the ability for us to now... I'll take something as simple as 'recruiting.' We recruit 20,000 people a year into the company, we recruit almost all of them through a 'recruiter' (Hurd used visual 'air-quotes' to emphasis this). Wouldn't it be nice to know, the 100,000 people we recruited over the last five years, all of the correlations between them and their success, or perhaps even lack of success, at Oracle? "Well, it's hard for us to do it's a lot of data, it's a lot of crunching; it requires standard practices we cannot do that as part of a recruiting app. But if I told our head of HR to come to an AI presentation, she's not coming. If I told her "I've got a new recruiting app," she's coming! If I tell the head of Supply Chain, "how would you like to see this new AI capability in the sky?" He'd say, "I'm not going." But if I told him, "we at the same time now can dynamically allocate inventory," they're coming. "So I think we're going to see these tens and tens and hundreds of use-cases that are really AI-integrated directly into the applications themselves." This is a strong endorsement of embedding AI into everything. We await NetSuite's SuiteWorld in 12 months' time to see the progress being made. The author travelled to SuiteWorld as a guest of NetSuite. Come mid-April 2019, when Huawei's P30 and P30 Pro smartphones are delivered to pre-orderers and the public, the world's best smartphone cameras will be unleashed, with the P30 Pro delivering truly astonishing low-light capabilities, ultra-wide angle, ultra-macro, 5x optical zoom, 10x hybrid zoom, 50x digital zoom within an ultra-premium smartphone of impressive proportions. Long-time iTWire readers would know that I am an iPhone fan and user since the very first iPhone in 2007, but last year's Mate 20 Pro and this year's even better P30 Pro have left me seriously impressed, and wondering whether Apple will catch up in 2019, or whether they'll wait until 2020, or might take even longer to offer some of the features last year's Huawei's Mate 20 and now this year's P30 Pro offer as standard. The Mate 20 Pro was so advanced that Samsung's otherwise impressive S10+ has only just managed to catch up feature-wise, nearly six months later, in terms of wireless reverse charging, in-screen fingerprint reader, wide-angle and also night mode photography, although the S10+ only offers a 2x optical zoom whereas the Mate 20 Pro offered 3x optical zoom capability (as does the P30), which the P30 Pro incredibly eclipses with a 5x optical zoom periscope lens. Now comes Huawei's newest models, with 3 rear cameras on the P30, and the ultra-premium, P30 Pro flagship, achieve its promise to "rewrite the rules of photography", with four cameras on the rear, and a whopping 32 megapixel camera on the front for five cameras in total. Now, there are plenty more features that set the P30 Pro apart from competitors, and we'll go through those features shortly, but first, here's the P30 series launch highlights from the Paris launch, followed by the full video of the P30 launch, which is definitely a must-see keynote launch event. The article continues below, please read on! Huawei P30 Launch Highlights short video: Complete Huawei P30 Series Launch in Paris 1 hour 30 minute must-see keynote: Let's continue with the P30 Pro's cameras, which are astoundingly advanced, as well as the P30's - here's a photo of the P30 Pro's cameras on the back: Both models start with a 40 megapixel main camera with a new "1/1.7-inch Huawei SuperSpectrum Sensor", which Huawei boasts is "the largest in its class" and which also offers a new RYYB filter instead of the RGGB filter normally used in previous and competing sensors. RGGB stands for red, green, green and blue, and here, Huawei has replaced the green pixels with yellow pixels, which the company says captures up to 40% more light, and with updated algorithms to handle this, it means better photos, as well as a much higher ISO rating for vastly improved low-light photography, with the P30 Pro offering "up to 409,000" ISO rating, and up to 204,800 ISO on the P30. Huawei says this is a "fundamental shift in sensor technology" and combined with the company's AIS, OIS (AI Image stabilisation and Optical Image Stabilisation) along with the P30 Pros f/1.6 wide aperture, we're told this delivers "extraordinary photography and videography experiences across a wide range of scenarios producing images with enhanced detail, colour and clarity even in lower light". This ability to turn night into day in the standard, auto "photos" section of the inbuilt camera app - without even using the P30 Pro camera app's specific night mode - truly is astounding, with the standard night mode even better than the actual night mode. The actual night mode can produce even brighter images, seemingly with a slightly yellow tinge, but as noted elsewhere online, this can be updated by Huawei - with the night mode almost (but not quite) rendered completely unnecessary by the fact the standard photo mode does its own night mode, in a much faster time too. Tom's Guide has some excellent examples of both night modes in action that you must see for yourself here, handily outclassing Google Pixel 3 XL's celebrated night mode. I've also taken some photos that turn night into vastly brighter, clearer photos than were possible with an iPhone XS Max, for example, which the iPhone rendered virtually as completely black, and which were visible on the P30 Pro, and I'll write a separate article about these - but Tom's Guide's article is absolutely must-see to demonstrate the P30 Pro's capabilities. The second camera is a 20 megapixel ultra-wide angle camera (16 megapixels on the P30), along with an 8 megapixel telephoto camera on the P30 Pro with 5x optical zoom which I'll go into shortly. The P30 Pro also offers a fourth HUAWEI ToF Camera (which we'll go into shortly as well), with both also offering a 32 megapixel front camera for ever better selfies, although still no wide-screen selfie mode as seen on the Google Pixel 3 and 3XL models. So let's take a closer look at the P30 Pro's telephoto lens, which uses a new periscope design that turns the lenses and sensor sideways, allowing it to go vertically up the back of the phone, rather than needing to be within the very thin space between the back of the phone and its front glass, let along with the motherboard in between. Huawei explains that a "prism element in the telephoto camera bends light at a 90-degree angle to maximise focal length while minimising camera height, without disrupting the sleek design of the phone". Huawei dubs this telephoto as a "SuperZoom Lens", able to not only deliver an incredibly class-leading 5x optical zoom, but by using one of the other lenses in conjunction with the 5x zoom it can deliver a 10x hybrid zoom, and this also allows a 50x digital zoom. These zoom levels are absolutely incredible, and I've been able to take the same photo from the 0.6x wide-angle, through to the 1x "standard" mode, the 5x optical zoom, the 10x hybrid zoom and then the 50x digital zoom (and everywhere in between), and the results are incredible. In the keynote, we were shown a photo of THE MOON with its craters, taken on the P30 Pro (as seen in the keynote image below), something I've never seen any other smartphone do before, and something I'll be trying for myself when the next full moon arrives this month - especially as my experience of capturing the moon has only ever resulted in blurry discs of white light. On the regular P30, there is a 3x optical zoom, like the Mate 20 Pro, so while the P30 is more affordable than the P30 Pro, if you want the best cameras, the P30 Pro is where it's at. Then there's the P30 Pro's ToF or "time of flight" camera, which "captures depth-of-field information to deliver accurate image segmentation". This means "precise distance measurement" which "allows for the simulation of multiple levels of bokeh" - and it's something not available on the regular P30 model. The ToF camera also augments the "Super Portrait feature" which, unlike with competing bokeh capabilities on competing smartphones, allows the P30 Pro to "capture even the smallest details, such as individual strands of hair". Huawei explains it as being able to "combine depth information and proprietary algorithms to produce outstanding images with defocused backgrounds and highlights the subject of the image in any scenario". After an OS update, the ToF camera also offers that Huawei dubs a "powerful AR measurement toolkit" that "can accurately and instantly measure the length, width and depth". We're told that using "the Face Recognition technology, now measuring the height of a person is just a simple task of scanning from toe to head". It will be interesting to see this feature in action. This video shows how the Huawei AR Measurement works: Demonstrated during the keynote, but also awaiting an OS update before being made available to the public is an intriguing "Dual-View" video capability. This lets you record with two rear cameras as the same time for videos with two perspectives - one zoomed in, one at normal distance - and journalists were told during a post-keynote Q&A that you'll be able to save the videos individually, but they'll be in square format rather than widescreen, although the twin videos exported as a single video will take up a wide-screen's worth of space. Here's Huawei's video showcasing this soon to be available feature: Huawei's P30 Pro also allows for stunningly sharp macro photography with only 2.5cm distance, much closer than competing smartphones. It's all seriously impressive stuff, far in advance of what Apple, Samsung, Google, LG and others have been able to achieve thus far - even down to being able to capture faces with excellent clarity, even when shooting into the sun, which is yet another astounding feature. Indeed, if photography is important to you, the P30 Pro's cameras could easily sway your next Android smartphone purchase, and despite the warm embrace and strong pull of the iOS ecosystem lock-in, there could even be iPhone switchers who decide to switch to Huawei's latest and greatest models rather than a Samsung, LG, Pixel or other Android model. There might even be iOS fans who decide to get a P30 Pro just for the photographic capabilities, so they can enjoy the best of both worlds, but it has to be said, and especially so if you're already in the world of Android, then Huawei's P30 Pro is both a must-see smartphone and a very compelling upgrade alternative. Of course, photography isn't all the P30 Pro is capable of, with widescreen video recordings that outclass what any current iPhone can do from a widescreen perspective, and from a low-light perspective too, thanks again to the new "SuperSpectrum Sensor which enables spectacular low-light video capture so night scenes appear bright and highly detailed". Huawei's AIS and OIS support stabilisation kick in too, which the company states "results in perfectly steady shots in a wide range of situations", for what we're told is "truly cinematic capabilities that usher a new era in studio-grade videography". I've always relied on an iPhone for great video that gets better with each new generation of iPhone, but as I do film a lot of video, and the videos I've filmed on the P30 Pro thus far certainly have been impressive - with great audio, too. So, what other features are on the P30 Pro model (see P30 details here)? Well, Huawei has included just about everything you possibly can into the P30 Pro, with the following shortlist of features: 6.47-inch OLED Full HD+ display with DCI-P3 colour display capability In-screen fingerprint reader - promised 30% faster than in the past (and it does indeed appear to be faster and much more accurate than the S10+ in-screen fingerprint reader Face recognition camera (but no Face-ID style that I personally haven't been able to fool with a photo - unlike the Galaxy S10+!) The camera shows as a "dewdrop notch" at the top of the display, which is easily hideable with a thin black bar (unlike the thick black bar to hide the cameras of of the S10+, if you desire to hide the cameras) Up to 15 watt wireless charging Reverse wireless charging Fast charger included in the box at goes to 70% charge in 30 minutes Infrared remote control sensor and app to control most IR remote controllable devices Acoustic Display technology meaning no external above-screen speaker cutout needed, as the screen vibrates to produce sound Dual-SIM slots with Dual VoLTE, with one of the slots also able to be used additional storage using Huawei's proprietary NM memory cards - so no MicroSD Dual-band and thus more accurate GPS Double knock with your knuckle to take screenshots (along with the existing method of pressing the power and volume down button simultaneously) IP68 water and dust resistance 7nm Kirin 980 processor 8GB Ram and 256GB processor 4100mAh battery (rated as 4200mAh typical value) Huawei Share OneHop, an iOS Continuity-like content sharing feature for the Huawei P30 series and Huawei Matebook Windows notebook PCs USB-C headphones included, and while this means no 3.5mm headphone jack, you can still used wired headphones, while wireless options do abound as never before Basic, standard protective case included in the box - thankfully Tech21 and Huawei have collaborated on top notch cases (my article on the new cases here) Gesture-based interface which mimics that of the iPhone X, even allowing you to swipe from the left or right hand sides of the screen to go back, which is a very handy feature. The older triangle, square and circle interface at the bottom of the screen is also available for those who prefer the old way of navigating on Android, but the new gesture based UI, which debuted on the Mate 20 Pro, is my preferred way of navigating. Impressively, Huawei also introduced a new file system which it has called EROFS. The company claims an app speech launch boost of 20%, a more consistent performance over time that helps its smartphones "stay fast" rather than slowing down, as Androids of the past have been known to do. I'm guessing this is also the reason why Huawei's P30 Pro does not spilt video files into separate parts. This is something no iPhone ever does, but the Google Pixel 3 XL and the Samsung S10+ will STILL split a file after something like 30 to 40 minutes and will create another file! This is madness, a video file should not be split into separate parts but should remain as one file. I recorded well over an hour of video in one go on the P30 Pro and the file remained as a single file - just as it should, which made me happy to see. Now, there's no Face ID style face unlock as seen on the iPhone X-series and as Huawei introduced with its the Mate 20 Pro, but Huawei's P30 Pro face unlock works nice and fast. As noted above, I haven't been able to fool it with a photo, or at least not yet, something I was surprisingly able to do incredibly easily with the Samsung Galaxy S10+ with a photo of myself taken on another phone and pointed at a locked S10+, and that's with "faster recognition" on the S10+ turned off, too. I've tried again and again with different photos of myself to get the P30 Pro to unlock with just a photo, and thus far at least, the P30 Pro just refuses to unlock unless it sees my actual face in real life. As with the S10+, the P30 Pro does warn that face unlocking can be insecure, and has a disclaimer menu in the Face Recognition section of the settings, but again, I just can't make it unlock, so your milage may vary but thus is my experience thus far. As for using the phone itself, I've been able to perform all of the expected functions of a smartphone from voice calls, browsing, app usage, hotspot, infrared remote control (given Huawei has this feature), Mirror (the P30 Pro has a great mirror app), video/TV player via Netflix and other TV apps and more, and as a premium smartphone, the experience has been excellent. I do remember the YouTube app crashing a few times but there has been an update since then, and I'm playing a video on YouTube now, and it's smooth sailing. I've taken all manner of photos I can't take on competing smartphones, demonstrating the 0.6x, 1x, 5x, 10x and 50x zoom modes to the astonishment of people I've shown it to, as well as demonstrating night mode photos, and the P30 Pro has unquestionably been a mind-blowing experience, and videos I've taken have been great too, especially with the widescreen mode that lets me capture so much more than earlier smartphones. Also, while the P30 Pro does offer Wi-Fi 5, or Wi-Fi 802.11ac (and earlier Wi-Fi standards), the P30 Pro doesn't offer Wi-Fi 6, something the Galaxy S10+ can do, and which Samsung did make a big deal of during its S10 series keynote. Is it the end of the world? No - routers with Wi-Fi 6 are only just starting to come onto the market, and the vast majority of routers in existing homes and businesses don't have Wi-Fi 6 capability, and will need to be replaced. Wi-Fi 6 devices and routers make Wi-Fi transmissions much more efficient, but unless you upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 routers and devices, you won't get the benefit, so while it's a shame the P30 Pro doesn't have Wi-Fi 6, it's not a deal-breaker, with future Huawei models sure to offer Wi-Fi 6 capabilities at that time. So, what do Huawei's global and local chiefs have to say about the new models? Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer BG, and star of the P30 Series keynote that you can see above, said, The HUAWEI P30 Series is a fundamental breakthrough after decades of digital camera technology development; it will rewrite the rules and reshape everyones perception of mobile photography. "Innovations such as the HUAWEI SuperSpectrum Sensor and SuperZoom Lens allow us to push the envelope of both photography and videographya frontier long overdue for disruption. The HUAWEI P30 Series will set the pace for the next generation of smartphones by empowering people to capture the true beauty of the world around them through a device that fits in the palm of their hands. Larking Huang, Managing Director of Huawei Australia Consumer BG, followed, Were thrilled to be the makers of a phone range that continues to elevate everyday photography. As Australians were proud of our picturesque nation. With the HUAWEI P30 Series any phone user can transform the average selfie, lighten the evening sky or capture the full view with simplicity but with consistently amazing results. "Yet, while were aiming rewrite the rules of photography, were listening to all Australians needs a longer battery life to keep up with our busy lifestyles and a slick design to match our fashion forward trends. The HUAWEI P30 Series is the phone for the modern Australian user. Pricing and pre-order offer: Naturally, Huawei has a pre-order offer to tempt those considering an upgrade to either the P30 or the P30 Pro smartphones, be it from an existing Android competitor, or from iOS. The P30 model will retail for A$1099, while the Pro P30 will retail for $1599. Those pre-ordering before 15 April 2019 will receive a bonus Sonos One smart speaker, available in black and white, valued at A$299 via redemption, which you can see here. Both models will be available in the Breathing Crystal and Aurora colours, with Optus the "exclusive partner" to deliver the dual 4G SIM card capability on both the P30 and P30 Pro models. Both P30 and P30 Pro models are available to pre-order and buy from Optus, Telstra, Vodafone, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Kogan, mobileciti and bNEXT. More reviews can be seen at Camera Jabber's "Huawei P30 Pro Camera Review (in progress)", Engadget in an article entitled "The Huawei P30 Pro's cameras are miraculous", The Verge in an article entitled "The challenge of low-light photography is dead, and Huawei killed it the P30 Pro is somehow even better than Googles Night Sight", Android Authority's "Huawei P30 Pro review: A phone with superpowers", the Tom's Guide look at night time photos and plenty more online. Below are some more videos, but don't forget to check out the full keynote, where you'll also see that Huawei launched a 40W 12,000mAh SuperCharge Power Bank, a 2nd-generation version of its Watch GT, new "FreeLace" wireless headphones, new "FreeBuds" Lite, and new Bluetooth headset capable Gentle Monster sunglasses, a photo of all of which is below, a screenshot from the keynote. Huawei P30 Pro promo video: Huawei Share OneHop demo video: The writer attended the Huawei P30 Series launch in Paris as a guest of Huawei Australia. Ferradans to Deliver Keynote Address at Honors Convocation Carmela Ferradns BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Illinois Wesleyan University will host its annual Honors Convocation on Wednesday, April 10 at 11 a.m. in Presser Halls Westbrook Auditorium. The Honors Convocation is dedicated to the Class of 2019, as well as IWU students who have earned scholastic and activity honors and honor society membership. The 2020 winner of the Kemp Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence, the Universitys highest teaching honor, will also be announced during the event. As the 2019 recipient of the Kemp Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence at Illinois Wesleyan University, Professor and Chair of Hispanic Studies Carmela Ferradns will deliver this years keynote address. Nominated by her peers and selected by the Universitys Promotion and Tenure Committee, Ferradns is the 46th winner of the Universitys top teaching award. Ferradns teaches all levels of Spanish language, literature, and cultural history of Spain, as well as writing intensive courses for the Writing Program. In her role as inaugural chair of Illinois Wesleyans Council for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETAL), she has ventured into the fields of multimodal pedagogies and digital humanities. She is especially interested in finding connections between visual and written forms of communication. As a scholar, Ferradns is recognized for her critical studies on the poetry of Ana Rossetti, particularly for her intertextual analysis of the Calvin Klein advertising campaign of the 1980s as it relates to poetry and the visual arts. She is the editor and translator of Incessant Beauty: A Bilingual Anthology (New York: 2LeafPress, 2014) which gives to an English-speaking audience a first glimpse into Rossettis eclectic and voracious symbolic universe. Ferradns joined the Illinois Wesleyan faculty in 1992 and earned a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of California, Irvine in 1993. Ferradns completed a masters degree in Spanish at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1988 after receiving a bachelors degree in philosophy and educational sciences at the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1984. Areas of Ferradns research interests include: Contemporary Spanish literature and cultural studies; the Spanish avant-garde; the legacy of the Spanish Civil War; digital humanities; translation theory; multimodal curriculum development; migration studies. Through the years, the Teaching Excellence Award has undergone several name changes, but its purpose has always been to recognize and celebrate the vital role that teaching plays at Illinois Wesleyan. The award honors one faculty member who brings spirit, passion and scholarship to the art of teaching. The Kemp Family Foundation began funding the award in the 2009-2010 academic year. At the Honors Convocation, Senior Class President Alani Sweezy 19 will be presiding. All members of the senior class are invited and encouraged to participate in the Convocation processional and recessional, wearing full academic regalia with tassels worn on the right side. By Megan Baker 21 French President Emmanuel Macron proposed an annual day of commemoration for the Rwanda genocide on Sunday as the African nation marked 25 years since the massacres of the minority Tutsi community. The French leader expressed his solidarity with the Rwandan people and his compassion for the victims and their families in a statement that proposed April 7 as an annual remembrance day in France. Macron drew criticism from some activists for failing to attend the start of commemoration events in Rwanda on Sunday, instead sending a personal envoy, a Rwandan-born MP Herve Berville who was orphaned in the 1993 violence. A Rwandan victims group, Ibuka France, hailed Macrons announcement of a national Rwanda genocide day and said it had suggested the idea during a meeting with the 41-year-old leader last week. My reaction is one of satisfaction, the head of the group, Marcel Kabanda, said before adding that he hoped France would now introspect more about its role in the massacres. Its not the French population fundamentally, but the political elite that needs to talk about it more. It will take time but its a new phase, he told AFP. The genocide has cast a long shadow over Franco-Rwandan relations. Rwandas current President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, accuses France of having supported the ethnic Hutu forces behind most of the slaughter and of helping some of the perpetrators to escape. On Friday, Macron announced the creation of a commission of historians and researchers that will delve into the French states archives in a move intended to set the historical record straight. MEDFORD, OR- A group of Mustang fanatics stopped in Southern Oregon during their cross-country road trip to North Carolina. The group is traveling to Concord for the opening of the Mustang Owner's Museum. During their three week journey more Mustang owners will join in along the way. The group stopped at Crater Lake Ford in Medford on Saturday. Michael Baird a Mustang owner says, "When the Mustang's first came out, they were one of the most popular things that was going on at the time. Schools let out to let school kids come to the dealership to see the car. That's how popular it was at that time. It was over the top popular." The group left from Seattle. Medford was their first stop. They'll continue heading down I-5 through Oregon and California and cross the country. 96 Shares Share When my colleagues and I reported for new intern orientation 19 years ago, we were given navy scrubs emblazoned with the residency programs logo, a couple of creased and blindingly clean white coats, and, of course, a standard issue pager. I will admit that there was something thrilling about having my own tools of the trade; these accessories would identify me to the outside world as a doctor. I had put a lot of time and effort into earning that medical degree and, along with it, the right to don a long white coat (finally!) and to clip that compact black device to my waistband. I didnt have a personal cell phone until halfway through my residency. We didnt have hospital-issued Voaltes or Voceras back then. That little pager was the only way for nurses, attendings, or (sometimes) my friends to contact me. When I was on backup or Mommy call, I would have to take my pager to the bar and hope it wouldnt vibrate or emit its hideous tone. If it did, I would have to beg to use someone elses cell phone or find a landline, heaven forbid. I will even admit that I gave my pager number to a random guy or two at the bar back in the day. My pager and I have had a love-hate relationship for sure. Im pretty confident that the garish pager tone is responsible for a mild form of PTSD. Certain alarm clocks have caused a similar instantaneous emotional response of nausea accompanied by quickening of my pulse, followed by exhausted resignation, evolving into anger bordering on irrational rage. It is the same Pavlovian effect each and every time, even 19 years later. I have been through a number of physical pagers by now. Residency, followed by my first gig as a general pediatrician (I went through two during that span of three years because I accidentally flushed my first one down the toilet at Jimmy Johns in my husbands version of the story, it was an intentional flushing), followed by my pediatric hospitalist debut in Phoenix, followed by my current Omaha position. My purse was stolen three months ago, and along with my credit cards, checkbooks, and drivers license, the thief made off with my pager and Biovigil fob. No matter the make or model, though, each physical version has had the same soul-jarring audible alert and the same slightly uncomfortable dig into the flesh just to the right of my left iliac spine. After the theft, I decided to give it a go without my trusty pager. For a while now, I have had my pages forwarded to my personal cell phone as text messages. On day shifts, I have often gone without the pager and relied on the cell phone messages without any significant issues. On night shifts, however, I have continued to use my pagers audible alert to ensure that I am immediately shaken awake from any deep or shallow sleep that I might meander into. On the first night shift without my pager, I slept through a RAT (rapid assessment team) page on one of my patients. The capable resident team dealt competently with the situation (even though it was on a non-resident patient) but I felt horrible. I immediately put in an order for a new physical pager and have been relieved to have it back on my hip. I have been chagrined to discover that the hospital plans to do away with physical pagers. Are you kidding me!?!? some of you may be asking. Why would you like to hang onto a tangible torture device? This bothers me more than I think it should. There are the logical rebuttals: Using my personal devices battery power and minutes for work, navigating the dead zones in and out of the hospital, worrying that the wimpy text notifications wont be able to wake me like the mighty strains of the pager. But its more than that. Its taking away another physical reminder of the blood, sweat, and tears that I put into getting to where I am. As a pediatrician, I dont wear a white coat. I dont carry a stethoscope as each patient has his/her own for isolation reasons at my hospital. I am often mistaken for a nurse (which is not in at all a dig to nurses, by the way!). In some ways, the pager is the last fragile link to intern orientation. It is a symbol, albeit an oft-hated one, of my journey as a physician. As I have told some of my partners lately, You can take away my pager away when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands! Lisa Sieczkowski is a pediatrician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com 925 Shares Share President Donald Trump held a rally near my medical school last week. While sitting in a small conference room during a lecture the morning of the event, my professor chuckled while clutching his phone. He looked up and around at all of us, remarking that his friend had texted him about the Trump supporters waiting outside for the rally to start; the message read, Jesus, the maggots are already here! My professor laughed again, most of the students laughed, and some others just looked a bit surprised at hearing some of the harshest language our teacher had spoken all semester. We quickly moved onto the topic of the day: discussing an article that linked increased melanoma rates with tanning bed use. I attend a medical school that teaches patient-centered care starting from the very first day. We enter primary care clinics in the first semester, where we learn to work closely with medical assistants and nurses. We attend mandatory seminars on cultural competency, implicit biases, and microaggressions. Our student organizations are incredibly active both on- and off-campus, especially ones that focus on minority and historically oppressed groups. Our simulation labs are utilized on a weekly basis. I have heard multiple peers jokingly critique our school, claiming that theyre only interested in producing family physicians. They instill a mission-centered mindset into their students, and their students respond in-kind. We are students that care deeply about our patients, and our residency placements show that commitment. But theres a problem with this patient-centered story; 62,984,825 people voted for President Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Yes, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by millions of votes, but that is not the point of this article. The point is that every single person in the room that laughed at calling Trump supporters maggots will take care of many Trump supporters in their clinical careers. In fact, Donald Trump won 52 percent of the vote for those aged 65 and up, an age bracket that commonly utilizes most of the health care in our country. They will take care of MAGA hat-wearing patients that walk, crawl, or get wheeled into their emergency departments, clinics, and hospital rooms. They will have intimate, tragic, and perhaps elating moments together with these patients, because that is what doctors do; they take care of anybody and everybody, regardless of skin color, nationality, ability to pay, or gulp differing political viewpoint. I dont have any concerns for my professor; if he is willing to share such sentiments in a classroom with students, then he is too far gone. The fact that he is an epidemiologist, a researcher who studies and analyzes patterns of disease in a population, relieves me a bit because I know he has relatively little contact with patients. But I worry for my peers. I worry for their implicit (or explicit) biases when they take care of the patient who wears a red MAGA hat. I worry for their thinly-veiled judgment and disgust when they counsel the older patient who cant stop talking about how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is ruining America. I worry for them, because we took an oath to give our best to every patient under our care. And for all the cultural training we receive at my medical school, not once have I ever heard a professor, administrator, or peer discuss the biases present when taking care of a patient with a differing political viewpoint. Oh, and just to be clear? Im not a supporter President Trump. But at least I can see my fellow Trump supporters as citizens in this life journey together not maggots. The author is an anonymous medical student. Image credit: Shutterstock.com 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 Stuff reports: Government Statistician Liz MacPherson is facing contempt of Parliament after being ordered by MPs to produce census information. In an unusual move, a select committee invoked a standing order compelling Statistics NZ chief executive to produce the number of partial responses were received in Census 2018. MacPherson was first asked by to provide the answer by the governance and administration select committee during its annual review in February, and again on Wednesday. Both times she declined. The chief statistician now says she will provide the information which could further reveal the extent of Census 2018 issues not on the given April 10 deadline but as part of an announcement promised later in the month. What part of parliamentary accountability is not understood? Giving information to select committees is not voluntary. Stats NZ has remained tight-lipped about its efforts to patch up the long overdue Census 2018 results, which failed to count one in ten New Zealanders. National state services spokesman Dr Nick Smith said the committee unanimously decided such an extraordinary measure was required after MacPherson again refused to answer on the basis it would require extensive contextual information. What nonsense. This sounds like they just want to spin it on their timetable. The request is a simple one how many responses were there. If the chief statistician does not comply with a unanimous select committee to provide a simple answer by next Wednesday shes effectively giving the fingers to Parliament. MacPherson was unavailable for an interview on Friday, but in a statement remained firm that it was not the appropriate time to release the number of partial responses to Census 2018. It is my hope that the committee will appreciate that I have made this determination after careful thought and application of statistical best practice. Without the appropriate context, these individual numbers would be open to misinterpretation, MacPherson said. As in people might conclude the census failed to get enough responses. University of Otago professor Andrew Geddis said it was very unusual for such an order to be placed on state sector chief executive. I cant remember a time a public servant has refused after being told they must answer. If a complaint was taken to the speaker or the House, Macpherson could be forced to apologise or be censured by the privileges committee. That would be a very major escalation. I would expect that the House treat it as contempt. The behaviour of Stats NZ in this regard adds to the shaken confidence in the census data. Ive been forwarded on an e-mail from a Stats NZ staffer which is illuminating: I work in Stats and I worked on Census in the field ops support. It was the biggest mess imaginable. I was meant to support field officers and was given no training at all on the IT systems used. I could write a book on how horrendous the whole process was. And at the end of Census the Census general manager was promoted to the position of Deputy Government Statistician!!! I doubt many MPs will have confidence in using this data to redraw parliamentary boundaries. UPDATE: To clarify the Privileges Committee is the only committee that has the power to compel information in its own right. Other committees need to ask the Speaker to order the information, if it is not released to them. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr Rainy season is here, and local rescue groups are starting to prepare. Saturday morning, the National Guard and Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) led rescue mission drills. Officials say this is the largest drill they've ever done in Northeast Louisiana. "Minutes count and hours count, we do not have days to try to respond to take care of our citizens," says National Guard Major General Glenn Curtis. The National Guard and GOHSEP worked with agencies from across the parish and the state, conducting boat rescues, high water vehicle rescues, flood water mitigation, and lilly pad operations. The Guard practiced "scenario-driven stations where we're rescuing people, role-players- with high water vehicles with boats," according to Lieutenant Colonel Tony Dorsa, Commander for the 528th Battalion in Monroe. Dorsa says they tried making the drills as real as possible - even rescuing people with pets and those with physical disabilities. The Louisiana State Animal Response Team was on hand with animals to simulate people's pets. "We've got different stations that we're going through to set up HESCO barriers, different flood control measures, boat operations," says Neal Brown, Director of the Ouachita Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Brown says once people are rescued, they go through the "Lilly Pad" where they're relocated with family, pets and get the help they need. "We have Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) out here to help teach our guardsmen," says Brown. Sergeant Wayne Parker with LDWF says they know the waterways around Northeast Louisiana like the back of their hands. "We bring a lot of experience having responded to a lot of flood events over the years within the state. Some of our guys went to Houston and Florida during last year's events," says Sgt. Parker. Curtis says the National Guard will be coming back to Northeast Louisiana to continue preparing in case floods like those in 2016 ever happen again. By Jung Min-ho A Korean man was found dead and dismembered in an apparent homicide in Cambodia five months ago but the investigation has made little progress, according to the Korean Embassy in Phnom Penh Saturday. The embassy said the person, only identified by his last name Park, 59, was found dead at a garbage dump on the outskirts of the city on Nov. 28 after he went out with $60,000 cash for a business deal on Nov. 13. When police found his body, the lower half was missing, which his family found six days later at the dump. After an autopsy, Korea's National Forensic Service concluded Park was choked to death. Korean Ambassador to Cambodia Oh Nak-young urged Cambodian authorities to investigate the case thoroughly, but police have not been able to identify the primary suspect. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) A Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner said a Tarlac candidate for provincial board member is currently detained for slapping an election officer on Saturday. Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, in a series of tweets Sunday, said Tarlac bet Marty Torralba slapped Camiling, Tarlac Election Officer Teddy Mariano during the takedown of illegal campaign posters there. Guanzon said she will have Torralba, a self-proclaimed lawyer running under the ruling political Partido Demokratiko Pilipino - Lakas ng Bayan (PDP - Laban) party, disbarred and jailed. "The candidate who slapped our @COMELEC EO is Marty Torralba who claims to be a lawyer. We will have him disbarred," Guanzon said. The Comelec Employees Union also slammed the alleged slapping of Mariano. "The COMELEC Employees' Union strongly condemns this assault on EO Mariano. We call on the COMELEC to make sure that candidate Toralba be made accountable for this barefaced act of aggression against an election worker who is merely doing his duty of enforcing campaign rules in his jurisdiction," the union said in a statement. They also commended Mariano and other election officers for performing their jobs amid threats and backlash from candidates and supporters. Torralba to file countercharges Meanwhile, Torralba told CNN Philippines that the Comelec's Guanzon is being biased towards the election officer. "Imbestigahin niya muna 'yung case," he said. "The statement of Guanzon is very irresponsible. Kasi hindi ka nakinig eh. Where is my due process? Pina-detain niyo ako." [Translation: They should investigate the case first. The statement of Guanzon is very irresponsible. But you didn't listen. Where is my due process? You detained me.] The lawyer cited Section 266 of the Omnibus Election Code, which reads: "No person shall be arrested and/or detained at any time for any alleged offense committed during and in connection with any election through any act or language tending to support or oppose any candidate, political party or coalition of political parties under or pursuant to any order of whatever name or nature and by whomsoever issued except only upon a warrant of arrest issued by a competent judge after all the requirements of the Constitution shall have been strictly complied with." Torralba claimed Mariano, whom he did not know was an election officer before he slapped him, painted over the wall painting he had over a supporter's residential wall. He then confronted him. "Sabi ko, 'Private property po 'yun. Di mo dapat pinipinturahan nang di ka nagpapaalam," Torralba said. The lawyer claimed the election officer was rude against him, and that he only slapped the officer out of anger. "The slap is without any intention to hurt," he said. "Wala siyang injuries sustained." [Translation: I said, "That's private property. You shouldn't have painted over it without asking for permission."] The Tarlac bet alleged all of the other candidates, including his opponents, did not have their wall paint removed. Torralba said he is eyeing to file a complaint against Comelec for his detention. Section 11 of Republic Act 6646 states that on top of the election propaganda prohibited under Section 85 of the Omnibus Election Code, it is unlawful "to draw, paint, inscribe, write, post, display or publicly exhibit any election propaganda in any place, whether private or public, except in the common poster areas and/or billboards provided in the immediately preceding section, at the candidate's own residence, or at the campaign headquarters of the candidate or political party." The seven-year battle with e-commerce shopping giant Amazon over the internet domain may soon come to an end. The retail giant and the governments of eight South American countries have been given a final deadline to reach an agreement over the use of '.amazon' web address extension. This is not the first time a company got into legal trouble for the domain, there have been several such instances in the past. While Amazon may first bring to our minds thoughts of online shopping, initially it is the world's largest rainforest and the largest river in the world. The war which began in 2012, when Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body that polices the world wide web's address system, decided to increase the list of generic top-level domains (gTLD). This comes after the dot was introduced in a web address. With the new rule, companies were allowed to apply for brand new extensions through which they could personalise their website name and addresses. Verisign Sees a Growth of 6 Million Domain Name Registrations Globally in Q2. However, then eight countries containing the Amazon rainforest objected to the plan. Following which the governments of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela who are members of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) voiced that renouncing the domain just to Amazon could affect their matters of sovereignty. According to a BBC report, the countries are looking at a "shared governance" of the domain. As per the proposals, Amazon would be immediately allowed the use of domains of commercial value like 'books.amazon' or 'kindle.amazon'. And each country would be allowed to use domains related to their cultural heritage. Brazil also suggested that the countries should be let to co-govern the digital address along with the biggest online retailer. Amazon Forests Failing to Keep Up With Climate Change: Study. The countries want to form a committee in which both Amazon and the eight countries would be able to object top-level domains in the future. However, Amazon rejected the idea by suggesting that .amazon could be used with two letters of the names of each country like br.amazon for Brazil. Amazon Working on Internet-serving Satellite Network. In a bid to pursue the countries, last year the company promised them $5m (3.8m) worth of free Kindle e-readers and hosting services, however, they refused. Reacting to which, the Ecuadorian Ambassador to the US, Francisco Carrion in a letter to ICANN in March, said, "We are not looking for financial compensation. Nor are we after ex-gratia concessions to use one or a few second-level domains. It is a matter of sovereignty for many of us, and the offer to share the TLDs with the company Amazon Inc. is already a compromise." (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 07, 2019 12:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Joan Didions 1979 essay The White Album is both a classic of new journalism and an artifact of the tumultuous period it chronicles. Composed as a series of high-resolution prose snapshots of late 1960s California, this elegant literary mosaic bears witness, in both its form and content, to the breakdown of the prevailing postwar American narrative as Didions own faith in the conventions of a stable, communicable reality begin to unravel amid all the radical upheaval. Lars Jan, a director, artist and activist who practices his own discipline of collage through multimedia performance, has himself sought out the secret connections between personal history and seismic societal shifts. In The Institute of Memory (TIMe), which was performed at REDCAT in 2015, he pursued the documentary trail left by his late Polish-born father, a mysterious Cold War operative, in the context of the contemporary debate on identity, data and privacy in the post-Edward Snowden era. In The White Album, staged at the Freud Playhouse this weekend in a Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA presentation (in association with Center Theatre Group), Jan paid tribute to Didions essay by having it incanted by Obie-winning actress Mia Barron, a co-creator of the piece and his offstage partner. This recitation was at the core of a multilayered production (developed by Jans company, Early Morning Opera) that radiated with a light hallucinatory touch. The first order of business wasnt the landmark text but an introduction to an onstage audience of people in their 20s who volunteered to participate in the show as auditors of a parallel experience that, through the magic of headsets and soundproofing, only they were privy to. These adjunct performers were also used at times to flesh out scenic tableaux inside a translucent room that initially stood in for the rambling house on Franklin Avenue that Didion rented with her husband and child at a time when the coherent world seemed hellbent on committing suicide. Advertisement Scene from The White Album at Freud Playhouse. (Reed Hutchinson / CAP UCLA) REVIEW: Glenda Jackson battles through a brazenly busy King Lear on Broadway A small ensemble was deployed to conjure moments described by Didion, but the method wasnt so much illustration as playful reinterpretation. Jan adopted an approach that was reminiscent of the spirited way Elevator Repair Service has theatrically transmuted such classic literary works as The Great Gatsby and The Sound and the Fury. The method, neither throat-clearingly serious nor completely silly or slapdash, could be described as carefully relaxed. Adaptation wasnt the point. Jan and his company responded to Didions writing as artists inhabiting a different age. Little effort was expended at conjuring the tie-dyed surface of the flower-power zeitgeist. Even the music from the Doors that was performed in one segment is filtered through a distinctly modern sensibility. Barron, who miraculously unfurled Didions words from memory, was dressed in a long tan skirt and light white sweater. She didnt attempt an impersonation of the author, whose personal style has contributed to her status as a cultural icon. Instead, she incarnated the forensic grace of an unmistakable literary voice. Didions famous opening line, We tell ourselves stories in order to live, suggests its interrogatory premise: How does one psychologically survive in an age in which the cords of meaning have been severed by riots, LSD, Charles Manson and a bitterly divisive war? A successful magazine and movie writer, Didion wanted to believe that the principle of cause and effect was still operative, but traditional linearity could no longer keep up with the dizzying pace of a jump-cut world. Adaptation wasnt the point. Jan and his company responded to Didions writing as artists inhabiting a different age. To manage the chaos, she had to transform her art. While holding fast to the values of empirical reporting, she opened herself to the vertigo of experience. Resisting the impulse to make connections, she relinquished control of everything but the refinement of her magisterial prose. Jan achieved an analogous stylistic rigor in the coordination of his productions scenic elements. The glass-like structure, a generative space designed by P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S Architecture, easily morphed from Didions Los Angeles home to the Alameda County courthouse where Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton was awaiting his murder trial to San Francisco State in the throes of protests. The lighting by Chu-Hsuan Chang and Andrew Schneider shifted imperceptibly from fluorescent to California dreaming. Jonathan Snipes sound design and music bridged distant aural worlds. Kate Frys costumes situated us in the theatrical present while sneakily evoking the past. Barron maintained a tonal steadiness with the same sanity-clutching determination that Didion exhibits in her writing. The supporting performances, while enjoyably spry, were less precise. An air of openness and informality was integral to the production, but sometimes the exploratory vibe came across as tentative and unfinished. When Jan finally opted for a grand gesture, a shootout between a police officer and a radical protester that kept playing out ad infinitum, the effect seemed blurry as well as forced after so many half-measures. But like Didions essay, the production didnt want to impose a false narrative frame. At the end, a Quaker-style meeting was held between company members and the audience to process the incendiary themes of revolution and state power. A couple of theatergoers recalled their own memories of the events Didion was recording. Theres always a filibuster at these post-show discussions, but the conversation was searching and compassionate. The progressive spirit of half a century ago flickered into life. In the middle of our own political madness, human beings gathered together for reflection and somberly found hope. SPRING THEATER: Dianne Wiest, Lucas Hnath, Nia Vardalos and more The Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and the publisher of the Ventura County Star sued Ventura County on Friday, seeking the release of 911 call records from the Borderline shooting that left 12 people dead. The lawsuit alleges that the county has violated the states Public Records Act by denying requests for 911 calls, dispatch calls and body and dash camera audio or video. The Borderline Bar and Grill was hosting line-dancing lessons for college students in Thousand Oaks on Nov. 7, when Ian David Long, 28, walked in and began firing into the crowd as patrons tried to escape, authorities said. Ventura County Sheriffs Sgt. Ron Helus and a California Highway Patrol officer were the first people to run into the bar, minutes after the first 911 call. Helus was hit five times by gunfire from Long, who was armed with a knife and a .45-caliber Glock handgun with a laser sight attached. Advertisement However, the fatal bullet that struck Helus was fired from the CHP officers rifle, which is cited in the lawsuit. Long died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The public has a strong public interest in fully evaluating how first responders and police reacted during the most critical phases of this tragic incident, the lawsuit states. Information gleaned from the 911 calls lies at the core of understanding exactly how events unfolded and will provide critical insight into the propriety of the governments tactical responses. In denying requests for the documents, the Ventura County Sheriffs Department said it was withholding records because they were investigative records and exempt from disclosure. The lawsuit cited Senate Bill 1421, a landmark law that took effect Jan. 1, to ensure that the public had access to all information related to any law enforcement shooting, which would include the Borderline shootings. The lawsuit also referenced cases where courts have compelled the disclosure of 911 calls such as in the case of mass shootings at Route 91 Harvest Festival, the Pulse nightclub and Sandy Hook Elementary School. The requested records will shed light on the timeline of events and the corresponding police action or inaction, the lawsuit said. The media organizations are seeking the release of information and records responsive to the requests, as well as an order preventing the County from delaying and obstructing access to these types of records in the future. A California Highway Patrol officer was killed and at least two other people were injured by a suspected drunken driver on the 15 Freeway in Lake Elsinore on Saturday, forcing the closure of the southbound lanes of the freeway for nearly 11 hours. The crash occurred about 4:30 p.m. north of Nichols Road, according to the CHP and the Riverside County Fire Department. The motorcycle officer killed was identified by the CHP on its Facebook page as Sgt. Steve Licon, a 27-year veteran of the agency. The CHP said Licon was hit by an errant driver while conducting a traffic stop on the shoulder of the freeway. The driver was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. Our hearts are heavy after the immeasurable loss of a friend, father, husband, and hero, the CHP said in a statement. Rest easy, brother, we have the watch from here. Advertisement Two other people injured in the crash were also taken to Inland Valley Regional Medical Center, said Tawny Cabral, a spokeswoman with the Riverside County Fire Department. No information was available about their condition. Late Saturday, dozens of law enforcement officers from various agencies gathered at the hospital in Wildomar to escort the hearse that transported Licons body to the Riverside County coroners office in Perris. Today we mourn the loss of a husband and father of two who lost his life while protecting the state of California. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, his friends and his many California Highway Patrol colleagues for their devastating loss, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis said in a statement, adding Capitol flags will be flown at half-staff in honor of Licon. Just as we ride to honor officers that have made the ultimate sacrifice, we mourn the loss of another. Sgt Steve Licon of the CHP Riverside Area gave his life protecting & serving his community today. The thoughts & prayers of the LAPD are w/ his family & fellow officers tonight. pic.twitter.com/SPwOThylBQ Chief Michel Moore (@LAPDChiefMoore) April 7, 2019 Just saw the procession for CHP Sgt. Steve Licon pass us by on Inland Valley Dr. They just left the hospital and are heading to the coroners office. @KTLA pic.twitter.com/oItuGwHJsd Carlos Saucedo (@Carlos_Saucedo) April 7, 2019 carlos.lozano@latimes.com An Orange County woman and her driver, kidnapped last week at gunpoint by a group of men in a Uganda national park, have been rescued from their captors, authorities said Sunday. Kimberly Sue Endicott, 56, an aesthetician from Costa Mesa, and her driver, Congolese national Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo, were rescued by security forces, the Ugandan government tweeted. No other details about their rescue were available. The duo are in good health & in the safe hands of the joint security team, the Uganda police said on social media. Their kidnappers used Endicotts cellphone to demand a $500,000 ransom, but it was unknown whether any money was paid or if the abductors had been arrested. Advertisement Endicott was traveling in a car on an evening game drive with Remezo and two other tourists in the national park Tuesday when four men held them at gunpoint. The other tourists, an elderly couple, escaped, but the gunmen took Endicott and Remezo, said Uganda deputy police spokeswoman Polly Namaye. The tour vehicle, which belongs to Wild Frontiers Uganda, was left parked and the kidnappers took the key, Namaye said. Pam Lopez, who met Endicott through her work as an aesthetician, said it was her friends lifelong dream to go on safari in Africa to see gorillas. Lopez had been following Endicotts trip through photos her friend posted on Instagram. One image showed four armed soldiers who were guarding the group. Ugandan police said Wednesday that they had dispatched an elite group of police officers, military personnel and wildlife authority officials to assist in the search. The parks Ishasha Wilderness Camp area, where the ambush occurred, is a popular tourist destination close to the border with Congo. Joint security teams cut off all exit areas on the border between Uganda and Congo to search for Endicott and the tour guide. President Trump tweeted about Endicott and her drivers release Sunday afternoon. Pleased to report that the American tourist and tour guide that were abducted in Uganda have been released, he said in the tweet. God bless them and their families. Uganda recorded a surge in kidnapping cases last year, prompting street protests by activists who said security agencies werent doing enough to protect residents. Officials recently emphasized, however, that it was unusual for a tourist to be kidnapped in Uganda, which has a thriving tourism industry stemming from its wildlife and national parks. The head of Ugandas ministry of information and communications technology, Frank Tumwebaze, tweeted Sunday that the country is very safe border to border. Our parks have been the most secure zones over the years and they remain so, Tumwebaze wrote, adding that isolated criminal incidents like this one can happen anywhere in the world. The northern part of the park remains open to tourists, but the U.S. Embassy has warned Americans in the area to be careful. Endicott, who has had an aestheticians license since 1998, runs a skin care business in Costa Mesa. A review from a customer posted on the business website highlighted Endicotts professional talent and described her as a wonderful and caring person. Ly Tong, the former fighter pilot known as the Vietnamese James Bond for his daring stunts including hijacking a plane to drop 50,000 political leaflets over his homeland, calling on citizens to overthrow the communist government died Friday night in San Diego. He was 74. Last month, Tong was hospitalized and doctors diagnosed him with lung disease. He slipped into a coma on March 21, with his stay at Sharp Memorial Hospital drawing hundreds of visitors, some of whom called him a hero for his constant attacks against Hanois oppressive regime. Hoa Thai Cu, president of the South Vietnamese Air Force Assn. of San Diego who has been handling Tongs medical care, said he had just paid the patients April rent and extended his housing lease optimistic that he would recover. Many people have been worried because they are looking for strong anti-communist voices and he was that voice for so long, Cu added. Advertisement While members of an older generation of Vietnamese admired Tongs fighting spirit, many younger people acknowledged that they had never heard of him nor did they care to involve themselves in community politics. Tong became famous in 1992 when he hijacked an Airbus A310 on a charter flight for Vietnam Airlines. The jet had departed Bangkok and was about 80 miles from Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, when Tong flashed a plastic knife and coat hanger and claimed that he had a bomb, according to the Aviation Safety Network. He ordered a flight attendant to take him to the cockpit, where he directed the Bulgarian captain to fly low. Quickly, he released sacks stuffed with fliers out of the cockpit window. The leaflets urged Vietnamese to build an independent, free and prosperous Vietnam. He signed it: Commander of the Uprising Forces. He parachuted from an emergency exit into a swamp, where the Vietnamese government arrested him two hours later. No one aboard the aircraft was harmed. His sentence of 20 years in prison was cut short after the U.S. and Vietnam normalized relations. Tong was granted amnesty in 1998. Tong joined the South Vietnamese Air Force and at 17 was assigned to the Black Eagle fighter squadron. In the 1970s, his A-37 jet was shot down, and at the end of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese imprisoned him, sending him to reeducation camp outside the coastal city of Nha Trang. He escaped from camp in 1980 and in 1984, after resettling in Louisiana, he graduated from the University of New Orleans and moved to San Jose, where he got involved in community politics, joining protests and eventually writing books on Vietnamese history and culture. In January 2000, Tong rented a Cessna, flying from Florida to Cuba to distribute newspapers urging citizens to revolt against the government of Fidel Castro. As punishment, he lost his pilots license, but later that year he offered a flight instructor $10,000 to depart Bangkok in a single-engine plane again heading to the former Saigon to drop thousands more leaflets, demanding armed demonstrations against the communists. Police took him into custody when he returned to Thailand, where he was convicted and imprisoned before returning to the U.S. Tong, born Le Van Tong, is survived by a brother, sister and three daughters. Cu and other organizers are making plans for a memorial service in Orange Countys Little Saigon, the largest business and cultural district for the Vietnamese outside of Vietnam. In April of last year, a traffic collision in the middle of the night sent a FedEx truck crashing across the 210 Freeway in Pasadena and onto the tracks of the Metro Gold Line, which is separated from the roadway by a squat concrete barrier. The collision shut down the Gold Line through the San Gabriel Valley for more than a day, and caused $137,959 in damage to train tracks, power poles and overhead wires. Two more crashes would follow in the next six months. In all, in the last decade, 10 trucks and one sedan have crashed onto the Gold Line along the six-mile stretch where the tracks run in the 210s median. All but two collisions occurred in the last five years, an increase in frequency that officials say they cannot explain. Six of the 11 crashes occurred while the Gold Line was running, stoking concerns that a truck could someday strike a station or a train with riders on board. Advertisement How to prevent such a crash is becoming an increasingly costly question. Later this month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is considering doubling the budget to $22.6 million to design 12 miles of new concrete barriers aimed at beefing up the lines protections. (Los Angeles Times) The original $11-million estimate, approved last summer, reflected engineers assumptions that fixing the problem would be as simple as swapping out the 210s barriers for a taller, sturdier model, said Androush Danielians, Metros executive engineering officer. Since then, he said, engineers have realized that the narrow median leaves little room for crews and equipment to maneuver, and that they will need to shut down the 210s carpool lanes through Pasadena for as long as two years. Theres just very little room to do the work out there, Richard Clarke, Metros chief program management officer, said last month. Its a very difficult, complex design. The partial shutdown of the 210, a popular truck route, will trigger an increase in cut-through traffic in Pasadena. Metro plans to complete a congestion analysis and an air-quality study, adding to the projects cost and schedule. The remains of a truck sit on the Metro Gold Line tracks in Pasadena after the vehicle crashed into the 210 Freeway median and caught fire in October 2018. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) The replacement will happen in two phases, Danielians said, because theres no way we are going to close six miles of the freeway at the same time. Construction will start six to nine months after Metro finishes environmental work, which should take about a year, he said. Were just glad theyre doing it, said Pasadena spokeswoman Lisa Derderian. Pasadena firefighters and police officers, she said, have become accustomed to responding to crashes on the 210 and the Gold Line, some with fatalities. The precast concrete barriers along the Gold Line are just shy of three feet high, with a familiar K-rail shape: a wide base that tapers slightly to a straight, vertical wall. The barriers were installed in 1969 and 1976, when the roadway was built, said Caltrans spokeswoman Lauren Wonder. Until the 1990s, they separated freeway traffic from freight trains running through the median. When the Gold Line opened, in 2003, Metro largely left the barriers intact, spokesman Brian Haas said. The line was built by the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority, with designs from Metro and with approval for freeway-related elements from Caltrans, said spokeswoman Lisa Levy Buch. In the last 15 years, trucks have become taller and heavier, and the angle and height of the barriers are less effective at repelling speeding vehicles, Danielians said. At the time they were being built, it wasnt considered a flaw, he said. Now, its a flaw. Work crews prepare to remove an overturned big rig on the eastbound 210 Freeway at Sierra Madre Boulevard that stopped Metros Gold Line in 2016. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Metros Green Line runs down the middle of the 105 Freeway for 17 of its 20 miles and has never had a truck crash on the tracks. The freeway is the newest in Los Angeles, with few curves and a wider buffer zone between travel lanes and the train. The Green Lines barriers are taller and sturdier. They also have fencing on top, while the Gold Lines do not. Metros new design for the 210 calls for barriers that are 4 feet, 8 inches tall, with a smoother edge that is designed to force truck wheels back onto the freeway. Of the proposed $22.6-million budget, 89% would go toward consultants to finish the projects design and clear it with Caltrans, records show. The budget does not include construction costs, which will be in the millions of dollars. On a recent weekday, a Gold Line train juddered slightly as it navigated around a curve west of the Sierra Madre Villa station, in an area where five of the crashes have taken place. Michelle Abed, who takes the Gold Line to downtown every weekday, said the series of crashes last year made her more wary of riding. It feels like a matter of time, she said, until a truck hits a train. Some drivers in the carpool lane were so close to the trains windows that passengers could see the dogs, fast food bags and cellphones that the drivers held in their laps. It feels like theyre about a foot away, Abed said as she stepped off a Gold Line train at the Allen station. It makes me nervous. Any change would be better than this. Until construction starts, Metro and Caltrans are relying on signs installed last year that instruct truck drivers to stay in the 210s two right-hand lanes, and maintain speeds of less than 55 mph. The signs alone may not stop truck drivers from reckless behavior, Clarke said, but they clear the way for the California Highway Patrol to ticket the worst offenders. The barrier is able to stop, for the most part, smaller vehicles and vehicles that are going at a permissible speed, Danielians said. As for weather, we can just pray. Crews work at the scene of a collision between a car, a big rig and a pickup truck on the eastbound 210 Freeway in Pasadena in 2010. The accident shut down the Metro Gold Line after two of the vehicles ended up on the tracks. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) laura.nelson@latimes.com Twitter: @laura_nelson A traveling version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall will visit Costa Mesa this week, offering Orange County residents a chance to pay their respects to those who served and lost their lives in the conflict. At 375 feet long and up to 7 feet tall, the Wall That Heals is a three-quarter-scale replica of the original wall in Washington, D.C. Both versions are engraved with the names of the more than 58,000 service members who died during the Vietnam War. The Wall That Heals will be stationed in Costa Mesas Balearic Park and will be open for viewing any time of day or night Thursday through April 14. More than 300 service members who died during the war hailed from Orange County, according to the National Archives. Also, more than 300,000 Vietnamese Americans and nationals live in Orange County, the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam. Many were refugees from the war. Advertisement The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund devised the roving wall exhibit as a way for people to experience the memorial without having to go to the nations capital. Since it debuted in 1996, the traveling exhibit has visited almost 600 communities around the country. Memorial Fund President and Chief Executive Jim Knotts said in a statement that the organization hopes the Wall That Heals provides an opportunity for healing and an educational experience for the whole community on the impact of the Vietnam War on America. Scott Williams of Costa Mesa, president of the Freedom Committee of Orange County, one of the local sponsors of the wall, said its been years since the exhibit last visited the county. With Vietnam veterans continuing to age, Williams said its increasingly important to recognize those who served and, especially, those who paid the ultimate price. When I think about the veterans, the 58,000-plus that gave their lives, theres a tendency as life goes on that we ignore those sacrifices, he said. And I thought it was time that somebody in Orange County stepped up. The memorial carries personal significance for Williams as well. Hes an Army veteran who was deployed to Vietnam from October 1968 to August 1969. Along with the wall, the upcoming exhibit will include a mobile education center offering additional information about the war and the memorial. An honor ceremony featuring Air Force Maj. Gen. William Mall as keynote speaker will begin at 10 a.m. April 13. The closing ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. April 14 and will include remarks from Marine Sgt. Frank Orzio, a Purple Heart recipient. Money writes for Times Community News. The divorced couple appearing before Judge Helen E. Zukin was fighting over visitation. The man said he had kicked his heroin addiction and wanted to spend time with his children, whom he hadnt seen in three years. His ex was against it, saying she did not trust that he was clean, and that he had let his children down before. Neither party had an attorney, and it showed. At one point, the man committed a rookie mistake. Zukin turned her gaze on him. This is not TV court, she told him. No one interrupts me. We have very strict rules how we behave here. Advertisement The recent scene in Los Angeles Superior Court reflects a trend in courtrooms across Calfornia: People increasingly are representing themselves, and it falls to judges and other officials to demystify legal processes and decorum. Some courthouses have written tips for the self-represented: Get plenty of sleep the night before your hearing. Arrive at least 30 minutes before your case is scheduled. Do not chew gum, eat or drink in court or wear shorts, T-shirts, tank tops or flip-flops. Never raise your voice. Address the judicial officer as Your Honor or Judge. The divorced couple whom Zukin summoned by number and addressed as mother and father were among an estimated 4.3 million litigants who now go to court each year in California without an attorney. After wrist-slapping the man, Zukin explained to the woman that California law favors involvement by both parents, but the mother was unconvinced. The father had been sober before and then lapsed. I need more proof, the woman said. The judge ordered drug testing. If the father continued to be sober, he could have monitored visits, Zukin said. The cost of the monitor would be shared by both parents. Thats not fair, the woman said. Thank you very much, the judge said. Thats it. The woman rushed away in tears. :: Zukin sees many non-represented litigants from her perch on the eighth floor of the downtown Stanley Mosk Courthouse. Judicial officials say their numbers appeared to swell after the last recession. They include the poor, to be sure, but also middle-class people and young adults accustomed to learning skills from YouTube and other internet sites. According to court surveys, three-quarters of all civil cases have at least one side unrepresented, and only 10% of family law and eviction disputes have lawyers on both sides. Unlike criminal defendants, the law does not entitle civil litigants to an attorney. In response, the courts have expanded self-help services. After years of lobbying by judicial leaders, the state last year nearly tripled funding for self-help programs to $30 million. California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who heads the state judiciary, recalled that her mother went to court decades ago without a lawyer to stave off an eminent domain eviction. She lost. There was no self-help center to assist her then, and Im pleased that we now have them in every superior court in the state, Cantil-Sakauye said. They are the front lines of justice in California. Nearly 1.2 million litigants in California are expected to take advantage of the services this year. A 2017 study by state judicial leaders found that poor litigants who received legal help in civil cases under a pilot project fared better than those with no assistance. In some cases, the help reduced court costs. The day the divorced couple appeared, more than two dozen people were in line for self-help services downstairs on the fourth floor. Thomas Tophia, 55, a drug and alcohol counselor, had lined up outside the Los Angeles courthouse at 6:40 a.m. for a morning self-help workshop, but it had filled up before he reached the front of the line. He was upset that he had to skip a day of work to attend the afternoon session. He was new at his job. But money was tight, he said, and he could not afford a lawyer to represent him in a divorce. Although self-help staff are barred from advising litigants on legal strategy, Tophia said he had formulated his own ask for more and settle for less. Lawyers, paralegals, college students and recent graduates at self-help centers walk litigants through the legal process, explaining options, how to fill out forms, file cases and move them through various steps to completion, either by agreement, default or trial. Most litigants require three workshops, which are held in multiple languages. Court staff, who sometimes assist opposing parties in a case, are not permitted to recommend legal tactics.That can be frustrating for some litigants. Daniel and Juliana Yee, both retirees, went to court in San Francisco earlier this year to force a commercial tenant to pay them $7,000 in back rent. After meeting with the courts self-help center, they filed their papers, obtained a hearing date and hired someone to serve their tenant. But the tenant did not show. Daniel Yee, seated with his wife at the plaintiffs table, politely explained their predicament to San Francisco Superior Court Judge Carl Chamberlin. He listened, and before concluding the hearing, asked if they needed anything else. I need some advice, Yee said. That I cant do, Chamberlin replied. I cant give you legal advice. Chamberlin told the Yees he would rule on their case within 30 days and notify them by mail of his decision. Yee looked flustered and remained seated. What would he do with the ruling? A clerk handed him a written set of instructions: How to collect your money after you win your case. :: Even for those without lawyers, going to court is not cheap. The cost to file a case in California is $435, though it can be waived for people who cannot afford it. Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Terri A. Mockler, in her fourth year as a family law judge, said she is comfortable dealing with people representing themselves. I treat every litigant the same, whether they have an attorney or not, she said. I do spend more time explaining things to the self-represented litigants in terms of the process. She said unrepresented litigants often are more intransigent than those with lawyers, who can reduce expectations and press for settlement. Self-represented litigants also often dont understand what a judge needs to know before making a ruling, she said. To handle the huge demand for help, courts are increasingly relying on technology, including self-help pages on websites. San Diegos self-help center offers Skype appointments with a lawyer, and Butte County works with other rural counties to offer workshops and other services via Zoom conferencing. Courts in Los Angeles, Orange and Napa counties also are experimenting with software to help the unrepresented fill out legal forms. Los Angeles County runs about 450 self-help workshops a month. Sheldon Paine, 26, wearing a maroon and orange jumpsuit, appeared before Zukin without a lawyer recently to try to get visits with his young daughter. The girls mother had moved to Las Vegas. Paine, a boxer, had been ordered to pay $10,000 in back child support, but he said he had no money. He lives in his vehicle. He said he hoped the girl was his daughter, but he also needed a DNA test. The mother had texted him recently that he was not the father. The mother wasnt present in court. I need to be assured that mother had notice of this hearing, Zukin told him. Paine said he did not know her address but knew where her mother and grandmother lived. He then began to tell a story about one of his visits with his daughter. Sir, I need to stop you, the judge said. I havent found that the mother has been given notice of this hearing. She referred him to the self-help center. You need to come here and show me due diligence was done to locate grandmother and great-grandmother, the judge said. Lawyers in the self-help centers in Los Angeles and San Francisco both said they believed litigants always were better off with lawyers. Life would be easier for them, said Kathleen Dixon, Los Angeles managing self-help lawyer. But do they need one to get a fair hearing? No. maura.dolan@latimes.com Twitter: @mauradolan The 150-year-old heart of a French priest is on a U.S. tour a Roman Catholic relic with New York City as its latest stop. It was on display Saturday at St. Patricks Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, where both the faithful and the curious lined up to see the human organ behind glass. The Knights of Columbus fraternity is sponsoring the pilgrimage of this heart, which has been to 28 states so far, with more coming up. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, is to lead a Sunday procession venerating the heart of St. John Vianney, who was a priest in the southern French town of Ars, outside Lyon. He lived during the 1848 revolution in France, helping to hide priests on the run. The tradition of preserving the body parts of saintly Catholics goes back to the Middle Ages in Italy. When St. Catherine of Siena died in Rome, her hometown of Siena wanted her remains. But it didnt want to get caught making off with the whole body, and decided to take just her head. Advertisement Vianney is considered the patron saint of parish priests, famed for hearing confessions for endless hours with an ear so understanding that he drew Catholics from all around Europe. He would also recount to them the sins they left out, because he instinctively felt who they are, says Joseph Cullen, a member of the Knights of Columbus. But he had a heart of gold. In the next week, Vianneys heart will be displayed in schools and churches in other parts of New York City Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn and Long Island, as well as other venues on the East Coast. The relic is to return to its permanent home at a French shrine in Ars in early June. The U.S. tour began in November. Vianney was recognized by the church as a saint, and since then, priests especially have honored him and looked to him as a good model for the way theyre supposed to be living their lives, said Msgr. Robert Ritchie, who has worked as a pastor at parishes in the Bronx and Harlem. Its a perfect time, especially for priests in the middle of the scandals and all of the stories that are going around. We need an example of somebody good, holy and pure. There is plenty of blame to go around for the sabotaging of the once-promising Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the subversion of the much-maligned two-state solution, but surely Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deserves an inordinate share of it. For nearly 25 years or more, depending when you start counting he has consistently fought to derail the process, calling it a mortal threat to Israel, assuring Israelis and the world that there is no trustworthy Palestinian partner to negotiate with and slow-walking the negotiations where possible. Now, on the eve of the Israeli elections he hopes will propel him to a fifth term in office and make him the countrys longest serving prime minister, Netanyahu has threatened a further blow to the moribund peace process: He said Saturday that if reelected, he would see to it that Israel begins to annex portions of the West Bank, the Palestinian territory it seized and occupied during the Six-Day War in 1967 (along with the Gaza Strip), and which has been at the core of the conflict with the Palestinians ever since. In particular, Netanyahu said he would annex not just the major Israeli settlements on the West Bank but also more remote settlements in isolated areas. Advertisement It is hard to overstate how terrible a proposal this is. This land is not part of the state of Israel, but territory captured in war; it has been the position of the world community as laid out in U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, unanimously approved just weeks after the end of the 1967 war that Israel must withdraw and return to its prewar borders. Despite that, Israel has kept control over the West Bank (and the more 2.8 million Palestinians who live there) ever since, and has allowed hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers to move into highly fortified West Bank communities. The settlements are widely viewed as illegal under international law. It has long been the position of this page and of the United States government and of most of the world that Israelis and Palestinians must negotiate a just solution to their more than 100-year-old territorial conflict and that such a solution must include a withdrawal from the occupied territories and the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel. The settlements, which divide the West Bank, obviously make that more difficult, and annexation would make it even more so. Not that many years ago, a two-state solution seemed almost unstoppable and inevitable. That is, until the Hamas bombings began, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated and Netanyahu was elected to his first term as prime minister. Now such a solution seems further away than ever. Palestinians, whose leaders certainly bear their share of the blame, are increasingly turning toward a one-state solution that they imagine as a democratic binational state; Israelis seem willing to stick with the status quo or to support a one-state plan of their own in which Palestinians and Israelis live together in a Jewish state. It is difficult to see either of these two plans coming to fruition or working well if they do. Meanwhile, talks between Israelis and Palestinians are at a standstill. The hatred, mistrust and blame that has characterized the relationship between the two peoples for a century continues unabated. Rockets still fly from Gaza into Israeli towns, sometimes resulting in damage or death; Israeli reprisals still kill terrorists as well as civilians. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute Unsurprisingly, President Trump has been a consistent enabler of Netanyahu. Most recently, Trump promised that the U.S. would recognize Israels long-ago annexation of the captured Golan Heights. That imprudent promise no doubt helped convince Netanyahu to speak out on his wrongheaded West Bank plan. The Israeli election is Tuesday. Netanyahus Likud Party is locked in a tight race with the more centrist party of former army chief Benny Gantz. Though Netanyahu himself is facing indictment on bribery and corruption charges, it would be foolish to count him out. If he is indeed returned as prime minister once again, the best that can be hoped for is that he wont keep this dangerous and irresponsible campaign promise. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook My freshman year at Yale I got a letter from my biological father with unwelcome news. He had a new neighbor, my childhood friend Lorenzo. They were on the same cell block in maximum-security prison. Lorenzos imprisonment felt like fate. We came from different worlds: He was poor, black and an immigrant, while I was upper middle class, white and U.S.-born. As a black man, he had a 1 in 3 chance of serving time at some point in his life. What we had in common, however, was a significant risk factor for incarceration: Lorenzo and I became friends over many years of visiting our mothers behind bars. For him the odds played out. I was luckier, if you can call this luck: Steel gates, correctional officer uniforms, guard towers and razor wire were details I was far too young to remember the first time I navigated them. Prisons have been inscribed in my consciousness like the indelible ink stamped on my hand before entering the visiting room. Ive always been one of the more than half of Americans with an immediate family member currently or formerly incarcerated. In 1981, my parents, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, were arrested for their role in a radicals plot to rob an armored car. Three men were tragically killed. I was just 14 months old. I had been dropped at the babysitter. My mother and father, who drove a getaway car in the robbery, wrongly assumed no one would get hurt; they planned to return to pick me up in the evening. Eventually, I was adopted into a new family, winning two big brothers in the process. Ive seen the systems injustices first hand and its potential to recognize that people can grow beyond their worst mistakes. My mother is one of those people. Advertisement My father chose to represent himself and, after a jury trial much of which he did not attend a judge sentenced him to 75 years to life. After extensive litigation with excellent lawyers on her side, my mother pleaded guilty; the judge sentenced her to 20 years to life. Our laws offer such vast discretion and disparate outcomes that my parents, who played virtually identical roles in their crime, ended up with a 55-year difference in their minimum sentences. Meanwhile, Lorenzos mother, a casualty of the war on drugs, served nearly two decades for possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. Our system of mass incarceration wreaks havoc on the families and communities left behind: Economic, social and psychological, the costs are impossible to fully quantify. Growing up, I grappled with developmental challenges and traumas common among children with incarcerated parents. When I didnt learn to read until I was 9, my mother urged me to be more like Lorenzo, who excelled in school. When I had a temper tantrum on a prison visit, sometimes it was Lorenzo who talked me down. Yet I had opportunities and privileges not available to Lorenzo and the other mostly brown and black kids filling prison visiting rooms across the country. My grandparents helped pay for tutors and child behavior specialists; Lorenzos family didnt have the money to hire an immigration lawyer when he needed one. With the vast support of family and friends I overcame the challenges and stigma of parental incarceration; I learned to channel the hurt into productive outlets. I chose to side with underdogs and took injustices around me, however slight, as personal affronts. My role models were lawyers dedicated to social justice and extending the benefits of the rule of law to traditionally excluded communities. Once I was on track academically, law school seemed almost inevitable. I became a defense attorney, and now Im running for district attorney in San Francisco. Fair and just prosecution, just as much as righteous defense, can be a crucial tool to advance justice. During my senior year of college I threw myself into my mothers parole campaign, working with some of the same lawyers who had represented her 22 years earlier. Few moments could have driven home the power of the law more intensely or personally than visiting my imprisoned father at the precise moment my mother walked out of another prison a few hundred miles away, a free woman. She went on to earn a PhD and founded a criminal justice reform organization at Columbia University. Every day I work with judges and prosecutors, with police officers and sheriffs deputies, with people accused of crimes and the communities torn apart by it. Ive seen the systems injustices first hand and its potential to recognize that people can grow beyond their worst mistakes. My mother is one of those people. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute For good and ill, my life and criminal justice have been inseparably intertwined. Now Im part of a bipartisan movement to fix what is broken in it. In December, Republicans and Democrats joined forces to pass significant criminal justice reform, which emphasized rehabilitation over incarceration. In California, a barrage of smart-on-crime legislation has been coming out of Sacramento: reduced sentences for low-level crimes, money bail reform, rule changes that help put only those responsible for a killing on trial for murder. Some prosecutors and law enforcement agencies resist such changes in the law, but Im convinced such reforms improve public safety. There are some things no one can change: Those killed can never be brought back. My father has spent more than half his life behind bars with no hope of parole. Lorenzos mother was eventually released, but Lorenzo was deported to a country he has never known. The system I know from the inside out, however, can be changed. After decades of failed, costly, draconian policies, it can be turned toward equal treatment, an end to mass incarceration and redemption and rehabilitation instead of recidivism. We can make our cities and our state safer and more just for everyone. Chesa Boudin has been a public defender in San Francisco since 2012. He will be on the San Francisco ballot for district attorney in the November election. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook When the U.N.s 2019 World Happiness Report came out last month, Finland ranked on top for the second year in a row. Small Finland about 75% the size of California with just 5.5 million people consistently trounces the United States and other developed nations on ratings of life satisfaction, health, safety, governance, community and social progress. As a result, Finland now has a cottage industry in sending its experts across the Atlantic to have their brains picked for quick fixes to Americas problems. But those fixes never really take root because the underlying reason Finns are faring so well is because we have a different mindset about success one thats based on equity and community. In the United States, happiness and success are perceived as individual pursuits, indeed, even competitive ones. In Finland, success is a team sport. The Finnish education system is a microcosm of these differences. Many U.S. teachers have spent the last year striking and protesting that theyre underpaid, overworked and unhappy. And yet Finnish teachers, despite somewhat larger average class sizes and slightly lower average salaries, are quite content. More than 90% report being satisfied with their jobs, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Advertisement In the United States, happiness and success are perceived as individual pursuits, indeed, even competitive ones. In Finland, success is a team sport. One major difference is the rigorous training teachers get. Teaching in Finland is a highly respected and competitive profession. The selection process includes an entrance exam, an interview and being observed in some teaching-like activity. Only 1 in 10 make it into a masters program in education. Once teachers are certified, however, they are given a great deal of autonomy in planning lessons and running their classes. Schools operate off a flexible curriculum and arent forced to focus on standardized tests. Students in Finland only take one such test at the end of their secondary education, the National Matriculation Examination. This is quite unlike American schools, where students are given standardized tests annually, and the results can affect a teachers career or even the whole school districts funding. That puts intense, and unnecessary, pressure on teachers to achieve good test results. In Finland, half of surveyed teachers claim they would quit if their job performance were to be determined by their students standardized test results. OECD education research also shows that granting schools more autonomy over the curriculum leads to not only happier teachers, but better student scores as well. Ultimately Finlands education system works because its ethos is not one of individual teacher accountability or comparison between schools, but one of equity, community and shared success. In fact, this kind of success doesnt necessarily correlate with wealth. While Finland is by no means struggling financially, its GDP per capita is lower than those of its neighboring Nordic countries, and much lower than that of the U.S. The difference is, in the words of Meik Wiking of the Happiness Research Institute in Denmark, the Finns are good at converting wealth into well-being. An education system that focuses on community over individuals is, however, not without its problems. Finnish schools have been criticized for prioritizing equity at the cost of excellence, as they focus their resources on not leaving anyone behind rather than nurturing extraordinary abilities. While this approach might hold back high achievers, traditionally, thats been a trade-off the Finns have been willing to make. The more equal a society is, the happier its citizens are. Its well documented that as income inequality rises a countrys overall well-being goes down. Finland is ranked among the most equal of all the 36 OECD countries. This underpins not just the Finnish education system, but helps support overall high levels of trust in the country. Finns trust one another and, perhaps more impressively, they trust their government to support all vulnerable citizens. Finland spends 31% of its GDP on its welfare state, the second-highest among the OECD. And although Finns pay some of the highest taxes worldwide, there is a transparency to the Finnish system that many other countries lack. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Every year the government makes public the tax data of all its citizens and corporations on what has come to be called National Envy Day. Where in the U.S., the wealthy go to great pains to keep their finances out of the public eye and might brag privately about dodging taxes in Finland most would be shamed if caught not paying their fair share. For instance, the CEO of SuperCell, a major mobile games company, said in 2014, Weve received a lot of help from society, and now it is our turn to pay back. This sense of community spirit and collaborative effort manages to stave off the resentment that taxes seem to foster in most of the rest of the world. If you can see what everyone else is doing, you perhaps dont feel too hard done by. The lesson of Finland is that success isnt about individual wealth, power or prestige or even high national GDP or advanced technology. A country is successful when it meets the needs of its citizens and creates the conditions for people and communities to meet their full potential. The United States can learn a great deal from how Finland runs its schools, but more so from the Finnish attitude that underpins our collective success. Jorma Ollila, the former chief executive and chairman of the Finnish technology company Nokia, is the co-author of Against All Odds: Leading Nokia From Near Catastrophe to Global Success. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook President Trumps chief of staff Mick Mulvaney declared Sunday that congressional Democrats would never see the presidents tax returns, a seeming rejection of House oversight authority that paralleled the growing confrontation over the contents of the Mueller report and other fights over investigations of the presidents conduct. Leading Democrats responded to the question of whether the Internal Revenue Service should provide six years of Trump tax returns with essentially the same argument that they put forth in seeking full access to the results of the 22-month-long Russia investigation by Robert S. Mueller III: Its not the administrations call. Trumps taxes have long been a matter of particular sensitivity due to the size and complexity of the presidents business empire and potential conflicts of interest on the part of Trump and his family as well as what Democrats say is a lack of transparency over whether American foreign policy has ever been shaped by the presidents own bottom line. Mulvaneys vehement rejection of the request for Trumps 2013-2018 taxes made by Rep. Richard Neal, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House Ways and Means Committee marked a sharp escalation of the administrations longtime rhetoric on releasing the presidents tax documents. Advertisement Trump has long cited audits as the reason he has broken with decades of tradition and refused to make his returns public, either as a major-party candidate or as president. He routinely implies that his hands are tied by the audits a claim robustly disputed by critics rather than overtly saying hes not willing to recognize congressional authority or abide by ethical norms. Mulvaney took a far more aggressive stance, accusing the Democrats of taking part in a political hit job with no legal or legislative basis. Speaking on Fox News Sunday, the chief of staff said of a handover of the returns: That is not going to happen, and they know it. Trumps personal lawyer Jay Sekulow, appearing on ABCs This Week, took a similar tack, saying the request that the IRS hand over the presidents returns by Wednesday was entirely politically motivated. Echoing the presidents inclination to try to turn the tables on perceived foes, Sekulow suggested that Trump could have acted in kind if he so chose, and pointedly mentioned the House speaker, a favorite presidential foil. The president has not asked for Nancy Pelosis tax returns, Sekulow said. In fact, federal law makes tax returns private and generally does not allow the president to see them. The law has a few specific exceptions to the secrecy rules. One exception, put into law in 1924, provides that three House and Senate committees that deal with taxes, including House Ways and Means, have the right to see individual returns and that the Treasury secretary shall furnish them when the committees make a request. Congress passed that law as it was investigating a major scandal of that era and amid allegations of conflicts of interest involving some senior officials of the Coolidge administration. Trump has hired a team of lawyers to fight the request, vowing to battle the disclosure in court. In a letter Friday, the lawyers argued that there was no legitimate committee purpose for the disclosure demand and that Neal and his colleagues were engaged in a transparent effort by one political party to harass an official from the other party because they dislike his politics and speech. Mulvaney also argued, as other Trump aides have done on this issue and others, that the tax-return question was already litigated in the 2016 campaign and settled by Trump winning. Democrats dismissed the notion that the tax-return request was made out of partisan vindictiveness. This is not political, as our Republican colleagues are making it out to be, said Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, the No 4 Democrat in the House. Appearing on Fox, he said the request was ironclad and is going forward. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), interviewed on ABC, said there were clearly valid grounds for seeking the tax documents. We are looking very carefully right now as to whether or not the IRS is properly auditing and enforcing tax law on the president of the United States, and were considering legislative changes to that end, he said. It is not up to President Trump to determine whether or not this coequal branch of government has the tools available to it to make the deliberations necessary in order to make policy, Kildee said. Congressional Republicans even occasional critics of the president have given no sign they would push back against the White Houses refusal to disclose Trumps taxes. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, interviewed on NBCs Meet the Press, said he would like the president to follow through and show his tax returns but predicted that Trump was going to win this victory. The tax contretemps coincides with a sharpening confrontation over the administrations characterizations of the Mueller report, which was delivered to Atty. Gen. William Barr just over two weeks ago. Based on Barrs summation of the reports main points, Trump proclaimed complete exoneration, not only on suspicions his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign, but also on the question of whether he obstructed justice when investigators began scrutinizing his actions. Mueller expressly said he did not exonerate the president on obstruction, but Barr, a Trump appointee who takes an expansive view of presidential powers, declared Trump in the clear on that. Over the last week, news reports cited unidentified members of Muellers team as saying Barrs summary did not reflect the gravity of overall concerns raised about the presidents conduct. On Sunday, the powerful Democrat who heads the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, insisted anew that the full report and underlying evidence be handed over to lawmakers. A redacted version is expected to be handed over to Congress by Barr within the next 10 days, but Nadler, interviewed on CBS Face the Nation, said the attorney general could not be trusted to decide which parts to withhold because he was acting as an agent of the administration. He is a biased person, Nadler said. As doubts mounted about whether Barr had fairly depicted the reports contents, the Trump team renewed expressions of elaborate unconcern about Muellers findings in the nearly 400-page report. Except for little quibbles, Im not worried about the report at all, Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said on CBS. Trump himself took repeated aim over the weekend at the Mueller probes legitimacy. On Sunday morning, he tweeted a fresh denunciation of Muellers team 13 Trump Haters & Angry Democrats. Barr is appearing on Capitol Hill this week for whats meant to be testimony about the Justice Departments budget appropriation, but Democrats are likely to seize the moment to press him about his decision-making on redactions to the report. Rep. Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said even if Mueller made a narrow finding that actions of Trump and his top associates did not rise to the level of a provable criminal conspiracy, many questions remained. The Burbank Democrat was attacked by Trump in highly personal terms on Twitter, of course for challenging the presidents assertion that he was fully exonerated. I dont regret calling out this president for what I consider deeply unethical and improper conduct not a bit, Schiff said on CNNs State of the Union. What were talking about here is the difference between conduct that rises to the level of criminality, and conduct that is deeply unethical, unpatriotic and corrupt, that may not be criminal. laura.king@latimes.com @laurakingLAT Its the week before election day and a candidate has evidence of campaign wrongdoing by her opponent. She takes her case to Californias Fair Political Practices Commission but the agency is barred from even confirming the complaint exists. Voters are told nothing before casting their ballots. Thats not how things work now. But it could become reality if an obscure state task force being led by attorneys who work for political campaigns considers an embrace of new limits on disclosure. Coverage of California politics There has to be a certain level of respect to due-process principles that, in some cases, may outweigh the need for transparency on certain issues, Stephen Kaufman, a Democratic campaign attorney and the task forces chairman, said at a meeting last month. Advertisement Changing the rules would require the full commission amending or doing away with its current regulations. Those rules allow a copy of most complaints to be handed out five days after everyone involved is notified. The state watchdog agency can also confirm when its own staff initiates an investigation. The attorneys on the task force have insisted their concern is due process, ensuring the accused politician has a right to a full and fair investigation. They argue news coverage of accusations before theres any determination if any of it is true makes that impossible. While we respect the press and their desire to know everything thats going on, its not always the case that a complaint is valid or that it is important and that it ought to affect an election, Tom Hiltachk, a Republican political attorney, said at last months meeting. But a former FPPC chairman, Dan Schnur, thinks thats giving politicians a veil of secrecy that doesnt exist in civil or criminal court. If someone is suspected of robbing a bank, their trial is a public matter, he said. Theyre not convicted unless theyre found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Schnur not only supported the agencys disclosure of complaints while in charge but also proactively posted the documents online. Political attorneys have long criticized all of the transparency efforts enshrined in FPPC rules over the past decade. Organizations representing the news media are also expected to object to the rules being changed. And heres one reason why: Candidates themselves routinely leak the existence of the investigations as a way to make a late hit on an opponent. In fact, the attorneys on the task force even joked at last months meeting that theyve done just that a campaign tactic that relies, in part, on controlling the narrative. Without some kind of response some context from the actual agency that enforces campaign laws, the voters can easily assume the worst. What happens next is unclear. The task force almost one-third of which are either campaign attorneys or representatives of powerful interest groups could make a series of recommendations next month to FPPC commissioners, the agencys governing board. (One of the five positions remains vacant.) It will be up to them whether to change the policy. One commissioner, Brian Hatch, said at a meeting last month that perhaps late-breaking campaign investigations should be sequestered from public view until after an election. Alice Germond, the current FPPC chair, said she was worried about over-muzzling the agencys staff in explaining the investigation process. Schnur said theres always the potential for formal complaints to be used as fodder in a close contest, the same way unproven criminal charges can follow a person if publicized. But the system believes the alternative of conducting these proceedings in absolute secrecy is even worse, he said. john.myers@latimes.com Follow @johnmyers on Twitter and sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter Several Burbank Girl Scouts have recently received Gold Awards, which is the highest honor in the Girl Scouting program and is achieved by completing a service project that benefits the community. No one knows the girls or their projects better than Gena Downey, of Burbank, who has been a Girl Scout leader for 15 years and is a Gold Mentor for Girls Scouts of Greater Los Angeles, which covers Burbank and surrounding areas. As a member of the Gold Mentor Board, she sees the proposal reports the girls submit initially for their Gold Award projects, and she is also on the board that judges their final reports. She usually works with 12 girls a year. So, I really get to see most every girl I work with before, during and after, she said. In her proposal, Burbank resident Georgia Moran said she had learned that exclusion is a genuine problem in society, especially for those who are disabled. So, the 17-year-old, who starts her senior year at Notre Dame High School in the fall, wanted to teach compassion through her project titled Teens for Social Inclusion. As a child, Georgia had volunteered with Shanes Inspiration, a nonprofit that creates playground equipment and educational programs where youngsters of all abilities can play together. For her Gold project, she created an ambassador program for teens who became buddies for children with disabilities. Thirty of her classmates went through Shanes Inspirations education programs during spring break. Georgia provided them with buddy guidelines and playground rules. She designed a logo and a T-shirt for the program and set up a Facebook page. Time management was her greatest challenge to complete the project, Downey said, because she was working as well as being a member of a water polo club. But she was proud of the results. She saw great joy in the eyes of the children she was helping as well as in the reactions from the ambassadors who participated in the project, Downey said. Georgia will continue the project through her senior year and six classmates will assist her. In addition, she has recruited several eighth-graders who have committed to keeping the project going as leaders and administrators for the Facebook page and other social media, hopefully long after Georgia graduates. For Bernadette Chavez, her project hit close to home. The 17-year-old, who just graduated from Burbank High School, chose autism awareness as her topic. Her brother has autism. She worked with the Dream Big organization to achieve her goal, which was to educate people to not judge and have a open heart and mind toward those with autism. Bernadette made a video about what autism is and put it on YouTube and other social media. She included statistics and facts about the developmental disorder and interviewed people who were around her brother parents, friends, other family members and his karate teacher. While creating the video, Bernadette realized she wants to work with youngsters with autism. So that project was really enlightening for her, Downey said. Bernadette included a lot of facts about how light, colors and magnified sounds adversely affect those with autism. In addition, Bernadette included a number of services available to autism patients. Hannah Nelsestuen, 18, who just graduated from Burroughs High School, worked with the Boys & Girls Club in Burbank and the Greater East Valley for her project titled Boys and Girls Love to Read. She was organized and professional, Downey said, and during the project, she ran up against a lot of challenges but she was persistent and made it work. Hannah conducted her project at Edison Elementary School. She wanted to create a library that had tangible books. So, she worked with her grandfather to redesign, build and paint shelves and bookcases at the school. She also held book donation events. Her challenge was that youngsters dont spend enough time reading physical books but prefer reading them online. She had her Girl Scout troop read to students at Edison and formed a book club program for all students and faculty, and hopefully it will be sustained on campus for years to come. Her goal, she said, was to inspire students to create Little Free Libraries, a project by a nonprofit that aims to inspire a love of reading, or to write a book. JOYCE RUDOLPH can be reached at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com. Fancy a new piece of Louis Vuitton luggage with a custom portrait of your teacup poodle on it? Head over to South Coast Plaza, where a full-time, in-store artist will now paint it for you with a smile and for free. The iconic brand is amping up its stake in Orange County with a long-awaited expansion and redesign of its store at the luxury shopping center. It opened to the public Wednesday. If theres a glimpse of what the future could hold for luxury boutiques, the newly redesigned Louis Vuitton is it, said Debra Gunn Downing, spokeswoman for South Coast Plaza. From the site-specific art to exclusive merchandise, the company has created an immersive shopping and cultural experience that cannot be found online a brilliant move. Now the largest single-level Louis Vuitton retail floor in the Americas, the Costa Mesa space is the brainchild of architect Peter Marino, who combined a modern Southern California aesthetic with the brands historic French roots. Marino also created Louis Vuittons Paris Place Vendome, Soho, N.Y., and Los Angeles stores. The Orange County region and its clientele have long-held cachet with Louis Vuitton, which has had a presence at South Coast Plaza, the West Coasts largest shopping center, since 1986. At a sneak preview Tuesday, Louis Vuitton representatives showed off the redesigned, 14,000-square-foot space. The airy, modern space evokes the regions climate and sensibilities, including a 27-foot custom surfboard designed by Peter Dayton that hangs above the Mens Universe area. Works by Damien Hirst, Farhad Moshiri and other celebrated artists decorate the walls. We always work to select artwork that represents different countries and continents, Marino said in a news release. Louis Vuitton is a very forward-thinking company when it comes to its engagement with the art world and thinks globally. As a first-in-the-United-States touch, the floor above the store is being converted into an atelier where guests will be able to watch Louis Vuitton artisans as they craft new products and restore pieces brought in by customers. This in-house service will only be available to Costa Mesa patrons. Even shoppers at the brands Fifth Avenue store in New York must have their handbags and luggage sent offsite for repair. In addition, a full-time artist will personalize hard-sided travel pieces with custom, hand-painted artwork. The service is complimentary with purchase. There are less than a handful of such painters across the United States, representatives said. The redesigned stores facade is made of copper and glass. Twisting carbon fiber shelving brings to mind the high speed of modern travel. Three skylights sliced into the ceiling fill the store with natural light. A closed-door, VIP salon is tucked into a corner. The stores modern styling also is a nod to the fashion houses new mens artistic director, streetwear designer Virgil Abloh (also known as Kanye Wests personal creative director). Abloh, the first African American to take the role at the company, launched his inaugural spring 2019 menswear collection last month to considerable fanfare. It featured mesh tops, iridescent duffel bags, a silver leather poncho and white dad sneakers. Within one day, street culture was elevated to global couture, and a worldwide clamor for the products began. The Costa Mesa stores mens section is extensive. The store also carries a full range of Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear apparel, leather goods, shoes, accessories and fragrances, including the newly launched mens fragrance collection. While it is generally rare for Louis Vuitton to sell store-exclusive products, the South Coast Plaza location offers many pieces that were designed expressly for it. Metallic leopard print Capucines Mini, gold-sequined Petite Malle, and gold lizard Twist bags are joined by a crocodile version of the Christopher backpack. In shoes, exclusive items include the womens chunky-heeled Star Trail Monogram Ankle Boot with de rigeur patches, while for men, the Trocadero Richelieu sneaker will be available in signature Epi leathers and rabbit fur. Ready-to-wear pieces that are only available in Costa Mesa include a womens skater dress, mens Split Hand LV sweater, and a satin warm-up shirt. In jewelry, the Diamond Blossom XL medallion will be available exclusively at the South Coast Plaza store until its October 2018 launch. The location is also the only Louis Vuitton store in Southern California to permanently offer about 25 items from the Objets Nomades home collection, which is designed in keeping with the brands heritage as a luggage designer for European aristocracy. The collection of handmade pieces, all designed to be portable, was inspired by Victorian-era British explorers. The origami-reminiscent leather Tabouret camp stool by Atelier Oi, available in a range of bright colors, folds flat. With its carrying strap, it is as easily transported as a briefcase. The frosted Murano glass Bell Lamp by Barber & Osgerby, the designers of the 2012 Olympic torch, is solar powered (with an option for USB charging) and also has a leather handle. The Campana Brothers Bomboca Sofa is equal parts jigsaw puzzle and seating arrangement. Eight individual cushions can detach from the modular, cloud-like sofas leather shell. Candice Baker Yacono is a contributor to Times Community News. The seawall at the center of a fight between the state and a pair of Laguna Beach homeowners is still standing after the owners of the oceanfront mansion sued the California Coastal Commission over its hefty sanctions for what the agency says is an unauthorized, beach-threatening structure. The commission voted unanimously in August to impose a $1-million fine and order homeowners Jeffrey and Tracy Katz to tear down the seawall protecting 11 Lagunita Drive from the oceans waves. The demolition deadline would have passed in October, but an Orange County Superior Court judge stayed the punishments while the lawsuit is pending. The suit, filed in August after the commissions decision, alleges inverse condemnation and seeks damages of at least $25 million, the estimated market value of the home. The Katzes argue that they had performed city-approved minor repair and maintenance to an investment property work not significant enough to trigger a commission requirement to remove the wall if the home were to have a major remodel. The Coastal Commission began demanding that the Katzes cease work on the home in April 2017, three months after the city granted permits through its Local Coastal Plan, a commission-granted authority. Thereafter, the commissions enforcement staff waged a campaign, ordering removal of the seawall, despite obvious risks to the residence, and threatening seawall forfeiture, millions of dollars in penalties and ultimate destruction or impairment of the remodeled residence based on an utterly indefensible reading of city and commission standards, according to the Katzes complaint. The commission, the arbiter of coastal development across California, said its action was necessary. [The Katzes] cannot demonstrate that a stay of the commissions cease-and-desist order is not against the public interest, it said in response to the suit. Indeed, the commission found the order and penalty were required to protect the public, including public access and impacts on coastal resources. The commission bolstered its reply with five letters from the public supporting enforcement and noted that several people spoke at the August meeting in favor of punishing the Katzes. The commission wanted to send a message with swift punishment to deter future violations by the Katzes and others who might be inclined to ignore either the requirements for permits for development or conditions on their permits intended to minimize impacts on the public, including impacts on public beaches, it said. The case is set to go to trial in June. The seawall at 11 Lagunita as it appeared in 2015, before the homes remodel. (File Photo) The roughly 5,000-square-foot house, which backs up to Victoria Beach, was built in 1952. Previous owners built the 11-foot-tall and 80-foot-long seawall in 2005 as an emergency measure. The wall was meant to be temporary and its permit lapsed. The home went into foreclosure. Another previous owner backed away from major remodeling plans in 2014 after the commission pushed back, in part because of the seawall. The next year, shortly before the Katzes bought the house, the commission ruled the seawall could be reinforced as long as the house which was built before the California Coastal Act set standards for coastal development was generally unchanged. If the owners wanted a major remodel, the wall would have to come down, the commission said. The commission, by way of Laguna Beachs Local Coastal Plan, defines a major remodel as increasing square footage by 50% or demolishing and/or reconstructing at least 50% of the home. The Katzes say they tore down only 9.8% of the exterior walls and 3.5% of the combined floor and roof structural systems. The Katzes say they are hamstrung from selling or renting out the house while they battle the Coastal Commission. The home is worth about $25 million, or $70,000 per month. The Coastal Commission takes a dim view of seawalls on the beach. Staff members say the walls protect private property at the expense of natural sand flow and access to public beaches. In this case, commission staff says, 18 dump trucks worth of sand is trapped behind the wall, unable to nourish the beach. The lawsuit says the work did not add square footage, height or stories and did not expand the footprint or convert storage space into living space. Rather, it says, it was a minor remodel over existing framing on a house that stood on artificial fill, not sand. hillary.davis@latimes.com Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD George Emerson was riding in the back of a B-17 bomber in the tailgunner position when one of the other aircraft in his squadron was hit by German anti-aircraft fire and collided with his plane, severing the tail. It was Feb. 9, 1945, and the United States was embroiled in war against Germany and its allies. Emerson, 92, who now lives in Huntington Beach, fell out of the broken tail but his parachute deployed and he landed in German territory. He was instantly taken and imprisoned for the night. Next morning, I was taken downstairs to police headquarters, interrogated and shown scorched parts of my aircraft, including oxygen tanks and other miscellaneous parts, Emerson wrote in an online post. I was also shown scorched I.D. tags of some of my crew members. Although I suppressed my emotions, this confirmed my suspicions. I might be the only survivor of my aircraft. He was. What followed was almost three months of German imprisonment, with much of it spent on the move. Emerson said he spent time in four different camps. He wasnt tortured, but hunger became his greatest foe. We were always hungry, he said during a phone interview. George Emerson is pictured in his military days. A favorite pastime among the prisoners was discussing the food they enjoyed back home: steaks, baked potatoes and hotcakes smothered with syrup, Emerson wrote. The uncertainty of his captivity also played with his mind. You didnt know from one day to the next what might happen, he said. To keep informed of the progress of the war, the prisoners would listen to BBC broadcasts most nights from a radio cobbled together from stray parts. On April 28, 1945, Emerson heard artillery nearby, he wrote. He was liberated a day later. I can honestly say this is the happiest day I ever remember of, Emerson wrote on a piece of paper the day his freedom was restored. What a beautiful sight. A few days later, Emersons and the rest of the POWs hunger was finally sated. We are getting our first white bread this evening since being POWs, Emerson wrote. It looks like angel food cake. Piloting to victory in Asia David Hayward, 95, of Huntington Beach flew 54 combat missions in a B-25 bomber in World War II. (Scott Smeltzer | Daily Pilot) Huntington Beach resident David Hayward still remembers the relief he felt when World War II was declared over. We lost a lot of good men in that war, he said. Hayward, now 95, piloted a B-25 in 54 combat missions during the war. Much of his service was spent in the China Burma India Theater. He spent many missions attacking Japanese supply lines, including railroads, bridges, airfields, anything being used to move materials around. As a pilot, Haywards job was to get the plane to the target, which took an ample amount of fortitude. Fragments from anti-aircraft shells battered against the exterior of the planes and black puffs of smoke would appear in the flight path, suggesting an impending doom. Still, Hayward would continue to his target. David Hayward in the cockpit of a B-25 in 1943. He remembers his first mission, when the squadron was tasked with flying into central Burma to drop bombs on an enemy airfield. Just as they arrived, the enemy fighters and bombers had taken off and were heading their way. First thing I knew there was a Japanese fighter right alongside our airplane, he said. Boy, I was really scared. It was kind of an eerie feeling. He was out of range for our gunners to get a shot at him. He sort of teased us for a while. Finally, he went away. benjamin.brazil@latimes.com Twitter:@benbrazilpilot A Huntington Beach dove handler pleaded not guilty Friday to a felony count of making criminal threats against a man who had hired him to supply doves for a funeral. The charge stemmed from a dispute between Mitchell Ralph Todd, 51, and a Laguna Beach man who contracted Todds company, OC Doves, to fly the birds at his sons funeral Nov. 10, according to Laguna Beach police spokesman Jim Cota. The funeral ran longer than planned and the doves were not released, resulting in a disagreement over what the company should be paid. The contract stated that if payment wasnt made and the act wasnt performed, aka the releasing of doves, then there was a $1,000 fee attached or something that was kind of ridiculous, Cota said. When the client didnt pay, he received phone threats the next day that people were going to come after him and was told that maybe you belong or need to go to where your son went, Cota said. A voicemail included only the sound of someone sliding the rack of a firearm to engage it, police said. The OC Doves website features a lengthy page of policies, including that payment for services must be made within 15 minutes of arrival at the event and, in the case of a funeral, before the casket is removed from a vehicle. Failure to pay on time carries a $1,000 penalty more than the cost of releasing 90 birds, the most expensive service listed on the website. Police said they found 57 firearms at Mitchell Todds home when they served a search warrant Nov. 27. (Courtesy of Laguna Beach Police Department) Police served a search warrant Nov. 27 at Todds home in the 15000 block of Cambay Lane in Huntington Beach and said they found 57 firearms, including handguns, older-style weapons, Glocks, rifles and some resembling semiautomatic weapons and featuring high-tech components such as scopes costing thousands of dollars. Only 12 of the firearms were registered to Todd, police said. When police entered the home, they were aware that Todd had several firearms registered to him, and they had a gun restraining order, which allows the temporary removal of firearms from people authorities believe pose a danger to themselves or others. I dont even know of any gun dealers that have 50-plus guns, Cota said. Even a collector would have them in one room and dressed up. These were not. Along with the firearms, police said they found nearly 30,000 rounds of ammunition, more than 100 ammunition magazines, a practice bomb, body armor, swords, Nazi and Confederate flags and a photo of Adolf Hitler in the home, which Todd lives in with his wife. Police said firearms were strewn throughout the home; some were locked in safes. Police also found more than 200 doves at the residence. Todds home is across from a school; California law prohibits possession of a firearm within 1,000 feet of school grounds. If convicted of the charge against him, Todd could face up to three years in state prison. He is scheduled to be back in court Feb. 4. julia.sclafani@latimes.com Glendale police caught two men one with the word ignorant tattooed on his neck suspected of robbing three pharmacies at gunpoint, including one in Glendale, police said. Thomas Davis, 20, of Inglewood, and Jose Lopez, 28, of Los Angeles, were both charged with three counts of robbery with a special enhancement that they each used a firearm, according to Glendale Police Sgt. Robert William. The robbery in Glendale dates back to the morning of May 21, when two hooded men entered Central Avenue Pharmacy, located in the 100 block of West California Avenue, and drew their weapons while telling a customer to stay quiet. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Thomas Davis, 20, and Jose Lopez, 28, are suspected of robbing three pharmacies, including one in Glendale, at gunpoint. (Courtesy of the Glendale Police Department) Wheres your oxycodone, 30 milligrams, Davis said, according to police. An employee told him that the narcotics were in a locked cabinet. Davis then asked the worker to show him to the cabinet, and the worker complied. There, Davis, who has the ignorant tattoo,reportedly used the tip of his gun to sort through the medications. He then demanded promethazine syrup, grabbing two bottles of the syrup and putting them in a black travel bag, William said. Before leaving, the pair demanded money, and the worker opened the cash register. They fled with narcotics, as well as about $500 in cash. Half an hour later, the duo allegedly robbed a San Fernando pharmacy, during which they again demanded promethazine syrup. Detectives later discovered that the night before, they did the same thing at a pharmacy in North Hollywood. Investigators used surveillance footage and other means to identify the suspects, William said. During a search of Lopezs home, police reportedly recovered several firearms, as well as promethazine syrup bottles. Police have not arrested the getaway driver. -- Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com Twitter: @atchek The next time youre bopping through the mall this holiday season and see one of those people holding a jar of anti-aging face moisturizer dreck and promising to make you look like a million bucks (or at least $100,000) in 10 seconds, dont walk but sprint as fast as you can in the opposite direction. I know, its easy to get roped in. Its usually a hot young woman making the sales pitch and particularly if youre male appealing to your vanity. But trust me, this is not a purchase that will end happily. Im thinking, in particular, of my 19-year-old son, who was embarrassed to walk in the door this past Monday carrying a bagful of outrageously expensive anti-aging junk and muttering, I think I may have just gotten ripped off. Indeed, he had. Hed just paid $402.19 for six boxes of Vine Vera Resveratrol Moisture Day Cream infused with Merlot (because we know how good it is for your skin to rub wine into it). He procured it from one of those pop-up kiosks, this one at a mall in Sherman Oaks. The saleswoman obviously recognized an easy mark and talked the lad into purchasing a years supply of what hed been assured was miracle acne medication. Of course, it was instead anti-age gunk for a kid who wont be seeing his first hint of a wrinkle for at least a quarter-century. Youre right, you got ripped off, I confirmed. But no biggie. Lets go back and get you a refund. Cant do that, he said, holding up the receipt that spelled out in big bold letters, Absolutely no refunds. Well see about that, I replied. Lets go. Off to the mall we go. I meet the woman responsible for this retail travesty. She is predictably attractive and with an accent to boot (I guessed Israeli). Didnt much matter to me. You will be giving this young man a full refund immediately, I assure her. You took advantage of a teenager who didnt know better. In my world, this is known as a predatory business practice. I should file a complaint to have your entire business shut down. How dare you prey on vulnerable young people. The woman says she will have to check with her manager and see if an exception can be made and No, no, no, I interrupt. Perhaps I wasnt making myself clear. This is not a request but a demand. What part of I am about to cause such a scene right here that you will rue the day your miserable existence began are you failing to understand? You are at this moment looking into the eyes of your worst possible nightmare. Or would you like me to get on a microphone and make a very loud announcement to everyone in this mall about your lack of scruples in peddling your worthless product? The truth is I didnt really know if Vine Vera was entirely worthless. But I did note they were charging more than a hundred bucks per jar for something that likely cost 38 cents to manufacture, and were claiming it had acne removal properties that it appeared to lack. Incredibly, this woman somehow doesnt completely comprehend what I am telling her. She counters, But thees product will help your sons skin and No! I interrupt again. If my son wants to buy something to help his skin, well be spending a lot less than $400. Tell me: Does this teenager look to you as if he needs to trim years off of his age? Is the idea to make him look 11? I dont think so. Im done talking. So are you. Give him the refund, now! Finally, the woman gets her manager on the phone and moves to the other side of the kiosk to speak with him or her, in notably hushed tones. I imagine she says something like, Look, thees guy is a maniac. I think we must give a refund to make heem go away. Whatever she said, it worked. Two minutes later, the refund was back on my sons debit card. He felt badly, like he had done something dumb, but I assured him that wasnt the case at all. I explained that when I was his age, I could very well have fallen for the same smarmy pitch and this was 100% about people carrying out underhanded business practices, not him. The silver lining in all of this, of course, was that my kid got to see his father stand up for him, understood I have his back, and learned a valuable lesson: Vultures peddling Vine Vera do not have your best interests at heart. As if we all needed another reason to steer clear of the mall and embrace online shopping. -- RAY RICHMOND has covered Hollywood and the entertainment business since 1984. He can be reached via email at ray@rayrichco.com and Twitter at @MeGoodWriter. As part of the California State Legislatures annual celebration of Womens History Month, two area women traveled Monday to Sacramento to accept accolades for their leadership and deep community involvements. La Canada Flintridge Mayor Terry Walker and Rose Queen Louise Deser Siskel of San Marino were feted in the capital as women of the year, along with other individuals from around the state. Walker was named the 43rd Assembly District Woman of the Year by Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) while Siskel was bestowed the same honor for the 25th State Senate District by Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge). I was very floored, quite honestly, at the honor and am very humbled by it, Walker said during Tuesday nights meeting of the LCF City Council. It was a lovely experience up there. For me, listening to the bios of the other women from the other districts that were nominated, I was very humbled because there was some very impressive women in the group. Rose Queen Louise Deser Siskel with state Sen. Anthony Portantino. (Courtesy of the office of state Sen. Anthony Portantinos office) Before the official ceremony recognizing honorees, the Legislative Womens Caucus held a luncheon in the Capitol building to celebrate the occasion. Portantino stated in a news release he was very honored and excited to invite Siskel to Sacramento for the days events. In the same press statement, the Sequoyah High School senior spoke of being grateful for the experience. I feel lucky to be honored among a group of truly dedicated women who make the world a more kind and welcoming place. This year, as the 101st Rose Queen, I had the opportunity to promote scientific research, education and inclusion. This recognition encourages me, and I hope will encourage others, to advocate for these values, she said. Sara Cardine contributed to this report. Evening Jewel Stakes: Sneaking Out seemed to get an effortless trip from Drayden Van Dyke in the $200,000 race for Cal-bred 3-year-old fillies going 6 furlongs. He won by 2 lengths and paid $3.00, $2.40 and $2.20. Dr Wysong was second and Ruby Bradley was third. That was good, it was text book, said trainer Jerry Hollendorfer . Van Dyke was a little more expansive. She bobbed at the start, but she picked it up, Van Dyke said. I loved my position early. The track is deep, so I didnt want to go too fast early. I gave her a tap at the 3/8 th and she just took off. We eased up nearing the wire. I think she has a lot more left in the tank. Santa Anita Oaks: Bellafina couldnt have made it look any easier in the Grade 1 $400,000 race for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles. It was only a four-horse field after Stirred was a vet scratch. Bellafina was a little wide going into the first turn but settled nicely just off the lead. She was comfortably ahead by two lengths entering the stretch and won by 5 1/4, although it could have been whatever margin Flavien Prat wanted. She paid $2.60 and $2.10. Flor de La Mar was second followed by Chasing Yesterday and Slewgoodtobetrue. Bellafina will now be pointed to the Kentucky Oaks, on the day before the Kentucky Derby. Her last trip to Churchill was in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies where she was a disappointing fourth. Trainer Simon Callaghan said her performance was flat because she was in season. Im looking forward to the Kentucky Oaks, Prat said. Im confident she will run better than she did in the Breeders Cup. Owner Kaleem Shah also reflected on the last trip to Churchill Downs. Last time in Louisville I think the team was disappointed, Shah said. We were hoping for a win but obviously that didnt happen. Lets see what happens this time. I definitely wish that race in Kentucky was run here in Arcadia. Royal Heroine Stakes: Vasilika proved once again to be the best $40,000 claim ever when she won the Grade 2 $200,000 Royal Heroine Stakes for older fillies and mares going a mile on the turf. She has won 11 of her last 12 races. She was up a little closer than normal through the front stages of the race. She made her move on the far turn, had a 1 length lead entering the stretch and cruised to win by 2 under Prat. She paid $2.60, $2.10 and $2.10. Meal Ticket was second and Space Talk was third. I talked Flavien a little before the race and told him if You wanted to do something a little different, I didnt mind, Hollendorfer said. I think he was a little nervous about being back today, so he kept her a little closer and it worked anyway. Shes doing good right now, thats for sure. Hollendorfer indicated her next race could be the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile on Kentucky Derby day on May 4. There were a few anxious moments when Ms Bad Behavior looked rank going into the first turn and was pulled up by Mike Smith . I just didnt like the way she was moving, Smith said. Id rather be safe than sorry. Ms Bad Behavior walked off the course showing no distress. Echo Eddie Stakes: Lieutenant Dan, the morning-line favorite, ran comfortably near the front poked his head in front at the top of the stretch and won the $200,000 race for Cal-bred 3-year-olds going 6 lengths. The winning margin was 2 lengths over Principe Carlo and Listing. Lieutenant Dan paid $10.40, $5.00 and $3.40 for Steve Miyadi and Geovanni Franco . Hes still a work in progress, Miyadi said. Hes still slow to change leads, not in the morning but in the afternoon. Weve got some work to do. And before you ask, yes Lieutenant Dan is named after the movie character. The name comes from the movie Forrest Gump, said owner Nick Alexander . Its one of my favorite movies. Ive seen it 20 times. Santa Anita Derby: Weve got a separate story on this race on our website and in print. Just click here. But, as a quick refresher, Bob Baffert finished first and second with Roadster and Game Winner. They battled down the stretch but Roadster, flying on the outside got up by half-a-length in the $1 million race for 3-year-olds over 1 1/8 miles. Both horses qualified for the Kentucky Derby. At the eighth pole I knew I was going to win, Baffert said. I just didnt know which one. The difference might have been the trip as Game Winner was hung out wide for a lot of the race and Smith was able to keep Roadster on the rail, saving ground. Mike Smith, he does things that are unbelievable, Baffert said. And he did one of those [rides Saturday]. I left him alone [with no instructions] and he was on his own. They should induct him into the Hall of Fame again. Roadster paid $8.20, $3.00 and $2.40. Instagrand was third followed by Nolo Contesto, Synthesis and More Ice. Providencia Stakes: Guess what? When you are a Grade 3 stakes for fillies going a 1 1/8 miles on the turf and you are wedged between the Santa Anita Derby and Santa Anita Handicap, youre not going to get a lot of love. So, briefly, Hostess rallied in the stretch to beat stablemate Maxim Rate to win by a nose. Both are trained by Callaghan. Van Dyke was the winning jockey. Hostess paid $53.00, $22.00 and $10.40. Lady Prancealot was third. Santa Anita Handicap: Weve got a lot of stuff on this race in a story for web and print. Just click here . Its a wrap of all the other stakes races besides the Santa Anita Derby. But, were OK doing a quick refresher. Gift Box battled down the stretch and came out on top of McKinzie to win the prestigious race for older horses going 1 miles. The margin was a nose. To beat a top horse like McKinzie in a photo like that [is unbelievable], trainer John Sadler said. It was a close photo to everyone but co-owner Kosta Hronis , who bought the horse as a 5-year-old last year with his brother Pete. I thought we had it, Hronis said. I was the only one who left the box. I came straight down, but I did pause until it went up on the board because I kept hearing the crowd moan. Gift Box, with Joel Rosario riding, paid $6.20, $2.40 and $2.20. Mongolian Groom was third followed by Campaign, Prime Attraction and Prince of Arabia. Sadler and Hronis Racing won this race last year with Accelerate, who went on to win the Breeders Cup Classic. This is very special, Sadler said. I grew up with this race, to win it two years in a row is incredible. After a big day of racing, the following day is usual tepid at best. But, cant remember the last time Ive seen a Sunday card with five allowance (or allowance/optional claimers) races and one stakes race. First post on the nine-race card is 1 p.m. The stakes, Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes for older fillies and mares going six furlongs, has a very intriguing story line. Is Dream Tree back to her old form? After winning her first five races, she ran horribly in an eighth-place finish in the La Brea on Dec. 26. Baffert brought her back for works after about a month and she seems to be doing well. She even has a couple of bullet works. Smith returns to ride her. Emboldened is the 4-1 second choice, assuming the role of the other Baffert. She has won two of her four lifetime starts and is coming off a third in the La Brea. Joe Talamo gets the mount. As a side note, Brave Helios, partly owned by my colleague Eric Sondheimer , is back off his nine-month vacation to run in the first race, an allowance going a mile on the turf. Hes 12-1 on the morning line. Best of luck to him and all horses and hoping for another safe racing day. The allowance races are the first, third, fourth, fifth and seventh. The first, fourth, seventh and ninth are on the turf. Racing on the downhill turf course was suspended this week after the death of Arms Runner last Sunday. Let's take a shot with this Craig Dollase -trained gelding, who looks like the controlling speed in this nine-furlong turf event (rails out 20 feet). Not sure he is quite this good or if he wants to run this far, but he should clear under good speed rider Edwin Maldonado and could at least outrun his odds in this spot. He drops into a claiming race for the first time and earned solid Trackmaster speed figures in last pair despite finishing fourth and sixth. He exits a very fast 330-yard dash when fourth in last outing where he galloped out with good energy vs. winner Ray Donovan, who was a Grade I derby qualifier last year. Always looking to add more subscribers to this newsletter. Cant beat the price. If you like it, tell someone. If you dont like it, then youre probably not reading this. Either way, send to a friend and just have them click here and sign up . Remember, its free, and all we need is your email, nothing more. Santa Anita Charts Results for Saturday, April 6. Copyright 2019 by Equibase Company. Reproduction prohibited. Santa Anita, Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, California. 60th day of a 61-day meet. Clear & Firm FIRST RACE. 1 1/8 Mile Turf. Purse: $59,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. Fillies and Mares. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $62,500. Time 23.96 47.36 1:10.39 1:34.94 1:46.97 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 6 Lemoona 122 6 8 8 8 8 11 15 Rosario 5.90 8 Tell Me More 122 8 7 71 72 71 71 2 Figueroa 7.00 1 Mirth 122 1 3 4hd 41 3hd 31 3 Prat 1.30 4 Pulpit Rider 124 4 6 65 64 5hd 5hd 4 Gryder 7.90 7 Fool's Paradise 122 7 2 31 3hd 41 61 5hd Franco 48.50 5 Birdie Gold 122 5 5 2hd 21 22 2hd 6 Blanc 30.90 2 Kodiak West 122 2 4 5hd 5hd 64 4hd 714 Van Dyke 3.90 3 Spy Ring 122 3 1 1 1 1hd 8 8 Desormeaux 7.20 6 LEMOONA 13.80 7.40 3.80 8 TELL ME MORE 7.20 3.20 1 MIRTH 2.20 $2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $3.20 $1 EXACTA (6-8) $51.50 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (6-8-1-4) $49.05 50-CENT TRIFECTA (6-8-1) $81.05 $1 X-5 SUPER HIGH FIVE (6-8-1-4-7) Carryover $3,048 WinnerLemoona Ch.f.4 by Lemon Drop Kid out of Singita, by Holy Bull. Bred by Thor-Bred Stables, LLC (KY). Trainer: Richard Baltas. Owner: Zayat Stables, LLC. Mutuel Pool $313,024 Roulette Pool $435 Exacta Pool $156,219 Superfecta Pool $59,812 Trifecta Pool $100,276 X-5 Super High Five Pool $3,994. Scratchednone. LEMOONA broke a bit slowly, angled in and settled off the pace inside, went outside a rival on the second turn, swung five wide into the stretch, rallied under a crack of the whip to sweep to the lead nearing midstretch and drew off under steady handling and a hold late. TELL ME MORE unhurried and angled in a bit off the rail early, found the inside into the second turn, came out in upper stretch and again in midstretch and got up late for the place. MIRTH pulled along the inside early, saved ground stalking the pace, came out leaving the second turn and three deep into the stretch, drifted in some and held third. PULPIT RIDER pulled between foes and steadied early, stalked three deep on the first turn then outside a rival to the stretch, continued between foes through the final furlong and was edged for the show. FOOL'S PARADISE pressed the pace three deep then stalked outside a rival, came out four wide into the stretch and weakened. BIRDIE GOLD went up to press the pace between horses then dueled outside a rival and weakened in the final furlong. KODIAK WEST (IRE) pulled between foes and steadied nearing the wire the first time, stalked between foes then inside on the backstretch and second turn, split horses in midstretch and lacked the needed rally. SPY RING (IRE) angled in and dueled inside, fought back on the second turn and into the stretch, dropped back nearing midstretch, was taken to the outside and eased in the final furlong but walked off. SECOND RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $200,000. 'Evening Jewel Stakes'. Fillies. 3 year olds. Time 21.96 45.29 1:10.85 1:18.07 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 6 Sneaking Out 122 6 1 31 2hd 14 12 Van Dyke 0.50 9 Dr Wysong 120 9 2 7 6 4hd 22 Prat 5.80 7 Ruby Bradley 120 7 4 6hd 52 31 3ns Gryder 57.80 3 Violette Szabo 120 3 9 21 11 22 44 Franco 40.70 2 Silk From Heaven 120 2 6 81 81 810 51 Flores 15.50 8 Time for Kisses 120 8 8 9 7hd 6 62 Talamo 17.40 4 Naughty Tiger 124 4 3 1hd 33 52 72 Fuentes 23.20 5 Lippy 124 5 7 41 4 7hd 817 Bejarano 4.50 1 Settle It 120 1 5 5 9 9 9 Mn Garcia 42.10 6 SNEAKING OUT 3.00 2.40 2.20 9 DR WYSONG 4.00 3.20 7 RUBY BRADLEY 9.20 $2 ROULETTE (RED) $2.80 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (6-6) $31.40 $1 EXACTA (6-9) $5.40 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (6-9-7-3) $96.05 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (6-9-7-3-2) $5,343.30 50-CENT TRIFECTA (6-9-7) $52.85 WinnerSneaking Out B.f.3 by Indian Evening out of Maddie's Odyssey, by Kitten's Joy. Bred by KMN Racing (CA). Trainer: Jerry Hollendorfer. Owner: KMN Racing LLC. Mutuel Pool $318,710 Roulette Pool $798 Daily Double Pool $67,809 Exacta Pool $189,761 Superfecta Pool $80,993 Super High Five Pool $10,010 Trifecta Pool $131,549. Scratchednone. SNEAKING OUT bobbled at the start, had speed outside then stalked off the rail, ranged up outside on the turn to gain the lead outside a foe nearing the quarter pole, kicked clear into the stretch, drew away under urging then was under a long hold late. DR WYSONG chased three deep then off the rail leaving the turn, angled in some nearing the stretch, found the inside in midstretch and bested the others. RUBY BRADLEY pulled between foes to stalk the pace, continued a bit off the rail on the turn, came out three deep into the stretch and edged a rival for the show. VIOLETTE SZABO broke a bit slowly, went up between horses then dueled inside, inched away briefly on the turn, came out in midstretch and was edged for third. SILK FROM HEAVEN bobbled some at the break, settled a bit off the rail, split horses on the turn, angled to the inside into the stretch and lacked the needed rally.. TIME FOR KISSES allowed to settle outside then off the rail, came out five wide into the stretch and could not offer the necessary response. NAUGHTY TIGER sped to the early lead off the rail, dueled outside a rival, stalked on the turn, came out in the stretch and weakened. LIPPY chased three deep then outside a rival on the turn, came four wide into the stretch and also weakened. SETTLE IT bobbled some at the start, saved ground chasing the pace, dropped back on the turn and gave way. THIRD RACE. 1 1/16 Mile. Purse: $400,000. 'Santa Anita Oaks'. Stakes. Fillies. 3 year olds. Time 24.10 47.88 1:12.51 1:38.43 1:45.47 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 5 Bellafina 124 4 3 4 2hd 37 12 15 Prat 0.30 1 Flor de La Mar 121 1 2 2 31 1 21 23 Rosario 6.70 2 Chasing Yesterday 124 2 4 1hd 1 2hd 315 319 Smith 2.80 4 Slewgoodtobetrue 121 3 1 3 4 4 4 4 Franco 30.00 5 BELLAFINA 2.60 2.10 1 FLOR DE LA MAR 3.60 2 CHASING YESTERDAY $2 DAILY DOUBLE (6-5) $3.60 $1 EXACTA (5-1) $3.20 50-CENT TRIFECTA (5-1-2) $2.65 WinnerBellafina B.f.3 by Quality Road out of Akron Moon, by Malibu Moon. Bred by JSM Equine, LLC. (KY). Trainer: Simon Callaghan. Owner: Kaleem Shah, Inc.. Mutuel Pool $267,222 Daily Double Pool $36,657 Exacta Pool $90,534 Trifecta Pool $55,978. ScratchedStirred. 50-Cent Pick Three (6-6-5) paid $7.45. Pick Three Pool $65,037. BELLAFINA four wide into and on the first turn, pressed the pace outside then three deep into and on the second turn, took the lead under some urging nearing the stretch, kicked clear under a vigorous hand ride while drifting inward in midstretch, continued to drift inward in deep stretch under good handling then a long hold in the final strides. FLOR DE LA MAR had speed inside to press the pace, took the advantage into the second turn and dueled along the rail, was not a match for the winner in the drive, came out some in midstretch and was clearly second best. CHASING YESTERDAY had good early sped and gained a slim lead on the first turn, dueled between horses, fought back between the top pair on the second turn and weakened in the final furlong. SLEWGOODTOBETRUE three deep between horses prompting the early pace, chased off the rail into and on the backstretch, dropped back on the second turn and gave way. FOURTH RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $33,000. Starter Allowance. 4 year olds and up. Claiming Price $50,000. Time 22.18 45.44 57.77 1:10.73 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 11 Swiss Minister 122 9 1 2 23 1hd 11 Franco 4.10 8 Make It a Triple 122 6 2 1hd 1hd 23 2nk Bednar 7.60 10 Royal Trump 122 8 8 5hd 41 3hd 3nk Prat 7.90 2 The Rule of King's 122 1 7 32 31 42 4 Fuentes 55.00 6 Cats Blame 124 4 6 92 7hd 83 51 Bejarano 6.20 13 Littlebitamedal 124 10 5 71 82 5hd 6 Pereira 8.20 5 Aced 124 3 9 4hd 5 7hd 7 Rosario 5.20 3 Italiano 115 2 3 6hd 6 6 8 Diaz, Jr. 6.40 9 Captivate 122 7 4 8hd 91 92 96 Van Dyke 4.40 7 Super Terrific 122 5 10 10 10 10 10 Gryder 54.70 11 SWISS MINISTER 10.20 5.60 4.00 8 MAKE IT A TRIPLE 5.40 5.40 10 ROYAL TRUMP 5.40 $2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $2.80 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (5-11) $16.40 $1 EXACTA (11-8) $33.40 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (11-8-10-2) $329.90 50-CENT TRIFECTA (11-8-10) $129.40 $1 X-5 SUPER HIGH FIVE (11-8-10-2-6) Carryover $1,220 WinnerSwiss Minister Dbb.g.6 by Lucky Pulpit out of Alpine Echo, by Swiss Yodeler. Bred by Heinz H. Steinmann (CA). Trainer: Genaro Vallejo. Owner: Alydom Racing, LLC, Battle Born Racing Stable, MyRacehorse.com and Ferrara, Nick. Mutuel Pool $359,473 Roulette Pool $817 Daily Double Pool $24,530 Exacta Pool $207,503 Superfecta Pool $82,447 Trifecta Pool $123,919 X-5 Super High Five Pool $1,598. ScratchedCoil to Strike, Stay Golden, Tribal Roar. 50-Cent Pick Three (6-5-11) paid $6.55. Pick Three Pool $32,115. SWISS MINISTER had speed outside, angled in and dueled three deep then alongside the runner-up, took a short lead into the stretch and inched away late under left handed urging. MAKE IT A TRIPLE also had good early speed between horses then dueled a bit off the rail, fought back inside on the turn, came a bit off the fence in the stretch and held second. ROYAL TRUMP chased three deep between foes then outside on the turn, came three wide into the stretch and held third. THE RULE OF KING'S prompted then stalked the pace inside, came out leaving the turn and in the stretch and was edged for the show. CATS BLAME settled a bit off the rail chasing the pace, angled in on the turn, continued inside in the stretch and lacked the needed late kick. LITTLEBITAMEDAL stalked four wide then three deep on the turn, came four wide into the stretch and could not offer the necessary response. ACED a bit slow to begin, angled in and stalked inside, came a bit off the rail in the stretch and weakened. ITALIANO chased between horses on the backstretch and turn, came around a rival into the stretch and lacked a rally. CAPTIVATE settled between horses then chased outside a rival and did not rally. SUPER TERRIFIC broke a bit slowly, settled off the rail, angled to the inside on the turn, came out in the stretch and was not a threat. FIFTH RACE. 1 Mile Turf. Purse: $200,000. 'Royal Heroine Stakes'. Fillies and Mares. 4 year olds and up. Time 22.99 46.31 1:09.66 1:21.69 1:33.53 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 1 Vasilika 124 1 4 31 3 31 11 12 Prat 0.30 3 Meal Ticket 120 3 5 41 41 4 3hd 21 Van Dyke 24.90 6 Space Talk 120 6 6 68 6 6 4 31 Bejarano 41.20 5 Raven's Lady 120 5 7 51 51 5hd 5hd 41 Desormeaux 6.80 4 Cordiality 120 4 3 2hd 21 1hd 21 5 Talamo 41.00 7 Smoovie 120 7 2 11 1hd 21 6 6 Mn Garcia 73.60 2 Ms Bad Behavior 120 2 1 7 dnf Smith 3.20 1 VASILIKA 2.60 2.10 2.10 3 MEAL TICKET 8.40 6.20 6 SPACE TALK (GB) 4.20 $2 ROULETTE (RED) $2.60 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (11-1) $18.20 $1 EXACTA (1-3) $11.00 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (1-3-6-5) $30.88 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (1-3-6-5-4) $934.40 50-CENT TRIFECTA (1-3-6) $38.05 WinnerVasilika Ch.m.5 by Skipshot out of La Belle Marquet, by Marquetry. Bred by Mikhail Yanakov (KY). Trainer: Jerry Hollendorfer. Owner: All Schlaich Stables LLC, Hollendorfer, LLC, Gatto Racing, LLC and Todaro, G.. Mutuel Pool $686,156 Roulette Pool $555 Daily Double Pool $30,789 Exacta Pool $206,372 Superfecta Pool $97,072 Super High Five Pool $16,770 Trifecta Pool $158,333. Scratchednone. 50-Cent Pick Three (5-11-1) paid $4.55. Pick Three Pool $59,455. 50-Cent Pick Four (6-3/5-1/4/11/12-1) 15929 tickets with 4 correct paid $10.25. Pick Four Pool $213,994. 50-Cent Pick Five (6-6-3/5-1/4/11/12-1) 8385 tickets with 5 correct paid $65.95. Pick Five Pool $643,549. VASILIKA came out and stalked a bit off the rail, bid three deep into the stretch to gain the lead, inched away under urging in midstretch and proved best. MEAL TICKET stalked off the rail then outside a rival, came out four wide into the stretch, drifted in some and gained the place. SPACE TALK (GB) three deep into the first turn, angled in and chased inside, went outside a rival on the second turn, split horses in midstretch and bested the rest. RAVEN'S LADY (GB) also three deep into the first turn, angled in and chased a bit off the rail then inside, also split horses in midstretch and lacked the needed rally. CORDIALITY fanned out in the early running, angled in and stalked then bid alongside a rival, took a slim advantage leaving the second turn, was between foes in midstretch and weakened in the final furlong. SMOOVIE sent along outside foes then crossed inward, set the pace inside then dueled along the rail on the backstretch and second turn and also weakened in the final furlong. MS BAD BEHAVIOR hopped slightly at the start, pulled hard and bore out badly nearing and into the first turn and was pulled up but walked off. SIXTH RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $200,000. 'Echo Eddie Stakes'. 3 year olds. Time 21.82 45.11 1:10.68 1:17.46 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 7 Lieutenant Dan 122 7 2 32 1hd 11 12 Franco 4.20 9 Principe Carlo 122 9 6 2hd 31 2 2 Pereira 4.80 5 Listing 124 5 3 7 7hd 3hd 3nk Rosario 3.20 6 Foster Boi 120 6 1 5hd 52 5hd 42 Prat 2.70 1 Prodigal Son 120 1 5 4hd 4hd 61 52 Bejarano 17.10 2 Daddy Jones 120 2 4 9 91 8 61 Fuentes 75.70 8 Tap the Wire 124 8 8 1hd 2 4hd 73 Van Dyke 5.50 4 Midnight Special 122 4 9 88 6hd 75 81 Desormeaux 15.60 10 Oliver 120 10 7 61 87 93 9nk Mn Garcia 35.70 3 Moon House 120 3 10 10 10 10 10 Roman 91.70 7 LIEUTENANT DAN 10.40 5.00 3.40 9 PRINCIPE CARLO 4.80 3.20 5 LISTING 3.40 $2 ROULETTE (RED) $4.20 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (1-7) $15.20 $1 EXACTA (7-9) $23.10 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (7-9-5-6) $25.40 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (7-9-5-6-1) $1,239.10 50-CENT TRIFECTA (7-9-5) $37.25 WinnerLieutenant Dan B.g.3 by Grazen out of Excusabull, by Indian Charlie. Bred by Nick Alexander (CA). Trainer: Steven Miyadi. Owner: Nicholas B. Alexander. Mutuel Pool $661,623 Roulette Pool $737 Daily Double Pool $41,355 Exacta Pool $367,945 Superfecta Pool $172,798 Super High Five Pool $6,496 Trifecta Pool $255,019. Scratchednone. 50-Cent Pick Three (11-1-7) paid $17.70. Pick Three Pool $75,879. LIEUTENANT DAN had speed between horses then dueled off the rail, battled inside on the turn and into the stretch, inched away under urging in midstretch and proved best. PRINCIPE CARLO dueled outside rivals on the backstretch and three deep on the turn and into the stretch, continued between foes in the final furlong and held second. LISTING chased outside a rival, went three deep leaving the turn and four wide into the stretch and was edged for the place. FOSTER BOI close up stalking the pace between horses, continued between foes through much of the drive and was edged for third. PRODIGAL SON saved ground stalking the pace throughout and lacked the needed rally. DADDY JONES unhurried along the inside on the backstretch and turn, came out into the stretch and improved position. TAP THE WIRE had good early speed and dueled between horses, fought back on the turn and into the stretch and weakened in the final furlong. MIDNIGHT SPECIAL angled in and stalked inside, came out leaving the turn and three deep into the stretch and weakened. OLIVER chased three deep, dropped back between foes on the turn, came three wide into the stretch and also weakened. MOON HOUSE dropped back off the rail then outside a rival, continued off the inside on the turn and failed to menace. SEVENTH RACE. 1 Mile Turf. Purse: $55,000. Maiden Special Weight. 3 year olds. Time 21.88 45.08 1:09.43 1:21.79 1:34.02 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 5 One Bad Boy 124 4 3 1 1hd 13 15 14 Rosario 1.00 11 Proud Pedro 124 10 12 12 11 9 51 2nk Prat 9.10 8 Mo Reserve 124 7 4 61 52 4hd 32 3nk Talamo 16.60 9 DQOcean Fury 124 8 6 7 71 51 2hd 41 Desormeaux 10.50 4 Speakerofthehouse 124 3 9 91 92 7 41 52 Franco 14.10 7 Time Is Now 124 6 7 103 101 101 7hd 62 Smith 6.30 10 Takeo 124 9 11 111 12 12 101 7nk Blanc 70.10 2 M Town Gem 124 1 10 82 81 81 93 82 Gryder 34.20 6 Bullion 124 5 1 2hd 31 2hd 61 95 Figueroa 35.50 12 Play Money 124 11 8 3hd 2hd 31 8 102 Bejarano 14.80 3 Polar 124 2 5 51 6hd 11 12 112 Van Dyke 14.60 14 Deep Thinker 124 12 2 43 44 61 112 12 Roman 20.40 5 ONE BAD BOY 4.00 2.80 2.60 11 PROUD PEDRO (FR) 6.40 5.60 8 MO RESERVE 7.40 $2 ROULETTE (RED) $4.40 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (7-5) $25.00 $1 EXACTA (5-11) $14.50 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (5-11-8-4) $84.24 50-CENT TRIFECTA (5-11-8) $85.50 $1 X-5 SUPER HIGH FIVE (5-11-8-4-7) Carryover $1,735 WinnerOne Bad Boy Dbb.r.3 by Twirling Candy out of Cumulonimble, by Stormy Atlantic. Bred by Ron Clarkson (ON). Trainer: Richard Baltas. Owner: Sayjay Racing LLC. Mutuel Pool $527,494 Roulette Pool $1,142 Daily Double Pool $57,066 Exacta Pool $291,120 Superfecta Pool $112,125 Trifecta Pool $187,000 X-5 Super High Five Pool $2,273. ScratchedLil Sydney, Of Good Report. DQ#9 Ocean Furyfinished 4th, disqualified, placed 11th. 50-Cent Pick Three (1-7-5) paid $8.85. Pick Three Pool $91,797. ONE BAD BOY between horses early, angled in and dueled inside, kicked clear on the second turn and drew away in the stretch under a couple cracks of the whip and good handling. PROUD PEDRO (FR) broke slowly, angled in and settled a bit off the rail then outside a rival, came three deep into the stretch and just got the place three wide on the line. MO RESERVE stalked outside a rival, came out four wide into the stretch, drifted in and was edged for second between foes late. OCEAN FURY chased outside a rival, split horses into the second turn then angled in, continued inside into and through the stretch and was edged for third. SPEAKEROFTHEHOUSE settled outside a rival chasing the pace, came out three wide into the stretch and lacked the needed late kick. TIME IS NOW hopped some at the start, settled outside a rival then a bit off the rail, came out leaving the second turn and three deep into the stretch and could not offer the necessary late response. TAKEO unhurried and angled in to save ground off the pace, went outside a rival leaving the second turn and improved position. M TOWN GEM saved ground chasing the pace, cut the corner into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. BULLION dueled between horses, stalked a bit off the rail on the second turn, was between foes into the stretch and weakened. PLAY MONEY dueled three deep between foes then three wide on the backstretch, stalked outside a rival on the second turn, came three wide into the stretch and also weakened. POLAR between horses early, saved ground stalking the pace, steadied in tight into the second turn, dropped back and had little left for drive. DEEP THINKER (IRE) had good early speed and pressed the pace four wide then angled in and stalked a bit off the rail on the backstretch, continued just off the inside on the second turn and weakened in the lane. Following a stewards' inquiry, OCEAN FURY was disqualified and placed eleventh for interference into the second turn. EIGHTH RACE. 1 1/8 Mile. Purse: $1,000,000. 'Santa Anita Derby'. Stakes. 3 year olds. Time 23.34 47.84 1:12.20 1:38.34 1:51.28 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 1 Roadster 124 1 3 51 51 5 31 1 Smith 3.10 6 Game Winner 124 6 2 4hd 41 3hd 2 21 Rosario 0.50 5 Instagrand 124 5 1 1 1 1hd 1 35 Prat 3.30 3 Nolo Contesto 124 3 6 21 2 2 43 43 Talamo 16.20 4 Synthesis 124 4 5 3 3hd 44 510 517 Bejarano 66.60 2 More Ice 124 2 4 6 6 6 6 6 Franco 69.70 1 ROADSTER 8.20 3.00 2.40 6 GAME WINNER 2.40 2.10 5 INSTAGRAND 2.60 $2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $3.40 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (5-1) $19.40 $1 EXACTA (1-6) $7.00 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (1-6-5-3) $2.24 50-CENT TRIFECTA (1-6-5) $5.90 WinnerRoadster Grr.c.3 by Quality Road out of Ghost Dancing, by Silver Ghost. Bred by Stone Farm (KY). Trainer: Bob Baffert. Owner: Speedway Stable LLC. Mutuel Pool $1,321,255 Roulette Pool $2,643 Daily Double Pool $65,625 Exacta Pool $475,975 Superfecta Pool $191,540 Trifecta Pool $325,131. Scratchednone. 50-Cent Pick Three (7-5-1) paid $35.00. Pick Three Pool $110,174. ROADSTER saved ground chasing the pace, came out leaving the second turn and three deep into the stretch, bid three wide under left handed urging in midstretch then outside the runner-up in deep stretch and gained the advantage nearing the wire. GAME WINNER four wide into the first turn, stalked outside then bid four wide on the backstretch and into and on the second turn, battled three deep into the stretch, drifted in some in midstretch, fought back between horses, put a head in front a sixteenth out and could not quite hold off the winner. INSTAGRAND sped to the early lead, angled in and set a pressured pace inside, fought back along the rail on the second turn and through the stretch but could not quite match the top pair late. NOLO CONTESTO prompted the pace outside a rival then between foes on the backstretch and second turn and into the stretch and weakened in the final furlong. SYNTHESIS stalked between horses then bid three wide between foes on the backstretch and into the second turn, fell back some leaving that turn and weakened. MORE ICE chased a bit off the rail then outside the winner, dropped back on the second turn and gave way. NINTH RACE. 1 1/8 Mile Turf. Purse: $150,000. 'Providencia Stakes'. Fillies. 3 year olds. Time 22.99 47.06 1:10.78 1:35.23 1:47.09 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 8 Hostess 120 8 9 84 82 7hd 4hd 1ns Van Dyke 25.50 7 Maxim Rate 120 7 3 51 51 62 31 2ns Prat 4.70 2 Lady Prancealot 120 2 1 91 10 10 7hd 3 Rosario 2.60 4 Lakerball 120 4 2 41 41 42 21 4 Bejarano 7.30 6 Colonial Creed 120 6 4 21 2hd 1hd 1 5hd Franco 3.10 3 Truffalino 120 3 10 10 91 9hd 6hd 66 Talamo 5.80 9 Miss Flawless 120 9 7 6 61 5hd 5hd 7nk Pereira 20.30 1 Apache Princess 120 1 5 7 7hd 81 94 81 Desormeaux 7.00 5 Ladymidtown 120 5 8 3 32 31 81 97 Mn Garcia 81.90 10 Killarney Lass 120 10 6 13 13 2 10 10 Maldonado 80.90 8 HOSTESS (GB) 53.00 22.00 10.40 7 MAXIM RATE 5.80 4.20 2 LADY PRANCEALOT (IRE) 3.20 $2 ROULETTE (GREEN) $8.20 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (1-8) $125.60 $1 EXACTA (8-7) $145.20 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (8-7-2-4) $338.30 50-CENT TRIFECTA (8-7-2) $340.05 $1 X-5 SUPER HIGH FIVE (8-7-2-4-6) Carryover $6,812 WinnerHostess (GB) B.f.3 by Iffraaj (GB) out of Birdie (GB), by Alhaarth (IRE). Bred by Highclere Stud (GB). Trainer: Simon Callaghan. Owner: Mr J. Warren Stable. Mutuel Pool $580,657 Roulette Pool $1,499 Daily Double Pool $70,186 Exacta Pool $290,306 Superfecta Pool $128,745 Trifecta Pool $196,053 X-5 Super High Five Pool $6,656. Scratchednone. 50-Cent Pick Three (5-1-8) paid $109.40. Pick Three Pool $74,851. HOSTESS (GB) chased outside a rival, went three deep leaving the second turn and into the stretch and rallied under urging to get up between foes on the line. MAXIM RATE bobbled at the start, settled outside a rival chasing thee pace, came three wide into the stretch, drifted in and rallied outside foes to gain the lead in deep stretch and continued gamely. LADY PRANCEALOT (IRE) unhurried along the inside for six furlongs, came out leaving the second turn and four wide into the stretch and closed with a rush outside the top pair late. LAKERBALL stalked inside, went around a rival on the second turn then angled in, bid inside in the stretch, put a head in front in deep stretch and was outfinished. COLONIAL CREED stalked a bit off the rail, bid between foes leaving the backstretch, dueled a bit off the rail on the second turn, drifted out into the stretch, drifted in some and battled outside a rival in midstretch then between horses in deep stretch and was outkicked late. TRUFFALINO broke a bit slowly, settled a bit off the rail then outside a rival, went three deep leaving the second turn and four wide into the stretch and could not quite summon the needed late kick. MISS FLAWLESS (FR) angled in and settled a bit off the rail then outside a rival, continued inside into and on the second turn, split horses leaving that turn and lacked a rally. APACHE PRINCESS saved ground chasing the pace, dropped back in the stretch and weakened. LADYMIDTOWN stalked outside a rival then bid three deep leaving the backstretch and outside a foe on the second turn and weakened in the drive. KILLARNEY LASS pulled her way to the early lead outside, kicked clear and angled in, drifted out into the first turn, angled in and set the pace inside, dueled leaving the backstretch and into the second turn, dropped back on that turn and had little left for the stretch. TENTH RACE. 1 Mile. Purse: $600,000. 'Santa Anita H. Presented by San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino'. Stakes. 4 year olds and up. Time 24.24 49.23 1:13.70 1:38.37 2:03.02 Pgm Horse Wt PP 1 Mile Str Fin Jockey $1 4 Gift Box 122 4 2 21 22 1hd 22 1ns Rosario 2.10 1 McKinzie 123 1 31 33 3 31 1hd 23 Smith 0.40 2 Mongolian Groom 116 2 47 45 47 45 3 31 Franco 53.50 6 Campaign 115 6 6 6 6 6 51 41 Bejarano 10.20 3 Prime Attraction 119 3 11 1 1 21 43 56 Desormeaux 13.20 5 Prince of Arabia 116 5 51 5 5hd 5hd 6 6 Talamo 67.00 4 GIFT BOX 6.20 2.40 2.20 1 MCKINZIE 2.10 2.10 2 MONGOLIAN GROOM 3.40 $2 ROULETTE (BLACK) $13.00 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (8-4) $283.40 $1 EXACTA (4-1) $5.20 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (4-1-2-6) $10.50 50-CENT TRIFECTA (4-1-2) $20.80 WinnerGift Box Grr.h.6 by Twirling Candy out of Special Me, by Unbridled's Song. Bred by Machmer Hall, Carrie Brogden &Craig Brogden (KY). Trainer: John W. Sadler. Owner: Hronis Racing LLC. Mutuel Pool $633,815 Roulette Pool $1,017 Daily Double Pool $74,312 Exacta Pool $236,197 Superfecta Pool $104,964 Trifecta Pool $165,722. Scratchednone. 50-Cent Pick Three (1-8-4) paid $80.40. Pick Three Pool $91,458. GIFT BOX stalked outside a rival then off the rail, bid outside the pacesetter into and on the backstretch and second turn, put a head in front leaving that turn and into the stretch, inched away briefly, fought back off the rail in the drive, drifted in late under left handed urging and gamely prevailed. MCKINZIE came off the rail into the first turn to stalk the pace, continued outside a rival leaving the backstretch and on the second turn, went three deep into the stretch, bid outside the winner to take a slim advantage in midstretch, also drifted in and fought back to the wire. MONGOLIAN GROOM stalked a bit off the rail then inside, came out leaving the second turn and into the stretch and bested the others. CAMPAIGN settled outside a rival chasing the pace, came out into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. PRIME ATTRACTION had speed between horses then angled in, set the pace inside, dueled along the rail on the backstretch and second turn and weakened in the final furlong. PRINCE OF ARABIA angled in and saved ground off the pace, came out a bit into the stretch and lacked a further response. ELEVENTH RACE. 1 Mile Turf. Purse: $57,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $40,000. Time 23.21 45.82 1:09.94 1:21.95 1:33.71 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 2 United 124 2 6 6hd 71 5 41 11 Van Dyke 15.00 5 Colosi 117 5 5 51 51 31 1 23 Espinoza 18.20 3 The Hunted 124 3 7 8hd 8hd 81 83 31 Prat 1.50 9 Shaky Alibi 124 8 8 31 33 41 51 4hd Smith 8.90 7 Rumpus Cat 122 6 2 71 6hd 61 6hd 5 Rosario 3.00 11 Tequila Joe 124 10 10 10 9hd 9 7 6 Delgadillo 18.60 8 Inscom 124 7 3 21 1 1hd 21 73 Talamo 5.80 4 Ostini 124 4 4 1 25 25 3hd 8nk Pereira 14.20 10 King Caymus 122 9 9 92 10 10 9hd 94 Blanc 35.40 1 Cajun Treasure 122 1 1 41 4hd 7hd 10 10 Franco 20.90 2 UNITED 32.00 18.00 8.20 5 COLOSI 19.40 8.60 3 THE HUNTED 2.80 $2 ROULETTE (GREEN) $9.00 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (4-2) $125.20 $1 EXACTA (2-5) $315.50 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (2-5-3-9) $887.29 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (2-5-3-9-7) Carryover $34,929 50-CENT TRIFECTA (2-5-3) $704.25 WinnerUnited Ch.g.4 by Giant's Causeway out of Indy Punch, by Pulling Punches. Bred by Rosemont Farm LLC (KY). Trainer: Richard E. Mandella. Owner: LNJ Foxwoods. Mutuel Pool $558,856 Roulette Pool $538 Daily Double Pool $193,719 Exacta Pool $321,126 Superfecta Pool $153,765 Super High Five Pool $36,842 Trifecta Pool $222,515. ScratchedJungle Warfare. 50-Cent Pick Three (8-4-2) paid $356.55. Pick Three Pool $217,989. 50-Cent Pick Four (1-8-4-2) 399 tickets with 4 correct paid $1,306.65. Pick Four Pool $683,054. 50-Cent Pick Five (1/5/13-1-8-4-2) 53 tickets with 5 correct paid $7,875.60. Pick Five Pool $546,917. 20-Cent Pick Six Jackpot (7-1/5/13-1-8-4-2) 80 tickets with 6 correct paid $53,312.62. Pick Six Jackpot Pool $4,536,888. UNITED chased inside, split horses on the second turn, came out in upper stretch and rallied under left handed urging to collar the runner-up in deep stretch. COLOSI stalked outside a rival then a bit off the rail on the second turn, bid three deep in the stretch, took the lead outside a foe in midstretch, inched away but could not hold off the winner. THE HUNTED chased outside a foe then a bit off the rail, went between horses leaving the backstretch, came three wide into the stretch and bested the others. SHAKY ALIBI stalked off the rail then outside a rival on the second turn, also came into the stretch three wide and lacked the needed rally. RUMPUS CAT three deep into the first turn, chased outside a rival, came out into the stretch and could not offer the necessary late response. TEQUILA JOE angled in and saved ground off the pace, steadied in tight off heels on the second turn, split rivals into the stretch and improved position. INSCOM drifted out into the first turn, angled in and dueled outside a rival, drifted out again into the stretch, fought back off the rail in midstretch and weakened in the final sixteenth. OSTINI angled in and dueled inside, fought back into the stretch and weakened in the final furlong. KING CAYMUS three deep on the first turn, chased outside a rival then three wide leaving the backstretch and on the second turn and into the stretch and lacked a rally. CAJUN TREASURE came out early then angled in and saved ground stalking the pace, dropped back on the second turn and had little left for the stretch. HAND TIMED. Join a retired Santa Ana Zoo director on a 10-day safari in Botswana, known for its elephants, cape buffalo and antelope. The tour begins and ends in Johannesburg, South Africa. From there, a flight will take participants to Maun, Botswana, where the excursion begins. Highlights include a visit to Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, home to large herds of wildebeest and zebra, and the Okavango Delta, with opportunities to view animals on foot and from safari vehicles, dugout canoes and power boats. Dates: July 12-22 Price: $7,995 per person, double occupancy. Includes accommodations, all meals, park entrance fees, sightseeing and guides. Pre-tour extension to Cape Town, South Africa, for $2,995; post-tour extension to Chobe National Park and Victoria Falls for $3,695. International airfare and round-trip airfare from Johannesburg to Maun not included. Advertisement Info: Santa Ana Zoo; Ron Glazier travel@latimes.com @latimestravel Crunch time is again coming for British politicians and European Union leaders, who are scrambling to find a way to make Brexit work. Britain is set to leave the EU on Friday without an agreement in place unless a plan is reached or a further extension is granted. British politicians are deeply divided over a solution and EU leaders are exasperated by the slow pace of progress. Here are some scenarios for what might happen: Advertisement No deal If Britain cant break the impasse, it risks crashing out of the EU without a deal. Last month, the EU agreed to postpone the March 29 departure date, but gave Britain only until April 12 to pass Prime Minister Theresa Mays original agreement, to come up with a new plan and seek a further extension, or leave without an agreement or a transition period to smooth the way. On Friday, May requested a further extension until June 30 and on Saturday, she acknowledged that after three rejection votes by British lawmakers, there is little prospect they would back an agreement in the near future. Most politicians, economists and business groups think that leaving the worlds largest trading bloc without an agreement would be damaging for the EU and disastrous for the U.K. It could lead to tariffs on trade between Britain and the EU, as well as customs checks that could cause gridlock at ports and shortages of essential goods. A hard core of pro-Brexit lawmakers in Mays Conservative Party dismiss such warnings as fear-mongering. But most oppose leaving without a deal. Parliament has voted repeatedly to rule out a no-deal Brexit. A no-deal Brexit is still the legal default position, however, and it could happen if the EU refuses to grant another extension. The bloc says it will agree to delay Brexit only if Britain breaks its impasse and comes up with a new plan. British breakthrough With so much at stake, and so little time, there are at least two ways in which Britain might find a compromise solution that gains majority support in its deeply divided Parliament. First would be a breakthrough in ongoing negotiations between the odd couple of May and opposition Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. If May can gain Corbyns support, he could shift the parliamentary math in her favor and a deal could probably be reached. Few are holding out hope for this outcome, in part because it would probably require May to dramatically alter some of her long-held positions and embrace a much softer version of Brexit. Indeed, Labors Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, said Friday after three days of talks that the government is not showing any willingness to change its approach and find common ground. A second possibility revolves around Mays promise to hold a series of indicative votes in Parliament if her talks with Corbyn are unsuccessful. These votes would gauge Parliaments sentiment for getting a majority behind a version of Brexit. May has said the government would abide by any such vote, but it is not clear when and how these votes would be held. The flextension If Britains warring factions dont agree on a way forward, European Council President Donald Tusk is urging a Brexit delay of up to one year, but with built-in flexibility to let Britain leave earlier if it has an agreement in place. This approach has been dubbed the flextension in yet another addition to the crowded and sometimes confusing glossary of Brexit-related terms. Tusk hopes to get this option approved at an EU summit on Wednesday. A flextension is not exactly what May is seeking; she wants a shorter delay. If Britain stays for another year, it would have to take part in European Parliament elections set for late next month. Britains participation in the balloting would be required to protect the integrity of the European election process, but it would tie the U.K. closer to the EU at a time when politicians are trying to finalize the countrys divorce from the rest of the bloc. A yearlong extension might well please the many Britons who hope Brexit never takes place, but it is likely to enrage Brexit backers who fear their victory in the 2016 referendum is being hollowed out by endless slowdowns and concessions. Back to the ballot box? Parliament already has narrowly rejected a proposal for a new referendum on whether to leave the EU, and the government has ruled out holding another plebiscite, saying voters in 2016 made their decision to leave. But with divisions in both Parliament and in Mays Cabinet, handing the decision back to the people in new balloting might be seen as the only way forward. A proposal for any Brexit deal to be put to a public vote in a confirmatory referendum was backed by opposition parties, as well as some of Mays Conservatives. At least one prominent Cabinet member, treasury chief Philip Hammond, says such a proposal might have merit. The Colombian rebel group known as the National Liberation Army delivered an unwelcome new year message, exploding two bombs on the Cano Limon-to-Covenas oil pipeline in the eastern province of Arauca. The Jan. 9 attacks disrupted delivery of crude to the Andean countrys major export harbor and caused nasty spills. Though no deaths were reported, the bombings illustrated how the nation remains plagued by insurgent violence that stunts economic development and wreaks havoc in rural areas despite the governments peace agreement in late 2016 with the 14,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The National Liberation Army, better known as ELN, the initials for its name in Spanish, Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional, has grown in strength since the FARC demobilized, adding about 1,000 members to the 1,500 fighters it had before the peace deal, said Orlando Hernandez, a former officer with the Colombian National Police and now a security expert with the Agora Consulting risk analysis firm in Medellin. Many of the newer ELN members are former FARC fighters who declined to disarm, he said. The violent means the ELN uses to pursue its social justice goals for poor or oppressed people have left it with slight public support. The government blames it for 5,700 kidnappings since 1996, and the group is believed to be holding about 250 people hostage. Officials also say the ELN has perpetrated 328 pipeline bombings since 2012, causing numerous oil spills and the loss of more than a million barrels of crude since the start of 2017. Advertisement On and off peace negotiations between the government and ELN since 2015 have been inconclusive. Near-term chances of a deal seem remote with new Colombian President Ivan Duque having criticized the FARC accord forged by his predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos, as too generous. Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said Duque is taking a hard line with the ELN, imposing a number of preconditions such as the release of kidnapped hostages, the end of criminal activities such as extortion and bombings, and the concentration of guerrillas in one remote site while peace talks are carried out. The rebels have been unwilling to meet those conditions, she said. Here is some more information about the ELN: What is the ELNs ideology and when was it founded? The group was established in 1964 by brothers Manuel and Antonio Vasquez Castano and other Colombians studying in Cuba. Their objective was to import the Fidel Castro-led revolution to their home country and effect an armed takeover of the government. The ELN espouses a violent brand of liberation theology that mixes Marxist politics with the Roman Catholic Churchs concern for the poor. One of the groups icons was early recruit Camillo Torres, a priest who was killed in a 1966 battle with the Colombian army. The U.S. government classifies the ELN as a terrorist organization. Where did the ELN find members and financial support? At the height of its power in the early 1990s, the ELN had about 9,000 members, with many recruits coming from labor unions some were students and leftist intellectuals. Revenue came from extorting from mining and energy companies and kidnapping and seeking ransoms for oil company officials, wealthy farmers and cattlemen and others. ELN membership declined in the 1990s after right-wing paramilitary militias were formed to fight the rebels, but it has grown since 2016 as the group turned to drug trafficking to generate revenue, Hernandez said. How does the ELN differ from the FARC? The FARC decided in the early 1990s to finance operations by aligning with drug traffickers, fueling nationwide expansion and dominance over rival insurgencies. By the time the FARC signed the peace deal, the group had gained control of much of Colombias cocaine supply chain. It financed farmers purchases of land and seeds for crops of coca, cocaines raw material; it secured transit routes and made deals with Mexican mafias, their main clients. The ELN, meanwhile, remained focused mainly on the northeastern provinces of Arauca and North Santander, where it harassed and extorted from oil companies, especially state-controlled Ecopetrol, owner of the countrys oil and gas pipeline grids. The group initially gained influence by supporting worker strikes at the giant Barrancabermeja oil refinery. How has the FARC peace accord affected the ELN? Since the FARC demobilized, the ELN has attempted to fill the vacuum in the drug trafficking business, becoming an active player in the southern province of Narino, a prime coca farming, processing and cocaine transit zone. But competition is intense, with criminal gangs, Mexican mafias and other rebel groups all vying for the lucrative cocaine market. Like the FARC, the ELN uses Venezuela as a sanctuary, and its members are thought to receive medical treatment from the accommodating socialist government there. Who is the ELN leader? After the Vasquez Castano brothers were killed by the army in 1973, the group was led by Spanish priest Manuel Perez Martinez, alias Poliarco, who died in 1998 from hepatitis. Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, alias Gabino, 68, assumed power after the death of Perez Martinez, assisted by four other block leaders in the Central Command, and he remains jefe maximo today. The Duque government recently asked the Cuban government to arrest and extradite Gabino on terrorism charges. Why are the bomb attacks and kidnappings happening, and how many have there been? The ELN uses bombings, kidnappings and the threat of such attacks to pressure oil companies to make extortion payments. The ELN considers all oil drilling sites and infrastructure to be military targets. Last year, the group was responsible for 108 bomb attacks, up from 63 in 2017, Hernandez said, citing police statistics. As for kidnappings, the rebels were blamed for 25 last year, up from 20 the year before, he said. The ELN was thought to be responsible for the killings of several community leaders in places where residents resisted their attempts to extort from or impose on local governments, Hernandez said. The rebels were also suspects in revenge killings last year of several demobilized FARC fighters. Why have peace negotiations failed so far? In September 2015, after reaching a tentative peace agreement with the FARC, Santos announced he was in exploratory talks with the ELN and that formal negotiations would begin in 2016 in Quito, Ecuador. But a dispute over the kidnapping of a former congressman forced a postponement until February 2017. The two sides in late 2017 announced a 90-day cease-fire ending in January 2018. The truce was not renewed, however, as the government accused the rebels of bad faith in attacking police and army installations. The talks were further stalled when Ecuador backed out as host after three Ecuadorean journalists were kidnapped and killed during a reporting trip to the common border. The base of negotiations then was transferred to Havana, where little progress was reported before Santos left office in August. What are the chances negotiations will restart? At the moment, not good. Duque has not softened his stance on the preconditions for negotiations. The ELN recently declared a unilateral 10-day cease-fire during the holiday season but has refused to meet the presidents conditions. Felbab-Brown said the ELN appears to face some organizational issues that might interfere with negotiations. In recent weeks, he said, there have been interesting developments, with the ELN sending a message through the Vatican that they wanted to negotiate. But the leadership structure is much more dispersed than the FARC, and its unclear who the negotiating partners would be and whether they can persuade the mid-level commanders to sign on. Kraul is a special correspondent. Three days before Israelis head to vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that if victorious, he will extend Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, a demand long sought by Israels extreme right-wing settler movement. Netanyahu, in a tight race for reelection to a fourth consecutive term, has until now resisted demands which would end any possibility of a negotiated settlement with the Palestinian Authority, which sees the land as a major part of a future Palestinian state. The international community would judge any such move as a flagrant violation of international law that prohibits the annexation of land seized in war. Following the end of the British Mandate, Jordan won the West Bank during the 1948 war that saw the founding of Israel. Its annexation of the land in 1950 was recognized only by Iraq, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. Advertisement In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel won the territory, and has held it under military occupation ever since. (Los Angeles Times) According to U.S. government statistics, about 2.7 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, alongside some 390,000 Israeli Jewish settlers, many of whom claim national rights over the land. The U.S. State Department declined to comment on Netanyahus statement. During a Saturday evening interview, when asked why he has not yet annexed two large Jerusalem-area settlements, Gush Etzion and Maaleh Adumim, Netanyahu replied, We are on the way. We are in discussions, before pivoting to the accusation that his political opponents former army chief of staff Benny Gantz and former finance minister Yair Lapid would uproot 80,000 to 90,000 Jews and turn Judea and Samaria into Gaza. Judea and Samaria is the biblical name of the West Bank. Netanyahu continued, promising that if reelected, he plans on extending a gradual imposition of Israeli sovereignty over the entire territory. If we learned anything, he said, in a reference to Israels 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, after which it was violently overtaken by the Islamist paramilitary group Hamas in 2007, it is that if you abandon territory, extremist radical Islam and Iran step in, and I am not about to hand over the heart of Israel. Netanyahu would face stiff opposition were he to try to make this last-minute campaign promise real, including from within his own political camp. In December, Atty. Gen. Avichai Mandelblit urged Israels Supreme Court to strike down legislation intended to allow the state to expropriate private Palestinian-held parcels of land where some 4,000 illegal homes were erected by settlers as an unconstitutional law, which is null and void. Many Israelis shrugged at the bombastic pledge, dismissing it as eleventh-hour electioneering. Anshel Pfeffer, Netanyahus biographer and a political analyst for the daily newspaper Haaretz, tweeted, Netanyahu saying anything to rally the right-wing base or an actual change of policy? My money is on the first. But the Palestinians, buffeted by two years of disintegrating relations with the Trump administration, which recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital with no mention of their claims to a future capital in East Jerusalem, and the complete severance of traditional American financial support, were quick to condemn Netanyahus vow. In a statement, veteran diplomat Saeb Erekat said that Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administrations support and endorsement of Israels violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine. Palestinians, he said, would undertake the pursuit of their cause in all international forums, including the International Criminal Court. Breaking with decades of U.S. policy, the Trump administrations first two annual State Department human rights reports removed the word occupied in describing the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, a plateau seized from Syria during the 1967 war. In its most recent report, released in March, days ahead of Trumps surprise recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the State Department referred to it as Israeli-controlled. Trumps unilateral move, celebrated by Netanyahu, who flew to Washington for the announcement in the final weeks of the campaign, was condemned by Arab states and by the European Union. Trump was in Las Vegas on Saturday for a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition. In front of a crowd brandishing posters thanking him, Trump described his reversal of decades of American policy on the Golan Heights as a spontaneous decision undertaken in private with Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Trumps former attorney and a longtime supporter of West Bank Jewish settlements. I said, David, what do you think about me recognizing Israel in the Golan Heights? the president said, to cheers. Like a wonderful, beautiful baby, he said, You would do that, sir? I said, Yeah, I think Im doing it right now. Lets write something up. While Trump hobnobbed in Las Vegas, Netanyahu, in the television interview, recalled the same event somewhat differently. I obtained President Trumps declaration on the Golan Heights, which says that it is our territory forever, Netanyahu said. I persuaded him to recognize Jerusalem. I will not divide Jerusalem, I will not uproot a single settlement and I will make sure we control all the territory west of the Jordan. Tarnopolsky is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report. - Nigerians support and praise comedienne Helen Paul on social media - The comedienne is being praised for living her best life to the fullest after she revealed how she was born - Paul had recently taken to social media to disclose that she is a product of molestation Legit.ng had earlier reported that popular comedienne Helen Paul had dedicated her recently earned Phd degree to her mother. The comedienne while celebrating the milestone had also shared the story of how she was conceived. On a post shared on Instagram, Paul revealed that her mother had been molested and the incident had resulted into her conception. She revealed that growing up she heard many of her family members call her names due to this. According to her, despite everything she went through her mother was always strong for her. She said her mother would always tell her that God would watch over her. READ ALSO: Actress Zainab narrates how she met her man, talks about being a mom to her husband's sons Nigerians praised the comedienne for living her best life despite what she went through growing up. They lauded her efforts at becoming the best version of herself and praised her mother for being a strong woman for herself and her daughter. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app A Nigerian Twitter user had praised the comedienne's mother, saying that some women would not have had the courage to give birth to a child conceived from an abuse. Another user said he is impressed with the way Paul lived her life. He noted that instead of being bitter about her life she became a source of joy and laughter to others. READ ALSO: 15 Fascinating Signs That Show You And Your Partner Are Meant For Each Other Others talked about what people can learn from how Paul lived her life. They stated that being born from molestation is not the end of the world. PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group Another user supported the comedienne by condemning those who criticized Paul for revealing the truth about her birth. She noted that those her the people who prevent others from talking about the horrible act. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the comedienne had shared exciting photos from her convocation ceremony. In a post shared on Instagram, Paul had appreciated her husband for supporting her through out the long journey. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better Emanuella And Mark Angel: Emanuella Asking Tricky Questions - Street Gist - on Legit TV Source: Legit Nigerians are indeed brilliant people, and no matter where they go, they display their brilliancy at its very best. A particular Nigerian lady named Amina Yahaya is trailing the blaze in a place as far as Cuba. For one, she came first in a Biochemistry contest. The beautiful lady who hails from Kaduna is a medical student that is presently on Kaduna state scholarship in Cuba. Recently, she shared the news of her first place performance with her benefactors. This exciting news was then posted on Twitter. In a congratulatory tone, the Kaduna government shared the good report with the rest of Nigerians. Also, photos of the brilliant lady and other Cuban contestants or classmates were also made public. The shared tweet reads thus: "Amina Yahaya is one of the six medical students on Kaduna State scholarship in Cuba. She just shared the news of her first place performance in a Biochemistry contest. Our girl is doing us proud!!!" READ ALSO: 25-year-old blind student graduates with first class See the post below: READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Many Nigerians were so delighted about this news. Their excitement reflected in their comments which were full of praises and congratulations for the young, pretty Muslim lady who had made Nigerian proud. Other state governors were also urged to take up this initiative. See some of the reactions below: PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app This is coming after a Unilag student shared the story of how he accomplished his goal of coming first three years after he wrote his aspiration down and pasted it in his room. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better. Successs parents reveal the truth about cash gifts received from Nigerians | Legit TV Source: Legit Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday, April 6, held a bilateral meeting with King of Jordan, King Abdullahi II bin Al-Hussein on the sideline of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa in Amman, Jordan. The meeting was in a move to strengthen the country's economy through partnership between both countries. A statement by Femi Adesina said President Buhari extended appreciation to the king of Jordan for the continuous support Nigeria received from the country in the fight against terrorism. According to the president, the investment in Nigerias peace and security will always be remembered. The statement said President Buhari noted the international support Nigeria got, particularly from Jordan, saying this showed a commitment to making the world a more harmonious and peaceful place where people can live and pursue their interests without fear. According to him, the support and encouragement enabled the military to degrade terrorism adding that both Nigeria and Jordan would need to strengthen trade relations by exploring areas of competitive advantage. The King of Jordan, in his remarks, said his country will continue to support Nigeria with hardware to ensure that the global war against terrorism is successfully prosecuted. The monarch said the long term bilateral relations between both countries will be strengthened in trade and innovative ideas that will benefit citizens. Legit.ng understands that President Buhari also met with the minister of energy, industry and mineral resources of Saudi Arabia and chairman of Saudi Aramco, Khalid A Al-Falih, assuring him that Nigeria remains committed to the terms of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), especially on the quota system. The Saudi Arabian minister, according to the statement, congratulated the President for winning re-election for a second term, assuring him that Saudi Arabia will continue to support Nigeria in its effort to maintain peace and ensure prosperity for its citizens. Recall that Legit.ng earlier reported that the president in his speech at the World Economic Forum said there is the need for collaboration between sovereign nations. He said: "In this digital age where physical borders no longer exist to protect even the most secured nations, the only way to overcome predatory and divisionary forces is for all well-meaning nations to work together for the greater good of mankind. "Simply put, cooperation amongst sovereign nations is no longer a choice. It is an absolute necessity. Legit.ng also gathered that on Saturday, April 6, at the same economic forum with world leaders said that no state in Nigeria is currently under the control and influence of Boko Haram insurgent group. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news update Buhari said that his administration is doing everything possible to conquer the war against terrorism in Nigeria, adding that the military has recaptured all territories held by Boko Haram in 2014 and also freed thousands of Nigerians held against their will by the insurgent group. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service! Nigerians set 2nd term agenda for President Buhari | Legit TV Source: Legit - Some words of advice have been spoken to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Nigerian Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) - Both Christian organisations have been in rancour over CAN's visit to President Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him on his election victory - Advising CAN and NCEF, the public relations officer of the latter, Elder Sunday Oibe, said that Christians should not be fighting each other The misunderstanding and unrest that have grown between the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Nigerian Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) over the former's visit to President Muhammadu Buhari have again been addressed. In a recent statement by its director of legal and public affairs, Samuel Kwamkur, CAN had said that NCEF had no moral standing to decry its visit to President Buhari because as it has been disbanded since 2018, Vanguard reports. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda However, the public relations officer of NCEF, Elder Sunday Oibe, said that it is wrong for CAN to insult the forum who has a lot of contribution to the association to its credit. In advising both religious bodies, Oibe said: What is happening between CAN and NCEF is a personality problem which uninformed officials must be careful to respond to because its deep rooted and unless you are fully briefed you will just making a mockery of our faith. "There is no problem between the two bodies be-cause are playing complementary roles in the interest of the Church. Its a personality, ego and pride problem and it will soon be over. I can assure you that after July all of these will fizzle out, he said matter of factly. I expect all the issues to clear before rushing to pay a congratulatory visit to the president. The people who went have their reasons for going but I am not happy that CAN and NCEF are pitched against themselves. "Do you see Arewa Consultative Forum, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, JNI and all the Islamic groups fighting in the public? "Why must Christians be fighting themselves? If tomorrow you have a different CAN president who has understanding there will be not fight because the role of CAN and that of NCEF are complementing one another. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! "National Christian Elders are not looking for pulpit to preach. They are mostly people who have reached the pinnacle of their profession and just want to give back to the faith they belong to. I also need to stress here that nobody has the authority to disband any other because some of these people issuing statements today have forgotten some of these elders laid the foundation of the things theyre enjoying today." Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that the leadership of CAN on Friday, March 28, made five requests while congratulating President Muhammadu Buhari on his re-election. The association leaders numbering about 30 had a closed door session with the president at the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock. Samson Ayokunle, the national president of CAN who led the team met with the president said the association was not under pressure to congratulate Buhari, as widely reported. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service! Nigerians set 2nd term agenda for President Buhari | Legit TV Source: Legit - President Muhammadu Buhari, his vice, Yemi Osinbajo and Senate President Bukola Saraki are away from the country - However, the number fourth citizen, who happens to be the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara is in the country - It is not known whether power was transmitted to Dogara through a letter to the National Assembly by President Buhari Except for the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the first three citizens of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, his vice, Yemi Osinbajo and Senate President Bukola Saraki are all outside the country. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda It is yet not known whether there was a letter to the National Assembly by the president to Dogara, who is the fourth citizen of the country, Daily Trust reports. President Buhari departed Abuja on Thursday, April 4, for Amman to honour an invitation by King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan to participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF). Femi Adesina, the presidents special adviser on media and publicity, who made this known in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, said the WEF on the middle east and North Africa would be holding at the Dead Sea, Jordan. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! While, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has travelled to Rwanda, Senate President Bukola Saraki is said to away in Qatar for the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) summit. Earlier, Legit.ng reported that President Buhari delivered keynote address at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa in Amman Jordan on Saturday, April 6. Buhari spoke on security, cooperation among sovereign nations, and the digital age among many things. In a press release obtained by Legit.ng, Buhari said that the Boko Haram insurgent group was not holding any more territory. 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 Source: Legit.ng News An Easton area man is now facing homicide charges after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend during a heated dispute that led to the victims death 18 days later, authorities said. Scott K. Wiley, 46, is charged with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and simple assault, according to court records. He was taken into custody late Saturday afternoon after police obtained an arrest warrant. Wiley began arguing with his girlfriend, Farrah Wertz, 42, on March 11 at a home on East Third Street in Boyertown, Berks County, authorities told PennLive. At some point, Wiley kicked her legs out from under her, causing the 42-year-old woman to fall, PennLive reports. Its unclear what the argument was about. Wertz initially was taken by ambulance to a hospital for treatment of a fractured ankle, which required surgery, the report states. Court records indicate Wiley was arrested and charged with simple assault and harassment in the initial case. He later was released after posting $2,500 bail. Three days later, on March 29 and after Wertz returned from the hospital, officers were called back to the East Third Street home, where they reportedly found the victim lying in a bed gasping for air." Wertz was pronounced dead at 9:02 a.m. March 29 at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township, according to the Lehigh County Coroners Office. An autopsy conducted on March 30 determined Wertz died from complications of blunt force trauma to the right lower extremity caused by the fall on March 11 and the manner was ruled a homicide, according to the Lehigh County Coroners Office. Wiley was apprehended this past Saturday in East Stroudsburg, Monroe County; he has since been transported to Berks County for processing, WFMZ-69 News reports. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A man who was home when a fire broke out Saturday in Northampton jumped from a second-floor window to safety, and a neighbor helped break his fall, according to the Northampton Borough Fire Department. The blaze was reported at 11:49 a.m. at 103 E. First St., home to Joseph Korpics and his wife, Jacqueline, and their son, Joe. The parents were out at the time with their two dogs, but Joe Korpics was home asleep and had to jump to safety as the fast-moving blaze spread, fire department spokesman Mike Dreisbach said. "He got really lucky that he was able to get out, that he had the presence of mind to do that," Dreisbach said. No one was injured. Firefighters from seven departments in Lehigh and Northampton counties responded. After the fire was extinguished, firefighters were able to rescue the family's pet rabbit, Bugsy, from the basement. The family was left with instructions to take Bugsy to a veterinarian to get checked out. The first and second floors of the home were completely gutted, and the home is uninhabitable until repairs can be made. The American Red Cross responded to assist the three adults who were displaced, Dreisbach said. A home adjacent to the Korpics' single-family dwelling saw some heat damage, including a broken window, according to the fire department. The cause remained under investigation by the borough fire marshal. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Whod be a local politician, eh? The constant social events, the free sandwiches, the sense of heady power that comes with attending your fifth residents association meeting of the week or cutting the umpteenth ribbon to open the local GAA clubs field day. And then, of course, theres the non-stop interaction with your constituents, who have your mobile phone number to ring you at all hours about the pothole outside their driveway or the lack of electric lighting on the lane to their isolated rural Kildare des res. The wages, of course, must make up for such an 24/7 gig youre on call more than a captain of industry and must expect more social media abuse than a Kardashian. A shade less than 17 grand per year, plus expenses? Pigs back, here you come! But on a serious note, Kildare will lose some experienced and dedicated local councillors of varying political hues in the next election. The simple reason is that theyre not running again, for various personal reasons, which must be respected of course its their choice whether or not to put themselves to the public vote again. The worrying thing and its a trend which is represented nationally is that some of those stepping down are of a certain demographic. Theyre young-to-early-middle-aged, they have families, full-time jobs and mortgages and they simply cant square the demands of an extra full-time (for it is a full-time commitment) job being a local representative. Now, you may not like politicians of any hue, and run them from the door when they come looking for your vote. But, at the very minimum, you should expect that a political body such as the county council must be representative of the people who live in that county. And Kildares is not, and likely wont be at any time in the future. Kildare is a young county, full of commuters and hard working families. Yet the job description of a county councillor best suits the retired, the self-employed, the part-time employed and the better off in other words, those who can arrange their schedules to attend daytime council meetings and are not juggling childcare, family and demanding jobs with their public representative duties. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having many of these people on the council, and some are fine representatives but they dont make up the full story of the electorate. Our county council has and has in the past had an over-representation of the professional politician, or those willing to stick it out for a few years as an overworked county councillor in return for the platform it gives them within their party and to the public to graduate up to the Dail at general election time. We need different faces. So heres a controversial stance. We think that politicians are overpaid. I say pay local county councillors more. Slash the size of the council by half if needed but make the job of a local councillor a properly-paid, full-time position. This would make it more attractive for a diverse range of people to stand for election. A guaranteed five-year contract with an attractive income, which would let councillors and their families know they could pay rent and bills for that timeframe, would enable those from harder-pressed backgrounds, who simply could not juggle two jobs, take part. This might get more voices of commuter families and those from working-class backgrounds onto the councils or at least encourage them to throw their hats in the ring. AIB staff working in Time House, Blessington Road, Naas, have been asked by their employer not to park in the nearby residential area of Sundays Well. It follows complaints from residents about people leaving their cars in the estate. The issue was raised at Kildare County Council level by Cllr Anne Breen. The bank has told KCC an upgrade of its site before Christmas resulted in additional parking spots.We engaged with all or staff asking them to respect our neighbours and not to park in any residential areas, a bank representative told KCC. It has also been pointed out that parking is available at the nearby Hedermans car park for 3 a day. The bank has also indicated that it has been in contact with residents in Sundays Well. This has been on the agenda for five years. People sometimes cant get out of their homes. Its really wrong and Hedermans care park is only a few minutes down the road, Cllr Breen said in January when she asked the council to contact the bank. It has emerged, however, that KCC can do little except put down double yellow lines and these would have to be observed by everybody who parks in the area. Last year planning permission was sought by AIB for an additional 25 car parking spaces, the redesign of existing spaces as well 20 new sheltered bicycle parking spaces and the relocation of existing spaces. Permission was granted also for barriers and landscaping work. In 2017 an application was made for 24 spaces and was turned down. This was refused because the final route of the Naas inner relief route had not been chosen. Time House is a three storey office building where some 500 people work on two daily shifts. About 10 years ago I drove all over Europe over the course of about a fortnight and a half. It involved heading down to the south of France, occasional forays (for tapas) into northern Spain and then back over to Switzerland, Worms (in Germany), Antwerp and then finally back to the ferry at Cherbourg. Youd want to like driving to do it, to sit through 700kms two three days in a row. Youd also want to have a good yoke under ya, as a man I met on the ferry home remarked when I told him of my travels, which totalled 2,687 kms and involved a lot of ferrying of people around as well as hauling about 70 bottles of wine back. It was those memories that occurred itself to me the other day when I drove the new Kia Optima out at Dunleas Motors in Kilcullen. Its not so much new as a model that has undergone a few tweaks, like a new 1.6 litre diesel engine to replace the 1.7 litre. Its grand and big, like a large saloon should be and its not behind the door in the looks department either. Id go so far as to say that when compared to other cars in its segment its probably better looking than any of them. Technology wise, it has everything that weve come to expect in all new cars these days. It was my first time to experience a car that can steer you back into a lane. Now, to be clear, it doesnt actually steer you back, but it gives the kind of nudge that youd notice if you were being absent minded, which is the point of it. Other than that, its grand and big and spacious and comfortable and does exactly what it says on the tin. And at 31,570 its great value in terms of what you pay and what you get. For further information call Dunleas in Kilcullen on (045) 481 299 THERE was a lot of shock and surprise in the Castleconnell area when the Castle Oaks Leisure Centre closed at the beginning of March with the loss of jobs and its facilities. It happened around the same time as the Supermacs supremo officially got the keys to the Castle Oaks. However, while the leisure centre is located on the grounds of the hotel it was a separate entity and privately owned. Fr Ger Fitzgerald, a Castlleconnell native, wrote to the Limerick Leader to express his disappointment at the leisure centres closure. He welcomed the news that Mr McDonagh purchased the Castle Oaks House Hotel and agreed with the Galway mans words about the village being a hidden gem with great potential. Mr McDonagh also said that he wishes to tap into that potential. A very noble aspiration and one that I hope comes to fruition. However, the first step in this endeavour must surely be the immediate reopening of the Castle Oaks Country Club and gym which is on the hotel grounds. For many years this club has been a source of employment and social importance in the village. It has been utilised by locals, schools and by other outside groups for whom the facilities provide important social interaction and health benefits. It is, in my opinion, a very sad loss to the village and environs and a scandal that the building now stands unused. Can I call on Mr McDonagh to make good on his word and all other parties involved to immediately take whatever steps are necessary to resolve this matter for the benefit of this beautiful village, wrote an impassioned Fr Fitzgerald. The priests wish has been granted by Mr McDonagh. He confirmed to the Limerick Leader this week that he has agreed to buy the leisure centre which has a swimming pool. An agreement has been made to purchase the leisure centre in the Castle Oaks House Hotel subject to the legal process going through, said Mr McDonagh. It was bought for an undisclosed sum. He hopes to have it open again within six weeks. It is crucial that you have a leisure centre, said Mr McDonagh. Like the hotel, he will be pumping money into the building on top of the purchase price. We plan to do a good bit of work on it to modernise it, refurbish it and re-equip it, said Mr McDonagh. There is also plenty of scope to extend it in the future due to the ample space on the grounds. If hurling stars Tom and Dan Morrissey and the Munster players, who live in Castleconnell, turned up at the same time to flex their muscles extra space would be required! The employees in the leisure centre are very popular and while some were made redundant when it closed, Mr McDonagh hopes to keep a number of the staff that were employed. The Pat and Una McDonagh-owned SO Hotels Groups purchased the Castle Oaks House Hotel on the banks of the Shannon for 3.5m. A further investment of 1.5m is planned. There will be a significant investment over the next 12 months or so. Our objective is to bring it back to its former glory, said Mr McDonagh. A JUDGE has said the case of a young man who broke into several student houses will require deep consideration before he imposes sentence. Jason Sheehan, 22, who has an address at Shear Street, Kilmallock has pleaded guilty to a number of burglary charges relating to incidents which occurred in the Castletroy area of the city on dates in 2017 and 2018. During a sentencing hearing, John OSullivan BL, instructed by state solicitor Padraig Mawe, said the defendant was armed with a knife when he committed some of the offences and that he was also on bail. Garda Aine McWilliams said Mr Sheehan was one of three intruders who entered a house at Harvard Close, College Court at around 4am on May 3, 2017. After being disturbed by one of the occupants, they were chased from the the house. Mr Sheehan, who was arrested around an hour later, produced a knife and charged towards the students before fleeing. In his evidence, Garda Dermot Cummins said Mr Sheehan entered a house at Cambridge Close, College Court at around 7.40pm on July 29, 2018. As he left the house, he was confronted by the occupants of a neighbouring house. Judge Tom ODonnell was told Mr Sheehan, who was on bail for the earlier offence, then produced a scissors blade and made a number of threats. It was later established that he had entered two houses in the estate earlier in the evening. Pat Whyms BL said his client, who has a large number of previous convictions, had made admissions following his arrest. He said his offending was motivated by his need to raise money to buy alcohol and drugs. Mr Whyms said the defendant is making use of his time in prison and that he wished to apologise to the occupants of the houses for his behaviour. Judge ODonnell adjourned the matter to June saying he didnt want to rush to judgment. Up to 80 residents from Annacotty, Monaleen and the Castletroy area attended a meeting held by the Annacotty and Castletroy Community Alert Group to discuss measures to curtail juvenile crime in the area. We are trying to get the gardai to carry out more patrols in the area, Fianna Fail councillor Joe Pond said. In January, residents of Annacotty village were left terrified after youths recorded themselves smashing the windows of a local business and then posted it to their Snapchat story. A number of businesses were further targeted following the spree. In recent weeks, the groups have gravitated more towards the Newtown Shopping Complex, Cllr Pond said. The feeling on the ground in Annacotty village is that the anti-social behaviour has died down but it has moved towards the shopping centre. They now seem to have a fair bit of anti-social behaviour down there. There has also been an increase in the number of older people signing up for the senior citizen alert group, according to Cllr Pond, who helps run the service. I can see a good bit of it coming on stream, elderly people looking for panic alarms, he said. The local garda sergeant, who is based in Castleconnell, is doing a good job with patrols, he added. But I still want to see more of a garda presence in the area. Annacotty is earmarked for major development so I do want to see a garda station in the area, whether it is Castleconnell that polices it, or a new station or a garda hub in Castletroy, there needs to be something. An increase of garda patrols in the area will help to deter the groups of young people from gathering, Social Democrats representative Sarah Jane Hennelly believes. Thats one aspect of it. I also think we need to do something seriously around offering suitable activities for young people. I think there has to be another approach, especially coming up to the summer time. There are huge concerns in the area around whats going to happen when the young people have nothing to do for three months. When asked what measures are currently in place to patrol the area, a garda spokesperson said: The questions posed would require the disclosure of operationally sensitive information and therefore we cannot assist in this regard. The District Officer is aware of the issues raised. THE NEWS of University of Limerick purchasing the vacant Dunnes Stores site in the city centre has lauded as an example of the power of people coming together this weekend. ULs president announced on Friday evening that its governing authority came to an agreement to purchase the site for 8m in order to incorporate it into its city campus. It is fitting that ULs presence in the city will be on the water front mirroring our magnificent riverside campus just four kilometres away, Dr Des Fitzgerald said. It is expected that the project will be completed by 2022. The news, it appears, has been unanimously and warmly welcomed by the people of Limerick, including politicians and pressure groups who had been campaigning for the sites revival for years, which had intensified in recent weeks. This is VERY good news. @UL have a fantastic record when it comes to creating striking architecture. Bound to have an incredibly positive effect on the limerick skyline https://t.co/bOGhlRk1eJ Mike Mc Loughlin (@zuroph) April 5, 2019 The news has also been one of the biggest talking points in Limerick over the past 24 hours, with some describing it as one of best city centre news" in the city in recent years. Best city centre news for at least a decade in my opinion. https://t.co/P4n7jda6nF Nigel Dugdale (@limerickcitybiz) April 5, 2019 Local election candidate for Limerick City North, Anne Cronin was one of many politicians welcoming the news. "The Vacant Dunnes campaign that so many of us have been actively working on shows the power of people coming together to apply pressure when it comes to issues effecting neglected urban spaces, particularly at the hands of large corporations, the Labour candidate said. Limerick city is at a crucial stage in its redevelopment and in its attempts to become a liveable city once more. There have been some fantastic developments in our city over the past couple of years spearheaded by Limerick 2030 and the local authority. However, these are mostly targeted at inward economic investment and developed with the ambition of attracting companies and corporations to open office space in the city. Metropolitan Mayor, Cllr Daniel Butler, who is a member of ULs governing authority which agreed the purchase, said he acknowledged the foresight of UL and Dr Fitzgerald in advancing this project. I have full confidence given their track record of developing buildings of real architectural merit we will see a building that will enhance our riverfront. 1/1 Delighted as Mayor of Limerick and as a member of the University of Limerick Governing Authority to see UL buying the vacant Dunnes Stores at Sarsfield Bridge. This will remove a major eyesore in the city centre, and replace it with a new riverside city centre campus for UL. pic.twitter.com/ZmQfqkFG99 Mayor James Collins (@jamesjcollins) April 5, 2019 We await further clarification on ULs proposed intentions for project opera. We must also urgently now move to deliver city centre student accommodation to support this which places further pressure on Limerick 2030 to change its position on developing residential in project opera. We must also act to deliver meaningful actions on our public bus service linking the proposed city campus to Castletroy. stated Metropolitan Mayor Daniel Butler who is an UL Governing Authority Board member, he said. .@UL putting our money where our mouth is, moving into the city and removing an eyesore from the centre at the same time. Fantastic news. https://t.co/1SshiUY7qb Stephen Kinsella (@stephenkinsella) April 5, 2019 Local musician Post Punk Podge, who performed a protest gig at the site three weeks ago said on his Facebook: Alls well that ends well. Fine Gael senator Kieran ODonnell said this project will help turn Limerick into a modern university city. This UL City river-front campus will be a very significant addition to the city centre. Furthermore, this development further illustrates the ambition of UL to grow its stature amongst the worlds leading academic institutions. It is an ambition that matches that of our City and its people. Delighted to see this announced today by Dr Des Fitzgerald University of Limerick President to the governing authority. To be able to be on the governing authority and be part of this process gives me a huge sense of pride. https://t.co/btKgQT8uil Mayor Daniel Butler (@DanielButlerFG) April 5, 2019 This news really opens up many more exciting opportunities for the future of Limerick city and the UL. Social Democrats general and local election candidate, Sarah Jane Hennelly said this new venture by UL will be a game-changer. I believe this to be a hugely significant move by the University. The Dunnes site has become a point of utter frustration for people. The Marks & Spencers saga had people withered. It seemed the best possible outcome would be a retail outlet moving in. Underwhelming to say the least. ULs move here is so exciting for many reasons. Exciting news! @UL's Governing Authority have just sanctioned the purchase of the Dunnes Stores site on Sarsfield Street. The long-time vacant premises is earmarked for a city campus. If this is realised, it will be so good for this city! A spark of hope at last. #Limerick pic.twitter.com/kFgYWAaglG Sarah Jane Hennelly (@SJHennelly) April 5, 2019 She added: To bring all of this to our city centre; I believe it will radically change the landscape of our city. Its very exciting. Huge news for the city centre. Almost the last symbol of boom time Limerick along with Parkway Valley. Great to see the site to be used for something meaningful at last. https://t.co/tChQheAwYo Josh Prenderville (@JoshPrender7) April 5, 2019 Mayor of Limerick City and County, Cllr James Collins said: Now, by replacing it with a new UL campus, we are opening up the entire riverside area between Sarsfield Bridge, Arthurs Quay, the Potato Market and City Hall. The new campus should be looked at now in the context of possible redevelopments at the Potato Market, the Opera Centre development, pedestrianisation of nearby OConnell Street and a future education, tourism and retail plan for that area of the city between Sarsfield Bridge and City Hall. Wow, this is a serious game-changer for both Limerick city and @UL. Great news and exciting potential all round. And what a site! https://t.co/EbDV8e90Vj Alan English (@AlanEnglish9) April 5, 2019 He added that the public have been very clear in their support of Limerick City and County Council in their efforts to have this site placed on the Vacant Sites Register. The Council offered to buy the site in the past, and I have been outspoken in highlighting the need for this site to be used or developed. I welcome the decision of UL to agree to buy the 0.81 acre Dunnes Stores Sarsfield Bridge site . The agreement provides that the site will be for University use and ancillary services. This marks a very significant day for Limerick cityits a win-win for UL, the Council, Dunnes Stores and the people of Limerick, said Mayor Collins, who is running for Fianna Fail in the next general elections. President Buhari in a series of tweets on Sunday morning reacted to recurring violence in Zamfara State and his perceived lack of concern for the security in the state. In the words of the President, 'It is ridiculous and unfair to suggest that I am not concerned about the situation in Zamfara, or doing anything about it. Ensuring the protection of the people of Nigeria is one of my primary responsibilities and functions. No other issue dominates my attention as much'. See the rest of his tweets below.... We are fully determined to tackle this challenge ferociously until these remorseless killers are crushed and utterly defeated. We have deployed security agents to all the areas currently under attack, and we are constantly finetuning and escalating our security strategy. Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) April 7, 2019 I am constantly in touch with the security chiefs, and receive regular briefings on the situation in Zamfara and across the country. Let me assure that we will continue to do everything to motivate and equip them to respond effectively to all our security challenges. Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) April 7, 2019 Operation Sharan Daji, and the newly-launched Operation Puff Adder are focused on Zamfara, Kaduna (including the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway), Katsina, Kogi, and Niger States. These are all multi-agency Operations, bringing together the Military, Police, the DSS, and others. Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) April 7, 2019 I want to appeal to Nigerians that we should not politicize this tragic situation in Zamfara. How can I be indifferent to the senseless killings and kidnapping of my fellow citizens by bandits, and the deep trauma and impoverishment that these attacks inflict on them? Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) April 7, 2019 Former Aviation minister has described the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu; Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha; National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole as slaves of Northern Nigeria. The former Minister stated this in a tweet he posted this afternoon while reacting to a statement credited to former secretary to the federal government, Babachir Lawal, who was recently quoted as saying that it was not compulsory for the North to concede the Presidency to the south in 2023 when President Buhari would have completed his se The PDP chieftain, in reaction, said that Tinubu, Akpabio, Amaechi and others, who are Southerners and chieftains of the APC, have no shame, dignity and honour, while describing them as slaves to the North. See his tweet below. Journalist, Kadaria Ahmed joined several protesters who marched to the presidential villa in Abuja on Saturday over the persistent killings in Zamfara state where suspected armed bandits have killed many people in the state. On Friday, Sanusi Rikiji, speaker of the state house assembly, went on a condolence visit to Kaura Namoda emirate where at least 50 members of the civilian joint task force (CJTF) were killed in a single day. Despite the deployment of a thousand security personnel on the orders of President Buhari in July 2018, the security situation has not improved. Abdulaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara, has been criticised for not doing enough to curb the activities of these bandits. On one occasion, Yari said he had resigned as the chief security officer of the state. According to Kadaria Ahmed during the protest said, 'Abdulaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara is the most useless governor in the history of Nigeria, you can quote me on it'. See the video below.... An almost invisible electronic device used all over the world best known to much of the public for helping reunite lost pets and their owners, but also found in subway cards, electronic tolling, luggage tags, passports and warehouse inventory systems has alarmed some evangelical Christian communities, who see in this technology the work of the Antichrist. In a section of "A Billion Little Pieces," my recent book about Radio Frequency Identification chips, also known as RFID chips, I investigate why these tiny items have, in some religious circles, become closely linked with the apocalypse depicted in the biblical Book of Revelation. The reasons are more connected with modern concerns than you might expect. What is RFID? For starters, RFID technology is a method of wirelessly, digitally identifying objects like luggage, cars or subway passes that often does not require any internal power source. A small chip is inserted into or attached to an item to be identified like a duffel bag or a toll pass transponder. It does nothing until it passes near an RFID reader, which can be a few inches away for passports, or several feet away as in highway toll barriers. The reader emits a specific radio frequency that activates the chip, which then transmits its digital identification code. The chips, also called tags, are just about everywhere. About 10 billion tags were used around the world in 2018 alone. Retailers especially clothing stores are a potentially huge market that has begun to adopt RFID systems to monitor inventory and to prevent theft. Many domestic pets are microchipped with RFID, encoding information that helps them reunite with their owners if they get lost. Some humans have also chosen to microchip themselves so their bodies can wirelessly communicate with identification systems and that's where the evangelicals get upset. The Mark of the Beast What does a chip implant have to do with the Bible? Believers see echoes of RFID chips in a short passage in the Book of Revelation: "[The beast] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." This passage is the origin of beliefs around what would eventually become known as the "Mark of the Beast," a way to identify those who worship the Antichrist. More than 15 years ago, some evangelicals began linking RFID to the mark. My research has found that they made the connection for two main reasons. First, when biohackers chip themselves, they typically put the RFID chip into the palm of one hand because it's easy to wave that at sensors to open doors or process payments, and the scripture specifically mentions the mark on a persons hand. In addition, some people have injected RFID chips containing credit card payment information, which calls to mind to the payment methods mentioned in the Bible. These links spread in some evangelical communities throughout the 2000s, with many articles published on religious sites about RFID. The authors of a best-selling book about RFID and surveillance "Spychips" published an alternative version targeted at evangelical Christians that included added passages about the Book of Revelation. The main RFID industry publication even published a refutation of those claims. In the years since, the connection between RFID and the mark has remained prominent. In 2017, a Wisconsin company offered to pay for its employees to get RFID implants if they voluntarily chose to. The companys Google business listing was flooded with more than 100 one-star reviews, many of which said it was a sin to use RFID as a form of identification or payment. Some of them were specific about what was wrong, saying the company was "doing the dirty work for Satan himself" and urging employees to "read your Bible. This is the first sign of the mark of the beast." Does it really matter? It's more than just a curiosity that evangelical Christians have linked RFID to the apocalypse. Evangelicals are a major force in American culture and politics, and their views on technology are often underreported. In addition, they're expressing concern about an increasingly ubiquitous technology, similar to objections raised by privacy advocates that have actually changed corporate policies in the past. Most people probably don't agree that RFID represents the Mark of the Beast. But the roots of that concern do raise interesting questions about the merging of human bodies and computing. The religious fear that every person might need to be physically tagged to pay for things and move freely shares a lot with the concerns expressed by more mainstream privacy advocates. Finally, there's something poetic about linking a tiny technology used to identify rescue dogs in a shelter to the Mark of the Beast. After all, there's likely no more consequential type of identification than the differentiation of the damned from the redeemed. Jordan Frith is the author of: A Billion Little Pieces: RFID and Infrastructures of Identification MIT Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US. Jordan Frith, Associate Professor of Technical Communication, University of North Texas This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates and become part of the discussion on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'} span.s1 {color: #dca10d} Laredoans will have the rare opportunity to hear and see a simulcast concert by the world-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a live transmission scheduled from 7:30-10:30 p.m. on Friday at Texas A&M International University. The performance will be broadcast from San Antonio to Laredo and available for viewing in TAMIU's Fine and Performing Arts Center Recital Hall. The simulcast viewing is free of charge and open to the public and will feature Yo-Yo Ma performing all six of J. S. Bach's cello suites. It is part of a two-year journey to perform Johann Sebastian Bach's six suites for solo cello in 36 locations around the world. The project is motivated not only by Ma's six-decade relationship with the music but also by Bach's ability to speak to the shared humanity at a time when the civic conversation is so often focused on division. Alongside each concert, Ma and his team partner with artists and culture makers, cultural and community organizations, and leaders from across sectors to design conversations, collaborations and performancesotherwise known as Days of Action. After his San Antonio performance, the artist will travel to Los dos Laredos for a Day of Action on Saturday. Ma's visit is scheduled to include a short public performance on international bridge I, a visit to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, the Laredo Center for the Arts and a Pachanga at Tres Laredos Park, among other activities. Information is being shared on the official Yo-Yo Ma's Bach Project Day of Action - Laredo Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/laredodayofaction/ The Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra information is available at: https://www.thelaredophil.com/day-of-action For more about Yo-Yo Ma and the Bach Project, visit http://bach.yo-yoma.com A man has been arrested for breaking into a vehicle and pawning the items he stole from the car, according to Laredo police. Isaias Reyes, 20, was served with an arrest warrant that charged him with theft and burglary of a vehicle. He was released on bond from the Webb County Jail, custody records show. A vehicle pursuit south of Rio Bravo turned fatal Saturday, according to federal law enforcement. An occupant in a vehicle that was smuggling humans died after being taken to a local hospital. The occupant's identity has not been released. At about 4 p.m. Friday, Border Patrol agents from the Laredo sector tried pulling over a vehicle on U.S. 83, south of Rio Bravo, but the driver refused to stop. The driver of the GMC pickup truck later stopped the vehicle after law enforcement used a tire deflation device. READ MORE: Suspect accused of hitting girlfriend with construction helmet, pulling knife on her Multiple occupants in the vehicle fled from the scene and ran into the nearby brush. Agents arrested 11 of those who attempted to flee, including the driver, a juvenile and U.S. citizen. "Additionally, agents encountered an individual in the cab of the truck who was unresponsive," law enforcement said. "Agents immediately attempted to resuscitate the individual and continued life-saving efforts until emergency medical services arrived. "EMS transported the individual to a hospital nearby where he remained in critical condition." At about 9:30 a.m. Saturday, the person died at the hospital. Laredo Sector notified Homeland Security Investigations and CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility, and referred the incident to the State Attorney's Office. The driver is in the custody of the Webb County authorities. An American tourist and her driver who were kidnapped at gunpoint from a Ugandan national park have been released, the government announced Sunday. Kimberly Sue Endicott and Jean Paul Mirenge were being held for a $500,000 ransom after being kidnapped on Tuesday. It is unclear if the ransom was paid, but Ugandan police originally said no money would be given to the kidnappers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at a ceremony next month, the Kennedy Library Foundation announced Sunday. The California Democrat is being recognized for leading "with strength, integrity and grace under pressure - using her power to protect the most vulnerable of our citizens," former ambassador Caroline Kennedy, the foundation's honorary president, said in a statement. "She is the most important woman in American political history and is a true Profile in Courage," Kennedy said. The award, created in 1989, is among the most prestigious in politics. It is meant to identify heirs to the people profiled by President John Kennedy in his 1957 book, "Profiles in Courage." Winners are chosen each year by a bipartisan committee of political, business and academic leaders. Previous recipients include New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, D, the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former presidents Barack Obama, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. In announcing this year's award, the foundation cited Pelosi's work spearheading the 2010 Affordable Care Act, Democrats' subsequent loss of the House, and Pelosi's "persistence and determination as she set out to rebuild the Democratic Party in the image of America" and eventually reclaim the speakership last year. Pelosi called the award "a powerful testament to the extraordinary legacy and leadership of President Kennedy." "At President Kennedy's inauguration, I was blessed to hear him speak of 'the energy, the faith, the devotion ... that will light our country and all who serve it - and the glow from that fire can truly light the world,' " Pelosi said in a statement. "It is inspiring that the award itself is a lantern, a manifestation of that light." Caroline Kennedy and Jack Schlossberg, the foundation's president and a grandson of the late president, will present the award to Pelosi at a ceremony May 19 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. --- The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis contributed to this report. Las Vegas President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that a Democratic victory in 2020 could "leave Israel out there," as he highlighted his pro-Israel actions in an effort to make the case for Jewish voters to back his re-election. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump touted his precedent-shredding actions to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and recognition last month of Israeli sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel seized from Syria in 1967. "We got you something that you wanted," Trump said of the embassy move, adding, "Unlike other presidents, I keep my promises." The group, backed by GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, supported Trump's 2016 campaign and is preparing to spend millions on his 2020 effort. "I know that the Republican Jewish Coalition will help lead our party to another historic victory," Trump said. "We need more Republicans. Let's go, so we can win everything." Jewish voters in the U.S. have traditionally sided heavily with Democrats and are often ideologically liberal but Republicans are hoping to narrow the gap next year, in part as Trump cites actions that he says demonstrate support for Israel. Trump earned standing ovations for recounting both the embassy move and the Golan Heights recognition. Trump noted it had long been a priority for Adelson and his wife, Miriam. Trump's speech comes weeks after he suggested Democrats "hate" Jews. His remark followed an internal fight among Democrats over how to respond to comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., that some criticized as anti-Semitic. Trump mockingly thanked Omar as he began his speech, before adding, "Oh, I forgot. She doesn't like Israel, I forgot, I'm sorry. No, she doesn't like Israel, does she? Please, I apologize." He also accused Democrats of allowing anti-Semitism to "take root" in their party. Before Trump's appearance, people assembled for the event carried signs with "We are Jews for Trump" and "Trump" written in Hebrew. Dozens of men and several women wore red yarmulkes with "Trump" in white that were distributed at the event. Trump also took credit for eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians and for pulling the U.S. out of the U.N. Human Rights Council and UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias in their agendas. Trump criticized some 2020 Democrats who have suggesting they would re-enter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew the United States. The agreement was fiercely opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has cheered as Trump re-imposed stringent new sanctions on the country that Israel regards as an existential threat. Trump is closely aligned with Netanayu, who's seeking to return power in Tuesday's national election. Ballymahon library is set to be open from 8am to 10pm, seven days a week, thanks to new strategy launched last June, according to the Department of Rural and Community Development. This strategy outlined plans to extend the opening hours for 100 libraries around the country and implement self service facilities to allow the public to take out and return books with more ease. The aim of this new strategy is to increase library use and grow active membership from the current level of 16% to 30% of the country. Ballymahon library is just one of seven libraries around the country set to join the ten libraries already taking part in the My Open Library service by the end of April. The service will enable members to have additional access to the library and its amenities. Also read: Leavy's of Foigha close grocery shop It will also give local people the opportunity to become members of the Ballymahon library and have access to the full range of the library's facilities, at a time that suits them best. The staffed hours, combined with the extended My Open Library hours, allow library members to access the full range of library facilities on a self-service basis at times that suit them best, particularly those who may not be able to access their library during regular staffed times, according to the Department. The five-year strategy plans to extend this service to 100 libraries around Ireland. Police in Boston are asking the public to help find a missing Wentworth Institute of Technology student who was last seen at a party early Saturday. A missing person alert for 19-year-old Maximillian Carbone was issued Saturday. Boston police said the student was last seen Saturday between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. at a party in the Allegheny Street area. Carbone who is roughly 5 feet 10 inches tall and 150 pounds, was wearing a green Heineken shirt, Patagonia sweatshirt and khaki pants when he was last seen. The Massachusetts State Police helicopter was brought in to help investigators locate Carbone. MSP Air Wing assisting in this search. Please share and please call 911 or @bostonpolice with any info. https://t.co/i12y7PCrgs Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) April 7, 2019 Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or Boston detectives at 617-343-4275. The family of Wentworth Institute of Technology sophomore Maximillian Max Carbone said they lost a loving son, brother and friend after the 19-year-old was found dead in Boston. The college student went missing after attending a party. His body was found Sunday morning in Roxbury around 8 a.m. in the area of 123 Terrace St. Our hearts are broken. Max was a sweet, happy and loving son, brother and friend, his parents said in a statement released by Wentworth. He was a hardworking student who cared about helping people. He will be missed dearly. We want to thank the Boston and Nahant Police and the Wentworth Community. Carbone, a 2017 graduate of Swampscott High School, according to a tweet from the school district, went missing after attending a party. He was last seen Saturday between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. at a party in the Allegheny Street area. The body was discovered not far from that scene Sunday. Boston police do not consider his death suspicious. Our Swampscott Community is saddened by the news of the death of 2017 SHS graduate Max Carbone. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, the Swampscott Public Schools said in a statement. The Boston Globe reports Carbones body was found behind the Diablo Glass Schools building. Christopher Watts, an educational manager there, told the Globe Carbones classmates tracked his phone to the school when they went there Saturday looking for their friend. Eric Overstrm, the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at Wentworth, released a statement Sunday and expressed sadness for the loss of Carbone. Family, friends and the Wentworth community conducted a search Sunday as they looked to find Carbone. We are devastated by the loss of Max. He was a very talented young man who had chosen biomedical engineering as his field of study, Overstrm said. He had many friends within and outside of Wentworth, and a warm and loving extended family who will miss him dearly. Overstrm said Carbones family was grateful to everyone who helped search for their loved one. We also want to offer our deep appreciation to the many students and family members who joined the Boston Police Department and Wentworths Department of Public Safety in an extensive search to find Max early in his disappearance, Overstrm said. We wish the outcome were different. We are comforted by the strength and caring of the Wentworth community. Counselors will be available for students at Wentworth. Overstrm said the Wentworth community is invited to gather Monday at noon in the lobby of The Center for Engineering, Innovation and Sciences to remember Carbone. Authorities discovered a body in Boston as they continued to search for a missing 19-year-old college student who was last seen at a party Saturday morning, according to Boston 25 News. Boston police confirmed there was activity in the Terrace Street area Sunday but declined to say if a body was discovered. The search scene is still active, a Boston police spokeswoman said. Boston 25 News reports a member of a search team confirmed a body was discovered. WCVB reports the search for Maximillian Carbone ended with the discovery of the body in the woods in the Roxbury area. The body was discovered not far from where Carbone was last seen Saturday morning while at a party. The search that started at 7am for missing Wentworth College student Max Carbone has ended. Police focusing on a wooded area off Terrace St. in Roxbury. This is now a crime scene. A representative from Wentworth here to speak with students. #WCVB pic.twitter.com/R0nHfMqk5z Josh Brogadir (@JoshBrogadirTV) April 7, 2019 Carbone, a sophomore at Wentworth Institute of Technology, was last seen Saturday between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. at a party in the Allegheny Street area. A search team went out looking for the Nahant native Sunday morning. Family and friends gathered on Terrace Street Sunday. Authorities in Boston continue to investigate the killing of a grandmother in Mattapan after the innocent bystander was struck by gunfire Saturday. This was an innocent woman who was struck by gunfire, Police Commissioner William B. Gross told the Boston Globe. This should not be tolerated. Two men were also shot when the gunfire erupted around 5 p.m. in the area of 10 Mattapan St. in Mattapan, police said. The elderly, female victim was located by police who rushed to the scene. Officers then located the two men who had also been shot. The womans name has not been released by police. Police said the men are expected to live. Homicide detectives continue to investigate the death. Anyone with information is asked to contact Boston Police Homicide Detectives at 617-343-4470. The Boston Herald reports that Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told reporters the incident was a sad situation in a great neighborhood. FALL RIVER An 88-year-old man was killed when he was unable to escape a fire in his home Saturday morning. William Graham was found dead after firefighters extinguished the blaze at 4:30 a.m. Saturday at 11 Palmer St. Neighbors said he was a veteran, The Boston Herald reported. Graham lived alone on the second floor of the house and was unable to escape when the fire started. Other residents who lived on the first floor were able to get out safely. A firefighter was hospitalized for injuries he received when responding to the fatal fire, according to the firefighters union, Local 1314. The firefighter was later released and is recovering. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Office of the State Fire Marshal and Fall River Fire Department, said Jennifer Mieth, spokesperson for the Office of the State Fire Marshal. A Fall River man was killed Saturday when he was run over by an unoccupied car rolling out of the family driveway. The Boston Globe reported that Fall River police said at about 1:30 p.m. the man walked behind a car parked in his familys sloping driveway at 127 Newhall St. However, the car had begun rolling down the slope after the gear shift was not properly engaged and vehicle rolled over the man. The car continued across the street and crashed into a fence. Police said they responded to an emergency call to find the victim lying in the driveway. He was later pronounced dead. Police said the driver of the car is a family member, and so far, no charges have been filed in the incident. BOSTON Ushered in with a candle-lit parade and lost 17 years later in a smokey blaze, the fabled Orson Welles Cinema opened its doors 50 years ago this week. Film lovers carrying candles and sparklers paraded along Mass Avenue from Harvard Square to 1001 Mass Ave. in Cambridge, where the old Esquire Theatre was christened the Orson Welles Cinema on April 8, 1969. The theaters initial offerings were Luis Bunuels Simon of the Desert, Welles The Immortal Story and a midnight screening of Don Siegels Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Its first house manager was future Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones, then a student at nearby Harvard University. "The Welles was a dynamic cultural center in the Boston/Cambridge area, consisting of three screens, two restaurants, three bars and a film school. It was a magnetic gathering place for audiences and filmmakers, who were deeply moved by the exciting movements and talents of that era of the 1970s to see and discuss and exchange," said Larry Jackson of Amherst, who managed and programmed the theater from 1971 to 1978. Jackson was also a production manager and cast member on the Welles-directed movie The Other Side of the Wind, which was shot during the 1970s. In the years that followed, Jackson worked with Welles on several other projects, and later served as an executive at Samuel Goldwyn Company, Orion Pictures, and Miramax. He has fond memories of the Orson Welles Cinema. It wasnt only about the films that you could not see elsewhere, different from the Top 10 art house hits commonly available, but many cutting edge discoveries and experimental programs, Jackson recalled. We figured out how to orient the orphaned Jamaican film The Harder They Come, basically introducing reggae to the American audience, and it ran for six years! Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff both publicly credited the Welles with making them stars in America. Stephen King wrote about the theater in three of his books. He added, (Filmmakers Jean) Eustache, (Francois) Truffaut, Nick Ray, Otto Preminger, Dusan Makavejev, and many others of course, including our namesake spent time there interacting with audiences, journalists and students. Over the years, many filmmakers, as diverse as Edward Zwick and Mira Nair, have told me they got their film education there, when they were students in the area. Another former theater manager Garen Daly, is now director of the Boston SciFi Festival. He has been at work on a documentary chronicling the theaters 17-year run. He has noted that what made the theater unique was the combination of top shelf programming, a film school, restaurant and book store devoted to cinema. The Orson Welles was not merely a destination for all things film, a rarity at the time, but it became a place of community, Daly has said. You could go to the Welles, learn how to make a film, see a film, find resources for a film, and then go sit and eat while talking nothing but film with people who also had a love of film. Welles' visited the theater that bore his name in January 1977 as part of a Boston visit organized by Jackson. His Filming Othello was partially shot at the Orson Welles Cinema and his essay film F for Fake had its U.S. premiere there. Sadly, it all came to an end when a fire broke out in the lobby on May 24, 1986. The theater staff safely evacuated 60 patrons from the complex. Manager Bill White told the Associated Press at the time that oil in the popcorn maker in the lobby apparently caught fire. He said he quickly reached for a fire extinguisher, but ''by the time I got over there, it was out of control.'' When firefighters arrived, heavy smoke had already filled the building and the entire first floor was engulfed. When we arrived, there was a thick plume of black smoke about eight blocks long, Cambridge Fire Department Investigator Edward J. Fowler told United Press International in 1986. Two nearby businesses, Chi Chi's Mexican restaurant and Videomax, a video rental outlet, sustained heavy smoke and water damage. Landlord Ralph Hoagland cancelled the theaters lease after deciding the damage was too substantial to repair. Investigators concluded the fire was caused by faulty wiring in the popcorn popper. However, a conservative Catholic group claimed that God had destroyed the theater for daring to show Jean Luc Goddards controversial film Hail Mary six months earlier. In a 1,600-square-foot room next to a former equestrian arena on Moody Bridge Road in Hadley, a game call device wired to a timer and a 12-volt battery plays recordings of barn swallow vocalizations seven hours a day. The setup, held together with black electrical tape, is part of a pilot program at the Fort River Division of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. The collaboration between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Mass Audubon is an effort to find out whether barn swallows, faced with the loss of a traditional nesting site, will relocate to an alternative structure tailored to their needs. Depending on who you ask, the project is either a promising avenue of inquiry into conservation strategies for a species thats common but in decline or, its a way for the federal agency to sell a misguided push to demolish the nearby Bri-Mar Stable building, home to what is believed to be the largest barn swallow colony in the state. In past nesting seasons, up to 37 pairs of swallows have raised broods in the building. While the potential to raze the stables has simmered for years, the federal agency has come under fire in recent months as more formal plans emerged. An environmental assessment issued in March offered three options for the building; two call for demolition, and one suggests letting it deteriorate in place. Under the agency's preferred option, the space available to the swallows would be reduced over the next two nesting seasons, with the stables torn down in the fall of 2020. A public comment period on the assessment runs until April 19. The agency is holding a public information session Tuesday at 6 p.m. at its regional headquarters on Westgate Drive in Hadley. Much of the public criticism has come from a group called Save Our Swallows, founded by volunteers from the Friends of Fort River organization. In December, attorneys working for the group told the agency they plan to sue over alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy Act accusations the refuge manager denies. On a recent Saturday, members of the group held a protest on Route 9, near the regional office. Cars honked and a man at a stop light in the westbound lanes shouted: I love swallows! "I feel like the birds should win for once, instead of the humans," said Larysa Bachinski of Florence, who held a sign displaying a photo of a barn swallow and the slogan, "Please Save My Home!" Experts aligned with Save Our Swallows say the pilot program is worth trying somewhere but that in the case of the Bri-Mar Stable colony, it's an unproven, inappropriate option. "This is not the place to be experimenting with alternative structures," said Mara Silver, a Shelburne Falls ornithologist who has spent decades researching swallows, and who works on habitat restoration projects with Mass Audubon, MassWildlife and other organizations. "Not on what might be the largest colony in the state. Not on a colony that's thriving." Andrew C. French, who has managed the four-state Conte refuge since 2002, said he's never dealt with such a level of public controversy and acrimony in his nearly 45-year career. In an interview this week he asked, Can you imagine what we can do if we put our heads together? Scenes from the Fort River Division, clockwise from top left: The Bri-Mar Stable building where the barn swallow colony has nested; a view from an overlook at the Fort River; a barn swallow nest on a light fixture; one of two 156-foot corridors at the stables building.Greg Saulmon | The Republican Surplus property? At the heart of the Conte refuge's 260-acre Fort River Division is a mile-long, fully-accessible trail that ushers 40,000 visitors a year past a panoramic view of the Holyoke Range, over a boardwalk through a stand of pine trees, and to overlooks at sharp bends in the river. The fields and forests are home to animals and birds ranging from bobcats to bobolinks, and on summer nights fireflies are green sparks in the grasslands. Above the treetops, though, the glow from the parking lots at big box stores and chain restaurants on Route 9 nearly wipe the sky clean of stars a reminder that sprawl almost spread through these meadows. In 2003, Hadleys planning board approved a subdivision for several dozen homes at the 67-acre parcel where the stables sit. Instead, the land once owned by Martha W. Zuckerman joined the refuge through a $2.1 million purchase in 2009. "We will retain what we need for refuge purposes," French said of the equestrian buildings at the time, explaining that they might be sold and moved. A decade later, the buildings remain. The riding arena is the refuges regional operations hub, housing heavy equipment. The hot walker room, where horses once cooled down after workouts, is home to the swallow nesting pilot program. Inside the stables this week, French pointed to rotting plywood sections of ceiling in the building's northwest corner. "When it rains outside, it rains inside," he said. In addition to the building's poor condition which French said could lead to a collapse that might damage a critical electrical transformer and the nearby operations building the environmental assessment cites a March 2015 mandate from the federal Office of Management and Budget as another reason to tear the stables down. Under the mandate, known as the "Reduce the Footprint" policy, executive branch agencies were ordered to "reduce their real property footprint" over a period of several years. The environmental assessment claims the mandate amounts to building reductions totaling 106,841 square feet in the agencys 13-state Northeast Region by 2020. At 22,500 square feet, the Bri-Mar Stable building represents a sizable percentage of the goal. "By keeping a building we don't need, it impacts our ability to have infrastructure in places we need it," French said. But Save Our Swallows argues the stables aren't on a federal list of buildings subject to the mandate and that, if it were, it could be exempt if designated as migratory bird habitat. When The Republican asked whether the building falls under the mandate, the Office of Budget and Management referred the question to the Department of the Interior, the umbrella agency for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A spokesman for the federal General Services Administration, meanwhile, was not able to provide an answer in time for publication. Save Our Swallows has also accused the agency of violating the National Environmental Policy Act by dismantling stalls inside the building last year. That work, attorneys with the Boston-based firm McGregor and Legere argued in a Dec. 4, 2018 letter to the agency's regional officials, "... is prohibited by NEPA because it is limiting the choice of reasonable alternatives" before the end of the environmental assessment process. The letter asked the agency to "take appropriate action to remedy the dismantling of the stables," and said the group would sue to stop additional work work from being done before the end of the process. "We haven't violated the National Environmental Policy Act," French said, eventually adding: "My regional office is like two miles as the crow flies from here." French said the process applies to demolition of the whole building not the interior salvage work, which he said was done under categorical exclusion that complied with the policy. Asked who would determine whether there had been a violation, French said it could be decided through litigation. The two sides have also been at odds over whether the building might be saved through privately funded repairs. According to a December post to the Save Our Swallows website by organizer Nancy Goodman, of Hadley, members of the Friends of Fort River volunteer group offered in 2016 to raise money. More recently, Save Our Swallows hired a structural engineer to assess the building's condition; an estimate for needed work came in at $94,000. Goodman's post said the agency turned down a private donor's offer to pay for the repairs and future maintenance. The agency's environmental assessment said it ruled out the use of private funds because the building "... would remain excess to refuge and Regional needs and, therefore, would not meet Service guidelines for excess property management." French said he has spent years trying to find a solution for the stables that would justify allotting some space for the swallows by creating a specific use by the agency elsewhere in the building. And, he said, two efforts to sell the buildings as surplus failed. We cant afford, nor are we inclined, to keep a building as a large artificial nest structure, he said. Larysa Bachinsky, left, and Robin Freedenfeld, both of Florence, hold signs at a protest staged by the group Save Our Swallows Saturday, March 30, 2019 near the regional office for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Route 9 in Hadley.Greg Saulmon | The Republican A whispering species Shaped like a torpedo, blue with splashes of orange on their faces and undersides, barn swallows fly fast and close to the ground, using long, forked tails to steer through abrupt turns and dives in pursuit of insects. The birds that make their homes in Hadley spend their winters in Central and South America. After arriving here in April some begin their journey south in early July. Females lay a clutch of three to seven eggs in a cup-shaped nest made of mud. A nesting pair can raise up to two broods in a season. Mass Audubon's periodic "State of the Birds" report describes barn swallows as a "whispering species" birds that seem common, but have shown decreases in abundance that could spell trouble if the trend continues. "We're not seeing dramatic declines, but we're seeing some signals of something may be going on with barn swallows," said Jeff M. Collins, director of conservation science for Mass Audubon. The organizations Breeding Bird Atlas shows a steady distribution of barn swallows in the state from the 1970s to 2011, meaning they were present where the observations were recorded. But the atlas doesnt capture data on how many birds there are, Collins said. He pointed to another dataset the United States Geological Surveys annual Breeding Bird Survey that shows the states barn swallow population decreasing by 1.32% each year between 1966 and 2015. Robyn Bailey, project leader for the citizen science-driven NestWatch program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, said datasets on long-term barn swallow population trends show a "surprising amount of consensus". "More than a third of our barn swallows are gone," Bailey said, citing USGS data showing a 38% decline between 1970 and 2014. Over the centuries and until the last few decades, Bailey said barn swallow populations increased alongside humans. A map of observations logged last year through eBird, the Cornell Labs crowdsourced approach to compiling global data on bird populations, shows swallow sightings on every continent except for Antarctica. Put the map of the birds range side-by-side with a map of human population density, and the birds relationship with and reliance on people is clear. Bailey, Collins and Silver all said swallows and their fellow species known as aerial insectivores birds like flycatchers, swifts, nightjars and whip-poor-wills, which catch insects on the wing are seeing similar population declines. "Something new is happening," Bailey said, explaining that falling populations among birds that don't nest in human structures suggests a cause other than fewer barns. "We supplied this habitat that has increased populations," Silver said. "But at this point, there are factors other than habitat loss that are affecting barn swallows." But Silver believes that is an argument for leaving the stables alone. "We've got this colony. It's big, it's on property that is a refuge, it's thriving," she said. "And it's not just the building, it's the surrounding area that supplies the food they need. Something is supporting this number of birds." Silver acknowledged that the relative abundance of barn swallows in the United States, they aren't listed as endangered or threatened makes it difficult to argue for aggressive conservation strategies in a situation like the one unfolding in Hadley. French said that except in the case of endangered animals, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't manage its refuges according to the needs of a single species. "It may sound cold," French said, "but swallows aren't a priority like grassland birds are. If I didn't work on education about grasslands, I'd be coloring outside the lines of my agency." Andrew C. French, refuge manager for the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, explains the pilot project Wednesday, April 3, 2019. Greg Saulmon | The Republican A recruiting effort Mass Audubon's involvement at the Fort River Division began after staff at its Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Easthampton started fielded questions about the plan for the stables. We got interested because we know this isnt a one-off project, said Collins, who works at the organizations headquarters in Lincoln. Theyre not the only people facing this issue, and its not the only site where barn swallows are facing this issue. Barns are coming down, agricultural lands are being developed. So we have a question about what we can do to find and develop alternative structures for barn swallows. Barn swallows will return to the same area and often the same buildings year after year. But first-year females that haven't nested before will investigate new sites, and females that have bred in a specific barn will need to find a new location if their access is restricted. Those habits, Collins said, offer an opportunity to explore whether the birds could be enticed to nest in a new structure. The pilot program relies on making the swallows believe other birds have nested there before. The effort has involved examining where swallows were nesting in the existing stables how far apart the nests are, their positions relative to the ceiling joists, and whether they tend to be attached to light fixtures, electrical conduits or other anchors and "seeding" the new space with nests left from previous years. In the 40-by-40-foot room, French pointed to a drop ceiling made of plywood, with joists in several different sizes an experiment to see whether the swallows prefer the 2-inch-by-10-inch joists found in the stables, or if they'll tolerate other sizes. "We're trying to recruit first-time nesters. They'll come back to the area, but they won't necessarily have this strong desire to go back into the stable because they haven't nested there before," French said. Among the joists are 264 "contact points" offering potential nest anchors. French said they are testing six different options, including pieces of wire mesh, metal conduit and small wooden platforms. "We're just trying to see if they have any preferences, and we'll adjust," French said. The recordings play from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. On his phone, French opened an app that draws data from a device recording temperature and humidity: 57.68 degrees fahrenheit, 35.5% humidity. Back in the stables, the temperature was slightly cooler and the humidity reading was above 50%. At left, joists and contact points at the ceiling of the pilot project room. At right, the equipment that plays recordings of barn swallow vocalizations.Greg Saulmon | The Republican To Silver, the differences between the pilot program space and the colony's old home in the stables could be enough to prevent the swallows from relocating. At roughly 11,250 square feet on the first floor, the stables are about seven times as large, with much lower ceilings. French said 90% of the nests were found in the two 156-foot corridors that run the length of the building and that, accounting for the area of the building's second floor, 600 square feet per nesting pair is too much room too offer the birds. But, Silver said, "What appears to be extra space in the larger structures really may be quite important to them." Larger buildings offer more protection from swings in temperature, and Silver cited research in Canada that found swallows roosting throughout large buildings at night rather than clustering around their nests. Moreover, Silver said, Canadian research on alternative structures has not been promising. Save Our Swallows asked a Canadian nonprofit, Bird Ecology and Conservation Ontario, to weigh in on the environmental assessment. The organization ran a pilot program similar to the one underway in Hadley, building 20 nesting structures on 10 properties after a barn was torn down. They played recordings of vocalizations and placed wooden decoys but swallows only nested in about half the structures, and none of the structures had more than two active nests. Silver provided a Sept. 6, 2018 letter that Zoe Lebrun-Southcott, the organization's executive director, and Andrew J. Campomizzi, a research scientist, sent to French. "Although nesting structures built for barn swallows can provide new habitat in areas where no structure existed previously, available evidence suggests that they do not effectively mitigate loss of nesting habitat," they wrote. "Thus, in our opinion, the best way to support nesting barn swallows at the stable is to maintain the existing structure." Save Our Swallows also sought input from Bird Studies Canada, a national nonprofit that helped produce a recovery strategy for barn swallows in Ontario, where the birds are listed as threatened. "Overall, given the high site fidelity of breeding Barn Swallows, we recommend retaining the existing stable habitat for as long as possible," said Liz Purves, Ontario aerial insectivore program manager. "If it is not possible to retain the existing habitat due to demonstrated health and safety issues, we recommend ensuring the availability of alternative habitat that replicates the location and characteristics of the original stable habitat as closely as possible, before the stable habitat is destroyed." From a conservation standpoint, Silver said she believes the project is a poor choice. I feel like if we were talking about a building that was accommodating 10 pairs it would be a different story, she said, later adding: There are too many assumptions being made about barn swallow habitat selection, and not enough acknowledgement of the likelihood that there will be very negative impacts to this population. Signs on Moody Bridge Road in Hadley at the entrance to the Fort River Division Saturday, April 6, 2019.Greg Saulmon | The Republican Keeping common birds common Collins lives in West Concord but grew up in Hampden. He remembers a childhood when drives through the surrounding towns were tours of pastoral landscapes dotted with tobacco barns. On drives with his own kids, he said, he points out places where barns used to be. "Those are all gone," he said. "And I'm sure there were barn swallows in there." While it's easy to minimize the potential impact of the loss of a single nesting site, each loss is part of a pattern of incremental change that can harm a species. "We can individually say, 'Well, that one's not going to be a big deal, that one's not going to be a big deal'," he said. "But over time, it adds up to a big deal." Silver said Save Our Swallows isn't "out to get" the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We want to save this colony and we want transparency with U.S. Fish and Wildlife," she said. The project at the Fort River Division, she believes, is the wrong plan for the wrong place. "If U.S. Fish and Wildlife is committed to experimentation, they should not be doing it at the expense of a thriving, successful barn swallow colony," she said. French, meanwhile, has high hopes for the program. "I was thrilled that we were looking at doing the delayed demolition, because it gives us a couple of nesting seasons to get some additional information and work on this challenge or opportunity, depending upon your perspective with other professionals such as Mass Audubon," he said. Bailey, the Cornell Lab scientist, said it's unlikely any particular site is bolstering the population of a common, widespread bird. "In all likelihood, those particular swallows might find a new space, and it sounds like they're doing everything they can to help them do that," she said of the pilot program. Instead of laying blame, she said, its important to think about how communities can take actions to support the swallows while theyre still common and hopefully keep them common. A challenge is in finding ways to address all the other ways human activity affects the environment, from climate change to spraying insecticides. "That's harder to think about," she said. "I think it's kind of easy to point at one thing one thing that's easy to understand and say, 'This is it.' But it seems like it's almost never that easy, right?" Collins said Save Our Swallows has raised important questions. But if demolition of the stables is inevitable, Mass Audubon's partnership with the agency may offer a critical opportunity to create a plan for other cases of looming habitat loss, to help protect swallows from further decline. "That's our goal more broadly to not just wring our hands and watch the world change," he said. "But to say: What can we do to come up with some alternatives here?" Assistant managing editor Greg Saulmon is a Mass Audubon member. SPRINGFIELD A major fire that damaged three buildings, sent two people to the hospital with injuries and displaced at least 45 people was caused by improper disposal of smoking materials. The fire broke out in the back porches of 306 Belmont Ave., on Tuesday, and spread to the back of the adjacent building at 298 Belmont Ave. before firefighters arrived four minutes after the first 911 call, said Dennis Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Bernard J. Calvi.. The next day the roof of an apartment building on 281 Belmont Ave., across the street from the two buildings, sustained $20,000 damage when it caught fire. That fire displaced two adults and three children, he said. Firefighters spotted the fire when they were working on the roof across the street. They said it was caused by a spark from the original fire. The original fire was sparked by improper disposal of smoking materials on the third-floor rear porch of the building at 306 Belmont, Leger said Saturday night. The fire was investigated by members of the Massachusetts State Police Fire Investigation Unit in a joint effort with the Springfield Arson & Bomb Squad, he said. Two people were brought to the hospital suffering smoke inhalation on Tuesday night. They are recovering, he said. The fire caused more than $320,000 damage to the three buildings. Four businesses, Ponce Barber Shop, Mamuchy Grocery Store, Hoi Learning Center and LFF Variety, located on the first floor of 306 and 298 Belmont Ave., were also forced to close temporarily because of the fire, he said. The first fire, which started at about 5:30 p.m. was stubborn and burned for at least four hours, blanketing the neighborhood with heavy smoke. Belmont Avenue was closed for most of the night. A Springfield man accused of causing a Delaware crash that left a 7-year-old with serious injuries, was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs and other charges Saturday night. Ryan Loughman, 29, was charged with first degree vehicular assault, two counts of third-degree vehicular assault, driving under the influence of drugs, endangering the welfare of a child while under the influence, following too closely and driving without proof of registration and insurance, Delaware State Police said. Loughman struck a 1997 Ford Explorer, which was stopped at a red light, with his 2018 Ford F-15 pickup truck at about 7:15 p.m. The impact caused the Explorer to flip over onto its side, police said. A 6-year-old passenger in the Explorer was seriously injured and the driver, a 26-year-old Delaware man, was treated for minor injuries, police said. A 7-year-old passenger in Loughmans truck was also taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries. Loughman was unhurt in the crash, police said. The crash occurred on U.S. 113 in the town of Georgetown. Loughman was arraigned in Justice of the Peace Court 3 after his arrest and released on $4,810 bail, police said. Boston police are at the scene of a triple shooting Saturday afternoon that has left one person dead and two others injured, WCVB-TV is reporting. Police initially said three people were injured in the late afternoon shooting near 10 Mattapan St. in the Mattapan section of the city. One suffered what police termed life threatening gunshot wounds, while the other two were less seriously injured. The person with life threatening injuries, has reportedly died. This is a breaking story and MassLive.com will post details as they become available. President Trump has had quite a couple of weeks. Attorney General William Barr said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had determined that Trump had not colluded or conspired with Russians and that he may or may not have obstructed justice. Trump said that Barrs four-page overview completely cleared him. It did not do any such thing. The President is still on the hook for obstruction and who knows what else on a state level. Donald Trump announced that he wanted to have his political party become the party of health care. The Republicans in Congress nearly had a collective heart attack, and Mr. Trump was, seemingly, talked out of this move. He is still saying that Republicans will now be the party of pre-existing conditions and will actually have a healthcare plan in 2021. Fighting to strike down the Affordable Care Act in court right now and suggesting a replacement in two years would leave many people without healthcare. Seven million more people are without healthcare today compared to the day the President took office. The direction is quite negative. Trump threatened to shut down the border with Mexico until he learned it could take a full percentage point off Americas second quarter GDP. Our car industry, for example, is a gigantic partnership among Canada, Mexico, and us. A recession would not enhance Trumps reelection chances, so he now says that his threat caused Mexico to start capturing huge numbers of would-be immigrants. No one at our southern border has backed up that empty statement. Finally, he has forgotten which man was his father and which was his grandfather (actually born in Germany). He has publicly said three times that his dad was born in Germany. If the Bronx was in Germany when his father was born, that would make the statement true. If not, he is mixing up his two paternal ancestors. Getting a parents birth location slightly wrong (West Springfield vs. Springfield) is understandable. Trump did not get his fathers place of birth even close to right: He completely missed the correct continent. Perhaps his problem with birth places caused all that chaos with accompanying lies about Obamas place of birth. Paul Halbach, Agawam by Cait Bladt Gerrymandering is a strategy by which a political party redraws congressional districts in order to unfairly favor one party or candidate. Using either packing (filling a district with every voter of a particular demographic) or cracking, (dividing up consolidated groups of voters of a specific demographic so as to diminish their voting power) lawmakers are able to exert overwhelming control on elections. Many citizens are pushing for districts to be drawn by non-political committees rather than politicians. What do you think? The Supreme Court is currently hearing several cases regarding the constitutionality of gerrymandering. One involves a map drawn after the 2010 census in North Carolina. In the state, voters cast ballots for Republicans and Democrats in roughly equal numbers. However after the election, 10 districts sent Republicans to Congress and three sent Democrats. Per the Charlotte Observer: Rep. David Lewis, a Harnett County Republican and House redistricting leader, said at a meeting that he wanted the maps drawn to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats because I do not believe its possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats. ...The League of Women Voters and the Democrats who brought the suit with the nonpartisan organization contend that the redistricting plan violates free speech and equal protection rights. The Constitution guarantees everyones right to participate equally in an electoral system that does not discriminate against them because of their beliefs, said Anita Earls, executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Its clear that the intent and effect of creating North Carolinas 2016 congressional maps were to manipulate the democratic process. The result disparages voters and ensures that one party can maintain political power even when a majority of the states voters do not support them. The New York Times reports the issue not only divides voting blocks but also discourages people from donating to candidates in parties where they are heavily outnumbered. The map eliminated any competition for House seats in all but the most exceptional circumstances. In November, amid the strongest national Democratic electoral performance since Watergate, only one of the 10 Republican-held House seats was in serious jeopardy (that race, in the 9th Congressional District, was marred by election fraud complaints and will be rerun this summer). Democrats won the three districts that were gerrymandered in their favor by an average of 45 percentage points. That highlights collateral damage from gerrymanders that is sometimes overlooked: Not only do they entrench a majority party, but they weaken the opposition as well. Candidates dont want to run losing races, and donors and parties dont want to support them. ...The case against partisan gerrymanders is not merely a Democratic one. Republican candidates in North Carolinas three safe Democratic House seats also were disenfranchised, along with their supporters. So were Republicans in Marylands 6th District. One solution many opponents of gerrymanders support is taking redistricting duties from politicians and giving it to non-partisan committees. The Concord Monitor reports New Hampshire has recently passed such legislation. The Democratically controlled Senate voted 14-10 along party lines Thursday to create a 15-member independent commission to redraw the states two congressional districts, five Executive Council districts, 24 state Senate districts and districts for the 400 House seats. The bill now goes to the House, which has already passed a similar bill. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu opposes the idea. Supporters argued the current system that puts lawmakers in charge of redistricting allows for gerrymandering, in which boundaries are drawn to benefit the party in power. Representatives and senators should not choose their voters, voters should choose their representatives, said Sen. Shannon Chandley, D-Amherst. Please vote for Senate Bill 8, so we can say firmly to all our constituents that we respect you as a voter, we respect our democracy and we stand for fair elections. A 2015 piece by Politico argues the effects of gerrymandering have been dramatically exaggerated. A 2014 study by McGhee and Nicholas Stephanopolous tallied the wasted votes for each party in each redistricting plan over the past 40 years. Wasted votes are those votes cast that didnt help a party win a seatvotes in excess of the 51 percent the party needed to win, plus all the votes it received in the districts it lost. If partisan gerrymandering were ubiquitous, you would expect to find an imbalance in wasted votes statewide, with the gerrymandering party wasting far fewer votes than the other party. This is because the gerrymandering party would create districts with narrower, but potentially decisive, advantages (as in the hypothetical 55-45 district weve discussed), while the other party would be forced to waste a lot of votes packed into a smaller number of lopsided districts. The statisticians at FiveThirtyEight did an expansive study on the effects of partisan gerrymandering. As the Washington Post reported, they found few ways to effectively solve the gerrymandering problem. Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight, another member of the team that spent months on the project, writes that gerrymandering "is a far more complex topic than some analysts and partisans care to acknowledge. . . . There's no 'right' way to draw a district. Prioritize one goal competitiveness or nonwhite representation, for example and you have to sacrifice others." The team set out to show how different goals produce dramatically different maps. In all they drew 258 different state congressional district maps and a total of 2,568 district maps, using a free, Web-based application. The results are all available for viewing at FiveThirtyEight.com. They produced maps that heavily favored Democrats, with 263 districts where that party would have a clear advantage. They did another that heavily favored Republicans. In that case, there were 275 districts tilted toward the GOP. In both cases, fewer than 30 districts of the 435 were considered competitive. The National Conference of State Legislatures filed an amicus brief in an Arizona case supporting the continuation of having politicians draw congressional boundaries, saying to do otherwise would be stripping politicians of a constitutionally protected power. In 37 states, the legislature draws the congressional redistricting plan. The other thirteen states involve both the legislature and some form of redistricting commission. All but two of these thirteen states respect the Election Clause's delegation by maintaining a substantive role for the legislature. But Arizona and one other state provide the legislature no substantive involvement in redistricting. ... Excluding the legislature from substantive involvement in redistricting contravenes the Elections Clause. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. by Rob Williams , April 5, 2019 Luxury lifestyle glossy Avenue magazine hired Kristina Stewart Ward as editor-in-chief amid plans for a September relaunch. The magazine, which caters to the circuit of society balls and charity dinners, aims to remake its coverage for a younger, hipper readership. Its title refers to the patrician thoroughfare of New Yorks Upper East Side and Park Avenue, not the hipster highway of Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn. Design company Pentagram revamped the magazine. Wards experience includes roles as executive editor of Harpers Bazaar, society editor of Vanity Fair and editor-in-chief of Hamptons, HamptonStyle and Quest magazines. She also has written for Vogue, Elle Decor, Town & Country and The New York Times, according to her LinkedIn profile. advertisement advertisement Ward grew up as a Mormon and attended Bringham Young University, where her contemporaries included actor Aaron Eckhart and playwright Neil LaBute. She made light of the contrast between her upbringing and her job of covering boozy black-tie dinners in a memorable piece for Vogue in 2007. She said people used to call her No Sex and the City in a wry reference to author Candace Bushnells column for the New York Observer that inspired the hit HBO series. While my married Mormon friends collected children and school bills, I collected a closetful of designer dresses, a sprawling library of social-history books, and an even bigger shoe closet, Stewart Ward wrote. She also said she became the Mormon mascot who could table dance for hours on no more than Pellegrino. Steward Ward is a notable hire for Charles Cohen, the real-estate mogul who in December bought Avenue from Manhattan Media owner Richard Burns, publisher of Dans Papers on Long Islands tony East End. At that time, Cohen fired the magazines entire staff except for editor-in-chief Michael Gross. Departed columnists included Nina Griscom, Debbie Bancroft, R. Couri Hay, Beth Landman, Missy Hargraves and Asher Edelman. Gross left the magazine last month with plans to return to writing books. Avenue started in 1976 and is distributed in upscale New York residential buildings, where the average household income is $1.7 million, according to its website. The magazine will continue to print special issues that include its annual Power Elite and Philanthropy lists. Avenue is Cohen's first magazine property, while his Cohen Media Group mostly distributes foreign films, such as the 2017 Oscar winner "The Salesman." In 2015, Cohen bought 30 films from the Merchant Ivory Productions library, including "Howards End," "Maurice" and "Heat and Dust." In addition to his real estate holdings, Cohen also owns luxury brands Richard James, Harrys of London and T. Anthony. by Tanya Gazdik , April 7, 2019 In celebration of Earth Month, JetBlue is inviting consumers to nominate their favorite environmental-focused nonprofit to receive grants. One nonprofit will be rewarded with a grand prize grant of $20,000, and three runners-up will each receive a $5,000 grant. The GreenUp campaign aims to highlight the airlines commitment to local environments. A video explains other actions the airline is taking to be more eco-friendly. JetBlue also inviting customers to join the airline in donating to and volunteering with nonprofits working to preserve natural spaces. Crew members will volunteer with a variety of environmental causes and initiatives throughout the airlines network, including revitalization projects in Puerto Rico. advertisement advertisement When customers nominate charities to receive a grant, they will automatically be entered to have offsets totaling 3.6 million lbs. of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions (1,632 MT) retired in their name and on their behalf. This represents the average Americans lifetime carbon footprint, according to Carbonfund.org Foundation. Select winners will also receive a pair of JetBlue travel certificates with carbon offsets, which JetBlue will donate to Carbonfund.org Foundation on the winners behalf. Winners will be announced by May 31. This carbon offset project protects nearly 500,000 acres of Amazon tropical rain forest, mitigates the release of more than 12.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the project lifetime, preserves the habitat, and enhances the lives of rural forest communities. As the largest airline in Puerto Rico, last year JetBlue made a commitment to assist in reforestation efforts as the final step in its 100x35JetBlue initiative, 100 days and 35 ways, of caring for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean after the devastation of Hurricane Maria. A healthy environment is not only important to our customers, its critical for our business, states Icema Gibbs, director of corporate social responsibility, JetBlue. Earth Month is a great time to remind our customers and crewmembers that it will take a joint effort to preserve our local natural spaces." A new study goes against the grain of previous research by suggesting that alcohol-induced brain damage does not stop when alcohol use ends. Instead, the harmful effects of alcohol may continue during abstinence. The findings have important implications for the process of recovery from alcohol dependence. Share on Pinterest The effects of excessive alcohol use may last much longer than we previously thought, suggests new research. Most of us are familiar with the immediate effects that alcohol consumption has on the brain. Euphoria, depression, memory loss, blurred vision, slurred speech, and a general state of confusion are only some of these effects. However, for those who consume excessive amounts of alcohol over extended periods, this repeated brain damage can have a long-lasting effect on neuronal and mental health. Depression and anxiety are only some of the conditions that scientists have associated with long-term alcohol consumption. Consuming alcohol excessively may also cause Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a condition that causes amnesia, extreme confusion, and visual disturbances. Do these damaging effects stop once the person stops drinking alcohol though? Until now, researchers believed that they did. New research, however, challenges this view. Scientists from the Institute of Neuroscience CSIC-UMH in Alicante, Spain collaborated with others from the Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim in Germany to examine the structural brain changes in people with alcohol use disorder. They found that damage to the brains white matter persists in the first weeks of sobriety. Apple has officially cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, however, the demand for the product is still quite high. The charging mat was a bold wireless charger by Apple that would charge an iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch by placing them anywhere on the mat. Currently, devices have to be placed on wireless chargers with a specific orientation in order for it to work. However, many companies have figured out a way to charge multiple devices at once ever since AirPower was announced. Just because you can't get your hands on the AirPower doesn't mean you can't enjoy wireless charging for multiple devices. Here are the best AirPower alternatives you can buy in India right now: 1. Baseus Smart 2 In 1 Wireless Charge Basues This 10-watt wireless charging mat can simultaneously charge two smartphones and an Apple Watch. It's available in all white and is compatible with any Qi-certified device. It comes with Overload protection which means you don't have to worry about overheating. 2. Samsung Wireless Charger Duo YouTube The Wireless Charger Duo consists of a stand and a pad, allowing you to charge two devices at once. Both spots support fast-charging which is always a plus to have. It is also Qi-certified which means it can charge any device that supports Qi wireless charging. 3. Boost Up Charging Dock By Belkin Belkin The new wireless charging dock by Belkin can wirelessly charge your smartphone, Apple Watch and has additional USB-A port to charge other devices. It comes with a 45W AC adapter and can charge all iPhone models at 7.5W. The Apple Watch will be carted on 5W/1A via the USB port. 4. Nillkin Gemini Dual Fast Wireless Charger Charging Pad Nillkin The Nillkin Gemini wireless charger can juice up two devices at the same time and has support for wireless charging. It can charge the iPhone with an output of 7.5W whereas, for Qualcomm devices, it goes up to 10W. 'Truly Not Alone': Air Force Spouse Trying to Improve Mental Health for Military Families on Okinawa Mental Health Peer Alliance meets at Kadena twice a week for activities like art therapy, exercise for mothers and small... Key List of minerals for each chemical element References Sort by Year (asc) Year (desc) Author (A-Z) Author (Z-A) Epstein J. B. (2001), Hydrology, Hazards, and Geomorphic Development of Gypsum Karst in the Northern Black Hills, South Dakota and Wyoming, In Eve L. Kuniansky, editor, 2001, U.S. Geological Survey Karst Interest Group Proceedings, Water-Resources Investigations Report 01-4011, p. 30-37. Epstein J. B., Doctor D. H. (2013), Evaporate Karst in the Black Hills, South Dakota and Wyoming, and the oil play in the Williston Basin, North Dakota and Montana, USGS, 39 pp. (Prepared for the Karst Interest Group Workshop, September 2005). Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality North America Plate Tectonic Plate This page contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary. The I-90 freeway crosses the Northern Black Hills through a natural pass between the lower Black Hills and the Bear Lodge Mountains to the northwest. The Bear Lodge Mountains and Devils Tower in Wyoming are associated with the same uplift that exposed the Harney Granite in the lower hills. The I-90 freeway was constructed on the red beds of the Spearfish formation affording travelers with many views of karst geology and deposits of gypsum.Cox Lake, better described as a pond, is a sinkhole with a steady artesian water flow. It results from the dissolution of a deeply buried anhydrite deposit. As the anhydrite dissolved it provided large quantities of calcium sulfate in solution that dispersed into the Spearfish formation creating extensive gypsum beds due to the hydration of the calcium sulfate.The best view of the sinkhole is the satellite image shown on the location page. If you zoom in you will see a shallow pond with a round black hole that plunges to a depth of 65 feet. You will be looking at the opening of a water filled breccia pipe. It is interesting to note that this pond is likely similar to the pond at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota that trapped so many mammoths thousands of years ago. Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri leaves for Saudi Arabia to attend OIC moot MQI leader Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri is leaving for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, today to attend the OIC meeting. He will deliver a speech on counter-terrorism and present recommendations for the eradication of extremism. The OIC has extended a special invitation to Dr Qadri to participate in its meeting. A special session has been arranged for his speech as well as questions and answers. The OIC meeting is taking place on April 9-10 in Riyadh. Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri has written three more books as part of his peace curriculum and counterterrorism work, which will be presented to the participating delegates of the meeting. He also authored a world-acclaimed Fatwa against terrorism and suicide bombing in 2010, which has been translated in 13 languages of the world. The Fatwa won global applause particularly in Europe and Central Asia. It was a befitting reply to those who accused Islam of fomenting violence and terrorism. Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri proved in the Fatwa in the light of the Holy Quran and Sunna that Islam is a peaceful religion and considers the taking of the life of an innocent person as forbidden. According to the Islamic teachings, no individual or a group is allowed to take up arms and this power rests only with the state as only it can declare a war. Dr Qadri has written more than 40 books on peace and counter-terrorism in Arabic, Urdu and English so far. Three new books have been published particularly for the OIC moot, which will be launched soon after his arrival from Riyadh. He has been spreading the peaceful message of Islam in the world through conferences, seminars and workshops since 1999. He has addressed in different countries on the subject of peace, tolerance and interfaith dialogue. The OIC has invited Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri to attend its meeting due to his efforts and contributions against terrorism and for the promotion of peace in the world. According to the spokesperson, the MQI leader will present his philosophy of peace consisting of 100 pages in the OIC meeting. OIC officials warmly receive Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri MQI leader Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri reached Riyadh airport on the morning of April 7 where the OIC official received him warmly. He is being accompanied by Chairman MQI Supreme Council Dr Hassan Mohi-ud-Din Qadri during the visit. Dr Qadri has gone to Saudi Arabia on the special invitation of the OIC to attend its meeting set to take place on April 09-10 where he will deliver his special address on the topic of counterterrorism besides participating in Q&A session. The OIC has invited Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri on his amazing contributions to the promotion of peace and interfaith harmony that includes the writing of over 40 books on peace-building and 600-page Fatwa against terrorism and suicide bombing. The OIC has asked for his intellectual guidance to frame a consensual and shared narrative of the Muslim world. Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri was given the invitation to attend the OIC moot in early March and he wrote three special books for the OIC meeting covering subjects such as the promotion of peace, interfaith dialogue, and the rights of the minorities within one month. These books will be presented to the delegates of the OIC member countries for their study during the session. In addition to this, Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri will also present his special paper consisting of 100 pages during his speech. The Reds have acquired utilityman Rob Refsnyder from the Diamondbacks, according to the Reds official Twitter account. In return, the Diamondbacks will receive a player to be named later or cash. Refsnyder will report to Triple-A. After signing with the Diamondbacks during the offseason, Refsnyders stint with the team is over already. The 28-year-old will join a Reds team that has sorely lacked outfield production during the young 2019 season, representing a depth option behind Matt Kemp, Scott Schebler, and Jesse Winker. Should any of that trios early season struggles grow into a significant concern, Refsnyder will be in the minor leagues, capable of filling in at a corner outfield spot. Refsnyder can also play first base and, in theory, second base (though he hasnt appeared at the keystone in the Major Leagues since 2017), but the path to infield playing time in Cincinnati is crowded. Refsnyder, who broke into the big leagues in 2015 with the Yankees, has appeared in parts of four seasons with three different teams and owns a career batting line of .218/.308/.302 in 423 MLB plate appearances. Last season, he worked to a .760 OPS in Triple-A, though the .588 mark he posted in 40 games with the Rays was less impressive. Refsnyder, out of options and not on the 40-man roster, largely represents organizational depth at this juncture. GRAND RAPIDS, MI A push to dredge part of a 23-mile stretch of the Grand River between Eastmanville Township and Grand Rapids is drawing scrutiny in Ottawa County, with some residents and elected officials questioning the projects environmental impact and maintenance costs. The project is being led by Dan Hibma, a West Michigan developer and husband of former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land. He wants to make the Grand River accessible to power boaters looking to travel from Grand Rapids to Lake Michigan, a move that supporters say will boost tourism and could eventually generate an estimated annual economic impact of up to $5.7 million. But the idea is sparking pushback, with some township supervisors and county commissioners saying Hibma has not answered key questions about the project. Among them: How would dredging the river impact the fish and wildlife habitat? Would it stir up potential contaminants lurking beneath the river bed? And who would pay the annual maintenance costs, such as removing downed trees and having law enforcement patrol the area? Theres just so many big questions, said Spring Lake Township Supervisor John Nash. Later, he added: I think if you look at the facts, its not the best thing for the river. It seems like theres more of an impetus on some special person or area gaining a lot of financial advantage. The project must receive a state dredging permit to move forward. Environmental testing, a prerequisite for the permit, is currently being conducted to see whether dredging the river would release hazardous substances. Public comment The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners is hosting a work session Tuesday to examine the project. The board will take public comment, and is expected to hear from the projects supporters, county employees and environmental experts. Whether youre a property owner along the Grand River, whether you are a taxpayer in Ottawa County, we want people to come and speak their mind, said Greg DeJong, who chairs the board. The board, at a later date, may issue a symbolic resolution, either supporting or opposing the project. Or it may stay neutral, DeJong said. Commissioners want to learn more about the dredging effort after receiving questions and concerns from constituents. Hibma has been pushing for the project, known as the Grand River Waterway, for years. He has said that opening the river to powerboats would attract investment, visitors and other recreational activities to the area. The idea is to dredge a portion of the river, thereby creating a 50-foot wide, 7-foot deep channel big enough to accommodate vessels 26-feet or larger. A boat trip from Grand Rapids to Lake Michigan would take about four hours, one study estimated. To date, the project has received $3.35 million in state funding. The most recent portion, totaling $2 million, was included in a supplemental state budget approved during the waning days of last years lame duck legislative session. Those dollars were provided to the Department of Natural Resources to pay for the dredging work, and shall be spent only if sediment tests are satisfactory and necessary permits are issued, the state budget says. A 2017 state-contracted study estimated the project would also require about $165,000 to cover annual maintenance costs. Hibma was traveling Friday and was not available for an interview. He referred questions to Grandville Mayor Steve Maas, whos serving as an adviser for the project. Maas said he understands the concerns over potential contaminants being unearthed during the dredging process. A state-contracted study, currently underway, will examine 87 soil samples gathered at 34 locations along the river for hazardous materials, he said. Another study is examining how the project would impact the rivers mussel population. If theres environmental concerns, those need to be addressed, he said. Before the project moves forwards were going to need to get the results of these studies. Theres no plan at this time on how the project would proceed if hazardous materials are discovered during the testing, Maas said. He added, We would just have to cross that bridge when we get to it. Supporters, opponents The project has drawn high-profile supporters. Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rick Baker has touted the project. So has Arlan Meekhof, a Republican from West Olive whose term as majority leader of the Michigan Senate ended last year. He published a March 18 editorial in The Grand Haven Tribune, stating that opening the river to power boaters could lead to new marinas, riverside restaurants, campgrounds and other new recreational opportunities. This project seeks to enhance this underutilized asset so that even more Michiganders can enjoy the river, he wrote. There are many more steps to go, but I think this is a project that all of us in West Michigan can be excited about. John Scholtz, director of Parks and Recreation for Ottawa County, opposes the project. He worries about the possibility of environmental contamination, as well as how the project would impact the fish and wildlife habitat in and around the river. Is it necessary, he asked. Theres not a big outcry for people wanting to boat up there. Theres an individual who would like to see it happen, but were not seeing a big outcry from the public. A resolution opposing the project was unanimously approved this week by the Ottawa County Parks Commission, a 10-member body which includes county commissioners Matthew Fenske and Philip Kuyers, as well as county employees and other residents. Kuyers was absent, while another seat is currently vacant. The resolution said the development would disturb quiet water uses such as paddling, small watercraft, fishing, shoreline hiking, wildlife viewing, and other low-impact uses that are not compatible with the noise and wakes of large watercraft. Fenske said he supported the resolution from the vantage point of how the proposed dredging would impact the parks system. But he said he still hasnt come close to making up my mind on the issue, and that he needs to examine how the project would impact other aspects of the countys operations. As a county commissioner, I have to look at the whole picture, he said. Maintenance concerns Another issue raising concern is the projects annual maintenance costs. A 2017 study put the annual total at $165,000, a figure that includes dredging and buoy maintenance. Maas said Grand River Waterway hasnt determined who would pay that bill. As the mayor of Grandville, I think we would at least take a look at possibly participating in the cost of that, because I think it would be a benefit to our community, he said. Wyoming and Tallmadge Township and Allendale Township, Georgetown Township Im hopeful all would take a look at helping and participating in those costs. Nash, the Spring Lake supervisor, said he believes the cost of maintenance would be even higher than $165,000. He said a law enforcement agency, such as the Ottawa County Sheriffs Department, would need a presence on the river to enforce no-wake zones and other laws. He also questioned who would pay for other expenses, such as picking up trees that fall during a storm and block the river. Like the other maintenance expenses, the cost of a law enforcement presence would likely fall on communities along the river, Maas said. I would be hopeful they would be willing to pay their share of speed enforcement, he said. One Grandville City Council member takes issue with that approach. Its fiscally irresponsible to proceed until youve identified how to pay for the estimated annual maintenance costs, said Paul Troost, who was elected in 2017 and previously ran former U.S. Sen. Carl Levins Grand Rapids field office. He added, Im against using millions for a special interest project that only benefits power boaters and land developers. In July, Hibma briefed the Grandville City Council on the dredging project, and a resolution in support of the project was placed before the council for approval. The council voted 6 to 1 to table the resolution, citing environmental, fiscal and safety concerns. It said supporting the project at that time would be premature. Maas, the Grandville mayor whos now serving as an adviser to Grand River Waterway, voted in favor of tabling the proposal. There was enough information for me to support it, but I wasnt sure there was enough information for the other council members to make an informed decision," Maas said. Questions have also been raised about whether private developers would benefit from the project. In a 2010 story published by MLive.com, Hibma discussed the idea of dredging the river, and said his company, Land & Co., wanted to develop a seasonal campground on about 200 acres with a mile of riverfront property near the M-11 bridge in Walker. When asked if Hibma still owns property along the river that he wants to develop if the river dredging occurs, Hibmas spokesperson, Michael Zalewski, said: Dans company does own property in Walker. The property is zoned industrial and there is no plan for a development based on the river restoration. Moving forward, Mass said hes hopeful residents throughout West Michigan see the benefit of the project. We have this wonderful underutilized asset, which is the Grand River, he said. So anything that we can do to help connect our citizens back to the river and to restore the river to the way that it used to be is a good thing. A major pipeline explosion in Leon, central Mexico, which was reportedly sparked during illegal fuel extraction, caused a massive blaze on Saturday night. The Leon Fire Department shared photographs of the huge fire on social media, urging people to stay away from the area. According to local media reports, people from Providencia and Timoteo were trying to illicitly extract fuel from the Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) pipeline when the explosion occurred. READ MORE: Massive BLAST rocks Paris building as firefighters struggle with monster blaze (VIDEOS) Municipal Police secured the perimeter and the pipeline valve was turned off. Meanwhile, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) turned off the electricity to avoid a tragedy, Infobae reports, and part of the Timoteo Lozano Boulevard was closed to vehicles. The nearby CEDIS OXXO company was evacuated as a precaution, and staff reported hearing an explosion before the lights went out. They said the flames were about 15 meters high. Firefighters managed to control the blaze, and no casualties have been reported. Thanks to the timely citizens report and the prompt attention and coordination of the emergency services, no people were injured in the explosion, Leon firefighters said. Like this story? Share it with a friend! A televised election debate in South Africa erupted into chaotic violence when rival groups began throwing chairs at each other live on air. Supporters of the Land Party and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) turned on one another during Fridays event, though local media reports that its not clear what exactly sparked the huge brawl. Presenter Leanne Manas tweeted that the event was canceled after the violent outburst. South Africas general election is due to be held on May 8. Like this story? Share it with a friend! North Korea lambasted its southern neighbor as it deployed US-made F-35 fighters amid the ongoing escalation of tensions between the two nations that followed the failed summit between the North Korean and US leaders. Pyongyang decried the deployment as an unfriendly act and warned that this step only exacerbates tensions while being a direct challenge to the peace efforts. A piece published on the North Korean Uriminzokkiri news portal also called on Seoul to think about the potentially catastrophic consequences the deployment of the new jets could cause. Also on rt.com North Korea mulls renewing tests after gangster-like stance by Pompeo and Bolton Deputy FM Two US-made F-35A multipurpose fighter jets were delivered to South Korea in late March. Seoul is expected to receive a total of 10 fighter jets by the end of the year. The fact that Pyongyang has returned to this harsh rhetoric after a relative thaw in relations with Seoul marks a further rise in tensions on the peninsula allegedly provoked by the latest summit between Washington and Pyongyang which ended in a deadlock. Earlier, North Korea abruptly withdrew its entire staff from a liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong in a move that unnerved the South. Days later, Pyongyang sent some workers back to the office, although it is still unclear if it plans to restore a full staff. Seoul, meanwhile, warned that North Korea almost finished rebuilding a long-range rocket site it had promised to close. The situation on the Korean Peninsula began to change after the summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was abruptly wrapped up without the sides reaching any agreement. At first, the collapse of the meeting was blamed on the fact that the US and North Korea failed to agree on the terms for removing US-imposed sanctions on Pyongyang as Washington allegedly refused to consider even partial relief. A later report by Reuters revealed that Trump allegedly proposed that North Korea transfer all its nuclear weapons to the US and completely dismantle its nuclear and missile programs. The scheme, which closely resembled the one the US used in Libya years before the NATO intervention and the murder of its long-time leader, Muammar Gaddafi, apparently did not sit well with Kim. Also on rt.com Trump withdraws latest round of North Korea-related sanctions or not? In mid-March, the North Korean vice foreign minister threatened to pull out of nuclear negotiations with the US altogether following the collapse of the summit. Washington, meanwhile, continues to put on a brave face. On April 1, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed hope that Trump and Kim could meet again in the coming months and somehow make significant headway in negotiations on Pyongyangs nuclear program. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! Iranian MMA featherweight Ali 'Young Emperor' Yousefi registered two highlight-reel finishes at Fight Nights Global 92 in Moscow after the referee in his bout failed to stop the fight after the first big knockdown. Yousefi's performance in victory against Russia's Magomed-Ali Bakhmudov came with just 32 seconds remaining in the opening round of their featherweight contest at the VTB Arena Dinamo on Saturday night. But in reality, the registered time of the victory should have been significantly earlier than the official mark of 4:28 after the referee failed to call off the contest with Bakhmudov clearly stricken on the canvas. MMA fan and noted social media knockout sharer @Jolassanda posted the clip of Yousefi's hugely-impressive performance on Twitter, but rather than a host of replies praising the Iranian's heavy-handed punch power, the responses were aimed at the referee, whose decision to let the fight continue after the first big knockdown came under fire from fans online. "No mercy from that ref," posted one fan, while another shared a GIF of Dolph Lundgren's Ivan Drago character from Rocky IV with the famous quote from the movie: "If he dies, he dies." Leaving aside the controversial slowness of the referee's intervention, it was a hugely impressive display from 33-year-old Yousefi, who claimed the eighth victory of his MMA career while handing Bakhmudov his first professional loss. The Indian military may attack Pakistan sometime between April 16 and 20, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi claimed citing reliable intelligence. The two nuclear powers had a major flare up of tensions in February. Qureshi, who was visiting his hometown of Multan on Sunday, told journalists that Pakistan shared its concerns with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The official would not elaborate on what evidence Islamabad has to back his claim, but indicated he was speaking on the instruction of Prime Minister Imran Khan. India would not immediately respond to the allegations. DETAILS TO FOLLOW The US Army will land in the company of jihadists on Irans list of terrorist organizations, should Washington declare the nations elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist group, Iranian lawmakers warned. Any US attack against the IRGC will be met with strong reciprocal measures, 255 of the 290 Iranian lawmakers said in a statement issued on Sunday, local media reported. The MPs warned that the response will make the the leaders of America, who themselves are the creators and supporters of the terrorist groups in the region, regret their foolish actions. Reports that Washington is preparing to officially designate Irans elite military unit as a terrorist organization appeared earlier this week. Also on rt.com US may declare Irans Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization just ahead of Israeli elections Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, who chairs the national security and foreign affairs committee in the Iranian parliament, explained that, as soon as that happens, the MPs will place the US Army on Irans list of terrorist organizations along with Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIL]. A bill allowing this has already been prepared, he said. The decades-long conflict between Tehran and Washington reignited last year when President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program and re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic republic. Iran blasted the move as illegal and vowed to retaliate. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! Amesbury Novichok incident survivor Charlie Rowley has met with Russias Ambassador in London seeking answers, after the UK authorities kept him in the dark about any official details of the poisoning saga for nearly a year. Most of the information they have, they had read in the newspapers. And I got the impression that both the family of Dawn Sturgess and that of Charlie Rowley have not been adequately informed as to what happened to the pair in Amesbury and what happened in Salisbury before, Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko said after the meeting with Rowley. They never received any official reports [Charlie Rowley and his brother] had a lot of questions for us, and I was happy to answer all of them. Whatever small information Moscow has managed to gather about the incidents, with a total lack of cooperation from the UK side, was passed on to the brothers and most of it was a total revelation for them, Yakovenko said. They are ordinary people, reading British newspapers. What could they know only what they are offered by the press. So its good to have an alternative point of view and understand Russias line of reasoning. Also on rt.com Feeling betrayed by UK, says Novichok victims son in letter to PUTIN Rowley and Sturgess were rushed to hospital from Amesbury on June 30, 2018. At first, police believed they might have overdosed on drugs, but then claimed that the couple was poisoned by Novichok, the same nerve agent allegedly used on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury four months earlier. Sturgess died in the hospital more than a week later, while Rowley regained consciousness but has been left disabled, and has been kept in the dark regarding his case ever since. Despite strong words coming from the British Prime Minister Theresa May that it was highly likely the Russian government was behind the attack, and multiple countries slapping Russia with sanctions based on that belief, the UK government made little to no evidence public as their secretive investigation drags on for over a year. Also on rt.com Salisbury poisoning: One year on, still no evidence of Novichok nerve agent use disclosed to public Its been a year now and we still havent seen any official results, the Russian ambassador said. What led Charlie and his brother to contact us is precisely the fact that they havent been able to receive anything from the British authorities. What the victims families want first and foremost is the conclusion of the probe and some official data besides endless media speculations. With other survivors, the Skripals, gone completely off the radar, they have received so little information about the course of the investigation that, at a certain point, Dawn Sturgesss son sent a letter to the Russian President, saying he felt let down by the UK government. Russia categorically denies having anything to do with the events in Salisbury or Amesbury last year, repeatedly offering its expertise to the British investigation, yet all Russian requests have been stonewalled by London. to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media wont tell you. The Supreme Leader of Iran has urged the Iraqi PM to expel US occupational forces, as Washington keeps seeking excuses to hold ground there after a presence of 16 devastating years and hundreds of thousands of lives lost. Americas objective in Iraq is beyond sheer military presence... they are after long-term presence and interests and establishing a government like the military governments that were formed following the occupation of Iraq, Ayatollah Khamenei told Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi in Tehran. The Iraqi government should do something [to ensure] that American military troops will leave Iraq as soon as possible. Also on rt.com HUNDREDS of US troops died in Iraq because of Iran, US special envoy claims While Iraqi lawmakers are reportedly discussing a bill that would call for the full withdrawal of American soldiers, Washington refuses to leave the country, claiming that without its presence the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group would inevitably reemerge and that Iraq is a crucial US asset for monitoring Iran. Khamenei warned the Iraqi PM to watch out for Washingtons true aims. The US and Saudi rhetoric about Iraq are different from their real intentions, he said. Also on rt.com Rouhanis visit to Iraq is a slap in the face to Trump They funneled money, weapons and equipment to Daesh [IS] at a time that [the terrorists] had occupied Mosul and, now that Iraq has overcome Daesh, they are speaking friendly words, the Iranian leader claimed. With the rise of IS, the US redeployed its forces to Iraq, after it almost withdrew troops in 2011. For now Washington intends to keep roughly 5,200 service personnel in Iraq indefinitely, as long as the threats of terrorism and, of course, of Iran remain. If you like this story, share it with a friend! NATO broke away from international law and risks "collapse" or a conflict that will "destroy Europe," if it does not change its modus operandi, Willy Wimmer, the former vice president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, told RT. As the US-led military alliance marked its 70th anniversary on Thursday, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg stated that the bloc remains essential for global security. "We stand together, fight together, and, sometimes, die together," he said in a speech in Washington. Stoltenberg, however, is not striking a chord with the people NATO claims to be protecting, Wimmer believes. The veteran German politician explained to RT that "it is not the message that Germans, the Europeans and even the Americans want to hear." Over the years, NATO has increasingly evolved from a purely defensive bloc into a "threat to international peace." It now serves the interests of Washington, along with its allies in London and Paris, all while requiring that other nations sacrifice their resources and the lives of their soldiers to promote the goals of the few, the former deputy leader of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly said. Wimmer pointed out that Germany spent 10 billion (US$11.2bn) in Afghanistan, and the lives of German soldiers and local civilians were lost "for nothing" after Berlin joined the NATO-led security mission there, launched after the US invasion. Founded in 1949, NATO was mainly devised as armed bulwark against the Soviet Union in Europe. When the Cold War ended, the allies should have reimagined the bloc in order for it to fit into a more peaceful environment, he told RT but they chose the path of reviving old rivalries instead. We see that [NATO's] military integration is used to open a new front against Russia on its western border. The new standoff on the European continent "contradicts our vision of Europe," Wimmer said, adding that Russia has not provided any reasons for the escalation. He also said that NATO's 1999 air war against Yugoslavia, in which bombs were dropped on Belgrade without UN approval, was the turning point which defined the organization's future. The biggest problem with NATO is the fact that it completely broke away from the UN Charter and deliberately destroyed its international legitimacy by launching a war against Yugoslavia. After the war ended, NATO continued to move eastward, ever closer to the Russian border, and recently took steps to expand ties beyond the North Atlantic, seeking cooperation with states like Brazil and Colombia. Willy Wimmer believes the military bloc should take a completely different route. It should rethink its role and become a bridge between Washington and Brussels and foster partnership with Russia at the same time, treating Moscow as "an equal partner." He also gave a rather grim prediction regarding what will happen if NATO does not change its approach and modus operandi the alliance will either "collapse" or move towards a conflict that will "destroy Europe." Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! The US did not play the final role in turning Libya from a rather stable nation into a chaotic free-for-all battle zone. But now it is too dangerous for American troops to say on the ground. The US Africa Command announced Sunday that it was pulling out a small contingent, which was deployed in Libya a few years ago to assist airstrikes against forces loyal to the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). The move came in response to the latest escalation of violence in the country. Due to increased unrest in Libya, a contingent of US forces supporting US Africa Command temporarily relocated in response to security conditions on the ground, AFRICOM said in a statement. Also on rt.com Airstrikes & clashes: Libyas Haftar forces claim control of Tripoli airport as rivals bomb them We will continue to monitor conditions on the ground and assess the feasibility for renewed US military presence, as appropriate, said Nate Herring, an AFRICOM spokesman. Libya remains a fractured land ever since the NATO-backed militant uprising ousted strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. While British and French warplanes did most of the actual bombing, the US contribution was crucial to the war effort, with America providing things like intelligence gathering and air refueling. At the moment there are two main competing governments in Libya, one recognized by the UN and based in the capital Tripoli and another one in the eastern city of Tobruk. Khalifa Haftar, a military commander supporting the eastern faction, ordered his troops to launch a military operation around Tripoli, citing the presence of terrorists and extremists as the reason for the move. They reportedly took control of some areas around the capital, like the defunct Tripoli International Airport, but so far have not moved towards central areas of the city. The governments are just two of the many players in Libya, which are divided between various tribal militias, criminal gangs, radical Islamist groups and other forces. The late Gaddafi was far from being an example of a benevolent selfless leader, having a record of military adventurism, alleged human rights violations and reported personal corruption. Nevertheless he ruled the country with a firm hand for decades, navigating the labyrinth of conflicting tribal loyalties and keeping radical Islamist groups in check. His extravagant exuberant lifestyle didnt stop him from using some of Libyas oil riches to fund education, healthcare and other public services, which helped make Libya a country with the highest human development index in Africa. If you like this story, share it with a friend! Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of the recently convicted Mexican drug cartel boss, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, has announced the launch of a fashion brand in his name. The idea did not sit well with the US authorities, though. As the kingpin of Mexicos largest Sinaloa drug cartel, once one of the worlds most wanted criminals and now facing life in prison, his wife and former US beauty pageant queen has seemingly found an inventive way to capitalize on his name. Earlier this week, Aispuro, 29, announced her plans to launch an El Chapo Guzman: JGL fashion brand by summer. I invite clothing designers who are starting out and who want to join the project, to work with me, Aispuro wrote in her Instagram, which has more than 100,000 followers. Also on rt.com Mexican drug cartel leader El Chapo found guilty, faces life in prison The drug lords wife also proudly boasted that her goal was no less than projecting my style and Joaquins as well as to please everybody. While El Chapo himself is not expected to get anything from this new enterprise, he allegedly personally approved the idea, as he signed off on his wifes venture right in his cell in a New York prison. It remains unclear, however, what exact contribution to fashion could be made by a common clothes-wearing man, who mostly gained international notoriety for his repeated escapes from Mexican custody particularly through a 1.5km underground tunnel and not by being a fashion icon. The upstart project is facing problems though, as the US authorities were less-than-amused by the prospect of a criminals name being used for a fashion brand. Such a trademark would allegedly violate public order, morality and good manners. Also on rt.com Jets, lions and private beaches: El Chapos luxury lifestyle laid bare by former henchman El Chapos lawyer and Aispuros designated representative, Mariel Colon Miro, however, maintained that the project was running smoothly by boasting that she received a lot of responses from designers who are interested in forming part of the project. Dismissing the possibility of legal hurdles she said that the trademark application was filed and we are just waiting. El Chapo, 61, was found guilty on all 10 charges related to large-scale drug trafficking and murder conspiracy in the climax in February of the 11-week-long trial. The notorious criminal, who ran a criminal empire as complex as a big international corporation and was repeatedly compared to another infamous drug lord, Pablo Escobar, already found his way into popular culture, when Netflix and Univision co-produced a TV series about his life. Like this story? Share it with a friend! US Representative Ilhan Omar called on God to forgive her detractors after President Donald Trump mocked her criticism of Israel on the day a supporter of his was charged with death threats against her. Trump, mentioned the freshman Democrat during a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. He gave a special thanks to Omar before pausing and continuing in a sarcastic tone: Oh, I forgot. She doesnt like Israel. I forgot. Im so sorry. Omar drew an avalanche of accusations of anti-Semitism last month after criticizing the influence of the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC on American politics. Critics said she used Jew-hating tropes, forcing her to apologize to those, who were offended by the way she expressed her views. While never mentioned by name, she seemed omnipresent during last weeks AIPAC gathering, with senior speakers across the political aisle making references to the controversy one after another. Also on rt.com Not all about the Benjamins: Netanyahu throws shade at Omar in AIPAC speech The lawmaker responded to Trumps Saturday remark by quoting the words of Prophet Muhammad cited in the hadith Islams revered recollections of the life of the prophet. Omar is a refugee from Somalia and a Muslim woman representing Minnesotas 5th congressional district. Incidentally, on the same day the US Attorneys Office said it had charged Patrick Carlineo, 55, from upstate New York, with threatening the assault and murder of Omar. Carlineo is accused of calling the representatives office on March 21, calling her a f**king terrorist and saying he will put a bullet in her f**king skull. When questioned by the authorities, Carlineo said he was a patriot, that he loves the president, and that he hates radical Muslims in our government, court papers said. Omar, he claimed, supported Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. If convicted, he faces up to ten years behind bars. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! Ronda Rousey's husband and former UFC heavyweight contender Travis Browne jumped into the ring to defend WWE legend Bret 'Hitman' Hart after a crazed fan attacked the 61-year-old at a WWE Hall of Fame ceremony. Unlike many in-ring 'attacks,' which are often part of wrestling storylines, this particular intruder was not part of the story as WWE legend Hart, joined by his niece and WWE wrestler Natalya, daughter of Hart's deceased former tag-team partner Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart, was addressing the crowd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Hart was making an acceptance speech as one half of the legendary wrestling tag team, 'The Hart Foundation,' which was being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. But during Hart's address to the packed crowd of appreciative wrestling fans, one member of the crowd leapt the barrier, entered the ring and attacked Hart. A host of people, led by former UFC star Browne, then stormed the ring to aid 61-year-old stroke and cancer survivor Hart. Browne went straight for the attacker, separating him from Hart and landing some heavy punches, while WWE superstars Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods moved swiftly to move Natalya from harm's way. And as the attacker was being dragged away, WWE star Dash Wilder made sure the unwanted intruder regretted his actions, with one final punch to the face. Browne has been content to sit in the background after stepping away from the octagon following his defeat to Alexey Oleynik at UFC 213. He married Ronda Rousey in August 2017, and has been a regular presence at ringside as his wife has embarked on a hugely successful wrestling career. But after seeing the fan leap into the ring to attack the beloved Canadian wrestling legend, his instincts took over and he was first to arrive to help keep both Hart and Natalya safe from the attacker. Hart appeared unharmed in the incident and shared a photo on his Instagram wearing his two WWE Hall of Fame rings. Meanwhile his attacker, named as Zachary Madsen from Nebraska, was taken to the 78th Precinct in New York, but no details of charges have yet been released. A respected German analytical TV program opened its latest edition by informing viewers that Russian forces intruded into the Baltics. Was this "fantasy" just juvenile attention-seeking, or crude pro-NATO propaganda? Together with European and German allies, the US army is currently moving through land, air and sea to Estonia to expel Russian forces, which have once again invaded, as in Crimea before, announced a worried Claus Kleber, host of heute journal, on the national public broadcaster ZDF Thursday night. As millions of viewers tensed up, the veteran host announced that it was a gotcha! Do not worry. It is not true. This is just a fantasy scenario but a realistic one, said Kleber. One of the biggest names in German journalism, Kleber explained that the fake-out was designed to make it clear that a war may be imminent, that it is likely to be a surprise, and that Germany will have to defend even its smallest allies, including Estonia. The problem today is that NATO seems more fragile today on its 70th birthday than during any time in its history. During which it has been an unprecedented success story, said the host, before introducing a piece that gave a potted history of the alliance, from its post-WWII founding, to supposed revanchism from Russia, to its current bete noire Donald Trump. Unless one believes there is truly some valid insight that is achieved by the entire episode, there are two ways of looking at these sub-Orson Welles shenanigans. The first is to regard the modern news media as entertainers, who are not to be taken at face value. For all his PhD qualifications and long history as a top foreign correspondent, Kleber leads a moribund broadcast format a scheduled news magazine show on terrestrial TV and is trying to stay relevant by turning ever-more shrill. In the bland world of Germanys news media, the more provocative approach has led to higher ratings for the esteemed heute-journal. Also on rt.com Security risk & lawbreaker: German MP says 70yo NATO should retire In this case, this stunt is merely borderline trolling that simply trivializes the very real concerns in the region, and among NATO allies through hyperbole. Estonia is not just some made-up country to be used as a storytelling prop. But there is a less charitable interpretation: what if people are taking this seriously? Imagine reading in the Western media that a Russian state channel was now putting out fake news bulletins about NATO invading Kaliningrad. Would you think this is provocative journalism or would you reckon that the Kremlin is irresponsibly stoking tensions, and preparing Russians for a confrontation with the West? And for all the silliness, telling people there will be a war with Russia, so you must love NATO is not some irreverent journalistic opinion, it is the government line, beamed into homes across Germany as scaremongering, hysterical propaganda. Is this the media really want to play? A Russian girl has sustained severe injuries but, amazingly, has survived a fall from a height of about 30 meters. The near-tragedy happened reportedly because of a failed attempt at taking a daring selfie. The accident occurred in the Siberian city of Tymen late on Saturday, when the girl fell from the 10th floor of a high-rise building. Miraculously, the girl survived and was rushed to hospital. She received serious injuries and remains in critical yet stable condition, local health officials told Russian media. The identity of the girl and her age have not been disclosed to the public and there has been no official word on the circumstances or causes of the near-tragedy. Also on rt.com Selfie fall: Gallery-goers drop Dali and Goya pieces while snapping pics (VIDEO) However, a page on the Vkontakte social network that focuses on incidents in Tyumen said, citing eyewitnesses, that the girl had been attempting to take a daring selfie. Some claimed that a group of boys had held the girl and then had let her go, while others insist she was alone. It remains unclear whether the girl was dangling outside the building during the accident or had slipped from a windowsill. The desire to snap a cool shot in the universal quest for some likes on the Internet can be dangerous and even fatal. A recent study on selfie-related deaths showed that India takes a solid first place with around 160 cases in six years. Russia, for its part, scored second with 14 people having perished while snapping a selfie. Also on rt.com Lethal shots: Russia ranks second in international selfie death rating Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! If Russia is forced to leave the Council of Europe around the same time the UK leaves the EU, it will have disastrous consequences for the continent, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, has warned. I believe many people do not understand what a blow it will be for Europe if we get Brexit and Ruxit at the same time. However, it can happen soon, he told Norwegian news agency, NTB about the possibility of Russia leaving the organization in summer. Jagland also maintained that the only way to avert this looming disaster is to fully reinstate the rights of the Russian delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which it was deprived of following Russias reunification with Crimea. Back in 2014, after Crimea reunited with Russia as a result of the referendum a move that European nations treated as annexation Moscows delegation was stripped of its voting rights in PACE as well as deprived of the right to take part in the Council of Europes (CE) monitoring missions or joining the PACE ruling bodies under rules that Russia called politically motivated and discriminatory. Since that time, Moscow sought the full reinstatement of its delegations rights as well as a change of the discriminatory regulations. In 2015, PACE reviewed the issue twice but eventually ended up imposing even harsher restrictions against the Russian delegation. Also on rt.com No PACE cooperation in 2019 due to anti-Russian hysteria snr lawmaker This development prompted Moscow to first seize its participation in the PACE sessions and eventually to stop paying its installments to the Council of Europe back in 2017. The move sparked another row between Russia and CE as Moscow was one of the major contributors to the organizations budget. In 2017, Russia contributed 33 million ($37.07 million) to the CE budget out of a total of 454 million ($509.96 million). Moscows decision forced the CE to freeze nine percent of its budget expenditures and still left the organization with a deficit of 1.5 million ($1.68 million). Also on rt.com Russian delegation leaves OSCE PA session in protest over regulations violation In early 2019, the Russian State Duma and the Senate both passed resolutions, which said that Russia will not send a delegation to PACE and pay its installments to the CE this year because of the continued discrimination. If a CE member state does not pay its fees for two years, it can be expelled from the organization. For Russia, the deadline expires on July 1. Moscow hinted a number of times that it might leave the international body in its own volition if the situation with its delegations rights does not change. On Friday, the head of the Russian Senates International Relations Committee, Konstantin Kosachev, said that Russia entertains a possibility of leaving the Council of Europe. Although Jagland lamented the fact that Russia has long not paid its instalments to the organizations budget, he still admitted that the treatment of the Russian delegation to PACE was unfair as he said that a nation could be stripped of its voting rights only if it decides to leave the Council of Europe or is excluded from it by decision of the CEs ministerial committee. Its a change from his October statements that Russia should face additional sanctions if it does not resume its payments to the CE. Earlier this week, the secretary general also presented his draft of a new agreement that would create a more solid cooperation framework for the CE members and would resolve the crisis in relations between the Council of Europe and Russia. The draft accord includes four points and particularly guarantees equal rights to all national delegations regardless of any circumstances while declaring participation in the CEs intergovernmental structures, such as PACE, not a privilege but a responsibility. If you like this story, share it with a friend! Riyadh plans to issue a multi-billion dollar tender next year to construct its first two nuclear power reactors, sources told Reuters, adding that the kingdom is discussing the project with the US and other potential suppliers. The worlds top oil exporter wants to diversify its energy mix so it could free up more crude for export. However, the plans are facing the scrutiny of Washington due to fears of potential military uses for the technology. Riyadh says its plans are peaceful as it aims to mine for uranium. However, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last year the kingdom would develop nuclear arms if Iran did. He told CBS then: Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible. Also on rt.com 'How does this serve US interests? Gabbard slams decision to sell Saudi Arabia nuclear weapons tech US, Russian, South Korean, Chinese and French firms are currently in talks with Riyadh to supply reactors. Saudi Arabia is continuing to make very deliberate steps forward although at a slower pace than originally expected, said one of the sources familiar with the plans. Saudi officials previously said they aimed to select a vendor in late 2018, which then slipped to 2019. The tender will now be issued in 2020, the sources said. According to them, the project was proceeding slowly partly because Riyadh was still in discussions with all potential suppliers rather than narrowing them down to a shortlist. One of the sources familiar with the talks said that the plans have also been delayed by strained ties with Washington, which has been criticizing Riyadh over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia needs to sign an accord on the peaceful use of nuclear technology with Washington to secure the transfer of US nuclear equipment and expertise, under the US Atomic Energy Act. Washington has also been seeking to convince Riyadh to sign the International Atomic Energy Agencys Additional Protocol on extra safeguards for verifying that nuclear technology is used for peaceful applications, according to the source. It said that the kingdom has so far resisted, explaining that the fate of negotiations could determine whether Riyadh reaches a deal with US firms. For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section Africas third-largest state, Sudan, has suffered a total power outage, its ministry of water and electricity confirmed. The incident takes place amid anti-government protests that have gone on for months. The Sudanese authorities did not provide an explanation for the blackout, saying only that engineers and technicians are working to restore power. The power outage comes amid the second day of a massive anti-government protest in the capital, Khartoum. Thousands of people gathered outside the presidential palace, which also hosts the army headquarters and Defense Ministry, to demand the resignation of long-time Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir. Demonstrators, who gathered on the anniversary of another popular protest that led to the ousting of President Jaafar Nimeiri in 1985, called on the army to join them in opposition to the current government. Protesters threw stones at police on Saturday, prompting the officers to respond with tear gas. One person was also killed in Khartoums twin city, Omdurman, located across the Nile. Thousands of protesters stayed near the presidential residence overnight, staging a sit-in, even though clashes subsided on Saturday evening. Security forces repeatedly attempted to clear the area, using tear gas, but failed to do so. Also on rt.com Chairs thrown as South African TV debate descends into mass brawl (VIDEO) Crowds also gathered in the Burri neighborhood of Khartoum on Sunday, where people blocked several major roads, Reuters reports. Sudan has seen dozens of minor protests since December 2018, which were triggered by a rise in food prices and cash shortages. The president, who gained a sweeping victory in the latest election in 2015 which was boycotted by major opposition parties, refused to step down, arguing that his opponents should seek power through the ballot box. In February, Bashir declared a nationwide state of emergency. Thirty-two people were killed since the start of the protests, according to official data. Human Rights Watch puts the death toll at 51. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! A conservative senator raised a few eyebrows in Russian after it emerged that she objects to yoga classes being held in prisons. The complaint reportedly implies that yoga can turn inmates gay and lead to rioting. Yoga classes were introduced in some pretrial detention facilities in Moscow as a pilot project last year. It was hailed as a big success by jail officials. But it turns out that not everyone was supportive. One Russian senator lodged a complaint with the Prosecutor Generals Office, requiring it to launch an official investigation into what yoga does for inmates, Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reports. The senator, Elena Mizulina, is a controversial figure in Russian politics. She is deeply conservative and has been behind several initiatives that some progressives regard as attempts to drag the country back to the Middle Ages. She has suggested restricting the right to abortion, discouraging divorce through taxation, raising the age of consent to 18, and enshrining Orthodox Christianity in the Russian constitution, to name but a few of her proposals. Also on rt.com No free love? Russian parliament rejects cohabitation bill According to the newspaper, her complaint cited an expert opinion that some yoga exercises can lead to uncontrolled fluxes of libido and consequently homosexual relationships among inmates. Aleksandr Dvorkin, a US-educated historian and Orthodox theologian who made a name for himself in Russia fighting quasi-religious cults, further speculated that if career criminals who tend to be homophobic suspect yoga practitioners of being gay, they would refuse to take food from their hands. This may escalate into a protest riot, he said. The newspaper said the expert opinion was leaked to them by a source in the Prosecutor Generals Office, who is embarrassed that prosecutors have to act on the bizarre complaint. After the public backlash sparked by the report, FSIN, Russias penitentiary body, stated that yoga classes will have a place in Russian jails. Our studies showed that people who practiced yoga had significantly fewer health complaints. It had a very positive effect, FSIN Deputy Head Valery Maksimenko said in an interview with Govorit Moskva radio station. He said the pilot project which was held at two facilities will soon be expanded to other jails. The authorities may also add other health-boosting exercises like the Chinese technique of qigong. Also on rt.com Russia closes 93 prisons in 7 years due to more lenient laws official People practice it around the world and theres no harm in it. It wont make anyone gay, the official said. And even if it could, its a free country where everyone has a right to pick a path of his or her choosing. We dont criminalize homosexuality. Practices like yoga or qigong that originate in foreign religious traditions are viewed with suspicion in some conservative religious circles in Russia. Some members believe they can be used to sneak in various beliefs that could end up leading people to eternal damnation. The majority of Russians are either indifferent to or welcome the health benefits these practices bring. Like this story? Share it with a friend! The Tripura unit of the Congress has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission, seeking the immediate arrest of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb for allegedly spreading communal hatred in the state. Tripura Pradesh Congress vice-president Tapas Dey filed the complaint on April 5 with Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti, accusing Deb of repeatedly making false statements with "a motive to divide communities in the state on the lines of caste, creed and religion". Dey also called for the chief minister's immediate arrest. The office of the CEO has confirmed receiving the complaint against the chief minister. "Our party has urged the CEO to register an FIR against Deb for his immediate detention to judicial custody," another state Congress leader said. Dey also claimed that BJP activists were threatening voters to not go to the polling stations and were attacking Congress workers and candidates. Despite repeated complaints to police, no action has been taken, he added. When contacted, BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya cited an earlier slogan raised by AICC member and former acting president of the Tripura Pradesh Congress, Deb Burman. Bhattacharya alleged that the slogan -- "Poila Jati, Ulo Party (caste is first and then political parties)" -- in indigenous Kokbarak language had communal overtones. "This phrase raised by Deb Burman had communal hints. Let EC investigate the truth, and then everything would be clear to the people," he told PTI. In Tripura, there are 23 tribal communities, together constituting one third of the state's population. BJP leader Prakash Javadekar on April 7 claimed that a clear trend in his party's favour had emerged for the Lok Sabha polls, as he made light of the challenge from a "divided" opposition, saying the Congress has become a "fringe" party under Rahul Gandhi. Expressing confidence that the BJP will better its 2014 tally and win over 300 seats, the Union minister said that last time around people voted in "hope" (of better days) and now they will vote in "confidence" seeing the Modi government's performance. The opposition's grand alliance hardly exists and its constituents have been fighting each other in states such as Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh, he claimed, adding that the people believe that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's only agenda is taking the country forward. "I see a very clear trend in BJP's favour. People want to give Modi another chance. They voted in 2014 in hope because he was not tested in Delhi. "Now, they will vote in confidence because they believe he is a man who leads from the front, is decisive, ended policy paralysis and works round-the-clock," Javadekar told PTI in an interview. The seven-phase general elections are starting on April 11 and the counting will be held on May 23. To a question about the several promises made by the Congress in its manifesto, including paying poor families Rs 72,000 annually, Javadekar said the opposition party is promising the moon as it knows that "it has no chance of coming to power". They had earlier promised to eradicate poverty, and give electricity and houses to the poor, but they never fulfilled it. People know it and will vote for the BJP for performance, prosperity, progress and decisiveness, he said. The Congress, Javadekar said, has been reduced to a "fringe" party under its president Rahul Gandhi as it has neglected issues of national security and because of its association with "all the bad elements", including the "tukde-tukde gang", a reference to those allegedly favouring India's disintegration. When asked about the opposition's criticism that the BJP was pitching national security as a key poll plank to turn the spotlight away from issues like unemployment and development, he said, world over national security will dominate any polls if a country is challenged. "We are no exception. It was the Pulwama terror attack which triggered it and the way Pakistan is supporting terrorism. There is tremendous anger against it. And, the way the prime minister allowed the air force to do what was needed...This has created confidence in a decisive government," he said. Javadekar claimed that the BJP will increase its tally from eight seats in the North East to around 22, in West Bengal from two to 22 and in Odisha from one to 15.This will lead to an improvement from its last poll tally of 282, he said. Even in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where the Congress had defeated the BJP in assembly polls, the saffron party will repeat its 2014 performance in this Lok Sabha polls, he said. People in these three states are feeling "betrayed" as the Congress is not fulfilling its promises, Javadekar said. He claimed that people vote differently in different elections. In Lok Sabha polls the issue is about who will lead the country and make it more secure, the Union minister said. Javadekar noted that in 1999 people in Maharashtra had voted in favour of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the Lok Sabha polls but not in the assembly poll, which was conducted simultaneously. He said as there was a pro-Vajpayee mood in 1999, a similar pro-incumbency feeling was present among voters and added that the BJP had now become much stronger and will win a majority of seats like it did in 2014. In the snap polls held in 1999, after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government fell by one vote, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance had returned to power under him. Rejecting any comparison between the 2004 polls, when the BJP under Vajpayee had suffered a shock defeat and the coming general election, Javadekar said the party organisation is much stronger now and the Modi government has delivered not just the "general good" like roads, but also "individual good" like electricity, houses, LPG connections and health facilities. People have been given over Rs 4.5 lakh crore under 355 welfare schemes of the Modi government, he said. The Opposition, he said, is divided and offers no policy or programme. The SP-BSP-RLD alliance has kept the Congress away in Uttar Pradesh. The Trinamool Congress, the Left and the Congress are fighting each other in West Bengal and a similar fractured opposition exists in many other states, he claimed. Opposition leaders want a "majboor sarkar" (helpless government) as they believes in politics of entitlement while the BJP is for politics of empowerment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will share the stage at a rally in Maharashtra on April 9 for the first time after the tie-up of their parties for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The two leaders will address a public gathering at Ausa in Latur in support of the alliance candidates in that district and Osmanabad, where polling will be held on April 18, BJP spokesman Keshav Upadhyay said on April 7. Modi and Thackeray last shared the dais in Mumbai in December 2016 at a function to lay the foundation stone of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off the Arabian Sea. On Saturday, Modi addressed a rally in Nanded, where state Congress president andformer chief minister Ashok Chavan is contesting against BJP's Pratap Chikhalikar. The Sena, which has often been critical of the BJP and policies of the NDA government, entered into a seat-sharing pact with it recently after the ruling party's president, Amit Shah,visited Thackeray at his residence here. The BJP and Sena announced to contest 25 and 23 seats, respectively, in Maharashtra which has 48 Lok Sabha constituencies. Earlier, the two parties went separate ways after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and contested the Maharashtra Assembly elections held later that year on their own. The BJP-led government under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis took charge in the state in October 2014 and the Shiv Sena joined it in December that year. Polling for the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29, and the results will be declared on May 23. Senior Congress leader Rajeev Shukla said on April 7 no decision had been taken yet about general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contesting the election against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Shukla claimed that under the leadership of Vadra, who is the party's incharge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, the Congress would do well in the Lok Sabha election and sweep the 2022 assembly election. On the recent speculation about Vadra contesting from Varanasi, Shukla told PTI: "In response to a question, she had made a comment which is unnecessarily being talked about now. No definite decision has been taken on her contesting the election.'' During campaigning at Rae Bareli a fortnight ago, Vadra had dropped a hint that she is not averse to taking on Modi in his own Lok Sabha constituency. "Shouldn't I fight from Varanasi?" Vadra had quipped when a party worker asked her to contest from Rae Bareli, the constituency of her mother and UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi. Shukla said Vadra was getting a very good response from the public wherever she is going for campaigning. "In the past 20 years, the Congress has become very weak in Uttar Pradesh. The party has to be strengthened under her leadership for 2022." The former Union minister said the common people would benefit from all the promises made in the Congress manifesto. "Providing Rs 72,000 per annum under the Nyay (minimum income) scheme and increasing the agricultural budget will be the priority," he said. The Congress leader exuded confidence that NYAY could be implemented. "I have been a planning minister, this scheme can be implemented. People who are spreading rumours did the same when our government launched the MGNREGA (rural job guarantee scheme). There will be no burden on the middle class or working class." Shukla also hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party on the issue of nationalism. "Nationalism was displayed during the Indira Gandhi government when Pakistan was taught a lesson in 1971. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also given a fitting reply to Pakistan. Modi has just created a ruckus through false propaganda." The Congress leader said the party's focus was employment, farmers and women's safety. "The BJP is only talking about Hindu-Muslim and Pakistan. We are more concerned about the common man," Shukla said. "The biggest problem India is facing is that of unemployment. Our agenda is to give jobs to the youths and look after the issues of farmers and women's safety in the country." The former Union minister claimed that the "Modi brand" would not work this time, adding that the Opposition was fighting strongly in different states and would collectively get a majority. Asked if the Opposition parties would accept the leadership of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi after the election, Shukla said: "The Congress president himself has mentioned that there is no dispute over the leadership and later he will accept what everyone decides.'' MNS chief Raj Thackeray on April 6 said Prime Minister Narendra Modi frittered away the huge mandate he had won in 2014 and spent the last five years in changing names of the schemes that were launched by the previous Congress regime. Addressing a gathering of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai, Thackeray referred to a recent statement from the US which stated that all the F-16 jets in Pakistani fleet were accounted for, contrary to the Indian government's claim that one intruding jet was shot down after the Balakot aerial strike. "Why did PM Modi lie on this? He should answer that. Modi had got such a rare opportunity, as the BJP had won the majority vote in 2014, 30 years after (late PM) Rajiv Gandhi secured such a huge mandate. What did you do in five years?" Thackeray questionned. He also drew a parallel between the "acche din" promise and a similar slogan given by the then US President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940s and by German dictator Adolf Hitler. Apparently referring to BJP veteran L K Advani, the MNS chief said people spend their entire life wishing to be the prime minister, but Modi, "who won the majority by a fluke", kept "lying" to people all these years". "In the last five years, the prime minister has not held even a single press conference. Why is he scared to face journalists and answer their questions? He could have done so much," he said. The MNS chief further said that importance of the Congress is realised only when the party is not in power. "What (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi has said is right. PM Modi has taught us a lot. We abuse the Congress when it is in power," he said. Thackeray, who used to praise Modi when he used to be chief minister of Gujarat before turning his fierce critic, also clarified his position. "People ask me why did I support the PM earlier and now I criticise him. My explanation is that since the man (Modi) has changed so did my stand," he said. "Traits of Modi and Hitler are similar. The then US president Franklin Roosevelt had also said that good days would come. Even Hitler had said the same. And now Modi is also talking about 'acche din'," he said. Further attacking the prime minister, Thackeray said even when he goes to meet his old mother once a year during her birthday, he takes press photographers along. "What is this? My mother lives with me. Should I also start taking cameras when I go to meet her in the next room?" he quipped. "Modi could have done wonders in the country because he had a majority government. He, however, only changed the names of the schemes implemented by the Congress," Thackeray said. He named schemes like the National Girl Child Day programme and Rajiv Awas Yojana to stress his point. Slamming Amit Shah over his statement that 250 terrorists were killed in the Balakot air strike in February this year, the MNS chief wondered how did the BJP president know that exact number. "Was he (Shah) sitting in the back of the IAF plane? Even IAF chief had said that the exact numbers were not available. Had even ten terrorists been killed, Pakistan would not have released Wing Commander Abhinandan (Varthaman) from its custody," he said. Wing Commander Varthaman was captured after his MiG-21 Bison went down during a dogfight with an intruding F-16 jet after the Balakot strike. Thackeray further said if Modi returns to power again, holding of elections will stop and democratic rights will be taken away. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on April 7 sought to write off his jailed arch-rival, RJD national president Lalu Prasad, with the remark that with adequate power supply in the state the days of 'lantern' the opposition partys ubiquitous poll symbol were over. Prasad, who is in Ranchi serving sentences in fodder scam cases, took to twitter and likened his associate-turned-adversary to "the species that keeps leaping from one tree branch to another" while accusing Kumar of being "paltuon ka sardar" (the king of turncoats). "Electricity has reached every household in Bihar. Now there is no use for the lantern," Kumar told an election rally in Jamui Lok Sabha constituency in a veiled attack on the RJD that evoked applause from the crowds. The chief minister, who heads the JD(U), an NDA ally, was canvassing for local MP Chirag Paswan of the LJP, which is the third constituent in the state of the BJP-led coalition. Defending his decision to return to the NDA in 2017, four years after having snapped ties with the BJP, Kumar said he took the step keeping in mind the interests of Bihar and the state has witnessed accelerated growth with Prime Minister Narendra Modis cooperation. Kumar also lauded Modi for acting tough on terror and raising the countrys prestige on the international stage. Prasad, who has been sore ever since Kumars abrupt exit from the 'Mahagathbandhan' stripped the RJD off power and caused his sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav to lose their ministerial berths, shared a newspaper clipping from 2014, wherein the chief minister was quoted as having said "I shall rather be consigned to dust than align with the BJP." Known for his acerbic wit, Prasad captioned the photograph in Hindi "read the statement of the creature that keeps leaping from one tree branch to another. He has been responsible for changing loyalties five times in as many years. Hence he has been called the king of turncoats." Prasads barb of changing loyalties five times in five years was in the context of Kumar having snapped ties with the BJP in 2013, fought the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with Left parties the following year and stepped down as Chief Minister taking moral responsibility for the JD(U)s moral debacle, installing his then cabinet colleague Jitan Ram Manjhi in his place. Manjhi, who is now an RJD ally, was made to resign less than a year later to facilitate the return of Kumar as chief minister, which Prasad had supported at that time. The arch rivals, along with the Congress, formed an alliance that inflicted a crushing defeat on the NDA in the 2015 assembly polls of which Manjhi was then a part. Kumar returned as CM while Tejashwi Yadav became his deputy and Tej Pratap Yadav got a cabinet berth. However, corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav made Kumar put in his papers in July, 2017 heeding what he called his "inner voice" though he was back as the chief minister in less than 24 hours, this time with the BJPs support. Ecuador's government said late on April 5 that it rejected reports that it would imminently expel Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from its London embassy, where he has lived in asylum for nearly seven years. Assange was "prepared" for expulsion from the building, a British friend of his said on April 2, after Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said he had "repeatedly violated" the terms of his asylum. Moreno accused Assange of harming Ecuador's relations with other countries by intervening in their politics and said he did not have the right to "hack private accounts or phones." WikiLeaks said Moreno's remarks were in retribution for WikiLeaks having reported on corruption accusations against Moreno, who denies wrongdoing. In a statement, Ecuador's foreign ministry denied it had reached an agreement with the British government to jail Assange if he left the embassy. Ecuador "categorically rejects the fake news that have circulated recently on social networks, many spread by an organization linked to Mr Julian Assange, about an imminent termination of the diplomatic aslyum granted to him since 2012," it said. The ministry said it reserved the right to terminate asylum when it considered it justified. "By releasing information that distorts the truth, (Assange) and his associates express once again their ingratitude and disrespect to Ecuador," it said. Assange took refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. That probe was later dropped, but Assange fears he could be extradited to face charges in the United States, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks. Ecuador last year established new rules for Assange's behavior while in the embassy, which required him to pay his medical bills and clean up after his pet cat. He challenged the rules in local and international tribunals, arguing they violated his human rights. Both courts ruled against him. Last month, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is linked to the Organization of American States, rejected Assange's request that Ecuador ease the conditions it has imposed on his residence in the London embassy. Assange says Ecuador is seeking to end his asylum and is putting pressure on him by isolating him from visitors and spying on him. Ecuador has said its treatment of Assange was in line with international law, but that his situation "cannot be extended indefinitely." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on April 6 that he would annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in office, a last-minute pre-election promise likely to enrage Palestinians and the Arab world. In an interview with Israeli Channel 12 News three days ahead of the April 9 poll, Netanyahu was asked why he had not extended sovereignty to large West Bank settlements, as Israel did without international recognition in east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both captured in the 1967 Middle East war. "Who says that we won't do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it," Netanyahu said. "You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage - the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend (Israeli) sovereignty and I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements." The veteran right-wing Israeli leader, who has dominated Israeli politics for a generation, is fighting for his political survival against former top general Benny Gantz, a political novice campaigning on a centrist platform. Netanyahu has cast Gantz as a weak leftist who would endanger Israel's security by giving territorial concessions to the Palestinians. But Netanyahu, who has fought the election campaign under the shadow of corruption allegations, is also competing for votes with far-right parties who advocate annexation. His comments are likely to appeal to hardline voters, who oppose ceding lands. Palestinian leaders immediately reacted with anger. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator and a close aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump Administration's support and endorsement of Israel's violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine." In Gaza, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri urged Abbas's western-backed Palestinian Authority to halt its security cooperation with Israel in the occupied West Bank. "Netanyahu's dreams of annexing the West Bank will never be achieved and we will not allow that to happen," he said. "It is time for (the PA) to stop security coordination with the occupation, and to get united in the face of the challenges." WEST BANK Settlements are one of the most heated issues in efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, frozen since 2014. After decades of settlement-building, more than 400,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank, according to Israeli figures, among about 2.9 million Palestinians according to the Palestinian Statistics Bureau. A further 212,000 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Palestinians and many countries consider settlements to be illegal under the Geneva conventions that bar settling on land captured in war. Israel disputes this, citing security needs and biblical, historical and political connections to the land. The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, all territory Israel captured in 1967. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and withdrawn from Gaza. The West Bank remains under Israeli military occupation with limited Palestinian self rule. Netanyahu's remarks follow a series of announcements and policy changes by US President Donald Trump that were seen to favour Israel. In March, Trump broke with decades of international consensus by recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured from Syria. That followed his December 2017 decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to move the US embassy there. Both moves delighted Israel, infuriated Palestinian and Arab leaders, and were opposed by most US allies. With Trump's moves on Jerusalem and The Golan, the Israeli leader may feel emboldened to advocate for annexation. US officials have said they would unveil a long-awaited Trump administration Middle East peace plan after the Israeli election, but prospects to restart negotiations appear dim. The Palestinians have been boycotting the Trump administration over its Jerusalem moves and other recent decisions they view as pro-Israel bias. ELECTION CAMPAIGN The US State Department declined to comment about Netanyahu's remarks, which were viewed in the Israeli media as an attempt to draw right-wing votes rather than an immediate change of policy. Netanyahu has been plagued by corruption allegations throughout the election campaign, after Israel's attorney general publicly announced in February that he intends to indict Netanyahu. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in three cases of alleged bribery and fraud, but the allegations could cloud his political future and that of any government he might head, possibly leading to a new election. His main election rival, Gantz, has vowed to pursue peace with the Palestinians, but he has also stopped short at embracing their quest for statehood. A spokeswoman for Gantz declined comment on Netanyahu's remarks. On April 5, the last day polling is allowed, Gantz's centrist Blue and White party was projected to take 30 seats, more than the 26 forecast for Netanyahu' right-wing Likud, according to a poll in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. But this and other polls also projected a majority of the Knesset's 120 seats will go to the parties in Netanyahu's right-wing bloc, giving Netanyahu a slim but workable majority. A few days before the previous Israeli election in 2015, Netanyahu vowed there would never be a Palestinian state under his watch but then backtracked on that statement after a rebuke from Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama. Last year, however, Netanyahu told members of his right-wing Likud party that Israel and the United States were discussing the possibility of Israel annexing settlements. The White House swiftly denied that. While vowing that he would not evacuate settlers from their homes, Netanyahu has also said in the past that the future of the settlements should be determined in peace talks with the Palestinians. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on April 7 claimed that his government has reliable intelligence that India is planning another attack against the country between April 16-20, according to a media report. 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 (IAF) 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 an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. Qureshi during a press conference in Multan said that the government has "reliable intelligence that India is devising a new plan", Dawn newspaper reported. "Preparations are being made, and there are chances of another attack against Pakistan. According to our information, the action could be taken between April 16-20," the paper quoted Qureshi as saying. "A new mishap could be staged...And its purpose will be to justify their [India's] offensive against Pakistan and to increase diplomatic pressure against Islamabad," he alleged. "If it happens, you can imagine the impact of the occurrence on the peace and stability of the region." Qureshi said that Pakistan has already briefed the United Nations Security Council's permanent members -- over the issue and stated Pakistan's apprehensions. "We want the international community to take notice of this irresponsible behaviour and reprimand them [India] for taking this route," he said. Former UK Prime Minister Theresa May British Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledged that the government's strategies to get her Brexit deal approved in Parliament failed, saying on April 6 there's little prospect lawmakers will back the thrice-rejected divorce agreement "in the near future." With the UK once again days away from a deadline for leaving the European Union, May pressured opposition lawmakers to help her find a compromise agreement instead, saying voters "expect their politicians to work together when the national interest demands it." After May's deal with the EU out for a third time in the House of Commons, the prime minister invited the opposition Labour Party this week to discuss alternatives. But three days of talks ended with no agreement and the left-of-center Labour accusing May's Conservative government of not offering real change. "I haven't noticed any great change in the government's position so far," Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on April 6. "I'm waiting to see the red lines move." Labour favors a softer form of Brexit than the government has advocated. The party says Britain should remain closely bound to EU trade rules and maintain the bloc's standards in areas such as workers' rights and environmental protection. Britain is due to leave the EU on April 12 unless May can secure another delay from the EU, which already agreed to postpone the Brexit day originally set for March 29. May now is asking for Britain's departure to be pushed back until June 30, hoping to reach a compromise with Labour and a deal through Parliament in a matter of weeks. "The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all," May said in a statement. But EU leaders favor a longer delay to avoid another round of cliff-edge preparations and politics. And they say the U.K. needs to put forward a concrete plan to end the stalemate to get any further postponement. An extension requires unanimous approval from the 27 remaining leaders, some of whom are fed up with Brexit uncertainty and reluctant to prolong it further. Last month, the EU gave Britain until April 12 to approve the withdrawal agreement it reached with the May's government, to change course and seek a further delay to Brexit, or to crash out of the EU with no deal in place or transition period to cushion the shock. The leaders of EU member countries are due to meet in Brussels on April 10, two days before the April 12 deadline to consider Britain's request for a second extension. Economists and business leaders have warned a no-deal Brexit would severely disrupt trade and travel, with tariffs and customs checks causing gridlocked British ports and possible shortages of some foods, medicines and other products. Worries about a chaotic British exit are especially acute in Ireland, the only EU member that shares a land border with the UK Any customs checks or other obstacles along the currently invisible frontier would hammer the Irish economy and could undermine Northern Ireland's peace process. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on April 6 that it was "extremely unlikely" any of the 27 countries would veto a delay. "If one country was to veto an extension and, as a result, impose hardship on us, real problems for the Dutch and Belgians and French as neighboring countries (to the UK)...they wouldn't be forgiven for it," he told Ireland's RTE radio. April 07, 2019 The MoA Week In Review - OT 2019-19 Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama: April 3 - No Chinese Troops Arrived In Venezuela April 5 - Ethiopian Airline Crash - Boeing Advice To 737 MAX Pilots Was Flawed It seems that Boeing has trouble to get the 737 MAX software changes certified. The MAX will be grounded much longer than anticipated, probably for 6 to 8 month: Boeings decision Friday to reduce the production rate on the 737 MAX was a surprise in timing and scope. This came so quickly and was steep, cutting production from 52 MAXes per month to 42. It comes on the heals that a second software problem was found, delaying submission of the MCAS software upgrade to the FAA for review and approval. ... Boeing hasnt announced what the second software problem is. LNA is told it is the interface between the MCAS upgrade and the Flight Control System, but specifics are lacking. The Flight Control Computer of the 737 was designed in 2000 by Rockwell Collins. These systems have limited computation capacities. Processor speed and RAM will be 1/100s of those in a modern cellphone. One wonders if the additional MCAS software will break some inherent capacity limit. April 6 - Libya - From Ghaddafi To Hafter Jason Pack - The backstory to Hifter's march on Tripoli [E]ven though Libya's civil war is witnessing its biggest escalation since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi and violent skirmishes are bound to break out and troops get captured, the safe money is still that a genuine blood bath will be avoided and the end result will be some sort of fudge with certain factions switching sides and columns of tanks darting forward and retreating. Yet, when the smoke clears, no one faction will control the country and a political compromise will still remain the only way forward. Use as open thread ... Posted by b on April 7, 2019 at 14:01 UTC | Permalink Comments next page The Texas Department of Public Safety is planning to add 18 new employees to the drivers license office at the Midland-Odessa Regional Mega Center. DPS is hoping to do that by reclassifying customer service representatives as license and permit specialists, and paying them an additional $9,300 a year, Rachael Pierce of the DPS media and communications office in Austin. Currently, customer service representatives are paid $2,249 a month, according to Pierce. As license and permit specialists, they would make $3,025 a month. The office is not adequately staffed to handle the growing population of the Midland/Odessa area, Pierce said in an email. That, along with the high turnover rate, drives the wait times up. Where to go? To determine if transaction can be conducted online, by phone or by mail instead of in person, visit dps.texas.gov. See More Collapse The Midland drivers license office currently has the capacity for 21.5 customer service representatives, according to Pierce, and the office has five vacancies. RELATED: Midland DPS Mega Center could receive funding She said the office has an average wait time of three to four hours. The Mega Centers wait times are also affected by those attempting to obtain their commercial vehicle drivers licenses, Pierce said. There were a total of 42,946 drivers license transactions at the Mega Center for fiscal year 2018, while there were 18,250 commercial drivers license transactions over the same time period. That makes 30 percent of all license transactions at the Mega Center related to commercial vehicles, which is almost four times as high as the state average of 8 percent. While customers obtaining CDLs are a contributing factor to the wait times, the major factor is staffing, Pierce said. Pierce said DPS is requesting 854 additional full-time drivers license employees statewide, and 15 new offices in the fastest growing metropolitan areas. The DPS has submitted a Legislative Appropriations Request for $420 million to cover the cost of additional employees and offices. Appropriations requests are submitted by agencies for consideration as part of the state budget. Texass House of Representatives passed the states budget bill on March 28 for the years 2020-21, so the DPS funding request would go into effect at that time. Reps. Brooks Landgraf of Odessa and Tom Craddick of Midland proposed an amendment to the bill, which will also provide additional funding for DPS. The amendment would provide $500,000 for DPS to use as incentive pay to fill vacant positions, according to a press release from Landgraf. When the new DPS Mega Center opened between Odessa and Midland last year, it was supposed to streamline customer service and reduce wait times, the press release states. Instead, the center has been plagued by vacant positions whose salaries are not competitive with those in the oil and gas industry and customers experience hours-long wait times for services such as driver license processing. The budget bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee. The Texas legislative session will run through May 27. Until the funding takes effect, Pierce recommended customers take advantage of alternatives to going into the drivers license office. The majority of customers who come into Texas DL offices dont need to, she said. These customers can actually conduct their transaction online, by phone or by mail. She said about 58 percent of customers who came into DPS centers last year didnt need to. The most immediate way to reduce wait times at offices across the state is for eligible customers to take advantage of these convenient options, Pierce said. This allows them to skip the trip to the office and will shorten the lines for everyone, including those who are required to come into an office. Illinois College will soon be making some of its degree programs more accessible and flexible by offering them in a totally online format. The college announced recently that this summer it is launching three online programs in nursing, agribusiness and business administration, with plans to launch more than a dozen online degree and certificate programs over the next few years. The college considered national trends and local needs in developing the programs and hopes to serve students who are working and wish to advance or retrain These programs represent an exciting opportunity to serve students who are not able to travel to campus or attend classes at traditional times, Provost and Dean Catharine OConnell said in a statement. Passavant Area Hospital supported the launch of the online RN to BSN registered nurse to bachelor of science in nursing program with a $25,000 grant, according to spokesman Kevin Eckhoff. Pamela Brown, founding director of the Illinois College nursing program, said that studies have found more highly educated nurses can help lead to better patient outcomes. An Institute for Medicine report on the future of nursing set benchmarks, including a recommendation that 80 percent of nurses to have a bachelor of science degree by 2020, she said. Brown said she hopes to have a lot of interest from local nurses at Passavant, but that the program will be open to anyone. We can offer this to anyone in any state, except California, she said. The program is open to any registered nurse who doesnt already have a bachelors degree. Agribusiness Coordinator Michael Woods said there are few opportunities for people who are already working in agribusiness to get a degree online, which is ideal for many. He said they hope the program helps people stay in rural communities and in the agriculture sector while they pursue their degree. Our goal is to really focus on those folks who maybe have been out in the industry for a while, have an associates degree, and maybe have realized to advance their career opportunities in their business that they need to get that bachelors degree, but at the same time are limited to relocating to campus and the traditional format of a college experience, he said. Future online programs could include accounting, human resource management, education and health studies. Hyderabad: The 133rd birth anniversary of last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan was observed by family members, historians and heritage buffs on Saturday. They urged the government to restore the Osmania General Hospital heritage building and to celebrate the Nizam's birthday as a state function. The birth anniversary was observed by paying respects to Mir Osman Ali Khan at Masjid-e-Judi at King Koti, where he was buried. Nizams grandson Najaf Ali said: It is high time the state government recognises the umpteen contributions of Mir Osman Ali Khan whose vision aided Hyderabad to develop into a modern state. The people of Hyderabad still use a lot of amenities from the Nizams period, even 52 years after his death. He said the government must work towards safeguarding and preserving the monuments and structures and they must immediately carry out the repairs in Osmania General Hospital building. The family has been time and again raising the issue of OGH with the government and also at various platforms which is not being given the attention that it deserves. The Nizams jewellery exhibition was recently held in New Delhi and the family members were invited as guests. The family had requested the Centre to host an exhibition of the jewels in Hyderabad. A demand to have a lesson on the history of Nizam in the school curriculum is also being made to ensure that the era, which played an important role in the development of Hyderabad, is known to the people who make this state their home. March 29 A 20-year-old male was arrested on March 29 for a misdemeanor warrant at the 600 block of N. Columbia after 7 p.m. Criminal mischief resulted in damaged property just after 8:30 p.m. on March 29 on the 800 block of W. 11th St. A theft was reported just after 9 p.m. on March 29 at the 3500 block of Olton Road. Donnie Ray Doran, 57, was arrested just before midnight on March 29 at the 700 block of Interstate 27. Doran was charged with possession of a controlled substance and for possession of marijuana. March 30 A 23-year-old female was arrested on March 30 just after 11 p.m. at the 2600 block of Olton Road for outstanding warrants. A 28-year-old male was arrested just after 7:30 p.m. on March 30 for an outstanding warrant. A vehicle crash resulting in injuries was reported just after 5 p.m. on March 30 on the 4100 block of Olton Road. March 31 A 36-year-old male was arrested just after 2 a.m. on March 31 on the 1800 block of Amarillo St. for public intoxication. Michael Oneal Lewis, 30, was arrested just after 3 a.m. on March 31 at the 1900 block of W. Fifth St. He was charged with driving with an invalid license with previous conviction/suspension without financial resolution and with evading arrest or detention with a vehicle, which is a felony. A 47-year-old male was arrested just before 10:30 p.m. on March 31 at the 1700 block of Yonkers St. for an assault. A theft and an assault was reported at 3:45 a.m. March 31 on the 1300 block of Fifth St. A theft was reported just before 1 p.m. on March 31 at the intersection of Highway 194 and Interstate 27 W. Frontage Road. An aggravated assault was reported just after 7 p.m. on March 31 at the 3100 block of Milwaukee. A vehicle crash resulting in vehicle damage was reported at 10:30 p.m. on March 31 at the 1600 block of W. 14th Street. April 1 Criminal mischief was reported just after 2 p.m. on April 1 at the 1600 block of Yonkers St. for a damaged Samsung Galaxy 7. Criminal mischief and assault was reported just after 6 pm on April 1 on the 200 block SE Fifth St. A sex offence was reported at 6:30 p.m. on April 1 on the 600 block of 22nd St. April 2 A female was arrested for a warrant just after 9 p.m. on April 2 at the 1800 block of I-27. A male was arrested on the 800 block of Houston St. just after 7 p.m. on April 2. He was charged with an outstanding warrant and with obstruction or retaliation of report of the crime. A female was arrested on April 2 just after 10 p.m. Officers were called to the 2400 block of W. 11th St. and arrested the individual for possession of marijuana and possession/delivery of drug paraphernalia. Responding officers found 0.2 ounces of marijuana and seized a glass pipe and marijuana grinder during the arrest. Police were called to the 1500 block of Joliet St. on April 2 just after 1 p.m. and seized a firearm. The crime is classified as possession of a weapon. Police responded to the 700 block N. Date St. on April 2 at 1:10 p.m. in reference to what is classified as crimes against a person. Theft was reported just before 8 p.m. on April 2 on the 4100 block of Dimmitt Road. The victim reported stolen wooden pallets. Forgery was reported at the 400 block W. Fifth St just before 7 p.m. on April 2. April 3 A woman was arrested just before 8 a.m. at the 3200 block of N. I-27 for driving with an invalid license. Marijuana possession was reported just after 2 p.m. on April 3 at the 900 block of Ash. Police seized 0.01 ounces of marijuana. A vehicle crash was reported at the 4100 block of Olton Road just before 9 a.m. on April 3. Damaged property was reported just before 3:30 a.m. on April 3 on the 1700 block of W. 10th St. April 4 Damaged property was reported just before 3 a.m. on April 4 on the 800 block of Kokomo St. Forgery was reported just before 6 a.m. on the 400 block W. Fifth St. on April 4. An 18-year-old man was arrested at 10th St. and Smythe just before 10:30 p.m. on April 4 for a Municipal warrant. A 22-year-old female was arrested on the 1500 block of Yonkers St. just before 9 p.m. on April 4 for several outstanding City of Plainview warrants. Damaged property was reported just before 3 a.m. on the 800 block of Kokomo on April 4. Forgery was reported on the 400 block of W. Fifth St. just before 6 a.m. on April 4. Aggravated assault was reported just before 3 p.m. on the 1400 block of Utica on April 4. Theft was reported just after 3 p.m. at the 100 block of W. Ninth St. on April 4. Disorderly conduct was reported just before 6 p.m. on the 3200 block of Olton Road on April 4. Assault was reported on the 1400 block of Utica just before 10 p.m. on April 4. The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday said the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) theme song composed by Asansol MP Babul Supriyo cannot be played anywhere. (Photo: File) Kolkata: The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday said the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) theme song composed by Asansol MP Babul Supriyo cannot be played anywhere. "Firstly, the theme song was not pre-certified for which we had informed the Commission. Also, the song is being played in different places so there are instructions for stopping it," Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Basu told reporters. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member who had applied for the song's certification has been conveyed the EC's decision. Not seeking prior permission from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) is a violation of the model code of conduct, the official said. Incidentally, West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress had filed a complaint regarding the content of the song. Later, the BJP had submitted the lyrics of the song for permission after which the state Chief Electoral Office asked the party to submit a revised version. Meanwhile, following the EC's order to remove some senior police officers in the state, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday wrote to the poll panel alleging that the decision was "arbitrary, motivated and biased". The EC on Friday removed Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma, his counterpart in the Bidhannagar Commissionerate Gyanwant Singh and two Superintendents of Police -- Shyam Singh of Birbhum and P.S. Selvamurugan of Diamond Harbour police district. "The decision of the Commission is highly arbitrary, motivated and biased. We have every reason to believe that the decision of the Commission is at the behest of the ruling party at the Centre, i.e., the BJP," Banerjee said in the letter. Asked about the Chief Minister's letter, Basu said: "Yes, we have accepted the letter". Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading. An intoxicated driver killed one person early Sunday after driving the wrong direction into oncoming traffic and critically injured a passenger, Harris County authorities said. Jose Balderas was driving an SUV, a 2004 GMC Yukon XL, eastbound on Mount Houston Road when he crossed into oncoming traffic. Balderas crashed into another driver in a sedan, a Chevrolet Impala, who died at the scene. Balderas had one passenger in the backseat of his vehicle at the time of the crash, who is in critical condition. The passenger was transported to Ben Taub Hospital. The crash occurred at the 2100 block of West Mount Houston Road. Balderas was transported to Houston Northwest Hospital with broken legs and a fractured back. He had a blood alcohol content of .274 at the time of the crash. Balderas has been charged with intoxication manslaughter and may face more charges in the future depending on the injuries of the passenger. The case is under investigation by the Harris County Sheriff's Office. 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. BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: Get your Houston breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox Nearly 130 people were arrested for Driving While Intoxicated charges in Montgomery County over the course of spring break (March 8-24), according to records from a public information request filed by the Chronicle. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office partnered with other area law enforcement agencies thanks to a Texas Department of Transportation grant to actively look for intoxicated drivers during spring break, according to a release from the office. "I am proud of the partnership of Montgomery County Sheriff's Office with state and local law enforcement agencies to ensure our community was safe this holiday season through participation in the holiday DWI initiative," Montgomery County Sheriff Henderson said in the release. "The dedication of these individuals was apparent through their diligent work in searching for and preventing intoxicated-related offenses." BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: Get your Houston breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox In Texas, a person is charged with DWI if their blood or breath alcohol concentration (BAC) is .08 or higher, according to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT.) Driving while intoxicated in Texas is usually considered a misdemeanor on the first two offenses. A person's third DWI offense results in a felony charge. A handful of the nearly 130 people arrested were charged with a second or third or more charge for DWI. Drivers charged with a third DWI face up to $10,000 in fines, between two to 10 years in prison and can have their license suspended. Drivers can also face an annual fee up to $2,000 for three years to retain their license, according to TxDOT. See mugshots and charges of the accused in the photos above... ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Houston is 'ground zero' for drunken and drugged driving Courtesy The Big Ocean Women Houston Cottage is hosting a viewing of the film Screenagers: Growing Up in the Digital Age at Humble High School on April 17 at 6 p.m. to educate families on the impact screen technology has on children. The Houston Cottage said theyve felt the urgency for a local discussion about this topic and partnered with the Humble ISD Education Foundation to make it happen. On any given day, I encounter a wide range of opportunities and an even wider range of challenges. In fact, they are required parts of leading an operations, engineering and analytics company. In no way do I think of the challenges we face as burdens. To the contrary, it is an absolute privilege to run a great company that serves our wonderful metropolitan community. In my role as president and CEO, I am honored to work with countless devoted, hardworking and brilliant CPS Energy employees. I am also appreciative of the retirees who came before us. I am comforted by the results of their decisions and contributions, which are foundational to how our 3,000-plus team members work safely and diligently today. I can attest, however, that gone are the days when energy discussions were solely about 1) rates and 2) operating without controversy, whenever and for as long as we could. While we have had our share of controversies during our 159-year history, those periods were birthed out of necessity and followed by long periods of peace. Clearly, the concern about keeping costs under control is important because service affordability remains at the top of our priorities. Even so, our customers increasingly have strong opinions about how best to generate energy. Our company and industry are moving quickly into an intense spotlight of new scrutiny and challenges. Further, San Antonio is a community of 1.5 million people that is projected to grow to more than 2.5 million. Therefore, we expect that the range of opinions about energy to also continue to grow. In fact, most people can find themselves somewhere on the energy continuum. On one end are those who are inspired to move quickly toward a portfolio of 100 percent renewable energy. On the other end are individuals primarily concerned that any quick and sweeping changes could put extreme financial pressure on everyone individuals, institutions and companies. Neither side of the spectrum is wrong. The concerns of both have merit. Many people advise us to do all we can to avoid intense issues. We see the complexity as momentum builds. In fact, we are already in high engagement mode as we talk more about our flexible path. Working with our board of trustees, we have held three public input sessions and have spoken to many groups and individuals about our energy challenges and opportunities. We truly welcome constructive feedback. Some people hate that I do not pick sides. Some want me to lean solely into one view and condemn the opposite perspective. Alas, as the CEO of the local, community-owned energy utility company, I cannot and should not. I run a business anchored by our belief of putting people first! My job is to serve everyone, to listen and to help San Antonio find its way forward through the very complex energy landscape. The key will be for everyone to come prepared and willing to dialogue about the solutions we can pursue, as a community, over time. While we will begin with a focus on energy, our community will also talk about other significant topics, such as transportation, cybersecurity and smart/connected cities. New discussions are going to be hard, sometimes uncomfortable and very demanding, but most of all, they will be fruitful in developing an effective and affordable flexible path forward. Paula Gold-Williams is president and CEO of CPS Energy. Dangote said he regretted the customs and administrative problems that hamper business development throughout the continent. (Photo:AP) Abidjan: Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, known as Africa's richest man, told a forum in Ivory Coast on Saturday how he once took USD 10 million in cash out of the bank just to look at it and get it into his head that this was real money, not just figures on paper. "When you're young your first million is important, but after, the numbers don't mean much," Dangote, a manufacturing tycoon with a range of companies spanning cement to flour, told the Mo Ibrahim forum in Abidjan. "One day, I cashed 10 million, put them in the boot of my car I put it in my room. I looked at them and thought 'now I believe I have money' and took it back to the bank the next day," he told his audience. Anecdotes aside, Dangote said that the two most promising sectors for Africa's future were agriculture and new technologies. But he advised young African entrepreneurs not to get carried away by the first flush of success. "Often in Africa we spend our projected incomes. There are ups and downs" in business, he warned. Dangote said he regretted the customs and administrative problems that hamper business development throughout the continent. As an example he cited the difficulties his cement group faces in exporting to Benin from Nigerian factories 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the border. Benin imported "more expensive" cement from China instead. After five council representatives in the span of five years, San Antonios East Side desperately needs a committed person to represent the community. Someone with new ideas, community roots and staying power. We believe District 2 voters have that and more in Jada Andrews-Sullivan, a business owner, U.S. Army veteran and product of the East Side. Andrews-Sullivan, 43, grew up in the community she now hopes to represent. She deserves that opportunity. Throughout our candidates meeting, Andrews-Sullivan showed a strong grasp of city issues and presented herself as a consensus builder who can gracefully guide important and sensitive discussions around gentrification, displacement and community policing. Eight candidates are vying for this open seat, and while this crowded field includes a self-proclaimed anarchist and a convicted felon, it also features several strong and credible potential representatives. We would be remiss if we did not give an approving nod to Salena Santibanez Guipzot and Ruben Arciniega, impressive in their own rights. Keith Toney is also a familiar name to voters, having been appointed to council in August 2014 to fill the remainder of Ivy Taylors term after she rose to mayor. But this familiarity may not be Toneys greatest strength. He is capable and qualified, but voters have rejected him twice. What has changed? Andrews-Sullivan exudes promise. She speaks with heart about how the East Side needs consistent representation, suggesting she wont leave midterm as William Cruz Shaw recently did. Ask her about displacement and gentrification, and she comfortably speaks about small details, such as needing to educate homeowners about possible tax exemptions, as well as big issues, such as ending litigation over proposed development around the iconic and historic Hays Street Bridge. Andrews-Sullivan would be a rookie on City Council, but also a potential star. She repeatedly framed issues around building community cohesiveness and inclusion. This was clear in her support of the citys nondiscrimination ordinance, which affords protections to members of the LGBTQ community. I believe in it, she said. Its good for everyone. Inclusiveness is what the city runs on. But also in how she spoke about building trust between police and the community, and in her willingness to address gentrification and displacement while also welcoming new investment that breathes life into District 2. A strong representative for District 2 would bring neighborhood leaders and developers together, would work with other members of City Council, and would strive to ensure San Antonio is a fair and just place for all residents. We recommend Jada Andrews-Sullivan for District 2 City Council. Vice-President Kembo Mohadi has not been censured for allegedly threatening to his kill his ex-wife and damaging her property because no police report has been made a week after the shocking incident, it has been revealed. Mohadi allegedly stormed Senator Tambudzani Mohadis Beitbridge home where he hacked three doors using an axe before towing away his former wifes three cars. At least 25 police officers witnessed the incident, but refused to take a report from the under- siege senator. The Beitbridge senator argued she would only sign, as both witness and victim, a statement by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers who were present during the violent attack on her person and property on Saturday last week. She said what police were requesting her to do was like a policeman who sees someone being killed and waits for a report from the victim. They were the witnesses, they have an eyewitness account. They must take action based on that. A crime was committed in their presence, she said in an interview. Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi referred all queries about the Mohadi case to the Information ministry. Women Affairs minister Sithembiso Nyoni said she would not comment on the matter, which she said was private. I was out of the country when this happened, but it is a private family thing. It also involves the VP, she said. I have no comment. Meanwhile, on Friday the Womens Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) demanded that Mohadi be held accountable. We are outraged by the reports of violence perpetrated by the VP against Tambudzani Mohadi, the coalition said. It has also been reported that such shocking acts were committed in the presence of members of the ZRP. We believe that these are very serious allegations, which require investigations and due process of the law. WCoZ said the VP showed lack of respect for both the supreme law of the land and women. The battle against violence perpetrated on women and girls can never be won when the perpetrators are men in whom the people have vested the authority and trust to lead the nation, the statement added. The VP of a nation should always be above reproach when it comes to violence and womens rights issues. The VP, being a servant of the people, therefore must be reminded that the very foundation of our democracy and freedom is that this case should be treated as exemplary to all those who abuse their power to inflict pain and suffering upon women. The women also urged the police to act speedily and investigate the case. In addition, we call upon the judiciary to treat all cases of violence against women and girls as high priority and ensure that justice is served at all times, read the statement. The failure by the ZRP to promptly address the issue raises concern over the failure by critical institutions to adequately provide redress to survivors of violence and thus there should never demonstrate laxity in responding to such cases. Meanwhile, former Harare West legislator Jessie Majome said it was wrong for people to always expect only womens groups and activists to protest when women are abused. Why should the women only make noise when it is clear no one is listening or making an effort to act? she said. Majome described Mohadis case as a litmus test for the police and the judiciary. We were let down by the police, where is accountability in all this? Impunity at the highest level, she said. Former Zanu PF Goromonzi West legislator Beatrice Nyamupinga called for Mohadis arrest. For a whole number two in the country to be so disrespectful to women is grossly unacceptable, she said. If he respects himself, he must resign. How do we end gender-based violence when those who are supposed to champion the end to gender-based violence are actually on the forefront of being perpetrators? This is a clear case of abuse of power, and domestic violence and as such, he must be arrested. Mohadi divorced his wife early this year and the two are embroiled in a dispute over property. The Standard Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News FORMER Vice President Joice Mujuru has responded to State media reports that she and other expelled members of the ruling party are heading back to ZANU-PF. This follows a statement by ZANU-PF secretary for administration, Obert Mpofu, in Bulawayo on Saturday at a ceremony to celebrate the election victory of Kidwell Mujuru in the Cowdray Park by-election. Mpofu said: You will be seeing the new dispensation arrangement where we have full-time members of the party, you will see a different Zanu-PF in terms of operations and effectiveness because we are not closing anyone out, we have agreed that all members who were expelled from the party or who left the party should come back. We have been approached by all the parties and now Mujuru (Joice) is coming back to Zanu-PF, Ambrose Mutinhiri has come back and many others have come back. This is not politicking but reality, I am getting a lot of appointments with opposition party members wanting to come back and its enough pointer that President Mnangagwa is a unifying leader. In a statement on a social media page widely believed to be run by Joice Mujuru, a response has been made to Mpofus statements. I will NEVER rejoin Zanu-PF. Im not desperate. Theres my son to support! Hes the president, said the statement. The authenticity of that popular social media account is however yet to be verified, but it has oftentimes been quoted as the official Joice Mujuru page. Joice Mujuru, who turns 64 years old next week on 15 April, served as Vice-President of Zimbabwe from 2004 to 2014. She was long considered a potential successor to former President Robert Mugabe, but in 2014 she was denounced for allegedly plotting against Mugabe and for being corrupt. She was expelled from the party a few months later, after which she later formed the new Zimbabwe People First party, but no court charges were ever brought against her. Mnangagwas faction was alleged to be behind Mujurus 2014 downfall. Surprisingly, Mnangagwa is the one who went on to topple Mugabe in a military coup in November 2017. Watch video below ZOOMZimbabwe Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Jerri-Lynn here. Another succinct post by Jomo Kwame Sundaram that makes clear the benefits of privatization are not evenly distributed, and in fact, typically, many are even worse off when the government chooses to transfer ownership of the family silver. Note that SOE is the acronym for state owned enterprise. For those interested in the topic, see also another short post by the same author from last September, debunking other arguments to promote the privatization fairy, Revisiting Privatizations Claims. By Jomo Kwame Sundaram, former UN Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development. Originally published at Inter Press Service In most cases of privatization, some outcomes benefit some, which serves to legitimize the change. Nevertheless, overall net welfare improvements are the exception, not the rule. Never is everyone better off. Rather, some are better off, while others are not, and typically, many are even worse off. The partial gains are typically high, or even negated by overall costs, which may be diffuse, and less directly felt by losers. Privatized Monopoly Powers Since many SOEs are public monopolies, privatization has typically transformed them into private monopolies. In turn, abuse of such market monopoly power enables more rents and corporate profits. As corporate profits are the private sectors yardstick of success, privatized monopolies are likely to abuse their market power to maximize rents for themselves. Thus, privatization tends to burden the public, e.g., if charges are raised. In most cases, privatization has not closed the governments fiscal deficits, and may even worsen budgetary problems. Privatization may worsen the fiscal situation due to loss of revenue from privatized SOEs, or tax evasion by the new privatized entity. Options for cross-subsidization, e.g., to broaden coverage are reduced as the government is usually left with unprofitable activities while the potentially profitable is acquired by the private sector. Thus, governments are often forced to cut essential public services. In most cases, profitable SOEs were privatized as prospective private owners are driven to maximize profits. Fiscal deficits have often been exacerbated as new private owners use creative accounting to avoid tax, secure tax credits and subsidies, and maximize retained earnings. Meanwhile, governments lose vital revenue sources due to privatization if SOEs are profitable, and are often obliged to subsidize privatized monopolies to ensure the poor and underserved still have access to the privatized utilities or services. Privatization Burdens Many Privatization burdens the public when charges or fees are not reduced, or when the services provided are significantly reduced. Thus, privatization often burdens the public in different ways, depending on how market power is exercised or abused. Often, instead of trying to provide a public good to all, many are excluded because it is not considered commercially viable or economic to serve them. Consequently, privatization may worsen overall enterprise performance. Value for money may go down despite ostensible improvements used to justify higher user charges. SOEs are widely presumed to be more likely to be inefficient. The most profitable and potentially profitable are typically the first and most likely to be privatized. This leaves the rest of the public sector even less profitable, and thus considered more inefficient, in turn justifying further privatizations. Efficiency Elusive It is often argued that privatization is needed as the government is inherently inefficient and does not know how to run enterprises well. Incredibly, the government is expected to subsidize privatized SOEs, which are presumed to be more efficient, in order to fulfil its obligations to the citizenry. Such obligations may not involve direct payments or transfers, but rather, lucrative concessions to the privatized SOE. Thus, they may well make far more from these additional concessions than the actual cost of fulfilling government obligations. Thus, privatization of profitable enterprises or segments not only perpetuates exclusion of the deserving, but also worsens overall public sector performance now encumbered with remaining unprofitable obligations. One consequence is poorer public sector performance, contributing to what appears to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. To make matters worse, the public sector is then stuck with financing the unprofitable, thus seemingly supporting to the privatization prophecy. Benefits Accrue to Relatively Few Privatization typically enriches the politically connected few who secure lucrative rents by sacrificing the national or public interest for private profit, even when privatization may not seem to benefit them. Privatization in many developing and transition economies has primarily enriched these few as the public interest is sacrificed to such powerful private business interests. This has, in turn, exacerbated corruption, patronage and other related problems. For example, following Russian voucher privatization and other Western recommended reforms, for which there was a limited domestic constituency then, within three years (1992-1994), the Russian economy had collapsed by half, and adult male life expectancy fell by six years. It was the greatest such recorded catastrophe in the last six millennia of recorded human history. Soon, a couple of dozen young Russian oligarchs had taken over the commanding heights of the Russian economy; many then monetized their gains and invested abroad, migrating to follow their new wealth. Much of this was celebrated by the Western media as economic progress. By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans. Last week, scientists led by a group at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in Devon published a study in Marine Pollution Bulletin thats the first to attempt to quantify the economic costs of marine plastic pollution. An estimated 8 million tons of plastic ends up on the worlds oceans each year, according to The Guardian in Marine plastic pollution costs the world up to $2.5tn a year. The studys takeaway: On a global scale, it has been estimated that for 2011 marine ecosystem services provided benefits to society approximating $49.7 trillion1 per year (Constanza et al., 2014). Most of the values on which this approximation was calculated were based on maximum sustainable use (actual or hypothetical) of natural (or semi-natural) systems, reflecting functioning biomes with minimal anthropogenic disruption. While limitations in its accuracy are acknowledged, this figure is considered to provide sufficient precision for global analysis and an estimate of the decline in its value, due to the presence of marine plastic, can be taken as a first order approximation of an economic cost. This 15% decline in marine ecosystem service delivery equates to an annual loss of $500$2500 billion in the value of benefits derived from marine ecosystem services. With the 2011 stock of plastic in the marine environment having been estimated between 75 and 150 million tonnes (Jang et al., 2015; McKinsey, 2015), this would equate in 2011, under 2011 levels of marine plastic pollution and based on 2011 ecosystem services values to each tonne of plastic in the ocean having an annual cost in terms of reduced marine natural capital of between $3300 and $33,000. This postulation of an economic cost relates only to the impacts of marine plastic on marine natural capital and as such represents a lower bound of the full economic costs of marine plastic. This figure does however illustrate the potential order of magnitude of the impacts. [Jerri-Lynn here: my emphasis.] As Waste Dive reports in Study: Up to $2.5T lost to marine plastics each year The study is the latest in a series of recent reports highlighting the ramifications of plastic waste proliferation findings that continue to raise the question of how big name brands and resin manufacturers are, or are not, responding. With the private sector increasingly focused on touting potential solutions, research around global economic costs may help contextualize the degree of investment and buy-in required to address the growing crisis. According to The Guardian: Dr Nicola Beaumont, an environmental economist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, who led the study, said the investigation was the first of its kind to explore the social and economic impact of plastics in the sea. Our calculations are a first stab at putting a price on plastic. We know we have to do more research to refine, but we are convinced that already they are an underestimate of the real costs to global human society, said Beaumont. The estimates do not take into account the direct and indirect impacts on the tourism, transport and fisheries industries, or on human health, the authors warned. Defining and understanding the scope of the plastic problem is necessary to design a global policy response. Given the failure of governments to respond to the climate change threat, I am not optimistic about their ability to tackle the plastic problem any time soon. According to the study: A solid understanding of the ecological, social and economic impact of marine plastic is necessary to inform a global transition in the way we make, use and reuse plastic, in such a way as to eliminate negative impacts, with implications for public behaviour, legislation and governance, industry and commerce (Pahl et al., 2017). This understanding is integral in providing grounding for effective and efficient global negotiation regarding the sustainable use, management and disposal of plastic, a material with many benefits and in widespread use. Plastic Is Not the Only Threat to the Health of Oceans On Friday, Yves linked to a depressing article in Inverse, The Oceans Tipping Point Has Been Reached, that states its thesis in its headline: .But it needs to be reiterated that the ocean is in danger. The impacts of climate change and illegal, unregulated, and unreported fisheries are the main challenges that the ocean faces. Ghost fishing gear items that have been lost, abandoned, or disposed of continue to catch marine organisms. Plastic pollution is big concern, but only one threat to the health of oceans and not even the most serious one: More recently, plastic has emerged as a visible sign of ocean pollution. Plastic is not the biggest issue facing the ocean, but it is a useful way to get people to see that there are problems. What Is to Be Done? Ive mentioned in previous posts that I find writing about plastic deeply depressing. That being said, I dont like to end my posts on a note of despair. So I should note for UK readers that yesterday, the charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), launched its Big Spring Beach Clean. Its probably too late for any UK readers hearing about this campaign for the first time to participate in any activities this weekend, but the event will continue through the 14th of April (and in some instances, extend beyond). This link includes details on beach clean-up projects throughout the UK. SAS says that since it started this initiative in 2010, 74,500 people have participated in more than 1,775 events across the UK, removing more than 150,000 kilograms of marine litter including 50,000 plastic bottles and cans from UK beaches. Yes, it would be far better not to dump waste in the ocean to begin with. And yes, I also understand that individual actions alone wont solve the worlds plastic pollution. problem Yet as a veteran of many clean-up projects, starting with the Brownies (e.g., wee Girl Scouts) in my home town more than fifty years ago Yikes! and including several more recent beach clean-up projects, I know that participating in these efforts is satisfying. One meets like-minded people, and at the end of the day, the space is cleaner than it was before. At least for the time being. And, perhaps, helping clean up a local beach might prove to be a welcome diversion to thinking about Brexit. (Natural News) How can two of the worlds most authoritative research bodies come up with two entirely different conclusions about the toxicity of the most commonly used herbicide? A shocking new analysis from the peer-reviewed science journal Environmental Sciences Europe reveals that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confuted and contorted evidence on glyphosate toxicity, ignoring scientific proof that Monsantos herbicide causes oxidative stress, DNA damage, and cancer. On the other hand, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), did review independent studies that link glyphosate to cancer in humans. Both agencies took different approaches when determining glyphosate risk to humans. The EPA relied on research conducted by the agrochemical industry, namely Monsanto, to determine that glyphosate is not carcinogenic. IARC did not solely rely on studies that were engineered to get glyphosate approved. IARC examined independent Canadian, Swedish, and U.S. studies on human health effects, which included assays on genotoxicity. After reviewing 118 different assays, IARC scientists concluded that glyphosate may cause genotoxicity, leading to mutations in DNA and cancer. As such, the scientists classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans. The agrochemical industry lashed out against the IARCs 2015 findings. IARCs evaluation relied heavily on studies capable of shedding light on the distribution of real-world exposures and genotoxicity risk in exposed human populations, while EPAs evaluation placed little or no weight on such evidence, wrote Charles Benbrook, Ph.D., the author of the new study. After IARCs 2015 conclusions, another 26 out of 27 published studies have confirmed that glyphosate is genotoxic. (Related: Latest FDA Pesticide Monitoring Report reveals that nearly 50 percent of food samples contain pesticide residues.) EPA ignores mountains of research proving glyphosates geno-toxicity The EPA contends that glyphosate is not likely carcinogenic because they largely relied on Monsantos own research, did not investigate genotoxicity, and only reviewed less than half the studies that the IARC scientists evaluated. The EPAs analysis was based on just 51 of the 118 assays that IARC scientists analyzed. On top of that, IARC went on to evaluate another 81 genotoxic assays, of which, 62 pointed to glyphosates carcinogenicity. Furthermore, IARC scientists honed in on three definitive glyphosate-based herbicide studies in exposed human populations, but the EPA did not take these studies seriously at all. The EPA didnt find a connection between glyphosate and cancer because they cherry-picked registrant-commissioned, unpublished regulatory studies that all (99%) echoed the same results. The EPAs evaluation only looked at the risk of assumed legal glyphosate exposures but did not assess real-life occupational exposures and risks from glyphosate. Scientists for IARC showed no bias in their evaluation and relied mostly on peer-reviewed studies. Of the studies, 70 percent, or 83 of them, revealed glyphosates toxicity. IARC did not settle for vague studies on technical glyphosate. IARC looked at all evidence on formulated glyphosate-based herbicides and studies on aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), glyphosates primary metabolite. By investigating the effects of glyphosate-based herbicides, IARC was able to determine glyphosates real-life exposure to humans. Because the inert ingredients in Roundup increase glyphosates permeability and lethality, it was important for the IARC scientists to see what glyphosate can do to humans in real-life situations. It turns out that Roundup is far more dangerous than previously realized. For more information on glyphosate toxicity, visit Glyphosate.News. Sources include: EWG.org ENVEurope.SpringerOpen.com NaturalNews.com Glyphosate.News (Natural News) Manuka honey is a unique kind of honey from New Zealand. It comes from the manuka tree and has many therapeutic properties. These include: Strengthening the immune system: Having manuka honey on hand will be helpful because this powerful honey has antibacterial properties that can boost your immunity, especially during the cold and flu season. Research shows that manuka honey is effective against different types of bacteria and fungi. Fighting against MRSA: Manuka honey is also effective against staph infections like MRSA or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Research suggests that this New Zealand honey exhibits its protective effects by interfering with the cell cycle of MRSA, inhibiting it at its source. Relieving sore throat: Taking a spoonful of manuka honey is a great remedy for a sore throat even more so when there is an infection. This is because manuka honey also fights the source of infection, in addition to soothing the inflamed throat. Manuka honey contains powerful antimicrobial properties that provide the body the boost it needs to combat the infection quickly. Protecting against oral infections: Unlike most forms of sugar, manuka honey supports oral health. It can prevent gingivitis with its potent antibacterial properties. Research also reports that mouthwashes based on manuka honey effectively reduce plaque and gingivitis. Healing wounds: Manuka honey can also treat wounds and fight infection. In particular, it may help inhibit the development of Streptococcus pyogenes, which is an infection that typically occurs in wounds. Keeping the gut healthy: Consuming Manuka honey is beneficial to your gut, because it aids in digestion, reduces acid reflux symptoms, and fights stomach bacterial infections, such as E. coli and salmonella. A healthy gut is also important to the immune system. How manuka honey differs from regular honey and raw honey Manuka honey, regular honey, and raw honey differ in their origin and how theyre processed. Manuka honey is derived from manuka blossoms that only bloom between two and six weeks throughout the year. Regular honey undergoes pasteurization and filtration to kill any yeast that may be present, while raw honey is honey made from any type of plant that is in its natural state. This means that it has not been strained, filtered, or pasteurized. These types of honey also differ in taste, color, and texture. Manuka honey appears darker and thicker than regular honey, which is smooth and uniform in color. The former also has a very unique, sweet flavor compared to the latter. Because raw honey is minimally processed, it often includes particles of wax, propolis, and pollen. Things to look for when buying Manuka honey Manuka honey is available in many health food stores. One of the things you need to look for when buying manuka honey is the Unique Manuka Factor (UMF) rating on the package, which means that it has been tested for antibacterial activity. The higher the UMF rating, the more potent the flavor and the greater the antibacterial effects. (Related: Manuka Honey: Today were launching a glyphosate-tested, laboratory-verified, high-potency premium raw Manuka Honey for health, first aid and preparedness.) Other things to consider are the K factor and MGO. The K factor indicates the purity of the honey and its antioxidants and enzymes, while the MGO measures methylglyoxal, which indicates the unique antibacterial properties of Manuka honey. Like the UMF rating, the more MGO, the better. Read more news stories and studies on the health benefits of manuka honey by going to Bees.news. Sources include: Blog.Paleohacks.com HuffingtonPost.com.au Healthline.com (Natural News) It only took 75 years for a city of Americans to become so sick from toxic tap water that now theyre able to sue the government. We already know that the fluoride in 75 percent of our countrys municipal faucets causes chronic inflammation, brittle bones, pineal gland calcification, and of course, cancer. Now, to top that off, the residents of the iconic city of Flint, Michigan have been sucking down lead-tainted tap water for over two years. Residents say its a living nightmare, and its like living in a war zone, but without all the fighting. Ironically, U.S. water fluoridation began right at the close of WWII just over 100 miles away from Flint, in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Officials knew then and they know now that its poison, but it drives up Pharma profits, so its all under the radar of the law. Now were informed, as just published in the Detroit Free Press, that Flint residents who were poisoned by the corrosive 2-year water scandal can sue the former governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder. This reverses a decision from last year. Snyder did absolutely nothing even though he knew old lead pipes were leaching into the tap water and debilitating citizens, including children, infants, and pregnant women. Yes, Judge Levy says the citizens of Flint have their Constitutional right to bodily integrity as a fundamental interest thats protected by law. So, the question rises who else will sue over bodily integrity losses? Will 100 Million Americans sue the U.S. Government for getting poisoned by tap water thats purposely infused with toxic FLUORIDE and still contains heavy metal toxins? So whats changed, youre wondering? Nothing. Nothings changed. Tap water has been dangerous for decades, its just more dangerous in certain cities than others. Do you have a top notch water filtration system at your home? You better get one. The Flint water crisis set into high gear two years ago, in April of 2014, when the states appointed emergency manager flipped the switch for the citys incoming water to corrosive water coming from the Flint River (instead of from Lake Huron), and told nobody. No process for corrosion control was in place at all, and the old lead pipes sent brown water to peoples home faucets. Now all the dead and dying can sue the former Governor. Will the water scientists who knew also be charged with felony conspiracy? Did they alter the lead contamination data and commit scientific fraud that put citizens right in harms way? The whole country should step up to the plate of toxicity now, and sue for not just heavy metal poisoning, but for the cancer and bone damage caused by fluoride. Get a lawyer and go for it. Sodium fluoride, yes the kind in most U.S. tap water, doubles as an insecticide and is classified as a drug. Oh, you didnt know? Multiple charges filed against Water Quality Supervisor and Office of Drinking Water in Flint, Michigan What happens when you knowing let citizens drink toxic tap water, but youre paid by the government to protect them? You get caught, and you get sued, for felony official misconduct, conspiracy, and even tampering with evidence. Get ready to serve up to five years behind bars. So much for Environmental Quality at the DEQ control hub, huh, Mike Prysby? Soon, you might be working for 30 cents a day (to buy that pack of smokes) while ironing out some license plates. The DEQ couldnt be more corrupt. When will the rest of America wake up from the fluoride and metal poisoning fog and get the reparations they actually deserve? Tune in to PreventCancer.news for updates on foods and beverages you should avoid like the plague. Sources for this article include: Freep.com MSN.com NaturalNews.com TruthWiki.org PreventCancer.news FluorideAlert.org Detroit Free Press (Natural News) Mycotoxins are deadly natural compounds produced by molds and other harmful fungi. Found in grains and food products derived from livestock that ate tainted grain, these endocrine disruptors can harm the sexual development of young girls and cause other, more serious health complications. As much as 25 percent of the worlds supply of grain has been contaminated by mycotoxin-producing molds. Both human food and animal feed are affected by these toxins. One of the most recent cases involving mycotoxins took place in 2014. A mycotoxin called aflatoxin contaminated the corn supply in Kenya. It triggered an outbreak of the disease aflatoxicosis, which claimed 125 lives. After that tragedy, researchers analyzed samples of local maize for signs of aflatoxin. They warned that more than half the corn products had been contaminated by aflatoxin levels that exceeded the safe limit imposed by the Kenyan government. Furthermore, the lack of acute signs and symptoms of mycotoxin poisoning does not clear a potential patient from danger. Even low concentrations of mycotoxins in the body can completely disrupt the proper functions of the endocrine system in an infected person. (Related: Study finds that a combination of L-carnitine and vitamin E can overcome immunosuppression.) Deadly mycotoxins have tainted grains and grain-fed animal products In 2011, the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey evaluated a group of young girls who lived in New Jersey. The researchers looked for signs of zearalenone (ZEA), a mycotoxin from the mold Fusarium graminearum that disrupts estrogen levels. The study found that 78.5 percent of the participants tested positive for ZEA. Furthermore, the contaminated girls were generally smaller and more likely to display unhealthy sexual characteristics for their age. Barley, corn, oats, rice, sorghum, and wheat are some of the grains that contain these mycotoxins. ZEA can also be found in dairy products, eggs, and meat from grain-fed animals. It can even end up in beer. ZEA derivatives have also been patented as oral contraceptives. They are also being used to make livestock get fatter at a faster rate. Zearalenone has been widely used in the United States since 1969 to improve fattening rates in cattle by increasing growth rate and feed conversion efficiency, warned researchers from the University of Athens in a 2012 study. Evidence of human harm from this practice is provided by observations of central precocious puberty. Aflatoxin and zearalenone are just two of the more than 40 mycotoxins that are considered dangerous in more than 100 countries. These endocrine disruptors cause premature puberty and estrogen-related syndromes like uterine enlargement, swollen mammary glands, and pseudopregnancy. Drop toxic grains for fresh veggies There is no grain that is safe from mycotoxin contamination. Both conventional and organic products can be infected by the molds that produce the toxins. Furthermore, cooking the grain will not decrease the levels of mycotoxins by a large margin. The only way to avoid these endocrine disruptors is to completely abandon cereal grains. It should be easy enough to quit corn given its association with GMOs and cancer-causing glyphosate herbicide. Instead, eat fresh vegetables that are low in starch and contains plenty of nutrients. Kale is an especially good choice of food that can bolster your health. Certain foods can reduce the harmful effects of mycotoxins on the endocrine system. Garlic is one such food. Other spices may have similar protective effects. It is suggested that these seasoning ingredients are found in every cuisine around the world because they have health benefits that can counteract disease-causing substances in food. These spices could be preventing mycotoxins from harming the health of people who unknowingly eat contaminated grain. Sources include: GreenMedInfo.com NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov Air Italy Friday began operating at Los Angeles International Airport, offering four nonstop flights per week between LAX and Milan's Malpensa International Airport. Air Italy's arrival at LAX makes it one of only four airports in the United States providing nonstop flights to and from Milan. "When you have a destination as exquisite and enticing as Italy, you cannot have enough routes to get there," said Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino, chair of the Trade, Travel and Tourism Committee. "This is why I am so pleased that Air Italy is beginning its newest route between L.A. and Milan. This new venture is a part of a growing pattern of international investment into Los Angeles' tourism economy as L.A.'s message, that everyone is welcome, resonates with visitors across the globe." Flights will be offered on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, and Air Italy will fly the nonstop route using a new, long-haul Airbus A330-200. The flight times are expected to be 12 hours to Milan Malpensa Airport, and 13 hours and 50 minutes on the return flight to LAX. "Travel between Los Angeles and Milan has nearly doubled in the past two years, and we are pleased that the day has come for this first ever nonstop flight," said Deborah Flint, CEO of Los Angeles World Airports. "This route will create new opportunities for international travelers to visit L.A., a diverse and thriving region, and for Angelenos to experience exceptional beauty, art, food, culture and vibrancy of Milan. Our cities have much in common, and with this flight we are more closely connected than ever before." An emotional ceremony was held at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno Saturday honoring veterans of the Bataan Death March during World War II. The 75,000 U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war who were forced to march for days in scorching heat in the Philippines, knowing that at the end of their march, would be more pain, suffering and possibly death. Many were severely beaten along the way and tens of thousands died. "We feel good to have the pleasure of honoring the public," said a ceremony attendant. "They're all alive and get out of bed in the morning and they walk in the sunshine." Veterans of the Battle of Leyte Guld, believed to be the largest naval battle in world history, were also honored. Six people, including two children, were shot while celebrating a baby shower Saturday evening in the West Englewood neighborhood, authorities said. The incident occurred around 6:21 p.m. in 6300 block of South Seeley Ave., according to Chicago police. Authorities said two of those individuals were children; a 10-year-old girl who was shot in the shin and an 8-year-old boy who was shot in the chest and back. Both were taken to Comer Children's Hospital and remain in stable condition, police said. A 29-year-old woman who was shot in the shoulder and chest area was taken to Christ Hospital in critical condition, along with a 42-year-old man who was shot twice in the hip, officials confirmed. Two other males, a 23-year-old shot in the left foot though in stable condition and a 28-year-old shot in the right shoulder, were taken to Holy Cross Hospital. The 28-year-old was later transported to Mount Sinai Hospital for further evaluation. Detectives have been working around the clock since the incident to get a handle on what exactly happened, Guglielmi said in a statement released Sunday. We know that two men in dark clothing approached the family gathering which we believe was a baby shower and opened fire. The shooters fled the area on foot. Cooperation has been very limited with detectives and based on victim profiles, we suspect this could have been a possible retaliatory shooting from an earlier incident that stemmed from an ongoing gang conflict in that neighborhood. Individuals on scene are not being cooperative with detectives. Shooting occured at a family gathering. Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) April 7, 2019 Guglielmi also mentioned on Twitter that individuals on the scene were not being cooperative with detectives Saturday. Officials say at the moment, no offenders have been taken into custody. Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot tweeted a statement early Sunday morning saying, "I'm heartbroken by the news of a shooting in West Englewood yesterday. No parent should fear for their child's safety. We must stop the epidemic of violence in our city and take care of victims & witnesses, who continue to experience trauma long after these devastating events." The investigation remains ongoing. An inmate at the Pendleton Correctional Facility in Indiana faces charges after fecal matter was thrown at corrections officers in separate incidents. The Anderson Herald Bulletin reports Sunday that 35-year-old Joshua Marshall is charged with felony battery by bodily waste. The newspaper reports from a court document that an officer was struck in the face, mouth and left side of his body by the material on Feb. 4 while walking past an inmate's cell. Fecal matter also was thrown on a second officer. An officer also was struck by fecal matter on Oct. 26. A second inmate, 22-year-old Levi Salyer, faces charges after an officer was spat on in November at the prison's urgent care unit. Pendleton is northeast of Indianapolis. Illinois becomes the eighth state in the nation and the first in the Midwest to raise the minimum legal sales age to 21 for all tobacco products as Governor Pritzker signed a new bill into law Sunday. Pritzker signed the HB345, an initiative known as Tobacco 21, which will affect all tobacco retailers and residents in Illinois, according to a statement released, and will go into effect on July 1. Illinois joins California, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Virginia in raising the legal age for purchasing cigarettes, vaping including e-cigarettes and chewing tobacco from 18 to 21 state-wide. Today is a milestone day for the health of our communities and especially our young people, said Gov. JB Pritzker. For Illinois, it will reduce costs for our state, it will make our schools and communities healthier places to learn and live, and most importantly it will save lives. I am so proud to sign this legislation today. According to a Cook County Health press release, 95 percent of smokers start before the age of 21. Raising the age has been proven to reduce smoking rates among young teenagers who are susceptible to the impact of nicotine on the brain and have a strong chance of beginning a lifelong deadly habit, said Sen. Julie Morrison. About 5,700 teens in the state of Illinois become new daily smokers each year, Cook County Health reports, and the passing of the new bill could lower smoking rates by 12 percent. "Our children must never be counted as part of tobacco companies bottom lines," said Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a statement. "They are our future, not their addicted consumers. When Big Tobacco evolved its attempts to lure youth into harmful addiction, Chicago confronted the challenge by raising the purchasing age to 21, banning tobacco discounts and instituting marketing regulations. As a result, smoking in the city has reached a record low of six percent, a 50 percent decrease over the last six years." A missing Wentworth Institute of Technology student who was last seen early Saturday morning in Boston was found dead at the base of a nearby cliff in the city's Roxbury neighborhood, according to authorities. The body of 19-year-old Maximillian Carbone was found by searchers at the bottom of a cliff behind a red building on Terrace Street in the Roxbury on Sunday morning, about a block from where he was last seen early Saturday morning after leaving a house party in the Allegheny Street area in the Mission Hill neighborhood. According to Bill Powers, director of public safety at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Carbone reportedly told friends he was going to stop at a nearby store. "His phone was pinging in the Mission Hill area," Powers told NBC10 Boston. More than 100 people assembled at Wentworth Institute of Technology around 7a.m. on Sunday to search for Carbone. The search was called off on Sunday shortly after 8 a.m., and crime scene tape was set up on the corner of New Cedar and Terrace streets in Roxbury. Originally from Nahant, Carbone was a sophomore at Wentworth Institute of Technology studying biomedical engineering. Carbone's parents described him as a "sweet, happy and loving son, brother and friend." "He was a hardworking student who cared about helping people," Carbone's parents said in a public statement. Eric Overstrom, Wentworths senior vice president for academic affairs and provost said the institution is "devastated by the loss of Max Carbone." "He had many friends within and outside Wentworth, and a warm and loving extended family who will all miss him dearly," Overstrom said. "Wentworth will continue to work with the Boston Police Department to understand how this tragedy could have happened and what, if anything, could be done in the future to prevent a similar situation," Overstrom said. According to Boston police, Carbone's death does not appear to be suspicious. The investigation is ongoing. Connecticut State Police have identified the man who was killed in a crash on Route 140 in Ellington early Sunday morning. Troopers said 26-year-old Sean Ruel, of Ellington, was traveling westbound on Crystal Lake Road near the intersection of Webster Road shortly before 1 a.m. While he was driving, police said he failed to negotiate a curve, hit an embankment off the right shoulder of the road and flipped his vehicle. Ruel was pronounced dead at the scene, according to state troopers. Route 140 was closed while police conducted an investigation, but it has since reopened. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Trooper Burzdak at Troop C in Tolland at (860) 896-3200. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Dori Contreras was living in Houston and working as an accountant when she decided to make a life change and go to law school. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports she was married and had two daughters at the time, and couldn't afford to quit her job. So she kept working, all while attending part-time night classes at the University of Houston Law Center. That continued for a year and a half, until she got to go to the school full time. "I remember just telling myself `this is temporary ... this is a sacrifice that they (family) will benefit from as well,' " Contreras said. Data is out there showing that many other women are making similar sacrifices. In Texas, 35 percent of district court seats were held by women as of Sept. 1, according to statistics from the Texas Judicial Branch. That was before the most recent election cycle. Less than 40 percent of all appellate and trial judges across the state were women at the time. But that could change, as more women are passing the bar in Texas and becoming lawyers. That also could eventually lead to more women presiding over court cases. Eventually Contreras graduated and had been practicing law for about five years when she decided to run for judge. A college friend -- Leticia Hinojosa -- was a court-at-law judge in Hidalgo County with her eyes on a district court seat. Hinojosa told Contreras to run for the post she planned to vacate. "I was a complete novice politically in terms of running for office," Contreras said. She was up against four men in the 1996 primary. She made it to a runoff, but eventually lost. Contreras could have stopped there, but didn't. In 2002, a spot opened up on an appellate bench and she ran. The outcome was different that time. Years later, she became the first woman chief justice on the 13th Court of Appeals. "I felt I was the most qualified person to be the next chief, but I also wanted to serve as an example to the girls in the community," Contreras said in an interview. In Nueces County, four of the eight state district judges are women. Two of the five county court-at-law judges are women. Four of the six 13th Court of Appeals justices are women. That court covers 20 counties, including Nueces County. Nanette Hasette remembers her early years on the bench and the few women in office. She's been a state district judge longer than others currently on the bench in Nueces County. She was elected in 1996 and was one of just a few women in a judicial post at the time. "I think it's a good mix-up now," Hasette said. "It didn't use to be." Women make up nearly 51 percent of Nueces County's population (50.6 percent to be exact), according to U.S. Census data. Several Nueces County judges stressed the importance of having a judiciary that mirrors the population it serves. "I don't think the bench should be all women, I don't think it should be all men," 347th District Judge Missy Medary said, in her chambers. "I think it should be black, white, Hispanic, women, men. I think it should be a mixture of the community that we live in." Medary is also the first woman to serve as presiding judge for the 5th Administrative Judicial Region. There are also women judges in the area's justice of the peace courts, on the federal bench, in visiting judge roles, on municipal benches, among others. Judges also said women and men can bring different perspectives to the bench. "If you take your job as a judge seriously, then it doesn't matter what sex you are because you're going to do what's right and what the law tells you to do," Hasette said. Inna Klein developed a profound respect of the law early in life. She was born in Russia during the Cold War and came to the United States as a refugee at 13. Some of Klein's earliest memories revolved around ethnic and gender inequality in her former homeland and a lack of rights and checks and balances there. Today, she presides over the 214th District Court. "I witnessed firsthand political arrests and convictions within our immediate family and friend circle," Klein said. "I remember convictions and punishments handed out without a legal process, without any assistance from a lawyer." Those images would motivate later her. Klein learned English watching soap operas, and practiced law through a special program while she was a student. She believes women often add "a different angle of thought, creativity and multitasking." "I clearly recall making a promise to myself during those dark days that one day I would become someone who would be able to help people going through the maze of the legal system, and be someone who would stand up for the outcasts. "I also vowed to never forget where I came from." March was Women's History Month. It's been about 100 years since women earned the right to vote. The 19th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified in 1920. "The younger generation, i.e., my daughter, (have) no idea of those subtle acts of discrimination that some of us have faced along the way," said 117th District Court Judge Sandra Watts at an International Women's Day luncheon last month. It was more than six decades after women got the right to vote that the first woman was elected as a district judge in Nueces County. That was in 1982. And that person was Rene Haas. She continues to practice law in Corpus Christi. Rachel Littlejohn preceded Haas as the first woman to serve as a district judge in South Texas. She was elected to the 156th District Court in November 1974. Justice Gina Benavides, who sits on the 13th Court of Appeals, pointed to Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg as pioneers who broke the glass ceiling for other women practicing law. "Women have been historically marginalized in our society, and particularly in the legal profession," Benavides said. "The struggle continues until we no longer ask (if) it is important, but rather that is right to have women in all leading roles." These women are just a few of the firsts in Nueces County and South Texas, and even years later there are still "firsts" in the area, like Medary and Contreras. "So we still have a ways to go," Contreras said. "And the only way we do that is by mentoring young women." In a speech earlier in March, Medary stressed the importance of having women in positions of power to lift up one another. "Pass it on," she told attendees. "If you had a mentor who helped you, be that mentor to someone else. If you didn't have a mentor, be the mentor you wish you could have had." In the past 10 years, the number of women attorneys in Texas has increased by 41 percent, according to statistics from the State Bar of Texas from the end of 2018. There were 37,477 female lawyers in the state in 2018, compared with 26,508 in 2008. Women made up 36 percent of attorneys with bar membership in the state, according to the report. Medary told the Caller-Times she's been fortunate enough to have several female mentors: a prosecutor in New Orleans, a judge in Houston and others in Nueces County. "As women who have reached a certain level of success in their lives, I think we're obligated to give back to not only our community, not only our constituents, but the women that are coming behind us," Medary said. "It's our job to teach them, to show them how to lead the next generation." A 23-year-old ex-convict accused of pulling a cruel hoax by pretending to be a long-missing Illinois boy was charged Friday with making false statements to federal authorities. The FBI said Brian Rini had made false claims twice before, portraying himself as a juvenile sex-trafficking victim. The Medina, Ohio, man was jailed in Cincinnati on Thursday, a day after telling authorities he was 14-year-old Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared in 2011 at age 6. The FBI declared Rini's story a hoax after performing a DNA test. The charge should send a message about the damage such false claims can do, said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman. "It's not OK to do it because of the harm that it causes, the pain, for the family of that missing child," Glassman said. Rini's story had briefly raised hope among Timmothy's relatives that the youngster's disappearance had finally been solved after eight long years. But those hopes were dashed when the test results came back. "It's devastating. It's like reliving that day all over again," said Timmothy's aunt Kara Jacobs. Rini was jailed for a bail hearing on Tuesday. His public defender did not immediately return a message. Rini could get up to eight years in prison. Rini was found wandering the streets on Wednesday and told authorities he had just escaped his captors after years of abuse, officials said. He claimed he had been forced to have sex with men, according to the FBI. When confronted with the DNA results, Rini acknowledged his identity, saying he had watched a story about Timmothy on ABC's "20/20" and wanted to get away from his own family, the FBI said. Rini said "he wished he had a father like Timmothy's because if he went missing, his father would just keep drinking," the FBI said in court papers. A message left with Rini's father for comment was not immediately returned. Glassman said authorities were skeptical early on of Rini's claim because he refused to be fingerprinted, though he did agree to a DNA swab. Rini also looks older than 14, but Glassman said investigators wanted to make sure "there was no opportunity missed to actually find Timmothy Pitzen." Rini's DNA was already on file because of his criminal record. He was released from prison less than a month ago after serving more than a year for burglary and vandalism. He twice portrayed himself in Ohio as a juvenile victim of sex trafficking, and in each case was identified after being fingerprinted, authorities said. In 2017, Rini was treated at an Ohio center for people with mental health or substance abuse problems, according to court papers. Timmothy, of Aurora, Illinois, vanished after his mother pulled him out of kindergarten, took him on a two-day road trip to the zoo and a water park, and then killed herself at a hotel. She left a note saying that her son was safe with people who would love and care for him, and added: "You will never find him." After Rini's account was pronounced a hoax, Timmothy's grandmother Alana Anderson said: "It's been awful. We've been on tenterhooks, hopeful and frightened. It's just been exhausting." She added, "I feel so sorry for the young man who's obviously had a horrible time and felt the need to say he was somebody else." Associated Press reporters Carrie Antlfinger, Don Babwin, Caryn Rousseau and Corey Williams contributed. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned amid President Donald Trump's growing frustration and bitterness over the number of Central American families crossing the southern border. Trump announced on Sunday in a tweet that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would be taking over as acting head of the department. McAleenan is a longtime border official who is well-respected by members of Congress and within the administration. The decision to name a top immigration officer to the post reflects Trump's priority for the sprawling department founded to combat terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks. "I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside," Nielsen wrote in her resignation letter. "I hope that the next secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America's borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation's discourse." Though Trump aides were eyeing a staff shake-up at Homeland Security and had already withdrawn the nomination for another key immigration post, the development Sunday was unexpected. Nielsen traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday with Trump to participate in a roundtable with border officers and local law enforcement. There she echoed Trump's comments on the situation at the border, though she ducked out of the room without explanation for some time while Trump spoke. As they toured a section of newly rebuilt barriers, Nielsen was at Trump's side, introducing him to local officials. She returned to Washington afterward on a Coast Guard Gulfstream, as Trump continued on a fundraising trip to California and Nevada. Nielsen had grown increasingly frustrated by what she saw as a lack of support from other departments and increased meddling by Trump aides on difficult immigration issues, according to three people familiar with details of her resignation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. She went into the White House on Sunday to meet with Trump not knowing whether she'd be fired or would resign. She ended up resigning, though she was not forced to do so, they said. Nielsen is the latest person felled in the Trump administration's unprecedented churn of top staff and Cabinet officials, brought about by the president's mercurial management style, insistence on blind loyalty and rash policy announcements. Nielsen was also the highest profile female Cabinet member, and her exit leaves DHS along with the Pentagon and the White House staff itself without permanent heads. Patrick Shanahan has held the post of acting defense secretary since the former secretary, Jim Mattis, was pushed out in December over criticism of the president's Syria withdrawal plans. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has held his post since January, following John Kelly's resignation last year. Her resignation lett er lacked any sense of controversy unlike those of others who have left. She thanked Trump and DHS staff for their hard work. Her replacement, McAleenan, has helped shape many of the administration's policies to date and is considered highly competent by congressional leaders, the White House and Homeland Security officials. But it's unclear if he can have much more of an effect on the issues at the border. The Trump administration has bumped up against legal restrictions and court rulings that have hamstrung many of its major efforts to remake border security. Tensions between the White House and Nielsen have persisted almost from the moment she became secretary, after her predecessor, Kelly, became the White House chief of staff in 2017. Nielsen was viewed as resistant to some of the harshest immigration measures supported by the president and his aides, particularly senior adviser Stephen Miller, both on matters around the border and others like protected status for some refugees. Once Kelly left the White House, Nielsen's days appeared to be numbered. She had expected to be pushed out last November, but her exit never materialized. During the government shutdown over Trump's insistence for funding for a border wall, Nielsen's standing inside the White House even appeared to rise. But in recent weeks, as a new wave of migration has taxed resources along the border and as Trump sought to regain control of the issue for his 2020 re-election campaign, tensions flared anew. The final straw came when Trump gave Nielsen no heads-up or opportunity to discuss his decision to pull the nomination of acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Ron Vitiello a move seen as part of a larger effort by Miller, an immigration hardliner, and his allies at the White House to clean house at the department and bring in more people who share their views, the people said. Nielsen had wanted to discuss the move with Trump during their visit to the border Friday, but when there was no time, she asked for the meeting Sunday. She walked into it prepared to resign, depending on what she heard. The people described mounting frustrations on both sides, with Trump exasperated at the situation at the border and Nielsen frustrated by White House actions she felt were counterproductive. Arrests along the southern border have skyrocketed recently. Border agents were on track to have made 100,000 arrests and denials of entry at the southern border in March, over half of which are families with children. A press conference to announce the most recent border numbers scheduled to be held by McAleenan on Monday was postponed. Nielsen dutifully pushed Trump's immigration policies, including funding for his border wall, and defended the administration's practice of separating children from parents. She told a Senate committee that removing children from parents facing criminal charges happens "in the United States every day." But she was also instrumental in ending the policy. Under Nielsen, migrants seeking asylum are waiting in Mexico as their cases progress. She also moved to abandon longstanding regulations that dictate how long children are allowed to be held in immigration detention, and requested bed space from the U.S. military for some 12,000 people in an effort to detain all families who cross the border. Right now there is space for about 3,000 families, and facilities are at capacity. She also advocated for strong cybersecurity defense and often said she believed the next major terror attack would occur online not by planes or bombs. She was tasked with helping states secure elections following Russian interference during the 2018 election. She led the federal agency since December 2017, and was this administration's third Homeland Security secretary. A protege of Kelly's, he brought her to the White House after Trump named him chief of staff. She earned a reputation as an enforcer working to corral the chaotic West Wing. Nielsen, 45, previously served as a special assistant to President George W. Bush and worked for the Transportation Security Administration. She rose through the Trump ranks quickly joining the transition team after the election to help guide Kelly through the confirmation process. She quickly became a trusted aide to Kelly, and the two worked together to impose order on a dysfunctional White House that lacked clear lines of command. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said her tenure was "a disaster from the start." The policies she helped create "have been an abysmal failure and have helped create the humanitarian crisis at the border." His Senate counterpart, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said the government needed "steady, informed and effective leadership in the administration and in Congress to have any hope of fixing our out-of-control border security and immigration problems." Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. A California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer was struck and killed by a sedan on the 15 Freeway Saturday outside of Lake Elsinore by a suspected DUI driver, the Inland California Highway Patrol said in a statement. The crash occurred at approximately 4:26 p.m. and the officer was airlifted to a local hospital, according to the CHP. CHP Riverside Sgt. Steve Licon, a 27-year veteran of the CHP, was identified as the officer killed, and several different law enforcement agencies joined together to provide Licon with a procession to honor the fallen CHP officer. Licon was conducting a traffic stop behind a Chrysler sedan, north of Nichols Road when a gray Toyota Corolla crashed into his motorcycle, with the sergeant suffering major injuries as a result, according to the CHP. The procession to honor the fallen sergeant took about an hour as the flag-draped body was transported from Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar to the Riverside County Coroner's Office in Perris. Following the procession, Licon's body was delivered to the coroner's office at approximately 10 p.m. Michael Callahan, 36, of Winchester, was traveling on the right shoulder of the freeway and collided with the CHP motorcycle, according to the CHP. Callahan was arrested for multiple charges, including murder and suspicion of driving under the influence, the CHP said in a news conference Sunday. Authorities said they uncovered evidence that shows gross negligence both during and before the collision and that investigators believe murder charges are appropriate for the collision. In the statement, the CHP said, "Our thoughts and prayers are with Sergeant Licon's family as they grieve with us during this difficult time." For anyone wishing to donate to help the Licon family, authorities said donations can be made to the following address: Sgt. Steve Licon memorial fund PO Box 276507 Sacramento, Ca 95827 CAHP credit union Police are calling on anyone with information to come forward as they seek to identify the people who attacked a 47-year-old man outside Dodger Stadium, leaving him hospitalized with a skull fracture. Los Angeles Police Department Capt. William Hayes of the Robbery-Homicide Division spoke at a Thursday news conference about the investigation. He said investigators are reviewing security camera video from the ballpark, but they're hoping someone can provide more information about the assailants. "There are countless video cameras there, and it's taking time to go through that," said Hayes. "There's somebody who knows who these individuals are." Witnesses have provided only vague descriptions of a man and woman seen during the attack on Rafael Reyna, a father of four children, who remain in critical, but stable condition. His wife, Christel, said he was punched and suffered a fractured skull as the crowd was leaving the Los Angeles Dodgers' 5-4, 13-inning loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks early Saturday. She told NBC4 she was on Facetime with Rafael Reyna when she heard a woman yell "Why did you do that?'' as a man approached her husband and cursed at him. Then she heard a crack and the screen went black. Hayes said that investigators were not able to retrieve images or audio of the conversation. As for witness accounts, Hayes said they have described a man and woman -- whom he referred to as "nondescript" -- wearing Dodgers gear, as were thousands of others at the stadium. The man was described as Hispanic, in his mid-20s, 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds. The woman was described as Hispanic, in her 20s, 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 110 pounds with a thin build. Hayes said a white SUV that police earlier had referred to as a vehicle of interest had been found via license plate images. Its driver had been ruled out as having had any involvement in the incident. He said the victim and suspect did not know one another, and their dispute originated in the parking lot. He declined to reveal details of the dispute, citing concerns about jeopardizing the ongoing investigation. Reyna said her husband has swelling and bleeding on the brain. She and an adult son have been with her husband at the hospital, but Reyna said she has not told her younger children, ages 11 to 15. Police said Reyna was involved in an argument with another man that escalated. He remains in critical, but stable, condition. Kimberley Endicott, the woman from Costa Mesa, California, who had been kidnapped in Uganda, has been located and freed along with her driver, a top Ugandan military official told NBC News. They were found around Ishasha on the Ugandan-DRC border and are currently in the care of the police and being interviewed. The two "are in good health" and "in the safe hands" of security officials, police said in a Twitter update. Endicott was expected to be turned over to the U.S. Embassy on Monday, according to Ugandan police. Although authorities provided no details about how the rescue operation was carried out, a government spokesman said on Twitter that the kidnappers had taken their victims to Congo, where the two were rescued by the security forces. The kidnappers "have escaped and operations continue," Ofwono Opondo said. Ugandan security teams had been hunting down gunmen who had demanded a $500,000 ransom after kidnapping the American and her Ugandan guide in a national park popular with tourists. There were conflicting reports Monday over whether a ransom was paid. Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga told a news conference in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, that he did not believe a ransom had been paid. "I have indicated to you that we don't do ransom," he said Monday. But the New York Times, citing a tourism company official who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak, reported that Wild Frontiers -- the group that organized the safari itinerary -- paid a ransom. The amount was not specified. Wild Frontiers has not responded to NBC News' repeated requests for comment. Endicott and her driver were ambushed on April 2 in Queen Elizabeth National Park, a protected area near the porous border with Congo, according to Ugandan authorities. Endicott, who has a small skin care shop, is in her late 50s and has a daughter and granddaughter. President Donald Trump tweeted that the pair had been released and added, "God bless them and their families!" On Monday, her urged Uganda to find the woman's kidnappers. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said at a Tuesday event for families of U.S. citizens held captive overseas that he understands some people want to do anything to get their loved ones back but paying ransom would just lead to more kidnappings. In a Friday statement, the State Department said that the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad is its highest priority. "Whenever a U.S. citizen is taken captive abroad, we work tirelessly - in partnership with local authorities - to secure their release and get them home safely," the statement said. Earlier Friday, an Arizona man who is related to Endicott said he wanted to see the U.S. send in Navy SEALS to locate and rescue her if that's what it took. Phoenix resident Rich Endicott, a 62-year-old banker, said he hasn't spoken with his cousin since a family reunion several years ago. Omar Nabi skipped Friday prayers because of work. But news of the attack at the Masjid Al Noor mosque in New Zealand's Christchurch filled Nabi with fear because his father had been there, NBC News reports. Nabi rushed to the mosque as soon as he heard reports of the massacre, only to be told that his father, Daoud Nabi, 71, had thrown himself in front of another worshipper and been shot. Daoud Nabi was among at least 49 people who were killed in the mass shooting at two mosques in the city, according to New Zealand police. Dozens more were wounded. A man in his late 20s was charged with murder, police said. Other families were also desperately searching for news. Janna Adnan Ezat from Christchurch posted on Facebook that she has not been able to make contact with her son who was at one of the mosques. I dont know whether my son Hussein El Omari is alive or dead, she wrote. The roads are blocked and we families are waiting at the hospital for word. [NATL] Photos: Mourning, Increased Security After Deadly Mosque Shootings in New Zealand NBC 7 has live team coverage of the presidential visit on air, in app and at the top of this page. President Donald Trump visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Calexico, California, Friday and touted the effectiveness of a recently renovated stretch of border fence, calling it "better, faster and less expensive," than the portion of fence it replaced. The president flew into Naval Air Facility El Centro aboard Air Force One and was greeted to cheers from border patrol agents, military troops and their families before boarding a motorcade en route to the border town. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was the first to greet the president and traveled with him south to Calexico, where he will tour a 2.25-mile section of recently renovated border fence Trump was joined for a quick media briefing by law enforcement agency officials from border jurisdictions from San Diego to Arizona. Trump repeated previous claims that San Diegans were "begging me for a wall." Were very appreciative of this wall. These men and women out here in the area of two miles were experiencing a high number of assaults and use-of-force incidents. This was prior to this wall being built," El Centro Sector CBP Chief Gloria Chavez said. Chavez said the see-through design of the new fence gives agents a huge advantage because they can now see what's on the other side. "We can see the adversary, we can see the threat," she said. Chavez said agents would have rocks and other items thrown at them on a daily basis, but those threats have stopped since the new fence was erected. According to Chavez, assaults on agents have dropped 65 percent in that two-mile stretch and illegal entries have decreased by 75 percent. Trump said the majority of breaches in the area happen at points along the border still lined with the old fence. When the entire area is lined with the new style fence, he predicted illegal entries in Chavez's area would be down 99.9 percent. If you want to climb that its pretty sharp up top, too If you want to climb that, you deserve whatever you can get," he said. Three sheriffs from counties in California's central valley were also at the briefing, saying they feel the impact of porous border defense from 400 miles away. "I just want to take this opportunity to thank this president for doing the right thing and standing up for law enforcement in this country. It is greatly appreciated," Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. Trump criticized political leaders in California, and in San Diego, for their apparent complaints regarding Trump's border barrier project. "Its interesting about California, theyre begging me for the wall in San Diego, you know that, because the people were pouring in through San Diego, going over the front lawns, going into peoples houses, so they want the wall done in San Diego, and we did it and then you hear they dont want the wall; they want the wall. If you ever took it down, they wanted that one so badly, and we did it, we did a great job. We stopped everybody, virtually everybody actually, everybody from coming over. It was a tremendous success but California is always the first one to complain." Sherrif representatives from Arizona who joined the president also thanked him for his commitment to border security, and said they neutralize threats from the other side of the southern border every day. Anyone who would suggest that we do not have a crisis on our southern border is being intellectually dishonest to the point of being dishonest with malice. We have a humanitarian crisis which is very clear and compelling, we have a compelling crisis of public safety with human trafficking, drug trafficking, sex trafficking coming through the border. This is not make believe, this is something that we live with every day as border sheriffs, so we applaud the efforts of the current administration to secure our border, Pima County Sheriff Mark D. Napier said. Ahead of the tour, the president first sat down for a roundtable with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security officials. CBP Chief Chavez said that the renovated section of wall accounted for a drop in illegal entries by 75 percent in fiscal year 19. "We need the border barrier, we need to provide the requirements that meet our need, in this case for us its 30 feet high," Chavez said. "That's what we asked for and that's what was provided, so thank you on behalf of the border patrol here for allowing that to happen." With the renovation, the section became the tallest border barrier along the southern United States, standing at 30 feet tall, according to Chavez. The White House says it's the first section of his proposed border wall to be built, though the repairs were made with 2018 appropriations as part of a long-planned replacement project, and was in construction from Feb. to Oct. 2018. "There is indeed an emergency on our southern border," Trump said at the briefing, adding that there has been a sharp uptick in illegal crossings. "It's a colossal surge, and it's overwhelming our immigration system. We can't take you anymore. Our country is full." Meanwhile, both protesters and supporters gathered at the Gran Plaza Outlets next to the Calexico Port of Entry in anticipation of Trump's arrival. Nearby, the barbed wire fence separating the two countries was lined with Department of Homeland Security vehicles. Protesters floated next to the port a 20-foot tall balloon of a cartoonish Trump wearing a diaper, hopeful that the president's motorcade would pass the giant inflatable while en route to the border. "We hope our words our real worries are heard. And we can reach a solution," said protester and Calexico resident Maria Surtado. Trump supporter and El Centro resident Omar Vega positioned himself next to the baby Trump balloon and alongside protesters to represent the other side, he told NBC 7. Vega is hopeful that the president can make change along the border. "Hopefully he actually does something productive today, and hopefully helps the economy, in this city, right now," Vega said. "With building the wall, hopefully the crime rate goes down, especially in this city, because its very bad right now." Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that during President Trump's visit to the border city, he will be briefed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on "exactly what is taking place at the border." "Hes going to get a briefing when he first arrives there from a number of law enforcement officials, the CBP folks the people that are on the front lines there on the ground," she told Fox News. The president has threatened to close the southern border if demands to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking are not met. On Thursday, the President walked back the immediate threat to close the border and instead said the closure could come next year if the Mexican government or Congress does not make significant progress on both issues. Trump also said he would slap tariffs on Mexican automotive imports at that time. The possibility of a border shutdown was first made last Friday due to a surge of Central Americans migrants who are seeking asylum in the U.S. Trump administration officials have said the influx is straining the immigration system to the breaking point. While Vega is in favor of Trump's border wall plan, he admits shutting down the border wouldn't be good for El Centro because the city's economy relies on people crossing over the border to spend money, he explained. "This is certainly not the presidents first choice but Democrats at this point, they're unwillingness to do anything has left the president with very little options. Thankfully Mexico has stepped up over the last few days," Sanders said. When asked what Mexico has done, the press secretary said they've added additional checkpoints within the country to stop migrants before they reach the U.S. border. Second, Mexico increased to 300 the number of asylum-seeking individuals allowed to be sent back to Mexico as part of a new U.S. policy. Mexico's cooperation with U.S. officials last December marked a historic one as the country has traditionally refused to accept into their country the return of any migrants who are not Mexican. Elected leaders from border communities stretching from San Diego to cities across Texas warned that havoc would ensue on both sides of the international boundary if the ports were closed. They were joined by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which said such a step would inflict "severe economic harm." The San Diego and Imperial County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union released a statement Friday voicing concerns that the president was not meeting with civilians of the border communities. The statement read in part, "To our knowledge, the president has no plans to meet with Imperial Valley residents or community leaders to hear their concerns. He has no intent to learn how his policies strain limited local resources and put lives at risk. He is unmoved by the harmful effects his threats to close the border has on businesses, families and civic life in the region." Calexico, part of Imperial County, is home to the second busiest commercial port on the California border and processes tens of thousands of vehicles daily. Also on Friday, House Democrats filed a lawsuit preventing Trump from spending more money than Congress has approved to erect barriers along the southwestern border. Congress approved just under $1.4 billion for work on border barricades. Trump has asserted he can use his powers as chief executive to transfer an additional $6.7 billion to wall construction. Two juveniles are charged after an attempted carjacking and shooting in a Chicago neighborhood and police say they're still looking for the two other suspects. The four suspects, wearing masks, shot Kyle Garchar at the corner of McLean and Hoyne on Tuesday around 9 p.m. while he was working on his car, police said. Garchar and his girlfriend say they've complained to the city for months about their neighborhood to try to prevent a crime like this. "All they said was, 'Keys! Keys! Give me the keys,'" Garchar told NBC 5 from his hospital bed. "They hit me in the face and they were like hey, give us the keys!' and I didnt know where the keys were." He said he's grateful to be recovering from just one gunshot wound to his leg. He said he thought the attackers would keep shooting and kill him. I was thinking 'Oh my God I just got shot!' then I rolled over and started crawling away and was thinking 'Oh my God! Am I going to die? Are they going to shoot me again?' and the one guy came back and hit me in the face again," he said. Neighbors heard the gunshot and called 911 as the attackers ran off with the victim's money - who they left bleeding in the street. Ellen Hartel is Garchar's girlfriend. When I opened the door I could hear Kyle screaming for me," she said. "So I ran across the street, he had already taken his belt off so I just made a tourniquet around his leg." Hartel says neighbors have complained to the city about this corner for six months after the street light burned out. They say the darkness gave these criminals an opportunity to attack. My boyfriend, Kyle, called the aldermans office yesterday and said Hey I was shot right under there and it was really dark. Can you do something about that? and they came out and fixed it last night," Hartel said. "So, it takes somebody almost dying for them to fix it. But I guess its good because now its lit." Garchar hopes to get out of the hospital before his birthday next Tuesday. He's also started a GoFundMe page to help pay his medical bills. A city bus crashed into a Queens bagel store early Sunday, hurting five people, the FDNY said. The bus crashed into Bagels Plus in Woodside shortly after 5 a.m., firefighters said. One person was taken to Elmhurst Hospital. Four others refused medical attention. Police say the bus collided with a Honda, then hit the building. The Q18 bus was on 58th Street when it crashed, the MTA said. An MTA spokesman said the Honda driver was going at a high rate of speed. The driver of the Honda told NBC 4 New York that he was making a left turn when the bus struck him. Police initially said the bus didn't have any passengers when it crashed, but a witness later said about half a dozen people were in the bus and described watching them exit through the back of the bus. The bagel store owner said one worker was inside at the time. The bus driver has injuries to his wrists and ankles, the MTA said. The United States has temporarily withdrawn some of its forces from Libya due to "security conditions on the ground," a top military official said Sunday as a Libyan commander's forces advanced toward the capital of Tripoli and clashed with rival militias. A small contingent of American troops has been in Libya in recent years, helping local forces combat Islamic State and al-Qaida militants, as well as protecting diplomatic facilities. "The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable," said Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the head of U.S. Africa Command. "Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing U.S. strategy." He did not provide details on the number of U.S. troops that have been withdrawn or on how many remain in the country. India evacuated a small contingent of peacekeepers. The Indian foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, said the country's 15 Central Reserve Police Force peacekeepers were evacuated Saturday from Tripoli because the "situation in Libya has suddenly worsened" and fighting has moved into the capital city. The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter, launched a surprise offensive against the capital last week, a move that could potentially drag the country back into civil war. Libya has been gripped by unrest since the 2011 uprising that overthrew and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. In recent years, the country has been governed by rival authorities in the east and in Tripoli, in the west, each backed by various armed groups. Fighting was underway Sunday at the international airport, some 24 kilometers (15 miles) from central Tripoli, after Hifter claimed to have seized the area. The airport was destroyed in a previous bout of militia fighting in 2014. Hifter said his forces had launched airstrikes targeting rival militias on the outskirts of Tripoli. The rival militias, which are affiliated with a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, said they had also carried out airstrikes, slowing Hifter's advance. At least 35 people, including civilians, have been killed on both sides since Thursday. The Health Ministry of the Tripoli-based government said in a statement that at least 21 people, including a physician, were killed and at least 27 wounded. Ahmed al-Mesmari, spokesman for Hifter's forces, said Saturday that 14 troops had been killed since the offensive began. The fighting has displaced hundreds of people, the U.N. migration agency said. The U.N. mission to Libya called for a two-hour cease-fire on Sunday in parts of Tripoli to evacuate civilians and the wounded. The LNA is supported by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, France and Russia. It answers to the authorities based in eastern Libya, who are at odds with the U.N.-backed government. Rival political factions took to the streets across Venezuela on Saturday in a mounting struggle for control of the crisis-wracked nation, where U.S.- backed opposition leader Juan Guaido is attempting to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro. It was the first march Guaido has led since Maduro loyalists stripped him of legal protections he's granted as a congressman, opening a path to prosecute and possibly arrest him for allegedly violating the constitution. The rallies also follow crippling power failures that left most of the country scrambling in the dark for days and without running water or phone service, which Maduro blamed on "terrorists" acts launched by political opponents. Speaking before several thousand people who packed a broad Caracas avenue, Guaido urged them to stay united and to keep up pressure until Maduro leaves power. "Something is evident today," Guaido said. "Venezuela is not afraid and continues taking the streets until we achieve freedom." Guaido tried to channel Venezuelans' ire by calling crowds in the capital to march to the headquarters of the national power utility, Corpoelec. His supporters said the blackout is another failure of the socialist government. "This regime has made big mistakes," said Beatriz Cisneros, a 62, critical of Venezuela's deteriorated petroleum industry, its broken educational system and hospitals that fail to provide basic care. "We're fighting for Venezuela to have liberty." Many opposition supporters marched along a sunny main avenue carrying Venezuelan flags. A nun draped the national colors around her shoulders. Another protester carried a sign listing the lack of power, water and other basic services, along with the slogan: "Don't get used to it." Across the country in Maracaibo, the hub of Venezuela's once-thriving oil production, members of the National Guard fired tear gas at anti-government protesters, causing some injuries, local media reported. The area has been among those hardest hit by blackouts over the past two years. Meanwhile, large crowds of Maduro backers, many dressed in bright red and gathered in the center of Caracas, waved flags and danced to blasting music as they marched to the presidential palace. Maduro made a new call for dialogue toward reaching peace in Venezuela with help from the fellow Latin American countries, including Mexico and Uruguay. But he also against accused his opponents inside Venezuela of staging attacks and said they should stop. "Do you believe that through terrorism you will achieve political power?" Maduro said. "Never! Not with electric terrorism, not with political terrorism, not with mercenary terrorism. No!" Guaido, 35, rose from relative obscurity in January when he was named head of Venezuela's opposition-dominated National Assembly and said he was assuming presidential powers to force Maduro from power. He says Maduro is illegitimate due to allegedly fraudulent elections last year. He has gained support from Washington and roughly 50 nations, but he has yet to budge Maduro, who maintains control over the government and military and is backed by foreign allies including China, Cuba and Russia. Washington on Friday added to pressure on Maduro by imposing financial sanctions on two companies involved in shipping oil from Venezuela to Cuba, along with nearly three dozen ships. Maduro blames the recent blackouts on U.S. "cyber-attacks" as part of a coup attempt to topple his government. Guaido, meanwhile, has come under increasing pressure from Maduro's government, which recently jailed his chief of staff and has taken legal actions that could lead to his own arrest, though the administration of President Donald Trump has warned of a strong response if the opposition leader is harmed. Socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello told reporters on Saturday that the authorities acted in accordance with the laws in taking the legal action against Guaido. Cabello also dismissed the new sanctions, saying the United States has to resort to such measures because "it has no more arguments." Amid several thousand Maduro supporters was Ana Margarita Urbina, 57, who wore a bright red shirt, the color of Venezuela's socialist party, saying she marched to defend the country she said is under threat from the imperialist United States. "We're on a mission," said Urbina. "We have a common cause. Our country is our mother." Associated Press writers Christopher Torchia and Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report. A U.S. citizen has been charged with kidnapping and other counts for his alleged role in the abduction of a freelance journalist who was held hostage in Somalia for nearly three years, according to federal charging documents unsealed Thursday in New York. According to a criminal complaint, Abdi Yusuf Hassan was part of a conspiracy to kidnap the journalist in January 2012 in Galkayo, Somalia, and demand $20 million in ransom. The journalist was released Sept. 23, 2014. While the journalist is not named in the complaint or in a superseding indictment, the dates of his capture and release, and several details outlined in the court documents, match the experiences of author Michael Scott Moore, a German-American who was abducted by pirates in Somalia while he was there writing a book about piracy. Moore's publicist said he was unreachable for an interview Thursday. In November, Moore confirmed to the New York Times that another man indicted in the case, Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed, was one of his captors. Mohamed and Hassan are listed as co-defendants. According to court documents, Hassan, 51, was born in Mogadishu and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He faces six counts, including kidnapping conspiracy, hostage-taking conspiracy and unlawful use of firearms. He was arrested in Minneapolis on Friday and will be returned to New York to face charges. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney in New York to comment on his behalf. The charging documents say the journalist was in a vehicle on Jan. 21, 2012, in the vicinity of Galkayo when he was surrounded by a group of heavily armed men carrying what appeared to be AK-47 assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. He was abducted and struck with weapons, injuring his head and wrist. He was taken to different areas in Somalia, and at one point was held in a vessel off the Somali coast. He told investigators that he and another hostage were typically guarded by about 10 men, all armed with assault rifles or belt-fed machine guns. In December 2013, he was moved to a residence near Galkayo, which was frequently visited by Hassan, the complaint says. The complaint says Hassan spoke English and was a translator for the hostage takers; the journalist, who identified Hassan from a lineup, said he also appeared to hold a leadership position over the other guards. Multiple times during the journalist's captivity, Hassan ordered him to call a family member to try to demand more money for ransom. During one call on Jan. 30, 2012, the journalist told a family member that his captors were demanding $20 million "and that if they did not receive the money within 24 hours, they would stop providing food and water to Victim-1," the complaint said. In another call in May 2012, the journalist said things had "gotten very serious" and another hostage had been tortured in front of him. The journalist said there was a real threat that if the ransom didn't come through, he would be sold to al-Shabab. In May 2012, the pirates released a video, showing the journalist in an undisclosed location with a prayer shawl over his head, surrounded by masked kidnappers who pointed a machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade at him. The journalist was released in September 2014. Moore has said his family raised $1.6 million for his release. According to the complaint, Hassan entered the U.S. in New York on Sept. 15, 2015, and was interviewed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He allegedly said he worked as the Minister of the Interior and Security for Galmudug State in Somalia, which includes Galkayo, and his job included arranging for the release of kidnapped people, including the journalist. What to Know San Diego researchers were the first to participate in the new model of conservation. The giant pandas born at the San Diego Zoo have helped to produce 22 additional giant pandas in China. The giant panda is still on the endangered species list but is less threatened than when the program began. Like any good, respected pop culture icon, the San Diego Zoos giant pandas launched their "farewell tour" of sorts on Saturday a three-week celebration highlighting their time in the city before they are repatriated to China. The panda party marks exactly three weeks until Bai Yun the zoos beloved 27-year-old female giant panda and her son, 6-year-old Xiao Liwu leave the San Diego Zoo, a facility known globally for its successful panda conservation program. The San Diego Zoo announced that its last two remaining giant pandas will head to China. NBC 7's Melissa Adan has more on why they have to go. San Diego Zoo Global and China have been collaborating for the past 23 years on panda research and conservation of the species. Part of Saturdays farewell ceremony included the unveiling of a new plaque marking the conservation program. Zoo director Dwight Scott also led Chinese Ambassador Zhang Ping of the Peoples Republic of China Los Angeles Consulate on a tour of the panda habitat. The departure of the giant pandas marks the end of San Diego Zoo Globals giant panda program. The zoo said in a press release that now comes the beginning of a new era of panda conservation at the San Diego Zoo, and the facility is working with their colleagues in China to determine what those future plans may entail. Gao Gao, a giant panda who lived at the San Diego Zoo for many years, returned to China this week. The panda was in San Diego on a research loan agreement with the People's Republic of China as conservationists worked to save the species from the verge of extinction over the past couple of decades. While the San Diego Zoo has said it wants the giant pandas to return to the facility someday, the decision ultimately lies with China. A new agreement would likely center around the next challenge: reintroducing pandas to the wild. The ambassador said he's optimistic. "They've done a very good job in panda research and conservation, so I think this is a very good thing for continuation of the program in the future," Zhang told NBC 7. He said on every level, the agreement between China and the San Diego Zoo has been a model of success. "I think the successful story of this project, here at the San Diego Zoo, is that we see a very successful breeding program," Zhang said. "I think its a very successful collaboration, and I think because of these kinds of exchanges, people in China also learned about the giant panda. It also helped the Chinese side advance its course on giant panda protection and conservation." For now, giant panda fans have until April 27 to say goodbye to Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu. The San Diego Zoo said visitors can show their love for the furry creatures in several ways over the next few weeks, including sharing their memories and hopes for the giant pandas on social media using the hashtag #pandas4ever. Theres also something called the Giant Panda Friendship Wall located across from the Giant Panda Research Station at the zoos Panda Canyon. Visitors could buy a commemorative bell from the zoos panda shop or grab a free tag and hang either or both on the wall as a symbolic gesture of love and appreciation for the pandas and everything they have meant to the city of San Diego. [G] San Diego's Cutest Critters Those who may not be able to make it to the San Diego Zoo to say goodbye to the giant pandas in person can take another approach: watching the Panda Cam on the zoos website here. Bai Yun and her son are the last two giant pandas to live at the San Diego Zoo, one of only a few zoos where giant pandas can be found in the United States. Zoos in Washington, D.C, Atlanta and Memphis also have the animals. The news of the departure of the giant pandas came a couple of weeks ago. Although it may have been shocking to locals and visitors fanatical about the animals, the move was not unexpected, as a long-term conservation agreement was ending, San Diego Zoo officials said. "Although we are sad to see these pandas go, we have great hopes for the future," Shawn Dixon, chief operating officer for San Diego Zoo Global said last month in a statement released to the media. The zoos giant panda conservation program began more than two decades ago when the species was threatened with extinction. The San Diego Zoo's work with Bai Yun and her cubs has helped to boost the wild population of pandas in China to more than 2,000, according to the zoo. In 2016, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species changed pandas from endangered to vulnerable. In October 2018, Bai Yun's longtime mate, Gao Gao, was returned to the Chinese Center for Research and Conservation for the Giant Panda. The father of five cubs born at the San Diego Zoo, Gao Gao had been living at the zoo for 15 years as part of the long-term loan agreement with the Peoples Republic of China. With the remaining giant pandas to leave the San Diego Zoo for China, many are wondering how it will impact business. NBC 7's Danny Freeman has more. Meanwhile, longtime panda-keeper Dallas Dumont told NBC 7 on Saturday that the imminent departure of her furry friends still hasnt sunk in. "For me it's not going to hit me til I come back and see the empty bedroom," Dumont told NBC 7. "So, I think that's when the tears will probably come after they're gone." The zoo plans to keep the panda enclosures intact, ready for a possible return. In San Diego, if youre a panda, the door is always open. Senate Democrats blocked a Republican disaster aid bill, saying more money is needed to help hurricane-torn Puerto Rico. But President Donald Trump opposes additional funding and says the U.S. territory is getting more disaster money than some states. The move tossed long-sought relief for victims of hurricanes, floods and Western wildfires into limbo and escalated a fight between Democrats and Trump, who said Tuesday that he is the "best thing" that ever happened to Puerto Rico. He claimed additional funding would come at the expense of U.S. farmers and states. Puerto Rico's residents are U.S. citizens. Monday's 44-49 vote fell short of a majority, much less the 60 votes required to overcome a Democratic filibuster, sending GOP leaders back to the drawing board and seeming unlikely to kill disaster aid efforts outright, since there is much political support to send aid to Southern farmers, wildfire-ravaged California towns and Midwestern flood victims. Trump allies such as Sens. David Perdue, R-Ga., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., are among the strongest backers of the legislation. "We will get this done eventually," Perdue said, promising relief to struggling farmers in his state. The path forward is unclear, but a leading option is for the Senate to pass a more narrowly drawn bill simply to get the issue into a House-Senate conference committee. House Democrats insist the talks must produce a final measure with help for Puerto Rico. Democrats say Trump has been slow to release already appropriated funding for Puerto Rico and has shown little urgency in helping the island. Trump criticized the island's government at a meeting with Senate Republicans last week and suggested Puerto Rico has gotten too much disaster help compared with states such as Texas, using inflated numbers to make his case. "Just as we leave no soldier behind on the battlefield, we help our fellow Americans when there's a disaster, wherever the disaster strikes. We do not abandon them. Period," said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Trump complained in a pair of tweets Tuesday about the island's leadership and said $91 billion destined for Puerto Rico is "more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money." He said the politicians there are "grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA." "The best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico is President Donald J. Trump," the president continued. "So many wonderful people, but with such bad Island leadership and with so much money wasted. Cannot continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments, and so little appreciation!" Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello responded with his own tweets, stating in part, "Mr. President, this 'place' you refer to, #PuertoRico, is home to over three million proud Americans that are still recovering from the storm and in need of federal assistance. We are not your adversaries, we are your citizens." Rossello also asked that all senators approve the disaster aid bill and disputed Trump's numbers, claiming that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved only $300 million in permanent work projects, not $91 billion. The $13.5 billion Senate measure mostly mirrors a $14.2 billion measure the House passed in January, combining aid to Southern farmers, California communities devastated by last summer's wildfire, and hurricane-hit states such as Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. Hurricane-damaged military bases in Florida and North Carolina would receive rebuilding funds. Democrats want to add almost $700 million more to unlock further disaster aid for Puerto Rico and several states, including help to rebuild badly damaged water systems. Democrats are also trying to force the administration to release billions of dollars in rebuilding funds that have already been approved. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate measure is the fastest way to get aid to the South and the Midwest, along with nutrition aid to Puerto Rico, where food stamp benefits have already been cut. "It is the only bill on the table with any provision for the Midwest flooding," McConnell said. "And it's the only bill on the table that could earn a presidential signature in time to deliver urgent relief on the nutrition assistance in Puerto Rico." Political momentum for the measure strongly backed by Trump's allies in Georgia, Florida and North Carolina, among other states has only been heightened by massive flooding in Midwestern states such as Nebraska and Iowa, whose nominating caucuses are the first test for Democrats hoping to challenge Trump next year. The GOP measure would make Midwestern states eligible for more aid, and by blocking the bill, Democratic presidential contenders in the Senate are likely to face criticism. Trump has yet to veto a spending bill despite some tough talk, and he has signed off on $600 million to ease food stamp cuts in Puerto Rico. Actual aid to Puerto Rico has flowed slowly from federal coffers. Trump's $91 billion estimate, said a White House spokesman, includes $41 billion that's already been approved and about $50 billion in expected future disaster disbursements. Puerto Rico has so far received $11 billion (of the $41 billion that's been set aside) and the $50 billion estimate would be expected "over the life" of the recovery effort, which could span several decades, The Washington Post reported. "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, a prominent advocate for hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico, lashed out at Trump over the $91 billion figure. "Puerto Rico is still WAITING for most of their allocated relief funds, while our president lies to himself and lies to you," he said on Twitter Tuesday. Ernest F. "Fritz" Hollings, the silver-haired Democrat who helped shepherd South Carolina through desegregation as governor and went on to serve six terms in the U.S. Senate, has died. He was 97. Family spokesman Andy Brack, who also served at times for Hollings as spokesman during his Senate career, said Hollings died at his home on the Isle of Palms early Saturday. Hollings, whose long and colorful political career included an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, retired from the Senate in 2005, one of the last of the larger-than-life Democrats who dominated politics in the South. He had served 38 years and two months, making him the eighth longest-serving senator in U.S. history. Nevertheless, Hollings remained the junior senator from South Carolina for most of his term. The senior senator was Strom Thurmond, first elected in 1954. He retired in January 2003 at age 100 as the longest-serving senator in history. In his final Senate speech, made in 2004, Hollings lamented that lawmakers came to spend much of their time raising money for the next election, calling money "the main culprit, the cancer on the body politic." "We don't have time for each other, we don't have time for constituents except for the givers. ... We're in real, real trouble." Hollings was a sharp-tongued orator whose rhetorical flourishes in the deep accent of his home state enlivened many a Washington debate, but his influence in Washington never reached the levels he hoped. He sometimes blamed that failure on his background, rising to power as he did in the South in the 1950s as the region bubbled with anger over segregation. However, South Carolina largely avoided the racial violence that afflicted some other Deep South states during the turbulent 1960s. Hollings campaigned against desegregation when running for governor in 1958. He built a national reputation as a moderate when, in his farewell address as governor, he pleaded with the legislature to peacefully accept integration of public schools and the admission of the first black student to Clemson University. "This General Assembly must make clear South Carolina's choice, a government of laws rather than a government of men," he told lawmakers. Shortly afterward, Clemson was peacefully integrated. In his 2008 autobiography, "Making Government Work," Hollings wrote that in the 1950s "no issue dominated South Carolina more than race" and that he worked for a balanced approach. "I was 'Mister-In-Between. The governor had to appear to be in charge; yet the realities were not on his side," he wrote. "I returned to my basic precept ... the safety of the people is the supreme law. I was determined to keep the peace and avoid bloodshed." In the Senate, Hollings gained a reputation as a skilled insider with keen intellectual powers. He chaired the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and held seats on the Appropriations and Budget committees. But his sharp tongue and sharper wit sometimes got him in trouble. He once called Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, the "senator from the B'nai B'rith" and in 1983 referred to the presidential campaign supporters of former Sen. Alan Cranston, D-California, as "wetbacks." Hollings began his quest for the presidency in April 1983 but dropped out the following March after dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire. Early in his Senate career, he built a record as a hawk and lobbied hard for military dollars for South Carolina, one of the poorest states in the union. Hollings originally supported American involvement in Vietnam, but his views changed over the years as it became clear there would be no American victory. Hollings, who made three trips to the war zone, said he learned a lesson there. "It's a mistake to try to build and destroy a nation at the same time," he wrote in his autobiography, warning that America is now "repeating the same wrongheaded strategy in Iraq." Despite his changed views, Hollings remained a strong supporter of national defense which he saw as the main business of government. In 1969 he drew national attention when he exposed hunger in his own state by touring several cities, helping lay the groundwork for the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, feeding program. A year later, his views drew wider currency with the publication of his first book "The Case Against Hunger." In 1982, Hollings proposed an across-the-board federal spending freeze to cut the deficit, a proposal that was a cornerstone of his failed presidential bid. He helped create the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and write the National Coastal Zone Management Act. Hollings also attached his name to the Gramm-Rudman bill aimed at balancing the federal budget. Hollings angered many of his constituents in 1991 when he opposed the congressional resolution authorizing President George Bush to use force against Iraq. In his later years, port security was one of his main concerns. As he prepared to leave office, he told The Associated Press: "People ask you your legacy or your most embarrassing moment. I never, ever lived that way. ... I'm not trying to get remembered." He kept busy after the Senate helping the Medical University of South Carolina raise money for the cancer center which bears his name and lecturing at the new Charleston School of Law. Hollings' one political defeat came in 1962 when he lost in a primary to Sen. Olin Johnston. After Johnston died, Hollings won a special election in 1966 and went to the Senate at age 44, winning the first of his six full terms two years later. Ernest Frederick Hollings was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on Jan. 1, 1922. His father was a paper products dealer but the family business went broke during the Depression. Hollings graduated from The Citadel, the state's military college in Charleston, in 1942. He immediately entered the Army and was decorated for his service during World War II. Back home, he earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1947. The next year, he was elected to the state House at age 26. He was elected lieutenant governor six years later and governor in 1958 at age 36. As governor, he actively lured business, helped balance the budget for the first time since Reconstruction and improved public education. Hollings had four children with his first wife, the late Patricia Salley Hollings. He is survived by three of his four children. His second wife, "Peatsy," died in 2012. A funeral home handling arrangements said that after a three-hour visitation April 14 in Charleston, the senator's body will lie in repose Monday, April 15, at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, with a funeral service to follow the next day at the Citadel in Charleston. Former Associated Press Writer Bruce Smith contributed to this story. Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot said both President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump called to congratulate her on her victory, and that she "appreciated the outreach" as she prepares to take the helm of the country's third-largest city. "The president reached out yesterday and I had a very cordial conversation with him," Lightfoot said Thursday when asked about how she planned to approach her relationship to the commander in chief, whose interactions with outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel have been downright acrimonious at times. "I think he has a genuine interest in trying to be helpful to the city," she continued. "No doubt, our politics could not be more different and I'm not going to hesitate to speak out against things that I think are harmful or damaging to people here in the city who really have been harmed by a lot of the rhetoric." "But hes still the president of the United States," Lightfoot added. "We are due our fair share of a return on tax dollars and I want to make sure that we're doing everything that we can, and figuring out a way to build a constructive relationship with the White House has to be part of our Washington strategy." Lightfoot said President Trump was cordial and their conversation was neither long nor brief, but he indicated that he had been following Chicago's race for mayor and was "very complimentary." "Not surprisingly, he did most of the talking but I appreciated the outreach," she added. Of the call with Ivanka Trump, Lightfoot said at first she wondered if she "getting catfished," but that the first daughter and advisor to the president was "very, very gracious" and spoke about issues she's passionate about like early childhood development. Lightfoot said she plans to have a robust strategy when it comes to her administration's presence in both Springfield and Washington, D.C. "It's very important that we are on the map in Washington, that we have good relationships with our representatives and, of course, our senators," she said. "Being physically present and having people know who I am and start to build those relationships - I know some of the people in the delegation for sure but it's important that they know me and that I start to have a physical presence in Washington, D.C., as well as Springfield." In that regard, Lightfoot said "there has to be a level of coordination" between her staff and that of Emanuel, with whom she said she felt "very comfortable" that she would have a "very good working relationship through the transition period." The two met on Wednesday to discuss the transition - but it was the first time they had seen each other face to face in exactly 20 months. Lightfoot, who was President of the Chicago Police Board through her resignation in May 2018 to run for mayor, said that the last time they met before Wednesday was on Aug. 3, 2017. "I remember it because it was the day before my birthday and it was the day he whistled me in to determine whether or not he was going to reappoint me to the police board," she said. Their meeting Wednesday was also "very cordial," Lightfoot said, adding that Emanuel "could not have been more generous, both in talking about things related to the job, unrelated to the job." Lightfoot said Emanuel did make the point that "there's only one mayor at a time" and that she planned to be "very respectful of that," referencing former President Barack Obama's deference to his predecessor in 2008. "We obviously come at issues from a very, very different perspective and management," Lightfoot said of her relationship to Emanuel, adding that she was sure she would have "many more conversations" with him before taking office. Of course, when Lightfoot launched her campaign in May 2018, she thought Emanuel would be her opponent, until he announced in September that he would not be running for re-election - telling reporters at the time that he thought Chicago's next mayor wasn't even in the race yet. "This was a wild, wild ride," she said, adding that when Emanuel stepped aside, "that whole landscape changed." "There were a lot of people who doubted us, counted us out, told us to drop out," Lightfoot continued. "But I was determined to see it through." She pointed to mid-January as the time her team "started seeing things break in a very different way." "We have a lot of enthusiastic volunteers and we just kept being steady and persistent and talking about change and the necessity," Lightfoot said. Lightfoot said she's always been interested in politics since she was young, pinpointing a memory of watching the Watergate hearings. She said her mother had raised her to be an advocate, even staging a protest over sub-par still-frozen pizzas served as school lunches. But she also insisted that she "never thought" she would be elected mayor of Chicago. "I never thought I would be in this position because I never thought about being an elected official," Lightfoot said, laughing at the notion that her election was part of any "plan." "I'm a public servant, certainly that's something that I really relished, the chances and opportunities I've had," she said. "But being an elected official, and certainly being the mayor of the third-largest city, up until recently I would have told you you were crazy if you asked me that." Each spring, the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., draw in hundreds of thousands of visitors trying to catch the pink petals at peak bloom. Climate change could have an impact on future visitors' plans. Over the last century, temperatures have shifted peak bloom defined as when 70 percent of Yoshino cherry blossoms are open approximately five days earlier since 1921, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. A National Park Service climate change scientist determined that climate change has increased the temperatures around the tidal basin at a rate of about 1.1 degrees Celsius per century (a rate of about 2 degrees Fahrenheit), park service spokesman Mike Litterst said. Thats a statistically significant rate, Litterst said. Higher daily temperatures make peak blooms arrive sooner, and the long-term trend shows earlier and earlier blooming, he said. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+t);e&&(e.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px")}})}(); When people plan their visits months in advance to see the trees in bloom, they look at climate data for when they would typically see peak bloom, NBC Washington meteorologist Amelia Draper noted. But day-to-day temperatures ultimately determine when peak bloom happens on a given year, she said. The cherry blossoms are a great example of the difference between weather and climate, Draper said. Freezes are also detrimental to the cherry blossoms and climate trends are a factor there as well, Draper said. A cold snap killed off half the blossoms that were set to bloom in March 2017. One of the concerns about the shift to earlier bloom dates is that it puts the cherry blossoms at more of a risk to a late season frost or snow, as happened in 2017, Litterst said. Peak bloom arrived April 1 this year, the park service said. Its the unofficial arrival of spring when they reach peak bloom, Litterst said. The excitement, the murmur starts to build when we make the peak bloom announcement, usually in the first couple of days of March. Especially now with social media, the way people can follow along as they go through the stages and as we get closer to it. Warming temperatures are not the only problem the Tidal Basin area faces, with more frequent high tide flooding and a sea wall thats dropping by about an inch or so each year, Litterst said. The wall is sinking because its original timber pilings were not placed on bedrock when installed in the 1930s, according to the park service. Tides undermine that infrastructure, too, Litterst said. There are places where, at high tide, its almost guaranteed that water is up over the wall, covering a segment of the parks sidewalk and roots of some trees. The National Trust for Historic Preservation announced Wednesday plans to partner with the Trust for the National Mall and the National Park Service to update infrastructure at the Tidal Basin. News4's Cory Smith spoke with cherry blossom visitors about the importance of the Tidal Basin and climate change. Over the long term, the District could see sea level rise of about 2 feet by 2100, according to Climate Central, which analyzed projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This puts the area at a 60 percent risk of seeing at least one flood over 8 feet in the next 50 years, according to Climate Central. Cherry blossoms arrived in Washington as a gift from Japan in 1912 as a symbol of friendship between the United States and Japan, according to the park service. First lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Iwa Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two trees along the Tidal Basin on March 27, 1912. In Kyoto, Japan, which is about the same distance from the equator as Washington, D.C., cherry blossoms have also seen a shift toward earlier blooming due to warmer temperatures over time, according to research by Yasuyuki Aono, a professor of environmental sciences at Osaka Prefecture University. Aono was able to estimate peak blooms for about the past 1,200 years. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+t);e&&(e.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px")}})}(); The National Cherry Blossom Festival, which brings some 1.5 million visitors each year is now underway and will run until April 14. Its an enormous economic engine and has a tremendous impact on the local economies, Litterst said. Its one of those things that brings the whole city together. I like to say this time of year, theres no blue, theres no red, its just all pink as far as everybody in town is concerned. The festival is a launching pad for tourism season, when its also peak convention season and Congress is in session, said Elliot Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination DC, which handles tourism outreach and programming for the area. "I think people would still want to come to D.C. during the peak blooming season, Ferguson said of unpredictable bloom periods. There are a lot of things to do in the region. The goal for us is to influence potential travelers coming to Washington to come for four days instead of one or two." Beyond blooming season, the festival itself, which lasts three to four weeks, also influences travelers decisions, he said. Nina Lin contributed to reporting California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra, leading a coalition of 20 states, filed a motion for preliminary injunction to block the Trump administration from taking 1.6 billion U.S. dollars in federal taxpayer funds to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. President Donald Trump speaks as he visits a new section of the border wall with Mexico in Calexico, Calif., Friday April 5, 2019. [Photo: AP/Jacquelyn Martin] The motion, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, challenged President Donald Trump's "illegal and unconstitutional action" to divert taxpayer funding and resources meant for law enforcement, drug interdiction, and military construction projects for the wall. According to the 48-page lawsuit document, besides California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin joined the motion. Friday's move is follow-up of the ongoing lawsuit between the states and the White House, which challenged Trump's national emergency declaration in February after the president failed to obtain congressional support for spending bill on a border wall. The Trump administration is attempting to ultimately divert up to 6.7 billion dollars in taxpayer funding from the Department of the Treasury's Forfeiture Fund, the Department of Defense's counter-drug account, and its military construction projects. The latest motion directly challenged the imminent movement of 1.6 billion dollars in federal funds from the Treasure Forfeiture Fund and the Department of Defense's drug interdiction account. "The Executive Branch's power is not unlimited," Becerra said in a statement Friday, calling Trump's attempt to fund a wall by declaring a national emergency "unconstitutional." "California stands united against President Trump's money-grab to fund his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico," said Newsom. "This funding should be spent as it was intended: to support local law enforcement agencies and to fight drug trafficking." The filing came a day after House leaders voted to authorize a lawsuit against Trump over his national emergency declaration and on the same day when Trump visited California's southern border city of Calexico, 250 km southeast of Los Angeles, and inspected construction works of the border wall there. It's been such a busy weekend, and you guys have been on top of your game buying tickets early enough to sell out so many shows. While that is super great to keep all these amazing artists coming back to San Diego, it's also a bummer if you didn't plan ahead. Of course, lucky for you, there are still some cool shows with tickets available, like Ten Fe, whose sophomore album sees them expanding from a duo to a full band, their grooves garnering comparisons to War on Drugs, (though I hear a lot of Midlake in there, too). They're appearing at the Casbah along with locals Creature Canyon, who are getting some national attention of late, too. Meanwhile, you can catch the Foreign Resort, whose website succintly calls them "seriously outstanding post-punk from Copenhagen," and who recently dropped their first record in a couple years. There's plenty of music to be had, whether you choose an afternoon session in Flinn Springs, an evening session at Panama 66 or a nighttime get-down at Dizzy's -- and a lot of reasons to treat yourself on this magical Sunday. All westbound lanes on Interstate 8 have been blocked east of Los Coches Road just outside El Cajon due to an overturned vehicle, according to Caltrans. A black Hummer was flipped on its side at 10:50 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. The traffic is backed up to Dunbar Lane, roughly five and a half miles away, CHP said. The cause of the crash and any injuries are unknown at this time. WB I-8 east of Los Coches Rd, all lanes blocked due to an overturned vehicle. #SDCaltransAlert Caltrans San Diego (@SDCaltrans) April 7, 2019 No other information was available. Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available. Israel's election campaign has been a three-month roller coaster of mudslinging, scandals and more scandals. But when voters head to the polls on Tuesday, one name will be predominantly on their minds: Benjamin Netanyahu. At its core, the vote boils down to a referendum on Netanyahu, the man who has dominated Israeli politics for the better part of three decades. A victory will propel him into the record books later this year as the longest-serving Israeli prime minister, surpassing founding father David Ben-Gurion. A loss would likely end his career just as he is enjoying the limelight at the vanguard of a rising global movement of tough-talking, nationalist world leaders led by his close friend, President Donald Trump. "Israel's standing internationally has never been as solid as it is right now. International leaders are lining up to visit Israel and meet with the prime minister," said Yechiel Leiter, a former Netanyahu chief of staff who is now a senior fellow at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative Jerusalem think tank. "Everyone knows Bibi wherever you go." Netanyahu's impassioned supporters revere him as larger-than-life "King Bibi," friend of powerful world leaders and guarantor of Israel's security in a tough neighborhood. His opponents revile him as a corrupt hedonist who has divided the country by inciting against Arabs and whose policies toward the Palestinians are leading Israel off a cliff. In the final days of the campaign, the race appears too close to call as Netanyahu faces a strong challenge from Benny Gantz, a popular former army chief. Polls show Netanyahu's Likud party and Gantz's new Blue and White party neck and neck. The surveys give Likud a slight advantage in being able to put together a governing coalition with smaller, likeminded parties. The son of a Jewish historian and scarred by the loss of his brother in a 1976 Israeli commando raid on a hijacked airline at Uganda's Entebbe airport, Netanyahu, 69, often portrays himself and the country in historical terms. He laces his speeches with references to Jewish history, tales of Jewish heroism and warnings that Israel's most sinister enemies lurk around every corner. The main target of his diatribes, Iran, is often compared to biblical enemies and even the Nazis. Though he is an MIT-educated millionaire who speaks flawless American-accented English, Netanyahu has managed to portray himself as an outsider and underdog. He claims to be persecuted by journalists, judges and other hostile "elites" in a message that endears him to his religious, working class political base. "He's unprecedentedly gifted. He's a competent political maneuverer and the most effective political communicator in Israel's history," said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. "And his personal motivation to continue to hold onto power is infinite." Netanyahu's campaign has focused heavily on smearing opponents as weak "leftists," routinely claiming they are conspiring with the country's Arab parties against him. Opponents accuse him of incitement and demonizing Israel's Arab minority, which makes up roughly 20 percent of the population. "Netanyahu incites against us more than anyone, and each time he breaks his own record," wrote Ayman Odeh, a prominent Arab lawmaker, on Twitter. It's a formula that has worked before and this time, he has an added Trump card. Since taking office, Trump has given Netanyahu gift after gift, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians. All but endorsing Netanyahu, Trump hosted him at the White House late last month and recognized Israel's annexation of the occupied Golan Heights. Over the weekend, Netanyahu announced in a television interview that if re-elected, he would move to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a step that would likely erase the last hopes of a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Anshel Pfeffer, author of "Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu," said the Israeli leader has managed to leverage every major geopolitical event in recent years to his advantage. Israel's economy is flourishing, it is expanding diplomatic ties around the world, and there has been no punishment for ignoring the ticking time bomb of the Palestinian issue. While turning the Palestinians into a "sideshow," Netanyahu has even managed to cultivate behind-the-scenes ties with Gulf Arab countries. "It's not that Israelis are drifting to the right. It's that Netanyahu has won the argument," Pfeffer said. Netanyahu's campaign videos show him hobnobbing with Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of China, India, Africa and Latin America. Massive political billboards show him standing alongside Trump. Following up his White House visit, Netanyahu traveled last week to Moscow to meet with Putin, where the Russian leader acknowledged helping return the remains of an Israeli soldier who went missing in action in Lebanon 37 years ago. It was another election-related gift to Netanyahu, reinforcing his business-as-usual message that the country is secure and in good hands. But this campaign is anything but usual. Gantz, with two other former military chiefs on his ticket, is a rare candidate who has the credentials to challenge Netanyahu on security, always a central issue to voters. He has derided Netanyahu's failure to halt rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Yet Gantz's main focus has been on Netanyahu himself, taking aim at the raft of corruption allegations against the prime minister. Israel's attorney general has recommended indicting Netanyahu on bribery and breach of trust charges. Rivals have also begun to question a deal in which Netanyahu reportedly earned $4 million on a German submarine sale to Egypt by owning shares in one of the German manufacturer's suppliers. "Enough already Bibi," say Gantz's campaign videos. The election campaign has been especially nasty. Netanyahu has branded his opponent a weak "leftist" and tried to seize on the discovery that Gantz's mobile phone was infiltrated by Iranian hackers. Likud attack ads paint Gantz as stuttering and mentally unstable. Gantz, 59, accuses Netanyahu of leading the country to "low and bad places. Israeli researchers' recent discovery of a network of social media bots that promoted Likud messages and smeared Gantz has deepened the animosity. Netanyahu's confident rhetorical style has served him well during a three-decade career that has included time at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, a stint as ambassador to the United Nations and an earlier term as prime minister in the 1990s. The scandals seem to have had no effect on his supporters. But if the attorney general files formal charges after the election, the walls may finally close in on a newly re-elected Netanyahu. Pfeffer, the Netanyahu biographer, predicted a "major showdown" with the legal branch and said Netanyahu will search for a way to dismiss the charges or pass a law granting him immunity. "We're facing a constitutional crisis in the next few months in Israel," he said. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre contributed to this report. Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, California issued an apology Friday after 50 more women, in addition to 81 who filed a lawsuit last week, came forward with claims they were recorded in secret during gynecological surgeries. Motion-detecting cameras, the hospital said, were meant to catch an alleged anesthesia drug thief. In its apology letter, Sharp officials said that person has been caught and the videos are in a secured safe, according to an inewsource.org report. Eighty-one women sued the hospital last week nearly three years after a class action lawsuit was first filed. Sharp Grossmont Hospital released the following statement: Although the cameras were intended to record only individuals in front of the anesthesia carts removing drugs, others, including patients and medical personnel in the operating rooms, were at times visible to the cameras and recorded. Patient Melissa Escalera, who was secretly recorded while giving birth by emergency caesarean section in September 2012 at Sharp Grossmont, filed a claim against the hospital in May 2016 for what she alleged was a systemic and shocking breach of her patient privacy rights. Escaleras claim said the hospital recorded approximately 15,000 videos of patients during surgery. It then turned some of the video over to other people, including attorneys and security guards, according to the claim. Escalera told NBC 7, her 3-year-old daughter was born under emergency circumstances. Her water broke and her baby presented in a breech condition. When I arrived in an ambulance and was wheeled into the operating room on a gurney, my concern was with my daughter who was in distress and coming six weeks early, Escalera said. I was not planning on having a baby that September 4th day. It was a highly stressful and emotional time for my family and my doctor. No one ever asked me to record one of my most tender, life-changing moments. I would have never agreed to be recorded in that vulnerable moment. These video clips show Defendants female patients unconscious, undressed on operating room tables and undergoing medical procedures, the claim stated. Because of the nature of these procedures, the video captured women while they were emotionally and physically exposed, often naked with their most genital areas visible. The hospital indicated patients consented to the video recordings through a generic patient admissions agreement since the issue involved patient safety. Numerous lawyers not involved in the case told NBC 7, the agreement doesnt circumvent the patients constitutional rights to privacy. Triggered by motion-detecting sensors, these cameras began recording events in these operating rooms whenever any person entered the room, the claim stated. These videos captured images of caesarean births, birth complications, dilation and curettage to resolve miscarriages, hysterectomies and sterilization procedures. Patients were undressed, exposed and at their most vulnerable during these procedures. A family is celebrating Saturday night after a father serving in the U.S. Army made a surprise visit just in time for his wedding anniversary. U.S. Army Capt. Justin Brown had been serving in Iraq for a year before Saturday's return to surprise his wife and two children at National Harbor in Prince George's County. The family waited at National Harbor while Brown, who battled through airport delays and traffic, arrived. Officers from the Prince George's County Police Department even escorted him to the harbor. "It's been a long time since I've seen them," Brown said before the surprise. "I'm feeling very anxious, I can't believe it's finally here. I miss my family like crazy." The hard kept secret was tied together through help from his sister, who got the whole family together and kept them together without spoiling the secret. Brown grew up in Prince George's County, but his family moved into a new house in Fairfax, Virginia, while he was away. He will get to see that home for the first time Saturday night. Regional leaders representing both the United States and Mexico will gather in Imperial Beach, California Friday for a rare discussion between the two countries about a flow of sewage crossing the border in the South Bay region of San Diego. Elected leaders and non-government representatives from both countries hope the meeting at the Dempsey Holder Safety Center Friday afternoon will begin a dialogue as to how to solve the sewage seepage. San Diego-area residents have complained for years that their health and wellbeing is being affected by pollution to the Tijuana River Estuary. Polluted runoff likely comes from a Tijuana sewage treatment plant in need of upgrades that would likely cost upwards of $370 million, a study by Mexican officials found. The Tijuana River Estuary and shorelines from Imperial Beach to Coronado are often closed to the public after spills on the Mexican side of the border cross into the United States via the Tijuana River, especially following heavy rainfall. The meeting aims to go over what work has been done so far to address the problem and provide an overview of current plans, as well as addressing what hurdles remain. The long-standing problem has become a source of contention between leaders on both sides of the border as to who is responsible for a solution. The issue reached the courts last year when Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued the International Boundary Water Commission. The suit alleges millions of gallons of waste, including untreated sewage, trash, pesticides and heavy metals have been discharged from the IBWC's treatment facilities in violation of the Clean Water Act. The San Diego Regional Water Quality Board and the city of San Diego have also joined the suit. It asks the court to force the IBWC to comply with the Clean Water Act and the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. But the IBWC argued in a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that the agency is not responsible for the millions of gallons of raw and partially treated sewage that flow into the Pacific Ocean from the Tijuana area. The last time a sewage spill caused long-lasting beach closures in San Diego County was in December 2018. That's when officials with Mexico's IBWC told the U.S. that an estimated 6 to 7 gallons of sewage per day was flowing into the Tijuana River Valley due to a failure at their plant. The Tijuana River crosses the U.S.-Mexico border just west of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry and travels northwest, through the Tijuana River Estuary and into the Pacific Ocean south of Imperial Beach. On Thursday, a committee of the Florida House of Representatives voted along party lines to advance a bill that could bar from the ballot box many of the estimated 1.5 million convicted felons who just regained the franchise, NBC News reports. Rep. James Grant, a Republican who represents Tampa in the Florida House, says he absolutely believes in second chances and redemption but is sponsoring a House bill requiring felons who have completed their jail terms to pay all fines and fees associated with their case before regaining the right to vote. "I also took an oath ... and swore to uphold the fidelity of the Constitution, he said. The House bill approved Thursday by the State Affairs Committee will next go to the Florida House Judiciary committee. If it passes there, it will go to the full floor of the Republican-controlled Florida House of Representatives for a vote. A similar bill is working its way through committees in the Republican-dominated Senate. Its hard for me to say what the legislatures intent is, said Julie Ebenstein, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Unions Voting Rights Project, but what I can say is its clear what the effects of all this will be, and who will be most deeply affected because of the relationship between race and income, race and policing, race and employment. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker spoke out Saturday regarding the public dispute between his administration and newly elected Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins over her criminal justice reform proposals. At an event at the Reggie Lewis Center, Baker took the time to address how his top public safety official, Thomas Turco III, criticized Rollins' suggestion to have pretrial release conditions include GPS monitoring and orders to stay away from certain areas or people. "My concerns haven't changed," Baker said Saturday. "The issues that were raised in Secretary Turco's memo are ones that I think there should be a dialogue with the DA's office about." Turco's comments were raised in a letter to Rollins after she outlined a 66-page proposal last week on how she wanted to manage the ongoing opioid crisis in the state. In that proposal, Rollins wants the state to refrain from prosecuting some drug possession crimes and certain minor crimes. In public comments made Friday, Rollins indicated she was going to make good on a campaign promise to steer away from prosecuting 15 low-level crimes like shoplifting and drug possession. "I didn't get into this job to make friends I got into this job to make change," Rollins said Friday. She also seemed to refer to an incident last year when Baker's son was accused of inappropriately touching a woman on a plane. "Candidly, not everyone gets the benefit of the Baker family when they have interacted with the justice system, they don't get to not get arrested, have the state police that reports to them handle the investigation," Rollins said. Baker said he has spoken with Rollins over the phone and they both agree there are flaws in the criminal justice system but how to fix them is where they disagree. He hopes to set the reset button next week. "I don't want to damage that partnership. I want the partnership to be there and to work," said Baker. "And I fully expect come Monday it will." West Berkshire libraries can help with online application process. WEST Berkshire libraries are offering help to people looking to obtain EU settled status. EU, EEA or Swiss citizens and their families can apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue living in the UK after June 30 2021, regardless of any deal that the UK Government may or may not make with the EU. The deadline for applying will be June 30, 2021, or December 31, 2020, if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. Settled status is usually given to people who have been living in the UK for five continuous years. There are some exceptions and varied requirements, depending on circumstances. Library staff can look at the requirements with applicants and guide them through the online application process. They will check that applicants have the required documentation and assist with scanning and uploading anything necessary to complete the online form, including photo ID. There is no charge for this service, but advance booking is necessary. To book an appointment at your local West Berkshire library, email library@westberks.gov.uk. For more information about the EU Settlement Scheme, visit www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families Schoolchildren want Richard Benyon to help make the drug Orkambi available on the NHS PUPILS at a West Berkshire primary school hope their persuasive writing skills will raise greater awareness about a revolutionary drug which could prolong their classmates life. Year 6 children at Bradfield Primary have written letters to Newbury MP Richard Benyon and Health Secretary Matt Hancock to use their positions and help make the drug Orkambi available on the NHS for their friend Tilly Green. Tilly has the genetic condition cystic fibrosis, which causes fatal lung damage and affects around 10,400 people in the UK. Those living with the disease which causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs, digestive tract and other areas of the body have an average life expectancy of about 37. The Government is currently embroiled in a long-running dispute with Vertex, the US pharmaceutical company which makes Orkambi, a so-called wonder-drug which has shown improved lung function and respiratory symptoms in people with the life-shortening condition. Both sides have blamed the other for inflexibility on the cost and value of the drug, which has a list price of 104,000 per patient per year and is already available in several European countries. Tilly takes about 40 different tablets each day to control her condition many of which are for her pancreas, which cannot correctly digest food and is severely prone to infections. The 11-year-old and her classmates have been learning how to structure and write persuasive letters as part of their literacy curriculum. The children began by writing letters to their parents in response to an imaginary imposed ban on TV in the run up to their SATs in a bid to help them focus more on revision. But they were even more motivated to put what they had learnt into practice when they heard about Orkambi and how the drug could radically prolong Tillys life. In their letters, pupils praised Mr Benyon for being a dedicated, hardworking and resilient Member of Parliament and asked that he used his prominent political position to speak to other government ministers and help campaign on the issue. The children also formally invited the MP to visit Bradfield Primary to meet Tilly and see things from her perspective. Year 6 teacher Hannah Dennis said: When I heard about the struggle for Orkambi, I thought it would be an amazing opportunity for the children to put their new writing skills to good use in a real-life scenario to support their friend and classmate. I talked through the details with the class and they were immediately outraged and fired up to start their letters. Theyve been researching all of the recipients and reading their Twitter feeds and websites, all to find information that they can use in their letters. Theyve done an awesome job and the letters will no doubt make people stop and think and hopefully reconsider their position on Orkambi and the other drugs waiting in the pipelines. Tilly, who uses a mini-trampoline at school to help her with her physiotherapy, said the support from her classmates had been invaluable. The youngster said: Living with cystic fibrosis is hard as I have a lot of medication to take, but knowing that I have all my friends and classmates supporting me helps so much. I think its really lovely of them and Mrs Dennis to notice the Orkambi campaign and to want to help. Thank you to all my class and Mrs Dennis for being so understanding about my condition and writing the letters. Im looking forward to reading the replies we get back. If an explorer is someone who travels in search of the unseen, then Crystal Heiden, an artist who grew up in Milford and now has a studio in Bridgeports AmFab building, is an explorer, too. The farthest she has traveled so far is to Maria Island off the coast of Tasmania. Located in the Roaring Forties latitudes of what is sometimes called the Southern Ocean, Tasmania is closer to Antarctica than it is to the north coast of Australia. Maria Island, a sanctuary for the folkloric Tasmanian devil, is reached by a ferry that crosses a choppy strait known as the Mercury Passage. They call it the Mercury Passage because the waves make the ocean kind of like mercury. Its constantly changing. Its a hard crossing to make, Heiden says. When we were in the middle of it, the seas were quite big. Everybody on the boat was green and I was taking pictures. Heiden is not primarily a photographer. She talks about having an eclectic art practice that also includes sculpture and drawings (mostly of fanciful objects), video and writing. When she went to Maria Island last March, she used her camera the way a butterfly collector might use a net. Except she was out to capture visual moments more fleeting than a butterfly. Examining her specimens back home, she chose one image that seemed especially promising. The photograph itself was a foggy, cloudy shot with just enough nautical detail to suggest it was taken aboard the ferry. Heiden amended it and almost obscured it with a message scrawled in orange chalk. It is grey the bottom of the world, it began, then in a few words told how she got there and how that moment in the Mercury Passage contrasted with the bright colors of the island, a sanctuary hidden way from time and the heavy hand of humanity. The opening words have an authoritative, you are there quality. They have even more impact if come upon unexpectedly as they might have been in a recent group exhibit of AmFab artists at the University of Bridgeports Schelfhaudt Gallery. The first impulse is to try to identify the photographic image. Once read, the words reflect back on it, putting the viewer on the deck of the ferry, looking up into a stormy sky or perhaps down into mercury waters. The photograph was one of four documenting her travels that Heiden had in the exhibit. Others were of a dawn after a stormy night on the Isle of Skye and of the volcanic mountain in Iceland that Jules Verne imagined led to the center of the earth. The fourth was taken on a camping trip to the Yorkshire Dales in 2010, but was the first Heiden thought to alter with text. The photograph was of a green trailer on a green hillside and Heiden had repeated the story behind it so many times to friends that she finally decided to write it down, like a folktale to myself, across the photo. It told of being stopped in her tracks on the way to use the campground toilet. The light was perfect. The trailer was perfect, she recalls in her studio. Everything was this weird grayed-out green. So I walked back to get my camera and took the picture. I didnt want to risk losing that moment by going to the bathroom first. If her morning urge was mundane, the resulting image is the opposite. Heiden says she stood on a step stool to write her story in blue across the sky. She outlined the green trailer in lime yellow, as if it had Christmas lights. It appears to lean against the hillside, without foundation. Physical laws are also challenged in Heidens drawings of impossible objects that she sees as things that could exist but probably wouldnt exist because gravity exists. She has exhibited wire and ceramic sculptures that tend to look bent and crumpled. Heiden has degrees from the Maine College of Art and Northwestern University. She has machine skills inherited from her parents and now has a day job at a metal working shop in Shelton. She says the owner is generous with time off for travel and art residencies. Her interest in combining faraway places and art is long standing. When she was in graduate school in 2011, she built a dinghy from canvas and oak that she positioned on the ice-packed shores of Lake Michigan. She didnt intend to launch it. She wanted it as a focal point for photos reflecting her interest in Arctic and Antarctic explorers. At the same time, she was reading American literature, interested in the ideas of Manifest Destiny and frontier. She was especially taken with Cormac McCarthys novel, Blood Meridian, that she came to see as informing her art. Towards the end, a main character arrives at the Pacific Ocean and somehow doesnt stop. I was interested in the dual point, where the character continued on past the horizon. Heiden says. I was interested in when you see the horizon it is perceived as a hard line, but its not. You can never really get to it. But you can always see it and its always in front of you and always behind you. Its the multi-universe that happens where you think its the end point, but its not the end point. Since her first trip, to Italy in high school, Heiden has been to 10 countries, including China. She cashed in air miles to get to Tasmania. She jumped at the chance to go with an acquaintance doing research there. Im one of the only fools who travels halfway around the world for a week. Youve got to make the trip when you can, Heiden says. Its the closest Ive gotten to the bottom of the world so far. Hopefully, Ill get to Antarctica eventually. Culture writer Joel Lang is a frequent contributor to Sunday Arts & Style. BROOKFIELD Voters unanimously accepted Thursday evening a more than $207,000 grant to extend the Still River Greenway. The plan is to extend the trail by 2,500 feet, connecting the greenway to an existing 25-car parking lot at the firehouse on Pocono Road. This will also provide a handicap accessible way for residents to access the gazebo on the municipal campus during the towns summer concerts. The town received the grant from the states Community Connectivity Program earlier this year, but the special town meeting for voters to approve the grant was postponed from March to April. The first selectman has said he hopes construction could begin in the fall. He said the rally will give a further momentum to the campaign of the "grand alliance", which he claimed is very comfortably placed in the state. After cobbling together the alliance, Akhilesh Yadav had announced that joint rallies will be held in different parts of the state. Yadav and Mayawati had together drawn up a strategy to start the campaign during 'Navratri', which began Saturday, from western UP, a leader said. The SP and the BSP, which announced their alliance in January, will contest on 37 and 38 seats respectively. The RLD will fight on three seats. The alliance has decided not to field candidates from Rae Bareli and Amethi, the constituencies held by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Yadav, Mayawati and RLD's Ajit Singh will address 11 joint rallies between April 7 and May 16, a spokesperson said. After Deoband, rallies will be held in Badaun, Agra, Mainpuri, Rampur, Firozabad, Kannauj, Faizabad, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur and Varanasi. In Mainpuri, the SP has fielded Mulayam Singh Yadav, while Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav is contesting from Kannauj. (Newser) Mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 10: You won't want to miss the chance to possibly see "something no human has ever seen before." That's how Popular Mechanics is framing the big reveal scientists are expected to makea photo of Sagittarius A*, a black hole in the Milky Way 25,000 light-years away. Per a statement from the European Southern Observatory, six simultaneous pressers will be held around the globe, at which researchers will present "the first result" of the Event Horizon Telescope project, a two-year initiative that trained a network of radio telescopes worldwide on Sagittarius A*, USA Today reports. That result is widely anticipated to be the first-ever photo of a black hole, though curiosity has been piqued as to what exactly that picture will entail. story continues below That's because black holes are technically invisible, as they suck up all electromagnetic radiation and present as, well, black, per ScienceAlert, which also notes that the logistics around taking a photo of Sagittarius A* are further complicated by the fact that the black hole is smothered in dust and gas, and that spacetime in the vicinity of a black hole is "weird." Instead, what will likely be seen in any presented photo will be the "event horizon," the edge of the black hole where light can't get away. Per Yahoo News, some have said the image would probably look like "a ring of bright light around a dark blob." The press conference will be streamed live on YouTube. In the meantime, Forbes notes the six "supermassive questions" everyone has in advance of the supposed photo. (Read more black hole stories.) (Newser) It took 42 years to get justice for the Lyon sistersdecades that didn't pass unnoticed by Mark Bowden. In a Washington Post article adapted from his new book, The Last Stone: A Masterpiece of Criminal Interrogation, Bowden writes that he was a "green 23-year-old" on the crime beat at the Baltimore News-American in March 1975 when Sheila and Katherine Lyon, ages 12 and 10, vanished after going to the Wheaton Plaza shopping mall in Montgomery County, Maryland. Their bodies were never found, and it wasn't until 2017 that Lloyd Lee Welch pleaded guilty in the case. Bowden traces how that came to be: Detectives revisited the case over the years, and one came across a statement given by a then 18-year-old Welch, who claimed to have seen the abduction. They tracked him down to a Delaware prison, where he was serving time for molesting a 10-year-old girl. story continues below Detective Dave Davis first interviewed Welch on Oct. 16, 2013, and found a man who "appeared to enjoy talking for its own sake." Welch was full of denials and lies but in that first session, Davis asked him to speculate on the girls' fate. The killer "killed em and he probably burned em," he replied. Detectives listening in from an adjacent room were startled. As one put it, "Who says 'burned them'?" In later conversations, his story continually shifted but led investigators to probe the entire Welch clan, their Appalachian roots, the incest that went on, and a bloody duffel bag two cousins recall Welch tossing on a bonfire. And while Welch always fingered other relatives as the culprit, "graduallyoften inadvertentlyhe revealed more and more about himself and the crime." One detail that kept recurring: a basement hangout one could only enter from the backyard. Then Davis found that basement ... and the evidence within. Read the full story here. (Read more Longform stories.) (Newser) It was not an April Fools' joke Nealie Barker posted on Facebook April 1. "PLEASE SHARE WIDELY," the New Zealand mom wrote about a recent experience she and her family had while on vacation in Ireland. Sky News and the New Zealand Herald report that Barker and her family, including five children, were staying at an Airbnb in Cork on March 3 when her husband, Andrew, decided to sync his phone with the property's WiFi. As he went into his settings, Andrew noticed an unknown device on the network, and just for kicks, he connected to it. Then, the shocker: The family says Andrew's phone suddenly started streaming a live video feed of them. They poked around and found a camera hidden in a smoke alarm or carbon monoxide detector. "It was just a really horrible feeling," Nealie Barker tells CNN, adding to the Irish Times: "It felt like a huge invasion of our privacy." story continues below The couple say they called Airbnb, which wasn't helpful, then the property's owner, who first denied the camera and then hung up on them. Per Stuff, the Barkers say he then called back and admitted to the camera, which was there to "protect his asset." The family notes they moved to different accommodations and contacted Airbnb, which vowed to conduct an investigation; weeks later, the company said it had found "no wrongdoing." The Barkers took to social media to spread their complaint, which is when Airbnb finally took action, offering the Barkers a full refund and removing the "bad actor" from their database. "Our original handling of this incident did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves, and we have apologized to the family," the company says in a statement. The Independent, meanwhile, calls hidden cameras in Airbnb properties a "recurring plague." (Read more Airbnb stories.) (Newser) Two college students scammed Apple out of $900,000 by sending fake iPhones to the company for repair under warranty, federal complaints say. The company realized many of the thousands of phones were counterfeit but still returned almost 1,500 genuine replacements to the students, NBC News reports. The phones sent in would not power on, which the government said was the key to the scam, "as the phone will not be able to be immediately examined or repaired by Apple technicians." One of the Oregon students said an associate in China sent him 20 to 30 iPhones at a time, with instructions to submit them to Apple for warranty repairs. After receiving replacements, the student sent them to China to be sold. story continues below The associate made payments to the student's mother in China, and she deposited the money in a bank account the student could access in the US. Quan Jiang and Yangyang Zhou, who were on student visas at the time, say they didn't know the phones were fakes, per court filings. "With respect to Mr. Zhou, the government has the case completely wrong," his lawyer said. But the filings also say that Quan Jiang explained how the scheme worked to an investigator, NPR reports. He used fake and nonsense names, once putting "Apache Helicopter" as the name on a claim that succeeded in getting a new phone. Both men face fines and prison time if convicted. (Read more iPhone stories.) (Newser) A Revolutionary War hero dubbed the "father of the American cavalry" may well have been female or even intersex, if new research holds up. Experts analyzing the DNA and bones of Casimiar Pulaskia Polish-American soldier who was fatally wounded in the 1779 Siege of Savannahsay the skeleton looks conspicuously female. "One of the ways that male and female skeletons are different is the pelvis," Georgia Southern University Professor Virginia Hutton Estabrook tells NBC News. "In females, the pelvic cavity has a more oval shape. It's less heart-shaped than in the male pelvis. Pulaskis looked very female." Others had spotted Pulaski's feminine bone structure before, but without DNA confirmation no one could say it was really Pulaski. story continues below Now researchers have linked the remains (which have wounds matching Pulaski's) to the mitochrondrial DNA of his grandniece, the Guardian reports. Which raises the question of whether Pulaski was intersex, meaning someone who can't be easily defined as female or male. The general had enough male hormones for facial hair and male pattern baldness, per Estabrook, who adds that "there was some genital development" because records show heor she, or theywas "baptized as a son." Pulaski also had a close relationship with a woman who later married a Polish prince. The war hero's story is itself amazing, from early days among the Polish nobility to meeting Ben Franklin in Paris to leading cavalry charges in the Revolutionary War. See it all in a new Smithsonian Channel documentary. (Read more Revolutionary War stories.) (Newser) Bernie Sanders wants felons to have a say, too. The Vermont senator and presidential candidate said Saturday at an Iowa town hall that people convicted of felonies should be allowed to vote from behind bars, the Des Moines Registers reports. "I think that is absolutely the direction we should go," he said. Right now, only Vermont and Maine allow felons to cast a vote in prison. "Youre paying a price, you committed a crime, you're in jail," he said in Muscatine. "That's bad. But you're still living in American society and you have a right to vote. I believe in that, yes, I do." story continues below That makes Sanders the only candidate to voice such an opinion, Newsweek notes. Asked recently about voting-from-prison, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she was open to felons voting after they've served their time. "While theyre incarcerated, I think thats something we can have more conversation about," she said. As it stands, only Iowa and Kentucky allow felons to vote after they've served their timeand only with the governor's permission, per the Hill. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, pushed this year for that right to become automatic, but the plan was crushed this week by the GOP-controlled Senate. (Read more felons stories.) (Newser) Former President Obama is staying so far away from the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination that he delivered a new message to the candidates from Europe: Don't destroy each other during this process. "One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States, maybe it's true here as well," he said, per the Guardian, "is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, 'Uh, I'm sorry, this is how it's going to be' and then we start sometimes creating whats called a 'circular firing squad,' where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues. And when that happens, typically the overall effort and movement weakens." He delivered the message at an Obama Foundation event Saturday in Berlin. story continues below Democrats aren't even close to the debates and primaries yet, but candidates and potential candidates already are taking heat over their records said to show they aren't progressive enough: Joe Biden on racial and women's issues, Beto O'Rourke on environmental and immigration issues, and Kamala Harris on her track record as a prosecutor. To illustrate the need for progressives to be flexible, Slate reports, Obama told the crowd about his compromises to win approval of the Affordable Care Act and the Paris Climate Agreement, though neither was all that he wanted. "The way we structure democracy requires you to take into account people who don't agree with you," Obama said, "and that by definition means youre not going to get 100 percent of what you want." (Obama offered advice for young leaders in Europe, too.) (Newser) Want to learn more about the angry white male? Head to the University of Kansas, where a course called "Angry White Male Studies" is slated for next school year. The course catalog says it will delve into the history of angry white men beginning in the US and Britain in the 1950s and work its way up to today, Fox News reports. Students will learn how "dominant and subordinate masculinities are represented and experienced in cultures undergoing periods of rapid change connected to modernity as well as to rights-based movements of women, people of color, homosexuals and trans individuals," per the catalog. But one Kansas lawmaker isn't exactly on board. story continues below "Instead of a course to unite people and empower women, KU has decided to offer a class that divides the student population and could pose a Title IX violation by creating a hostile campus environment based on gender," tweets Rep. Ron Estes, a Republican. On the plus side, junior Rianon Wallace-Demby tells WFLA that "dialogue is important. Dialogue needs to be had." The AP reports that Professor Christopher Forth, a white man and author of Masculinity in the Modern West: Gender, Civilization and the Body, will be teaching the course. Other colleges have been delving into masculinity during the #MeToo movementincluding Duke University, which says it's "Men's Project" is "dedicated to interrogating male privilege." (Kansas recently had a scare from three angry white men.) (Newser) As more states make it legal to smoke marijuana, some government officials, researchers and others worry what that might mean for one of the country's biggest public health successes: curbing cigarette smoking. Though there are differences in health research findings on tobacco and marijuana, AP reports, the juxtaposition strikes some as jarring after generations of Americans have gotten the message that smoking endangers their health. "We're trying to stop people from smoking all kinds of things. Why do you want to legalize marijuana?" a New York City councilman asked at a hearing. Marijuana advocates say there's no comparison between joints and tobacco cigarettes. A federal assessment found the lung-health risks of smoking weed appear "relatively small" and "far lower than those of smoking tobacco," the top cause of preventable death in the US. There's evidence of health benefits from marijuana, such as easing chronic pain, and marijuana can be used without smoking it. Most states now have legal medical pot programs; 10 states and the District of Columbia have approved recreational use. story continues below "They're different products, and they need to be treated differently," says Mason Tvert, of the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project. While smoking cannabis may be less dangerous than tobacco to lungs, pot doesn't get a clean slate. Cigarette smoking is a major cause of heart disease, but a 2017 federal report said it's unclear whether marijuana use is associated with heart attacks or strokes. There is strong evidence linking long-term cannabis smoking to worse coughs and more frequent bouts of chronic bronchitis. Studies have found more cigarette smokers have used pot, and the other way around, compared to nonsmokers. Some public health officials endorse legalizing marijuana and putting guardrails around it. "For tobacco, we know that it's inherently dangerous and that there is no safe amount of tobacco to use," says Rebecca Giglio, a New York City drug policy analyst. Whereas with marijuana, "we see this as an opportunity to address the harms of criminalization while also regulating cannabis." (Read more marijuana legalization stories.) Sorry! This content is not available in your region New Delhi: For the third month in a row, Tata Motors did not produce any unit of its entry-level small car Nano in March, heightening the uncertainty over the future of the vehicle once dubbed as peoples car. According to a regulatory filing, the company also said it did not sell even a single unit of the small car last month. Tata Motors has so far maintained that no decision has been made yet on the future of Nano, although in its current form it will not meet the new safety and emission norms and may need an infusion of fresh investments. There was zero production and sales of Nano in March. In the same month last year, the company had produced 31 units of Nano and sold 29 units, Tata Motors said in a BSE filing. In February also Tata Motors had said there was zero production of Nano although it sold just one unit in the domestic market during the month. There was no export either. Similarly, in January this year too, Tata Motors had reported zero production and sales of the Nano. When contacted, a Tata Motors spokesperson said no decision has been made yet on the phase-out of Nano. Decisions on product life cycle is a holistic view taken after considering the market developments, regulations and emerging competitive landscape. Any such decisions are announced as and when its taken, the spokesperson added. Further, the spokesperson said, Production planning of a car is conscious management of demand, system inventory and planned efficiencies. Therefore, speculating on the fate of a car based on a months production figure is something the company would not like to participate in. Company officials had earlier hinted that production and sales of the Nano would stop from April 2020 as Tata Motors has no plans to invest further on Ratan Tatas dream car to meet strict emission norm under BS-VI and other upcoming safety regulations. New Delhi: The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has released the NEET PG/MDS 2019 seat allotment matrix for the second round of counselling at different affiliated institutions all over the country. Candidates who have been selected for the round 2 of NEET PG Councelling 2019, can now pick the institution of their choice on the official website of Medical Council of India that is mcc.nic.in. Taking to its official website, the council wrote, "The seat matrix for Round-2 is available now and candidates can fill in their choices for Round 2". The first round of NEET PG Councelling was conducted till March 26, 2019. Meanwhile, candidates who have studied/passed MBBS from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are eligible to avail the advantage of all India 50 per cent quota for MD/MS/post graduate diploma courses (2018 admission session). However, the quota system is not applicable for the Jammu and Kashmir candidates, excluding those who were nominated by the Government of India (under central pool seats) to do MBBS from medical colleges in the state. For the convenience of the students, we have provided the list of important documents they need to carry while appearing for the second round of NEET PG Councelling 2019. Important documents for NEET PG/MDS counselling 2019: Copy of downloaded NEET-MDS/PG 2019 admit card NEET-MDS/PG 2019 marksheet Nationality certificate/valid passport or School leaving certificate of HSC/ class 12 indicating the nationality of the candidate as Indian BDS/MBBS degree Internship completion certificate Permanent / Provisional Registration certificate of Maharashtra Medical Council or other State Medical Councils in India/MCI Certificate from Head of Institute showing that the college/ Institute from which the candidate has passed MBBS/MDS examination is recognized by Medical Council of India Medical fitness certificate -Copy of receipt of online fee payment The candidates who wish to upgrade their college must choose the web option YES to convey their willingness to participate in the next round. Those who have not been allotted a seat in round two must wait for the next one which will be conducted later in the month. Students who dont get their choice even in the third and last mop-up round can attend the counselling sessions for the state quota and can also try to acquire a seat via management quota. New Delhi: The BJP will on Monday release its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls scheduled to start from April 11, with issues of development and national security set to be its key highlights. Top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its chief Amit Shah, will be present at the launch of the manifesto, described by the BJP as its "sankalp patra". A party statement said members of its parliamentary board, the BJP's apex body whose members include Modi, will be present on the occasion. With the Congress manifesto putting major thrust on welfare measures, including a promise of giving Rs 72,000 to the poorest 20 per cent households in India, the ruling party is likely to make a slew of promises to woo different sections of the society, especially farmers, youth and women, besides the downtrodden. Notably, the Modi government has already announced Rs 6,000 per year cash support to small and marginal farmers that will cost the exchequer Rs 75,000 crore annually, in a bid to provide relief to distressed farm sector. Also, it has announced a 10 per cent job and education quota for "economically weaker" sections, meeting a key demand of upper castes, a staunch BJP support base which has shown signs of a drift from the party. On Sunday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley unveiled campaign themes and other materials of the party's election campaign, with "Phir ek baar, Modi sarkar (Modi government, once more)" as the tag line. The highlights of the campaign are government's "befitting" reply to terrorism by "hitting terrorists by entering enemy territory". Launching the campaign, Jaitley said the choice for people in polls will be between the "cohesive and tested" rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and "chaos and mahamilawat" offered by the opposition. Taking a swipe at the opposition, he said people have to decide between a government led by one captain or a team of 11 players, and that of 40 captains. The BJP has brought the national security plank at its campaign's centre stage following the Balakot air strikes targeting a terrorist camp in Pakistan. It was in retaliation to the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel on February 14. The opposition has accused it of politicising the armed forces' operations against terrorists but the saffron party has used them as an evidence of its government's "decisiveness" and "zero tolerance" for terrorism. The BJP also Sunday launched a television campaign for the polls focussing on development and welfare steps taken by the Modi-government, including schemes likes 'Kisan Samman' under which farmers will get Rs 6,000 in three installments and initiatives taken under the Swachch Bharat Mission. Campaign material also emphasised on the "clean image" of the government, India's "growing stature" at the global level, the Ayushmaan Bharat health insurance scheme and actions like "crackdown" on corruption and black money. The Union minister said these promises are not merely for future as the government has fulfilled them in its five-year term. Udaipur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the Congress and the Left front, saying that they were hell-bent on removing him from power, even if that meant singing paeans to Pakistan. Addressing a poll rally in Tripuras Udaipur, PM Modi said the people of the state have set a precedent for the entire country by ousting the Left government after 25 years. "Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has been trying its best to make inroads into Tripura, but people haven't allowed that. They tolerated the atrocities of the Left Front, waiting patiently for the BJP to rise. I thank the people of Tripura for believing in the BJP," he stated. PM Modi asserted that the opposition parties could stoop to any level to remove him from power. "The Congress and the Left are working together to oust Modi. They have stooped too low, singing paeans to Pakistan even when the NDA government was taking on the terrorists on the soil of the neighbouring country. "Am I not doing the right thing by giving a befitting reply to the enemies of the country?" he asked the people who gathered at the rally. Taking a jibe at the Congress manifesto, PM Modi said, "The grand old party came out with their hypocrisy document of 50-60 pages. They haven't mentioned the middle-class even once in the notification. "The middle-class has long suffered under the Congress rule. Some parties, including the Congress, have said that more taxes should be levied on the middle-class." Attacking the Left parties, he said, they consider their "party's constitution bigger than that of the country's". "The Left parties don't want to give the country a direction. They are only keen on improving their own condition," PM Modi said. Heaping praise on Chief Minister Biplab Deb, he said the state government has improved the law and order situation and developed infrastructure in just one year. "Our government has started procuring agricultural produces from the farmers directly. The middlemen and the moneylenders have suffered a setback," he claimed. Under the Saubhagya scheme, the NDA government has ensured power connection in almost all homes in the state, the prime minister noted. "As promised before the assembly election, we have initiated work on broad gauge rail line, built bridges, started train services, connecting Agartala with other parts of the country. Work is also underway to give Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport an international makeover," he added. Election to two Lok Sabha seats in Tripura will be held on April 11 and 18. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi : The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday said the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign song composed by Union Minister Babul Supriyo would not be allowed to be played anywhere. The development comes just a few days ahead of the first phase of voting on April 11. "Firstly, the theme song was not pre-certified for which we had informed the Commission. Also, the song is being played in different places so there are instructions for stopping it," Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Basu told reporters. Asserting that not seeking prior permission from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) is a violation of the model code of conduct, Basu said that the BJP member who had applied for the song's certification has been conveyed the poll panels decision. The BJP had submitted the lyrics of the song for permission after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led-Trinamool Congress had filed a complaint regarding the content of the song. Later, the EC had asked the BJP to submit a revised version. Earlier, Asansol MP Babul Supriyo was slapped a show cause notice by the EC for not taking permission from it before releasing a video of the campaign song on social media. Meanwhile, sources in the CEO's office said seven companies of central forces have been sent to two constituencies Coochbehar and Alipurduar scheduled go to polls in the first phase on April 11. Special Central Police Observer for the state Vivek Dubey met Director General of Police Virendra and ADG (Law and Order) Siddhi Nath Gupta during the day and discussed poll preparedness, the sources said. Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will share dais, for the first after the two political parties announced pre-poll alliance for ensuing Lok Sabha Elections, at a rally in Maharashtra on Tuesday. According to reports, PM Modi and Thackeray will address a public gathering at Ausa in Latur in support of the alliance candidates in that district and Osmanabad, where polling will be held on April 18, BJP spokesman Keshav Upadhyay said on Sunday. The two leaders last shared the dais in Mumbai in December 2016 at a function to lay the foundation stone of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial off the Arabian Sea. On Saturday, the prime minister addressed a rally in Nanded, where state Congress president and former chief minister Ashok Chavan is contesting against BJP's Pratap Chikhalikar. The Sivh Sena, which has been one of the most open alliance partners of the BJP and policies of the NDA government, entered into a seat-sharing pact with it recently after the ruling party's president, Amit Shah, visited Thackeray at his residence. The BJP and Sena will contest on 25 and 23 seats, respectively, in Maharashtra. The state has 48 Lok Sabha constituencies. Earlier, the two parties went separate ways after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and contested the Maharashtra Assembly elections held later that year on their own. The BJP-led government under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis took charge in the state in October 2014 and the Shiv Sena joined it in December that year. Polling for the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29, and the results will be declared on May 23. With PTI Inputs New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address rallies in West Bengal, Tripura, and Manipur on Sunday. Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be attending party deliberations. BJP president Amit Shah will be addressing two back-to-back rallies in Maharashtra. He will first speak to voters in Gadchiroli-Chimur and then address a rally in Chandrapur Lok Sabha. Here are the LIVE updates: 19:58 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Union Minister Smriti Irani reacts on Robert Vadra to campaign for Congress party for the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. #WATCH Union Minister Smriti Irani reacts on Robert Vadra to campaign for Congress party for the #LokSabhaElections2019 says, 'itna hi kehna chahoongi, jahan-jahan Shri Robert Vadra prachaar karne jana chahte hain wahan ki janta aagah hojaye aur apni zameenein bacha le.' pic.twitter.com/N1C5B99ogT ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 19:55 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Pravash Kar Mohapatra to be Congress' candidate from Morada constituency in the upcoming elections to Odisha Legislative Assembly. 18:16 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress, through its manifesto, is blowing the trumpet of Pakistan more than that of India: PM Modi. 18:11 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In For the first time, India carried out attacks across the border against the terrorist hotbeds. People trust the Armed forces but not Congress leaders. They are supporting divisive parties and people: PM Modi. 18:11 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In It's your blessings that any govt is witnessing pro-incumbency for the first time. People have anger against the opposition and not the ruling party: PM Modi in Manipur. 18:10 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Naamdaar claims that they will make the northeast a hub of manufacturing industry. They are expert in manufacturing in abuses and lies: Modi. 18:10 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In If the Congress party were really wanted to develop the northeast region, they would have developed infrastructure and promoted sports. Now, all the capitals of the northeast are connected with the rail lines: PM Modi. 18:09 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In They have played with your lives and respect. Manipur is known for football and it's about time to show the red card to Congress for the foul: Modi. 18:08 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Through BPOs and Mudra yojana, we have created job opportunities for the youth of the northeast: PM Narendra Modi. 18:08 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Around 1.25 lakh farmers of Manipur have started receiving financial assistance from the Centre. We changed the law around bamboo and now you can grow and sell bamboo, says Modi. 18:07 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In A party that indulged in Chowkidaar quarter scam, can't take care of your interests. People with such intentions and scams should lose deposit in the upcoming elections: PM Modi. 18:16 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress is supporting those who want two prime ministers - one for Delhi and one for Jammu and Kashmir: PM Modi in Manipur. 17:11 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Arun Jaitley on Robert Vadra to campaign for Congress party for the Lok Sabha Elections 2019: I don't know if this will be an asset for the campaign of Congress party or for the campaign of BJP. 17:10 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "We want a government with one captain and not a team of 11 members with 40 captains," says Arun Jaitley as BJP launches the party's campaign song for the media. Delhi: BJP releases party's tag line and theme song for the #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/wbRKzp92wX ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 16:44 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The Congress manifesto did not have a single point about India's emerging middle class. The poor dream to become the middle class but the Congress' experts from abroad think it is wise to raise taxation on the rich: Jaitley. 16:39 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress has been removing poverty since 1951, says Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. 16:34 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addresses media a day ahead of BJP's manifesto release. 16:33 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BJP releases the list of star campaigners for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 in Rajasthan, Bollywood actress Hema Malini among 40 others. 16:04 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Haryana CM: Rahul ji,15 saal ka hisab Amethi bhi maangegi,aur jab jaoge Kerala jis seat se ladoge,vo bhi poochenge, Amethi mein kya kar ke aye ho?Amethi ke hisab mein kuch kiya hoga to Wayanad wale bhi jitaenge varna wo bhi dhakka maar ke keh denge, jao usi Amethi jahan se aye ho pic.twitter.com/KOoDC850Xx ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 16:04 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar in Karnal: Hamare ghar mein, hamare pados mein ek naya janma baalak hai. Agar koi kehde iss baalak ka naam rakhna hai. Do naamo mein se kaunsa rakhoge, Narendra Modi rakhoge ya Rahul Gandhi rakhoge? Kya rakhoge? Narendra Modi. #Haryana pic.twitter.com/75975VgSk7 ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 16:03 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In PM Modi in Udaipur, Tripura: Congress released their manifesto, their 'dhakosla patra' 3 days ago, not even once 'dhakosla patra' mentions middle class, such hatred towards the middle class. They think the middle class has made Modi win and that's why they're adamant on punishing middle class. 16:02 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Amit Shah in Bargarh Odisha: I was listening to Dharmendra Pradhan ji. He was speaking fluent Odiya. Will Naveen babu be able to speak even 5 lines in Odiya without looking at paper? The man who can't speak Odiya even after being CM for 19 years can never work for welfare of Odisha. 14:15 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress does not intend to bring change in the country they just want to form government. There is no difference between Congress and BJP. Only alliance can bring change in the country: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav 14:08 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Akhilesh Yadav slams PM Modi over nationalism and security. He says, our borders are not secure yet and soldiers are being killed every day. 14:07 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In First, they came as Chaiwala and promised everyone Rs 15 lakh and now they have come as Chowkidar: Akhilesh Yadav 14:06 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "There are leaders who only spread hatred. If you ask them about old promises, they will not speak on them," says Akhilesh Yadav. 14:01 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I congratulate RLD and BSP for this historic joint rally. This election will make history: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav 13:56 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mayawati ends his speech and now SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is speaking. 13:52 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In NYAY not the solution to poverty in India, if we are voted to power we will make sure that people from Below Poverty line are provided a permanent government job to make sure that they get continuos income with dignity: BSP chief Mayawati 13:52 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Dont fall in Congresss trap, Indira also started a 20 point programme to abolish poverty, nothing happened. Think also why they toss such promises at the time of election: Mayawati 13:43 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Borders insecure under the BJP and the recent terror attacks are a testimony for this," Mayawati attacks Modi over recent attacks. 13:37 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In As soon as the prime minister will know about the huge crowd at this rally today, he will once again attack the alliance and speak absurdly, says Mayawati. 13:37 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In SP-BSP-RLD gathbandhan is coming and BJP is going, provided they don't tamper with the Electronic Voting Machines: Mayawati 13:53 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BJP will go out of power because of their wrongdoings and wrong policies. PM Modi has not fulfilled even one-fourth of the promises that he made before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to the women, farmers, labourers and everyone in the country, says Mayawati at joint SP-BSP-RLD rally in Deoband. 13:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Gathbandhan is coming and BJP is going, provided they don't tamper with the Electronic Voting Machines: Mayawati 13:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In This election, Uttar Pradesh is bidding farewell to the BJP and embracing the Gathbandhan. As soon as PM Modi will know about the huge crowd at this rally today, he will once again attack the alliance and speak absurdly: Mayawati 11:38 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Didi betrayed 'Maati' when she tried to protect infiltrators for her political benefit. When she handed over the people of West Bengal to goons of TMC, she shattered the hopes of 'Maanush': PM Modi 11:34 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mamata now stands with the people who want to break India. She is supporting people who want two PMs in India: PM Modi 11:33 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We will make a TMC and Left-free Bengal, says PM Modi 11:25 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In West Bengal was deprived of development due to Mamata Banerjee's government: PM Modi 11:22 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mamata Banerjee is backing 'anti-nationals', says PM Modi 11:22 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mamata Banerjee betrayed the people of West Bengal: PM Modi 11:19 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In It is very important to bring Mamata's real face in front of people, says PM Modi 11:18 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Omar Abdullah had said that J&K would again have a prime minister if he was voted to power. 11:17 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mamata Banerjee is with those people who say that India should have two prime ministers: PM Modi 11:14 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In West Bengal has vowed to free itself from Mamata Banerjee, says PM Modi 11:13 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mamata Banerjee is abusing me and this shows her desperation: PM Modi 11:09 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Prime Minister Narendra Modi urges people to stay wherever they are at BJP's public rally in Cooch Behar, as the crowd swells. 11:09 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Modi chants have rattled CM Mamata Banerjee, says Prime Minister in Cooch Behar in West Bengal 11:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In PM Modi once again takes 'speedbreaker didi' jibe at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. 11:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress party releases a list of 9 candidates for elections to the state legislative assembly of Odisha. Congress party releases a list of 9 candidates for elections to the state legislative assembly of Odisha. pic.twitter.com/vjqmtIEoJ3 ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 10:47 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress workers manhandle and thrash photojournalists who were allegedly clicking pictures of empty chairs at a public rally in Virdhunagar. #WATCH Tamil Nadu: Congress workers manhandle and thrash photojournalists who were allegedly clicking pictures of empty chairs at a public rally by the party in Virudhunagar. (06.04.2019) pic.twitter.com/epTiD9iLtK ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 10:38 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The Election Commission shifts Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and order) Deven Bharti with immediate effect. 10:20 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh and RLD vice president Jayant Chaudhary will also attend the rally. 10:19 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BSP president Mayawati will address the rally organised near Jamia Tibbiti Medical College in Deoband on Sunday. 10:19 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Senior police officers behaving like TMC cadres, alleges Bengal BJP president. 10:17 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In SP-BSP-RLD alliance in Uttar Pradesh will kick off its joint campaign for the coming Lok Sabha elections today. 09:58 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In A case has been filed by lawyer Narendra Sharma in CJM Court against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for promising in Congress manifesto to abolish Section 124A (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code. 09:58 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Locals in Deoband say,'It's a peace loving city. Politicians should provide better education & more employment opportunities for Muslims in the country.Everyone should be treated equally.Muslim community should not be used as a political tool during polls. 09:57 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Odisha:Locals from Berhampur that falls under CM Patnaik's home district of Ganjam say,"There are nearly 3000 houses here but half of them are empty as most people have migrated to other cities due to very few employment opportunities here.Most ppl have migrated to Mumbai &Surat" 09:57 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Pictures provided by Income-Tax Sources of cash recovered during raid at residential premises of Prateek Joshi in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. I-T searches are underway at 50 locations including Indore, Bhopal, Goa and Delhi. 09:49 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In 84-yr old Dr Shyam Babu Subudhi - who has contested Lok Sabha, Assembly Rajya Sabha polls as an independent since 1962 - to fight Lok Sabha elections 2019 from Aska and Berhampur. #Odisha: 84-yr old Dr Shyam Babu Subudhi: I am going to fight Lok Sabha elections from Aska and Berhampur. I campaign on my own in trains, buses and at market places. It does not matter whether I win or lose. I have to continue the fight" pic.twitter.com/x6GZdRooNy ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 08:30 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Locals in Deoband ask politicians to provide better education and more employment opportunities for Muslims in the country. 08:11 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In A case registered against Rahul Gandhi for promising in Congress manifesto to abolish Section 124A (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code. #Agra: A case has been filed by lawyer Narendra Sharma in CJM Court against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for promising in Congress manifesto to abolish Section 124A (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code. (06.04) pic.twitter.com/1SqMzt1VWT ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 7, 2019 New Delhi: The Election Commission on Sunday strongly advised the Finance Ministry that any action by its enforcement agencies during election time should be neutral and non-discriminatory. The poll panel's advice came amid allegations that the government was using the agencies to target rival parties in the poll season. In a letter to the Union revenue secretary, the commission said it would like to "strongly advise that all enforcement actions during the election period, even when conducted ruthlessly with a view to curb this blatant electoral malpractice, should be absolutely neutral, impartial and non-discriminatory." The Income Tax department, Enforcement Directorate and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence are the executive arm of the Department of Revenue in dealing with financial crimes. In case of suspected use of illicit money for electoral purposes, the chief electoral officer of the state must be kept "suitably informed" during the model code of conduct period, it said. The seven-phase Lok Sabha election starts from April 11 and counting will held on May 23. The letter also highlighted that money power with the intention of influencing voters' behaviour has over the years emerged as one of the biggest challenges for conduct of free, fair, ethical and credible elections. Also, the advice came on a day when the Income Tax Department launched pre-dawn raids at 52 locations, including in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, against close aides of MP Chief Minister Kamal Nath and others on charges of tax evasion and hawala transactions. CRPF personnel deployed outside the residence of Ashwin Sharma, associate of Praveen Kakkar, who is the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, engaged in an scuffle with MP Police officers. CRPF personnel accompanying I-T officials clashed with the state police in scenes, which evoked memories of the face-off between Kolkata police and CBI earlier this year. New Delhi: BJP general secretary Ram Madhav Saturday sought peoples cooperation in wiping out terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir. Our fight is against terrorism which is your problem as well. We have almost finished terrorism from the state and need your cooperation to wipe it out completely, Madhav said, addressing election rallies in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri. Seeking support for the party candidate from the Jammu parliamentary constituency Jugal Kishore, he said where there is terror, there can never be peace. We have to wipe out terrorism and our government has taken various steps in this direction. When we entered into a coalition with late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed (former chief minister and PDP patron), our common focus was eradication of terrorism from the state, he said. He said his party considers the people of all the regions of the state as its own. When we say Jammu and Kashmir is ours, we do not just mean the land but the entire population of Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir regions. They are our own people who want development, Madhav said. Earlier, Ram Madhav hitting out at the National Conference-Congress alliance, he had called the seat-sharing pact a drama. "This drama that is going on that they are in alliance in Jammu, but fighting in Kashmir. They are trying various types of exercises against Modi and the BJP, let them do it. We will win two seats in Jammu and one in Ladakh and will try our best in Kashmir so that our candidates go forward," he said. Unfortunately, regional parties dont understand the aspirations of local people here, he said. They are repeating old policies for their own benefit. During municipal election they asked people to boycott, giving reasons like 370 or 35-A, we havent changed any stand on these issues, he said. Character of regional parties is evident from a fact that their elected Parliamentary candidate praised Pakistan? There should be a FIR against Akbar Lone for his pro-Pakistan statement. They call themselves Mujahideen? Dont these (Militants) rape women and kill teenage people in Kashmir, he said. New Delhi : Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday targetted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making false promises to the people and said that things will change for better after Lok Sabha Elections 2019. "He has been lying to people over jobs and poverty eradication schemes but after this election, things will improve. They call our alliance milawati gathbandhan but let us tell you that this alliance is not for milawat, this is for mahaparivartan (mega transformation)," the Samajwadi Party chief said. Where are the promises that he made before the 2014 elections, where are achche din, Rs 15 lakh, crores of jobs?" Akhilesh asked. Asserting that the prime minister made only false promises, the Samajwadi Party chief said first he came as 'chaiwala' and now he has come as a 'chowkidar' to cheat us. "First he came as a Chaiwala, we trusted him. Now, he has come as a chowkidar to cheat us," he said in Deoband. "We want to appeal to the BJP...in this holy period of navratris, you should pledge not to lie. The poor cannot get proper healthcare, we want to ensure free healthcare facilties for them," Akhilesh Yadav. Akhilesh said there's not much difference between Congress and BJP as they almost have almost the same policies. "They are both same. This grand alliance is meant to bring change in the country, but Congress party doesnt want that, it wants to form a government in UP," he said. Earlier, BSP chief Mayawati asked the minorities to vote en bloc for the BSP-SP-RLD alliance after accusing the Congress of trying to split the anti-BJP votes. "If Muslims want BJP to lose, they have to stand firmly behind Gathbandhan." The SP and the BSP, which announced their alliance in January, will contest on 37 and 38 seats respectively. The RLD will fight on three seats. The alliance has decided not to field candidates from Rae Bareli and Amethi, the constituencies held by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Yadav, Mayawati and RLD's Ajit Singh will address 11 joint rallies between April 7 and May 16, a spokesperson said. After Deoband, rallies will be held in Badaun, Agra, Mainpuri, Rampur, Firozabad, Kannauj, Faizabad, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur and Varanasi. In Mainpuri, the SP has fielded Mulayam Singh Yadav, while Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav is contesting from Kannauj. Lucknow: The SP-BSP-RLD alliance in Uttar Pradesh will kick off its joint campaign for the coming Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, holding its first rally in Saharanpur's Deoband. The top leaders of the parties will address the Deoband meeting just days before Saharanpur and seven other western UP constituencies go to the polls in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 11. "BSP president Mayawati will address the rally organised near Jamia Tibbiti Medical College in Deoband on Sunday, a Bahujan Samaj Party spokesperson said. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh and RLD vice president Jayant Chaudhary will also attend the rally, party spokespersons said. This will be the first joint public meeting by the three parties after they formed the alliance to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the state which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. RLD spokesperson Anil Dubey claimed the impact of the alliance is evident by the irresponsible statements by BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said the rally will give further momentum to the campaign of the "grand alliance", which he claimed is very comfortably placed in the state. After cobbling together the alliance, Akhilesh Yadav had announced that joint rallies will be held in different parts of the state. Yadav and Mayawati had together drawn up a strategy to start the campaign during 'Navratri', which began Saturday, from western UP, a leader said. The SP and the BSP, which announced their alliance in January, will contest on 37 and 38 seats respectively. The RLD will fight on three seats. The alliance has decided not to field candidates from Rae Bareli and Amethi, the constituencies held by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Yadav, Mayawati and RLD's Ajit Singh will address 11 joint rallies between April 7 and May 16, a spokesperson said. After Deoband, rallies will be held in Badaun, Agra, Mainpuri, Rampur, Firozabad, Kannauj, Faizabad, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur and Varanasi. In Mainpuri, the SP has fielded Mulayam Singh Yadav, while Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav is contesting from Kannauj. Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Sunday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra saying the voters will put an end to 'drama of chowkidari'. "Gathbandhan is winning and the BJP is going, provided they (BJP) don't tamper with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)," she said, adding that the voters would end the "drama of chowkidari".A Mayawati, while addressing her first joint rally along with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, said that Modi government has not fulfilled even one-fourth of the promises that he made before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to the women, farmers, labourers and everyone in the country.A Slamming PM Modi for making false promises, Mayawati said that clearance of dues of sugarcane farmers remains unfulfilled. She also criticisedA the BJP-led-Yogi government and said the voters need to show him the door too. "Removing Modi is not enough, Yogi also needs to be shown the door, Mayawati said at the rally in Deoband," Mayawati said in Deoband.A A Targetting the Congress, Mayawati said that the grand old party is not capable of defeating the BJP and therefore voters should vote for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance. The BSP leader said that her party never issued election manifestos as she believed in talking less and delivering more.A Mayawati, in Saharanpur's Deoband: I'm warning, especially people of Muslim community, that Congress isn't in a position to fight BJP in UP. Only 'gathbandhan' can fight BJP. Congress knows this but they're going by mantra 'Hum jeete ya na jeete, gathbandhan nahi jeetna chahiye'. pic.twitter.com/m22IHKsN62 a ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 7, 2019 "Don't get divided, vote en masse for gathbandhan. We have BSP vote in every seat, SP is also mobilised. If Muslims want BJP to lose, they have to stand firmly behind Gathbandhan," the BSP chief said. The Prime Minister had also failed to protect the borders, she added, citing increasing instances of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir in particular.A With a large number of people in the rally being Muslims, she asked the minorities to vote en bloc for the BSP-SP-RLD alliance after accusing the Congress of trying to split the anti-BJP votes. "If Muslims want BJP to lose, they have to stand firmly behind Gathbandhan." The SP and the BSP, which announced their alliance in January, will contest on 37 and 38 seats respectively. The RLD will fight on three seats. The alliance has decided not to field candidates from Rae Bareli and Amethi, the constituencies held by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Yadav, Mayawati and RLD's Ajit Singh will address 11 joint rallies between April 7 and May 16, a spokesperson said. After Deoband, rallies will be held in Badaun, Agra, Mainpuri, Rampur, Firozabad, Kannauj, Faizabad, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur and Varanasi. In Mainpuri, the SP has fielded Mulayam Singh Yadav, while Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav is contesting from Kannauj. New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversy-hit Rafale fighter jet deal, saying that the latter's 'karma' will catch up with him soon. In his tweet, Rahul tagged PM Modi's interview to a news channel and challenged him to a debate on corruption. "You can run Mr Modi but you cant hide. Your karma is about to catch up with you. The country can hear it in your voice. Truth is a powerful thing. I challenge you to a debate on corruption," he tweeted. While responding to a question whether Reliance chairman Anil Ambani benefitted from the Rafale deal, PM Modi had said: Is there no trust in the Supreme Court, CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) and the French government? Would you not even have faith in what the Indian government said in Parliament? On Thursday, while addressing a rally in Nagpur, Rahul had said that corruption in the deal would be investigated if his party came to power at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections. He had alleged that PM Modi changed the fighter jet purchase deal, resulting in price increase. Hitting out at industrialist Anil Ambani, Gandhi said Ambani had no money, no expertise in defence manufacturing and all his businesses had failed. The Opposition has been asking how RDL, with no experience in aerospace sector, can be chosen as an offset partner while the government has been maintaining that it was officially ignorant of the fact that Dassault has joined hands with RDL to execute offset obligations. Mumbai: Producer Dinesh Vijan says the entire team of Angrezi Medium got emotional when Irrfan Khan gave his first shot for the film.A The 52-year-old actor recently returned to the country and started the shoot of his comeback project Angrezi Medium, a year after he was diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumour and was being treated abroad.A A "Irrfan is undoubtedly one of the best actors in the country. When he gave his first shot everyone around got emotional. For me it was one of those life-defining moments working with him again after 'Hindi Medium'. Having him and Homi together was something all three of us have always wanted," Dinesh said in a statement.A The producer said Irrfan was not emotional and remained his 'usual self'. "Wry humour, crackling one-liners and back on his own turf. Deepak (Dobriyal) and his improvisations brought the house down. It was like the first day of 'Hindi Medium,'" he added.A While Irrfan's character in Hindi Medium was Raj Batra, a Delhi based businessman with a sari showroom, he plays Champak from Udaipur who is in the sweet business. According to the synopsis, Irrfan and Deepak will play brothers in the film who have inherited a 100-year-old sweet business and are also rivals. A distant cousin, played by Manu Rishi, who owns the biggest sweet shop also adds to the rivalry within the family.A The film features Radhika Madan as Irrfan's daughter and talks are on for another leading lady. The crew will be shooting in Rajasthan till April end after which they move to London as in the film Irrfan's daughter has aspirations of studying abroad. Angrezi Medium is directed by Homi Adjania.A For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Varun Dhawan's popularity and female fan following skyrocketed in the last few years and especially after the trailer of Kalank portraying him as the intense and fearless Zafar was released. But just like every other achievement comes with a downside, in a shocking turn of events, a female fan of the actor reached his residence and threatened to kill his girlfriend Natasha Dalal. According to Mid Day, a female fan was seen doing the rounds of the Dhawan mansion for some time, waiting for hours to meet Varun, while he was away from the promotions of Kalank. Hell broke loose when the security informed the fan that Varun won't be able to meet her today. The stalker lost her calm and created a ruckus outside the residence. She got aggressive and kept saying only one thing, "I will kill Natasha" leaving the security with no option but to call the cops. Reveals a source from the security team in interaction with Mid Day, "There was a female fan, who was doing the rounds of his house for a long time. We are used to such things and on most occasions, the fans are sweet and never cross their limits. Varun sir usually obliges their selfie requests, if he is available. But, he is currently pressed for time and is juggling too many things. She was waiting for a couple of hours. Sir came late and she was insisting that she meet him then and there. He was pretty tired from the day's work and wanted to rest. She refused to leave and got into a squabble. Initially, she said she will hurt herself. When the security still didn't get her through to Varun sir, she threw a fit. She kept mumbling how she will harm Natasha ma'am." According to reports by the newspaper daily complaint was lodged at Santa Cruz police station last night. However, an FIR will be lodged only after Varun record's his statement. "It was alarming for us because usually, fans don't get so aggressive. We informed Varun sir, who panicked. She kept saying, 'I will kill Natasha.' After the woman refused to leave even after 45 minutes, we had to call the local police station", confirmed the source. Varun will soon start the shoot for the remake of Coolie No 1, directed by his father David Dhawan and also starring Sara Ali Khan. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: CRPF personnel deployed outside the residence of Ashwin Sharma, associate of Praveen Kakkar, who is the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, engaged in an scuffle with MP Police officers on Sunday. The Income Tax department had roped in the armed personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to keep a vigil. Generally, the I-T department takes the help of the local police during such operations. According to eyewitnesses, during the I-T searches conducted at the residence of Kakkad in the Vijay Nagar area of the city, armed CRPF personnel were seen posted outside the house. Sources said a team of the local police was seen deployed about 200 metres from Kakkad's house during the raid. Officials said the entire operation was carried out by the Delhi unit of the I-T department in a very secretive manner. CRPF personnel accompanying I-T officials clashed with the state police in scenes, which evoked memories of the face-off between Kolkata police and CBI earlier this year. Madhya Pradesh police personnel alleged that people inside the housing complex of Sharma, who is Kamal Nath's OSD had reached out to the Station House Officer (SHO) of the area seeking assistance. "We've nothing to do with Income Tax and its ongoing raids. It is a residential complex, there are people inside who need medical assistance and they called the local SHO for help. They have closed the entire residential complex because of the raid," said City SP Bhupinder Singh. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the I-T department was doing its work, it's their constitutional right. aCRPF soldiers were on duty, they were being stopped, the MP Police clashed with the CRPF. What Mamata ji did in Bengal, the same game is being played in MP. It's an attempt to save corrupts,a he said. aCash is being recovered, documents are found, properties are unearthed. I am surprised that the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh instead of cooperating, he is trying to stop the Income Tax department's proceedings,a Singh added. The CRPF, which is accompanying the IT officials in conducting the searches have alleged that the police was obstructing it from performing its duty. "We have not done anything to anyone. They are just trying to show off their rank and obstruct us. The Madhya Pradesh Police is not letting us work. We are from the CRPF and we only follow the orders of our seniors. CRPF is always there for the safety and security of the people. The investigation is still on and this is why we are not allowing people inside," CRPF official told media. Visuals: I-T raid underway at residence of Ashwin Sharma, associate of Praveen Kakkar (OSD to Madhya Pradesh CM), in Bhopal. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/rUHMiJC7dO a ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 Officials said the entire operation was carried out by the Delhi unit of the I-T department in a very secretive manner. Besides Kakkad's house, at least five other premises were also raided, including Kakkad's office and premises of his close aides, they added. During the operation conducted ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, a huge amount of cash and several documents related to dubious investments were reportedly recovered. However, local I-T officials said they were unable to disclose the details yet. They said since the operation was carried out by the Delhi unit of the I-T department, only it could provide the official information about the recovery and seizure. Kakkad's family is associated with a number of businesses, including hospitality. A former Madhya Pradesh police officer, Kakkad was appointed the OSD to Nath after the Congress-led government came to power in the state last year. He resigned from the post just before the Lok Sabha polls were announced. Kakkad had earlier served as the OSD to former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA rule. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: India on Sunday rejected as irresponsible and preposterous Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshis claim that New Delhi was planning to attack Pakistan again. India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region. This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. Asserting that the false claim was a call to terrorists nurturing on its soil to carry out an attack in India, India said that Islamabad needed to take credible and irreversible steps against terrorism. It has been made clear to Pakistan that it cannot absolve itself of responsibility of a cross border terrorist attack in India. No attempt at creating an alibi for its complicity in such attacks will succeed. Pakistan needs to take credible and irreversible steps against terrorism operating from all territories under its control rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross- border terrorism. Pakistan has been advised to use established diplomatic and DGMO channels to share any actionable and credible intelligence it has about imminent terror attacks, the statement by MEA read. The MEA also warned Islamabad that New Delhi reserves right to respond firmly and decisively to any cross-border terrorist attack. Earlier today, Qureshi said Pakistan has reliable intelligence that India is planning to attack again between April 16 and 20. The claim came amid the ongoing tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack. Addressing a press conference in his home town of Multan, Qureshi said the government had "reliable intelligence that India is devising a new plan". "A new mishap could be staged...And its purpose will be to justify their [India's] offensive against Pakistan and to increase diplomatic pressure against Islamabad," he alleged. "If it happens, you can imagine the impact of the occurrence on the peace and stability of the region. According to our information, the action could be taken between 16-20 April," Qureshi said, adding that preparations were being made for the attack against Pakistan. The foreign minister said Pakistan had already briefed the United Nations Security Council's permanent members over the issue and stated Islamabad's apprehensions. Qureshi's remarks were not taken seriously by the Opposition in the neighbouring country. The Pakistan People Party (PPP) accused the government of using war threat by India to hide its failures. "The government has failed to deliver and now using the threat of war by India to distract public attention from issues faced by the people," PPP leader Nafeesa Shah said. 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 in February. Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force (IAF) 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 an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : The Income Tax (IT) department team on Sunday carried out raids at the residence of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's private secretary, Praveen Kakkar. According to reports, a team of over 15 officers began searching Kakkar's house at around 3 am.A According to some reports, the raids are being conducted on at least 50 locations including Indore, Bhopal and Delhi (Green Park) and those being searched also include former advisor Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser. Indore: Income-Tax officials from Delhi are conducting a raid at the Vijaynagar residence of OSD to Madhya Pradesh CM, Praveen Kakkar, since 3 am today. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/vm7HC15HzU a ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 Kakkar, the officer on special duty (OSD) for Kamal Nath, is reportedly under the scanner for alleged illegal transactions. Kakkad, a former Madhya Pradesh police officer, was appointed OSD to Nath after the Congress-led government came to power in the state last year. He had earlier served as OSD to former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA regime. I-T Sources: I-T dept is conducting searches at 50 locations. Searches underway at locations of MP Chief Minister's OSD, Ratul Puri, Amira Group&Moser Bayer. Searches also underway in Bhopal* ,Indore,Goa& 35 locations in Delhi. More than 300 I-T officials conducting the searches. https://t.co/x5wkkEE01p a ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 Earlier on Friday, Kamal Nath's nephew Ratul Puri was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in the Agusta Westland case. Nath, who questioned the timing of the ED summoning, insisted that he had nothing to do with his nephew's business. A "He (Puri) is independent and has nothing to do with politics, and I have nothing to do with his business. Whatever (allegation) there is, a full investigation should take place. I welcome it...but why is it emerging during elections?" Nath told reporters. Puri on Thursday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the AgustaWestland case in Delhi. A The central agency had Wednesday informed a Delhi court that Puri, Chairman of Hindustan Powerprojects Pvt Ltd, was summoned in the high-profile case for interrogation. A Pictures provided by Income-Tax Sources of cash recovered during raid at residential premises of Prateek Joshi in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. I-T searches are underway at 50 locations including Indore, Bhopal, Goa and Delhi. pic.twitter.com/TAMe4J1Nii a ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 Puri is the son of Nita and Deepak Puri, the CMD of optical storage media firm Moser Baer. Nita is Nath's sister. The raids are also being conducted against Kolkata-based businessman Paras Mal Lodha, they said. A team of about 200 I-T department and police officers swooped on these premises at around 3 am and some undisclosed cash has been recovered till now, they said. With PTI Inputs For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The ban on civilian traffic movement on 300-km long Srinagar-Jammu national highway began on Sunday. There was no movement of civilian traffic seen on the highway. The prohibition on the movement of civilian traffic has been set from Baramulla through Srinagar, Qazigund, Jawahar-Tunnel, Banihal and Ramban till Udhampur, an official government statement had said. The ban will start from 4:00 in the morning 5:00 pm till May 31. The move has drawn flak from various sections of the society. Describing the move as mindless, former chief minister tweeted: Driving to Uri Im getting to see first-hand the extent of disruption & inconvenience that is being caused to people because of the mindless highway closure order that is in place today. Peoples Conference (PC) chairman Sajad Gani Lone said that the banning of civilian movement on highway is turning into humanitarian disaster. The highway ban is now turning into a humanitarian disaster. Flooded will calls from across the state. People in dire need to travel in order to tend to their day to day needs of survival stuck in a state of helplessness. @jandkgovernor urgently needs to scrap the inhuman order (sic), Sajad Lone said on twitter. On February 14, a CRPF convoy, on its way from Jammu and Srinagar, was attacked by a suicide car bomber on the National Highway in Pulwama district, killing 40 personnel. The Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed the responsibility. After the attack, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, during his visit to Kashmir, had announced that no civilian traffic movement would be allowed during the convoy days. On March 30, there was a possible 'fidayeen' (suicide) attack on another security force convoy at Banihal when an attempt was made to trigger an explosive-laden vehicle. "Keeping in view the large movement of security forces on the national highway during the Parliamentary elections and associated possibility of any 'fidayeen' (suicide) terror attack on security forces' convoys, the state government has notified specified days in a week for the movement of security forces from Srinagar to Jammu," the state government statement said. To mitigate the inconvenience to the civilians by this move, the government has notified two dedicated days in a week i.e, (Sunday & Wednesday) exclusively for movement of security forces Convoys and there would be a complete ban on civilian traffic on the National Highway during these two days from 4 AM to 5 PM. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq will appear before the NIA in New Delhi on Monday for questioning in connection with a terror funding case after being served third summon, sources said on Sunday. Earlier, he didnt appear for the probe saying he was willing to be quizzed in Srinagar as he feared for his security in the national capital. Mirwaiz, who is one of the religious heads of Muslims in the Kashmir Valley, had written to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), saying he had no knowledge of the case mentioned by the agency in its summon served on him. The NIA had issued a summon to Mirwaiz to appear before the agency headquarters in the national capital on Monday in a case related to funding of terror and separatists organisations in the Kashmir Valley. Earlier, he had been served a notice for appearing before the agency on March 11 but the lawyer of the Mirwaiz informed the NIA, through a four-page letter, that his client was willing to cooperate as he could not travel in view of the "conditions of hostility". "Under the prevailing conditions of hostility wherein there is a threat to the personal safety of my client, it becomes unwise for my client to travel to Delhi," counsel for the Mirwaiz, Aijaz Ahmad Dhar, had said. He had also maintained that his client is not acquainted with the subject matter of the FIR referred to in the NIA's notice. The NIA is investigating a case related to funding of terror and separatist organisations in Kashmir through hawala channels. The agency last month carried out a series of raids on separatists, including the Mirwaiz. Earlier on Saturday, National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah blamed People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti after National Investigation Agency (NIA) summoned Mirwaiz in the case. Again it was during her tenure that the NIA registered a case against Mirwaiz and is now issuing summons to him for questioning, Omar told reporters on the sidelines on a party convention in Kupwara. Mirwaiz on Friday was served a third notice by the NIA to appear before the agency in New Delhi. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah on Saturday blamed People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) summons to separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in the terror funding case. Again it was during her tenure that NIA registered a case against Mirwaiz and is now issuing summons to him for questioning, Omar told reporters on the side-lines on a party convention in Kupwara. Mirwaiz on Friday was served a third notice by the NIA to appear before the agency in New Delhi. The NIA had first summoned Mirwaiz on March 11, asking him to appear before it in a terror-funding probe in which several separatist leaders have already been arrested. Mirwaiz, however, said he was willing to be examined by the NIA, but urged that the questioning be held in Srinagar due to life threats he is receiving. The NIA has said that letterheads of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamat-ud-Dawa, Hizbul Mujahideen and other organisations are among various "significant evidences" that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) says are enough to book top separatist leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, news agency IANS had reported. Mirwaizs counsel in his written response to the NIA said, My client has serious concerns about his safety. The security (Z plus category) provided earlier to your knowledge, was withdrawn unilaterally, for reasons too well known. Your attention is invited to some of the distressing comments which have appeared in the mainstream print media since the news of his summons to New Delhi. There are open calls for his assassination. Having regard to the comments, merely stating in the notice that security will be provided appears to be perfunctory observation, the response said. 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. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Today is Cheti Chand and the entire nation is busy celebrating this festival with zeal and enthusiasm. The festival of Cheti Chand marks the Sindhi New Year and the birth anniversary of Ishtadeva Uderolal, popularly known as Jhulelal, the Sindhi saint. Jhulelal is believed to be an incarnation of Lord Varun, God of Oceans. Cheti Chand also marks the arrival of spring and is celebrated on the day of new moon. The morning of Cheti Chand begins with a visit to the temple and taking blessings from the elders. The Sindhi community celebrates the day with great fervour. A procession is taken out in public called Baharana Sahib. In this puja, an oil lamp or jyot is placed in a pot made of flour, cardamom, fruits and akha (mix of rice and sugar). Further, they take a bronze pot with a coconut in it, covered with red cloth, flowers and leaves and behind is the idol of Jhulelal. Baharana Sahib is then taken to a nearby lake or river and immersed among singing and dancing of devotional songs. Akha is offered to Jal Devta and the Prasad is distributed among the devotees. The celebration is followed by langarsaab and a cultural programme. On this special day, we wish you and your family a very Happy Cheti Chand and Jhulelal Jayanti 2019. For all the Latest Lifestyle News, Religion News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Humans are all set to see the first ever picture of a supermassive black hole. This came after a group of scientists from the international Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project is expected to unveil a photograph of a black hole to the public. Earlier, The European Southern Observatory has revealed that there will be a huge announcement soon. Scientists for years have struggled to capture one of these deadly masses on camera. According to the advance statement, the researchers will be discussing the "first result from the Event Horizon Telescope." On 10 April 2019, at 6.30 pm the European Commission, European Research Council, and the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project will present results they are describing as "ground-breaking". The aim is to observe the immediate environment of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* at the centre of the Milky Way, as well as the even larger black hole in the supergiant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, with angular resolution comparable to the black hole's event horizon. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a project to create a large telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes and combining data from several very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations around the Earth. Seeing the event horizon - the point outside a black hole at which light can no longer achieve escape velocity - is theoretically possible, although not easy. Spacetime around a black hole is weird; in addition, Sgr A* is shrouded in a thick cloud of dust and gas, the Science Alert reported. The historical event is going to be streamed on YouTube, according to reports. A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothingnot even particles and electromagnetic radiation such as lightcan escape from inside it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Pakistan has said that it will not accept the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir as the country claimed it would be a violation of the UN resolutions. Addressing media in Islamabad on Friday, Pakistans Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Faisal said, The abrogation of Article 370 of Indian constitution is violation of UN resolutions. We will not accept it under any circumstances and the Kashmiris will also not accept it. The Article 370 is a special provision with regards to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and restricts the applicability of various provisions of the Constitution by "curtailing" the power of Parliament to make laws on subjects which fall under the Union and Concurrent lists. The ruling Narendra Modi-led BJP government, which made a bunch of promises on Jammu and Kashmir in 2014, has once again raised the issue of Article 370 in wake of looming Lok Sabha elections. Senior BJP leaders, including party president Amit Shah, have repeatedly said that the saffron party was committed to repeal Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Shah has reportedly cited lack of a majority in Rajya Sabha as the reason why the incumbent Modi government failed to fulfill its promise. The comments of the BJP leader to abolish Article 370 were strongly criticised within the country, including former ally and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti. In her interview to a private news channel, Mufti had said that if Article 370 is removed from Kashmir, India will become an occupational force in the state. National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah also slammed the remarks, saying that Kashmir became a part of India on certain conditions and Article 370 was one of them to safeguard the states identity. It included Article 370 and Article 35A. Unfortunately, some of our leaders made Article 370 hollow for their personal gains, he said. His father and National Conference President Farooq Abdullah had said that the relationship between New Delhi and the state will be over if Article 370 is repealed. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. , . ... Chairing the Cabinet session yesterday, His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa launched a programme to employ 240 newly-graduate Bahraini doctors. Under the scheme, which will be implemented over two years, beginning from 2019, the new graduates will be trained and rehabilitated by the Arabian Gulf University to work in public or private hospitals or health centers, as well as to open their own clinics. The Cabinet decided to amend the criteria and requirements of medical professions, whereby Bahraini holders of masters degrees in family medicine could open their own family medicine clinics. The Supreme Council for Health, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour and Social Development and the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) were requested to embark on implementing the programme launched by HRH Premier. Supreme Council for Health (SCH) President Lieutenant-General Dr. Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa hailed the move which, he said, reflects the Premiers keenness on employing Bahraini doctors. He paid tribute to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, HRH the Premier and Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, hailing their keenness on employing Bahraini health graduates, particularly doctors. Dr. Shaikh Mohammed said the council spearheaded the national initiative after holding meetings with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, the Tamkeen Foundation and the governmental and private health institutions. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud received here HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, the Deputy Premier and Head of the Kingdoms delegation to the 30th Arab Summit, which kicked off in the Tunisian Capital yesterday. HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak conveyed greetings from His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, to the Saudi King, as well as their wishes of abundant health and happiness to him, and of further progress and prosperity to sisterly Saudi Arabia, under its leadership. They affirmed the solid distinguished relations between the two brotherly countries, as well as their constant coordination and consultation regarding their joint interests and issues of common concern. While reviewing the agenda of the 30th Arab Summit, they stressed the importance of coming up with resolutions and results that would consolidate joint Arab action and solidarity in the face of the challenges and dangers that pose a serious threat to the Arab Nations present, future, stability and the territorial integrity of its member states. Foreign Affairs Minister, Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, attended. Any moves to undermine Syrias sovereignty over the Golan Heights should be rejected, Saudi Arabias King Salman told the Arab League summit yesterday. US President Donald Trump last week signed a proclamation recognizing the Golan as Israeli, less than four months after saying Jerusalem is Israels capital. The Arab Parliament has formed a special committee to address Palestinian issues, Dr Mishaal Al Salami, the parliaments speaker and a Saudi Shura Council member, has announced. He also praised the work of Saudi Arabia in the Arab world, noting that the Kingdom is a pioneer in initiatives and support for the interests of Arab countries and joint Arab action. He said that the decision to form the committee reflects the fact that Palestine is the primary, pivotal and fundamental issue in the parliament. During a meeting of the academic dialogue table at King Abdul Aziz Universitys Faculty of Economics and Administration, Al Salami said that the committee is studying three files, and highlighted the important role played by King Salman in adopting initiatives for the benefit of the state of Palestine and its people. He also said that Riyadh will host the 2019 Arab-African Summit, and was optimistic about the prospects of closer relations between Arab and African countries at all levels. Dr Al Salami went on to commend a regional anti-terrorism workshop, which included representatives from the European Union, that issued 31 statements of solidarity with Arab countries in the fight against extremism and terrorism. He added that the Arab Parliament will support any projects that confront and combat ideas and projects that spread terror and extremist views. The speaker also stressed the parliaments support for the legitimate authorities in Yemen and for the coalition forces in the country, noting that they are the guarantors of Arab national security. On the subject of the occupied Golan Heights and the recent decision by US President Donald Trump to recognise it as a part of Israel, Al Salami described a Saudi statement denouncing the American move as the strongest about the issue. Philippine a u thorities said Wednesday they cracked open a gift-wrapped package shipped from Poland to discover 757 tarantulas crammed into plastic containers. The illicit payload found at a mail facility near Manilas airport was the latest seizure in a nation that is a major source and transit point of wildlife trafficking. Customs thought the package suspicious and after opening it found boxes for cookies, oatmeal and tea. Yet the cartons contained dozens of plastic containers packed with arachnids. The seized tarantulas -- priced at about $5,700 -- are frequently sold to hobbyists as pets, Arnel Matreo, chief of the Wildlife Traffic Monitoring Unit of the environment ministry, said. Matreo said two people who tried to claim the package were detained on charges of violating wildlife protection and customs laws. Customs officials turned over the tarantulas to the environment ministrys rescue centre, which will take charge of the animals and identify its species. The seizure comes about a month after authorities said they had seized about 1,500 exotic turtles, some of which were restrained with duct tape, crammed into a passengers bag at Manila airport. Who owns the rain? Who owns the water? Long Island Soundkeeper Bill Lucey asked those questions in February at a public hearing over the Aquarion water companys plan to pump as much as a million gallons a day from a well in the Cannondale section of Wilton. After facing strong opposition to the plan, Aquarion withdrew it in March. There is a fairly straightforward answer to that question the people do. According to a law the General Assembly passed in 1971, the states air, water and natural resources are a public trust. Given that, the law says each person is entitled to the protection, preservation and enhancement of the same. And yet For the second straight legislative session, the same General Assembly has blinked when it comes to approving the state water plan a comprehensive document that took three years and innumerable, exhausting meetings among many parties to produce. Why? Because the plan commits to nearly a half-century of law and calls water in the state drinking water, rivers and streams alike a public trust. Water utilities fear that phrase might stymie their future for drinking water development. So when the plan came before the legislature in 2018, it went nowhere. That inaction forced then-Gov. Dannel Malloy to implement the plan by executive order. But Malloy also asked lawmakers to consider the plan again, without changes. And again, those two little word public trust have hung things up again. Gov. Ned Lamont, who campaigned on his commitment to the states environment, may have to step in to decide on the plans future. Margaret Miner, the executive director of the Rivers Alliance of Connecticut and a person who took part in many of the long meetings that produced the plan, said that contrary to Malloys order, factions in the General Assembly wanted to rewrite parts of the plan before it even got there. People were saying, We can change it, Miner said. Supporters of the plan have resisted renegotiating wording that took three years and several public hearings to finish. The phrase public trust still is the major sticking point. It seems their issue isnt with the plan itself, said Dave Bjerklie, the executive director of the Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition. Its a fear the idea of a public trust will be misconstrued. But, Bjerklie said, it isnt a new concept. Its there in the General Statutes, he said. And for people who spoke against the Aquarion plan to pump millions of gallons from a wellfield near the Norwalk River, the concept of water being a public trust became very real. We felt it at a very visceral level, said Louise Washer, president of the Norwalk River Watershed Association. All the work weve been doing to restore the watershed could have gone away. And while the plan is now in effect thanks to Malloys order its still lacking legislative approval. That is both typical of politics these days and disconcerting. Given the droughts and downpours climate change may bring to the state, it might seem everyone could agree planning for the future is a good idea. Which is what the plan does. It takes the scientific data available and studies the water resources throughout the state. It reaffirms the states goal of keeping its drinking water standards the highest in the nation. But it also looks at the states insufficient water conservation efforts and addresses how some streams and rivers now face the stress of running low, or even dry, when droughts hit. Its a huge step forward, said Lynn Werner, executive director of the Housatonic Valley Association, of the plan. Werner said that when the rain falls that public trust from the skies it feeds reservoirs and aquifers. But it also feeds rivers and lakes, creating habitat for fish, frogs, and salamanders. It creates the world we live in. The public water supply is paramount, she said. Its the first resource we depend upon. Washer, of the Norwalk River Watershed Association, also said this concept of water being a public trust has to extend into the thinking of town leaders and individuals as well. It means passing drought preparedness plans at the local level. It means teaching a water conservation ethic to make people see that daily lawn watering to achieve supreme green is not necessarily the way forward in a dry season. You dont think about it, she said. But its all connected. Contact Robert Miller at earthmattersrgm@gmail.com Actor and Connecticut resident Sam Waterston is an American icon, known for an impressive breadth of award-winning work. His resume ranges from stage, in Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing, to an Academy Award-nominated film role in The Killing Fields to well-known television characters like Jack McCoy on the NBC series Law & Order. Now the 78-year-old Waterston is again relishing success, this time as a co-star on the Netflix series Grace and Frankie, a comedy about two women brought together when their respective husbands fall in love and marry each other. The Emmy-nominated series features Waterston with Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Martin Sheen. Waterston, married for 43 years to Lynn Woodruff, reflects on his role on the series, just renewed for a sixth season, his life in Connecticut and the benefits of old age. Q: So here you are in the midst of yet another successful chapter of your life. Can you describe your experience on Grace and Frankie in five words? A: I can do it in one, no two. Pure fun! Q: The story line for the show was a bit out of the ordinary. Did you ever have second thoughts about the show, and are you surprised at its success with a cast that is, shall we say, more mature? A: Acting is acting and I dont think any of us knew what to expect when we started filming Grace and Frankie. I guess we all sort of hoped that people our own age would find this something they wanted to watch. The really spectacular, surprising thing is the range of people who do watch. Younger people, people who might be considered stuffy or too private to watch a show about things like gay marriage and the family dynamics that stem from that. They are the ones that have turned into huge fans. I mean, me, Jane, Martin, Lily, we are at a stage when most people are packing up their tool kits. Instead we get to do this. Q: There seems to be a nice rhythm between you and your co-stars. Was it immediate or is it experience, or chemistry? A: Some of us have known each other for a very long time or worked with each other at one time or another, so we were all familiar with each other and each others work. I also think, by this time in your work life, you are either thoroughly fed up with your job or love it and we all love it. And then its just a beautifully conceived and written show. And everyone involved is having a good time or they are doing a good job of faking it. Q: Any twinges because, well, the show is about getting old? A: You know, I met a young person who is a fan and asked why do you watch this? The kid said, Im going to get old someday, too. I have been a fan of irony all my life. If you want to have fun getting old you have to have a sense of humor. Humor, comedy is the only mode for getting through age. The brave thing about this show is it spits in the eye of old age and death. Q: Most people know you are one of our own Connecticut celebrities. Is Connecticut home? A: Yes. By now it is really where our roots are mostly deeply set. We bought the house in 1978, and it and the surroundings have grown on us. It is the place we have fixed up, built a teahouse, planted trees and have tinkered around for 41 years. We put on the gloves and had a big hand in making it our home. We enjoy it and try not to make any concessions to age. We farm there now, Birdseye and Tanner Brooks Farm. We raise grass-fed cows and sheep, no antibiotics, no hormones and sell the meat. It has become partly a mission. Q: You also have another Connecticut connection. You starred with Connecticuts own Katharine Hepburn in the film adaption of The Glass Menagerie. Good memories? A: Nothing but good memories. I think the short answer is to say that what you see is what you got when it came to working with her. She was what she appeared to be, energy, commitment, enthusiasm, love of fun. She loved the two shots, two peoples head in the frame, and loved acting with people. Q: You have played so many memorable characters on stage and screen and television, including Sydney Schanberg, Jack McCoy, of course, Charles Skinner and, my personal favorite, Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby. Which was your favorite? A: I guess on a lot of levels, the part I will be most grateful for getting the role as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. It changed my life but it also saved my life because I was down and out, broke and had just broken up with my first wife. Then this part came along and it really was a turning point and all that good stuff started. I always thought that Lynn thought I must have been an OK guy because she saw me playing Benedick and it sold her on marrying me. Q: I know you are involved in some special personal causes and immigration is one of them. Given the politics of today, what are your feelings about the immigration debate here in the U.S.? A: I think it a shameful debate we are having and one that has been drummed into an insane shouting match. As a country we are acting ineptly and cruelly. It is plain to common sense, having borders and border controls. But we need to start behaving humanly and responding to what is the beginning of a very long period of what we are going to be dealing with when it comes to climate change. We are going to be looking at people moving because they have to, all across the planet. How are we going to handle it? This either you have a border or you dont have a country is a stupid over-simplification. There is a way to do a better job on this issue. Q: What is the nicest compliment you ever received? A: A friend of mine was sharing a cab with Edith Oliver, a well-known theater critic from the New Yorker. She asked him where he was going, and he said to see a performance of Shakespeares, The Tempest. He suggested that she should see the show and she replied, Oh, no, I have already seen The Tempest. I saw Sam Waterston do it. Mary Ellen Fillo is a freelance writer. ANSONIA The chairman of the Water Pollution Control Authority is accusing the city of an outright assault after the appointment of a second alderman to the panel and a vote approving WPCA payment of roughly $850,000 for emergency Pershing Drive sewer work. Nunzio Parente, who stormed out of a March meeting following a 3-2 WPCA vote to pay the full bill, returned to chair Wednesdays meeting and proposed only a partial payment of $467,500 from authority funds. That proposal was not approved. I dont care what anybody thinks, an angry Parente told the four other authority members in attendance Wednesday. I know why youre doing it you need the money, he said, referring to Aldermen Charles Stowe and Domenic Filippone and the rest of the citys Republican-led administration. You tried to take it from the Board of Education and you lost, Parente continued. Youve got to pay them their money back. ... So now the goal is were is going to take over the WPCA. Mayor David Cassetti fired back. Thats completely false, he said, just like (some opponents) claim I used Board of Education money to pave Wakelee Avenue. I stand on my record of stabilizing taxes and bringing in economic development. The WPCA claims to have a bank balance of about $7.5 million, with all but $2 million committed to future debt. The authority could cover sewer work cost without forcing the city to dip into its rainy day balance. They have the money, Cassetti said. They can pay for their repairs. Ive always maintained Public Works pays for clearing the lines and WPCA pays for repairing breaks. All this stems from the costly Feb. 21 sewer pipe collapse that dumped raw sewage into the basement of the Lemko Social Club and threatened several other businesses along Pershing Drive near the Riverwalk entrance. Frank Pepe Construction was hired on an emergency basis to supervise the repairs, which included digging a trench 37 feet below ground, reinforcing it with steel shoring and replacing the broken pipe. Frank Pepe told Hearst Connecticut Media that the work was completed March 30. He had not finalized a bill, he said, but estimated it would be about $850,000. At the WPCA meeting, that bill made for a heated topic of discussion. When Stowe pointed out that the authority voted 3-2 to pay it and Henry Boladz, a Democratic appointee, suggested thats the end of the conversation, Parente objected. He proposed putting $467,500 which he said would cover half plus 10 percent override in a Pershing Drive line account. Right now we dont even know what the bill is, Stowe said. The proposal was tabled. Parente, a Democrat and former employee in Cassettis now-defunct Birm-1 Construction company, said the urgency to push through the payment is prompted by the citys need for the money before the budget comes out. He charged that Filippones recent appointment to the authority makes any close votes like the one to pay the sewer repair cost illegal. Hes not even supposed to be on the board, Parente said of Filippone, because its supposed to be one alderman and one member of the Public Works Department. Check the charter. The city charter reads: Membership shall include one member of the board of aldermen and one member of the board of public works. Corporation Counsel John P. Marini reviewed the charter at the request of Hearst Connecticut Media and said it is being followed, and Filippones appointment and votes are legal. The charter requires a mandatory minimum of one member from the Board of Aldermen and one member from the Public Works Commission, Marini said. That doesnt preclude additional members from those groups being appointed by the mayor. At its 7 p.m. meeting on Tuesday, the Board of Aldermen could change the wording and composition of the WPCA ordinance. A section of proposed revision reads: Membership shall include at least one member of the Board of Aldermen and two members of the Board of Public Works. EAST HAVEN For years, the town has tried to get the owner of two waterfront properties along Morgan Avenue in the Morgan Point section to fix up the properties, as neighbors have complained repeatedly. Owner Marcia Munro has for months negotiated the process to appeal blight citations for her inherited homes at 110 and 114 Morgan Ave., even as she fought another serious battle with her own health issues. This week, the Planning and Zoning Commission, which for several months has told Munro it wanted to see a signed contract with a contractor who will bring her houses into compliance, rejected Munros appeal even as they sat face-to-face with the contractor Munro said is going to do the job. The four members present, led by Chairman William DeMayo, did so Wednesday night against the advice of their own zoning staff. Zoning Enforcement Officer Christopher Soto had recommended that the commission give Munro another 30-day extension to get the contract signed and the work underway. They voted to reject the appeal at the suggestion of Assistant Town Attorney Al Zullo father of Town Attorney and state Rep. Joe Zullo, R-East Haven and Director of Administration and Management Sal Brancati. Weve got to serve the entire town and not just one person, said DeMayo. I want to set the fire with gasoline, and I want to recommend that we deny it. ... I think by denying it its going to light a fire to get Munro to take action, he said. Zullo told the commission that if you deny it, they get treated just like everybody else. Brancati said that if Munro signed a contract 90 days ago, it wouldnt be here. The unanimous rejection of Munros appeal by DeMayo and PZC members Marlene Asid, Ray DiMartino and Fred Marotti will trigger the registration of tax liens for $16,000 in past fines against Munro. Munro still has the option to appeal in Superior Court. At the PZCs meeting Wednesday night, Munros contractor, Glenn Gundersen of Glenn R. Gundersen Co. of Guilford, told the PZC that a new roof, gutters and fascia for the house at 110 Morgan Ave. are likely to cost about $26,000. The two houses probably are not the most blighted houses in East Haven. But they stand in contrast to the well-kept houses of many of their waterfront neighbors in the neighborhood. Munro, whose late grandfather and later her aunt used to live in the larger of the two houses, at 110 Morgan Ave., which she now owns with her daughter, Leslie Munro, said shes working to get work done to bring her houses into compliance. Yes, there will be a contract ... shortly, she said. But Munro believes there are other pressures at work. Basically, the biggest problem is, I have two houses here, on the water, that dont require flood insurance, Munro said by phone the day after the meeting. Most of the houses in her neighborhood require flood insurance just to get a mortgage, but hers dont, she said. Munro feels as if shes being pushed to sell her property, and she doesnt want to do that. I dont want to sell these houses, first of all, said Munro, who has had two major surgeries, as well as other procedures, since 2015. Its a taking thats what it is, said John Ferrante, a friend of Munro who also is a lawyer, after the meeting. Now she has to go to Superior Court. Brancati said the town is not looking to take Munros properties. All it wants is to see her sign a contract to fix them, he said. If anything, East Haven has been more patient with Munro than it has with others cited for blight because of her health issues, he said. Ferrante said Munro has managed to take care of two of the three things the town originally cited her for: the condition of the landscaping on her property and unsightly debris on the property, and now is trying to bring the actual structures into compliance. Meanwhile, prior to the PZCs March meeting, at which the issue was tabled, Munro had received medical treatment for 24 of the 60 previous days, Ferrante said, suggesting that as one reason why she may not have moved faster to resolve the issues. The files on the two properties in the zoning office contain a number of complaints over the years dating back to at least 2003 from at least three neighbors. This property has plagued our neighborhood for 30 years, said one 2011 complaint in the file. Please address this. The person who made that complaint, Sally Cammarano, whose grandparents and then parents lived in a house on the street and who used to own the house next door to the larger of Munros two houses said she was glad to see the town finally take action. They have given this woman so much time, said Cammarano, who does not currently live in the neighborhood but owns a house at 92 Morgan Ave., as well as a house up the beach on Cosey Beach Avenue. Shes gotten away with so much for so many years, said Cammarano, who currently lives in a nearby community but said she may move back to Morgan Point in a few years. Its been sad, and weve all lived with it, Cammarano said. While East Haven has zoning rules, no one ever took the time to enforce them. Im just thrilled that somebody else has just finally taken some notice. ... I kind of just walked away and thought maybe nobody is ever going to do anything. South Africa: R341 million set aside for Vaal River rehabilitation Government has set aside R341 million for the rehabilitation of all wastewater treatment infrastructure in the Vaal Triangle. The project will see 250 youth and community members being trained on plumbing, carpentry, brick-laying, paving and agriculture, Water and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti announced on Friday. [The] SANDF will also train 2000 youth and community members to guard 44 pump stations until the completion of the project, which is projected for March 2020, the Minister told the community of Sebokeng. The project follows the signing of the implementation protocol last month by his department, the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department in Gauteng, Emfuleni Local Municipality, South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) and the East Rand Water Care Company (ERWAT). In terms of the Implementation Protocol, my department appointed ERWAT, which is an entity of the Ekurhuleni Metro, as the implementing agent. As a wastewater specialist company, ERWAT will ensure that all wastewater treatment infrastructure is resuscitated to an operational state and that pollution in the Vaal River is stopped, Nkwinti said. The project is part of the Vaal River Rehabilitation Project which began last year after raw sewage flowed into the river from pump stations in the Emfuleni Municipality on the northern bank of the river, posing environmental and health risks. Minister Nkwinti informed the community that Module 6 of the Sebokeng Wastewater Treatment Works, a regional bulk sanitation infrastructure, is under construction and projected to be completed by the end of May 2019. A total of 120 000 households in the southern part of Gauteng will benefit from module 6 of the project while module 7 is expected to start by July 2019. Nkwinti went on to also announce the establishment of the Vaal Catchment Management Agency in a bid to protect water resources in the area. He said the work of the agency will include river monitoring, reporting on pollution incidents and dealing with polluters while also raising awareness on protection of the water resources and environment. The Vaal River Catchment Management Agency will ensure that water is protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled in a sustainable and equitable manner,, the minister said. -SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) Filipino-American award-winning actor Darren Criss spent a romantic weekend home. Criss, who has recently been vocal about getting in touch with his Filipino roots, has taken his pride home with a trip to El Nido, Palawan with his wife, fellow artist, Mia Swier. In an Instagram photo posted Sunday, the actor is seen embracing his wife with the scenic view of the beach behind them. On April 1, Filipino designer Francis Libiran posted a photo with the 32-year-old former "Glee" star welcoming him to the country. Libiran was also the designer behind Criss's Barong Tagalog during his wedding in February. When he won his first Golden Globe Award in January, Criss dedicated his win to his mother, "a firecracker Filipina woman from Cebu." Criss won Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for his stint in "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story." He played Filipino-American Andrew Cunanan. Afterwards, he shared that he celebrated his victory with the comfort of "Filipino treats." Criss is known best for his role in the Hollywood television show "Glee." HAMDEN Almost a year after a tornado devastated Sleeping Giant State Park, its reopening is on the horizon. Officials arent promising Sleeping Giant will open by Memorial Day, but certainly by the start of summer, said Lee Sawyer, state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesman. Theres been hope that it could be open in the next few weeks, but all we can say for certain is it will be open by the start of summer, Sawyer said. With the weather warming up, crews are back to work on a number of things. Major mess The May 15 tornado that tore through Hamden and other parts of the state last year wreaked havoc on homes, cars, roads and parks. It brought down trees and power lines onto buildings, and sections of forest were nearly leveled. Sleeping Giant State Park was no exception. Standing at the parks entrance on Mount Carmel Avenue across from Quinnipiac University, one could see the trees around the parking lot and picnic area broken in half by forceful winds. Deep within the park, uprooted and fallen trees blocked trails. Seeing the damage heaped on the park brought me to tears, said Gail Cameron, vice president of the park association and chairwoman of the Environmental Stewardship Committee. Ive lived next door to the park my whole life and to see in 15 minutes what could happen, she said. I tell myself its a natural event and the forest will recover, but it will take many years. The condition of Sleeping Giant made it too dangerous for anyone to enter the site, so its been closed ever since. But park officials are looking at a new horizon for Sleeping Giant as they plan to reopen the park by the end of June. The landscape has been changed but were figuring out how to make best use of it, Sawyer said. Several state parks were closed after the May 15 storm, including Wharton Brook State Park in Wallingford and Chatfield Hollow State Park in Killingworth, and all of them have reopened except for Sleeping Giant. The Sleeping Giant Park Association has done a lot of work clearing the trails of fallen trees and its trail crew, who maintain the trails regularly, were largely responsible for removing the fallen trees on all the side trails, Park Supervisor Jill Scheinbenpflug said. Thus far, the trail crew has cleared more thank 1,900 fallen trees from the 32 miles of trails, Cameron said. The state has only worked on the tower path that leads to the Giants summit, she said, so rehabilitating all the other trails has fallen to the volunteers. The trail crew began clearing the paths a couple weeks after the storm, working four to five hours every Sunday until winter came, Cameron said. Looking ahead Like so many, Jim Sirch, an SGPA volunteer and past president of the Hamden Land Conservation Trust, has long enjoyed hiking the Giants trails and has led bird walks through its woods. Hes looking forward to doing that again when the park opens, but hes expecting the wildlife may be different. Sawyer said the state will end up spending about $1 million to get the park back to operating condition. Since the storm took down so many trees, more light has opened on the forest floor, which means there might be different birds nesting and new plants that are able to grow. Some less common bird species in Connecticut the worm eating warbler, ovenbird, wood thrush, scarlet tanager that have made Sleeping Giants trees their home may not return, Sirch said, because the habitat has changed. Like Cameron, Sirch said he had a sinking feeling observing the storm damage in the park. I know that the ecology is going to change and its going to be 75 to 100 years to return to what it once was. But there can be some opportunities from this, he said. Sirch said the open canopy might create more flowers for some pollinator species and it might be opportunity for the state to create pollinator meadows in the park, which he hopes for. Another silver lining of the trees coming down is that park goers will be able to see the Sleeping Giant better, Scheinbenpflug said, and other views people probably couldnt before. The hills of Sleeping Giant are known as a traprock ridge, which formed millions of years ago when magma made its way toward the Earths surface as the crust separated, Sirch said. The step-like appearance of the weathered rock faces distinguish these landscape features, creating mineral rich rock and soil that can support diverse flora and organisms, he said. The tornado changed the parks landscape dramatically, especially at the entrance and picnic area. The whole picnic area was pretty wiped out, Scheinbenpflug said, but DEEP is planning how the agency will rehabilitate those spaces by hiring a contractor to survey the land and develop a master plan for the park. Scheinbenpflug said planting indigenous species in that area is the main goal for it, in addition to creating some meadows and picnic areas on the side. The storm damage isnt only negative, though, because it has created an opportunity to redesign some of the park, she said and theyve discussed putting in a visitor center near the entrance that would house artifacts and park history. Additionally, Its an opportunity to watch what happens as the forest regenerates, Cameron said. Other work to be completed is on the main trail. Rainstorms last fall eroded the tower trail leading to the summit where trees needed to be removed because of the grading damage, Sawyer said. However, trees will be replanted at there, which he expects will be finished soon. The tower trail itself needs repair since it was widened for heavy trucks and machinery to remove dead trees, Scheinbenpflug said. Theyre working resurfacing the trail and installing new culverts, which allow water to flow under the trail and prevent erosion. One of Scheinbenpflugs biggest concerns about reopening is having enough time to let the newly planted grass establish itself before people are let back in and risk trespassing on the grass. If it doesnt come up, the park will never look the same or theyd have to close the park again, she said, but the state is being pressured to open it. Even though the park looks different, when visitors return there theyll find all the same opportunities for recreation and learning that make the park special, Cameron said. The SGPA will continue to operate its guided hikes when the park reopens and all the trail maintenance. For recreational hiking, theres no place like it around here, Cameron said. Shes looking forward to hiking the unique trails again with her dogs, which she misses whenever she looks out at the park from her backyard. Connecticuts parks also make an economic impact. A study done by UConns Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis showed that in 2010 outdoor activities on state lands made an economic impact of more than $1 billion a year, according to DEEP. This meant visitors to parks and forests spent $544 million in 2010 on general tourism activities in Connecticut such as lodging, meals, groceries, and other activities and goods during their stay. Sirch said in the past 11 months since Sleeping Giant closed, he has missed the opportunity to experience Sleeping Giants rare plant and animal species. It was amazing to be able to, in my neighborhood, go to a site where there were deep forest birds nesting that you dont see every day in your back yard, he said. Theres something special about Sleeping Giant, Cameron said. Theres a lot of history and its so big and its an oasis. Theres not really anything else like that in this area. When the state formalizes an opening date, she said the park association is planning an opening day celebration to gather people back to the park. mdignan@hearstmediact.com WEST HAVEN There is mounting pressure for Mayor Nancy Rossi and former Mayor Ed OBrien each to reimburse the city for two weeks of vacation buybacks. One Democrat on the City Council is seeking an ethics probe. Others are claiming that although Rossi ran on a platform of transparency, she is not following through because she has not answered detailed questions about the buybacks made at public meetings. Rossi, a Democrat, said Friday the criticisms are politically motivated. OBrien, also a Democrat, has announced hes running for mayor again, and popular City Clerk Debbie Collins is expected to run for the seat, as well, as she has formed an exploratory committee. I think this entire situation smells of politics and, honestly, if these folks would put as much effort in to their publicly elected positions, West Haven would be much better off, Rossi said in an email. The politics in this city are reaching a new all-time low with this type of nonsense. I think these politicians have done enough damage to West Haven and dont like the fact that I let them know it. West Haven is going to get cleaned up whether they like it or not. Rossi said OBrien was paid for 98 hours of vacation totaling $3,681.37 and personal days totaling $1,004.01, and she was paid for 70 hours, which totaled $3,346.70. Both Rossi and OBrien have said they were paid with a green light from both the citys human resources director and respective city attorneys. OBrien said that as he was leaving office, he was told by human resources that it was a benefit. A lawyer in the previous city attorneys office also approved it, he said. Year four I did that, not year one, two or three. I took it because I lost the election, OBrien said this week. If it is determined I was not entitled to it, I certainly will pay back to the city, as I hope all other past elected officials will. Asked whether she had any plans to pay the money back, Rossi said, If I thought for one minute that I received a benefit that was not appropriate, I would return the money immediately. This is a benefit that is available to all city employees including the Mayor. At the center of the debate is an interpretation of a City Council resolution that states elected officials shall not have a salary increase while in office, and are entitled to the same benefits as union employees in terms of longevity, insurance, car allowance, retirement and workers compensation. Vacation buybacks are not mentioned specifically, which leaves that open to interpretation, according to City Attorney Lee Tiernan. In Rossis case, Tiernan gave the opinion that she was entitled to the benefit based on precedent in effect, OBrien getting a vacation buyback. But Tiernan said in a March 25 memo to City Council Chairman Ron Quagliani that although Rossi was entitled to it her first year in office, he put her on notice in December 2018 that the practice would end. She did nothing wrong, he said, as the precedent had been set by the previous mayor. Tiernan stated in the memo to Quagliani regarding the resolution that the vacation benefit is silent concerning vacation pay regarding elected officials, and he cited a Connecticut statute saying the absence of a written policy concerning vacation pay can result in the state finding that you, the employer, created an employee vacation benefit. Tiernan said in the memo that he ended the vacation buyback practice as of December 2018 and alerted Rossi to that. He also said in the memo, I cannot find any evidence either mayor knowingly violated any rule, law, ordinance or practice concerning this matter. But 3 rd District council member Aaron Charney, a Democrat, who also is a lawyer, said he isnt buying Tiernans story. I think the attorneys opinion ending the practice is a backhanded way of saying Mayor Rossi should never have done this in the first place, Charney said. She should have to pay every cent back. We expect our leaders to lead by example. But Tiernan said that it may, in fact, be illegal not to pay officials for unused vacation time under state statute. While I regret we are going to a less accountable system as it relates to the Mayor, I see no choice at present, Tiernan wrote. Trying to legally recover vacation pay from the previous and current mayors would become expensive in lawyer fees, Tiernan wrote. Tiernan wrote that while the City Council has not officially altered the employee benefits for non-union employees resolution since Nov. 26, 2007, concerning vacation pay or benefits, the council developed a keen interest in the subject in 2017 and It was clear to the Commissioner of Human Resources and Personnel and the Director of Finance that the Council wanted greater accountability. The questions have been swirling for months around years of vacation buybacks, compensatory pay practices overall and perks such as lifetime benefits being handed out in employee deals. City Councilwoman Tracy Morrissey has led the charge for information past and present, asking for records on buybacks, compensatory hours and other employee info since January at the beginning of every City Council meeting, and said she hasnt received any complete answers from Tiernan or the administration. Morrissey has said that for years city employees have used payment for compensatory time as their slush fund. Since January, Ive been mentioning it at every meeting because I didnt want them to fluff it off, she said, noting she still doesnt have answers of the scope requested. Morrissey is so persistent it has caught the attention of residents who have followed suit during public comment, asking for answers on buybacks, compensatory pay and other deals said to have evolved through years of politicking. Rossi has acknowledged publicly that she took two weeks of vacation buyback. Morrisseys stance is that the City Council resolution regarding elected officials is clear, because vacation buybacks arent specifically mentioned while the five other allowable items are. She also said that since the mayors base salary is $87,014 per year, the buybacks change that salary and violate the rule that the mayor cant receive a raise while in office. It s very clear in the resolution and in Lee Tiernans response stating he put a stop to the vacation buybacks for elected officials, Morrissey said. I am troubled that Mayor Nancy Rossi and former Mayor Ed OBrien find it acceptable to take taxpayers dollars in vacation buybacks, which they are clearly not entitled to. It is wrong and this money must be reimbursed to the taxpayers. Frustrated by a lack of information being made available and the vacation buyback issue hanging there without answers, At-Large City Council Democrat Dave Forsyth at a March 25 council meeting requested an ethics probe to determine whether the vacation buyback practice was legal. I want to get down to the answer once and for all, and if its in violation, then both past and present should pay it back to the city, he said. Here the mayor is asking the people of Allingtown for money through raising their taxes and taking vacation buybacks. Forsyth said following past practices is not putting the city first. We are elected as city officials to always do whats best and put the city first, he said. Rossi, who said she was a member of the citys Ethics Board for years, said an ethics accusation is a very serious issue, has very specific rules for submitting a complaint, and does carry consequences for a false complaint and untruthful information. She said using the platform for political revenge is both unethical and illegal. She said Forsyth and Morrisseys concerns are politically motivated. Vacation buyback is nothing new and there is a legal opinion supporting the policy and benefit, she said. There is a funded vacation buyback line item in the city budget. The only reason some council members are asking for OBrien to pay back the money as well, Rossi said, is because I repeatedly asked during public input why I was being singled out. In a March email from Tiernan to Morrissey, who had once again requested detailed vacation buyback information on the mayor, Tiernan wrote of the vacation buybacks: I have stopped the practice which began with the previous mayor. He also provided to her in the email a list of appointed officials not to be confused with the elected officials addressed in the resolution who received vacation buyback pay, including: - Longtime human resource and personnel director Beth Sabo, who received four weeks of vacation buyback in 2018. - Sharon Recchia, of the city clerks office, who received two weeks in 2018. - Louis Esposito, who served as mayors chief staff and director of public works, received two weeks at the end of 2018. - Kristen Teshoney, who works in the mayors office, received one week in at the end of 2018 after her first anniversary date. - Cindy McGrath, who works in the city clerks office, one day of vacation buyback at the end of 2018. At a public hearing on the mayors proposed city and education budget this week, the vacation buyback was brought up by one of Collins campaign managers, Rick Fontana. He called the buyback, hypocritical, unethical and selfish, in a year when other employees were taking furlough days to help out. Fontana said it was wrong for the mayor to take a buyback her first year in office and contrary to what she said at election isnt different from the other politicians. Rossi has often said she is among the lowest-paid mayors in the state and even though the city provides her with a car, she mainly uses her own car except for some longer trips to Hartford because of liability matters and that she buys her own gas and doesnt use a city credit card to buy lunches. Rossi also doesnt get benefits through the city, she has said. Some of her critics, including Morrissey, have noted in talking about the vacation buyback issue that Rossi knows the City Council resolution well because it was her in her City Council days who requested a legal opinion from then-city attorney Peter Barrett on whether former Mayor John Picard violated the resolution by being paid $6,000 from the city to take college classes. Picard received the funds in 2011 and 2012 as partial reimbursement for college courses he took in a masters degree program. Picard and other City Hall employees said the accidental payment was an oversight. Picard said at the time that he didnt realize the rules had been changed. Barrett determined that, based on the resolution, Picard must return the money. A Red Bank man is facing sex crime charges after a police investigation found hed filmed a child under 13 years old in a sex act and sexually assaulted another, according to Monmouth County court records. Dannel T. Wars, 42, was charged in early March with counts of filming or photographing a child in a sex act and recording a sex act without consent on Feb. 18, the Asbury Park Press first reported Friday. Wars was also charged again on March 26 with sexual assault against a victim between 4 and 13 years old, and court records show another charge of sexual conduct with a child by a caretaker in connection to a July 2018 incident, according to the Asbury Park Press. The July and February incidents involved two different victims. He also has prior charges of contempt of court in Wall and failing to pay child support, jail records show. Wars is still being held in Monmouth County Correctional Institution. Gianluca DElia may be reached at gdelia@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @gianluca_delia. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. After a flurry of headlines about the casting of various actors in the movie, The Many Saints of Newark is finally coming home to Newark. On Wednesday, the Sopranos prequel film began shooting in Brooklyn. But in a few weeks, the production will move to the original home of the Soprano family. Cast member Alessandro Nivola, 46, who plays Dickie Moltisanti (Christopher Moltisantis father), was recently photographed wearing a suit on set in New York with another recently announced cast member, Italian actress Michela De Rossi, who will reportedly play an Italian immigrant living in Newark. De Rossi, 26, sported 60s-style hair, a short purple dress and a yellow beaded necklace. This is her first American movie. The film will reportedly at least partially be set in 1960s Newark during the time of the riots. The Many Saints of Newark, due out on Sept. 25, 2020, will also be filming soon in downtown Newark, says Kenneth Gifford, director of the Newark Office of Film and Television. The production is tentatively scheduled to come to Branford Place between Washington and Broad streets from May 6 to 8 (Monday to Wednesday), Gifford says. This stretch of Newark is home to Hobbys Delicatessen, which has been owned by the Brummer family since the 1960s. The Many Saints of Newark will reportedly at least partially be set during the Newark riots in 1967. Sam Brummer, who died in 2015, opened Hobbys at Branford Place and Halsey Street in 1962. The deli is currently run by his sons, Marc and Michael. Branford Place, home to Hobby's Deli and a stretch of Newark being used for the "Sopranos" prequel film.Google Ive heard rumors, but nothing is confirmed, Michael Brummer said on Tuesday when asked if the movie would be filming at or near the deli. David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, who recently marked the 20th anniversary of the shows 1999 premiere, co-wrote the screenplay for The Many Saints of Newark" with Lawrence Konner. Alan Taylor is directing the film for New Line. Michael Gandolfini, the 19-year-old son of James Gandolfini, is set to play a young Tony Soprano in the film. The elder Gandolfini, who earned raves for his portrayal of the iconic New Jersey Mafia boss, died in 2013. According to the timeline established in the original HBO series, Tony Soprano would have been 7 years old in July 1967, so Michael Gandolfini would have to play an older version of Tony, bringing the film into the late 1970s, or at least the 70s. Johnny Boy Soprano and Junior Soprano in Tony Soprano's childhood flashback in "The Sopranos."HBO Alessandro Nivolas character in the Sopranos prequel, Dickie Moltisanti, serves as a mentor to young Tony. Other actors cast in the film in unknown roles include New Jersey natives Vera Farmiga and Ray Liotta, Tony-winning Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal (The Punisher), Corey Stoll (The Romanoffs, First Man), Billy Magnussen (Aladdin, Velvet Buzzsaw) and John Magaro, who starred in the 2012 David Chase film Not Fade Away. The Sopranos featured several flashbacks to Tony Sopranos childhood that prominently featured young Tony at various ages as well as his father, Johnny Boy Soprano, his mother, Livia, his uncle, Junior, and his sister, Janice. Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. JERSEY CITY Dozens of community members came together for some spring planting, still holding onto hope that a coveted monument will be replaced. On Saturday morning, the Friends of Leonard Gordon Park a local park renewal group teamed up with the hands of about 100 high school students on the corner of Kennedy Boulevard and Manhattan Avenue to plant new flowers and a Friendship Tree near the Sipnick Memorial, which is still missing its bronze eagle. FoLGP President Cliff Waldman still hopes one day the historical piece of monument will be replaced. Waldman said that the Friendship Tree was planted in dedication to the Jersey City residents who consistently ask to have the missing bronze eagle on Raymond Sipnicks memorial replaced. The eagle was damaged in 1952 and was repaired, but was stolen in 1974 and has been missing since, Waldman said. Sipnick was a Jersey City resident and soldier who fought and died during World War II. Ann Blaustein, 94, was a childhood friend of Sipnick and continues to lead efforts to raise money and address awareness to replace the missing piece. (The tree) is to commemorate and thank people like (Ann), Waldman said. She didnt want to be thanked, but this is to highlight the people who are trying so hard in trying to make this park wonderful. Blaustein was unable to attend the event because of a health issue. Nonetheless, Waldman and the dozens of students rolled up their sleeves and dug in some dirt to plant some bright new flowers and the tree, which is just a few feet south of Sipnicks memorial. Despite prior meetings with city officials, Waldman expressed how the city has yet to help with the replacement. The city just doesnt care, its the people, he said. The students taking credits to do this, theyre learning, as part of their education, that part of being a good person is making a difference yourself. Potential storylines for Warren Countys 2019 elections emerged last week, when candidates formally filed their intentions to run for office. On the candidate lists released by the county were at least three ex-mayors seeking a return to the political fray, a couple of grudge matches and one race between two people with the same last name. Some will play out in the nine local contested primaries on June 4. Others will wait until the Nov. 5 general election. But all could be interesting to follow. Crowded races and familiar faces in Pburg In Phillipsburg, former Mayor Harry Wyant is back on the Republican ballot, this time for one of two seats on the Phillipsburg town council. Wyant lost his 2015 bid for a fifth four-year term as mayor of Warren Countys most populated town, defeated by Stephen Ellis, a Democrat. The two wont go head-to-head this year, though. Ellis, now an incumbent, is running in the separate mayoral election, where he will face challengers in both the primary and general election. In November, either Ellis or Councilman Mark Lutz will battle with another familiar face in Pburg politics: former Council President Todd Tersigni. In the council race, Wyant and Rob Case wont face primary challenges on the Republican side, unlike the crowded field for Democrats which includes yet another former elected official. JP Stettner, whose resume includes time as Phillipsburgs police chief and 12 years on council, is running with Lee Clark on a ticket with Ellis against Vickie Mendes Branch and school board member Matthew Scerbo. Grudge match in the county seat In Belvidere, Linda Stettler is one of three Republicans in the primary election race for mayor of the county seat. Incumbent Mayor Joseph Kennedy is one of her opponents -- he ousted Stettler in the 2015 primary. The other contender for the mayors job is Walt Tutka, a current town councilman. Tutkas wife Deborah is one of three Republican candidates for two seats on the town council, running against incumbent Charles Makatura and Donald Mitchell. Were getting McDonalds for sheriff One way or another, someone named McDonald will be Warren Countys sheriff next year. Republican incumbent James McDonald, once the chief of police in Washington Township, won his first term as sheriff in the 2016 election. His Democratic opponent this year is Scott McDonald, once the mayor of Washington Borough, who lost his office in the 2016 election. Neither face a primary challenge, leaving this contest for the general election. Weve seen this freeholder fight before Carol Cook, of Blairstown, is the Democratic candidate for Warren County freeholder -- a statement weve been able to say twice before. Cook also ran for freeholder in 2017 and 2016. In the latter, she faced Republican incumbent Jason Sarnoski, who defeated her with more than half the vote. Neither face a challenge in the June primaries. Some state-level campaigns set Warren Countys representatives in Trenton wont face primary challenges, but candidates are in for the November general election. In the 23rd district, covering southern Warren and parts of Hunterdon and Somerset, Democrats Marisa Trofimov, of Hampton, and Denise T. King, of Bedminster, will face incumbent Republican Assemblymen John DiMaio, of Hackettstown, and Erik Peterson, of Annandale. In the 24th district, covering northern Warren, Sussex and part of Morris, Democrats Deana Lykins, of Newton, and Dan Soloman Smith, of Mount Olive, will face incumbent Republican Assemblymen Parker Space, of Wantage, and Harol Hal Wirths, of Hamburg. Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter@SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A suspect is in custody and a victim was sent to Jersey Shore Medical Center after police responded to a stabbing at a Toms River strip mall on Saturday afternoon, according to the Toms River Police Department. Police were sent to the parking lot at 213 Route 37 East on an alleged stabbing Saturday afternoon, according to a police department spokesperson, and the suspect was taken into custody shortly after. The investigation is still ongoing. Which stores parking lot the police were sent to is still unknown. 213 Route 37 East is home to a handful of storefronts, including the Toms River Fitness & Aquatic Center. Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @J_Schneider. Find NJ.com on Facebook Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. An 18-year-old man from Toms River was charged with attempted murder Saturday after he stabbed a man in a parking lot during an alleged drug deal. Garret Latorre had allegedly met up with a man in the K-Mart parking lot on Route 37 in Toms River on Saturday afternoon to sell him THC vaping cartridges, Ocean County prosecutors said. The two men fought over the transaction, and ultimately Latorre stabbed the victim multiple times, police allege. First responders found the man with wounds to his leg, stomach and chest, and he was airlifted to Jersey Shore Medical Center for emergency surgery. Toms River Police used the license plate of the vehicle seen fleeing the parking lot to track Latorre down to a Toms River residence, where they allegedly found him with blood on his hands. After obtaining a search warrant, prosecutors say detectives also found Latorres bloody clothes and a knife they believe was used in the stabbing. Latorre was charged with attempted murder, possession of a weapon and drug-related charges. Hes being held in Ocean County Jail, pending a detention hearing. Prosecutors say the man being treated for stab wounds was in stable condition Sunday afternoon. Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter@By_paigegross. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. The new rabbi of Congregation Bnai Jacob in Jersey City is unorthodox. Yes, shes in the Conservative denomination of Judaism. But she represents the new wave of young rabbis who bring to the table a more diverse background and an artistic sensibility. Bronwen Mullin, 35, is a composer and playwright. She has been an artist in residence. She is a teacher. I believe that teaching and relationship-building is fundamental to my work as a rabbi, Mullin, the second woman to lead Jacob on the West Side, said. Shes also the second gay rabbi in a committed relationship at Bnai Jacob. Mullin brings a stellar background, and the congregations president and board had one major concern for her to tackle: how to bring in new members. They were looking, she said, for someone to explore new avenues for the community using a more unique outreach. Mullin felt up to the task to provide what she calls a consistent rabbinic presence that builds upon the past and provides a meaningful, soulful and prayerful service. There will be many challenges to bring in new Jewish life that has settled mostly on the Jersey City waterfront, far from her congregation on the West Side. But all of the city is experiencing new housing, especially in the neighborhoods around the synagogue. There is fertile ground for evangelization. Mullin liked the website and logo of Jacob, a rainbow of colors, not unlike what has become the logo for the LGBT community, seeing it as a sign of pluralism and inclusion. She has longed to lead a community that feels diverse, she said. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her fiance, writer Nicole Fix, until she can scout out the area for a residence. She and Fix got engaged in 2018 on the Shabbat of the Super Bowl, in which Mullins Eagles won. They plan to marry on Sept. 1. This month, which is also the Hebrew month of Nissan and the holiday of Pesach (Passover), Mullin is relaunching the congregations monthly Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat services and hosting a model seder for the community in partnership with Temple Emanu-El of Bayonne. The Philadelphia native received her B.A. in theater and religious studies from Sarah Lawrence College and her masters in Midrash -- Biblical interpretation -- and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She is affiliated with a variety of organizations including the Conservative Yeshiva of Jerusalem, the Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education, Hadars Rising Song Institute, and the Art Kibbutz NY. While in rabbinical school, she served as a hospice chaplain with the Metropolitan Jewish Hospice Service and has been a regular instructor at her seminary on the intersections of artistic practice and spiritual healing. As an artist, Mullin looks forward to revitalizing what she calls a fabulous building with its wooden sanctuary. She knows the tradition of families at Bnai Jacob and is happy to minister to children of the founders, who were World War II veterans. Today, there are more young families and she knows this is a working-class community. That they have a spacious parking lot is a plus to attract new waterfront families. Mullin sees the power of drawing on the power of art and theater in Judaism, which she said is very sensory. By decorating a space, we influence the way we pray, she said. Co-founder of Meta-Phys Ed, a multidisciplinary performance group wrestling with religious texts, Mullins credits include: Sensation/Cessation: 7 Movements for Sabbath and The Seder of Serach Bat Asher, among others. At her previous congregation, Beth Mordecai in Perth Amboy, she performed special music for high holy days. At Bnai Jacob this year, her partner, Fix, will be right at her side displaying her shofar expertise, emitting a strong sound with the rams horn and hopefully bringing in new worshipers. The Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, 07030, FAX: 201-659-5833; Email: padrealex@yahoo.com; Twitter: @padrehoboken. If you go ... A model seder open to the community, held in association with Temple Emanu-el of Bayonne, is set for 10 a.m. Sunday, April 14, at Bnai Jacob, 176 West Side Ave., Jersey City. For information, contact Varda Wendroff at 201-436-4499. A Holocaust Memorial Commemoration will be held at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 5, at Temple Beth-El, 2419 Kennedy Blvd., Jersey City. For information, call 201-333-4229. Asbestos in the ceiling. Lead in the drinking water. Mold in the walls. In Washington Township, theyre adding another item that can make it hazardous to attend a Nw Jersey public school: Mercury vapors wafting from gym and all-purpose room floors. The concern is significant enough that it dominated a school board meeting in the Gloucester County district last week. And, while school officials think no serious injury has been caused by exposure in any of the eight schools where the vapors have been found, mercury is a bad actor whose ill effects can become more apparent over time. The flooring problem is not unique to Washington Township, or New Jersey, said a consulting engineer to the district at the meeting. That prompted legitimate questions from the public about what school administrators knew, and when they chose to relay it to parents and staff. However, discovery of this leakage is a phenomenon that has received widespread notice only in the past year or so. Affected schools purchased certain kinds of synthetic rubberized flooring for new or replacement installations in activity rooms. The apparent idea was to create safer landings than hardwood floors give not-so-hard youth and teen heads. They were sold between the 1960s and the 1990s and are known collectively as mercury catalyzed polyurethane flooring, though its unlikely any of the marketers included mercury in their trade names. Possibly, its the same theory that remade Kentucky FRIED Chicken shops as KFC, and turned SUGAR Smacks cereal into more-wholesome-sounding Honey Smacks. Theres nothing wholesome about mercury, a toxic heavy metal. Perhaps nowhere is that known better than in Gloucester County. A former Franklin Township thermometer factory that had been turned into a day care center called Kiddie Kollege was shut down in 2006, after state tests revealed alarming levels of mercury in spots where toddlers were playing. Those exposed, children in particular, are susceptible to memory and emotional problems and skin rashes. There is no reason for panic in Washington Township, since airborne mercury levels recorded in the affected rooms are much lower than those found at Kiddie Kollege. According to Superintendent Joseph N. Bollendorf, theyre below state action guidelines. But, who knows if the the vapor levels will increase over time? Research about the flooring problem dates to 2003, but has been limited until recently. New Jersey news stories over the past two years show discovery of similar conditions in Freehold, Burlington Township, Lacey Township and Parsippany schools. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, Washington Townships handling of the issue is appropriate and cautious. No activities or classes will be held in the schools gyms/all-purpose rooms for the remainder of the school year, and the district will spend up to $3.2 million from its existing capital budget to remediate or replace suspect floors. Some of the best guidance on this comes from the New Jersey Education Association, which has urged members to look for contaminated floors in their districts. And, why not? A gym teacher who oversees six class periods daily is likely to get more exposure than any of her students. If only the tip of the mercury iceberg is visible, as NJEA thinks is possible, state education and environmental departments should get involved more proactively in testing and remediation advice. Affected districts have been able to handle remediation on their own financially, but if the contamination is more widespread, emergency state funding might be needed. If any of the floor manufacturers are still around, the attorney general should weigh options for statewide litigation. Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Cetaceans, the group including whales and dolphins, originated in south Asia more than 50 million years ago from a small, four-legged, hoofed ancestor. Now, researchers reporting the discovery of an ancient four-legged whale found in 42.6-million-year-old marine sediments along the coast of Peru have new insight into whales evolution and their dispersal to other parts of the world. The findings are reported in the journal Current Biology on April 4. The presence of small hooves at the tip of the whales fingers and toes and its hip and limbs morphology all suggest that this whale could walk on land, according to the researchers. On the other hand, they say, anatomical features of the tail and feet, including long, likely webbed appendages, similar to an otter, indicate that it was a good swimmer too. This is the first indisputable record of a quadrupedal whale skeleton for the whole Pacific Ocean, probably the oldest for the Americas, and the most complete outside India and Pakistan, says Olivier Lambert of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. Some years ago, study co-author Mario Urbina of Museo de Historia Natural-UNMSM, Peru, discovered a promising area for digging fossils in the coastal desert of southern Peru, named Playa Media Luna. In 2011, an international team, including members from Peru, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium, organized a field expedition, during which they excavated the remains of an ancient whale theyve since named Peregocetus pacificus. It means the traveling whale that reached the Pacific. When digging around the outcropping bones, we quickly realized that this was the skeleton of a quadrupedal whale, with both forelimbs and hind limbs, Lambert says. With the help of microfossils, the sediment layers where the skeleton was positioned were precisely dated to the middle Eocene, 42.6 million years ago. Anatomical details of the skeleton allowed them to infer that the animal was capable of maneuvering its large body (up to 4 meters long, tail included), both on land and in the water. For instance, features of the caudal vertebrae (in the tail) are reminiscent of those of beavers and otters, suggesting a significant contribution of the tail during swimming. The geological age of the new four-limbed whale and its presence along the western coast of South America strongly support the hypothesis that early cetaceans reached the New World across the South Atlantic, from the western coast of Africa to South America, the researchers report. The whales would have been assisted in their travel by westward surface currents and by the fact that, at the time, the distance between the two continents was half what it is today. The researchers suggest that, only after having reached South America, the amphibious whales migrated northward, finally reaching North America. The international team continues to study the remains of other whales and dolphins from Peru. We will keep searching in localities with layers as ancient, and even more ancient, than the ones of Playa Media Luna, so older amphibious cetaceans may be discovered in the future, Lambert says. Reference: Olivier Lambert, Giovanni Bianucci, Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, Claudio Di Celma, Etienne Steurbaut, Mario Urbina, Christian de Muizon. An Amphibious Whale from the Middle Eocene of Peru Reveals Early South Pacific Dispersal of Quadrupedal Cetaceans. Current Biology, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.050 Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Cell Press. By Alan J. Steinberg The Israeli national parliamentary elections will be held this Tuesday. Without explaining the details of Israels proportional representation system, suffice it to say that the next prime minister of Israel will be the leader of the party that wins enough seats in Israels parliament, the Knesset, to form a coalition majority government with other parties consisting of at least 61 of the 120 Knesset seats. The two leading parties in the forthcoming Israeli election are the Likud Party, led by the incumbent Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu and the Blue and White coalition party, led by Benny Gantz, the former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Netanyahu and Likud are favored to prevail on Tuesday, despite the recent announcement of Israels attorney general that he plans to seek indictment of the incumbent prime minister on various corruption charges. Although I do not live in Israel, I am a fervent Zionist who has always had a number of extended family members living in the Jewish State. Accordingly, I follow closely Israeli politics and the Israeli elections, and I have had a personal preference for a particular party in each election during my adult life. My preference is based primarily on two criteria: 1) which party and prime minister would better safeguard Israels safety and security; and 2) what effect, if any, would either party and/or its leader have on the American public, in general and American Jewry, in particular. In virtually every Israeli election over the past 25 years, my preference has been for Likud and its leader, Bibi Netanyahu. My positive beliefs about Likud have been largely based upon my veneration of its founding leader, Menachem Begin. He was the heroic leader of the Israeli revolutionary guerrilla organization, Irgun Zvai Leumi during the five years preceding Israels successful 1948 War of Independence. Later, as prime minister of Israel in 1978-1979, he entered into the Camp David agreements, which successfully established the framework for the continuing peaceful relationship between Israel and Egypt. For me, Menachem Begin was a great Israeli leader of the highest character and achievement in time of both war and peace. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen in his 1988 vice-presidential debate with Dan Quayle, Bibi Netanyahu, youre no Menachem Begin. Begin was a down to earth Israeli leader who gave equal attention to Jews from all economic classes and walks of life. I have been in four private meetings with Bibi Netanyahu during my years in New Jersey politics and government, and I can say without reservation that if you are not wealthy, you get the distinct feeling that Bibi Netanyahu has little use for you. Yet in virtually every Israeli national election since 1996, my preference has been for Netanyahu and Likud, largely based upon my view that Netanyahu and Likud would better provide for Israels security than their opponents. Not this time, however. To begin with, there is virtually no difference between Netanyahu/Likud and Gantz/Blue and White on foreign policy and national security issues, including the settlements in Judea and Samaria (West Bank). On the Blue and White slate of Knesset seat candidates are three former Israeli chiefs of staff, including the ultra-hawkish Moshe Yaalon, who formerly served as defense minister under Netanyahu himself. Aside from the security and foreign policy issues, however, there has been the continuing damage to black-Jewish relationships resulting from Bibis disrespectful conduct toward former President Barack Obama. He manifested this disrespect by conniving with former Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner to speak before a joint session of Congress in March, 2015 in opposition to Obamas executive agreement with Iran. I agree with Netanyahu that this agreement had the potential to enhance Irans ability to obtain a nuclear weapon, and I wrote a column in opposition to it. As an Israeli prime minister concerned with his nations security, Netanyahu had every right to publicly oppose the agreement. It was a deplorable violation of diplomatic protocol and an act of flagrant disrespect toward the American president by Netanyahu, however, for him to speak to an official joint session of the Congress without Obamas approval. And this disrespect was bitterly resented by African-American members in Congress, including three eminent African-American House members, Elijah Cummings, James Clyburn, and John Lewis, who joined with 47 other members of the House of Representatives and eight US Senators in boycotting Netanyahus Congressional speech. These individuals had justifiable pride in Barack Obama, their fellow African-American and first elected black president. The wound black members of Congress felt regarding Netanyahus disrespect towards Obama was manifested in the initial reluctance of Clyburn and his fellow Congressional Black Caucus members to support the recent resolution condemning antisemitism, at least until it included repudiation of Islamophobia as well. And every time Netanyahu engages in servile and slavish flattery of Donald Trump, the worst racist to serve as president since Woodrow Wilson, the gap between American Jews and African-Americans is widened. It is one thing for Netanyahu to thank Trump for pro-Israel policies he may implement. It is another matter altogether for Netanyahu to act as if he serves on Trumps campaign reelection staff. Since the New York City school strike of 1968, which tragically resulted in a confrontation between the African-American community controlled school board in Ocean Hill-Brownsville and the largely Jewish teachers union then led locally by the Jewish Albert Shanker, relations between American Jews and the African-American community have been strained. And the disrespect of Netanyahu for Obama and his ingratiation with Trump have increased the alienation between these one time allied communities. If somehow Blue and White and Gantz prevail in the Israeli elections next week, hopefully this will provide an opportunity to begin to reduce the alienation which unfortunately still exists between American Jews and African-Americans. Alan J. Steinberg served as regional administrator of Region 2 of the EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission under former Gov. Christie Whitman. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. When Go. Phil Murphys effort to legalize recreational marijuana use hit a roadblock in the form of a canceled vote he compared his quest to decriminalize and tax weed use to its only logical parallel, the moon landing. Wait, what? Its obvious what Murphy meant to infer in comparing his barely two-year effort to legalize weed to the decades long quest to land a man on a celestial body other than Earth, both things are hard and may take a little time. I get it, but his analogy scale is way off. The space program was a herculean effort on behalf of the entire federal government in order to lay claim to space, prove American exceptionalism and defeat global communism. Its not exactly the same as making the land safe for edibles. Legalizing, or more to the point, decriminalizing weed is a noble effort. The criminal justice system is choked with non-violent drug offenders. There are far too many (predominantly) people of color doing time for pot. Hopefully, the governor and state Senate president Steve Sweeney can lean on their caucus and tease out the last few votes needed to pass a worthwhile law. There is the possibility of an actual vote in May, or failing that, this fall. I hope it happens sooner than later, and if it does it will be worth the governors time and effort ... but its still not as hard as going to the moon. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. By Elisa Epstein On Nov. 9, 2016, the day after the U.S. election, President-elect Donald Trump reportedly received his first congratulations from a head of state. On the other end of the phone was Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi a military general who effectively took control of Egypt in 2013 in a coup and formally became president in 2014. Al-Sisi was eager to press the reset button on a then-rocky Egypt-U.S. relationship that had been strained by the al-Sisi governments repressive approach to governing. And now, three years later, al-Sisi is about to visit Washington in the hopes that President Trump will provide political cover during a critical period as al-Sisi tries to push through constitutional amendments set to drastically expand military control over civilian institutions, including the judiciary and the presidency. Against this backdrop, al-Sisi will visit the White House Tuesday to meet with President Trump and discuss shared priorities, regional developments and conflicts, and Egypts longstanding role as a lynchpin of regional stability. There is likely to be no discussion of human rights, and certainly none publicly. President Trump is an enthusiastic supporter of al-Sisi. The Trump administration rarely mentions human rights concerns with Egypt in public and has sustained a significant level of military aid to Egypt, despite broad cuts to the foreign aid budget, of $1.3 billion annually. The administration appears to have made a conscious choice to remove human rights concerns from bilateral relationships writ large, contending that private engagement is a more effective tool than calling out repressive governments publicly. But the facts, especially when it comes to Egypt, suggest otherwise. Al-Sisis government has deployed an unrelenting campaign of repression, poorly disguised as an effort to achieve stability, to crack down on independent voices, arresting more than 60,000 people, including American citizens, by a Human Rights Watch estimate. Many of these detainees face torture and arbitrary detention, often languishing for years in jail before being charged. Egypt also wages a brutal counterterrorism campaign in the Sinai Peninsula. The timing of al-Sisis visit is calculated. By the end of this month, parliament is likely to vote on al-Sisis proposed constitutional amendments. Indeed, al-Sisis first visit to Washington, in April 2017, came shortly before parliament passed a draconian law that effectively criminalized non-governmental organizations. Once again, Trump is happy to provide the photo of a smiling handshake and an assertion of the importance of Egypt as an ally and stabilizing force in the region, ignoring its ever-continuing repression. The absence of any administration engagement on human rights and the near complete support for the status quo means Congress has an essential course correction to make. It is lawmakers who should double down to ensure that when President al-Sisi arrives at the White House Tuesday that an alternative narrative is out there. New Jersey, where thousands of Egyptian-Americans live, can play a vital role in making this happen. The states congressional delegation could actively engage using the various oversight tools in their arsenal. Weve already seen, in fact, notable engagement from many members of the delegation on human rights: U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Robert Menendez both sit on the Foreign Relations Committee and have strong records in support of press freedom, the rule of law, and accountability. In the House, Representatives Malinowski, a Democrat, former Assistant Secretary for the State Departments human rights bureau and a former Washington director of Human Rights Watch, has long been a vocal ally on human rights. Chris Smith, a Republican and newly appointed co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, can use his new role and platform to highlight these issues. The New Jersey delegation can help pave the way toward a different kind of alliance, one that encourages a vibrant civil society and rule of law instead of rewarding repression with military aid, assurances, and smiling photos. Elisa Epstein is the coordinator for the Washington Advocacy team at Human Rights Watch. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Many New Jersey workers will see a big jump in how much they contribute to paid family leave and temporary disability insurance to help finance a major expansion of both programs signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy earlier this year. The programs were overhauled after progressive advocates said the payouts were too low for workers who need to replace wages they lose while out of work on a disability or to care for a newborn or sick relative. But the expanded benefits come at a price. Paid family leave is entirely funded by New Jersey workers through a payroll deduction, similar to how you pay into unemployment insurance. Both employees and employers contribute to the temporary disability insurance program. How much more workers could pay next year was revealed last week in documents supplied for state budget hearings. The state labor department estimated the maximum payroll deduction for temporary disability insurance will rise from $58.48 this year to $235.80 next year, while the maximum deduction for family leave insurance will increase from $27.52 this year to $117.90 next year. The increases break down like this: For the two programs combined, the current payment is $86 for workers making $34,400 or more. That payment will rise to $92.88 for a worker making $34,400. A worker making $60,000 will kick in $162. And someone making $131,000 or more will pay a total of $353.70. The taxes are for individual workers, and only those who work in New Jersey, including out-of-state residents. New Jerseys temporary disability and family leave laws still remain one of the most affordable state-managed programs even with the increases, according to Yarrow Willman-Cole of Rutgers Universitys Center for Women and Work. Youre treating workers as whole people. Youre not saying youre a worker and only a worker," she said. "Youre saying you can take care of your health and well-being and then come back to work. The payroll tax hikes will pay for increased benefits, such as longer paid leaves and higher payouts. Right now, new parents and caregivers can receive up to six weeks of benefits equal to two-thirds of their pay, but capped at $650 a week. Beginning July 1, 2020, they will be eligible to receive benefits for up to 12 weeks, and those benefits will rise to 85 percent of their weekly wage, up to $860 a week. Increased reimbursements for paid family leave should afford more fathers the opportunity to take time to care for a newborn, while hopefully eliminating the stigma around paternity leave and breaking down the gender wage gap thats reinforced when only women take leave, Willman-Cole said. The maximum reimbursement for people out on disability will also rise to 85 percent of weekly wages, up to $860 a week next year. The nonpartisan state Office of Legislative Services estimates insurance claims paid out will increase by $277 million to $363 million a year once the expansion is fully implemented next summer. New Jersey workers alone will fund the program expansions from their paychecks. The employer contribution to temporary disability is not increasing. Assemblyman Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, cautioned against the rising price tag when the Legislature passed the expansion bill in February. He said Thursday its another unwelcome tax. I think when people are asked whether or not theyd rather have the money in their pocket or give the money to state government, I think the answer overwhelmingly would be leave the money in my pocket and Ill take care of it," he said. Were not talking about astronomical numbers, he continued, but its just one thing after another ... I think people want a little bit of stability. They want to wake up tomorrow and know theres not going to be another new tax and another new fee. And I dont think people in New Jersey have that luxury. Former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, vetoed a similar bill in 2017, saying that the cost of the expansion would be too much to bear for New Jersey workers. The overhaul, however, was long desired by labor advocates who said many low- and middle-income families simply cannot afford to take the time off because the payouts from both programs is too low. In signing the bill, Murphy said: No one should ever be forced to choose between caring for a family member and earning a paycheck. By providing the most expansive paid family leave time and benefits in the nation, we are ensuring that New Jerseyans no longer have to face such a decision and that working families are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve." Roughly 33,800 people applied for family leave insurance in 2018 and received $100 million in benefits, according to the Department of Labor. Workers collectively paid $199 million into the insurance fund last year. About 94,200 people applied for temporary disability in 2018 and received $405 million in benefits. Workers kicked in $296.5 million, and employers paid in $270 million. Right now, New Jersey workers are taxed only on their first $34,400 in wages for both programs. Next year, theyll be taxed on their first $131,000 in wages. The rates will also go up: from 0.08 percent to 0.09 percent for family leave insurance, and from 0.17 percent to 0.18 percent for temporary disability insurance. A spokeswoman for Murphy declined to comment on the new tax rates. Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. A 20-year-old Hammond man was arrested in connection with firing a paintball gun at an 18-wheeler traveling on Interstate 55 in St. John the Baptist Parish on Thursday (April 5), according to Louisiana State Police. In a news release issued Sunday afternoon, authorities said the driver of the 18-wheeler reported seeing a gun barrel emerge from the passenger-side window of a gray Ford Mustang passing on the interstate. The driver said he then heard what sounded like multiple shots before realizing the vehicle was being struck, the news release says. Troopers began an investigation after receiving a call from the driver shortly after 11 a.m. and located the Mustang on I-55 near US Highway 51, according to the news release. Authorities said troopers found a paintball gun in the Mustang and that Scott, a passenger in the vehicle, confessed to firing it at the 18-wheeler. He was booked on counts including aggravated assault and simple criminal damage to property. Security guard wounded in Waffle House shootout in New Orleans East A search committee will recommend Steve Horn, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Lafayette, as the next Executive Director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention in a meeting Thursday (April 11), according to a statement from Louisiana Baptist Message. If Horn is confirmed by the Executive Boards Administrative Committee this week, the recommendation will go before the Executive Board during a meeting on Tuesday, May 7, the statement said. If the pastor is elected, he will fill the role of outgoing Executive Director David Hankins, who plans to retire at the end of June. Read the full statement from Louisiana Baptist Message. Louisiana is likely to approve a law in the coming legislative session that will make it illegal to perform an abortion in the state after a fetal heartbeat has been detected in the womb. A bill to make that happen was pre-filed by Sen. John Milkovich, D-Shreveport, who last year successfully pushed legislation to ban abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The act, which was signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards, also imposes criminal penalties on abortion providers that opponents said made it the most restrictive abortion law in the United States. The law has been put on hold by the courts. Milkovichs new proposal would further limit the time in which abortions could be legally performed. Doctors say fetal heartbeats usually can be detected at about six to seven weeks into a pregnancy. Donald Trump probably wants the paper towels back Fetal heartbeat measures, which have been approved in at least a half-dozen states and are being considered in a dozen more, conflict with U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have recognized a womans right to an abortion until a fetus is viable outside the womb, usually around 24 weeks into the pregnancy. Governors in Mississippi and Kentucky have already signed fetal heartbeat measures into law in recent weeks and a bill is waiting on the Georgia governor's desk. Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas are expected to approve similar measures this year. Some suggest that the laws are being pushed for the purpose of forcing a Supreme Court review that could, with conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the bench, result in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion. Others see the heartbeat measures as a counter to laws like the one recently approved in New York that allows women to get an abortion after 24 weeks if their health is threatened or the fetus isnt viable. That prompted President Donald Trump in his State of the Union Address to claim that New York lawmakers had cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mothers womb moments before birth. That, in turn, has sparked a movement led by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise to push for a vote on federal legislation that would require infants who survive attempted abortions to receive medical care. Critics call it a political stunt by Republicans. But it also is a sincere reaction from many who find the realities of abortions performed later in the term to be gruesome and the idea of an infant left to die just because the child was unwanted to be heartbreaking. Even if you believe that the decision must be left between a woman and her doctor, regulations regarding safety and medical ethics still apply. There is no way that government can stay out of the process, any more than it should stop licensing doctors or holding hospitals and clinics to the highest standards. On the other side, those seeking to make sure that abortion remains accessible are not out to kill babies. They also are wrestling with the realities of what recourse is available for a woman too often young and poor who becomes pregnant with a child she is unable to support. The broad consensus on abortion is that it should remain available but with restrictions, including how late in the pregnancy it should be allowed with exceptions for health emergencies and the threat to life. The debate, however, is usually conducted at the extremes between those who want to outlaw the procedure and those who want all or almost all regulations lifted. Those who want to ban abortion have recently been successful with an incremental approach aided by science and technology that have revealed the developing fetus through sonograms and educated the public on the brutality of abortions performed after 24 weeks. That has helped gain acceptance for more restrictions on the procedure later in the term. Linking a ban to the detection of a fetal heartbeat would seem to follow those trends, establishing a scientific marker to declare the fetus to be a life entitled to protection. But it also may be seen as a political overreach. Reducing the time for legal abortion from 24 weeks, or even Louisiana's court-challenged 15 weeks, down to five or six weeks would drastically reduce a woman's access to abortion. Cantrell secretly turns school zones into speed traps That works for those who seek a total ban but could fracture the consensus that has accepted recent restrictions. It could even create a backlash. As always, the issue will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. An overturning of Roe v. Wade or upholding of the fetal heartbeat laws will be a huge victory for the anti-abortion movement but it will also produce immediate consequences that few in the Legislature, and those of us who want to see abortions ended, are prepared to deal with. 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. Today Cloudy early with peeks of sunshine expected late. Areas of patchy fog. High 74F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight Some clouds. Low near 65F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow Considerable clouds early. Some decrease in clouds later in the day. High near 75F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. NEW YORK, April 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Mobile TeleSystems Public Joint Stock Company (Mobile TeleSystems or the Company) (NYSE: MBT). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980. The investigation concerns whether Mobile TeleSystems and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here to join a class action] On November 20, 2018, Mobile TeleSystems disclosed that it had reserved approximately $840 million to cover potential liability concerning investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) into the Companys former operations in Uzbekistan. On this news, Mobile TeleSystems American depositary receipt (ADR) price fell $0.64 per share, or nearly 8%, to close at $7.45 per share on November 20, 2018. Then, on March 7, 2019, the DOJ announced that Mobile TeleSystems and its subsidiary had entered into an agreement with the DOJ and SEC to pay a combined $850 million in penalties to resolve charges arising from its role in a scheme to pay $420 million in bribes in Uzbekistan. Following this announcement, Mobile TeleSystems ADR price fell $0.24 per share, or 3.08%, to close at $7.54 per share on March 7, 2019, damaging investors. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. CONTACT: Robert S. 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The devices have made an appearance in the Google Play Store site navigation as well as the Google Play Developer Console device catalog signaling that a launch isnt far away. 4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 3D Printing , 5G , Accessory , AI , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Biotech , 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 , 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 Ever since Google cancelled its beloved Nexus range of keenly priced stock Android smartphones, many have hoped it would release a more affordable Pixel smartphone. Those hopes may soon come true with logs showing that the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are listed Googles Play Store site navigation and Google Play Developer console device catalog. While some a surmising a launch at Google I/O next month could be when the latest Pixels are unveiled, their appearance in Googles back end systems suggest a launch may be imminent. Googles current 5.5-inch Pixel 3 and 6.3-inch Pixel 3 XL are fitted with Qualcomms Snapdragon 845 SoC and retail from US$799 and US$899 respectively putting them at the premium end of the market. The Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are said to be fitted with mid-range chipsets, also from Qualcomm, in the shape of the Snapdragon 670 for the 3a and Snapdragon 710 for the 3a XL. This should see them priced at least US$200 south of their more expensive stablemates, but importantly they will have the Pixel Visual Core on board that plays an important role in the photo-taking reputation Googles Pixel phones have established. Additionally, to help keep the price points down, the Pixel 3a and 3a XL are said to be made from polycarbonate, rather than the glass and aluminum design of the high-end models. That said, they will still be equipped with OLED displays with the Pixel 3as coming in at 5.6-inch display and a resolution of 1080 x 2220 pixels (440ppi) and the Pixel 3a XLs a slightly larger 6.0-inch display with a resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels (400ppi). While both will end up with old skool bezels, they will be (thankfully) devoid of any notches. Netflix has dropped something of a bomb on iOS users who like streaming its service over AirPlay. Effective immediately, Netflix will no longer support AirPlay, Apples proprietary steaming protocol, just as it goes mainstream on OEM TV sets from makers including Samsung and Sony. 4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 3D Printing , 5G , Accessory , AI , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Biotech , 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 , 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 iOS users are up in arms over the Netflix decision to drop support for Apples proprietary AirPlay streaming protocol. The news is particularly galling for iOS users who were hoping to buy a 2019 model TV from the likes of Samsung, LG, Sony or Vizio which have all announced plans to support AirPlay 2 in their 2019 smart TV offerings. Until this decision, AirPlay support in these TVs meant that iOS users could stream Netflix from their device directly to the new TVs without the need for an Apple TV STB. As things currently stand, users will still be able to stream content from an iOS device to an AirPlay-equipped TV; it just wont be from Netflix. Netflix released this statement on the matter: We want to make sure our members have a great Netflix experience on any device they use. With AirPlay support rolling out to third-party devices, there isnt a way for us to distinguish between devices (what is an Apple TV vs. what isnt) or certify these experiences. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue Netflix AirPlay support to ensure our standard of quality for viewing is being met. Members can continue to access Netflix on the built-in app across Apple TV and other devices. As the statement makes clear, users can still access Netflix via the in-built TV app, or directly via an Apple TV STB. However, if AirPlay support is to be re-enabled, Apple and its third-party partners will need to work out a method for identifying devices over AirPlay so that Netflix can then optimize the content over AirPlay accordingly. At this stage, Apple or its partners are yet to comment on the matter leaving iOS users in limbo. Im currently studying abroad in the Dominican Republic. Its actually quite common here for the car to not match what the app says; people borrow their friends cars, or drivers have their original account suspended so they share a profile with a friend. My tactic is to always check that they have my profile up on their phones. There was a ride I took where the driver canceled the trip on the app as soon as we got in the car (I dont have data service here so I didnt find this out until I got to Wi-Fi) and drove us around the city, ignoring our directions. He charged us three times the average toll, and Uber cant do anything about this since the trip was technically canceled. If I could do it over again, Id get out of the car as soon as I suspected he was trying to scam us. Its hard to know when youre doing the right thing in such an intimidating situation. Liz Roberts, 21, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Recently, I decided to try a Lyft in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., where I vacation. When the car arrived, there was already one female passenger. I noted that the license plate did not match the plate indicated on the app, and pointed this out to the driver, who said, Sometimes I drive a different car. His face did match the app photo. He pulled away and should have driven straight west. However, he left course and drove to a less populated industrial area. I asked him where he was going. He said, To pick someone else up. Four miles later, I told him to let me out of the car. The other female passenger did not speak English and she agreed this felt wrong in some way. I didnt want to leave her alone. The uncommunicative driver said he couldnt find his pickup and wanted me to calm down. I said, I do not like this. I pretended to be on a phone call with a loved one (a very protective and angry loved one), describing the area, giving the license plate, the drivers name and street names. It may take federal officials two years to identify what could be thousands of immigrant children who were separated from their families at the southern United States border, the government said in court documents filed on Friday. A federal judge had asked for a plan to identify these children and their families after a report from government inspectors in January revealed that the Trump administration most likely separated thousands more children from their parents than was previously believed. These families were separated before the administration unveiled its zero-tolerance immigration policy in the spring of 2018, when nearly all adults entering the country illegally were prosecuted and any children accompanying them were put into shelters or foster care. To identify these families, the government said it would apply a statistical analysis to about 47,000 children who were referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and subsequently discharged, according to the court filing. From there, the government said it would manually review the case records of the children who appeared to have the highest probability of being part of the separated families. LAS VEGAS President Trump on Saturday again declared that the United States was full and called its asylum system a scam, tying his push to close the countrys borders to undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers to an entreaty for Jewish voters to support his re-election campaign. Our systems full; our countrys full, Mr. Trump said, speaking to an audience that included descendants of Holocaust survivors, Jews in red skullcaps emblazoned with Trump in white thread and people carrying Israeli flags. You cant come in. Our country is full. What can we do? We cant handle any more. Our countrys full. You cant come in, Im sorry. He was met with raucous applause and cheers at the Republican Jewish Coalitions annual leadership meeting in Las Vegas, underscoring how many conservative Jewish voters, alarmed by rising threats of anti-Semitism and energized by his pro-Israel policies, have embraced a president with a history of trafficking in anti-Semitic tropes including remarks that he has made before the coalition. Fresh from a visit on Friday to a California border town, the president doubled down on his attacks on migrants seeking asylum at the border. The administration has recently toughened its policy for accepting asylum seekers, with stories of fleeing violence and corruption no longer meeting the standard for entry. Can Saturday Night Live still write an opening sketch that isnt about the misadventures of the Trump administration? This weeks episode showed that yes, it can, though it still had to reach into its celebrity Rolodex to get it done. Jason Sudeikis, an S.N.L. alumnus, returned to his longtime role as Joseph R. Biden Jr., the former vice president, who this past week responded after four women said they were uncomfortable being touched by him. (The episode, hosted by the Game of Thrones star Kit Harington, also featured a couple of sketches lampooning that popular HBO fantasy drama.) In the opening sketch, Sudeikis met with two campaign aides, played by cast members Cecily Strong and Kenan Thompson, who explained that they had an urgent matter to discuss with him. Joe, its about all the touchy feely stuff, Thompson said. Strong added, If youre really going to run in 2020, you have to change the way you interact with women. Lacey Ann McKeon and Steven Clark Rockefeller III were married April 6 at St. Josephs Church in West Orange, N.J. The Rev. Msgr. Michael E. Kelly, a Roman Catholic priest, performed the ceremony. The bride and groom, both 31, met at Boston College, from which each graduated. Mrs. Rockefeller is a production manager at MLB Network in Secaucus, N.J. She is a daughter of Ann C. McKeon and John F. McKeon of West Orange. The brides father, the mayor of West Orange from 1998 to 2010, is a Democratic state assemblyman who represents the 27th District. He is also a senior partner in Hardin, Kundla, McKeon and Poletto, a legal defense firm, with offices in Springfield, N.J., and New York. Her mother, who was a stay-at-home parent, retired as a part-time lawyer from the same law firm. Mr. Rockefeller is a commercial real estate broker at Cushman & Wakefield in New York. He is also a member of the Rockefeller Family Offices Operating Committee in New York. Samantha Nicole Marpe and Kristofer Andy Sandor were married April 6 at the United States Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, Md. The Rev. Eric Hoog, a Roman Catholic priest, performed the ceremony. The bride, 34, is a recruiter with Henkel Search Partners, a company in New York that specializes in recruiting investment professionals for private equity firms. She graduated from Penn State. She is the daughter of Mary Ellen Marpe and James S. Marpe of Westport, Conn. The brides father is the first selectman of Westport and a retired senior partner of Accenture, a global management and technology consulting company in New York. Her mother serves on the board of trustees of the Westport Country Playhouse. The groom, 40, was until December 2018, the general manager of Citi Bike, a bike share company based in New York. He previously served nine years on active duty in the Navy as a nuclear submarine officer, having achieved the rank of lieutenant, and was last stationed at the Office of the Secretary of Defense in Washington. He also served as a White House social aide in the Bush and Obama administrations before entering the private sector. He graduated from the Naval Academy and received an M.B.A. from Stanford. There once was a man named Albert Alexander. He was a policeman [American accent] Hey. in England. [British accent] Hello. One day on patrol, he cut his cheek Ouch! which led to a terrible infection. See, this was back in 1941, before patients had antibiotics. These were the days when a little scratch could kill you. Or you got an ear infection and you died. A cat bite and you died. Or you stepped on a stick and you died. All of a sudden, antibiotics come along and bang. The antibiotic era had begun. Soon a slow and painful death became a seven-day course of antibiotics and a $10 copay. And Albert? Albert was the first patient in the world to receive the antibiotic penicillin. And it worked. We just came up with a lifesaving, life-extending drug, one of the greatest developments in human history. Except not. Thats Matt Richtel, a science reporter for The New York Times. For the past year, Matts been talking to health experts to find out if we are reaching the end of the antibiotic era. Modern medicine depends on the antibiotic. And having used it so much, were now putting it at risk. Is our fate sealed? First off, I dont think people respect bacteria enough. This is Ellen Silbergeld, one of the leading scientists studying antibiotic resistance. Bacteria rule the world. We are just a platform for bacteria. Within the human body, there are more bacterial cells than there are human cells. So we are, in fact, mostly bacteria. Alexander Fleming the man who discovered penicillin in his Nobel speech said, hang on, be aware. When you start killing this stuff off, its going to fight back. Did we pay any attention to that? No. The C.D.C. got our attention today with a warning about what it calls nightmare bacteria. These are bacteria that are resistant to most, if not all, antibiotics. When we take antibiotics to kill infections, some bacteria survive. It used to be theyd replicate, and eventually resistance would grow. But now, theyre way more efficient and share drug-resistant genes among themselves. So every time we take an antibiotic, we risk creating stronger, more resistant bacteria. And stronger, more resistant bacteria means less and less effective antibiotics. And this is a problem because we take lots of antibiotics. Money gets made over the sale of antibiotics. Big money. Globally, the antibiotics market is valued at $40 billion. And in the U.S., the C.D.C. estimates that about 30 percent of all prescribed antibiotics are not needed at all. Thats 47 million excess prescriptions. And in many places outside of the U.S., you dont even need a prescription. You can walk into a pharmacy. A pharmacist will diagnose you and give you antibiotics. I tend to think of it as a story of Darwinian forces multiplied by the pace and scale of global capitalism. In an interconnected world travel, import, export were moving the bugs with us. I can go to a meeting in China or Vietnam or some place This is Lance Price, the director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center. I can become colonized by untreatable E. coli. And I might not have any symptoms. But you can get colonized. And you can become this sort of long-term host. So you could be healthy and still spreading bad bacteria without even knowing it. Drug-resistant bacteria have never been able to travel the world as fast as they do today. And thats just part of the problem. You should know that about 80 percent of antibiotic production in this country goes into agriculture. Why on earth did somebody think putting antibiotics in agriculture was a great idea? Weve said, hey, look, cram these animals together. Dont worry too much about hygiene or trying to keep them healthy. Just give them antibiotics. And then in a couple weeks, youre going to have full-grown animals that you can chop up and eat. Right? And you can make money off of that. Nobody was making the connection between feeding animals antibiotics and the fact that the food would be carrying drug-resistant bacteria. So Ellen did a study. She compared different kinds of store-bought chicken. And she found that poultry raised with antibiotics had nine times as much drug-resistant bacteria on it. Now, lets talk about the vegetarians. I just want you to understand, youre not safe. You know all these outbreaks that take place among the lettuce and the things like that. Have you ever wondered how that happened? Its because animal manure is used in raising crops. Organic agriculture lauds the use of animal manure. Unless youre just a complete, Im a vegan, and I only hang out with vegans, and I eat sterilized vegetables, you know, its very likely that youre picking up the same bacteria. Resistant bacteria seep into the groundwater, fly off the back of livestock trucks and hitch a ride home on the hands of farm workers, all of which makes trying to pinpoint exactly where resistant bacteria is originating extremely difficult. And even when it seems like there is a clear source, things still arent so simple. No one wants to be seen as a hub of an epidemic. Say your grandmother makes you a rump roast. And then that rump roast makes you sick. Well, if you live in France, or Ireland, or pretty much anywhere in the E.U., packaged meat has a tracking label. You can figure out exactly what farm that meat came from. But in the U.S., not even the top public health officials can do that. Most countries have animal ID laws. We dont. Pat Basu, former chief veterinarian for the U.S.D.A.s Food Safety and Inspection Service, basically one of the top veterinarians in the country. Let me start at the beginning. We got a case where we had resistant bacteria causing illness in people. There were sick people that C.D.C. identified. More than 50 people in eight counties have gotten an unusual strain of salmonella linked to pork. This is not your grandmothers pathogen anymore. This is a new bug. Health officials traced the outbreak back to the slaughterhouse and identified six potential farms where the outbreak could have come from. But then the investigation shut down. The individual farmers have to agree voluntarily to share the data with these investigators who go out. We couldnt go any further back. It was a dead end. 192 people sick, 30 hospitalizations and zero access for health officials to investigate the farms. The secrecy is maintained because there are big economic forces behind it. Farms are scared of losing their ability to get antibiotics. Hospitals are scared of driving away patients. Well, as a physician, I do get very upset. I get very upset, as a patient, that information is being withheld. This is Kevin Kavanagh, a doctor and a consumer advocate for patients. Drug-resistant bacteria is a huge problem. If it occurs at a restaurant, if it occurs in a cruise ship, you know about this immediately A salmonella outbreak within days or hours of an outbreak occurring. This morning, Chipotle is keeping dozens of its restaurants in the Pacific Northwest closed But yet, in a hospital, it can take you months or even over a year until this data appears on a governmental website or reported by the C.D.C. In the U.S., hospitals are under no obligation to inform the public when a bacterial outbreak occurs. Defend and deny. They are very concerned about the short-term economic benefits, rather than looking at long-term problems. Theres always this response like, well, but theres still a drug, right? Like, this isnt the end. Remember Albert Alexander? Hello. Ouch! the first patient to be given penicillin? Well, his story didnt end there. Five days after he started recovering, the hospital ran out of the new drug, and Mr. Alexander died. Today, we dont have to worry about antibiotics running out. We have to worry about using them so much that they stop working altogether. want to know why a metro health department didnt shut down a restaurant Its a very resistant bacteria We really need to change the way we use antibiotics. Because the way we use antibiotics is destroying them. Its putting at risk the entire system of care that we depend on for lengthening our lives and improving the quality of our lives. The British government commissioned a study which predicted a worst case scenario where more people will die by 2050 of these infections than will die of cancer. Thats a generation from now. It takes 10 years to identify, develop, test and bring to market a new antibiotic. And it takes a billion dollars. This is a common issue for humanity. Very similar to global warming. You cant control it as a single company. You cant control this as a single government. And because the bacteria are now working together so efficiently Unless the world acts consistently together, it doesnt make a difference. [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] Ask a New Yorker about their opinion regarding trains and you will likely get an earful about the sputtering subway system or the less-than-reliable commuter rail lines that stretch into the suburbs. But few New Yorkers have ever glimpsed, or even heard of, the New York & Atlantic Railway, a freight train that would seem more familiar rumbling across the Great Plains, not chugging through crowded city neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn, bearing cars loaded with food, scrap metal, construction materials and even beer. Now the little-known railroads profile is about to get much bigger. City officials have been working to reduce the inundation of trucks on New Yorks streets. The trucks carry about 90 percent of the citys freight, more than most major American cities, contributing to the citys worsening gridlock and pouring greenhouse gases into the air. By contrast, the citys rail lines transport just 2 percent of New Yorks cargo. To change that, city officials are investing tens of millions of dollars to upgrade the freight trains corridors, including modernizing several rail depots. [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] Fans of professional wrestling are familiar with staged brawls. But on Saturday night, fans witnessed an impromptu, real-time melee at the Barclays Center when a spectator jumped into the ring and tackled 61-year-old wrestler, Bret (The Hitman) Hart, who was being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. A brawl involving WWE superstars ensued. Some onlookers assumed it was just part of the show, a staged fight that is characteristic of WWE events, where reality and scripted narrative are often intertwined. Its a wrestling show, so you dont ever really know whats going on when something like that happens, Andrew Antillon, a spectator who was at the event, told CBS News. Instead of the rights and freedom of Palestinians, the campaign season has focused on Mr. Netanyahus likely indictment on corruption charges. But does it really matter to the Palestinian family whose son will be killed with impunity or whose home will be bulldozed if the prime minister responsible for these policies is corrupt or squeaky clean? At some point after April 9, we may finally get to see what deal the Trump administration has in mind. In fact, one cannot help wondering if it isnt already taking shape before our very eyes: Last May, the Trump administration moved the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; a few months later, it cut off aid to Palestinians and the United Nations agency serving Palestinian refugees; most recently, it extended recognition of Israels sovereignty in the Golan Heights, a move celebrated by one Israeli official as a sign of things to come with regards to the future of the West Bank. Its hard to see how the deal of the century will be anything other than an extension of the deal of the half-century. David M. Friedman, the Trump administrations ambassador to Israel, more or less admitted this in an interview with The Washington Examiner, when he said that the administration would like to see Palestinian autonomy improve significantly, as long as it doesnt come at the risk of Israeli security. But Palestinians deserve full freedom, not an American-marketed improved autonomy, which suggests nothing more than prolonging Israels occupation. That means a future based on neither justice nor on international law, but on more control, oppression and state violence. Unless the international community takes the deal of the half-century off the table, making Israel finally choose between further oppression of Palestinians and facing real consequences, the occupation will continue. The Trump administration, clearly, isnt up to this task. But the United Nations, including the Security Council, key member states of the European Union Israels largest trading partner and international public opinion all have ample leverage. And Americans who sincerely believe in human rights and democracy, not just as empty slogans or bargaining chips but as genuine demands, need not wait until 2020 to flex their political power. Together with the systemic overtaking of lands and the imposition of restrictions on freedom of movement, the denial of political rights was one of the cornerstones of apartheid South Africa. That country, too, considered itself a democracy. Many Israelis will consider April 9 a celebration of democracy. Its not. This Election Day should be nothing more than a painful reminder of a deeply undemocratic reality, one that the Trump administration seems pleased to perpetuate and which the rest of the international community will continue to allow until it finally stops looking the other way. We, the nearly 14 million human beings living on this land, need a future that is worth fighting for: one based on the common humanity of Palestinians and Israelis who believe in a future of justice, equality, human rights and democracy for all of us. Hagai El-Ad is the executive director of BTselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. 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 heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. He is called the father of the American cavalry, a Polish-born Revolutionary War hero who fought for American independence under George Washington and whose legend inspired the dedication of parades, schools, roads and bridges. But for more than 200 years, a mystery persisted about his final resting place. Historical accounts suggested the cavalryman, Casimir Pulaski, had been buried at sea, but others maintained he was buried in an unmarked grave in Savannah, Ga. Researchers believe they have found the answer after coming to another significant discovery: The famed general was most likely intersex. [Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.] New evidence suggests that although Pulaski identified and lived as a man, biologically, he did not fit into the binary definitions of male and female, a twist that helps explain why scientists could not previously identify his remains. The revelatory findings are detailed in a new documentary, The General Was Female?, which aired on the Smithsonian Channel on April 8. In July, about 20 7- and 8-year-olds will gather at a summer camp in the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, in Northern California. They will sing songs, put on puppet shows and play games. And there will be one special rule: No English. Thats because this five-day summer camp is held almost entirely in Hupa, the native language of the roughly 4,000-member Hoopa Valley Tribe that mostly lives in that part of the state. For decades, native speakers of Hupa, also known as na:tinixwe mixine:whe, have dwindled. Only about 20 people are fluent enough today to teach the language and pass it on, tribe members estimate. The camp is a bet that immersion at a young age can help change that. Thats always the goal, said Sara Chase, a member of the tribe who organized the camp with the Hoopa Tribal Education Association. How do you create new speakers? WASHINGTON Investigators for the special counsel spent months trying to get answers from President Trump: what he knew about a meeting between senior campaign aides and Russians; about changes to the Republican Party platform making it more Russia-friendly; about his associates outreach to WikiLeaks as it prepared to publish Democratic emails stolen by Russian hackers. After months of resistance, his lawyers finally turned over written answers in November to those questions and others. But the public has not seen them. Now, the question of whether they become part of the available history of Russias 2016 election interference and its aftermath along with whatever else the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, may have gathered turns on Attorney General William P. Barr. Since Mr. Mueller submitted a nearly 400-page report on his investigation two weeks ago, Mr. Barr, his aides and other law enforcement officials have been reviewing it to determine which portions to provide to lawmakers and the public and what to black out. Democrats in Congress, who have demanded to see the entire document, have expressed growing impatience with Mr. Barr. And members of Mr. Muellers team have told associates that Mr. Barr failed to adequately convey findings that were damaging to Mr. Trump in a letter he sent to Congress two weeks ago laying out their chief conclusions. In a Twitter post about Mr. Newsoms moratorium, Mr. Trump wrote, friends and families of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I! The issue illuminates ideological and generational divides among many Democratic voters. Many of the presidential candidates are on record opposing capital punishment; Joseph R. Biden Jr., the former vice president who is expected to enter the race in the coming weeks, has supported it. As a senator in the 1990s, Mr. Biden supported many get-tough-on-crime policies that liberals now disavow, including limits on appeals for death row inmates. Biden was one of the major proponents of the 1994 amendments that severely limited the ability of death row prisoners to obtain meaningful judicial review, said Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group that provides analysis and information on capital punishment. Other people who have sponsored that bill have said they thought that was a mistake. And I think that voters will have to decide whether candidates for office have made mistakes and learned from them, or whether they are professing new views because the views of the public have changed. While Ms. Harris has long opposed capital punishment, she has a somewhat complicated history on the issue. As the district attorney in San Francisco, she refused to seek a death sentence for a defendant accused of murdering a police officer, provoking outrage from the right. But she defended Californias death penalty as the states attorney general, and twice, in 2012 and 2016, she refused to take a stand on ballot initiatives that proposed to abolish it. Aside from Mr. Biden, most of the other candidates have opposed the death penalty. In addition to Ms. Harris and Mr. ORourke, who have said they would support a federal moratorium, Senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand all said they support Mr. Newsoms moratorium. Two others in the race John Hickenlooper, former governor of Colorado, and Jay Inslee, governor of Washington imposed moratoriums in their states. Its kind of interesting that they are talking about it because it had pretty much dropped off the radar for national campaigns, said Kent Scheidegger, the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a group based in Sacramento that has led campaigns in California and across the country in support of the death penalty. Id love to see it made an issue. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today: The secretary of homeland security was forced out of her job, even after carrying out and defending President Trumps most restrictive immigration policies. Why that wasnt enough. Its Tuesday, April 9. Caitlin, describe what happened over the weekend. caitlin dickerson So on Sunday, Kirstjen Nielsen, whos the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security shes the nations highest-ranking immigration officer she goes to the White House for an unscheduled meeting with President Trump. michael barbaro Caitlin Dickerson covers immigration for The Times. caitlin dickerson And he, in recent weeks, has been very riled up publicly over an increasing number of people crossing the border, especially families who seek asylum who have legal protections that mean they have to be allowed into the country. So the secretary arrives at her meeting with a list of ideas for how to address this problem, and she thinks she and the president are going to come up with a way forward. But instead, a few hours later, the president sends a tweet announcing that she will be leaving her job. archived recording 1 Breaking news here on CNN. From the White House, the secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen, has resigned. archived recording 2 President Trump made the announcement via Twitter. archived recording 3 In a tweet, the president said, quote, Secretary of homeland security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service. archived recording 4 So it appears that the president is swinging the revolving door yet again, trying to install new people in his administration to carry out his bidding. michael barbaro That sounds like a meeting that went very poorly for the secretary. caitlin dickerson Clearly, they were not able to come up with a solution that both could agree on. michael barbaro And by tweeting her resignation, I think what were politely suggesting is that he fired her. caitlin dickerson Fired her. Yes, exactly. michael barbaro So what is the history between President Trump and Secretary Nielsen? caitlin dickerson So Secretary Nielsen takes her job at the end of 2017. Shes replacing her former boss, John Kelly, who went to be President Trumps chief of staff. And she takes on this role as basically the person who has to approve any new policy thats going to be introduced along the border. And its at this period of time when, I think, the President is settling into his role. Hes fired up about really coming up with some hard evidence that he can point to ahead of the midterm elections, for example, and say, look, Im keeping my campaign promises, and Im lowering immigration really dramatically. So right away, shes faced with aggressive ideas for how to prevent people from coming to the United States, and the first one is family separation. michael barbaro And what do we know about how Nielsen responds to that very controversial policy when it is first introduced to her? caitlin dickerson She slow-walks it. We reported in December of 2017 that a family separation policy had reached her desk for that final signature, and it took her four months to approve it, during which time she and President Trump clashed quite a bit. She had questions about the legality of it. She had questions about the practicality and how the public was going to respond. And she had just a lot of reservations about moving forward. But ultimately, she agreed, and the policy was introduced in a formal way in April. archived recording 1 Quit separating the kids! Theyre separating the children. Mr. President, dont you have kids? Dont you have kids, Mr. President? archived recording 2 I dont believe in this. This is not America. This is not our country. This is not what we should be doing. archived recording (kirstjen nielsen) This administration did not create a policy of separating families at the border. archived recording Shame on everybody that separates children and allows them to stay at the other side of the border, fearing death, and allow the secretary to come here and lie. archived recording (kirstjen nielsen) Calling me a liar are fighting words. Im not a liar. Weve never had a policy for family separation. And lets be clear if an American were to commit a crime anywhere in the United States, they would go to jail, and they would be separated from their family. This is not a controversial idea. caitlin dickerson Internally, shes, if not resisting, shes certainly questioning and slowing down a lot of these policies. And then, externally, to the public, shes having to defend them and really look like the face of them, and that ends up being something that she does actually over and over again in her job. michael barbaro And remind us what ends up happening to the family separation policy. caitlin dickerson So President Trump stopped the practice himself by signing an executive order. archived recording (donald trump) I consider it to be a very important executive order. Its about keeping families together. caitlin dickerson But it didnt matter, because a few days later, a federal judge intervened, deemed the practice unconstitutional, and he didnt stop there. He said that archived recording Families who have been separated as a result of the Trump administrations zero-tolerance policy be reunited within 30 days. The order says kids under 5 must be back with their parents within 14 days from now. caitlin dickerson So sort of a resounding disavowal of this policy. michael barbaro By the legal system. caitlin dickerson Exactly. And so even though shed pushed back against it, Secretary Nielsen ends up taking the blame. michael barbaro So whats another example something that she expresses internal qualms about but then goes out and defends publicly? caitlin dickerson So one of the next policies to be introduced was an idea to limit asylum pretty significantly so that people could only apply if they showed up at a legal port of entry whereas beforehand, people could and did very often show up anywhere along the border, present themselves to a border agency, ask for protection, and they were ushered into this legal process. The idea was to say, you cant do that anymore. You have to show up at a specific office, which is, of course, a pretty tall order for somebody whos coming from Central America with maybe a cell phone, maybe not, not a whole lot of resources. They dont always know exactly where these offices exist. archived recording (kirstjen nielsen) You do not need to break the law of this country by entering illegally to claim asylum. If you are seeking asylum, go to a port of entry. caitlin dickerson But as Nielsen pointed out to the president, it was very hard to justify, because immigration law explicitly says that you can request asylum regardless of where you enter. michael barbaro So again, Nielsen is saying inside the White House, hey, this might not be legal. I have reservations about it. But it nevertheless gets implemented. And as youve said, shes the decider. So she signs off on it. caitlin dickerson Exactly. And its important to point out that when Nielsen pushed back against President Trump, it wasnt a reflection of her being a liberal on immigration or having a more sympathetic view toward asylum seekers. She just happened to be the face of an entire agency full of people who work in immigration enforcement but who still made clear to her that there were going to be legal and logistical roadblocks to putting these ideas into place. michael barbaro And what happens to that port of entry policy that would limit the number of locations that people can apply for asylum? caitlin dickerson Very quickly after, its blocked by federal courts, and it remains that way. archived recording A district court ruled that the ban conflicts with immigration law. caitlin dickerson So this was the executive branch trying to very clearly contradict laws that were approved by the legislative branch. archived recording And now the Supreme Court has refused to step in to unblock the ban. michael barbaro So her legal reservations are well-founded. In other words, her advice to the president is correct, even if its ignored. caitlin dickerson Thats right. Her analysis is sound, because each time she is pushed back, shes been right. And these ideas have been blocked. michael barbaro Do any of these policies that were describing family separation, limiting the locations at which people can seek asylum do any of them succeed in curbing the flow of migrants, even for the very short period of time that theyre in place before they are legally challenged? caitlin dickerson They dont. archived recording New numbers show a 400 percent 4-0-0, that is 400 percent increase over just last year. caitlin dickerson Last October, we saw a record number of families seek asylum in the United States. This is after family separation is introduced. And every month since then, the numbers have gotten even higher. archived recording C.B.P. officials say Border Patrol agents are on pace for apprehensions and encounters with more than 100,000 migrants in March. michael barbaro So not only are these policies being blocked in court, for the very short bit of time that they were ever in place, theyre not doing their job of limiting the flow of migrants. caitlin dickerson Theyre not. The numbers keep going up. And some people would argue that maybe the policies werent left in place for long enough to show any concrete outcome, and we cant know that for sure. But what we do know is that these policies that Nielsen was pushing back on, saying theyre not going to work, didnt work. And the numbers have continued to rise. michael barbaro And so what does that do to the presidents relationship to Nielsen? Shes in a sense being vindicated, but the problem shes there to solve is only getting worse. caitlin dickerson Shes simultaneously sort of being vindicated if you look at it from a legal standpoint, but from a relationship standpoint, shes the face, in President Trumps eyes, of these failures. archived recording 1 Kirstjen Nielsen appears to be on shaky ground. Thats according to a New York Times report. Nielsen told colleagues that she was close to resigning Wednesday after being berated by the president in front of the entire cabinet. archived recording 2 Nothing sets him off more than immigration, and Im told that meeting on Wednesday in the cabinet room was very heated, was incredibly heated. She spoke back to him about it, tried to defend herself. caitlin dickerson So its in this context of the policies that are being introduced being blocked in the courts, the number of people crossing the border rising, and Trumps relationship with Secretary Nielsen falling apart that he comes up with his most aggressive idea yet. archived recording Another day, another threat from President Trump, and today, he is threatening to shut down the southern border. caitlin dickerson Where he wants to completely seal the border, 100 percent. Not let anybody come into the U.S. archived recording (donald trump) And if they dont stop them, were closing the border. Well close it, and well keep it closed for a long time. Im not playing games. michael barbaro And how exactly would that work? caitlin dickerson Well, we shouldnt assume that the president had any particular policy in his mind when he tweeted that he wanted to seal the border. We can assume, though, that he wasnt talking about, for example, cargo moving back and forth or people with actual visas and permission to come into the United States, but really that hes talking about shutting down asylum and shutting down the ability of people who dont previously have permission to come into the United States. And the policy that we know has come closest to achieving that goal, one thats been kicking around in Washington for some months now, would be to get rid of asylum as we know it. It would no longer allow anyone to apply for asylum in the United States. And instead, people who needed that status or wanted that status would have to stay in their home country, similar to the way that Syrian refugees apply to come to the United States apply from home, wait many months, go through lots of vetting and background checks, and then only if theyre approved, they would be allowed to come here. michael barbaro And I guess, what could be a more extreme version of limiting asylum than literally telling people, you cannot come to this country and apply for asylum? caitlin dickerson I dont think there is a more extreme version, because I think this idea means eliminating asylum. It goes away. michael barbaro And as best we understand it, what was Secretary Nielsens response to this idea? caitlin dickerson From what we know, its been very similar to the way she reacted to family separation, to that idea to significantly limit asylum to the ports of entry, which is that this is going to be challenged by the courts immediately. Its going to be a huge lift to get a policy like this introduced, to work out the logistics, and all of it will be for naught, because itll be enjoined by the courts. And its that oppositional and resistant stance that shes in when she walks into the White House for her meeting with the president. Its unclear who threw up their hands first or second, or whether they both did it, but what we know is that the president did not leave her with an option, that he, at least, decided this isnt going to work. Youre out. And she was by the end of that night. And so what that means is the homeland security secretary who oversaw some of the most controversial and aggressive immigration policies this country has ever seen even she wasnt aggressive enough for President Trump. And so now shes gone, and hes looking for a replacement who will go even further. michael barbaro Well be right back. So Caitlin, who is the president turning to to replace Nielsen as he looks for somebody to go further than she was willing to go? caitlin dickerson Hes turning to Kevin McAleenan, whos currently the head of United States Customs and Border Protection. Thats the agency that oversees both the customs officers who you meet at the airport when youve gone on vacation abroad and then the Border Patrol. Those are the police, the boots on the ground along the border. And McAleenan is known as sort of a policy wonk, a really smart and reasonable guy whos willing to work with Democrats, and somebody who served under President Obama as well. Hes got more than 10 years of experience at the agency. People know him as this reasonable guy. But when you dig a little bit deeper, McAleenan was inspired to get into homeland security work right after 9/11. And at C.B.P., especially most recently when he was overseeing this agency, it really became known as the sort of policy engine with him at the center of it coming up with ways to turn President Trumps ideas into actual policies that could be carried out. If D.H.S. is this agency run out of Washington thats overseeing all of this work, it was McAleenans staff members that were actually physically taking children away from their parents, that were physically turning asylum seekers away at the border or telling them to go elsewhere or to wait in line. So now hes moving into this role where hes got even more power, but I think we can expect that hell continue to do what he was doing before, which was take President Trumps ideas that are sort of extreme and that arent necessarily encumbered by the immigration laws, norms, history, and hell try to translate them into something thats practical and that can be introduced on the ground. michael barbaro So even though he might seem moderate at first glance, hes actually someone who the president trusts to put these more restrictive, maybe even extreme policies into practice. And hes been involved in doing that already. Now hes being elevated to do it at an even higher level. caitlin dickerson Exactly. michael barbaro And I guess that all makes sense. If Nielsen is seen as too reluctant to put these policies into practice, then the president would turn to somebody who is willing to do that. caitlin dickerson Thats right, who is willing to try. But remember that McAleenan is going to run up against the exact same legal framework and logistical challenges that anybody else in that role is going to. michael barbaro Right. So if these policies are going to run into legal trouble in the courts, regardless of who is leading the agency, what does it matter, in the end, if the leader of the Department of Homeland Security is gung-ho about the Presidents policies or is reluctantly saying yes, as Nielsen was? caitlin dickerson I think you can look at that question a couple of different ways. On one hand, youre right that its not going to make a huge difference whos sitting in the office at the head of the Homeland Security Department, because no matter what they introduce, if it violates the immigration law, theyre going to wind up in court. But another way of looking at it is family separation only existed as an official sort of policy for what, 45 days under zero tolerance? Not a very long period of time before it had to end. But still, I dont think that very many people are going to argue that family separation was a small thing or something that didnt affect very many people. I mean, I think it had a huge impact. So I do think that if you have a hawk running the Homeland Security Department, even when theyre sort of encumbered by the existing legal framework, they can make some pretty big changes, even if, ultimately, those changes wind up in court. I think that Kevin McAleenan has two things going for him in President Trumps eyes. The first, like we said, is that he knows the policies and he knows the situation on the ground like the back of his hand. And the second thing is that hes shown a willingness to follow President Trumps lead, and so he may be the person whos best positioned to come up with the most legal ways to achieve President Trumps goals. And even if the policies that he comes up with dont remain in place in the long term, they might at least exist long enough to give President Trump something to point to and show his supporters when they ask, where are you on these campaign promises? Where are you on this idea of, if not sealing the border, significantly decreasing the number of immigrants coming to the United States? michael barbaro So even if these policies are ultimately blocked by the courts, it feels like its important to this president to have someone at the Department of Homeland Security who is willing to try them, and that may be enough. caitlin dickerson I think in President Trumps heart of hearts, right, he would hope that he would find not only somebody who is willing to try but somebody who is going to succeed. He wants aggressive policies to be instituted in the long term. But I think its better in his mind than nothing to have somebody whos willing to try. And as we know, politically, its better than nothing, because then the president can point to these policies that he tried to introduce, if only it wasnt for the courts who had blocked him, or if only it wasnt for Congress who blocked him. michael barbaro Right. My intention was there. Somebody else is at fault for it not working. caitlin dickerson Exactly. He has at least an attempt to meet these campaign promises to point to when voters ask, why havent you made a significant change? So I think that having a more aggressive leader in place whos more willing to introduce these policies, when they get stuck in the courts, it allows Trump to blame the courts rather than his own administration for getting in his way. He can say, look, I tried, but these judges are blocking me, whereas it wasnt just the judges blocking him with Secretary Nielsen. It was her, too. michael barbaro If Congress is not going to change the law, and I think the assumption is that they are not going to do that anytime soon when it comes to basic immigration law, is the president right to suggest that the current system is broken, and the only way to fix it is to test these new ideas, even if they push the boundaries of the law? caitlin dickerson I would say yes to the first part of your question. Most people agree that the system is broken. But when it comes to fixing the problem, what are you trying to fix? In the presidents mind, the problem is the vast number of people coming here to seek asylum. His idea of a fix would decrease that number. But other people see the problem as not that people are coming here to seek asylum at all but the ways that were dealing with them. We dont have space to place people physically in custody when they enter. We dont have judges to hear their cases for years and years. So if you see that as the problem, then michael barbaro Hes not really addressing those. caitlin dickerson Hes not addressing those problems, and I think thats because a lot of people who agree with the president are concerned that if we come up with better systems for processing asylum seekers we make it more organized and efficient and, in some cases, comfortable that all that will do is encourage more and more people to come. And again, if the numbers themselves are what you see as the problem, then making the system better only makes it worse. michael barbaro Caitlin, what does all of this tell us about where President Trump plans to go on immigration? caitlin dickerson I think it shows that President Trump is going to continue full steam ahead to achieve his immigration goals and that if there are people, even informed career officials, who want to stand in the way of that, theyre going to be pushed out, because hes very committed to the goal of limiting the number of people who come to the border, regardless of the many legal challenges hes already faced, those that are sure to come, the public reaction, all these other things notwithstanding. Were not seeing any signs of slowing down. I think this week is actually an indicator of a ramping up of these goals. michael barbaro In other words, the gloves are coming off, even though, in a lot of peoples minds, they thought the gloves were already off. caitlin dickerson Thats right. Its like another set of gloves are coming off. michael barbaro Caitlin, thank you very much. caitlin dickerson Thank you. michael barbaro On Monday, The Times reported that President Trump plans to push out more officials from the Department of Homeland Security, including the departments general counsel and the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as he seeks to carry out his harder-line approach to immigration. A few hours later, in the latest legal setback to that approach, a federal judge blocked a Trump administration policy that required those seeking asylum to wait in Mexico rather than in the U.S. while their cases made their way through U.S. immigration court. The judge found that the policy violated federal law. Heres what else you need to know today. archived recording (mike pompeo) Today, the United States is continuing to build its maximum pressure campaign against the Iranian regime. I am announcing our intent to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including its Quds Force, as a foreign terrorist organization in accordance with Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. michael barbaro On Monday, the Trump administration said that it was designating a powerful arm of the Iranian military as a foreign terrorist organization, the first time that the U.S. has classified part of any countrys government as such a threat. archived recording (mike pompeo) Were doing it because the Iranian regimes use of terrorism as a tool of statecraft makes it fundamentally different from any other government. michael barbaro The move was debated at the highest levels of the administration, with top officials at the Defense Department and the C.I.A. opposing the designation, arguing it could justify Iranian attacks against the U.S. and its allies. But the presidents national security adviser, John Bolton, and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, advocated for the decision, arguing the designation would further isolate Iran by discouraging businesses from working with its military. archived recording (mike pompeo) This historic step will deprive the worlds leading state sponsor of terror the financial means to spread misery and death around the world. michael barbaro Without the FEMA provision, Puerto Rico could have to pick up 10 percent of the rebuilding costs billions of dollars the commonwealth government, whose finances have been controlled by a federal oversight board since 2016, said it does not have. That is why Gov. Ricardo A. Rossello, other Puerto Rican officials and their allies on Capitol Hill have cast the disaster relief package as critical for the islands long-term rebuilding. The legislation would not provide direct funding for projects like the Vieques hospital, but it would help ensure that the Puerto Rican governments budget troubles dont hold the project up. This affects everything, Mr. Rossello, a Democrat, said in an interview last week. It hinders the recovery. It hinders our objective of having an energy grid that is sustainable, thats reliable and thats modern. It hinders our capability of fixing our water systems. Also awaiting funding: police stations, public schools and roads. The town of Villalba needs to replace its emergency operations center and an assisted living facility for seniors, both destroyed by the hurricane, Mayor Luis Javier Hernandez said. (The town has leased other buildings to house the facilities in the meantime.) Residents of nearby Barranquitas, in Puerto Ricos mountainous central region, have had to take 40-minute detours along country roads because two major bridges were washed out. Its been dangerous, and there have been several accidents, Mayor Francisco Lopez of Barranquitas said. Its really concerning, because the hurricane was a year and a half ago and were two months from the start of a new hurricane season. In the San Juan neighborhood of Ocean Park, where some streets were flooded with smelly water for two weeks after Hurricane Maria, Jesus Herbon, the owner of a local bakery, jokes that he has become an expert on water pumps from all the time he has devoted to learning about how they failed during the storm. LANSING, Mich. Bruising political fights are usual business in Becky Debowskis eighth-grade social studies classroom. From a model Constitutional Convention to a bare-knuckle debate in Congress over slavery, she regularly has students assume roles of partisans throughout American history, like Abraham Lincoln and John C. Calhoun. After the exercises, the class comes back together to debate whether the nation lived up to what the state of Michigan calls core democratic values, such as equality, liberty and diversity. For decades, the values have been the heart of the state learning standards in social studies, a doorstop of a document that guides what teachers of history, civics, economics and geography cover in their lesson plans. Im really proud of my students, Ms. Debowski said. They can handle the complexity. So she was angry last year when she learned of a proposed revision of the state standards, in which the word democratic was dropped from core democratic values, and the use of the word democracy was reduced. The United States military evacuated its small contingent of troops from the Libyan capital on Sunday as rival militias raced to stop the forces of an aspiring strongman, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, from taking control of the city. Forces under the command of General Hifter made a surprise advance on the outskirts of the capital, Tripoli, on Thursday, setting up a battle with a coalition of armed factions from the region around the city the grand prize in a chaotic eight-year fight for control after the ouster of the dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi during the Arab Spring revolts. Tripoli is the northern African countrys financial hub, receiving the income from sales of Libyan oil, housing the central bank and paying the salaries of soldiers and other public employees across the country. By Sunday morning, both sides had begun attacking from the air, using the small and primitive air forces at their command, but the exact targets and extent of the damage could not be immediately determined. A man suspected of being a rhino poacher was killed last week by an elephant and his remains devoured by a pride of lions at a South African park, officials said. Rangers at Kruger National Park and other searchers found only a human skull and a pair of pants, the park said in a statement on Friday. Four of the dead mans accomplices were arrested, the authorities said. The mans accomplices told his relatives that they had been in the park to poach rhinos on Tuesday night when he was killed by an elephant, local officials said. A search party, including rangers on foot and members of the parks air wing, searched the area that was described by the family but could not find the body because light was fading, the statement said. Searchers found the remains on Thursday morning. The managing executive of the park, Glenn Phillips, offered his condolences to the family of the dead man, who was not identified. Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise, he said in the statement. It holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that. Mr. Phillips said it was sad to see the daughters of the man mourning the loss of their father, and worse still, only being able to recover very little of his remains. Kruger National Park advertises itself as offering an African safari adventure of a lifetime. At nearly two million hectares, it is the largest national reserve in South Africa, according to its website, which added that it was home to animals such as lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards and African buffaloes. Last July, rangers and police officers said that as many as three men suspected of being rhino poachers had been killed by lions at a South African game preserve. Rhino horn is worth about $9,000 per pound in Asia, driving a lucrative and illicit trade. It is a prized ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine and is considered a status symbol. Its one of the most expensive wildlife products on the illegal market and thats why these poachers go after it, Michael Slattery, founder of the Texas Christian University Rhino Initiative, said on Sunday. The current prices for a rhino horn are anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000 a kilogram. They are seeing dollar signs. It is more expensive than gold and cocaine, so the demand is driving these poachers. South Africa is home to about 20,000 wild rhinos, more than 80 percent of the worlds population. About one-third of the animals are owned by private breeders. Since 2008, more than 7,000 rhinos have been hunted illegally, with 1,028 killed in 2017, according to the South African Department of Environmental Affairs. The poachers can get more money if they can deliver a complete rhino horn, but to get a full rhino horn they have to kill the animal, Professor Slattery said. Poachers drug the rhinos and then use a machete to hack away at the face, he said. The rhinos then bleed to death. A rhino horn, which is made of 100 percent keratin, or the equivalent of compressed hair, provides no health benefits to humans. Still, people grind up the horn and use it in a drink in a misguided effort to reduce fevers and cure hangovers, among other things. Rhino horns are also given as gifts, Professor Slattery said. That equation pretty quickly tips over to these animals disappearing before our eyes, he said. KAMPALA, Uganda Protests in Sudan reached a new stage over the weekend, with tens of thousands of people demonstrating in front of army headquarters in Khartoum to demand the departure of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has wielded authoritarian power for three decades. In what may signal a significant development, some soldiers appeared to be throwing their support behind the uprising. They protected protesters from other security forces intent on dispersing them, three demonstrators recounted Sunday afternoon. On at least one occasion, gunfire erupted as uniformed men fought over whether to crack down on the protesters or protect them, two eyewitnesses said in phone interviews Sunday evening. The protests began in December amid food shortages and rising prices, and quickly became a mass movement across Sudan, united by the demand that Mr. al-Bashir step down. Over the weekend, they gained momentum as vast numbers of protesters gathered in front of army headquarters. KAMPALA, Uganda An American woman and her Ugandan guide who were kidnapped while on safari this past week have been freed after a ransom was paid, according to officials with the safari company with which they were traveling. Image Kimberly Sue Endicott, right, moments after she was rescued. Credit... Military of Uganda The Ugandan police said in a statement posted on Twitter Sunday that the police and security forces have rescued the two kidnapping victims. One official with the safari company, Wild Frontiers, who asked not to be named, said the two were currently enjoying a square meal and hot shower at a wilderness camp in Uganda run by the company. They were dropped off at a point near the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, the official said. He asked not to be named because he was not authorized to provide details about the circumstances of the release. KABUL, Afghanistan In a sign that a logjam in Afghanistan over entering peace talks with the Taliban could be easing, the Afghan government announced Sunday that it had named a council of senior political leaders who will appoint negotiators, create their mandate for talks and oversee their work. The formation of the council led by President Ashraf Ghani and composed of both current and former senior government officials and leaders of political parties and opposition groups comes after months of bitter disagreements over the next steps for peace talks with the Taliban. So far, negotiations have occurred only between the insurgents and American diplomats, without the Afghan government, an impasse that American officials have struggled to break. The two sides are near an agreement on the withdrawal of American troops and on a Taliban pledge that Afghan soil not be used by terrorist groups to attack the United States and its allies, as Al Qaeda did in September 2001. But the United States has insisted that nothing can be finalized until the Taliban and the Afghans figure out the countrys political future. CHANGSHA, China Inside a fishing gear store on a busy city street, the owner sits behind a counter, furiously tapping a smartphone to improve his score on an app that has nothing to do with rods, reels and bait. The owner, Jiang Shuiqiu, a 35-year-old army veteran, has a different obsession: earning points on Study the Great Nation, a new app devoted to promoting President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party a kind of high-tech equivalent of Maos Little Red Book. Mr. Jiang spends several hours daily on the app, checking news about Mr. Xi and brushing up on socialist theories. Tens of millions of Chinese workers, students and civil servants are now using Study the Great Nation, often under pressure from the government. It is part of a sweeping effort by Mr. Xi to strengthen ideological control in the digital age and reassert the partys primacy, as Mao once did, as the center of Chinese life. We must love our country, said Mr. Jiang, one of the top scorers on the app in Changsha, the capital of the southern province of Hunan. We are getting stronger and stronger. DANAO, Philippines In the remote, mist-covered slopes outside the city of Danao in the central Philippines sits the illegal, makeshift workshop of a master gun maker. Accessible only by foot on a steep, winding pathway camouflaged by thick vegetation, the ramshackle shop owned by I. Launa has a tattered tarpaulin roof, a work table and several machines for cutting and shaping steel. The whole operation can be packed up and moved on short notice. Illegal gun making is a livelihood that has helped put food on the table and send the familys children to school since the 1970s, and Mr. Launa, who asked that only the initial of his first name be used for fear of being arrested, is just one of a host of such small-scale gunsmiths in the region. His village alone is home to about a dozen. The trade which contributes to the estimated two million unregistered guns in the Philippines, slightly more than the 1.7 million legally registered weapons is able to flourish in a remote place where jobs are scarce, police presence is thin and lawlessness runs deep. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) Couple Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes are set to welcome their second baby soon. And as Rivera's pregnancy nears end, Dantes and their 3-year-old daughter Maria Letiziamore popularly known as Ziacan't contain their excitement anymore. Dantes and Zia, in fact, recently joined Rivera in a maternity shoot before they welcome a baby boy. A photo posted by Rivera on Instagram on Sunday shows the family in black holding up their shirts and showing their tummies. Rivera also shared a romantic photo of herself and Dantes, with the two clad in black leather jacket. Renowned fashion photographer Pat Dy was at the helm of the photo shoot. Rivera announced her pregnancy in September last year. She gave birth to Zia in November 2015, almost a year after she married Dantes. Abuja, Apr 7 (Xinhua/UNI) At least three people killed in a twin suicide attack on a suburb settlement of the capital of Borno state, the troubled northeast state of Nigeria, security sources confirmed on Sunday. The attack occurred on Saturday night, with two female suicide bombers infiltrating the Muna Dalti settlement in Maiduguri, a police source told Xinhua over the phone. Local broadcaster Channels Television, quoting the state rapid response team, said two members of a local militia and one civilian were killed in the attack, with 45 others injured. Bello Dambatta, who heads the Rapid Response Team of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, said two members of a civilian joint task force saw two women carrying improvised explosive devices, and tried to stop them. "But they were killed alongside one civilian following the detonation," said the report. The two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives five minutes apart at Muna Dalti settlement. There has been no claim of responsibility for the suicide boming on Saturday. While there is some scientific basis for claims that chrysotile, also known as white asbestos, is less dangerous than black and blue asbestos, the International Agency for Research on Cancer said there is sufficient evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of all forms of asbestos, including chrysotile. Uralasbest says that cases of disease among employees have fallen sharply as it has introduced better air filters in its huge processing plant and forced workers there to wear better masks. But, while boasting of its improved conditions, the company declined to grant access to the factory, saying it was in a restricted zone. The view of many Asbest residents is that there are so many other things to worry about in their heavily industrialized region, including a nuclear power station just a few miles away and an even nearer coal-fired power plant, that asbestos is probably the least of their worries. Everything is potentially dangerous, said Ksyusha Ustinova, a 30-year-old woman who, dressed in a fur-trimmed coat, came with friends last week to peer into the six-mile-long hole on the outskirts of town where asbestos is mined. Why worry about asbestos so much? Viktor Stepanov, an 88-year-old pensioner who spent decades working in the asbestos factory, said his own advanced age and continuing good health were proof that all the hysteria about asbestos could not be true. He explained that while working at the asbestos plant, he drank a bottle of milk a day, which the company provided free to help workers fend off disease. Everything is dangerous to some degree, he said. One-hundred percent guarantees that something is not harmful do not exist. LONDON With the clock ticking down toward last-minute talks in Brussels on Britains withdrawal from the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May this weekend took another step away from hard-line anti-Europe lawmakers in her Conservative Party and sought to portray herself as committed to compromise talks that stalled last week. But opposition Labour leaders on Sunday maintained that Mrs. May had not yet bent to any of their demands on the withdrawal, known as Brexit. And whatever overtures she makes to Labour, analysts said, she will struggle to guarantee that her successor as prime minister or a future Parliament will not rip up any compromise deal a major sticking point in the cross-party talks. Mrs. May this week was expected to seek another delay to Britains departure from European leaders who have expressed anger at her reluctance to change strategy only days before they were to meet to consider her request. She is also trying to pressure Labour lawmakers who may be searching for an excuse to back a deal to avoid being seen as thwarting Brexit. Two-state proponents, while conceding that there is no way to know for sure how the Palestinians would react, say a sovereignty push would almost certainly lead to a nightmare of one kind or another for Israel, like a rise in violence and international condemnation. The incremental entrenchment of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land is often called creeping annexation. And until now it has occurred slowly enough, and piecemeal enough, to let supporters of a two-state solution reassure themselves that such steps could still be undone or accounted for in future negotiations. Applying sovereignty, by contrast, would be all but irreversible. Whether accomplished quickly or by degrees, it is tantamount to annexation, and it would break with a quarter-century-old agreement, under the Oslo accords, that the status quo between Israel and the Palestinians must not be altered except through negotiations. For years, Mr. Netanyahu positioned himself as a check on both sides in the debate. He placed himself to the right of supporters of a two-state solution on the one hand, and to the left of those who want to annex the West Bank and see a so-called Greater Israel fulfill the Zionist dream of a Jewish state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. Those Israelis were once marginalized as part of the right-wing fringe. But with fewer than half of Israelis still supporting a two-state solution, it is the peace camp that is now out of step with the majority of society. A fast-growing sovereignty movement, called Ribonut in Hebrew, has not only achieved political acceptability but has overtaken much of the powerful Israeli right wing. Kodak Black Pleads Guilty to Lesser Charge in Sexual Assault Case Involving High School Student zo Zo is a staff writer at Okayplayer where he covers Kodak Black was sentenced to 18 months probation for a 2016 sexual assault case involving a high school student. Trigger warning sexual assault. Rapper Kodak Black has pled guilty to first-degree assault and battery from a 2016 sexual assault case involving a high school student in South Carolina. According to local CBS affiliate WBTW, the rapper, whose real name is Bill Kapri, entered his plea on Wednesday morning. He was then sentenced to 18 months probation. One of the stipulations of Blacks plea deal was that he had to take full accountability for his actions and apologize. In court he said: I apologize to Miss [redacted] and am hopeful we can all move forward I wish her the best in her life. According to 12th Circuit Solicitor Ed Clements, the victim agreed to the conditions of the plea deal. The rape charges stem from an attack that took place at a hotel after a 2016 show in Florence, South Carolina. Black was arrested in February of that year, but let out on $100,000 bail. The victim did not immediately report her assault. Instead, she told her school nurse, who reported the attack to a school officer that relayed the account to law enforcement. Black was officially indicted on first degree sexual assault charges in 2017 and he was originally facing 30 years in prison. One interesting wrinkle in all of this is that Baltimore Ravens Quarterback Lamar Jackson was a guest of Black. Earlier this year, Jackson was one of the people publicly asking former president Donald Trump for a pardon for a federal weapons conviction he was sentenced to three years in prison for. Hey @realDonaldTrump @potus my friend @KodakBlack1k deserves to be commuted. The system punished him way to hard for a paperwork crime #freekodak Lamar Jackson (@Lj_era8) January 5, 2021 Trump did grant Black a commutation, which the rapper addressed on Last Day In. This story was updated on April 28th 2021 Africa's richest man once withdrew Rs 69,23,10,000 from bank 'just to look at it' India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, Apr 07: Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote recently gave an interesting account of how he sensationally withdrew $10 million - equivalent to Rs 69,23,10,000 from the bank just to have a look at it. In an interview, the Nigerian business magnate told an interesting tale on how mere curiosity prompted him to make the outrageous withdrawal. According to a report from Agence France Presse, Nigerian billionaire, Aliko Dangote said, "When you're young your first million is important, but after, the numbers don't mean much." "One day, I cashed 10 million, put them in the boot of my car I put it in my room. I looked at them and thought 'now I believe I have money' and took it back to the bank the next day," he told his audience. Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian businessman and owner of Dangote group. He is currently the richest man of Africa with US $10.7 billion net worth. AgustaWestland: Michels business associate gets court summons India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 07: A Delhi court has summoned David Nigel John Syms, an alleged middleman and business partner of British-national Christian Michel, a co-accused arrested in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case. Special judge Arvind Kumar asked Syms, named as an accused in the supplementary charge sheet, to appear before the court on May 9. The court also summoned two firms -- Global Services FZE and Global Traders -- as accused in the case. Michel and Syms are directors of the two firms. Explain how AgustaWestland chargesheet was leaked, court tells ED It also extended by two days the Enforcement Directorate custody of Sushen Mohan Gupta, an alleged defence agent arrested by the agency in the case. The custody was extended after ED's advocate Samvedna Verma said his further interrogation was required in the case. It further sought a reply from the agency on Gupta's bail application by April 9. Gupta was arrested by the agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The probe agency had said Gupta's role in the case came to light on the basis of disclosures made by Rajiv Saxena, who has turned approver after he was deported from the UAE and arrested by the agency here. Michel was arrested by the ED on December 22 last year after his extradition from Dubai. He is among the alleged middlemen being probed in the chopper scam by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI. The others are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. The agency had earlier told the court that Michel received 24.25 million euros and 1,60,96,245 pounds from the AgustaWestland deal. The ED told the court that it had identified Michel's properties purchased with the proceeds of the crime. The ED, in its charge sheet filed against Michel 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. 'Vehicle was signalled to stop but it tried to flee': Amit Shah explains how the Nagaland firing unfolded Amit Shah launches BJP's election manifesto for 'New Odisha' in Bhubaneswar India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Apr 07: BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday released the party's manifesto for Odisha in capital Bhubaneswar. Odisha will go to Assembly and Lok Sabha polls simultaneously. The manifesto has been released in Odia language. The manifesto is based on 9 points. These are the 9 pillars of our vision for the development of 'New Odisha', says Amit Shah at party's election manifesto release for Odisha, in Bhubaneswar. Amit Shah said, "In comparison with other states of the country, Odisha is lagging in drinking water, houses, health, security for women, education and other fields. Despite being rich in resources, the people here are poor." Didi betrayed Maati when she tried to protect infiltrators, says PM Modi Taking a dig at the BJD government led by CM Naveen Patnaik in Odisha, Shah said, "BJD has proved worse than Congress in Odisha. They haven't been able to live up to the expectations of the people of Odisha. In comparison with other states of the country, Odisha is lagging behind in areas of drinking water, houses, health, security for women, education and other fields. Despite being rich in resources, the people here are poor." Making a strong pitch for for employment in Odisha, Shah said,"After completing 10+2 exam, exceptional students will be given two-wheelers. Recruitment will be done in all the vacant places within 2 years of the formation of the government. The government will also arrange to provide free education to all the poor from pre-primary to post graduate level." The BJP chief also said, "This time, the people of Odisha will choose a government which will remove corruption. Choose a government that is going to get rid of inaction and laziness. Choose a government whose agenda is development and poverty eradication." "Farmers will be given loans at zero percent to ensure that farmers get rid of their debt. In the irrigation sector, the BJP will invest 1 lakh crore. We will prioritise micro and minor irrigation. We will arrange for monthly pension for small and medium farmers, and labourers above the age of 60," Shah said. BJP president Amit Shah after launching the party's manifesto which promised a "New Odisha" based on "9 pillars", said, "We promise that the convicts of rape will be given capital punishment." BSP to fight solo in UP, Uttarakhand, no tie-up with Owaisi's AIMIM, says Mayawati 'Should not be misled': Mayawati reaches out to Brahmins before UP polls At Deoband, Mayawati says,BJP will lose because of policies inspired by hatred India oi-Madhuri Adnal Deoband, Apr 07: BSP supremo Mayawati Sunday slammed both the BJP and the Congress at the first joint rally with SP and RLD here, less than a week before voting for the first phase of voting. "BJP will lose this election because of policies inspired by hatred.. especially their "chowkidar" campaign... no matter how much the chhote, bade chowkidars try, the BJP will not win," she said. The Congress and BJP, Akhilesh Yadav said, are just "mirror images of each other... the Congress doesn't want to bring change. It is only in pursuit of power." Addressing the rally in the presence of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Ajit Singh, she said, "The Congress has failed despite ruling for so many years," Didi betrayed Maati when she tried to protect infiltrators, says PM Modi The BSP chief said, "Our government, instead of giving minimum income support, will give employment to poor people. Indira Gandhi too made a 20-point programme to remove poverty, but was it effective?" While Mayawati accused the BJP of "policies inspired by hatred", she warned the people against succumbing to Congress's promises of a Basic Minimum Income Scheme that involves the payment of Rs. 6,000 a month. "Instead of six thousand rupees, we promise jobs in government and private sector," said Mayawati, whose decision to keep the Congress out of the alliance in the state has led to a three-cornered contest. Mayawati said that the BJP will not come to power, unless it rigs the election process. She added that the ruling government was "misusing the Pulwama attack" for votes. The Congress, despite ruling for several years, has failed, Mayawati added. "Our government, instead of giving minimum income support [which is the Congress' plan], will give employment to poor people. Indira Gandhi too made a 20-point programme to remove poverty, but was it effective?" she asked. Mayawati said her party cadres were silent workers. "Our party performs without making noise," she added. "The Congress has been making tall claims, haven't they been given enough chances for decades? They were wiped out from several states. The Nyay scheme is not a stable solution for removing poverty." Amit Shah launches BJP's election manifesto for 'New Odisha' in Bhubaneswar Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also attacked both the BJP and the Congress at the rally. "There is not much difference in Congress and BJP, if you will look at their policies," he said. "They are both same. This grand alliance is meant to bring change in the country, but Congress party doesn't want that, it wants to form government in UP." Deoband is a town in the heart of Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh, where the Darool Ulum, one of the biggest learning centres of the Muslims is located. The town and adjacent areas have a substantial Muslim population. (with PTI inputs) Can Kanhaiya Kumar keep BJP at bay in 'Leningrad of Bihar'? India oi-Deepika S Patna, Apr 08: Begusarai, long known as the 'Leningrad of Bihar' due to the Left's strong influence, is set to witness a hot contest between left icon Kanhaiya Kumar, a former president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union and Union minister Giriraj Singh. The two leaders of competing ideologies fighting it out on the ground is expected to make an interesting contests. Union minister Giriraj is a popular icon of the right wing on social media. While, Kanhaiya, 32, was arrested in February 2016 and accused of sedition for allegedly doing nothing to prevent the raising of anti-India slogans on the JNU campus. Since then, he has been projected as an merging youth leader against the BJP and PM Modi. Giriraj, who had initial reservations against contesting from Begusarai, gave in after a word with party president Amit Shah, said he had come to Begusarai to defeat the traitor. "Anti-nationals will be given a befitting reply by the people," he said. Kanhaiya has termed Giriraj as the "Visa minister of Pakistan" and said, "I have been campaigning in the constituency for months, while he was not even ready to contest the polls. People notice these things." Kanhaiya Kumar's entry has definitely upset Giriraj Singh mainly because he too belongs to the same Bhumihar caste as Kumar. An analysis suggests that if it had been a two-cornered contest, Kanhaiya had a good chance to spring a surprise on the BJP. Caste equations Kumar and Singh come from the upper caste Bhumihar community which, with a 4.5 lakh population, is a dominant caste in the constituency. Upper caste Bhumihar constitute about 19 per cent voters in Begusarai, followed by 15 per cent Muslim, 12 per cent Yadav and 7 per cent Kurmi of the total 19 lakh votes. With Nitish Kumar's party backing the BJP, the party was sure about getting around 37 per cent votes (Bhumihar 19 per cent + upper caste 11 per cent + Kurmi 7 per cent). The Bhumihar vote holds the key in Begusarai, indicated by the fact that in the past 10 Lok Sabha polls, nine MPs chosen by the voters here have been from the Bhumihar caste. With both Giriraj Singh and Kanhaiya being Bhumihars, much depends on who would garner maximum support from their caste. Tanveer Hasan is a strong claimant to the seat. He had unsuccessfully contested the seat in 2014 garnering 3.9 lakh votes against Bhola Singh of BJP. BJP candidate Bhola Prasad Singh won here, defeating RJD candidate Hassan by over 60,000 votes. In 2014, the BJP got 39.73 per cent of the votes, RJD 34.32 per cent and CPI candidate Rajendra Prasad 17.87 per cent. Yogendra Sharma of the CPI won the seat in 1967. Stay up to date with our election coverage here JKSSB SI Recruitment 2021: Last date to apply for 800 Sub Inspector posts, direct link here Civilian traffic ban on J&K highway begins: Hundreds stranded, traders say huge loss for business India oi-Madhuri Adnal Jammu, Apr 07: The complete ban on civilian traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway began in the early morning hours of April 7. Heavy security has been deployed along the 270-km-long highway from Baramulla to Udhampur to enforce the ban on civilian traffic, so that the road is kept open exclusively for convoys of the security forces every Sunday and Wednesday. The Jammu and Kashmir administration and Centre had announced that the national highway from Baramulla to Udhampur will be put out of bounds for civilian traffic on Sundays and Wednesdays till May 31. Major decision: 919 un-deserving persons in J&K lose security cover No civilian traffic would be allowed during the movement of the paramilitary forces. The decision was made in view of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls after the deadly Pulwama terror attack where over 40 CRPF jawans were killed in the suicide attack by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). The ban on the civilian traffic will be in force for the two days -- Sunday and Wednesday -- from 4 am to 5 pm till May 31. It will be effective from Baramulla to Udhampur through Srinagar, Qazigund, Jawahar-Tunnel, Banihal and Ramban. A government notification said in case of any emergency to use the passage by a civilian vehicle, the police and administrative officials will take decisions in line with the provisions of movement of civilian traffic during curfews. The restriction on civilian traffic on the highway was announced two days after state police chief Dilbag Singh said a study group has been set up to suggest steps to strengthen the security along the 270-km Jammu-Srinagar highway following the Pulwama terror attack. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti called the move "madness" and hoped that the order is revoked immediately Mehbooba Mufti went on to compare the civilian traffic ban move by the Centre to "Martial Law". "Last I checked, we were a democracy. But this sounds like a diktat of Martial Law. After bringing Kashmir to the brink, the administration is adamant on ensuring collective punishment for Kashmiris," Mehbooba Mufti said. UP CM warns Owaisi: Followers of 'abba jaan', don't try to inflame passions over CAA Yogi Adityanath didn't take dip in Ganga as he knows rivers are not clean: Akhilesh Congress feasted terrorists with Biryani, BJP with bullets, says Adityanath India pti-PTI Lucknow, Apr 07: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday attacked the Congress and the regional parties in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, alleging that they had "obstructed" development and played with the sentiments of the people. These parties have "promoted" dynastic and family politics, and made the life of the common man "miserable", he told on board his special aircraft that flew him to Hyderabad from Lucknow. "In the past some years, in Andhra Pradesh it has been either the Congress or the regional parties that have been in power. They have duped the people in the name of development. They have promoted dynastic and family politics there and obstructed the developmental process," he said in an interview. The Chief Minister, who toured parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and addressed rallies, alleged a vote given to the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections will only strengthen terrorism, naxalism and separatist forces, and obstruct development. Likewise, votes given to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in Telangana will strengthen hands of Asaduddin Owasi, chief of TRS ally AIMIM, and his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi, he said. If voters choose the BJP, they can be assured that Narendra Modi as prime minister will ensure India's development and establish it as a superpower, he said. The Congress and the regional parties in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh "have only given attractive slogans and made the life of the common man miserable", Adityanath said. "In Telangana, for the past five years there is a TRS government. This government is also walking on the path shown by the Congress. It is indulging in dynastic and family politics as well," he said. "Whether it is the TDP (Telugu Desam Party) in Andhra Pradesh, the Congress or the TRS, all of them have resorted to politics of appeasement.They have played with the sentiments of people by making tall and attractive promises," Adityanath said, adding that this will not last long. The BJP will register a win in the Andhra Pradesh assembly polls and will expose its rivals "anti-development face" and the appeasement politics done by them, he said. He exuded confidence that the BJP will get a good number of Lok Sabha seats from both the states. On why TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu left the NDA and if it will impact the BJP in southern India, where the party is trying increase its tally, Adityanath said, "This is politics of opportunism. He (Naidu) was respected in the NDA. The BJP had given respect to Chandrababu Naidu, while ignoring party workers." "His walking away from the NDA will not affect BJP's poll prospects. BJP will perform very well in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, and win a handsome number of seats in these states," he said In Odisha, West Bengal and north-eastern states, too, the BJP will win a good number of seats, Adityanath said. The Chief Minister also attacked the Owaisi brothers, alleging that the negative statements made by them were insult to the people of Hyderabad and Telangana. "We speak about development and security. The negative politics and statements made by the Owaisi brothers of Hyderabad is not only insulting for the people of Telangana and Hyderabad, but also for the basic feelings (mool bhaawnaa) of the country. "I think that there should be no place in the Indian democracy for the negative politics practiced by them," he said. The Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, which is traditionally an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) stronghold, has been won by Asaduddin since 2004. Later during a public meeting at Peddapalli in Telangana in support of BJP's candidate S Kumar, Adityanath termed both the Congress and the TRS 'anti-nationals.' Both parties are supporting activities, which are dangerous' to national security, he alleged. "The Congress manifesto certifies it while AIMIM is known for its anti-national statements and acts," he said. He also accused the previous Congress-led UPA government of "serving biryani" to terrorists and said the Modi government on the other hand, has shown resolve with "bullets" in dealing with terror attacks. The chief minister alleged that the UPA government had failed the armed forces by not allowing them to act against terrorists. The hands of the scientists were also 'tied', but under the Modi government they showed their prowess by developing an anti-satellite missile, he claimed. Flaying the TRS-AIMIM tie up, Adityanath said after seeing their five year rule, it seems that the TRS again wants to establish 'Nizamshahi' (Nizam's rule) in Telangana and wants to make the people "slaves" again. Under no circumstances should this "conspiracy" of the TRS be allowed to succeed, he said. Terming the TRS government's move to implement 12 per cent reservation for Muslims as "unconstitutional", Adityanath said "...reservation to Muslims is against the Constitution. "Constitution does not allow it (reservation for Muslims)," he claimed. The chief minister was referring to the resolution passed by the Telangana legislature and sent to the Centre, seeking its nod to increase reservations for Muslims in jobs and education from the current four per cent to 12 per cent. PTI India reports 8,895 new Covid infections, 2,796 deaths in last 24 hours as Bihar, Kerala clear 'backlog' List of 28 agreements/MoUs signed during the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit in New Delhi India among most unequal nations; top 1 pc of population holds 22 pc of national income Imports from China to India decelerating: Report India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Apr 07: India's imports from China stood at $60 billion during the April-January period of 2018-19 fiscal, a deceleration of 5 per cent over the corresponding period a year ago, PHD Chamber of Commerce said Saturday. According to the chamber, India's trade deficit with China also eased to $46 billion in April-January 2019 from $53 billion in the same period a year ago. "Despite substantial volume of imports from China, of lately, India's import growth from China shrunk from 24 per cent during April to January 2018 to (-) 5 per cent during April-January 2019," PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry Secretary General Mahesh Reddy said. 'New substantial progress' made to end US-China trade war, says Xi Jinping Commerce Ministry data showed India's export to China totalled $13.8 billion whereas its imports from the neighbouring country stood at $60.1 billion during the April-January period. Indian shipments to China totalled $13.33 billion in 2017-18 (April-March), whereas the country's imports from China stood at $76.38 billion in the period. The chamber said India has seen a major breakthrough in its exports to China during the last few months whereas imports of Chinese products in India are decelerating. Its exports to China grew 31 per cent in April-January 2019, increased from $10 billion in April-January 2018 to $14 billion in April-January 2019, Reddy said. Although the trade deficit with China is substantial, given the recent trends and amendments in the foreign trade policy 2015-20, the volume of trade deficit is expected to ease in the coming years, he added. Over the past decade, China has been able to enhance its footprint in India to a greater extent. However, the trend has seen a reversal in the April-Jan 2018-19, the chamber said. All have right to say 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai': Smriti Irani In UP's Deoband, locals say Muslims should not be used as political tool during polls India oi-Madhuri Adnal Deoband, Apr 07: Locals in Deoband said that Politicians should treat Muslim community equally and not use as a political tool during polls. One of the resident of Deoband said, "It's a peace loving city. Politicians should provide better education and more employment opportunities for Muslims in the country. Everyone should be treated equally. Muslim community should not be used as a political tool during polls." Muslim League approaches EC over Yogi Adityanath calling Muslim League a 'virus' Meanwhile, Deoband, the land of Islamic seminary Darul Uloom, is all set to witness high-voltage poll campaign on Sunday as friends-turned-foe-turned-friends Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party hold their first joint rally. The top leaders of the parties will address the Deoband meeting just days before Saharanpur and seven other western UP constituencies go to the polls in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 11. Sense of desperation: Why are terrorists choosing soft targets in Jammu and Kashmir Security review in J&K is message to Pak not to use Taliban win in Kashmir J&K: Encounter underway between terrorists, security forces in Tral area India oi-Madhuri Adnal Jammu, Apr 07: An encounter is underway between security forces and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Midoora Tral region. No casualties have been reported as of now. Two to three terrorists of JeM are believed to be trapped in the area. According to reports, a joint team of Army's 42 RR, 180 BN of CRPF and SOG launched a cordon and search operation in Branpathry Kahlil. On Saturday, at least two terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Imam Sahib area of Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district, as per ANI reports. The area was cordoned off later. Rahul Gandhi in centre of Cong posters for Jaipur rally; call for him to become party chief again MPs were not suspended by RS chairman or PM, but by power that wants to steal farmers income: Rahul Karma will catch up with you: Rahul hits out at PM Modi over Rafale deal India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Apr 07: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale fighter jet deal, saying that the latter's 'karma' will catch up with him soon. Rahul tagged PM Modi's interview to a news channel and challenged him to a debate on corruption. "You can run Mr Modi but you can't hide. Your karma is about to catch up with you. The country can hear it in your voice. Truth is a powerful thing. I challenge you to a debate on corruption," he tweeted. You can run Mr Modi but you cant hide. Your karma is about to catch up with you. The country can hear it in your voice. Truth is a powerful thing. I challenge you to a debate on corruption. pic.twitter.com/cHhRa0mMeH Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 7, 2019 While responding to a question whether Reliance chairman Anil Ambani benefitted from the Rafale deal, PM Modi had said: "Is there no trust in the Supreme Court, CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) and the French government? Would you not even have faith in what the Indian government said in Parliament?" The purchase of 36 twin-engine Rafale fighter jets from France has triggered a political controversy, with the Congress making the issue a poll plank and attacking the BJP and PM Modi over the deal. The Opposition parties have alleged that the NDA government bought the fighter aircraft, built by Dassault Aviation of France, under a direct government-to-government agreement at a much higher price than the one that was being negotiated for 126 aircraft by the previous UPA government under an open tender. 'There is no UPA now': Mamata Banerjee takes swipe at Cong, calls for unity of regional parties against BJP Cong accuses Mamata Banerjee of 'political opportunism' after her 'no UPA' jibe; Prashant Kishor says Cong leadership not divine right of individual Mamata Banerjees remarks unfortunate, within its rights to transfer cops: EC India oi-Deepika S Kolkata, Apr 07: The Election Commission of India (ECI) called West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's letter protesting the transfer of four top cops of the state police as "unfortunate" while informing her that it is well within its rights in the matter. In its response, the EC said, "It is unfortunate that an exercise carried out by the ECI only during the duration of Model Code of Conduct is being labelled as arbitrary, motivated at the behest of the ruling party at the centre. It would not be correct and dignified to respond to such averments to prove/burnish its credentials." The EC decision is "unfortunate, highly arbitrary, motivated and biased, and taken at the behest of the BJP", Banerjee had written urging the poll panel to review the move. 'Will ensure removal of Chowkidars from all the Chowkis, says Akhilesh Yadav The EC had on Friday night removed Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma and Bidhannagar Police Commissioner Gyanwant Singh in a major shake-up ahead of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls in the state. Rajesh Kumar, Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Pollution Control Board, was made the new Kolkata top cop, while Natarajan Ramesh Babu, ADG and IGP, Operations, was named the Bidhannagar police commissioner. The poll body also named Avannu Ravindranath, Deputy Commissioner (Airport Division) of Bidhannagar, as the new Birbhum Superintendent of Police and appointed Srihari Pandey, Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Armed Police, 3rd Battalion, as the Diamond Harbour Superintendent of Police. The EC's announcement came days after opposition parties in the state alleged that free and fair elections would not be possible under these officers. Mindless: Political parties protest J&K highway ban India oi-Deepika S Srinagar, Apr 07: Political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have come together in their opposition to the ban on civilian traffic for two days a week on an important highway that came into effect today. Former chief minister Omar Abdullah expressed his resentment with the move and said, "Driving to Uri I'm getting to see first-hand the extent of disruption and inconvenience that is being caused to people because of the mindless highway closure order that is in place today." People's Democratic Party (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti said her party would not allow Kashmir to be turned into an "open-air prison". She further said, "This is Kashmir, not Palestine. We won't allow you to turn our beloved land into an open-air prison. 'Jis Kashmir ko khoon se seencha, woh Kashmir humara hai'. Civilian traffic ban on J&K highway begins: Hundreds stranded, traders say huge loss for business Mehbooba Mufti said that it seems like the government admin wants to punish people by depriving them of simple things like access to roads she added that she hoped the order is revoked immediately. Former BJP ally Sajjad Lone called it a humanitarian disaster and asked the governor to scrap the order. "The highway ban is now turning into a humanitarian disaster. We've been flooded with calls from across the state. People in dire need to travel in order to tend to their day-to-day needs of survival stuck in a state of helplessness," he tweeted. The ban on the movement of civilian vehicles on Sundays and Wednesdays on the highway has been put in place after the February 14 Pulwama bombing in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. A state government notification on Wednesday said that civilian traffic would not be allowed on the Baramulla-Srinagar-Udhampur highway on Sundays and Wednesdays to ensure safe movement of security convoys during the parliamentary elections. Divisional Headquarters Teaching Hospital Job 2019 in AJK Latest DHQ Teaching Hospital Management Posts Mirpur 2021 Qualified and experienced personnel for the posts of Junior Technician Physiotherapy, Junior Technician Surgical, HTV Driver, Security Guard, Mali, Cook, Chef & Sanitary Worker required for Divisional Headquarters Teaching Hospital in Mirpur AJK 2019. How to Apply on DHQ Teaching Hospital Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If an employer asks to pay money for any purpose, do not pay at all and report us at contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs may not be applied online here. Human typing error is possible. Error & omissions excepted. TMC delegation to meet Election Commission in Delhi today; To request for early bypolls in Bengal No decision soon on Modis biopic India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Apr 07: The Election Commission is unlikely to take before Monday a final decision on whether to restrain the release of a biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi till the Lok Sabha polls are over, as the Supreme Court is slated to hear the issue that day. The EC has been made a party in a plea filed by a Congress worker who wants the top court to delay the film's release claiming it "disturbs" level-playing field for candidates in the Lok Sabha polls. Sources said, now any decision will be taken after evaluating the developments in the top court. SC declines urgent hearing on plea challenging release of Modi biopic However, there is a strong view in the EC that it should not restrain the release of the biopic -- "PM Narendra Modi" -- and should leave it to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to take a call on the issue, sources said. Opposition parties including the Congress have alleged the film will give undue advantage to the BJP in electioneering and its release should be delayed until the elections are over. The seven-phased Lok Sabha polls begin on April 11 and end on May 19. The model code of conduct, which among other things, calls for an even-playing field for all parties and candidates, came into force on March 10 when the elections were announced. "PM Narendra Modi" is now scheduled to be released on April 11, the day the first phase of polling takes place. A functionary pointed to at least two Supreme Court rulings about movies. In one of the rulings, the SC had directed the West Bengal government to ensure satirical film 'Bhobishyoter Bhoot' is screened without obstruction. The movie was critical of the then state chief minister. "We also have to see the latest Delhi High court ruling which said the biopic screening should be decided by the EC," he said, adding that the model code is silent on flims and thus it remains a "grey area". He said the EC has to keep the court verdicts in mind. Narendra Modi biopic release date: SC to hear plea to delay Vivek Oberoi film on April 8 The Commission had earlier sent a notice to the makers of the film following a meeting with a Congress delegation, which sought a ban on its release ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. On Monday, the Bombay High Court disposed a plea against the release of the biopic. The court had said that the Election Commission will deal with the issue. From taking dip in Ganga to offering prayers to Lord Shiva, check out pics of PM Modi's visit to Varanasi No decision yet on Priyanka contesting from Varanasi: Rajeev Shukla India oi-PTI New Delhi, Apr 07: Senior Congress leader Rajeev Shukla said on Sunday said no decision had been taken yet about general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contesting the election against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Shukla claimed that under the leadership of Vadra, who is the party's incharge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, the Congress would do well in the Lok Sabha election and sweep the 2022 assembly election. On the recent speculation about Vadra contesting from Varanasi, Shukla told PTI: "In response to a question, she had made a comment which is unnecessarily being talked about now. No definite decision has been taken on her contesting the election.'' During campaigning at Rae Bareli a fortnight ago, Vadra had dropped a hint that she is not averse to taking on Modi in his own Lok Sabha constituency. "Shouldn't I fight from Varanasi?" Vadra had quipped when a party worker asked her to contest from Rae Bareli, the constituency of her mother and UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi. Shukla said Vadra was getting a very good response from the public wherever she is going for campaigning. "In the past 20 years, the Congress has become very weak in Uttar Pradesh. The party has to be strengthened under her leadership for 2022." The former Union minister said the common people would benefit from all the promises made in the Congress manifesto. "Providing Rs 72,000 per annum under the Nyay (minimum income) scheme and increasing the agricultural budget will be the priority," he said. The Congress leader exuded confidence that NYAY could be implemented. "I have been a planning minister, this scheme can be implemented. People who are spreading rumours did the same when our government launched the MGNREGA (rural job guarantee scheme). There will be no burden on the middle class or working class." Shukla also hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party on the issue of nationalism. "Nationalism was displayed during the Indira Gandhi government when Pakistan was taught a lesson in 1971. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also given a fitting reply to Pakistan. Modi has just created a ruckus through false propaganda." The Congress leader said the party's focus was employment, farmers and women's safety. "The BJP is only talking about Hindu-Muslim and Pakistan. We are more concerned about the common man," Shukla said. "The biggest problem India is facing is that of unemployment. Our agenda is to give jobs to the youths and look after the issues of farmers and women's safety in the country." The former Union minister claimed that the "Modi brand" would not work this time, adding that the Opposition was fighting strongly in different states and would collectively get a majority. Asked if the Opposition parties would accept the leadership of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi after the election, Shukla said: "The Congress president himself has mentioned that there is no dispute over the leadership and later he will accept what everyone decides.'' PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, April 7, 2019, 17:22 [IST] Sitharaman denies US magazine's report on Pak F-16, says 'Baseless, source-based' India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Apr 07: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday denied Foreign Policy magazine's claims of India not having downed a Pakistani F-16 plane last month and criticised leaders of the Congress for "doubting and raising questions on what the defence forces are saying." "Indian Air Force gave proof on it with electronic signature of F-16. Whoever has written it, it's baseless and source-based. The part of AM-RAAM missile, which is used only with F-16, how was it found in India?" Sitharaman said. She further said that if none of the US-manufactured fighter jets of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) were missing then how come the part of AM-RAAM missile, which is used in F-16 was found in India. Pentagon rejects US media report on Pak's F-16 count, says 'not aware of any investigation' She added, "The article that came in 'Foreign Policy', many people are calling it baseless. Someone showed me on social media that US officials are also saying that they didn't conduct any such investigation. There are a lot of people who are spreading misinformation. But it is sad that in our own country, we have a lot of people in Congress party's 'Bhajan Mandali' who are doubting and raising questions on what the defence forces are saying. It suits them." Washington-based magazine Foreign Police reported on Thursday that the US defence personnel recently conducted a physical count of Pakistan's F-16s and found all intact and none missing. The article also quoted unidentified defence officials as saying that America has not found any planes, supplied to Pakistan, missing from the inventory. However, the US defence department, reportedly said that it was not aware that an investigation was conducted to find out whether Pakistan's F-16 was shot down by Indian Air Force's (IAF) fighter jet in February. List of 28 agreements/MoUs signed during the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit in New Delhi Whipping up war hysteria: India rejects Pak claim of prepping new attack India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Apr 07: India on Sunday rejected Pakistan's claims of "another attack in April" as "preposterous" and "irresponsible" and said it is meant to whip war hysteria in the region. Responding to the issue, the Ministry of External Affairs said, "India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region." "This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake attack in India. Islamabad needs to take credible, irreversible steps against terrorism rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate core issue," the MEA statement said. Earlier in the day, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the Pakistani government had "reliable intelligence that India is devising a new plan". "A new mishap could be staged... And its purpose will be to justify their [India's] offensive against Pakistan and to increase diplomatic pressure against Islamabad," Qureshi alleged. "If it happens, you can imagine the impact of the occurrence on the peace and stability of the region. According to our information, the action could be taken between 16 and 20 April," Qureshi claimed, adding that Pakistan was preparing to respond. Hours later, the spokesperson for Pakistan's foreign ministry, Mohammad Faisal, posted on Twitter, "Indian DHC was summoned for demarche in line with FM's briefing of today and warned against any misadventure." Tensions escalated sharply after India conducted airstrikes against a Jaish-e-Mohammad camp on February 26, days after the February 14 terrorist attack on CRPF personnel in Pulwama. On February 27, Pakistan carried out its own air action against India. Yogi Adityanath didn't take dip in Ganga as he knows rivers are not clean: Akhilesh 'Will ensure removal of Chowkidars from all the Chowkis, says Akhilesh Yadav India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Apr 07: Samajwadi Party (SP) Akhilesh Yadav attacked both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in the first joint rally of the SP, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance in Deoband. "There is not much difference in Congress and BJP, if you will look at their policies," he said. "They are both same. This grand alliance is meant to bring change in the country, but Congress party doesn't want that, it wants to form government in UP." Striking the chord of communal harmony in Deoband, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said Saharanpur is flanked by Mata Shakumbhari Devi on one end and Darul Uloom on the other. "There are leaders who only spread hatred. If you ask them about old promises, they will not speak on them". At Deoband, Mayawati says,'BJP will lose because of policies inspired by hatred' Saying that the PM had referred to the SP-BSP-RLD alliance as a "milawati" alliance, Akhilesh said, this is an alliance for a great change. ''They call us 'milawat gathbandhan'... they are drunk on power. This gathbandhan is not 'milawat', this for 'mahaparivartan'. This is an alliance for electing a new prime minister. Our borders are still not secured... they have betrayed the country. This election is about change, this election is about bridging differences which they have created between us, said Akhilesh Yadav. In a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, SP chief said that earlier the public was asked to trust a "chaiwala" and now the public was being asked to trust a "chowkidar". He said that this election was an election to create history, to bring change, elevate harmony, remove hate. "You must have heard their leaders come and speak here. All they had to talk about was hatred. They don't want to talk about promises. In 2014, we were asked to trust a chaiwala. He promised Rs 15 lakh in every account, crores of jobs etc. Now we are being asked to trust the chowkidar. One-by-one, we will remove all the chowkidars from their chowkis," Akhilesh said. Akhilesh was addressing the first joint rally of the alliance between the SP, Mayawati's BSP and Ajit Singh's RLD in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha. Speaking about the policies of the BJP government at the Centre, Akhilesh said unemployment had become a serious issue across the country. "They have brought 'bure din' instead of 'achhe din'. There are no jobs, sugarcane dues are pending and the GST tax regime has destroyed small businesses in the state. BJP leaders have divided more people than the British," he said. The SP president also mocked PM Modi's visit to the Ardh Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj earlier this year. Didi betrayed Maati when she tried to protect infiltrators, says PM Modi Speaking in his turn, RLD chief Ajit Singh told the massive gathering that the Lok Sabha election was meant to save the nation. "Ache din aa gaye...Modi ke ache din aa gaye. Bhagwan hum sab ko Modi jaisa fakir bana de," he said. "The BJP is anti-farmer. Farming is not a matter of profit. Takht badal do taj badal do is jhooto ki sarkar ko badal do," the RLD chief said. Is China the reason why Pakistan opted to skip Summit for Democracy hosted by Biden? Pentagon rejects US media report on Pak's F-16 count, says 'not aware of any investigation' International oi-Madhuri Adnal Washington, Apr 07: Contradicting US journal report that claimed that none of Pakistan's F-16s was 'missing', the United States defence department has said it was 'not aware' of any investigation that was conducted to ascertain if Pakistan had lost an F-16 during an aerial dogfight on February 27. The development comes after two senior US defence officials with direct knowledge of the situation told the 'Foreign Policy' magazine that American personnel recently counted Islamabad's F-16s and found none of the planes missing. Distancing itself from the news report, the state department, while speaking to a leading daily said,"As a matter of policy, the Department does not publicly comment on details of government-to-government agreements on end-use monitoring of US-origin defence articles." Furthermore it added,"It is important to note that since January 2018, the United States government has suspended security assistance to Pakistan." None of Pakistan's F-16 fighter jets missing after US count: Report On Friday, 'Foreign Policy' magazine had said that US defence officials had taken stock of the count that was conducted at the invitation of Pakistan and come to the conclusion that no F-16 was downed. "The findings directly contradict the account of Indian Air Force officials, who said that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman managed to shoot down a Pakistani F-16 before his own plane was downed by a Pakistani missile," the report said. It added,"It is possible that in the heat of combat, Varthaman, flying a vintage MiG-21 Bison, got a lock on the Pakistani F-16, fired, and genuinely believed he scored a hit." The report was strongly denied by New Delhi which claimed that they have evidence that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman indeed shot down Pakistan Air Force F-16 aircraft 7-8 km inside Pakistan Occupied Area in Sabzkot area. On February 28, the Indian Air Force had displayed to the media pieces of the AMRAAM missile, fired by a Pakistani F-16, as an evidence to "conclusively" prove that Pakistan deployed US-manufactured F-16 fighter jets during an aerial raid targeting Indian military installations in Kashmir. Ready to work with new US administration says Pak foreign minister With a likely meeting of Jaishankar, Qureshi Indo-Pak tensions set to thaw further No Indo-Pak bi-lateral so far on sidelines of Afghan meet Qureshi claims India planning another attack against Pakistan International oi-Deepika S Islamabad, Apr 07: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday claimed that his government has reliable intelligence that India is planning another attack against the country between April 16-20, according to a media report. The attack could take place between April 16 and 20, he said, adding that Pakistan had told the five permanent members of the UN Security Council of its concerns. "We have reliable intelligence that India is planning a new attack on Pakistan. As per our information this could take place between April 16 and 20," Shah Mahmood Qureshi was quoted saying by Reuters. Pakistan could be blacklisted by FATF due to 'lobbying by India': Shah Mahmood Qureshi "We want the international community to take notice of this irresponsible behaviour and reprimand them [India] for taking this route," he said. He did not elaborate on what evidence Pakistan had or how he could be so specific with the timing, but he said Prime Minister Imran Khan had agreed to share the information with the country, the news agency reports. 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 (IAF) 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 an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. A fraud on the Constitution: How Article 35A was added by deceit PM says Article 370 has given separatism, terrorism in J&K, hails its revocation 'historic' Flat in 7 minutes: This is how Union Cabinet took to clear scrapping of Article 370 Will not accept abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir under any circumstances, says Pakistan International oi-PTI Islamabad, Apr 07: Pakistan has said that it will not accept the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in Kashmir, saying it would be a violation of UN resolutions. The Article 370 is a "temporary provision" with respect to Jammu and Kashmir and restricts the applicability of various provisions of the Constitution by "curtailing" the power of Parliament to make laws on subjects which fall under the Union and Concurrent lists. Pakistan's Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Faisal, while addressing the media in Islamabad on Friday, made the comments on the issue of abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, saying it will be in violation of the UN resolutions. [Badge of honour if standing up for my People makes me separatist, says Mehbooba Mufti] "The abrogation of Article 370 of Indian constitution is violation of UN resolutions. We will not accept it under any circumstances and the Kashmiris will also not accept it, he said. Senior BJP leaders have repeatedly emphasised the party's commitment to abrogate Article 370 from the state. According to media reports, BJP President Amit Shah said it remains committal to remove the Article from the state but their lack of majority in Rajya Sabha is the reason why it has not been done so far. Shah's comments were met with some sharp criticism from political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir. National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said when the country got independence, a Constitution was created in which certain provisions were kept by which the state's identity could be safeguarded. "It included Article 370 and Article 35A. Unfortunately, some of our leaders made Article 370 hollow for their personal gains," he said. His father and National Conference President Farooq Abdullah had said that the relationship between New Delhi and the state will be over if Article 370 is repealed. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, April 7, 2019, 8:29 [IST] General Workers Jobs 2019 For Malaysia Latest Farishta Enterprises Oversea Employment Promoters Labor Posts Malaysia 2021 Experienced, strong and energetic persons for the positions of General Workers required urgently for a leading and known manufacturing company in Malaysia 2019. How to Apply on Farishta Enterprises Oversea Employment Promoters Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If an employer asks to pay money for any purpose, do not pay at all and report us at contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs may not be applied online here. Human typing error is possible. Error & omissions excepted. PAF Teachers Training Institute For Special Education Job Latest PAF Teachers Training Institute TTI Teaching Posts Lahore 2021 Pakistan Air Force PAF Teachers Training Institute For Special Education required qualified and well educated female candidate for the position of Vocational Teacher in Lahore. How to Apply on PAF Teachers Training Institute TTI Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If an employer asks to pay money for any purpose, do not pay at all and report us at contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs may not be applied online here. Human typing error is possible. Error & omissions excepted. Pak Army 5 Punjab Regiment Jobs 2019 in Hyderabad Cantt Latest Pakistan Army Army jobs Posts Karachi 2021 Experienced, energetic and strong personnel for the position of Mess Waiter required urgently for Pakistan Army 5 Punjab Regiment in Hyderabad Cantt Sindh 2019. How to Apply on Pakistan Army Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If an employer asks to pay money for any purpose, do not pay at all and report us at contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs may not be applied online here. Human typing error is possible. Error & omissions excepted. 2019-2026 Specialty Paperboards Market Report By Top Most Key Players like Caraustar, Domtar Corporation, Fedrigoni, Glatfelter, Imperial Tobacco Company, International Paper Specialty Paperboards Market https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/94631 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/94631 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/94631 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/request_for_discount/94631 www.upmarketresearch.com Up Market Research published a new business report on Specialty Paperboards Market. Report provides a comprehensive analysis by key players and regions. 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The sophomore allowed just one hit and two walks and struck out nine in a 9-1 win in five innings over Pittsburgh and followed hours later with seven strikeouts while allowing two hits and a walk in a 4-1 win over host Missouri. The Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the second via an RBI double, but it was their only hit off Dail and Oregons offense took control immediately after. The Ducks scored three runs in the bottom of the frame via an RBI groundout by Rachel Cid, RBI single by Haley Cruse and a throwing error. Cruse drove in another run as part of a six-run fourth inning for Oregon, with seniors Cherish Burks and April Utecht supplying three-run and two-run home runs, respectively. Against the Tigers, Oregon took a 3-0 lead in the second on a two-run shot by Cid and RBI single by Burks. Hannah Galey added a sacrifice fly in the fifth and Missouri got on the board in the bottom of the inning via a solo home run from Kara Decker. After Kolby Romaine followed with a double, Dail (12-8) snuffed out the potential Mizzou rally by retiring the next three batters. Allee Bunker went 3 for 3 in the second game of the day for Oregon (15-18), which will face both teams again on Sunday in a doubleheader beginning at 7 a.m. PT. In an era when social media have cheapened the word friend, 12 Portland women have created something special that not only defines the word but has survived the test of time and life. It all began more than 50 years ago when three mothers, all college graduates and weary of having their lives defined by raising young children, started a book club as a way to remain intellectually engaged. They asked nine other mothers to join. They all made a commitment to read selected books and then meet the fourth Thursday of the month, nine months a year taking a break when the kids were out of school on summer vacation to discuss the book. Its still going strong. Some early members died. A couple dropped out after being diagnosed with Alzheimers. Half are widows and several have husbands dealing with health issues. When a member dies or is no longer able to attend, club members talk about who to add, always keeping the group at 12. Eight of the initial 12 still participate. Leah Nepom calls herself a newcomer. Shes 91 and has been in the group for 35 years. Married for 66 years, she lost her husband five years ago. She said the women in the book club have been her support system. They insisted I go to dinner with them even when I did not want to, she said. Ive moved to assisted living. One of the women picks me up for each meeting. This club is my connection to the outside word. Some of have suffered the tragedy of having a child die. Theyve watched family members experience success and disappointment, joy and pain. Weve seen it all, said Jody Klevit, 86, one of the three founders. We have different political viewpoints and different lives. But the one constant for all of us is kindness and friendship of what we call the sisterhood. *** Klevit, Eva Rickles, 91, and Toinette Menashe, 89, met because their husbands, all doctors, worked at OHSU Hospital. The three men kept running into each other at the Carnival Restaurant. Long gone and now a parking lot, it was at the base of the road leading to the hospital and a favorite lunch spot for physicians. The men began socializing after work and eventually introduced their wives to each other. We all had little kids and our minds were falling asleep, Klevit said. We thought about taking a class in English literature at Portland State University. But it was $60 a credit, and we decided to do it ourselves. Menashe said they came up with the idea of a book club, reached out to friends and launched it with Justine. The 1957 novel by Lawrence Durrell is set before World War II in Alexandria, the Egyptian city that once housed the world's greatest library and whose inhabitants are dedicated to knowledge. That book, selected by Menashe, set the tone for the next five decades. We decided we were not going to focus on bestsellers, Menashe said. All of us have a real love of reading and discussion. The 12 women took and take -- the club seriously. The woman who selects the months book leads a review and a discussion. Besides reading the book, members bring to the meeting experiences from their lives and further research into the author and topic. The secret to the clubs longevity, the women believe, is the structure and rules: Just women. Talk focuses on the books. Social time is reserved for lunch. They take turns meeting at each others homes. In the early days, meetings wrapped up so the mothers could return homes before their children were let out of school. They still keep to that strict schedule. The group has read 450 books over the past 50 years. Each woman who hosts the meeting tells the group what her selection will be fiction, non-fiction, history, biography, classics and some esoteric books few readers in this day and age may have encountered: -- A World of Strangers by Nadine Gordimer, a 1958 novel set Johannesburg, South Africa, that explores the wealthy white suburbs and the impoverished black townships. -- The Human Element, by Edward Lewis Wallant, a 1960 novel about an immigrant plumber facing the loss of his wife. -- Their Eyes Were Watching God, a 1937 novel by Zora Neale Hurston, an African American writer whose book has been described as a seminal piece of work in both African American and womens literature. Some books are praised more than others. No matter, the act of reading and discussing the work is akin to being in a classroom back in college where the goal was to learn and grow. We matured during the womens movement, said Rene Holzman, 82. We were all college- educated yet were mired in diapers, chicken pox and colds. We felt the conflict about being homebound. Our outlet, once a month, was this group. Natalie Linn, who joined when a member died, calls herself at age 78 the baby of the group. I could tell any women in this group what is in my heart, she said. *** The final chapter of this book of theirs is being written. One woman, who has a difficult time reading because of eye problems, offered to quit because she couldnt keep up with the group. The club members refused to accept her resignation and one member picks her up for each meeting and takes her back home at the end. The group doesnt plan to add new members, even when one dies. The group will shrink. None of their daughters or daughters-in-law have any interest in carrying on the legacy. Klevit understands. We hungered for intellectual stimulation that just wasnt available for women at one time, she said. Now, young women work, they raise children and they juggle all kinds of activities not there for us. The end, the group knows, is approaching. Weve all talked about it, Kelvit said. Were realistic. Were not going to keep this going. But until that day, there are books to read, ideas to share and friendships to nurture, all on the last Thursday of the month. --Tom Hallman Jr. thallman@oregonian.com; 503 221-8224 @thallmanjr SUNDAY Killing Eve: Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer return for Season 2 of last years surprise hit. (8 p.m. AMC and BBC America) 54th Academy of Country Music Awards: Reba McEntire hosts. (8 p.m. CBS) A Discovery of Witches: Teresa Palmer plays a witch and Matthew Goode (Downton Abbey) a vampire in this series that streamed on Sundance Now before moving to cable. (9 p.m. AMC and BBC America) The Chi: Lena Waithes drama about people living in Chicagos south side, and the everyday challenges, dreams and struggles they face returns for Season 2. (10 p.m. Showtime) MONDAY Queens of Mystery: An original British-made series about a detective and her aunts who are attending a crime writers festival who team up to solve a real-life mystery. Juliet Stevenson narrates. (Streaming on Acorn TV) TUESDAY The Code: A new legal drama about active duty Marines who are also prosecutors, defense attorneys and investigators. (9 p.m. CBS) Reconstruction: America After the Civil War: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is an executive producer of a four-hour documentary series that examines the years following the Civil War, and how the promise of freedom for former slaves collided with entrenched attitudes of bigotry and Jim Crow segregation. (9 p.m. PBS) You Me Her: The series about a married couple who wind up involved in a three-way relationship with another woman returns for a new season. (10 p.m. Audience) WEDNESDAY Schitts Creek: The cult fave comedy wraps up Season 5. (10 p.m. Pop) THURSDAY The Twilight Zone: Sanaa Lathan delivers a standout performance in a compelling episode about a mother whos driving her son to college, but keeps encountering danger from an apparently racist state trooper. (Streaming on CBS All Access) FRIDAY Wyatt Cenacs Problem Areas: The Daily Show veteran continues his comedy-and-commentary season exploring education in America. (11 p.m. HBO) SATURDAY Saturday Night Live: Emma Stone returns to host, with musical guests BTS. (8:29 p.m. NBC) -- Kristi Turnquist kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. Dozens of Andre Gladens family members drove up from California -- one leaving the state for the first time, another almost stranded in Ashland with car trouble -- to send a message to Portland officials: They are still waiting for justice. Gladen, a 36-year-old legally blind man, was shot and killed by a Portland police officer in a strangers home on Jan. 6. A grand jury found on Feb. 22 that the officer who shot him was innocent of any criminal wrongdoing in the shooting and was not indicted. The family spoke at an emotional news conference Saturday at the Dont Shoot PDX headquarters for more than an hour before a spontaneous march in North Portland. They came to call for more accountability for police officers and Portland officials in the familys first public statement after the grand jurys opinion. Donna Martin, Gladens sister, said she is not convinced that Officer Consider Vosu should be let off the hook for the shooting. She and several of her siblings, uncles and Gladens father called for Mayor Ted Wheeler and Police Chief Danielle Outlaw to take more steps to punish the officer and reform police tactics that lead to shootings of black men. We werent there to help him, Martin said. He had no way of calling for help and the people that were there to help turned around and killed him. One of Gladens five sons, Tavon Catrel Gladen, said that after years of separation from his father, they had recently reunited and made big plans for the year. His niece Alayjah Crowder along with a handful of her cousins, teared up as they talked about the uncle who listened to their secrets and taught them about the importance of family. He called himself the wolf, they said, and they were his wolfpack. The gathering, which included Portlanders involved with Dont Shoot PDX and other activist groups, took to the streets after the news conference in an unplanned act of civil disobedience they hoped would show Portland leaders they are serious about their mission. The wolfpack led the group of about 50 people in a howl as they marched down North Killingsworth Street toward Martin Luther King Boulevard, where they gathered in the intersection for 20 minutes. Police cars, buses and commuters were halted at the four-way stop. Police cleared the way for the group to then march to Portland Police Bureaus north precinct, where they rested before heading back, chanting Whose street? Dres street. Portland activist Teressa Raiford invited family members of Quanice Hayes, Carlos Hunter and other men who have been killed by police to join the protest. Were in a group we didnt want to be part of, Raiford told the crowd. They keep making us activists. Gladens family planned to hold a vigil later Saturday night. But first, they wanted to express their outrage and sorrow. Sylvester Gladen, Andres father, marched in the rain with a walker. He said he was told by his children that his son had been shot and since then has suffered health problems from the stress. I want the police to understand you did the wrong thing to the wrong family, said Sylvester Gladen. Were not leaving. Were not moving. Gladen, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was shot after he knocked on a strangers door. The stranger called the police because Gladen then fell asleep on the sidewalk outside of his house. When the officer, Vosu, arrived, the interaction escalated quickly, ending in Vosu shooting Gladen inside the strangers apartment. Vosu said he was afraid because Gladen had a knife. The knife closely resembles one that Portland police carry on the outside of their uniforms. The family, though, said they doubt the story and are troubled that they have not been given more access to information from Portland officials. Police have disclosed reports related to the shooting, but the grand jury transcript has not yet been made public. It could shed more light on what transpired in the apartment and where the knife came from. Martin, Gladens sister, said that the Portland Adventist Hospital workers who released Gladen after a brief stay there the morning he was shot confirmed he did not have a knife on him at the time. Martin said that they had to help him disrobe and get dressed because Gladen is legally blind. Mayor Wheeler and Police Chief Outlaw met with the family at the end of February. The family said they hoped that would result in action from the leaders. Shortly after that, the grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing. Not only did they fail Andre, but they failed the community because they should be held to a higher standard, Martin said of why Portland officials should be tougher on police. She wanted an indictment against Vosu -- but now, she wants police shootings to stop, she said. Outlaw and Wheeler need to do something because this cant go on for too much longer. Jennifer and Sarah Hart moved their six adopted children to Oregon after teachers in Minnesota repeatedly reported signs of abuse. They left Oregon for Washington four years later, after fearing they might lose their children. They packed up their children and fled one final time three hours after a Washington social worker knocked on their door. The family of eight was dead less than three days later. Jennifer Hart aimed the familys GMC Yukon toward the Pacific Ocean and stepped on the gas pedal as hard as she could. A jury of 14 people ruled Thursday after two days of testimony that Jennifer and Sarah Hart acted together to kill themselves and their six children in Mendocino County, California, a place that friends said they had always wanted to visit. The conclusion ended a coroners inquest that brought national attention to the isolated stretch of California coast line where the Harts died in March 2018. After months of investigation, the lead detective concluded that launching the SUV off the scenic outlook was the final action in a series of reactionary moves whenever the Hart women got scared. Ultimately I feel that, based on Sarah and Jennifers past history -- the pattern that we see of alleged child abuse and confrontations that they may have received out of the community -- that this was just another case where they would run, said California Highway Patrol Officer Jake Slates. As he testified, one of the few members of the public who attended the hearing wiped tears from her eyes. Markis, 19, Hannah, 16, Devonte, 15, Jeremiah, 14, Abigail, 14, and Sierra, 12, likely died within seconds of the crash, authorities testified. Hannahs foot washed ashore more than a month after the crash. Devontes body has never been found. After jurors delivered their unanimous decisions about how each family member had died, Mendocino County Sheriff Thomas Allman called for a national database to track child abusers across state lines. Wherever Jennifer and Sarah Hart moved, allegations of abuse would follow, Slates testified. A specially trained crash-scene investigator testified during the inquest that the car idled, then accelerated off the cliff. There was no evidence that any of the eight had been wearing seat belts. The forensic pathologist who performed autopsies on six Hart family members said toxicology tests showed toxic levels of Benadryl in Sarah Harts system and extremely high levels in the three children whose blood could be tested. Based on the amount in her blood, Sarah Hart must have taken at least 42 doses, Slates said. The blood tests also revealed Jennifer Hart had consumed the equivalent of five shots of alcohol, he said. Slates said he attended all of the autopsies and noted bruises on Abigails backside near the top of her leg. The bruising was recent but not caused by the crash, he said. Detectives relied on a mountain of information from digital devices to piece together what happened. Investigators reconstructed an incredibly detailed timeline of their path from Washington to California with data from a GPS unit the family had used since 2010. Another key piece of evidence was Sarah Harts phone. Less than four hours after the family set out from Washington toward California, Sarah Hart began a series of searches about death by suicide, drugs and drowning that spanned the next day, Slates said. The women never made any calls, answered their phones or texted anyone once they reached Mendocino County, he said. The family logged thousands of miles every year on road trips to parks and festivals. Jennifer Hart commemorated her versions of the family's journeys and home life on her Facebook page up until days before they died. Her posts often drew dozens of comments from friends and acquaintances they met at festivals who marveled at what she portrayed as their blissful life. In reality, the family was extremely isolated. Jennifer Hart homeschooled the children while Sarah Hart worked. Their three boys and three girls almost never interacted with anyone outside their mothers' network of friends. Neighbors rarely saw the children or visitors at the home. The Harts adopted all of the children from foster care in Texas. Adoption subsidies paid by that state represented a significant portion of the family's budget up until their deaths, as did Social Security benefits that went to two of the boys. Biological siblings Markis, Hannah and Abigail arrived first, in 2006, then brothers and sister Devonte, Jeremiah and Sierra in 2009. Five months before officials signed off on the second adoption, Minnesota police and child welfare workers investigated the Harts for child abuse. Hannah, then 6, said one of her mothers had struck her with a belt. Both women told police and a social worker that Hannah had fallen down a set of stairs. The Harts would be reported to child welfare officials for suspected abuse or neglect eight more times. The reports centered on concerns of extreme punishment, such as withholding food. Although the children were never placed into foster care, case workers in Minnesota and Oregon found evidence to support some of the abuse claims. Sarah Hart was convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault in 2011 in Minnesota after she admitted to hitting middle daughter Abigail. The girl had disclosed to school officials that Jennifer Hart, not Sarah Hart, had hit her. Eventually, the Harts pulled the children out of public school. They moved to West Linn after Sarah Hart finished her one year of probation. The children never attended school during their final year in Minnesota, four years living in West Linn nor their 10 months in Washington. The mothers never left the children alone, even as they entered their teenage years, Slates said, based on his conversations with friends and relatives. When the family stayed overnight at friends homes, the women insisted the children and teens all sleep in the same room with their parents, he said. When Jennifer Hart and the six children visited the home of a friend in 2013, the woman was so worried about the discipline she witnessed that she called Oregon child welfare authorities after the visit. She described the children as robotic and reliant upon their mother for permission to eat and use the restroom. At Jennifer Harts command, the children, then ages 8 to 14, formed a single file line and waited for their turn to go to the bathroom, Slates testified in reference to the friends observations. The Oregon child welfare investigation dragged on for months. A doctor noted that all of the children were so undersized that all but one of their heights and weights did not register on growth charts for children their same ages. But case workers concluded they did not have enough evidence to take action because the doctor ultimately concluded that the children appeared healthy. International attention turned to middle son Devonte in 2014 after a photographer snapped a photo of him teary-eyed hugging a white Portland police officer. A poster-sized version of the photo hung in the hearing room Thursday so that the jury could see. Jennifer Hart told friends the photo generated countless missives of hate aimed particularly at their black children. She said some of the messages threatened their lives. Slates said he did find some hate-filled emails but none that contained death threats. The messages and the polarizing presidential election of 2016 profoundly impacted Jennifer Hart, he said. The family bought their rural Woodland property in May 2017. There was a fear, that based on the political outcome, that they would potentially lose their children, he said. Days before the crash, the neighbor called child welfare officials after she said Devonte repeatedly asked for shelf-stable food for himself and his siblings. The call triggered a visit from a case worker to the familys Clark County home on March 23. The case worker saw a GMC Yukon pull into driveway, said Clark County Deputy Adam Beck. But when the case worker knocked on the front and back doors of the home at 5:30 p.m., no one answered. With the homes doors left unlocked, the family pulled away in the Yukon three hours later, the GPS data shows. They drove through Oregon as night turned to day and paid cash for food and gas along the way, Slates said. Jennifer Hart bought groceries at a Safeway south of the crash site the morning of March 25. Sarah Hart waited for a nearby Dollar Tree to open and bought eight toothbrushes and other toiletries. No one knows exactly how the Harts spent the rest of their final day. Authorities believe it was late at night when Jennifer Hart parked the SUV on the dirt lookout. A man camping near the site estimated the vehicle was parked for four hours before he heard an engine revving and tires screeching against the gravel. Slates said he believes the women did not set out from home with a plan to kill their family. But two nights later, their decision was settled. That if they cant have their kids, that nobody was going to have those kids, Slates said. Help available National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 Multnomah County: 503-988-4888 or 1-800-716-9769 Clackamas County: 503-655-8585 Washington County: 503-291-9111 Southwest Washington: 1-800-626-8137 or 866-835-2755 -- Molly Young myoung@oregonian.com A year ago, investigators laid out all the ways that Portland Public Schools had failed to protect students from three decades of alleged sexual misconduct by educator Mitchell Whitehurst. They noted that administrators conducted cursory investigations if they did any investigation at all into reports that Whitehurst was sexually propositioning students. They recommended creating a clear policy laying out the boundaries of appropriate conduct between teachers and staff with students. And they singled out problematic provisions in the teachers union contract that allow purging of reprimands from teachers files. Such provisions which make it difficult to detect patterns of potential misconduct should be changed at the earliest opportunity, investigators advised. Board members emotionally pledged their commitment to carrying out the recommendations diligently and quickly, as director Rita Moore put it. Diligently and quickly, however, appears to mean sporadically and with no urgency, at least when it comes to negotiating changes in the teachers contract. As The Oregonian/OregonLives Eder Campuzano reported last week, the school board voted 6-1 to extend the teachers contract by a year, grant $11 million in cost-of-living raises and related benefits and make zero changes to the problematic provisions identified by the investigators. Instead, Moore, the board chair, is championing an approach in which the board will work collaboratively with the teachers union to start talking about making possible changes to those provisions that, if approved, may go in effect at some point. Someone might want to tell the school board that this is not how leverage is supposed to work in contract negotiations. This approach is concerning for many reasons. While teachers deserve the cost-of-living increases, students and families also deserve policies that protect them from the few educators who are out to harm them. And so far, the union has shown no interest in giving up those sweetheart provisions that, investigators said, protect educators, not students. Among other things, the provision requires PPS to delete certain documents about a teachers conduct from the file kept at his or her school every time the educator switches schools or a new principal takes over a frequent occurrence in the district. Suzanne Cohen, president of the teachers union, has already dismissed investigators criticism of the contract, maintaining that blame for the Whitehurst debacle resides with administrators failures, not with the contract. Theres also the fact that Cohen refused to even meet with the investigators hired by PPS, even though their charge was to dissect how Whitehurst evaded discipline for so long and develop solutions for preventing future cases. Of the 100 people contacted by investigators, Cohen was one of the few who declined to answer questions. Thats not the position of someone who recognizes the damage and pain shared by students about their encounters with Whitehurst. Similarly, the union has been unresponsive to the districts efforts to create a conduct policy that lays out boundaries for staff and student interactions. The union has yet to offer any meaningful input on the proposed policy, which has been available since last fall. Moore said this proposal will be part of the upcoming talks between the union and the board. And although Moore said the two sides expect to reach an agreement on changing those provisions before the end of the school year, theres no actual deadline. Yet failure to do so carries significant consequences. The district has already said it will shift staffing for next school year. If a new policy is not implemented, documents in all those building files of affected staffers will be lost. Julia Brim-Edwards, the lone board member to vote against the contract extension, said at Tuesdays meeting that she supports the salary increases but couldnt support the inaction on the problematic contractual provisions. Its a real missed opportunity that were going to go potentially another year before we implement changes... Those are really important provisions relating to student safety and also transparency in the system. Not to mention that The Oregonian/OregonLive, whose reporter broke the story of Whitehursts long-standing pattern of alleged misconduct, identified those contract provisions as contributing factors back in 2017. The danger they pose is not new information. And finally, the board failed to tell the public that it had no intention to negotiate the personnel file issue as part of this round of contract talks despite the commitments they made a year ago. At Tuesdays meeting, Moore chastised Brim-Edwards for her opposition, saying that the full board had decided to decouple the contract provisions from the salary increases. That decision, however, was made in a closed executive session, never shared with the public and raises questions of whether the board violated open-meetings law in spirit if not in the letter. PPS families, community members and teachers who are disturbed by the unions apathy must provide the pressure to change these provisions. They should insist that the board carry out investigators recommendations in full as members had indicated they would. They should also demand that the meetings between the board and union over changes to the contract provisions be open to the public. Those sessions may be legally closed only if both sides agree to duck public scrutiny. And they should remind board members of the seemingly heartfelt pledges they made last year to do better for students. Keeping students safe is our duty and our moral obligation, said Julie Esparza Brown. At every level, this organization failed what I consider our most important responsibility, which is to hold the child at the center of every decision, said Amy Kohnstamm. The media and public should hold us accountable for putting these recommendations into being, said Scott Bailey. And from Moore: Bureaucratic reform will mean nothing if we dont change the organizational culture of PPS from being adult focused to being child focused. Well said. But that change must begin with the board. -The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board Editorial Agenda 2019 Transform education for students benefit Keep Oregon solvent Work toward more evenhanded justice in Oregon Put Portland on the right track ________________________ Read more about the editorial board's priorities for 2019. By Jim Tharpe Special To The Washington Post Tharpe is a retired journalist who lives in Atlanta and a former managing editor of the Montgomery Advertiser. There's something strange afoot at the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the nation's richest civil and human rights charities. In March, the center abruptly fired legendary co-founder Morris Dees. Dees' biography was quickly scrubbed from the center's website, and the SPLC announced this week that Karen Baynes-Dunning would serve as interim president and CEO, giving the civil rights organization its first black female leader. In confirming Dees' departure, then-President Richard Cohen emphasized the center's values of "truth, justice, equity, and inclusion," and he said vaguely, "When one of our own fails to meet those standards, no matter his or her role in the organization, we take it seriously and must take appropriate action." Subsequent news reports pointed to allegations of racial discrimination and sexual harassment inside an organization that had raised hundreds of millions of dollars from donors to fight just that type of injustice. Dees has said little about why he was shown the door after 48 years at the organization he had come to define. But to those of us familiar with the SPLC and its inner workings, the allegations swirling around the latest drama were familiar. The question isn't what went wrong at the SPLC; it is why it took so long for the rest of the country to learn what local reporters already knew. It will probably take a federal investigation to fully unravel this Deep South mystery and provide a credible, long-term fix. More than two decades ago, I was managing editor of the Montgomery Advertiser, which was located one block from the SPLC in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. I proposed an investigation into the organization after ongoing complaints from former SPLC staffers, who came and went with regularity but always seemed to tell the same story. Only the names and faces changed. The SPLC, they said, was not what it appeared to be. Many urged the newspaper to take a look. We were, at the time, anything but adversaries with the center. Like other media outlets, we generally parroted SPLC news releases. We also became friends with SPLC staffers, occasionally attending the center's parties. Some of my reporters dated staffers at the center. That relationship, however, suddenly soured when reporters Dan Morse and Greg Jaffe (both of whom now work for The Washington Post) began making serious inquiries about the SPLC's finances and the treatment of black employees. SPLC leaders threatened legal action on several occasions and at one point openly attacked the newspaper's investigation in a mass mailing to Montgomery lawyers and judges. Then they slammed the door. "Accommodating your charade of objectivity simply takes too much of our time," center co-founder Joseph Levin wrote the Advertiser in 1993. "Our patience in this matter is exhausted, and we will not respond to further inquiries of any sort." In February 1994, after three years of research, the Advertiser published an eight-part series titled "Rising Fortunes: Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center" that found a litany of problems and questionable practices at the SPLC, including a deeply troubled history with its relatively few black employees, some of whom reported hearing the use of racial slurs by the organization's staff and others who "likened the center to a plantation"; misleading donors with aggressive direct-mail tactics; exaggerating its accomplishments; spending most of its money not on programs but on raising more money; and paying its top staffers (including Dees and Cohen) lavish salaries. Dees and Cohen vigorously denied its findings. And the SPLC mounted an aggressive campaign against the series when it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize - it was a 1995 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. And yet, based on the details of Dees' ouster, the problems we identified 25 years ago do not appear to have been resolved. And yet, a few days after Dees was canned, a friend sent me a recent mail solicitation from the SPLC touting Dees' accomplishments and asking donors to "let Morris and his colleagues know you care" not only by donating but by using the donor's own "first-class stamp so more of your contribution goes to the SPLC." Cohen, before he announced his own departure, said the center would bring in well-regarded lawyer Tina Tchen to conduct an investigation. It's too late for that. The IRS, which grants the SPLC tax-exempt status, and the civil rights division of the Justice Department would be the best bets to really figure out what's up at the organization. Any investigation should take a close look at the SPLC's finances. It should look at what the center has told donors in its mail solicitations over the years. And it should take a close look at how that donor money has been spent. Investigators should also look at how SPLC staffers have been treated over the years. Where was the center's board when this mistreatment was going on? And why did no one step up sooner? The feds owe that to the young progressives who work at the SPLC. And they certainly owe that to the donors who have put their own first-class stamps on the checks they mailed to Montgomery. Pakistan Navy Doctor Jobs 2019 Latest Pakistan Navy Navy Posts Islamabad 2021 Join Pakistan Navy As Civilian Doctor, Medical Officer in Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Other regions of Pakistan. Interested candidate can apply. Candidate must have experience in relevant field. How to Apply on Pakistan Navy Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If an employer asks to pay money for any purpose, do not pay at all and report us at contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs may not be applied online here. Human typing error is possible. Error & omissions excepted. By Kate Titus Titus is executive director of Common Cause Oregon, a nonpartisan government watchdog organization. If there is one thing Oregonians can agree on, it is that our vote should count. We lead the nation in registering voters automatically and our vote-by-mail system produces voter turnout that outpaces other states. Why then do we allow our votes to be silenced? Both Democratic and Republican legislators in Oregon and across the country have proven themselves incapable of putting the voters' interests ahead of their own when they draw congressional and legislative maps. The practice, known as gerrymandering, is as old as the Republic, but looks very different in our data-driven digital age. Partisan map-makers use scientific data to pack supporters of the opposing party into as few districts as possible to limit their clout or spread them over several districts to dilute their power. Sometimes legislators from opposing parties even work together in whats known as a bipartisan gerrymander divvying up districts, making them safe for one party or the other, but leaving many voters with little chance of meaningful competition or choice. Oregon legislators arent the worst gerrymanderers in the country, but there is evidence of an imbalance. Oregon Democrats hold four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to one for the Republicans, which equates to winning 80 percent of the congressional seats with 58 percent of the vote. All in all, 17 states impose greater checks and balances on redistricting, including seven states that empower citizen commissions to draw congressional maps. But Oregon puts the foxes in charge of the henhouse. We can do better. Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, has proposed a bill this legislative session that provides a good starting point for state redistricting reform. Senate Joint Resolution 11 would empower an independent citizen commission to draw the lines. The commissioners would be ordinary voters, with no conflicts of interest and equal representation for political parties and independents. Map-makers would take testimony from people across the state and draw lines guided by community interest and not the interests of any party or candidate. The bill, which proposes a constitutional amendment, should advance and go to voters in November 2020. To be sure, politicians will not give up the power to gerrymander without a fight. And we may see a range of reform proposals some stronger than others. A redistricting proposal that strips the power from state legislators, only to hand it to county politicians for example, does not solve the problem. We need true reform that puts power in the hands of citizens, removes conflicts of interest, and ensures full transparency. But heres some good news. Even as we must work locally for reform, the U.S. Supreme Court could soon help. Last month, the court heard oral arguments against two egregious cases of gerrymandering, one benefiting Republicans in North Carolina, the other giving advantage to Democrats in Maryland. In Rucho v. Common Cause, my nonpartisan watchdog organization argued that North Carolina Republicans violated the Constitutional rights of Democrats through an extreme partisan gerrymander that gave the GOP a 10-3 advantage in House seats despite earning just over half of the votes. In Lamone v. Benisek, which was originated by a Common Cause member, plaintiffs argued that Maryland Democrats violated the First Amendment rights of Republicans when they redrew a congressional district to flip it from red to blue. Many legal observers came away from the arguments optimistic that the justices agreed these were the best test cases to end partisan gerrymandering. Every justice on the court, conservative and liberal alike, started from the place that partisan gerrymandering is a real problem for our democracy and asked questions demonstrating their interest in discussing what a national standard could look like. By June, we hope the high court will strike down gerrymandering and declare the practice illegal and unconstitutional nationwide. Oregon would still be wise to require a transparent citizen-driven mapping process. A definitive Supreme Court decision will accelerate Oregons people-powered movement and provide the legal backing a citizen commission needs to enforce impartial maps. Now is the time to unrig system. In our countrys history, there has never been a moment in which the U.S. Supreme Court appeared closer to stopping gerrymandering. The justices must finally recognize that only their action can prevent highly scientific gerrymanders from depriving all Americans of fundamental democratic rights. Oregonians can bring their spirit of reform to redistricting and hold elected officials accountable on Election Day. A definitive decision by the high court would provide strong legal backing. A transparent citizen-driven commission would provide the process. Our voters should pick their politicians, not the other way around. I am a physician who cares for patients in the intensive care unit and in a lung specialty clinic. Every day I try to help fellow Oregonians suffering from the toxic and lethal effects of tobacco, from lung cancer to asthma to heart attacks and strokes. Cigarettes kill half of regular users. The companies selling these devastating products profit from addicting children and teens to a lifelong nicotine habit. Our lawmakers want to raise the cost of a pack of cigarettes by $2 as well as make gateway devices like e-cigarettes more expensive. Vaping is epidemic among our youth, and teens who start vaping are more likely to start smoking, which is why Big Tobacco is buying up e-cigarettes and lobbying as hard as they can in Salem. Most smokers want to quit, and there are effective interventions that can double or quadruple their chances of doing so, but funding these is essential. A simple $2 tobacco tax will help fund tobacco cessation programs and contribute to Medicaid funding. The American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society and the Oregon Thoracic Society support this tax. It will save lives and decrease the number of teens who start smoking and become lifelong victims of the tobacco industry, generating escalating health care costs that affect all of us. We are subsidizing tobacco companies by paying more in health insurance premiums, taxes and sick leave to benefit these corporations bottom lines. Only $2 per pack? Its a start. Erika Maria Moseson Moseson is president of the Oregon Thoracic Society By Joshua Spivak Special To The Washington Post Spivak is a senior fellow at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College. He writes at the Recall Elections Blog. As the presidential campaign heats up, so too has the movement to abolish or otherwise neutralize the electoral college. Some advocates argue that the electoral college was originally established to help less-populated states retain power, or to have every part of the country heard from in electing a chief executive. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., claims the system was designed to help the slave states. But these are modern interpretations of what really happened at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The electoral college was designed with two purposes: to separate the branches of government in an attempt to avoid "cabals," and to prevent foreign corruption. Some of the Founding Fathers assumed it would almost never actually elect a president. In other words, we could say the electoral college failed to achieve most of what the founders designed it to do. The electoral college was not a replacement for direct election - because that possibility never received serious consideration at the convention. (Only two of 11 states voted for a popular election of the president.) As James Madison's notes make clear, there was very little support for a popular election of the president. The original idea in his influential Virginia Plan was that the new bicameral legislature - Congress - would itself gather to elect the executive, and the convention repeatedly returned to that idea. We may find this odd, but during the 1780s, such a setup was the norm. In eight of the 13 states, the state legislature elected the governor. In two other states, if no candidate received an absolute majority of the popular vote, the legislature had the power of selection. Nevertheless, the idea of the legislature electing a president disturbed the convention delegates, who were focused on establishing separation of powers and averting foreign interference. Having Congress elect the president would result in "corruption and cabals," according to Pennsylvania's Gouverneur Morris (who is credited with actually hand-writing the Constitution). Alexander Hamilton, who first proposed the electoral college, focused on the potential dangers of foreign corruption. Having the selection spread among the states rather than in the compact Congress would help ward off the dangers of "foreign powers" gaining "an improper ascendant in our councils." The electoral college was adopted to serve as an alternative to Congress in the presidential election process, spread out among the states and with no members of Congress allowed to serve in the body. To win election, a candidate would have to win a majority of electoral votes, and if that failed to occur, Congress would ultimately decide who among the candidates receiving votes would become president. In fact, most delegates thought the latter scenario would be the norm, with the electoral college "nominating" the five most worthy candidates so that Congress could select a president from that group. One delegate, George Mason, predicted that Congress would be deciding the president "nineteen times out of twenty." Antifederalist Paper No. 72 claimed that the electoral college settling on a president was "not likely to happen twice in the same century." That's not what happened, though. George Washington would easily win electoral majorities in 1789 and 1792. But after he left office, the electoral college plan almost immediately began to break down. Instead of multiple candidates running for the presidency as the Founding Fathers had expected, political parties quickly formed and presidential elections seemed to become one-on-one fights. The election of 1800 spelled doom for the original plan, resulting in an electoral college tie between Thomas Jefferson and his presumed running mate, Aaron Burr. The vote went to the House of Representatives (which took 36 ballots to elect Jefferson). The debacle led to the adoption of the 12th Amendment, which changed the vice president from a competitor and runner-up to (in most cases) a subservient running mate. The next time Congress had to choose the president was in 1824, when Andrew Jackson, who finished first in the electoral college, lost in the House to John Quincy Adams. Since then (except for the disputed 1876 election), Congress has not been involved in a single presidential selection. The electoral college, instead, has moved up from its more humble beginnings as a potential nominating body to serving as the real selector of presidents. The electoral college did not succeed in warding off the creation of "cabals" - better known today as political parties. And as the 2016 election showed, foreign powers have been very happy to try to manipulate the election, and the current version of the electoral college did nothing to limit such behavior. Despite this, all the plans to get rid of the electoral college are, at the moment, fantastical. The Republican Party is firmly opposed to the idea, and there seems little hope that Republicans will change their minds. The Interstate Compact has not been adopted by any "red" states, and even if it passed, it would be certain to face legal challenges. Its safe to say the electoral college is here to stay. But in accepting that, we shouldnt pretend as though the electoral college is part of some grand bargain that the founders enacted to balance the country. Its not. Instead, its a relic of the 18th century that failed in some of its most important intended purposes. Joe Kim became the executive chef at 5 Fusion & Sushi Bar (821 N.W. Wall St., No. 100, Bend; 541-323-2328) in 2012. Since then, the restaurant has positioned itself as one of Bends best and garnered national acclaim as well. The chef himself has been named a semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundations Best Chef in the Northwest three times. OK, so the food quality is a given, but what exactly is Asian fusion cuisine? Were talking about combining the traditions and techniques of Asian styles of cooking with the ingredients and flavors of the Pacific Northwest. Thus, the Wagyu beef burger (locally sourced Wagyu beef with kimchi slaw, provolone and wasabi aioli); or the citrus glazed scallops (on any other menu as pan seared; here the emphasis is on the kaffir lime, lemongrass and pomegranate). Happy hour (4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday) in this narrow but inviting space is equally adventurous, with a dozen or so specialty cocktails (Angry Mango, Asian Pear, etc.) and an equal number of aged Japanese whiskeys to sample. There are plenty of starters as well as separate sushi and tasting menus. Everything from the food to the drinks is presented artfully and takes the experience to the next level. Restaurant hours are 4 p.m. to close. If its Italian cuisine that you crave, head to Bends Old Mill District to Flatbread Neapolitan Pizzeria (375 S.W. Powerhouse Drive, Suite 130, Bend; 541-728-0600). What makes this pizzeria so special? For starters, this is the only pizzeria in Oregon serving authentic Neapolitan pizza certified by the Vera Pizza Napoletana Association in Naples, Italy where it all started. Secondly, every bite seems better when soaking up patio views of the Deschutes River and Mount Bachelor and taking in central Oregons crisp air and sunshine. Lastly, the extensive menu will likely have something for even the pickiest eaters in your group, whether thats appetizing sandwiches like the steak tip dip or wood-roasted portobello, tasty soups, hearty salads, housemade sausage lasagna or the specialty Neapolitan pizza, pies and flatbreads (youll want to have a fork and knife handy). Desserts are just as pleasing, with Italian-style options like an almond panna cotta, a decadent chocolate melting cake or everyones childhood favorite warm cookies with very cold milk. Bring the kiddos as they enjoy playing chef by creating their own personal pizzas. Pizzeria hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, extended to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; closed Monday. The all-new fourth edition of Gerry Franks Oregon guidebook is available through oregonguidebook.com; 503-585-8411; gerry@teleport.com; amazon.com; Macys; and P.O. Box 2225, Salem, OR 97308. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Paducah, KY (42003) Today Mostly cloudy. Periods of rain early. Low 54F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Mostly cloudy. Periods of rain early. Low 54F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%. In this photo from March 15, 2018, Carlisle County Judge-Executive Greg Terry (left) and Keith Taylor, Kings Royal Biotech chief operating officer, stood side by side in announcing the planned hemp processing plant in Bardwell. The project never materialized and the county is suing to regain ownership of the property. DAVID ZOELLER | The Sun (CNN) Airbnbs have changed the way we vacation, offering accommodation that adds a whole new dimension to travel. Sometimes that extra dimension is delightful a unique place to crash in a cool neighborhood, or the chance to experience life like a local. But lately, there have been a few incidents where the extra dimension is downright creepy. In the most recent, a family from New Zealand discovered a hidden camera livestreaming from a property they were renting in Cork, Ireland. That follows claims of several other secret camera discoveries, which were reported last month by The Atlantic magazine. Of course, these are likely isolated incidents and Airbnb says it has taken action, investigated and apologized where appropriate. Airbnb insists negative experiences during stays are extremely rare. "The safety and privacy of our community both online and offline is our priority," Airbnb said in a statement following the Ireland incident. "Airbnb policies strictly prohibit hidden cameras in listings and we take reports of any violations extremely seriously." Nevertheless, after Andrew Barker from New Zealand used his professional IT security skills to detect the camera hidden in the house in Cork, his family advised other travelers to learn how to scan networks for covert devices. Exercise in trust "We think people need to realize that the travel market is largely unregulated and if you would take issue with being filmed, then you need to take all steps properly," Nealie Barker said. But is it even possible to check for such spy devices without fully descending into paranoia? Arguably, we shouldn't need to check at all. Any renting of accommodation, whether from a major hotel chain or from an individual, is an exercise in trust, without which it's hard not to just stay home. "Obviously, this is happening in a tiny minority of the properties on the site, but it's never a bad idea to take a careful look around your Airbnb when you arrive, not just for hidden cameras, but also for safety items, like unobstructed exits and fire extinguishers," said Pauline Frommer, editorial director for the Frommer's travel brand. "The key to remember with all Airbnb stays is that these are private properties, that are not subject to the same kinds of inspections a hotel would be," Frommer said. Not that hotel guests are entirely immune from digital age privacy invasions. In South Korea last month, arrests were made after police said more than 1,600 people had been secretly filmed in motel rooms. For those who want to follow the Barkers' advice, security experts point to varying levels of checks, from the cursory to the in-depth that could help identify hidden lenses. First of all, checks should be made around each room for strange devices, the shine of camera lenses and tiny holes, according to tech websites such as lifehacker and Digital Trends. They say this should include the back ends of books, mirrors, light bulbs, house plants, areas that would give the best field of view. Apps and scanners Flashlights, like the one on a smartphone, can be used to pick up reflections from camera lenses. Tech experts advise turning off all the lights and shining a flashlight around the area to search for a lens. Any gadgets that look abnormal should be targeted: alarm clocks and smoke detectors are potential hiding places for cameras. "Assuming the camera has some form of lens, you use a device that has a very bright light source and a viewfinder that allows you to scan for the reflections from the lens," Professor Alan Woodward from the Center for Cyber Security at the UK's Surrey University, told CNN. Some cameras can operate in the dark and to do that they need an infrared source, he added. "If that were the case you could (assuming it's dark) turn off all the lights and use your forward-facing phone camera which tends not to have an IR filter fitted and so may see any IR illumination, assuming it's there." It's also possible to install apps on your phone that can scan for hidden cameras or buy a radio frequency scanner. "If it does transmit RF, then you can again buy a standard bug detector that you sweep the room with to search for hidden sources of radio transmission," says Woodward. "There are some products out there that combine the optical and RF detection methods." Internet cameras need a data connection to store or stream their footage, says tech company Fing, so cameras may be connected to your Airbnb host's network, the same Wi-Fi that you have been allowed to connect to -- as was the case for the Barker family in Cork. Companies like Fing have devices that scan Wi-Fi networks and see all the other devices, both wired and wireless, connected. If a webcam camera has no connection to the Internet it can't send its footage, so disconnecting the Internet would stop the streaming. Stay relaxed However, even if no cameras appear on a network scan, it doesn't necessarily mean there's no secret filming as some hosts provide a guest Wi-Fi that is separate from their personal Internet. Anyone who does find anything suspicious should contact local police so they can investigate and notify Airbnb, which has pledged to investigate such matters and take action where necessary. Sarah Schlicter, a senior editor of advice site SmarterTravel, says that despite the recent headlines, snooping incidents are rare. She advises those concerned to make basic checks, but says travelers should be more worried about looking for bed bugs than electronic ones. And with no way of knowing in advance whether any room hotel or Airbnb is being spied upon, travelers should hope for the best. "I wouldn't let this be the deciding factor on where you choose to stay," she adds. "I also wouldn't let anxiety over this affect your ability to relax in your room and enjoy your vacation. "If you're concerned, check your room when you arrive. If you do find a camera, report it to your hotel or vacation rental booking site and seek new accommodations. Otherwise, there's not much else you can do." This story was first published on CNN.com "Should we be searching for hidden spy cameras in Airbnbs and hotels?" Punjab Daanish Schools Jobs 2019 in Bahawalnagar Latest Daanish Schools Management Posts Bahawalnagar 2021 Qualified and experienced personnel for the posts of Mathematics Teacher, Cook Helper, Mali, Sweeper, Waiter, Dish Washer & Laundary Man required for Punjab Daanish Schools Boys & Girls Chishtian District Bahawalnagar 2019. How to Apply on Daanish Schools Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If an employer asks to pay money for any purpose, do not pay at all and report us at contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs may not be applied online here. Human typing error is possible. Error & omissions excepted. Troop 484G out of Briensburg was one of the first Scouts BSA troops approved in the region. From left are Troop Master Jennifer Washburn and Scouts Isabelle, Amelia, Macey, Nani, and Jason McClure. All four Scouts received their slides and neckerchiefs as they were welcomed into the Court of Honor, a gathering for Scouts, families and guests where the troop and troop members are recognized for what's been accomplished and achieved. Contributed photo Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) Five people were killed and eight others injured on Sunday when a bus carrying tourists in the Tunisian southern governorate of Gabes was involved in an accident, reliable sources told PANA here Bamako, Mali (PANA) The European Union, Association of Malian Municipalities (AMM) and the Association of regions and municipalities (ARM) have signed two financing conventions for 900 million CFAF to strengthen local governance and regional councils within the framework of Malis regionalization process, reliable sources told PANA on Sunday Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - DR Congo media professionals have been urged to contribute to efforts toward the preservation of the ecosystem of the national Virunga Park (PNVi) threatened by insecurity, invasions of populations, and poaching, a communique issued to PANA said Algiers, Algeria (PANA) - The Algerian Parliament will meet on Tuesday at the Palais des Nations (Algiers), following its notification by the Constitutional Council of the final vacancy of the post of president of the republic, a communique issued here Saturday and obtained by PANA said Patna: Following a day of high drama at the Lalu-Rabri residence over the reduction in their security detail, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered reinstatement of the security guards while asking the police Headquarters to explain what transpired their withdrawal in the first place. As reported previously, Bihar police on Wednesday recalled 17 Bihar Military Police (BMP) on the ground that the family did not need them any longer since the head of the household, that is, party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, did not live there anymore since his conviction in a number of fodder scam cases. This invited the wrath of the Yadav family members who, in protest, gave up all of their security cover while accusing the NDA government of trying to get all of them killed. In a sign of solidarity, all RJD legislators also returned their security details to the government. Former Chief Minister of Bihar Mrs. Rabri Devi then wrote a scathing letter to Kumar demanding an explanation on why the security jawans were withdrawn from her home. When Kumar heard about the incident, he immediately ordered return of the jawans at her residence on 10 Circular Road. However, hoping to milk the incident for political purpose, Rabri Devi refused to take back the security saying until she received an explanation for why the security was withdrawn in the first place, a question already answered by the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Sanjiv Kumar Singhal who had earlier said that the withdrawn jawans were part of Lalu Prasad Yadav's security detail and since he was now making the Ranchi jail his home, he did not need cover in Patna. "Until I get an explanation from the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister, I have no desire to take back the security. Till then, my people and the God will provide safety to me and my family," Mrs. Devi said. The operator of Prestige Limo was indicted Friday on 20 felony counts of second-degree manslaughter and 20 felony counts of criminally negligent homicide, Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery said. Nauman Hussain, who was initially charged with one count of criminally negligent homicide, rented the limousine that wrecked in upstate New York in October, which killed 20 people, including a Boiling Springs graduate. The indictment came nearly six months after Hussain was first charged by police. Mallery presented the grand jury with separate counts for each of the victims in the crash, which included the driver, 17 passengers and two bystanders, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Brian Hough, 46, was one of the pedestrians who was struck by the limousine when it went through a stop sign at the end of a highway in Schoharie County. Hough was an assistant professor of geology at SUNY Oswego. The State University of New York issued a statement following his death. The university called him a valued colleague and dedicated teacher. Hough began his career at the university in 2016 as a visiting professor. Hough was a scholar who specialized in the interactions of tectonics and climate and paleoelevation, SUNY Oswego staff said. He taught courses in stratigraphy, oceanography, historical geology and paleontology. SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley described Hough as a dedicated faculty member who inspired his students to learn and understand at a deep level, and whose contributions were often sought by his colleagues. The grand jury also indicted Hussain on separate manslaughter charges for each victim. The limo, which had twice failed inspection, blew through a stop sign at the bottom of a hill, crashing into a parked SUV near the Apple Barrel Country Store, a popular seasonal shop in the rural town of Schoharie. It was the deadliest motor-vehicle wreck in the United States since 2009. Hussain pleaded not guilty to the original criminal charge. Hes expected to be arraigned on the indictment Wednesday. A murder charge has been filed against a central Pennsylvania woman, who 21 years ago pleaded guilty to shaking an infant so severely that he suffered skull fractures, hemorrhaging and brain injuries. Teresa A. Gill, 41, was arraigned Friday afternoon on charges of murder of the third degree and involuntary manslaughter, online court documents show. Those charges stem from an incident that occurred on June 22, 1998, in Carlisle, according to the court documents. However, the circumstances that led to the chargers were not immediately confirmed. The charges were filed by the Cumberland County District Attorneys Office, but multiple attempts to reach District Attorney Skip Ebert Saturday afternoon were unsuccessful. Ebert has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Monday, saying that officials will release information about a suspect for homicide in an unusual case involving a shaken impact death." That death occurred May 17, 2018, according to the press conference announcement. Gill was charged in 1998 with aggravated assault, simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child when she was accused of badly injuring her 5-month-old son, Kurtis Reed. The injuries were reportedly the result of Gill shaking her son on June 22 of that year the same date associated with the recent murder charge. In 1998, police said the babys head repeatedly struck a piece of furniture as he was shaken. Gill eventually admitted to shaking Reed, who was flown by helicopter to an area hospital where he was in critical condition for multiple days, according to previous Patriot-News reports. Gill testified that she shook her son because she was angry with his father, the Patriot-News reported. He and I were trying to work out our differences, Gill said, according to the report, but he kept going back to his other girlfriend I got upset and I took it out on my son when I should have talked to the father. In December 1998, Gill pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to four years in state prison, according to reports. At that time, doctors said Reed would likely survive only in a permanent vegetative state. On her most recent charges, Gill was denied bail and remains incarcerated in Cumberland County Prison, online court documents show. Gill is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing at 8 a.m. Wednesday before Magisterial District Judge Jonathan R. Birbeck. LOCK HAVEN A Clinton County man who survived a game of Russian roulette has been sentenced three to six years to state prison on charges related to the incident. Randy Hill, 45, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to charges of recklessly endangering another person and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and no contest to possession of a firearm with an altered serial number. Hill was charged after Robert Ronald Litz Jr., 42, fatally shot himself in the head May 19 while the two were playing Russian roulette in the Lock Haven apartment building where they lived. He was not charged with Litzs death, but the recklessly endangering count accused him of handing him a loaded firearm with the intention of playing Russian roulette. The two had been drinking when Litz decided he wanted to play Russian roulette, the charges state. Michael Shilling, who lives in the same building, told police at Hills request he got a box from a drawer that contained a .357 Magnum. Hill, who claimed he was keeping the gun for Litz, unloaded four or five rounds. Thinking the revolver was empty, Litz put it to his head and pulled the trigger, the arrest affidavit states. Litz then put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, killing himself, police were told. The Magnum was found on a table along with a white powder residue suspected to be cocaine and a small notebook that contained names and dollar amounts, the charges state. Hill told investigators Litz was selling pills for him and he kept a record of the sales in the notebook. There was no visible serial number on the firearm and it appeared as if the bottom part of the frame where the number should have been had been cut off, police said. Also observed in the room was a bottle containing about 50 pills from a prescription filled the day before for Hill of 180 hydrocodone pills, they said. Two small bags containing marijuana, approximately 100 empty baggies, mirror, lighter, razor blade glass pipes and suspected cocaine were found in the box that had contained the revolver, they said. CHICAGO Two men who opened fire on a crowd of people gathered for a baby shower, wounding six people, including two children, may have acted in retaliation for an earlier gang conflict, police said Sunday. Authorities have only "shards of information" about what happened at the family gathering in Chicago because witnesses are not cooperating, a police spokesman said, but investigators hope the serious nature of the children's injuries will prompt someone to talk. "This is a very tragic incident. You have two young children, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, clinging to life," Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. At least a dozen people were gathered outside a home decorated with balloons for the baby shower when two armed men approached on foot and began shooting about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Guglielmi said. The gunmen fired multiple rounds and ran away down an alley, he said. An 8-year-old boy was shot in the chest and back, and a 10-year-old girl was shot in the leg. Both children were in critical but stable condition. Their names were not released. Also shot were four other people three men ranging in age from 23 to 48 and a 29-year-old woman. The woman was hospitalized in critical condition, and the two younger men were in stable condition. The condition of the oldest man was unknown, and Guglielmi said it was unclear whether the woman who was hurt may have been the person who was pregnant. People rushed inside the house when the shooting began. Children who had been playing in the yard reportedly started piling atop one another as they tried to get through the door. "We were trying to pick the kids up, get the kids out of the way . they were going to get crushed," Richard Nix, whose grandson was having the shower, told The Chicago Tribune. "It wasn't nothing but kids in front of the house, sitting on the porch. They was just playing, and the shooting went off." The shooting occurred in the West Englewood neighborhood of Chicago's South Side, and investigators had indications it was in retaliation for a previous incident, the spokesman said. "It's part of a larger conflict that's going on in that area," Guglielmi said. Another shooting occurred Sunday morning about three blocks from the home where the gunfire erupted, he said, but it was unclear whether there was any connection. Authorities have struggled to contain violence in Chicago, the nations third-largest city. Police said 561 homicides were committed in the city last year, a total that exceeded the number of killings in New York and Los Angeles combined. Fellow Penn State alums, My name is Kelly Ayotte 90. I am a proud Nittany Lion and a classmate of Jeff Ballou, who I served with in student leadership positions at Penn State. After graduation, I went on to serve as the first woman attorney general of New Hampshire and as a United States Senator. I believe Jeff would be an excellent trustee and ask you to join me in supporting his candidacy for an alumni seat on our board of trustees. Through his service on Thon Overall, the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments, and Presiding over WPSU-FM among other activities, Jeff was a strong student leader at Penn State who always raised important questions while taking a consensus approach to ensure that the needs of all students university-wide were addressed. After graduation, Jeff continued his commitment to PSU by serving as an alumni leader at nearly every level. He has also been very engaged in his community and has excelled in his profession, including serving as president of the National Press Club. His knowledge and proven track record of fighting for transparency, and raising questions about critical issues, whether in Congress where I served, or as a respected member of the national press corp, are what we need now on the board of trustees. Please join me in voting for Jeff Ballou as our next alumni trustee, so that we can move Penn State always, forward. Thank you. For the Glory, Kelly Ayotte, U.S. Senator (2011-2017), Nashua, New Hampshire Attorney and Historian Craig Shagin says Pennsylvania was once open and welcoming to immigrants, back when they needed people to clear the forests, till the soil and keep the Native Americans at bay. Then, the Swedes and the Dutch made way for the Germans and the Scots-Irish, on land that also became home to British, French and Africans, among others. But that was a long time ago and the question is, are Pennsylvanians still open and welcoming to people from other lands and cultures, who speak other languages and who practice other faiths? Immigrants to Pennsylvania share their experiences at a forum at Central Penn College sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg. Several people recently spoke about their experiences settling in Pennsylvania at a forum at Central Penn College sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg. PennLive Opinion Page Editor Joyce M. Davis is president of the council. Some praised native Pennsylvanians as good, warm-hearted people who readily accepted them, while others felt a distinct chill, even in the summer air. Aaysha Noor Aaysha Noor, stunning in a leopard print hijab, matching pumps and bright red blazer, said she readily embraced her new home when she arrived several years ago from Pakistan. Educated professionals, Noor and her husband purchased a home in a pleasant suburban neighborhood but found their next-door neighbors werent much interested in getting to know them. The first thing they did was plant a row of trees so they didnt have to see us, she said. Despite the neighbor cold-shoulder, Noor found many others in our region more hospitable. Now active in the community, Noor has served as a leader of the Community Responders Network and is active in interfaith activities. Fred Faylona Fred Faylona came to Pennsylvania all the way from the Philippines and quickly adapted to his new homeland. An investment and insurance professional, Faylona doesnt have a single complaint about how Harrisburg received him. If you show you are open and let people know who you are, they will welcome you, Faylona said. its all in your attitude. Joining Harrisburg Young Professionals provided him a wide group of friends and a supportive path to becoming engaged in his community. Maria Gutierrez Maria Gutierrez is now an American citizen and living the dream she envisioned when she left Mexico in 1994. She came for a better life and found it. A homeowner, she volunteers for the Latino Hispanic American Community Center (LHACC) in Harrisburg and is a sought-after makeup artist at a local department store. Gutierrez found support and friendship within the Latino community but was surprised at the stereotypes in the general public about Mexico. Gutierrez, who is blonde, said people always seem surprised to learn shes Mexican. But they should visit Mexico," she said. "In Mexico, were all colors, and we dont all look the same. Marzena Bialy Marzena Bialy, who immigrated from Poland and now works at Temple Univerisity Harrisburg, had her share of troubles finding work, due to her Eastern European accent and, she said, her black husband. She lost one job when her husband visited, and the boss said he didnt approve of mixed-race marriages. Yep, she said, he really said that. Kalpana Doppalapudi Despite her quiet and retiring manner, Kalpana Doppalapudi is a one-woman powerhouse. Founder of PowerWomen, Doppalapudi is a native of India. Not the type to complain, Doppalapudi is a no-nonsense problem solver. She has dedicated herself to helping ease the transition of immigrants from South Asia into life in Central Pennsylvania. She has organized free health clinics, education seminars as well as womens conference to help connect immigrant families to the wider community. Perhaps the most moving story came from Turkish immigrant Muhammed Ciftci, who said he spent several months in jail after he fled his native Turkey, where he was being sought for arrest due to his parents political associations. Ciftci said he was forced to abandon his studies and flee to Albania, eventually winding up in prison in Pennsylvania, as the courts work through his asylum plea. Muhammed Ciftci Im out on bail now, he said, recounting the daily torture of being confined with dozens of people for months, hoping against hope for eventual freedom. After escaping arrest in Turkey and surviving months of prison in this country, Ciftci said the open fields and grain silos of Pennsylvania couldnt be more inviting. True, people arent as open and friendly here as in his native land, but that just ok with him. Hes free. So, whether Pennsylvania is welcoming depends very much on who you are, where you come from, what youve been through and what you expect when you get here. But our Commonwealth benefits from the new talent, drive and determination of immigrants like Noor, Faylona, Gutierrez, Bialy, Doppalapudi and Ciftci bring not to mention their tax dollars. Thats ample reason to make them feel welcome. PennLive Opinion Page Editor Joyce M. Davis is President/CEO of the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg, which organized the Global Migration conference. It was inevitable. In a Democratic Party that has rooted itself in identity politics - in which anyone and everyone is to be divided into politically correct groupings and judged by their skin color, gender and now sexual preference - Joe Biden has finally been targeted. This was inevitable. Good ole Joe, the son of blue collar Scranton, elected to the US Senate from Delaware when he had barely reached the constitutional age requirement of 30, has been a Senate and Washington figure ever since. Now 77 and white of hair, his career has spanned a history of the modern Democratic Party, known well for his passion and glad-handing, schmoozing friendliness to one and all. There have been both shocks and bumps along the way. In the shocking department was the loss of his young wife and daughter in a car accident mere weeks after his first election to the Senate in 1972. So horrific was this tragedy that he immediately considered resigning the seat he had just won, resolved to be a full-time Dad to his two remaining young boys. Wiser and more senior heads prevailed on him to stay the course, and the saga of Amtrak Joe was born. Every night after his Senate business retreated, the now young widower took the Amtrak train back to Delaware to be with his boys. He never lived in Washington until he became vice president. Years later, in 2015, one of those boys, son Beau - by now embarked on his own career in politics as the state attorney general - was stricken with a fatal cancer, plunging his father into grief and keeping him out of the 2016 race for president. Presidential races have not worked well for Joe Biden. In 1987, chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Reagan Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, he was simultaneously beginning his first race for president. And as a personal note here, I contributed to his political downfall that year. The campaign of a Democratic rival, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, had found a video clip of then-British labor Party leader Neil Kinnock, a noted orator, saying this: Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? [Then pointing to his wife in the audience] Why is Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because all our predecessors were thick? The Dukakis campaign, tracking opponent Biden, struck gold when they found another video - this one of Joe Biden saying very close to the same. The videos were paired, and in a blink the new presidential candidate found himself being accused of plagiarism. Biden denied the charge, saying that it was an accidental mistake of not properly crediting the remark. As a young Reagan White House aide at the time, I knew instantly this was not true. A devout Robert Kennedy fan in my youth, in the aftermath of RFKs assassination I had purchased a record album of RFK speeches - and memorized. In 1987 I had watched Biden give a speech in California, carried by C-Span. I quickly realized I was getting to the end of Bidens sentences before he did - because in fact he was quoting Robert Kennedy without attribution. At Bidens denial of plagiarism over the Kinnock quote, I picked up the phone and called the New York Times. Shortly I produced my Kennedy album for the Times, and within days there was a front page story on Biden plagiarizing RFK - quoting me. More allegations appeared, and within days he was out of the race. But Bidens very real problem now is the identity politics fire he himself has stoked. As Obamas vice president he took on the task of setting federal policy on a crisis of sexual assault on college campuses. Only two years ago he delivered a speech at George Mason University that sternly lectured young men that Consent requires affirmative consent. As was recently pointed out in an article in the Wall Street Journal by Daily Wire senior editor Ashe Schow, Bidens own actions would get him in serious trouble were he a young man on a college campus today. Bidens situation is an early warning sign that far-left activists in the Democratic Party are demanding that their nominee bow to the great god of political correctness and identity politics- something that Donald Trump made a point of opposing in 2016. When he won. Jeffrey Lord, of East Pennsboro Township, is a conservative author and commentator. His work appears frequently on PennLive Opinion. Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster) and Rep. Tom Mehaffie (R-Dauphin) have an interesting plan to extend the life of Three Mile Island and the nuclear power industry in general. Under current law, power distribution companies are required to include 18 percent alternative fuels in the product that they deliver to consumers. New legislation offered by Aument and Mehaffie would include nuclear power as one of those sources for companies to utilize to receive alternative energy credits. The portfolio of alternative energy sources has long been focused on solar, wind, geothermal and other green technologies that required incentives to move toward commercialization. While nuclear supporters correctly point out that the industry produces zero-carbon electricity, it is quite a stretch to consider it in the same family of fledgling power producers like solar or wind. In fact, the nuclear industry is well established and already produces about 42 percent of the states electric power. The reality is that the industry has been efficient and profitable for many years. The PJM Interconnection that monitors all power producers on a three state grid points out that, of the 18 nuclear plants in its territory, only three are operating at a loss. The reality is that those three include the aging Three Mile Island facility (which never brought reactor number two back on line after the TMI accident 40 years ago) and two other single reactor facilities that are simply out-of-date. Even with these underperformers, the five commercial nuclear plants in Pennsylvania had an estimated net profit of $640 million in 2018. The nuclear bailout legislation would cost Pennsylvania consumers about $500 million per year. AARP points out that this translates into an additional $2 to $3 per month in an average households energy bill. You can argue that this is a small price to pay to bolster an industry that already produces such a substantial portion of our power. Rep. Mehaffie also points out that it would protect jobs in his area which, in turn, generates tax revenues for the state. But heres the problem: government incentives are meant to stimulate those enterprises which have little or no chance of reaching commercial viability on their own. Since its inception, the nuclear industry has touted its economic viability and its promise for clean, safe, affordable energy for years to come. It was touted as a way to secure our economy, and actually contribute to our national defense through power supply diversity. Remember the Atoms for Peace campaign of the early nuclear adventure? Make no mistake, the nuclear power industry has served Pennsylvania and the nation well. It lived up to the promise of affordable energy and, with three notable exceptions (Chernobyl, Fukushima, and TMI), it has operated safely. The reality, though, is that nuclear power plants have a limited life span and, in fact, are looking at the end of those runs. Companies like Exelon are going to have to face billions of dollars of capital upgrades or decommissioning by the federal government. The question is: whose responsibility is that? Should power companies have had a strategic plan in place for upgrades and sustained operations? Given their profitability over the years, should a fund for just those purposes have been in place long ago? In addition to the exciting opportunities in environmental technologies like solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass, and others, Pennsylvania is blessed with natural gas reserves that are the envy of the world. At a time when then the natural gas industry is being asked to share the wealth in the form of a proposed extraction tax, it is odd that the nuclear power industry is asking for a subsidy. Nuclear can and should be a part of that energy equation but it is hardly in need of a citizens subsidy to participate. The industry says that, in the absence of some kind of government support, they will begin shutting down at least two plants Three Mile Island in Central Pennsylvania and Beaver Valley in Western Pennsylvania. This would reduce their generating capacity by about 25%. It would also result in job losses at both sites. Still, the market would likely respond to these changes by ramping up natural gas sales in PA and continuing the march from coal to other clean technologies. A strong argument for propping up the nuclear industry is that it has been a reliable, carbon-free source of power for many years. It also adds to the diversity of our energy supplies and that could help stabilize energy costs for all consumers. The reality, however, is that the nuclear challenge is limited to a few plants. Proponents seem to be seeking a windfall for the industry when the real needs are focused on two or three underperforming locations. The bottom line is that Pennsylvania needs nuclear power. But it is up to the industry to operate profitably and to compete fairly with other established energy producers and distributors. Mark S. Singel served as the 27th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995, alongside Gov. Bob Casey. He was acting governor from June 14 to Dec. 13, 1993, when Casey got sick. This column serves as the liberal counterpart to Charlie Gerow as part of the Donkey & Elephants series of contrasting opinions. When state government meddles in competitive markets, bad things happen. While its not usually the intent of those seeking government intervention, its invariably the result. Were seeing an example of that important truth here in Pennsylvania right now. For nearly a quarter of a century Pennsylvanians have enjoyed the benefits of a competitive electricity supply market. In 1996, Pennsylvania moved dramatically away from a system of state-sanctioned monopolies to true open competition in electricity supply. As a result, consumers benefited not only from more individual choices but also with lower electric bills. Wholesale electric prices are down more than 40 percent in the last decade. The competitive electric supply market has worked well for all Pennsylvanians and continues to do so. But now that competitive market is threatened by yet another government intrusion. Recently House Bill 11, the Keep Powering Pennsylvania Act was introduced. This proposed legislation would exempt more than a third of our electric generation from these competitive market forces. Specifically, HB 11 would expand the standard of Pennsylvanias Alternative Energy Portfolio Program by requiring purchase of electricity from the states five nuclear power plants while at the same time providing a taxpayer-paid subsidy to them whether or not they can compete in the open market. This legislation was introduced by good legislators, Tom Mehaffie in the House and Ryan Aument in the Senate, out of their understandable concern for constituents who might be negatively impacted by the announced closure of Three Mile Island. Exelon announced that they will begin shuttering TMI later this year. Exelon is a Fortune 100 company with nearly $34 billion in annual revenue. First Energy, which operates the Beaver Valley nuclear plant has announced a similar closing in 2021. Theyre a Fortune 500 with revenue of $14 billion. Many believe these closure announcements were made and timed to stimulate support for the subsidy they want and have included in HB11. While looking out for constituents is both understandable and laudable, often parochial interests lead to bad public policy. In this case thats certainly true. The proposed fix for the problems nuclear power is experiencing in the competitive market is short-termed and short-sighted. The clear result, were it to become law, would be a big hit to the pocketbook of every Pennsylvanian. The cost estimates of paying for the proposals of HB11 range from just shy of a billion dollars to several billion. That will be paid by every electric customer in the commonwealth. The unnecessary subsidy to TMI and the other four Pennsylvania plants would also subsidize nuclear generation OUTSIDE of the Commonwealth. When government picks winners and losers by artificially manipulating the energy market it hurts consumers who lose not only their choices but also their dollars. HB11 is a short term solution with very negative long term consequences. Infusing political considerations into the competitive energy supply market not only hurts ordinary customers, its unfair to investors and will have a chilling effect on future investment where stability and predictability are key. That, in turn, stifles innovation which also hurts consumers. It becomes a downward spiral of unintended consequences. Rather than subsidizing Fortune 500 companies a better policy is to encourage the competitive good of an open market, trusting individual consumers to choose their electricity providers, keeping costs low and the supply reliable. In less than a decade a third of our states coal plants have closed. Meanwhile natural gas generation has skyrocketed to where more than a third of our electricity is now generated by natural gas. The changing nature of the energy supply market works for customers and encourages growth. Taxpayer-paid subsidies do the opposite. While theres no question of the motives of the authors of HB 11, their vision would be better pointed towards the fact that competition produces better products and services while subsidies cost all of us. PennLive Opinion contributor Charlie Gerow is the CEO of Quantum Communications in Harrisburg. His Donkeys & Elephants column appears this week opposite former PA Lt. Gov. Mark S. Singel. McLaren Northern Michigan announces plans to build inpatient behavioral health unit in Cheboygan McLaren Northern Michigan announced Monday plans to build an inpatient behavioral health unit with partial hospitalization program at its Cheboygan Campus. After she moved to Philadelphia two years ago to teach at Temple University, Sara Goldrick-Rab was struck by the fact that few in the city were talking about the growing student loan crisis. Pennsylvania tops the nation for student-debt burden at least 67 percent of Pennsylvania students have loans and the average debt per student is $36,193, according to LendEDU, a New Jersey-based student-loan refinancing company. And, the Keystone State is home to 33 of the top 100 public universities in the country with the most student debt. Its striking to me that Philadelphia is not talking about student debt," she told the Inquirer. In most parts of the country, the conversation is louder. Its not quite the right conversation. Most of the talk about student debt is that debt is bad, and we need to deal with existing debt. To get rid of it. But Im hoping we can host a different conversation not just how did we get here, but how to keep more young people from debt as a consequence. So Goldrick-Rab is hosting a conversation, and everybody is invited. Students, parents, and anybody else wanting to learn more about the epidemic can attend the Wednesday, Jan. 16, town hall meeting, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Temple Performing Arts Center (1837 N. Broad St.) in North Philadelphia, to discuss solutions to the growing college affordability problem. Goldrick-Rab has made this issue her lifes work. Shes a professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple, and founder of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice in Philadelphia, which seeks to reduce college student dropouts due to non-academic reasons such as poverty or lack of transportation. Student loans, she points out, are epidemic, but arent the only cause of the college affordability crisis. The cause is that college tuition is unaffordable, housing is unaffordable, food is unaffordable. Debt isnt the only cause of the crisis, its the consequence. I really focus on how people end up with debt in the first place and keep that from happening. Its not just complaining were working toward solutions." Other speakers at the town hall will include Michael Luna, student government president at Community College of Philadelphia; Seth Frotman, former ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and founder of the Student Borrower Protection Center; Helen Gym, Philadelphia city councilwoman; Jeff Hornstein, executive director, Economy League of Greater Philadelphia; and Malcolm Kenyatta, Pennsylvania state representative and a Temple alum. Goldrick-Rab has at various times advocated for reduced or free tuition, much like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. She is on the senators education policy panel. "Free tuition is one piece of the puzzle. Its a good piece. I dont buy that its a giveaway, she said. Right after she moved to Philadelphia from Wisconsin, Gov. Wolf invited me to a task force on college affordability. I went to Harrisburg excited. I did a task force in Wisconsin and we made some real concrete recommendations, like whether the state set up a work-study program to supplement federal work study. The state now has emergency aid for students in Wisconsin, and Scott Walker, the GOP governor, passed it. Sadly, she says, the Pennsylvania task force disbanded. The education sector is divided. Schools like Temple and Pitt dont feel they share common cause with the community colleges. In addition, the state-related designation makes no sense. Philly needs to know we at Temple live or die by that state budget. so if you want student debt to go down, Temple and CCP need revenue restored. Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania is making all these promises to be affordable. But theyre not paying taxes appropriately and they have a huge endowment. For profits are moving in. After earning her Ph.D. at Penn, Goldrick-Rab won a professorship at the University of Wisconsin. And since then, the student loan crisis has grown to nearly $1.5 trillion at the end of 2018, growing faster than any other class of consumer debt, including auto loans and mortgages. Obviously its now affecting the middle class. I think thats the one silver lining when the middle class gets involved, stuff changes. The middle class has a lot to lose now. Where does she find is the biggest pocket of resistance in Philadelphia to change? She acknowledges that in a high-poverty city, Where does this fit in the list of priorities, given clear need for K-12 and early childhood education? Given the homeless crisis, why worry about homeless students? Im struck by Phillys many problems. I agree its hard to decide where to start. Every 3-year-old becomes a 17-year-old who wants to go to college. Their parents drop out too and have debt too. One solution she points to: This month, Goldrick-Rab went to Chicago to interview people who live in public housing there. Theyre all trying to get out of poverty by going to college. Theyre in their mid-30s. Two of them were 55. They keep saying I cant get out of poverty unless I go to college. Public housing made a partnership with community college whereby they can go for free. Why couldnt the Philadelphia Housing Authority do something like that?" Registration is not required to attend the Jan. 16 town hall. The event website has more information: https://realcollege.org/event/philly-town-hall-on-student-debt. Brandon Flood, the new director of the State Board of Pardons, shown here in Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's office at the Capital Building in Harrisburg, PA, April 1, 2019. Flood is a former inmate. Read more This column will probably come as something of a shock to all the people in Harrisburg who only know Brandon Flood a bow-tied, bespectacled policy wonk with sartorial flair as the persona that he laughingly calls Urkel Brandon, in a homage to one of TVs most famous nerds. Flood, now 36, readily admits most folks who know him from nearly a decade as a legislative aide or lobbyist will be shocked to learn of his past that includes boot camp for juvenile offenders, a physical scuffle with Harrisburgs then-police chief, and finally felony convictions and two lengthy prison stints for dealing crack cocaine and carrying an unlicensed gun. But starting last week, Floods turnaround saga has become a talking point and a mission statement for his new job as secretary of the five-member Pennsylvania Board of Pardons anchoring one leg of a broader push in Harrisburg for criminal justice reform, aimed at giving more convicted felons a chance for clemency or to wipe their slate clean with a pardon. What makes Floods appointment even more remarkable is that to steal a phrase from TV infomercial lore hes not just Pennsylvanias new top pardons administrator, hes also a client. Gov. Wolf signed off on Floods own board-approved pardon, erasing his past convictions, just a few weeks before Flood stepped in as secretary. Taking a break last Monday during his first day on the job for a sit-down interview, the soft-spoken Flood said a number of new initiatives to not only call attention to Pennsylvanias pardon process but also to make it easier to apply for one will hopefully show former inmates that the state is more focused on rewarding good post-prison behavior. If they see this [a pardon] as a viable option, they will continue to be productive citizens, Flood said, who plans to use his own story as a powerful example of that. They will see theres a light at the end of the tunnel. Floods hiring was the brainchild of Pennsylvanias new lieutenant governor, John Fetterman. Policy-oriented, progressive and looking for areas where he can make a difference in the oft-neglected No. 2 slot, the burly, black-shirted Braddock ex-mayor has honed in on his designated role as chairman of the Board of Pardons. Fetterman told me that Flood is a singularly unique person to have in order help remake the process ... which is only the only remedy for anyone in Pennsylvania who wants to move forward with their lives in this way. Floods arrival helps mark the beginning of one era in Pennsylvania criminal justice and arguably the end of another. It was exactly 25 years ago that a convicted murderer named Reginald McFadden was granted his freedom by a Board of Pardons led by then-Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark Singel, who was also running for governor that year. McFadden almost immediately killed two people and raped a third, and the case, with its overtones of the infamous Willie Horton affair, was cited by experts as a reason for Singels defeat that fall. The political fallout dramatically changed Pennsylvanias pardon math. Critics (including the man Fetterman ousted in a 2018 primary, ex-Lt. Gov. Mike Stack) came to say that the states pardon system was broken in an era of skyrocketing mass incarceration. Commutations of life sentences ground to a virtual halt, post-McFadden, while pardons for lesser crimes slowed as long backlogs and a confusing process discouraged applicants. Brandon Flood doesnt need any schooling on the era of harsh justice in Pennsylvania. He was on the front lines. Growing up in Harrisburg, Flood said he and some buddies started selling marijuana as a way to make a quick buck or two when he was just 13, and within a couple of years hed moved on to dealing crack cocaine when the highly addictive rock was at its peak. His story crushes many of the cliches about young urban crime especially the one about absent fathers. Floods father (who died in 2010) was an ex-military man and college-educated government accountant raising him and two sisters as a single dad. A self-described iconoclast, Flood thinks he turned to the street to rebel against his straight-arrow upbringing. I was trying to take the easy route, he said of his youthful forays into drug dealing, although his first arrest at age 15 had nothing to do with dope. Police were making a habit of stopping by Harrisburgs John Harris High School even the then-chief Charles Kellar. Flood says Kellar demanded that the then-teen remove his coat, but he refused and ended up in a tussle with the lawman, taken to the police station and booked. Floods problems with the law accelerated. He did the states four-month boot camp and ultimately earned his high school degree at the Abraxas youth-detention program in Marienville, Pa. He was arrested for dealing drugs at 18, turned down a plea deal and sent away for four years only to get arrested again at 22 for the unlicensed firearm as well for selling crack again. It was just as hard to reconcile the mild-mannered accountants son with the street life then as it is now. When I was involved in criminal activity, even some of the addicts in the throes of their addiction would say to me, Why are you out here?" Flood recalled. Nonetheless, with his two adult felony convictions by the age of 22, his mindset as he ended up an inmate at the state correctional facility in Chester was that hed chosen his lifes career: Criminal. Instead, Flood credits the atmosphere at the Chester site -- with college-level courses and a spirit of reform advocacy -- with helping the iconoclast to pull a complete 180-degree turn during his final five years of incarceration, Once shy, he found a voice moderating events on criminal-justice issues and editing the prison newsletter. He said he gained special inspiration from reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Flood explained that the books power wasnt so much spiritual as just understanding how systems work and understanding where the true levers of power are located. That meant returning to Harrisburg after his freedom and looking toward a career in politics. Like for so many returning prisoners, it wasnt easy at first. He said the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) interviewed him three times before getting cold feet over the gun charge on his record. But he was able to get work as a legislative aide with help from two Philadelphia then-lawmakers, Frank Oliver Sr. and Vanessa Lowery Brown, who eventually helped make Flood legislative director of the Pennsylvania Legislature Black Caucus. He later did lobbying work for the SEIU labor union and the NAACP, making friends all over the capitol. One was former pardons secretary Mavis Nimoh -- who badgered Flood to apply for one himself. Like other Pennsylvanians, Flood despite his newfound insider status found the pardon process hard to navigate. He said he screwed up the application the first time. Ultimately, the process including the public review by the full board last fall took about three years until it was approved and signed by Wolf in early March. By then, Flood was already talking to the new lieutenant governor Fetterman about taking over as secretary, which means overseeing the pardon boards day-to-day operations and its small staff of five people. Flood -- today a father with two sons of his own -- is making $89,000 a year in the position. For Fetterman, who hails his close working relationship with Wolf on criminal justice reform, Floods hiring is symbolic of both down-to-earth pardon reforms -- a $63 application fee was eliminated last month, and the board is looking to digitize the application process and possibly open satellite offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and eventually elsewhere -- and a bold new attitude. In December, Wolf granted board-recommended clemency to three life-sentenced inmates -- after only signing two in his first 47 months in office. Fetterman, whos currently on an all-67-county tour to discuss the possibility of legalizing marijuana, also said he wants a task force to look at granting widespread pardons for past pot-related convictions. These are simple charges that are damning peoples career possibilities, he said. What the lieutenant governor and Flood are suggesting is not so much a complete reversal from the post-McFadden clampdown as creating more chances and more incentives for more Pennsylvanians to seek state-sanctioned redemption. People shouldnt look at this as opening the floodgate, no pun intended, Flood said. He cited his good working relationship with Pennsylvanias victim advocate, Jennifer Storm. But Flood also expressed his hope that a more accessible pardon process could help Pennsylvania show the rest of the nation a pathway toward creating more comeback stories like his own. We need to be smarter on crime on what works as opposed to what makes for a better soundbite, he said. The climate is certainly ripe for that. Two motorcyclists and a suspected drag racer were killed in three separate crashes over the weekend in Philadelphia, police said. The motorcycle accidents were an hour apart early Sunday morning. The other fatality, believed linked to drag racing, resulted in a fiery crash late Friday night. That one involved a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee that was eastbound on the 600 block of Pattison Avenue in South Philadelphia at 11:40 p.m. Friday. Police said the Jeep struck three trees and a guardrail before bursting into flames. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. Police provided no information about the type of vehicle he might have been racing. The first motorcycle accident occurred at 1:45 a.m. Sunday on the 6200 block of West Passyunk Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. Police said a trucker suspected of driving under the influence was eastbound on the 6200 block of West Passyunk Avenue when he crossed into the westbound lanes and hit a 54-year-old man on a motorcycle. The motorcyclist was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 6:37 a.m. The truck driver was also taken to Penn Presbyterian in stable condition. Police said he has been arrested but did not provide specific charges. At 2:44 a.m. Sunday, a Kawasaki EX3 was northbound on the 5300 block of Rising Sun Avenue when it struck the driver side of a 2018 Chevrolet van. Traveling west on Geneva Street, the van had just pulled into the intersection with Rising Sun after briefly stopping at a stop sign, police said. The motorcyclist, a 25-year-old male, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The van driver was not injured, police said. The identities of the dead were not released. Michael Aichenbaum (far left), executive director of Hosts for Hospitals, with members of the Commodore, Talbott, and Gould families. Read more The kitchen is radiant and welcoming, like the finished product at the end of a TV makeover show, when the contractor asks the homeowners how they like it, and all they can do is sputter: Awesome! Presiding over the center island, nearly big enough to have its own flag and system of currency, are Page Talbott and Jim Gould, owners of the kitchen and the 7,500-square-foot Bala Cynwyd house around it. Page and Jim are kind unconditionally, beyond-mere-decency kind. What they do with all that goodwill and that big house is host people from distant places whose loved ones are hospitalized in Philadelphia. For 16 years, theyve been part of Hosts For Hospitals, the local nonprofit that matches residents with out-of-town families that are enduring the worst days of their lives. Its not for money; host families arent paid. Page and Jim, whove raised four children, have hosted 30 families over the years, because...,Well, its hard to explain," said Jim, 72, a retired banker. Any host family will say we get more out of it than the patient family. For the last year, the couple has opened their home to Adayna Gonzalez Commodore and her husband, Travis Commodore, of Indian Land, S.C., 30 minutes south of Charlotte, N.C. Their daughter, Elsie, 2, has lived her entire life in Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia except for two weeks, battling a rare lymphatic disorder. Another daughter, Nila, 8, lives at home during the school year, and in the nine-bedroom Bala house during the summer. Were very fortunate to have them in our lives, said Page, 66, project director of the Philadelphia History Museum collection evaluation, a cataloging of the shuttered museums 100,000 artifacts. These parents are so wonderful." Babies in distress move her. After her now 42-year-old daughter, Jody, was born at 26 weeks weighing 1 pound, 10 ounces, Page started a support group of parents of high-risk infants. Adayna, who sometimes sits in the glorious, light-filled kitchen to share coffee and confidences with Page and Jim, appreciates Pages empathetic connection. Theres a lot of good in this world," said Adayna, a Wells Fargo bank executive and, at 42, the same age as Jody. But until youre in trouble, you dont realize how much. A feeling of home Hosts for Hospitals was cofounded by its executive director, Mike Aichenbaum, in 2000 after he faced down leukemia in a New York hospital for six months while his family ran up $40,000 in hotel bills (in todays dollars). In Philadelphia, more than 500 hosts have lodged around 3,500 patient family members since 2000, saving guests about $12 million, he said. Always in short supply, hosts must provide a clean bathroom, a comfortable bed, and a feeling of home, according to the agency website. Guests, who pay around $20 a day to the organization, are responsible for their own food and transportation. What fuels Hosts is kindness, Aichenbaum said, referencing Pages and Jims essence. Its incredibly powerful. To explain why people welcome strangers into their lives, Aichenbaum quotes a long-time host: "I get to be the kind of person I want to be. Unplug my baby? Adayna and Travis met-cute on a road trip to President Barack Obamas inauguration in 2009. Travis, 39, born into a middle-class family in South Carolina, earned a masters degree in public administration, worked in politics, and ran his dads flooring business. Adayna, raised by her working-class mother in Manhattan, displayed intellectual acumen early and won a scholarship to George W. Bushs alma mater, Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., regarded as the best private high school in America. She went on to earn an MBA. After Nila, Adayna suffered three miscarriages before giving birth to Elsie on March 28, 2017. She was diagnosed with generalized lymphatic anomaly, a rare condition of unknown cause. The lymphatic system transports a fluid containing white blood cells throughout the body to clear out toxins. In Elsie, the fluid leaks, causing build-up that has to be drained, then replaced, constantly. Hooked up to machines in a Charlotte hospital after her birth, Elsie crashed and was resuscitated four times in a single night. The doctors had no more wisdom or medicine to dispense, telling the Commodores all that could be done was to make the child comfortable." You want me to unplug my baby? Adayna nearly screamed, before, she said, really getting hysterical, then giving myself a pep talk in the bathroom mirror, then calling CHOP. Adayna had interned at the Harvard School of Public Health when she was 16, and can decipher the arcane vernacular of medical journals. Shed read something about CHOP doctors working on the condition plaguing Elsie. A team from CHOP flew Elsie from Charlotte to Philadelphia on April 12, 2017: The cavalry," Travis said. Elsies been in a hospital bed ever since. Shes awake, full of laughter, sometimes grumpy, loving and adorable, said Page. A doctor told Adayna, Elsie is thriving on the edge of a cliff. Her prognosis is unclear. But no ones surrendering hope. Because the West Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House in which the Commodores first lived allows only one-year stays, Adayna and Travis needed new accommodations last April. Page and Jim offered their hospitality. The New York City in me asked, What do these people want?" Adayna said. 'How could anyone open their home to you with no end date in sight? My God, they must want money!' But they do this out of love. For them, its important we meld into their lives. At the holidays, they got us monogrammed Christmas stockings and sang carols with us! A new country For the parents of long-sick children, its as though theyve left America for a new country of fear and fatigue. The landscapes a mystery, and no one can control which way the bus goes. For the first time in my life, Adayna said, I cant use my intelligence to get what I want. I can only pray Gods will is what I want. Travis agreed: This is a journey; were on Gods GPS now. During the school year, he and Adayna live 600 miles apart, one of them with Nila in Charlotte, the other with Elsie here. They switch every two to three weeks, flying back and forth, rarely seeing each other for more than 15 minutes in the airport as they hand off Nila. They lose out as a couple, Page said. Still, she and Jim leave the kitchen lights burning for them. Adayna works 40 or more hours a week remotely, sometimes conducting online meetings in Elsies hospital room. When Travis is in Philadelphia, he drives his 2013 Nissan Altima for Uber, making bank for all those Frontier flights. The stress is insane. This could break someone, Adayna said. Work helps. So does time on Jims rowing machine. To cope, Travis talks with Jim and Page, his Philadelphia parents": We cry, we laugh, I get wisdom. Hell sometimes watch movies in what Page dubs the downstairs man cave. Page said she can handle the strain that shes invited into her home: It doesnt bog me down to have this family in crisis. Its uplifting. We take on their burden, but dont feel burdened by it." By now, Nila considers Page and Jim relatives. Theyre kind and loving, she said. When she grows up, she promises, shell be a Philadelphia doctor, maybe with a hot tub like at the Bala house. She looks forward to school ending, when she and both of her parents can live together, all of them gathered around Page and Jims huge kitchen island, united in love and support of Elsie. Itll be great, Nila said. To learn more about hosting patient-families, go to hostsforhospitals.org or call 484-380-2999. Who she is: Laurada Byers, founder of The Russell Byers Charter School, named for her Daily News columnist husband, who was murdered in 1999. Shes also a cancer survivor and lives with Parkinsons disease. Whats new: She has just published Wild Wisdom: A Warthogs Tale illustrated with whimsical images of warthogs that tells Byers story of survival, in five short chapters. Book sales benefit the Byers school. What surprised her about tragedy: While looking for peace in dire circumstances, I found purpose. Why warthogs? Have you ever seen a more imperfect creature? Thats life. Thats me. Covered in warts and full of flaws, my path has been anything but pretty. How warthog life mimics the human experience: Every day the warthog encounters the big five on the savannas: rhinos, lions, elephants, leopards, and cape buffalo. In our daily lives we struggle with our own big five questions of identity, purpose, relationships, crises, and health. A successful life is a lot like a day on the African plains. The takeaway: Our reactions, not our circumstances, create our story. Ronnie Polaneczky FILE - This Sept. 11, 2018, file photo shows cannabis plants growing at a greenhouse at SLOgrown Genetics in the coastal mountain range of San Luis Obispo, Calif. A coalition of 25 local governments has filed a lawsuit against the California Bureau of Cannabis Control in an effort to invalidate regulations allowing delivery of commercial cannabis statewide. Read more LOS ANGELES (AP) California has entered a potentially landmark legal fight against some of its own cities over one of the most basic questions in the nation's largest legal marijuana market: Where can you buy it? Beverly Hills and 24 other local governments sued California regulators Friday to overturn a rule allowing home deliveries statewide, even into communities that banned commercial pot sales. Ultimately at issue is who is in charge: the state bureaucracy that oversees the market or local governments where pot is grown and sold. When California adopted the delivery rule in January, the League of California Cities and police chiefs complained that unrestricted home deliveries would create an unchecked market of largely hidden pot transactions, while undercutting local control guaranteed in a 2016 law broadly legalizing marijuana sales. Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Chairman Ryan Coonerty said in a statement that the state rule damages local marijuana businesses and "betrays the promise made to the voters" in 2016. The significance of the lawsuit goes beyond home deliveries. It represents an important early court test of Proposition 64, the law that legalized pot sales for adults in California. There have been numerous disputes over precisely what parts of the law mean, including those governing the size of cannabis farms. The state Bureau of Cannabis Control, which wrote the rule, had no immediate comment on the lawsuit, which was filed late Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court. The lawsuit asks the court to invalidate the rule and prohibit state regulators from enforcing it. The rule "permits commercial cannabis deliveries to any physical address in the state," which conflicts with the authority of local governments to prohibit marijuana deliveries within their boundaries, the lawsuit said. Marijuana companies and consumers had pushed for home deliveries because vast stretches of the state have banned commercial pot activity or not set up rules to allow legal sales, creating what's been called pot "deserts." Residents in those areas were effectively cut off from legal marijuana purchases. Supporters said the problem was worse for the sick and frail, who would not be able to drive long distances to buy pot. Because pot remains illegal on the federal level, it cannot be sent through the U.S. Postal Service. But people can get it delivered to their door in California. Under state rules, all cannabis deliveries must be performed by employees of a licensed retailer. Regulators say there are 311 active licenses to deliver pot. The delivery rule sought to clarify what had been apparently conflicting regulations about where marijuana can be delivered in California. The 2016 law said local governments had the authority to ban nonmedical pot businesses. But state regulators pointed to the business and professions code, which said local governments "shall not prevent delivery of cannabis or cannabis products on public roads" by a licensed operator. The cannabis bureau had said it was merely clarifying what had always been the case: A licensed pot delivery can be made to "any jurisdiction within the state." In addition to Beverly Hills and Santa Cruz County, plaintiffs include the cities of Agoura Hills, Angels Camp, Arcadia, Atwater, Ceres, Clovis, Covina, Dixon and Downey. Also participating are McFarland, Newman, Oakdale, Palmdale, Patterson, Riverbank, Riverside, San Pablo, Sonora, Tehachapi, Temecula, Tracy, Turlock and Vacaville. ___ Associated Press writer John Antczak contributed. ___ Blood is a member of APs marijuana beat team. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MichaelRBloodAP . Find complete AP marijuana coverage here: https://apnews.com/Marijuana In this photo provided by the UK Parliament, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May addresses MP's in the Palace of Westminster in London, Wednesday, April 3, 2019. A Brexit-related vote in Britain's House of Commons on Wednesday ended in a tie, the first time that has happened in a quarter-century. Under Parliament's rules, the speaker of the House has tie-breaking power. Speaker John Bercow cast his vote with the noes. He said that was in keeping with the principle that "it is not for the chair to create a majority that otherwise doesn't exist." (Mark Duffy/UK Parliament via AP) Read more (Bloomberg) Follow @Brexit on Twitter, join our Facebook group and sign up to our Brexit Bulletin. Prime Minister Theresa May defended her decision to ask archrival Jeremy Corbyn to help draft a new blueprint for Brexit, and warned the U.K. might never leave the European Union if he doesnt back a compromise plan. The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the U.K. never leaving at all, May said in a statement. It would mean letting the Brexit the British people voted for slip through our fingers. I will not stand for that. May is battling to contain a backlash from within her Conservative Party over her decision to work with Labour Party leader Corbyn, someone shes spent three years deriding. Coming up with an acceptable compromise to her own lawmakers in response to the 2016 referendum has been beyond her, and the deadlock shows no sign of being resolved by reaching out to the opposition. Inviting Corbyn into the process is a mistake, prominent pro-Brexit Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg said in an interview with Sky News on Sunday. There is an irony, at the very minimum, of saying one week that one thinks Mr Corbyn is dangerous and unfit for office, and the next week deciding to co-habit with him. But the prime ministers allies pointed to the pragmatism of the decision, even if it is done through gritted teeth, according to Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom. Working with Jeremy Corbyn is not something I want to do at all, its not what the Prime Minister wants to do, but far worse than that would be to fail to deliver on Brexit, she said in an interview on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show. That would be the appalling thing. May badly needs a breakthrough in London before she travels to Brussels on Wednesday. Shes requested an extension to the Brexit process until June 30, but says if MPs agree to a deal, the U.K. should be able to leave before European parliamentary elections are held on May 23. Education Minister Nadim Zahawi told the BBC that taking part in those elections would be a suicide note for the Conservative Party. May sought to underline that both main political parties have a lot of common ground to secure an agreement. We both want to end free movement, we both want to leave with a good deal, and we both want to protect jobs, she said. But her efforts to forge a compromise across political boundaries look to be dribbling into the sand. The Labour Party says May hasnt offered real change to her Brexit deal that Parliament has rejected three times by chunky margins on each occasion. Labours key demand is for a customs union with the EU. According to the Sunday Times, May is prepared to cede some ground. Shell offer to rewrite the governments withdrawal bill to make sure a customs arrangement is enshrined in law, a move that would be hard for a future euroskeptic PM to retract after May steps down. Also, her aides have discussed offering Labour a seat in her delegation to Wednesdays EU summit, the newspaper reported. And while EU leaders arent united on how long the extension should last, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told RTE on Saturday it would be extremely unlikely that one of the EUs 27 other countries would veto Mays request. (Updates with lawmaker comment from fifth paragraph.) To contact the reporters on this story: James Ludden in New York at jludden@bloomberg.net;Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew G. Miller at mmiller144@bloomberg.net, James Amott 2019 Bloomberg L.P. Demonstrators wave the Algerian flag as thousands gather for a rally in Algiers, Friday April 5, 2019, chanting, singing and cheering after their movement forced out longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika - and demanding that other top figures leave too. Crowds massed Friday in Algiers boulevards and headed toward the central post office, symbol of the movement that has upended this energy-rich North African country. Read more ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) Masses of Algerians whose pro-democracy movement forced out longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika sang and celebrated their victory Friday and demanded that other top figures leave too. Huge crowds surged through Algiers boulevards and marched toward the central post office, key symbol of a peaceful movement that has upended this energy-rich North African country in just weeks. The crowd appeared the largest yet over seven straight Fridays of protests against a power structure seen as corrupt and repressive, according to an Associated Press reporter who has covered each one. Despite being crammed shoulder to shoulder at some points in the hours-long demonstration, protesters remained good-spirited, with palpable joy at Bouteflika's resignation. It was their first protest since Bouteflika resigned this week under pressure from protesters and the powerful army. Bouteflika, 82 and ailing since a 2013 stroke, had been president since 1999 . "Game Over" read some signs, or "The Streets Won't be Silenced!" Until an interim leader is named, no one is technically in charge of this country that's a key player in the fight against terrorism and important source of Europe's gas and oil . Security was higher than usual at Friday's protest, with roadblocks preventing buses of protesters from entering the capital. One group said they walked 20 kilometers after their bus was stopped at a roadblock from the Kabylie region east of Algiers. But the crowds kept coming, including people from around Africa's biggest country. "It's a little victory, but others should leave too," said Salim Mehdi, a 40-year-old protester from the town of Bouira. Mehdi still lives with his parents and hasn't married because he's never found a solid job and one reason he's protesting is the limited economic opportunity for those outside the political elite. However, he said he's mainly protesting to show his frustration at a "corrupt, rotten system" where the same faces have been in charge for too long. The protesters now want the departure of the men who head Algeria's three branches of power: the prime minister, the upper house of parliament's chief and the president of the constitutional court. Some brandished signs calling for the exit of "the three Bs" Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui, Constitutional Council President Tayeb Belaiz, and upper house of parliament president Abdelkader Bensalah. With the president gone, Bensalah a Bouteflika ally is expected to take over as interim leader while Algeria organizes elections. But first both houses of parliament must convene to appoint him, expected sometime next week. It's unclear what would happen if "the three Bs" were really to leave. The movement hasn't coalesced around a single alternative candidate or plan to govern Algeria. Some of Friday's protesters suggested appointing a government of technocrats not including any of the current political leadership while new elections are organized. Under Friday's spring sun, protesters dangled banners from balconies and roofs. Police stood nearby, watching but not intervening. Parents carried babies in slings and schoolchildren on shoulders. Protesters cleared the way in tightly packed streets for people in wheelchairs. Algerian flags were used as capes, bandanas and belts the unifying symbol of a movement with no single political view. "For the first time, I don't feel like leaving my Algeria," read a sign held by one protester. The movement has been driven by Algeria's youth, many of whom leave for Europe to study or seek work. Protests were also held around the country, from Tamanrasset and oil-rich Ouargla deep in the Sahara to the Mediterranean port city of Skikda, according to website TSA. The military chief of staff, Ahmed Gaid Salah, played a key role in pushing Bouteflika toward the door and is considered the guarantor of Algeria's security. But many protesters disagreed with his strategy and are mixed about what role he should play in the political transition. Among posters at Friday's demonstration was one reading: "No to a transition imposed by the army." The head of Algeria's intelligence service, Athmane Tartag, quietly submitted his resignation after Bouteflika's departure, a security official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to be publicly named. Algerian news reports said the intelligence service, DSS, will now report to the Defense Ministry instead of the president's office. ___ Charlton reported from Paris. An armed robber wearing what appears to be a burka that covered most of his face made off with an undisclosed amount of cash from a bank in Haddonfield on Saturday evening, law enforcement officials said. The man brandished a handgun at a teller at the Republic Bank at 30 E. Kings Highway at 5:52 p.m., according to a statement issued Sunday by the Camden County Prosecutors Office and the Haddonfield Borough Police Department. No one was injured, authorities said. The statement described the gunman as a black man dressed in boots, black pants, and a black burka-style dress that covered his face, and carrying a brown bag. Pictures from a surveillance camera and distributed to the media show the suspect wearing black gloves. Authorities ask that anyone with information contact Camden County Prosecutors Office Detective Dennis Convery at 856-225-8400 or Haddonfield Borough Police Detective Danielle Mueller at 856-429-4700, Ext. 252, or email ccpotips@ccprosecutor.org. A 24-year-old woman was sexually assaulted in a room at the Sofitel hotel in Center City on Sunday morning, Philadelphia police said. Police described the alleged attacker as a tall, thin, black male who was bald and wearing a black T-shirt and an orange suit jacket. No other information about the 9:04 a.m. assault inside the hotel, at 17th and Sansom Streets, was provided. Mark Macekura, from the election board feeds a paper ballet into a new scanner. Montgomery County has received new voting machines it will begin using in the primary this May, Tuesday February 26, 2019. Read more Imagine getting up early on election day having done your homework on the issues, educated yourself on candidates positions, and chosen whom to vote for, only to find poll workers who do not know how to turn on, set up, or assist you in using the voting machine. That is exactly the type of story we at Disability Rights Pennsylvania heard, along with a host of others, during the last presidential election in 2016 when we ran a hotline for disabled voters. During the 2016 election, less than 20 percent of polling places were accessible to people with disabilities. Some voting systems rarely had instructions included, others lacked tactile buttons for people with low vision, and for some systems, the voters could not verify that the ballot reflected their choices. For these reasons, voter turnout for people with disabilities remains under 50 percent. According to the American Association of People With Disabilities, 16 million of the eligible 35 million voters with disabilities cast a ballot in the 2016 election. With election security on the minds of legislators, there is fear that changes to polling technology will only further disenfranchise citizens with disabilities in the coming election. Pennsylvania Bills S.B. 411-419 have been introduced in the House and Senate to update and reform the election system. This comes as counties and the disabled across the state test new voting systems that create a paper trail through different formats. Last April, then-acting Secretary of State Robert Torres instructed Pennsylvania counties to have a paper-verifiable voting system by 2020 and allotted $14 million for the process. Many have taken official action toward acquiring new voting systems, either through a vote to purchase or lease a system, or a vote to approve funding. Torres also instructed counties to have selected the new voting system no later than Dec. 31, 2019. Some counties have chosen or are considering hand-marked paper ballots. It has always been important that these types of changes not leave people with disabilities behind. Hand-marked paper ballots make it nearly impossible for those with visual disabilities to vote using this system. At such polling stations, alternatives for disabled voters at each polling place would be separate from the system used for non-disabled voters. Other proposals would further single out disabled voters, such as the idea to explicitly separate out accessible voting processes out of a desire to return to hand-marked ballots or punch cards. This creates a system whereby disabled votes would be tallied apart from those who didnt use the system. But as always, separate is not equal and security does not need to come at the cost of accessibility. The shared goal should be voting reforms and systems that are modern, safe, secure, and always accessible to each voter. The law requires that people with disabilities be able to mark, verify, and cast a ballot privately and independently as do their fellow Pennsylvanians. Protecting these rights comes down to each systems details. Of course, with any proposed legislation, it is these particularities upon which stumbles are made. For example, there is currently no provision that requires an electronic ballot delivery system be available to absentee voters with disabilities. This has the potential to leave behind those with dexterity issues, low visibility or blindness, learning difficulties, and more. All of these measures represent an important first step to election reform that hasnt happened in decades. But more work needs to be done to ensure that people with disabilities can vote privately and independently, and verify their vote. Casting a ballot shouldnt be an added exercise in disability discrimination. Proven election reforms such as the implementation of electronic poll books, voting by mail using a no-excuse absentee ballot, preregistration for youth, and more have been tried and tested in other states, garnering support from Republicans and Democrats alike. If the General Assembly finally wants to take up election reform, then it should take up the challenge of not just updating voting systems but making it more accessible to vote by mail and instituting early voting. With 35 million eligible voters with disabilities across this country set to use their ballot as their voice in the coming election, the inability to address the access needs of disabled voters feels to many intentional and remains a symbol of who in this country counts, and who does not. As important as it is to make sure every vote is securely counted, it is equally important to ensure that voters have a voice especially voters with disabilities who have been disenfranchised for far too long. Imani Barbarin is director of communications and outreach at Disability Rights Pennsylvania, where Gabe Labella is a staff attorney and project director of protection and advocacy for voting access. FILE - In this March 22, 2019, file photo, Attorney General William Barr leaves his home in McLean, Va. Barr told Congress on March 29, to expect version of special counsel's Russia report by mid-April. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) Read more WASHINGTON - The escalating political battle over special counsel Robert Mueller III's report centers on redactions - a lawyerly editing process that has angered distrustful Democrats eager to see the all evidence and conclusions from his 22-month investigation of President Donald Trump's conduct and Russia's elaborate interference operation during the 2016 election. Attorney General William Barr is redacting at least four categories of information from the report, which spans nearly 400 pages, before issuing it to Congress and the public. Legal experts say he has wide discretion to determine what should not be revealed, meaning the fight over blacked-out boxes is likely to spawn months of fights between Congress and the Justice Department, and it may end up in the courts. The first public confrontation is imminent, with Barr scheduled to appear Tuesday and Wednesday before the House and Senate Appropriations committees for hearings ostensibly about the Justice Department's budget. He is expected to face extensive questioning about the Mueller report and his ongoing redaction process, though, and his testimony will be scrutinized for any sign he is trying to protect the president. "There's a lot of pressure all pointing in the direction of doing a robust release, said John Bies, who held senior roles in the Justice Department during the Obama administration and now works at American Oversight, a liberal watchdog group. "We are very hopeful the attorney general will do the right thing here and make everything public that can lawfully be made public." Barr has promised to release the redacted report by mid-April, having announced in late March that Mueller did not find a conspiracy between Russians and Trump or his campaign and that Mueller decided not to reach a conclusion about whether Trump obstructed justice. The attorney general and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, looked at the obstruction evidence and determined it did not rise to the level of a crime, Barr wrote. The president's critics questioned whether Barr soft-pedaled Mueller's findings, concerns that intensified after recent reports indicating some on Mueller's team are unhappy with the brevity of Barr's initial report to Congress and believe more could and should be said about the seriousness of what they found. Barr is working with Rosenstein, Mueller and their key aides to produce an edited version of the report. In a March 29 letter to lawmakers, he spelled out four areas that would be redacted: grand jury material, which could include any documents and testimony presented; information that could reveal the government's intelligence-gathering sources or methods; information that could compromise ongoing investigations; and details that would violate the privacy of those deemed "peripheral" to the investigation. All of those categories give Barr significant latitude to decide what to leave in and what to take out of the report's public version, none more so than the grand jury material. Under the federal rules of criminal procedure, government officials are not allowed to share material from grand jury proceedings. There are few exceptions. "Prosecutors generally take a broad view of what constitutes grand jury information in order to avoid inadvertently disclosing it, but here there's a strong counterbalancing interest in ensuring that everything that can come out does come out," Bies said. Mueller's investigators issued more than 2,800 subpoenas and executed nearly 500 search warrants, so the potential grand jury material is voluminous. In an odd stroke of timing, the federal appeals court in Washington issued a ruling Friday in an unrelated case that buttresses the argument for keeping a close hold on grand jury information. The panel ruled judges may not carve out new exceptions to the current grand jury secrecy rules - though it also affirmed that grand jury material can be shared with the House of Representatives under an exception that dates to 1974 and a ruling by U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica during the investigation of President Richard Nixon. Justice Department spokeswoman Kelly Laco said the agency was "pleased that the court reaffirmed the Department of Justice's long-standing position and Supreme Court precedent that the proper functioning of the grand jury depends on the confidentiality of proceedings. The Department of Justice will continue to defend the long established tradition of protecting grand jury information," Laco said. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., has been pushing the attorney general to ask a judge to approve the release of grand jury material, but Barr has made no move to do so. Nadler is authorized to subpoena Mueller's full report, with the committee voting along party lines Wednesday to grant him that ability, though to date, none has been issued. "It's disturbing there has been no announcement of any effort to ask the presiding judge of the grand jury to clear the material," said Walter Dellinger, a Duke University law professor who served in the Clinton administration. "The amount of legitimate redactions should be quite small," he said. "I don't believe there is any reason to redact any material for the sole reason that it is derived from grand jury proceedings." While Barr's public letters to lawmakers since Mueller submitted his report sought to assuage any concerns that the attorney general is providing political cover for the president, with every day that passes, the pressure intensifies on Barr to show that he is not playing politics with a high-profile criminal investigation into Trump and his advisers. Late last month, the attorney general informed lawmakers in writing that he would not submit Mueller's report to the White House to review for any material that might be covered by executive privilege, which allows the president and other senior officials in the executive branch to withhold some information from Congress, the courts and the public. But Barr's phrasing in that letter is somewhat ambiguous. "Although the President would have the right to assert privilege over certain parts of the report," Barr wrote, "he has stated publicly that he intends to defer to me, and, accordingly, there are no plans to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review." A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to say whether this means there will be no claims of executive privilege invoked over any part of Mueller's report or whether Barr might, at some point, advise Trump to invoke the privilege over some sections or whether Barr might do so unilaterally. That last option seems least likely, particularly given Barr's previous legal work. A 1989 legal opinion written by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) reiterated long-standing agency policy that the attorney general and others could advise the president on when to invoke the privilege, but the only one who can invoke it is the president. That legal opinion, "Congressional Requests for Confidential Executive Branch Information," cited a 1982 "Reagan Memorandum," which "provides that executive privilege cannot be asserted without specific authorization by the President, based on recommendations made to him by the concerned agency head, the Attorney General, and the Counsel to the President." The author of that 30-year-old memo was the head of the OLC at that time: William Barr. A garage fire early Monday evening forced the closure of all l four lanes of Route 422 in Amity Township because crews needed to stretch a 5-inch supply line from a hydrant near Limekiln Road. Freeride Morocco Guide Jonathan Wells navigating one of many tight switchbacks (there are about ten million such switchbacks in Morocco.) Moroccan Mountain Biking Is Good, But Different Rider Adrian Reed demonstrating how to ride a hardtail. Tip Number One: This Isnt the Hilton Tip Number Two: Know Your Bike Tip Number Three: Know Your Limits Tip Number Four: Pack Your Chammy Butter Tip Number Five: Embrace The Tea Breaks Tip Number Six: The Cuisine is Tagine Tip Number Seven: Mind the Chickens! Final Thoughts I'll get straight to the point: there is some excellent singletrack riding in Morocco. You can ride the high alpine trails in the Atlas Mountains well into late October or early November, a time when your home trails in Europe or North America are likely cold, wet, muddy, and otherwise unpleasant.There are several guiding outfits that have scouted out all the best trails, and who will also arrange all your logistics from the moment you touch down at Marrakech International. I recently did such a trip with Freeride Morocco, whose logistical support was invaluable.But don't book your ticket just yet. If youre expecting to ride purpose-built mountain bike trails and to enjoy the kind of comfortable accommodation available in places such as Canada and Switzerland, youre in for a bit of a surprise. This isnt your local trail centre, this is Morocco, and things are a little bit different. Here are a few tips that Ive assembled based on my recent experience.Do you enjoy flush toilets? A comfortable bed at night? Hot showers?Well, that's too bad, because you won't be enjoying any of those luxuries while you're biking from village to village in the Atlas Mountains.The villages of the Atlas Mountains are beautiful and remote. Exploring these villages by bike is tremendously rewarding, as is the privilege and opportunity to stay in the local Gites and to experience first-hand what life is like in these villages.Rider Jana McLean on a mattress made from . . . cement, possibly?However, dont expect to enjoy luxuries such as central heating, hot showers, flush toilets, or even comfortable beds. Many villages are only accessible by dirt road (or by donkey-path!) and as a result it is difficult and costly to transport materials and supplies in. Your Riad in Marrakech may have a nice mattress and a hot shower, but up in the Atlas Mountains its a very different story.This absence of luxury is more than made-up for by the jaw-dropping mountain views and starry nights. Youll also come to appreciate the chance to experience the hammams in each gite: a spartan room, heated by a wood-burning stove, with warm running water to wash and relax at the end of a long day on the bike.The villages were located in some stunningly beautiful spots.However, if youre not prepared to accept slightly rougher accommodation than what you might be used to, you'll want to re-think whether Morocco is the destination for you. That expensive refugio in the Italian Dolomites might be worth a look after all . . .Can you fix a snapped chain? Straighten your rear mech? Swap out your brake pads?If you run into mechanical trouble in Morocco, you're on your own. Don't count on being able to buy anything at all in-country (not even chain lube!) Nor will you find a local bike shop that can do a quick repair whilst you sip a latte at the cafe next door.Bring all your kit with you and be damn sure you know how to use it! Also do a thorough service before travelling. If you experience a preventable mechanical while out on the trail, you'll not only ruin your own holiday but you'll be a drag on the rest of your group!Can you ride on a trail that is thoroughly covered in loose stones? How about bouncing down along a riverbed with no real trail to speak of at all? What about riding along a very thin line of singletrack (i.e. a goat trail) that is carved into the side of a steep slope with tremendous exposure below?The trails in Morocco are not purpose-built mountain bike trails. Rather, they are a network of ancient routes, used by locals to travel between villages and by nomads to herd animals. They were not designed with 27.5-inch wheels in mind.Rider Altaf Abbas dodging loose stonesRider Bari Khan dodging loose stonesMany of these trails happen to make for some spectacular riding, but they come with challenges, including washouts, exposure, tight switchbacks, slippery piles of donkey dung, and more loose stones than a gravel quarry!Freeride Morocco Guide Ibrahim handling the exposure.Rider Adam Bowler handing the exposure.Adjust your expectations accordingly. The trails are fun to ride, the scenery is spectacular, and the uniqueness of the location is unbelievable, but these trails aren't meant to be compared to purpose-built mountain bike trails that you may have ridden in Europe or North America.Singletrack abounds in Morocco. But accessing it often involves lengthy stretches of pedaling on dirt roads.Lube up your rear end, slip into your most well-padded chamois, and sit your ass in the saddle and start pedaling. You're going to be there awhile.Depending on where you start out from and which trails you're aiming for, you might spend as much as 70-80% of your day pedaling on roads. It's a lot of road pedaling but the singletrack bits are quite rewarding.Expect to be doing a lot of this . . .. . . and this.There is very little in the way of singletrack climbing trails. When the roads end, but you still have some climbing left, chances are it's going to be a hike-a-bike situation.If you're the sort who can't stand long pedaling sessions, if you prefer singletrack climbing trails (or, better yet, uplifts) then you'll be in for an unpleasant surprise.Do you like an ambitious day's riding schedule? Hate stopping for unnecessary breaks? Have you ever considered urinating from the saddle of a moving bicycle just to avoid having to stop for an extra 30 seconds?In Morocco, that's all out the window. Each day, after two to three hours of riding, your entire group will stop for what you might think is going to be a quick snack, but for what will in fact be a 45- to 90-minute long tea break.Day 1 Tea Break: This isn't so bad, is it?Day 4 Tea Break: Enough damn tea already!During said break you'll sit and wait for an inordinate amount of time before finally being served mint tea (choices include with sugar or with extra sugar) as well as some delicious Moroccan bread-type products and associated honey and spreads.Depending on your personality type, you may struggle to accept these lengthy breaks. Please remember that youre being welcomed into the home of a wonderful host who is going to all the trouble of making tea for a dozen filthy mountain bikers.As much as you'll be antsy to spend as much time out on the trail as possible (especially as you're in a country that you may never get a chance to visit again) you may as well sit back and enjoy a hot cup of mint tea and some delicious snacks!What's your favourite post-ride meal? Burgers and beer? Pasta paired with a nice merlot? A hearty burrito washed down with a refreshing cerveza?Morocco is a dry country. Although piss-poor beer and cringe-worthy wine can be located at select locations by determined drinkers, you may as well resign yourself to little to no alcohol. And the food? Well hopefully you like steamed meat (or vegetables, for the vegetarians in the group)... because that's what you'll be eating for dinner, every single night.Tagine is basically a giant plate of steamed vegetables (potatoes, carrots, leeks, onions, etc) served on a bed of couscous with accompanying meat. It's a nice dish, and Moroccan spices definitely add a nice flavour, but it can certainly grow tiresome after a week straight.Perhaps this is a critical factor for you, perhaps you couldn't care less. Just don't expect your trip to be a foodie's paradise.Mountain biking is a hazardous sport. Mountain bikers know and accept that fact. What most riders don't count on, however, is the possibility that a suicidal chicken may unexpectedly dash in front of your bike as youre riding at high speed on a loose, uneven dirt road into a village.Alarmed poultry flee from the path of rider Maxime (not all poultry we encountered had such good sense, and in fact often ran toward the bike rather than away from it!)In the case of our group, we had two chicken incidents in the span of the week. Fortunately, no chickens were killed and no riders were harmed, though one chicken was reportedly dazed after it clipped the side of the bike. Arguably, the rider got the worst of it as she (a true animal-lover) was quite traumatized from having come within a feathers-width of rolling right over the chicken in question!Throughout the rest of the week, chickens (and other various forms of poultry) would routinely present themselves on the trail suddenly and without warning. The only predictable feature of these chicken runs were that they tended to occur in and around villages.Keep your eyes peeled and be aware at all times. Typically, when you're approaching a village, you tend to let your guard down as it means that either youre going to have a reprieve after the heinous climb youve just done, or it means you've just made it through another stretch of exposed, nerve-wracking singletrack and you can relax your frayed nerves.Don't be fooled. Chickens are out there and they're a real hazard. Danger doesn't take a holiday!Is Morocco worth it? Yes, absolutely, without a doubt. Its a beautiful country, the people are warm and welcoming, and its a wonderful culture to experience.Rider Adrian Reed getting rad -- treat the riding as a bonus, but not the main attraction of the trip!Rider Maxime descending down towards one of the many stunning villages in the Atlas Mountains.There also just happens to be some awesome riding -- but consider that to be a bonus, not the main attraction. If you go to Morocco, keep in mind that youre there for the overall cultural experience, and the riding just happens to be a good way to immerse yourself in that experience.Of course, the fact that youll get in some rad singletrack now and again doesnt exactly hurt, does it? 888poker XL Blizzard: Canadian "dujoe123" Wins $30,000 Crazy8 April 07, 2019 Eric Mertens On the third day of the 888poker XL Blizzard Series, three new tournaments were scheduled. Most of the attention went out to the $30,000 Crazy 8, where there was a pretty big overlay with 269 entries. Let's take a look at this tournament and the results of the other events that played out on Saturday. 888poker XL Blizzard #6 - $30,000 Crazy 8 Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $88 April 06 269 $30,000 The XL Blizzard #6 - $30,000 Crazy 8 kicked off at 20:00 GMT. After late registration closed, there were 269 registered players. That resulted in a pretty big overlay with a prize pool of $30,000 with $5,850 reserved for the winner. More than seven hours were played before a champion was crowned. Eight players made the final table, securing themselves of $750. "Blizzard5150" (eighth, $750), "okokok1983" (seventh, $900), "modmod87" (sixth, $1,200), "Underlay1" (fifth, $1,650) were eliminated in quick succession. After that, "vadovauju" (fourth, $2,400) and "sherblemon" (third, $3,300) missed out on the final heads-up. Canada's "dujoe123" battled against "Lunatikas7" and in the end, the aforementioned won against his or her opponent to be crowned the winner. The winner received the first prize of $5,850, while the runner-up had to settle for $4,350. 888poker XL Blizzard #6 - $30,000 Crazy 8 Final Table Results Position Player Country Prize 1 dujoe123 Canada $5,850 2 Lunatikas7 United Kingdom $4,350 3 sherblemon Russia $3,300 4 vadovauju Lithuania $2,400 5 Underlay1 United Kingdom $1,650 6 modmod87 Canada $1,200 7 okokok1983 Malta $900 8 Blizzard5150 Sweden $750 888poker XL Blizzard #7 - $10,000 Mini Crazy 8 Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $8.80 April 06 1,105 $12,504 There was also a Mini Edition of the Crazy 8 on the schedule for the players who couldn't afford the biggest buy-in ($88) of the day. To compete in this tournament, players had to pay the buy-in of $8.80 and there were 1,105 players competing for a prize pool of $12,504. Every finalist in this tournament would secure him- or herself of $165 but all eyes were on the top prize of $2,317. That top prize went to United Kingdom' "flipsticks" after beating "LHadar" from Romania heads-up. The Romanian runner-up received $1,585. 888poker XL Blizzard #7 - $10,000 Mini Crazy 8 Final Table Results Position Player Country Prize 1 flipsticks United Kingdom $2,317 2 LHadar Romania $1,585 3 FedeJanices Argentina $1,250 4 Whitehair1 Canada $937 5 eraldi1808 Morocco $625 6 Arox86 Romania $419 7 Pyzdakas1 Lithuania $250 8 WinTheGame15 Germany $165 888poker XL Blizzard #8 - $10,000 Late Crazy 8 Buy-in Date Players Prize pool $44 April 06 253 $13,400 The last winner of the day was crowned in the XL Blizzard #8 - $10,000 Late Crazy 8. This event was played by 253 players to create a prize pool of $13,400, easily reaching the guaranteed prize pool. Regular "Kaktus26rus" made another final table appearance but the journey ended in fourth place for $937. "DiCarpi0" from Romania won the event for $2,317 after defeating the Brazilian player "tassio-ita" in the final heads-up. 888poker XL Blizzard #8 - $10,000 Late Crazy 8 Final Table Results Position Player Country Prize 1 DiCarpi0 Romania $2,317 2 tassio-ita Brazil $1,585 3 RejamSam New Zealand $1,250 4 Kaktus26rus Russia $937 5 qaiserrr Saudi Arabe $625 6 mr.wellz United Kingdom $419 7 dErEk-eekk Romania $250 8 inalies Germany $165 Amazing Promotions Including WSOP Packages 888poker is making it easy for players to join in on the action in the XL Blizzard by not only making the buy-ins affordable but also hosting tons of satellites where you can get in cheaply. Some of the satellites even allow you to get into events for free. If you already have an account at 888poker and have made a deposit, you should have already received two free tickets for daily freeroll satellites to the Mini Opening Event and the Main Event. You can earn more tickets to these freerolls by completing simple missions. If you don't have an account yet, you can also grab three free tickets simply by signing up to 888poker through PokerNews and making your first deposit of at least $10 using the "BLIZZARD10" bonus code. In addition, 888poker is inviting players that participate in at least five XL Blizzard Events into a freeroll that awards a $12,600 WSOP Main Event package to the winner and three $2,700 Crazy 8s packages to those who finish second through fourth. 888poker XL Blizzard Schedule Date Time (GMT) Event Buy-in Sun., April 7 5:30 p.m. XL Blizzard #9 - $120,000 Mega Deep $215 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #10 - $100,000 Tune Up $160 6:01 p.m. XL Blizzard #11 - $50,000 Mini Tune Up $16.50 7:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #12 - $10,000 Micro Tune Up $5.50 9:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #13 - $20,000 Late Tune Up $55 Mon., April 8 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #14 - $30,000 R&A Event $55 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #15 - $10,000 Mini R&A $5 Tues., April 9 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #16 - $100,000 High Roller $320 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #17 - $30,000 Mini High Roller $55 8:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #18 - $20,000 Late High Roller $109 Wed., April 10 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #19 - $50,000 PKO $109 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #20 - $20,000 Mini PKO $16.50 8:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #21 - $10,000 Late PKO $33 Thurs., April 11 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #22 - $75,000 PKO 8-Max $215 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #23 - $20,000 Mini PKO 8-Max $22 8:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #24 - $20,000 Late PKO 8-Max $55 Fri., April 12 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #25 - $30,000 DeepStack $55 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #26 - $20,000 Mini DeepStack $16.50 8:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #27 - $10,000 Late DeepStack $33 Sat., April 13 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #28 - $30,000 6-Max $109 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #29 - $20,000 Mini 6-Max $16.50 8:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #30 - $15,000 Late 6-Max $55 Sun., April 14 5:30 p.m. XL Blizzard #31 - $120,000 Mega Deep $215 6:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #32 - $500,000 Main Event $320 7:00 p.m. XL Blizzard #33 - $50,000 Mini Main $33 7:30 p.m. XL Blizzard #34 - $15,000 Micro Main $5.50 PokerNews.com covers the 888poker XL Blizzard throughout the series. Check the PokerNews Live Reporting section for all 888poker XL Blizzard live updates. 3.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard In the wake of Donald Trumps botched release of the highly anticipated and previously unreleased JFK documents, Rachel Maddow asked the question that has been on Americas mind for months: Is there anything the Trump administration can competently achieve? The MSNBC host slammed the administration for not doing the necessary work required so that these documents all of them were released in a timely way that complied with a federal law passed over two decades ago. Video: Rachel #Maddow Says Botched JFK File Release Is Proof That Trump Can Screw Up Anything #JFKFiles #JFKDocuments pic.twitter.com/4myeFiVVMA Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) October 27, 2017 Maddow blasted the White House for focusing on the PR aspect of the release, but not doing any of the hard work required to make it happen: By that law that was passed in 1992, they are supposed to release completely every word. Now, what if theres information in those files thats too sensitive for the public to see, even more than a half-century down the road? Well, thats part of the gig of managing the release of these documents from the federal government. Part of the work of dealing with this release of documents is that the administration has to account for that. They have to arrange for the redactions to happen before the release date. Remember, the release date is mandated by law. This is not an abstract concept about the law here. This is actually a job, which requires people to do it. It takes time and effort, takes reading comprehension skills, probably takes some office supplies. I mean, its actual work that real humans need to do by a deadline. And, of course, as we all know, work is hard, and the Trump administration apparently forgot about the work part of their responsibilities here and they just didnt do it. While the JFK file release isnt the most pressing issue facing the country, the failure of Trump to accomplish even that is a microcosm of this White House as a whole. First, its indicative of how this president has treated every other issue hes faced since taking office. Hes just not a man whos interested in putting in the time or effort to do a job that demands a whole lot of both. Instead, Trump loves the reality show-style hype the surrounds his job more than anything else. Heck, on the eve of the supposed release of these files, Trump landed in Dallas, essentially pretending to be JFK. He even teased the release in a tweet yesterday, as if he was plugging an episode of The Apprentice. But when it actually came time for his administration to show that they put in the work to release all of these documents, as required by law, he flopped. Now there is a new deadline: April 2018. Ultimately, Thursdays display of incompetence from this administration was pretty stunning given that their only job was to review and release files to the public, but I have a feeling no one is surprised by how horribly it went. 5.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) stood up to Trumps bullying, refused to apologize, and vowed to investigate the president. Schiff said on CNNs State of The Union, I dont regret calling out this president for what I consider deeply unethical and improper conduct, not a bit, and I think that the moment that we start to think that we should back away from exposing this kind of malfeasance and corruption is a dangerous point. Now, Jake, youve asked the question many times is there a risk of doing too much oversight? There is a risk when you have an immoral president. A president lacking in basic character, who violates the norms of office, there is a risk of doing too little oversight, so I make no apologies for that, and Im going to continue holding this administration accountable. Video: Schiff said, "A president lacking in basic character, who violates the norms of office, there is a risk of doing too little oversight, so I make no apologies for that, and Im going to continue holding this administration accountable. https://t.co/HDXPkBFMjn pic.twitter.com/WK7d6kIQI3 PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) April 7, 2019 Adam Schiff Is Going To Investigate Trump The president and his White House were desperate to get rid of Rep. Schiff as Intelligence Committee Chairman and it is clear why. Adam Schiff isnt distracted by Trumps games and insults. He doesnt care about the tweets or the statements the president makes at his rallies. Rep. Schiff has a job to do, and that is to conduct oversight into the most ethically devoid administration since Nixon. Corruption is a feature, not a bug of the Trump administration. Rep. Schiff is correct. After two years of Republicans in Congress doing zero oversight, Democrats in the House have to work twice as hard to do what already should have been done, while trying to keep up with corrupt behavior as it unfolds. Adam Schiff cant be bullied. He appears to be a person of iron will and laser sharp focus, and he is locked in on Donald Trump. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook 10.6k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Rep. Devin Nunes wants Attorney General William Barr to prosecute eight people for leaking, and he claims, lying to the FISA court. Nunes said on Fox Business: We think we have got a pretty good idea of who some of the sources are behind these leaks, he said. We dont know if the Department of Justice has been looking at these. But theres just been unprecedented things have happened. . We believe there is a conspiracy to lie to the FISA court, mislead the FISA court by numerous individuals that all need to be investigated and looked at, said Mr. Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. . Were prepared to make those eight referrals this week, so the two on conspiracy, the one on global leaks, and then five that are more specific on lying, leaking, and misleading Congress. Video: Devin Nunes now wants Barr to prosecute people who leak information and investigate Trump. https://t.co/KLyuizJzDM pic.twitter.com/NvSjSm72Ao Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 7, 2019 Devin Nunes is running his own witch hunt Rep. Nunes is trying to discredit the Russia investigation before the Mueller report is released. He is also trying to intimidate people into not blowing the whistle on Trump, or exposing his behavior. This is a real-life witch hunt that Devin Nunes has cooked up, and it is all about attacking people who either investigated Trump or released information to the public that was damaging for the president. William Barrs credibility is close to zero after his hatch and spin job on the Mueller report, but if he allows Nunes and Trump to weaponize the DOJ for use against people who the president views as enemies, it will be an action that will lead to severe congressional and popular backlash. Trumps flying monkey Nunes is walking the president into a fresh disaster. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook 746 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Kirstjen Nielsen who has been a frequent target of Trumps wrath has resigned which clears the way for shutting down the southern border. Paula Reid of CBS reported: JUST IN: Two US officials tell @CBSNews DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen meeting with President Trump at 5pm, expected to resign. Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) April 7, 2019 But nothing is definite yet: Nielsen meeting in WH residence with POTUS. Multiple WH aides say they expect she leave, but say they've seen versions of this script with her and POTUS before and are waiting to see outcome of meeting before saying anything definitive. Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 7, 2019 Trump officially tweeted her departure: Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2019 Neilsen has been a frequent target of Trumps rage because she wont close the southern border. Closing the border has been pushed to the front of the news again by Trump, but the president has been trying to close the border down for almost a year, and one of his many points of anger with the DHS Secretary is that she wont shut down the border and wreck the US economy. Neilsens resignation means that Trump is going to find a new Homeland Security Secretary who will carry out his extremist immigration policies. The closing of the border is back on the table, as Trumps immigration policies are about to get even more bigoted and extreme. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook 808 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Donald Trumps Department of Justice (DOJ) is asking for two years to identify several thousand migrant children who were stolen from their parents at the Mexican border under Trumps zero tolerance immigration policy. The Associated Press reported that the Trump administration has set forth their proposed timeline in a new court filing. Trumps people are now saying that it will take longer than they had expected to review an estimated 47,000 cases of unaccompanied children taken into U.S. custody between July 2017 and June 25, 2018. The process is somewhat time consuming because the government, after kidnapping the children, did not keep good records. In some cases they cant even determine which children in custody were separated from their parents. Trump was forced to stop his practice of stealing children from families at the border last June after a federal judge ruled against him. The ruling came after months of international outrage at the cruel family separation practice which had been put into place by then-attorney general Jeff Sessions. The judge, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, said that he can legally hold the Trump administration accountable for those children who were separated before his June 2018 order. According to the AP report, the federal government is just now starting to identify the thousands of children who were taken from their families. Government officials are saying that the identification and reunification process is very difficult because so much time has passed. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued last year to halt the practice of separating families. They criticized the DOJs proposed two-year timeline yesterday. We strongly oppose a plan that could take up to two years to locate these families, the ACLUs lead attorney, Lee Gelernt, said. The government needs to make this a priority. There Is No Excuse For Trumps Abuse of Migrant Children Ever since Donald Trump put into place his Zero Tolerance policy, migrant children have been abused. Tens of thousands of children were kidnapped, causing trauma that will be with them their entire lives. And many of these children cant be located, due to faulty recordkeeping by Trumps immigration enforcement people. Many children have been abused in migrant shelters, kept in cages, while they have waited months to see their parents again. Donald Trump is a complete failure when it comes to immigration. Every step he has taken reveals that he is motivated by cruelty and has no comprehensive immigration program. 2.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard On Sunday, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin published an editorial in The New Yorker, and in it he severely rebuked Attorney General William Barr. According to Toobin, Barr is continuing to obstruct justice by helping Donald Trump conceal special counsel Robert Muellers Russia report from Congress and from the American people. And he is doing it illegally, by making up rules that dont exist. In his scathing article, Toobin wrote: Barr established four categories that were off limits for public disclosure. They are: Material subject to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) that by law cannot be made publicthat is, matters subject to grand-jury secrecy; classified information; matters relating to other pending investigations; and information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties. Toobin said that all four of these categories Barr wants to conceal are questionable and possibly even outright fabrications with no legal justification or credibility. Toobin began by pointing out that the law is not clear on what grand-jury information is secret it could either mean grand-jury testimony, or anything at all that was discussed by the grand jury. In his public writings and statements so far, Barr has not been at all clear about which definition he will use. On top that, Toobin disclosed the fact that even though SOME classified information must be redacted, intelligence agencies are overly zealous in what they want to have classified. Another factor arguing against Barrs approach is that there is no way to hold the attorney general accountable by verifying that what Barr redacts is actually relevant to other pending investigations. He can redact anything he wants without fear of being questioned, since the information to prove him wrong cannot be disclosed. Perhaps the worst thing of all is that Barr has made up his own category of information that must be kept secret. He said he cant reveal information that would unduly infringe on personal privacy and reputational interests. But there is no such law that would prohibit him from revealing this information! Barr is making it all up! According to the top legal analyst, these four broad categories will allow Barr to redact huge sections of the Mueller report. And most of what he will keep secret is material that is important for the American public to know about. Toobin wrote: Taken together with Barrs previous memo asserting President Donald Trump could not have obstructed justice, it paints a damning picture of Trumps actions. In all, Barr has taken every possible step to lessen the sting of the Mueller reportand, so far, to block it from view altogether. The fix is in. Barr and Trump Will Fail in Their Attempted Coverup Bill Barr may be attempting to fix things so the incriminating evidence that Bob Mueller discovered about Donald Trump never becomes public, but he will fail. In fact, it may make Trumps impeachment more likely. The American people and Democrats in Congress will see the Mueller report as well as his underlying evidence. And when they do, it will become clear that not only did Donald Trump obstruct justice, but so did his hand-picked attorney general. 6.6k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi continues to be a thorn in the side of Donald Trump. She is frustrating him in Washington, and now it has just been announced that she will receive one of the most prestigious honors in politics the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. This is sure to drive the president nuts. According to the official announcement, Pelosi was named to receive the honor in recognition of her efforts to pass the Affordable Care Act and restore Democrats majority in the US House of Representatives during the 2018 elections. The Speaker will receive the award during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Dorchester, Massachusetts. In a statement, Caroline Kennedy said Pelosi leads with strength, integrity and grace under pressure using her power to protect the most vulnerable of our citizens. She is the most important woman in American political history and is a true Profile in Courage, added Kennedy, JFKs daughter and former US ambassador to Japan under President Barack Obama. Pelosi said in a statement that she is honored and recalled President Kennedys inaugural speech in which he spoke of the energy, the faith, the devotion . . . to light our country and all who serve it and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. It is inspiring that the award itself is a lantern, a manifestation of that light, Pelosi said. That energy, faith and fire have inspired my work in the Congress and as Speaker, and it is my hope that my receiving this award will encourage others to pursue public service, and lead with courage, conviction and conscience. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation established the award in 1989 to honor JFKs commitment and contribution to public service. The honor is named for President Kennedys bestselling book, Profiles in Courage, in which he described patriotic acts made by eight U.S. senators in the face of hardship and adversity. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. Caroline Kennedy and her son, Jack Schlossberg, plan to personally present Pelosi with the award. Schlossberg said in a statement that Pelosi governs responsibly: She sets a powerful example for a new generation of public servants, proving that politics can still be a noble profession. Previous recipients of the award include former president Barack Obama, former U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords, and Representative John Lewis of Georgia. On April 3, the Russian newspaper by Moskovsky Komsomolets published an interview with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Responding to the reporters assertion that many Russians believe Moscows foreign policy situation is hopeless, particularly regarding the U.S. and Ukraine, Lavrov claimed the U.S. is trying to punish Russia not for its aggression in Ukraine, as the U.S. and other Western governments say, but for taking in Edward Snowden, the fugitive former Central Intelligence Agency employee and U.S. government contractor who leaked highly classified information from the U.S. National Security Agency. Ive repeatedly said that as soon as Edward Snowden chose freedom refused to fly to where he was threatened with the electric chair the Americans immediately began trying to punish us, Lavrov said. Then there was the Magnitsky Act. This was all before Ukraine. Two of Lavrovs points are problematic. First, the Magnitsky Act was approved in December 2012, whereas Edward Snowden arrived in Moscow on June 23, 2013. Secondly, the Magnitsky Act was lobbied by Bill Browder, at the time a British subject (Browder renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1998), and the Obama administration was reluctant to back it. Thus, the Magnitsky Act was the project of a non-U.S. citizen and approved months before the world knew the name Edward Snowden. Indeed, the two cases have nothing to do with each other. Lavrovs claim that Snowden chose freedom is also spurious. Snowden ended up at Moscows Sheremetyevo airport while allegedly in transit to Cuba from Hong Kong. According to both Snowden and the journalist Glenn Greenwald, one of the people to whom Snowden leaked NSA documents, Snowden could not continue his journey because U.S. authorities had cancelled his passport while he was in transit between Hong Kong and Russia. If true, it cannot be said that Snowden chose freedom in Russia. As to Lavrovs claim that Snowden was threatened with the electric chair, i.e. capital punishment, former CIA Director James Woolsey said in December 2013 that Snowden should be tried for treason and hanged if convicted. However, not all U.S. officials shared that view. Then, U.S Attorney General Eric Holder said that while Snowden should face penalties for the illegality of his actions, he did America a public service by raising a debate about domestic surveillance and privacy. On July 23, 2013, Holder issued an official letter to Alexander Konovolov, Russias Minister of Justice, explaining the charges that had been filed against Snowden and the penalties they carry. As you know, Mr. Snowden has been charged with theft of government property (in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641), unauthorized communication of national defense information (in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 793(d)), and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person (in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 798(a)(3)), the letter stated. Each of the charges carried a maximum sentence of ten years. First, the United States would not seek the death penalty for Mr. Snowden should he return to the United States, the letter continued. The charges he faces do not carry that possibility, and the United States would not seek the death penalty even if Mr. Snowden were charged with additional, death penalty-eligible crimes. Polygraph.info talked to Snowdens U.S.-based lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union, Ben Wizner, about the potential charges against Snowden. Wizner confirmed that these were the original charges, but said that even now it is not known whether there is an indictment, given that such an indictment could be sealed. He confirmed that Snowden never faced the death penalty, although he would face severe sentencing were he to return to the U.S. to face trial. Wizner also said he was certain Snowden would face life imprisonment if he returned to the U.S. The maximum sentences on just the three known charges against him would add up to 30 years. According to Wizner, there is no precedent for the Snowden case, but the closest analog is that of Chelsea Manning, who was initially sentenced by a military court to 35 years in prison for a similar offense before her sentence was commuted. Snowden would also be unable to mount much of a defense, since he has essentially confessed to the existing charges. Wizner explained that the courts do not consider public interest in a case like Snowdens. The facts show that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is completely off-base when it comes to the reason for his countrys rapidly deteriorating relations with the U.S. and West in recent years. He not only mixed up the order of the Snowden affair and the passage of the Magnitsky Act, but did not show familiarity with the details of both circumstances. The worsening of relations and the increasingly tough measures taken by the U.S. and its allies against Russia, mostly in the form of sanctions, are due to Russias 2014 invasion, annexation and continued occupation of Crimea, Ukrainian territory, and what the U.S. calls Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine. The U.S. also imposed sanctions following Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as additional sanctions following the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last year. 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. A helpful pedestrian gets drenched assisting another person across a flooded Ashley Avenue near MUSC's Horseshoe during the downpour Friday, June 8, 2018. File/Wade Spees/Staff You are the owner of this article. It can be bizarre listening to opponents of school-district consolidation. In a brief debate last month, Sen. Gerald Malloy cross-examined Sen. Tom Young about the percentage of African-American students in the districts that would be forced to merge under Mr. Youngs bill and the percentage of white students in small districts not being forced to merge. Sen. Mike Fanning suggested that the Legislature had no business trying to address school-district redundancy as long as it maintained what he called a wasteful state education bureaucracy. Although no one actually came out and called it a racist bill, a casual observer would have come away from the debate with the clear impression that S.203 was an attempt by the white Republican power structure to disenfranchise the residents of the tiny districts being forced to merge and rob the students overwhelmingly African-American of something valuable. Now its true that some of the grown-ups who lead those districts might be harmed, and many of them are in fact African-American. Some top administrators, and one presumes at least one superintendent in each consolidation, would lose their positions. Some school board members, one hopes, would lose their jobs. (A newly merged district could double the size of the school boards, although surely no district would do anything so absurd. Surely.) But the part that gets overlooked as political leaders seek to maintain inefficient little districts is that the primary beneficiaries of these consolidations wont be Republican legislators or anyone in Columbia, in either party. Itll be the students. The overwhelmingly African-American students. Yes, consolidation supporters sometimes use unfortunate language that makes it sound as though their goal is to punish tiny districts. And they have too often exaggerated the financial benefits of mergers. And no, Im not suggesting that no one has any partisan, or even racial, motives in the education reform debate. But what gets overlooked is that the school-district consolidation proposal is all about the white Republican power structure pushing for a change in state law that would benefit the children in poor rural districts overwhelmingly African-American children who have been so badly neglected through Republican and Democratic administrations and legislatures. What gets overlooked is that forcing tiny districts to merge is a step not a big step, but a useful step toward providing those students with the sorts of opportunities that white suburban kids take for granted. As then-Chief Justice Jean Toal wrote in the Abbeville v. South Carolina school adequacy order, districts with only three or four schools have administrative costs which are disproportionate to the number of students served by that district, and which divert precious funding and resources from the classroom. Editorial: Consolidations will improve poor SC school districts Eight S.C. school districts have fewer than 1,000 students, another five fewer than 1,500 st The Senate was about to wind down its first round of debate on S.203 when Sen. Kevin Johnson stood and noted that unlike Sens. Young, Malloy and Fanning, he actually represented districts the bill targets: Clarendon 1, with 747 students, and Clarendon 3, with 1,305 students. And he wanted to have his say. His say was brief but powerful. There are a lot of things that our students dont have access to because were small, were rural and were poor, Sen. Johnson told a hushed Senate. And they know that consolidation may not give them everything that they want, but it will give us a chance to give those students a better education, and let them have access to some courses, some extracurricular courses also, that they can take advantage of. We need to be able to do better by our students and give them access to a better education. What you need to know about Sen. Johnson, for the purposes of this discussion, is that hes African-American. What you need to know about Clarendon 1 is that its three schools include Scotts Branch, the underfunded, segregated school that birthed Briggs v. Elliott, the S.C. lawsuit that led to the U.S. Supreme Courts Brown v. Board of Education decision that ended the legal fiction of separate but equal and forced South Carolina and other states to desegregate their schools. Sen. Johnson told his fellow senators that Clarendon 1 and 3 had for years resisted his entreaties to merge. But as a result of Sen. Youngs bill, which provides financial incentives for tiny districts to merge, the districts leaders for the first time in history have agreed to meet, and they are vastly majority African-American, (and agreed) that they want to consolidate. And, he said, I want to strike while the irons hot. Its hard to imagine how anyone who cares about the kids Sen. Johnson represents could want to stand in his way. Cindi Ross Scoppe is an editorial writer for The Post and Courier. Contact her at cscoppe@postandcourier.com or on Twitter or Facebook @cindiscoppe. Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations. Political Editor Schuyler Kropf is The Post and Courier political editor. He has covered every major political race in South Carolina dating to 1988, including for U.S. Senate, governorship, the Statehouse and Republican and Democratic presidential primaries. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper listens as Anthony Thompson, right, recounts the night his wife was killed in the 2015 mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church. Polly Sheppard, middle, survived the shooting. Hickenlooper visited the historic black church Saturday during a campaign trip to South Carolina as he seeks the Democratic presidential nomination. Caitlin Byrd/Staff 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. If there is $2.8 million in the Recycling Revolving Fund, why are there still aluminum cans on the roadside and in the trash cans? Read more In what is believed to be a first, a law enforcement organization has endorsed the candidacy of a Democratic candidate attempting to unseat Chester Countys incumbent district attorney. The Fraternal Order of Police organization that represents state police troopers who cover Chester, Lancaster and York counties gave its support to former county prosecutor Deborah Deb Ryan, who announced her candidacy earlier this year. The endorsement comes in the wake of a long-running feud between Republican District Attorney Tom Hogan and state police. FOP Lodge 66 President Todd McCurdy released the following statement: Deb Ryan has been stalwart in her support for law enforcement in Pennsylvania and Chester County in particular. Her dedication to the pursuit of justice is unwavering. Ms. Ryan believes in the importance of collaboration with law enforcement. Her dedication to the positive working relationship between police and prosecutors will prove to be a benefit to the citizens of Chester County. We are confident that Deb Ryan will work to ensure the security and safety of those who live and work in Chester County, the statement read. The endorsement, and its implicit rejection of the re-election campaign of Hogan, is a boost for Ryans campaign. Not only is it believed to be the first time in memory that a group of law enforcement officers lined up behind a Democratic candidate for district attorney in the county, but also the only time such a group has decided not to support the Republican incumbent in the office. Ryan is the first former prosecutor to run as a Democrat for the position in modern county history. In a press release, Ryan expressed her gratitude and honor for the endorsement. I am very proud of my successful collaboration with the Pennsylvania State Police throughout my 15 years as a prosecutor, where together we handled some of the most egregious child abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence and high-level drug trafficking cases in Chester Countys history, her statement read. It is essential that the District Attorneys Office and law enforcement have a positive working relationship based on mutual respect and commitment to serving and protecting our community, she noted. I admire and respect all the men and women who risk their lives every day in order to protect us and keep us safe. Ryans reference to a positive working relationship between the DAs Office and law enforcement illuminates the rift that was exposed last year between the union representing state police troopers in the county and Hogan, a two-time incumbent and former county and federal prosecutor. In October, the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association and one of its former commanders filed a lawsuit in Common Pleas Court objecting to the way Hogan was using an in-house do not call list of police officers who prosecutors were prohibited from using in court proceedings because of their inherent untrustworthiness. The lawsuit, which is currently making its way through the court system after the judge overseeing the case ruled that it be allowed to proceed towards trial, criticized the arbitrary and capricious whim of District Attorney Hogan in deciding which police officers are included on the list, the existence of which was previously unknown publicly, without giving them a chance to plead their case against such inclusion. The list, Hogan said in a July memo to state police officials, contained three names two state troopers who had been convicted of crimes in the county and then-Lt. Brandon Daniels, who Hogan accused of insubordination for his failure to follow rules set by the DAs Office in officer-involved shootings. Daniels has since retired. Hogan contends that the troopers association lawsuit is an improper attempt to usurp his authority and micro-manage how his office conducts its business. He said it should be thrown out. On Friday, Hogan said he was unaware that the FOP Lodge 66 was in the process of endorsing candidates for office at this time. The primary election, in which Hogan is running unopposed as a Republican and Ryan unopposed as a Democrat, is set for May 21. As District Attorney, my job is to represent everyone in Chester County and keep our streets safe, Hogan said in a written response to a request for comment on the endorsement. Chester County has the lowest crime rate in southeastern Pennsylvania. We continue to do outstanding work for justice in this office, even where a specific union may disagree with the Constitutional duties that govern prosecutors, he said, referring indirectly to the suit. I look forward to earning the support of voters again this November and keeping Chester County a safe place to live, work, and raise a family. Ryan, 48, of Birmingham, like most trial prosecutors in the county, has a long history of working with state police troopers, who are responsible for providing patrol coverage for several smaller municipalities in the county that lack their own local police, as well as investigating major crimes across municipal boundaries. In an interview, Ryan said state police cases she worked on include the break-up of a million-dollar cocaine trafficking operation in southern Chester County; the investigation of a former Chester County Prison corrections officer who had been molesting young children he was a foster parent to; and the conviction of a former Phoenixville man, Warren Yerger, who sexually abused four children over a period of years. Ryan said in the Yerger case, the lead investigator, state Trooper Heather Heffner, showed a high degree of dedication and professionalism in working with the children in the case, who had been traumatized for years by the abuse. It was one of the most difficult cases Ive ever worked on, but Trooper Heffner was the one who was fist able to gain the trust of the survivors and their families in bringing the case forward. Yerger was eventually sentenced to 339 to 690 years in state prison. The state police FOP lodge endorsement came after Ryan appeared for an interview with the lodge membership in February she said. A graduate of Boston University and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Ryan began her career as an assistant district attorney at the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office for approximately four years, and was hired as an assistant district attorney in the county in 2006. She was promoted to deputy district attorney in charge of the Child Abuse Unit and Childrens Advocacy Center in 2013. The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor continues this week with the completion of jury selection and the attorneys opening statements tomorrow. Noor is charged with second and third degree murder and second degree manslaughter in the killing of Justine Ruszczyk (known as Justine Damond) in July 2017. Ms. Ruszczyk had called 911 to seek police intervention in what she feared might be a rape occurring in the alley behind her home. As events unfolded in nightmare fashion, Ms. Ruszczyk was shot and killed by Noor as his partner drove down the alley before midnight on the evening of July 15. The facts and charges are set forth in the criminal complaint posted here and in the the subsequently filed amended complaint posted along with other documents filed in the case on the courts Noor trial page. The case has been assigned to Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn Quaintance. The State of Minnesota is represented at trial by Assistant Hennepin County Attorneys Amy Sweasy and Patrick Lofton. Noor is represented by Minneapolis attorneys Thomas Plunkett and Peter Wold. Plunkett dominated voir dire last week. Ms. Sweasy did not take a turn at bat until Friday, and then only briefly. Several local media outlets including the Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, CBS Minnesota (WCCO TV, via CBS Broadcasting) and FOX 9 (via Fox/UTV Holdings) have banded together under the name of the Media Coalition to contest certain of Judge Quaintances orders affecting press coverage of the trial. Sweasys turn at voir dire was interrupted Friday afternoon for a hearing on the motion brought by the Media Coalitions objection to her order suppressing part of the bodycam footage that will be admitted into evidence when the trial gets underway in earnest early next week. Judge Quaintance has ordered sua sponte (i.e., on her own motion) that certain bodycam footage and photographs are to be suppressed from public viewing even though they will be admitted into evidence. The hearing concluded yesterdays proceedings. The bodycam footage that is to be suppressed from public view depicts Ms. Rusczczyk naked from the waist up. The officers are administering CPR. Her chest is exposed as she takes her dying breaths. The Media Coalition has retained Leita Walker of the Ballard Spahr firm. Ms. Walker has filed this objection and memorandum of law as well as an affidavit with supplemental case law in support of the Media Coalition. She presented oral argument at the hearing on Friday afternoon. All documents relevant to the motion have been posted on the courts Noor trial page. Judge Quaintance has not yet filed a written order setting forth her restrictions on press and public access to evidence to be admitted at trial. She has announced her intentions orally from the bench. The items intended to receive this treatment are set forth at page 3 of the Ballard Spahr memorandum of law linked above. Attention at the hearing was focused exclusively on the specified part of the bodycam footage. In the usual course of events at trial we have two or more parties contesting the issues in the case. They present arguments to the court based on the relevant constitutional provisions, statutes, rules, and case law. In this matter, the Media Coalition has taken up an issue raised only by the judge herself. The applicable law is adequately set forth in the memorandum of law and supplemental authorities submitted by the Media Coalition. Judge Quaintance made a variety of assertions taking issue with Ms. Walker in the course of the hearing. This is the gist as I took them down in notes reflecting the judges own words: The public has no right to unfettered access to the evidence. The public interest has to be balanced against the privacy interest of the victim. While the judge is a total advocate of transparency, this is an issue of the right of the victim not to have her bare breast exposed to a bunch of strangers. The judge wants to protect pictures of a woman naked and gasping for breath. The public doesnt need to see this evidence. It isnt deciding the case. The judge is not convinced that the the public has a legitimate interest in seeing this evidence. The Media Coalition argument assumes that the press is a proxy for the public. The judges ruling does not apply to a majority of the bodycam footage. The judges primary concern is public influence of the jury that would result from the evidence being made public. The thought of images of Ms. Ruszczyks demise being circulated is highly distasteful. Its shocking. These are all little more than assertions in search of a legal argument. I seriously doubt that the courts order can stand. It seems to me a bald assertion of will lacking legal authority. Despite the faces she made at counsel and a tone of voice expressing incredulity, I didnt hear a single citation of authority in Judge Quaintances comments. Ms. Walker added in the course of her argument that the Media Coalition had served Minnesota Data Practices Act requests on the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for the bodycam video upon its admission into evidence at trial. At that point, she noted, it becomes public data that is accessible under the act without exception, citing the Minnesota Supreme Court case of In Re Access (1994), summarized here. There is nothing you can do about it, Walker stated. Minnesota Public Radio has posted a good account of the hearing with additional background. MPR also discusses the argument on the judges restrictions on sketch artists raising an issue of prior restraint. Google has done away with its Artificial Intelligence Ethics Board, apparently because leftists at the company objected to inclusion of Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James on the board: [E]mployees immediately claimed that Jamess position on transgender identity involved advocating violence against them. An employee leaked an internal discussion on the issue, and the comments proved terrifying. *** Some employees defended Jamess addition to the board in the name of including diverse perspectives. Even this suggestion was demonized. I think that people have been very clear that the problem with the Heritage Foundation isnt that they dont think like I do but that they actively and stridently advocate for religiously based antiLGBTQ+ policies that immiserate my friends, colleagues, and comrades and has a real and damaging impact on their lives, one employee wrote. Disagreement is violence! I met Kay James at a dinner a year or so ago, and can assure you that she is not a proponent of violence. The Heritage Foundation has hosted many events criticizing transgender identity. It has hosted former transgender Walt Heyer, who runs the website SexChangeRegret.com. It has hosted Julia Beck, a lesbian feminist who got kicked off of the Baltimore LGBT Commission for disagreeing with transgender identity. Beck has warned that embracing transgender identity in civil rights law would allow biological men in womens bathrooms and changing rooms and in womens sports. That seems rather obviously correct. But transgender activism has entered the holy pantheon of leftist ideologies that cannot be debated. Mike Wacker, a Google employee concerned about animus against conservatives and Christians at the company, warned that conservative employees at Google are terrified of defending Kay Coles James internally, especially if someone reports them to HR. That fear is justified. Corporate human resources departments are among the main sources of evil in todays world. Wacker pointed to a survey from the Lincoln Network, in which one conservative tech employee wrote, Employees will interpret your words in the most offensive way possible, then report you to HR based on that interpretation. Its one big offendedness sweepstakes. When people get in trouble, its often based not on what they said, but on how others interpreted their words, regardless of how unreasonable that interpretation is. Ive seen someone get reported to HR for sharing a National Review article, the conservative employee wrote. There is much more at the link. Bottom line is that Google and other left-wing tech companies should not be ceded control over public discourse in America. Do you think illegal immigration is a serious problem? If you are like 67 percent of likely voters, you do. If you think illegal immigration is a very serious problem, you have plenty of company47 percent of voters. Of course, if you are running for president as a Democrat, you dont think illegal immigration is a problem at all. Eight percent of likely voters agree with you. Not only do none of the Democratic presidential candidates want to build the wall, some of them want to tear down barriers where they already exist. Open borders! Come one, come all! How can the Democrats be so out of touch with voters on what most regard as a very important issue? I dont know. Illegal immigration is different, too, from issues like reparations and the Green New Deal, which politicians will talk about during the Democratic primaries and then quietly forget about. They are serious when it comes to promoting illegal immigration. Which is one of several reasons why I dont think any Democrat now in the race, or likely to enter the race, can beat President Trump next year. Popular Nollywood actor, Leo Mezie, is currently down with a kidney ailment. Earlier in July 2016, word got out that the actor was down with kidney-related disease. The news came barely a month after popular Nigerian music producer, OJB Jezreel, passed on. The latter died three years after he underwent a kidney transplant. In 2016, Leo Mezie shared his account details and welcomed contributions while his colleagues rallied round to raise the over 60,000 pounds required to carry out a transplant. But they were only able to raise N1.2 million in one month; a far cry from the total sum required. Mezie would later announce that Johnson Suleman of Omega Fire Ministries sponsored his medical trip and treatment in London. He also announced that he was advised not to go for a transplant. In a new development, the actor, who became popular after his role in the 2003 movie, Labista, has said he currently needs N20 million to undergo a kidney transplant as soon as possible. Tony Mezie, the actors younger brother, confirmed the development in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday in Lagos. He said, Leo is currently receiving dialysis treatment at a Lagos hospital. The ailment resurfaced when he went to the United Kingdom for checks last year. A relapse occurred about 11 months ago and we are doing our best to ensure that he gets urgent medical attention. He undergoes dialysis thrice a week, and one session cost about N45, 000. Leo needs a minimum of N20m to undergo treatment and transplant. Tony also informed this newspaper that the Actors Guild of Nigeria is spearheading his brothers fundraiser. He also added that the general overseer of Mercy Land Deliverance Ministry in Warri, Delta state, Jeremiah Fufeyi, a prophet, donated N3 million towards his brothers medical treatment on March 31. Jeremiah Fufeyin General Overseer Mercy Land Deliverance Ministry Warri donated the sum of three million naira to support Leo Mezies Kidney transplant He said the cleric made the donation at an event in his church. Nollywood actors, Chinwe Owoh, Kanayo O. Kanayo, and AGN president, Emeka Rollas, were present at the occasion. Tony also said donations can be made to his brother through his personal GTBank account with number 0125346916. The 40,000 sq km Serengeti-Mara plain that straddles the border of Kenya and Tanzania is famous for its abundant and diverse wildlife. It is also home to one of the wonders of the world: the Serengeti-Mara wildebeest migration. Each year about two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelles migrate from Tanzania to Kenyas Maasai Mara in search of food and water. The Serengeti-Mara is made up of pastoral community lands and 12 major protected areas, including the world famous Maasai Mara national reserve and the Serengeti national park. These make up, what we call, the core protected area. But despite its vast protected areas, the Serengeti-Mara is being threatened. In our new research we show how activities by people like farming, erecting fences and settlements are proliferating around the borders of the core protected areas. This is putting huge pressure on the areas environment, natural resources and wildlife. This is the first time that a large team of scientists, from seven countries, pooled together various lines of evidence like ground vegetation monitoring, aerial surveys of animals and GPS tracked animals to show the impact of human activity on the Serengeti-Mara. The data covers a period of 40 years. We found that the activities of people have caused extreme changes to the habitat. It has significantly reduced the amount of grass and, because of farms, settlements and fences, the landscape has become fragmented this means animals cant move freely to find resources or mate. Key ecological functions have also changed. There are less man-made or wild fires which means that trees and shrubs are able to take root, soils are damaged and so the land produces less plants and the area becomes more sensitive to climate change. Findings We used 62 aerial surveys, from 1977 to 2016, to examine changes to wildlife, livestock and settlements around the area. For human population figures, we used data collected by the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments. We found that, within a 60km radius of the core protected area boundary, there were 26% more people. An increase from 4.6 million to 5.8 million in 13 years. The population growth rate was even higher within a 15km radius. With more people come more livestock, settlements and fences. The number of fenced plots has increased by more than 20% since 2010 outside of the core protected area, in the Mara Region of Kenya. We found a high density of bomas (settlements), and the number was rising in parts of the Mara by up to three new bomas per square kilometre per year. There was also a substantial increase in the number of sheep and goats (276.2%) and a slight decrease in the number of cattle (9.4%) in the Narok region in Kenya. But the livestock dont just stay on the boundaries of the protected areas. Theyre going in. Livestock paths were prevalent and visible up to 5km, often even further, inside. This flags that illegal grazing is happening which reduces the quantity and quality of food available for wildlife. For instance we found that, from 1977 to 2016, illegal incursions into the Maasai Mara national reserve by cattle increased by 1053% and by sheep and goats by 1174%. We also found that the numbers of resident wildlife species declined by between 40% and 87%. In addition, 63.5% fewer migratory wildebeest used the reserve. Another threat is agriculture. Over 34 years the amount of agriculture happening around the border went up by 17%. It now covers 54% of the land around the protected area and has destroyed large natural habitats close by. Coupled with high livestock densities, this has intensified the pressure to graze livestock inside protected areas. The biggest impact has been on migratory animals like wildebeest. Using data gathered from GPS radio-collared wildebeest, we found that they were coming together in dense groups at specific locations inside core protected areas as opposed to ranging widely inside and outside. This reduces the amount of grass each animal has to eat and, because of over-grazing, weakens the capacity of soil to store nutrients and carbon. This means the land is less productive and it increases the areas sensitivity to weather changes. There are also less natural or wild fires which are key to maintaining grasslands. When livestock grazing removes grass, young trees and shrubs take root. This turns grasslands into shrublands or woodlands. Wild grazers, like hartebeest, are then likely to be replaced by animals that eat leaves and twigs, like giraffes. The most troubling changes have taken place in an area called Narok County, located in southwestern Kenya. This area of about 17,933 sq km includes the protected Masai Mara Reserve, wildlife conservancies and community land. Wildlife numbers here have dramatically declined. This is a big worry because the Maasai Mara is where migratory wildlife go to eat and drink water in the dry season. In its protected areas, over about 40 years, the number of cattle (40%), sheep and goats (189.6%) all increased and virtually all the large wildlife species such as giraffe, eland and topi decreased by between 54% and 93%. The number of migratory wildebeest declined by about 80% and zebra by 75%. The impact These intense and extensive changes mean that the Serengeti-Mara areas wildlife has an unsure future. The findings call for an immediate and robust response to save the future of the regions wildlife populations, their habitats and the tourism revenue they bring from imminent jeopardy. The migration and dispersal corridors along the edges of the Serengeti-Mara should be better protected. Livestock numbers, fences, charcoal trade, cultivation and settlements should be regulated. And illegal livestock grazing and poaching must be controlled in protected areas. Also, conservation benefits should be fairly distributed to communities living around the Serengeti-Mara. Joseph Ogutu, Senior Statistician, University of Hohenheim This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The conversation Yusuf Suleiman, the Director General of the APC Gubernatorial Campaign Organisation in Sokoto State, has lauded members of the party for coming out to vote for the partys candidates in the just concluded general elections. The partys governorship candidate, Ahmed Aliyu, narrowly lost the governorship post to incumbent Aminu Tambuwal of the Peoples Democratic Party. But in this interview, Mr Suleiman, a former minister, said the APC has filed a petition at the tribunal to retrieve what he called the stolen mandate. We won the election but INEC and PDP in Sokoto rigged the elections, he said. Excerpts: Question: Your party won 16 seats in the Sokoto State House of Assembly, three Senate seats and nine seats in the House of Representatives. Why did you lose the governorship election in the state?. Answer: Well, we will not say we didnt get the ticket of the governor. We will rather say that somehow, through some inexplicable reasons, the returning officer declared Governor Aminu Tambuwal as Governor-elect. The declaration was totally against the spirit of the law. Once the difference between the two leading parties is less than the total number of votes cancelled, you cannot declare a winner and that was what happened. Governor Tambuwal knows it. Everyone in Sokoto knows it. We had 1500 plus people that were not able to cast their vote during the supplementary election. The difference is just about 342 votes. I dont know what law the returning officer used to return Governor Tambuwal as Governor-elect. The law says once you cannot determine a winner. You have to declare the election inconclusive. It doesnt matter how many times you have to do that, a winner has to emerge. The reason for this is that, if the number of voters who have not cast their vote is more than the difference between the two leading parties, it suggests that if all the voters decide to vote the other way, the leading person will lose. That is why when you have the total number of votes not cast less than the margin, you declare a winner because if all of them decide to vote for the second person, the other person will still win. In this case, we have 342 vote lead, so-called lead, because it contains results of the election that was conducted twice in many places, both on March 9 and March 23. Both were recorded. I cant understand what happened to INEC other than, for many of us, we believed they were compromised. There is just no way any reasonable, sensible person could declare that election conclusive and declare Governor Tambuwal returned as elected. Question: What message do you have for your supporters in the state? Answer: The first thing I will say to our supporters is to thank them for coming out overwhelmingly to vote for our party. Every reasonable, responsible person knows that Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu ought to have been declared the Governor-elect. There is this analysis of the voting trend in our state that someone made and I always try to present it to our supporters. During the presidential election, President Muhammadu Buhari and our APC candidates in both senatorial and House of Representatives elections got an average of 490,000 votes. PDP, on the other hand, got 340,000 votes. The difference between the two parties is about 150,000 votes. During the governorship election, APC got 486,000 votes which is about 4000 people less than we got which is normal in an election like this. But PDP, on the other hand, jumped from 340000 to 490000 votes without a corresponding reduction in our votes. Where did the votes come? That is why we believe the election was absolutely rigged in their favour. INEC in Sokoto has to account for the difference between the total number of people who voted during the presidential election and those who voted during the governorship election. Question: Are you suggesting you do not have confidence in INEC? Answer: No I dont in Sokoto. The leaders of INEC in Sokoto have been compromised. They are totally 100 per cent PDP. I said it many times and this has been proven. I think the chairman of INEC should ask Sokoto INEC to account for that difference. We shall demand for a forensic examination of the ballots that were cast during the governorship election and you will see that many of those ballot papers will appear to be fake or they have to account where they got them from. Question: So your party will follow up on the petition? Answer: Yes 100 per cent. We will follow this to a logical conclusion. We believe in the justice system in Nigeria. We believe in the judiciary and we believe we are going to get Justice in this regard and we will do whatever it takes to retrieve the mandate openly stolen by Sokoto INEC and PDP. Armed bandits riding on motorcycles descended on a village in Kaduna State on Saturday, killing, kidnapping and injuring residents before setting their properties on fire, PRNigeria reported on Sunday. The police in Kaduna told PREMIUM TIMES Sunday afternoon that two police officers were killed in the attack. They were identified as Aliyu Mohammed, an inspector, and Rabiu Abubakar, a sergeant. The police also said another sergeant, Ibrahim Nasir, was injured alongside six residents. All the injured had been taken to the hospital while search and rescue for those feared abducted had commenced. Witnesses who spoke with PRNigeria in the wake of the attack said the bandits entered Kakangi village in Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area at about 5:00 p.m. The attackers went on a rampage that included shooting at a police station and burning of homes and markets. An escapee told of how he was sitting by the police station when the gunmen arrived, adding that thick smoke was still billowing from the scene as of the time he escaped through a perimeter fence. PRNigeria, which covers the security sector, said many people were feared killed in the attack, including high profile indigenes of Kakangi that were attending a mass wedding. Six persons with various injuries were taken to the General Hospital in Birnin-Gwari town, about 20 kilometres from Kakangi, PRNigeria cited Abubakar Nagwari, head of a local security group, as saying. Kaduna police spokesperson, Yakubu Abubakar, said the police quickly responded to an emergency call from Kakangi at about 7:00 p.m. Saturday. He said police officers killed three of the attackers. He said the police would speed up the thorough search and rescue for other victims, while also chasing some of the attackers who were at large. Birnin-Gwari has seen frequent attacks from bandits in recent years, despite heightened security measure in the area. Bandits are regularly suspected in the attacks, but occasional skirmishes between warring villages had been reported. It was not immediately clear whether the attackers came from within the state, or from neighbouring Katsina or Zamfara, where hundreds have been killed by rampaging armed bandits. President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday ordered a ban on mining activities in Zamfara after Nigerians held a protest in Abuja to condemn his seeming helplessness amidst a gloomy security situation that had prevailed for several years. The Inspector-General of Police, who briefed journalists on Sunday, said the government gave the directive because it observed a relationship between banditry and illegal mining in the state. It, however, remains to be seen how far the latest directive would go. In November 2017, the president reacted to a similar outrage about the killings by ordering the creation of a new battalion for Zamfara. In order to further secure the area, a brigade was also moved from Sokoto State to Zamfara, while Sokoto received a new division. But little appeared to have changed years on, even though the military reported frequent assaults on bandits hideouts. Over the past week, both the Nigerian Army and the police have announced the commencement of separate operations to tackle armed attackers in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto. The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced a total ban on mining activities in Zamfara State and its environs. The decision is part of fresh measures to restore peace to the state bedevilled by banditry. Hundreds of people have been killed or kidnapped by the bandits in Zamfara in the past year. There have been suspicions that the criminality is a fallout of the artisanal mining of gold and lead in the state. The new measure banning mining was announced by the Inspector General of the Police, Mohammed Adamu, while briefing State House correspondents on Sunday in Abuja. Mr Adamu said the government took the decision because it found out there was a relationship between the bandits and illegal miners. Mr Adamu also announced that all foreigners within mining sites are to leave immediately. He said all the sites will be taken over by a special task force comprising of relevant security agencies. The briefing was also attended by the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari; the Director General of the State Security Services, Yusuf Bichi; and the Director General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai. The decision also comes a day after dozens of people led by a prominent journalist, Kadaria Ahmed, marched in Abuja to protest the violence in Zamfara. Details later Residents of Gosa Kpanyi Kpanyi community in Kuje Area Council on Sunday decried the lack of electricity and water supply in the community which they said had crippled development. Some of the residents who spoke with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said the government had abandoned the community without electricity for over 40 years. Gosa Kpanyi Kpanyi is a community along airport road with street lights just at the entrance of the community but no power supply inside. Tanko Joshua said there were no social amenities in the community right from when he was born. I was born here and I grew up in this place. I have never seen light in this place for over 40 years now. There is a central place that we do charge our phones, lamps and we will have to pay N50 naira to charge. As you can see, there are electricity poles here, but there are no wires let alone power supply. There is no single school in this community, our children have to cross to the other community (Gosa seriki) to go to school, he said. The building where everyone in the community charges their phones and lamps. The building where everyone in the community charges their phones and lamps. Also Bako Haruna, a Senior Secondary School student regretted that politicians would always come to the community for campaigns and promise better days for the residents but never fulfilled their promises. When (an) election is approaching, politicians will be visiting and making promises to the community to provide the people with infrastructure. The councillors come here to do campaign and they will promise to bring power supply and other social amenities for us, but once we have voted them and elections over, they forget us. Gosa Kpanyi Kpanyi community with electricity poles without wires. Mr Haruna called on the FCT authority to provide basic amenities in the community. A female resident who claimed anonymity said it is her 20th year in the community and she has never seen electricity in the community. No hospitals, no school, no potable water, no light too. All my children were born in the opposite community, the pregnant women have to go to either Lugbe and other places to give birth. This is the only community along airport road that does not have any amenities. Other communities have all these things. The government is fencing the community, there is street light in front of the community but we live in total darkness. Another resident, Danjuma Musa, said: I was born in this community and now I have two children here still no light. Last year January AEDC brought this electricity poles you are seeing and since then we havent seen them. Its more than a year now, they brought it to deceive us during the election. No presence of government infrastructure here. No electricity, no water, no school, no health structure. They are fencing all the communities along airport road just to present visitors a good sight. The river at the entrance of the community is our main source of water supply. Endurance Ephraim said she has been in the community for over 20 years without potable water. No water in this community for twenty years that I have been here. When I came here, I met people who also shared the same experience. The Wupa water is dangerous and full of harmful objects, there are sharp stones. Yet we cant stop the children from entering it because there is heat and they need water to cool their body temperature. Before we drink the water because we dont have water in the community but when we discovered that our children started peeing blood, we stop drinking the water but we use it for every other thing. We use the water to do domestic chores, we wash our clothes in this river and also bath and the cattle too come here, our children come to swim here and if the water enters their system, they will pee blood, she said. Wupa River at Gosa Kpanyi Kpanyi community in FCT Another resident, Tina Gaius, complained about the stress she goes through to get clean water for use. She said that the only clean water in the community was a stream which might be a broken water pipe and cannot serve the entire community. To get water, we sometimes go to water vendors to get water to drink, other times we go to the community across to fetch water. Augusta Tanko said she does not fetch from Wupa river, rather she gets water from a small stream that flowed in trickles within the community. Today I got to the stream by 9 a.m., it is past 1 p.m. already and Ive fetched just one bucket, Im trying to fetch the second bucket now. With these two buckets, my family will bath and I will cook from it. Tomorrow, I will come and fetch again. Stream at Gosa Kpanyi Kpanyi, the only clean source of water in the community Stream at Gosa Kpanyi Kpanyi, the only clean source of water in the community She, however, called on the government to come to their aid because they have been neglected for so long. (NAN) The Ooni of Ile-Ife, Osun State, has described as unfounded and illogical the allegation by the Obafemi Awolowo University that Ife indigenes poisoned the dam that supplies water to the university. The monarch of the ancient town, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, told PREMIUM TIMES that it is illogical for his people to poison themselves, as a large number of the members of OAU community are indigenes of Ile-Ife. Speaking in a telephone interview with our reporter through his spokesperson, Moses Olafare, the monarch said he was surprised such a claim could be made by university management. How can Ife poison their own people? Either as students, staffers, shop owners or investors, the residents of OAU include more Ile-Ife indigenes than anywhere else. So how is it possible that members of the same family would choose to bomb themselves. That is unimaginable. PREMIUM TIMES had reported the universitys petition to the Osun State Commissioner of Police, accusing some indigenes of Ile-ife of poisoning the dam. The university, in the petition that was signed by its Vice-Chancellor, Eyitope Ogunbodede, said the security guard at the dam, O.A Omotosho, was overpowered by the alleged invaders. Mr Ogunbodede linked the incident to a crisis over land matter between the university and some indigenes of Ile-Ife. But speaking further on the matter on Sunday, Mr Olafare said such matters are handled by the leadership of Ife Development Board. He added that there are existing channels of town and gown relationship between the ancient town and the university, and directed our reporter to speak with the boards leadership. The president of the board, L.O Awoyoyin, said if the incident indeed happened, it was condemnable. In a short SMS to our reporter, Mr Awoyoyin, however, said as at the moment neither the board nor the palace had received any complaint from any quarters on the matter. The short message reads; Thank you. if it happens from anybody it is condemnable. As at now, Ife Development Board received no report/or complaint from anybody or Institution. I also expect His Imperial Majesty, Ooni Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, the Ooni of Ife should be appropriately informed for necessary action. However, speaking on the same matter, the secretary to the board, Lawrence Omidiora, said the community was looking into the matter and that the conclusion may be made public. Mr Omidiora, in an SMS sent to our reporter, said; Thank you for your interest. It is a community issue and receiving some attention. Whatever the community decides would be made public if it so decides. God bless you. Meanwhile, PREMIUM TIMES is aware of an ongoing controversy over some parts of the land ceded to the government when the university was established in the 1960s. According to sources in the town, who asked not to be named, the leadership of Ile-Ife is uncomfortable with the huge hectares of land unused by the institution and has appealed to the university to allocate part of it to the community for development. OAU is said to own about 13,000 hectares of land and has not utilised more than 8,000 hectares since its establishment. One of the sources told PREMIUM TIMES that; The land ceded to the government by the late Oba Adesoji Aderemi in those days was almost half of the entire Ife land and more than 50 years after its establishment, the university is yet to occupy more than half. Yet, the community is in need of land for development. Should we continue to look at uncultivated land without any use? How long will it take OAU to occupy the land? There shouldnt be any need for these controversies but something that should be resolved through dialogue. Ahmed Lawal, Organising Secretary of APC in Adamawa State, on Sunday insisted that power must shift to the southern part of Nigeria in 2023. Mr Lawal made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola. He stressed the need to demonstrate fairness in the polity, adding that the southern part of Nigeria supported the Northern part to retain power for eight years. He advised the APC to ensure power rotation in 2023 to enhance national cohesion. He rejected comments from those he called some selfish northern politicians intent on shortchanging the south in the scheme of power play. The organising secretary said that the proponents of power retention in the north are selfish as they cannot claim to be speaking for the entire north. We must rotate power to Southern Nigeria for the spirit of equity, fairness and harmony. As far as Nigerian unity is concerned, power shift must become a stabilising principle so that no region will feel relegated and oppressed politically. It was instructive that our political leaders sought support from southerners while APC was mobilising during 2015 election. It is glaring that they cooperated well as no southern APC politician contested the primary election during 2015 and even in 2019. If we want to be fair to them, lets allow them to have a feel of power come 2023. It is also instructive that those singing northern power retention cannot speak for the north because they are not authorized. As you can see some of them who claim to be members of the APC, worked against the party in the just concluded governorship election to build up PDP to be able to achieve their sinister agenda, Mr Lawal said. He advised APC members at all levels to ensure they addressed internal squabbles emanating from the just concluded elections with the view to repositioning the party for future elections. He also advised the party to reorganise itself to be able to manage its victory well, saying that victory can be more difficult to manage than failure. NAN recalls that Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Junaid Mohammed, another politician from Kano, at different interviews said that rotation of presidency in 2023 to Southern Nigeria is not automatic. (NAN) A blade of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) helicopter has killed an aircraftman in Bama, Borno State. PRNigeria gathered that Aircraftman (ACM) Umaru Ganimu was part of the NAF team actively engaged in counter-insurgency operation in the North-east. The incident occurred in Bama, Borno State, on Saturday. Mr Ganimu was reportedly passing through the side of the functioning rotor when the blade chopped off his head. The aircraft was recovered and taken back to the airbase without any damage to the tail rotor. The victim has since been buried according to the Islamic rites at the Maimalari Military Cemetery in Maiduguri after the family members were duly informed. The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) says it will soon commence probe of banks over stamp duties collection as it expects to recover more than N100 billion from the probe. A statement by Ibrahim Mohammed, the commissions spokesperson, on Sunday in Abuja, however, did not specify when the probe would commence. He, however, said the probe would involve a forensic investigation of the funds that had so far been collected as stamp duty by 22 Deposit Money Banks (DMB) from 2000 to 2018. According to him, RMAFC is the only constitutional body vested with the powers to monitor all revenue accruals into the Federation Account. To this end, the commercial banks had been deducting the sum of N50 on every deposit with a value of N1,000 and above since January 2000. At the moment, the total sum of N33 billion had been realised through the collection of stamp duties which falls far below the expectation of stakeholders. It is expected that at the end of the exercise, over N100 billion would be recovered, he said. Mr Mohammed added that the commission had concluded arrangements to engage the services of reputable forensic audit firms to carry out the probe. He said that the probe would be comprehensive as it would cover the affixed stamp used on cheque books prior to the introduction of electronic transactions. He also said that if the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), was properly repositioned through the appropriate legal and regulatory framework, and the introduction of appropriate technology, the agency could generate over N500 billion. Therefore, the commission is using this medium to appeal to the National Assembly and the Federal Government to initiate measures for the amendment of the NIPOST Act to enable it to expand the economy and attract more revenue to the federation, he said. Mr Mohammed said that in a similar development, RMAFC had also embarked on the reconciliation exercise of signature bonuses and other miscellaneous revenues from the oil and gas industry to enable the commission to engage other stakeholders. This, he said, was with a view to reducing revenue leakages and enhance remittance into the federation account. He added that the commission, therefore, seeks the support of stakeholders, especially the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to enable it to succeed in the exercise. RMAFC was established to monitor accruals into and disbursement of revenue from the Federation Account, review from time to time, the revenue allocation formula and principles in operation to ensure conformity with changing realities. (NAN) Nigerias Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has departed Nigeria to join other world leaders and top dignitaries to participate in the ceremonies marking the 25th National Commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The event holds on Sunday in Kigali, Rwanda. According to Mr Osinbajos spokesperson, Laolu Akande, in a statement, some of the activities lined up for the event include the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the wreaths laying ceremony and lighting of the flame by the President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame and special guests invited for the event. April 7, 1994, marked the beginning of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda perpetrated by the Hutu extremist-led government. Violence over a three month period from April 7 to mid-July 1994 led to the killing of an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans. In 2003, the United Nations General Assembly officially proclaimed April 7, the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The country has, however, come out of the ashes of the conflict stronger and more united under Mr Kagame. Rwanda has become one of the favourite investment and tourist destinations in Africa. The vice president is expected back into the country later on Sunday. The Nigerian government has given all foreigners involved in mining activities in Zamfara State 48 hours to leave the sites. The government announced a ban on all mining activities as part of measures to restore peace in the state. Bandits have been attacking villages in Zamfara for almost two years now. Hundreds have been killed while several others have been kidnapped for ransom. The bandits also often destroy houses and properties of villagers. Nigerians staged protest marches in Abuja and other cities on Saturday demanding urgent action to end killings by the bandits. Following the protests, President Muhammadu Buhari said ending banditry remains a priority of his administration and he would do whatever it takes to save lives. He, however, called on Nigerians not to politicise the matter The decision to ban mining and sack foreigners from sites was revealed by the acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, on Sunday while briefing State House correspondents in Abuja. Mr Adamu said the government took the measure because intelligence reports clearly established a strong and glaring nexus between the activities of armed bandits and illicit miners -with both mutually re-enforcing each other. Announcing that mining activities in Zamfara and other affected states are suspended with immediate effect, the IGP said: any mining operator who engages in mining activities in the affected locations henceforth will have his licence revoked. He also said: all foreigners operating in the mining fields should close and leave within 48hours. The Police boss assure the general public, especially in the affected areas, that the security services are doing their best to address the situation. Ending banditry Mr Mohammed said as part of sustained efforts to flush out, and permanently put an end to armed banditry and criminality in Zamfara State in particular and the North West in general, the Nigeria Police in collaboration with the Nigerian Military and other Security Services have commenced Operation PUFF- ADDER, which, he said, is a full-scale security offensive against the bandits. He said the operation is aimed at reclaiming every public space under the control of the bandits and to arrest and bring to book all perpetrators of violence in the area and their collaborators. The IGP said the operation also aims to achieve total destruction of all criminal camps and hideouts, mop up all illicit weapons fueling the violence and attain a full restoration of law and order in the affected communities. Our commitment at protecting the sanctity of life and property is irrevocable, and we will not scale-down the pressure on the armed bandits until they are totally flushed-out, he said. The Police boss appealed for the cooperation of local communities, especially the traditional and religious leaders within such communities. Use of Social Media The IGP also said the Nigerian government had noted the use of social media to spread fake news, falsehood and deliberate misinformation. He, therefore, urged citizens to exercise restraint in circulating unconfirmed information capable of doing more damage. Let us not allow the social media to hijack our sense of judgment and capture our minds negatively, the IGP said. The Governing Council of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, has approved the appointment of Mohammed Abdulazeez as the new Vice-Chancellor of the university. A statement signed by the Secretary to the Council and Registrar of the University, Ahmed Hassan, in Bauchi on Saturday, said the new vice-chancellor was confirmed by the councils 26th special meeting, based on the recommendation of the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board of the university. It said Mr Abdulazeez emerged first to beat two other contestants for the post. The statement added that the tenure of the new vice-chancellor will be for a period of five years beginning from April 26, 2019, in accordance with Universities Miscellaneous Provisions Amendment Act, 2003. According to the statement, until his appointment, Mr Abdulazeez was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) of the university and he is a Professor of Physics. (NAN) A coalition of civil society groups has put the blame of the insecurity in Zamfara State on the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, rather than on Governor Abdulaziz Yari. The coalition made up of the Peoples Alliance for Indigenous Rights (PAIR), Society for Gender Equity (SGE), Network for Onward Nigeria (NeO), and The Peoples Collective (TPC) accused the defence chief of doing little or nothing to stem the tide According to the coalition, Mr Yari has done what the constitution permits him by providing logistics, communication gadgets, housing and special allowances for police and the military posted to the state without commensurate support from the Ministry of Defence. In a statement signed by Isa Yaro, national publicity officer of the group, on Sunday in Abuja, they said it was tragic and unfortunate that the federal government has failed to arrest the security challenge in Zamfara for over two years now, stressing that President Buhari ought to have sacked the Minister of Defence long ago. What we find happening in Zamfara state is not only unfortunate but tragic. It is inconceivable that two years on, the federal government has failed to address the orgy of killings in Zamfara state, Mr Yaro said. All the blame trading and trying to put Governor Yari as the main culprit is reprehensible. We all know that governors are merely chief security officers by name without inherent powers. For long the governor of Zamfara state has raised alarm over the buildup of a vicious militia with those responsible at the centre doing little or nothing about it. From our findings, the Zamfara government has spent several millions in kitting, communication gadgets and allowances for the police and military posted to the state. What we need to ask is how much leverage has the Minister of Defence, who is from the state, leveraged to address the carnage? Mr Yaro asked. According to Mr Yaro, it was good that there is now deployment of Special Forces to the state. He appealed to Mr Buhari to learn from his past appointments in choosing those who will realise his Next Level agenda come May 29. On Saturday, some protestors marched in Abuja to protest the killings in Zamfara State. They blamed the governor for not showing enough concern about the killings in the state. Kadaria Ahmed, a journalist and one of the conveners of the protest, accused Mr Yari of being unconcerned about the people of Zamfara State. Our people are being killed like flies and it does not seem to matter to anybody, so that is why we are here and that is why we are marching, she said. The Kaduna State Police Command on Sunday said it had gunned down three armed bandits among those that attacked Kakanji village in Birnin Gawri Local Government Area on Saturday night. The Command Public Relations Officer, Yakubu Sabo, who confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna, however, said two police officers died in the attack. Mr Sabo said: We received a distress call through DPO Randagi on April 6 at about 1900hrs that Armed men in large number entered Kakangi village of Birnin Gwari LGA, a neighbouring community to Niger state, shooting sporadically attacking the villagers. The combine teams of Police Mobile Force personnel, conventional Police and Vigilante were quickly mobilized to the village, engaged the bandits in a fierce gun duel and successfully repelled the attack. Our gallant men gunned down three of the bandits and several others escaped into the bush with bullet wounds. However, two of our men paid the supreme sacrifice during the intense gun duel with the bandits. He said the officers killed in the attack were an inspector, Aliyu Mohammed, and a sergeant, Rabiu Abubakar, both of whom were attached to Randagi Division. He another sergeant, Ibrahim Nasir, along with six civilians were injured and are now receiving treatment at the General Hospital Birnin Gwari. Mr Sabo said the attackers also torched some houses in the village, adding that the Command has mobilized more reinforcement to the area with a view to apprehend the perpetrators of this attack and bring them to justice. According to him, the Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Abdurrahman, has condemned the attack and assured members of the public that the police would fish out the culprits. He appealed to the people of the state to support the police with prompt and relevant information that could help in getting rid of the bandits. The CP prayed for the repose of the souls of the gallant officers who lost their lives in the operation and quick recovery of the injured persons, he added. (NAN) The police in Bayelsa State have confirmed the kidnapping of Wellington Magbisa, father of the Chairman of Sagbama Local Government Area of the state. Butswat Asinim, the spokesman of the Bayelsa police command, made the confirmation while addressing journalists on Sunday in Yenagoa. Mr Butswat said that the kidnappers gained entrance to the victims bedroom via an unprotected window and abducted him. Five men came in through an unprotected window, captured Mr Magbisa and escaped through the waterways, he said. He said that all the sister security agencies in the state had been alerted to rescue the victim and also arrest the captors. (NAN) The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, and the National President of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Alaba Lawson, have commended Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State for his administrations innovative measures and steadfastness in enhancing the ease of doing business in the state. The duo also congratulated Mr Ugwuanyi for Enugu States recent impressive rating as second in the list of the five most reformed states in ease of doing business in the country, in 2018. Kaduna, Enugu, Abia, Lagos and Anambra states were last week, rewarded at the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) Awards 2019 for being top reformed states in ease of doing business in 2018. The awards were presented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Speaking during opening ceremony of the 30th Enugu International Trade Fair, the minister, who was represented by his Senior Special Adviser, Emeka Ifezulike, said that the recent feat recorded by Mr Ugwuanyis administration is no mean achievement, stressing: We have to congratulate our amiable Governor of the State, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for his steadfastness in making Enugu State very conducive for businesses to thrive. The minister also applauded the governor for his administrations enormous assistance to the Enugu Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, which he said contributed to the success story of the body in the state. On his part, the National President of NACCIMA, Mrs Lawson, thanked Mr Ugwuanyi for his administrations support to the chambers movement to its permanent site in Enugu, as well as the state governments tireless efforts at promoting the growth of the private sector in Enugu State. She told Mr Ugwuanyi that NACCIMA is pleased with the great steps your administration has taken in the growth and development of the MSME programme, which has brought about the recent launch of National MSME Clinic in Enugu by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo in October 2018. Congratulating Mr Ugwuanyi on his reelection, the NACCIMA President, who was represented by the former President, Nnewi Chamber of Commerce, Humphrey Ngonadi, pointed out that the victory is certainly a re-affirmation of the confidence the great people of Enugu State have in your inspirational leadership and commitment to their welfare. It also confirms their belief in your ability to move Enugu States economy to greater heights, he added. Responding, Mr Ugwuanyi, who was represented by his deputy, Cecilia Ezeilo, reiterated his administrations commitment to promoting ease of doing business in Enugu State. The governor maintained that in line with the prevailing attitude in the country, we are taking concrete measures to enhance the ease of doing business in the state while being fully engaged in a campaign to attract investors who will help us harness the states vast potentials in diverse areas including agriculture, solid minerals, manufacturing, tourism, power generation, medicare, education, financial services, technology, etc. He lauded the current efforts of the federal government in repositioning the nations economy and urged it to develop the Enugu International Trade Fair complex and bring it to the same level as its contemporaries in Kaduna and Lagos more so as Enugu is a regional capital and with this fair having been in existence for 37 years. The governor also commended ECCIMA for its efforts towards improving the quality and scope of the fair for socio-economic expansion of the state, south-east and Nigeria, and reassured the body of the continued support and assistance of the state government especially through the provision of basic amenities and the sustenance of a business-friendly environment in Enugu State. The management of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-ife, has accused some individuals of criminally poisoning the institutions dam. The dam provides water to the OAU community of over 30,000 students and staff. The management said as a result, the campus is endangered by the activity of those it described as land-grabbers. It claimed they forcefully gained access to the dam by overpowering the security official on duty, O.A Omotosho. The university, which named one of the attackers as Idowu Ogunwusi (alias Dagunduro), claimed the group freely used dangerous weapons including guns, cutlasses and axes during the attack. The university made the allegation in a petition addressed to the Commissioner of Police in Osun State and signed by its Vice-Chancellor, Eyitope Ogunbodede, a professor. The petition, whuch was obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, was also copied to the state director of security service and the area commander of Moore Area Command in Ile-ife. The incident, the university claims, occurred at about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3. It said those involved described themselves as members of a non-existent Great Ife Development Board. The petition, which was entitled; Complaint of Criminal Pollution of Opa Dam, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, noted that the assailants gained access to the dam through a portion of the university land adjoining Parakin Area. The petition reads in part; I wish to formally make a complaint of criminal pollution of Opa Dam in the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife by some murderous members of the Ife Community. On 3rd April 2019 at about 1500hours, a report of invasion and pollution of the University Dam by a group of people who claimed to be members of Great Ife Development Board was received by the Security Unit of the University. The group of people who were fully armed with guns, axes, cutlasses, e.t.c, invaded the lower level of O.A.U dam and polluted the water with chemicals which led to the death of several fishes and other aquatic animals. The report also indicated that these criminally minded individuals gained access into the dam through a portion of University land at Parakin area, Ile-Ife, where there had been several reports of land encroachment by some Ife indigenes. The suspected culprits threatened the University Security Operative manning the area, Mr. O. A. Omotosho, with guns and some other dangerous weapons. They however escaped on sighting reinforcement from the University Security Department. Fortunately, one of the ringleaders of the invaders, Mr. Idowu Ogunwusi, alias DAGUNDURO, was identified by the University Security men sent as reinforcement. According to the university, the affected dam is the only source of water supply to the entire OAU community with a population of more than 30,000 people. It added; The action of these people therefore poses serious danger to the health and lives of staff, students and other members of the university community. It is important to also mention that this is the first time in the entire history of the university that this murderous conduct will happen. The people gained unlawful access into the University Dam through a portion of University land adjoining Parakin Area in Ile-Ife. It will interest the Commissioner that the said land, although clearly gazetted as university land and on which the university had exercised ownership for decades without let or hindrance, was forcefully broken into by the same set of people earlier this year. As a law-abiding federal government agency, the university has refrained from engaging the trespassers in their brigandage. These individuals have threatened to kill anyone who dares to challenge their action. It is clear, from all indications, that the criminal poisoning of the university dam is a continuation and actualisation of their threat. Considering the far-reaching consequences of the action of these people to the lives of the members of the university community, and the attendant propensity to lead to the breach of the peace of the university, it is necessary to act swiftly to deal with this clear criminal conduct. The Commissioner would recall that students of the University resumed this week for the 2018/2019 academic session. I therefore urge you to use your good offices to apprehend the perpetrators of this dastardly act. When PREMIUM TIMES called the Public Relations Officer of the institution to confirm the authenticity of the petition, he confirmed it but queried how it leaked. He said the matter had been handed over to the police and that appropriate steps had been taken to avert outbreak of water-related diseases on the campus. Efforts to speak to Moses Olafare, the spokesperson to the Ooni of Ife, Enitan Ogunwusi, were unsuccessful as several calls made to his phone were unanswered and both SMS and Whatsapp messages sent to him were yet to be replied as at the time of filing this report. Similarly, the Police Public Relations Officer in Osun State, Folasade Odoro, said she was on a week-leave when our reporter called her on the matter. She, however, promised to send the contact details of her subordinate who is acting as the police spokesperson. She was yet to do so as at the time of this report. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) The presence of Chinese vessels around the Pag-asa Island shows that China is not a friend of the Philippines, Senator Richard "Dick" Gordon said Saturday. "Sabi ng China kaibigan natin sila, pero (China said they are our friend, but) a friend does not send hundreds of army, hundreds of navy, does not send hundreds of vessels to harass our fishermen in our territory," Gordon was quoted as saying in a statement. The Philippine military had raised concern over the presence of 275 Chinese vessels that have swarmed around the island, the seat of the Kalayaan municipal government in Palawan, from January to March. READ: AFP: Chinese vessels meant to 'establish presence' near Pag-asa island READ: China dodges prodding on its 'illegal' vessels in PH Gordon said he is "glad" of the Foreign Affairs department's respond to this. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro "Teddyboy" Locsin Jr. last week said he "fired off (a) salvo of diplomatic notes" against China over the swarming of its vessels in Philippine waters. Gordon pointed out the need for a stronger military to protect the country's territory. "If we do not have a strong Navy, if we do not have a strong Army, we will be pushed around by other countries. Dapat malakas ang Armed Forces natin para igalang tayo ng China (Our Armed Forces should be strong so China will respect us)," he said. "It is the military's duty to protect the integrity of our territory and to protect our country but they would not be capable of doing that without the right equipment. Let us remind our leaders to learn from history. We should follow Japan's motto - Enrich the country, strengthen the military," he added. 'Ban Chinese workers' Meanwhile, another senator called for the total ban on Chinese workers in the country. "Ang panawagan ay total ban sa pagpasok ng mga (We are calling for the total ban on) Chinese laborer at (and) construction workers. Our duty is to protect our own workers and provide job security for them--but sadly, we're opening our labor market to non-Filipinos," Senator Nancy Binay said in a statement. READ: DOLE, BI admit Chinese laborers spotted at Manila construction site working illegally Binay, a reelectionist, said a policy that requires the employment of Chinese workers as part of a loan agreement is "unfair and disadvantageous" to Filipino workers. "Kawawa naman tayo. 'Yung mga trabaho na dapat para sa mga kababayan natin eh napupunta lang sa ibang lahi. (I pity Filipino workers, those jobs that should be for them go to those from other countries.) Government agencies are expected to protect the interest of Filipinos, dapat malinaw 'yan (this should be clear). "Besides, ipinagbabawal na mag-issue ng special working permits sa construction workers pero may nakakalusot (The issuance of special working permits to construction workers has been prohibited, but there are still some who get in the country)," she said. The Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, held a matriculation ceremony for fresh students on Saturday. The event, the 8th matriculation ceremony of the university, was held at the New Science Auditorium, Phase 2, of the institution. At the event, the Vice-Chancellor of FUOYE, Kayode Soremekun, congratulated the new students and their parents for witnessing such a great occasion. He challenged the students to ever go up and never come down and advised them to be diligent and industrious in their academic pursuit. I hope to see you all in the next four years for your convocation ceremony. Avoid all negative behaviours and be focused, the professor told the students. Speaking to journalists at the institution, some of the new students expressed their joy. Tolulope Akande of the Theatre and Media Arts department said, Its actually a thing of joy. I have been looking forward to today. It was a success and I give glory to God. Gbemisola Akintoye, who studies English Education, said: I am very happy to be matriculated into the school and am very sure one day, which is in the next four years, I will witness the convocation as well. Photo Story: At the event, the Vice-Chancellor of FUOYE, Kayode Soremekun, congratulated the new students and their parents for witnessing such a great occasion. FUOYE holds 8th matriculation ceremony [Photo: Ajala Samuel Akindele] FUOYE holds 8th matriculation ceremony [Photo: Ajala Samuel Akindele] FUOYE holds 8th matriculation ceremony [Photo: Ajala Samuel Akindele] A Lexus SUV on Sunday plunged into a river on Ijebu-Ode/Benin Expressway, killing a woman and injuring her daughter, an official has said. The Public Relations Officer of Ogun Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), Babatunde Akinbiyi, confirmed this on Sunday. Mr Akinbiyi said that the accident occurred around 2:45 p.m. He said the accident was most likely caused by overspeeding. He said the woman driving the Lexus vehicle, with registration number JJJ 930 FL, lost control while driving and plunged the car into the river. I learnt the vehicle was coming from Lekki in Lagos to Ijebu-Ode when the accident happened. There were two occupants in the vehicle; the driver who is a woman and her daughter, who is a student of Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED) in Ijebu Ode. The woman was taking her daughter back to school. As a result of excessive speeding, the woman lost control of the vehicle and plunged into the river. The driver, who is the woman and mother of the lady lost her life, while the daughter sustained injuries, he said. Mr Akinbiyi said the corpse had been deposited at Ijebu Ode General Hospital mortuary while the daughter was receiving treatment at the same hospital. He said the vehicle had been removed from the river and deposited at the Motor Traffic Division (MTD) in Odogbolu, Abeokuta. (NAN) 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. TOKYO, April 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Hills Software, a worldwide leader in embedded safety and security, today announces that Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions, Ltd., a leading engineering and systems integrations services vendor, has become an official value-added integrator for Green Hills Software's INTEGRITY RTOS and INTEGRITY Multivisor virtualization solutions. As a VAI, Hitachi Industry & Control will be working closely with Green Hills Software to provide engineering and customer support services for its INTEGRITY RTOS board support packages (BSP) to some of Green Hills Software's key customers in Japan. The Green Hills Software INTEGRITY RTOS and INTEGRITY Multivisor virtualization solution enables customers to develop easy-to-use but highly capable solutions for a variety of demanding automotive applications meeting automotive functional safety standards including ISO 26262 ASIL D. With the emergence of the increasingly autonomous vehicle, advanced cognitive and visioning solutions are becoming standard equipment in tomorrow's automobiles. Hitachi Industry & Control's expertise in vision sensing and deep learning areas combined with Green Hills Software's expertise in designing advanced certified safety solutions providing for scalable safety solutions, allows Japanese automobile manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers (Tier 1s) to work with some of the best embedded software engineers in Japan to build even the most complex and demanding safety systems. "Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions has been working closely with Green Hills Software for years, and we are very pleased to be participating as an early member of Green Hills Software's VAI program," said Shin Nakano, General Manager, Embedded System Engineering Group of Hitachi Industry& Control Solutions. "Our advanced embedded technologies including camera application, vision sensing, image recognition and deep learning combined with Green Hills Software's safety- and security-leading INTEGRITY RTOS will enable customers' rapid product development and business expansion." "Green Hills is very pleased to be working with Hitachi Industry & Control. Their proven ability to work on the front-lines with our customers developing complex ADAS (Advanced Driving Assistance Systems) software will allow our customers to bring working solutions to market faster and more cost effectively," said Matthew Slager, Vice President of Operations for Asia Pacific at Green Hills Software. "Their ability to adapt our products to customer-specific hardware and OEM-specific functional safety requirements will help our Japanese customers succeed in the highly competitive automotive market." About Hitachi Industry and Control Solutions Hitachi Industry & Control is a leading company that supports the Hitachi Groups industrial solutions business, providing solutions in the industrial, public sector and embedded fields. About Green Hills Software Founded in 1982, Green Hills Software is the worldwide leader in embedded safety and security. In 2008, the Green Hills INTEGRITY-178B RTOS was the first and only operating system to be certified by NIAP (National Information Assurance Partnership comprised of NSA & NIST) to EAL 6+, High Robustness, the highest level of security ever achieved for any software product. Green Hills Software's open architecture, integrated development solutions address deeply embedded, safety/security and high-reliability applications for the military/avionics, medical, industrial, automotive, networking, consumer and other markets that demand industry-certified solutions. Green Hills Software is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, with European headquarters in the United Kingdom, and with Asia-Pacific headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. Visit Green Hills Software at www.ghs.com. Green Hills, the Green Hills logo, INTEGRITY and INTEGRITY Multivisor are trademarks or registered trademarks of Green Hills Software in the U.S. and/or internationally. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE Green Hills Software Related Links http://www.ghs.com JERUSALEM, March 21, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement at his residence in Jerusalem on March 20, 2019. Netanyahu is seeking to be re-elected for a fifth term in the April 9 elections but he faces a tough Image Source: Xinhua/JINI/IANS Jerusalem, April 7 : Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected. Israelis will go to the polls on Tuesday and Netanyahu is competing for votes with right-wing parties who support annexing part of the West Bank. The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. Last month the US recognised the occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967, as Israeli territory, the BBC reported. Israel has settled about 400,000 Jews in West Bank settlements, with another 200,000 living in East Jerusalem. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. Palestinians want to establish a state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. What happens to the settlements is one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians -- Palestinians say the presence of settlements make a future independent state impossible. Israel says the Palestinians are using the issue of settlements as a pretext to avoid direct peace talks. It says settlements are not a genuine obstacle to peace and are negotiable. Netanyahu was asked during an interview on Israeli TV why he had not extended Israeli sovereignty to large settlements in the West Bank. "You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage -- the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage," he said. "I am going to extend (Israeli) sovereignty and I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements," he added. Male, April 7 : The ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) on Sunday celebrated a historic victory as preliminary results showed its candidates securing a landslide victory in the parliamentary polls deemed crucial for the island nation. According to the preliminary results from the Elections Commission late Saturday, the MDP won 62 out of the 87 seats in the People's Majlis, reports Efe news. The party secured seats from all three major cities and populous islands. It also took major seats that previously belonged to the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives. In the previous parliamentary elections held in 2009 and 2014, the MDP was unable to secure more than 26 seats. This is the first time in the island nation's history that a single party has secured such a majority in parliament since the advent of multi-party democracy following the new constitution of 2008. Saturday's voting was held without any major complaints and the voter-turnout was at around 78 per cent. Some 264,689 people were eligible to vote. MDP supporters staged a victory rally in the capital Male late Saturday night where President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and former leader Mohamed Nasheed addressed a jubilant crowd. Nasheed, who also won a seat, promised to deliver on his promises. "Our biggest job is to ensure that the government of our president continues smoothly and peacefully," he told hundreds of people. Solih, who became President in September as the candidate of a four-party coalition, reiterated his commitment to the coalition. "Today's decision by the people is proof that you still stand with the decision made on September 23rd. You have decided never to go back to corruption," he said. The newly-elected parliament will give legal authority to the presidential commissions formed to investigate corruption, abductions and murders, he said. "Anyone with the intention to steal the people's money cannot be a part of this government," he said, stressing the role of journalists in blowing the whistle over wrongdoings. Vice President Faisal Naseem and Tourism Minister Ali Waheed from the coalition partner the Jumhooree Party (JP) also attended Saturday night's celebration rally. But JP leader Gasim Ibrahim earlier formed an alliance with the opposition for the parliamentary election and hinted at leaving the coalition government if the MDP won a majority. Gasim has accused the MDP of reneging on a coalition agreement for the four parties to jointly contest the parliamentary polls and accused Nasheed of trying to become the prime minister. The disagreement within the coalition resulted in the JP forming an alliance with the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives and the People's National Congress. New Delhi/Mumbai, April 7 : Expensive air fares as a result of capacity constraint and high fuel prices are expected to further decelerate India's passenger growth numbers, experts opined. Even though, there has been a growth in passenger numbers on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the traffic on a sequential level has shown a negative trend. As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, on a YoY basis, growth rate in February stood at 5.62 per cent to 1.13 crore, while it was 9.10 per cent in January and 11.03 per cent in December 2018. Even data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed a similar trend. The growth rate of India's domestic air passenger volume -- measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) -- slowed in February to 10 per cent from a rise of 12.4 per cent in January. Industry observers blamed the downward sequential growth trend on high air fares. According to experts, since March 14, passengers had to shell out high fares as several airlines cancelled operations for a number of reasons, including grounding of Boeing 737-MAX aircraft. During this period, some sectors continued to see a rise of more than 100 per cent in case of last minute bookings. "Indian aviation has seen a capacity constraint due to multiple reasons over last couple of months. The immediate impact of this reduction noted on fares was an average of 15-20 per cent hike in price," said Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C) of Yatra.com. "While that acted as a deterrent for people who were looking to book air tickets in short notice, however, the traffic was not seen to be affected as the fares did moderate for people booking in advance," Additionally, oil marketing companies increased the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) which is also expected to buoy air fares. "High ATF, grounding of several flights and a tough operating environment have further impacted the domestic sector crisis and will impact passenger growth for the month of March," said Aloke Bajpai, CEO and Co-founder, ixigo. "However with unused Jet slots now being allocated to other airlines, an increase in capacity will help in normalisation of fares before the peak summer travel season." In a recent note, ratings agency Fitch said that Indian aviation market has seen a sharp increase in airfares in the last few months due to tight supply, which has been worsened by the suspension of the 737 MAX aircraft. "Fitch expects the growth in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), which decelerated to 12.4 per cent in January (2018: 19.9 per cent), to weaken further until supply increases," the rating agency said in a note. In addition, the note said that Jet Airways, which along with its subsidiary JetLite had the second-largest share of the domestic market until January, has been steadily losing market share as it has been forced to shrink its operating fleet due to financial troubles. "Market leader IndiGo cancelled around 30 flights per day (2 per cent of total) from around the middle of February until March, with industry participants highlighting pilot shortage as a key reason," the note said. "SpiceJet was then forced to ground its 737 MAX jets, which form around 15 per cent of its fleet." (Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in) Srinagar, April 7 : A marriage party had to obtain permission from the district authorities on Sunday to travel on the highway from Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district to Doda. Authorities have ordered closure of the national highway on Sundays and Wednesdays for all civil and public transport to secure the movement of security forces convoys. The order issued by the Additional District Development Commissioner, Anantnag, said that the marriage party of Danish Ali will include 12 other people who will travel on Sunday in four vehicles on thehighway and their travel would be subject to frisking and checking by the security forces. The permission issued also specified the registration numbers of the vehicles. Authorities had issued a notification earlier to disallow all civil and public transport on the national highway from Udhampur district in the Jammu division to Baramulla district in the valley on Sundays and Wednesdays to secure the movement of security forces convoys. From 4 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays and Wednesdays, only security forces convoys would travel on the highway. The notification said the order would be in force till May 31. The decision was taken in the aftermath of February 14 terror attack on the highway in Pulwama district in which 40 CRPF troopers were killed. Authorities, however, said the highway ban order would not apply to school buses, medical emergencies and other bonafide movements like those of tourists, businessmen and agriculturists. New Delhi, April 7 : In a bid to minimize fake news on its platform, WhatsApp is now testing a new feature within its Groups Settings to help users stop sending "Frequently Forwarded" messages. The Facebook-owned platform is already working on two features that will help its over 1.5 billion users know how many times a message has been forwarded. The "Forwarding Info" and "Frequently Forwarded" features are not available yet but WhatsApp is working on these features in its Beta update for Android, said wabetainfo.com that tracks WhatsApp updates. Now, in the "2.19.97 beta update, WhatsApp is testing a new feature in groups that allows to choose to stop sending Frequently Forwarded Messages in the group," it said. The option will be available in Group Settings and only administrators can see and edit it. When the feature is enabled, nobody will be able to send a Frequently Forwarded message in the group. A user can copy the Frequently Forwarded message and send it as a new message but this will slow the process. A message is Frequently Forwarded when it has been forwarded more than four times. Currently, WhatsApp has limited the forwards to a maximum of five in India. Washington, April 7 : While marketers have feared that social media distracts viewers from advertisements and minimises their impact, a new study found that tweeting during TV pushes people for online shopping. "Social shows" are more beneficial to advertisers because commercials that air in those programs generate more online shopping on the advertisers' websites. "We find that advertisements that air in programmes with more social activity see increased ad responsiveness in terms of subsequent online shopping behaviour," said Beth L Fossen, Assistant Professor of marketing at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. This result varies with the mood of the ad, with more affective ads -- in particular, funny and emotional ads -- seeing the largest increases in online shopping activity. "Our results shed light on how advertisers can encourage online shopping activity on their websites in the age of multi-screen consumers," Fossen maintained. The researchers also observed that ad timing played a major role in affecting online shopping. Advertisements airing near a half-hour interval increased online purchases. For the study, published in the INFORMS journal, Fossen and her co-author, David Schweidel of the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, examined the online shopping activity of one lakh active internet users. They found that an increase in online chatting about a retailer boosts the advertiser's website traffic. "Online program engagement may encourage a loyal, committed viewing audience. And media multitasking may decrease the ability for the viewer to counterargue or resist persuasion attempts, increasing ad effectiveness," Fossen said. Jalandhar: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh during a demonstration against deteriorating law and order situation in Jalandhar on June 13, 2016. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News New Delhi: Former union minister Preneet Kaur, who has said that she did not have any foreign bank account. The clarification came on a day when the central government submitted names of three individuals having black money in foreign bank accounts t Image Source: IANS News Chandigarh, April 7 : Deras, or sects, in Punjab hold a lot of importance in the electoral season. With each Dera capable of influencing scores of voters, who are their followers, political parties and leaders have no option but to look up to these during elections. The latest visit by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to the Radha Soami Dera headquarters in Beas town near Amritsar last week is being seen as a clear attempt to woo the sect. Amarinder, accompanied by Punjab Congress president and Gurdaspur MP Sunil Kumar Jakhar and the party's Punjab in-charge Asha Kumari, was closeted with the sect chief, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, at the sprawling sect campus for over two hours. The Radha Soami sect, which is well-known for its religious and social activities, has millions of followers in Punjab, Haryana and other states. Amarinder and Congress president Rahul Gandhi had met the sect chief in December 2016, just weeks ahead of the February 4, 2017, Assembly elections in Punjab. The Congress won 77 seats in the 117-member state Assembly. Amarinder's wife and former Union Minister Preneet Kaur does not find anything wrong in approaching the Deras. "Like we go to other people, we go to the Deras also. There is nothing wrong with that," she said. Rought estimates put the number of Deras in Punjab at around 9,000, including both big and small ones. While some have followers from across religions and communities, many others are related to particular communities. "Punjab's social and religious fabric is influenced by the Deras in several areas. Some of these deras are quite influential, especially in election time. Though the concept of Deras in the region is centuries old, some of the controversial ones and their self-styled godmen have started dominating and even dictating the political scene," Amrik Singh, a Sikh religious preacher in Jalandhar district, told IANS. "Some, like the Dera Sacha Sauda sect of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, have run run into several controversies in recent years." Besides the Radha Soami sect, other prominent Deras in Punjab include the 'Dera Sachh Khand' sect based in Ballan village near Jalandhar. Its two top leaders, including the sect head, Niranjan Dass and second-in-command Rama Nand, were attacked in a gurdwara in Austria's capital Vienna in May 2009. Rama Nand died in the attack and the incident lead to violence and tension in the Doaba belt of Punjab in 2009. The attack was seen as a result of a simmering undercurrent between Punjab's dominant Sikh community and the largely Dalit Sikh followers of the sect. Earlier in 2007, the Dera Sacha Sauda sect had also run into a violent clash with the Sikh community in April-May 2007. The sect's chief had, in April 2007, attired himself on the lines of 10th Sikh guru, Gobind Singh, during a ceremony. His action, objected to by the Sikh community, led to large scale violence in Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and other places. Political leaders from Punjab and Haryana used to line-up before the Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief for several years before he was convicted of rape of female disciples in August 2017 and sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment. Other controversial sects in the state include the 'Divya Jyoti Jagran Sansthan' (DJJS) at Nurmahal near Jalandhar led by (deceased) godman Ashutosh Maharaj, whose body has been kept by his followers and the sect management since January 2014 when he was declared "clinically dead" by doctors. Another sect, the 'Bhaniarewala Dera' is led by Baba Paira Singh Bhaniarewala. The sect head has been attacked by Sikh hardliners and enjoys 'Z-category' security. It is based in Dhamiana village in Ropar district. His followers are mostly from the Dalit Sikh community. Bhaniarewala has been involved in various controversies with the Sikh community as he compares himself to the Sikh gurus. He and his followers have been accused of burning Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, in recent years. New Delhi, April 7 : As social media giants fight to curb fake news ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, an Indian-origin tech junkie has stressed it is not enough as the nation needs better human-centric Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based solutions to combat the spread of misinformation. For Lyric Jain, a 22-year-old Cambridge and MIT graduate, social media platforms and other stakeholders, including the government, may design solutions to fight fake news but there will be glitches, as is with the case with any technology. "India needs to prepare better as the stakes are high. Facebook is taking the problem of fake news seriously but there are many other digital platforms that aren't working towards that direction," Jain told IANS. Conceived by Jain, Logically has been developed by a diverse team of data scientists, coders, designers and journalists. Adding a layer of credibility to the Internet to battle misinformation, the Logically platform acts as a real-time, user-friendly filter, ensuring users can quickly consume information that is fair, authentic, credible and trusted (FACT). "News isn't just limited to media houses anymore. The idea is to create 'responsible sharing' among people," said Jain. "Logically will analyse whether the information is fake or not, even if the information is being provided by a well-known journalist from a credible publication," he added. When asked how the technology works, Jain replied: "It is a human-centric AI effort". "We analyse the content or text, check the metadata that is being mined and see how information is being circulated across networks. "We then combine these indicators and conclude whether the news is credible or not. Also, our human fact-checking team complies with the international fact-checking standards," Jain said, adding that it was the fake news and political interference debate around Brexit and the 2016 US Presidential elections that drove him to launch the Logically platform. As the India elections inch closer, Jain said the platform will try its best to analyse the flow of information. Logically taps deep learning algorithms and web graphs of millions of web sites from top publishers around the world to identify top quality sources for trending, quality news, per category, query, or article. "Logically will look for information that is misleading, distorting or interfering with the elections," he added. (Vivek Singh Chauhan can be contacted on vivek.c@ians.in) Kolkata, April 7 : A renowned doctor with an illustrious professional career in various countries, he has never visited a polling booth after being forcibly stopped from exercising his franchise as a first time voter over 50 years back. But, Mrinal Kanti Debnath would next month cast his maiden vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Despite having spent over 27 years overseas as a psychiatrist, Debnath - the BJP candidate from West Bengal's Barasat constituency - still can't forget the disappointment of how "some political activists didn't let me cast my vote". "As a new voter, I could not exercise my franchise in the late 60s during the United Front regime in the state as some miscreants had asked me and my father to go back home as they had already cast our vote." "This incident of scientific rigging had hurt me and I did not vote thereafter before leaving India in 1981," said Debnath, who is up against a fellow doctor, sitting Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, and All India Forward Bloc's Haripada Biswas. The Congress has nominated Subrata Dutta. During the campaign, his opponents have been flaying him for never taking part in the democratic process in India even after returning to the country 11 years ago. But Debnath, a former member of Overseas Friends of BJP, is quick with his rejoinder. "After returning to India permanently, I enrolled myself as a voter here in Rajarhat area (in Kolkata's north eastern fringes). But I settled in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands on the request of my friend who had stood by me during my period of struggle." "Me and my wife came to West Bengal in 2013. In between, I wasn't able to cast my vote because I didn't enrol myself in the voter's list in the islands." What prompted the Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London, and a trained professional in Psychiatry (D. Psych.) from the University of Vienna to return to India? "I'm indebted to this country, which awarded me the National Merit Scholarship that streamlined my career and changed my life. I returned to India in 2008 with the objective of repaying my debt," Debnath told IANS. Born in a remote village in Khulna district of then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), Debnath , a meritorious student, went to Khulna town in January, 1964, for pursuing higher studies as one could only study up to the 8th standard in schools in his native village, he said. Within a couple of days, he had to flee the town with "a bitter experience of communal violence" and migrated to India. Refused accommodation by a family confidant here in West Bengal, the teenage refugee found a shelter at Habra railway colony in the North 24 Parganas district. "I came to India with only a half pant (shorts) and a shirt, and without a single rupee in my pocket. One of my friends, who too had fled the country after being attacked during the Khulna violence, and I had to sweep and clean buses for a livelihood," he said. Separated from his family, Debnath used to regularly visit Habra railway station in the hope of meeting his parents as many refugees were coming to India daily, but he gave up after a few days of frustrating wait. His parents looked for him at the rented accommodation where he stayed for a short period in Khulna town, and learnt two persons - one an aged woman and a youth - were charred to death during the riots. His relatives, in fact, collected the ashes of the deceased youth and started believing he was dead. "Later, I myself immersed the ashes," he said. Recalling his hardship, Debnath said he had managed to get admission to class 9 at a local institution with the help of a school teacher who gave him Rs 20 as the admission fee. He even borrowed books, but could not afford electricity. However, he emerged a topper in the school final examination in the then undivided 24 Parganas district and secured a National Merit Scholarship with Rs 110, which got him out of his acute financial crisis. "My achievement was featured in a local newspaper that wrote of "a planned felicitation ceremony for me. May be, it was an insignificant piece of news for a newspaper but it was enough to let my parents, who had by then migrated to India and started living in Dum Dum, know where they could find me. "I wasn't aware of my parents' migration to India and meeting them at the felicitation programme was something out of this world," he said. Debnath completed his course in medicine in Kolkata and practised for a while before moving to the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent as the medical officer of a state-run hospital. He also served the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organization of American States in the US before returning in India. Now, as a Lok Sabha poll candidate, Debnath is "enjoying his new innings" at the age of 68. His overseas friends across Europe and America are helping him out through a massive social media campaign. "Reaching out to youths is important and the tool to reach out to them should be social media as voters in Barasat constituency are active on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp," he said. He has also charted an elaborate plan to roll out an e-health programme for all the Assembly segments within the Lok Sabha constituency if he is elected. Debnath, an Indian citizen by registration, slammed the ruling Trinamool Congress for opposing the implementation of the National Register of Citizens in West Bengal. According to him, the NRC is a must for the country's security and to identify the infiltrators. He claims to know Barasat constituency like the back of his hand, is confident of emerging the victor when the votes are counted on May 23. "Of course, I will win. I am confident," he says. In 2014, BJP nominee P.C. Sorcar Junior had finished third, garnering around 23 per cent of the votes. Barasat votes on May 19 in the seventh and final phase of the general elections. (Bappaditya Chatterjee can be contacted at bappaditya.c@ians.in ) London, April 7 : British Prime Minister Theresa May is being warned by her rebel Cabinet MPs that they will move to oust her within weeks if the UK is forced to participate in the European elections next month and extend its European Union (EU) membership beyond June. The MPs from the ruling Conservative Party were believed to have become increasingly angry at the prospect of voters being asked to go to the polls to elect Members of European Parliament (MEP) three years after the Brexit referendum, the Guardian reported on Sunday. The warnings came as the Prime Minister made a last desperate appeal on Saturday night to MPs to back a deal, saying there was an increasing danger Brexit would "slip though our fingers". "Because Parliament has made clear it will stop the UK leaving without a deal, we now have a stark choice: leave the European Union with a deal or do not leave at all. "The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all. It would mean letting the Brexit that the British people voted for slip through our fingers. I will not stand for that. It is essential we deliver what people voted for, and to do that we need to get a deal over the line," she said. Following her appeal, Conservative MP Nigel Evans said on Saturday night that if May failed to deliver Brexit and all she could do was secure a long extension at an EU summit on April 10, she would face an overwhelming pressure to step down. "At the moment there is focus on delivering Brexit, but if a long delay becomes a reality I believe the noises off about removing the Prime Minister will become a cacophony," he said. Nigel Adams, a former Minister who quit last week over May's decision to hold talks on Brexit with opposition Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said: "Over 170 Conservative MPs including cabinet ministers signed a letter to the Prime Minister last week urging her to ensure the UK does not take part in the European elections. Doing so will not end well." On Saturday night, Downing Street said discussions with Labour to find a Brexit compromise that could pass through Parliament before the April 10 EU summit were "ongoing" at a technical level, but declined to be drawn on whether there were any plans to hold votes on Monday or Tuesday, before May heads to Brussels. The UK is due to leave the EU on April 12 and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by the House of Commons. Why has Ritesh Batra let us down so miserably with his latest film? Think about it. It had everything going for it. A director whose first film, "The Lunchbox" became the most beloved Indian film since Satyajit Rays "Pather Panchali" and who has since then worked with international icons like Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling. Batra's new film had a cast and a lead pair that looked tempting, if not entirely inviting and most of all, it was meant to be the NRI director's homage to the city he loves the most, Mumbai. But Mumbai in Batra's "Photograph" looks like a city that is losing it sparkle and drowning its dream. The fact that the characters are flat and the presentation is listless could have something to do with why the city doesn't come alive in the way it did in "The Lunchbox". In fact the stillness, the terrifying inertness that surrounds some of the characters seemed so palpable, I thought I was missing something. So I sat through the film a second time. Well, that's not entirely true(I couldn't watch all of it again). But untruth is what this misfired masterpiece is all about.And it's truly astonishing how some of our critics have fallen for the ruse, describing the film's "wonderful quietude" and "ordinary characters" as something to be lauded. Funny, how responses depend on labels. If this same film had been made by Jagmohan Mundra (God bless his soul) it would been dismissed as pretentious and boring. But more about the hypocrisy of celebrating labels rather than the quality of the product, some other time. What really bothers me is how the sheer atrociousness of the basic plot in "Photograph" could have been so wholeheartedly embraced by the critics here. We even had some of them justifying some of the film's most impossible situations. Try this. A Muslim migrant photographer, Rafi, living on the edge of Mumbai's povertyline asks a homely simple girl from a Gujarati middleclass family, Saloni, whom he knows only from a photograph, to pose as his girlfriend for the sake of his doting demanding Daadi. Rather than slap him in his face, Saloni agrees!! The reason she gives later (she doesn't talk much, as she is supposed to be quietly ruminative, though Shakespeare once said that those who talk less do so because they have nothing to say) is because that snapshot which Rafi clicked of hers made her look much happier than she actually was. Are we really buying into that logic? Ok then. That photograph is passed on in Saloni's classroom from student to student like a prized gold coin found in a muddy playground. This is meant to be some kind of a comment on how unhappy Saloni is. But the flip side is Rafi's sunny (to the point of inducing a sunstroke) grandmother who descends on to Mumbai like a firecracker in fast-burn.She talks all the time and yes, everyone loves her, both in the film and among the salivating critics who raved about it. This feisty grandma character seen in Shoojit Sircar's "Vicky Donor", and more recently in Amit Sharma's "Badhaai Ho" and now in Batra's film has become a huge clichA, and it is now customary for every critic to love the Feisty Grandma. Alas, the character has nothing in this film to sink her dentures into. In fact such is the torpidity of the Mumbai that Batra loves so much that the most exciting thing that happens to Grandma is off screen. When she was travelling to Mumbai to excitedly meet her grandson's phantom-fiancee, a childbirth happened in the train. Or so she tells us. Was she making it up? That untruth would fit in most appropriately with the mood of this film, an ode to the art of artifice where even nostalgia is tripped over. In one sequence we see Saloni and Rafi in a rat-infested movie theatre. The song playing on screen is "Tumne mujhe dekha'. So I presume they are watching "Teesri Manzil". Errr, which year is "Photograph" based in? Teesri Manzil was released in 1966. But then there is also a reference to a song in the film "Noorie" that was released in 1979. Nothing in the personality or behaviour of the characters suggests the 1960s or the 1970s except maybe the pigmentation fixation. A cabbie who drives the dark-skinned hero and the light-skinned heroine comments: "Are you two actors? Why else would she be seen with someone like you?" Why indeed. New Delhi, April 7 : Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA) has reached an agreement to buy approximately 30 per cent shareholding on a fully diluted basis in IT solutions firm NIIT Technologies from NIIT Ltd and other promoter entities at a price of Rs 1,394 per share. The aggregate consideration for purchase of shares from promoter entities is estimated to be Rs 2,627 crore, NIIT Technologies said on Saturday. In accordance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India regulations, BPEA will make an open offer to the public shareholders of NIIT Technologies to purchase up to 26 per cent additional shareholding at a price of Rs 1,394 per share, the company said. The aggregate consideration for purchase of shares from promoter entities and the open offer is estimated to be up to some Rs 4,890 crores based on ownership of approximately 56 per cent stake. NIIT Technologies Ltd became an independently listed company after demerger from NIIT Ltd in 2004. "The involvement of Baring Private Equity Asia will provide further impetus to the management team led by CEO Sudhir Singh to take the company to the next level of growth," Rajendra Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Technologies, said in a statement. "BPEA is pleased to be investing in NIIT Technologies. We look forward to partnering with the company's management team to continue to build the business over the coming years," said Jimmy Mahtani, Managing Director of BPEA. Amaravati, April 7 : When it comes to political dynasties in the country, few can match the charisma and the melodrama associated with Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao's personality. Even 23 years after his death, the legacy of the founder of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister dominates the political scene of in one way or the other. As Andhra Pradesh gearing up for April 11 simultaneous elections to the state Assembly and the Lok Sabha, NTR's name, portraits and statues remain an integral part of the TDP's campaign led by his son-in-law N. Chandrababu Naidu. This election is witnessing the entry og NTR's third generation into electoral politics with Naidu fielding his son Nara Lokesh as his political successor. NTR's family, however, is no longer confined to TDP but is spread across the political spectrum. NTR, as the popular actor was popularly known, took a plunge into politics in the early 1980s to end the monopoly of the Congress party and altered the political landscape of the state forever. The matinee idol, who enjoyed the status of a demigod among masses, stormed to power within nine months after floating TDP on the slogan of Telugu self-respect. With his pro-poor image and populist schemes like Rs.2 a kg rice, NTR created a niche for himself in politics. After five years of Congress rule in between, NTR returned to power with a landslide majority in 1994. Her second marriage with Lakshmi Parvathi, however, created a rift in the family. In August 1995, NTR's son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu led a revolt, citing Lakshmi's growing interference in the government and party affairs. Backed by NTR's sons and daughters, Naidu became the Chief Minister. A few months later, NTR died of cardiac arrest at the age of 72. He had eight sons and four daughters from his first wife Basvatarakam, who had died of cancer in 1985. However, it was Chandrababu Naidu who carried NTR's political legacy forward. Lakshmi initially claimed NTR's political legacy but found no public support and went into political oblivion. She is currently with YSRCP. Though politically not active, she is praying for Naidu's defeat. Currently, a son and a daughter of NTR, two son-in-laws including Naidu and a grandson are active in politics, albeit in different politics parties. NTR floated TDP on anti-Congress plank but his daughter D. Purandeswari and her husband D. Venkateswara Rao joined the Congress in 2004. Purandeswari, who was elected to Lok Sabha twice on Congress ticket and even became a minister in UPA government, switched loyalty to BJP in 2014. She is now contesting from Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency. Her husband, however, preferred YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and is contesting for Andhra Pradesh Assembly from Parchur. NTR's son and popular actor N. Balakrishna is seeking re-election from Hindupur constituency on TDP ticket. He is also father-in-law of Naidu's son Lokesh, who is contesting for Assembly from Mangalagiri. Balakrishna's second son-in-law M. Bharat is TDP candidate from Visakhapatnam parliamentary constituency, facing Purandeswari. Naidu, who had been grooming his son as his political successor for last few years, was facing some resistance from another brother-in-law and actor N. Harikrishna, who died in a road accident last year. Harikrishna was keen to see his son Junior NTR taking over the TDP mantle. Named after his grandfather and popularly known as Junior NTR, he is one of the top actors of Telugu film industry. It is also interesting to note that no member of NTR's extended family is into active politics in Telangana, which came into being with bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Chandrababu Naidu fielded Harikrishnas daughter and Junior NTR's half-sister N. Suhasini from Kukatpally Assembly constituency in Hyderabad in the recent Telangana Assembly elections but she lost the battle to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate. (Mohammed Shafeeq can be reached at mohammad.s@ians.in) New Delhi, April 7 : Ten constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that will vote in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 11 would decide the fate of key leaders such as veteran politician Ajit Singh and union ministers V.K. Singh and Mahesh Sharma, among others. The first phase of the elections in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state that sends 80 MPs to Parliament, is crucial as any polarisation in the western part - as seen during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections - may help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) get an impressive tally. Here's a look at eight constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. Muzaffarnagar Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, a candidate of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, is pitted against former Union minister Sanjiv Balyan in Muzaffarnagar, where Muslim voters dominate in all five assembly segments of this Lok Sabha seat. There are approximately 17 lakh voters, among whom Muslims constitute over 26 per cent followed by 15 per cent Jatavs and around eight per cent Jats. A six-term MP from Baghpat, Singh has served as a minister in the Cabinets of four Prime Ministers - V.P. Singh, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. The Congress has not fielded a candidate and is supporting Singh. In 2014, Ajit Singh, son of the late Chaudhary Charan Singh, was defeated in his traditional Baghpat constituency by the BJP's Satyapal Singh. In 2014, Balyan defeated the BSP's Kadir Rana with a margin of 40,000 votes and was rewarded with a ministerial berth in the Narendra Modi government. Sugarcane dues, law and order and depleting income of farmers are major issues in this constituency, where Khap panchayats play a significant social role among Jats. The people of the region are of the opinion that it is not going be a cakewalk for any of the two leaders. Ghaziabad Union Minister V.K. Singh, who is seeking his re-election, is locked in a triangular contest with Suresh Bansal, the candidate of the SP-RLD-BSP coalition and Congress nominee Dolly Sharma, a young professional with a political lineage. The 27.26 lakh voters of Ghaziabad are spread across five assembly seats - Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Modinagar, Muradnagar and Loni - where Muslims, Gujjars, Vaishyas, Brahmins dominate the caste matrix. However, the two assembly segments - Sahibabad which comprises the new township, and Ghaziabad, which covers the old city area - together make up for 51 per cent of the voter base, giving the Ghaziabad Lok Sabha seat a distinctly urban imprint. Bansal, who quit the BSP to join the SP, is banking on the support of the Vaishya community to which he belongs. He is also known to have a grip on the backward class voters in the region given his years in the BSP. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday held a roadshow in Ghaziabad while Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday addressed a rally in support of V.K. Singh. Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida) The fate of Union Minister Mahesh Sharma is at stake here in a triangular contest. The Congress has fielded Arvind Kumar Singh, while the BSP's Satveer is the joint candidate of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance. Sharma, a native of Rajasthan's Alwar district, had shifted his base to Noida two decades ago. He started his political journey as a party worker and was fielded as a Lok Sabha candidate from Gautam Budh Nagar in 2009. However, Sharma came second, bagging 2.29 lakh votes against the BSP's Surendra Nagar, who was polled 2.45 lakh votes. But Sharma continued his political struggle and was fielded from Noida in the 2012 assembly alections. He received 77,226 votes (36.87 per cent) and defeated the BSP's Omdutt Sharma, who bagged 49,582 votes (23.67 per cent). This strengthened Sharma and he was again fielded in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This time Sharma, riding the Modi wave, garnered 599,702 votes against second placed Narendra Bhati of the Samajwadi Party (319,490). Thirteen candidates, including two Independents are in fray in this constituency. Baghpat Union Minister Satyapal Singh is seeking re-election from this Jat dominated constituency. RLD leader Ajit Singh's son Jayant Chaudhary is contesting against him as the joint SP-BSP-RLD candidate. Choudhary previously represented Mathura in the Lok Sabha, which he lost to actor-turned-politician Hema Malini in the 2014 elections. The RLD had held the Baghpat seat from 1999 until 2014 when the BJP wrested it. Ajit Singh was third in the quadrangular contest, behind Satyapal Singh and the SP's Ghulam Mohhamed in the 2014 polls, a year after communal riots hit the region. Saharanpur The BJP has repeated its outgoing MP Raghav Lakhanpal, while the Congress has fielded Imran Masood who had put up a strong fight in 2014, when he lost to Lakhanpal by about 65,000 votes. The BSP's Fazlur Rahman, whe owns meat and food processing units and also has clout in the area, is the candidate of the BSP-SP-RLD alliance. Saharanpur presents a unique picture. The constituency has a large presence of Muslims. The BJP had won the seat in 2014 and the scenario could repeat in 2019, given that both the Congress and the BSP have put up strong candidates from the Muslim community. The significance of Saharanpur can be judged from the fact that Uttar Pradesh BJP started its campaign for the Lok Sabha elections from the constituency and Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal combine will hold its first joint rally here. The two constituencies in Bihar: Nawada It's once again a straight fight between two powerful castes - a forward and a backward - in the Nawada rural and semi-urban parliamentary constituency that is still lagging on the development front. Like in the last polls, it will be the landed and powerful Bhumihar upper caste and dominant Yadav backward caste who will face-off. The ruling NDA has fielded, with a twist, another Bhumihar in place of Union Minister Giriraj Singh, who has been shifted to Begusarai, and the opposition Grand Alliance a Yadav, with both depending on the social support base of their allies. This time, Nawada went to the LJP under seat sharing formula of NDA in lieu of the Munger seat it holds and which has gone to the JD-U. The LJP was expected to field Veena Devi, sitting party MP from Munger and wife of former MP Surajbhan Singh, who has a criminal past, Instead, party decided to field Chandan Kumar, Surajbhan Singh's younger brother. Political compulsions, in view of the caste equation as winnability, forced the Grand Allinace to to field Vibha Devi, wife of expelled RJD MLA Rajballabh Yadav, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a minor girl. Though there are 13 candidates are in fray, the main fight will be between Chandan Kumar and Vibha Devi. Aurangabad For the first time in decades, the main fight is not between two upper caste Rajput candidates. This time, a powerful Rajput candidate is facing a strong challenge from an extremely backward caste (EBC) candidate. Maoist affected Aurangabad district is also known as the mini-Chittorgarh of Bihar for the political domination of Rajputs for years despite commanding only 12.5 per cent of the over 17 lakh electorate. It was a traditional seat of the Congress but the party is not contesting the polls this time and the seat has gone to the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) under seat sharing formula of the opposition Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan). Playing the backward caste card to break the monopoly of the Rajputs, who have been winning the seat since 1952, the Grand Alliance has fielded an EBC leader, Upendra Prasad, belonging to the Dangi community, which has sizeable voters in the constituency. The NDA has fielded sitting BJP MP Sushil Singh, a Rajput, on the winnability factor. Sushil Singh belongs to a storied family that challenged the first political family of Aurangabad - that of veteran Congress leader Satyanarayan Sinha, popularly known as 'Chhote Saheb'. (Brajendra Nath Singh can be reached at brajendra.s@ians.in) Mumbai, April 7 : One of the key reasons the markets touched a life time high recently was due to the strong inflow of foreign funds. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) invested heavily in the Indian equity and debt market. The investment followed hopes of a stable government after the Lok Sabha polls. Now, experts fear a quick reversal of FIIs in case of a surprise result or a hung parliament, spelling trouble for the equities and the rupee. Experts said that markets movement is showing that it has already priced in the Modi-led NDA coming back to power after the general elections. But if by any chance there is a hung parliament, it will bring down the equity and the currency market very quickly. An equity analyst, who didn't wish to me named, said: "Market behaviour will depend on which party has the maximum seats and the leader as well." Discussing the other possibilities apart from a Modi-led government with a nearly similar results in 2014, he said that if Mayawati or Mamata Banejee form a government, the market will surely take a hit. But if the Congress takes maximum seats, the markets will fall but eventually find a balance. "An unstable government with the Congress is better than an unstable government with Mayawati," the analyst added. This is because the policies these people pursue will not inspire too much confidence among the investors. In addition, he explained that markets would not be comfortable with people whose policies are not known at the national level. A similar situation may be witnessed in the currency market, the experts said. Anindya Banerjee of Kotak Securities said: "The (FII) inflow will be very robust in 2019 if Modi continues with his mandate. It will have a positive impact in the currency and equities." But if things reverse and we see a hung parliament, "we will see the currency depreciating very fast. I don't remember when was the last time I saw such a strong inflow of foreign funds". The two key benchmark index -- Sensex and Nifty -- hit their respective life time highs in the past few weeks, largely owing to the robust inflow of foreign funds inflow. FIIs had sold heavily late last year, when a mix of global growth slowdown concerns and high crude oil prices along with depreciating rupee had dented investor sentiments. The inflow becomes especially significant as FIIs acts as a dual support to both the equity and currency. Ever since the strong inflows, the rupee has consistently gained against the US dollar and equities have hit record levels. (Ravi Dutta Mishra can be reached at ravidutta.m@ians.in) Chennai, April 7 : The makers of Tamil film Suriya 38 organised a puja ahead of the commencement of the film's shoot here on Sunday. Producer Guneet Monga, one of the co-producers of the film, took to Instagram to share glimpses from the ceremony. "Aarambikkiradhu (it's starting) 'Suriya 38'," she captioned the photograph in which the movie's cast and crew members have posed with a priest. Monga said the film will go on floors from Monday. "Suriya 38" is a tentative title. Directed by Sudha Kongara Prasad, the Tamil film will feature actor Suriya and Aparna Balamurali. G.V. Prakash Kumar has been roped in to compose music. Aparna said: "Delighted, gratified and in short of words here. Announcing my next with utmost happiness and a feeling of triumph. Couldn't ask for anything better. Seeking all your blessings." Suriya also posted the puja's photograph, asking his fans to shower their blessings and "love" upon the film's team. Suriya, along with the director, visited Ajmer dargah a few days ago to seek blessings. New Delhi, April 7 : The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has dismissed a plea of a former senior IAS officer and brother of former Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, seeking voluntary retirement from service, and the associated post-retirement benefits. Sanjeev Singh Ahluwalia was an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre from the 1980 batch. Sanjeev sought premature repatriation, and on a request, he was given permission to accept an assignment of the World Bank to serve in Sudan for a period of one year between September 18, 2005 and September 17, 2006. On April 19, 2010, Ahluwalia forwarded an application seeking voluntary retirement under the terms of the relevant All India Service Rules. The Centre rejected his plea stating he was not granted an extension beyond a year, and he did not report on duty after the expiry of his foreign assignment. Dismissing Ahluwalia's plea, CAT Chairman Justice L. Narasimha Reddy said: "Being an administrator himself, the applicant was supposed to bring about discipline in the various establishments. However, he did not introspect whether his acts and omissions were leading to violation of any provision of law." The tribunal noted that the unauthorized period of absence of the applicant was six years and one month. Nikhil Majithia, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, said: "The applicant did not pursue the matter pertaining to the voluntary retirement till he reached the age of superannuation. It is natural that the application for voluntary retirement loses relevance once the employee attains the age of superannuation." The tribunal noted that the Uttar Pradesh government had issued a notice on October 10, 2011, seeking an explanation from the official as to why he shall not be deemed to have resigned from service. Ahluwalia submitted his explanation on May 17, 2012, and he attained the age of superannuation on October 31, 2012. The tribunal observed that if a member of the service who is on valid leave for a period exceeding five years, can be deemed to have resigned, the applicant, who remained on unauthorized absent for six years, cannot keep himself on a higher pedestal. "Hence, any contention raised in this behalf becomes redundant", the tribunal noted. In 2005, Ahluwalia was on Central deputation, holding the post of Joint Secretary in the Department of Disinvestment. On his request, he was repatriated to his parent cadre before completion of the term of deputation in the Union Finance Ministry. Thereafter, he made efforts to get permission to go on foreign service. Ahluwalia informed the tribunal that he had been making representations for extension of leave beyond September 17 2006, but the same were not considered. He said that he could not join duty in India on account of factors beyond his control, as well as some family issues, and that though he had submitted an application for voluntary retirement in accordance with law, this was not considered at all. Majithia said that, left with no alternative, the state government had issued a notice under rule 7(2)(c) of the Leave Rules, and it was only a year later that the applicant responded with an explanation. "The application for voluntary retirement can only be considered, if he (Ahluwalia) was on duty in the cadre, and since the applicant was not even available in the country, let alone on the post, the application was not considered" Centre's counsel said in court. Ahluwalia's counsel H.K. Gangwani said he will file an appropriate appeal after discussing the order with his client. (Sumit Saxena can be reached at sumit.s@ians.in) Hyderabad, April 7 : Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency in Telangana is all set to create history in India's parliamentary elections with polling to be conducted with 12 big-sized EVMs in every polling booth as the voters have to choose from a whopping 185 candidates. Nizamabad, going to polls along with 16 other Lok Sabha seats on April 11, will become the first constituency in the country to see polling with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for such a large number of candidates. With a record number of candidates, including 178 farmers who entered the fray to highlight the demand for remunerative prices for their produce, it was thought the Election Commission (EC) will go for ballot papers as an EVM can accommodate a maximum of 64 names. The poll panel, however, decided against the use of ballot paper and ordered Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) to supply 26,820 EVMs, 2,240 control units and 2,600 Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) of M3 make. With just three days left, election authorities and engineers are racing against time to make fool-proof arrangements. Each polling station will have 12 M3 version EVMs, all connected to a single control unit and a VVPAT. These EVMS will be arranged in 'L' shape with each machine carrying a maximum of 16 names. Officials said arrangements would be made for smooth conduct of polling in all 1,778 polling stations and they have set up a model polling station in the town to create awareness among voters about the polling system. At every polling station, the officials will install flexi board with the serial numbers, names, photographs and symbols of the candidate to enable the voters to easily locate their choice. Engineers of ECIL and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) were busy checking the EVMs and conducting mock-polling. One flexi board with candidates' names and photographs was already displayed in front of the Collector's office. Nizamabad District Collector, M. Ram Mohan Rao, who is the Returning Officer of the constituency, said the polling personnel were trained, keeping in view the special requirements. However, EVMs alone are not likely to solve the problem in conducting the polls as the farmers, contesting as independents, complained that they were yet to be allotted the symbols. They urged Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajat Kumar to postpone the polling as it would take few days for them to popularize these symbols among voters. The CEO said he would convey their demand to the EC, which would take final decision on the matter. Some farmers have also approached the High Court seeking to postpone the polls to enable them to campaign and educate people about their respective symbols. Their petition is likely to come up for hearing on Monday. The authorities are allotting a record 186 symbols including a symbol for None Of The Above (NOTA) option. The contesting farmers argue that the polling process can't be completed smoothly as it would take 4-5 minutes for every voter to locate the symbol of the candidate of his choice and press the button. The constituency, with over 15 lakh voters, attracted national attention with over 200 candidates filing nominations. Majority of them were turmeric and red sorghum farmers, who wanted to register their protest over the failure of the state and Central government to ensure them higher remunerative prices and address other issues. After scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations, 185 candidates remained in fray. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter K. Kavitha is seeking re-election from the constituency. Congress party's Madhu Yashki Goud and BJP's D. Arvind are the other major contestants. (Mohammed Shafeeq can be contacted at m.shafeeq@ians.in) Tripoli, April 7 : Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj on Sunday vowed to defend Tripoli as rival forces were advancing towards the capital city from the east. In a televised address, the Prime Minister accused General Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA) of launching a coup, saying his troops would be met with force, reports the BBC. "We extended our hands towards peace, but after the aggression that has taken place on the part of forces belonging to Haftar, he will find nothing but strength and firmness," he said. Al-Serraj said he offered concessions to Gen Haftar to avoid bloodshed, only to be "stabbed in the back". Haftar ordered his forces to advance on Tripoli on April 4. LNA has been carrying out a multi-pronged attack from south and west of the city. The rebels have reached the outskirts of the capital, and say they have seized Tripoli's international airport. However, forces loyal to al-Serraj's Government of National Accord (GNA) have slowed the advance. Intensive air strikes were carried out by GNA aircraft 50 km south of Tripoli on Saturday. Libya has been wracked by unrest since the removal of dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Dozens of militias operate in the country who either ally with the UN-backed GNA, based in Tripoli, or LNA, a tough anti-Islamist force, which has the support of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is strong in eastern Libya. UN-backed talks, aimed at drawing up a road map for new elections, are scheduled for April 14-16 in the Libyan city of Ghadames. Baramulla, April 7 : Former MLA and Independent candidate Engineer Rashid is emerging as the dark horse in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency. Of late, Rashid has become a major worry for the otherwise well entrenched National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Peoples Conference (NC) candidates in this constituency. If huge public attendance at election rallies is any indication of voter support, then Rashid has already started giving sleepless nights to his rivals. Former IAS officer-turned-politician, Shah Faesal has also extended his support to Rashid as has former Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir, chairman of the Democratic Party Nationalist (DPN). Faesal, who belongs to Lolab voting segment of this constituency, formed his own political party, Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement (JKPM), but decided not to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Mir belongs to Tangmarg voting segment of Baramulla seat which was seen as his stronghold till he was defeated by PDP's Abbas Wani in the 2014 Assembly elections. Rashid represented Langate Assembly segment of Baramulla in the last state legislature that was dissolved by Governor Satya Pal Malik in November. Rashid has been holding large public rallies, especially in Kupwara district which are attended mostly by the youths. The pro-separatist posture of Rashid has come handy for the firebrand politician who minces no words while supporting a political resolution of the Kashmir problem by advocating the right to plebiscite. Addressing a huge public rally on Saturday, Rashid said that the separatists had achieved nothing so far while the mainstream politicians had also failed to win the hearts and minds of the Kashmiri people. "Give me a chance to voice your feelings in the Indian Parliament and also in international forums," Rashid has been telling the voters as he criticizes human rights violations, dynastic rule and rampant corruption in Kashmir. He has been telling crowds that he is one among them as he does not belong to any political family nor does he have an affluent family background. The growing influence of Rashid has caught the imagination of the common man in Baramulla constituency where the contest has become four-cornered instead of being triangular involving the National Conference, PPD and PC. It is widely believed that Rashid would cut into the vote banks of all three major parties. Initially seen as a spoiler for the main contestants, Rashid has slowly become a game changer in this Lok Sabha constituency. Senior leaders of mainstream parties including NC President Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti of PDP and Sajad Lone of PC have been holding election rallies across the constituency to garner support for their candidates. NC has fielded Muhammad Akbar Lone, PDP has put up Abdul Qayoom Wani and the PC's candidate is Raja Aijaz Ali. What needs to be seen is whether Rashid only rattles the apple cart of the mainstream parties or surprises everyone by stealing victory from his otherwise well entrenched rivals. With 13,12,148 voters spread over 1,749 polling stations, Baramulla goes to vote on April 11 in the first phase of the 5-phase Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Mumbai, April 7 : Actor and vociferous Bharatiya Janata Party supporter Anupam Kher faced the heat over a Twitter post in which he commented on the move of over 600 film and theatre artistes urging people not to vote for the BJP. Anupam pointed out how some people from the film fraternity were "officially campaigning" for opposition parties by releasing a letter for the public. But it didn't go down well with netizens, as well as actresses Swara Bhasker and Soni Razdan who reminded him of "democracy". "Some people from my fraternity have issued a letter for public to vote out the present government in elections. In other words, they are officially campaigning for opposition parties. Good! At least there are no pretensions here. Great," he wrote. The comment was aimed at the letter by artistes, including Amol Palekar, Naseeruddin Shah and Konkona Sen Sharma. They had made a joint appeal to people to "help safeguard the Constitution and our syncretic, secular ethos" by not voting for the BJP. Reacting to Anupam's tweet, Swara wrote: "Yes, it's called democracy sir." Anupam replied: "Agreed! As long as it is not confused with intolerance when others use it." Soni stepped in the debate, and commented: "If you can align yourself to the present government, why would you think others doing the same is any different? Just curious." Anupam then clarified saying he was just making an "observation". Unlike Anupam, several celebrities hailed the artistes' appeal to people to vote out the government in the elections. "Fukrey" actress Richa Chadha wrote: "I applaud the artistes fraternity for taking a stand, rejecting the politics of hate. "I also understand the motivation of people seeking destruction of the nation's social, moral fabric for temporary gains like cash for tweets and laal batti perks. It is an uncertain industry." Voting in the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and conclude on May 19. New York, April 7 : Besides spicing up your food, chilli, it seems, also has some medicinal value. New research suggests the compound responsible for chilli's heat could help slow the spread of lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women. Most cancer-related deaths occur when cancer spreads to distant sites, a process called metastasis. "Lung cancer and other cancers commonly metastasise to secondary locations like the brain, liver or bone, making them difficult to treat," said one of the study authors Jamie Friedman from Marshall University in the US. "Our study suggests the natural compound capsaicin from chilli peppers could represent a novel therapy to combat metastasis in lung cancer patients," said Friedman, a doctoral candidate who performed the research in the laboratory of Piyali Dasgupta at Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. In experiments involving three lines of cultured human non-small cell lung cancer cells, researchers observed capsaicin inhibited invasion, the first step of the metastatic process. They also found mice with metastatic cancer that consumed capsaicin showed smaller areas of metastatic cancer cells in the lung compared with mice not receiving the treatment. The findings were presented during the 2019 Experimental Biology meeting being held from April 6-9 in Orlando, Florida. Additional experiments revealed capsaicin suppresses lung cancer metastasis by inhibiting activation of the protein Src. This protein plays a role in the signalling that controls cellular processes like proliferation, differentiation, motility and adhesion. "We hope one day capsaicin can be used in combination with other chemotherapeutics to treat a variety of lung cancers," said Friedman. Patna, April 7 : Lok Janshakti Party chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Sunday claimed that a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) "wave" is sweeping the country and the Narendra Modi government would easily come retain power. "It is certain that Narendra Modi would become Prime Minister again as people have made their mind to support and vote the NDA to power. NDA would win all 40 Lok Sabha seats of Bihar and more than 350 across the country," he told media after releasing his party's manifesto here. "It is more or less certain that NDA government would be formed. Only the formality remains." Paswan said that his party manifesto promised the right to work to deal with the major problem of unemployment in the country. He said that the LJP has demanded strict action against violence in the name of cow protection as well as harsh punishment for those found guilty in cases of lynching. The LJP also promised stern action against those spreading hatred and communal propaganda. The party is contesting from 6 seats in Bihar as per the NDA seat-sharing formula, with the BJP and JD-U fighting from 17 seats each. Sanaa, April 7 : The UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths arrived in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday for crisis talks with Shia Houthi rebel group. Griffiths is set to offer a new plan for implementing the first phase of Stockholm Agreement at the Hodeidah port city, a source close to the rebel group told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, reports Xinhua news agency. The plan detailed the operational steps of military redeployment and withdrawal of the rebels from the port city, the source said without elaborating further. Griffiths has been shuttling between the rebels in Sanaa and the Yemeni government in the Saudi capital Riyadh to push the deal toward implementation. Saudi Arabia-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. Yemeni warring parties reached a peace deal in December last year in Stockholm as a first step toward a comprehensive political solution. However, the deal has hit a deadlock as the warring forces have largely held the cease-fire deal but failed to withdraw from the city. Grinding into fifth year, the war has so far killed more than 10,000, displaced three million and pushed more than 20 million Yemenis into the brink of famine, according to the UN aid agencies. London, April 7 : Social media firms, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, face hefty fines or ban in Britain if they fail to remove harmful content quickly under new laws, set to be unveiled on Monday, the media reported. The new duty of care laws could even hold social media executives personally liable for terrorist and child abuse content on their platforms. UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid is considering measures that would block errant firms' access to UK users, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The social media firms that fail to sanitise their platform could be removed from search engines like Google. Citing a leaked government document, The Guardian reported on Thursday under the new plans, an independent regulator will have the power to impose substantial fines on companies that breached their duty of care. The move comes after the livestreaming of the New Zealand terror attack, in which 50 people were killed, sparked global outrage. The video was viewed over 4,000 times before it was removed. The video was later shared in millions on other social media platforms, including Twitter and YouTube. "Vital discussions at G7 around online terror content -- especially after horrors of Christchurch. I made clear our upcoming Online Harms White Paper will ensure social media firms take more responsibility. Much more global action needed in this area," the UK Home Secretary said in a tweet on Thursday referring to the New Zealand terror attack in Christchurch. Tel Aviv, April 7 : The claim by hackers that they had broken into the database of Israeli voters, just days before the parliamentary elections, has been dismissed by Israeli officials, a media report said. Israel will go to the polls on Tuesday to elect the 21st "Knesset", or Parliament. Hackers on Saturday claimed they had stolen information on millions of Israelis after breaking into the voter registry. But the country's Central Elections Committee said they had no evidence of a hack, and critics dismissed the hackers' claims saying the data displayed was from another data leak in 2006, the Hamodia newspaper reported on Sunday. It has now become a routine for thousands of hackers around the world to target Israel-based web sites on April 7, which has come to be known as "opIsrael," said the report. The attacks are ostensibly organised by international hacking group Anonymous, it added. Bengaluru, April 7 : Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli said giving excuses after after every match were not the option, as his team slumped to sixth straight defeat, this time at the hands of Delhi Capitals, here on Sunday. RCB could only manage 149/9 after being asked to bat first. Kohli scored a patient 41, but the India captain did not get support from the other end. Delhi rode Shreyas Iyer's 67 to reach the target with seven balls to spare. "We need to grab our chances when they come our way. We can't keep giving excuses every game," Kohli said after the match. "We weren't good enough again. That's the whole story of our season, so far," the India captain admitted. On his innings, Kohli said he had to stem the rot when AB de Villiers got out. "When AB got out I had to dig deep, the other guys had to strike around me. Stoinis was good, Moeen (Ali) was good and Akshdeep (Nath) too. When there are two senior batsmen and one gets out, the other has to take charge. That's the whole idea." "We thought 160 was going to be competitive. Even 150 was about par. It was quite dry underneath and we knew it would be slow. Not as good as the last game. That was exactly the case in the first innings. We kept losing wickets at regular intervals -- couldn't really explode." Kohli also said he wasn't happy with the way he got out. "The pitch didn't allow us to play freely. Understanding the situation and targeting specific bowlers, I wasn't too happy to get out to a ball like that. If I had stayed, we could have added 25-30 more to the total. In hindsight, we can look at all this. But 160 was a competitive total," the RCB capytain said. RCB have now lost seven games in a row, six this season. The dry run stretches from May 19 till April, their highest in terms of consecutive losses. Bhopal/Indore/New Delhi, April 7 : In a major crackdown on hawala money, Income Tax Department teams on Sunday carried out raids at over 50 places in Madhya Pradesh's Indore and Bhopal, including the residence of Chief Minister Kamal Nath's Officer on special duty Praveen Kakkar, and in New Delhi and seized a huge amount of cash. A senior IT department source told IANS: "About 300 IT Department personnel from New Delhi were given the task after receiving a credible information about the hawala money." The IT officials raided Kakkar's office on the sixth floor of Platinum Plaza building and his residence in Nadir Colony in Bhopal. Kakkar's house and office in Indore were also searched, sources said. Kakkar, an ex-police officer and the President's Medal recipient, had also served as OSD to former Union Minister Kanti Lal Bhuria. Similarly, the residence of NGO manager Ashwini Sharma on Platinum Plaza's fourth floor was also searched. The official also identified luxury cars reportedly belonging to Sharma. It was for the first time that the IT teams were accompanied by Central Reserve Police Force troopers. The source said that the searches are linked to suspected movement of hawala money during the ongoing polls season and tax evasion. Sources said that besides Kakkar and Sharma, premises of Kamal Nath's former adviser Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser Bayer and his nephew Ratul Puri's company were also searched. The sources said that the documents seized during the searches were being scrutinised in detail and then it will summon officials later for questioning. Official sources also said that searches were also being conducted against Kolkata-based businessman Paras Mal Lodha. Last week, Puri was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in the national capital in connection with the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland chopper deal case. The source said that the IT Department also got tips from Puri's questioning and thus planned a series of raids in the state. New Delhi, April 7 : The Congress on Sunday unveiled its campaign slogan for the Lok Sabha elections -- "Ab Hoga Nyay" (Now, there will be justice). The slogan will feature in all its advertisements, posters, radio jingles, billboards and songs. Nyay is the acronym for the Congress' minimum income guarantee scheme -- Nyuntam Aay Yojana -- under which the party has promised to give Rs 72,000 per year to 20 per cent of the poorest families in the country if the party is voted to power. The slogan is based on the positive feedback the party received around the concept of 'Nyay', sources said. "We are seeking justice or 'Nyay' against the injustices committed in the past four years. Those who promised 'Acche Din' only delivered 'Anyay' (injustice)," said Anand Sharma, Chairman of the Congress Publicity Committee. Keeping Congress President Rahul Gandhi at the heart of its campaign, the visual elements include his interactions with people from all walks of life over the past few years. The party also credited Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's contributions in developing the campaign. Sharma said Priyanka took an active part in the deliberations and the party appreciated her inputs. "Simplicity, genuineness and honesty as opposed to hollow, empty slogans and fake promises is the approach the Congress publicity campaign takes," Sharma said. Advertising agency Percept will work on the creative aspects of the Congress campaign, including a video jingle penned by Javed Akhtar and directed by filmmaker Nikhil Advani. The campaign will focus on justice for the poor, unemployed youth, farmers, women, dalits, tribals and businessmen hit by the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the party said. The party will also deploy large container trucks painted with the slogan "Ab Hoga Nyay" which will travel across the country. The trucks will carry panels on both sides, which will be 40 feet in length and 8 feet in height. Besides in Hindi, the Congress' campaign will also have regional adaptations. The Congress is aiming to cover all the vernacular languages. Attacking the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for criticising Congress' pro-poor policy, Sharma said: "The Prime Minister is asking why we should put Rs 72,000 per year in the accounts of the poorest of the poor, especially the women, when he can spend Rs 1,00,000 crore on Bullet train which will serve just one state and run between two cities, Mumbai and Ahmadabad." Sharma said the BJP is the biggest advertiser in the country, and the Congress cannot match it in terms of resources and money power. "But when it comes to truth and connecting with the people, we will beat them because there is a ring of sincerity when the Congress President makes a commitment," he said. The Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. New Delhi, April 7 : Before the Lok Sabha elections, a number of politicians switched parties hoping better prospects. IANS compiles a list of the prominent leaders who switched allegiance in the run-up to the elections. New Delhi, April 7 (IANS) Before the Lok Sabha elections, a number of politicians switched parties hoping better prospects. IANS comp 12. The law enforces in Assam have so far seized 1,17,935.46 litre of liquor valued at over Rs 7 lakh. Illegal cash of over Rs 7 crore have been seized by the officials between March 12 and Saturday. In Arunachal Pradesh, the authorities have seized 70,226 bottles of beer, 28,181 bottles of liquor, over 800 bottles of wine and more than 144 bottles of country liquor. According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Arunachal Pradesh, the total value of the seized cash and liquor is estimated to be over Rs 5 crore. Chief Electoral Officer of Tripura, Sriram Taranikanti said that Rs 1.38 crore of illegal cash have been seized so far. Chennai, April 7 : The Tamil Nadu Police on Sunday arrested one person from Dindugul district in connection with the murder of a female college student. According to the police, Pragathi, who studied at a college in Coimbatore, was found murdered with her throat slit near Pollachi on Friday. The police said Satishkumar, the arrested person, wanted to marry Pragathi but her parents turned down the proposal. Later he got married to someone else. Pragathi's parents had also finalised a boy for her and the wedding was fixed for this June. On Friday, Satishkumar took Pragathi in his car and enroute her native village, he allegedly killed her as he was not able to digest the fact that she was getting married to someone else. In recent times, there has been a spurt in the number of cases of girls getting killed by their spurned lovers. "Gone are the days of Devdas, when the boy failed by love wished his love well and moved on," Chitra Aravind, a city-based consultant psychologist, told IANS. "The way boys are brought up has changed. They are not given much love and affection at home. They have low self-esteem. So when a girl rejects him, his ego gets hurt. Such people will suffer from unhealthy mind and would resort to violent acts," Aravind said. "They think of love as a major factor. To them, the girl is a part which will make him a complete person. Such people want to harm the person who rejects them," Aravind added. According to her, such boys normally have a history of violent behaviour and committing a murder is the climax to that. "There are girls who would fall for such characters with an idealistic notion of reforming them. Such girls are usually victims of childhood abuse," Aravind said. It all boils down to the values that the parents follow and inculcate in their wards. she said. "Those born in the '70s were clear. If it was no, then it was no. They were able to take it. But those born in the '90s are a confused lot. The television serials showing extra marital affairs in our drawing rooms condition their minds that nothing is wrong," Aravind added. Gaya: Prime Minister and BJP leader Narendra Modi with Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U President Nitish Kumar during a public rally in Bihar's Gaya, on April 2, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS/PIB Patna, April 7 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for acting against terror and working for the common people. Campaigning in the Jamui, Kishanganj and Bhagalpur parliamentary constituencies, Nitish Kumar, also the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief, attacked the opposition Grand Alliance for its "baseless talks" and termed the Congress manifesto "useless" as what it had was "difficult to implement". "Modi has taken action against terror. He had responded timely and countered terror," he said at the election meetings. Lauding Modi for working for the common people, especially in the state, he appealed to the people to support and vote for the National Democratic Alliance in the polls. Nitish Kumar, who is one of the main star campaigners of NDA in Bihar, asked people with folded hands to give his 'mazdoori' (wages) in the form of votes. "We have come to seek votes from you on the basis of the work. I have done development work in last 13 years and I am seeking wages for it from you," he said, adding that his government constructed roads to connect all villages, provided electricity and was working to provide clean drinking water, and established rule of law and harmony in the state. He also noted the work towards women empowerment in the state by reserving a 35 per cent quota for women in government jobs to 50 per cent in Panchayati Raj institutions. "It resulted in women coming out of their homes and joining the mainstream of society.. it is common now to see girls in groups going to schools and colleges, which was unbelievable earlier." He also targeted the opposition, mainly Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders for using objectionable words against him and Prime Minister Modi during the election campaign and advised them to use decent language. New Delhi, April 7 : With political parties across the country stepping up their campaigns for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls on April 11, the BJP and the Congress on Sunday unveiled their campaign slogans with the former focussing on "Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar" and the latter on "Ab Hoga Nyay". The campaign logo, tagline and theme song will feature in all the advertisements, posters, radio jingles and billboards of the Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The focus of Congress' "Ab Hoga Nyay" (now, there will be justice) remains on "Nyay", the acronym for its minimum income guarantee scheme -- Nyuntam Aay Yojana -- under which the party has promised to give Rs 72,000 per year to 20 per cent of the poorest families if the party is voted to power. The Congress slogan is based on the positive feedback the party received around the concept of 'Nyay', sources said. "We are seeking justice or 'Nyay' against the injustices committed in the past four years. Those who promised 'Acche Din' only delivered 'Anyay' (injustice)," said Anand Sharma, Chairman of the Congress Publicity Committee. Keeping Congress President Rahul Gandhi at the heart of its campaign, the visual elements include his interactions with people from all walks of life over the past few years. "Simplicity, genuineness and honesty as opposed to hollow, empty slogans and fake promises is the approach the Congress publicity campaign takes," Sharma said. Advertising agency Percept will work on the creative aspects of the Congress campaign, including a video jingle penned by Javed Akhtar and directed by filmmaker Nikhil Advani. The campaign will focus on justice for the poor, unemployed youth, farmers, women, dalits, tribals and businessmen hit by the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the party said. The Congress will also deploy large container trucks painted with the slogan "Ab Hoga Nyay" which will travel across the country. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday launched the BJP's campaign themes with the main slogan being "Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar" (Modi government once more). "The first theme of our campaign will be 'Kaam Karne Waali Sarkaar' (a government that works). Our second theme will be 'Imaandar Sarkaar' (honest government). The third theme will be 'Bade Faisle Lene Waali Sarkaar' (government that takes big decisions)," Jaitley said, adding that the sub-themes would combine the larger theme of "Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar". Unveiling the party's campaign materials, he said the BJP's campaign themes will talk about honest governance, ability to take major decisions, women's empowerment and the other welfare measures undertaken by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the past five years. Alleging that the Congress' manifesto does not refer to the poor and the middle class, Jaitley said the campaign materials will also highlight the BJP's commitment to these groups. He said the BJP campaign would also dwell on the need for a decisive government with full majority. "The country wants a strong leader. We want a government with one captain and not a team of 11 members with 40 captains," Jaitley said, taking an apparent dig at the opposition alliance in many states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu. The party also launched its campaign song -- "Chalo Ek Baar Phir Ham Modi Sarkar Banate Hai/Garv Ke Sath Desh Ko Age Badhate Hain/Phir Se Kamal Khilate Hai" (lets elect Modi government once again, lets take the country forward with pride, let's help the lotus bloom again). The BJP also released a few videos focusing on the government's pro-poor schemes and some of its tough decisions, including those against terror. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had achieved considerable success with slogans such as "Ab Ki Baar Modi Sarkar" and "Acche Din Aane Waale Hain." Ninety-one parliamentary constituencies spread over 20 states and Union Territories will go to the polls in the first phase on April 11. The seven-phase Lok Sabha elections would end on May 19. Counting of votes will take place on May 23. New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addresses during the 93rd Annual Day celebrations of Shri Ram College of Commerce in New Delhi, on April 6, 2019. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS New Delhi, April 7 : Terming electoral bonds a legitimate and transparent method of political funding, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said it masks the link between the party and the donor in the same way the electoral trusts brought by the UPA did. NGOs have tendency to either exaggerate or misrepresent and were spreading misinformation about the bonds, he said in a Facebook post. "Those dealing with elections and electoral reforms have come out with two categories of reports. The first one says that since in its balance sheet, the BJP declares much larger income, it should be assumed that it gets more donations than other parties. "The second report says that BJP gets the lion's share of the electoral bonds. Both display a lack of understanding of how parties function," he said Jaitley said the BJP preferred legitimate methods like crowd sourcing, cheque and electoral bonds over "the old obsolete style" of collecting only black money by some parties. "It (BJP) declares a larger income and gullible friends in the NGOs believe that they get more," he said, asking the NGOs if they "honestly" believe the balance sheets of the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) or several others. "They (parties) obviously do not disclose the income that they get because most of these donations are in cash. This has significantly reduced the credibility of the reports of these NGOs." Highlighting his association with political funding reforms, Jaitley said he, as Law Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, moved a Bill legitimising donations through a cheque provided it is declared to Income Tax Department and the Election Commission. Later, Pranab Mukherjee, as a Finance Minister during UPA-II, brought out "a second reform" in the year 2010 as he realised cheque donations would not bring a change, he said. "Donors fear the consequences of their revealed identities being linked to a political party to whom they donated. He very wisely masked the identity by creating a pass-through electoral trust in 2010. "This practice legislated by UPA-II, is still in progress and utilised by some." Jaitley said the NDA government similarly created the instrument of electoral bonds in 2017 based on the principle of masking the link between the party and the donor, to encourage the latter to donate white money without fear of consequences. He said there was improved transparency in the electoral bonds as against the original system of cash, and the State Bank of India has a record of the donors. "The link between the donor and the identity of the party is masked in the same way as is done in the case of electoral trust. "Surprisingly the attack is against the bonds and not the electoral trusts because the earlier was brought by the NDA and the latter was by UPA," he alleged. Jaitley claimed that donors will have no option but to donate only by cash after siphoning monies from their businesses if the bonds do not exist. He cited the recent Election Commission and IT raids in states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, where taxpayers' money "is being siphoned out and round-tripping into politics". "Is that a better option or the reformed system of all white money and improved, if not a perfect transparency? NGOs and commentators must look beyond their nose," he asked. Jalpaiguri/Alipurduar : , April 7 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "seasonal bird" for coming to north Bengal only ahead of elections, and dismissed his claim that she was petrified, saying it was he who was scared of her. "Babus of Delhi set fire in the hills and we defused it. You (Modi) had not come to Darjeeling during the days of unrest. Where were the BJP leaders when there were disturbances in the hills?" Banerjee said in a strongly-worded speech at a rally at Churabhandar in Jalpaiguri district, hours after Modi spoke at an election meeting in Cooch Behar. Addressing a rally later in the day at Falakata in Alipurduar district, she said BJP leaders "are seasonal birds who come here only during elections and run away after polls" while Trinamool Congress leaders and activists have been with the people 365 days a year For the major part of 2017, the hills in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong witnessed violence and political turmoil over the revived demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland to be curved out of the northern West Bengal hills. The entire region came to a standstill for 104 days following the longest-ever shutdown called by the pro-Gorkhaland outfits. Responding to Modi's remarks that she was petrified at fearing defeat, Banerjee said: "They are saying Didi and Trinamool Congress are scared. I am not scared of any dacoit like you and it is not so easy to frighten Didi. Didi was beaten up from head to toe and I have injuries all over my body. I had fought in front of bullets and guns. "When rest of India remained silent (during the note ban and the NRC), we raised our voice. That is why Modi babu is afraid of us and he knows he will be defeated," she said. In Churabhandar, Banerjee also asked why the people of Bengal would vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as "Modi has done nothing for Bengal" and "has not even cleared the proposal for changing the name of the state to Bangla". She attacked the BJP for nominating "tainted" candidates such as John Barla from Alipurduar, whom she accused of indulging in "violence and efforts to create division between hills and plains". Banerjee also alleged that the saffron party was offering cash to the youth and the people so that they come and join its meetings and rallies. "They are threatening people and fighting the elections with money power," she said. Responding to the Prime Minister describing the Trinamool Congress as "Saradha-Narada" party, Banerjee said: "You had linked the Trinamool with the Saradha chit fund scam in 2014 and with the Narada sting case in 2016. But during today's rally in Cooch Behar, you shared the stage with persons who were accused in both the cases and are now controlling your meetings." "Sarada-Narada-Hawala leaders have now become BJP's leaders," she said at Falakata. Incidentally, BJP leader Mukul Roy, who had jumped ship from the Trinamool to the BJP and was questioned by the central investigation agencies in these cases, was present at Modi's rally in Cooch Behar earlier in the day. Amid the controversy over removing senior police officers in the state by the Election Commission, Banerjee claimed that the saffron party will not win the Lok Sabha elections by transferring officers. "Why the Cabinet Secretary and your Secretary won't be removed ahead of the elections? There were many allegations against you (Modi)," she said. Taunting Modi for calling himself a "chowkidar" (watchman), Banerjee wondered whether the Prime Minister knew that many "chowkidars" at the ATMs do not even get their salary regularly. "We want real chowkidar, not the fraud. I will say chowkidar jhoota hain. Chowkidar lootera hain. Chowkidar did note-ban and is corrupt," she said at the Falakata rally. The cut-price online estate agency Purplebricks may have to abandon its struggling Australian operation to survive in the United Kingdon, analysts at investment bank Berenberg have warned. Berenberg slashed its share price forecast for the embattled company from 4.70 to 80 pence. It switched its rating from "buy" to "sell", sending the stock into an 8.4 per cent tailspin on the British share market on Friday. The Financial Times reported: "It was more bad news for Purplebricks as Berenberg analysts turned sharply bearish on the online estate agent." The analysis by Berenberg suggests Purplebricks is running out of steam in the UK. However Purplebricks hit back saying it is looking to boost the business in Australia. Investment bank Berenberg also said the company might have to quit the US to survive in its core British market. "Having flown too close to the sun, with operations in five countries and cash burn of circa 7 million [$12.9 million] a month, we believe the group will be forced to seek additional equity at a significant discount or a doubtless expensive debt facility; or to abandon the Australian and US operations and retrench to the UK and Canada," the German private bank said in a note to its clients. But Vic Darvey, the London-based group's global chief operating officer, rejected the analysis, reaffirming that Purplebricks was committed to the Australian market. "Our transformation over the last six months is bearing fruit, and we are pleased with the recent growth in instructions and sales," he told The Australian Financial Review. "Recently, we have boosted our agent numbers and expanded to new regions, bringing our proposition to more Australians." Darvey joined the firm in February from MoneySuperMarket.com with experience of tech-focused, customer-centric businesses. Purplebricks shares closed at 129.6 pence on Friday, down about 75 per cent from a mid-2017 high point of about 5.13. The company's current bout of share price doldrums began in February, when it cut its revenue forecast. One of the agency's co-founders, Michael Bruce, is now running the US business full-time, having previously divided his time between there and Britain. Meanwhile, his brother Kenny Bruce has only just returned from Australia to focus on the British business. "In our view, the limitations of the upfront fee model are being laid bare," according to the Berenberg analysts' note which joined other analysts in questioning the business model. "In our view, the limitations of the upfront fee model are being laid bare and the addressable market is proving much small than initially hoped," the Berenberg analysts said. In Australia, the newly-installed CEO Neil Tavender and Kenny Bruce have overhauled the charging model, so that half the fee is paid upfront and half on completion of the sale. "While the local market has softened, the fixed fee model continues to be an attractive proposition for sellers who want to maximise their returns," Mr Darvey said on Sunday. The pressure on the Australian business was exposed when it reported an $18 million interim loss for the six months to October. While Purplebricks has sold more than 5000 homes since launching in Australia in September 2016, the company now spends about 84c in advertising to generate a dollar of revenue. The Australian Financial Review has regularly revealed an exodus of estate agents along with allegations of a "toxic culture" within the company. Following the recent launch of Angus Reid Global, Canadas most trusted name in market and public opinion research is making a return to the public affairs space, with research and insights services to organizations across Canada and around the world. Dr. Angus Reid, Canada's longest-practicing public opinion researcher, is pleased to announce the formation of an all new public affairs research division at Angus Reid Global. In making the announcement, Dr. Reid has also named Demetre Eliopoulos as Senior Vice President and Managing Director for the public affairs consultancy. Eliopoulos brings a wealth of public affairs experience from previous tenures at Maru/Matchbox, Vision Critical, and Pollara and will guide the consultancy on its new mission and set of services. Its our objective to ensure that political leaders, business leaders, policy makers and decision makers have access to superior advice to meet todays challenges, says Dr. Reid, Chair and CEO of Angus Reid Global. I selected Demetre to head up this practice because of his unparalleled research expertise and deep knowledge in the public affairs space. Were focused on providing organizations with answers and direction to propel positive, powerful outcomes from well-informed decisions, says Ed Morawski, President and COO for Angus Reid Global. While the data and results do matter, making sure research results drive impactful plans and solutions is paramount. Demetre is a high-level consultant with a proven track record of making a real difference for his clients. We are excited to appoint him to this important position. Under Eliopoulos, the public affairs team will provide a highly immersive, collaborative, and consultative approach to insights research. This differentiator will help organizations better understand the potential of their organization as well as the levers that inform and drive strategies and tactics. Angus Reids public affairs practice is set to offer services to a variety of sectors including: communications and public relations; charities; government; not-for-profit; associations; arts & culture; transportation; and education. For more information, visit: http://www.angusreid.com or follow on Twitter @angusreidinc. For further information on topics in this release, please contact: Demetre Eliopoulos Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Public Affairs demetre.eliopoulos(at)angusreid.com 705.465.0411 OR Tim Travis Director of Marketing tim.travis(at)angusreid.com 778.991.2524 About Angus Reid Global: Angus Reid is Canadas most well-known and respected name in opinion and market research data. Offering a variety of research solutions to businesses, brands, governments, not-for-profit organizations and more, the Angus Reid Global team connects technologies and people to derive powerful insights that inform business and policy decisions. Data is collected through a suite of tools utilizing the latest technologies. Prime among that is the Angus Reid Forum, an opinion community consisting of engaged residents across the country who answer surveys on topical issues that matter to all Canadians. Audiobrain Founder and CEO, Audrey Arbeeny Emmy award winning sonic branding firm Audiobrain has partnered with FUSE to design the sonic identity for FUSEs annual conference. Audiobrain has been a sponsor of FUSE since 2011. This years conference, Brand, Design, & Business: A New Unity will return to Chicago to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus movement, which set the international standard for modern design with an emphasis on technical progress and social responsibility. FUSE 2019 will feature presentations from executives at IBM, Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, and Target, and over 300 senior brand, design, and business leaders will attend. In addition to commemorating the beginning of the Bauhaus, FUSE will promote better dialogue between the business and design communities. Prior to the conference, Audiobrain will lead a sonic branding workshop for the 2019 FUSE Scholars, Chicago high school students selected by FUSE and Project Osmosis Chicagos leading design education organization, which creates programs and initiatives that identify, develop, and support young people from minority communities with demonstrated abilities and skills in the applied arts. This sonic branding workshop is part of an overarching initiative organized in tandem with FUSE, Project Osmosis, and AIGA Chicago to make careers in design more accessible and inclusive to the next generation of designers. Music education is an integral part of Audiobrains mission. Audiobrain Founder and CEO, Audrey Arbeeny, teaches sonic branding at the Pratt Institute in addition to guest lecturing and mentoring graduate design students in the Masters in Branding program at SVA. Audrey stated, We are so excited to be educating on sound branding with Project Osmosis. Most people do not realize just how many places a brand is heard, or what an impact sound has on visual design. Its a great opportunity to give back, and well have a hands-on workshop so the students can actually experience how weve crafted many of the worlds iconic sonic identities. In advance of the conference, Audrey was interviewed by Dan Madinabeita, Head of Brand and Design at Informa, on his podcast series FUSE Calls. In each episode of FUSE Calls, Dan speaks with disruptive design and brand strategy leaders across the globe. In addition to discussing Audiobrains partnership with FUSE and Project Osmosis, Dan and Audrey spoke about her background in music therapy, her study of psychoacoustics and biomusicology, her experience in helping shape narratives as a music supervisor for nine Olympic broadcasts on NBC, and why audio branding is more important than ever in a sound-first era. FUSE will be held from April 8th 10th 2019 at Chicagos Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel. About Audiobrain: NY-based Audiobrain are global leaders in sonic branding, experience design, voice branding, music supervision, and more. With over 20 years experience, Audiobrain has worked with brands such as Holland America Line, Google, Logitech, Kia Motors Corp, Whirlpool, Toshiba, the NY Giants plus many others. From research, strategy, music composition, design, and interactive, Audiobrain is a full-service, 360 degree audio branding specialty firm. Direct all inquiries to: info(at)audiobrain.com (212) 242-9100 Herbert Lutz & Company announces the addition of Dan Buhler, Jr., a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP), to its team of certified underground storage tank (UST) installers, electrical and building contractors, well drillers and other professionals. Dan serves as a Project Manager at HL Petroleum Co., Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Herbert Lutz & Company. He holds LSRP license #782895 from the New Jersey Site Remediation Professional Licensing Board. Dan has been with Herbert Lutz & Company for nearly two years, after an eight-year stint as Project Manager and Environmental Scientist for a New Jersey environmental resource consulting and engineering firm. Dan holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Rutgers University and is a skilled and talented member of the team. Dan resides in Morgan, NJ with his wife, Andra, and their twin children, Zachary and Zaylee, who are turning two years old on the first of May. Dan and Andra volunteer on the weekends at Sammys Hope, a non-profit rescue for cats and dogs, where they work with and care for dogs until they get adopted. The Buhler family has two mixed breed rescue dogs of their own, Basil and Sage. Herbert Lutz & Company congratulates Dan on attainment of his LSRP license and looks forward to ongoing success through his expanded ability to meet client needs in the realm of site remediation. Company Launches New Website to Inform and Educate about New Jersey Environmental Regulations Reflecting the changing times and advancements in technology, Herbert Lutz & Company recently launched a new website providing information to prospective clients about the many services it offers and answering frequently asked questions about UST and LSRP in New Jersey and Florida. Principal owner Hank Lutz is a licensed attorney in both New Jersey and Florida able to understand and interpret the legal requirements and environmental regulations in both states. The website will also feature a monthly blog keeping readers updated on the latest developments regarding Brownfield remediation and other issues of importance to New Jersey developers, brokers, investors and commercial and industrial property owners. The new website can be viewed at https://www.lutztanks.com. About Herbert Lutz & Co. Herbert Lutz & Co. is a provider of a full range of services in the field of tank installation, lining, removal, site remediation and other environmental regulatory services in New Jersey and Florida. For more information, contact: Therese O'Brian 2020 Clinton Street Linden, NJ 908-862-8888 http://www.lutztanks.com TechGenies Welcomes Zena Brand to Board of Advisors Brand brings wealth of product and strategy experience to companys board TechGenies LLC, a global leader in developing cutting-edge, custom applications, and in delivering IT staff resources, announces the addition of Zena Brand, Principal of consulting firm Brand Associates LLC, to its Board of Advisors. As the Principal of Brand Associates LLC, a consultancy that focuses on the intersection of products and strategy, Brand works with companies of all sizes - from start-ups to the Fortune 500 - to drive business growth through better market understanding, product strategy, agile development practices and productive partnerships. Her goal is to deliver products that people love. During her tenure with Brand Associates LLC, Brand has successfully driven revenue growth for Software as a Solution (SaaS) across many diverse functional categories. Brand has an M.B.A. in Information Technology and a BA in Economics. Were thrilled with the expertise Zena will bring to the table in driving product strategy, said TechGenies CEO and co-founder Ahmad Al-Amine. This is an exciting time for TechGenies, as we continue to grow and expand our offerings, and we are excited to have Zenas knowledge and skills on board. TechGenies offers a wide variety of services, flexible to support companies of any size and with any level of in-house IT expertise. The company provides IT staff augmentation, supports IT project management, and has recently launched TechBridge, a coding boot camp. To learn more about TechGenies services, please reach out to info(at)techgenies(dot)com or visit https://www.techgenies.com/services/. About TechGenies, LLC TechGenies is a global software development co-employment company that provides technology resources to a wide range of verticals and industries. The company is headquartered in Texas with software factory operations in Mexico, the Philippines, India, and Lebanon. Our clients Genies have been developing world-class software solutions and providing international support for more than 25 years. Our operating model is simple. We provide you with an off-site development team that can either augment your current staff, add a project team to your software development group, or become your main development team. Our experts also provide guidance and support to your team to ensure our experts continue to be as productive as you expect. Cheddar and Weather Groups OTT streaming service Local Now has announced a wide-ranging content exchange. Local Now will supply daily meteorologist forecasts to Cheddar News, while Cheddar is continuing to provide daily business updates to Local Now.Cheddar, through Cheddar News, is focused on general news, and through Cheddar Business, covers innovation and technology. Local Now delivers real-time, localised information about current events, weather, lifestyle, sports, business and traffic to hundreds of markets across the US.Cheddar Business will air morning weather updates in its new Wake Up With Cheddar 7am ET program as well as select segments from The Weather Groups Pattern brand. Pattern is a new platform that delivers mobile-first content directly to Twitter users any day and any time including weather coverage, changing climate, weather science explainers and the coolest, most beautiful places on Earth as created by weather.The big national weather stories are of great importance and interest to our audience, and The Weather Channel has amazing coverage and visualisations, where they dive deep, literally, into the pertinent weather event to present a realistic viewpoint. Thats compelling content, said Jon Steinberg, founder and CEO of Cheddar . As Cheddar has scaled, launching Cheddar News last year, and our new morning show Wake Up with Cheddar a couple weeks ago, its great to be able to turn to our friends at The Weather Channel to expand our partnership.As one of the most trusted and loved TV news brands in America, its important for The Weather Channel to continue to super-serve our audience by finding new ways to deliver weather, news and information everywhere viewers consume content, said Tom OBrien, president of The Weather Channel television network and Local Now . Local Nows expanded partnership with Cheddar is a great example of our commitment to the audience and a great way to extend our reach and impact. In defending itself from a crony capitalism scandal, the Canadian government has turned to that old chestnut: They acted on behalf of a global Montreal-based engineering firm in order to wait for it save jobs. In doing so, the Justin Trudeau government may have undermined one of Canadas greatest economic assets its reputation for integrity, stability and rule of law. That reputation has already taken a hit. The SNC-Lavalin scandal involving the Prime Ministers efforts to obtain a deferred prosecution agreement for the company as a result of bribery of public officials in Libya has brought down two cabinet ministers, Trudeaus chief aide, and the head of Canadas public service. Since 2013, SNC-Lavalins Canadian workforce has already dropped from about 20,000 to just under 9,000, a workforce decline that few if any Canadians have even noticed, and that has had no visible impact on the Canadian economy. And no matter what kind of pressure tactics the company may have exerted on the federal government, it is hard to see how it could pull many of its existing jobs out of Canada. SNC-Lavalin is primarily a services company. It could move its corporate headquarters wherever it wants, but it cannot reduce by much its Canadian workforce which it needs in order to undertake infrastructure projects in Canada. In that respect, it is similar to a drugstore chain. How far would CVS get if it threatened to close its U.S. outlets and move elsewhere leaving the lucrative U.S. market to Walgreens, Duane Reed and other drug chains? SNC-Lavalin employs thousands in Canada because it needs them to fulfill its Canadian contracts. It draws about a third of its revenue from Canada, and employs less than 20 percent of its workforce there. The company cannot move its corporate headquarters from Montreal until 2024 in any event, due to a contract it has signed with a Quebec investment fund. On the other side of the ledger, the scandal threatens to undermine one of Canadas greatest economic resources its squeaky clean global image. A national economys ability to create jobs depends largely on its reputation. Canadas hard-earned reputation attracts and preserves jobs in many industries. Harvard University economist Robert Barro has found that stronger laws and respect for them, as measured by the International Country Risk Guide, leads to increased economic growth. In fact, the difference between countries with the best and worst records in rule of law equals about 1.6 percentage points per year in GDP growth. Among countries as among individuals, he who steals my purse steals trash, but he who steals my good name makes me poor indeed. There is no doubt that SNC-Lavalin has been blackening Canadas good name. The World Bank has banned the company and its subsidiaries from bidding on the international agencys infrastructure projects until 2023 for its involvement in corruption and bribery. As a result of that ban, Canada went from having no debarred companies in 2012 on the World Bank list to 116 a year later, topping all other countries in that dubious category. The company was also banned for two years from bidding on projects by the Asian Development Bank as a result of lying about the status and work experience of two of the engineers it employed on a multi-billion-dollar project. The companys current leadership argues that the executive team at the time has left. But shareholders presumably continue to enjoy the stock market gains it made as a result of its illegal practices, which at least until the scandal broke were baked into the share price cake. It is hard to decide which is worse, the notion that a Canadian government would risk soiling its own reputation or the fact it would do so to address an empty corporate threat to pull jobs out of the country. It is no surprise that Canada is home to one of the leading engineering firms in the world. The country has enormous engineering capacity. Politicians should realize that Canada offers SNC-Lavalin a lot more than SNC-Lavalin offers Canada. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate , We're sorry, this article is not currently available The University of Georgia is introducing an initiative to name the College of Education after Mary Frances Early, UGAs first African American graduate. As a part of the universitys Commit to Georgia capital campaign, donations given through next year to the College of Education can be dedicated in honor of Mary Frances Early. These donations will then go into consideration for the proposed naming. By toxic, the reference is to material that whips up hatred, is discriminatory in nature and has explicit sexual and pornographic content. The countrys largest advertiser, (HUL), is drawing up a list of trusted online publishers it will work with to ensure greater digital transparency, reduction of ad fraud and bring down the menace of toxic advertisements. Last week, HULs parent London-and-Rotterdam-based Unilever had announced it was setting up a trusted publishers network, which would include global, regional and local online platforms. By toxic, the reference is to material that whips up hatred, is discriminatory in nature and has explicit sexual and pornographic content. Last year, Unilever had said it would reduce spends on online and social media platforms that did not filter out content which was divisive or promoted hatred and gender stereotypes. In an emailed response, a Unilever spokesperson said the publishers who would be a part of its trusted network would be assessed against key established criteria. We are not sharing specifics about which publishers are included in the network. "But our local media teams (including in India) with their agencies are leading the effort across all geographies, the spokesperson said. HUL works with ad agencies such as Wunderman Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather in India. Its media agency is GroupM. Executives at GroupM could not be immediately reached for comment on the publishers list for India. But ad and media industry experts say the trusted publishers network in India could include names such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat as well as marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart where traffic is heavy. Typically, the larger platforms have systems and processes in place to track ad fraud and help reduce toxic content, says Ashish Bhasin, chief executive officer, Greater South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network. So these platforms could be a part of the whitelist. As far as local names are concerned, advertisers such as HUL will see whether they adhere to the criteria laid out as part of the trusted publishers network, he says. Shrenik Gandhi, chief executive officer, White Rivers Media, which is a digital agency based in Mumbai, said HUL would look at impact, high growth potential and return on investment when choosing a publisher to work with. Of course, the issue of ad fraud will also have to be monitored closely since fake click farms have been growing in recent years, he said. According to technology consultancy techARC, Indias share in global digital ad fraud stood at 8.7 per cent in 2018 and is expected to grow at the rate of 23 per cent in 2019 owing to sophisticated techniques adopted by fraudsters. The impact of digital ad-fraud now goes beyond diminishing the returns on marketing spends and can jeopardise the entire digital transformation journey hampering brand equity, relevance and positioning among other ramifications, said Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst at techARC. Some experts said HULs move to come up with a publishers whitelist could goad other advertisers to go down that road. HUL is the largest advertiser in the country and its parent Unilever is amongst the largest advertisers in the world. In many respects what they do sets the agenda for the industry both in the country and the world and their latest move could push other companies to follow suit, said Harish Shriyan, chief executive officer, Omnicom Media Group India. According to the Pitch Madison Report, released in February, HULs ad spends for calendar year 2018 was in the region of Rs 3,400 crore, which is nearly 10 per of its FY18 turnover of Rs 35,218 crore. The second- and third-largest advertisers in India such as Reckitt Benckiser and Procter & Gamble respectively spent around Rs 700-850 crore last year, which is half of HULs ad budget. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters Companies are looking for an engaging hook, and sound is universally seen as a big emotional connector, finds Nikhat Hetavkar. Photograph: Kind courtesy Bruce Mars/Pexels How does one capture the sound of a bank or a perfectly tailored suit? What melody evokes an experience of warmth and comfort? Ask the array of brands that have been working with marketing experts, musicians and a host of other professionals to strike the right note for their products and services. Keen to build an emotional connection with their consumers and stand out in the clutter of logos and colours that overpower every customer interface today, Mastercard, Visa, Raymond, HDFC Bank and others have all sought to create a sound that fits their brand and sets them apart from the rest. Sonic branding is finding its place in the sun for several reasons. For one, consumers today are comfortable with the use of voice-based and voice-led technology. Also, in India especially, the mobile phone drives most brand-consumer relationships which makes the engagement transactional and fickle, said experts. Companies are looking for an engaging hook, and sound is universally seen as a big emotional connector. "As per industry estimates, voice shopping in India is on the rise and audio identities are not only meant to connect brands with consumers on a new dimension, but they are (functioning as) tools enabling consumers to shop, live, and pay in an increasingly digital and mobile world," said Manasi Narasimhan, vice president, Marketing and Communications, South Asia, Mastercard. Mastercard in February debuted its sonic brand and has integrated its unique piece of music into its advertising and marketing campaigns, as well as events. Narasimhan said that sonic branding will be a three to five year journey and will become an integral part of the brand's identity. In 2017, rival Visa had also launched a sonic brand identity. Both Visa and Mastercard plan to incorporate the sound for digital and physical transactions, in order to signify a secure experience for the customer through sensory branding. "Customers primarily engage with brands though digital means and there is barely any human interface. In this scenario, sound can help to connect customers with the brand on an emotional level," said Rajiv Raja, co-founder of sonic branding company Brandmusiq. Brandmusiq has created sonic identity for brands such as Raymond, Vistara, Myntra, Tata Salt as well as banks such as HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank. The right sound has to be distinctive and evoke a sense of the product or service that it is being associated with. For a bank, trust is more critical than say style, which would be the core concern of an apparel brand. However, across the spectrum of brands that he has worked with, Raja said, the big concern has been to maintain consistency. Given that customers experience the brand across multiple platforms and devices, the brand-sound association has to be uniform. According to Vivek Kumar Singh, co-founder of sound-based payments company ToneTag, aural brand identifiers have gained momentum due to the immense potential in terms of simplicity in generation and manipulation. "Domains which require customised user interaction such as the retail and payment industry are well suited for sound technology helping to personalise customer experience," he said. According to a research paper by the University of Leicester (United Kingdom), brands with music that fit their brand identity are 96 per cent more likely to be recalled than those with non-fit music or no music at all. In the past, the brand-audio connection was largely through jingles. Amul, Nokia, Britannia and many others, Raja pointed out, have used the jingle to create an easily identifiable mnemonic. But sonic branding goes beyond that. "It becomes part of the customer's experience with the brand and is designed according to the brand's personality, background, competition and culture," Raja said. Apart from using music and melody to craft identity, companies are getting innovative with the use of sound in other ways too. Food delivery platform Swiggy, for instance, is asking users to use Instagram voice notes and participate in a contest that has been devised around their messages. Clearly, for brands and customers, every note counts. Companys revenue rises 3-fold to touch $206 million while total cost jumps over 6 times to $500 million. Food delivery and restaurant discovery firm Zomato has posted a three-fold jump in revenues at $206 million in the financial year ended March 31, 2019, though the impressive growth in topline came by splurging more money than before for acquiring new customers. During the period under review, the company saw its total cost rising more than six-fold to $500 million when compared to $80 million in FY18, Zomato said in its short-form annual report, indicating that cost of acquisition of new customers may also have significantly gone up. Most of the losses ($294m) are on account of the food delivery business in India. "We have had tremendous growth aided by promotional marketing spends to acquire new users and be the first-to-market in many cities in India, Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato was quoted in the report. The growth, Zomato said, was driven by the core food business and while at the current pace of growth the company is expected to hit a revenue of $350 million in FY20, a significant improvement given the intense competition that the segment is witnessing at the moment. This year, we hit all of the goals we had set for ourselves out of the park, Goyal added. Zomato which is backed by investors such as Alibaba's Ant Financial, Sequoia, and Glade Brook Capital Partners competes with players such Swiggy, Uber Eats, Ola-owned Foodpanda and Dunzo in the delivery space. The company has raised a total of $755.6 million in funding over 13 rounds, according to data platform Crunchbase. The Gurugram-based companys delivery revenue for FY19 grew four times to $155 million compared to $38 million in FY18. It now accounts for about 75 per cent to the companys total revenue, up from about 55 per cent in FY18. The firm said that it now operates the service in over 200 cities in India, up from 15 cities in FY18; and it made nearly 33 million deliveries in March19. Even though no comparative data on losses were available which the company said would be part of the audited financial to be filed with the Registrar of Companies, one of the biggest sigh of relief could be the improvement in the unit economics of its food delivery business in India. We now lose Rs 25 per delivery, compared to Rs 44 per delivery in March18. "Our last mile cost per delivery is now Rs 65, compared to Rs 86 in March18. "The key driver metric of unit economics - number of deliveries per rider per hour has gone up to 1.4 from 0.9 last year, said the report. Giving examples on how food delivery is creating an entirely new market in India, the Zomato report said that 70 per cent of the companys regular users in Kolhapur had never tried food delivery in their life (even over a phone call) before they started using its platform. The company, the report said, initially started looking at smaller city with to test the model in a small town with just 150,000 people. It was mind-boggling to see the latent potential of that town; and that taught us that small towns in India hold humungous potential, and now, we have set our eyes on launching in 1,000 cities in India, Goyal said in the report. But this has led to another unfounded belief at Zomato - that food delivery in India will be bigger than e-commerce. We will prove it right, or prove ourselves wrong. The online food ordering and delivery market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of more than 45 per cent to reach $11 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) by 2023, according to RedSeer Consulting, a research and advisory firm. Founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008, Zomato claims to be present in over 10,000 cities globally with over 1.4 million active restaurants registered on its platform. The company has around 70 million monthly active users on its platform while it is witnessing 5 million new user registrations and 11 million app installations every month, according to the report. Photograph: Zomato via Twitter IMAGE: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh wave at the supporters during their joint election campaign rally at Deoband in Saharanpur, on Sunday. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday slammed both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress at the first joint rally with the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal in Deoband, leas than a week before voting in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections. "BJP will lose this election because of policies inspired by hatred.. especially their chowkidar campaign... no matter how much the chhote, bade chowkidars try, the BJP will not win," she said. Addressing the rally in the presence of SP president Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Ajit Singh, she said, "The Congress has failed despite ruling for so many years." The BSP chief said, "Our government, instead of giving minimum income support, will give employment to poor people. Indira Gandhi too made a 20-point programme to remove poverty, but was it effective?" She said, "We are silent workers, unlike other parties. Our party performs without making noise, we are silent workers. The Congress too has been making tall claims, haven't they been given enough chances for decades? "They were wiped out from several states. The Nyay scheme is not a stable solution for removing poverty." At the same time, she said the BJP government has been misusing probe agencies. "Even the people from backward communities are suffering... The divisive thought process of these parties are hurting these communities... At the Centre, or state level... reservation issue for these communities was ignored. "These communities are not benefiting from the reservation. They are being exploited. Minorities are also suffering." Mayawati said corruption has increased at every level. "The Congress was tainted by bofors. BJP government is tainted by Rafale... The BJP government has been misusing probe agencies -- CBI, ED - against its rivals. "You don't need to give another chance to them. The parties that have already been given enough chances In the election season, political parties use opinion polls to misguide voters. Do not get swayed," she appealed to the voters. She assured the electorate that if voted to power, farmers will no longer be in debt. "Sugarcane farmers are suffering in UP... their grievances are being ignored amid empty announcements. When our party was in power, we made sure dues of sugarcane farmers were paid," the former chief minister said. IMAGE: Akhilesh and Mayawati with BSP leader S C Mishra during the rally. Mayawati said the BJP's poll promises have still not been fulfilled. "The ground realities can't be ignored. BJP will keep endorsing its hawa-hawai (lofty) schemes till the poll results are announced. Thousands of crores have been wasted... That's taxpayers money... could be used for the poor... "If PM was serious about welfare of poor, they would not have been inaugurating schemes after poll dates were announced... they would have performed in five years of tenure. "In the last budget... whatever announcements were made by centre are nothing but empty poll promises," she said. "Now that BJP is panicking, you should know BJP on its way out... and grand alliance will arrive. After Independence, for a long time Congress and BJP were in power... even in the Congress-ruled states, wrongful practices came to notice... so they eventually lost voter base..." Lok Sabha elections this time will bring mahaparivartan: Akhilesh Accusing the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government of creating more rifts in the society than the British during colonial rule, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said this time, the Lok Sabha elections are to bring a 'mahaparivartan (mega change)'. Referring to the 2014 parliamentary election, the SP chief said, "He (Modi) came as a chaiwala (tea-seller) and we all believed (him) for the sake of 'achche din' and crores of jobs. But now, when elections have come again they say they are chowkidar (watchman)." "This time, we all will together snatch the 'chowki' (seat) of every single chowkidar," he said. Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi coining an acronym 'SARAB' (alcohol) from the initial letters of the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party tie-up, Yadav said, "Our alliance is being termed 'milawat (adulterated) alliance', but those who talk about SARAB are intoxicated by power." He accused the BJP of having forgotten its promises and asserted that the SP-BSP-RLD alliance aims to give the country a new government and a new prime minister. The SP chief stressed that the dreams of socialist thinkers Ram Manohar Lohia and Kanshi Ram will be fulfilled by the alliance. "The coming election is for 'mahaparivartan' (grand change)... this is the alliance of giving a new government and a new PM," he told the gathering. On the prime minister washing the feet of sanitation workers at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, the SP president said, "Everyone saw on TV when feet were being washed, but at the same time, jobs of the minorities and others were washed off." The promise of 'achche din' (good days) has turned out to be 'burey din' (bad days). They (BJP)... brought goods and services tax, which benefitted big businessmen but the small ones remained harassed, he alleged. IMAGE: Crowd of supporters during the joint election campaign rally at Deoband. Taking a dig at the prime minister for making claims of all-round success, Yadav said, "The prime minister is making claims, but statistics prove the country is going backwards in all areas... "They created walls within society, when what was required was that progress be made with the help of schemes." He asked the BJP leaders to resolve never to tell lies, and said, "I have taken the same resolve this 'Navaratri'." "They created more rifts in society than the British," Yadav said, and alleged that the BJP wanted to create rift within the society and end the legacy of former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh. Lamenting that the country's boundaries were "still not safe" and jawans were being killed, the SP chief held the BJP responsible for these. "The coming elections are for bringing change, establishing brotherhood, pulling down the wall of hatred," he said. Asserting that the ruling BJP was afraid of the alliance, Yadav said not a single vote should go in waste and also attacked the Congress for fielding candidates against the alliance. "The policies of the Congress and the BJP are same... The Congress does not want to bring change but rather want to strengthen itself in Uttar Pradesh," he alleged. Lauding the works done by the SP and BSP governments in the state in the areas of road, power, laptop distribution, pension, Yadav said, "Those making tall claims on the power sector must know that the BSP and SP governments had done more work compared to the five years of BJP at the Centre and two years in Uttar Pradesh. Not a single megawatt power has been generated by the BJP." The 'achche din' Modi talked about was his own: RLD chief Meanwhile, RLD chief Ajit Singh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him what he has done in the five years he has been in power. At the joint rally, he said, "What has Prime Minister Modi done in five years? He wasn't talking about your 'achche din', but his own 'achche din'." The BJP came to power in 2014 because of riots as they had no presence in the western part of Uttar Pradesh, Singh claimed. This was the first joint election meeting of the 'mahagathbandhan' in western Uttar Pradesh, parts of which go to polls in the first phase on April 11. The Central Bureau of Investigation has moved the Supreme Court seeking recall of the court's February 5 order staying the arrest of former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar to let the agency put him to custodial interrogation in the Saradha and Rose Valley ponzi scam cases. In its plea to the apex court, the agency said the recall of the order granting Kumar an interim protection from the arrest was necessary 'to unravel the entire gamut of the larger conspiracy in the ponzi scam cases'. The CBI also sought the court's directions to the West Bengal authorities to comply with the court's earlier orders 'in letter and spirit' and not to create any hurdle in the CBI probe or try to 'intimidate, harass and scare the agency officials' probing the cases. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is to hear the CBI's plea on Monday. "Recall the interim protection granted to Rajeev Kumar for no coercive steps, including arrest, granted by this court by order dated February 5, 2019 to enable the CBI to subject him to interrogation in accordance with the law to unravel the entire gamut of larger conspiracy in these ponzi scam cases and its subsequent investigation," the CBI's application said. The agency said it needs to examine Kumar and other police officials to recover the material evidence and to investigate into the acts of omission and commission on the part of Bidhan Nagar police commissionerate and SIT officials in causing concealment of the evidence collected by them during investigation. It said erstwhile Bidhan Nagar Police Commissioner Kumar besides the then deputy commissioner of police (detective department) and other SIT officials did not cooperate with the CBI in investigation and did not help in making available to it all the material evidence in the Ponzi scam cases. The CBI said there were around 270 Ponzi firms operating in West Bengal of which Saradha and Rose Valley groups were the most important ones. It said Saradha group collected around Rs 2,450 crore and even after the scam came to the fore, the Rose valley group managed to collect around Rs 2,536.80 crore in 2013-14 from the public at large. The CBI application said former Bidhan Nagar Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar 'by his inaction or otherwise facilitated Saradha Group to illegally operate and further collect Rs 805.77 crores during 2012-13 and Rose Valley Group to illegally operate and collect Rs 6865.85 crores during 2012-14'. On March 29, the apex court had agreed to hear a CBI plea against mobile service providers Vodafone and Airtel that they were not cooperating with the investigation in Saradha chit fund scam cases. The CBI claimed they were not providing it full call detail records (CDRs) of the scam accused despite repeated requests. The agency had recently filed a status report on Kumar's interrogation in connection with the scam. The apex court had on March 26 termed as 'very very serious' the revelations made by the CBI in its status report relating to Kumar's interrogation. The top court had said it cannot 'close its eyes' if some 'very very serious facts' were disclosed to it and directed the agency to file an application seeking appropriate relief against Kumar, who had earlier headed the state SIT probing the chit fund scam. It had refused to drop the contempt proceedings against the West Bengal director general of police, the chief secretary and Kumar. The apex court is hearing a CBI's plea to initiate contempt of court proceedings against various senior officials of the West Bengal government, accusing them of not cooperating in its probe and tampering with the evidence, including CDRs of key accused and Sardha group CMD Sudipta Sen and Debjani Mukherjee. The court, which had earlier asked the CBI director to file an affidavit giving details of the alleged acts of contempt committed by the West Bengal police officials and others in the case, had perused the CBI director's reply and the fresh status report, pertaining to quizzing of Kumar. The apex court had said the allegations made by the CBI were serious enough and it was an 'obligation' on the part of the agency to disclose full details of the alleged contempt committed by the then police commissioner. It had questioned the CBI for the delay in moving the apex court when the agency allegedly noticed the tampering of electronic evidence in June 2018. The probe agency came out with a contempt petition after the February 3 incident in which the CBI sleuths, who had gone to probe Kumar at his residence, were taken into custody and manhandled by the West Bengal Police. The apex court had taken note of the February 3 incident in which top officers of the state police allegedly sat with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on dharna. IMAGE: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, and BSP leader S C Mishra at a joint election campaign rally at Deoband in Saharanpur, on Sunday. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo The election speech of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati at Deoband on Sunday where she called upon Muslims to vote for the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance, and not for the Congress party, has come under the scanner of the Election Commission. The office of Chief Electoral Officer Lakku Venkateshwarlu in Lucknow is believed to have taken cognisance of Mayawati's speech where 'she appealed to Muslim voters to vote for the BSP-SP alliance and not for the Congress, which cannot fight the BJP'. "The CEO has sought a report in this regard from the local administration," said official sources. Addressing a public rally at Saharanpur district Deoband town earlier in the day, Mayawati said: "I appeal to Muslims that the Congress is not capable of defeating the BJP." "Only the alliance parties are capable of doing it. Congress does not want the alliance to win. I appeal to Muslims that vote for alliance only. Do not vote for the Congress," she said. Samajwadi Party president and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was also present in the rally, the first one jointly addressed by BSP-SP leaders. Pakistan has 'reliable intelligence' that India is planning to attack again between April 16 and 20, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday, amid tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack. India rejected Qureshi's remarks as irresponsible and preposterous. "India rejects irresponsible statement by Pakistan foreign minister with objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region. "This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pak-based terrorists to undertake terror attack in India," the ministry of external affairs said. "Pakistan has been advised to use established diplomatic and DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) channels to share actionable and credible intelligence it has about terror attacks. "India reserves the right to respond firmly and decisively to cross border terrorist attack," MEA said in response to Qureshi's statements. Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 41 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district in February. Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, in Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. Addressing a press conference in his home town of Multan, Qureshi said the government had 'reliable intelligence that India is devising a new plan'. "A new mishap could be staged...And its purpose will be to justify their [India's] offensive against Pakistan and to increase diplomatic pressure against Islamabad," he alleged. "If it happens, you can imagine the impact of the occurrence on the peace and stability of the region. According to our information, the action could be taken between 16-20 April," Qureshi said, adding that preparations were being made for the attack against Pakistan. The foreign minister said Pakistan had already briefed the United Nations Security Council's permanent members over the issue and stated Islamabad's apprehensions. "We want the international community to take notice of this irresponsible behaviour and reprimand them [India] for taking this route," he said. He said the Indian action would have impact on peace and stability of the region. The foreign minister also criticised the global community for keeping silent when India violated Pakistan's territory on February 26. However, Qureshi's remarks were not taken seriously by the Opposition. The Pakistan People's Party accused the government of using war threat by India to hide its failures. "The government has failed to deliver and now using the threat of war by India to distract public attention from issues faced by the people," PPP leader Nafeesa Shah said. All photographs: Umar Ganie for Rediff.com IMAGE: A soldier stops vehicles on the first day of two-day per week ban on civilian vehicles on Jammu-Srinagar highway on Sunday. Nearly 2,000 civilian vehicles, which were left stranded on Jammu-Srinagar national highway following a massive landslide, were cleared as the two-day per week ban on movement of civilian vehicles on the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with rest of the country came into effect on Sunday, officials said. The governor administration last week announced a ban on civilian traffic on the 270-km highway on Sundays and Wednesdays to facilitate safe passage of security convoys till May 31, a decision which was criticised as 'anti-people' and 'undemocratic' by almost all political parties and cross-section of the society including business community in the valley. IMAGE: Army, police and CRPF personnel have been deployed at all intersections leading to the highway to ensure that civilian traffic does not interfere with movement of convoys of security forces, officials said. The decision comes in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack, besides another attempt to target a Central Reserve Police Force convoy with a car bomb on the highway near Banihal in Ramban district on March 30. A massive landslide blocked the highway near Anokhi fall in Ramban district on Saturday afternoon, leaving nearly 2,000 Jammu-bound vehicles stranded. IMAGE: Concertina wires and barricades have been put on roads connecting the highway in order to prevent the movement of civilian vehicles. "The highway was cleared of the debris around 3 am after hectic 14-hour long operation and accordingly, the stranded vehicles were allowed to move towards Jammu," Deputy Superintendent of Police, traffic (National Highway, Ramban), Suresh Sharma told PTI. He said it was decided that the stranded civilian vehicles, both trucks and passenger vehicles, would be cleared first before the highway is closed for the civilian traffic to ensure smooth passage of the security convoys. IMAGE: Army convoy moves on the highway. However, the officer said no fresh civilian traffic was allowed either from Srinagar or Jammu since this morning in view of the restrictions which are in force from 4 am to 5 pm. "The security convoys started moving from both sides to reach their destinations," Sharma said. Army, police and CRPF personnel have been deployed at all intersections leading to the highway to ensure that civilian traffic does not interfere with movement of convoys of security forces, officials said. Amid public outrage against the curbs, the authorities earlier clarified that patients, students, tourists and others in emergency will be allowed to move after scrutiny during the restrictions. IMAGE: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah visits the highway to take part in a protest. Ban causes inconvenience to civilians Ghulam Mohammad Bhat started off from his home in Srinagar to reach a hospital where his daughter is admitted, but cannot find any means of transport to get there due to the ban on civilian traffic on the highway. "I have been walking for the past 15 minutes, but there is no public transport in sight. I have to reach JVC hospital (SKIMS Medical College and Hospital, Bemina), where my daughter is admitted," Bhat told PTI near Tengpora bridge as he braced himself for another hour of walk. Concertina wires and barricades have been put on roads connecting the highway in order to prevent the movement of civilian vehicles. The Army, police and CRPF personnel have been deployed in strength to ensure that the ban in implemented in letter and spirit. However, the scale of inconvenience caused by the ban order has just started to come to the fore as dozens of people can be seen at each intersection, pleading the security forces to allow them to cross to the other side of the highway. IMAGE: People's Democratic Party members protest on the highway. There were people who had patients in the vehicles and wanted to take them to hospitals or parents accompanying their children on way to tuition ahead of the various competitive exams due next month. A groom from Anantnag district, who got married in Doda district on other side of the Jawahar Tunnel, had to obtain permission from the authorities concerned to take his wedding entourage to the bride's home. Danish Ali, a resident of New Qazibagh in Anantnag, got the permission for himself and his 12 companions to travel on the highway on Saturday and Sunday, but only after the entourage was put to proper frisking and security check. Pained by the scenes, a urologist decided to cycle his way to his hospital instead of travelling in an ambulance, which have been exempted from this ban order. "I decided to use the cycle so that I can feel the pain of the people, what they are going through because of this order. I am not going to get into arguments with anyone if I am stopped. I will change my way and pedal on," Dr Umar said. IMAGE: The highway bears a deserted look. Umar said roads were the lifeline of any place and shutting them down meant shutting down the city, state or the country. Politicians were quick to lambast the ban order, with former chief minister Omar Abdullah terming it mindless. 'Driving to Uri I'm getting to see first hand the extent of disruption and inconvenience that is being caused to people because of the mindless highway closure order that is in place today,' Abdullah tweeted. People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said her party would not allow Kashmir to be turned into an 'open air prison'. 'This is Kashmir, not Palestine. We wont allow you to turn our beloved land into an open air prison. Jis Kashmir ko khoon say seencha, woh Kashmir humara hai (the Kashmir we have nourished by our blood, is ours),' Mufti tweeted. People's Conference chairman Sajad Lone said the highway ban was turning into a 'humanitarian disaster'. 'Flooded will (with) calls from across the state. People in dire need to travel in order to tend to their day to day needs of survival stuck in a state of helplessness. @jandkgovernor urgently needs to scrap the inhuman order,' Lone tweeted. Several PDP leaders, led by former MLA Sonawar Mohammad Ashraf Mir, tried to defy the ban order by travelling on the highway, but were stopped by police at the Athwajan crossing. "People are being harassed.... This is terrorism by the governor's administration to ban movement of people two days every week," Mir told reporters. TORRINGTON The lawyer for a former social worker who filed discrimination and other complaints against the school district and the educational consortium EdAdvance is calling on the state to develop corrective action plans to reduce alleged racial discrimination and to continue to investigate claims students are secluded. In a letter to state Department of Education Special Education Bureau Chief Bryan Klimkiewicz, attorney Andrew A. Feinstein, who represents a former EdAdvance social worker, Heather LaSelle, alleges a recent state report entirely fails to comment on the quality of educational programming provided by EdAdvance, failed to pursue two investigative opportunities that would have demonstrated the widespread and improper use of restraint and seclusion at ACCESS North and at TAP, Torrington programs and that a second report shows a need to develop corrective action plans to reduce discrimination. The state Department of Education received Feinsteins letter, and We will have a conversation, about the concerns listed in it, agency spokesman Peter Yazbak said. The state agency would then decide if it would need to further address Feinsteins requests. The review by the state on the question of alleged discrimination within the programs would be reviewed by Dr. Adrian Wood, a state education consultant, Yazbak said. The issue of the quality of educational programming would be considered by Klimkiewicz, according to Yazbak. The alleged lack of a proper investigation of the use of restraint and seclusion, claimed in Feinsteins letter, would likely be considered by the bureau as well, Yazbak said. He added that it would be this week when a confirmation on that action would be available. Yazbak said the Education Department would conduct periodic check-ins with the district as it nears a June 1 deadline to make corrective actions ordered by the state. The state Education Department report focused on the operations of EdAdvance in response to a complaint filed by the educational consortiums former social worker, LaSelle. Superintendent of Schools Susan M. Lubomski said on Friday, that t he District received a copy of the State Departments findings and corrective actions with respect to a complaint filed by a former EdAdvance employee in October 2018. Lubomksi noted that The District is developing a plan to address and comply with all of the States corrective actions. The Departments findings were limited to procedural issues which occurred over a very brief period of time when the District and EdAdvance were establishing this new program, according to Lubomski. She added that the district will implement the recommendations of the report. The district is establishing a plan to schedule the PPTs and training that are in response to the States corrective action. The district will address all recommendations of the report by the mandated date of June 1, Lubomski said. We will continue to train administrators and staff on special education matters and mandates during the remainder of this year and throughout next year, as appropriate. EdAdvance was first hired by the school district in 2017 to provide an educational program consistent with a Students IEP (individual education program)..., the state report shows. Twelve Torrington School District students attended classes, state documents show, at a program called Access North at 57 Forest Court. Last summer, administrators in the Torrington School District came to the belief that the district was not meeting the needs of (special education) students in classes taught at the middle and high schools, according to the state report. The report also notes that the District made a decision in the summer of 2018 to cease operating the special education classes, called LINKS, at the high school. School district administrators and EdAdvance met in April 2018 the report states, to discuss how to better meet the educational needs of students. The result of the meetings was an agreement to pay EdAdvance $400,000 annually to establish an alternate program for up to 40 middle and high school students. LaSelle, who worked for the state Department of Children and Families for more than a decade, filed her complaint about alleged seclusion and discrimination, and other issues, within three months of being hired to supervise the two programs with EdAdvance that are cited in her affidavit: ACCESS North, and the Torrington Alternative Program, or TAP, which are located at the same site. Reportedly, the charge to Torrington for each student placed at the ANP (ACCESS North) is $50,000 per year, and $10,000 annually for each TAP student, according to the second report, issued by states education departments Turnaround Office. The states investigation found that there was no support to find that the EdAdvance physically restrained or secluded students. The report noted that no such actions were undertaken from the beginning of the school year through Oct. 18, 2018. Feinstein, however, said last week that he has evidence that there were 26 entries between September and Thanksgiving, (2018) with time in the reflection room listed as between 5 and 125 minutes. In his letter to Klimkiewicz, Feinstein wrote of, the Reflection Room, which is a room that meets the statutory definition of a seclusion. The log shows the student was placed in the room as early as 8:05 a.m., less than an hour after the starting time of classes. Reasons given for the use of the reflection room during the dates between early September to late November, according to the log, range from having difficulty managing anger, to verbally aggressive to student in the cafeteria. The log, he wrote, shows numerous cases of seclusion, involving extended time in seclusion and repeated seclusions of the same student. Second, parents and students at both programs have reported to us frightening instances of both restraint and seclusion. Yet, students and parents were not interviewed. Indeed, some parents who called the investigators were turned away without an interview. This part of the investigation needs to be redone in a competent manner. A second report, issued by states education departments Turnaround Office, strongly recommends corrective actions in the areas of policy and procedure; professional learning and growth; and practice, including to: Identify and schedule professional learning to teach administration, staff and students the merit of inclusion and diversity; and importance of developing and implementing practices, systems and policies in multi-racial, cross-cultural settings that uphold the dignity and worth of all people. The report recommends identifying resources and scheduling: school climate and restorative practices trainings, professional learning to foster a willingness and disposition in administration, staff and students to understand biases and assumptions; and eliminate the injurious effects of bias and racial insensitivity which impede rapport building and the creation of educational spaces where all students feel safe, and are treated fairly and respectfully, and professional learning to teach administration, staff and students the merit of inclusion and diversity; and importance of developing and implementing practices, systems and policies in multi-racial, cross-cultural settings that uphold the dignity and worth of all people. However, in his letter, Feinstein says that Under federal regulations and state law, the State Department of Education needs to create corrective action plans to end instances of disproportionality. The Bureau of Special Education needs to take (the) report and develop corrective action plans for both EdAdvance and Torrington to reduce the rampant racial discrimination documented, Feinstein wrote. The recommendation from the Turnaround office was made after investigators learned that there was an incident with a student wherein a racial slur was used. Access North Principal Jody Lambert told investigators that she was not threatened by an angry White male, who called her the n-word and made a vulgar comment to her. According to the states report, Lambert told investigators that she did see an African American male student with a widely known severe trauma historyas a threat because he was African American and tall. Lambert acknowledged her prejudice and unfairness which caused her to view (the African American) student as a threat rather than a traumatized child. She also indicated that they now have a better relationship, the report said. Lambert is not the only (Access North) staff member who shared the belief that there are acceptable ways to use the n-word. The example given was that because African American students use the word in natural conversations with each other it is part of their culture. State investigators also noted that a large Dont Tread on Me Flag was observed covering a window in a classroom at 57 Forest Court. The phrase was written under the image of a rattle snake and emblazoned on a yellow flag known as the Gadsden flag which some view as emblematic of hate-speech intended to frighten and intimidate. It was recommended by members of the (state) Team that Access North) remove the flag. The state investigation also showed that many of the Planning and Placement Team meetings conducted in August did not include a regular education teacher of the Student... Instead an administrator from the EdAdvance program was identified as filling in the role of the Students regular special education teacher. The administrator told the state investigators that she had no knowledge of the Students educational needs when some of these PPT meetings began. The complainant (LaSelle) was in attendance at many of these meetings. In many cases, the report continued, PPT members did not have access to any Student information prior to the meeting and had limited access to the Students educational records. Conditions set by the state board require that EdAdvance, under the auspices of the Torrington School District, require the school district to convene legally compliant planning and placement team (PPT) meetings by June 1 with all students who were enrolled in two alternative education programs, TAP and Access North from Aug. 1 to Oct. 30, 2018. In the letter to Klimkiewicz, Feinstein wrote that the states required corrective actions include the provision of compensatory education for all students placed at ACCESS/Access North by Torrington at PPT meetings held in August 2018. Yet the report provides no blueprint for how this compensatory education is going to be crafted or delivered. Moreover, this corrective action order places parents in the position of exchanging the legal rights of their children for a benefit offered by Torrington. Frankly, most parents need legal advice in order to determine whether the compensatory education offered by Torrington is sufficient to waive their claims. This situation is untenable. In his response to the state findings, Feinstein also wrote that the TAP program fell far short of meeting state standards, noting that the per pupil cost of $10,000.. is only 60 percent of the general per pupil expenditure of $16,600. ...It is impossible to argue that the students with serious needs in the TAP program received an education program meeting, the state eduction departments standards, he said. LaSelle, through her attorney, provided a statement on the states findings to the Register Citizen. She wrote I do not want to believe that educators enter the field to purposely discriminate, neglect or abuse children. Instead, many educators do not know that they do not know how to deal with children who have experienced significant trauma. In schools, especially therapeutic programs, children enter each day with the scars of trauma and compensating with significant survival skills and resilience. Educators often do not understand how a trauma-informed approach would work.... Torrington is keenly aware their educators lacked relationship building and trauma informed treatment skills they need. They did reach out to me in August 2018, to request an in-service training for the entire district. I plan to continue to advocate on a statewide level to bring attention to disproportionality in school services and disciplinary measures, to eliminating seclusion and restraint in all schools, to create transparency in the education process, to address the Medicaid fraud rampantly occurring in districts across the state, and to ensure children and families receive the supports and services they deserve. These reports about Torrington and EdAdvance highlight the significant work still to be done throughout the State. I hope these reports will spur new attention to these issues, LaSelle wrote. WINSTED Natalia Brown loves animals. She has four dogs, a cat, turtles and fish. At home, she lavishes that love on her pets. Brown, 15, struggles with anxiety and panic, and knows the value of a pets presence to ease her mind. As a child, she realized that her dogs could help her calm down when she felt afraid, and now wants to be a pet therapist, providing comfort to others who suffer from the same problems. My dogs help me, therapeutically, Brown said. They make me happy. I love them so much. When Im having a bad day, I feel better as soon as I see my dogs. I forget everything that was bothering me. At Northwest Region 7 High School, Brown, a sophomore, is enrolled in the vocational agricultural program and is pursuing studies in animal care. In her civics class, her teacher, William Sullivan, encouraged her to choose a long-term project that would use her knowledge of animals to make a difference. It wasnt difficult for her to come up with a theme, Making a Change, and to focus her project on helping animals in need. She began writing a research paper on the benefits of animal ownership and how to treat them better, she said. But the idea of helping dogs and cats soon became about more than getting a good grade. She was serious about making a change. Since February, Brown has devoted her time to creating fundraisers for a number of pet rescue organizations including For the Love of Jack, an organization that helps pet owners who cant afford to pay for their pets care; Harwintons animal control shelter and Desmonds Army, an animal advocacy organization. Brown began setting up donation boxes to collect pet food, toys and treats, at local businesses including Dollar General in Barkhamsted, PetValu, TD Bank branches in the Winsted-Torrington area, Tractor Supply, Grooming by Amy in Winsted, and Friends of Main Streets office in Winsted. The boxes are filling up, and she has been able to deliver the collected supplies to those animal welfare organizations. She placed posters and fliers around town, urging residents to make a donation. It was just something I felt really strong about, Brown said. My plan was and is to help animals who need help, and to help families who cant afford to take care of their pets. I got help from For the Love of Jack when one of my dogs got sick, Brown said. They helped us with our vet bill, and they helped us take care of her. I know there are other people who need help too. The project has grown since February. Bake sales have netted $400, and she has donated her collected funds, food and toys to the shelters and the animal aid groups. Other students at Region 7 have joined her efforts. Her plans havent stopped there either. I want to create an animal food pantry, so people can come and get food if they need it, or the shelters can get food, Brown said. Ive held some bake sales for For the Love of Jack, and I went on WAPJ (Torringtons local radio station) to talk about it. My friends are helping me, and so is my mom. Brown also received a Kindness in Motion grant from the high school, and is using it to promote her project. Her mother, Pam Brown, is exceedingly proud of her daughter. The youth are our future, she said. Natalias trying very hard to make a difference and shes doing it. Im so proud of her. Brown says she is planning a fundraiser in June featuring Karen Kilmartin, a psychic medium from Torrington, to raise more money for the shelters. The event is set for June 5 at 7 p.m., for $20 per person. Details are to be announced. The young woman probably wont stop helping once her civics project is completed. I know how much animals mean to me and how much they help me, she said. I want to do the same thing for them. To donate to Natalia Browns collection drive, contact Pam Brown at 860-387-1418, or email pambrown5877@gmail.com. A former deputy culture minister of Russia has been charged with organizing a criminal network in the embezzlement of money designated for St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum. The Russian Investigative Committee said on April 7 that it had served Grigory Pirumov the previous day with criminal charges related to fraud of some 450 million rubles ($6.9 million) in funds slated for the construction of a new depository and other works at the world-famous art gallery. Pirumov's attorney, Fyodor Kupriyanov, told RIA Novosti on April 6 that his client, who is in detention, had been charged under Article 210 of Russia's Criminal Code. Pirumov, 56, has been detained in corruption cases before and was given a 1 1/2 year prison sentence for fraud in 2017. Russian officials say Pirumov was involved in the fraudulent activity with Nikita Kolesnikov of the Rospan group and the Culture Ministry's former property management department director, Boris Mazo. Mazo is not in Russia and is on an international wanted list. Russian investigators say Pirumov, Mazo, and Kolesnikov secured government funds with no intention of using the money for Hermitage construction works and instead transferred money to their own companies, TASS reported. Based on reporting by TASS and RIA Novosti Iranian officials have responded angrily to U.S. media reports that the United States will soon designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization. IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari reacted to the reports on April 7 by declaring the U.S. military would lose the security it enjoys in the region if Washington carried through with the designation. "With this stupidity, the American army and security forces will no longer have today's calm in the West Asia region," Jafari was quoted as saying by the IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency. Earlier, Iranian deputies said they will take reciprocal action against the United States if Washington lists the IRGC as a terrorist group. "We will answer any action taken against [the IRGC] with a reciprocal action," said a statement signed by 255 of the 290 Iranian parliament members, the state news agency IRNA reported on April 7. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on April 7 that U.S. officials aiming to designate the IRGC as a terrorist group wanted to "drag the U.S. into a quagmire" on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO [foreign terrorist organization] of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region. In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf," Zarif wrote on his Twitter account. "@realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster." U.S. media are reporting that the United States will soon designate the IRGC a "foreign terrorist organization," which would be the first time Washington has given that label to the military unit of another country. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, citing U.S. officials, reported on April 5 that Washington could add the IRGC to its Foreign Terrorist Organizations list as early as April 8. Such a move has been speculated upon for several years. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has promoted the change by Washington as part of a tougher stance toward Iran by the administration of President Donald Trump. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but the organization as a whole is not. "So the leaders of America, who themselves are the creators and supporters of terrorists in the [Middle East] region, will regret this inappropriate and idiotic action," the parliament deputies' statement read. IRGC commander Jafari also warned in 2017 that if the Trump administration designated the IRGC a terror group "then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world." The IRGC -- which has forces totaling some 100,000 personnel -- was created after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi'ite system of clerical rule and is Iran's most powerful security organization, controlling big portions of the Iranian economy while wielding strong political influence. It also runs Tehran's ballistic-missile program, according to the Congressional Research Service. With reporting by Reuters American Brian Swank and his Iranian fiance, Mehraneh, say they can't wait to start a life together. Their courtship began when they met and fell in love four years ago, when Mehraneh was working on her PhD in landscape architecture at a campus of The State University of New York where Brian was studying, too. But there is no telling when or where it might end. Forced to return to her native Iran when her J-1 visa ran out in 2016 -- a situation that Brian calls "the most heartbreaking experience" of his life -- she remains barred from seeing him in the United States as they appeal for a waiver to the Trump administration's travel ban on Iranians and a handful of other nationals. Brian is meanwhile advised to stay out of Iran for what the U.S. State Department describes as a "risk of arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens." So, seemingly trapped between a recently reintensified rift between Washington and Tehran and their dedication to overcoming their unforeseen "hardship," they send photos to mark birthdays, stay up late nights for Facetime, and occasionally splurge to meet up in far-off countries that accept Iranian visitors visa-free. "We're not political people, but we've become the victims of political problems between the two countries," Mehraneh tells RFE/RL. They are still awaiting word from U.S. authorities about the fate of Mehraneh's application in July 2017 for a so-called fiance visa to move to the United States to start a life with Brian. Thousands Of Cases Mehraneh's is one of the tens of thousands of requests for a waiver since President Donald Trump issued his first U.S. travel ban soon after taking office in January 2017. Court challenges and an administration rethink spelled doom for the first two blacklists, before the current ban targeted the nationals of five countries with overwhelmingly Muslim populations -- Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen -- as well as North Korea and Venezuela, citing U.S. security concerns. Trump has said that the ban is aimed at "keeping bad people (with bad intentions) out of the country." Waivers are rare. Over the first 11 months of the travel ban's full implementation, just 6 percent of visa applicants from blacklisted countries -- or 2,216 visa applicants out of nearly 38,000 -- were granted waivers, Reuters reported on April 4. As part of her application for the fiancee waiver, Mehraneh traveled to Abu Dhabi last year for an interviewed at the U.S. consulate there. It's now been more than eight months, she says, and "we don't even know when we will hear back." Following a congressional inquiry, the consulate said in a January 21 letter that Mehraneh's case is "undergoing administrative processing in order to qualify for a waiver under Presidential Proclamation 9645." U.S. immigration lawyer Leila Mansouri tells RFE/RL that she's heard of just one or two cases of fiance visas being granted since the new U.S. ban went into effect. "The [administrative processing] was taking an average of 10-14 months before the travel ban, which was already a long time, and we were pleading with the State Department at that time to improve it," Mansouri says. "But now it seems no end is in sight." 'There's A Misconception' The United States has labeled Iran a "state sponsor of terrorism" since 1984, although it is unclear what effect, if any, such a designation has on specific cases. U.S. officials have said the countries affected by Trump's travel ban don't share enough information to prove that their citizens are not a threat to the United States. Brian counters that Mehraneh was vetted in the past and has proven she is not a threat. The situation is "extremely stressful, very frustrating, and depressing," he says. "I feel like my freedom is being robbed from me that I can't be with a loved one; I can't bring the person I love more than anything who's proven not to be a threat," he says. Lawyer Mansouri says tens of thousands of people are affected by the travel ban, including thousands of couples. "I have been contacted by thousands of people since the first travel ban was put in place," she says. "There are Telegram groups of hundreds of students and other visa categories -- stuck." Brian and Mehraneh feel lucky to have been able to meet up in places like Malyasia and Georgia, where Iranians can travel without a visa. But they say such trips put a strain on their finances. More than eight time zones apart, Mehraneh says that over the past three years she's had to wake up in the middle of the night to be able to Facetime with Brian before he heads to work. But the occasional trips and the virtual contacts are not enough. "We're missing so many occasions, for example we haven't been able to celebrate Nowruz together," she says of the Persian New Year celebrated on March 21. Alluding to the State Department's travel warning for U.S. citizens considering a trip to Iran, Brian suggests that many people may not realize the suffering that the ban causes for people like him. "I think there's a misconception of who is affected by this. A lot of Americans don't realize that it's their fellow Americans who are [also] affected and that essentially, it's ruining our lives." Mehraneh says she hasn't been able to put the travel ban out of her mind for years. "I'm thinking about it every day," she says. "I ask myself, 'What am I going to do if [I get no visa]?' I'm trying to find solutions. But there is none." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) President Rodrigo Duterte accused heads of investigative journalism groups for pursuing stories in exchange for money, amid a news outfit's series of reports on "spikes" in his family's wealth and data on their business interests. "Makita mo 'yung utak ng mga investigative journalism kaya Pera-pera lang. Binabayaran 'yan kung ganun kalaki. Pati nung lawyering ko," Duterte said at the 25th National Federation of the Motorcycle Clubs of the Philippines (NFMCP) Annual National Convention. [Translation:The brains behind investigative journalists ... They're paid hacks. If the story is that big, they are paid -- including my lawyering.] The series of reports conducted by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) found the President, his daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, and former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte had submitted "token or opaque data" on their business interests which they are required to reveal in the Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs). The reports, released from April 3 to 5, found that Sara Duterte-Carpio's law firm with her husband Atty. Manases Carpio was not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission despite being in business for 10 years. PCIJ also said the three Dutertes saw "spikes" in wealth while in public office, adding that they have interests and engagements in at least 23 corporate entities. "Eh ngayon, tinitira kami ng mga anak ko. All about lawyering. Ano ba naman pakialam nila na what happened to my law office," Duterte said. "We just don't know but alam mo itong mga p***** i** 'to, baka akala nila sa gobyerno ka, wala ka ng --- magnakaw." [Translation: And now, me and my children are being attacked. All about lawyering? Why should they care about what happened to my law office? We don't know but these sons of ******* they think that if you're in government, you have nothing to do but steal.] The President added that whatever money is earned outside government is none of the public's business. "Huwag na kami. Kasi kami what we earned outside is none of your business actually. 'Yung ano na may mga negosyo kami, may mga law office kami. What a g***** s***," he said. [Translation: No need to know about us. What we earned outside is none of your business actually. The fact that we have a business, a law office.] He said he does not care about the reports as long as those do not involve public funds, and then he credited all his wealth from his mother, Soledad Duterte. "P***** i** ninyo. Hoy, 'yung mga dilaw, all the time I was with my mother. Maski pa noong mayor na ako, ang nagpapakain sa akin nanay ko. 'Yung nanay ko ang may pera. 'Yun ang nanay ko nag-iwan ng pera sa amin. Pero kung magkano, eh bakit sabihin ko sa inyo?" he said. [Translation:You sons of *****. Those yellows, all the time I was with my mother. Even that time when I was mayor, my mother was the one who fed me. My mother was the one who had money. My mother left us money. But as for how much, why would I even disclose it to you?] In a tweet, however, the PCIJ said the report was a matter of public concern. "Public office is a public trust. How officials comply fully with the laws or don't, whether they file 'truthful and complete' SALNs - every citizen's business," the tweet read. The news outfit added it gave the three Dutertes two letters in the past five months to comment on the story's findings, but the group claimed they have yet to issue a reply. The news firm also replied to Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo's claim that the timing of its report's release is suspect, attaching its requests for response. "'Suspicious timing,' Mr Panelo? You knew about PCIJ's request letters for comment sent in Oct 2018 and Jan 2019 by courier, fax, and email. You even referred the letters to ES Medialdea, on Feb. 28, 2019," it said in an earlier tweet. Thousands of protesters against Montenegro's government marched in the streets of the capital, Podgorica, for an eighth straight Saturday on April 6. The demonstrators are demanding the resignation of the nation's top government and judiciary officials -- and also the management of the country's public radio and television broadcaster, RTCG. The rallies started after a former key ally of President Milo Djukanovic accused him and his ruling Democratic Party of Socialists of improper financial dealings and corruption. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in the April 9 national election. Netanyahu was asked by Israeli Channel 12 News on April 6 why he had not annexed large West Bank settlements, as Israel did without international recognition in east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both captured in war in 1967. "Who says we won't do it? We are on the way, and we are discussing it," Netanyahu said. "You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage -- the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend [Israeli] sovereignty, and I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements." Palestinian leaders reacted with anger to Netanyahus comments. "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administration's support and endorsement of Israel's violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. Palestinians seek to establish their state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, all captured by Israel in 1967. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and withdrawn from Gaza. The West Bank is under Israeli military occupation, although Palestinians have limited self-rule. Palestinians consider the settlements to be illegal under Geneva conventions that ban settling on territory captured in war. Israel disputes this, citing security needs and biblical, historical, and political connections to the land. An estimated 400,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, along with 2.9 million Palestinians. Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and dpa A survivor of a Novichok poisoning in England last year has met with the Russian ambassador to Britain to ask questions about Russia's involvement in the string of poisonings that killed one and left four others seriously ill. Charlie Rowley -- whose girlfriend Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to the nerve agent -- met with Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Yakovenko in London on April 6. Rowley said he went to the Russian Embassy "to ask them 'Why did your country kill my girlfriend?' but I didn't really get any answers," he told the Sunday Mirror newspaper, which arranged the meeting. "I just got Russian propaganda," he said. Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4, 2018, and it was later discovered they had been exposed to Novichok. They both recovered. Three months later, Rowley found a wrapped bottle of perfume in a park in the town of Amesbury and gave it to Sturgess, who became seriously ill after spraying it on herself. The bottle was found to be filled with Novichok. Rowley had also been exposed. Sturgess died in hospital several days later and Rowley recovered after spending 10 days in a coma. He still has serious health problems from the exposure. In September, British authorities said they had enough evidence to charge two Russians -- known by presumed aliases Aleksandr Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov -- with various crimes including conspiracy to commit murder. Scotland Yard accused them of being Russian military intelligence (GRU) officers sent to Britain to assassinate Sergei Skripal. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the incident. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview that the two suspects were civilians who went to England as tourists. The two men said in an interview with Russian broadcaster RT they went to Britain to see the Salisbury Cathedral and famous nearby monument Stonehenge, which they said they didn't visit because of bad weather. "I liked the ambassador, but I thought some of what he said trying to justify Russia not being responsible was ridiculous," said Rowley. "The ambassador kept saying the substance definitely wasnt the Novichok [the Russians] had made because if it was it would have killed everyone." With reporting by dpa and the BBC Antigovernment protests were held in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, for the 18th week in a row, with the latest demonstration marked by a minute of silence to honor victims of the 1941 World War II bombing of the capital. Protesters gathered on April 6 in front of the main government building, then marched toward the city hall, where they erected barricades from material collected from construction sites in the city center. Serbs have been taking to the streets of Belgrade and elsewhere in protest against what they say is President Aleksandar Vucic's autocratic rule and demanding press freedom and fair elections. Vucic has said he is not intimidated by the antigovernment protesters and repeatedly described their leaders as "fascists, hooligans, and thieves." "I'm their target as I seek Serbia's political consolidation and economic development," he said after a previous protest. "There will be no more violence," Vucic said. "Serbia is a democratic country, a country of law and order and Serbia will know how to respond." In the latest demonstration, opposition leaders went to TV Pink headquarters, which many critics see as a key pro-government media outlet. Protest leaders laid a wreath at the station in the memory of slain Kosovar Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic, who was shot dead in January 2018 as he arrived at his party office in Mitrovica, a town bitterly divided between Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs. After Kosovo gained independence from Serbia in 2008, Ivanovic became known as a relative moderate in favor of dialogue and compromise with Kosovar Albanians and one of the chief interlocutors for international organizations seeking to bring stability and the rule of law. Before Ivanovic was slain, TV Pink broadcast programs that critics said unfairly portrayed Ivanovic in a negative manner. That followed a protest on March 16, when dozens of demonstrators led by far-right opposition politician Bosko Obradovic broke into the headquarters of state broadcaster RTS demanding to be allowed on the air to address the nation. Their demand was not met, and they were eventually driven out of the building by police, with at least 18 people being arrested. The protesters have been a diverse group, with many pressing individual demands, and include leaders from the Alliance for Serbia, a loose grouping of about 30 parties and movements. Protest participants have over the past two years been made up of people from all sides of the political spectrum liberals, right-wingers, pro-West, pro-Russia, and pro-Europe supporters. Protest organizers have resisted attempts by some far-right opposition politicians to take control of the demonstrations. With reporting by BalkanInsight and AFP Thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of Serbia's top officials marched in the streets of Belgrade for an 18th straight Saturday on April 6. A new target of the protests was the privately owned Pink television station, which the demonstrators accused of pro-government reporting. A commemoration of the slain Kosovar Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic was also held. The protests were joined by university students who initially set off on a separate march. gettyimagesbank Bank CEOs enhance communication with customers, employees By Lee Kyung-min Building a close rapport with key stakeholders is emerging as the new norm among CEOs at banks and other financial companies. With the advent of the digital era calling for a new corporate culture, they are trying to reinvent their relations with customers and employees as well as shareholders through direct communication. Shinhan Bank CEO Jin Ok-dong invited 300 valued customers in Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province to a hotel in Seoul for a breakfast meeting April 2. The invitation extended in appreciation of their years of loyalty was the first official move taken by Jin who was inaugurated March 26. Listening to the voices of customers is one of the key values Jin is placing top priority on to survive and continue to win customers' hearts and minds. Thoughts exchanged at the meeting will be shared with customers nationwide this month during which he will visit major cities to deliver his thanks in person and listen to their concerns. KEB Hana Bank CEO Ji Sung-kyoo, center, proposes a toast with young workers at a friendly get-together at the bank's headquarters in Seoul, April 1. Courtesy of KEB Hana Bank By Jhoo Dong-chan A cutthroat race to acquire two Lotte Group financial units has begun in earnest as the final bidding for the two firms is about two weeks away. Hana Financial Group, Hanwha Group, MBK Partners, Hahn & Company and IMM Private Equity are finalists in the Lotte Card bid. For the Lotte Insurance bid, MBK Partners, Hahn & Company, JKL Partners and the Taiwanese Fubon Group are on the shortlist. Citigroup Global Markets Korea Securities is managing the sales of the units, and recently sent a letter to the firms regarding the timetable for the bid which will take place April 19. Lotte Group is said to want at least 1.5 trillion won ($1.31 billion) for Lotte Card and 500 billion won for Lotte Insurance. "Lotte Card has enjoyed a synergy effect with the group's other retailer units through various promotional events," Lotte Group said. Lotte Group's headquarters in Seoul. / Yonhap Ugandan police said on Sunday they had rescued an American woman and her driver who had been kidnapped by gunmen in a national park. The two are in good health and in the safe hands of security officials, police said in a Twitter update. Although authorities provided no details about how the rescue operation was carried out, a government spokesman said on Twitter that the kidnappers had taken their victims to Congo, where the two were rescued by the security forces. The kidnappers have escaped and operations continue, Ofwono Opondo said. Advertisement Ugandan security teams had been hunting down gunmen who had demanded a $500,000 ransom after kidnapping the American, Kim Endicott, and her Ugandan guide in a national park popular with tourists. They were ambushed on April 2 in Queen Elizabeth National Park, a protected area near the porous border with Congo, according to Ugandan authorities. President Donald Trump tweeted that the pair had been released and added, God bless them and their families! It remains unclear if a ransom was paid in the case of Endicott, who is from Costa Mesa, California, where she has a small skin care shop. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said at a Tuesday event for families of U.S. citizens held captive overseas that he understands some people want to do anything to get their loved ones back but paying ransom would just lead to more kidnappings. In a Friday statement, the State Department said that the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad is its highest priority. Whenever a U.S. citizen is taken captive abroad, we work tirelessly - in partnership with local authorities - to secure their release and get them home safely, the statement said. Earlier Friday, an Arizona man who is related to Endicott said he wanted to see the U.S. send in Navy SEALS to locate and rescue her if thats what it took. Phoenix resident Rich Endicott, a 62-year-old banker, said he hasnt spoken with his cousin since a family reunion several years ago. He said Kim Endicott is in her late 50s and has a daughter and granddaughter. A friend of Endicotts said that she is relieved by the news of Endicotts release. My stomach has been in knots, said Megan Barth, a friend, told the Orange County Register on Sunday. Ive been praying for her safety and her release daily. I am just so relieved for her and her family, said Barth, a political commentator and radio personality who was Endicotts skin care client for 10 years and became a friend. I hope her captors did not physically harm her. Im so thankful but still so worried about her, but she is such a strong woman and a beautiful soul she will come through this trauma. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Britains military said Wednesday it was investigating totally unacceptable behavior by some of its soldiers after they were filmed apparently using a picture of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for target practice. Footage posted on social media showed members of the Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan shooting at an image of Corbyn, Britains main opposition leader. Corbyn, a veteran socialist, has often been critical of British military campaigns overseas. Brig. Nick Perry, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, said the video shows totally unacceptable behavior and a serious error of judgment that falls far below what we expect of soldiers in our brigade. Advertisement He said the video was being fully investigated. The army is and always will be a totally apolitical organization, he said. The brigade has 400 troops in Afghanistan as part of a NATO deployment to train Afghan forces. Labour defense spokeswoman Nia Griffith tweeted that the video was shocking and completely unacceptable. She said it was right that the Army is carrying out a full investigation. Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, a former soldier, said the video was disgraceful. British politicians have reported increased threats and fears for their safety amid heightened tensions over Brexit. Last month, a man angry about Brexit was sentenced to 28 days in prison for hitting Corbyn with an egg. In 2016, Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right extremist. A neo-Nazi was recently convicted of plotting to kill another Labour legislator. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Muslim women listen to Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's speech during an event in Bandar Seri Begawan on April 3. The sultan called for Islamic teachings in the country to be strengthened with new Sharia punishments, including death by stoning for gay sex and adultery. AFP By Jung Min-ho Italys interior minister said Wednesday that he wont offer safe harbor to 64 migrants rescued off Libya by the German humanitarian group Sea Eye. The people brought to safety from a rubber dinghy off the coast of Zuwarah, west of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, included 10 women, five children and a newborn baby, the group said. Sea Eye said on Twitter that its rescue ship, the Alan Kurdi, picked them up after Libyan authorities couldnt be reached. Sea Eye is asking Italy or Malta to open a port to the ship. Italys anti-migration interior minister, Matteo Salvini, said the Alan Kurdi, like other private rescue ships before it, wont be welcome in Italy. A ship with a German flag, German NGO, German ship owner, captain from Hamburg. It responded in Libyan waters and asks for a safe port. Good, go to Hamburg, Salvini said. Advertisement Both Italy and Malta have refused to accept ships that humanitarian groups have patrolling the Mediterranean Sea, leading to numerous delays in getting rescued migrants to land while European countries haggle over which will take them in. Sea Eye said another 50 migrants it has been searching for since Monday remain missing. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the German humanitarian group involved is Sea Eye, not Sea-Watch. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The last 60 holdouts from among nearly 1,000 migrants who fought with Greek police for three days have left their makeshift camp in northern Greece. The migrants clashed with police because they believed false reports on social media that restrictions on travel to central and northern Europe had been lifted. Police detained a few of the 60 who had no valid papers. The rest left either for migrant camps or apartments across Greece. None of the residents of a nearby official camp were among them. Even as the makeshift camp started emptying late Saturday, a group was heard cheering loudly. Asked why, they said Chancellor Angela Merkel was opening Germanys borders. Like the previous reports, this one also was false. Advertisement Most of the migrants are refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The mother of all caravans expected to depart from Central America has begun by looking more like the baby of all caravans, after a group of about 40 migrants left Saturday for the U.S. from the capital of El Salvador. It was not immediately clear whether they planned to meet with other migrants from Guatemala and Honduras, but the Honduran government denied there was another caravan forming in its country. In a statement Friday, Honduran Foreign Minister Maria Dolores Aguero suggested that such assertions could actually spur aspiring migrants to come together in larger groups. I respectfully suggest that information of this kind be shared with the government of Honduras prior to making public statements that, as we have seen, ultimately become triggers for action by organizations that activate and lead these forms of migratory mobilization, Aguero said. Advertisement Mexican Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero said earlier in the week that a caravan of migrants from Central America could be forming with more than 20,000 people, and she pledged to form a containment line around Mexicos narrow Tehuantepec Isthmus to stop migrants from continuing north. But fears over a larger caravan and the promised Mexican deployment of federal police have only appeared to heighten tensions. The U.S. state department said this week it was cutting aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala and President Donald Trump accused their leaders of doing nothing to prevent mass migration to the United States. Trump also said he is likely to shut down Americas southern border next week unless Mexican authorities immediately halt all illegal immigration, adding that it would be so easy to stop migrants passing through the country in an attempt to enter the U.S. A border shutdown would be a major blow for both Mexico and the U.S. The U.S. and Mexico trade about $1.7 billion in goods daily and closing the border would be an unmitigated economic debacle that would threaten 5 million American jobs, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Mexico itself appears to be both tiring of the caravans and eager not to anger the United States. It has stopped granting migrants humanitarian visas at the border, and towns along the well-traveled route to Mexico City sometimes no longer allow caravans to spend the night. Fewer private citizens are offering food and rides to the weary travelers. Vicki Gass, senior policy adviser for Central America and Mexico at the Oxfam charity, said in a statement Saturday that suspending payments to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras would exacerbate the problem. Cutting foreign aid to Central America is the absolute last thing the Trump administration should do right now. Not only is it morally wrong, it also counters efforts to address the root causes behind migration, she said. ___ Amy Guthrie contributed to this story from Mexico City; Freddy Cuevas contributed from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Authorities in Chicago say at least five people, including one child, have been shot and wounded at a family gathering on the citys South Side. The incident occurred Saturday evening in the West Englewood neighborhood. Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford tells the Chicago Tribune that the child was transported to an area hospital after being shot in the chest area. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says detectives are investigating a motive for the shooting, but adds that people at the scene are not cooperating. Additional information was not immediately available. Advertisement Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Hes a libertarian-leaning Republican. Shes the popular House freshman of the liberal Democratic vanguard. Yet in this time of polarized politics, Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have found common ground on Syria. She is among a dozen lawmakers signing on to a letter Paul has written supporting President Donald Trumps deliberate withdrawal from the countrys war. Paul said on Wednesday the letter is a continuation of the bipartisan movement in Congress to snatch back power from the executive branch on war authority. Advertisement The Kentucky senator is encouraging Trump to stick to his gut as other Republicans push the president to continue U.S. involvement fighting Islamic State militants. The House this week is considering legislation to halt U.S. involvement in the civil war in Yemen. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A Ukrainian man has been extradited to the U.S. to face charges that he oversaw a scheme to launder money and defraud victims including a North Carolina company. Aleksandr Musienko faces charges including wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. He was arrested in South Korea and appeared Friday in court in Charlotte. Prosecutors say he convinced people to help him with laundering transactions by offering jobs described as financial assistants. Authorities say these people were in reality making transactions of funds stolen by cybercriminals. Authorities say the operation laundered at least $2.8 million from 2009 to 2012. Prosecutors say cybercriminals hacked into computers of a Hickory-based company, identified only as VDC, and stole nearly $200,000. Advertisement A lawyer representing Musienko didnt immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A federal judge should end restrictions on when St. Louis police use chemical agents such as pepper spray and tear gas to break up protests, according to a court filing on behalf of the police department. The 39-page motion filed Friday seeks to dissolve a preliminary injunction issued in 2017 after the American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of protesters who took to the streets in response to the acquittal of former officer Jason Stockley. A judge on Sept. 15 2017, found Stockley, who is white, not guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith, a black drug suspect. Within minutes of the announcement, protests broke out. Demonstrations lasted for weeks, and some turned violent. Police were at times pelted with bricks and bottles. Several officers suffered minor to moderate injuries. About 300 people were arrested. Advertisement But police were accused of abusive actions that included arresting law-abiding demonstrators, innocent bystanders and journalists, and inappropriately using tear gas and pepper spray. The police actions spurred nearly two dozen lawsuits and prompted a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that led to indictments of four officers . U.S. District Judge Catherine Perrys November 2017 injunction in the ACLU lawsuit said police cant end protests or use chemical agents to punish people for exercising their right to free speech. Her order said that before using chemical agents, police need probable cause to arrest a person, must first give clear and unambiguous warnings, and must allow people enough time to obey police commands. The judge cited testimony and video evidence showing that officers acted in an arbitrary and retaliatory fashion to punish protesters for voicing criticism of police or recording police conduct, she wrote at the time. But police in the new filing said their own video evidence gathered from media, police officers, even plaintiffs in the lawsuit, suggested that officers were under siege. The filing said police used pepper spray only to clear streets, come to the aid of officers, and defend Mayor Lyda Krewsons home after hundreds of protesters gathered outside of it in September 2017. The filing also compared St. Louis response favorably to what happened in nearby Ferguson, Missouri, and in Baltimore during protests that followed officer-involved fatalities. Police on the whole responded to extremely difficult challenges with disciplined effectiveness, the filing said. St. Louisans did not experience the violence and terror of full-scale riots, as did Ferguson or Baltimore in similar situations. For this the community (including plaintiffs, though they may not realize it) owes a debt of gratitude to the vast majority of St. Louis police officers. The case is scheduled for trial Aug. 26. ACLU attorney Tony Rothert said hell save the thrust of his response for trial. We view the case and the evidence that weve gathered in the last year-and-a-half quite differently than the city does, Rothert said. In November, the Justice Department announced the indictments of officers Dustin Boone, Randy Hays, Christopher Myers and Bailey Colletta. Boone, Hays and Myers were accused of beating an undercover officer during a Stockley protest, unaware he was a colleague. Colletta was accused of conspiring to cover up the crime. Concerns about police behavior were raised again in January, when officer Nathaniel Hendren was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of another officer, Katlyn Alix. Charging documents said they had been drinking and playing a variation of Russian roulette, taking turns pointing a gun loaded with one bullet at each other and pulling the trigger. Alix died of a chest wound. ___ This version of the story corrects the date of the filing to Friday from Monday. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Husky Energy said Wednesday that it will invest more than $400 million to rebuild its oil refinery in Superior, Wisconsin, and will continue its use of a highly toxic chemical that raised fears in the community after an explosion at the refinery last April. The blast injured 36 people and required the evacuation of much of Superior largely because of the presence of hydrogen fluoride, which can be hazardous to human health. The tank containing the chemical wasnt damaged by the explosion, which was caused by a hole in a valve . Company CEO Rob Symonds told Wisconsin Public Radio that company officials explored using alternatives to hydrogen fluoride, but there is no better option. The hydrogen fluoride alkylation unit, as its called, is fundamental to making gasoline, Symonds said. This is the gasoline that we all use in our cars today. Advertisement Symonds said if they didnt use the chemical, it would make the refinery nonviable. The mayors of Superior and adjacent Duluth, Minnesota, called on Husky Energy to remove hydrogen fluoride from its operations. Some community members and groups have also pushed for its removal, including the Twin Ports Action Alliance. Ginger Juel, co-founder of the Twin Ports Action Alliance, said other methods can produce high-octane gasoline, such as sulfuric acid and ISOALKY technology. Symonds said a conversion to sulfuric acid has never been done in the global refining industry and that such a transition would require taking out everything that exists. He said it also would require the use of sulfuric acid. Put in context, today we have one truck a year that brings in hydrogen fluoride, he said. If we were to go to sulfuric acid, we would go to one truck a day. Construction is set to begin this fall and the refinery expects to resume partial operations in late 2020. Company officials said the refinery employs 200 workers and it expects to create 350 jobs during construction. We very early on decided we did want to rebuild, Symonds said. We wanted to stay in the Superior area and we wanted to continue to invest in the refinery. ____ The spelling of Superior in the dateline was corrected in an earlier version of this story. It had been misspelled Superios. ___ Information from: Wisconsin Public Radio, https://www.wpr.org Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A VCU Capital News Service story published March 29 by The Associated Press about budget amendments being considered by the Virginia legislature to raise money for interstate highways across the state incorrectly quoted National Association of Truck Stop Operators spokeswoman Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman as saying the organization supports raising fuel taxes for interstate improvements. Neuman was talking only about federal fuel taxes, not local, state or regional taxes. A corrected version of the story is below: Governor proposes raising taxes to improve interstates Virginia governor proposes raising taxes to improve interstates Advertisement By KATHLEEN SHAW Capital News Service Drivers would see improvements to interstate highways across Virginia if the General Assembly approves $280 million in budget amendments recommended by Gov. Ralph Northam, but state residents and truckers would pay additional taxes and fees. Northam announced Thursday that he has proposed: -An increase in the diesel and road tax rates that truckers pay for using the states roads -A 2.1 percent increase in the wholesale motor fuels tax along Interstate 81 in the western part of the state -An increase in registration fees for tractor-trailers We cant wait another year to find a solution, Northam said. I am pleased to offer amendments that will establish dedicated funding sources to support improvements that will lead to a major reduction in crashes and travel delays. The governor wants nearly $151 million channeled into improvements along I-81. State officials estimated that those repairs would prevent 450 crashes and save drivers a combined 6 million hours spent stuck in delays. A large chunk of that funding would come from the 2.1 percent increase in the motor fuels tax in the I-81 corridor more than 40 localities such as Montgomery County, Roanoke, Harrisonburg and Staunton. The regional levy would generate $60 million annually. Truckers driving through a state pay a mandatory road tax even if they do not stop for fuel. A statewide increase in road and diesel taxes would be phased in over three years and raise an estimated $142 million a year. In addition, Virginia would raise its truck registration fee along I-81 so that it matches the average cost in neighboring states. This would bring in $76 million. Northam laid out his recommendations in amending the state budget and other legislation passed last month by the General Assembly. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol on Wednesday to vote on the recommendations. If the General Assembly approves the governors amendments, the money raised would be divided among several interstates based on truck miles traveled: -$150.8 million to I-81, which in Virginia runs 325 miles from Bristol, on the Tennessee line, through Winchester and into West Virginia. -$39.2 million to I-95, which stretches 180 miles from Washington, D.C., to North Carolina. -$27.6 million to I-64, which runs 299 miles east-west through the states midsection, from West Virginia to Hampton Roads. Moreover, Northam proposed awarding $20 million to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and setting aside $42.6 million for interstate improvements identified by the Commonwealth Transportation Board. During the 2019 legislative session, lawmakers introduced six bills to fund the I-81 improvements through tolls and taxes. The General Assembly passed two bills creating the Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement Fund, but lawmakers could not agree on a source of revenues and left the fund empty. Stephanie Kane, communications director of the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates, said that without resources, the legislation does little to address the issue. The I-81 Corridor Improvement Fund just creates the existence of the fund, but its like creating the bank account without the money to go in it theres no revenue source, Kane said. Finding a funding mechanism that makes the interstate safer is the common goal, according to Sen. Bill Carrico, R-Grayson. With almost 50 percent of all Virginia goods being transported on the hundreds of miles of I-81, and 11 million trucks per year traveling this interstate, we need to work towards crucial improvements as soon as possible to make travel safer for the public, he said. I-81 accounts for 42 percent of the states interstate truck traffic and moves over $300 billion in commercial goods annually. A state-funded study released in December said I-81 needs $2.2 billion in urgent improvements, such as widening lanes and adding signage. Virginia taxes gasoline at 22.4 cents per gallon and diesel fuel at 23.7 cents per gallon. Under Northams amendments, the state tax on diesel would rise to 40.5 cents per gallon over a three-year period. The diesel tax levied by states along I-81 averages about 64 cents per gallon. Diesel tax rates range from 27 cents per gallon in Tennessee to more than 71 cents per gallon in New York. In addition to the state taxes on motor fuels, there are federal taxes. The federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel fuel. Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman, vice president of public affairs for the National Association of Truck Stop Operators, called an increase in federal fuel taxes an efficient and effective means of accumulating funds for the roadways. When those fuel taxes are collected, like 99 cents of every dollar that is collected goes toward infrastructure, Wlazlowski Neuman said. ___ This story was produced by the Virginia Commonwealth Universitys Capital News Service. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Greenbrier County commissioners are looking at options to help families who were hoping for federal money to rebuild homes lost in the 2016 flood. The Register-Herald reports state officials initially encouraged the homeowners to apply for some of West Virginias $69 million pool of flood hazard mitigation funds. But county emergency services official Paula Brown says the state has now placed high-profile public infrastructure projects first in line for funding. That means all 55 counties can apply for grants, and it makes the homeowners unlikely to receive funding. Brown told county commissioners last week that her office has received approval to acquire only six flood-damaged properties out of 41 requested. The office also received approval to help elevate three homes. Advertisement We received 13 percent of what we asked for from the state, Brown said. She added that there are more than 30 homes awaiting demolition, posing a public health hazard as they continue to deteriorate. Brown said it is essential that the damaged structures be removed, but the owners dont have the money. Many of those families are still paying off debts on their uninhabitable flood-damaged houses. At the same time, they are trying to pay mortgages or rent on new homes. Brown told commissioners the states priorities list for flood hazard mitigation grants can still be modified, and she urged the commission to intervene with state officials. Anything you can do at the state level will be appreciated, she said. Commissioners indicated a willingness to send a letter to the governor and explore additional options. ___ Information from: The Register-Herald, https://www.register-herald.com Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Violinist Ray Chen speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the KBS Music Studio, March 28. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk By Anna J. Park Ray Chen, 30, is an internationally renowned classical violinist who travels the world performing with the most prestigious orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Munich Philharmonic. Since winning the Queen Elisabeth Competition, one of the most challenging competitions for instrumentalists, at the age of 20 in 2009, he has been hailed by music critics for his deeply felt musicality, rich sound and solid techniques. But the Taiwanese-Australian does not fall into the stereotype of classical music virtuosos, who tend to have a lofty air around them. His bright, down-to-earth personality makes him approachable and he is one of the most active classical music artists on social media. He has over 151,000 followers on Facebook, about 134,000 followers on Instagram and some 54,000 followers on YouTube. Even with his extremely busy, globe-trotting schedule, he finds time to upload short, light-hearted videos or amusing photo posts almost daily. But it is not always easy to juggle his job as a top-notch classical musician and SNS star. "It's a tricky thing, because as an artist, your first priority is music, the quality of music, musicality, technique and intellectual depth," Chen said in an interview with The Korea Times when he visited Seoul in March to play the Prokofiev Violin Concert No.2 with the KBS Orchestra. "All of that takes so much time and effort and energy that you don't have much time left for social media, because it's like a whole different profession. So I think it's very difficult for artists to do both really well. But I guess, I could say that, for me, I am really blessed and proud that I can manage both, although sometimes it's very difficult, and I think my audience understands when I do a little less social media when I am busy." Chen manages his SNS accounts, reads all comments and shoots his own videos, although someone helps with the video editing. The cheerful violinist said it is very important to stay engaged with the audience, as he did not want the classical music market to "become insular, like it's isolated in itself." "The reason why I started it was because I wanted to show a different side of classical music and especially to engage with these young people," Chen said. "I mean, at least my way of doing social media is being relatable, because that was what classical music didn't have." Violinist Ray Chen poses for a photo during an interview with The Korea Times at the KBS Music Studio, March 28. Korea times photo by Choi Won-suk In an effort to win over the younger generation, he also has made many comedy videos. But these have a clear theme: education for the youth. "I'm not doing a funny video just to be popular, it was to show another side of classical music and to reach out to the younger generation," Chen said. "Every time I did a comedy video, I always included music or some part of the violin or something like that. So it became very obvious to people, to presenters, promoters and all these people in the industry that 'oh, it's for the kids. It's targeted for youth.'" His ideas for the videos come from his previous experience as a music student. His forte not only lies in comedy videos. He also has made more serious ones, such as his motivational video, uploaded on YouTube early last year, titled "Dealing with Insecurity." It received lots of enthusiastic comments and many people said they burst into tears because the video touched their hearts. "I wanted people to feel like, when they come to the concert hall, they see a great performance, but then they are inspired, because they know what my character is like," Chen said. "I am a normal person and hopefully it will inspire them to work hard and they will think, 'one day I can become like him.'" Violinist Ray Chen speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the KBS Music Studio, March 28. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk His latest project in engaging with the public is "Play with Ray," an international competition where amateur violinists can apply for a chance to play with the LA Philharmonic, along with Chen, on stage at the Hollywood Bowl on August 8. Applicants need to record a video of themselves performing the first violin part of the first movement of Bach's Double Violin Concerto and submit the video by May 1 to http://playwithray.la . Three finalists will be chosen to fly out to L.A., with all costs paid, and one will play at the Hollywood Bowl in front of 18,000 people. Chen is also working on the film "The Song of Names" with composer Howard Shore, who was responsible for "The Lord of the Rings" soundtrack, and director Francois Girard, who made "The Red Violin." Chen is also collaborating with "League of Legends," a very popular video game worldwide, as a music consultant. "I feel like it's pretty easy to remain grounded, because classical music is such a small market," Chen said. "I mean, all it takes is to look outside your world. There's a whole world out there. And I think for me, that's what keeps me grounded when I do collaborations with other artists from other fields." Chen's dream is to inspire others to love classical music, hoping it becomes less exclusive and more welcoming to everyone. "Hopefully at one point they maybe saw a video, or they heard a concert or something on the radio that was classical music that made them feel uplifted, or inspired, something like that, where they can be feeling a certain emotion," Chen said. "Maybe they go and listen to classical music because this is their safe zone; [I want] to invite them into our room of classical music. You know, our room maybe not that big, but it is cozy and it is safe. I want to give people that feeling that it is a happy environment. And that's my dream, to continue decorating this room and building it maybe, and inviting as many people as I can." Chen said his energy and inspiration comes from his appreciation of others. "I think it's the love for people. I like that, that's the source," he said, smiling. Violinist Ray Chen performs during a rehearsal with the KBS Orchestra, March 28. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk 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. U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un remains "very good," even though he had to walk away from a proposed deal at their February summit. "We're getting along with North Korea. Let's see how it works out, but we have a good relationship. Don't forget. I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un," Trump said during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition's 2019 spring leadership meeting in Las Vegas. Trump said tensions with North Korea were high when he first took office, with the communist nation setting off "rockets and nuclear explosions." "A lot of things were happening," he said. Trump said he "had to walk from one deal," referring to the breakdown of the second summit with the North's leader in Hanoi in late February. The much-anticipated talks ended without an agreement due to differences over denuclearization measures and sanctions relief. "But we have a great relationship," Trump said. "We will see what happens. I hope we are going to be able to do something. Maybe, maybe not, but I hope we're going to be able." (Yonhap) North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un inspects three major economic sites. The country's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on April 6 on Kim's inspection to the Yangdok County, South Pyongan Province, top left, and the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist area, top right. Below these are photos from KCNA's April 4 report on his inspection to the Samjiyon construction site and the Samjiyon Potato Farina Production Factory in Ryanggang Province. KCNA-Yonhap By Jung Da-min North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un visited three major sites ahead of its key parliamentary meeting and the upcoming South Korea-United States summit planned for April 11. The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported April 6 that Kim inspected construction sites in the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist area in Kangwon Province, and the hot-spring spa in Yangdok County, South Pyongan Province. The inspection came two days after the KCNA reported Kim's visit to another construction site in Samjiyon County, Ryanggang Province, where about 1,900 new apartments have been built so far. The moves raised expectations that the North will officially adopt an economic-focused strategy when the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) meeting convenes April 11 as Kim Jong-un is shifting his focus to building up the country's moribund economy rather than developing its nuclear capability. In a possible indication of what could top that SPA meeting's agenda, the KCNA has in recent days run stories focusing on recent visits by Kim to large-scale economy-related projects. This April will see many "important events" for the two Koreas and the United States. The second South Korea-U.S. summit will take place in Washington D.C., the same day as the North's 14th SPA meeting the first since new members were elected last month. On April 15, North Korea will also celebrate the "Day of the Sun," the anniversary of the birth of the country's late founder Kim Il-sung, grandfather of Kim Jong-un. It is the country's most important national holiday with large-scale celebration events including mass dances and fireworks displays. According to KCNA reports, Kim ordered a delay of the completion for the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist construction area by about six months to April 15 2020, when the country celebrates the Day of the Sun. "The builders should not push forward the construction of the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist area in a hurried way to finish till the Party founding anniversary this year after the sea-bathing season, but postpone the construction period until the Day of the Sun next year to perfectly finish it so that our people would fully enjoy themselves in the impeccable tourist area from the sea-bathing season next year, [Kim Jong-un] said," the KCNA reported. But Kim ordered the completion of the Samjiyon construction site as scheduled, by October 2020, while also visiting the Samjiyon Potato Farina Production Factory which he has been promoting as hub for potato growing. He also visited the Samjiyon Blueberry Drink Factory and Samjiyon County Junior Middle School, two construction projects nearing completion. GLENS FALLS, N.Y. A Glens Falls small businessman has been honored with one of the Masonic Lodges most prestigious awards for his work on behalf of local children. The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of New York gives the DeWitt Clinton Award to non-Masons or non-Masonic organizations that have demonstrated exceptional volunteer service to their community. Pete Brock, owner of Sams Diner, was presented with the award during special ceremonies at the Warrensburg Masonic Lodge, which nominated him for the honor. Last fall, Brock organized a Small Business Challenge that raised $38,600, which provided coats, hats and mittens for 702 kids in northern Saratoga, Warren, Washington and Essex counties, in conjunction with Operation Santa Claus. He is only the third person to receive the award from this district in the past 69 years. The award goes to a person who goes above and beyond to help others, said Wendell Beadnell, Warrensburg Masonic Lodge past master. He presented the award to Brock with Jason Dzembo, the Masons district deputy grand master. Brock founded the Small Business Challenge five years ago through his long-time business relationship with WCKM-FM (95.9), part of the Queensbury-based Regional Radio Group. Money raised by Operation Santa Claus is used strictly to buy clothing and food items. Separately, Regional Radio Group supports the organization by purchasing toys for kids, too. In addition to collecting donations, Sams Diner hosted a well-attended fundraising lasagna dinner before Christmas, with 100 percent of proceeds going to Operation Santa Claus. Sams Diner is at 23 Dix Ave. in Glens Falls. SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. Natalya Lakhtakia announced her independent candidacy for one of three trustee positions for the Saratoga Springs School District Board of Education in March. She is the daughter of educators from State College, Pennsylvania and has worked remotely as a speech-language pathologist for the Santa Fe public school system since 2016. Lakhtakia is responsible for a caseload of 50+ students at the elementary, high school and adult level. She conducts sessions and evaluations via teletherapy and designed functional and job-oriented speech and language activities. She has lived with her husband, and son in the Saratoga Springs school district for 2 years. Some of the most formative relationships Ive developed were through school, says Lakhtakia. My best friend and I met in kindergarten. My husband and I have known each other since pre-school. For me, school is the foundation for a lifetime of positive relationships, love of learning, and connection with the world. She joins the race with educational experience from schools around the country, serving as a speech-language pathologist to students of all ages in Utah, Rhode Island, and New Mexico over a 7-year career. Its incredible to help a person find their voice and to share their wants, needs, thoughts, and ideas. Though her career has been in education, she does not work as a teacher but rather a related services provider through special education. Ive got a different perspective thats not represented by anyone else in this race. I want us to do the best job possible supporting the staff and related service providers that our kids interact with every day, as well as our amazing teachers and administrators. Based on this unique background, Lakhtakia brings new ideas to the race. She believes that Saratoga Springs can benefit from evidence based policies that work in other school districts. When I go door to door, Im hearing that there needs to be standardization of communication from lower grades on up. I stand for the safety of children. One year ago, I attended the March for Our Lives. I didnt support anybody who isnt maintaining ongoing and intensive training in carrying a lethal weapon and in related topics, such as adolescent psychology. Past that, I dont support anyone handling school discipline who is carrying a lethal weapon, Lakhtakia said. She supports the New York Insurance Reciprocal risk analysis for the school district, saying Im a data person. I follow evidence. I was raised by two scientists. In Santa Fe, my school district provides breakfast and lunch for every kid. When they sit down with me, theyre ready to learn. It doesnt matter why they didnt eat at home that morning, I dont worry about them being hungry. Lakhtakia is already discussing options with Pitney Farms to add a local twist to this nationally proven policy. This type of community engagement is a central feature of her vision. I was really inspired by the relationship between the schools food service and Pitney Farms. She recently attended an informational forum about vaping given by CAPTEEN, and is concerned about the cited statistic that half of students are doing it. Its a huge problem,Lakhtakia said. It takes everybody to educate everybody and I care about every student. Im running for the school, not against any individual or group. I think an important part of being on the Board is listening and learning from others, she added. I started attending school board meetings and told my husband and a friend that I wanted to run. I want to be one of these people making good decisions for our school community, Lakhtakia said. An Example of Good Customer Care & Great Human Empathy (at the Saratoga Community Health Center) I happened to be at the Saratoga Community Health Centers Dental Clinic this past Tuesday when I had the privilege to witness a real act of compassion and empathy. It gave me a renewed sense of optimism in the human spirit and provided an example of how we should all strive to behave when confronted with a situation that we could easily dismiss as not our responsibility. While waiting for my friend as she had her routine dental cleaning, a young man in his early twenties wandered in looking a bit lost. The three women working in the reception area immediately asked if they could be of help and quickly realized he was confused and frightened. When he stated he had an appointment but was not sure with who, could not find the referral paper and then began to cry, the women quickly took him under their wing and offered impromptu services. When he requested counseling services, they did not tell him that he was in the wrong place and say we do not do that here. Instead one women responded by bringing him to the Community Room and sitting down with him to listen and get a better understanding of the situation. While she lead him to the Community Room, the phone receptionist immediately began making calls to track down where the young man had been and to whom he had spoken to earlier. She persevered to find out who he had seen, what medications they had recommended and when they had offered him an appointment. When the woman who had started the impromptu counseling session requested her companions to call down to Behavioral Health, her colleague went to check on them and ensure all was fine. The phone receptionist learned that the behavorial health office him had given him an appointment before sending him on his way. It was his good fortune that he wandered upstairs into the care of these women. Upon leaving the dental office, I happened to see the young man was still in the Community Room sitting across from the woman who I assume was a dental professional. That day, her listening ear and caring look provided more immediate benefits than any of her regular appointments were likely to offer. I know that my day benefitted greatly by witnessing the simple steps of kindness and empathy shown by these women. During a period that hospitals and health clinics are keen to differentiate themselves for good customer service, it is these unseen acts of true human emphathy that need to be applauded. Lorraine Merghart Support for the Village of Lake George I am writing seeking support of your readers, many of whom enjoy our beautiful lake annually. The Village is under an Order of Consent to construct a new Wastewater Treatment Plant costing over $22M. Our plant was built in 1932 is discharging excessive nitrates onto our sand beds that eventually finds its way into Lake George. Our small village (population 990) host millions annually generating thousands in tax revenue for the State, County and local governments. Our plant must be able to handle the flows on days our 3,500 rooms are at capacity. We drink the water from our lake and many of your readers visit us often to swim, fish, boat or just plain enjoy its beauty. We are seeking a partnership with the State in financing the plant and to date have only been awarded $7.5M, leaving $15M to finance by our small tax base. Unfortunately the image of Lake George assumed by many are the large homes on the lake, none within our sewer district. The costs will be shared by taxpayers with a median income of $41,800, well below the States poverty baseline, as determined by an independent survey. Some Village resorts taxes will increase by $8-10,000. Our lake has been included as one of the twelve lakes in New York State to be named in the Governors Harmful Algae Bloom Initiative, but is the only one that has not experienced an HAB. We have been good stewards of the States lake and an algae bloom would be devastating to our economy, affect our drinking water and take away from our visitors a prime vacation destination. I am asking your readers to call their representatives now and ask for support in the Governors 2019-2020 budget. We love sharing our lake with you and need your support now. Thank you, Mayor Robert Blais Village of Lake George Saratoga School Board candidate John Brueggemann a candidate for School Board continues to run a very negative campaign filled with lies, and deceptions. The latest of which was discovered by John Kaufman who runs a Saratoga Springs focused blog. Mr. Brueggemanns website states that the New York State Insurance Reciprocal, an insurance company that provides coverage to about 50% of school districts in the state, It is their considered view that Grounds Monitors should not be re-armed However, John Kaufman points out on his blog that Mr. Brueggemanns statement is a Pants on Fire lie. According to the video, available on the district website and on Youtube, the representative form the insurance reciprocal said, I can lean either way..Its a governance issue. Meaning that the NYSIR considers whether the monitors should or should not be armed a decision that should be made by the school board and doesnt give an opinion either way on the matter. What is more disturbing is that after Mr. Brueggemann received the video evidence he still hasnt not removed the statement from his website. Why is John Brueggemann deliberately trying to mislead the community? I do not believe this is not the proper behavior of a potential member of the school board. Rob Arrigo Saratoga Springs, NY Saratoga School Board candidate story I appreciate the Saratogian featuring our local School Board Election, and look forward to seeing coverage on all candidates in the race. However, I take issue with the headline of the most recent article dedicated to incumbent Heather Reynolds entitled Data Driven. Much of this election cycle has evolved around the heated debate of school safety and the disarming of monitors within the Saratoga Springs City School District. Reynolds, along with four other BOE members voted to disarm School Monitors in a 5/4 vote in Sept. 2018. This subject has been discussed at many BOE meetings, and a public forum on December 18, 2018. As a parent and tax payer, I have contacted the BOE no less than 9 times requesting any and all data, accredited publications and information used to come to this decision with no response. Additionally, I have spoken before the BOE (including Mrs. Reynolds) with no response. I am not alone in this effort as there are many in the community who have requested the same data/accredited publications/information. While Mrs. Reynolds mentioned stats from The National Center for Education Statistics regarding student homocides, that is not relevant to how the BOE came to the September decision. To title this article data driven is misleading. I would encourage the Saratogian to write a follow up article which covers the facts/data/accredited information that lead to this decision. Transparency within our BOE is essential and should be expected without question, but perhaps encouragement in the form of media may be needed. For the many parents, tax payers and students searching for clarification on this issue an article of this nature would be appreciated. Sincerely, Amy Baringer Crisis in horse racing I write this letter as a life-long Saratogian (87+years), a former New York State Racing Commissioner (33 years), and a thoroughbred racing enthusiast. This is a time of crisis for horse racing in America. The deaths of over two dozen horses in three months at Santa Anita Racetrack in California caused the owners of the track to shut it down for several weeks, and to impose new medication and training rules. Even so, another horse died within three days of re-opening. Horsemens groups around the nation are now advocating reform in race day medication and veterinary practices; but it is questionable they will address what the Jockey Club calls a fundamentally flawed system that falls far short of international horse racing standards and the regulation of the use of performance enhancing drugs and drugs that can mask injuries. Animal rights activists including PETA have taken note of the Santa Anita tragedies and could start proceedings to shut down the sport. Greyhound racing has been banned in many states including neighboring Massachusetts (and Florida in 2020). According to Paul Newberry of the Associated Press If horse racing cannot halt the epidemic of death on its tracks, it, will disappear. We have all seen what a highly funded and well-organized group like the National Rifle Association can accomplish in influencing legislators. Imagine Saratoga without its racetrack! Our civic, political and business leaders must urge NYRA and our elected and appointed representatives in Albany to see that the international horse racing standards recommended by the Jockey Club be followed. Harry Snyder If you ask Finns about what defines Finnishness, the word sisu is sure to come up -- even if they can't always put it into words. In 1940, during World War II, The New York Times declared sisu to be 'the word that explains Finland.' Sisu has traditionally been elusive and poorly defined but a new study from Aalto University is the first to break down the cultural construct in a systematic way to describe a universal phenomenon of hidden energy in the human system. 'Sisu is a Finnish word that goes back hundreds of years and a quality that Finns hold dear but the phenomenon itself is universal,' says Emilia Lahti, a doctoral student at Aalto University and author of the study. 'Taking a close look at the concept reminds us that, as humans, not only are we all vulnerable in the face of adversity but we share unexplored inner strength that can be accessed in adverse times.' In her study, Lahti analysed more than 1000 responses from Finns and others knowledgeable about sisu on what the concept means -- as well as whether it is inherently a good thing. One of the most prominent aspects apparent in the data: extraordinary perseverance, in other words, an individual's ability to surpass preconceived limitations, either mentally or physically, by accessing stored-up energy reserves. Lahti also found the concept to be marked in the responses by a consistent courageous approach to taking action against slim odds, in some cases appearing to the respondents almost as a 'magic' source of power that can help pull through tremendous challenges, whether self-selected like an ultra-run or something unexpected like a health struggle. It is hard to exhaustively describe sisu but, according to the study, it denotes an internal, latent force that moves you forward when you think you have reached your limit. It is almost like a spare tank of gas, Lahti explains; its benefits are thanks to adversity, not in spite of it. Sisu is not always, however, for the better. 'Sisu will help us take the next step -- or the first one -- but the outcome of that action will depend on how we use it. In that sense, sisu can be constructive or it can be destructive.' It was apparent from the data that too much sisu can result in burnout, exhaustion, disconnection and even create an attitude of mercilessness as the individual imposes his or her own harsh standards on others. It seems that sisu is neither good nor bad, but a tool you must learn to master. While the public discourse at large glorifies mental strength and perpetuates a 'faster, higher and stronger' mentality, the answers in the data displayed an alternative view. '[Too much sisu leads to] denying the realities of life, as well as the limits of human strength, therefore denying the very core of our humanity in ourselves and others,' one respondent wrote. As an action researcher, Lahti sees the study results as an opportunity to engage in a broader societal conversation on how we might improve the quality of human life through greater self-understanding that includes the sisu construct. 'Finland is an interesting case,' she says. 'We've again been named world's happiest country and in global terms we have an excellent social welfare system, but at the same time we are a country that, also, struggles with things like suicide, depression and domestic violence.' With global conversations on burnout and the tolls of modern life, understanding the extent and limits of human strength through new cultural contexts, like Finland, can contribute to a roadmap toward a more harmonious way of living. 'We need sisu, but we also need things like benevolence, compassion and honesty with ourselves, Lahti says. 'The study is basically an invitation to talk about balance.' Lahti has also recently explored sisu in her personal life by running the length of New Zealand in 50-days as part of her non-profit that seeks to build cultures of zero violence. A troupe of the Namwon Chunhyang Festival marches on Sejong Daero in central Seoul, Sunday, to perform a traditional parade welcoming a newly appointed administrator to the town. The Seoul Metropolitan Government will close the street to cars every Sunday until Oct. 27 and stage various events. / Korea Times photo by Hong In-kee Psychiatry professor Jeon Woo-taek at Yonsei University, who is also the director of the Health and Unification Center, speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at his office in Seoul, April 1. / Korea Times Photo by Choi Won-suk By Bahk Eun-ji When South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un jointly announced the Pyongyang Declaration last September, most people immediately thought about economic cooperation between the two Koreas. But Prof. Jeon Woo-taek thought differently. Jeon, a professor of Yonsei University's psychiatry department and the director of the Health and Unification Center at the school, said he believes cooperation in the healthcare sector should come first, and then economic and cultural cooperation needs to follow for unification. "Cooperation and collaboration means people in the South and the North contacting and exchanging many things. It means the two Koreas will possibly face unexpected consequences especially in the healthcare area," Jeon said in an interview with The Korea Times at his office in Seoul, April 1. He said contagious diseases prevalent in the two Koreas are utterly different from each other due to the different regional and living conditions. "For example, a South Korean who visited Middle East countries can transmit Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus to the North, and likewise, North Koreans can transmit other disease to the South, if the day comes when people in the two Koreas visit each other's countries freely," Jeon said. "For example, North and South Koreas are very close to each other, so insects and mosquitoes can always spread viruses across the border. From an epidemiological perspective, the two Koreas are so close that an outbreak in one country can affect the other." North Korea has been mainly struggling with four diseases _ tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis and parasites. The North's nutrition and hygiene problems were highlighted in the South when parasites were found in North Korean soldier Oh Chong-song who was critically injured while defecting to the South in 2017. "Unlike economic cooperation, the healthcare area can change people's minds and attitude toward unification because it is directly connected to their health and life." Well aware of this point, the two leaders agreed, in their joint declaration, to strengthen cooperation in the health and medical sector such as emergency measures to prevent the influx and spread of contagious diseases. In November, ranking health officials of the two countries also agreed on joint measures to combat infectious disease, including tuberculosis and malaria, during a meeting at the joint liaison office in Gaeseong. However, concrete plans for working level and practical actions have yet to come, Jeon said. What the South can do Jeon said South Koreans have to change their traditional thought of unification the South's unconditional support for the North such as building new hospitals and providing medicines. "There are a number of fields in biotechnology that the two Koreas can exchange their ability equally. For example, telemedicine, in which the North is highly interested, is a new business model for both, combined with the two Koreas' advanced computer skills," Jeon said. The North is highly interested in telemedicine mainly due to its inferior road conditions, the professor added. South and North Koreas can also run a project for an integrated healthcare database that can be advanced into academic research, Jeon said. "South and North Koreans have same DNA, but their medical information would be greatly different because of their different lifestyle and circumstances. It has a significant meaning from the medical point of view, so if we can work together, the two Koreas will be able to get huge database for the information." Jeon also expects cooperation in the pharmaceutical area. Unlike South Korea where modern medical science prevails, North Korea still relies more on traditional Korean medicine, which it calls "Goryeo Medicine." "I'm not saying we should adopt the North's traditional medicine abruptly, but saying that we can develop new drugs based on its accumulated knowledge about domestic crude drugs. This will lead to major steps forward in medicine, I believe," Jeon said. Health and unification center's role Jeon has been leading the Health and Unification Center since April 2014 when it was established. The center is the nation's first organization to study North and South Korea's health issues under the Yonsei University Health System which integrates Severance Hospitals, graduate schools, research centers, and colleges of medicine, nursing and dentistry. The center launched an education course about health and unification as an elective course, and for those who are especially interested in this area, the center provides full-day training programs to treat North Korean defectors at the National Medical Center and Seoul Medical Center. "The goal of the education program is nurturing medical workers for unification, and I believe it is one thing academia has to do," Jeon said. He began to have an interest in North Korea when he met a North Korean defector in 1993. "He was the first North Korean I met. Later I found out our fathers had fought in the Korean War as opponents," Jeon said. "As a social psychiatry specialist, meeting him was a sort of turning point in my life that gave me a momentum to study about North Korea, because I found out we are at same age and both shared tragic, painful history." Jeon said the main achievement in the center is that it gives a number of opportunities for participants to be more closely engaged in unification and North Korea issues. "Just like my North Korean friend gave me a chance to be interested in the North 25 years ago, I hope this center can serve as momentum for others to prepare for a new unified Korea." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday denied her eagerness to replace President Rodrigo Duterte after the latter called on he would pursue a revolutionary government. "Hindi naman tayo iyong nagsimula ng usapin. Actually, si Pangulo ang naggawa ng isang deklarasyon at tayo ay pinapa-komento lang doon," the Vice President was quoted saying in her weekly radio show, BISErbisyong LENI Sunday. [Translation: We did not start the discussion. The President made the declaration and we are just responding to it.] Duterte fumed over Senator Franklin Drilon's words of caution on his order to review all government contracts. In his speech Thursday, the President threatened to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus and have all of his critics arrested. He also warned he would declare a revolutionary war if backed into a corner. Robredo's election lawyer, senatorial bet Romulo Macalintal, had said the Vice President will take over the presidency should Duterte declare the revolutionary government since he would effectively step down from office. In response, Robredo had declared her readiness to assume the presidency. The Vice President reiterated that the President cannot issue statements such as those haphazardly. "Iyong pagpapasa at pagdedeklara ng revolutionary government, hindi naman iyon basta-basta. Hindi iyon kapag nainis tayo, puwede na tayong mag-deklara. Kailangan iyong-kaya nga revolutionary kasi kakaiba talaga iyong sitwasyon," she added. [Translation: The passage and declaration of a revolutionary government, it's not done on a whim. We cannot just declare one when we are frustrated. The situation must be dire enough to require it, that's why it's revolutionary.] She also said Duterte's declaration is different from the late former President Corazon Aquino's declaration of a revolutionary government in 1986, when the Marcos dictatorship had its downfall. "Iba iyong sitwasyon noon. Noon maraming kalituhan kaya iyong kung naaalala natin iyong pag-deklara ng revolutionary government, very limited time lang, 'di ba? Talagang inayos lang iyong mga gusot. Pagkatapos maayos iyong mga gusot, ipinasa na iyong 1987 Constitution," she said. [Translation: The situation back then was different. Before there was confusion that's why there was a declaration of revolutionary government for a very limited time. It just fixed the problems. After that, the 1987 Constitution was passed.] South Korea's presidential chief of staff Noh Young-min held an unannounced meeting in Seoul last month with Reince Priebus, the former chief of staff to U.S. President Donald Trump, ruling camp officials said Sunday. The March 28 meeting, which was limited to a very small number of people, was seen as part of behind-the-scene efforts by Cheong Wa Dae to keep alive dialogue momentum in the stalled denuclearization talks following the breakdown of Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, the sources said. "As far as I know, they exchanged views on the atmospheres of the two countries, including reactions in political circles, in the wake of the breakdown of the Hanoi nuclear summit," a ruling camp official said on condition of anonymity. The two sides appear to have also exchanged opinions on the upcoming summit between Trump and President Moon Jae-in as well as the roles South Korea should play for the sake of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the official said. Moon and Trump are set to hold talks at the White House on Thursday. It will be the first time the two leaders will have met since the Hanoi summit broke down due to differences over how to exchange denuclearization measures for sanctions relief. How to break the impasse in the nuclear negotiations is expected to be a key topic for the Moon-Trump summit. (Yonhap) By Kang Seung-woo The mayor of Sokcho, one of the areas worst affected by last week's wildfires in Gangwon Province, has found himself at the center of a controversy due to his absence from duty at the time of the blaze. Sokcho Mayor Kim Cheol-su / Yonhap The forest fires the worst the country has seen since 2005 broke out on Thursday night in the mountainous county of Goseong and quickly spread to neighboring towns and cities, including Sokcho, with more than 4,000 people being evacuated from their homes. While the fire was engulfing the region, Mayor Kim Cheol-su was vacationing on Jeju Island to celebrate his wife's 60th birthday. Kim and his family flew to the resort island the morning before the start of the blaze. Californias boom-and-bust budget could soon get a big boost as companies worth billions of dollars rush onto the public markets, bringing huge tax gains for their home state. It will be a very impressive (initial public offering) cycle in absolute dollar values, possibly the largest California has seen, said Kevin Klowden, executive director of the California Center at the Milken Institute, a think tank. All the newly minted California millionaires and billionaires from the likes of Uber, Lyft, Pinterest, Slack, Palantir and Postmates will generate a windfall; taxes are usually due when employees vest stock awards, sell shares or exercise options. The state heavily relies on income tax for revenue, and, under its progressive tax policies, the wealthy pay proportionately more. So stock market bonanzas that make the rich richer will swell Californias coffers with taxes on exercised stock options treated as income and shares sold as capital gains. California taxes both as ordinary income at a top rate of 13.3 percent. IPOs mean people will be getting a lot of money which will often be taxed at the highest rate, said Brad Williams, former chief economist at the Legislative Analysts Office and now a partner at Capitol Matrix Consulting. By their nature, they create a lot of income for the state. Theyll also create more revenue for San Francisco, which is playing host to an unusually high number of richly valued private companies going public this year. The city no longer excludes stock options from its 0.38% payroll tax. When employees exercise their stock options, businesses pay that rate on the options value. San Francisco brought in $442.2 million from the payroll tax in 2017 when the rate was 0.7%. For 2018, with the rate almost halved, it projects $254.5 million. Stock options are not distinguished from salary in those amounts, and the city doesnt have a forecast for 2019. California, which once went overboard on spending IPO windfalls, now approaches them with a healthy amount of caution, said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance. They provide a welcome infusion of revenue into the state budget, he said. But we have to be mindful that one-time events like this will not happen with regularity. They are short-term in nature. Most IPO-related money would end up in the general fund, with some socked away in a rainy-day fund to help even out volatility. But some would be earmarked for other uses. Money generated by higher tax rates on the wealthiest Californians, set by Propositions 30 and 55, goes toward K-12 schools and community colleges and sometimes public health care (although much of it simply replaces money that otherwise would come from the general fund). Prop. 63s 1% tax on income over $1 million goes to mental health services. State number-crunchers havent yet tried to calculate what California might reap from the upcoming stock-market debuts but hope to do so soon. The best clues will come from companies public filings, in which they reveal how many shares are held by investors, top executives and employees, and discuss vesting schedules. Likewise, San Francisco hopes to estimate the IPO impact, said Ted Egan, the citys chief economist. Were waiting to see what Ubers S-1 says before we can take a stab at it, because Uber is the one that will make the most difference in overall revenue, he said, referring to the initial disclosure filing companies make in going public. Still, one crucial variable will remain unknown: What will the stock price be when insiders exercise their stock options and sell shares? The IPO season has already kicked off with Lyfts premiere last month and Ubers confidential filing for a premiere expected this month that could value it at $120 billion the biggest in the U.S. tech world in years. The states cut will take a while to materialize. Most companies impose a six-month lockup period before insiders can sell stock or can exercise their stock options and many may wait longer. And theres no guarantee theyll have a receptive market when they want to sell. Lyfts stock, for instance, has already tumbled. A young company still finding its way will be much more volatile than the market as a whole, Williams said. Theres a handy analogy: California realized about $1.3 billion over several years from Facebooks IPO, much of it from CEO Mark Zuckerbergs staggering tax bill. Although individual taxpayers bills are private, Facebook disclosed Zuckerbergs exercises of stock options and sales of shares, making much of his income public record. That May 2012 debut valued Facebook at $104 billion, the largest ever for a newly public company. Before Facebook went public, the state expected to reap $2.1 billion, projecting that the stock price would rise during the six-month lockup period. Instead it fell. Zuckerbergs well-publicized tax bill and Californias super-high income tax rate may spook some people standing to gain big wealth from IPOs, said Christopher Thornberg, principal of Beacon Economics. His hunch: Folks who invested in Uber and other companies going public have been tax planning for a while to minimize their obligations to the state. A smattering of millionaires have fled the state since it increased its income tax in 2012, one study shows. When you see a giant tax bill on the horizon, youre willing to spend a lot of money on tax attorneys and expensive homes to dodge as much as possible, he said. On the other side, the state will make sure it gets every penny its entitled to. Todd Trumbull Californias history with stock-market riches is far from illustrious. During the dot-com days when the state was flooded with tech money, it embarked on a spending orgy, certain the good times would last. They didnt. California was saddled with huge fiscal commitments, such as pension obligations, and no way to pay the tab. It ended up in a hole and Gov. Gray Davis got recalled. The dot-com boom went spectacularly bust, said Palmer from the state finance department. One-time revenues disappeared, yet we had a higher base of ongoing state spending that created in short order multibillion-dollar deficits. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes The state was still awash in red ink when the 2007-2009 recession hit. But since then the budget has been balanced and California has new safeguards in place notably the rainy-day fund, officially called the budget stabilization account. We take those one-time spikes off the table and put them in a protected account that can only be tapped under very specific conditions of economic decline, Palmer said. Its an insurance policy to reduce the severity of the spending cuts in an economic downturn. Todd Trumbull Started in 2014-15 under Gov. Jerry Brown, the rainy-day fund now has $13.5 billion, projected to rise to almost $20 billion by 2022-23. (Projections dont account for any specific offerings but assume a favorable economic climate this year.) Still, the trick will be to keep lawmakers and interest groups from treating any newfound wealth as a piggy bank for their pet programs. If the bottom falls out of the stock market and a recession occurs events that generally happen in tandem even $20 billion of reserves wont last long. Very quickly capital gains dry up, and theyre such an important part of the revenue base now, that that can have a profound impact on the state, Williams said. Todd Trumbull So far, Gov. Gavin Newsom has won economists praise for emphasizing one-time spending and debt repayments. Newsoms budget suggests hes channeling his inner Jerry Brown and wants to be a fiscal conservative, Thornberg said. Hopefully hell continue to do something logical, using (windfalls) to fill a hole as opposed to starting new programs that will come back to haunt us when we have the next recession. Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat who served 38 years in the U.S. Senate in an era of rising prosperity and often painful accommodation to racial tolerance in his state and across the South, died Saturday at his home in Isle of Palms, S.C. He was 97. Hollings, known as Fritz, began his career in 1949 as a state legislator. He became governor, ran for president and was a revered populist who took care of the military, business interests and the constituents back home. His tenure as senator of 38 years and 55 days made him the eighth longest-serving senator. He began his career as an orthodox segregationist but evolved into a social moderate. By 2005, when he left the Senate, Hollings had established a long record of support for civil rights. Reminded in a 2004 interview on 60 Minutes that he had voted against the 1967 nomination of Thurgood Marshall as the first black Supreme Court justice, Hollings expressed regret but offered an excuse. I couldnt get re-elected, he said. If I had voted for him, I might as well withdraw from the race. Ernest Frederick Hollings was born in Charleston, S.C., on Jan. 1, 1922, to Adolph G. and Wilhelmine Meyer Hollings. He graduated in 1942 from the Citadel, the military college in Charleston. During World War II, he was an Army artillery combat officer and was discharged a captain in 1945. He graduated from the University of South Carolina Law School in 1947, and, after practicing law for a year, began a political career that would span a half century. He served three terms in the state House of Representatives, from 1949 to 1954, and was elected speaker pro tempore in 1951 and 1953. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1954 and governor in 1958. Constitutionally limited to a single four-year term as governor, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1962. But the incumbent winner, Sen. Olin Johnston, died in 1965. Hollings won a special election in 1966 to succeed him, and won re-election in 1968 to a full six-year term. His run for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination fizzled in the New Hampshire primary, where he won 4% of the vote. Hollings remained popular in South Carolina, winning elections comfortably. In retirement, he wrote newspaper columns, taught at the Charleston School of Law, founded a scholarship program and established the Hollings Center for International Dialogue. He was also the author of The Case Against Hunger: A Demand for a National Policy (1970) and Making Government Work (2008, with Kirk Victor), which answered, as he put it, the critics who reflexively disparage government. He is survived by three children, Michael Hollings, Helen Hollings Reardon and Ernest Hollings III; a sister, Barbara Hollings Siegling; seven grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren. Robert D. McFadden is a New York Times writer. Kim Hyun-chong, deputy head of the presidential office's security council responds to questions from reporters upon his arrival from Washington D.C., April 5, after having consultations with U.S. government officials and politicians ahead of the upcoming summit between President Moon Jae-in and President Donald Trump at White House, April 11. Yonhap By Kim Yoo-chul President Moon Jae-in plans to pitch his ambitious "sanctions easing" agenda when he meets U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, April 11, sources at Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said Sunday. The South Korean leader, a self-proclaimed "facilitator" of denuclearization talks between the U.S. and North Korea, is expected to stress why "greater engagement" matters in addressing a simmering disagreement between Washington and Seoul over a possible easing of some of the economic sanctions on Pyongyang, they said. "The failure of the Hanoi summit was still an opportunity to get a deeper understanding of what Pyongyang and Washington want to make progress in that respect. Moon plans to embrace the risk of personal diplomacy by asking Trump to grant reciprocal measures after Seoul and Washington laid out the necessary groundwork via working-level discussions," one Cheong Wa Dae official said. Despite the breakdown of the Hanoi summit, Trump said his personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was "good" before canceling additional "large-scale" U.S. Treasury sanctions on the North to keep the denuclearization talks on track. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gestures while speaking during a news conference at the U.S. State Department in Washington, April 4, 2019. AP-Yonhap Moon first tried to push his sanctions-easing agenda at the beginning of the nuclear disarmament talks, however, this fell flat as he failed to get the backing of other countries having greater stakes in the process. His government then created a body to coordinate diversified approaches with Washington and other key allies with regard to the North Korea nuclear issue. As to which sanctions would be addressed and the level of easing, the official said, "It's likely President Moon may raise the lessening sanctions that affect the lives of the North Korean people." Liberty Korea Party (LKP) Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn, right, inspects fire-affected areas in Goseong, Gangwon Province, Friday. / Courtesy of LKP By Park Ji-won The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) is being criticized for allegedly blocking a Cheong Wa Dae official in charge of disaster control from leaving a National Assembly meeting amid a fast-spreading fire in Gangwon Province and politicizing the tragedy. When the deadly fire started in Goseong on Thursday at 7:17 p.m., National Assembly House Steering Committee members were being briefed by President Moon Jae-in's national security adviser Chung Eui-yong and other presidential officials. Chung is chief of the presidential office's control tower tackling national disasters. The briefing started in the afternoon and lasted until late into the night. Committee chief Rep. Hong Young-pyo was informed that the fire was spreading into Sokcho and sent a senior officer to the control tower at 9:30 p.m. About 10 p.m., Hong asked attending lawmakers to allow Chung to leave the Assembly to assist in coming up with measures to deal with the disaster. But the LKP members refused, claiming it was a rare chance to question Cheong Wa Dae officials. In the end, Chung left the Assembly about 10:40 p.m., three hours after the fire broke out. Kim Yeon-chul, left, unification minister nominee and Park Young-sun, right, SMEs and startups minister nominee. Yonhap file By Jung Da-min President Moon Jae-in will approve the appointment of Kim Yeon-chul and Park Young-sun the respective nominees to head up the ministries of unification, and SMEs and startups, on April 8, without the National Assembly's adoption of confirmation hearing reports for the two, sources said Sunday. "It's highly likely President Moon will proceed to appoint Kim and Park as ministers as the hearings are not legally-binding," one of the sources said. Kim and Park are longtime confidants of Moon. The opposition want the two to voluntarily withdraw after the adoption of the hearing reports was denied. The main opposition Liberty Korea Party criticized Kim's pro-North Korean views and Park for refusing to submit required documents concerning alleged ethical lapses. On April 2, Cheong Wa Dae asked the Assembly to re-send the confirmation hearing reports for Kim and Park, as well as interior and safety minister nominee Chin Young. The Assembly then passed the report for Chin but rejected the other two nominations. The deadline for reissuing the hearing reports was April 7. Presidential chief of staff Noh Young-min apologized over the ongoing controversy surrounding the nominations during his appearance at the Assembly's audit of Cheong Wa Dae operations. But he did not comment on on the LKP's demand for the withdrawal of the nominees. The decision is expected to increase political strife between the liberal and conservative parties as the Assembly needs to act on bills including reforms to the Labor Standards Act and the Minimum Wage Act. Bills and revisions to deal with the conflict between taxi and ride sharing firms, reforming the electoral system, strengthening rules on kindergartens and other issues are also awaiting an agreement between the two liberal and conservative parties. The conservative parties have warned that they will not cooperate with Assembly activities unless President Moon withdraws the appointments and fires Cheong Wa Dae officials who were in charge of the nominations. Among the seven people initially nominated to Cabinet posts, Cheong Wa Dae voluntarily withdrew the nomination of KAIST professor Cho Dong-ho as science and technology minister, March 31, the same day Choi Jeong-ho dropped out as land and transportation minister nominee. A hill in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, Sunday, is seen devastated by a forest fire that broke out last Thursday. President Moon Jae-in designated five cities and counties in the province as special disaster zones, Saturday, to help them recover from damage from the blaze that destroyed 401 houses and left 466 people homeless. / Yonhap By Kim Jae-heun The Ministry of Interior and Safety (MOIS) said Sunday that the forest fires that hit five cities and counties in Gangwon Province from Thursday to Friday destroyed 401 houses in the surrounding area. They also left one person dead and injured 11, one of whom is still hospitalized. Some 530 hectare of forest, 77 warehouses, 158 outdoor filming sets, and 959 livestock farms and agricultural facilities were also devastated by the blaze Currently, 722 residents of the region who were evacuated are being housed at 21 shelters the government is planning to utilize nearby training facilities owned by the public institutions to ease overcrowding. "It is time to focus on helping victims in the affected area," Interior and Safety Minister Chin Young said at a meeting in the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters at the government complex in central Seoul, Saturday. "We have to figure out the types of housing we can provide and minimize the administrative procedures for securing sites to erect prefabricated houses and infrastructure." The fires broke out in Goseong County and spread to the neighboring cities of Sokcho, Gangneung and Donghae in less than an hour. Around 4,000 residents in areas around the affected cities and counties were evacuated, but 3,700 people were allowed to return home after the fire was extinguished. Medical volunteers offer check-ups for victims of last Thursday's wildfire in Gangwon Province at a temporary shelter in Goseong, Sunday. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon If we cant get rid of the California Rule, can we at least ditch the name? The California Rule is the misleading moniker weve given to our states most troublesome legal precedent: that public employees are entitled to whatever pension benefits were in place when they started work. Pension benefits in California are so monumental that they might as well be set in the stone of El Capitan they can never be cut, unless they are replaced with another benefit of equal value. You can say that such an iron-clad guarantee is good for public workers. But you cant say that its Californian. In virtually every other context of life here, our state is defined by its lack of guarantees. The California Rule on pensions is really the California Exception. For all its wonders, California is a place where you can count on almost nothing not even that the ground beneath you will stand still. While the Golden State famously produces myriad regulations, the complexity and overwhelming number of them mean that there are few clear rules to rely upon. The California Rule itself has contributed to this problem. By requiring ever-escalating retirement benefits that force cuts in public services, the California Rule has effectively made a lie out of every significant guarantee in the state constitution, from balanced budgets to speedy trials. Like Snoop Dogg and Billie Jean King, the California Rule was born in Long Beach. In 1951, the city government there tried to reduce the pensions of police officers and firefighters, and the state Supreme Court blocked it, creating a new precedent. The California Rule got its name because most of the rest of America doesnt follow it. In other places, only pension benefits already earned by actual work are protected. But California is one of only 12 states that have protected the right to earn future pension benefits for work not yet performed. Jeff Chiu/Associated Press This protection of retirement benefits, in combination with our limits on taxation like Proposition 13, helps explain our persistent budget deficits and our underfunded schools and health programs, and overcrowded prisons. Nearly every significant local or state tax increase of the past two decades has partly gone toward rising retirement costs. The California Rule is so strong that it defeats our direct democracy; San Jose and San Diego citizens voted to alter pensions to save services, only to be overruled by courts citing the California Rule. It also makes liars out of even our best leaders, who talk about the need to embrace sustainability and equity, even as they decline to change the states most unsustainable and unequal rule. The California Rule has been in the news recently for two reasons. First, teachers strikes in Oakland and Los Angeles spotlighted how rising pension costs are consuming money that should go to compensating todays teachers. Second, the state Supreme Court has begun looking at legal cases that challenge pension protections, including the California Rule itself. Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press But so far, the justices have been unwilling to overturn it. If the high court doesnt find some courage on the subject, then the California Rule will result in statewide disaster. At best, this will be a steady, decades-long degrading of services, as more tax dollars are diverted to cover the retirements of retirees. Worst case, a big recession or a huge stock market decline could combine with the California Rule to create an epic fiscal calamity. With pension funds falling short, cash-strapped governments would have to put even more money into shoring up retirement benefits that cant be reduced because of the California Rule, leaving little money for anything else. Hundreds of schools would close, local governments would go bankrupt, and new taxes and budget cuts to cover funding gaps would further undermine the economy. The public could erupt in fury that puts the entire retirement system at risk. Lets end the California Rule now before crisis hits. Because self-inflicted disaster should be the exception, not the rule, in California. Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zocalo Public Square. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at SFChronicle.com/letters. The Electoral College isnt winning the popular vote. Recent polls show a majority of Americans favor tearing down the rickety constitutional compromise that elevated two of our last three presidents against the will of voters, and politicians are responding. Since Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warrens recent call for its abolition, the college has attained the novel status of bona fide campaign issue. Warrens fellow Democratic presidential contenders responded with varying degrees of enthusiasm from California Sen. Kamala Harris anemic Im open to the discussion to South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigiegs categorical Its got to go. President Trump, a onetime Electoral College critic who owes the institution more than any man since Rutherford B. Hayes, countered with typically trenchant Twitter analysis: I used to like the idea of the Popular Vote, but now realize the Electoral College is far better for the U.S.A. which is to say better for him. Senate Democrats, including Californias Dianne Feinstein, have unveiled two proposals in as many weeks to amend the college out of the Constitution. Its the straight but narrow approach, requiring two-thirds support from both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states. Many such amendments have been introduced, but the Senate blocked the last with any momentum a half-century ago; its champion, the influential Indiana Sen. Birch Bayh, died last month. Also in recent weeks, New Mexico, Colorado and Delaware joined California and other states in a compact to abide by the popular vote, which now has two-thirds of the support it needs to take effect. While its a more inventive and pragmatic strategy than amending the Constitution, its also more convoluted and vulnerable to legal challenge. As evidenced by the leanings of the states joining the compact and the politicians sponsoring the amendments, one obstacle to dropping out of the college is that its become, like almost everything else in America, a partisan issue. The colleges reversals since the turn of the century, after all, have elected Trump and George W. Bush. But the GOP has benefited accidentally, not inherently. If the voting in Ohio had gone a bit differently in 2004, for example, Democrat John Kerry would have defeated Bush with an even greater popular deficit than Trumps. Whether out of partisanship or misguided traditionalism, though, conservative college fans have grafted all sorts of unlikely justifications onto an institution designed partly to give the South political credit for its slaves. They have argued, for instance, that the electors protect rural America, small states and even white people from marginalization. Because states get an electoral vote for each member of Congress, including senators, small states do have more mathematical clout than than their populations indicate. But they arent reliably Republican or influential: The college renders blue Rhode Island and red Wyoming equally irrelevant. Thats due to a more important distortion that has nothing to do with the colleges constitutional design: the winner-take-all awarding of electoral votes. Most states grant 100 percent of their electors to the candidate who prevails within their borders regardless of whether he or she got 51 or 81 percent of the vote. That ensures that most states big and small, blue and red, urban and rural are largely ignored in favor of about a dozen where the majority could go either way. In California, Texas and other states where one party has a clear advantage, millions of votes in both parties go effectively unrepresented. As Warren told a Mississippi audience, the Electoral College isnt any better for that state than it is for hers. If the college doesnt reliably empower any deserving group of states or people, what purpose could it serve? One answer, dating to the ruminations of the founders but still surprisingly popular, is that it guards against the tyranny of majorities. This argument rests on the notion that the electors just might take it upon themselves to overrule a popular result they deem unwise, a scenario that is as outrageous as it is implausible. One recent poll showed that 1 in 4 Americans doesnt even know the president is not popularly elected. The assurance that the college is at least loosely tied to the popular vote, and that its reversals are accidental rather than deliberate, does as much to keep it in place as partisanship. In practice, as our most recent election showed, demagoguery has far less to lose from the Electoral College than democracy. In this Sept. 25, 2018, file photo, Bill Cosby arrives for a sentencing hearing following his sexual assault conviction at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown Pa. Court filings showed Friday that Cosby has agreed to settle lawsuits in a Massachusetts case filed by seven women who said he defamed them when he accused them of lying about sexual misconduct allegations. AP Seven women who said Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them decades ago and then labeled them liars by denying it have settled defamation lawsuits against the imprisoned actor. Court documents filed Friday in Springfield, Massachusetts, showed a settlement was reached since Cosby went to prison last fall in a separate Pennsylvania sex assault case. Cosby, 81, is serving a three- to 10-year prison sentence. Cosby's spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said Cosby did not authorize the settlement reached between the women and American International Group Inc., and "vehemently denies the allegations." "Mr. Cosby did not settle any cases with anyone. He is not paying anything to anyone, and he is still pursuing his counterclaims. AIG decided to settle these cases, without the knowledge, permission and/or consent of Mr. Cosby," Wyatt said in a statement. Courts had ruled that AIG had to pay for Cosby to defend the defamation lawsuits as part of his coverage. Cosby had homeowners and other coverage through AIG. The judge overseeing the defamation case in Massachusetts must still approve the settlement. The terms were not disclosed in the filings Friday. A message left with AIG's corporate press office was not immediately returned late Friday. The plaintiffs are among the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct. They include Tamara Green, Barbara Bowman and Therese Serignese. Cosby, in a 2006 deposition, acknowledged giving Serignese quaaludes that made her "high" before a sexual encounter in Las Vegas in 1976, when she was 19. Some of that deposition testimony was aired in his criminal case. "I don't think he has much to contest the cases with, given his conviction," said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson. "I don't know how much resources (he has left). It probably makes sense for both sides to resolve it." Joseph Cammarata, an attorney who represents the women, told The Associated Press on Friday that "each plaintiff is satisfied with the settlement." He declined to comment further. However, he warned in a status report also filed Friday that his clients would seek to depose Cosby and gather other documents and evidence if Cosby does not drop counterclaims that accuse the women of harming his reputation through their accusations. Wyatt said that Cosby still intends to pursue those claims. Cosby's wife, Camille, had been ordered to give a deposition in the defamation case in 2016, after a heated fight over her testimony. Lawyers for the Cosbys tried to quash her subpoena to testify, saying she didn't have any relevant information on the women's claims and that any marital conversations she had with her husband of 50 years were confidential. The judge agreed that marital conversations were private, but the women's lawyers noted she also served as his business manager throughout their long marriage. The case had largely been put on hold amid the Pennsylvania criminal case, which involved charges that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted a woman at his home in 2004. The first trial ended in a deadlock in 2017, but a second jury convicted Cosby last year. Cosby is appealing the conviction. He is being held at a state prison in Montgomery County, outside of Philadelphia. (AP) WASHINGTON Attorney General William Barr has directed parts of the Justice Department to investigate accusations of discrimination, including claims that the FBI academy weeded out potential agents for not being masculine enough and that it has become harder for transgender people to work at the Bureau of Prisons. Barrs request came in response to a letter he received from DOJ Pride, a Justice Department group that advocates for the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. Less than half of DOJ Prides members said they believed that the department does not discriminate against them, the group wrote, saying the finding and others from a survey show that group members have become more alienated from the department under the Trump administration. By Dominic Morgan Some argue that U.S. tariffs will force China to make large concessions on trade. But there is a risk that the growing pressure will make Beijing less, not more, likely to compromise on key issues. The implementation of the $200 billion round of tariffs in September last year did accelerate China's economic slowdown, though domestic factors were possibly more important. As winter rolled on, business sentiment plummeted, the stock market continued its precipitous decline, and exports, retail and property sales all took a hit. But the theory that China can be pressured into abandoning centrally-controlled industrial policies may be a miscalculation. American discussions of the trade war have focused on the costs for China of not doing a deal, without considering how China weighs up the other side of the ledger. Capitulating to Washington would have profound political consequences for the Chinese government. Ideology is a foundation of the party's position, trumping all other issues. For many in Beijing, the trade war confirms long-held suspicions that the United States is determined to thwart China's rise as the world's next superpower. Beijing views the trade war not as an isolated incident, but part of a longer history of U.S. attempts to undermine rival powers. China pays particular attention to the trade dispute between America and Japan in the 1980s. The lesson Beijing appears to have drawn from the Japan-U.S. dispute is that capitulating to American demands simply emboldens U.S. negotiators to ask for even more. The upshot is that Beijing may not see striking a deal with Washington as a way to gain relief from U.S. pressure. Rather, it may see the cost of surrender as even higher than that of carrying on the fight. This will be a tough sell on the issue of "Made in China 2025," as Beijing considers this policy crucial to China's future. For Beijing Made in China 2025 is considered the only way to counter an existential threat to its own economy: rising labor costs in the country's manufacturing sector. Factory wages rose 64 percent between 2011 and 2016, according to Euromonitor. This is undermining the competitiveness of Chinese manufacturers, which have been the engine of China's growth for decades and still generate nearly 30 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). These trends are of concern to Beijing because many countries have followed a similar growth trajectory to China in the past but ended up losing their economic dynamism and falling into what economists call the "middle-income trap." With a per capita GDP of $8,827 as of 2017, China is right at the most challenging stage in the development cycle. Failing to make the transition to a high-income economy is a real prospect. Making the transition to a high-income economy will need increasing productivity across all sectors, but also moving up the value chain to high-end manufacturing and technology. This is what Made in China 2025 is designed to achieve. For this reason, China is unlikely ever to agree to roll back Made in China 2025 completely: The potential long-term economic costs are simply too high. The U.S. is more likely to convince China to make changes to the strategy if it focuses talks on the technicalities of the policy, rather than China's technological ambitions more generally. This may allow Washington to press Beijing to open Made in China 2025 for more participation by foreign companies. The strategy currently sets targets that 70 percent of core components in key technologies should be domestically-made by 2025, and the foreign business community has repeatedly complained that this is leading local governments to prevent overseas firms from bidding for contracts. China's large-scale government support for research and development and startups, however, is likely to be nonnegotiable. Beijing's overall support for innovation is almost certain to increase, not decrease. The past year has driven home to Beijing, just as much as Washington, that relying too much on foreign technology could have national security implications. In November 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce revealed that it was considering trying to curb exports of a wide range of strategic technologies from fields including artificial intelligence, robotics, microprocessors and quantum computing. If this policy became law, it would have profound consequences for the Chinese economy. China is still highly dependent on foreign technology in several areas. The country buys 27 percent of the world's industrial robots and imports $260 billion of semiconductors per year. Even the risk of a U.S. export ban or other restrictions on China's access to key technologies will force Beijing to accelerate the development of domestic technology firms. How Washington would react to remains to be seen. There will be those urging the White House to hit Beijing harder, in the hope of extracting further concessions. On this issue, however, the extra pressure may simply lead China to retreat further into its shell. The writer is managing editor of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) Knowledge. Time to set up better disaster prevention system The authorities deserve credit for swiftly bringing under control a wildfire that raged through Goseong County and Sokcho in eastern Gangwon Province, Thursday and Friday. They mobilized all available resources to battle the blaze and declared a national emergency. Previous forest fires in the province have shown how difficult it is to fight such a blaze. The mountainous areas are vulnerable to fire, particularly in the dry and windy springtime. Three major fires, which devastated the region along the east coast, all took place in April in 2000, 2005 and 2017. Last week's blaze is presumed to have started with a spark from an electric switching device on a power pole in Goseong. The flames spread quickly to Sokcho, aided by strong westerly winds blowing at a speed of up to 35 meters per second. Another fire also engulfed neighboring areas around Gangneung and Donghae. The fire killed one resident and injured 11 anothers. More than 400 houses and buildings were burned down. About 4,000 residents were forced to evacuate to makeshift shelters. The blaze was brought under control Friday afternoon after state and local authorities dispatched 820 fire trucks and 14 firefighting helicopters to the scene. Over 12,000 firefighters, soldiers and officials were also mobilized. Now it is time to make all-out efforts for damage recovery and restoration work. It was right for President Moon Jae-in to designate the fire-hit areas as special disaster zones. It is urgent to provide assistance to displaced residents to get back to normal as early as possible. The scale of the fire tells us how devastating it was. It burned around 530 hectares of forest, an area twice as large as Yeouido in Seoul. Of course this pales in comparison to the 2000 forest fire which ravaged 23,794 hectares of land in Goseong, Gangneung, Donghae, Samcheok and Uljin. It is fortunate the authorities succeeded in avoiding that level of devastation this time. But the fire is a reminder of the repeating "springtime nightmare." This should serve as an occasion for the nation to figure out why these wildfires continue to take place. The authorities should also take comprehensive measures to not only prevent fires but also improve firefighting capabilities. As mentioned above, the fire appeared to be caused by an electrical spark. If investigators confirm this, the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) may not be able to evade responsibility for poor management of its electricity transmission facilities. Potential negligence on the part of the utility operator should not be overlooked. That is why the government should establish a watertight network to prevent the occurrence of manmade disasters. It must also overhaul the country's firefighting system to better cope with frequent wildfires and building fires which claim lives due mainly to a lack of prevention and safety measures. Gangwon Province opened an east coast forest fire prevention center last November. Yet the center does not seem to be operating properly because of insufficient equipment and manpower. It has yet to buy firefighting helicopters, which can operate at night, due to the lack of funding. Lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties should stop their political bickering. They need to cooperate in allocating more outlays for central and local governments to purchase advanced firefighting equipment and hire more firefighters. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) Seventy people were arrested the Tenderloin district of San Francisco Wednesday in what police called a "fugitive recovery operation" in which people named in arrest warrants were the main targets, police said. Of those 70, 50 were wanted on outstanding arrest warrants issued in San Francisco, San Mateo, Siskiyou, Contra Costa, San Bernardino, Alameda, Napa and San Joaquin counties, as well as the cities of Redwood City, Pleasanton, Pleasant Hill, Santa Rose, Eureka and Belmont, for a wide variety of suspected charges. Others were taken into custody for parole or probation violations. Sixty-seven of the 70 people arrested were booked into the San Francisco County Jail; the other three were admitted to local hospitals for medical care. San Francisco Tenderloin Station officers led the operation, assisted by San Francisco Sheriff's deputies, California Department of Corrections parole agents and officers from San Francisco's Southern station. No officers or suspects were injured, police said. Wednesday's sweep was the latest in ongoing efforts led by Tenderloin Station officers to reduce crime in that district, police said. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. By Kim Ji-myung The names of three women the wife of Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho, Lee Myung-hee, and their two daughters Cho Hyun-ah and Cho Hyun-min, have now become household names in Korea. By any standard, the three women's rude behavior and morbid personalities have invited a limitless level of criticism from the public. Lee Myung-hee has come under investigation for physically assaulting employees. She and her daughter were also charged with the illegal hiring of foreign maids. The first daughter began this series of scandalous incidents with the "nut rage" affair more than four years ago in 2014. She was an executive vice president of Korean Air at the time. Hanjin Group is the largest shareholder of Korean Air. Last year, the second daughter also was charged for alleged violence toward employees. They are also charged with tax evasion by illicitly importing luxury items through private luggage, evading standard search procedures. Enraged, many citizens joined an online petition on the Cheong Wa Dae homepage demanding to usurp the title of Korea's "national flag carrier" from Korean Air, which is a nongovernment airline. The court turned down the warrant of confinement for Lee Myung-hee. Lee reportedly argued that she was an "ill patient" who needed a medical doctor, and not a criminal who should be punished. She submitted a medical doctor's statement diagnosing her as having "rage control disorder." While fully understanding the factors involved in the situation, I cannot but wonder if I am alone in feeling discomfort as I keep silently watching the whole evolving process of this scandalous incident. Acts of crime, which are violations of law, should be duly punished and rectified. Neglect of moral and ethical obligations as a decent citizen need to be fixed by reasonable and suitable ways. And yet, no one should be victimized by excessive exposure and emotive condemnation which exceeds justice. History has shown how people can easily fall into such a temporary fallacy through mass psychology. Was it really necessary for all the network and cable TV channels to show again and again the scenes of abusive words and violence, filmed by hidden cameras? We also have seen giant cover-page photos of Chairman Cho and the family standing as suspected criminals before entering the prosecutors' office for repeated questioning. If we talk about unpredictable acts of leaders, there is Donald Trump. "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" was published in 2017 and became a New York Times bestseller. "Mr. Trump, in the office of the presidency, is a danger to the nation and to the world," said editor Dr. Bandy Lee, a violence expert from Yale School of Medicine, on behalf of thousands of concerned professionals. But he added the principles of their professional ethics will be upheld, referring to the Goldwater rule, from Section 7 of the American Psychiatric Association: It is unethical for psychiatrists to give a professional opinion about public figures whom they have not examined in person, and from whom they have not obtained consent to discuss their mental health in public statements. Yet medical doctors in Korea are very often quoted by media about specific figures under investigation, for example, as in the case of the Korean Air family. In general, there seems to be no strict sense of ethical restraint. Meanwhile, Lee Su-jeong, professor of criminal psychology at Kyonggi University, reviewed Lee's 20-minute video clips. Prof. Lee diagnosed Lee with a personality disorder rather than a rage control disorder. She thought Lee's behavior varied depending on the targets. I doubt if this diagnosis came with any ethics principle in mind or the consent of Lee. What does the public gain from such comments? The consequences for the Cho family due to their crimes and tainted public image were grave. At the company's recent general meeting, shareholders removed Cho from the representative CEO's seat, the first such case in Korea. Yet this scandal raises the question of what good comes from such "villanization" and diagnosis of poorly behaving, powerful public figures. Will it serve as an example to persuade others not to act in such ways? Will it change the working conditions and mindset at the top of chaebol? We should be more careful to draw a clear line between deserved justice and sensationalized villainization, and to consider whether or not mass public shaming is productive. The writer ( ) is the chairperson of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). WATSONVILLE (BCN) A 23-year-old man was arrested Saturday morning at a Watsonville home after a police dog sniffed out 138 grams of heroin hidden under a floorboard and officers discovered four firearms, including an assault rifle. Andy Viorato-Briseno, of Watsonville, was taken into custody on suspicion of possession of narcotics while armed and possession of a controlled substance for sales. Viorato-Briseno's arrest came during two simultaneous narcotics search warrants served about 7 a.m. Saturday, at a home in the 800 block of Vista Montana Drive and another in the 1600 block of East Lake Avenue. During the search of the home on East Lake, a California Highway Patrol K-9 named Buddy alerted officers to the floorboard of a bedroom. Officers found 138.3 grams of heroin with a street value of $27,600. They also found an assault rifle, shotgun and two handguns at the home, as well as several rounds of ammunition, authorities said. Viorato-Briseno was arrested there and taken county jail. Officers recovered evidence of narcotic transactions from the Vista Montana Drive home, but no arrests were made there. The warrants came after Santa Cruz Count Gang Task Force officers conducted a three-month investigation into a group of people selling narcotics in the south county area. Due to information that the individuals were heavily armed, the Watsonville police Special Response Team and the Santa Cruz police Emergency Service Unit were on hand to serve the search warrant at the East Lake Avenue address. Authorities ask that anyone with information on the case or any other gang/narcotic related case, to please call the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Teams at (831) 454-2320. Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) Five senators from the United States have filed a measure seeking to drop the charges against Philippine Senator Leila De Lima and journalist Maria Ressa. Senators Edward Markey (Massachusetts), Marco Rubio (Florida), Richard Durbin (Illinois), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) and Chris Coons (Delaware) filed a bipartisan resolution Friday condemning alleged human rights abuses in the Philippines, citing De Lima and Ressa's cases. The senators denounced the government's efforts to arrest and detain "human rights defenders and political leaders who exercise their rights to freedom of expression" amid the ongoing war on drugs in the Philippines. De Lima, a vocal critic of President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug war, is currently detained for allegedly abetting an illegal drug trade during her term as justice secretary in the previous administration. She maintained her innocence and accused the government of fabricating the cases against her. Ressa, the CEO of news site Rappler, which the President has repeatedly slammed for its critical coverage of his administration, was slapped with multiple charges, totaling 11 complaints and cases. She has posted bail seven times. Ressa has repeatedly accused the government of "weaponizing the law" to silence its critics. "The Philippines is a close ally, but this bipartisan resolution makes it clear that the U.S. Congress seeks an immediate improvement in the government's behavior and the end of efforts to weaponize the rule of law against brave individuals like Senator Leila de Lima and Maria Ressa," Markey's statement said. Yoo Young-sang, second from right, head of SK Telecom's MNO business, and models distribute pamphlets to promote the firm's 5G services, in front of one of its stores in Gangnam, Friday. / Courtesy of SK Telecom By Jun Ji-hye SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus are engaged in a fierce battle to sign up new customers to their just-launched fifth-generation (5G) network services. But the competition is drawing criticism that the companies are merely depending on the number of new subscribers rather than competing to offer more substantial 5G services. The country's three mobile carriers launched the world's "first" commercial 5G mobile networks for a select group of customers Wednesday, just two hours before U.S. mobile carrier Verizon began its service. On Friday, the Korean firms started selling Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G, the world's first dedicated 5G smartphone. LG Uplus said it was going to offer subsidies of up to 475,000 won ($417) to new subscribers, which could drive down the price of the 256GB model to 850,000 won. The move came as the high price for the new device is considered a major barrier for the 5G market. "We offer the largest subsidies for the Galaxy S10 5G among domestic mobile carriers," an LG Uplus official said. "We decided to offer an unprecedented level of subsidies so more customers can experience our 5G services without the financial burden." In response, SK Telecom said later Friday it was going to upgrade its subsidies for the new smartphone to a maximum of 546,000 won, more than double its initial plan, fueling the competition to secure 5G customers. A customer buys a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G smartphone at a KT store in Seoul. / Courtesy of KT The mobile carriers are also encouraging retail store owners to promote sales. They have offered incentives in addition to existing rebates to retailers, industry sources said, citing internal documents from KT and LG Uplus. They said KT offered an additional 100,000 won as an incentive to smartphone retailers who sold Galaxy S10 5G models, Friday and Saturday, while LG Uplus provided an additional 270,000 won. Some sources said offering such incentives could be in violation of the law that restricts phone subsidies. The two mobile carriers have yet to clarify their position regarding this. A customer receives his Samsung Galaxy S10 5G smartphone at an LG Uplus store in Seoul. / Courtesy of LG Uplus The front gate of the GM Korea plant in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. / Yonhap China's Byton, foreign EVs set to be assembled in contract manufacturing By Nam Hyun-woo Domestic auto parts suppliers will buy a closed GM Korea plant in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, to assemble electric vehicles (EVs) for foreign brands, including China's Byton, according to industry officials Sunday. According to MS Autotech, a Hyundai Motor first-tier supplier, it will buy the plant from GM Korea for 113 billion won ($99.3 million) to run a contract manufacturing business for EVs. The deal will be closed June 29. MS Autotech's subsidiary Myoungshin will pay for the plant first, and members of a consortium led by MS Autotech will then repay it. Reportedly, six firms have joined the consortium, including Sejong Industrial, a domestic automobile exhaust system maker, and Future Mobility, a Chinese startup running EV brand Byton. The consortium will pour an additional 300 billion won into the plant and make 50,000 EVs in 2021. It plans to increase this to 150,000 by 2025. Though the firm said in a recent interview with a local newspaper that it is yet to conclude any contracts from automakers, industry analysts said the plant's portfolio will likely include Byton, given its participation in the consortium. MS Autotech has been supplying door, floor and frame parts to Hyundai Motor since its establishment in 1982. Since last year, the firm has been supplying parts to U.S. EV maker Tesla. Industry analysts said MS Autotech's move reflects the automobile industry trend of outsourcing the manufacturing process. "The deal seems to be a win-win for every involved party _ Chinese and other EV brands, MS Autotech and even Hyundai Motor," said Kim Phil-soo, a professor at Daelim University's Automotive Engineering Department. "MS Autotech chose the fine location of Gunsan, where carmakers' plants are making an industrial cluster. For Chinese and other EV brands, they can use the plant as a gateway for their exports, using Korea's well-established free trade agreements with major nations and the country's reputation for making quality products." Before MS Autotech, several Korean automobile and tech firms have teamed up with Chinese counterparts to build EV plants in Gunsan and the nearby area. Last month, Korea's SNK Motors announced it had partnered with China's Songuo Motors to build an EV plant capable of producing 100,000 vehicles a year in the region. Last year, Korean optical firm Nanos joined with China's Chery Automotive to build EVs in the region from 2021. "Along with other brands, MS Autotech will likely attempt to win EV contracts from Hyundai Motor," Kim said. "With Hyundai Motor and other carmakers suffering from high personnel expenses, MS Autotech's plan of becoming a contract manufacturer could be an attractive option for carmakers." General Motors shut GM Korea's Gunsan plant in May last year due to low utilization and the need to reduce outlays. GM holds a 77 percent stake in GM Korea, with the state-run Korea Development Bank and SAIC Motor Corp. controlling 17 percent and 6 percent, respectively. A Korea Electric Power Corp. utility pole stands in Toseong-myun, Goseong County, Gangwon Province, on Friday. The pole is suspected to be the starting point of a blaze, which spread over 5.3 square kilometers of land in the province during the weekend. Yonhap By Nam Hyun-woo Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) may be forced to pay compensation for damage caused by a massive forest fire, which engulfed many towns in Gangwon Province over the past two days, as one of its utility poles is suspected of starting the blaze, according to lawyers, Sunday. The fire started in Goseong County, Thursday night, and lasted for three days, burning an estimated 5.3 square kilometers of land in the neighboring areas of Sokcho, Gangneung and Inje. As of 4 a.m., Sunday, one person was reported dead and one injured. More than 1,880 facilities including 400 homes were burnt down. Though it is too soon to calculate the full extent of the damage caused by the fire, losses from damaged agricultural facilities alone were estimated at 5.2 billion won ($4.6 million). The fire authority suspects a KEPCO utility pole in Goseong triggered the blaze. KEPCO said a circuit breaking device on the pole is assumed to be the starting point, but it was "uncertain whether the device's malfunction caused the first spark or an external factor caused the first spark." Currently, the National Forensic Service and fire authorities are investigating the cause of the fire. Lawyers said KEPCO could be held responsible for the fire if the state-run power distributor is found to have poorly managed the device. "Both civil and criminal liabilities can be filed against KEPCO, if it was found to have failed to manage the device safely," lawyer Ha Jong-sun of Barun Law said. According to related laws: "if any damages are caused to another person by reason of any defect in the construction or maintenance of a structure, the person in possession of the structure shall be liable for such damages." Currently, the government has designated the damaged area as a special disaster zone, which is subject to aid and subsidies from the central government. Up to 9 million won in subsidies are available for those whose homes have been damaged by the disaster, but people are saying the amount is too small to cover their losses. Lawyers said, however, If KEPCO is found to be accountable for the fire, victims can file damage suits against the power distributor, citing the case of an earthquake in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. Last month, a government-led research team concluded that the 2017 earthquake was triggered by a government project running a geothermal power plant nearby. Following the announcement, multiple damage suits were filed against the government, with the anticipated compensation swelling to 9 trillion won. "If KEPCO is found accountable for the fire, there could be another legal battle over defining the scope of damage KEPCO is liable to pay to victims," another lawyer at a Seoul-based law firm said. "However, further forecasts will only be available only after the investigation of the cause." Lawyers said the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. in the U.S. can be a reference to this case. In January, the firm filed for bankruptcy protection because of the tens of billions of dollars in lawsuits filed by victims of massive fires in 2018 in California after state investigators determined that the firm's equipment was the cause of the fires. A five-hour drive from San Francisco, Carrizo Plain National Monument in southeastern San Luis Obispo County is exploding with wildflowers and may be the easiest spot for Bay Area residents to experience a so-called "super bloom." The flats of the 246,812-acre park and the nearby foothills of the Temblor Range are awash in color, and the blooms include coral bells, apricot mallow, blazing star, meadow foam, chia, Chinese houses, desert blue bells and baby blue eyes, to name a few. This is the best flower display the national monument has seen since 2017 when more than 80,000 people flocked to see its hillsides and meadows with flowers as far as the eye can see. This year's spectacle isn't quite as extraordinary as two years ago, experts say, but the images above show it's still spectacular. ALSO: Why wildflower explosions known as super blooms don't happen in Northern California After a winter marked by soaking storms, an eruption of wildflowers is coating the Southern California landscape in brilliant color. The region's deserts are conducive to native flowers because invasive grasses that push out wildflowers can't survive in the arid climate. In Northern California where winters are rainy, exotic plants thrive and drown out the wildflowers. Most of the flower hot spots are a day's drive for Bay Area residents. Lake Elsinore, where a poppy explosion has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors, is at least a 7.5 hour drive and traffic is bound to be bad as you approach Los Angeles. Carrizo Plain is a vast, remote area off the I-5 near Bakersfield and can also be accessed via the 101 near San Luis Obispo. It is the largest single native grassland remaining in California, according to The Nature Conservancy, and the San Andreas Fault cuts right through it. I opened my email on April 4 and saw my monthly "Your Rapid Rewards Report" email from Southwest Airlines. Because I've been traveling more than usual, I've been checking it every month. What I saw when I scrolled down past my meager amount of Rapid Rewards points shocked and confused me. Then, it excited me. "Companion Pass achieved!" the third section of the email exclaimed. The airline informed me that I had achieve the status, which allows flyers to designate a companion who can travel with them for free, even to international destinations, through the end of the year. I didn't know what I'd done to earn such a distinction, one of the most elite for Southwest's faithful. Although I've traveled more recently, I'm definitely not a jet-setter. I don't have a Southwest credit card, so that definitely wasn't it. None of that mattered, though. I felt like a high roller. I was planning jaunts with my partner to the Caribbean, to Mexico, maybe back to Belize since we loved it so much when we visited this December. "Ooo, I know!" I though to myself. "We'll visit our cousins in Hawaii!" But there was one problem: Southwest had made a mistake. The airline incorrectly notified me and thousands of its Rapid Rewards members according The Points Guy, only to send out an email on April 6 apologizing for their mistake. "Your email may have incorrectly state that you had achieved Companion Pass status," the email read. "We regret the confusion caused by the email and are reviewing the cause of the error." The email added: "We recognize that this wasn't the best way to start your weekend." No, duh. No longer was I bound to jet set around Southwest's destinations all over the Western Hemisphere. I was relegated back to my lowly status as a regular Rapid Rewards member. No Companion Pass, No A-List just Drew. I wasn't the only person who expressed regret at being given a Companion Pass and then having it taken away. "Really unfair of @SouthwestAir to play their #AprilFoolsDay joke on April 6th," wrote Richard Benedict on Twitter. "Notified that I had earned "Companion Pass" level, I was making plans to take @cjbplus3 to Hawaii for our May anniversary. Just learned it was all a hoax." But it wasn't an April Fools Joke, though Southwest are pretty good at those. It was an honest mistake. "I was going through my emails this morning. Got super excited about a companion pass. Then I read today's email saying it was error. @SouthwestAir breaking my heart today," wrote @HTWN_MARK. Someone named Nicole, writing from Southwest's Twitter account responded to the tweet, "We're so sorry for the mix up, Mark. We hope for better experience going forward." The company was responding to people who got the mistaken status conferral throughout the weekend, offering apologies like they did to @HTWN_MARK, posting self-deprecating gifs, and even offering one customer two free checked bags on their next flight (we assume in addition to the two free checked bags they already offer). Check out the slideshow above to see how people took to Twitter to express frustration, sadness, and grief over gaining Companion Pass status, only to have it taken away. JERUSALEM Israels election campaign has been a three-month roller coaster of mudslinging, scandals and more scandals. But when voters head to the polls Tuesday, one name will be predominantly on their minds: Benjamin Netanyahu. At its core, the vote boils down to a referendum on Netanyahu, the man who has been at the center of Israeli politics for the better part of three decades. A victory would propel him into the record books later this year as the longest-serving Israeli prime minister, surpassing founding father David Ben-Gurion. A loss would probably end his career just as he is enjoying the limelight at the vanguard of a rising global movement of tough-talking nationalist world leaders led by his close friend President Trump. Israels standing internationally has never been as solid as it is right now. International leaders are lining up to visit Israel and meet with the prime minister, said Yechiel Leiter, former Netanyahu chief of staff and now a senior fellow at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative Jerusalem think tank. Everyone knows Bibi wherever you go. Netanyahus impassioned supporters revere him as larger-than-life King Bibi, friend of powerful world leaders and guarantor of Israels security in a tough neighborhood. His opponents revile him as a corrupt hedonist who has divided the country by inciting against Arabs and whose policies toward the Palestinians are leading Israel off a cliff. In the final days of the campaign, the race appears too close to call as Netanyahu faces a strong challenge from Benny Gantz, a popular former army chief. Polls show Netanyahus Likud party and Gantzs new Blue and White party neck and neck. The surveys give Likud a slight advantage in being able to put together a governing coalition with smaller, like-minded parties. Though he is an Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated millionaire who speaks flawless English, Netanyahu has managed to portray himself as an outsider and underdog. He says he is persecuted by journalists, judges and other hostile elites in a message that endears him to his religious, working class political base. Netanyahus campaign has focused heavily on smearing opponents as weak leftists, routinely saying they are conspiring with the countrys Arab parties against him. Opponents accuse him of incitement and demonizing Israels Arab minority, which makes up roughly 20 percent of the population. Its a formula that has worked before and this time, he has an added Trump card. Since taking office, Trump has bolstered Netanyahu, recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians. All but endorsing Netanyahu, Trump hosted him at the White House last month and recognized Israels annexation of the occupied Golan Heights. Over the weekend, Netanyahu announced that if re-elected, he would move to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a step that would likely erase the last hopes of a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Josef Federman is an Associated Press writer. HAVANA More than 400 animal-lovers, many accompanied by their pets, peacefully marched a mile through Havana on Sunday, waving placards calling for an end to animal cruelty in Cuba. The short, seemingly simple march also represented a small but significant line in the history of modern Cuba. The socialist government explicitly permitted a public march unassociated with any part of the all-encompassing Communist state, a move that participants and historians call highly unusual and perhaps unprecedented since the first years of the revolution. There is no indication Cuba is moving toward unfettered freedom of assembly: The state still clamps down on unapproved political speech with swift and huge police mobilizations, waves of arrests and temporary detentions. For nearly 60 years, virtually every aspect of life has been part of a single chain of command ending in a supreme leader named Castro. Its unprecedented, said Alberto Gonzalez, a co-organizer of the march and publisher of the Ark, an online Cuban animal-lovers magazine. This is going to mark a before and an after. Since shortly after its foundation, the Cuban Communist government has only permitted the existence of what it calls legitimate civil society groups overseen and managed by the state and Communist Party. Those groups are fixtures in mass marches and gatherings organized by the state on public holidays. On the other end of the spectrum are dissident groups, often with close ties to anti-Castro forces in Miami who want to overthrow the socialist government and reinstall a capitalist system with close ties to Washington. Their attempts at street protests and other forms of organizing are almost instantly quashed by state security. The animal rights march is part of a wider change in the relationship between the Cuban state and independent civil society Cubans trying to effect change in their society while making clear to everyone, particularly the authorities, that they have no interest in crossing the red line known as politics. In the year since Raul Castro handed the presidency to longtime party technocrat Miguel Diaz-Canel in April 2018, churches, civil society groups and loose associations of like-minded acquaintances have been organizing for various causes, and the state has been ceding them a small degree of freedom to operate. Michael Weissenstein is an Associated Press writer. Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, known as Africa's richest man, told a forum in Ivory Coast on Saturday how he once took $10 million in cash out of the bank just to look at it and get it into his head that this was real money, not just figures on paper. "When you're young your first million is important, but after, the numbers don't mean much," Dangote, a manufacturing tycoon with a range of companies spanning cement to flour, told the Mo Ibrahim forum in Abidjan. "One day, I cashed 10 million, put them in the boot of my car I put it in my room. I looked at them and thought 'now I believe I have money' and took it back to the bank the next day," he told his audience. Anecdotes aside, Dangote said that the two most promising sectors for Africa's future were agriculture and new technologies. But he advised young African entrepreneurs not to get carried away by the first flush of success. "Often in Africa we spend our projected incomes. There are ups and downs" in business, he warned. Dangote said he regretted the customs and administrative problems that hamper business development throughout the continent. As an example he cited the difficulties his cement group faces in exporting to Benin from Nigerian factories 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the border. Benin imported "more expensive" cement from China instead. (AFP) WASHINGTON The Trump administration is preparing to designate Irans Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organization, an unprecedented move against a national armed force that could have widespread implications for U.S. personnel and policy in the Middle East and elsewhere. Officials informed of the step said an announcement was expected Monday, after a months-long escalation in the administrations rhetoric against Iran, its support for militia groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, as well as anti-Israel groups in the region and beyond. It would be the first such designation by any American administration of an entire foreign government entity, although portions of the Guard, notably its elite Quds Force, have been targeted previously by the United States. Two U.S. officials and a congressional aide confirmed the planned move. They spoke on condition of anonymity. Irans foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, seemed to anticipate the designation, saying in a tweet Sunday that President Trump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster. The designation, planning for which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes with sanctions, including freezes on assets the Guard may have in U.S. jurisdictions and a ban on Americans doing business with it. Although the Guard has broad control and influence over the Iranian economy, such penalties from the U.S. may have limited impact. The designation, however, could significantly complicate U.S. military and diplomatic work, notably in Iraq, where many Shiite militias and Iraqi political parties have close ties to the Guard. In Lebanon, the designation could further restrict with whom U.S. officials can interact. The Guard has close ties to Hezbollah, which is part of the Lebanese government. Hezbollah is already designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Its presence in Lebanons parliament and executive branch have forced the U.S. to avoid any contact with Hezbollah members even as the U.S. continues to provide assistance the Lebanese army. Without exclusions or waivers to the designation, U.S. troops and diplomats could be barred from contact with Iraqi or Lebanese authorities who interact with Guard officials or surrogates. The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies have raised concerns about the impact of the designation. Those concerns have in part dissuaded previous administrations from taking the step. In addition, American commanders are concerned that the designation may prompt Iran to retaliate against U.S. forces in the region. Matthew Lee and Susannah George are Associated Press writers. Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP / Getty Images PARIS Protesters from the yellow vest movement took to the streets of France on Saturday for a 21st straight weekend, with thousands marching across Paris and a group briefly invading the busy beltway around the capital. Riot police rounded up the protesters on the beltway and fired a round of tear gas, apparently to stop others from entering a ramp onto the road. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If you want to stay overnight in the iconic glass pyramid at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, Airbnb is offering two fans this opportunity at the end of April. The vacation rental service and the Louvre partnered to allow two guests to see what happens inside the museum after hours for one night only on April 30. As the sun sets on Paris, the winning duo will make their way to the museum where they will be greeted by an art-historian, who will take them on a bespoke tour, like those previously given to the Obamas, Beyonce and Jay-Z, said Airbnb in a press release. Two guests can enter to have the opportunity to stay the night at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, in partnership with Airbnb. (Courtesy of Julian Abrams) The museum will be transformed into a magical home for one night. For the first time ever, art-lovers can cozy up to priceless masterpieces, including the Mona Lisa, and sleep under the iconic glass pyramid in a mini-pyramid that is specifically designed to celebrate the buildings 30th anniversary. We are happy to offer this unique and special experience for two people to stay in the museum overnight, in a bespoke pyramid shaped bedroom, said Anne-Laure Beatrix, deputy managing director of the Musee du Louvre. After a private tour of the museum, guests can enjoy a pre-dinner drink with Mona Lisa, have dinner made by personal chef, and then relax during an intimate acoustic concert. We know that many people would love the opportunity to wander alone at night through the Louvre and we want this to be a magical and unforgettable experience," said Beatrix. "With Airbnbs partnership, we hope to encourage more people to discover how truly accessible and inspiring the wonders of art can be. Heres how you can enter to win. Go to airbnb.com/louvre before April 12 and answer this question: Why would you be the Mona Lisas perfect guest? One winner will be selected -- who can then bring a guest. Two guests can enter to have the opportunity to stay the night at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, in partnership with Airbnb. (Courtesy of Julian Abrams) FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Casandra Properties CEO James Prendamano recently received two mayoral appointments with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). He was appointed director of the New York City Industrial Development Agency (NYCIDA), which provides financing assistance to businesses, including small industrial and manufacturing companies. In addition, he was made a member of Build NYC Resource Corporation (Build NYC), which is a conduit bond issuer administered by NYCEDC and assists qualified not-for-profit institutions and other entities in obtaining tax-exempt and taxable bond financing. Prendamano will complete three-year terms serving on both boards while taking on these new roles. As a supporter of economic development and real estate on Staten Island, both appointments were made at the recommendation of Staten Island Borough President James Oddo. I am confident that James will serve the city and Staten Island well in these roles. He has actively participated in the renaissance on Staten Island and seen both the housing landscape and business landscapes change, and he has been a part of that. His expertise will be an important part of the NYCIDA and Build NYC, said Borough President James Oddo. Said Prendamano: I am extremely excited to receive these appointments. I look forward to serving with dignity and distinction alongside my fellow board members. Being a lifelong Staten Island resident, it has always been my passion to serve my community. Serving in this capacity will allow me to raise awareness and connect the dots these amazing programs offer to Staten Island and New York City. APRIL 1In what seems to be a huge reversal in previous policy and operating procedures, Extinction Oil & Gas is finally responding to the thousands of complaints received about the health and environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Starting in late 2019, said a spokesperson for the company, for every mineral lease agreement signed, we will give two free bottles of Booste-brand oxygen to each participant, along with a coupon book for Jumba Juice. Thats healthy, right? Booste Oxygen is a canned, compressed oxygen product that is frequently sold in Boulder County for flatlanders and sea-level weenies visiting their children and grandchildren who attend CU Boulder. The cans are sold along Pearl Street and in various stores to help visitors survive three days at Boulders 5345-foot altitude without feeling like their lungs are going to explode or cave in. Cans typically retail for about $8, and the coupon books were donated by Jumba Juice. We think this is a fair compromise, said the spokesperson. People complain about how fracking destroys air quality and poisons the water supply. We see this as a win-win. We may be poisoning the air, but then you have your very own canned air, at least for a few days. Of course, then you have to buy your own. The spokesperson pointed out that the average annual payout for mineral lease owners is about $150, which would cover the purchase of about 18 more cans of Booste Oxygen. Thats, like, oxygen for over two weeks, asserted the spokesperson. If thats not value, I dont know what is. As far as the water supply goes, each person that signs their mineral rights away will also be receiving a fantastic book of coupons for Jumba Juice. That way, youre getting juice and stuff, so do you really need clean water? The coupon books contain 10 coupons each and expire on Dec. 31, 2019. Thats also healthy, stated the spokesperson, because were not issuing these until late 2019, which means youll have to run down to your nearest Jumba Juice to redeem those coupons before they expire. Running is healthy, and were really trying to accomodate fracking critics here. Running to get a delicious juicy drink and carrying around your own oxygen? Its almost like fracking is better for your health than no fracking. Think about it. NEW YORK (AP) The New York Police Department is looking for a woman who authorities say left the scene of a collision that sent a teenage pedestrian hurtling into the street. Authorities say the woman was driving a black Dodge Challenger with Georgia license plates on 47th Street in Brooklyn in the afternoon of March 27th and struck a 14-year-old girl in the crosswalk at the intersection of 9th Avenue. Video of the incident shows the girl getting lifted off the ground and pushed practically into oncoming traffic. Authorities say the woman initially got out, but left when onlookers called 911. The teen was taken to the hospital with bruising to her chest and legs. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. For the loved ones of Jeanine Cammarata, the worst fears have been realized: The charred, barely recognizable human remains found in a plastic bin in an Arden Heights storage facility were that of the missing PS 29 teacher. Quickly on the heels of that revelation came the charging of Cammaratas estranged husband, Michael, and his pregnant girlfriend, Ayisha Egea, with second-degree murder. None of us know yet what actually happened. We dont know if Michael Cammarata and Egea are guilty of any crime. Were going to find out. But Jeanine Cammaratas horrific murder makes me think of all those murder cases that spring from domestic situations, the kind of scenarios that we see on true-life crime shows on television. A woman disappears. Shes later found murdered. A husband or ex-husband or fiance or boyfriend is arrested. Too many times, a man in a womans life is responsible for her death. Staten Island had its own version of this not long ago. Michael Sykes last year was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the hotel stabbing murder of his girlfriend and two babies, a vicious crime that came to be known as the Ramada massacre. And we hear about these cases from across the country all the time. One of the most heinous recent ones was the murder of pregnant Colorado mom Shanann Watts and her two young daughters. The culprit turned out to be husband and dad Chris Watts. He buried his wife in a shallow grave and dumped the bodies of his own daughters in oil tanks at the facility where he worked. Why cant people just break up? I know that tempers run hot when a husband and wife arent getting along. I know that a divorce can be soul-killing. I know that sharing custody of children can be wrenching for all involved, particularly the kids themselves. These situations rarely bring out the best in people. When you separate from somebody after having children with them, theyre never really out of your life. And that can bring all kinds of nastiness bubbling to the surface. Few people ever think theyve gotten treated fairly in a divorce. Many of us have seen this with our own family members and friends. But no matter how much the other person drives you crazy, murder isnt the answer. And nothing is worth jail. By all accounts, Jeanine and Michael Cammarata had a tempestuous relationship. Michael had custody of the two children that the couple had together. Jeanine, who had another child with a different man, had had an order of protection against her estranged husband. Before being charged with murder, Michael Cammarata had been arrested and charged with assault, stalking and harassment in relation to his ex-wife. The case soon grew even more tawdry: Egea was at one time the Cammaratas live-in babysitter on Staten Island. She reportedly had some legal trouble while living in Florida. Perfect fodder for tabloid television. You can hear the narrator voice-over now. Here's another thing that a case like this makes me think: In this world of constant video surveillance, cellphone records that pinpoint your location by the second and computerized credit card receipts, how can anyone hope to get away with murder? Its been reported that someone appearing to be Michael Cammarata was captured on camera along with another person lugging a heavy object from his home in Queens to the Island storage facility. A similar video was the icing on the cake for Chris Watts too. I guess these guys never watched Snapped: Killer Couples. Or even Law and Order. Now the criminal justice system will sort it all out. Jeanine Cammaratas three children will have to grow up without a mother. Two of them face the possibility of learning that their dad killed their mom. Why cant people just walk away? To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! National Australia Bank is in discussions with two Israeli artificial intelligence and biometrics groups about ways to further the banks big data capabilities and to protect customers from emerging types of financial crime. NAB is mulling a relationship with the biometrics specialist group to further develop the ways it identifies suspect behaviour by cyber criminals, and it has already run a pilot program with the group that is yet to be revealed. NAB chief customer experience officer Rachel Slade says the bank is exploring ways to improve customer outcomes and protections. The bank has also held talks with another Israeli group, Sparkbeyond, which has created a software platform that allows corporate users to combine internal data sets and external sources of data (such as government data or other customer service related data) to identify problems and formulate millions of possible hypotheses to find solutions. Sparkbeyond chief operating officer Amir Haramaty told a recent trade delegation to Israel sponsored by the Australian Israel Chamber of Commerce that the company was "close to working with NAB". The heads of prominent Australian manufacturing businesses say it is not yet possible to quantify the financial impact of Labors proposed emissions plan, but some warn the added pressure could leave them little choice but to shift investment offshore. Emissions-intensive manufacturers are set to be among the hardest-hit under the Oppositions expanded carbon-reduction plan, which sets new emissions limits for businesses that emit more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon a year in a bid to slash national emissions by 45 per cent by 2030. Ruffy Geminder from Pact group. Credit:Josh Robenstone Mr Shorten has promised to provide "tailored treatment" to certain trade-exposed businesses and to consult with industry leaders. "They are promising to talk to people, which is good, but we need more detail," said Lindsay Partridge, the chief executive of Brickworks, Australias largest brick manufacturer. These new laws, and the hasty process to implement them, provoked outrage from a lot of groups, amid fears they could ensnare more than just the social media giants they're intended for. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, organisations representing the print and broadcast media industries, and the Law Council all expressed serious misgivings. The question was worth asking last week after new laws proposed in the wake of the Christchurch massacre that could see social media executives jailed and tech companies hit with multibillion-dollar fines if they fail to prevent the spread of abhorrent content online were rushed through Parliament. US tech giants are deeply out of favour with politicians all around the world, and Australia is no exception. Credit:Glenn Hunt These are some of the descriptions current and former high-level political staffers give you when you ask them about the influence and standing of tech lobbyists in Canberra. But for the local tech community it was a particularly bitter pill to swallow. It was just the latest in a lengthening list of policy defeats the community has suffered in recent times. There was the defeat over encryption laws last year. Before that, the clawing back of research and development tax breaks and changes to the rules over highly skilled migration. Loading Part of the problem is that in Canberra, "tech" more often than not means the branch offices of the US tech giants (think Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple). After all, these are the most substantial tech businesses operating in Australia. They employ thousands of people, generate billions of dollars in revenue and make products used by millions. They are also deeply out of favour with politicians all around the world, and Australia is no exception. "There is so little respect for them," one Canberra source says of Big Tech. "Their kneejerk reaction to everything is 'regulation won't solve this'. But the government is jack of it." The succession of recent scandals involving tech companies, and their fierce resistance to regulation (including over taxation) are finally coming home to roost. The local branches of Big Tech firms (government relations staff often report regional to offices in Singapore, and don't have major clout with headquarters in the US) are proving ill-equipped to deal with the backlash. There isn't a household on earth that does not have its own peculiar brand of familial politics. Throw in a few billion dollars, immense power and the spectre of worldwide fame, and such issues take on entirely different dimensions. The second Murdoch family, from left: Lachlan, James, Anna, Elisabeth and Rupert. For starters, we all get to read about them, which for this particular family, the Murdochs, is somewhat ironic, given they have built a global empire based on writing about other people. But there it was, splashed out in a 20,000 word piece in the New York Times, the Murdochs and all their dirty laundry being given an international airing, with such juicy tidbits as James and Lachlan Murdoch barely on speaking terms. Last week PS had a ringside seat at a rare reunion of the all-powerful, all-wealthy Murdoch family here in Sydney, after the cover was blown on a secret dinner at Bondi's Icebergs to celebrate Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch's 20th wedding anniversary. The Australian consumer watchdog has warned parents to keep a Fisher-Price sleeper "out of reach of children" following reports it has been linked with at least 10 infant deaths in the US since 2015. The babies all died after rolling over while in the Rock 'n Play sleeper, which is available for sale in Australia. Fisher-Price Auto Rock 'n Play Sleeper. A spokesperson for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it was not aware of any injuries or deaths in Australia associated with the product, but it was being investigated "as a matter of priority". "The ACCC urges parents with this product to keep it out of reach of children," the spokesperson said. "We are always concerned by reports such as those we are seeing from the US." It is a secret that Australian army nurses from World War Two took to their graves. One was told by the Australian government to make no mention of violation by the Japanese in her statement before the war crimes tribunal. Now author Lynette Silver, known as "the history detective", has pulled together all the evidence and says categorically that 22 nurses were raped before they were forced into the sea and machine-gunned. Only one survived. "The history detective": Lynette Silver. Credit:Penny Bradfield Lynette Silver said whenever she talked to other nurses, the issue of molestation was the elephant in the room. "It was the subject nobody wanted to raise. They said to me on several occasions there are some things we have agreed to never talk about, but they wouldn't say what it was. "That secret they were keeping was the fact that the 21 Australian nurses with Vivian Bullwinkel, the sole survivor, on the beach at Radji were raped. Although there has been speculation for years there has never been quite enough evidence to say this happened for sure because the nurses denied it. Surely it is a retrograde step for Gladys Berejiklian to abolish the Office of Environment and Heritage (Premier moves swiftly to shake-up bureaucracy, April 6-7). We face a climate crisis and a critical need to move the economy away from fossil fuels to renewables. Which minister will deal with these matters? On the positive side, the abolition of the UrbanGrowth Development Corporation is probably a good thing. The city is reaching its limits when it comes to urban growth. - Jenny Goldie, Cooma With the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage and their responsibilities now bestowed upon NSW Planning, we punters can only shake our collective heads. When will Berejiklian comprehend that independent representation as it relates to all facets of planning is critical to wise decisions and comprehend that big is not necessarily better? - Susan Cowell, Mosman The government has been elected with a radical agenda that was not disclosed during the election campaign. They have barely exited the election and the Premier has announced the disbanding of important departments and agencies. This will surely be of huge benefit to wealthy developers but not so good for the people of NSW. - Scott Pickford, Rosemeadow I dont recall this being touted as a vote-winner during the campaign, and the Premier has not even bothered justifying it. It is Abbottesque behaviour that smacks of suppressing advice they dont want. Every time they say less red tape on environmental decisions it means more freedom to pillage our precious heritage. It will be nearly impossible for advice that doesnt toe the party line to reach cabinet through the layers of industry, treasury and party hacks. - Ian Brown, Mount Victoria Now that our population is increasingly based on new migrants and their families, it is not unexpected to find that recognition for the value of cultural heritage and natural environment is diminished. - Geoff Ford, Wahroonga My first thought on reading of this reorganisation of the public service was who has fallen for the job of transport supremo? Sir Humphrey described it as a poisoned chalice, and it was only after the reorganisation threatened services and jobs in the PMs constituency that Jim Hacker was able to renege on his acceptance of the position. Public servants will have noted that the Premier fudged when asked about job losses, and said that there would be no losses in regional NSW. Time will tell if the changes will result in greater efficiency and better service to the public. - James Moore, Kogarah The uncertain election date farce Prime Minister Morrisons delay in calling an election in order to ensure a taxpayer-funded spruik of a budget that was not even debated in Parliament provides a compelling case for the reform of parliamentary rules. A fixed term, a federal ICAC, an overhaul of donations and perks, etc. The delay will also increase voter cynicism and disenchantment and cause a surge in votes for minor parties, even One Nation. - Tom Dobinson, Tweed Heads Isnt it timely to require the government, whoever it is, to set a firm date for elections? This pantomime which happens every time wherein the PM of the day hides when he is calling the election is old hat and due for a change. What a farce we are experiencing right now, will he today, nor wont he today, or maybe tomorrow etc! At least most states set a definite date. - Max Press, Turramurra So the Morrison government thinks it has a $5 billion war chest to buy seats at the election (Morrison to unleash $5b poll splurge, April 6-7). Correction Mr Morrison. That is taxpayer money to be spent for the good of the country, not yours to buy the votes. And MPs wonder why so many of us have nothing but contempt for such behaviour, and for holding off calling the election so that yet more taxpayer funds can be spent on puff TV advertising. - Peta Colebatch, Pretty Beach With all our money being splashed around in opening up and closing down Christmas Island Offshore Detention Centre and our money being splashed around to the tune of $600,000 a day in spruiking government departments for doing what we pay them to do, it is no wonder that we mere mortals in cuckoo land view the whole charade in delaying any election announcement as just another example of tacky political weasel words, tricky tactics and contempt of the public purse. - Peter Phillipson, Fingal Bay With so much cash to expend on events like PM Morrisons photo opportunity on Christmas Island and the subsequent reopening of this facility and, given the assertion that well be Back in the Black, one might think that now would be an opportune time to offer a sweetener to those pensioners who were affected by the decision to lower the assets threshold limit. Still listening! Perhaps I need new hearing aids? - Jane Fischer, Adamstown Heights I have some questions for Josh Frydenberg and Mathias Cormann who claim to have achieved such a wonderful economic outcome, just in time for the election. If our economy is in such good shape, why are three million people, including 739,000 children, living below the poverty line? (ACOSS figures). Why are our streets lined with beggars and homeless people (Older women falling into homelessness, April 5)? Why are charities stretched to the limits trying to give people a hand up? Have all these 3 million people simply refused to have a go in order to get a go or are many of these people employed casually and desperately looking for more hours of work? - Diana Evans, Lindfield I have twice been the recipient of Australian kindness and goodwill. First, in 1968 when my family and I came to Australia as Ten Pound Poms and again in 1972 when I received a Commonwealth scholarship which enabled me to study medicine. Now, we cut our overseas aid budget, keep the JobStart allowance well below the poverty line, incarcerate asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island and sit on our hands while Australian children are held in refugee camps in northern Syria. I would like vote for a party which espouses those values, but I dont think there is one. - Anne Hellman, Beecroft PMs tears are too much The royal commission is welcome, but to have a prime minister now crying on television, even though it could be genuine, when his government has reduced many carers and their loved ones to tears of rage and frustration for many years is a bit too much to bear (PM chokes back tears over inquiry into disability abuse, April 6-7). As a voter I have a long memory. - Stephanie Berick, Adamstown Healthy minds and bodies If around 40,000 Australian women per year get breast implants, then many women are going to be concerned about contracting a rare form of cancer at some stage (Pressure to ban textured breast implants after link with cancer, April 6-7). There needs to be more discussions among men and boys, and women and girls about body image and sexuality, and why so many women opt for surgical augmentation. - Julie Robinson, Cardiff What safety net? Your correspondent (Letters, April 6-7) in reference to the Kimberley-Clarke announcement of its production closure cites lower tax rates in China and South Korea. My son has lived and worked in South Korea for 15 years. The income tax rate is low, but there is no safety net and definitely no workers rights or protections. It is not unusual for construction workers to work day and night. - Alison Supple, Corindi Beach Keeping the ferries afloat Last weekend, on a balmy night, I watched a fantastic performance of West Side Story against the backdrop of our beautiful harbour. I saw the Manly ferry cruise past such an iconic feature of our harbour city. I smiled fondly as it passed until I remembered that the privatised operator intends to decommission the Freshwater class of ferries. Do not add the Manly ferry to the long list of sacrifices to the pursuit of profit (for the private sector) over everything else (Backlash on plan to retire Manly fleet, April 6-7). - Kay Huntsman, Annandale To have lived at Hurlstone Park, six train stops from Redfern, during my university days would have been bliss (Letters, April 6-7). Forty years ago it often took over two hours to get from Sydney University to Freshwater in the late evening much of it spent waiting for, and on, a Manly ferry. Back then, the fast, fabulous Italian-made hydrofoils shut early. Today, the last fast ferry is 8.55pm. Thereafter, its a similar large, slow, mainly empty ferry still running at 45 minute intervals. Keep the slow Freshwater ferries for tourists by all means, but ferry commuters deserve faster, more frequent services. I do not lament the loss of the Manly ferries. - Peter Egan, Artarmon Fall of mighty Gough Im a Labor supporter, but the lights in the House of Representatives dimmed a little when Christopher Pyne left this place. I took his comments about having to get his own lemon for his gin and tonic to be a note of self-deprecation (Letters, April 6-7). Not appreciating self-deprecation and irony are two of the deficiencies in our culture that contributed to the fall of the mighty Gough. - Tom Mangan, Woy Woy Bay Your correspondent was incorrect in saying Gough Whitlam opened his budget reply speech with the line women and men of Australia (Letters, April 6-7). He said men and women of Australia. How times change! - Joy Johnston, Belrose It is obvious the importance of women in Australia has moved up a notch, at least in the ALP. - Greg Thomas, Annandale Hitler v Sunday roast Elizabeth Farrelly clearly enjoys baiting vegetarians (Too much wellbeing is making us sick, April 6-7). Its a very long bow to suggest vegetarianism in this century is rooted in last centurys Nazism and eugenics. Many events share features but are not necessarily related and Im yet to meet a right-wing vegetarian let alone a Nazi one. - James Buckman, Enmore A former political adviser for Gladys Berejiklian, who exited her role for publicly protesting against the lockout laws, will fight for the Federal seat of Sydney against Tanya Plibersek. Jacqui Munro, who has been announced as the Liberal candidate for the Division of Sydney, was a political adviser for the then-treasurer Gladys Berejiklian in 2016 before leaving the role a month after she was spotted donning a 'Keep Sydney Open' shirt and protesting in a rally led by the group. Jacqui Munro has been preselected as the Liberal candidate for the Division of Sydney. Credit:Edwina Pickles "We both agreed that it wasnt tenable to have me continue in the role and thats just the way it is," said the 28-year-old. "We agreed that I didnt have a role anymore through the office. Ms Berejiklian's office declined to comment on Ms Munro's exit in 2016. Flynn Poppleton is already an accomplished musician, spending up to an hour each day practising. But the 12-year-old can now add beating 18-year-olds to his list of accomplishments after winning the International Jazz Day composition event. Naomi Nogawa-Lewy, a year four student at Summer Hill Public School, was equally chuffed. The judge, renowned American jazz musician Herbie Hancock, was so taken by her entry he declared her a joint winner of the competition open to kindergarten to year 12 students nationwide. When Flynns mother told him hed won, he thought she was joking, but as the news finally sank in, it was a dream coming to life," he said. Students Flynn Poppleton, 12, and Naomi Nogawa-Lewy, 9, are winners of the International Jazz Day composition competition. Credit:Wolter Peeters Music has been a large part of Flynn's life, having joined the Newtown Public School band in kindergarten - playing the drums and the trumpet. This award has allowed the youngster to play and share his love of music with jazz musician, James Morrison, one of Flynn's idols. Animal rights activists who "invade" farms will now be slapped with an on-the-spot fine by police or department officials, after mounting pressure from farmers and the federal government. Queensland Agriculture minister Mark Furner said the government would change regulation to allow protesters, deemed a "bio security threat", to be issued with fines right there and then a faster penalty than pursing trespass charges. "Many of our farmers are already under great stress following years of drought, and more recently the floods, and we are standing side by side with them," he said. "These activities create a serious biosecurity issue as well as putting the lives of farmers, workers and indeed animals at risk. A male skydiver has suffered serious injuries after a "heavy" landing in south-east Queensland. The man had a hard landing at Toogoolawah, near Lake Wivenhoe, even though his parachute did deploy. Paramedics said the man suffered serious pelvic, back and leg injuries when he landed, about 10.50am on Sunday. He was expected to be airlifted from Brisbane Valley Highway to hospital on Sunday afternoon. A woman has been rushed to hospital after being stabbed repeatedly south of Brisbane. Police are hunting a man and a woman believed to have fled the Ipswich home where the woman was found. Officers found a woman with multiple stab wounds when they were called to Bergin Street, Booval, about 3pm on Sunday. Police said the woman was take to Princess Alexandra Hospital in a serious condition with non-life-threatening injuries. Investigations continue. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Kashmir: Setting the Priorities From N.C.s Writings In 1967, that is, more than fifty years ago, N.C. visited the Kashmir Valley for a few days and held detailed discussions with a wide cross-section of opinion-makers and political personalities of all shades there. On his return he wrote a series of pieces on Kashmir in Mainstream. The following is the fourth and last instalment of the series Special Report on Kashmir and was published in this journals November 18, 1967 issue. It is being reproduced now that Kashmir is once again in the news due to the complexity of the latest developments in that State. Any discussion on Kashmir can hardly afford to leave out the political role of Dr Karan Singh. A young man of erudition and culture, Dr Karan Singh in his personal life has little semblance of the feudal stock from which he comes. With his doctorate thesis on the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, Dr Karan Singh appears to be cut out more for academic life than the hectic strain of a political career. However, eighteen years as the Governor of the State, he has come to acquire a knowledge and assessment of Kashmir politics which is very much his own and he seems to be conscious of it. During his last tenure of office as the Governor, there was quite a lot of excitement because of an interview that he had granted to London Times elaborating his views on the constitutional set-up of Kashmir. The interview itself was frowned upon by the New Delhi authorities at the time since it seemed to infringe upon the constitutional propriety that a Governor is expected to maintain. However, political repercussions to the Karan Singh plan, as it has come to be known, flowed from the plan itself. He suggested that the Valley should be made into a separate State and Jammu and Ladakh should be merged in the contiguous Himachal State forming a Vishal Himachal. The moment the plan was released, it produced very adverse reactions. Sri Sadiq himself characterised any proposal to slice off the Kashmir Valley as a move inspired by the Western powers. What was meant was that Sir Owen Dixon had made this suggestion with regard to the proposal to hold the plebiscite: he had restricted the idea of plebiscite only to the Valley saying that this alone was the disputed area; the fate of the other areas could be settled by negotiations, according to the Dixon Plan. The critics of the Karan Singh plan say that once the Kashmir Valley is made into a separate State, it would embolden secessionists and turn it into a stepping-stone to the dislinking of the Valley from the Indian Union. After this hostile welcome, the Karan Singh plan did not get much publicity in this country. In a sense it was shelved but it has never been buried. Talking to Dr Karan Singh, I could gather the arguments that he has in support of this plan. (It is to be noted that although Dr Karan Singh himself has not been active in publishing it openly, he has not abandoned it and is eager that it should be given a trial.) First, he seems to hold that in any compli-cated issue the correct way of dealing with it should be to localise the ailment; that is, restrict the area under dispute. In this way the Valley has a claim to be treated on a special plan. Secondly, it is refuted on behalf of Dr Karan Singh that the creation of a separate State out of the Valley would encourage the secessionists since such a State itself would be very much a part of the Indian Union. By this logic, Dr Karan Singhs supporters argue, the establishment of Nagaland should be considered as encouraging the Phizo-secessionists and a stepping-stone towards letting the Naga areas opting out of the Indian Union. The supporters of the Karan Singh planand they are quite a few particularly in Jammuhold with certain cogency that the present State of Jammu and Kashmir, as its very name suggests, is an artificial creation. It reflected the expansion of a Maharajas dominion and not the product of a natural evolution, nor is it based on ethnic or linguistic considerations. In fact, they say there is no other State in India which has got so much of racial heterogeneity as the present State of Jammu and Kashmir. I found that Sheikh Abdullahs followers are not very much worked up about the Karan Singh plan. According to them, it is based not on linguistic considerations, while Dr Karan Singh has said nothing about the status of the Pak-occupied Azad Kashmir area; should it form part of his Valley State of Kashmir or should it form a separate entity? Dr Karan Singhs reply to such criticism is that he was not actually redrawing the map of Kashmir along linguistic frontiers. If that was to be done, then there were many areas inside the present Valley such as Gurez where non-Kashmiris constitute the majority. He says that he is suggesting nothing more than a sensible constitutional re-arrangement. If in the process it helps to stabilise the policies of the Valley, it would be an additional gain and he seemed to feel that his plan would help to minimise many of the present tensions of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. In this connection one has to refer to the recent Jammu agitation in the course of which demands for a better deal for the Jammu people were raised. This proceded the agitation of the Kashmiri Pandits. It is interesting to note that the Dogras, who constitute the majority in the Jammu region, are not particularly enthusiastic about the demands of the Kashmiri Pandits for a larger share in government employment. The Leader of the Opposition in the J and K Assembly, while sympathising with the Pandits having to face police repression, added a rider that his party would not be interested in backing the claims of the Pandits with regard to a higher quota in government service. The Gajendragadkar Commission, which will go into the question of regional imbalances in Kashmir, will naturally have to take up the question of the Jammu people also, and it looks as if the Karan Singh plan has in a way been able to create a base for itself in the Jammu region. Will the Karan Singh plan satisfy Sheikh Abdullah and his supporters? This is a doubtful question because what Sheikh Abdullah is demanding is not just a constitutional re-arrangement beginning with the present set-up, but, essentially a political rethinking by which the Kashmiri peoples sense of identification with the rest of India could be realised; and also to make it durable, an understanding with Pakistan should be worked out. However, I noticed this time that there is much less of denunciation of the Karan Singh plan than there was when it was first mooted. Whether Dr Karan Singhs elevation to the Central Cabinet will give him an opening for canvassing support for his plan is not yet clear. The fact that he is engaged in trying to seriously appraise the situation and to grope for a way out is considered by many as a significant indication of his readiness to participate in any negotiation for bringing about a settlement in Kashmir. No generalisation of the Kashmir situation is possible, least of all for an outside observer. However, three points have to be borne in mind, and they should set the priorities so far as the Kashmir problem is concerned. First, the need for a proper understanding with Sheikh Abdullah and his supporters. Instead of harbouring the illusion that a detained Sheikh has lost much of his popularity, it would perhaps be necessary for New Delhi to work out a strategy by which Sheikh Abdullahs standing and competence could be harnessed in the interest not only of Kashmir but of the country as a whole. It must not be forgotten that Sheikh Abdullah is one of the few outstanding leaders still amongst us since the days of the freedom struggle, and if he is provided a wider horizon on this side of the Banihal, it would be all to the good of the country as a whole. This enjoins that when he is released, as he must bethe sooner the betterthere should be a concerted effort to win him over and not to repeat the disastrous line allowed to be followed by Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed in 1958 in trying to provoke and corner him. And in this task, the Left forces have a special responsibility, since they can help to bring Sheikh Abdullah back into the mainstream of the democratic movement. Secondly, there should be an attempt to offer to the Kashmiri people the maximum amount of autonomy in consonance with their remaining within the Indian Union. If such terms could be offered to the Nagas, there is no reason why a similar treatment should not be meted out to the Kashmiris. Actually, the principle of maximum autonomy was writ large in the Delhi Agreement, which even conceded a separate State Flag for Kashmir. But the Delhi Agreement was envisaged as a tentative understanding, and it is time that the principle of autonomy for Kashmir is worked out in detail through free and frank negotiation with the leaders of Kashmir. Perhaps a round-table with leaders representing all shades of Kashmiri opinion may help. In this connection, one has to recall what Nehru had said in 1952 in all solemnity in Parliament: So while the accession was complete in law and in fact, the other fact which has noting to do with the law also remains, namely, our pledge to the people of Kashmirif you like, to the people of the worldthat this matter can be reaffirmed or cancelled or cut out by the people of Kashmir if they so wish. We do not want to win people against their will and with the help of armed force; and if the people of Jammu and Kashmir State so wish it, to part company from us, they can go their way and we shall go our way. We want no forced marriages, no forced unions like this.... So, we accept this basic proposition that this question is going to be decided finally by the goodwill and pleasure of the people of Kashmir, not, I say, by the goodwill and pleasure of even this Parliament if it so chooses, not because this Parliament may not have the strength to decide itI do not deny thatbut because this Parliament has not only laid down in this particular matter that a certain policy will be pursued in regard to Jammu and Kashmir State but it has been our policy... But whether it is a pain and a torment, if the people of Kashmir want to go out, let them go because we will not keep them against their will however painful it may be to us. That is the policy that India will pursue, and because India will pursue that policy the people will not leave her, the people will cleave to her and come to her. Because the strongest bonds that bind will not be the bonds of your armies or even of your Constitution to which so much reference has been made, but bonds which are stronger than the Constitution and laws and armiesbonds that bind through love and affection and understanding of various people...... While the context has changed since 1952, the need for winning back the confidence of the Kashmiri masses cannot be minimised. And if this is done boldly and with imagination there is little ground of pessimism about the possibility of solving the Kashmir problem. In fact, this would help to consolidate better relations with Sheikh Abdullah and his followers, just as a rapprochement with them will help to win back the confidence of the Kashmiri people. Thirdly, in dealing with the Kashmir question there should be more determined efforts to establish better relations with Pakistan. If the cold war between superpowers could be reduced, there is no reason why the cold war between India and Pakistan should be kept up, and in this respect the responsibility of India for trying to reduce the cold war tension is as much as that of Pakisan. In some respects, one is tempted to say that India, as the senior partner in the subcontinent with greater command of resources and experience, is expected to show a greater degree of statesman-ship than perhaps is possible for the Pakistani leaders continuoulsy cooped up with a sense of complex in dealing with India. Such a move itself would help to settle the Kashmir problem just as much as the solution of the Kashmir problem itself will in its turn help strengthen better relations between India and Pakistan. However, the wider question of Indo-Pak relations has to be dealt with in greater detail and can be the subject of another round of discussion not necessarily to be tagged to any report on Kashmir. (Mainstream, November 18, 1967) A bit quiet at present: Caretaker Vern Anagnostou in the vast former Younghusband wool store's show room in Kensington. Credit:Paul Jeffers When you are the sole resident of a century-old former wool store the size of two city blocks, its not a good idea to binge-watch a series of The Walking Dead late at night. Thats what Vern Anagnostou discovered one night two years ago. After he switched off the zombie drama, Mr Anagnostou, who is the live-in caretaker of the Younghusband complex in Kensington, set off on a foot patrol. He didnt come across hordes of the undead but says he got a fright and scurried back to his flat after seeing a strange van parked in a driveway into the building, with one of its doors open (the van was later found to be stolen). "Where am I going to go? We can't afford to shift," she said. Ms McCormick demanded more stringent monitoring of waste-storage facilities. These places are opening up everywhere ... something has to be done. It needs to be stopped now. We have had it up to our ears. Business owner Stephen Munro. Credit:Luis Ascui Joyce Pillay owns a factory with her husband, Preggy, on the same block as Bradbury Industrial Services. In order to check on their property, they were forced to walk through chemical-filled water. "My whole body was itchy last night, but then I really don't know what I have inhaled. We walked into the factory and the smell was just terrible," Ms Pillay said. "We are worried about our health, I'm fine now but you just have to have a lot of faith that nothing is wrong with you." Business owner Stephen Munro said he saw a green liquid running from the factory into his own premises. The liquid flowing through the street - its red, green, yellow. Over the days its been every colour of the rainbow. MFB Deputy Chief Officer David Bruce told the meeting it was possible the substances contained chemicals stored in the factory. Firefighters on the scene in Campbellfield. Credit:Paul Jeffers We will need to do some more analysis to know what it was, he said. The Environmental Protection Authority suspended the factory's licence in March and imposed a clean-up notice after it found 450,000 litres of chemicals that should not have been there. The EPA inspected the factory on Thursday and discovered 300,000 litres of chemicals - well above the legal volume - still there. One of the workers tasked with removing the excess chemicals from the site told the meeting he had saved a man's life, but lost everything in the blaze. The last person in there was getting dragged by me because he wanted to stay and fight but it was too big, he said. I heard shouting saying 'Get out, get out, get out', and this man was standing there asking me to turn on the fire hose. I got him out and a split second later, bang! Loading The man was privately contracted by a waste-removal company to reduce the stockpile. "Ive lost everything. I still have not spoken to anyone, no one has been in contact with me." At the meeting on Sunday, Mr Bruce reassured residents it was safe to breathe the air near the still-smouldering factory. The information we are getting is that the quality is good ... at the moment we are not using breathing apparatus, he said. But residents said they were angry at the lack of air-quality sensors in the western suburbs. One woman said locals had been advocating for more air-quality information for years. This is just further proof of the way the west is dumped on ... it needs a rapid change, she said. Business owners also vented frustration, saying they had not been told if it was safe to resume work. We all have businesses to run, we all have orders that if we dont fill, we lose clients, said the owner of an adjacent factory. The Campbellfield is almost out as MFB tackles the last hot spots We need to know if its today or tomorrow, can we take our staff, are we able to operate? Who cares about the income, who cares about the profit margin, this is impacting peoples families. We need to get clearance. Mr Bruce said the MFB was still extinguishing hot spots but hoped to leave the site by Sunday night or Monday morning. Large quantities of toxic waste remain piled in vats at the sight. WorkSafe and the EPA will work to remove the waste once the fire is totally extinguished. The exact cause of the blaze was still unknown. Union representatives will meet on Monday with the owners of the factory to discuss workers' compensation. Australian Workers' Union secretary Ben Davis said they would discuss if any jobs at the factory could be saved after the fire, which injured two workers, one seriously. The union would also discuss how workers should be compensated, he said. Twenty of the fifty workers at the factory had migrated on bridging visas, meaning they are not eligible for unemployment benefits if they lose their jobs. Given the extent of the damage, the entire building is likely to be demolished. Worker Vignesh Varatharaja, who suffered serious burns in the fire, emerged from an induced coma on Saturday and is being moved out of intensive care. Loading Mr Varatharaja was pumping a chemical drum when it exploded into flames during the fire. Mr Davis said a co-worker unsuccessfully tried to use a faulty nearby fire hose to extinguish the flames on Mr Varatharaja's body. Mr Varatharaja was then rushed to hospital, where he was put in an induced coma. "According to the organiser who spent the day with him yesterday at hospital and a fair bit of today, he's very badly burned," Mr Davis said late on Saturday afternoon. "Hes got a long road to recovery." The safety and security of the community is Victoria Polices number one priority. Police are able to facilitate planned protests when we are engaged with them which doesnt put the community at risk." Protesters being moved by police about 9am. Credit:Zach Hope The large protests in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland marked the one-year anniversary of the release of the film Dominion, which documents factory farming in Australia. In Melbourne, protesters parked several vans in the middle of the busy junction about 7am, with some chaining themselves to the vehicles. More than 100 people then formed a ring around the intersection, blocking peak-hour traffic. About 9am, police started to tell protesters to move on, cutting the chains, towing the vans and, ultimately, arresting those who refused their orders. The vans, which had been parked in the middle of the intersection, are being towed. Credit:Zach Hope The intersection reopened about 10.30am. While attention was at the intersection, about 50 protesters stationed themselves at the front of the Melbourne Aquarium, where they chained themselves to each other using piping. They said they were from Justice for Captives, the group behind the protests at Sea World and Outback Spectacular last year. The activists' co-ordinated campaign has targeted nine sites in four states. Protesters connected outside the Melbourne Aquarium. Credit:Zach Hope At three Victorian abattoirs MC Herd in Geelong, Westside Meats in Bacchus Marsh, and OConnors Abattoir in Pakenham activists drove trucks across the entrances and exits and then let down their tyres. Several activists also filmed themselves blocking the entrance of Australian Food Group's pig slaughterhouse in Laverton. In Queensland, activists were managed to persuade staff at the Carey Bros abattoir at Yangan to release three sheep. Marty Bella from Greens Shirts Queensland, a movement for regional and rural Australians, condemned the actions of the protesters and Yangan abattoir staff. Piping and chains are being used at the protest outside the aquarium. Credit:Zach Hope "There was a negotiation with the proprietors so by the time police got there the deal was done," he said. The proprietors agreed not to make a formal complaint, meaning the activists escaped arrest with their sheep. Separately, nine activists said they had locked themselves onto a Goulburn slaughterhouse in NSW since 2am to shine a light on what they said was the "oxymoron of humane slaughter". NSW Police said nine people had been arrested at Goulburn after the owner of the abattoir asked the protesters to leave about 4am, but they allegedly refused. The protest is affecting tram lines and traffic. Credit:Zach Hope "Goulburn police rescue cut the people free and arrested them at the scene," a spokesperson said. "Three women refused to walk from the abattoir and had to be carried to the police vehicle." Three men, one aged 46 and two aged 22, and six women, aged between 21 and 61 were due to be charged at the Goulburn police station. Delays 'don't compare' The documentary film Dominion is described as a look at the "legal, standard practices employed daily in Australian farms and slaughterhouses that remain unknown to most consumers". Chris Delforce from the Dominion network said he expected members of the public would be frustrated that their day had been disrupted. One protester is removed by police on Monday morning. Credit:AAP At the end of the day, when people see what these animals are going through, a small delay in their day doesnt really compare, he said. He said he thought most people usually ended up feeling angrier at animal rights abuses than the disruption protests caused. One of the Melbourne organisers, Kristin Leigh, told The Age that protesters didnt want to be causing disruption but claimed that "this is a climate emergency and an environmental emergency". Protestors in the middle of the Melbourne CBD. Credit:Zach Hope Dianne Delbridge came out of an office on Flinders Street to flashing lights and police roadblocks. She was in hospital with a broken ankle when victims were brought in from the Flinders Street attack in 2017. The first thing your head goes to is has there been another terror attack'. Im sure thats where everyones head goes, she said on Monday. I think its ridiculous. I understand why people want to protect animals I do myself but I dont think its worth disrupting and frightening people. Protestors chained themselves to vans in the middle of the intersection. Credit:Zach Hope The Melbourne protest took "months" of planning, one of the protesters said. "We knew what our job role was and we had marshalls for each group. When the vans came we stepped out and said it was a peaceful protest so people didnt get scared or thought that it was an attack. We said no one is going to get harmed, youre just not going to get through'," she told The Age. Broome locals can expect to see a strong police presence around the tourist town after four teenagers were charged over a weekend crime spree. Police believe the four children, aged between 13 and 16, committed a series of offences throughout Friday night and early on Saturday morning. The children will go before court on Sunday. The four youths will appear via video link to the Perth Childrens Court on Sunday, each facing a number of charges ranging from car theft to entering an airside security zone without permission. A 16-year-old boy from Cable Beach has been charged with two counts of aggravated burglary, two counts of stealing and one count of possessing stolen or unlawfully obtained property. Two people have been charged after they stole a car and took police on a high speed chase through Perths southern suburbs. A BMW station sedan was allegedly stolen during a burglary of a property in Beckenham on Saturday. Both the man and the woman will appear in court. Credit:File photo/Justin Rake At 8.45pm, patrolling Armadale police saw the stolen BMW driving on Railway Avenue in Kelmscott. As the car turned into Streich Avenue, police turned on their lights and tried to pull the car over. After the Christchurch shooting, the political will to regulate social media companies is stronger than ever, even if the understanding of what precisely to do is not. Government, fearful of another livestreamed slaughter, has made it a criminal offence for platforms to host offending material that is not expeditiously" taken down. In its current form, social media is too socially chaotic and destructive. Credit:Dado Ruvic The tech community warns that criminalising outcomes in rushed-through legislation can actually hurt the tech industry, here and abroad. Nevertheless, the broader reality is inescapable: while the engineers of Silicon Valley have built amazing machines, only recently have they given thought to exactly what kind of world they were engineering. Kigali: Twenty-five years after the start of a genocide in which some 800,000 people were killed, Rwanda is rebuilding with hope and shines with a new light, said President Paul Kagame. Speaking at commemoration services on Sunday, Kagame said that Rwandans would never turn against each other again. Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, Rwanda's first lady Jeannette Kagame, and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker light the flame of remembrance at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali on Sunday. Credit:AP "Our bodies and minds bear amputations and scars, but none of us is alone," said Kagame at the ceremony attended by several heads of state. "We Rwandans have granted ourselves a new beginning. We exist in a state of permanent commemoration, every day, in all that we do ... Today, light radiates from this place." Mexico City: Former Mexican President Vicente Fox says armed men tried to storm into his house, just months after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador cut off security for the country's ex-presidents. He reported Saturday's incident on Twitter without giving details. He has a large ranch in the central state of Guanajuato. Then Mexican president Vicente Fox, with then US president George W. Bush in 2004. Credit:AP Fox also tweeted: "I hold President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador directly responsible for the security of myself, my family and my belongings." Lopez Obrador responded via Twitter that he has instructed Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval to create a security detail to protect Fox and his family "but without the excesses" of prior administrations. "I know that the Republican Jewish Coalition will help lead our party to another historic victory," Trump said. "We need more Republicans. Let's go, so we can win everything." Jewish voters in the US have traditionally sided heavily with Democrats - and are often ideologically liberal - but Republicans are hoping to narrow the gap next year, in part as Trump cites actions that he says demonstrate support for Israel. President Donald Trump smiles at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month. Credit:AP Trump earned standing ovations for recounting both the embassy move and the Golan Heights recognition. Netanyahu was pressed in a live television interview on Saturday night over why he had not already annexed settlement blocs like Maale Adumim and Gush Etzion, two large Jewish communities built on occupied territory on the outskirts of Jerusalem. He vowed to begin the effective annexation of those and other, more isolated areas under Jewish control. "The question you're asking is an interesting one: will we move on now to the next stage?" he said. "And the answer is, yes. We will move on to the next stage." Asked by his interviewer if that meant he would annex the settlement blocs, Netanyahu said yes, but that he would not stop there. The only reason it's even credible now is because of what he's been able to coordinate with Trump. An analyst at the Atlantic Council and former Netahyahu aide, Shalom Lipner "I'm going to apply sovereignty, but I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlement points, because from my perspective every such point of settlement is Israeli," he said. "We have a responsibility as the Israeli government. I won't uproot anyone, and I won't place them under Palestinian sovereignty. I'll look out for everyone." The West Bank is home to about 2.8 million Palestinians and more than 400,000 Jewish settlers. Netanyahu did not say whether he would seek to annex areas now under Palestinian control under the Oslo Accords. Applying sovereignty to Israeli settlements on West Bank land that the Palestinians demand for a future state, presumably along with the roads and infrastructure tethering those places to the rest of Israel, would leave the Palestinians at best with an archipelago of disconnected territory. The West Bank is under Israeli military jurisdiction, although settlers are subject to civilian law, as Israeli citizens. The chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat, responded to Netanyahu's statements by attacking both him and the Trump administration. The White House has long promised a proposal for a "deal of the century" to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But in the meantime, it has showered Netanyahu with priceless political gifts from the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2018 to the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in March while battering the Palestinians with aid cuts and public scoldings. "Such a statement by Netanyahu is not surprising," Erekat said on Twitter. "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administration's support and endorsement of Israel's violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine." He added, "We'll continue to pursue our rights through international forums, including the International Criminal Court, until we achieve our long overdue justice." Shalom Lipner, a former aide to Netanyahu and several other prime ministers and a current analyst at the Atlantic Council, said Netanyahu might well believe the Trump administration could allow him to proceed with annexation. But he called the promise "the ultimate Hail Mary pass," and one that came with little political risk. "The only reason it's even credible now is because of what he's been able to coordinate with Trump," said Lipner. "Maybe he can actually get Trump to sign off on that as well. But if it became clear it's not in the cards right now, then he can just say, 'Sorry, I can't swing it. Conditions change.'" In the television interview, Netanyahu vowed not to divide Jerusalem or "uproot any settlement" and said he would "ensure that we will control the territory west of the Jordan River," meaning the entire West Bank. Los Angeles: The bombshell leak of US President Donald Trump's contentious 2017 phone call with then Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull could lead to criminal charges. Devin Nunes, the highest-ranking Republican member on the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, announced on Sunday that he would send eight criminal referrals to US Attorney-General William Barr. US President Donald Trump hung up on then Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during their heated telephone exchange. Credit:AP One of the referrals is aimed at finding out who leaked transcripts of Trump's January 28, 2017 phone call with Turnbull. Leaks relating to the call with then Mexican President Pena Nieto will also be investigated, along with former national security adviser Michael Flynn's communications with a Russian ambassador. "You had conversations with the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Australia leak," Nunes told Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. "You had leaks of President Trump talking to the President of Mexico. We all know the travesty of General Flynn. Nobody knows where those supposed transcripts came from. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Bangsamoro Referendum: A Lesson for Solving the Kashmir Problem by Anwar Ali Tsarpa On February 14 a horrific suicide attack in Pulwama, Kashmir on security personnel killed 40 CRPF jawans. The terror attack, conducted by a local Kashmiri militant, Adil Dar, triggered an uproar across the country heightening the feeling that the new generation in Kashmir is more radicalised than its predecessors. A few weeks before the attack in Kashmir, more than two million Filipinos in the Philippines chose to form a Bangsamoro (meaning Moro nation), a new autonomous Muslim-dominated region, in the southern island of Mindanao. This referendum would end almost half-a-century-long Kashmir-type deadly unrest in the Philippines. The weak state of the Philippines, in comparison to India, successfully signed the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) under the Republic Act No. 11054, with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). However, India still faces the worst terror attacks in the history of the Kashmir conflict and remaines unsuccessful in appealing to the separatists in the Valley. The question that arises here is: why has the Philippines triumphed in a step towards peace and why not India? The former succeeded due to the address of the grievances of the minorities with peaceful measures, while the latter failed due to the violent counter-insurgency measures; but why? Here is the answer. Ahead of his election, the Philippines President, Rodrigo Duterte, the first President of the Moro people, billed himself as a unifying force, and an unremitting advocate for Mindanaos interests. Unlike the Modi Governments tough approach to counter militancy in Kashmir, Duterte pushed for greater autonomy and respect for the minorities in the Philippines, where the Christians constitute the majority of the population. In his third State of the Nation Address (SONA), Duterte underscored his solemn commitment to ensure that his administration will never deny our Muslim brothers and sisters the basic legal tools to chart their destiny within the constitutional framework of our country. As a result, finally, he remained successful in bringing the rebel groups to the negotiation table and conducting a subsequent referendum. And by that he managed to thwart the rebels separatist agenda with only a broader autonomy. The Modi Government also initiated a talk with all stakeholders led by Dineshwar Sharma but that yielded no result. It failed, because first, the so-called muscular approach accompanied the talk that proved to be counterproductive. The muscular approach, also called the no mercy strategy, adopted by the Modi Govern-ment in Kashmir, yielded opposite results than the expected peace. According to reports, the no mercy strategy has multiplied recruits of militants in the Valley. After the encounter that killed Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016, the number of recruitments, as well as militants killed, has increased. In 2018 around 250 militants were killed. Since Burhan Wanis death till April 2018, 216 local youth had joined militancy. Findings say that the recruitments are directly linked to the killing of militants in their area, or a killed militant who belonged to their area. Secondly, interlocutor Sharma failed to bring the separatist leaders to the negotiation table as the state had failed to implement the recommen-dations of the past three interlocutors on Kashmir. Non-fulfilment of promises and the threat of erosion of autonomy is a significant concern among Kashmiris. The people in Kashmir saw the acquisition of 800 acres of land for Amarnath in 2008 as a breach of trust and erosion of their autonomy. The number of youth joining militancy, according to reports, has soared in 2010 due to the violence after the 2008 Amarnath land acquisition. The number was again declining: 23 in 2011, 21 in 2012, and only 16 in 2013. However, the shift in the government and the subsequent shift to muscle power counter-insurgency measures, fuelled recruits as high as in 2010. In 2014, 53 youth joined militancy, 66 in 2015, and 88 in 2016. In the pre-2014 period, the militants had less public acceptance. Now the people are reportedly risking their lives to defend the militants. The militants are getting heroic funeral by thousands of people. This radicalisation may have been reinforced by the improper behaviour with Kashmiris in different parts of the country. The warning to leave the States, call to boycott Kashmiri products, recommendation to hang 40 Kashmiris to avenge the Pulwama tragedy are bound to create a sense of alienation among the people in Kashmir. All these lead us to the following conclusions. The Kashmiris are disappointed with the unfulfilment of past recommendations of inter-locutors that sought to restore the constitu-tional erosion of the State; thus, they do not want to engage in more talks. Secondly, the muscle power strategy has proved to be counter-productive. Thirdly, the mishandling of Kashmiris in other States of the country also would cause radicalisation of the youth in the Valley. With all these the establishment is escalating the conflict as well as making it intractable. In Kashmir, New Delhi would be successful only in an approach to embrace rather than disgrace the Kashmiri people. Claiming Kashmir while disgracing the Kashmiris would be futile. Thus, the Narendra Modi Government must seek a lesson from the Rodrigo Roa Duterte Government in the Philippines. Duterte would teach a lesson on respect and unification of minorities with the mainstream. Only a reconciliation effort and trust-building drive would be fruitful in bringing the militants to the negotiation table, wear down the public acceptance for militancy and minimise the number of recruits. The negotiation effort initiated by the government must detach from the muscular approach. An inclusive talk with all stakeholders would take the Valley to a solution like the Philippines to end the decades-long conflict. Anwar Ali Tsarpais a resident of Kargil, J&K. He is a Research Scholar at the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Remembering Lohia Dr Rammanohar Lohias 109th birth anniversary fell on March 23 this year. Since his birthday coincided with the day of martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, Lohiaji never wanted his followers to observe or celebrate his birthday. However, we remember him and offer tributes to the abiding memory of that stormy petrel of the Indian socialist movement on this occasion by reproducing the following article. Written by a veteram journalist (the first editor of Mainstream who later became the editor of National Herald and is no more with us), the article appeared in Mainstream (October 21, 1967) after Dr Lohias untimely death on October 12, 1967. Remembering Lohia: A Legacy for the Left C.N. Chitta Ranjan There is a great deal of evidence that in the last few months of his life, especially after watching the performance of the non-Congress governments in several States and the functioning of the Opposition parties in Congress States as well as at the Centre, Rammanohar Lohia was engaged in a serious reassessment of the role and mutual relationship of the parties of the Left in this country. In interviews as well as in discussions with party colleagues and other friends, he had been increasingly talking in terms of new efforts to forge unity among the progressive parties, and the SSP leadership has after his death appropriately decided that it will now pursue this objective more purposefully in the coming period. Simultaneously, awareness of the need to shed sectarian attitudes in dealing with parties and groups whose socio-economic aims are broadly the same is also becoming increasingly evident in the case of the other Leftist parties, notably the CPI, CPM, PSP and Forward Bloc. While he lived Lohia had the reputation of being colourful and unpredictable. His life had positive as well as negative aspects. The latter were hardly of any long-term significance, although they did affect to some extent the development of the socialist movement in the country. Negative Phase For instance, for a long time he could not countenance cooperation with the Communists because he felt that their approach to national and international issues did not spring from the needs and aspirations of the people of India but were related to the ideological or other formulations hammered out elsewhere. Nor was he alone in coming to this conclusion. The number of Leftists in the country who grew hostile to the Communists because of the latters inability to fit the Marxist-Leninist ideology to the national context and make such changes as were necessary was quite large. The antagonism which developed was not always unjustified, for the consequences of the limitations which the Communists imposed on themselves became strikingly evident in their wrong assessment of Gandhijis role, in their unjustified opposition to the Quit India movement and finally in their perverse reading of the totally new situation immediately after the achievement of national independence. The growth of an anti-communist angle in a vital section of the socialist movement was thus in a sense inevitable. It would not have been disastrous but for the advantage vested interests were able to take of it for two purposes: one, to fight the Communists who were strong in the working class movement, and two, to prevent the consolidation of the Left by utilising their newspapers and influencing certain figures in the socialist movement itself to accentuate and sharpen the differences. Unfortunately for the common people, neither the Socialists nor the Communists showed awareness of the harm they were doing to the common cause by not attemping to find common ground. But then this was a tragedy of historical circumstances for which no individual can be blamed, however important he might have been in either section of the progressive movement. Another of the negative aspects was that Lohia, gifted with a brilliant mind which had few parallels, was developing his own theory of socialism in the context of Gandhian India and would not concede that the situation admitted of other possibilities. It is this attitude of his which explains in part not only the sharp personal conflicts that developed in the Congress Socialist Party but also the many difficulties that arose after the Socialists went out of the Congress and began organising themselves for the role of Opposition. But there was another, and more important, aspect to it. He believed in organising the people for militant struggle for the achievement of socialism, and for this reason had to part company with close associates like Sri Jaya Prakash Narayan. He was earnestly against pro-Establishment thinking, and this led to his anger over the police firing in Kerala during PSP rule and to his separation from Sri Asoka Mehta and others of that type. Running Thread Lohia would surely have been a much bigger force in national life than he was if he had from early on devoted himself single-mindedly to building up a nationwide Left Front at least on the basis of internal national issues on which differences were not substnatial. Many admirers of Lohia have in the past regretted that so dynamic a leader should so often have got lost in trivialities, resulting in his inability to concentrate all the time on the basic problem of unity in socialist ranks. Nevertheless, the thread running through all phases of development of Lohias personality and political life was indeed his insistence on the people being their own masters. His seeming obsession with Hindi arose precisely out of the feeling that national life, including education and administration, should be based on the language of the people. He was dealing mainly with the Hindi region, and therefore Hindi found frequent mention in his utterances. As clarified by him subsequently, his anxiety was that the people must deal with their own affairs in their own languages and not in a foreign language which helped only to perpetuate a parasitic elite to the detriment of the peoples progress: this was true for all the regions in India, whatever the local language. Indifference For many years Lohias basic causenamely, the creation of a genuine socialist party which would struggle constantly and unremittingly against the existing order without seeking temporary gains either in terms of office or in terms of half-hearted economic measuressuffered because of his and his colleagues obsession with anti-Congressism on the one side and anti-communism on the other. While conceding that this was natural in the circumstances as they developed, it has to be admitted that the attitude made the socialist movement infinitely less effective than it could have been for on the one hand it hurt the susceptibilities of sections which had a sentimental attachment to the Congress and were hopeful that under Nehrus guidance advance could be made towards the goal of socialism, and on the other made the Communists feel that there was llittle in common between them and the Socialists led by Lohia and others. While saying this, it must also be pointed out that till after the open cleavage in the international communist movement the Communists in India tended to treat the Socialists largely with indifference, not realising that these represented an honest force for progress which could not be brushed aside without serious harm to the movement as a whole. It is true that for a brief period during the freedom movement the Congress Socialists and Communists found it possible to work together, but it is doubtful if both sides conducted themselves with a complete under-standing of the potentialities of such identification for the future of the country. The rift that developed subsequently was undoubtedly due both to contradictions in the comprehension of the national situation and to personal incompatibilities of the leaders involved. Perhaps because of unthinking acceptance of international formulations, Commu-nists in India tended to ignore vital aspects of the national genius; similarly, obsession with ill-digested Gandhism led most Socialist leaders to think it necessary to demarcate themselves from the Communists at every conceivable opportunity. Unity Efforts It is against this background that Lohias intermittent efforts towards Leftist unity have to be judged. Earlier these efforts were largely confined to attempts to work out an understanding between the SSP and PSP which after all consisted of men who had stood together in the Congress Socialist Partly and had much in common. Even so the relationship between these two parties continued to be a love-hate affair mainly because of Lohias dominating personality and his insistence on his own terms for merger or cooperation. But it is hardly fair to lay undue emphasis at this stage on aspects of his political life which were not of permanent value but arose out of a context which has since undergone drastic change. Once he realised that the Congress influence on the masses was on the wane, he did not hesitate to recognise the new possibilities and call for Opposition unity to throw the Congress out of office. He took the position that the first need was to end the monopoly of power enjoyed by the Congress for two decades and that any alliance for this purpose was justified. He was not by any means alone in coming to this conclusion. Even the Marxist Communists, who took extreme positions in terms of ideology, favoured such all-inclusive Opposition alliances. This approach has proved at least one point, which Lohia no doubt wanted firmly established: that the Congress was not irreplaceable, that an alternative could be provided if only the Opposition parties desired it. To the extent that the myth of the Congress alone being capable of providing a stable government has been exploded, this line has paid dividends. Close Watch But Lohia demonstrated, by his public utterances in the last six months, that he did not over-estimate the possibilities of non-Congress coalitions. He was closely watchful of the functioning of these governments and did not hesitate to castigate them for not implementing the accepted minimum programmes. He did not spare even the Leftist coalitions in this respect. The SSPs decistion to quit the UP Ministry if the State Government did not carry out the promise on land revenue remission in the case of small holdings was the last of Lohias political decisions. In the circumstances leading to this decision lies the key to an understanding of the positive aspects of Lohias life and work, which will be of considerable significance in the coming months and years. Lohia had all his life been concerned deeply over the poverty and suffering of the masses of people in India: with him it was not an arm-chair attitude born merely of humanitarian instincts. It was not for nothing that he had always rejected those parts of the Gandhian approach which did not approve of powerful militant agitations to force economic changes or which did not want to create radical disturbance in the concept of property. While he did not believe in violent revolution, he did not equally believe in supine acceptance of the theory of gradual change. He was convinced that power should be secured and used to bring about speedy and drastic economic changes. It was in this light that he critically observed the working of the non-Congress Ministries and made his views known to the public from time to time. It is therefore proper to conclude that, disappointed with the performance of non-Congress Ministries in which the Left did not have a decisive voice, he began thinking towards the end more and more in terms of broadbased Left unity including the whole range of parties from the PSP to Marxist Communists. He found the atmosphere in the country changing in favour of Leftist consolidation and if he had been spared would undoubtedly have bent his energies to this task. The circumstances have indeed been growing increasingly propitious for such a development, for Lohias anxiety for Left consolidation has been shared by the other progressive parties. He must be taken to have come to the conclusion that a mere anti-Congress platform would no longer do to meet the present needs and that the tenuous alliances with all kinds of parties should gradually yield place to a united Left Front on the national plane as well as in each State. Hopeful Signs The decision of the SSP, CPI and PSP to act in concert on the question of land revenue remission in UP would appear to be a heartening indication of the shape of things to come. In view of the continuing attempts by discredited Congressmen in States like UP to come back to power, the Left parties may for the present refrain from adopting attitudes which may topple the concerned governments, but it is not difficult to see that in States where vested interests dominate the governments the progressive parties will have to get ready for a confrontation sooner or later. In UP, for instance, if the Charan Singh Ministry continues to flout the minimum programme, how long can the Left acquiesce merely for the sake of keeping the Congress out of office? It may be that all the Leftist parties may have to withdraw support from such coalitions and demand a fresh verdict from the people. Whatever the course of developments in each State, it is clear that the parties of the Left have the task of taking forward the moves for Left consolidation initiated in recent times. We can afford to forget the passing aspects of Lohias life, but we cannot do without his discontent with the inadequacies of the Left, his anger at the continuing poverty and suffering of the millions twenty years after the attainment of independence, his uncompromising struggle against the Establishment which symbolises the pernicious philosophy of status quo. To carry out this legacy is not easy: it calls for a great mass movement led collectively by all the parties of the Left. And in this movement, let it not be forgotten, there is a role for Congressmen who are disillusioned with their leadership and who ardently disire that radical socio-economic changes must be brought about. The future battle is not between the Congress and the non-Congress forces; it is one between the entrenched and affluent minority and the common people. The people must win, and it is to this end that all progressive forces must seek to unite at all levels, forgetting the petty differences of the past and casting aside personal equations which have greatly harmed the peoples cause which is supreme. (Mainstream, October 21, 1967) And now, its Lohias turn! by Prem Singh Twentythird March was Dr Rammanohar Lohias birthday. But it is said that he did not want people to celebrate the day because it was on this day that the revolutionariesBhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdevwere executed by the British Government. So most of his admirers and Indian socialists celebrate Lohia Jayanti by observing it as the Martyrdom Day. This time, on the occasion of Lohia Jayanti, Prime Minister Narendra Modi remembered Lohia on his blog. As soon as this news became public, one of my friends called me to take notice of this fact. He said with urgency in his voice that I should immediately write a reply to the Prime Ministers tweet. I told the friend that in todays politics, blogs and tweeters have become a huge industry, in which the mercenaries or paid people work in large numbers. If one were to write answers to the blogs and tweets of the leaders, then there will be hardly any time to do ones own work. I asked the friend if anyone can respond to the stuff Modi has been stating/writing about personalities such as Gandhi, Ambedkar, Patel, and Bhagat Singh for the last five years? Is it even desirable? The phrase Khanti Lohiavadi (staunch Lohiaite) is commonly used for die-hard socialists. The friend who called me falls in the same category. He spoke anxiously saying: But the case of Doctor Saheb (Lohia) is altogether different. He was till now out of the picture. Modi should not be allowed to capture him. I replied that joining this controversy would mean playing on Modis pitch, and that serves no purpose. The friend was slightly angry at my reluctance. I tried to convince him that Modi and the RSS can capture neither Gandhi, Ambedkar, Patel, Bhagat Singh nor Lohia. How can a person or organisation, who does not have any regard for the values of the Freedom Struggle and the values of the Constitution, appropriate personalities who were moulded in the furnace of the struggle for the countrys independence? There is a fundamental difference between the two. Modi and the RSS can use them only for their power game, and they are doing exactly the same. Regarding Lohia, saying anything about him in the context of Modi or the RSS will be a bad joke. I reminded my friend about an article Amrit Lal had written Rammannohar Lohia: In His Times and Ours discussing Lohias political thoughts and actions. The article was published in The Indian Express (October 12, 2017) on the 50th death anniversary of Lohia. In my opinion, the article is perhaps the best journalistic piece written on Lohia in recent times. It is an article to be read and circulated among others. The friend reluctantly agreed but remained adamant on the idea of refuting Modi. Finally I asked him if there is any justification in blaming Modi and the RSS for kidnapping Lohia. The blame falls more heavily on those socialists who, on the occasion of Lohia Jayanti or Lohias death anniversary, go to the extent of inviting Home Minister Rajnath Singh and President Ramnath Kovind along with other RSS/BJP leaders as guests and speakers on the day! They do this under the leadership of pro- RSS/BJP leaders like Nitish Kumar and thus make marketable business of Lohia! The friend was now really upset and he put the phone down saying that such people have definitely been successful. Look at the future possibility! This time if Modi wins, his government might want to confer the Bharat Ratna on Lohia. It does not matter, of course, that it will actually be the worst kind of devaluation of Lohia till date. In the morning I read the detailed news in newspapers on the comments Modi had made about Lohia in his blog. Modi, in the wake of the Lok Sabha elections, has finally made Lohia a weapon and attacked the Opposition. The comment is full of inane observations and hollowness. It is a matter of regret that a person, who had been a freedom fighter and who constantly fought for equality in the interest of the poor, has been dragged into the scene for electoral gains on the occasion of his birth anniversary. Even more so when the person doing this is the Prime Minister of the country. As we know, there is no justification whatsoever in discussing Lohias ideology, principles and policies in the context of Modis blog. But I would only point out that Lohias non-Congress-ism which according to Modi, was his heart and soul is a completely wrong statement. Modi has replaced non-Congressism with anti-Congressism in his blog. Lohia had fought for the independence of the country under the Congress banner. The Congress Socialist Party (CSP), of which Lohia was a part, was formed in 1934 within the Congress fold. After independence the Socialist Party separated from the Congress in 1948. This decision was made because the Congress had refused to allow the existence of the CSP under its new party Constitution. In the democratic system, the criticism of the ruling Congress and its leadership was Lohias democratic obligation. In a democracy, the rule of a single party should not continue for long. At least Lohia used to believe in this democratic ethos. So Lohia, at the fag end of his political career, adopted the strategy of non-Congressism to defeat the Congress in nine States. It was not his political theory but a strategy. In his last editorial of Jan (October 1967), he reviewed that experiment and expressed his dissatisfaction with the results. The Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh Congress in the times of Modi has little to do with the Nehru Congress. The Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh Congress is a supporter of corporate capitalism. The RSS/BJP and Modi too are supporters of the same ideology and system. When Manmohan Singh implemented the New Economic Policies in 1991, the senior BJP leader, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had said that now the Congress has adopted the ideology of the BJP. Therefore, Modis anti-Congressism is primarily backed by his intention to hold on to power for a longer time. In this respect there is no difference of policies between the two parties. Modi is simply pushing the Congress work ahead. However, there is one difference: Manmohan Singh, being an economist of high calibre, carried out neo-liberal policies in the classical way, while Modi makes blind moves in a bizarre manner. Even when it comes to the matter of misuse of power, the Modi Government has not been far behind the Congress. Citizens are being oppressed and humiliated for criticising Modi or the government during his regime, the constitutional institutions, which have formed the basis of democracy, are being devalued and destroyed, the Ministers of the government openly proclaim that they do not accept the Constitution, rather they are working to change it, they go to the extent of declaring that this election of the Lok Sabha will be the last, the BJP President says we will remain in power for 50 years .... The Modi Governments anti-democracy manifestations are endless. In spite of all this, Modi uses the name of Lohia, a democrat from beginning to the end, just to attack his rivals in the Opposition! What can one call itirony or the culmination of hypocrisy? The author teaches Hindi at Delhi University and is the President of the Socialist Party (India). CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Going to space is hard, but a panel of astronauts say communication, community and art can make it a little bit easier. At the Beyond the Cradle 2019 conference on March 14, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, an astronaut and cosmonaut discussion concluded a day full of tech, science fiction, and optimism about the future of space travel and life in space. NASA astronauts Cady Coleman, Leland Melvin, Nicole Stott and Tony Antonelli and Russian cosmonaut Nikolay Chub represent a wide range of experience levels, from retired veterans all the way to newly minted astronauts. In a panel discussion, the astronauts explored the wonders and never-before-told trials of spaceflight in front of a packed room. Related: Before They Go to Space, Astronauts Go to Geology Camp "On my first mission I had one of those afternoons where you needed just a little bit of alone time," Antonelli, a retired astronaut and former commander in the U.S. Navy, said during the panel. "[I thought], 'OK, I've gotta get somewhere quiet and close my eyes for just a couple of minutes.' Of course, I didn't think to tell everybody that that was the case. There were big rectangle boxes or bags and they were all bungeed so I slid under the bungee cord in between these big bags and close[d] my eyes. I don't think I was there very long [before] one of my shuttle crewmates floats up upon me, [as I lay there] bungeed, with my eyes closed. I don't know what he thought he found, but he screamed." Using Antonelli's story as an example of what not to do, the astronauts stressed the importance of building bonds with their crewmates and maintaining an open dialogue about one another's needs while aboard the International Space Station or space shuttle. Coleman, a retired astronaut and chemist, recounted a particularly moving evening she spent with an international crew aboard the space station celebrating Yuri's Night an event first created by another Beyond the Cradle speaker, Loretta Whitesides , to celebrate the first crewed spaceflight, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's 1961 mission. "It really meant a lot to us," said Coleman, showing a photo of the space station crew wearing shirts with Gagarins face. "Our crew was onboard the station on April 12, 2011, 50 years [after Yuri's flight]. There's a lot that that shirt says. It's a picture of Yuri Gagarin. The fact that it's on the space station, with one for [each]of us, is actually thanks to Loretta Whitesides And I think that individual people make these kinds of differences." When reflecting on other moving moments they'd all experienced either in training or aboard the space station, the spaceflyers emphasized how important it is for more than just astronauts to gain this cosmic perspective. It's possible to see videos of space travel or hear first-person stories, but the astronauts said to really express the overwhelming feeling of seeing Earth from space an experience known as the overview effect they need to turn to a more expressive form of communication, like art. In lieu of sending artists in residence to the space station just yet, retired astronaut Nicole Stott has begun searching for a way to express her experience of space through art, following an experience she had painting aboard the station . Related: The Rock Band OK Go Wants to Launch Student Art Projects into Space "When I was thinking about retiring, [I thought], 'What am I going to do that's kind of different?' [And] I just kept coming back to this really special experience [of] getting to paint in space," said Stott. "Art is like this universal communicator and I thought I can use art to reach audiences, unlike this one, that don't even know we have a space station and that this wonderful place exists. "And I can also encourage them to consider themselves Earthlings, to understand we live on a planet," she added. "All of those kinds of things that I think really are the core of what I came back to Earth with." Since returning home, Stott has worked with the Space for Art Foundation and the Spacesuit Art Project to help kids explore the intersection of science and art. The bright, patchwork-style spacesuit Stott helped design has even found its way back to the space station, bringing her mission full circle. "I came back to Earth with this undeniable truth of 'Wow, we are already all in space together.' And we need to start acting more like that," Stott said. Europe's next asteroid mission, which could launch in 2023, will rely on the same kind of navigation technology as self-driving cars. Named "Hera" after the Greek goddess of marriage, this proposed planetary defense mission would visit the 2,550-foot-wide (780 meters) asteroid 65803 Didymos and its tiny satellite, a 525-foot (160 m) object informally nicknamed "Didymoon." While deep-space missions typically rely on controllers back on Earth to send navigation commands, Hera will have an automatic navigation system built in. This will allow Hera to steer itself in real time rather than waiting several minutes to receive a command signal sent from Earth. Related: The Greatest Asteroid Encounters of All Time! "If you think self-driving cars are the future on Earth, then Hera is the pioneer of autonomy in deep space," Paolo Martino, the lead systems engineer for Hera, said in a statement . Having an autonomous navigation system will enable the spacecraft to fly closer to both Didymos and Didymoon, which will allow it to take better high-resolution images of their surfaces, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said in the statement. Much like a self-driving car, the Hera spacecraft will rely on data from sensors, cameras and lasers "to build up a coherent model of its surroundings," Jesus Gil Fernandez, a guidance, navigation and control engineer at ESA, said in the statement. An artist's impression of the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft. (Image credit: ESA) Hera won't be relying entirely on its autopilot for this first mission. The mission is still designed to be operated from the ground, and it won't start testing out the new system until all the mission's major objectives are complete, Fernandez said. Hera is one part of the larger Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission, which also includes a NASA spacecraft that will head to the same asteroid system. NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission aims to crash a spacecraft into the asteroid's surface, and the spacecraft will bring along two small cubesats that will examine the asteroid's surface. While DART's mission is to smash into the asteroid , Hera's mission is to orbit the asteroid and observe the collision from a safe distance before swooping down to study the impact crater up close. The goal of the mission is to demonstrate a planetary defense strategy known as asteroid deflection . In other words, scientists want to figure out if it's possible to save Earth from a potentially catastrophic asteroid strike by launching a spacecraft at the asteroid to knock it off course. Japan's space agency wants to create a moon base with the help of robots that can work autonomously, with little human supervision. The project, which has racked up three years of research so far, is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the construction company Kajima Corp., and three Japanese universities: Shibaura Institute of Technology, The University of Electro-Communications and Kyoto University. Recently, the collaboration did an experiment on automated construction at the Kajima Seisho Experiment Site in Odawara (central Japan). Related: Moon Base Visions: How to Build a Lunar Colony (Photos) A moon base could be constructed remotely. (Image credit: JAXA) A 7-ton autonomous backhoe went through its paces at the site, going through procedures such as driving a specified distance and repeating routine operations, JAXA officials said in a statement . Operations that required more fine handling were performed with a human, by remote control. "[The backhoe] has been modified with onboard survey instruments and an automatic operation control console. The instruments that the tractor and backhoe are installed with autonomously measure [the backhoe's] position and direction ... making it both remotely and automatically operable," JAXA officials said. "The operational process has shown feasibility of the unmanned technologies to build a lunar base," they added. Image 1 of 4 (Image credit: 2019 Kajima Corporation) Four steps for moon base construction: Step 1 Site preparation work for the module for human habitation. Image 2 of 4 (Image credit: 2019 Kajima Corporation) Four steps for moon base construction: Step 2 Excavation that meets the required depth. Image 3 of 4 (Image credit: 2019 Kajima Corporation) Four steps for moon base construction: Step 3 Installation of the module. Image 4 of 4 (Image credit: 2019 Kajima Corporation) Four steps for moon base construction: Step 4 Shielding the module with the surface material to protect it from meteoroids and radiation. The backhoe is equipped with a suite of technologies to help it work on its own at the moon, which is located about 2 seconds' radio distance away from Earth. In other words, any command sent from Earth would take about 2 seconds to arrive at the moon's surface. (The average distance between the Earth and the moon is about 239,000 miles, or 384,000 kilometers). JAXA used this autonomously operated tractor to practice for someday remotely building a moon base. (Image credit: JAXA) The backhoe has "operational support," including remote-control functions, that can help compensate for communication delays, JAXA officials said. It also has motion recognition capabilities adaptable to the lunar environment, and the ability to coordinate its work through multiple machines. An autonomously operated backhoe, like this one used in a JAXA test, could someday help construct a moon base. (Image credit: JAXA) Building a base for humans using remote, autonomous control will require site preparation work, excavation, installing the module, and then shielding it with moon dust (regolith) to protect humans from radiation and possible meteoroids, JAXA officials said. Meteoroids are grain-size or larger space rocks that travel through space at high speeds. If meteoroids strike a structure such as a space station or moon base, there's a risk of the oxygen inside the structure suddenly leaking out into space. This isn't Japan's only futuristic lunar venture. In mid-March, JAXA announced it and vehicle manufacturer Toyota would create a moon rover to transport humans, which could launch by 2029. JAXA hopes to have its astronauts on the moon by 2030, according to Sky News , and its International Space Station partner, the United States, has similar ambitions. Late last month, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence tasked NASA with landing astronauts on the moon by the end of 2024 , around the same time the ISS may be retired from government service. NASA is also designing a Lunar Gateway space station for operations in the 2020s. In March, Canada was the first space station partner to commit to joining Gateway; it will construct an autonomous robotic arm called Canadarm3 . The year 2019 marks the 50th year since humans first walked on the moon. The actual date is July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent about 2 hours on foot exploring the moon's Sea of Tranquility. WASHINGTON The emergence of satellite killer weapons and electronic warfare in space are among the trends that are reshaping the balance of power in outer space and challenging the dominance of the United States, according to two new studies by prominent Washington think tanks. Both released on Thursday, Space Threat Assessment 2019" from the Center of Strategic and International Studies; and Global Counterspace Capabilities: An Open Source Assessment" from the Secure World Foundation, build on the research they published in last year's reports and provide interesting new updates. It is perhaps a sign of the times that CSIS sent its report to the printer the day before India fired a missile into one of it own satellites in low Earth orbit on March 27, sending shockwaves across the globe. That just shows how quickly things can change in the space security environment, says Todd Harrison, director of CSIS Aerospace Security Project and one of the authors of the study. Related: India's Anti-Satellite Missile Test Is a Big Deal. Here's Why. The report, based on public sources of information, focuses on four specific countries that pose the greatest risk for the United States: China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Harrison cautions that this is not a comprehensive assessment of all known threats to U.S. space systems because many of the details about other countries' space weapons are not publicly available. Harrison highlighted a few nuggets of information from Space Threat Assessment 2019 that collectively paint a picture of what is happening in the global space race, particularly the advances made by China. China surpassed the United States in the total number of space launches for 2018, with 38 compared to 34, and showcased its technological advancements by landing a rover on the back side of the moon. China's SJ-17 satellite continued testing remote proximity operations in early 2018 around two other Chinese satellites. China appears to have placed truck-mounted jammers on Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in 2018. In June 2018, Symantec reported a sophisticated hacking campaign from China that targeted satellite operators, defense contractors and telecommunications companies. Russia conducted its seventh test of the PL-19 Nudol direct ascent anti-satellite system in December 2018 using a mobile launching system. A picture surfaced in September 2018 showing a Russian MIG-31 fighter jet carrying what is believed to be a mock-up of an air-launched anti-satellite missile. In September 2018 it was reported that Russia is developing a suspected new co-orbital anti-satellite system known as Burevestnik designed for operations in geosynchronous Earth orbit. France in September complained publicly about Russian remote proximity operations near a French-Italian military satellite. Russia has been actively using its electronic counterspace systems to jam GPS signals around Norway and Finland for multiple NATO and allied military exercises, including Trident Junction 18 and Exercise Clockwork in January 2019. On India's recent ASAT test, Harrison said the Indian government had boasted for years that it had a direct ascent anti-satellite capability, but this was the first time it actually demonstrated that capability. "While the test does not initially appear to be as bad for the space environment as the Chinese test in 2007, it nevertheless produced thousands of pieces of debris, some of which may linger in orbit for decades and pose a threat to other satellites," Harrison told SpaceNews. "The test clearly establishes India as a space rival to countries like China and as an important player to be included in future negotiations of norms of conduct in space," he said. The purpose of the test, however, may have been as much about domestic politics as about making a geopolitical statement. In the foreword to the CSIS report, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) argues that the space security environment is a key reason why the United States should have a Space Force as a separate military branch. Cooper is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee and a longtime advocate of a military space service. "The United States is not the leader in anti-satellite technology," Cooper writes. "We had naively hoped that our satellites were simply out of reach, too high to be attacked, or that other nations would not dare." But counterspace weapons are now a reality and the Pentagon "has done very little to reduce this existential risk," he adds. "This is the year of decision," states Cooper. "The president has recently demanded a Space Force. The Pentagon has responded with a proposal and this year's National Defense Authorization Act "will decide the outcome." Report released by SWF The Secure World Foundation's "Global Counterspace Capabilities: An Open Source Assessment," edited by Brian Weeden and Victoria Samson, also focuses on advances made by China and Russia. And it includes preliminary details about India's ASAT test after a prior failure in February 2019. Like the CSIS report, the SWF study draws from publicly available information. It includes sections on Chinese and Russian directed-energy weapons capabilities and programs, and on both nations' recent changes to their military space and counterspace organizations. Russian rendezvous proximity operations in low Earth orbit of late suggest they are part of a space situational awareness program known as Nivelir that may be supporting the co-orbital Burevestnik project, both of which may have begun in 2011, the report reveals. SWF found new evidence that Russia may be upgrading the Krona optical space-based surveillance system with laser dazzling or blinding capabilities. The militarization of space is a concern, the SWF report says. "A growing number of countries and commercial actors are getting involved in space, resulting in more innovation and benefits on Earth, but also more congestion and competition in space." More countries are looking to use space to enhance their military capabilities and national security, and are developing counterspace technologies that can be used to deceive, disrupt, deny, degrade or destroy space systems, says the report. "The existence of counterspace capabilities is not new, but the circumstances surrounding them are," according to SWF. There are more incentives to develop offensive counterspace capabilities and greater potential consequences from their use as the global economy and society become more reliant on space applications." STAMFORD Two years ago, eight Sackler family members who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma served on the companys board. Today, none of them remain on the panel. A spokesman for the Stamford-based company confirmed to The Advocate this week that the last of the Sacklers on the board stepped down at the beginning of 2019. For years, the Sacklers have appeared impervious to outside pressure to reform the company that they closely guard. But the board departures, as well as a number of other major moves in recent months, suggest that the billionaire owners could be rethinking how they run their business, as they grapple with hundreds of lawsuits alleging that Purdues marketing stoked the opioid crisis including complaints by Connecticut, Massachusetts, and most recently, New York, that directly accuse the Sacklers. The Purdue Pharma board has long included a contingent of strong, independent directors, the company said in a statement. In recent years, as boards both public and private have moved in the direction of greater independence, there has been a collective desire among family directors to do so as well. The (2017) passing of (Purdue co-founder) Dr. Raymond Sackler accelerated that transition, and the board no longer includes any family members. A message left for a Sackler family spokesperson seeking comment on the board changes was not returned. Litany of accusations The late Raymond Sackler and his late brother Mortimer Sackler bought Purdue Pharmas predecessor company, Manhattan-based Purdue Frederick, in 1952. The headquarters have been headquartered in Connecticut since 1973, with a 27-year stint in Norwalk before the 2000 relocation to their current downtown Stamford address, 201 Tresser Blvd. In its early days decades before the 1996 launch of OxyContin the Sackler-owned Purdue focused on products such as laxatives and arthritis treatment. Today, it is not the co-founders, but rather their widows, five of their children, and one grandchild who comprise the eight defendants in the Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York lawsuits. Seven of the eight took seats on the Purdue board in the early 1990s, according to the litigation. The eighth came on in 2012. The group includes a Connecticut-based trio: Greenwichs Beverly Sackler, widow of Raymond Sackler; Greenwichs Jonathan Sackler, son of Raymond and Beverly Sackler; and Kathe Sackler, daughter of Mortimer Sackler and who has held multiple residences in the state, according to public records. Since an un-redacted version was filed in January, Massachusetts complaint has garnered particular attention, largely due to the unprecedented amount of detail it gives about the Sacklers control of Purdue. Much of the information is culled from internal company documents. They hired hundreds of workers to carry out their wishes, and they fired those who didnt sell enough drugs, the lawsuit said. They got more patients on opioids, at higher doses, for longer, than ever before. They paid themselves billions of dollars. Purdue and the Sacklers have denied the allegations. Both the company and the Sacklers have filed motions to dismiss the Massachusetts complaint. In a court filing this week, the Sacklers said the lawsuit contains misleading and inflammatory allegations. Among the octet, Richard Sackler figures particularly prominently in the litigation. The son of Raymond and Beverly Sackler, he previously served as CEO and senior vice president of the company. At a launch party for OxyContin, Richard Sackler predicted a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition, according to the Massachusetts suit. In recent years, OxyContin has generated most of Purdues estimated annual sales of more than $3 billion, according to the lawsuits. Kathe and Jonathan Sackler also played instrumental roles, according to court records. Both served, for a time, as vice presidents. Massachusetts accuses the duo of knowing, as early as the 1990s, about the potentially devastating effects of long-term opioid use and depicts them as having a fixation on growing the companys sales. In 1997, Richard Sackler, Kathe Sackler, and other Purdue executives concluded and recorded in secret internal correspondence that doctors mistakenly thought OxyContin was weaker than morphine, according to Massachusetts. The misunderstanding led to significantly more OxyContin prescriptions, even as a substitute for Tylenol. Massachusetts also accuses Kathe Sackler of spearheading Project Tango, a 2014 plan for Purdue to start selling drugs to treat opioid addiction. In their internal documents, Kathe and staff wrote down what Purdue publicly denied for decades: that addictive opioids and opioid addiction are naturally linked, the lawsuit said. They determined that Purdue should expand across the pain and addiction spectrum, to become an end-to-end pain provider. By early 2015, Project Tango ended. The complaint does not elaborate on the reasons for terminating the program. The Sacklers, however, did not give up on such initiatives. Last year, Richard Sackler gained patent approval for a buprenorphine opioid-addiction treatment. Few of the lawsuits allegations solely focus on Beverly Sackler, although Raymond Sacklers widow is still named in them. The familys board departures apparently started with her exit. She left the panel in October 2017, followed by Richard Sackler last July, and two more shortly after that, according to Massachusetts. Four remaining family members, including Kathe and Jonathan and Sackler, appear to have stepped down at later dates. Corporate-turnaround specialist Steve Miller, who took over as chairman last July, now leads a board of five members. Major changes Despite the board overhaul, the Sacklers have made no statements indicating that they would consider selling the business. Purdue CEO and President Craig Landau confirmed last month that the firm was considering bankruptcy. But filing for Chapter 11 protection would likely focus on managing legal liability, not on setting the stage for a sale of the entire company. In the past year and a half, Purdue has already undergone significant shifts Last year, it stopped marketing its opioids to medical prescribers and disbanded its sales force. The sales teams demise resulted in hundreds of layoffs. Now, the company is increasingly focusing on non-opioids. A new Purdue subsidiary gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval last month for a drug called Adhansia XR, to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD. Any marketing campaigns for Adhansia would face more discerning audiences than when OxyContin went on the market. If theres one good thing that came out of the opioid epidemic, its that most physicians are very jaded now about information that is provided by pharmaceutical companies, said Dr. Carl Mueller, associate chairman of psychiatry in the Stamford Health system, which includes Stamford Hospital. Theres been a shift toward much higher levels of skepticism. Ultimately, thats a good thing. In the past two months, another new Purdue subsidiary has secured the FDAs orphan drug designation for expedited reviews of drugs to, respectively, treat rare bile-duct cancer and an extremely rare type of leukemia. Also last month, Purdue announced an FDA fast-track designation for a nalmefene hydrochloride injection that would treat known or suspected opioid overdoses. The company said it would not profit from the latter medication, but that pledge has not won over some of its critics. I dont believe that they should be able to manufacture and sell controlled drugs, said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, co-director of opioid policy research at Brandeis Universitys Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Kolodny has been a paid expert witness in opioid lawsuits. This is a company that has shown, over and over again, that it has put profits over public health. At the same time, the company and the Sacklers have signaled their willingness to make large payouts to resolve some of the litigation. As part of a $270 million settlement last month of Oklahomas lawsuit, the Sacklers are contributing $75 million to a new national center focused on addiction, at Oklahoma State Universitys campus in Tulsa. Purdue and the Sacklers did not admit to any culpability in Oklahomas opioid crisis. The Sacklers were not named as defendants in that complaint. The first rule of crisis communication theory is to admit your wrongdoings, said Debbie Danowski, an associate professor of media studies at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. Quite the opposite, in the news reports Ive heard, the family has denied any wrongdoing. These types of statements only serve to anger the public. Admitting wrongdoing, then making a concerted effort to put time and money behind fixing it is a better way to repair the familys image. Controversial contributions The torrent of litigation has also ratcheted up scrutiny of the Sacklers prolific philanthropy. Late last month, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan said that it would not accept additional contributions from the family branch of one of the defendants named in the lawsuits, Mortimer D.A. Sackler, a former museum board member and son of the late Mortimer Sackler. In February, protesters demonstrated at the Guggenheim, calling out the museum for its ties to the Sacklers. A United Kingdom-based group of Sacklers which includes Theresa Sackler, another of the defendants and widow of Mortimer Sackler has also faced growing pressure. The Tate group of galleries has said that it would not take more money from the family. The London-based National Portrait Gallery, in consultation with the Sacklers, is not proceeding with a $1.3 million donation. In Connecticut, Sackler beneficiaries include the University of Connecticut, Yale University, Greenwich Hospital and Stamfords Palace Theater . So far, they have not renounced their funding from the family. Im not surprised some organizations have decided to take a public stance against the Sacklers, given all the news coming out about the opioid crisis, said Karla Fortunato, president of the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy. If they receive positive feedback, I think other organizations will feel comfortable taking a similar stance. pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott STAMFORD People perceive that political bodies must be public. But they can be perfectly private. Stamford has two such groups: the Democratic City Committee and the Republican Town Committee, each the organizing arm of its political party. The committees recruit candidates for elected office, choose which ones to endorse, help them run their campaigns, staff phone banks and party headquarters, prepare mailings, and register voters and get them to the polls. But they are private entities, said Valicia Harmon, a staff attorney with the state Freedom of Information Commission. They call themselves a city committee, but its a misleading name, Harmon said. Its confusing. Im a lawyer and I had to check, because they sound like public agencies. To add to the confusion, several members of the political committees hold public office or work for the city. People may think these committees are part of the government, so they think the committees are doing public business, Harmon said. But they are not created by the government to do government work. They are created by politicians to do political work. As such, they are private. The issue arose March 27, when the Democratic City Committee would not allow press coverage of a discussion on whether to remove District 12 city Rep. Marion McGarry from the party for posting anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic messages on Facebook. City Rep. Steven Kolenberg, R-16, an associate member of the Republican Town Committee, said he was surprised to hear that political committee meetings may be private. Maybe its because we have our meetings in the government center, some of us assumed were a public organization, Kolenberg said. If were not public, we usually act like we are, because of the part committees play in choosing candidates for government office. Josh Fedeli, chairman of the Democratic City Committee, said the rules of that group are that meetings are open only to registered Democrats in Stamford. As a private organization, we will provide access or accommodate members of the media on request prior to a meeting, so we can communicate to our members that the press will be at the meeting, Fedeli said. Others can be invited. Its within the committees purview, said Tom Hennick, public information officer for the state Freedom of Information Commission. Political town committees are not subject to FOI, so they can pretty much do things any way they like, Hennick said. In the McGarry case, Democratic City Committee members on March 27 decided to hold a hearing before scheduling a vote on whether to oust McGarry. But that became moot the next day, when McGarry quit the Democrats and re-registered as an unaffiliated voter. It may be that Republicans would have handled such an incident by calling the discussion into executive session. Interestingly, the committees use of the term comes from the phrase used for closed portions of public meetings. The last time we went into executive session was over a controversy concerning justice of the peace appointments a few years ago. There was anger about it, so the chairman handled it that way, Kolenberg said. But weve had similar stuff and aired it in public. Fritz Blau, chairman of the Republican Town Committee, said the goal is to keep meetings as public as possible. If we are talking about strategy or something sensitive, we might go into executive session and ask anyone who is not on the committee to leave, Blau said. I have had Democrats show up and try to start talking. They cannot have the floor, but they can stay and listen. Its been the policy for many years, said Blau, who has chaired the Republican Town Committee since 2016. This is how I look at it: What are we keeping from the people? How are we going to promote democracy if we close ourselves off? Blau said. We are discussing the peoples business. Thats what politics is. City Rep. Charles Pia Jr., R-18, vice chairman of the Republican Town Committee, said meetings have been public for the 12 years hes been a member. One reason is that the number of Republicans in Stamford is about half the number of Democrats. I think we decided as a group to be an open, transparent organization and, as the minority party, to allow people to participate in discussions of our ideas and values, and what candidates we like, Pia said. We view it as a forum for reaching out to people, and an opportunity for people to get to know us. acarella@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2296. The University of Kansas will offer an "Angry White Male Studies" class this fall. The humanities course "charts the rise of the 'angry white male' in America and Britain since the 1950s," according to the class description. Students can pick up three credit hours as they "examine the source of the emotional state while evaluating recent manifestations of male anger." While some students call it a legitimate class, one lawmaker signaled he is not a fan of the topic. Take a look at the video above for more. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Situating the National War Memorial by Arup Kumar Sen A scholar of Museum Studies, Andrew Whitmarsh, made some seminal observations regarding war memorials: ...museums of war act as memorials to those who were killed or served in war...War museums have often been accused of sanitising or glamorising war...War is a controversial subject, not only because of the death, destruction and suffering involved. Memory of war often forms part of a nations self-image. Taking a critical attitude towards past wars may therefore provoke accusations of being unpatriotic.(Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies, November, 2001) The recent inauguration ceremony of the National War Memorial (NWM) in India has led to controversy. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, inaugurated the NWM adjoining the iconic India Gate Complex in New Delhi on February 25, 2019. The memorial is intended to pay tribute to soldiers who laid down their lives defending the nation during India-China War in 1962, Indo-Pak wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971, Indian Peace Keeping Force Operations in Sri Lanka and in the Kargil conflict of 1999. Reportedly, the Rs 176-crore project is spread over a vast expanse of 40 acres at the India Gate Complex. While speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the memorial, Narendra Modi said: For seven decades since Independence, the country didnt have a memorial for our fallen heroes. He attacked the Congress for allegedly compro-mising the defence forces, and claimed: Major defence decisions in the national interest, which were earlier ignored or halted, are now being taken without any delay. (See The Wire, February 26, 2019) Many Opposition leaders, particularly those belonging to the Congress, found Modis speech to be a blatantly political one. The timing of the inauguration is also important. To put it in the words of India Today, ...National War Memorial opening comes at a time when the country is mourning its 40 CRPF jawans who were martyred in the devastating Pulwama terror attack. (www.indiatoday.in) It should be mentioned in this connection that the Indian Air Force bombed the Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Pakistans Balakot a day after the inauguration of the war memorial. The BJP Government led by Narendra Modi is branding its critics as anti-national. Now, with the negative turn in Indias relations with Pakistan, a critical attitude towards past wars may therefore provoke accusations of being unpatriotic. In the election season, it is quite likely that the use of the anti-national category by the ruling party will be more pronounced in characterising its opponents. A country manor set in the Cotswolds with sprawling grounds and views of Cheltenham's world-famous racecourse, prepare for a very British escape Where is it? A 10-minute drive from the centre of Cheltenham, Ellenborough Park may be a mere stones throw away from the hustle and bustle of the Gloucestershire town but once you hit the 90 acres of private land, youll soon enter retreat mode. Style Theres nothing modern or outwardly trendy about Ellenborough Park but thats the beauty of it. A storied manor house, it has stuck to its roots, boasting English country-inspired interiors. Expanded over the years, the original part of the hotel dates back to 1465 and its this main section thats worth taking a tour around. In the dining room, the original wood panelling is still the focal point and The Great Hall, located just as you enter the hotel, harks back to Tudor times with a vast fireplace, ornate cornices and oil paintings of former visitors strung around. Inside the bedrooms, the decor is traditional throughout with floral and stripey wallpaper, upholstered furnishings and beds complete with frilled valances. Ellenborough Park Which room? There are 61 rooms in the property and they are spread out over the estate but all within easy walking distance to the main house. They range from small doubles up to mega-suites with many named after lucky racehorses. We stayed in the Kauto Star which featured two plump sofas, velvet armchairs, a king-sized bed and two vast wardrobes (just incase you overpack). The expansive bathroom proved the showstopper though. Marble-floored with a roll-top standalone tub, a walk-in shower and double sink, you could while away the whole evening pampering in there. Facilities The hotel has all the facilities youd want for a country getaway. Theres an outdoor heated swimming pool, a gym, a spa with a steam room, sauna, hot tub and an impressive treatment menu. If you fancy getting out into the fresh air, you can get straight onto the Cotswolds hills from the hotel and theres no need to stress if you didnt pack right. The hotel has a boots room where you can help yourself to Dubarry outerwear. Ellenborough Park Food There are three different dining options at Ellenborough and the food is really excellent. The Horse Box is the pub-grub stop with fish and chips, burgers and pies on the menu and its likely you will be joined not just by hotel guests but by visitors spending the day in the Cotswolds too. The Restaurant is the fine-dining option. Expect to sample the likes of foie gras with dashi jelly and milk bread, lemon crusted Cornish hake and violet meringues. The sommelier will be on hand to help you select the perfect accompanying wines. For those who want to go all-out, the afternoon tea in The Great Hall wont disappoint either. Expect the full works - champagne, finger sandwiches, bouncy scones and dainty just-out-the-oven cakes. Best for Couples and families. How to get there Ellenborough Park is a 15-minute taxi ride from Cheltenham Spa Station and around a two-hour drive from London. A man has been arrested after a young woman was stabbed in the stomach in north London. The victim, in her 20s, was found by police in Holloway Road, Islington, after were called shortly after 11pm. She was rushed to hospital and her injuries have been deemed not to be life-threatening. Scotland Yard told the Standard a man has been arrested in connection with the incident. A spokesman said: "A 23-year-old male, no further details, was arrested nearby on suspicion of grievous bodily harm [GBH]. "He was taken to a north London police station where he remains at this time. "The victim and the suspect are known to each other. " Officers are continuing to investigate the crime. A 19-year-old male was also stabbed in north London on Saturday night as the capital's spate of knife crime continues. Police were called to Kingsbury Road, Brent, at 9.29pm to reports of a stabbing. They could not find the victim or any suspects and it was later discovered the knifed teen had taken himself to hospital. His injuries are not life-threatening. Meanwhile, Lambeth MPS attended the scene of a stabbing in Brixton and issued a stop and search order overnight. A man in his 20s took himself to hospital with stab wounds on Saturday night, after police were called to reports of a fight and stabbing in New Park Road. His condition is not life threatening. A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a young woman was found dead near a block of flats in Enfield. The woman in her 20s was found injured on Turkey Street just before 6pm on Sunday but was pronounced dead at the scene. A Met Police spokesman said: Police were called to Brookbank, Turkey Street, EN1 at 17.49hrs on Sunday, 7 April by London Ambulance Service. A woman, aged in her 20s, was found injured in the street and was sadly pronounced deceased at the scene. A man was arrested nearby on suspicion of murder and he has been taken to a north London police station. Next of kin have been informed. A post-mortem examination and formal identification will take place in due course. A police cordon remains in place and officers will be in the area while initial investigations are carried out. T wo men have been hospitalised after a double shooting in Leyton. Police rushed to Francis Road after locals heard gunshots and found the two victims in their 20s. Unconfirmed reports from local residents claimed they had been shot from behind with a pellet gun. Their injuries were not life-changing or life-threatening. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: "Police were called at 18.48hrs on Sunday, 7 April to Francis Road, E10 with reports that gunshots had been heard. "Upon arrival, officers found two male victims in their 20s who appeared to have gunshot wounds. "Both were taken to a London hospital for treatment. Their injuries are not believed to be life changing or life threatening. "Police cordons are in place in Francis Road and Tyndall Road, E10. T ory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has launched an attack on the Prime Minister, blaming Theresa May for the UK's failure to have left the EU already. The chairman of the European Research Group told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: "The Prime Minister could have taken us out on March 29. It was the Prime Minister who asked for an extension, it was the Prime Minister who changed the date by prerogative power from March 29 to April 12. "This all rests with her and upon her shoulders." Mr Rees-Mogg added that Mrs May "has made active choices to stop us leaving and she deserves to be held to account for that". Jacob Rees-Mogg attacked the Prime Minister in an interview on Sunday / Sky News The PM is facing anger from Conservative Brexiteers over the prospect of Brexit being delayed, with one minister warning of grave consequences for the Conservative party if Brits were required to elect MEPs on May 23. The prime minister heads to Brussels on Wednesday to ask for an extension to June 30, with the possibility of an earlier Brexit day if a deal is agreed - but the EU has signalled it would insist on a longer delay rather than risk repeated requests for extra time. Mr Rees-Mogg blamed the Prime Minister for the delay on Sunday. He added: "People ought to know the truth of the position, rather than trying to blame everybody else, blaming recalcitrant MPs and other Conservatives. Theresa May and her husband Philip leave after attending a church service near Maidenhead on Sunday / AFP/Getty Images "If the Prime Minister had done what she said in the first place and had stuck to the law, as set out in two Acts, we would have left the European Union by now." Speaking after the Government held cross-party talks with Labour last week, Mr Rees-Mogg said the prime minister was at risk of "undermining the general thrust of the Conservative argument" by meeting with Jeremy Corbyn. He said there was an "irony, at the very minimum, of saying one week that one thinks Mr Corbyn is dangerous and unfit for office and the next week deciding to cohabit with him". "Not both of those statements can be true and I think the Prime Minister risks giving a degree of credibility to Mr Corbyn and undermining the general thrust of the Conservative argument that he is a Marxist who would be dangerous to this nation's interests," he told Ms Ridge. Mr Rees-Mogg later praised Boris Johnson, whose leadership prospects have been boosted by speculation about an alliance with Remain-leaning Cabinet minister Amber Rudd which has been dubbed "Bamber" by Westminster insiders. "I think very highly of Boris Johnson, who managed to win in London twice in a Labour area - has a great connection with voters. "He is a clear Eurosceptic but otherwise is very much in the middle of the Conservative Party. He is not particularly a factional character beyond the European issue and therefore I think could unite the party and win an election." Mr Rees-Mogg said he also "thought highly of Amber Rudd" who was a person of "first-class capabilities". TODO: define component type apester "There will come a time, though we may find this difficult to believe at the moment, when there are other things to talk about than Europe, and at that point we will need all the talents that are arrayed within the Tory party, not just those of Brexiteers." Theresa May on Saturday warned that Brexit could "slip through our fingers" unless a compromise deal can be reached with Labour. The PM, who has been accused by Labour of failing to propose changes to her deal in negotiations, insisted their positions offered "the basis for a compromise". On Sunday, shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey said further talks were planned but added it was "disappointing" there not been any movement on the Government's red lines. "The overall mood is quite a positive and hopeful one," she told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show. But she added: "The sad thing is at the moment we haven't seen overall any real changes to the deal, but we are hopeful that will change in coming days and we are willing to continue the talks as we know the Government are." The teams were "keeping our diaries as free as possible" and "we have had exchanges with the Government over the weekend, clarifying our position. They have been setting out theirs and hopefully at the beginning of next week we will be having further discussions". "But we are currently waiting for the Government to come back to us now to state whether they are prepared to move on any of their red lines," she said. "We had great discussions and we went into a lot of technical detail but so far we haven't seen anything from Government that would suggest they are prepared to change any part of the deal going forward." Meanwhile Labour MP Jess Phillips has said there is a feeling Labour is "playing politics" over Brexit which was "irritating everyone and pleasing no one". The Birmingham Yardley MP told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday the party's position had been understandable because of the split in leave and remain constituencies, but it had become "confusing" for MPs, party members and the public. She added: "I am not going to pretend that Jeremy Corbyn was put in a really easy position and he just botched it. T heresa May has defended her decision to reach out to Labour in a bid to break the Brexit deadlock as she issued a stark warning it might "slip through our fingers". In a statement on Saturday night, Mrs May said she "had to take a new approach" in working to get a deal through the Commons. She said agreeing a deal could lead to the UK leaving the European Union in six weeks but a failure could result in no Brexit at all. In a statement, released after cross-party talks to solve the Brexit impasse stalled, she said: "The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all. It would mean letting the Brexit the British people voted for slip through our fingers. I will not stand for that. It is essential we deliver what people voted for and to do that we need to get a deal over the line. Jeremy Corbyn happy with Theresa May's Brexit delay Outlining her next moves, she reiterated she will ask for short extension to Article 50 to push back the UKs Brexit date once again. TODO: define component type apester My intention is to reach an agreement with my fellow EU leaders that will mean if we can agree a deal here at home we can leave the EU in just six weeks, she said. "We can then get on with building a new relationship with our nearest neighbours that will unlock the full potential of Brexit and deliver the brighter future that the British people voted for." Jeremy Corbyn's party said the government 'has not offered real change or compromise' / Anthony Devlin/Getty Images However, the EU seems to be swaying towards granting a longer extension to avoid rolling moves to the date if issues are ongoing. Addressing those who criticised her for reaching out to her opposition counterpart Jeremy Corbyn she said: I had to take a new approach. The PM said this was her only option left in her endeavours to secure a deal, having done everything in my power to persuade her own party and its DUP allies to back her Withdrawal Agreement. Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images She said: If we cannot secure a majority among Conservative and DUP MPs we have no choice but to reach out across the House of Commons. "The referendum was not fought along party lines and people I speak to on the doorstep tell me they expect their politicians to work together when the national interest demands it. Jeremy Hunt: PM will try to avoid European elections despite Brexit extension "The fact is that on Brexit there are areas where the two main parties agree: we both want to end free movement, we both want to leave with a good deal, and we both want to protect jobs. "That is the basis for a compromise that can win a majority in Parliament and winning that majority is the only way to deliver Brexit. Keir Starmer said the Government is not making substantial changes to push through agreement / EPA Despite her call for a revised plan agreed between the two major parties, which her Chancellor Philip Hammond also said he is optimistic about reaching, the Labour cohort in talks appears to be unhappy at this juncture. The opposition has accused Mrs May of refusing to consider substantive changes to the Political Declaration, a document setting out a framework for the UK's future relationship with the EU. Jeremy Corbyn, who on Saturday faced a call to back a second referendum from 80 of his MPs, said: "The Labour position is a customs union with the European Union, access to European markets and the retention of regulations for environment, consumers, and workplace rights as a base on which we can build - a dynamic relationship which means we can never fall below them. "We've set all that out. I haven't noticed any great change in the Government's position so far. I'm waiting to see the red lines move." Philip Hammond says he is optimistic a deal can be reached / AFP/Getty Images On Saturday the Chancellor said the Government has no red lines in talks indicating the possibility of some of Labours most jarring demands to Brexiteers gaining traction. While Mrs May faces obstacles in her much-criticised cross-party plan, she also sees further uprisings within Tory ranks, as Eurosceptics reacted with rage to the possibility of her giving in to Mr Corbyn's demand for a customs union. Ex-whip Michael Fabricant predicted "open revolt" in the Conservative Party and among those who backed Leave if Mrs May agreed to the move. Steve Baker, a former Brexit minister, lashed out at efforts to recruit MPs to sign a "toxic" letter endorsing the PM's cross-party efforts. He said: "At a time when Conservative members and activists are recoiling in horror at the idea of collaborating with Jeremy Corbyn, the No 10 effort to rehabilitate this awful deal and worse strategy to drive it through seems wholly forlorn." According to the Sunday Telegraph, Conservative activists are refusing to campaign for the party and donations have "dried up" because of Mrs May's leadership. A n amateur climber from south-west London has revealed how he and three others travelled to a remote corner of Malawi and risked their lives to ascend Africas largest rock face. Terry Walsh, 35, from Putney, was among a group of three climbers who set out to become the second to conquer a hair-rising aspect of the Mulanje Massif in the southeast of Africa. The team, whose journey was documented by a film maker, were pushed to their limits as they battled the scorching African sun, unforgiving terrain and bush fires over the 34-hour climb in 2017. Mr Walsh, who works in business development at a London accountancy firm, told the Standard how the group left their everyday lives to attempt the mile-long ascent of the west face of Chambe Peak. Mulanje Massif is the highest mountain in south-central Africa / Terry Walsh At one point the rock became so sheer, the teams rope system kept falling out. If any of us had become injured, rescue would have been impossible because of the remote nature of the climb, Mr Walsh says. The story of their remarkable journey, aided by a local guide, is now touring festivals as a documentary feature film. Terry Walsh climbs the west face of Chambe Peak (Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill ) / Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill Mr Walsh teamed up with photographer Ezan Vercuiel, 41, and doctor Jeremy Heath, 33, for the climb in September 2017. Joined by filmmaker Garth Kingwill, 41, and local guide Kingsley Mambe, 29, they tackled the 1700m vertical rock wall of Mount Mulanje, the highest mountain in southern Malawi and south-central Africa. 'The biggest climb of our lives' / Garth Kingwill For the group, this was an unmissable opportunity. Mr Walsh said they asked themselves: If we could go for the biggest climb of our lives what could we do? They opted for a technical route up the rock face that had only been attempted once before in 2014. In pictures | Mount Mulanje climb 1 /16 In pictures | Mount Mulanje climb Mulanje Massif is the highest mountain in south-central Africa Terry Walsh Jeremy, Ezan and Terry navigate the cliff Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill Ezan Vercueil clings to a crack in the cliff face Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill Terry Walsh climbs the west face of Chambe Peak Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill 'The biggest climb of our lives' Garth Kingwill Ezan Vercuiel swings from the rock face Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill The group encountered a bush fire during the climb Garth Kingwill From left to right, Jeremy, Ezan, Terry, Kingsley at the base of the mountain Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill The group faced multiple challenges on their 34-hour ascent Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill They used ropes for safety Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill At times they were 'trapped by fear' Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill The cliff face is 1700m high Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill The group spent two weeks preparing route-finding and practising difficult sections - before making the leap for the 34-hour climb. This is routine for such a climb, according to Mr Walsh. Citing Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo, he said: He will have rehearsed that climb 100 times before took the ropes off. Ezan Vercuiel swings from the rock face (Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill ) / Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill But despite rehearsals, the group still faced huge challenges. It was at the physical limit of what we could climb. Of what we could achieve, Mr Walsh said. [We prepared but] beyond a certain point you are disappearing into the void and thats when the real adventure comes, when you just have to figure it out. Mr Walsh added that there were points where the fear almost trapped us. Eleven hours in, the group encountered a bush fire. Jeremy, Ezan and Terry navigate the cliff (Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill ) / Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill Some 600m into the climb the rock face plateaued and the team were set to trek through a forested area. However they found a blaze had been raging through the area for several days. We climbed above and around it, said Mr Walsh. But we divvied that night on a ledge not knowing if the fire was going to get up to us. We spent three or four hours by the fire until we got high enough that we thought we were safe. Yet the team was still set to face their most challenging point of the climb, Mr Walsh said. There was a section we came across that we werent able to practice, he recalled. It was way above our ability to free climb. The group encountered a bush fire during the climb / Garth Kingwill We had to get up as high as we could to place gear into this horrible crack and then pull [ourselves] higher, but the gear kept falling out. The team had been using rope and gear carabiners and mechanical devices attached to the rock face for safety up to this point. Now they were forced to assist climb, using the gear to pull themselves up the face. We had no choice. The route from there would have taken about three days and we had no food or water left. If we had got stuck we would have been in a world of trouble. You look at each other and you are like s*** boys it becomes extremely dangerous. Ezan Vercueil clings to a crack in the cliff face (Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill ) / Ezan Vercuiel, Garth Kingwill Mr Walsh hailed their mountain guide for his actions during this period of difficulty. The group was more than 12 hours late reaching the summit as a result of this section. Mr Mmambo had hiked up the back of the mountain with their camera man while they made their ascent. Concerned when they didnt appear Mr Mmambo hiked back and forth across the summit ridge [about half a kilometre long] all day and night until he found them. Mr Walsh said he was incredible. He had been awake for 24 hours by this point, he said. Mulanje was recently screened at Cradle Mountain Film Festival. A round 40 animals including five lions have been rescued from a zoo in the war-torn territory of Gaza. The beleaguered creatures were kept in dire conditions in the facility in Rafah, in the south of the strip, ahead of their release from bleak cages. Monkeys, pelicans and foxes were also among the species to be saved by Four Paws International, whose vets and volunteers loaded them into trucks. The group are headed to the Israeli border in the northern Gaza Strip and the animals will later set course for resettlement in Jordan and Africa. The action marks the fourth and largest Gaza rescue mission by the Vienna-based organisation since Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza in 2007. A blockade and three wars between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers have made living conditions dire for Gaza's two-million residents. A single mum faces two years in jail in Dubai and a 50,000 fine after calling her ex-husband's new wife a "horse" on Facebook. Laleh Sharavesh was detained for 12 hours with her 14-year-old daughter Paris after being arrested upon entering the country. She was arrested over the comments, which were made in 2016, but Dubais cybercrime laws mean that an old social media post from before a person visits Dubai can see them heavily fined and jailed for years. The 55-year-old, who lives in Richmond, was married to Portuguese husband Pedro for 18 years. They had lived in Dubai for eight months where he worked for HSBC, before she returned to London in 2016. The Facebook comments were made 18 months before Laleh travelled to Dubai / Laleh Sharavesh Pedro was due to join them once work commitments had been resolved, but just months later he sent Laleh divorce papers. Shortly after, Laleh opened Facebook one morning and found pictures of Pedros wedding to a 42-year-old Tunisian woman. Ms Sharavesh lashed out, writing two comments about his new wife on Facebook in Farsi, which said: I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse, and you married a horse you idiot. Pedro passed away from a heart attack on March 3 at the age of 51, so Laleh and Paris flew to Dubai on March 10 to attend the funeral and pay their respects. But upon arrival, Ms Sharavesh was arrested because her ex-husbands new wife had reported her Facebook post to the police. "I am terrified. I cant sleep or eat. I have gone down two dress sizes because of the stress" She said: The police kept telling me to call someone to take my daughter while I went to Jebel Ali but I dont know anyone here well enough for that. Eventually they let us go, but kept my passport. I am not allowed to leave Dubai. I have been to court once, where I was not allowed to defend myself. And a police station where we were kept waiting for 12 hours without any progress. I am due in court again on Thursday the 11th of April and face a fine I can never pay plus jail. I am terrified. I cant sleep or eat. I have gone down two dress sizes because of the stress. And my daughter cries herself to sleep every night. We are so close, especially since her father left us and we only have each other. It breaks my heart to be kept apart from her. Paris had to fly home alone on her scheduled flight on March 15, and has been staying with relatives while her mother is stuck in Dubai. Ms Sharavesh added: I have lost everything because of this. I have no money left after paying to stay in a hotel here for over a month. I have lost my job and am unable to pay for rent on the flat I live in with Paris, because of this we are about to lose the flat. I am even in debt to my family for over 5,000. My life is in ruins, and that is even before the huge fines and jail I am facing here. Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained In Dubai is representing Laleh. She said: I have spoken with Laleh, her mother, sisters and daughter Paris. Their experience is heartbreaking. Not only has Paris lost her father, but in going to visit him to say her final goodbye, she wound up in a frightening Middle Eastern police station, and is now without her mother. Paris is writing a letter to Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE to appeal for her mothers release. N ovichok survivor Charlie Rowleys said he didnt really get any answers from a Russian ambassador he quizzed over his partner being fatally poisoned by the substance. Mr Rowley met with the diplomat at Russias embassy in Kensington and said he still believed the country was responsible for the Salisbury attack after the 90-minute discussion. "I went along to ask them 'Why did your country kill my girlfriend?', but I didn't really get any answers," Mr Rowley, whose partner Dawn Sturgess died after contact with Novicok, told the Sunday Mirror. "I liked the ambassador, but I thought some of what he said trying to justify Russia not being responsible was ridiculous. "I'm glad I met him and feel I did find out some things I didn't know before. But I still think Russia carried out the attack." Dawn Sturgess died in July 2018 / PA However, he said ambassador Alexander Yakovenko had seemed "genuinely concerned" about his situation when they met. In March 2018, 45-year-old Mr Rowley was exposed to the same nerve agent used to attack ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. He and Ms Sturgess, 44, fell ill in Amesbury months later after coming into contact with a perfume bottle believed to have been used in the poisonings then discarded. Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July. While Mr Rowley says he continues to suffer from the long-term effects of exposure to Novichok. Salisbury Novichok poisoning suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov captured on CCTV / Metropolitan Police Mr Rowley said he asked the ambassador "more than a dozen questions in all" and quizzed him about his claims that Britain was behind the attack. Mr Yakovenko told him the substance used had not come from Russia and the country only had small amounts of Novichok, Mr Rowley said. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror after the meeting, Mr Yakovenko said he and Mr Rowley were "on the same page" in both wanting to see a report into the investigation published. "It is important for Russia, but also for Charlie Rowley," he said. "I've seen a normal person who has really suffered a lot and who has suffered a tragedy in his life. If he asked for it, I would give him support." In September, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service said there was sufficient evidence to charge two Russians with offences including conspiracy to murder over the Salisbury nerve agent attack. The pair are known by their aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov and are accused of being members of the Russian military intelligence service the GRU. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Swami Aseemanand Acquitted! Whither Indian Justice System? by Ram Puniyani Seeing the pattern of the justice delivery system of India currently it seems getting justice, punishing the guilty is not easy. The judgments come as an outcome of the evidence produced by the executive, police in front of the Magistrates. The attitude of the ruling dispensation matters a lot in matters of the crimes related to the ideology being propounded and defended by the ruling party. Sometimes the assertion and strength of the ideologies, which are dominant but not in power, also influence the delivery of justice. Times and over again this cruel fact has been staring in our face. In the Mumbai violence of 1992-93 nearly one thousand persons were done to death, not too many convictions took place for the heinous crimes committed during this carnage. In the aftermath of this carnage the bomb blasts took place, orchestrated by the underworld in collaboration with the ISI of Pakistan. In these blasts nearly two hundred people died. In these cases some have been hanged to death for the crime, many have got life imprisonment and many others got other punishments. This is what should happen in a democracy. The most glaring has been the contrast between Rubina Memon, who is in prison for life for being the formal owner of the car which was used in the Mumbai blasts, while Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, whose motor cycle was used for the Malegaon blast, got the bail. All this comes to ones mind yet again when the NIA Court has acquitted Swami Aseemanand in the case of the Samjhauta Express blast wherein 68 people (43 of them from Pakistan) died. Incidentally, the Swami was granted bail in the Mecca Masjid blast case earlier and the factors influencing justice delivery became obvious as the main file, a key document containing the disclosure by Aseemanand, went missing from the Courts custody. Swami Aseemanand, associate of the RSS, who was working in Dangs with the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, was a key figure in organising the Shabri Kumbh in Dangs. He also emerged as the key figure in many a blast cases, Malegaon, Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Dargah and Samjhauta Express. All these took place in 2006-2008. The whole series came to a stop when the Maha-rashtra ATS chief, Hemant Karkare, while investigating these cases, came across the fact that the motor cycle used in the Malegaon blast case belonged to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, an ex- ABVP worker. The trail of investigation led to the role of many a follower of the Hindutva ideology, influenced by or close to the RSS- related organisations. When these facts started coming out Karakare was criticised and attacked by the Hindu nationalists. The Shiv Sena mouth- piece Saamna wrote that we spit on the face of Karkare, while the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, called him deshdrohi (anti-national). Though Karkare was investi-gating with full professional integrity, such criticisms from political circles did shake him and he shared his anxiety with his senior and upright police officer Julio Rebiero. Later as the NIA started maligning Karkare, Rebeiro stood by him and gave the strongest testimony of his professional integrity. The involvement of elements like Pragya Thakur, Assemanand and company was a big revelation and some from then UPA Government used the word Hindu terrorism or saffron terrorism for these cases. This was a faulty word anyway. It came up on the lines of the prevalent term, Islamic terrorism, which has been in vogue for quite some time. Hemant Karkare was killed in the 26/11, 2008 terror attack in Mumbai. Many of those calling him anti-national now describe him as a martyr! Later the Rajasthan ATS carried the investi-gation further and many from the RSS-related stable were found to be accomplices in the acts of terror. Subhash Gatades book, Godses Children, chronicles it well. The investigation changed track with the NDA coming to power at the Centre in 2014. Rohini Salian, the public prosecutor from Mumbai, who was dealing with these cases was told to go soft on these cases. Now a decade later Hemant Karkares investigation has been totally bypassed. Counter-allegations against Karkare are floating around. At the same time doubts about the legal system and its role in punishing the guilty are coming to surface yet again. In case of Swami Aseemanand, after his arrest he had given a confession in front of a Magistrate. This confession was not in police custody; this was after two days of judicial custody. In his confession, which is legally valid, he gave the details of his central role in planning the blasts which took place during 2007-2008. He also indicated that even the top-level RSS leadership was in the know of the goings-on. In a long interview spanning over two years, given to the Caravan magazine, journalist Leena Raghunath (Believer, Caravan), he stated things similar to what he told the Magistrate. Later he withdrew the statement given to the Magistrate saying that the confession was extacted under pressure. After this bail it is clear yet again that the justice system is so much dependent on the executive, the way the police presents the case to the Magistrate examining the case. In the aftermath of this bail, Vikash Naraan Rai, who was the chief of the SIT investigating into the Samjhauta blast, questioned the handling of case by the NIA. He asked: It is for the NIA to answer why the witnesses resiled (backtracked) in this case. As they have turned hostile in the court even after giving statements under 164 of Cr.P.C., the investigating agency should press perjury charges on them. The general perception is that the NIA had gone soft in this case. One can further comment once the complete judgment comes. With this bail the question that comes up is: who is responsible for the death of those 68 people? As usual, it seems nobody carried out the blast leading to the Samjhauta Express tragedy! What we are witnessing is a sustained effort to undermine the process of justice in pursuit of sectarian nationalism. The author, a retired Professor at the IIT-Bombay, is currently associated with the Centre for the Study of Secularism and Society, Mumbai. 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The conference theme this year is, Enhancing Impact: Digitalisation, Investment and Intra-African Trade. The two-day event aims to promote and accelerate the growth of women-owned and women-led businesses for Africas inclusive economic growth. AWIEF is a platform that sees global thought leaders, industry experts, policymakers, academics, development organisations and investors gather to dialogue, connect, network, share, collaborate and transact in a combined effort to boost Africas entrepreneurship ecosystem. The digital economy is driving business and is enhancing the impact of our work. Investment in women-owned businesses is needed across the continent of Africa, said Irene Ochem, Founder and CEO of AWIEF. The theme will be unpacked as follows at the AWIEF conference in October: How to leverage the digital economy. How to provide more access to affordable investment and finance to women to drive women entrepreneurship. Analysing the importance and role that women have to play in the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). It is important for Africa to trade amongst itself, to collaborate and cooperate. What we need to look at is the critical roles that women have in this integration process, Ochem explained. AWIEF is a Pan-African non-profit organisation with offices in both Nigeria and South Africa, including the annual conference, awards and expo; as well as events all year round and programmes to mentor, fund and grow women entrepreneurs on the continent. AWIEF runs several programmes for women across the continent, such as the flagship AWIEF Growth Accelerator Programme for getting businesses investment ready; the FemBioBiz Accelerator Programme in partnership with HIVOS and NEPAD-SANBio, which builds and supports the growth of women-owned and led businesses in the health and agricultural biotech field and other biosciences, with impact on health, nutrition and food security. The #VALUE4HER programme is in partnership with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), an European Union funded institution headquartered in The Netherlands, which strengthens womens agribusiness enterprises in Africa. The AWIEF Awards each year showcase a diverse representation of finalist entrepreneurs from across the continent, including, in 2018, from Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The awards have grown exponentially, from entries of just under 300 in 2017 when the AWIEF Awards were launched, to 1200 in 2018. Judges are drawn from thought leaders, decision makers and specialists in the various sectors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. AWIEF support comes from global organisations such as UN Women, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Union-funded Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). Partners and sponsors also include: Shell, Nedbank, City of Cape Town, Bank of Industry, Nigeria, GE, AGRA, Embassy of Sweden (Nigeria and South Africa), Embassy of Switzerland (South Africa) , IDC, MTN Business, ARC, Johnson & Johnson, Old Mutual, and Tsogo Sun. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 1 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Sunday sent a message on the occasion of the International Roma Day (April 8), in which she showed that this celebration has a double significance - of joy, as well as homage to Roma victims of the Holocaust of World War II. "Dear Romanian citizens of Roma origin, dear Roma people everywhere, I am sending you my warm greetings and my good thought on the occasion of the International Roma Day, a date with double significance: a moment of great joy but also of remembrance and tribute brought to the Roma victims of the Holocaust during World War II. It is an occasion to reflect on the valuable contribution that our fellow citizens of Roma ethnicity have and continue to have to the development of the Romanian society, to value one more the cultural heritage of the Roma ethnicity, preserved unaltered, and to appreciate the extraordinary achievements of Roma intellectuals, artists, and other members of the community. The International Roma Day is also an opportunity to reaffirm our determination to further promote action to combat poverty tolerance, discrimination and racism, as well as from above support of social integration and provision of increasingly better medical services and education," Dancila says in the message, according to a Government's release. She emphasizes that freedom is the foundation of any society."The relationships between us must be based on solidarity, acceptance, respect, basic principles of social cohesion," says Dancila.The prime minister states that Romania, as a member of the European Union, but also as a country holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union, will continue to promote and protect the rights and liberties of all Romanian citizens, regardless of their ethnicity."I am convinced that only together, united and motivated by a better future that we all want, will we continue to make important steps to respect and promote the rights and freedoms of all citizens, minorities and the majority, alike, for a better life for all Romanian citizens! Many happy returns to the Roma people in Romania and everywhere!" concludes Viorica Dancila. Minister for Business Milieu, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, Stefan Radu Oprea is participating in the World Economic Forum for the Middle East and North Africa, held in Jordan on 5-7 April, in the context of Romania's strategy to diversify its export markets and to develop the cooperation potential of companies towards emerging economies, reads a press release issued for AGERPRES. On the occasion of this event, Minister Oprea had a bilateral meeting with Amr Adel Nassar, Minister of Trade and Industry of Egypt, on Saturday, where project managers were established to conduct exports of Romanian agri-food products to third markets in Africa. In addition, during a meeting with Tarek El Molla, Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources of Egypt, the development of cooperation in the field of crude oil and mining was established, through the involvement of Romanian companies and research. The two meetings also represented a stage assessment of the agreements concluded in February 2019 at the Joint Intergovernmental Commission for Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation held in Cairo.Stefan Radu Oprea also had bilateral meetings with Jordanian Industry and Trade Minister and Supply Minister Tariq Hammouri, Jordanian Investment Minister Muhannad Shehadeh, and Minister of Commerce and Industry of Oman, Ali bin Masound bin Ali Al Sunaidy, in which the topic of the development of trade relations was approached.The event, which is taking place at the Dead Sea, in West Jordan, is organized by the World Economic Forum, an organization that has in its portfolio also the annual meetings in Davos. More than 1,000 leaders in government, business and civil society fields from the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the United States are attending this edition. Uneasy Hangs the Head That Wears a Crown: The Lessons Donald Trump Needs to Learn from William Shakespeare We forget how Shakespeares historical tragedies were also political thrillers all filled with mind-bogglingly complex plots and intrigues. Whenever one intrigue failed, the villains and even the heroes simply moved on to concoct a new one. Now that President Donald Trump has finally been exonerated from the always farcical Big Lie of Collusion with Russia in the 2016 election, the US leader had better watch out: The Deep State will really go after him now that its supposed Soft Coup plot has failed. Trump needs to recognize he is a modern version of Shakespeares King Henry IV, a monarch who can never afford to rest. The forces opposed to Trump and his decent, sensible 2016 campaign vision of defusing tensions with Russia worked viciously, relentlessly and long to discredit the 45th President of the United States before he could even get going. The idea that they are now going to sit back like good losers because their entire pyramid of lies on Collusion with Russia has been exposed is ludicrous. The two years of hysteria in fact were far from unsuccessful. They failed to topple Trump from office or separate and discredit him with his potent domestic political base. But they certainly prevented him from working openly and constructively with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the ongoing bloodbaths in Syria and Yemen that Trump inherited and to reduce global nuclear tensions. Instead, the United States continues to plunge ever more deeply into reckless, unconditional support for the dangerously volatile, irresponsible and local regimes in Georgia and Ukraine. To Otto von Bismarck and George Kennan alike this would have been incomprehensible. They would have regarded it as insane. So would Franklin D Roosevelt, who was slandered by ignorant Know Nothings for three quarters of a century because he recognized that destroying Nazism and preserving the peace of the world with the Soviet Union were more important than guaranteeing the borders and internal politics of Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. On unexpectedly winning power, President Trump was entirely serious in his commitment to drain the swamp of Washington: That is the real reason the old US establishment hated him so much. The hysterical lies about a totally fictional and absurd collusion nevertheless pinned him down on the defensive for two years half a full presidential term. This forced Trump to obsess on defensive politics. He managed to push through many of the deregulation and other economic reforms he desired and started to renegotiate multinational trade agreements with the rest of the world. But he never had the chance to take the offensive against any or all of his domestic political enemies. Now he will certainly try to. In reaction, they will be even more desperate, extreme and hysterical now they have been forced on the defensive than they were when they took the offensive against the president. Trump needs to watch out. He has defied the US security establishment in ways no president has dared to do since John F. Kennedy. And behind his public posturing, Trump has never been a fool. Much of his tacking to the militaristic right on issues from Russia to China may well be seen as a recognition that he has to yield to many Deep State pressures to prevent the number and power of his enemies isolating him and becoming overwhelming. Richard Nixon, after all, was only forced to leave office when he had alienated most of both the liberal left and the hardline right against him. Trump is right to celebrate the collapse of the Russia Collusion narrative against him. And he should certainly be urged to drop John Bolton especially as his national security adviser. The peace of the world still depends fundamentally on the Washington and Moscow steering clear of direct conflict and constructively and cautiously managing relations with each other. But the most dangerous thing Trump could now do is to let down his guard. His many enemies are still out there, seething with hatred and frustration, eager to assault him with new, ever more poisonous and fantastic lies. Trump may enjoy a brief lull while his coalition of enemies licks their wounds and humiliations in the shadows. And it may take them some time probably weeks rather than months to come up with their next set of new lies. Or the next set of assaults may be more direct. The greatest danger remains in foreign affairs where Trump has allowed himself to be stripped of loyal colleagues like Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are now both gone, and so far they are irreplaceable. Both men were Marine generals with strong ties to the Establishment. But they were also experienced steady figures of caution and honor. Trumps back is a lot less safe without them there to guard it. William Shakespeare would have understood Trumps dilemma perfectly. We forget how Shakespeares historical tragedies were also political thrillers all filled with mind-bogglingly complex plots and intrigues. Whenever one intrigue failed, the villains and even the heroes simply moved on to concoct a new one. That was power politics in Renaissance royal courts as Shakespeare understood it. He would have made a perfect National Security Adviser in 21st Century Washington. SOUTH CHINA SEA (April 5, 2019) The amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) is operating in the South China Sea in support of Exercise Balikatan 2019. In its 35th iteration, Balikatan is an annual U.S.-Philippine military training exercise focused on a variety of missions, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, counter-terrorism, and other combined military operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Barker) X 0 20 Help Keep Us Soaring We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling. We need your help in reversing that trend. We would like to add 20 new subscribers this month. Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways: Its going to be a sunny day in the Bay of Plenty today, as early morning cloud clears throughout the day. A ridge of high pressure lies over the South Island today, and WeatherWatch.co.nz says people should expect a south to southeasterly airflow for the North Island, easing later in the day. Expect some cloud for Northland especially in the west where there may even be a light shower or two, winds from the southwest. Auckland sees the risk of an early shower then mostly sunny weather with southwesterlies. The Waikato and Bay Of Plenty have a mainly sunny day after any morning cloud clears. Rain for the eastern North Island (Gisborne to Wairarapa) with a chance of heavy falls for the Wairarapa this morning then easing to showers from midday, cool southerlies. Morning showers for Wellington and also coastal fringes from Kapiti up to southern Taranaki then sun breaking through from afternoon, cool southerlies, says the weather organisation. The odd shower spills into Manawatu at times from the east although increasing dry areas from afternoon. Northern parts of Taranaki have a mainly sunny day. In the South Island, its mostly sunny and settled, however, there are a few notes. Banks Peninsula through to Marlborough could see a morning shower or two about the coast then clearing, high cloud increases at the other end of the Island from afternoon. Fiordland and Southland sees a few showers or spots of rain from late afternoon / evening as a northerly airflow increases. Temperatures Temperatures in the high teens or early twenties for the upper North Island, mid to high teens elsewhere for the rest of the country. WeatherWatch.co.nz A Central Square man has been charged after police said he was caught smuggling an estimated 50 pounds of marijuana near Hogansburg earlier this week. Kyle Hemings, 50, was arrested Wednesday by U.S. Border Patrol agents, with the assistance of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Police and New York State Police. U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Massena Border Patrol Station stopped a red pick-up truck in the parking lot of a hotel in Hogansburg, police said. A police dog team discovered the marijuana hidden in luggage in the trucks extended cab, according to police. Hemings faces felony charges of first-degree criminal possession of marijuana, police said. Police valued the marijuana at nearly $100,000. The St. Regis Mohawk Nation is just east of Massena; its split by the U.S/Canada border. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse police are investigating a shooting in the 200 block of Atlantic Avenue, according to the police department. An officer on scene confirmed police were investigating a shooting complaint but could not provide further details. The shooting was reported at 11:07 p.m., according to Onondaga County 911 dispatch logs. Multiple residents at the scene said they heard approximately five shots fired. After the shots were reported to the dispatch center, a man was brought to Community General Hospital by a car, according to scanner reports. His condition has not been confirmed. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco will be the commencement speaker for Syracuse Universitys graduating class this spring. Mary C. Daly will give the commencement address during SUs graduation ceremonies on May 12 in the Carrier Dome, the college announced Saturday. Daly graduated from the Maxwell School with a doctorate in economics in 1994. Syracuse has always held a special place in my heart because it helped me grow as both a researcher and a person, Daly said in a news release. To be able to return as a commencement speaker and share the lessons Ive learned over the years with the class of 2019 is a tremendous honor. Daly has led the Fed in San Francisco since October. She is the former chair of the banks Diversity Council and currently serves on the Federal Open Market Committee. The Missouri native dropped out of high school when she was 15, SU said. After working for her GED, she headed to college -- earning degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign before heading to Syracuse University. Daly started working for the Fed as an economist in 1996. She lives near San Francisco Bay with her wife. DEWITT, NY - Manlius Pebble Hill School has appointed a new Head of School, who takes office July 1. David J. McCusker Jr. previously worked at the Cardigan Moutain School in Canaan, New Hampshire. He was head of school there for nine years, and then served as director of advancement for School Year Abroad. The boarding and day school is for boys in grades 6 through 9. McCusker helped increase enrollment at Cardigan Mountain and enhanced its financial stability, MPH officials said. He also helped complete a $50 million capital campaign, the largest in the schools history. Prior to his tenure at Cardigan, McCusker served as director of development at St. Pauls School in New Hampshire and The Park School in Massachusetts. McCusker is a graduate of two of the schools he has served, Cardigan Mountain and St. Pauls, and he received a bachelors degree in history from Dartmouth College. I am thrilled to be joining a school community that so clearly takes its academic program seriously, engenders an enthusiasm for learning, embraces diversity and inclusion, and fosters a culture of kindness'' he said in a news release. Jim Dunaway, who has been MPHs Head of School since 2015 , is retiring in June. GONZALES When former Ascension Parish President Ronnie Hughes went to the public in 2006 to pitch a half-cent sales tax for roads, he pointed to a study that found the parish had transportation needs totaling $700 million through 2026. It never made it on the ballot. And now, a little more than 13 years later, a new study has found that the cost to meet Ascension's growing transportation needs has almost doubled. Under development on and off for three years by engineering firm HNTB, the parish's nearly finished master transportation plan is expected to project $1.25 billion in road network needs over the next 25 years a period in which the parish's population is expected to increase by 55,000. "We are looking ahead to the future to see what we need to start doing to plan for that," said Mike Enlow, assistant director of the parish Department of Public Works. After earlier public meetings, the public will get another chance this week to see how a proposed parish transportation plan is shaping up during open house meetings in Gonzales and Donaldsonville. The Parish Council Transportation Committee and full council will later review it for approval, parish officials said. The transportation plan is part of Ascension government's attempts to get a handle on population growth that's being driven by the economic climate and well-regarded public schools. Between 2000 and 2017, Ascension Parish's population grew by 59 percent, from 77,347 to 122,948 people, census estimates say. +4 Under pressure to grow, Ascension schools plan attendance zone changes in Prairieville PRAIRIEVILLE Parents of Prairieville Primary School inspected three possible options Thursday for a school attendance zone change in norther The road plan has been developed in parallel with a new comprehensive plan for the parish's development. The Center for Planning Excellence, a nonprofit planning organization based in Baton Rouge, has been building that document around the same population estimates for 2042 that are being used for the road plan. While the planning efforts are mostly looking forward, they have also been working in concert with the Move Ascension program, which is focused on the parish's most immediate transportation needs. The transportation plan, which is expected to cost close to $800,000, was delayed for a time to get Move Ascension started in 2016. That program now has accumulated funding approaching $60 million from a combination of local and state sources and long-term debt to start building smaller-scale road safety and capacity projects. After a few years of design, survey and land acquisition, the first of those projects, new turn lanes for Henry Road at La. 73, are expected to be put to bid for clearing and grubbing soon, parish officials said. Parish officials said the transportation plan, to be presented to the public at open house meetings this week, will call for $700 million in spending to improve safety and add traffic capacity on state and federal highways running through the parish. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The open house meetings on the plan will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Parish Courthouse, 300 Houmas St. in Donaldsonville and on Thursday at the Ascension Parish Governmental Complex, 615 E. Worthey St. in Gonzales. Enlow said the plan, of necessity, has had to focus to some extent on the state and federal highways that are the major routes in and out of the parish La. 30, Airline Highway, Interstate 10, La. 42 and La. 73. +2 DOTD leader doubts a serious debate will occur in state legislature over Louisiana gas tax hike Despite a push from trade groups, Louisiana's transportation chief said Monday he doubts the Louisiana Legislature will seriously debate a hik He noted that Ascension is in a somewhat of a unique position in that it has commuters driving into the parish to work in plants along the Mississippi River, commuters driving out of the parish to work in Baton Rouge and inter-state traffic using I-10. "The majority of that throughput is using the state highways," he said. He said the transportation master plan will allow the parish to bring these priorities to the state Department of Transportation and Development when it does its own state road prioritization and to give Ascension's legislative delegation a basis to argue for more state funding. "So we have data now," Enlow said. Taking into account prior recommendations from the public, the plan also prioritizes the road projects. He said the plan doesn't argue for new funding streams but lays out what the parish has available. It isn't enough to cover $1.25 billion in work over the next 25 years. "This is simply a blue print," Enlow said of the plan. The parish's dedicated road tax, which is two-thirds of a half-cent sales tax, takes in about $6 million to $8 million per year. The parish also collects road impact fees on new development. In past administrations, some surplus from the general 1-cent sales tax was also shifted to roads, sometimes a few million dollars per year in good years, but other demands with undedicated revenue sources, like recreation, also compete for those dollars. The Move Ascension program has benefited from about $10 million that had been sitting in the road construction fund, which in years past had received some of those sales tax transfers. The Louisiana Supreme Court has ordered a state judge to pause jury selection in a capital murder trial to conduct a hearing on why young people in East Baton Rouge Parish appear to have been categorically excluded from jury service for years. The states highest court directed Caddo Parish District Judge Ramona Emanuel to hold a hearing expeditiously over a claim by defense lawyers for accused cop-killer Grover Cannon that the 566 people summoned for his trial included no one under the age of 26. The dearth of young people in the jury pool was no anomaly, defense advocates say. It appears that jury officials in the 19th Judicial District, which covers Baton Rouge, have never summoned anyone for jury duty who was born after June 1993, according to juror data for 2014, 2016, 2017 and the first half of 2018. +2 'I'm kind of baffled': Analysis shows young people excluded from Baton Rouge jury pools When 566 Baton Rouge residents were called up for jury duty last week in a capital murder trial, defense attorneys were quick to spot a racial Jury eligibility starts at age 18, but the youngest Baton Rouge residents called to jury service over the last several years are now approaching 26, the data show. The MacArthur Justice Center, which received the juror rolls from the court for those years, provided that data to The Advocate. Cannon is accused of first-degree murder in the killing of Thomas LaValley, a 29-year-old Shreveport police officer who was slain while responding to a domestic call. Notoriety surrounding the case prompted Emanuel to move it to the courthouse in Baton Rouge, but only for jury selection, which began two weeks ago. The chosen jurors will then head to Shreveport for the trial. Emanuel last week rejected a pair of motions filed by Cannons attorneys demanding a reboot of the trial, with a new group of prospective jurors, based on both the absence of young jurors and an alleged shortage of black representation in the jury pool. Cannon is black; the police officer he is accused of killing is white. Cannon's attorneys had argued that a shortfall in the percentage of black people in the group summoned for his trial the jury pool is 34 percent black in a parish that is 46 percent black failed the test of what higher courts in the past have deemed to be an acceptable disparity. Cannons attorneys argued that, one way or another, the jury pool for Cannons trial falls unconstitutionally short of being a representative cross-section of the community. Emanuel had ruled earlier that Cannons lawyers were too late in complaining about the lack of young people in the jury pool, a lawyer said. But the high court thought differently. The decision tells me the Supreme Court shares my opinion of how big that (issue) is, said Kerry Cuccia, director of the Capital Assistance Project of Southeast Louisiana, which is representing Cannon. The Louisiana Supreme Court in the past has occasionally thrown out verdicts after deciding that jury officials had left out segments of the populace, violating a constitutional requirement that juries be drawn from a representative cross-section of the community. The Supreme Court denied the claim of a racial problem with the jury, however. Ann McCrory, the judicial administrator for the 19th Judicial District, said a reporters call on Tuesday was the first shed heard of the claim that young people had been lopped wholesale off the jury rolls. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up By Thursday, McCrory said she still couldnt say for sure if any people born since 1993 had been mailed a jury summons, but she acknowledged that the number of young people in the pool definitely seems low. She said the courts computer system cant isolate exactly how many people under 26 are in the juror database if any. But a search for everyone in their 20s was done, she said, and it netted only 2,616 names, or less than 8 percent of the pool. Thats only about a third of the 23 percent of voters who were younger than 30 in 2017. Census data show that the age group that Cannons lawyers claim has been excluded from the juror rolls makes up about one-fifth of the adult population in East Baton Rouge Parish. The numbers seem to lend support to the suspicion that no younger millennial has ever gotten a jury summons from the court. Whether that would be enough to render the jury pool unconstitutional for Cannons trial, or any other trial in the parish, remains uncertain. I dont have an explanation for the lack of young jurors, McCrory said. We have done nothing to exclude them. Defense advocates have speculated that, when the court moved to a different jury management system around 2010, it was programmed using a fixed date instead of a moving one to eliminate anyone younger than 18, leaving out anyone who later came of age to serve on a jury. But McCrory said Tuesday that her staff never set a cutoff date in the jury computer system. From a master list that includes drivers license and voter data, they only weed out duplicates, she said. McCrory said Thursday she was looking into whether a mistake was made at the Office of Motor Vehicles before its list of East Baton Rouge Parish drivers reached the court. Im glad its been brought to my attention, because, as Ive indicated, I will look into it and take any corrective actions that I can take, she said. With the Supreme Courts ruling, McCrory now may have to explain it under oath. As of Saturday, Emanuel, the judge, had not set a date for the hearing ordered by the high court. Staff writer Jeff Adelson contributed to this story. A state lawmaker's recent disclosure that she is a gambling addict and was removed from a casino after adding herself to the states self-exclusion list has highlighted a program that by design is little known to the public. Louisianas self-exclusion program, in which problem gamblers can voluntarily ban themselves from casinos and other gaming establishments in the state, has been around for more than a decade, but its rarely mentioned publicly. State Police, charged with administering the program, keep most information about it confidential. The Louisiana State Police will not comment in regards to the process of the program out of respect for those that utilize it to deal with personal challenges, spokesman Lt. Nick Manale said in response to a request from The Advocate for additional information about the program, including how many people are on the self-ban rolls. State Police sources have said some in the agency are concerned that the disclosure of Sen. Karen Carter Petersons inclusion could dissuade other addicts from adding their names to the self-exclusion list out of privacy concerns. Peterson, a state senator from New Orleans and chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, disclosed in an email last month that she has a gambling problem after a New Orleans television station reported that she had violated a casino ban. Karen Carter Peterson, Louisiana Democratic leader, admits to gambling problem: 'It is a disease' Karen Carter Peterson, who is both a state senator from New Orleans and chair of the state Democratic Party, disclosed in an email Friday nigh Peterson received a misdemeanor summons after gambling at LAuberge Casino in Baton Rouge in February. In the revelation that was also posted to her Facebook page, Peterson said she has been a gambling addict for years. It is a disease, she wrote. From time to time, I have relapsed; I have let myself down as well as family and friends who are near and dear to me. She voluntarily entered the program that made it illegal for her to enter gambling establishments in the state two years ago. Ex-Kenner post office manager admits stealing $630k in stamps, selling them to offset gambling losses A St. Charles Parish man has admitted that he stole $630,000 worth of stamps from the U.S. post office in Kenner where he worked and sold them Under this program, I consented to allowing any of these officials who see me in a gambling establishment to escort me out and to issue a summons, she wrote. Recently while experiencing challenging times, I violated my voluntary ban and was issued a summons. The program worked as it should. I certainly regret failing to uphold my agreement to avoid casinos. The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Problem gambling affects an estimated 1% of the adult population in the United States. Louisiana's gambling help line fields about 700 calls a year from people concerned that they may have a gambling problem. Experts generally view self-exclusion as an effective method of curbing problem gambling when someone signs up, but others argue that the programs can be hard to enforce and their effectiveness is questionable. Louisiana lawmaker to pay hefty fine after using campaign dollars to 'fund a gambling habit' A Louisiana lawmaker will pay a $37,000 fine to the state treasury over three years, under an agreement approved Friday in which he acknowledg According to available documents about Louisiana's program, including state laws, Gaming Control Board policies and State Police resources online, banning ones self from a casino is a deliberate process that begins with a formal meeting at one of five State Police Gaming Operations field offices located across the state. In order to ensure that a division agent will be available, it is always best to schedule an appointment at the appropriate field office, the State Police website notes. At that meeting, the person requesting exclusion is photographed, and their picture is distributed to select gaming officials at each establishment many of them use facial recognition software under the Gaming Control Boards purview. The information is excluded from the Louisiana Public Records Act. A person on the self-exclusion rolls cannot claim any winnings if they violate the ban and also cannot accept any complimentary goods or services. Casinos also are barred from sending marketing materials to those on the list. Getting off the list is also a tightly regulated process. Anyone added to the self-exclusion rolls remains there for a minimum of five years. There is no process for removing ones name from it earlier. After the five-year period, a person can petition to have their name removed but must provide a written recommendation from a "qualified mental health professional." Removal is final only after a hearing and determination from the Gaming Control Board that there is no longer a basis for you to be maintained on the self-exclusion list. Although Louisiana provides scant information about its self-exclusion list, other states have been more forthcoming with how many people are on their rolls and who is most affected. Missouri, which had one of the first statewide self-ban programs in the country, has been studied extensively because it has made its information available to researchers. According to those studies, men and women are equally inclined to enroll, and a majority of people who enroll are in their early 40s. There is no book more influential in American culture than the Bible. Its by far the worlds all-time bestselling book. Close to 4 billion copies have been sold worldwide in the past 50 years. Yet some are terrified, horrified and petrified by the possibility a student might be exposed to as much as a modicum of the religion of Christianity in a public school setting. As a result, the Bible seems for the most part ignored in public schools. In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled teaching the Bible as literature in public schools is constitutional. And its certainly possible to teach the Bible as literature without proselytizing. 'Bible as Literature' class could return to Denham Springs High despite potential for controversy A Livingston Parish public high school is looking to bring back a course next year called "Bible as Literature" for the first time in over a decade. In Livingston Parish, enough students have requested a class on the Bible that the high school is considering bringing back a course next year called "Bible as Literature. Its been at least 10 years since such a class has been taught at the school. The Advocate reported a class on the Bible as literature is not offered in neighboring East Baton Rouge Parish or Ascension Parish schools. A recent survey by a Bible curriculum company found 96 percent of English teachers believe young people are disadvantaged when studying English literature without knowledge of the Bible. At the college level, 39 university English professors supplied an aggregate of 72 books they collectively teach in the freshman year that require a knowledge of the Bible. The most recent national survey that we conducted in May 2017, 80 percent of Americans wanted the Bible taught in public schools. However, we know from other surveys that only about 8 percent of public schools do so, said Chuck Stetson, CEO of Essentials in Education, an organization promoting Bible curriculum in public schools. Given that 80 percent of Americans want the Bible taught and only 2 percent are taught this is an eye-opening disconnect, said Stetson. Stetson says there are more than 1,200 documented references to the Bible in Shakespeares 36 plays alone. You cant get past the first sentence of Herman Melvilles Moby Dick Call me Ishmael if you dont understand who Ishmael was in the Bible, says Stetson. The Bible as literature class being considered in Livingston Parish would be taught as an elective. So those who might be offended by the Bible or worried about becoming a convert to Christianity could simply not take the class. Denham Springs High School would be the only school in the parish offering the course and only if enough students sign up to take it. Generally, the Bible as Literature class will look at the Old Testament and New Testament as a literary and historical document. That focus is simply done without imposing the doctrine of any particular religious sector, said Jody Purvis, supervisor of high school instruction for Livingston Parish. Given the Bible's role in American history, its odd that so few public schools offer a class on it. According to Kevin Calbert, communications manager for the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, school districts have "autonomy to determine their curriculum, lessons and materials used in their schools to meet state academic standards. The board does not accredit individual courses or dictate which courses and instructional materials districts may offer, he said. Calbert also says the Bible as a literature class, as described, fits within what the Constitution allows. According to Calbert, Louisiana schools are currently free to offer the Bible as literature classes. Apparently, as is the case with Livingston Parish, students will have to take the initiative to make it happen. But many students may not realize they have the option of encouraging public educators to offer a course on the Bible as literature. To deprive students of an education on such an important work of literature as the Bible for fear they may be converted to Christianity makes no sense. Email Dan Fagan at faganshow@gmail.com. Twitter: @DanFaganShow. After 10 sessions in three years and few accomplishments, this class of the Louisiana Legislature gathers at noon Monday for its final regular The chief executive of The New York Times has expressed concerns the incendiary rhetoric being employed by US President Donald Trump to attack the American press could result in "bloodshed." Mark Thompson, a former BBC executive who has run the commercial arm of the most famous newspaper in America since 2012, said the media should not be exempt from criticism but the language being used by Mr Trump could have disastrous consequences. Mark Thompson, CEO of the New York Times. Credit:AP "My colleague and boss, A.G. Sulzberger [the publisher of NYT] has been public in making it clear, face-to-face with the president, that phrases like "the enemies of the people" and exaggerated aggressive language about journalists is totally unwarranted and also potentially dangerous," he told the Herald and The Age ahead of a visit to Australia this week. "[It's] hard not to believe that the ugly and gratuitous language that is often directed at the media and at politicians can have terrible consequences." The airline's youngest-ever but highly-experienced captain, a 29-year-old with a lengthy 8,122 hours flying time, and his 25-year-old co-pilot, with 361 hours, left the engines at full take-off power. Rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash. Credit:AP That would be an unusual step in a regular flight, according to four experts and five current and former pilots interviewed by Reuters, most of whom were not authorised to speak publicly. "You would never, ever have full power for the whole flight," said Hart Langer, a veteran former senior vice president for flight operations at United Airlines. The reason the pilots continued at full take-off power was not clear from the report. But it is not part of a usual procedure for dealing with the loss of key information such as the sensor data, the four experts said. The Ethiopian Airlines statement suggested the crew left the throttles at takeoff power because they intended to continue to climb and were hampered by the nose-down commands of MCAS. By the end, the aircraft was travelling at 500 knots (926 km/h), far beyond Boeing's operating limits. The Ethiopian Airlines statement said "no excess speed was noted at the initial phases of the flight." The aircraft's speed and its nose-down angle when MCAS switched on for the last time may have left them unable to fight flawed Boeing software that eventually sent the jet into an uncontrollable dive, the four experts said after studying the data. The Ethiopian Airlines crash, and another in Indonesia five months earlier, have left the world's largest planemaker in crisis as its top-selling jetliner is grounded worldwide, and Ethiopia scrambling to protect one of Africa's most successful companies. All 737 MAX aircraft have been grounded and Boeing is working on an MCAS software fix and extra training that it says will prevent a repeat of such accidents. Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said on Friday that both accidents were caused by a chain of events, "with a common chain link being erroneous activation of the aircraft's MCAS function." Bird strike Sources who reviewed the crash data said the problems started barely 12 seconds after take-off. A sudden spike in black box data was consistent with a bird or other debris hitting the plane as it was taking off, shearing away a vital airflow sensor, said the four experts and two US officials. Loading Ethiopian Airlines on Sunday called that scenario "completely speculative". Ethiopian investigator Amdye Ayalew Fanta said a preliminary report released by Ethiopian investigators did not contain any indications of this. Boeing said it would not comment on ongoing investigations. As with the Lion Air crash in Indonesia, the damaged 'angle of attack' sensor, which measures how the wing is cutting through the air, may have set off a volatile chain of events. In both cases, the faulty sensor tricked the plane's computer into thinking the aircraft was about to stall, or lose lift. The anti-stall MCAS software then pushed the nose down forcefully with the aircraft's "trim" system, normally used to maintain level flight. The first time the MCAS software kicked in, flight data shows the Ethiopian Airlines pilots reacted quickly by flicking switches under their thumbs - they had recognised the movements as the same type flight crews had been warned about after the Lion Air crash. But data shows they were not able to fully counteract the computer's movements. At that point, they were a mere 3,000 feet above the airport, so low that a new warning - a computerised voice saying "don't sink" - sounded in the cabin. When MCAS triggered again, the jetliner's trim was set to push the nose down at almost the maximum level, flight data shows, while the control yoke noisily vibrated with another stall warning called a "stick shaker." This time, the pilots countered MCAS more effectively, the experts said after studying the data. But when they turned off the system - as they were instructed to do by Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the wake of the Lion Air disaster - the nose was still pointed downward, leaving the jetliner vulnerable. The combination of their speed and a nose-down attitude meant up to 50 pounds of force would be needed to move the control column, the four experts and one of the pilots said, and moving the manual trim wheels was impossible. Boeing 737 Max 8 planes remain grounded. Credit:Bloomberg 'Pull up, pull up' The captain called out "pull up" three times, according to the cockpit voice recorder. The co-pilot reported problems to air traffic control. In the meantime, the aircraft's speed remained abnormally high, the five pilots and four aviation experts said. The sensor problems and loss of airflow data would have affected airspeed information too. In such cases, pilots are trained to turn off automatic engine settings and control thrust manually, according to a Boeing checklist, the pilots told Reuters. Data confirms the engines stayed at nearly full power. Still, several experienced pilots said there was an array of stressful factors sapping the pilots' attention. "As pilots have told us, erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high-workload environment," Muilenburg said Thursday. "It's our responsibility to eliminate this risk." Among the distractions was a "clacker" warning telling the pilots their aircraft was going too fast Loading As the nose gradually fell, the captain asked the co-pilot to try to trim the plane manually using a wheel in the centre console to help the plane recover from the dive, according to the voice recorder. But it was too hard to move the wheel. Both men then tried to pitch the nose up together. The captain, according to the report, said it was not enough. MCAS re-activates Data shows the MCAS-related systems were switched back on. That would also reactivate the electric trim system, making it easier to force the reluctant nose higher, the experts said. Reactivating MCAS is contrary to advice issued by Boeing and the FAA after Lion Air. The report did not address that. The airline did not comment. The pilots managed to lift the nose slightly using the electric thumb switches on their control yokes. But the data readout shows they flicked those switches only briefly. With its power restored, a final MCAS command kicked in, eventually pushing the nose down to a 40 degree angle at 500 knots, far beyond the plane's safe operating speed, defined by Boeing as 340 knots. As the 737 MAX plunged, G-forces turned negative, pulling occupants out of their seats. Mitch Taylor says it was a no-brainer to call the mattress company he started with Dany Milham three years ago Koala. "We always wanted to be a social good business and the name Koala made sense as the animal sleeps 18 hours a day, it is an Australian icon and they are cute and cuddly, or appear that way," he says. "They are in a lot of trouble in New South Wales and Queensland due to the removal of their habitat." Mitch Taylor, the co-founder of Koala, is working on a project on Milman Island with the World Wildlife Fund. Credit: Koala donates 1 per cent of sales towards environmental causes and the start-up has donated moe than $1,000,594 to wildlife adoption programs with customers "adopting" a koala. Taylor says he was concerned about the impact of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef and found out that as a consequence of warming temperatures 99 per cent of green turtles are being born female, which could lead to population collapse. A new flu test which is able to detect the most common strains of influenza within two hours could save lives and help stop the spread of the viral infection, Australian researchers say. Researchers have called for the test to be rolled out nationally after a successful trial in four emergency departments in New South Wales. The rapid Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) swab test can produce an influenza diagnosis up to 24 hours quicker than a conventional flu test. The new test can give a quicker result. Credit:Penny Stephens The findings, which were published in the Australian Medical Journal on Monday, found that almost 70 per cent of patients who were tested using rapid PCR received their results within two hours and were able to be treated on the spot, while those with a negative result were able to be sent home. The modern muse for power dressing ... Victoria Beckham. Credit:PA A few months before my 21st birthday I had my first job interview in journalism, at a women's magazine. At one point, the then deputy editor, who remains a friend and mentor, asked me which job I'd want in five years, I replied, deadpan: Yours. Remarkably, I still got the job. I don't remember what I wore on my first day but given it was 2001, it was probably A-line and finished with a metallic belt. But I do remember the saying that rang in my head as I chose my outfit: dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Recently, it got me thinking: in an age when sneakers are appropriate office attire as much as suits and slip dresses, should we still dress by that motto? Simply put, fungi, just like bacteria, are evolving defences to survive modern medicines. A study the British government funded projects that if policies are not put in place to slow the rise of drug resistance, 10 million people could die worldwide of all such infections in 2050, eclipsing the 8 million expected to die that year from cancer. Antibiotics and antifungals are essential to combat infections in people, but antibiotics are also used widely to prevent disease in farm animals, and antifungals are also applied to prevent agricultural plants from rotting. Some scientists cite evidence that rampant use of fungicides on crops is contributing to the surge in drug-resistant fungi infecting humans. Yet as the problem grows, it is little understood by the public in part because the very existence of resistant infections is often cloaked in secrecy. With bacteria and fungi alike, hospitals and local governments are reluctant to disclose outbreaks for fear of being seen as infection hubs. C. auris, which infected the man at Mount Sinai, is one of dozens of dangerous bacteria and fungi that have developed resistance. Yet, like most of them, it is a threat that is virtually unknown to the public. A projection of the C. auris fungus on a microscope slide. Credit:The New York Times Other prominent strains of the fungus Candida one of the most common causes of bloodstream infections in hospitals have not developed significant resistance to drugs, but more than 90 per cent of C. auris infections are resistant to at least one drug, and 30 per cent are resistant to two or more drugs, the CDC said. Nearly half of patients who contract C. auris die within 90 days, according to the CDC. Yet the world's experts have not nailed down where it came from in the first place. "It is a creature from the black lagoon," said Dr Tom Chiller, who heads the fungal branch at the CDC. "It bubbled up and now it is everywhere." 'No need' to tell the public In late 2015, Dr Johanna Rhodes, an infectious disease expert at Imperial College London, got a panicked call from the Royal Brompton Hospital outside London. C. auris had taken root there months earlier, and the hospital couldn't clear it. "'We have no idea where it's coming from. We've never heard of it. It's just spread like wildfire,'" Rhodes said she was told. She agreed to help the hospital identify the fungus' genetic profile and clean it from rooms. It was spreading, but word of it was not. The hospital, a specialty lung and heart centre that draws wealthy patients from the Middle East and around Europe, alerted the British government and told infected patients, but made no public announcement. This hushed panic is playing out in hospitals around the world. Individual institutions and national, state and local governments have been reluctant to publicise outbreaks of resistant infections, arguing there is no point in scaring patients or prospective ones. Dr Silke Schelenz, Royal Brompton's infectious disease specialist, found the lack of urgency from the government and hospital in the early stages of the outbreak "very, very frustrating." A demonstration of deep-cleaning techniques used on equipment at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Credit:The New York Times "They obviously didn't want to lose reputation," Schelenz said. "It hadn't impacted our surgical outcomes." By the end of June 2016, a scientific paper reported "an ongoing outbreak of 50 C. auris cases" at Royal Brompton, and the hospital took an extraordinary step: It shut down its ICU for 11 days, again with no announcement. Days later the hospital finally acknowledged to a newspaper that it had a problem. A headline in The Daily Telegraph warned, "Intensive Care Unit Closed After Deadly New Superbug Emerges in the UK". Yet the issue remained little known internationally, while an even bigger outbreak had begun in Valencia, Spain, at the Hospital Universitari i Politecnic La Fe. As with Royal Brompton, the hospital in Spain did not make any public announcement. It still has not. The secrecy infuriates patient advocates, who say people have a right to know if there is an outbreak. "Why the heck are we reading about an outbreak almost a year and a half later and not have it front-page news the day after it happens?" said Dr Kevin Kavanagh, chairman of Health Watch USA, a nonprofit patient advocacy group. Outside the Royal Brompton Hospital near London. By June 2016, the hospital had seen at least 50 "proven or possible" cases of C. auris, and decided to shut down its intensive care unit for 11 days to address the contamination. Credit:The New York Times Health officials say that disclosing outbreaks frightens patients about a situation they can do nothing about, particularly when the risks are unclear. "It's hard enough with these organisms for health care providers to wrap their heads around it," said Dr Anna Yaffee, a former CDC outbreak investigator. "It's really impossible to message to the public." Officials in London did alert the CDC to the Royal Brompton outbreak while it was occurring. And the CDC realized it needed to get the word to US hospitals. On June 24, 2016, the CDC blasted a nationwide warning and set up an email address, candidaauris@cdc.gov, to field queries. Dr Snigdha Vallabhaneni, a key member of the fungal team, expected to get a trickle "maybe a message every month." Instead, within weeks, her inbox exploded. The role of pesticides? As the CDC works to limit the spread of drug-resistant C. auris, its investigators have been trying to answer the vexing question: Where in the world did it come from? The first time doctors encountered C. auris was in the ear of a woman in Japan in 2009 (auris is Latin for ear). It seemed innocuous at the time, a cousin of common, easily treated fungal infections. Three years later, it appeared in an unusual test result in the lab of Dr Jacques Meis, a microbiologist in Nijmegen, Netherlands, who was analysing a bloodstream infection in 18 patients from four hospitals in India. Soon, new clusters of C. auris seemed to emerge with each passing month in different parts of the world. When the CDC investigators compared the entire genome of auris samples from India and Pakistan, Venezuela, South Africa and Japan, they found that its origin was not a single place, and there was not a single auris strain. The genome sequencing showed that there were four distinctive versions of the fungus, with differences so profound that they suggested that these strains had diverged thousands of years ago and emerged as resistant pathogens from harmless environmental strains in four different places at the same time. "Somehow, it made a jump almost seemingly simultaneously, and seemed to spread and it is drug-resistant, which is really mind-boggling," Vallabhaneni said. There are different theories as to what happened with C. auris. Meis, the Dutch researcher, said he believed that drug-resistant fungi were developing thanks to heavy use of fungicides on crops. Damien Peters was last seen at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick on Sunday. A man convicted of a double murder is on the run after removing his electronic monitoring ankle tag while on parole in Sydney's east. Damien Anthony Peters, 50, was last seen at Randwick's Prince of Wales Hospital about 4.15pm on Sunday after fellow residents at his halfway house called the ambulance due to concern for his welfare. Police found Peters' monitoring device just over four hours later in Roma Avenue in nearby Kensington, about two kilometres from the hospital. "It would appear as though the ankle bracelet has been forcibly removed, possibly cut," Eastern Beaches Police Area Command Commander Detective Superintendent Rohan Cramsie said on Monday morning. "We don't know at this stage what has been the catalyst to make him remove the bracelet." A central Queensland pub was held up by a man wielding a tomahawk on Saturday night. An employee at Rockhampton's Raffles Hotel was threatened and was forced to hand over cash to the robber about 10.15pm. Police were investigating the armed robbery of a licensed premises in Berserker, Rockhampton on Saturday night. Credit:Queensland Police Service The man was dressed in a long-sleeved jumper with a white motif on the front, dark jeans, black shoes with white shoe-laces and had a dark-coloured T-shirt wrapped around his head. He fled with the money in a light-coloured bag. Three people, including a toddler, have fallen into fire pits in Queensland overnight. A female toddler sustained superficial and partial thickness burns to her abdomen, arms and legs at a home in central Queensland about 7.15 on Saturday night. She was rushed to the nearby Gladstone Hospital in a serious but stable condition. In a separate incident in Brisbane's west, a man and woman fell into a fire pit in the early hours of Sunday morning. Paramedics were sent to a Brookfield home about 1.40am to treat the pair, both aged in their 20s. When the Yan-nhangu people of north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory saw a white man for the first time in 1917, they gave the missionary a name - briyanarangu, meaning given to prayer - and an evocative sign. "It is a touch of the skin, and then you wave your finger back and forward as if you are telling someone off," said linguist and anthropologist Bentley James. The late Laurie Baymarrwanga, Bentley James and Clint watching dance at Murrungga Island in 2009. Credit: Chiara Bussini Dr James is trying to save a rare and little-known sign language that was until recently used by every hearing person in the remotest part of Arnhem Land, 500 kilometres east of Darwin. He said the language was at risk of joining the more than 90 per cent of spoken Indigenous languages that have died since 1788. Unlike most sign languages, Yolgnu sign language was developed for the hearing population. It allowed them to communicate by hand as well as by voice. It was also a lingua franca, a way for those who spoke different languages or dialects to communicate. It is also used by those who are deaf or hearing impaired. TSC Chairman Alexander warn teachers not to create an industrial action over salary anomalies as the government is now close to solving the issue Mr Garnaut an award-winning former China correspondent with The Age and Sydney Morning Herald who was handpicked by Mr Turnbull in 2016 to work with ASIO to assess Chinese government interference in Australia had developed a friendship with Mr Yang after meeting him as a journalist in 2008. Mr Garnauts classified work for the federal government, which he refuses to talk about and which has never been disclosed in any detail, appears to have prompted Chinese intelligence officials to also grill Dr Feng when they detained him for six days in China in 2017. Former journalist and adviser John Garnaut. Credit:Peter Rae Dr Feng has revealed that the intelligence officials interrogating him wanted to know "in every detail" what Mr Garnaut was doing on behalf of Mr Turnbull and the government. "They knew a lot about him. During the interrogation, they did not hide that they were angry with him," said Dr Feng. Loading Mr Garnaut, who has given his first detailed media interview to The Age, Herald and Four Corners, said the questioning of Dr Feng while Mr Garnaut was working for the Australian government "seems to add an extra layer of contempt" by Beijing for Australian sovereignty. Australian and US government sources have confirmed the Turnbull-commissioned Garnaut-ASIO report, finished in mid-2017 and never released, uncovered damning new evidence of interference and influence involving Chinese government officials and, separately, Communist Party-aligned businessmen seeking political favours and access. Investigations over several years by The Age and Herald with Four Corners have revealed the most compelling evidence ever made public about Beijings interference. Mr Hastie, who chaired the parliamentary committee on intelligence and security that pushed through new counter-interference reforms in 2018, has made the most-strident comments about Beijing to emerge from the Morrison government. "Weve had multiple briefings at the top secret level from ASIO and other agencies that foreign interference is being conducted in Australia at an unprecedented level," Mr Hastie said. "There are several authoritarian states who are involved in foreign influence across the globe. But in Australia the Chinese Communist Party is probably the most active China is seeking to influence our elites, particularly our political and business elites, in order to achieve their strategic objectives." Dr Feng Chongyi Credit:Steven Siewert Mr Hastie has said all Australians should fight for Mr Yangs release. "Mr Yang is an Australian citizen. He enjoys the rights and responsibilities of Australian citizenship. And so his detention, in a sense, is a detention of us all. Were all Australian citizens. How could we guarantee that we wouldnt be detained if we went to China?" Mr Yangs wife, Xiaoliang Yuan, has also broken her silence in Shanghai to urge the Australian government to increase its efforts to release her husband, who became an Australian citizen in the early 2000s. "I think at least, the Australian government officials should care for its citizens wellbeing when they are overseas, should show their concern. But I now feel like, to be honest, I have been very disappointed," she said. Andrew Hastie. Credit:Trevor Collens Mr Yang was detained by Chinese intelligence officials when he flew from the US to Guangzhou on January 19 and has been accused of endangering state security. Ms Yuan said she had been advised by the Australian consulate she will be granted permanent residency in Australia, but said she had been banned by local authorities from leaving China. It gets harder as time passes. You just cant see him. I would have felt better if the lawyers could see him and verify that he is all right. There is absolutely nothing we can do at the moment. Blogger Yang Hengjun and his wife Xiaoliang Yuan in Barcelona. I just want him to come home safely, she said, in tears. Mr Garnaut has joined calls for more action from the government behind closed doors and in public. "Id like to, at the very least, see some really strong statements about what this is, and why Yang is important to the Australian community, the Australian society," Mr Garnaut said. Mr Garnaut now works for McGrathNicol, a firm which advises companies on Chinese government risk. Attorney General Christian Porter said providing consular assistance to Mr Yang had "proved somewhat difficult" but that Australian officials were doing all they could to assist the detained Australian. Ms Yuan has taken a risk in speaking out publicly while she is still based in China, given the sensitivity around her husbands detention. Xiaoliang Yuan says she just wants her husband home safely. She said she was prompted by Australias lack of action. Dr Feng has also taken a risk in speaking out about his interrogation in China. The electoral cycle is at a point when a national poll can only offer the broadest hint of an election outcome. The last two state elections proved that local contests can be the decisive factors in a governments fate, given the extraordinary gains for Labor in Victoria in November and the narrow victory for the Liberals in NSW in March. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is preparing to call the election for May 18. Credit:Alex Ellinghuasen Both elections showed huge variations in the swings in electorates. The coming federal election will be the same. Make no mistake, Scott Morrison is on track for a crushing defeat according to this new Ipsos survey, which has the government trailing Labor by 47 to 53 per cent. Yet this is only a rough guide to his fate. Only half the Coalition's voters believe it is the best to handle climate change, as the Morrison government struggles to manage a damaging split over the Adani mine and shift the focus back to Labors energy policies. As the government ramps up pressure on the opposition over the environment and electric cars, it has also asked bureaucrats to model the economic impact of Labor's climate change agenda and plans to run hard against the proposals once the analysis is done. But an Ipsos poll taken last week - after Labor released its climate policy on Monday - shows voters have firmed in their view that Labor is better than the Coalition on climate change, with 42 per cent saying the opposition had the superior policy of the two major parties. Only 25 per cent felt the Coalition's climate policy was preferable a decrease of 12 percentage points from when the question was asked in 2012. A substantial 34 per cent said they did not know an increase of 11 points. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has defended the Morrison government's decision to spend $185 million reopening the Christmas Island detention centre, arguing it will deter refugees and asylum seekers who would otherwise "game the system" under new medical transfer laws. Critics labelled the decision an expensive stunt after it was revealed during the week that only one person has been transferred to Australia under the laws, despite warnings from the government that hundreds would come within weeks. The man was brought to the Australian mainland despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison reopening Christmas Island for the explicit purpose of detaining refugees and asylum seekers transferred under the medevac regime. The government has sent 140 additional Serco contractors to the island as a result of the reopening - and 14 medical staff - even though there are no detainees to look after. When I rock up to my East St Kilda polling booth on election day, Ill be grappling with the reality that the more things change, the more they change. Though the sausages will still sizzle and the party faithful will still thrust how-to-vote cards across my path, the renaming of electorates means Ill no longer be voting in Melbourne Ports but in the new seat of Macnamara. More significantly, the ballot paper will no longer bear the name of the Labor MP who has represented the area for the past 21 years, and last week gave his valedictory speech in Parliament, Michael Danby. Former chair of the foreign affairs committee, pro-Israel warrior, factional enforcer, media muckraker, kamikaze avenger. Champion of oppressed minorities. Antagonist of authoritarian regimes. First-class mimic. Lousy dresser. And an exemplary social democrat of a sort they seldom make anymore. Michael Danby delivers his valedictory speech in Parliament. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer In some leftist circles, Danbys retirement spells an existential crisis; however will these people define themselves once hes no longer around to define themselves against? Hes polarising because hes Michael but also because he calls out hypocrisy and groupthink. We in the media like to admonish politicians for being careerists and opportunists. If anyone breaks that mould its Danby, yet even as I type, I can hear my name being scrubbed from dinner party invite lists. Antibiotic resistance is a global threat, but it is often viewed as a problem in rich countries, where comfortably insured patients rush to the doctor to demand prescriptions at the slightest hint of a cough or cold. One of the may rubbish dumps in Kibera. Credit:NY Times In fact, urban poverty is a huge and largely unappreciated driver of resistance. And so, the rise of resistant microbes is having a disproportionate effect on poor countries, where squalid and crowded living conditions, lax oversight of antibiotic use and a scarcity of affordable medical care are fueling the spread of infections increasingly unresponsive to drugs. Sam Kariuki, a researcher at the Kenya Medical Research Institute who has been studying resistance for two decades, said nearly 70 per cent of salmonella infections in Kenya had stopped responding to the most widely available antibiotics, up from 45 per cent in the early 2000s. Salmonella kills roughly 45,000 Kenyan children every year, or nearly 1 in 3 who fall severely ill with it, he said. In the United States, the mortality rate is close to zero. "We are quickly running out of treatment options," Kariuki said. "If we don't get a handle on the problem, I fear for the future." There is no escaping human waste in Kibera. It oozes from shallow, hand-dug latrines, pools into rivulets and finally builds into a black river. At night, feces-filled plastic bags are tossed from rooftops by those afraid to venture outdoors. Residents call them flying toilets. Mbone, 19, and her husband have become inured to the sight and smell of untreated sewage that flows in front of their one-room shack. With no other place to play, their son, Shane, and his 3-year-old sister sometimes end up frolicking in the muck. "They are kids, they will always go outside to play," Mbone said. "How can you stop them?" A plastic bucket brimming with store-bought medicine is a testament to the ailments that have dogged Shane for most of his short life. Born prematurely, he spent his first few weeks in a clinic and then at a hospital. Even with subsidized care, the medical bills came to roughly $US200, equivalent to 10 months of wages that Mbone's husband earns as a bus station porter. Since then, she has been reluctant to take Shane to a doctor. "I'm worried if I go to a bigger hospital, the bill will be bigger too," she said. Mbone is not convinced that the unsanitary conditions are to blame for Shane's health problems. Other children play in Kibera's drainage ditches, she noted, while few are bedeviled by the constant diarrhoea that afflicts her son. But epidemiologists and public health experts who have studied Kibera say there is a direct correlation between the community's poor hygiene and the infections that stalk nearly every household. Harmful bacteria in faeces that is allowed to seep into the surrounding soil can survive for months, and in densely populated settlements like Kibera that are veined with dirt paths, they easily find their way into food and water, often by residents who unknowingly carry the pathogens into their homes on shoes or unwashed hands. According to a 2012 study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cases of typhoid fever among children in Kibera were 15 times higher than those living in a rural area west of the capital; infections in Kibera were even higher in low-lying areas where sewage tends to pool. The study also found that 75 per cent of the typhoid strains found there were resistant to commonly available antibiotics. "A lack of sanitation leads to more disease, which leads to higher antibiotic use, which leads to greater resistance," said Marc-Alain Widdowson, principal deputy director of the CDC's Division of Global Health Protection for Kenya, which has been doing surveillance work in Kibera since 1979. "It's a vicious cycle." If Ntihinyuirwa Thade had been conscious, the doctors at Kijabe Mission Hospital would have asked about his medical history, including a list of antibiotics he had taken in recent years. But Thade, 25, a migrant labourer from Rwanda, was on a ventilator and unconscious, having fallen from the upper floor of a building project. He was not wearing a hard hat and suffered a grievous head injury. A week after the accident, he was facing a more immediate threat: A Klebsiella pneumonia infection was blossoming in his lungs. Thade's condition failed to respond to the three antibiotics already flushed into his veins, so his doctor, George Otieno (no relation to John Otieno, the pharmacy stall owner), was preparing to administer the final drug in his limited arsenal, a relatively expensive antibiotic called meropenem. "If that doesn't work ... ," he said, his voice trailing off. Klebsiella bacteria are omnipresent in the environment in the soil and in the human gut but they can turn deadly for people with frayed immunities. Otieno acknowledged Thade most likely acquired his through the plastic breathing tube that was keeping him alive. Many of the world's leading medical institutions struggle with resistant microbes and Kijabe, one of Kenya's best hospitals, is no different. Nestled in a verdant valley just outside Nairobi, it boasts top-notch equipment and a mix of Kenyan and foreign doctors that draw patients from across the country. But being a referral hospital has a downside: Many people arrive quite sick and have already cycled through a plethora of antibiotics. "Oftentimes they have taken every drug that is commonly available," said Dr. Evelyn Mbugua, an internist. Now that special counsel Robert Mueller has finished his investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian involvement in the 2016 US election, congressional Democrats are taking the baton, gearing up for a series of investigations into the President and his administration. Those investigations, like Mueller's, will provide key insights into issues of obstruction, corruption, and abuse of power, much of which has been happening in plain sight. But like the still-unreleased Mueller report, they will also show how limited checks on presidential power are, and how dangerously powerful the executive has become. Special counsel Robert Mueller. Credit:AP That power is not new. Much of the past 50 years has been a battle over how to rein in the imperial presidency, which was so clearly on display during the presidency of the Nixon administration. But while many people have been thinking about that administration in recent years, particularly the Watergate investigations that led to Richard Nixon's resignation, they have seldom turned their attention to what happened after: how Congress attempted to limit presidential power, and how it ultimately failed. Watergate exposed an administration riddled with criminality. The presidency, many Americans agreed after, had grown much too powerful, culminating in the mindset Nixon brought into office and later shared with journalist David Frost that anything the president did was, by definition, legal. Colombia is a beautiful country in South America, which has a rich and diverse culture. Steeped in this culture is the vibrant arts and crafts scene for which Columbia is renowned. The art in Colombia has over 3500 years of history and covers a range of styles including Spanish Baroque devotional painting to modern sculptures and paintings. One of the famous artists is Fernando Botero, who was well known for sculptures and political art. The craft sector in Colombia has an amazing heritage too with the history being traced back to the stone age. With over 1 million people working in this industry and many fairs and festivals every year, the craft sector is well represented in every city, town and village, bringing money into the local economy. Of course supporting these local artisans, by buying a souvenir or gift for loved ones back home is so important when you visit a destination, so here are some of the top art and craft products in Colombia, South America. Mochila bags These Mochila bags are known throughout the world and are a gorgeous distinctive and colourful souvenir of Colombia. The most famous of these bags, made by the indigenous people of Colombia are the bags made by the Wayuu people, a Native American ethnic group of the Guajira Peninsula in northernmost part of Colombia. Craftmanship is everything to these people and all the bags are unique and designed with tass els, geometric patterns and details inspired by folklore and legends. Caribe Chairs The Col ombian people are famous for their weaving and for their colourful designs. The outdoor Caribe chairs are traditional chairs made with weaving techniques. Today the Tucurinca people, From Santa Marta , a city in the north of Colombia have revived these techniques and are making the chairs with non-traditional materials , including plastic cords and strings. The resulting chairs are suitable for outdoor and indoor use and a beautiful design fea ture in the home. Of course, you can't get this chair in your hand luggage, but check on the price of shipping a work of art like this home and you may be pleasantly surprised. Turned Hats This traditional hat from Colombia - Sombrero Vueltiao, is a recognised symbol of the country. The words Sombrero Vueltiao are Colombian Spanish for 'turned hat'. Made of a type of cane, the more flexible the hat, the more strips of cane in it, the better quality the hat is. Making the hat is a lengthy process, the cheapest hat 'quincianos' take three days to make and is the cheapest type of hat and the most expensive 'veintisientes' takes up to thirty days to make but will last much longer. Filigree jewellery Santa Cruz de Mompox to give it its full name is beautiful too and well worth visiting. The historic centre of Filigree jewellery from the small riverside town of Mompox is much coveted around the world. The finely detailed jewellery made usually of silver (and sometimes gold) makes a great gift. The fine threads of the metal are weaved by artisans to create elaborate and stunning jewellery. The Spanish colonial town ofis beautiful too and well worth visiting. The historic centre of Mompox is also a UNESCO world heritage site. Ruana poncho he word Ruana means "Land of Blankets". The R uana is a type of poncho from the Boyaca region of Colombia not far from Bogota. T You may think of Colombia as a country that has universally hot weather but it had mountainous regions where it can be very cold. These ponchos are very practical for the weather in the mountains. There are many factory-made Ruana ponchos around but the authentic handmade ones are pricey but so much better quality. You can buy authentic Ruana ponchos is in northern towns such as Raquira. Werregue baskets and bowls Werregue baskets are a distinctive souvenir from the indigenous community of the Wounaan. Handwoven with care the baskets are highly patterned and interesting in their design. Made from the Werregue palm, the material is dyed with natural pigments. If you want to take one home, these can be bought from the C hoco region in Northern Atlantic Colombia or in the craft markets such as those in Bogota. The baskets can take anything from 30 days to make to 6 months depending on the skill of the maker, and thus prices will reflect that. The designs can be geometric or reflect nature in their design or can have images of daily life, past or present. So as you can see Colombia has many beautiful arts and craft items and many skilled artisans are producing authentic locals products on a daily basis. If you seek out the handmade items you will be supporting small producers and their families and putting money back into the local economy. Let me know what you think of the Colombian craft designs. Recovered firearms from kidnappers, aligned with the Muslim terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, following a rescue operation that freed Indonesian hostage Heri Ardiansyah and two others off Simisa island, Sulu Province in the southern Philippines, on April 7, 2019. (WestMinCom Armed Forces of the Philippines via AP) 3 Hostages Escape Muslim Terrorists in Philippines, 1 Drowns MANILA, PhilippinesThree hostages held by Muslim terrorists in the southern Philippines made a daring escape that left one drowned, another shot in the back in critical condition, and another safe after swimming to his freedom, officials said. The two Indonesians and one Malaysian separately escaped while Philippine marines were attempting to rescue them on Simusa island in southern Sulu Province over the last two days, regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Gerry Besana said on April 6. The dramatic escapes leave at least three more hostages in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization due to its brutal history of bombings, ransom kidnappings, extortion, and beheadings. The remaining captives include a Dutch bird-watcher, Elwold Horn, who was kidnapped by the terrorists in 2012, and two Filipinos. One of the Indonesians, Heri Ardiansyah, was plucked from the waters by marines on board a gunboat while they recovered the body of his companion, Hariadin, who drowned. The marines gunned down three Abu Sayyaf captors who were trying to chase the two Indonesians at sea, military officials said. Like many Indonesians, Hariadin used just one name. The marines seized four assault rifles, a grenade launcher and various ammunition from the captors of the Indonesians, military officials said. AFP officials led by Joint Task Force Sulu Commander Brig. Gen. Divino Rey Pabayo inspects the firearms and ammunitions retrieved from the Abu Sayyaf Group during their operations in Simisa Island, Sulu. | via @MBFTWakefield pic.twitter.com/oFmuY6PQ4L Manila Bulletin News (@manilabulletin) April 3, 2019 The Malaysian, who was identified by the military as Jari Bin Abudullah, was shot by the terrorists when he ran away Thursday as marines tried to rescue him and engaged his captors in a gunbattle. Government forces surrounded Simusa island, where a small community thrives near mangroves, to hunt down the remaining Abu Sayyaf gunmen. The act of shooting the kidnap victim is indicative of the Abu Sayyafs hopelessness and desperateness as the militants are now surrounded by our pursuing troops, said Sulus military commander, Brig. Gen. Divino Rey Pabayo Jr. The Malaysian was airlifted to Zamboanga city, where he was in critical condition in a hospital, military officials said. 15. GOOD NEWS: Abu Sayyafs Malaysian hostage who was in critical condition after being shot in a firefight crossfire B4 rescue in Sulu now is in stable condition, @TeamAFP spox told me. News story coming up. pic.twitter.com/hXnoNJqHF5 Zam Yusa (@SecurityJourno) April 6, 2019 The three hostages were kidnapped off Malaysias Sabah state on Borneo island in December last year and taken by speedboat to Sulu, the predominantly Muslim and poverty-wracked province where a few hundred Abu Sayyaf have survived in the jungles despite frequent military offensives. Army troops on Friday clashed with about 80 Abu Sayyaf gunmen in Sulus mountainous Patikul town in a fierce but brief gunbattle that left three soldiers and four terrorists dead and several wounded on both sides, the military said. The ISIS terrorist group issued a statement confirming it killed three and wounded 13 Philippine soldiers, but it said, The mujahideen returned safely to base. The rebels belong to an Abu Sayyaf faction led by commander Hajan Sawadjaan and aligned with ISIS. Sawadjaan is the main suspect in the bombing of a Roman Catholic cathedral during a Mass that killed 23 mostly churchgoers and two suspected suicide attackers on Jan. 27 in Sulus capital town of Jolo. By Jim Gomez Adulting Class at Kentucky High School Teaches Life Skills Before Students Enter Society The content is not available due to expiration. American Kim Sue Endicott Returned Safely After Ransom Is Paid: Reports Kim Sue Endicott, a Southern California woman who was abducted in Uganda several days ago, was returned safely after a ransom was paid for her release. Her guide, Congolese national Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo, was also freed in the hostage situation, said officials, ABC News reported on April 7. Endicott and Remezo were abducted at gunpoint inside Queen Elizabeth National Park it was reported. Ransom was $500,000. However, its not clear if the figure was paid to the kidnappers. Also unclear is how they were saved. Her guide drove into a Uganda safari park 'without an armed guard' when her vehicle was ambushed. Posted by Daily Mail on Thursday, April 4, 2019 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also issued a comment about the family, saying the United States has a policy of not paying ransom to secure the release of American citizens. Please remember that any payment to a terrorist or a terrorist regime gives money so that they can seize more of our people, Pompeo said. Even a small payment to a group in, say, Africa can facilitate the killing or seizure of tens or even hundreds of others, including Americans or foreign nationals in that region, reported The Associated Press. Keith Endicott called on the U.S. government to help save her life. Authorities in Uganda are expanding their search beyond the country's most popular wildlife park after a U.S. tourist Posted by CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor on Thursday, April 4, 2019 Get the Navy SEALS, get them on a plane and go save her. Dont pay ransom, Im good with that. But he didnt say any of those things, and maybe theyre doing those things, but who knows, he said. Uganda Wildlife Authority spokeman Bashir Hangi, said the kidnapping is without precedent. This is a one-off incident, its an isolated incident. It is not something that happens regularly. It is not something that we are known for, Hangi said to ABC. Its very unfortunate, it is regrettable but it happened. BREAKING: An American woman and her safari guide who where kidnapped in a Ugandan wilderness park and held for five days by armed captors demanding a $500,000 ransom were returned safely, authorities said. Posted by ABC News on Sunday, April 7, 2019 Our parks are very safe right now. Tourists are in the parks as I speak. Tourist activities are going on despite the incident. Because we have security in our parks, we maintain national parks and they are all very safe. Thats why you have not had such an incident before, and now that it has happened it has also opened our eyes to do some soul searching and see how can we best improve on the security of our people, he continued. Various illegal groups from Somali extremist Islamists to Congolese-based rebels sometimes operate in Uganda, but the kidnappers identity was not known, Reuters reported. An American woman who was kidnapped with her driver at Ugandas most popular wildlife park by gunmen had failed to take Posted by American Freedom Press Alliance on Thursday, April 4, 2019 We have armed ranger guides, if youre going out on a drive in the park youre supposed to have one but these tourists went out on their own without a guard, Hangi added. From their camp in the park, they just got into a vehicle and went out. They should have notified us and informed us that theyre going out for a game drive and then we would have availed them a guard but they didnt do this. Reuters reported that Endicott entered Uganda on March 29 and went to a park in the south. According to CBS, gunmen dragged the two from a safari vehicle, leaving behind two other people described as an elderly couple. Later, the suspects used the victims phone to demand a half-million dollars, The Washington Post reported. This week, CNN quoted a police spokeswoman, Polly Namaye, as saying that joint security teams have cut off all exit areas on the border between Uganda and [Congo] in search for the victims. Ugandas Tourism Ministry said the country has a $1.37 billion tourism industry. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at the McAllen Border Patrol Station in McAllen, Texas, on March 21, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Amid Border Chaos, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Resigns WASHINGTONDepartment of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned, according to a tweet posted by President Donald Trump on April 7. I would like to thank her for her service, Trump wrote. I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary for @DHSgov. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job! Nielsen was tapped to lead the agency after Gen. John Kelly left to take up the chief of staff position in the White House. She was sworn in on Dec. 6, 2017. Nielsen is leaving amid what she recently called a near complete system meltdown in the border security system. Nielsen wrote on Twitter on April 7: Its been an honor of a lifetime to serve with the brave men and women of @DHSgov. I could not be prouder of and more humbled by their service, dedication, and commitment to keep our country safe from all threats and hazards. Both Nielsen and McAleenan recently testified in front of Congress in separate hearings. At the current pace, we are on track to encounter close to one million illegal aliens at our southern border this year, Nielsen told the House Homeland Security Committee on March 6. When you put all of the facts together, the problem is not just the vastly increasing numbers but [also] the type of migrant that our system is not set up to protect, Nielsen said. Originally, it was single adults from Mexico. Now, its mostly Central Americans and the vast majority are vulnerable populationswhich are families and children. All of that together is a crisis because the system is not built for that type of flow. McAleenan said Border Patrol is unable to secure the border, with almost 40 percent of its resources being diverted to deal with the large groups of Central Americans. With 55,000 families, including 40,000 children, expected to enter the process this month, we are doing everything we can to simply avoid a tragedy in a CBP facility, McAleenan said on March 27. But with these numbers, with the types of illnesses were seeing at the border, I fear that its just a matter of time. Trump is shaking up the whole agency, saying on April 5 that he intends to replace Ron Vitiello, his nomination to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), because the agency is going in a little different direction. Rons a good man. But were going in a tougher direction. We want to go in a tougher direction, Trump said. The Homeland Security Secretary leads the third-largest department of the U.S. government, with a workforce of 229,000 employees, according to its website. The agencys 22 components include TSA, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, FEMA, the Coast Guard, Secret Service, Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, the National Protection and Programs Directorate, and the Science and Technology Directorate. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks at a forum about NATO at The Anthem, in Washington, on April 3, 2019. (Brendan Smialowski I/AFP/Getty Images) At NATO Meeting, Members Consider How to Counter China Threat Chinese investment in Europe and the potential for security threats to the region are under scrutiny following a recent meeting to mark the 70th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), held in Washington. At the meeting, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said that the rise of China is the greatest challenge NATO will face in the coming decade. He added that this means the United States will need to devote more attention and resources to address the challenge. He also called on European allies to do their part in being vigilant on China. Determining how to meet the challenge of Chinese 5G technology, and meet the challenge of the easy money offered by Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, is a challenge European allies must contend with every day, Pence said on April 3. Pence made the remarks during the two-day NATO Engages event in Washington, when member nations foreign ministers convened to commemorate the organizations 70th anniversary. One Belt, One Road (OBOR, also known as Belt and Road) is an investment initiative announced by Beijing in 2013 that aims to build up trade routes in Asia, Europe, and Africa through Chinese-financed infrastructure projects. The U.S. administration has criticized the initiative for putting developing countries into a debt trap. In Sri Lanka and the Maldives, for example, local governments could not pay off Chinese loans, leading them to hand off control of key infrastructure to China. Meanwhile, U.S. officials and experts have expressed concern that OBOR projects could be used to strengthen Chinas military influence, or to spread technologies capable of spying on Western interests. Recently, Italy joined OBOR, signing a number of investment deals with China, despite concerns from European and U.S. officials, as well as lawmakers within Italys ruling coalition. Pences concerns about China was echoed in a speech on April 4 by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who said, China is a challenge on almost every topic, and we must gain the better understanding what that implies for NATO. 5G and Huawei Pences comments about Chinese 5G technology are a veiled reference to Chinese tech giant Huawei and its close ties to Beijing. The next-generation wireless mobile communications technology is said to have the power to revolutionize many industries due to the increased network speed. Under 5G, it would only take 3.6 seconds to download a two-hour movie, compared to about six minutes on a 4G network and 26 hours with 3G, according to the Consumer Technology Association, a trade association headquartered in Virginia. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), in a speech given at the NATO event on April 3, also raised concerns about Huawei. The idea that a company that is so directly connected and affiliated with the Chinese government could switch on and off our data is something that should cause all of us to lose sleep, he said. Meanwhile, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE), an international military organization based in Estonia with the mission to enhance defense cooperation and information sharing among NATO members, recently issued a security threat report on Huawei. The fear remains that adopting 5G technology from Huawei would introduce a reliance on equipment that can be controlled by the Chinese intelligence services and the military in both peacetime and crisis, the report warned, adding that Chinese companies are required by law to cooperate with Beijing in support of Chinese national interests. The report pointed out that any security risks posed by using Huawei products in the critical infrastructure of NATO member states could carry over to the NATO alliance as a whole, since the latter may use a host nations civilian infrastructure. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, days before he became the first head of NATO to address a joint meeting of U.S. Congress on April 3, affirmed that the carry-over risk is an important issue in an interview with German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. Some NATO member states, including the U.S., are very concerned about Huawei setting up the networks of NATO members, and have expressed their views accordingly within NATO. We take these concerns very seriously, he said. Black Sea A new initiative in the Black Sea region was also announced by U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison during her news briefings on April 1 and April 2. We must make sure that all of the NATO countries that live in the Black Sea and around the Black Sea are also under our security umbrella, Hutchison said. She explained that the initiative will likely include NATO nations air surveillance and ships going into the Black Sea to protect Ukraines interests. Hutchison added that NATO is also assessing Chinas presence in the region, especially as Chinese assets have been buying up rights to seaports around the world. While this initiative is more intended to address Russian meddling, according to Hutchison, U.S. officials have previously warned of Chinese activities in the region. Chinese influence is expanding rapidly in the Black Sea region. Beijing uses debt-book diplomacy to create dependencies, which may seem negligible today but will eventually constitute very real leverage over Central European governments and societies, said A. Wess Mitchell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, while visiting Romania in June last year. He added: The 16+1 and Belt/Road initiatives aim to create alternatives to Western influence. Through its money, China offers countries a kind of mortgage on their future. Beijing rolled out the 16+1 platform in 2012 to increase economic investments in 11 European member states and five Balkan nations. In a December 2018 report, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a think tank based in Philadelphia, warned that Beijings ultimate goal in the Black Sea region was to put countries in a pro-Beijing axisa political agenda that was about more than just building roads and bridges. Among the key findings in the report was that Beijing has hosted more than 200 conferences, summits, and other official gatherings since 2012 for participants from countries in Central and Eastern Europe under the 16+1 platform, to identify and groom pro-Chinese voices within the political, business, and journalist community. Beijings interests in the Black Sea include agriculture, information technology, aerospace, and port infrastructure. For example, in Romania, which is a NATO member, Chinas state-run China General Nuclear Power Group has been in talks to build two reactors at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant. Beijing also is negotiating to build a trade corridor linking China to the Romanian Port of Constanta. Prominent Backers of Rashida Tlaibs Campaign Posted Pro-Terror Content Several people who Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) openly thanked for her successful congressional campaign have posted explicit pro-terror and anti-Semitic content on social media, including calls for violence, such as kill every Zionist, according to a report by the Israel Advocacy Movement (IAM). The report reviewed the social-media posts of several people Tlaib personally thanked in a March 31, 2018, Facebook post. My family and friends did it in Chicago! In less than a week of planning they really showed their strength and helped our campaign, Tlaib wrote. A special thank you to Ahlam Jbara, Mwafaq Jbara, Maher Abdel-qader, and my amazing Amo Abu Faris, Mufid Issa, who called people in Chicago while he was out of the country. Of the five people Tlaib thanked in her post, four have social-media profiles and each one has made posts supporting known terrorists. Ahlam Jbara appears in several photos with Tlaib. She has also posted photos of herself with Rasmea Odeh, a terrorist who was convicted and jailed for 10 years for her role in the murder of two students in the bombing of a supermarket in Jerusalem in 1969. Odehs American citizenship was revoked in 2015 because she concealed her terrorism conviction when applying for citizenship. Reema Ahmed, another person who worked on Tlaibs campaign, liked a cartoon in support of Odeh, and wrote a post in search of a t-shirt emblazoned with a large I support Rasmea graphic. Ahlam Jbara made the selfie photo with Odeh her profile image, called Odeh an icon for all social justice fighters, and even baked the convicted terrorist a birthday cake in 2014. Ahlam Jbara also shared a photo glorifying Mohammed Ali, the terrorist who stabbed three soldiers in Jerusalem. Mwafaq Jbara, the second person mentioned in Tlaibs post, posted some of the most extreme content, according to IAM, including hundreds of pro-terror posts. In one post from 2016, he honors Imad Mugniyah, who was the founding member of the Islamic Jihad Organization, a terrorist group, and the second-in-command for the Hezbollah terrorist group. The United States and Israel hold Mugniyah personally responsible for a number of bombings, murders, and kidnappings. In another post, Mwafaq Jbara honors Sheikh Ahmen Assin, the co-founder of the Hamas terrorist group. He also honored Yahya Ayyash, the chief bombmaker of Hamas responsible for the deaths of at least 75 people. In addition to posting anti-Semitic cartoons which call for violence against Jews, Mwafaq Jbara also invoked Hitlers name in an ominous post from 2014. Today is for you, but tomorrow will be for us. And Hitler will be a dove in comparison, he wrote. In at least two posts, Mwafaq Jbara mentioned that he was in Megiddo Prison, which, according to AIM, holds Palestinians who post serious security threats to Israel. In one post, Mwafaq Jbara suggests that, while in prison, he was in contact with Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, the co-founder of Hamas. In the post, he praised al-Rantisi as the heaven of martyrs, the lion of Palestine. Your words are still resonating in my ears and I still remember our meeting of Megiddo in 1997, Mwafaq Jbara wrote. The next person in Tlaibs message of thanks is Maher Abdel-qader. Similar to the others, Abdel-qader has posted both anti-Semitic and pro-terror messages on Facebook. He wrote all respect and appreciation, in a comment about a photo of Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorist group. Abdel-qader also liked a photo of Mahmoud al-Zahar, the co-founder of Hamas. Tlaib awarded Abdel-qader an honorary medal for helping with her campaign. Tlaib is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump. She drew attention to herself by referring to the president using an expletive and vowed to impeach him. Trump is the only president to follow through on a promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Last month, the president recognized Israels sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The incredible bond between the United States and Israel will never be stronger than it is right now, Trump said in a speech on April 6. Tlaib made an anti-Semitic remark early in her term in Congress, suggesting that fellow citizens who support the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign have dual loyalty to Israel. They forgot what country they represent, Tlaib wrote on Twitter. CHP Officer Killed by Suspected DUI Driver on Interstate 15 in Southern California A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer was struck and killed by a suspected DUI driver on Interstate 15 near Lake Elsinore, officials said. The crash took place at around 4:30 p.m. on April 6. The officer was sent to a nearby hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries, reported NBC Los Angeles. Update: Sergeant Steve Licon has been identified as the CHP officer killed on the 15 Freeway.Breaking: A CHP motorcycle officer has been struck and killed on the I-15 Freeway in Lake Elsinore. Posted by NBC LA on Saturday, April 6, 2019 The CHP identified the officer who died as Riverside Sgt. Steve Licon, who had been on the police force, according to the report. Before the accident, Licon was conducting a traffic stop when a gray Toyota Carolla crashed into his motorcycle, the CHP said. Our hearts are heavy after the immeasurable loss of a friend, father, husband, and hero. Sergeant Steve Licon, #13348, Posted by California Highway Patrol on Saturday, April 6, 2019 Our thoughts and prayers are with Sergeant Licons family as they grieve with us during this difficult time, the CHP said in a statement. Our hearts are heavy after the immeasurable loss of a friend, father, husband, and hero, the CHP also said on Facebook. Rest easy brother, we have the watch from here. Incredibly sad day for the family of Sgt Steve Licon, the CHP, & State of Calif. Sgt Licon was a great leader, valued member of the CHP family, & a dedicated public servant who sacrificed his life serving the people of Calif. Condolences to wife Ann, & daughters Marissa & Kelly. pic.twitter.com/avKiaiQ03T Warren Stanley (@CHPCommissioner) April 7, 2019 Sgt Licon was a great leader, valued member of the CHP family, & a dedicated public servant who sacrificed his life serving the people of Calif. Condolences to wife Ann, & daughters Marissa & Kelly, CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley wrote. Three people in all were hurt during the crash, and they were all transported to the hospital in unknown condition, according to the report. Just saw the procession for CHP Sgt. Steve Licon pass us by on Inland Valley Dr. They just left the hospital and are heading to the coroners office. @KTLA pic.twitter.com/oItuGwHJsd Carlos Saucedo (@Carlos_Saucedo) April 7, 2019 Just as we ride to honor officers that have made the ultimate sacrifice, we mourn the loss of another. Sgt Steve Licon of the CHP Riverside Area gave his life protecting & serving his community today. The thoughts & prayers of the LAPD are w/ his family & fellow officers tonight, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michael Moore tweeted. The incident took place on I-15 near Indian Truck Trail and Nichols Road, KTLA reported. Details about the crash were not provided to local news outlets. Traffic Stops Dangerous for Police In recent weeks, there have been several dramatic instances of police getting involved in shootouts or getting into dangerous situations with suspects during traffic stops. On Sept. 18, a sheriffs office in Colorado posted footage of a man rolling out of a stopped vehicle, pointing a gun at officers. As he continued to advance out of the vehicle deputies shot [him] multiple times, fatally wounding him, the office said. The National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund (pdf) said traffic stops are notoriously dangerous for police officers in the United States. The leading causes for officers being shot and killed in 2017 occurred when they were responding to domestic incidents and while conducting traffic stops, the groups annual report states. And, according to the most recent figures published by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, A greater percentage of male drivers (12 percent) than female drivers (8 percent) were stopped by police during 2011. It adds: In 2011, about 3 percent of traffic stops led to a search of the driver, the vehicle, or both. Police were more likely to search male drivers (4 percent) than female drivers (2 percent). From the reality television show "Dog The Bounty Hunter" Beth Smith (L) and Duane 'Dog' Chapman arrive to A&E Television Networks Upfront celebration held at Rockefeller Center April 21, 2005, in New York City. (Fernando Leon/Getty Images) Dog the Bounty Hunter Star Beth Chapman Reportedly Hospitalized Beth Chapman, the wife of Duane Dog the Bounty Hunter Chapman, was hospitalized over the weekend, according to a report. Beth Chapman has been rushed to a Hawaii hospital with serious breathing issues, a source told Us Weekly on April 6, adding that Beth hasnt been feeling well of late and Dog is by her side. One thing everyone knows about Beth is that shes a fighter. Andrew Brettler, the family attorney, appeared to confirm the news to Fox News, saying she is resting at home. TMZ also reported that Chapman needed medical help after having breathing trouble. Sources told the news outlet she is home and doing fine, and doctors said the breathing issues were related to her cancer diagnosis. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Duane Lee Chapman (@duanedogchapman) on Apr 3, 2019 at 10:41am PDT Earlier this week, Duane Chapman posted a photo on social media of his wife in Hawaii. The medical scare comes months after the Chapman family confirmed to news outlets that she was diagnosed with throat cancer. Beth started chemo for throat cancer last month. The treatments are in LA. They are going well, but they certainly take their toll on Beth, Brettler said in January. The Chapmans certainly have a lot on their plate. They just started filming for the new WGN show while Beths been going through treatment, Brettler added.. [Its] not easy. Duane Chapman also elaborated on his wifes battle with cancer, saying, I have cried a lot over this because Beth is my everything. Beth Chapman rushed to the hospital with breathing difficulties that seem related to throat cancer. Posted by TMZ on Sunday, April 7, 2019 He said, Despite all of the obstacles I have overcome, this is by far the biggest test of my life and mark my words, I will not let her die, according to the Daily Mail in late March. The two have credited the familys faith in her battle with cancer. Faith is probably the number one thing in our lives, no matter what were faced with. Through this cancer episode, we had to drum up as much faith as we could. And the Bible talks about having faith as small as a mustard seed. And thats not much. And I thank God that we had at least that much faith to get her through that, Duane Chapman said several years ago. His wife was previously diagnosed with cancer. I constantly ask God to heal my honey and make sure He takes care of it. Ive been telling Him that Im going to try and quit smoking and cursing. Im a dealmaker, and Ill do anything, he also said. "Another bend in the road, yet not the end of the road,#faith, #love #stayhumblepray." Beth Chapman Posted by Duane "Dog" Chapman on Thursday, November 29, 2018 I dont listen to the bad news. I dont want to hear it, Duane also said of how hes coping with the diagnosis. I pray a lot, anywhere. I cry all the time. Im a sinner. I pray a lot. I have done double that. More Details The reality TV star also said hes sticking with his wife no matter what. When we made a pledge many years ago, I said Id love her in sickness and in health until death do us part, he told People of his marriage. And that truth has really, really come alive in my mind. And I have to stand on that; I gave her an oath that I would love her forever. And thank God its not till death do us part at this point. Beth first revealed she was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2017. After months of a nagging cough, a routine checkup resulted in a diagnosis of stage 2 throat cancer, she wrote at the time. I have what is referred to as a T2 Tumor in my throat that is blocking my breathing. My doctors are suggesting immediate treatment and surgery before the disease progresses. Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, are displayed before a press conference regarding a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, in New York City, on Sept. 23, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Family Dog Survives Eating Five Bags of Heroin A family dog in Australia survived the harrowing ordeal of swallowing six baggies of heroin. According to an April 6 report by the Daily Mail, a cocker spaniel on a walk with its owner at a park in Brompton, Australia, picked up the bag of drugs off the ground and swallowed it. After becoming sick, the dog was treated with medication andeventuallysurgery. The animal survived. Pet pooch Shelby survives swallowing heroin balloons in South Australia. https://t.co/nmSfcmstqR PerthNow (@perthnow) April 6, 2019 No Ordinary Walk In the Park Shelby, a 16-month-old cocker spaniel, was out for a walk in the park with owner Denis Parslow, according to the Daily Mail report. Parslow told the news outlet he noticed Shelby had picked up a large plastic bag off the ground. He had something in his mouth which was quite large so I challenged him and he swallowed it, Parslow told the publication. The owner recounted how the dog became less active than usual, and later began to vomit. He took Shelby to a veterinarian, who first gave the dog antibiotics for a suspected gastrointestinal infection. The symptoms got worse, however, and Shelby was taken back to the vet for another consultation. An x-ray revealed the disturbing cause of the dogs persistent malady. Hed actually swallowed this plastic bag full of balloons of heroin, we were in a real state of shock at the time, Parlow told Australias 7News. Lucky escape for dog who ate heroin Meet Shelby, the luckiest dog alive, after he accidentally ate a bag of heroin he found at a park in Brompton. Story: 7news.link/Ya9uuXReport in 7 NEWS at 6pm.#Brompton #7NEWS Posted by 7NEWS Adelaide on Friday, April 5, 2019 Parslow said the veterinarian gave the dog Narcana medication normally administered to people suffering from a heroin overdose. The bag of drugs was inside the dog for five days, the owner told Daily Mail, before it was decided to remove it through surgery. Shelbys treatment ended up costing the family around $2,800, according to 7News. The owner said that to his knowledge no other dog had ever encountered anything like Shelby had, and the beloved family dog was lucky to be alive. Police have seized the heroin stash and are investigating its origin, according to LAD Bible. When the police saw him, they thought he looked very much unlike a drug mule or a suspect, said Parslow, according to the report. He added, (They) kind of fell in love with him as well, I think. Authorities in Australia said anyone who finds illicit substances should contact the police immediately. You should not touch or move the drugs, the NSW Police Force said. Opioid Crisis in the United States Meanwhile, according to a recent report by the National Safety Council (NSC), accidental opioid overdose has surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of unintentional deaths in the United States. Americans have a 1 in 96 chance of dying from an opioid overdose, while the probability of dying in a motor vehicle accident is 1 in 103. The councils analysis is based on 2017 mortality data by the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The nations opioid crisis is fueling the Councils grim probabilities, and that crisis is worsening with an influx of illicit fentanyl, the NSC said in a statement on Jan. 14. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), more than 130 people in the United States die of an opioid overdose each day, while the cost of prescription opioid misuse in the country is $78.5 billion a year. This includes the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid pain reliever 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, surpassed heroin to become the most common drug linked to an overdose death in 2016, according to the CDC (pdf). Two milligrams of fentanyl is a lethal dose for a nonopioid user. Epoch Times reporter Janita Kan contributed to this report. Huawei: A Formidable Threat to US Telecom Infrastructure Tainted Chinese equipment manufacturer has been embedded in US rural areas for decades Commentary The arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver last December for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions against Iran confirmed what experts in the telecom industry, some members of Congress, and the U.S. defense establishment have long suspected: Huawei and its subsidiaries represent a tangible threat to the United States. The Chinese tech giant also has been accused of intellectual property theft involving phone testing robot technology owned by T-Mobile. And in January of this year, a Huawei employee was arrested in Poland on espionage charges. Other accusations also attach to the second biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world. But these incidentsthough serioushavent disrupted Huaweis business relationships with Europe and Asia. Today, Huawei operates in more than 170 countries, supporting more than 500 telecom providers. Whats more, Huawei technology and infrastructure will play a key role in deploying the next generation of mobile communications, the 5G network, for much of the world. But the Huawei story is much more complex than sanctions violations and spying employees. Huaweis Biggest Espionage Coup? Yet even as U.S. President Donald Trump attempts to limit Huaweis expansion into the global 5G market, some experts fear that it may already be too late. Defense and telecom authorities assert that Huawei may have already accomplished its biggest espionage coup of eavesdropping on Americas Strategic Nuclear forces and other major defense installations located in the Western states. According to telecom expert Gary Frost, in the early 2000s, smaller, rural customers in states such as Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado were overlooked by equipment giant Cisco and others. These underserved states created an opportunity for a low cost, good quality infrastructure provider to step in. Huawei was happy for the opportunity to install its own cheaper versions of Cisco-type equipmentrouters, switches, and other telephone and internet infrastructureand gain customers in these rural communities. Today, not all of the states in question are entirely dependent on Huawei, but up to 25 percent of rural wireless carriers use the companys equipment, with Montana highly dependent upon it and Wyoming almost not at all. But Frost points out that although theres no Huawei fiber to his knowledge, Huawei equipment sits adjacent to fiber carrying nuclear and highly sensitive defense data to launch command sites and defense facilities located throughout the states mentioned. Have there been compromises? Its unknown for sure, and its not clear there has been any investigation. CALEA Makes Spying Easier for Everyone A key enabling factor in creating these vulnerabilities was the establishment of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which was passed in 1994 and became effective on January 1, 1995. CALEA mandated that for national security reasons, both telecom companies and manufacturers of telecom equipment must add built-in access for lawful surveillance to eavesdrop on suspicious communications. This can be done remotely. When CALEA was established, it was likely assumed that all relevant infrastructure and access points to be used by CALEA were specific and identified. If that was true, it wasnt for very long. Quick expansion of both CALEA and infrastructure demands meant that packaging of switches became hybrids of various technologiescreating multiple vulnerabilities. Today, all telecom manufacturers have remote access monitoring and update capabilities. These also have been targeted by Huawei since they are embedded into the telecommunications architecture. Chinas Involvement Some of those vulnerabilities were exploited and the evidence points to China as the culprit. Its a bit technically complex to explain in detail here, but essentially, when access points are used to steal data, that data is sent to a determined destination for it to be received and analyzed. In other words, a hacking or eavesdropping event on switches and other infrastructure leaves a trail and reveals where data was sent. In the hacks that Frost references, both the data flows hitting interfaces to CALEA equipment and the IP addresses where the data went, were Chinese. They were so-called brute force attacks, which, in layman terms, means overwhelming the security of a program or piece of equipment with multiple interactions or instructions all at once or over a period of time. Its not a particularly clever technique, but the attacks worked. Thus, Huawei leveraged the opportunity to bring rural America into the digital age and Rural Telephone Associations and Rural Wireless Associations (RTAs and RWAs) in those sparsely populated states were more than grateful. Over the years, Huawei has become embedded in the telephone and wireless associations. Huawei officials have sat on RTA boards for years and have helped steer additional infrastructure build-outs as needed. But in the process, Huaweiand, according to Frost and other experts, the Chinese regimehave been eavesdropping via built-in access points in Americas telephone and internet infrastructure in rural areas. To be clear, its not likely that there is Huawei fiber in sensitive installations. So-called last mile communication lines serving those areas are protected by armored fiber pairs. This hardened equipment is then installed by vetted telecom contractors. But at some point, some distance away, those installations are connected to vulnerable equipment manufactured and installed by Huawei. And its not simply listening in on conversations. As Frost explains it, Huawei may potentially be able to even remotely change or block data and communication transmissions to strategic U.S. sites. How could such oversights occur time after time over the years? A Series of Errors For one, not all relevant federal agencies were looking for espionage vulnerabilities. The main interest of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Federal Communications Commission was to certify that new equipment will not harm the existing system and would perform as advertised. And the main interests of rural telecoms, at least at first, was to enter the digital age with the low cost, high functionality of Huaweis equipment. Preventing spying wasnt a major concern at the time. But the way in which cable and fiber pairs are laid out opens up the possibility for access that shouldnt be allowed. There may be several fiber pairs existing side-by-side within the same cable, with the defense pairs adjacent to Huawei equipmentwhere its technicians could potentially tap into the defense infrastructure. This could mean that Huawei and the Chinese regime have been able to hack and track data transmissions of Americas most sensitive installations for decades. Thats why it would appear to be no coincidence that Huawei focused its first efforts in the state of Nebraska. Nebraska is where the Offutt Air Force Base is situated, and, more to the point, where the U.S. Strategic Air Command headquarters is located. Huaweis strategy to gain access to the crown jewels of U.S. defense installations was as simple as it is brilliant. By offering great equipment at low cost to underserved regions in America in a technologically vulnerable environment, it was able to embed mission-critical equipment in rural telecom infrastructures. That positioned it to exploit the vulnerabilities that surround Americas most strategic defense operations. Overcoming Lax Attitudes Is a Challenge This apparent sloppiness of U.S. defense officials regarding our strategic communication infrastructure is more than troubling. As of yet, theres no serious evidence that the Huawei vulnerability is being reviewed at the granular level necessary by the Department of Defense. They seem to be much more focused on the potential threats of the as-of-yet non-existent 5G network deployment instead of dealing with the current threats. As for mitigating responses on the part of relevant authorities, some believe the Trump administrations animus to Huawei could result in rural markets losing their Huawei equipment. But that has yet to occur. In the meantime, the reason among officials for such laxity is not clear, although Frost regards it as a holdover attitude from the Obama administration since a considerable portion of the civil defense and administrative positions remain occupied by Obama appointees. Frost also notes that defense officials in the current administration are aware of this resistance, which is something that Trump is faced with in various departments. Almost all of this is public knowledge and no one questions the motives of the rural telecoms. They needed telephone and internet coverage and Huawei supplied it to them. The risk is with the equipment itself, and cant be overstated. It can potentially intercept data sent to and from nuclear launch sites. And yet, the federal government has not removed the threat. Why not? It should be removed and replaced immediately. Unfortunately, the belief among the neoconservatives and globalists was that modernizing China would lead to more openness and greater access to the countrys massive markets. Perhaps it still is. This is the reason why China was quickly given access to the U.S. market. But the very real threat from Huawei, as well the current trade climate between China and the United States, both prove the folly of that policy. James Gorrie is a writer based in Texas. He is the author of The China Crisis. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaks at the 13th Annual Capital Markets Summit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on April 2, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Lagarde: World May Face a Monopoly Problem in the Future WASHINGTONThe rising power of a few corporate giants could weaken investment, deter innovation, and reduce the share of income paid to workers in advanced economies, according to a new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). While the overall macroeconomic effects of the rising monopoly problem have been modest so far, further increases in the market power of big companies could become increasingly negative if they were left unchecked. The problem could take a bigger toll on economic growth and peoples incomes in the future, warned the IMF, which urged policymakers to keep the market competition strong. Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde talked about the increasing concentration of market power in advanced economies. She said a small number of highly successful companies accounted for the highest price markups. According to the IMF, the price markuphow much a company charges for its products compared with how much it costs to produceis a good measurement of market power. When a companys market power increases, it can maximize its profits by charging a higher price and reducing its output. In other words, there is a winner-takes-most dynamic at playespecially pronounced in the digital economy, Lagarde said. I am not saying that we currently have a monopoly problem. But I am saying that we should take appropriate measuresso that it does not become a problem. Increase in market power would lead a company to reduce its demand for capital and, therefore, its investment, according to the IMF study. It also stifles innovation, as the firm would have less incentive to innovate to stay competitive. The study also found that increased market power since 2000 has accounted for at least 10 percent of the drop in the share of labor income in advanced economies. Lagarde urged policymakers in countries such as the United States to take necessary measures to prevent the escalation of the problem in the future. That means reducing barriers to entry for new firms and reforming competition frameworks to ensure a level playing field in all sectors, whether traditional or high-tech, she said. A Problem in Advanced Economies IMF studied the monopoly problem using data for nearly 1 million companies from 27 countriesboth advanced and emerging marketssince the beginning of the 2000s. According to the report, the price markup increases are more concentrated in advanced economies than in emerging markets. This increase in markups has taken place in most industries, with the largest among technology firms. And higher markups have been concentrated among a small number of companies. Companies with the highest markups raised their average markup by more than 30 percent since 2000. These companies are more profitable and productive than their competitors. They also have more intangible assets like patents and software than others. In many markets, the rising market power of the more productive and innovative companies has been helped by their superior ability to exploit proprietary intangible assets, network effects, and economies of scale (reduced costs per unit as output increases), the report stated. In the United States, for example, these high-markup companies have also expanded in size in relation to their low-markup counterparts, contributing to a larger increase in aggregate markups compared with Europe. The high markup companies may attempt to entrench their positions by building barriers to entry, such as high customer switching costs, therefore it is important for policymakers to ensure a level playing field among all companies, stated the report. President Donald Trump has been vocal in his criticism of tech giants, particularly Amazon. In an interview in November 2018, he said his administration was looking into antitrust violations by Amazon, Google, and Facebook. He has also repeatedly accused Amazon of scamming the U.S. Postal Service. And he has been critical of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post. IMF Predicts No Recession The 2019 IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings will be held in Washington on April 12 through 14. In its January report, the IMF projected that the global economy would grow at 3.5 percent in 2019 and 3.6 in 2020. Lagarde said that the global economy is at a delicate moment. The IMF cut its global growth forecast twice since last October due to slowing Chinese economic growth, the U.S.China trade war, and financial worries in emerging markets. But, to be clear, we do not see a recession in the near term, Lagarde said. In fact, we expect some pickup in growth in the second half of 2019 and into 2020. Global economic activity is set to benefit from the recent policy responses, such as the Federal Reserves more patient pace of monetary policy normalization and increased stimulus in China, according to her. Pablo Lyle attends the People En Espanol's "50 Most Beautiful" 2015 Gala on May 12, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for People En Espanol) Mexican Soap Opera Star Arrested After Punching, Killing 63-Year-Old A 63-year-old man was reportedly killed after being punched by a soap opera star following a road rage incident. Pablo Lyle, 32, a star on the Mexican soap opera, Mi Adorable Maldicion, was arrested on one count of felony battery last week, reported the Miami Herald. He was reportedly arrested in Miami. Hes accused of punching Juan Ricardo Hernandez, who fell down and suffered a fatal brain injury, according to the newspaper. Video provided to the Herald shows the actor jumped out of the passenger seat and ran nine steps before knocking out the 63-year-old man with one punch. Posted by Miami Herald on Friday, April 5, 2019 Lyle, once named one of the most beautiful people by People en Espanol, was in Miami and was traveling to the Miami International Airport with his family before his car cut off another vehicle on the Dolphin Expressway. When the two vehicles stopped at a light, the driver of the other car, Hernandez, stepped out and banged on a window of Lyles car. The soap stars brother-in-law stepped out of his vehicle and told Hernandez, Dont bang on my window, dont bang on my window. Hernandez, he said, was real aggressive and was cursing. The brother-in-law, who was not named, saw his vehicle rolling toward the intersection before running back to stop it. Again. Do not exit the car! Do not roll down the window! One punch killed a man. https://t.co/4I2qoqBPm7 Tom Gresham (@Guntalk) April 6, 2019 He didnt see a physical confrontation between Hernandez and Lyle, the Herald reported. When he got back in the car, Lyle told him to drive away. Then, he saw Hernandez lying in the street when he made a U-turn, according to the report. Two witnesses said they saw Lyle punch the victim, who was knocked out, ABC News reported. Witnesses also corroborated the brother-in-laws statement that Lyle told him to drive away. Following the incident, the victim was described as unresponsive and intubated at the time of Lyles arrest, said police. The attack took place on April 1, and the victim died on April 4, according to the report. ROAD RAGE IN MIAMI A man suffered a head injury from a fall after Mexican actor Pablo Lyle 's single punch Sunday. The man died Thursday at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Posted by WPLG Local 10 on Thursday, April 4, 2019 The Herald reported that on April 1, Lyle posted bond and was allowed to return to Mexico. However, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Lisa Walsh said on April 5 that this Court has become aware by reading The Miami Herald today that the victim of this battery has died and enhanced charges are likely to be filed. Based on this change of circumstances, this Court is rescinding the travel order, Walsh said. Other details about the case are not clear. It is unclear if Lyle has an attorney. A spokesman for the State Attorneys Office in Miami said prosecutors would wait for the autopsy report before making any further legal moves, according to The Associated Press. In the arrest affidavit, Lyle told police investigators that he feared for his familys safety and thought that Hernandez was going to hit him first. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pablo Lyle (@pablolyle) on Apr 2, 2019 at 10:00am PDT Lyle has not mentioned the incident on social media, although he published a family photo on Instagram, saying, What really matters. Violent Crime Declined In September 2018, the FBI said Americans committed fewer violent and property crimes across the United States in 2017, according to statistics. The violent crime rateincluding offenses such as murder, robbery, and aggravated assaultdropped by almost 1 percent although it is still about 4 percent above the 2014 rate. The murder rate dropped by 0.7 percent. There were more than 1.2 million violent crimes reported to [the FBI] nationwide in 2017. There was a 0.7 percent decrease in murders and a 4 percent decrease in robberies from 2016 to 2017. Aggravated assaults increased 1 percent in 2017. The FBI began collecting data solely on an updated rape definition last year, and 135,755 rapes were reported to law enforcement in 2017, the agency said. Of the estimated 17,284 murders in 2017, more than half occurred in larger citieswith populations of more than 100,000. There are fewer than 300 such cities in the United States, and while they account for less than 30 percent of the countrys population, many of them contribute far beyond their share to national crime rates and have done so for years, even decades. While the national murder rate inched down to 5.3 per 100,000 residents, it spiked by 15 percent in Philadelphia, to a rate of more than 20 per 100,000 residents. Columbus, Ohio, saw a massive 54 percent murder rate increase, reaching nearly 16.3 per 100,000 residents. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Mother Allegedly Beat Sons with Computer Cable, Denied Them Food While She Ate in Front of Them Two boys who ran away from home and made their way to a medical center alleged they were beaten by their mother with a computer cable and denied food while she ate in front of them. Houston police rescued the boys, aged 14 and 10 after they ran away from home to escape their mothers abuse in July 2018 and are now with relatives. Their mother, Annette Bogany, 53 is charged with multiple felonies for whipping her sons with cables and denying them food to the point it left them with physical and mental scars, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said on April 5. We must protect children, Ogg said in a statement. PRESS RELEASE: Mother charged with multiple felonies for whipping her sons with cables, denying them food | https://t.co/LYq9G3zupH Harris County DA (@HarrisCountyDAO) April 5, 2019 The evidence shows that these boys were physically and mentally tortured by the person they should have been able to trust the most, she said. Harris Country authorities said the boys were thin because of food deprivation and had scars on their bodies showing evidence of long-term abuse. The boys said they were beaten up for eating and their mother often ate in front of them while they went without food. The olden boy said they were once beaten up for grabbing a snack without permission. Another time he was beaten so hard that it left blood dripping from his head on the floor. #Houston mom accused of whipping sons with cables, denying them food while she ate in front of them https://t.co/yHpavfhTjo #KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/mMNtpgQ6pd KPRC 2 Houston (@KPRC2) April 5, 2019 The older brother shielded his younger brother from his mothers beatings by jumping in front of him. When the boys escaped from their mother, they took their belongings in a pillowcase, including a computer cable that had been used to whip them. Child abuse is a huge problem and we take it very seriously, Assistant District Attorney Lacy Johnson, who is prosecuting the case said in the statement. We are following the evidence and will hold these abusers accountable. According to court documents, Bogany told authorities that when she got mad at her sons, she beat them with various objects, reported KPRC. Annette Bogany, 53, is accused of starving her sons and using cables to whip them while she ate in front of them, officials said. https://t.co/961i5yjD8s pic.twitter.com/EEssFvxZ7x Houston Hts Patch (@HoustonHtsPatch) April 5, 2019 Disciplining Children Most Americans hit their children at times and dont consider it necessarily wrong, said a Brookings report. More than 70 percent of parents in the country agreed in 2012 that it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking. Most parents used such discipline for altering childrens behavior and were not aware of the long term impact of hitting children. Here is a fairly easy to read comprehensive study: https://t.co/Btc7Y5s0Ui Or let me quote my sister, who is a pediatrician: it is never OK to hit a child. Snackie Onassis (@christa_m_art) April 3, 2019 Brookings reported that parental beatings can lead to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression or alcohol and drug abuse. There is also robust evidence of an increased incidence of aggression among children who are regularly spanked, the report said. Corporal punishment can also lead to decreased cognitive abilities in early childhood, slower skill development, and other behavioral problems. New Jersey Woman Who Thinks She Has Food Poisoning Gives Birth to Baby A New Jersey woman who thought she had food poisoning was shocked when she unexpectedly gave birth to a baby. Patricia Crawford of Keyport gave birth to a baby boy on March 28, not realizing she had been pregnant, according to News 12 New Jersey. The birth of the healthy baby boy came as a surprise to Crawford, who experienced what, in medical terms, is known as a cryptic pregnancy or a stealth pregnancy. The circle of life: Woman gives birth to son after year of grieving https://t.co/54kMf5aYQU News12NJ (@News12NJ) April 5, 2019 Crawford and her husband, Evan Darragh, have named the baby after Crawfords late fatherWilliam James. Incredibly, little William James was born exactly one year after Crawfords father passed away, according to the report. Woman who had no idea she was pregnant and thought she had food poisoning gives birth to a baby boy in her bathroom via https://t.co/mzARDwXXmP https://t.co/l8rg0CSBO3 Sergey Minaev (@sminaev2015) April 7, 2019 What Are We Even Going to Do? Crawford told the news outlet she had been up at night convinced she was suffering from a bout of food poisoning. By the time I got back to the toilet area all of a sudden a baby came sliding out, she told News 12. It was just likeOh my God. What are we even going to do? Crawford said she and her husband were caught completely by surprise and had not made any preparations for the little bundle of joy. We [didnt] have a diaper, a wipe, an outfit, a onesie. Nothing, Crawford said. She told the news outlet that all throughout the pregnancy, she showed no symptoms other than the occasional upset stomach. Patricia Crawfords Facebook page is filled with comments expressing best wishes, according to the Patch. Congratulations, guys! Beautiful story! wrote one person cited by the news outlet. Just saw you guys in News12. Absolutely amazing! My best to all of you, wrote another. Congratulations! I had no idea you were even expecting, said another person, according to the Patch. Cryptic Pregnancy Cryptic pregnancy, known also as denied pregnancy or stealth pregnancy is a rare phenomenon but, according to Dr. Liji Thomas, can occur as often as in 1 in 475 pregnant women. Women with symptoms of denied or cryptic pregnancy may not have the usual symptoms of pregnancy such as nausea, vomiting, cessation of periods, and enlargement of the abdomen, Thomas writes in News Medical. One of the factors contributing to cryptic pregnancies is that sometimes medical tests can show a false negative, according to Babygaga. The reason this happens, according to the report, is that the hormone (hCG) that pregnancy tests record may be too low. Women who are on birth control are more prone to reduced levels of this hormone. Another factor that may contribute to the incidence of a stealth pregnancy is hormonal changes in women who have recently delivered a baby and become pregnant soon after giving birth. Ultrasounds are not always a reliable indicator, Babygaga notes, as sometimes a technician may not be looking for the fetus in the right place or the embryo may have become implanted irregularly. Scottish Woman Wakes Up With Surprise Baby Bump, Gives Birth an Hour Later A Scottish woman who had no idea she was pregnant woke up with a baby bump and gave birth just 45 minutes later, according to local reports. Nineteen-year-old Emmalouise Leggate gave birth to her daughter, who weighed 7 pounds and 12 ounces, in a Glasgow hospital car park. She told the Scottish Daily Record she had gone to bed with a flat stomach the night before. I hadnt taken a pregnancy test, I had no symptoms, nothing, she said. The doctors couldnt explain why I didnt have a bump. They just told me that she must have been sitting in my lower back and that it is quite common. But unlike her first pregnancy, none of the tell-tale signs were there. She put her absent periods down to being on the pill. I had no bump, she said, according to the Metro. I had put on a bit of weight, so my mum was suggesting we go out walking and do different things to burn it off because I kept going on about my weight. The weight was across my full body, more in my arms, legs, and face than anywhere else. My stomach never grew. She told the Daily Record that her bump popped up out of the blue that one morning. I had woken up and you could tell it was a bump. It was dead high up. Leggate and her partner described their new baby, Caira, as the best thing that could have happened, reported the Metro. Epoch Times reporter Simon Veazey contributed to this report. New Yorks KGB Spy Museum: Commemorating Crimes or Celebrating Spies? NEW YORKManhattans K.G.B. Espionage Museum opened in January, showcasing equipment belonging to the Soviet secret security agency. During my visit to New York, I uncovered an important story the museum doesnt tell. When I went inside, a kind guide with a strong Russian accent introduced me to the largest collection of Soviet K.G.B. equipment in the world. He enthusiastically spoke about secret cameras, audio recorders, and hidden microphones. The museum houses a total of 3,700 artefacts. Coming from Central Europe, as a citizen of the former Czechoslovakia, I am fully aware of how many lives were lost in the communist era, and how many people were murdered in times of peace in the name of the Soviet communist revolution. Visiting the museum, I was surprised by peoples attitude toward communism in the United States. Inside the museum, I met an enthusiastic young student, Wayatt Kent, from Colorado. I took a couple courses through my school about it [communism], but still just dont have the expanded knowledge that I was going for. So, Im excited to be here and learn a lot more, he said. I could not figure out what captivated him about communism. Do you know how many people died unnatural deaths during the communist era in the Soviet Union? I asked. Oh my goodness, no, I, I dont Clearly, I thought, his teachers instilled a positive impression of communism in him. I think communism has really great appeal, and it makes a lot of sense, but in the world that we live in with such natural human greed, and such a natural human strive [sic] for power, theres a lot of issues that need to be worked out before, before it will, you know, effectively work, um, work great. he said. I began to feel a little uneasy. Hundreds of thousands of people were thrown into concentration camps called Gulags under Soviet rule. They were beaten, frozen, and tortured in the name of communism. According to The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, communism has killed between 85 million and 100 million people, worldwide. I told Kent about Central and Eastern Europes experiences of communism. I was curious to know, within that context, about his impression of this exhibition. He responded, I think that this gallery exhibition is, ah, is an incredible reminder, and it is very important for us to remember the history. But also, its a great way to look at the positive aspects of what could be, while also remembering the lives that were lost as well. This kind of response astounded me. I asked a colleague, Joshua Philipp, senior editor at The Epoch Times, to explain how Americans see communism. There is an unfortunate phenomenon in todays society, that the crimes of communism have not yet been fully faced by the world. This museum is, according to him, most likely part of that phenomenon. Communism is still painted in a positive light, he said. But its not something that people want to face, in practice. Many dont want to look at it honestly, he said, because if they did, they would see its true nature. A museum dedicated to Soviet-era spy gadgets presents a severely restricted view of the Soviet Unions main security agency. K.G.B. operations werent like romanticized James Bond type stuff, Philipp said. The majority of what the K.G.B did was subversion. Philipps comments remind me of remarks made by former K.G.B. spy Yuri Bezmenov. In speeches after defecting to the West, Bezmenov revealed the K.G.B.s tactics for disrupting foreign countries. He said that spying and eavesdropping accounted for as little as 15 percent of all K.G.B. activities. The remaining 85 percent was dedicated entirely to subversion. The K.G.B. secretly supported activities to discredit a target countrys home defenses (such as security and civil services, police, and army), and warp peoples moral norms. The goal was to provoke internal unrest and fundamentally undermine the stability of that state and society. Then, in chaos and crisis, such a state could be taken over by a militant revolutionary group that would be disposed of later. After the K.G.B. had successfully engineered crisis within a country, Bezmenov explained in his speech, it enters the phase of so-called normalization: All political movements supported by the K.G.B. for the purpose of subversion are removed; and leaders of movements that helped the K.G.B. organize a coup in their own country are killed or imprisoned. We have seen this normalization happening throughout history. Other sad examples can be found: In Nicaragua, all Marxist-Leninists were put into prison during that phase; in Grenada, Marxist leader Maurice Bishop was executed; and in Bangladesh, pro-soviet leftist President Mujibur Rahman was assassinated by his own Marxist-Leninist military comrades. In my own country, in 1968, after armies from five Warsaw Pact countries entered then Czechoslovakia, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev said, now brother Czechoslovakia is normalized. After a leaders tasks had been fulfilled, and the designated country was taken under control, the K.G.B. eliminated all obstacles in the way of the new rulersa communist occupational army. This is a small picture of the crimes these regimes have committed. It is unfortunate that [these crimes] are not shown properly when you have museums like this, Philipp said. Historical Lesson What happens when a society does not learn from its mistakes? The museum creates a false image of communism in the public eye. Viewing the exhibit may even encourage young people to want to become part of some kind of spy adventure. Russias president Vladimir Putin is a former K.G.B. agent. By his own account, he joined the K.G.B. after seeing the Soviet spy film Dead Season (1968). Isnt that an interesting coincidence? Nazi Germany killed millions of victimsand its methods of mass extermination were adopted from the Soviet Unions system of Gulags. According to former Soviet military intelligence officer and historian Viktor Suvorov, Hitler sent Gestapo officers to Russia to tour and learn from Soviets about constructing Gulags. Without historical facts, the museum is just an experience for enthusiastic adventurers. Likewise, without lessons, history is not so interesting or useful. No One Speaks for Dead Girls as Crown Suggests 14 Years for Mother Convicted of Murder LAVALAmanda and Sabrina De Vito are the forgotten victims of their parents indifference, a victims advocate said Friday as the Crown and defence tangled in court over what would constitute an appropriate sentence for their mother. Adele Sorella was convicted in March of two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of nine-year-old Amanda and eight-year-old Sabrina. The girls were found dead in the family home in Laval on March 31, 2009. The Crown on Friday recommended that Sorella serve 14 years before becoming eligible for parole, while the defence recommended the minimum of 10 years. Who speaks for Amanda and Sabrina De Vito, Adele Sorellas victims?https://t.co/QNfMb6zYEV pic.twitter.com/AjxPHOezOI Steve Rukavina, CBC (@Steverukavina) April 4, 2019 But nobody delivered victim impact statements on behalf of the girls, suggesting they were largely forgotten, said Nancy Roy, the director of a Quebec group representing victims and their family members. Today we realize how sad it is that these little girls, Amanda and Sabrina, departed with the total indifference of their families, Roy said in an interview. Nobody was there to represent them. In delivering his sentencing arguments, prosecutor Simon Lapierre said that protecting young children is one of societys foremost values, and the failure to do so must be denounced in the strongest terms. Meurtre de deux enfants: debut du proces d'Adele Sorella.Philippe Bonneville etait au palais de justice de Laval pour tous les details: bit.ly/2B2ch0P Posted by 98,5 FM on Monday, November 12, 2018 He argued Sorella shouldnt be eligible for parole before serving 14 years, taking into account the severity of the crime and Sorellas position of trust over her daughters, but also her struggles with mental illness and her lack of previous crimes. He noted that the absence of victim impact statements didnt mean the girls were not loved. Even if nobody came to testify on the consequences of the crime, its clear that these crimes had an important, a devastating effect on the family, Lapierre said. He said Amanda and Sabrinas father, Giuseppe De Vito, a convicted Quebec mobster who was found dead in prison in 2013, expressed sorrow over their deaths and regretted not having helped them. The girls grandparents, uncles and a teacher all testified during the trial about the shock and sorrow of their deaths. But Roy said the presence of family members and loved ones at a sentencing hearing can have an impact on a judges sentence. The Quebec Crown is recommending 14 years before parole eligibility for Adele Sorella, convicted of killing her 2 young daughters. Sentencing arguments are underway in Montreal today. Background of case: https://t.co/74NRziKFe2 CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) April 5, 2019 She said the trial centred largely on Sorellas state, with little focus on Amanda and Sabrina, who lived their short lives under difficult circumstances with a mentally ill mother and a criminal father on the lam. I think she should accept her responsibility in this, she said of Sorella. Roy attended the hearing Friday with Marlene Dufresne, whose 17-year-old daughter Gabrielle Dufresne-Elie was murdered in 2014. Dufresne, whose daughters killer was convicted of second-degree murder last year, said she came to court to advocate for the lost girls. They were babies 8, 9 years (old). Its not old, she said. They knew nothing of life. They hadnt learned anything yet. They were innocent, and those lives were taken away from them. Although she did not address the court, Dufresne was hopeful the judgethe same who presided over the trial of her daughters killernoticed her presence. The crime carries a minimum sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole for 10 years. Sorellas lawyer, Pierre Poupart, said there was no reason for a longer sentence, citing the fragility of Sorellas mental state and the fact that she poses no risk to society. Convicted Laval mother Adele Sorella appeals decision Laval mother found guilty of murdering her daughters, Adele Sorella, will appeal her conviction. She was found guilty of second-degree murder in March.READ MORE: https://montreal.citynews.ca/2019/04/03/quebec-mother-found-guilty-in-deaths-of-daughters-to-appeal-verdict/ Posted by Breakfast Television & CityNews Montreal on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 Poupart said his client is still mourning her daughters and regrets not being able to protect them or knowing how they died. Her entire life is a regret, he said. Sorella testified during her trial that she had little memory of the day when her daughters were found dead. And medical experts testifying for the defence said Sorella experienced a dissociative episode the day of the killings. The girls bodies showed no signs of violence, and the cause of death was never established. A pathologist testified that a hyerbaric chamber in the house used to treat Sabrinas juvenile arthritis was a possible cause of death by asphyxia. Sorella declined an opportunity to address the court Friday because she felt too emotional, Poupart said, but she might submit a written statement. Superior Court Justice Sophie Bourque is scheduled to deliver her sentence on June 26. Sorellas lawyers are appealing her conviction, arguing the verdicts were unreasonable and not supported by the evidence. Frik Russouw, senior investigator of the South African National Parks Environmental Unit, walks towards the scene where a poached rhino was found in the Kruger National Park in South Africa on Aug. 21, 2018. (Wikus De Wet/AFP/Getty Images) Poacher Eaten by Lions After Getting Killed by Elephant A poacher was allegedly killed after being trampled by an elephant and his remains later eaten by a pride of lions before being recovered by park rangers in Kruger National Park in South Africa on April 4. According to a press release from South African National Parks, members of the poachers group called the family of the deceased and notified them that their relative had been killed by an elephant on April 2 while they were in Kruger Park to poach rhinoceros. The family then called Skukuza Regional Ranger Don English, who assured the family he would do everything possible to bring them closure and recover the mans remains. English arranged a search party, composed of rangers on foot, accompanied by members of the KNP Airwing. KNP Airwing flew over the described area, but due to nightfall could not locate the remains. .@APIGSA SAPS #Airwing, incl #chopper & pilots are deployed in KNP re #RhinoPoaching (pic at Skukuza airport) SD pic.twitter.com/mFAR2axL8g SA Police Service (@SAPoliceService) March 23, 2015 The team resumed the search on the morning of April 4, after being provided with further information from the deceaseds alleged accomplices, who had been arrested during the previous evening by police. Indications found at the scene suggested that a pride of lions had devoured the remains leaving only a human skull and a pair of pants, said the Kruger National Park press release. Further investigations into the incident are being conducted by Skukuza police. The South African Police Service (SAPS) tweeted that, A human skull found in the Kruger National Park (KNP) is believed to be that of a man reportedly killed by an elephant while poaching with his accomplices on 01/04; duo arrested, rifles & ammo seized. #sapsMP Komatipoort: A human skull found in the Kruger National Park (KNP) is believed to be that of a man reportedly killed by an elephant while poaching with his accomplices on 01/04; duo arrested, rifles & ammo seized. MEhttps://t.co/XXsXpJqTjA pic.twitter.com/4Oye38Eddh SA Police Service (@SAPoliceService) April 6, 2019 According to a press release on April 6 from the South African Police Service (SAPS), the poachers set out into Kruger National Park on April 1 and claimed to have carried the dead mans body out to the road, so that he would be found by those passing by in the morning. They then fled the park and were arrested after a joint intelligence operation by police. The human skull and pieces of clothing were found during the search operation by police and rangers. In total, three men aged between 26 and 35 were arrested and two .375 hunting rifles and ammunition were seized. 06:35 3 Shishangeni males and 2 female lions on the move north direction S25, 3km W of H4-2 Near Crocodile Bridge 5/5 Tinged by Jean Discover Kruger Safaris pic.twitter.com/dHzbnv98r1 Kruger Sightings (@LatestKruger) April 6, 2019 The suspects appeared in court on April 5 and faced charges of conspiracy to poach, trespassing, and possession of firearms and ammunition without a license. They are due back in court on April 12, pending a formal bail application. Glenn Phillips, managing executive of Kruger National Park, commended those who participated in the search party and helped the family find closure, offering condolences to the relatives of the deceased. Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise, it holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that, said Phillips in the press release. It is very sad to see the daughters of the diseased mourning the loss of their father, and worse still, only being able to recover very little of his remains. Police: North Dakota Suspect Planned Carefully, Hid Evidence MANDAN, N.D.A North Dakota man charged Friday with killing four people at a business that manages the mobile home park where he lives tried to avoid detection by picking up shell casings, changing his clothing, and cleaning a knife and gun with bleach, according to court documents. Court documents allege that after shooting and stabbing the victims, Chad Isaak, 44, took one of the companys vehicles to drive about one block, then walked to his own truck parked less than a mile away at a McDonalds. Authorities traced his steps with help from surveillance video at businesses along the route, the documents say. The affidavit and complaint filed Friday offer the most details yet on a mystery that has gripped the area since authorities found the bodies of four people Monday morning at RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, a town of 22,000 near the state capital of Bismarck. A judge set bond for Isaak at $1 million after a hearing where Morton County Assistant States Attorney Gabrielle Goter argued that the killings show a level of preplanning and a level of intent to disguise his actions that suggested that witnesses and others could be at risk if he is freed. It appears that RJR was targeted, said Goter, although court documents do not reveal a motive. Isaaks attorney, Robert Quick, had requested $100,000 cash bond, citing zero criminal history and family in community. Isaak, a chiropractor and Navy veteran, faces four counts of murder and other charges. The victims were RJR co-owner Robert Fakler, 52; employee Adam Fuehrer, 42; and married co-workers Lois Cobb, 45, and William Cobb, 50. The police affidavit portrays a grisly crime scene in which the Cobbs and Fuehrer were shot and stabbed several times. Fakler had multiple lacerations and stab wounds, and first responders tried in vain to resuscitate him. Fuehrer and the Cobbs were all dead when officers arrived. Lois Cobbs death was attributed to a cut of her neck, though she also had been shot, according to the affidavit. Surveillance video shows the assailant entering RJR wearing brightly colored clothing, then leaving in dark clothing about 15 minutes later, the documents say. An employee at the McDonalds told police that she saw a man wearing a camouflage ski mask, dark pants and dark shoes get into a white Ford F-150 that morning. #news Police: North Dakota suspect planned carefully, hid evidence https://t.co/fheJAl4Ouc A chiropractor with a military background was due in court Friday in the slayings of four people who police say were shot and stabbed at a property management business in North Dak pic.twitter.com/aynxEbXf1k TheDailyUSNews.com (@TheDailyUsNews) April 6, 2019 Police later linked the vehicle to Isaak, who lives in the small town of Washburn, about 35 miles north (56 kilometers) of Mandan. At his home, they found clothing matching what they had seen on video, nine spent shell casings, a knife with a bent tip, and gun parts in a kitchen freezer. The clothing, knife and gun parts all smelled of chlorine bleach, court documents say. RJR began managing the mobile home park after Rolf Eggers bought the property last fall. Eggers, a Bismarck resident who spends his winters in Florida, said he never met Isaak and that Fakler never mentioned any issues with him. The previous owner, Mike Nelson, described Isaak as a model tenant. Paid his rent on time. Took care of his property, Nelson said. Navy records show Isaak enlisted in the service in 1992 and left in 1997 as a hospital corpsman 3rd Class, with a Good Conduct Medal and National Defense Service Medal. Isaak appeared in court Friday in a black-and-white striped jail uniform, cuffed at the wrists and waist, and showed no emotion. He spoke only to say, Yes sir, when Judge James Hill asked him whether he understood the charges. Dora Sorenson, a client of Isaaks chiropractic business, told The Associated Press that he called her the day before the killings and asked to change her appointment from noon Monday to 4 p.m. because he said he had a dental appointment. He didnt appear any different. He was just Chad, Sorenson said. I am in total shock. Felony murder carries a maximum punishment of life in prison without parole; North Dakota does not have the death penalty. Isaak is also charged with burglary, unlawful entry into or concealment within a vehicle and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. By Dave Kolpack And James Macpherson U.S. President Donald Trump attends a rally at the El Paso County Coliseum on Feb. 11, 2019 in El Paso, Tex. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Polls: Hispanic Support for President Trump Reaches 50 Percent A slew of polls conducted this year found that President Donald Trumps approval rating among Hispanic voters has reached or approached 50 percenta positive indication for the commander in chiefs 2020 re-election prospects. A March poll by national survey research company McLaughlin & Associates revealed that 50 percent of Hispanics approve of how Trump is handling his presidency. The recent data mirrors results from other major polls. A Marist/NPR/PBS survey conducted in January placed Trumps approval rating among Hispanics at 50 percent. Meanwhile, a Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted in February found Trumps approval rating with Hispanics was at 45 percent. Trump often touts the record-low unemployment rates among Hispanics and others, including African-Americans and Asians, at his Make America Great Again campaign rallies. In February, the national seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for Hispanics and Latinos aged 16 and up in the U.S. labor force dipped to 4.3 percent, a record low, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bureau first began tracking employment data among Hispanic-Latinos in 1973. The data marked an improvement over Januarys unemployment rate, which reached 4.9 percent. Additionally, the total number of Hispanics employed in the United States reached a record high of 27,701,000 in December last year. Yearly data on the Hispanic poverty rate was also positive. The poverty rate among Hispanics in the United States fell to a historic low of 18.3 percent in 2017, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureauthe lowest rate recorded since the agency first started tracking the data in 1972. In 2017, the rate of poverty had declined overall, but for Hispanics in particular, the rate was one of the largest year-to-year drops across demographic groups, shedding 1.1 percentage points from 2016, according to the annual report, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2017. At a February MAGA rally in El Paso, Texas, roughly 30,000 people registered online with 8,000 inside the El Paso County Coliseum and tens of thousands watching the event on screens outside. According to RNC data, an estimated 70 percent of attendees were Hispanic. Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said at the time that Latino support of the president has been something thats been overlooked. The El Paso rally had thousands of people from New Mexico, Parscale said on Twitter. 70% Hispanic. 50% Democrat. 25% Independent. 25% Republican. 25% Didnt vote in 2016. The lefts narrative isnt working, Latinos support @realDonaldTrump in epic numbers. An earlier Marist/NPR/PBS survey poll conducted in December last year found that Trump approval rating among Hispanics was at 31 percent, meaning Trumps January 50 percent approval ratings marked an increase of 19 percent. The jump in numbers caught the eye of the president, who argued that the surveys findings reflect how important the border wall along the southern border is to Hispanics. The surge came during the partial government shutdown that began late December, further indicating that Trumps Latino base strongly supports the construction of a border wall. Wow, just heard that my poll numbers with Hispanics has gone up 19%, to 50%, Trump said in January. That is because they know the Border issue better than anyone, and they want Security, which can only be gotten with a Wall. Previously Deported MS-13 Gang Member Sentenced to Prison A judge sentenced a previously deported MS-13 gang member from El Salvador to one year in prison for illegally re-entering the United States. U.S. District Judge Liam OGrady handed Fily Giovany Amaya-Martinez the sentence Friday, April 5, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Amaya-Martinez, a 36-year-old known member of MS-13, was deported from the United States in 2003 after authorities convicted him of an aggravated felony near Washington. However, he returned to the United States in 2009 after being charged with several murders in his home country of El Salvador. Amaya-Martinez was able to live illegally in the United States, undetected, for nearly a decade until an anti-gang task force discovered him in 2018. Amaya-Martinez fled justice in his home country and defied the laws of this country when he illegally re-entered, said Lyle Boelens, the acting field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcements enforcement and removal operations in Washington. Todays sentencing answers his defiance. We stand with the U.S. Attorneys Office in resolute commitment to continue to ensure that our communities are safe from dangerous criminals. The chief federal law enforcement officer for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) hailed the case as an example for the need of strong immigration enforcement. After allegedly committing multiple murders in El Salvador, this violent MS-13 gang member fled El Salvador and illegally crossed our southern border to get back into the United States, stated EDVA U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger. This case is a prime example of our need for strong borders and why this office continues to prioritize criminal immigration cases. My thanks to the dedicated anti-gang task force agents for their outstanding work on this important case, and for removing this dangerous felon from our community, Terwilliger continued. Amaya-Martinezs sentencing comes as the Trump administration continues to clash with congressional Democrats over immigration and border enforcement. The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, a five-member board that controls the House of Representatives general counsel, voted 3-2 along party lines Thursday to initiate a lawsuit against President Donald Trumps emergency declaration on the southern border. Democrats, with the help of some GOP support, had previously passed a resolution that condemned his border emergency. However, Trump vetoed the resolution and lawmakers were not able to override it. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has also asked Congress to pass a series of measures to alleviate the immigration situation, but with Democrats controlling the House, these requests are not expected to be met. By Jason Hopkins Follow Jason on Twitter. Illustration of a victim being forcibly injected with psychiatric drugs. Psychiatric abuse as a method of persecution is common in China, particularly against Falun Dafa adherents. (Minghui.org) Psychiatric Torture and the Unspeakable Suffering It Causes (Part 2) Psychiatric torture is one of the more terrifying methods the Chinese regime uses to rein in those classed as seriously interfering with public order and who disrupt social stability. Falun Dafa practitioners, political dissidents, and citizens who dare to protest government policies frequently have these labels slapped on them to justify confining them in psychiatric hospitals, even though they are not mentally ill. Read More Psychiatric Torture and the Unspeakable Suffering It Causes The number of mental hospitals was increased across the country after the persecution campaign against Falun Dafa practitioners began in 1999. In these facilities and other detention centres, authorities forcibly administer psychiatric drugs to practitioners to destroy their will through causing great mental and physical suffering, thereby forcing them to transform (abandon the practice). Part 1 outlined seven cases of people who were disabled or died as a result of forced administration of psychiatric drugs, which has been condemned by the World Psychiatric Association and other such organizations. In part 2 we present more cases. Psychotropic Drugs Leave Woman Suffering from Many Side Effects Kong Qingmei, 60, was in and out of mental hospitals four times over a period of 15 years. Though perfectly healthy, the Falun Dafa practitioner was treated as a mental patient and given forced injections which left many side effects. At one mental hospital in 2005, she was given psychotropic drugs against her will, which damaged her mentally and physically. She began to look haggard and older than her age. She was released after three months but was soon arrested again and sent to the Zutangshan Mental Hospital, where she was detained for four years. There, Kong was given psychotropic drugs three times a day. The nurses sat on her to restrain her and forcibly poured drugs down her throat. She experienced severe headaches, along with dryness of the mouth and esophagus, and she had trouble speaking due to her tongue being stiff and swollen. Her eyes also became severely itchy. She could barely walk by the time she was released. Kong was re-arrested twice more and sent back to the same mental hospital where she continued to be forcibly administered unknown drugs. The last time she was released, she was unable to walk and also suffered from severe headaches. Woman Shackled to Iron Bed and Forcibly Injected with Drugs, Causing Paralysis Falun Dafa practitioner Dong Jingzhe, 32, was abducted from her workplace on May 24, 2001 and sent to the Longshan Labor Camp. Close to death from torture, she was released the following December. Dong was abducted again on March 5, 2005, and sent to the Masanjia Labor Camp, where she endured brutal physical and mental torture. The guards shackled her to an iron bed and injected her with over 70 vials (five 500 ml. vials) per day of an unknown drug. The drug caused paralysis in her legs. Many practitioners held in Masanjia became paralyzed after being forcefully injected with the same drug at the same rate of 70 vials per day. Man Loses Memory, Dies Due to Forced Drug Injections In December 2001, Zhu Hongbin was arrested at his workplace and sentenced to seven years in prison for keeping Falun Gong books at home. While detained at Hongweixing Prison, Zhu was injected with an unknown drug which caused him to pass out. When he regained consciousness, he experienced severe memory loss, including his short-term memory. Zhu was also subjected to brutal physical torture at the prison, including deprivation of food and sleep, force-feeding that damaged his lungs and led to heart trouble, and tied up and hung from a wall for three days. When Zhu was released on December 29, 2008, he was severely emaciated and too weak to walk. He died six months later. Unknown Drugs Cause Woman to Lose Memory, Ability to Think After Song Yanqun was released from Jilin Womens Prison on medical parole on Jan. 20, 2014, she weighed only about 66 pounds, and many of her organs were malfunctioning as a result of various kinds brutal torture. She had served almost all of a 12-year sentence for practicing Falun Dafa. While in prison, 44-year-old Song once went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution campaign against Falun Dafa practitioners in China and was forced-fed. During force feeding she was given unknown drugs while several inmates held her. The drug not only rendered all limbs numb, she also lost her memory and her ability to think normally. She was also forcibly injected drugs, which caused bleeding and left numerous needle punctures in her skin. She was on the verge of death when she was released. Regularly Drugged for Years, Man Becomes Severely Mentally Impaired Yang Baochun was so badly tortured in Handan Forced Labor Camp in 2002 that his right leg had to be amputated. To shirk their responsibility, labor camp officials sent him to a mental hospital three times. Drugged regularly over the course of five or six years, Yang became severely mentally impaired. By the time he was released in 2009, his behavior was no different from a patient with advanced mental illness. 32-Year-Old Woman Dies Day After Forced Injection On May 11, 2001, Rong Fengxian was arrested and taken to a brainwashing centre where she was detained in solitary confinement. Later, she was transferred to Baoding Mental Hospital, where she was injected with an unknown, toxic drug. Rong, just 32, died in the hospital the next day. The hospital paid her family 7,000 yuan as compensation. Injected with Unknown Drugs, Man Suffers from Long-term Memory Loss Falun Dafa practitioner Fu Yao was taken to a psychiatric hospital in Harbin City on April 24, 2004, where he was injected with unknown drugs. He lost consciousness and suffered from memory loss for seven years. He recalled being in a hospital for 21 days, and remembered being injected daily with unknown drugs that made him feel lightheaded. He drooled, hallucinated, and couldnt sleep. SEATTLEWatching Shen Yun Performing Arts was a family affair for Darcia Olsen, resort owner, who attended the performance with her mother, Delores Wegner, her two siblings, and their spouses. It was beautiful, Olsen said after watching the performance at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall in Seattle, Washington, on April 6. I was really amazed with the physicality, the ability of the dancers to do so much, I admire that. The classical Chinese dance company performed in Seattle as part of its 2019 world tour, which will see its six touring contingents travel to more than 130 cities across four continents. Founded in 2006, the New York-based company seeks to transmit genuine Chinese culture to modern audiences through music and dance. The companys dancers are masters in classical Chinese dance, an ancient art form refined over thousands of years of development. With a catalogue of difficult flips and tumbling techniques, as well as specialized physical movements and expressions, classical Chinese dance sits alongside ballet as one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world. Olsen, who owns resorts in Oregon, Spokane, and Hawaii, was not only transfixed by the dancing, but she also enjoyed the music of Shen Yuns live orchestra, vocal soloists, and even the accompanying pianist. The pianist was excellent. She had a great deal of skill. It was almost, she was in the background, but she was very well skilled as well, she said. The music of Shen Yun is composed specifically for the performance, and refreshed every year. The orchestra combines both classical Chinese and Western instruments, allowing Eastern sounds to feature as melodies over a resonant orchestral base. But what impacted Olsen the most was being able to experience the performance with her loved onesespecially her mother. My mother very much enjoyed the show, Olsen said. And because she has Alzheimers, but loves China and loves the dancing and that music and the beauty, and I watched her smile through the whole show, and be absolutely transfixed, and it was very touching to see. Olsen was also able to take something away herself after seeing some commentary about modern living in the final performance depicting a story set in todays China. Everybody got a laugh at the cell phones, and everyones staring at their phones and not paying attention to what is going on, she said, referring to a particular scene in that segment. And I think many of us could find some [of] ourselves in that where we tend to look at the phone instead of the world around you and to see what is right there, and not to see it on a screenbut to see it live. In summary, Olsen described Shen Yun as a fantastic experience combining classical music and culture. Beautiful dance, and acrobatics was fantastic. With reporting by NTD Television. The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 8. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick) Scheer Promises to Release New Documents Related to Snc-Lavalin Affair OTTAWAConservative Leader Andrew Scheer plans to present new documents related to the SNCLavalin controversy this afternoon. His announcement is set for 2 p.m. eastern time at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa. A Saturday afternoon release from the Conservatives offers no more details, and party spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday morning. The Tories have been hammering Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the SNCLavalin affair since the Globe and Mail first broke the story in early February. Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper reported that aides in the PMO and others had pressured former attorney general Jody WilsonRaybould to intervene in the prosecution of the Montrealbased engineering and construction giant. The director of public prosecutions decided last fall not to negotiate a deferredprosecution agreement with the company, which is facing charges of bribery related to business in Libya. WilsonRaybould later resigned from cabinet, claiming she had been removed from her post in a January shuffle because she wouldnt bow to the pressure from Trudeau and others. Canadians view the removals for exactly what they are: a betrayal of justice. Elected officials are supposed to protect individuals who blow the whistle on government misconduct and corruption, not punish them. Justin Trudeau needs to come clean. pic.twitter.com/e6NcR8IOoO Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) April 7, 2019 Last week, Trudeau expelled WilsonRaybould and Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus for what he described as breaking the bonds of trust with their fellow MPs over the governments handling of the SNCLavalin affair. School District Removes Doors From Bathroom Stalls, Raising Privacy Concerns: Reports One school district in Illinois reportedly removed the doors to bathroom stalls after a student allegedly made a school shooting threat. After a note detailing the threat was discovered in the bathroom at Beardstown High School, officials removed the doors, outraging parents and students, reported Yahoo News. Some students were forced to take blankets from home before hanging them up in the stalls for privacy. School district removes doors from bathroom stalls, girls allegedly forced to bring blankets from home for privacy Posted by Sunny 101.5 on Sunday, April 7, 2019 Mostly girls have been bringing blankets from their house and hanging it up in the stalls so people cant see them Yesterday people started putting their shoes and boots in front of the stall so people would know theyre in the bathroom, Juan Juarez, a Beardstown High School student, was quoted as saying by the news outlet. The district said female students will be permitted to use a private restroom in the nurses office after privacy concerns were raised, Yahoo also reported. You have to understand when kids have a place to spend time, whether its a minute or five minutes sometimes things happen whether its good, bad or otherwise, Beardstown Superintendent Ron Gilbert said. It has helped limit some of the things that were taking place. Gilbert told another news outlet that safety comes first. Restrooms are for one purpose only, Gilbert told the State Journal-Register. We understand everyones concerns. Were not going to put people in situations that are harmful to anyone. He added: If youre going to spend a bunch of time in there not using the restroom for what its for, you have to take some measures to keep everybody safe. Gilbert said the school is dealing with four-law enforcement agencies. We dont want anything to be permanent, Gilbert said of the door-less bathrooms. Wed love to have some norms back, too. He added: I just want people to understand when youre dealing with school safety, people want every timeline and minute detail. We cant do that. Were dealing with minors, and were also dealing with law enforcement. The school has also taken other steps. Beardstown High School is under lockdown for a situation inside the school, district officials confirmed.Update at 4:30 Posted by Jacksonville Journal-Courier on Friday, March 22, 2019 Students who attend the high school and junior high school are allowed to enter and exit through a single door, ABC12 reported. Meanwhile, officials are carrying out random searches at after-school events. On March 22, according to the Journal-Courier, the Beardstown High School was placed on lockdown due to an incident at the school. Its not clear if it was related to the note posted in the bathroom. Officers from several agencies responded to the scene. The lockdown was lifted later in the day. Cold Classrooms In another unusual school incident, a Michigan teacher was recently reportedly suspended after encouraging her students to speak to their parents about how cold the schools classrooms were. Its 58 degrees in here, said a note that she wrote for her students, according to the News-Herald. No heat. Call your parents. Tell them to call the board office If you are cold. For the move, Logan was suspended for three days by the district. She was later reinstated. Teachers will always advocate for their students and they shouldn't be punished for doing so. What parent would want their child sitting in a classroom too cold to learn in? Posted by Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association on Friday, March 8, 2019 Linda Moore, president of the Taylor teachers union, called the suspension ridiculous, reported the News-Herald. Our position is that, if (the school district) didnt like it, they should have given out a statement of what they would like teachers to tell students and parents, then give them a script to read, she added. Regina Glenn enjoyed seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall in Seattle, Washington on April 6, 2019. (NTD Television) SEATTLERegina Glenn returned to see Shen Yun Performing Arts for the fourth time at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall during the evening performance on April 6. And like every other time, she said the traditional dance and music company continues to inspire and send an important message. Tonight I did see some little beautiful coordination again, with the costumes. I love it, Glenn said. And I love the theme of fun but [the] message also. New York-based Shen Yun tours the globe annually with a mission to bring back traditional Chinese culture and values to the modern world through performing arts. Through 20 vignettes of classical Chinese dances, folk and ethnic dances, story-based dances as well as solo musicians, Shen Yun takes audience members on a journey through 5,000 years of Chinese history and civilization, while encouraging them to reflect on themselves and the world around them, just like Glenn. It makes me continue to want to see what is going on within the world, said Glenn, who is the CEO of Pacific Communications Consultant Inc. in Washington state. The reason I really come also is to help with the resources to continue this activity. I think the message is done well. Ive watched the YouTube videos on how hard to be conditioned as they are, and what a privilege it is they feel, I love to see that. So supporting it is the way I bring it to my home, she added. Inspiring Messages Moreover, the messages and themes depicted in the various pieces have been a great source of inspiration for the business owner. [Shen Yuns message is] to be kind, to be graceful as ladies, [and] to be fearless as warriors, Glenn said, adding that the performance also tries to raise awareness about real-life human rights abuses and oppression happening in communist China. That message is coming across in one of the stories that they showed, Glenn said. I am surprised that it is happening. Like Glenn, many audience members are surprised to learn that a great number of Chinese people are still being persecuted for their faith, despite the communist regimes appearance of modernization and opening up to the West. What they dont know is that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sees traditional Chinese culture, which is deeply rooted in Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, as its greatest rival. The regime has launched many campaigns to dismantle traditional culture and peoples belief in the divine, and replace it with Mao Zedongs way of thinking and style of discoursea move that has been devastating to the Chinese peoples identity. Glenn said she applauds Shen Yuns efforts to show the world that spirituality and respect for the heavens are themes anchored in Chinese culture. She finds them relatable to her life as a Catholic. It was really good to see a very respectful way to point out the benevolence of the divine, and how it is played out in both the beauty and the precision of all the performance, Gleen said. Dynamic Performance Along with learning about Shen Yuns messages and themes, Glenn greatly appreciated the aesthetics and artistry of the performersboth on stage and in the orchestra pit. Theres a beautiful synchronism between the orchestra and the dancers, she said. You can see that they had practiced, every note, every turn, is done on cue. Thats not easy to do. She also liked learning about the different ethnic groups and seeing the history of China. I like the fact that were getting history, authentic history, and it gives an interesting role that women had played throughout all cultures and civilizations, Glenn said. I also like seeing the beautiful landscape of the countryside, and a respect for the different ethnicitythe Mongolian, and all the others, the women of Yi, that was very nice. For Glenn, Shen Yun has brought together a combination of the best of beauty, charm, physical agility, and stamina. That brings the spiritual, and a very entertaining message, to you, she said. With reporting by NTD Television. The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006. South Carolina Men Arrested After 2 Women Are Found Buried at Home, Sheriff Says Two men were arrested in connection with the deaths of two women who were found buried on a property in South Carolina, said officials. The Spartanburg County Sheriffs Office stated that Jonathan Galligan, 39, and Christian Hulburt, 41, were arrested on murder charges on April 6. It came after the bodies of Christin Renee Bunner, 27, and Melissa Fairlee Rhymer, 40, were found on a Spartanburg property, WYFF reported. They were discovered in shallow, 18-inch graves, officials said. CAPTURED !!! Jonathan Galligan wanted for murder in connection to two bodies discovered at 137 Williams St yesterday has Posted by Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office Sheriff Chuck Wright on Saturday, April 6, 2019 Bunner was reported missing on Dec. 16, 2018, according to the news outlet, citing a missing persons organizations Facebook post. She went missing in Arcadia, South Carolina. Investigators arrested Galligan at a convenience store after numerous tips, WSPA reported, which added that Hurlburt was arrested shortly afterward. On the night of April 3, deputies said they responded to a disturbance at the Little Mans Towing company. They said that Hurlburt came out of a trailer with a gun before shooting himself in front of deputies. The next day, while in the hospital, Hurlburt said Galligan killed Bunner in December, according to WSPA. Galligan and Bunner had been in a relationship at the time. He told officials that he helped Galligan bury Bunners body at the property. Galligan had lived there at one time, the report said. South Carolina men arrested after bodies of 2 women discovered buried at home, officials say https://t.co/56RQ27K4TJ pic.twitter.com/eZKBJwquoj Woody (@Harley_Woody) April 7, 2019 Hurlburt was questioned again on April 4, and he revealed there was a second body buried on the land. He said he killed the woman in January, and Galligan helped him bury the body. Officials later identified the victim as Rhymer. Deputies deployed forensic teams and sniffer dogs before making the discovery, reported WSPA. The dogs indicated in 2 areas, Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger told the outlet. We went to those 2 areas and were able to find human remains. They are of 2 people. UPDATE: The coroner has now identified the second victim as 40-year-old Melissa Fairlee Rhymer of Mountville, South Carolina. https://t.co/TbzwC9rguJ via WSPA7 Amy Wood 7 News (@TVAmy) April 6, 2019 Galligan and Hurlburt both appeared before a judge for bond arraignment on the night of April 6, and they were denied bond, WYFF reported. I cannot imagine somebody coming in telling me that they found my child, Sheriff Chuck Wright told Fox Carolina. Especially in the condition that they were in. A neighbor told the Fox affiliate station that three men and a woman lived inside the house where the two women were found, adding that they disappeared several weeks ago. According to Fox News, Galligan is charged with murder for Bunners death, and he was charged with an accessory to murder for Rhymers murder. Hurlburt is charged with Rhymers murder and accessory to Bunners murder, according to Fox. In addition, Hurlburt was charged with unlawful possession of a pistol by a convicted felon for the apparent suicide attempt. Violent Crime Declined In September 2018, the FBI said Americans committed fewer violent and property crimes across the United States in 2017, according to statistics. The violent crime rateincluding offenses such as murder, robbery, and aggravated assaultdropped by almost 1 percent although it is still about 4 percent above the 2014 rate. The murder rate dropped by 0.7 percent. There were more than 1.2 million violent crimes reported to [the FBI] nationwide in 2017. There was a 0.7 percent decrease in murders and a 4 percent decrease in robberies from 2016 to 2017. Aggravated assaults increased 1 percent in 2017. The FBI began collecting data solely on an updated rape definition last year, and 135,755 rapes were reported to law enforcement in 2017, the agency said. Of the estimated 17,284 murders in 2017, more than half occurred in larger citieswith populations of more than 100,000. There are fewer than 300 such cities in the United States, and while they account for less than 30 percent of the countrys population, many of them contribute far beyond their share to national crime rates and have done so for years, even decades. While the national murder rate inched down to 5.3 per 100,000 residents, it spiked by 15 percent in Philadelphia, to a rate of more than 20 per 100,000 residents. Columbus, Ohio, saw a massive 54 percent murder rate increase, reaching nearly 16.3 per 100,000 residents. Victor Alejandro Godinez is under arrest on suspicion of involvement in the shooting of a Texas state trooper in Edinburg, Texas, on April 6, 2019. (Texas Department of Public Safety) Suspect Arrested in Shooting of Texas Trooper Fighting for His Life A suspect is in custody following the shooting of a Texas trooper during an attempted traffic stop. Victor Alejandro Godinez, 24, has been arrested, according to multiple law enforcement and government sources, after initially evading capture and sparking a manhunt. Godinez is suspected of involvement in an incident in Edinburg on Saturday, April 6, in which a Department of Public Safety (DPS) trooper was shot. The trooper, who has not been identified, was rushed to an area hospital where authorities said he remains in critical condition. Shooting at a Crash Scene Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said the DPS trooper was struck by gunfire while approaching a driver who had fled a crash scene. Early this evening a Texas State Trooper was shot multiple times after confronting a suspect who fled from a vehicle accident, Guerra stated. Currently the Trooper is in surgery and fighting for his life. Im asking our community to please pray for him. According to the Monitor, a McAllen-based newspaper, the state trooper was shot twice. The wounded deputy was taken to a hospital in Edinburg, a city with a population of around 87,000 in Hidalgo County, situated near the U.S. border with Mexico. Hidalgo County Emergency Medical Services said crews arrived on the scene minutes after the deputy was struck by gunfire. Medics arrived at scene within 4 min for a shooting of an on duty state trooper and continues to standby with Edinburg Police for support as our thoughts and prayers are with the Texas Highway Patrolman in distress, Hidalgo County EMS said in a statement. City of Edinburg officials stated in a Facebook post late Saturday that Godinez had fled the scene on foot and is still on the run tonight. According to the Monitor, city officials asked residents to stay indoors and lock doors and windows. A University of Texas Rio Grande Valley emergency notification said that the suspect was believed to be near the UTRGV Edinburg campus and warned people to stay away. Heavy police presence in the area, the notification read, citing information shared with university police. Shelter in place and avoid the area of the Edinburg campus if possible. University police received information that the suspect involved in a police shooting was in the vicinity of the UTRGV Edinburg Campus. Heavy police presence in the area. Shelter in place and avoid the area of the Edinburg Campus if possible. More information to follow. UTRGV (@utrgv) April 7, 2019 The Texas Department of Public Safety South Texas Region announced in the early morning hours of Sunday that Godinez had been arrested. In an update several hours later, Texas DPS announced the state trooper was out of surgery and is in stable but critical condition. Edinburg is located close to the Rio Grande Valley, considered to be one of the main smuggling corridors used by cartels get drugs and illegal aliens into the United States. Reckless Tactics in Rio Grande Valley According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, human traffickers in the Rio Grande Valley continue with reckless tactics. The CBP has several campaigns in the area focused on combating human smuggling and saving lives, according to a news release. The initiativeswith such names as Operation Big Rig and No Se Arriesgue are focused on rescues and danger awareness. In a recent case reported by CBP, McAllen agents responded to a report of several subjects illegally entering the United States near Havana, Texas. When mobile units arrived, they observed a white Ford F-150 speeding out of the area, CBP said. Agents attempted to conduct a traffic stop but the driver failed to yield and a pursuit ensued. During the pursuit, the driver exited the moving vehicle in an attempt to evade arrest. Agents apprehended the driver and discovered eight illegal aliens in the truck. Busiest Area for Illicit Traffic The Rio Grande Valley Sector is the nations busiest sector, accounting for more than 40 percent of all Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal aliens. It also accounts for more than 43 percent of marijuana seized at the southwest border for the fiscal year to date and is the second busiest sector for seized cocaine. The majority of the sectors illicit traffic occurs in areas of limited infrastructure, access and mobility, and technology, according to CBP. Rio Grande Valley Deputy Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said so far this fiscal year, Border Patrol has apprehended more than 120,000 illegal aliens in the sector. A further 25,000 illegal aliens have evaded Border Patrol, according to earlier Epoch Times reports. We actually dont know who they are, Ortiz said on March 22. So far, here in south Texas, weve apprehended folks from 44 different countries. These are from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, you name it. Ortiz also said the Border Patrol is only able to seize up to 10 percent of the drugs that cartels are trafficking across the border because resources are stretched so thin. Epoch Times reporter Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report. Forest Road in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville in July 22, 2017. (Philip Terry Graham [(CC BY 2.0)]/Flickr) Sydney Councillors Reportedly Under Investigation for Alleged Misconduct After Trip to China The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that two councillors in Sydney, Australia, are said to be under investigation for alleged misconduct following a trip they took to China with a developer whose projects they helped advance without declaring any conflict of interest. A spokesperson for Georges River Council told The Herald that the pair, two of Hurstvilles former mayors, Labors Vince Badalati and the Liberals Con Hindi, have since been referred to the states corruption watchdog over the April 2016 trip to Tangshan in Chinas Hebei province. Vince Badalati , Dominic Sin and Mei Mei , local council candidates for Georges river council Hurstville ward pic.twitter.com/TlfxCO619c Ernest Wong (@ErnestWong19) August 12, 2017 .@salmonmornay and Hurstville Mayor Con Hindi start the broadcast here in Hurstville #LunarNewYear pic.twitter.com/yulq9Bd9tS ABC Sydney (@abcsydney) February 13, 2015 Badalati and Hindi were reportedly hosted by Yuqing Liu of the Chinese energy and waste processing company Xinfeng. According to Yuqing Liu, Wensheng Liu, a property developer, had introduced Badalati to him in March 2016 during a visit to Australia. One month later, Wensheng Liu invited Badalati and Hindi to Tangshan as part of his investment committee, according to documents filed at the NSW Supreme Court, the Herald reported. Suspicions arose over the pairs actions when Badalati claimed that he and Hindi had covered their own costs for flights and accommodation on the 2016 trip to visit Tangshan. However, in a contradicting statement, Yuqing Liu had said through his lawyers that his company had covered expenses for the pairs accommodation. Badalati says that the purpose of his and Hindis visit to China was to observe Xinfengs energy and waste processing facilities. But The Herald reported that while in Tangshan, Badalati had been seen onstage applauding as the Lius signed an agreement for A$130 million ($92 million) to be injected into the two proposed Hurstville apartment blocks. Badalati confirmed to the Herald that a month before the visit to China, he and Hindi had attended a dinner in Sydneys Chinatown, hosted by Wensheng Liu, where the two Lius signed an identical agreement to the one signed a month later in China. Hurstville(Vince Badalati)(Con Hindi) | SBS Your Language https://t.co/IDjYhfutOg Chelam (@Chelam15) April 3, 2019 Its not as if I really knew him well. I just met him a couple of times and that was it, Badalati told the Herald, referring to Wensheng Liu. I was just asked to make a speech about Hurstville and the investment opportunity, basically. A week following their trip to China on April 20, during a Hurstville council meeting, Hindi and Badalati voted in favour of building an additional five storeys to Wensheng Lius proposed 11-storey tower on Treacy St, Hurstville, going against planners advice and without declaring their links to the Lius. The council also accepted a modest financial offer that accompanied the amendment, the Herald reported. In the same meeting, the pair voted in favour of a planning proposal from Wensheng Lius company One Capital, which detailed building a hotel, shops, and apartments along a block on Forest Road, Hurstville. Going against suggestions from an internal report, they also voted to increase the floorspace ratio and maximum height of the development. Additionally, on May 4 as part of the Sydney East Joint Regional Planning Panel of five, Hindi and Badalati were the only two to vote in favour of the site moderation. Later, the pair pushed forward a proposal called the Landmark Square Precinct, which included recommending that the Environment and Planning Committee scrap affordable housing at the site during council and committee meetings under the newly-formed Georges River Council in June 2018. In addition to the rumoured Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigation, Badalati and Hindi are said to also have been referred to the NSW Office of Local Government, the Herald reported. A spokesperson for ICAC was not able to confirm or deny any investigation. The development projects have since been halted after Wensheng Lius companies went into administration last year. The directors left the country and generally failed to assist us with our enquiries as they were required to do, which will be reported to ASIC, a November 2018 report by administrators BRI Ferrier said, according to the Herald. The Herald also reported that Yuqing Liu was recently engaged in court proceedings against one of Wensheng Lius other companies, GR Capital, over an unpaid A$10 million ($7.1 million) loan and won. Watch Next: Australian Vietnamese Community Has Warning About Communist China Yesterday is Tibet, today is Vietnam, and tomorrow is Australia, they say. Tom Fitton: Spygate the Worst Corruption Scandal in American History On this episode of American Thought Leaders, Epoch Times senior editor Jan Jekielek talks with Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. Fittons organization has been highly successful in obtaining key documents from the government that are in the public interest, such as emails related to the 2012 Benghazi attack that were sent by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and documents related to the Spygate scandal. We talk about what makes the Trump-Russia collusion hoax the biggest scandal in American History as well as what questions need to be investigated now that special counsel Robert Muellers investigation has concluded. In our interview, Fitton also provides insight into how transparency organizations such as Judicial Watch actually manage to get the documents, and why some government informationdespite a legal requirement to provide itis so hard to obtain. Jan Jekielek: Tom, I wanted to dig in a little bit into what Judicial Watch is all about. We keep getting news releases. You are in the news a lot because youre doing some really important work, but you have a mission behind all this. Its something to do with transparency. Its something about using FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests as a weapon to expose corruption. Can you tell us a little bit more about what Judicial Watch is all about? Tom Fitton: Were an educational foundation, which explains a lot about what were doing, and were trying to get records from the government so the American people are educated about what their government is up to. We also use the litigation process to expose government misconduct and educate people about misconduct that the governments engaged in. And, obviously, that has the effect of holding government officials accountable to the rule of law. And theres really no one else in America that does the sort of work that we do as consistently and as broadly, in terms of trying to get information out of the government about misconduct on issues of public importance. And we are able to challenge directly government officials, government agencies, or politicians in court over their misconduct as well. Mr. Jekielek: So these FOIA requests, I think as youre alluding to, often become lawsuits. How does that work exactly? Mr. Fitton: Well, unfortunately, under our law Lets put it this way: To ask, doesnt mean that youre going to get what you want. You have to sue to get what you want. Because at least at the federal level, the agencies just blithely ignore the law. And if you want a substantial response to your Freedom of Information Act request, youve got to go to court. So, freedom of information in many ways is a misnomer because it aint free. Because youve got to go to court to get it. Mr. Jekielek: Which costs money. Mr. Fitton: It costs money, and time, and resources. And unfortunately, the government fights us too often tooth-and-nail for basic information. I joke sometimes we have to sue just to get the time of day. Mr. Jekielek: Can you offer a few of the most colorful examples of FOIA requests that you have out right now, or FOIA lawsuits that you had to engage in. Mr. Fitton: Well, one of our most significant FOIA lawsuits was over the Clinton emails. Essentially, were suing for information about Benghazi. We noticed there were no Clinton emails. So we pushed and pushed, and the government finally admitted they had this secret cache of Clinton emails that they hadnt told the American people, the courts, or Congress about. So, it was a FOIA lawsuit that exposed the Clinton emails. It also exposed key aspects of the current scandal in terms of the targeting of President Trump. For instance, we found that the FBI was paying Christopher Steele, who was also being paid by the campaign of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. Theyre all paying him money at once. It was a joint operation. And they were meeting with him dozens of times, even after he was let go at the FBI. And all of this came out as a result of Freedom of Information Act requests. So were doing the work that Congress often doesnt do in oversight and something the Justice Department and the State Department in this case with the Clinton emails or Russiagate. Were often forcing them to come clean with information they dont want the American people to know about. Mr. Jekielek: So the Mueller report has dropped. Presumably, well be seeing some major elements of it or perhaps the whole thing even in the near future. We know there was no collusion. The Department of Justice says no obstruction as well. But you are still investigating. Whats there to investigate? What are you investigating? Mr. Fitton: The Mueller report confirmed that there was never really a good reason to investigate President Trump. Theres no evidence. Theres no evidence, that means that dossier is false. And I think they all knew that at the time. Certainly, in January of 2017, Mr. Mueller admitted at the timebefore he confronted Mr. Trump with the dossierthat he knew at the time and told Trump essentially that we havent been able to corroborate any of this, but you should know about it. And they still havent been able to corroborate it. And certainly, Mueller has confirmed after two years that there was no evidence of collusion. So we need to figure out about the corruption behind that big lie that led to a harassing investigation of the president, and I think abuse of power by various agencies in terms of targeting him, spying on him, leaking on him, leaking classified information to target him. All of this needs to be exposed. Were even asking basic questions about the Mueller operation. I know the Democrats are pretending to be interested in the Mueller report. Theyre creating a fight with an unnecessary subpoena at this point. But they dont want the full information from Muellerthats for sure. They dont want to know the FISA warrant. They dont want the FISA warrant material. They dont want these PageStrzok text messages or other emails and material that would reflect on why the Obama Justice Department and the Obama FBI were illicitly targeting him, while protecting Hillary Clinton. This is why you have an independent group like Judicial Watch asking these questions because, frankly, when the Republicans ran Congress, they didnt do enough investigating. Certainly, anything thats going to make the Democratic Party look bad or President Obamas administration look badthat is not going to be investigated by the House. Mr. Jekielek: Speaking of the FISA warrants, I think it was [Judicial Watch] that actually exposed or Actually, maybe you can clarify this for me that there werent hearings held around these FISA warrants that were related to essentially spying on the presidential campaign. How does that work? Is that what you found? Tom Fitton: Well, that was follow the bouncing ball as well. I think we sued. We asked the court for information and the court said the government has transcripts, if there are any. So we went and asked the government. They ignored our requests, so we sued. So finally they said, Well, we dont have anything. [Then] we go back to the courts and say Well, they dont have it, do you have it? Then the government finally admitted that there were no transcripts because there were no hearings. So they had the initial FISA application and three renewals. These were four separate pleadings filed with the court to get the spy warrant targetingit was Carter Page in name, but it was really Trump they were after. And the court didnt hold four different judges held not one hearing on an effort by the Justice Department and the FBI to spy on, essentially, the presidential candidate and then the president of the United States. Its just remarkable. And who uncovered that? Judicial Watch. Mr. Jekielek: Tom, Judicial Watch, aside from being a transparency-oriented organization, is also an organization that does a heck of a lot of legal work. Mr. Fitton: Actually, were investigating the Clinton email issue still. Obviously, Judicial Watch wants full accountability and truth about what went on behind that scandal. But the court was interested in this and in this specific casethat Benghazi case I talked about earlierthe court wants to know, hey, did Mrs. Clinton set up the system to avoid the Freedom of Information Act? Was the court hoodwinked? Were they trying to fool the court into shutting down the case before they fessed up to the emails? He also wants to know are there other Clinton emails that can be found and searched and reviewed as the law requires? So were bringing in top officials at the State Department, and former White House officials to be questioned about this under oath in person, and some of them are getting written questions. So, you know, everyone says what about Mrs. Clinton? Well, Judicial Watch is doing the heavy lifting on that still. Over the objections of the Justice Department and the State Departmentnot the Obama State Department and Justice Departmentbut the departments and agencies run nominally by appointees of President Trump. If I were the president, Id bring all of the cabinet officials in and say, you know, stop stonewalling, we want justice, we want accountability, follow the law and err on the side of transparency and full disclosure. And that would go a long way to exposing the corruption. But instead, these agencies are still defending Hillary Clinton, still defending Barack Obama. And I suspect theyll keep on defending Robert Mueller. Theyll get all this dirt out on President TrumpI guarantee you the deep state will. But when we push behind it to see what Mueller was really up to and any misconduct and some of the controversial decisions he made, I suspect were going to get a fight. Mr. Jekielek: So I just want to be clear I had it wrong about it. Theres nothing with this. All of these depositions have to do with this. Mr. Fitton: Oh, its Clinton email and Benghazi. The court wants to know that they hide the Clinton emails because they were concerned about what they might have in relation to Benghazi. Mr. Jekielek: So a big question that I have is: As youve been doing this investigation around the Mueller report and everything leading up to it, and then the other side as [Sen.] Lindsey Graham has been calling itSpygate, Russiagate, how serious is this from all the work that youve seen over the years? Mr. Fitton: I think its the worst corruption scandal in American history. Theres simply no comparison in terms of government agencies colluding and conspiring to target a presidential candidate and then overthrow a president. So we had this kind of slow-motion coup taking place beginning in the early part of the administration that, frankly, is continuing today. They want to overthrow the president. Theyre going to break any rule, it looks to me, in order to do it. And theres really nothing to compare in prior history where that type of activity took place. So that needs to be exposed. But to a degree, you had individuals abusing their offices for political purposes. Thats a violation of the law if youre doing it in a law enforcement capacity. Youve got this power that is granted to you by the American people to spy on people, to try to get subpoenas to conduct criminal investigations. And if youre just doing it because you dont like someone personally or politically, youre breaking a law. So people like Peter Strzok, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe, and others who seem to have a political agenda behind their investigations and may have been dishonest with the courts in terms of these FISA warrantsthat to me deserves criminal investigation. Mr. Jekielek: Can you just outline what elements Judicial Watch is specifically working on and trying to help make that happen. Mr. Fitton: Well, all we can do is get the information out. So, for instance, Andrew Weissmann who was Muellers No. 2, he wrote an email, we found, to Sally Yates the holdover from Barack Obamas administration who was an anti-Trumper, obviously, but she was acting attorney general for President Trump for a time, until she was fired for refusing to enforce his first travel ban. So, Andrew Weissman writes her an email saying, Im in awe of you. Youre my hero. This is the guy whos now investigating President Trump, and it turns out later, theres a report that he had attended Mrs. Clintons election-night party. We want his emails and texts, so were asking for his texts. Were asking for all the leaks to PageStrzok texts. Were asking about leaks to CNN targeting Trump, leaks to the Associated Press targeting Trump. The media is part of this conspiracy, its pretty clear, against President Trump. And we are using the Freedom of Information Act, a tool available to us to figure out who is behind these leaks and whether the media was either knowingly or otherwise misused to target a sitting president with overthrow. Mr. Jekielek: And weve been able to use some of the information that youve gathered in our own reporting, which weve really appreciated. Mr. Fitton: Yeah. For instance, Im sure youve been doing some reporting on the testimony of Nellie Ohr and Bruce Ohr. Now, Judicial Watch is I know theres been testimony, but Judicial Watch got the Justice Department documents showing that Bruce Ohr was in constant and regular communication with Glenn Simpson, and, more specifically, Christopher Steele, who is in communication with both. I think there were like 60 communications after Christopher Steele, the Clinton-DNC spy, was fired by the FBI as a confidential informant. So Bruce Ohr, whose wife Nellie worked for Fusion GPS, constant communication from the end of 2016 through 2017. Sixty times, he was in communication with them. Unbelievable. Mr. Jekielek: Were looking forward to seeing what other information Judicial Watch Mr. Fitton: More is always coming when it comes to Judicial Watch FOIA requests and lawsuits. Mr. Jekielek: To switch gears a little bit I noticedand I havent seen any other information around thisbut after we learned that all the charges against Jesse Smollett were dropped and the case sealed, as I understand it, I think you said, Were going to investigate this. Can you tell us a little I didnt see anything else in your statement. Mr. Fitton: Yes. So what we do is we go in and we ask for the documents, and we often ask questions beyond the typical questions you might think to ask. So were in it for the long haul. Weve begun the Public Records Act requests in Illinois. And if they dont produce the documents, including communications between some of the politicians involved and outsiders, that resulted in Mr. Smollett being given this get-out-of-jail-free card, we do go to court. Weve gone to court already in Illinois repeatedly on various controversies in Chicago and the state. So were well experienced in litigating in Illinois over the Chicago way. Mr. Jekielek: Its truly an astounding case because of the way that police certainly presented it and the evidence that they presented publicly early on, it seemed to be open and shut. Mr. Fitton: It was, but on the other hand, isnt it interesting that you had, again, someone who falsely targeted or implied President Trump was responsible for this attack through his rhetoric. There was a MAGA hat supposedly involved and all of that turned out to be a big lie. Frankly, its the dime-store version of the Russia hoax. Make false allegations and theres all this big investigation, and it turns out it was a big lie. Frankly, the smallest initial allegations were more concerning and had more credibility than the dossier. So, frankly, the FBI had less of an excuse to investigate the dossier than the Chicago police. I tell you, if the Chicago police had investigated the dossier, we would have been done with this a month after it was floating around. Mr. Jekielek: Im sure that they will appreciate those words. Mr. Fitton: Any big city police department would have seen right through this. Mr. Jekielek: What other big irons do you have in the fireimportant cases are you looking into? Mr. Fitton: Immigration, obviously, is a big issue as well. I mean weve got an out-of-control borderour borders are unsecured. So we have a border crisisthe likes of which weve never seen in our history. You know, previously, you had individuals coming across the border. They came in groups of ones and twos and threes, but they were almost always single males, and it was easy to turn them away. You know, some of them made it through, some of them were captured and released into the country, but most were justgo back, go back the other way. But because of this asylum loophole or abuse, we have these family units coming across and theyre not being turned away in large numbers. Instead, theyre all just coming across and they have to be vetted and administratively handled. And we dont have the beds nor the will to hold them, so theyre released into the country and our system is being overwhelmed. So weve been investigating that, weve been investigating the caravans. You know, Judicial Watch was down in Guatemala looking at the caravans and recognized they were highly organized [and] full of criminals. Not all of them were criminals, but it was a vehicle for criminals to take advantage. Mr. Jekielek: And also, apparently, misdirection on the side of these cartels that are driving a lot of this. Mr. Fitton: Oh, sure. This is a mass human-trafficking operation. The cartels are running it. We have to recognize that we dont control the border on our side of the border. And the Mexican government doesnt control the border on their side of the borderits the cartels. The cartels are running the border. And the president should recognize that, recognize the dire threat they are to our national security, and deploy the necessary military personnel to secure the border. But, in the meantime, we do other litigation related to immigration, obviously, weve got the Freedom of Information Act requests about whats going on. But we have a direct case against the City of San Francisco on behalf of a taxpayer challenging that sanctuary city activity up in San Francisco. The sheriffs department lets people out without telling ICE. Thats illegal. And so were challenging that on behalf of a taxpayer. Were prepared to go to trial as soon as July. Mr. Jekielek: How do you choose your targets? How do you decide? Mr. Fitton: Its kind of a sad situation because the targets are pretty obvious. Hillary Clintons conduct at the State Department, the obvious abuse of power targeting President Trump, the immigration crisis. No one else does the work to figure out whats going on, and I exaggerate slightlythere is always someone asking questions. But in terms of using the Freedom of Information Act to direct legal challenges, there are few that do that work. So its pretty easy pickings. Pretty much anything you see in the newspaper that makes you scratch your head, were investigating. Mr. Jekielek: OK. Mr. Fitton: And it may result in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. And I also want to add another core issue: election integrity. Mr. Jekielek: Right. Mr. Fitton: Because we do have an election integrity crisis here in the United States. And weve exposed how there are more people on the rolls in many states than are eligible to vote. And we had historic lawsuits that have resulted in those rolls being cleaned up, in states like Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, and most recently in Los Angeles County. In California, theyre going to clean up to 1.56 million names off the rollsjust in L.A. County alone. Its going to take years to do that, but they havent removed a name from the rolls in 20 years in California. Dirty election rolls, its pretty clear, obviously, can lead to dirty elections. Its important they be clean, but were also investigating ballot harvesting in California. We initiated an investigation into this ballot-harvesting change in the law in California, which allows third parties to go around and collect ballots. Theres virtually no check on that activity. You wouldnt believe how unregulated it is. And its a recipe for fraud, and [theres] a reason why its not allowed in any other state in the union the way it is in California. So were investigating the potential for fraud there. Its a matter of great public controversy many people have heard, even if you dont live in California, about the ballot harvesting. Mr. Jekielek: Right. Mr. Fitton: No ones investigating it. But we are. Mr. Jekielek: So are there any investigations that are top-of-mind for you that you havent told anyone else about yet? Do you want to give our audience a bit of a hint here? Mr. Fitton: We tend to be an open book, you know? Were looking at this Russia deep state, were looking at Hillary Clinton, were looking at election integrity. Were concerned about the rule of law and immigration. I just wish there were more members of Congress who were doing the proper oversight. I wish that federal agencies would think more about being honest and open and transparent about these problems, rather than trying to cover them up. And, obviously, we wish we had more of a commitment to the rule of law and immigration from this massive sanctuary movement that is just essentially telling everyone, Once you cross the border, dont worry, well protect you. You can have a wall 100 feet high, but if you have every major big city in the country deeming themselves a sanctuary city and protecting illegal aliens, you know, that wall wont work as well as it otherwise would have. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. American Thought Leaders is a new Epoch Times show available on Facebook and YouTube. Trump Says He Has Every Right to Read Mueller Report but Hasnt Done So President Donald Trump said on April 6 that he has not yet read special counsel Robert Muellers final report investigating collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia but has every right to do so. As Democrats clamored for the document to be released publicly, Trump said in a tweet on Saturday that he only knows the conclusions. I have not read the Mueller Report yet, even though I have every right to do so. Only know the conclusions, and on the big one, No Collusion. Likewise, recommendations made to our great A.G. who found No Obstruction, he said. I have not read the Mueller Report yet, even though I have every right to do so. Only know the conclusions, and on the big one, No Collusion. Likewise, recommendations made to our great A.G. who found No Obstruction. 13 Angry Trump hating Dems (later brought to 18) given two.. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2019 In his next tweet, the president said: 13 Angry Trump hating Dems (later brought to 18) given two years and $30 million, and they found No Collusion, No Obstruction. But the Democrats, no matter what we give them, will NEVER be satisfied. A total waste of time. As FrankLuntz has just stated, Enough, America has had enough. What have you accomplished. Public is fed up. ..years and $30 million, and they found No Collusion, No Obstruction. But the Democrats, no matter what we give them, will NEVER be satisfied. A total waste of time. As @FrankLuntz has just stated, Enough, America has had enough. What have you accomplished. Public is fed up. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2019 Trumps tweets came as Democrats on Capitol Hill continue to push for Mullers report to be made public. A House Resolution has been introduced five times saying there is overwhelming public interest in the government releasing the Mueller report. All five times, Republicans blocked the House-passed measure. Mueller finished his investigation into the alleged collusion between Trump and Russia late last month, and Attorney General William Barr sent a four-page summary (pdf) of the principal conclusions on March 24, which did not find proof that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It also concluded that the special counsel didnt provide enough evidence to substantiate that the president obstructed justice. Trump and his allies have emphasized that the findings in Barrs summary of the principal conclusions absolve him of all allegations. On Saturday, Trump said in another Tweet that the Democrats are investigating an event that never happened. He said, So, lets get this straight! There was No Collusion and in fact, the Phony Dossier was a Con Job that was paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC. So the 13 Angry Democrats were investigating an event that never happened and that was, in fact, a made up Fraud. So, lets get this straight! There was No Collusion and in fact the Phony Dossier was a Con Job that was paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC. So the 13 Angry Democrats were investigating an event that never happened and that was in fact a made up Fraud. I just fought back. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2019 I just fought back against something I knew never existed, Collusion with Russia (so ridiculous!) No Obstruction. This Russia Hoax must never happen to another President, and Law Enforcement must find out, HOW DID IT START? he said in a subsequent tweet. . against something I knew never existed, Collusion with Russia (so ridiculous!) No Obstruction. This Russia Hoax must never happen to another President, and Law Enforcement must find out, HOW DID IT START? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2019 In his latest tweet, Trump said that those who alleged the collusion should start to defend their acts. Why should I be defending a fraudulent Russian Witch Hunt. Its about time the perpetrators of this fraud on me and the American People start defending their dishonest and treasonous acts. How and why did this terrible event begin? Never Forget! he said. Why should I be defending a fraudulent Russian Witch Hunt. Its about time the perpetrators of this fraud on me and the American People start defending their dishonest and treasonous acts. How and why did this terrible event begin? Never Forget! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2019 Trump also said earlier that he would approve of the full report being released to the public, but noted that Democrats would not be satisfied. We know by the actions that weve seen from Nadler and Democrats in Congress is that the president is right, they will never be satisfied, said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, adding that the Democrats are sore losers. The Russian government has denied interfering in the 2016 campaign. Epoch Times reporters Janita Kan and Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report. Update: Father Arrested After Allegedly Killing Daughter, 5, for Not Doing Homework A neighbor speaks out, calling her a 'little angel' A New Mexico father was arrested late last week and was charged in the death of his 5-year-old girl after she told him she didnt want to do her homework. Brandon Reynolds, 36, of Albuquerque, was charged with child abuse that was intentionally caused that resulted in the death of a child under the age of 13, police told KOAT on April 5. Reynolds told police that he didnt know what came over him and thats when the discipline set in, KOAT reported. Police said he beat his child, Sarah Dubois-Gilbeau, to death. #UPDATE: 5-year-old Sarah Dubois-Gilbeau was allegedly beaten to death by her father, according to police. @koat7news pic.twitter.com/1xvbVdY6t6 Shellye Leggett (@ShellyeKOAT) April 5, 2019 In the incident, he began spanking the child and blacked out, according to a complaint. The father eventually called 911, saying Sarah went into cardiac arrest. When emergency crews came, they tried to revive her before she was taken to a nearby hospital. She was later pronounced dead, according to the report. Police officers were alerted by emergency crews. When officers arrived, they saw blood stains in the living room. A neighbor also spoke to police, saying she heard Reynolds screaming, get up before they heard something being hit. Brandon Reynolds, 36 Albuquerque New Mexico, charged with murder for beating his 5 year old daughter to death. Officer found blood all over the living room walls and floor. #ChildMurder #ChildAbuse pic.twitter.com/Ewuc7jPnKf Stand For Justice (@Stand4Justice44) April 7, 2019 When rescue arrived they realized this was turning into a criminal situation and they called us and we took over the investigation, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson told ABC News. The crew members recognized that this wasnt consistent with what they were being told and it became a criminal investigation, the spokesperson said. Detectives learned from hospital staff that the girl had suffered serious injuries, Albuquerque Police Chief Michael Geier told the outlet. Detectives from our crimes against children unit were called to the scene to investigate with the assistance of our homicide unit. Neighbors Speak Out An unnamed neighbor who used to babysit the girl told KOAT that Sarah didnt deserve this. She was so cute. She was a little angel, said one neighbor of the girl. We would celebrate our birthdays together, with a little cake and a little candle, a neighbor told the Albuquerque Journal. She was a Cancer like me. https://www.facebook.com/TheAlbuquerqueJournal/posts/10156388879093237 [A neighbor] heard him yelling at her, then she came outside to take a breath and then thats when she saw the ambulance, said a neighbor in describing what had happened, according to WWSB. Another neighbor said Reynolds was very strict with the girl and started home-schooling her, and they could hear everything through the walls, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Court records indicated that he had a troubled relationship with the childs mother, Chantel Smith. Smith, 38, wrote that Reynolds has PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) which causes him to not be able to handle or care for a child properly. He also has a history of abandoning the mother and that may follow through with the child, the report said. A court hearing said that Sarah should stay with Reynolds because of the mothers drug use. Since her birth, the child has been in the custody of the father since the child tested positive for THC at birth and contrary to instructions from the birth hospital, mother was observed breast feeding the child when she was positive for THC. He has been her primary caregiver and remains the sole legal and physical custodian of the child, the Journal reported. Tripp Stelnicki, a spokesman for the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, said investigators contacted the family about drug exposure after the girl was born. [The agency] investigated the potential of drug abuse by the parents, Stelnicki told the Journal. It was not substantiated and the case was closed at that point. Police havent released her official cause of death. According to WWSB, Sarah moved between California to New Mexico for the past five years. Reynolds, meanwhile, doesnt appear to a have a criminal record in the state. Other details about the case are not clear. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting at The Venetian Las Vegas on April 6, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images) US Increases Pressure on Maduro, Cuban Backers With New Sanctions The Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Venezuelas illegitimate dictator Nicolas Maduro as part of an increasing effort to pressure the embattled socialist to step down. The United States is also turning its attention against Cuba for its role in keeping Maduros regime afloat. Vice President Mike Pence said the United States will ramp up its efforts to block oil revenue from reaching Maduro and promised new sanctions on Venezuelas finance and oil sectors. In an April 5 speech at Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, Pence also pledged stronger action against Cuba. About 300 were in the audience, many from the local Venezuelan community who support internationally recognized interim President Juan Guaido, who has the backing of more than 50 nations. The United States was the first country to recognize Guaido as Venezuelas rightful leader; Maduro, however, dismisses Guaido as a U.S. puppet. The United States will continue to exert all diplomatic and economic pressure to bring about a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela, Pence said, adding that oil shipments are the lifeblood of that corrupt regime. Following Pences speech, the U.S. Treasury announced sanctions on 34 vessels owned or operated by Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA that carry oil to customers outside the region. It also sanctioned two shipping operators and a vessel that delivered oil to Cuba in February and March. In a release, the Treasury Department said that the United States will continue to take strong action to not only isolate corrupt Venezuelan enterprises but also to target Maduros supporters in Cuba. The department reiterated that the United States continues to push for a transition to democracy in Venezuela. Cuba has been an underlying force fueling Venezuelas descent into crisis, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement. Treasury is taking action against vessels and entities transporting oil, providing a lifeline to keep the illegitimate Maduro regime afloat. Cuba continues to profit from, and prop up, the illegitimate Maduro regime through oil-for-repression schemes as they attempt to keep Maduro in power. An estimated 50,000 Venezuelans, the second-largest expatriate community outside of South Florida, live in Houston, Texas. Many of them support U.S. efforts to rid Venezuela of Maduro, having fled the socialist politics of former leader Hugo Chavez for a home in Houstons energy industry. Pence described the island nations leaders as the real imperialists in the Western Hemisphere, adding, The time has come to liberate Venezuela from Cuba. Maria Gonzalez, an economist who listened to the speech, welcomed tougher action, adding that her mother in Venezuela lacks water, power, and basic supplies. As for the Trump administrations reversal of the United States opening up to Cuba, she said, They do not deserve our help. On March 28, Russia rebuffed calls from President Donald Trump to remove all military personnel from Venezuela, saying that they had sent Russian specialists as part of a military cooperation deal. A day before, Trump said that all options were being considered in order to make Russia pull its troops out of Venezuela. The presidents remarks follow reports that two Russian air force planes carrying nearly 100 Russian troops landed outside Caracas. Reuters contributed to this report Fiji supporters ready for knock-out action as their team blew away all opposition in the Pool Stage of the Hong Kong Sevens on Saturday April 6, 2019. (Bill Cox/Epoch Times) USA Make Quarters Despite Losses While Fiji Show Who is Boss HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series HONG KONGThe weather was as hot as the rugby on Day 3 and what a day it was from start to finish. There were twists and turns, and every side upped their game in front of a packed house at the Hong Kong Stadium. England, South Africa, Fiji and France walked away wining all three pool matches. Whilst New Zealand, USA, Argentina and Samoa all sealed second spot in their respective groups to progress to the quarter finals. Defending Champions Fiji and New Zealand played in Pool C, the group of death, with a young Fiji team romping home 24-5 over the All Blacks to top the table. As both sides had already progressed to the Cup quarter finals, there were some suggestions the Kiwis were playing mind games by losing to secure an easier semi-final opponent in either England or Samoa, rather than the USA or South Africa. Fiji and New Zealand are again seeded to meet in the final. With speedster Perry Baker injuring his jaw in Hamilton and not in Hong Kong, the Americans had to rely on Carlin Isles for gas, and stuttered losing two pool matches, to Wales and England, although luckily edging through over Wales on points difference. Therefore, the Cup quarter-finals are South Africa v USA, Fiji v Argentina, England v Samoa and France v New Zealand. In the Qualifier quarter-finals, the scores were Germany 12-7 Uruguay, Ireland 47-0 Russia, Chile 15-12 Tonga and Hong Kong 17-7 Philippines. So the home side will progress along with three higher seeded teams and play Chile next. Last years runners up play favorites Ireland. In the Womens semi-finals, Brazil beat Kenya 17-5 and Scotland took their revenge over Japan for beating them in the pool stage, by winning theirs 24-19. However, unbeaten Brazil ended any Scottish hopes of an upset, winning 28-19 in an entertaining final. Its a very open main competition this year with the top four teams automatically progressing to the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020, so tomorrows quarter finals should be closely contested, whilst keeping the decent Sun-baked and noisy crowds on the edge of their seats. Andrew Wood is a sporting enthusiast, sport player in Hong Kong and contributor to Epoch Times. Mick Mulvaney, Acting White House Chief of Staff speaks during a briefing at the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on January 20, 2018 in Washington. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) White House: Democrats Will Never See Trumps Tax Returns The White House said on April 7 that President Donald Trumps tax returns will never be shown to Democratic lawmakers, a sharp rebuff to a renewed push for a peek into the commander in chiefs personal finances. Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday that the topic of Trumps tax returns has drawn partisan anger from the Democrats, in response to a question about if the party will succeed in obtaining the sitting presidents finances. Never. Nor should they, he said. Keep in mind, thats an issue that was already litigated during the election. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didnt, and they elected him anywaywhich, of course, is what drives the Democrats crazy. Mulvaneys comments point to a shift on the White Houses official rhetoric on Trumps tax returns and come just days after a House Democrat committee chairman demanded the IRS provide several years worth of Trumps personal documents. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) formally requested Trumps tax returns on April 3. Neal cited a provision in the tax code that empowers the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to request a presidents tax returns. Mulvaney described the renewed efforts from Democrats as a political stunt. They know that they are not going to get this, they just want the attention on the issue because they dont want to talk to us about policy, he said. [Trump] could always allow people to see it. Thats not whats happening here. The Democrats are demanding that the IRS turn over the documents. That is not going to happen, and they know it. This is a political stunt. Speaking to reporters at the White House on April 3, Trump didnt entirely rule out the possibility of providing six years worth of his tax returns. The demand from the Democratic chairman to see Trumps tax returns was the first such demand for a sitting presidents personal information in 45 years. The move would likely lead to a lengthy legal showdown with the White House. Is that all? Usually, its 10, Trump said. So I guess theyre giving up. Were under audit, despite what people said, and were working that outIm always under audit, it seems, but Ive been under audit for many years, because the numbers are big, and I guess when you have a name, youre audited. But until such time as Im not under audit, I would not be inclined to do that. In the interview, Mulvaney also suggested that the Democrats newfound push stems from the results of special counsel Robert Muellers nearly two-year-long investigation, which found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Attorney General William Barrs summary of the report also concluded that the special counsel didnt provide enough evidence to substantiate that the president obstructed justice. If they dont get what they want in the Mueller report, theyre going to ask for the taxes, Mulvaney said. If they dont get what they want in the taxes, theyre going to ask for something else. It doesnt surprise anybody. With almost $16 million in projects already in motion, the citys Office of Planning and Economic Develop is starting to set the stage for future projects in the East End that could spruce up the long-neglected area. OPED sought permission from council members last month to acquire nine plots of land most along the Stratford Avenue corridor aligning with a 2005 plan of action from East End NRZ which spawned the development of the Civic Block which is already under way. Tom Gill, director of OPED, said the city is hoping to expand through acquisitions or other means into land it can use to support housing that would complement the development that is going on in the Civic Block. Along with standalone commercial and retail development, the 2005 plan included several housing options, including mixed-use projects that featured ground-level storefronts and upper level apartment units. If the land under consideration is acquired, OPED Deputy Director Bill Coleman said, the city would look at bringing dozens of apartment units to the area and improve traffic flow around the Civic Block, especially improving access to the corridor from Sixth Street and Newfield Avenue. Delayed approval While the intent of the land acquisition is focused on transforming the East End, representatives from the neighborhood said they want the city to consider the property owners first before they make their move. If approved, OPEDs resolution would give the city authority to obtain the land through sale, foreclosure or eminent domain, which struck a dischord with city council members from the area. We wanted to give (landlords) a little more time to talk with the city, said councilman Ernie Newton, who alongside Eneida Martinez represents the East End. During the council meeting, Martinez proposed a 90-day delay of vote for city administrators and property owners to negotiate for the land. The council unanimously voted to table the resolution for the time. According to Gill, the city has been in talks with property owners already and will continue until the deadline. We will wait to see what happens at the end of the 90 days, he said. Continued progress Within the next couple of weeks, developers of the Civic Block retail plaza should have a final design for the project. The $7 million project at 1206 Stratford Ave. is slated to bring retail and a long-awaited grocery store to the neighborhood. We are still going through the design phase of the actual retail building and the grocery store, so thats all good, said Anthony Stewart, principal of Bridgeport-based Ashlar Construction, which city officials selected in the fall to take point on the project. As part of the East End NRZ plan, the block bordered by Stratford, Newfield and Central Avenue has been the target for large-scale transformation into a commercial plaza heading into the East End. Touted as the anchor project for the neighborhoods revitalization, the Civic Block will include a 16,000-square-foot Gala Foods Supermarket, which has been a long-standing demand from residents and community leaders. Another 15,000 square feet of the project will house retail storefronts. More than a dozen businesses were vying for space at the development when it was announced in September, including a pharmacy, restaurants, and Optimus Health Care, a primary-care provider with three other locations in Bridgeport. The blighted building that housed the former Newfield Library has already been razed; Stewart said he has already begun environmental analysis on the site as part of the final design phase of the project. Stewart said he plans to break ground on the Civic Block plaza in July, kickstarting what he previously projected to be a 10-month build-out process. Ashlar Construction is also taking point on developing the land that will house a new Newfield Library at its original historic site and which has been touted as the anchor site for the future of the East End. Ongoing construction of the library building is visible from Stratford Avenue as developers have begun putting in steel framing of the back portion of the building. In coming days, Stewart said, the remaining steel pieces will go up. Developers have been renovating the existing 5,000-square-foot building fronting Central Avenue and are adding a 12,000-square-foot building in the back that will house a tech center along with other amenities. The $6 million project is the product of state and city funding with $5 million coming by way of city capital with the balance through a grant from the states Library Board. My goal is to try and finish it by the end of May, but I think it might push into June, Stewart said, adding that the deadline will depend on when he can get the remaining steel framing up. Jordan.grice@hearstmediact.com NORWALK James Bullock lives a few doors down from Andrea Jacobs in a red brick apartment building on Chestnut Street and, being neighborly, hed invite Jacobs and her family to his home. Bullock, a long time Norwalker, moved into the unit in 2010 and Jacobs, who moved a decade ago from her native St. Vincent and the Grenadines, settled there just a little earlier. They came to my house a couple times. And my walls, everything, is just paintings, Bullock said, sitting beside Jacobs in her kitchen. Jacobs remembered seeing Bullocks work and, immediately, being intrigued. It was different, unique. Im always interested in making stuff, so i said OK, let me try art. Maybe I could get good at it too, Jacobs said. So she asked Bullock for lessons. He said yes, so I went for it. That exchange was in 2015. Now, with less than four years of training under Bullocks tutelage, Jacobs has her first gallery exhibition of acrylic paintings, at the South Norwalks Sidewalk Gallery through April 14, alongside woodworkings by Milford-based craftsman Rich Dowin. The exhibition features a collection of Jacobs acrylic paintings, most of which are vividly colored portraits and many of which depict placid island scenes. It was at Bullocks urging that he and Jacobs take a walk to Haviland Street and knock on the door to promote the latters work. It so happened that I said to her, you need to get a show going. Lets go down and check these people out, see if anyones there. We went in there, knocked on the door, found Jennifer, said Bullock, referring to Jennifer Hunter, who co-owns the gallery with her husband, Bill Gramigna. One thing led to another. While Jacobs first show is at the Sidewalk Gallery, Bullock who said he is also a minister, a standup comedian and a martial arts instructor said his first show was on the sidewalk, with his paintings leaned up against a building. Bullock was born in North Carolina in 1954 and was raised during the Civil Rights era. Because of the racism of the time, Bullock said, his family didnt have access to paint supplies or canvas. But he did have an active imagination, and a will to create starting from as early as four. Instead of brushes, he had sticks. Instead of canvas, he had the ground, on which he could use the sticks to manipulate the dirt and create images. I started with sticks because I didnt have brushes or anything. God gave me the will to go into the woods and get pine sticks of different sizes. I just started doing it. No one showed me, no one told me, Bullock said. Always self taught, he started experimenting with paint in the late 1970s, developing a style he would come to call Jahmaginary (a portmanteau of James and imaginary) painting which involves intricate brushwork and often the depiction of religious symbols. In his living room hangs a photo of black Jesus on a crucifix. Another, called Sunday Morning Blues, depicts people of different creeds and races gathered around an altar. Stylistically, Jacobs is similar, though she depicts religious subjects less often. The walls of her kitchen, bedroom, and staircase are covered in paintings shes completed in the last several years, alongside photographers of her four sons, aged 5, 14, 23 and 24. They include still lifes, ventures into abstraction, landscapes and portraits, most of which employ a similar warm palette of browns, greens, yellows and black acrylic paint, though she also works at times in charcoal. We like a lot of color (in the Caribbean), so Im influenced by all the bright colors, Jacobs said. She paints daily, often to music (Stevie Wonders As played softly on a recent Thursday morning) and, almost daily, Bullock makes the trip a few doors down to offer his critiques and encouragements. Though their work shares similarities, Bullock is insistent that he wants Jacobs to find her own approach to continue building her craft. She dont have to follow me, because I want her to be independent. I want her to be able to do her own thing. Do what you do, do what you feel, Bullock said. My thing right now, I push her. I want her to shine. I want them to see what she can do. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 Linda McMahon can hold her head high. It wasnt major news last month when the Connecticut resident announced she was leaving her position as head of the Small Business Administration. Still, its a Cabinet-level position, and the state should offer thanks to its two-time would-be senator for accomplishing something few of her contemporaries have achieved. Shes escaped the federal government without a major scandal. It can be hard to keep track of the sheer volume of stories that would have been dire, potentially catastrophic scandals under previous administrations. There just isnt enough time in the day to pay attention to everything thats been uncovered, which tends to work to the benefit of those involved. Eventually, though, reality catches up. But none of the scandals have touched Linda McMahon, who moved seamlessly from running WWE to operating a federal bureaucracy. The list of things Linda McMahon did not do is lengthy. For instance, Linda McMahon did not pay a discounted rent to live in a D.C. home owned by a lobbyist, nor did she spend federal dollars on personal expenses and secure frequent first-class plane tickets back home. That was former EPA head Scott Pruitt, who nonetheless managed to hack through environmental regulations meant to ensure things like clean air. Linda McMahon did not maintain partial ownership of companies linked to the Russian and Chinese governments while making policy decisions affecting relations with both countries. That was Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who is worth something like $660 million but isnt, at 81 years old, interested in slowing down. Ross also said he was going to sell some businesses but never got around to it, and has been the subject of multiple insider-trading investigations. Linda McMahon was not in any way guilty of taking a $12,000 charter plane to get to a hometown event. That, instead, was former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who was the target of 15 separate investigations when he left his job just before Democrats regained subpoena power by winning the House of Representatives. In her time with the Small Business Administration, Linda McMahon did not spend $341,000 of public money on travel, including by booking needless charter flights. Expensive travel is apparently to Cabinet members as home improvement is to local mayors. It probably seems innocent enough, and who is really going to care? Anyway, this instance was the work of former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who tried and failed to lead the dismantling of Obamacare. Costly air travel has also been a favorite of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has racked up almost $1 million in flights on military aircraft. He did so without breaking any laws, an investigation found, even as one of the trips was to Kentucky to get a prime view of the solar eclipse in August 2017. One person not on that site-seeing flight? Linda McMahon. Linda McMahon further did not order a $31,000 dining room set for her office, deny it was ever ordered and finally recant that denial when incriminating emails came out. That was Ben Carson, who runs the Department of Housing and Urban Development. There were, of course, plenty of people who served in Cabinet-level positions without getting into trouble before Linda McMahon, but she made her way through particularly treacherous waters. Her Senate campaigns may not have gone well, but they raised her profile to the point that she made sense as a candidate to not be corrupt in a high-profile job. In that, she made her adopted home state proud. As to why she left the Cabinet, Linda McMahon apparently looked at everything that has been happening in Washington over the past two-plus years and decided what the country really needs is another four years on top of those currently scheduled. Linda McMahon is going to lead a super PAC called America First Action, which can raise unlimited funds from a variety of sources with a goal of securing the presidents re-election. If she is successful, we could be looking at unauthorized Cabinet-level charter flights from now until early 2025. Thankfully, at least, we can be reasonably certain that none of those flights will have Linda McMahon on board. Hugh Bailey is editorial page editor of The New Haven Register and the Connecticut Post. He can be reached at hbailey@hearstmediact.com NORWALK Proposed changes to the zoning regulations related to the West Avenue-Wall Street area are headed to a public hearing. The Zoning Commission took suggestions from the preliminary discussions surrounding rezoning most of the area into a Central Business District, instead of having separate commercial, industrial and residential zones within it. Part of what I want to get at in the long-term with the regulations themselves is more simplicity and more flexibility so it just gives options, Steve Kleppin, the citys director of Planning and Zoning, told the Commission on Thursday. In February, the Planning Commission and the Zoning Commission held a joint meeting on the proposed regulations to get their first look at them and hear public perspectives. After that, Kleppin said they also sent the proposed changes to the Harbor Management Commission for review. The main areas of conversation centered around micro-units and parking requirements. Micro-units, which are smaller apartments geared toward younger residents looking to have their own place for cheaper than a traditional apartment, Kleppin said. They usually have less parking requirements because theyre supposed to encourage walkability, he said. However, at the first public meeting, the topic surrounded them was heated, over concerns that large amounts of people would try to pack into small rooms and thereby affect conditions in the neighborhood. Kleppin told the Commission again on Thursday that the current city code does not prevent a developer from building small units, but these specific regulations centered around historic buildings. Developers could adapt one of about 30 historic structures, mostly on Wall Street, to fit a few of the micro units in them, Kleppin said. Theres nothing to prevent that now, but what weve tried to do with the regulations is, I think is actually regulate them, put a cap on how many are possible, but also tie them to adaptive reuse of historic buildings, he said. The whole area would be restricted to 150 total microunits, he said. Commissioner Louis Schulman said that while he wasnt against them, he was concerned the language was a bit vague. What Im getting at is Im not sure that the language is help and that maybe the language, if part of what youre trying to do here is to regulate, then maybe thats what we ought to do Schulman said. This seems to be a kind of backdoor way of doing it. The other concern Schulman and other commissioners raised was questions over the parking requirements. The regulations could relax some of the parking requirements that are necessary for units and instead allow the developer to use a fee-in-lieu system where they could contribute money to fund parking spaces somewhere in the nearby area. That would require either city parking or a public-private shared lot in the area, Kleppin said. We have the Yankee Doodle Garage, but I think we need to have an additional parking structure adjacent to Wall Street to make this work, he said. Kleppin said he plans to take the commissioners comments and add them to the document by early next week before referring the proposed regulations to the Planning Commission and Harbor Management Commission for comment. The plan is to then hold a public hearing on the proposed regulations on May 15, before potential adoption. kelly.kultys@hearstmediact.com NORWALK Two Montessori School classrooms may open next fall at a Norwalk elementary school. What remains to be seen is the ability to hire away Montessori certified teachers to the district.. You have budgeted for this, and fortunately it survived the budget process, Superintendent of Schools Steven J. Adamowski said at the last Board of Education meeting. I think the big variable will be whether or not we have one or two classes. And that will depend upon our ability to recruit one or two teachers from existing Montessori schools. The district would need external hires because the education model which focuses on a child-centered approach and developing natural interests in students requires an accreditation for teachers. Its one of several steps that the district still needs to take to implement the Montessori model. Tim Nee, managing director of the Montessori Training Center Northeast, delivered a presentation at the meeting explaining those steps and summarizing a feasibility study he conducted at three Norwalk schools: Brookside, Jefferson and Wolfpit. The buildings were assessed based on a series of criteria including square footage of classrooms, bathrooms, sinks, cafeteria kitchen proximity, natural light, accessibility to outdoors, flooring and wall paint needed to facilitate the Montessori model. The schools were given scores in each category on a one to three scale. Brookside eclipsed Wolfpit and Jefferson with 22 total points. Youll see that all of the schools could accommodate many of the criteria, Nee said. As you look down through it, you can see that Brookside probably met most of the criteria at the highest level. The public Montessori would be only one of only four in Connecticut, and one of only 214 district Montessoris nationwide, according to Nee. As a district Montessori, first preference for the classes would hypothetically go to Brookside parents and enrollment would be decided by a lottery. Adamowski said that Brooksides diverse student population about 60 percent eligible for free and reduced lunch and about 70 percent high needs would lend itself readily to the Montessori model, which was developed by Maria Montessori in the slums of Rome in the early 20th century. It was designed to provide low income children with the structure that they needed to become independent learners in life, Adamowski said. I think well have a natural diversity by simply enrolling the Brookside neighborhood as they are currently attending the school. Long term, Adamowski said the goal would be to create six classes within the school that parents could opt in to, similar to the implementation of the dual language magnet at Silvermine School. There would be to primary classrooms, ages three to six, two lower elementary (ages six to nine), and two upper elementary (through sixth grade), that would be rolled out gradually, potentially over a decade, beginning with two primary classes. A second elementary school classroom would be added in year three, Nee said, as the initial primary classrooms were preparing to move to lower elementary classrooms. To build out a classroom, Nee estimated the cost around $40,000. Teacher training is in the ballpark of $18,000 per person, but assuming the district is able to hire certified teachers externally, would not be necessary until year three. With an eye toward opening in the fall, in the coming months Nee suggested the district should attempt to recruit and hire an experienced Montessori teacher, hold informational sessions for parents and staff, assess staff interest in Montessori training, order furniture and conduct room renovations. The board did not vote on the item, but will have to vote on the implementation of Montessori classrooms at its May meeting. We feel some anxiousness about starting this because its such a long term proposition. It takes forever, Adamowski said. Its going to take six, seven years just to get the initial sequence of three levels on a limited basis. And it would take a decade if the board so decided to expand to a full school. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 On Saturday, three days before a tight general election in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on a prime-time news show and said he plans to annex settlements in the West Bank. When asked why he hadn't annexed certain Jewish settlements already, he replied, "We will move to the next stage, the imposing of Israeli sovereignty." Many viewed the remarks as campaign rhetoric aimed at nationalist voters whose support Netanyahu hopes to secure before Tuesday's vote. Until this weekend, he had avoided suggesting annexation in these specific terms - a move that could derail any possibility of successful peace talks with Palestinians. Nearly 3 million Palestinians and about 400,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank. The Israeli annexation of settlements on that land, which Palestinians have long demanded as the home base of their future independent state, could present a serious obstacle to a two-state solution to the protracted conflict. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki told the Associated Press on Sunday that "if Netanyahu wants to declare Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, then you know he has to face a real problem," referring to the fate of the millions of Palestinians who live there. "We will stay there," Malki said of the West Bank. "The international community has to deal with us." Reuters quoted Palestine Liberation Organization official Hanan Ashrawi as saying that Netanyahu's declaration would have repercussions beyond the election, calling it "the end of any chances of peace." Foreign leaders, including Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, called Netanyahu's remarks an "irresponsible statement to seek votes." On Tuesday, Netanyahu will need to rely on his loyal, right-wing base to be elected to a fifth term. He has already faced some setbacks on the campaign trail, with Israel's attorney general recommending on Feb. 28 that the prime minister be indicted in three criminal cases, including on bribery charges, pending a hearing in which Netanyahu can defend himself. The prime minister has denied all allegations against him, but his top competitor, Benny Gantz, the former military chief of staff, has campaigned on an anti-corruption platform. After Netanyahu's remarks Saturday, Saeb Erekat, the lead negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, said he was "not surprised." He accused the Trump administration of supporting and endorsing "Israel's violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine." "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity," Erekat wrote in a statement published on Twitter. In the past two years, President Donald Trump's administration has repeatedly stoked controversy in the region by breaking from Washington's longtime policies toward Israel. Last month, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy in a single tweet, writing that it was "time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!" Israeli forces seized the plateau from Syria in 1967, and both Syria and Israel call it their own. Trump's tweet came just a few days before Netanyahu visited him at the White House. Trump also broke with long-standing U.S. policy in December 2017 when he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The United States moved its embassy there the following May. The goal of the Norwalk Hour is to provide fearless local journalism thats as comprehensive as possible, and provides citizens with the information they need to engage with and hold accountable their local government, schools and community institutions. We do our best to provide context to the biggest issues and opportunities facing the city. But there will always be stories we cant get to, and different ways of approaching stories we do write. There will be questions we didnt think to ask, leads we didnt pursue. The Hour is part of an ecosystem of local news and information, and the community is stronger when that ecosystem includes a diversity of sources. Over the past few years, Nancy Chapman, and her nonprofit local news site, Nancy on Norwalk, have emerged as a crucial part of that ecosystem. Nancy is a serious journalist who works diligently to bring information to light for the public. Shes holding people in positions of power accountable. Earlier this year, Nancy uncovered and reported that Marc DAmelio, a candidate for state Senate, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and risk of injury to a minor in 2014. She reported the facts of the arrest. And she reported DAmelios assertion that the charges were dismissed and the record of the arrest expunged from DAmelios record in 2016. She also gave DAmelio full opportunity to react and explain the situation, and she published his response. Journalism 101. DAmelio lost the election, and is now suing the city of Norwalk and Chapman. Even if it lacks merit, litigation like this can threaten the existence of a small local news organization such as Nancy on Norwalk. Its not a lucrative business, attorneys are expensive, and Nancy depends on reader donations to survive. On election night, DAmelios campaign blocked Chapman from attending the Republican candidates gathering with other journalists because she had reported on things he didnt like. The Hour shared its coverage with Nancy on Norwalk that night in a show of solidarity. In stark terms, one could view this lawsuit as an attempt to shut down local journalism because someone in a position of power doesnt like what was reported. That kind of precedent would be a threat to democracy. One of DAmelios arguments is that Nancy is not a real journalist and holds no credentials from any legitimate media company. To the contrary, local independent online news sites such as Nancys are well-established in this country and our state. Before leading Hearsts newsrooms in Connecticut, I was the executive director of LION, a national nonprofit organization that supports more than 250 such organizations across the country. Nancy Chapman is a member of LION and the Institute for Nonprofit News, a network of prestigious public service and investigative news organizations. Even if that wasnt the case, acts of journalism stand on their own, and this one was done by the book. If she doesnt continue, Norwalk is going to lose a valuable source of local information, said Claire Schoen, who serves on Nancy on Norwalks board of directors. Schoen said Nancy is often the only person watching when city officials meet late into the night to deliberate on issues that can have a big impact on residents. The role is largely to provide citizens with information about their government, Nancy said. People are living very busy lives. They cant get to these meetings. Since launching Nancy on Norwalk in 2012 with the help of her husband, Mark, the site has published more than 10,000 stories about local government, the schools and land use and development. Mark pushed her into harder-hitting watchdog reporting, asking questions, trying to dig, but neither was very successful in selling advertising to support the work. When Mark passed away unexpectedly in 2016, she was close to calling it quits, but a group of Norwalk residents urged her to keep at it. After he died, I didnt know what I was going to do, she said. They wont let me leave. Her board has been helping her raise money through reader donations, and Nancy on Norwalks membership in the Institute for Nonprofit News has allowed them to participate in a program that will match local donations made through the end of this year with money from the Knight Foundation and other national supporters of nonprofit journalism. I donated to Nancy on Norwalk earlier this fall, and had my contribution doubled. Knowing someone is suing to try to shut down good local journalism, Ill be making another donation while the match is still in place. Matt DeRienzo is vice president of news and digital content for Hearst Connecticut Media. Contact him at matt.derienzo@hearstmediact.com . Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Barbara Goldberg (Reuters) Sun, April 7, 2019 14:03 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731a6963 2 Entertainment Bill-Cosby,lawsuit,Sexual-assault,actor,sexual-abuse Free Convicted sex offender Bill Cosby on Friday settled a federal defamation lawsuit brought by seven women who said the former actor and comedian sexually assaulted them and wrongly called them liars when they went public with their charges years later. The settlement ends a court fight that predates the 81-year-old's conviction a year ago for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University administrator, in 2004. Cosby is currently serving a 3- to 10-year sentence for that crime, though his lawyers plan an appeal. He was the first celebrity convicted of sexual misconduct since the rise of the #MeToo movement, which cast a harsh light on widespread patterns of sexual harassment or abuse in multiple spheres of American life and ended the careers of dozens of powerful men in American media, politics and business. The settlement covers seven of some 50 women who emerged over the past decade to level sex abuse charges against the once-beloved star of The Cosby Show, who built a decades-long career on a family-friendly style of comedy. All the allegations but Constand's were too old to be the subject of criminal prosecution, which prompted the seven women to sue for defamation when Cosby accused them of lying. Read also: Cosby sent to prison for three to 10 years "Each Plaintiff is satisfied with the settlement," attorneys for Cosby said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, near one of Cosby's homes. They did not disclose the terms of the agreement. The defamation suit was filed in December 2014. One of the seven, Louisa Moritz, an actress best known for appearing in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, died in January at age 72. The other plaintiffs were Barbara Bowman, who said she was a 17-year-old aspiring actress when she was assaulted in 1985; Tamara Green, who said she was a young model in the early 1970s when she was attacked; actress Angela Leslie, who said her attack took place in 1992; Therese Serignese, now a registered nurse who said she was 19 when she was attacked in 1976; Joan Tarshis, who said she was 19 at the time of her attack in 1969; and Linda Traitz, who said she was an 18-year-old waitress when she became a victim in 1969. Cosby has denied the accusations and maintained his innocence. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 19:04 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731ad1c0 1 Environment waste,trash,gold,Cirebon,environment Free The Cirebon administration in West Java has launched a financial incentive program that provides gold savings to those involved in garbage disposal efforts. Cirebon Mayor Eti Herawati said she expected the program, dubbed clear and gold, to encourage the public to play a more active role in ensuring the cleanliness of their environment. We take this garbage disposal issue seriously. The effort requires [the participation of] the public. We hope the gold savings incentive would motivate people to dispose of garbage in their vicinity, Eti said as quoted by Antara. According to Eti, the administration had cooperated with state-owned pawnshop PT Pegadaian for the gold savings incentive. She said only one community unit (RW) in Harjamukti district, Cirebon, had implemented the incentive program. Read also: Inadequate landfills worsen Indonesias waste problems The local administration is cooperating with 18 other RWs to maximize the impact of the program. She added that the Cirebon administration had also prepared 32 mobile trash disposal sites across the city to ensure that the program runs effectively. We expect this program to result in a new, cleaner face of Cirebon that will attract more tourists, Eti said. Pegadaian Cirebon branch head Mufri Yandi called on the public to participate in the program, saying that the gold savings incentive represented the pawnshops support for the local administrations environmental efforts. (rfa/kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Hengky Ola Sura (The Jakarta Post) Larantuka, East Nusa Tenggara Sun, April 7, 2019 20:04 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731ad44e 1 Art & Culture East-Flores,weave,weaver,Indonesia,traditional-fabric,festival,East-Nusa-Tenggara Free Bale Nagi Festival is set to take place in Larantuka regency, East Nusa Tenggara, from April 6 to 25. The festival will feature woven fabrics made using various weaving techniques, such as Adonara, Solor, Larantuka, Ile Mandiri, Lewolema, Demon Pagong, Titehena, Wulanggitang and Ile Bura. As part of the festival, 1500 weavers from several districts in Larantuka will participate in the festival to showcase various weaving skills on April 23. One of the weavers from East Flores showcases her woven fabric. (JP/Hengky Ola Sura) The festival is held to commemorate the local Catholic church's Easter tradition called Semana Santa sacred week, which has been celebrated by the residents for more than five centuries. Head of East Flores Culture and Tourism Agency Apolonia Corebima said he had coordinated with the Tourism Ministry and the East Nusa Tenggara Tourism Agency for the festival. Read also: Weaving to preserve heritage, make ends meet Hopefully the weaving performance will attract pilgrims and tourists who attend the Semana Santa ceremony in Larantuka, he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. According to Apolonia, weaving is part of the daily routine of women in East Flores, and a way to improve their family's welfare. Silvester Petara Hurit, curator of Bale Nagi Festival, said the event would also serve as a calling for the people of East Flores living outside the island to return, as the festival's name means "coming home". This is a cultural movement, an invitation to all people of East Flores out there to come home. We also extend this invitation to pilgrims and tourists from all over the world who will attend the Semana Santa ceremony to witness our culture, he said. (dpk/wng) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin A. Kurniawan Ulung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 Cut it or scoop it? Despite its popularity, many people are still unaware of the right way to enjoy the cone-shaped rice dish tumpeng, or the philosophical meanings behind the dish and its side-dishes. Served mostly as a symbol of thanksgiving, people often cut the cone-shaped top of the tumpeng similar to the way a newlywed couple slices a wedding cake not realizing that this is a mistake. Indonesia Gastronomy Association (IGA) advisor Murdijati Gardjito said the right way to enjoy tumpeng is by scooping out the rice and its varied side dishes from the bottom by using a rice ladle not even a spoon or a knife. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 14:31 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731a7ec4 1 Art & Culture South-Korea,Korean-Cultural-Center-Indonesia,independence,art-and-culture,traditional-arts Free The Korean Cultural Center Indonesia held lavish festivities in commemoration of South Koreas Independence Movement Day, annually observed on March 1. In its first performance in Indonesia, art institution Busan National Gugak Center presented The Land of Morning Calm A Journey of Hundred Years on Saturday evening at Balai Kartini in South Jakarta. It boasted a line-up of performances showcasing highlights of Korean culture, including chunaengjon (traditional love story), a sanjo (traditional music) ensemble and buchaechum (traditional fan dance). Sogochum traditional dance. (Courtesy of/Korean Cultural Center Indonesia) Read also: New report shows boost in number of 'hallyu' fans, partly because of BTS The March 1st Movement was one of the earliest public displays of Korean resistance during the rule of Korea by Japan from 1910 to 1945. A special performance during the event saw a traditional rendition of K-Pop song I Will Go to You Like the First Snow, which was featured in popular Korean television drama Goblin. The event also featured performances of both Korean and Indonesian traditional folk songs. The joint performances were expected to bolster cultural exchange between the two countries. (rfa/wng) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nina Masrina and Michelle Dian Lestari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, April 6 2019 What is feminism? How does feminism fare in Indonesia? Does it contradict religious and cultural teachings in Indonesia? What impact does it have on Indonesian women? These questions keep cropping up every time the word feminism is uttered. In fact, many Indonesians, especially women, still believe that feminism destroys the traditional teachings of culture and religion, that it is a concept of the Western world hell-bent on corrupting Indonesian women and turn them against their men. In reality, feminist values are alive and well, and have had an impact on the lives of Indonesian women regardless of whether the actors claim to be feminist or not. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 18:10 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731abbb5 4 National aceh,Thailand,East-Aceh,fishermen,border,fisheries Free The Thai authorities have arrested 15 Indonesian fishermen from Aceh and confiscated the 21 gross tonnage fishing ship they were using under the suspicion of committing violations in the neighboring countrys waters. We received the information about the arrest on Friday, Aceh deputy sea commander Miftachhuddin Cut Adek said on Saturday as quoted by Antara news agency. He added they had informed the Aceh Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Agency of the arrest, so the latter could tell the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok about the matter. We hope the Indonesian embassy could contact the Thai authorities to get the latest updates on the condition of the arrested fishermen, Miftachhuddin said. The fishing ship, KM Harapan Baroe 01, sailed from Kuala Idi village in East Aceh regency with 15 crew members onboard to catch fish in the Strait of Malacca and Indian Ocean. Miftachhuddin said the fishermen probably drifted off course because of the sea current while catching fish in the area bordering Thailand. This was not the first arrest of East Aceh regency fishermen made by the authorities of a neighboring country. On Feb. 6, 23 fishermen from the same regency were arrested by Myanmar authorities for allegedly catching fish outside of Indonesian territory. This year, at least 38 fishermen from East Aceh regency have been arrested for allegedly committing violations in a neighboring country's waters. The Aceh Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Agency has been warning fishermen to not commit violations in other countrys waters. (kuk) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 20:11 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731adb84 4 Politics clash,FPI,PDI-P,sleman,Yogyakarta,Jokowi-Maruf,Prabowo-Sandiaga,#2019PresidentialElection,2019-presidential-election Free A group of men clashed with residents near the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) regional headquarters in Sleman, Yogyakarta, on Sunday. The men reportedly began marching at 11:30 p.m. toward an event for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Ma'aruf Amins campaign. On their way, they passed the FPI base on Jl. Wates, which also serves as a public post in support of the Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno presidential ticket in the region. The men carried flags saying "Tentara Langit", a mass organization in Yogyakarta that is affiliated with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Jokowis political party. They were reportedly shouting, Long live Jokowi-Amin and allegedly threw stones at the FPI base. Two amateur videos circulating on social media on Sunday featured a female narrator claiming the alleged attackers were PDI-P sympathizers. The suspects then threw rocks at a Jeep emblazoned with the FPI logo that was parked in front of the building. There has been a clash between two groups near the FPI base. There are no reported casualties. Only an FPI car was damaged, Sleman Police chief Sr. Comr. Rizky Febriyansyah said on Sunday as quoted by tempo.co. He added that the conflict may have been triggered by direct provocations between the two groups. As reported by tempo.co, the alleged PDI-P sympathizers had been on their way to attend an open rally organized by the Jokowi-Maruf ticket at the Wates public square in Kulonprogo regency, Yogyakarta, before being involved in the conflict. (rfa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 14:11 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731a74d7 4 National fishing-boat,fisheries,Indonesia,illegal-fishing,Natuna Free The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry detained two Vietnamese-flagged fishing vessels as they were passing through the North Natuna Sea, an official said on Wednesday. A ministry patrol boat, KP Hiu 011, arrested the vessels for trespassing the border illegally and using a trawl to catch fish, which is forbidden in Indonesia. The ministrys acting director general for marine and fisheries resources monitoring, Agus Suherman, said the vessels crew members were arrested at 5:58 p.m. local time on Tuesday. We have arrested eight Vietnamese crew members on the BV 92468 TS ship, as well as three crew members on the BV 92467 TS ship, Agus said in a written statement received by kompas.com on Wednesday. The vessels were escorted to the Natuna Monitoring Unit (Satwas) on Riau Islands for legal proceedings. According to results from an early inspection, the vessels violated Law No. 31/2004 on fisheries and the crew are subject to a maximum sentence of six years' imprisonment and Rp 20 billion (US$1.4 million) fine. As of January, the ministry has detained 23 illegal fishing vessels comprising 18 foreign vessels and five domestic ones. Of the foreign vessels, 11 were Vietnamese-flagged, while the rest were Malaysian. (dpk) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 10:17 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87319dd07 4 Politics Prabowo-Sandiaga,Sandiaga-Uno,election,Indonesia,Prabowo-Subianto Free Vice-presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno has assured the public that his running mate, Prabowo Subianto, is healthy in light of rumors regarding the latter's health. Thank God hes healthy. He was just taking a break, he said as quoted by kompas.com on Friday. Speculation about Prabowo's health arose after he failed to show up at several scheduled campaign events. On Jan. 30, the presidential candidate canceled a speech he was to make during a meeting organized by Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), a member of the coalition backing his ticket, reportedly due to his health. He also canceled appearances at recent campaign events in Medan, North Sumatra and Aceh. The campaign team mentioned technical glitches as the reason behind the cancelations. Sandiaga appeared alone at a campaign event at Demang Field in Wonosari, Yogyakarta, on Friday, but denied Prabowo was sick. Hes healthy, thankfully. Many people have been asking if hes sick, he said. (dpk/swd) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 Dozens of elementary school students flocked to a room at the Jakarta History Museum in Kota Tua, West Jakarta, on a recent Tuesday. The students were observing an exhibit while they attentively listened to a narration about the chamber where Prince Diponegoro was held by Dutch colonialists nearly two centuries ago. Diponegoro is said to have spent about a month in Jakarta before he was exiled to Makassar, South Sulawesi, where he died in 1855. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 11:15 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87319ef66 1 City KAI,commuter-line,commuter-trains,KCI,lightning-strike,train-operator,train-travel Free After experiencing operational issues on its commuter train service caused by lightning, state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia, the parent company of commuter train operator PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia, will team up with experts from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) to find a solution. We will be working with lightning experts from ITB. We will hold our first meeting on Tuesday, when we will discuss our problems and what we can do to solve the issues, KAI president director Edi Sukmoro said on Friday as quoted by tempo.co. He added that Indonesia was located in an area where lightning was known to strike hard, often disrupting rail services, especially in Greater Jakarta. He mentioned recent operational problems with trains traveling from Bekasi to Bogor and Depok in West Java. On April 1, a train traveling from Tanah Abang to Maja and another from Tanah Abang to Parung Panjang stopped operating for several hours after the upper electricity network system was stuck by lightning. Our trains are actually equipped with lightning rods. However, the rods will not work if the lightning strikes too hard, Edi said. KAI commercial director Dody Budiawan said lightning had often struck tracks along Sawangan, Depok. (vla) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 16:10 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731a9ead 4 Business SOEs,profit,2018,Rini-Soemarno Free State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Rini Soemarno has expressed her appreciation for the significant increase in SOEs profits, which had grown by Rp 57 trillion (US$4.04 billion) in the last five years. When I was appointed minister, SOEs booked Rp 143 trillion in [combined] profits. With the hard work of all SOEs, profits increased to Rp 200 trillion in 2018. So I express my gratitude, she said during the LinkAja Festival in Sidoarjo, Central Java, on Sunday as quoted by Antara. LinkAja is a newly launched electronic financial service established by a number of SOEs, mostly state-owned lenders. She said cooperation among SOEs had improved efficiency. Therefore, she believed SOEs profits could increase to Rp 500 trillion through closer cooperation. It is the responsibility of the millennial generation [to boost the profits of SOEs], she said. Rini said LinkAja was an example of collaboration among SOEs in response to the increasing demand of electronic financial services. She said LInkAja should be able to compete with similar services operated by private companies. LinkAja initially focused on serving employees of SOEs, however, LinkAjas app has been downloaded 25 million times. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung, West Java Sun, April 7, 2019 Finding a school for children with down syndrome is not easy. That is something Rainy Mawarwati, 47, has learned while looking for a state elementary school for her son Aurel Amadeo to attend. She wanted to enroll Aurel at a regular school instead of a special needs school because she wanted him to grow independently. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 09:46 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87319c54a 4 National smoke-free-zones,surabaya,smoke,Indonesia Free The Surabaya administration has banned smoking in public places. The legislative council of the East Java city passed a bylaw on smoke-free zones on Thursday. Surabaya Council deputy speaker Masduki Toha said the areas where smoking would be prohibited included private or government buildings, as well as places of worship, playgrounds, shopping malls, hospitals and other health facilities. The regulation also mandates that business owners and government officials place smoke-free zone signs at their offices or buildings. Smokers who violate the rule will be fined up to Rp 250,000 (US$17.66), while private companies or government institutions that do not put up smoking ban signs at their establishments may have to pay up to Rp 50 million in fines. According to Masduki, the regional regulation is different from the prevailing regulation on the same issue, Bylaw No. 5/2008, on designated smoking areas. In my opinion, the previous bylaw is no longer effective. This new regulation is more specific, he said as quoted by kompas.com on Thursday. Surabaya provincial secretary Hendro Gunawan said his team would issue an official letter to every stakeholder regarding the implementation of the bylaw. Moreover, Hendro also said the Surabaya administration would inform the public of the new regulation. (dpk) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Adimas Nurahmatsyah (The Jakarta Post) Singapore Mon, April 8 2019 The growth of one of Indonesias tech unicorns, Go-Jek, never fails to amaze observers. Not only has it successfully introduced the practical application of sharing economy concepts to traditional ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers and opened job opportunities for millions of motorcycle owners, but it has also had a significant derivative impact on the economy in general. For example, Go-Jek provided opportunities to and built bridges between various small and medium enterprises, mostly in the food and beverage sector, and expanded consumer bases. The poster child of Indonesias emerging economy, Go-Jek wrestled its way into highly competitive markets such as Singapore last year. When the company announced its ventures into the Vietnamese and Thai markets around the same period, one could argue that it was about time or even ask: What took them so long? to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung Mon, April 8 2019 Finding a school for children with down syndrome is not easy. That is something Rainy Mawarwati, 47, has learned while looking for a state elementary school for her son Aurel Amadeo to attend. She wanted to enroll Aurel at a regular school instead of a special needs school because she wanted him to grow independently. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Hafiz Al Asad (The Jakarta Post) Boston Mon, April 8 2019 During spring last year, I met with Budiman Sudjatmiko, a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), on his visit to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Then he proudly declared the governments plan to provide village funds of Rp 1 billion (US$70,921), which he said marked a significant political shift from central to local government. Early in January, I visited Madura Island off East Java, where I met rural people. Both experiences suggested to me that candidate pair number two, Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno, stands a great chance of winning the upcoming presidential election in Madura though politics can change within seconds. First, the irony lies in the concept of the Rp 1 billion village funds program, which is intended to distribute power and is supposed to establish trust in the government, in this case the incumbent, specifically among people at the grassroots. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login The government unveiled a bill last week containing tough measures, including powers for ministers to order social media sites like Facebook to put warnings next to posts authorities believe to be false and in extreme cases take them down. If an action is deemed malicious and damaging to Singapore's interests, companies could be hit with fines of up to Sg$1 million ($740,000). Individuals could face jail terms of up to 10 years. Authorities in the tightly-controlled country -- long criticised for restricting civil liberties -- insist the measures are necessary to stop the circulation of falsehoods which could sow divisions in the multi-ethnic city-state. But press freedom groups condemned the proposals, saying they could stifle online discussion, as did tech companies which have big investments in the ultra-modern city. "As the most far-reaching legislation of its kind to date, this level of overreach poses significant risks to freedom of expression and speech," said the Asia Internet Coalition, an industry association whose members include Facebook, Google and Twitter. Simon Milner, Facebook's vice president of public policy in Asia-Pacific, said the social media giant was concerned about potentially being compelled to remove content. "Giving people a place to express themselves freely and safely is important to us and we have a responsibility to handle any government request to remove alleged misinformation carefully and thoughtfully," he said in a statement. The internet is a relatively free space in Singapore and there are some local alternative news sites, which are typically more critical of the authorities than the traditional, pro-government newspapers and TV. Singapore is among several countries pushing legislation to fight fake news, and the government stressed ordering "corrections" to be placed alongside falsehoods would be the primary response, rather than jail or fines. A government decision can also be appealed to the courts. 'Courts will decide' K. Shanmugam, law and home affairs minister, said in a Facebook post that "the proposed law targets false statements of fact -- not opinions, not criticisms. "Ultimately, disagreement over truth and falsity will be decided by the courts". Google, Facebook and Twitter have their Asia headquarters in Singapore, a city of 5.6 million which is popular with expats as it is developed, safe and efficient. But there were already signs of tensions with tech companies as the government prepared to unveil the laws. During parliamentary hearings last year about tackling online falsehoods, Google and Facebook urged the government not to introduce new laws. In November, Facebook refused a request to remove an article linking Singapore to a financial scandal in Malaysia which the government said was untrue -- prompting the law ministry to say the firm "cannot be relied upon to filter falsehoods". Critics say one of the most worrying aspects of the new legislation is that it is up to authorities to decide what is false and what is not. While authorities insist decisions can be appealed, Kirsten Han, the Singapore-based editor of regional news site New Naratif, said most people do not have the resources or will to fight the government. "Even if you are convinced that your Facebook post is in the right, how many average Singaporeans would appeal to the minister, and then spend thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer and file an application in the court?" she told AFP. Human Rights Watch has described the bill as "sweepingly broad" while critics note Singapore already has tough laws against sedition, defamation and disturbing racial harmony, that can be used to police the web. But it is not yet clear how the legislation -- which is likely to pass easily through the ruling party-dominated parliament -- will be used in practice, and some believe authorities will wield it cautiously. "I think that the government will be very careful in their implementation of the law," said Professor Ang Peng Hwa, from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in Singapore. "I think, in general, theres a very high level of trust in the government and its institutions by foreign entities, and so I don't see them... being too trigger-happy about the implementation of this bill." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 7, 2019 10:01 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87319d250 1 News Sabang,infrastructure,tourism,travel,#travel Free Sabang regency in Aceh has urged the government to assist the region in bolstering various infrastructure projects to boost tourism amid a steady increase of tourist arrivals in recent years. Sabang Deputy Mayor Nazaruddin said several development plans for the citys infrastructure were underway to support the local economy, including the tourism sector. Weve been actively developing public infrastructure that will have a direct impact on the improvement of the local economy, Nazaruddin said as quoted by tempo.co. However, he added, the administration still required assistance from the central government as a boost in tourism in the region would also contribute to the growth of the national economy. The Tourism Ministry named the regency as one of the National Tourism Strategic Areas (KSPN) in 2017, according to the Sabang Tourism and Culture Agency. Read also: Sabang festival to lure tourists with coastal culture, dragon boat competition More than 29,000 foreign tourists reportedly visited Sabang Island last year, a significant increase from 2017 when only 2,981 people visited, according to data from the agency. The regency is home to popular tourist spots such as the Weh Island Monument, Zero Kilometer Monument, as well as Iboh and Sumur Tiga beaches. In January, the government put aside 40 hectares of land for an international airport in Sabang to support local tourism in the region. The Tourism Ministrys undersecretary for regional development, Lokot Ahmad Enda, said the international airport was expected to be a hub for global airlines that would transport large numbers of tourists. (rfa/mut) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nedi Putra AW (The Jakarta Post) Batu, East Java Sun, April 7, 2019 17:32 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731aa641 1 News Malang,greenery,East-Java,tempeh,tourism,Jatim-Park-group,Jatim-Park,dinosaur Free The town of Batu in East Java has welcomed the newly minted Tempenosaurus Green Village. Located in Beji village, Junrejo subdistrict, the area was developed by communication science students of Malang Muhammadiyah University (UMM) in collaboration with the Jatim Park Group. The Tempenosaurus Green Village in Batu, East Java. (JP/Nedi Putra AW) UMMs rector Fauzan said along with becoming a tourist destination, the Tempenosaurus Green Village is expected to be a tempeh-producing center. Its unique name came from its close proximity to the theme park Jawa Timur Park 3, which has a Dino Park ride. The village was inaugurated by East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa on Saturday, marked by the cutting of a 7-meter-high dinosaur replica made from tempeh. Read also: Jatim Park Group in East Java provides free tourist shuttle Tempenosaurus Green Village initiated a project of building based on humanity, as the ideal development is people-centered development, she said. The dinosaur replica was recorded in the Indonesian Museum of Records as the biggest one made of tempeh. UMMs rector Fauzan said prior to the new project, the university and Indana Paint had worked on the Jodipan Colorful Village in Malang, East Java. What was once a slum is now a wonderful area, while its residents actively take part in keeping the place clean. Building a green village does not stop at merely painting. We also have to consider social, economic and educational planning to boost the residents capabilities, he added. (wng) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung, West Java Sun, April 7, 2019 16:03 982 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8731a997d 1 News tourism,bandung,bali,victoria-university,Education,tourism-industry,STP-Bali,STP-Bandung,hospitality Free A new international program and an English-language center at the state-run Bandung Institute of Tourism (STP Bandung) in West Java and the Bali Institute of Tourism (STP Bali), run in collaboration with Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, were officially launched on Friday. Inaugurated by Tourism Minister Arief Yahya in Bandung, the program features a culinary class in STP Bandung and hotel administration in STP Bali; they both combine local and international-standard curricula. The first class consists of 10 fourth-year students who have met all the requirements including scoring 5.5 on their IELTS tests. The students will fly to Melbourne to study and engage in an internship program in the hotel industry. Read also: Five disasters in Indonesia and their impact on tourism They have agreed on a commitment that when they return to Indonesia they will become trainers for their juniors, said STP Bandung head Faisal Kasim. The students will receive two certificates when they graduate; a diploma from STP Bandung or Nusa Dua Bali and an Advanced Diploma in Hospitality Management from Victoria University. The program will open its intake in August. At the same event, Arief also officiated the English Learning Centre (ELC) in cooperation with the Indonesia-Australia Language Foundation. ELC offers IELTS preparation and testing. IELTS is regarded as the most strategic English test as it is recognized in more than 135 countries and can be used to apply for studying, immigration and professional accreditation. Not only for students, the program is open for STP lecturers and staff members, as well as the public. Victoria University's director of new business and Outer West Campus, Jackson Doherty, said such cooperation in international classes was a first in Asia. "This is the beginning of our partnership and we expect that to continue." (kes) 7 hours ago Is Hexos New Strategic Plan Worth Another Look? Hexo Hits New Low In Wake Of Q1 Earnings Hexo (NYSE: HEXO) reported its Q1 earnings and provided a forecast for profitability that has shares of the stock on the move. The caveat is that shares are moving lower right now and are just off the new low set in the wake of the report. Read Article Nacogdoches, TX (75965) Today Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 66F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 66F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Phukets main offices to close for Chakri Day public holiday PHUKET: Government offices across Phuket will close tomorrow (April 8) to mark the public holiday for Chakri Memorial Day, which marks the founding of the Chakri Dynasty. culture By The Phuket News Sunday 7 April 2019, 06:32PM All government offices will close tomorrow (Monday, April 8) for the public holiday to mark Chakri Memorial Day on Saturday (April 6). Image: NNT Chakri Day is traditionally observed each year on April 6. However, this year the annual formal ceremonies coincided on Saturday with the sacred water drawing ceremonies held nationwide as part of the Royal Coronation ceremonies to be held in May. (See story here.) Chakri Memorial Day is a national holiday in Thailand. Officially known as King Phutthayotfa Chulalok the Great Day and Chakri Dynasty Memorial Day. The holiday commemorates the establishment of the Chakri Dynasty and the founding of the Kingdom of Siam by King Phutthayotfa Chulalok in 1782. To honour the holiday, all government offices will close, including the District Offices, Phuket Immigration Office, the Employment Office and the Land Transport Office. All main bank branches will close, but branches in shopping centres will remain open. All Royal Thai Police, Tourist Police stations, hospitals and shopping centres will remain open and some local consulates will remain open to serve their respective citizens. Alcohol sales are permitted by law on this day. Class Act Medias main office will be closed tomorrow (April 8) and will re-open on Tuesday (April 9). The forgotten women living in the time of Buddha part 1: Queen Samavati Margaret Thatcher once said, If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman. Well, at least in regards to the rise of ancient Buddhism, truer words could not have been spoken. All-About-BuddhismCulture By Jason Jellison Sunday 7 April 2019, 03:00PM Image: dhammajak.net Welcome to Trailblazers, a special four-part series brought to you by All About Buddhism. Trailblazers revisits the forgotten contributions of a number of early Buddhist women who were crucial to the religions rise. However, the author must share a word of caution before we begin our journey. These women lived over 2,500 years ago. Societys views on sexuality, slavery, race, marriage and gender were very different than our views are today. Also, there are sometimes slight differences in the competing Buddhist canons that are preserved throughout Asia, but the central story is generally consistent. That all said, we begin our journey in Kausambi, the capital city of the Vatsa Kingdom. This was one of the 16 great kingdoms of the Buddhist Era and it would serve as part of the brain trust of a fledgling new world religion. We know a fair amount about what life was like in this kingdom thanks to its ruins. We know that Kausambi had running water drains, for example, because the remains are still there. It was a centre of trade and large crowds were likely managed by kettledrums. Although Kausambi would stand about a century longer than Rome, it was not always a great capital and it was not originally Buddhist. In its earlier days, it was host to a slew of varying factions and faiths. The religion of Jainism was growing, and who knows what kind of kingdom might have been on the cards, but one pair of star-crossed lovers would soon change everything. According to Buddhist sources, the story goes like this... A beautiful young girl named Samavati was born into a normal family and seemed to be having an otherwise all too mundane childhood. But then a terrible plague broke out and her otherwise happy family fled to Kausambi. Taking shelter at His Majestys house of rest, an observant state official noticed that Samavati was taking less food than usual. First she took three servings of food. Then the next day only two. Then only one. Upon doing some amateur detective work, he tragically discovered that the child had originally taken one serving of food for each of her family members. But then a parent succumbed to the plague, and then... Heartbroken by her sad story, he adopted the destitute orphan. The state official happened to be the Kings personal Minister of Finance, and the girl grew up to be a profoundly beautiful young woman. Years later, King Udena spotted Samavati from his balcony and Cupids arrow hit its mark. However, her adoptive father could not bear to part with her so, to keep the peace, Samavati agreed to become the third consort of this handsome King; contingent, that was, on him accepting her retinue of 500 ladies into his palace. Queen Samavati was happy with her life at the Royal Court, but great discoveries were in store. One day, she heard her servant telling her the most amazing things and a pleasant confession led to Buddha. The Buddhist canon records that the women could not leave the palace, so the kingdoms Buddhist conversion hinged on what happened next. First, the Queens female servant memorised Buddhas teachings verbatim and taught the ladies-in-waiting. Then, 500 Buddhist monks came to the palace every day to teach. Eventually, the Queen became instrumental in assisting the Order of Buddhist Nuns, and palace windows were installed so the women could communicate with the monks. (A novel idea at the time.) Alas, not everyone was so thrilled with this giddy turn of events. By chance, the Kings second wife just so happened to have one seriously bad relationship with Buddha and her name was Magandiya. You see, Magandiya had offered to marry Buddha well before the King ever met Samavati. However, Buddha turned the proposal down because an Awakened One does not engage in marriage or sex. Yet, no matter what anybody said, Magandiya refused to listen. She simply hated Buddha. And so treachery sprang afoot. Magandiya tried to trademark Samavati and her ladies-at-court as treasonous jezebels. She bribed court pages and staged dirty tricks. She even had street bums and druggies follow Buddha around, branding Him a denizen of hell within plain view of the King. Finally, Magandiya artfully framed Samavati in a remarkably believable attempt on King Udenas life. The Samyutta Nikaya records that King Udena flew into an uncontrolled rage and was going to sentence Samavati with his bow and arrow, but then something magical happened. The arrow made a harmless U-turn, practically as though Samavati was surrounded by angels. Legend has it that this is when King Udena completed his unflinching conversion to Buddhism. Magandiyas treachery knew no ends. Nothing would stand in the way of her target, not even 500 innocent lives. Under the cover of night, Magandiya secretly arranged for her relatives to burn the entire womens Royal Palace to the ground, and this time Magandiya finally hit her bullseye. However, Magandiya's day of reckoning was drawing near. The fire was clearly no accident and the King was starting to put the pieces together. He quickly suspected Magandiya, but there was a problem. The King realised that Magandiya would never confess to the crime if a royal investigation was formally commissioned. Somehow, King Udena had to get Magandiya to confess to what she had done... and one day he had a clever idea Within earshot of Magandiya, the King put on his best poker face and said, Well, whoever did this must truly have loved me because that Queen tried to kill me many times. The King had already discerned that Samavati had never tried to kill him, but Magandiya underestimated his intelligence. Upon hearing the King say this, Magandiya ran to him and proudly confessed to the crime in earnest detail. Unsurprised, the King continued to feign ignorance and offered to reward all of Magandiya's family with a great royal ceremony. In a moment of dark humour, some unscrupulous cheaters wanted to be in the King's good graces, so when they heard the news, they made the mistake of bribing court officials in order to attend the royal boon, pretending to be Magandiya's family. Little did they know that this was one occasion in which you did not want to be guests of honour. Once gathered all in one place, the King had everyone arrested. He promptly confronted Magandiya. Enraged at her heinous crime, he ordered an ancient death penalty for her and everyone who claimed to be involved in the crime. Pleas for mercy were not entertained. When Magandiya assassinated Queen Samavati, she yet again achieved nothing but the exact opposite of what she wanted. Instead of securing a confused and grieving King, she secured a Stone Age-style death sentence for both her and her family. Instead of stopping Buddhisms rise in Kausambi, the womens holocaust sparked a ring of spiritual fire that would serve not to destroy Buddhism, but to create Buddhism. Queen Samavati and the royal women of Kausambi were crucial to Buddhism because they ultimately left behind the most utilitarian and tactile first-person notations of Buddhas words that have survived into modern times. These notations are still used for teaching today and are available in English. Moreover, Kausambi was a centre of trade. Kausambi stood as an epicentre of Buddhist thought for several generations to come, and had this not all occurred, then our understanding of Buddhism would have been greatly impaired. The Vatsa Kingdom would eventually fall to the Avanti Kingdom. In time, the Avanti Kingdom would be obliterated by the White Huns of Central Asia. Today, ruins are all that stands of what was once the mighty capital of Kausambi. But the contributions of the royal women of Queen Samavatis retinue still touch every one of us in the modern Buddhist world today. Editors Note: Queen Samavatis personal attendant was named Khujjuttara. Her notes still exist in The Itivuttaka. Historical text marking the Queens assassination can be found in King Udenas suttra in Chapter 7 of the Udana. Buddhas rejection of Magandiyas marriage proposal and conversation can still be found in the 835th verse of the Sutta Nipata. The historic records of Magandiyas conviction and death penalty can be found in Vol. #28 of The Harvard Oriental Series The Dhammapada Commentary: Translated by E.W. Burlingame. C. 1921. All About Buddhism is a monthly column in The Phuket News where I take readers on my exotic journey into Thai Buddhism and debunk a number of myths about Buddhism. If you have any specific queries, or ideas for articles, please let us know. Email editor1@classactmedia.co.th, and I will do my best to accommodate your interests. Rumour is halfway around the world while truth is still putting on its shoes. -Mark Twain On March 15, a deranged racist live-streamed his mass murder of 50 worshippers at two New Zealand mosques on his Facebook account. That tragedy brought into focus two problems with social-media. Some people of malicious intent use social media to exhibit violent content and as incitement to violence. Others of ill disposition use it to express malignant views hate speech, racism, misogyny that is repugnant but not an immediate danger to the community. With remarkable speed, Australia has acted forcefully on the first problem. On Thursday, Canberra passed legislation making Australia the first country to impose jail sentences on executives of social media companies that do not quickly enough remove live-streaming of abhorrent violent material in Australia. Facebook live-streamed the mass murder in Christchurch for 17 minutes uninterrupted before learning of it and taking it down. Facebook estimates that there were 4,000 views of it, though only 200 while the massacre was taking place. The Australian law defines as abhorrent the live-streaming of terrorism, murder, attempted murder, torture, rape and kidnapping. In the words of Australian Attorney General Christian Porter, social media platforms should not be weaponized for evil. But eradicating every last vestige of the mass-murderers video has proved impossible. In the 24 hours after Facebook first learned of the video, it blocked user attempts to upload 1.2 million clips from the video to other social-media platforms. And it removed another 300,000 clips that had reappeared on Facebook. That doesnt account for clips of the video still residing in smartphones and other devices that havent been posted. And while civilian mass killings are a scourge of our age, the new Australian law does not address the second problem: the transformation of social media into a cesspool of fake news and hate speech that falls short of violence. That second phenomenon, however, can be a threat to democracy. Hate speech, character assassination and conspiracy-theory hokum disguised as news has been used to incite violent uprisings, notably among discordant ethnicities, in India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and elsewhere for several years. The world started paying attention in 2016, when bloggers working at Russias direction are believed to have shaped the outcome of the Brexit referendum and the U.S. presidential election that brought Donald Trump to power. Fake news is as difficult to eradicate as abhorrent images. When posts began proliferating in January on the Yellow Vests Canada Facebook account calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus assassination, Facebook promptly took them down. But over the following days they kept reappearing. Just as the heavens are filled with space junk, somewhere in cyberspace is that prosaic email you wrote your brother seven years ago. The exponential power of social-media sharing enables just one crackpot to reach an audience of millions. The Wall Street Journal last month calculated that one person shares a post with her group of 225 Facebook friends, each of whom shares it with just one of their friends, who each do the same and thats 16.6 million people. Facebook now has about 15,000 employees and contractors who scan and remove millions of dubious posts each year. In a six-month stretch in 2018, they took down 1.5 billion false accounts, which is how most viral fake news travels. Facebook is trying to shift more of that work to algorithms, which already do much of it. But devising algorithms that can distinguish between hate speech and an incitement to act on that hate in murderous ways is difficult. That is why Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, acknowledged in a Facebook post last month that his companys apps, which include the WhatsApp messaging service and the Intragram image-sharing platform, still display terrible things like child exploitation, terrorism and extortion. In that same post, Zuckerberg asked that world governments agree on a uniform set of regulations for social media. The world should take Zuckerberg up on that. Social media is among the worlds biggest unregulated industries, an anomaly that needs correcting, given how the industry model of self-policing doesnt suffice. Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, has put social-media governance on the agenda at the next G-20 summit, in June in Osaka. Morrison can expect support from Trudeau, who has inveighed against social-media firms. They generate extraordinary profits that do not go toward the defence of democracy by our journalists, Trudeau said in January, but rather in the pockets of big companies that do not see this social responsibility as being primarily for them. Also contributing to the momentum for social-media reform are the determined efforts of cybersecurity experts to prevent fake-news disseminators from swaying the outcome of several elections this year. These include elections in India (April 11), Australia, Indonesia, the European Parliament (June) and Canada (October). There is no straightforward means of purifying a social-media ecosystem populated by more than 3 billion users, including Canadas 23.6 million Facebook users. But there is reason to expect better safeguards. An ever-heightening scrutiny of social media practices is bound to yield national and regional social-media watchdogs. If such watchdogs existed now, they might stop Zuckerberg from migrating the encryption feature of WhatsApp to Facebook, granting anonymity to still more malicious online users. They would impose a time delay on live-streaming videos, which Facebook has refused to do. They might order Googles YouTube service to ban RT, the Kremlin-directed agency that commands a huge audience for its propaganda disguised as documentaries. And in Canada, Facebook and Google should be taxed to help pay for Ottawas recently announced plan to assist struggling traditional media outlets. The latter and the communities they serve are victims of social medias capture of most ad spending in the country, without producing any content of their own. Taxpayers shouldnt be left to pick up that tab alone. And there is the option of breaking up the social media giants, principally Facebook and Google, whose combined shareholder value of more than $1.2 trillion (U.S.) is bigger than most economies. Their presence stifles prospective startups, lacking the heft to bid for talent, financing and other resources. Fines dont work in this area. The EU has fined Google three times on antitrust grounds since 2017, for a total of $9.3 billion (U.S.). But Google hasnt paid a dime of that, which it will endlessly challenge in the courts. The giants need to broken up, as the oil, rail and steel trusts were in the Gilded Age, to restore competition and consumer choice. In the meantime, we can embrace the remedy offered by Jacinda Ardern, who has vowed never to speak the name of the accused mass-murderer. What all of us can at least do, Ardern said after the Christchurch tragedy, is ensure that we do not share, spread or actively engage in that message of hate. So, the immediate solution is: Dont read, watch or share hateful, false and malicious online posts, and do report them. Give truth a fighting chance. Read more about: EDMONTONHailey Hague only has to look at her healthy, energetic six-year-old to know the importance of organ donation. Soon after Lily was born, she was diagnosed with biliary atresia a disease that affects about one in every 10,000 to 20,000 infants. Right before Lily hit three months, she went into end-stage liver failure, says Hague. Her eyes completely went yellow ... and she was sleeping. We had to purposely wake her up to feed her and thats not normal. The next day, they found out her liver wasnt working and she might need a liver transplant. Organ donation has been in the spotlight the last year after the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan left 16 people dead and 13 injured. One of the players, Logan Boulet of Lethbridge, Alta., had signed up to be an organ donor in the weeks before the crash and his parents followed through with his wishes. Six people across Canada benefited from his organs. What has been called the Logan Boulet Effect soon followed. Read more: Road safety improvements part of Humboldt Broncos players legacy Good must continue to come from this: Humboldt community gathers on one-year anniversary of Broncos crash Saskatchewan premier reflects on own crash ahead of Humboldt anniversary Canadian Blood Services estimates that nearly 100,000 Canadians registered to become organ donors after the Humboldt crash and the story of Boulets donation. Another 50,000 people registered in May. The head of the David Foster Foundation, which provides financial support to families with children who need organ transplants, says Boulets death shows the importance of organ donation. Through tragedy has come action, says Michael Ravenhill. Because of that one young mans selfless act, he has actually changed the landscape of organ donation in Canada. An event called Green Shirt Day is planned for every April 7, the anniversary of Boulets death, to promote organ donation. The Canadian Institute for Health Information says the country has a shortage of organs, with 4,333 patients waiting for transplants. In 2017, 242 Canadians died while waiting for a transplant. The Hague familys experience was in 2013. They moved to Edmonton from Abbotsford, B.C., to be closer to Stollery Childrens Hospital where Lily could get a transplant assessment. Family members were willing to donate part of their liver, but Lilys portal vein the main blood vessel to the liver wasnt working properly and a living donor cant provide one. She got moved to the transplant list because she needed a deceased donor, says her mother. After an infection, Lily was given three months to live and was bumped up on the transplant list. We needed to find her a donor. We needed to do something or she was not going to be here anymore, said Hague. I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me. Lily was transferred to Torontos SickKids Hospital for treatment while she waited for a donor. It was a blessing in disguise, Hague says. They told us about this new procedure ... they could use the living donors liver and then they could take deceased vessel from someone who has passed away to create a portal vein. A liver donation would still be her best chance at survival, but now they had another option if the next liver went to another patient. And thats what happened. When Lily was seven months old, her mother gave her 22 per cent of her liver. Somebody else, a little boy I think it was, passed away. His liver went to somebody else and his vessels created Lilys portal vein, says Hague. Its amazing that they could do that. A lot of people tell her that shes her daughters hero. I dont know, she says. I like to think of the little boy who donated his organ, his parents donating his organs thats her hero. Im her mom. Hague says shes encouraged by the recent focus on organ donation. In addition to Green Shirt Day, Nova Scotia announced legislation last week that would have all residents be potential organ donors unless they opted out. Its believed Nova Scotia would be the first jurisdiction in North America to adopt the measure. Hague says she hopes every province follows suit. Oh my gosh, please, everywhere, she says. If everyone were an organ donor, could you imagine? Read more about: KIGALI, RWANDAGov. Gen. Julie Payette laid a wreath at a memorial in Rwandas capital on Sunday to mark 25 years since the start of a genocide that left an estimated 800,000 people dead. Payette, who is leading a Canadian delegation on a four-day visit to the east African country, visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial that is the final resting place of roughly 250,000 victims of the genocide. She told The Canadian Press in a phone interview that the ceremony served a dual purpose: to pay tribute to the victims, while bringing in a sense of renewal to what she described as an energetic, vibrant country. Twenty-five years is a good time to start thinking about the future, she said, noting that an estimated two-thirds of the countrys population is under the age of 30. Many of them werent born during the genocide, so there is an absolute necessity to not forget ... but also to move forward. And they seem to be doing that, which is amazing. Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the start of the ethnic slaughter that mainly targeted members of the Rwandas Tutsi minority. Read more: They are gone, and gone forever: Rwandans now living in Ontario reflect on 25 years since the genocide Opinion | Theres no excuse for ignoring lessons of Rwandas genocide 25 years after Rwanda genocide, survivors forgive killers The mass killing was ignited on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like the majority of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu. The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane, and bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering the Tutsi, with support from the army, police, and militias. Canada had a peacekeeping force in Rwanda during the mass bloodshed. Ethnic reconciliation has been a cornerstone of the rule of Paul Kagame, Rwandas de facto leader since the genocide ended in July 1994 and the countrys president since 2000. Payette said the Canadian delegation was particularly touched by the unity on display during Sundays commemoration. Theyve decided not to retaliate. Theyve decided to work together and to reunite, reconcile and forgive. And I tell you, not every society can do that, and thats a model, she said. In a statement earlier in the day on Twitter, Payette offered Canadas sympathies to Rwandans as well as peacekeepers from Canada and elsewhere who she said lost so much in the massacre. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also released a statement marking the solemn anniversary of what he called one of the darkest chapters in recent history. He said the genocide showed the unconscionable cost of division and hatred, and urged Canadians to take time out of their days to remember the victims. We can honour them by fighting hate, protecting the most vulnerable, and working to make our world a better one, Trudeau said. In Montreal on Saturday evening, several hundred people attended a ceremony at a library in memory of the victims of the genocide, the city said. Another ceremony on Sunday was to take place in the citys Old Port area, to be followed by a march and wreath-laying in solidarity with the victims and their loved ones. About 5,000 Rwandans live in Quebec, 3,000 of them in Montreal, the city said in a news release. MONTREALQuebecers living near the Canada-United States border, where thousands of migrants have crossed irregularly into the country since 2017, will receive more than $400,000 to compensate them for increased traffic and noise. An order paper tabled by the federal government last month projects 45 households near Roxham Road will divide up $405,000, with individual compensation based on each homes proximity to the border. The document says eight homes will receive the maximum compensation of $25,000, 15 will receive $10,000, and 22 households in the outermost zone will receive $2,500. The government has budgeted up to $485,000 for the payments, which includes a contingency fund in case more households are deemed eligible. Roughly 96 per cent of all migrants who have crossed illegally into Canada since 2017 have done so at Roxham Road, about 50 kilometres south of Montreal. A spokesperson for Border Security Minister Bill Blair says households along the once-quiet country road have had to contend with increased traffic, noise and the construction of temporary border security infrastructure since the migrants began arriving. Read more: On their blind date to the border, MPs debate fairness, fear of the unknown, and asylum seekers Opinion | Canadas border is secure but renewal of immigration system is essential Woman charged for aiding illegal entries at popular Quebec-U.S. crossing Read more about: MONTREALThousands of Montrealers chanted for solidarity and loudly denounced Premier Francois Legault on Sunday as they took to the streets to oppose the Quebec governments proposed secularism bill. The crowd chanted slogans such as Quebec, its our home! as they marched against the legislation that would ban the wearing of religious symbols on the job for public sector employees deemed to be in positions of authority, including teachers, judges and police officers. The protesters included Aymen Derbali, who was seriously injured in the January 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting where six Muslim men were killed. Derbali, who attended with fellow survivor Said El-Amari, told the crowd that rather than working to reduce stigma and Islamophobia, the government is tabling discriminatory legislation that unfairly targets Muslim women. Instead of weighing in on societal problems, (the Legault government) wants to adopt a law that oppresses the rights of women to wear their hijabs and to work, said Derbali, who was partly paralyzed in the shooting and now uses a wheelchair. Taran Singh, a member of Montreals Sikh community, said the government should focus on issues such as the school dropout rate and hospital emergency room wait times rather than pitting Quebecers against each other. Read more: From teachers to Charles Taylor, protesters vow to fight Quebec secularism bill Canadian Bar Association calls on Quebec to drop notwithstanding clause from Bill 21 She wears a headscarf. Is Quebec derailing her career? What the political parties in Quebec are doing is dividing us, Singh said. Anglophones against francophones, federalists against sovereigntists, laypersons against religious immigrants. This mentality of us versus us doesnt serve anyone. Selsabil Hamiham, a 21-year-old student, said the proposed bill attacks her identity. I dont believe Francois Legault has the power to tell me how to dress, how to be, she said. Wearing a hijab was her own choice, she added. Since nobody forced me to wear it, nobody can make me take it off, she said. Sundays event was the largest of a series of protests that have been held to denounce the legislation, known as Bill 21. The crowd included representatives from many of Montreals cultural groups, including the Muslim, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese communities. The event was organized by Adil Charkaoui, a controversial Islamic educator who was once accused by Ottawa of having terrorist ties. Charkaoui was arrested under Canadas security certificate system in 2003, but he was never charged. On Sunday, he called on Quebecers to reject the bill, which he said aims to tell Muslim women how to dress and where to work. The Quebec government argues the bill is reasonable and in line with the values of Quebecers, and last week Legault said it doesnt violate religious freedom. People who would be excluded from public sector jobs because of the law can find other work, he said. Legault also noted that his government included a grandfather clause that would exempt current employees from the restrictions as long as they remain in the same job. Read more about: NEW YORKAs more states make it legal to smoke marijuana, some government officials, researchers and others worry what that might mean for one of the countrys biggest public health successes : curbing cigarette smoking. Though there are notable differences in health research findings on tobacco and marijuana, the juxtaposition strikes some as jarring after generations of Americans have gotten the message that smoking endangers their health. Were trying to stop people from smoking all kinds of things. Why do you want to legalize marijuana? a New York City councilman, Republican Peter Koo, asked at a recent city hearing about the states potential legalization of so-called recreational pot use. Marijuana advocates say theres no comparison between joints and tobacco cigarettes. A sweeping federal assessment of marijuana research found the lung-health risks of smoking weed appear relatively small and far lower than those of smoking tobacco, the top cause of preventable death in the U.S. Unlike for cigarettes, theres evidence of certain health benefits from marijuana, such as easing chronic pain. And marijuana can be used without smoking it. Most states now have legal medical pot programs; 10 states and the District of Columbia have approved recreational use. Theyre different products, and they need to be treated differently, says Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project. Read more: Cannabis smokers get more bong for their buck at bud-and-breakfasts with a different vibe Many Canadians wont be able to buy legal weed on Day 1 At the same time, studies have shown crossover between marijuana and tobacco use. And while smoking cannabis may be less dangerous than tobacco to lung health, pot doesnt get an entirely clean slate. Some health officials and anti-smoking activists also worry about inserting legal marijuana into the growing world of vaping, given uncertainties about the smoking alternatives long-term effects. Heres a look at the issues, science and perspectives: SMOKING POT VS. TOBACCO While cigarette smoking is the top risk factor for lung cancer, some of scientific evidence suggests theres no link between marijuana smoking and lung cancer. Thats according to a 2017 federal report that rounded up nearly two decades of studies on marijuana, research thats been limited by the federal governments classification of marijuana as a controlled substance like heroin. While cigarette smoking is a major cause of heart disease, the report concluded its unclear whether marijuana use is associated with heart attacks or strokes. But theres strong evidence linking long-term cannabis smoking to worse coughs and more frequent bouts of chronic bronchitis, according to the report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The report also looked at other effects, finding a mix of possible risks, upsides and unknowns. For example, the report said marijuana can ease chemotherapy-related nausea and adults chronic pain but also found evidence the drug is linked to developing schizophrenia and getting in traffic crashes. In recent weeks, studies have echoed concerns about high-potency pot and psychosis and documented a rise in marijuana-related emergency room visits after legalization in Colorado. Tobacco and marijuana use can also go together. Blunts marijuana in a cigar wrapper that includes tobacco leaves have gained popularity. And studies have found more cigarette smokers have used pot, and the other way around, compared to nonsmokers. One substance reinforces the use of the other, and vice versa, which can escalate a path to addiction, says Dr. Sterling McPherson, a University of Washington medical professor studying marijuana and tobacco use among teens. The National Academies report found pot use likely increases the risk of dependence on other substances, including tobacco. To some public health officials, it makes sense to legalize marijuana and put some guardrails around it. For tobacco, we know that its inherently dangerous and that there is no safe amount of tobacco to use, says New York City Health Department drug policy analyst Rebecca Giglio. Whereas with marijuana, we see this as an opportunity to address the harms of criminalization while also regulating cannabis. But health department opinions vary, even within the same state: New Yorks Association of County Health Officials opposes legalizing recreational weed. SO WHAT ABOUT VAPING? Vaping heating a solution into a vapour and inhaling it has been pitched as a safer alternative to smoking. Experts have said vaping pot is probably less harmful to the lungs than smoking it, though theres little research on the health effects over time, and they worry about its potency when vaped. The American Lung Association is concerned that vaping will ultimately prove damaging to lung health and is alarmed about a surge in underage e-cigarette use. And adding legal marijuana to the picture only makes it a more complicated issue, says Erika Sward, an assistant vice-president. Others, though, think policy-makers should view vaping as a relatively safe way to use pot. I would say the risks are going to be less with that form of consumption, says Rebecca Haffajee, a University of Michigan health policy professor who co-wrote a 2017 piece calling for recreational marijuana programs to allow only nonsmokable forms of the drug. Meanwhile, some local governments have adjusted public smoking bans to cover both vaping and pot. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors tweaked its prohibition just last month. TWO VIEWS As a former cigarette smoker, New Yorker Gary Smith is dismayed that his home state might OK smoking pot. He knows research hasnt tied smoking marijuana to lung cancer, which killed three cigarette smokers in his family and struck him 20 years after he quit; hes been treated. But he fears the respiratory risks of marijuana smoking arent fully known. Its crazy that the government, in order to raise (revenue from) taxes, theyre permitting people to suck this stuff into your lungs, says Smith, 78, an accountant from Island Park. Hawaii physician and state Rep. Richard Creagan feels no less strongly about cigarettes. The ex-smoker and Democrat from Naalehu this year unsuccessfully proposed all but banning them by raising the legal age to 100. Meanwhile, hed like Hawaii to legalize recreational marijuana, an idea that fizzled in the state Legislature this year. Creagan, 73, thinks pot benefits peoples well-being more than it risks their health, and he expects non-smoking alternatives will reduce the risks. Plus, he figures legal marijuana could replace cigarette tax revenue someday. That coupling, he says, was sort of in my head. KAMPALA, UGANDAAn American woman and her Ugandan guide who were kidnapped while on safari this past week have been freed after a ransom was paid, according to officials with the safari company with which they were travelling. Ugandan police said in a statement posted on Twitter Sunday that police and security forces have rescued the two kidnapping victims. One official with the safari company, Wild Frontiers, who asked not to be named, said the two were currently enjoying a square meal and hot shower at a wilderness camp in Uganda run by the company. They were dropped off at a point near the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo Sunday, the official said. He asked not to be named because he was not authorized to provide details about the circumstances of the release. The official said he did not know the identity of the kidnappers and that Wild Frontiers paid the ransom. The woman, Kimberly Sue Endicott, of California, was kidnapped Tuesday evening while on a game drive in Queen Elizabeth national park in Uganda. Also taken was her Ugandan guide, Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo. The park, home to more than 600 bird species and some 2,500 elephants, is generally regarded as safe for tourists. A group of gunmen stopped the tourists vehicle and seized the American woman and the guide. The gunmen left behind the two other tourists, a Canadian couple in their late 70s, who continued on their vacation. Read more: Canadian couple safe after witnessing kidnapping of American tourist in Uganda DEAD SEA, JORDANIsraels leader will face a real problem if he follows through with his election campaign promise to annex Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian foreign minister said Sunday. On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan, Riad Malki said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus pledge was likely aimed at rallying his nationalist base in the final stretch of a tight race. He added that Palestinians would resist such a policy if carried out. If Netanyahu wants to declare Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, then you know he has to face a real problem, the presence of 4.5 million Palestinians, what to do with them, Malki said, apparently referring to the combined Palestinian population of the occupied West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. He said Israel cannot expel the Palestinians. We will stay there, he said. The international community has to deal with us. Malki accused the U.S. of encouraging Netanyahu by recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital and, more recently, recognizing Israels 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights. In a prime-time interview Saturday, Netanyahu was asked why he hadnt annexed some of the larger Jewish settlements in the West Bank during his current term. The question you are asking is an interesting question, whether we will move to the next stage and the answer is yes, he said. We will move to the next stage, the imposing of Israeli sovereignty. Netanyahu has promoted Jewish settlement expansion in his four terms as prime minister, but until now refrained from presenting a detailed vision for the West Bank, viewed by Palestinians as the heartland of a future state. It would mark a dramatic shift for Netanyahu, ahead of Tuesdays balloting. Annexing settlements would all but end any chance of a two-state solution with the Palestinians and potentially push the sides toward a single, binational state. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also expressed concerns about Americas illegitimate decisions in the region. We see the solution in dialogue between countries, because unilateral actions will never lead to anything good, he said. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu slammed Netanyahus annexation pledge as an irresponsible statement to seek votes. Cavusoglu said on Twitter that the West Bank is Palestinian territory, adding: the Israeli general elections cannot and will not change this fact. Read more about: MEXICO CITY - Former Mexican President Vicente Fox says armed men tried to storm into his house, just months after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador cut off security for the countrys ex-presidents. He reported Saturdays incident on Twitter without giving details. He has a large ranch in the central state of Guanajuato. Fox also tweeted: I hold President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador directly responsible for the security of myself, my family and my belongings. Lopez Obrador responded via Twitter that he has instructed Defence Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval to create a security detail to protect Fox and his family but without the excesses of prior administrations. Lopez Obrador dismantled the Mexican equivalent of the U.S. Secret Service after being sworn in as president Dec. 1. Fox was president in 2000-2006. BURLINGTON, Iowa - They became notable presidential candidates in Iowa after narrow losses that nonetheless put them on the national political stage. Theyre competing for some of the same young voters. And this weekend, theyve been driving around this first-in-the-nation caucus state reintroducing themselves to voters as others in the 2020 Democratic field dispersed to New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Its been Bernie versus Beto all weekend in Iowa, with both hopefuls reintroducing themselves as the man with a plan to deny President Donald Trump a second term. Sanders swept back into the state as the early front runner after raising $18 million in 41 days during the first quarter of the year, the most of any candidate. ORourke raised $9.4 million in 18 days. In dueling rallies, town halls and house parties, they spoke most of improving health care and affording college tuition. Other hopefuls fanned out to political hot spots elsewhere, with much the same mission: Gauging early strength in a crowded field and raising enough money to secure a coveted spot in the presidential debates that begin in June. Republican leaders have relished the jockeying among Democrats. Id be happy with any of em, to be honest, the president said of the Democratic derby. Heres a roundup of the crowded Democratic campaign. ___ Iowa Democrats know Sanders, the Vermont senator who lost the state and the Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton in 2016. At two town halls in counties he won during that caucus fight, Sanders questioners asked most about making health care more affordable. Over and over, people told Sanders grim stories about medical bills putting them deeply in debt. He empathized, at one point putting an arm around a young woman who had begun weeping as she spoke. Sanders told his audience that he supports Medicare for All and a single-payer health care system. But he didnt get into specifics. Shannon Abel, a 28-year-old co-ordinator at a non-profit organization in Muscatine, Iowa, said she still liked what she heard from Sanders. Then again, she had only begun seriously paying attention to politics after nearly a year of being ill and seeing the medical bills with an $80 co-pay put her family deeply in debt. Of Sanders, Abel said, He knows what its like to not have money. ___ ORourke is calling for a range of educational changes to alleviate college debt, including providing free community college and allowing students to potentially eliminate or refinance their debt through public service. The cost of higher education, and not just tuition . is out of reach for so many of our fellow Americans, ORourke told a crowd gathered for a campaign house party in Polk City, Iowa. He said the tens of thousands in debt that students carry when they graduate is a weight that literally sinks them into the ground. To solve the problem, he offered a number of proposals to help students stop digging the hole and stop taking on debt when they go for a college degree: Making community college free, allowing students to earn an associate degree while theyre in high school so theyre ready to earn a living wage on day one, increase access to union apprenticeships. For those already saddled with student loan debt, ORourke said hed like to re-up the public service student debt forgiveness program a federal program that currently accepts only a fraction of applicants and is eliminated altogether in President Donald Trumps latest budget proposal. If students are willing to work in in-demand jobs at places like the Department of Veterans Affairs, or willing to teach school or be in a support role in a community that needs your talent and human capital, I want to wipe clean your student loan debt. At a minimum I want to refinance what you have at a much lower rate. ___ Sanders says he wants to make college free and pay for it by getting rid of tax havens and lowering taxes for the richest Americans. Thats been received with some skepticism among budget and deficit hawks. But to Trevor Meyers, 19, it sounds right. Meyers, like Sanders, is a democratic socialist. The Muscatine County resident attends a nearby college and lives at home with his family, which owns a farm. A sibling, he said, is five figures in debt from college. How is anybody in our society going to get started in life? he wondered. He liked Sanders, but said hes going to check out one of ORourkes events too. ___ Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is discussing gun control and death penalty issues with survivors of a massacre that claimed nine Bible study participants at a historic black church in South Carolina. Hickenlooper sat down on Saturday with Anthony Thompson and Polly Sheppard during a visit to Mother Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston. Thompsons wife was slain in the June 2015 shooting. Sheppard, who survived the ordeal but lost her son and aunt, has said the shooter told her he was sparing her life so she could tell others what happened. He is now on federal death row. The church has become a place of pilgrimage for some 2020 presidential candidates as they campaign in the state, home of the first primary in the South. Hickenlooper is known as a staunch advocate for gun control legislation. Following the fatal 2012 shootings in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theatre, the then-governor called for and signed bills requiring universal background checks and limiting magazine capacity to 15 rounds. Both Thompson and Sheppard told Hickenlooper they want those kinds of reforms in South Carolina and elsewhere. ___ Sen. Michael Bennet told reporters in Nashua, New Hampshire, that he hopes to be on the move again a few weeks after surgery for prostate cancer. I dont think theres any point in dwelling on it, said the Colorado Democrat. If it turns out to be worse than I think, Ill deal with it then. The cancer diagnosis has slowed us down a little bit, Bennet said when asked about how it would impact him getting on the debate stage for the Democratic presidential debates, with well over a dozen candidates now running. Its obviously slowed down our ability to raise money and at some point it could have an effect on whether we get to the debate stage or not, but I think we have a good chance to get there, he said. And with how hes feeling right now, Bennet said hes likely to run. I mean, I didnt pick this particular set of circumstances, he said. This is not how I would have rolled it out. ___ Democrats running for president will have to do more than campaign on an anti-Trump message if they want to take back the White House in 2020, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on Saturday. If your message is not-Trump, its not going to work, the Democratic presidential hopeful told about 500 supporters who packed a high school gymnasium in Reno, Nevada. Our job is to talk about our vision. Warren, D-Mass., blasted Trumps economic and environmental policies and touted her plan to invest $500 billion over the next 10 years to build, preserve and rehabilitate affordable housing for low-income families. She said she would pay for it by returning the estate tax thresholds to where they were during President George W. Bushs administration and imposing a new wealth tax on the nations 17,000 wealthiest families. Washington is working for the ultra-super-duper rich, and until we change that we are going to stay on this path. This is our moment, she told the cheering crowd. Warren was making her second campaign stop this year in the early caucus state, which on Feb. 22 follows only New Hampshire and Iowa in the nominating process. She spoke for about 30 minutes, took questions from the audience and posed for photographs for another half hour. More than half the crowd lined up to take selfies with her. ____ South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg headed to New Hampshire after his campaign announced hed raised more than $7 million this year. Hundreds of voters interested in the mayor attended his two events in the state; some were turned away because the venues were at capacity. The mayor gave short speeches at both his Friday and Saturday events and did not take town hall style questions from the two crowds. Speaking at Gibsons Bookstore in Concord on Saturday morning, the 37-year-old Buttigieg said he understands peoples difficulty in avoiding the spectacle of politics these days. As hard as it is to take our eye off what we see on cable, because grotesque things have the quality of drawing your eye, and we cant take our eye off that show, but the shows not what matters, he said. What matters is our everyday life. He later told voters, Weve got to change the channel, and thats what were about. ___ Associated Press writers Alexandra Jaffe in Polk City, Iowa, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, Meg Kinnard in Charleston, South Carolina, and Hunter Woodall in Nashua, New Hampshire, contributed to this report. ___ Follow Kellman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman Twenty-five years after the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda, one lesson is as clear now as it was then: The killing was entirely preventable. Indeed, on Jan. 11, 1994, Canadian Maj.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire, at the time force commander with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, sent a chilling and urgent cable to UN Headquarters in New York. He had been informed of the details of a plan for the extermination of ethnic Tutsis by Hutus. The UNs orders to him? Tell what he knew to Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, despite Dallaires evidence that plans to carry out the genocide were underway within the presidents own inner circle. Three months later, on April 7, the extermination began. In just 100 days, as many as a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus (out of a population of only 8 million) would die in what can only be described as a frenzy of killing. It would not be by bombs, chemical attacks or other weapons of mass destruction that one would think it would take to kill people in such numbers. The killing was accomplished mostly in one-on-one strikes by machete, as victims sought refuge at a UN compound, in churches or in their homes, where they were often slain by their neighbours. The country had become, as one analyst looking back wrote, an abattoir. Had the UN acted on Dallaires warning and increased its deployment of peacekeepers, rather than reducing them to a few hundred from 2,500, it could have been prevented. As it was, the world never did step up to stop the massacres, in which even UN peacekeepers were slaughtered. The genocide ended only when the Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame (now the countrys president) marched into Rwanda with Ugandas support and drove out the remaining government loyalists. Was the all-important never again lesson from the Holocaust of the Second World War learned again after Rwanda? Sadly, no. Only a year later the world watched a mass slaughter of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, an area the UN had established as a safe zone. More recently, the world has stood by during the murderous attacks on Burmas Rohingya Muslim minority, and watched populations annihilated in Syria, Darfur and South Sudan. There are other lessons, besides the need to intervene, to be learned from Rwanda. One is the importance of a free media that can counteract state propaganda. Indeed, it was over so called hate radio in Rwanda that Hutus were incited to kill the Tutsi cockroaches. But today in the United States, a country where a free press is enshrined in the Constitution, we see a president inciting contempt for journalists who dare to report critically on his policies, calling them the enemy of the people. Another crucial lesson from Rwanda: dont stand by while political leaders demonize vulnerable groups. In parts of Europe, the target is often immigrants in general and Muslims in particular. In the U.S., Mexicans, migrants and Muslims have come under attack. As Adama Dieng, the UNs Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, has said: Genocide is a process. The Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers. It started with hate speech. In 2005 all member states at the UN World Summit formally accepted the responsibility to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, and the obligation to intervene when state leaders did not. But the killing fields in so many countries bear evidence that the worlds leaders have failed, and continue to fail, to meet their obligations. In the end, we must come back to Dallaire. In his cable of January 1994 he urged UN leaders to act by telling them the obvious: Where theres a will to prevent mass killing, there is a way. And so there is. The UN and world leaders can stop the atrocities that are occurring now and will arise in the future by learning the lessons of Rwanda. Twenty-five years on, theres no excuse for ignorance. Rachel Notley may not flaunt the swaggering charisma of a Trudeau, but as she demonstrated in this weeks leaders debate, she sure wins on character. She conveys as well, a deep determination to fight for a politics of values, as she laced her opponent over and over for his wobbly handling of some very insalubrious candidates. Putting her opponents name in the same sentence as charisma or values-driven leadership increasingly produces sardonic guffaws. Debates rarely turn on policy differences, except when a candidate drops an unintentional clanger: Gerald Ford liberating Poland, John Turner claiming they made me do it, about a barrel of patronage gifts. Notley stuck to a clear political message track, reminding voters of her child care, health and education pledges. Her opponent, United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney, often sounded like an overconfident policy wonk angrily spouting stats in a student union debate. Political insiders score debates on direct hits and good recoveries. Real voters look for clues as to character: Is this a leader who will fight for me and my family? The two leaders had a clear mission. For Notley it was to make the ballot question about character, for her opponent it was to make it about jobs. Each gave it their all, but each probably only solidified their persuadables. Notley did deliver the zinger of the night, however. Slashing her opponent on his leadership campaigns dubious tactics, now under RCMP investigation. She asked if he would cheat his own party members to have a chance at running to be premier, what is he going to do to the people of this province in order to keep it? In many respects it was a debate between an old-fashioned street-fighting male politician and an unflappable professional woman. A fascinating study of gender differences among leaders, asks Why do so many incompetent men become leaders? (and how to fix it). A respected organizational psychologist, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, says one factor ranks higher than most: we are too easily deceived into confusing confidence for competence. A tough, swaggering leader is assumed to be a competent leader. No prizes for guessing who wins the overconfidence stakes men overestimate their abilities twice as often as women. Narcissism, overconfidences first cousin, is 40 per cent more likely among men. Her campaign strategists knew from the start that Notley wins the likability, authenticity stakes by a country mile. They have been trying to persuade voters that she has been an indomitable fighter, managing through the greatest economic challenge the province has seen since the Depression; that she led a government true to its values, especially on the jobs versus climate divide. Her opponent would have voters believe he could have forced the price of oil higher, and single-handedly overruled Ottawa and the courts to get a pipeline built. Bizarrely, he claimed he would stage a referendum to kill Canadas equalization formula. A silly claim: Equalization is a federal statute embedded in the Constitution. In a way, the Alberta campaign has been a foretaste of the next federal election, now only six months away. The right has campaigned loudly on aiding the oil and gas sector with tax cuts and fighting Ottawa elites, more quietly on the usual populist dog whistles about race, religion and sexual orientation. Notleys agenda included progressives old favourites: child care, education, health care, a transition to a more sustainable economy, all under an umbrella of optimism about Albertas recovery. Among the differences federally will be the Liberals and the NDP fighting for a progressive agenda while trashing each other over credibility. No matter who is the next premier, Andrew Scheer would be wise to park the dog whistles. They will not find a wide appeal to voters in B.C., Ontario and Quebec. Singh and Trudeau will pound Scheers campaign about the tactic just as happened to his provincial cousin. If Notley prevails, it will be seen as, in part, a vindication of her pushback on her opponents unwillingness to smack down some of the anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-Muslim whispers from members of his gang. Last weeks debate clearly highlighted the importance of competence over confidence, character over policy, and the difference between being a tough fighter and merely an offensive one. We will know soon if an appeal to Albertas better angels can trump fear and anger. Robin V. Sears is a principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group and was an NDP strategist for 20 years. He is a freelance contributor for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robinvsears Read more about: VANCOUVERThe former flight attendant who launched a class-action lawsuit against WestJet after she alleged sexual assault by a pilot says the unions now representing pilots and flight attendants have been slow to take up the cause. Those unions say they believe sexual harassment in the airline industry needs to be addressed but argue theres little they can do for Mandalena Lewis case because she is not a member of either organization. The fact of the matter is (sexual assault in the airline industry) has been a historic and systemic problem that has not yet been uprooted, Lewis said in an interview Friday. Theyve been hiding; straight up, the unions have been hiding. Court documents filed in 2016 in B.C. Supreme Court say Lewis was on a stopover in Hawaii in January 2010 when an unnamed WestJet pilot allegedly pulled her onto a hotel bed and proceeded to kiss and grope her. The allegations have not been tested in court. The court document says that after she reported the alleged incident, the Calgary-based company changed Lewis work schedule to avoid overlap with the pilot, which left her with fewer working hours. It also alleges she was instructed to keep quiet out of respect for the pilots privacy. Lewis was subsequently fired for insubordination. She proposed a class-action lawsuit in 2017 on behalf of current and former female flight attendants at WestJet, which she said has failed to implement anti-harassment programs. WestJet has denied that allegation. Lewis then made extensive efforts to raise awareness about the case on Twitter and by demonstrating at YVR airport in support of other former flight attendants facing similar battles. She hoped the new unions could help with those efforts to raise awareness. At the time of her alleged assault, neither WestJet pilots nor flight attendants were unionized. Lewis herself was part of an effort to get employee representation for the flight attendants. They are represented now. As of last summer, flight attendants are backed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the largest public-sector union in the country. The pilots got certification with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the worlds largest pilot union, in 2017. Lewis has contacted CUPE and pilot representatives about her alleged assault expecting on the recommendation of her unionized friends and family that they could help her raise awareness about the case and the problems of sexual harassment in the industry. Since her employment was terminated before the CUPE union drive, Lewis was not a CUPE member. CUPE offered general words of support to Lewis in February, when approached by the Star following news that an appeal court would allow the certification of her class action to go forward. What happened to Mandalena Lewis should not have happened, and she has the support of CUPE, said Lou Arab of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Alberta, where the flight attendants union is based, in a previous interview. As a union of flight attendants, obviously we are very concerned about the issue. We think WestJet employees need more significant protection. But Lewis said that was the first time she heard a public statement from CUPE on her case which, as a class action that proposes to capture both current and former WestJet flight attendants, could directly involve their members. Lewis has reached out repeatedly to CUPE employees over Facebook messenger asking for advice and, especially, public support for her cause. Shes received sympathy and well-wishes but little else. The fact that it takes someone to come forward, to go through what Im going through, to be begging them for help, she said. What I would have done is show up the next day, have a protest, have a rally, have signs ready. A CUPE spokesperson reached Friday said Arabs comments still stand and that the union wont get involved in the class action. Lewis told a pilot who is now a WestJet ALPA executive member what happened to her in the summer of 2016 before the pilots had unionized. When I initially called him I thought he was going to react like my partner when I told him. Like we need to react right now and get organized, Lewis said. He listened to her, Lewis said, but hasnt heard from him since. In a statement to the Star, ALPA spokesperson Robert Lynch said ALPA takes any claims of assault or harassment extremely seriously and we encourage all flight crews to report instances of harassment so that they can be addressed appropriately. The union does not appear to have an anti-sexual harassment policy on its website and did not respond on the record to questions about why it has not made a statement on Lewis case. With files from Jenny Peng Read more about: When then-Vice President Joe Biden was mentioned on "Saturday Night Live" ahead of the 2016 election, the show's characters begged him to get into the Democratic primary. But as the 2020 race gets underway, they see him a little differently. Saturday night, former cast member Jason Sudeikis returned to Studio 8H to reprise his longtime impression of the former vice president in the episode's cold open. His Biden hasn't changed at all, but it's clear from the sketch that everything around him has. As the real-life Biden mulls a presidential bid, he has been accused of inappropriate touching by multiple women. His trademark physical style of engaging with people, especially women, has come under renewed scrutiny amid the #MeToo movement and rapidly shifting social norms. Biden explained in a video last week that he merely tries to make a "human connection" with voters but that he'll "be much more mindful" in the future. In the "SNL" sketch, consultants attempt to give Sudeikis' Biden some sensitivity training and teach him how to appropriately engage with women. At first, Sudeikis-as-Biden has no clue that he even has a problem. But an adviser, played by Cecily Strong, insists, "If you're really going to run in 2020, you have to change the way you interact with women." "You guys know I'm a tactile politician," Sudeikis's Biden says, in an apparent sendup of the actual Biden's video. "I'm a hugger, I'm a kisser, and I'm a little bit of a sniffer." The advisers bring in a sensitivity consultant, "Gwen," played by Kate McKinnon, to give him some tips. He immediately walks up to her and places his forehead against hers. "One second, I'm just connecting!" he says. "So, this is exactly the kind of thing that I'm here to prevent," Gwen deadpans. The sketch continues in this vein for several minutes. Then, Gwen calls two prospective female voters so Biden can try out a more hands-off approach - but to no avail. The first woman, played by Aidy Bryant, is so appalled by Biden's touching that she punches him in the stomach. But the second one, played by Leslie Jones, turns out to be a superfan, greeting Sudeikis' Biden boisterously, engaging in some bawdy talk and even slapping him on the rear. At the end of the cold open, the "SNL" Biden promises to pay heed to the complaints about his touchy-feely style. Then he concludes with a roar: "Biden and Some Woman in 2020, let's do this!" EDWARDSVILLE The 11th annual Taste of Edwardsville, a fundraising event for Edwardsville Neighbors, drew hundreds for a Saturday night that showcased community pride. We love everything about it, attendee Alison Hunter, of Edwardsville, said. The giving back to the community, the food, and its so fun. This years event, themed The Future is Bright, boasted more than 20 local restaurants, live music featuring Well Hungarians, and more than 500 guests. It helps a great cause, attendee Erin Dorsey, of Edwardsville, said. Plus, its a collection of all the best people in the area in one room. I know about half of the people working the stands and about 75 percent of the people walking around, Trevor Taynor said. Taynor and his mother own 222 Artisan Bakery on Main Street. We have participated for three years. People here take pride in where they live and it shows at this event. The restaurants provided food and staffing at the event at no cost. Duo Keith and Kari McGinness, of Glen Carbon, are the owners of Cleveland-Heath on Main Street. They bought the restaurant two years ago and started participating in the event after the purchase. We bought the restaurant because we love the guests, the food, and Edwardsville, Keith McGinness said. And we love to give back and see a lot of our guests here. Its such a nice time coming together, Kimberly Beckham, manager of Mike Shannons Grill in Edwardsville, said. It is memorable every year. Beckham and her staff utilized the event to showcase a new burger they will add to the menu, as well as gave out a fan-favorite baked cajun pasta. The event took place at the Leclaire Room and was presented by Edwardsville Neighbors a local nonprofit dedicated to helping families facing medical crisis. The tickets sold out in minutes, co-founder of Edwardsville Neighbors, Chad Opel, said. This is our biggest one yet. Edwardsville Neighbors was established by Opel and his wife, Kathie, in 2009 after Opels stepfather had a rare spinal stroke. We raised money for medical bills at the first Taste of Edwardsville and realized we could do this for others, too. Honestly, we originally planned it as an event to have a good time and raise some money, but then we couldnt believe the radical generosity of the community. It morphed into this awesome fundraising event. Edwardsville native Katie Wiston has volunteered with Edwardsville Neighbors for five years. The mission. This event. Really, I love everything about it, she said. Some people think that Edwardsville is a rich community and doesnt need an organization like this, but medical issues often leave people out of work without a way to pay for bills. I know three people who received support from Edwardsville Neighbors, Jim Harper of Edwardsville said. And, because of that, I will do anything for them. Harper and his company, The Corporate Electric, has provided branding for Taste of Edwardsville for the past two years. Harper lived in St. Louis for years and moved to Edwardsville to raise kids and to be close to family. There are so many great things happening here like this. For more information about Edwardsville Neighbors, go to https://edwardsvilleneighbors.org. EDWARDSVILLE County Circuit Clerk Mark Von Nida has distributed a report showing that errors in his office account for only a small percentage of cases in which summary license suspension were rescinded. The matter became an issue when Von Nida came forward with the admission that one of the errors was in the case of former U.S. Attorney Steve Wigginton, a Democrat, as is Von Nida, who has accused Republicans on the Madison County Board of making political hay out of the problem. Wigginton and others was able to regain their driving privileges after suspension because a member of Von Nidas staff failed to schedule a hearing on the suspension with the 30-day legal time frame. Von Nida has said he has addressed the problem He sent the records to Bond County Circuit Clerk Rex Carton, a Republican, with agreement of Chief Judge Dave Hylla. The Third Circuit includes Madison and Bond counties, but Bond County has its own circuit clerk. Carton said there were 307 cases of license suspensions being rescinded in 2017, with 273 or 86 percent, of the cases were rescinded as a result of problems with the arrest or police report. Nine cases, or 2.9 percent, were the result of the court legal process, while five cases, or 1.6 percent were rescinded because of the errors in scheduling the court hearing. In 2018, there were 873 driving under the influence cases. Of those 126, or 14.4 percent of the suspensions were rescinded. of the suspension. Only three of those cases, or 2.4 per cent were rescinded because of the scheduling error. So far this year, only two cases have been rescinded because of the clerical error Carton said in his report. Carton noted that the rescinding driving privileges are a civil matter, under the purview of the Illinois Secretary of State. The criminal cases are of more importance, he said, and they are not affected by the error which has caused a stir in Madison County. A driver could lose his or her license as a result of a driving under the influence conviction. It is a societal concern, and, indeed, the focus of law enforcement to remove intoxicated or impaired drivers from the street. The clerks duty to set and and schedule is only one part of the process. It is one of the circuit clerks main concerns to see that the criminal trial is set within the 120 days (speedy trial rule) if requested. A summary suspension is set within the statutory 30-day time period. As a precaution, the circuit clerk sends the notice to all parties. The prosecution can notify the clerk of irregularities, or they can also request an earlier hearing. I did not find any request by the prosecution to request an earlier hearing, Carton said in his report. Von Nida said he plans to distribute the report to all Madison County Board members. The boards Judiciary Committee recently held a news conference and a special meeting to discuss the matter. Republicans, like Phil Chapman of Highland, called the error a serious breach of the public trust. Democrats, including Von Nida characterized the matter as a minor problem that has been addressed within the clerks office. At the last Madison County Board meeting, David Michael, R-Highland, said that there has not been enough said and done about the matter. He suggested a possible independent review of the matter, including an examination of figures for the last two years. A member of the circuit clerks office attempted to speak but was ruled out of order. So far, the full board has not officially addressed the matter. URBANA Usually, when food historian Cynthia Clampitt gives her talk about the history of corn, she has to explain why. Not so at last weeks lecture at the University of Illinois, whose researchers started the conversation around hybridization of corn, developed super sweet corn and started the Morrow Plots, the oldest experimental crop field in the country. Almost everywhere, I know people say, Well, why would you write a book about corn? I dont think Ill get asked that here, she said. Its a huge, huge honor to be here because (UI) is such a big part of the corn story. Corn has led to everything from the rapid westward expansion of the United States to the growth of cities, especially Chicago, Clampitt argued. The ripple effect from corn has led to the mail-order catalog, the Buckingham Fountain and the Chicago Bears, she said, and at one time, Peoria was the largest consumer of corn in the country. A huge amount of corn was turned into whiskey. Right from the beginning, basically, whiskey was popular in the colonies, but it became increasingly popular as we moved further west, Clampitt said. And the winner in the contest of who makes the most whiskey: Peoria, Illinois. Peoria used to be known as the whiskey capital of the world. It was the largest consumer of corn in the United States from the mid-1800s until Prohibition; 186,000 gallons of whiskey a day. And it was so much whiskey that the taxes from whiskey from Peoria was 50 percent of the federal budget. Corn, which simply means the dominant crop of a region, first became corn as we know it in Mexico, long before Europeans arrived, Clampitt said, about 10,000 years ago. It started when what looked like ambitious crabgrass with a small cob emerged with a jumping gene that allowed it to mutate quickly. With just regular cross-breeding, there were already at least 200 varieties by the time Europeans arrived. The first to be developed was popcorn, then a quick-growing variety called flint corn that was popular along the eastern seaboard. The next one to develop was flour corn, Clampitt said, which was much easier to grind and was used in the Southwest in tortillas, for example. Then in the Midwest, dent corn became popular. If youre driving across Illinois, youre mostly looking at dent corn, Clampitt said. Dent corn was the last major corn race to be developed in Mexico. And finally, around the 1600s, sweet corn was developed by the Iroquois Indians in the Great Lakes area. It didnt become popular among Americans until after the Civil War, Clampitt said, as most corn can be sweet corn if its picked at the right stage and eaten quickly enough. Most corn converts the sugar to starch quickly after its picked, Clampitt said, but sweet corn has an enzyme that delays that conversion process. Since corn is relatively easy to grow and harvest, its development allowed natives to build their societies, Clampitt said. This corn is basically what gave us all of those pyramids and the mathematics and the astronomy you see in Latin America, she said. That all came out of the ability to have everybody free to do stuff other than just plant food and try to survive. When the Europeans came over, they realized corns advantages, and part of the reason they expanded west so quickly was because they ran out of space to plant corn. Corn was also easy for those traveling west, as one seed could grow a half a pound of food. Corn made it possible for the Midwest to be settled faster than any other region in the history of the world, Clampitt said. With corn, all settlers needed was a backpack, a hatchet and a gun, and you were set, you could go anywhere. In the 1800s, the grain elevator was developed, allowing corn to be transported in much larger quantities than when it was stored in bags. This removed farmers from the corn they grew, which led to the commodity markets. The Chicago Board of Trade was created in 1848, and Chicago became the center of the corn industry. This helped Chicago become the dominant city in the Midwest, overtaking St. Louis. All of a sudden Chicagos got the grain elevators. St. Louis is not interested because, of course, in 1848, its still a slave state, Clampitt said. They have people carrying all those bags. Its like, why would we build a grain elevator when weve got guys to carry all these heavy bags for us? The corn industry built up wealth in Chicago, including the Buckingham family, which owned grain elevators and eventually created the Buckingham Fountain in Chicago. An entrepreneur named Aaron Montgomery Ward created a catalog for farmers, so that the empty trains of corn that went to Chicago could be filled with products on the way back. And in 1906, Gene Staley bought a cornstarch factory and, after he became wealthy, started the Decatur Staleys, which became the Chicago Bears. These were only a few of the impacts of corn Clampitt mentioned, along with Henry Fords assembly line, time zones and corn flakes. Her book, Midwest Maize, was published in 2015 by the University of Illinois Press. Clampitt was asked how she ended up writing a book about the history of corn, and she said it was an easy choice. Ive been doing food history for a long time, and after a while you start to notice where the big stories are, and corn is it for the United States, she said. Corn is the story of America. NAIROBI, Kenya - An American woman and her Ugandan driver were released unharmed five days after they were kidnapped in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park, according to a military spokesman. Kidnappings are rare in peaceful Uganda, though this abduction occurred close to the border with Congo's restive North Kivu province. The hostages were found Sunday near the border by Ugandan special forces, Brig. Richard Karemire said. The identity of the kidnappers remained unknown. A ransom was paid by Wild Frontiers, the tour company that organized the excursion, Karemire said, but the amount was not disclosed. The kidnappers had used one of the hostages' phones to make an initial demand of $500,000. The American tourist, identified as Kimberly Sue Endicott, 35, of Costa Mesa, California, had been traveling with a couple described by police as elderly and a driver and guide named Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo. Endicott and Remezo were returned to a lodge on Sunday night. Four men had held them up at gunpoint Tuesday evening and then "grabbed two out of four ... before disappearing with them," police said in a statement. The other two tourists escaped unharmed. Both Queen Elizabeth National Park and Uganda more broadly are considered safe for tourists. But just across the border in Congo, no fewer than 100 armed groups hold territory, some of which have kidnapped tourists visiting that country's Virunga National Park, a 3,000 square mile tract of tropical rain forest famed for its gorillas and active volcanoes. Virunga reopened in mid-February eight months after a deadly ambush forced its closure. A park ranger was killed trying to defend two British hikers and their guide, who were kidnapped and held for three days. More than 175 rangers have been killed in Virunga. In a statement about the incident in Uganda, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated last week the U.S. government's policy of not paying ransoms. "Please remember that any payment to a terrorist or a terrorist regime gives money so that they can seize more of our people," Pompeo said. "Even a small payment to a group in, say, Africa can facilitate the killing or seizure of tens or even hundreds of others, including Americans or foreign nationals in that region." Walmart is making friends in India with the kind of competitors that it spent decades putting out of business in the U.S. -- mom and pop stores. These unlikely allies are part of the latest attempt by the Bentonville, Arkansas-based behemoth to crack the country's giant consumer market, taking on e-commerce arch-rival Amazon.com and Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani. Years of lobbying by global retailers failed to persuade the Indian government to open its market to foreign competition, because of fears that it may put out of business many of the 12 million neighborhood stores that account for almost 90 percent of the country's retail sales. Walmart's attempt to build an e-commerce business to reach consumers was also hampered by new regulations. So the U.S. company is now rolling out a plan to more than double its wholesale chain in India over the next four years -- supplying the local storeholders instead of competing with them. The move intensifies the three-way brawl with Amazon and Ambani. Each has a different strategy, but they all need to woo the owners of the ubiquitous neighborhood shops. "Our single biggest agenda is: 'How can they become more loyal to us?'" Krish Iyer, chief executive officer of Walmart's India unit said in an interview in the company's newest outlet in the southern city of Karimnagar. "The expansion phase will continue because the opportunity in India is huge." Karimnagar is classic territory for Walmart, which built its empire with warehouse-sized retail outlets on the edges of second-tier American cities. The city, known for its massive quarries of red and brown granite slabs, is the fastest-growing urban center in the landlocked state of Telangana. Barred from opening retail stores, Walmart started the wholesale business in India in 2009, but continued to try to find a way to sell direct to the public. Its most recent attempt -- the $16 billion purchase of homegrown e-commerce leader Flipkart last year -- was dealt a blow when the government came out with new rules designed to protect the 12 million small shopkeepers from online competition too. Walmart's biggest competition comes from Ambani, who isn't subject to the restrictions on foreign companies and already controls India's largest brick and mortar retail chain, as well as a network of wholesale stores that is twice the size of Walmart's. Now, Asia's richest man plans to use his 290 million-subscriber mobile phone network to create an e-commerce giant. India's small shopkeepers are key to that too. Little more than a month after the government's new e-commerce policy was released, on a stage he shared with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ambani announced his first move online would be a marketplace exclusively for the owners of the small stores, called kiranas. Meanwhile, Amazon is working to recruit shopkeepers in small towns and villages, arming them with smartphones to place orders for local residents and relying on them to deliver goods in communities that often have no street names or house numbers. Amazon and Reliance Retail did not reply to requests for comment. "More and more aggressively they are trying to on-board kiranas," said Rajat Wahi, a partner at Deloitte's consumer services practice in New Delhi. "All the volumes go through that channel, albeit in very small lots. So the objective of these players is: how do I get more active selling to these mom-and-pop-stores." Walmart's Iyer wouldn't say how much the company is investing to win these shopkeepers over, but he said 26 more of its Best Price wholesale stores were planned by 2023, with each location costing between $8 million and $10 million. And another 8 to 10 new sites were being identified each year for after that. Walmart's strategy allows shopkeepers to see and touch products before purchasing -- unlike Amazon -- and doesn't compete with its customers by selling direct to consumers -- which Ambani does. "Our members when they come here, they will not find their customers shopping in the store," Iyer said, without naming any competitor. "I will sell only to small resellers." He said no integration with Flipkart is planned -- the e-commerce firm has its own board and CEO, while Walmart India is a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.S. parent. Instead, the Best Price wholesale business is using the internet to try to build loyalty among its clients. It's running a pilot program to help buyers sell goods online to their own customers. Best Price also has its own website and app that allow clients to order online. For those who are uncomfortable placing orders on the web, Walmart sends out employees called business development associates with tablet computers to help shopkeepers and even provide free consultations to modernize their kirana stores. That can include changing the store design. Most kiranas look like old-fashioned general stores where the shopkeeper gets what you need from behind the counter, but many customers prefer the self-service model of Western supermarkets. "For two weeks they helped a lot, the initial set up," said Rajnikanth, 42, an investment adviser who, like many south Indians, goes by one name. He decided to start a shop in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad after noticing his neighborhood lacked such self-service stores. "Almost morning to evening every day they worked here." His Sai Best Buy Super Mart has aisles of Lays potato chips next to packaged versions of traditional Indian snacks like moong dal, and Head & Shoulders shampoo beside the almond and coconut hair oils beloved by Indian women. Almost all of the stock comes from Walmart's store about 10 minutes away. Standing outside the store, Rajnikanth said Walmart gave him advice on how to compete with organized retail chains like Ambani's Reliance Retail, with tips such as offering free local delivery, even if it's for only one item. "This fraternity is wanting to innovate, wanting to digitize, wanting to find new ways of making the business more profitable," Walmart's Iyer said. "They're open to new ideas." Tableau Software, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides business analytics software products. It offers Tableau Desktop, a self-service, powerful analytics product with data; Tableau Server, a business intelligence platform for organizations; Tableau Online, a hosted software-as-a-service version of Tableau Server; Tableau Prep, a data preparation product for combining, shaping, and cleaning data; and Tableau Public, a cloud-based platform for analyzing and sharing public data. In addition, it offers Visual Query Language (VizQL) for databases, which is a computer language for describing pictures of data, including graphs, charts, maps, time series, and tables of visualizations; Live Query Engine that interprets abstract queries generated by VizQL into syntax understandable by database systems; and Hyper, an in-memory data engine technology that helps customers to analyze a range of data sets by evaluating analytical queries directly in the transactional database. Further, the company provides support, maintenance, training, and professional services. It serves organizations in various industries, including business services, energy and telecommunications, financial services, life sciences and healthcare, manufacturing and technology, media and entertainment, public sector, and education, as well as retail, consumer, and distribution industries. The company sells its products directly, as well as through indirect sales channels, such as technology vendors, resellers, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendor, and distributors in the United States, Canada, and internationally. Tableau Software, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Read More John Wood Group PLC, together with its subsidiaries, provides consulting, project management, and engineering solutions to energy and built environment worldwide. It operates through four segments: Asset Solutions Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia; Assets Solutions Americas; Technical Consulting Solutions; and Investment Services. The company offers operations solutions, including maintenance, modifications, commissioning and decommissioning, and aftermarket services, as well as industrial services, such as painting, insulation, scaffolding, rope access, E&I, asbestos removal, and civil and earthworks services; engineering, procurement, and construction management; plant operations and life extension; technology solutions; supervision and management services; fabrication and inspection services; and construction and field services. It also provides environment and infrastructure solutions comprising environmental studies and compliance, environmental remediation, public infrastructure, and geotechnical and materials services; clean energy solutions; mine planning and design, mineral processing and metallurgy, mineral resources and project assessment services; and automation and control solutions, such as asset protection and facility and process automation solutions, as well as simulation, learning, and virtual systems. In addition, the company offers subsea and export systems, including subsea, umbilical, riser, and flowline design, as well as planning, design, and development of marine terminals and pipelines; and hull and marine services. It serves oil and gas, infrastructure, industrial and manufacturing, mining, power, and government sectors. John Wood Group PLC was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Aberdeen, the United Kingdom. Read More Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc designs, develops, manufactures, and services integrated power systems for use in the air, on land, and at sea. The company operates its business through following segments: Civil Aerospace, Power Systems, Defense and ITP Aero. The Civil Aerospace segment offers commercial aero engines and aftermarket services. The Power Systems segment includes engines, power systems and nuclear systems for civil power generation. The Defense segment consists of military aero engines, naval engines, submarines and aftermarket services. The ITP Aero segment provides aeronautical engines and gas turbines. The company was founded in March 1906 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of SAP: Abakus, Abakus Europe Limited, Abakus Ukraine Limited Liability Company, Adatfeldolgozasban Informatikai Kft., Altiscale, Ambin Properties Proprietary Limited, AppGyver, Ariba, Ariba Czech s.r.o., Ariba Inc. Palo Alto, Ariba India Private Limited, Ariba International, Ariba International Holdings, Ariba International Singapore Pte Ltd, Ariba Slovak Republic s.r.o., Ariba Software Technology Services (Shanghai) Co., Ariba Technologies India Private Limited, Ariba Technologies Netherlands B.V., Beijing Zhang Zhong Hu Dong Information Technology, Business Objects, Business Objects Holding B.V., Business Objects Option LLC, Business Objects Software Limited, CNQR Operations Mexico S. de. R.L. de. C.V., Callidus Software, CallidusCloud, Christie Partners Holding C.V., Clear Standards, ClearTrip Inc., ClearTrip Inc. (Mauritius), Cleartrip MEA FZ LLC, Cleartrip Private Limited, Coghead, ConTgo Consulting Limited, ConTgo Pty. Ltd., Concur (Austria) GmbH, Concur (Canada), Concur (France) SAS, Concur (Germany) GmbH, Concur (Japan) Ltd., Concur (New Zealand) Limited, Concur (Philippines) Inc., Concur (Switzerland) GmbH, Concur Czech (s.r.o.), Concur Holdings (France) SAS, Concur Holdings (Netherlands) B.V., Concur Technologies (Australia) Pty. Limited, Concur Technologies (Hong Kong) Limited, Concur Technologies (India) Private Limited, Concur Technologies (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Concur Technologies (UK) Limited, Concur Technologies Inc. Bellevue, Contextor, Coresystems, Crystal Decisions (Ireland) Limited, Crystal Decisions Holdings Limited, Crystal Decisions UK Limited, Emarsys, EssCubed Procurement Pty. Ltd., Extended Systems, Factory Logic, Fedem Technology AS, Fieldglass Europe Limited, Financial Fusion, FreeMarkets Ltda., Frictionless Commerce, Gigya, Gigya Australia Pty Ltd, Gigya Ltd., Gigya UK Ltd, GlobalExpense Limited, Highdeal, Hipmunk, Hybris (US) Corp., Hybris GmbH, Inxight Federal Systems Group, KXEN, Khimetrics, LLC "SAP Labs", LLC "SAP Ukraine", LLC SAP CIS, MaXware, Merlin Systems Oy, Multiposting Sp.z o.o., Nihon Ariba K.K., OpTier, OutlookSoft, OutlookSoft Deutschland GmbH, PLAT.ONE, PT SAP Indonesia, PT Sybase 365 Indonesia, Pilot Software Inc., Plat.One Inc., Plat.One Lab Srl, Plateau Systems LLC, Quadrem Africa Pty. Ltd., Quadrem Brazil Ltda., Quadrem Chile Ltda., Quadrem Colombia SAS, Quadrem International Ltd., Quadrem Netherlands B.V., Quadrem Overseas Cooperatief U.A., Quadrem Peru S.A.C., Qualtrics, Recast.AI, Right Hemisphere, Roambi, Ruan Lian Technologies (Beijing) Co., SAF, SAP (Beijing) Software System Co., SAP (Schweiz) AG, SAP (Schweiz) AG Biel, SAP (UK) Limited, SAP (UK) Limited Feltham, SAP AZ LLC, SAP America, SAP America Inc. Newtown Square, SAP Andina y del Caribe, SAP Argentina S.A., SAP Asia (Vietnam) Co., SAP Asia Pte Ltd, SAP Australia Pty Ltd, SAP Australia Pty Ltd. Sydney, SAP Belgium NV/SA, SAP Beteiligungs GmbH, SAP Brasil Ltda, SAP Brasil Ltda Sao Paulo, SAP Bulgaria EOOD, SAP Business Compliance Services GmbH, SAP Business Services Center Nederland B.V., SAP CR, SAP Canada, SAP Chile Limitada, SAP China Co., SAP China Co. Ltd. Shanghai, SAP China Holding Co., SAP Colombia S.A.S., SAP Commercial Services Ltd., SAP Concur, SAP Costa Rica, SAP Customer Experience, SAP Cyprus Limited, SAP Danmark A/S, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG Walldorf, SAP Dritte Beteiligungs- und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, SAP EMEA Inside Sales S.L., SAP East Africa Limited, SAP Egypt LLC, SAP Erste Beteiligungs- und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, SAP Espana - Sistemas Informatica, SAP Estonia OU, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Financial, SAP Finland Oy, SAP Foreign Holdings GmbH, SAP France, SAP France Holding, SAP France Levallois Perret, SAP Global Marketing, SAP Hellas S.A., SAP Holdings (UK) Limited, SAP Hong Kong Co., SAP Hosting Beteiligungs GmbH, SAP Hungary Rendszerek, SAP India (Holding) Pte Ltd, SAP India Private Limited, SAP India Private Limited Bangalore, SAP Industries, SAP Industries Inc. Newtown Square, SAP International, SAP International Panama, SAP Investments, SAP Ireland Limited, SAP Ireland US - Financial Services Designated Activity Company, SAP Israel Ltd., SAP Italia Sistemi Applicazioni Prodotti in Data Processing S.p.A., SAP Italia Sistemi Applicazioni Prodotti in Data Processing S.p.A. Vimercate, SAP Japan Co., SAP Japan Co. Ltd. Tokyo, SAP Kazakhstan LLP, SAP Korea Ltd., SAP Labs, SAP Labs Bulgaria EOOD, SAP Labs Finland Oy, SAP Labs France SAS, SAP Labs India Private Limited, SAP Labs Israel Ltd., SAP Labs Korea, SAP Latvia SIA, SAP MENA FZ L.L.C., SAP Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., SAP Malta Investments Ltd., SAP Mxico S.A. de C.V., SAP National Security Services PA, SAP Nederland B.V., SAP Nederland B.V. s-Hertogenbosch, SAP Service and Support Centre (Ireland) Limited, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP d.o.o., SeeWhy, Signavio, SuccessFactors, SuccessFactors Inc. South San Francisco, Sybase, Syclo, TopTier Software, Triversity, Vimercate, Virsa Systems, Visiprise, Wicom Communications, and conTgo limited. The following companies are subsidiares of Dominion Energy: 96WI 8me LLC, Alamo Solar LLC, Align RNG Arizona LLC, Align RNG Arizona-Snowflake LLC, Align RNG California LLC, Align RNG California-Corcoran LLC, Align RNG Grady Road LLC, Align RNG LLC, Align RNG Magnolia LLC, Align RNG North Carolina LLC, Align RNG North Carolina-Bowdens LLC, Align RNG Utah LLC, Align RNG Utah-Milford LLC, Align RNG Virginia LLC, Align RNG Virginia-Waverly LLC, Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, Azalea Solar LLC, BOE Holdings Inc., Blackville Solar Farm LLC, Blue Ocean Energy Marine LLC, BrightSuite Home LLC, BrightSuite Inc., BrightSuite Solar CT Inc., BrightSuite Solar SC Inc., BrightSuite Solar VA Inc., Buckingham Solar I LLC, CEA Americus LLC, CEA CO-Fort Morgan LLC, CEA Clovis LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Colorado LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Georgia LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Idaho LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Nevada LLC, CEA Dairy RNG New Mexico LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Texas LLC, CEA Greely LLC, CEA Mason LLC, CEA TX-Dimmitt LLC, CID Solar LLC, CNG Coal Company, CNG Power Services Corporation, Carolina Gas Transmission Corporation, Catalina Solar 2 LLC, Clean Energy Asset USA LLC, Clean Energy Enterprises Inc., Clipperton Holdings LLC, Consolidated Natural Gas Company, Correctional Solar LLC, Cottonwood Solar LLC, Cove Point LNG LP, Cove Point LNG Limited, DE Arlington Solar LLC, DE Fluvanna Solar LLC, DE Hanover Solar LLC, DE Henrico Solar LLC, DE King William Solar LLC, DE Louisa Solar LLC, DE Newport News Solar LLC, DE Powhatan Solar LLC, DE Virginia Beach Solar LLC, DECP Holdings Inc., Dairy RNG Holdings LLC, Dairy RNG NY LLC, Dairy RNG NY-Curtin LLC, Dairy RNG OH LLC, Denmark Solar LLC, Dominion ACP Holding Inc., Dominion Alternative Energy Holdings Inc., Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, Dominion Capital Inc., Dominion Cogen WV Inc., Dominion Energy Fuel Services Inc., Dominion Energy Gas Distribution LLC, Dominion Energy Generation Marketing Inc., Dominion Energy Inc., Dominion Energy Kewaunee Inc., Dominion Energy Marketplace LLC, Dominion Energy Nuclear Connecticut Inc., Dominion Energy Overthrust Pipeline LLC, Dominion Energy Payroll Company Inc., Dominion Energy Questar Corporation, Dominion Energy Questar Pipeline LLC, Dominion Energy Questar Pipeline Services Inc., Dominion Energy RNG Holdings II Inc., Dominion Energy RNG Holdings Inc., Dominion Energy Services Inc., Dominion Energy Solar CA LLC, Dominion Energy Solutions Inc., Dominion Energy South Carolina Inc., Dominion Energy Southeast Services Inc., Dominion Energy Technical Solutions Inc., Dominion Energy Technologies II Inc., Dominion Energy Technologies Inc., Dominion Energy Terminal Company Inc., Dominion Energy Wexpro Services Company, Dominion Equipment III Inc., Dominion Equipment Inc., Dominion Fairless Hills Inc., Dominion Fowler Ridge Wind LLC, Dominion Gas Projects Company LLC, Dominion Generation Inc., Dominion Greenbrier Inc., Dominion High Voltage Holdings Inc., Dominion High Voltage MidAtlantic Inc., Dominion Investments Inc., Dominion Keystone Pipeline Holdings Inc., Dominion Keystone Pipeline LLC, Dominion MLP Holding Company III Inc., Dominion Mt. Storm Wind LLC, Dominion Nuclear Projects Inc., Dominion Oklahoma Texas Exploration & Production Inc., Dominion Person Inc., Dominion Privatization Florida LLC, Dominion Privatization Georgia LLC, Dominion Privatization Holdings Inc., Dominion Privatization Kentucky LLC, Dominion Privatization Maryland LLC, Dominion Privatization Pennsylvania LLC, Dominion Privatization South Carolina LLC, Dominion Privatization Texas LLC, Dominion Privatization Virginia LLC, Dominion Products and Services Inc., Dominion Projects Services Inc., Dominion Resources Capital Trust III, Dominion Retail Gas Holdings Inc., Dominion Solar Construction and Maintenance LLC, Dominion Solar Gen-Tie LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings I LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings II LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings III LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings IV LLC, Dominion Solar Projects A Inc., Dominion Solar Projects B Inc., Dominion Solar Projects C Inc., Dominion Solar Projects D Inc., Dominion Solar Projects I Inc., Dominion Solar Projects II Inc., Dominion Solar Projects III Inc., Dominion Solar Projects IV Inc., Dominion Solar Projects V Inc., Dominion Solar Projects VI Inc., Dominion Solar Projects VII Inc., Dominion Solar Services Inc., Dominion State Line LLC, Dominion Voltage Inc., Dominion Wholesale Inc., Dominion Wind Development LLC, Dominion Wind Projects Inc., ESCT-SA-Suffield LLC, Eagle Holdco Solar LLC, Eagle Solar LLC, Eastern Shore Solar LLC, Enterprise Solar LLC, Escalante Solar I LLC, Escalante Solar II LLC, Escalante Solar III LLC, Four Brothers Solar LLC, Fremont Farm LLC, Granite Mountain Holdings LLC, Granite Mountain Solar East LLC, Granite Mountain Solar West LLC, Greenbrier Marketing Company LLC, Greenbrier Pipeline Company LLC, Greensville County Solar Project LLC, Hardin Solar Energy LLC, Hecate Energy Cherrydale LLC, Hecate Energy Clarke County LLC, Hope Gas Inc., Imperial Valley Solar Company (IVSC) 2 LLC, Indy Solar Development LLC, Indy Solar I LLC, Indy Solar II LLC, Indy Solar III LLC, Innovative Solar 37 LLC, Iron Springs Holdings LLC, Iron Springs Solar LLC, Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas, Maricopa West Solar PV LLC, Moffett Solar 1 LLC, Moorings Farm 2 LLC, Mulberry Farm LLC, Mustang Solar LLC, PSNC Blue Ridge Corporation, PSNC Cardinal Pipeline Company, Pavant Solar LLC, Phone House, Pikeville Farm LLC, Prairie Fork Wind Farm LLC, Public Service Company of North Carolina Incorporated, QPC Holding Company LLC, Questar Corporation, Questar Energy Services Inc., Questar Field Services LLC, Questar Gas Company, Questar InfoComm Inc., Questar Southern Trails Pipeline Company, Questar White River Hub LLC, RE Adams East LLC, RE Camelot LLC, RE Columbia Two LLC, RE Kansas LLC, RE Kent South LLC, RE Old River One LLC, Richland Solar Center LLC, Ridgeland Solar Farm I LLC, SBL Holdco LLC, SCANA, SCANA Communications Holdings Inc., SCANA Corporate Security Services Inc., SCANA Energy Marketing LLC, SCANA Pharmacy LLC, SRFI LLC, Scana Corporation, Scott-II Solar LLC, Seabrook Solar LLC, Selmer Farm LLC, Siler Solar LLC, Sol Madison Solar LLC, Somers Solar Center LLC, South Carolina Fuel Company Inc., South Carolina Generating Company Inc., Southampton Solar LLC, Summit Farms Solar LLC, Sussex Drive Solar Project LLC, TA - Acacia LLC, TWE Myrtle Solar Project LLC, The East Ohio Gas Company, Trask East Solar LLC, Tredegar Solar Fund I LLC, VP Property Inc., Virginia Electric And Power Company, Virginia Power Fuel Corporation, Virginia Power Nuclear Services Company, Virginia Power Services Energy Corp. Inc., Virginia Power Services LLC, Virginia Solar 201 Projects LLC, Wakefield Solar LLC, Wexpro Company, Wexpro Development Company, Wexpro II Company, Wilkinson Solar LLC, Wrangler Retail Gas Holdings LLC, and Yemassee Solar LLC. 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. WASHINGTON Although Medicare for All seems to be one of the main calling cards of outspoken Democratic House freshmen and progressive 2020 contenders, Rep. Antonio Delgado, is placing his bet on a different path forward to universal health care in America: The Public Option. Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, was the lone freshman last week joining two veteran House Democrats Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo and Rep. John Larson of Connecticut in re-introducing a public-option bill, the Medicare-X Choice Act. The act was put forward by Higgins in 2017. The measure would give those without health insurance the option of buying into Medicare, the system that provides health coverage to close to 60 million seniors, 3.6 million of them in New York. In contrast, Medicare for All would largely dismantle the current system of private health insurance and replace it with single payer the U.S. government via Medicare. The debate over these dueling proposals pits the unabashed progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-Bronx-Queens, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., against more centrist Democrats like those in the New Democrat Coalition, a group of over 100 House members including Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-Newburgh, and Anthony Brindisi, D-Binghamton. Delgado, however, is in neither camp. Delgado, who rode a Democratic wave last November to defeat former Republican Rep. John Faso for the upper-Hudson Valley's 19th Congressional District seat, has walked a fine line in his first three months in office. He has held 11 town halls throughout the district and said in terms of health care, hes doing his best to reflect what constituents tell him. You have to make sure youre hearing the folks on the ground, doing the work when youre in D.C. and making sure youre representing their interests to the fullest, he said last week on a conference call with reporters. Ive done a lot of work with my team to make sure that we can own this space, and provide us some real direction when it comes to solving the health care crisis. Looming in the background is President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, who see Medicare for All as fertile ground for attacking Democrats by painting them as socialists because they favor government-run health care. Medicare for All is Obamacare on steroids, said Seema Verma, Trumps head of the Department of Health & Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The attacks are happening at the same time Republicans themselves face problems with their stance on health care. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., last week had to talk Trump into delaying a new Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare the 2010 Affordable Care Act after a series of defeats in 2017. Even so, Trumps Department of Justice has joined in supporting a Texas lawsuit to topple Obamacare in court on Constitutional grounds. A public option came close to being part of the original Affordable Care Act. It passed the House, which then was also controlled by Democrats. In the Senate, New York Sen. Charles Schumer supported it. But it died after moderate Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut threatened a filibuster. Obamacare became the law of the land despite the absence of any Republican support. GOP lawmakers promised to starve it and then overturn it once the votes on Capitol Hill were there. That never happened. The Affordable Care Act succeeded in driving down the number of those lacking health insurance from 44 million in 2013 to 26.6 million in 2016. New Yorks rate of uninsured fell from above 10 percent at the time the ACA became law to six percent in 2017, according to the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation. But the numbers of uninsured have begun to tick back up due to high deductibles and premiums for those earning too much to get Obamacare subsidies. Also, Republicans in Congress ended up cutting the Obamacare risk-pool by rolling back the requirement that all must have health insurance or pay a tax penalty. About 28.5 million nationwide did not have health insurance as of the end of 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. So while Republicans focus on doing away with Obamacare and replacing it with a health care system under minimal government oversight, Democrats are debating what level of government involvement is necessary to achieve the goal of universal health insurance coverage. The public option would also allow folks who are happy with their employer-provided plans to keep them, but at the same time it would offer another more affordable coverage option to those in need, Delgado said. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Delgado also stresses the benefits to rural areas like the one he represents, and elsewhere in upstate New York. Oftentimes, private insurers on Obamacare exchanges ignore rural regions, or the areas are represented by one insurer exercising a virtual monopoly. The Medicare-X Choice Act would be administered separately from the Medicare used for senior citizens, and would be self-financing, Delgado said. It would cap premiums at no more than 13 percent of household income. Those lower on the income scale would pay less than 13 percent. Robert Field, a law professor and health care policy expert at Drexel University, said the public option would cause less of a shock to the medical system than Medicare for All. Its definitely more practical and more political feasible, he said, pointing out that choice in health care has become ingrained in the American psyche. You could fit it into the current ACA architecture. Its wouldnt disrupt the system as much as Medicare for All would. However, the debate on Capitol Hill might ultimately revolve more around propping up Obamacare a path that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to favor. She opposes Medicare for All. In 2009, Pelosi at first supported the public option, but ultimately deleted it from the final version of the ACA. Obamacare, meanwhile, has been a relative success in New York. It is one of 11 states to operate its own health-insurance exchange New York State of Health. The exchange reported last month that the 28 insurers offering various plans had signed up more than one million by Jan. 31, 2019, an increase of 6.5 percent over the previous year. But those who lack health insurance through their employers in New York and elsewhere complain that without federal subsidies available to those in the lower-income brackets, policies on the exchange often come with high premiums and high deductibles. Both Delgados public option and Medicare for All are aimed at fixing that imbalance. The competition of a lower-cost Medicare option would force private insurers to drive down rates, he said. However, cost estimates for Medicare for All reach as high as $30 trillion. Delgado shies away from direct criticism of Medicare for All, preferring to extol what he sees as the positives of a public option. Id rather speak about what I believe, Delgado said in a phone interview Friday. The focus is on how to craft a piece of legislation that gets to the heart of a complicated matter, that has the effect of bringing as many folks under the (health insurance) tent as possible." Albany The house across the street from Michael Korzyk's home is a problem for the neighborhood. A big problem. For more than a year, according to Korzyk and others, the house at 523 First Street in West Hill has been a nightclub, essentially, right in their residential neighborhood. Police have been called to the house dozens and dozens of times. Police arrived at the house again March 16, early in the morning. That's when body cameras recorded police kicking in the front door and beating several men, leading to the arrest of one cop and the suspension of two others. In a prior column, I said the behavior of some officers at the scene was reprehensible, and I still believe that. The video clips released by the police department show an appalling and ugly scene. Police Chief Eric Hawkins, in a Tuesday press conference with Mayor Kathy Sheehan, said officers inappropriately escalated the confrontation and turned it violent. He condemned "the misconduct" and said it won't be tolerated. But Korzyk, 58, has a different view the one from his front window. He believes the officers were finally addressing a problem that was allowed to fester for too long. The mayhem at 523 First St., a two-unit building, has been making neighbors miserable, he said. "That officer who was out in that street was fighting for me," Korzyk said Friday. "I wouldn't have cared if he had killed that guy." The officer is Luke Deer and that guy is Armando Sanchez, 27. In a particularly disturbing video clip, Deer pushes Sanchez in the back, knocking him to the ground. When Sanchez tries to get up, the officer appears to hits him with a baton before beating him in the road. Deer, who pleaded not guilty to assault and official misconduct charges, has been suspended without pay. Korzyk and Sheila Ketter, another neighbor, both witnessed the scene firsthand and say the video clips doesn't show everything. The videos don't show that Sanchez was acting aggressively beforehand and that many others on the street were taunting and provoking police. "These aren't school kids who are out there playing," Korzyk said. "You can't just give them lollipops." Korzyk owns a Central Avenue printing business, and in recent days he has placed banners in its windows. One says, "We support Officer Luke Deer. Innocent. Thank you for doing your job." Another says, "Mayor: Support the police and the community, not the criminals." Many of you who will disagree with Korzyk, and for good reason. Police shouldn't get away with beating people, no matter the provocation. Nor should they falsify reports, as the Albany cops seem to have done. But why weren't problems at 523 First Street addressed long before the melee? According to Ketter and Korzyk, crowds begin arriving at the house at about 4 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings, once the legal nightclubs have closed. Typically, there is a bouncer at the front door who takes the entrance fee and a DJ playing music inside. Cars park on the sidewalk up and down the street, often blocking driveways. Those who come and go from the house yell, vomit and sometimes brawl. "They have 100 people in that apartment," Ketter said. "Noise, fighting. I mean, ridiculous." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Ketter and Korzyk both say they have repeatedly complained and called the police, who dutifully arrive to break the parties up. But nothing ever changes. The parties keep happening. Neighbors keep suffering. It's impossible to imagine that a house in a wealthier part of the city would be allowed to cause such mayhem every weekend. Why wasn't the problem addressed? "I don't care where you live, this should not be allowed to go on," said Ketter, 59, who was shocked to learn that Deer had been arrested and that charges against Sanchez and two others had been dropped. "I don't think police did anything wrong," she said. "If an officer tells you to go home and you keep coming at him, what are they supposed to do?" Ketter bought her home after moving to Albany from Queens eight years ago and has made significant upgrades to its appearance. Korzyk has lived on First Street his entire life. His two-unit home was purchased in 1947 by his grandparents, Walter and Josephine Korzyk, a union carpenter and a hairdresser. When he was growing up, his family lived downstairs and his grandparents lived above. Korzyk stuck with West Hill through decades of decline but never experienced anything like the party house across the street. It galls him that his tormenters will be seen, at least in some eyes, as martyrs. He also believes that the parties will go on. Nothing will change. The noise and the mayhem will continue. "What now?" Korzyk asked. "What happens now?" cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill Diavata, Greece Hundreds of protesting migrants clashed with police for a third straight day in northern Greece on Saturday, with migrants throwing rocks at officers who responded with tear gas and stun grenades. Authorities say the demonstrations outside a migrant camp in Diavata have been triggered by false reports on social media that restrictions on travel to northern Europe had been lifted. Several migrants, including children, fainted amid the clouds of tear gas Saturday. The protesters lit fires to make the air more bearable, but blazes have also erupted from exploding stun grenades. Greek officials say the migrants have been mobilized by false reports originating on social media that the road to central Europe, tightly sealed to migrants for three years, is open again, and that buses chartered by non-governmental organizations are waiting on the other side of the border with North Macedonia, about 40 miles to the north of Diavata. "We must constantly fight the fake news," said Nikos Ragos, the migrant policy ministry's coordinator for northern Greece. He added that some of the migrants were now questioning the false reports, but that cybercrime police must find the source and the motive for spreading the claims. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Greek TV station Ant1 showed a migrant's cellphone screen containing a social media message, in Arabic, sent earlier this week from a purported NGO called "Caravan of Hope" advising migrants that Greece was to open the border with North Macedonia on April 5 at noon. The protesting migrants in Diavata are mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of them are not camp residents, but came from all over Greece in order to reach the North Macedonia border. Some who tried to break into the camp were thrown out by police and at least two were arrested. Almost none of the camp dwellers want to stay in Greece. They want to move on to wealthier central and northern European countries, especially Germany. Many feel trapped in Greece and despair with the slow pace of processing asylum applications. London British Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledged that the government's strategies to get her Brexit deal approved in Parliament failed, saying Saturday there's little prospect lawmakers will back the thrice-rejected divorce agreement "in the near future." With the U.K. once again days away from a deadline for leaving the European Union, May pressured opposition lawmakers to help her find a compromise agreement instead, saying voters "expect their politicians to work together when the national interest demands it." After May's deal was voted down for a third time in the House of Commons, the prime minister invited the opposition Labour Party this week to discuss alternatives. But three days of talks ended with no agreement and the left-of-center Labour accusing May's Conservative government of not offering real change. "I haven't noticed any great change in the government's position so far," Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Saturday. "I'm waiting to see the red lines move." Labour favors a softer form of Brexit than the government has advocated. The party says Britain should remain closely bound to EU trade rules and maintain the bloc's standards in areas such as workers' rights and environmental protection. Britain is due to leave the EU on Friday unless May can secure another delay from the EU, which already agreed to postpone the Brexit day originally set for March 29. May now is asking for Britain's departure to be pushed back until June 30, hoping to reach a compromise with Labour and a deal through Parliament in a matter of weeks. "The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the U.K. never leaving at all," May said in a statement. But EU leaders favor a longer delay to avoid another round of cliff-edge preparations and politics. And they say the U.K. needs to put forward a concrete plan to end the stalemate to get any further postponement. An extension requires unanimous approval from the 27 remaining leaders, some of whom are fed up with Brexit uncertainty and reluctant to prolong it further. Last month, the EU gave Britain until April 12 to approve the withdrawal agreement it reached with the May's government, to change course and seek a further delay to Brexit, or to crash out of the EU with no deal in place or transition period to cushion the shock. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The leaders of EU member countries are due to meet in Brussels Wednesday two days before the April 12 deadline to consider Britain's request for a second extension. Economists and business leaders have warned a no-deal Brexit would severely disrupt trade and travel, with tariffs and customs checks causing gridlocked British ports and possible shortages of some foods, medicines and other products. Worries about a chaotic British exit are especially acute in Ireland, the only EU member that shares a land border with the U.K. Any customs checks or other obstacles along the currently invisible frontier would hammer the Irish economy and could undermine Northern Ireland's peace process. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday that it was "extremely unlikely" any of the 27 countries would veto a delay. "If one country was to veto an extension and, as a result, impose hardship on us, real problems for the Dutch and Belgians and French as neighboring countries (to the U.K.) ... they wouldn't be forgiven for it," he told Ireland's RTE radio. The longest of long-shot bids to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2020 is gaining some serious attention. Schenectady native Andrew Yang, a tech entrepreneur, appeared on two national news programs, and received coverage from Politico and Newsweek after surpassing the 65,000 individual donors needed to get on the DNC debate stage in June. Yang, 44, was on This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday as well as AM Joy with Ali Velshi last week. He'll also host a CNN town hall on April 14. U.S. Sen Kirsten Gillibrand's CNN town hall is scheduled for Tuesday. Yang told Velshi that he believes Donald Trump was elected largely because automation removed millions of manufacturing jobs from swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. To win the White House, Democrats need to be able to have an answer for the people affected by that change, Yang said. To me, the job of the Democrats is to address the problems that got Donald Trump elected, he said. Yang believes that technological advances in automation and artificial intelligence will mean even more job losses in the service and retail sectors of the economy. My campaign is about helping millions of Americans through this historic period, he told Velshi. On Sunday, he explained the biggest issue in his platform, a $1,000 per month payment to every adult age 18 to 64, to Stephanopoulos. Yang has branded the payment the Freedom Dividend and compares it to the payment all residents of Alaska receive from a fund paid for by oil companies revenue. We need to evolve to the next form of our economy in order for Americans to have a path forward, he said. Yangs plan would cost more than $2 trillion. To pay for the program, which would be more than half the entire United States government budget, Yang wants to institute a value-added tax on the companies that have benefited the most from automation and other technological advances. Value-added taxes are common in other parts of the world, especially the European Union. The rest of his policy positions are in line with most of the Democratic field single-payer healthcare, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, fighting climate change and reducing the cost of higher education. But beyond media attention, Yangs campaign is also getting support from donors. Politico reported that Yangs campaign raised $1.7 million in the first quarter of the year from more than 80,000 donors. According to the campaign, 99 percent of donations were under $200; the average donation was $17.92. Yangs biggest rivals easily outraised him. Sen. Bernie Sanders took in over $18 million while Sen. Kamala Harris raised around $12 million. But Yangs campaign is resonating enough that if he continues to poll with at least 1 percent support, hell be on the debate stage for the first Democratic debate, which will be held on June 26 and 27 in Miami. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Under the Democratic National Committee rules, candidates must receive at least 1 percent support in at least three polls or receive donations from more than 65,000 individual donors along with a minimum of 200 donors in at least 20 states. Yang would join Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson as the only non-elected officials in the past 40 years to make the first Democratic presidential debate in a cycle, according to Politico. And if he somehow knocks aside every other candidate to become the partys nominee, he would be the first Asian-American nominee of any major political party. Yang spent his first four years in Schenectady before his father took a job with IBM and the family moved to Yorktown Heights. He went to Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Brown University with a degree in economics before getting a law degree at Columbia Law School. After his first company failed, Yang joined several other entrepreneurs who eventually started a test prep company that Kaplan bought out in 2009. In 2011, he started Venture for America, a non-profit designed to encourage entrepreneurship and start-up companies in struggling communities. He launched his presidential bid in 2017, recognizing from the start it was a long-shot. At a town hall in January at the Chinese Community Center's Chinese School at Shaker Junior High School, Yang said his plan to possibly become the nominee comes down to surviving Iowa and then hoping to capitalize on Californias large Asian-American population. The Iowa Democratic caucus typically sees around 170,000 voters, Yang said. If he can get 40,000 Iowans to vote for him, he believes hell capture national attention, giving him momentum in the next few primaries. That is the test, that is the only test, he said in January. ALBANY With the passage of the state budget last week, New York will once again attempt to become the first state in the nation to tax the sale of opioids. But lawmakers and addiction treatment advocates say the new tax on prescription painkillers is expected to make it harder for patients to afford their medications and is unlikely to result in any new funds for addiction treatment or prevention services as proponents of the tax originally suggested. "The whole idea that it was meant to help anyone is a PR fiction," said Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, chair of her chamber's Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. "It won't help anyone but New York state." New York first tried its hand at an opioid tax last year, and passed it as part of the budget process in an attempt to hold drugmakers and distributors responsible for their role in an escalating overdose epidemic fueled by opioid addiction. But the tax was struck down before it could be implemented by a federal judge who said a provision barring manufacturers and distributors from passing the extra cost onto consumers violated the Dormant Commerce Clause. That clause says that states cannot pass legislation favoring their own citizens and businesses at the expense of citizens and businesses from out of state. Manufacturers and distributors had successfully argued in court that the New York opioid tax would force them to raise costs along their supply chain out of state. To get around this, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget amendments this year included an opioid tax that would allow drugmakers and distributors to pass the cost onto New York consumers. "If you go back to last year, at least that tax was specifically crafted to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible for a crisis they helped to create," Rosenthal said. "We knew the revenue would likely supplant existing treatment funds, but at least they were paying something. Now it's the patients who will pay." An economic analysis of the proposed tax commissioned by a trade group representing the pharmaceutical industry concluded that consumers likely would pay the lion's share of the proposed tax, and theorized it would lead to higher insurance premiums, higher out-of-pocket drug costs, and higher taxes for New York residents. It also ominously warned that a tax could increase overdose deaths in New York. By increasing the cost of prescription opioids, it theorized, the tax would encourage residents suffering from opioid dependence to switch to cheaper and more dangerous opioids, such as heroin or illicitly-manufactured fentanyl. The proposed tax quickly drew condemnation from patients, physicians, pharmacists, disability rights groups and the American Cancer Society, who rallied at the state Capitol late last month to urge lawmakers to oppose it. "The Assembly fought hard against it," Rosenthal said of the budget negotiation process. "But once it was in the budget it was hard to pull it out." Facing a $2.6 billion revenue shortfall this year, Cuomo rekindled the opioid tax but rejiggered it to avoid potential legal issues. It is estimated the tax will generate $100 million in new revenue. Asked whether the revenues had been earmarked for anything in particular, Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the state budget division, said they would go into the state's general fund. While legislators supporting the tax are hopeful the extra revenue will result in increased funding for addiction treatment and prevention services, state budget language contains no guarantee that it will. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The budget includes language that it is "the intent of the legislature" that no less than $100 million of revenue a year should go to support programs operated, approved or certified by the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS). But it is not specific to the opioid tax revenues, Klopott said. That is also around the amount OASAS already receives in the state budget, Rosenthal said, suggesting that the $100 million budget pledge to OASAS was a "contrivance of wording" to get people on board with the tax. At least 16 states have considered legislation in recent years that would create an opioid tax, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. New York is the only state to have gone through with it. The Healthcare Distribution Alliance, a group that represents major pharmaceutical distributors, said the tax sets a "dangerous precedent." "For the second year in a row, Governor Cuomo and his administration have prioritized political posturing and funding state coffers at the expense of New York's most vulnerable patients," HDA president and CEO John Gray said. New York is also suing the makers and distributors of opioids, and the family behind OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma, in an attempt to recoup costs incurred by the ongoing opioid epidemic. The 258-page complaint, filed last week, is the nation's most extensive opioid lawsuit yet. You have reached a premium content area of TOL. To read this entire article please login if you are already a TOL subscriber. Not a subscriber? Subscribe today for access to: Full access to the website, including premium articles videos, country reports and searchable archives (containing over 25,000 articles). Man accused of killing five KC neighbors set for trial KANSAS CITY, Mo. - After years of delays, a Kansas City man accused of killing five people in the same neighborhood is scheduled to go to trial Monday. Brandon Howell will be tried in Jackson County, Missouri, on five counts of first-degree murder. TV news offers an important perspective on the legacy of the slaughter five years later and as the suspect FINALLY meets with justice. Checkit: It is one more The Grand Tour special - largely unscripted, emotional, funny, and just perfect. Called Survival of the Fattest, the latest episode of The Grand Tour takes us to sparsely populated Mongolia where our heroes embark on a long journey over perilous mountains, mighty rivers, and endless Gobi dunes in a homemade car. The mission is to reach the town called the Moron. They had to do it in seven days, only with British army rations as a diet, and a car delivered disassembled to them by a Russian Mil Mi-8 helicopter. Survival Of The Fattest Is Not A Car Show, But It Can Do More For Cars Than Any Other Warning: not many spoilers ahead Dont think for a second that this is yet another car show because it is not. Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson, and James May almost did not mention anything about cars or the car industry in this episode. They did not even say what they were driving (because they probably did not know). Yet, regardless of the comedic quality of it, and lack of any serious car talk, the Survival of the Fattest easily did what all other car shows struggle to do. It charged me about cars, and off-roaders so much that right after Clarkson said goodbye at the end, I went searching for an off-roader. It got my blood pumping so much that I instantly wanted to do a similar adventure in my off-roader whether it is a Wrangler, Fiat Panda, or the Polaris XP. I dont have any of them, but I googled them, so thats close. What Car Did May, Hammond, and Clarkson Drove In The Grand Tour Episode Survival of the Fattest? Sometimes looking like a Mars Opportunity rover ambling over Mars rocks, the John, an aptly named homemade AWD vehicle Hammond and May assembled in the desert, was the main star of the latest Grand Tour episode. By the end of the episode, John showed me why horsepower, looks, or even the build quality does not really matter. It taught me what the car is all about. It is about freedom, about adventure, and voyages of epic proportions. Yet, I was curious to find out who the John really is. After the parts for it landed in a crate on the desert floor (like in a PUBG video game), James May figured out right away that the engine is a 2.5-liter, TDi from a Land Rover. Powered by a 300TDi engine with 111 horsepower from the Defender, the John also had Land Rover Discovery, R380 gearbox (I recognized LR gearbox watching the show actually), and LT230 transfer box with permanent four-wheel drive. A few years back, I remember that British Autoexpress inferred that this might be the best transfer box in the world. Just right for the occasion then. Now, TGT did not provide any details about the chassis but said it is of a bespoke ladder frame design. I did find out, however, that TGT team sometime works with the Howard Marshall Engineering from the U.K. on their projects that are related to some crazy body on frame projects. It could very well be that HME managed to adopt a chassis of some of its farming vehicles for this occasion. Or, theyve built it from the ground up. Whatever they did, May and Hammond manage to assemble a whole car with a small crate of tools, and (I believe) a bit of help from the filming crew. As a final touch, they fitted wooden panels instead of the standard bodywork. It is a hideous creation, but the one that did the job just right. And the one that likes to hop a lot (you have to watch to figure this out). Unlike other standard off-roaders, the John is mid-engined. As trivia page from the Amazon Prime says, the engineers did it for several reasons: "ground clearance, weight distribution, and better comfort for the occupants." Disclosure: I have reached out to HME in the hope of getting confirmation about the Johns origins, and I will update this article when (and if) HME officials respond. How To buy The John Car From The Grand Tours Survival Of The Fattest? Unfortunately, after Hammond, May, and Clarkson reached the town of Moron, and when they had concluded the mission, the team scrapped John. Complicated export paperwork was too much for the team. So, to answer the question. You cant buy it. Call HME; it may hook you up. What Did The Grand Tour Presenters Do If Not Talk About Cars? Jeremy Crackson Talked About Genghis Khan James May Talked About Alcohol Richard Hammond Talked About Arrows The last episode of The Grand Tour - Survival of the Fattest - is an epic 90-minute adventure you have to watch. It will make you buy an off-roader. Further reading Read more The Grand Tour news. RTHK: 'Democrats will never see Trump's tax return' The White House has vowed that President Donald Trump's tax returns will never be released to the Democrats, as a new front opened in the confrontation between the administration and Congress. Chief of staff Mick Mulvaney accused Democrats of engaging in a political stunt after the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal, asked the Inland Revenue Service (IRS) to provide six years of Trump's personal tax returns, and those for some of his businesses. "That is not going to happen and they know it," Mulvaney told Fox News. Asked whether he believed Democrats would ever view the president's returns, Mulvaney replied: "Oh no, never. Nor should they." Last week, Massachusetts Democrat Neal, one of only three congressional officials authorised to request tax records, asked for Trump's 2013 to 2018 returns in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. He also asked set an April 10 deadline. An obscure 1924 statute includes no exceptions to Neal's authority to ask the Treasury Department for returns and says the department shall furnish them when requested. It does require that the review of an individual's return be conducted by members of Congress in "closed executive session" if they are provided without the taxpayer's consent. Mulvaney said the law provides for lawmakers to review individual tax returns but "a political hit job is not one of those reasons". His comments echoed those made by Trump's lawyers who argued the request would set a dangerous precedent if granted. Trump broke with precedent when he chose not to release any tax returns as a presidential candidate. Mulvaney tried to cast the issue of the president's taxes as old news, saying it was "already litigated during the election" and the American people "elected him anyway." Trump says he won't release the information because he is under audit, although there is no legal reason to support his argument. (AP) This story has been published on: 2019-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Education Montgomery County Community College will present the spring installment of the interview/talk show program Issues and Insights April 20 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Science Center room 214, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The programs will be simulcast to the Colleges West Campus in South Hall room 216, 101 College Drive, Pottstown. Dr. Kolsky will offer a humorous presentation, Carrots, Sticks and Politics: A State of the Nation and the World Message. In this speech, he will provide his interpretation of domestic and international politics and then welcome questions from the audience for discussion. Issues and Insights, is free and open to the public. For information, contact Dr. Thomas Kolsky, professor of political science, at 215-641-6380 or tkolsky@mc3.edu. Montgomery County Community Colleges STEM Scholars Program will host a STEM Jam! open house April 25 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center at the Colleges Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The drop-in event is designed for students interested in learning more about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Activities will include STEM program information and career advising, STEM speakers throughout the day from industry and academia, micro-helicopter and robotics competitive obstacle courses and demonstrations and static models of STEM student and faculty work. For more information about STEM Jam! or STEM programs at MCCC, contact William Brownlowe at wbrownlowe@mc3.edu or 215-641-6644, or Robin Zuhlke at 215-619-7440 or rzuhlke@mc3.edu. Temple Ambler, located at 580 Meetinghouse Road, presents the following events: International Club Global Bazaar April 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. The Ambler Campus International Club invites all students, faculty, staff and the community to celebrate a multitude of diverse cultures, which will be showcased at the organizations Global Bazaar. This family friendly event will highlight cultural traditions and celebrations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South American, North America and Africa through music, entertainment, food and informative displays developed and presented by students at the Ambler Campus. Young visitors will be provided with passports, which they may get stamped at each country they visit. Prizes will be awarded to world travelers who talk to cultural representatives, answer questions about the countries theyve visited and take part in fun-filled activities designed to help them learn about the rich diversity of cultures found throughout the world. Refreshments will be served. The event is free. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail tuc36466@temple.edu. EarthFest 2011 April 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. More than 75 exhibitors, including the Philadelphia Zoo, The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Elmwood Park Zoo and the Insectarium, will take part in EarthFest 2011. School students of all ages are invited to attend and develop displays of their own. EarthFest partner the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society also offers its Kids Grow Expo, featuring the Junior Flower Show, as part of the event. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail duffyj@temple.edu. Annual Spring Plant Sale May 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The plant sale an Ambler Campus tradition dating back to the early 1900s will feature woody plants and perennials in portable sizes, hardy trees, shrubs, and vines, native plants that are attractive to wildlife, herbs, and hanging baskets. There will also be numerous special plants for sale to highlight Amblers special anniversary year. Garden books and garden tools will also be available for sale. Students, staff, and volunteers from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and the Ambler Arboretum Advisory Committee will be available to answer questions. All proceeds from the Spring Plant Sale will support the Ambler Arboretum Fund and the Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society. Information: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. June Homecoming/Louise Bush-Brown Garden Dedication June 5 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. (June Homecoming), Bright Hall Lounge; 2 p.m. (Garden Dedication), Ambler Campus Formal Perennial Gardens. Tickets June Homecoming: Participant $18 per person; Sustainer $25 per person; Benefactor $40 per person. The 2011 June Homecoming, sponsored by the School of Environmental Design Alumni Association, will include the Alumni Association annual meeting and luncheon. June Homecoming will be followed by the formal dedication of Temple University Amblers Formal Perennial Gardens as the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Gardens. During this 100th anniversary of the campus, Temple University Ambler and the Ambler Arboretum of the Temple University is honoring Louise Bush-Browns many contributions to the history of the campus by formally dedicating the gardens in her honor. During the program, campus Executive William Parshall will welcome guests, Ambler Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey will speak about the Bush-Browns and the history of the garden, and an official ribbon cutting will be held for the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Garden. Following the ribbon cutting, guests are invited to take a tour of the gardens, which will wend their way to the Campus Greenhouse for the School of Environmental Designs annual Plant Auction. Information (Garden Dedication): 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Information (June Homecoming): 215-482-0722. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. Northview Garden Tour and Fundraiser for the Ambler Arboretum June 12 from noon to 5 p.m. Call for reservations. Tickets: $15 per person or $20 at the door. In addition to the gardens of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey has a garden oasis all her own right in Ambler Northview. Visitors will have the opportunity to take self-guided tours throughout the many gardens, where garden experts will be available to answer questions about the various designs. The Ambler Keystone Chapter of the Womans National Farm and Garden Association will also provide tea and refreshments. All proceeds from the tours will support the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. Information or to register: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. The Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County, 536 George Street, Norristown, will hold the following events: SAAC Adult Day Care, an alternative to Nursing Home Care is available for information call 610-275-1960 Volunteers are needed for Meals on Wheels Program (call the number above) SAACs Fifth Avenue Boutique opens Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Exercise with Theresa will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m. Dance class is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Tai Chi is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Yoga is held every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. Line Dancing is held every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Dancing with Joan is held every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Sculpture Class is held Wednesdays from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Why Should I Learn Spanish? will be held Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. Generations On-Line computer classes for seniors will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. 4 p.m. computers are available during those hours. Health Living will be held every Tuesday at 1 p.m. Boomer U will hold the following events. Boomer U is located at 45 Forest Avenue, Ambler. Registration & payment is required for all events: 215-619-8863. Pilates Class is held Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:30 a.m. First class is free; please bring a mat. For information call 610-291-5376. Blue Bell School of Dance, 921 Penllyn Blue Bell Pike, Blue Bell, hosts Argentine Tango Classes and a Milonga dance party every Friday evening. Lessons start at 8:30 p.m. followed by dancing at 9:30 p.m. Andrew Conway, master Argentine Tango dancer, instructor and performer and his partner Linda Chase will instruct. All levels welcome and no partner is needed. Refreshments will be served. Fee is $12 per person and includes lesson and dancing. Information: 215-634-1101 or www.amoretango.com. The Montgomery Hospital Medical Center will offer the following classes: Childbirth Education Class- all parents are invited to participate, including those who are delivering at other hospitals. For more information on maternity services or classes, call 610-270-2020. CPR and First Aid Courses are offered for beginners to experiences health care providers. Call 610-270-2313. The Ambler SAAC (Senior Adult Activities Center), located at 45 Forest Ave in Ambler will hold the following events: Tai Chi every Monday and Thursday at 11 a.m. Yoga is every Tuesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 10:30 a.m. Strength and balance training every Wednesday at 10 a.m. Armchair Aerobics is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Gourmet Weight Wise every Thursday at 12:30. Fitness Center and Pool Room open daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m. The Diabetes Education Center will offer day and evening classes each month. Health insurance pays for diabetes education classes. Preregistration is required. Call 610-270-2301. For Kids & Families The Ambler Kiwanis Club will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt April 26 at 10 a.m. in Ambler Borough Park, located just off of the intersection of Hendricks Street and Valley Brook Road. Members of the Wissahickon Key Club will assist Kiwanians in hiding thousands of wrapped chocolate eggs in a designated area of the park. Also hidden will be plastic colored eggs, which are redeemed for prizes. Elementary school children are separated by age. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation will hold its 21st annual Storybook Egg-Stravaganza April 15 fom 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Upper Dublin Township Building. Toddlers and preschoolers love this annual event where photo opportunities with favorite friends abound! Treasures are collected from UDP&Rs assortment of lifesize cutouts of favorite cartoon characters from Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon and other well-known animation. Children can have their picture taken with Bugsy OHare; bring your own camera. And dont forget a basket for goodies! $7 for UD residents; $12 for non-residents. Pre-register at 215-643-1600 ext. 3443. Splash Week is a free week-long program that teaches children and families basic swimming skills and water safety practices. All YMCA branches will host multiple classes each day from April 11 to 15. For more information, contact the Ambler Area YMCA at 215-628-9950. Healthy Kids Day is April 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day is filled with fun, engaging and artistic activities that cultivate healthy living as part of the YMCAs larger efforts to help more kids and families become physically active. All activities are free and open to the community. For more information, contact the Ambler YMCA at 215-628-9950. No reservation is required. The Ambler Area YMCA has added several new programs for area youngsters. Classes are held late afternoons or evenings on various weekdays. For more information, visit philaymca.org or call 215-628-9950. Basic Beading: Ages: 10+. Wednesdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. This class will teach you the fundamentals of wiring and stringing along with how color can be used to create unique and vibrant beadwork design. You will create various jewelry including earrings, bracelets, charm pendants and much more! Supplies will be provided. Bringing your own jewelry pliers or tools would be a plus. Messin with the Masters: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. Learn about some of the worlds greatest artists. You will be inspired to create your own Starry Night with oil pastels and tempera paints, a tissue paper painted Monet garden, a Picasso head using scraps of paper, a Georgia OKeeffe clay flower bowl and a Rousseau jungle collage. Super Scientist: Ages: 5-7. Mondays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Well be concocting chemistry experiments such as making slime, mixing potions and having fun with magnet magic. Your budding little scientist will enhance his/her creative thinking and motor skills and to top it off will learn that science can be serious fun. Wacky Junk Art: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 6 to 6:45 p.m. Why throw it away! Instead join us to make household junk into aliens from outer space, wacky specs, crazy hats, body masks or a recycled train. Globe Trotters: Ages: 4-6. Tuesdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Youre never too young to start thinking globally. Each week, we explore a new country through crafts, games, music, stories and even some taste-testing. A perfect introduction to our great big world! Crazy about Crafts: Ages: 5-7, Thursdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Let your childs creative juices flow with our fun arts and crafts projects each week. Fine motor skills and creative thinking skills will be enhanced with this crafty class. Come out and join the Ambler Area YMCAs Teen and Junior Leaders Club. Participants are given the freedom to plan community service projects year round and truly make a difference in the lives of people in need. Those in Teen and Junior Leaders also attend leadership retreats all along the East Coast three times a year and meet other leaders who are doing the same great work in their respective areas. Dont miss out on this inspiring opportunity. Teen Leaders, ages 13-17, meet every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Junior Leaders, ages 10-12, will begin in the spring and will meet every Monday. For more information, contact Mike Miles, Teen Director, 215- 628-9950 x 1540 or mmiles@philaymca.org. Did you know that the new Ambler Area YMCA holds childrens birthday parties at its site for members and non members as well. The Ambler Y does all the work from start to finish and birthday parties include a personalized cake, ice cream, beverage and paper products. Parties are held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and include two party hosts to lead activities, set-up, clean-up and assist with serving. You can have a Splash Party for children ages six to 12 in the new zero depth entry pool with water slide and spray fountains. Up to 25 children have exclusive use of the pool area with 30 minutes in the party room. Sports Parties are offered for kids ages four to 12 with age appropriate activities and games, and sports such as floor hockey, soccer, basketball or dodge ball. Children ages three to five years of age will enjoy parties in the Family Active Center with use of the Moon Bounce and organized activities, such as parachute play and songs. For information, 215-628-9950 ext. 1583. Community Events at the Ambler Y: -YAchievers YMCA Achievers is a developmentally based, extracurricular, educational and team mentoring program designed to help students in grades five through 12 prepare for fulfilled livelihoods in college and beyond. Participation is free and all students in this program receive a free YMCA membership. Registration for the 2009 program begins now. You do not need to be a YMCA member to utilize these special services. Call 215-628-9950 to register. Greater Norristown Art Leagues Childrens Weeklong Summer Art Camps will be held at 800 West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday throughout the summer. The cost per session is $125 per student for ages 6 and up. Jo Ann Cooksey Bono teaches an introduction to basic drawing skills and techniques from 10 a.m. until the lunch break each day. In the afternoon sessions, Mary Vogel Lozinak involves the students in hands on projects such as collage, papermaking, T-shirt printing, 3D design and sculpy clay. Fridays Graduation Day includes an art show, awards ceremony and reception for parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. All supplies are included. Students provide their own lunch. A refrigerator is available and the building is air-conditioned. This is the 15th year to run this successful program. Both instructors are professional artists with State Police and Child Abuse Clearances. To register, call Jo Ann at 610-279-1008, or register on-line at www.gnal.org. Health Dresher Physical Therapy is hosting an interactive seminar discussing its Golf Assessment Progam April 30 from 10 a.m. to noon at Dresher Physical Therapy, 1075 Virginia Drive, Suite 200, Fort Washington. Physical therapist Chris Miller, certified through the Titleist Performance Institute, will discuss why your body may be the most important piece of golf equipment you invest in and how this can drastically improve your game. $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Call 215-619-4545 to reserve your spot. The Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment, Center on the Hill and Chestnut Hill Hospital will host a Senior Health and Resource Fair April 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, 8855 Germantown Ave. The event is free. For more information, call 215-248-0180 or e-mail chseniors@cavtel.net. The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is hosting Help Yourself to Health, a new six-week workshop for older adults with ongoing health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, heart disease and others. The free workshop will take place at the Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center, 45 Forest Ave. on six Thursdays, May 12 through June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Although there is no charge to participate, registration is required. To register, call 215-619-8863. The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is sponsoring an eight-week program called A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls. Presented by the Montgomery County Health Department, this workshop will be held on Tuesdays, May 3 to June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ambler Center, 45 Forest Ave. If you pre-register by April 27, the fee is only $5! Registration at the first class is $10. (Checks should be payable to SAAC and will benefit our Meals on Wheels program that serves homebound seniors.) A workbook will be provided and refreshments will be served. Call 215-619-8863 to register or for more information. Fort Washington Wellness Center classes are ongoing. There are several offered during lunch or right after work, for your convenience: Boot Camp from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday; Zumba is MWF from 11 a.m. to noon and Friday at 4 p.m.; there are 25 cycling classes; Ashtanga and Vinyasana Yoga and Pilates; and a group Womens Strength Training class M-F from 10 to 11 a.m. Questions, call Cathy DeMarco at 215-641-1245. Following the success of other local area programs, Impact Sports and Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation are delighted to team up again to offer a spring program for the 2011 season! Upper Dublin area children ages 3-5 years old can attend a Sports Program featuring their favorite sports games; soccer, rugby, hockey, track and field, basketball, and more. The program will start on April 27 and run through June 1. Cost for the program is $85 for the six weeks. The classes will be running 12- 1 p.m.; 1- 2 p.m.; 2- 3 p.m. For more info or to register, call Upper Dublin Township on 215 643 1600 or visit their website a http://www.upperdublin.net. Spring Aquatic Programs UDHS Pool: -Summer is just around the corner Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool can help get you into shape! Programs begin in March; preregistration is required. Shallow Water Aerobics Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 8-8:45 p.m., $40R/$50NR. Adult Swim Instructions Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 7-8 p.m., $50R/$60NR -Open Rec Swims are fun for the whole family! Come out on Fridays from 7-9 p.m. or Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. and enjoy use of the pool and diving area. Fridays are offered through June 17; Saturdays are offered March 12-May 21. -Join a growing group of adult lap swimmers and water walkers. Lanes are set aside evenings and weekends for use; lanes are shared. Monday Thursday from 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Fridays from 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays (March 12-May 21) from 1-4 p.m. -Private Swimming & Diving Lessons for ages 3-adult are offered at the UDHS Pool through a partnership with the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club (UDAC). Visit the UDAC website for more information, www.udac.us, and click the link to UDHS Private Lessons. -Looking for local programs for US Masters Swimming (adults) or Water Polo (all ages)? UDAC and UDSD are working together to develop programs that will be offered at the UDHS Pool. Add your name to Interest Lists by emailing slohoefer@upperdublin.net. emails will be sent about clinics and program start dates. Questions about Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool, group use of the pool or pool rental? Contact Susan Lohoefer, Facility & Community Affairs Manager at slohoefer@upperdublin.net or call 215-643-8800 x8994. SilverSneakers Fitness Program. The Healthyways SilverSneakers Fitness Program is a result-oriented program that enables older adults to take charge of their health. The program is an innovative blend of physical activity, healthy lifestyle and socially oriented programing. Members of the program are eligible for a free YMCA membership, with use of the pool and exercise equipment, along with customized classes designed for older adults who want to improve their strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. If you are a subscriber to Independence Blue Cross (Personal Choice 65 PPO) or Keystone 65 HMO, Bravo Health, or Health Options Programs (HOP), call the Ambler Area YMCA, 215-628-9950 or Hatboro Area YMCA, 215-674-4545. You can also visit www.silversneakers.com. Zumba Fitness offers Zumba dance/fitness classes at Academy of Dance and Music/BBAD Studio located at 1524 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell (behind Sherwin Williams). Classes are offered three times a week: Tuesdays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. For a free trial pass for your first class, email us at info@danceandmusic.biz or call 610-277-2557. For more info, visit our site at www.academyofdanceandmusic.org. Chestnut Hill Health Systems presents the following Health Education Programs: FITNESS CLASSES Golden Yoga: A Breathing, Stretching and Relaxation Class. Fridays, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Lea Auditorium, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. Registration for four classes at a time required. Golden Yoga is Classical Yoga, adapted by the SKY Foundation, to accommodate those who have difficulty getting up and down from the floor. The program includes postures, breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques, all performed while sitting in a chair and standing. Registration required. Call 215-247-3029. Cost: $20 for 4 classes per month. Tai Chi: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 8:30 9:30 a.m. Springfield Residence, 8601 Stenton Ave. Classes, for the novice or beginner/intermediate student, are designed to improve balance, power, posture, coordination, flexibility and mental focus. Slow, gentle movements are modified to most everyones abilities. For more information or to sign up for a free introductory class, call 215-882-2804. Cost: $8 per class/paid monthly. SUPPORT GROUPS Weight Loss Surgery Support Group: Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7-8 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Join us for a monthly get-together where well share information for those interested in weight loss surgery, learn from guest speakers discussing current news on issues including lifestyle modification, nutrition and exercise and provide ongoing support for those who have completed surgery. Registration required. Call 215-753-2000. Breast Cancer Networking Group: Fourth Tuesday of the month 5:30 7 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. A free, confidential support group for women living with a diagnosis of breast cancer designed to provide a forum for sharing information, feelings and concerns associated with breast cancer. Facilitated by Tish Wakefield, LCSW, Oncology Social Worker. Registration required. To register or for more information, call 215-248-8047. New Moms Support Groups Tuesdays 10:30 a.m. 12 p.m.; contact Jeanine ORourke, MSW or 2:30 4 p.m.; contact Susan Schack, Ph.D Volunteer Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. The Center for Postpartum Depression at Chestnut Hill Hospital is pleased to offer two new support groups to support new moms. Both groups will be run by experienced mental health professionals who really get it when it comes to new motherhood and juggling relationships, extended family, work/family balance and self-care. If you are experiencing new mom challenges that often heighten anxiety and involve hormonally driven depression, join us for an informative and supportive forum to connect with other moms. Infants are welcome. $30 per session (flexible based on need). Registration is required. Call Dr. Schack, 646-265-2484, or Ms. ORourke, 215-206-2931. Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group Third Thursday of the month 8-9 a.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. A networking group for men diagnosed with prostate cancer designed to provide education, support and encouragement. Spouses and partners welcome. Harry M. Baer, MD, Chief, Urology Division, will host Ask the Doctor. Registration required. Call 215-248-8325. Contact the Senior Center by phone 215-248-0180 or email (chseniors@cavtel.net) with your questions about these programs or any of our on-going activities and classes. Holy Redeemer HomeCare and Hospice seeks compassionate and emotionally mature volunteers to provide support to local hospice patients and their families in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. Volunteers may also assist with pet therapy and administrative work within the hospice department and are requested to have daytime availability. Hospice patient care volunteers visit with patients in their homes or nursing facilities once a week for two to three hours. They provide emotional support and companionship to patients and family members, assist with errands or provide respite for caregivers. Bereavement volunteers support the families of hospice patients following the loss of a loved one, while administrative volunteers assist with typing, mailings and/or filing. Hospice care workers provide a great service to families and loved ones of hospice patients. Many volunteers also report a great deal of personal satisfaction as a result of their services. Patient care and bereavement volunteers complete an application and attend an 18-hour volunteer training program that covers the medical, psychological and spiritual aspects of hospice volunteering. Day and evening training programs are offered. To sign up for volunteer opportunities in Pennsylvania, contact Holy Redeemer Volunteer Coordinator Jean Francis at 215-698-3737 or email jfrancis@holyredeemer.com. Librarytalk Upper Dublin Public Library, 805 Loch Alsh Avenue, Ft. Washington, 215-628-8744 www.upperdublinlibrary.org APRIL CHILDRENS PROGRAMS: Storytimes: Please register in the library. o Wee Ones: 0 to 23 months Thursdays and Fridays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. o Tiny Tots: age 2. Wednesdays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. and Fridays 11 to 11:20 a.m. o Jr. Book Lovers: ages 3 to 6. Tuesdays 10:30 to 11 a.m. o Bedtime Storytimes: 7 to 7:30 p.m. April 20 and 27. Wear your jammies, bring your teddy & hear Miss Barbara read bedtime stories! For ages 3 to 6. APRIL TEEN PROGRAMS: North Hills Library Teens April 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. Movie Matinee APRIL UDPL ADULT PROGRAMS: NEW! ESL Conversation Group. Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. Interested in practicing your English in a safe and caring environment? Come to our conversation group and improve your skills! Please register with Kay Klocko at 215-628-8744 or kklocko@mclinc.org. One-on-One Computer Mentoring. Get personalized assistance from experienced computer volunteers! Sign-up for a one-hour session. Limit one session per month. Please register contact info above. Book Groups Please register with Kay Klocko 215-628-8744. o Daytimers: April 21 at 1:30 p.m. Tired of book groups where you all read the same book? Read any fiction or non-fiction book on this months theme: Explorers. Please register. Meetings: Annual Meeting of the Friends of UDPL: April 14 at 1 p.m. Board of Directors: April 20 at 7 p.m. Blue Bell Library www.wvpl.org Upcoming Events: The Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike (Route 73) in Blue Bell, is diagonally across from the Blue Bell Inn. Call 215-643-1320 or visit their website at www.wvpl.org. For children and teens at Blue Bell: * Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian. * Mondays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages. * Fridays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Family Movies, new releases, second Saturdays of the month at 1:30 p.m. * May 14 Despicable Me * June 11 Alpha and Omega * Special Events * April watch for date of spring/Easter events * April 14 at 4:30 p.m. Junior Lego Club for children ages 3 through 5. Parents and caregivers need to stay with children. * April 14 at 7 p.m. Jeopardy for ages 11 to 18. Test your book and library knowledge for prizes. Sign up to be a contestant. No sign up to be in the audience. Snacks provided. * April 16 at 1 p.m. Adult Mystery Book Group discussing The Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King. * April 16 at 1:30 p.m. Childrens event for One Book, Every Young Child celebration. Story and craft for book Whose Shoes? * April 19 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 1:30 p.m.- Adult book group discusses The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Group led by Adam Button. * April 30 through May 3 Friends book sale with about 10,000 items for sale for children, teens and adults. * May sign up for Science in the Summer * June sign up for Enrichment Programs for Elementary-Age children * June sign up for Summer Reading, all ages For adults at Blue Bell: * Daytime Book Discussion Group fourth Tuesday, Jan April at 1:30 p.m. * April 26 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester * Night-time Book Discussion Group third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. o April 19 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester * Art Series with Dr. Sheldon Weintraub, docent at The Barnes and speaker at local colleges o April 27 at 2 p.m. The Art of Looking at Art-Is She Nude or Is She Naked? *Mystery Book Discussion Group, third Saturday of the month at 1 p.m.; new mystery theme each month; www.wvpl.org/programs * Yoga on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop-in class. * Tai Chi on Mondays at 3 p.m. with Dr. Kurt Findeisen. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop in class. * Philadelphia Museum of Art presents class on their Marc Chagall exhibit, April 13 at 2 p.m. * Giant Book Sale, April 29 May 3 o Starts with almost 10,000 items for children and adults! o Held during library hours. o Preview for members of the Friends of the Library, April 28 at 7 p.m. o Join the Friends and attend the preview sale. Modest fee to join. * Blooms at Blue Bell Gardening Series o May 11 at 1 p.m. Summer Bulbs by PA Horticultural Society * Knitting group Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Work on your project or observe and learn. The groups continue year-round in the community room. * Socrates Cafe discussion group every Monday at 7 p.m. You pick the topic to discuss each week. No sign-up, nothing to read. * Bridge every Friday at 12:30 p.m. New players welcome. * Mah Jong every Wednesday at 1 p.m. New players welcome. *Chess every Wednesday at 7p.m. for adults and teens 14 and older. * Movie Matinee showing recent releases every Thursday at 2 p.m. April 14: Maos Last Dancer; April 21: Welcome to the Rileys; April 28: Conviction; May 5: Inception; May 12: Inside Job; May 19 The Kings Speech; May 26 The Fighter; June 2 Rabbit Hole; June 9 Black Swan; June 16 127 Hours * Ongoing like-new, year-round book sale for adults & children during library hours * Library opening at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday! Ambler Library, a branch of the Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 209 Race St., 215-646-1072. www.wvpl.org. All the following events occur at the Ambler Library. * Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian. * Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages. * For adults: * Beading Group meets the first and third Monday of every month at 1 p.m. Work on your own projects or come to watch and learn. * Free Family History Lookup with Connie Briggs. Email Connie for an appointment at the Ambler Library. conniebriggs@comcast.net * Special Events: * April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Book Group discusses Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian. * April 19 at 7 p.m. Travel to Paris with world traveler Harry Balin. Tea and scones at 6:30 p.m. * April 21 at 7 p.m. Art with Sara for children in fourth through seventh grades. *May 2 at 6:30 p.m. Discuss the movie Lone Star with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time. *May 10 Robert Capucci discusses Art into Fashion. Tea and scones served at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m. *May 12 at 1:30p.m. Book Group discusses The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. *May 17 Tour the gardens of Devon and Southwest England with Lois McMullen. Tea and Scones at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m. *June 13 at 6:30 p.m. Discuss the movie Blade Runner with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time. Meetings and Lectures The Unisys Blue Bell Retiree Group will meet in the Church on the Mall in the Plymouth Meeting Mall April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Kathy Sacket Young, director/trainer with the North Penn YMCA, will speak on Keeping Fit in Retirement. For more information, contact Membership Committee Chairperson Jerry Feldscher at 610-275-3538 or President Al Rollin at 215-368-4833. The next FWBA meeting will be April 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m.; meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Leon Singletary, Principal, First Contact HR and FWBA Executive Board, will present: Social Media: How to Use It To Get More Business. Lunch is provided courtesy of the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Members are welcome to bring a guest. An RSVP is requested by return email or 215-628-0313. Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA is hosting a information sessions over the next few weeks on how to become a Big Brother. The information sessions will take place: April 16 at noon, April 19 at 8 a.m. and April 28 at 6 p.m. All sessions will be held at the groups Norristown Office,t 530 DeKalb St., Norristown. For more information, call 610-277-2200. The North Penn Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) normally meets on the third Tuesday of each month from now until May. Meetings are held at the William Penn Inn on Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike, Upper Gwynedd, PA. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the technical program begins at 7 p.m. Cost with reservation is $28 for members. Members without reservations and guests pay $30. Students with reservations pay $15. Reservations may be made by noon on the Monday preceding the meeting by phoning 215-371-1854 or emailing the reservation to northpennima@yahoo.com northpennima@yahoo.com. Information about the North Penn Chapter is available at http://northpenn.imanet.org/. LeTip, a professional organization of men and women who are dedicated to the highest standards of competence and service meets every Tuesday at Cedar Brook Country Club, 180 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell at 7 a.m. -meeting officially starts at 7:16 a.m. and ends at 8:31 a.m. Our purpose is the exchange of business tips, leads, and referrals. Each business category is represented by one member and conflicts of interest are disallowed. Guests are welcome to visit any of our breakfast meetings. Every third Thursday of month, Sunrise Assisted Living of Blue Bell (795 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422, 215-619-2777) serves as a satellite site to 148th Legislative district PA congressman Mike Gerber from 10 a.m. to noon. Stop by for help needed with things such as disability placards and license plates, vehicle registration, utilities issues, birth/death certificates,property tax/rent rebates, etc. Notary services arranged by appointment. The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce is an action-oriented organization dedicated to promoting its members and the economic health of eastern Montgomery county. The Chamber is committed to serving as a catalyst by uniting business, community agencies, government and education to make our county a great place to live and work. For information, call 215-887-5122 or visit www.emccc.org. Do you have a fear of public speaking? Blue Bell Toastmasters Club can help. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m., on the second and fourth Tuesday at the Marriott Courtyard, located on Route 202, directly across from the Montgomeryville Mall. Learn how to improve communication and leadership skills in a friendly and supportive environment. Guests are welcome. Admission fee: $5. For more info, visit www.bbtoast.org. The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will hold the following meetings (for reservations to any of the following, email info@PennSuburban.org) -Breakfast News Network, 7:30-8:45 a.m. at Normandy Farm Hotel (1401 Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA 19422) $15 members, includes full buffet breakfast. Join us for a networking program at Normandy Farm Hotel every Thursday morning for breakfast, business news, informative speakers, and plenty of networking. The cost includes a full breakfast buffet. Copies of the business cards will be made available to those who would like them. The BNI, Fort Washington Chapter meets every Monday at The Hilton Garden Inn, 520 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Washington for a networking meeting. Meetings are from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Visitors are welcome. The only cost to attend is the cost of your meal. For information or a reservation to attend, please call Luanne Cram at 215-947-7784, or visit our Internet site at: http://www.BNIDVR.Com and click on the menu item Find a Chapter. For the past seven years, people have enjoyed participating in WVWAs Adopt-a-Tree program. Individuals can support the Association in its reforestation efforts by purchasing native trees to be planted. Supporters can plant their adopted tree or have WVWA volunteers will plant it. Trees cost $30 each. If you would like to volunteer or purchase a tree(s), please contact: Bob Adams at Bob@wvwa.org or call: 215-646-8866 for more information. Check www.WVWA.org for directions and maps. Sustainable Upper Dublin, http://sustainableupperdublin.org, meets the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m., at the Upper Dublin Township Building, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington, PA 19034. Please send any questions to suec@sustainableupperdublin.org or call 610-996-6316. To learn more about Sustainable Upper Dublin, view or join the discussion at http://googlegroups.com/group/sustainableupperdublin. Special Events The Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard will hold its first nutrition class April 19 at 10 a.m. at the Community Cupboard, 150 N. Main St., Ambler. Lynne Sinclair, a nutritionist from Abington Memorial Hospital specializing in diabetic nutrition, will conduct the class. Topics will include healthy eating, beneficial foods, recipes, making meals with every day foods, and how to use unfamiliar produce. A healthy snack will be provided.The class is is open to all residents in Montgomery County. The Historical Society of Fort Washington presents The History of Conshohocken April 19 at 8 p.m. at the Clifton House, 473 Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington. Jack Coll will present an illustrated program on the history of the Borough of Conshohocken. Coll is a longtime resident of Conshohocken and a member of the Conshohocken Historical Society. He is co-author with his son, Brian, of the Arcadia Then and Now Series book Conshohocken. He has also done books Conshohocken and West Conshohocken Sports and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Italian Feast. He has taken many photos for the Conshohocken Record and the Norristown Times Herald. This program is free. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, call 215-646-6065. Taste of the White House Soiree featuring former White House Chef Walter Scheib will take place April 29 at 6 p.m. at Manufacturers Golf & Country Club in Fort Washington to celebrate HealthLinks 10th anniversary and honor its founders, the Eugene Jackson Family. The evening will heat up with a Chef Meet & Greet, followed by a specially selected presidential menu. Gala tickets are $150 per person. Proceeds benefit HealthLink, a free clinic providing compassionate, quality medical and dental care to uninsured, working adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties who fall in between the health care cracks. Go to http://tasteofthewhitehouse.charityhappenings.org to make reservations online or lend support through sponsorship. For event information, call 267-699-0124 or email jmarushak@healthlinkmedical.org. The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association will hold an open house at the Evans-Mumbower Mill April 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. The Mill is at the corner of Swedesford and Township Line Roads in Upper Gwynedd. The open house is free but donations are welcome. For more information, call 215-646-8866 o email info@wvwa.org. The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will host Breakfast With Your County Commissioners and State Representatives April 21 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Fort Washington, 432 W. Pennasylvania Ave. Commissioners: James R. Matthews (Chairman), Joseph M. Hoeffel (Vice Chair), State Representatives: Todd Stephens (District 151) and Josh Shapiro (District 153). Register onlineat www.emccc.org. $10 for EMCCC member; $20 for non-members. Upper Dublins Districtwide Allied Art Show will be held April 27 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Upper Dublin High School Athletic Complex. The Rev. Alfred Muli, chaplain at Fort Washington Estates, will be the featured speaker at the Kiwanis sponsored breakfast observing the National Day of Prayer May 5 at 7 a.m. at the William Penn Inn. The breakfast is open to the public ($15). Reservations can be made by calling 215-646-4356 or by emailing georgesaurman@Juno.com. The Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commission invites people to participate in its spring bare root planting events, sponsored in part by Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Friends of Robbins Park. On April 9, zix trees will be planted at the Evelyn B. Wright Park & Community Pool, 401 Logan Ave., North Hills, at 9 a.m., followed by the planting of 10 trees at Sheeleigh Park, Loch Alsh Avenue and Douglas Street, Ambler, at 10:15 a.m. On April 29, students from Upper Dublin High School will join the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to plant 16 trees in Robbins Park, Butler Pike and Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, to help launch the societys Million Trees campaign. This event will occur in conjunction with Temple Amblers EarthFest. Experienced tree-tenders are sought to assist the students. For more information,contact Ron Ayres at 215-653-0421 or 215-483-4348. The Friends of the Wissahickon and the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association are teaming up once again to clean the Wissahickon Creek from top to bottom April 30 from 9 a.m. to noon. This spring marks the 41st anniversary of Wissahickon Valley Watershed Associations annual Creek Clean Up, and the second year that FOW has teamed up with WVWA. Volunteers of all ages will clean the creek, the surrounding trails and the many tributaries of the Wissahickon Creek. Armed with bags, volunteers will be assigned to sections of the creek. Following the clean up, all volunteers are invited to WVWAs Talkin Trash picnic in Fort Washington State Park, with food provided by Whole Foods Market of North Wales. The pavilion is located on Mill Road in Flourtown. To help out in Montgomery County, all volunteers must be pre-assigned a section of the Wissahickon Creek to clean. Please contact Bob Adams, WVWA director of stewardship, at 215-646-8866 ext. 14 or bob@wvwa.org. To work with the Friends of the Wissahickon in Philadelphia, meet at the pavilion along Forbidden Drive, a short distance south of the intersection of Forbidden Drive and Northwestern Avenue. Limited parking is available along Northwestern Avenue and other nearby streets. Volunteers are encouraged to bike or carpool to the event. To participate, register at www.fow.org. Contact Kevin Groves with questions at 215-247-0417 ext. 105 or groves@fow.org. Montgomery County Community Colleges International Club invites the community to the second annual International Festival April 20 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The rain date is April 26. The International Club will transform the outside quad area into multicultural celebration with various performances by dancers, singers and musicians. Artists will share their artwork at various display tables. Activities include games, raffles, Easter egg decorating and henna tattoos. Students will have samples of international cuisine at tables representing different countries and will serve food from various local ethnic restaurants. Throughout the evening, volunteers will accept donations and will raffle gift baskets and prizes to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. Donations of food, international clothes and prizes are needed. Volunteers, including artists and performers, are welcome. For more information or to sponsor an activity, contact Gillian Nel, International Club president, at gnel9277@students.mc3.edu or 267-974-0163. The Arts and Humanities Division at Montgomery County Community College is partnering with the Philadelphia Writers Conference to host Memoirs Matter: How Life Stories (Including Yours) Can Transform Your Relationship to Literature April 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Advanced Technology Center room 101, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The event is free and open to the public. In the first part of this two-hour seminar, professor and author Robert Waxler will explain how writing his two memoirs affected his life as well as his relationship to literature. In the second part, blogger and workshop leader Jerry Waxler will present a sequence of steps to help writers find their own story. For information, contact Dana Resente at dresente@mc3.edu. The Maple Glen Garden Club will hold its fourth annual Plant Sale on May 7 from 8 to 11 a.m. Perennials, shrubs, vegetables and native plants grown by the club members will be sold. The club uses the plant sale proceeds to fund community projects, a college scholarship and community plantings. The sale will be held in the 500 block of Coach Road, Horsham, as part of a neighborhood garage sale. Plants will be sold at bargain prices. For more information, email MapleGlenGardenClub@gmail.com. The Relay for Life Craft Show is looking for local crafters to participate in show, which will be May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Wissahickon High School track, 521 Houston Road, Ambler. There is a $10 entry fee, and 20 percent of sales are donated to the American Cancer Society. Participants will receive a 6-foot table under a tent. For information, contact Joanne at joannescoles@comcast.net or Mindy at mcamsilver@comcast.net. Spring House Estates is hosting its annual book fair on April 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. and April 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Included will be hardback and paperback used books. Spring House Estates is located at 728 Norristown Road, Lower Gwynedd. The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will present the Penn Suburban/Hatfield Joint Business Card Exchange April 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Univest Bank Lansdale Area Financial Service Center, 120 Forty Foot Road, Hatfield. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. Join Univest National Bank and Trust Co. for a spring-inspired Business Card Exchange at its newest office in the Hatfield Pointe Shopping Center. Come out and meet members of Univests executive management team while enjoying fine food and beverages. 13th Annual Community Reading Day Kick-off Breakfast Get Together April 26 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the North Wales Area Library, 233 Swartley St., North Wales. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. For more information, contact the chamber office at 215-362-9200 or info@pennsuburban.org. Join presenting sponsor Verizon, chamber staff and fellow members for the Community Reading Day volunteer get together. The Community Reading Day program allows volunteers to read a designated book to second-grade students throughout 38 area public and private schools and present the book as a gift to each class. Even if you are not a volunteer, you are cordially invited to stop by to network, enjoy coffee and pastries. Ambler Mennonite Church is hosting a Spring Craft Show and Flea Market May 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rain date will be May 28. The community is invited to shop the great craft booths, find some gifts and deals, as well as enjoy home baked goods and tasty lunch specials. Childrens activities are planned. All vendors are encouraged to contact the church at 215-643-4876 or AmblerMennonite@verizon.net. Advertising, signage, customer parking and a shuttle to auxiliary parking at nearby lots for vendors will be provided. 10 foot by 10 foot spaces can be rented for $5 each and tables for an additional $5 each. All proceeds from space and table rentals go toward school kits for children around the world. The church is located at the corner of East Mt. Pleasant Avenue and North Spring Garden Street, Ambler. The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association presents The Life & Times of Aquatic Insects in the Wissahickon Creek April 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. Join WVWA for a hands-on program. RSVP required: www.wvwa.org or 215-646-8866. WVWA member fee: $5 per person / $15 per family. Non-WVWA member fee: $10 per person / $20 per family. The photography exhibition Natures Palette by photo-artist Judy Miller will run March 18 to May 19 at the Art in the Storefront gallery, 41 E. Butler Pike, Ambler. JPRN Networking For People in Transition & People Who Can Help Them Unemployment remains high. JPRN, the Jarrettown Professional Relationship Network can help. Are you trying to network your way to a new job? Do you have expertise or contacts that can help people in transition? Is your company or organization looking for people in the area? This is a free outreach program to support those seeking work, involve people with contacts and networking know how, and involve local companies. Meetings held monthly at Jarrettown United Methodist Church, Limekiln Pike. Pennsylvanias Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) grant program is now open for the 2010-11 heating season. Grants are based on income, family size, type of heating fuel and region. Additional information, such as specific income limits, and applications for LIHEAP grants are available online via the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services (COMPASS) website at www.compass.state.pa.us. Applications are available at most public officals district offices, county assistance offices, local utility companies and community service agencies, such as Area Agencies on Aging or community action agencies. Begin your holiday shopping at Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation! Entertainment books for 2011, Philadelphia North, are now on sale at $30 each. Regal/United Artists movie tickets are on sale for just $7.50 each, and tickets to the Adventure Aquarium, Baltimore Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo are also available. Discounted ski vouchers to area mountains will be arriving in December; call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. RSVP of Montgomery County and the Wissahickon Valley Public Library have partnered again to offer the public their popular free mock interview sessions. The mock interviews are conducted by RSVP volunteers who are retired professionals, some of whom were in hiring positions themselves. Packets of information which include a sample employment application and interviewing tips with mock interview questions are available at the library to pick up prior to a scheduled mock interview or will be sent via email once the interview is scheduled. To schedule your interview, please contact Janis Glusman at RSVP 610-834-1040, ext. 16. The library is also offering a free resume review service. Bring in your current resume and the professional reference staff will assist you with hints and tips on capturing your work history accurately. Registration for Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation summer playgrounds, Camp B.I.G. and Small Folks, X-Zone, and sports camps has began. Register online at www.upperdublin.net/store, or at the UDP&R office, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington. Call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Danielles Espresso Cafe presents Mornings at Mondaug Bark Park April 16 and May 21 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Meet fellow dog lovers. These events include complimentary coffee, treats for people and pups and raffles/giveaways. Upper Dublins Annual Spring Flea Market will be held June 4 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reserve a table, or come and shop. Tables are $15 for UD residents, $20 for non-residents. This successful event occurs rain or shine. Refreshments available. Call 215-643-1600 ext. 3443 to register for a table. Regal movie tickets available for purchase at Upper Dublin Township Parks & Recreation. Reduced rate: $7.50 per ticket. Some restrictions apply. Call 215-643-1600 x3443. Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation movie tickets $7.50 Regal Cinemas, United Artist & Edwards Cinemas on sale throughout the year Monday Friday from 9 a.m. 4 p.m. Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation Camp Sign-ups for Stony Creek Day Camp Stony Creek Tracers and Park n Tots. Register on-line at www.whitpaintownship.org OrCome to Township Building with check or Visa MasterCard Monday Friday from 9 a.m. 4 p.m. For additional information call 610.277-2400 ext. 374 Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation offers exciting new programs for the fall: -Returning favorites include UK Elite Petite Soccer, Tiny Dancers, Kiddie Tennis, Fun-nastics, Messy Playtime, Little Chefs, and more. Babysitters Training will be offered in November and December. Continuing Adult Fitness Classes include Cardio Circuit, Core & More, Yoga, Boxing, and Adult G.Y.M. For more information call 215-643-1600 x3443. Register for programs online at www.upperdublin.net/store. Music and Theater The community is invited to a Cantors Concert April 16 at 8 p.m. Congregation Beth Or, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen. Listen and hum-along to the Yiddish, pop tunes and classical music performed by Congregation Beth Ors own Cantor David Green and his special guest, Cantor Irvin Bell, from Temple Beth Israel in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The cantors will be accompanied by Mark Sobol and his Klezmer musicians. Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. RSVP with payment to Barb Murtha, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen, PA 19002, or call 215-646-5806 ext. 220. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse will host the Jameson Sisters May 14. Doors open at 7:30 pm, performance at 8:00 pm. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse is located at the corner of Rte. 202 & Sumneytown Pike, Gwynedd. $5 suggested donation. Light refreshment available at a modest cost. For further information, call 215-393-9576 or visit gwyneddmeeting.org/coffeehouse.html. Celebrate patriotism through song with Gwynedd-Mercy Colleges choir, the Voices of Gwynedd, as it presents Hear America Singing April 15 at 8 p.m. The choir will perform song selections from all over the country, including Georgia on My Mind, New York State of Mind, and a medley including Philadelphia Freedom and Allentown. The performance will end with When the Saints Go Marching In to acknowledge the choirs upcoming tour in New Orleans. Hear America Singing will take place in the Julia Ball Auditorium, located in St. Bernard Hall. Parking is available in lots A, C and D. Admission is free. The Choristers will present Anton Dvoraks Stabat Mater April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler. The choir will be accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for students and children are free. Tickets will be sold in advance or at the door. For more information, call 215-542-7871 or visit TheChoristers.org Religious News The Staircase Gallery at Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist Congregation in Fort Washington will feature the work of Emily Ennuat-Lustine. The artist will be showing paintings and graphics inspired by her own personal spiritual journey and quest for meaning. Some of the works to be shown have been inspired by Biblical Psalms and writings. Her work has been shown at Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Arts Center and Old City Gallery of Jewish Art among others. The exhibition is open Friday evenings starting Feb. 18 after Shabbat services. Gallery hours are: Mondays through Thursdays 10-4:30, Fridays 10-3 and following Shabbat Services and Sundays 10-1. The synagogue is located at 190 Camp Hill Road in Fort Washington. For additional information contact the synagogue office at 215-283-0276. Reunions St. Matthews High School Conshohocken Class of 1961 is looking for classmates. For details, contact Greg Marincola at 215-646-2239, 215-740-1296 or gregcola@comcast.net. Olney High School Class of 1971 is Lloking for classmates for a 40th reunion Oct. 28. For details, contact Judy at ohsclassof71@yahoo.com or 215-870-7572. Abington High School Class of 1961 is seeking classmates for a 50-year reunion to be held Oct. 14-15, 2011.Visit the website, www.abington61.com, for details or call 215-947-1779. Overbrook High School class of January 1956 is having a 55 year reunion on May 22, 2011 at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia. For information please contact overbrookreunion56@comcast.net Germantown High School Class Of January 1961 is looking for classmates for 50th year reunion to take place in May of 2011. Please contact: 215-362-9148, 856-577-0659 or samdelcomo@comcast.net The June 1961 class of Germantown High School is holding their 50th reunion on May 15, which will be a brunch. For further details please contact Linda Dorfman Alten at lindaalten@yahoo.com or call 215-441-8411. Support New Life Presbyterian Church in Dresher, will host GriefShare, a special seminar and support group which will run on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m., from March 7 through June 6. At each meeting there will be a DVD about the grief process, discussion and reference to a grief workbook. Preregistration is required to secure a place in the group and to purchase a GriefShare notebook (for a one-time fee of $15). The notebook goes along with the 13-week schedule covering such topics as: living with grief, the effects of grief, and stuck in grief. For more information or to register, call: Sandy Elder at 215-884-5149. PUPS (People Understanding Parkinsons) A self-help group for those adjusting to a new diagnosis or dealing with the early stages of Parkinsons Disease. Meets fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 to 2:30 p.m., at Abington Health Center, Schilling Campus, Willowood Building, 2510 Maryland Road, Suite 251, Willow Grove. For more information or to RSVP, contact Lorna at 215-542-2931. The North Penn Visiting Nurse Associations Meals on Wheels program is looking for volunteers to pack or deliver meals to the elderly and infirmed. Meals are packed and delivered mornings, Monday through Friday. You can volunteer for as many days per week or month as you would like. Packaging meals requires approximately 2-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves making sandwiches, packaging food into individual serving containers and packing coolers with the meals. Delivering meals requires approximately 1-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves loading coolers into your car and delivering a route of approximately 10 to 15 stops. The Meals on Wheels program is also in need of emergency, winter-weather volunteers to pack and deliver meals in bad weather. North Penn VNA is located at 51 Medical Campus Drive in Lansdale and delivers meals in the Lansdale, North Wales and Blue Bell areas. For more information or to volunteer, please call Bridget, North Penn VNA Meals on Wheels coordinator at 215-855-8296. Elkins Park Area CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) meets the first Tuesday of every month, 7- 8:30 p.m., at Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital in Elkins Park. For information on CHADD or ADHD, please see our website www.chadd.net/249 or call Claire Noyes at: 215-779-6656. Center for Loss and Bereavement, 3847 Skippack Pike, Skippack (610-222-4110) www.bereavementcenter.org Offers professional counseling for individuals, couples, children and families dealing with issues of loss and bereavement. Six-week adult support groups: Newly forming young adult grief support group every other Wednesday, 7 8:15 p.m. (free of charge); Monthly loss of child support second Mondays, 7-8:15 p.m.; Six-week young loss of spouse/partner Thursdays, 10-11:15 a.m.; Other groups scheduled as interest is shown for suicide loss support, adult loss of parent, motherless daughters, adult loss of sibling, coping with chronic illness and disability and mens loss of spouse. Nellos Corner Family Bereavement program offers peer grief support groups for ages 4 through teen and their caregivers Every other Tuesday or Wednesday (free of charge) Local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children also meets at the Center. Registration required. Call for further information. CHADD is a national organization for children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, providing education, advocacy and support for individuals and their families with AD/HD. Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital, 60 Township Line Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027, will host children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder on the First Tuesday of each month 7 8:30 p.m. Free, no childcare provided. The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphias Kehillah of Old York Road is sponsoring a free Caregiver Support Group for individuals who care for an elderly person with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The group meets at SarahCare Adult Day Care Center, 101 Washington Lane, Suite G-6, Jenkintown, Pa., on the first Wednesday of each month. Patty Rich, 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. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Amritsar, April 6 Helping Hapless, an NGO being run by Amanjot Kaur Ramoowalia, former chairperson of Mohali Planning Board and daughter of former SAD leader Balwant Ramoowalia, has rescued a youth from Malaysia who was stuck there after being defrauded by a fake travel agent. Vinkalpreet Singh, a resident of Batala, learnt about the fraud after he landed in Malaysia as his was the tourist visa. Two weeks later, he ran out of money. Instead of returning, he chose to stay there in hiding and worked as a labourer for earning quick bucks for his poor family. His sister is married and his father has been bedridden after breaking his hip joints. Vinkalpreet said he left for Malaysia in February 2018. He remained in hiding and worked as a watchman for some time. Later, he also worked as a construction labourer where he sustained a leg injury. Since he was staying illegally, he was unable to afford treatment. After coming to know about Helping Hapless NGO, he called his mother and asked her to meet Amanjot Kaur. Amanjot said she took up his case with the Indian Embassy in December last year following which the latter asked him to reach its office. His friends arranged money for him. After reaching there, he was given treatment and sent to a shelter home. The organisation paid for his return ticket. Vinkalpreet urged the Batala police to nab the travel agent, Raman, who cheated him of Rs 1.5 lakh with a promise of work visa. He said there were many Indians like him who were waiting to be rescued. Amanjot said the government should take such fraudsters to task who sent innocent youth abroad and leave them to die. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 6 The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed the Air India (AI) to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to an associate professor for offloading him from the aircraft without assigning any reasons. In a complaint, Sardool Singh Ghumman, Associate Professor, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal, Sangrur, and a resident of Mohali, stated that on September 6, 2015, when he was returning to the city after attending a conference at Groningen, the Netherlands, he was offloaded from the aircraft at the New Delhi airport the moment the flight was to take off for Chandigarh. He approached the AI staff at the airport to know the reason(s), but to no avail. Eventually, the complainant hired a taxi for Rs 5,500 and drove down to Chandigarh as he was supposed to join his duty the next day. With the cup of woes brimming, the complainant filed a complaint with the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum. In its reply, the national air carrier pleaded that it was not Air India, but the security agencies, which detained the complainants baggage for a recheck. The appellants counsel submitted that the respondent did not disclose as to why he was needed by the security. He further submitted that the complainant was not taken to any security officer or agency for rechecking as he had already passed through the entire security check-up procedure before he had boarded the airplane. The AI counsel mentioned that it was not the responsibility of the carrier to check baggage but it was being done by security agency. However, a letter enclosed with the record, signed by S Singh, Coordinator, Commercial, Northern Region Customers Services, New Delhi, appeared to have acted on behalf of Air India. After going through the evidence and record of the case, the commission was of the view that the compensation should be commensurate with the facts and circumstances of the case, mental agony suffered by the consumer and physical harassment caused to him. Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, the commission enhanced the compensation awarded by the forum to Rs 1 lakh. Earlier, the forum had directed Air India to refund the taxi fare of Rs 5,500 and pay Rs 5,000 as compensation on account of deficiency in service and causing mental and physical harassment to the complainant and Rs 5,000 as cost of litigation. SC gives nod for several projects in Himachal; allows diversion of forest land The projects involving felling of 262 trees is expected ... editorial@tribune.com Naina Mishra Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 6 While the UT Education Department has advertised 43 EWS seats vacant in entry-level classes at private schools today, at least 16 institutions in the city have not adhered to the minimum 25 per cent reservation provided under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009. These private schools have defied the law by reserving one to two per cent lesser seats. More intriguing is the advertisement released by the department. It reads, the RTE provides reservation up to 25 per cent to the students belonging to EWS/DG under Section 12(1)(c). As per the RTE Act, the school shall admit at least 25 per cent, not up to 25 per cent, students from the EWS and disadvantaged group in the neighbourhood so as to provide them with free and compulsory education. Sample this: Manav Mangal School-21 has 90 seats in nursery class. Here, 25 per cent of the total seats is 22.5, which is not feasible as seats have to be in a whole number. The school, however, reserved 22 seats, which is 24.4 per cent of the total seats and less than what the law provides for. As per the general round-off rule, the number should have been 23. The anomaly led to the loss of one EWS seat. By not strictly following the 25 per cent reservation rule, the 16 schools caused a loss of at least 20 EWS seats. Education Secretary BL Sharma said, Explanation will be sought from schools reserving less than 25 per cent EWS seats. Action will be taken against the erring schools. State gives grant for Farmstead Park restoration in Upper Moreland Township editorial@tribune.com Amarjot Kaur Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 6 Nearly 2,000 students belonging to SC/ST category await their degrees, which have been withheld by Panjab University (PU), because the Punjab Government has not deposited the requisite amount of post-matric scholarship in the varsity account. While Bir Devinder Singh, former Deputy Speaker of Punjab Assembly, expressed his anguish over the issue, calling it a statutory obligation of the state and Central governments to pay the scholarship amount to SC/ST students on time, PU Finance and Development Officer Vikram Nayyar said despite repeated reminders, the state government did not reimburse a sum of Rs 10 crore of the said scholarship scheme to the varsity for the past three-four years. PUs Controller of Examination Parvinder Singh said students from the SC/ST category had been facing this problem for the past two years and though the varsity gave a 50 per cent fee exemption to SC/ST students, as per the PU Calendar rules, all other education expenses, including tuition and admission fee of these students, were borne by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment under the post-matric scholarship scheme of the Central government. He said, Under the latest guidelines of the scheme, the Centre gives a grant to the state government, which is directly credited to the account of SC/ST students. For the past two years, SC/ST students are being admitted to colleges, but no scholarship money is being given. In fact, the scholarship is given only for admission and tuition fee, not for the examination fee. However, the PU Calendar has a provision for 50 per cent exam fee exemption for SC/ST students. Bound by the procedure, the examination branch needs to get a clearance from the fees account irrespective of the candidate being an SC or ST. In case theres a fee default, we still allow ST/SC students to sit for exams, as they are regular students, but how can we recover the fees? We have every right not to allow them to appear for exams, but the PU takes a lenient view. This matter was taken up not only by Vice Chancellor Prof Raj Kumar but his predecessor Prof Arun Kumar Grover too. It is becoming a big problem because the university already lacks funds. We will take up this matter in the April 10 Syndicate meeting, said Singh. Nayyar said, We have been managing funds from here and there. Despite repeated reminders, the Punjab government has not reimbursed Rs 10 crore spent by the varsity on SC/ST students for the last three-four years. Bir Devinder Singh said, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and the minister concerned must apologise to the students for the agony they suffered because the state government has miserably failed in paying the scholarship money to the university. Even the PU has no business to withhold the academic degrees of the students which they have earned through hard work. After all it is a financial transaction between the state government and the university. Why are students being made scapegoats for no fault of theirs? The PU must immediately hand over degrees to the students, notwithstanding the receipt of the scholarship amount. Despite repeated attempts, Punjab Minister for Welfare of SCs and BCs Sadhu Singh Dharamsot refused to comment on the issue. shriaya.dutt@tribuneindia.com Dubai, April 7 An Indian man in Saudi Arabia who was barred from travelling over a car loan has left the country after the community workers and the Consulate General of India in Jeddah helped lift his travel ban. Rajan Palakkundu Parambil, a 53-year-old worker from Malappuram district in Kerala, was employed by a contracting company in Najran, a southwestern city in Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. The firm ran into troubles with many workers leaving the company as a result of frequent missile attacks by the Houthi militias targeting civilians in the border regions of Narjan, Saudi Gazette reported. "There are no words to describe my ordeal. I have been suffering every hour and every day for the last two years because I was not able to travel home," Rajan said. He said he did not know what to do but help finally came from the Indian consulate and the Keralite community. According to Rajan, his employer had bought a car in his name on installments for work-related purposes. After short stint in Najran, Rajan moved to Jeddah to work for a different employer. The work went on normally without any problem. However, when Rajan decided to return home for good he learned that he was placed under a travel ban and not allowed to leave the Kingdom without settling the outstanding amount for the car. His residency visa expired, adding further to his ordeal. The firm he had worked with earlier in Najran was caught in the recession and was almost non-existent. The Keralite community in Jeddah came together to bail him out with the support of the Indian consulate, which negotiated with the car dealer for leniency, the report said. The car dealer agreed to settle for a less amount than he had earlier demanded in the court, it said. Finally, after completing legal formalities Rajan flew home on Wednesday. PTI editorial@tribune.com Parveen Arora Tribune News Service Karnal, April 6 The BJP has fielded state party general secretary Sanjay Bhatia from Karnal in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, primarily to woo Punjabi voters, who have a considerable presence in the parliamentary constituency. He replaced sitting MP and prominent Punjabi face Ashwini Chopra, who hails from Delhi. It is for the second time in the history of the Karnal parliamentary seat that the BJP has given the ticket to a candidate from Panipat district, which is part of the constituency. Earlier, the party had fielded Fateh Chand Vij from Karnal against former MP Chiranji Lal. Meanwhile, other political parties, except the BSP-LSP alliance, are yet to declare their candidates. The BSP-LSP alliance has fielded Pankaj Chaudhary, a Ror, who are also present in a sizeable number in the constituency. Political analysts say it is for the third time that the BJP has fielded a Punjabi candidate from Karnal, which was earlier known as a Brahmin seat. Arvind Sharma, ID Swami, Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, and Chiranji Lal, who had won the seat since the birth of Haryana, were Brahmins. Bhajan Lal, Mahinder Singh Lather and Ashwini Chopra, who had also won the seat, were non-Brahmins. According to sources, there are over 3 lakh Punjabi (Arora, Khatri Punjabi and Sikh and Jat Sikh) voters out of 18.5 lakh voters in the Karnal constituency, including Panipat district. Ashok Sukhija, former district president and senior BJP leader from Karnal, confirmed that Bhatia is the second party candidate, who belongs to Panipat district, to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Karnal. He said that Bhatia is a dedicated party worker who had been a councillor and chairman of the Panipat Municipal Corporation. At present, he is the party general secretary. Bhatia had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly elections from Panipat seat twice. Jagmohan Anand, district Karnal BJP president, said that Bhatia would win the elections with a huge margin. Bunty Bhai of Panipat Panipat: Sanjay Bhatia (52), a resident of Model Town, Panipat, is famous among his supporters as Bunty Bhai. He started his political career in the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of BJP. Bhatia also remained the state president of the BJP Kisan Morcha, chairman of the Panipat Municipal Council in 2000 and the Panipat district president of the BJP and the BJYM. The state government had appointed him as the Chairman of the Khadi Board but he resigned from the post. Bhatia had played a big role in the mayoral election in Panipat and in the Jind byelection. He had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly elections from Panipat city on the BJP ticket in 2005 and 2009.He was close to former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and senior BJP leader LK Advani. They had helped him become the chairman of the Panipat Municipal Council in 2000 during Om Prakash Chautalas government in the state. Mukesh tandon Karnal parliamentary seat Total voters 18.5 lakh Punjabi (Arora, Khatri, Sikh, Jat Sikh) 3 lakh Sitting MP Ashwini Chopra (BJP) editorial@tribune.com Sushil Manav Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 6 The state Congress leadership is not averse to giving one seat to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Haryana if the two parties can have a larger alliance, including for seven seats of Delhi, for the parliamentary elections. The Tribune has learnt that the state Congress, which was earlier reluctant to have an electoral alliance in Haryana, has agreed to give one seat in the National Capital Region (NCR) to AAP, which is in talks with the party for an alliance for seven seats in Delhi and insisted on having a larger alliance, including in Haryana and Punjab. Sources said that while Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has bluntly refused to have an alliance with AAP in Punjab, Haryana Congress leaders are not averse to giving one seat in the NCR to Arvind Kejriwals party. AAP wanted a few seats in Punjab on the basis that it won 10 seats in the state Assembly elections, but the Punjab Chief Minister, according to sources, told the central party leadership that Kejriwals party has lost its ground in the state. Meanwhile, state Congress president Ashok Tanwar denied having been consulted on the issue, but Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Chief Minister and chairman of the coordination committee on parliamentary elections, on Saturday confirmed that one seat could be given to AAP. It will happen only if we have a larger alliance with AAP at the national level, including for seven seats in Delhi. Also, we will have to see which seat AAP demands, said Hooda. The sources said that according to the Congress offer, the party and AAP could contest four and three seats in Delhi, respectively, and nine and one seat in Haryana, respectively, but AAP wants to give as many seats to the Congress in Delhi as the latter gives it in Haryana. AAP toughens terms AAP, it is learnt, has toughened terms for a tie-up with the Congress in Delhi. The party is learnt to have told the Congress that it will enter into an alliance in Delhi and give it three seats only if the latter agreed on the same number of seats in Haryana and supports its demand of full statehood to Delhi. AAP has conveyed to the Congress its willingness to support it in Chandigarh also in exchange for support in Faridabad, Gurugram and Karnal. laxmi@tribune.com Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 6 Less than six months after Ashok, a resident of Hisar district, was sentenced to death in an honour killing case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted him. The matter was placed before the Division Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill for the confirmation of death sentence pronounced in December last year for poisoning his sister over an inter-caste marriage. Ashok had filed an appeal. The prosecution contended that Ashok was unhappy with his sisters marriage to Rohtash. Ashok was charged with administering poison to his sister, resulting in her death. The prosecution had claimed that her body was cremated hurriedly. Justice Sharma said the case record indicated that the police visited the place of occurrence and collected the residue of vomit. Ash and burnt bones were also lifted from the cremation ground before being sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory. Poison did not emerge as the cause of death. In any case, the marriage was solemnised in August 2015 and the date of incident was February 13, 2017. The deceaseds cousin, Krishan Kumar, had admitted that there was no resentment in the family. The polygraph test of the parents of the accused showed that the answers given by them were not deceptive. Justice Sharma asserted that Rohtash, on whose insistence an FIR was registered, had not supported the prosecution case. The chain of circumstances is not complete. The prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, the Bench ruled, while setting Ashok free. Key loopholes editorial@tribune.com Our Correspondent KULLU, APRIL 6 Kullu DC Yunus Khan held a meeting with managements of private schools of this district at Bachat Bhawan here. He warned operators of the schools that they should stop recovery of huge amounts in the name of the fees otherwise their recognition could be cancelled. The DC said the money collected from the parents other than the fees would not be tolerated. He said private institutions are registered under the Societies Registration Act or the Indian Trust Act and these cant be the means of obtaining huge business profits. Yunus said additional fee was being collected in the name of funds. He said special audit of such institutions will be done and strict action taken against them if any irregularities are found. Yunus said that private schools should take the initiative to cut in the fees and unnecessary funds and inform the office of Deputy Director, Education, within a week. Some school representatives present in the meeting assured reduction of 10 per cent in the prevailing fees being charged from students. The DC said that during the recent inspection of many schools, it was found that these institutions were carrying out business of books, stationery, uniforms and other items. He added that strict action would be taken against such illegal business by the educational institutions. Discussing the facilities, safety, transport system and other essential arrangements for the children in the educational institutions, he said compliance of rules in this regard should be ensured. He added that if there are no necessary facilities in a school, then these should be provided within 15 days or a written assurance given that these will be provided within the stipulated time or else their recognition could be cancelled. laxmi@tribune.com Tribune News Service Dharamsala, April 6 Veteran BJP leader and former Himachal Chief Minister Shanta Kumar today questioned the criterion adopted by the BJP to retire leaders above 75 years of age. Addressing mediapersons, Kumar (84) said: As a party worker, I accept the decision (to not contest the Lok Sabha election) and am happy to abide by it. But as a writer, I dont agree with it. Age cannot be the sole yardstick. During the freedom movement, many young people sided with the British and worked against the interests of the country, while 80-year-old Kanwar Singh died fighting the Raj. Will you call him a budha? I consider 80-year-old Kanwar Singh younger than those young people who lacked the courage to fight. Reacting to the blog written by senior party leader LK Advani, Kumar said he had merely reiterated the basic tenets of the party. Advaniji has also called upon party workers to introspect, which is important for an individual. Advani, in his blog post, had said his party never regarded those who disagreed with it politically as anti-national and that for him, the guiding principle was nation first, party next and self last. Kumar praised senior leaders Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha as intellectuals, while he termed Shatrughan Sinha joining the Congress unfortunate. Kumar said he tried persuading Sinha against doing so. Kumar criticised veteran Himachal leader Sukh Ram for re-joining the Congress, saying he had changed parties five times in his political career. It is the worst kind of corruption. Sukh Ram switched sides after the BJP denied a ticket to his grandson. During the last Assembly elections, he switched over to the BJP to make his son (Anil Sharma) a minister in the BJP government. He has now switched back to the Congress to make his grandson an MP, Kumar alleged. Anil Sharma should quit the Jai Ram Thakur Cabinet as he was shaming his family by staying put, he added. Kumar said that the BJP would win with a bigger margin this time in all four seats in Himachal Pradesh. The Congress has become defunct in the state and is trying to loan leaders from other parties to contest elections, he said. All praise for Virbhadra Virbhadra Singh and I have always been loyal to our parties. Weve never switched sides despite feeling uncomfortable at times. Weve stood firm on our principles. Shanta Kumar, ex-CM editorial@tribune.com Ravinder Sood Palampur, April 6 The mortal remains of 23 -year-old Army jawan, Akshya Kumar, reached his native village Saparu, 10 km from here, this morning. Akshya Kumar was killed a in fire mishap at the Army Training Centre at Mahu in Madhya Pradesh yesterday. He was cremated with full state honours in the presence of a large number of people. Akshya has left behind his aged parents Ram Singh and Ranjo Devi. They were informed by officials of the training centre about the demise of Akshya Kumar yesterday. Akshya Kumar had joined the Army three years ago and was unmarried. His younger brother is also in the Army. Palampur Congress MLA Ashish Butail and tehsildar Ved Parkash laid the wreath. Resentment prevailed among the public as no BJP leader was present at the cremation. Local MLA Ashish Butail visited the family of the soldier and assured full support. editorial@tribune.com Bhanu P Lohumi Tribune News Service Shimla, April 6 With the main political parties, the BJP and the Congress, occupying the space in politics, the emergence of the third force seems unlikely in the coming poll. Left parties have a limited influence in some areas and never won any Lok Sabha seat in the state. The third front had proved to be a failed experience and this time too, the possibilities of the third front emerging as potential force are very bleak as neither Left parties nor AAP, nor any regional party have strength and capacity to dent the support base of the BJP and the Congress. It was only in the 1999 poll that Dhani Ram Shandil of the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC), which was a coalition partner in the BJP government, won the Shimla (Reserved) seat. Even Vijai Singh Mankotia, who contested the Lok Sabha polls from Kangra in 1989 as Janata Dal candidate, polled 74,983 (14.77 per cent) votes and finished third. The Janata Dal had forged an alliance with the BJP in 1990 Assembly poll and won 11 out of the 17 seats contested by it. However, the alliance did not last as the Janata Dal split and eight members joined the Congress in 1992. Earlier, in the 1971 poll also, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh and Lok Raj Party had forged an alliance and contested two seats each. The alliance failed to win any seat and later Lok Raj Party also disintegrated and most of its MLAs joined the Congress in February 1977. The Janata Party won all four seats in 1977 but after the fall of the party government at the Centre, the party split and the Janata Dal (Secular), which contested three seats in the 1980 poll, came a cropper and polled only 5.33 per cent votes. Similarly, the HVC, floated by former Union Communication Minister Sukh Ram in 1997, merged with the Congress ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha poll and the experiment failed again. In 2007, BJP dissidents floated the HLP led by former MP Maheshwar Singh but later it also merged with the BJP. In 2014, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also contested the poll but failed to make any impact, polling just 2.1 per cent votes and this time, there is no serious effort to form a third front. Alliance a futile attempt sanjiv@tribunemail.com Aakanksha N Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Jalandhar, April 5 The year 1919 saw the nations one of the biggest horrifying events when on April 13, 1919, General Dyer opened fire on the army of men, women, young and old, who were present at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. The nation and, in particular, Amritsar is observing the Centenary of Jallianwala Bagh massacre this time. City residents too will get to know about the horrendous incident in detail as Desh Bhagat Yaadgar committee is also going to commemorate the centenary of this incident on April 21. April 21 is also the foundation day of the Ghadar Party. The Desh Bhagat Yaadgar committee has dedicated this year events i.e. its foundation day and Mela Gahdri Babeya Da to hundred years of Jallianwala Bagh incident. The officials said families of the victims of the incident that happened 100 years ago would also be called in the Ghadri Mela in November. On the day of the event, CPM head Sitaram Yechury is expected to arrive in Jalandhar. Gurmeet Singh, general secretary of the committee, said committee members had approached CPM head Sitaram Yechury to attend the event in city. Besides, prominent scholars who have been associated with researches on the Jallianwala Bagh incident and the Ghadar movement will be the part of the function. A flex is installed at the entrance of the Yadgar Hall which reads, Jallianwala Bagh di khooni kaand di peheli shatabdi (1919-2019) nu samarpit April 21, 2019, the foundation day of Ghadar Party and 28th Mela Ghadri Babeya da,. Apart from this, the flex also pictures the horrifying incident which depicts the mayhem caused by the British troops by gunning down scores of unarmed civilians. About Yadgar Hall There is a Ghadri Museum of Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall where one can find rare information regarding the important part of the freedom movement played by the Ghadar Party. Besides other elements of historical importance, the hall contains 300 photographs of heroes of the Ghadar movement, original manuscripts showing Desh Bhakti Ke Geet written by Ghadarites to provoke the patriotic feel among people at that time, a private trunk of Ghadri Baba Harjab Singh containing his writings, personal books, newspapers and important documents of that time, handwritten diaries, oral records and journals produced by Ghadar Party, records of passengers who travelled in the ship Kamagatamaru in 1914 along with their thumb impression. Sitaram Yechury may pay a visit City residents too will get to know about the horrendous incident in detail as Desh Bhagat Yaadgar committee is also going to commemorate the centenary of this incident on April 21. April 21 is also the foundation day of the Ghadar Party. On the day of the event, CPM head Sitaram Yechury is expected to arrive in Jalandhar. editorial@tribune.com Amir Karim Tantray Tribune News Service Jammu, April 6 Spread over six districts of J&K, the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha constituency has a unique feature of being the gateway of the state that has a mixture of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh population. Starting from the plains in Kathua district, 90 per cent of this constituency is mountainous and one of the backward regions nestled in the Shivaliks and the Pir Panjal ranges. Sharing the International Border on the one end with Pakistan and landlocked mountainous and remote region on the other end, this prestigious seat holds a great geographical importance in the state as the constituency is seen as goldmine of natural resources, particularly hydroelectric power generation and minerals. However, this continues to be one of the most underdeveloped constituencies as compared to the other parts of the state. The area is so vast that the contesting candidates might not be aware of every tehsil falling in this constituency and even the sitting MP, who is also the Minister of State in the Prime Minister Office, havent visited every part in the last five years. There are a few Lok Sabha constituencies in the country like the Udhampur-Doda, where reaching every village during two-month campaigning is just impossible. Though the Hindus are more as compared to other communities but the Muslims in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts and a few parts of Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua districts have an important role to play in a candidates victory. This time, 16.65 lakh voters will have to exercise their franchise to send their representative to the Lok Sabha. The constituency will be witnessing a quadrilateral contest between BJPs Jitendra Singh, Congress Vikramaditya Singh, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathans Choudhary Lal Singh and J&K National Panthers Partys Harsh Dev Singh. There are eight other candidates as well but they dont have much stake. In the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, Jitendra Singh defeated Congress stalwart Ghulam Nabi Azad on this seat, which became one of the strong reasons for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to induct him in his Council of Ministers. Vikramaditya Singh is riding high on Muslim votes besides other people who have been close to his family in various parts of this constituency. The Congress poll campaign chairman and former Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, is trying hard to swing the Muslim population in Singhs favour. Vikramadityas father Karan Singh, who has also represented this constituency in the past, is also helping his son to get votes. The biggest factor this time will be Choudhary Lal Singh, who joined the BJP in 2014 during the Assembly election and won the same from the Basholi seat, who rose to fame after he came in support of the Rasana rape accused. He had to leave his ministry in the PDP-BJP government but emerged as the saviour of the Dogras of Jammu. Since then he has got a good hold in Kathua district and his candidature is seen as a threat to the BJP. Meanwhile, Harsh Dev Singh has a good foothold in Udhampur district and could also make a dent in the BJP in this part of the constituency. The four major candidates are Rajputs and the Hindu votes are expected to get divided while the Muslim votes will be the deciding factor. There are a handful of Sikh voters in Kathua belt and their tilt towards any candidate will also be important. Muslim votes deciding factor The Hindus are more as compared to other communities but the Muslims in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts and a few parts of Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua districts have an important role to play in a candidates victory The four main candidates are Rajputs, with the Hindu votes likely to get divided, while the Muslim votes will be the deciding factor There are a handful of Sikh voters in the Kathua belt and their tilt towards any candidate will also be important Constituency break-up Electorate 16,65,803 16,65,803 Men 8,76,353 8,76,353 Women 7,89,426 7,89,426 Third gender 24 24 Polling stations 2,710 Incumbent MP: Jitendra Singh (BJP) Main candidates: Vikramaditya Singh (Congress), Lal Singh (Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan) and Harsh Dev Singh (Panthers Party) editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 6 Governor Satya Pal Malik on Saturday hit out at the regional political parties for using language that threatened peace and incited militancy. He made an appeal to the leaders of these parties to use proper language and focus on politics and elections. The Governor was talking to mediapersons here today during his maiden visit to the Tulip Gerden, overlooking the Dal lake, that was thrown open to the public recently. The world has changed and India has also changed, Malik said replying to questions. In view of the Lok Sabha elections ahead, the Governor appealed the political parties to talk about politics and elections, but not about those things that would threaten peace and increase terrorism. There has to be a line between the political parties and separatists, the Governor pointed out, and asserted that the leaders of these parties should not cross the line that would lead to a situation where there would be no difference between these parties and separatists. Malik said the political parties were respected and had a place here to play their role in the overall development and way forward and there is no system without you. On the reports about fears being created by some regional parties about the revocation of Article 35A and 370, the Governor said he was not in favour of getting votes by creating artificial fear and misleading voters in the elections. pardeepdhull@gmail.com Ishfaq Tantry & Majid Jahangir Tribune news service Srinagar, April 7 The biweekly closure of the 270-km Baramulla-Srinagar-Udhampur national highway for troop movement, which came into force from today, threw life out of gear both in Kashmir and Jammu regions. The J&K Government has ordered the closure of highway for civil and public transport from Baramulla to Udhampur every Sunday and Wednesday to facilitate movement of security forces for the Lok Sabha election duty. It will remain effective till May 31. In the Valley, where the maximum impact was felt, chaos ruled as the closure turned into a major controversy as two former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti took to the streets in protest, urging people to defy the ban. NC chief Farooq Abdullah, who led a highway sit-in at Pantha Chowk on the city outskirts, said it was necessary to withdraw the order to prevent more bloodshed. Are we living in a free country or is this a colony? They have totally imprisoned us. It is crucial to withdraw the order to prevent more bloodshed, he said. He claimed the Centre knew about the deadly Pulwama attack, which has triggered the ban. It is their (Centres) mistake. They knew that the attack was going to happen. Where did the explosives come from? Modi had to win the elections, so he did this karnama, he said. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, leading a party protest, said they would move court. It is not an occupational force. If the Government of India thinks by such acts they will suppress people, it is wrong. We will defy the ban. We will go to court tomorrow against the decision. We have every right to use these roads. I urge everyone to defy the ban, she said. Commuters on the 161-km stretch in Kashmir, which interconnects different districts and serves as a lifeline for the landlocked Valley, had a harrowing time today as civilian vehicles remained off road. Carrying his granddaughter, elderly Abdul Rasheed Shah, a resident of Bijbehara town, walked 3 km on foot from the Padshahi Bagh area to the Nowgam railway station on the city outskirts. This ban has put people to a lot of inconvenience. We are really angry at this order. It is only adding to our hardship, he said. Early morning, the authorities began deploying hundreds of security force personnel along the stretch, blocking all intersections and passageways to the highway from Baramulla to Jawahar Tunnel in Kulgam district. Concertina wire was put up on intersections to block traffic. As emergency vehicles and tourists have been exempted, the government deputed magistrates to ensure that those in need did not get stuck. At the HMT Crossing on the city outskirts, however, Magistrate Mohammad Abbas refused to listen to grievances of scores of early morning city-bound travellers, as he asked them to look for alternative routes. On the other hand, a magistrate deputed on the Pantha Chowk-Nowgam railway station stretch said he had issued around 100 passes to travellers in need. Another magistrate said as government servants, they had to follow the orders. The order should be revoked as people faced a lot of hardship today. I wonder what would happen on Wednesday when everyone would be out to use the highway, he said. On the first day of the ban, around 100 Army, CRPF and BSF vehicles crossed the Jawahar Tunnel from Jammu. The government in the evening claimed movement of emergency vehicles was allowed by making necessary arrangements. Reports from the DCs of Pulwama, Anantnag, Budgam and Baramulla suggest special passes were given to 493 vehicles falling in the exempted category, an official spokesman said. In the Jammu region, people of Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban and parts of Udhampur districts also faced hardship. These districts rely on the highway for essential supplies, including fuel. My sisters son is in Srinagar for an exam. He has to appear in another exam in Jammu. He had to wait till 5 pm for the road to open to travel to Jammu in the night, said Imran, a Doda resident. I had come from Doda to Jammu for official work a few days ago. I wanted to return today but due to the ban, I am stuck here, said Tahir Hussain of Kishtwar. How traffic restrictions impact Valley 10,000 vehicles enter & leave Srinagar from north, south Kashmir every hour 200 major intersections along Srinagar-Qazigund highway 5 of 10 districts Baramulla, Srinagar, Pulwama, Anantnag, Kulgam covered 2 districts Bandipora and Budgam accessible only through highway 3 govt, 5 private hospitals located along the highway 6 top private schools, scores of govt schools, colleges located on it 40 companies comprising 3,000 security men deployed to secure highway Leaders hit out Driving to Uri, Im getting to see first-hand the extent of disruption & inconvenience being caused to people because of mindless closure order. Omar Abdullah, NC Vice-President We wont allow you to turn our beloved land into an open-air prison. Jis Kashmir ko khoon say seencha, woh Kashmir humara hai. Mehbooba Mufti, pdp chief Its turning into a humanitarian disaster. People in dire need to travel stuck in a state of helplessness. @jandkgovernor needs to scrap inhuman order. Sajad Lone, JKPC Chief (With inputs by Amir Karim Tantray in Jammu) Driving to Uri Im getting to see first hand the extent of disruption & inconvenience that is being caused to people because of the mindless highway closure order that is in place today. Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) April 7, 2019 amansharma@tribunemail.com Srinagar, April 7 Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will travel to New Delhi to depose before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as the probe agency has assured to take care of his security concerns, Hurriyat said on Sunday. Other Hurriyat leaders will accompany Mirwaiz to New Delhi. The NIA had issued fresh summons to the Hurriyat chairman, asking him to appear in Delhi for questioning in the terror funding case. The NIA had recently served a third notice to the Mirwaiz asking him to appear before the agency in Delhi on April 18 after he had expressed security concerns regarding his visit to the national capital while responding to the two notices served to him by NIA earlier. Mirwaiz will be accompanied by Hurriyat executive members, including Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Gani Lone and Masroor Ansari. Despite repeated attempts to hold the questioning in Srinagar, the NIA refused to conduct it in Srinagar and has said that it would take care of the security concerns expressed by the Mirwaiz. "It is unfortunate that they are insisting on the investigation in Delhi. It has been decided in the Hurriyat executive meeting held today (Sunday) that the executive members will accompany Mirwaiz to New Delhi," the spokesman said. "People are deeply anguished by the harassment of Mirwaiz," he added. The Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat has, however, appeared people to remain calm and peaceful. With agency inputs uttara@tribuneindia.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 7 The Congress launched its general election campaign Ab Hoga Nyay on Sunday. The Congress campaign to be centered around 'Nyay'. This word promises justice to all, senior leader Anand Sharma said as he unveiled the campaign. Nyay in Hindi literally translates into justice but it is also the abbreviation of the partys proposed minimum income guarantee scheme Nyuntam Aay Yojana. Congress party released its theme songpenned by Javed Akhtar and video filmed by Nikkhil Advaniand also their campaign posters, with slogans that read Ek Saral GST; (one simple GST), Gareebi pe vaar bahattar hazaar (Striking poverty down with 72,000), 150 din rozgaar ki guarantee (150 days of guaranteed employment), 24 lakh sarkari naukruyaan 31 March 2020 tak (24,000 government job vacancies by March 31, 2020)all promises the party has made in its manifesto. The Congress has promised Rs 72,000 each annually as minimum income for 20 per cent to the countrys poorest 20 per cent if his party should be elected to power. pardeepdhull@gmail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 7 The BJP on Sunday fielded Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology SS Ahluwalia from the Burdwan-Durgapur parliamentary seat in West Bengal. Ahluwalia is currently representing the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency. In Darjeeling, the BJP has replaced Ahluwalia with Raju Singh Bista, who is backed by the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and Bimal Gurung faction of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). After his candidature was announced, Ahluwalia said he was grateful to the party leadership for nominating him from the seat where he learnt most important lessons of his life. I spent my student days there. I was a student activist at Burdwan University. And my candidature is an opportunity for me to serve the people of this place, he said. With this, the party has announced 408 candidates for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls which will start on April 11 and continue till May 19. The counting of the votes will take place on May 23. Ahluwalia is the only BJP minister in the Modi Cabinet who has not used the prefix Chowkidar before his name in social media profile. A four-time Rajya Sabha member, he also courted controversy when he made the statement that the purpose of Balakot air strike was to send a message to Pakistan and not inflict casualties. With PTI editorial@tribune.com Nanded, April 6 PM Narendra Modi today dismissed electoral challenge from the Congress party, describing it to be like a Titanic ship which is sinking, while also slamming it for promising to scrap the sedition law. Addressing a poll rally here in support of BJP candidates from Nanded, Latur, Hingoli and Parbhani in central Maharashtra, Modi also said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi has opted for a second seat where the majority community is in a minority. With an apparent reference to the Congress manifesto promise of ensuring a minimum income guarantee to the poor, the prime minister said the opposition party plans to burden the middle class with more taxes to fund the scheme. It offers the middle class, which is the backbone of the country, nothing, Modi claimed. Whenever the Congress is in trouble, it makes false promises and then becomes Gajini (the character, played by Aamir Khan, which suffers from memory loss), Modi said. The Congress is like a Titanic ship which is sinking, Modi said, adding the party was reduced to just 44 seats in 2014 and it stares at a worse situation this time around. He said the Congress has more factions in Maharashtra than the number of MLAs it has in the state. The Congress promise of scrapping the sedition law is like giving an open licence to the tukde-tukde gang (those who want disintegration of India), Modi said. He said the Congress naamdar (dynast, referring to party chief Rahul Gandhi) had to use a microscope to look for a second safe seat. In the constituency he has chosen, the majority community is in minority. He has also said he will not speak against his main Left rival, Modi said. Earlier, at a rally at Wardha on April 1, Modi had said Congress leaders were afraid of contesting from constituencies dominated by majority population (Hindus). PTI editorial@tribune.com New Delhi, April 6 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and British national Christian Michel, alleged middleman arrested in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, today sought before a Delhi court an inquiry into the purported leak to the media of the supplementary charge-sheet filed in the case. The ED urged the court to issue a notice to a news organisation, asking it to explain how it had accessed the documents, whereas Michel supported the probe demand while accusing the agency of politicising the matter. EDs special public prosecutors D Singh and NK Matta claimed the matter was serious. The charge-sheets copy is yet to be supplied to the accused persons. However, Michels lawyers came to know what we have written in it and filed an application. This is a very serious matter and an inquiry must be ordered to ascertain how the copy of the charge-sheet was leaked, the ED said. Special judge Arvind Kumar issued a notice to the agency, asking it to file a reply on Michels plea, stating he had not named anybody in connection with the deal during investigation by the ED and that even though the court had not taken cognisance of the documents, to make the case sensational again, the agency had leaked the charge-sheet. The court will take up EDs plea on April 11. Meanwhile, it has issued summons to Michels business partner and middleman David Nigel John Syms as an accused in the case. He has been asked to appear before the court on May 9. The court also summoned two firms Global Services FZE and Global Traders. Michel and Syms are directors of these firms. PTI amansharma@tribunemail.com New Delhi, April 7 India today said it reserved the right of swift reprisal in case Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qure-shis irresponsible statement caused it to suffer another cross-border attack. It described Qureshis statement about another imminent attack on Pakistan by this month-end as a public gimmick that appears to be a call to terrorists based on its soil to undertake a cross-border terror attack. The Ministry of External Affairs saw the `hysterical statements as an attempt to obfuscate the core issue of cross-border terrorism and advised Pakistan to use the established diplomatic and DGMO channels to share any actionable and credible intelligence it had on imminent terror attacks. The MEA statement came after Qureshi said Pakistan had reliable intelligence that India is planning to attack again between April 16 and 20. In an attempt to internationalise the bilateral dispute, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmima Janjua held an emergency briefing of P-5 envoys (US, the UK, France, Russia and China) on Friday, asking the international community to take notice of this irresponsible behaviour and restrain India from embarking on this path. India has upped the ante after major attacks on security forces in Uri and Pulwama, with counter-reprisals by its conventional forces. TNS pardeepdhull@gmail.com Shahira Naim Tribune News Service Lucknow, April 7 Charging the BJP and Congress of considering the Mahagatbandhan their prime opponent, BSP leader Mayawati on Sunday said that in the ongoing election both the national parties were conniving to help each other to keep the alliance out. Addressing the first mammoth joint rally of the alliance at Deoband in Saharanpur, Mayawati in her 45-minute speech attacked both the BJP and Congress, and declared that it was clear that BJP was on its way out. She said BJPs Rs 6000 a year Kisan Samman Nidhi and the Congress partys promised NYAY of Rs 72,000 a year were no permanent solution and that the poor in the country were not looking for dole. If elected to power at the Centre, my government would work towards giving permanent employment to each hand, she said. Ridiculing Narendra Modis chowkidar refrain as nautanki, she said that the despite that the farmers are unhappy as no chowkidar has protected their crops from stray cattle. In a thinly veiled attack on AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mayawati asked why these parties remembered to visit mandirs, mazars, conduct boat rides, road shows, and padyatras only during election time. Charging the Congress of attempting to split the Muslim vote in Saharanpur to help the BJP, she fervently appealed to the Muslims to be on their guard and not benefit the saffron party by splitting their vote. Mayawati did not spare the Congress either, calling its recently released election manifesto as hawa-hawai. Describing the huge crowds as truly historic Samajwadi party national president Akhilesh Yadav said this was election for bringing in Mahaparivartan (Great change) the time to election a new Prime Minister . This time please snatch away the chowkidars chowki, he appealed so that those intoxicated by power to teach a lesson to those spreading hatred. Yadav said that there was not much difference in the Congress and BJP as their policies were very similar. The grand alliance is meant to bring change in the country. But the Congress doesnt want that. They want to form a government in Uttar Pradesh, he pointed out. Charging the BJP government of doing nothing for development he claimed that not a single megawatt of was added to UPs power generation during the BJP rule in the centre and the state. Rashtriya Lok Dals president Chaudhary Ajit Singh pointed out that the election was to decide the future of Indian democracy. He said that the biggest strength that each Indian has been given under the Constitution is to elect a government every five years. Now the BJP president Amit Shah says that the BJP rule is to remain for the next 50 years. Their MP Sakshi Maharaj has said that this would be the last election. Does the partywant to take away your right to chose or reject governments every five years? asked Singh. According to the RLD leader when Modi promised achche din he was only speaking for himself. He changes suits three times a day, visited so many countries, and speaks to the nation, Singh quipped. The Deoband rally on Sunday was the first of the 11 similar joint rallies of the alliance planned across the state till May 16. amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 7 Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday promised another range of waivers, this time for students and said if voted to power his party would bring a law on students rights and duties. Gandhi took to Facebook to make a slew of pre-poll promises for students and said the Congress would waive all outstanding interest on education loans up to March 31, 2019. He added, Till the time a student gets a job to repay education interest loan, banks wont charge any interest to students. He also announced a law on students rights and responsibilities and said his party would make education free and compulsory from Class I to XII. Gandhi had earlier said after releasing the party Lok Sabha election manifesto on April 2 that the Congress would raise public spending on education to 2 per cent of the GDP. editorial@tribune.com Fatehpur (Uttar Pradesh), April 6 Attacking the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today said if its leaders were truly patriotic, they would respect country's martyrs, including former PMs Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, irrespective of their caste, religion or political background. "If BJP leaders, who talk big about patriotism, are true patriots, they would respect martyrs of the country whether that martyr is Hindu or Muslim or the father of their political opponent. He is a martyr. You can't be selective in which martyr you respect. If you are true patriots, respect all martyrs, including Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi," she said at a street-corner meeting here. "If they are truly patriotic, they would not have turned away and shut their doors on farmers when they came to Delhi to tell the government the problems they were facing... If they are truly patriotic, they would have delivered on the promise of creating jobs that they made to you," she added. Calling the upcoming elections crucial for deciding the fate of the country, Priyanka told the gathering that she was there to remind them of what true patriotism was all about. Every election, the BJP brings up the issue of patriotism and there is no talk on issues like development. I am here to remind you what true patriotism is all about, she said. She said the BJP asked people to stand in queues to deposit their money in banks calling it a patriotic act that would bring back black money. "Did black money come back? Not even a single paisa... True patriotism is believing in democracy and casting your vote responsibly by choosing those who work for you, and those who deliver on their promises. Political leaders quickly forget who brought them to power. You need to be aware and you need to remind them," she said. Attacking Modi, the Congress general secretary said when she went to Varanasi, the PM's constituency, she was told the government had built a 15-km road from the airport to the city in the name of development. "The Congress had announced that road spanning 150 km, and they built only 15 km from airport to the city so that it is visible to people," she said. She also claimed that people told him that Modi did not visit a single village in the constituency after becoming the PM. "This is his patriotism that he can visit Africa, US, China, Japan, Pakistan... have biryani and come back. But he can't come to his constituency to ask the wellbeing of even a single family." Priyanka said unlike Modi's promise of Rs15 lakh in every Indian's bank account, the Congress would deliver on its NYAY scheme, which promises Rs72,000 annually in bank accounts of the poor. "We waived loans of farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan in 10 days after forming government... Congress has proved it can deliver be it MGNREGA or farm loan waivers," she added. IANS laxmi@tribune.com New Delhi, April 6 The CBI today carried out multi-city searches on the premises of Bhushan Power and Steel Limited after registering a case of alleged cheating amounting to Rs 2,348 crore against the firm and its directors, the CBI said. The searches were carried out at multiple locations in a number of cities, including Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh and Kolkata. The agency has booked the firm, its directors, unidentified public servants and other private persons in the case. It is alleged that the company directors diverted huge amounts of bank funds using their companies and shell companies. It deliberately defaulted on repayment and also claimed inadmissible credit, causing a loss of Rs 2,348 crore to banks, the CBI alleged. TNS laxmi@tribune.com New Delhi, April 6 Twitter is going ga-ga over UPSC topper Kanishak Kataria attributing his success to his ladylove. An alumnus of IIT-Bombay, he topped in his first attempt the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination, results of which were declared yesterday. Its a very surprising moment. I never expected to get the first rank. I thank my parents, sister and my girlfriend for the help and moral support. People will expect me to be a good administrator and thats exactly my intention, an overjoyed Kataria told reporters. Kataria is believed to be the first civil services examination topper to have broken stereotypes, formally thanking his girlfriend for his success. Some cheered him for advocating a progressive mindset and lauded the scholar for celebrating his romantic relationship publicly. In India, students are advised to observe celibacy Brahmcharya, concentrate on studies and keep away from relationship during school-college days. Kanishak Kataria, AIR 1 in UPSC final exam, thanking girlfriend (along with parents and sister), for the help and moral support, a tweet read. IANS Junior doctors at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) have documented a list of their grievances which they say highlights a system failure. Junior doctors from all departments at EWMSC are being forced to work more shifts in the Covid tent against their original house-officer work contracts. While this was appropriate at the beginning of the pandemic when things were chaotic, two years later hospital management is at its worst, the document stated. Stanford Callender cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be properly accused of running away, of leaving his party in the lurch. After decades of dedicated service and of principled positions, he took a decision to make room for others to address the rebuilding of the political machinery, the first word in whose description is great. Deputy President William Ruto has often packaged himself as the leader of the hustler nation, and this, many understand, is because of his humble beginnings in life. The DP occasionally told Kenyans he used to sell chicken for a living before he became successful in life, but there was also his early hustles in Nairobi city that not many people knew about. READ ALSO: Kakamega county mum who delivered five babies at once dies Deputy President William Ruto addressing the residents of Dagoretti South in Nairobi on Sunday, April 7, after attending a church service at PCEA. Photo: William Ruto. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: William Ruto aitaka ODM kumkabili badala ya kumhangaisha Aisha Jumwa Addressing a congregation at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) in Nairobi West where he had gone to attend a church service on Sunday, April 7, the hustler revealed he started life in Nairobi's Dagoretti South and used to pay monthly rent of KSh 1,750. "Mimi nikiwa Dagoretti South hii, mimi nilikuwa naishi hapa Ngando...Nilikuwa nalipa rent KSh 1,750 (When I was here in Dagoretti South, I used to stay at Ngando...I used to pay rent of KSh 1,750)," he said. READ ALSO: William Ruto will be made president by hustlers - Mutahi Ngunyi Just like many young Kenyan graduates who travel to the city to look for a job and start their adult lives, Ruto, who graduated with a degree in Botany and Zoology from the University of Nairobi (UoN), revealed he also started from the same exact spot. He said he and Rachel, his wife and the mother of his children, were still dating at the time. She used to visit him at his rented house in Dagoretti South before they got married. My wife and I used to come here for dates. We would later marry. Our first child was born here in Dagoretti South. So I have a history in this area, the DP said amid cheers from the crowd. READ ALSO: William Ruto will be made president by hustlers - Mutahi Ngunyi Ruto is expected to take over from President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2022 and is already positioning himself for the top job. According to a poll conducted by Ipsos, the deputy president already had a good head-start compared to other presidential hopefuls, including Opposition Raila Odinga who has not yet announced whether or not he will vie again in 2022. The survey, conducted between March 4 and 12, 2018, found 58% of Kenyans were most likely to vote for Ruto if elections were to be held then. The poll results, released on March 27, 2018, showed Ruto was the most preferred 2022 presidential candidate beating Raila by a huge margin. The political dynamics in the country are, however, likely to change over time with major political realignments expected before the 2022 race. Additional reporting by J.Papanoo, Tuko correspondent, Nairobi county Do you have a life-changing story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Should Deputy President William Ruto be impeached? - On Tuko TV Source: Kenyan Breaking News By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation raided multiple premises of Bhushan Steel and Power Ltd in several cities on Saturday, pertaining to Rs 2,348 crore cheating case. According to officials, the companys offices at Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh and Kolkata, as well as its residential premises of its directors, promoters and their associates were searched. The investigative agency has booked Bhushan Steel and Power, which is already undergoing resolution proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, for entering into a criminal conspiracy to cheat financial institutions. The companys directors, unidentified public servants and other private persons are named in the case. It was alleged that the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy among themselves and with unknown public servants and others to cheat banks/financial institutions/government exchequer, a CBI spokesperson said. The agency has alleged that Bhushan Steel and Power directors diverted a huge amount of bank funds using their companies as well as shell companies. The company deliberately defaulted in repayment and also claimed inadmissible credit, causing a loss of Rs 2,348 crore to the banks, the spokesperson said. Sunitha natti By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Should the esteemed Finance Commission be made a permanent body? Theres nothing in the Indian Constitution that either indicates that the commission is temporary or prohibits its permanency. However, its chairman and members are changed, or rather constituted, for a five-year term and is tasked to prepare the Centre-state net tax revenue share for the ensuing five years. Currently, the 15th Finance Commission (FC), headed by N K Singh and comprising four members and five consultants, has to submit its report by October 30, outlining the revenue share for April 2020-2025. The Constitution doesnt have a permanent chairman and members. But that would be a problem as it could dilute its neutrality... The government shouldnt politicise the institution, M Govinda Rao, member of 14th FC and presently counsellor at Takshashila Institution, told Express. Not all are on the same page. Last month, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das underscored the need for continuity and consistency among recommendations of the commissions, which he said were inconsistent with one another, adopted different approaches regarding tax devolution, grants-in-aid and the issues of fiscal consolidation. A permanent team would ensure certainty in the flow of funds to states, he said. Incidentally, Das was a member of the 15th FC, but resigned after he took charge as RBI Governor. If the state has a revenue disability and cost disability that has to be offset. Every commission recommends whats appropriate. Theres a broad concept including unconditional transfers, which are given to enable states to offer minimum standard of service, Rao said. According to Y V Reddy, chairman of the 14th Finance Commission which recommended a path-breaking rise in tax devolution from the Centre to states (from 32 to 42 per cent) leading to fiscal kneecapping for the Centre having permanent members allows states to continuously engage with the government, which could abdicate its discretion currently available in designing and implementing the specific purpose transfers. Theres a general consensus that the FC has been expanding considerably from being an arbitrator between the Centre and states to an architect of fiscal restructuring. States expenditure continues to be influenced by the Centre, as FC transfers account for the bulk of the Central transfers. If you look at it, FC has been evolving and its a work-in-progress. Basically, the objective is to offset the revenue disability and cost disability of states. In a country where theres so much difference between the highest and lowest per capita income of states at 1:5, its impossible to assume theres no disability. The objective is to ensure minimum standard of services, Rao reasoned, adding, They broadly indicate the revenue and cost disability of states so that comparable levels of services can be offered, but you cant do it fully because of the extreme inequalities in the country. For old politicians, corruption is the same as water for fish, the team said. The team of Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky has presented an anti-corruption program, which it intends to follow if Zelensky is elected as the president. "We emphasize there is no need to reinvent the wheel in this area. It has long been known what should be done. It's just there has never been political will. It is a mistake to hope that a thoroughly corrupt state system will have a desire to deprive itself of a food base. For old politicians, corruption is the same as water for fish. The old political elite against corruption is the same as bees against honey," the team wrote on Telegram channel. Read alsoZelensky's blood test results made public It is noted the anti-corruption system implies the full independence of all structures, the abolition of parliamentary immunity, ensuring fair judging with the help of the International Supreme Economic Court. Zelensky's team emphasizes the importance of changing the functions of security agencies, decriminalizing the economy, toughening penalties for corrupt officials and raiders. It is also proposed to transfer the state to the smartphone so that the maximum number of services, including business, could be obtained in electronic form. The team also focuses on the need to establish a reward for exposing corruption. "To initiate an appeal to Western law enforcement agencies with a request to launch anti-corruption investigations against those Ukrainian corrupt officials who are established by the Ukrainian anti-corruption bodies," the report says. According to Kelemen, he was denied entry "without any clear explanation." The Hungarian Foreign Ministry has summoned Ambassador of Ukraine to Hungary Liubov Nepop over the ban on entry to Ukraine to head of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) Hunor Kelemen. According to Kelemen, he was denied entry "without any clear explanation," the Ukrainian news outlet Glavred reports, referring to Agerpres. It is noted Kelemen was going to take part in celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association (KMKSZ) in the town of Uzhgorod, Ukraine's west. The ban on his entry to Ukraine has been in effect for 1.5 years. In turn, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has confirmed it did not allow Kelemen entering Ukraine according to the instructions of one of the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine. Read alsoVolker hopes Hungary, Ukraine to settle issue of minority rights in Zakarpattia As UNIAN reported earlier, the relations between Ukraine and Hungary have deteriorated after the Ukrainian Parliament adopted a new law on education. Hungary is blocking the holding of meetings of the Ukraine-NATO Commission, alleging a violation of the rights of Hungarians living in Ukraine, over the provision of the education law stipulating that the language of instruction in educational facilities be the state language (Ukrainian). According to the conclusion of the Venice Commission, promulgated on December 8, 2017, the Ukrainian authorities are recommended to balance the position of the language article. On February 14, 2018, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the draft law (No. 8046), which provides for the extension until 2023 of the transition period for the implementation of the language clause of the Law on Education. Now this draft law is under consideration by parliamentary committees. In March, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto demanded that Ukraine amend the law on education and postpone its implementation until 2023, otherwise Budapest will block meetings important for Ukraine at the level of the European Union and NATO. Then the head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry said that Budapest was offering Kyiv to conclude an agreement on the protection of national minorities. The agreement is to allow free use of the native language of national minorities in religion, culture, education, and governance. On October 13, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin stressed that there was no way back regarding the law on education adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in 2017, while consultations with the Hungarian community of Zakarpattia should continue. He stressed that the goal of the law on education is not to assimilate the Hungarians, but to open up chances for self-realization of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine. In February, Gergely Gulyas, the Minister heading the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Office, claimed Ukraine authorities had adopted "a semi-Fascist" education law. Responding to a question about elections in Ukraine, Gulyas said the "Ukraine currently has a government that tramples on minority rights, one that has had 'a semi-Fascist' education law adopted." The official also said he sincerely hopes that the Hungarian government "will be able to get through to the new administration [following elections] because they have been unable to communicate with the present one." Gulyas added that Budapest still expects Ukraine will amend the legislation. There is no justification for Russia's use of military force against Ukrainian ships and naval personnel, the G7 foreign ministers said. The G7 foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union have called on Russia to release the 24 Ukrainian Navy sailors seized along with their three naval vessels last year near the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. "We reiterate our enduring support for Ukrainian sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. This includes our non-recognition of Russia's claim to have annexed Crimea," the G7 foreign ministers said in a communique following a meeting in Saint Malo, France, April 6, 2019. Read alsoU.S., Canada introduce sanctions over Russian aggression in Ukraine, including in Kerch Strait "Russia's actions constitute a violation of international law. We express our utmost concern about Russia's actions against Ukraine in the Kerch Strait and surrounding waters, which have dangerously raised tensions. There is no justification for Russia's use of military force against Ukrainian ships and naval personnel." "We urge restraint, due respect for international law, and the prevention of any further escalation. We call on Russia to release the detained crew and vessels and refrain from impeding lawful passage through the Kerch Strait," reads the report. UNIAN memo. On the morning of November 25, Russia blocked the passage to the Kerch Strait for the Ukrainian tugboat "Yany Kapu" and two armored naval boats "Berdyansk" and "Nikopol," which were on a scheduled re-deployment from the Black Sea port of Odesa to the Azov Sea port of Mariupol. The Ukraine Navy Command noted that the Russian side had been informed of the plans to re-deploy the vessels in advance in accordance with international standards to ensure the safety of navigation. The Russian coast guard ship "Don" rammed the Ukrainian tugboat, damaging the Ukrainian vessel. As the Ukrainian boats were heading back in the Odesa direction after being rejected passage via the Kerch Strait, Russian coast guards opened aimed fire on them. All 24 crew members on board were captured and later remanded in custody for two months, being charged with "illegal border crossing" (the sailors are facing up to six years in prison). Three crewmen were wounded in the attack. Russian-controlled "courts" in occupied Crimea ruled that all 24 detainees should be remanded in custody, after which they were transferred to the Moscow-based Lefortovo and Matrosskaya Tishina detention centers. Moscow's Lefortovo district court in the middle of January 2019, decided to keep the Ukrainian sailors in remand until the end of April 2019. By Express News Service BENGALURU: Available in the market soon will be a motorcycle accompanied by a smart helmet which will alert riders of emergency situations while also sending out messages to emergency rescue personnel with the location of the rider, in case of an accident. The e-motorcycle and smart helmet is the invention of a group of 3rd year engineering students of the MVJ College of Engineering from the city. Though not a part of a compulsory class project, they worked on it considering how increasingly, two-wheeler riders were becoming victims of accidents. Talking about their invention, Saivenkat Patro, an Electronics and Communcations (E&C) student said, We have applied for patents and also have to conduct trials for the vehicle and helmet. Once this is complete, we will work on permissions from authorities to release these in the market for sale. The team plans on selling both products as a package instead of as standalone products. The cost is going to be quite less. We plan to sell both between Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000, he said. The team has named the helmet KAWACH. Other students in the team are Nikitha, Megha S of Electronics and Communication and Surva Pratim Roy of the Computer Science department. The team is also working on a helmet for construction and mining site workers and will name it Kawach M&C. Another product is a helmet for children named Kawach Junior. The sensors placed on the helmet alert the supervisor that an accident has occurred and help needs to be sent immediately. Along with the alert message it also sends the location of the accident to make it easier for the help to locate the victim. This helmet also comes with a mechanical SOS button which the person can use when in need. The advantage of this technology is that the connection between the supervisor and worker is not lost even in adverse conditions like being underground or in a remote area of the site. explained the members of the team. Kawach Junior is a variant specially designed for kids. The smart features included in the helmet are the accident alert system, SOS alert and GPS tracking system. The resolution was unanimously adopted at a meeting on Saturday. The Central Election Commission (CEC) has adopted a resolution on holding a second round of presidential elections in Ukraine. Read alsoCEC announces official results of first round of presidential elections in Ukraine (Video) The resolution was unanimously adopted at a meeting on Saturday, according to an UNIAN correspondent. The CEC has approved the form and text of the ballot paper. In addition, the CEC has approved a timetable for the preparation and conduct of a runoff to be held on April 21. Poroshenko invites the audience and all TV channels. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he is waiting for presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky to debate at Kyiv's Olimpiyskiy Stadium on April 14. "On April 14, next Sunday, at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium, exactly where Mr. Zelensky proposed, I'm waiting for him to hold a debate. I think 19:00 or 20:00 will be the best time. I invite the audience and all TV channels for the debate to be held as Volodymyr Zelensky wanted not to let him leave this proposal," Poroshenko told Ukraina TV channel. As UNIAN reported earlier, on April 3, Zelensky declared his readiness to come to the debate with Poroshenko ahead of the runoff, however, he voiced a number of conditions. In particular, he said, the debates should be held at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv, "before the people of Ukraine", and with all TV channels being able to air the event live, while both candidates must undergo a medical exam and prove to the people that there are "no alcoholics or drug addicts" among them. Poroshenko agreed to hold the debate with Zelensky at the stadium. On April 4, speaker of the election headquarters of incumbent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Oleh Medvedev, said that Poroshenko had invited Zelensky at the Olimpiyskiy health center to pass the relevant tests. In turn, Zelensky's headquarters rejected a proposal to take a blood test at the health center and announced he would come to a private lab. On Friday morning, April 5, Zelensky passed blood tests at a private clinic Eurolab. Presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko passed the relevant tests at the Olimpiyskiy health center. Three invaders were killed and another one was wounded on Saturday, intelligence reports say. Russia's hybrid military forces in the past 24 hours mounted 14 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas, with two Ukrainian soldiers reported as killed in action. Read alsoInvaders mortar Ukraine positions seven times on Saturday Ukraine's JFO HQ "Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the past day. According to intelligence reports, three invaders were killed and another one was wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in an update published on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on April 7, 2019. Russian occupation forces opened fire from 120mm and 82mm mortars, weapons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and small arms, attacking the defenders of the towns of Avdiyivka and Krasnohorivka, and the villages of Pavlopil, Pisky, Shyrokyne, Opytne, Starohnativka, Chermalyk, Zaitseve, Zolote-4, and Khutir Vilniy. "Since Sunday midnight, Russian-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions near Shyrokyne, using grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and small arms. There have been no casualties among the Ukrainian military," reads the report. The situation in the area of the Joint Forces Operation remains under control of Ukrainian troops. Russia's hybrid military forces mounted eight attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas on April 7, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as wounded in action. Read alsoTwo Ukrainian soldiers killed in Donbas in past day "One Ukrainian soldier was wounded from 00:00 to 18:00 Kyiv time. Information on the enemy's losses is being clarified," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook. The enemy opened fire from 120mm and 82mm mortars, weapons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and small arms at the Ukrainian positions near the town of Popasna, and the villages of Hnutove, Shyrokyne, Novotroyitske, Katerynivka, and Novozvanivka. The situation in the area of the Joint Forces Operation remains under control of Ukrainian troops. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Telangana High Court has made it clear that the consideration of child welfare play a predominant role in determining as to who should have the custody of the child. Custody of the child below seven years need not be with the mother and each of the case should be decided on merit and facts. The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice T Amarnath Goud made this observation recently while allowing an appeal filed by Khaja Raheemuddin of the city challenging the order of trial court which has rejected the request of the appellant to continue custody of his two-year-old boy keeping in view of latters safety by restraining the boys mother (wife of the appellant) and her relatives not to interfere with custody of child. Presently, boy is in the custody of appellant. According to the appellant, he and his wife were blessed with a boy. But later he came to know that his wife was having an extra-marital affair with another person. In spite of his repeated requests she did not mend her ways. Besides, she and her relatives threatened him and his family with dire consequences and also engaged contract killers to kill him and his child. He alleged that she even threw the boy from the cot several times due to which the boy sustained severe injuries. She had also filed a case against him and his family at a local police station under Dowry Prohibition Act. Denying the allegations, the wife of the appellant said that she had filed a criminal case when her husband and his family members did not allow her to enter the house. According to Muslim Law, the custody of the child up to seven years was with the mother, she contended. Making it clear that the paramount welfare of the minor child was with the appellant (father), the bench ordered that interim custody of the minor child shall remain with the appellant. By Express News Service KOCHI: An Additional Sessions Court in Kochi on Friday awarded life imprisonment to eight persons in connection with the murder of an Edavanakkad native in 2012. The case pertains to the murder of Abdul Kayyum, who was the manager of Hidayatul Islam Higher Secondary School and president of Edavanakkad Irshadul Muslimeen religious congregation. The court awarded life imprisonment to accused Nadirsha, Tashiyad, Anoop, Noushad, Manaf, Jaleel, Sabir and PS Noushad. This apart, the accused were ordered to pay Rs 25,000 each as fine to relatives of the deceased. The accused persons maintained enmity towards Kayyum after their request for membership in the religious congregation was rejected. Later, the Waqaf Board also came out with an order suspending issuance of new membership. On March 12, 2012, the accused attacked Kayyum. He later succumbed to injuries. Senior advocate B Raman Pillai and advocate Sunil Maheshwaran Pillai appeared for the prosecution. Hungary and the United States have signed a defense cooperation agreement, according to official sources here on Saturday. BUDAPEST, Apr 6 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Apr, 2019 ) :Hungary and the United States have signed a defense cooperation agreement, according to official sources here on Saturday. "Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan have signed a defense cooperation agreement on the sidelines of the celebrations of NATO's 70th anniversary in Washington," the official website of the Hungarian government informed. "The new defense agreement concluded with the United States is a 'modernized version' of the defense cooperation agreement signed twenty years ago," Szijjarto was quoted as saying. "Security conditions have changed significantly in recent decades," Szijjarto underlined, adding that the new defense deal would contribute to guaranteeing Hungary's security, and ensuring that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) remain "the world's most successful and strongest military alliance in future. " In a statement following the signing of the agreement, U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David B. Cornstein said: "This agreement will modernize our previous status of forces agreement to reflect new realities in defense.""We look forward to an even stronger security relationship with Hungary, and we hope the Hungarian Parliament will complete its approval of the agreement as soon as possible," Cornstein added. The signing of the defense agreement comes following a visit to Hungary by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February, when he vowed to renew U.S. engagement with Hungary and strengthen its relations with the countries in central and eastern Europe, including Hungary. WTBC Sheridan Fires Up Second Annual Start-Up Challenge Sheridans Wyoming Technology Business Center (WTBC) business incubator has named five finalists for this years Sheridan Start-Up Challenge entrepreneur competition. We had a terrific number of applicants for the first challenge and a great turnout at the pitch event, says Scot Rendall, Sheridan Area WTBC director. Prior to our kickoff of the 2018 process, we had many inquiries about this years challenge, so we expect that a number of entrepreneurs with good business ideas will step forward. The Sheridan Area WTBC received 40 applications for this years Start-Up Challenge. The WTBC is administered by the University of Wyomings Office of Research and Economic Development. It is a not-for-profit business incubator system that provides startup and early-stage companies with the expertise, networks and tools necessary for the development of successful businesses. Finalists will pitch their ideas at the WYO Theater, 42 N. Main St., in Sheridan Thursday, Nov. 8, at 5:30 p.m. Each finalist will give a 15-minute presentation and will entertain questions from the judges. The top three entrepreneurs each will receive a $5,000 award; space in the Sheridan incubator; ongoing counseling and legal support; and the opportunity to apply for additional working capital from a $50,000 seed fund. The pitch event is open to the public. The following is a brief summary of each finalist, including the company name, the entrepreneur and the business idea: -- My-Town, created by Aaron Baker, is a mobile application that will help small businesses reach their local community and for the local community to see events that are happening. The best local eateries and events will be just a tap away. Local businesses will be able to offer products for sale and completely process the transaction within the app. Customers will be able to receive custom verification of orders and can track order status in real time. -- Angle PR, created by Jamie Diamond, is a public relations-as-a-service company that works with startup companies to get their stories in the press. Angle PR blends creative best practices in media relations with cutting-edge automation. By streamlining many of the daily tasks and rituals that public relations professionals typically perform, Angles account staff can focus more time on client strategy and brainstorming to pitch the best stories, which will enable better press coverage. -- Spark Payments, created by Spencer Kuzara, is a payment processing company designed to provide a frictionless way for businesses to accept payments in digital currency. Using InstantSend technology, transactions happen in less than one second and cost less than one cent. Since price volatility is not an acceptable risk in business, Sparks payment processing app will immediately convert digital currency payments into U.S. dollars. -- Connect Speech Therapy, created by Chelsea Paulus, is an innovative in-home speech therapy practice serving individuals with speech impairments, reading and writing difficulties, memory challenges and other speech therapy needs. Using technology such as teletherapy services, Connect will be able to deliver personalized service not only locally in Sheridan, but also across Wyoming and other parts of the Mountain West, particularly to underserved rural communities. -- ThermMaker, created by Chad Reckard, is a large, automated fluid heater for use in oil and gas development. Unlike existing fluid heaters that are limited by generic off-the-shelf components, ThermMaker heaters use locally designed and built elements, such as burners and heat exchangers created specifically for their intended role. The goal will be to enable better performance at a reduced cost to create oil and gas service market competitive advantages. Community support for startup businesses is very strong in Sheridan, and there are many local success stories for entrepreneurs to emulate, Rendall says. For more information, call Rendall at (307) 675-1939 or email srendall@uwyo.edu. Shevlin Sebastian By Express News Service At the Nomo Childrens Hospital at Sokoto in Nigeria (750 km from Lagos), Dr James Jesudasan, a Chennai-based maxillofacial surgeon, stood poised over the one-and-a-half-year-old boy with a scalpel in hand. It was a routine biopsy. The boy had a swelling on his face that looked like a tumour. On either side of the doctor were his colleagues Julia Amando of Brazil and David Shaye from the US. Suddenly James paused and tears rolled down his face. Julia looked at James and said, Whats wrong? James shook his head, I cant. Will you do it? Julia did the biopsy within two minutes. Looking back, James, 36, says, The boy had a look of fear and anxiety. I suddenly remembered my five-year-old son. Maybe, that caused me to tear up. James was in Sokoto at the behest of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), the international NGO that works in conflict zones and in countries affected by epidemics. He was there to deal with children who had been afflicted by a disease called Noma, a bacterial infection which occurs because of excessive malnutrition in poverty-stricken countries. It starts off with a blister in the mouth which develops into ulcers. Soon, the tissues degenerate and the surrounding tissue hardens. As a result, the jaw gets locked and eating becomes difficult. A huge opening is formed in the area of the nose and mouth. Jamess brief was simple: Repair faces, restore dignity, and unlock jaws so that the children could start eating again. Along with the plastic surgeon, we can only reconstruct about 70 percent because we are working in a primitive area using basic equipment. The healing process can take up to six weeks. Since we come for three weeks at a time, another team will carry on the work, says James. It takes years before some semblance of normality can be brought back to the face. But what brings joy is to know that the children can start eating. Not surprisingly, they are extremely grateful. On his last visit, in October, they prepared a poster, titled James. It had stars, heart emojis, and butterflies. Pressed on each drawing was a childs thumb impression in red and their names. I was moved, says James. The doctor rues the fact that not many people know of Noma. In order to create awareness, on November 19, International Noma Day was organised in the federal capital of Abuja. Hopefully, government funding will start flowing to the affected areas, says James. For him, it has been a transformative experience. I have learned to value life, he says. National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (L) and President of the Belgian Senate Jacques Brotchi, Brussels, April 4, 2019 National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan hosted a reception for President of the Belgian Senate Jacques Brotchi on April 4 in Brussels. Senate Jacques Brotchi expressed his good impression of Viet Nam. He praised the fruitful development of the Belgium-Viet Nam relations, especially in university-level education and economic linkages. The NA Chairwoman revealed that during the visit, the Vietnamese delegation hopes to maintain and further bolster comprehensive cooperation between the two countries in general, and their legislative bodies in particular. The top legislator took the occasion to brief her host on Viet Nams socio-economic development with 7.98% economic growth rate, and the countrys efforts in realizing the UNs Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially in promoting gender equality, poverty reduction, healthcare, and education. Viet Nam is working to realize the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) towards 2030, she said, adding that Viet Nam has issued its National Action Plan to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Investors can feel secure investing and doing business in Viet Nam due to its stable politics and society, she stressed. According to Ms. Ngan, Viet Nam has trade ties with about 200 countries and territories worldwide. European countries, including Belgium, are big markets of Viet Nam. In 2018, two-way trade between Viet Nam and Belgium hit US$2.8 billion. Belgian enterprises operating in Viet Nam have recorded strong development in recent years. While appreciating the health cooperation-related proposals of Belgian Senate President Brotchi, NA Chairwoman Ngan said she will convey the information to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health for consideration. During the meeting, the two leaders discussed issues concerning the acceleration of signing and approval of the European Union (EU)-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). The Vietnamese top legislator mentioned the benefits of both sides in promoting EVFTA, while suggesting the Senate President support and promote the signing of the trade pact soon, towards realizing benefits brought by the agreement to Viet Nam, Belgium, and the EU. Viet Nam has been implementing recommendations from the EU and the European Parliament, Ngan said, adding that the parties concerned had open and straightforward dialogues. For his part, Mr. Brotchi spoke of Viet Nams endeavors in the work and affirmed his support for the EVFTA, saying that he will contribute to promoting the signing and ratification of the agreement. Sandra Sheward of Britain sits on the local council in Saint-Caradec, western France. AFP/Fred TANNEAU After Britain leaves the European Union some 900 Britons serving on local councils in France will also have to give up their seat at the table. Like all EU citizens living in another member country, Britons in France have the right to vote in local elections and stand for election to their local council. But in leaving the bloc Britain will forfeit that right, meaning that British residents will no longer be able to represent the communities some have served for years. Sandra Sheward and her husband moved to the western French region of Brittany 13 years ago. "Our children fled the nest and we decided to drop out of the rat race in London," said Sheward, 58, a former training specialist for a property services company. The pair restored a farmhouse on the edge of Saint-Caradec, a riverside village of 1,200 people, where Sheward was courted by the mayor to join his slate of candidates for the municipal council in 2014. Being the only non-French councillor, and one who has yet to fully master the language, has not been an obstacle, says Sheward, a born organiser who developed the village's Christmas art market and helped set up a yoga class, among other activities. "She doesn't speak much during council meetings but when she does it's always very constructive," Mayor Alain Guillaume said. In a region that draws large numbers of British tourists and where a number of Britons have second homes, it's also helpful to have a native English speaker to call on for translations and other assistance. But if Britain leaves the EU as expected, Sheward will be forced to bow out of politics at the next local elections in 2020. "French villages are like ghost towns so it has been nice to be on the council. You get to meet more people!" said Sheward, who has applied for residency in France. "I'd like to be re-elected but it depends on Brexit," she said, adding with a sigh: "I just wish they'd get on with it so that we too can get on with our lives." "MAD ENGLISHWOMAN WITH DOGS" According to official British statistics, France is home to a little over 157,000 British citizens, making it the biggest expatriate British community after that of Spain. Outside Paris, large numbers are to be found in Brittany and the southwestern Dordogne region. France has given them a year after Brexit to apply for residency but many have decided not to wait for divorce day to get their papers in, swamping local authorities. The government has attempted to fend off panic, with former European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau assuring in March: "We want them to stay. They are an asset for France." About 10km to the west of Sheward's village in Brittany, an Englishwoman is also a lynchpin of her community. Jacqueline Bertho, 60, from Yorkshire, ended up in France in 2000 after a divorce, and began a new life in "Kreiz Breizh" - Breton for the centre of Brittany, where she lives with her Breton husband and their daughter. In the village of Saint-Guen (population 450), which is "very rural, like 1960s Britain", the chatty 60-year-old is a well-known figure. "I'm the mad Englishwoman with the dogs," she jokes. While still feeling "very much British", Bertho says she has thrown herself into community life, volunteering to teach English to local schoolkids, helping the elderly and, since 2014, becoming a member of the council. A year after her election, Bertho obtained French citizenship, meaning her place in France is assured. But she worries that other British couples who retired to the region, where they restored old houses and helped revive villages that were in their death throes, will struggle. "Most won't be able to become French," she said, citing their French language skills, which are put to a citizenship test, as a key hurdle. Tim Richardson, a British winemaker who sits on the council of the Dordogne village of Eymet, is one of those waiting for news on his citizenship application, which he submitted last year. The father-of-two, who has been living since 1991 in the region nicknamed Dordogneshire after its large British population, is confident of becoming French. And if he is forced to give up his council seat? "Tant pis (too bad)", he said in a telephone interview. "It's not the end of the world. There is no reason I cannot continue helping out in local life." Dutch PM Mark Rutte to visit VN next week (AFP Photo/Thierry Charlier) The visit aims to further strengthen diplomatic and economic relations between the Netherlands and Vietnam. The Netherlands is an important partner of Viet Nam in Europe, and Viet Nam always attaches importance to its friendly relations and effective multifaceted cooperation with the Netherlands, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has affirmed at a reception for newly-accredited Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam Elsbeth Akkerman in Ha Noi recently. Trade and investment cooperation between two countries have been growing steadily, with the latter currently Vietnams largest export market in the EU. The Netherlands is among the largest European investors in Vietnam, ranking 11th out of the 119 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. The trade values between the two nations exceeded US$ 7.77 billion in 2017. First Bose Store launched in Hanoi On April 6, 2019, at the Lotte Department Store, Bose the industry-leading audio equipment company, has cooperated with Future Vision One Member Ltd. Company open their first ever Bose Store in Hanoi. The Bose Store initiative is a close collaboration between Bose and selected resellers who have deep experience in technology products distribution. Bose Store is limited in quantity and carefully selected so as to fully satisfy the stringent requirements of the brand for location, area, merchandising and services to ensure the best experience for customers. The first Bose Store in Hanoi is the result of the cooperation between Bose and Future Vision a multidisciplinary business company which has long experience in the distribution of information and technology devices. This is the next Bose Store after the first one opened by Mai Nguyen in Saigon Centre, Ho Chi Minh City last August 2018. Bose SleepBud product SoundSport Free product Bose Store Lotte Hanoi is located at 5th floor of the Lotte Department Store one of the crowded commercial centers in the capital. This site is strategic in order to meet the increasing demands of residents, especially audio lovers and Boses fans. This will give them a location to experience and purchase authentic high-quality audio equipment. Bose Store focuses on strict merchandising guidelines and display products scientifically, complying with the standards for each region. On top of this, each individual staff are thoroughly trained and knowledgeable in the audio technology and offerings of Bose Store. This will ensure that customers are provided with the best service in consulting, sales and after-sales. First Bose Store launched in Hanoi Bose Store showcases the latest products and carries most of the household and personal audio products making it available to the Vietnam market. From noise canceling headphones QuietComfort, to truly wireless sport earphones SoundSport Free, or revolutionary noise-masking product for sleep SleepBuds, in-home speakers Soundbar, Home Speaker to portable speakers SoundLink and many other specialised products that meets a variety of user demands. Customers can easily find their favourite individual headphones for music, going up to home theater sound systems for the whole family to enjoy, as well as classic products and the latest and advanced technology devices. Furthermore, Bose Store will also be the first place to carry and offer new product lines to serve the residents of the capital. Christian Rojas, Boses representative in Southeast Asia Christian Rojas, Boses representative in Southeast Asia, shares at the opening event, "Through the business cooperation with Future Vision, Bose confirms its long-term development strategy in Vietnam, along with the mission to improve the sound experience through quality products with modern technology. This international-standard Bose Store opened in Hanoi is our second step in the plan to launch two more Bose stores in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi this year. We hope Bose store will become a reliable and attractive address for customers in the shopping experience of high-quality audio devices." Bose was founded in 1964 by Dr. Amar G. Bose, then a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company is driven by its founding principles, investing in long-term research to develop new technologies with real customer benefits. Bose innovations have spanned decades and industries, creating and transforming categories in audio and beyond. Bose products for the home, in the car, on the go and in public spaces have become iconic, changing the way people listen to music. This picture taken on April 3, 2019 shows former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn (left) and his wife Carole (right) leaving the office of his lawyer Junichiro Hironaka in Tokyo. AFP/Kazuhiro NOGI Ghosn was re-arrested last week in Japan over fresh allegations of financial misconduct which will see him held in custody until at least Apr 14. Ghosn's wife Carole told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper in France that he had recorded a video interview in English before his detention. "He names the people responsable for what has happened to him. The lawyers have it. It will be released soon," she told the newspaper. Carole Ghosn has flown to Paris to try to pressure the French government to do more for her husband whose 108-day imprisonment in Japan between Nov 19 and Mar 6 had left him a "different person," she told The Financial Times in a separate interview. France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday he had raised the case during talks with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono on the sidelines of the meeting of Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers in the French resort of Dinard. Le Drian said he had "reminded him of our attachment to the presumption of innocence and the full rights of consular protection." Namita Bajpai By Chasing the poll mood, Namita Bajpai travels through Uttar Pradesh, the heartland of Indias political destiny, where caste and clan equations are being shuffled and reshuffled to stop Narendra Modi from returning as Prime Minister for a second term Its sundown in Harchandpur. Time for the small market of the Rae Bareli districts block on NH 19 to come alive. Its the time when men from the neighbouring villages along the highway to Allahabad head towards the market for their evening addas. Its the only form of recreation they have known for generations. And if its election time, paan kiosks, tea shops, pakora carts, all turn into impromptu forums of discussion. Finding a journalist amid them, a group at a tea stall in the market turns vocal. Nandu, a sharecropper, flashes three passbooks. Just a few hours ago, he has received Rs 2,000 in each of them. Directly from Modiji, he grins. This is the first instalment of the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, announced by the BJP government for marginal farmers. They all agree that never in the past have they seen such affirmative financial action. It seems to be adding to the strength of Brand Modi, already on the ascendance due to his strong action against enemy Pakistan. Balakot and Abhinandan (Wing Commander) are household names. A Modi supporter now doesnt require any other reason to support him. Can you name any other leader who has so much of guts to pay back Pakistan? asks Sumati Pandey, 40, a school teacher in Sonia Gandhis pocket borough. This election is of national importance. We can forget our local issues. Those can be tackled later. We cant afford to have a weak Prime Minister, he adds. ALSO READ | Muslim votes hold the key in three-cornered fight in Saharanpur But, how can a hail Modi resolution not be countered in Sonias bastion? Rahuljis (Congress chief Rahul Gandhi) NYAY scheme will give six times more money, retorts Jainendra Pratap Singh, 45, a small-time trader. He has a long list of contributions of the Congress to the country at his fingertips. The discussion soon turns into a Modi vs Sonia battle, fought by their self-acclaimed foot soldiers. Nobody has any doubt about Sonias invincibility from this family bastion, but some make the pain of taken for granted too conspicuous. Comparison with development works in Varanasi makes the exchange even more intense. The 300-km stretch between Lucknow and Varanasi via NH 30 and then NH 19, which is part of the historic GT Road, is a microcosm of UPs voter profile. Lying between two extremes of BJP strongholds are Fort Sonia and pockets of influence of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). One also has to transverse through the kingdom of Raja Bhaiya, the six-time MLA of Kunda in Pratapgarh district. The scion of Bhadri estate, who has been a minister in both BJP and SP governments, has now floated his own Jansatta Party, and is eyeing a tie-up to make a bigger impact. Although there is no official word, the BJP is yet to announce candidate for Pratapgarh seat, fought by ally Apna Dal in the previous election. Top issues Nationalism /national security Employment opportunities Farmers distresssugarcane dues, debt burden Womens security Law and order Better infrastructure Corruption Agriculture loan availability Higher price realisation for farm products Agriculture subsidy for seeds/fertilisers Cow slaughter/ protection Stray animal Economy Ram temple in Ayodhya Communal harmony The debate at Monu Ka Dhaba in Rae Bareli is about the Priyanka effect. More than the Congress, these elections are her acid test, declares Brijesh Shukla, a second year commerce student. She has been campaigning only in Amethi and Rae Bareli in the past. This time, her arrival has enthused the cadre, but will it have the same impact on voters? he ends with a query. After her Ganga Yatra from Allahabad to Varanasi, she has already finished her three-day trip to Amethi, Rae Bareli and Ayodhya, and created lots of buzz and sound bites. It was her maiden trip to the temple town, but she cautiously avoided going to the Ram janmabhoomi to ward off any controversy. The 140-km distance between Allahabad and Varanasi along NH 19 used to be a breeze two years ago. Now, it is in a shambles due to ongoing construction works to add flyovers at all marketplaces on the stretch. The traffic crawls in the night when long-distance trucks mostly ply on the GT Road. Its a matter of another year, says Dinesh Yadav, a tea stall owner. Agrees Shankar Jaiswal, a jeweller in Sigra area of Varanasi: One has to bear some hardship for a better life in future. Nothing changes overnight. But hasnt GST and demonetisation broken the back of traders? Any new order brings some glitches initially. Aur yahan toh srijan hua hai (And here you have a new creation). We can bear with it for the sake of our future generations, he concludes. There is no dearth of personal fan-following for Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati. Hare Ram Yadav, a farmer from Murlipur village of Unnao district, lists out Akhileshs achievementsExpressways, pension yojana, Kanya Vidya Dhanand asserts he would vote for the SP which was much better than the present dispensation. Ramesh Rawat sells cucumber near NH 30 toll plaza. He has been voting for Behenji Mayawati for the past three elections. Because only she can understand our plight. All others just make tall promises and do nothing for us, he rues. However, these being national elections, the BJP and Congress make it to discussions more frequently compared to regional forces SP and BSP. Scores of people whom this reporter interacted with across central UP felt that they would have voted for the SP-BSP alliance had it been the state election. Their role at the national level is limited even if they win, so why to waste our vote, says Matadin at Dahi Chauki Bazaar in Unnao. In January, their historic tie-up was termed a game-changer. The pure caste arithmetic projects the alliance the most formidable on papers. But whats on the ground? One cant say for sure. Besides challenges of chemistry between the core voters of these two parties Yadavs and Jatavsthe likely division of anti-BJP votes may spoil their prospects. If the camaraderie between the leaders fails to percolate down, the entire effort of the tie-up would be nullified, says JP Shukla, a senior political observer. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, with considerable clout among Dalits especially in western UP, says the Congress should have been a part of any anti-BJP alliance. Chandrashekhar, who challenges PM Modi in his den, held a road show on March 30 to launch his campaign in Varanasi. It (the alliance) appeared very promising earlier. But without the Congress, will they be able to prevent the division of anti-BJP votes? he asks. The alliance has also been rattled by the sudden exodus of their senior leaders, who were denied tickets because of 50 per cent drop in the seats each party would have contested. The Congress has given tickets to several such fresh turncoats. Many of them have also gone to Shivpal Yadavs Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia. The sudden switching of sides to the BJP by the SPs Gorakhpur MP Praveen Nishad is really intriguing. Nishads make a formidable 3.5 lakh chunk of electorate in Gorakhpur division. Son of NISHAD party chief Sanjay Nishad, Praveen contested on SP symbol to wrest the Yogi turf in last years bypoll. Early this week, the party, largely comprising Mallahs (boatmen) who have a sizable presence in eastern UP, announced to cement its ties with the SP. However, by the weekend, Sanjay accused the SP of not according due respect to his party and was seen hobnobbing with the BJPs election in-charge for UP, Union minister JP Nadda and CM Yogi Adityanath. A stung Akhilesh didnt lose time and announced the candidature of another NishadRam Bhual Nishadfrom Gorakhpur. So far, Muslim voters, who play a key role in over two dozen seatsespecially in western UPare solidly behind the alliance at most places. In 2014, their vote made no impact because of reverse-polarisation of Hindu votes in the BJPs favour and their representation from UP was nil. This time, they are cautious. The community will vote for any candidate of opposition best placed to defeat the BJP, says Parvez, 25, belonging to the weavers community in Varanasi. Since the alliance appears to be best placed, we will vote for it. It was during Akhileshs regime that we could get some relief. Others have remained ignorant to our plight, says Zain, while weaving a Banarasi brocade on handloom. Similar pulse is found at most places barring the seats where the Congress is in direct fight, like Saharanpur. Issues such as unemployment, law and order, farmers distress, sugarcane dues and stray cattle dominate discourse from the east to the west. Four CsCaste, Community, Cow and Canewould dominate these elections, says Satpal Singh, a farmer in Pilibhit, the Terai belt. However, Ravi Kumar, a labourer in Muzaffarnagar and Amir Mantoee, a research scholar in Aligarh, feel that anyone should be voted but BJP should not be repeated. Labourers are suffering. Daily wages have dipped considerably due to ban on mining, says Mukesh in Hamirpur. In the west, fresh from the incidents like the Bulandshahr unrest which claimed the life of a cop, and wranglings in Aligarh Muslim University, a considerable number of the electorate think that the communal divide has increased during the last five years and rightwing fringe organisations have become brazen. But the central theme is Modi. Those voting for BJP would do so because of him. And those not would also do so be because of him. Security forces killed at least five protesters in fresh anti-government marches on Saturday in Sudan, in what organizers said was among the largest turnouts in three months. The demonstrations began in December over price hikes and food shortages, and quickly escalated into calls for President Omar al-Bashir's resignation, posing one of the biggest challenges yet to his nearly 30-year rule. Security forces have responded to the protest movement with a fierce crackdown, killing at least 60 people according to Physicians for Human Rights, a New York-based rights group. The latest deaths raised the tally to at least 65 since protests began. The government has said that 32 people have been killed, but hasn't updated its tally in weeks. The rallies are being led by the Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella group of independent professional unions. Sarah Abdel-Jaleel, a spokeswoman for the SPA, told The Associated Press that four people were killed in the capital city of Khartoum and another protester was killed in the neighboring city of Omdurman. Stone-throwing protesters clashed with security forces using tear gas, live ammunition and batons to disperse tens of thousands of people gathered outside the military's headquarters and a presidential residence in Khartoum, according to the organizers. The Sudan Doctors Committee, an SPA affiliate, said that dozens had been wounded in rallies across the country, many of them by live ammunition. The state-run SUNA news agency on Saturday quoted police spokesman General Hashim Abdel-Rahim as saying that one person was killed "during disturbances in Omdurman." He called the protests "illegal gatherings." Al-Bashir has offered little in the way of concessions, beyond calling for a national dialogue and asking parliament to postpone constitutional amendments that would allow him to seek a new term in next year's elections. In the Indian city Hindus consider the center of the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commissioned a grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges River with the centuries-old Vishwanath temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. Its a project dripping with equal parts symbolism Modi, the devout Hindu, restoring the ancient connection between two religious icons and political calculation. In his five years as prime minister, Modi has pushed to promote this secular nation of 1.3 billion people and nine major religions, including about 170 million Muslims, as a distinctly Hindu state. The $115 million promenade is just one of a number of Modis religious glamour projects, aimed squarely at pleasing his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Partys base ahead of elections that start Thursday. While India is majority Hindu, critics say such projects undermine Indias multiculturalism, potentially stoke religious tension, and come at the expense of far more pressing infrastructure needs. The project is also part of a larger Hindu nationalist effort to erase evidence of Indias diverse past. Politics and religion Modi, 68, has long understood how politics and religion intertwine in Varanasi. Despite hailing from the western state of Gujarat, he has chosen to run for a second time as the parliamentary candidate for Varanasi. There are those who say the money could have been better spent in one of the worlds oldest living cities, where men relieve themselves in public on trash-strewn streets and sewage flows into the Ganges near religious bathers, funeral pyres and crowds of devotees who gather by its waters for nightly prayers. And some Varanasi Muslims fear the project could embolden Hindu hard-liners who have demanded for decades that the 17th century Gyanvapi mosque which they claim was built over an earlier Vishwanath temple demolished in the Mughal era should itself be torn down. The demolition of about 300 commercial and residential buildings to make way for the promenade has left a gaping hole in Varanasis urban core, a congested maze of zig-zagging brick lanes full of religious shrines. Outside the heavily guarded temple and mosque complex ringed with barbed wire, where photography is prohibited, Aijaz Mohammed Islahi, the mosques caretaker, said he fears the new clearing could allow right-wing Hindus to form a mob and attack the mosque. Around a Hindu festival day in March, Islahi said, a group tried to install a Hindu statue near the mosque to assert a claim on the property. Downplay Muslim history The Vishwanath project is part of a broader campaign to downplay the Muslim Mughal dynastys place in Indian history. The campaign includes restoring the Hindu names of cities that were renamed by Mughals centuries ago and excluding the Taj Mahal, a Muslim tomb, from government tourism materials. At the same time, Hindu nationalists are demanding that a temple to the god Lord Ram be built at the site of a mosque rioters destroyed in 1992 that they say was built only after Muslims destroyed an ancient temple there. Thus, Modis messaging around the Vishwanath temple project is hard to miss. Enemies had their sight on Shri Kashi Vishwanath. Many a times it was under attack, Modi said at a promenade groundbreaking ceremony in March. But there is power in the faith here and this great temple continues to give strength to people. City of many faiths Though Varanasi draws millions of devout Hindus each year, scholars and residents emphasize its identity as a city where people of many faiths have long lived together harmoniously. But the temple project is a BJP-led effort to stamp Indias Hindu mores onto a multicultural society, historians and political scientists say. Its a bid to rewrite the ground rules of Indian republican politics by either implicitly or explicitly arguing that India needs to be remade as a state defined by its majority faith, said writer and professor Mukul Kesavan. Other examples abound. Last October, Modi unveiled another dream project: a statue in Gujarat of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, an Indian independence leader, politician and Hindu. The Statue of Unity is the worlds largest, almost twice as high as the Statue of Liberty. Economic promises Modis BJP took power in 2014 elections on a pledge to rapidly expand Indias economy. A master marketer, Modi has branded some government programs as personal successes constructing millions of toilets to reduce open defecation, and improving roads and electricity in rural areas while distancing himself from failures. But in the lead-up to the polls, his governments economic performance has come under scrutiny. Modis administration was accused in January of suppressing unemployment data that showed joblessness had reached its highest level in 45 years. A demonetization program aimed to curb black market money by taking some rupee notes out of circulation. But it ultimately hurt the poor, and Indias central bank later said that most of the illicit funds had re-entered the banking system. Public subsidies to support Indias distressed agricultural sector failed to stem a pattern of suicides among farmers facing mounting debt for purchases of seeds, fertilizer and cattle feed. Even in Modis constituency of Varanasi, the governments record is uneven, most visibly on the prime ministers signature Swachh Bharat, or Clean India, program. Hindu credibility But with the Vishwanath temple and other symbolic projects, one of Modis undisputed successes has been to insert religion into the center of the political debate in India. In the demolition zone, Sonu Khanna sits cross-legged amid stacks of pashmina shawls and silk saris. Khanna and his siblings, parents and grandfather live and run a wholesale garment business near the Vishwanath temple that deeds on weathered paper show the family has owned since Mughal times. If the government offers them cash to move, the Khannas, practicing Hindus, will probably join most of their neighbors uprooted in Modis dream project. But Modi wont have won their votes. Friends and family used to live all around us, and now were alone in all this dust and noise, 25-year-old Khanna said. Ernest F. ``Fritz'' Hollings, the silver-haired Democrat who helped shepherd South Carolina through desegregation as governor and went on to serve six terms in the U.S. Senate, has died. He was 97. Family spokesman Andy Brack, who also served at times for Hollings as spokesman during his Senate career, said Hollings died at his home on the Isle of Palms early Saturday. Hollings, whose long and colorful political career included an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, retired from the Senate in 2005, one of the last of the larger-than-life Democrats who dominated politics in the South. He had served 38 years and two months, making him the eighth longest-serving senator in U.S. history. Nevertheless, Hollings remained the junior senator from South Carolina for most of his term. The senior senator was Strom Thurmond, first elected in 1954. He retired in January 2003 at age 100 as the longest-serving senator in history. In his final Senate speech, made in 2004, Hollings lamented that lawmakers came to spend much of their time raising money for the next election, calling money ``the main culprit, the cancer on the body politic.'' 'Real, real trouble' ``We don't have time for each other, we don't have time for constituents except for the givers. ... We're in real, real trouble,'' he said. Hollings was a sharp-tongued orator whose rhetorical flourishes in the deep accent of his home state enlivened many a Washington debate, but his influence in Washington never reached the levels he hoped. He sometimes blamed that failure on his background, rising to power as he did in the South in the 1950s as the region bubbled with anger over segregation. However, South Carolina largely avoided the racial violence that afflicted some other Deep South states during the turbulent 1960s. Hollings campaigned against desegregation when running for governor in 1958. He built a national reputation as a moderate when, in his farewell address as governor, he pleaded with the legislature to peacefully accept integration of public schools and the admission of the first black student to Clemson University. ``This General Assembly must make clear South Carolina's choice, a government of laws rather than a government of men,'' he told lawmakers. Shortly afterward, Clemson was peacefully integrated. In his 2008 autobiography, Making Government Work, Hollings wrote that in the 1950s ``no issue dominated South Carolina more than race'' and that he worked for a balanced approach. ``I was 'Mister-in-Between.' The governor had to appear to be in charge; yet the realities were not on his side,'' he wrote. ``I returned to my basic precept ... the safety of the people is the supreme law. I was determined to keep the peace and avoid bloodshed.'' In the Senate, Hollings gained a reputation as a skilled insider with keen intellectual powers. He chaired the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and held seats on the Appropriations and Budget committees. Troublesome remarks But his sharp tongue sometimes got him in trouble. He once called Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, the ``senator from the B'nai B'rith,'' and in 1983 he used a derogatory term for unlawful immigrants in referring to the presidential campaign supporters of former Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif. Hollings began his quest for the presidency in April 1983 but dropped out the following March after dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire. Early in his Senate career, he built a record as a hawk and lobbied hard for military dollars for South Carolina, one of the poorest states in the nation. Hollings originally supported American involvement in Vietnam, but his views changed over the years as it became clear there would be no American victory. Hollings, who made three trips to the war zone, said he learned a lesson there. ``It's a mistake to try to build and destroy a nation at the same time,'' he wrote in his autobiography, warning that America is now ``repeating the same wrongheaded strategy in Iraq.'' Despite his changed views, Hollings remained a strong supporter of national defense, which he saw as the main business of government. In 1969 he drew national attention when he exposed hunger in his own state by touring several cities, helping lay the groundwork for the Women, Infants and Children feeding program. A year later, his views drew wider currency with the publication of his first book, The Case Against Hunger. In 1982, Hollings proposed an across-the-board federal spending freeze to cut the deficit, a proposal that was a cornerstone of his failed presidential bid. He helped create the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and write the National Coastal Zone Management Act. Hollings also attached his name to the Gramm-Rudman bill aimed at balancing the federal budget. Hollings angered many of his constituents in 1991 when he opposed the congressional resolution authorizing President George Bush to use force against Iraq. In his later years, port security was one of his main concerns. As he prepared to leave office, he told The Associated Press: ``People ask you your legacy or your most embarrassing moment. I never, ever lived that way. ... I'm not trying to get remembered.'' After the Senate He kept busy after leaving the Senate, helping the Medical University of South Carolina raise money for the cancer center that bears his name and lecturing at the Charleston School of Law. Hollings' one political defeat came in 1962 when he lost in a primary to Sen. Olin Johnston. After Johnston died, Hollings won a special election in 1966 and went to the Senate at age 44, winning the first of his six full terms two years later. Ernest Frederick Hollings was born in Charleston, S.C., on Jan. 1, 1922. His father was a paper products dealer but the family business went broke during the Depression. Hollings graduated from The Citadel, the state's military college in Charleston, in 1942. He immediately entered the Army and was decorated for his service during World War II. Back home, he earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1947. The next year, he was elected to the state House at age 26. He was elected lieutenant governor six years later and governor in 1958 at age 36. As governor, he actively lured business, helped balance the budget for the first time since Reconstruction and improved public education. Hollings had four children with his first wife, the late Patricia Salley Hollings. He is survived by three of his four children. His second wife, ``Peatsy,'' died in 2012. A funeral home handling arrangements said that after a three-hour visitation April 14 in Charleston, the senator's body will lie in repose April 15 at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, with a funeral to follow the next day at the Citadel in Charleston. Arrested former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn is set to name the people he believes are responsible for his downfall in Japan, his wife said in an interview on Sunday as she fled Tokyo out of fear she could be detained. Ghosn was re-arrested last week in the Japanese capital over fresh allegations of financial misconduct which will see him held in custody until at least April 14. Speaking to the Journal du Dimanche newspaper in France, his wife Carole detailed the latest twists in the extraordinary saga, saying that Ghosn had recorded a video interview in English before his detention. "He names the people responsible for what has happened to him. The lawyers have it. It will be released soon," she told the newspaper. Carole added that she had fled Tokyo on a flight to Paris with support from the French ambassador to Tokyo because she "felt in danger." Despite her Lebanese passport being confiscated by Japanese authorities, Carole said she was able to use her American passport to board a flight and was accompanied by the ambassador to the airport. "He didn't leave me until the plane," she explained. "Up to the last second, I didn't know if they were going to let me fly. It was surreal." The role of the French ambassador could lead to fresh friction between the countries over the highly sensitive case, which involves Nissan and French car maker Renault, which were both previously run by Ghosn. Japanese news channel NHK said prosecutors in Tokyo wanted to question Carole on a voluntary basis. Other reports in Japan say that investigators are looking into allegations that company money allegedly misused by Ghosn could have transited through a business that was run by his wife. 'Different person' Carole intends now to try to pressure the French government to do more for her husband whose 108-day imprisonment in Japan between November 19 and March 6 had left him a "different person," she told The Financial Times in a separate interview. France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday he had raised the case during talks with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono on the sidelines of the meeting of Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers in the French resort of Dinard. Le Drian said he had "reminded him of our attachment to the presumption of innocence and the full rights of consular protection." Japanese authorities are looking into new allegations that Ghosn transferred some $15 million in Nissan funds between late 2015 and mid-2018 to a dealership in Oman. They suspect around $5 million of these funds were siphoned off for Ghosn's use, including for the purchase of a luxury yacht and financing personal investments. Prosecutors say Ghosn "betrayed" his duty not to cause losses to Nissan "in order to benefit himself." Ghosn denies the allegations and says he is also innocent of the three formal charges he faces: two charges of deferring his salary and concealing that in official shareholders' documents, and a further charge related to investment losses. The man previously seen as the most powerful figure in the global car industry told French channel TF1 last week that he was "a combative man and an innocent man" and vowed to "defend myself to the bitter end". And he voiced concern that he would not be given a fair hearing in Japan where around 99 percent of trials result in a conviction. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iraq to demand U.S. troops leave "as soon as possible", warning that Washington is plotting to remove the Iraqi government. The remarks came during a visit to Tehran on Saturday by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, whose country is under pressure from the United States to distance itself from Iran. "You should take actions to make sure the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because wherever they have had an enduring presence, forcing them out has become problematic," Khamenei told Abdel Mahdi. "The current government and parliament in Iraq and the political figures are not what the U.S. desires; they plot to remove them from the political scene of Iraq," he said, according to his official website. Abdel Mahdi, on his first official trip to Iran, also met Saturday with President Hassan Rouhani, who visited Iraq last month. Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbor, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year and hit Tehran with sanctions. 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 U.S.-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 advisers" and equipment overnight along with the Revolutionary Guards elite Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. Terrorism blacklist According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington is planning to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, an unprecedented move that would escalate tensions between the two countries. The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said President Donald Trump's administration would announce the long-mulled decision as soon as Monday. But it said that the Pentagon and the CIA were concerned the move would increase risks for U.S. troops without doing much more to damage the Iranian economy. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif slammed the move as "another U.S. disaster" in the making, and warned Washington on Sunday of the consequences it would have. "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region," Zarif said on Twitter, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf. @realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another U.S. disaster," he added. Iran's parliament has vowed to retaliate by passing an urgent bill putting American troops on a terrorism blacklist alongside the Islamic State group, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported. "Even though we believe one should not play along with America's extreme acts, the reality is that we must retaliate," the head of Iran's influential national security and foreign policy commission, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, told ISNA. A statement signed by a majority of MPs in support of the bill said any action against Iran's national security and its armed forces was "crossing a red line" and the U.S. administration would "regret" its decision. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the new system. Designating the Guards as a terrorist organization would "effectively be a service to terrorists," Falahatpisheh said, since they have "the biggest role in combating terrorism" in the region. U.S. sanctions have prevented the Iranian Red Crescent from obtaining any foreign financial aid to assist victims of flooding that has killed at least 70 people and inundated some 1,900 communities, the group said on Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that Washington was ready to help via the Red Cross and Red Crescent, but accused Iran's clerical establishment of "mismanagement in urban planning and in emergency preparedness". "No foreign cash help has been given to the Iranian Red Crescent society. With attention to the inhuman American sanctions, there is no way to send this cash assistance," the Red Crescent said in a statement. It said the group had received some non-financial help from abroad which had been distributed to flood victims. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said last week that U.S. sanctions - reimposed after Washington quit a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers - were impeding aid efforts to flood-stricken towns and villages. "Blocked equipment includes relief choppers: This isn't just economic warfare; it's economic TERRORISM," he said on Twitter. The flood disaster, arising from exceptionally heavy rainfall since March 19, has left aid agencies struggling to cope and seen 86,000 people moved to emergency shelters. The government has told citizens, and especially flood-affected farmers, that all losses will be compensated. Iran will take reciprocal action against the United States if Washington designates the elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as terrorists, a majority of Iranian parliamentarians said on Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA. The United States is expected to designate the Revolutionary Guards a foreign terrorist organization, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labelled another country's military a terrorist group. "We will answer any action taken against this force with a reciprocal action," a statement issued by 255 out of the 290 Iranian lawmakers said, according to IRNA. "So the leaders of America, who themselves are the creators and supporters of terrorists in the [Middle East] region, will regret this inappropriate and idiotic action." The U.S. decision, which critics warn could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the State Department perhaps as early as Monday, the U.S. officials said last week. The move has been rumored for years. Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday U.S. officials aiming to designate the IRGC as terrorist wanted to "drag the U.S. into a quagmire" on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organisation) of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region. In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf," Mohammed Javad Zarif said on his Twitter account. "@realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster." Israel and Iran are arch-enemies in the Middle East. Zarif appeared to be implying that classifying the Guards as terrorists would draw them into conflict with U.S. forces in the region. Netanyahu has described the Tehran government as a "terrorist regime" that threatens the world and promotes attacks worldwide in the name of radical Islam. Iran denies this. IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari also chimed in on Sunday over the pending U.S. designation, warning the U.S. military would lose all the security it enjoyed in west Asia. "With this stupidity, the American army and security forces will no longer have today's calm in the west Asia region," Jafari was quoted as saying by semi-official Fars news agency. Set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi'ite clerical ruling system, the IRGC is Iran's most powerful security organization. It controls large sectors of the Iranian economy and has huge influence in its political system. Malawi's government says former President Joyce Banda risks facing arrest over a corruption case known as Cashgate. Banda is also accused of misusing money for the presidential jet she sold during her administration. Government authorities said Friday an arrest warrant for Banda issued in 2017 is still valid and it is a matter of time before authorities act on it. But Banda says she is not fazed by the threat she describes as a political witchhunt. Joyce Banda became the countrys first female president in 2012 when then-president Bingu wa Mutharika died from cardiac arrest. However, her term was marred by a corruption scandal known as Cashgate in which more than $32 million was siphoned out of government coffers. More than 60 suspects, including business people and government officials were arrested in connection to the scandal. Government spokesperson Henry Muss says court testimonies by those who have been convicted and are serving jail sentences clearly point to Joyce Banda as the initiator of Cashgate. One Oswald Lutepo, now serving [11 years] sentence in jail, stated that the looted money was delivered to Joyce Banda," he said. "Government believes that in the fullest of time, professionally determined by the law enforcement agencies, Joyce Banda will be called to account for her part in this Cashgate case. In 2017 police issued an arrest warrant for Banda, who was then in self-imposed exile in the United States. But no arrest was made when Banda returned to Malawi last year. Mussa also says Banda will be held accountable for money from the sale of the presidential jet in 2013, which her administration said was used to buy relief maize. In fact, for records, the plane was sold; the word is undervalued for $15 million. Out of the $15 million what is showing is 10 percent of that about $1.5 million dollars have gone towards purchase of maize. But 90 percent simply vanished. we can not trace it, he said. The threat of arrest comes weeks after Banda's Peoples Party (PP) made a political alliance with the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) led by Lazarus Chakwera, one of the challengers of incumbent president Peter Mutharika in the coming May elections. Peoples Party spokesperson Ackson Kalaile told VOA the threat is a political ploy to intimidate Banda so that she cannot successfully campaign for the PP/MCP alliance in the May elections. They are doing that just to intimidate our principal so that we should not campaign freely for the Malawi Congress Party and there is not any direct link [to Cashgate]. In 2018, 13th January, the director of Anti-Corruption Bureau said they had tried to find out here and there, but there is no direct link to her excellency Dr. Joyce Banda. Political analyst Vincent Kondowe says Banda should be brought to justice if there is evidence of wrong doing, but he questions the involvement of government politicians in the matter. Why did not the state institutions themselves be allowed to arrest Joyce Banda. Because the press conference is some kind of dramatization of the whole case against Joyce Banda," he said. "So for me, they are trying to dramatize and create political hyperbole, which would unnecessarily bring in tensions, as we are drawing closer to the 21st May elections, so that she should not campaign as much as possible for Malawi Congress Party. Speaking Saturday at a political rally in northern Malawi, Banda said she will not be intimidated by the government statement because she knows she is innocent. Anand Neelakantan By In a few days, the worlds largest democracy would exercise its mandate. As usual, the political parties would indulge in all possible moral, amoral and immoral means to garner votes. The middle-aged and the old have reached a stage where they expect very little from any political parties. They would be ambling to the polling booths, if at all, with the baggage of their cynicism and frustrations. Prejudices have scarred their conscience. They have grown resistant to new ideas and opinions. They can afford to do all these. They have little at stake. India is a young country with a median voter age of 27.9 years. Approximately, 4.5 crore new voters would be exercising their mandate for the first time. All the political parties are trying to woo the youth. As expected, they are using the dirty old tricks with which they had trapped the past three generations. Think from the position of a political strategist: You must convince a billion people to vote for you. You can try to convince the voters that you would bring more jobs for them, provide good quality education for their children, protect law and order, build hospitals and roads etc. Going by the past record, it is doubtful that any voter would believe such promises. In the last 70 years, the political parties have made a farce of the election manifesto. How do you convince the voter to vote for you? The easiest commodity to sell is fear. Religions knew about this thousands of years ago. They used fear of others, fear of Satan, fear of pollution, fear of hell, sin and God to propagate their faith. Politicians use the same trick. Create an atmosphere of fear, stoke the inherent prejudices in the society. Say the Other is going to take over you and rule you or eliminate you. Generate a feeling that they have been wronged and the entire world is conspiring against their religion. The politicians talk about the wrongs that happened hundreds of years ago and say their ancestors wronged your ancestors and hence you should take revenge by voting for us. What these politicians are appealing to are your animal instincts. They are herding the sheep by crying wolf wolf. They would divide you by language, religion and caste. The previous three generations of democratic India had fallen for such tricks. Hence, we had religious riots where Indians butchered other Indians, we had language riots where Indians burned Indian cities. We voted for politicians not because they were good, but because they belonged to our caste, religion, etc. We wanted to teach our neighbour who follows a different faith or spoke a different language, a lesson. They told us if we voted for them, they would banish poverty. We believed them and they looted us. We were fools and we, the middle-aged and the old, are happy to remain fools. Through clever social media management, spread of fake stories and tapping into our inferiority complex and fears, they have turned us into a herd of sheep that can be fleeced at their will. We bleat to their tunes and feel happy when they feast on our flesh. Dont repeat our mistakes. When they come for votes, ask them straight questions. If they say they are going to protect you from the people of another religion who they want you to hate, smile. Say that you trust in the Indian police, judiciary and armed forces to protect you. Say that you trust in the Constitution. Ask them, whether they dont believe in these institutions. Ask them how they are going to create jobs for you and not dole out goodies or provide free income. When they talk about some historical atrocities, ask them to stop talking about the past and start talking about the future of you and your country. If they talk about the temples, mosques, gurdwaras and churches, ask them about schools, hospitals and roads. When they try to make you feel guilty by invoking the sacrifice of our soldiers, express your respect for our soldiers, but dont forget to ask how many of their children are serving in the armed forces. And what they have done about the pensions of ex-servicemen or for rehabilitation of war widows. When they talk about what their dynasty or their self-service organisation or their party did for the country, talk about the 70 percent of Indians who live in abject poverty. When we attained the voting age, most of us forgot to ask these questions. Some of us fought for and against Mandal, Mandir and Masjid. Some went on a rampage when a leader in power was killed and massacred innocent people. Some rioted to bring their leaders to power. The rest of us remained indifferent. A few lucky ones went on to create successful careers before becoming bigots or opportunists, or both. A few became rich and powerful, exploiting the loopholes in the system. Some looted and fled the country. Some became the struggling, chattering, middle class and joined the rat race and mutated into aggressive and competitive rodents. Some escaped to developed countries, only to turn into blood-thirsty hyper-nationalists spreading hatred between communities. The silent majority rotted in the villages. They are still waiting endlessly for the politician to dole out some money or waiver of loans. Some migrate to cities when the villages can no longer feed them. You may have seen them living under the flyovers and slums. They often knock at the car windows of their lucky fellow citizens. Who has time for them when we are sitting in the bubble of our air-conditioned cars, enjoying our success in this dog-eat-dog world? Are we not busy forwarding the WhatsApp posts about the good times, of the old, the present and the future? We have screwed up as a generation. It is up to you to not repeat our mistakes. Ask the right questions and choose your future wisely. Anand Neelakantan Author, columnist, speaker mail@asura.co.in North Korea has again pushed back the construction end-date of a massive beach resort, a move analysts say shows the regime is struggling from international sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programs. The eastern seaside strip, known as the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Area, is intended as a centerpiece of the isolated countrys nascent tourism industry as Pyongyang seeks to develop its economy despite the tough economic measures. The sites construction has been closely overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, and it was initially scheduled to open this April, to mark the birthday anniversary of the countrys founder Kim Il Sung. But in a recent visit to the site, Kim delayed the finish date for the second time, ordering construction to be completed by the same time next year, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday. Sanctions hamper work The decision, would allow the workers to perfectly finish it so that our people would fully enjoy themselves in the impeccable tourist area from the sea-bathing season next year, KCNA quoted Kim as saying. The plan was first pushed back last August when Kim extended the project by six months to October 2019. The isolated North is under several sets of sanctions for its weapons programs, which analysts say has hampered efforts to secure materials needed to finish the vast beach complex. North Korea can complete the external construction of the hotels by itself but most of the finishing materials for the interior are imported, Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP. The economic measures banned imports of some items, and Pyongyang was supplying the sanctioned goods with its foreign currency, Cho said, adding: But that has also dried up. Construction almost done Satellite images taken by U.S. monitors in December showed the buildings previously under construction were nearing completion. The North Korean economy has hit a limit with the sanctions, Cho added. Immediate sanctions relief was a key demand of the cash-strapped North when Kim met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February for a second summit that ultimately broke down. Trump, the former real estate developer turned billionaire, has praised North Koreas tourism potential, referring to its great beaches he said would make ideal locations for condos. Anjana Pasricha contributed to this report from New Delhi. ISLAMABAD Pakistan warned Sunday that rival India is planning to launch a fresh military assault against the country, calling for the international communitys urgent diplomatic intervention to deter New Delhi from endangering regional peace and stability. We have reliable intelligence that India is planning and preparing to carry out another military aggression against Pakistan. This action could possibly take place between the 16th to the 20th of April. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said. He told reporters in the southern city of Multan that Pakistan has formally shared the authentic information and conveyed its apprehensions to diplomats in Islamabad representing the five permanent member countries of the United Nations Security Council. We want the international community to take notice of this irresponsible behavior and warn India against treading this path, Qureshi stressed. The Indian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that this public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India. New Delhi called on Pakistan to take credible steps against terrorism operating from its territories rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross border terrorism." Simmering tensions The Pakistani warning comes amid simmering tensions since Feb. 26 when Indian jets crossed deep into Pakistan territory and allegedly destroyed the suspected training camp of a militant group New Delhi accuses of plotting terrorism in the divided Kashmir territory. Pakistani officials refuted Indian claims of hitting any camps or killing a large number of militants in the Balakot district before undertaking its own retaliatory military action the following day. In the ensuing dogfight over Kashmir, Pakistani fighter planes shot down an Indian fighter jet and arrested its pilot. The aerial clash had fueled fears at the time of a wider conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. But international diplomacy and Pakistans decision to release the pilot to India two days later effectively defused the threat. American defense officials have reportedly refuted Indias assertions that its fighter jets had also downed a U.S.-made Pakistani F-16 aircraft in the dogfight. Election strategy Pakistan and India previously have fought three full-scale wars, in 1947, 1965, 1971 and a limited conflict in 1999. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan asserted again Saturday that his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are whipping up war hysteria and false claims to try to win the upcoming elections in India. Pakistani and Indian troops have continued to fire over the Line of Control or the de facto Kashmir border, causing casualties on both sides since late February. Islamabad denies allegations that it is fuelling a 30 year separatist insurgency in the predominantly Muslim region that both the countries claim in its entirety and has been the primary source of mutual military tensions. A British man poisoned along with his partner with a nerve agent, amid an assassination attempt on a Russian ex-spy in England blamed on Moscow, met its top UK envoy on Saturday, according to reports. Charlie Rowley, 45, whose partner Dawn Sturgess died after exposure to the toxin, held a 90-minute meeting with Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko at Russia's embassy in London, Britain's Sunday Mirror said. "I went along to ask them 'why did your country kill my girlfriend?'" he told the tabloid newspaper. "But I didn't really get any answers. I just got Russian propaganda," Rowley added, saying Yakovenko's explanations of Russian innocence in the plot were "ridiculous". Rowley and Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three children, who lived near the southwestern English city of Salisbury, fell ill on June 30 last year. Authorities determined they had been exposed to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the latter days of the Cold War. The poison was contained in a perfume bottle that Rowley had found in Salisbury and given to Sturgess. She died eight days later but after two weeks in an induced coma, he was discharged from hospital. It followed former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia being left in critical condition after they were targeted with Novichok in Salisbury three months earlier. The pair survived and have made full recoveries, according to British authorities. Western allies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being ultimately responsible for the poisoning, which sparked dozens of diplomatic expulsions by both sides. British prosecutors in September issued arrest warrants for two alleged officers of Russia's military intelligence service, known as the GRU. But the Kremlin has repeatedly denounced the accusations as "unacceptable." "The ambassador kept saying the substance definitely wasn't the novichok they had made because if it was it would have killed everyone," Rowley told the Mirror. "He [Yakovenko] kept on saying the British won't talk to him so he can't tell us anything that he hasn't read in the media, so he can only give his view." A Russian TV station also reported Saturday's meeting, saying Rowley was eager for answers that Britain had failed to provide. Yakovenko gave him a book on the "unanswered questions" concerning the events in Salisbury and a tour of Russia's grand west London embassy on one of its most exclusive streets, it added. House Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler said Democrats need to see the complete report issued by special counsel Robert Mueller because Attorney General William Barr is biased. "He is someone who is an agent of the administration, is an appointee, a political appointee of the president whose interests he may very well be protecting," Nadler said on CBS's Face the Nation Sunday. Barr is "a biased defender of the administration." Nadler's appearance comes after a week of media reports that Mueller's team is not happy with Barr's summary of the 22-month-long probe into whether the Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to help him win the 2016 presidential election. According to the reports, some members of Mueller team believe Barr, in Nadler's words, "sugarcoated" the summary he gave to Congress and the public. The news reports say Mueller's entire document is not as favorable to Trump as Barr made the president appear. According to Barr's summary, Mueller found no evidence Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia, but could not reach a conclusion on obstruction of justice. Mueller wrote, however, that he could not exonerate the president on that question. According to Barr, Mueller turned the obstruction question over to Barr, who said he concluded there is no evidence Trump had a criminal intent to try to derail the Mueller probe. Nadler and committee Democrats have asked Barr to release the entire report and all the evidence Mueller used in the investigation. He said he is willing to subpoena the report if necessary. "We are demanding and we have a right. Congress has a right to the entire report with no redactions whatsoever so we can see what's there," Nadler said. "There could be grounds for impeachment. There could be grounds for other action ... you can commit shameful acts, you can commit complete betrayals of the public interest without committing impeachable acts." Barr has said he is working with Mueller's team to see how much of the report can be made public. One of Trump's attorneys, Jay Sekulow, told ABC's This Week that the attorney general determines what the public and Congress can see. "That has to be redacted, you can't release grand jury material. That is also a felony ... and then of course, you've got methods regarding national security interests. There's a process moving forward. I think it's moving quickly," Sekulow said. Trump has said the report totally exonerates him and said it should be released. He has also called Mueller "honorable." He now accuses Mueller's team of media leaks. "Looks like Bob Mueller's team of 13 Trump Haters & Angry Democrats are illegally leaking information to the press while the Fake News Media make up their own stories with or without sources - sources no longer matter to our corrupt & dishonest Mainstream Media, they are a Joke," he said in an early morning tweet Sunday On another matter, House Democrats have also asked the Internal Revenue Service to turn over the last six years of Trump's personal and business federal tax returns. Trump has broken a 40-year custom of previous presidents and candidates and refused to let the public see his tax returns. Sekulow said that "if necessary," the release of Trump's tax returns "will be litigated." He said, "We should not be in a situation where ... individual private tax returns are used for political purposes." The chair of a U.S. House Foreign Affairs subcommittee has called on the Eritrean government to release an American citizen who has been detained in the country for more than six years. Ciham Ali Abdu was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Eritrea. In December 2012, Eritrean officials apprehended Ciham when she attempted to leave the country without a mandatory exit visa. Her family hasnt seen or heard from her since, despite attempts to learn about her whereabouts and well-being. U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, called for Cihams release in social media posts Friday. I was in Eritrea just last month, Bass wrote on Twitter and Facebook. The countrys leaders should release Ciham, who had a birthday this past week, and all of Eritreas political prisoners to send a message that the country is embarking on a new path that includes respect for human rights. Bass visited Eritrea and Ethiopia with Reps. Joe Neguse and Ilhan Omar, both of whom joined Congress in January. Neguse represents Colorados second district. His parents emigrated from Eritrea to the U.S. in 1980. Omar, a Somali-American, came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1992 and represents Minnesotas fifth district. It was the first congressional delegation to visit Eritrea in 14 years, according to the U.S. Embassy in Asmara. Official denials The Eritrean government refuses to acknowledge Cihams citizenship, or even her existence. Bass, who represents Californias 37th District, near where Ciham was born, is the highest-ranking U.S. official to put a spotlight on her case. The U.S. State Department hasnt officially confirmed Cihams imprisonment, saying only that the U.S. government is aware of reports about Cihams detainment. Bass told reporters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last month that she had just recently learned about Cihams case, according to the Associated Press. Human rights groups have for years called for the 22-year-olds release. At a town hall meeting Saturday in Los Angeles, Bass said she was committed to working with both the Eritrean and Ethiopian governments, along with the U.S. Embassy in Asmara, to secure Cihams freedom. Vanessa Tsehaye founded One Day Seyoum, an organization focused on securing the release of her uncle, Seyoum Tsehaye, an Eritrean journalist who has been imprisoned since 2001. Tsehaye spoke to VOA Wednesday, on Cihams birthday. She has been in prison without a trial, and it cant, it simply cannot stand, Tsehaye said. Even the excuses they try to use for people, like journalists or politicians, or [raising] issues about national security. And those kinds of excuses dont stand when you are talking about a girl who was 15 when she was imprisoned for simply attempting to leave the country. The United Nations, Amnesty International and other rights groups have accused the Eritrean government of human rights violations designed to suppress dissent, including arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and torture. The government has denied those claims and criticized the U.S. and U.N. for seeking to undermine its sovereignty. VOAs attempts to reach the Eritrean embassies in London and Washington went unanswered. After fighting a 30-year war for independence from Ethiopia, Eritrea gained international recognition in 1993. The country has not held a national election nor ratified its constitution since then, but recent peace overtures with Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia have raised hopes for reform and justice for detainees like Ciham. We think that theres a chance that Ciham might hear and see our messages, Tsehaye said. So we want her to know that there are people fighting for her and that she is being remembered and that we will stand in solidarity with her until the day she is released. Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has established a new leadership council comprising government officials, opposition politicians and civil society representatives that will manage national peace efforts and put together an "effective" team of negotiators for possible talks with the Taliban insurgency. Addressing the inaugural meeting of what is named the "Leadership Council for Reconciliation" on Sunday, Ghani said he hopes the effort under the government "umbrella" would lead to ending the bloodshed in Afghanistan. The United States has engaged the Islamist insurgent group in direct negotiations since late last fall to bring an end to the 18-year-old Afghan war, the longest-ever U.S. overseas military intervention. It is widely expected the peace process would ultimately lead to an intra-Afghan dialogue involving the Taliban and a cessation of years of hostilities. But Washington's current discussions with insurgent officials have focused on withdrawal of American and NATO forces in return for Taliban guarantees to prevent Afghan soil from again becoming a haven for international terrorists. Afghan-born American diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad has been leading U.S. negotiators in talks with the Taliban. After their latest meeting in early March, Khalilzad announced the two sides had drafted a preliminary agreement on foreign troop withdrawal and the Taliban's counterterrorism guarantees. But Khalilzad, who is the special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, emphasized a final agreement would be linked to the Taliban's participation in intra-Afghan talks and a comprehensive cease-fire. The newly formed council's spokesman, Umer Daudzai, told reporters after the meeting the panel has also been tasked to finalize within a week an "inclusive delegation" that will travel to Qatar later this month "on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and exchange views with the Taliban." Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid explained late Sunday the Qatar gathering is not a "negotiations summit or meeting," and participants at the event will only offer their views. "No one will partake in the conference as a representative of the Kabul administration ... any individual who is part of the Kabul administration and is listed as a participant will only participate in a personal capacity and share personal views," Mujahid said. The Taliban refuses to engage in any peace dialogues involving the Afghan government, dismissing it as an illegal entity and a product of U.S. "occupation" of the country. A senior insurgent official, who is privy to his group's meetings with the United States, told VOA the Taliban is seeking to conclude a deal with Washington on the troop withdrawal plan before entering into negotiations about issues related to future political Afghan governance. "In our view, first, an agreement should be reached and announced about foreign troops timeline. Then we focus on formation of the next government," the official said, requesting anonymity. Any attempts to "push aside" the issue of foreign "occupation" would undermine the ongoing peace efforts, he cautioned. Khalilzad spent nearly a week in Kabul during his ongoing regional trip and said in his departure statement Sunday that he held productive discussions with Ghani and other officials as well as Afghan politicians outside the government. "He discussed with President Ghani and other leaders how to ensure the intra-Afghan dialogue in Doha next week, in which representatives of the Afghan government and wider society will participate, can best advance our shared goal of accelerating a settlement process," said a U.S. embassy statement. President Ghani's National Security Adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, during a visit to Washington last month harshly criticized Khalilzad for sidelining the Afghan government and accused the U.S. envoy of trying to negotiate with the Taliban a leading role for himself in a future transitional government in Kabul. Mohib also alleged the peace dialogue had delegitimized the Afghan constitution and political system. U.S. officials strongly rejected the allegations as unfounded and an attack on the State Department leadership. Washington has since stopped any dealings with Mohib and U.S. officials have walked out of recent meetings with government officials in Kabul after noticing the Afghan adviser's presence. Khalilzad, while speaking to Afghan media last week, said he launched his Afghan peace mission six months ago by calling on both the Taliban and the Ghani government to come up with their authoritative teams of negotiators for an eventual intra-Afghan dialogue. The U.S. envoy criticized Kabul for not coming up with its negotiations team for months and praised the Taliban for swiftly bringing together their high-powered team of top insurgent leaders. Khalilzad lamented there could have been less Afghan fatalities in the war had the government been able to timely form its team. The conflict has in recent months intensified and Taliban attacks have killed or injured hundreds of Afghan security forces since the start of the year. Critics note President Ghani's concerns that he has been excluded from the U.S.-led peace initiative are not misplaced. Moeed Yousaf of the United States Institute of Peace said the constitutional mandate of Ghani expires next month, but he is a legitimate leader who is still in control of resources. Yousaf said the delay on the part of Ghani to form a team of negotiators is understandable because he would want to know what his government is to get out of a possible deal with the Taliban. "If the answer is, well, the Afghan government is done, Ashraf Ghani, his political carrier is over. Then what is in it for him. That's really the problem, which I think needs to be resolved," Yousaf noted. "No amount of cajoling and no amount of requesting is going to change that. It is an incentive structure problemand they have to figure out that incentives for him (Ghani) and the others around him to allow this process to go forward smoothly." 3D printers have been used to create incredible things, from robots to prosthetic arms. Now the U.S. Marines have used the technology to make a 3D-printed concrete footbridge. Khrystyna Shevchenko traveled to Camp Pendleton in California to take a look. Anna Rice narrates her story. The Trump administration wants up to two years to find potentially thousands of children who were separated from their families at the border before a judge halted the practice last year, a task that it says is more laborious than previous efforts because the children are no longer in government custody. The Justice Department said in a court filing late Friday that it will take at least a year to review about 47,000 cases of unaccompanied children taken into government custody between July 1, 2017 and June 25, 2018 the day before U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw halted the general practice of splitting families. The administration would begin by sifting through names for traits most likely to signal separation for example, children under 5. ACLU protests The administration would provide information on separated families on a rolling basis to the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued to reunite families and criticized the proposed timeline Saturday. We strongly oppose a plan that could take up to two years to locate these families, said Lee Gelernt, the ACLUs lead attorney. The government needs to make this a priority. Sabraw ordered last year that more than 2,700 children in government care on June 26, 2018, be reunited with their families, which has largely been accomplished. Then, in January, the U.S. Health and Human Services Departments internal watchdog reported that thousands more children may have been separated since the summer of 2017. The departments inspector general said the precise number was unknown. Sheer volume of children The judge ruled last month that he could hold the government accountable for families that were separated before his June order and asked the government submit a proposal for the next steps. A hearing is scheduled April 16. Sheer volume makes the job different than identifying children who were in custody at the time of the judges June order, Jonathan White, a commander of the U.S. Public Health Service and Health and Human Services point person on family reunification, said in an affidavit. White, whose work has drawn strong praise from the judge, would lead the effort to identify additional families on behalf of Health and Health and Human Services with counterparts at Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement. Dr. Barry Graubard, a statistics expert at the National Cancer Institute, developed a system to flag for early attention those most likely to have been separated. Most went to relatives The vast majority of separated children are released to relatives, but many are not parents. Of children released in the 2017 fiscal year, 49 percent went to parents, 41 percent to close relatives such as an aunt, uncle, grandparent or adult sibling and 10 percent to distant relatives, family friends and others. The governments proposed model to flag still-separated children puts a higher priority on the roughly half who were not released to a parent. Other signs of likely separation include children under 5, younger children traveling without a sibling and those who were detained in the Border Patrols El Paso, Texas, sector, where the administration ran a trial program that involved separating nearly 300 family members from July to November 2017. Saturday marks the anniversary of the administrations zero tolerance policy to criminally prosecute every adult who enters the country illegally from Mexico. The administration retreated in June amid an international uproar by generally exempting adults who come with their children. The policy now applies only to single adults. G Parthasarathy By There has been a raging controversy about Indias air strike on Balakot. It is important to analyse the diplomatic implications of the attack, on what was indisputably a major centre for training and ideologically motivating members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Pakistans assertions that the attack caused no damage have been contradicted by the fact that no outsider has been allowed near the Balakot buildings. More importantly, the attack has triggered widespread international attention and support for India, which has embarrassed not just Pakistan, but also its all-weather friend, China. China has invariably shown a remarkable ability to get its way in Multilateral International Forums. It uses its position as a Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council to ensure that it is not seen to be isolated, or obstructive, on issues of global concern. On February 14, however, Beijing found that it had to use its veto power to prevent approval of a resolution sponsored by the US, UK, France and Germany to declare Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of the JeM, an International Terrorist. The Security Council had declared the JeM a Global Terrorist Organisation in 2001. While not sponsoring the resolution, Russia nevertheless, backed it. With 14 of the 15 members of the Council backing the resolution, China found itself in splendid isolation. The Chinese argued they needed further discussion on the subject, even after they exercised their fourth veto since 2016, to protect Azhar. Chinas actions have had unexpected consequences. Nobody outside Pakistan and China voiced any serious doubts about Azhar being an international terrorist. A former Director General of the ISI, Lt Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi, publicly held the JeM responsible for the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament and for attempts to assassinate General Pervez Musharraf. The US, France and the UK have now moved for a public discussion in the Security Council on Azhars role as an international terrorist. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has alleged that China has detained more than one million Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities in internment camps in Xinjiang, since April 2017. Pompeo noted: The world cannot afford Chinas shameful hypocrisy towards Muslims. On one hand, China abuses more than a million Muslims at home, and on the other it protects violent Islamic terrorist groups from sanctions. These actions in the UN Security Council are going to have far-reaching implications in the UN Human Rights Council and in the Islamic World. How will 53 Islamic countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which have turned a blind eye to Chinese atrocities against Muslims, react? How will Russia, Chinas strongest supporter in global affairs, respond? Will global pressures lead to gradual change in Chinas policies of active defence of Pakistan-sponsored terrorist groups? Will the Taliban turn a blind eye to Chinas persecution of Muslims, given Beijings own ties with the Taliban? Finally, will India continue its present policies of soft-peddling the adverse impact of Chinas terrorist-friendly policies? G Parthasarathy Former diplomat dadpartha@gmail.com By Express News Service BHOPAL: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Income Tax sleuths on Sunday raided over 50 locationsin Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhiconnected to aides of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath over tax evasion and claimed to have recovered loads of sensitive documents. Sources said the searches, which began around 3 am, happened due to specific inputs about large-scale tax evasion and the possibility of funding the Lok Sabha campaign through hawala money. The searches are expected to continue through the night. Though there was no clarity about the actual seizure, the presence of currency note counting machines at the raided premises in Bhopal and Indore suggested that several crores of rupees in cash could have been seized. Earlier, over 250 I-T personnel along with armed CRPF squads swooped down on locations in Delhi, Bhopal and Indore on the premises owned by former Madhya Pradesh police officer Pravin Kakkad, who is the Officer on Special Duty to the CM. They also raided properties of former advisor Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to the CMs brother-in-laws firm Moser Baer and his nephew Ratul Puris company. According to sources, Kakkads family is associated with a number of businesses, especially in the hospitality sector. Ratul Puri was grilled last week by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi in connection with the AgustaWestland helicopter scam. In Bhopal, the raided premises included the Nadir Colony (Shyamala Hills) house of Kakkar, besides two premises located on the fourth and sixth floors of the multi-storeyed Platinum Plaza complex and a sprawling resort-cum-marriage garden and banquet hall on Indores outskirts. Sources said the premises raided in Platinum Plaza belonged to Kakkars aides Ashwini Sharma and Prateek Joshi. Sharma, who reportedly runs an NGO, is known to have connections with high-profile people in the present Congress and the previous BJP governments in the state. During searches at Platinum Plaza, a Bhopal police team led by city SP Bhupendra Singh tried to pierce the CRPF cordon but was not allowed immediate entry, leading to a face-off between the Central and state police personnel. By PTI NEW DELHI: India Sunday rejected as "irresponsible" and "preposterous" Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi's claim that India was planning to carry out another attack on Pakistan, saying his comments were aimed at whipping up war hysteria in the region. Qureshi told reporters in Multan that Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India was planning to attack Pakistan again between April 16 and 20, adding that five permanent members of the UN Security Council were apprised about it. In a strongly worded statement, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar termed Qureshi's comments as "public gimmick" appearing to be "a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India." ALOS READ | Now, Qureshi claims India planning 'another attack' against Pakistan between April 16-20 "India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region. This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India," Kumar said. He said India reserves the right to respond "firmly and decisively" to any cross-border terrorist attack. India struck the biggest terrorist training camp of terror group Jaish-e-Muhammed deep inside Pakistan on February 26, twelve days after the dastardly Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. The JeM had claimed responsibility for the attack. On February 27, the Pakistan Air Force retaliated by unsuccessfully targeting several military installations in Jammu and Kashmir. Kumar said it has been made clear to Pakistan that it cannot absolve itself of responsibility of a cross-border terrorist attack in India. "No attempt at creating an alibi for its complicity in such attacks will succeed. Pakistan needs to take credible and irreversible steps against terrorism operating from all territories under its control rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross-border terrorism," he said. The MEA spokesperson said Pakistan has been advised to use established diplomatic and DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) channels to share any actionable and credible intelligence it has about imminent terror attacks. Earlier in the day, Qureshi told a press conference in his hometown of Multan that India was devising a new plan to attack Pakistan. "A new mishap could be staged... And its purpose will be to justify their [India's] offensive against Pakistan and to increase diplomatic pressure against Islamabad," he alleged. "If it happens, you can imagine the impact of the occurrence on the peace and stability of the region. According to our information, the action could be taken between 16-20 April," Qureshi said. He further said, "We want the international community to take notice of this irresponsible behaviour and reprimand them [India] for taking this route." In a responding email, the teacher, referring to the student artist, said, She is pointing out how racism and ugliness is now NORMALIZED by our current president who intends to divide our nation for his own personal gain. Instead of jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst, take a breath. Instead of vilifying me and a 17 year old student, look at your president who is in your own back yard. Fairfax County Public Schools guidelines say students should be secluded or restrained only when necessary to protect the student or other people. Most of the students secluded or restrained in Fairfax in 2017-2018 were students with disabilities, but the system could not say how many. In recent years, the court has worked on developing ways to make life easier for D.C. residents who are called for duty. Last year, the court started a phone system that allows prospective jurors to call in the night before their jury duty begins to determine whether they are still needed, instead of traveling to the building and waiting to find out. The Kias driver was taken to a hospital and later died of injuries, police said. The Suburbans driver was pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not specify which of the deceased victims was in which car. Navarro said that while overall the budget reflects the shared priorities of the council and the executive, the council must examine education funding, the union increases and other issues while also considering how the county will expand its tax base to pay for them in the future. Though they lie in ruins, the century-old wrecks are the remnants of a turning point in American history, the leftovers of a World War I shipbuilding boom that helped create a world power. Some of the vessels resting at the bottom of this bend in the Potomac River are believed to be even older, from perhaps the Civil War or earlier. Beckwitt went to extraordinary lengths to maintain his projects secrecy. He tried to trick Khafra into thinking they were digging the tunnels in Virginia instead of Maryland. Beckwitt told investigators that he would pick up Khafra in a rental car and drive him to Manassas, where he had the younger man don blackout glasses before driving him around for about an hour, according to a police report. Two employees arrived at the center around 4 a.m. Thursday to open for the day. As one employee was turning on classroom lights, she discovered a naked Conner in a doorway, sheriffs office spokeswoman Amanda Vicinanzo said. Rajesh Asnani By Express News Service JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who was campaigning in Jodhpur, flew to Delhi on Saturday morning for an urgent meeting with Rahul Gandhi, leaving the state Congress circles abuzz that a few candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in the state might be replaced. His deputy Sachin Pilot also joined the meeting later. The Congress has named its 25 candidates in Rajasthan and sources say Rahul now feels a few weak candidates should be replaced. Gehlot reached Delhi early morning on a special aircraft and went straight to Rahuls residence. Sources said the Congress chief felt five-six of the candidates named are lightweights. FOLLOW OUR ELECTIONS COVERAGE HERE The seats where the candidates could be replaced include Jhalawar-Baran, Ajmer and Dholpur-Karauli. According to sources, a member from Priyanka Gandhis team was told by a state leader that weak candidates have been fielded on some of the seats. The news reached Rahul and Priyanka and after a probe, it was found true. Rahul was said to be upset about it. At the meeting, he also conveyed his displeasure at the sting operation of Jaipur candidate Jyoti Khandelwal. However, the Congresss election in-charge in the state Avinash Pandey denied that candidates will be changed. The meeting did not have anything to do with ticket distribution. It was called to discuss the strategy for campaigning, Pandey said. Four percent said always and 27 percent said sometimes when AARP asked How often do you feel lonely or isolated from those around you? to adults who participated in its survey last year. In the University of Michigans just-published survey on loneliness and social isolation, 8 percent of older adults (ages 50 to 80) said they often lacked companionship (a proxy for loneliness), while 26 percent said this was sometimes the case. Thousands protest in Sudan, calling for change: Tens of thousands of protesters joined in fresh anti-government marches across Sudan in what organizers said was one of the largest turnouts in more than three months of demonstrations calling for embattled President Omar al-Bashir to step down. The demonstrations began in December over price hikes and food shortages, and they quickly escalated into calls for al-Bashir's resignation, posing one of the biggest challenges yet to his nearly 30-year rule. The rallies are being led by the Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella group of independent professional unions. He evicted a reporter who annoyed him from the White House and nearly abolished daily press briefings. But he hasnt kicked out the entire press corps! He took Russian President Vladimir Putins word over that of his own intelligence agencies. But he hasnt ended sanctions on Russia! He walked totally unprepared into a summit with Kim Jong Un and left with nothing to show for it. But he didnt give away the store! He made 9,451 false or misleading statements during his first 801 days in office, as The Posts Fact Checker has documented. But sometimes he tells the truth! Shifting to just the popular vote without some form of runoff voting could cause problems with majority rule. Already with the electoral college, winners of four of our past seven presidential elections received less than 50 percent of the vote. Without the electoral colleges winner-take-all disincentive to independents, more candidates would be sure to run, increasing the likelihood of more and smaller plurality winners. The electoral college can occasionally be undemocratic, but the popular vote without runoffs would assuredly become nonmajoritarian, excepting the rare landslide. Mr. Dionne was right that constitutional reforms should not produce fear. Yes, the electoral college can go, but not in isolation. Watch the unintended consequences and find ways to replace remaining benefits. Let the vetting begin. Thats not what happened, though. George Washington would easily win electoral majorities in 1789 and 1792. But after he left office, the electoral college plan almost immediately began to break down. Instead of multiple candidates running for the presidency as the Founding Fathers had expected, political parties quickly formed and presidential elections seemed to become one-on-one fights. The election of 1800 spelled doom for the original plan, resulting in an electoral college tie between Thomas Jefferson and his presumed running mate, Aaron Burr. The vote went to the House of Representatives (which took 36 ballots to elect Jefferson). The debacle led to the adoption of the 12th Amendment, which changed the vice president from a competitor and runner-up to (in most cases) a subservient running mate. Opponents of the bill, including the National Rifle Association and some hunting clubs, have argued it would create a burdensome requirement for purchasers of long guns, who they say are largely law-abiding citizens. And they say few murders or other crimes are committed with rifles or shotguns. Its true that the buyer and seller in private transactions would have to go to a licensed dealer to get a check done through the FBIs National Instant Criminal Background Check System. But the 20 minutes it generally takes to run a check is, at best, a minor inconvenience that serves the greater good of keeping weapons out of the hands of people who are legally barred from having them. The New Jersey Democrat, who was first elected to the Senate in a 2013 special election, raised $17.7 million to win a full term one year later. Among his donors in that campaign were Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. In 2017, Booker said he wouldnt take a dime from them now given their work for the Trump administration. Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, sent a letter to the IRS asking that the tax returns be turned over to Congress, setting up what could be a lengthy legal fight; Trump has said he is prepared to challenge the request all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. An attorney for Trump already asked the Treasury Department to deny the Democrats request, calling it a gross abuse of power. At President Kennedys inauguration, I was blessed to hear him speak of the energy, the faith, the devotion . . . that will light our country and all who serve it and the glow from that fire can truly light the world, Pelosi said in a statement. It is inspiring that the award itself is a lantern, a manifestation of that light. By PTI JALPAIGURI: Trinamool Congress Mamata Banerjee Sunday accused the Centre of intervening in state matters while questioning the removal of Andhra Pradesh chief secretary by the Election Commission. She sought to know why Prime Minister Narendra Modi isn't removing his own Cabinet secretary or the Union home secretary if he was so "fond of making last-minute changes". "Why is the Centre intervening in state matters? Why was Andhra Pradesh chief secretary removed?" Banerjee asked at an election rally here. "Why don't you (Modi) remove your own cabinet secretary," she asked. FOLLOW OUR ELECTIONS COVERAGE HERE The Election Commission on Friday removed Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Anil Chandra Punetha from the post and appointed senior-most IAS officer LV Subrahmanyam in his place. Reacting to the poll panel's move of removing four IPS officers in West Bengal, including Kolkata and Bidhanagar police commissioners, the West Bengal chief minister Saturday wrote a letter protesting its decision. The letter said the removals were "unfortunate, highly arbitrary, motivated and biased" and taken at the behest of BJP, and urged the poll panel to review its decision. Retorting to PM's claim that the TMC supremo was afraid of him, Banerjee said that it was Modi who was afraid of her and not the other way round. Without naming former political associate Mukul Roy, whom she addressed as a traitor for quitting her party to join the BJP, she accused Modi of holding a meeting with a person accused in Saradha, Narada cases. "Have you (PM Narendra Modi) been able to clean the Ganga at Varanasi, that you are looking at Bengal?" Banerjee questioned, saying that the BJP should trying to save its seat in Delhi before turning to Bengal. She dared the BJP to implement NRC in Bengal, saying it will never be allowed in the state. Each E.U. country has established its own plan for how to treat resident Brits in the event of a no-deal Brexit. In 11 of the 27 member countries, British citizens would automatically be allowed to stay as long as they like. But in 17 countries, they would only get a grace period before they would need to try to claim residency. In France, they would have up to a year to get their papers in order, or face losing their medical coverage and potentially deportation. Please remember that any payment to a terrorist or a terrorist regime gives money so that they can seize more of our people, Pompeo said. Even a small payment to a group in, say, Africa can facilitate the killing or seizure of tens or even hundreds of others, including Americans or foreign nationals in that region. The small contingent of U.S. forces in Libya has been providing military support for counterterrorism activities and diplomatic missions and has served to bolster security in the region, the statement said. Waldhauser did not discuss where the U.S. forces, who reportedly were taken out of Tripoli on fast amphibious boats, have been relocated or when they intend to return. It seems this time we will have the lowest level of turnout ever, and thats because of the collapse in the joint list, said Asad Ghanem, a politics professor at the University of Haifa. That means the collapse of the joint list could be the main reason behind a victory for Netanyahu and those who didnt work to repair it are responsible. Richa Sharma By Express News Service NEW DELHI: In a bid to make its mark in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress is carefully drafting the campaign of its star campaigner and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra so that she interacts with people of all faiths and visits places of worship to connect with people. For instance, she undertook a three-day Ganga Yatra from Sangam to Varanasi on March 18-20 that included a boat ride and a road trip. Besides that, Priyanka Gandhi has visited many temples since she started the campaign. Even during her campaign in Faizabad constituency, she visited the famous Hanumangarhi temple. However, she stayed away from the Ram temple in Ayodhya as the party felt it was sub judice. The three-day Awadh tour included visits to several temples. In the last three weeks of the campaign, her stops at religious places included Bade Hanuman temple in Prayagraj, Sitamarhi temple in Bhadohi, Sheetla Mata temple, Vidhyachal temple and Chandrika Devi and Kantit Dargah Sharif in Mirzapur, Kashi Vishwanath temple and Dashwamedh and Assi Ghats in Varanasi. FOLLOW OUR ELECTIONS COVERAGE HERE She is visiting places of all faiths. This is to ensure that an emotional connection is established with people. The travel route of Priyanka Gandhi is planned in a way that she visits some of the local temples in villages on her way. There is also focus on introducing her to local flavours, art, culture and traditions during the campaign so that she can easily connect with people, a source explained. It is significant as the Congress has often been accused of appeasing Muslims. Congress president Rahul Gandhi too, in the last few years, has made it a point to visit major temples across the country to break that image. While Priyanka Gandhis Bundelkhand tour in the first week of April was called off for some internal reasons, her campaign programme in key Purvanchal constituencies Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Ballia and Chandauli is being worked out. Gaurav Kapoor, secretary, Research Department, AICC, says that Priyanka Gandhi has reached out to people in areas that are low on the priorities of many political parties. Priyanka Gandhi ji is taking routes which no one in the political sphere has thought of, and reaching out to everyone, especially the Nishad, Bind, Mallah and others in parts of UP. PM Modi may have been proclaiming that Maa Ganga ne mujhe bulaya hai, but Priyanka, by traversing down the Ganga, has reached out and connected with the people who live around the river and make a living from the river too, said Kapoor, based in Varanasi. Also on the radar of her planning team are religious places that are linked to specific communities, as in the case of her visit to the Shitla Mata Mandir in Adalpura village in Mirzapur. It is said to be famous among Nishads. The Nishad community has a population of around 2.6 per cent and can affect the election in the eastern UP seats of Varanasi, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur and Jaunpur. Attorney General William P. Barr is redacting at least four categories of information from the report, which spans nearly 400 pages, before issuing it to Congress and the public. Legal experts say he has wide discretion to determine what should not be revealed, meaning the fight over blacked-out boxes is likely to spawn months of fights between Congress and the Justice Department, and it may end up in the courts. The French regulator has decided to ban seven brands of breast implants. Canada and the Netherlands have followed suit and Australia is under pressure to do the same. This is on the basis of a rising number worldwide of a type of cancer, breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma, or BIAALCL, linked to implants with a rough or textured surface. I understand that the French regulator is keen to act decisively to ensure that French women are not exposed to unacceptable risk. It wants to avoid a repeat of the PIP crisis when it came under fire for a failure to prevent French breast implant manufacturer Poly Implant Prothese from using non-approved industrial grade silicone in its implants. PIPs founder was sentenced to four years in jail. Here in Australia we are hugely aware of the risks these textured implants pose. Much of the latest research and risk calculation around breast implant cancer has been led by Australia and New Zealand. We were the first to alert our regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, of the growing numbers of cases and the first to perform detailed studies using capture of cases and analysis of industry sales numbers to arrive at a true estimate of risk. However, this new cancer crisis is just the latest in a long line of scandals, industry cover-ups, and regulatory action in relation to breast implants. Banning these types of implants will reduce risk to women in future but what about women who already have these implants? And a ban on them will not stop new crises emerging. JALPAIGURI: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for coming to north Bengal only ahead of the elections, and skipping the region when the hills were turbulent. "Babus of Delhi set fire in the hills and we defused it. You (Modi) had not come to Darjeeling during the days of unrest. Where were the BJP leaders when there were disturbances in the hills," Banerjee asked while addressing a rally here, hours after Modi spoke at an election meeting in Cooch Behar. ALSO READ: Mamata hits back at Modi, questions removal of Andhra chief secretary "Now you are coming and seeking votes ahead of the elections. Are you not ashamed? Where were you in the period of unrest? Had you inquired during the days of turbulence in Darjeeling or during the floods in Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar," Banerjee asked, as she again referred to Modi as the "expiry Prime Minister". For the major part of 2017, the hills in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong witnessed violence and political turmoil over the revived demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland to be curved out of the northern West Bengal hills. CLICK HERE FOR OUR FULL ELECTION COVERAGE The entire region came to a standstill for 104 days following the longest ever shutdown called by the pro-Gorkhaland outfits. Banerjee also asked why the people of Bengal would vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as "Modi has done nothing for Bengal" and "has not even cleared the proposal for changing the name of the state to Bangla". She attacked the BJP for nominating "tainted" candidates such as John Barla from Alipurduar, whom she accused of indulging in "violence and efforts to create division between hills and plains". ALSO READ: Mamata allying with those who wish to break country, says Modi Banerjee also alleged that the saffron party was offering cash to the youth and the people so that they come and join its meetings and rallies. "They are threatening people and fighting the elections with money power," she said. Responding to the Prime Minister describing the Trinamool Congress as "Saradha-Narada" party, Banerjee said: "You had linked the Trinamool with the Saradha chit fund scam in 2014 and with the Narada sting case in 2016. But during today's rally in Cooch Behar, you shared the stage with persons who were accused in both the cases and are now controlling your meetings." Incidentally, BJP leader Mukul Roy, who had jumped ship from the Trinamool to the BJP and was questioned by the central investigation agencies in these cases, was present at Modi's rally in Cooch Behar earlier in the day. ALSO READ: 'Beti Bachao' scheme a failure, Kanyashree won UN award: Mamata's latest jibe at PM Modi Amid the controversy over removing senior police officers in the state by the Election Commission, Banerjee claimed that the saffron party will not win the Lok Sabha elections by transferring officers. "Why the Cabinet Secretary and your Secretary won't be removed ahead of the elections? There were many allegations against you (Modi)," she said. Taunting Modi for calling himself a "chowkidar" (watchman), Banerjee wondered whether the Prime Minister knew that many "chowkidars" at the ATMs do not even get their salary regularly. Natural therapies cut from private health insurance cover could be reinstated as early as next year after the Morrison government bowed to growing pressure to review its new rebate ban. Just days after changes came into effect removing the rebate from almost 20 natural therapies, Health Minister Greg Hunt has promised a $2 million review of the changes. Health Minister Greg Hunt has announced another review. Credit:AAP Mr Hunt announced on Sunday that Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy would spearhead a new review, backed by an advisory panel of experts. However Independent MP Kerryn Phelps, a critic of the rebate ban, has labelled the review a smokescreen aimed at neutralising a damaging backlash. Plans to make Casuarina Prison one of the largest prisons in Australia will attempt to address years of uncertainty around the WA justice systems ability to keep up with rising prison population. Casuarina prison is the main maximum-security prison for male prisoners in the state, and it was originally opened in 1991 with an original design capacity of 397 people. The entrance to Casuarina Prison. Credit:Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services It currently houses 952 prisoners total with a capacity of 1033. On Sunday, Corrective Services minister Fran Logan announced a $186 million plan to expand the prison and said the money would be formally allocated to the facility in the May 8 state budget. Monique Pourewa first went searching for her birth father when she was about 20 years old but decided after one meeting she did not want a relationship with him. In her eyes, she felt like his "dirty little secret". Monique Pourewa accessed the Benevolent Society's services to find her birth father. It was not until 30 years later that Ms Pourewa decided to seek him out again, and ended up with four half-brothers. Ms Pourewa is among many Queenslanders who have accessed the Benevolent Society's services for support and to make contact with relatives they were separated from due to adoption. London: The UK parliament's foreign affairs committee has called on Theresa May's Cabinet to set out a China strategy by 2020 to replace the current policy of "muddling through" when it comes to dealing with Beijing. The committee, chaired by Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, criticised the British government for failing to face the reality of China's strategic direction and said the government had not been able to present a China strategy. Tom Tugendhat (left) and then Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop and High Commissioner to London Alexander Downer last year. Credit:@bobseelymp/Instagram "A constructive, pragmatic and often positive UK relationship with China is possible. But achieving this will require strategy, rigour and unity in place of hope and muddling through," the committee said. The committee said in a report it would establish a second inquiry after receiving "troubling allegations concerning Chinese interference in UK domestic affairs." A bit over a year ago my one year old daughter threw up all over both of us on a bus from London to Oxford. Bill Heine's home - with the shark crashing through the roof. Credit:Nick Miller We made a dripping, crying, unscheduled exit from the coach on the fringes of the university city, smelling strongly of banana puke. Passengers stared in unsympathetic horror as the bus pulled away for what would be a foul last stretch into town. And I looked up and saw an enormous shark crashing into someones house. But, frankly, at that point I had other things to worry about. By ANI AHMEDABAD: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday denied Foreign Policy magazine's claims of India not having downed a Pakistani F-16 plane last month and criticised leaders of the Congress for "doubting and raising questions on what the defence forces are saying." "Indian Air Force gave proof on it with electronic signature of F-16. Whoever has written it, it's baseless and source-based. The part of AM-RAAM missile, which is used only with F-16, how was it found in India?" Sitharaman told reporters here. READ MORE | Pakistan cites US magazine report on F-16, says BJP creating 'war hysteria' to win polls She added, "The article that came in 'Foreign Policy', many people are calling it baseless. Someone showed me on social media that US officials are also saying that they didn't conduct any such investigation. There are a lot of people who are spreading misinformation. But it is sad that in our own country, we have a lot of people in Congress party's 'Bhajan Mandali' who are doubting and raising questions on what the defence forces are saying. It suits them." In the article, Foreign Policy's Lara Seligman claimed that United States officials have told her that all of Pakistan's F-16 jets are accounted for and none of them are missing, following a recent check by US personnel after the February aerial dogfight with India. This was in direct contradiction to India's claim that IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman shot down a Pakistani F-16 with his MiG-21 Bison before his plane was downed. Varthaman was captured by the Pakistani forces and later released as a peace gesture. In response to the Foreign Policy article, Spokesperson of the Pakistan Army, Major General Asif Ghafoor had tweeted: "Allah be praised, truth always prevails. Time for India to speak the truth about false claims & actual losses on their side including the second aircraft shot down by Pakistan. India needs introspection especially over atrocities in IOK. Region needs peace, progress & prosperity." (ANI) By PTI SHIMLA: Four months ago, when Kaushalya Devi needed surgery on her leg, the 83-year-old had to be carried on a cot to the motorable road outside the village and then transferred to an ambulance. For over five-six decades, the residents of the Lahru Tika village in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district have been using the 200-metre-long stretch, about three feet wide, of an adjoining village to reach the motorable road. The footpath is too narrow for four-wheelers -- and sometimes it takes a toll. Kaushalya Devi is doing well now after the surgery, but Subedar Bishamber Dass (retd) was not so fortunate The 300-odd residents of Lahru Tika have been pressing their demand of a proper road for over two decades now, but in vain, Kaushalya's nephew Vipin Kumar claimed. CLICK HERE FOR OUR FULL ELECTION COVERAGE Fed up with the neglect and the apathy of the authorities, the villagers have now decided to make it an election issue and have threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha polls. Banners calling for a boycott of the parliamentary elections have come up in and around the village. "Road nahin tau vote nahin (No vote, without Road)," one of them reads. Located some 35 km west of district headquarters Dharamsala and about 180 km from state capital Shimla, Lahru Tika falls under the Sullah assembly segment of the Kangra parliamentary seat. The villagers also met Kangra BJP candidate Kishan Kapoor, who is the state Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs minister, and Sullah MLA Vipin Singh Parmar, the state Health Minister, when they were passing through the main road near Lahru Tika on April 2 along with their supporters. They even raised "Road nahi tau vote Nahi" and "Road dau, vote lau (Construct road, get votes)" slogans at them. ALSO READ: UP village threatens to boycott Lok Sabha elections over demand for bridge Kaushalya Devi is doing well now after the surgery, Kumar said. Subedar Bishamber Dass (retd) was, however, not so fortunate. He was paralysed and needed to be taken to the hospital frequently for treatment. This perilous routine took a toll on his health and he passed away several months ago. The villagers have been using the narrow path, passing through a private land of the adjoining Matehar village to reach the motorable road, Kumar said. "So, we demand that the government persuade private landowners to give some of their lands in public interest to construct a six-foot-wide road. If they do not provide land on their own, the government should acquire three feet more land to construct the road," he added. ALSO READ: Mizoram civil societies reverse decision to boycott Lok Sabha polls Backing the demand, Naura Zila Parishad member Thakar Singh said, "The patients of Lahru Tika village face a lot of problems. Their demand is genuine and a proper road should be constructed to connect this village to the main road." "(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi talks of digital India but how can we achieve a digital India without even proper roads connecting a village, that too in the 21st century," Kumar asks. When contacted by PTI, MLA Parmar said,"The villagers reiterated their decision of boycotting the elections when we were passing through the village as part of our canvassing." "Actually, the government has no land to construct the road. The private landowners are not providing their land. I told the villagers that you persuade the owners to provide their land. We will also try to persuade them," he added. The villagers are ready to reconsider their if political parties give them a written assurance to build the road and a written promise by land-owners to provide the land, Kumar asserted. Cara Delevingne is famous for her strong eyebrows - and her strong will. At 26, she knows exactly what she wants for her career and personal life. An interview about adulting, quarter life crises and social media struggles. Cara Delevingne photographed in Capetown during a commercial shoot for Volkswagen Anzeige ICONIST: On a scale from 1 to 10, how grown up do you feel? Delevingne: Im 26 and I feel pretty adult. I feel older than I am at this point. ICONIST: Why? Anzeige Delevingne: Ive just experienced a lot. Ive been busy, I suppose. (smirks) And I got my drivers license recently, thats a big milestone into the adult life. Finally! Ive always driven since I was a kid you know, in the countryside in my dads car, sitting on his lap. In England, we can start driving at 18, and I couldnt wait to take lessons. But soon after starting I left school and started working, I was just never in London and couldnt take my license until I got the job with VW. ICONIST: When you remember how you imagined your adult life as a kid are you ever surprised how youve turned out as a person? Delevingne: My personality hasnt changed, but Ive grown up obviously. Personally, I think you have to have something sacred of who you are. If Id changed too much, thatd scare me. I still come from the same place of love. But its still important to have change in your life, to be fluid and to roll with the times. I change a little bit every day. Anzeige ICONIST: You have a turbulent life, youre always busy as you say how do you keep up your energy? Delevingne: Im just lucky, I was born with a lot of energy. I do travel a lot, but I sleep, I am well-fed. You know how children just HAVE all this incredible energy? I never grew out of that. ICONIST: Is there ever time to contemplate about your life? How do you make difficult decisions when theres always something going on? Anzeige Delevingne: Well I always try to fit everything in somehow, thats why Im always busy. My priority is to not have any priorities. As long as everything makes sense. It all kind of happens the way it happens. If there is a job that I really, really want to do and it wont work out, I have to move on. How do I make my decisions? I follow my gut. I have an incredible team around me it has taken years to get into the right place with that. You have to choose the right people. My advice is to do what you want to do do. At least thats whats important for me to love what I do. Cara Delevigne: "My advice is to do what you want to do do" Quelle: PR ICONIST: Are you ever scared of whats going to be next in your life? Delevingne: In terms of my career, thats the last thing that I worry about. As long as I can do what I love it doesnt matter if its a career. And if I stop doing what Im doing I could go traveling for the next 25 years it doesnt matter what youre doing as long as youre happy. And there is always an anticipation or excitement about whats going to happen. No one knows whats going to happen in the future. Im not scared, Im excited. Every day is different. ICONIST: Whose opinion is important to you when you think about your career? Delevingne: My own, more than anyone elses. It doesnt matter what anyone thinks, I have to choose whats right or wrong. Career-wise you tend to try and please your parents but I gave up on that when I left school. ICONIST: There is this phenomenon called quarter life crisis when people in their mid-twenties question just everything in their lives. Have you experienced anything like that? Delevingne: No! I honestly think people who are saying they are having a quarter life crisis should really assess what theyre doing because its a very odd thing. I think no one at 25 should complain about having any sort of crisis, your twenties are an amazing time and you should just enjoy it. Anzeige ICONIST: Maybe its just this Millennial type of thing to complain about everything. Delevingne: Sure. I dont like Millennials. But sadly, I am one. I do understand that people at my age can feel pressured to know what theyre doing or should do. At just 26, British model turned actress Cara Delevingne knows exactely what she doesn't want in life: worrying about the future Quelle: PR ICONIST: I feel like a lot of personal crises amongst millennials are sparked by the ideals we see on social media. Delevingne: Yes, because of peoples vanity. Instagram is very problematic in that sense that big egos meet low self-esteem. There are these girls who can take a perfect selfie but hate themselves. No wonder we can see a rise of cyber bullying. ICONIST: You have grown an enormous community on Instagram over the years do you still read the comments on Social Media? Delevingne: It depends, if Im raising a question about political debate than I do look at the comments because I want to see what people think. But if I post a picture of me on Instagram, no, I wont look at the comments. ICONIST: But you are still in the public eye, there are millions of articles about you. Delevingne: I think its a waste of time to think about other peoples opinions. Its hard, but whats the point apart from making yourself feel sad or as if youre never gonna be good enough. Anzeige ICONIST: Are you saying you are completely free of other peoples opinions? Delevingne: I dont know if I have just grown a thicker skin or if I just dont give a shit anymore. Its just that Ive seen it so much, being bombarded by hate. ICONIST: Its easy to say you have to grow a thicker skin Delevingne: But you have to! I just did. I used to look at every single comment, I used to LOVE the fact that people didnt like me, that they had to say bad things about the way I looked or the way I dressed or that I wasnt talented enough I used to let it define myself so much that I was overloaded with it. And now I think I just dont care. People can say anything they want, it can never hurt as much as what your own voice in your head can say to yourself. The meanest person in the world is never gonna be anyone else, its always gonna be yourself. For me, that is. You can always try and be mean to me, Im always gonna be meaner. So the only thing you can do is to be good to yourself. ICONIST: Whats been a really good decision for you lately? Delevingne: I just wrote my will. Anzeige ICONIST: Did you remember to put all your internet passwords in there? Delevingne: Christ, no! But its important, so thank you for the tip. (laughs) ICONIST: What should people remember about you one day? Delevingne: My eyebrows. No, Im kidding. Im not sure. Isnt it a bit narcissistic to think about that, people should decide on that for themselves. Maybe I can phrase it like this: There are a lot of causes that I would like to be remembered helping with. Womens rights, mental health, education. But in the end, everybody wants to make the world a better place, right? Folgen Sie uns unter dem Namen ICONISTbyicon auch bei Facebook, Instagram und Twitter. By Express News Service BHOPAL: Srushti Jayant Deshmukh, the 23-year-old chemical engineer from Bhopal, who recently topped the UPSC 2019 examinations among the women, has now donned a new role an inspirational icon, who will motivate young and first-time voters to exercise franchise in large numbers during the coming Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh. A team from district election office of Bhopal visited the Kasturba Nagar residence of the UPSC 2019 fifth rank holder Srushti on Saturday evening and congratulated her and family for the success in the UPSC examinations. She is the new icon for youngsters in Bhopal and other parts of the state, owing to which weve requested her to become an icon to inspire young, first time and women voters to vote in large numbers during the Lok Sabha polls. She has accepted our request to become an Icon under the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) plan of the ECI, Bhopal district election officer and collector Sudam Khade told The New Indian Express on Sunday. The young UPSC-2019 results fifth rank holder, Srushti, will now be seen at events under the SVEEP plan all across Bhopal, particularly at events in colleges to promote large scale voting in general elections. Well also make educative and promotional advertisement campaigns featuring Srushti to inspire young, first time and female voters to press EVM button in large numbers in the four-phases in which polls will be held in MP, starting from April 29, said Khade. As per Bhopal district election office sources, Srushti participated in Walk in Bhopal on Sunday and appealed voters to vote in large number in LS polls. With this, the UPSC-2019 woman topper Srushti will be among a host of celebrities, including Bhopal-born TV actor Divyanka Tripathi, who have been roped in as SVEEP icons for promoting increased polling. GREENWICH Depositions and discovery are taking place in two separate lawsuits involving the town of Greenwich, the Brunswick School and a former student at Greenwich Academy. The litigation stems from a claim that a Brunswick student forced himself on the then-16-year-old girl, pulled her clothing down and groped her as she struggled to get away from him in a pool house at a party in 2016. No arrests followed the alleged sexual-abuse incident at the pool party, and the young man in question continued his studies at Brunswick interacting with the young Greenwich Academy student on occasion at combined events between the schools and later graduated. One lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in August 2018 claims the Brunswick School administration was negligent and inflicted emotional distress on the girl in the aftermath of the pool party in 2016. A federal lawsuit was also filed, contending that the Greenwich Police Department acted improperly in investigating the case, which did not result in an arrest. The federal suit says the young womans Constitutional rights were violated. She and her family sued under a Jane Doe pseudonym, which the court allowed to protect her privacy. All parties are now involved in seeking documents and taking depositions. Beginning in January and continuing through March, depositions have been taken from the young womans family members, and two police detectives, according to court records. A number of disputes have been sparked over which witnesses may be called, and what documents or other materials must be turned over as the case proceeds. The lawsuit in state court says Brunswick should have done more to ensure the young woman did not cross paths with the Brunswick student. In court papers filed on behalf of the Greenwich Academy student, lawyer Meredith Braxton claimed the Brunswick administration was involved in crafting ... strategy to discredit (the plaintiff), tamper with witnesses before the (police department) could interview them and help ensure that no charges would be brought against its student. A lawyer for Brunswick, James Sconzo, has sought to have the case dismissed on a number of grounds, including procedural issues. The young woman, he wrote in court papers filed in February, has no standing to challenge policy or procedures that do not apply to Greenwich Academy students. The lawyer maintained that Brunswick was not legally liable for the issues raised in the suit. The same filing called the lawsuit a weak complaint. The towns legal department, meanwhile, has defended the police departments handling of the case as professional. The girl later told her school counselor what had happened at the pool party, the legal filings claim, and the counselor in turn notified the state Department of Children and Families. That prompted a notice to Greenwich police, the suits say. The girl then agreed to make a formal complaint to police in August 2016, and she was interviewed by a detective. But no arrests were made after the police investigation. The Stamford states attorney determined that the evidence presented by Greenwich police was inconsistent and there was no probable cause for an arrest, according to court filings. The family contends police conducted a sub-standard investigation and allowed the Brunswick headmaster to interview witnesses before officers did, enabling the school to shape a narrative that there was no probable cause for criminal charges. Meredith Braxton, the Greenwich lawyer who filed state and federal civil rights lawsuits in August 2018 told Greenwich Time, this looks like a systematic problem where the Greenwich Police Department sits back and allows an elite school to take the lead in the investigation of a sexual crime and thats not appropriate. I would like to see an independent investigation into how the Police Department handles sexual assault investigations. Discovery is also taking place in the federal suit. The girl, who later graduated from Greenwich Academy, suffered from emotional distress, the lawsuit says. rmarchant@greenwichtime.com Fawaz Wani By Express News Service SRINAGAR: As the twice-a-week bar on civilian traffic on the 270-km long Srinagar-Jammu highway came into effect on Sunday, PDP president and former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti asked people to defy the ban and claimed, Through these measures, Delhi wants to suppress people in the state. The decision was taken for the safe passage of military convoys in the aftermath of the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama in which at least 40 CRPF jawans were killed and the recent failed car bombing on a CRPF bus at Banihal, but it caused inconvenience to people as they were confined to their homes due to the restrictions. I had to visit my ailing relative in Anantnag. As I moved out from my residence at Nowgam and plied on the highway, I was stopped by the security men at Lasjan. They did not let me move ahead saying only those having medical emergencies can be allowed to travel today, Zahoor Ahmad, a private school teacher, said. The entire stretch from Baramulla up to Udhampur wore a deserted look with only security personnel and security vehicles seen on the otherwise busy highway, which is the only road link connecting the Valley with the rest of the country. The leaders of the NC, PDP and Jammu-based National Panthers Party (NPP) staged a protest against the travel ban on the highway. NC president and former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, who led the protest, said, It is a wrong order and the law of dictatorship. The troops should use trains or ply during night. By Express News Service Caste factor will play an important role in deciding the fate of the contestants in Narasaraopet Lok Sabha seat, where a triangular contest is being expected. Kamma community is the dominant one in Narasaraopet followed by Reddy community. Keeping it in view, TDP has fielded veteran parliamentarian Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, while YSRC gave the party ticket to newbie Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, both from the same caste - Kamma. BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana who is contesting on behalf of the saffron party, belongs to Kapu community. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE A look at electioneering in the Lok Sabha constituency, revealed that the YSRC candidate is a step ahead of other contestants. Krishna Devarayalu along with his entire family has been campaigning day and night and all the YSRC candidates from the seven Assembly segments are showing a united front. However, the same could not be said of TDP candidate Rayapati, who is not campaigning like before owing to health factor. His family members are campaigning on behalf of him. Interestingly, there has been a lack of support from some TDP Assembly candidates in the Lok Sabha constituency to Rayapati. BJP candidate Lakshminarayana is reported to have been involved in the election campaigning the least and people have started wondering if he has given up the contest already. Narasaraopet has unique place among the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the State as three candidates, who represented the LS constituency, became Chief Ministers of AP. NEW YORK - Wrestler Bret "The Hitman" Hart was tackled by a spectator Saturday while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 6/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. NEW YORK - Wrestler Bret "The Hitman" Hart was tackled by a spectator Saturday while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The attacker was promptly subdued by several people, including other wrestlers, who came to Hart's defence. Hart, 61, is OK. FILE - In this March 28, 2010, file photo, Bret "Hit Man" Hart celebrates his victory over Mr. McMahon at WrestleMania XXVI in Glendale, Ariz. Hart was tackled by a spectator Saturday, April 6, 2019, while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Barclays Center. The attacker was promptly subdued by several people, including other wrestlers, who came to HartAos defense. Hart is okay. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File) The person ran toward the ring from the crowd, spectator Alan Fisher told The Associated Press. "I couldn't believe that the security had missed him in the first place and the next thing you know there was Shane McMahon and Travis Brown on top of him the crowd was going crazy booing," Fisher said. "Everyone was cheering when one of the wrestlers punched him." Several shocked onlookers posted footage of the tackle online. The induction event resumed, with Hart continuing his speech, after the fan was taken into custody. "He should have never attacked Bret Hart especially at such a special moment in his life," Fisher said. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. New York City Police arrested 26-year-old Zachary Madsen, of Lincoln, Nebraska. He faces assault and criminal trespass charges. An email to the district attorney seeking someone who could comment on Madsen's behalf wasn't immediately answered. FILE - In this March 28, 2010, file photo, Bret "Hit Man" Hart celebrates his victory over Mr. McMahon at WrestleMania XXVI in Glendale, Ariz. Hart was tackled by a spectator Saturday, April 6, 2019, while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Barclays Center. The attacker was promptly subdued by several people, including other wrestlers, who came to Hart's defense. Hart is okay. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File) The Omaha World-Herald, citing court records, reported that Madsen had a previous run-in with a fighter in Lincoln. Madsen is awaiting trial for violating a protection order obtained by mixed martial arts fighter Haris Talundzic, the newspaper reported. Talundzic, 21, told a Lancaster County judge that Madsen had been stalking him and was trying to provoke a fight. The two had trained together at a Lincoln gym, but Talundzic left over concerns about Madsen's mental stability, according to the protection order. Talundzic's manager, Nick Goodwin, confirmed the two were former friends and training partners. He said he hopes Madsen "gets help before he hurts himself or anyone else any further." "His harassment of Haris, publicly and online, seems to have been the beginning of an extremely self-destructive spiral," Goodwin said in a statement. "His threats toward Haris, along with Haris' friends and family, were aggressive and violent in nature." MONTREAL - Thousands of Montrealers chanted for solidarity and loudly denounced Premier Francois Legault on Sunday as they took to the streets to oppose the Quebec government's proposed secularism bill. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. People hold up signs during a demonstration in Montreal, Sunday, April 7, 2019, in opposition to the Quebec government's newly tabled Bill 21. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes MONTREAL - Thousands of Montrealers chanted for solidarity and loudly denounced Premier Francois Legault on Sunday as they took to the streets to oppose the Quebec government's proposed secularism bill. The crowd chanted slogans such as "Quebec, it's our home!" as they marched against the legislation that would ban the wearing of religious symbols on the job for public sector employees deemed to be in positions of authority, including teachers, judges and police officers. The protesters included Aymen Derbali, who was seriously injured in the January 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting where six Muslim men were killed. Derbali, who attended with fellow survivor Said El-Amari, told the crowd that rather than working to reduce stigma and Islamophobia, the government is tabling discriminatory legislation that unfairly targets Muslim women. "Instead of weighing in on societal problems, (the Legault government) wants to adopt a law that oppresses the rights of women to wear their hijabs and to work," said Derbali, who was partly paralyzed in the shooting and now uses a wheelchair. Taran Singh, a member of Montreal's Sikh community, said the government should focus on issues such as the school dropout rate and hospital emergency room wait times rather than pitting Quebecers against each other. "What the political parties in Quebec are doing is dividing us," Singh said. "Anglophones against francophones, federalists against sovereigntists, laypersons against religious immigrants. "This mentality of us versus us doesn't serve anyone." Selsabil Hamiham, a 21-year-old student, said the proposed bill attacks her identity. "I don't believe Francois Legault has the power to tell me how to dress, how to be," she said. Wearing a hijab was her own choice, she added. "Since nobody forced me to wear it, nobody can make me take it off," she said. Sunday's event was the largest of a series of protests that have been held to denounce the legislation, known as Bill 21. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The crowd included representatives from many of Montreal's cultural groups, including the Muslim, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese communities. The event was organized by Adil Charkaoui, a controversial Islamic educator who was once accused by Ottawa of having terrorist ties. Charkaoui was arrested under Canada's security certificate system in 2003, but he was never charged. On Sunday, he called on Quebecers to reject the bill, which he said aims to tell Muslim women how to dress and where to work. The Quebec government argues the bill is reasonable and in line with the values of Quebecers, and last week Legault said it doesn't violate religious freedom. People who would be excluded from public sector jobs because of the law can find other work, he said. Legault also noted that his government included a grandfather clause that would exempt current employees from the restrictions as long as they remain in the same job. WASHINGTON - American Airlines is extending by over a month its cancellations of about 90 daily flights as the troubled 737 Max plane remains grounded by regulators. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In a March 13, 2019 file photo, an American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 sits at a boarding gate at LaGuardia Airport in New York. American Airlines said Sunday, April 7, 2019 it is extending by over a month its cancellations of about 90 daily flights as the troubled 737 Max plane remains grounded by regulators. The Boeing-made Max jets have been grounded in the U.S. and elsewhere since mid-March, following two deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File) WASHINGTON - American Airlines is extending by over a month its cancellations of about 90 daily flights as the troubled 737 Max plane remains grounded by regulators. American said Sunday it is extending the cancellations through June 5 from the earlier timeframe of April 24. The airline acknowledged in a statement that the prolonged cancellations could bring disruption for some travellers. The Boeing-made Max jets have been grounded in the U.S. and elsewhere since mid-March, following two deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia. Airlines that own them have been scrambling other planes to fill some Max flights while cancelling others. American Airlines Group Inc., the largest U.S. airline by revenue, has 24 Max jets in its fleet. The Dallas-based airline said it is awaiting information from U.S. regulators, and will contact customers affected by the cancellations with available re-bookings. Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said last week the company needs more time to finish changes in a flight-control system suspected of playing a role in the two crashes. That means airlines could be forced to park their Max jets longer than they expected. American said Sunday that by cancelling the flights in advance, "we are able to provide better service to our customers with availability and re-booking options," and to avoid last-minute flight disruptions. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. American's reservations staff will contact affected customers directly by email or phone, the airline said. "We know these cancellations and changes may affect some of our customers, and we are working to limit the impact to the smallest number of customers," the statement said. Boeing said Friday that it will cut production of the Max jet, its bestselling plane, underscoring the mounting financial risk it faces the longer the airliner remains grounded. Starting in mid-April, Boeing said, it will cut production of the plane to 42 from 52 planes per month so it can focus on fixing the flight-control software that has been implicated in the two crashes. Preliminary investigations into the deadly accidents in Ethiopia and Indonesia found that faulty sensor readings erroneously triggered an anti-stall system that pushed down the plane's nose. Pilots of each plane struggled in vain to regain control over the automated system. In all, 346 people died in the crashes. Boeing faces a growing number of lawsuits filed by families of the victims. The announcement to cut production came after Boeing acknowledged that a second software issue has emerged that needs fixing on the Max a discovery that explained why the aircraft maker had pushed back its ambitious schedule for getting the planes back in the air. The biggest tech companies want you to know that they're taking special care to ensure that their use of artificial intelligence to sift through mountains of data, analyze faces or build virtual assistants doesn't spill over to the dark side. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE- In this May 21, 2018, file photo Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, joined by Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James, speaks at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy think tank, in Washington. Google employees have had more success than other tech workers at demanding change at the company. Google dropped a contract with the Pentagon after employees pushed back on the ethical implications of using company technology to analyze drone video. But Google has not yet indicated if it will bow to employeesAo latest demand that Coles James be removed from the companyAos new AI council. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) The biggest tech companies want you to know that they're taking special care to ensure that their use of artificial intelligence to sift through mountains of data, analyze faces or build virtual assistants doesn't spill over to the dark side. But their efforts to assuage concerns that their machines may be used for nefarious ends have not been universally embraced. Some skeptics see it as mere window dressing by corporations more interested in profit than what's in society's best interests. "Ethical AI" has become a new corporate buzz phrase, slapped on internal review committees, fancy job titles, research projects and philanthropic initiatives. The moves are meant to address concerns over racial and gender bias emerging in facial recognition and other AI systems, as well as address anxieties about job losses to the technology and its use by law enforcement and the military. But how much substance lies behind the increasingly public ethics campaigns? And who gets to decide which technological pursuits do no harm? Google was hit with both questions when it formed a new board of outside advisers in late March to help guide how it uses AI in products. But instead of winning over potential critics, it sparked internal rancour. A little more than a week later, Google bowed to pressure from the backlash and dissolved the council. The outside board fell apart in stages. One of the board's eight inaugural members quit within days and another quickly became the target of protests from Google employees who said her conservative views don't align with the company's professed values. As thousands of employees called for the removal of Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James, Google disbanded the board last week. "It's become clear that in the current environment, (the council) can't function as we wanted," the company said in a statement. That environment is one of increasing concern that the corporate AI ethics campaigns lack teeth. "I think (Google's decision) reflects a broader public understanding that ethics involves more than just creating an ethics board without an institutional framework to provide for accountability," AI researcher Ben Wagner said. Google's original initiative fell into a tech industry trend that Wagner calls "ethics-washing," which he describes as a superficial effort that's mostly a show for the public or lawmakers. "It's basically an attempt to pretend like you're doing ethical things and using ethics as a tool to reach an end, like avoiding regulation," said Wagner, an assistant professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. "It's a new form of self-regulation without calling it that by name." Big companies have made an increasingly visible effort to discuss their AI efforts in recent years. Microsoft, which often tries to position itself as an industry leader on ethics and privacy issues, published its principles around developing AI, released a short book that discussed the societal implications of the technology and has called for some government regulation of AI technologies. The company's president even met with Pope Francis earlier this year to discuss industry ethics. Amazon recently announced it is helping fund federal research into "algorithmic fairness," and Salesforce employs an "architect" for ethical AI practice, as well as a "chief ethical and human use" officer. It's hard to find a brand-name tech firm without similar initiatives. It's a good thing that companies are studying the issue and seeking perspectives on industry ethics, said Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a research organization. But ultimately, he said, a company's CEO is tasked with deciding what suggestions on AI ethics to incorporate in business decisions. "I think overall it's a positive step rather than a fig leaf," he said. "That said, the proof is in successful implementation. I think the jury is still out on that." The impact artificial intelligence can have on society has never been more clear, Etzioni said, and companies are reacting to studies about the power of recommendation algorithms and gender bias in AI. But as Google's attempt shows, discussing the issues in the public eye also invites public scrutiny. Google employees have had more success than other tech workers at demanding change at their company. The internet search behemoth dropped a contract with the Pentagon after employees pushed back on the ethical implications of using the company's AI technology to analyze drone video. And after more than 2,400 Google employees signed a petition calling for James to be taken off the board, Google scrapped the board altogether. Employees said James has made past comments that were anti-trans and anti-immigrant and should not be on an ethics panel. The Heritage Foundation did not respond to a request for comment. Google had also faced dissent from its chosen councilmembers. Alessandro Acquisti, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, announcing on Twitter he was declining the invitation. He wrote that he is devoted to grappling fairness and inclusion in AI but this was not the "the right forum for me to engage in this important work." He declined to comment further. One expert who had committed to staying on the council is Joanna Bryson, associate professor in computing at the University of Bath. A self-described liberal, she said before the dissolution that it makes sense to have political diversity on the panel, and she didn't agree with those who think it's just for show. "I just don't think Google is that stupid," Bryson said. "I don't think they're there just to have a poster on a wall." She said, however, that companies like Google and Microsoft do have a real concern about liability meaning they want to make sure they show themselves, and the public, that they've tried their best to build products the right way before releasing them. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "It's not just the right thing to do, it's the thing they need to do," she said. Bryson said she was hopeful Google actually wanted to brainstorm hard problems and should find another way to do so after the council dissolved. It's unclear what Google will do next. The company said its "going back to the drawing board" and would find other ways of getting outside opinions. Wagner said now would be the time for Google to set up ethics principles that include commitments they must stick to, external oversight and other checkpoints to hold them accountable. Even if companies keep setting up external boards to oversee AI responsibility, government regulation will still be needed, said Liz O'Sullivan, a tech worker who left AI company Clarifai over the company's work in the Pentagon's Project Maven the same project that Google dropped after its employees protested. O'Sullivan is wary of boards that can make suggestions that companies are under no legal obligation to stick to. "Every company of that size that states they're interested in having some sort of oversight that has no ability or authority to restrict or restrain company behaviour seems like they're doing it for the press of it all," she said. TORONTO - Some of Toronto's wealthiest residents now have easy access to cannabis with Sunday's opening of the city's second legal retail store. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. People wait in for the opening of the cannabis store Spiritleaf, in Kingston, Ont. on April 1, 2019. Some of Toronto's wealthiest residents now have easy access to cannabis with Sunday's opening of the city's second legal retail store. A couple dozen eager buyers stood in line in Yorkville to make the first purchases at Ameri, a small store in the shadows of high-rise condominium towers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg TORONTO - Some of Toronto's wealthiest residents now have easy access to cannabis with Sunday's opening of the city's second legal retail store. A couple dozen eager buyers stood in line in Yorkville to make the first purchases at Ameri, a small store in the shadows of high-rise condominium towers. "There's always the anxious people but I can assure everybody we're not going to run out of product," said Rob, Ameri's consultant who prepared the store's opening. The consultant declined to give his surname over concerns about crossing the U.S. border. He said a Sunday opening was selected because the store wanted to address any bugs in its operations, prepare staff and avoid the crush of buyers that The Hunny Pot Cannabis Co. experienced when it became Toronto's first cannabis retail outlet to open its doors April 1. Only 11 of the 25 stores that will receive licences to operate across the province are currently open. In addition to two in Toronto, there are three in Ottawa, two in Kingston and single locations in London, Burlington, St. Catharines and Brampton. Ontario's government has decided to limit the number of licences that will operate alongside online sales. As the day wore on, the lines at Ameri disappeared leaving a steady stream of people to mill about the store to examine buds through a magnifying glass or sniff the contents of sample jars. Rob said the first hours of operation saw a wide cross-section of customers from different age groups. Being located in a wealthy neighbourhood will make it more convenient for shoppers who may have been afraid in the past to be associated with the drug before it became legal across Canada in October. "Now that it's legal, hopefully they can come into our store and feel at ease buying the products and becoming educated as to what is out there and what we're carrying." The lack of lines was what attracted Michael, a customer who shunned The Hunny Pot, a large retail location on trendy Queen Street. "I live further downtown but I was in the area so I added it to my shopping trip," said the 39-year-old British national, who has been using cannabis for 20 years. Like Rob, Michael also declined to provide a surname over concerns about crossing the border. He spent $70 for a two-month supply of dried bud for weekend use. Prices range from $10 to $15 per gram depending on strain and supplier. That's more than online shopping but not a big downside, said Michael. "It's always been part of my life in Canada. It's easier here and more accessible here and more socially acceptable than back in London." Jennifer's employment at Ameri is a secret she's withholding from her mother back in the Dominican Republic because of the stigma that still exists there about selling drugs. The 35-year-old decided to sell cannabis because she believes in the healing power of pot. She was also enticed to become involved in an industry that will grow and present other employment opportunities. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "It's a really rapidly growing industry and is going to change the Canadian economy," she said in an interview outside the store. Jennifer is one of about 20 employees who have been trained to work at the store that is open seven days a week. While identification is required to prove the buyer's age, personal details aren't stored beyond the required 90 days, said Rob. He said privacy is an issue raised by customers, including an American citizen who got "all grumpy" because his identification was scanned when he made a purchase. Rob sees the novelty of cannabis shops subsiding as other retail outlets open across Ontario. "I see the next wave of interest is when you end up with a Tim Hortons for cannabis and they're popping up on every street corner. Will that happen? I don't know but I think that will be the next wave of interest." MONTREAL - Quebecers living near the Canada-United States border, where thousands of migrants have crossed irregularly into the country since 2017, will receive more than $400,000 to compensate them for increased traffic and noise. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A family from Haiti approach a tent in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, stationed by Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as they haul their luggage down Roxham Road in Champlain, N.Y., on August 7, 2017. Quebecers living near the Canada-United States border, where thousands of migrants have crossed irregularly into the country since 2017, will receive more than $400,000 to compensate them for increased traffic and noise. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Charles Krupa MONTREAL - Quebecers living near the Canada-United States border, where thousands of migrants have crossed irregularly into the country since 2017, will receive more than $400,000 to compensate them for increased traffic and noise. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. No such compensation arrangement has been made for residents of Emerson, Man., who have also dealt with issues related to irregular border crossers. An order paper tabled by the federal government last month projects 45 households near Roxham Road will divide $405,000, with individual compensation based on each home's proximity to the border. The document says eight homes will receive the maximum compensation of $25,000, 15 will receive $10,000, and 22 households in the outermost zone will receive $2,500. The government has budgeted up to $485,000 for the payments, which includes a contingency fund in case more households are deemed eligible. Roughly 96 per cent of all migrants who have crossed illegally into Canada since 2017 have done so at Roxham Road, about 50 kilometres south of Montreal. A spokesperson for Border Security Minister Bill Blair says households along the once-quiet country road have had to contend with increased traffic, noise and the construction of temporary border security infrastructure since the migrants began arriving. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advance Electronics founder and philanthropist Arnold Frieman has died. Arnold Frieman, a Holocaust survivor along with 34 others took part in the reading of the names and origins of the victims of the Holocaust which have been transcribed from the Holocaust Monument on the Legislative grounds at the B'nai Brith Canada's Annual Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration on May 2 2011. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press files) Notice of his death was posted on the electronic billboard outside the Advance store on Portage Avenue on the weekend. "Founder and past president, mentor and friend," it says next to an image of Frieman, who was a Holocaust survivor and former pilot in the Israeli Air Force during the War of Independence. He arrived in Winnipeg more than 60 years ago to start a new life with barely a dime to his name. He opened Advance in 1962. Today it is the largest independently owned retail electronics store in Western Canada. Many of his family members were killed in the Holocaust, according to a biography by the University of Manitoba last year when it bestowed Frieman with an honorary doctor of laws degree. Arnold Frieman speaks at the University of Manitobas 139th annual convocation ceremony on June 8, 2018, where he was given an honorary degree. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press files) Frieman was born in Satoraljaujhely, Hungary, in 1928, one of six children in an Orthodox Jewish family. The town didn't have a Jewish secondary school so Frieman was sent to live with relatives and attend school in Budapest. He was in Budapest at age 16 when he heard that Jews outside the Hungarian capital were being rounded up and deported. He headed home hoping to save his family, only to find them all gone. His parents, two brothers, three sisters and maternal grandfather had been shipped to the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Two of his sisters survived. Frieman spent several months in a forced-labour camp "before making a miraculous escape," the U of M biography says. He was living in a displaced persons' camp in northern Germany after the Second World War when he was selected by a Norwegian commission and taken to Oslo where he studied electronics. He would use his skill in electronics serving as an air force volunteer in the Israeli War of Independence. BORIS MINKEVICH The Jewish National Fund of Canada presented the NEGEV gala honouring Arnold Frieman in 2012. (Boris Minkevich / Winnipeg Free Press files) He moved to Canada from Norway in 1951 at age 23. He was supposed to head to an arranged job in Ontario but the allure of the Wild West he'd read about as a child caused him to make a quick change of plans and try Winnipeg instead. The Winnipeg Jewish Agency helped him settle and make friends, including Minnie Heft, who encouraged him to go to university and even gave him a $1,000 gift for support. He devised a unique way to support his studies, according to the local Jewish Post & News. "He drove to American wrecking yards to buy car radios, fixed them up and sold them across Western Canada out of the trunk of his car." He met his future wife, Myra Thompson, in January 1960, the year he graduated, and they married that same year. Their daughter Nona was born the following year and daughter Gina 17 months after that. Frieman was unhappily employed following graduation and Myra encouraged him to start a business. So they bought a small television repair shop. Within a dozen years, it went from a two-person shop to a business with 170 employees. A sign outside the Portage Avenue Advance electronics store displays a memorial to founder Arnold Frieman. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press) Arnold and Myra supported many civic, provincial, national and international organizations and institutions, including in Israel. He has donated to an array of organizations, from arts groups such as the Winnipeg Symphony Organization and Manitoba Opera, to grassroots causes. He helped make possible the premiere of I Believe, a Holocaust Oratorio for Today. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "(Frieman) was well respected in both the Jewish and general community," said Elaine Goldstine, Jewish Federation of Winnipeg executive director. Goldstine said Frieman would go on to become "a philanthropist and visionary." "He had a love for Israel. Most of all a family man. He will be missed," she said. His many contributions to his alma mater included support for the U of M-University of Szeged Partnership, which funds exchanges between scholars in Hungary and Manitoba. Frieman has been recognized with numerous honours. In 2006, he was inducted into the Order of Manitoba. bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca The Red River in Fargo was expected to crest Sunday at 35 feet and remain that high in the North Dakota city until about Tuesday before dropping. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The Red River in Fargo was expected to crest Sunday at 35 feet and remain that high in the North Dakota city until about Tuesday before dropping. Cass County officials warned residents of rural homes and farmsteads that forecasting models predicted areas near the Red, Sheyenne and Maple rivers were expected to see significant overland flooding. The Sheyenne is a tributary of the Red, and the Maple flows into the Sheyenne. As of 6 p.m. Saturday, the Red River in Fargo was at 33.64 feet, the Fargo Forum reported. Flood warnings were issued in Cass County in recent days after the rivers started rising. Some streams are expected to crest in the coming days, if they hadnt already. Most will stay above the moderate and major flood stage for days, testing ring dikes, levees and sandbags. On top of that, snow from several winter blizzards has melted, further compounding flood problems. Fields are flooded northwest of West Fargo, west of Gardner and near Harwood, and some township and county roads have disappeared under the water. On Saturday at a farm northeast of Harwood, about 15 kilometres north of Fargo, an all-terrain vehicle dubbed "the Sherp," was driven around by Sgt. Ben White. Once it got in the water, it floated smoothly. "We got it about two weeks ago," White said, noting the sheriffs office in Williston, N.D., had used it in its flood-fighting efforts. The mini tank is one of the many tools Cass County officials are using to help residents fight overland flooding around the clock. Cass County sheriff's deputy Bruce Renshaw, right, drives an airboat Saturday near a farm northeast of Harwood, N.D., as Mercer County sheriff's deputy Brandon Doll rides along. April Baumgarten / Fargo Forum "As the Sheyenne River continues to rise, its going to continue to spill out into different areas and cause overland flooding," County Engineer Jason Benson said. "In the next 24 hours, I think we will see a lot more rural residents become isolated" as township roads and driveways are overtopped. The county has spent the last several days delivering sandbags to residents. At times, staff delivered the bags in the middle of the night after emergency requests came in from Gardner and Harwood residents, county administrator Robert Wilson said. The county, which includes Fargo, urged residents to be vigilant and monitor changing conditions. "Residents who suspect they may need sandbags are urged to be proactive and contact the Cass County flood hotline," a news release said. The Cass County Sheriffs Office has divided the county into districts and has sent deputies out to each one, Sheriff Jesse Jahner said. Officers patrol the areas and visit with residents to see if they have any questions regarding flood safety. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The sheriffs office has switched to 12-hour shifts and has a tactical operations centre that is staffed 24/7 with personnel from various agencies, including the Cass County Highway Department and the North Dakota Army National Guard. Residents who call in for assistance can be quickly connected for sandbags, emergency services and other flood-related information, he said. Cass County has two airboats, but it asked Mercer County to bring two of its airboats to Fargo in case the sheriff's office needs to respond to more than one incident at a time, Jahner said. Jahner said he hadnt heard of any flood-related injuries or evacuations. Residents, overall, have prepared this year, Benson said. "A lot of people are aware of whats coming," Benson said. Fargo is 360 kilometres south of Winnipeg. Fargo Forum By Express News Service SRIKAKULAM: Seizure of more than Rs 5 crore on Friday in Rajam police station limits in the district was the highest confiscation of unaccounted cash by any team in a single check in the State and probably the country during elections. After the model code of conduct came into force on March 10, the police and static surveillance teams (SSTs) have seized Rs 2.23 crore unaccounted cash from several people, including people of Odisha, in the district till today. This has taken the total seizure to a whopping Rs 7 crore. The alerted district police have intensified checks in a bid to arrest the illegal transportation of cash, liquor and the like in the district. With the polling date four days away, the police, led by Superintendent of Police (SP) Navdeep Singh Grewal, have stepped up checks at all check-posts, especially those along Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB). The police seized Rs 7.07 lakh at various check-posts in the district on Friday. A sum of Rs 2.38 lakh was seized along the AOB at Ichchapuam, Rs 2 lakh at Kanchili, Rs 1.5 lakh at Regulapadu of Veeraghattam village, Rs 51,500 at Venkatapuram checkpost in Laveru mandal and Rs 68,000 at Kotta Agraharam village in Santabommali mandal. About Rs 28 lakh unaccounted cash was seized from various people under Ichchapuram police station limits after March 10, Ichchapuram Circle Inspector K Pydipunaidu said. Speaking to TNIE, the SP said, Besides flying squads, we have set up about 30 SST checkposts in the district, three in each Assembly segment. Similarly, we have also deployed mobile police teams to check inflow of cash. Shortly after Winnipegger Mary-Anne Derrick pulled out her knitting needles on a recent solo train trip to Edmonton, she stitched together an impromptu knitting club with people from three countries. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Shortly after Winnipegger Mary-Anne Derrick pulled out her knitting needles on a recent solo train trip to Edmonton, she stitched together an impromptu knitting club with people from three countries. "They just saw me knitting and they came over because its a universal skill," the River Heights resident says of the two knitters from Alabama and one each from New Zealand and Halifax who knit with her for two hours on the train. A knitter for more than four decades, Derrick learned to knit and purl from a patient saleswoman at the former Eatons Department Store in Edmonton. The saleswoman sat beside her for three hours showing her the basics, and Derrick left with the skills and supplies to knit a bulky sweater. Known for its meditative qualities and shown to reduce stress, the solitary craft of knitting quickly becomes social as people mostly women gather to exchange tips, offer opinions, and spin a few yarns. "Theres something about having the company of others who make things," explains longtime knitter and yarn dyer Daria Rakowski, at a recent Sunday afternoon meeting of Norwood Naughty Knitters. Norwood Naughty Knitters isnt just about knitting; its about creating a community and supporting each other. "We value and understand the investment of time and the emotional investment." Meeting for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoons in the brightly decorated nursery room of the Norwood Community Centre, the 12-year-old knitting group grew out the of common love of knitting of neighbours Shelley Kent and Grace Garneau. Convinced there were others who might share their creative passion for yarn, they moved their meetings from Kents Norwood backyard to the community centre. Now the group has 111 members on its Facebook page, and attracts a dozen or so knitters each Sunday. They share tips, admire each others projects or just chat. Members pay a $20 annual fee. Sitting on stacking chairs in a circle in one corner of the daycare space equipped with toys and child-sized furnishings, the room buzzes with conversation as the knitters admire yarn choices and latest finishes. This group has earned its name, with laughter bubbling up frequently and members straining to hear each other in the lively discussions during the two-hour meeting. "Its quite the noisy group, but were all dear friends," says Derrick, 64, a member for the last two-and-a-half years. It may be loud, but thats usually because one knitter is showing another how to master a technique or decipher a pattern while others chime in, explains Robyn Carriere while working on a reversible tuque in fuchsia and plum. Vera Bobko knits with yak wool. Bobko adds some international flavour to the knitting group, having immigrated to Canada from Russia "If you have difficulty, someone will help you," says Carriere, an experienced sock knitter who recently completed her first sweater with the encouragement of the group. "We all have the same love." "We didnt know each other (before) and without this craft, we probably wouldnt have intersected," adds Rakowski, 43, a data analyst for Measurement Canada. Knitters regularly check in on social media, follow YouTube instructional videos or connect through forums on the knitting website Ravelry.com. Theres still value, however, in getting together with other knitters who can share their expertise right beside you when you have a problem, explains Rakowski, who travels to international knitting events to meet up with online friends. "Thats the good part. Robyn dropped a stitch on her hat, so she walked over to Shelley, but Shelley didnt have her glasses, so Tonya helped her," she says of how it takes a village of knitters to solve some problems. Recently, the village of Norwood knitters expanded to Russia via Transcona when Vera Bobko joined the group in January. The 29-year-old picked up knitting techniques from YouTube videos after moving to Winnipeg nearly three years ago so her husband could study engineering at the University of Manitoba. She originally attended another knitting group that met on weeknights, but found Sunday afternoon suited her schedule better. Mylaine Lefteruk starts working on a pair of socks. "Its like an international language, knitting," says Bobko, who imports fine yarns from Europe to sell in her online shop. "Its technique and you always have something to discuss. We have a common ground in knitting." That discussion recently took a more sobering turn after the death last November of co-founder Grace Garneau, who kept knitting through her cancer treatments, recalls Kent, 60. "The funny thing about Grace was, the whole time she had cancer, she was knitting shawls for people in palliative care," Kent says of her former neighbour. Garneaus death was the second for the knitting group, who lost a member five years ago in a traffic accident. Now as Kent attempts to pick up the stitches of her life without her friend of 35 years, she finds solace in sitting with other knitters and completing Garneaus unfinished projects. Shelley Kent, centre, and other members of Norwood Naughty Knitters during one of their weekly meetings at Norwood Community Centre. "Being able to share that sadness makes it easier to bear," explains the usually exuberant Kent in a quiet tone. "Its that connection with this group that makes the grief easier." Kent shared Garneaus large collection of patterns with the group and dispersed some of her yarn to others for charity projects. Kent and others in the group often get asked to accept what theyve dubbed "dead-lady yarn" when a family member of a deceased knitter looks to unload a stash of knitting supplies. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Casting on stitches helps cast off the sadness of a loss, as well as keeping hands busy and productive, explains Derrick, who found solace in her knitting needles after the death of her 32-year-old son by suicide five years ago. "Knitting took me into a place of grief," she explains, seated on a couch in a quieter corner of the room. "I could knit and pray and then I had something (to show) afterwards." Although knitters love showing off their finished projects, the benefits of the Norwood Naughty Knitters can be also be measured in other ways than just progress on a pair of socks or a delicate shawl. Rakowski says sitting together with needles and yarn creates a strong social fabric, as well as more than practical objects to keep warm. "Knitting in community creates your community, it creates your support network," she says. brenda@suderman.com Brenda Suderman Faith reporter Brenda Suderman has been a columnist in the Saturday paper since 2000, first writing about family entertainment, and about faith and religion since 2006. Read full biography KIGALI, Rwanda - Gov. Gen. Julie Payette laid a wreath at a memorial in Rwanda's capital on Sunday to mark 25 years since the start of a genocide that left an estimated 800,000 people dead. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/4/2019 (982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Governor General of Canada Julie Payette, center, arrives to lay a wreath at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 7, 2019. Rwanda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) KIGALI, Rwanda - Gov. Gen. Julie Payette laid a wreath at a memorial in Rwanda's capital on Sunday to mark 25 years since the start of a genocide that left an estimated 800,000 people dead. Payette, who is leading a Canadian delegation on a four-day visit to the east African country, visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial that is the final resting place of roughly 250,000 victims of the genocide. She told The Canadian Press in a phone interview that the ceremony served a dual purpose: to pay tribute to the victims, while bringing in a "sense of renewal" to what she described as an energetic, vibrant country. "Twenty-five years is a good time to start thinking about the future," she said, noting that an estimated two-thirds of the country's population is under the age of 30. "Many of them weren't born during the genocide, so there is an absolute necessity to not forget ... but also to move forward. And they seem to be doing that, which is amazing." Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the start of the ethnic slaughter that mainly targeted members of the Rwanda's Tutsi minority. The mass killing was ignited on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like the majority of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu. The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane, and bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering the Tutsi, with support from the army, police, and militias. Canada had a peacekeeping force in Rwanda during the mass bloodshed. Ethnic reconciliation has been a cornerstone of the rule of Paul Kagame, Rwanda's de facto leader since the genocide ended in July 1994 and the country's president since 2000. Payette said the Canadian delegation was particularly touched by the unity on display during Sunday's commemoration. "They've decided not to retaliate. They've decided to work together and to reunite, reconcile and forgive. And I tell you, not every society can do that, and that's a model," she said. In a statement earlier in the day on Twitter, Payette offered Canada's sympathies to Rwandans as well as peacekeepers from Canada and elsewhere who she said "lost so much" in the massacre. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also released a statement marking the solemn anniversary of what he called "one of the darkest chapters in recent history." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. He said the genocide showed the "unconscionable cost of division and hatred," and urged Canadians to take time out of their days to remember the victims. "We can honour them by fighting hate, protecting the most vulnerable, and working to make our world a better one," Trudeau said. In Montreal on Saturday evening, several hundred people attended a ceremony at a library in memory of the victims of the genocide, the city said. Another ceremony on Sunday was to take place in the city's Old Port area, to be followed by a march and wreath-laying in solidarity with the victims and their loved ones. About 5,000 Rwandans live in Quebec, 3,000 of them in Montreal, the city said in a news release. with files from Adam Burns in Toronto, Morgan Lowrie in Montreal and The Associated Press Local musicians selected for honor band The following Winterset High School musicians were selected from over 350 applications for the Drake University Honor Band. They rehearsed with other students from across Iowa and performed a great concert on Saturday evening at... Listen and learn with Coffee and Conversation Iowa Learning Farms (ILF), the Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and Outreach conservation and water quality education program, will host Coffee and Conservation, Wednesday, Dec. 15, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the Warren Cultural Center in... Around Town Blood drive Generous community members who give blood with LifeServe Blood Center are directly impacting their neighbors in local hospitals, as LifeServe is the sole provider of blood to the medical centers in this... WHS students perform during annual festival The Winterset High School instrumentalists and vocalists pictured were among more than a thousand of the top music students chosen to perform at the 75th Annual All State Music Festival. Music students from all across... Angelina Jolie is "nothing but proud" of her oldest son Maddox, who is starting college this year. The 43-year-old actress is preparing to send her 17-year-old son Maddox - whom she has with ex-husband Brad Pitt, with whom she also has Pax, 15, Zahara, 14, Shiloh, 12 and twins Vivienne and Knox, 10 - to higher education later this year, and has said she couldn't be happier with everything he's achieved in his life so far. Speaking to People magazine, she said: "I'm nothing but proud. I look forward to all he will do." The 'Maleficent' star didn't specify which college Maddox is enrolling in, however he was seen visiting campuses in Seoul, South Korea with his mother last November, whilst she was in the country on an official visit as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) Special Envoy. Meanwhile, Angelina previously admitted she doesn't want her children to be "perfectly behaved", because she finds their "rebellious streak" to be "wonderful". She said: "It's funny - children can do two things. They can make you grow up, and you do, and they also add a sense of wild themselves. "They all have a good rebellious streak that is wonderful and curious. And I don't want them to be perfectly behaved little people that just say what's absolutely appropriate because I say so - they have to find themselves." The 'Tomb Raider' actress also does her best to "insert good stuff" into her children's lives, but said she knows she can't "control everything" they might see on the Internet. Although the children don't have social media accounts, Angelina often discusses the dangers of the online platforms with her brood, as she said they've already seen "inaccurate" things about themselves online. She said: "Like most parents, we try our best to insert good stuff, and we can't control everything that they're exposed to. "Here's the truth - is that my children have seen things about themselves, even from what's considered serious news people, that are inaccurate. So my children have a very odd sense of who's telling the truth and what the truth really is and what they actually believe or trust." The following companies are subsidiares of AON: 6824625 Canada Ltd., 7193599 Canada Inc., A.B. 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ULC, Aon Canada Inc., Aon Canada Intermediaries GP, Aon Captive Services Antilles N.V., Aon Captive Services Aruba N.V., Aon Cash Management B.V., Aon Central and Eastern Europe a.s., Aon Centre for Innovation and Analytics Ltd, Aon Charitable Foundation Pty Ltd, Aon Chile Holdings LLC, Aon Commercial Insurance Agencies Hong Kong Limited, Aon Commercial Services Ireland Limited, Aon Commercial Services and Operations Ireland Limited, Aon Consolidation Group Pty Ltd, Aon Consulting & Insurance Services, Aon Consulting (Chile) Limitada, Aon Consulting (Thailand) Limited, Aon Consulting Bolivia S.R.L., Aon Consulting Ecuador S.A., Aon Consulting Financial Services Limited, Aon Consulting Inc., Aon Consulting Kazakhstan LLP, Aon Consulting Limited, Aon Consulting Private Limited, Aon Consulting Romania SRL, Aon Corporate Services (Isle of Man) Limited, Aon Corporate Services Limited, Aon Corporation, Aon Corporation Australia Limited, Aon Corporation EMEA B.V., Aon Credit International Insurance Broker GmbH, Aon Cyprus Insurance Broker Company Limited, Aon DC Trustee Limited, Aon Danismanlik Hizmetleri AS, Aon Delta Bermuda Ltd., Aon Delta UK Limited, Aon Denmark A/S, Aon Deutschland Beteiligungs GmbH, Aon Direct Group Inc., Aon Edge Insurance Agency Inc., Aon Energy Caribbean Limited, Aon Enterprise Insurance Agencies Hong Kong Limited, Aon Finance Bermuda 1 Ltd., Aon Finance Bermuda 2 Ltd., Aon Finance Canada 1 Corp., Aon Finance Canada 2 Corp., Aon Finance International N.S. ULC, Aon Finance Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Aon Finance N.S. 1 ULC, Aon Finance N.S. 5 ULC, Aon Finance N.S. 8 ULC, Aon Finance US 1 LLC, Aon Finance US 2 LLC, Aon Financial & Insurance Solutions Inc., Aon Finland Oy, Aon France, Aon Global Holdings 1 Limited, Aon Global Holdings 2 Limited, Aon Global Holdings 3 Limited [In strike-off], Aon Global Holdings Limited, Aon Global Operations plc, Aon Global Risk Consulting B.V., Aon Global Risk Consulting Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Aon Global Risk Research Limited, Aon Grana Peru Corredores de Seguros SA, Aon Greece S.A., Aon Groep Nederland B.V., Aon Group (Bermuda) Ltd., Aon Group (Thailand) Limited, Aon Group Holdings International 1 B.V., Aon Group Holdings International 2 B.V., Aon Group Inc., Aon Group International N.V., Aon Group Pty Ltd, Aon Group Venezuela Corretaje de Reaseguros C.A., Aon Hewitt (Bermuda) Ltd., Aon Hewitt (Ireland) Limited, Aon Hewitt (PNG) Ltd., Aon Hewitt (Thailand) Ltd., Aon Hewitt Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Aon Hewitt Consulting Korea Inc., Aon Hewitt Financial Advice Limited, Aon Hewitt GmbH, Aon Hewitt Health Market Insurance Solutions Inc., Aon Hewitt Hong Kong Limited, Aon Hewitt Inc., Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting Inc., Aon Hewitt Investment Management Inc., Aon Hewitt Japan Ltd., Aon Hewitt Limited, Aon Hewitt Ltd., Aon Hewitt Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Aon Hewitt Management Company Limited, Aon Hewitt Middle East Limited, Aon Hewitt Risk & Consulting S.r.l., Aon Hewitt Risk & Financial Management B.V., Aon Hewitt Trust Solutions GmbH, Aon Hewitt US Holdings Limited, Aon Holding Deutschland GmbH, Aon Holdings (Isle of Man) Limited, Aon Holdings Antillen N.V., Aon Holdings Australia Pty Limited, Aon Holdings Austria GmbH, Aon Holdings B.V., Aon Holdings Botswana (Pty) Ltd, Aon Holdings Corretores de Seguros Ltda., Aon Holdings France SNC, Aon Holdings Hong Kong Limited, Aon Holdings International B.V., Aon Holdings Israel Ltd., Aon Holdings Japan Ltd, Aon Holdings Limited, Aon Holdings Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Aon Holdings Mid Europe B.V., Aon Holdings New Zealand, Aon Hong Kong Limited, Aon Hungary Insurance Brokers Risk and Human Consulting LLC, Aon Insurance Agencies (HK) Limited, Aon Insurance Agencies (Macau) Limited, Aon Insurance Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Aon Insurance Brokers (Pvt) Ltd., Aon Insurance Management Agencies (HK) Limited, Aon Insurance Managers (Antilles) N.V., Aon Insurance Managers (Barbados) Ltd., Aon Insurance Managers (Bermuda) Ltd, Aon Insurance Managers (Cayman) Ltd., Aon Insurance Managers (Dublin) Ltd., Aon Insurance Managers (Guernsey) Ltd., Aon Insurance Managers (Holdings) Ltd., Aon Insurance Managers (Isle of Man) Ltd., Aon Insurance Managers (Liechtenstein) AG, Aon Insurance Managers (Luxembourg) S.A., Aon Insurance Managers (Malta) PCC Limited, Aon Insurance Managers (Puerto Rico) Inc., Aon Insurance Managers (Shannon) Limited, Aon Insurance Managers (USA) Inc., Aon Insurance Managers (USVI) Inc., Aon Insurance Managers Gibraltar Ltd., Aon Insurance Micronesia (Guam) Inc, Aon Insurance Underwriting Agencies Hong Kong Limited, Aon Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Philippines Inc., Aon International Cooperatief U.A., Aon International Energy Inc., Aon International Holdings Inc., Aon Investment Holdings Ireland Limited, Aon Israel Insurance Brokerage Ltd., Aon Italia S.r.l., Aon Japan Ltd, Aon Jauch & Hubener Gesellschaft m.b.H., Aon Korea Inc., Aon Latam Holdings N.V., Aon Lead QI B.V., Aon Life Agency of Texas Inc., Aon Life Agente de Seguros S.A. de C.V., Aon Life Insurance Company, Aon MacDonagh Boland Group Ltd, Aon Majan LLC, Aon Management Consulting Taiwan Ltd., Aon Mauritius Holdings, Aon Meeus Assurantien B.V., Aon Mexico Business Support SA de CV, Aon Mexico Holdings LLC, Aon Mexico Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., Aon Middle East Co LLC, Aon Nederland C.V., Aon Netherlands Operations B.V., Aon Neudorf Finance S.a.r.l., Aon New Zealand, Aon New Zealand Group ULC, Aon Norway AS, Aon Overseas Holdings Limited, Aon PHI Acquisition Corporation of California, Aon PMI International Limited, Aon Parizeau Inc., Aon Pension Trustees Limited, Aon Pensions Insurance Brokers GmbH, Aon Polska Services Sp. z o.o., Aon Polska Sp. z o.o., Aon Portugal - Consultores Unipessoal Lda., Aon Portugal - Corretores de Seguros S.A., Aon Premium Finance LLC, Aon Private Risk Management Insurance Agency Inc., Aon Private Risk Management of California Insurance Agency Inc., Aon Product Design & Development Australia Pty Limited, Aon Product Design and Development New Zealand Limited, Aon Product Risk Services Hong Kong Limited, Aon Property Risk Consulting Inc., Aon Qatar LLC, Aon Re (Thailand) Limited, Aon Re Bertoldi - Corretagem de Resseguros S.A., Aon Re Bolivia S.A. Corredores de Reaseguros, Aon Re Canada Holdings SARL, Aon Real Estate B.V., Aon Realty Services Inc., Aon Reed Stenhouse Inc., Aon Retirement Plan Advisors LLC, Aon Retirement Solutions Limited, Aon Risiko & Unternehmensberatungs GmbH, Aon Risk & Asset Management Pty Ltd, Aon Risk Consultants Inc., Aon Risk Insurance Services West Inc., Aon Risk Management (Pty) Ltd, Aon Risk Services (Chile) Corredores de Seguros Limitada, Aon Risk Services (Holdings) of Latin America Inc., Aon Risk Services (Holdings) of the Americas Inc., Aon Risk Services (NI) Limited, Aon Risk Services (PNG) Ltd., Aon Risk Services (Thailand) Limited, Aon Risk Services Argentina S.A., Aon Risk Services Australia Limited, Aon Risk Services Canada Inc., Aon Risk Services Central Inc., Aon Risk Services Colombia SA Corredores de Seguros, Aon Risk Services Companies Inc., Aon Risk Services EMEA B.V., Aon Risk Services Ecuador S.A. Agencia Asesora Productora de Seguros, Aon Risk Services Holdings (Chile ) Ltda., Aon Risk Services Inc. of Florida, Aon Risk Services Inc. of Hawaii, Aon Risk Services Inc. of Maryland, Aon Risk Services Inc. of Washington D.C., Aon Risk Services Northeast Inc., Aon Risk Services South Inc., Aon Risk Services Southwest Inc., Aon Risk Services Venezuela Corretaje de Seguros C.A., Aon Risk Solutions (Cayman) Ltd., Aon Risk Solutions Agente de Seguros y de Fianzas SA de CV, Aon Risk Solutions of Puerto Rico Inc., Aon Riskminder A/S, Aon Romania Broker de Asigurare - Reasigurare SRL, Aon Rus Insurance Brokers LLC, Aon Rus LLC, Aon S.p.A. Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers, Aon Saver Limited, Aon Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, Aon Securities Investment Management Inc., Aon Securities LLC, Aon Securities Limited, Aon Service Corporation, Aon Services (Guernsey) Ltd, Aon Services (Malta) Ltd, Aon Services Group Inc., Aon Services Hong Kong Limited, Aon Services Pty Ltd., Aon Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerligi ve A.S., Aon Soluciones S.A., Aon Soluciones S.A.C., Aon Southern Europe UK Limited, Aon Sp. z o.o., Aon Special Risk Resources Inc., Aon Superannuation (PNG) Limited, Aon Superannuation Pty Limited, Aon TC Holdings Inc., Aon Taiwan Ltd., Aon Treasury Ireland Limited, Aon Trust Company LLC, Aon Trust Corporation Limited, Aon Trust Services B.V., Aon UK Group Limited, Aon UK Holdings Intermediaries Limited, Aon UK Limited, Aon UK Trustees Limited, Aon US & International Holdings Limited, Aon US Holdings 2 Inc., Aon US Holdings Inc., Aon Ukraine LLC, Aon Underwriting Agencies (HK) Limited, Aon Underwriting Managers (Bermuda) Ltd., Aon Underwriting Managers Inc., Aon Versicherungsberatungs GmbH, Aon Versicherungsmakler Deutschland GmbH, Aon Vietnam Limited, Aon Ward Financial Corporation, Aon-COFCO Insurance Brokers Co. Ltd., Aon/Albert G. Ruben Insurance Services Inc., Asevasa Argentina S.A., Asevasa Caricam S.A., Asevasa Chile Peritaciones e Ingenieria de Riesgos S.A., Asevasa Mexico S.A. de C.V., Asevasa Panama S.A., Asian Reinsurance Underwriters Limited, Asscom Insurance Brokers S.r.l., Association of Rural and Small Town Americans, Associacao Instituto Aon, Assurance Licensing Services Inc., B E P International Corp., B.V. Assurantiekantoor Langeveldt-Schroder, BMS Insurance Agency L.L.C., Bacon & Woodrow Partnerships (Ireland) Limited, Bacon & Woodrow Partnerships Limited, Bain Hogg Group Limited (in liquidation), Baltolink UADBB, Bankassure Insurance Services Limited, Bayfair Insurance Centre Limited, Beaubien Finance Ireland Limited, Beaubien Finance Limited, Beaubien UK Finance Limited, Becketts (Trustees) Limited, Becketts Limited, Beech Hill Pension Trustees Ltd, Bekouw Mendes C.V., Benefit Marketing Solutions L.L.C., Benfield Advisory Inc., Benfield Corredores de Reaseguro Ltda., Benfield Finance (London) LLC, Benfield Group, Benfield Investment Holdings Limited, Benfield Juniperus Holdings Limited, Benfield do Brasil Participacoes Ltda. (dormant), Benton Finance Ireland Limited, Benton Finance Limited, Blanch Americas Inc., Bowes & Company Inc. of New York, CEREP III Secondary Manager LLC, CFSSG Real Estate Partners I LLC, CFSSG Real Estate Partners II LLC, CIF-H GP LLC, Cammack Health LLC, Cananwill Corporation, Cananwill Inc., Cardea Health Solutions Limited, Casablanca Intermediation Company Sarl, Celinvest Amsterdam B.V., Chapka Assurances SAS, Citadel Insurance Managers Inc., CoCubes, CoSec 2000 Limited, Coalition for Benefits Equality and Choice, Cocubes Technologies Private Limited, Coles Hewitt Partnership, Contingency Insurance Brokers Limited, Contractsure Limited, CoverWallet, Coverall S.r.l. Insurance and Reinsurance Underwriting Agency, Credit Insurance Brokers (Reynolds) Limited, Crion N.V., Custom Benefit Programs Inc., Cut-e, Cut-e (UK) Limited, Cut-e Assessment (Hong Kong) Limited, Cut-e Assessment Solutions Europe Limited, Cut-e Australia Pty Limited, Cut-e Consult DMCC, Cut-e Danmark A/S, Cut-e Finland Oy, Cut-e GmbH, Cut-e Ireland Limited, Cut-e Nordic AS, Cut-e Norge AS, Cytelligence, Delany Bacon & Woodrow Partnership, Dempsey Partners, Denney O'Hara (Life & Pensions) Limited, Doveland Services Limited, E. W. Blanch Holdings Limited, E. W. Blanch Investments Limited, E.W. Blanch Capital Risk Solutions Inc., E.W. Blanch International Inc., EW Blanch Limited, Elysium Digital IP Products LLC, Elysium Digital L.L.C., Ennis Knupp Secondary Market Services LLC, Essar Insurance Services Limited, Exploitatiemaatschappij Beukenlaan 68-72 B.V., Farmaseg - Solucoes Assistencia e Servicos Empresariais Ltda., Farmsure Limited [In strike-off], Finaccord Limited, Financial & Professional Risk Solutions Inc., Futurity Group Inc., GTCR/AAM Blocker Corp., Ge.f.it. S.r.l., Gefass S.r.l., Glenrand M I B (Mocambique) Corretores de Seguros Limitada, Global Safe Insurance Brokers S.r.l., Globe Events Management, Gotham Digital Science LLC, Gotham Digital Science Ltd., Grant Liddell Financial Advisor Services Pty Ltd, Grant Park Capital LLC, Groupe-Conseil Aon Inc., Grupo Innovac Sociedad de Correduria de Seguros SA, HIA Insurance Services Pty Ltd., Hall Rhodes Holdings Limited, Hall Rhodes Limited, Hamburger Gesellschaft zur Forderung des Versicherungswesens mbH, Harbourview West Lake Co-Invest (GP) LP, Health Index Advisors LLC, Healthy Paws Pet Insurance, Henderson Corporate Insurance Brokers Limited, Henderson Insurance Brokers Limited, Henderson Insurance Partnership Limited [In strike-off], Henderson Risk Management Limited, Hewitt Amalco 3 ULC, Hewitt Amalco 4 ULC, Hewitt Amalco 5 ULC, Hewitt Associates (a partnership), Hewitt Associates Administradora e Corretora de Seguros Ltda., Hewitt Associates Corp., Hewitt Associates Outsourcing Limited, Hewitt Associates Pty Ltd, Hewitt Associates S.C., Hewitt Associates SAS, Hewitt Associates Servicos de Recursos Humanos Ltda., Hewitt Beneficios Agente de Seguros y de Fianzas S.A. de C.V., Hewitt Holdings Canada Company, Hewitt Insurance Brokerage LLC, Hewitt Insurance Inc., Hewitt International Holdings LLC, Hewitt Management Ltd., Hewitt Risk Management Services Limited, Hewitt Western Management Amalco Inc., Hogg Group Limited, Hogg Robinson North America Inc., Huntington T. Block Insurance Agency Inc., I. Beck Insurance Agency (1994) Ltd., IAO Actuarial Consulting Services Canada Inc., INPOINT INC., IRM/GRC Holding Inc., Impact Forecasting L.L.C., Inspiring Benefits, Inspiring Benefits Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Insuractive Limited [In strike-off], Insurance Broker Aon Kazakhstan LLP, International Risk Management (Americas) Inc., International Risk Management Group Ltd, International Space Brokers Europe Limited, International Space Brokers France, International Space Brokers Inc., International Space Brokers Limited, Inversiones Benfield Chile Ltda., J H Minet Puerto Rico Inc., J. Allan Brown Consultants Inc., JDPT Manager LLC, Jenner Fenton Slade Limited, John Reynolds & Company (Credit Insurance) Limited, John Reynolds & Company (Insurances) Limited, John Reynolds & Company (Life & Pensions) Limited, Johnson Rooney Welch Inc., K & K Insurance Brokers Inc. Canada, K & K Insurance Group Inc., K & K Insurance Group of Florida Inc., K2 Technologies Inc., KVT GP LLC, Kloud S.a.r.l., Krumlin Hall Limited, Lake Erie Real Estate General Partner Limited, Lake Tahoe GP LLC, Lake Tahoe II GP LLC, Lake Tahoe III GP LLC, Lake Tahoe IV GP LLC, Lenzi Paolo Broker di Assicurazioni S.r.l., Lincolnshire Insurance Company PCC Limited, Linx Underwriting Solutions Inc., Lombard Trustee Company Limited, M.A. Shakeel Management Ltd. Amalco, MacDonagh Boland Crotty MacRedmond Ltd, Marinaro Dundas S.A., Marinaro Dundas SA, Mark Kelly Insurance and Financial Services PTY LTD, McLagan (Aon) Limited, McLagan Partners Asia Inc., McLagan Partners Inc., Membership Leasing Trust, Minet Consultancy Services Ltd, Minet Group, Minet Holdings Inc., Minet Inc., Minet Re North America Inc., Modern Survey Inc., Muirfield Underwriters Ltd., NBS Nominees Limited, National Insurance Office Ltd., Nauman Insurance Brokers Limited, Nexus Insurance Brokers Limited, One Underwriting Agency GmbH, One Underwriting B.V., One Underwriting Health B.V., One Underwriting Pty Ltd, Optica Agency A/S, Optimum Risk Solutions Limited, Ovatio Courtage SAS, P.G. Bradley & Co Limited, PGOF Manager 1 LLC, PRORUCK Ruckversicherungs Aktiengesellschaft, PT Aon Benfield Indonesia, PT Aon Hewitt Indonesia, PT Aon Indonesia, PWZ AG, Paragon Strategic Solutions Inc., PathWise Solutions LLC, Penn Square Manager 1 LLC, Penn Square Manager II LLC, Portus Consulting, Portus Consulting (Leamington) Limited, Portus Consulting Limited, Portus Online LLP, Praesidium S.p.A. - Soluzioni Assicurative per il Management, Premier Auto Finance Inc., Private Client Trustees Ltd., Private Equity Partnership Structures I LLC, Probabilitas N.V./SA, Protective Marketing Enterprises Inc., Randolph Finance Unlimited Company, Rasini Vigano Limited, Redwoods Dental Underwriters Inc., Richard Kiddle (Insurance Brokers) Limited, Risk Laboratories LLC, Riskikonsultatsioonide OU, Ronnie Elementary Insurance Agency Ltd, SA Special Situations General Partner LLC, SG IFFOXX Assekuranzmaklergesellschaft mbH, SLE Worldwide Limited, SN Re S.A., Salud Riesgos y Recursos Humanos Consultores Ltda. (former Aon Corporte Advisors Ltda.), SchneiderGolling IFFOXX Assekuranzmakler AG, SchneiderGolling Industrie Assekuranzmaklergesellschaft mbH, Scritch Inc., Shanghai Kayi Information Technology Co. Ltd, Sheppard Netherlands B.V., Specialty Benefits Inc., Sports Insure Limited [In strike-off], Strategic Manager-III LLC, Stroz Friedberg (Asia) Limited, Stroz Friedberg Inc., Stroz Friedberg LLC, Stroz Friedberg Limited, Stroz Friedberg Risk Management Limited, Superannuation Management Nominees Limited, Suresport Limited [In strike-off], Swire Blanch MSTC II SA, Swire Blanch MSTC SA, TTG BRPTP GP LLC, TTG Cayuga Bavaria Intermediate 2 S.a.r.l, TTG Core Plus Investments LLC, TTG German Investments I LLC, TTG Investments II LLC, TTG Irish Investments I LLC, TTG Manager LLC, Tecsefin S.A. en liquidacion, The Aon Ireland Mastertrustee Limited, The Aon MasterTrustee Limited, The John Reynolds Company Limited, The Key West Saxon Group LLC, The Townsend Group Inc, The Townsend Group LLC, Townsend Alpha Manager I LLC, Townsend Alpha Manager II LLC, Townsend Alpha Manager III LLC, Townsend Group Asia Limited, Townsend Group Europe Ltd., Townsend HWL GP Ltd., Townsend Holdings LLC, Townsend Lake Constance GP Limited, Townsend REF GP LLC, Townsend Re Global GP Limited, Townsend SO Manager I LLC, UAB One Underwriting, UADBB Aon Baltic, UK Credit Insurance Specialists Limited, UNIT Versicherungsmakler GmbH, US Underwriting Solutions S.r.l., USLP Underwriting Solutions LP, Underwriters Marine Services Inc., Unidelta AG, Unirobe Meeus Groep, UnitedPensions Deutschland AG, Univers Workplace Solutions, VERO Management AG, Ventiv Technology, WT Government Services LLC, WT Technologies LLC, Wannet Speciale Verzekeringen B.V., Wannet Sports Insurance GmbH, Ward Financial Group Inc., West Lake General Partner LLC, West Lake II GP LLC, Wexford Underwriting Managers Inc., White Rock Insurance (Americas) Ltd., White Rock Insurance (Europe) PCC Limited, White Rock Insurance (Gibraltar) PCC Ltd., White Rock Insurance (Guernsey) ICC Limited, White Rock Insurance (Netherlands) PCC Limited, White Rock Insurance (SAC) Ltd., White Rock Insurance Company PCC Ltd., White Rock Insurance PCC (Isle of Man) Limited, White Rock Services (Bermuda) Ltd., White Rock USA Ltd., Willis Towers Watson, Worldwide Integrated Services Company, Wrapid Specialty Inc., Zalba-Caldu Correduria de Seguros SA, and cut-e USA Inc.. By Express News Service KOCHI: The seven-year-old boy who was brutally assaulted by his mothers friend at Thodupuzha, succumbed to his injuries on Saturday. The boy had been battling for life in a ventilator at the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical College (MOSC), Kolenchery, for the past nine days. Dr G Sreekumar, professor, Department of Neurosurgery at MOSC Medical College, told reporters that the boys pulse and blood pressure drastically dropped in the morning, leading to his death. The hospital authorities confirmed the death by 11.35 am. The boys life was being sustained with medicines and ventilator support. However, he stopped responding to medicines from Saturday morning and the heartbeat completely stopped by 11.30 am. We took an ECG at 11.35 am, which confirmed his death, said the doctor. Hospital sources said the boy didnt show any sign of recovery all these days, except for a slight movement of hand soon after the surgery. There were fluctuations in blood pressure and heart rate by Friday evening itself. The digestion was also not proper. ALSO READ| Kerala boy assault case: Pall of gloom descends on Udumbannoor in Idukki INHUMAN ACT The accused, Arun Anand, had brutally beaten the child, flung him on the ground, smashed his head against a wardrobe and used a stick to beat him up. Murder charge has been slapped on the accused Murder charges slapped on the accused These were all bad signs, but it was by Saturday morning that his blood pressure and pulse rate drastically dropped, according to the hospital authorities. Doctors said the boy was exhibiting battered baby syndrome as he had various types of wounds, suggesting the boy had been tortured earlier also. The boy had suffered a subdural haemorrhage (or haematoma), a type of bleeding that often occurs outside the brain as a result of a severe fracture to the skull. The incident occurred in Thodupuzha on March 28. The accused, Arun Anand, was arrested following the incident. A murder charge has been slapped on the accused following the death of the boy. The police have also booked the accused under the POCSO Act for sexually abusing the boys younger brother. Girl dies in fire from candle flame in Alappuzha ALAPPUZHA: A nine-year-old girl who suffered burns from a candle lit on a tomb near her grandfathers tomb, died on Saturday. Tina Antony, daughter of Antony of Vezhapra, Kuttanad, died at a hospital in Kochi. The incident took place at St Pauls Church, Vezhapra, on Wednesday when she was placing a bouquet on the tomb of her grandfather. easyJet has been the subject of 6 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock. According to analysts' consensus price target of $358.00, easyJet has a forecasted upside of 5,351.5% from its current price of $6.57. easyJet has received a consensus rating of Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.88, and is based on 7 buy ratings, 1 hold rating, and no sell ratings. 4.3 Community Rank Outperform Votes easyJet has received 192 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes easyJet has received 109 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment easyJet has received 63.79% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about easyJet and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe EJTTF will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe EJTTF will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Novan, Inc., a clinical development-stage biotechnology company, provides nitric oxide-based therapies to treat dermatological and oncovirus-mediated diseases. Its clinical stage dermatology drug candidates include SB204, a topical monotherapy for the treatment of acne vulgaris; SB206, a topical anti-viral gel for the treatment of viral skin infections; SB208, a topical broad-spectrum anti-fungal gel for the treatment of fungal infections of the skin and nails, including athlete's foot and fungal nail infections; and SB414, a topical cream-based gel product candidate for the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases. The company also develops SB207, an anti-viral product candidate for the treatment of external genital warts; WH602, a nitric oxide-containing intravaginal gel to treat high-risk human papilloma virus (HPV); WH504, a non-gel formulation product candidate to treat high-risk HPV; and SB019 for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Novan, Inc. has a license agreement with Sato Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; and a strategic alliance with Orion Corporation. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina. Read More Roots Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides apparel, leather goods, footwear, and accessories under the Roots brand in Canada and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Direct-To-Consumer, and Partners and Other. The Direct-to-Consumer segment sells products through the company's corporate retail stores and e-commerce. The Partners and Other segment primarily engages in the wholesale of Roots branded products to the company's international operating partners. This segment is also involved in licensing Roots brand to manufacturing partners; and wholesaling Roots branded products to retail partners. As of January 30, 2021, it operated 111 corporate retail stores in Canada, two corporate retail stores in the United States, 117 partner-operated stores in Taiwan, 26 partner-operated stores in China, and two partner-operated stores in Hong Kong, as well as an eCommerce platform and partner-operated eCommerce channels in Taiwan and mainland China. W. Roots Corporation was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More By Express News Service KOCHI: It is the end of electoral dreams for solar scam accused Saritha S Nair as the Election Commission (EC) on Saturday rejected her nomination papers to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as an Independent candidate. Saritha had filed nomination papers in Wayanad and Ernakulam constituencies, in an embarrassment to the Congress as she was contesting against none other than the party president Rahul Gandhi. The Returning Officers (RO) rejected the nomination papers on the grounds that she was convicted in criminal cases. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE Saritha was punished in two cases in connection with the solar scam for three years each, amounting to six years in total. As per the rule, a person punished in a criminal case will be able to contest in elections only after completing six years of punishment. Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act states: A person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years [other than any offence referred to in sub-section (1) or sub-section (2)] shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release. The EC rejected Sarithas contention that the cases against her were stayed by the court. Norbord Inc. manufactures and sells wood-based panels for retail chains, contractor supply yards, and industrial manufacturers primarily in North America and Europe. The company offers oriented strand boards for use in sheathing, flooring, and roofing in home construction applications; particleboards that are used in flooring and other construction applications; and medium density fiberboards for use in cabinet doors, moldings, and interior wall paneling applications, as well as related value-added products for use in the construction of new homes, and renovation and repair of existing structures. It markets its products under the Durastrand pointSIX, Pinnacle, Stabledge, TruFlor pointSIX and TruFlor, Rimboard, SteadiTred, QuakeZone, Tallwall, Trubord and Windstorm, SolarBord, TruDeck, StableDec, SterlingOSB, Caberwood MDF, Conti, and Caberboard brand names. The company was formerly known as Nexfor Inc. and changed its name to Norbord Inc. in June 2004. Norbord Inc. was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More RSA Insurance Group plc provides personal and commercial general insurance products. It operates through Scandinavia, Canada, and UK & International segments. The company offers a range of personal insurance products, including home, car, pet, and travel insurance products directly to individuals and families, as well as through brokers and agents. It also provides commercial insurance products, such as property, vehicle and fleet, professional liability, and indemnity and travel insurance, as well as marine, renewable energy, construction and engineering, and rail insurance for small to medium sized enterprises, multinational companies, and sole traders. The company was formerly known as Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group plc and changed its name to RSA Insurance Group plc in May 2008. RSA Insurance Group plc was founded in 1706 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More There is not enough analysis data for Sintana Energy. 4.4 Community Rank Outperform Votes Sintana Energy has received 18 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Sintana Energy has received 9 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Sintana Energy has received 66.67% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Sintana Energy and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe SNN will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe SNN will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next The following companies are subsidiares of V.F.: 1994 Inc. Ltd., 530 Park Ave 10-F LLC, 530 Park Ave 14-H LLC, ALL'CROWN SA, Administradora Mexicana de Servicios S de RL de CV, Administradora de Servicios Honduras S.A., Altra Footwear, Altra LLC, C.C.R.L. LLC, Chapter 4 Corp, Cherry SAS, Ciliegia Srl, Corporacion Distribiduidora de Dickies S de RL de CV, Cutler de Mexico SA, Czech Distribution Services s.r.o., DSI Enterprises LLC, Dickies de Honduras SA de CV, Dickies de Parras S de RL de CV, EAGLE CREEK EUROPE LIMITED, Eagle Creek, Eagle Creek Inc., GFYS LLC, GREENSPORT MONTE BIANCO, Horace Small, INVERSIONES INMOBILIARIES AUSTRALES SA, INVERSIONES VF CHILE DOS LTDA, INVERSIONES VF CHILE LTDA, IW Apparel LLC, IW Holdings LLC, IW Panama Trading S. de R.L., IceBreaker, Icebreaker Apparel LLC, Icebreaker Australia Pty, Icebreaker Australia Retail Pty, Icebreaker Europe Limited, Icebreaker Holdings Limited, Icebreaker Licensing LLC, Icebreaker Limited, Icebreaker Merino Clothing Europe Ltd., Icebreaker New Zealand Limited, Icebreaker Pure Merino GmbH, Imagewear Apparel Corp., Industrial Laundry Services LLC, Industrias Coahuila de Zaragosa S de RL de CV, JanSport Apparel Corp., Kipling Apparel Corp., Kipling Belgium, Kipling Holdings LLC, Kirsche GmbH, Kodiak Group Holdings CO., Lee Bell Inc., Lucy, Lucy Apparel LLC, Majestic Athletic Official Store, Mo Industries Holdings, NII Sales - Texas LLC, Napapijri, North East Rig-Out Limited, North Elm Properties LLC, RED KAP DE MEXICO S DE RL DE CV, RKI HONDURAS S de RL, Reef Holdings Corporation, Rock & Republic, SERVICIOS Y PROMOCIONES TEXTILES LTDA, South Cone, South Cone Inc, Supreme, Supreme Holdings Inc., Supreme Intermediate Holdings Inc., T.I. Venture Group Inc, TBL INVESTMENTS HOLDING GMBH, TBL Licensing LLC, THE NORTH FACE ITALY SRL, THE NORTH FACE SAGL, THE RECREATIONAL FOOTWEAR CO., TIMBERLAND EUROPE BV, TIMBERLAND HK TRADING LTD., TIMBERLAND LUXEMBOURG HOLDING ASIA S.A.R.L., TIMBERLAND UK LTD., The North Face, The North Face Apparel Corp, Timberland, Timberland Asia LLC, Timberland IDC Ltd., Timberland International LLC, VANS MADEIRA LDA, VANS SPAIN SL, VF (J) FRANCE SAS, VF (J) NEDERLAND BV, VF (J) NETHERLANDS SERVICES BV, VF APPAREL PORTUGAL LDA, VF ASIA LTD, VF Apollo Investments Limited, VF Apollo Singapore Pte. Ltd., VF Asia Sourcing Ltd, VF Austria GMBH, VF BRANDS MALAYSIA SDN BHD, VF BRANDS TAIWAN LTD., VF Belgium BV, VF Brands Pte. 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Ltd.. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York state lawmakers who delivered a budget on time this past week are turning their attention to thorny debates over legalizing recreational marijuana and renewing New York City's rent regulations. Both issues are complicated and the details are likely to dominate the remainder of the legislative session, scheduled to end in June. Lawmakers are unlikely to let the regulations covering 2 million tenants in and around New York City expire, but any proposed tweaks could spark a fight between tenants' rights groups and the city's powerful real-estate lobby. Passing marijuana is likely to be even harder, as lawmakers seek agreement on specific regulations. One big question relates to whether counties would have to opt out - or opt in - to allowing retail marijuana shops. (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) WHITESBORO, NY The Village of Oriskany celebrated the retirement of Mayor Donald Rothdiener with a banquet at Harts Hill Inn in Whitesboro Saturday. Rothdiener did not seek re-election after serving 30 years as Oriskanys mayor. Before that, he served as village trustee for 10 years. Senator Joe Griffo served as Master of Ceremonies for the event. In his 30 years as the mayor of Oriskany, nobody ever ran against him. I dont think anybody wanted the job, joked Rothdiener. It is a trying job. You have to be there. Its not a part-time job, although they say it is. It isnt. You need to be there. Rothdiener said he knew last year it was time to retire. I was slowing down. I couldnt get to the meetings that I needed to go to and I said this is not right. If you cant do this, do the job, then its time to wrap it up. The retired mayor said he's proud of the many things the village was able to accomplish during his 30 years of service as mayor. Among them, the Oriskany Museum and Trinkaus Park. Manish Anand By Shaukat Ali in Muzaffarnagar is determined to vote for the Opposition grand alliance in Lok Sabha polls. He reasoned that the Muslims must support the coming together of Opposition parties to recover decisiveness of their over two decades of tactical voting to tilt the scale in the Hindi heartland. Ali, 35, is a marginal farmer in Sisouli village of Muzaffarnagar. He seemingly has an easy choice since the grand alliance nominee and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) supremo Ajit Singh is almost in a direct contest with the incumbent MP and BJPs Jat face Sanjeev Balyan. Mohammed Imran, 25, in Behat in Saharanpur is, however, confused. Hes in a quandary as hes keen to vote out the incumbent BJP MP Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma, but is being challenged by BSP candidate Haji Fazlur Rehman, an industrialist, and local strongman Imran Masood of the Congress. Muslims cannot be voting en block. Political prudence calls for Muslims backing BSP, but Masood is too strong a candidate to be ignored. During the Narendra Modi wave in 2014, Masood had polled over four lakh votes here, while Rehman is largely a political novice, said Imran, who is currently unemployed. FOLLOW OUR ELECTIONS COVERAGE HERE The saffron tide in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 had seemingly blunted the sharpness of tactical voting by Muslims, with not a single candidate from the minority community winning elections. Indeed, the 2014 Lok Sabha elections took place under the heavy shadow of Muzaffarnagar communal riots fuelled by Jat-Muslim strife. That episode is now well in the realm of the past, with relative peace prevailing in the western parts of the state.All 36 biradaree (communities) live in peace. Theres no rift anymore. Muslim labourers are back working on farm fields of Jats and Thakurs, noted Choudhary Pradeep Singh, a farmer in Baghpat. Peace in the district Incidentally, BJPs Muzaffarnagar nominee Sanjeev Balyan is not hesitating to seek Muslim votes too. Theres peace in my district. I, too, have contributed positively in restoring law and order in the constituency. Besides, Ive worked for all without making any discrimination. So, I am asking for Muslims to support me in the elections, Balyan told this newspaper. Jameer Shah, 40, in Moradabad, however, thinks otherwise, as he claimed that theres a sense of insecurity among the Muslims. My relatives are afraid to travel. They fear that their beards may invite trouble, reasoned Shah, who is also a farmer.His concerns find echo among Muslims, mulling which way to vote in the polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasnt done anything against Muslims. But the BJP leaders keep teasing us with threats to send us to Pakistan, lamented Naushad Ali in Bijnor. The task for Muslims to make a dent in the saffron bastion appears to have been made difficult by the Congress. With the constituents of the grand alliance leaving out Congress, well-entrenched Muslim politicians have found space in the grand old party to remain politically relevant. ALSO READ | Muslim votes hold the key in three-cornered fight in Saharanpur In the 16 Lok Sabha seats heading for polls in the first two phases on April 11 and 18, the Congress is being accused of queering the pitch for revival of tactical voting prowess of the minority community. By fielding Muslim candidates in Saharanpur (Imran Masood), Bijnor (Naseemuddin Siddiqui, who had for long been Muslim face of the BSP) and Moradabad (Imran Pratapgarhi), the Congress threatens to throw the calculations of SP-BSP-RLD in disarray. Besides, the Congress has fielded four Muslim candidates in other parts of UP, which include Badayun (Salim Sherwani, former MP), Sant Kabir Nagar (Parvez Khan), Sitapur (Kaiser Jahan) and Kheri (Zafar Ali Naqvi). The firepower of tactical Muslim voting had seemingly been based on political flexibility of the community to align with Hindu caste groups to throw winning social engineering. For Congress hey days and the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the formula was weaving the combination of Brahmin-Dalit-Muslim. With the onset of the BJP on the back of Ram temple agitation led by partys then-president L K Advani, SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav emerged messiah of the minority community on the strength of Yadavs and Other Backward Castes (OBCs). In 2007, lawyer-turned-politician Satish Chandra Mishra engineered a tectonic shift in favour of the BSP, giving Mayawati a full majority in the state Assembly by steering Brahmins towards Yadav and some chunk of Muslims. Social engineering Political observers note that Muslims alone arent that lethal vote base to swing the electoral fortunes of political outfits. The Muslims have to rally behind a section of Hindu castes, the political commentators concur. Incidentally, successful social engineering on parts of the Congress, SP and BSP territories created a large pool of Muslim leaders in all parts of the Hindi heartland. They became entrenched in their respective regions to the extent that they feared marginalisation if they stayed away too long from electoral politics. The Congress Badayun candidate Salim Sherwani, for instance, represented the Constituency in Lok Sabha for SP in 2004. He drifted from the SP after Dharmendra Yadav, nephew of the SP patriarch, shifted his constituency from Sambhal to Badayun in 2009. Scores of Muslim leaders who couldnt find space in SP, BSP and Congress have found another alternative platform in Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party of Shivpal Singh Yadav, who launched the new outfit after parting ways with the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. The BJPs emergence in the state on the back of partys mascot (Modi) seemingly cut down the social bases of SP, BSP and Congress to reap political dividends out of Muslim votes. Expanding beyond upper castes and Vaishya (traders) vote base, the BJPs Ram temple movement attracted a large pool of party workers from backward castes and Dalits. Former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh, Lodh (OBC), helped the saffron outfit make deep inroads in non-Yadav backward castes. In 2014, a Modi-powered BJP penetrated into BSPs core Dalit vote base as well. Now, the BJP, on the back of major targeted welfarism, appears to have given a template to count on the support of Dalits. Modis singular focus on Swachh Bharat and construction of toilets in rural areas has benefited Dalits. Weve also gained from other schemes, which were not in sight earlier, noted Suresha Devi, a Dalit, 35, in Sadadnagar village in Nagina Parliamentary constituency. Unlike Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar where BJP candidates Satyapal Singh and Balyan are sweating out in the face of direct contests, giving Muslim voters clarity in their choices, the minority community is seemingly in the same spot as they had been in 2014 when they couldnt vote en block for one political formation. Despite commanding almost 18 per cent vote share across the constituencies going to polls in the first two phases, including over six lakh votes in Saharanpur and Bijnore (about 35 per cent of total vote base), the prowess of tactical voting seen with lethal effect in the past is seemingly struggling to come back with full might in the current Lok Sabha elections. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) Six high school seniors of Tippecanoe County have been recognized for their exceptional work in and outside of the classroom. They each received the Daughters of the American Revolution Award Good Citizenship Award. It was the first time when I won this award that I started thinking, you know, I can really contribute to my society, said Judge Sean Persin, speaker at this years award ceremony. Life came full circle for Sean Persin, Judge of the Tippecanoe County Circuit Court. He went from standing on stage as a recipient for the DAR Good Citizenship Award to honoring this year's winners. I received the award back when I was in high school and at that time it just gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment in being a good member of the community, said Persin. This award is given to one high school senior from each of the six high schools in Tippecanoe County. Teachers nominated students for their exceptional work of scholarship, leadership, service, and patriotism in the community. Each of these students has been a very good academic student and has also excelled in volunteerism, leadership. Some have been leaders in different clubs and organizations, said Linda Sorensen, Chair of Scholarships for the DAR Citizenship award. Sorensen said many past award winners have gone on to do great things. We have seen some of these students go forward become very involved in their communities just as our speaker today, said Sorensen. The students are already feeling the impact of their honorable actions. I don't know the other people that well but they seem like great people and just being honored among them is just amazing, said Thomas Day, award recipient of West Lafayette High School. This year's recipients feel especially honored for being nominated by teachers and classmates. It's an honor honestly because you have to be recommended by teachers and then also your peers so it means a lot to me, said Shannon Scheetz, the award winner from Central Catholic High School. It means a lot that the student body chose me, It means a lot that my teachers chose me. It makes me feel like I'm on the right track and I'm doing something well, said Joshua Smith, the award recipient from Harrison High School. The students left with a message theyll carry on as they head into their next chapter life. It's really important for us to realize that we can really contribute to society now and that our opinions and points matter, said Mitchell Cox, the award recipient from Benton Central High School. Daughters of the American Revolution is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. High school students in Tippecanoe County have been receiving the DAR Good Citizenship Award since 1934. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Parvez Sultan By NEW DELHI: The Red Fort is set to become a centre for historical research and learning with the opening of three new museums focusing on the period starting from early medieval era to advent of Mughal rule by end of June. Archaeological Museum, Indian War Memorial Museum, Subhash Chandra Bose museum, Yaad-e-Jallian, Museum of 1857, Drishyakala, and Azadi Ke Deewane (earlier known as Swatantara Sangram Sangrahalaya) are the seven existing museums inside the Red Fort complex. A senior official of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) said five barracks, vacated recently, are being appropriated for the purpose. In one of the barracks, ASI was running its archeology institution and three barracks A1, A2, and A3 were accommodation for security personnel. Till recently, the fifth barrack, which is called RR (Rest and Recuperation) barrack, was ASI site office, said the official. Delhis National Museum will develop twin centres at the two barracks, including the one where ASI office existed, with dedicated galleries to display medieval period sculptures and Mughal era paintings. In RR barrack, an information centre-cum-tourist facilitation centre is being set up by Dalmia Bharat group, which adopted the 17th century fort for five years under the Centres Adopt A Heritage scheme. These barracks were inaccessible to general public until now. The decision for their conservation and transformation into museums was taken after the Army vacated the premises in 2003. This was an initiate of the ministry of culture. New museums are likely to be opened by June end, said the ASI official. The state-run National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) is carrying out the restoration of these five British barracks.With these three new museums, the Red Fort will become a centre for learning history, where visitors will get to learn about medieval years, Mughal period, British Rule and our freedom struggle. It will certainly help students and research scholars, said the ASI official. Every day around 6,000-7,000 visitors come to Red Fort. On Sundays, the number goes up to as much as 14,000. Ticket price to enter the Red Fort and museums is `80 while foreigners are charged `950. The galleries to be created by the National Museum will exhibit sculptures and Mughal era paintings. However, initially replica of paintings will be placed. After a proper environmental impact assessment, the decision to put original art work will be taken. The process of selection of antiquities to be displayed is on. We will conduct an audit of security and environment condition at Red Fort complex before putting antiquities there. In the beginning, we are going to display only reprints of the paintings. If the conditions are not suitable, it may damage the paintings, said Sanjib Kumar Singh, spokesperson and security officer in-charge of National Museum. Instead, the National Museum will send well-preserved antiquities first.Sculpture belonging to early medieval to mid-medieval period will be taken to the new museums, Singh said. British barracks inside Red Fort Soon after Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled to Burma, the British forces converted the fort into a garrison. Till 1857, there were 360 structures, including small palaces, residential quarters, mosques, and space for royal administrative personnel. The exquisite palaces and other Mughal buildings were plundered, their architecture desecrated, and several buildings and pavilions were razed to the ground. In place of Mughal structures, the British constructed double-storey barracks housing museums, quarters, and godowns. These barracks with high ceiling, arched corridors, and large staircases are made of yellow and red bricks. Their exterior walls are lined with quartzite stones. After the Army took over the Red Fort in 1947, it built as many as 400 structures, which were removed by ASI. Shilajit Mitra By Ashvin Kumars new film, No Fathers In Kashmir, released in theatres on April 5. Set in contemporary times, the film looks at themes of love, rebellion, oppression and conflict through the story of two Kashmiri youngsters, Noor and Majid. Starring a formidable cast of Zara Webb, Soni Razdan, Shivam Raina, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Anshuman Jha, No Fathers In Kashmir was engaged in a long battle with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) before being cleared for release. Razdan, who plays the role of Noors grandmother in the film, encouraged audiences to accept alternative perspectives to the conflict in Kashmir. When we look at the media, we get only one side of the picture. Its not like that picture doesnt exist militancy is certainly a huge problem. But theres also another side to it, she said. The veteran actor insisted that the people of Kashmir deserve to get their stories heard. We need to understand why does a young man pick up a gun. We cannot just go on blaming Pakistan. Theres a long history to the insurgency that needs to be studied. Completed in mid-2018, No Fathers In Kashmir was denied an U/A certificate by the censor board. Ashvin, who contended that there was nothing objectionable in the film, applied to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) in November last year. Over the course of six hearings in eight months, No Fathers in Kashmir was awarded an U/A certificate on March 14 with reduced cuts. Acknowledging the voluble social media outrage in support of the film, Ashvin said, I am grateful to all the personalities, from Mahesh Bhatt to Shashi Tharoor, who came out in support of the film. Without them and the media we wouldnt have won this battle. Describing the situation in the Valley as a crisis of compassion, he said, Through our film, we want young people all over India to connect with the youth of Kashmir. Gillette man guilty of unemployment fraud GILLETTE (WNE) A Gillette man accused of defrauding the Wyoming Unemployment Insurance program has pleaded guilty to the charge. Gerald Roderick-Jackson, also known as David Jackson, was convicted in Natrona County District Court of under-reporting his income to continue receiving unemployment insurance benefits. Under state law, that constitute... CHEYENNE Statewide leaders in agriculture recently launched an initiative to clean oilfield wastewater for use in arid Western states, hoping to reduce the region's carbon footprint and improve the lives of ranchers and farmers. "Just Add Water" would deliver new water sources to Western states such as New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Wyoming - oil producers that typ... Sumi Sukanya Dutta By NEW DELHI: An advisory by the Centre has asked academicians and researchers who are not associated with Indian traditional health care streams to stay away from research related to Ayurveda, Yoga, Sidhha, Homeopathy and Unani systems of medicine. The AYUSH Ministry, in the advisory issued on April 2, suggested that independent researches often question the credibility of alternative modes of medicine. Potential and scope of AYUSH in public healthcare cannot be jeopardised and the people may not be distracted or dissuaded from resorting to AYUSH from arbitrary statements and unfounded conclusions in the scientific studies and research publications related to AYUSH, said the advisory. Scientists and health researchers, expectedly, are irked with the development. S C Lakhotia, a renowned zoologist from Banaras Hindu University, said, The government is putting a question mark on independent researchers and prestigious scientific journals which is regressive. Also, the problem with traditional methods of healing is that they have not undergone strict scientific trials and by doing this, the government will further damage the credibility of these methods of medicine. THERMOPOLIS The Wyoming Supreme Court issued an opinion on March 27, in favor of Hot Springs District Courts action regarding Paul D. Mathewson. In his appeal, Mathewson contended the district court erred by denying his motions to suppress evidence and to dismiss for lack of a speedy trial. He further contended his conviction for felony possession of a controlled substance and claimed l... By AFP Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, known as Africa's richest man, told a forum in Ivory Coast on Saturday how he once took $10 million in cash out of the bank just to look at it and get it into his head that this was real money, not just figures on paper. "When you're young your first million is important, but after, the numbers don't mean much," Dangote, a manufacturing tycoon with a range of companies spanning cement to flour, told the Mo Ibrahim forum in Abidjan. "One day, I cashed 10 million, put them in the boot of my car I put it in my room. I looked at them and thought 'now I believe I have money' and took it back to the bank the next day," he told his audience. Anecdotes aside, Dangote said that the two most promising sectors for Africa's future were agriculture and new technologies. But he advised young African entrepreneurs not to get carried away by the first flush of success. "Often in Africa we spend our projected incomes. There are ups and downs" in business, he warned. Dangote said he regretted the customs and administrative problems that hamper business development throughout the continent. As an example, he cited the difficulties his cement group faces in exporting to Benin from Nigerian factories 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the border. Benin imported "more expensive" cement from China instead. Steven Tyler started Aerosmiths Las Vegas residency Saturday night by stalking cartoonishly onstage dressed in a flowing, pajama-like outfit, as if the cheers of the crowd had woken him up and now he needed to kick a whole casinos ass.Which he did. By the end of the show, the 71-one-year-old was shirtless and ripped, setting extremely unattainable goals for most people in AARP. He and his bandmates leaned hard into their age Saturday, and were better for it. Tyler, guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer took pains to remind people that theyve been at this, with a couple of breaks for fights and rehab, for close to 50 years.What the f are you sitting down for? Tyler said early in the show, shaming an audience member in the front who had the audacity to sit. Get the f up. This is Vegas.Also Read: Aerosmith and Jimmy Fallon Play 'Walk This Way' on Classroom Instruments - and Adidas (Video)Making the most of a stellar THX-certified L-ISA sound system within the Park Theater at the Park MGM, the band tore through their back catalogue with little-to-no pandering to any casual fans in attendance. They started with one of their oldest songs, a cover of Tiny Bradshaws Train Kept A-Rollin, then tore into more 70s classics, Mama Kin, Back in the Saddle, Kings and Queens and Sweet Emotion, and then settled into 1987s Hangman Jury and 1974s Seasons of Wither.None of these are exactly lost tracks, but any American Idol fans expecting a collection of more recent hits had to wait a while.Aerosmith made it delightfully clear, right up front, that theyd be doing Vegas on their terms. Before they played a note, the show began with a half-hour film that went deep into the bands history, accompanied by images of relics like 45s and cassettes. We heard about Perrys early love of Jimi Hendrix, the time Tyler wandered down a path called Groovy Way while tripping on LSD, and his formative years at Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire. For the Boston die-hards, we even got to see old maps of the train routes in the bands adopted hometown.Also Read: Aerosmith's Steven Tyler Says He's Spent 'About $2 Million' on Drugs in His Career - 'Easily' (Video)Id never seen a Vegas show prior to Saturdays concert, and expected something more middle-of-the road and obvious. The band seems to be treating their 30-plus Deuces Are Wild Vegas shows as a surprisingly intimate retrospective. Its a treat to see a band so accustomed to stadiums playing in a comparatively small 5,200-seat theater. At some points the show felt like visiting a friends basement to go over some old favorites, warmed by the soft hum of an amplifier.Other times, it felt very Vegas. Demonically cherubic stuffed animals lowered from the ceiling for a soaring take on Toys in the Attic that got us as close as an Aerosmith show will ever come to one by Pink Floyd. Cryin' and I Dont Want to Miss a Thing arent my favorite Aerosmith songs, but the band played them tightly, with passion, and connected with most of the crowd in a massive way.And then theres the big silly songs, Love in an Elevator and Dude Looks Like a Lady. Theyre kind of stupid, in a joyously stupid way, but the band knocked the hell out of both. With Dude, Perry matched a spectacular light show, surprise for surprise, turning a song that could have been watered down for a jukebox musical into an arena-rock showstopper.Aerosmith still rocks, hard, not in spite of their five decades but because of them. Theyre tougher and scrappier than they used to be, the way Hugh Jackman is sharper as old Wolverine in Logan than he was as fresh face in the first X-Men. Theyre at a point where they have nothing to prove, and could easily rely on a slew of backup musicians to carry them through their just-short-of-two-hour show. They act like they dont give a damn anymore, but play like they do.I know I havent mentioned Dream On or Walk This Way yet. Dont worry, theyre there, and theyre ecstatically good. It turns out that a line about all these lines in my face getting clearer is a lot more compelling from a 71-year-old than a guy in his twenties.Tickets for performances of AEROSMITH: DEUCES ARE WILD through December 2019 are on sale now. Read original story Aerosmith Draws a Line, Refuses to Pander in Exhilarating Start to Vegas Residency (Review) At TheWrap Steven Tyler started Aerosmiths Las Vegas residency Saturday night by stalking cartoonishly onstage dressed in a flowing, pajama-like outfit, as if the cheers of the crowd had woken him up and now he needed to kick a whole casinos ass. Which he did. By the end of the show, the 71-one-year-old was shirtless and ripped, setting extremely unattainable goals for most people in AARP. He and his bandmates leaned hard into their age Saturday, and were better for it. Tyler, guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer took pains to remind people that theyve been at this, with a couple of breaks for fights and rehab, for close to 50 years. What the f are you sitting down for? Tyler said early in the show, shaming an audience member in the front who had the audacity to sit. Get the f up. This is Vegas. Also Read: Aerosmith and Jimmy Fallon Play 'Walk This Way' on Classroom Instruments - and Adidas (Video) Making the most of a stellar THX-certified L-ISA sound system within the Park Theater at the Park MGM, the band tore through their back catalogue with little-to-no pandering to any casual fans in attendance. They started with one of their oldest songs, a cover of Tiny Bradshaws Train Kept A-Rollin, then tore into more 70s classics, Mama Kin, Back in the Saddle, Kings and Queens and Sweet Emotion, and then settled into 1987s Hangman Jury and 1974s Seasons of Wither. None of these are exactly lost tracks, but any American Idol fans expecting a collection of more recent hits had to wait a while. Aerosmith made it delightfully clear, right up front, that theyd be doing Vegas on their terms. Before they played a note, the show began with a half-hour film that went deep into the bands history, accompanied by images of relics like 45s and cassettes. We heard about Perrys early love of Jimi Hendrix, the time Tyler wandered down a path called Groovy Way while tripping on LSD, and his formative years at Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire. For the Boston die-hards, we even got to see old maps of the train routes in the bands adopted hometown. Story continues Also Read: Aerosmith's Steven Tyler Says He's Spent 'About $2 Million' on Drugs in His Career - 'Easily' (Video) Id never seen a Vegas show prior to Saturdays concert, and expected something more middle-of-the road and obvious. The band seems to be treating their 30-plus Deuces Are Wild Vegas shows as a surprisingly intimate retrospective. Its a treat to see a band so accustomed to stadiums playing in a comparatively small 5,200-seat theater. At some points the show felt like visiting a friends basement to go over some old favorites, warmed by the soft hum of an amplifier. Other times, it felt very Vegas. Demonically cherubic stuffed animals lowered from the ceiling for a soaring take on Toys in the Attic that got us as close as an Aerosmith show will ever come to one by Pink Floyd. Cryin' and I Dont Want to Miss a Thing arent my favorite Aerosmith songs, but the band played them tightly, with passion, and connected with most of the crowd in a massive way. And then theres the big silly songs, Love in an Elevator and Dude Looks Like a Lady. Theyre kind of stupid, in a joyously stupid way, but the band knocked the hell out of both. With Dude, Perry matched a spectacular light show, surprise for surprise, turning a song that could have been watered down for a jukebox musical into an arena-rock showstopper. Aerosmith still rocks, hard, not in spite of their five decades but because of them. Theyre tougher and scrappier than they used to be, the way Hugh Jackman is sharper as old Wolverine in Logan than he was as fresh face in the first X-Men. Theyre at a point where they have nothing to prove, and could easily rely on a slew of backup musicians to carry them through their just-short-of-two-hour show. They act like they dont give a damn anymore, but play like they do. I know I havent mentioned Dream On or Walk This Way yet. Dont worry, theyre there, and theyre ecstatically good. It turns out that a line about all these lines in my face getting clearer is a lot more compelling from a 71-year-old than a guy in his twenties. Tickets for performances of AEROSMITH: DEUCES ARE WILD through December 2019 are on sale now. Read original story Aerosmith Draws a Line, Refuses to Pander in Exhilarating Start to Vegas Residency (Review) At TheWrap It was 10 years ago this month that Bob Odenkirk answered his first call as Saul Goodman. It was 2009 when the actor introduced the slippery con-man counselor in the sublime second season of Breaking Bad and then, in 2015, the prequel spinoff Better Call Saul dialed up a backstory for the character. At Deadlines The Contenders Emmys on Sunday, Odenikirk was the one-man panel for Better Call Saul (with Deadlines Dominic Patten handling interviewer duties), and he still seems somewhat surprised how fans have embraced the ethics-challenged attorney. Related stories The Contenders Emmys: Deadline's Complete Coverage Hes a guy trying to find his place in the world, Odenkirk said. I always felt like Breaking Bad was a bit more of a universal scenario. My friend Jeff Garlin says its a midlife crisis! Hes got financial and family pressures and stuffm and when Saul started, I thought Its such an odd guy and such an idiosyncratic world of needs and desires. But of course many people take many years to find their place where they can be themselves in the fullest way they can and feel important and necessary. This is his journey. And that is a universal experience. Saul Goodman arrived in the eighth episode of Breaking Bads Season 2, and fans quickly took a shine to the morally dim double-talker. He originally was conceived as a three- or four-episode guest star, but instead he went on to appear in 42 more episodes before the series storied run ended in 2013. Odenkirk returned to the role in 2015 with Better Call Saul, which (despite its title) presented the character when he was known by his birth name, Jimmy McGill, and has tracked his evolution toward the Saul alias. Hes floundered a bit in many ways, Odenkirk said. Deadlines The Contenders Emmys Arrivals: Mahershala Ali, Lily Collins, Maggie Gyllenhaal & More Story continues The shows chronology is closing in on the starting point of Breaking Bad, which has the actor excited to see the new past catch up to the old future. Change is on the horizon. The darkening of Jimmys world throws his nascent law practice into jeopardy as well as his relationship with Kim (Rhea Seehorn). The lawyer struggles to keep the relationship on track despite the fact that his actions undermine it. Everybody that knows the show knows that [the relationship] cant last, he said Sunday. Odenkirk said the journey to become Saul Goodman has a finish line, and hes sprinting toward it with the spirit of last-place runner. I know who I am now! he said. Im this sh*tty guy! Its going to be great! The show has earned 23 Emmy nominations to date a gaudy lifetime total that likely will increase soon and its Season 4 arc has been a compelling one. The death of Jimmys eccentric brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), and his efforts has led to the birth of the Saul Goodman persona (the name is play on the optimistic phrase, [It]s all good, man). The characters third alias, Gene Takovic, is the one he assumed at the conclusion of Breaking Bad as he fled to Nebraska to become a Cinnabon manager. Better Call Saul is executive produced by Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein, Thomas, Schnauz and Gennifer Hutchison. Deadlines Contenders Studio: Seth MacFarlane, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner & More Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The American tourist who was kidnapped for ransom along with her tour guide in a Ugandan national park last week has been rescued in good health, authorities said Sunday. Kimberly Endicott, 56, of Costa Mesa, California, and Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo were freed from their captors with the help of the Uganda Police Force and sister security agencies, the Government of Uganda wrote in a statement shared on Twitter. The police force later confirmed the rescue on social media as well, writing that the pair were in good health and in the safe hands of the joint security team. Security services have this evening managed to rescue kidnapped U.S. citizen Kimberly Sue Endicott and her driver Jean Paul Mirenge. Appreciation goes to @PoliceUg and sister security agencies that led the operation to return Sue and Jean Paul. Details to follow. pic.twitter.com/l3xczXixgb Government of Uganda (@GovUganda) April 7, 2019 Police & its sister security agencies have today rescued Ms.Kimberley Sue, an American tourist together with her guide who were kidnapped while on an evening game drive at Queen Elizabeth National park.The duo are in good health & in the safe hands of the joint security team. Uganda Police Force (@PoliceUg) April 7, 2019 Endicott and Remezo were found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, though their kidnappers managed to escape, government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo POdel wrote on Twitter. President Donald Trump celebrated the rescue on Twitter, writing, Pleased to report that the American tourist and tour guide that were abducted in Uganda have been released. God bless them and their families! Story continues Endicott and Remezo were on an evening game drive Tuesday through popular tourist destination Queen Elizabeth National Park when a group of armed men jumped on the vehicle, Uganda police said in a press release obtained by PEOPLE. An elderly couple was also in the vehicle, but managed to escape and alert the camp manager. RELATED: Calif. Tourist Kidnapped on African Safari as Captors Demand $500,000 Ransom The kidnappers then used Endicotts cell phone to demand a ransom of $500,000. Authorities previously said they did not plan to pay the ransom, and it remains unclear if they did in order to secure Endicotts release. Endicott had long dreamed of traveling to Africa to see gorillas on safari, friend Pam Lopez told local station KTLA. I know she was planning this trip for a while, because its something that shes always wanted to do, Lopez told the news outlet. This was always a big trip she wanted to take. She had been posting pictures of her trip up until it looks like two days ago, which brings it to Tuesday, which I believe is the day she got kidnapped, Lopez said. CANNES I like your style, Stine. Straight forward. You open your interviews like a man, Walter Gropius (August Diehl) ironizes, when at the beginning of Bauhaus -a New Era, a feminist interviewer, in 1963 Massachusetts, asks him the first director of Wiemar Germanys Bauhaus art school, a member of the avant garde, the most influential architect of his generation, how he could live with the lie that women and men were treated equally at Bauhaus. The same could be said of German director Lars Kraume, whose most famous film to date, The People vs. Fritz Bauer, lists preeminent Germans and companies which opposed the attempts of Bauer, a state attorney general, to bringing the crazies of Auschwitz to trail. Related stories Canal Plus, Studiocanal's 'Vernon Subutex': Creator Cathy Verney on the Canneseries Opener Canneseries: Lars Krause on 'Bauhaus,' Dorte Helm, Powerful Men with Women Bauhaus recounts the launch of the legendary art school, which changed the history of modern art. But it does so from the point of view not of Gropius, its icon and first director, but Dorte Helm (Ana Maria Muhe), his student and lover. Bauhaus set out to change 20th century art. That proved easier than changing mens essential attitudes towards women. Variety chatted to Kraume as Bauhaus word premiered at Canneseries in Official Competition. Walter Gropius, director of Bauhaus from 1919 to 1928, proclaims that the students are the tools of a new revolutionary view of the design. This is much clearer in aesthetics, than in gender issues, however, where Bauhaus himself proclaims equality but is not so far from what Alma Mahler calls patriarchal cravings for young girls students. Could you comment? The series is about the first chapter of the Bauhaus school in Weimar. It is the romantic period, when they were experimenting in many ways. Gropius aesthetics were expressionistic and his language was very prosaic. In this romantic phase, he thought he could provide equality to women, but later he was forced by the conservative bourgeoisie to take that back. Story continues Calling the students tools is a quote, but of course he had no gender issue in mind. Alma Mahlers accusation is fictitious, but not so far fetched. Gropius had various relationships with younger women. Amongst these was the one problematic Dorte Helm Affair, that was actually examined by a court of honor. This is where the story for this drama comes from: Conflict between powerful men like Gropius and confident women like Dorte Helm. One of Dortes Helms challenges is to develop her own voice. You sense from the early part of the series that this, and her fated affair with Walter Gropius, will drive this story. Dorte Helm tries to develop as an artist, to emancipate from many dominant men in her life and to find her own voice and her place in life throughout the series. Her relationship to Walter Gropius is the central plot. It is indeed a fated affair and it is an example for the battle between men and women. It is also a metaphor for the early, romantic phase of the Bauhaus. When the romance was over, constructivism took over and Bauhaus became famous. Its not that easy to get information on Dorte Helm in English. What was the process of research and how much of what we see is imagined, inspired by real facts? Dorte Helms daughter consulted us on the script. The series tries to give an answer, why Dorte Helm is not very well known. She is somewhat forgotten like many interesting women in the shadows of men. The story is true to facts to a great extent, but of course it is dramatized. How far did the fact that Bauhaus is about series an artist and an art school influence your style of direction of the series? The Bauhaus and its students were above all a bunch of wild spirits. We tried to keep that in mind while shooting the show. ZDF itself is overhauling its scripted series output. Last year, Canneseries premiered The Typist, for example. Would you see Bauhaus as part of this renovation? Frank Zervos, who is in charge of these productions, is already leaving his fingerprint. And I think, he has a clear vision on how to develop content that works for the traditionally older audience of the ZDF and yet attracts a young target group. Your maybe best-known recent work have been period dramas. As an auteur, would you see the exploration of German history as one of your hallmark passions, which youd like to continue pursuing in the future? German history is complex, dark and violent. It is an endless inspiration to write drama. There are some more interesting chapters to explore. One of my next projects together with Thomas Kufus Germanys attempted genocide of the Herero people in south-west Africa in 1905 to 1907. And of course I am working on the second season of Bauhaus, when the Nazis closed the school in Dessau. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As the HBO series The Deuce readies its third and final season, Maggie Gyllenhaal took the stage at Deadlines The Contenders Emmys to talk about the evolution of her character, Candy, a sex worker turned empowered porn director and how her journey reflects that of a certain person who has been making headlines as of late. While Gyllenhaal talked to Deadlines Pete Hammond about the story arc of Candy over the first two seasons, the name Stormy Daniels was brought up as she has had a very similar journey to Candy, who went from being an adult film star to a director. Related stories The Contenders Emmys: Deadline's Complete Coverage Gyllenhaal said that it would be interesting if a porn star brought Trump down. That would be great advertising for The Deuce, she laughed. Taking place in the late 70s, The Deuce puts the spotlight on the porn industry, but also the treatment of women in it. Gyllenhaal said that porn is seen as bad and although it can be destructive and exploits women, Candy is fed by the possibility of what it can do for her. As a woman trying to bring her artistry behind the camera as a porn director, Candy struggles to be taken seriously but this was common during the era and it is, unfortunately, the case in 2019 as well. Deadlines The Contenders Emmys Arrivals: Mahershala Ali, Lily Collins, Maggie Gyllenhaal & More I think for Candy, she gets told no all the time she doesnt have the luxury to wallow and feel bad about it, said Gyllenhaal. She just keeps moving forward. for her, thats all she has. Created by George Pelecanos and David Simon and starring Gyllenhaal and James Franco, The Deuce follows the story of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New Yorks Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world that existed there until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic and the renewed real estate market all ended the bawdy turbulence. The HBO drama is executive produced by Pelecanos, Simon, Nina Noble and Franco; Richard Price is co-executive producer; Marc Henry Johnson and Gyllenhaal produce. Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. President Donald Trump said ahead of his trip to Southern California on Friday that he wont attend the annual White House Correspondents Dinner next month. It will mark the third year in a row POTUS has skipped out on the event, where some of the nations most prominent journalists gather. Trump told reporters Friday on the South Lawn when asked about attending that he would counterprogram the event with a political rally as hes done in the past. Related stories Trump Traffic Hits L.A. Commuters On Friday, POTUS Here For 2020 Fundraiser Yeah, because the dinner is so boring and so negative that were going to hold a very positive rally, he said, according to pool reports. And we havent determined we have about three sites. Everybody wants it. Itll be a big one. But the correspondents dinner is too negative. I like positive things. The WHCD had been known for its choice of emcees usually a comic or late-night host who in the spirit of the evening takes jabs at the spheres of politics, government and of course Presidents. Last year, comic Michelle Wolf did the honors and pulled few punches including digs at White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that drew criticism from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In November, event organizer the White House Correspondents Association announced its 2019 annual dinner would bypass the roast approach and instead be emceed by historian Ron Chernow. The shift piqued Trumps interest at the time. So-called comedian Michelle Wolf bombed so badly last year at the White House Correspondents Dinner that this year, for the first time in decades, they will have an author instead of a comedian, he wrote on Twitter. Good first step in comeback of a dying evening and tradition! Maybe I will go? Meanwhile, TBS Full Frontal with Samantha Bee will tape its second not-annual Not the White House Correspondents Dinner special April 26 to air opposite the WHCD the next night, April 27. Trump is headed to San Diego today for a border wall event before heading to Los Angeles later in the day for a fundraiser. Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. PANAMA CITY Paul Federbush, international director, Sundance Feature Film Program, andLaura Michalchyshyn, at Sundance Productions, delivered a presentation at IFF Panama, moderated by Diana Sanchez, focusing on how the changing media landscape has created new opportunities for filmmakers, in particular in regions such as Latin America. Im very interested in this part of the world and the talent here, said Michalchyshyn. Related stories IFF Panama: Panamanian Filmmakers Set Sights on International Market IFF Panama: Ricardo Darin Talks About His New Film The rise of streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, and new entrants such as Disney Plus and WarnerMedia has radically transformed the business, with a shift of the center of gravity from movies to TV series and with increasing potential for non-U.S. content to circulate internationally. Federbush explained that this new environment was one of the factors that stimulated the Sundance Institute to reinforce its international strategy. Both Federbush and Michalchyshyn underlined the potential of the Latin American market and Spanish-language films and series in particular, citing the fact that there are currently 44 Spanish-language series on Netflix. The Sundance Institute recently organized a screenwriting lab during the Havana Film Festival, which had three-to-four projects, each with its own script consultant. A bigger story lab has also been organized since the 1990s in the Morelia Film Festival in Mexico, with a 50/50 split between scripted and documentary projects. Latin America is such a huge region, we probably need to establish a couple of hubs here, suggested Federbush. We dont have a hub in Panama right now, but filmmakers from here can attend our labs in Morelia, for example. The Sundance Institute has also reinforced its digital initiatives, including an online learning platform with episodic master classes, that are open to filmmakers around the world. Story continues We dont just organize a lab and then forget you, said Federbush. If you attend the screenwriting lab, you have subsequent online support and can go to directing, music or producing labs. We dont give production grants, but we give momentum grants. You can come back to see us, cut after cut. We connect you with editing advisers. Latin American filmmakers who have attended Sundance labs include Mexican-El Salvador director Tatiana Huezo (Tempestad) and Chilean directors Marcela Said (Los Perros) and Francesca Alegria (And the Whole Sky Fits in the Dead Cows Eye which won the Sundance 2017 Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction). Michalchyshyn talked about her experience with platforms such as Netflix, for her recent series Bobby Kennedy for President, and with HBO, for Momentum Generation. Its one of the best times to be a creative. But its also terrifyingly difficult. The entry points arent easy, she said, Who do you phone at Netflix or Amazon? Even for me, its hard. The executives are changing every six months. Its very difficult to keep track. Michalchyshyn underlined the importance of identifying executives responsible for specific regions in a platform such as Netflix rather than trying to contact LA. She also emphasized the importance of packaging, with A list talent in key positions or as executive producers. Platforms like Netflix or Amazon dont have the bandwidth in their teams to develop projects. They wont spend money on developing scripts. You need to put together a complete package that they can greenlight. She explained that to pitch the $4 million Bobby Kennedy series to Netflix, she put together a five-minute trailer, a 35 page treatment and a detailed bible for a six hour series including the subject list and interviews. Netflix said it preferred a four-hour series, and then approved it, but with a 12-month deadline to complete everything, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Bobby Kennedys assassination. Netflix is a completely different mindset from the studios or cable channels. They need 150 hours of original programming every quarter. Its a machine. They take all rights worldwide, no negotiation. They have buyers in the main territories for features and docs. The Sundance Institute has recently launched a TV series lab, sponsored by players such as HBO, Showtime, Netflix and Amazon and a Web series lab sponsored by YouTube. Movies have lost their prominence, admitted Federbush. Series are guiding the streamers. Movies are an afterthought. Thats disturbing for me, as a film snob. But I think for talent it can offer great opportunities. Notwithstanding the rise in importance of series, both executives emphasized the importance of using film festivals to create visibility. Federbush nonetheless suggested that it can still be difficult for festival films to reach a broader audience, citing the example of Chilean 2018 foreign-language Oscar winner A Fantastic Woman which had a narrow arthouse release. Budgeting for festivals and marketing is nonetheless vital. Michalchyshyn said that an independent feature should reserve at least $5,000 and that for Bobby Kennedy she had a $50,000 festival and PR spend. At the extreme end of the spectrum, she cited the example of Netflixs promotional spend on Roma during the Academy Awards. She estimated that the production budget was $15 million but the full promotional spend was around $75 million. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. President Donald Trump resumed his attack on the Fake News Media after a brief break to rail on illegal immigration and calling on Mexico and Democrats in Congress to help Republicans end the horrible, costly and foolish loopholes in our Immigration Laws. In an early Sunday morning tweet, Trump revisited earlier news reports that some investigators on Robert Muellers team told associates that Attorney General William Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling that Barr indicated. Related stories President Donald Trump Tweetstorm - The Saturday Edition Looks like Bob Muellers team of 13 Trump Haters & Angry Democrats are illegally leaking information to the press while the Fake News Media make up their own stories with or without sources sources no longer matter to our corrupt & dishonest Mainstream Media, they are a Joke!, Trump tweeted. The tweetstorm so far: .Mexico must apprehend all illegals and not let them make the long march up to the United States, or we will have no other choice than to Close the Border and/or institute Tariffs. Our Country is FULL! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2019 More apprehensions (captures) at the Southern Border than in many years. Border Patrol amazing! Country is FULL! System has been broken for many years. Democrats in Congress must agree to fix loopholes No Open Borders (Crimes & Drugs). Will Close Southern Border If necessary Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2019 .I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary for @DHSgov. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2019 Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2019 .@RealDonaldTrump is doing his job to SECURE OUR BORDER! @CBP is doing their job. Its time for Congress to do its job and CLOSE THE LOOPHOLES in our immigration laws & end the CRISIS on our southern border! Mike Pence (@mike_pence) April 6, 2019 The last 2 years, under @RealDonaldTrump, have been 2 years of action its been 2 years of results & its been 2 years of promises made and promises kept! #MAGA Mike Pence (@mike_pence) April 7, 2019 Pleased to report that the American tourist and tour guide that were abducted in Uganda have been released. God bless them and their families! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2019 Looks like Bob Muellers team of 13 Trump Haters & Angry Democrats are illegally leaking information to the press while the Fake News Media make up their own stories with or without sources sources no longer matter to our corrupt & dishonest Mainstream Media, they are a Joke! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2019 Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. By PTI JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Saturday to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins the upcoming general election. His comments come just days before the closely-fought April 9 poll and could be seen as an appeal to rightwing voters, who do not believe in the feasibility of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. "I will apply (Israeli) sovereignty, but I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements," he said in an interview with Channel 12 television. Settlements built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War are deemed illegal by the international community and their ongoing construction is seen as a major barrier to peace. Annexation could prove to be the death knell for the two-state solution. Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Netanyahu's statement on annexation was "not surprising." "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administration's support," he said on Twitter. In an interview broadcast Friday, Netanyahu said he told US President Donald Trump he would not remove settlements or people as part of a future American peace plan. "I said there shouldn't be the removal of even one settlement" from the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 13 television. More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements as part of Israel's military occupation of the territory, where more than 2.5 million Palestinians live. A further 200,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied east Jerusalem, over which Israel has already implemented full sovereignty. Washington is expected to unveil proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace sometime after Tuesday's Israeli election in which Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term. The Israeli prime minister was asked by Channel 13 if he was familiar with the details of the US plan, replying he knew "what should be in it." Along with settlements, "our ongoing control of all the territory west of the Jordan" River was a further condition set by the Israeli premier for any US-led peace initiative. Netanyahu said he informed Trump not "even one person" would be evicted from a settlement. The US president on Saturday was cautious about the outcome of Israel's upcoming election, calling it a close race between "two good people". "How is the race going by the way? How is it, who's going to win the race? Tell me, I don't know," Trump asked the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. "Well, it's going to be close -- I think it's going to be close.Two good people," he said, referring to Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz. Rescued Pilot Whale Dies at SeaWorld Orlando, Marks Second Whale Death This Year Rescued Pilot Whale Dies at SeaWorld Orlando A pilot whale at SeaWorld Orlando died on Saturday following years of medical issues. In a blog post, SeaWorld Orlando confirmed the death of Fredi, one of 23 stranded pilot whales that the SeaWorld Rescue Team and partners responded to in 2011, near Cudjoe Key, Florida. When Fredi was deemed non-releasable by NOAA Fisheries after rehabilitation due to her very young age, SeaWorld provided her with a permanent home, where she has received outstanding care for the past 8 years, said Dr. Erin Fougeres, Marine Mammal Stranding Program Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. In addition, SeaWorld Orlando said in a statement that Fredi had battled health issues since 2011. RELATED: Orca Whale Kayla, Second Oldest Whale Born in Captivity, Dies Suddenly at SeaWorld Orlando John Raoux/AP/REX/Shutterstock For whales and dolphins that strand, full recovery is not always guaranteed. This pilot whale faced continued health issues since her initial stranding. In recent months her condition progressed, requiring advanced monitoring and care by the SeaWorld veterinary and animal care teams, the statement read. Despite that full effort, her health and quality of life declined recently and she was no longer responding to treatment. In recent months Fredi had been showing signs of fatigue and loss of appetite, according to the blog post. Through a physical exam and diagnostic samples, veterinarians discovered that [Fredi] had an infection. Despite recent round the clock care, her health and quality of life continued to decline sharply, the blog post explained, adding that she had been undergoing an aggressive anti-microbial treatment to treat a persistent infection. Fredis death marks the second time a whale died at the Florida park. An orca named Kayla died unexpectedly at age 30 in January of unknown causes. Pablo Lyle, a Mexican soap star, was arrested in Miami, Florida, after the actor allegedly fatally punched a man during a road rage incident, according to reports. According to the Miami Herald, Lyle, 32, got into an altercation with another driver, Juan Ricardo Hernandez, last Sunday after Lyles car cut Hernandezs car off. Hernandez then got out of his car and began allegedly screaming and banging on Lyles car. The outlet reports that two witnesses saw Lyle punch Hernandez in the face, before fleeing the scene. Surveillance video footage obtained by NBC 6 allegedly shows the encounter. The video shows one man running out of his car and punching the other after the second man had banged on his car. The punch knocks the second man to the ground. A hospital employee confirmed on Thursday that Hernandez died at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, WPLG reports. Family members told the Herald that Hernandezs brain injury led to an internal hemorrhage that left him unconscious. After several days in the hospital, his life-support systems were disconnected. The Jackson Memorial Hospital did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for confirmation. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. According to the Herald, Lyle was arrested by Miami police while at the Miami International Airport last Sunday. He was charged with assault, the outlet said. After his arrest, the newspaper reports that Lyle said he punched Hernandez because he feared for the safety of his family and 6-year-old son. Lyle posted a $5,000 bond and was allowed to travel back to Mexico, the Herald reported. A second article by the Herald, published on Saturday, added that Circuit Court Judge Lisa Walsh ordered that Lyle must return back to Miami for a bond re-hearing on Monday morning. It remains unclear if Lyle will face more charges after Hernandezs death. Story continues The Miami Police Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for comment. It was not immediately clear if Lyle has retained a lawyer who could comment on his behalf. Lyle starred on the Mexican soap operas Mi adorable maldicion and Corazon que miente, among others. U.K.s Fearless Minds is joining forces with Spains Hierro producer Portocabo and Vaca TV to co-produce high-end historical mini-series project Garbo, el espia que engano a Hitler (Garbo, The Spy Who Double-Crossed Hitler). Inspired by the life of the one-off Juan Pujol, alias Garbo, a Spanish double agent who helped change the course of World War II, the six-episode TV drama project is being penned by James Wood, creator of BBC series Quacks and Rev. Related stories The move marks an early U.K.-Spain TV co-production alliance for TV drama, with international TV giant the Banijay Group also entering as a partner. Garbo was first unveiled as a project in June 2017 at TV drama co-production meeting Conecta Fiction, in Galicias Santiago de Compostela, by series executive producers, Portocabos Alfonso Blanco and Vaca TVs Borja Pena (pictured, right to left). British producer Jolyon Symonds (Thorne: Sleepyhead, Complicit), who launched Fearless Minds in 2017 as the fruit of a joint venture with Banijay, is also taking an executive producer credit on the series. This is a very natural U.K.-Spain co-production, and it is not easy to find a TV content that works so well in both markets, Blanco said. Combining the Spanish, Portuguese and English languages, the series characters will speak the natural language required by the story at every moment. Our idea is to be faithful to the facts: This is a story that starts in Madrid, promptly travels to Lisbon and ends at the MI5 headquarters in London, he said. The series will follow Juan Puyol and his incredible friendship with British spy Thomas Harris, met by chance, helping in 1944 to persuade German defense forces to focus on an Allied landing at Calais, rather than Normandy. The series is going to have a lot of drama but wont be made from a historicist point of view. We are going to see the B side of the Normandy landing and WWII, from a focus which has not yet been told. And this makes the difference, apart from the extraordinary history that the series tells, Blanco said. Story continues The differentiating element of the series -and thats why we think James Wood is the right scriptwriter- is to tell it from a certain structure like Steven Spielbergs movie Catch Me If You Can, with a light tone, making it very agile, because what Puyol and Harris did was playing, create characters, a scam, as if they were professional scammers, he added. He continued: There is some vaudeville and Wood is a specialist in this type of mid-tone content. He made Rev. mixing British phlegm and very fine dialogues, with a lot of rhythm and a lot of truth. That is of great value. With regard to the reference to Spielberg, Blnco added that there is some similarity in plot and in style, a thriller element, and sometimes high drama, It is also the incredible but true story of a tandem. We are going to look for a director that gives us that point of view. Garbo represents the most ambitious TV drama produced to date by La Coruna-based Portocabo and one of the biggest ever in the Spanish TV scripted market, according to Blanco. Portocabo, which has a collaboration agreement with Banijay, has just produced thriller series Hierro, teaming with Movistar +, Arte France and Lagarderes Atlantique. It world premiered at Marchs Series Mania and is being handled by Banijay Rights. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Young Thug is being pulled back to court in his criminal drug case with prosecutors filing an appeal of the recent decision to throw out all evidence. According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Georgia prosecutors have notified the court they are appealing the recent decision to grant Thugs motion to suppress evidence in [] young thug Young Thug is being pulled back to court in his criminal drug case with prosecutors filing an appeal of the recent decision to throw out all evidence. According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Georgia prosecutors have notified the court they are appealing the recent decision to grant Thugs motion to suppress evidence in his case. The decision basically got all evidence being used against Thug thrown out of the case, following the rapper calling into question whether the traffic stop was legal. The judge believed it was not. The prosecutors are not letting the case go and are now asking for an appellate court to overturn the decision on evidence. The criminal case cannot be closed or move forward until the outcome of the appeal. The appeal being filed is a setback for Young Thug who only last month scored his huge victory in the case. The judge granted Thugs motion as the stop of the vehicle was illegal in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. The order stated, Officer Fikes testified, unequivocally, that the sole season for stopping the vehicle was based upon a supposed window tint violation However, there was no credible evidence present, whatsoever, how this vehicles window tint violated. Thug originally filed the motion in December, saying the cops never read him his rights before taking him to the station during the 2017 arrest. He wanted all statements he gave to them thrown out. The case is over a September 2017 incident where he was pulled over for a window tint violation but cops supposedly smelled marijuana. They searched the car and then found other drugs and arrested Thug. He claimed the stop of his car by police was unlawful and additionally, there was no probable cause to search this vehicle. Thus, all evidence must be suppressed. The rapper said while in custody and being interrogated by law enforcement he was never read his Miranda Rights and therefore believed all his statements must be suppressed. Story continues Young Thug claimed he was innocent of all drug charges and took issue with the grand jury indictment. He claimed they accused him of possession of multiple drugs with the intent to distribute, but he says there is no evidence provided that would back up the distribution charge in the indictment. Back in September, a grand jury indicted the rapper on eight felony charges including possession and intent to distribute meth, weed and hydrocodone along with possession of amphetamine, Alparzolam, codeine and possession of a firearm. The judge ordered Thug to submit to weekly drug tests and enroll in out-patient treatment but allowed him to be released again on bond. The case could still go to trial and Thug faces years behind bars if convicted. The post Young Thug Dragged Back to Court by Prosecutors in Criminal Drug Case appeared first on The Blast. 'What is the president hiding?': Rep. Pramila Jayapal on releasing full Mueller report originally appeared on abcnews.go.com After President Donald Trump said that Democrats would never be satisfied with whats released from special counsel Robert Mueller's report and one of his lawyers wrote to the Treasury Department to say the IRS should reject a committee chairs request for Trumps tax returns, two key House Democrats on the Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees pushed back Sunday. On the issue of the Mueller report, Judiciary Committee member Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said Trump "should test" his theory that Democrats wont be satisfied "by releasing the entire report and the underlying information." She added, however, that she doesnt think Trump nor Attorney General William Barr will do that. "I think that there is a real problem with a politically appointed attorney general who seems to have released a three-page report on the actual report -- the only thing we've seen so far -- that now is seeming to not comport with what Mueller and his team actually prepared," Jayapal said on "This Week." "I think the main thing here is what is the president hiding? How do we make sure that we get everything that was produced? We have not seen a Mueller report. We have only seen a Barr report, so we're going to stay firm on this. We're going to push hard." (MORE: House Democrats authorize subpoenas for Mueller report) PHOTO: President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he leaves the White House, April 5, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to authorize Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to issue subpoenas for Muellers full, unredacted report and the underlying evidence. Barr is currently working with Muellers team to redact grand jury information, classified material and anything else form the nearly 400-page report that would compromise ongoing investigations and the privacy of "peripheral third parties," he wrote in a letter to Capitol Hill on March 29. Story continues On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Nadler questioned the Justice Departments intentions in the redaction process. "We have reason to suspect this administrations motives. The Mueller report probably isnt the 'total exoneration' the President claims it to be," Nadler said. "And, in any event, this committee has a job to do That job requires us to evaluate the evidence for ourselves -- not the attorney generals summary, not a substantially redacted synopsis, but the full report and the underlying evidence." Jayapal said on "This Week" that she thinks there is judicial precedent to be able to get the Mueller report in its entirety. "But a federal appeals court ruling just this week reinforced that the release has to be a part of a judicial proceeding," Stephanopoulos pressed. "That means, in effect, that Congress is going to have to open up a formal impeachment inquiry in order to get that grand jury information. Are you willing to do that?" Jayapal said that "its not clear" that it has to be an impeachment proceeding. "I think that judicial proceeding could mean a number of different things. It doesnt necessarily mean impeachment hearings," she said. On March 24, Barr released a four-page letter laying out Muellers "principal conclusions," which indicated that no members of Trumps campaign coordinated with Russian officials to influence the 2016 presidential election. On the issue of whether the president obstructed justice, Mueller made no conclusion. Barr, however, determined that Muellers report "identified no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive behavior." "We dont know what was in (the report) around conspiracy ... we know what the president says was in it. And we certainly don't know what the underlying information was that ... special counsel Mueller felt he could not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice. That's a critically serious charge," Jayapal said. PHOTO: Rep. Pramila Jayapal questions witnesses during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee's Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee on Capitol Hill on March 12, 2019, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, FILE) Also on Wednesday, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to the IRS requesting six years of Trumps tax returns, setting off whats likely to be a contentious legal battle over the presidents personal finances. In the letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., requested Trumps personal and business tax information from 2013-2018, including individual tax returns and returns from eight businesses linked to the president. (MORE: House Democrats ask IRS for Trump's tax returns) "There's a real question, George, as to whether the president's personal financial interests impact his public decision making," Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., said on "This Week" Sunday. "The public has a right to know whether the president's interests are impacting the decisions that he makes using the authority that we have granted him by electing him as president." Neal also asked whether any of Trump's returns are or have been under audit, which the president routinely cites as his reason for not releasing his tax returns. Although its not required by law, starting with Jimmy Carter, presidents have voluntarily released their tax returns, setting a precedent that Trump broke with during the 2016 election. "The unusual situation is not Congress using its authority to gain access legitimately under a very clear statute, the thing that's unusual is that Donald Trump has broken 50 years -- nearly 50 years of tradition by not being transparent with the American people," Kildee told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. "Anybody who knows Donald Trump should be concerned about his abuse of authority," he added. PHOTO: U.S. Representative Dan Kildee at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on Capital Hill, June 27, 2018. (Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images, FILE) Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, he reiterated that he "would not be inclined to" release his tax returns until hes not under audit by the IRS. "We're under audit, despite what people said. And we're working that out as -- I'm always under audit, it seems. But I've been under audit for many years because the numbers are big, and I guess when you have a name, you -- you're audited," Trump said. "But until such time as I'm not under audit, I would not be inclined to do that." In a letter to the Treasury Department sent Friday, an attorney for Trump said the IRS "should refrain from divulging the requested information" until the Justice Department offers a formal opinion on the matter. (MORE: Trump lawyer argues IRS should reject Democrats' request for president's tax returns) "It would be a gross abuse of power for the majority party to use tax returns as a weapon to attack, harass, and intimidate their political opponents. Once this Pandoras box is opened, the ensuing tit-for-tat will do lasting damage to our nation," Trump's tax attorney, William Consovoy, wrote to Treasury General Counsel Brent McIntosh. Kildee said on "This Week" Sunday that "its certainly not a Pandoras box." "Section 6103 of the tax code grants to the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee the right to order a tax return of a taxpayer in order to inform him and the committee on a subject that we are deliberating over. We are looking very carefully right now as to whether or not the IRS is properly auditing and enforcing tax law on the president of the United States and we're considering legislative changes toward that end," Kildee told Stephanopoulos. "No lawyer for the president should interfere or direct the IRS or the Treasury Department to ignore the law." Kildee said the chairman is not asking for Trumps tax returns to be made public and that other members of the committee may not even get to see them. "This is specific to Chairman Neal, because he needs this information in order to frame the questions that we're trying to answer and the policies that we are trying to potentially enact," Kildee said. Man who pretended to be the missing Timmothy Pitzen lied about his identity twice before originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Brian Michael Rini, the young man who told police he was missing teen Timmothy Pitzen has a history of lying to police about his identity, officials revealed on Friday. Police reported Thursday that the person who identified himself as Pitzen, who disappeared when he was 6 years old in 2011 and would be 14 years old now, was in fact a 23-year-old from Ohio. A DNA test proved the young man was not Pitzen. Rather, he is Brian Michael Rini, and this wasn't his first run-in with law enforcement. (MORE: FBI says that the person claiming to be missing teen Timmothy Pitzen is not him) Ben Glassman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said Rini "had actually on two prior occasions claimed to be a victim of juvenile sex trafficking." In those cases, which took place in northern Ohio but the dates of which were not publicly released, Rini's identity was determined when his fingerprints were tested by authorities, Glassman said. In this case, Rini refused to give his fingerprints to law enforcement officials, but he did allow them to swab him, which was then used to run a DNA test. "I think there were suspicions relatively quickly if for no other reason than he declined to be fingerprinted," Glassman said. A photo given to ABC News shows a man who was found wandering a Kentucky neighborhood on April 3, 2019, who told authorities that he was Timmothy Pitzen. Newport Police identified him as Brian Michael Rini, who is a 23-year-old from Ohio. (Obtained by ABC News) Glassman said that on multiple occasions Rini had identified himself as Pitzen to FBI agents, after the agents had identified themselves. After the DNA test was completed and the results confirmed his true identity, a FBI agent reminded him that it was a crime to lie to a federal agent, and they read him his Miranda rights. "Nevertheless, he again said that he was Timmothy Pitzen," Glassman said, noting that agents "confronted him with the DNA results and at that point, the person stated immediately that he was not Timmothy Pitzen." In the news conference, Glassman said that Rini learned about the missing boy on television several weeks ago. A show 20/20 on OWN Presents: Crime, which detailed the Pitzen case last aired on Jan. 28, according to Discovery, Inc. which owns the channel. Story continues (MORE: Texas boy missing since 2017 found with father in Florida, authorities say) Rini now faces a federal criminal charge for lying to a federal agent, which is punishable with up to eight years in federal prison. Glassman noted the possible sentence is a reflection of the fact that Rini is accused of "lying about a material matter that involves the sex trafficking of children." "My heart goes out to the family of Timmothy Pitzen. I can only imagine the kind of pain that they have been through and that this episode has caused for them," Glassman said. PHOTO: Joliet Police search Castle Rock State Park wetlands for evidence in Timmothy Pitzen's disappearance, May 19, 2011. (Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images, FILE) Glassman did not go into any further details about Rini's criminal history except to confirm he was "recently released from custody in March." According to Medina, Ohio, police chief Ed Kinney, Rini "has an extensive criminal history with Medina police and documented mental issues," he told ABC station WLS. (MORE: Aurora, Illinois Boy, Timothy Pitzen, 6, Missing After Apparent Suicide of Mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen) "He has between 50 and 60 interactions with Medina police, more than nine pages," Kinney told WLS. The suspect's family echoed that sentiment and noted he had been receiving unspecified treatment for undisclosed issues. (MORE: Teen claims to be Timmothy Pitzen, the Illinois 6-year-old who went missing in 2011: Police report) "He was receiving treatment but then he stopped and started getting in more trouble," his brother Jonathan Rini told ABC station WEWS. "I told the family that I'm sorry for what he's done," Jonathan Rini said. Police are expected to give an update on the case Friday morning. There have been no statements about any possible charges involved in the case. PHOTO: Alana Anderson, left, and daughter, Kara Jacobs, said they were devastated after the false news that Timmothy Pitzen may have been found, on April 4, 2019, in Antioch, Ill. (Joe Shuman/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images) For their part, relatives of Pitzen gave a statement after the DNA test made it clear he was not a match, expressing their disappointment and their empathy for Rini. "We hope that everyone will join us in praying for the young man," Timmothy Pitzen's aunt Kara Jacobs said of Brian Rini. "I don't think that anything involving a child is a hoax and I will reserve all judgement and pray for the young man," she said Thursday. First Responders Deliver Baby Boy on the Side of the Road: 'He Had to Come Out with a Bang' A Florida mother who was nine months pregnant and just a few days shy of her due date went to the hospital on March 30 thinking she might be going into labor. But when she arrived, doctors told her it was a false alarm and that she could go home. When Brittany Holmes was back in her car, she quickly realized she left the hospital too soon. You read about people having their babies but, you never think that youre going to be the one, to not make it to the hospital, Holmes told My Panhandle. Holmes called 911, and with only a few minutes before the baby arrived, they met with first responders at an Exxon gas station in Freeport. I knew he was coming. I didnt think it would be that fast, Holmes told the news outlet after the first responders successfully delivered her son, whom she named Hagan. RELATED VIDEO: Mother Gives Birthday In The Hospital Hallway March 30th 2019, 2:42 A.M., the delivery of the baby. Ill always remember it, Austin Pugh, Walton County Fire Rescue, District Chief, told the news outlet. The mother was actively delivering when we arrived on scene. For Chief Pugh, it came full cycle because the baby was named Hagan which is also the fire boss fathers nickname. RELATED ARTICLE: Hilary Duff Planned a Natural Home Birth for Her Daughter: I Want to Get the Full Experience Holmes already has three girls and always wanted a boy, she told My Panhandle, and thats why he had to come out with a bang. The new mom added: Just thank you for the paramedics and the chief and my mom. Mandy, 35, Matt, 38, and their two sons, ages 3 and 1. | Matthew Kirschner Photography I was working in New York City in beauty public relations but was laid off in the spring of 2016. Our older son was almost 1 then, and we realized that we probably wouldnt be able to afford the kind of house we hoped for on the East Coast. Plus, we wanted another baby and knew being closer to family would help. Matts parents and his brother live here in St. Louis, and my mom is an easy-ish seven-hour drive to Omaha. Together we earn $168,000 per year, which breaks down to about $8,600 each month after taxes. Things are definitely cheaper in the Midwest. For example, in New Jersey we paid about $3,500 a month for our apartment and a parking space. Now we pay about $2,700 for our house and two cars. In New York, I was earning more than Matt. But my salary has decreased nearly $30K, which has been a blow to my egoand to our wallets. While the cost of our mortgage, cars, groceries, and day care is down, so is our total income. Day care costs about $2,500 a month, and it honestly feels like it might break us. But weve seen huge developmental benefits in our kids as a result of it, and we know the situation is only temporary. Our next-biggest expense is the mortgage, which is $2,100. After we moved, we needed a second car, so now we own one and lease the other. Together, the payments are $650 a month. We keep our incomes separate. We each have our own checking accountMatt pays the mortgage and I pay for day care and utilities, and we split credit-card bills evenly. We also each have a personal savings account that the other isnt allowed to touch. Finally, we have a joint savings that we used for the down payment on our house. We lived together when we were dating, so having separate accounts made sense, and after we were married, it seemed too complicated to combine finances. And really, there was no benefit to sharing money until we had a baby. Story continues We both have a 401(k) through our employers, although were definitely not contributing enough. Well probably start making larger contributions when the boys are going to school full-time. Matts freelance architecture photography business. In 2018, he didnt have as much time to devote to it, and took in about $3,000. But in 2017, he was much busier and made about $20,000. It can be hard, though, because these projects usually require him to travel over a weekend, and I really miss the extra set of hands when hes gone! Matthew Kirschner Photography Matt does all of our home repairs. We try to be smart about unnecessary expensesour DirecTV contract expired recently, so we went with an online streaming service. We also use Amazons Subscribe & Save option for toiletries, diapers, and wipes, and Chewy for dog food. One sticking point is that we split expenses down the middle even though our salaries arent equal. Matt makes more than I do, so sometimes well find ways to even things out on a month-to-month basis, like maybe hell pay all his usual bills plus a week of daycare. Were striving to find a longer-term solution that will work for us. Ive never carried a balance, but I hoped that Matts debt would be taken care of by the time we got married in 2011. He was able to pay it off in 2014, before we got serious about having a baby. When Matt made his final payment, I brought home a Mylar balloon in the shape of a zero, and we had a little celebration. Putting almost everything on a credit card that earns airline miles, and paying it off every month. Our family has flown round-trip to Denver, where my dad lives, and to Omaha, for a total of only $22 each time. Our points also covered a rental car on one of those trips. Every week we spend about $100 on eating out: $50 for lunch at work, and another $50 to go out as a family. We have most of our groceries deliveredIll happily pay the delivery fee just so I dont have to go to the storeand thats around $150 a week. Our boys are thriving in day care, but we cant wait to be done with that expense. | Matthew Kirschner Photography Instead of buying gifts for Matt and me, they generally give us cash. They also contributed to the down payment on our house, and my mom helped us buy our second car. Plus, the kids have their own college funds set up through both sets of grandparents. I feel like I dont have enough money to save after paying our big expenses. Prior to my pregnancies, I had a healthy personal savings account, but during both of my maternity leaves, it got drainedby the rent, and then by our mortgage and other bills. My first maternity leave was six months, and I received about $1,200 a month plus disability for six weeks. But during my second leave, I was transitioning from a freelance gig to a full-time salaried position at my current company, so I wasnt paid anything and wasnt eligible for disability pay. Im still annoyed that I had to take a financial hit for staying home with our babies. Paying for both of our boys college educations so they dont have to take out loans. We would love to be comfortable enough to go out to dinner or take a trip without really having to budget. And retiring on the early side sounds like a nice thing to do! When we moved into our house, the kitchen was functional, but ugly. We originally planned a small-scale makeover, but then decided to do it right. We spent close to $10K, and that money came from our monthly take-home pay as well as some savings from Matts photo business. Because we DIYed pretty much every aspect, we were able to space out the big projects and purchase materials when we could afford them. We finally finished in February! Im happy we went this route and didnt take out a home-improvement loan; Matt thinks hiring contractors would have doubled our total cost. It may not end up being our dream kitchen, but its much better organized now, and we built storage that fits our lifestyle. Its nice to feel like were making this house our own. The Expert Says: Cash-flowing their renovation instead of taking out a loan was a great decision. And cutting cable? Another smart move! says Jamila Souffrant, creator of the personal finance podcast and financial advice website JourneyToLaunch.com. While they may not be in the position to max out their retirement contributions, they should think about increasing their contributions by 1 or 2 percent. Because it comes out of their paychecks before taxes, it might not be as big a decrease to their take-home pay as they think. Since theyre looking for a simpler accounting system, they could try this: If Mandys salary makes up 40 percent of the total income and Matts makes up 60, they could each contribute to a single family checking account according to those percentages. This article originally appeared in Parents Magazine as 'Our Salary Story: The Kirschners.' Want to tell your story? Email us at money@parents.com. Photo credit: CPBRI/MEGA From Prevention We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you a breaking news alert. While on a 12-day Caribbean tour with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles hit the beach in Barbados donning some surprisingly on-trend muted floral trunks. And were just getting word-*checks earpiece*-yes, folks, this is just in: His bod is cracking. You heard it here first. The bod? Its cracking. We now take you live to the Marie Claire newsroom for more on this important story. Charles, 70, despite his classic British paleness in the photos first reported by TMZ, is definitely rocking those trunks. Several eyewitness reports even indicate that he can, in fact, still get it. With the aim of providing our readers with the most up-to-the-minute information possible on this breaking item, our News Team has thoroughly searched the Google results for Prince Charles shirtless and can now exclusively reveal that this is not the first time Charles has been photographed without a top. Further, a perusal of said results suggests that the Prince has gotten better with age, as evidenced by this 1984 photograph: Photo credit: Anwar Hussein - Getty Images God save the Queen. And after a deeper dive into the archives-again, purely for the sake of our readers, who rely on us for up-to-date and credible data for stories of such international importance-we can also present a photo from 1970 that shows conclusively that the Prince has always been a smokeshow: Photo credit: David Cairns - Getty Images Good show, old chap. At the risk of editorializing, stories like this are why many of us in the Marie Claire newsroom got into journalism. Goodnight and good luck. (And don't forget to pick up some floral trunks for your SO.) ('You Might Also Like',) Sometimes a story on the Internet is so good, you tell it over and over again, even if takes forever to explain to people who arent really online, bless them. Thats what I found myself doing this week with the tale of the semi-dormant Taylor Swift stan account whose owner claimed to be an Israeli teen recently imprisoned for refusing to join the IDF. (My dad: First of all, whos Stan?) The story unfolds in a three-act Twitter thread that went completely viral for its flat affect and outrageous content: Everything about the way the two accounts interacted in this brief exchange was funny and engrossing: how @LegitTayUpdates revealed her prison stint in a tweet about, of course, prioritizing her satirical Taylor Swift news updates; the lower-caps concern of omg why; LegitTayUpdates shocking response, that she was apparently jailed for non-violent resistance, which made her lmao. The combination of frivolity and gravity, sincerity and irony, politics and pop cultureit created a now rare moment of digital joy in which we, the people who discovered and shared the story, actually felt better about who was online with us and what we were all doing there. LegitTayUpdates, who asked to go by N when we spoke via Twitter DM, says she is a 19-year-old woman from southern Israel. For the past few days, she says, shes been inundated with media requests and messages of support and denigration from talking openly about the taboo subject of resisting IDF conscription. In Israel, its mandatory that both men and women serve in the Defense Forces at 18, and less than one percent of conscripts refuse to enlistthere are a few groups who receive dispensations, including Israels Arab population, but N couldnt prove she was a pacifist (she apparently told them shed punch a Nazi). So on February 1, the account that had been previously posting about Taylor Swift posted about heading to military prison. She says she was there for two months. Story continues Upon release, N tweeted about being back on the Taylor Swift stan scene, and the rest is history. One reason her story went viral is that it was hilarious to see a rabid fan of a notoriously apolitical and milquetoast (dont be mad at me, N) pop star talking about going to prison for a political stance. (Its antithetical to stan culture, actually, which has been responsible for chasing people off platforms and bringing Pete Davidson to his breaking point, that a stan show such passion about anything other than the fandom subject.) Ns Gen Zisms made the pairing of prison resistor and meme-poster even funnier. (I know Swifties who are lawyers, activists, journalists, doctors, teachers, librarians, software engineers, biochemical engineers, nuclear physicists! N chided me.) But more notably, her frank and even glib recounting brought sudden mainstream attention to a lesser-known aspect of one of the worlds longest-running, thorniest conflicts. Middle Eastern peace is an issue so bogged down by history and by the huge scope of its major playersnations, religions, ethnic groupsthat individual voices are often hard to hear, though they are most affected by punditry and policy. And when they do get heard, expressing an opinion that isnt one of those that have defined the conversation for decades on cable news, they are usually met with huge resistance. Somali-American Muslim representative Ilhan Omars comments on the Israeli governments lobbying influence in the United States are a recent example of this. The ensuing debate (which largely played out on Twitter, by the way) was a reminder that the makeup of seemingly warring factions is more complicated than you think; charges of antisemitism and Islamophobia revealed how each phenomenon is discussed and by whom, and that American Jews feel drastically differently about the state of Israel. LegitTayUpdates similarly offered a little-understood point of view that wrinkles the meta-conflict narrative: that of young Israelis who support Palestinian freedom. N told me she was going to enlist because thats what you do here before she met and spoke with Palestinian teens for the first time, and heard their stories and their heartbreak. . . . That was a real shifting point. I then noticed some international political coverage about PalestineGaza in particularthat I hadnt been exposed to in the major Israeli media outlets. From there it sort of snowballed. Her decision has apparently caused tension with friends and family, most of whom dont know her identity after going viral. N is terrified of retaliation. I havent released much information, my volunteer lawyer has told me to not give away any details about my incarceration or anything that could be traced back to me. Israel is a small country, and if people find my last name, Im scared of what may happen to my family or friends or, just in general, my future. This story has gone global, so me being doxxed would stay with me for life. Thats quite scary. Still, she said, maybe Ill tell my parents in a few years at some Passover Seder. A funny, sardonic, and undeniably real teenage girl (Im The Annoying Leftist Bisexual at family dinners) tweeting about Israel as an autocracy and how Palestinian suffrage is a PR nightmare, obviously, for the countrys hard-right, which would prefer international focus on Hamas and terrorism. Ns willingness to speak out under LegitTayUpdates is so captivating because of that unabashed authenticity, the knowledge that she is behind the front lineswere seeing a conversation were used to watching take place from behind podiums at the UN happen on Twitter in emojis and abbreviations. Im a lover of music in general, not just Taylor. I like hiking, my favorite color is either orange or blue, Im terrified of chickens, and my best subject at school was history, N saysimagine that on C-SPAN. It also feels like a moment of purity in the very dark story of how the Internet has helped push its users further and further toward conspiracy, violence, and unreality. A recent spate of antisemitic, Islamophobic, racist, and misogynist terror attacks around the world have been fueled by the Internets alt-right digital corners, hyper-destructive chat rooms that are like distorted horror versions of old fan forums. Those wildest narratives like QAnon are sanitized of their most obvious offenses and re-promoted by the likes of Fox News as anodyne conservatism and concern for family values. Less violently, but nevertheless insidiously, other stories have underscored how the un-real world of Internet influencers adversely impacts real people (see the Fyre Festivals devastating wake in the Bahamas). Shared among these incidents is immense profit by technology companies, who sell themselves as objective platforms but are doing whatever they can to remain deregulated and shielded from tax burdens, and to incentivize more posting. Writer, artist, and critic Jenny Odell calls this a corporate tendency toward aggressive monoculture; Ns willingness to interrupt her digital life with her very real material oneinstead of the other way aroundfeels, in this context, revolutionary. LegitTayUpdates is a source of profoundly moving optimism. Though she fears that Israel is shifting more to the right, N saysThe new hot party in the upcoming elections is a centrist party, and theyre basically running as were not the left and were not the right,When I speak to younger people, I do feel like were getting more informed as a whole. For instance, did you know that there are nearly 5 million Palestinians in Palestine? I sure didnt! A lot of people in Israel (including my family) arent even aware of how many people this occupation is effecting. Shes using her viral fame to fundraise for the Palestine Childrens Relief Fund, all while continuing to post parodic T-Swift updates. Also they sound mad old trying to discredit me because Im 19 as if IDF soldiers arent just 19 year olds with semi[-]automatic rifles , she tweets of her haters. N epitomizes a kind of New Irony, in which the usual tools of adolescent disaffection are deployed instead to collapse the distance between digital and emotional lives, a knowing, winking earnestness of the generation raised on smartphones, shared by the kids making Green New Deal memes or the survivors-turned-activists of Parkland. The crying emoji stands in for real tears. A young person engaging critically and actively with the world weve inherited and getting joy from her favorite Vine (the one where the guy nearly drops his croissant) brought me almost to tears this week. She reminded me, an old millennial, that the Internet helped connect people to the Arab Spring, to Black Lives Matter, to Standing Rock. Which is, of course, what the old fan forums that predated stan culture were once blissfully about: showing up for something. N says, They can hate me all they want, but I am who I am and I believe in what I believe. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Sunday claimed that his government has reliable intelligence that India is planning another attack against the country between April 16-20, according to a media report. 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 (IAF) 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 aerial combat and captured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. Qureshi during a press conference in Multan said that the government has "reliable intelligence that India is devising a new plan", Dawn newspaper reported. "Preparations are being made, and there are chances of another attack against Pakistan. According to our information, the action could be taken between April 16-20," the paper quoted Qureshi as saying. "A new mishap could be staged. And its purpose will be to justify their [India's] offensive against Pakistan and to increase diplomatic pressure against Islamabad," he alleged. "If it happens, you can imagine the impact of the occurrence on the peace and stability of the region." Qureshi said that Pakistan has already briefed the United Nations Security Council's permanent members -- over the issue and stated Pakistan's apprehensions. "We want the international community to take notice of this irresponsible behaviour and reprimand them [India] for taking this route," he said. (Refiles to fix typo in first paragraph) By Costas Pitas LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Saturday that the longer it takes to find a compromise with the opposition Labour Party to secure a parliamentary majority for a Brexit deal, the less likely it is that Britain will leave the European Union. May has so far failed to secure backing for her negotiated agreement with Brussels as some Conservative lawmakers and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which props up her minority government, have voted it down. She has since turned to the opposition Labour Party in a bid to secure a majority for an orderly Brexit, although its leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Saturday he was waiting for May to move her Brexit red lines. "The fact is that on Brexit there are areas where the two main parties agree: we both want to end free movement, we both want to leave with a good deal, and we both want to protect jobs," May said in comments released by her Downing Street office. "That is the basis for a compromise that can win a majority in Parliament and winning that majority is the only way to deliver Brexit." "The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all," she said. May has a plan to enshrine in law a customs arrangement with the EU to win over the Labour Party, and her aides have discussed offering the opposition a place in the British delegation to Wednesday's EU summit, The Sunday Times newspaper reported. The prime minister has asked EU leaders to postpone Britain's exit from the bloc until June 30. The EU, which gave her a two-week extension the last time she asked, insists she must first show a viable plan to secure agreement on her thrice-rejected divorce deal in the British parliament. It is the latest twist in a saga which leaves Britain, the world's fifth-biggest economy, struggling to find a way to honor a 2016 referendum vote to take the country out of the globe's largest trading bloc. Story continues PRESSURES ON BOTH PARTIES May reiterated on Saturday her hope that lawmakers would approve a deal to allow Britain to leave the bloc as quickly as possible. "My intention is to reach an agreement with my fellow EU leaders that will mean if we can agree a deal here at home we can leave the EU in just six weeks," she said. One of the most senior Brexiteers in her government, the leader of the lower house of parliament Andrea Leadsom, also said there was a risk of Brexit slipping further from grasp. "The vision we had of Brexit is fading away and we are running out of time to save it," she wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. Some of May's lawmakers are warning they will try to oust her if Britain participates in EU parliamentary elections next month and is forced to extend membership of the bloc beyond June, The Observer newspaper reported. The Sunday Telegraph said ministers are discussing whether to resign if a Brexit delay means Britain must field candidates. In a further sign of the ever heavier strains on the Conservatives, more than 100 candidates for upcoming local elections wrote to May warning of the growing anger at the grassroots level and among the public. "Our party and our government have completely lost touch with voters," the candidates said, according to The Sunday Telegraph. "Let's be clear: more fudge and a further dilution of Brexit is not the answer." Opposition leader Corbyn also faces pressure as more than 80 of his lawmakers warned that another vote on Brexit must be a red line in Labour's talks with the government, The Independent newspaper said. (Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Daniel Wallis) LONDON (AP) A British man who survived exposure to a military grade nerve agent said he has questioned Russia's ambassador to the U.K. about the accidental poisoning that killed his girlfriend last year, a newspaper reported Sunday. Charlie Rowley told the Sunday Mirror that Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko seemed "genuinely concerned" when the two met Saturday but he thinks he was fed "Russian propaganda" during their meeting at the Russian Embassy in London. "I went along to ask them 'Why did your country kill my girlfriend?' but I didn't really get any answers," Rowley, 45, said. The newspaper helped arrange the meeting "I liked the ambassador, but I thought some of what he said, trying to justify Russia not being responsible, was ridiculous," he added. Rowley fell severely ill in June after he picked up a discarded perfume bottle near Salisbury, England. British authorities say the bottle contained traces of Novichok, the nerve agent that poisoned former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury a few months earlier. The Skripals also survived. Rowley's girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, became sick and died in a hospital after he found the perfume bottle. Britain has charged two Russians, reported to be agents working for the Russian military intelligence service GRU, with attacking the Skripals. Moscow strongly denies involvement. The nerve agent poisoning on British soil ignited a diplomatic confrontation in which hundreds of envoys were expelled by both Russia and Western nations. Rowley told the Sunday Mirror said he suffers long-term effects from his exposure. Yakovenko told him the substance used to attack the Skripals had not come from Russia and the country only had small amounts of Novichok, he said. "I'm glad I met him and feel I did find out some things I didn't know before. But I still think Russia carried out the attack," Rowley said. Story continues A tweet from the Russian ambassador's account Sunday said: "Met with Charlie Rowley to discuss last year's events in #Salisbury and #Amesbury. He never heard of the questions we put to the British side." The post included a link to a report the Russian Embassy in London issued last month that challenged many of the assertions made by British investigators. "If one is to believe that the bottle was found in a charity bin, how has it been possible that nobody had found it over the several months, before Mr. Rowley did?" the report states. Tripoli (AFP) - The US on Sunday appealed for an "immediate halt" to a military offensive by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, as fighting raged near Tripoli despite a UN call for a ceasefire. Haftar's forces and the UN-backed unity government exchanged air strikes Sunday, three days after Haftar launched an offensive to seize the capital. The unity government said the fighting had killed 21 people, while the United Nations said there had been "no truce" despite calls for a two-hour pause in fighting for civilians and the wounded to flee. Oil-rich Libya has been riven by chaos since the NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi, as rival administrations and armed groups have battled for power. Haftar's offensive has threatened to plunge the country into a full-blown civil war and once again derail tentative diplomatic efforts to find a solution to Libya's woes. "We have made clear that we oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftar's forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late Sunday. "This unilateral military campaign against Tripoli is endangering civilians and undermining prospects for a better future for all Libyans," he added. Pompeo stressed that there is "no military solution to the Libya conflict," and urged all parties to return to "political negotiations" mediated by the UN. After a pause overnight on Saturday, fierce fighting flared Sunday morning south of Tripoli between Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) and forces backing the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). As the clashes raged in the rural area of Wadi Raba and the destroyed international airport south of the capital, a spokesman for pro-GNA forces announced a counteroffensive. Colonel Mohamed Gnounou told reporters on Sunday forces had launched operation "Volcano of Anger" aimed at "purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces", in reference to Haftar's fighters. Story continues The LNA said it had carried out its first air raid on a Tripoli suburb, defying international calls for a ceasefire. - Truce hopes fade - The unity government's health ministry said Sunday at least 21 people had been killed and 27 wounded since the fighting began, without specifying whether civilians were among the dead. Haftar's force said Saturday that 14 of its personnel had been killed, while the Libyan Red Crescent reported the death of one of its doctors. Emergency services spokesman Oussama Ali said rescuers "have not been able to enter" the battle zones. The UN's Libya mission UNSMIL said it was "still hoping for a positive response" to its earlier call for a pause, after a two-hour window it had set for a humanitarian truce passed with no apparent let-up in the fighting. UN Security Council on Friday called on Haftar's forces to halt their advance, warning it would further destabilise Libya. But on Sunday Russia blocked proposals for the council to adopt a formal statement, diplomats said, instead insisting that all Libyan forces be urged to stop fighting. Moscow is a key supporter of Haftar, along with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The US military said Sunday it had temporarily pulled an unspecified number of its troops out of Libya "in response to security conditions on the ground". - 'Protracted war' - Analysts say Haftar has been buoyed by a series of successful operations that have brought all of the east and much of southern Libya under his control. A field marshal who served under Kadhafi and now backs an administration in eastern Libya opposed to the GNA, Haftar was counting on a swift battle to capture Tripoli. But some experts say he miscalculated. "To date, Haftar's operation has mostly failed to go according to plan, and it has now galvanised western Libyan forces against him," said analyst Wolfram Lacher. "He now faces the prospect of a protracted war south of Tripoli, or of a decisive defeat," said Lacher, a researcher with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Haftar's offensive came as UN chief Antonio Guterres visited Libya on Thursday, ahead of a planned UN-backed conference aimed at uniting Libya's rivals and paving the way for elections. Envoy Ghassan Salame has insisted the UN was "determined" to go ahead with the April 14-16 conference. NEW YORK (AP) Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Saturday for more outside regulation in several areas in which the social media site has run into problems over the past few years: harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability. In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Zuckerberg said governments and regulators rather than private companies like Facebook should be more active in policing the Internet. "Every day, we make decisions about what speech is harmful, what constitutes political advertising, and how to prevent sophisticated cyberattacks," he wrote. "These are important for keeping our community safe. But if we were starting from scratch, we wouldn't ask companies to make these judgments alone." More regulation over what constitutes harmful content could "set a baseline" for what is prohibited and require companies to "build systems for keeping harmful content to a bare minimum," he wrote. He said privacy rules such as the General Data Protection Regulation, which took effect in Europe last year, should be adopted elsewhere in the world. The piece comes days after Facebook was criticized when a shooting rampage in New Zealand that killed 50 people was broadcast live on the site. It said Thursday it was extending a ban on hate speech to white nationalists. Zuckerberg and others are "beginning to realize the wild, wild West of the Internet of the past, those days are gone," said Tim Bajarin, president of consultancy Creative Strategies. "And the Internet and especially social media sites now need to be looked at closer by government entities." Facebook has weathered more than two years of turbulence for repeated privacy lapses, spreading disinformation, allowing Russian agents to conduct targeted propaganda campaigns and a rising tide of hate speech and abuse. Zuckerberg submitted to two days of grilling on Capitol Hill last April. Earlier this month, Zuckerberg said he was shifting the company's focus to messaging services designed to serve as fortresses of privacy. HONG KONG (AP) Fiji extended its record winning run in Hong Kong Sevens rugby to a fifth successive title after beating France 21-7 in the final on Sunday. Fiji led 14-0 at halftime after tries by Vilimoni Botitu and Aminiasi Tuimaba. But they were challenged after the break when France received a penalty try and Josua Vakurinabili was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle that prevented Gabin Villiere from scoring. France, appearing in a second straight world series final for the first time, saw its advantage last briefly, as Tavite Veredamu was deemed guilty of the same infringement on Paula Dranisinukula to make it six on six. Tuimaba made the most of the extra space to score again in front of the sellout crowd and seal the result. Fiji has won seven of the last eight finals in Hong Kong, the biggest annual sevens event. Fiji beat Argentina 29-24 in the quarterfinals and disposed of world series leader the United States 28-19 in the semifinals. The win lifted Fiji above New Zealand to second in the series standings, seven points behind the U.S. with three rounds to go. South Africa was fourth. The top four at the end of the series qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. France beat New Zealand 14-12 in the quarterfinals, and topped Samoa 19-12 in the semifinals to reach its first Hong Kong final. The series moves to Singapore next weekend. ___ More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports It was only a few weeks ago that France seemed to be on the verge of total breakdown. The flammable environment of French politics was created by the political disconnect between provincial France and the Parisian elite. French president Emmanuel Macron announced a simple policy adjustment in that environment, and suddenly the country and its cities lit up with explosive protests that shut down the cities. Donald Trump is looking to do the same here in the United States. It wont generate the same kind of movement American politics are not as combustible as their French counterpart but its just as stupid here as it was there. The policy is raising taxes on gasoline. Trump is considering a 25-cent per-gallon tax that would fund infrastructure projects. The Chamber of Commerce supports the idea. Democrats are excited about it and Republicans are reported to be divided by it. Heres how McClatchy put it in a recent report: Last week, President Donald Trumps transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, told senators that a gas tax hike was on the table when asked whether the White House would support such a move. And this week, Democrats are indicating that they too are ready to consider a tax increase an effort that would fund publicly popular infrastructure improvements but has hit a hard wall of opposition for years from fiscal conservatives and advocates for low-income people alike. The last president to raise taxes on gas was Bill Clinton. He did so in 1993, just before the landslide election that created the modern Republican congressional majority. Its difficult to express how stupid this gas tax would be, though Tucker Carlson tried in a notable segment on his prime-time show. Carlson called the tax so mindless and counterproductive there is literally no way you could get reelected after doing it in a riff that suggested Donald Trump was purposely sabotaging his reelection to escape from his imprisonment in the White House. Story continues Gas taxes are insidiously regressive. They dont just impose extra costs on those who commute long distances. Over time the raised fuel costs of trucking, delivery, fertilizing, and harvesting flow through to everything. You wake up and every bite of corn flakes is more expensive. Your morning commute is of course more expensive. The tax gets priced into your property tax bill, which goes up to pay the higher fuel bill for the fleet of school buses for public schools. Snowplow services become more expensive. A gas tax like this follows people everywhere. Admittedly, the American situation is different from that of France. Our economy is more dynamic, and were riding on what seems like the froth of a long recovery and economic boom that has brought the unemployment rate way down, and wages up. The French economy is far more sclerotic, and far more protectionist. What France lacks in dynamism during good times is traded for more security during rough ones. But this regressive fuel-tax increase would come after Trump had passed a major tax reform that slashed corporate taxes. Yes, there is some evidence that these slashed rates have goosed the economy and contribute to the general uptick. But the benefits are also concentrated among wealthy and upwardly mobile people who run their income through corporate structures, often with their family names attached to them. Notably it is those voters who find Trump most repulsive and who have been abandoning the GOP for the Democrats since his nomination. The Trump revenue legacy is becoming almost a caricature of the country-club Republicanism he ran against. It is relatively easy to avoid the increased prices on certain appliances due to Trumps trade wars. It would be impossible to avoid the costs that a gas tax would impose, which would fall disproportionately on the people Trump claims to serve. And it would do so at a time when gas prices are already rising quickly. If it wasnt clear already, a gas tax like this makes Trumps nationalist populism even more of a fraud. Trump announces an end to Americas war in Syria, and the CIA and DOD announce that it will continue. He announces the creation of a workers party, and he rewards bosses and asset-rich entrepreneurs instead. He says he will fight for the forgotten American, and then he sticks those Americans with the bill for his infrastructure dreams. Trumps enemies Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, and the leading Democrats should be laughing at their good fortunes. Those fortunes are growing by the day. More from National Review BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz called on the British government and opposition Labour Party on Sunday to find a pragmatic agreement for Britain to leave the European Union. "It is time for the British government and Labour to come to a sensible agreement to end the paralysis in British politics and to avoid a disorderly Brexit," Scholz tweeted. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Keith Weir) Paris (AFP) - Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn has recorded a message in which he names the people he believes are to blame for his legal problems in Japan, his wife said in an interview on Sunday. Ghosn was re-arrested last week in Japan over fresh allegations of financial misconduct which will see him held in custody until at least April 14. Ghosn's wife Carole told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper in France that he had recorded a video interview in English before his detention. "He names the people responsable for what has happened to him. The lawyers have it. It will be released soon," she told the newspaper. Carole Ghosn has flown to Paris to try to pressure the French government to do more for her husband whose 108-day imprisonment in Japan between November 19 and March 6 had left him a "different person," she told The Financial Times in a separate interview. France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday he had raised the case during talks with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono on the sidelines of the meeting of Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers in the French resort of Dinard. Le Drian said he had "reminded him of our attachment to the presumption of innocence and the full rights of consular protection." DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iraq on Saturday to demand U.S. troops leave "as soon as possible", during a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi that showed off Tehran's strong influence in Baghdad despite U.S. pressure. Iran and the United States have been competing for clout in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, an enemy of both countries. Many of Iraq's leaders, from its Shi'ite majority, have close ties with Iran, the main Shi'ite power in the Middle East. Over the past four years, both Iran and the United States helped Iraq defeat Islamic State fighters that captured a third of Iraq in 2014. "You must make sure that the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because expelling them has become difficult whenever they have had a long military presence in a country," Khamenei was quoted as saying by state media. "The Iraqi government, parliament and current political activists in the country are undesirable for the Americans ... and they are plotting to remove them from Iraqi politics," said Khamenei. Iran and Iraq fought a devastating 1980-88 war but the 2003 U.S.-led invasion prompted a long Sunni Islamist insurgency during which Irans regional sway rose at Washington's expense. The long enmity between Iran and the United States worsened further following President Donald Trumps decision last year to pull out of an international accord curbing Tehrans nuclear program and to reimpose economic sanctions on Iran. During Abdul Mahdi's visit, President Hassan Rouhani called for Iran and Iraq to expand their gas and electricity dealings and boost bilateral trade to $20 billion. "The plans to export electricity and gas and hopefully oil continue and we are ready to expand these contacts not only for the two countries but also for other countries in the region," Rouhani said in remarks carried by state TV. In March, the United States granted Iraq a 90-day waiver exempting it from sanctions to buy energy from Iran, the latest extension allowing Baghdad to keep purchasing electricity from its neighbor. "We hope that our plans to expand trade volume to $20 billion will be realized within the news few months or years," Rouhani said. Iranian media reports have put the current level of trade at about $12 billion. Rouhani also expressed hope that work on building a railway linking the two countries would begin within the next few months. The railway project was part of deals reached during Rouhani's March visit to Baghdad. Iraq relies heavily on Iranian gas to feed its power stations, importing roughly 1.5 billion standard cubic feet per day via pipelines in the south and east. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Peter Graff) Berlin (AFP) - Former US president Barack Obama, visiting Berlin on Saturday, hailed weekly protests by youths against climate change, saying "the sooner you start, the better." The Friday protests involve schoolchildren and teens and have been inspired by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg. "Many of these people cant vote, they are too young to vote yet, but they know whats going on," Obama said during a meeting with youths in Berlin. "You wouldn't let your grandparents decide what music you listen to, or what clothes you wear. Why let them decide what world you will live in," he said. "Things change when we strongly mobilise," he said. "Our planet on which we live is in danger. We cant succeed by sitting back and waiting for someone else to do it". Obama, who left the White House in 2017 after two terms, was in Germany to promote his foundation. He signed the Paris climate accord in 2015 which calls for capping global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) but the planet is currently on track to heat up by double that figure. His successor Donald Trump decided in June last year to exit the accord. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. We tend to think of itchy skin as an annoyance that grows more common with age, not as a serious health concern. And common it is: A study of more than 300 seniors in Mexico found that 1 in 4 complained of chronic itch. But itchiness can lead to lost sleep or depression, especially when scratching an itch seems to only make it worse. And itchy skin isnt just challenging on its ownit can sometimes indicate an underlying medical problem. The good news is that simple home remedies can often help relieve it, and doctors can help treat more serious cases. I really try to get my older patients out of the mindset that dry, itchy skin is something normal that they have to live with, says Ilana DeLuca, M.D., Ph.D., a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at George Washington University. You dont have to just grin and bear it. Why Age Is a Factor For most people, the diagnosis is simple: xerosis, the medical term for dry skin. Xerosis is often exacerbated in the winter by the dry air from home heating systems, but its common in seniors year-round. Later in life, our bodies lose the ability to regenerate the fats and proteins that contribute to a healthy outer layer of skin, says Adam Friedman, M.D., a professor and the interim chair of dermatology at George Washington University. As a result, the skin loses its natural buoyancy and can become drier, rigid, and cracked. Eczema and Psoriasis Another common cause of itching is eczema, an umbrella term for several conditions that cause swollen rashes. Older adults with eczema may notice severe skin cracking on the lower legs. Psoriasis, which is associated with autoimmune problems, can also lead to significant itching. Outbreaks frequentlybut not alwaysoccur on the elbows, knees, lower back, and scalp. Psoriasis shows up in red patches covered by a thick crust of dry and cracked skin, which will typically peel off in big white pieces. Story continues Your doctor should be able to diagnose eczema or psoriasis with a physical exam. Simple Tips for Relief Small changes in your routine can help you manage itchiness and alleviate xerosis on your own. DeLuca says these steps should work for nine out of 10 people with itchy skin. Wash with a mild soap. Common soaps can leave your skin itchy and dry. Try a gentle cleanser thats free of dyes and perfumes. Cool it with the showers. Washing your skin too frequently can dry it out, so avoid showering more than once a day. You may also want to try lukewarm showers; hotter water can wash away substances in skin that help it retain moisture. Use a humidifier. This tip is especially useful in winter, when heated indoor air can make dry skin even drier. Ice the itch. If you need immediate reliefand youre tempted to scratchFriedman says that icing the itchy area is a good quick fix. Chlorinate your bath. Adding just a quarter-cup of bleach to 40 gallons of warm bathwater has been found to be an effective means of combating eczema. But be careful not to use too much. Use moisturizer effectively. Moisturizers work primarily by locking in moisture your skin already has. So Friedman suggests using one right after you get out of the shower or bath. Wearing gloves or socks for a half-hour after application can also help, he says. Talk to your doctor. If youve tried all of these suggestions and youre still itching, it might be time to see a dermatologist, says DeLuca. Psoriasis and eczema, for example, can often be treated with topical steroids or narrow-band UVB light therapy. These help some patients, but ongoing steroid use can thin out the skin and light therapy can be time-consuming. A doctor can investigate other possible causes of unrelenting itchy skin, such as kidney, liver, or thyroid problems. In very rare cases, itching could even be a sign of certain cancers, such as lymphoma. Allergies and medications (particularly opioids) can also make you itchy. Editors Note: This article also appeared in the May 2019 issue of Consumer Reports On Health. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. 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. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Russia on Sunday blocked a UN Security Council statement that would have called on forces loyal to Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar to halt their advance on Tripoli, diplomats said. Moscow insisted that the formal statement urge all Libyan forces to stop fighting, but the proposed change was opposed by the United States, council diplomats said. After a closed-door meeting on Friday, the council called on Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army to "halt its military activity" in an agreed statement to the press. Britain then proposed a more formal text for approval to the 15-member council that was opposed by Russia. All council statements are agreed by consensus. The proposed statement would have called on Haftar's forces to halt all military activity and for all forces to de-escalate, according to the text seen by AFP. The draft also would have "called for those who undermine Libya's peace and security to be held to account" and renewed support for a national conference to be held this month on holding elections. Russia has been a key supporter of Haftar, along with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Fighting raged south of Tripoli on Sunday, three days after Haftar launched the offensive to seize the capital, now controlled by a UN-backed unity government and an array of militias. The LNA said it had carried out its first air raid on a Tripoli suburb. The UN mission in Libya called for a two-hour humanitarian pause in the fighting that appeared to have been ignored. The health ministry in Tripoli said at least 21 people have been killed and 27 wounded in the fighting. The offensive raised fears of return to all-out war in Libya and left a question mark over the UN-led effort to lay the groundwork for elections with the April 14-16 conference. Libya descended into chaos during the 2011 overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi that has seen a bitter rivalry emerge between the Tripoli-based authorities and Haftar's supporters in the east of the country. MOSCOW (AP) The Russian military has commissioned more than 1,000 new aircraft and thousands of tanks in the past few years in a massive modernization effort amid tensions with the West, the nation's defense minister said Monday. Sergei Shoigu boasted of the military's achievements in his six years on the job, saying in a speech to lawmakers that the armed forces have turned into a highly mobile force capable of projecting power to distant areas. Shoigu noted that the military received more than 1,000 warplanes and combat helicopters and over 3,700 tanks in 2012-2018. He added that the armed forces have received 109 ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and 108 submarine-launched ICBMs and formed 10 brigades armed with state-of-the-art short-range Iskander missiles. Russia-West ties have plunged to their lowest levels since the Cold War times over Russia's actions in Ukraine, the war in Syria and the allegations of Moscow's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Amid the tensions, NATO has expanded its presence near Russia's borders to reassure its eastern members, a buildup Russia has described as a threat to its security. Relations between Moscow and Washington also frayed over the U.S. decision to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty over alleged Russian violations. The Kremlin has denied any violations and responded by also suspending its obligations under the INF treaty. Shoigu said that the campaign in Syria that Russia has waged since 2015 showcases its military might and allowed the military to test its new weapons in combat, including shipborne and air-launched long-range cruise missiles. He noted that the military also has seen a quick expansion in the number of drones, laser-guided artillery projectiles and other precision weapons. The defense minister emphasized that the 1-million-strong military has nearly 400,000 professional enlisted personnel and non-commissioned officers, a major shift for the armed forces that in the recent past relied exclusively on the draft. Story continues Shoigu said that the increase in the number of contract soldiers has allowed the military to form 136 battalions consisting entirely of professional personnel. Such battalion tactical groups are the core tactical units, allowing the armed forces to quickly deploy to any area. He said that every brigade or regiment in the Russian army now has two battalions of professional soldiers and one made up of draftees. The minister added that the draftees aren't sent into combat. Battalion tactical groups played a key role during Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine and the West also has accused Russia of sending its troops to support a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine claims Moscow has denied. Shoigu mentioned the military's effort to beef up its presence in Crimea. He also noted that the armed forces have expanded their foothold in the Arctic, deploying 475 facilities there. When the Securities and Exchange Commission this week issued guidelines for cryptocurrency companies that want to sell digital tokens, many in the industry praised the SEC for new regulatory clarity, but also privately seethed the agency had gone too far. This feels like an overt declaration of war on cryptocurrencies, said a senior lawyer who advises crypto firms. The guidance is terrible but people say we have to say nice things or theyll prosecute us. Everyone is afraid the SEC is full of thin-skinned bureaucrats, and now theyre so used to groveling. The lawyer, who is well known in Washington, DC, asked not to be named for fear of retaliation from the SEC. In an interview with Fortune, he claimed the SEC guidelines fail to acknowledge how crypto tokenswhich are nominally for buying online services but are also a vehicle for speculationare distinct from other assets. He added the SECs position will cause smaller companies to set up shop outside the U.S. The long-awaited guidelines arrived as the SEC continues to investigate companies that sold tokens to the public during the crypto boom of 2017, a period that saw a number of blatant frauds. The 13-page document explains how a 1946 Supreme Court decision, which set out a test for defining an investment contract, should apply to token offerings. The upshot is the vast majority of tokens put up for sale will likely be considered securities, which means they must be registered with the SEC before they can be offered to the publica process that can be slow and expensive. On the same day it issued the guidelines, the agency did, however, issue a letter that blessed one companys plans to offer unregistered tokens for membership in a club for hiring private jets. The SEC did so in part because the company, TurnKey Jet, had pledged that none of the token proceeds would be used to fund the building of the token network, and also that the tokens would not trade outside TurnKeys platform. Story continues In response, the law firm Cooley published a note that likened TurnKey Jets tokens to streetcar tokens, and observed (perhaps wryly) that the SEC had made clear neither were securities. According to critics, restrictions like the ones attached to TurnKey Jet negate the very reasons token projects are appealing in the first place. In the view of proponents, public token saleswhich are tracked on shared ledgers known as blockchainsprovide an inexpensive source of fund-raising, while the ability to exchange tokens on an external platform creates an important secondary market for tokens. Its a way to incentivize those who go first. Remember how Uber and Airbnb paid more to their first group of drivers and hosts, said the Washington, DC, lawyer. Other crypto attorneys on Twitter made a similar case: 6/ If the United States truly believes that we need to promote the use of blockchain technology, then we cannot treat tokens in a way that neuters their fundamental and most valuable quality ... Lewis Cohen (@NYcryptolawyer) April 3, 2019 13/ Because the no-action letter and the framework each contain "no-transferability" caveats, I don't immediately see how this advances the discussion or gives clarity to any entrepreneur who really needed it. Bummer. Marco Santori (@msantoriESQ) April 3, 2019 The new SEC guidelines also reaffirmed the agencys recent conclusion that two well-known early examples of blockchain and token offerings, Bitcoin and Ethereum, are not securities on the grounds that they are decentralized. This finding, however, may frustrate the leaders of newer blockchain projects who believe they face a wall of regulatory obstacles the earlier projects did not. Overseas options, looking to Congress While the SECs pronouncements this week may have ruffled the feathers of the crypto industry, they were hardly unexpected. Albert Lung, a securities lawyer with Morgan Lewis, said the agency has been telegraphing its intentions for months in a series of speeches by senior officials. Lung added that the new guidelines will nonetheless have a huge chilling effect, and will lead more crypto entrepreneurs to leave the U.S. and set up shop in places like Malta or Switzerland, where laws on token sales are far more permissive. He did not fault the SEC, though, saying the widespread fraud that has dogged token sales left the agency little choice. All of this puts U.S. cryptocurrency startups in a difficult position. Their hopes of conducting a token sale to fund their projects are all but dashed in light of the new guidelines while the more traditional optionregistering the securities and selling them in an Initial Public Offeringtypically costs several million dollars in legal and auditing fees. Lung says one alternative is a so-called Reg A plus offering, which describes a recent law that lets companies seeking to raise less than $50 million in public markets pursue a slimmed down IPO and registration process. He added that one of his clients is using this route for a token offering and that, while such filings are secret, he expects at least a dozen other startups are doing the same. Token sellers using the Reg A plus route will eventually gain traction, according to Lung, but in the meantime such applications face a long-wait at the SECa problem for startups given that crypto-related technology is evolving rapidly, and delays risk making their projects obsolete. Meanwhile, some are counting on Congress to intervene and help crypto companies face less burdensome demands from the SEC. A recent bipartisan bill, the Token Taxonomy Act, proposes, for instance, to carve out certain crypto offerings from the current definition of securities. In an email, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Oh), said, The market needs clarity. While the idea of guidance from the SEC is good, this guidance creates new questions. Effective guidance can only come from Congress. The bill is currently stalled but the Blockchain Alliance, a Washington D.C. trade group, told Fortune they are pushing to reintroduce it soon. Khartoum (AFP) - Thousands of Sudanese held a second day of protests Sunday outside the army's headquarters in Khartoum and in the vicinity chanting slogans against President Omar al-Bashir's government, witnesses said. Chanting "peace, justice, freedom" they massed outside the army headquarters which also houses Bashir's official residence and the defence ministry, many of them having spent the night there. "After what we did yesterday, we will not leave this area now until our mission is accomplished," said protester Osama Ahmed, who spent the night outside the compound. "We won't leave this area until he steps down," he said, referring to Bashir. Some protesters also blocked a nearby bridge linking Khartoum with the northern Bahari district with rocks causing huge traffic jams, witnesses said. On Saturday, thousands of men and women launched the biggest anti-government rally since protests first erupted in December, reaching for the first time the fortified army headquarters. The army did not intervene but riot police who converged near the compound fired tear gas at protesters to disperse them, and some of the demonstrators hurled rocks at them, witnesses said. And in a separate demonstration on Saturday a protester died in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, police said. Officials say 32 people have died since protests erupted in the east African country on December 19 after a government decision to triple the price of bread. Human Rights Watch has put the death toll to 51 including medics and children. Sudan's protests have escalated into nationwide demonstrations against Bashir's government, with protesters accusing it of mismanaging the economy, leading to soaring food prices and regular shortages of fuel and foreign currency. Bashir has acknowledged that the economic concerns raised by protesters were "legitimate," but he imposed an emergency rule on February 22 after an initial crackdown failed to rein in the protests. Protest organisers had chosen April 6 for the rally outside the army headquarters as it marked the 1985 uprising that toppled the then regime of president Jaafar Nimeiri. Khartoum (AFP) - One Sudanese protester died as thousands of demonstrators marched in Khartoum Saturday, many reaching the army headquarters for the first time since the deadly protests against President Omar al-Bashir erupted in December. Chanting "one army, one people," the protesters rallied in the capital's streets following a call by organisers to march on the compound, which also houses Bashir's residence and the defence ministry. Organisers said earlier this week that demonstrators would gather to demand the army either "take the side of the people or the dictator's". The crowds chanted the movement's catchcry "peace, justice, freedom", onlookers said. "We still haven't achieved our goal, but we have delivered our message to the army and that is: come join us," protester Amir Omer told AFP. "They were calling on Bashir to step down," another witness added. Fellow protester Adam Yagub, 40, said Bashir had "ruined the country's economy so much that people are dying even due to shortage of medicines". Police said a protester had died in the capital's twin city of Omdurman. "There were illegal gatherings in Khartoum and other states," police spokesman General Hashim Abdelrahim told the official SUNA news agency. "Police have recorded the death of one person during disturbances in Omdurman." A committee of doctors that helped organise the protests confirmed that the "martyr" was a medic. It means the death toll in protest-related violence since December has now risen to 32, according to officials. Human Rights Watch has put the death toll at 51 including children and medics. - 'Historic moment' - Soon after reaching the army compound, organisers called on the protesters to stand firm outside its fortified walls. "At this historic moment, we ask you to not leave the army headquarters and hold a sit-in in the nearby streets," the organisers said in a statement. Story continues Since the start of the protests, security agents and riot police have cracked down on demonstrators but the army has not intervened. After a few hours, dozens of vehicles full of riot police converged near the compound and fired tear gas at protesters in a bid to disperse them, witnesses said, adding that some demonstrators threw rocks at the police officers. Late on Saturday crowds of protesters remained outside the complex, some singing and dancing. "We will not leave this place until Bashir steps down," one protester said on condition of anonymity. Witnesses said that many demonstrators who grew tired were being replaced by newcomers, including families. - 'Further pressure on Bashir' - In a separate demonstration Saturday, protesters reached the army office in the town of Madani southeast of the capital, witnesses told AFP by telephone. "Today's turnout has been impressive," said a European diplomat on condition of anonymity. "It puts further pressure on Bashir and the regime and shows that the protest movement is not dying out." Protests have rocked the east African country since December 19, with angry crowds accusing Bashir's government of mismanaging the economy, leading to soaring food prices and regular shortages of fuel and foreign currency. They first erupted after a government decision to triple the price of bread but quickly escalated into nationwide rallies against Bashir's rule. On February 22, the veteran leader imposed a nationwide state of emergency to quell the protests after an initial crackdown failed to rein in the rallies. Since emergency rule came into effect, the demonstrations have been largely confined to the capital and its twin city of Omdurman. - Call for dialogue - April 6 was chosen for the nationwide rallies as it marked the 1985 uprising that toppled the then regime of president Jaafar Nimeiri. "Although the opposition chose this symbolic date of April 6, the government security forces treated the citizens respectfully," government spokesman Hassan Ismail said in a statement. "The government is committed to holding a dialogue because there's no other alternative." Before the protests began, security forces deployed in large numbers in key Khartoum squares and in Omdurman, across the Nile. Security agents were preventing passers-by from reaching downtown areas of Khartoum and ordered shops and markets in the area to close, witnesses said. Analysts say the movement has emerged as the biggest challenge yet to Bashir's three-decade rule. Bashir, wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and genocide in conflict-wracked region of Darfur, swept to power in an Islamist-backd coup in 1989. The veteran leader has remained defiant, introducing tough measures that have seen protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists arrested. President Donald Trump's decision not to follow through with a shutdown of the Mexican border comes as a big relief for U.S. automakers, especially considering the industry is already struggling with the administration's tariffs on imported aluminum and steel and a slowdown in U.S. sales. Nearly every major automaker saw sales fall in March and for the first quarter as a whole with Cox Automotive predicting U.S. new vehicle demand will be off as much as 7% for all of 2019. "The industry had a tough first quarter," Reid Bigland, the head of U.S. sales for Fiat Chrysler(FCA-IT), said during a conference call with reporters this week. He said the automaker was hoping the industry would see the market pick up steam in the weeks ahead during the traditionally strong spring buying season. A shutdown of the Mexican border could have scuttled that, threatening to leave dealers facing short supplies. Mexico grows Mexico has grown from an automotive backwater to become the fifth-largest producer of fully assembled vehicles in the world, according to federal data. All told, about 2.57 million light-duty vehicles were exported from Mexico to the U.S. last year, industry data show. That included about 30 models sold by 15 different automotive brands, according to Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Geografia e Informatica. It's a diverse list that includes the likes of Fiat Chrysler's new heavy-duty pickup, the Ram 2500, the Audi Q5 crossover and the all-new Chevrolet Blazer SUV. The latter is one of General Motors'(GM) newest products, and dealers are still struggling to build up inventories to meet anticipated demand. They'd have been hit hard by even a brief border closure. 'Devastating consequences' But even products built north of the border were at risk, according to industry analysts. Anything more than a brief shutdown could have had "devastating consequences" on the U.S. assembly and parts plants that employ about 1 million American workers, cautioned David Cole, director-emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research, or CAR. Story continues Since the original North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, went into effect on January 1, 1994, "the auto industry has developed a highly integrated manufacturing network that has essentially eliminated borders" between the three trade partners, Cole added. CAR research shows that $112 billion in autos and auto parts were imported from Mexico in 2018, while $36 billion was exported. On an average basis, that would work out to more than $400 million in automotive goods per day that could have been stuck at the border. In some instances, the impact, as Cole noted, could have been minor. Dealer's routinely keep about 60 days of vehicle inventories on their lots, though that can run far longer for slow-selling models. But American-made vehicles, especially hot-selling products such as the new Ford Ranger pickup assembled in suburban Detroit, could have been hit by a border closure. While the figure varies by manufacturer and model, industry data indicate that 38% of the imported parts used in American plants come from Mexico. Maquiladoras Many of those are relatively small and inconsequential items, such as trim pieces. But other parts are large and expensive, like the transmissions used in the Chevrolet Corvette. Even before NAFTA and the explosive growth of Mexican auto assembly operations over the past quarter century, Mexico was already carving out an automotive niche for itself by creating a special export zone called the maquiladoras, just south of the U.S. border. It has come to all-but-dominate supplying some key components about 70% of the wiring harnesses used on American assembly lines today coming from Mexico. Automakers have occasionally found ways to keep assembly plants running despite shortages of inconsequential parts. The assembly process can barely begin, however, without those bundles of wires that thread throughout every new vehicle. Just-in-time Back when NAFTA was new, the auto industry might have been able to live through a brief border shutdown by drawing down factory inventories. No longer, said analyst Cole. Today, the just-in-time manufacturing system, with inventories trimmed to the bare minimum, has become the norm. It helps manufacturers reduce costs and keep a better handle on quality, but even brief logistical disruptions can prove calamitous. A fire at a single supplier plant in Michigan last May resulted in lost production of thousands of Ford F-Series pickups. A border shutdown, CAR and other industry experts said, could be several times more severe. And finding alternative parts is, with rare exception a non-starter, at least on short order. "Any action that stops commerce at the border would be harmful to the U.S. economy, and in particular, the auto industry. Access to Mexico's market place and North American integration are critical to operations in the U.S.," Matt Blunt, president of the trade group, the American Automotive Policy Council, said earlier this week. Several senior automotive executives told CNBC they were "monitoring" developments in the president's ongoing dispute with Mexico, privately admitting they are pleased by the decision to abandon the idea of a border shutdown at least for now. Industry officials have been reluctant to openly criticize the president for fear of becoming a target of his frequent tweets. What next? The question is what happens next. During a White House meeting on Thursday, Trump told reporters, "If the drugs don't stop or largely stop, we're gonna put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular cars. The whole ballgame is cars. If they don't do it, we're gonna tax the cars. And if that doesn't work, we're gonna close the borders." In an industry used to long-term planning, a year isn't very much time. But the auto industry has other matters to worry about that could hinge on what Trump does in the coming months. There are the tariffs enacted last year on metal imports that, according to GM and Ford, added about $1 billion in costs for each of them in 2018 alone. An even bigger issue is how the president will respond to a recently completed Commerce Department study that explored whether auto imports pose a threat to national security. The president will have to decide what to do by next month but could enact up to 25% tariffs on cars and car parts imported from many parts of the world. As with the border shutdown, the impact could hit even American-made vehicles, Toyota estimating such a move might raise the price of a Kentucky-assembled Camry sedan by $1,600. That, trade groups such as the American International Automobile Dealers Association have warned, could really send the U.S. car market crashing, raising concerns about not only the 1 million Americans working at auto and auto parts plants, but the hundreds of thousands of others at dealerships and other related businesses. The Vietnamese top legislator is attending the IPU-140 at the invitation of IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron, and Chairman of the Consultative Assembly of Qatar Ahmad Bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud. NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan at Melsbroek airport in Brussels (Photo: VNA) Established in 1889 in Paris, France, the IPU now comprises 178 members and 12 associate members. It aims to enhance exchanges between parliaments and contribute to protecting human rights worldwide. Since Vietnam joined in April 1979, its active participation has been acknowledged by other members. Over the years, relations between the Vietnamese legislature and other parliaments have been strengthened. Vietnam hosted the 132nd IPU Assembly in April 2015, during which the Hanoi Declaration was adopted, contributing to devising the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development./. By Roberta Rampton LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he made the controversial decision to recognize Israel's 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights after getting a quick history lesson during a conversation on a different subject. Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in Las Vegas, Trump said he made the snap decision during a discussion with his top Middle East peace advisers, including the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and son-in-law Jared Kushner. "I said, 'Fellows, do me a favor. Give me a little history, quick. Want to go fast. I got a lot of things I'm working on: China, North Korea. Give me a quickie," Trump said to laughter from the Las Vegas crowd. "'How do you like the idea of me recognizing exactly what we're discussing?'" said Trump, recounting the conversation. Trump, who typically demands short sharp briefings and is known for his colorful retelling of stories, said Friedman was shocked, "like a wonderful, beautiful baby," and asked the President if he would actually do it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Trump last month. At their March 25 meeting, Trump signed a proclamation officially granting U.S. recognition of the Golan as Israeli territory, a dramatic departure from decades of U.S. policy. The move, which Trump announced in a tweet days prior, was widely seen as an attempt to boost Netanyahu who is up for re-election on April 9. Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally. "I went - 'BING!' - it was done," Trump said on Saturday, describing the swiftness of his decision. "We make fast decisions. And we make good decisions." When Trump asked the crowd who will win Israel's election - there were shouts of "Bibi!" Trump responded "I think it's going to be close. Two good people." Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival against former top general Benny Gantz, a political novice. Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson, who is reportedly gravely ill, watched the speech in person. Earlier three protesters stood on their chairs as Trump began to speak, shouting "Jews are here to say - occupation is a plague." The rest of the crowd quickly drowned them out with chants of "USA! USA!" They were physically removed by security guards. "He is going back to mommy and he will be reprimanded," Trump said of the protesters. "She gets it." (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, writing by Lucia Mutikani; additional reporting by David Shepardson and David Brunnstrom; editing by Michelle Price and David Gregorio) GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations torture investigator called on Ecuador on Friday not to expel Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from its London embassy, voicing concern that he could be extradited to the United States and possibly face mistreatment. A British friend said Assange was "prepared" for expulsion from the building he has lived in for nearly seven years, after Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said he had "repeatedly violated" the terms of his asylum. Moreno told radio stations on Tuesday that Assange did not have the right to "hack private accounts or phones" and could not intervene in the politics of other countries, especially those with friendly relations with Ecuador. Moreno made the comments after private photographs of him and his family were circulated on social media. Although Moreno stopped short of explicitly blaming Assange for the leak, the government said it believed the photos were shared by WikiLeaks. Nils Melzer, U.N. special rapporteur on torture, voiced concern that Assange's health was in "serious decline" and that, if he were expelled, he was likely to be arrested by British authorities and extradited to the United States. "Such a response could expose him to a real risk of serious violations of his human rights, including his freedom of expression, his right to a fair trial and the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," he said. "I therefore urge the Government of Ecuador to abstain from ...ceasing or suspending his political asylum until such time as the full protection of his human rights can be guaranteed." Vaughan Smith, who hosted Assange at his country mansion for a year during his failed legal battle against extradition, said after visiting the Australian inside the embassy that the situation was "very tense". "Julian doesnt know for sure but hes pretty convinced that at any moment he could be thrown out and hes prepared for it, Smith told reporters. INVESTIGATIONS Assange took refuge in Ecuador's London embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. That investigation was later dropped, but Assange fears he could be extradited to face charges in the United States, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks. In a separate statement also issued in Geneva on Friday, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to privacy, Joe Cannataci, said that he planned to meet Assange on April 25 "after receiving assurances from the Government of Ecuador that it will facilitate his visit to the countrys embassy in London". Cannataci said the meeting would help determine "if there exists a prima facie case of violation of privacy that warrants further investigation." He was requesting further information from the Ecuadorean government on a complaint lodged by Moreno that his privacy had been violated by publication of illegally obtained personal data. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; additional reporting by Helena Williams in London; Editing by Andrew Heavens and John Stonestreet) Caracas (AFP) - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Saturday launched what he promised will be a "definitive" escalation of pressure to force the country's embattled leftist leader from office. Addressing a giant anti-government rally in Caracas, Guaido -- whose claim to be interim president is supported by around 50 nations -- kicked off what he called "Operation Liberty," his plan to oust President Nicolas Maduro. "Everyone to the streets, let's start the final phase of the end of the usurpation!" he told supporters, speaking from the back of a pickup truck. He called for a huge nationwide turnout on Wednesday, and urged his followers to redouble their efforts to maintain pressure in the streets. "The greatest escalation of pressure we have seen in our history" has begun, Guaido said. The call comes amid massive blackouts and the collapse of water supplies affecting the nation, further exacerbated a growing political crisis. The United States meanwhile has stiffened its economic sanctions against Maduro, and one top US official warned Venezuela's military that it must protect the rights of peaceful protesters. At the rally, Guaido also warned Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel that the supply of subsidized Venezuelan oil to the Caribbean communist island nation was over. Venezuela has been sending cheap oil to Cuba in exchange for labor from Cuban doctors and teachers, but Guaido said the oil was actually financing a Cuban intelligence group known as G2 that was cracking down on Maduro opponents in the Venezuelan military. "The exploitation of Venezuelan oil is over, so Mr Diaz-Canel... Venezuelan oil will not be used to submit and investigate our military officials" through the G2, he told the crowd. Pro-Guaido protests drew thousands in rallies across the country on Saturday. A pro-Maduro counter-demonstration in Caracas, with supporters dressed in red, drew a large crowd that gathered at the Miraflores presidential palace. Story continues "Together, permanently mobilized, let's keep defending national peace and independence; no more interference!" Maduro tweeted. Later, he called upon Mexico and Uruguay to relaunch their proposal for dialogue to resolve the crisis without foreign intervention. The two countries had first introduced that idea in January. Two opposition deputies were detained at an anti-government demo in the western city of Maracaibo, but a few hours later Guaido announced that the two had been released. Elimar Diaz, a lawmaker who marched in Maracaibo, told AFP the protest there had encountered "brutal repression," including tear gas canisters dropped from helicopters, the use of National Guard armored vehicles and attacks by members of the pro-government militia, known as "colectivos." Diaz said people in Maracaibo had gone "days without electricity" amid "inhumane rationing" by the government. Maduro Saturday claimed that attacks on electricity infrastructure had been carried out from Chile and Colombia with the support of the US. The opposition blames a failure to maintain critical infrastructure for the blackouts, which have deprived millions of power. - Abrams an 'assassin' - Facing intense pressure at home and abroad, the Maduro government has sought to weaken Guaido. The government has stripped his parliamentary immunity, authorized his prosecution for proclaiming himself acting president, and banned him from holding public office for 15 years. Guaido said earlier this week he feared that he could be abducted by government agents. Speaking to the pro-government Constitutional Assembly, Maduro's top lieutenant Diosdado Cabello slammed the US point man on Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, as an "assassin." "It is Abrams who should be in prison, condemned in the United States for genocide in Central America," said Cabello, referring to the US official's controversial role in the Central American conflicts of the 1980s. Washington meanwhile kept up the international pressure on Maduro to step down. Vice President Mike Pence on Friday announced fresh sanctions against 34 vessels belonging to Venezuela's state oil company and two companies that ship crude to Cuba. "This is only a first step," US national security advisor John Bolton tweeted on Saturday in reference to the sanctions. He cautioned the Venezuelan defense minister in a separate tweet of the official's "constitutional responsibility to protect innocent civilians who are peacefully demonstrating," adding: "Do not let the Cubans or the 'colectivos' inflict violence against Venezuelan patriots." - Security Council to meet - Maduro is supported by the Venezuelan military, China and Russia. Washington and its allies view the socialist president as illegitimate since he took office in January for a second term following elections widely seen as deeply flawed. Washington has convened a UN Security Council meeting for Wednesday to discuss the Venezuelan crisis. Since Venezuela's massive blackout of March 7, the country has been subject to repeated power cuts, with electricity being rationed outside of Caracas. The blackouts have knocked out water supplies as well as transport and communications, forcing many people to trim their work days to six hours. Caracas (AFP) - Opposition supporters thronged the streets of Caracas and other cities on Saturday to protest against President Nicolas Maduro's government, as massive blackouts and the collapse of water supplies further exacerbated a growing political crisis. The United States meanwhile has stiffened its economic sanctions against the government, and one top US official on Saturday warned Venezuela's military that it must protect the rights of peaceful protesters. Opposition leader Juan Guaido -- whose claim to be the legitimate interim president is supported by around 50 nations -- had called for a huge turnout in Caracas, announcing in a phone message to supporters "the greatest escalation of pressure we have seen in our history." Pro-Guaido protests drew thousands in rallies across the country, while a pro-Maduro counter-demonstration in Caracas drew thousands of people who marched toward the Miraflores presidential palace. "Together, permanently mobilized, let's keep defending national peace and independence; no more interference!" Maduro tweeted. Two opposition deputies were detained during an anti-government protest in the western city of Maracaibo, but a few hours later, Guaido told a crowd of thousands in Caracas that the two -- Nora Bracho and Renzo Prieto -- had been released. Deputy Elimar Diaz, who took part in the Maracaibo march, told AFP the protest there had encountered "brutal repression," including the firing of tear gas canisters from helicopters. Diaz said people in the area had gone "days without electricity" amid "inhumane rationing" by the government. Maduro has blamed US-backed sabotage for the massive blackouts that have deprived millions of power. The opposition blames a failure to maintain critical infrastructure. - Crumbling economy - Facing intense pressure at home and abroad, the Maduro government has sought to weaken Guaido's position. Story continues The government has stripped him of his parliamentary immunity, authorized his prosecution for proclaiming himself acting president in January and has banned him from holding public office for 15 years. Guaido said earlier this week he feared abduction by government agents. The United States meanwhile kept up the international pressure on Maduro to step down. Vice President Mike Pence on Friday announced fresh sanctions against 34 vessels belonging to Venezuela's state oil company and two companies that ship crude to Cuba. He said in a speech in Houston that "the United States will continue to exert all diplomatic and economic pressure to bring about a peaceful transition to democracy." "Those looking on should know this: all options are on the table. And Nicolas Maduro would do well not to test the resolve of the United States of America." "This is only a first step," US national security advisor John Bolton tweeted on Saturday in reference to the sanctions. He cautioned Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino in a separate tweet of his "constitutional responsibility to protect innocent civilians who are peacefully demonstrating," adding: "Do not let the Cubans or the 'colectivos' inflict violence against Venezuelan patriots." The "colectivos" are armed paramilitary groups that support Maduro and are accused by the opposition of often resorting to violence. - Security Council to meet - Maduro enjoys important backing from his nation's military as well as from China and Russia as he clings to power. The US and its allies view the socialist president as illegitimate since he took office in January for a second six-year term following elections seen as deeply flawed. With its crude exports collapsing and international sanctions piling up, Venezuela's oil economy has crumbled. Malnutrition and disease are on the rise as living conditions plummet. In the face of the worsening humanitarian crisis, the US has convened a session of the UN Security Council for Wednesday. Since Venezuela's massive blackout of March 7, the country has been subject to repeated power cuts, with electricity being rationed outside of Caracas. The blackouts have knocked out water supplies as well as transport and communications, forcing many people to trim their work days to six hours. "We are tired," said Verony Mendez, 48, whose water was cut off two months ago. "But we have to take to the streets because it is the only way to get these people out!" When Gadi Habumugisha was 2 years old, he was forced to flee his home in Rwanda with his older sister. It was April 1994, and violence was escalating after the death of the president, as ethnic tensions erupted. Crossing the border to seek safety in refugee camps in the neighboring Congo, the pair were eventually orphaned by the killings. April 6 marks 25 years since the Rwandan genocide. Over the course of 100 days, an estimated 800,000 people were killed most of them members of the minority Tutsi ethnic group killed by the majority Hutu population. Gadi and his sisters new lives in Rwanda began at the end of 1994 after the genocide ended, when they returned with the Red Cross to their homeland and came to the Imbabazi Orphanage in the countrys north. Run by Rosamond Carr, an American humanitarian who had lived in Rwanda since 1949, the orphanage was a sanctuary for children who had lost their families as a result of that traumatic summer. For Gadi, and two other boys, Mussa Uwitonze and Bizimana Jean, the orphanage also became the place where, years later, they first picked up cameras at a photography workshop run by Through the Eyes of Children, an organization founded in 2000 by photographer American David Jiranek. All three boys seized the chance to tell their own stories by taking pictures. It marked the beginning of a lifelong passion for photography. Now all in their late twenties, the three men are spreading that passion to other vulnerable children, taking on the leadership of Through the Eyes of Children by teaching photography workshops in Rwanda and around the world. Working initially with 19 camera kids, the photography workshops for vulnerable children in Rwanda started in 2000, teaching them the basics of lighting, composition and stop-motion among other photography techniques. The photographs made by workshop participants have been exhibited at the U.S. Embassy in Rwandas capital Kigali, the United Nations headquarters in New York and at Holocaust museums around the world. When you give a child a chance to tell their story from their perspective, it tells them they matter, and that their story matters, says Joanne McKinney, project director at Through the Eyes of Children. Story continues Documenting scenes of everyday life in the country, the extraordinarily large collection of photographs track the healing and rebuilding of Rwanda in the years after the genocide. For us orphans, we were able to express ourselves and the world could see our photos, our country and the children of it, says Mussa Uwitonze, now 28 years old and the father of two girls. The photographs from the workshops did more than show life in Rwanda to international audiences. Proceeds from sales of the images to buyers around the world fed back into Imbabazi, paying for the childrens clothing, food and education. Many of the original Camera Kids have gone on to pursue careers in photography for media, events and non-profit organizations in Rwanda. Almost 20 years on from their first workshop, and 25 years on from the genocide, Gadi, Mussa and Bizimana are embarking on their own journey, telling their story through different means. They are both the subjects and storytellers of a forthcoming documentary, entitled Camera Kids, in partnership with American filmmaker Beth Murphy, director of the Groundtruth Project, an international non-profit media organization supporting storytelling and freedom of expression in the United States and developing countries around the world. The three men have all worked as professional photographers and now lead the Through the Eyes of Children photography workshops. But a few years ago, they realized they were still troubled by lingering questions about their past. We all had so many questions since our time at the orphanage, says Mussa. Who are these people who participated in the genocide? What were they thinking when they were killing people? We decided that it was our time, as photographers and storytellers, to find out the answers from the real people who participated in the genocide. These are the questions that Gadi, Mussa and Bizimana seek to answer in the documentary, which follows their reunions with the other original camera kids from Imbabazi Orphanage, which closed in 2014, as well as a three month-long journey through villages across northern Rwanda, interviewing and photographing those responsible for the violence and their families. So far, they have interviewed participants in the genocide and their families, and have the goal of interviewing 100 perpetrators in total. We want to hear what their stories are and why they were involved, Gadi says, but I dont expect to get a full or satisfactory answer. There is no valid reason that would lead one to kill another. However, talking to these perpetrators and survivors, I can see that eventually there has been some kind of reconciliation. Bizimana Abdullah stands at the site where he burned dozens of Tutsis to ashes in 1994 many of whom were his friends. He is haunted by the fact that not even one bone remained. | Jean Bizimana Murphy, the filmmaker, has been filming Gadi, Mussa and Bizimana for the past three years, with plans to release a feature-length documentary in late 2020. Making peace with your enemy is one of the most difficult things a person can do, and the story in Rwanda can really be something to emulate, she tells TIME. Murphy also says she was struck by some of the parallels in Rwanda with the rise of hate speech back home in the United States. Some of the language the perpetrators use to explain why they did what they did sounds a lot like some of the language that were hearing today, especially from white nationalists in the United States. Leading up to the 1994 genocide, government-sanctioned propaganda and radio broadcast messages were used to dehumanize the Tutsis and stoke hatred against them. Murphy sees parallels today around the world with the use of the word invasion, a phrase used by President Donald Trump to describe the movement of Central American migrants towards the U.S. border. The term invaders was also used in the New Zealand shooters manifesto before he killed 50 people at a mosque in Christchurch last month. Its chilling. And it is leading to violence and death, Murphy says. I want this film to be an antidote to hateful ideology and xenophobia. Beyond the perpetrator project, Gadi, Mussa and Bizimana are concentrating their efforts on expanding the mission of Through the Eyes of Children worldwide. In the U.S., they have led photography workshops with immigrant Haitian teenagers in New Jersey and foster children in Boston. In May, they plan to visit Haiti for workshops with orphanages, and will be traveling to Lebanon later in the year to share their photography craft with Syrian refugees. Its a great feeling to be able to transfer knowledge to kids in difficult conditions like we used to be in, Gadi tells TIME. Its like giving them a medicine to heal them. Its treating them because we know from experience that because of photography, they will be better people. The men want to foster a global community of camera kids, united by telling their own stories through photography and fostering empathy with others. A lot of kids around the world need photography to be able to express themselves, to know lives outside their boxes, says Mussa. And in Rwanda, where it all started, photography remains integral to the three mens lives. Gadi is pursuing a part-time career as a photographer and has worked with several non-profit organizations. Mussa recently left his job as a tour operator to become a full-time photographer, and Bizimana is in his second year as a staff photographer with Reuters Africa. Their determination to share their knowledge of photography with future generations has led to workshops with street children, disabled children, and now after the Camera Kids film project workshops with the children of both survivors and perpetrators of the genocide. When we were kids, [Rosamond Carr] used to tell us that we have to share with others what we have, Bizimana says, reflecting on the legacy of his late foster mother. This is the heritage she gave us. Giving other kids photography is doing what we promised her. Celebrate Our Youth Yakima Schools Foundations annual Celebrate Our Youth event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon April 27 at Davis High School. The event includes a brunch buffet, student testimonials, music, entertainment, a raffle and a talk by Dr. Peter Asante, the foundations inaugural Champion of Youth award recipient, who will discuss community projects that support the mental, physical and emotional health of Yakima School District students. Tickets are $40 per person ($35 for YSD employees) and are available at yakimaschoolsfoundation.org. DUBAI - Iran's top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Saturday to ensure U.S. troops leave "as soon as possible", Iranian state media reported. "You must make sure that the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because expelling them has become difficult whenever they have had a long military presence in a country," Khamenei was quoted as saying. President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that a Democratic victory in 2020 could leave Israel out there, as he highlighted his pro-Israel actions in an effort to make the case for Jewish voters to back his re-election. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Speaking at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump touted his precedent-shredding actions to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and recognition last month of Israeli sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel seized from Syria in 1967. US President Donald Trump at a Republican Jewish Coalition meeting Saturday (Photo: AP) We got you something that you wanted, Trump said of the embassy move, adding, Unlike other presidents, I keep my promises. The group, backed by GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, supported Trumps 2016 campaign and is preparing to spend millions on his 2020 effort. I know that the Republican Jewish Coalition will help lead our party to another historic victory, Trump said. We need more Republicans. Lets go, so we can win everything. Jewish voters in the U.S. have traditionally sided heavily with Democrats and are often ideologically liberal but Republicans are hoping to narrow the gap next year, in part as Trump cites actions that he says demonstrate support for Israel. The Jewish Democratic Council of America on Saturday said American Jews leaving the Democratic Party are a Republican fantasy. Trumps presidency has only solidified the fact that the Democratic Party has been - and will remain - the political home of the American Jewish electorate, JDCA Executive Director Halie Soifer said in a statement. This is because Trumps policies and rhetoric are antithetical to Jewish values, and because anti-Semitism has increased to unprecedented levels due to Trumps divisive words, policies, and willful blindness. But at the RJC, Trump earned standing ovations for recounting both the embassy move and the Golan Heights recognition. Trump noted it had long been a priority for Adelson and his wife, Miriam. That is the most important thing thats ever happened in their life, Trump said. They love Israel. TUS President Donald Trump at a Republican Jewish Coalition meeting Saturday (Photo: EPA) Trumps speech comes weeks after he suggested Democrats hate Jews. His remark followed an internal fight among Democrats over how to respond to comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., that some criticized as anti-Semitic. Trump mockingly thanked Omar as he began his speech, before adding, Oh, I forgot. She doesnt like Israel, I forgot, Im sorry. No, she doesnt like Israel, does she? Please, I apologize. He also accused Democrats of allowing anti-Semitism to take root in their party. Before Trumps appearance, people assembled for the event carried signs with We are Jews for Trump and Trump written in Hebrew. Dozens of men and several women wore red yarmulkes with Trump in white that were distributed at the event. Trump also took credit for eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians and for pulling the U.S. out of several U.N. organizations, the U.N. Human Rights Council and UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias in their agendas. Trump criticized some 2020 Democrats who have suggesting they would re-enter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew the United States. The agreement was fiercely opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has cheered as Trump re-imposed stringent new sanctions on the country that Israel regards as an existential threat. Trump is closely aligned with Netanayu, whos seeking to return power in Tuesdays national election. Trump predicted that election is gonna be close, adding it features Two good people, seemingly referring to Netanyahu and his chief threat to Netanyahus coalition, former Israeli army chief of staff, Benny Gantz. Despite his criticism of Democrats, Trump has faced his own criticism from the Jewish community. Trump was slow to condemn white supremacists who marched violently in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. The previous year, he circulated an image of a six-pointed star alongside a photo of Hillary Clinton, a pile of money and the words most corrupt candidate ever. The Golan Heights, recognized by Trump as under Israeli sovereignty late March (Photo: AFP) When he addressed the RJC in 2015 he said he didnt expect to earn their support because he wouldnt take their money. You want to control your politicians, thats fine, Trump said at the time. Ultimately, the group and many of its donors backed Trump. Trump met privately with Adelson before speaking, according to an official. Adelson has cancer and has been in poor health, but he and his wife attended Trumps remarks receiving a standing ovation when they entered the ballroom. The Adelsons gave Trumps campaign $30 million in 2016. They followed that by contributing $100 million to the Republican Party for the 2018 midterm elections. Introducing Trump, former Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., the chairman of the RJC, led the audience in an adapted version of the Passover reading Dayenu, as he recounted what Trump had done for Israel. Stuart Weil, a Jewish man from Fresno, California, said Americans have traditionally been very supportive of Israel but the progressive, liberal wing of the Democratic Party is changing that. Weil, who wore a blue Trump-style hat that read, Making Israel & America Great Again, says hes a Republican because of the partys strong stance on Israel. According to AP Votecast, a survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters and 3,500 Jewish voters nationwide, voters who identified as Jewish broke for Democrats over Republicans by a wide margin, 72 percent to 26 percent, in 2018. Over the past decade, Jewish voters have shown stability in their partisanship, according to data from Pew Research Center. Jewish voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party over the Republican Party by a roughly 2-1 ratio. British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Saturday that the longer it takes to find a compromise with the opposition Labour Party to secure a parliamentary majority for a Brexit deal, the less likely it is that Britain will leave the European Union. May has so far failed to secure backing for her negotiated agreement with Brussels as some Conservative lawmakers and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which props up her minority government, have voted it down. She has since turned to the opposition Labour Party in a bid to secure a majority for an orderly Brexit, although its leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Saturday he was waiting for May to move her Brexit red lines. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Cloudy. Periods of light rain early. Low 49F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Cloudy. Periods of light rain early. Low 49F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Saturday to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank if re-elected, a dramatic policy shift apparently aimed at rallying his nationalist base in the final stretch of the tight race. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Netanyahu has promoted Jewish settlement expansion in his four terms as prime minister, but until now refrained from presenting a detailed vision for the West Bank, seen by the Palestinians as the heartland of a future state. The Asael outpost in the West Bank (file photo) (Photo: Courtesy of Asa'el) An Israeli annexation of large parts of the West Bank is bound to snuff out any last flicker of hope for an Israeli-Palestinian deal on the terms of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in 1967. A so-called two-state solution has long been the preferred option of most of the international community. However, intermittent U.S. mediation between Israelis and Palestinians ran aground after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital early in his term. The Palestinians, who seek Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as their capital, suspended contact with the U.S. More recently, Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a plateau Israel captured from Syria in 1967. The move was viewed in Israel as a political gift by Trump to Netanyahu who is being challenged by former military chief Benny Gantz. The U.S. State Department declined to comment on Netanyahu's statement. Polls have indicated a close race, though Netanyahu's Likud Party is expected to have a better chance than Gantz's Blue and White slate to form a ruling coalition. Polls forecast more than 60 out of 120 parliament seats for the Likud and smaller right-wing and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties On Saturday, Netanyahu gave an interview to Israel's Channel 12 TV at the top of the prime-time newscast. Netanyahu portrayed the U.S. policy shifts on Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as his achievements, saying he had managed to persuade Trump to take these steps. Maale Adumim, a settlement in the West Bank, east of Jerusalem (Photo: AP) Netanyahu pledged that he would not dismantle a single Jewish settlement and that Israel would retain control of the territory west of the Jordan River -- the West Bank. More than 600,000 Israelis now live on war-won lands, two-thirds in the West Bank. The interviewer asked why he hadn't annexed some of the larger settlements during his current term. "The question you are asking is an interesting question, whether we will move to the next stage and the answer is yes," he said, adding that the next term in office would be fateful. "We will move to the next stage, the imposing of Israeli sovereignty." "I will impose sovereignty, but I will not distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements," he said. "From my perspective, any point of settlement is Israeli, and we have responsibility, as the Israeli government. I will not uproot anyone, and I will not transfer sovereignty to the Palestinians." In any partition deal, the more isolated Jewish settlements would likely have to be uprooted to create a viable Palestinian state. Saeb Erekat, a veteran former Palestinian negotiator, said he held the international community, especially the Trump administration, responsible for Israel's policies. "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administration's support and endorsement of Israel's violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine," he said in a statement. The United States is expected to designate Irans elite Revolutionary Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organization, three U.S. officials said, marking the first time Washington has formally labeled another countrys military a terrorist group. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The decision, which critics warn could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the U.S. State Department, perhaps as early as Monday, the officials said. It has been rumored for years. Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (Photo: AFP) The Pentagon declined comment and referred queries to the State Department. The State Department and White House also declined to comment. The Iranian mission to the United Nations also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident Iran hawk, has advocated for the change in U.S. policy as part of the Trump administrations tough posture toward Tehran. The announcement would come ahead of the first anniversary of President Donald Trumps decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and to reimpose sanctions that had crippled Irans economy. The administrations decision to make the designation was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but the organization as a whole is not. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Photo: AFP) In 2007, the U.S. Treasury designated the IRGCs Quds Force, its unit in charge of operations abroad, for its support of terrorism, and has described it as Irans primary arm for executing its policy of supporting terrorist and insurgent groups. Iran has warned of a crushing response should the United States go ahead with the designation. IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari warned in 2017 that if Trump went ahead with the move then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world. Such threats are particularly ominous for U.S. forces in places such as Iraq, where Iran-aligned Shiite militia are located in close proximity to U.S. troops. Republican Senator Ben Sasse said the move would be an important step in Americas maximum pressure campaign against Tehran. A formal designation and its consequences may be new, but these IRGC butchers have been terrorists for a long time, Sasse said in a statement. Former undersecretary of state and lead Iran negotiator, Wendy Sherman, said she worried about implications for U.S. forces. One might even suggest, since its hard to see why this is in our interest, if the president isnt looking for a basis for a conflict, said Sherman, who is director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. The IRGC is already fully sanctioned and this escalation absolutely endangers our troops in the region. IRCG's reach Set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shiite clerical ruling system, the IRGC is Irans most powerful security organization. It has control over large sectors of the Iranian economy and has a huge influence in its political system. The IRGC is in charge of Irans ballistic missiles and nuclear programs. Tehran has warned that it has missiles with a range of up to 2,000 km (1,242 miles), putting Israel and U.S. military bases in the region within reach. Iranian missile tests (Photo: IRNA) The IRGC has an estimated 125,000-strong military with army, navy and air units and answers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is unclear what impact the U.S. designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization might have on Americas activities in countries that have ties with Tehran, including in Iraq. Baghdad has deep cultural and economic ties with Iran and Oman, where the United States recently clinched a strategic ports deal. Donald Trump isnt on the ballot for Israels national election, yet hes a dominant factor for many American Jews as they assess the high stakes of Tuesdays balloting. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter At its core, the election is a judgment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has won the post four times but now faces corruption charges. In his battle for political survival, Netanyahu has aligned closely with Trump a troubling tactic for the roughly 75% of American Jewish voters who lean Democratic. Netanyahu and Trump at the White House (Photo: Reuters) The world has come to understand that Netanyahu is essentially the political twin of Donald Trump, said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal pro-Israel group J Street. Unlike his previous elections, there is a much deeper antagonism toward Netanyahu because of that close affiliation between him and Trump and the Republican Party. Netanyahu featured Trump in a recent campaign video, while Trump has made a series of policy moves viewed as strengthening Netanyahu in the eyes of Israeli voters, including relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and officially recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory. Its troubling, said Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. The U.S.-Israel relationship should not be about any two leaders or any two parties. The American Jewish community wants the relationship to remain on a bipartisan basis. Though it leans Democratic overall, the American Jewish community numbering 5.5 million to 6 million is not monolithic. Most older Jews remain supportive of Israels current Middle East policies, as does the roughly 10% of the Jewish population that is Orthodox. Jewish billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has been a staunch financial supporter of Trump and the GOP. Trump extended his personal thanks to Adelson on Saturday in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. The president also boasted extensively about his Israel-related policy moves. Unlike other presidents, I keep my promises, he said, referring to the embassy relocation. Trump mentioned Netanyahu only briefly in his speech, predicting the election would be close and describing both the prime minister and his main challenger, former army chief of staff Benny Gantz, as good people. Divisions among U.S. Jews have been exacerbated by recent allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the Democrats two Muslim congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Seizing on the controversy, Trump tweeted his support for a purported Jexodus movement that would encourage Jews to leave the Democratic Party. Republicans are waiting with open arms, Trump tweeted on March 15. Morton Klein, president of the conservative Zionist Organization of America, predicts such an exodus will take place because of the Democrats decision to avoid explicit condemnation of the congresswomen. Ben-Ami scoffed at the notion, suggesting that Jexodus was a fantasy of pro-Trump operatives. Ive yet to meet an actual Obama/Clinton voter whos said publicly theyre switching to vote for Donald Trump, he said. This is not real. Its completely made up. New York-based journalist Jane Eisner, former editor of The Forward, a Jewish newspaper, said many American Jews have Netanyahu fatigue even some who supported him in past. Among liberal Jews, Eisner said, there are strong worries that Netanyahu will push Israels government even further to the right if he wins, perhaps moving to annex some land in the occupied West Bank with confidence that the Trump administration will not object. Morton Klein conceded that some Jews have grown weary of Netanyahu, but predicted he would prevail. People would be nervous if hes not there, Klein said. Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, said any surge in Netanyahu fatigue should not be interpreted as a weakening of American Jews support for Israel. There is a sense of fatigue having one leader for 10 years, Rosen said. Just as weve had Clinton fatigue and Bush fatigue. Among liberal and centrist American Jews, dismay with Netanyahu extends beyond his alliance with Trump. Some say hes been too harsh in his treatment of migrants, and they bemoan his backtracking on a promise to allow mixed-gender prayer at the Western Wall. Perhaps most disturbing has been Netanyahus alliance with an ultranationalist political party linked to a movement previously banned for anti-Arab racism and incitement. That political alliance was assailed as repugnant by Eric Yoffie, a rabbi from Westfield, New Jersey, in a March 27 op-ed in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Yoffie also decried Netanyahus excessive enthusiasm for Trump. Cordial relations are essential, wrote Yoffie, president emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism. But the sycophantic buddy movie that Bibi has produced with Americas unbalanced and unpredictable president is something else altogether ... Bibis egregious and unnecessary embrace of everything Trump will cost Israel dearly. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner with Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu in Jerusalem (Photo: GPO) In Israel, a prevalent view, at least in pro-Netanyahu ranks, is that the prime ministers friendship with Trump is paying unprecedented dividends. There is widespread sentiment that liberal American Jews, as a constituency, are dissipating due to intermarriage, and that the evangelical Christian community in the U.S. is a more dependable ally for Israel. At last years ceremony in Jerusalem celebrating the relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, evangelical Christian pastors allied with Trump delivered the opening and closing blessings. Netanyahus main challenger in the election is popular in Israel but has a relatively low profile in the United States. American Jews who dislike Netanyahu view Gantz as preferable, due in part to a less combative personality, but liberals note with frustration that the platform of Gantzs Blue and White party makes no mention of Palestinian statehood, and says that Israel will maintain control of parts of the West Bank. Emily Mayer of IfNotNow, a group of youthful American Jewish activists opposed to Israels treatment of Palestinians, is dismayed at how that issue has been marginalized in the Israeli election campaign. Regardless of the winner, the utter erasure of Palestinian humanity from this election cycle and the normalization of an undemocratic and immoral military occupation should alarm any Jew who cares about freedom and dignity of Israelis and Palestinians, Mayer said in an email. The Sunday Times reported that a hard drive of emails leaked from the Labour party and a confidential database last updated on March 8 reveal members investigated for posting such online comments as Heil Hitler, F*** the Jews and Jews are the problem have not been expelled, even though the party received the complaints a year ago and that the partys system for dealing with such complaints is treated with delays, inaction and interference from the leaders office. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter According to the report, Thomas Gardiner, an ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and the powerful chief of Labours governance and legal unit, recently interfered with efforts by a member of his staff to fast-track the investigation of a member who condemned two Jewish MPs for being shit-stirring c** buckets in the pay of Israel. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (Photo: Reuters) The report also cited a case in which an MP reported a member for saying the Board of Deputies, Britains representative Jewish body, were c**** and that saying so was not anti-Semitic, its anti-c***." The member was let off with a warning. In another instance a Labour official said a council candidate who accused Jewish MPs of being Zionist infiltrators met the threshold for suspension though he faced no action. According to the Sunday Times, a sitting councillor in Lancashire who made comments about Jewish media attacks and the Rothschild family, was let back in the party. She told party investigators she meant Jewish as a blanket term of description without any racist connotations. While a trade union official in Manchester, was readmitted despite sharing material saying Jewish Israelis were behind 9/11. The Times quoted Labours deputy leader, Tom Watson, as saying This makes for deeply shocking and depressing reading. Labour members and the Jewish community will not understand how, many years on from the first concerns about anti-Semitism being raised, we have not got to grips with it. The Sunday Times reported Corbyns office, has been involved in approving, delaying or blocking at least 101 complaints. In fact, according to the report, despite claims the diciplinary process has been free from politica interference, the Times claims to have seen an e-mail in which chief of staff, Karie Murphy said that going forward his office needed an overview of politically sensitive cases." According to the report, there have been 863 complaints overall, of which 454 (53%) are unresolved, including 249 that have not been investigated at all. In fact, the Times said, there are just 29 cases that have been referred to Labour's National Constitution Committee, which is authorized to expel members. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at the Tunisia graves of the masterminds of the massacre of Israeli Olympians at the 1972 Munich Games The Times said that of 409 cases where a decision was reached, fewer than 30 members were expelled, 191 faced no further action and 145 received a formal warning a measure that does not harm a member's chance of standing as a candidate. In reaction to the The Sunday Times report, a Labour spokesperson said: These figures are not accurate, adding: Lines have been selectively leaked from emails to misrepresent their overall contents. Former staffers asked the Leaders Office for their help with clearing the backlog of cases. This lasted for a few weeks while there was no general secretary, and was ended by Jennie Formby (now in that role). The Labour Party takes complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously and we are committed to rooting it out. All complaints are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures. We cant comment on individual cases." The Labour Party has been facing growing accusations of anti-Semitism in its ranks since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015, claims Corbyn and his supporters deny. The Palestinian foreign minister says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face a real problem if he follows through with his election campaign promise to annex Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Riad Malki told The Associated Press Sunday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan that Netanyahus pledge was likely aimed at rallying his nationalist base in the final stretch of a tight race. He added that Palestinians would resist such a policy if carried out. Netanyahu has promoted Jewish settlement expansion in his four terms as prime minister, but until now refrained from presenting a detailed vision for the West Bank, viewed by Palestinians as the heartland of a future state. Iran will take reciprocal action against the United States if Washington designates the elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as terrorists, a majority of Iranian parliamentarians said on Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA. The United States is expected to designate the Revolutionary Guards a foreign terrorist organisation, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labelled another countryas military a terrorist group. "We will answer any action taken against this force with a reciprocal action," a statement issued by 255 out of the 290 Iranian lawmakers said, according to IRNA. "So the leaders of America, who themselves are the creators and supporters of terrorists in the (Middle East) region, will regret this inappropriate and idiotic action." The political polls conducted ahead of the April 9, while not predicting who will win and who will lose, do point to a clear and significant trend in Israeli society, which somehow has escaped the notice of many - a rightwards shift by the Israeli middle class. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The middle class has been the greatest beneficiary of the economic boom of the past decade, and is the backbone of the right-wing both moderate and not so moderate. R-L: Right-wing politicians Benjamin Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett and Gilad Erdan in the Knesset (Photo: Rafi Kotz) In contrast to Western countries, where the middle class has been eroded and weakened, in Israel it strengthened and stabilized. Its members are interested in the continuation of existing policy in areas related to their personal lives as well as to security and political stability. To them, Netanyahu is the best candidate to meet their needs. The Likud alliance was perceived in its early years as "an alliance of the underprivileged." In recent years, however, it has become an alliance of the establishment. They do feel unease about the indictments against Netanyahu and the frequent revelations of corruption, but when they get to the ballot box, they hold their noses and vote against change. The urge to keep things exactly as they are is too strong. Therefore, the division into right-wing and center-left blocs shown in the surveys is entirely arbitrary, and disregards the way in which the parties define themselves. In previous elections, Yair Lapid rejected that his Yesh Atid party (now folded into Blue and White) was naturally allied with Labor, Meretz and the left-wing parties, in a bloc branded as center-left, and rightly renounced such a definition of his movement. An IDF soldier voting in 2015 (Photo: Reuters) Of course, this branding does not apply to Blue and White, whose list is headed by three former chiefs of staff who are not affiliated with the political left. If anything, Blue and White is an integral part of the right-center bloc. This is a huge bloc that includes the Likud, Kulanu, the ultra-Orthodox parties, Yisrael Beiteinu and the New Right. It is a bloc that will likely command 85 seats in the next Knesset. If Yisrael Katz or Gideon Sa'ar had been leading such a bloc, it would have been the next government. The late Ariel Sharon led Kadima - which split to the left from the Likud - on the basis of the assumption that "the occupation is bad for Israel" and must be ended. In his appearance before the United Nations General Assembly, he made an exhilarating speech about peace being the aspiration of his life. The current center-right bloc has replaced the effort to end the occupation, in other words replacing any attempt to create a sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian state with the phrase "separation." Separation means limited Palestinian civil administration over parts of the West Bank, exclusive Israeli military control over most of the territory, and annexation of between 8 to 80% of it, depending on the combination of messianism and practicality in the government. The parties in the center-right bloc do not even espouse a social-economic socio-democratic worldview: They have replaced the idea of a welfare state with the idea of a "compassionate" state - a key concept in the socio-economic platforms of the Republicans in the United States and the Conservatives in Britain. Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg (Photo: Avi Mualem) The left-center bloc, on the other hand, includes only the Labor Party and Meretz. According to the polls, they will have 15-17 seats in the next Knesset. This is what remains of the Zionist Labor Movement, which created the State of Israel. On the periphery are the extreme right, identity parties, Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), and the extremist Arab parties. The decline of the left-center bloc took place in a short period of time and cannot be blamed on any one factor political transformations occur due to an inexplicable combination of triggers and factors. These transformations can surprise us with key moments of change, such as the resurgence of nationalism and populism in the 21st century. But if the wind can suddenly shift rightwards one day, it is equally able to swing to the left shortly afterwards. Israeli Police say they have found a stockpile of weapons in a bomb shelter of a residential building in the city of Holon, south of Tel Aviv . The police searched the entire building, and took precautionary measures to keep the residents safe. They have also opened an investigation into how the weapons came to be in the building. The US military will no longer have calm in west Asia if the United States designates the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, the head of the Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency on Sunday. "With this stupidity, the American army and security forces will no longer have today's calm in the west Asia region," Jafari was quoted as saying. Israel's leader will face a "real problem" if he follows through with his election campaign promise to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the Palestinian foreign minister said Sunday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Riad Malki told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pledge was likely aimed at rallying his nationalist base in the final stretch of a tight race. He added that Palestinians would "resist" such a policy if carried out. Riad Malki "If Netanyahu wants to declare Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, then you know he has to face a real problem, the presence of 4.5 million Palestinians, what to do with them," Malki said, apparently referring to the combined Palestinian population of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. He said Israel cannot expel the Palestinians. "We will stay there," he said. "The international community has to deal with us." Malki accused the US of encouraging Netanyahu by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and, more recently, recognizing Israel's 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights. In a prime-time interview Saturday, Netanyahu was asked why he hadn't annexed some of the larger Jewish settlements in the West Bank during his current term. "The question you are asking is an interesting question, whether we will move to the next stage and the answer is yes," he said. "We will move to the next stage, the imposing of Israeli sovereignty." Maale Adumim, a settlement in the West Bank, east of Jerusalem (Photo: AP) Netanyahu has promoted Jewish settlement expansion in his four terms as prime minister, but until now refrained from presenting a detailed vision for the West Bank, viewed by Palestinians as the heartland of a future state. It would mark a dramatic shift for Netanyahu, ahead of Tuesday's balloting. Annexing settlements would all but end any chance of a two-state solution with the Palestinians and potentially push the sides toward a single, binational state. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also expressed concerns about America's "illegitimate decisions" in the region. "We see the solution in dialogue between countries, because unilateral actions will never lead to anything good," he said. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu slammed Netanyahu's annexation pledge as an "irresponsible statement to seek votes." Cavusoglu said on Twitter that the West Bank is Palestinian territory, adding: "the Israeli general elections cannot and will not change this fact." The security prisoners decided to suspend a hunger strike planned for Sunday. The decision was made due to progress in negotiations between the prisoners and the Prison Service. As election campaigning ahead of the April 9 vote tapers off, the battle for ministerial positions during coalition negotiations is only beginning. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The current finance minister, Moshe Kahlon, has already made it clear he intends to ask for the same portfolio in the next government as well, despite Zehut Chairman Moshe Feiglin claiming he intends to challenge the incumbent for the position. The battle for ministerial positions "If Feiglin becomes a finance minister, I will quit the government I would rather sever my own hand than vote against plans to help the elderly and young couples," Kahlon said. Feiglin, however, labeled Kahlon as the finance minister of big unions." "There is no doubt that we need the treasury portfolio in order to fulfill our promises to the voter, and we will insist on that. Without it, we have nothing to look for in any government," he said. Moshe Kahlon (Photo: Avi Moalem) Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay also appears to be interested in the treasury portfolio in a Benny Gantz-led coalition government if the former IDF chief's Blue and White party prevails over the ruling Likud. The biggest political battle is expected to be over the most sought after ministerial position - the defense portfolio. The current education minister, Naftali Bennett, and former defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, both appear to be in contention for the coveted position. The elections campaign of Bennetts party, the New Right, has almost entirely been based around his demand to be appointed as the next defense minister (with his partys co-founder - Ayelet Shaked - retaining the position of the justice minister). Ayelet Shaked (Photo: Avi Moalem) "If Bennett becomes defense minister, the situation will change," Shaked said. "We must stop being at Yahya Sinwars beck and call, who just today said that if Israel continues jamming the signal of security prisoners cell phones, wed be under rocket attacks. Meanwhile, Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Lieberman, said his party will also fight for the interior portfolio. "The Interior Ministry must move on from Shas to the hands of Zionist parties, Lieberman said. The current interior minister - Aryeh Deri - however, is not expected to give up on his position easily. In addition, Deri also wants the immigration and absorption portfolio, currently held by Liebermans party. "You cant wander the halls of the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption without speaking Russian," said Deri at a conference a month ago. "We will make sure that new immigrants from France feel welcome as well." Aryeh Deri (: ) With Bennett most likely to vacate his position as education minister, Rafi Peretz - who heads the Union of The Right-Wing Parties - is expected to ask for the portfolio. The second on the unions party list - MK Bezalel Smotrich - is said to be interested to take over Shaked as the justice minister. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, said he would make sure the next education minister will be from his Likud party. In the meantime, Meretz Chairwoman Tamar Zandberg said if a center-left government is formed, her party will demand either an education portfolio or a justice portfolio. A tight competition is also expected when it comes to health portfolio. Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) publicly admitted to wanting to head the ministry, but will face a challenge from MK Orly Levy-Abekasis if her Gesher party will pass the electoral threshold. MK Orly Levy-Abekasis (Photo: Shaul Golan) Becoming the health minister is a precondition (to entering the next government), but it doesnt stop there the position needs to be accompanied by budgets and a national emergency plan to save the health system," Levy-Abekasis said last week. MK Itzik Shmuli also expressed an interest to challenge for the position in case his Labor Party will be part of the next coalition government. Its essential to build more hospitals, he said. Israeli military said Sunday it will impose a general closure on the West Bank and on all border crossings into the Gaza Strip on the election day on April 9. The decision was made in accordance with a security assessment and orders of the political echelon. Dozens of neglected animals were evacuated from a ramshackle Gaza zoo on Sunday in the fourth and largest such rescue mission in the Palestinian enclave. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Vets and volunteers from Four Paws International animal welfare group transported some 40 animals into Israel from the zoo in the southern town of Rafah. The animals - including five lions, five monkeys, four ostriches, three peacocks, two wolves, a hyena, foxes, porcupines and 10 squirrels - will be resettled in sanctuaries in Jordan and South Africa. A Palestinian worker carries a monkey at a zoo in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, during the evacu "The zoo has been in a bad situation in recent years due to economic and political turmoil," said Amir Khalil, a veterinarian from the Vienna-based organization. "Most of the animals had a sort of traumatization." Amir Khalil, a veterinarian with the international animal welfare charity "Four Paws" walks in front of cages containing animals at a zoo in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, during the evacuation Animals kept in captivity have suffered from a combination of neglect and lack of resources on the part of zookeepers. A Palestinian worker carries a Heron (Egretta Intermedia) at a zoo in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, during the evacuation Some died of cold and hunger in makeshift zoos as keepers failed to provide adequate care, while others were killed during the 50-day war in 2014. Uri Madar, agriculture coordinator for the Israeli body responsible for the crossings with the Gaza Strip, said COGAT "sees this evacuation as a mission of ethics, and will continue working in support of animal welfare in the Gaza Strip." Members of the international animal welfare charity "Four Paws" carry a sedated monkey at a zoo in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, during the evacuation Members of the international animal welfare charity "Four Paws" check on a sedated lion at a zoo in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 6, 2019, as they prepare to evacuate the animals The latest evacuation was scheduled last month, but a round of cross-border violence between Israel and Gaza militants forced the organization postpone it. Israeli military personnel officially began voting for the 21th Knesset late Saturday evening - some 72 hours before the rest of the general population heads to the polls on April 9 - in what the head of the elections committee described as "a celebration of democracy." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter A total of 643 ballot boxes have been set up for Israel Defense Forces soldiers, with the head of the Central Elections Committee, Justice Hanan Melcer visiting some polling stations and personally monitoring the process. Troops on Gaza border cast their ballots (Photo: AFP) Melcer spoke with the soldiers and commanders voting at the stations, as well as with the elections officials on the IDF bases, urging them to ensure that the procedure was conducted properly and that each soldier was given the right to vote in private using the secret ballot. The Central Elections Committee and the IDF will ensure the elections are fair ... and the soldiers are able to decide who to vote for, like the rest of the Israeli public. Soldier votes at IDF base (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit) In order to allow all the soldiers to exercise their right to vote, the military has deployed some 130 mobile polling stations in remote units and outposts. The Supreme Court justice said the militarys oversight of the voting was exemplary, adding that although "early voting was kicked off by Israeli diplomatic missions abroad, the IDF is definitely the main element." Troops on Gaza border cast their ballots (Photo: AFP) Amit Siri, a 21-year-old soldier from Tel Aviv - who voted for the first time in an election - spoke of his excitement. Everyone here is talking about the elections and who theyre going to vote for, he said. I decided who Im voting for in the last few days, after a long thought process and discussions with my family, friends, and after reading every platform Its a special feeling, voting as a soldier. "I noticed that for many soldiers, this is the first election theyre legally allowed to vote in, and they are just as excited as we are, said Melcer. The troops are dedicated not only when it comes to their service but also in their willingness to come to the polling station and cast a vote. Voting kicks-off for troops stationed on Gaza border (Photo: Reuters) The committee also allowed soldiers in need of financial aid to work as stewards at the polling stations for a salary. "This shows there is a connection between the general public and the troops in terms of concern for the soldiers financial well-being, added Melcer. Melcer added he also voted as a soldier shortly after the 1973 Yom Kippur War during an election that was postponed following a surprise attack of a coalition of Arab forces. It was a traumatic atmosphere, it wasnt easy, he said. Perths overall house prices have declined to 2006 levels, but values in the suburbs closer to the CBD rose over the past decade, according to a report by The West Australian. A study by CoreLogic and Aussie Home Loans showed that the capitals housing market had been in an entrenched downturn since mid-2014 and had already recorded a lower decrease this year. The good news? Dwellings in many suburbs within 10km of the CBD logged a rise in value over the past 10 years. Many areas posted a growth of nearly 20%. The upward trend is a reflection of the supply and demand in the city. Obviously, there is relatively good demand for suburbs close to the city, with its better amenity, close to schools and public transport, close to cafes. But, at the same time, supply is quite low. Supply in some of the outer suburbs, with new housing estates opening up, is far greater, Real Institute of Western Australia President Damian Collins said. The majority of people preferred to live close to the city, and for them, it also made financial sense, said The West Australian. The research revealed that Perth buyers were in the housing drivers seat, with the average selling time jumping to 63 days. Rental markets, meanwhile, had slightly tightened. This means that the population could grow and result in an overall improvement in housing demand. Nineteen of Perths 20 most affordable suburbs had median house prices of less than $300,000. Six of the suburbs were in the City of Kwinana and five were located in the City of Armadale. Medina held the top spot on the list, with a median value of $232,639. West-minster ($366,534) and Nolla-mara ($371,826) were the cheapest options within 10km of the CBD. Eight of the countrys top 10 cheapest homes were in WA regional towns, led by Mt Magnet ($37,497), Laverton ($39,923), Meekatharra ($40,433) and Morawa ($41,569). Today Windy. Cloudy skies will become clear late. Low near 45F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Tonight Windy. Cloudy skies will become clear late. Low near 45F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Tomorrow Mainly sunny. High 63F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. The complete ban on the movement of civilian traffic on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway started on Sunday morning. It may be recalled that on Wednesday the Jammu and Kashmir administration and Centre had announced that Srinagar-Jammu National Highway will remain out of bounds for civilian traffic on Sundays and Wednesdays till May 31. The government had announced that no civilian traffic would be allowed on the route during the movement of the paramilitary forces. The government took the decision in the aftermath of February 14 Pulwama terror attack which resulted in the martyrdom of 40 CRPF personnel. The deadly attack was carried out by a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). Justifying the decision, a government official said that it will help in the unhindered movement of the convoys of security forces. The ban on civilian traffic on Sunday and Wednesday from 4 am to 5 pm till May 31. The government announced that the curb on traffic movement will remain in place from Baramulla to Udhampur through Srinagar, Qazigund, Jawahar-Tunnel, Banihal and Ramban. Meanwhile, National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held separate protests on Sunday in Srinagar and Anantnag against the government's decision to ban the movement of civilian vehicles on highway from Baramulla to Udhampur. NC leaders Justice Hasnain Masoodi, Peer Hussain and Abdul Majeed Larmi took out a protest rally with their supporters on highway near Wanpoh in Anantnag area of South Kashmir. The leaders of Peoples Democratic Party took out a similar protest rally on the highway near Athwagan area of Srinagar. Earlier former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah had slammed the government's decision saying the decision has been taken by the Centre without thinking about the people of Kashmir. "GoI`s current approach towards Kashmir has been consistent only when it comes to repression. Suffocate Kashmiris, throw them in jails, deprive them of basic rights and make them suffer. They only want Kashmir. Don`t give two hoots about what happens to its people (sic)," Mehbooba Mufti tweeted. Omar also targeted the Centre in a series of tweets, saying, "Has anyone in the administration applied their minds before planning to issue this highway closure order? Jammu and Kashmir is not Chhattisgarh or Andhra Pradesh where there are alternate routes. Here if you close the national highway you shut down all access to the valley. This is a lifeline. I`ve made this suggestion before and in light of today`s highway closure order I feel the need to repeat it -- why can`t the forces travel between Banihal and Baramulla by special trains? Quicker, safer and more comfortable for the security forces." Congress Rajya Sabha leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had suggested the government to come up with a more people-friendly strategy and not stop the movement of all civilian traffic for two days in a week, IANS reported. In a major boost for Indian armed forces, the country's first ever indigenously designed and developed Dhanush 155mm/45 Calibre towed Gun System is now ready for induction into Indian Army. The Additional Directorate General of Public Information of Indian Army posted a tweet saying that Dhanush 155mm/45 Calibre towed Gun System will be handed over to the Army by Ordnance Factories Board on Monday (April 8). India's #FirstEver indigenously designed & developed Dhanush 155mm/45 Calibre towed Gun System is ready for induction into #IndianArmy & will be handed over by Ordnance Factories Board #OFB on 8 April 19. Dhanush can be employed in all types of terrains. pic.twitter.com/o7ceCmDAeI ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) April 7, 2019 Referred to as 'desi Bofors', Dhanush is the first long-range artillery gun to be produced under the 'Make in India' initiative of BJP-led government at the Centre. Nearly 81% of the components of Dhanush - which has a strike range of 38 kilometres - are sourced indigenously. This gun can be employed in all types of terrains and it comes loaded with inertial navigation-based sighting system, auto-laying facility, on-board ballistic computation and an advanced day and night direct firing system. The hitting range of Dhanush is around 11 km more than the imported Bofors guns. The gun system comes equipped with self-propulsion unit, which allows it to negotiate and deploy itself in mountainous terrains with ease. Dhanush has been electronically upgraded to enhance firing accuracies and provide compatibility with various kinds of ammunition as well. The efficiency of artillery gun system has been tested under severe cold conditions in Sikkim and Leh and in hot and humid weather in Balasore, Odisha, Babina in Jhansi and in the desert of Pokhran in Rajasthan. OFB had recently said in a statement that Dhanush's performance has been evaluated in several phases under arduous conditions. A team of experts from DRDO, DGQA, BEL, SAIL and several private sector enterprises have worked together to develop this artillery gun system. The cost of one 155-mm Dhanush is Rs 14.50 crore. Last month, the Ministry of Defence and Indian Army had given clearance to OFB for the production of 114 'Dhanush' long-range artillery guns. An encounter started between a joint team of security forces and terrorists at Midura Tral in South Kashmir on Sunday morning. Sources said that two to three militants are trapped in the area. The terrorists reportedly opened fire on the security forces after being cornered forcing the security forces to retaliate. Sources told IANS that personnel from Rashtriya Rifles (RR), Special Operations Group (SOG) of the state police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel launched a joint search operation in the area after receiving specific inputs about the presence of terrorists in the Kahilil forests of Tral. "As the security forces tightened the cordon, the militants started firing which triggered the ongoing gunfight,"a police officer told IANS. The security forces have launched search operation in the area and more reinforcement have been called in. Internet service has been snapped in the area as a precautionary measure. On Saturday, two terrorists were killed in Imam Sahib area of Jammu and Kashmirs Shopian district and three terrorists were neutralised following an intense gunfight with the security forces in Keller area of Shopian district in the state. The encounter was carried out by a joint search party of the CRPF, Indian Army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police. The terrorists killed in the encounter in Shopian district, earlier today, have been identified as Sajad Khanday, Aqib Ahmad Dar and Basharat Ahmad Mir, all residents of Pulwama. It was a combined group of terror outfits Hizbul Mujahideen and LeT, a statement released by the Jammu and Kashmir Police over the Shopian encounter read. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday rejected the US magazine report that claimed that Pakistan did not lose any F-16 fighter jet during the aerial dogfight with Indian Air Force jets on February 27. Sitharaman stressed that the report is completely baseless and source-based. She also advised the reporters to check the facts of the case before making such tall claims. The Defence Minister remarked that AMRAAM missile's part found in India is used only with F-16 jets and electronic signature of F-16 was put forward by the IAF as proof that one F-16 jet of Pakistan Air Force was shot down by the IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was flying a MiG-21 Bison. "IAF gave proof on it with electronic signature of F-16. Whoever has written it, it's baseless source based. The part of AM-RAAM missile, which is used only with F-16, how was it found in India?," asked the Defence Minister. Nirmala Sitharaman on US magazine report that Pakistan didn't lose F-16 jet on Feb 27: IAF gave proof on it with electronic signature of F-16. Whoever has written it, it's baseless&source based. The part of AM-RAAM missile, which is used only with F-16, how was it found in India? pic.twitter.com/SYgEwo2JfV ANI (@ANI) April 6, 2019 Sitharaman added that some US officials have also rejected the report published in the magazine claiming that no such probe was conducted by them. "The article that came in Foreign Policy", many people are calling it baseless.Someone showed me on social media that US officials are also saying that they didn't conduct any such investigation," noted Sitharaman. Nirmala Sitharaman on US journal report that Pakistan didn't lose F-16 jet on Feb 27: The article that came in Foreign Policy", many people are calling it baseless.Someone showed me on social media that US officials are also saying that they didn't conduct any such investigation pic.twitter.com/JDBgleUMUt ANI (@ANI) April 6, 2019 The Defence Minister also attacked the Congress and the opposition parties for spreading misinformation about the IAF's operation in order to achieve their political objectives. "There are a lot of people who are spreading misinformation. But it is sad that in our own country, we have a lot of people in Congress partys Bhajan Mandali who are doubting and raising questions on what the defence forces are saying. It suits them," she remarked. Nirmala Sitharaman: There are a lot of people who are spreading misinformation. But it is sad that in our own country, we have a lot of people in Congress partys Bhajan Mandali who are doubting and raising questions on what the defence forces are saying. It suits them pic.twitter.com/gg9PJPaj1g ANI (@ANI) April 6, 2019 On Friday, a number of evidence were listed by the IAF to prove that the jet shot down by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was an F-16 jet of the PAF. The IAF said that a PAF F-16 jet was shot down by Abhinandan seven to eight kilometres inside Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. News agency ANI, quoting IAF sources, reported that the intercepts of PAF's radio communication confirms that one of the F-16s that violated the Indian airspace did not return to its base. The IAF also said that Indian forces had confirmed the sighting of ejections at two different places on the same day - one of an IAF MiG 21 Bison and the other of a PAF jet. New Delhi: India on Sunday rejected Pakistan's claim that it would attack the latter again, calling the statement of its Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as irresponsible and preposterous. "India rejects as an irresponsible and preposterous statement by Pakistan Foreign Minister that it will attack Pakistan again," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. The statement by Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi aimed at whipping up war hysteria in the region, MEA added. It further said that this public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake an attack in India. India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the Foreign Minister of #Pakistan intended to whip up war hysteria in the region. This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake a terror attack in India. https://t.co/Mvlurlt6e7 pic.twitter.com/WiKqN12XBf Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) April 7, 2019 Pakistan needs to take credible, irreversible steps against terrorism rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate core issue, the External Affairs Ministry said. "Pakistan advised to use established diplomatic, DGMO channels to share any actionable intelligence about imminent terror attacks," the MEA added. The ministry further said that India reserves the right to respond firmly and decisively to any cross-border terrorist attack. (With inputs from PTI) NEW DELHI: A major fire broke out at a plastic factory in Narela Industrial Area of New Delhi, in the wee hours of Sunday, ANI reported. Delhi: Fire breaks out at a plastic factory in Narela Industrial Area; 22 fire tenders present at the spot. pic.twitter.com/tbnqGeWck9 ANI (@ANI) April 6, 2019 At least 22 fire engines are rushed to the spot to control the raging inferno. The cause of the fire is still unknown. It may be recalled that a huge fire broke out in central Delhi in March at a building in CGO complex that houses government offices. A CRPF personnel had died in the incident. The blaze in CGO complex had started on the fifth floor of the Pandit Deendayal Antyodaya Bhawan. It is to be noted that Antyodaya Bhawan in the CGO complex houses many important government offices, including a branch of the Indian Air Force, Water and Sanitation Ministry, Forest Ministry and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). Just a month before the incident at CGO, a major fire broke out at a hotel in New Delhi's Karol Bagh that resulted in the death of 17 people. New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath chose not to answer any question related to the Income Tax raids conducted on his close aides on Sunday. The I-T Department launched searches on at least 50 locations in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi against people linked to Nath on charges of alleged tax evasion, officials said. As the media tried to learn about Nath's reaction on the raids, he evaded the question saying he has no clue and is not aware of the situation. Locations in Indore, Bhopal and Delhi were raided and those being searched included Nath's former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Pravin Kakkad, former adviser Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser Bayer and his nephew Ratul Puri's company. Last week, Puri was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the AgustaWestland case. A team of about 200 I-T department officials and police officers conducted raids around 3 am and some undisclosed cash was recovered, as per the officials. At Kakkar's home in Indore, the raids were conducted by a team of officials from Delhi. Other places associated with him were also raided. Kakkad is a former Madhya Pradesh police officer and was appointed OSD to Nath after he came to power last year. He and Rajendra Miglani resigned from their posts just before the Lok Sabha election were declared. MP Congress' media cell vice president Bhupendra Gupta, also a former OSD to Nath, blamed the BJP for raids. "The BJP government has been targeting opposition leaders across the country due to political enmity. Due to such act of political vendetta, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister (N Chandrababu Naidu) and DMK leader M K Stalin had to stage protest against the Centre," he said. Meanwhile, BJP's national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya trained guns at the MP CM and said, "Black money worth crores was recovered during the Income Tax department's raid at the house of private secretary of Kamal Nath. This has made one thing clear that those who are thieves have a complaint against the watchman." (With PTI inputs) As the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is being updated to identify the illegal immigrants in Assam, Naxals are trying to take full advantage of the situation. Top Naxal leaders are making efforts to establish bases among the terrorist outfit United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the radical Muslims organisations living in Assam. Naxals are giving support openly to some radical Muslim organisations who are critical to government and also guiding their agitation. They are also changing their strategy and trying to form a new red corridor by establishing contact with the ULFA so they can get a routine supply of arms for their cadres. ''There are reports about the presence of Maoists in Assam. We are trying to know what is the current scale of Maoist activities in Assam including cadre strength, the area of operations, leadership and traction," said an officer deployed in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The final draft of the NRC list excluded nearly four million people triggering widespread anguish and intense agitation in several parts of the state. Maoists lay considerable emphasis on the preparation of documents regarding their attacks on security forces. They have a strength of around five thousand armed cadres. The Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, covering parts of the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra presented the most formidable challenge for security forces. However, the increasing age of the senior leaders of the outfit is also a matter of concern for the Maoists, as it affecting their mobility. Further, the death and surrender of many senior leaders had adversely affected the outfit. ''There is a crisis in the mid-level leadership in the Maoist group. Security forces have enhanced operations in the core areas of the outfit had affected their supply chain. This is the reason the top leadership of Naxals are desperate to form a new supply line," said an officer deployed in the Ministry of Home Affairs. Three districts of South Bastar--Bijapur, Dantewada and Sukma are the most formidable strongholds of the Naxals and it is also their main recruiting ground. South Sukma is the operating area of the Battalion Number 1 of PLGA which had an estimated strength of 150 armed cadres. With the national election just round the corner, Zee News is bringing a new segment, titled Zee News Gold, for the audience that will surely take you back to the old times and make you politically aware. Under this segment, Zee News revisits the show Disha Samvad, which was hosted by former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar. In the 21-year-old Disha Samvad, Chandra Shekhar had interviewed several top politicians including senior Congress leaders like Arjun Singh and Madhavrao Scindia. Chandra Shekhar served as India's 11th Prime Minister from November 1990 to June 1991. He had to resign after the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress pulled out its support from the government. Chandra Shekhar posed questions to Madhavrao Scindia on how to ensure good and effective governance. Watch the full video to know more. Zee News Gold will air every week. You can post your views on Twitter with #ZeeNewsGold. New Delhi: With the Lok Sabha poll approaching, the politicians are busy attacking each other with sharp criticism. In a similar case, Congress spokesperson Alok Sharma on Saturday threw a glass of water on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson KK Sharma during a live TV debate. In the video, that has now gone viral on social media platforms, Alok Sharma lost his cool when his BJP counterpart called him a "traitor" multiple times. In the fit of rage, he assaulted the BJP spokesperson by throwing a glass of water on him. The water splashed over anchor`s jacket, leaving him drenched. The anchor had to change his outfit to present the remaining programme. Though no one was hurt pieces of glass could be seen across the studio. The BJP spokesperson asked Alok Sharma to apologise for his behaviour. At the same time, the Alok Sharma continued his stand and asked for an apology for being called a traitor. Guwahati: With the Lok Sabha elections drawing closer, some of the northeastern states seem to be high on spirits while cash seizures too have been reported from these states. In Nagaland, the flying squads and state police officers have so far seized 62,665 litre of liquor and illegal cash of over Rs 91 lakh till Saturday since the imposition of the model code of conduct on March 12. The law enforces in Assam have so far seized 1,17,935.46 litre of liquor valued at over Rs 7 lakh. Illegal cash of over Rs 7 crore has been seized by the officials between March 12 and Saturday. In Arunachal Pradesh, the authorities have seized 70,226 bottles of beer, 28,181 bottles of liquor, over 800 bottles of wine and more than 144 bottles of country liquor. According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Arunachal Pradesh, the total value of the seized cash and liquor is estimated to be over Rs 5 crore. Chief Electoral Officer of Tripura, Sriram Taranikanti said that Rs 1.38 crore of illegal cash has been seized so far. Muzaffarnagar: A clash broke out on Sunday in a Muzaffarnagar village of Uttar Pradesh during an election meeting of Congress candidate from Bijnor, Nasimuddin Siddiqui. The violence erupted in Tandhera village when people scrambled for food that was being served at the venue. #WATCH Muzaffarnagar: Clashes broke out in Tandhera village, at the election meeting of Congress candidate from Bijnor - Nasimuddin Siddiqui, as people scrambled for food being served at the venue. Police say, "FIR registered against 7-8 people. Further action being taken."(06.4) pic.twitter.com/nfpLKQXvUn ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 7, 2019 In a video shared by ANI, a group of people are seen fighting among themselves with sticks while some are trying to stop them and others running away from the incident spot. The clash continued for nearly a minute. According to police, an FIR has been registered against seven to eight people and an investigation has been initiated. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a blistering attack on Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stating that she supports those who want two Prime Ministers in the country. Didi stands by the tukda-tukda gang. Didi is supporting those who want two Prime Ministers in the country. They want one Prime Minister for the country and one for Jammu & Kashmir. Are you going to support such a demand? The bua-bhatija duo is destroying the state, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Cooch Behar rally. He further claimed that Mamata Banerjee has lost her sleep with people chanting the Prime Ministers name. The more you chant Modi, Modi, didi is not getting sleep, she is the speed breaker towards development in the state. She is hyperventilating on the Election Commission as police officers have been transferred. She is scared, he said. He used the Saradha - Rose Valley - Narada rhetoric and alleged that Goddess Saradha is worshipped everywhere. But, in Bengal her name is embroiled in chit fund scams, he said. I promise to bring those who have suffered from the Narada, Saradha and Rose Valley scams to justice, he added. The rally, held at Rash Mela Grounds near the Cooch Behar Palace - the same venue where both the parties - BJP and TMC were at loggerheads as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is to hold a public meeting at the same venue - Rash Mela Grounds on Monday. TMC had erected a stage at the grounds even before the BJPs meeting was to be held. Interestingly, the stage erected by TMC remained on one side of the ground as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the public meeting from the other side. Reacting to the stage present on the other side of the ground, Prime Minister Modi said, Didi is acting like kids. You cant win elections by acting like kids. The stage you see in front of you is a memorial. It signifies the end of TMC rule in Bengal. The district administration had granted permission to BJP to hold a meeting on April 7 and TMC to hold a meeting on April 8. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held his last rally in Coochbehar district going for the polls in the first phase of elections. This is his second visit within a week after he addressed twin rallies in Siliguri and in Kolkatas Brigade Parade Grounds. The Election Commission (EC) has rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees allegations of bias levelled by her against the poll body over transferring of four IPS officers in the state, sources said on Sunday. In its reply, EC said that it has always taken decisions in the "interest of free and fair polls" and "does not need to prove its credibility." Mamata Banerjee on Saturday had termed EC's decision to transfer four West Bengal IPS officers, including Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma and Bidhannagar Police Commissioner Gyanwant Singh ahead of the Lok Sabha Election 2019 as "highly arbitrary, motivated and biased towards BJP." They were also barred from poll duty. Mamata said that the flow of events raises "strong doubts" over the Commission`s functioning to conduct free and fair polls in the state. EC's decision came days after state BJP leaders alleged that fair elections would not be possible in West Bengal, as both Sharma and Singh were spotted at Mamata's dharna last month to protest CBI's action against the then Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with its probe in the Saradha scam. "The decision of the Commission is highly arbitrary, motivated and biased. We have every reason to believe that the decision of the Commission is at the behest of the ruling party at the Centre (BJP)," read Mamata's letter to the EC. "This flow of events gives rise to strong doubts whether the Commission is functioning as per its constitutional mandate of conducting free and fair elections or working in a manner to appease the ruling BJP at the Centre," she added. The poll body on Friday removed Sharma, Singh and two Superintendents of Police -- Shyam Singh of Birbhum and P.S. Selvamurugan of Diamond Harbour police district. In a statement, Chief Secretary Malay De said Rajesh Kumar, who was till now ADG and IGP - Pollution Control Board, would take over as the new city Police Commissioner, while Natarajan Ramesh Babu, appointed as ADG and IGP - Operations, will take over as Bidhannagar Police Commissioner. (With PTI inputs) The polling for first phase of seven-phase Lok Sabha poll is scheduled to take place on April 11 and the campaigning is going on at a fever pitch. All political parties are trying their best to woo the voters by holding rallies, public meetings and door-to-door campaigning. All eyes will be on Uttar Pradesh on Sunday as SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the state is going to hold its first public in Deoband. The three parties will try to hit the right chord with the voters with the rally if they want to stop the BJP from repeating its 2014 performance in the state. Around 90 crore voters will elect the representatives from 543 Lok Sabha constituencies in the upcoming General Election and the results will be announced on May 23. Here are all the latest updates for April 7: Thank you for joining us. Do come back again on Monday (April 8) for live updates of Lok Sabha election. * Pravash Kar Mohapatra to be Congress' candidate from Morada constituency in the upcoming elections to Odisha Legislative Assembly. * Migrant labourers in Ludhiana say they wont be able to cast vote in Lok Sabha election as they're away from home for work. A labourer from Bihar working in Ludhiana says, "We request govt to make arrangements so that we can cast our vote from where we're living for work." Punjab: Migrant laborers in Ludhiana say they wont be able to cast vote in #LokSabhaElections2019 as they're away from home for work.A laborer from Bihar working in Ludhiana says,We request govt to make arrangements so that we can cast our vote from where we're living for work" pic.twitter.com/jcg1aEVYQg ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 * Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer has taken cognisance of BSP chief Mayawati's speech she delivered today in Saharanpur's Deoband. The Officer has sought a report from the local administration. * Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) releases party's tagline and a theme song for the Lok Sabha election. Delhi: BJP releases party's tag line and theme song for the #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/wbRKzp92wX ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 * Union Finance Minister and BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Robert Vadra to campaign for Congress party for the Lok Sabha polls: I don't know if this will be an asset for the campaign of Congress party or for the campaign of BJP * Robert Vadra, husband of Congress general secretary of Uttar Pradesh East, Priyanka Gandhi, will campaign for the grand old party for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. * Congress released their manifesto, their 'dhakosla patra' 3 days ago, not even once 'dhakosla patra' mentions middle class, such hatred towards the middle class. They think the middle class has made Modi win and that's why they're adamant on punishing the middle class: PM Modi in Udaipur, Tripura * I was listening to Dharmendra Pradhan ji. He was speaking fluent Odiya. Will Naveen babu be able to speak even five lines in Odiya, without looking at the paper? The man who can't speak Odiya even after being CM for 19 yrs, can never work for the welfare of Odisha: Amit Shah in Bargarh * There is not much difference in Congress and BJP if you will look at their policies. They are both the same. This grand alliance is meant to bring change in the country, but Congress party doesnt want that, it wants to form govt in UP," Akhilesh said at Saharanpur rally. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in Deoband, Saharanpur: There is not much difference in Congress and BJP, if you will look at their policies. They are both same. This grand alliance is meant to bring change in the country, but Congress party doesnt want that, it wants to form govt in UP pic.twitter.com/2sgUwVYJ9a ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 7, 2019 * "I'm warning, especially people of Muslim community, that Congress isn't in a position to fight BJP in UP. Only 'gathbandhan' can fight BJP. Congress knows this but they're going by mantra 'Hum jeete ya na jeete, gathbandhan nahi jeetna chahiye'," Mayawati said at Saharanpur rally. * Bhim Army supporters seen at Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance rally in Saharanpur's Deoband. Bhim Army supporters seen at Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance rally in Saharanpur's Deoband. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/cm3azrG4nX ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 7, 2019 * Dy Election Commissioner in his response to a letter by WB CM has stated, "After review of preparedness by EC in Kolkata, Spl Police Observer was appointed for WB. On feedback from Dy EC-West Bengal & Spl Police Observer that action was taken of transferring of 4 police officers" * Union Minister SS Ahluwalia to contest Lok Sabha Election from Burdwan - Durgapur Parliamentary constituency (West Bengal). Union Minister SS Ahluwalia to contest #LokSabhaElections2019 from Burdwan - Durgapur Parliamentary constituency (West Bengal). pic.twitter.com/zR8akMTXaR ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 *"The BJP's manifesto for Odisha is based on 9 points. These are the 9 pillars of our vision for the development of 'New Odisha'," says Amit Shah. * Congress party releases their election manifesto for Odisha in Bhubaneswar. * BJP releases party's election manifesto for the state, in Bhubaneswar. Odisha: BJP releases party's election manifesto for the state, in Bhubaneswar. pic.twitter.com/Hm0Jk1CwPo ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 * "Mamata is with those people who say that India should have two prime ministers," Modi said. * "The more you chant 'Modi Modi', the more someone loses their sleep. You know who they are? 'Speed breaker'. The speed breaker of West Bengal - Didi. She is losing her sleep & is taking out her anger on her officers, on Election Commission," PM Modi in Cooch Behar, West Bengal. PM Modi in Cooch Behar, West Bengal: The more you chant 'Modi Modi', the more someone loses their sleep. You know who they are? 'Speed breaker'. The speed breaker of West Bengal - Didi. She is losing her sleep & is taking out her anger on her officers, on Election Commission. pic.twitter.com/WpFbliBSaz ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 * Congress party releases a list of 9 candidates for elections to the state legislative assembly of Odisha. Congress party releases a list of 9 candidates for elections to the state legislative assembly of Odisha. pic.twitter.com/vjqmtIEoJ3 ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 * Congress workers manhandle and thrash photojournalists who were allegedly clicking pictures of empty chairs at a public rally by the party in Virudhunagar. #WATCH Tamil Nadu: Congress workers manhandle and thrash photojournalists who were allegedly clicking pictures of empty chairs at a public rally by the party in Virudhunagar. (06.04.2019) pic.twitter.com/epTiD9iLtK ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019 * 'It's a peace loving city. Politicians should provide better education & more employment opportunities for Muslims in the country.Everyone should be treated equally.Muslim community should not be used as a political tool during polls," locals in Deoband told ANI. Locals in Deoband say,'It's a peace loving city. Politicians should provide better education & more employment opportunities for Muslims in the country.Everyone should be treated equally.Muslim community should not be used as a political tool during polls." #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/bm8QfGa2fx ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 7, 2019 * EC replies to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's allegation, says we do such transfer for unbiased election. * SP-BSP-RLD will hold their first joint rally in Uttar Pradesh's Deoband near Jamia Tibbiti Medical College. * A case has been filed by lawyer Narendra Sharma in CJM Court at Agra against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for promising in Congress manifesto to abolish Section 124A (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code, ANI reported. #Agra: A case has been filed by lawyer Narendra Sharma in CJM Court against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for promising in Congress manifesto to abolish Section 124A (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code. (06.04) pic.twitter.com/1SqMzt1VWT ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 7, 2019 * PM Narendra Modi compares Congress with Titanic ship, says party is sinking with each passing day. * Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address first-time voters today. Revealing his political ambitions, Bollywood star Vivek Oberoi on Saturday said that he 'might think' of fighting the 2014 Lok Sabha poll from Vadodara in Gujarat if he decides to take the political plunge. It is to be noted that Oberoi is playing Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a biopic which is scheduled to release on April 11. Oberoi made the statement while interacting with students of Parul University to promote his film PM Narendra Modi. On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected a plea seeking urgent listing of a petition seeking a stay on the release of the biopic. On Thursday, the apex court had agreed to hear the plea filed by a Congress leader seeking deferment of the release of the biopic till the completion of the Lok Sabha poll, claiming that the biopic was designed to manipulate, influence and impress viewers and voters. If I join politics, I might think of contesting from Vadodara in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections just because of the love and affection people gave PM Narendra Modi when he contested from here, Oberoi was quoted as saying by PTI. Oberoi added that he spent a lot of time in observing the body language and way of talking of PM Modi in order to prepare for his role. According to the actor, his look for the biopic was finalised in 16 days. It is an inspiring film about a man who has become Prime Minister of the country and one of the worlds biggest leaders without any backing or caste politics, he said. The movie stars actors like Boman Irani, Manoj Joshi, Prashant Narayanan, Barkha Bisht, Rajendra Gupta, Zarina Wahab and several others. VULLUPURAM: DMK president M K Stalin Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching the Rs 6,000 per annum assistance to marginal farmers under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme with an eye on the Lok Sabha polls. Alleging that it has become Modi's habit to claim there was a danger to religion if he was targeted, Stalin said his party was confident that "young leader Rahul Gandhi will become the Prime Minister." Addressing a poll rally here, he praised the Rs 6,000 per month Minimum Income Support Scheme of the Congress party and said the BJP-led NDA's Kisan plan was however announced for the sake of the polls. "Prime Minister Modi made the Rs 6,000 assistance announcement (under the Kisan scheme) with an eye on the polls. Has any one got the assistance,?" he asked. Stalin said Modi also made several promises in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election and wanted to know if such assurances had been fulfilled. Training his guns on the AIADMK regime, which, he said, was in power for eight long years, Stalin assured that "Makkal Nala Paniyalargal," (Workers for People's Welfare), who were dismissed from service by the incumbent government would be reinstated. "We are going to appoint 50 lakh women as Workers for People's Welfare," he said. The DMK had in its manifesto promised that it would press the Centre to emulate its model and appoint 50 lakh women across the country as welfare workers. Seeking votes for DMK's ally Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi candidate D Ravikumar, Stalin assured Rs 4,000 per tonne for sugarcane and Rs 2,500 for paddy as Minimum Support Price per quintal. VCK is contesting in the DMK's rising sun symbol in Villupuram Lok Sabha seat. Stalin said that steps would be taken to ensure that cane farmers got their remittances within 100 days for the produce procured from them. Both the Centre's Fair and Remunerative Price and the State Advised Price for cane would be remitted to farmers through cooperative, State-run and private sugar mills, he said. The Tamil Nadu government had last year decided to switch to a new pricing policy (from the SAP) to ensure better remuneration for farmers. The DMK chief also assured steps to roll back the hike in cable television charges. Hitting out at Chief Minister K Palaniswami for taking pride in being a farmer, Stalin alleged that "Palaniswami claims that Stalin is against a farmer ruling Tamil Nadu. A farmer can helm the state.. I will support. But Palaniswami is not a farmer, he is a poisonous gas." Alleging that Palaniswami did not even visit the cyclone Gaja hit people in the Cauvery delta region for a week, he asked: "People are protesting against the Salem-Chennai expressway project. Is Palaniswami, who is continuously allowing land acquisition for the project a farmer...?" MNPs were recruited during the DMK regime and the party had said years ago that it was aimed at providing employment to rural youth. After AIADMK assumed power in 2011, the posts were disbanded and the matter reached the Madras High Court and later the Supreme Court. Modi in February launched the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. In its interim budget 2019-20, the Centre had announced the PM-KISAN scheme which envisages transfer of Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments to 12 crore small and marginal farmers having upto two hectares land. New Delhi: Hollywood star Will Smith says he got a new perspective towards life and the truths of the world after exploring the culture of India. Smith has visited India several times, once to promote his Netflix movie "Bright" in Mumbai and once to be part of a summit in New Delhi. The "Men in Black" star always takes out time from his busy schedule to experience different facets of the country. He has expressed his fondness for the country through the social media -- be it about ticking Bollywood off his bucket list or about going on a spiritual sojourn. On Sunday, the actor shared some glimpses of his trip to Haridwar. "My Grandmother used to say, 'God teaches through experience'. Travelling to India and experiencing the colours, people and natural beauty has awakened a new understanding of myself, my art and the truths of the world," he posted along with several photographs. In the images, he has captured the essence of Haridwar. In one, he is seen meditating, and looks peaceful in a white T-shirt and garlanded. In another, he is seen engrossed in a conversation with a priest. In a third photograph, he is showing his hand after performing puja with milk, ghee, water and more. The actor also shared a short video of Ganga aarti, in which he is seen interacting with some of his Indian fans but through eye gestures. His fans were ecstatic. One user said: "You are looking Indian", while another wrote: "I can see it in your eyes Will... keep on this path." Another user posted: "I love this so much! Thank you for embracing our culture and religion." Earlier this week, Smith shared a video of himself grooving to "Radha teri chunari" with cast of "Student Of The Year 2", and in another he is seen learning some Bollywood dance tricks and pelvic thrusts from actor Ranveer Singh. KABUL: The Afghan government summoned a Pakistan diplomat to explain Prime Minister Imran Khan`s latest remarks on ongoing Afghan peace talks, as tensions flared between the neighbouring countries once again. Afghanistan`s ministry of foreign affairs summoned the diplomat to object about remarks that it deemed "explicit interference" in Afghan affairs, the ministry`s spokesman, Sibghatullah Ahmadi, said on Twitter. It marks the fourth time in about a month and a half that Kabul has demanded an explanation from Islamabad for comments related to peace talks aimed at ending 17 years of war in Afghanistan. In late March, Afghanistan recalled its ambassador from Islamabad for Khan`s suggestion that forming an interim Afghan government might smooth peace talks between U.S. and Taliban officials. The ambassador returned shortly after Pakistan clarified Khan`s remarks as being reported out of context. But on Friday, Khan addressed the matter again at a rally in Pakistan in which he explained his original comments as "brotherly advice," according to accounts published in Afghan media. "Afghanistan considers recent statements of Imran Khan explicit interference in internal affairs of Afghanistan and deems PM`s remarks a return to his previous stance," Ahmadi tweeted. U.S. and Taliban officials have held several rounds of talks but the Taliban has refused to talk directly to the Afghan government, which they consider an illegitimate regime. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani`s mandate officially expires in May. The date for the next presidential election has been postponed twice and is now set for September 28. Ghani has been shut out from the peace talks and is under pressure from rivals to step aside and allow a caretaker government to take over, a suggestion he has rejected. Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected. Israelis will go to the polls on Tuesday and Netanyahu is competing for votes with right-wing parties who support annexing part of the West Bank. The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. Last month the US recognised the occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967, as Israeli territory, the BBC reported. Israel has settled about 400,000 Jews in West Bank settlements, with another 200,000 living in East Jerusalem. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. Palestinians want to establish a state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. What happens to the settlements is one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians -- Palestinians say the presence of settlements make a future independent state impossible. Israel says the Palestinians are using the issue of settlements as a pretext to avoid direct peace talks. It says settlements are not a genuine obstacle to peace and are negotiable. Netanyahu was asked during an interview on Israeli TV why he had not extended Israeli sovereignty to large settlements in the West Bank. "You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage -- the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage," he said. "I am going to extend (Israeli) sovereignty and I don`t distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements," he added. QUITO: Ecuador`s government said late on Friday that it rejected reports that it would imminently expel Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from its London embassy, where he has lived in asylum for nearly seven years. Assange was "prepared" for expulsion from the building, a British friend of his said on Tuesday, after Ecuador`s President Lenin Moreno said he had "repeatedly violated" the terms of his asylum. Moreno accused Assange of harming Ecuador`s relations with other countries by intervening in their politics and said he did not have the right to "hack private accounts or phones." WikiLeaks said Moreno`s remarks were in retribution for WikiLeaks having reported on corruption accusations against Moreno, who denies wrongdoing. In a statement, Ecuador`s foreign ministry denied it had reached an agreement with the British government to jail Assange if he left the embassy. Ecuador "categorically rejects the fake news that have circulated recently on social networks, many spread by an organization linked to Mr Julian Assange, about an imminent termination of the diplomatic aslyum granted to him since 2012," it said. The ministry said it reserved the right to terminate asylum when it considered it justified. "By releasing information that distorts the truth, (Assange) and his associates express once again their ingratitude and disrespect to Ecuador," it said. Assange took refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. That probe was later dropped, but Assange fears he could be extradited to face charges in the United States, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks. Ecuador last year established new rules for Assange`s behavior while in the embassy, which required him to pay his medical bills and clean up after his pet cat. He challenged the rules in local and international tribunals, arguing they violated his human rights. Both courts ruled against him. Last month, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is linked to the Organization of American States, rejected Assange`s request that Ecuador ease the conditions it has imposed on his residence in the London embassy. Assange says Ecuador is seeking to end his asylum and is putting pressure on him by isolating him from visitors and spying on him. Ecuador has said its treatment of Assange was in line with international law, but that his situation "cannot be extended indefinitely." DUBAI: Saudi Arabia has arrested eight people, including two dual U.S.-Saudi citizens, in an apparent crackdown on supporters of women activists whose trial has drawn Western condemnation, rights groups said on Friday. The 11 women on trial had campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom`s male guardianship system. Their case has intensified criticism of Riyadh`s rights record, already in the spotlight after last year`s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The U.S. nationals are journalist Salah al-Haidar, whose mother Aziza al-Yousef is among those on trial, and Bader al-Ibrahim, a doctor and author of a book about Shi`ite Muslim politics, the associate and London-based Saudi rights group ALQST said. Those newly detained, seven men and one woman, are not frontline activists but have expressed support of women`s rights and other reforms. They were detained late on Wednesday and Thursday, according to ALQST and an associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Five other people close to the women have also been placed under a travel ban since February, they added. An official from the U.S. State Department confirmed the arrest of two U.S. citizens and said it had "engaged the Saudi government in this regard", without providing details. The Saudi government communications office and the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh did not respond to requests for comment. Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty Internationals Middle East research director, said the authorities were "signalling to their entire people that there will be zero tolerance of any form of criticism, let alone questioning, of the states authoritarian practices." A Riyadh court last week temporarily released three of the women on trial, including Yousef, raising hopes of a more lenient handling after months of lobbying by Western governments. But the new arrests could signal that the authorities will resist international pressure and pursue harsh sentences. TORTURE ALLEGATIONS Khashoggi`s murder tarnished the reputation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who courted Western support for his efforts to modernise Saudi Arabia. The CIA and some Western countries believe he ordered the killing, which Saudi officials deny. Dozens of other activists, intellectuals and clerics have been arrested separately in the past two years in an apparent bid to stamp out opposition. The women on trial were arrested last May and branded as traitors. At least one of them has been charged under the kingdom`s cybercrime law and faces up to five years in prison. Five men arrested at the same time are not on trial. Rights groups say two of them have been released, but the others` status is unclear. Another U.S.-Saudi national, Walid al-Fitaihi, has been detained since 2017 under Riyadh`s anti-corruption campaign. His son told U.S. senators last month he had been tortured in detention, including electric shocks and whipping. Some of the women activists have also alleged torture and sexual assault, which the authorities deny. The siblings of one woman, Loujain al-Hathloul, who have publicised her case in U.S. media, say men describing themselves as "close to the state" had asked his parents to stop them from speaking out. "We stayed silent for eight months. We thought that being silent would solve the issue," Walid al-Hathloul told CNN on Thursday. "We found out at the end of the day that this made the case even worse and that`s why we`re speaking out now. At the end of the day we didn`t have any options but to speak out." LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Saturday that the longer it takes to find a comprise with the opposition Labour Party to secure a parliamentary majority for a Brexit deal, the less likely it is that Britain will leave the European Union. May has so far failed to secure backing for her negotiated agreement with Brussels as some Conservative lawmakers and Northern Ireland`s Democratic Unionist Party, which props up her minority government, have voted it down. She has since turned to the opposition Labour Party in a bid to secure a majority for an orderly Brexit, although its leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Saturday he was waiting for May to move her Brexit red lines. "The fact is that on Brexit there are areas where the two main parties agree: we both want to end free movement, we both want to leave with a good deal, and we both want to protect jobs," May said in comments released by her Downing Street office. "That is the basis for a compromise that can win a majority in Parliament and winning that majority is the only way to deliver Brexit. The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all," she said. May has a plan to enshrine in law a customs arrangement with the EU to win over the Labour Party, and her aides have discussed offering the opposition a place in the British delegation to Wednesday`s EU summit, The Sunday Times newspaper reported. The prime minister has asked EU leaders to postpone Britain`s exit from the bloc until June 30. The EU, which gave her a two-week extension the last time she asked, insists she must first show a viable plan to secure agreement on her thrice-rejected divorce deal in the British parliament. It is the latest twist in a saga which leaves Britain, the world`s fifth-biggest economy, struggling to find a way to honour a 2016 referendum vote to take the country out of the globe`s largest trading bloc. PRESSURES ON BOTH PARTIES May reiterated on Saturday her hope that lawmakers would approve a deal to allow Britain to leave the bloc as quickly as possible. "My intention is to reach an agreement with my fellow EU leaders that will mean if we can agree a deal here at home we can leave the EU in just six weeks," she said. One of the most senior Brexiteers in her government, the leader of the lower house of parliament Andrea Leadsom, also said there was a risk of Brexit slipping further from grasp. "The vision we had of Brexit is fading away and we are running out of time to save it," she wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. Some of May`s lawmakers are warning they will try to oust her if Britain participates in EU parliamentary elections next month and is forced to extend membership of the bloc beyond June, The Observer newspaper reported. The Sunday Telegraph said ministers are discussing whether to resign if a Brexit delay means Britain must field candidates. In a further sign of the ever heavier strains on the Conservatives, more than 100 candidates for upcoming local elections wrote to May warning of the growing anger at the grassroots level and among the public. "Our party and our government have completely lost touch with voters," the candidates said, according to The Sunday Telegraph. "Let`s be clear: more fudge and a further dilution of Brexit is not the answer." Opposition leader Corbyn also faces pressure as more than 80 of his lawmakers warned that another vote on Brexit must be a red line in Labour`s talks with the government, The Independent newspaper said. If you look at the domestic market, for example, we just need the appropriate aircraft. Air Zimbabwe doesnt have appropriate aircraft for the domestic market, it uses big aircraft which is wrong aircraft for flying between here (Harare) and Bulawayo, Harare-Vic Falls. We need the smaller ones, and that is what the Embraer will do. So, we are keen on this and I think that we will get somewhere with the relaunch of the airline, he said. Nguyen Phuc Nam, deputy head of the Asian-African market development development under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), said the event offered a chance for businesses of the two countries to cooperate, contributing to boosting Vietnams exports to the Philippines. Over the past few years, bilateral trade has enjoyed notable strides, with revenue exceeding USD4.7 billion in 2018, up 18 percent year-on-year, according to Le Hoang Tai, deputy head of the MoITs Department of Trade Promotion. Participants of the event (Photo: VNA) The Philippines is Vietnams fifth largest trade partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), after Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. It has been seen as one of Vietnams most promising markets in recent years. Statistics show that Vietnams export turnover to the country reached USD3.5 billion last year, up 22.2 percent against 2017. In the first two months of this year, Vietnams import-export value to the Philippines hit USD803 million, a rise of 18.3 percent compared with the same period last year, of which export revenue was USD587.3 million, up 19.17 percent year-on-year. Tai said that many Vietnamese products like coffee, seafood, garment-textiles, construction materials, and machinery and equipment, have gained a foothold in the Philippine market of 107 million people. He added that Vietnam holds huge potential for exports to the economy which ranks fifth in ASEAN especially in electrical equipment, power lines, and cables. Hero Yu, President of the Federation of Electrical and Electronics Suppliers and Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (PESA) and General Director of Yu Eng Kao Electrical Supply and Hardware Inc., said that the 12 PESA businesses participating in the event hope to seek suppliers of machinery and electrical products in Vietnam. During the business matching event, the PESA and the Vietnam Electrical Industry Association (VELINA) signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the electricity sector./. With the United Nations in 2003 recognising 7 April as the international day of reflection on the genocide in Rwanda, the East African nation will reflect on a day which marked the beginning of a brutal genocide which claimed the lives of more than 800 000 people. One of the things we need to do when we are amending the Constitution is to delink delimitation of constituencies from the census. The Constitution speaks about delimitation being done immediately after a census; now if you look at our situation, our census is done a year before elections and delimitation exercise needs more than a year to make it meaningful. This means it cannot be done a year before an election, he said. Based on extensive discussions with my interlocutors, we hope that the commitment to take the reform process in Zimbabwe forward and to address the violent events of the recent past will translate into tangible action. Implementing political and economic reforms is crucial for the country to enter into a positive trajectory, and a broad national consensus would cement internal support. Progress on the reforms will also offer space for a strengthened partnership with the EU. The President visited Chimanimani together with leaders of opposition parties. We want to be united and we want everyone back in the party. If senior people are being readmitted into the party why should people at the grassroots who want to come back be subjected to interrogation, she said. Derror Elim (29), Seerwan Khalid (29) and Deror Esav (41) appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Barbra Mateko on Friday last week facing charges of contravening Section 36(1)(a)(ii) as read with Section 36(1(j) of the Immigration Act Chapter 4:02 found in possession of or uses any permit or travel documents or any other certificate or document whatsoever which he or she is not entitled to possess or use. GOVERNMENT has started identifying and registering white former commercial farm owners who lost land during the countrys agrarian reform to pave way for compensation after RTGS$53 million was set aside for the exercise, Cabinet ministers have said. The compensation will be for improvements that were made on the land. In a joint statement, Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Minister Perrance Shiri and Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said under the new dispensation, Government is committed to paying compensation in accordance with the countrys Constitution and Zimbabwes obligations under the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements. In this regard, the Ad Hoc Compensation Working Group, comprising Government officials and representatives of former farm owners, is working towards the computation and establishing the compensation quantum figure for farm improvements based on an agreed method of valuation. Given the significant progress made to date, it is anticipated that this comprehensive farm improvements valuation exercise will be completed by the end of May 2019, said the ministers. The completion of the work of the Ad Hoc Compensation Working Group will enable Government and former farm owners, in conjunction with cooperating partners, to progress towards closure of the land issue They said the process to identify and register former farm owners who want to participate in the interim advance scheme is being coordinated by the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) and the Compensation Steering Committee (CSC) representing former farm owners. The Cabinet ministers said the registration process and the list of farmers should be completed by the end of April this year. In the meantime, Governments accelerated farm valuation exercise for farm improvements is expected to be complete by end of this month. This will pave the way for both parties to reach an agreement on the compensation quantum figure for farm improvements by end of May 2019,said the Cabinet ministers. Government said the interim advance payments will be paid directly to former farm owners by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Settlement. Government will put in place institutional arrangements to expedite the disbursements for these interim advance payments and consultations on sustainable options for mobilising the requisite compensation resources are being explored in conjunction with the International Financial Institutions and other stakeholders, said the ministers. Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community. Submit here The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574. Community Perspective Send Community Perspective submissions by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Submissions must be 500 to 750 words. Columns are welcome on a wide range of issues and should be well-written and well-researched with attribution of sources. Include a full name, email address, daytime telephone number and headshot photograph suitable for publication (email jpg or tiff files at 150 dpi.) You may also schedule a photo to be taken at the News-Miner office. The News-Miner reserves the right to edit submissions or to reject those of poor quality or taste without consulting the writer. Letters to the editor Send letters to the editor by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707), by fax (907-452-7917) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Writers are limited to one letter every two weeks (14 days.) All letters must contain no more than 350 words and include a full name (no abbreviation), daytime and evening phone numbers and physical address. (If no phone, then provide a mailing address or email address.) The Daily News-Miner reserves the right to edit or reject letters without consulting the writer. Presenting the insignia to the ambassador at a ceremony held in Hanoi, VUFO President Nguyen Phuong Nga spoke highly of Vardanyans efforts, as the first Armenian Ambassador to Vietnam, in bolstering the bilateral relations built on trust and mutual understanding. Nga added that the two countries cooperation has been deepened in various spheres, including economy, trade, science-technology, culture and people-to-people exchanges. The Armenian diplomat has paid due attention to and worked with the Vietnam-Armenia Friendship Association to organise external activities and celebrations of the countries major events, she added. For her part, Vardanyan thanked the VUFO and the Vietnam-Armenia Friendship Association for their support for the Embassy of Armenia in Vietnam to arrange activities which helped foster the traditional bilateral friendship and multifaceted cooperation, particularly people-to-people diplomacy. Recalling notable achievements of the bilateral friendship and cooperation over the years, the diplomat voiced her hope that the Armenia-Vietnam relations will continue to thrive in the coming time./. Moonlit drive from Anchorage to Fairbanks, made all the mountains so majestic at 23 degrees below! Thanks to Bernice Nickoli, of North Pole, for sending along this shot. Only about 25 percent of universities in Japan have imposed blanket bans on smoking on all campuses, months before tighter regulations come into force, according to a recent survey. The finding suggests delays in preparation. Smoking will be prohibited in principle on school grounds, effective from July, under the revised Health Promotion Law. The survey, conducted by Shigeharu Ieda, professor of Chukyo University, covered 782 national, municipal and private universities across Japan. Ieda asked the schools about their efforts to ban smoking and checked their websites for related information. The results of the survey, launched in 2002, are published about every six months. According to the latest survey, 197 universities, or 25.2 percent of the total, had implemented blanket smoking bans on all campuses as of March 8, almost double the level of 10 years ago. In addition, 38 schools, or 4.9 percent, had wholesale smoking bans in place on some campuses. Under the revised law, enacted in July last year, smoking will be prohibited in principle on the premises of schools, hospitals and administrative office buildings. According to Ieda, however, some universities have reinstated smoking areas on campus, reversing the blanket bans, after getting complaints from residents about students smoking in areas near the school and litter from cigarette butts, apparently left by students. Even under the revised law, smoking will be permitted at designated outdoor locations on condition that measures against secondhand smoke are taken, including the installation of clearly marked signage at smoking areas. The provision, however, has been criticized as a loophole in the ban. Security cameras have been installed on street lights along Tokyoas high-end shopping boulevard, Omotesando-dori, situated in Shibuya Ward, due to an increase in pick-pocketing and camera voyeurism. Ten surveillance cameras were installed this week along the boulevard lined with brand retailers, boutiques, and restaurants following persistent requests by an association of Omotesando retailers, Fuji TV reported. The Tokyo equivalent of Parisa Champs-AlysAe, Omotesando is constantly bustling with Japanese youth, brand-name shoppers and foreign tourists. However, an increase in crimes from pick-pocketing to voyeuristic photos and videos spurred the association to urge the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to equip the chic shopping district with security cameras. In addition, on Jan 1 this year, the nearby Harajuku fashion district was the site of a crime scene when a 21-year-old man plowed his minivan into a crowd along Takeshita Street. Eight people were injured in the attack. Japanese chefs and their restaurants continued to dominate at the seventh Asiaas 50 Best Restaurants awards. But once again they fell short when it came to the ultimate prize, the number one position on the list. The annual awards ceremony returned to Macaoas glitzy Cotai casino district on March 26 for a second year, hosted again by the plush Wynn Palace hotel complex. With its red carpet entrance, gaggles of photographers and lavish warmup and afterparties, the event continues to live up to its own billing as the aOscars of the regional food world.a With 12 restaurants on the 2019 list a all but two of them in Tokyo a Japan maintains its customary strength in numbers, ahead of Hong Kong (with nine), Thailand (eight) and Singapore (seven). In the 50 Best voting groups, Hong Kong and Macao are considered separately from mainland China. After its second-place ranking in 2018, there were high hopes that Den, chef Zaiyu Hasegawaas innovative Japanese restaurant, might go one better this year after losing out to Bangkokas four-time winner, Gaggan. However, both were leapfrogged by Odette, the modern French establishment helmed by Julien Royer, who became the first ever winner from Singapore. Den was pushed down a peg to the No.3 place, with chef Hiroyasu Kawateas Florilege also dropping back from No. 3 to No. 5. Narisawa (No. 8) and Nihonryori RyuGin (No. 9) have been perennial incumbents of the top 10 since the very first edition of the Asiaas Best awards. But to date, Narisawa, in 2013, remains the only Japanese restaurant to have topped the list. Suspected bandits have burnt down a police station at Kakangi village, Birnin Gwari local government area of Kaduna state, killing t... Suspected bandits have burnt down a police station at Kakangi village, Birnin Gwari local government area of Kaduna state, killing two policemen. The gunmen arrived the community on motorbikes around 5:00am and began shooting sporadically. A resident of the community, who did not want to be named said the suspected bandits, who were armed with AK-47, killed two other persons. Those who sustained injuries in the attack have reportedly been taken to the hospital for treatment. and Good Governance (BVSGG), also corroborated the account of the resident. Ibrahim Nagwari, chairman of the Birnin Gwari Vanguard for Securityand Good Governance (BVSGG), also corroborated the account of the resident. Nagwari said the security situation in the community had worsened owing to the activities of bandits. Security situation has worsened due to armed banditry and kidnapped, Nagwari said in a statement. Many communities particularly along Birnin-Gwari Funtua road had deserted their homes and took refuge in Birnin-Gwari and elsewhere. th. (Photo: VNA) Mr. Trac, who is also head of the Committees Commission for Internal Affairs, thanked the people and progressive forces of Panama for their sentiments towards Vietnamese people in the countrys fight for national liberation and reunification in the past and the national construction at present. He expressed his hope that the traditional relations between the CPV and the UNI will serve as a sound political foundation for furthering Vietnam-Panama ties. In reply, Ivan Blasser spoke highly of the achievements of Vietnams Doi Moi (renewal) process. He also voiced his hope to enhance the traditional friendship between the two Parties to share experiences, especially those of Vietnam in Party building, socio-economic development, poverty alleviation, and hunger eradication. Previously, the Panamanian official joined talks with deputy head of the CPV Central Committees Commission for External Affairs Nguyen Tuan Phong and working sessions with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the National Fund for Vietnamese Children, and the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group. He also paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh and visited some facilities in Hanoi and the northern province of Quang Ninh during his trip./. The federal government has banned mining activities in Zamfara state, ordering foreigners within mining sites to vacate the area imm... The federal government has banned mining activities in Zamfara state, ordering foreigners within mining sites to vacate the area immediately. The government has also launched a special operation to stop bandits in the state. Mohammed Adamu, acting inspector-general of police, disclosed this while addressing state house correspondents after a security meeting at the presidential villa in Abuja on Sunday. Adamu said the licences of individuals and companies that disobey the directive to stop the activities would be revoked. The development comes 24 hours after some protesters marched to Aso Rock to draw attention to the security situation in Zamfara. by armed men. Many have been killed while property worth millions of naira destroyed in attacksby armed men. Sanusi Rikiji, speaker of the state house assembly, said at least 50 members of the civilian joint task force (CJTF) were killed on Tuesday. Representatives of Chibok in Borno and Dapchi in Yobe on Sunday sought spiritual help at The Synagogue Church of All Nations, at Ikotu... Representatives of Chibok in Borno and Dapchi in Yobe on Sunday sought spiritual help at The Synagogue Church of All Nations, at Ikotun-Egbe, Lagos to pray for the release of Leah Sharibu and other students kidnapped by Boko Haram. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the representatives who carried several placards told the General Overseer, Prophet Temitope Joshua, that they were at The Synagogue because they had exhausted all human efforts to get the students released. A spokesman of the representatives told Prophet Joshua that the father of Leah Sharibu could not come with them because he had been bedridden by stroke, as a result of the kidnap of her daughter. He said they had been watching his ministry through Emmanuel Television (the churchs cable TV) and all the help he had rendered to the sick and the less privileged, hence their joint visit to plead for intercessory prayers for the release of the students. The spokesman said they had no doubt that with the approval of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God could trigger the release of the remaining students kidnapped in 2014 and 2018. Prophet Joshua told them that there was nothing impossible in the sight of the Creator of Heaven and Earth. He urged the congregation and viewers of Emmanuel Television worldwide to pray and fast on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, this week, for the release of the remaining students. He said that there is nothing God cannot do and urged all to see the prayer and fasting on the mentioned days as an assignment. NAN reports that some of the placards read: Please intercede on our behalf for the release of Leah Sharibu; The remaining 112 students kidnapped in Chibok are yet to be released, please help, among others. On April 14, 2014, 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State. Responsibility for the kidnappings was claimed by Boko Haram, an extremist terrorist organization based in northeastern Nigeria. Since 2014, 164 of the students had regained their freedom, while 112 are still held by Boko Haram. Also on Feb. 19, 2018, no fewer than 110 schoolgirls were kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorist group from the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, located in Bulabulin, Yunusari Local Government area of Yobe State. Air force officers involved in the fight against insurgency suffered a setback on Sunday as the rotor of a helicopter killed an air ch... Air force officers involved in the fight against insurgency suffered a setback on Sunday as the rotor of a helicopter killed an air chief marshal simply identified as Umar. An airman, who witnessed the tragic incident, revealed that it happened at Bama in Borno state on Saturday evening. The aircraft was said to have developed a fault. The deceased, who was the co-pilot, had gone to the pick his bags and on his way back, he passed through the side of the rotor which was functioning. Immediately his head was chopped off, the source said. The aircraft has been recovered and taken back to the air base. No damage was found on the tail rotor, the source said. The tragic incident reportedly occurred around 4pm on Satirday. The source said family members of the deceased have been informed while the burial arrangement was on as of the time this report was filed. The Court of Appeal in Akure, on Saturday affirmed the eligibility of Senator Ademola Adeleke, Osun States governorship candidate of ... The Court of Appeal in Akure, on Saturday affirmed the eligibility of Senator Ademola Adeleke, Osun States governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to stand for election as Governor. Presided over by Justice M.A Danjuma, the court dismissed the appeal against the judgment of an Osun State High Court sitting in Oshogbo, which had confirmed the eligibility of Adeleke to contest for the governorship of Osun State. The court had Justices R.A Abdullahi and P.A Mahmoud as members of the panel. The Osogbo High Court had ruled that Adeleke was qualified to contest for the governorship, having been educated up to secondary school level. Not satisfied with the high court decision, the runner-up in the gubernatorial primary election, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi, proceeded to the appellate court to challenge it. The Appeal Court agreed with Adeleke and consequently dismissed the appeal on three grounds. It held that the trial court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit and that the sponsored petitioner, one Kingsley Awosiyan from Ife Central had no locus standi to file the case. The court also held that the matter was brought to court outside the stipulated 14 days, after the conduct of the primary election. Ahmed Lawal, organising secretary of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Adamawa state, says power must shift to the southern part o... Ahmed Lawal, organising secretary of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Adamawa state, says power must shift to the southern part of Nigeria in 2023. Lawal made the call in an interview with NAN in Yola, Adamawa capital, on Sunday. He said there is need to demonstrate fairness in the polity, adding that the southern part of Nigeria supported the northern part to retain power for eight years. He advised the APC to ensure power rotation in 2023 to enhance national cohesion. Lawal rejected comments from those he called some selfish northern politicians intent on shortchanging the south in the scheme of power play. The organising secretary said the proponents of power retention in the north are selfish as they cannot claim to be speaking for the entire north. We must rotate power to southern Nigeria for the spirit of equity, fairness and harmony, he said. As far as Nigerian unity is concerned, power shift must become a stabilising principle so that no region will feel relegated and oppressed politically. It was instructive that our political leaders sought support from southerners while APC was mobilising during 2015 election. It is glaring that they cooperated well as no southern APC politician contested the primary election during 2015 and even in 2019. If we want to be fair to them, lets allow them to have a feel of power come 2023. It is also instructive that those singing northern power retention cannot speak for the north because they are not authorised. As you can see, some of them who claim to be members of the APC, worked against the party in the just concluded governorship election to build up PDP to be able to achieve their sinister agenda. Babachir Lawal, former secretary to the government of the federation and Junaid Mohammed, a politician from Kano, had said rotation of the presidency to the south in 2023 is not automatic. Leading candidate for the Senate Presidency, Dr. Ahmad Lawan took his campaign for the post to Borno State yesterday where he met with... Leading candidate for the Senate Presidency, Dr. Ahmad Lawan took his campaign for the post to Borno State yesterday where he met with stakeholders on his agenda for the Red Chamber of the National Assembly. Simultaneously, all the three Senators-elect from Niger State yesterday pledged their support for his aspiration, 24 hours after a similar endorsement by the three senators elect from Kano State. view to reaching a compromise in the interest of their party, All Progressives Congress (APC). It was gathered that some supporters of the other aspirants for the post Alhaji Ali Ndume and Alhaji Danjuma Goje might be willing to push for talks with the Lawan camp with aview to reaching a compromise in the interest of theirparty, All Progressives Congress (APC). Sources said Lawan and his group are leaving nothing to chances this time around so that they are not caught napping as they were in 2015 They are reaching out to as many groups and individuals who may have a say in who leads the 9th Senate. to assuage their feelings. The Senator elect from Ekiti South, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, has urged the leadership of the APC to open discussions with Ndume and Gojeto assuage their feelings. Discussions were held last week in Abuja and initial interactions show that in the coming weeks both camps will have cheering news to announce to APC leadership and Senators-elects. Lawans campaign team, The Nation learnt, is concluding talks with a key aspirant from Northeast, a development which may pave the way for a sole candidate for the headship of the legislature.Discussions were held last week in Abuja and initial interactions show that in the coming weeks both camps will have cheering news to announce to APC leadership and Senators-elects. A source said an area being ironed out borders on the fact that once the aspirant drops out of the race, he will not be in contention for any principal officer position since both Senators are from the same geo-political zones. A source at the meeting said: In the light of the political reality, he came with a request that he should be given the Chairmanship of Appropriations Committee for the consideration of Senator Lawan and his camp. Lawans men, it was learnt, pleaded for time to consult widely on the aspirants conditions. To this effect, the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been briefed. Lawan is the best choice to lead the 9th Senate Niger Senators-elect yesterday the three senators elect from Niger State said their decision followed due consultations and considerations and in recognition of the supremacy of our Partys position on the matter. In endorsing himyesterday the three senators elect from Niger State said their decisionfolloweddue consultations and considerations and in recognition of the supremacy of our Partys position on the matter. Sabi Abdullahi and Muhammad Bima Enagi said in a statement in Minna that Lawan has the competence, charisma and integrity to preside over the affairs of the Senate. Mohammed Sani Musa,Sabi Abdullahi andMuhammad Bima Enagi said in a statement in Minna that Lawan has the competence, charisma and integrity to preside over the affairs of the Senate. The Senators submitted that the 9th National Assembly needs someone like Lawans leadership qualities that will facilitate in making laws for the good governance. His display of honesty, sincerity of purpose, respect for divergent views, loyalty to and believe in party supremacy as well as proven experience in the business of lawmaking makes him the obvious choice for the legislatures top job, they said. Sani Musa said:There is no doubt that Senator Lawan has also demonstrated stability, reliability and fidelity towards ensuring sound and people-oriented legislation at the Senate as he demonstrated in the build-up to the 2019 general elections where despite the pressure from the opposition, remained resolute and committed towards promoting the good course of the Senate as the apex law-making organ in the country. It is also worth noting that Distinguished Senator Lawan is one Nigerian who has remained detribalized, bi-partisan and accommodating to varying views as long as they are positive and can add to the growth and wellbeing of Nigerians. He has demonstrated this in his support for legislations sponsored by lawmakers who might not have been in the same political parties with him at the floor of the senate. Niger North Senatorial District said he was optimistic that Lawan would promote homogeneity of purpose at the 9th Senate and foster unity among distinguished senators as well as other arms of government, in a manner that will add value to good governance in Nigeria. Sabi Abdullahi representingNiger North Senatorial District said he was optimistic that Lawan would promote homogeneity of purpose at the 9th Senate and foster unity among distinguished senators as well as other arms of government, in a manner that will add value to good governance in Nigeria. I believe he embodies outstanding qualities that are germane to the success of the 9th Senate and the government as a whole. Therefore, I join my colleagues in endorsing his Senate Presidency ambition. Muhammad Bima Enagi representing Niger South said: the need for effective, selfless and patriotic leadership at the Senate has become imperative. I believe therefore that our party, the ruling APC decision to endorse Distinguished Senator Ahmed Lawan for the Presidency of the Senate is a wise and timely decision that has great benefits not only for the party but for the next phase of governance as a whole in the country. Adeyeye wants APC to discuss with Ndume, Goje, others and Goje in the interest of everyone. Senator-elect Dayo Adeyeye (Ekiti South), said yesterday that it was important for the APC to dialogue with Ndumeand Goje in the interest of everyone. He told reporters in Abuja that the APC should strike a balance between its interest and the feelings of those who might not be favoured in the selection of process. It is a matter of give and take. I think the leadership of the party should do well to assuage the feelings of those who might not have been favoured in the selection process by inviting them and let them see reasons, he said. The interest of the party is more important than individual interests. When we fight for, and protect the collective interests, individual privileges and interests can still be met. Adeyeye acknowledged the right of Ndume and Goje to aspire to be Senate President since they are members of the APC and more so when the position had been zoned to their geopolitical zone, adding that, However, I think we can always find compromise He cautioned the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against fielding candidates for the President of the Senate and Deputy President of the Senate, saying doing so would negate the ethics and norms of parliamentary practice and procedure. The first time senator, who was the spokesman for the PDP until December 2018, cited the example of the United States where the Republican Party, with only a slim majority over the Democrats still controls the American parliament. In America as we speak today, the Republicans are in the majority with three or four senators over the Democrats in the Senate and yet nobody in the minority party ever contemplated nominating any of their members to become the leader of majority. Because that will be against the ethics and the norms of parliamentary practice and procedure. After 20 years of democracy, we should start experimentation. By now we should start a proper culture, ethics and norms of the advanced democracy We should be able to do what the public expect should be the outcome of an election. Nigerians have given the APC majority of the seats in the Senate, they therefore expect the APC to control the Senate Nobody should therefore try to subvert the will of the people by trying to play any game or causing any division even among the majority party such that the will of the people, freely expressed at the polls, could be subverted. I do not expect any member of the PDP to come out and contest for leadership positions meant for the party with the majority seats on the day of inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly. All contestants on that day should be APC members. Since Nigerians deliberately voted for the APC to constitute the majority in the nations parliament with about 64 senators, the contest for the leadership positions should be within the APC. The PDP should not interfere in it. The opposition party should not produce any candidate and its members should not contest on that day. That is the practice in the advanced democracies. No minority party plays any game to take over the majority when it did not win the highest number of seats during the general elections. advantage of the situation by sponsoring one of its members to contest the position. Even if the APC is presenting the three senators to contest for Senate President, I do not expect that the PDP will try to takeadvantage of the situation by sponsoring one of its members to contest the position. We dont want such attitude in the Senate anymore. I think by now, we should have rules and develop proper democratic norms and values that would prevent us from doing what is not expected of us as a party and as members of a party. The senator-elect cautioned APC members contesting for the position of Senate President against picking a member of the opposition PDP as candidate for Deputy Senate President just to leverage on bloc votes expected from PDP senators. I do not expect a person contesting the seat of Senate President to make a member of the opposition party, his deputy in order to win the election. That would be a total betrayal. I expect that the party with the majority seats should produce the presiding officers and the principal officers meant for the ruling party. Meanwhile, a group, the Society for Grassroots Political Participation, has urged adherence to international best practices in deciding the leadership of both the National Assembly. The group, in a communique after its meeting, said adherence to internationally-recognised best practices would save the country from the sad experience of the outgoing National Assembly. The communique released in Ibadan and signed by Executive Secretary, Sewaola Johnson, and the External Communication Officer, Musbau Alade, urged senators-elects, Reps-elect and political parties to ensure that the foundation blocks on which other programme and activities of the legislature are cemented by proven parliamentary experience. If the All Progressives Congress (APC) adopts the suggestion of Senator Abu Ibrahim, Senators Mohammed Ali Ndume and Mohammed Danjuma ... If the All Progressives Congress (APC) adopts the suggestion of Senator Abu Ibrahim, Senators Mohammed Ali Ndume and Mohammed Danjuma Goje, may be expelled from the party if they go against the decision of the party on the election of Senate president. Although Ibrahim did not mention Ndume and Goje, the Katsina South senator told reporters in Abuja that any member of the APC who dares the partys decision and connives with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to truncate the decision of the party on who becomes Senate President will be expelled from the party. While Ndume has declared his intention to contest the position of Senate President in defiance of APCs endorsement of Senator Ahmed Lawan as the preferred candidate of the party, Goje is yet to publicly declare his intention. The Gombe Central Senators body language however gives him out as nursing the ambition to throw his hat into the ring for the exalted position. Ibrahim who is Chairman, Senate Committee on Labour and Productivity noted that in democracy, once any one chooses a party, you must abide by the rules of that party at all times or else you leave. For him, there will be no need for individuals who disobey the party decision to remain in the party because that is an act of indiscipline which no party should condone. He noted that as a matter of fact, if the party gives a ticket to an individual and he is assisted with resources to contest and win election, the person must naturally obey the rules of the party at all times. Ibrahim said, First of all, we have to remind ourselves that it is a political party which gives an individual the ticket to participate in an election. Once such a ticket is given, it is the caucus of the party in the National Assembly that will determine the emergence of candidate that eventually becomes the leader of the Senate through voting. Specifically, the party decides which zone should produce candidate for the position and when such decision is taken every member must abide by that decision. No one can come out of caucus meetings voting to say he would not accept the decision of the party on such election process. As a loyal party member anyone who dares the partys decision and come out to connive with PDP to truncate the decision of the party will be expelled from the party. As a matter of fact, if the party gives a ticket to an individual and he/she is assisted with resources to contest and win election, the person must naturally obey the rules of the party at all times. As a matter of fact, if the party gives a ticket to an individual and he/she is assisted with resources to contest and win election, the person must naturally obey the rules of the party at all times. That is an act of indiscipline which no party should condone. In democracy, once you choose a party, you must abide by the rules of that party at all times or else you leave. There will be no need for individuals who disobey the party decision and remain in such a party.That is an act of indiscipline which no party should condone. Asked if APC can reach out to PDP Senators to seek support for its candidate he said: You see, there is no need to reach out to the opposition minority members because APC, as a party, has a clear majority to decide straight away who should become Senate President. All the PDP members, who are now talking today, including Senators Abaribe, James Manager, Ekweremadu and the likes, know the rules of this game. PDP, as a party, played this game for the whole sixteen years when it was in power between 1999 and 2015.All the PDP members, who are now talking today, including Senators Abaribe, James Manager, Ekweremadu and the likes, know the rules of this game. It is sheer mischief, greed and a great insult for any PDP member to now claim that every member in the National Assembly has a right to contest. This is not done anywhere in the world. Not in U.K, U.S.A or anywhere else. David Mark was Senate President between 2007 and 2015 when his party was in power and the majority party in Senate, nobody from the opposition parties contested along with him. Now he thinks numerical strength does not matter again but it did when he was the Senate President. What an absurdity. The leadership of the National Assembly now belongs exclusively to APC in the two chambers because the party has a clear majority and does not have to consult the opposition members in order to pick its principal officers. It is never done anywhere in the world and it will not be done this time around. The minority leadership in the National Assembly is there for the PDP to choose their leaders. No one is interfering with them in choosing their leadership. National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mallam Lanre Issa Onilu has said that the party lost election in ... National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mallam Lanre Issa Onilu has said that the party lost election in some key states controlled by it because the party and government controlled by it gave every Nigerian the opportunity to contest election freely without interference in the electoral process. The APC lost the governorship elections in Imo, Adamawa, Bauchi and Oyo states, four states controlled by APC governors, while losing the Presidential election in Oyo, Ondo and Edo states. Onilu told a group of Reporters at the weekend that before the 2019 elections, it was unheard of that the ruling party lost election in states controlled by it. He said: In Sokoto, we lost by less than 500 votes, but in Kano, we won by thousands of votes. Which one is narrow? Is it the Sokoto that PDP have claimed they have won with three hundred or Kano that we won by over 20,000 votes, so it is not narrow. But the important thing to note is that, and thats my word. Being a journalist myself, I begin to ask myself, what has happened to us in the media? That our role is to interpret events. If we interpret these events very well, you will notice that you have a ruling party that is supposed to mobilize all the resources of coercion and all instrument of coercion to get what we want. You just said that we lost some States, major States. I will tell you that the only reason that happened was because this party has provided a platform for people to go and face the electorate and for the electorate to pass judgement on the people that have been put forward without anybody doing anything against it. We have just talked about Rivers State. Whatever was going on in Rivers State, as far as this party is concerned, belongs to people of Rivers State. Otherwise we will say okay, move in and do that. We have witnessed it in this country under PDP that the whole state would be locked down. Their own method is win by all means, let others go to tribunal. We didnt apply that. You have seen major politicians in this country, big politicians in this country losing election in this country even in our own party. You saw a serving governor in Oyo State who couldnt win one-third of the State. A governor who is governing the entire State couldnt win one-third of the entire State to get to the Senate. You saw a struggle that is still going on in Akwa-Ibom State, with somebody of the calibre of Godswill Akpabio. Even though we know there are issues to that and it would be corrected but at the same time, we should have deployed, in such a way that we will want to arm-twist anybody or the system or manipulate the system. That question did not even arise at all and I think the media should step back from the millieu, so that they dont get carried away by that kind of flu politicians are going with so that they can see the issue clearly and say what is responsible for this. You could see that we lost Oyo in presidential election where we have a sitting governor. We lost Ondo where we have a sitting governor. But because we didnt want to condone impunity, we did all we did in Imo in a way to undermine ourselves. The choice we had was to either to accept what would have amounted to the impunity, so that we could win Imo ordo the right thing. But we said no, we would rather do what is decent. On the chances of the party ahead of the 2023 elections, Onilu expressed confidence that the outcome of the 2019 elections has further increased the chances of the APC, saying the chances are even now brighter. You know why? Nigerians have shown that they have also come of age and that no matter who you are, you can be rejected. See what happened in Kwara State for instance. With the behemoth status of somebody like Bukola Saraki whose opponents results nearly doubled his own, not a single person was slapped. He couldnt even go to tribunal to protest. The only way this could happen was because voters have come up of age, and they now look at performance unlike sentiments that theyve been following. Speaking on the just concluded elections in Rivers state, Onilu said we dont have anything to do with the Rivers State election. APC didnt have candidates in Rivers State and that is why from the beginning, we didnt throw ourselves so much into it. You know what the Supreme Court did. They said we were not qualified to contest. So, on that basis, whatever happened in Rivers, whether a Local Government that gave 80% total votes during the Presidential election suddenly produced 320,000 for Wike during governorship election didnt hurt us in any way. If INEC says that was correct, fine. It is up to the parties involved to take actions if they find it necessary. But for us as a party, we didnt have the opportunity to contest unfairly in Rivers State. On the adoption of the candidate of the African Action Congress by the party, Onilu said the APC as a party never adopted any candidate, but was quick to stress that the party also did not forbid any local arrangement that may have been made in the state.7f He said: What happened last time was whether what Amaechi did amounted to anti-party activities and I said No. Adopting any candidate in the state did not deny any of our candidates anything in Rivers State. So, I separated what happened in Rivers from Ogun and Imo where we had our own candidates and our own members worked against own candidates and worked for some other candidates. It is different in Rivers. Whatever local arrangement they had there, we were not aware of it and we were not part of it. Im sure you didnt see anybody there campaigning for anybody outside of APC. He also dismissed insinuations that the Kwara state governor-elect was enmeshed in a certificate scandal and therefore not qualified to contest the election. He said there is no any scandal. You see, APC is a party of due process. Once you comply with your own rules, things become easy for you. We have a process and they (the then governorship aspirants) went through the right process. We are confident and completely certain that our governor-elect has nothing to hide. The certificates are genuine. You see, it is laughable that of all things, they cannot come out to say the election was rigged because they were traced even beyond their own imagination. While presenting his credentials to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra on April 3rd, Thanh conveyed Vietnamese Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trongs regards and greetings to the Nicaraguan leader. He congratulated the Sandnista National Liberation Front for its success in the recent regional election and expressed his belief that the Nicaraguan people will reap further achievements in the cause of socio-economic development. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra (Photo: AFP/VNA) Meanwhile, President Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo recalled their visit to Vietnam in 1983, during which they had meetings with General Vo Nguyen Giap and then Prime Minister Pham Van Dong. They praised Vietnamese heroes for their contributions to the countrys struggle for independence and freedom while speaking highly of Vietnams reform attainments and global integration in the past years. Earlier, Thanh presented a copy of the credential to Nicaraguan Minister of Foreign Affairs Denis Moncada Conlindres. At the meeting, the two officials informed each other of the socio-economic situation in their respective country. They discussed measures to bolster friendship and collaborative ties, particularly in economy and trade in the coming time. Thanh and Moncada exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual concern and agreed to continue mutual supports at international forums of which both nations are members. Thanh took the occasion to thank Nicaragua for recognising Vietnams market economy status and supporting the countrys bid to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure. Also, he suggested both foreign ministries carry out the political consultation agreement inked in 2011./. The two countries established diplomatic relations on April 9th, 1973. Right after the establishment, the European country started to provide official development assistance and grants to Vietnam, mostly in the field of human activities, education and training, and health care. Currently the Netherlands takes Vietnam as a priority partner. The two sides regularly exchange high-level delegations. Bilateral relations serve as an example of the dynamic and effective ties between Vietnam and a European country. The friendship and cooperation between the two countries have been developing well in every field. The two sides are also actively cooperating with each other at international and regional multilateral organisations and forums, especially in the framework of the United Nations and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). They often have high-level contacts on the sidelines of major conferences. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (L) and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte on July 10th, 2017 (Source: VNA) Regarding the East Sea, the Netherlands maintains a positive stance on the issues relating to security, peace and stability in the region, and holds that the sides concerned should practice self-restraint and solve the disputes by peaceful and cooperative means, with respect to international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It also praises Vietnams rising role in solving the East Sea issue as well as contributions to regional peace and security.Over the past years, trade between Vietnam and the Netherlands has unceasingly developed, with Vietnam enjoying a surplus. Currently the Netherlands is one of Vietnams largest export markets in Europe. Two-way trade value last year amounted to USD7.84 billion, with Vietnam mainly exporting seafood, vegetables, cashew nut, coffee, pepper and rice while importing food, animal feeds and materials, chemicals, pharmaceutical products and plastics.In the recent years, the Netherlands has maintained the position of one of the biggest European investors in Vietnam. In the period from January 1st, 1988 to Decmeber 31st, 2018, the Netherlands ranked 10th among the 129 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 318 projects totally valued at over 9.3 billion USD, mainly located in the south.On national defence and security, the two sides mainly join hands in implementing contracts to build ships with the Damen group. A delegation of the Dutch military attaches in Asia visited Vietnam in March 2016 and Vietnam sent trainees to peacekeeping courses in the Netherland the same year.Since 2015, the Dutch side has helped Vietnam implement programmes aimed at improving the capacity to realize the United Nation convention against torture and punishment held in Vietnam.In education, the Netherlands has helped Vietnam in various projects. Many Vietnamese universities and institutes have set up cooperation relations with their Dutch partners. Vietnamese students studying in the Netherlands mainly focus on economics, business management, science and technology. Since 2006, about 170 Vietnamese students go to the Netherlands each year on average.Besides, the two sides also cooperate in the fields of climate change, navigation and aviation, and customs. Many localities in Vietnam are also enjoying close and effective cooperation with those in the Netherlands.The coming visit by the Dutch leader shows that the two sides attach great importance to their relations of friendship and cooperation, and hope to raise them to a comprehensive partnership so as to further push up bilateral ties./. The majority of Khmer people in the south concentrate in nine Mekong Delta localities of Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, Kien Giang, An Giang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Vinh Long, Hau Giang, Can Tho. There are also Khmer people living in Ho Chi Minh City and southeastern localities. During the festival, Khmer people conduct many traditional rituals such as pagoda visiting and Buddha bathing, aiming to pray for favourable weather conditions and good luck for family members, as well as showing gratitude to parents and ancestors. Addressing the event, PM Phuc extended his New Year wishes to the Khmer community, which number around 1.3 million. He underscored that Vietnam is a united country with a large number of ethnic groups. The Party and State always pay special attention to ethnic minority groups, including the Khmer. He said that the Government has prioritised resources for many national schemes designed to support the disadvantaged groups, including ethnic minority people, such as the sustainable poverty reduction programme and the new-style rural area building programme. The Government leader expressed his delight at improvements in the living conditions of the Khmer community, as well as in education and human resources quality. The political system in Khmer-inhabited areas has been reinforced with increasing number of Khmer officials. The solidarity among religions and ethnic groups has been promoted, while political security and social order and safety have been ensured, he noted. However, the PM pointed out that the socio-economic infrastructure system in the southern region in general and Khmer areas in particular has yet to meet development requirement. The income and livelihoods of for part of community, especially those in remote and mountainous regions, have been unstable. The human resource quality has yet to meet the requirements for industrialization and modernization, he said, adding that there are still activities of abusing religions to harm solidarity among Khmer people. He requested ministries, sectors and regional localities to actively carry out policies related to ethnic and religious affairs, meeting aspiration of the groups. It is necessary to give more resources to localities that are home to ethnic minority groups to boost socio-economic growth and climate change response, he said, stressing the need to encourage startups and job generation so as not to leave any one behind. The PM asked authorised agencies to promote the popularization of policy and legal regulations among Khmer people, while creating favourable conditions for religious activities of the group. On the occasion of the Chol Chnam Thmay, local authorities should offer timely support to poor households, thus ensuring all Khmer people enjoy a warm festival, the PM said. In the letter sent to Co-op Mart Vietnam, Saigon Co-op, Bic C Hanoi and Big C Da Nang, on April 4, the PM hailed these supermarkets for actively implementing practical measures to limit the use of plastic bags, contributing to changing the public habit of using plastic bags towards ensuring environmental protection. In the letter, PM Phuc also appealed to the business community, supermarkets, restaurants and hotels to join the Government and society in minimising the use of plastic bags and the disposal of plastic waste through practical actions. The Government leader also asked the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, other ministries and sectors concerned, and Peoples Committees at all levels to carry out measures to encourage the use of environmentally friendly products and gradually reduce the production and use of plastic bags for a healthy living environment and sustainable development. Some enterprises such as the chain of Co-op Mart Vietnam and Big C in Da Nang and Hanoi have used banana leaves instead of plastic bags to wrap foods, which is considered a practical measure to limit the discharge of plastic waste and has received support from consumers. Many residents of Susangerd, with a population of about 50,000, and five other communities in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan were being moved to safer areas as officials released water from major river dams, the television reported. "An evacuation order has been issued and we are recommending women and children to leave but we are asking the men and youth to stay and help us (in the rescue effort)," the provincial governor, Gholamreza Shariati, told state TV. In the neighbouring Lorestan province, seven villages threatened by landslides were to be evacuated, the television reported. At least 70 people have been killed, the head of the country's emergency services, Pirhossein Koulivand, told the state news agency IRNA. About 1,900 cities and villages have been affected by floods after exceptionally heavy rains since March 19. The disaster has left aid agencies struggling to cope and seen 86,000 people moved to emergency shelters. The government has told citizens, and especially flood-affected farmers, that all losses will be compensated. Iran's state budget is already stretched under US sanctions on energy and banking sectors that have halved its oil exports and restricted access to some revenues abroad. As waters continue to submerge villages, the government said it had deployed more mobile medical units to the southern provinces. Around 1,000 people have been airlifted by emergency helicopters to safety in recent days. The head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards reiterated that the armed forces "were using all their power" to minimise damages in Khuzestan. Iranian drilling companies and other energy firms have been assisting rescue efforts in flooded areas, using pumps to remove water. Hotel Business News and Analytics Important! This article is written by orangesmile.com editors and is protected by copyright law. The article can only be re-used with a direct link to www.orangesmile.com NEWS BLOCKS: Difficulties of Hotels in Mainland Europe in 2019 The start of 2019 was definitely challenging for hotels across mainland Europe. Local hotels experienced a drop in profit per room of 9.1% in January 2019 to January 2018. This is the biggest drop since August 2016. Of course, the first month of the year has always been not easy for hotels in the region, and we also shouldnt forget that European hospitality industry enjoyed a really strong year in 2018 with GOPPAR jumping by 8.8%. Weak January results were mostly caused by a drop of 1.3% in non-room revenues to 47.10 euro (36.7% of the total revenue). Such sectors as Conference & Banqueting (-0.8%) and Food & Beverage (-1.5%) were falling as well. RevPAR decreased by 0.2% to 81.19 euro, and even growth in achieved room rate of 1.5% to 141.04 euro couldnt prevent revenues from falling. Occupancy also fell by 0.9%. These factors and other challenges like increased payroll (+1.3%) and growing overheads (+1.4%) were the reasons for significantly lower GOPPAR minus 9.1% to 26.65 euro. However, even though the start of the year doesnt look very promising, it is too early to make judgments about 2019. Hotels may still think of a proper strategy to offset these challenges and come up with a new strategy of profit generation. That being said, Lisbon hotels definitely need this plan. The city had a mediocre start of the year with a 6.4% decrease in profit per room. It looks like Portugal has passed its peak popularity and now slowing down. At least, hotels in Lisbon have recorded declines for five consecutive months already. July 2018 was the first month that started the negative trend. Before that, Profit added 20 euro to 53.55 euro in the rolling 12 months. This time, falling occupancy is the major factor of declines. The year-on-year occupancy in January 2019 fell down by 5.2% to 51.7%. However, thanks to the growing room rate (+12.5% to 121.08 euro), RevPAR even managed to grow a bit (+2.2%). However, rising costs made GOPPAR fall by 6.4% to 22.67 euro. Hotels in Madrid, in their turn, posted very different results. The Spanish capital managed to reach a fantastic growth in GOPPAR of 31% to 32.18 euro. The profit growth has become possible thanks to an increase in average room rate by 9.1% to 151.61 euro. This metric boosted RevPAR that added 9.4% to 91.03 euro. Finally, increased non-room revenues together with a 3.7% decline in payroll made it possible to reach such a massive profit growth. 07.04.2019Stay in touch with the latest news of a worldwide hotel industry. All up-to-date analytics, reports , and news about hotel business trends on OrangeSmile.com. Having made my feelings about Baselworld pretty clear ahead of the show, I wont go back over them here, save to say that the new management deserve praise for the what they have accomplished and, more important, for their openness and positive attitude. In 17 years of attending the show it was the first time I was greeted almost on a daily basis by Mr Loris-Melikoff or his right-hand man, Chief Operations Officer Cedric Eggen. It may seem a small detail, but multiplied by over 3,000 media representatives and 500 exhibitors present at the show, it can make a big difference. After seeing all the major new watch launches at Baselworld, it struck me that 1969 was a pivotal year in the watch industry. The lunar landing that propelled the Omega Speedmaster to fame was a momentous occasion, but earlier the same year the worlds first automatic chronograph was presented (the classic Speedmaster is manual) and towards the end of the year Seiko presented the worlds first quartz watch. Watch industry history shows how significant that news was. But 1969 was prefaced by a year of revolution around the world in 1968 as populations rose up against authoritarianism and imperialism. The Civil Rights movement spread in the USA and The Troubles started in Ireland and would last for 30 years. One of the biggest expressions of civil unrest was in France, where students joined mass strikes lasting over a month. I cannot help but see parallels with the world of today, with divisive politics in the USA and the UK and similar protests as 51 years ago in France. Lets hope that, at a macro scale rather than just for the niche industry phenomenon of Baselworld and the watch industry, that the 50th anniversary of this great reversal is just going to be a year late. Egypt's Cairo Airport Customs Chairman Kamal Negm is expected to attend on Sunday the 4th round of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) taking place in Washington. The three-day talks will discuss several topics including cooperation in trade, intellectual property and food safety, said the customs service in a statement. Negm is scheduled to meet with the US customs chief on promoting cooperation and addressing joint challenges. Search Keywords: Short link: Veteran of WWII, Korean War laid to rest in Navan By Fred Sherwin April 7, 2019 The family and friends of Eric George Smith filled St. Mary's Anglican Church in Navan on Saturday to pay their final respects to a member of Canada's greatest generation and someone who was respected and loved by everyone who was honoured to get to know him. Smith passed away at the age of 98 on Saturday, March 29. He is survived by his wife Dinah, his daughter Erin Zintel, son-in-law Bob and granddaughters Sarah and Kristen. During Saturday's service, Bob Zintel described meeting his future father-in-law for the first time. "Knowing about his military service in the air force, I had done my research and was ready for any conversation on the subject," said Zintel, who was 21 at the time. "but after our initial introduction the conversation quickly turned to my family name which actually originated in an area of the Ukraine that at various times was in Poland and Germany. So when he asked me where my family was from, in a deep desire for this well-decorated military hero and a deep desire for he and his wife to like me, I stammered Austria. "He went on to sak me everything about my family. Who they were? Where they all came from? Now one could understand as a father, that this line of questioning for a boy who would later in life ask for his daughter's hand in marriage would be a way of sizing up the boy if you will. But actually he was showing a genuine interest in me as a human being. Finding a way to bridge our two communities so that we can become one community. This was Eric. Making human connections and building bridges." Former Cumberland mayor and personal friend Brian Coburn also spoke about how well respected Smith was by the community and how proud he was of his family. "He was the type of person that made you feel comfortable and was gernerally interested in you and what you were doing," said Coburn. "He was indeed a people person." Eric Smith was born in Navan and he grew up on the family farm near the corner of Milton and Smith Roads which is named after the Smith family. His father George Smith served in the artillery during the First World War. Eric studied to become a teacher, but after one year in the profession he enlisted in the air force at the age of 20. He would end up flying 58 missions over Europe as a member of a mosquito squadron based in England and earned a Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, Eric served as a flight instructor, but when the Korean War broke out he volunteered as an exchange pilot with a U.S. Air Force squadron, flying 50 missions over the Korean peninsula in a Sabre jet. When Eric retired from the RCAF in 1968, Eric and his wife Dinah bought a farm near Kemptville and he became a successful real estate agent. He eventually retired for good in 1991. Ten years later they sold the farm and moved back home to Navan where he was an active member of the Navan Curling Club well into his late 80s. He was a redular attendee at the local Remembrance Day ceremony including last year's ceremony and he was a frequent guest of honour at the Orleans Legion's RCAF anniversary mess dinner. Those who knew Eric often talk about his humble nature, his extraordinary memory and his love of storytelling. But most of all they talk about his generosity, especially when it came to his willingness and genuine desire to spend time with people and get to lnow them. He had time for everybody and he will be deeply missed but never forgotten.. The Government has signed double taxation agreements with 10 countries towards giving investors a stable and conducive tax scheme. The Government expressed the hope of signing more agreements to encourage investments and in turn, facilitate the transfer of skills and technology. The countries are Belgium, Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Mauritius, South Africa, Italy, Netherlands and Germany. Mr Eric Mensah, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Legal Affairs and Treaties at the Ghana Revenue Authority speaking at the Economic Counsellors Dialogue said the agreements were usually signed with the aim of eliminating juridical or economic double taxation. The Economic Counsellors Dialogue was organised by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) as part of its strategy to assist businesses to better understand the rudiments of investing in the country. He said government had signed similar agreements with Barbados, Czech Republic, Seychelles, Singapore, Ireland, Malta, Qatar, and Morocco but yet to be enforced. Ghana had also held talks with Iran, Norway, Luxembourg, Portugal, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates but they are yet to sign an agreement, he added. Mrs Naa Lamle Orleans-Lindsay, Head of Legal Division at the GIPC speaking on Technology Transfer Regime in Ghana, said the Centre had the mandate to ensure that skills were fairly transferred to Ghanaians, once a company sought to transfer skills and technology from abroad. She said, whenever a company needed to transfer technology or skills, the GIPC was mandated to review, register, keep records, monitor and renew the application with the aim of ensuring compliance with the law. Mrs Orleans-Lindsay said for a company to transfer technologies and skills, it was an obligation to ensure that the particular technology or skills was not freely and easily available locally. She said under the countrys Technology Transfer Agreements (TTA), transfer fees to pay for the technology transferred must be done through a registered agreement and must also be applicable to the laws of Ghana. Failure to register a TTA with the Centre is a breach of the GIPC Act 2013 (Act 865) and the Legislative Instrument (L.I 1547), liable to a summary conviction and that company, which failed to register its TTA cannot legally transfer fees and charges to the transferor in relation to technology transferred, she added. Mr Laud Ofori-Afrifa, the Deputy Comptroller General of Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), said work and residence permit of investors was currently being issued within seven days but working towards reducing it to 24 hours by June, 2019. He said the Service would soon introduce a system to link up the investment promotion and regulatory bodies including GIPC, Free Zones Board and Registrar Generals Department electronically to reduce the duration of processing documentations. Mr Ofori-Afrifa said the GIS had taking steps to issue longer term residence permit to investors and key expatriates from two to eight years depending on certain factors. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Ghana obtained a provisional Effective Implementation (EI) rate of 89.89 percent, the highest by an African country, after the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) concluded its Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) this year. The validation, is in line with the United Nations Aviation Agencys Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP). The ICVM assessed Ghanas safety oversight system on all eight ICAO Critical Elements (CEs), namely: Primary Aviation Legislation; State Operating Regulations; State Civil Aviation System and Safety Oversight Functions; and Technical Personnel Qualification and Training. The other CEs that were validated included; Technical Guidance, Tools and the Provision of Safety-Critical Information; Licensing, Certification, Authorization and Approval Obligations; Surveillance Obligations; and Resolution of Safety Concerns. Ghana, recorded a substantial improvement across all eight CEs, and the team from the UN specialised aviation agency identified no significant safety concerns (SSCs). It comes after a nine-day follow-up onsite activity by a four-member team of experts from ICAO to validate corrective measures undertaken by Ghana following a USOAP audit in November 2006. Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, Minister of Aviation, Who announced this at a press briefing in Accra, urged the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to immediately develop an action plan towards the implementation of corrective measures that have been recommended by the ICAO team. Ghanas air transport industry enjoys strong government support, which is a crucial determinant for the aviation sectors ability to maintain an ICAO compliant regulatory framework and to achieve accelerated sustainable growth of the sector in the years ahead, he said. The Minister stated that in line with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos vision of re-positioning the country as the sub-regions Aviation hub, Parliament recently passed the Ghana Civil Aviation (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 985) together with the Legislative Instrument on Aircraft Accident and Serious Incident Regulations,2019 (LI 2375) to ensure enhanced compliance with ICAOs Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS). Mr Simon Allotey, the Director-General of GCAA, said the new achievement was an enviable milestone and was a true reflection of the robustness of the countrys safety oversight system, which ultimately translates into improved safety of airline operations. By adhering to ICAOs SARPS related to safety oversight, GCAA effectively ensures that aviation service providers and airline operators maintain an acceptable level of operational safety, he said. Our performance of 89.89 percent is world-class and places Ghana at the top spot in Africa in terms of safety oversight, considering that the average EI rate on the continent stands at 52 percent, which is lower than the global average of 66.5 percent and below ICAOs current minimum target of 60 percent, Mr Allotey added. The Director-General expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Aviation, Board of Directors, Management and staff of GCAA for the successful outcome of the ICVM, and to the members of the ICAO team for the professionalism, objectivity and cooperation exhibited throughout the process. The final rating will be communicated to Ghana within six-weeks after validation of the provisional score by ICAO. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Two policemen killed, two others were injured in an attack that targeted a security patrol east Cairo, a statement by the Public Prosecution read. Police officer Major Maged Abdel Razek and the patrol car driver were both killed while two others were injured in the early hours of Sunday when a number of unknown gunmen opened fire to attack a security patrol, sources told Ahram Online. The incident took place east of Cairo in New Nozha residential area at 4 am local time at the intersection of Taha Hussein. According to the sources, the officer found a Hyundai vehicle with four people riding inside it. When he approached the car, two of the occupants got out of the car with automatic rifles fired on the officer and accompanying forces. A team of criminal detectives and national security officers seized surveillance cameras surrounding the area to gather information about the perpetrators and their escape route. A statement by the Public Prosecutor was issued immediately following the incident to highlight that an investigation has been opened to probe the incident and also to explain that a follow-up statement will be issued to explain the whereabouts of the attack. Major General Mohamed Mansour, Assistant Minister of the Interior, Director of Cairo Security, and leaders of the Cairo Security Directorate and Public and National Security, immediately moved to the site of the attack on a security patrol. Search Keywords: Short link: When the head of Algeria's army declared the president was too ill to rule he revealed where the real power lies in Algeria, writes James McDougall, an expert on the history of Algeria. For Algeria's 82-year old former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, it is "game over", as slogans on the country's streets have been saying since mid-February. But his resignation, announced on Tuesday, does not mean the end of the protests that have seen hundreds of thousands of people, of all ages, peacefully demonstrating for seven weeks. Early in the movement demonstrators' slogans demanded "No fifth mandate". They were rejecting Mr Bouteflika's candidacy for re-election to a fifth term in the presidency he had occupied since 1999. But from the start, the protests were about more than Mr Bouteflika. The whole "system", or "pouvoir", had to go, placards and online posts demanded. So when the army's chief of staff, Lt Gen Ahmed Gaid Salah, announced on 26 March that article 102 of the constitution - allowing the president's removal on grounds of ill health - should be applied, protesters had won something, but their response was cautious. The following Friday, marchers in the country's second city, Oran, carried signs saying: "102 is half the answer, the whole gang has to go." The hashtags now were: "Leave means Leave" and "Throw them all out". Protesters in the capital, Algiers, chanted: "Bouteflika get out, and take Gaid Salah with you." A second statement from Gen Gaid Salah demanded the "immediate" application of article 102. Mr Bouteflika's resignation followed a few hours later. At 79-years old, Gen Gaid Salah, like Mr Bouteflika, is one of the last remaining veterans of Algeria's revolutionary generation who fought in the war of independence against France from 1954 to 1962. Ever since independence, the army has been the real centre of power in Algeria, arbitrating factional conflicts among politicians and business interests, making and unmaking presidents. Mr Bouteflika himself was brought to the presidency in 1999 by a group of generals who had prosecuted a brutal war against militant Islamist insurgents since 1992. After that conflict wound down, the army preserved its power, acting behind the scenes to distribute influence through Algeria's multiparty politics and the "system" of factional interests that it represents. But the army is not the only player in that system, and in the early 2000s Mr Bouteflika removed the generals who had sponsored him. A presidential "clan", including wealthy private businessmen, gravitated around Mr Bouteflika and his brother Said. After Mr Bouteflika suffered an incapacitating stroke in 2013, Said was increasingly identified as being in control of access and influence at the centre of power. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Only two percent of the 250, 000 of Ghanaians who enter the Ghanaian labour market annually, are absorbed in the formal sector, Mr Franklin Owusu Karikari, the Director for Business Support of the National Entrepreneurship Innovative Plan (NEIP) has said. He said the remaining 98 percent relied on the informal sector for jobs, saying, last year alone, the country produced more than 90,000 graduates and most of them remained unemployed. Mr Karikari commended the government for the Nation Builders Corps (NaBco) programme, which he said engaged 100,000 out of the 160,000 graduates who applied for the programme last year. He was speaking at entrepreneurship awareness seminar held in Sunyani, and organized by the Sunyani Technical University (STU) with support from the Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL). It was on the theme: "Changing Minds, from job seekers to job Creators: Adopting Entrepreneurship as a Career Option". Mr Karikari expressed discomfort with the worsening unemployment situation in the country and called on graduates to develop interest and engage in entrepreneurship to fetch jobs for themselves. "Your certificates alone are not enough to grant you jobs", he told the students and challenged them to form groups and do extra curricular activities as well as develop business modules and ideas. He indicated that last year, the NEIP trained about 70,000 unemployed graduates, but was able to support about 2,000 of them to establish and expand their businesses. Mr Karikari said a good business plan and idea would enable the students and entrepreneurs to seek support from the NEIP, and advised them to write proposals and also check for opportunities online to establish themselves. He said good packaging and branding would fetch them both local and international markets for their products. Mr Karikari said waste management, oil and gas, agri-business, ICT, fashion, tourism, and microfinance provided enormous business opportunities, and advised the unemployed graduates to explore into those sectors. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Libyas UN-backed government says 21 people have been killed and 27 wounded in fighting near the capital, Tripoli. Earlier the UN appealed for a two-hour truce so casualties and civilians could be evacuated, but fighting continued. Rebel forces under Gen Khalifa Haftar have advanced from the east with the aim of taking Tripoli. Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj has accused him of attempting a coup and says rebels will be met with force. Among the dead was a Red Crescent doctor killed on Saturday. Gen Haftars forces said they had lost 14 fighters. International powers have begun evacuating personnel from Libya amid the worsening security situation. Libya has been torn by violence and political instability since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011. Whats the situation on the ground? Gen Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) forces have been carrying out a multi-pronged attack from the south and west of the city since Thursday. The UN said its call for a humanitarian truce had been ignored and emergency services said they had not been able to enter the areas where fighting was taking place. However a UN spokesman told AFP that they were still hoping for a positive response. On Sunday the LNA said it had carried out its first air strike, a day after the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) hit them with air strikes on Saturday. Fighting has continued around the disused international airport south of the capital that Gen Haftar earlier said his forces had seized. Forces loyal to the GNA have slowed the advance and on Sunday a GNA spokesman told Al-Jazeera TV that the GNA now intended to cleanse the whole of the country. What evacuations have already taken place? US Africa Command, responsible for US military operations and liaison in Africa, said that due to the increased unrest it had relocated a contingent of US forces temporarily, but gave no further details on numbers. There were reports of a fast amphibious craft being used in the operation. Indias External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said its full contingent of 15 Central Reserve Police Force peacekeepers had been evacuated from Tripoli because the situation in Libya has suddenly worsened. *The Italian multinational oil and gas company, Eni, decided to evacuate all its Italian personnel from the country. The UN is also due to pull out non-essential staff. Residents of Tripoli have reportedly begun stocking up on food and fuel. But BBC Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says many of those near the fighting are remaining in their homes for now, for fear of looting should they leave. Some fear a long operation, which Gen Haftar mounted to take the eastern city of Benghazi from Islamist fighters. Who are the opposing forces? Libya has been wracked by unrest since the overthrow of Col Gaddafi. Dozens of militias operate in the country. Recently they have been allying either with the UN-backed GNA, based in Tripoli, or the LNA of Gen Haftar, a tough anti-Islamist who has the support of Egypt and the UAE and is strong in eastern Libya. Gen Haftar Gen Haftar helped Col Gaddafi seize power in 1969 before falling out with him and going into exile in the US. He returned in 2011 after the uprising against Gaddafi began and became a rebel commander. The unity government was created at talks in 2015 but has struggled to assert national control. Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj delivered a TV address on Saturday, saying he would defend the capital. Mr Serraj said he had offered concessions to Gen Haftar to avoid bloodshed, only to be stabbed in the back. Back to square one? Analysis by Rana Jawad, BBC North Africa correspondent, in Tunis The rogue generals defiance suggests that, despite international condemnation of his recent moves, he believes he can only secure a place in Libyas future political makeup through militarily means. Diplomats are worried, because the manner and timing of the attack means he is unlikely to back down unless he is defeated. Few thought he would go ahead and launch this operation which he has long threatened to do because they believed ongoing talks that saw him go from Paris to Palermo and the UAE for more than a year would buy time until a new political settlement was reached through negotiations and an eventual electoral process. Today, Western nations have few cards to play to de-escalate the violence and once again find themselves in a position where they may need to start from scratch. Are peace talks planned? UN-backed talks aimed at drawing up a road map for new elections have been scheduled for 14-16 April in the Libyan city of Ghadames. UN envoy Ghassan Salame insisted the talks would go ahead, unless serious obstacles prevented it, saying we wont give up this political work quickly. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was in Tripoli just last Thursday to discuss the situation. But Gen Haftar has said his troops will not stop until they have defeated terrorism. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video NIGERIA: Air force officers involved in the fight against insurgency suffered a setback as the rotor of a helicopter killed an air marshal simply identified as Umar. An airman, who witnessed the tragic incident, told newsmen that it happened at Bama in Borno state on Saturday evening. The aircraft was said to have developed a fault. The deceased, who was the co-pilot, had gone to the pick his bags and on his way back, he passed through the side of the rotor which was functioning. Immediately his head was chopped off. The aircraft has been recovered and taken back to the air base. No damage was found the on tail rotor, the source said. The tragic incident reportedly occurred around 4pm on Satirday. The source said family members of the deceased have been informed while the burial arrangement was on as of the time this report was filed. Source: LIB 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 Alhassan Suhuyini, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tamale North Constituency, has urged members of the public to put pressure on the leadership of the NDC and NPP to disband vigilantism. He said, as citizens, putting pressure on the leadership of both parties to do the right thing, formed part of their civic responsibility and participation and they should not feel shy in doing so. Mr Suhuyini said this at a public seminar in Accra organized by the Cross-Fire Ghana at the conference hall of the African University College of Communications, on the theme Political vigilantism and democratic governance in Ghanas fourth republic. The MP disagreed with President Akufo Addos decision to provide legislation that would criminalize partys vigilantism, as well as the proposed meeting between the NDC and NPP over the issue. According to him, there were enough laws in the country that deals with such illegal groups and their activities and no legislation was therefore needed to disband them. Mr Suhuyini entreated the youth to cultivate the habit of researching into issues of national importance to enable them to challenge the system when things were not going as promised by the politician. Nana Osei Tutu, the Convener of Crossfire Ghana, a pressure group, urged the various political leaders to show more commitment in the disbandment of vigilantism. He disclosed that the pressure group would continue to engage students at the various education level to help fight vigilantism before the 2020 general elections. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Egyptian-French naval drill titled 'Cleopatra-Gapian 2019', that kicked up in France last week, concluded on Sunday, a statement by the Egyptian military spokesperson Tamer El-Refai read. The exercises started on March 31 and continued for several days in France. Egyptian units and vessels including Mistral-class Landing Helicopter Dock Gamal Abdel Nasser and FREMM frigate 'Long Live Egypt' took part in the joint exercise, which is meant to improve the naval performance and increase fighting experience, the statement read. Commander of Naval Forces Ahmed Khaled, accompanied by Commander of the French Naval forces Christophe Prazuck, witnessed the closing ceremony. The naval forces also carried out drills to counter threats against maritime security, including terrorist acts, and protecting cargo ships and searching suspicious vessels. Commander Khaled reiterated deeply-rooted relations binding Egyptian and French Armed Forces. The participating troops were trained on countering threats against maritime security, protecting cargo ships, and searching suspicious vessels. Students from the Egyptian naval academy participated in the drill to gain experience in naval combat. Search Keywords: Short link: 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 Social Solidarity Minister Ghada Wali asserted that the ministry suspended issuing licenses for establishing new orphanages five years ago. She made the remarks on Sunday at the first Arab States Conference on Aftercare of Orphaned Youth (Sanad Conference) which is organized by the Social Solidarity Ministry in tandem with the Wataneya Society for the Development of Orphanages. Delegations from 17 Arab states attended the Arab League-sponsored event. She added that the ministry backs sending orphans to foster families. She urged Egyptian families to offer psychological and social support for orphans, not just financial support. Search Keywords: Short link: Get new posts by email: Subscribe Egypt's Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali has announced that the committee entitled with amending the NGO law of 2017 has decided to draw up a new draft law instead of amending the 2017 law. In a statement on Saturday, Wali said that the new draft law meets the concerns and proposals of civil society in accordance with the Egyptian constitution, international agreements and Egypt's commitment to encourage civil society action. The minister said that the cabinet meeting on 3 April had approved the draft law's outlines, which stipulate that NGOs can be founded upon notifying authorities. The law also sets up a supervisory body to monitor the work of NGOs operating in the country. The draft law permits foreigners who have permanent or temporary residence in Egypt to be members of NGOs or their boards of directors, at a limit of 25 percent of overall members. The new draft law allows associations to open branches outside of Egypt and grants them the right to receive financing, grants or donations from Egyptian or foreign individuals or entities authorised to operate in Egypt. The law also allows NGOs to use their surplus revenues in investing in other production and service projects, and establish or contribute to the establishment of charitable companies and funds. The draft law also authorises NGOs to carry out one or more activities for a certain period of time as specified by the entitled minister. The ministry stressed that the draft law includes no freedom-depriving penalties for violations and exempts NGOs from registration fees in contracts of which they are part. The law also exempts NGOs from real estate taxes in buildings where they operate. Changes to NGO Law 70/2017 were being made at the request of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi who, on 5 November, told the World Youth Forum that the law was restrictive and reflects a skeptical view of NGO activities. El-Sisi suggested a committee be formed to hold hearing sessions on the NGO law and that state authorities move to submit an amended version to parliament. The NGO law, passed in November 2016 and ratified by El-Sisi in May 2017, triggered criticism in some foreign countries and among civil society advocates in Egypt. Opponents called for a new law to be drafted to replace the old one, which they described as repressive and undermining to the activities of NGOs. Search Keywords: Short link: Gov't Spokesman: Sunday's massacre committed by saudi-led warplanes in Sanaa is a full-fledged war crime [07/April/2019] SANAA, April 8 (Saba) - The spokesman for the Government of National Salvation Minister of Information Dhaifallah al-Shami on Sunday said that the massacre committed by the warplanes of US-saoudi aggression coalition against students in the capital Sanaa is a full-fledged war crime . The spokesman of the government told Saba that the Sunday's crime of targeting the school and houses of citizens in Sawan, which killed 11 female students and wounded more than 40 others, is a disgrace to the international community and human rights organizations. He called on the United Nations and humanitarian organizations celebrating World Health Day to play their part in the face of the war crimes and violations of the most basic rights of Yemen's children and students. The government spokesman pointed out that the coalition of aggression deliberately commit the brutal massacres in Yemen in coincidence with the global events for women and children in a clear challenge to the international community and its organizations. He also affirmed the persistence of the coalition of aggression on the targeting of children and school students and the commission of massacres, including the brutal crime of students in Dahyan and Sawan. The government spokesman pointed out that the Yemeni people will not stand immobile toward those crimes committed by the coalition of aggression, stressing that these massacres and will not fall by any statute of limitations. Amal/AA Saba With Pakistan opening its airspace partially from Thursday, national passenger carrier Air India has started saving on time and fuel for its US and Europe-bound flights, said an airline official on Saturday. The national carrier re-routed some of its flights which had to take a longer flight path over Mumbai to reach the US and Europe. "We are saving 15 minutes on our US and Europe-bound flights since Pakistan opened some of its airspace from last Thursday," a senior Air India official told IANS. Pakistan had closed its airspace since the Indian Air Force (IAF) strikes in Balakot on February 26. The move has adversely affected international flights to and from India, with Air India being a major victim. Flights from across the world have either been cancelled or re-routed since the closure was announced on February 27. Pakistan partially opened its airspace, only for the flights bound for the country. Air India, which operates 33 weekly services to the US and 66 to Europe, has curtailed operations due to the airspace closure. It has clubbed together several US and Europe-bound flights. Flights to the US and Europe are now diverted over Mumbai and then northwards over the Arabian Sea through the United Arab Emirates (UAE) airspace. The new technical stops on the route are Sharjah in the UAE and Vienna in Austria. The Delhi-Washington flight has a stopover at Mumbai. The flights from the US have been taking a longer route, which has extended their duration on the already long-haul journeys. The AI Mumbai-New York-Mumbai flight, launched in December 2018, has been combined with the Mumbai-Newark-Mumbai flight for March 16-31 duration, the airline tweeted on March 14. Another newly-launched flight, between Delhi and Najaf in southern Iraq, has been cancelled, as are the Delhi-Madrid-Delhi, Delhi-Birmingham-Delhi and Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham and Birmingham-Amritsar-Delhi flights. Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi started on Sunday a tour to Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal and the United States, presidential spokesperson Bassam Rady said in a statement. Rady said that the president's tour to West Africa comes as part of Egypt's keenness to intensify communication and coordination with its African brothers, as well as to strengthen its relations with the countries of the continent in various fields, including economic, trade and investment relations, especially during Egypt's current chairmanship of the African Union (AU). During the African tour, the president will hold extensive bilateral talks with the leaders of Guinea, Ivory and Senegal to discuss ways of enhancing bilateral cooperation and maximising the benefit of Egypt's chairmanship of the AU, especially in advancing the process of development and promoting economic integration in Africa. Rady added that President El-Sisi's visit to the United States comes at the invitation of US President Donald Trump and aims to enhance bilateral relations in all fields and consultations on regional issues and developments. The Egyptian president's visit to the US will be his second since he assumed office in 2014. Search Keywords: Short link: Selbyville, DE -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/07/2019 -- Global Precipitated Silicas market size will increase to 4970 Million US$ by 2025, from 3450 Million US$ in 2018, at a CAGR of 4.7% during the forecast period. In this study, 2018 has been considered as the base year and 2019 to 2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Precipitated Silicas. Precipitated silica, a form of synthetic amorphous silicon dioxide, is derived from quartz sand, a crystalline form of silicon dioxide. The physical properties of precipitated silica can be manipulated during the manufacturing process to deliver products with a wide range of performance-enhancing features engineered for many different end-use applications. Request a sample Report of Precipitated Silicas Market at: https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/1867581?utm_source=releasewire.com&utm_medium=SP The precipitated silicas industry concentration is low, and the manufacturing bases are distributed all over the world. Currently the major producers are mainly distributed in the United States, EU, Japan and China. China is the largest producer and consumer, but the outputs are the low-end products; the high-end products are produced by the giants like Evnoik, Rhodia (Solvay), Huber Engineered Materials, PPG, OSC Group, WR Grace and Tosoh Silica etc., which established the factories all over the world, though acquisitions or wholly foreign-owned and joint ventures. In the past five years, the precipitated silicas industry developed rapidly, and the price of precipitated silicas products was of the downward trend, due to the prices of raw material and the downstream demand. In the future, the market is full of uncertainty, especially in the next two years; the global economy will be in fluctuation, especially for the Chinese economy, downward pressure is big and the demand will slow down. The new increase point may come from Asia, especially from India, but it also is uncertain. What are the pointers that are enumerated in the Precipitated Silicas market research report? A detailed depiction of the regional landscape of the Precipitated Silicas market: The research study elucidates, in detail, the regional spectrum of this industry, essentially categorizing it into United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia & India. The report entails substantial information subject to the market share that each region accounts for in tandem with the growth prospects of each topography and the capacity. The growth rate which every region is touted to register over the projected timeline has also been mentioned in the study. An in-depth run-through of the competitive terrain of the Precipitated Silicas market: The report on the Precipitated Silicas market is far-flung and encompasses an in-depth analysis of the competitive scope of this business sphere, that basically comprises firms such as Evnoik, Rhodia (Solvay), Huber Engineered Materials, PPG, OSC Group, WR Grace, Tosoh Silica, Quechen Silicon, Zhuzhou Xinglong, Fujian Zhengsheng, Shandong Link, Fujian ZhengYuan, Shandong Jinneng, Hengcheng Silica, Fujian Fengrun, Tonghua Shuanglong, Jiangxi Blackcat and Shanxi Tond. Details such as the area served, production sites, and the market share accounted for by every vendor have been explained. Further, the report includes information about the products developed by the manufacturers, as well as the product specifications and the respective applications. A brief outline of the company as well as the profit margins and the price models have also been enlisted in the report. What other takeaways from the research study can prove helpful for potential stakeholders? The product terrain of the Precipitated Silicas market, inherently segregated into Dental grade, Food grade, HDS Tire grade and Technical rubber grade. Substantial information with respect to the market share procured by each product in question, alongside the valuation they account for in the industry, as well as the production growth. An extensive analysis of the Precipitated Silicas market application spectrum, pervasively categorized into Rubber, Dentifrice, Industrial and Nutrition/Health. Details regarding the market share that each application holds, as well as data with regards to the product consumption of each application and the growth rate that the application segment in question is anticipated to register over the forecast timeline. A few details regarding parameters such as the market concentration rate and the production rate of raw material. The price trends prevailing in the Precipitated Silicas market as well as the estimated growth trends for this vertical. An in-depth analysis of the marketing strategy including marketing channels deployed by leading vendors for product commercialization. Important details with respect to the market positioning as well as the marketing channel development trend. The distributors that form a part of the supply chain, in tandem with the suppliers and raw material trends. The manufacturing cost structure including the labor expenditure and manufacturing cost, as well as information related to the downstream buyers, sourcing strategies, and industrial chain analysis. Table of Contents: 2 Executive Summary 2.1 Global Precipitated Silicas Production 2.1.1 Global Precipitated Silicas Revenue 2014-2025 2.1.2 Global Precipitated Silicas Production 2014-2025 2.1.3 Global Precipitated Silicas Capacity 2014-2025 2.1.4 Global Precipitated Silicas Marketing Pricing and Trends 2.2 Precipitated Silicas Growth Rate (CAGR) 2019-2025 2.3 Analysis of Competitive Landscape 2.3.1 Manufacturers Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI) 2.3.2 Key Precipitated Silicas Manufacturers 2.4 Market Drivers, Trends and Issues 2.5 Macroscopic Indicator 2.5.1 GDP for Major Regions 2.5.2 Price of Raw Materials in Dollars: Evolution 3 Market Size by Manufacturers 3.1 Precipitated Silicas Production by Manufacturers 3.1.1 Precipitated Silicas Production by Manufacturers 3.1.2 Precipitated Silicas Production Market Share by Manufacturers 3.2 Precipitated Silicas Revenue by Manufacturers 3.2.1 Precipitated Silicas Revenue by Manufacturers (2014-2019) 3.2.2 Precipitated Silicas Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2014-2019) 3.3 Precipitated Silicas Price by Manufacturers 3.4 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans Price of Report: $3900 (Single User License) Purchase Complete Report at: https://www.marketstudyreport.com/securecheckout/paymenta/1867581?msfpaycode=sumsf?utm_source=releasewire.com&utm_medium=SP Related Reports: Global Fire Barrier Products Market Insights, Forecast to 2025 Global Fire Barrier Products market size will increase to Million US$ by 2025, from Million US$ in 2018, at a CAGR of during the forecast period. In this study, 2018 has been considered as the base year and 2019 to 2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Fire Barrier Products. Read More: https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-fire-barrier-products-market-insights-forecast-to-2025?utm_source=releasewire.com&utm_medium=SP Contact Us: Corporate Sales, Market Study Report LLC Phone: 1-302-273-0910 Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150 Email: sales@marketstudyreport.com Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/05/2019 -- Automation is becoming more of a requirement than an option in the food processing industry. The rigorous quality and cost controls required in the food industry is making it more critical. Production of high grade food requires capable and efficient inspection and sorting systems, in the operations and production line. The food is sorted by color, size, shape, specific gravity prior to inspection and other criteria depending upon the raw material and application. Global interest is increasing towards the quality of food consumed along with the stringent legislations on product quality and operating procedures. In the food industry, the product specification is extremely important, and is one of those area where new developments are crossing the boundaries. The food industry is under immense pressure of meeting the demands of growing world population. The global population is becoming urbanized and there is heavy industrialization seen in the emerging economies. This leads to an upward trend towards convenience foods that are healthy, nutritious and easy to prepare. Food security is an emerging challenge for policy makers and companies in the food supply chain. Over the period food production will be under threat from climate change, competing land uses, erosion and diminishing supplies of clean water. One of the solutions to this dilemma is increased efficiency and waste reduction in the food supply chain. Food sorting machines offer increase in efficiency by selectively filtering out the undesired materials from the main food. The main purpose is separation of foreign seeds and bodies, such as unhealthy or spotted grains. The insertion of optical sorter into strategic positions of the milling process facilitates and optimizes the whole cleaning process. Worldwide the optical sorters are being used in the food industry. Its highly adopted in the processing of harvested foods such as fruits, potatoes, vegetables and nuts where it achieves non-destructive,100% inspection on full production volume. Since manual sorting is subjective and inconsistent, its not preferred. Optical sorting helps to improve the product quality, increase yields, maximize throughput while reducing labor costs. Since few years the trend is of integration of the traditional mechanical cleaning process with optical sorting machines. Request Sample Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-843 Food Sorting Machines Market: Drivers & Restraints Growing population, rising urbanization, growing technological awareness, industrialization of emerging economies and increasing per capita income are some of the key factors driving the growth of the food sorting machines market. Environmental Protection Agency regulations on disposal of food waste, changing consumption patterns and smaller households are few of the probable factors restraining the growth of the food sorting machines market. Food Sorting Machines Market: Segmentation The global food sorting machines market is broadly classified on the basis of product type, technology and geographies. Based on product type, the global food sorting machines market is segmented into: Channel Sorters Freefall Sorters Belt Sorters ADR Systems Based on technology, the global food sorting machines market is segmented into: Laser Camera LED X-ray Food Sorting Machines Market: Overview Though food sorting machines is a new technology for emerging economies like India, but in the developed economies like North America and Europe the same technology is in use for years. With growing global population and increasing pressure on food industry to meet the customer demands, the acceptance of food sorting machines is gaining popularity. The global food sorting machines market is expected to expand at a promising CAGR during the forecast period (2015-2025). Food Sorting Machines Market: Region-wise Outlook The global food sorting machines market is expected to register a double-digit CAGR for the forecast period. Depending on geographic regions, global food sorting machines market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. As of 2015, North America dominated the global food sorting machines market in terms of market revenue followed by Europe. Asia Pacific & Japan are projected to expand at a substantial growth and will contribute to the global food sorting machines market value exhibiting a robust CAGR during the forecast period, 2015?2025. Food Sorting Machines Market: Key Players Some of the key market participants in global food sorting machines market are Tomra Systems ASA, Sesotec GmbH, Buhler AG, Key Technology, BarcoVision, Satake USA Inc. Request to View TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-843 Pune, Maharashtra -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/05/2019 -- The oil & gas pumps market is likely to witness sluggish growth, with global demand surpassing 9 million units by the end of 2018, according to a latest report by Fact.MR. Rising demand for oil and gas is resulting in the growing demand for equipment such as oil & gas pumps. End-users in oil and gas industries are demanding efficient oil & gas pumps to ensure smooth operation and to meet stringent emission standards. End-users of oil & gas pumps are using centrifugal pumps on a large scale owing to its low product and maintenance cost, and better load and pressure handling capabilities. The demand for centrifugal pumps is healthy in the upstream oil & gas industry as the part of multiphase pumping application. Request Sample Report @ https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=2435 As per the report, the demand for submersible pumps is also likely to grow in the near future. Electric submersible pumps are being used on a large scale as water and oil separators. The centrifugal pumps are also expected to witness increasing demand for crude oil transportation. Manufacturers in oil & gas pumps market are focusing on pump modification to save significant amount of energy and improve performance. Onshore Oil & Gas Pumps to Find Large Application in Projects across Countries The Fact.MR study opines that the onshore oil & gas pumps are likely to witness a rapid growth in the coming years. Demand for onshore oil & gas pumps is expected to exceed 4.8 million units in 2018. With rise in energy demand from various sectors and growth in the transportation industry, many countries, especially in Asia Pacific, are moving towards development of new oil & gas projects. India, China, and Indonesia are expected to significantly contribute to the growth of oil and gas industry in the region. With the signs of recovery in oil prices, many state-owned oil companies in the Asia Pacific region are spending on onshore oil and gas production to ensure energy security. Browse Full Report @ https://www.factmr.com/report/2435/oil-gas-pumps-market Upgradation of existing onshore oil and gas facilities and development of new facilities is also accelerating in Southeast Asia. Moreover, in recent years, regulation in the UK has removed legal hurdles in the development of onshore petroleum resources. Moreover, in terms of gas transportation by the onshore gas producers in the UK, the government has removed requirement to hold a gas transporter license, and a class exemption has been introduced to cover all types of onshore gas production. MEA to Continue its Dominance in Oil & Gas Pumps Market, Followed by APAC Fact.MR study estimates that the Middle East and Africa will be the most lucrative market for oil & gas pumps market, with demand surpassing 3 million units towards 2018 end. UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have emerged as the major natural gas producing countries. Major oil and gas companies in Middle East are focusing on increasing oil and gas production to meet the growing demand. Middle East and North Africa are expected to emerge as the global suppliers of oil and gas. Moreover, gas is likely to surpass oil as the largest energy source in the near future. You can Buy This Report from Here @ https://www.factmr.com/checkout/2435/S The leading oil and gas companies in the region are also focusing on using advanced technologies and equipment to ensure faster and cost-effective oil and gas production. In the APAC region, China, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia are expected to witness significant growth in the oil and natural gas projects. The oil & gas pumps market is expected to witness sluggish growth, with the demand expected to reach 3.2% CAGR in terms of volume during 2018-2028, according to the Fact.MR report. Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed on Sunday regional developments in Africa, especially the recent developments in Libya, with Guinean President Alpha Conde in Conakry, the Egyptian presidency said. The two president discussed a number of African issues and how to tackle problems in the continent, especially during Egypt's current chairmanship of the African Union. The two leaders also discussed boosting bilateral relations through creating a joint committee between the two countries and activating bilateral cooperation frameworks. They also discussed boosting economic cooperation between the African countries. President El-Sisi arrived on Sunday in Guinea as part of an overseas tour that will take him to Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal before heading the US. Search Keywords: Short link: This years SMW is themed around Driving Connectivity, Innovation, and Talent as the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), that drives the week as whole, looks to address the future challenges the shipping and maritime industries face. Speaking at the opening Minister Khaw said: Shipping industry is being disrupted by digital revolution and business transformation. Political pressures brought about by globalisation and income inequality add immense challenges. What will the shipping industry be like in 20 years time? Who will be the new mega players? What about the incumbents? How could policy makers facilitate orderly transformation? How should workers prepare themselves for the future? SMW gathers the thought leaders in the maritime industry to share insights on these issues, so that we can all seize new opportunities. Together, we can ride the tide and shape the future. Introduced back in 2006 SMW is now its 14th year and has grown to be packed nine-day schedule that embraces both industry events and outreach to the general public. The maritime week expects to receive 40,000 delegates, including industry professionals, business leaders and government officials, this year. The single largest industry event is Sea Asia 2019 co-organised by UBM (Seatrade) and the Singapore Maritime Foundation. In its seventh edition at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Sea Asia expects to attract more than 15,000 visitors and conference attendees. MBS also plays host to TOC Asia on 9 10 April an exhibition and conference focused on container ports and handling. Seatrade Maritime News is reporting Live From Sea Asia 2019 On the public outreach front events include the SMW 2019 Bicentennial from 8 14 April at the Marina Square central atrium. As Singapore celebrates 200 years of its modern founding the exhibition brings to life the Lion Citys maritime heritage taking on journey through, past, present and future. The exhibition features both archival photos of the Port of Singapore and looking to the future a multi-touch Next Generation Port exhibit. Sunday morning also saw the annual Amazing Maritime Challenge (pictured) which saw 900 contestants race around the island to discover more about its maritime centre and global hub port. Lars Robert Pedersen, Bimco's deputy secretary general, contends that too often the shipping industry is perceived to be dragging its feet when it comes to protecting the environment, but maintains this is hardly a fair perception. In fact Bimco, the largest international shipping association representing shipowners, wonders if there is an inherent clash between doing business in the shipping industry and protecting the environment. Speaking in Athens, 3 April, Pedersen set about seeking the answer to this by looking at the historic facts. He noted shippings environmental history began nearly five decades ago with Marpol in 1973 and since then there have been a dozen major environmental regulations coming out of the IMO, including in 2003 the hugely costly phasing out of single hull tankers, down to the Ballast Water Management Convention and now the sulphur cap and then there's the strategy to deal with looming GHG issues. Pedersen said shipping's actions compare well with those of society at large, pointing out the discharging of plastic into the sea was prohibited by Marpol Annex IV in 1998 while noting "the vast majority of plastic pollution in the oceans today originates from shore side". "Air pollution is only just about to become a costly exercise with the 2020 sulphur cap. The price increase for compliant fuel next year may cost the industry an additional $40bn plus annually," said Pedersen. However, "on the other hand he said, energy has been very cheap compared to other transport modes since shipping found out to burn heavy residual oil". Bimco president designate Sadan Kaptanoglu will be speaking at the Parliamentary Debate on day two of Sea Asia 2019 in Singapore Regarding GHGs he said "it maybe very costly, but at the same time provide for an opportunity that the shipping industry could lead the way on a global scale". Pedersen said that "sometimes, shipowners like to believe they are consumers who just buy the product of shipyards and engine builders". But, this only lasts "until you see the price for a ship where the yard and the equipment maker takes on the full responsibility for their products lifetime performance or otherwise". He pointed out shipping is a global industry which requires global regulations and must have a level playing field, "which is the cornerstone of international shipping". He said there is no alternative to IMO, as long as "IMO stays ahead", adding "shipping needs a strong and viable IMO". "This means proactivity and staying ahead of the individual member states. "The rules are the same for all ships irrespective of how large a shipping company and irrespective of the flag they fly, so, rather than trying to hide, shipowners should become vocal supporters of the initiatives on the table at IMO," said Pedersen. "We can meet, and possibly exceed the IMO reduction objectives, without compromising global trade", indeed, he said shipping is far better positioned than any other industry, but "it requires determination and will to get the right solutions developed. There is more match than clash for shipping and the environment," concluded Pedersen. Press Release April 7, 2019 Duterte needs to do 'soul-searching' -De Lima Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has given an unsolicited advice to Mr. Duterte to do some soul-searching after eliciting an overflowing amount of hatred from people who have grown exasperated of his incompetency during his recent birthday. De Lima, a known human rights defender here and abroad, questioned Duterte's capability to solve the pressing issues in the country and improve the plight of the Filipino people in his remaining three years in office that will expire in June 2022. "The rest of the informed citizenry has had enough. Time to do some serious soul-searching, Mr. President," she said in her recent Dispatch from Crame No. 498. "Are you still capable of bringing any good or righteous normalcy to our country? Or is it now a road to perdition all the way. Are you even capable of pure enlightenment! Marunong ka bang maawa sa bayan?" she asked. De Lima cited the "uninhibited spiteful" comments that populated social media on Duterte's 74th birthday last March 28, such as "Sleep forever and rest in hell," "May you rest in peace, forever" and "Don't' wake up anymore, go to hell!" The lady Senator from Bicol said she cannot recall any other Philippine President in recent memory or distant political history who has elicited such hatred and contempt from the Filipino people. "Not even the dictator Marcos or (former president) Gloria (Macapagal) Arroyo had invited such level of authentic scorn or virulence," she said. While many Filipino people are already seeing through the lies and incompetency of Mr. Duterte and his administration, De Lima admitted there are still fanatical supporters who remain oblivious of the President's failed governance. "That's what fanaticism is all about-a blind devotion, coupled with a perverse notion about the invincibility of a demagogue idol," she noted. The former justice secretary wished for Duterte's "true and profound enlightenment" on his birthday in the hope of encouraging him to rethink his crooked policies that only bring terror to the public while targeting the marginalized sectors. De Lima, considered as a leading prisoner of conscience, is currently detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City for absurd drug charges invented by the Duterte administration for political reasons and personal vendetta. Press Release April 7, 2019 De Lima calls law on motorcycle crime prevention anti-poor and oppressive Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has bewailed the recent passage into law of a measure requiring bigger number plates for motorcycles not only as discriminatory but also anti-poor. De Lima, who chairs the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development, said those who lobbied for the passage of the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act failed to see that the law is not the solution for crime prevention. "Singling out a specific group to mask the government's incapacity and inability to weed out criminals and fight criminality is not only tantamount to incompetence, but also reckless and outright discriminatory towards our kababayans who make use of motorcycles to earn a living," she said in her recent Dispatch from Crame No. 497. "I can only presume that those who pushed for the passage of this Act either lack the foresight to anticipate the ingenuity of career criminals, or the promise of bringing down criminality has blinded them to acquiescence for a law that is more reactionary than proactive towards bringing down criminality," she added. The "Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act," logged as Republic Act (RA) 11235, was signed by Mr. Duterte last March 8. It aims to prevent crimes committed on motorcycles by requiring bigger and color-coded motorcycle number plates. Under Section 5 of RA 11235, "readable number plates must be displayed in both the front and back sides of a motorcycle and shall be made of suitable and durable material as determined by the Land Transportation Office (LTO)." De Lima, a human rights and social justice champion, pointed out that the penalties under the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act are deplorable because of the inequalities they promote. De Lima noted that motorcycle riders not using the larger, plates will be punished by prision correccional from six months and one day to six years or a fine of not less than ?50,000 but not more than ?100,000, or both. In contrast, she continued, drivers of vehicles not covered under this Act who drive without license plates will only be slapped with a fine that falls between ?5,000 and ?10,000. "The disparity is both glaring and appalling. Given that a large majority of those who make use of motorcycles belong to the lower socioeconomic classes who can ill afford such exorbitant fines, this Act can definitively be labeled as 'anti-poor' itself," she said. "From where I sit, R.A. 11235 is an oppressive law," De Lima added. The lady Senator from Bicol said the government should listen to the strong opposition of the motorcycle riders who believe that RA 11235 contains provisions that can put their lives and that of the public in extreme danger. "Dapat nating pakinggan ang tinig ng ating mga kababayan na siyang direktang maaapektuhan ng batas na ito. Kung hindi ay magiging dagdag na naman ito sa mga polisiyang Duterte na kontra lamang sa mga mahihirap," she said. Last month, thousands of motorcycle riders staged a National Unity Ride along Edsa in Quezon City and other parts of the country to protest the bigger license plates. Despite her continued unjust detention, De Lima continues to file meaning bills and resolutions that aim to improve the plight of the Filipinos, especially the poor and marginalized sectors. Press Release April 7, 2019 DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES - GORDON Senator Richard J. Gordon stressed that Republic Act 11235 or the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act of 2019 will give justice to the victims of riding-in-tandem shooters who could no longer seek justice themselves because "dead men tell no tales." Gordon, principal author and sponsor of the law, said he will explain this to President Rodrigo Duterte, who has expressed intentions to meet with him to discuss suspending the implementation of RA 11235. "Ipinagtatanggol ko lang ang mga taong pinapatay ng mga riding-in-tandem assassins. They can no longer seek justice for themselves. How do we do justice to this people? You limit the way people can get away with riding without motor plates and riding with stolen motorcycles," he said, Gordon has earlier assured that, with everybody complaining about extra-judicial killings (EJK), through RA 11235 he is doing something to prevent riding-in-tandem killings, which had been a plague in the country for the past 15 years and one of the biggest contributors to EJK. The chairman of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights noted that for the last so many decades, motorcycles have become "crime machines," used for killing ordinary people, media personnel, lawyers, justices, judges, politicians and even policemen, with the Philippine National Police recording an average of four people killed by riding-in-tandem shooters each day. PNP records showed that of the total of 28,409 motorcycle riding crimes or incidents reported from 2010 to 2017, 13,062 or 46% of which were shooting incidents. And out of over 4,000 motorcycle riding crimes or incidents in 2016, only eight cases (0.18%) were solved. Press Release April 7, 2019 GORDON WANTS ROTC REVIVED With China already getting a foothold in Philippine territories in the disputed chain of islands in the South China Sea, Senator Richard J. Gordon reiterated anew his proposal to revive the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) in preparation for any attacks. "We are challenged right now, and we should be prepared. I have been proposing the revival of the ROTC so that male citizens who are 18 years old will have military training. They can be asked to give six months military service. In other countries, citizens are even asked to give as long as two years," Gordon said during the Commemoration of the 77th Araw ng Kagitingan and Philippine Veterans Week held at Fort Bonifacio last Friday. "Ang mga bata dapat marunong magsundalo. Dapat kaya nilang lumaban para sa bayan kung kailangan," he added. The senator was the guest of honor and speaker at the said event. His father, former Olongapo City Mayor James Leonard Tagle Gordon, was given a posthumous award as one of the heroes of World War II. He was assigned as a junior officer under the Intelligence Staff engaged in intelligence gathering and monitoring the Province of Zambales. He had the rank of a first lieutenant and joined the resistance on November 1, 1943. Wanting to foster patriotism and nationalism among the youth, Gordon filed, last year, Senate Bill No. 1417, or the Citizen Service Act of 2017 which proposes to require all college students and those of technical vocational courses to undergo basic citizen service training. Likewise noting that the country faces a buffet of disasters, both natural and man-made, Gordon stressed the importance of having an army of reserved officers who could be called upon and mobilized to assist in matters of external and territorial defense, internal security and peace and order, and disaster risk reduction and management. Much of the discussion in Sharm El-Sheikh focused on operations of the African Peer Review Mechanism, and how its programmes can better benefit African states and African integration The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) concluded its two-day annual methodology forum Friday in Sharm El-Sheikh, offering ideas for enhancing the work done by the African Union (AU) body. More than 150 people attended the forum in the Red Sea city. The list included representatives of APRM, representatives of the AU Commission and governance experts from institutions that partner with the APRM in research projects. The list of attendees also included Egyptian government officials, parliamentarians, academics, university students and journalists. The APRM is a specialised agency of the African Union that focuses on good governance in Africa. The forum did not offer a final communique. A set of recommendations will be provided in the forums final report that will be issued in the coming weeks. But the discussions that took place on Thursday and Friday clarified the priorities of the AU agency in the coming years. APRM For example, academics from across the African continent and APRM officials suggested the creation of university programmes, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, to train students to conduct research on governance in a manner that will be useful to the technical work conducted by continental institutions such as the AU. As the APRM depends on a questionnaire as its key tool for research on governance in Africa, another discussion involved whether the same set of questions can be directed to all states, as not all African states have the same socio-political and economic challenges. In July 2002, the process towards founding the APRM started with the Declaration on the Implementation of the New Partnership for Africas Development, adopted by the inaugural session of the assembly of the African Union in Durban, South Africa. The declaration "establishes the APRM as a country-self assessment and peer review mechanism, conceived and led by Africans to undertake governance assessments. Those assessments involve areas of democracy and political governance, economic governance, corporate governance and sustainable socio-economic development. APRM The forum also touched on gender and governance in Africa, specifically the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Developments framework for gender reviews and a framework for gender sensitive budgeting, as the two frameworks will be under consideration in reviewing a proposal to bring a gender component to the APRM instrument. Moreover, the APRM community tackled the possibility of integrating migration, refugees, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in APRM reviews, studies on credit rating agencies (CRAs) in Africa from the perspective of state banking, and the application of future studies to governance in the framework of Agenda 2063 and a general approach to futures studies and governance in Africa. Speaking to Ahram Online, Khaled Emara aide to Egypts foreign minister said Egypt is currently preparing its own self- assessment report that will be submitted to APRM, stating that Egypt is one of the founding states of APRM since its establishment in 2003. Emara said that the APRM was created to facilitate the exchange of expertise on political, economic, social and corporate governance in Africa on state and presidential levels, which the African leaders found pivotal and important for pushing the developmental agenda of the continent forward. Khaled Emara Emara explained that the Egyptian process of self-assessment in which all sectors of society are involved will take time and effort as the country is huge in terms of its population, adding that research centres with domestic, regional and international weight are participating in the review, such as those affiliated with Cairo University, Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies and the National Planning Institute. A national committee was also formed to handle the process, noted Emara, adding that the questionnaire process will be handled electronically. The high-ranking diplomat said Egypt has important contributions to make in relation to restructuring how APRM functions and the competency of APRM programmes for member states. He explained that Egypt pushed for budget changes in APRM, which will allocate 70 percent to research programmes and 30 percent to running costs, such as salaries, as opposed to a 50-50 distribution system currently used. By 2021 or 2022, we will most likely reach this stage. Egypt said that the 50-50 budgeting process should change, for APRM which is based in South Africa should focus on serving member states through backing programmes of expertise transfer and consulting services," Emara stated. Meanwhile, he said another Egyptian initiative was welcomed, which involves turning the APRM into a non-paper-based, electronic institution that uses digital means to execute its tasks, for large numbers of African youths who cover more than 60 percent of the continents overall population depend on digital means in their lives. For Egypt, asserted Emara, there is a political willingness through its president, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, and the government to work with Africa and make the APRM an effective institution. Believing that the APRM aims to support the objective of African integration, Emara said that it helps member states to revisit their internal affairs and find ways through which the continent can jointly address the challenges it is facing. He referred to the example of the new African free trade agreement that will be implemented this year and will pave the way for trade, movement of goods, and the introduction of services across the continent. There are also other plans for facilitating the movement of people and management of airspaces in Africa, and they all represent large-scale plans that African states hope to achieve in the future. The APRM forum came in light of the unanimous election of Egypt as the chair of the AU in 2019 during the AU summit in Ethiopias capital Addis Ababa in January 2018. Egypt has never before been elected head of the AU. The AU was created in 2002 following the disbanding of the Organisation of African Unity, counts all 55 African countries as members, and holds an annual summit in Ethiopia. Search Keywords: Short link: The New Zealand dollar is weaker after US jobs data was better than expected, easing fears about a possible economic slowdown in the US. The Kiwi was trading at 67.26 at 8am in Wellington versus 67.31 late Friday in New York. It was at 67.54 US cents at 5pm Friday in Wellington. The trade weighted index was at 73.13 points from 73.09 points in New York. Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 196,000 in March, the Labor Department said Friday, a rebound from the 33,000 jobs added in February. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.8 percent last month. "Kiwi put up little fight against the greenback as US non-farm payrolls came in better than expected. With a dovish RBNZ providing the backdrop, and few local releases to provide support, the kiwi remains at the whim of offshore moves," said ANZ FX/rates strategist Sandeep Parekh. He said it has support at 67 US cents and resistance at 68 US cents. The market remains focused on US-China trade headlines as well as Brexit. The kiwi was trading at 51.57 British pence versus 51.66 late Friday as "sterling whipsaws as Brexit nears," said Parekh. "Efforts made by PM May to extend Brexit continued to provide support whilst markets brace for more volatility as negotiations continue this week." The kiwi was at 94.63 Australian cents versus 94.71 and at 59.96 euro cents from 60.03, at 75.14 Japanese yen from 75.23 and at 4.5187 Chinese yuan from 4.5240. (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. 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Related News: Gentrack Group Limited (NZX: GTK) Facility Loan Agreement Goodman Property Trust (NZX: GMT) Prices $200 million Wholesale Bond Issue 15th December 2021 Morning Report Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) Retail Offer Closes Over-Subscribed Steel & Tube Holdings Limited (NZX: STU) Upgrades Earnings Guidance for 1H FY22 The New Zealand Refining Company Limited (NZX: NZR) Share Purchase Plan Closes Oversubscribed 14th December 2021 Morning Report The New Zealand Refining Company Limited (NZX: NZR) Share Purchase Plan Issue Price Air New Zealand Limited (NZX: AIR) Announces Revised Crown Support Package New Zealand Oil & Gas Limited (NZX: NZO) Mahato PSC Update He said there were chances of some debris going up but since 10 days have passed since the launch, there was no possibility of it posing any threat to the ISS. New Delhi: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman G. Satheesh Reddy said on Saturday that there was no possibility of debris from the anti-satellite (ASAT) test conducted by India on March 27 hitting the International Space Station (ISS). The risk analysis simulation based on an internationally accepted software also showed that there was no threat to the space station. The DRDO chief said that all the debris should be dissolved within 45 days. Responding to the observations made by NASA Administrstor Jim Bridenstine about the possible threat to the International Space Station, Reddy said when India conducted the test, the space station was over French Guyana. Bridenstine had said that the ASAT test by India had created 69 pieces of orbital debris posing risk to the International Space Station. On March 27, India shot down one of its satellites in space with an ASAT missile, which made it only the fourth country after the US, the USSR and China to have used such a weapon. Thousands of Sudanese protesters clashed with security forces outside President Omar al-Bashirs residence in central Khartoum on Saturday in what appeared to be the biggest demonstration in months of protests against his 30-year rule, witnesses said. Across the River Nile in Khartoums twin city of Omdurman, which also saw protests into the evening, one civilian died from injuries sustained during rioting and other civilians and police officers were wounded, state news agency SUNA said, citing police reports. The victim was a laboratory doctor, according to a statement from an opposition doctors committee. Medical staff have played a prominent role in the protests, in which dozens of people have been killed over the past three-and-a-half months. Security forces fired tear gas at protesters in Omdurman and at stone-throwing demonstrators near Bashirs residence, who had responded to a call by activists trying to increase pressure on Bashir to step down. They waved Sudanese flags and chanted slogans demanding freedom, peace and justice as they gathered outside the gates of the compound, guarded by soldiers, that also houses the defense ministry, army command and security headquarters. By the evening, the clashes subsided as security forces pulled back, allowing the thousands still gathered to remain outside the compound. Witnesses said young demonstrators sang nationalist songs and danced for joy. Some said they would stay until Bashir stepped down. Information Minister Hassan Ismail, who also serves as the government spokesman, praised security forces for the way they handled the protests and said the government remained committed to dialogue to resolve the crisis. The approach followed by government apparatus was met with satisfaction from citizens, Ismail said in a statement. Sudanese blood is the most precious thing we need to preserve. Bashir has refused to step down, saying his opponents need to seek power through the ballot box. Today, we won and we are confident that the regime will fall, said Mohamed Saleh, a 63-year-old university professor who estimated the crowd to be at more than 100,000 people. An independent estimate for the number of protesters was not immediately available. But witnesses said the protest appeared to be larger than previous ones. There are crowds as far as the eye can see, one witness told Reuters. Anniversary Sudanese activists, apparently emboldened by the success of similar but much larger protests in Algeria that forced ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down, called Saturdays demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the 1985 coup that forced then President Jaafar Nimeiri to step down following mass protests against his rule. The demonstrators said they wanted to deliver a message to the countrys armed forces to side with them in trying to push Bashir out of power. Sudanese activists say the armed forces had in the past backed popular protests against autocratic rulers, including their move against Nimeiri 34 years ago. Nimeiris downfall paved the way for national elections and a civilian government that Bashir ousted in 1989. The wave of protests that began on Dec. 19 were triggered by price rises and cash shortages but have become the most sustained challenge to his long rule. In February, Bashir declared a state of emergency in the country of 40 million, and sacked his government and state governors. * The story was edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: Modis second term is warranted not so much as a gift for his excellent performance in the first term, as for the many things that are yet to be done, and are crying to be done by Rajnikant Puranik That it should be Narendra Modi, and Modi alone, who deserves to be and should therefore be elected as Indias Prime Minister for another five-year term in May 2019 is something all right-thinking persons who care for their country and its people ardently desire. Modis case for a second-term is watertight from all angles: his overall performance as PM since 2014; the overall performance of his government for the last five years; his coming good on na khaounga, aur na khane doonga at the top Union Govt. levela stellar achievement given the dismal record of the Congress in the area since independence, and its criminal record during 2004-14; the surety of further huge positive changes that could dramatically lift India into the top bracket should Modi get another five years. Rather than enumerating and detailing Modi governments commendable 360-degree performance and significant achievements that would take several pages, the readers are requested to refer to the numerous websites and social-media data on twitter and facebook , for example. Modis second term is warranted not so much as a gift for his excellent performance in the first term, as for the many things that are yet to be done, and are crying to be done, and to which Modi alone can do justicethey have been neglected or mishandled or deliberately done otherwise during the many decades of the Nehru-Gandhi-Dynasty misrule. Its a long list, but some of its main items as follows: Junk further the poverty-perpetuating socialism. Liberalise and disinvest furtherimplement what Modi had himself said in 2014, Government has no business to be in business. Encourage open and competitive market structures. Further root-out crony-capitalism and crony-socialism. Be industry-friendly, and not industry-hostile. Further encourage entrepreneurship. Bring about drastic reforms in the agricultural and rural sector. Promote organic farming massively. Discourage industrialization of food and FDI that promotes it. Link rivers. Complete Ganga-Yamuna clean-up, and indeed clean-up all rivers. Reduce income-tax further and ensure greater compliance and higher collections. Reduce poverty and increase prosperity through meaningful job-creation and self-employment, rather than through hand-outs. Shun cheap vote-catching, dole-out mai-baap sarkar measures for the poor, a la Congress. Bring about drastic judicial, police, governance, and administrative reforms. Give lateral entry to the specialists and experts from outside into the government at all levels. Gradually, all top level positions in the government should be held only be experts and specialists, and not by IAS generalists. Introduce more transparency. Root-out corruption further, especially at the state-level. Whatever happened to bringing black-money from abroad? Open up the Education Sector. Massively increase the budget at all levels of education. Withdraw RTE Act. Float a massive project of writing honest, authentic, evidence-based Indian history, junking the grossly distorted Marxist-Communist-Nehruvian version, and base school-college text-books on the same. Illegal proselytizationthrough enticements, incentives, threats, violence, defaming other religionsshould be made a criminal offence, and the law must be strictly enforced. Hindu temples and establishments should be freed from government controls. Sanskrit and Indians cultural-civilisational heritage must be taught in schools. Article 370 and 35A applicable for J&K must be abolished. Kashmiri Pandits should be properly and fully rehabilitated in the next five years. They should also be provided adequate compensation. J&K should be divided into four parts (states or union territories): Jammu, Ladakh, Kashmir Valley area earmarked exclusively for Kashmiri Pandits, remaining area of Kashmir Valley. Rohingyas and Bangladeshi Muslims should be sent back. Uniform Civil Code should be implemented. Population control measures should be enforced across denominations; for example, family size exceeding husband-wife-2 or 3 children should be denied government facilities/subsidies. Many opine that the economy could have been better handled in the first term, and had that been so getting a second term would have been a cake-walk for Modi. Of course, many excellent economic measures had been taken, but more needed to be donesomething which a lawyer FM lacking in the required mindset could not do. Hopefully, the second term of Modi would see a new FM like Subramanian Swamy or Piyush Goel or some other competent person. HRD needs to be taken seriously, and we need to have a very competent minister heading it. The other thing lacking in the first term was not having booked the corruptthat should be rectified in the second term. While history is witness to the terrible rule of the Mahagathbandhan-Khichdi at the Centre represented by Charan Singh, VP Singh, Chandrashekhar, HD Devegowda, IK Gujaral and so on; and the as bad or worse rule of their components at the state-level like Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Akhilesh Yadav in UP, Communist Parties in West Bengal and Kerala, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife and sons in Bihar, DMK in Tamil Nadu, CB Naidu in AP, NCP-Congress in Maharashtra, JDS-Congress in Karnataka; the record of the Nehru-Gandhi-Dynasty represented by Nehru, Indira, Rajiv, and Sonia-Manmohan is hardly better. Nehru is regarded as the best in the Nehru-Gandhi-Dynasty sequence, yet he made a huge number of blunders: please read my book Nehrus 97 Major Blunders available on Amazon, both in digital and paper editions. The rule of Indira, Rajiv, Sonia-Manmohan was scam-ridden, and much worse than Nehrus. The unutterable underachievements of the underwhelming leadership of the Nehru-Dynasty, with their poverty-perpetuating and misery-multiplying socialism and bureaucracy, and their scams and blunders, had kept India forever a developing third-rate third-world country. And now comes Rahul Gandhi (RG). It is worth noting the reverse geometric progression of woefully falling standards from Nehru down to Rahul Gandhithe members of the dynasty become worse and worse down the generation. The way RG talks, argues, articulates, explains, behaves, and conducts himself amply demonstrate how he is totally unsuited for any responsible positionPM being a far, far cry! Further, both the Congress and almost all the components of MGB are headed by dynasts, and all of them are invariably corrupt, and of doubtful integrity. Most of them have legal cases of corruption against them, and their all-out attempt to grab power is mainly driven by their anxiety to somehow save themselves. That there are journalists, writers, and intellectuals who support Sonia-RG-Congress and the MGB, also called the TGB (Thug-Gath-Bandhan), is really baffling. Apart from the Award-Wapsi-Gang comprising mostly vested interests and urban naxals, reportedly a group of about 100 intellectuals have called upon people to vote for diversity and multiculturism, implying the same are under threat under Modi! How is it that these worthies cant see what is obvious and crystal-clear to common-men, and persons of average intelligence? Hopefully, the Indian voter would rise above the extraneous considerations of caste, religion, region, and election-time bribes, and keeping in mind the MCGB (Maha-Chor-GathBandhan) of UPA-I and UPA-II, would vote overwhelmingly for Modi. General Dyer was malignance personified. His action ensured the rapid end of the British Empire. by K Natwar Singh On 13 April is the hundredth anniversary of the brutal massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. The man responsible was a British military officer, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer. He was malignance personified. It is not possible to make any allowance for his frightfulness. He was thick skinned, meanly obdurate, self-righteous, with an insane sense of duty. His action at Jallianwala Bagh ensured the rapid end of the British Empire. His misguided admirers (more about them later) called him the saviour of the Empire. Following the arrest of Congress leaders Dr Saifuddin Kitchlu and the Cambridge educated Dr Satyapal, in early April, tensions ran high in Amritsar. Agitators stoked the fires of discontent. This unrest was spontaneous, no conspiracy was planned, as claimed by many British officials. Tempers were running high on account of the Rowlatt Act, Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, which Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress opposed. The response of the Punjab government was to issue a proclamation, which stated that All meetings and gatherings are hereby prohibited and will be dispersed at once by Military Law. Two: No person residing in the Amritsar City is permitted to leave his house after 8 P.M. Any person found in the streets after 8 P.M will be shot. Not even one tenth of the people of Amritsar had heard of the proclamation. It was written in Urdu and was distributed by hand. A meeting was called at Jallianwala Bagh on Baisakhi day, 13 April. Over 5,000 people came to the meeting, including women and children. Hardly any of them had heard of the proclamationDyer himself acknowledged that people might not have heard of the proclamation. The meeting was not held to challenge the government or Dyer. In fact Dyer had arrived in Amritsar with orders from the government. This lapse was covered up by the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, the lamentable, arch-Empirewalla, Michael ODwyer. He loathed Indians. He was, till the very end, a staunch supporter of Dyer and the massacre he masterminded. ODwyer was shot dead in London in 1940 by Udham Singh. The crowd at Jallianwala Bagh had no arms, not even lathis. Yet, Dyer decided that this was a part of an intended revolt, which had to be put down by force. When Dyer reached the Bagh, he asked his troops to fire at the crowd. In ten minutes 379 (official estimate) men, women and children were killed. Nearly 2,000 were wounded. There was only one exit. People tried to climb over the wall. They were shot in the back. Having performed his duty Dyer withdrew his force. No offer of medical aid was made. Then followed the crawling outrage. Dyer ordered that men be asked to crawl in the narrow Kucha Kaurianwala Street leading to the Bagh. If anyone raised his head he was beaten with lathis. Next came the whipping order. A whipping post was erected. Teenagers were given thirty whiplashes. There was no escapethey were fastened to the flogging post. Their families were asked to watch the flogging. One boy shrieked with pain: Oh mother, I am dead. Oh sahib, leave me. Very slowly the news of the massacre began to leak out. The Viceroy Lord Chelmsford, after reading the Hunter Committee report, wrote to the Secretary of State Edward Montagu: I cannot contemplate the retention of a man of his mentality and with his record. Dyer was summoned to Delhi and asked to resign his command and also told that he would receive no further post in India. A few days later Brigadier General Dyer sailed for England. Gen. Dyer He was welcomed as a hero and not shunned as a villain. Dyers case was discussed in the House of Commons in July 1920. The Secretary of State, Montagu said, Are you going to keep your hold upon India by terrorism, racial humiliation, and subordination, and frightfulness, or are you going to rest it upon the goodwill, and the growing goodwill, of the people of your Indian Empire? Montagu was heckled and interrupted by racial diehards. One of them, Austin Chamberlain observed, that he had not seen the House, so fiercely angry A Jew, (Montagu) rounding on an Englishman and throwing him to the wolvesthat was the feeling. Most uncharacteristically, Winston Churchill, then Minister of War, called Dyers action un-English and that he had betrayed British values. The House censured Dyerthe vote was 230 to 129. However, in the House of Lords, Dyer found many conservative supporters, the most prominent being Lord Salisbury. The House of Lords voted 129 to 86 in favour of Dyer. The Morning Post launched an appeal to patriots for monetary subscriptions for helping Dyer, the man who saved India. The response was massive: 26,000 pounds were donated (Kipling gave ten pounds) so that the butcher of Jallianwala Bagh could spend the rest of his life in comfort. Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla conferred on Sunday with his Saudi counterpart Khaled el Faleh on means of boosting joint cooperation in the fields of petroleum, gas and mineral wealth. The meeting took place on the fringe of the World Economic Forum held at the Dead Sea resort city in Jordan, a statement by the Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry said. The two ministers exchanged views on opportunities of oil and gas exploration in the Red Sea and means of intensifying search and exploration operations in the coming phase. Egypt has recently launched an international tender for new explorations in 10 areas in the Red Sea, added the statement. The meeting also reviewed means of increasing activities of mining, exchanging information as well as working on implementing a strategy for the development of such vital sector which is one of the basic sources of economic revenues. The two ministers also discussed the developments of the international oil market and exchanged views on expectations regarding international oil prices in the coming phase. Meanwhile, Mullah and Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr attended a session of talks with a number of Jordanian ministers on the fringe of the World Economic Forum. The Egyptian and Jordanian sides reviewed arrangements for a meeting of the higher Egyptian-Jordanian Committee due to convene soon. Search Keywords: Short link: Netanyahu pledges to annex West Bank settlements after vote Jerusalem, April 7 (AFP) Apr 07, 2019 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Saturday to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins the upcoming general election. His comments come just days before the closely-fought April 9 poll and could be seen as an appeal to rightwing voters, who do not believe in the feasibility of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. "I will apply (Israeli) sovereignty, but I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements," he said in an interview to Channel 12 television. Settlements built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War are deemed illegal by the international community and their ongoing construction is seen as a major barrier to peace. Annexation could prove to be the death knell for the two-state solution. In an interview broadcast Friday, Netanyahu said he told US President Donald Trump he would not remove settlements or people as part of a future American peace plan. "I said there shouldn't be the removal of even one settlement" from the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 13 television. More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements as part of its military occupation of the territory, where more than 2.5 million Palestinians live. A further 200,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied east Jerusalem, over which Israel has already implemented full sovereignty. Washington is expected to unveil proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace sometime after Tuesday's Israeli election in which Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term. The Israeli prime minister was asked if he was familiar with the details of the US plan, replying he knew "what should be in it." Along with settlements, "our ongoing control of all the territory west of the Jordan" River was a further condition set by the Israeli premier for any US-led peace initiative. Netanyahu said he informed Trump not "even one person" would be evicted from a settlement. The US president on Saturday was cautious about the outcome of the Israeli election on Tuesday, which he called a close race between "two good people". "How is the race going by the way? How is it, who's going to win the race? Tell me, I don't know," Trump asked the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. "Well, it's going to be close -- I think it's going to be close. Two good people," he said, referring to incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu and rival Benny Gantz. The latest polls place Netanyahu and ex-military chief Gantz neck and neck, but give the former the advantage. While Netanyahu has a close relationship with the US president, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas cut off relations with Washington after Trump declared the disputed city of Jerusalem Israel's capital in December 2017. The Palestinians say the US government's pro-Israel bias meant it could no longer lead peace negotiations between them and Israel, while US officials argue their plan will be fair. Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts have been at a standstill since 2014, when a drive for a deal by Barack Obama's administration collapsed. Sanctions delay plans for N. Korean beach resort: analysts Seoul, April 7 (AFP) Apr 07, 2019 North Korea has again pushed back the construction end-date of a massive beach resort -- a move analysts say shows the regime is struggling from international sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programmes. The eastern seaside strip, known as the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Area, is intended as a centrepiece of the isolated country's nascent tourism industry as Pyongyang seeks to develop its economy despite the tough economic measures. The site's construction has been closely overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, and was initially scheduled to open this April, to mark the birthday anniversary of the country's founder Kim Il Sung. But in a recent visit to the site, Kim delayed the finish date for the second time, ordering construction to be completed by the same time next year, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday. The decision, would allow the workers "to perfectly finish it so that our people would fully enjoy themselves in the impeccable tourist area from the sea-bathing season next year", KCNA quoted Kim as saying. The plan was first pushed back last August when Kim extended the project by six months to October 2019. The isolated North is under several sets of sanctions for its weapons programmes which analysts say has hampered efforts to secure materials needed to finish the vast beach complex. "North Korea can complete the external construction of the hotels by itself but most of the finishing materials for the interior are imported," Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP. The economic measures banned imports of some items and Pyongyang was supplying the sanctioned goods with its foreign currency, Cho said, adding: "But that has also dried up." Satellite images taken by US monitors in December showed the buildings previously under construction were nearing completion. "The North Korean economy has hit a limit with the sanctions," Cho added. Immediate sanctions relief was a key demand of the cash-strapped North when Kim met with US President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February for a second summit that ultimately broke down. Trump, the former real estate developer turned billionaire, has praised North Korea's tourism potential, referring to its "great beaches" he said would make ideal locations for condos. Netanyahu pledges to annex West Bank settlements after vote Jerusalem, April 7 (AFP) Apr 07, 2019 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Saturday to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins the upcoming general election. His comments come just days before the closely-fought April 9 poll and could be seen as an appeal to rightwing voters, who do not believe in the feasibility of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. "I will apply (Israeli) sovereignty, but I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements," he said in an interview with Channel 12 television. Settlements built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War are deemed illegal by the international community and their ongoing construction is seen as a major barrier to peace. Annexation could prove to be the death knell for the two-state solution. Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Netanyahu's statement on annexation was "not surprising." "Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administration's support," he said on Twitter. In an interview broadcast Friday, Netanyahu said he told US President Donald Trump he would not remove settlements or people as part of a future American peace plan. "I said there shouldn't be the removal of even one settlement" from the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 13 television. More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements as part of Israel's military occupation of the territory, where more than 2.5 million Palestinians live. A further 200,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied east Jerusalem, over which Israel has already implemented full sovereignty. -'A close race'- Washington is expected to unveil proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace sometime after Tuesday's Israeli election in which Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term. The Israeli prime minister was asked by Channel 13 if he was familiar with the details of the US plan, replying he knew "what should be in it." Along with settlements, "our ongoing control of all the territory west of the Jordan" River was a further condition set by the Israeli premier for any US-led peace initiative. Netanyahu said he informed Trump not "even one person" would be evicted from a settlement. The US president on Saturday was cautious about the outcome of Israel's upcoming election, calling it a close race between "two good people". "How is the race going by the way? How is it, who's going to win the race? Tell me, I don't know," Trump asked the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. "Well, it's going to be close -- I think it's going to be close. Two good people," he said, referring to Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz. The latest polls place Netanyahu and ex-military chief Gantz neck and neck, but give the former the advantage in his ability to form a coalition government. While Netanyahu has a close relationship with the US president, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas cut off relations with Washington after Trump declared the disputed city of Jerusalem Israel's capital in December 2017. The Palestinians say the US government's pro-Israel bias meant it could no longer lead peace negotiations between them and Israel, while US officials argue their plan will be fair. Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts have been at a standstill since 2014, when a drive for a deal by Barack Obama's administration collapsed. Iran leader says Iraq should demand US withdraw troops Tehran, April 7 (AFP) Apr 07, 2019 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iraq to demand US troops leave "as soon as possible" during a meeting with the Iraqi prime minister in Tehran. "You should take actions to make sure the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because wherever they have had an enduring presence, forcing them out has become problematic," Khamenei said on Saturday according to his official website. "The current government and parliament in Iraq and the political figures are not what the US desires; they plot to remove them from the political scene of Iraq," he told Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi. Abdel Mahdi, on his first official visit to Iran, also met Saturday with President Hassan Rouhani, who visited Iraq last month. Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year and hit Tehran with sanctions. 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. Iran leader urges Iraq to demand US withdraw troops Tehran, April 7 (AFP) Apr 07, 2019 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iraq to demand US troops leave "as soon as possible", warning that Washington is plotting to remove the Iraqi government. The remarks came during a visit to Tehran on Saturday by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, whose country is under pressure from the United States to distance itself from Iran. "You should take actions to make sure the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because wherever they have had an enduring presence, forcing them out has become problematic," Khamenei told Abdel Mahdi. "The current government and parliament in Iraq and the political figures are not what the US desires; they plot to remove them from the political scene of Iraq," he said, according to his official website. Abdel Mahdi, on his first official trip to Iran, also met Saturday with President Hassan Rouhani, who visited Iraq last month. Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year and hit Tehran with sanctions. 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 Revolutionary Guards elite Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. - Terrorism blacklist - According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington is planning to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation, an unprecedented move that would escalate tensions between the two countries. The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said President Donald Trump's administration would announce the long-mulled decision as soon as Monday. But it said that the Pentagon and the CIA were concerned the move would increase risks for US troops without doing much more to damage the Iranian economy. Iran's parliament has vowed to retaliate by passing an urgent bill putting American troops on a terrorism blacklist alongside the Islamic State group, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported. "Even though we believe one should not play along with America's extreme acts, the reality is that we must retaliate," the head of Iran's influential national security and foreign policy commission, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, told ISNA. A statement signed by a majority of MPs in support of the bill said any action against Iran's national security and its armed forces was "crossing a red line" and the US administration would "regret" its decision. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the new system. Designating the Guards as a terrorist organisation would "effectively be a service to terrorists," Falahatpisheh said, since they have "the biggest role in combatting terrorism" in the region. US pulls some troops out of Libya amid unrest Berlin, April 7 (AFP) Apr 07, 2019 The US military said Sunday it had temporarily pulled some of its forces out of Libya amid an upsurge of fighting in the North African country. "Due to increased unrest in Libya, a contingent of US forces supporting US Africa Command temporarily relocated from the country in response to security conditions on the ground," it said in a statement. It did not detail how many military personnel had been withdrawn from Libya. Forces loyal to Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar were pressing on at the weekend with an offensive on the capital Tripoli, seat of the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). US Africa Command, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, said its mission in Libya involves "military support to diplomatic missions, counter-terrorism activities, enhancing partnerships and improving security across the region". It said it would "continue to monitor conditions on the ground in Libya and assess the feasibility for renewed US military presence as appropriate". "The security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable," said US Marine Corps General Thomas Waldhauser, commander of US Africa Command. "Even with an adjustment of the force, we will continue to remain agile in support of existing US strategy." Libya has struggled since the 2011 overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi which left dozens of militia to fill the void and ally with either the GNA or the rival administration in the east backed by Haftar. In the renewed fighting, forces backing the GNA have launched air strikes on Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) around 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Tripoli. Tripoli residents fearing that large-scale fighting could break out have begun stocking up on food and petrol. Egyptian-Canadian MASCARA band played a successful concert within the D-CAF festival Friday, proving that Egypt's crowd is still excited for metal music Egyptian-Canadian metal band Massive Scar Era (MSE), AKA MASCARA, played Friday their first performance in Egypt since 2013, at the Greek Campus of the American University in Cairo, amid the ongoing Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF). After a rich event that saw three other performances, spectators enthusiastic in interacting with metal music, rarely played in the Arab country recently, with some singing along to the lyrics of MSE's repertoire, banging their heads in the air. Massive Scar Era "I am thrilled with our return. So delighted that fans still remember our songs. This is an obvious proof that metal music is still present and demanded. It just needs a space. Like here at the Greek Campus. I see no problem to play again in such venues," Egyptian lead vocal and guitarist Cherine Amr, who is currently based in Canada, told Ahram Online after the performance. Amr founded the band in Alexandria back in 2005 with violinist Nancy Mounir in an initial attempt to create an all-girls band and together they blended their distinct musical backgrounds influenced by metal, classical and Egyptian music to shape-up MASCARA, their peak being 'Ab3ad Makan', a song featured in the Egyptian award winning movie, Microphone (2010). Nancy Mounir "MASCARA is a very special project for me. It's the first band I ever played with and Cherine is one of my most favourite closest friends," expressed Nancy, one of the Egyptian underground's familar faces, most known for her collaboration with Dina El-Wedidi in addition to appearances with various bands, lately with Grammy Award winner Fathy Salama and Algerian Karima Nayt in concert two weeks ago. Accompanied by Canadian drummer Julia Geaman and bassist Dylan Wijdenes-Charles, MASCARA featured Egyptian percussionist Ahmed 'Bezra' Badry, in an attempt to mix traditional oriental beats with standard metal. Ahmed 'Bezra' Badry "It was a great experience for all of us. With the joining of Bezra, we will be using oriental rhythms as the starting point of the creation. We used to build our sound on melodies, but now we want to build upon rhythms," reveled Cherine. Answering a question regarding the topics of their lyrics, the lead vocalist said, "After we interacted with the Canadian members [that joined later], our latest track, Colour Blind (released a year ago) focused on minorities rights in different countries. In the future, we will dig more on such topics from my experience as an Egyptian in Canada and Nancy's current research on the origins of oriental scales, before the influence of the British occupation, in addition to Dylan's experience as a native Canadian who shares similar cause with awareness of British rule in Canada. It's all parallel." Julia Geaman "I was missing the old songs and it is the first time to play the new song live. I was very happy to see the crowd show energetic interaction despite the long day," Nancy said, echoing Cherine. The band played almost all their songs at the concert, including Colour Blind, Oblivious, 30 Years, Comes Around You, Pray, Alive and others, but they insisted not to perform 'Ab3ad Makan' in spite of consecutive requests by fans. The band, who previously played in Denmark, Hungary, France, the US, the UK, Germany and Palestine, in addition to many concerts across Egypt, are preparing for a heavy schedule ahead as they are touring abroad in April, June and August. Dylan Wijdenes-Charles "We hope we play more in Egypt as most of our upcoming concerts are abroad," Nancy said. Ahram Online talked to concert attendees and most of expressed excitement about the band and metal music generally. Metal music has a wide fan base in Egypt with many bands playing covers and a few creating originals, but the genre's concerts frequently face difficulties with a history of issues with the authorities. Ahram Online reported on some incidents in an article published in 2016, saying: "The most notorious incident came in January 1997, when security forces arrested more than 100 young metal fans and charged them with 'promoting Satanism' and contempt of religion. The defendants were eventually released due to lack of evidence, but the arrests and the media publicity surrounding them had already made an impact." The women music event of D-CAF festival had three other performances, starting with the first ever performance for promising Nubian talent Maram, who was appreciated for playing some groovy Sudanese and Egyptian covers, followed by an impressive performance by Shereen Abdo Band, singing her original repertoire that also includes folk, with a special appearance of American folk girl-band T-Sisters. The D-CAF eighth edition combines 40 different events, including performing arts, concerts, urban vision performances, new media events, film screenings, and workshops, featuring artists from Egypt. Collaborating with Ismailia Company, the events takes place across many Downtown Cairo venues, including Sherefeen Street that served as one of D-CAFs stages in the festivals first three editions, and the Tamara Building, with both locations being recently renovated. Other venues include Rawabet Theatre, Falaki Theatre, Greek Campus, La Vennoise Rooftop, Cinema Zawya, Maktabi Creative Office spaces, Studio Emad Eddin, 100 Copies Studio, as well as other spots in Downtown Cairo, topped with Ezbet Khairallah Theatre, and the Maqad of Sultan Qaitbey outside the area. Ahram Online is media partner of this year's D-CAF festival 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: Escalating Libya conflict prompts international alarm Tripoli, April 7 (AFP) Apr 07, 2019 The military conflict shaking Libya escalated Sunday as forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an air strike on a suburb of Tripoli and the UN-backed government vowed a major counteroffensive. The United Nations called for an urgent two-hour truce for the southern outskirts of the capital to allow evacuations of civilians and the wounded. Rivalries between the two camps threaten to plunge the country into a full-blown civil war after Haftar on Thursday launched an offensive on Tripoli. Oil-rich Libya has been riven by chaos since the NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with rival administrations and armed groups vying for power. Repeated attempts to find a peaceful solution have failed. After a pause overnight, fierce fighting flared anew on Sunday morning south of the capital between Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) and forces backing the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). As clashes raged in the mainly farmland region of Wadi Raba and the disused international airport south of the capital, a spokesman for pro-GNA forces said a "counteroffensive" had been launched to push back Haftar's forces. Colonel Mohamed Gnounou told reporters that operation "Volcano of Anger" was aimed at "purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces", in reference to Haftar fighters. The LNA meanwhile announced it had carried out its first air raid on a Tripoli suburb, despite calls by the international community to halt hostilities. GNA head Fayez al-Sarraj warned on Saturday of a "war without a winner" and said that reinforcements were pouring into Tripoli from several regions. Powerful armed groups from the western city of Misrata and fighters from Zentan and Zawiya -- all battle-hardened militiamen who took part in the 2011 uprising that toppled Kadhafi -- have joined the battle. At least one armed group from Misrata known as Brigade 166 arrived Saturday in eastern Tripoli with dozens of vehicles, some mounted with anti-aircraft guns, to join the counter-offensive, an AFP photographer said. "We are waiting for orders to repel any advance by the enemy towards Tripoli," said the group's spokesman Khaled Abu Jazia. Misrata fighters ousted the Islamic State group from Libya's coastal city of Sirte, Kadhafi's hometown, in 2016 after months of bitter fighting. Sunday's LNA air raid came a day after forces backing the GNA launched air strikes on their rivals for the first time since the offensive began, with at least one targeting an LNA position south of Tripoli. - 'Protracted war' - LNA spokesman Ahmed Mesmari had vowed the force would retaliate. On Saturday he said pro-Haftar fighters were "progressing on several fronts... as planned" and that Tripoli would soon be captured. Analysts say Haftar has been buoyed by a series of successful military operations that have brought all of the east and much of the south of Libya under his control. A field marshal who served under Kadhafi and now backs an administration in eastern Libya opposed to the GNA, Haftar was counting on a swift battle to capture Tripoli but some experts say he miscalculated. "To date, Haftar's operation has mostly failed to go according to plan, and it has now galvanised western Libyan forces against him," said analyst Wolfram Lacher. "He now faces the prospect of a protracted war south of Tripoli, or of a decisive defeat," said Lacher, a researcher with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). As the tension mounted, Tripoli residents were seen Saturday queueing outside petrol stations and supermarkets. - UN peace efforts - Haftar's offensive came as UN chief Antonio Guterres visited Libya Thursday days ahead of a planned UN-backed conference aimed at uniting Libya's rivals and paving the way for elections. The UN Security Council has called on Haftar's forces to halt their advance, warning it was putting Libya's shaky stability at further risk. But UN envoy Ghassan Salame insisted on Saturday the April 14-16 conference would go ahead. "We are determined" to hold the talks, he said. Sarraj said the conference was meant to pave the way for a "stable" government and accused Haftar of "betraying" an agreement reached during a meeting in February to push for elections and a new unity government before year's end. Haftar is "motivated by personal interests and his own delusions" and is trying to "plunge the country into a cycle of violence", said Sarraj. On Saturday Haftar chaired a meeting with the parallel Libyan administration based in the east of the country to discuss a "security plan" for Tripoli that would be implemented at the end of the assault, his media office said. Iran leader calls on Iraq to demand US withdraw troops Tehran, April 7 (AFP) Apr 07, 2019 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iraq to demand US troops leave "as soon as possible", warning that Washington is plotting to remove the government in Baghdad. The remarks came during a visit to Tehran on Saturday by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, whose country is under pressure from the United States to distance itself from Iran. "You should take actions to make sure the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because wherever they have had an enduring presence, forcing them out has become problematic," Khamenei told Abdel Mahdi. "The current government and parliament in Iraq and the political figures are not what the US desires; they plot to remove them from the political scene of Iraq," he said, according to his official website. Abdel Mahdi, on his first official trip to Iran, also met Saturday with President Hassan Rouhani, who visited Iraq last month. Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year and hit Tehran with sanctions. 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 advisers" and equipment along with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) elite Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. - Terrorism blacklist - According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington is planning to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO), an unprecedented step that would escalate tensions between the two countries. The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said President Donald Trump's administration would announce the long-mulled decision as soon as Monday. But it said the Pentagon and the US Central Intelligence Agency were concerned the move could increase risks for US troops without doing much more to damage the Iranian economy. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the expected measure was "another US disaster" in the making, and warned Washington on Sunday of the consequences it could have. "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region," Zarif said on Twitter, referring to supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf. @realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster," he added. The Guards' commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said US troops would no longer "enjoy the peace they have today" in the Middle East if Washington goes ahead with "such foolishness," according to the IRGG's website. Iran's parliament has vowed to retaliate by passing an urgent bill putting American troops on a terrorism blacklist alongside the Islamic State group, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported. "Even though we believe one should not play along with America's extreme acts, the reality is that we must retaliate," the head of Iran's influential national security and foreign policy commission, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, told ISNA. A statement signed by a majority of MPs in support of the bill said any action against Iran's national security and its armed forces was "crossing a red line" and the US administration would "regret" its decision. The IRGC was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the new system. Designating the Guards as a terrorist organisation would "effectively be a service to terrorists," Falahatpisheh said, since they have "the biggest role in combatting terrorism" in the region. Afghanistan to 'exchange views' with Taliban Kabul, April 7 (AFP) Apr 07, 2019 Afghanistan is sending a delegation to "exchange views" with the Taliban in Qatar, an official said Sunday, in an ongoing push to find a way out of the country's 17-year-old war. Fresh talks are expected to take place in Doha later this month, where Taliban members are due to meet with Afghan officials and other stakeholders. "For now, an inclusive delegation will go (to the Qatari capital) on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and exchange views with the Taliban," said Mohammad Omar Daudzai, President Ashraf Ghani's envoy for peace. Daudzai stressed that the delegation will only serve to swap views with the Taliban, and its members would not necessarily be the same as a formal negotiating team. Afghan officials will meet Wednesday to finalise delegates, and to decide who will comprise that official negotiating team. US and Taliban officials have held several rounds of talks but the militant group has so far refused to talk directly to the Afghan government, which they consider an illegitimate regime. Discussions also took place between the Taliban and Afghani opposition groups in Moscow in February. The Taliban had no immediate reaction to Daudzai's announcement, which comes after US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad spent last week in Afghanistan as part of an ongoing push for a peace deal. Khalilzad has repeatedly called on Ghani to form a strong negotiating team to reach a deal before the country's delayed presidential elections, now slated for September. On Friday, during a side trip Khalilzad made to Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan said he had some "brotherly advice" for Afghanistan, suggesting an interim government in Kabul to help smooth the talks process. Kabul was furious about the comment, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned a Pakistan diplomat to explain the remarks. Who is Tutsi? Who is Hutu? Who knows? Who wants to know? And in any event, how can one know? by Gatete Nyiringabo Ruhumuliza Imagine a British girl reading political science at Oxford who writes a rather mediocre thesis on a Truth and reconciliation commission in Zimbabwe. Her thesis is marked with a pass, but upon graduation she walks into McKinsey Consult as a partner to manage a hefty World Bank contract to develop the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Zimbabwe. The good young lady applies her ready-made thesis. The results are disastrous for Zimbabwe while she goes on to lead a successful career as an expert on Africa. There is something pernicious in being an Africa expert as a profession. Over time, many experts develop a theory of change which they in turn sell to the World Bank, donors, universities and media. As they frequently encounter an unconventional African country, they refuse to register, at times subliminally, realities that negates their selling pitch their bread and butter. We Rwandans sadly arent spared. Yet, having understood this, it all generally amuses us until it is April, when we cant take a joke - and the joker. So it is April again. And I would like to go through typical jokes or rather insensitivities, which seem to sell as western expertise. Rwanda is an enigma Very common among western journalists, the title which has featured in The Economist, Washington Post, New York Times, BBC, Aljazeera, etc., has 683,000 entries on google. This theory of a secretive society with a sinister bearing was developed by Belgian colonialists in the late fifties to define Tutsi: not to be trusted, spies, snakes, etc., Western experts use it today to shift the blame of their inability to understand Rwandas political system onto the fact that what is shown isnt what there is. In reality there is, hidden in a secret dark chamber, a plan to do evil. This theory was captured in Simon Bikindis song: Nanga Abahutu, and in Hassan Ngezes Ten Commandments of the Hutu in which both men (convicted genocide perpetrators) call on Hutu who have no animosity towards their Tutsi neighbours to wake up, because Tutsis are out to do them harm and that they have in fact done harm, which has not been told: Rwanda: The Untold/Unknown story, Les Non-Dis The title of a documentary film a few years ago and the theme of a television series Black Earth Rising currently airing both produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), is also the title of a book: In Praise of Blood by a Canadian journalist, Judy Rever. The theory implies that Tutsi did - or are doing unrevealed harm to Hutu, and therefore, as Helen C Epstein puts it in the Guardian; Hutus were justified to revenge. The theory, which is nothing but accusation in mirror was advanced by Gregoire Kayibanda in a long speech in front of the entire diplomatic corps on 11thApril 1964, in then Gitarama Stadium, after he had just massacred all the Tutsi from the Gikongoro region who made up between 40 and 50% of the population there. Kayibanda essentially said that Hutus faced Genocide at the hand of Tutsi and therefore Hutus were justified to commit preemptive genocide against the Tutsi. Rwanda sells the genocide: No country has ever been developed by aid. A country is developed by tourism, manufacturing, agriculture and usually funded by private sector and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Rwandas FDI is attracted by a consistently high ranking on the Ease of Doing Business by World Bank and Transparency Internationals Corruption Index, testifying of a conducive business environment, and little or no corruption. 30 per cent of Rwandas GDP comes from tourism and conferences; illustrated by the two African Union Summits held in Kigali two years ago, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Rwanda next year and the Africa CEO Forum the most important business event on the continent which attracted over 1800 delegates just last month. I am told the organizers envision bringing it back next year, given the standards at which Rwandans delivered. Now these things do not happen out of pity, nor does economic growth. There are many countries that suffered tragedies which do not score 8% back to back annual growth for a solid ten years. The theory that Rwanda sells the genocide, alongside the theory that Rwanda lives off the looting of minerals in DRC were advanced by NGOs. Ironically, Rwanda is the country that has phased out the most NGOs both locally and especially in refugee camps in eastern DRC, where most of the above mentioned experts used to work and were put out of business...it must therefore be a case of sour grapes. Rwanda is a Tutsi-led Government and RPF a Tutsi-led party Even in monarchical times, the king was asked to give up his Tutsi affiliation before acceding to the throne, as the oath went: wari umututsi witwaga Rudahigwa, none ubaye umwami uzitwa Mutara. (You were a Tutsi and your name was Rudahigwa, now you are a King, you shall be known as Mutara). Marriages across ethnic lines werent rare, even the king could offer his daughter or sister in marriage to other tribes, clans etc. President Kagame himself said that he took a DNA test which came out with a percentage of each of the three so-called tribes in Rwanda. But history aside, there is no scientific evidence to support the assertion that the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi) is a Tutsi-led party or that Rwanda is a Tutsi-led government. The RPF has had Rwandans of all ethnic backgrounds in its leadership and membership from the day of its founding, the movement was founded on values of national unity, captured in its initially eight now nine ideological pillars. Its official party anthem: FPR Umuryango wAbanyarwanda (RPF the Rwandan Family) and other songs of liberation, songs of morale in its then military wing the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) have all been explicitly unifying much in contrast with the anti-Tutsi anthems that characterized the genocidal regime. For all practical purposes, the RPF is a movement of national unity, which is consistently referred to as an ethnic political party by western experts. Tutsi are a 14% minority and Hutus are 85% majority in Rwanda As far as we are concerned, all Tutsi were killed in a genocide which was perpetrated with that intent. Those who came back to Rwanda in its aftermath never said they were Tutsi, Hutu or Twa; they said they were Rwandans. If Tutsi were a 14% minority, how come after the genocide, Tutsi are still 14%? That figure, which is totally fantasist, has not been updated, perhaps downwards to mean there are now 0.1% following the genocide, or upwards to reflect mixed marriages or the new generation, etc. Who is Tutsi? Who is Hutu? Who knows? Who wants to know? And in any event, how can one know?There is law prohibiting ethnic profiling and facial profiling is scientifically flawed, but foreign experts still pretend to have a way of knowing. There certainly are people today who would be qualified as such, but who wants to know and why? This is one preposterous debate. Kagame is totalitarian Major national findings and decisions, arrived at through scientific or legal processes are allocated to the person of Kagame. It is as thought the twelve million Rwandans count for nothing. A recent article in The Economist claimed that although the real number of victims of the Genocide is 800,000 people, Kagame prefers a round figure of One Million. In reality, the Gacaca courts, which provided the most comprehensive and thorough census of who was killed, who killed them and in which circumstances they died, found that1,074,017 had been killed in the Genocide Perpetrated Against the Tutsi. No individual expert, institution or politician could have had the means to make such findings. The Gacaca had the entire nation participating in information gathering and sharing for ten years. To dismiss their findings and validate that of a few western experts is to say the least, racist. The arrogant dismissal of indigenous realities is precisely how the genocide ideology was planted among Rwandans. Some western people came and found a millennial civilization of a united nation and arbitrarily allocated to them origins and ethnic affiliations based on dubious criteria. There is no difference between these experts and their ancestors; the colonialists. Rwanda is not res nullius, nor is it a natural reserve where Tutsis and Hutus live in zones, separated on each side by a wall and insulated from interaction. It is a nation of human beings living together from time immemorial. Most of these self-appointed experts are profoundly ignorant charlatans who make a name by usurping African peoples agency. There is no media freedom in Rwanda By the end of the Genocide in 1994, there was one television and one radio station; both state-owned. Twenty-five years later, reports havent factored in the advent of more than ten private television channels, more than 30 radio stations, an unknown number of websites, blogs, vlogs, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, etc.; platforms that Rwandans massively use to interact, send both friendly and unfriendly messages to government and indeed complain on anything and everything just like all users of the internet on the planet. However, during the Genocide, media and political parties were used to call for mass killings of Tutsis. In the famous Hate Media Case (Prosecutor v. Nahimana, Barayagwiza, and Ngeze, Case no. ICTR-99-52-T http://www.jstor.org/stable/4093416)The U.N. Tribunal found that mass media hate speech constitutes Genocide, Incitement to Genocide, and Crimes against Humanity. And that indeed media of hate played a pivotal role in the Genocide against Tutsis. The Rwandan government does not allow political dissent and opposition politicians are arrested on trumped-up charges. Demagoguery as an efficient device for political fame is not strange to western societies, hence, there is no country in the world where everyone with a political opinion is accepted as a legitimate politician, and much less anyone who violates the laws of the land or promotes violence. Foreign experts understanding of political pluralism in Rwanda isnt the classical agitation between, say Democrats and Republicans in the US; Les Republicain and La Republique En Marche in France, because such debate exists in Rwanda between the RPF, the Social Democrats (PSD), the Liberals (PL) or even with the Green Party; people who agree in broad lines, on how the society should be governed peacefully in a Republic. No, that is not what they mean; they would like the RPF to negotiate with FDLR, RNC or FDU, terrorist groups running military training camps in neighbouring countries, and with expressed agendas to use violence; groups that would like to turn up-side down our entire way of life, reintroduce ethnic politics, negate the Genocide or perpetrate a new one. So when they call for political pluralism in Rwanda, they simply mean the US negotiating with ISIS and Al-Qaeda, all in the name of democracy. Now, Rwandans take matters of divisionism seriously for reasons that are rather obvious. It is not that they havent tried confrontational politics; it is that they are still paying the price of hate politics. So they collectively decided, through a referendum, to ban ethnic nomenclature in politics and seek solutions through dialogue and consensus. Who, regardless of their degrees, expertise or skin colour is qualified to dismiss such sacrosanct national ethos? What gives them such right? Kagame/the RPF liberated the country at gunpoint? That too is a fallacy, and here is why: How about the RPF liberated the country with open arms? With a rescue mission and humanitarian programmes? The RPF had a political wing and a military wing. Unlike western experts, the museum of liberation, testimonies of Genocide survivors or reports of the Gacaca courts do not depict a single story. While they acknowledge the arms struggle, they recount the humanity of soldiers and humanitarian nature of the RPFs campaign, which saved lives and pardoned most of the killers. Kagame won the elections by over 90%, therefore they werent free and fair This assertion too is sophistry in the sense that it takes enthusiastic civic participation and political legitimacy as bad things rather than good ones. The question should be: how come western leaders are elected with 25% votes of 25% of the electorate, which represents only a quarter of the population? What led to such massive disenfranchisement? Why do western citizens not trust politicians to a point where they stay at home on Election Day? Is that something we Rwandans should aspire for? To have useless leaders who do not meet the aspirations of most of their citizens? Leaders who break records in disapproval ratings? How is that even democratic, since the majority of the population does not participate? But there are other arguments: why is it that in 2002, Jacques Chirac won the presidential elections in France with 82%? Does it mean that he rigged them? Did he coerce the French electorate? Or was it because the races outcome was so critical to the nations survival that people turned out to vote en masse? Western citizens do massively and frequently exercise their civic right: Only to protest against existing establishments. Judging by the impressive Gillets Jaunes protests in France or Brexit vote in the UK, etc., one might conclude that the percentage of Rwandans who appreciate Kagame is the same as that of the French who disapprove of Macron and Brits who disapprove of May But that makes sense: As Karl Marx once said: The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. If you listen carefully; the Rwandan people, the French people, the British or American people have the same demands, the same need: they want security, they want decent livelihood, a roof over their heads, healthcare, they want to put food on the table, they want fairness and equity; they are just human beings. The difference is, Kagame gives the people what they want, while most western politicians feed them empty rhetoric while exploiting them to enrich themselves and their cronies. Finally, if President Kagame was such a bad leader, why was he chosen by his peers to lead reforms of the African Union without ever campaigning for the role? And once there, why was he able to achieve such unprecedented results within such a short period of time at the continental body? Mr Kagame now faces one test!, Two tests!, Three..,experts frequently announce. My question is, who is putting him to test? Who has that mandate? Is it the Rwandan people or is it western experts? There seems to be a consistent failure among foreign experts to capture the Rwandan zeitgeist. As far as we are concerned, Rwanda is stable, peaceful and secure nation. Our President faces a million challenges on a daily basis, but there is no situation of do-or-die here. We know how we got here; we know where we go from here. And as Rwandan history has shown, every twenty-five or so years, we are capable of producing a Paul Kagame. Conclusion: Its all deja-vu. This is Rwandas and Africas reality. Those less prejudiced who are alert to it are set to benefit from Africas upsurge. Those immodest soi-disant intellectuals, nostalgic of the colonial era, dephase (out-of-tune) and in love with their own grandiloquent treatises, will be obsolete. Asia and the rest of the world is moving on while they remain trapped into an alternative reality, left to sing the same song over and over again like a broken cassette tape. There is an entire western bien pensance thats infected by intellectual schizophrenia; in fact, they are paying the price in their own countries as we speak, where the ground has shifted from beneath their feet. As for us, we have seen these experts before. We have heard their expertise every day for the last twenty five years. Our parents remember them too, so do our grandparents. From their hiding, Genocide survivors also heard similarpropaganda to theirson RTLM, and read it in Kangura - the media of hate. But let me end with a quick lesson on Rwandas governance: President Kagame is the head of the executive. In governing the country, he is assisted by a parliament and their decisions and that of the general public are subjected to the scrutiny of courts of law. This arrangement is called rule of law and checks and balances and it is enshrined in the national constitution, massively promulgated in a referendum by the Rwandan people. Presidential decrees do not regulate fundamental national matters, but only matters of the functioning of the executive. In other words, it is not the President who decided that we seek national solutions through dialogue and consensus, that there be an annual National Dialogue, a forum where all political parties meet regularly to iron out issues, or that genocide ideology be punished by the law. All these decisions were made by the Rwandan people. The Presidents job is to oversee that the constitution is observed by the statutory institutions of the Republic. I am saying this because I am a lawyer and because I have petitioned courts to challenge government decisions, my colleagues frequently do so too. That a foreign journalist dismisses our institutions as primitive and isolates the President from the people he leads stems from a neo-colonial mindset. Indeed the Rwandan esoteric code has always existed and no one was above it_not even the King. It is recalled in Rwandan history, for instance, citizen-joe who once approached the Court of Cyilima to sue citizen-Rujugira [Cyilima II Rujugira, 1675-1708] _was the reigning king_and the submission was accepted. Alas, that system was disrupted by colonialism and tore the Rwandan nation apart which later led to the Genocide against the Tutsi. Foreign experts are free to devise their dubious prophesies, on their own platforms. As we commemorate twenty-five years of the Genocide, we remain vigilant to these uninvited experts. Small stories thrown about here and there, which are taken in a broader context aim to saw hate among Rwandans, once again. So I am not aiming at changing the experts, because theirs arent honest mistakes; they know exactly what they are doing.What matters, and the reason I am writing this article, is to ensure that no Rwandan citizen, especially the younger generation, is infected with their poison. This piece is to the new children of Rwanda who will be celebrating their twenty-fifth birthday: - You are the reason our elders took up arms to fight and die for this nation; the reason we all wake up every morning to strive for its peace and progress. Unto you I dedicate our blood, our sweat and our tears. May you thrive in a Rwanda free from hate, yesterday, today and forever Note: I have not done these subjects justice because I did not want to confuse the reader, but mainly because my seniors; and I have published extensively on them. The views expressed in this article are of the author. Courtesy: The New Times, Rwanda Emergency rule can be declared when there is the existence or imminence of a state of public emergency. by Mass L. Usuf Sri Lankans after independence have lived lesser number of years freely and more years under emergency rule. Prior to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna insurrection in 1971, there were several instances when emergency rule was proclaimed. With the advent of the year 1971, emergency rule became almost a permanent feature. The longest being from 1983 to 2011 with short breaks in between. The last and the shortest of them all being the emergency proclamation in March 2018 during the Digana Sinhala/Muslim riots. Emergency rule has serious implications on good governance, rule of law and human rights especially, because the police and armed forces are by law given extraordinary powers. These sweeping powers vested in the Police and armed forces have often been abused by them and such abuses have been documented by human rights organisations. Arbitrary arrests, detention, torture, disappearances, extra-judicial killings, so called white vans are some of these misuses. Even the media had not been spared. This is a serious situation because the bureaucratic machinery, the Police and the security forces all work with the emergency rule authoritarian mindset even at times when there is no emergency rule. Typically, what this means is that Sri Lankans have been, and are, literally continuing to live in a sort of Police state. This is the psychological impact of nearly 40 years of emergency rule state actors with an authoritarian mindset and a submissive citizenry! THE Q & A FORMAT This column in the format of question and answer is an effort to create some awareness among the readers about the basics of the subject laws and the proposed CTB. It is expected that this will appear in several parts. The relevant legal provisions are cited to enable check accuracy and for further reading. I believe, it will help to understand how our rights and liberties can be subjected to violation under the above laws namely, PSO and PTA. The CTB is the proposed legislation which also has to be looked into with great care and caution. The PSO which is the first of such overarching pieces of legislation will be dealt with in this part. Question (1) What does PSO, PTA and CTB mean? The above abbreviations represent the Public Security Ordinance No. 25 of 1947 (PSO), Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No. 48 of 1979 (PTA) and the current Bill in Parliament titled Counter-terrorism Bill (CTB) which was published in the Gazette on September 17, 2018 Question (2) For what purpose was the PSO passed? The PSO was passed in 1947. The purpose of the PSO was to provide for the enactment of emergency Regulations or the adoption of other measures in the interests of the public security and the preservation of public order and for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community. (See preamble to the PSO). Question (3) When can a state of emergency be declared and by whom? Emergency rule can be declared when there is the existence or imminence of a state of public emergency. It is declared in the interests of public security, the preservation of public order, and the suppression of mutiny, riot or civil commotion, or for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community. For example: the insurrections of 1971 and 1989, the separatist war, the 1983 black July riots, racial riots in 2018. The proclamation can come into operation throughout Sri Lanka or in such part or parts of Sri Lanka as may be so specified. The Proclamation can be made only by the President by Gazette notification upon which provisions of Part II of the PSO shall come into operation. (See Section 2 to the PSO). Question (4) Can the proclamation of emergency be challenged in a court of law? The answer to this is, No. A Proclamation under the Public Security Ordinance or the law for the time being relating to public security, shall be conclusive for all purposes and shall not be questioned in any Court, and no Court or Tribunal shall inquire into, or pronounce on, or in any manner call in question, such Proclamation, the grounds for the making thereof, or the existence of those grounds or any direction given under this Article. (Article 154 (J)(2) of the Constitution). Further, Section 3 of the PSO also ousts the jurisdiction of the courts. It reads, Where the provisions of Part II of this Ordinance are or have been in operation during any period by virtue of a Proclamation under section 2, the fact of the existence or imminence, during that period, of a state of public emergency shall not be called in question in any court. Question (5) What is meant by Emergency Regulation? Under normal circumstances, it is the parliament that makes laws. However, upon the proclamation of a state of emergency, the President under the Public Security Ordinance has power to make regulations. These regulations which are made while the country is in a state of emergency are called emergency regulations (Section 5 of PSO). Question (6) What are the dangers of Emergency Rule? Under Emergency rules the President enjoys wide powers and authority. Also, many civil liberties of the citizen may be severely curbed. Civil liberties include the freedom of conscience, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to security and liberty, freedom of speech, the right to privacy, the right to equal treatment under the law and due process, the right to a fair trial, and the right to life. In the past, Emergency regulations have been used to requisition property, to control meetings, protests and publications; to supervise, arrest, and detain individuals; to influence investigations and trials and the list goes on. Unbridled powers under emergency rule pave the way for draconian laws to be made. By this, there is the potential for power and authority to be abused and the rule of law compromised as has been seen in the past. According to the PSO, emergency rule is declared in the interest of the public. Ironically, the very same public are terrorised both by the government and non-state actors who perpetrate violence. The security establishment often acts with impunity and conduct themselves in an obnoxious manner towards the public. The wish of the public is always to avoid the police and the armed forces. They do not want to even have eye contact with them. The danger of an emergency regime is that a citizen who enjoys rights under the normal rule may be deprived of such rights under emergency rule. Question (7) How can emergency Rule restrict our civil liberties? As noted above, the President has the power to proclaim a state of emergency which cannot be challenged in a court of law. By virtue of this proclamation the President also has the almost unbridled power of making new regulations. The regulations are so powerful that it has the legal effect of over-riding, amending or suspending the operation of the provisions of any law, except the provisions of the Constitution. (Article 155 (2) of the constitution). However, even under the constitution certain fundamental rights can be restricted in the interest of national security (Article 15). For example, the Constitution prohibits the making of retrospective penal legislation. What this means in simple words is that if a person commits an act today which is not against the law, it will be a violation of his fundamental rights to pass a law in the future making such act an offence and then punish him for his past act. This guarantee of fundamental right prohibiting retrospective penal legislation can be restricted in the interests of national security which includes regulations made relating to public security, see Article 13 (6). By this, the President has the power to make yesterdays non-criminal act a crime today and, then, punish that person today for what he did yesterday, when the act was not considered a crime. There are several other restrictions that can be imposed depriving the citizen of his fundamental rights, in the interest of national security, public order etc. These include the right to equality before the law, right to equal protection before the law, the right not to be discriminated based on race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion, place of birth. All of these rights can be restricted. Many more of a citizens fundamental right entitlement like the freedom of speech and expression including publication; freedom of peaceful assembly; the freedom of association; freedom to form and join a trade union etc. also can be restricted by emergency regulations (Article 15 (7). Question (8) Describe the Emergency Regulations that can be made under Part II of PSO which deprives a citizen of his rights? The President may make any emergency regulation as appear to him to be necessary or expedient. Without prejudice to the generality of the powers conferred, the President can also authorise: (a) The detention of persons; (b) Taking of possession or control of any property or undertaking; (c) The acquisition of any property other than land; (c) To enter and search any premises without a search warrant; (d) To suspend the operation of any law; (e) To arrest and punish offenders as may be provided for by the regulations. As citizens belonging to a constitutional democracy, it is the absolute right of everyone to defend, protect and safeguard our rights, freedom and liberty. To do this one ought to primarily know what these rights are and how can such rights be stolen under the pretext of democratic legislations. Part II of this Q & A format will follow shortly. In that it is proposed to give an understanding of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and its impact on our rights, freedom and liberties. English06/04/2019 POLICE OF SRPSKA EQUIPMENT IS NOT THREAT, BUT DEFENCE BELGRADE, APRIL, 6 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic said that equipping of the Republika Srpska /RS/ Police does not pose a threat to anyone, because Srpska does not have pretension to conquer, nor to harm anyone, but only to defend themselves and their citizens. He said that the RS police wants to equip themselves technically and technologically, as well as to improve the standard of their policemen, it is nothing that others do. Adding that the police, as the Srpska do not have army, is the first line of defence of Republika Srpska. For Television "Pink", Viskovic assessed that those who are upset by arming of the RS Police, are disturb by the fact that 2,500 rifles for members of the Srpska police were purchased in "Zastava" of Kragujevac. "It's not a threat, we do not arm ourselves at all. With us, it is big rumour when on seven to eight thousand members of the Srpska police we take about 2,000 rifles in Zastava Kragujevac. I think that is exactly the problem. If we took those rifles in the USA, that would not be a problem, probably, but they would also sell us 10,000 rifles, and when you take in Serbia, that's the problem", Viskovic said. He said that there are a lot of migrants in Srpska and reminded that a terrorist attack had already taken place at the police station. "Accordingly, we must empower our capacities to protect ourselves, as first, and then citizens and Srpska itself", Viskovic emphasized. The Prime Minister of Republika Srpska said that Srpska has decided to pressing charges against the Federation of BiH and the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH in the next few days, in order to protect the budget of Srpska and the citizens, due to the damage suffered by the non-distribution of VAT funds. Viskovic said that in the first three months of this year, Srpska suffered damage of 11 million euros, and that he had already discussed about this with the Minister of Finance of the Republika Srpska, because of that money Srpska should give salaries to the public sector, pensions, social benefits ... "There are a lot of problems, such as Elektropenos, which has been in blockade for almost 15 months, and a complete administration in the state of technical mandate with expired mandates. They have about 150 million KM in the accounts of banks now, and everything is blocked and nothing can be done", said Viskovic. According to him, when from the Republika Srpska ask the question,whether such a BiH is needed, Srpska, or Prime Minister or /the Chairman of the BiH Presidency/ Milorad Dodik or /the President of Srpska/ Zeljka Cvijanovic are immediately blamed for secession, the demolition of the Dayton BiH. "It seems that the Republika Srpska is most struggling to preserve the Dayton BiH, and all those who swear in that same BiH are doing everything to make BiH disappear. We, from Republika Srpska, want them to succeed on that road, and I think that they will certainly solve some of our troubles and problems", Viskovic said. /end/bo Cairo Contemporary Music Days will open 13 April with the screening of two films and a talk by an international musician at the Goethe Institut. The festival will run 13 to 16 April and will open with Pogo, a film by Rikke Benborg. Benborgs work blends set design and scenography in experimental film. Through video, film and animation she creates minimal and dreamlike settings inhabited by alienated or uncomfortable female characters. If I Die Before I Sleep, another film by Benborg, is one of two films made celebrating the 100-year anniversary of women's voting rights in Denmark. A talk with Ragnhild May and Jacqueline George will explore the connection between time, perception and human consciousness and themes in their multimedia project made between Cairo and Copenhagen. The opening will also feature the world premiere of May and Georges performance titled A Calculus of the Nervous System, which blends readable texts and electronic music with traditional and new/innovative musical instruments. Based in Copenhagen, May is interested in the relationship between sound, materiality and human bodies. She designed several instruments, playing with the idea of cyborgs, as well as the cultural history of music, sound and instruments. George is a sound artist based in Cairo, interested in the potential of Cairo's urban sounds and noises. Her work is based on mind maps that revolve around concepts like self image, body and time. Programme: 5pm: film screening of Pogo by Rikke Benborg 5.30pm: Talk with Ragnhild May and Jacqueline George 6pm: Film screening of If I Die before I Sleep by Rikke Benborg 7pm: Performance of A Calculus of the Nervous System by Ragnhild May and Jacqueline George Goethe Institut, 5 El-Bustan Street, Downtown Cairo 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: The sudden offensive against Tripoli by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar has taken pro-government forces and the international community by surprise. But is he really capable of seizing the Libyan capital? Why The Lightening Assault? Libyan National Army launched the assault on Thursday as UN chief Antonio Guterres visited Tripoli ahead of a planned conference later this month to hammer out a roadmap for delayed parliamentary and presidential elections. Haftar believes that "a national conference is a forum in which all the actors must... show they are willing to accept his absolute supremacy," said Jalel Harchaoui, research fellow at The Hague-based Clingendael Institute. The offensive came weeks after Haftar and key rival Fayez al-Sarraj, who heads the Tripoli-based UN-backed Government of National Accord, met in Abu Dhabi in February to discuss the creation of a new government in which he would be represented. "Because the new government negotiated at Abu Dhabi was not revealed, Haftar felt that Tripoli players had not submitted enough to him ahead of the national conference," added Harchaoui. "So he chose military force to change the facts on the ground." Analysts also believe Haftar wants to affirm his military clout after launching successful operations in the east and the south of the country - spurred by the fact that the international community failed to react to those past offensives. He has been encouraged by "the silence of the international community during the previous operations, especially in the south" where he struck tribal alliances, said Tarek Megerisi, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Timing the assault to coincide with Guterres's visit was an act of defiance. "Haftar made major mistakes. He underestimated the reaction of the foreign powers, being even so daring as to choose the day (Guterres) arrived in Tripoli to order the invasion," said Libyan analyst Kaouthar Hassan. Is He Capable Of Seizing Tripoli? Analysts believe that Haftar over-estimates the strength of his LNA. They say the field marshal, who backs an administration rival to the GNA based in eastern Libya, was counting on a quick collapse of Tripoli militias. But pro-GNA reinforcements from around Tripoli rushed to assist in driving back his forces. Haftar's first setback took place when he seized control of a key checkpoint known as "Bridge 27" less than 30km west of Tripoli. Pro-government forces from the coastal town of Zawiya battled them, retook the base and captured more than 100 of Haftar's men. "Haftar is not capable of waging the battle for Tripoli," said Libyan analyst Farhat Asseid. "He has already faced a moral setback when he hastily decided to attack the checkpoint near Tripoli," he said. Megerisi agreed. "Haftar is not as strong as he appears and cannot in the end deliver stability to Libya," he said. Powerful armed groups from Libya's western city of Misrata have also said they were ready to halt Haftar's advance. "The Misrata militias are more important (in numbers) than Haftar's forces," said Ali Bensaad, an expert on Libya and professor at the French Institute of Geopolitics. Is The LNA A Real Army? The LNA is Soviet-trained and made up of former officers from the Libyan army, militiamen, fighters from allied tribes and Salafists. "Despite the effective branding, Haftar is not actually in control of an army in the traditional sense of the term," said Megerisi. "The LNA is a shaky alliance between various militias of tribal, religious and local interests around a core of more traditional forces who themselves are highly compromised by Salafist components." "From an institutional and historical point of view... it is impossible for now to affirm that Haftar was right to present his coalition as a real army with a relatively clear discipline and a clear chain of command," said Harchaoui. For Libyan university professor Ahmad al-Messalati, Haftar "is capable of taking Tripoli but only on one condition", if he manages to form "strong and efficient alliances with certain armed groups" in Tripoli to ensure his forces can enter the capital without bloodshed. * This story was edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: We only know one planet, Earth, but there are countless stars outside our solar system Extraterrestrials, And that Telescope James The web It will help to explore with its powerful tools. This is one of the key tasks of this Former Texas Representative and Democratic presidential candidate Beto ORourke stopped by Grinnell on April 5, 2019 for a campaign rally at Hotel Grinnell. The S&Bs co-Editor-in-Chief Maxwell Fenton 19 and Community Editor Seth Taylor 21 sat down for a brief interview with ORourke before the rally. Seth Taylor: The first question I have is: what issues, if any, would you sacrifice your political career for? Beto ORourke: All of them! I have never been a big fan of polls or thinking about the next election. I always want to be sure what I do is something Ill be proud of for the rest of my life, and that my kids will look back on, and may or may not agree with the decision I made, but I hope theyll know I did it for the right reasons for them and for the generation that follows instead of the election that comes. So, you know, I think about some of the issues we face. Climate , not politically expedient, certainly in some parts of the country to talk about transitioning from oil and gas to renewable energy like solar and wind. On the issue of gun violence that claims the lives of more than 30,000 Americans every year, youre running up against the gun lobby, and the NRA and their political action committees just to say you believe in universal background checks, much worse if you should say, as I have, to end the sale of weapons of war assault weapons, military style weapons into our communities. I think youve got to have the courage of your convictions, and youve got to stand for something, or else youre not going to be able to accomplish anything. Weve got to do this for the right reasons. And then, if the things that I say and those issues that I believe are most important and those policies that I profess if folks dont like them, theyll ultimately decide in this election and Im comfortable with that. Maxwell Fenton: According to FiveThirtyEight, you have voted as a congressman with Trump and his policy proposals 30% of the time. By the resurgent left of the party, youve been considered often insufficiently progressive. Im just wondering then, why stick with the middle in politics if these more progressive, more left policies are more popular? Could you be moved to embrace progressivism as the Democratic Partys left-wing describes it if these policies are indeed popular? I guess it is in the eye of the beholder. You decide where I am on the political spectrum. If I have advocated going back to 2009 for the end of the War on Drugs, the end of the prohibition of marijuana, if Im calling for the expungement of arrested for possession of a substance thats legal in more than half the country right now but has produced the largest prison population per capita on the planet, for universal, guaranteed high-quality healthcare, not just freeing Dreamers from any fear of deportation but making them US citizens right away. On climate, I agree with the goals of the Green New Deal. We have to transition this economy, our country, the world off fossil fuels, or the people of this country the planet are just not going to make it. ... But if we say that Democrats are the ones are going to do this, and only Democrats support us in these endeavors, were never going to get there. ... We must find a way to bring Republicans, Independents, people who dont see from the same point of view or come to the same conclusions on the issues that you care about [together]. So, all six of those years I was in Congress I was in the minority. I worked with Republicans every step of the way to expand mental health care access for veterans, to protect public lands, to invest in our ports of entry, our borders, our security, and also quality of life in communities of immigrants like the one I represent. Im grateful for the chance Ive had to serve, the way in which Ive served. Im always open to learning and listening and doing better, but Im going to listen to everyone; Democrats for sure, but Republicans and Independents as well. MF: Speaking of bringing people together, you have on your site a vision for America that Beto for America has. But much of it is rhetoric or snippets from speeches, and theres not a lot in terms of specific policy. Can you give us a brief timetable of when youll have specific policies for things like climate, healthcare and common-sense gun reform, and when you will be releasing on the campaign trail your specific policies to that effect? So climate: reinstitute the Clean Power Plan, elevate the vehicle emissions standards we have in this country, invest in wind and solar. [Iowa] produces more wind energy as a share of total energy production than any other state. My state produces more wind energy in absolute terms than any other state. The two fastest growing jobs in America are wind and solar jobs right now. Re-establish American leadership by signing back on to the Paris Climate Agreement, leading the world to make sure that China, which has three to four times the number of coal fired plants, also [does] their part. Allow farmers in Iowa to contribute even more. And Im not just talking about ethanol, as important as that is. Im talking about encouraging them through the farm bill to plant cover crops, to do more precision tilling and farming that disturbs less of the soil in which theyre planting and also captures more of the carbon out of the air. We need to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. But as soon thereafter as humanly possible. You asked about healthcare. First, expand Medicaid in those states that have not, [like] Texas. Publicize it in those states that have privatized like yours here in Iowa. Allow Medicare to use its bargaining power, its leverage and its purchasing power to bring down the price of prescription medications. Allow Americans to buy from Canada, Mexico or whatever other country is producing cheaper prescription drugs than our own country. Reduce the size of premiums and deductibles, allow Americans to choose to enroll in Medicare if they have no insurance today, or transition to Medicare if they dont like their private employer-provided insurance. Allow those who do have employer-provided insurance to keep that if those plans work for them and their families. Thats a very specific prescription that gets us to better than where we are immediately and a universal, guaranteed high-quality healthcare in the nearer term. When it comes to gun violence, a specific proposal: universal background checks, full stop. They saved lives in the states that have adopted them a 50% reduction across the board. Weapons designed for war, to kill people as effectively and efficiently as possible the AR-15 is a variant of a military-style weapon theres no reason we should be selling it into our community. Stop the sale of military-style assault weapons into American communities. ST: To go back to the first question Max asked, you spoke to the need for Democrats to unify both Democrats and Republicans. But you didnt really talk about how you are going to speak to Republicans, specifically those voters who are alienated by demographic and economic shifts in the country but supported Trump in 2016. So, what would you say to a Trump supporter here tonight? First thing is youve gotta show up. Its no accident that the first day of our campaign, the first stop of that campaign, was in Keokuk, Iowa, one of those communities which voted for President Obama in 2008 and voted for President Trump in 2016. No accident that there were 254 counties in Texas and running for Senate in that state, I showed up to 254 counties in Texas, and never compromising the courage of my convictions talking about gun safety, or reproductive rights, or healthcare, or immigration, the same way in Houston I would in a rural community. I hope that produces a certain amount respect for me and for the positions that I hold, for the courage of my convictions, that Im being straight with people. But I also am able to demonstrate respect by listening to and learning from those I wish to serve, and sometimes we find common cause. Ill give you an example: listening to a Republican school teacher a public school teacher who is just as afraid as any Democratic school teacher that [Secretary of Education] Betsy DeVos will take the resources out of her classroom, privatize them as a voucher and send them to a private school. She wants to make sure theres someone advocating for her. On issues of public education, on issues of healthcare, on issues of immigration, I find fairly wide bipartisan agreement on doing the right thing. Universal background checks: gun owners, non-gun owners, Republicans, Democrats, seem to have formed a consensus that this is the right thing to do. What seems to be missing is the political will, or the ability to include everyone in the conversation. I write no one off for voting for President Trump. I reward nobody for voting for Secretary Clinton. All of us are Americans, and I really want us to act that way, treat each other accordingly, campaign in that fashion, and then bring the country together because you will not be able to meet climate change lets look at the biggest challenge before us, the most existential in its threat, you wont be able to meet that with half the country. Its going to take all of us, and, you know, easier said than done. The action that follows the words is literally showing up in these communities and listening to people. So thats what I would say, but Id also take the time to listen to that Republican voter you just described to make sure whats on her mind. Look for a more in-depth story about the ORourke rally and community reactions in the next issue of The S&B on April 12! Hi, everyone! I'm Frances. I'm the author of Not Invisible, a lifestyle and parenting writer, and book editor. I also dabble in PR for family- and women-friendly brands. When I find time away from my busy life as all mentioned and as a wife and mom, I blog here. Welcome to my blog! It's a 15-year-old honest and safe space for working moms, mothers of boys, and feminists (I just described all of myself). Thanks for dropping by! UAE-based Arada, the developer of the mega mixed-use Aljada project in Sharjah, has announced plans to open of its first overseas office in the Saudi capital, Riyadh by the end of June. The announcement was made by the company at the ongoing Cityscape Jeddah, Saudi Arabias largest real estate exhibition, which marks Aradas entry into the country. Based in the centre of Riyadh, the Arada office will incorporate a sales suite showcasing the companys two Sharjah-based lifestyle communities, Aljada and Nasma Residences, allowing potential buyers to walk through the developments using next-generation virtual reality technology. Founded in 2016 by two of the Gulfs most respected businessmen, Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal (Vice Chairman) and Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Arada has quickly established itself as one of the UAEs most exciting and progressive developers, stated the developer. The company has sold over 2,600 units in Sharjah, a rapidly-growing property market that has benefited from recent moves to allow all nationalities to purchase homes in the emirate, as well as a stable and well-regulated real estate environment. Investor interest from Saudi Arabia has already proved strong, with over 250 units purchased by buyers from the Kingdom over a two-year period. Prince Khaled said: "It is a source of considerable pride that Aradas first overseas office will be in the Saudi Arabia, a country that has exceptionally close ties to our home market in the UAE. As the capital of the Arab worlds largest economy, Riyadh is the perfect location for us to showcase our projects to a wide range of investors." Aradas decision to launch a permanent presence in Riyadh is part of a 2019 expansion strategy, which will also see the opening of an office in Abu Dhabi the first half of this year, as well as extending its marketing reach to the rest of the Gulf and South Asia, he noted. Arada has also earmarked Saudi Arabia as a potential destination in which to develop the smart and sustainable communities that it is already building in the UAE in the medium term, he added. Arada is currently taking part in Cityscape Jeddah, which concludes today (April 7) at the Jeddah Centre for Forums and Events. At the expo, Arada is promoting its new project, Nest, a student housing complex that enables individual real estate investors to purchase directly in this lucrative asset class for the first time in the Gulf. Nest is located within Aljada, a master-planned destination with a sales value of SR24.5 billion that is set to transform the future of Sharjah. By offering guaranteed return on investment of 10 per cent annually for a five-year period, Nest has already witnessed significant success since its launch in March, selling 420 units.-TradeArabia News Service The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), the leading national entity for international development aid, financed 78 healthcare projects in 16 countries with a total value of Dh4.1 billion ($1.12 billion) since its inception in 1971 until December 2018. The funds interest in healthcare projects reflects its keenness to support international efforts aimed at achieving the UNs Sustainable Development Goals, directly contributing to Goal Three Good Health and Wellbeing, said an ADFD report, issued to mark World Health Day that annually falls on April 7. The fund views the health sector as one of its priorities given its significant impact on peoples lives. The sector is also the most efficient in elevating living standards and empowering citizens to actively participate in the development process. Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, director general of ADFD, said: Most developing countries lack the resources to meet their development needs, especially in the health sector due to rapidly rising costs, leaving large swathes of the population without access to essential services. This explains ADFDs keenness in developing the health sector through launching comprehensive projects that enhance the social stability of the population and upgrade the level of healthcare available, especially in high-density regions. He added: The nature of the projects financed by the Fund in the health sector in developing countries ranges from the construction of hospitals, integrated and specialised health centres, as well as social development and early childhood centres to the provision of state-of-the-art equipment and facility upgrades. Since 1971, ADFD has launched comprehensive projects that enhance the social stability of the population and upgrade the level of healthcare available, especially in high-density regions. ADFD also has stepped-up its development efforts in supporting health programmes for women and children. To date, ADFD has backed 18 health programme in collaboration with local institutions and international organizations, successfully providing vital supplies of vaccines and drugs to eradicate infectious diseases. As part of its efforts to support sustainable development in key socio-economic sectors, ADFD has funded multiple vital healthcare projects. Notable projects include: * Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Mauritania: To support Mauritanias healthcare sector, ADFD funded Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Nouakchott Valley in 1995. Providing quality medical care in line with international standards, the 185-bed hospital that spans an area of 3,000 sq m has significantly improved the provision of health services in the country. * Queen Rania Hospital for children in Jordan: ADFD funded the Queen Rania Children's Hospital, which provides state-of-the-art medical and therapeutic services. As the first medical facility dedicated to children in the country, the hospital receives more than 200,000 patients per annum. * Cardiac centre in Bahrain: ADFD contributed AED550 million to the construction of the Mohammed bin Khalifa Specialist Cardiac Centre. It helps in diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases in the country and the wider region, featuring cutting-edge medical equipment and 148 beds, outpatient clinics, radiology, imaging, pharmacy, as well as physiotherapy and emergency departments. Spanning 44,000 sq m, the centre has significantly stepped-up up the capabilities of Bahrain's health sector. * Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Egypt: The 150-bed Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Egypt is one of the most important funded-projects in the health sector. ADFDs financing provided the latest medical equipment and several medical units including dialysis, intensive care, blood bank, surgeries and other specialised clinics. * Healthcare projects in Turkmenistan: The Fund has developed a series of integrated health projects that aim to improve the quality of healthcare services in Turkmenistan. Notable projects include the establishment of a kidney disease centre, rehabilitation of existing clinics, as well as the construction of specialty hospitals offering 480 beds to treat complicated diseases reduce disabilities and mortality rates among the population. * Al Maarouf Hospital in Comoros: The project aims to provide specialised healthcare services to improve and elevate living standards in the Comoros. The project will include the rehabilitation of buildings at the Al-Maarouf Hospital, as well as the supply and installation of medical equipment for the operations, recovery and birth departments. * Maternity and Childrens Hospital in Yemen: Encompassing maintenance, construction and electrical works, this project aims to revamp the Maternity and Childrens Hospital in Hadhramaut through boosting its capacity with 150 additional beds, and the provision of necessary medical supplies and equipment. - TradeArabia News Service Saudi Arabia highlighted its progress in various sectors, especially mining, manufacturing, energy, water resources and tourism, and encouraged investment in the kingdom during a recent seminar held in the UK. Representatives from the Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority (Sagia) held the seminar for foreign entrepreneurs interested in investing in Saudi Arabia, at the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) in London, said a Arab News report. The seminar, Commercial business practices in Saudi Arabia, was hosted by Yaarob Al Dughaither, director of the international office at Sagia. Speaking to prospective investors, Al-Dughaither said that Saudi Arabia has seen remarkable progress in various sectors, especially mining, manufacturing, energy, water resources and tourism. Reem Al Sharekh, advisory account manager at Sagia, gave a talk on license facilitating and flexible regulatory conditions in the kingdom for foreign companies; and Abdulsalam Al Idrissi, deputy secretary general of the ABCC, stressed the role of the chamber in assisting its members in seeking new opportunities, and in promoting bilateral commercial relations between Arab countries and the UK. Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the Bahrain-based aluminium smelter, today (April 7) received a high-level delegation from General Electric (GE). Albas chief executive officer Tim Murray, deputy chief executive officer Ali Al Baqali, chief power officer Amin Sultan, director of power and utilities Steve Davison along with other Alba officials welcomed GE delegation headed by chief executive officer GE Gas Power Scott L Strazik and comprising the president and chief executive officer power services - MEA Joseph Anis; chief financial officer - Power Middle East and South Asia Yoshito Murakami along with other GE officials. Murray said: Our Line 6 Expansion Project has set the benchmark for sustainability in our industry by using cutting-edge technology at both Potline 6 and Power Station 5 (PS 5). We are pleased to partner with GE and adopt its HA gas turbine technology at PS 5 (PS 5),which will make it one of the most efficient and combined cycle power plants in the world, he added. We thank GE for sharing our vision of operational excellence and safety and we rely on them to embrace extreme ownership to meet the project milestones on time, he concluded. Albas PS 5 is a 1,792 megawatts (MW) Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Power Plant with an efficiency of 54 per cent. GE and Gama Consortium is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor wherein GE will provide three 9HA Gas Turbines, three Steam Turbines and three Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSGs) for PS 5, it stated. TradeArabia News Service Diversity in the workplace plays an integral role in driving business sustainability and improving its financial performance, said professional services firm PwC in a new report, noting that governments and businesses have begun to take action. The Women in Work Index - Insights from Middle East and North Africa report provides policymakers with insights on the regional workforce and makes the case for gender diversity. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says the Mena region collectively is losing an estimated $575 billion a year due to the legal and social barriers that exist for womens access to jobs and careers. Increasing gender diversity would expand and enrich the talent pool and is a vital requirement particularly for GCC countries who are looking to move beyond oil and diversify their economies. Moderating the Rise of Arab Women panel at the World Economic Forum on Mena, Hani Ashkar, PwC Middle East senior partner said: Diversity is integral to business sustainability and overall success. Boosting the number of women in work is not just a moral imperative but also has a measurable impact on the bottom line. This is not going to be easy and there is no doubt that this will require a real commitment from the public and private sectors alike. We will need to work out what works for our region and how to implement it effectively, and at scale. But this pales in comparison to when we look at the cost of doing nothing and continuing as we have. Workforce participation Women participation in the workforce has increased dramatically in the UAE from 40.6 per cent in 2018 to 29.2 per cent in 1990. Today, women make up 66 per cent of public-sector workers, with 30 per cent in leadership roles. This substantial progress is reflected in the Women in Work Index - Insights from the Mena survey. When asked if they agree with the statement: My employer treats females equally when it comes to promoting from within, some 30 per cent of women and 37 per cent of men in the UAE strongly agreed. In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, dramatic change has occurred just in the past year. Last year was a landmark year for women in the Kingdom with women getting behind the wheel in June 2018, the Saudi military taking applications from women and granting women the right to open their own businesses without a guardians permission. Egypt, meanwhile, has a long history of legislative advances for womens rights. But cultural attitudes and gender stereotypes take longer to change. Many men are still resistant to the idea of women working outside the home, which partly explains why female labour-force participation has changed little since 1990, when it was 21.3 per cent compared with 22.3 per cent in 2018. Pay and progression Reducing the gender pay gap is one imperative, but the findings of PwCs survey reveal that Middle Eastern respondents place an equally strong emphasis on equality in progression in the workplace and acquiring leadership roles. The survey also shows that only 44 per cent of women who return to work after a long career break experience support from their employer compared to 55 per cent for men. Governments can play a bigger role The three countries covered in PwCs survey have varying histories of national programmes to boost the number of working women. There is high awareness and support for such initiatives, showing that timely government intervention is often welcomed. Interestingly, 66 per cent of respondents believe that governments should intervene in private-sector companies and set targets for gender diversity. Existing national policies included a draft law in the UAE last year to ensure men and women receive equal pay. The UAE also introduced three months paid maternity leave for government employees last year, increasing pressure on the private sector to keep up. The Saudi government's goal to increase female participation in the workforce to 30 per cent as part of its vision 2030 is underway. Bob Moritz, PwCs global chairman, said: "Advancing gender equality in the workforce brings opportunity for all and makes for a more prosperous and inclusive society. It's also a critical business issue organisations need to address to ensure they have access to the skills they need for the future. Leaders have a key role to play by creating the right tone throughout the organisation, building a culture of equality and erasing gender stereotypes, as well as helping solve some of the challenges society faces and capture the opportunities within. Call to action The main requirements for success are: 1. Raising awareness to alter mindsets, dismiss gender stereotypes and bias in organisations and encourage cultural change, with a change in tone that starts at the top. 2. Apply a data driven approach. Organisations need to track promotions to monitor progress and workforce surveys that track the career paths of high-potential individuals. 3. Accountability is needed. Organisations should appoint someone within the leadership team to be accountable for improving diversity and inclusion. 4. Flexible working is a growing trend around the world, and offers benefits for both male and female employees. Companies should also consider introducing paternity leave, which could boost their ability to retain talent - male and female. TradeArabia News Service India-based budget carrier SpiceJet has launched a daily non-stop flight between Hyderabad and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, making it the carrier's ninth international destination and third destination in the Middle East, said a report. Honourable Consul General of India, Noor Rahman Sheikh, was present at the Jeddah airport to welcome the inaugural SpiceJet flight, said a report in Saudi Gazette. He conveyed his best wishes to the SpiceJet team on commencing this flight. He also expressed confidence that with more destinations being opened from Jeddah to various airports in India, it would help a large number of Indians and Saudis to travel between India and Saudi Arabia, the report said. SpiceJets flight SG 33 departs from Hyderabads Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at 06:00 am (all local times) and arrives in Jeddah at 09:50 am on the same day. The return Flight SG34 departs at 11:05 am and reaches Hyderabad at 07:35 pm. Passengers flying to Hyderabad are able to access SpiceJet's 50 domestic connections, thereby making it convenient for both business and leisure travellers. The news service enables Spice Jet to provide over 2,500 seats per week on the sector. Effective April 20, SpiceJet will introduce its second frequency to Jeddah, a daily direct flight to Kozhikode. SpiceJets flight SG792 will depart from Kozhikode at 05:35 am (all local times) and arrive in Jeddah at 08:35 am on the same day. The return flight SG 793 will depart at 09:45 am and reach Kozhikode at 06:05 am. Passengers flying from Jeddah can also easily travel to a host of other cities on SpiceJets domestic network via multiple onward connections from Kozhikode, the report said. Dhaka, Apr 7 (UNI) At least 614 extremists from Pabna (Northern District Bangladesh) are prepared to surrender to the government , Home minister Asaduzzaman khan kamal has said. Speaking at an event in Mirpurs Police Staff College on Sunday, the home minister said the extremists will turn themselves in to authorities at a ceremony in Pabna on Mar 9. At one point, about 30 or 40 years ago, extremists wielded a lot of power in Bangladesh.They used to occupy separate zones from which they would create unrest. Their numbers have gradually decreased and theyre becoming weaker by the day. The ones that remain active have confessed their crimes and agreed to surrender to the home ministry. They felt embarrassed about their previous activities and pledged to return to a normal life. We have given them an opportunity and they will surrender in Pabna on Tuesday. Afghanistan facing profound humanitarian crisis, UN warns 15 Dec 2021 | 1:59 AM Geneva, Dec. 14 (UNI/Xinhua) The people of Afghanistan are facing a profound humanitarian crisis that threatens the most basic of human rights, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN) warned on Tuesday. see more.. Moscow urges US, Europe to refrain from interfering in elections in Libya : Lavrov 15 Dec 2021 | 1:55 AM Moscow, Dec 14 (UNI/Sputnik) Moscow strongly recommends the United States and Europe not to interfere in the elections in Libya, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. see more.. India, Brazil agree to work closely on key issues on UNSC agenda 15 Dec 2021 | 12:47 AM Brasilia/New Delhi, Dec 14 (UNI) India and Brazil agreed to work closely together on key issues on the UNSC agenda, in particular on their shared commitment to reformed multilateralism. see more.. Nike buys virtual sneaker maker RTFKT 14 Dec 2021 | 11:10 PM Washington, Dec 14 (UNI/Sputnik) The US sportswear giant Nike has acquired virtual sneaker and collectibles company RTFKT in the hope of increasing its presence in the expanding metaverse, the company said in a press release. see more.. A new strategy being rolled out in China suggests that farmers can do much more than harvest crops. The idea is that well-managed, diverse agricultural lands can provide flood control, water purification, and climate stabilization, among other valuable services. A recent case study by researchers at Stanford, McGill University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences provides a promising demonstration of this approach farmers who took environmental concerns into account doubled their incomes and reduced reliance on a single harvest, while also gaining environmental benefits from the land. The group said the approach could help farmers worldwide protect both the environment and their livelihoods. Gretchen Daily, co-founder and faculty director of the Stanford Natural Capital Project, said: Twentieth-century monoculture farms greatly increased agricultural production, but at a huge price. Conventional thinking says that monoculture farming is the only way to feed the world, but today there is a lot of rethinking, as billions of people are exposed to heightened flood risk, water pollution, climate risk, and other serious vulnerabilities. Daily was senior author on a paper describing the results, published the week of April 1 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. An island test case Working with government authorities, the researchers looked at how their proposed approach, called the Ecological Development Strategy, could work in Hainan Island, a rural, tropical region where expanding rubber plantations have driven extensive loss of natural forest and its vital benefits, such as soil retention and flood mitigation. Although the economy grew due to the plantations, intensive monocropping practices increased sediment runoff and channeled agricultural chemicals into surface waters. Forest recreation and tourism disappeared. Flooding was exacerbated by the areas loss of trees. The researchers looked at land use and land cover changes in Hainan Island over a 19-year period of steady rubber plantation growth. Pairing that information with survey data from households, the team used the Natural Capital Projects InVEST modeling software to understand how changes in land use management could have garnered different results in a natural forest or economic prosperity. Alongside the historical land data of almost two decades, the models helped researchers understand what could have happened if the land had never been developed for rubber plantations or if the plantations had been managed differently. In particular, the researchers looked at one key land management change a technique called intercropping that involves cultivating other valuable plants in the understory of a main crop. They found that rubber farmers who did this maintained the same production levels as monoculture plantations while significantly increasing soil retention, flood mitigation, and nutrient retention. Perhaps most strikingly, farmers who took this approach doubled their incomes due to revenue from the additional crops. By diversifying their land, farmers also insured themselves against the risk of a single crops harvest failing or losing market value key vulnerabilities of the monoculture system. Broader applications Central to the Chinese Ecological Development Strategy is a focus on targeted investments in nature. Identifying places like Hainan, where policy and management decisions can support both the economy and environment, is crucial to achieving the widespread impacts that China is looking for. According to the researchers, this study illustrates how regions can leverage natural resources to support economic growth without sacrificing ecosystem health or human well-being. The challenges that Hainan rubber plantation farmers face in terms of relying on single crops are magnified at a global scale, where monocultures, such as soy, beef, and palm oil, drive the vast majority of the global food market. Global climate insecurity, water contamination, and species mass extinction are the result. The studys authors emphasize that the science and practices exist to help drive a shift away from monoculture systems worldwide, and economic incentives await those who do. Daily said: There doesnt necessarily need to be a trade-off. You can have high-value, high-yielding production that secures farmers livelihoods and supports the vital functioning of the natural ecosystem. Provided by: SARAH CAFASSO/Stanford University [Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.] Like this article? Subscribe to our weekly email for more! India blows up satellite in space positioned 185 miles above the Earth in the successful test of an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon. Security experts see the test as a warning to China regarding their military ambitions on the Indian subcontinent. India blows up satellite in weapons test Indias recent testing of its ASAT capability likely represents a feeling by other countries, specifically India in this case, that the weaponization of space is forthcoming, and India doesnt want to be left out of the have category if arms-control agreements are eventually reached, Joan Johnson-Freese, professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, said to Space. The test puts India in an elite league of nations like the U.S., Russia, and China as the only countries to have developed and possess anti-satellite weapons. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the achievement as a significant step for his nation. India reportedly used a kinetic-kill ASAT for the test that produces a cloud of debris in space that will last for some time before disintegrating in Earths atmosphere. The technology is almost similar to the anti-ballistic missile weapons America fired in an intercontinental missile defense test conducted on March 25. China successfully tested its ASAT capabilities in 2007. Indias ASAT test has riled up Beijing and made it realize that the country cannot be easily bullied like others in the neighborhood. China called for tranquility in space after Indias ASAT test. Essentially, India is saying that we are a strong and capable military power its not specific to any one country, but it is a message to all of Indias adversaries If somebody wants to do something to our satellites, we have the capability to do this to your satellites, Ajey Lele, a senior fellow at the Ministry of Defence-funded Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, there are concerns about the space debris created through the test. Some say that the debris might be dangerous to other satellites and even the International Space Station. However, India has dismissed the claims and stated that all debris will burn up in Earths atmosphere within 45 days. The good thing is that it is low enough and over time this will all dissipate. You go back in time, 2007, (the) direct ascent anti-satellite test by the Chinese, a lot of the debris is still in the orbit, Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator, said in a statement (Indian Express). EMISAT Days after its anti-missile test, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched a significant military asset into space the Electro-Magnetic Intelligence Satellite (EMISAT). The satellite will enable Indias military to look for signals from enemy radar, even if it is installed aboard ships. What this allows us to do now is essentially know what kind of radar is at work on the other side, based on the spectrum, and we will be able to read the distance between the radar and our asset, too, a scientist involved in the project said to The Times of India. EMISAT was in development for over five years. It has been positioned at an orbit of 434 miles above Earth. The low orbit will allow EMISAT to better detect low power radar signals. Together with ASAT, EMISAT is yet another testimony to the fact that India is well on its way to becoming a global military power. Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our weekly email By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 27, 2019 | 06:28 PM | PADUCAH Students and alumni from Murray State University and West Kentucky Community and Technical College, as well as members of the Paducah Young Professionals organization, are invited to attend to discuss employment opportunities with local employers. A professional photographer will be on hand to provide head shots for each guest. Professional attire is required. The event is free of charge to interested employers. "This career fair will be a great opportunity for our students and community members to meet the local and regional employers, learn about their industries and showcase their skills and abilities to their future employers," said Murray State University Paducah Regional Campus Director Jennifer Frazier. "Career Services is excited to partner with our colleagues at our Paducah Regional Campus," said Murray State University Career Services Director Matt Purdy. "We're looking forward to connecting students with our employer partners in the Paducah area." For more information about employer registration, visit bit.ly/paducah_career_fair. The Murray State Paducah campus is located at 4430 Sunset Avenue in Paducah. For more information about the Career Fair, contact Frazier at jfrazier1@murraystate.edu or 270-442-4753. The Murray State University Paducah Regional Campus will hold its inaugural Career Fair on Tuesday, April 9 from 35 p.m. on campus. The event will provide students a chance to connect with area businesses and explore internship and career opportunities. By WestKyStar & American Red Cross Staff Apr. 07, 2019 | 02:16 PM | WESTERN KY Nearly half of the public knows someone who has been helped by a blood transfusion. For many volunteer blood donors, like Gail Wright, that personal connection serves as inspiration to give. Wrights brother was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in 1982 and needed several blood transfusions during his four-month recovery. She lived over 120 miles away at the time. Unable to be near him, she decided she could help by donating blood. Wright has continued to donate and recently completed her 11th gallon of donated blood 88 lifesaving blood donations. Volunteer donors are the only source of blood products for those in need of transfusions, and the Red Cross salutes the volunteer blood and platelet donors who help fulfill its lifesaving mission. While donors of all blood types are needed, the Red Cross currently has a severe shortage of type O blood donations and urges type O donors to give now. Make an appointment to help save lives now by downloading the free Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). HBO and Red Cross invite Game of Thrones fans to Bleed #ForTheThrone. To celebrate the final season of Game of Thrones, HBO and the American Red Cross have partnered to encourage fans and donors to show their bravery and valor by bleeding #ForTheThrone. Many answered the call to give earlier this year, and much like the show, embarking on its final season, the fight for the living isnt over. Those who come to donate by April 30 will be automatically entered for a chance to win a full-size Iron Throne from HBOs Game of Thrones. Terms and conditions apply and are available at RedCrossBlood.org/HBOGameofThrones.* Additionally, all presenting donors April 11-30, will receive a commemorative Bleed For The Throne poster, while supplies** last, and automatically be entered in the above-mentioned sweepstakes. Upcoming blood donation opportunities: Ballard County Cooperative Extension Office, 110 Broadway La Center, KY 42056 4/18/2019: 12:30 - 5:30 p.m. Benton Elementary School, 208 West 11th St. Benton, KY 42025 4/25/2019: 1- 6 p.m. Calvary Baptist Church, 121 Kentucky Ave. Princeton, KY 42445 4/4/2019: noon - 6 p.m. Calvert City Church of Christ, 4625 US Highway 62 Calvert City, KY 42029 4/25/2019: 12:30 - 5:30 p.m. Camden Church of Christ, 1285 U.S. 70 Bypass Camden, TN 38320 4/19/2019: noon - 6 p.m. Chapel Hill UMC, 316 North Horton Parkway Chapel Hill, TN 37034 4/17/2019: 1 - 7 p.m. Church Street Church of Christ, 305 West Church St. Lewisburg, TN 37091 4/18/2019: 1 - 5 p.m. First Baptist Church, 307 Massac Creek Road Metropolis, IL 62960 4/8/2019: 11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Lone Oak Church of Christ, 2960 Lone Oak Road Paducah, KY 42001 4/17/2019: 2:30 - 7:30 p.m. Lone Oak First Baptist Church, 3601 Lone Oak Road Paducah, KY 42001 4/15/2019: 11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Massac Memorial Hospital, 28 Chick St. Metropolis, IL 62960 4/12/2019: 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Murray State University, Chestnut St. Murray, KY 42071 4/11/2019: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Murray State University, Chestnut St. Murray, KY 42071 4/12/2019: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Paducah Blood Donation Center, 4635 Falconcrest Drive Paducah, KY 42001 4/4/2019: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 4/5/2019: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 4/6/2019: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. 4/7/2019: 7:45 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. 4/8/2019: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 4/9/2019: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 4/11/2019: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 4/12/2019: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 4/13/2019: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. 4/14/2019: 7:45 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. 4/15/2019: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 4/16/2019: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 4/18/2019: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 4/19/2019: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 4/20/2019: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. 4/21/2019: 7:45 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. 4/22/2019: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 4/23/2019: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 4/25/2019: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 4/26/2019: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 4/27/2019: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. 4/28/2019: 7:45 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. 4/29/2019: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 4/30/2019: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. Reidland United Methodist Church, 5515 Reidland Drive Paducah, KY 42003 4/14/2019: 11:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. Shawnee Community College, 8364 Shawnee College Road Ullin, IL 62992 4/10/2019: 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. You can help by simply downloading the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit RedCrossBlood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or drivers license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements. Blood and platelet donors can save time at their next donation by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, before arriving at the blood drive. To get started, follow the instructions at RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass or use the Blood Donor App. The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nations blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross. Terms and conditions apply. For Official Rules click here. No purchase or completed donation required to enter or win. Sweepstakes open to legal residents of the United States, physically located in 1 of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, and at least the age of majority (18 in most states but 19 in Alabama and Nebraska and 21 in Mississippi) or older at the time of entry. Valid mailing and email address is required. There is a limit of four (4) total entries permitted per entrant, regardless of method of entry, during the sweepstakes period. Winners will be selected and notified by email on or around May 10, 2019, and will have 72 hours to respond to notification of winning. Offer is non-transferable and not redeemable for cash. Void where prohibited. Sweepstakes period begins April 1, 2019, and ends April 30, 2019. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. Offer applicable to presenting donors April 11-30 while supplies last, and subject to availability of donation opportunities in your area. Offer is for an 18" x 24" printed poster. Limit one (1) per donation. This offer is non-transferable and not redeemable for cash. Offer is subject to change at any time in the promotional time frame. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. The American Red Cross encourages eligible donors to give blood or platelets during National Volunteer Month this April. Eligible donors of all blood types, especially type O are needed to help ensure blood products are available for patients this spring. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 06, 2019 | TRIGG COUNTY By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 06, 2019 | 04:15 PM | TRIGG COUNTY Troopers at Kentucky State Police Post 1 are seeking the publics help in an investigation into a Trigg County home invasion on early Saturday morning. State Police were called to a home on Compton Road at 2:51 am by the Trigg County Sheriff's Department. The victims said two black males knocked on the door, saying they were from the Sheriff's Department and wearing what appeared to be law enforcement equipment. Once the door was opened, the two men reportedly rushed into the home, accompanied by two more black males and they detained everyone inside. The victims told deputies that several items in the home were stolen and the four suspects left in a single vehicle. The two adults and two juveniles in the home did not receive injuries that required medical attention. Anyone with information on this incident should contact Detective David Dick with Kentucky State Police at 270-856-3721 or anonymously at 1-800-222-5555. Citizens may also report tips anonymously through the KSP app. 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. Imin (2nd R) and his wife (1st R) talk with local residents in Darya Boyi Town of Yutian County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, March 16, 2019. [Xinhua/Hu Huhu] Sheep herder Imin's home is at the heart of the Taklimakan Desert, the second-largest shifting sand desert in the world. For hundreds of years, Imin's ancestors have settled along the Keriya River, which flows from south to north into the heart of endless sand dunes, branching out like fingers and providing the source of water for human habitats. Imin, 39, knows every curve of the river, which part is muddy and must be avoided, and where to find enough weed to feed his sheep, but now he has to find a balance between maintaining his bond with nature, and carving out a future for his children. Imin calls his home Darya Boyi, meaning "by the big river." It is also known as Tonguz Baste in books written by European explorers who visited the area in the 19th century. Isolation from the outside world has kept life unchanged at the township. Now it has a registered population of 1,342 people. Some residents only started to use cell phones three years ago. Even to this day, few people other than adventurers have made it this far into the desert. It is difficult to fathom how hard it is to get there. It takes a whole day to drive through gigantic sand dunes, muddy land and rugged river rocks to reach the town, 200 km from the edge of the desert. Though the Keriya River has provided for the survival of Imin's ancestors, the environment has become less hospitable, with falling underground water level and frequent sand storms. "The river was usually flooded when I was young, but now, from July to September, it completely dries up," said Imin. A resettlement plan is underway to move the residents south to the edge of the desert, where better housing, drinking water facilities and roads are built. The Yutian County government, which administers the town, started to draft plans for resettlement in 2016, said Tang Mingsheng, head of the county's poverty-relief office. In 2017, the first batch of 396 people, including 100 children, moved into the new settlement, about 110 km from the old town. "The new town serves best for the 100 children, because they do not have to walk long distance between home and school any more," said Eziz Tohti, headmaster of the new school at the settlement. This year, another 443 people, including Imin, his wife and father, will move to the new town. "Before choosing the site of relocation, we asked if the folks would like to live in the county seat in apartments, but the folks prefer their new homes to be built closer to their old ones, where they can live the traditional way, herding sheep and harvesting desert plants," Tang said. Tang and colleagues help young people find jobs and provide them with necessary training. A kindergarten, an elementary school, a clinic, water facilities to treat high fluorine, a bus station, and a tourism center are under construction at the new settlement. A two-lane cement road was open a year ago to reach the new town. Like his father Matkurpan, 81, Imin has barely received any education and has herded sheep by the river since the age of three, but his two sons are studying in six and seventh grade on a government grant. The brothers only go home during summer and winter breaks because the journey home takes too long. "After my parents move into the new home, it is much closer to my school, and my brother and I will be able to go home at least once a week," said Bilal, the older brother. Resettling means he has to change the routine of life that has been kept for generations, but the desire to be close to his sons led him say yes to the relocation plan. Imin has an old cell phone, and he only gets weak reception up the trunk of a poplar tree in his yard and at one particular corner of his thatched fence. "It took me quite a while to find the two spots. I only call my sons from there," he said. When the people move out, the old town will still be open to people who want to herd there. The Yutian government plans to develop tourism in the area to help people improve livelihood. Yutian has 165 villages, among which 114 are in deep poverty. Tang Mingsheng and other local officials are looking for ways to eliminate the determinants of poverty by means of resettling, creating jobs, improving social welfare, providing training and others. "Poverty reduction is a hard battle to fight, but no one shall be left behind," Tang said. Aerial photo taken on March 17, 2019 shows the Taklimakan Desert in Darya Boyi Town of Yutian County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. [Xinhua/Hu Huhu] Imin's wife cooks dinner in Darya Boyi Town of Yutian County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, March 16, 2019. [Xinhua/Hu Huhu] Imin (R) and his wife sort out cistanche in Darya Boyi Town of Yutian County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, March 17, 2019. [Xinhua/Hu Huhu] (Source: Xinhua) The China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) has helped over 30 million people since its establishment 30 years ago. The foundation has raised over 5.85 billion yuan (871 million U.S. dollars) in cash and in kind as of the end of 2018, according to sources with the foundation. The CFPA has leveraged the development of local industries to help improve people's income. It has spent 11.67 million yuan using e-commerce to help about 16,000 farmers sell their produce since 2015. About 59,000 people have benefited from local tourism development, while over 40.7 billion yuan has been offered as credit to finance farmers. The "Love Package," the most popular CFPA program, allows donors to mail care packages to help students in poor areas. The program has received 3.706 million pieces of individual donations and raised 677 million yuan as of the end of the end of 2018. (Source: Xinhua) Shen Yueyue (R), vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China, meets with Armenian President Armen Sarkissian in Yerevan, Armenia, on April 4, 2019. [Xinhua/Li Ming] A delegation led by Shen Yueyue, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China, wrapped up a three-day visit to Armenia on Saturday. During the visit at the invitation of the National Assembly of Armenia from Thursday to Saturday, Shen met respectively with Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President of the National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan and held talks with Vice President of the National Assembly Lena Nazaryan. In recent years, China and Armenia both witnessed a healthy and steady growth of friendly ties, and closer cooperation in such areas as economy, trade, infrastructure, and people-to-people exchanges, Shen said during her meetings with the Armenian top leaders. China respects Armenian people's independent choice of development path, highly appreciates Armenia's firm support on issues concerning China's core interest and major concerns, and will join hands with Armenia to take the opportunity of jointly building the Belt and Road to deepen practical cooperation in all fields, so as to benefit peoples of the two countries, Shen said. Shen also called on the legislative bodies of both countries to keep close contact and deepen cooperation, and to make positive contributions to the continuous advancement and further development of the bilateral ties. The National Assembly and government of Armenia would firmly adhere to the one-China Policy and thanked China for its support to the economic and social development of Armenia in all these years. They are willing to deepen cooperation with China in jointly developing the Belt and Road, further promote exchanges between parliaments at all levels and lift the bilateral ties to a new level. Shen Yueyue (L), vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China, meets with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan, Armenia, on April 4, 2019. [Xinhua/Li Ming] Shen Yueyue (L), vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China, meets with Armenian parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan in Yerevan, Armenia, on April 4, 2019. [Xinhua/Li Ming] (Source: Xinhua) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-06 23:58:44|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close KUALA LUMPUR, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia and Singapore reached an agreement on settling an airspace dispute on Saturday after several months of negotiations. According to a statement by Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook and his Singaporean counterpart Khaw Boon Wan, Singapore will withdraw the Instrument Landing System (ILS) procedures for its Seletar Airport and Malaysia will indefinitely suspend its permanent Restricted Area (RA) in Pasir Gudang town in Johor state, which neighbors Singapore. "Both transport ministers welcome these positive steps and look forward to further strengthening bilateral cooperation," the statement added. The agreement will also see Malaysian budget airline Firefly resume its flights after suspending its operations in December last year. The airspace dispute between the two sides began late last year when Singapore asked Firefly to move its flights from Changi Airport to the new Seletar Airport, and Firefly at first agreed but later said it would not move because the Malaysian civil aviation regulator didn't approve it. Malaysia objected to the move because Singapore installed the ILS at Seletar Airport which neighbors Malaysia's Pasir Gudang town, saying the system would hinder development of the town. As a response, Malaysia announced a restricted zone in Pasir Gudang, affecting the flight path of airlines to and fro Seletar Airport. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 00:54:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GABORONE, April 6 (Xinhua) -- China is and will continue to play an important and constructive role in Botswana and the rest of the African continent, President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana said Saturday. Officially closing the elective Botswana Democratic Party special congress in Kang, some 400 km southwest of Gaborone, the country's capital city, Masisi said China treats all the African countries equally and Botswana is more willing to deepen cooperation with it. According to Masisi, China has earnestly assisted Botswana and other countries on the continent to develop in many ways, including holding multilateral meetings, creating more job opportunities and training African employees. "And I want to thank you for endorsing me such that I can continue to cherish the relationship Botswana has with China for the purposes of development and economic growth," Masisi told the delegates which numbered about a thousand. Masisi told the party members that China has made it a point that Botswana is linked to the rest of the African continent through the railway line that will be constructed in the northern part of the southern African country. Botswana is building a railway line project from Mosetse village in the northeastern part of Botswana to the resort corner of Kazungula in the northwestern Botswana, which will link the southern African country with countries like Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania. "The railway line will also definitely promote regional trade," he said. "Now for us, it is also important to have China as a partner in all this, because China is playing a very constructive role on the African continent," he said. People visit a museum on the movie "Valter (Walter) Defends Sarajevo" in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), April 6, 2019. A museum based on the movie "Valter (Walter) Defends Sarajevo" was opened on Saturday here in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, bringing back memories of 1970s when the movie was wildly popular, as well as values of anti-fascism and unity of the former Yugoslavia. (Xinhua/Nedim Grabovica) A museum based on the cult movie "Valter (Walter) Defends Sarajevo" was opened on Saturday here in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, bringing back memories of 1970s when the movie was wildly popular, as well as values of anti-fascism and unity of the former Yugoslavia. During the opening ceremony, Sarajevo mayor Abdulah Skaka pointed out that the museum symbolizes anti-fascist values that the city of Sarajevo has, and which are worth of respect. It was stated that the museum is dedicated to the film and the historical personality of Vladimir Peric Valter, a famous member of the Movement of Resistance and antifascist figure from the World War II. The museum will be especially interesting for visitors from China, for some two billion people have watched the movie "Valter Defends Sarajevo" since 1973 in China, Jasmin Durakovic, director of the museum, told Xinhua. Nermin Muzur, director of Canton Sarajevo Tourism Association, highlighted the importance of the museum for visitors from China in an interview with Xinhua. Muzur said some 30,000 Chinese tourists visited Sarajevo in 2018, a great increase over a year before thanks to the visa-free regime that entered into force in May 2018, and tourism promotions. "We believe that opening of the museum will definitely contribute to a greater number of Chinese tourists visiting Sarajevo," Muzur said, adding that there was already a 20 percent increase in the arrivals of Chinese tourists in the first two months of this year. People visit a museum on the movie "Valter (Walter) Defends Sarajevo" in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), April 6, 2019. A museum based on the movie "Valter (Walter) Defends Sarajevo" was opened on Saturday here in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, bringing back memories of 1970s when the movie was wildly popular, as well as values of anti-fascism and unity of the former Yugoslavia. (Xinhua/Nedim Grabovica) "The museum is designed in a way to be attractive to all generations. There are elements of wax figures, scenography, music and multimedia. These are all interconnected to be more interesting for the youth as well," Durakovic told Xinhua. He added that they are planning a geo-mapping of locations where scenes in the movie was filmed as well as of various statues of Valter in the city of Sarajevo, and will launch a "Valter Defends Sarajevo" touristic route in May this year. "We are currently negotiating to do a remake of the film with Chinese film directors, and there is a major interest in China for doing it," said Durakovic, adding that he will be travelling to Beijing at the end of April to negotiate with Chinese directors. "Valter Defends Sarajevo" is more than a museum for three friends who travelled more than 500 kilometers to meet in Sarajevo after 26 years. "We had our dreams, our life, and the museum has managed to connect us and this was the reason for me to cross 280 kilometers to meet with my friends and to make photographs here, as we used to do before," Olivera Filipovic told Xinhua, saying that this cult movie brought back the desire to stay and live in BiH. "Valter Defends Sarajevo is a movie that we have been living our whole life, we grew up with it, and all that we saw today at the museum has evoked the memories," said Filipovic. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 03:14:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DUBLIN, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said that it is "extremely unlikely" that one of the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) could veto any proposal to grant Britain a longer extension to strike a Brexit deal, according to a Saturday report by a local TV channel RTE. His remarks came just a few days before the European Council, the top decision-making body of the EU, is scheduled to hold a summit meeting to decide on whether the request by the British Prime Minister Theresa May to seek a further extension of Brexit to June 30 should be granted or not. Speaking on a TV program of RTE, Varadkar acknowledged that there is increasing frustration in some of the EU member states such as Malta and Lithuania, which believe that Brexit is taking up an increasing amount of time while the EU has many other things on its agenda which need to be addressed. But he believed that while everything is possible it is "extremely unlikely" that any of the EU member states would veto the proposal to grant Britain a longer extension at the coming summit of the European Council scheduled on next Wednesday despite the growing frustrated sentiments among some of the EU members. He called for solidarity, patience and understanding among the EU members while dealing with Britain over the Brexit issue. If any of the EU member states was to veto an extension, which as a result would cause hardship on Ireland as well as the Netherlands, Belgium and France, "they wouldn't be forgiven for it", he said. Any such country would know they might find themselves on the other end of that particular veto power in the future, he added. Under the current decision-making mechanism of the EU, any decisions made by the EU require an unanimous agreement among its member states, or in other words, any EU member state has the right to veto the decisions made by the EU. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 03:29:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, April 6 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of "a dangerous trend of rising xenophobia, racism and intolerance" in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. He also called on all political, religious and civil society leaders to reject hate speech and discrimination, and to work vigorously to address and mitigate the root causes that undermine the social cohesion and create conditions for hatred and intolerance. In his message for the remembrance, which will be observed on Sunday, Guterres described the genocide as one of the darkest chapters in recent human history. While "we honor those who were murdered and reflect on the suffering and resilience of those who survived," he said, "a dangerous trend of rising xenophobia, racism and intolerance" is taking place in many parts of the world. Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has said a series of events will mark the anniversary at UN headquarters and around the world in the month of April. April 7 marks the start of the 1994 genocide which lasted for about 100 days to mid-July 1994. In 2003, the UN General Assembly designated April 7 as the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda. In 2018, the assembly amended the title of the annual observance to the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, recalling also that Hutu and others who opposed it were killed. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 04:30:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BAGHDAD, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Saturday killed a prominent Islamic State (IS) leader in the western province of Anbar, the provincial police chief said. The IS leader, identified as Sulaiman Ahmed Mudhein, was killed in an operation carried out by a joint force from Anbar's Operations Command and provincial police commandos in a desert area near al-Razaza Lake in the southwest of the provincial capital Ramadi, located some 110 km west of Baghdad, Hadi Erzeij told Xinhua. "The terrorist ... is the administrative leader of the IS group camps in Anbar Province, and was responsible for many terrorist attacks in the province during the past years," Erzeij said. IS militants are still active in the vast Anbar desert which stretches to the border with neighboring countries of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as many civilians have been kidnapped or killed by the extremist group recently. The security situation in Iraq has been dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces declared full defeat of the IS across the country late in 2017. However, IS remnants have since melted or regrouped in cities or fled to desert and rugged areas, carrying out attacks against the security forces and civilians despite operations from time to time to hunt them down. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 06:10:22|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close ANKARA, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has so far not declared the final results of the local elections held on March 31 as the ruling party contested the slim victory by the opposition in the country's largest city Istanbul and the capital Ankara. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled that his ruling party will pursue the matter in the court. Unofficial results showed Ekrem Imamoglu, candidate of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) in Istanbul, took a narrow lead over the candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Binali Yildirim, former prime minister and parliament speaker. The CHP was leading by 25,000 votes in the city, according to initial results. The AKP also lost its grip in Ankara for the first time since the party was founded in 2001. The opposition bloc's candidate Mansur Yavas won a clear victory in the capital city. Actually, both parties have placed billboards claiming victory in Istanbul. On Wednesday, the opposition candidate Imamoglu visited the country's founder the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Turkey and signed the official memorial book with the signature of "Mayor of Istanbul," a move which drew criticism from the ruling party AKP. Meanwhile, the ruling party stepped up its challenge of the elections through a major vote recount in more than half of the districts of Ankara and Istanbul. At a midnight meeting on Wednesday, the Turkish election watchdog paved the way for the recount of invalid votes in 15 of the 39 districts of the Istanbul metropolis, in addition to the already ongoing recount of all votes in three districts. The ruling party also pursued a recount in 12 out of Ankara's 25 districts. On Friday, Imamoglu said he was still ahead of his rival by 18,742 votes after the recount. "From what I see, it should end this weekend. It will fall into an 18,000-20,000 range," Imamoglu told Fox News, a U.S. television news channel. Also on Friday, the AKP applied for the annulment of local elections in Istanbul's Buyukcekmece district, but the provincial election board rejected its bid. However, the controversy seems to linger as Erdogan, also chairman of the AKP, hinted on Friday that he would push for all stages of election courts to contest the election results. "If the results of the provincial electoral councils don't overlap with ours, then the Supreme Election Council is the final decision-maker for us," he said after four days of silence. The provincial election boards will settle the objections in three days by April 10. The parties have the right to carry these objections to the Supreme Election Council afterward and the Council has to make a final decision by April 13. Even if the opposition secures the votes in Ankara and Istanbul, Erdogan has signalled that he would curb the powers of the opposition mayors through the budgets of their cities. Erdogan stated that the mayor-elected will see the challenge of the ruling party's majority in the city council, although the high board has yet to declare the vote distribution of municipal assemblies. "If a mayor lacks majority support in the municipal assembly, he cannot form commissions as he pleases nor shape the budge as he wishes," Erdogan said. Istanbul manages a huge budget of more than 4 billion U.S. dollars for 2019. Istanbul has been in the hands of parties linked to Erdogan since 1994 when he was elected the city's mayor. His political career was built upon years of administration in the city. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 06:55:29|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close SAN DIEGO, April 6 (Xinhua) -- San Diego Zoo in U.S. state of California held a special ceremony on Saturday to kick off a three-week farewell celebration for two giant pandas. Twenty-seven-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun and her son, 6-year-old Xiao Liwu will leave the San Diego Zoo in late April and be sent back to China, as the terms of the Zoo's conservation loan agreement with China has ended. According to the zoo, their staff are working with their colleagues in China on the future of panda conservation and research. The San Diego Zoo giant panda program is the first joint research program established between China and the United States as early as in 1994, said Zhang Ping, Chinese Consul General in Los Angeles. "Like other joint giant panda research and conservation programs in the United States, this program has not only promoted the friendship and understanding between the Chinese and American people, but also pushed forward the bilateral collaboration and joint research on protection and conservation of endangered species of wildlife and biodiversity," he said. The farewell celebration will last until April 27 for visitors to bid farewell to the two pandas. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 07:55:37|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close SAN DIEGO, April 6 (Xinhua) -- San Diego Zoo in U.S. state of California held a special ceremony on Saturday to kick off a three-week farewell celebration for two giant pandas. Twenty-seven-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun and her son, 6-year-old Xiao Liwu will leave the San Diego Zoo in late April and be sent back to China, as the Zoo's conservation loan agreement with China has ended. According to the zoo, their staff are working with their colleagues in China on the future of panda conservation and research. The San Diego Zoo giant panda program is the first joint research program established between China and the United States as early as in 1994, said Zhang Ping, Chinese Consul General in Los Angeles. "Like other joint giant panda research and conservation programs in the United States, this program has not only promoted the friendship and understanding between the Chinese and American people, but also pushed forward the bilateral collaboration and joint research on protection and conservation of endangered species of wildlife and biodiversity," he said. Erica Kohler, director of operations of the San Diego Zoo, told Xinhua it is sad to see the two pandas leaving for China. However, it is also a time for celebrating the successful collaboration with China on joint research of panda breeding and wild life protection. Calling panda a friendship ambassador from China, she said Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu attracted about two million visitors to the San Diego Zoo each year. As the first panda on loan, Bai Yun, arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 1996 from China. The cuddly panda soon became an iconic image of the zoo and one of the most popular animals. The name of her son, Xiao Liwu, means Little Gift in English. The farewell celebration will last until April 27 for visitors to bid farewell to the two pandas. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 08:30:55|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close CHICAGO, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) crop futures traded higher in the trading week ending on April 5, with soybeans adding over 1 percent, as the oil seeds were boosted by optimism over trade talks between the United States and China. The most active corn for May delivery was up 6 cents, or 1.68 percent weekly, to settle at 3.625 dollars per bushel. May wheat was up 10 cents, or 2.18 percent, to close at 4.6775 dollars. May soybeans were up 14.75 cents, or 1.67 percent, to settle at 8.99 dollar per bushel. China and the United States concluded in Washington the ninth round of high-level economic and trade talks which ran from Wednesday to Friday. The two sides discussed the agreement text on technology transfer, protection of intellectual property rights, non-tariff measures, services industry, agriculture, trade balance and enforcement mechanism, and achieved new progress. The two sides also decided to continue their consultations regarding the remaining issues through various effective means. China has been the world's top soybean buyer. Any positive development concerning the trade talks between the two sides will boost U.S. soybean prices. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday said weekly soybean export sales totaled 1.992 million metric tons, topping a range of trade forecasts. The report showed soybean export sales to China in the week were 1.7 million metric tons, up from zero the previous week. CBOT corn futures end slightly higher on the week amid light fund short covering, ongoing excessive rainfall across the Central U.S. and net positive news surrounding U.S. and Chinese trade policy. The corn market had hopes on Thursday that a deal could be finalized this week, but the details of a pact were delayed as both sides work on the final pact details. CBOT wheat futures ended the week higher, with winter wheat contracts up over 10 cents. But however, the spring wheat futures remained weak, as official dada shows U.S. spring wheat stocks will be the largest in decades amid trend yields across the North and South Dakotas states and Minnesota state. Moreover, concern over soft red wheat production and stocks is mounting as new soaking rain lies ahead for the Delta and Southern U.S. Midwest. Source Xinhua| 2019-04-07 08:50:18|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Tourists take photographs of sunrise at Phanom Rung, a Hindu Khmer Empire temple complex, during Phanom Rung Historical Park Festival in Buriram Province in the Isan region of Thailand, April 5, 2019. Phanom Rung Historical Park Festival is usually held every first weekend of April to celebrate the unusual phenomenon when the rays of the rising sun shine through all of the Khmer temple's 15 doorways at the same time. This awe-inspiring spectacle takes place four times a year at the Phanomrung Sanctuary and is believed to bring great blessings upon everyone who is there to witness it. (Xinhua/Zhang Keren) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 08:51:04|Editor: zh Video Player Close by Jamil Bhatti ISLAMABAD, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A regular job at the business center of the free zone in Gwadar port, southwestern Pakistan, once a small backward fishing village, has brought a great change in Younis Ghulam Qadirs life by lifting him from a fishing compound to a five-star working atmosphere. Qadir, a 22-year-old former fisherman, looked very happy and satisfied with his job now as a housekeeper at the Gwadar Free Zone business center because a regular and handsome monthly salary has helped his 10-member family solve financial issues. The young housekeeper is the eldest child among a laborer fathers six daughters and two sons. He told Xinhua in Gwadar that he had to quit his studies and started work at the age of 16 as a fisherman to help earn food for family. I was much worried about my future and family. We couldnt afford food, medicine and education even after I worked whole day out for 300 rupees (around two U.S. dollars), said the young housekeeper, adding that he couldnt find a job as the town has been seeing an extremely high level of unemployment. In January 2019, on the advice of friends, the hopeless young man sent an application to the business center from where he received a quick call from Chinese staff for an interview and he got the job instantly to join dozens of other local people working there. Qadir considers the China-Pakistan Economic Center (CPEC) as a blessing for bringing fast growth and a number of jobs to Gwadar. Gwadar is developing so fast that I have never dreamed about it. Chinese have done quick miracles by completing several projects, including roads, schools, and health centers for locals, said Qadir, who is also learning the Chinese language after his working hours. Gwadar, the small fishing town located near the Arabian Sea and a vital part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has witnessed a great change during the last five years with a number of completed projects, including the first phase of the free zone, the arrival of cargo ships regularly and a water desalination plant. In late March, the small town welcomed its new international airport, the expected second largest airport of the country. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan broke ground for the construction. The new airport would establish direct links between the town and the outside world. The prime minister said that CPECs main target is to bring people oriented developments. And CPEC has transformed Gwadar into an energetic town from a lethargic village. Abu Bakar, a local fisherman who has been in the business for 25 years, told Xinhua that development projects and economic activities in Gwadar are giving direct monetary benefits to locals, especially by increasing demand and prices of their fish by several times. In the past, our fish was sold at the rate of around 40 rupees per kg but now it can be sold by up to 200 rupees (around 1.5 U.S. dollar) per kg, said the 45-year-old fisherman, adding that activation of the Gwadar port and construction of the superhighway linking Gwadar with southern port city Karachi have eased up their fish supplies and exports. Bakar is assured that once the under-construction East Bay Expressway, linking the new Gwadar international airport and the free zone with the countrys national highway network, is completed, their fish business would flourish further. The six-lane 19-km long expressway, funded by the Chinese government with an interest-free loan, is expected to be completed by October 2020 and would ensure smooth logistic transportation of import, export and transit goods, Pakistans Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform said. On the sidelines of the Gwadar Expo 2019, Pakistans Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Khusro Bukhtiar said that the China-Pakistan partnership accords top priority to the development of Gwadar along with investors-friendly regulations. The minister said Gwadar is being made as a modern smart port city to meet international standards and that it would be made a green, clean and environmentally-friendly city. Zohaib Sheikh, a captain who regularly visits Gwadar for cargo on his ship, told Xinhua aboard that Gwadar port became operational very quickly with professional staff and standardized facilities on the ground I have visited several ports around the world, but Gwadar is the most eco-friendly and beautiful. When I enter Gwadar ports waters, I feel happy and breathe fresh, said the Indian captain, who predicted that Gwadar has a great potential to become one of the best and busy ports. Observing the fast development in commercial sectors as well as social sectors, Qadir and Bakar both visualized that Gwadar would become a modern port city where they will live a happy life with a prosperous future. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 09:11:09|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close TRIPOLI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A doctor was killed and another was injured in clashes in Libyan capital between the UN-backed government and the eastern-based military forces, which is trying to take over the city. "As a result of violent clashes in southern Tripoli, a doctor treating victims in Wadi al-Rabee area (southern Tripoli) was killed, while another civilian was injured," Osama Ali, spokesman of the Heath Ministry's Emergency Department, told Xinhua. The spokesman demanded ceasefire in order to allow emergency teams to reach civilians trapped in conflict areas. Eight Tunisian nationals were trapped inside a clinic in the area, and another group were trapped in a farm, Ali added. The state-owned General National Company said the clashes damaged power lines in southern Tripoli and caused a blackout in the area. The military forces, led by General Khalifa Haftar, launched a military operation on Thursday to take over western Libya, particularly Tripoli, where the UN-backed government is based. Libya is politically divided between a UN-backed government and a parallel administration allied to Khalifa Haftar. The country has been struggling to make a transition amid insecurity and chaos since the fall of its former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 09:23:58|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Dancers perform during the annual Tartan Day Parade in New York, the United States, on April 6, 2019. The parade, which consists of drummers, pipers and dancers, celebrated Scottish and Scottish American heritage. In 1998 the U.S. Senate declared April 6 to be National Tartan Day to recognize the contributions made by Scottish Americans to the United States. (Xinhua/Michael Nagle) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 09:21:18|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Female civil servant Ma Xinjuan died, at the age of 39, only a few months before Shangyan Village was lifted out of poverty in 2018. "She was like the peach blossoms," said Ma Caiqin, a villager of Shangyan. Peach blossoms are common during spring scenery at this once impoverished village in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. But when Ma Xinjuan, former Party secretary of Huanghua Township, first came to the village, she received antipathy from some villagers. Some 50 poor households of Shangyan Village used to live on an inhospitable strech of benchland, which was a major cause of the poverty. Local officials had attempted to help them get rid of poverty through relocation, one of China's poverty-relief strategies to encourage people striken by harsh natural conditions to move to livable places, offering them government subsidies. But many villagers stubbornly refused to move, due to doubts and a lack of knowledge about related policies. Soon after she assumed office, Ma set up a tent at the entrance of Shangyan Village to live temporarily there. She knocked the doors of those reluctant to move, sat in their yards, and patiently answered their questions, including whether they would gain sufficient subsidies or get used to the new houses. After two weeks, 51 households signed the relocation agreement. Ma has also led villagers to take tailored measures to increase their incomes based on each village's conditions. In Yangcao Village, Ma pushed for the establishment of a poverty-reduction workshop, where over 40 women from poor families found jobs. They draw on their fine craftsmanship and handmade items such as wallets, insoles and pillowcases, which sell at places as far away as Beijing and Shanghai. In December 2018, Shangyan and Yangcao were removed from the list of poverty-striken villages with eight other villages of Huanghua Township, which means poverty had dropped to 3 percent and below, with all impoverished population included in the national basic medical insurance scheme. Ma died about a year after she was diagnosed with lymph cancer by a Beijing-based hospital in May 2017. Even during chemotherapy, she often thought about poverty relief work, and after five months treatment, she returned to her office. The mountainous Guyuan City, where Huanghua Township is located, is one of the sites where the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of the Communist Party of China arrived during the epic Long March from 1934 to 1936, which had seen a large number of officers and soldiers killed or injured. Over 80 years on, Ma Xinjuan and her fellows have carried out another long march, with sacrifices, but bound for a brighter future. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 09:56:32|Editor: zh Video Player Close CHANGCHUN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- For residents in Huojugou village in China's Changbai Mountains, a train whistle is a euphonious sound that will bring gurgling water to their kitchen and bathhouse. For 44 years, the mountainous village and several others in northeast China's Jilin Province have relied on a train, which only has one locomotive and one tank car, to provide their water supply. The train commutes between the towns of Songshu and Baihe, nestled deep in Changbai Mountain. Since 1975, it has run for more than 1.6 million km, delivering water to over 2,600 nearby villagers that had limited access to clean water. Though cisterns have been built to store water unloaded from the trains, villagers along the line still keep the tradition of welcoming the train in person, clanking their buckets and bottles. "Fetching water used to be a big headache. We had to travel to a far-away river to get water and even make a hole in the ice during winter," said Li Zuopei, an 80-year-old resident in Yingbishan village. "Then the small train sent water right to our doorsteps, and it's amazing that the service has been going on uninterrupted for so many years," said Li. The water-delivering trains are a special service on the Hunbai Railway, a scenic line with diesel trains. They were launched to address the limited access to drinking water in the area, where the underground water is undrinkable due to complex mineral components. "Water coming out of the wells used to render us with Kaschin-beck disease, and we treated every drop of (safe) water like it was oil," said Zhou Aiqin, another resident at Huojugou. Running the train all year around is no easy task, especially in winter when temperatures easily drop below minus 20 degrees Celsius. Some of the fuel is spent heating the water during the journey to prevent freezing. "Water often drips onto our clothes and instantly freezes. We cannot bend our arms or legs and have to move like a gorilla," said Jia Lin, a veteran worker at the line's Quanyang station. Train crew and station workers, like residents along the line, have been attached to the delivery missions, even as demands have greatly shrunk due to improved water infrastructure and relocation of villagers. The trains now run three times a month, down from three times a week, to serve only 300 residents. "But as long as the demand exists, our small train will keep on running," said Xin Yuehong, head of Quanyang station. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 10:08:38|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Visitors choose products during Cinderella International Beauty Industry Exhibition in Vilnius, Lithuania, April 6, 2019. The three-day fair that lasts from April 5 to 7, bringing together famous Lithuanian and foreign beauty experts and professionals, offers opportunities to discover the latest global beauty trends. (Xinhua/Alfredas Pliadis) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 11:27:16|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SAN DIEGO, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The San Diego Zoo in the U.S. state of California held a special ceremony on Saturday to kick off a three-week farewell event for two giant pandas. Twenty-seven-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun and her son, six-year-old Xiao Liwu, will leave the zoo in late April and be sent back to China, as the zoo's conservation loan agreement with China has ended. According to the zoo, their staff are working with their colleagues in China on future panda conservation and research. The zoo's giant panda program is the first joint research program established between China and the United States as early as in 1994, said China's Consul General in Los Angeles Zhang Ping. "Like other joint giant panda research and conservation programs in the United States, this program has not only promoted the friendship and understanding between the Chinese and American people, but also pushed forward the bilateral collaboration and joint research on protection and conservation of endangered species of wildlife and biodiversity," he said. Erica Kohler, director of operations of the San Diego Zoo, told Xinhua it is sad to see the two pandas leaving for China. However, it is also a time to celebrate the successful collaboration with China on the joint research of panda breeding and wild life protection. Dubbing the pandas "the friendship ambassadors" from China, she said Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu attracted about 2 million visitors to the zoo each year. As the first panda on loan, Bai Yun, arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 1996. The cuddly panda soon became an iconic image of the zoo and one of the most popular animals. The name of her son, Xiao Liwu, means Little Gift in English. Gaylene Thomas, animal care supervisor of the San Diego Zoo, told Xinhua that they learned a lot from the giant pandas and gathered data from them. Thomas said as a great mother of six baby pandas, Bai Yun has a very good character, is very easy-going. "We are very proud to have the opportunity to be with them for the past 20-odd years," she said. Currently, the zoo is busy preparing for the pandas' travel back to China and trying its best to make them feel comfortable during the trip, Thomas added. Many zoo visitors lined up to say goodbye to the pandas, and wrote down their best wishes on cards and posted them on a friendship wall set up in front of the panda exhibition halls. The farewell celebration will run through April 27. The San Diego Zoo is globally recognized and a San Diego icon by hosting more than 4 million guests each year. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 11:42:19|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close YANGON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's population has reached 54.1 million as of April 1, growing by 1.32 percent from 2017, said a statement released by the country's Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population late on Saturday. Of the total estimated population, based on the 2014 census of population and households by the ministry, 28.152 million are female. In accordance with the official statistics, the Yangon region topped the list with 8.203 million, followed by Mandalay region with 6.477 million, Shan state with 6.33 million and Ayeyawaddy region with 6.27 million. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 11:57:22|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close Performers dance on the parade Kheun Khao Phanom Rung, or "up into the Phanom Rung mountain", in Buriram province, northeastern Thailand, on April 6, 2019. The over three-hour parade is a ritual celebrated by locals for years in order to promote traditional culture and attract tourists. (Xinhua/Yang Zhou) by Yang Zhou CHALOEM PHRA KIAT, Thailand, April 7 (Xinhua) -- On the scorching Saturday afternoon, dozens of local Thai students dressing up like apsaras were dancing together on the stairway in front of the main sanctuary of Phanom Rung, an ancient Khmer temple in northeastern Thailand. This is a part of an annual event held on Friday and Saturday to promote traditional culture and attract tourists. The female students, all in red with apsara crowns, danced with local music, in front of the seven-head naga sculptures and the ancient temple. "I feel so proud to dance here as I am the child of Buriram province," said Kanchana Kanchana, a local female university student. "I hope foreign tourists could come to get to know Phanom Rung and Buriram as well as our culture." The apsara dancing was the climax of an over three-hour parade Kheun Khao Phanom Rung, or "up into the Phanom Rung mountain", a ritual celebrated by locals for years. Buriram, a northeastern province of Thailand bordering Cambodia, with its land under the rule of Khmer Empire a thousand years ago, is home to many ancient Khmer temples and other constructions as well as Khmer language speaking population. Among these ancient Khmer structures, Phanom Rung temple is the most famous one. Nestled at the top of an extinct volcano, the temple, believed to exist since the 10th century with several eruptions until the 13th century, was dedicated to Hindu deity Shiva, according to the Buriram government's official website. The name Phanom Rung, a Khmer word referring to "great mountain," can be found in ancient inscriptions in the temple, which also mentioned names of several kings of the Khmer Empire. The main tower of the temple was built during the reign of a local lord, Narendraditya, son of the princess of Angkor Bhupatindra Lakshmi Devi. According to the Thai official history, Narendraditya was a smart and powerful leader who fought for Suryavarman II, one of Khmer Empire's greatest kings. The Saturday's event set up a scene that Narendraditya's mother goes to the ancient temple on Phanom Rung to worship gods on a palanquin with parades. Narendraditya's mother this year was played by Orn-anong Panyawong, who is the Miss Thailand 1992. Many Burriram students and local residents dressed in traditional attire participated in the parades with hundreds of local people watching it along the ancient pathway leading to the sanctuary. Besides the Saturday's parade, there was also rounds of apsara dancing in front of the sanctuary. Light and sounds show displayed the history of the temple. During the exhibition, it was told that, like the temple of Angkor, Phanom Rung was lost in the forest until it was discovered by the Frenchman Etienne Aymonier in 1885. In 1971, the Thai government began to restore the temple and it was opened to the public as a historic park in 1988. Some inscriptions were found inside the temple in Khmer and Sanskrit language and Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn contributed to the interpretation by her thesis on the translation of the inscriptions in 1978. The highlight of the ancient Khmer temple is not only the annual events but also a sunlight spectacle. There are a few days every year that the rays of the rising sun would pass through 15 doorways of the ancient Khmer temple, creating a magnificent light in the center of the ancient sanctuary. This year, though the local government announced that the perfects days to witness this spectacular scene were from Tuesday to Thursday but the clouds were too thick for the sunray to go through. Although opening to the public for 31 years, the ancient site is currently only popular among local tourists, while the Tourism Authority of Thailand(TAT) believed it may attract more foreign tourists in the near future. The TAT is one of the organizers of the two-day events and its deputy governor for domestic market Noppadon Pakprot told Xinhua that they contributed to the event, starting with inheriting local traditions and secondly promoting tourism. According to the TAT, Buriram is one of 55 secondary tourism destinations in Thailand and the number of tourists and income have grown rapidly in recent years. "I believe the new generation of tourists, especially Chinese tourists would look for new travel experience besides shopping," Noppadon said, adding that Buriram, with its historical sites such as Phanom Rung, abundant culture and original community may be a competitive tourist destination. There are more ancient Khmer sites around Phanom Rung. Just 7.2 km from Phanom Rung lying a big baray, or ancient Khmer reservoir and a delicate temple Muang Tam, with its original name, lost in history. Muang Tam, a name called by locals, means lowland town as it sits on the plain, a lower place compared with Phanom Rung on the extinct volcano. The small temple, with four ponds surrounding the main sanctuary, dates back its primary phases of construction to 10th to 11th centuries. According to local media, the Thai government is preparing to nominate Phanom Rung and its surrounding Khmer temples and structures, including Muang Tam, to be listed in UNESCO's world heritage. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 12:32:27|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close WASHINGTON, April 6 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and five others were injured in at least five separate shootings in the U.S. city of Philadelphia on Saturday, local police said. The violent day started in the morning when a 35-year-old man was shot near the Brewerytown neighborhood. In the afternoon, a 26-year-old father was killed and his 17-year-old cousin was shot in the hip in the Nicetown neighborhood. Police said at least two gunmen were involved in the incident and 37 shells were found at the scene. In a separate shooting, a 25-year-old man was shot multiple times and was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Police detained one person linked to the shooting. The fourth shooting involved a 27-year-old victim, who was rushed to hospital in critical condition with wounds to the stomach. Finally after 9 p.m. (0100 GMT on Sunday), a sixth victim was shot 10 times in the hands, arms and legs and was taken to hospital in a stable condition. More than 80 people were killed in Philadelphia this year, up 11 percent from the same period last year, local media reported. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 12:37:29|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close OTTAWA, April 6 (Xinhua) -- "We have established extensive contacts with Chinese people and forged deep friendship," said Lee Edward Errett, winner of 2018 Chinese Ambassador's Award in Canada, recently. The award is designed to commend Canadians who make outstanding contributions to the development of China-Canada relations. Chinese Ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye in an interview with Xinhua last Friday praised Errett as "Contemporary Bethune" because he has greatly contributed to the promotion of the "Contemporary Bethune in Action" activities and that of China-Canada medical cooperation. Canadian physician Norman Bethune, a household name in China, and his medical team went to China in 1938 to help Chinese people to fight against Japanese invasion troops during World War II and died there in 1939. Errett, a distinguished cardiologist in Canada, took the lead in establishing the non-profit Bethune Medical Development Association of Canada (BMDAC) in 2011 with an aim of promoting Bethune's spirit of internationalism and China-Canada exchanges in the field of medicine. Since 2011, Errett, also a professor of surgery at the University of Toronto, has conducted about 260 free clinics, performed 155 surgical operations, given 220 academic lectures in China, and arranged more than 80 young Chinese doctors to Canada for free training. Errett has so far made 21 trips to China, with "many unforgettable stories" about his "Chinese friends." He once operated on a seven-year-old Chinese boy who appeared to be only four years old because of heart problems. "The boy is now 18 years old and taller than me," he said. "The job of my team is not to make money," Errett told Xinhua. "I just want kids like that boy to be taller than me. It's one of the best experiences of my life." Since 2012, the BMDAC has organized twice a year Canadian medical experts to carry out free diagnosis and academic exchanges in many hospitals in China. Now it also organizes a dozen of Chinese doctors to study in Canada every year. Today the BMDAC has about 300 members, including medical professors, doctors and researchers from famous universities and hospitals in Canada, with a few others from countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia. Compared with China, Canada's western medical system still has much room for improvement in the treatment of patients, Errett said. He hopes to learn from his Chinese counterparts and establish a two-way teaching system. "My colleagues and I have witnessed the growth of China and will continue to go to the places that need to be visited. We want to leave something sustainable for further progress," the professor added. He is looking forward to a visit of his team to China in May. Speaking highly of Errett's generous contributions to and selfless love for developing bilateral ties, Ambassador Lu said Errett has promoted China-Canada medical exchanges and cooperation with his concrete actions and brought health and well-being to a vast number of Chinese people. "We look forward to seeing more 'contemporary Bethunes' like Professor Errett, who will inject new vitality into the cause of China-Canada friendship in the new era," said the ambassador. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 13:07:36|Editor: zh Video Player Close NEW YORK, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese philanthropy sector has quadrupled over the last decade as of 2017 with remarkable grant-making, and has been increasingly empowered by advanced technologies, which unlock great potential for impact delivering and global collaboration, according to a new report debut in New York City (NYC) on Friday. "We felt that in the Chinese market, the mindset has a shift. There is an openness to being strategic, being in long term, and being outcome-focused in terms of the quality of grant making, and the quality of channeling capital towards all forms of impact (of philanthropic projects)," said Kevin Teo, chief operating officer at Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), during a panel discussion on the report. The report, titled Philanthropy in China, was conducted by AVPN, a Singapore-based social investors' network, with support of the Rockefeller Foundation, a NYC-based private foundation established by the Rockefeller family. GROWING ENGAGEMENT BY PRIVATE WEALTH Total giving in China has quadrupled from 2009 to 2017, with a significant 23.4 billion U.S. dollars pumped into the philanthropy sector in 2017, up 6.9 percent from the 21.9 billion dollars in 2016, according to the report. Private wealth is a critical contributor to the growth, as donations from private companies and corporate foundations dominated the country's philanthropic giving, followed by affluent individuals and other types of organization, such as government agencies and public institutions. In 2016, capital from corporate giving reached 14.2 billion dollars, contributing to around 65 percent of the total amount. As for individuals, with 819 billionaires, China has not only the largest number of billionaires in the world, but also the highest number of millionaires engaged in environmental, social and governance-related investing. According to the 2018 Hurun Philanthropy list, China's top 100 philanthropists made public donations of 3.3 billion dollars in aggregate to foundations, NGOs and education institutions domestically, up 33 percent from the previous year. The most popular causes supported by philanthropic donation were education, poverty alleviation, social welfare and healthcare. "By putting out these pieces of research, we seek to have a rallying point, firstly by generating awareness (on) what is the reality, and then presenting opportunities for not only more stakeholders within the country, but also stakeholders from the outside to join hands into each market," said Teo at the event. The report also pointed out that the overwhelming share of corporate giving and individual donations in China has been largely stimulated by a rising awareness of social responsibility, favorable corporate tax incentives for charity, as well as the country's Charity Law passed in March 2016. "The 2016 China Charity Law promotes the formalization and professionalization of the philanthropic sector in China," said the report. "The Law provides a clear framework and guidelines for social organizations to obtain charitable status, which was rather opaque in the past." Currently, the corporate tax deduction for donations to approved charitable organizations can be up to 12 percent of the company's annual profit in China, which is considered "quite favorable" compared to other countries like the United States, where the charitable deduction is capped to 10 percent of annual taxable income, according to the report. Yet the report also cautioned some problems in China's philanthropy ecosystem, such as a very limited number of intermediaries able to help in sophisticated areas regarding charity, and a lack of data transparency, which hinders the effective channeling of philanthropic resources. That has led corporate foundations in China to "choose to become operating foundations, instead of grant-making foundations, as they are not able to find the right information nor the best partners," said the report. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY, GLOBAL COLLABORATION However, the report expressed optimism to the thriving Chinese philanthropy, given an improving regulatory environment and rapid growth of philanthropic capital. "We see a need to marshal resources more effectively towards the delivery of scalable, high-impact solutions," said Naina Subberwal Batra, chairperson and CEO at AVPN, who co-authored the report. One effective approach that Chinese companies resort to is cutting-edge technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the country's thriving digital services sector, to spark greater public interest in charity. Such innovative approaches will possibly help enhance transparency and accountability, thereby building trust and productivity within the philanthropic sector, said the report. "Too much of traditional philanthropy is oriented around reaching. We need more scale. We need more impact. We need more technology to get there," said Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation during Friday's discussion. "In this case, data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence (have the potential) to lift the most vulnerable," he noted. To make healthcare more accessible and affordable, Happy Life Technology (HLT) invested about 150 million dollars from 2013 to 2017, to have built, in collaboration with 500 scientists, a large-scale data operating system that can digest medical data from 4,000 manufacturers across China. "So now we're in 22 provinces and covering around 300 million people," said Rujing Gong, co-founder and chairwoman of the Chinese company that focuses on tech-driven healthcare solution. She also mentioned an application based on the company's AI system that provides data for scientists to quickly evaluate and validate their hypothesis by using a simulation model at a much lower cost. "My belief is to bring down the research cost for drugs by using AI technologies, and also reduce misdiagnosis by using our real-world evidence," Gong told Xinhua. "Those two would use a huge portion of the public healthcare spending." "So all those initiatives and all those applications that we're trying to do is for one objective. That's a cheaper healthcare for everyone," she added. Talking about technological application, Shah said his foundation has served as "a bridge" between those who know how to operate on the ground in embattled communities and those who know how to build the tools and technologies to deliver the impact of philanthropic projects at scale. "So to me, these two coming together and imagining what's possible is the power of transformation," he said. Shah added that if the foundation can be the bridge to bring HLT's huge data operating system to some African countries, it would probably save several million women and children "who otherwise will die in childbirth or under the age of five." In this aspect, the report also found that China's cross-border projects are propelling domestic organizations towards more meaningful international development engagement, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and South-South cooperation, through sharing knowledge, resources and capital. "We look forward to working hand-in-hand with Chinese family offices and individual philanthropists, especially the next generation of givers, to unleash the catalytic potential of their philanthropic capital and build the foundations for new philanthropic legacies," said Deepali Khanna, managing director for Asia at the Rockefeller Foundation. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 13:12:38|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Around 230 relics from Afghanistan are now on a China tour and will be on display at Tsinghua University Art Museum from April 18 to June 23. Divided into four series based on the sites from where they were excavated, these items represent cultural heritage from the Bronze Age, the Hellenistic period and the Kushan dynasty, as well as the period between the invasion of the Yuezhi people and the establishment of the Kushan dynasty. They are witnesses to the integration and mingling of ancient civilizations, says a post on the website of the museum. The relics were unearthed before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and survived the war by being hidden in secret vaults under the central bank building in Kabul before they reappeared in 2003. The treasures have been exhibited in more than 20 museums in France, Italy, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Germany, Britain, Australia, Japan and South Korea since October 2006. They started a tour in China in March 2017. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 13:22:45|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close Twenty-seven-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun eats bamboo in San Diego Zoo in San Diego, the United States, April 6, 2019. The San Diego Zoo in the U.S. state of California held a special ceremony on Saturday to kick off a three-week farewell event for two giant pandas. Twenty-seven-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun and her son, six-year-old Xiao Liwu, will leave the zoo in late April and be sent back to China, as the zoo's conservation loan agreement with China has ended. (Xinhua/Li Ying) by Xinhua Writers Tan Jingjing, Gao Shan SAN DIEGO, United States, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The San Diego Zoo in the U.S. state of California held a special ceremony on Saturday to kick off a three-week farewell event for two giant pandas. Twenty-seven-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun and her son, six-year-old Xiao Liwu, will leave the zoo in late April and be sent back to China, as the zoo's conservation loan agreement with China has ended. According to the zoo, their staff are working with their colleagues in China on future panda conservation and research. The zoo's giant panda program is the first joint research program established between China and the United States as early as in 1994, said China's Consul General in Los Angeles Zhang Ping. "Like other joint giant panda research and conservation programs in the United States, this program has not only promoted the friendship and understanding between the Chinese and American people, but also pushed forward the bilateral collaboration and joint research on protection and conservation of endangered species of wildlife and biodiversity," he said. Erica Kohler, director of operations of the San Diego Zoo, told Xinhua it is sad to see the two pandas leaving for China. However, it is also a time to celebrate the successful collaboration with China on the joint research of panda breeding and wild life protection. Dubbing the pandas "the friendship ambassadors" from China, she said Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu attracted about 2 million visitors to the zoo each year. As the first panda on loan, Bai Yun, arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 1996. The cuddly panda soon became an iconic image of the zoo and one of the most popular animals. The name of her son, Xiao Liwu, means Little Gift in English. Gaylene Thomas, animal care supervisor of the San Diego Zoo, told Xinhua that they learned a lot from the giant pandas and gathered data from them. Thomas said as a great mother of six baby pandas, Bai Yun has a very good character and is very easy-going. "We are very proud to have the opportunity to be with them for the past 20-odd years," she said. Currently, the zoo is busy preparing for the pandas' travel back to China and trying its best to make them feel comfortable during the trip, Thomas added. Many zoo visitors lined up to say goodbye to the pandas, and wrote down their best wishes on cards and posted them on a friendship wall set up in front of the panda exhibition halls. "The pandas were like our family members, and visiting them were part of our lives over the past 20-odd years," Margaret Schmitz, a San Diego native, told Xinhua. She took her three kids to the zoo on Saturday to say goodbye to Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu. Schmitz said her kids grew up together with the pandas, and were used to being together with them. "It is hard to say goodbye. We will miss them much. Hope to visit other pandas in the United States, and expect to visit China one day to unite with giant pandas," she added. "They are so adorable, and they are always happy and satisfied with their easy lives. We had great joy every time we visited them," said Terry Richardson, another visitor who drove several hours with her husband from Lancaster to San Diego just to bid farewell to the giant pandas. Pandas have bridged U.S.-China cultural exchanges, and unite us together, said Richardson, expressing the hope that the two countries work out an agreement in the future to have the pandas visiting the United States again. The farewell celebration will run through April 27. The San Diego Zoo is globally recognized and a San Diego icon by hosting more than 4 million guests each year. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 13:22:47|Editor: zh Video Player Close GUANGZHOU, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The following are shows and exhibitions available in Guangzhou in the coming week: Valery Afanassiev Piano Concert Date: April 12-13 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: Guangzhou Opera House Introduction: Valery Afanassiev is an author, poet and pianist. Considered by many to be one of the most influential pianists in Europe, the Russian musician is acclaimed for interpreting classical pieces by such legendary composers as Beethoven and Schubert. Known to perform pieces at an "extraordinarily slow" pace, his shows offer music fans the chance to experience familiar tunes in an entirely new way. White Water, Little Dust Date: April 12-13 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: Guangzhou Opera House Introduction: Taiwan dancer, writer and choreographer Lin Hwai-min founded Cloud Gate Dance Theatre in 1973. The dance troupe has gone on to garner critical acclaim in the world of modern dance, which helped Lin to win the American Dance Festival Award for "lifetime achievement in modern dance." This captivating performance will see two separate dance works staged directly next to each other, offering the audience a dramatic visual contrast. Jane Eyre Date: April 14 Time: 7 p.m. Place: Guangzhou Opera House Introduction: British director Sally Cookson has challenged herself by adapting one of the most beloved love stories of all time, "Jane Eyre." Cookson's take on the classic tale is a celebration of womanhood and focuses on the heroine's personal journey, as opposed to her relationship with Rochester. This drama is co-produced by The National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic Theatre. Audience will see this excellent work through the screen and experience National Theatre live. Lumina Coeli - Girls' Choir of France Date: April 14 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: Guangzhou Opera House Introduction: Many grand occasions have been graced by the sweet chorus of Lumina Coeli - Girls' Choir of France, one of the most celebrated all-girl choirs in Europe. Girls have a chance to receive musical training from kindergarten to high school in chorus school in Autun, France. They will learn basic chorus, pronunciation, music theory, solo singing, opera singing and Gregorian chanting, which originated in the seventh century A.D. and is one of the greatest features of the Lumina Coeli. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 13:47:58|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China's dollar-denominated Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program saw its approved quota continue to rise in March, according to the country's forex regulator. By March 27, the QFII quota stood at 101.596 billion U.S. dollars, up from 101.45 billion dollars a month earlier, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed. Meanwhile, the quota in the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) program came in at 660.97 billion yuan (about 98.3 billion U.S. dollars). China's currency, the yuan, is convertible for trade purposes under the current account, while the capital account, which covers portfolio investment and borrowing, is largely run by the state in an effort to manage capital flows in and out of the country. The QFII and RQFII programs, introduced in 2003 and 2011 respectively, allow overseas institutional investors to move money into China's capital account for investment. China Securities Regulatory Commission, the country's securities watchdog, has started consulting public opinion on new rules that will combine the above two existing schemes. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 14:43:20|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- An international green building materials exhibition will be held in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality from May 10 to 12, in a bid to boost the building materials industry in western parts of the country. The three-day exhibition will include several sections including customized home decoration, interior decoration design, doors and windows and machinery parts. It will be held at the Chongqing International Convention and Exhibition Center. Featuring rapid development and a large number of professional visitors, the exhibition aims to foster business connections and cooperation between building materials enterprises in western China. More than 1,000 exhibitors and over 50,000 visitors are expected to participate in the exhibition during which more than 15 industry meetings will be held. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 14:53:23|Editor: zh Video Player Close CHENGDU, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A forest fire that killed 27 firefighters and three locals in southwest China's Sichuan Province a week ago started to burn again Saturday afternoon, local authorities said Sunday. Around 5 p.m. on Saturday, the fire was found to have started in the northeastern part of the forest, according to the sources with Muli County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. So far, 350 firefighters are battling the fire and other 440 locals from neighboring towns have rushed to the site. The area burnt by the fire is estimated to be 5 to 10 hectares, spreading due to windy weather. The forest fire first broke out at around 6 p.m. on March 30 at a remote spot in the mountains at an altitude of over 3,700 meters in Muli County. Local authorities dispatched more than 600 people to put out the blaze. After engulfing about 15 hectares of forest, the blaze was initially extinguished Tuesday. A lightning strike has been confirmed as the cause of the fire, local authorities said earlier. The restarting of the fire was caused by strong wind in the area, sources said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 15:08:32|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese firms are expected to play bigger roles than sponsorship at the the upcoming 2019 Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition. The expo has finished its sponsorship work, signing contracts worth about 1 billion yuan (148.8 million U.S. dollars) with 25 Chinese firms, including Air China and China Mengniu Dairy Company Limited, a record high sum for similar events in the field. The firms will not only sponsor, but also serve the expo with products, services and technologies, according to a consultant for the event. Artificial intelligence firm Baidu will build a high-tech ecology experience pavillon to highlight the importance of environmental protection, while China Telecom will showcase the country's development in 5G technology. Slated to kick off on April 29, the 162-day expo is poised to impress an expected 16 million visitors from home and abroad, with a huge collection of plants, flowers and eye-catching pavilions, as well as ideas for green development. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 15:08:34|Editor: ZX Video Player Close ASSADABAD, Afghanistan, April 7 (Xinhua) -- At least five militants affiliated with Islamic State (IS) group have been killed after the security forces' fighting aircraft pounded the militants' hideout in Chapa Dara district of the eastern Kunar province, said an army statement released here Sunday. The crackdown, according to the statement, launched against IS insurgents in Degal volley of Chapa Dara district on Saturday and would last until the area is cleansed of the insurgents. Huge quantity of arms and ammunitions of the militant group have also been destroyed, the statement said, adding the security forces backed by villagers would continue to target the militants elsewhere in the relatively troubled province. Militants loyal to the hardliner IS outfit have not commented. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 15:13:40|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China's container transport for export purposes contracted last month due to the lack of demand, according to the Shanghai Shipping Exchange. The average China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) fell to 830.81 in March, down 6.3 percent from the previous month, the exchange said. The index averaged 853.28 for the first three months of 2019. Sub-indexes for many routes went down in March. The sub-index for the Mediterranean route showed the largest decline of 9.4 percent from February, followed by that for South America route, which dropped by 9 percent. The CCFI tracks spot and contractual freight rates from Chinese container ports for 12 shipping routes across the globe, based on data from 20 international carriers. The index was set at 1,000 on Jan. 1, 1998. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 15:23:45|Editor: zh Video Player Close SHENYANG, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Six people in northeast China's Liaoning Province were recently sentenced and fined after being convicted of excavating and robbing relics of the Great Wall and an ancient tomb. The criminals excavated a Great Wall relics site, dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) ancient tomb in Jinzhou of Liaoning in May 2018, according to a local court. The excavation caused severe damage to the Great Wall relics. A porcelain bowl and a pottery pot were stolen from the tomb, according to the provincial antique protection center. Two criminals were sentenced to six months in prison, and the other four were placed on probation. They were fined from 3,000 yuan (446 U. S. dollars) to 8,000 yuan each. The stolen antiques were seized and turned over to the state treasury. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 15:38:54|Editor: zh Video Player Close GUIYANG, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China's leading liquor brand Kweichow Moutai reported a net profit rise of 31 percent year-on-year from January to March. Moutai's net profits in the first quarter of 2019 rose to 11 billion yuan (about 1.63 billion U.S. dollars). Its sales revenues during the period reached 25.7 billion yuan, up 21 percent year on year, according to the company Friday. In 2018, Moutai saw its output reach around 70,200 tonnes, with sales revenues reaching 73.6 billion yuan and net profits 35.2 billion yuan, up 26.49 percent and 30 percent respectively, year on year. Moutai is a sorghum-based spirit produced by Kweichow Moutai and is China's top brand of white alcohol. The liquor, often served on official occasions and at state banquets, is considered a luxury item and has long been a popular gift. Despite its high price, domestic demand for Moutai has always exceeded supply. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 15:49:06|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's key technology news from the past week: AI FOR CANCER Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University, along with computer experts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) medical tool that can help doctors target head and neck tumor cells faster and more accurately. In a competition with eight qualified doctors from renowned hospitals, the AI contouring accuracy reached 79 percent with 203 patients, taking 20 to 50 minutes per case, outperforming the accuracy of human competitors. 5G-SERVICED BRIDGE The Nansha Bridge opened on April 2 in the southern province of Guangdong, becoming China's first bridge with a 5G network. To ensure smooth network connectivity on this major transport project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, telecommunication base stations were launched on the towers and lamp posts of the bridge. SELF-DRIVING TAXIS Self-driving taxis are expected to run on the streets in the central Chinese city of Changsha in the second half of 2019. Local authorities said the first 100 autonomous taxies will begin test operation in Changsha by the end of this year. Baidu and two local firms set up a joint venture on April 1 to help promote the project after the parties inked a strategic agreement to turn Changsha into a demonstration city for autonomous driving last October. COMMERCIAL ROCKET China's first carrier rocket for commercial use, the Smart Dragon-1 (SD-1), has finished its engine test, paving way for its maiden flight in the first half of 2019. The rocket is the first member of the Dragon series commercial carrier rockets family to be produced by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. It is capable of sending over 150 kg payloads to the sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 km. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 16:09:20|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BOGOTA, April 6 (Xinhua) -- What if a guerrilla fighter spends most of his or her life engaging in warfare and then peace arrives overnight? Some former leftist rebel group members in Colombia chose an honest living with an aromatic bouquet. In disarmament zones at the Midwestern town of Icononzo, ex-members of Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) are brewing organic beer in small batches. Under the supervision of the Colombian Armed Forces, they receive such training as a way to smooth the transition to ordinary life. These rebels-turned-entrepreneurs have learned the ins and outs of beer brewing. Today they have a biweekly production of 500 bottles of La Roja wine that is purchasable in many parts of the South American country. Now reaching 150 liters, "we plan to increase the production to 300 liters and then to 1,000 liters with financial resources that organizations provide us in solidarity," 32-year-old Ruben Dario Jaramillo Cardona, leader of the project and a former FARC veteran, told Xinhua. Colombia was once troubled by long-running conflicts between government forces and armed opposition groups, including the FARC, which claimed the lives of more than 220,000 people since 1964. The FARC renounced armed warfare about two years ago to rejoin society. For Jaramillo, the microbrewery is a success story showing what can be achieved when once opposing parts of a society decide to work together for common development. "We have to make progress in this country, not just us ex-combatants and communities, but the Colombian state, military forces, national police, with whom we have gotten along very well up to now," Jaramillo said. Financed through sales and voluntary contributions from community members, the project aims to help neighboring communities as it expands by bringing employment to locals. Women, who are ex-combatants or relatives of them, also prop up the project. Maria Azucena Rojas, for example, is responsible for washing and labeling bottles. The 2016 peace deal has brought "the joy of knowing that we can go out without any fear," the wife of a former combatant told Xinhua. "Before, it was terrible knowing what they could do to us. We were very intimidated." According to the agreement, the training and reincorporation center as a transition would eventually be obsolete, while residents there hope that doesn't happen, saying the shelter is not merely a home, but a hotbed of entrepreneurial spirit driven by the prospect of leading a better life. Rojas said the center has promoted community building by allowing the approximately 300 ex-rebels there to make contributions. They, for example, have cattle in a farm, "not only for our own benefits, but for other people's." "We invite all people to come enjoy it ... enjoy a very healthy beer," said Jose Hernando Mayorga, who was a guerrilla for 31 years and now takes charge of capping and sealing beer bottles. "If any organization or person or company wants to make a contribution to us, welcome," he said. "It would be a very big contribution to the reincorporation and the peace in Colombia." Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 16:14:24|Editor: ZX Video Player Close CANBERRA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Australia's opposition leader has accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of "playing games" over the date of the general election. Morrison was due to call the general election for either May 11 or 18 or 25 on Saturday or Sunday, but delayed the announcement, according to local reports. Senior figures within the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) have criticized the decision as an opportunity for the government to use taxpayers' money to sell voters on its budget proposal, which was delivered by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday night. Under Australian law, taxpayer funds cannot be used to pay for political advertising during the caretaker period between Parliament being dissolved and an election being held. Responding to the delayed announcement, ALP leader Bill Shorten said he was ready to enter the campaign mode as soon as the poll is called. Morrison dismissed the critisium on Sunday, saying "We do this after every budget," defending his right to call the election when he deems it best. Responding to the ALP's view on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television, Frydenberg did not disclose how much money was being spent on advertising but did commit to making the information public eventually. "Money is being spent in accordance with approved processes. That's all transparent," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 16:34:35|Editor: ZX Video Player Close DAMASCUS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed and 14 others wounded on Sunday by the shelling of rebels on the city of Masyaf in central Syria, state news agency SANA reported. The shelling came from the rebels in the countryside of the Hama and Idlib provinces and targeted residential areas in Masyaf in the western countryside of Hama province in central Syria. The Syrian army responded to the shelling and targeted the rebels, which led to losses among their ranks. A day earlier, similar rebels' shelling killed a civilian and wounded others in the western countryside of Hama, according to the report. The official news agency said the rebels' shelling is violating the de-escalation zones' deal that was brokered by Turkey and Russia last September for the situation in the countryside of Hama and Idlib. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 16:54:46|Editor: ZX Video Player Close CARACAS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday called on Mexico, Bolivia, Uruguay and the Caribbean countries to resume the initiative of dialogue and support for peace in Venezuela. Speaking to a gathering of his supporters in Caracas, Maduro urged leaders of these countries "to resume the initiative of dialogue, decided in Montevideo two months ago." "Venezuela asks for support and accompaniment for a great dialogue of peace, of understanding among Venezuelans," Maduro said. Maduro ratified his will to seek peace through "dialogue, negotiation, and agreement" with the opposition, "for the good of Venezuela." "Let us put all the cards on the table, stop the terrorist attacks and the ambushes, and with the accompaniment of Mexico, Bolivia, Uruguay and the Caribbean, Venezuela can set up sooner rather than later a table for national dialogue among all sectors," he said. Maduro made the invitation "as an expression of political maturity" and of national interest. In February, representatives from the Caribbean community, Mexico, Uruguay and Bolivia held a meeting in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo and promoted the initiative to facilitate a negotiated solution to the crisis in Venezuela. The proposal consists of four phases: immediate dialogue, negotiation (potential agreements), commitments (signed agreements) and implementation (putting the commitments into place along with international support). Maduro hailed the proposal, but opposition leader Juan Guaido opposed the "Montevideo Mechanism." The international dialogue took place after Guaido self-proclaimed himself "interim president" on Jan. 23 and was recognized by the United States and several other countries. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 17:09:53|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Smart city technology is bringing more opportunities and facilitates urban development when it is implemented correctly, U.S. officials said on Saturday. Smart city technology is probably one of the biggest things that have benefited his city, said Mayor Alan Nagy of Newark city in Northern California on the sidelines of an international electronic summit held in San Francisco Bay Area. "Such a technology increases our revenues and more jobs and opportunities that communities have," he said after the opening ceremony of the 2019 IEEE Industry Summit on Future Technology for Smart Cities called by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a worldwide non-profit organization of professionals in electric and electronic industries. Newark is a city in Alameda County, Northern California, whose economy is at the edge of Silicon Valley, the birthplace of U.S. hi-tech innovations, and shares its economic pattern. "We're building houses at an unparalleled level because (of) Silicon Valley and the employees are being hired," Nagy said. "We have advanced technology building going on in Newark now to house Facebook and other companies that were unheard of years ago. This is just lifting this whole area up ... it's a kind of sea level change," he added. Nagy said smart city technology has produced many successful stories for his city in many areas. "If we look at our assessed value as a community, our assessed value has risen more than 15 percent each of the last two years, and that's twice the average of any other cities in Alameda County," he noted. Much of the accumulated wealth was generated "due to the rising housing demands, due to the manufacturing and construction demands that this technology is bringing to us, to the Silicon Valley," he explained. The Newark mayor hailed the summit as "a wonderful tool" for engineers of IEEE to promote smart cities technology throughout the world. The city of Fremont that borders Newark is another Californian area in Silicon Valley that has benefited most from smart city technology. Fremont Mayor Lily Mei said her city is considering using smart technology to upgrade some of the city's signaling on the street to improve transportation and mobility so that people will feel safer in their communities. "Smart city technology yielded many opportunities, and we want to be part of the change," she said. "I think that not implementing the smart cities technology is kind of (like) saying I'm going to stick my head in the sand and wait for the world to pass." Mei added that embracing the technology means it allows the city authorities to have better opportunities "for our students, for our workforce, for our community to compete for jobs." With the technology, it's not enough to bring jobs and companies to Fremont, she said. "We need to ensure that they see they are successful and thrive." Mei said the smart city technology has made her city more welcome to hi-tech companies, adding that U.S. top electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Inc. is having an expansion project in Fremont. "We've had a lot of different companies that are building the logistics behind these manufacturers. And we have also a very exciting opportunity where Facebook is coming now to build their anchor campus" in Fremont, she said. She disclosed that Facebook is going to construct 15 buildings covering an area of 1 million square feet (about 92,903 square meters) in northern Fremont. Mei and Nagy were attending the IEEE summit as local government officials to connect with leading IEEE members, senior executives of Silicon Valley hi-tech companies, experts and scholars from universities of the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, Australia and China, who shared their expertise and experience in extensive discussions over the latest developments in smart cities, business models, future challenges and visions for making smart cities a reality. The summit also opened panels and workshops on smart city and big data, blockchain technology for tomorrow, future AI and machine learning, empowerment of cities, and the smart city technology to build sustainable, green and happy communities. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 17:34:58|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close A young Rwandan lights the candle for Rwandan President Paul Kagame at a night vigil to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide against Tutsi, in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, on April 7, 2019. Rwandans on Sunday started the commemoration to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide that left over 1 million people dead, mainly ethnic Tutsis, with President Pual Kagame calling for continued efforts to transform the country. (Xinhua/Office of the President of Rwanda) KIGALI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Rwandan government on Sunday morning started commemoration marking the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide against Tutsi, raising the curtain of a three-month remembrance period. The genocide claimed the lives of over 1 million people, mainly ethnic Tutsis. The annual commemoration is held every year from April 7 to July 4 in line with the period of the genocide. The commemoration, named "Kwibuka," meaning "to remember" in English, started with the laying of wreaths at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the genocide, followed by a commemoration ceremony in Kigali Convention Center. President Paul Kagame, first lady Jeannette Kagame, African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker jointly lit the flame of remembrance after laying wreaths together with other heads of state and government at the memorial. Former heads of state and government, including former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, and other visiting guests also laid wreaths at the memorial earlier Sunday morning. Commemoration banners can be seen along streets in Kigali. Rwandan embassies overseas have also started commemoration activities. The United Nations General Assembly in January 2018 adopted a resolution that changes the designation of April 7 to "the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda" from the name of "the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda" as was used in a December 2003 resolution. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 18:00:02|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close MOGADISHU, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Somali security forces seized a cache of weapons, including suicide belts, remote detonators and explosive materials, belonging to al-Shabab militants outside Mogadishu, officials have said. Zakia Hussein Ahmed, deputy police commander, said the explosive materials, which also included grenades, cartridges and other substances used for bomb-making were discovered in an underground site in an operation in the vicinity of Elasha Biyaha, outskirts of Mogadishu. "The weapons we discovered include explosive vests, bombs, and landmines, heavy and light weapons," Ahmed told journalists in Mogadishu on Sunday. She also noted that Somali national army apprehended 49 al-Shabab suspects in two different operations in Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia. Ahmed said security forces were acting on a tip-off from residents, which led to the latest operations. This move comes while Mogadishu is on high alert as police forces blocked the main roads of the capital to ward off possible attacks by militants. Somali national forces, backed by African Union Mission in Somalia, drove out al-Shabab militants from the capital in August 2011, but the militants are still capable of conducting attacks on government installations, hotels, restaurants and other public places. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 18:05:08|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close CHENGDU, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The National Health Commission (NHC) recently hosted an event to commemorate the 70th World Health Day at West China School of Medicine of Sichuan University, in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. Gauden Galea, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in China, cited China's tiered care system, control of medicine cost and reform of public hospitals. "These initiatives are all making huge progress and have a positive impact on the Chinese population," Galea said. WHO set the theme for this year as "universal health coverage," and the NHC set China's theme as to "maintain everyone's health and march towards the moderately prosperous society." The theme aims to let health services cover each person and each place, said Wang Jianjun, a leading official of the NHC. Wang said China had provided a basic medical care system to the people as a public product, lifted millions of people out of poverty caused by illness, and remarkably reduced drug prices. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 18:50:23|Editor: ZX Video Player Close CARACAS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- As rifts in Venezuela stayed wide open, supporters of incumbent President Nicholas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido respectively held rallies nationwide on Saturday. In the capital here, Maduro backers, many of whom were dressed in red, began gathering in the early morning. They waved flags and danced to music when marching to the presidential palace. "Fill the streets of Caracas with joy and folk colors to show anti-imperialist Venezuela! Let protect peace and national independence together, in constant mobilization. No to interference!" Maduro tweeted. Supporters of Guaido, some carrying Venezuelan flags, started rallying around Saturday noon. "Venezuela is not afraid and continues taking the streets until we achieve freedom," Guaido said before thousands of people who thronged on a broad avenue. Guaido previously called April 6 "the start of Operation Freedom," saying it was "the start of a definitive phase to end the usurpation, where we are all now agents of change." It was the first rally Guaido led after Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly on Tuesday unanimously approved the revocation of Guaido's parliamentary immunity, which implies that Venezuelan authorities may detain Guaido if necessary. In the northwestern city of Maracaibo, two opposition politicians were temporarily arrested and some demonstrators were injured in clashes with the police, local media reported. A series of widespread blackouts have disrupted production and daily life in Venezuela since it suffered the worst blackout on March 7 when a power outage plunged most of the country in darkness for about five days and led to shortages of water and gas. Venezuela's opposition claims the power failures are the result of mismanagement and corruption, while the government has claimed that the outages have been deliberately caused by pro-opposition agents. Moreover, the United States has been pursuing a policy of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation against the Venezuelan government in support of Guaido. In a new round of sanctions, it on Friday listed Venezuela-related companies and vessels as its designated targets. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 18:58:49|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Photo taken on March 21, 2019 shows the St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels, Belgium. Brussels is the capital and the largest city of Belgium. It also enjoys the reputation of the "capital of the Europe", because it hosts a number of principal European Union (EU) institutions including European Council, European Commission, Council of the EU and a branch of the European Parliament. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 19:00:28|Editor: zh Video Player Close ZHENGZHOU, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 10,000 Chinese people from over 40 countries and regions attended a grand ceremony Sunday morning in central China's Henan Province to worship the country's legendary ancestor Huangdi, or the Yellow Emperor. March 3 on the Chinese lunar calendar, which fell on Sunday this year, is widely believed to be the birthday of Huangdi. The ceremony was held in Zhengzhou city, capital of Henan Province, where Huangdi built the capital of the Huaxia Empire after he united all the tribes in China 5,000 years ago. The theme of this year's ceremony is "Same Root and Same Ancestor, Peace and Harmony." The ceremonial rituals included firing salute cannons, presenting flower baskets, offering incense, a worshipping ceremony, music and dance worship. On Sunday, a series of cultural exhibitions including film and TV series, art and calligraphy, and books was also held in Zhengzhou. Huangdi was believed to have been born in the county-level city of Xinzheng, which is governed by Zhengzhou. He is regarded as the common ancestor of all Chinese. Worshipping Huangdi is a tradition in China. The ceremony of ancestor worship in Huangdi's hometown has been listed as a national intangible cultural heritage by the State Council. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 19:35:45|Editor: ZX Video Player Close KABUL, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Fighting between government forces and the Taliban fighters for the control of the strategically important Bala Murghab district in the western Badghis province has gotten impetus as both sides have claimed victory. Afghan Defense Ministry in a statement released Sunday said that the Taliban militants had suffered huge casualties. According to the statement, the militants have lost grounds following heavy artillery and airstrikes in and around Bala Murghab district over the past couple of days. Taliban's attempts to overrun the district begun about one month ago but got intensified some 10 days ago after the attacking militants overrun some checkpoints and tightened the noose around the district headquarters. The militants in a bid to capture Bala Murghab district also stormed the neighboring Ab Kamari district and gained ground. Taliban fighters, according to Abdul Nasir Nazari, a member of Badghis Provincial Council, captured the headquarters of Ab Kamari district on Friday night, but the government forces recaptured it on Saturday. The government forces, according to the state-run media outlet, the Bakhtar News Agency (BNA), have foiled Taliban's design to overrun Ab Kamari district after inflicting casualties on the insurgent group. However, fighting for the control of Bala Murghab district has been intensified and scores of fighters from both sides have been killed over the past one week. Zabihullah Majahid who claimed to speak for the Taliban outfit, in contact with media has claimed that the armed group had overrun police headquarters and prison in the besieged district, besides inflicting casualties on security personnel and capturing several security checkpoints. Rejecting the claim, Defense Ministry emphasized that the militants' siege to police headquarters and security checkpoints had been broken and the militants fled away after suffering huge casualties. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 19:47:09|Editor: ZX Video Player Close A traditional dance is perfomed during the "Miss Vientiane 2019 Contest" in which 20 contestants participate, in Vientiane, Laos, April 6, 2019. Seven winners of the "Miss Vientiane 2019 Contest" will join in the coming celebration parade of the Lao New Year, and serve to promote Laos' traditional culture. (Xinhua/Zhang Jianhua) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 19:45:49|Editor: ZX Video Player Close TEHRAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- If the United States blacklists Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, Iran will take similar measure with the U.S. army, a senior Iranian lawmaker said on Sunday. Heshmatollah Falahat Pishe, chairman of the Iran's parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Tasnim news agency that the Iranian parliament has prepared a motion in this regard. According to the motion, "Iran will consider the U.S. army as a terrorist organization if the United States designates the IRGC a terrorist group," Falahat Pishe was quoted as saying. Western media reported on Friday that the United States is expected to designate the IRGC a terrorist organization. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 20:06:07|Editor: zh Video Player Close DHAKA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China's telecommunication giant Huawei is showcasing its cutting-edge technological innovations on 5G readiness in Bangladesh. The demonstration event titled "Advancing Digital Bangladesh, 2019" kicked off at Huawei's Customer Solution Innovation and Integration Experience Center (CSIC) in Dhaka's upmarket Gulshan on Sunday. The five-day event starting from Sunday, designed especially for industry stakeholders, will introduce various advanced features of the next generation networking equipment, integration and value creation from all of these digital inclusions, the company said in a statement. Jerry Wang, chief technical officer of Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited said, "We are working here to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent Bangladesh." "Through this event, we will showcase potential socio-economic benefits of Global Digital Transformation, illustrate how 5G will reshape the value chain with impact on all spheres, operators' expectations, 5G capabilities, Usage Scenarios and many more." He said "We have already demonstrated 5G in Bangladesh last year. Now we want to show that we are ready for the future." According to the Huawei official, the program has been designed for invited guests from different industries. Guests will visit the event as per pre-scheduled time and get first-hand experience sharing from Huawei experts. At the event's inaugural special session on Sunday, it has been shared that 5G will bring enormous opportunities for nations, organizations -- either small or big -- and individuals by breaking the barriers of digital divide and empowering all with versatile new opportunities. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 20:46:21|Editor: ZX Video Player Close LISBON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Circulatory diseases and tumors are the ones that most affect the Portuguese and the main causes of death in Portugal, according to official figures released Sunday by Portuguese Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Statistics. Circulatory diseases account for almost 30 percent of total mortality in Portugal, while malignant tumors account for 25 percent, showed official figures. Sunday marks the 71st anniversary of the World Health Day under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization, whose theme for this year is "universal health coverage: everyone, everywhere". However, Circulatory diseases have a declining tendency in mortality in Portugal, while cancers have "a very significant increase among the Portuguese population". Circulatory diseases claimed the lives of about 32,300 people in 2017 in Portugal, a year-on-year reduction of 1.3 percent, while malignant tumors contributed to more than 27,500 deaths in 2017, emerging as the second cause with an increase of 0.5 percent over the previous year. One of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease is hypertension, which affects more than a third of the population between the ages of 25 and 74, according to official figures. Obesity also appears as one of the most important risk factors for diseases in Portugal, official figures revealed. Some 28.7 percent of Portuguese adults are obese and over 30 percent of the children were overweight. In terms of overall health indicators, average life expectancy in Portugal reached 80.8 years in the period between 2015 and 2018, namely 77.7 years for men and 83.4 years for women. The role of vaccination was contributing to the increase in life expectancy and reduction of mortality, according to the figures. Some 97 percent of Portuguese children are vaccinated between the first and second year of life. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 20:46:23|Editor: zh Video Player Close ZHENGZHOU, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 10,000 Chinese people from over 40 countries and regions attended a grand ceremony Sunday morning in central China's Henan Province to worship the legendary ancestor Huangdi, or the Yellow Emperor. March 3 on the Chinese lunar calendar, which fell on Sunday this year, is widely believed to be the birthday of Huangdi. Sunday is also the last day of the three-day holiday of Qingming Festival, when Chinese sweep tombs of their deceased families and worship ancestors. The ceremony was held in Zhengzhou city, capital of Henan Province, where Huangdi built the capital of the Huaxia Empire after he united all the tribes in China 5,000 years ago. The theme of this year's ceremony is "Same Root and Same Ancestor, Peace and Harmony." The ceremonial rituals included firing salute cannons, presenting flower baskets, offering incense, a worshipping ceremony, music and dance worship. Huangdi was believed to have been born in the county-level city of Xinzheng, which is governed by Zhengzhou. He is regarded as the common ancestor of all Chinese. Worshipping Huangdi is a tradition in China. The ceremony of ancestor worship in Huangdi's hometown has been listed as a national intangible cultural heritage by the State Council. Also on Sunday, the city of Zoucheng, east China's Shandong Province, also held a ceremony to worship Fuxi and Nuwa, the even earlier primogenitors of the Chinese in mythology. Thousands of people from China and beyond attended the event at the ruins of the Xihuang Temple in Guoli Town, watching as dancers, dressed in hide and leaves, wielded torches and stone spears to simulate primitive labor scenes while paying tribute to Fuxi and Nuwa's feats including inventing fishing and hunting and domesticating animals. Zoucheng, also known as the hometown of philosopher Mencius, is home to the largest number of Fuxi culture remains in China. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 20:51:27|Editor: ZX Video Player Close ABUJA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- At least three people killed in a twin suicide attack on a suburb settlement of the capital of Borno state, the troubled northeast state of Nigeria, security sources confirmed on Sunday. The attack occurred on Saturday night, with two female suicide bombers infiltrating the Muna Dalti settlement in Maiduguri, a police source told Xinhua over the phone. Local broadcaster Channels Television, quoting the state rapid response team, said two members of a local militia and one civilian were killed in the attack, with 45 others injured. Bello Dambatta, who heads the Rapid Response Team of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, said two members of a civilian joint task force saw two women carrying improvised explosive devices, and tried to stop them. "But they were killed alongside one civilian following the detonation," said the report. The two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives five minutes apart at Muna Dalti settlement. There has been no claim of responsibility for the suicide boming on Saturday. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 20:51:28|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close A doctor checks a child at a hospital in Ghazni province, eastern Afghanistan, on April 8, 2019. The Afghan Ministry of Public Health on Sunday commemorated the World Health Day falling on April 7 every year. With the efforts of the Ministry of Public Health, 85 percent of the country's population by walking only one hour, while 15 percent by walking two hours away, has access to health service centers, according to Afghan Minister of Public Health Ferozuddin Feroz. (Xinhua/Sayed Mominzadah) KABUL, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan Ministry of Public Health on Sunday commemorated the World Health Day falling on April 7 every year. The theme of the celebration which was held in Malalay High School was "health for all by all", the main aim of which, Afghan Minister of Public Health Ferozuddin Feroz said was a universal health coverage. "Any part of the society need health services and we have to cover them in the remotest areas of the country; regardless of the tribe, language and religion," said Feroz at the meeting organized at the Malalay High School, a girls' school in Kabul. With the efforts of the Ministry of Public Health, 85 percent of the country's population by walking only one hour, while 15 percent by walking two hours away, has access to health service centers, according to the minister. The minister described rising awareness of the people about the culture of using hygienic foods and improving nutritional status among students, especially children, as another tip of the event. He called the comprehensive cooperation from all sectors, particularly ministries of education and ministry of information and culture as well as the mass media and civil society very effective in this regard. Minister of Education Mirwais Balkhi also spoke on the occasion and told the event that his ministry in cooperation with the ministry of public health has on hand a health program expected to be launched within the country's school curriculum in the near future. The ministers emphasized that health and education sectors had great achievement since 2001. Mortality among children has dropped by 44 percent, while mother maternal mortality-related death has fallen by 19 percent, after the ministry extended an extensive health services all over the country. Three decades of war have laid devastating impacts on the health sector in Afghanistan. In 2002, only 9 percent of people had access to health services, according to official statistics. However, only 5 U.S. dollars has been allocated for one Afghan to access health services each year, the lowest sum compared to other countries. The Taliban-led insurgency and war have claimed the lives of scores of health workers around the country. On Thursday, a medical doctor was killed and 20 people wounded after an improvised explosive device hidden in a health clinic was detonated in Pul-e-Khumri, capital of northern Baghlan province. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 20:56:39|Editor: ZX Video Player Close TEHRAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Iran and Iraq have agreed to cement ties by boosting cooperation in diverse areas and urged implementation of previously-inked deals. On Sunday, Iran and Iraq agreed on development of two joint oilfields located in Naft Shahr and Khorramshahr border region, Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was quoted as saying by Iran's Petro-Energy Information Network (SHANA). Zanganeh made the remarks after a meeting with visiting Iraqi Minister of Oil Thamir al-Ghadban. "There are massive potentialities for expanding Iran-Iraq cooperation in oil, gas, refining and petrochemicals grounds, and Iran is ready to offer its capabilities to the Iraqi oil industry," Zanganeh said. In the meeting session, "it was decided that a joint partnership to be established between the Iranian Oil Industries Engineering and Construction (OIEC) and a similar company in Iraq in order to develop joint projects," he added. In the meantime, Iran's top military commander said Sunday that his country and its neighbor Iraq agreed to cooperate in the area of air defense to fend off challenges facing their respective air spaces, according to Press TV. Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Baqeri made the remarks following a meeting with visiting Iraqi Army's Chief of Staff Othman al-Ghanimi. Their meeting addressed "the integrated defense of Iran and Iraq's skies, because we might sense threats coming from the direction of (Iran's) western borders," said Baqeri. To this end, Iran and Iraq's air defense should work together and more coordination should be made in this regard, he said. Al-Ghanimi visited the Iranian capital Tehran as part of a delegation accompanying Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. Abdul Mahdi arrived in Iran's capital Tehran on Saturday to discuss ties with the Iranian officials on bilateral ties. The constant contacts between Iran and Iraq come amidst the U.S. pressures on Iraq to stop energy imports from Iran. Iraq's President Barham Salih has said that his country will not be part of the U.S. sanctions against the Islamic republic. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 21:16:51|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close NEW YORK, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Practical approach, which underscores the collaborative side in U.S.-China relations, is vital to maintain healthy and sustainable bilateral ties, former U.S. diplomats said here on Saturday. "The U.S. side should be more practical in dealing with China and get rid of ideology," former U.S. Ambassador to China Stapleton Roy told Xinhua during an interview on the sidelines of an annual conference organized by the Committee of 100 (C100), a premier U.S. organization of Chinese-American leaders from different fields. "The competitive aspects are true, but so are the areas for cooperation between the two countries," said the 84-year-old China expert, who served as the U.S. ambassador to China from 1991 to 1995. Roy defied the mentality of "just focus on one at the expense of the other." ACTIVATING "COLLABORATIVE MUSCLES" Focus should be on collaboration and progress rather than ideological issues which are inherent across different cultures and systems, said the veteran diplomat. The longtime China watcher suggested that the United States eye more on "the opportunities" from a developing China, rather than viewing it as a threat. Roy was joined by other former U.S. diplomats at a panel themed on U.S.-China relations during the C100 annual conference on the significance of fully understanding bilateral collaborations. Given the importance and complexity of the U.S.-China ties, the panelists proposed new solutions highlighting "trust and goodwill from both sides." Craig Allen, president of United States-China Business Council (USCBC), said that the China's recent efforts to deepen reform and opening-up create enormous opportunities to U.S. companies. "There are so many things that we could work together to our mutual benefit," said Allen, who served as commercial attache at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in the 1990s and later as the deputy assistant secretary for China at the U.S. Commerce Department's International Trade Administration. He hoped the United States emphasizes win-win collaboration with China across a multiplicity of dimensions including trade, but not exclusive to trade. Both sides need to cooperate to manage existential global threats including climate change, terrorism pandemic, ocean rising, narcotics and so on, Allen said. The veteran diplomats called for exercising "the collaborative muscle" in order not to leave the collaborative elements of this relationship to atrophy. IDEOLOGICAL APPROACH COSTLY While demonstrating the urgent necessity for better collaborations, these experts cautioned that being obsessed with an ideological lens may cause serious consequences. Roy noted that the pendulum has historically swung between a practical manner and an ideological one when concerning the U.S. approach to China. Reverting to an ideological approach has "mutual assured destruction," he said. These veteran diplomats pointed out that many of the fundamental problems that the United States faces are multi-level by definition, which cannot be fixed with bilateral solutions. Allen said the competitive part in bilateral ties "should not preclude us from collaborating wherever possible." "It is an enormous opportunity cost if we fail to do so," he warned. YOU MAY LIKE Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 21:52:14|Editor: ZX Video Player Close KAMPONG SPEU, Cambodia, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian villagers on Sunday organized a traditional ox-cart racing here to celebrate the Khmer New Year, which will start from April 14 to 16. Sem Sam Ol, head of cultural development office of the Kampong Speu Provincial Department of Culture and Fine Arts, said 26 pairs of oxen took part in the 2-km race, which was held at rice fields in Kraing Svay village in Samrong Tong district, about 35 km southwest of Phnom Penh. He said the annual race, attracting hundreds of local spectators, was aimed to preserve the old-age tradition, and to mark the end of rice harvesting season and the start of Khmer New Year. "According to the history, the tradition of ox-cart racing has existed here for a long time, since our ancestors," he told Xinhua. Ox-cart racer Snguon Chhim, 52, said his participation was to contribute to preserving Cambodia's ancient tradition and to creating a happy atmosphere for locals ahead of the New Year. "I'm happy to join the race. I like it and have never missed it," he told Xinhua. "I have seen ox-cart races since the generation of my grandfather, at that time, I was a child." The ox-cart has been a traditional mode of transport for farmers in Cambodia for centuries; however, the use of ox-cart is now on the brink of disappearance since farmers turn to more modern modes of transport such as tractors and motorized rickshaws. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 21:57:20|Editor: ZX Video Player Close ANKARA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday in Russia amid a controversial missile deal between the two sides which threatens to further deteriorate Turkey-U.S. ties. Erdogan and Putin have already met more than a dozen times and had several phone conversations in recent months, making significant progress in strengthening their bilateral ties. This time, the two leaders will attend the High Level Russian Turkish Cooperation Council meeting in Moscow. The new meeting signals deepening ties between the historical rivals just as Turkey's links to its traditional NATO ally the United States grow bitter over Ankara's planned and determined purchase-deployment of state-of-the-art Russian S-400 missiles. Before the Erdogan-Putin summit, their foreign ministers Mevlut Cavusoglu and Sergey Lavrov met on March 29 in Turkey's southern Mediterranean resort city of Antalya. They dwelled on a variety of issues, such as Syria, where the two countries are in a strenuous cooperation in the rebel-held northern Idlib province, and passport-free travel for Russian citizens who flock to Antalya every year for holidays. Ankara and Moscow have had a tough time coordinating their efforts controlling and disarming al-Qaida-linked jihadists in Idlib over the past few months in line with the Astana process that they are implementing with Iran. But as a new and concrete development, Turkish and Russian forces conducted independent but coordinated patrols in late March in northern Syrian region of Tal Rifaat. "There is and probably will be problems there (Idlib) but Turkey and Russia are determined to cooperate in this field. They are going in line with their engagements," said Russian affairs expert Togrul Ismayil from Kahramanmaras Unversity. However, Turkey's main challenges in foreign policy in the near future is difficult dilemma over its choice of Russian missiles despite U.S. and NATO warnings amid concerns that the Russians could use their system to spy on the F-35 aircrafts. After months of hedging, the Pentagon announced on April 1 that it has suspended deliveries and activities related to the stand-up of Turkey's F-35 operational capability and warned if Turkey takes the delivery of the S-400, its "continued participation in the F-35 program is at risk." Washington insists that the S-400 is incompatible with NATO capability and is not interoperable. It has also threatened to impose new sanctions on Ankara, despite the fact that the two countries have been NATO allies since 1952. On Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivered a new and staunch warning to Turkey on Twitter. The reply to the American warning came on Friday from Erdogan himself who repeated that his country will not turn back from its major arms deal with Russia. "The S-400 deal is a done deal," he told reporters in Istanbul, indicating that the United States failed to give a deal on their Patriot air defense system comparable to the one, offered by Russia on its S-400s, state-run Anadolu agency reported. U.S. officials reportedly still hope that President Erdogan, who had just suffered a setback in local elections, would have second thoughts about bucking the NATO alliance by buying advanced Russian anti-aircraft missiles. "The shipment (of Russian S-400 missiles) is to begin in July," added the Turkish leader. Some Turkish experts argue that the S-400 can work outside the NATO realm without compromising its capabilities. "It's incomprehensible to understand why the U.S. is throwing a tantrum on the S-400 issue. Turkey has insistently said that it will only use it for national defense requirements," said Ismayil, recalling that in the past Ankara had wanted to acquire Patriot missiles but the request was rebuked by Washington. Turkey is not only a customer for the Lockheed Martin F-35, but also one of the eight international partner nations that build key components for the jet, including parts of fuselage and cockpit displays. Ismayil expressed concerns that Turkey could drop the deal. He said, however, it "would hurt Turkey's credibility" and the nation would still have to pay a hefty fine to Moscow. But even Ankara changes its mind in acquiring Russian missiles, its cooperation in many fields, such as conventional and nuclear energy, commerce, culture and tourism with Moscow are expected to be deepened in the future. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:07:37|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- An opera festival will be held by the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing from April 10 to Aug. 4, bringing audiences with 38 performances of 11 domestic and overseas classic operas and concerts. Chinese operas "The Long March" and "170 Days in Nanking" will be staged at the NCPA in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, according to a press conference held by the center on Sunday. Audiences will also enjoy world classic operas such as "Les Pecheurs de Perles," "Un Ballo in Maschera," "Turandot," "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" and "Snow White." Other arts promotion activities will be held during the festival, including weekend concerts and lectures on appreciating operas. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:20:47|Editor: zh Video Player Close Tourists visit the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, April 4, 2019. The market, which has witnessed a booming tourism, received about 1.33 million visits in March alone. (Xinhua/Wang Fei) Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:12:41|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close BRUSSELS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Shortly after the recent successful state visits by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Italy, Monaco and France, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will be visiting Europe from April 8 to 12. Ahead of Li's visit, which will take him to Brussels for the 21st China-European Union (EU) leaders' meeting, and Croatia for an official visit and the eighth leaders' meeting of China and Central and Eastern European countries, the Chinese envoy to the EU said another "warm spring" for the development of China-EU relations is coming. Ambassador Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, said China-EU relations are taking on several characteristics. Firstly, strategic mutual trust has been continuously consolidated between the two sides. President Xi chose Europe for his last overseas trip last year and his first visit this year, Zhang stressed, adding that during Xi's recent trip to France, leaders of China, France, Germany and the EU held a special meeting in Paris, sending a clear signal to the world of enhancing strategic mutual trust and deepening strategic cooperation between China and the EU. Secondly, there are growing common interests between China and the EU, Zhang said, as the EU has been China's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years, and China has now become the EU's second largest trading partner. In 2018, trade between China and the EU exceeded 682 billion U.S. dollars and set a new record, meaning the volume between the two sides surpassed one million dollars every minute on average. Last month, China's national legislature adopted a foreign investment law. Zhang said the law is another milestone in China's reform and opening up, which will significantly contribute to the liberalization and facilitation of investment between China and the EU and create greater opportunities for future cooperation between the two sides. Thirdly, bilateral cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has also been consolidated and achieved tangible results, Zhang said. Last year, the EU issued a strategy for better connecting Europe and Asia, in which China is clearly identified as an important partner for the EU, he said. Recently, Italy and Luxembourg inked a memorandum of understanding, respectively, on the BRI with China, bringing the number of similar documents -- between governments or government departments -- to 22 in Europe. Fourthly, the global significance of China-EU relations has become increasingly prominent, Zhang noted, adding that the two sides reached a 10-point consensus at the just-concluded China-EU High-level Strategic Dialogue in March, including supporting multilateralism and building an open world economy. China and the EU are strengthening coordination and cooperation in the United Nations system and giving full play to the constructive role of the global and regional multilateral mechanisms including the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, among others, Zhang said. China and the EU promote settlement of international disputes by political means, as well as jointly address climate change and foster sustainable development, he said. Premier Li's upcoming visit to Brussels will lead China-EU relations to another "highlight moment," during which the leaders of the two sides will have an in-depth exchange of views on China-EU ties and major international and regional issues of common concern, he said. Zhang said he believes that this meeting will inject new impetus into the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership and lift China-EU dialogue and cooperation in various fields to a new level, as well as improve the stability, strategic nature and mutual benefit of bilateral ties. "The China-EU relationship filled with warmth will bring its warmth to the world in 2019," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:12:43|Editor: ZX Video Player Close ANKARA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Sunday slammed the comments of European Commission over its local elections results dispute. The comments from the first vice president of EU Frans Timmermans were "disappointing" and demonstrated the "double standards," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement. "It is a matter of principle to wait for the results of the objections that were raised before the top election body," he said, describing European Commission's stance without respecting the judicial process as "great misfortune." In an interview published Saturday with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Frans Timmermans called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to accept the outcome of elections held. The initial count showed the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) took a slim lead in the biggest city Istanbul and seized the capital Ankara in mayoral polls on March 31. On Sunday, the ruling party demanded a recount of all ballots cast in Istanbul. Earlier, Turkey's Supreme Election Council (YSK) decided Wednesday to recount in eight districts of the city after the AKP submitted appeals over the results. According to the CHP, more than 70 percent of these recounts have already been completed and their candidate Ekrem Imamoglu gained over 17,000 votes ahead on Saturday. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:17:47|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China sees shared regional medical resources and improved medical service capacity as part of its effort to promote partnerships between medical institutions of different levels across the country, the People's Daily reported Saturday. According to the National Health Commission (NHC), all public tertiary hospitals have participated in the building of medical partnerships. As a result, the flow of patients seeking medical care is reasonable. More than 19 million two-way referrals from medical institutions across the country have been made. Among them, the number of patients transferred to higher-level hospitals decreased by 15 percent compared to last year and the number of patients transferred the other way increased by 83 percent, according to statistics from the NHC. Also, 75 percent of medical institutions participating in medical partnerships have realized mutual recognition of examination results. Telemedicine services, which cover all poverty-stricken counties throughout the country and extend to townships and villages, are now available in all tertiary hospitals in China, according to Ma Xiaowei, head of the NHC. All prefecture-level cities and over 1,800 counties have also been covered by a telemedicine collaboration network. As of the end of 2018, 62 percent of county-level hospitals reached the level of secondary hospitals and 22 percent of them reached the level of tertiary hospitals. According to the NHC, China will pilot medical groups in 100 cities and medical partnerships in 500 counties in 2019, aiming to provide integrated diagnosis and treatment services for patients and improve grassroots medical services. China has a three-tier system to grade hospitals, with tertiary hospitals -- which have the largest number of beds and provide comprehensive medical services -- at the top of the list. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:22:49|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close A government soldier is seen in southern Tripoli, Libya, April 8, 2019. The Libyan government has launched a military campaign against the eastern-based army of Khalifa Haftar that attacked the capital Tripoli, said a spokesman on Sunday. (Xinhua) TRIPOLI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan government has launched a military campaign against the eastern-based army of Khalifa Haftar that attacked the capital Tripoli, said a spokesman on Sunday. "Our armed forces are launching the campaign Borkan Al-Ghadab (volcano of anger) to clear the capital and all Libyan cities from aggressors," said Mohamed Gonono, spokesman of the forces of the UN-backed Libyan government, at a press conference in the capital city. Haftar launched a military campaign on Thursday to take over western Libya, particularly Tripoli. According to the Ministry of Health, the clashes killed at least seven people and injured 55 others on Friday and Saturday. "Tripoli and other western cities have been attacked by Khalifa Haftar's forces, a failed attempt to overthrow the legitimate government. The time of the attack coincided with preparations to hold the national conference, which represents hope for all Libyans to solve the political crisis," Gonono said. Meantime, a statement by the army's information office said that "fighter jets of the Libyan air force attacked the suburbs of Tripoli where armed militias (government forces) are stationed. The attacks hit the targets very accurately." The army's information office said the airstrike was carried out after the "militias used heavy weapons and threatened the lives of civilians." Haftar is allied with the eastern-based government, as the country is politically divided between western and eastern governments. Libya has been struggling to make a democratic transition amid insecurity and chaos, ever since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:32:56|Editor: yan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, April 7 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli court convicted on Sunday a 32-year-old Palestinian man of murdering an Israeli commando soldier in the occupied West Bank last May. The Ofer Military Court in the West Bank found Islam Yousef Abu Hamid guilty of "deliberate killing," an offense equivalent to murder, the army's spokesperson's unit said in a statement. "His sentence will be given later on," the statement read. The maximum penalty for such an offense is a life sentence or even a death sentence if unanimously agreed by a panel of military court judges. Abu Hamid dropped a marble slab on the head of Staff Sergeant Ronen Lubarsky during a night raid in the refugee camp of al-Am'ari, east of Ramallah city on May 24, 2018. Lubrasky, 20, died two days later in hospital. In December, Israeli forces demolished a four-story building, in which Abu Hamid's family lived. Israel often demolishes homes of Palestinian assailants, a move denounced by Palestinians and human rights groups as collective punishment. The Israeli government says the punitive measure is aimed at "deterring" more attacks. The Israeli army frequently carries out night raids in the West Bank, a territory seized by Israel in a 1967 war, triggering violent clashes with local civilians. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:38:05|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close An injured man sits at the roadside after he was injured in an airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, April 7, 2019. At least five people were killed and 34 others wounded when a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a Metal Workshop near a school in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday, residents and medic said. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed) SANAA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and 34 others wounded when a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a Metal Workshop near a school in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday, residents and medic said. Ali Ahsan, a local resident, told Xinhua he heard two powerful explosions in Sawan neighbourhood in the eastern part of Sanaa and saw smoke rising. Yousif al-Hadri, spokesman of the rebel-controlled Health Ministry, said five people were killed in the airstrike and 34 others were wounded. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:43:07|Editor: yan Video Player Close TEHRAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Sunday warned against any move by the United States to designate it as a "terrorist organization." "If the Americans make such a silly move and endanger our national security, we will put reciprocal measures on our agenda based on the policies of Iran's Islamic establishment," Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying by Press TV. In case of such a decision by the United States, "the American army and U.S. security forces would not experience peace and calm in the Middle East anymore," Jafari said. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and individuals affiliated with the IRGC, but not the entire force. Western media reported on Friday that the United States is expected to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:53:26|Editor: yan Video Player Close HOHHOT, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Over 800 relict gulls migrated to Ordos wetlands in early April in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, marking the first mass return of this migratory birds in 13 years, local authorities said Sunday. The gull, featuring a black-hooded head and white body, is an endangered species and a national first-class protected animal. Most of its populations winter in Bohai Bay in China. "In spring, the birds fly to northwestern China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, nesting generally on islets in the lack of deserts," said Xing Xiaojun, director of the administration of the Ordos Relict Gull Reserve in the city of Ordos. An island in the Taolimiao-Araxan Lake of the reserve is renowned as a vital habitat for gull breeding. "There were once over 10,000 breeding gulls, accounting for over half of the whole population," said Xing. However, since 2006 few nests of the species can be seen as the island disappeared as the Lake shrank. Ordos has adopted a series of measures to protect the wetland in recent years, such as dam removal and water diversion from the Yellow River. At present, the lake, with its water area up to 7 square km, has seen boosted diversity of the birds. "Over 20,000 migrant birds came here last autumn, as the wetland's environment has improved," said Ren Yongqi, a chief of a protection station in the reserve. The wetland is also home to 15,000 other birds, according to Xing. More efforts have been made to protect the breeding birds from disturbances. The Ordos Relict Gull Reserve, as the world's only natural reserve for relict gulls, was listed an internationally recognized wetland reserve in 2002. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 22:58:28|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Fighters of the Houthi group shelled positions of the pro-government forces in the country's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Sunday, killing seven soldiers and injuring 17 others, a government official said. The Houthi fighters heavily attacked with artillery shells and mortars military sites belonging to the pro-government Giants Brigades in the Jubailah area in Tuhyata district in the south of Hodeidah, leaving seven soldiers killed and 17 others injured. The artillery bombardment against the pro-government forces was followed by a ground Houthi attack that sparked fierce armed confrontations between the two-warring sides, the official said. The Iran-allied Houthi rebels control the Hodeidah city while the Saudi-backed government troops have advanced to the southeastern outskirts. Hodeidah is the key lifeline entry point for the country's most food imports and humanitarian aid. The ongoing internal military conflict grinding into its fifth year has pushed over 20 million people to the verge of starvation. Yemeni warring parties reached a peace deal on Hodeidah in December last year as the first step toward brokering a comprehensive political solution. Sporadic breaches are daily recorded in Hodeidah as the two sides failed to withdraw their forces in accordance with an agreement reached in the Swedish capital Stockholm. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 23:03:35|Editor: yan Video Player Close RIYADH, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Saudi police killed two terrorists and arrested two others during an attempt to evade a security checkpoint in Eastern Province, Al Arabiya TV reported on Sunday. The four attempted to evade a security checkpoint near Abu Hadriyah in al-Qatif on their way outside the country. The terror suspects attacked the police forces with bombs. Out of the four men, three were on Saudi Arabia's wanted list of terrorists. Saudi Arabia reported such an attempt after months of no violence in al-Qatif region, especially after the demolishion of old houses in the district that used to be hideouts of wanted terrorists. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 23:08:41|Editor: yan Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- When a devastating flood was on the brink of washing away the fish ponds of poor households in Zhongjiang County of southwest China's Sichuan Province in 2018, a man dove into the water. Two minutes later, he rose to the surface to breathe and dove down again. "Come out, Secretary Xu! It's dangerous!" the villagers screamed. But the man in the water was struggling to pry open the flagstone blocking the flood discharge tunnel and would not listen. After making sure the discharge was successful, he emerged from the water with purple lips and wobbly legs, and became seriously ill soon. That man was Xu Jiangjun, secretary of the Communist Party of China branch of Shuichi Village in Zhongjiang. Zhongjiang is hometown of Huang Jiguang, a well-known Chinese war hero, as well as home to more than 87,000 impoverished people in 2014. Xu is one of China's primary-level officials on the first front of the national fight against poverty, and has worshiped war hero Huang Jiguang since childhood. Jiangjun means "General" in Chinese, and villagers see Xu as a general in the battle against poverty. The village had a road that had been under repair for four years and an unsafe bridge that cut off the village's only way to the town. "We will fix them right away," Xu said after he was elected Party chief of the village in 2012. However, the village did not have a dime for the project. Xu looked everywhere for contractors willing to advance money for the village construction, and patiently persuaded villagers to donate money for the repair work. The road repairs were finally completed, which reduced poverty in the village so that the number of impoverished villagers decreased from 158 to 12 within little more than a year. Sadly, Xu died from a sudden cerebral haemorrhage on Dec. 21, 2018. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 23:23:44|Editor: yan Video Player Close NAIROBI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday urged African countries to fast-track the realization of universal health coverage that is key to reducing the continent's growing burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases. Expanding access to quality and affordable healthcare services will promote sustainable development in the world's second largest continent, WHO Regional Director for Africa Moeti Matshidiso said in a statement released in Nairobi ahead of World Health Day. "Progress towards health-related and broader development goals can only be possible by providing access to essential quality care and protection from financial hardships to everyone," Moeti said. "In Africa, the recurrence of major public health events means that there can be no health security without universal health coverage," she said. The theme of this year's World Health Day is "Universal Health Coverage." It seeks to emphasize the critical role of timely, quality and affordable treatment as a means to reducing negative impact of diseases on livelihoods. The WHO is committed to ensuring that 1 billion people globally benefit from quality health services and financial protection by 2023 in line with health-related sustainable development goals, Moeti said. Political goodwill, adequate financing, availability of trained and motivated workforce as well as quality medicine is key to attaining the goal of universal health coverage in Africa, she said. The WHO, in its 2018 state of health report for the African region, identified under-investments in health infrastructure, personnel and commodities as major constraints to the realization of universal health coverage. The global health body is encouraging African countries to revamp policy and legislative frameworks to stimulate investments in supportive infrastructure required to achieve universal health coverage, Moeti said. In addition to policy realignment, African countries can also harness the youth bulge and digital tools to boost their capacity to deliver affordable and quality healthcare services to all citizens, she said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 23:43:55|Editor: yan Video Player Close SHANGHAI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Michael Heppner, 82, recently paid a visit to Shanghai, the Chinese city that sheltered his grandma and uncle from the Nazi persecution during WWII. The British elder celebrated his 82nd birthday in Shanghai earlier this week and donated to the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum nearly 20 pieces of old items cherished by his family. During WWII, Shanghai was one of the few cities in the world to receive large numbers of Jewish refugees. It became home for tens of thousands of Jewish refugees. After the war, some of these refugees returned to Europe, while others settled in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa. Heppner's grandfather and aunt died in the Holocaust, and his parents fled to Britain to escape the disaster. His grandmother Hilde Heppner and uncle Ernest Heppner managed to get two boat tickets to Shanghai and made a temporary home there. They stayed in a Jewish refugee community in Shanghai's Hongkou District from 1941 to 1945. Ernest Heppner then married Illo, who also came to Shanghai for refuge. After the war, the Heppner family moved to the United States, then to Britain and other places. In his younger years, Michael Heppner's only knowledge about his family's stories in Shanghai came from his uncle's memoir "Shanghai Refuge." In the 1990s, the company Heppner worked for started to do business in China. Harboring a strong desire to explore his relatives' footprints, he seized this opportunity and visited Shanghai several times. Every time he came to Shanghai, he tried to find some clues of his family in Hongkou. But he could hardly find any clue relevant to the description in the memoir. In 2004, Heppner's uncle died, which made him even more eager to further explore the family history during the war. He also repeatedly told his daughter Gaby Heppner-Logan to never give up searching. In the summer of 2018, Gaby came to Shanghai and got in contact with the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. In March, Heppner visited Shanghai again, accompanied by his daughter. With the help of the museum, Heppner visited his grandmother and uncle's former residence, located on Changyang Road of Hongkou District. At this site, he learned about the structure of the bedroom and kitchen at that time, which created a vivid picture of his relative's lives. He also donated nearly 20 family-owned items about the WWII to the museum, including letters between his family members and daily household necessities. "I hope to restore this period of history for future generations to reflect on. I will do my utmost to enrich the exhibition of the refugees museum," he said. The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum is planned to be expanded from the current 900 square meters to 4,000 square meters by 2020. More historic articles and documents collected from WWII witnesses and their descendants will be displayed here. Chen Jian, the curator of the museum, said the museum attracts tens of thousands of global visitors and "root seekers" every year. Chinese people's righteous actions during the war have left a deep impression on foreign visitors, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 23:58:58|Editor: yan Video Player Close SANAA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Death toll rose to 11 in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa on Sunday, and more than 30 others were injured, the rebel-controlled Health Ministry said in a statement. According to the residents, the airstrike happened in the afternoon, targeting a metal workshop near a school in Sawan neighborhood, east of Sanaa. Ali Ahsan, a resident, told Xinhua he heard two powerful explosions in Sawan neighborhood and saw smoke rising. Yousif al-Hadri, spokesman of the rebel-controlled Health Ministry, said the death toll increased from five to 11, "mostly schoolgirls," while the injured rose to 39, including passersby. The spokesman said the airstrike targeted the school. Journalists were not allowed to reach the scene following the alleged airstrike. Meanwhile, the Saudi-owned AlHadath TV reported several coalition airstrikes on rebel military targets in south and east of Sanaa, including Sawan neighborhood. Last month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen said an airstrike on a hospital in the Yemeni northern province of Saada killed seven people and injured eight others. Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa. The war grinding into its fifth year has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced 3 million others and pushed more than 20 million Yemenis into the brink of famine, according to the UN aid agencies. UN envoy Martin Griffiths has been shuttling between the rebels in Sanaa and the Yemeni government in the Saudi capital Riyadh to push a fragile peace deal reached in Stockholm in December last year toward implementation. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-07 23:59:02|Editor: zh Video Player Close Customers choose the imported red wine at Chongqing International Exhibition & Trading Center in Chongqing, southwest China, Jan. 18, 2019. Russian ice cream. Georgian wine. Italian leather. Kenyan decorations. Foreign commodities have become a hit in southwest China as the Belt and Road Initiative gains further steam. In Chongqing Municipality, a bonded trading center about 10 km from the city center has attracted countless individual and group customers hoping to buy the coveted but cheap foreign commodities transported to China by freight trains, water and air. (Xinhua/Liu Chan) CHONGQING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Russian ice cream. Georgian wine. Italian leather. Kenyan decorations. Foreign commodities have become a hit in southwest China as the Belt and Road Initiative gains further steam. In Chongqing Municipality, a bonded trading center about 10 km from the city center has attracted countless individual and group customers hoping to buy the coveted but cheap foreign commodities transported to China by freight trains, water and air. Chongqing is a city located in China's western inland and is neighbor to China's vast western areas, which account for about 70 percent of the country's land and produce about one-fifth of China's GDP. The city is also connected to the eastern seaboard thanks to the Yangtze, China's longest river, making it a transfer hub for commodities from the western areas to be sold across the world and for goods from around the globe to reach China's far west. The Belt and Road Initiative has allowed logistics to boom in Chongqing, making transportation much better due to the rising number of China-Europe freight trains. The first such train was launched between Chongqing and Germany's Duisburg. Such trains helped slash travel time by two-thirds compared with water transport and are much cheaper than transporting by air. According to official figures, by March 25 this year, a total of 3,322 freight train journeys had been made between Chongqing and Europe. The number has been rising in recent years. Water and air transportation is also much more convenient as authorities launch more routes to link China's west and the world. In the bonded trading center, there are 15 stores selling specialties from countries and regions around the world. Yu Di sells Sri Lankan Ceylon tea in the center. Yu's shop opened in January this year, and has raked in a revenue of more than 100,000 yuan (14,890 U.S. dollars) in the first quarter alone. The imported tea has been sold to multiple provinces in southwest China, and "retail sales have been great," he said. "I bought some Sri Lankan tea at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai last year, and I was fascinated," Yu said. "Then I decided to do business in the tea sector." But just ambition is far from enough. Easier logistics truly helped power Yu's business. In 2017, an international land-sea trade corridor was launched thanks to cooperation between China and Singapore. The project allowed goods to go out and come into China via the shorter southern route, slashing transport time. Yu's tea leaves come all the way from Sri Lanka to Qinzhou, a port city in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, before going to Chongqing via freight trains. In this way, costs are lowered by about a third, or even more, giving more profits for business people like Yu. So far, a variety of exotic commodities have flooded Chongqing, drawing much business and attention. Yu plans to go to Sri Lanka in May this year to see if he can expand his business by importing more, different commodities. "I believe in the future," he said. "Business will definitely get better here in Chongqing." Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 00:04:04|Editor: yan Video Player Close BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The number of traffic accidents across China saw a 25.2-percent decrease year on year during the three-day tomb-sweeping holiday, the Ministry of Public Security said Sunday. The death toll from the accidents was down 48.3 percent from the same period last year, a statement from the ministry said, attributing the decrease partly to increased efforts of police in traffic control and road patrols. As of 6 p.m. Sunday, no major traffic accidents that cause more than 10 deaths had been reported during the holiday, said the statement. According to figures from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, China saw 112 million domestic trips during the holiday, up 10.9 percent from last year's holiday. Tomb-sweeping Day, also known as Qingming Festival, is an important occasion for Chinese to honor their ancestors. Many also spent the three-day holiday on leisure travel. Around 9.78 million Chinese visited cemeteries to honor their deceased relatives during the holiday. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 00:29:15|Editor: yan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A new study showed that a compound responsible for chili peppers' heat could help slow the spread of lung cancer, making it a potential treatment for lung cancer. A researcher from Marshall University presented the results on Saturday at the ongoing American Society for Investigative Pathology annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. "Our study suggests that the natural compound capsaicin from chili peppers could represent a novel therapy to combat metastasis in lung cancer patients," said Jamie Friedman, a doctoral candidate who performed the research in the lab of Piyali Dasgupta with Marshall University. Lung cancer tend to metastasize to secondary locations like the brain, liver or bone, making them difficult to treat, according to the researchers. The researchers observed that capsaicin inhibited invasion, the first step of the metastatic process, in experiments involving three lines of cultured human non-small cell lung cancer cells. Also, mice with metastatic cancer that consumed capsaicin showed smaller areas of metastatic cancer cells in the lung compared to mice not receiving the treatment. They found that capsaicin could inhibit activation of a protein called Src, which plays a role in the signaling that controls cell proliferation, differentiation, motility and adhesion. "We hope that one day capsaicin can be used in combination with other chemotherapeutics to treat a variety of lung cancers," said Friedman. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 00:39:19|Editor: yan Video Player Close DHAKA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Bangladeshi opposition men Sunday observed a mass hunger strike in capital Dhaka demanding ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's release. The hunger strike event started at around 10:30 a.m. (local time) on Sunday and continued until 3 p.m. (local time). Khaleda Zia, chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has been in jail since February last year after a court sentenced her over the alleged embezzlement of foreign funds. Last week the wheelchair-bound Khaleda Zia was once again admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University from Old Dhaka jailhouse in the capital Dhaka. Also again on Sunday the BNP men demanded proper treatment to their ailing leader. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 00:44:22|Editor: yan Video Player Close NAIROBI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to promote the works of east Africa's pioneer artists to preserve regional heritage, officials said on Sunday. Purity Kiura, director of sites and monuments at the National Museums of Kenya, said the government will exhibit the works of the founders of the art movement in east Africa to the general public in the next two years. "The work of pioneer artists especially in the areas of painting and carvings from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have been forgotten," Kiura said. "The region risks losing a critical part of its cultural heritage." "Kenya is keen to promote pioneer east Africa artists so that the youth can know where the art movement began," she told the opening of an exhibition, "Tinga Tinga and the legendary pioneer artists of Tanzania." Edward Saidi Tinga Tinga was a pioneer Tanzanian painter who died in 1972 and whose memory lives on through the artistic renaissance he started, Kiura said. Most of the pioneer artists from Tanzania and Uganda moved to Kenya as the country was a regional economic hub, she said. "Unfortunately most of the founders of the east African art sector have since died and their work has moved away from the public limelight," Kiura said. She noted that the arts and culture sector has traditionally being underfunded, both in public and private sectors. Governments have always prioritized infrastructure, health and education while the arts industry has received the least amount of funding, she said. She called for investment for the sector. "If well leveraged, the arts and culture sector could form the basis of rapid economic growth and development," Kiura said. Pindi Chana, Tanzanian High Commissioner to Kenya, said that her country is also keen on promoting east African heritage. A lot of inspiration for Tanzanian art comes from a long history of art forms in Tanzania where there are many rock art paintings dating back millions of years, Chana said. She noted that the Makonde people were at the forefront of African wood carving and that the Makonde carvers from Mozambique and Tanzania have migrated to Kenya where their works became well known. The ambassador said the Makondes have concentrated on carving ebony, the black wood of Africa and some of their works were displayed in world museums in the early part of the last century. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 01:04:25|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close Displaced Syrians are seen upon reaching the Jlaighem crossing in the eastern countryside of Homs Province in central Syria, on April 7, 2019. Another batch of civilians reached a crossing point in the Syrian desert on Sunday from the rebel-held Rukban refugee camp in southeastern Syria, state news agency SANA reported. The Rukban camp is home to 50,000 displaced Syrians, who are suffering from the harsh humanitarian situation because of the cold weather and lack of supplies. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani) DAMASCUS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Another batch of civilians reached a crossing point in the Syrian desert on Sunday from the rebel-held Rukban refugee camp in southeastern Syria, state news agency SANA reported. The evacuees from the camp reached the Jlaighem crossing in the eastern countryside of Homs Province in central Syria after leaving Rukban camp near the U.S.-controlled al-Tanf area in the remote southeastern countryside of Homs, SANA said. Last Thursday, the first batch of civilians left Rukban with dozens of people reaching government-controlled areas in Homs. The Syrian government has repeatedly accused the U.S. forces in al-Tanf of preventing aid convoys from reaching the Rukban camp, which is controlled by the rebels near the Syrian-Jordanian border. On Feb. 19, the Syrian government opened two humanitarian corridors near al-Tanf for the evacuation of people from Rukban. The Rukban camp is home to 50,000 displaced Syrians, who are suffering from the harsh humanitarian situation because of the cold weather and lack of supplies. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 01:09:27|Editor: yan Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs here on Sunday summoned Indian deputy high commissioner and warned India over its alleged plans to carry out some military action against Pakistan in the coming days, an official said. Spokesperson of the ministry Mohammad Faisal told local Urdu TV Channel Dawn News that the foreign ministry handed a demarche to the deputy high commissioner to convey Islamabad's protest and objections. "India has been strongly warned by Pakistan in case of any misadventure," said the spokesperson, adding that India should expect a fitting response from Pakistan if the former resorts to any aggression. The warning came after Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a press conference on Sunday that India is planning more military action against Pakistan in the third week of April. "I hold a position of responsibility. I am aware of what I am saying and know that it will be noticed by the international media. We had reliable intelligence that India is devising a new plan. There are chances of another attack against Pakistan," the minister said. The minister said if India executes its plans, it would impact greatly on the peace and stability of the region and added that Pakistan wants the international community to take notice of the irresponsible behavior and reprimand India for taking any action. The relations between Pakistan and India got tense after a suicide attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian security personnel on Feb. 14. Following the suicide attack, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India will give "a befitting reply" to Pakistan. Later on Feb. 26, Indian warplanes violated Pakistani airspace and claimed to hit a training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Kashmiri militant organization allegedly involved in the suicide attack. Pakistan announced that it have shot down two Indian fighter jets for violation of its territory a day later and arrested an Indian pilot who was released later as a gesture of peace. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 04:45:20|Editor: yan Video Player Close LONDON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister on Sunday said that her talks with the opposition Labour Party to break the current Brexit deadlock would mean "compromise on both sides." The prime minister, in a video message posted on Twitter, defended her decision to engage in cross-party talks with Labour on leaving the European Union (EU). The decision touched off criticism and anger among her Tory lawmakers. Further talks are expected this week after the prime minister earlier warned Brexit could "slip through our fingers" unless an agreement could be reached. However, there have been no reported signs of compromise from the Labour Party. May reiterated her warning that Britain may not leave the EU at all if she cannot get a deal through Parliament. "Where we're at is that the government negotiated a deal with the EU, and my preference was for that deal to be passed by parliament, and we could leave the EU on that basis," she said. "But parliament's now rejected that deal three times, and right now as things stand, I can't see them accepting it," she said. The prime minister tried to win over the hostile Labour Party in order to get her Brexit deal, reached by London and Brussels in November 2018 after long painful negotiations, through parliament after it has been voted down three times since January. "But at the same time parliament has also said that they don't want us to leave without a deal, with no deal," the prime minister said. "So the choice that lies ahead of us is either leaving the European Union with a deal or not leaving at all," said May. With less than a week to go before the prime minister must travel to Brussels to request a further Brexit delay from EU leaders, little progress was reported to have been made on finding a compromise deal both the government and the Labour Party could back. EU leaders will meet to decide on whether to give Britain an extension -- and how long it could be -- on Wednesday night. Britain is currently due to leave the EU on April 12 and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by British lawmakers. Labour wants Britain to remain a permanent member of a customs union with the EU, which would mean zero customs tariffs and a single joint trade policy. However, the Tories want to leave the customs union so that Britain can strike unilateral trade deals. The Friday talks ended just hours after May wrote to Donald Tusk, the European Council president, to ask to delay Brexit until June 30, 2019 so that British MPs can agree a withdrawal deal. However, Tusk has been formally telling officials from member countries to endorse a much longer extension, until March 31, 2020. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 04:50:22|Editor: yan Video Player Close DUBLIN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier will meet with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin on Monday, according to a government statement released on Sunday night. The meeting, which will be held at Government Buildings on Monday afternoon, will provide an opportunity for the two to discuss the situation regarding Brexit ahead of the European Council meeting in Brussels, said the statement, adding that the two will hold a press briefing after the hour-long talk. Earlier local media reported that Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Simon Coveney as well as Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe will also join the meeting between Barnier and Varadkar. The purpose of the meeting is to take stock of the latest developments in London and the on-going planning for a possible no-deal scenario, said the reports. Prior to Monday's meeting with Barnier, Varadkar just received German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a talk on Brexit in Dublin, during which Merkel said that her country and other EU member states will do everything they can to prevent a no-deal Brexit. On Saturday, Varadkar said in a local TV program that he believed that it is "extremely unlikely" that any of the 27 EU members will veto the request raised by the British Prime Minister Theresa May for a further extension of Brexit to June 30 at the upcoming European Council summit meeting on April 12. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 05:00:25|Editor: yan Video Player Close TIRANA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Albanian President Ilir Meta on Sunday called for more reflection and real dialogue between the ruling Socialist Party and the opposition parties to solve the current political crisis in the country. Meta made the remarks while attending an event on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the anti-fascist resistance in Albania. According to Meta, dialogue is needed for the situation to go back to constitutional normality. "I believe that only through real dialogue the parties can find a political solution which can restore the country's full constitutional, institutional and democratic normality," Meta said. Albanian political class should not make steps backwards because of their stubbornness, added Meta. Meta encouraged both sides to show that in the last 22 years Albania has truly moved forward. "After the year 1997 the country has made significant progress. These 22 years cannot go to waste for the sake of stubbornness and demonstrations of strength rallies, unnecessary riots, also considering that the tourist season will start, which is very important for Albania's economy," Meta underlined. When asked whether he will intervene to enable the parties' dialogue, Meta stated that it is their duty to show real will for dialogue with each other. "There is enough time for reflection to find the right solution," Meta said. Since mid-February, Albania has been going through a political crisis with the opposition parties holding several anti-government protests, with some turned violent, asking Prime Minister Edi Rama and his cabinet to step down for early elections. Lawmakers of Albanian opposition have resigned from their posts and refused the calls of the European Union (EU) and international organizations to hold talks with the government and end the political crisis. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 05:20:32|Editor: yan Video Player Close LONDON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Talks between Britain's two big political parties resume Monday after Prime Minister Theresa May issued a stark warning that the Brexit people voted for could "slip through our fingers". The coming days will be among the most crucial since Britain voted almost three years ago to end its membership of the European Union (EU). May is hoping that within the next 48 hours a breakthrough will be made in talks between her Conservative Party and the Labour Party led by main opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn. On Wednesday, May heads to Brussels to meet leaders of the other 27 EU member states in the hope of winning a second delay to Britain's departure date. Britain is currently scheduled to leave the EU on Friday unless a further extension is agreed. In a weekend message, May said: "Because Parliament has made clear it will stop the UK leaving without a deal, we now have a stark choice: leave the European Union with a deal or do not leave at all. My answer to that is clear: we must deliver Brexit and to do so we must agree a deal." May said there are areas on Brexit where the two main parties agree, both want to end free movement, both want to leave with a good deal, and both want to protect jobs. But she warned: "The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all. It would mean letting the Brexit the British people voted for slip through our fingers." Her fears were echoed Sunday by Andrea Leadsom, Leader of the House of Commons. In a Sunday television interview, Leadsom said the Conservative Party was having to listen "through gritted teeth" to what the Labour Party is saying. Leadsom also said a second referendum would be an ultimate betrayal of what people voted for in 2016, and would be seen as an attempt by Remainers to re-run the original vote. She also said she would never vote to revoke Article 50, the measure that signaled Britain's intention to leave the EU. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Leadsom said: "It's time to confront the grim truth; the vision we had of Brexit is fading away, and we are running out of time to save it." Leadsom said finding a way to leave with a deal remained frustratingly deadlocked. Labour's Rebecca Long Bailey, who has taken part in the bi-lateral discussions on Brexit between the Conservatives and Labour, said talks over three days had been good natures and the overall mood had been positive. But she said Labour had not yet seen any compromise from May's government, saying Labour was waiting to see if there will be any changes to the deal in the coming days from May. Former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, seen as a front-runner to replace May as Conservative leader, warned Sunday that the Prime Minister's Brexit negotiations with Labour's Corbym were a major mistake. Writing in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Raab believed striking a deal with Corbyn risked handing the keys of 10 Downing Street to the Labour leader and destroying Brexit in the process. May said that when she goes to Brussels on Wednesday she will seek a short extension to Article 50, with June 30 cited as a target date. "My intention is to reach an agreement with my fellow EU leaders that will mean if we can agree a deal here at home we can leave the EU in just six weeks," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-08 05:35:36|Editor: yan Video Player Close BRUSSELS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- European leaders have warned that a no-deal Brexit, while not their wish, is now "very likely", as Britain is still frenziedly seeking an orderly exit days before April 12, the end of the first Brexit extension, and some EU officials have insisted that they are ready for no-deal. Is that true? And what's EU's Brexit preparedness? The European Commission, the EU's executive, has published 90 Brexit preparedness notices, ranging from aviation safety to customs rules, which advise European citizens, business, and organizations on how to prepare for the withdrawal of the UK, including specific information about a no-deal scenario. The Commission has also approved over 40 legislative initiatives or legal acts that are either already in force, under negotiation with other EU institutions, or in the process of being implemented. What happens to EU businesses that trade with the UK? Without a deal, trade between Britain and the European Union will revert to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, impacting European businesses trade with the country as customs procedures are reintroduced. The European Commission is advising businesses in Europe that the movement of goods to the UK will require export declarations, and that movements of excise goods may require additional electronic administrative documents. According to the Commission, goods entering the EU from the UK will be subject to Value Added Tax (VAT) charges by member states, while goods exported to the UK will be exempt from VAT. The Commission has also warned that rules for the declaration and payment of VAT will change, including for supplies of services, as will the rules for cross-border VAT refunds. Within the EU, import and export licences issued by the UK will no longer be valid, as well as any other authorizations for customs simplifications or procedures. To help EU businesses prepared for Brexit, the European Commission has provided a customs guide for EU businesses. Will transport be affected between EU and UK? Legislation has entered into force, following approval by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, for temporary measures to allow air, road, and rail transport to continue with only minor disruptions in the case of a "no deal" scenario. The measures are contingent on the UK maintaining certain safety are regulatory standards, and limited in duration: air rules will be applicable until March 30, 2020, road traffic and freight regulations until Dec. 31, 2019, and rules for rail transport and freight until nine months after the rules entering into force. The North Sea-Mediterranean Core Network Corridor, one of nine core corridors in the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) Network, and which runs from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Marseille, France, has been realigned following the Council of the European Union and European Parliament approval in order to include new maritime routes between Ireland and Northern France. Satellite navigation systems are also being protected, as the European Commission has been in the process of moving back-up systems for its Galileo Global Satellite Navigation System from British territories to EU member states. According to the European Commission, Galileo sensor sites in the British territories of the Ascension and Falkland Islands are being removed. The system, which the Commission reports to have served positioning and timing services to some 600 million users since 2016, should have the capacity to continue operating smoothly without the two stations, which under security protocols cannot be held "in the territory of third countries". Will visas be necessary for travel between the EU and the UK? Even in the case of a no-deal, British citizens should not be required to obtain visas for short visits to the EU of up to 90 days in any 180-day period, following the European Parliament's backing on last Thursday of legislation proposing a reciprocal visa waiver. The waiver will be applicable in all EU member states, except for the Republic of Ireland, which has its own bilateral agreements for visa-free travel with the UK, and will also apply in Schengen associated countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). The legislation insists on reciprocity, however, and will only be applicable if London introduces similar visa-free travel rules for EU citizens in the UK. To enter into force in the case of a no-deal, the legislation will need to be formally accepted by the Council of the European Union and published in the Official Journal of the EU before April 12. What happens to British nationals living in the EU? As part of the preparations for a no-deal Brexit, EU member states are developing legislation in order to allow British citizens legally residing in the EU to continue residing legally. According to the European Commission, these preparations are ongoing, and each member state is preparing national legislation and procedures. The French government, for example, has passed a national ordinance which will proposes a maximum 12-month grace period in which British citizens can continue living in France without a residence permit. This will allow British citizens up to a year to receive necessary permits, according to their situations, but also under the condition of reciprocity for French citizens in the UK. Similar measures are being developed by other member states, with differences in duration for grace periods, and procedures to be followed. Germany is currently proposing an initial 3-month grace period, possibly extendable by an additional 6-months, whereas Spain is proposing a 21-month grace period. What other preparedness measures are being taken? A wide range of other initiatives and measures are being taken by Brussels in order to limit the disruption of a disorderly no-deal Brexit. These include continued funding and support for the PEACE program in Northern Ireland, continuations of the ERASMUS+ study exchange program for EU and British students currently in the program, compensation for impacted industries such as fishing, and continued eligibility for UK beneficiaries of EU funding so long as the United Kingdom honors its financial obligations. What remains to be seen is what the EU has not been able to anticipate. TRIPOLI, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Libya's eastern-based army on Saturday threatened to attack air bases and fighter jets of the UN-backed government in western Libya, as the army continues its efforts to take over the region. "The Main Operation Chamber of the Air Force declares the western region a no-fly military zone for any fighter jets or drones belonging to any party," said Ahmad al-Mismari, the army's spokesman, in a statement. "Any aircraft will be treated as a hostile target, and the air base from which the aircraft took off will also be targeted immediately," al-Mismari added. A few hours earlier, the government fighter jets attacked the army forces stationed in southern Tripoli, according to a military source. The army, led by Khalifa Haftar, launched a military operation on Thursday to take over western Libya, particularly the capital Tripoli where the UN-backed government is based. The army's spokesman revealed on Friday that the army is making significant progress toward the capital city, saying the areas in southern Tripoli are now under the control of the army. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who concluded a visit to Libya on Friday, expressed deep concern over the military escalation over Tripoli. "I still hope it will be possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli," Guterres told reporters before departing the eastern city of Benghazi. Libya has been struggling to make a democratic transition amid insecurity and chaos since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. Barbat din Bolotesti, arestat dupa ce si-a violat si lovit propria mama Un barbat de 50 de ani din Bolotesti a fost arestat pentru 30 de zile pentru trei infractiuni, cea mai grava dintre acestea fiind cea de viol. Victima barbatului este chiar propria sa mama, care are 73 de ani. Urmarirea penala in cauza a inceput [citeste mai departe] Stiri pe aceeasi tema - As many as 19,817 people were vaccinated in Bucharest City from Friday at 08:00hrs through Sunday at 24:00hrs, including 9,808 who got their jabs during the Vaccination Marathon, informs the National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV), agerpres reports. Here follows a breakdown by - In a message on Romania National Day, Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu states that this is an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of promoting national interests in the pursuit of the country's foreign policy goals, agerpres reports. "For me, Romania's National Day is a special opportunity to convey - The 14-day COVID-19 notification rate in Bucharest stands at 6.26 cases per 1,000 inhabitants on Sunday, according to the Public Health Directorate (DSP). It is the 23rd consecutive day when the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate is dropping in the Capital, the highest value having been reached on - Most new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to the last report were registered in Bucharest - 2,790 and in the counties of Prahova, Brasov, Ilfov, the Strategic Communication Group reported on Sunday. Bucharest has an increase of 16.38 cases per thousand inhabitants, down from the previous - Eight ICU beds for COVID-19 patients, other than those reserved especially for people with certain medical conditions that are confirmed with SARS-CoV-2, are available nationally, the Strategic Communication Group (GCS) announced on Sunday. According to the cited source, there are two free - The Minister of Education, Sorin Cimpeanu, was elected President of the Francophone University Agency (AUF), on the occasion of the first edition of the World Scientific Francophonie Week, hosted between September 21-24 in Bucharest, occasion on which the General Assembly of the AUF was also organized. - Maximillian Marco Katz, directorul Centrului pentru Monitorizarea si Combaterea Antisemitismului in Romania, a reactionat vizavi de faptul ca un istoric din Constanta pune la indoiala numarul mortilor din Holocaust. - Romania does not recognize the legitimacy of the elections for the State Duma of the Russian Federation organized on Sunday in Crimea, and reaffirms its support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE). The cited source reminds that Romania April 7, Russian-backed militants violated the armistice three times. They fired with mortars and grenade launchers, as the press service of Ukraine's Ministry of Defence reports. The enemy opened fire from Sakhanka area at the positions of the Joint Forces operation with grenade launchers of various systems, heavy machine guns, and small arms. At 6:45 AM, the occupant launched mortar shelling of defenders of Katerynivka from Molodizhne area. They used about 10 mines of 120 mm and 82 mm calibers. From 9:00 till 10:00 AM, the enemy was attacking the defenders of Hnutovo, the report said. No casualties have been spotted. Earlier, the Pro-Kremlin militants violated the ceasefire regime 19 times in Donbas conflict zone. They used the Minsk-banned weaponry 16 times. One Ukrainian soldier died, and four more were wounded as a result of the attack against Ukraine's Joint Forces operation forces. Parliament made it clear that it would hinder the way out of the EU without an agreement British Prime Minister Theresa May believes that the country's withdrawal from the EU may not take place if parliament and the government in London fail to reach a compromise regarding the relevant treaty with Brussels, DW reports. After the parliament three times rejected the agreement proposed by May, the prime minister concluded that she needed to approach the problem in a new way, the document says. "Parliament has made it clear that it will hinder the way out of the EU without an agreement. Now we have a serious choice: to leave the European Union without a contract or not to leave it at all," said May. At the same time, the head of the British government stressed that she remains in her position: "We must achieve Brexit, and for this, we need to agree on the terms of the contract." According to May, she intends to visit Brussels in the coming days to request a postponement of Brexit. The EU Council and the European Parliament agreed on the visa-free regime within the Schengen Area for the British after Brexit, as the press office of the EU Council reported. The Council and the European Parliament have agreed that, following Brexit, UK citizens coming to the Schengen area for a short stay (90 days in any 180 days) should be granted visa-free travel. This agreement was confirmed yesterday by EU ambassadors on behalf of the Council and by the European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee today. The text now needs to be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, the message reads. It was noted that the organizations would adopt the reached agreement later. Open source The G7 countries intend to step up the fight against a number of threats emanating from Russia in cyberspace and other areas. This is noted in a joint statement following a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Dinard. "We call on Russia to comply with its international obligations, taking into account permanent membership in the UN Security Council, to maintain world peace, security, and respect for territorial prohibitions on arms supplies," the statement said. Also, the G7 foreign ministers criticized the Russian Federation for actions destabilizing the situation on the world stage, including for "interfering in the work of the democratic systems of other states." "We will continue to strengthen our capabilities in order to counter... threats from Russia - in cyberspace, in the sphere of strategic communication and in terms of counterintelligence," the document says. Earlier G7 Countries called on the Ukrainian party to continue reforms, to fulfill its duties on the fight against corruption and to secure the free, fair and transparent presidential elections. We reconfirm our support for Ukraine's reform and are encouraged by steps taken to date, especially in the areas of decentralization and economic growth. We urge the Government of Ukraine to make continued, clear progress along the reform path on which it has embarked and which its people demand, the report said. Besides, the G7 encouraged the Ukrainian authorities to follow up on their commitments in the field of the fight against corruption, strengthening the rule of law and protecting freedom of media and civil society. Military personnel who were involved in the protection of diplomatic missions, assisted the authorities in the fight against terrorism and strengthening stability in the region is leaving the country The African Command of the U.S. Armed Forces (AFRICOM) announced the decision to temporarily withdraw its troops from Libya due to the aggravation of the situation in the country. This is noted in the corresponding statement of the command. It is mentioned that the military personnel who were involved in the protection of diplomatic missions, assisted the authorities in the fight against terrorism and strengthening stability in the region is leaving Libya. It is reported that the U.S. continues to closely monitor the situation and will continue to support the people and the government of Libya. According to Thomas Waldhauser, the Marine Corps Commander in Africa, the situation in the country is "complex and unpredictable." Foreign ministers of the G7 said on Friday that they were strongly opposed to military action in the country and implicitly warned eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar against continuing his advance on the capital Tripoli, Reuters reported. We firmly believe that there is no military solution to the Libyan conflict, the foreign ministers from France, Britain, Germany, United States, Italy, Japan and Canada said in a statement sent amid talks in western France. We strongly oppose any military action in Libya. Any Libyan actor or faction that precipitates further civil conflict are harming innocent people and standing in the way of the peace that Libyans deserve. The advance that began on Thursday by Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) force, which is allied to a parallel administration based in the east, escalates a power struggle that has splintered the nation since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The G7 Countries called on the Ukrainian party to continue reforms, to fulfill its duties on the fight against corruption and to secure the free, fair and transparent presidential elections. It was reported at the joint communique of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of G7 after their meeting in Dinar. We reconfirm our support for Ukraine's reform and are encouraged by steps taken to date, especially in the areas of decentralization and economic growth. We urge the Government of Ukraine to make continued, clear progress along the reform path on which it has embarked and which its people demand, the report said. Besides, the G7 encouraged the Ukrainian authorities to follow up on their commitments in the field of the fight against corruption, strengthening the rule of law and protecting freedom of media and civil society. We also expect the Ukrainian authorities to ensure a fair, free, transparent, and inclusive vote throughout the elections, the report added. Elections 2019 in Ukraine Reuters The Central Election Commission has finished receiving protocols of district election commissions with the mark updated on the results of the presidential elections in Ukraine on March 31, 2019. The press service of CEC reported this. The Commission has finished accepting the protocols from district election commissions on the results of the first round in the elections of the president of Ukraine with the mark updated, the report said. On April 7, at noon, the session of CEC will take place, where the Commission intends to declare the official results of the first round of the elections. According to the body, Volodymyr Zelensky got 30,24%, Petro Poroshenko got 15,95% and Yulia Tymoshenko has 13,40%. As was reported before, Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed his participation in the pre-election-debates on April 19, which under the agreement of both candidates will take on the NSK Olympic. The leaders of the presidential run took tests before the debates it was one the conditions of Volodymyr Zelensky. Presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko undergoes blood at Olimpiyskiy stadium, April 5, 2019 Presidential Administration press office The turn of events before the second round of the presidential elections in Ukraine was filled with "surrealism" after candidate Volodymyr Zelensky began to put forward unexpected demands to the current president, Petro Poroshenko, who accepted this challenge. This is reported by CNN. "Ukraine's sensational presidential election campaign took another surreal twist on Friday, as the incumbent and his comedian challenger, Volodymr Zelensky, both underwent blood tests on live television ahead of a debate," the report said. CNN notes that the second round and the debates of the candidates are of great interest in Ukraine, where the comedian, who played in the presidential television series, unexpectedly gained great popularity among the masses in the elections. "Surrealistic races come at a serious time for Ukraine, which spent five years in a hybrid war with Russia," the report said. We recall that the first round of the presidential election in Ukraine took place on March 31. Overall turnout in the country was 62.78%. After processing 100% of the electronic protocols, it is known that Zelensky scored 30.24% of the votes, Poroshenko - 15.95%, Tymoshenko - 13.40%. The second round of elections will take place on April 21, and the debates between Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky are scheduled for April 19 at the Olympic stadium. Home Just In Speaker raises concerns about Nepali workers in Qatar Kathmandu, April 7 Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara on Saturday held a meeting with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. During the meeting held in Doha, he raised concerns about rights of thousands of Nepali workers living in the Gulf country. Speaker Mahara is currently in Doha of Qatar to attend the 140th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. More than 400,000 Nepali workers are there in Qatar, he told the Minister, We wish that the host government would take necessary initiatives for their work security and facilities and services. In another context, Mahara also appealed to the Minister to encourage Qatarai businesspersons to invest in Nepals agriculture, tourism, energy and physical infrastructure sectors. He was of the view that Qatars progress in infrastructure development in a short span was exemplary for other countries. The man was waiting an hour at the border control and then got a refusal from the border guards to enter Ukraine Hunor Kelemen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania Ukrinform On April 6, Hunor Kelemen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, was not allowed to enter Ukraine. According to the leader of the Democratic Alliance, he was heading to Uzhgorod to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Cultural Alliance of Hungarian in Sub-Carpathia. I could have done that if the Ukrainian authorities, after one hour of senseless waiting and border control, would have let me enter the country. They denied my right to enter the country without any explanation. They simply informed me that I cannot cross the border, Klemen wrote on Facebook. The leader of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania pointed out that he had informed the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs about the incident and on Monday, and he would also ask for clarifications from the Ukrainian Embassy in Bucharest. Toni Frisch, the OSCE Humanitarian Working Group Coordinator, visited occupied Donetsk, was not allowed to visit Ukrainian prisoners of war Ivan Deyev, Serhiy Ivanchuk and Oryshchuk. The occupants allowed visiting only three illegally detained Ukrainians. Iryna Gerashchenko, President's Humanitarian Envoy at the Minsk peace talks, posted this on Facebook. I would like to emphasize that neither ICRC nor OSCE representatives were allowed to see our people, despite the many demands of the Ukrainian party. We have all the reasons for serious concern about the complete isolation of the Ukrainian soldiers, illegally held by the occupants, Gerashchenko said. Gerashchenko together with representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine from the center of hostages release wrote letters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and to Martin Sajdik, the representative of the OSCE. They protested against the ban to see Ukrainian hostage. According to the President's Humanitarian Envoy, Frisch became a participant of "the anti-Ukrainian propaganda video." Envoy Toni Frisch permitted himself to become a participant in filming anti-Ukrainian propaganda video by the pro-Russian separatists and the Russian Federation in occupied Donetsk. Ukraines Ministry of Foreign Affairs should react on this, Gerashchenko pointed out. President's Humanitarian Envoy informed about the situation President Petro Poroshenko and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin. Earlier, Toni Frisch visited occupied Donetsk, where he communicated with four POWs. According to Gerashchenko, Frisch visited the prisoners of war, whom the occupants have been refusing to return to Ukraine for four years. The occupants showed him two more civilians, who were illegally detained. Ukraine's election results Open source The Central Election Commission has officially determined the holding of the second round of presidential elections in Ukraine on April 21, 2019. This was discussed at the meeting of the CEC, 112 Ukraine reported. Based on the protocol on the voting results in the presidential elections on March 31, the CEC decided to hold the second round of elections on April 21, 2019. Two candidates showman Volodymyr Zelensky and current president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko will take part in the second round. Earlier, the Central Election Commission announced the final results of the first round of presidential elections in Ukraine. According to the data received, showman Volodymyr Zelensky got 5,714,034 votes (30.24%), while the current president of Ukraine received 3,014,609 votes (15.95%). Yulia Tymoshenko, who ranked third, got 2,532,452 votes (13.40%). 18,893,864 people took part in the voting. Let us recall that during the presidential campaign in 2014, Poroshenko himself refused from participating in the debates with another presidential aspirant Yuliya Tymoshenko, his key competitor. Poroshenko explained his unwillingness by the fact that Ukraine "is in a state of war. All people emphasize that the country needs unity. If we start quarreling now, our rivals would benefit from it." Open source Ukrainian presidential candidates Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko can refuse to participate in the second round of elections until the end of April 7. This is what Svitlana Kustova, a member of the Central Election Commission, said in a comment to Ukrainian News. "In accordance with the approved schedule, an application for refusal to run for the presidency is allowed until April 7, inclusive, and the decision to cancel is made by the CEC until April 8, inclusive," said Kustova. It is reported that if the candidate who left for the second round refuses to run presidency, then the next candidate with the most votes will be included in the second round (in the March 31 elections, Yulia Tymoshenko took third place). President Poroshenko announced his intention to undergo a test of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) at the beginning of the next week, as Ukrainian boxer, former world champion Vladimir Klitschko had previously proposed to presidential candidates. Let us recall that during the presidential campaign in 2014, Poroshenko himself refused from participating in the debates with another presidential aspirant Yuliya Tymoshenko, his key competitor. Poroshenko explained his unwillingness by the fact that Ukraine "is in a state of war. All people emphasize that the country needs unity. If we start quarreling now, our rivals would benefit from it." Petro Poroshenko, video message on April 5, screenshot YouTube/ScreenShot President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko announced his intention to undergo a test of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) at the beginning of the next week, as Ukrainian boxer, former world champion Vladimir Klitschko had previously proposed to presidential candidates. The head of the Ukrainian state said this on the air of Ukrainian TV channels, reports 112.ua. As Vladimir Klitschko said, the leadership and experts of this organization will come here early next week. And I want to say: I will pass these tests immediately upon their arrival. I think this is extremely important. I think that is an extremely big threat when there is a suspicion that a person who could be addicted to drugs can become a presidential candidate, even a president of Ukraine, the commander in chief, "the president said. Previously the world-known boxer Vladimir Klitschko, who ended his career in 2017, called funny the quick publication of test results of Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky, explaining that the procedure takes at least 48 hours. Earlier Central Election Commission today announced the final results of the first round of presidential elections in Ukraine. 18,893,864 people took part in the voting. So, showman Volodymyr Zelensky received 5,714,034 votes (30.24%), while the current president of Ukraine received 3,014,609 votes (15.95%). Yulia Tymoshenko, who ranked third, got 2,532,452 votes (13.40%). We recall that the first round of the presidential election in Ukraine took place on March 31. Overall turnout in the country was 62.78%. The second round of elections will take place on April 21, and the debates between Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky are scheduled for April 19 at the Olympic stadium in Kyiv. The presidential candidates Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko Unian President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko says he is waiting for Volodymyr Zelensky on April 14 debate at the Olimpiysky NSC stadium. The head of the Ukrainian state noted this on the air of Ukrainian TV channel, reports 112.ua. On April 14 I will be at the Republican Stadium (NSC Olimpiysky, - ed.), exactly where Mr. Zelensky proposed, waiting for him to hold a debate. I think 19.00 or 20.00 will be the optimal time. I invite viewers, and all channels, in order for the debates to be held, as Volodymyr Zelensky wanted, in order not to let him withdraw from this proposal," the president said. We recall, on April 3, Volodymyr Zelensky published a video message in which he called Poroshenko for a debate at the NSC Olimpiysky. He stated that "gives him 24 hours to think about it." The current guarantor noted that the law provides for other conditions for the debate, but agreed to debate at the stadium. On April 4, Zelensky proposed Tymoshenko to become an arbiter in the debate. She ignored this invitation. The turn of events before the second round of the presidential elections in Ukraine was filled with "surrealism" after candidate Volodymyr Zelensky began to put forward unexpected demands to the current president, Petro Poroshenko, who accepted this challenge. This is reported by CNN. "Ukraine's sensational presidential election campaign took another surreal twist on Friday, as the incumbent and his comedian challenger, Volodymr Zelensky, both underwent blood tests on live television ahead of a debate," the report said. CNN notes that the second round and the debates of the candidates are of great interest in Ukraine, where the comedian, who played in the presidential television series, unexpectedly gained great popularity among the masses in the elections. Let us recall that during the presidential campaign in 2014, Poroshenko himself refused from participating in the debates with another presidential aspirant Yuliya Tymoshenko, his key competitor. Poroshenko explained his unwillingness by the fact that Ukraine "is in a state of war. All people emphasize that the country needs unity. If we start quarreling now, our rivals would benefit from it." The results should take at least 48 hours, according to the boxer Open source Famous boxer Volodymyr Klitschko, who ended his career in 2017, claimed the quick publication on the Internet of the results of analysis of Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky was a ridiculous one. The boxer explained that the procedure lasts at least 48 hours, as he wrote on Facebook. Your recent testing was ridiculous. I am a sportsman with 30 years experience, with hundreds of such tests, and I know that after blood and urine tests you cannot post the results on the social networks within a couple of hours. It is impossible. You need at least 48 hours in order to do so, Klitschko said. According to the report, the boxer urged both candidates to take another test and said that he would personally bear the costs for an independent doping-test. Earlier, the leaders of the presidential run are taking tests before the debates it was one the conditions of Volodymyr Zelensky. Petro Poroshenko took tests at the medical center of Olimpiysky stadium, Volodymyr Zelensky was tested at the Eurolab medical diagnostic center. As we reported, Ukraine's Central Election Commission has finished the processing of all electronic protocols. According to them, Volodymyr Zelensky got 30,24%, Petro Poroshenko got 15,95% and Yulia Tymoshenko has 13,40%. Runs through 05/18/2019. Named after the wounded Fisher King of Arthurian Legend, A Prairie Fisher King espouses the notion of home as both a site of idealization and a locus for wounding. Drawing from memory, a narrative is woven in the form of photographs and text of the rural Iowa countryside where my family has lived for generations. A Prairie Fisher King is an ongoing body of work reflecting on the nature of familial hardship and generational connection through the lens of place. An undertone of violence embodies the emotional distress accumulated with age as well as a looming threat posed upon the landscape. Initially conceived as a bittersweet love letter to home, A Prairie Fisher King considers the various myths we construct in order to survive in the face of inevitable change. Through the accumulation of intimately described detail a search for reconciliation becomes palpable. I assume the role of reluctant hero and return to seek the damaged king, to seal old wounds and to salve the land. __________________________________________ Chelsea Darter received her MFA at Columbia College Chicago in 2018 and her BFA from The University of Iowa in 2013. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and featured online by Light Leaked, Aint-Bad, and Fraction Magazine. Her personal work explores themes of place attachment, class, familial connection and local mythologies. She lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico. AWOL is a project of Charles E. Jones , Tombros Librarian for Classics and Humanities at the Pattee Library, Penn State UniversityAWOL began with a series of entries under the heading AWOL on the Ancient World Bloggers Group Blog . I moved it to its own space here beginning in 2009.The primary focus of the project is notice and comment on open access material relating to the ancient world, but I will also include other kinds of networked information as it comes available.The ancient world is conceived here as it is at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, my academic home at the time AWOL was launched. That is, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pacific, from the beginnings of human habitation to the late antique / early Islamic period.AWOL is the successor to Abzu , a guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world, founded at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago in 1994. Together they represent the longest sustained effort to map the development of open digital scholarship in any discipline.AWOL is syndicated to Facebook and Twitter. The Price of Prosperity Western Washtenaw confronts soaring housing costs. by Julie Halpert Published in April, 2019 Thomas Bentley wanted to buy a home within twelve miles of where he works in Chelsea. But after a three-month search, he hasn't found any viable options in his $220,000-to-$240,000 price range. "In Dexter, you're looking at a one-thousand-square-foot fixer-upper" for that price, he says. Bentley is not alone. Last year, Duane and Katherine Quinn bid $220,000 on a 1,200-square-foot Chelsea condo that was listed at $218,000. They didn't get it--another buyer paid $230,000. As housing prices continue to spiral upward in Ann Arbor, "the surrounding communities are experiencing the spillover from the economic growth" there, says Lan Deng, an associate professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan. According to the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors Multi Listing Service, the average price of a 2,000-square-foot home in Chelsea last year was $327,000, up a whopping 39 percent from five years earlier. In Dexter, a house that size averaged $351,000, a 33 percent increase. Saline saw an increase of 30 percent, to $354,000. That's squeezing out young people in the market for their first home, like Bentley; empty nesters like the Quinns; and working people who "find that their salaries are not keeping up with the increased cost of housing," says Wendy Carty-Saxon, director of real estate development for nonprofit Avalon Housing. Past government efforts to promote affordable housing, Deng notes, have usually focused on the poorest households. "The assumption is that working class and people with decent jobs should be able to find housing," she says. But "now the issue is: where are they able to live?" Bentley has a good job in law enforcement (he'd rather not say where). Yet he says less than a handful of his fellow employees can afford to live in Chelsea. Instead, he says, they chose to purchase homes in less expensive towns like Jackson. That's also true at Jiffy Mix, the city's largest private employer. Owner Howdy Holmes says only twenty-six of his 300 employees live locally. ...continued below... This is one excellent article. Most commute from towns outside Washtenaw County with less pricey real estate--like Jackson, Stockbridge, or Grass Lake.Manchester falls just inside Bentley's twelve-mile radius. But while it's considerably more affordable than Chelsea or Dexter, he didn't see anything he wanted there. Rather than making a longer commute, he's chosen to stay in the 900-square-foot condo he rents for $840 per month."I would love to find something" to buy, he says "but it's not out there."---Several factors contribute to the squeeze: job growth; an influx of young families lured by strong school districts and small-town quality of life; and limited new construction.Tracy Rose, a member of the Ann Arbor Board of Realtors whose territory includes western Washtenaw, says she's seen buyers routinely bidding $20,000 over the asking price, sometimes with cash offers, on homes in the $400,000 range. "We have a critical housing shortage," she says.Options are limited, too. Chelsea's housing stock is almost entirely single-family homes: rentals make up only 3 percent. That makes it "hard to keep a well-rounded, balanced, growing, thriving community," state rep Donna Lasinski told a housing diversity forum there in January."It's such a huge issue," says Chelsea city councilmember Jane Pacheco, who convened the forum. Lasinski says it launched an important discussion on possible solutions, like rezoning, allowing "accessory dwelling units" in existing homes or garages, and building "tiny houses" on small lots.One of the first things Chelsea mayor Melissa Johnson did when she took office in 2017 was to establish a Housing Research Advisory Commission. Its report, issued in November, found that an affordable rent for someone earning Michigan's minimum wage would be $481 per month, while the fair-market monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $687. Johnson points out that Chelsea is largely built out, so barring expanding the city's boundaries, any new housing will need to be redevelopment. Vince Elie, who chairs the commission, says they're looking at more flexible zoning as one possibility.Johnson points to one success story: a recent rehab of the Sharon Ann Apartments, which Avalon Housing purchased in 2017. Working with Faith in Action, a Chelsea social service agency, Avalon developed and renovated seventeen units for very-low-income residents.Avalon also has a project in the works in Dexter: In January, the city approved its purchase of a two-acre parcel on Dan Hoey Rd., where it will build roughly two dozen low-income units.Teresa Gillotti, director of the Washtenaw County's Office of Community and Economic Development, calls the Dexter development a model that other community leaders could learn from. But it doesn't help what Pacheco calls the "missing middle," a group that includes both millennials and seniors.Mackenzie Pfeiffer, senior services coordinator at the Chelsea Senior Center, says many seniors want to move from rural areas to town to be closer to services. Yet they struggle to find a rental there for under $1,000 a month. James Lippens, president of the Dexter Area Chamber of Commerce, said there's no rental available in Dexter for less than $1,500."If you're a young professional, are fresh out of school, or are downsizing, you don't have options," says Dexter city councilmember Zach Michels. Late last year, council approved his plan for a housing task force to inventory existing stock, identify needs, and learn what other communities are doing.Saline is looking at the problem, too. "Expanding our affordable housing stock is a personal goal for me, and it's shared by our city leadership and city council," says mayor Brian Marl. He'd like more projects like EHM's Mill Pond Manor, whose forty-seven apartments accept federal Section 8 vouchers. With 142 people on the waiting list, manager Belinda Booker says, there's an average wait of two years to get in. Marl is considering the possibility of expanding the borders of Saline, annexing property for affordable residential development.Some new homes are being built in western Washtenaw, but few of them are cheap--a building site alone can go for $50,000, says Dexter Township supervisor Harley Rider. "Developers can sell $400,000 houses just as fast as they can build them," he adds. But people who need affordable housing, he says, need to be close to public transport and places of employment, which the township lacks."Rural communities aren't suited for that at all," agrees Marc Keezer, Lyndon Township's supervisor. Keezer notes that Lyndon is working on an ordinance that would allow for an accessory unit under 1,000 square feet on most residential properties, with a special use permit. That would "allow for multigenerational living, allow the aging residential population to age in place, and also provide more affordable workforce housing opportunities," he says.But Ann Arbor's experience with ADUs isn't encouraging. The city's 2016 ordinance was hemmed in with so many rules that as of last summer, the Ann Arbor News reported, not a single one had been built."Part of the reason we're not building enough homes is zoning restrictions," says Lou Glazer, president of pro-growth think tank Michigan Future Inc. "Prices are going up in places where you have more demand. The only way to fix that is more supply."He calls the idea that rural townships can do nothing about affordable housing "malarkey." While the very poor need mass transit, he says, working-class people have cars.But the townships value their rural atmosphere--they don't want the high-density apartments, condos, or subdivisions needed to significantly increase the housing supply. With some prodding from the state, though, they are permitting another affordable option: manufactured housing.---That turned out to be the answer for the Quinns, the couple who lost the bidding war on the Chelsea condo. They had a home in Grass Lake, but wanted to be closer to Katherine's job at St. Joseph Mercy-Chelsea. (Duane operates Quinn Tax Service from home.) They ended up just outside the Chelsea city limits in Sylvan Crossing, a manufactured home community in Sylvan Township.They paid $76,000 for their 1,620-square-foot home. They added another $3,200 for an attached garage, upgraded the standard appliances to stainless steel, and plan to build a deck this spring. Even so, Duane says, "it's a heck of a lot lower than a stand-alone home." They're paying $542 a month on a twenty-five-year loan, and $485 per month in lot fees.Because tenants in rental communities like Sylvan Crossing don't own any land, their homes lose value rather than appreciate. But Duane says they're not worried: "We didn't buy it for an investment, but for a place we can stay at a reasonable cost."Property manager Patty Pappas says Sylvan Crossing's residents include retirees, young families, and University of Michigan employees.Kevin Shaughnessy, managing partner of owner Four Leaf Properties, says demand is high: only two of the 137 homes in Sylvan Crossing's first phase are currently for sale. Discussions are now getting underway with Sylvan Township to add 127 homes in phase II. Sylvan township clerk Kathleen Kennedy points out that if Sylvan Crossing is fully built out--a third phase would add another eighty-seven homes--it will account for 20 percent of the township's residences.In Scio Farms, a manufactured housing community off Jackson Rd. in Scio Township, a new 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom home costs $77,000, plus $600 to $700 per month in rental fees. Older homes can be had in the $30,000 to $40,000 range. John McLaren, president and COO of owner Sun Communities, says the 913 sites are nearly 100 percent occupied: "We can't keep up with the demand."Higher-income homeowners often are wary of manufactured housing, but local governments can't ban it--Michigan law forbids "exclusionary zoning." Governments can, however, choose where manufactured housing goes, as Sylvan Township did when it placed Sylvan Crossing adjacent to the city of Chelsea.Saline Township did the same, placing the 288-home River Ridge at the border of the city of Saline. Saline itself has the Saline Mobile Home Park on Maple Rd. It's smaller than Sylvan Crossing and Scio Farms, with just eighty-six older "single wide" units.But the Saline Mobile Home Park may also have a foot in the future: according to its website, "tiny houses" are welcome there. [Originally published in April, 2019.]On June 4, 2020, Sally Mitani wrote: Those of you who read what I write know what I have written about the political conundrum in Malaysia these last many months. You know I have written not... Nick Warner - PNG is one of greatest future threats facing Australia KEITH JACKSON BRISBANE One of Australia's leading intelligence bosses has told the ABC that Papua New Guinea represents one of the greatest threats facing his country. Nick Warner, director of the Office of National Intelligence, listed PNG's rapid population growth as one of six principal security risks confronting Australia. The other five threats Warner identified are territorial disputes over the China Sea between China and the US, right-wing and Islamist terrorism, technological change, North Korea's nuclear weapons and threats to 'rule-based order'. Warner said PNGs population is expected to increase to 20 million in 20 years and this rate of growth will threaten its natural resources including electricity and water supplies. DINARD, France, April 6 (Reuters) - Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations broadly agreed on issues during a two-day meeting, but were unable to bridge differences on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how to deal with Iran, France's top diplomat said on Saturday. "Despite the crisp air of Dinard, we couldn't overcome some of our differences," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said at the end of a two-day meeting in western France. "I think the talks were constructive and pleasant both in tone and in the fundamentals." Le Drian, whose country has been criticised for supporting Libyan eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, said rival factions in Libya needed to hold back and that Haftar should accept a U.N.-backed peace effort. (Reporting by John Irish; editing by Richard Lough) Harry and Meghan in Botswana (left) and when they announced their engagement (right) [Photo: Instagram/@SussexRoyal and Getty] Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have given royal fans a rare glimpse into their lives when they were dating. Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37, shared a previously unseen snap on their new Instagram account, which was taken on a trip to Botswana in 2017. In the intimate photo, the famous couple are shown assisting Dr. Mike Chase of Elephants Without Borders by equipping a bull elephant with a satellite collar. The now-duke and duchess are dressed casually, kneeling on the ground in the , while fitting the collar to the sedated elephant, which allows scientists to track its movements. The couple are dressed casually, kneeling on the ground, while fitting the collar to the sedated elephant, which allows scientists to track its movements. Photo: Instagram It was included in a carousel of photos to highlight the dukes work around conservation and protecting the planet, after he, brother William and their father Prince Charles attended the premiere of David Attenboroughs new Netflix documentary Our Planet, on Thursday night. Harry and Meghan, who are expecting their first child in the coming weeks, began dating in July 2016 but they managed to keep the relationship secret for a few months. The couple were spotted travelling to Botswana in Southern Africa in August 2017, around the time of Meghans 36th birthday. There were rumours at the time that a proposal was imminent but nothing was confirmed. Meghan and Harry made their first public appearance at the Invictus Games Toronto in September 2017 [Photo: PA] The pair made their first public appearance together at the Invictus Games in Toronto a month later. On November 27, 2017 the prince and the former actress announced their engagement and were married at St Georges Chapel in Windsor in May 2018. On Thursday it was revealed that Harry and Meghan have moved to their new official residence at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, ahead of the babys birth. 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. Afghanistan's chief executive Abdullah Abdullah welcomed Kabul's decision Sunday to send a delegation to meet with the Taliban, saying he hoped they would present a "unified position" for the Afghan people. In an ongoing push to find a way out of the country's 17-year-old war, Kabul had earlier announced it would send representatives to "exchange views" with Taliban officials at fresh talks, due to take place in the Qatari capital Doha later this month. US and Taliban officials have held several rounds of talks but the militant group has so far refused to talk directly to the Afghan government, which they consider an illegitimate regime. "We need to have governmental and nongovernmental politicians in one platform, and talk future peace and reconciliation," Abdullah told AFP on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan. "The aim of (the delegation) is to present a unified position of (the) people of Afghanistan", he added. Mohammad Omar Daudzai, President Ashraf Ghani's envoy for peace, said the delegation would serve only to swap views with the Taliban, and its members would not necessarily be the same as a formal negotiating team. Officials will meet Wednesday in Kabul to finalise delegates, and to decide who might comprise an official negotiating team. In a statement, the Taliban said the upcoming Doha talks would clarify participants' "views and policies and sharing their stance". "The said conference is not a negotiations summit or meeting," the Islamist extremist group said. The Taliban and Afghan opposition groups held a similar meeting in Moscow in February. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad spent last week in Afghanistan as part of an ongoing push for a peace deal. His visit came against the backdrop of strains between Washington and Ghani's administration, which has complained bitterly of being sidelined in peace talks. Khalilzad has repeatedly called on Ghani to form a strong negotiating team to reach a deal before the country's delayed presidential elections, now slated for September. On Friday, during a side trip Khalilzad made to Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan said he had some "brotherly advice" for Afghanistan, suggesting an interim government in Kabul to help smooth the talks process. It was not the first time Khan had made such a suggestion. Kabul was again furious, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned a Pakistani diplomat to explain the remarks. The notion of an interim government to tide things over between the end of Ghani's term in May and an election has sparked controversy in Afghanistan, and there is as yet no clarity as to what will happen. An "interim government for the sake just of interim government, I am not for it, (it) will not solve anything," Abdullah said. "An interim arrangement as a result of the package for peace that is agreed upon between both sides -- why not?" Khalilzad left Afghanistan on Sunday following what the US embassy called "productive" talks. "Khalilzad was pleased to see the Afghans with whom he met, inside and outside government, coming together to put peace first," the embassy said in statement. Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, during an AFP interview in Jordan, said "governmental and non-governmental politicians" need to be on one platform for talks on future peace and reconciliation After Britain leaves the European Union some 900 Britons serving on local councils in France will also have to give up their seat at the table. Like all EU citizens living in another member country, Britons in France have the right to vote in local elections and stand for election to their local council. But in leaving the bloc Britain will forfeit that right, meaning that British residents will no longer be able to represent the communities some have served for years. Sandra Sheward and her husband moved to the western French region of Brittany 13 years ago. "Our children fled the nest and we decided to drop out of the rat race in London," said Sheward, 58, a former training specialist for a property services company. The pair restored a farmhouse on the edge of Saint-Caradec, a riverside village of 1,200 people, where Sheward was courted by the mayor to join his slate of candidates for the municipal council in 2014. Being the only non-French councillor, and one who has yet to fully master the language, has not been an obstacle, says Sheward, a born organiser who developed the village's Christmas art market and helped set up a yoga class, among other activities. "She doesn't speak much during council meetings but when she does it's always very constructive,? Mayor Alain Guillaume said. In a region that draws large numbers of British tourists and where a number of Britons have second homes, it's also helpful to have a native English speaker to call on for translations and other assistance. But if Britain leaves the EU as expected, Sheward will be forced to bow out of politics at the next local elections in 2020. "French villages are like ghost towns so it has been nice to be on the council. You get to meet more people!" said Sheward, who has applied for residency in France. "I'd like to be re-elected but it depends on Brexit," she said, adding with a sigh: "I just wish they'd get on with it so that we too can get on with our lives." - 'Mad Englishwoman with dogs' - According to official British statistics, France is home to a little over 157,000 British citizens, making it the biggest expatriate British community after that of Spain. Outside Paris, large numbers are to be found in Brittany and the southwestern Dordogne region. France has given them a year after Brexit to apply for residency but many have decided not to wait for divorce day to get their papers in, swamping local authorities. The government has attempted to fend off panic, with former European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau assuring in March: "We want them to stay. They are an asset for France." About 10 kilometres to the west of Sheward's village in Brittany, an Englishwoman is also a lynchpin of her community. Jacqueline Bertho, 60, from Yorkshire, ended up in France in 2000 after a divorce, and began a new life in "Kreiz Breizh" -- Breton for the centre of Brittany, where she lives with her Breton husband and their daughter. In the village of Saint-Guen (population 450), which is "very rural, like 1960s Britain", the chatty 60-year-old is a well-known figure. "I'm the mad Englishwoman with the dogs," she jokes. While still feeling "very much British", Bertho says she has thrown herself into community life, volunteering to teach English to local schoolkids, helping the elderly and, since 2014, becoming a member of the council. A year after her election, Bertho obtained French citizenship, meaning her place in France is assured. But she worries that other British couples who retired to the region, where they restored old houses and helped revive villages that were in their death throes, will struggle. "Most won't be able to become French," she said, citing their French language skills, which are put to a citizenship test, as a key hurdle. Tim Richardson, a British winemaker who sits on the council of the Dordogne village of Eymet, is one of those waiting for news on his citizenship application, which he submitted last year. The father-of-two, who has been living since 1991 in the region nicknamed Dordogneshire after its large British population, is confident of becoming French. And if he is forced to give up his council seat? "Tant pis (too bad)", he said in a telephone interview. "It's not the end of the world. There is no reason I cannot continue helping out in local life." Sandra Sheward of Britain sits on the local council in Saint-Caradec, western France. Jacqueline Bertho, a Briton who has obtained French citizenship, sits on the local council in Saint-Guen, western France. A man who tried to sexually assault a woman while she was standing on an inner Sydney street is still on the loose. Police are looking for the man, who forced himself on the 28-year-old woman when she was standing on the corner of Terminus St at Petersham about 1.30am on Thursday. Police said he tried to sexually assault the woman but she pushed him away and both fled in opposite directions. The man approached the woman on a Petersham street and attempted to sexually assault a woman, police say. Source: NSW Police The man, aged in his 20s, drove past the woman on Crystal St soon after and tried to speak to her before driving off. Police have described the man as being of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean appearance with an olive complexion, aged in his 20s with a slim build and a beard. He was wearing a black polo short with a red collar, cuffed tracksuit pants, a backwards cap and bright red New Balance joggers. Detectives are urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. 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 Yahoos daily newsletter. Sign up here. Animal rights protesters are blocking a major Melbourne CBD intersection during the morning peak hour while at an outer suburb, they have chained themselves to a truck. The city demonstration has blocked the busy Flinders Street and Swanston Street intersection and police are on site. It is understood the protestors are commemorating the first anniversary of the documentary Dominon, which looked to uncover the underbelly of the animal agriculture. CBD protesters are holding signs that say: This is a peaceful protest and SOS animal emergency climate emergency. Vegan protestors have brought Melbournes CBD to a standstill. Source: AAP Vans draped in black and emblazoned with the web address of a vegan documentary, are parked in the middle of the intersection. Protests have also been reported in other regions with vegan activists at Pakenham chaining themselves to a truck. The Country Fire Authority is supporting police to free them. Vegan activists have chained themselves to a truck in Pakenham. Source: AAP In the city, some trams have stopped running while others are being diverted. Commuters are being told to consider the city loop train as an alternative. Its causing quite the headache for people, Public Transport Victorias Georgia Main told 3AW. Victoria Police said its monitoring the protest to ensure it is peaceful. Vegan protesters have stopped traffic in Melbournes CBD. Source: AAP It is understood protesters have blocked the intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets using vehicles, which a small number have chained themselves to, they said in a statement. The safety of the community is our number one priority. Victoria Police respects peoples right to protest peacefully but will not tolerate any anti-social behaviour or violence. VicRoads has urged motorists to allow extra time for travel. Melbourne CBD shut down as animal rights protesters block the city. Details shortly on @sunriseon7 pic.twitter.com/xQEkL3Xo15 David Woiwod (@DavidWoiwod) April 7, 2019 It comes after hundreds of animal rights activists rallied on Saturday, as part of a global protest, calling for an end to slaughterhouses outside Queen Victoria Market. Story continues The protest comes after a Victorian cafe was forced to close over excessive campaigning on site. Further protests are expected in Australia on Monday, with vegan activists meeting in Sydneys Hyde Park. Scott Morrison slams activists behaviour In the wake of recent visits to farmers properties, Scott Morrison has admonished as un-Australian the animal activists behind a controversial map of farmers addresses and contact details. The prime minister has also scolded the shameful actions of vegan protesters who have invaded farms and abattoirs. It is shameful, it is un-Australian, Mr Morrison told 2GB radio on Monday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has condemned vegan protesters who have invaded farms and abattoirs. Source: AAP This is just another form of activism that I think runs against the national interest, and the national interest is being able to farm their own land. The Morrison government has put the Aussie Farms website under privacy laws, exposing it to much tougher penalties for refusing to take down the map. And as about 20 animal rights campaigners chain themselves to equipment at a Queensland abattoir, the prime minister expects the police to play a role. Im expecting state governments as Im sure they will to do their jobs, he said. Up to 200 others remained outside the Warwick facility, protesting against what they said was the barbaric slaughter of sheep and pigs. Brad King, from the activist group Farm Animal Rescue, was among those at the protest and said animals slaughtered at the site had endured terrifying deaths. On Sunday, Queensland Agriculture Minister Mark Furner said hed had a gutful of activists putting farms at risk. He is drafting regulations that would allow police and agriculture ministers to slap protesters with on-the-spot fines. 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 Yahoos daily newsletter. Sign up here. A convicted killer is on the run after removing his electronic monitoring anklet while on parole in Sydney. Damien Anthony Peters, 50, was last seen at Randwicks Prince of Wales Hospital about 4.15pm on Sunday and police found his monitoring device just over four hours later in nearby Kensington. Peters pleaded guilty to murdering and dismembering two of his male lovers in his Surry Hills flat in 2001 and was jailed for 21 years, with a non-parole period of 13 years, in 2002. Damien Anthony Peters pleaded guilty to murdering two lovers. Source: NSW Police The court heard Peters, then 32, had stabbed Tereaupii Akai, 50, twice in the neck before cutting up his body and throwing it in a council bin. About eight months later Peters stabbed 57-year-old Bevan James Frost to death while giving him a massage in bed before cutting up his body. He was last seen at Prince of Wales hospital in Randwick on Sunday afternoon. Source: Google Maps Detectives investigating Mr Akais disappearance found Mr Frosts remains in the bath when they went to Peters flat. Peters is described as Caucasian and 175 to 185cm tall, with a muscular build and short brown hair. He has a tattoo of a snake wrapped around a panther on his upper right arm and tribal style tattoos on his upper left arm. Anyone who has information about the whereabouts of Mr Peters is urged not to approach the man and to contact Eastern Beaches Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. 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 Yahoos daily newsletter. Sign up here. European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans hit back Sunday at accusations of political bias from Poland's right-wing government, as he campaigned as a Socialist candidate for May's European elections. In his commission role on Wednesday Timmermans announced fresh action against Poland over its controversial judicial reforms, saying a new disciplinary regime for judges would have a "chilling effect" on judicial independence. On Thursday, Jaroslaw Sellin, a deputy culture minister in Poland's right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government, accused Timmermans of playing politics by launching the new infringement procedure ahead of the May 26 European vote in Poland. But Timmermans dismissed the accusations in comments to reporters in Warsaw Sunday. "There is no link whatsoever even though the Polish government pretends this is linked to the elections," he said. "This has nothing to do with the election." He was speaking at a joint press conference with Robert Biedron, the leader of Poland's new progressive Spring party at a campaign event for the European ballot. "It is clear from all evidence that the way the new disciplinary measures work, it has a chilling effect on Polish judges, so it intimidates them," Timmermans added. The new infringement procedure is the latest round of the bitter tussle between Brussels and the PiS government in Warsaw. Poland has been at loggerheads with the bloc over the sweeping reforms its government insists are needed to tackle corruption and overhaul a judicial system still haunted by the communist era. The EU has already launched unprecedented proceedings against Poland over "systemic threats" to the rule of law that could see its EU voting rights suspended. On Thursday, Sellin said of Timmermans: "He has a political interest in it because he is in the heat of the election campaign," the Polish PAP news agency reported. "He wants to be the chief European commissioner on behalf of the socialists, he fights for this position and wants to renew his mandate." An IBRIS poll on the European ballot published Friday put the ruling PiS ahead with 39 percent compared to 36.5 percent support for the European Coalition, an alliance of liberal, centre-right and leftist opposition parties. European First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, pictured, has hit back at accusations of political bias from Poland's right-wing government The former Maldives president on Sunday vowed sweeping reforms and an end to government corruption after leading his party to a record landslide victory just five months since returning from exile. Mohamed Nasheed, 51, made a dramatic return to the top of the national parliament, with his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) securing more than two-thirds in the 87-member assembly. Nasheed promised to use his party's mandate to usher in a new era of stability and democracy in the Indian Ocean archipelago as it emerges from years of strongman rule, political crises and corruption scandals miring the government and judiciary. "Our foremost duty is to bring peace to the government", Nasheed told supporters in the capital Male on Sunday. Provisional results from the Elections Commission showed Nasheed's party won 68 seats with the Jamhooree Party a distant second, securing just seven. The party of former strongman president Abudulla Yameen trailed with only four. Nasheed's comprehensive victory was another rebuke for his arch-rival Yameen, who was dumped in a shock election defeat in September under a cloud of corruption and embezzlement allegations. Yameen did not run, but his party -- the Progressive Party of Maldives -- finished in third. The remaining seats were collected by minor parties and independents. Nasheed was barred from running in the presidential election but his former deputy, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, emerged triumphant over Yameen. The former leader declared the days of "Rolex watches and Kohinoor are over", referring to high-profile scandals in the Maldives where MPs have allegedly been bought with luxury gifts, including gems. "The parliament you have elected today possesses integrity," said Nasheed, who won a seat in the People's Majlis, or parliament representing a constituency in the capital Male. "You desired to reform the general well-being of the nation... Hopefully we will succeed in fulfilling your wishes." Nasheed also vowed to transform the Maldives, a popular honeymoon destination home to 340,000 Sunni Muslims, into a parliamentary democracy. An executive presidential system was adopted under political reforms in 2008, when dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom stood down after 30 years in power. Two of Gayoom's children contested this poll, but only one was successful in winning a seat. As the results trickled in Saturday, and Nasheed's victory was clearly within grasp, the dogged political veteran declared the Maldives was heading for "a golden yellow dawn". Yellow is the colour of his party. - Challenges ahead - Election officials estimated the final turnout to be 80 percent, less than the September presidential election but a record for a parliamentary poll. The official final results are expected later. President Solih, who has promised to investigate corruption allegations against Yameen, thanked voters for delivering "a huge majority" for the MDP. "While we celebrate, we must also not forget the immense challenges that lie ahead of us," he said in a statement. Election commissioner Ahmed Shareef told reporters there had been no complaints of irregularities in the run up to the vote, during balloting or at the count. The thumping MDP victory caps a remarkable comeback for Nasheed, who until November was a fugitive in exile. Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years prison in 2015 but left the Maldives a year later, after being granted prison leave for medical treatment in Britain. The charges were dropped by the Supreme Court after Solih toppled Yameen, with judges saying there was no basis for the charges. International rights groups had decried the terrorism conviction, imposed while Yameen was in power, as politically motivated and unjustified. The Maldives was on the verge of being slapped with Western-led sanctions before Solih won the presidential election on a pledge to end corruption in the country, best known for its luxury tourism. Nasheed has also opposed heavy borrowing from China under Yameen's administration, accusing the former strongman of mortgaging the island paradise to Beijing for infrastructure projects. Former president Mohamed Nasheed is set to return to power after his MDP party headed for a two-thirds majority Arrested former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn is set to name the people he believes are responsible for his downfall in Japan, his wife said in an interview on Sunday as she fled Tokyo out of fear she could be detained. Ghosn was re-arrested last week in the Japanese capital over fresh allegations of financial misconduct which will see him held in custody until at least April 14. Speaking to the Journal du Dimanche newspaper in France, his wife Carole detailed the latest twists in the extraordinary saga, saying that Ghosn had recorded a video interview in English before his detention. "He names the people responsible for what has happened to him. The lawyers have it. It will be released soon," she told the newspaper. Carole added that she had fled Tokyo on a flight to Paris -- with support from the French ambassador to Tokyo -- because she "felt in danger." Despite her Lebanese passport being confiscated by Japanese authorities, Carole said she was able to use her American passport to board a flight and was accompanied by the ambassador to the airport. "He didn't leave me until the plane," she explained. "Up to the last second, I didn't know if they were going to let me fly. It was surreal." The role of the French ambassador could lead to fresh friction between the countries over the highly sensitive case, which involves Nissan and French car maker Renault, which were both previously run by Ghosn. Japanese news channel NHK said prosecutors in Tokyo wanted to question Carole on a voluntary basis. Other reports in Japan say that investigators are looking into allegations that company money allegedly misused by Ghosn could have transited through a business that was run by his wife. - 'Different person' - Carole intends now to try to pressure the French government to do more for her husband whose 108-day imprisonment in Japan between November 19 and March 6 had left him a "different person," she told The Financial Times in a separate interview. France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday he had raised the case during talks with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono on the sidelines of the meeting of Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers in the French resort of Dinard. Le Drian said he had "reminded him of our attachment to the presumption of innocence and the full rights of consular protection." Japanese authorities are looking into new allegations that Ghosn transferred some $15 million in Nissan funds between late 2015 and mid-2018 to a dealership in Oman. They suspect around $5 million of these funds were siphoned off for Ghosn's use, including for the purchase of a luxury yacht and financing personal investments. Prosecutors say Ghosn "betrayed" his duty not to cause losses to Nissan "in order to benefit himself." Ghosn denies the allegations and says he is also innocent of the three formal charges he faces: two charges of deferring his salary and concealing that in official shareholders' documents, and a further charge related to investment losses. The man previously seen as the most powerful figure in the global car industry told French channel TF1 last week that he was "a combative man and an innocent man" and vowed to "defend myself to the bitter end". And he voiced concern that he would not be given a fair hearing in Japan where around 99 percent of trials result in a conviction. Carole Ghosn (R) wants the French government to do more for her husband Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iraq to demand US troops leave "as soon as possible", warning that Washington is plotting to remove the government in Baghdad. The remarks came during a visit to Tehran on Saturday by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, whose country is under pressure from the United States to distance itself from Iran. "You should take actions to make sure the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because wherever they have had an enduring presence, forcing them out has become problematic," Khamenei told Abdel Mahdi. "The current government and parliament in Iraq and the political figures are not what the US desires; they plot to remove them from the political scene of Iraq," he said, according to his official website. Abdel Mahdi, on his first official trip to Iran, also met Saturday with President Hassan Rouhani, who visited Iraq last month. Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year and hit Tehran with sanctions. 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 advisers" and equipment along with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) elite Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. - Terrorism blacklist - According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington is planning to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO), an unprecedented step that would escalate tensions between the two countries. The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said President Donald Trump's administration would announce the long-mulled decision as soon as Monday. But it said the Pentagon and the US Central Intelligence Agency were concerned the move could increase risks for US troops without doing much more to damage the Iranian economy. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the expected measure was "another US disaster" in the making, and warned Washington on Sunday of the consequences it could have. "#NetanyahuFirsters who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region," Zarif said on Twitter, referring to supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf. @realDonaldTrump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster," he added. The Guards' commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said US troops would no longer "enjoy the peace they have today" in the Middle East if Washington goes ahead with "such foolishness," according to the IRGG's website. Iran's parliament has vowed to retaliate by passing an urgent bill putting American troops on a terrorism blacklist alongside the Islamic State group, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported. "Even though we believe one should not play along with America's extreme acts, the reality is that we must retaliate," the head of Iran's influential national security and foreign policy commission, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, told ISNA. A statement signed by a majority of MPs in support of the bill said any action against Iran's national security and its armed forces was "crossing a red line" and the US administration would "regret" its decision. The IRGC was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the new system. Designating the Guards as a terrorist organisation would "effectively be a service to terrorists," Falahatpisheh said, since they have "the biggest role in combatting terrorism" in the region. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iraqi premier Adel Abdel Mahdi that the US is plotting to remove his government A US tourist and a safari guide kidnapped by gunmen in a Ugandan national park have been recovered safe and sound after a ransom was paid for their release, a safari firm said on Sunday. The pair were hauled from their safari vehicle by four gunmen around dusk on Tuesday as they drove through the Queen Elizabeth National Park. Mike Walker, manager of Wild Frontiers Safaris, said US tourist Kimberly Endicott and experienced guide Jean-Paul Mirenge, were "back safe". "Ransom paid and people exchanged," he told AFP by text, adding that he didn't know the "precise amount yet". US President Donald Trump, in a tweet, confirmed the news of Endicott's released. "Pleased to report that the American tourist and tour guide that were abducted in Uganda have been released. God bless them and their families!" Trump tweeted Police had said the kidnappers used Endicott's mobile telephone to demand a ransom of $500,000 (445,000 euros) for the release of the pair. Asked about the ransom, police spokeswoman Polly Namaye would not confirm directly but referred AFP to the tour company, saying it was "an authority on its own". She credited the safe recovery of the pair "to the untiring efforts" of the search teams who were drawn from the police, military and the wildlife authority. "The victims of last week's kidnapping have been recovered alive," Namaye said. - 'The kidnappers have escaped' - The Ugandan police's tourist protection force had deployed a special response unit working alongside soldiers and wildlife rangers in the hunt for the kidnapped pair. Queen Elizabeth National Park, one of the East African nation's most popular wildlife reserves, runs along the border with conflict-wracked regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It borders the famous Virunga national park, the oldest in Africa. Numerous militia groups and armed gangs roam eastern DR Congo. Virunga suspended all tourism activities last year after a ranger was killed and two British tourists kidnapped. The Britons and their driver were freed two days after the attack. The park reopened in February. Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo wrote on Twitter that Endicott and Mirenge, were rescued "by Uganda security forces in the DRC". He added that "the kidnappers have escaped and operations continue." Queen Elizabeth park is about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, famous for gorilla trekking. Uganda is home to more than half of the world's endangered mountain gorillas. In 1999, Rwandan rebels killed eight foreign tourists and four Ugandans there, inflicting an enormous blow to Uganda's tourist industry. The rebels were part of a militia group that was involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide before fleeing to the jungles of DR Congo. Tourism is a key industry for Uganda, as a major earner of foreign currency. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit each year. Map of Uganda locating the Queen Elizabeth National Park where an American tourist, driver were freed after ranson paid Russia's top diplomat called Sunday for the immediate closure of a desert camp near Syria's border with Jordan housing tens of thousands of displaced people in dire conditions. Speaking during a visit to Amman, Sergei Lavrov called for the Rukban camp to be closed "as soon as possible" and slammed a "de facto occupation" by American forces at a nearby garrison. Nearly 50,000 Syrians live at the camp near the Al-Tanf base used by the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group. "According to UN observers who visited the camp, most of the displaced people there want to return home, including to territories controlled by the Syrian government," Lavrov said. "It is necessary to stop the efforts preventing their freedom. I can say this because they do not feel free in this camp." The Syrian government and key backer Russia said in February they had opened corridors out of the camp, calling on residents to leave. Two weeks later, the UN said no civilians were believed to have left, for fears over their safety. Conditions inside the settlement are dire, with many surviving on just one simple meal a day, often bread and olive oil or yoghurt, according to one resident. Speaking alongside his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi, Lavrov said Moscow was ready to discuss "all steps needed" to help people leave Rukban. "The most simple and effective solution would be to end the American occupation," he said. He said the US had "unilaterally announced some sort of security zone in the area" and had "refused to discuss closing the camp". "They argued that humanitarian convoys should be sent to the camp from government areas," he said. "But that only means that they want to make this situation permanent." US President Donald Trump announced in December that he would withdraw American troops from Syria. But his national security adviser John Bolton said the following month that some forces could remain to the al-Tanf garrison as part of efforts to counter the presence of Iran, the Syrian regime's other main backer. Safadi called Sunday for a meeting between American, Russian and Jordanian officials to solve the "major humanitarian issue" of Rukban. "There can be no solution in Syria except through an American-Russian agreement supported by the international community," he said. Syria's civil war has killed at 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011. Russian Foreign counterpart Sergei Lavrov speaks during a joint press conference with his Jordanian counterpart in the Jordanian capital Amman US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced the departure of Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, underscoring his intent to toughen immigration policy amid a surge in illegal crossings along the southern border. Nielsen's exit marks the end of a difficult relationship with her boss, who was said to be unhappy with her performance despite her unswerving loyalty and full-throated defense of the president's most controversial policies. During her 18 months at the helm of the powerful agency, the 46-year-old became synonymous with the controversial practice of separating children from their parents, making her a frequent target of progressive groups and the Democratic opposition who repeatedly called on her to resign. None of this, however, seems to have been enough for Trump. "Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service," Trump tweeted Sunday. He added US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would become acting secretary. "Despite our progress in reforming homeland security for a new age, I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside," Nielsen said in a resignation letter she later shared on Twitter. The move came just two days after she and Trump visited the Mexican border in California together, with the president delivering a stern message to would-be illegal immigrants and asylum seekers: "Our country is full." Despite warnings of dire economic consequences, including by top Republicans, Trump has repeatedly threatened to close the US-Mexico border, demanding that Congress and Central American governments act to stem a flow of migrants that saw Nielsen last week order an "emergency surge" of personnel to handle the situation. "System has been broken for many years. Democrats in Congress must agree to fix loopholes - No Open Borders (Crimes & Drugs). Will Close Southern Border If necessary..." he tweeted Sunday evening. - 'Not extreme enough' - On Friday, US media reported that Trump also pulled his nominee to lead the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department -- saying he wanted someone "tougher" at the helm of the Homeland Security sub-agency. Together, the shake-ups were seen by observers as a sign the president wants to tack an even harder line. Border Patrol estimates put the number of migrants passing through Mexico at over 100,000 in March, most from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala: the highest monthly figure in nearly a decade, according to Nielsen. Trump cut aid to those three countries last month in response to the surge. "When even the most radical voices in the administration aren't radical enough for President Trump, you know he's completely lost touch with the American people," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi added it was "deeply alarming that the Trump Administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White House's liking." Nielsen initially joined the Trump administration in January 2017 as an assistant to Trump's first DHS secretary, John Kelly. When Kelly moved to the White House as Trump's chief of staff in July 2017, Nielsen went with him as his deputy. But by October of that year she was back at DHS, this time as secretary. Disaster relief, cyber security, transportation security, the Coast Guard, customs and policing the borders all fall under the department's purview. - Family separations - She will be remembered most, however, as the face of the Trump administration's fierce anti-immigration policy, including the widely condemned practice -- since revoked -- of separating migrant children from their parents as part of a "zero tolerance" policy of prosecuting all illegal border crossers. Images of sobbing children being taken from their parents last year fuelled a national outcry as condemnation poured in from the United Nations, human rights groups, and four former first ladies -- all mothers -- who called the policy "cruel" and "immoral." Nielsen, though, bristled at suggestions the children were being mistreated, or placed into what appeared to be "cages." And in any case the children taken from their parents after crossing the border were "well taken care of," she insisted. "@SecNielsen's legacy of tearing innocent families apart will follow her for the rest of her life?and she should be ashamed of the role she played," Democratic senator and 2020 hopeful Elizabeth Warren tweeted of Nielsen's exit. On the other side, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Nielsen "did her best to deal with a broken immigration system and broken Congress." Despite reports Trump complained constantly about Nielsen performance -- and that he believed she was not harsh enough -- she remained a loyalist. When participants in a January 2018 White House session on immigration quoted Trump as referring to African nations as "shithole" countries, Nielsen came to the president's defense. "I did not hear that word used," she told a congressional hearing. Last month, she defended the president's declaration of a national emergency to secure funding for his pet project: a wall on the US-Mexico border. Kirstjen Nielsen, pictured in October 2017, listens as US President Donald Trump nominates her as US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen has become the face of US President Donald Trump's divisive immigration policy Nielsen's relationship with the president has long been said to be difficult Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Saturday launched what he promised will be a "definitive" escalation of pressure to force the country's embattled leftist leader from office. Addressing a giant anti-government rally in Caracas, Guaido -- whose claim to be interim president is supported by around 50 nations -- kicked off what he called "Operation Liberty," his plan to oust President Nicolas Maduro. "Everyone to the streets, let's start the final phase of the end of the usurpation!" he told supporters, speaking from the back of a pickup truck. He called for a huge nationwide turnout on Wednesday, and urged his followers to redouble their efforts to maintain pressure in the streets. "The greatest escalation of pressure we have seen in our history" has begun, Guaido said. The call comes amid massive blackouts and the collapse of water supplies affecting the nation, further exacerbated a growing political crisis. The United States meanwhile has stiffened its economic sanctions against Maduro, and one top US official warned Venezuela's military that it must protect the rights of peaceful protesters. At the rally, Guaido also warned Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel that the supply of subsidized Venezuelan oil to the Caribbean communist island nation was over. Venezuela has been sending cheap oil to Cuba in exchange for labor from Cuban doctors and teachers, but Guaido said the oil was actually financing a Cuban intelligence group known as G2 that was cracking down on Maduro opponents in the Venezuelan military. "The exploitation of Venezuelan oil is over, so Mr Diaz-Canel... Venezuelan oil will not be used to submit and investigate our military officials" through the G2, he told the crowd. Pro-Guaido protests drew thousands in rallies across the country on Saturday. A pro-Maduro counter-demonstration in Caracas, with supporters dressed in red, drew a large crowd that gathered at the Miraflores presidential palace. "Together, permanently mobilized, let's keep defending national peace and independence; no more interference!" Maduro tweeted. Later, he called upon Mexico and Uruguay to relaunch their proposal for dialogue to resolve the crisis without foreign intervention. The two countries had first introduced that idea in January. Two opposition deputies were detained at an anti-government demo in the western city of Maracaibo, but a few hours later Guaido announced that the two had been released. Elimar Diaz, a lawmaker who marched in Maracaibo, told AFP the protest there had encountered "brutal repression," including tear gas canisters dropped from helicopters, the use of National Guard armored vehicles and attacks by members of the pro-government militia, known as "colectivos." Diaz said people in Maracaibo had gone "days without electricity" amid "inhumane rationing" by the government. Maduro Saturday claimed that attacks on electricity infrastructure had been carried out from Chile and Colombia with the support of the US. The opposition blames a failure to maintain critical infrastructure for the blackouts, which have deprived millions of power. - Abrams an 'assassin' - Facing intense pressure at home and abroad, the Maduro government has sought to weaken Guaido. The government has stripped his parliamentary immunity, authorized his prosecution for proclaiming himself acting president, and banned him from holding public office for 15 years. Guaido said earlier this week he feared that he could be abducted by government agents. Speaking to the pro-government Constitutional Assembly, Maduro's top lieutenant Diosdado Cabello slammed the US point man on Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, as an "assassin." "It is Abrams who should be in prison, condemned in the United States for genocide in Central America," said Cabello, referring to the US official's controversial role in the Central American conflicts of the 1980s. Washington meanwhile kept up the international pressure on Maduro to step down. Vice President Mike Pence on Friday announced fresh sanctions against 34 vessels belonging to Venezuela's state oil company and two companies that ship crude to Cuba. "This is only a first step," US national security advisor John Bolton tweeted on Saturday in reference to the sanctions. He cautioned the Venezuelan defense minister in a separate tweet of the official's "constitutional responsibility to protect innocent civilians who are peacefully demonstrating," adding: "Do not let the Cubans or the 'colectivos' inflict violence against Venezuelan patriots." - Security Council to meet - Maduro is supported by the Venezuelan military, China and Russia. Washington and its allies view the socialist president as illegitimate since he took office in January for a second term following elections widely seen as deeply flawed. Washington has convened a UN Security Council meeting for Wednesday to discuss the Venezuelan crisis. Since Venezuela's massive blackout of March 7, the country has been subject to repeated power cuts, with electricity being rationed outside of Caracas. The blackouts have knocked out water supplies as well as transport and communications, forcing many people to trim their work days to six hours. At a giant Caracas rally, opposition leader Juan Guaido announced "the greatest escalation of pressure we have seen in our history" on the leftist government of Nicolas Maduro Juan Guaido urged his followers to redouble their efforts to maintain pressure in the streets on the Maduro government "Everyone to the streets, let's start the final phase of the end of the usurpation!" he told supp, greets supporters during a rally at El Paraiso neighbourhood in Caracas on April 05, 2019. Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido show their support for the self-proclaimed interim president in a giant demo in Caracas Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro rallies his supporters at a demo at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas Chart showing Venezuela's GDP growth 2012-2019, according to World Bank If U.S. Rep. John Katko gets his way, the federal government won't provide any funding to support Plan 2014, a Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River water management strategy administered by the International Joint Commission. Katko, R-Camillus, authored a letter to the House Appropriations Committee urging the panel to include language in the 2020 budget that would prevent the commission from using federal funding for Plan 2014. "In light of rising water levels and historic coastal flooding on Lake Ontario, serious evaluations are needed regarding the efficacy of Plan 2014," Katko wrote. "According to readings recently released by the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board, water levels on Lake Ontario continue to stand well above the average for previous years. While we acknowledge a number of factors contribute to these levels, Plan 2014 has played a clear role in escalating the threat of severe flooding that now faces our region." Plan 2014 was adopted by the International Joint Commission in 2016. Katko has criticized the water regulation strategy, especially after flooding that occurred along Lake Ontario in 2017. Record rainfall led to flooding that affected communities in Cayuga and Wayne counties, both of which are in Katko's district. President Donald Trump issued a major disaster declaration due to severe flooding. But Katko and some elected officials blamed the flooding on Plan 2014. When water levels rose and flooding became a concern in 2017, Katko called on the United States to withdraw from the plan. After a quiet 2018, there are concerns flooding could occur again this year. The Army Corps of Engineers, Katko noted, is projecting high water levels throughout the year. In an update last week, the International Joint Commission's Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board said lake levels are nearly 10 inches above average for this time of year. There is another reason why Katko believes Plan 2014 shouldn't receive federal support. The International Joint Commission, a six-member bi-national panel, lacks a quorum. The commission, which consists of three representatives each from the U.S. and Canada, doesn't have any Canadian members at the moment. Two of the three U.S. seats are filled. The two U.S. commissioners, Lana Pollack and Rich Moy, were appointed by former President Barack Obama. Trump has nominated three people, including former New York state Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, to serve on the commission. The nominations were advanced by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week. The full Senate must confirm the nominees. Until there's a quorum at the International Joint Commission, Katko thinks the U.S. shouldn't support Plan 2014. "Absent this leadership, the continued implementation of Plan 2014 only puts our community at an even greater risk," he said. Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Historians and professors Susan Goodier and Karen Pastorello will tell the story of the women in New York who won a hard-fought battle for the ballot at an upcoming event in Auburn. "Women Will Vote: Celebrating a Centennial of Suffrage" will take place from 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday, April 28, at the Cayuga Museum Carriage House Theater, 203 Genesee St., Auburn. Goodier and Pastorello will share how a diverse web of grassroots activists led to a successful referendum in the state, and how that story reinvigorated the national suffrage movement. They will also sign copies of their book, "Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State." The event is presented by the Seward House Museum. Admission is $10 for museum members and $15 for the public. For more information, call (315) 252-1283 or visit sewardhouse.org. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 In many a cookbook collection, theres a grease-stained pamphlet on old mimeograph paper, bound with staples or yarn, perhaps featuring hand-drawn illustrations: the community, or charity cookbook. Produced by a church, school or club, and modest in design and scope, the contributors were neighbors, friends and co-workers. Often considered flimsy ephemeral curiosities, lets think of them instead as cherished community heirlooms, because a closer look at these collections of favorite recipes reveals much about gender roles, food production, changing tastes, local organizations and even genealogical information. Organizational ability, a bit of business acumen and a little tact were required to put together these cookbooks. Women (though increasingly men contributed as well), organized to raise money for a cause they believed in, whether it was to purchase a new church bell, an updated fire truck, or aid to a favorite charity. And in addition to raising money, these publications also raised awareness of a cause. In the early days of these cookbooks (originally from the 1860s), when women were often discouraged if not outright prohibited from managing money or acting in the public sphere, women utilized the skills and tools available to them preparing food and managing a household to raise money for something they believed was important. And beyond generating funds, they also generated a sense of social pride, as individual women shared personal recipes with others to collectively aid their communities. Early cookbooks assumed the reader the cook or mistress of a household was already familiar with basic cooking skills. No precise measurements or directions were given: Ovens were described as moderate or cool; instead of a cup of sugar, the cook was to add a handful. Cooking was instinctual, based on one-on-one tutoring, often from one female relative to another. A very early charity cookbook, which provided the model for thousands of cookbooks to come, was "A Poetical Cookbook," published in Philadelphia in 1864 in support of Civil War casualties. In 1886, "The Woman Suffrage Cookbook" was published in Boston. Recipes such as rebel soup and mothers election cake were intertwined with comments in support of womens suffrage. Female doctors shared tips for the care of invalids, and there were recipes for soap, how to remove stains and how to preserve ones complexion. The message was clear: Women could successfully manage a household, care for a family, prepare meals and be an informed voter. In Cayuga County, multiple organizations produced dozens of cookbooks. One early example is the "Cook Book," published in 1908 by the Ledyard United Methodist Church. In addition to standard recipes for desserts, salads and casseroles, directions are included for preparing 100 pounds of beef to feed dozens of workers during harvest as well as how to cure hams, make sausage and put up preserves, all necessary in a farm pantry needing to provide for long winter months. While farm wives offered recipes for pickling and preserves, ladies from Auburn promoted entertaining in the 1932 Womens Educational and Industrial Union project, "The Womans Union Cook Book." Its contributors include many of the notable names in Auburns philanthropic community, including Mrs. A. M. (Edith) Dulles, Mrs. Charles D. (Edith) Osborne and Mrs. Lithgow (Lillie) Osborne. Their recipes included some world cuisines, perhaps reflecting the growing diversity of Auburn and the ethnic makeup of the young women provided services by the WEIU. Edith Dulles, ironically enough, submitted a recipe for Russian borscht soup, appropriate given one son was director of the CIA and the other a secretary of state. Cookbooks produced during World War II featured substitutions for hard-to-acquire foodstuffs, while in the 1950s, as women increasingly worked outside the home, pre-processed ingredients and labor-saving devices were the norm. Instead of hand-beating egg whites, now an electric mixer created the perfect meringue. And that can of cream-of-mushroom soup, foundation of easy-to-make sauces and casseroles, became a household staple. Genealogical vital records provide the crucial details of a family history, but when you find a great-grandmothers recipe in one of these cookbooks, you have the opportunity to literally recover a taste from the past. So pull that pamphlet off your shelf of cookbooks youll find a terrific recipe for a special dish, and youll discover traces of women who utilized their talents at hand to organize for a common cause, and did so with pride in and commitment to their communities. To recreate their flavors and aromas of times past that sensory experience expands our grasp of history in ways no written account nor photograph can equal. Bon appetit! Ruth Bradley is the Cayuga County historian. For more information, call her office at (315) 253-1300. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SKANEATELES The decor of Elephant and the Dove is as enticing as anything on its menu. The new Skaneateles restaurant, opening Thursday, takes its visual inspiration from the Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. It also takes its name from the husband and wife, who were described as "an elephant and a dove" due to the contrast between their statures: Rivera tall and overweight, Kahlo diminutive and fragile. The portrait of Kahlo at the top of the stairway to the second floor of the restaurant is but one way it evokes her surrealist style. Designed by Thom Filicia, a member of the cast of the original "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," the colorful 7,500 square-foot-space is a feast for the eyes. Large golden flowers bloom from the walls, and every surface, from the pillows lining its seats to the cages holding its candles, is richly patterned and textured, suggesting a certain authenticity. If you go WHAT: Elephant and the Dove WHEN: Open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays (service stops half an hour before close); closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays WHERE: 9 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles INFO: Call (315) 685-2123 or visit elephantandthedove.com But what gives the restaurant that authenticity is its food. Executive Chef Albert Herrera, previously of Avicolli's in Syracuse, has conceived a menu that General Manager Patrick Lischak described Tuesday as "hometown Mexican cuisine." Staples like tacos and enchiladas are there, but they're filtered through Herrera and the family recipes he grew up with. "People are going to see some dishes they're used to, and some dishes they're not used to, that are a little more authentic to Mexican cuisine," Lischak said. One highlight is Herrera's posole, a slow-cooked pork stew with hominy that the chef's grandmother made on Sundays, Lischak said. Depending on the amount of spices or lime juice used, its flavor can range from hot to sweet. Another highlight is chiles en nogada, a chili pepper stuffed with pork, raisins and more, and served with a walnut cream sauce. Both items were popular at tastings put together by Elephant and the Dove's owners, Adam and Kim Weitsman, as they prepared to open the restaurant, Lischak said. Also owners of The Krebs down Genesee Street, the Weitsmans wanted their second restaurant to both bring the Mexican food they love to Skaneateles and make that food affordable. "Adam runs a blue-collar business (Upstate Shredding), so he wants to offer the experience of walking into a beautiful restaurant, sitting and eating a meal for $10 to $12 a dish," Lischak said. The most expensive item on Elephant and the Dove's menu is a 12-ounce steak for $24, Lischak said. Three tacos, meanwhile, are $9 to $12, depending on which of the six options is ordered. They include shrimp, steak, pork and a rotating catch-of-the-day taco that will use fresh, available fish. The menu is 22 items, Lischak continued, and will change "when it needs to." Affordable as it is, Lischak said, the restaurant's Mexican fare isn't prepared cheaply. Herrera and his staff makes all of the tortillas, sauces and other components from scratch. "We're trying to make it our own and set the tone for Mexican food in Skaneateles," Lischak said. "Because it hasn't been seen here before." Elephant and the Dove took the same approach to its cocktail menu. Its five original specials include a hibiscus habanero drink, as well as a margarita that substitutes the traditional orange liqueur with salt water. And instead of salt on the rim, there's a tahini spice that pops against restaurant's green cocktail glassware, Lischak said. Other drink options include house-made sangria, Mexican and local craft beers, and Scorpion Bowls, a 96-ounce glass skull for groups that want to share a cocktail. Wine is less of a focus at Elephant and the Dove, Lischak said. The restaurant carries a basic selection, but The Krebs already serves a Wine Spectator award-winning program, he noted. The general manager said the restaurant was designed to drive business with its bar, which is the centerpiece of the first floor when patrons walk in the Genesee Street entrance. There are some tables surrounding the bar, including an area with no speakers for more conversational dining. But the main dining area is the skylit second floor, where the kitchen is also located. (A dumbwaiter delivers food to the lower floors.) Six of the seats on the floor are located at an exhibition counter facing the kitchen, which Lischak expects to be popular real estate. "We hired a very lively kitchen staff," he said. "We want the guests being able to interact with the staff at any time, and them having the knowledge to answer questions that might come their way." Diners who prefer privacy can opt for a room on the lower level with the only table at Elephant and the Dove that can be reserved. It seats 12 to 14, Lischak said. Also on the lower level is a takeout kiosk with its own entrance at the back of the restaurant. And delivery will be available this summer to the Clift Park docks, Lischak said. Food can be ordered online or by phone. Elephant and the Dove's private room also has its own music system. That may come in handy Thursday through Saturday nights, as the restaurant will have a resident DJ performing those nights. The DJ, whose booth location is still being determined, will set the mood of the restaurant with the music he spins, Lischak said. "We want that fun atmosphere. Not loud, but upbeat," he said. "Where people come in, relax and have good drinks and good food." Lake Life Editor David Wilcox can be reached at (315) 282-2245 or david.wilcox@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @drwilcox. Love 13 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WASHINGTON (AP) Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned on Sunday amid the administration's growing frustration and bitterness over the number of Central American families crossing the southern border, two people familiar with the decision said. President Donald Trump thanked her for her work in a tweet and announced U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would be taking over as acting head of the department. McAleenan is a longtime border official who is well-respected by members of Congress and within the administration. The decision to name an immigration officer to the post reflects Trump's priority for a sprawling department founded to combat terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks. Though Trump aides were eyeing a staff shake-up at Homeland Security and had already withdrawn the nomination for another key immigration post, the development Sunday was unexpected. Nielsen traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday with Trump to participate in a roundtable with border officers and local law enforcement. There she echoed Trump's comments on the situation at the border, though she ducked out of the room without explanation for some time while Trump spoke. As they toured a section of newly rebuilt barriers, Nielsen was at Trump's side, introducing him to local officials. She returned to Washington afterward on a Coast Guard Gulfstream, as Trump continued on a fundraising trip to California and Nevada. But privately, she had grown increasingly frustrated by what she saw as a lack of support from other departments and increased meddling by Trump aides, the people said. She went into a meeting with Trump at the White House in Sunday not knowing whether she'd be fired or would resign, and she ended up resigning, they said. Her resignation later, obtained by The Associated Press, had not a whiff of controversy unlike others who have left from the administration. "Despite our progress in reforming homeland security for a new age, I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside," she wrote. "I hope that the next secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America's borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation's discourse." There have been persistent tensions between the White House and Nielsen almost from the moment she became secretary, after her predecessor, John Kelly, became the White House chief of staff in 2017. Nielsen was viewed as resistant to some of the harshest immigration measures supported by the president and his aides, particularly senior adviser Stephen Miller, both on matters around the border and others like protected status for some refugees. Once Kelly left the White House last year, Nielsen's days appeared to be numbered. She had expected to be pushed out last November, but her exit never materialized. And during the government shutdown over Trump's insistence for funding for a border wall, Nielsen's stock inside the White House even appeared to rise. But in recent weeks, as a new wave of migration has taxed resources along the border and as Trump sought to regain control of the issue for his 2020 re-election campaign, tensions flared anew. Arrests all along the southern border have skyrocketed in recent months. Border agents are on track to make 100,000 arrests and denials of entry at the southern border this month, over half of which are families with children. Nielsen advocated for strong cybersecurity defense and often said she believed the next major terror attack would occur online not by planes or bombs. She was tasked with helping states secure elections following Russian interference during the 2016 election. She dutifully pushed Trump's immigration policies, including funding for his border wall, and defended the administration's practice of separating children from parents, telling a Senate committee that removing children from parents facing criminal charges happens "in the United States every day." But she was also instrumental in ending the policy. Under Nielsen, migrants seeking asylum are waiting in Mexico as their cases progress. She also moved to abandon longstanding regulations that dictate how long children are allowed to be held in immigration detention, and requested bed space from the U.S. military for some 12,000 people in an effort to detain all families who cross the border. Right now there is space for about 3,000 families and facilities are at capacity. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 In response to the article in which Democrats are saying recent Cayuga County Legislature resolutions seek to divide: Thats nonsense! If Keith Batman thinks a resolution divides us then hes the one letting it divide us. Wouldnt it be nice if elected officials at all levels of government could agree to disagree but still manage to get along to work together? So every time theres a resolution that one party or the other doesnt like it should automatically cause a divide? Maybe thats how Albany and Washington, D.C., run, but I would hope local government could do better. Its getting harder and harder for the people of upstate New York to be heard in Albany so thats the purpose of sending resolutions to state leaders and the governor. Why isnt Keith Batman complaining about our Democratic governor pushing his agenda which hurts upstate New York and mostly helps downstate? Anytime he wants to write a resolution opposing the governor's policies that are hurting Cayuga County and send it to Albany, Ill be more than happy to co-sponsor it. Again lets always agree that we can disagree but still manage to get along. Were not Albany or D.C. and lets hope we never get to be!